Master of Ecstasy

by Nina Bangs

  "You'll live to have a lot more wishes granted." Time for some serious seducing. The women wouldn't wait forever.

  Blythe lowered herself until she could feel the head of his erection prodding between her spread thighs. The urge to settle onto him and feel all that male sex stretching her wide, filling her, was an almost unbearable temptation. She resisted.

  Leaning forward, she purposely trailed her hair across his body and watched his muscles ripple in response before covering his mouth with hers. He allowed her to be the aggressor, probably hoarding his almighty control.

  Blythe slid her tongue across his bottom lip, nipping and teasing until, with a groan of surrender, he opened his mouth to her. She took full advantage, exploring all his heat and need, tracing the shape and texture of his tongue with demanding strokes, and indulging her fascination with his two most dangerous teeth.

  When she finally released his lips, she kissed a path across his jaw and down the side of his neck. She paused at the base of his throat and slowly, lingeringly slid her tongue across the spot where his pulse beat a frantic rhythm. "Your heart is still beating strong. We have to make sure you escape tonight, otherwise your heart will die with you. And your heart belongs to me, Darach. You don't mess with my property." She knew her voice was thick with growing need. The heat of his skin beneath her lips, the male taste of him, were taking their toll. But she wasn't finished just yet.

  He moved his head back and forth restlessly. His low moan told Blythe that her seduction was gaining momentum.

  She'd originally thought she could simply remain straddling his hips until she was ready to settle onto his erection. But she'd have to change her plans. He was going to resist allowing himself to climax for fear of losing control and killing her. She'd have to drive him into such a sexual frenzy that he lost his control. Blythe only hoped she was up to the sexual frenzy challenge.

  She slid off of his erection and changed position. Standing between his spread legs, she could see the damp proof of her own excitement on the head of his arousal.

  He watched her out of eyes hot with his growing desire. "Ye plan to torture me further?"

  "Of course. You doubted?" Leaning over, she allowed her hair to slide across his erection.

  He shuddered, and she could almost see him tensing himself to resist. "Dinna go further. Ye have no idea what ye'll unleash on yourself."

  "Promises, promises." She cupped him in her palms, but did nothing more. "I'm not going to touch you with my mouth, Darach. The mob of crazies over there would enjoy it too much."

  She could see the tension leave him. He thought he'd won.

  "Instead, I'm going to tell you all the things I intend to do to your body once we're out of here." She rubbed a rhythmic pattern with her thumbs across the tightly stretched skin of his sacs.

  "We'll have hours and hours of foreplay." She thought about that. "Okay, so we'll have minutes and minutes of foreplay."

  "I dinna think—"

  "Deep thought is not necessary here, MacKenzie." She watched his hips lift slightly in response to what she was doing with her thumbs. "You'll lie down on my relaxation mat in front of your hearth, and I'll slowly massage heated oil into every inch of your naked body: your inner thighs, your buttocks, your chest and stomach. I'll warm my hands, then spread the oil over your sacs like this." She slid her fingers around his sacs and gently squeezed.

  He groaned in response and raised his hips in a silent plea.

  "I'll smooth my fingers up and down your erection and enjoy the warm glide of the oil making you slick and ready. Then I'll rub all that gleaming oil over the head of—"

  His low growl warned her that she'd probably gone far enough. Good thing too, because her body was busily clenching, and the moisture between her thighs was a surefire signal that she was way beyond ready.

  Once more she straddled his hips, lowering herself until his head nudged her open. She bit her lip to keep from screaming and locked her legs in place to keep from slamming down on his erection.

  When she raised her gaze to Darach's face, she couldn't control her swift intake of breath. His lips were curled back from his sharp canines; his eyes were feral and heated with sexual hunger.

  "Ye shouldna have done this, Blythe."

  His voice was still that of the man she loved, but everything else radiated animal heat.

  "How long should I wait before trying to stop you?"

  He didn't pretend to misunderstand. "When ye start to feel dizzy, ye must stop me. If I willna stop, ye must use your Freeze-frame on me. Dinna hesitate, because once ye grow weak from loss of blood, 'twill mean I've taken too much from ye. We will both be doomed."

