by Runaway Fae
Chapter Sixteen
“He left you, you know. When you lost his child, he left you.” Shauna’s mother’s expression and tone of voice was set as if she had been speaking of nothing weightier than the warm breeze that stirred her roses as she watered them. Shauna stood on swollen ankles and feet, holding a basket of clippings. She had insisted on helping. Her mind didn’t focus on anything for more than a fleeting second. Working in the garden helped.
“I’m not a Darkling,” she whispered, though she didn’t believe it anymore, “and my baby is not dead.” She didn’t believe that either. She spoke the words from habit. Truth was, she didn’t remember what was real and what was in her broken mind. If what her mother spoke was true, then her husband had abandoned her when she needed him most. She had thought he would come for her, but he never did.
Her baby had not kicked in the weeks she had been back in Faeland. And truly it didn’t matter any more. She had nothing, not even her mind. Thoughts were random during the day, but at night .... She began to long for the night, for it to last forever. A person could hide from the brightness of the sun, could be lost in the shadows. Just the night before, she had almost felt like a sane person, could just about put together a dream that didn’t involve her running away from something that meant to kill her.
During meals was the worse time. She had to sit across from her mother and alongside Shamus. He asked about her day, and she could never remember anything meaningful to tell him. Oddly, that always pleased him. The look of amusement might be at her expense, but she could never quite grasp the meaning of it.
“I think that you should visit the village today, Shauna,” he had told her over breakfast.
“I’m not sure of the way.” Her words were whispered. She stared down at her belly, stroking it, wishing for something she couldn’t remember.
“Put both hands on the table,” he commanded.
Shauna clenched her fists beneath the table cloth. She fought against the clouds in her mind. A man in shadows stood at the edge, but she couldn’t make him out. The mist thickened, engulfed her mentally. She choked as if it were real, gasping for breath. Shamus laughed at her and stood to leave the room.
“The village is only down the road,” he told her, and then he was gone.
That afternoon, when she couldn’t put off Shamus’s suggestion, no command, any longer, she set off to walk to the village. It had been easy to stand with Mother in the garden on plump legs and feet, but strolling under the sun down a dirt road was difficult. She wanted to lie down, to forget in sleep. Maybe if she did, she would see the man again, see his face more clearly.
She wanted to obey her cousin, but the way was too difficult. Spotting a narrow path to her left, she followed it. The shade was better through the path in the trees. And when she came through them to an inviting lake, it seemed familiar, but the memory slipped away. A wide yawn made her cheeks ache and her eyes water. He couldn’t spite her for the smallest of rests. A grassy patch under an old oak was just the spot. Shauna eased her awkward figure to the ground and laid her head on her arm. Sleep came quickly.
* * * *
Liam leaned an arm back over his chair, watching the two Darklings he’d dubbed Fric and Frac, shuffle into his study. They walked hunched over like they were ashamed of their height, and blew out their bellies to make themselves appear heavier. They were good for tormenting only.
“What do you want?” he grumbled at their interruption of his pity party. “I’ve told you repeatedly, I’m not interested in being your leader.”
Fric and Frac groveled, scraping the floor with their foreheads, greasy black hair tumbling over into their eyes. He hated the way they looked, and hated more that he resembled them more each day. The only difference was that he retained his physique. The joy of that was nauseating to say the least.
“Hey, boss. Mur and I –”
“Fric.”
“Boss?”
Liam sat forward, annoyance in his bearing. He pointed to the Darkling who first spoke. “You are Fric and your brother is Frac.”
“But boss ....”
A shock of lightening had the Darkling howling and jumping with hands cupping his rear. “Yes, yes. Fric. Fric!”
Liam laughed. “Go on before I lose my patience again.”
“Boss, we figure you’ve been sulking around here all day, every day because you’re lonely. So we have just what you need.” He pounded his brother in the chest and pointed toward the door. “Get her. Boss, you had a thing with Darcy. This is her sister.”
“What?” Liam jumped to his feet. “Get out of my house.”
