Dita knew the moment Kralj let go.
The stars glowing in his dark eyes went supernova. Gusts of wind batted against her back. The wall shook. He sucked on her bottom lip as though his life depended on her blood.
His reaction both thrilled and frightened her. He wanted her more than anyone had ever wanted her and she would survive his monster.
But the beings below them might not.
Dita bracketed his face with her hands. “Direct that power into me, handsome.”
Her voice was muffled by his lips yet he must have understood. He gazed at her with a heart-stopping intensity. The shaking stopped. The wind eased.
He needed her, needed this.
He simply didn’t realize that. Not yet.
She slipped her hands between the folds of his long coat, glided her fingers over his collarbone, found the ridges on one of his shoulders. Those were the only scars she could feel. His pecs were flat and defined and perfect. His abs were finely sculpted, fluttering under her palms. He was hard and warm.
Her wounds healed and he opened them again, piercing her flesh in the exact same place, the pain thrilling her, wetting her pussy. He didn’t withdraw, sucking her blood though his fangs. Her entire body throbbed to the same rhythm, to that erotic tug and pull. Everywhere he touched, she tingled and fizzed.
He was devouring her and she was savoring him, relishing the rare contact in an otherwise solitary lifespan. She would die by his hand, not now but soon. This would be her last mission. This could be her last kiss.
She wanted more. Dita rubbed her hands over the bulge in his ass coverings. He was long and thick, excitingly erect, pressing against the black leather. She pressed back, stroking him, and he moaned, the sound stuck deep in his chest, rattling around, unable to find release.
She’d help him escape his confines, topple his self-erected walls. Dita unfastened his ass covering, slid her hands inside, touched hot, hard cock. He jerked, rearing backward.
“Shhh…I have you,” she murmured, pumping him. “Drink from me while I take care of you.”
Kralj glanced downward, between them, at her fingers curled around his shaft. His gaze lifted to her bottom lip. She felt the blood beading on her flesh, withstood the urge to swipe it away with her tongue.
“I can’t resist you.” His head dipped once more. He drew her lip into his mouth, pulling on it. Her shoulders lowered. He wouldn’t stop her, wouldn’t fling him from her, banishing her from his side as he had in the past.
She ran her hands up and down his cock. He was the softness of a worn leather sheath over the rigidity of a dagger’s blade, his hairless base reminding her he was more than human. This male was a weapon, savage, deadly, designed to kill without mercy.
Dita straddled his right leg, moving against him, pleasuring herself as she worked his shaft. She skimmed her thumbs around his rim and he shuddered, the wind gaining speed around them. Encouraged, she grazed her fingers over his cockhead, spreading his pre-cum along his cock. His essence tingled also.
What would that sensation feel like inside her? Would she find out or would he kill her before they had the chance to fuck?
The puncture wounds closed again. She had never healed that quickly. He must be responsible for her newfound ability.
“I could suck you dry.” Kralj’s voice was hoarse, his eyes turbulent with emotion.
“I want to suck you dry,” she admitted. Would he allow her to take him into her mouth?
His hold on her hair eased. “I won’t be gentle with you.”
Was he capable of being gentle? She smiled, amused by that thought. “I don’t want gentle. I want your monster.”
His eyes narrowed. “He’ll rip you apart.”
“He’s already ripping me apart.” Dita burned for him, for his rough handling, his pain-encased pleasure.
“Am I hurting you?” His expression turned bleak.
“You can’t hurt me,” she assured him. “And, if you give me that power of yours, you won’t hurt others. Not while you’re with me.”
Kralj looked skeptical. “You don’t know the extent of my powers.”
That was true. His mind might have the ability to kill her and everyone around them. “You don’t know the extent of mine.” She would take that risk to have this experience, this connection with another being.
He gazed at her.
Dita didn’t look away from him, didn’t hide her need. She wanted this, him.
“On your knees.” He shoved her shoulders.
She lowered before him. Her body covering protected her knees from the rough stone.
The garment wouldn’t protect her against him. His fingers found purchase in her hair once more, tinges of hurt zinging over her scalp. His cockhead bumped against her lips.
Fuck. He was huge. Dita was daunted by his size.
“Are you certain you want this?” he asked. Her doubt must have showed.
She was touched by his concern. If he was truly a monster, and Dita had met plenty of those in her lifespan, he wouldn’t have sought confirmation. He would have taken her mouth, uncaring of her wishes.
“I want this more than I want to kill my targets.” She ran her hands along the v where his lower abs met his hip flexors. His muscles undulated. He was extremely sensitive to her touch. She doubted many females had handled his body, yet he was allowing her this honor.
She was an assassin, known for only one thing—ending lives. Others feared her. They didn’t trust her.
Yet he did. He was giving her that gift.
