Bound to the Prince (7 page)

Of course she didn't stand a chance against
his elven strength and fighting expertise, gained in uncountable
years of battles and training. But she attacked him fearlessly,
with the clear intend to hurt or even kill. He saw it in her eyes.
Yet her rage was not directed at him alone, he mused. He wondered
what had hurt her so much to cause such a reaction.

And then … when he threw her down on the
floor and covered her, he nearly lost control and took her on the
spot, which could easily have killed her. The feeling of her
softness under his hard warrior’s body, her curves and the sweet
scent of her hair was almost too much. She was tall and strong
enough to carry his weight – he loved lying on top of her without
fearing to break her. Her full, tight breasts and the way she
shamelessly rubbed her hips against his body was almost more than
he could endure.

But then she lifted her head and slowly
licked his throat with small, sensuous strokes of her tongue as if
he was the most delicious treat, tasting him. It was only centuries
of well-practiced self-restraint, that had held him back from
ripping away her clothing right then. Elathan wanted to enter her
hot wetness at once, thrusting into her slick channel until she
begged him for mercy. He could have spent an eternity licking her
soft skin in so many places, savoring her irresistible scent and
listening to her lustful moans.

The woman could count herself lucky that he
had left before he took her and killed her with his desire. He had
been telling the truth when he said that she probably wouldn’t
survive the night with an elf. The men of his race tended to draw
all the strength out of a female’s body while making love to her.
If he controlled his desire and lay with a woman of the Fae, he
would just leave her weak for a while. Often a magic potion helped,
as long as the female had enough time to recover afterwards. But a
frail human woman’s body was not made for such an exertion. It
could prove too much if her mind and body weren’t strong enough and
had not been properly prepared. Especially this one. His desire for
her was overwhelming. He didn’t know if he could restrain himself
when they actually did join.

Once, a very long time ago, the prince had
taken a human woman, a king’s daughter given to him as a present by
her father after Elathan defeated his army with his elven warriors.
He had been aroused after battle and was pleased to find a willing
female, even a human one, in the bed of his royal tent. After he
had pleasured her for hours and hours until she screamed with
ecstasy and could take no more, he was entirely spent and slept
like a stone. When he woke up the next morning, the girl lay beside
him on the silken pillows, pale and lifeless. He knew that her
human lifespan would have been short anyway. But her death saddened
him, for he had not wanted to take her life just to satisfy his
lust. He decided never to share his bed with a mortal woman
again.

Until today. When the prince had smelled
Igraine, felt her, tasted her, it had become inevitable that they
would eventually mate. Igraine was his now, and she would come to
his bed very soon. The image of her naked body under him, her long
legs wrapped around his waist, made him harden and ache for her
even more. Damn, he wished he could go back into this cursed
chamber and take her right now. At the same time, his anger welled
up again. He wanted to punish her, let her suffer for the torment
she gave him. He wouldn't allow a weak, treacherous human to affect
him like this.

The prince knew that using the human for his
carnal pleasure would be delightful indeed. He only hoped she would
survive it – if his training didn’t kill her first.

* * * * *

Igraine
did not see Elathan
again for days. After their pole fight with the surprising outcome,
she had fallen down onto the bed, exhausted from the unfamiliar
physical strain. Her wound had closed, but she felt weak after the
blood loss. She slept for the rest of the day and the whole night.
When the elf came to tend to her injuries and bruises, she didn’t
notice.

When she finally woke up, she felt terrible.
Not only her muscles, but every single part of her body seemed to
hurt. She couldn’t move without wincing. Slowly she stood up and
limped over to the table, where she was delighted to find a bowl
filled with fresh, hot water. She didn't care to wonder how the elf
could have heated it down here. Quickly she stepped out of her
torn, dirty clothes and washed her hair and body, sighing with
pleasure to feel clean again. When she slid the musky smelling soap
over her belly and hips she couldn’t help but notice that she
seemed to have lost some weight. Elathan's training seemed to have
a good effect on her body, although it hurt like hell. If she ever
managed to flee from this place, she would make a lot of money with
a pole fighting workout DVD, she thought, grinning.

