Icarus Unbound by Bernadette Gardner Read Free Book Online Page B

become completely aroused while pleasuring her.
    Clearly this entire interlude had been a deceit. He had no real interest in her, he simply wanted to manipulate her. She stared, jaw slack, anger building in her and quickly drying up the sensual river on which she'd been floating. She shifted position and drew her legs closed. "Why are you wasting your time with someone you don't even desire, Jaran?" She choked the words out as she gathered the sheet around her rapidly cooling body, desperate to hide the physical evidence of her own arousal.
    "That's not..."
    "Or is it that you're unable to reach your peak?"
    His expression hardened to granite and he turned his back on her. With his wings spread in anger, he stalked out of the room, slamming the door behind him.
    Lara stared after him for a long time, wondering if she could bring herself to follow and apologize. The words probably would have caught in her throat and suffocated her.
    Why would he do this to her? It made no sense for him to choose a mate he had no feelings for except as a cruel joke.
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    Icarus Unbound
    by Bernadette Gardner
    He could dismiss her as inadequate and choose a new mate for himself, leaving her without prospects. No man would have her if the leader himself tossed her aside.
    Tears rolled down her cheeks and she cursed him, first quietly, then at the top of her voice. She had two choices now—allow Jaran to complete his humiliation of her or find a way to coax his arousal from him and consummate their union, thus eliminating one of the many reasons he could cite for her dismissal.
    She could make him want her the same way he'd tried to make her want him. Or she could disappear and spare herself any more heartache caused by Jaran. Furious, she dried her tears with a corner of the sheet and made her decision.
    Jaran tried to ignore the sounds of Lara's wrath drifting through the corridors of the upper level of the aerie. Once again, he'd made a mistake with her. He'd controlled his own arousal, keeping it at bay while he pleasured her so she wouldn't feel pressured to accommodate him. He'd hoped she would appreciate not being rushed, not feeling completely powerless. He wanted her to choose the moment of their joining, not feel it had been forced upon her.
    Instead, she'd been insulted and assumed he didn't find her arousing.
    He should have marched back into the bed chamber, mounted her and unleashed the full fury of his symbion's mating instinct. Then she'd have no doubt he wanted her.
    If he took her now, in this state, he'd hurt her. He'd ravage her with all the years of pent-up desire. By the time he was through, she'd hate him even more than she already did.
    55

    Icarus Unbound
    by Bernadette Gardner
    So, instead of claiming his mate and leaving her panting, wrung out, exhausted and begging for his mercy, he stood now in the water spa holding his fully erect cock in one hand.
    His symbion would not be pleased with this alternative, but at least he could relieve the unrelenting ache in his balls.
    An Icarian male could suppress his arousal only so long, and Jaran had reached his limit. He braced an arm on the ornately tiled wall and began to run his hand along his shaft.
    Harder and faster he pumped while images of Lara lying in his bed swirled through his mind. He still smelled her skin and tasted her sweet essence on his tongue.
    He'd have her. In time. He would claim her properly and completely and he'd do whatever he had to do to erase all the years of turmoil between them and make her love him the way he loved her.
    Until then, he'd satisfy himself, no matter how much his symbion protested.
    Jaran's climax hit hard. His balls tightened, and his shaft jerked in his hand, spurting his still infertile seed on the tile wall. Weak kneed and still frustrated, he washed the evidence of his orgasm away with a shower of clean water and prepared to return to his chamber to fall asleep next to his unwilling mate.
    He would apologize, in the morning