  Blythe nodded as she slowly started to lower herself onto him.

  "Look at me." His guttural command demanded her attention.

  She met his gaze.

  "No matter what happens, know that I have never loved anyone as much as I love ye, woman from another time."

  Blythe nodded. Do not throw yourself on top of him and cry. She wouldn't say "I love you." Not now. But soon, when life and death hung in the balance. At that moment, those three small words could tip the balance toward life.

  Around her she could hear the voices of the women urging her on. Like a pack of hyenas, they waited for her to finish so that they could take what was left. Not this time, you bitches.

  She settled smoothly onto his sex, feeling her body stretch to accept his size, and whimpering at the incredible sensation of the man she loved filling her. Blythe waited until she knew she couldn't wait another second, then lifted herself from him, only to lower herself again. She gloried in the sensation of his sex sliding out of her only to fill her once again.

  Her tempo quickened, her breathing came in quick gasps, and her heart pounded faster and faster. She could feel Darach trying to lift himself to meet her, but he was too weak and the ropes didn't allow for much movement.

  Blythe had to pick exactly the right moment. She had to be the one in control tonight. Gritting her teeth, she forced back her building orgasm. Her body, deprived of what it wanted, needed, continued to clench around him, and the heaviness low in her belly continued to grow with wanting.

  She felt him shudder as he uttered a harsh cry of denial. His orgasm was only seconds away.

  Leaning forward, she allowed her hair to form a curtain around their faces. Lifting his head until his lips touched her throat where blood flowed strong beneath her skin, she spoke quietly to him. "Drink from me, vampire. Share the life that flows through me." She closed her eyes. "Do it now."

  His lips moved against her throat, and for a moment she thought he'd still resist. Then she felt the slide of his fangs against her neck and the sudden shock of penetration.

  Blythe had no time to think if there'd been pain, because the sexual sensations flooding her washed away all thought. This was the supreme erotic experience. His sex was buried deep inside her while she shared her life's essence with every beat of her heart.

  Unspeakable pleasure sizzled and burned through her body. Nothing would stop her climax now. With a wild cry of fulfillment, her muscles clenched around him as if she could squeeze every last moment of ecstasy from him.

  Spasm after spasm rocked her, and as if from a distance she heard his cry join hers. She felt his release deep inside her.

  As she tried to slow her breathing, Blythe could only think of their love tonight as a circle of giving. Darach and she had truly put their lives in each other's hands.

  When the first wave of dizziness hit her, she was still wrapped up in the afterglow of love. The second wave made her numb with fear.

  With hands that shook, she ran her fingers through his hair. "You've had enough. Stop, Darach."

  He didn't respond. She couldn't say that he hadn't warned her. She tried to push his head away, but his returning strength made it impossible. If she didn't stop him now, they would both be dead.

  Blythe played her ace. "I love you." She whispered her three-word mess
age and felt a slight lightening of pressure against her skin. "Stop, Darach." She continued to stroke his hair. "When you learn to fly in a hundred years, I want to fly with you. Seems to me we talked about what it would be like to make love in midair. I want to find out. And when you look in that mirror and see your face for the first time, I want you to see my face beside yours." The dizziness was growing worse and she closed her eyes. "Let me go. Please, Darach."

  Suddenly the pressure on her neck was gone. She pushed herself away from him with arms that shook. Touching her neck with shaking fingers, she found no blood, no puncture wounds. "How did you do that?"

  Darach didn't answer her question. "Ye said ye loved me." He gazed at her with eyes wide and disbelieving.

  "You noticed." She offered him a quivery smile.

  "We'll speak more of this loving once we've returned to the castle."

  Blythe's relief was soul deep. Once again he sounded like her in-control lover. She climbed off of him, then stood nervously by his side. "Can you get rid of the ropes?"

  "Aye, but I dinna have the strength to do more. I am still weak." His gaze touched her with warmth and… love. "I have never known a woman as brave as ye were this night."

  Blythe didn't have a chance to answer.

  The women were closing in on them. "He gave you his seed, didn't he? I couldn't tell because your gown was covering his organ."