“You’re not killing your targets inside my settlement.” Kralj’s grip on her curls tightened. “Open your mouth.”
Dita obeyed him, showing him the same trust he showed her. A monster would have thrust deep. He pushed his cock between her parted lips, feeding her his length slowly, allowing her to manage his girth.
She grasped his hips with her fingers, cradled his shaft with her tongue, and gazed up at him. The shadows around them had lifted. All of his face was revealed.
He was the image of survival, of strength. His scars were vicious and deep, a testament to his unbending will. A weak male wouldn’t have endured that pain.
She suspected the scars on his soul were even deeper.
His eyebrows had lowered over his eyes, all of his fierce concentration on her, on the face fucking he was certain to give her. His jaw was clenched, her controlled male holding back the release he clearly wanted.
This powerful warrior was placing the most vulnerable part of himself in her hands, technically in her mouth. With one snap of her teeth, she could bring him to his knees.
She curled back her top lip, communicating that.
His eyes gleamed. “I’ve survived worse, little female.”
Dita frowned around his shaft. He might have been referring to his face. But she suspected he wasn’t. Someone had damaged that glorious cock of his.
That angered her. That part of him belonged to her now.
His tip tapped the back of her throat. Kralj yanked on her hair, forcing her head back and shoved the rest of him inside her.
A normal human female would have gagged but Dita was far from normal. The Dark Veil, her assassin guild, had ensured that. Part of her training had consisted of gun barrels being jammed as deeply as possible into her mouth, being forced to hold her breath until she lost consciousness.
Dita sealed her lips around his base and stared up at him, her eyes watering, daring him to test her. She could take anything he gave her.
“You are a monster.” Awe colored his voice and Dita felt a burst of pride. She had impressed the cynical male. He withdrew to his tip. “You’re about to meet mine, Dita.”
He surged forward, holding her steady, not allowing her to escape him, not stopping until she took all of him again. His shadow wrapped around them, casting them into darkness. She quivered, her pussy dripping, his dominance stimulating her.
Kralj retreated and surged forward, retreated and surged forward, pounding into her mouth, his base smacking against her lips, his balls slapping her chin. She clutched his hips as he used her hard, expelling all of his darkness, all of his pain.
It was cathartic for her also, being utilized as a vessel, not as a sword, as a bringer of personal peace rather than a deliverer of death. She stroked his hips, his thighs. He parted his legs, bracing his booted feet apart and she caressed his taint, the sensitive skin between his ass and his balls.
The rumbling in his chest grew louder. The air circled faster, whipping his coat against her, against his legs, the pain escalating their arousal. Her male, her killer, her world for the moment, liked a bit of agony with his bliss, as she did.
She fluttered her tongue against his shaft. He ravished her with more intensity, savagely plunging in and out of her mouth. Her lips hummed. Her jaw ached.
Dita cupped his balls, rolled them in her fingers, and he lost control of his rhythm, his thrusting turning sporadic, his technique all over the place. His eyes blazed. His breathing harshened, his chest rising and falling as though he fought for every intake of air.
She did that—made this powerful male lose his grip on his restraint. That knowledge was as sexy as all space.
Someone had told her when beings died, moments of their lifespan flashed through their mind. Dita wanted this to be one of those moments, the image of Kralj looming above her, his scarred face twisted in passion, his cock in her mouth.
Kralj drove into her with an intensity bordering on madness. His balls had drawn up tight to his body. The muscles in his legs, his abs, flexed.
He was close. All he needed was a push.
Dita would give it to him. She waited until his base touched her lips and then she sucked. As her cheeks indented around his shaft, she squeezed his balls.
Kralj flung his head back and howled, the sound blasting upward. His shadow parted, displaying stars on a covering of black. Hot cum spurted from his tip, shot down her throat. That pure ecstasy hit her stomach.
Dita screamed, the sound muffled by the huge cock in her mouth. He had warned he’d rip her to parts and he had. She was shredded by a thought-stopping pleasure. Mindlessly, she sucked, swallowed, came, sucked, swallowed, came, clinging to Kralj, the center of the storm inside her and the vortex of the wind rushing around them.
He shuddered and shook yet didn’t collapse, standing tall in front of her. She drained every drop of cum from his cock, licked him clean, flicking her tongue over his tip, his shaft, his balls. He released his death grip on her hair and petted it, smoothing the wayward curls, his caresses unexpected, comforting.
“Did I harm you?” His voice was edged with a gratifying concern.
He cared about her, an assassin. No one else did. “My body covering protected my knees.”
“Did I harm you with my powers?” Kralj cupped her chin, lifting her gaze. “I had to transfer them to you.” He searched her eyes. “It was…too much.”
He had lost control with her. That pleased her.
