Nightshade

by Jaide Fox

  She realized abruptly why he seemed familiar to her.

  Rising from the bench, she left the chapel, halting again when she reached the courtyard and tilting her head back to look up at the gargoyle that guarded Raventhorne Keep.

  “Nightshade,” she whispered.

  Chapter Four

  Nightshade knew when she looked up at him that she was beginning to remember. A flood of turbulent emotions filled him. Dread vied for dominance with pure animal lust. Shame came in a close third.

  He had not really known what had inspired him to speak to her the way he had, as if she was some light skirt, to demand payment for services when he had no intention of doing such a thing--when no man of honor would expect, let alone demand, her favors.

  But he was not a man of honor anymore--not a man at all. He’d shredded the last remnants of his honor when he had demanded the use of her body for saving her life.

  Lust had inspired it. Being so near her, touching her, had banished what little doubt remained as to why he was so fascinated with her. He had been as near out of control as he could ever recall being, struggling against the mindless need urging him to simply pounce upon her and take what he wanted. He was a beast, not a man to whom honor held any meaning.

  He might have acted upon it if not for the fear that he would finish what that bastard Smytheson had started. Like as not she was too frail for a monstrous brute like himself if she had been hale and hearty. Hurt and ill as she was then, in shock from the terror her husband had put her through, it would not have taken much to finish crushing the life from her.

  Why then had he tried to frighten her more by speaking so crudely of his needs? Demanding what he knew damned well she would die before she gave him.

  He had wanted to disgust her, frighten her.

  It had been sheer torment to have her look at him as if he were some valiant knight who’d ridden to her aid--to have her look at him as if he was not a monster, but a man. She could not have seen him well. He knew she couldn’t or she would not have curled so trustingly against him when he had picked her up to carry her to her sickbed. She would have screamed, fought him, fainted--any or all.

  The devil of it was he had been determined to dismiss the entire incident from his mind. He knew she had not been in her right mind when she had told him she would give herself to him. And she had not seemed to remember much of anything from that night.

  She remembered now, though, and that knowledge was like acid in his veins. Despite all reason, he could not put it from his mind and it added to the torment that he had endured day after day for longer than he could remember until he’d become so accustomed to it he hardly noticed anymore.

  Until now. She had destroyed the modicum of peace that he’d been able to find. He had convinced himself he had come to accept, and now he knew he did not accept his fate at all, that he never would.

  And as the sun slowly made its trek across the sky, he waged an inner battle.

  She had looked directly at his face and she hadn’t screamed or fainted.

  She had called his name.

  She had meant the vow she had made to him.

  It had been the fever talking. She would not have referred to him as a knight if she had truly been able to see him.

  She had looked at him in revulsion when he had demanded she give herself to him.

  He didn’t care. He hurt for what had been denied to him so long. He ached for her! Why not take something for himself for a change? What difference would it make to her? He would be gentle. He would not hurt her as Smytheson had.

  She owed him a taste of peace from his torment! She should not have offered if she had not meant it! She had caressed his face, looked at him with open honesty when she had said that she would gladly have him. She should not have said that if she hadn’t meant it! She should not have touched him if she did not welcome his touch!

  He had destroyed all hope of ever breaking the curse that held him because of her, killed the last of Gaelzeroth’s blood to protect her!

  * * * *

  The dread that had never been far away even after she learned of William’s death tautened within Bronwyn as she paced the floor of her solar, accepting at last that everything that she had dismissed as the bizarre dreams of fever was real.

  Nightshade had saved her life and in return he had asked for her … and she had agreed. She had wanted to give herself to him. She had been so grateful to be alive, so relieved that she need never fear William again, she had thought the ‘reward’ he had asked a small token for what he had done.

  She still could not remember everything clearly, but she remembered well enough to know that much. She remembered that she had fallen, and no man, nothing but a creature of the dark could have saved her from plummeting to her death.

  She had been out of her mind with fever for it to seem even vaguely reasonable to lay with a creature such as Nightshade! He was … She didn’t know what he was beyond a creature of black magic. A demon, perhaps? A monster certainly.

  He had caught her mid-air as she had fallen, flown with her up to the top of the castle.

  He had flown from the window of her room, for that matter, on the night that he had sought his reward.

  She frowned at thought.

  No, that wasn’t right. She had awakened to find him watching her. She had seen the hunger in his eyes, his face, in the tension of every line of his body. But it was not until she had spoken of reward that he had demanded her body.

  She had thought at the time that he had only done that to push her away, to frighten and disgust her, because he had looked at her with far more anger then than desire. And she had said that she would gladly give herself because she had wanted to soothe him.

  She could not now deny him when she had freely given her word.

