Tip of the Spear Read online

  Thais couldn’t help noting the blood that smeared the princess’s thighs. Fury warred with the grief threatening to break free.

  “But how did the men take us unaware?” Isadora asked, confused. “Before we left, I heard the queen post extra guards around the perimeter.”

  “Pilar,” Estefina whispered. “The civil war we thought my mother had ended continues.”

  “I’ll kill her,” Thais said flatly.

  “Your mother tried.” The princess hissed in pain as Yara wiped a damp rag over her scratched legs. “The males had weapons made of iron. They killed so many of us in so little time. Still, the guardians did their best to protect us. Aliane was the last to fall, the last between us and our enemy.” She coughed, unable to continue.

  “Easy,” Yara instructed. She held a small bowl to the princess’s lips. “Drink. It will ease the pain.”

  Aliane was the last to fall. While Thais had disregarded her duty in favor of fun with her friends, her mother had given her life in the defense of her people. Emptiness consumed her, spilled over into her soul with grief and guilt and rage. “We should have been here,” Thais said quietly.

  “Then you would have died here, like the others,” Estefina snarled, surprising Thais with a show of strength. “It is good you left, because you will bring me back my mother’s crown. My crown,” the princess corrected herself. Her lips trembled, but she held back her tears. “My crown. My mother is dead.”

  The nightmare consumed her. Images of the queen and her mother being raped. Of babies beheaded and the elderly run through. Of fire burning the flesh from the dead, while the living lingered with sickness under Yara’s helpless care. They hit her over and over, like an unending parade of punishment for having left her tribe in their time of need.

  And then heat surrounded her. The possibility of redemption seemed somehow attainable again. A low voice murmured something against her hair. She sighed and huddled closer, wanting the ease that such warmth provided. She felt the Goddess all around her, blessing her, guiding her along the path to right once more.

  Thais fell into a deep, dreamless sleep until morning.

  Chapter Four

  Pilar gasped and shot up in bed, throwing off a thick, hairy arm from her middle. Memories of her sisters being slaughtered, of enemies and friends alike falling under the rutting beasts with which she’d mistakenly allied herself, plagued her ceaselessly.

  Dragging in a deep breath, she threw her legs over the edge of the bed and walked to the window to stare out at the sunrise creeping over the mountain. Such a different view, here, in this part of the world. The moist tang in the air, the croak of rainbow frogs and the echoes of parrots felt like ghostly ruminations from another life.

  Pilar sighed and hugged herself, wishing she had never agreed to Aaron Bartel’s plan. The remembrance of his touch made her sick, as did the thought of what she’d done, all in the name of revenge. She’d always harbored resentment against Yasmin, the woman who once called herself queen. Yasmin had supplanted Pilar in her mother’s affections, and she’d forced Pilar to give away that which Pilar held most dear. Before Yasmin, Pilar and her mother spent every moment together. Pilar learned to hunt, to track and to defend at her mother’s side. And then the civil war happened, and Yasmin demanded her mother’s loyalty. Her mother had given it, along with her life, leaving Pilar all alone.

  She’d met Thalon during a long, solitary hunting trip. They’d spent time together, loving, talking, laughing. But men were not allowed among the tribe. Her resultant pregnancy made it more than necessary for Pilar to be selected to breed. So she pretended to capture Thalon and brought him to the queen’s attention, praying Yasmin would pair them together.

  Instead, Yasmin had selected Aliane. Bastard that he was, Thalon willingly agreed to fuck the guardian. The pretty words, the shrieking pleasure, all given to Pilar’s greatest rival. Along with a girl child.

  Pilar was later given another warrior and gave birth “early” to his son. Despite Thalon’s treachery, she still loved him. She had so wanted his child. Absently rubbing her belly, she wondered what had ever become of the boy and embraced the pain of such a thought. She deserved no less.

  Despite all of Yasmin’s faults and Aliane’s selfishness, Pilar never would have considered such brutal retribution against her tribe. She had wanted to punish, and yes, kill, Aliane. Yasmin had been blinded by Aliane’s deceit and needed only to see Pilar’s clear superiority. Not death, and certainly not an inglorious rape and murder at the hands of Aaron Bartel, a demon in man’s disguise. Goddess forgive her, but she hated that man as much as her sisters had hated her in their final moments before death.

