Driven Read online

  "I don't know," Del said, walking her back toward the bed. "What you have between your legs can pretty much get me to do anything."

  She put a hand on his chest to stop him. "Except get you to ignore this challenge."

  "Except that."

  She sighed. "You're sure you can beat him?"

  "Positive." He bent to lick the line of her jaw.

  The caress sent a shiver through her. Her nipples rose against the thin fabric of her robe. Instant moisture pooled between her thighs. Del had a magic touch that could almost make her forget everything else. Almost. "And then what will happen?"

  She felt the press of his erection against her belly as he walked her a few more steps toward the bed.

  "Then I take the seat on the Melekim Gadol, and I buy you the most beautiful house in the city. Buy you whatever you want."

  "What if what I want can't be bought?" She'd meant the question to sound light, but the waver in her voice gave away her apprehension.

  As he'd always done since he'd met her, Del seemed to react to even her unspoken fears. He kissed her, then put her hand to his chest, over his heart.

  "Then I'll find a way to get it, whatever it is."

  She let her fingers splay out. His nipple tightened beneath her palm. She felt the subtle increase in the tempo of his heart, matched by the slightly faster rise and fall of his chest as his breathing quickened. She put her other hand on him, both laid out flat. Even with her fingers spread as far as they could, her hands didn't come close to covering his entire chest.

  She slid them down to his trim waist and the band of his trousers. "Take these off."

  Without a word, without hesitation, Del did as she said. Her clit pulsed at the sight of him, his perfect body and the hard cock rising just for her. Linna backed up and sat down on the bed, keeping her eyes on Del as he followed her.

  "I want to see you touch yourself. The way you did that first time we were together."

  Feet planted shoulder-width apart, he put his hand on his dick, covering the smooth head and stroking downward to the dark hair around his balls.

  Linna put a finger to her clit, already hot and rigid with desire. She slipped it down into her folds and smiled as Del's hand moved faster in response. She drew her slick finger over her pleasure bead and let the sparkles of ecstasy run through her as she rubbed it.

  "Tell me what you're thinking about," she told him.

  "You," came his unhesitating answer. "Licking you. How you taste. How you feel wrapped around my cock."

  His honest words sent sparks of desire coursing through her. Thighs spread wide, she lifted her hips upward to expose herself to him.

  "Come on then," Linna said. "I'm waiting."

  He moved toward her so fast it might have been frightening if she weren't already so aroused. Faster than a breath, he was between her legs, his mouth unerringly finding her swollen clitoris and his hands under her ass to lift her to his tongue and lips. He suckled her fiercely, and she would have cried out in pain if the pleasure hadn't been so deliriously exquisite.

  In the next breath he left her pussy and found her mouth; his cock slid inside her without resistance and she did cry out at the sheer, sudden thrill of being so filled.

  He bit at her shoulder, and she bit his as he thrust inside her. With a roll of her hips, she threw him over, still seated deep within her.

  Now she straddled him and threw back her head as she rode him. No words of tenderness this time, no soft caresses. This was wild passion at its best--pure, raw fucking, and her body convulsed as the first orgasm exploded inside her.

  Del grabbed her hips to guide his thrusts. Linna reached around behind her to find his balls, and she stroked them in time to his thrusts. The arch of her back pressed his dick against the spongy bundle of nerves just behind her pubic bone, sending another climax through her.

  She cried his name, and he answered with hers. Together, they rocketed toward their final release, completely in tune, in tandem, each a part of the other.

  She collapsed on top of him. She listened to the words of love he whispered in her ear and murmured the same to him. Then she felt him shift beneath her, saw him get up from the bed and stride, still naked, to the sword and shield he'd put down to make love to her.

  "I have to go, Linna."

  "I know you do."

  The door closed behind him with a gentle thud she couldn't block out even though she'd pulled the covers up around her ears.

  Sweat ran in his eye and blinded him, but Del didn't need to see to know what his brother was going to try next. The ritual moves couldn't be erased from his brain, no matter how long it had been since he'd last used them. Vardek was wrong about him being soft. Aysh katan had learned that the hard way.

  Del hadn't gotten this far in the battle without wounds of his own, though. His right side stung painfully from a shallow cut, and he'd have more than one or two new scars for Linna to complain about. His brother was smaller, but he was fast and determined.

  "Give up yet?" he called to Vardek, who had paused to wipe his face free from the sweat and dust. "You called it. You can end it."

  Vardek shook his head, teeth white in the mask of dirt. "No way, aysh gadol. Not until you're crying."

  Del spat to the side and risked a glance into the sidelines. His mother and father sat in their box with the other members of the Melekim Gadol around them. There was no sign of Linna anywhere.

  Vardek must have been watching for just that chance because he leaped forward and swung. Del's blade came up just in time for him to keep his ear intact. The clang of metal against metal echoed throughout the war field.

  "Nice." He gave the compliment easily enough. "You've been working."

  "I've been challenged a few times while you were away." Vardek grunted. "A lot of men seem to think just because I look easily beaten, I am easily beaten."

  He thrust forward again. Del leaped back. A line of red opened up on his forearm. He muttered a curse.

  "Some didn't think I deserved to take the place you left vacant, since I was the second son."

  This time, Del leaped forward to slash at Vardek's exposed side. His blade opened a slash that had already begun to clot closed. Vardek spat and switched his sword to the other hand, a trick Del knew well. He'd taught it to his younger brother.

  "Those same people think I should just--" Another slash from Vardek. "--give it up to you!"

  Del parried, then stopped, blade raised. "You should've just let me tell them I didn't want it."

  "You want it. You keep saying you don't, but you do. What the hell else would you do here on Xanderra, if you're not a melek?"

  The two men squared off, swords raised, but not clashing. Del spat again to clear the taste of dust and blood from his tongue. He had one stunningly clear memory, so vivid it made him stumble back with the force of it.

  Vardek wobbled to him on chubby legs, arms outstretched. Delek caught him up, swung him around, set him back down and tumbled beside him while the little boy laughed and kicked his legs in the air.

  Del blinked, the vision fading as he heard Linna's voice echo in his head. "Don't you love your brother?"

  "I do love him," he said aloud, just as Vardek swung his sword at Del's head. "Vardie, you son of a bitch, cut it out!"

  Vardek stopped so suddenly, his face pulled into a look of comic disbelief, that his sword scraped the dirt. He lifted it warily, but Del didn't step forward to take the blow he could have.

  "You haven't called me that in a long time," Vardek said.

  "Call off the challenge. This is over."

  Vardek shook his head, but seemed uncertain. "Are you willing to stand down? Admit defeat."

  In answer, Del dropped his sword into the dirt. It pained him more to mistreat the weapon than it did to give up to his brother. He raised his hands so everyone watching could see.

  "Why are you doing this?" Vardek asked, his own blade still raised.

  "Because I love you," Del replied.