Burning Ceres Read Online Free PDF Page A

she saw surprise move across his features.
    His full lips twisted into a rueful smile, “How long have you known? The whole time?”
    She eagerly devoured his features with her gaze. He was perfect. He always had been. A golden mane of hair framed skin that was a darker shade of metallic gold. His eyes were the clear gold of the high-flying raptors of his mountain home. His mother’s Azon blood was in evidence.
    It was his alien heritage that had kept them out of the same social circles, for the most part. There had still been moments and festivals where they had been allowed to mingle. He had always kept to the formal distances required by their social status, but she had felt something in her blood call to him.
    “No, I only knew during our…umm.” She ducked her head and studied the musculature of his chest with concentration. His fingers gently tilted her jaw up until she met his gaze again.
    “When you took me that first time. It was the bite that gave you away. That and your voice. It started a memory in the skimmer.”
    “Are you displeased?” His lips traced hers and her eyelids fluttered closed as her breath mingled with his.
    “No!” She was self conscious again. “I mean, you bought me, you own me.” A phrase she had never imagined saying tumbled from her lips. “I am yours.”
    He blinked in surprise. No answering phrase tumbled from his lips and she closed her eyes in mortification. Light kisses skated across her lids and she couldn’t stop the tear that formed at the tenderness.
    “Now is not the time Ceres. You are still in the grip of your urges, and once you are free, then we will speak of this again.”
    “Will we? There is no reason to. You own me. I can expect nothing from you except a breeding partner under the law.” More tears formed and flowed down her face. She was in the arms of her choice of a mate, and she had no right to him. He could take another to wife, and only visit her when she was in season. For that matter. He may have a mate right now.
    “Are you married?”
    “No. There was a female I had my eye on, but it didn’t work out.” His tongue flicked out and took her tears from her flesh. With a heavy sigh he rolled her to her back and slid home within her.
    Her eyes opened wide at the feel of him and the sight of him with his skin drawn taught over his cheekbones with lust made her feel both protected and prey. His fingers tangled with hers and pulled her hands up beside her head.
    Slowly, he began to thrust into her and withdraw almost completely, then thrust in again. The tide of his body beat against hers with a slow pounding. Watching him moving above her was shaking her to the core. Sex was much more intimate when you met your lover’s gaze.
    She felt a tingle and a touch on her mind. “You’re…?” His lips sealed any details or accusations she might have made as his mind fed his pleasure right into hers. He threw his head back and groaned as her pleasure spilled back into his mind.
    With the speed of a striking viper his head snapped forward and bit hard into her neck again, his pleasure as the blood spilled into him mixed with the heat of his cock in her voluptuous grip. His orgasm was intensified by hers as his pleasure and the pain once again blended to send her sensitized body into over drive.
    He collapsed against her, his body coated in sweat and musk, his and hers. His chest was heaving like a bellows. For the first time she realized how hard going into heat had to be on the males. They had to be able to perform any time that their breeding partner craved it, for days on end. The stamina that they needed was incredible.
    She brought her hands up and stroked his hair, loving the feel of the silky cool locks between her fingers. It was the only part of him that was cool, the rest was all muscle and heat.
    “How long have we been here?” She was counting off the time in her mind, but the frenzied coupling was all that rang in her mind.
    “Two and a half