Lust (26 page)

“With your daughters. All four of them. After all, it was our union that brought them into being.”

“Union?” he asked.

“My offer of a gift, and your acceptance. It was con summation enough for the creation of four virtues. Your greed and my magic planted the seed for four perfect souls to be created.”

He blanched, and the queen noticed. Laughing, she took amusement in his discomfort. “Harsh words, but true. Had you not needed something from me, I would not have found what I needed. Now, I want those girls.”

“I love them,” he blurted out, as if the queen cared or would be swayed by such feeling.

“I am not completely unmoved by your feelings. I will allow you to visit with them at my court. Your wife, if she can keep her mouth shut about our existence, may come, as well.”

“My girls,” he whispered, hating to think of them as pawns in the queen's game. “What are they to you?”

“The key to a long-held hatred,” she replied. “I assume you've heard, I despise the Dark Fey, and as a consequence I cursed their court. Your daughters could be the
key to their salvation. I won't have that. They're needed at my court.”

“You will use them.”

She shrugged and walked around him. His mount nickered and shifted, nervous around the faery queen. “Women are born to be used by men. Even in my world. It is an inescapable fate. Yes, their virtue is to be used, exploited, but better here, in the arms of a Seelie Fey, than beneath the rutting body of a Dark Fey. At least here, they will be honored. There, in the Unseelie Court, they will be raped. Dishonored. Corrupted.”

His knees weakened, and he struggled to stay upright as he gripped the bridle in his hand. The gelding reared his head, not liking the bit pushing down into his mouth.

The bastard had lied to him. The king of the Unseelie had sworn to him that he would protect them. That his daughters would be cherished.

“This curse,” Lennox began, “what does it have to do with my daughters?”

“Niall has been very talkative,” the queen sneered. “My son is much like his father, he never knows when to shut his mouth.”

Lennox watched as the queen's beauty faded, replaced with hatred. “When did he tell you?” she hissed.

“The other night. He commandeered my carriage on the way to a masquerade.”

“Bastard! Do not believe him. He's lying.”

“Then tell me what I should know. Is there any way they can break this curse and take my daughters?”

The queen paused, watched him carefully, judging
him. Lennox prayed to God that he was deemed trustworthy.

“Very well, I believe in your love for your offspring, and I find your desire to protect them worthy. The reason the Dark Fey are so desperate for your daughters is because they believe that their virtues will end their suffering. Their court is dying, and to revive it, they must have virtuous, mortal blood. That blood cannot be forced—which, I may assure you, the Dark Fey are exceedingly skilled at. They are also perversely fond of violence and force. But to revive their court, they must woo and love their virtues. They cannot simply take them to their dark court and demand they breed with them.”

There was something more. Another piece of the puzzle that was missing. He knew it, but the queen was far too clever to give away too much. She didn't fully trust him.

“Three days, Lennox,” she said, her spine stiffening. “I will meet with you here, and your daughters will be at your side, waiting to be given away in marriage. You may stay for the nuptials if you wish.”

“And the Dark Fey?” he demanded. “What would you have me do?”

She laughed and stepped away from him. “That is your dilemma. You should not have entered into a contract with them.”

“My queen,” he pleaded, but she whirled around, and the zinging of metal rushed through the air. Before he could blink, the queen had a sword to his throat.

“I don't give a damn what you tell that bastard son of
mine, for I know he sent you to spy. To learn everything you can about breaking the curse. Well, he won't. You can tell him that. You can also tell him that he won't lay claim to any of the virtues.”

Lennox nodded, struggling for air.

“My son appears trustworthy, but let me assure you he is not. He is the very image of his father, the man who raped me and forced his seed upon me. Is that what you want for your own flesh and blood?”

No! God, no, he couldn't bear the idea of any of his daughters suffering beneath some man—or fey.

“Did my son tell you one very important thing?” she whispered, “something that is perhaps even more important than his pathetic, dying court?”

He shook his head, spit flying from his mouth as he struggled to stay focused and conscious.

“He and his six male relations are cursed by the cardinal sins.” She laughed as his eyes went wide. “Yes. Sins and virtues. You can imagine what they truly desire, can't you?”

Oh, God, no!

