The Bloodgate Warrior by Joely Sue Burkhart Page B

welcome to try and get away. In fact, I hope you try very hard indeed. Try to flee me, Cassie. Fight me, claw me, bite me, bloody me. I won’t let you get away.”
    My heart thudded in my ears. Suddenly his weight was gone and I could breathe. Yet I held myself still, straining my senses to hear or feel where he went without moving. My skin prickled with goose bumps, shockingly cold after the heat of his body. Gathering my strength, I shot upward, scrambling against the mattress.
    He slammed into me before I got farther than my hands and knees. I let out a high scream, more of a squeak than anything. He held me pinned beneath him again, but this time one of his thighs had settled between mine. He didn’t hold me down this time, but used his knee and hands to force my legs farther apart. His breathing rasped hot against my ear like some wild beast tracking me in the jungle.
    You want to be afraid of me.
    I couldn’t deny his words, not when it felt like the top of my head was going to crawl off and panic ramped my heart rate. Yet I also couldn’t deny that I wanted him inside me, pinning me not with his strength but with his cock. I pushed back up to my hands and knees, arching my back against him. His erection was there, heavy and hard, digging into my buttocks and back as I moved beneath him, but he didn’t try to slide home. No, that would be too easy.
    He wanted the fight and ultimately, the victory, as much as I wanted to lose.
    I threw my elbow back into his ribs with all my strength. He grunted with the blow but didn’t back away an inch. Levering upward, I pushed and bucked, trying to escape the cage of his body. He wrapped his forearm around my throat to keep me close, so I turned my head and sank my teeth into the bulge of his biceps against my cheek. He growled against my ear, which only made me bite him harder. He squeezed me tighter, his breath coming faster, hotter against my ear.
    He thrust into me so hard I would have released him so I could scream, but he kept me pinned too tightly. Most people would have instinctively jerked away from my teeth, but he pressed harder against my mouth, inviting the pain.
    The memory of his bite on my shoulder made the quetzal tattoo writhe in my skin. He swelled within me, too big, and I tried to find some relief, something to ease the straining pressure building inside me. I threw my arm back around his head and clawed at his neck and shoulder.
    His powerful body flexed against me, pushing deeper, harder, until I thought he would crack me open. Gripping my breast in one hand, he sat back on his heels, drawing me with him.
    I dangled in his arms, impaled, helpless, and came so hard that spots danced before my eyes.
    He tightened his grip on my breast, sending another spasm through me. “How good is it now, Cassie?”
    Every muscle from head to toe throbbed with pleasure. I hooked my arm around his neck, not to fight now, but holding on for dear life. How could he possibly still be hard and thick inside me?
    He bit my neck, a sharp bite that jolted me. “Answer me.”
    I sucked in enough air to retort, “Damned good!”
    “Then this will be even better.”
    He pushed my upper body back down to the bed, pinning me with his forearm across my shoulders, his fingers locked on my nape. I couldn’t move anything but my hands. I tore at the sheets, arched my back to buck free, but I couldn’t budge him. His body caged me. With my ass up in the air, I was completely, utterly vulnerable.
    “You can’t get away from me. You can’t fight. You can’t flee.” He laughed, low and rough and just mean enough to make me whimper. “You can’t stop me. Nothing you do can make me withdraw, except one word. Call me noyollotl , and I’m finished. Do you understand?”
    His fingers were too tight on my head for me to nod, so I plead in my mind. Yes. Técun, please, yes.
    “Good.” He exhaled a long, heavy breath against my ear. “You’re mine to take as long and hard as I want.