“Are you all right? Did I hurt you?”
She could barely find the energy to move. Lazily she smiled, her pussy still throbbing. “Oh, no.”
“I’m sorry I took you so quickly.”
“Don’t be sorry. It was…it was perfect.”
She could feel his smile against her skin. “I agree. But now that the urgency is out of the way, I’m going to take my time with you. All night long.” He kissed her neck and slid to her side, throwing a big leg over hers and resting his hot palm on her belly.
She shivered as he moved his hand slowly over her ribs and cupped a breast, sliding the rough pad of his thumb over her sensitive nipple. “All night long,” she repeated.
Raising up just slightly, he squeezed her breast into a plump mound and leaned over to lick her distended nipple. “I knew from the moment I saw you…”
Breathless, she fought to prompt him. “Knew what?”
He blew on her damp nipple, smiling when she gasped. “That you were going to belong to me, Mila Wineberry.”
So did I, she wanted to say, but couldn’t bring herself to. Not just yet. How could she commit to a man she was going to leave, even if it was only for a little while? Why did he have to be so domineering?
As though he realized her thoughts drifted to unhappy places, he nipped at her nipple a little too hard.
She squealed and came back to him, to his bed. She wasn’t gone yet. It was useless to worry about it until the time came to worry.
“Why are you smiling?”
“Because right now,” she told him, “everything is right.”
“Mila…” He lifted his head and stared at her, face serious but eyes bright. “It would appear that I need to take your mind off your thoughts and on to something more pleasant.”
She grinned. “What did you have in mind?”
“I’m going to—”
“Wait! It would be better were you to show me.”
“I think you’re right. And I plan on showing you.”
“All night long.”
He was silent for a long moment, staring down at her with glittering dark eyes. Finally, he spoke, his voice a whisper. “All night long. And maybe for the rest of—”
She lifted her fingers to his mouth, quickly, before he could finish the words she was not ready to hear. Not yet.
He watched her, then nodded slightly, as though making up his mind about something. He moved his lips against her fingers, kissing them, then gently moved them away.
The candlelight cast flickering shadows on his face, and she realized how dear he was to her, despite the short time she’d known him, despite his abduction of her. She knew he’d saved her life. He could have saved her in her own village, but in his mind, he’d done the right thing by taking her away.
After she went back, after she saw to her people and collected Cho, she’d come back. Of course she would. For as much as Lake wanted her, she wanted him just as much. She sighed and lifted her mouth to his.
Maybe, just maybe, she wanted him more.
Chapter Fourteen
He slid his upper body on top of hers and encircled her wrists, holding them above her head.
Her entire body was filled with a restless need and a desire so intense she almost didn’t trust it. She struggled to free her hands that she might touch him. “How is it you affect me this way?”
“I could ask you the same question,” he said, his voice serious. “You make me feel things I hadn’t realized I could feel.”
“Have your women been many?”
He raised an eyebrow. “Where did that come from?”
She smiled, a bit sheepishly, she was sure. “I don’t know.”
He kissed her then, whether to halt her questions or because he simply wanted her mouth beneath his, she couldn’t say. She didn’t care. The smooth, warmth of his lips against hers melted her very soul.
He slid his tongue between her parted lips and finally released her arms. She buried her fingers in his hair, holding him to her as he kissed her.
He explored her mouth, stroking her tongue with his, one big hand trailing over her throat. Shifting slightly, he freed one breast from the weight of his chest.
It was difficult for her to believe one so big and hard as he could possess such a gentle touch. He caressed her breast with the touch of a feather, bringing her nipple to a hard point and goose pimples springing to life on her skin.
His lips slanted across hers, and he swallowed her moans, not making a sound of complaint when she dug her fingers into his hair, urging him to give her more, and more.
At last he drew away from her, leaving her dazed and full of desire. “No,” she said. “No!”
“Shhh, Mila.” He didn’t go far, just lowered his face to her throat and trailed his lips over her skin, then slid smoothly down her body.
She arched her back as he sucked her stiff nipple into the moist, warm cave of his mouth, his tongue swirling over the sensitive point.
His gentleness dissipated as his passion grew, and she reveled in the strength and domination of his touch.
He let her damp nipple pop from his mouth, only to move to the other breast to give it the same attention.
“So good,” she murmured.
Leaving her nipples stiff and pointed atop aching breasts, he slid his big body farther down hers.
She parted her legs, forgetting to breathe as he nestled himself between her trembling thighs, his dark gaze meeting hers.
“Please,” she whimpered.
At last he lowered his mouth to her pussy, sliding his tongue over her swollen, throbbing clit. His fingers bit into the flesh of her legs as he opened her legs wider, holding her immobile when she automatically tried to close her legs against the breathtaking assault of his mouth.
“Lake, Lake!” Her voice hung in the air, raspy and weak, ending in a squeal as the almost painful pressure built to an unbearable level.
His tongue stroked her vibrating clit, faster and harder, and he plunged his fingers into her pussy, rubbing her inner walls with a friction that scared her even as she exploded into an orgasm so extreme she hadn’t the breath to yell.
