Shadow Runners Page 4

  There didn’t seem to be any part of her body that wasn’t oversensitive from her explosive release. Either that, or he managed to find every part that was. She groaned and gasped in feeble protest at the almost excruciating reaction of her fevered flesh to his every touch, but she was still too weak, her mind too beleaguered by the drugging pleasure of before to voice the pleas that flickered through her mind. Within moments, she’d descended into a sort of dazed, feverish stupor she couldn’t seem to find her way out of. It seemed that she was tugged at and pulled from every direction, as if she’d fallen beneath a pack of ravening beasts intent on devouring her. It became abundantly clear in a little bit that she’d hadn’t been far off. She hadn’t imagined that she was being tugged and pulled in every direction, but although they used their teeth to great effect in driving her deeper and deeper into mindless pleasure, they did no more than torture her flesh with unbearable pleasure.

  Even as she was rolled onto her belly and positioned for a rear mount, another cock was shoved into her mouth. She greeted it with enthusiasm borne of her own desperation to find release from the torture. A shudder went through her as she began to suck on it hungrily. Thorne thrust into her, setting the rhythm. Rafe caught her head, guiding her, but she was beyond instructions, beyond even the understanding of why she was caught up in an orgy of the senses. She’d completely lost focus of the goal that began it all.

  They found pleasure in one another, an explosive, carnal release that should have completely appeased her. It did in a sense. Her body was rocked by it and yet the moment her partners found their own release and were usurped by Arman and Byron, she found herself soaring once more. They coupled with the wild abandon of their nature and drove her to yet another peak, a harder rush than before, sandwiching her between their hard bodies, mounting her from both the front and the back at the same time. It was something she’d never experienced before, never considered might be possible despite the excessive decadence of most of the courts. It wasn’t something it would’ve occurred to her to want, particularly when she was not fond at all of being sodomized. And yet she discovered the almost incessant stimulation of their pumping into her drove her higher than she’d been before and created such an explosive climax when she came that she hit the highest peak ever and plummeted toward darkness. Oblivion finally swallowed her and snatched her away from them and yet, even as she sank, she felt the most glorious sense of satisfaction she’d ever experienced.

  * * * *

  Jarek studied Sonja’s limp form with a mixture of uneasiness, disappointment, rising anger, and suspicion. Unfortunately, he couldn’t convince himself that she was feigning as she had before. Grasping Byron and Arman by their shoulders, he shoved one in either direction and leaned closer to study her. Relief flickered through him when he detected her shallow breath but the guilt that followed did nothing for his temper.

  He glared at Byron and Arman accusingly. Still somewhat befuddled, they looked at Sonja and then gaped at him in dismay.

  “We broke her?” Arman asked a little sickly.

  “Not from lack of trying!” Jarek growled. “She is a natural! And beyond that a young maid! You could not have waited?”

  Arman and Bryon exchanged an uncomfortable glance, but indignation settled on their faces shortly behind it. “You said that she must pleasure us all!” Bryon reminded him.

  “Gods damn it! I did not say all at once!”

  “You will wake her,” Thorne pointed out.

  “I do not think the cave falling in would wake her!” Jarek growled. “She is in a stupor. She is certainly not merely asleep.”

  Scowling at them, he settled beside her and pulled her against his length, trying not to think about the fact that she was so alarming limp, but he was far more angry with himself than he was with the others—which was saying something since he felt like beating them to a bloody pulp.

  He should have stopped them, he thought angrily. He could think of any number of excuses for why he hadn’t—up to and including the suspicion that she was a woman experienced enough to handle them all. Unfortunately, the excuses did not make him feel a bit better because he knew the real reason he hadn’t was because he was too focused on waiting for another turn to consider that she might not be physically capable of handling them all.

  And he should have known she wasn’t. She was a natural and they’d already driven her to the point of exhaustion chasing her into their lair.

  Chapter Five

  Sonja was alone in the furs when she woke, still feeling the sublime sense of satisfaction that had taken hold of her and carried her away the night before. She lay with her eyes closed for a time, reliving her experience and struggling to sort the memories in her mind so that she could recall the delightful details.

  After a few moments, reluctantly, she pushed it all to the back of her mind. It had been a lovely diversion, wonderfully unexpected, and she was deeply gratified with the experience. It hadn’t been the chore she’d thought it would be and she would’ve been grateful if it had only been that.

  She had other things of more import to think about, however, than how wonderful it had felt coupling with them, how very good they’d been at arousing her to fever pitch, and more completely satisfying her than she’d ever been.

  She was a little stiff and sore, she discovered when she finally climbed from the furs and headed to the pool to bathe. She smiled faintly at the reminders of her night with the beast men, but that wouldn’t do. It wouldn’t do at all.

  And really, wasn’t it just as likely that much of the soreness was from her unaccustomed ‘escape’?

  She thought it was a very good possibility. She couldn’t recall a time when she’d pushed her strength and stamina to such lengths. She kept fit, but in a general way, she preferred to keep the drama to a minimum and rely upon her wits far more than her physical abilities. The more elaborate the scheme the more that could go wrong and usually did. Besides that, it made one far too memorable and her appearance was enough of a stumbling block as it was.

