Lord of the Dark (5 page)

“I…I haven’t been thinking about…food,” she said, swallowing hard.

“How do you propose to leave the island?”

“I…I don’t know,” she stammered. “I…I haven’t thought that far ahead. I’ve just been shipwrecked. I thought I might stay here…for a little. Surely you cannot object to that. Aren’t angels supposed to have compassion and offer hospitality to those in distress…?”

“Not this one,” Gideon pronounced.

For one terrible moment there was silence. Rhiannon scarcely breathed. He looked as if he was about to spring from the edge of the pool, and she swam farther away.

“Then I will leave at once,” she said haughtily.

“Where will you go?”

“Somewhere that my host is not an ill-mannered cad,” she shot back.

He laughed outright then, and she got the distinct impression that he didn’t do it often. In a blink, he spread his wings, plunged into the water, and seized her in his arms.

“Good,” he ground out close to her face, water dripping from his massive wings. They were skin to naked skin, his hardness between them, leaning heavily against her belly; how hot it was, throbbing against her. “It had best be soon,” he panted, “because if you stay, this is what you can expect…”

Thrusting his hardness between her thighs, he swooped down and took her lips in a hungry mouth, his silken tongue entwining with hers as he deepened the kiss. Paralyzed with a heart-stopping mix of desire and alarm, she trembled against him as he parted her pubic curls with his shaft and undulated against her nether lips.

Cupping one breast, he took the nipple in his mouth and laved it to hardness with his tongue as he rubbed himself against her vagina. His hot breath puffing against her wet skin silkened by the mineral water sent shockwaves of drenching fire through her loins, and she sucked in her breath as the distended veins in his thick, hard member ground into the swollen nub of her clitoris.

She should resist, push him away, but she couldn’t. She should strike out with all her strength, but it felt so good to straddle the hard, throbbing penis that seemed to know exactly where to touch her to cause sensations she couldn’t resist.

She was beyond the point of no return. His scent rushed up her nostrils, his sweet, musky male essence was like a drug taking her under, bringing her to the brink of orgasm. His groans grew rhythmic. His body hardened like steel as it clenched against her, his corded thighs rippling.

Yes, she’d heard the legend of the handsome archangel of the Arcan gods, who lusted and fell from grace, condemned to live out his eternity as a solitary being, neither creature nor man. She almost gasped aloud. This
was
his natural state!

All at once, his gigantic wings began to fully unfurl. Rhiannon did gasp then, for the massive appendages nearly spanned the width of the pool. They seemed to be arching forward, as if to embrace her. Her heart leapt inside. The thought of being cocooned in the embrace of those silver-white feathers was both exhilarating and terrifying. This was the legend himself come to life. She could scarcely believe it, but it was so.

Self-preservation moved her now, for she feared smothering, and she pressed firm hands against the iridescent feathers, though the fire racing through her belly and thighs betrayed her. She shuddered as his posture clenched again and his deep sensuous voice assailed her ears at close range.

“Do
not
touch my…wings,” he groaned, but too late. The gravelly sound reverberated in her very soul as his wings closed around her, and she felt the hot rush of his seed leave his body in hard, shuddering spurts between her thighs.

Rhiannon tried to forestall it, but it was too late. The friction of his sex grinding her pubic curls into her clitoris brought her to climax, and he groaned again as her contractions riddled him. There was no question that he’d felt her release, and her breath caught as he let her go, spread his wings, and rose out of the water.

He was still erect when he touched down on the marble rim of the pool, and when he spoke, the acoustics in the bathing chamber made his voice boom like thunder.

“I will bring food,” he said. “Once you have eaten, I will take you where you wish to go. I cannot help what I am. I am cursed by the gods. I cannot help myself, and you are too great a temptation. You cannot stay here, for if you do, our next…encounter may not be so…external, if you take my meaning.” He stood staring down through the mist, his hooded eyes glazed with unshed tears and the dregs of desire. The look in them turned Rhiannon’s away. “Dress yourself,” he charged her, stalking toward the corridor beyond. “I shan’t be long.”

