MIDNIGHT CONQUEST: Book 1 of the Bonded By Blood Vampire Chronicles (46 page)

Broderick pulled back from kissing her and smiled, eyes searching her face. “Explore me, Davina. I am yours to command.” He straightened and towered over her on his knees. Sitting up, Davina gazed with hunger at the form-fitting trews molded to his muscular legs and hips. She could see almost every curve and crevice of his erection through the material and she grew wet in response. Panting, she peeled the material back and his erection sprang forth. His member stood proud and hard before her. She glanced up at Broderick’s smoldering gaze and her stomach fluttered. Looking back to his erection, her lips parted in anticipation. Tentatively at first, she reached up and grabbed his cock. Her heart pounded at the purely masculine, contrasting sensations of his velvet smooth skin encasing his rock-hard organ. Broderick moaned and his hand covered hers. “Harder,” he encouraged, as he squeezed with her and began moving her hand up and down his turgid shaft, a glistening drop forming at the tip. The ridges beneath her hand, as she stroked him, sent pulsing, hot throbs into her mons.

She studied Broderick’s taut belly, the ripples of muscles across his chest. Her tongue tingled to explore the contours of the v-cut in the sculpted valley trailing down to his hips. “I want to see all of you,” she whispered, tugging at the breeches he still wore.

Broderick bent down to taste her mouth then stepped off the bed and stripped of any remaining clothing. Pulling her from the bed and turning her to stand in the firelight, he gingerly removed the chemise, kissing the skin he exposed as he undressed her. When his mouth licked past her hips, and the thin garment dropped to the floor, his fingers came up to the wet folds between her legs, and she threw her head back in a gasp. Gripping his shoulders as he knelt before her, Davina shuddered as he explored her hot center and fluttered his finger over her sensitive nub. Broderick eased her onto the bed, lying beside her. His mouth sought hers and their tongues and lips met in a slow, silky dance of sensuality, sweet touches of mutual tenderness and adoration. Returning his fingers to stroke the sensitive bud of her wet cleft, he coaxed her need to a frenzy. She gave into the urges to buck against his hand, panting as she clung to him.

“Aye, blossom,” he pressed. “Come for me.”

Her whole focus became his fingers sliding in the velvet wetness between her legs. A building sensation settled in her belly, and Davina sensed a promise of something just out of reach. With an alarming swiftness, that promise came crashing against his hand, and Davina quavered in his arms as wave after wave of bliss pulsed down her limbs. Once she caught her breath, Davina pulled back from Broderick to stare at his hooded gaze, the wonder of her experience still overwhelming. “Did I come for you?”

Deep laughter rumbled from his chest, and he held her face in his palm. “Aye, blossom, that you did! Would you like to do it again?”

Her mouth fell open and she nodded wordlessly.

With that devilish smile, his mouth made a hot, wet trail across her breasts, down to her hip and belly and settled between her legs. Pulling her bottom to the edge of the bed, Broderick’s hands coaxed her limbs to fall over his shoulders as he knelt on the floor. Davina reveled at the sensation of his cheeks upon her inner thighs, while his tongue lapped her into a state of total abandon. His moans mixed with hers as she squirmed. Holding her tight against his mouth, his hands on her hips, Broderick’s tongue lapped even faster at her already sensitive bud, charming her body to respond with pulsing rolls of pleasure until Davina cried out in another climax.

He lovingly kissed, licked, and caressed her center, still throbbing from orgasm. Standing before her, Broderick gripped his shaft in his fist and guided his tip over her bud where he stroked her swollen, wet folds. In one easy motion and with a loud groan, he entered, and Davina gasped as Broderick filled her. She grabbed his hands on her hips as he undulated slowly in and out of her. Bending forward, Broderick crawled up onto the bed and cradled her against him, his hand moving underneath her body to grip her bottom and angle her up to him. He buried his face in her neck and Davina clung to Broderick’s back as he pulled his cock out to where the head hovered just above her center for a brief caress, and then plunged deep inside her, again and again, each kiss of his tip aiding in driving her closer to another climax. Another swelling of promise bloomed where she felt the full length of him stroking, Broderick rocking against her body until Davina clutched her husband as if she hung on a precipice. With a velocity that stole her breath, the culmination of their joining thundered through her body. Broderick cried out and shuddered, grunting her name. His hips slowed and he wisped sweet kisses across her face and shoulders and breasts.

Every ragged breath he sighed against her skin sent waves of pleasure through her soul. Broderick pulled back and his eyes met his hers, his still-rigid cock undulated into her as his hands framed her face. The love in his eyes reached into her spirit and covered her heart like warm sunshine. “I love you, Davina.” He shook his head. “Such shallow words compared to depth this love reaches into my heart. My soul belongs to you, my dove,” he breathed against her mouth.

Davina could hardly see Broderick through the hot tears welling in her eyes. “How I have ached to hear you say those words, dreamed for so many years to hear you say that very sentiment. They are not shallow words at all, my darling.” She moaned at the slow, deliberate strokes of Broderick’s shaft inside her. Placing her hands upon his face, she poured her passion and love into her kiss. “And I love you, my Gypsy.”

