Cursed Read online

  “I call you mine,” he growled softly. “And I meant what I said. If we go by the premise that all the Earth’s troubles are your fault as you claim, then something must be done about it.”

  “Something must be done? What are you talking about?” Mei-Li frowned at him. “What can be done?”

  “Have you heard of the Kindred Law of Conduct?” Reaching out one long arm, Six caught her by the wrist and pulled her down into his lap. “Well?” he demanded.

  “No, I haven’t. What is it?” Mei-Li stared at him uncertainly. He had a strange look in his steel gray eyes she hadn’t seen before.

  “It is a law which states every warrior is responsible for the good behavior of his bride and gives him the right to punish her if she commits a crime.”

  “Are you saying you want to punish me?” Mei-Li gave him an incredulous look. “I don’t think so.” She started to get off his lap but Six pulled her back, his grip on her arm firm and unbreakable.

  “I think that I must,” he said, giving her a stern look. “If I do not, you will simply keep punishing yourself. And that is not good for your emotional health.”

  “What do you know about emotional health?” Mei-Li demanded. “You can’t lecture me about that. And you certainly can’t punish me.”

  “Under the Law of Conduct, I am permitted to do so,” Six insisted.

  “I don’t think so.” She tried to get up again but he pulled her back down. But this time instead of sitting her on his lap, he turned her over his knee.

  “Hey!” Mei-Li protested as he raised the hem of her dress. She was wearing the red wrap dress she’d made for herself on Zeaga Four and a pair of lacy black underwear underneath. Ever since she’d seduced Six into bonding with her, he’d had a liking for lacy under-things so she tried to always have on something sexy under her clothes. But never in her wildest dreams had she imagined him seeing her panties like this. “Stop it!” she protested. “What are you doing?”

  “Punishing you.” Gripping the top of her panties, Six pulled them down, baring her ass completely.

  Mei-Li struggled in his lap, trying to get free but it was useless, he had one heavy forearm—his metal enhanced one—across her back and waist holding her down. Try as she might, there was no way she could fight against his superior weight and strength.

  “I mean it, Six—don’t do this,” she said through gritted teeth. “Even as child I never got spanked—my parents thought it was barbaric and I agree! Don’t you dare touch me—I’ll never forgive you if you do!”

  “And you will never forgive yourself if I do not,” he growled. “Get ready, Lasai—this will hurt.”

  His broad palm fell with a loud smack, causing her bare bottom to quiver as a bright red pain raced through her nerve endings.

  “Ouch!” Mei-Li cried, jumping in his lap. She almost wiggled free but then Six tightened his grip on her and spanked her again.

  “This…is…your…punishment,” he said, speaking each word deliberately between the blows of his palm connecting with her stinging ass. “It…pays…for…everything…you…think…you’ve…done wrong.”

  “Ow! Ow, ow, ow!” Mei-Li gasped. Though she didn’t want to cry, the sharp, stinging blows brought tears to her eyes anyway. “Stop!” she begged. “Six, please!”

  He paused for a moment. “Do you feel the pain, Lasai? Do you understand what you’ve done to earn it?”

  “I…I do,” she gasped through her tears. “I should’ve listened to the…to the Goddess. I should have been able…able to make my father see. But I can’t…I can’t…”

  “You can’t change it now,” Six said simply. “What’s done is done. Must I whip you some more or have you been punished enough?”

  Her bottom still stinging, Mei-Li choked on a sob.

  “I…I don’t know. I didn’t meant to be bad, Six. I just…I couldn’t…”

  “You’ve been punished enough, I think,” he rumbled. His grip on her loosened but Mei-Li didn’t have the strength to slide out of his grasp. She just lay there across his lap sobbing as all the pain and guilt of the past several days overwhelmed her and rushed through her.

  “I’ve been bad…so bad,” she sobbed miserably. “But I’m sorry…so, so sorry.”

  Then she felt something soft and warm against her stinging buttocks that made her pause in mid-sob.

  “Six?” she whispered, sniffing as she felt it again.