He kept plunging his fingers inside her even as she writhed beneath the force of her orgasm but took his mouth from her overly sensitive clit. But only until she came down.
When she calmed, she felt him once again taking her clit into his hot mouth, his lips firm and unrelenting on the swollen nub of flesh.
She screamed and bucked against his mouth, against his fingers, against the pleasure that was overwhelming in its uncontrollable, fierce passion. Then she was gone again, a soft, boneless body lit with nothing but pleasure.
Before the orgasm ended he had risen, flipped her over, and with a hard arm beneath her pelvis, lifted her ass into the air.
She dug her fingers into the bed as he held her. He plunged inside her, hard and almost violently. His strokes were so fast and deep she could only hold on and let him slam inside her, bringing her once again to an overpowering climax.
And he kept going.
She could not orgasm again. But as he fucked her, merciless in his smooth, pounding strokes, her sex clenched around his erection, and she found that she could indeed orgasm again.
He yelled and gripped her with a bruising grasp, adding to the intensity of her climax. She discovered a desire to please him that she’d had no idea existed. The proof of his pleasure was in his voice as he came, his hot seed filling her up.
He lowered her to the bed and groaned as his dick slipped from her body. Lying beside her, he threw an arm over his eyes, his chest rising and falling rapidly.
She finally found the energy to move and turned to her back, unable to keep a smile from curling her lips.
He turned toward her, his chin on her shoulder, his hand finding her breast. “What are you smiling about?” His voice was deep and rumbling, sending shivers through her body. He began rubbing her nipple with the rough pad of his thumb, then pinched it as
it stiffened.
She couldn’t explain the depth of her emotions. “Just…stuff,” she said.
He grinned back at her. “I know exactly what you mean.”
Chapter Fifteen
She huddled in the semi-warmth of her fur-lined wrap, watching as the cold steel of dawn made a dim, quiet appearance. The starkness of her thoughts matched perfectly the bleak, black landscape, and she shivered, hiding her face in the wrap. She caressed her belly, knowing somehow with a mother’s instinct that Lake had given her a baby. She wouldn’t have begun this journey home otherwise. And she couldn’t wait to get back to him. To her new home.
She frowned, wondering again why Cho hadn’t tried to find her. Surely he would have known exactly where the Ednians lived; shadows seemed to know everything. And yet, he hadn’t come.
None of the Myaians would have attempted to fetch her unless the councilor had ordered it, and his failure to do so was simply another mystery. Perhaps he knew that if the Ednian had taken her, his rather peaceful villagers would have no chance to retrieve her without bloodshed. The Myaians were farmers, not warriors.
“Are you well?”
She nodded, then reluctantly peeked out at her driver. “As well as I can be.”
“You’re afraid of Lake?”
“No. I’m not afraid of him. I…just wish no one had to get hurt.”
“He’s going to be angry.”
She gave a sharp, humorless bark of laughter. “I think that’s an understatement.”
“Why are you doing this, Mila?”
“Because I have to. I have to see to my people. I have to find Cho.”
“Cho tried to kill you.”
“That’s ridiculous. He would never hurt me, not on purpose.”
He shrugged. “Perhaps.”
“How are you going to withstand Lake’s temper, Watcher? He will not give you time to speak your excuses. The Ednians may cast you into the darklands.”
“I’ll worry about that when I see him.”
She raised an eyebrow. “Good to see you’re prepared.”
“I’m not the only one,” he muttered. “Are you even planning to go back to him, Mila?”
At his words, a thrill of pain shot through her, so intense she gasped. “I have to.”
“You don’t have to do anything. But do you want to?”
“More than just about anything,” she whispered.
“Then why take this chance that he won’t have you back? Why didn’t you stay with him?”
“Because I have a duty to my people. Because I love them. Because, Watcher, it’s the right fucking thing to do.”
“No matter what Lake thinks.”
“I can’t allow Lake to rule me. Not that way.”
“I will rule Vera.”
She laughed. “Good luck with that.” She couldn’t help staring at him. Slawomir continued to surprise her. He was going to have his hands full with Vera, if she accepted him. It was almost worth pissing Lake off to see Slawomir with Vera.
“What do you see in her?” She had to ask.
He snapped the reins, gently, and thought about her question. “She is like no one else I have ever met. She is vibrant and sassy and sensual and proud. Beautiful.”
“Selfish, spoiled, angry, and mean.”
He grinned. “I will have fun trying to handle her.” He sighed. “I can’t explain it. She touches my heart. And my loins.” This last he added ruefully.
She pulled her skins back around her neck, suddenly gloomy. Lake had forbidden her from going back to her village, and she wondered if he would ever forgive her. Then she stiffened her spine. If he did not, it was his loss. She was never going to be the girl she’d once been, living under council’s thumb. She would be free. If she was sent to the darklands because of her attitude and refusal to stay in the village, then so be it. She’d simply think of it as an adventure. A chance to seek out her mother. That idea was growing stronger anyway. If her mother was indeed in the darklands, she wanted to go find her.
Lake. Do not hate me for my choices.
