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“Clearly, I have given her too much freedom,” he said as his other hand came loose.
“Clearly, you’re taking what happened here tonight far too seriously.”
It was as the two of them finally succeeded in untying the last knots and Ralen reached for his pants that Laene burst in the room—looking surprised to see Ralen naked with Shaena, given the recent developments in all their lives.
Ralen was in no mood to humor him—he only snarled. “Don’t worry—your beloved hasn’t betrayed you.” Then he sighed. “Mine has betrayed me.”
Laene’s pale eyebrows knit. “Then maybe that explains…”
“What?” Ralen jerked his head up.
“One of the guards said he saw Teesia go racing up the beach on horseback. I was certain he must’ve been mistaken, but came to make sure.”
Ralen pushed to his feet. “No, the man wasn’t mistaken—my dear wife tied me up here, made a mockery of our sex, then apparently went haring off into the night.” He reached for the black leather vest on the floor, then raised back up. “Let me guess. She was heading north, fleeing home to Daddy.”
Laene confirmed it with a nod. “Exactly.”
“Well, she won’t get there. Bring Charger around. Now.”
“What are you going to do?” Shaena rounded the bed, her voice filled with worry. Worry for the woman who had betrayed him. He shook his head, disgusted—since when did Shaena’s loyalties shift so quickly?
“I’m going to find her,” he said simply.
“And then?”
“Then she’ll learn that punishment is not always a game.”
* * * * *
Ralen slapped the reins against Charger’s neck, driving him up the beach at breakneck speed. His wanton little wife might think she had escaped, but she didn’tride that well and Charger would catch Vixen with ease.
His chest still burned with anger—anger and…hurt. He didn’t like to admit that,even to himself. It had been a long time since he’d allowed someone to get close enough to him to hurt him. But Teesia had succeeded, and it was ripping his heart out.
Rounding a bend along a narrow stretch of sand, he caught sight of her in the moonlight, her black hair streaming behind her in the wind as she raced north. The very sight of her pummeled him inside, made him want to wound her as badly as she’dwounded him, made him want to punish her more severely than either of them could even imagine. Why did you have to do that to me, Teesia? What did you have to do that to us ?
He drove Charger on, faster, faster, hooves beating against the sand, until he was bearing down on her. When she looked over her shoulder to find him directly behind
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her, her gaze filled with fear. Well you should fear me, vixen, he thought, and drew his horse alongside the sorrel as the expanse of sand widened around them.
She’d turned back ahead now, but in his mind he still saw her eyes. Love, hate, pain—it all mingled inside him, building, building, as the sea winds slashed through the night.
I love you, I hate you.
He despised the fear in her eyes, despised—suddenly—being a man who made her feel that way. And yet—was he to simply let her rule him? Hurt him? Take him back to those awful days of helplessness with his father? How could he feel anything but brutal anger toward her, the need to punish, the need to make her obey—once and for all, forever.
He rode near enough to grab the reins at her mount’s neck, wrenching them from her grip as their legs crushed together between the horses’ bodies, slowing them both, until finally he latched fiercely onto her arm and pulled them both off the horses’ backs.
They tumbled roughly to the soft sand, their limbs mingling, and when she pushed to her feet, ready to run, he yanked at her leg, dragging her back down.
Their gazes met, hers a vibrant blue beneath the light of the moon and still filled with pure terror. He wanted to kill her.
Instead, he kissed her.
He didn’t know why, but he bracketed her face with his hands and brought his mouth down hard and demanding on hers. He kissed her so hard he wondered if hewere bruising them both, but he didn’t stop, couldn’t stop. Something deeper than even his fury drove him.
He pushed her to her back in the sand and covered her body with his, tearing at theties on her vest, needing to get to her. She whimpered beneath him, her hands in his hair, clutching at his shoulders until he sank his mouth hungrily to her breast. He suckled her harshly and she cried out—pleasure-pain, that blessed, cursed pleasure-pain that seemed to rule them—then kissed her other breast just as vigorously, drawing his hands from the lush mounds only to work at the opening on his pants.
They both breathed hard, the sound meshing with the flow of the tide, as he pushedhis palms under her skirt to her round ass and thrust deep inside her. They both yelled out at the entry, so deep, so binding—and she eagerly met each rough plunge of hiscock into her hot, welcoming cunt. They cried out at each drive, at each moment when their pelvises came flush, his large shaft buried entirely within her body, and he fuckedher with a rough, thorough passion that came without thought or decision. But emotion—oh yes, emotion was there, prodding him on, making him love her, love her, love her, tonight be damned.
That, he realized, was the thing driving him, the thing bigger than his anger. Love.
Reaching between them, he stroked her clit with his thumb, turning her cries to desperate whimpers that made him love her even more. And when she came, screaming her ecstasy, he groaned, thrusting his last inside her. He needed it, needed to
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leave part of himself behind just as she’d recently wanted, too—only this time he needed to leave it in her, not on her, somehow feeling it staked a claim, branded her as his in some new way because he suddenly realized how deeply he loved the girl.
A moment later, he remained inside her, but they’d both gone silent so that theshush of the sea was the only sound. The grit of sand caked his elbows and sprinkled her dark hair.