Her muscles ached, but in a good way. She
felt them tight and strong under her skin when she moved. Actually,
her body felt good, for the first time in months. Igraine almost
felt … beautiful, especially when the prince touched her.

No, she was foolish indeed to think of
herself as beautiful. How could a man like this, elf or human, even
look at her? She was sure that the passionate moment on the floor
had been caused by the excitement of the fight, but it also was
Elathan’s way of humiliating her. After he had left, she had rolled
to her side on the floor, feeling weak and crying with unfulfilled
desire. Without a doubt, he could use her for his sexual needs like
any slave, but he didn't really want her. And who could blame him?
He just was too perfect, too beautiful. If an elven man looked like
this, she could imagine how flawless the women of his kind must be.
Before he left, Elathan had clearly shown how much he despised her.
He had cruelly mocked her while she was so vulnerable, when she
wanted him so much, needed him desperately.

Earlier she had seen that the elf had left
new clothes for her on the foot of the bed, so she put them on. The
garment was a knee-length, sleeveless dress made of soft, dark
green linen with tight fitting pants and a wide leather belt. It
fitted snugly but hugged her curves surprisingly tightly, and was
cut so low that a good portion of her bosom was revealed. After she
was fully dressed, she looked around and found a fine ivory comb
and a thin leather band, so she could arrange her still-wet hair
into a ponytail. There was some kind of rough sponge which she
believed was intended as a toothbrush, so she tried and was
surprised how clean her teeth felt afterwards. As a natural urge
made her look around the cavern, to her surprise she discovered a
smaller cave with a wooden door in one corner, which contained a
marble privy with an underground stream flowing beneath it. The
Devil's Society seemed to have provided their secret meeting place
with many amenities, indeed.

Igraine's belief that Elathan hated her was
confirmed when the hours passed without Elathan returning to her
prison chamber. Even the following day and the next she didn't see
him at all, but magically found fresh food and water on the table
whenever she woke up from a deep, dreamless sleep. Remembering the
elf's lesson, she started to practice pole fighting by herself and
had the feeling that she improved quickly. After that, she grabbed
one of the swords and tried to swing it in a way that looked like
fighting to her. At first she went to the weapon rack out of
boredom. Later, she noticed that she actually enjoyed feeling her
body become stronger day by day. After what she estimated to be a
week, she should have gone mad staying in her candle-lit cell, not
having a single window. Luckily, her days were filled with hard
exercise and after that, she was so tired that she slept deeply
until morning. She was glad that she was kept from thinking too
much about Elathan this way.

One night, however, she suddenly awakened
from a deep, exhausted sleep. It was pitch dark in the cave. All
the candles had burned down. Igraine sat up, wondering what had
caused her to wake up. She couldn’t hear a sound. But there was
something in the darkness, watching, preying on her. She nodded to
herself. Obviously, she was to die in this dark hole. But she would
make sure that at least it would happen while she was on her feet,
facing her death. She wouldn't die while lying helplessly on the
floor. Her knees were shaking, but she managed to get up and stand
there, motionless and quiet like a frightened deer. Carefully she
listened to any sound that might penetrate the darkness. But all
she heard was the rapid beating of her own heart.

No matter how hard she listened, she couldn’t
have anticipated how near the lurking presence had drawn. She
screamed when two strong hands grasped her out of the dark, whirled
her around like a weightless doll and slammed her up against the
wall of the cave. Finally, she found herself imprisoned between the
unmoving stone and a male body she remembered all too well, nearly
as hard as the rock and just as unyielding.

Elathan was back. And this time he had come
to kill her.

Chapter 5: Pain and
Pleasure

Igraine felt the elf’s hot breath as it
caressed her forehead. He lowered his head a bit, inhaling deeply.
She knew he was taking in her scent. Despite her fear, the urge to
touch him was growing so strong that she started to reach out to
him. He caught both of her wrists with one of his large hands,
pinning them against the wall so she was his helpless prey once
again…

“Too long have I lived in this darkness,
human,” he said, so close to her that his lips touched her earlobe,
light as a butterfly’s wing. “Alone.”