“Seven sins. Seven virtues. Even now, one of them pursues your daughter Chastity. Lust is his sin…imagine what he'll do to her in that dark, sadistic court.”

He crumpled to the ground and the queen's laughter tinkled, surrounding him. “Three days, Lennox, or you shall pay dearly.”

IT WAS NEARLY DARK. THE MOON WAS SLOWLY
being revealed as the sun set below the horizon. Soon he would go to her, taste her once more. One taste had not been enough. Not for Lust, or him. He wanted her, over and over, and as a consequence, he had removed himself—and Lust—from her. He hadn't trusted himself with her. Lust had been too close, taking over. He couldn't risk bringing her to his court, so he had left her for one more night before he would come and claim her.

He was back at his court. Here he was truly a Dark Fey, and the needs he had been able to bank while in the mortal realm came back, more furious and hungry than ever before.

All of them had returned, needing the court to strengthen their magic. Avery had needed to come back to his women. Kian, to escape the agony of jealousy he felt whenever he thought of Mercy, and himself because
he had allowed Lust partial rein when he had taken Chastity.

He still couldn't credit it. How he had allowed his sin to rule. He wished he could lie and blame it on his sin, but Thane couldn't. A part of him had wanted her like that, too.

Beast. Monster. He truly was one.

But he could not get the feel of her out of his mind. He was consumed. Even now he was hard, aching. Lust was screaming at him to take the pixie before him who was stoking the hearth. She was bent over, flaming the embers and adding another log to the fire. It would be so easy to lift her skirt and take her. She had sent him enough coy glances and inviting swishes of her hips to make him believe she wanted him. But he wanted only one woman. But Lust was screaming at him, demanding satisfaction.

Closing his eyes, he leaned back against the pillows on his bed, trying to put the thoughts of Chastity's naked body out of his mind.

“My prince,” the pixie whispered next to him, “does your sin need appeasement?”

He swallowed, conflicted by the feelings in his body and the one in his heart. Yes. Lust needed to be sated. If he was, Chastity would be safe from him, and Thane needn't worry overly much about hurting her when he saw her tonight. But the thought of lying with another made him ill. Made his chest hurt. Chastity could never credit it. It was dishonorable. Hurtful. He couldn't spend
his existence fearing his sin, and how it would only destroy her.

Could he be faithful to her with Lust ruling him? Would Lust tire of her and find another? Thane knew he would never grow tired of her, but his sin was fickle. Easily aroused, and always looking for another conquest.

Chastity, he knew, was beginning to care for him. He had heard her thoughts while he was inside her. Her body and mind belonged to him, and her heart was swiftly following suit. But she didn't know what he truly was.

Cursed. Everyone at court knew. This pixie handmaiden knew he was consumed by Lust. Everyone accepted it—accepted him. But would Chastity when she discovered the truth?

“My prince, Thane,” she murmured next to him. “Let me.”

“No,” he said, trying to force Lust back into place. “Thank you.”

She moved away, disappearing into the shadows, and Thane palmed his cock, through his britches, then opened the flap and pulled his cock free. Lust had made him huge, and he watched as his fingers curled around his thick shaft. He'd come two times last night, once inside Chastity, and then after, while lying in bed, he had pulled her toward him, needing her mouth on his cock.

He should have been more then satiated, hell, he should be drained, but he couldn't get the vision of Chastity
on her knees, his thighs caging her, his voice, soft and encouraging, instructing her how to suck him.

He groaned, feeling himself thicken even more, and giving into temptation and natural inclination he slowly pumped himself, reliving the vision of Chastity, his hand holding her hair back as he watched her take his cock into her mouth.

She'd looked up at him with her luminous green eyes, the swollen cap of his shaft rubbing against her lips.
Yes,
he'd said, holding his cock so it was erect, directly touching her lips.
Take all of me
.

Lust, white and hot, coursed through him as he recalled the vision of his hands in her hair, guiding her head down to him. He felt the burning heat of her wet mouth engulf him, sucking on him, torturing him in her untutored exuberance as he watched her. He had let her pleasure him for what seemed liked forever. Her touch was gentle, the flicks of her tongue exciting him as he watched the pinkness of it glistening against his flushed cock. Of course he had watched it all. Lust liked to watch.