Her voice came small beneath him. “Do you truly hate me?”
His was just as muted. “No.”
“I…I only wanted to pleasure you as you had pleasured me,” she explained, peering up at him.
He sighed and made himself meet her gaze. “I don’t like being controlled, Teesia. I don’t like not being able to…well, to protect myself. I’m sorry.”
It was in that moment that Teesia remembered, and fully understood. Oh Ares. She had been even more stupid than she’d realized. His father. His father had beaten him. Somehow, in the midst of her determination to pleasure him, she’d forgotten that. No wonder he’d hated being tied down so much. It must have brought back feelings ofhorror, total helplessness. She hugged him to her. “Oh, Ralen, I’m sorry. So sorry.” She ran her hands through his thick hair and squeezed him even tighter. “I only want tomake you happy.”
He drew back in the embrace to look at her, their gazes melding in the moonlight. “You do make me happy. Happier than I ever dreamed I could be.”
“I won’t try to control you again,” she promised, then offered him a tentative smile,
adding, “master.”
Slowly, he smiled back at her, and they rolled to their sides in the sand. “I apologize
for the terrible things I said to you, vixen. I won’t ever do that to you again.”
“Then all is forgiven?” she asked hopefully.
“If you forgive me, as well.”
She smiled warmly, unable to believe it was the middle of the night because it felt as if the sun had just shone into her heart.
Then, when she least expected it, her husband took on the wicked look she loved. “Will you still be my willing slave, vixen?”
“I have no choice. I’m enslaved to you for life.”
“But you were running away.”
She bit her lip, then admitted everyt
hing she’d been feeling before he’d caught up with her. “And even as I ran, my pussy ached for you and my ass throbbed with wanting your cock. I was just about to realize I was running in the wrong direction when you caught me.”
“Promise me you’ll never run from me again.”
“I couldn’t. You’re the master of my desire.”
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Epilogue
3591 AD
It was at the grand summer feast at Enrick’s estate in Myrtell that he announced hehad selected a husband for his youngest daughter, Laela, who had just reached bride’sage. Afterward, Laela came scurrying over to the table where Teesia and Ralen sat eating. “I’m so nervous, wondering who it will be,” she said to her older sister as shelooked between Teesia and her husband. “And yet, perhaps I should not be. Maven and
Dane are happy—dear Ares—did you know she’s pregnant again? And you two are happy. Aren’t you?”
Teesia couldn’t resist exchanging a sensual look with her beloved before answering. “Oh yes, we are happy. Very happy indeed.”
Soon after, when Laela had flitted away, Ralen leaned to whisper in his wife’s ear. “I know you enjoy visiting your family, vixen, but I’ve discovered since we married that I no longer enjoy leaving the fortress overnight.”
“Oh?”
“I’d rather be in our chamber tying you up, holding you down, finding more
creative ways to fuck you.”
She cast him her most coquettish look. “You think we cannot fuck here?”
He grinned. “Well, certainly. But at home, we have…certain tools.”
“So you think I cannot excite you here, master, is that it?” she asked teasingly. “Well, I thought after the feast I would take you into my old bedchamber and tell you some naughty tales of the Orientation I had there.”
He raised his eyebrows, clearly enticed. “Naughty tales? Give me a taste to last me through the meal.”
Teesia pointed at her dear old friend Bella, who sat across the room eating, and flirting with the men on both sides of her. “Bella was my Orienter and she chose to teach by example.” Reaching to press her palm between his thighs, she found Ralen’scock had gone delightfully hard, that fast. “Mmm, I see you’re interested already.”
“Even so, though,” he complained, “it won’t be the same as at home.”
With a sinful smile, Teesia pulled up her finest silk dress under table and led herhusband’s hand to the string of overlapping disks at her hip. Then she gazed into his dark, sensual eyes to say, “And it’s quite possible a filly’s tail might have found its way into our trunk.”
A hungry smile graced his face as his eyes glittered with heat. “You are the perfect
sex slave.”
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She smiled in reply, glad to have pleased him, and glad to know she would please him even more later. Then she winked. “Perhaps we could sneak off into a darkhallway together for old time’s sake, master.”
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About the author
Lacey Alexander is the pseudonym of an award-winning author. Over forty of her short stories and articles have seen publication. Lacey lives in Kentucky with herhusband of fifteen years and she loves being a full-time writer. When not creatingromance and romantica, she enjoys crafts, American history, and travel, and she particularly likes incorporating her favorite destinations into her work. She is an activemember of Romance Writers of America and Novelists, Inc.
Lacey welcomes mail from readers. You can write to her c/o Ellora’s Cave
Publishing at 1056 Home Ave., Akron OH 44310-3502.
Also by Lacey Alexander
Behind the Mask anthology
Brides of Caralon: Rituals of Passion
Hot In the City: French Quarter
Hot In the City: Key West
Hot In the City: Sin City
Hot For Santa!
Seductress of Caralon
Discover for yourself why readers can’t get enough of the multiple award-winning publisher Ellora’s Cave. Whether you prefer e-books or paperbacks, be sure to visit EC on the web at www.ellorascave.com for an erotic reading experience that will leave youbreathless.
www.ellorascave.com
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