She never voiced the slightest objection to him spending time with Alan or planning this war. She never spoke against his plans to revenge Angus or assume the Phoenix Throne himself. He should have valued her input more. He should have given her more consideration. Even now, it might be too late. He may have offended her beyond redemption.
Even in the midst of all those thoughts, he couldn’t think of marrying her. She was too different to make anybody a good Queen. She was strange and strong and alien, unlike the soft, feminine women Robbie knew. They wore dresses and glided across the floor in silent feet. They didn’t fight with clubs and spears and wear trousers.
Robbie never could understand what Angus saw in Carmen. Now he had his own strange woman to think about. Maybe he wouldn’t have to consider her at all. The moment the curse lifted, she and Carmen and all the others would disappear back to their own time.
He shook himself alert, but Alan wasn’t looking at him. The Prince inspected some stain on his kilt like he never asked Robbie that question in the first place.
They sat in silence for a while. Then they caught their horses and rode back to the castle. Alan jumped down in the courtyard and handed his reins to a groom. “Meet me in the conference, and we’ll send out the declarations to the country people about supplying food and wagons for the campaign.”
“Ye handle the conference,” Robbie told him. “I’ve summat I mun’ do first. It may tak’ me the rest o’ the day.”
Alan cocked his head and frowned. Robbie didn’t wait around to explain. He headed indoors and climbed the stairs to his room. He stopped outside the door, but he didn’t go in. He looked up and down the hall to make sure no one saw him. Then he stepped across and knocked on Elle’s door.
Her voice answered him from inside. “Come in.”
He let himself in and shut the door behind him. She sat reading a book in a chair by the window. She rose to meet him. She wore a full-length gown like the rest of the women in the castle. Pearl and silver thread shone in the sun. Her hair swept off her face to a twisted coiffure decorated with gems.
She wasn’t an inch taller, but she looked every inch a Queen in that dress. His heart wrenched at the sight of her. How could he keep away from her all these days? How could he shun her company in favor of Alan Munro?
He crossed the room to stand in front of her. Her clear face shone up at him the way it always did. Her eyes read him to the depths of his soul. She knew his secret before anybody else, and she accepted him. She didn’t need him to win any war for her, and she cared for him anyway.
What a fool he was to spurn the gift he found in her. He couldn’t bear the thought of his own behavior toward her. He fell on his knees in front of her and threw his arms around her waist. He clutched her to him for all he was worth. He couldn’t lose her, no matter what happened in the battle against the Urlus.
For a moment, she stood stunned and still. He buried his face in her stomach. He couldn’t stand the thought that she might reject him the way he rejected her. He closed his eyes and waited for her to do something, anything, to show him she still cared.
Little by little, she softened in his arms. Her slim, cool hand came to rest on his neck. She squeezed him and petted his hair out of the way. She stroked his skin until he dared to look up at her blessed face.
The sun shone behind her and gave her hair a blazing halo of heavenly light. Before he could say a word, she leaned down and kissed him. Ecstasy and hope flooded over him. She kissed him! She still cared.
He sank into her butterfly mouth. She caressed his hair back from his face and stroked his cheeks. He never imagined kissing her could feel this good. He rose from the black depths of despair to the heights of bliss. If he ever attained the Throne, it would be because she loved him. She was his Queen—no one else.
Their kisses grew more passionate until Robbie couldn’t contain the surging energy rising out of his soul. He slipped his hand up her back and pressed her down toward him. He grasped at her mouth with his lips. He had to kiss her and never stop kissing her. He pressed her mouth open, and his tongue darted inside.
She sagged against him. When he opened his eyes to gaze up at her, he beheld an expression of matchless desire illuminating her face. She wanted him. She never stopped wanting him.
What a treasure of a woman she was! He seized her in his arms with their lips still locked. He jumped to his feet and caught her up in his embrace. He had to kiss her, and he couldn’t do it right on his knees.