  The thought terrified her, more, she thought, because she had dreaded every moment that she had spent doing her ‘wifely’ duty with William. The first few times had been a nightmare of pain, humiliation, and disgust. After a time it had ceased to be painful unless he was bent upon hurting her, but it had still filled her with revulsion and dread.

  She could not imagine that there would be a hair’s worth of difference from one man to another--which was at least part of the reason she had already nigh made herself ill with dread--knowing she had no choice but to marry again.

  Nightshade was no man, though. He was a beast man, and a monstrous brute at that. He had carried her as effortlessly as if she were no more than a child.

  He had ceased William and tossed him from the wall as if he were no more than a child.

  Realizing that her train of thought was scaring her worse, she thrust them from her mind, trying to calm herself.

  She could not refuse him. She was honor bound to keep her word.

  She had endured months of William. Surely, she could endure the beast’s touch once?

  Would once appease him, though, she wondered in sudden fear? Or would he, once she allowed it, demand again and again? She could not stop him. She was not certain the king’s army could stop such as one as he.

  He seemed to have some sense of honor, though, she reminded herself, some small thread of humanity.

  If he came … when he came, she would have his word of honor that he would not trouble her further. She would make him give his word that he would demand no more of her.

  She did not know what she would do if he refused to grant her that, but the king’s man would come soon and he would be honor bound to protect her for his king.

  She strove for calm acceptance, but as they day waned the little she had managed to gather to herself seeped away with the light. She was tempted, oh so tempted, to gather her women close for protection, because she thought he might not come if the room was filled with women, but she did not know that that would deter him. And in the end, partly because she did not want witnesses to her shame, and partly to protect them, she sent them away.

  For hours, it seemed, she lay wakeful, listeni
ng to every slightest sound and growing more and more tense, certain with each creaking timber that Nightshade had come. She was not aware that she had dozed, but apparently she had. For, one moment she was alone in her chamber and the next he stood before the hearth, watching her as he had before when she had been so ill.

  Everything in her froze when she saw him, limned in the flickering light of the fire and the golden glow of the single candle that had been left burning. She had not been able to remember him clearly, she realized, because she had not really seen him. She had been cocooned by her pain, illness, and shock before. She had not suspected that it was a creature of dark magic that had helped her. She had believed he was a man and that was all she had seen.

  He was naked. For many moments that was all that she perceived--naked flesh, long ropy muscles, hard bulging muscle--bare skin. Her mind virtually shut down for several moments, unable to process what her eyes beheld. After what seemed an eon, he blinked, and turned his head away and it broke the spell that held her frozen.

  He had not been clothed before, she realized abruptly. What she did remember of that night was being held against warm flesh.

  He had reached the window before it dawned upon her that he was leaving. Instantly, relief flooded her. He was leaving. He would not demand what he had before.

  Without understanding the impulse that drove her, she sat up, staring at his muscular back and flanks and the wicked demon wings that sprouted from his shoulder blades. “I know why you came,” she said in a voice that she hardly recognized as her own.

  He stopped, turning his head to look at her. Slowly, his face contorted in a savage glare. “Do you?”

  Bronwyn licked her lips. “I offered to reward you for your kindness to me.”

  “I did not do it in expectation of a ‘reward’,” he growled, his voice the deep rumble she remembered.

  It sent a shiver through her that was not unpleasant, in fact just the opposite. She wondered at it, wondered why it did not fill her with fear and loathing.

  Because he had saved her, she realized after a moment. Because she remembered that voice meant safety, protection--not threat. “Why did you do it, then?” she asked, curious now.

  He looked disconcerted for a moment, then the scowl returned. “I did not think you could fly,” he ground out.

  She stared at him blankly for a moment and felt the tug of a smile at her lips. “You don’t want to tell me.”

  His gaze skated over her and finally returned to her face and abruptly, despite the harshness of his scowl and the angry glitter in his eyes, she knew why. She mattered to him. For some reason he had not counted the cost to himself because he cared what happened to her.

  The thought sent a curious flutter through her. Doubt warred with certainty, compassion with horror, and denial with curiosity. Why would a creature such as he was care what happened to any mortal, let alone her? She searched her mind for anything that she might have done to deserve his regard and found, without surprise, that she could recall nothing at all.

  Still, she was certain that he had lied. He had said that he had thrown away his only hope of redemption for a woman that meant nothing to him. He would not have done that if she had meant nothing to him.

  Gathering her nerve, she pushed the covers back and moved to the edge of the bed, lifting her fingers to the tie of her gown. “It does not matter,” she murmured shakily. “All that matters is that you saved my life and it’s important to me. It is only fitting that I give as graciously and selflessly as you did.”

