Page 4

4

E cho trembled in Mael’s embrace.

I want to know every inch of you, Echo Fisher. Inside and out.

What was wrong with him? Why did he want to lay himself bare for a killer?

Mael leaned in closer, the same hunger in his eyes Echo had witnessed at the bar. He shouldn’t have been so desperate to have the kiss he’d missed out on, but his desire was stronger than his fear. Or maybe it was stronger because of it. When Mael’s lips closed over his, he moaned, immediately yielding and opening his mouth, needing more. Mael took advantage of the silent invitation, slashing his tongue against Echo’s before angling his head to deepen the kiss.

It didn’t register that his arms were free until he wrapped them around Mael’s neck in his desperate desire to get closer. He mewled against Mael’s commanding lips, greedy for more. The assault on his senses made it hard to think. Thinking was overrated. A violent phrenzy of emotion and need swirled within. Echo knew what they were doing was wrong. He couldn’t be with an orca, let alone that orca—but the forbidden was always a temptation.

He wanted Mael. More so than he’d wanted any other man.

His cock hardened, sliding out of the protective slit his kind had carried over from their dolphin forms. The leaking head rested against his lower belly. Mael reached between them and cupped him, kneading his hardened flesh over his pants.

Mael broke the kiss, and Echo whimpered at its loss.

“Do you want me to know you, Echo?”

Echo knew he should’ve lied and said no, but it wasn’t as if he could when his body all but begged for Mael’s touch. “This isn’t right…”

“It sure as hell isn’t wrong,” Mael whispered before he nibbled Echo’s neck.

He bit and licked a heated path to Echo’s ear. He palmed Echo’s ass and dragged them even closer together. Mael’s hard cock was a hot brand against his belly. It pulsed with every rapid beat of his heart. A hint of a smile pulled at the corners of his lips.

Mael’s heart beat faster than his.

While the predator looked cool and calm on the outside, his heart thundered inside. Was he nearing the edge of reason, too?

“It’s a simple question that requires a simple answer. Do you… want to know me?” Mael asked again before nibbling behind his ear. “All you have to do is say yes… and I’ll make it hurt so good, pepi.”

Mael’s temptations were too much—and yet not nearly enough. As overwhelmed as he was, he craved more. Echo rocked his hips, rubbing his hard shaft against Mael’s hand. He was so close to coming—and his clothes were still on. How much farther could the man push him naked?

When Mael removed his hand, Echo whined. His cock ached for Mael’s touch.

“Do you want me, Echo?”

“Yesssss,” Echo hissed, brows furrowed. “I want you.”

Mael gently pushed Echo back onto the bed while he stood at the edge, staring down, grinning victoriously. When he lifted his long-sleeved t-shirt over his head, Echo caught sight of the dark tribal tattoos coiling over his muscled chest and arms. Yet another checkmark on Echo’s internal bad boy wish list, added to those already there: strong, dominant, and sexy as hell.

The light smattering of hair that sprouted over the pecs was unexpected, though not unwelcomed. The beard should’ve alerted him to the possibility. Orca bodies clearly didn’t follow the same rules as dolphin ones. He allowed his gaze to wander down and smiled at a few more things he could check off—tight abs, that fucking hipbone V that caused him to make stupid choices, and another dark trail of hair traveling down toward Mael’s big cock.

And he knew it was big. Even in the midst of his fear, he’d mentally guesstimated its size and how much it might wreck him. However much that was, it would be worth it to try at least once.

Mael reached for Echo’s belt and unhooked it… and cold panic slammed into him. He reached down to stop the orca from going any farther.

Echo lifted his gaze to Mael’s confused one. Mael placed one massive hand on the bed beside Echo’s head. Leaning closer, he hovered over Echo.

“Changed your mind?”

Echo blinked a few times, his mind racing amid the fog of lust. “I need…” He closed his eyes for a moment and took a deep breath. When he reopened them, those black eyes seemed to see all. He sure as hell hoped not. “I need you inside me. I’m too wound up for foreplay.”

“I’m not small,” Mael whispered, a hint of a frown wrinkling the spot between his brows. “I don’t want to hurt you.”

Echo sucked in a ragged breath at the concern Mael had for his comfort, but it came second to his fear of being found out. “I’m sure you’ve scented me, alpha. You’ve got me soaking wet. You’re not going to have any problems.”

Mael searched his face, frowning.

“I need you inside me,” Echo murmured. He lifted his shaking hands to his pants and undid them himself. Shoving them and the lace panties he had hidden under them down his hips, he rolled to his stomach. “Help me take them off.”

Mael dragged them off and tossed them to the floor without comment. Echo rose on his knees. He pressed his face to the mattress and spread his cheeks wide with both hands, offering his hole as sacrifice.