Igraine stood perfectly still. His nearness
confused her senses so she could hardly think, even forgot to
breathe for a moment. And his incredible voice, she couldn’t
describe what it did to her. It was different from a human voice:
slightly husky, but deeper and richer, with an indefinable soft
melody when he spoke. Sometimes his tone was so cold that she
shivered; but now it was filled with emotion, sounding like the
deep vibration of a bronze bell after it had stopped ringing. She
could feel the pain that tortured his soul. He had the
battle-hardened body of a warrior, but inside he was bleeding out
of too many wounds that had never been healed.

There was no doubt she would be playing with
fire if she tried to reach out to him. His hatred for humanity was
too strong. Elathan would never trust her.

“Your people are responsible for this.
Humans!” he spat out bitterly. “Enslaved by your greed, your lust
for destruction. You spread across the earth like insects, and you
will not rest until every form of life, every kind of beauty this
world has ever seen is gone forever. The only reason for all this
is to try and fill the emptiness in your worthless souls, but
you’ll never succeed.” He growled deep down in his throat. “Because
of your kin, I have lost my people, the companionship of my family
and my throne. Once I loved the humans like brothers, for I
believed that the world was large enough for all of us. I trusted
them to honor the truce for which my people sacrificed so much. But
you betrayed us. You can’t help it. It’s in your nature.”

She gasped when she felt his tongue touch the
sensitive spot right below her ear, licking her very softly as if
he wanted to taste her before he ate her alive. His beauty, his
seductive voice, it was all, as she had felt before, a predator’s
way of lulling his victim into a false sense of security before he
killed without regrets.

No regrets, she thought. How peaceful that
must be. If only she could convince him that not all humans were
the way he described them, but she didn’t even try. He wouldn’t be
persuaded by simple words. And maybe he was right, after all.

His voice spoke very softly to her now, which
made him sound even more dangerous than before. “You deserve to
die, all of you. I do not care if you destroy yourself or your
world. But first I will make any human stupid enough to come within
my reach suffer. This is the only joy left in my life. I will let
you pay for what you did to my people.” His lips moved downwards,
along the side of her neck where the blood rapidly pulsed in her
carotid artery. She felt his teeth graze her skin right there.

Elathan seemed to enjoy her fear. “So warm,
so alive,” he murmured. “And yet you are doomed to die, with every
breath you take, human.” His voice touched her like a caress,
almost lovingly. Igraine noticed that she had indeed stopped
breathing, so she gasped for air. It only made her inhale more of
his wonderful male scent. Heavens, she was so hot and ready for
him. She moaned softly before she could stop herself. A hoarse
sound in the darkness reached her ears. Was it possible that the
elf had just laughed?

She never saw it coming. If he had attacked,
intending to kill her, she wouldn’t have been surprised. But
Elathan moved so quickly that she couldn’t comprehend what had
happened to her. Still imprisoning her hands above her head, he
used his free arm to pull her nearer to his body until only a thin
layer of fabric separated them. He crushed her to him so forcefully
it hurt, but she didn’t care. Breathing was difficult, anyway.
Suddenly, he let her wrists go and entwined his fingers in her
curls. He lifted one of the auburn tresses to his face and rubbed
it against his cheek. “Beautiful,” he murmured so softly she wasn't
sure if it was only her imagination. Then he grabbed a fistful of
hair at her neck and pulled her head back. Trapped, she faced him
in the darkness while the prince bowed his head to capture her
lips.

And then Elathan kissed her. His lips weren’t
gentle, but claimed hers boldly, like the warrior he was. The
prince didn’t ask for anything. He simply conquered her, took what
was his. At first he pressed his lips to her mouth and ravished her
almost brutally, still gripping her hair so she couldn’t escape
even if she wanted. He dominated her completely, showing her that
she belonged to him now. When he drew her even closer to his body,
she could feel the furious beating of his strong heart, and the
heat radiating from his skin.