  “Hold still, Lasai,” he murmured, kissing her once more. “I must sooth the pain I have given you.”

  “You…you don’t have to do that,” she said as he continued kissing her, his mouth moving lower and lower down the curve of her bare ass.

  “I want to.” His deep voice was little more than a growl. “Now that your punishment is over, I want to make you feel better—want to make you feel good. Spread your legs for me, Mei-Li and let me make you feel good.”

  “Oh, I…” She gave a little gasp as he raised her hips and pulled her panties down even further. Soon the twisted wisp of black lace was down around one of her ankles and Six was pressing his face between her legs, kissing her from behind.

  “Hold still,” he growled when she tried to close her legs. “Open wide and let me sooth your ache, Lasai. Or do I have to punish you again?”

  “No,” Mei-Li whispered, biting her lip. “No I…I guess I’ve been punished enough.”

  “Good. Because now I wish to pleasure you.”

  He pressed his face between her thighs, his long tongue seeking her core. Mei-Li gasped and pressed her pelvis back to meet him instinctively when he found her pussy, already hot and wet and ready for his invasion.

  Big, warm hands cupped her still-stinging ass cheeks and broad thumbs spread her outer pussy lips, revealing her sensitive inner cunt to his seeking tongue. Mei-Li gasped and grabbed the arm of the couch as his lips met her slippery inner petals and he began lapping eagerly at her exposed pussy.

  “Six!” she cried softly when the tip of his tongue found her throbbing clit and began to circle it mercilessly. Hazily she thought that it was incredible that she could go from such extremes of emotion so quickly. From anger and incredulity that he would dare to spank her, to pain and tearful guilt as he did the deed, to overheated lust as he “soothed her ache” after finishing the punishment. It seemed crazy and impossible and yet here she was, panting and pressing back against him as his tongue traced magical patterns in her most sensitive flesh. God, he was good at this!

  Just as she felt herself right on the edge of coming, he flipped her over and sat her on his lap, straddling his hips. His mouth was shiny with her juices and his steel gray eyes were blazing with desire.

  “What…?” Mei-Li literally wasn’t sure which end was up anymore. She only knew she was aching with unfulfilled need and he had stopped right before she was about to come.

  “Apologies,” he rasped, his deep voice rough. “I know you weren’t finished but I wanted to feel you coming around my shaft.” As he spoke, he pressed up, rubbing the hard ridge of his cock, still encased in his tight leather trousers, against her open pussy.

  “God, Six,!” Mei-Li moaned.

  “I will take that for a yes,” he growled.

  Quickly he untied her dress and spread it open, revealing the fact that she wasn’t wearing a bra. Since her breasts were quite small, she often went without, a fact that seemed to excite Six.

  “Beautiful,” he murmured, pulling her down so that he could suck one small, sensitive nipple into his mouth.

  Mei-Li moaned as sparks of pleasure ran through her, jumping straight from her tight peaks to the hot, aching spot between her thighs. Six sucked her other nipple too, taking as much of her breast into his warm, wet mouth as he could and then she felt something hard and long brushing her thighs.

  Looking down she saw that he had freed his thick shaft and it was rising between them like club of flesh. Eagerly, she took it in her hand, loving the heated steel and velvet texture. Soon it was Six’s turn to moan as she stroke
d him up and down, using a leisurely pace to tease him into submission as he had teased her with his tongue.

  “Mmm,” he growled as she slid her hand over his hot flesh. “I cannot wait to be inside you. Can’t wait to feel your sweet, wet pussy gripping my shaft.”

  “I can’t wait either,” Mei-Li panted. She fit the broad, plum-shaped head of his cock to her entrance and started to push down, allowing him to fill her.

  At once the familiar stretching sensation began—the feeling that he was almost too big for her. But it felt so good to have him in her, she didn’t want to stop. Six was plainly eager too but he kept his big hands on her hips, guiding her carefully, not wanting to hurt her. At last she felt him bottom out inside her and knew that the broad head of his cock was kissing the mouth of her womb.

