Driven Read online

  Moments passed, and tension built between her legs, in her clit and pussy. She clenched her inner muscles and was rewarded by his small groan at the pressure.

  Still, he didn't move. His shoulders tensed under her palms, and when she slid her hands down his back to his ass, she found them tense, too. She cupped the firm flesh, then scratched it lightly. Another shudder fluttered through him.

  Was he smiling? It felt like he was, his lips curving against her neck. She squeezed his ass again, and still he remained motionless. Only his prick moved, throbbing inside her. She'd become so attuned to his every motion she felt even that.

  He was waiting for her to move. It could have become a challenge or a battle of wills, but Linna wasn't interested in fighting with him. Giving in didn't have to mean subordination, and right now, she didn't care if it did.

  It felt too good for her not move her hips, not to rock them upward and accept Del into her body just that fraction deeper. He lifted himself onto his hands. His eyes met hers.

  He pulled out slowly, unbearably slowly, and left her empty. Back in again, just as slowly, until he'd seated himself inside her. Again he pulled out, slid in, each thrust filling her and making her lift her hips to meet it.

  His arms shook just a little. She smoothed her hands down his biceps and curled her fingers around his forearms. Again, she rolled her hips and he met her with another thrust.

  He moved a little faster now, his thrusts more shallow. Each downward thrust pressed his pubic bone against her clitoris, and when he pulled out, her aroused flesh quivered.

  She'd come hard already, and more than once. Even if she hadn't been able to rise to climax again, she would have been swept away with Del's lovemaking. As it was, she drifted in a haze of beautiful longing. It didn't build like any orgasm she'd ever had before with shocks and spasms of intensity. This was like water filling a pitcher of pebbles. The pleasure trickled into her and found its way into every nook and corner, until she was suffused with it. Glowing with it. Her body became bright with bliss.

  Del's face became her world. He blinked and the light flickered. He smiled and she felt her own lips curve with the grin. Everything in her was him until Linna was certain she could no longer tell where he left off and she began.

  His thrusts became jagged, fast then slow, which sent her oozing over the edge into a climax that seemed to go on and on. Only when he cried out her name and pushed inside her one last time did the pleasure subside, leaving her drained but giddy with happiness.

  "Go to sleep," he whispered in her ear. "I'll watch over you."

  And trusting him completely, Linna did.

  "Admit it," Del grunted as he hacked at the undergrowth. "You thought we wouldn't get out of here alive."

  From behind him, Linna snorted. "We're not out of here yet."

  He paused to wipe the sweat streaming down his forehead and looked up to the sky. The sunlight was dim this far down, and dappled with shadow from the leaves of the tall buulla trees. He pointed up. "I can see the sun. The trees are getting thinner. We're getting to the edge of somewhere."

  She laughed. "Oh, that's very reassuring."

  He faced her and pulled her into his arms for a long, lingering kiss. "You won't be able to talk to me like that when we're in Yarushalim, woman."

  "You'd better be kidding."

  He thought about his mother and the women his parents had chosen for him, and knew he wasn't really kidding. Xanderran women had opinions. They had voices. They just didn't use them like Newcity women did.

  "You're not kidding." Linna frowned. "Del, I think you'd better just tell me what the hell I'm in for here."

  Before he could say anything, a low chuffing noise rustled the brush ahead of them. "Shh."

  Linna tensed beside him. "What is it?"

  He smelled tannan. And blood. Maybe the lizard had a fresh kill. If it did, it might be stuffed enough not to bother with them...unless the smell of blood brought its brothers to fight over the meal.

  He looked to the sky again. The slant of the sunlight told him night would be falling soon. They could go around, find another route, but they'd still be in the beast's territory.

  "There's no way to avoid it," he said grimly and wished, not for the first time since crashing, they had a weapon.

  "Dragons?" she asked in a hoarse whisper.

  "Tannanim," he corrected. "Linna, they're just animals."

  "With sharp teeth," she replied. Her eyes were wide and her mouth quivered, but she straightened her back and clenched her hands.

  He put his hands on her shoulders and felt the muscles jumping and twitching under his palms. Del wanted to hold her and reassure her. Protect her. It's what a Xanderran woman would have expected. Xanderran women, even though they were as fierce and capable of protecting themselves as Xanderran men, expected men to protect them. A Xanderran woman faced with a tannan on her own would fight it with her own teeth and nails if she had to...but if she faced one with a man at her side, she'd die in the great lizard's teeth before she'd lift a finger to protect herself. Protection was a purely male occupation on Xanderra.

  Linna didn't expect it. Del knew she could hold her own. He'd seen her fight. She was fast, strong, and capable. But he still wanted to protect her.

  "If it's eaten its fill, it might not bother with us. We're not their meal of choice anyway."

  "But I'm guessing it would gladly eat us."

  "If it's hungry, yeah. We have to hope it's not hungry."

  When she looked at him that way, it wasn't hard to remember she wasn't from this planet. "And if it is?"

  "They're big and they're dumb. Like me."

  A smile twitched her lips. "You're not dumb, Del."

  She stood on her tiptoes to kiss him again. When she stepped back, her face was set with determination. "We fight it."

  "It would be easier with weapons."

  She raised an eyebrow at him. "Do you think I'm dumb?"

  "No." He looked into the dense growth in the direction of the chuffing noise. "Just trying to prepare you."

  "Can we fight this thing with our bare hands? And expect to win? And keep all our limbs?"

  "Yes. Maybe. Probably."

  She gave a disgusted sigh. "Let's go then. If I'm going to get eaten, I'd like to get it over with."

  Del pushed forward through the springy branches. The chuffing and slurping got louder, and the smell of blood stronger. One green leaf in front of him had been smeared with red and Del stopped, hand up to keep Linna quiet.

  She didn't say anything, but she did move up to his side. The bonding had made him even more attuned to her than he had been before and he could hear her heart thudding. Her face was flushed, though her stance was still pretty relaxed. He stared at her in the dappled light, and she turned her head and met his gaze.

  "We'll try to go around it," he mouthed, and she nodded.

  Seven years was a long time to be away from home. A lot had come back to him. A lot hadn't. It wasn't that Newcity didn't have crime, but in a society where drugs were cheap and legal, sex was the sanctioned recreation, and citizens were rewarded for positive behavior, there was usually very little violence.

  Usually, Del mentally amended with a glance at Linna. Her husband had been plenty fond of violence.

  He saw Linna's eyes widen and knew she'd spotted the tannan. The great lizard hunched over the bloody, mangled corpse of its meal and tore at the flesh. Its wings swept in lazy circles as it gobbled and snarled. It was a young one, he saw, as its sweeping wings lifted it a little off the ground.

  The lizard's scales glinted in the rapidly fading sunlight. This was one of the rare violet ones with scales so dark they looked nearly black. The wings shone a lighter shade, the leathery skin shot through with threads of blue and green against a framework of black bone. Those wings would grow a little larger, but not enough to carry the beast once it reached its full growth.

  "Does that mean its teeth are too soft to tear us to pieces?" Linna spo