“You do not even know my name!” Rhiannon marveled. Again he stiffened, the furled wings stretched across his broad back shuddering. She bit her lower lip. Would she never learn to hold her peace?

“I do not wish to know it,” Gideon said. “If I have your name, you become real to me…a reminder of what I can never have.”

Rhiannon’s lips parted to reply, but before she could speak again, he had disappeared.

G
ideon dragged himself back to his sleeping chamber and put on his eel skin. What had happened in the pool was only meant to be a demonstration, to warn her away. Why didn’t she resist? He could still feel the soft pressure of her breasts flattened against his hard, muscled chest, silk against iron, her nipples, like two acorns, hard and peaked, boring into him.

Something rumbled in his loins again as the whole bizarre incident came flooding back across his mind. Heat rushed to his temples, and cold sweat beaded on his brow. He relived the touch of her small hands roaming over his steely roped torso, and the excruciating ecstasy of those tiny fingers embracing his wings.

A soft moan escaped him as he recalled the little V of hair that felt like swan’s down caressing his cock as he slid it between her thighs nestling his hardness against her soft virgin flesh. The sensation was like a lightning strike.
A lightning strike.
Beguiled, it wasn’t until that instant that he realized that
there was no lightning strike!

Excitement at the thought that he had defeated the watchers overwhelmed him. It hit him like a crashing comber pounding the strand. Had he been right in supposing they were monitoring
him,
not her, and thus she had come there unseen? Had he finally eluded them?

His mind was racing with possibilities. Had he finally found a way to escape the watchdogs of the gods, and if he had, could he let her go? Could he live without the ecstasy he’d experienced in this exquisite creature’s arms? He didn’t even know her name, but he knew every inch of her body. Could he bear to let her go? Could he dare to try to keep her?

He collected bread, wine and cheese, and some dried beef from the larder, and returned to the pool chamber. At sight of his strange houseguest, his breath caught and escaped his throat in a little moan. She was standing beside the waterfall, drying her hair on one of the woven lemongrass towels. He gasped again. He had never seen such hair, the color of honey kissed by the fire of the setting sun. It was so long it nearly challenged the hem of the mulberry homespun kirtle. Stepping into the shadows, he watched her collect the length of it over her shoulder and work several plaits before tossing it back. It fell from a center part, framing her face in soft waves before the plaits tethered it.

She was fair, though her translucent skin glowed with the blush release had left behind, and her bowed lips were bruised from his kiss. He had never seen a creature so beautiful, and if he had any sense he would stick to his original plan and take her as far away from the Dark Isle as his wings would carry her. But temptation had damned him long ago, and some things never changed, especially since the gods had cursed him with libidinous lust—cursed his wings to cause his cock to rise, as it was rising now, straining against the tight eel skin. But his wings weren’t to blame this time. He was hard from the sight of her alone!

Moving out of the shadows, he approached her. Wary, she stopped ministering to herself and arranging her hair and kirtle, her eyes riveted to him as he approached; they were the color of an angry sea.

“Come,” he said, gesturing with the tray in his hands. “There is a more comfortable chamber.”

He led her to a small anteroom off the corridor and set the tray down on a drum table at the edge of the carpet, motioning her to take a seat beside it. Striding to the opposite side of the room, he climbed a dais and sat on a high curved bench that allowed for his wings, for few chairs did.

“Eat,” he said, in his inimitable brusque manner. It was never more necessary.

“Will you not eat also?” she asked skeptically.

“I have not just been…shipwrecked,” he replied. “You must be ravenous. It is simple fare, but satisfying. I do not entertain here.”

Should he apologize for what happened in the pool chamber earlier? Why? He wasn’t sorry, and neither was she. Best to ignore the whole episode, it wasn’t ever going to happen again, he’d decided. She would eat, he would take her wherever it was she wanted to go, and that would be the end of it. It was the only way. It was best to have it over and done now…before things went any further…before he formed an attachment. It could only end badly otherwise. Yes, he’d decided.