  Darach lifted his lips in a snarl as the woman named Margaret talked to Blythe. Every protective instinct passed down through his clan demanded he keep these creatures away from the woman he loved.

  In one motion, he freed his arms and legs, but when he stood, his legs felt as though they wouldn't support him. Darach clenched his teeth and moved toward the women. He hoped they didn't notice his unsteady gait.

  Startled, they fell back.

  Blythe quickly pulled out her Freeze-frame. "Fun's over, ladies. Guess your immortality will have to wait for another night, because Darach and I are leaving here together."

  He kept his hand on Blythe's shoulder as he guided her around the women and toward the opening in the fire where Sparkle waited. When he passed the spot where they had flung his clothing, he scooped up his shirt and pulled it over his head. He winced as the material scraped over the cuts on his body.

  They almost made it.

  "Don't let the vampire get away!" Margaret pulled a knife from her cloak. "They only have one weapon, and the vampire is still too weak to hurt us. See how he walks?"

  Suddenly all twenty women charged toward them, shouting and waving knives. Some paused to pick up rocks.

  Blythe aimed the Freeze-frame and fired. She stopped four women before Darach grabbed her arm and pulled her through the break in the fire. Sparkle scampered through behind them.

  "Run!" Darach had strength for only the one word as he clasped Blythe's hand and tried to flee. Freyja help him, for he had never felt this weak in his life. "Ye and Sparkle must leave me and return to the castle, Blythe. I will only hold ye back."

  "You're joking, right? I have a lot of effort invested in your life, and I protect my investments." She turned around to glance behind her. "Sparkle!"

  Darach turned to follow her gaze. He had believed that Sparkle was with them. She was not. She still stood by the fire.

  "What're you doing?" Blythe's cry was a wail of terror.

  "I'm trying to close the frickin' fire path. But I can't concentrate. Someone tell those women to shut up so that I can do some focusing here." Darach widened his eyes. Sparkle must be truly upset if she had forgotten to speak to their minds.

  The women had heard Sparkle also. A cat that talked made even them pause for a moment. They stood just inside the ring of fire muttering among themselves and casting wary glances at Sparkle. Some turned back to stare at the four women who stood frozen in place by the Freeze-frame.

  Darach knew these things would not stop them for long. The women were mad with their obsession, and their pursuit of him would only end with his recapture or their deaths.

  "Run, Sparkle!" Blythe's shout rose above the crackling fire and muttering women.

  Sparkle looked at the women and made her choice. She ran, coming toward Darach and Blythe in great flying leaps.

  Her flight seemed to free the women from their indecision. With wild shouts, they poured through the opening in the fire. They flung knives and heaved stones as they came. Sparkle was the only one within their range, and suddenly she screamed and went down. Almost immediately she staggered to her feet and tried to continue running, but her limping gait wouldn't keep her in front of the mob long.

  Darach's training as a warrior took over. His clan never left fellow warriors behind. And even though Sparkle did not look like one, she was a fellow warrior in every sense of the word.

  He ran to Sparkle, scooped her into his arms, then stumbled back to where Blythe stood firing her Freeze-frame at the women. She managed to hit a few more, but nervousness was affecting her aim.

  After only a few strides, Darach knew they would not make it. He was not the only one weakened by loss of blood. Blythe looked pale, and she was breathing hard as she tried to run. The women were gaining on them. He must plead for help from one he had hoped never to need.

  He bent his head to where Sparkle crouched in his arms. "Ye must call Ganymede. I canna reach his mind, but ye can. If he does not help us, we will die."

  Sparkle stared up at him with frightened orange eyes, and for the first time since Darach had met her, she had no words.

  She turned her gaze toward the castle, and Darach knew she spoke to Ganymede.

  Ganymede raged through the castle with the bittyfluffs trailing behind him. Could anything else go wrong? Everyone was disappearing. First all the servants had gone, and now Darach, Blythe, and Sparkle had disappeared. What the heck was going on?