He'd studied her body, glowing alabaster in the firelight, growing harder as her lush tits swayed with her movements. He hadn't been able to stop himself from running his hand along them, groaning and swelling as they swayed faster, making him think of the way they could capture his cock and the way he could release himself on them, branding them—and her—as his own.

His own hand began to pump furiously with the surging heat in his blood. How damn beautiful she had
looked bent before him with his cock in her mouth. He remembered tracing the outline of it along her cheek as it filled her mouth, feeling supreme satisfaction in it. It had been powerful and exciting. She had made him lose all reason, blind to any thought other then pleasure and fulfillment. Surely that had been the reason he'd pulled out of her mouth, only to splash his seed along her breasts, watching and glorying in it. Her eyes had been wide with wonder, and he thought his climax would never end, or that he wouldn't be able to stop coming all over her lush tits.

Release came fast and quick as he recalled the way she had cried out, at the way he'd branded her. Spilling himself onto his abdomen, Thane let himself sink back into slumber.

Soon, when the moon was high in the sky, he would go to her.

 

Padding quietly across the damp grass, Chastity made her way to the wall, and the garden gate that was hidden behind the ivy. The moon was bright in the sky, giving her ample light to find the rusted latch. As quietly as she could, she pulled the gate open and stepped through, gasping at the sight before her.

“Where am I?” she asked as she saw Thane step out from behind the trees.

“My court,” he answered. “A very good replica of it.”

The gate closed behind her, and Chastity made her way to Thane. She was nervous. She was not asleep. This was
not a dream. In truth, neither had the other ones been dreams. She really was meeting Thane, her faery lover, in this enchanted garden.

And not just any faery, she reminded herself. But a Dark Fey.

“Your hands tremble,” he murmured as he caught them in his palms and kissed her fingertips. “You're afraid.”

“Only a touch,” she whispered as she watched him kiss her knuckles.

“I don't want you even a little bit afraid.”

“You're a fey.”

He looked up at her with his blue eyes. “And you're a mortal.”

“I am sure you have been with mortal women before,” she said, hating the feeling the words gave her.

“I have.” He looked her steadily in the eye. “But none that I cared so deeply for. None that I wanted to protect and cherish. None that I have brought to my court.”

“I…I don't know what to expect. What to think…”

“It is all very new, but we will discuss it after, when we have all the time in the world. When I have you in my court, utterly sated in my bed, we can talk for hours.”

“Wait,” she whispered, suddenly nervous. “I…need a moment.”

Taking her by the hand, he guided her to a patch of grass that was illuminated by the moonlight. Carefully he helped her to sit. When she was comfortable, he lowered his body down to sit beside her.

“I have been waiting so long to see you again,” he
whispered, and kissed her brow. “But my memories of last night have kept me occupied.”

Chastity flushed. The memories had kept her hot and fevered. The things she had willingly done with him shamed her.

“You must think me wanton,” she said, blushing despite the darkness.

“I think you beautiful and the type of bed partner most men can only dream of.”

“I was hardly virtuous,” she whispered.

“I never wanted you as a virtue,” he said as he trailed his fingers down her throat. “I only want you as you are. As you can only be with me.”

She swallowed, and he licked her throat, following the movement with the tip of his tongue. “I don't want you lying beneath me, quivering in fear, or still, out of a sense of duty. I do not want what happens between us to be one-sided. I can use my hand on my cock if I desired that. What I want is your participation. Your enjoyment. The two of us together, moving with one another. Taking and giving, Chastity, that is passion and lovemaking.”

“I don't know what to be, if not a virtue,” she whispered, giving truth to her fears.

“How about just a woman?” he asked, his hand slipping to her ankle, then gliding up toward her knee.

“I don't know how to do that, either.”

“Then let me show you,” he whispered as he brought her back to his chest.

“Yes. Show me.”

“Such smooth, pure skin,” he murmured, trailing his
gloved finger along her supple throat to the valley of her breasts. Beneath his finger Thane felt the steady beat of her heart. The erotic cadence throbbed against his finger, drawing him in, sucking him under, until all he could hear was her heart beating in his ears. Until all he could feel was the rhythmic pulsing along every inch of his yearning body as if his flesh were inside her, heating him, as if she were pulsing around his cock.