  True, it was also an asset, her greatest next to her wit, but there was no getting around the fact that it tended to make her memorable and that wasn’t a good thing in her line of work.

  The heated pool soothed her tired, strained muscles as she bathed just as she’d hoped it would. When she got out again, she scanned the cave carefully for any sign of any of the beast men. Relieved but vaguely uneasy when she didn’t she any of them, she focused on bending and stretching to try to work the soreness from her unaccustomed exercise from her muscles while she waited for her skin to dry.

  Her skin was still damp when she finally decided to dress but impatience and curiosity had finally gotten the better of her. In her experience, men were inclined to dismiss whatever woman they’d coupled with from their mind and go about their business as soon as they were satisfied. She certainly hadn’t expected anything different of the beast men, she assured herself, and yet she was a little piqued to discover they’d all vanished. If nothing else, it seemed to her that she would’ve been left under guard and she found it a little disconcerting that she hadn’t been.

  She would’ve liked to think her ploy had worked so well that she’d convinced them, but she didn’t delude herself in that.

  The outer cavern was also empty, she discovered. Trying to shrug off the vague sense of uneasiness that was plaguing her, she helped herself to a small portion of the remains of their meal the night before and wandered from the cavern to look around while she ate. One of the beast men appeared before she’d crossed the clearing—almost literally—sliding from the shadows like a wraith. It disconcerted her, which aided her in the shyness of the smile she managed for his benefit.

  Rafe, she reminded herself. She remembered him fondly from their coupling the night before, but if he did he managed to hide it well.

  “Going somewhere?”

  Sonja blinked at him, further disconcerted by the brusqeness of the question. “I hope so,” she res
ponded lightly. “But at the moment I was looking for you.”

  “Why?”

  She supposed she should have ignored his obviously foul mood and flirted, but it irritated her enough that she reacted thoughtlessly. “By ‘you’ I meant the pack, or more specifically Jarek. He is the leader, correct?”

  She’d hoped that might sting, at least a little, but if it did, he hid that, as well. He merely nodded slightly in acknowledgement.

  “Well,” she said briskly, “then I suppose I should speak to him. Is he around?”

  “He is. We guard the border here,” he reminded her sardonically.

  “Maybe you could take me to his post then?”

  “There is no post.”

  Sonja frowned at him in incomprehension. “But … you just said …?”

  “That we guard the border here,” he said, nodding. “I said nothing of posts.”

  Sonja held on to her patience with an effort. “I suppose by that you mean to say that there are no specific points where you all watch from?”

  “Clever,” he said drily.

  He was being deliberately provoking! “We had an agreement ….”

  “Did you?” He looked amused.

  Sonja gaped at him that time in dawning uneasiness. Unfortunately, try though she might to recall anything specific that Jarek had said that would imply that he’d agreed to their terms, she couldn’t. “He certainly gave me the impression last night—you all did—that we’d come to an agreement,” she said somewhat testily.

  “Ahh! Mayhap you should have haggled for specifics?”

  That time, Sonja felt her jaw drop in stunned disbelief. Anger surged into her. She hurled the chunk of meat she’d been gnawing on at his head before she had time to consider the possible consequences. She supposed it was fortunate that he was quick—he caught it without difficulty—but she thought she might have been more appeased if it had caught him up side of his thick skull! Whirling, she stomped back into the cavern.

  She allowed herself the pleasure of sulking for a time, but as she wearied of it, it dawned on her that neither her display of temper or her nursing it was in keeping with the role she’d fashioned for herself. She wasn’t prone to allowing her temper to overrule her sense.

  Struggling for calm, she settled to considering her situation. In light of Rafe’s boorish behavior, she was inclined to dismiss the enjoyable romp she’d had with the beast men—certainly with him! She might’ve been inclined to cherish it as a fond memory otherwise, but if they were not inclined to honor their part of the bargain then she certainly wouldn’t!

  Mayhap she shouldn’t be so swift to judge? She considered it for several moments and decided she shouldn’t. It was completely unjust to tar them all with the same feather! No doubt, when Jarek returned he would set the oaf straight! They had come to an agreement, damn it! She’d upheld her part of the bargain and she expected them to do so! Beast men or not, they must have some sense of honor!

  She was relieved when Jarek returned around midday carrying a carcass, not only because she was tired of sitting around, twiddling her thumbs while she waited, but also because, due to her display of temper, she’d not really broken her fast. She was hungry, having hurled her breakfast at Rafe before she’d had more than a few bites of it herself and the cur hadn’t bothered to return it!

  She waited with what patience she could until Jarek had built up the fire and set the meat over it to roast and then followed him when he headed into the other cavern to bathe.

  “I was wondering when we might start?” she said, kneeling beside him when he crouched beside the pool to clean the animal blood from himself.

  He snorted. “We did last eve. I was the first, if you recall.”

  Sonja gaped at his profile. After a brief struggle, she managed a coy smile. “I recall that with pleasure,” she murmured, trying to maintain a careful balance between shy pleasure and stroking his ego. “I meant, when will we begin the journey to Thalon? I confess I am most anxious to see my dear parents.”

