Tangle of Need

A snarl.

Kissing his way up the center of her chest, he sucked a mark on her throat. It made her moan, the snarl transforming into a husky sound of pleasure. He squeezed one breast, dipped back down to rub his jaw over the other, the creamy flesh marked by his attentions.

A jolt shook her frame. “Riaz.”

Hearing the fracture in her voice, he bit down just a little too hard on one nipple as he rolled the other between his fingertips. She shattered with a sudden, shocked cry, her thighs clenching around his hips, one hand fisted in his hair, the nails of the other digging into his shoulder. A hint of blood scented the air and his wolf bared its teeth, not in anger but in primitive satisfaction.

Breaking her hold, he pulled down her panties, got rid of his own remaining clothing and slid into her in a single, deep thrust. She welcomed him with a wild tangle of a kiss, her body continuing to ripple with aftershocks of pleasure that squeezed his pulsing cock, the pressure dragging him to the edge.

He broke the kiss, gasped in a jagged breath. Two long, hard thrusts and he felt his spine lock. Gritting his teeth, he tilted her so that his pubic bone would press against her clitoris, and then he thrust again.

Tiny muscles spasming anew around his cock, a molten fist.

His mind went black.





Chapter 33


THOUGH VASIC TELEPORTED directly into Anthony Kyriakus’s office, the Councilor’s patrician face didn’t display any hint of surprise. Leaning back in his chair, the silver threads in his hair glimmering in the sunlight pouring through the window behind him, he met Vasic’s eyes. “It’s been a while.”

“Yes.” His goals had once aligned with Anthony’s, but Vasic’s loyalty would always be to the Arrows. “The Council is fractured.”

“It’s not yet common knowledge,” Anthony said, putting down the laser pen he’d been using to make notes on a datapad.

“No—but rumors are beginning to spread.” He studied the comm screen on the wall to his right, currently displaying the logos of a number of companies, some well known, others discreet powerhouses. “Satisfied clients?” Anthony controlled the largest network of foreseers in the world. Corporations paid millions to get predictions from a NightStar F-Psy before making decisions on everything from investments to product development.

“Very.” Anthony didn’t rise. “Do the Arrows require a prediction?”

Vasic had always wondered if Anthony had a touch of the F ability, though he was listed in the official records as a high-Gradient telepath with a minor illusion ability. An ability he’d apparently passed on to his daughter, Faith. “Pure Psy has moved on from licking its wounds—indications are it has an operation in progress.”

“I see.” Rising from his chair, Anthony turned to walk to the window.

Vasic joined him, his eyes on the landscaped park below, the grass jewel green, the trees lush with foliage. “An unusual view.” Psy corporations preferred to be in city centers, in high-rises created from glass and steel. The internal NightStar compound, by contrast, was all low, earth-toned buildings designed to flow into the environment.

“Events have led NightStar to question the need for isolation in order to guard the mental health of even our most powerful F-Psy, but foreseers do have unique requirements in comparison to the other designations.” Anthony nodded at a sturdy-looking man who’d walked out of the opposite building to take a seat beneath the spreading branches of a large oak. “He’s obviously had a strong prediction, and it’s drained him. I find my Fs function better—thus increasing our profits—if they have not merely soothing surroundings, but the freedom and space to recover.”

Vasic could understand that need better than Anthony would ever know. He often teleported to deserts cloaked in moonlight, because it was only there, surrounded by an endless nothingness that was strangely alive, that he could truly think. “Some would say such a need is an emotional response and should be conditioned out of your foreseers.”

“No,” Anthony said without looking away from the recovering F-Psy. “Nobody would dare—my people are too necessary to the continuing success of the businesses run by the most powerful. Something I make certain no one ever forgets.”

And that was why Vasic had first agreed to work with Anthony—the man was ruthless, but he had the same kind of loyalty to his foreseers that Vasic had to the Arrows. “Do your F-Psy know anything about the Pure Psy situation?”