  “Mmm,” she moaned as she settled more firmly into his lap. “God, you feel so good inside me…”

  “And you feel incredible wrapped around my shaft,” Six growled. “But I need to know something, Mei-Li…” His big hands circled her hips, gripping her firmly and keeping her from moving any more.

  “Wh-what?” she asked breathlessly, looking into his eyes. He looked so serious—so almost stern. It was a little frightening.

  “I have to know if you need me to punish you any more.” Drawing out slowly, he gave a hard, deep, deliberate thrust that sent a bolt of painful pleasure through her, making her gasp.

  “Six?” she moaned, looking at him uncertainly.

  “Do you need more pain?” he asked, doing it again. “I do not wish to hurt you but I will…up to a point. If that is what you need to feel forgiven, to feel that you have paid for your crimes, then I will give it to you.” He drew back and thrust in hard a third time, making her moan and jump in his arms.

  “No,” she somehow managed to whisper, gripping his shoulders. “No, I don’t need more punishment. I just need you inside me, loving me. Making love to me and letting me know you care.”

  “Good.” A look of relief crossed his strong features and his grip on her hips eased up considerably. “Good, Lasai. I don’t wish to hurt you. I only want to love you now—if you think you can let go and start loving yourself again.”

  “I…I don’t know,” Mei-Li moaned softly as he began a slow, steady, much gentler rhythm inside her. “I don’t know if I can do that, but I’ll try. God, I swear I’ll try…”

  She could feel the pleasure cresting inside her and she knew she was about to come. She wanted to close her eyes as the sensations rushed over her but somehow she couldn’t. Her gaze was locked with Six’s and as the orgasm took her, she couldn’t look away from the pleasure and pain in those steel gray depths, couldn’t break the intensity between them.

  “Lasai,” he sent through their mental bond. “Love you so much…need you so much…”

  “I need you too,” she sent back. “I’m so close, Six…but I can’t...quite…”

  “Maybe I can help.” She felt the warm fingers of his metal-enhanced hand slip up to stroke her swollen folds, tracing the place where they were joined. Then the broad pad of his thumb found her throbbing clit and began to circle it again and again. At the same time a gentle vibration began, buzzing up from the thin silver metal of his enhancement and bathing the sensitive little bundle of nerves in tingling sensation.

  Six’s magically vibrating fingers and the slow, deep thrust of his thick shaft inside her was suddenly too much.

  “God!” Mei-Li moaned as she felt her inner muscles tighten, spasming around him, begging him to fill her with his seed.

  Six responded to her wordless plea by allowing her orgasm to trigger his own. With a low groan, he crushed her to him and she felt the hot, wet rush of him spurting inside her, filling her in a way no human man had ever done.

  As always she was filled with wonder even as she was overcome with pleasure. Making love with Six was like nothing she’d ever done before—the few human lovers she’d had couldn’t compare to him in either intensity or pleasure. And of course, the vibrating fingers were amazing.

  “Six!” she gasped as he moaned, “Lasai!” at the same time. For an endless moment they strained together, trying to get even closer though it didn’t seem possible. Then, at last the pleasure began to ebb and Mei-Li collapsed against his shoulder panting, her heart pounding in her chest.

  When she finally sat up, she was surprised to see tears glimmering in his steel gray eyes.

  “Six?” she asked cautiously, wondering if their lovemaking had somehow set off another of the buried memories of his family. “Six, honey, are you okay?”

  “I am well.” His deep voice sounded choked. “Are you?”

  “Well…sure I am.” He was looking at her so anxiously she felt the need to reassure him. “I feel fine. A little sore but that’s okay.”

  “And…will you…do you think you can ever forgive me for what I had to do? I hurt you. I did not want to but I did.”

  “What, you mean for spanking me?” Mei-Li frowned. “I should be really mad about that you know—you treated me like a naughty child. Except…”

  “Except what?” he asked, still looking at her anxiously.

  “Except, well…it kind of made me feel better in a weird way.” Mei-Li shook her head. “I don’t know why that should be, though.”