  He straightened abruptly, staring down at her, but she knew the confusion in his expression was feigned. His eyes glittered with a mixture of suspicion and amusement. “We guard the border of Shadowmere here.”

  “I am not slow witted!” Sonja snapped and then struggled with her temper a moment and managed a semblance of a chuckle. “You have pointed that out and Rafe has pointed that out. But we did have an agreement.”

  His dark brows rose. “Did we?”

  Due entirely to the fact that she’d already discussed this particular point with Rafe, Sonja managed to contain her anger. She got her feet, as well, pasting a smile on her lips. “Indeed, I understood that we did. You required that I couple with you and your brothers since I had nothing else to barter with. And we did that. I assumed that we would leave at first light for Thalon.”

  “You did not enjoy it?”

  Wary now, Sonja considered carefully before she answered. “Indeed I did, but I wasn’t aware that I was required not to in order to fulfill my part of the bargain.”

  He shrugged. “We gave more than we received.”

  Struggle though she might, Sonja couldn’t prevent herself from gaping at him with a mixture of dismay and outrage. “Excuse me?”

  “I coupled only once—as did the others. You were pleasured five times.”

  The bastard was unbelievable! “Well! There are five of you and only one of me! By that token, I should forever be your debt!”

  He nodded, his eyes gleaming with unholy amusement. “True.”

  She stared at him blankly as he dismissed her and strode back toward the outer cavern.

  Enraged though she was at the outcome of their discussion, Sonja was no fool. She decided she was in dire need of mastering her temper before she spoke to any of the beast men again. She needed time to consider how to handle this unforeseen glitch in her plans at any rate.

  She had not truly expected that they would be putty in her hands once she had favored them, she told herself. It would be more accurate to say that she had hoped that would be the case, but she realized she hadn’t adequately considered an alternative plan—because she had thought the one she’d contrived would work, damn it!

  Emptying her mind of her anger and the distress it caused her to be thwarted, she considered how she might behave if everything that she had said to them was true. It actually didn’t take that much thought to arrive at the conclusion that at least a little anger would be expected due to disappointment and the feeling that she had been duped by those she planned to dupe.

  Actually, duped by those she had hoped would help her, she corrected herself, for she was supposed to be a country maid intent only on returning to her home and beset by villains of every sort.

  Including the damned beast men!

  Justifiable outrage then that she had been misused, but, if she were what she had represented herself to be then that would not be something she was unaccustomed to.

  She should resort to tearful pleas, she decided.

  It didn’t take a great deal effort to bring tears. She was so enraged the anger brought them easily. She indulged herself until she was certain her eyes and nose spoke her distress without her having to direct their attention to it. Sniffing, then, she dried her eyes and went out to try again to reason with the unreasonable beasts.

  They’d gathered to eat, she discovered, and they hadn’t waited for her to appear. It sparked a renewed sense of misuse, but she was alarmed enough by how quickly the food was disappearing that she dismissed her pique in favor of satisfying her hunger. From what she could see, it was a wasted effort anyway to try to appeal to their softer side.

  They didn’t have a soft spot that she could discern!

  She considered the situation while she ate and finally decided that, whether it fit the role she’d adopted or not, she was going to have to haggle with them if she had any hope of achieving the desired results. She broached the subject as soon as she saw that they were finished
and knew they would disappear again very shortly.

  “I’ve been giving some thought to our discussion a little while ago,” she said as causally as she could manage. “Anyway, I realized there was just no point in quibbling over whether I’d enjoyed it or not when I’d ….” She allowed that remark to trail off suggestively. “Of course you aren’t at all like the naturals and I should’ve considered that. They are so touchy about their manhood and their prowess that a woman has to pander to their ego and pretend she’s enjoying their clumsy efforts even when she isn’t.” She sighed. “So I won’t quibble over that, but it occurred to me that you’d assumed that I received pleasure from all five of you and … well, that just isn’t the case. I gave Rafe pleasure with my mouth and surely you realize that I couldn’t possibly have gotten anything out of that? And then, too, Byron sodomized me and that isn’t pleasurable at all. So, even if we assume I actually did get pleasure out of any of it, then there are only three of you who gave as much as they received.”

  She flicked a look around to see how they were taking her comments and felt a mixture of satisfaction and uneasiness at their reaction to it. Regardless, she persevered. “If I must pay my way—and I completely agree that you should have something for your trouble. Then I’m perfectly willing to pleasure the three of you with my mouth and then there cannot be a dispute over whether I’ve paid or not. Assuming, of course, that you would give me your word that you would consider it payment and take me to Thalon.

  “It distresses me no end to think my parents might hear of the attack upon my master and think me dead with everyone else! They’re old. I’m … begging you! Please take me before they have to time to learn of it. Their grief might well overwhelm them and I would be alone in the world without them! Or, if you cannot or will not do that, please allow me to leave so that I can make my own way there.”

  She couldn’t help but think there as a good deal more skepticism in Jarek’s gaze than their should have been given her performance, but after studying her thoughtfully for a few moments he merely shrugged and got to his feet. “I will consider it,” he said shortly and stalked from the cave with the others.