  She couldn’t believe Renata and Marcela stayed with him. Then again, Bruna had also surprised her. Who knew her friends had also been seeing male warriors in secret, or that they regretted Yasmin’s succession as queen? Pilar thought she’d been the only one consumed with carnal thoughts and the knowledge that men were not the enemies she’d been raised to believe.

  “Mmm. Come here, warrior.”

  She glanced at Deke sprawled in the middle of the bed. While no one’s ideal of a noble warrior, he was a fighter nonetheless. The scars over his body gave testament to his ability to endure. A master of the iron firemakers—what he called a pistol—and the dagger he kept strapped on his thigh, he killed when he needed to survive, and when he wanted something dangling out of reach. Like her, Deke had never had anything handed to him.

  “I said come here,” he growled, and she shivered. She loved his roughness, his insistent demands for her attention.

  She walked over to him, wishing he’d been the one to find her tribe those many years ago. Deke would have helped her. With him by her side, she might even now be ruling the Amazons, a new tribe devoted to power and might, where males were tolerated and women could keep the male children they bore.

  She wondered if she’d ever feel another stirring in her womb. The men of the rainforest had plentiful seed. Most unions between those males and Amazons resulted in children. But here, in the Territories, she’d learned that many men were sterile, and not every female could procreate. Most whores, in fact, earned a living on their backs precisely because they could not produce young, which devalued their worth in the eyes of men.

  Deke yanked her down on top of him and forced her to straddle his waist. As usual, he was hard and ready for sex. Used to sating his hunger, she quickly took him inside her and gave him the ride he needed. She experienced her own pleasure, the gift of a union. For a small moment in time, Pilar belonged again. She closed her eyes and imagined Thalon inside her, her green eyed warrior loving her as he granted her the sweet words and the praise…

  “Damn, baby. You sure you ain’t never whored? ‘Cause you can make me come with one shake of that fine twat.” Deke panted and gripped her hips hard enough to leave bruises, guiding her up and down his shaft.

  Reality burst like a damn, scattering the climax she had nearly reached. “No whore, you ass. I’m a warrior, as well you know.” He liked it when she cursed, and he gifted her with a grin.

  He swatted her ass and groaned when she tightened around him. “That’s it, ah. Milk it. Yes.” After a few moments, he rasped, “I love your body. Ain’t never seen a woman so firm, before. Even your titties barely bounce, but look how round they are?”

  “Yeah,” Deke’s brother Brian agreed, watching them from a chair in the corner. “They’re real fine.” He gripped himself and stared, waiting.

  “Go on, Pil. Give it to him. But make it quick. The bank’s gonna move fast today, I can feel it. They’ll transfer that gold by private Runner, not rail. We need to be there when they do.”

  Pilar reluctantly left Deke and knelt between Brian’s legs. She’d never been particularly fond of this aspect of sex, but Deke and Brian seemed to like it well enough. They treated her with respect and shared their profits. And she knew the pair of them would like nothing more than a child out of this odd three way unio
n.

  “Suck it deep, the way you take it to the back of your throat,” Brian said thickly as he shoved his hands through her hair. At the glare she gave him, he backed off, guiding her instead of forcing her.

  Pilar would do what she needed to find her own happiness this time around, but she’d be damned if she’d let anyone control her ever again. After she handled Brian, they’d take that payroll. The Goddess help anyone who stood in her way.

  ***

  Hinto was having the most erotic dream. In it, Thais lay naked in his arms, her breasts filling his palms, her ass snug against his cock as he ground into her. He moaned and thrust again, frustrated by the distance between them he couldn’t seem to breach.

  He leaned forward and kissed her neck. She tasted fresh, like the vanilla oatmeal soap he’d handed her, right before she’d walked up to him by the stream, naked as a newborn. He’d never in his life been so ready to fuck as he’d been then. Hell, as he was now.