He scooped her off her feet, and his mouth gobbled at her in frenzied passion. He sucked the kisses off her lips until she sighed and swooned in his arms. He saw that melting lust on her face when she lay on the rock next to the dragon. Now she experienced the same overpowering desire for him—him! He couldn’t let this moment pass him by.
He caught her up in one arm and swept her legs into his other elbow. He carried her to the bed and laid her down on the brocade coverlet. She stared up at him in astonishment, but she didn’t resist. She welcomed him on top of her with both arms clasped around his neck.
Chapter 20
Elle gazed up at Robbie’s smoldering face. This was the moment she waited for so long. He was everything she wanted. He was man and dragon together. The same fiery magnetism that hypnotized her at the caldera burned in his eyes. Every touch flooded her with seething passion.
He propped himself on his elbow above her. His hair hung around his face. He pulled back to examine her before he came in to kiss her again. She didn’t have to ask why he stayed away so long, only then to come at her with such raging desire. She passed far away from those petty questions.
Her body sizzled all over in fermented longing for him. She waited all these weeks to put her arms around him and never let him go. Now he was here, and his face and eyes told her he wouldn’t hold back.
His presence set her skin on fire all over. Her breasts heaved against her tight bodice. Her thighs rubbed together under her dress. His hand circled her corseted waist. His touch spoke volumes to her flesh, and she responded as never before.
He slid his hand a fraction of an inch up her ribs, and her breasts exploded in aching need for his touch. She longed to hurl herself into his hands, but he only kissed her one more time—stronger this time. His tongue probed her soul and woke the juices bubbling inside her.
When he leaned back this time, he didn’t go back to gazing down into her eyes. He seized her around the waist and lifted her off the bed. He stood her on her feet on the floor, and he sat down on the bed in front of her. He lifted his face to kiss her. He mouthed off her lips to her neck and ear.
She tightened her fingers in his hair and gasped for air. His mouth excited every nerve to the breaking point. She wanted him so bad, she didn’t know what to do with herself. He nibbled down her chest to the lacy ruffle around her bodice. He bit her skin just above her breasts and ran his tongue into her cleavage.
Her flesh throbbed between her legs. She wanted him to touch her down there, but he showed no sign of even noticing her desire. She guided his head up to kiss her one more time. If only she could show him how much she wanted him, he would take her to heaven right now.
He pulled back. Iron determination hardened his face. He knew what he wanted, and he knew how to get it. He circled her waist and turned her around to face away from him. She stared straight ahead. Her heart thundered in her neck. What was he going to do to her?
He stroked his big hands up and down the curve of her waist, up to her armpits and down to her hips. He traced the wide sweep of her pelvis and raked his fingernails down her thighs. Oh, God, did he have any idea what he did to her?
He stopped. What was he doing back there? Then she felt her corset loosen. The laces released, and her lungs filled. Her bodice slackened around her breasts, and her blood burst into flames.
He caressed her sides and legs. He massaged her neck and shoulders. Everything he did loosened her clothes a little more until he snuck his hands under her skirts.
He ran one finger up between her thighs to the dripping petals hiding under her dress.
She couldn’t suppress the moan escaping from her lips. Her juices coated his fingers, and his hot breath seeped through her dress into her shoulder. His other hand gripped her from the front, and he fingered her to quickening delight.
All too soon, he stopped and turned her around to face him. His breath grated between his teeth. His chest and shoulders rose and fell under his shirt. His manhood bulged strong and menacing under his kilt.
Couldn’t he see the naked lust on her face. Couldn’t he see how much she wanted to submit to anything he could do to her? He was her Ushne in the living flesh. She could give herself to him now without reservation. She wanted nothing else in the world but to attain fulfillment in him.
He kissed her once. Then he lifted her dress over her head. He peeled off one layer of clothing after another until he exposed the lithe, vibrant body underneath. He sighed over every inch of her. He touched every part of her, one after another. He groaned in ravaging hunger for her.