And what if she’d given him too much of the potion? She closed her eyes, sinking, for a moment, into despair. She had no idea how much of a lead she and Slawomir had on Lake. The drink she’d given him might keep him sleeping for days.
“How much longer, Watcher?”
“Slawomir. Two days.”
It was an eternity. She realized she wanted to see to her people, explain her absence as surely they worried for her, and run with Cho back to the Ednians. Back to Lake. If they, and he, would have her.
If they would not have Cho, they would not have her. Cho was her responsibility, tied to her as irrevocably as the blood than ran in her veins. She would not leave him to die, withering away without her. She could die without him. It had happened that way for other humans. Would Lake rather that be the case than simply accept the other man as part of her life? As her friend, her responsibility?
Would he rather see her dead than allow her to share blood with the shadow, even though it would keep Cho from going mad and killing every human he came into contact with? Once again, she stiffened her spine. She had no choices.
Oh, Lake. Lake.
The day they arrived close to her village the air had warmed slightly, and she could have cried with the familiarity of the area. It was more like autumn now that the cold snap had passed, and she breathed deeply of the air. The sun shone, though with a weaker light than she liked, and the ground was covered by a thick blanket of dry, dead leaves. They crackled and rustled beneath the wagon wheels and released a scent of musty earth filled with secrets and dreams into the still air.
“It’s a beautiful, beautiful day,” she said.
“Let’s hope it remains so,” was his reply.
Her stomach was in knots, partly from the uncertain reception she would receive and partly from the fear that, at any moment, Lake was going to come thundering up behind them. Mostly from fear that he wouldn’t. She had betrayed him. He would not forgive her easily. Suddenly she smiled, realizing that though his forgiveness might not come easily, it would come. Eventually.
She loved him. She loved him, she missed him, and despite the fact that this sojourn was something she needed to do, she would rather have been no where else at that moment than in his arms.
She caressed her belly with a gentle hand. His child grew within her. She knew with everything in her that he would not abandon it. Or her.
“It is too quiet,” Slawomir commented.
She frowned, dragging her thoughts from Lake. The watcher was right. It was quiet. Too quiet even for her gentle village.
She saw no one. No women gathering nuts or herbs, no men chopping down trees for building and for fire, no one running through the fields digging up the last of the potatoes. No smoke arose into the skies from cheerful cookfires, no voices called in welcome, no dogs ran alongside the wagon.
“Something is wrong,” she said, and for the first time, she was very, very afraid. What had happened to her people? Something had gone wrong. She could feel it.
He nodded. “I sense it.” He sniffed the air. “Do you smell it?”
“Something, I smell something. Like fresh meat when the hunting is done. What is it?”
“Blood,” he replied. “It is the scent of blood.”
She put the back of her hand to her mouth. Had they been attacked by a band of roaming nomads and unable to defend themselves? “Hurry, Slawomir. Hurry.”
His face was pale, and he urged the horses to a halt. “We shall stop here and continue by foot.”
“Why? That will take longer!”
“We will slip in. Be quiet and walk with caution.”
He jumped from the wagon and pulled some things from under the seat, a short axe, which he tucked into his belt, a bow and a quiver full of arrows. “Can you use a spear?”
“Yes.” Her swallow hurt her throat. “But not well.”
From the back, he pulled two sharp-tipped sp
ears, keeping one for himself and handing one to her. “They are tipped with poison. You will not have to stab very deeply.”
“If someone attacked the village, they will be long gone by now.”
He tilted his head, watching her. “Why would they not decide to stay here? It is a nice place.”
She bit her lips, forcing back tears that threatened to fall. “We shall see.”
He nodded once, tersely. “Let’s go.”
As they crept closer to her village, her feet became heavier and slower to move, until finally Slawomir took her by the arm, his impatient whisper in her ear. “Are you coming?”
“Slawomir…”
“What is it?”
“I’m afraid.”
“Stay close to me. You’ll be all right.”
“It’s not me I’m afraid for.” She clutched her belly with her free hand. “I carry a child.”
His eyes widened. “What?”
“I carry Lake’s—”
He stepped away, rubbing his face. “He’s going to kill me for this.”
“No he won’t. He’ll be angry at first, but—”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” His voice was a hissed whisper, his eyes practically shooting sparks at her.
“Because I didn’t think we were going to walk into a dangerous situation, Watcher!”
He shook his head, disgust in his eyes. “You…just wait here. I’ll see to the village.” He walked off, muttering about stupid females.
If the situation hadn’t been so dire and silence required, she would have thrown her spear at his head.
Once he was gone, the silence surrounded her, heavy and smothering. Putting her back against a wide tree, she slid down to rest upon the ground, her spear across her lap. Even the air seemed wrong, hushed and full of darkness and weighty shadows.
She shivered. Too afraid to move and risk the child, she sat upon the hard ground and waited, wishing Slawomir would hurry from the trees, laughing, and tell her all was well.
But she knew that wasn’t going to happen. She’d made a mistake coming here. Damn Lake and his rigid rules and unbending, domineering attitude. This was all his fault.
She closed her eyes and wished for him, wished for him so hard that her head ached.
First Night Page 9