“You didn’t harm me.” Dita rested one of her flushed cheeks against his right thigh. “I survived your monster.” She smiled. “Barely. That last bit was…” She paused, uncertain how to describe it. “Unexpected.” She quivered with delight.
“You haven’t seen all of my monster yet.” His fingers returned to her hair. “And that last bit, as you call it, was due to my nanohumanics.”
“Are they like a cyborg’s nanocybotics?” She had studied cyborgs during assassin training. The half-human, half-machine warriors were the Humanoid Alliance’s preferred weapons.
“They’re similar. They allow us to heal quickly. We don’t age.”
Healing quickly would be beneficial in her line of work. Aging was irrelevant. Assassins didn’t die of natural causes. “Who is us?”
“Modified humanoids, beings created by the Humanoid Alliance to fight their wars.” Kralj separated the strands of her hair with his fingers.
“They use cyborgs now.”
“They’re machines. The Humanoid Alliance believes they can control them.”
They couldn’t control him. Her heart warmed with admiration. He had escaped them. “The fizzing and popping inside me hasn’t stopped. Will I live forever now too?” she joked.
“You can die.” His body stiffened and she regretted her words. “As you’ll find out if you enter the Refuge.”
“I won’t have to enter the Refuge if you banish the clones.” But she knew he wouldn’t. He had his rules and would follow them. They were at a stalemate once more.
“This was a mistake.” Kralj stepped back, dragging her along the stone.
“The mistake is already made.” Dita didn’t release him. “Give us a few more moments. My monster has been solitary for a long time.”
His jaw jutted. She thought he’d refuse her request.
Much to her surprise, Kralj released a ragged breath and stopped moving. “My monster has been solitary since the planet rotation I was engineered.”
Since the planet rotation he was engineered. He’d been conceived in a laboratory, had never known a family, a mother, a father, had never experienced love, companionship.
“It must have been a lifespan of loneliness for you.” It was a loneliness she had shared.
“Many human lifespans.” His hands burrowed into her hair. He seemed fascinated with that part of her. “The nanohumanics will fade in time. You won’t have that curse.”
She wouldn’t have that curse, as he called it, because she planned to enter the Refuge and kill her targets. Kralj would then end her life. She explored his legs with her fingers, examining the swell of his calves, the straight line of his shins, the dips in his knees.
“Don’t make me kill you, little one.” His voice was whisper soft. “Spare me that pain.”
She wished she could do that. “I told the survivors I’d avenge their loved ones, ensure the clones wouldn’t return to end their lifespans too. You have your rules, your Refuge, the beings here.” She envied him that. “All I have is my ability to kill and my word. I won’t break it.”
Kralj sighed. “Then don’t return until another rest cycle has passed.” He drew her to her booted feet, looked into her eyes. “Give me that much.”
He had seen her climb the wall. Being an intelligent male, he would block that method of entry.
“Spend that rest cycle with me and I’ll wait.” She wanted some compensation for the increased difficulty. “There are other targets outside these walls.” Although she hadn’t vowed to kill those targets, they were evil and needed their lives ended. “We can hunt one of them.”
Dita hadn’t hunted with another being since she’d completed training. She’d like to share that experience with him.
“I don’t leave the Refuge.” He denied her that opportunity.
“Ever?” She gazed at him, shocked.
“If I leave, it puts every resident at risk.” His lips flattened. “The only thing that keeps the peace inside the Refuge is the knowledge that I monitor every being’s thoughts. I know what they will do before they do it and have the power to stop them.”
“You’re trapped.” As she was, by responsibility, but at least she could venture where she pleased on Carinae E, the planet the assassins’ guild had assigned to her.
“I have vows to uphold.”
He’d promised the residents safety. Dita didn’t argue with him. She understood honor, valued it in herself, in others, in him. “Then allow me inside your walls. You choose the target. We’ll hunt there.”
His lips twisted. “You’ll kill the clones.”
“I won’t kill them this rest cycle or the next, if we hunt together.” She could wait that long to fulfill her vow. “I give you my word.”
Kralj lifted his eyebrows.
“Don’t question my word, handsome.” She placed her hands on her hips. “Not unless you want a dagger in your gut.”
“You move too slowly to hurt me and I wasn’t questioning your word.” He pulled her against his body, not allowing any distance between them. “I was questioning your restraint.”
“I have plenty of restraint.” She wiggled, brushing her mons over his semi hard cock. “We’ll have fun, Kralj. Agree to this. You won’t regret it.”
“I already regret it.” He shook his head. “But I agree to it.”
She hadn’t expected her stubborn, rule-driven male to say yes. It took her a moment to absorb that he had capitulated to her demands.
“Yes!” Happiness, pure and fierce, surged through her. She jumped upward. He caught her. She wrapped her legs around his waist. “This will be fantastic.” She kissed him hard.