  He cupped her hip and ground against her, needing relief. More, he needed to know what she felt, if she would finally accept him. All of him. An odd flash of energy swept through him, and he said to hell with waiting. He shoved his hand down her pants and between her thighs.

  “Fuck, you’re wet,” he murmured and nipped at her ear.

  “Hinto,” she breathed and squirmed against him. “Hinto?”

  The panic in her tone alerted him that all was not as it should be. Hinto woke with his mouth over Thais’s neck and his hand between her sleek thighs. His finger rested on her engorged nub, and he couldn’t help rubbing it back and forth as he arched into her.

  “What are you doing?” she gasped, but she didn’t tell him to stop.

  “Yes, that’s it. A little more.” He slid his finger deeper inside her tight sheath and thrust harder against her ass. His jeans rubbed his cock raw as he tried to come. But her hot, wet sex flooded for him, telling him that no matter what she said, she wanted him as much as he wanted her.

  “Ss-top. Let me go.”

  He groaned. “Dammit, stop squirming.” He removed his hand from between her legs, but every time she bucked against him, she shot his lust sky high.

  “Why are you rubbing against me?” She tried to turn in his arms and pushed harder against him.

  Completely lost, he groaned as he came, messing a perfectly fine pair of trousers. He heard her call his name in concern, but he couldn’t stop. Hinto finally found relief from a hard-on he’d suffered from most of the night, but his orgasm was less than ideal. He’d prefer to fill her instead of his damned pants.

  “Are you all right?”

  He opened his eyes to see Thais leaning over him, her shirt unbuttoned, her breasts hanging free. He shifted to lay flat on his back and lifted his arm to cover his eyes and block the view, when he caught the subtle fragrance of her moist need still coating his finger.

  Unable to stop himself, he shoved the digit in his mouth and tasted her. By all that was holy, he wanted more.

  She flushed and sat back on her heels, straddling his hips. “Why did you do that? And why did you do this in the first place?”

  “Damn, you taste good.” He worked to regulate his breathing and tried his best to explain. Thais didn’t look so much angry as confused. And downright sexy. “I was dreaming. I told you I’d dream about you, didn’t I?”

  “Yes, but why are you over here? Last night you sat across the fire.”

  “You stared moaning in your sleep. Restless, upset.” Her pain had bothered him on a level that made him uncomfortable. “You were also shivering from cold. Probably should have dried out that hair before falling asleep. So I put my arms around you and you fell asleep. I was tired enough to rest with you.”

  She flushed. More embarrassed because of a nightmare or because of the near sex they’d had? It was something he’d ask her about… once he cleaned himself up.

  “I’m sorry I woke you. But this—I—”

  “This wasn’t intentional. I swear.” He shifted underneath her and groaned, not needing another erection with her so close.

  “What’s wrong? Did I hurt you?”

  Damned innocent. The brief joy from his climax faded under an annoying need to make her feel better. Well, screw her. He didn’t need to play nursemaid to Thais. The woman could fend for herself just fine.

  “You want to see what you did to me?” he rasped. Without waiting for her answer, he unbuttoned his trousers and parted them. He showed her his semi-hard shaft covered with seed. Masochist that he was, he wrapped her hand around him. “That’s what you did. You got me so hard I came from dry humping you. Made a right mess of myself.”

  She stared down at him, speechless. Her gaze fastened on his cock and stayed there, especially when it hardened in her grip. “Does it hurt?” she asked in a low voice.

  “Not now. But it’s going to again, real soon. I can feel it.” He groaned, losing his ability to think beyond the pressing ache in his groin.

  “You spilled seed,” she said, examining him with curiosity. “For breeding.”

  “You could say that. Hmm, rub it some more. Up and down.” He watched her watching him and thought it the most erotic thing he’d ever witnessed. Seeing Thais get him off had him harder than stone.

  “This is what makes it leak? When I do this?” She rubbed him right where he liked, and his eyes rolled back in his head.

  “Fuck, yes,” he hissed. “Thais, feel how hard I am? That’s because I want you.”

  “To spill inside me?”