Pressing closer, he allowed his lips to brush her gently pulsing throat. He smelled her perfume, his essence mixed with flowers. Lust followed then, clouding his vision, making him think of putting her on his lap and sinking deeply into her body.

As if she was aware of his thoughts, she stirred against him, letting out a deep, husky breath that aroused both the sin and the fey in him. His gaze focused on the swell of her breasts and he heard himself say in a voice that was part seducer, part animal, “Beautiful, supple flesh. I want to lick it, suck it. Bite it.”

She responded to the fey. To Lust, and his self-control slipped just a bit. The need was so very strong now, he could hardly bear to keep his hands and teeth away from her. The man in him wanted to stretch her wide with his cock, filling her with his flesh, the sin in him wanted to take her, everything—her body, her humanity, her soul—and corrupt her.

She was so close to him…so provocatively draped against him with her head thrown back and her lips parted with slow, soft breaths. He tugged at the buttons securing her bodice and bared the corset she wore
beneath. The mounds of her breasts rose and fell above the lace, and he traced his finger along them thinking of what a pretty, delicious picture she made for his dark seduction.

Steadily her pulse increased, the blood rushing through her veins. He could hear it, all that flowing blood filling, pooling beneath her pale skin. He could smell it, the way it made the perfume she wore rise between them.

“Chastity,” he growled, pressing his mouth to her throat. A breath parted her lips and her hand came up between them and tugged at her corset, exposing more of her creamy skin. Red swam before him, and all he could see was bloodlust. All he could smell was Chastity in his nostrils—her blood, her sex—the way the two intermingled with her perfume. Everything that made her human. Lust wanted to ruin her. Lust wanted to corrupt the virtue Thane held in his arms.

She arched invitingly forward, giving him a healthy view of her breasts. Pulling the corset off, he tossed it aside and cupped her in his palms. They were swollen with need, the nipples hard and pressing against her chemise and his palms. She asked him with her dreamy eyes to pleasure her. He read the desire in them, and sliding his gaze down the column of her throat, he pressed forward and parted his lips.

He closed his eyes in pleasured agony as his lips met her warm flesh and the steady pounding of her heart pulsated against the sensitive skin of his lips.

I want to drain you.

The words kept tumbling through his mind until he
was shaking with the need to claim her, to take her soul and empty her mortal body—with his magic, with his sin. Like a vampire drinking her blood, he wanted to drain her mortal essence and consume it. To feel her inside him. To know what it was like to be human. To have a soul.

Baring her breast from beneath her chemise, he latched on to her nipple and hungrily took it into his mouth, suckling her. With a keening cry, she clutched his hair, pulling him closer as she writhed against him.

I want to empty you, take from you. Let me…let me…

“Yes,” she whispered, pressing against him as she heard his thoughts. “Take from me.”

He left her breast and hungrily kissed her mouth. His hand framed her face and he felt his fingers tremble along her warm cheek as he deepened the kiss so that their tongues were mating in the way he wished for their bodies to.

Slowly he brushed his thumb along her temple, enjoying the softness of her skin and the warmth beneath his hand. His other hand played with her breast and nipple until she was moaning and he could smell her arousal drifting up from beneath her skirt and petticoats.

Angling his head, he pressed his face into her throat and kissed the length of the burgeoning vein. The fluttering of her pulse caressed his lips, enticing him to suckle her as he would her nipple or the sensitive folds of her sex.

His mouth became insistent as he sucked and nuzzled, and imagined himself tonguing her sex as he rubbed
his engorged cock, still trapped in his trousers, against her lush bottom. She moaned at the feel of him, and he sucked her neck harder and pressed his cock into her, trying to find relief for the ache in his body.

His vision awash with Lust, he continued to suck the thickening vein as his hand found its way beneath her petticoats and to the slick seam of her quim. He parted her and she gasped, tossing her head back against his arm. He wanted to watch her in her passion, but he could not leave her neck…his lips, his tongue could not be parted from her supple flesh, nor could his fingers be denied the feel of her sex clamping around them as he thrust two fingers deep inside her.