“Aw, what’s wrong, sugar?”
Liam turned to see a sexy Darkling female standing in the doorway. He cocked a brow in surprise at the fact that—one, she looked almost exactly like Darcy, and two, she was completely naked. Her coal black skin glistened even without light to reflect off its surface.
The pouty-lipped, large-breasted creature sauntered over to him, brushing her lush figure against him. “I bet I can help you.” She brushed her fingers across his shaft, causing it to grow hard just as Darcy had enjoyed doing. She had been a tease, but Liam suspected this one was game.
“Not interested.” He shoved her away and walked out the door. Fric and Frac fell into step behind him. Liam shut their chatter out of his mind. And instead, a beautiful pale Fae floated before his consciousness. How he still wanted her, craved her touch. The scent of honey in her hair was still in his nose. The softness of her skin was etched on his memory. Just once more. If he could have her once more.
He didn’t know what her name was or even what the distinct features of her face were. But she visited his dreams in bed and came to his mind as he walked along the platforms. That first night back here, his rage had been so high, he’d thrown the Faerie’s Stone into the ocean and watched it sink with satisfaction. Now, no one would enjoy its power, least of all the power-hungry Fae.
Fric and Frac’s toenails, clicking on the boards, distracted him. He rounded on them. “Get out of my sight now, or I will toss you in the ocean.”
They were gone in twin puffs of thick smoke.
That was another problem he had, anger. Or was it grumpiness. Darklings were normally angry, hateful. They thrived on arguments, causing contention wherever they went. But they at least tolerated one another—on the whole. Liam was in a constant state of discontent. He hated the Fae, but he loved ... No, that couldn’t be right. This was the worst part of all of it. He couldn’t remember if he did love, and if so what or who. It might be the Fae in his dreams, but surely that was impossible. He would never. He was a Darkling.
The confusion swirled so much in his mind that he couldn’t see straight. It wasn’t until someone grabbed hold of his arm, that he realized he had been heading straight toward the edge of the platform. Glancing down, he saw one of the creatures of the deep waiting, looking hungry. Even it was angry for being deprived of its meal.
Arms wrapped around his waist. Liam felt a breast thrust against his back. “Come back to the house, Liam. I’ll make you feel better.”
He shook her off. “I told you I don’t want you.” He shoveled his hands through his hair. “Why do you all keep following me? Do I have a magnet up my ass?” He heard the titters in the shadows, but ignored them, as he waited for her to answer.
“You are our leader now. What else are we supposed to do? Darklings don’t exactly work, you know. We just sit around waiting for the master to take us somewhere. Maybe cause a prank.” She grinned. “Or we have bedroom fun.”
Liam rolled his eyes. “What’s your name?”
“Lucy.”
He frowned. “Well Lucy, you’re not going to be my queen, so you should just go back to your own house. And put some clothes on.”
She shook her head. “I can’t. I was living with a lover who brought his other girlfriend in to live with him when I bragged that I was going to belong to you. Now I have nowhere to live.”
&nb
sp; Rather than answer, Liam swung back along the way he came, back to Darcy’s house. He hadn’t been able to wrap his mind around the fact that it was now his. The Darklings had been saving it for him. Not one of them came forward to fight for it, which was their normal practice. He should have been impressed with their loyalty, but he wasn’t. Each day in this awful place left him drained, unhappy and uncaring. It was sucking the life out of him. Or sucking out all the good.
He felt the darkness closing in on him. Not as a person grew claustrophobic with the walls caving in. This was a tangible, seeable thing. Shadows gathered around him, darker spots in the darkness of their world. The air was heavier, more oppressive inside the house than it had been before. He knew without anyone telling him that all that was Fae was seeping from his very soul. And there was nothing he could do about it.
When he arrived home, he heard Lucy’s step behind him. He walked inside, having never shut the door earlier and stopped just at the jam. “You can sleep in a guest room. Don’t touch me, don’t talk to me, and don’t show yourself to me.”
