If there was such a place in Merth Darkling.
The woman’s words were unintelligible as she continued shouting. She clenched her fists in his breeches, her nails digging into the flesh of his calf.
“I will protect you,” Evvan said to the maid in the common tongue, rather than in Elvish as he continued to focus his powers on her blistered legs, trying to erase the pain she must feel from her wounds. He gently stroked his hands over her skin and her charred clothing.
No matter the direness of their situation, Evvan could not help but notice the softness of her curves against his palm. His embrace tightened as he absorbed her warm, feminine musk, her scent of jasmine and spring, and all that was this beautiful creature… The jensai-red tresses that spilled over her face as she hung upside down across his lap, the soft curve of her ear, the unusual birthmark on the backside of her earlobe…
A silver star?
Why would the maid have the mishnui tree’s star pattern on her lobe?
Surely not.
Evvan clenched L’th’amir’s reins and behind them the dragon roared again. It sounded closer rather than farther away. Impossible. The beast should not have been able to follow them so quickly and easily through such thick woods.
But then the beast should not have been unaffected by Evvan’s magic.
And he had no doubt now—he knew exactly what that dragon truly was. Evvan had every intention of confronting and slaying the beast, but first he had to get the maid to safety.
The stallion bolted along a path to the right, and Evvan gripped the woman tighter. Brief and sudden, a vision came to him…he was trailing his tongue over the mark on the woman’s earlobe, down her neck, along her spine, over her luscious buttocks and further yet. A rush of need consumed him and he yearned to lap at her folds and taste what his senses told him would be the honey of the goddess.
A fierce protectiveness slammed into him, unlike anything he had ever felt before.
He had to possess this creature in every way a man could have a woman.
She belonged to him.
His cock hardened against her belly as she rocked on his lap, and he had the mad image of turning her so that she straddled him. Aye, he would slide her down the length of his cock, thrusting deep within her. He would fuck her in time with the motion of the horse, driving in and out of her slick core.
The dragon’s bellow reverberated through the forest, unbelievably louder, snapping Evvan from his fantasy. He cursed himself for his mental lapse, mating desires or no, and used his senses to assist L’th’amir in searching for some means of cover or protection.
The Netherworld will serve us best, he told the stallion who whinnied in agreement. Let us find the closest entrance.
Preferably not an entrance leading to D’euan Deep, home of the Dwarves. The burly blue-skinned bastards harbored no great love for the Devline Elves. Or any other Fae, for that matter. But Evvan would battle any man—any army of beings—who dared to touch this woman.
Evvan felt twice as alert, twice as predatory with the maid in his arms. All of his life he had been a guardian, but now, to guard this woman—his teeth clenched, and he bit back a snarl.
The Fae killer, the dragon, the Dwarves—all could pose danger to his little one, his l’tiani. If they came near, he would rend them, limb from limb.
As if sensing his feral rage, the woman, his beautiful l’tiani, stiffened in his embrace.
He calmed his muscles through force of will, and spoke to her once more in the common tongue. He sensed that it served its purpose and soothed her as she listened, yet he knew she did not understand him. From where could she have come, to be unfamiliar with the common speech?
How could his heartmate have existed on Dair all of this time, with him having no knowledge of her?
The rough cadence of the stranger’s voice eased Natalie, calming the furious pounding of her heart. And yet his words also stirred something in her. An almost primal feeling.
Lust. Yes, definitely lust. But also something like…recognition.
Her nipples grew to diamond-hardness as she rocked against his body and her pussy was so wet she had soaked her scrap of panties.
She shook her head.
What the hell kind of virtual reality machine is this? Fantasy kingdoms and fantasy lovers, too? And let’s not forget the fantasy fire-breathing monster from hell. Oh, Miz. You are so dead when I find you.
The searing pain from the blast of fire had brought tears to Nat’s eyes, and she had been on the verge of becoming hysterical until the man began talking to her and touching her.
As though his voice and his touch were somehow magical.
Riiiight.
“Let me off this damn ride, now!” Natalie demanded, trying to brush her hair out of her face as she hung upside down, but it only flopped back into her eyes. “This is total bullshit. I’ve had enough!”
She almost expected everything to stop, like the holodeck shutdowns on Star Trek.
No such luck.
While countless trees and brush flashed by, the man continued speaking, his voice so deep and hot that it lit a fire in her chest. Her nipples positively ached against his muscled thigh and her pussy throbbed.
Jeez, was she in trouble. She was getting turned on by a guy in a fantasy game playing Robin Hood to her Maid Marian. Some computer geek was probably taping every second of this. Miz would never let her live it down.
While her body rocked against the man’s lap, Natalie focused on his speech, frustrated that she couldn’t place the language he was using. It was unlike anything she had ever heard, but she’d been able tell instantly that it was a formal language, and the man wasn’t just babbling incoherently. His accent sounded almost Spanish, yet a hint of something else was there. Surely it was a dialect created especially for this exhibit.
Nonetheless, she would decipher it eventually. Of that she had no doubt—there had never been a language she hadn’t been able to learn perfectly.