“Please… I need you…”

Silence filled the room. All he could hear was his ragged breathing and his pounding heart.

The sound of Mael’s zipper going down caused him to jolt. He closed his eyes, sobbing from the need clawing through him.

When Mael pressed the thick head against his hole, he jumped again.

“I won’t hurt you, little one… no matter how confident you are that you can take me.”

Echo whimpered against the mattress, pressing his bottom closer to the tip. Instead of a cock, a fat thumb sank into his asshole, testing him.

“Fuck, you are wet, pepi,” Mael whispered as he pulled his thumb out and then circled the rim with it. “Is this all for me?”

“All for you,” Echo murmured after moving his head to the side, his cheek against the mattress.

Mael rubbed the head along Echo’s hole, wetting it, before he sidled a bit closer. He squeezed Echo’s ass, cupping both globes in his big hands before swatting at one with his palm. It hit with a crack, causing another tremor to pulse through Echo.

“That’s a gorgeous ass you’ve got there,” Mael murmured. He rubbed his cock against Echo’s hole again, taking his fucking time. “Seems almost a shame to mark it up.” He swatted it again, drawing a sob from Echo. “But I can’t help myself.”

“Stop teasing me… Are you going to fuck me or not?”

Mael stilled. “What’s the rush, pepi?” He chuckled. “I like to play with my food.”

Before Echo could ask the meaning of that, Mael moved away from him. He strained to look over his shoulder and watched in panic as the orca knelt beside the bed. He was tugged closer to the edge seconds before Mael’s tongue swiped through his slick and circled his hole.

Echo’s body trembled violently at the intimate caress of tongue against his puckered flesh.

“Oh, pepi, you taste so good.”

Mael grabbed his ass cheeks and opened them wide before feasting on him, rimming the edge with an expert tongue. His beard tickled the inside of Echo’s cheeks, scratchy and rough. When that tongue slipped inside him, Echo’s hands fisted in the comforter, all the air knocked from his lungs. He couldn’t breathe, his lungs burning. When he finally gasped and dragged in a breath, he came on the spot, his cock jerking under him, completely untouched.

His body shuddered as cum shot out in thick ropes and a cry tore from his lips. Not once did Mael pause his attentions between Echo’s cheeks. He feasted on Echo through the orgasm and didn’t show signs of stopping when it was over.

“Tooooo… it’s too much,” Echo muttered, trying to pull away.

Mael wouldn’t let him go. He kept up the onslaught until Echo was moaning and pushing back against his tongue. Then and only then did he pull away.

“Was that good for you, pepi?”

Pepi was the Māori word for baby. He wasn’t sure if that’s what Mael was speaking, but he sensed it was. If he was right, it held a whisper of intimacy that exceeded what two natural born enemies could share in one night.

Echo felt a tether pull between them but knew he had to be imagining it. It was pure fantasy of his own design. He was long starved for affection and love. He couldn’t confuse Mael’s lust for either of those emotions. Even if he was right and there was something drawing them together, it couldn’t be, so why torment himself.

He also couldn’t forget the man behind him was a stone-cold killer. Echo was already tempting fate just by letting Mael into his bed. More wasn’t happening.

“Yeah,” he whispered. “That was… good.” Understatement of the year. A simple rim job had shattered Echo into pieces—but then calling what Mael had done with his lips and tongue simple wasn’t fair either.

Mael climbed back onto the bed, the head of his cock pressing against one of Echo’s ass cheeks before he paused. “I think you might be ready for me now, pepi.” He chuckled. “Or have I already ruined you for the night?”

Echo shook his head and rose back onto his knees. “Not even close.”

Mael climbed closer, his chest against Echo’s back. His hard shaft hung between Echo’s ass, still throbbing.

He pressed a kiss to Echo’s earlobe. “You ready for what comes next?”

“Yeah,” Echo breathed out.

“Do I need to use protection?”

Shifters couldn’t catch human STIs. Their only concern was pregnancy.

“I just ovulated a couple of weeks ago. I won’t again for several months,” Echo replied. “You can’t get me pregnant.”

Mael slid one hand around Echo’s throat, nearly circling it. He mimicked the hold from the stairs, tight but still allowed Echo to breathe well enough.

Echo was brought right back there, the fear and the desire he’d felt hanging above the stairs in Mael’s hold. Hunger quickly rose. Mael propped himself on one arm and his knees, rolling his hips to rub his cock against Echo’s hole.

Echo rocked back against him, the need to have that shaft stretch him wide the only thing he could focus on. He might die if he didn’t get it. The head sank into him an inch before sliding out… and back in. It took Echo a few seconds to realize one hand was on his neck… one was on the bed beside him… and Mael’s hips barely moved.