Liam didn’t wait for her to respond. He headed up the stairs and down along the hall to the room with the panels missing from the lower half of the door. It looked like they were burned out, but he didn’t bother asking the Darklings what had happened. This room had appealed to him when he arrived, and it was the one he used instead of the master suite. He saw no reason to change his habit. Ever.
* * * *
Shauna stood outside the cabin on the Elvin world, watching smoke curl up into the sky from the cozy chimney. The porch swing rocked slightly with no breeze as if someone had just risen and gone into the house. She liked when she dreamed clearly like this. Her thoughts were also clear, if only for this time. She could hide in this dream world and never wake up.
Instead of stepping up the stairs to enter the cabin, she walked around to the back. There on the ground was a mattress, with a comforter rumpled on it. She had the urge to straighten it and bent to the task. His scent, masculine and woodsy floated on the air just before he stepped from the trees just ahead of her. Shauna gasped. Always before, he had been cloaked in an evil mist, hidden from her view.
Now she saw him in all his glory. He was tall, very tall and muscular. He wore no shirt, so that she could clearly see the rigid plains of his chest and abdomen, a sight that had her panting with desire. No mean feat considering he was blue. Shauna didn’t think she’d ever seen him before, but there was something familiar about him. He exuded danger, and she felt fearful as he strode toward her.
“Who are you?” she questioned, with only a hint of her nervousness obvious in her voice.
He stopped in front of her, making her feel very small, but extremely feminine. The stranger ran a rough palm along her cheek, fingers across her lips and then boldly slid his hand down between her legs to give her a squeeze. “Does it matter?”
She shook her head. “No.”
Chapter Seventeen
Shauna’s body was on fire. She couldn’t believe the arrogance of the stranger, to touch her as he was. Yet, when he lowered his lips to touch hers lightly, she wanted him to do exactly what he wanted with her body. But when she splayed her fingers over his broad chest, feeling the rapid beat of his heart, what she wanted more was to fulfill her desires with his body.
She kissed him back, stretching up on her toes to take it all, to feast on his hot mouth. When she had stuck her tongue in and out of his mouth, nibbled at his bottom lip, and followed her own path down to the rock hard erection in his pants, it felt like a fire had set them both ablaze.
“You taste so good, so familiar.” She traced the lines of his ripped stomach muscles, watching with satisfaction when he trembled. “Are you sure you won’t tell me who you are?”
Eyes like chips of coal studied her. “If I told you that I am the king of the Darklings, would you run from me? Would you deny me the pleasure of your body?”
“Could I run away from what keeps me alive?” Shauna didn’t wait for his answer. His sharp intake of breath was enough for her to take hold his pants and slowly undo the buttons down the front of them. She allowed her fingertips to graze his shaft, to tease it with a little pinch. Finally, she had his pants undone enough to slid them over his hips and down around his ankles. Her hands followed the curve of his buttocks, luxuriated in the steel of his thighs, before finding their way back to the prize.
“What are you doing to me?” he gasped, his head going back as he closed his eyes.
Shauna slid down to her knees, a slow seductive smile spreading across her face. She took the stiff rod between her hands, deliciously excited by its incredible length and thickness. Her mouth watered in anticipation. “I’m taking what I want. You don’t mind do you, my king?”
He gasped at her seductive words. And encouraged, Shauna guided him to her lips, so that the head of his shaft rested against her mouth. Her tongue darted out to tease the head, and she twirled it all about the circumference.
The stranger growled, “Shauna ....”
She was shaken. “You know my name?”
“Is that it?” He reached for her head, pulling her toward him again. “Again, does it matter? I need you to do that again, and more.”
“You’re cruel.”
“Just who is teasing whom here, Shauna?”
It warmed her to hear him say her name. The deep timber of his voice sent shivers over her skin. How she could love this man. But that wouldn’t happen. She didn’t know him. The best thing for her was to enjoy every inch of him. Shauna raked his thighs with her fingernails, pay back for his cruelty. Her hands slid around to his buttocks and she held him in place while she plunged his erection into her mouth.