“This bread is fresh,” she observed. “Have you a cook?”

“No,” he said. “Supplies are ferried over from the mainland. We are quite alone here.”

“How is it that the noble archangel Gideon must live in a cave?” she asked, nibbling on the cheese. “Is this part of your punishment, then?”

Gideon hesitated. How much should he tell her? Enough to frighten her away, he decided. “Yes,” he pronounced, “I once had a fine keep on this isle. The rubble still remains beyond the forest. I lost it.”

“How?”

“I lusted,” he hurled at her. She froze with a morsel of dried beef halfway to her mouth, and he answered the expression as part of the conversation. “I am not allowed to lust, you see,” he said. She flashed him a skeptical look, no doubt considering what they’d just done in the pool, and he spoke to it. “Oh, I fully expect to lose this fine cave here one day as well,” he said. “It is only a matter of time.” That should be enough to deter anyone…Anyone but this exquisite creature whose name he didn’t even know, but who had orgasmed with him in a pool of steamy mineral water not an hour ago.

“Can you not rebuild your keep?” she asked him.

He shrugged, setting his furled wings ajar. They opened halfway. He was aroused again. The sight and scent of her was enough to grow balls on a eunuch. “What would be the point?” he blurted. “It would only be taken from me again.”

“You want me to go,” she said, answering her own question.

He nodded. “You must.”

“Yes,” she said demurely, her eyes cast down as she returned a bit of cheese to the tray.

Gideon steeled himself. The look of her then would melt the polar ice cap. “I will take you wherever you wish to go,” he said, avoiding the eyes that shot up pleading.

“That is just it,” she said. “I do not know where to go. My father was drowned in the shipwreck. I am…alone.”

“Where were you going?” he probed her.

“West,” she said, “to the hills of Thurgia, to meet my betrothed. It was to be an arranged union, not of my choosing.”

“Umm,” Gideon grunted. “You do not wish to go there, I take it?”

“No! I do not!” she cried. “My ‘betrothed’ is an odious creature old enough to be my father! We have never even met.”

“Where, then…back to where you’ve come from?”

She shook her head. “I cannot go back,” she said. “There is nothing for me there. My father lost all his properties and fortune. Were I to return they would imprison me for debt. I can never go back.”

“Where, then?”

Her eyes misted. “When the sea spat me out on your strand, I foolishly thought the gods had favored me,” she said. “You see, I prayed to Zaar when the ship broke apart to see me safely to dry land. I prayed to Mer not to drown me in the water. Then I washed up here, on your isle, and I thought both prayers had been answered. I also prayed to Mica, god of all, to show me his plan for my future. If this is it, here, now, I like it not. I have been cast out
everywhere.
Father and I were run off our land in the north country steppes, then the shipwreck, and now you would cast me out as well….”

“I must! You call what is said of me ‘legend.’ It is
fact.
Because I lusted I am cursed to ever lust and be denied that which I lust after. I do not know a more delicate way to put it, but what happened in that pool before is a good example. Stay and it will happen again, and worse. I am allowed no companion here.”

“Is this island not large enough to house us both?” she pleaded.

“Have you heard nothing I’ve said?” he snapped.

“We need not be companions if I remain on this isle,” she said. “Surely it is large enough to accommodate the both of us…at least until I am sure it is safe for me to leave.”

“Why wouldn’t it be safe for you to leave? Hah! It is not safe if you stay!”

“The mainland in these parts seems a likely place,” she said. “But first, since I am on my own, I would be certain none there mean to harm me.”

What was she trying to tell him? How could he abandon her to danger, if such existed? It was times like these that he wished the gods had taken his conscience, when they stripped him of his privilege.

“Who means you harm?”

