Marie Harte - Gunnar's Game

“Gunnar—”

“Ava,” he whispered back and kissed her.

She tasted like everything he'd dreamed. Womanly, sweet, and so sexy, it was all he could do not to rip her clothes off, mount her, and fuck her like the animal he was. He licked at her lips and thrust his tongue inside when she opened for him on a moan. He invaded, taking as much as giving.

Tersch gripped the mattress on either side of her head with fingers quickly turning into claws. He shivered, so under her spell, he could barely remember his own name. Ava, finally his. The mate he'd been longing for, the answer to his hopes and dreams. So soft, so feminine, desirable…

Her hands crept up to his shoulders, and the feel of her palms on his flesh made him rock hard in seconds. She stroked his shoulders, then his neck, and pulled him closer into the kiss.

He slanted his mouth to angle for deeper penetration. She met his tongue stroke for stroke, allowing him to plunder, to take what he'd been wanting for so long.

Breathe. Have to…breathe . He pulled away, gasping, but couldn't stop planting kisses over her smooth skin.

“Mmm, yes,” she murmured and ran her hands over his shoulders to his chest.

“So strong.”

He made the mistake of leaning back to look into her eyes and saw her beast staring out at him through slit pupils, daring him to take what they both knew to be his. Take her. Mine, ours. Now . If it were only his beast, he might have succumbed.

But his berserker wanted more, and a sudden flash of the recent past intruded.

He’d been so angry, so furious at not being able to help Jules. So he took it out on the nearest opponent. Fallon. He’d pummeled the bastard, enjoying the outlet, excited to exercise so much anger. Then someone tried to stop him. He turned and would have smashed Ava in the face if Fallon hadn’t knocked him out of the way.

Ava—beautiful, intelligent, sexy Ava, a victim to a brutal monster’s rage.

Scenes of violence against women inevitably drew him to the fateful night he'd spent a lifetime trying to forget. His father's manic shrieks, his mother's screams, his sister's tearful pleas before his father choked the life from her. And then, the stark sound of his girlfriend's neck snapping in the sudden silence broken only by grunts and sobs…

Tersch pulled back from Ava as if scalded and leaped from the bed. He ignored the aching need in his body and paced until he could control, if not will away, his arousal. The past is the past. Not the here, not the now. I won’t hurt Ava. Not ever.

Let it fucking go.

Ava sat up, grumbling. “I'd call you a cock tease, but we both know you give them what they need.”

He flushed at her referral to his teammates. He couldn't help it. She was right.

But he knew they could take care of themselves. Even though he'd seen Ava as a Circ, he couldn't help stop thinking of her as a smaller, frailer woman. The thought of hurting her made him sick.

“Tell me about Grayson,” he said, his voice rough with frustration.

She grunted. “Well, that killed the mood. Sure, whatever. Grayson is my brother, you know. He's not exactly white, either. We have a nice little mix of ancestry in the Belle family. Grayson likes to say he's the light end of the spectrum.

I look like Mom; he takes after Dad.”

“Your parents are still living?” Just about all the Circs in residence were the last of their lines. Well, except for Morgan, but Tersch didn't count him because he'd mated into the Dawn Endeavor family.

She nodded. “Mom and Dad are still kicking. And they'd be pissed as hell to know Grayson's sending messages when he shouldn't be. I'm not a telepath.”

“Thank God.”

“And I don't want to be one.” She glared at Tersch. “I can't imagine what goes on in what you call a brain.”

His fear of hurting her slowly receded under her irritation. Ah. There was the Ava he knew and lo—liked. He grinned; he couldn't help it. She was so cute when annoyed.

“Grayson is in trouble. He's in DC working on something for a friend of ours.

And the shit just hit the fan.”

“How so?”

Ava frowned. “I'm not sure. He sent a ton of images and words into my head that I'm still trying to piece together. But he needs my help. He never would have sent me the info, knowing it would hurt me, if he hadn't been desperate.”

“Well, hell. We're going to need to talk to your grandmother about this.” She sighed. “I know.” Ava didn't look like she had plans to move from his bed, though. “Can I ask you something?”

He answered, wary. “Sure.”

“Do you like games?”

He blinked. “Games?”

“Yeah. Do you?”

“I guess so. I like to have fun.” Though normally his idea of fun involved beating the shit out of some dickhead deserving it.

“I do too.” The sly look that passed over his body and centered on the bulge under his jeans unnerved him. “Let's play a game, Gunnar.”

“Ava…” His voice left him when she trailed her fingers down her body, past her breasts and belly to her crotch. Her hand hovered there before she slowly unbuttoned and unzipped her shorts. It’s like the woman is reading my fantasies.

Holy shit. Am I awake?

“You see, you got me all worked up and left me high and dry. You claim to have perfect control. Let's test that, hmm?”

“Not a good idea,” he rasped, his gaze glued to her fingers delving beneath her panties visible underneath her zipper. “Oh, fuck.” He could see the outline of her fingers under the cotton, and the corresponding pleasure on her face clearly showed him what she was doing.

“I need it. I don't have mating heats, but sometimes the desire for sex is there all the same.” She bit her lower lip as she worked her fingers over her clit.

He could smell her desire, and it was all he could do not to rip her shorts off and shove his face in her pussy.

“I'm so wet,” she said on a breath as she rubbed herself. “I'm close to coming already.”

“Me too,” he admitted, mesmerized by what he couldn't exactly see. The hint of movement under her pink panties, over her cunt, tantalized. She was so sexy, not showing him skin while giving him an erotic tease he'd never forget.

He wasn't sure when he'd unbuttoned his trousers. He shoved his hand down his pants and grabbed his shaft. It was either that or let her do it, and he wouldn't touch her again. He couldn't without completely losing it.

“Mmm, you smell so good.” She moaned and increased the motion of her hand between her legs. “Like cedar and sex. I bet you could slide right up into me right now. No pain, only a full, throbbing stretch as you take me.”

“Yeah, full.” He pulled on his cock, jerking up and down, faster and faster. The oil over his dick made it too easy to bring himself off. The more excited he was, the more lube. And Tersch could have poked a hole through a steel wall with his erection.

“That's it. One finger inside me,” she said softly as she angled her hips up.

“Now two.”

“Put another in. Stretch yourself wide. For me,” his beast demanded.

She licked her lips and groaned, and he could see himself guiding his cock to her wet folds, could imagine the heat and the scent of her as he finally claimed her.

He widened his stance and rubbed so hard and so fast he neared his climax too soon. But Ava beat him to it. She threw back her head and cried out as she drenched the room in her scent. So fucking beautiful.

Tersch lost it.

He groaned as he spewed, coming hard all over his belly and hand. Loads of cum that should have been in the slight female writhing on his bed. Instead, he made do with his hand, squeezing his orgasm from his ruddy shaft.