She sucked him in as deep as she could, enjoying the scent of him, the flavor. She couldn’t get enough. She let him slide out of her mouth and rest against her nose, while she licked and teased the underside of his sensitive flesh.
“Liam,” he groaned. “That’s my name. Shauna take me in your mouth again, baby.”
With a hand wrapped as tight as she could manage around his girth, she took him into her mouth again, stroking him up and down. Liam tangled his fingers in her hair, pulling her harder against him. She felt his balls rise, knew he was ready. She craved the salty, tansy flavor that would soon burst on her tongue.
Liam exploded into her mouth. Shauna drank hungrily at him, not allowing any of his juices to escape her greedy mouth. And when she had sucked him dry, he lifted her in his arms with care, to carry her to the mattress she had been straightening earlier.
With birds chirping around them, a breeze stirring the leaves and the sun mercifully hiding behind the shade of the trees, Liam positioned himself at her side and began removing her clothing. When she was naked, he paused to stare down at her.
“You are the most beautiful woman I have ever seen.” He ran a finger down over first one nipple and then the other. “Tell me that you belong to me,” he demanded.
Shauna considered not telling him anything of the sort, but when he lifted one of her thighs to stroke her rear, a flash of spanking went through her mind. She didn’t ever remember being spanked, by him or anyone else, but it seemed real. It wasn’t such a bad thing to tell him what he wanted to hear, she laughed silently. Especially if he continued to play with her breasts and if he lay between her legs. It seemed forever since she’d been intimate with a man.
“I belong to you,” she told him.
He grinned. “Good.
“And you belong to me.” She grinned and pointed. “Especially that big piece of meat there. I want all I can get.”
Liam laughed. “You’re a bold thing, aren’t you?”
Shauna ignored the question and slid her hand down between her legs. She was wet. One of her fingers slipped easily between her soft folds, lost in her moist center. She groaned at the sensation of giving herself pleasure. Noticing the excitement in his eyes while he watched her, she dipped her fingers deeper, so that they were co
ated with her cream.
“Do you like that?”
His black eyes flashed. “You know I do.” He caught her hand and pulled it from her before he licked her juices from her fingers. Shauna moaned.
Liam leaned down so that his mouth touched her ear. His warm breath made her tremble beneath him. “Shauna,” he whispered. “Open you legs for me.”
At that point, she didn’t care if it was a command, if he was trying to rule her or being cruel. She needed it as much as he did. Her legs almost sprang apart from their own accord, and Liam caught her behind her knees. He raised her legs high before plunging roughly inside her. She cried out at the sting but soon was lost in the tumultuous heat that scorched them both.
Could she get him deep enough? She tried, grabbing onto his ass and nearly pleading with her lover to never stop driving into her moist center. It craved him, wanted him forever. Shauna wrapped her legs around his waist. She tugged as his hair, fed at his mouth. An instant later, he exploded inside her, filling her so completely.
Shauna fell back against the mattress, with Liam cuddling tight against her, holding himself inside her. They panted together, each trying to catch their breath. Shauna felt him twitch inside her. Her eyes widened when she realized he was hardening again for another round. Excitement took her not nearly as fast as he drove in and out of her slick tunnel. Forever, she thought. Just do it forever.
Tears stung her eyes, “Liam, I love you so much.”
“I love you, baby.”
Shauna woke with a start. The sun was lowering in the sky. She had slept too long. As she struggled to her feet, she tried to recall her dreams, but all remained in shadow. She tried remembering what she’d eaten for breakfast that morning or anything that should have been simple. Nothing. “Back to reality,” she whimpered, trying not to sob.
Before she could take a step, a pain rippled over her stomach, causing her to double over. When it passed, she moved again with the same results. Shauna felt a sort of release between her legs and then water splashed down her legs, soaking her shoes and the ground around her. Shauna stared at it. Her baby? That was impossible wasn’t it? The pain hit her again and then again.