“I do not know that anyone does…for certain,” she replied. “But the first mate on the
Pegasus
was stalking me, and would have had his way with me if the ship had not split in two when it did and cast us all into the sea. I was no match for his strength. He had been after me since the voyage began, and I strongly suspect that he
helped
my father drown so he could pursue me unopposed. I would wait until I knew what has become of him before I show my face hereabouts. But if you insist that I must go, so be it!”

Gideon cursed under his breath. “What is this person’s name?” he said.

“Rolf,” she told him.

“Very well,” Gideon said. “I will seek word of this ‘Rolf’ on the isles and on the mainland. You may remain until I am satisfied that he is no longer a threat to you. Then I will see you to safety and leave you in the hands of those who will care for you.”

Her face brightened, and she rose to her feet and rushed at him. “How can I ever thank you?” she cried.

Gideon vaulted out of the chair, his wings menacing. “Come no nearer!” he warned her, his voice echoing off the rocky walls. “There are conditions.”

She halted in her tracks. “O-of course,” she said. “Name them.”

He hesitated. What was he doing? He should snatch her up and take her to the mainland. Any delay was dangerous for them both. One could not cheat the gods. He’d learned that lesson firsthand over time. This was what his brain told him. What came out of his mouth was something entirely different.

“You must keep your distance, for one thing,” he began.

“Fair enough,” she said with a nod, her hands raised in a gesture of acceptance. She was so excited then, he was certain she would have agreed to anything.

“You must never touch my wings,” he said. She blushed at that and lowered her eyes with a nod. He hesitated. Should he tell her about the watchers? No. Why frighten her for naught, though he weighed it over and over in his mind before he spoke again on an audible breath. “And while you are my guest here”—he didn’t want her to think she was his prisoner—“you must remain inside the cave.”

“Why?” she asked him warily.

“Because I wish it.”

“I thought to take the air in the daytime,” she said.

“There are dangers in the air,” Gideon responded. “Besides, if your Rolf has washed up on these shores as well and I am not here to protect you, you could put yourself in great danger.”

She considered it. “Not even in the courtyard or the gardens if I stay close by? You keep such a dreary house. I thought perhaps I might pick some flowers.”

“You ‘thought,’” he said, arms akimbo. “There is no courtyard, and there are no gardens. Nothing grows upon the Dark Isle. Did you not see the trees in that wood out there? They are as dead, bearing neither fruit nor foliage.
Flowers!”
He spat out the last in disgust. “I see you had this all planned out. Well, miss, I have resided upon this isle for many ages. It is fraught with pitfalls where you might do yourself a mischief. I have valid reasons for my conditions. If you cannot abide by them, we leave for the mainland straightaway.”

She nodded. “I don’t suppose you will tell me what those reasons are?” she murmured.

She would not leave well enough alone, this enchanting, outspoken beauty the sea had left on his shore. She was passionate and innocent, virginal and seductive all at once. He had never met the like, or her equal. Yes…there was great danger, indeed, for he was passionately intrigued.

“My reasons are not important,” he said. “Suffice it to say they are very good ones, and have done.”

“Are there more conditions?”

He breathed a sigh that flared his nostrils. “Those three shall suffice,” he said. “That you will keep your distance from me and not touch my wings will protect you from my curse—”

“And what if I do not wish to be protected from your curse?” she interrupted him boldly.

Gideon stared. This was the last thing he expected her to say, and he froze for a moment. “That would be very unwise,” he finally said in his most casual voice. He went on smoothly, “Remaining inside this cave will keep you safe from any who might see you…unless you want your Rolf to find you?”

She stamped her bare foot. “He is not
my
Rolf!” she shrilled. That struck a chord. She had a temper too. He was impressed. He’d seen enough insipid females in his time. This could be quite a pleasant interlude if things were different. He shook himself, disturbing his wings. What was he thinking?

“A figure of speech,” he said, “nothing more.”

“Why wouldn’t you let me tell you my name earlier?” she snapped. “Oh, I heard what you said, but there is more to it, I think. If you won’t tell me the rest of your valid reasons, will you at least tell me the real reason for not wishing to know my name?”