  “Hell, yeah, to spill inside you. You’ve never had anything inside you before, have you?” He shifted under her, gratified when she squeezed him tighter.

  “No. Only Amazons selected to breed may,” she murmured, apparently caught in the same wave of lust that he was to mention a part of her past. “You feel harder to me. As if you are growing.”

  “More. Rub faster just under there. Feel how hard my balls are?” He shoved his jeans down and tried to widen his legs. He pulled her other hand closer and groaned when she cupped him. His hips arched into her touch, completely under her control. “I want to come inside you, in your mouth, your cunt. You have no idea what I want to do to you,” he breathed, staring up at her with promise. “Just say the word and I’ll give it all to you, honey.”

  She frowned. “I feel… funny. I’m as slick as you are.” She slid her fingers over his shaft and balls, rubbing his semen into his skin even as she looked at him with suspicion.

  She’s wet. Oh shit. She wants it and doesn’t know what it means.

  “I’m aching inside,” she continued, killing him. “Burning. Is this what it feels like to you?”

  Fuck. I’m nearly there. “Yeah, oh yeah, aching. Fuck me, I’m coming again. Hold me tight,” he urged before he grunted and spattered his shirt with more come than he’d thought he had left.

  She eventually removed her hand and stared at the moisture coating her fingers. Linking gazes, she mimicked what he’d done earlier. She stuck her finger to her tongue and tasted him.

  “That’s even better than seeing you naked. Watching you lick my seed.” If he’d had the energy, he would have shown her how to ease that ache inside. But he couldn’t do much more than lie there feeling drunk.

  Thais regarded him with speculation. “This is the joining, then. Sex? This is the great mystery?” She smiled, looking strangely relieved. “A man ruts and spills, and your women hunger for it.” She shook her head. “I think I will never understand.”

  He flushed as she moved away and disappeared in the direction of the stream. Damned if she hadn’t taken him to heaven, only to rip it away with a smile. His self-esteem drowned in a sea of mortification. But he couldn’t deny he deserved it. Not only had he—though unknowingly—taken advantage of her while they slept, but he’d come twice when she’d yet to have an orgasm.

  “I’m crazy for even thinking about pursuing this,” he muttered to himself while he cleaned up. He visited the stream, unsure of what to say to Tha
is. Unsure of how to talk to a woman. A first in his life.

  Thais spoke first, her voice full of confidence. “Thank you, Hinto. I learned much from our encounter. I find your physical reactions curious. Do all men react this way to a woman’s touch?”

  “When a woman looks and acts the way you do, a man would have to be dead not to react the way I did,” he growled, defensive.

  She fucking grinned at him. “I didn’t mean offense. I found your taste not unpleasant.”

  He closed his eyes, not needing that reminder again, especially when his dumbass dick twitched.

  She shook her hands free of the water clinging to them. “I will wait for you by the camp.”

  He watched the little witch go back to camp. Witch or Amazon? She couldn’t possibly mean Amazon, as in, legendary warrior woman from beyond the border. Probably some wacko group of women living in a remote section of the Territories who pretended to play tough. Then again, from the way Thais handled her conflicts with fists and feet, one might assume she’d come from that mythic tribe.

  He cleaned himself as best he could and shivered in the morning air that made the cold spots on his pants even colder. He didn’t like the feeling that he’d been set aside, a curiosity and threat no more, as if Thais thought she’d seen what he had to offer and could so easily dismiss him.

  Grunting with impatience, Hinto finished by the stream and took a moment to regroup. He’d taken the damned job for Kitty to be closer to Thais. Crazy notion. Because now that he had his wish, he almost wanted to go back and forget all about her. The damned woman had wormed her way under his skin. He wanted to sleep with her something fierce, but more, he wanted to help her, and he already had his hands full trying to help himself.

  He knew better than most that happiness was a God-awful illusion. A chance at security was the best any of them could do in these times. So why did he want to find Bartel for the Amazon? Why did he itch to make her feel the way he had just moments ago? Why not take the pleasure and forget about giving it back, focus on his father’s health and finding the ones who’d hurt him?