“I just left a society that lies and now you want me to tell more untruths.” She lifted her head from his shoulder, a question burning inside her she must know. “Why did you kiss me after you killed the dragon?”
His lips thinned into a tight line, as if he restrained himself. His arms stayed around her, and they tightened. “As I said once before, to keep you safe. And…when a Daryk One finishes battle, he is often lusty and in need of a woman. You were there.”
His explanation pricked her ego. “I was convenient for your lust.”
He looked away. “Yes.”
Somehow she didn’t like that explanation, but raw feelings punctured her control. She stepped out of his arms. “I don’t care about the rules of Dragonia because this isn’t my land. I don’t belong here. I need to find my way back to Magonia, and if you won’t help me I’ll find someone who will.”
“No. You won’t.” He stated each word with precise syllables, and he crossed his arms.
Arrogance rolled off him, and Ketera wanted to smack the imperious expression from his face. How dare he think he could control her and that she’d do whatever he wanted without question? Despite all the intriguing things her father’s texts told her about Dragonians that she found enlightening and encouraging, this was one thing the texts hadn’t been wrong about.
Men here thought they knew everything.
But then they did on Magonia too.
By the god.
Resentment twisted inside Ketera. She shouldn’t have said anything to Dane about her father. Now she’d ruined her chance to sneak away when he least expected it. He’d be on guard to keep her with him every moment.
Defiance boiled her blood and she encroached on his personal space. “I’ll run away whenever we’re out. You can’t watch me all day, every day.”
His eyes flared hot. “I can and I will.”
“How? You plan to tie me to the bed?”
“Tying you to the bed is a pleasure I would like to experience.”
“Oh!” She growled her contempt. “I thought you considered women to be precious. It sounds to me like you want to control us, order us around, break our spirits.”
“Huh.” He uncrossed his arms and took a step closer to her. “As if that isn’t what men on Magonia have already done to their women? Forcing you into marriage devoid of pleasure and emotional attachment?” He lifted one hand and cupped her face with an incredibly gentle touch. “How is that cherishing their women? Isn’t that control?”
His eyes blazed with something like anger or perhaps a scorching desire. On Magonia grief and emotional displays stayed shoved to the background. Sharing feelings with others—well, if they were bad feelings—were best kept hidden. They were too inconvenient and messy. Dane permitted his emotions to erupt for all the world to see. Right now she couldn’t mistake the full effect of his desire or the way he touched her.
She simply didn’t know how to react. How she should feel.
She knew that his declarations, his emotional display started a firestorm of yearning in her mind and heart, and an untamed craving in her body. “At least on Magonia I don’t have to feel anything.”
He groaned. “You are maddening. You feel, everyone does. You just don’t acknowledge it. You’ll be the death of me, Ketera Aldrancos. But there is one thing I know for certain, you aren’t going to run from me.”
“I just told you I would.”
He cupped her face in his hands, his attention hot on her face as he leaned closer and closer, devouring her with a look so passionate she couldn’t find her breath. “You won’t. Because when I get through with you, you’ll want to stay with me.”
She scoffed, grabbing hold of his forearms. Her covering started to slip and she grabbed it with one hand. “That’s impossible. How could you make me want that?”
“Like this.”
And his mouth came down on hers.
As Dane’s kiss took her, Ketera thought about resisting. But at the first warm, exploring touch, she realized she wanted to experience more. Now she could explore what she’d never been allowed on Magonia. Discover more about the secrets of passion between man and woman. She wanted to know the heat and hardness of his body taking hers regardless of affection.
Hot, shivery delight danced in her belly, and she groaned and leaned into him, eager to understand and feel. With a muffled moan he pulled her into his arms. He kept his kiss gentle, teasing as he brushed one corner of her mouth then the other. All thoughts drifted away on an ethereal haze as his kiss settled more firmly upon her lips. Dazed, she released her death grip on the sheet and allowed her hands to slide up around his neck. She groaned into his mouth.
With slow seduction he coaxed open her lips and his tongue dipped into her mouth. He stroked her mouth with a carnal rhythm that built sweet fire. She responded without hesitation, wanting more as she allowed her tongue to dance with his.
Suddenly she felt his hands along her naked skin. The sheet trapped between them, and as it slipped open in the back, she almost pulled away. Almost.
The sheet parted more. More. Until his hands explored along her bareness, his touch light as he slipped down to cup her butt. She gasped into his mouth in surprise and jerked. He calmed the kiss until he drew his lips from hers. She stared at him, startled by the intimacy yet craving it.
“You want me, Ketera. You may speak words of denial all you want, but your body betrays you. When my fingers explored you, when my tongue was between your legs, you did not think about what others say is right. You only felt what was now. What was real between us.”
He gave her no time to think as he teased the sensitive skin between her neck and shoulder, each brush of his lips over her flesh a startling revelation in pleasure. She quivered, caught up in needs both scary and exciting. Her breath quickened as she wriggled in his arms. His grip tightened on her butt enough to anchor her hips to his body. His erection grew hard against her belly. She squirmed, her hips pumping in a rhythm he soon mimicked. His lips traveled along her neck and searched her skin just as his hand came up and cradled her naked right breast.