The dragon’s roar resounded through the forest, and Nat shivered. Smells of burnt cloth and singed hair filled her senses, blocking out the stench of the dragon and the more pleasant forest smells.
Ground and vegetation passed in a kaleidoscopic blur beneath the hooves of the golden-haired horse. A part of her was amazed at the realness of what she had just gone through. She had actually been terrified for her life! Of course she was still pissed about the pain she’d felt from that blast furnace they used for dragon’s breath, but the burning had simply vanished with the man’s touch.
Nat became aware of something hard pressed to her belly and she tensed. That wasn’t the man’s cock, was it?
Okay, this reality machine’s getting way too real. She shifted against the man’s rock hard thighs, and her heartbeat picked up again. Oh, he was real all right. No way in hell could he be make-believe like that dragon had been. He was obviously an actor playing his part to the hilt.
Although she didn’t think the hardness of his cock had anything to do with the part he was playing.
Jeez, he smelled good. An earthy, musky scent that really turned her on. Despite the fact that she knew nothing about him, Nat sensed his strength, his will of iron, his protectiveness…and that there was definitely something dark and very dangerous about this man.
The crash and roar of the dragon came closer. Nat could almost feel the heat of its breath again, and her heart rate tripled. But none of this is real!
Damn, but it was hard to keep reminding herself of that fact.
The horse dodged off the path. The star birthmark behind Natalie’s earlobe burned as she raised her gaze—to see that they were headed straight toward a rock wall—and the horse wasn’t even slowing down.
We’re going to smash right into it!
“What the hell are you doing?” she shouted, but the horse and rider kept barreling toward the rocks.
An orange flare erupted in front of the wall and Natalie screamed. The man shouted and the stallion wheeled so
abruptly that Nat was sure the both of them would be thrown from the stallion. The horse spun, like a car doing a 180 at the end of a racetrack. Natalie was still screaming when the horse came to a tooth and soul-jarring stop.
And they were facing the orange-eyed dragon…and it was staring straight at her.
Chapter Three
The beast bellowed so loud that Nat’s ears rang and her heart almost stopped beating.
In the next moment, the man had dismounted with her in his arms, and none-too-gently he plopped her ass on the ground. With a shout of, “Yan!” he ripped a bow from his back as he whirled to face the dragon, so quickly she didn’t even have a chance to glimpse the man’s face.
Everything was happening so fast, Nat could hardly think. This was all too real. Far too real. The man’s massive back was to her, his wild black hair flying about his dark-skinned shoulders as he nocked an arrow to his bow in a blur.
The dragon ignored the man, instead focusing that eerie orange gaze on Natalie. Like cat eyes, only the pupils were purple and in the shape of a sort of four-pointed star.
“Voral!” the man shouted as he released the arrow. “Eyet ydai!”
A flare of orange erupted in front of the dragon and the arrow bounced off of it, as though the orange shimmer was some kind of force field.
Rearing its head, the dragon’s black scales glittered like millions of pieces of volcanic glass. The beast opened its massive jaws. Like a television on the fritz, the orange force field sputtered, and Natalie knew the stupid thing was going to send one of those frying blasts of fire at her again.
“Don’t you dare!” she shouted, scrambling to her feet and glaring at the virtual dragon. She pointed one finger at it. “I’ll sue this whole damn outfit if you do that again.”
Plumes of fire rolled out of the dragon’s mouth, straight toward Natalie. The man forced himself in front of her, as though to take the brunt of the blast and to protect her from injury. Her eyes widened as she braced her palms against his hot flesh and over his shoulder watched in horror as the fire shot toward them.
But instead of feeling heat and pain again, she watched as the fire spread out and hovered in the air, like a gigantic wave of flame, suspended in time. As if it had struck an invisible wall.
A piercing whinny came from the horse. Like a warning, or a message.
The man spun and grabbed Natalie by the waist and flung her over his shoulder and started to run. But he was heading in the direction of the wall.
She braced her hands against his back and rose up to look over her shoulder—to see that he was running straight at it again. Only this time there was no orange flare, and this time he didn’t stop.
Natalie clenched her eyes shut and dug her fingernails into the man’s back.
She felt a strange pulling sensation, as if she was being sucked into the hose of a vacuum cleaner and then stretched until she was as thin as a salesclerk’s patience during a storewide sale at Macy’s.
A loud thump met Natalie’s ears and then a gurgle and a pop, and the pulling sensation vanished. Her head spun, and her ears felt like they were stuffed with at least a yard of satin lingerie.
She opened her eyes to see the wall behind them, growing farther away as the man strode through a darkened tunnel with her hanging over his shoulder, her nails still digging into the bare flesh of his back. The horse had followed them through the wall and was walking next to them. He held his proud head high, his golden coat shimmering, almost glowing. She could still hear the dragon’s roar, but it was faint now, as if they were underground, and the beast was far above.
Her heart pounded hard even after they were away from danger. How did we get through that rock wall? She relaxed her grip on his back. Oh, yeah. This isn’t real. Which also means there was no real danger.
“What the hell is going on?” she asked as the man carried her through the tunnel. “Don’t you think you all are carrying this game a little too far?”