  She wasn’t prepared for the look of pure fury that comment provoked.

  Chapter Five

  A frisson of fear went through Bronwyn.

  “I do not need your sacrifice,” he snarled.

  Unnerved as she was by his sudden show of temper, it occurred to her after a moment that it was inspired by hurt. She might have dismissed it as absurd except that she was reasonably certain she had not guessed wrong about his reason for helping her.

  She did dismiss it as ridiculous, at first. She was attributing human emotions to a creature that was not human! “I offer a gift of gratitude....”

  “I do not want your gratitude either!”

  “If you continue to roar at me,” Bronwyn said testily, “you will not have the opportunity to distain it. You will bring the guards!”

  Surprise flickered in his eyes for a split second before they narrowed. “You believe that is something that concerns me?”

  Bronwyn sighed. “It concerns me. I don’t want them hurt.”

  Amusement entered his eyes, softened his harsh features and Bronwyn felt a curious warmth wash over her, and surprise, for she discovered that his face was infinitely appealing.

  Slipping from the bed, she padded barefoot across the room to him. He stared down at her almost warily as she halted less than a hand’s span from him. Lifting her hand, she settled her palm lightly along his cheek. “If you do not want me, you need only say so. I will not offer again, but I have no reservations about giving you ease this once. It is a paltry enough reward for what you did for me. All I ask is that you accept that it can only be this once. For the king has decree that I shall wed again, and I will not dishonor my future husband, or my own family.”

  His fingers closed around her wrist almost bruisingly.

  She thought that he would fling her hand back her, shove her away. Instead, he dug the fingers of his other hand into her waist and dragged her flush against his body. “Then I should drink my fill,” he growled, releasing his hold on her wrist to spear his fingers through her hair and cup the base of her skull. The swiftness of his moves dragged a gasp of surprise from her which he used to his advantage. Dipping his head, he covered her startled lips with his own, plunging his tongue into her mouth.

  A shockwave rolled over her. Thoughts scattered before it like leaves tumbling in the wind. She lost none of her primal senses, however. Indeed, she was left with nothing else, not even the ability to close herself off from them.

  The heat and moisture of his mouth inundated her senses, creating a heated whirlpool inside of her that threatened to suck her down into a place of dark chaos. The rush of his ragged breath and the skate of his tongue along hers filled her senses with him, his taste, his scent.

  Pleasure blossomed inside her, swamped her senses. She lost awareness of self, of place, of time as he explored her mouth with his tongue in a restless quest to know every inch of the sensitive inner surfaces of her mouth and tongue that left her weak and trembling, struggling to catch her breath. She had not even realized that she had placed her palm against his hard chest when he had released her wrist to capture her head for his kiss until her fingers curled into his flesh, seeking purchase, an anchor as weakness flooded her.

  There was no thought of selfless giving as her fingers crept from his hard chest to his neck to pull her closer to his warm, hard length, no thought at all, as if her body acted independently of conscious thought. Hunger drew her, the same need as a flower tilting its blooms to catch the warming rays of the sun, opening itself to the heat it needed. And when she found that she could not quite reach, she pushed herself up on her toes, the better to reach him.

  The movement brought her breasts against the rapid rise and fall of his chest, teasing the tips and sending another wave of exquisite sensation through her body as blood flooded her nipples and they became hard, tight little buds. A tremor went through him that was so hard it echoed through her. His arms tightened almost crushingly around her pulling, lifting. Her mind whirled dizzyingly then righted itself as he turned with her.

  She felt the softness of her bed beneath her back and then his weight settled on her, pressing her deeply into the cushioning softness. Coolness wafted over her legs as his legs tangled with her own. His man root pressed against her mound, producing an ache within her belly. Hot moisture flooded her woman’s place as he arched against her again.

  She met his thrust when he pushed against her again, tilting her hips s
o that the pressure of his member nestled closer to the place that ached for his possession.

  He made a sound deep in his throat. Dragging his lips from hers at last, he sucked in a harsh breath as he dipped his head to explore more of her flesh with his lips and tongue. A tingling rush went through her as his moist, heated breaths caressed the skin of her neck. His mouth closed over the ear nearest his search and the sensations were so intensely pleasurable she shook with the tremor that went through her. His tongue followed, tracing the convoluted shell with the same thoroughness that he had explored her mouth, touching off more tremors, sucking the air from her lungs.

  Yes, the word echoed through her mind as he finished his hungry exploration and moved lower, following the ridge between her ear and her shoulder, more, please. She might have uttered the words. She wasn’t certain, but he seemed to know every patch of skin to caress to give her pleasure, to drive her wilder with mindless need.