He cradled her cheeks to kiss her. Her hair came loose to surround them in a swaying curtain. He slithered his hands down her neck to her breasts. He sucked each one into his mouth until her mind reeled. He dragged his tongue down her belly to the sweet honey pot between her legs. He tongued her to raving lunacy with his devouring mouth.
She clutched his head and rocked against his face. She needed him beyond belief. He was all hers, and she bathed his mouth with her creamy nectar. He filled her to the limit with ecstasy she never experienced before.
When he sat up straight to fix his lust-fueled eyes on her once again, she couldn’t hold herself back. She had to show him how much he meant to her. She went down on her knees in front of him and gazed up at him from below. She stroked up his thighs under his kilt to the hard mass waiting for her.
His breath caught when her hand closed around it. He clenched his jaws, and his fingers tightened in her hair. She kissed him. “Rob,” she whispered.
“Lass,” he breathed. “My lass.”
She pushed his kilt back to expose him. She steered him toward her eager mouth, but he pulled her back. “No, lass, no.”
Her head shot up in surprise. Didn’t he want her to? She longed to, to shower him with all the care and attention she could give him. She longed to worship him and bring him to ecstasy, but he wouldn’t let her.
He guided her back onto her feet, and he sat her down on his lap. He cradled her in his arms and kissed her while he rocked her against him. She sank into him, and he slipped inside her.
Oh, he filled her to the breaking point with his hot flesh! She squealed in aching shock at the sheer massive throbbing tightness of it all. He groaned in blessed relief when her muscles closed around him. He pulled her hips in until she sat all the way down on his rigid length.
The moment she got there, he set up a steady rhythm of swaying beats. He filled her so full she couldn’t stand it. He eased back to tease around her opening before he glided all the way in to her very limits.
She hugged his head into her neck and yelped at every deep penetration. His strokes tore a ragged cry from him at every beat. His voice stabbed into her brain, and she pressed her ear to his mouth to catch every raking groan. Those sounds excited her more than anything.
He pumped his thick shaft into her flaming insides. She never experienced anything like this, and she never wanted to experience it with anyone again. She wanted him and him alone. She closed her eyes, and she was back on the rock next to the caldera. This was Ushne filling her body and soul with the greatest pleasure she’d ever known.
His eyes burned above her. She opened her body to receive him. His presence filled her with unstoppable rapture. Her vital essence gushed around his driving piston. He cleaved her in half and blasted her to heaven.
He grabbed her by the head and pushed her back. He held her around both cheeks and watched her face while he drove her to the skies. She howled into his mouth when he kissed her. She couldn’t stop staring at his face, but it was Ushne she saw. He was a dragon. He was her dragon.
He commanded her to belong to him, to melt over him and to yield to him when he looked at her like that. His eyes bored into her and read all her secrets. They kept nothing from each other. He saw her blistering desire, and he accepted it. He needed it as much as she did, and he fulfilled her deepest, most heartfelt needs.
Her breath snagged. She couldn’t keep doing this, or she would explode. Every rocking movement of his hips pushed her to the edge. She would collapse any second now. She would have collapsed if he hadn’t held her up and demanded she look him in the face.
He rasped into her mouth. “Come on, lass. Come on.”
“Please, Rob,” she squeaked. “Oh, please.”
“My lass,” he growled. “That’s it, lass.”
She couldn’t stop herself. She let out a feral shriek that tore her in half. Before she could contain it, a lightning bolt shot through her. She howled at him in dizzying climax. He plunged his rock-hard shaft as far into her as it would go, but she already catapulted over the precipice into heavenly intoxicated bliss.
Her juices oozed all over him and saturated his hair. Her swollen tissues gripped him in pulsating waves. He shouted something at her, but she couldn’t hear over her own shrieks. She screamed aloud, and her body convulsed in deep spasms.
He never stopped his maddening rhythm. She fought against his arms, but he only grasped her tighter. He hooked his powerful bicep around her waist and crammed her down harder on his plunging hard javelin. He stabbed her to the core, and every deep intrusion milked another wave of overpowering climax from her.