His big palm and fingers held her flesh. He massaged, encompassed her as if she were a delicate, beautiful prize. He plucked at her nipple and sharp pleasure radiated from the beaded tip and straight to the secrets between her legs. She ached to experience the hot pleasure she knew he could give. As he continued to tease her nipple, fear resurrected. She jerked out of his arms, gathering the sheet and wrapping it securely around her.
Breathing hard, he stared at her, his gaze lightning hot. She stared back, her own breath unsteady and the thumping of her heart testimony to the acute and beautiful feelings he’d created inside her. Her body was in a riot, and confusion about all these wonderful feelings made her dizzy.
I must return home to Magonia before this man overwhelms all that is me. Before I surrender to dreaded physical needs I’m not sure I can resist.
“Get dressed,” he said. “If you’re so damn determined to rescue your father, I know just how you might do it.”
His abrupt change from passion to practicality stunned her. “What?”
“We’re going to meet a friend of mine. He might help us rescue your father.”
Chapter Four
A loud guffaw behind Dane jerked him out of a self-induced stupor. As Ketera and Dane waited for his contact to arrive at the tavern, they drank ale and didn’t talk. After that last kiss, Dane didn’t know what to say to her. His body and mind hadn’t been this confused in a long damned time. She sat next to him on a bench, her elbows on the wood table, her hands wrapped around a half-full tankard. She stared into the drink, her eyes haunted, her mouth sullen.
Pipe smoke drifted from one corner of the room and assaulted his nose. He sneezed. He drew his tankard up to his mouth and took a healthy swallow. Not a good time, if he was honest with himself, to become a raving sot. But it would take far more than one tankard to souse him. He decided to relax, hoping the place would drain off
the heady lust still singing through his veins for the woman next to him. The tavern nestled into one side of the castle, its crude stone construction an afterthought in design. Loud and boisterous, at least it served its purpose. Utter distraction.
Men milled about the congested tavern, doing what they did every day and night there, talking, drinking and whoring. Someone played a Stigian hornpipe and another a Bodgian drum. An ancient love melody spilled from their instruments. He recognized the song as one his mother used to play on her hornpipe. A deep pang touched his soul. Mother, if only you were here now. You could tell me what to do with Ketera.
By the god, he knew what do with her body, and he still ached with need to sink his cock deep inside her hot cunny. If he had his way, if she’d only surrender to his desires, he’d show her so much pleasure she’d be dazed for hours.
When he’d kissed her after battling the dragon, he’d recognized the blood fever upon him…and the natural lust. The one that said she was his prize and therefore his to take to bed. When he’d held her naked in his arms, he hadn’t wanted to stop. With her inexperience, he deduced he would have succeeded in bedding her, but it would have been wrong. She was an innocent, reluctant, and besides that, guilt racked Dane. He understood her searing pain at losing a loved one, and he knew if he didn’t try to rescue her father, she would attempt another foolhardy escape in her desperation. If she left his protection, she would die. Plain and simple.
The problem was he didn’t know if he could rescue her father.
Not when his physical need to possess her pounded in his skull, in his heart and in his gut. He drew in a deep breath. Ketera aroused him with an almost overwhelming pull that frightened him to the core. Whether he would admit it aloud or not, kissing her for the entire castle to see declared more than a ravenous need to slake desire. He’d staked a claim.
No honorable man who’d seen the kiss would dare touch her, and he’d see to that or die trying.
Now that he’d tasted her intimately and brought her knowledge of a woman’s true desires, he couldn’t release her. The other night he had almost thrown away personal integrity to seduce her into lying with him. He’d wanted to thrust his cock in her so far she would never forget him. To the deepest hells, he would never forget Ketera’s sweet taste as she had spilled her pleasure over his tongue. He’d wanted to take her up against the wall, to fuck her until he poured his lust deep inside her in a final claiming she would never wish to escape.
He put his head in his hands and groaned. His father had described the mating lust to him when Dane was a boy.
“You will know, son.”
“How, Father?”
“The lust will seize you more strongly than anything you’ve known.”
“More strongly than battle lust?”
“Much more. You will want the woman now. But without restraint you’ll be nothing more than an animal wishing to breed. Remember that when the time comes and you find the woman who is the one.”
About that time Dragonian numbers had started to dwindle, and yet it had taken a generation to understand the true impact. His lust to breed grew hotter at the thought, a need to populate their continent stronger with each driving day. Yet he couldn’t do it with any woman, and he knew that.
His father’s words hadn’t made much sense to him then, and in the intervening years he’d almost wondered if the mating lust could be a myth. Most every man he knew, especially Daryk Ones, wanted sex when they wanted it and the drive could be pretty extreme. Yet he’d seen other Daryk Ones and more ordinary men succumb to the mating lust for one woman. It must be true. He’d just never imagined it for himself.
But this…oh this. He’d never wanted a woman as violently as he wanted Ketera. His drive to keep her safe had slammed into him from the moment he’d seen her lying on the sand with the ruins of a great sailing ship piled around her.