He said something in his deep, vibrant voice that sounded like, “T’ne Evvan, Devline archpa,” but he never stopped walking. He continued carrying her down, down and down, deeper into the earth.
“I can walk by myself.” Natalie tried to struggle, tried to get him to release her, but his grip on her only tightened. He was so large, and she was so petite, that she felt like a doll in his massive embrace.
With a resigned sigh, she listened as he muttered a few other sentences. She allowed his language to seep into her and she felt the beginnings of recognition take hold. Just a little more and she’d have it.
Her body rocked against his as he strode forward, stirring up even more lustful feelings within her body. It was crazy but her pussy tingled, and the feel of his powerful arm across the backs her thighs was enough to make her so wet she could hardly stand it. Almost absentmindedly he began stroking the flesh with his fingers, and Natalie swore she was going to come. It was so easy to get lost in the sensation of his touch…to imagine this man sliding between her thighs and fucking her.
And she hadn’t even seen his face yet.
Not to mention he was only an actor in a game. Yeah, this was taking things a little too far.
“Where are you taking me?” she demanded. It already felt like they’d gone at least a mile, but he only responded in that unusual language.
Everything dimmed as they entered a darker passageway. The horse’s hooves made barely a sound as he followed close behind.
The man rumbled a few words, the reverberations in his chest making Nat suddenly even more aware of him…the feel of his bare skin against her, his muscled arms, his huge back. Somehow the darkness made everything more intense.
Okay, enough is enough.
“What the hell is going on?” Nat pounded one fist against his shoulder and struggled in earnest. “I can’t see a damn thing.”
A sort of goldish glow filled the passageway, illuminating the golden horse. The glow seemed to come from the man, but that couldn’t be right. But hell, nothing was right with any of this.
“I want down and I want some answers, now,” she insisted in her strongest I’ve-had-it voice.
Abruptly he stopped walking, and then he very slowly lowered her to her feet. Her breasts slid against his powerful shoulder and chest until she was standing in the circle of his arms.
In the back of her mind, Natalie realized that she had lost a sandal and felt dirt and rock beneath her one bare foot. But when she tipped her head back to look up at the man, all thought failed her…she was standing in the embrace of the most dangerous looking man she’d ever seen.
She froze, unable to move as she stared up into his frighteningly intense black eyes. He had unusual black tattoos along each cheekbone and he looked to be Native American, perhaps Cherokee…only he had very pointed ears that looked to be real and somehow suited him.
Pointed ears?
His cheekbones where high, his jaw strong, his expression intense and fierce. Long black hair fell to powerful shoulders, and his chest—cripes, but his bare chest was massive.
His biceps bulged as he held her in the circle of his arms, and she sensed the fine rein of control he exercised over himself. Power and strength radiated throughout his being and she had no doubt he could crush her in one arm with just a simple squeeze.
When he spoke, she felt the vibrations from his powerful voice. “L’tiani, meshetinai lorana alnei bashme knei anin.”
This time she almost deciphered the meaning of his words as his deep tone sent a thrill straight to her core. It was right there. She almost had it.
The golden glow surrounded them, growing brighter, and then Natalie realized it was coming from him. His entire body was glowing. The radiance filtered through the passageway, chasing away the darkness, allowing her to clearly see the man who held her in his powerful embrace.
Talk about fabulous special effects.
“L’tiani,” he repeated, a solemn look in his dark eyes as he held her. “T’ne Evvan, Devline archpa.”
>
Little one, her mind deciphered as her gift for languages unlocked his speech. I am Evvan, Enforcer of the Devline.
Evvan. His name is Evvan.
He gave her a look so savage that it curled her toes. “Meshetinai lorana alnei bashme knei anin.”
Evvan’s words unraveled as her ability allowed her to further interpret what he had said: The goddess has granted me a most perfect mate.
As the realization came to her of exactly what he meant, the man slid his hand into her hair, cupping the back of her head, and he brought her mouth to meet his.
Shocked at his dominant move, Natalie stiffened in Evvan’s strong arms, so stunned that for a moment she froze. But as his lips moved over hers, warm, hard, possessive, she melted into the kiss. Her thoughts spun and whirled and she could remember nothing, think of nothing, but this man’s incredible mouth.
“Open for me, l’tiani,” he murmured in his unusual language. He nipped at her lower lip and a moan shuddered through her as they parted for him.
Evvan growled and thrust into her mouth with his tongue. Natalie dug her fingers into his biceps, giving herself to the kiss without question. The way he took control, the way he claimed her with his mouth and tongue, gave her such a deep thrill, unlike anything she’d ever experienced before. She’d never had any man make her feel as though she was his. She would never have allowed any other man to kiss her in this way.
The realization of what she was doing hit her with such force that she cried out, “T’non!” and pulled away.
Or tried to pull away. Evvan was so muscled and strong that she’d only succeeded in breaking the kiss. She had no doubt this man could overpower her with no trouble at all. Yet inside she felt certain he would never hurt her, or force her to do anything she didn’t choose to do.
Would he? Was she being hopelessly naïve? Hell, she was a New Yorker. She knew better than to trust a stranger.
Obsessed Page 51