She couldn’t stop screaming. Just when she thought the wave would die out, it started up again. She thrashed and bucked, but that only drove her onto him harder than ever. All at once, he toppled over backward on the bed. He took hold of her in his crushing grip. He held her up with one arm and pinned her mouth against his lips with his free hand. He pumped up into her from below.
She couldn’t kiss him. She could only screech in unstoppable ecstasy. She couldn’t contain all the cosmic passion pouring out all over her. It shot from her skin and eyes and hair to cover him with her love.
He peeled her off and sat her up on his hips. He stretched out on the bed and scraped her against his pelvis. His stiff manhood touched her secret pleasure spots. She threw back her head and cried out to heaven, but only he could hear her.
He knocked her sideways with his incessant rhythm. He gripped her hips in white-knuckle power. He wouldn’t let her sit still. He pushed her back and pulled her forward to propel her skyward one more time.
She couldn’t bear this. She couldn’t go there again. She wanted to collapse on his chest and take shelter in him, but he wouldn’t let her rest until his shaft shot her full of dizzying light all over again. It shot out of her head until she screamed in blessed release.
The moment he let go of her, she folded into his arms. He welcomed her in his tender protection, but he didn’t soften inside her. His veins throbbed against her engorged channel. The minute she started to sink into a bleary haze, he prodded her up again.
He folded her in his arms and rolled on top of her. She hid her face in his neck, but he already started his wicked strokes again. He woke her quivering need to raging screaming foaming rapture all over again.
He sank his teeth into her ear and roared into her brain. She didn’t hear him. She swam in a sea of dizzy pink clouds and fevered dreams.
Chapter 21
Robbie woke in darkness. Elle’s warm body nestled against him under the covers. He closed his eyes and burrowed into her hair. He drank in her warmth and her softness. Her sweet aromas still covered him all over. She anointed him in delicious bliss until he couldn’t get enough.
He wanted her again now, but he wouldn’t wake her up. She needed rest after last night. After the tenth time, he let her fall into a coma in his arms. How many more times wou
ld he be able to take her before he had to leave for the war?
He didn’t get a chance to enjoy her sleeping softness. His own movements woke her, and she stirred in his arms. She breathed into his chest, and her cheeks caressed his stomach. He tussled her hair, and her legs slithered between his knees. God, she felt good!
She crawled out of the covers to kiss him. Her hair fell in his face, and he traced every curve of her body with his hands. “You’re awake.”
“Aye, lass. I am.”
“You should sleep. It’s been a long night.”
“Ye should sleep as weel. Ye’ll need yer strength when I’m gaing.”
She stiffened against him. “Gone! What do you mean?”
“When I go tae the war. Ye’ll be safe here, though.”
“I’m going with you,” she exclaimed. “I’m not staying behind.”
“Ye cinnae go tae the war, lass,” he murmured. “Ye ken that as weel as I.”
“I have to go,” she insisted. “I have to get to the castle as much as you do.”
He opened his mouth to answer—and stopped. He never considered she would want to go near the enchanted castle, now that the Urlus possessed it. Why didn’t he think of that? She still wanted to go back where she came from, and she could only do it there.
“Listen tae me, lass,” he told her. “If the Urlus ha’e ta’en the castle, the curse cinnae be lifted.”
“It will be lifted,” she countered. “It will be lifted when you defeat the Urlus and take back the Throne. If Angus can’t assume the Throne, then you will. Don’t you see? You’ll be King, and the curse will be broken.”
“Ye cinnae go,” he replied. “Ye mun’ stay here where ye’ll be safe. When it’s all o’er…”
“What? What will happen when it’s all over? Tell me that.”
He took a deep breath. He had to say it. “Ye’ll come and join me. Ye’ll be me Queen, and ye’ll stay wi’ me there.”
She went very still and quiet.
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