  Sparkle. He hadn't formed many friendships in his thousands of years, and he liked it that way. Attachments to other living beings slowed you down, made you less effective. But Sparkle was different. She'd wormed her way into his… heart? Nope, no heart. She'd wormed her way into his affections.

  As he charged up to the battlements to see if he could spot her somewhere around the outside of the castle, a strange emotion touched him.

  Fear. True fear. He'd experienced many emotions in his existence, but fear wasn't one of them. The most powerful cosmic troublemaker in the universe had nothing to fear. Except the Big Boss. But even when the Big Boss had handed down his thou-shalt-be-good edict, Ganymede hadn't been really afraid, fust frustrated.

  Now he was afraid. He looked into the darkness, searching for her. Darkness had no power to keep him from seeing what he needed to see.

  Suddenly her voice touched his mind. It was frightened and quivery, but still her voice. "There're some crazy women chasing us, Mede. One of them threw a rock at me, and I think she broke my leg. Darach came back to save me, but the women are gaining on us.

  They hurt Darach, and he's too weak to save us. Help!"

  A familiar coldness settled over Ganymede. For thousands of years he'd laid waste to the universe and felt no regrets. The Big Boss had shut him down, but the old Ganymede still waited patiently, or not so patiently, just below all that goodness and light. Some bitch had hurt Sparkle. She would pay for it, and to hell with goodness and light.

  "Ask Darach what these women fear the most." As he spoke to Sparkle, he searched the darkness for her. When he finally found her, what he saw filled him with fury such as he hadn't felt in centuries. Hatred and the need for violence rose in a red haze that shook the whole castle with its power. The bittyfluffs scurried away from him, chittering in terror.

  Then he smiled. No one in the castle would recognize that smile. No longer was he the bluff and bumbling lord of the castle. He was once again Ganymede, the lord of chaos, and now the dispenser of vengeance. Nothing could save those women.

  "This sounds weird to me, Mede, but here's what both Darach and Blythe say you should do."


  Ganymede listened, nodded, then focused his immense power on the women who dared to hurt Sparkle.

  Darach still struggled forward with Sparkle held tight against his body and Blythe's hand clasped in his. If Ganymede didn't do something fast, Darach would have to make a stand against the women.

  Blythe's weapon had refused to fire the last few times she tried it, and she had mumbled something about cheap off-planet products. The women were now almost close enough to do damage with their knives and stones. But they would have to go through him to reach Blythe and Sparkle.

  A knife flew past his head and buried itself in a nearby tree. It was time to make a stand. He would hand Sparkle to Blythe and face the women. They wanted him; no one else mattered to them. Mayhap while he struggled, Blythe could make her escape. Surely she would realize that she must run, not only to save her own life, but Sparkle's as well.

  Stopping, he shoved Sparkle into Blythe's arms. "Run."

  "I won't leave you." Her eyes were wide with fear.

  "Would ye condemn Sparkle to death as well as yourself? If ye stay, three will die instead of only one."

  The argument got no further, because suddenly a startling flash of light enveloped the advancing women. Darach threw his arm across his eyes to keep from being blinded. Then as quickly as the light came it was gone.

  It left behind shocked silence.

  Darach lowered his arm and looked toward what had once been a mob of vicious women. What was left behind was a mob of doddering old men.

  He couldn't help it—he smiled. " 'Tis justice."

  The old men looked at each other, then down at themselves with horror. They cried out their terror and disbelief in shaky old voices. Then they scattered, as though they thought they could outrun their fate. One of them staggered their way, and Darach could see the mindless panic in the old man's eyes. Both Blythe and Sparkle looked as though they would enjoy reaching out and swatting the man, but they controlled the urge. Silently they watched him totter past them on creaky ancient legs.

  Blythe nodded. "They had nothing but contempt for men, so it's only fitting that they end their short lives as males. And at their age, mating isn't an option. So they can forget about their dreams of immortality. It would take a space-bus filled with sex potency regeneration implants to do them any good." She looked up at Darach, and her smile lit up his future. "We can look forward to a peaceful life together without having to worry about wacko women." She seemed to think about that. "Okay, so maybe not quite peaceful. Things tend to happen around you, but at least I'll never be bored."