He looked around the room at the comely women who would comply in a heartbeat if he tossed them coins, took them to a back room and lifted their skirts to take them. Not one of the women tempted him. Wenches strode along with platters of food and drink, some of them wearing low-neck blouses designed to show all they had to sell. One young woman of around twenty-five years came his way. She’d served him drink before. Like most women, her clothing was simple, either tunics or long skirts or filmy pants that flowed along their legs.
“Can I be of service, Daryk One?” the woman asked.
Well aware that Ketera watched closely, he stated the truth. “Nothing for me, Samhala.”
The young woman’s gaze traveled to Ketera. The woman frowned and strutted away.
One of Ketera’s brows rose and she pursed her lips before she spoke. “What did she want?”
“Samhala is mated and doesn’t tempt me. Don’t worry about it.” He smirked and then took a big swallow of ale.
She sniffed and pushed her hair back from her face. Her eyes sparkled with something that almost appeared like jealousy. Good. He wanted her jealous.
“As if I cared who you copulate with.”
He chuckled.
To his surprise, her frown grew deeper. Good. He liked the way her eyes sparked when he made her angry.
“Have you had…relations with her before she was mated?” she asked.
Satisfaction flowed through him. She was jealous. The slightly petulant turn to her mouth and the glitter in her eyes gave her away. “Why does it concern you, Ketera?”
“Because I—” She cut herself off then her lips tightened. “I’m curious about this place. There are so many men and women playing with each other I wasn’t sure what was expected here.”
Playing? He glanced around and realized she meant flirting. Somewhat more than flirting, if he paid attention. One wench sat on a man’s lap, her bottom planted firmly, the man’s arms around her waist. From the woman’s heavy-lidded expression and the man’s slack-jawed, glazed expression, Dane figured a lot more was going on under the woman’s skirt than anyone could see. The tavern didn’t have rules against public sex. Suddenly the woman on the man’s lap gasped, her body coming up then slamming down on the man. The man surged upward and growled like a beast from the jungle. The woman’s expression held pure ecstasy.
“This is a normal tavern,” he said. “Nothing more or less.”
She wrinkled her nose as she stared at the copulating couple. “Disgusting.”
He smiled. “Why? Because men and women are free to express their desires? Or because you find the place exciting? Perhaps you want to express your desires in the same way? Do you hate this place because it makes you feel something you don’t want to feel?” He leaned toward her, drawing in her clean scent. “Perhaps you’d like me to show you how it can feel to express your needs with an audience?”
She tilted her small nose upward and speared him with a glower both queenly and annoyed. “Never.”
That’s it, sprite. Keep telling yourself that.
Truth be told, he didn’t want their first time together to be in front of any audience. He wanted her all for his own. A softening occurred inside him he didn’t understand. When it came to her, he felt off balance, possessive. In the grip of a longing both staggering and gentle. He should have warned her that he would try to seduce her at every turn. Perhaps not. She’d already rejected his declaration that she was his.
Mine, the feral call kept echoing in his head. She’s mine.
He leaned nearer, lowering his voice to a whisper, staring directly into her eyes. “All right, you want the truth? I’ll give it to you. There is a fierce, almost unstoppable need within me to take you to my bed.”
Her mouth dropped open and the indignation on her face spread into a full-scale glare of a woman filled with scorn. She shook her index finger at him. “You, sir, are the last man I would ever consider giving my body. You couldn’t seduce me.”
He drew in a deep breath, staring her down, daring her to say anything that might break his shaky control. He wanted to kiss her again, the des
ire acute and almost painful. “I see. My fingers and tongue inside you does not count as giving me your body? If you think that is not sex, you have a lot to learn. I could take you in the next room and fuck you so hard you wouldn’t be able to stand.”
He could see the fire rising inside her, knew his words made her angry and aroused at the same time. A flush glowed in her cheeks, making the delicate lines of her face unbearably delightful to him.
“I know what constitutes sex you…you boorish…” she sputtered, her frustration obviously blunting her ability to speak.
“You know my name.” He smiled, enjoying the heat that seemed to flow between them even when they argued. His voice lowered to a rasp. “And I’d like to hear you scream it when you come around my cock.”
She gasped and looked around, apparently afraid their conversation would be overheard. “You bastard.”
A huge hand came down on his shoulder, and Dane jerked a dagger from his waist holster. He came around with a growl.
“Whoa! Whoa there, old friend! It is I, Minilos.” The shaggy-haired man standing over Dane smiled down with an amused and genial expression, his grin half hidden by a gold and red thick beard and mustache.
Minilos Willburi’s generous waistline spoke of indulgence in establishments such as this. His curly and unruly hair, had long ago earned him the nickname of “lion”.
“Fuck you, Minilos.”
The hearty man burst out in laughter, throwing his head back and roaring to the low ceiling. Everyone ignored Minilos, used to his boisterous personality.
“Good to know I’m still your friend, Dane. For a minute I thought you’d skewer me on your dirk.”
Dane snorted and took another drink. “You’re not my type.”
Another booming laugh left Minilos’ throat. “How long has it been since we’ve seen you around here? A good month? What have you been doing? Wenching in the Tarrian region? I hear there are ripe women there. Strong and capable who escaped their men long ago.”
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