  “Because you’ve taken your punishment.” Six stroked her cheek, still looking at her face uncertainly, as though trying to read her expression. “You need never feel guilty or wrong again because you’ve been punished. Your pain has paid for your misdeeds. They are no longer your guilt to bear.”

  “I guess I never thought of it like that…But it actually feels true. I don’t feel guilty anymore.” Mei-Li looked at him wonderingly. “How did you know that would work? Was it something you did on Z4?”

  He shook his head. “There was little room for discipline there—offenders of any law were usually purged, not punished.”

  “Then how…”

  “A memory from my childhood,” he admitted. “Only the spanking part, however.” One corner of his mouth went up. “The other was because I could not resist the way your bare bottom looked as you writhed in my lap. Gods, you’re beautiful, Lasai.”

  “So you did what you thought needed to be done. But afterwards you were afraid you’d hurt me too much and I would never forgive you?” Mei-Li raised an eyebrow at him.

  He nodded. “Please say it is not so. I didn’t want to punish you, Mei-Li, but you left me little choice. I could see that the guilt would continue to eat away at you if something wasn’t done.”

  “Well…just don’t do it again.” She shook a finger at him. “And you’re darn lucky it worked. Although, how or why I don’t know. I just know I feel better.”

  “That was all I wanted—for you to feel better.” Six gathered her close to his broad chest, putting his long arms around her and hugging her tight. “I am still so new to the world of emotions that seeing you upset or distraught is very difficult to me. It makes me feel desperate, like I would do anything—anything—to ease your burden.”

  Mei-Li had to smile. “Anything, huh? Even spank me?”

  “I knew I was taking a risk,” Six said seriously. “But I didn’t know what else to do—what else to try.”

  “You could try a little more of this.” He was still semi-hard inside her and Mei-Li raised halfway off him and then let herself slide slowly back down, taking him deep inside again.

  “Gods, you’re tight!” Six groaned and she felt his shaft twitch and then begin to thicken inside her.

  “Mm-hmm.” Mei-Li grinned and kissed him, nibbling teasingly at his lush lower lip until he growled with pleasure. “Come on, Six—make love to me again. And this time let’s take it slow. Very slow.”

  “It sounds like a whole new kind of punishment,” he rumbled. “One that may drive me mad before you are finished with me.”

  “That’s the idea.” Mei-Li gave him a naughty smile. “Now come on, honey—let’s go.”

  Chapter
Ten

  “…and that is why we need you to undertake this mission. The Dark Kindred have formed a barricade between the Mother Ship and Earth. Their intention is to take it over, strip it of natural resources, and enslave the inhabitants. Of course, we do not intend to let them do that, but they have superior numbers and very advanced weaponry on their side,” Commander Sylvan said.

  At least, Charlie thought it was Commander Sylvan—the deep rumble of male voices was a little muted by the metal door between her and the Kindred Council meeting.

  She was very well aware that she shouldn’t be here but she’d felt like she had to come. After all, if the Kindred had something sinister planned for Earth, she needed to find out what it was. Then maybe she could somehow warn someone in authority before it was too late.

  That was what she told herself as she slipped out the door and trailed Stavros quietly through the busy medical station and down crowded metal corridors of the Mother Ship, anyway. But the truth was more complicated, though she didn’t want to acknowledge it, even to herself.

  It was the way they had parted. She couldn’t stop seeing that look in his eyes—the look that said he was going to his doom. It was that, as much as any secret information she might gain, that had sent her sneaking after him, being careful to keep out of his sight until she saw him turn into what was clearly a special wing of the Mother Ship.

  There was a guard posted outside the antechamber but luckily Stavros had thought to bring her purse when he abducted her. Most of its contents were useless—she’d already tried the cell phone with no results—but she still had her wallet and badge. She had marched up to the guard and displayed the badge which was a metal disk in the shape of the Earth with her name and serial number stamped on it.

  “Agent Sayers with the EPB,” she’d said briskly, wishing she had a uniform or at least a blazer to wear in order to look more official. “I’m here as a consultant representing Earth’s interests in this meeting. Commander Sylvan is expecting me.”