ThirteenNights Read Free Page A

up.”
    “Good.” And the dance began. Tai, who seemed determined to test
the boundaries of first night tradition, pushed slowly in and easy out. Again
and again. The rose, still molded around her breast, massaged her nipple and
skin with every thrust. His control was beyond any Gargarean she’d ever known
while hers was almost nil.
    “You’re a sadist.”
    “You aren’t enjoying this?”
    “I’m an Amazon,” she growled, her yearning a wildfire
rampaging through every cell in her body. “Take me like one.”
    That seemed to register with him. He jackhammered into her
at a tempo that scrambled every synapse in her brain and detonated every nerve
ending. The softness of the rose petals balanced the aggressive pounding of a
warrior. Her nails dug tracks into the wall. “Yes, that’s it. More,” she
rasped.
    “Greedy.” His voice was pure male satisfaction. He gave her
more—fast, powerful thrusts tore through her body at a strength and speed that
took her to oblivion.
    Next thing her consciousness registered was Tai’s arm around
her and the stroke of a rose petal down her cheek. When her vision returned,
she noticed the rose had no thorns.

Third Night
     
    Tai left her the night before with his home address and
without a kiss goodbye. She shouldn’t have wanted it. The Elders opposed
kissing, dating, spending a full night together and other activities they
feared formed emotional bonds between breed partners. Even so, disappointment
was a knife twisting in her gut. The second night of coupling, ritual dictated
that the female took the lead at the male’s home. She donned fighting leathers
over a pink silk bra and panties. Lacy, silky lingerie was a secret passion she
rarely revealed and she kept her things hidden in several shoeboxes in the back
of her closet. Tapping his residence address into her phone, she wasn’t
surprised to discover he lived within walking distance. When employed in
cities, the warrior races gravitated toward any green space they could find. In
DC, Rock Creek Park cut through the Northwestern sphere of the city and most of
her kind settled around it.
    She arrived at the address to discover a late-night barber
shop nestled in between a crowded liquor store and a boarded-up former diner. Not
sure what to make of it, but convinced that Tai was not shunning her or the
ritual, she walked in and asked for him. One of the barbers, a small, wiry
African-American with graying hair handed her a newspaper photo of Tai with his
arm around a lanky, coffee-colored teenage girl. An address was scribbled on
the back of the page. “He told us to expect you.”
    Odd including humans in the Rite of Thirteen Nights. From
Tai, maybe not. Surprises seemed to be his forte. “Who is she? Why are you
helping him?”
    “She’s my daughter,” he answered. “I would do anything he
asked me to do, no questions asked.”
    “Explain.”
    “About a year ago, she didn’t show up at choir practice
after school. Tai was here. Eddie,” he pointed to a heavyset man sitting in the
corner, “was cutting his hair. Tai overheard me on the phone begging the police
to help. They didn’t, he did. Thank the lord for it. He found my baby, before
they could hurt her. Six boys…” A tear flowed down his cheek, his voice too
choked up to continue. Pain dusted the air and filled Annie’s lungs.
    “He seems to be special,” she whispered.
    The address on the back of the photo led her to a Chinese
takeout restaurant three blocks away. Again, she asked for Tai and was handed
another newspaper photo with his arms around an Asian family in front of the
marbled counter that traversed the width of the store.
    “He came in to pick up dinner,” a petite, dark-haired woman
explained, “in the middle of an armed robbery.” A man entered from the back and
put his arms around the woman Annie guessed to be his wife. “In a flash, he
disarmed the man and held him on the floor for half an hour until the police
arrived.”
    Her