“You have control in human form?” Echo asked, eyes wide.

In their marine form, Orcas and dolphins had prehensile penises—be they shifter or not. Their cocks could grip, coil, and move independently. It was basically a tentacle without the suckers. Dolphins hadn’t carried that into their human shape, but it seemed orcas might have.

Mael’s cock slipped out of him and then slithered forward before curling around Echo’s thickening shaft. He grew hard almost instantly, wild fantasies circling in his mind with what that cock could do.

“Oh, fuck,” Echo muttered, his entire body shaking.

“I guess that means dolphins can’t in human form?”

“No,” Echo spat. “We can’t.”

Mael chuckled against his ear, the sound much too smug. “Well, you’ve got the slit. We don’t.”

Echo closed his eyes, thankful for the slit and its protection. “My slit’s painfully sensitive to touch.” He warned. “You can touch my cock, but don’t go lower.”

“Whatever you wish, pepi,” Mael whispered, kissing his earlobe again.

That fucking endearment was going to be the end of him. It blurred the line Echo was frantically holding on to between lust and… more than lust. Even saying the word felt too dangerous.

Mael’s cock slid back and then speared him again, but only a few inches. The stretch burned a little, but he liked the tingle of it. The next thrust went an inch or two deeper, and the pain increased ever so slightly, but not more than he could handle. The next thrust of Mael’s thick cock hurt. Echo whined, cringing against the sting of it.

Mael paused inside Echo, just behind that point of pain. He released his hold on Echo’s neck, too—which wasn’t appreciated.

“We’ve got all night, pepi. You tell me when you’re ready for a little more,” Mael whispered against his ear. “And it’s okay if you’re not. This is far enough for us both to feel good.”

Echo frowned, the considerate lover behind him vastly different from the predator who’d terrorized him seconds before. His heart clenched, the sappy fool that he was.

He’s a stone-cold killer, not my lover.

Echo couldn’t let his guard down. Not for a minute.

It was one fuck. Nothing more.

One taboo, against-the-rules fuck between natural enemies and then they were done.

“I want more,” Echo murmured, shuddering. If he only got one night to break the rules, he wanted as much of Mael as he could get.

Mael laid a gentle kiss on Echo’s cheek before his cock slowly burrowed deeper. The second Echo winced in pain, he froze.

“That’s all of it, pepi,” Mael whispered against his ear. “You took it all, little dolphin.” He laid a soft kiss to Echo’s forehead. “I’m so proud of you… you took every last inch of me.”

Mael’s cock throbbed before it hardened to stone inside him.

Echo gasped. “What was that?”

“Time to play as a human now,” Mael murmured before moving back. He gripped Echo’s hips before sliding halfway out… and returning home with a firm, but gentle thrust.

Echo moaned, sliding one hand farther in front of him to help prevent him from skidding forward on the next. Mael reared again and sank back deep.

“You still okay?” Mael asked.

“I’m fine… shut up and fuck me harder.”

Mael chuckled before rewrapping a hand around Echo’s throat. “That’s what I was waiting to hear.”

The tender lover vanished in an instant. While part of Echo was sad to see him go, he wanted rough. He wanted hard.

He wanted the predator.

Mael set a harsh pace, holding firm and feeding his cock deep. Echo whimpered with every hard thrust, overpowered and completely at Mael’s mercy. As the hand tightened around his throat, breathing grew a little more difficult. The strangling sensation was a kink he’d only tried once before with a trusted partner—not a murderous stranger. The first time had been awkward and unsatisfying, his bedmate afraid to go too far. Mael seemed to know where the boundary lay without being told.

Maybe it was even a tiny bit over the line, but close enough that Echo wasn’t fighting it. Any more and he would. He gasped, growing lightheaded. Reaching down, he grasped his cock and stroked himself, racing toward the abyss. His body was one raw nerve, pulsing and alive like it had never been before.

Mael stiffened behind him, pausing for a half second. A roar tore from his lips the same moment his dick spasmed inside Echo. As the first hot jet of seed warmed his insides, Echo tensed and followed behind. He orgasmed for the second time, screaming as he shot his load onto the comforter again, his hand growing slick with cum. Mael pulled his hand from Echo’s neck, allowing a full breath.

In the aftermath, they remained joined, both panting and gasping for air. Echo rested on his elbows and knees, his hole still spasming around Mael’s pulsing cock. His body felt liquid and boneless—and more alive than it had in… well, ever.

Mael spun them both over, to their sides, still joined. Echo stretched his arms over his head, arching his back, satiated in a way he’d never known possible.

His languid satisfaction didn’t last long, though. The cold reality of what they had done slowly washed over Echo. If they were caught together, it might be worse for him than being caught crossing the boundary. Much worse.