He groaned against her cheek when she pushed her hips forward to meet his. “Ah, but my days of being a Gypsy are over. We must settle down and build our home.”

She smiled and touched his full mouth with her fingertip. “Settle down and build our home we will, then. I welcome it with great pleasure! But you will always be my Gypsy rogue.”

Broderick smiled with that maddening dimple that always set Davina’s heart to fluttering, and they disappeared into the bliss of their eternal love, as their moans of pleasure drifted out onto the night air.

* * * * *

Davina bit her bottom lip, trying to stay the tears threatening to make this more difficult than she wanted. “Will I ever see you again? We’ve just come to know each other as sisters and now you’re leaving.”

Rosselyn let her tears fall freely, dragging Davina into a heart-wrenching farewell. “I honestly do not know, my dearest friend. If I ever find a way to get a letter to you or find we can travel back toward Stewart Glen, I will leap at the chance.”

The two women clung to each other amidst all the Gypsy wagons, loaded with their wares and supplies, ready to set out to the next establishment. Davina’s mind twirled at how much harder this parting would have been if Broderick had not come into her life. The Gypsies stayed a short while longer after the snow melted, the extra time enabling Davina’s family to throw the double wedding and a hearty feast. The festivity of the Gypsies and their family in their Great Hall was an event to remember, and would be talked about for years to come.

Broderick hugged Amice, almost as if he wouldn’t let her go. “Are you sure you want to leave?” he asked. “You can stay here with us. It would be safer.”

“Bah!” Amice scoffed. “I am too old to change my ways now. I would not feel good about staying in one place. I was born in a wagon. I will die in a wagon.” She leaned in toward Broderick. “And if the devil Angus wants to kill me, may he choke on my old blood! I think that is the way you should rid yourself of him!” She winked at Broderick and he shook his head, laughter rumbling from his chest.

Davina could see the apprehension in his eyes, though. When they had returned from the Vamsyrian Fortress, he became uneasy over the safety of everyone he loved. He took his concern as far as foolish talk of leaving Davina in order to draw Angus or the Council away, but she convinced him his ideas were rash and impulsive. Away from her or with her, Angus already knew they were in love, and the Vamsyrian Council would have already pursued them by now if they wanted them dead. Davina was safer with Broderick at her side…and she was most certainly happier!

Amice hugged Davina, and then Broderick once more. In French, she said, “Let your spirits rest in each other.” She put a wrinkled hand upon each of their hearts. “Know that I will always be here.” She put a hand on her own heart. “As I know both of you will always be here. Until we see each other once more, mind what this Gypsy tells you this day!” Amice winked and turned away to climb onto her wagon. A sadness crept into Broderick’s eyes.

Rosselyn stepped toward him. “Nicabar and I will take good care of her, Broderick. She will never be from our sight.”

He nodded, not having any other choice.

They all embraced one last time and waved tearful farewells as the wagons made their noisy path out of the village of Stewart Glen.

Davina wanted Rosselyn to be happy, truly she did, and she knew being married to Nicabar and traveling with the Gypsies would fulfill her sister’s dreams of living a free-spirited life. Admiring Broderick in the light of the torches, she hugged him close, reveling in the strength of his arms and the joy that her dreams, at last, had also come true.

The End

Sneak Peak at Book 2

Midnight Captive

Prologue

Stonehenge, England—1530

Cordelia Lynn Harley stood beside one of the stone sentinels in the monolithic circle. Eyeing the ancient cragged surface, she traced her finger along a crack while she waited. She scanned the horizon for any sign of the prophetess and, again, saw none. The new moon above, like a silver claw in the black sky, lent little illumination to the landscape. Her immortal eyes beheld only far-stretching flatlands of fields and grass dotted with sheep and cattle.

“Thank you for coming on such short notice.”

Cordelia started and spun to face Malloren Rune. “I still do not understand how you can sneak up on me, being mortal.”

The prophetess smiled under the glow of the lantern she held, her brown eyes sparkling with mischief. “You weren’t paying attention,
Vamsyrian
. I’m sure your mind was exploring the possibilities of the news I have for you.”

Cordelia’s heart hammered and she followed Malloren to one of the fallen stones of the monument. The prophetess sat on the sleeping giant, setting the lantern beside her. Cordelia knelt in breathless anticipation with her hands clenched on her lap. “You found the second sign?”

“That I did.”

Cordelia near collapsed from the wave of relief. “’Tis just as you foretold and everything is falling into place. What
is
the second sign?”

“That cannot be revealed until certain events take place. First, you must deliver an important item for me.” The prophetess patted the stone, encouraging Cordelia to sit.

Though disappointed at the delay, Cordelia became excited over the new task. “An item?”

“Indeed. One that will spark a chain of events to move the prophecy along and ensure the second sign can be fulfilled.” Malloren produced a small leather pouch a hand’s width across and three fingers deep.

A wire-and-wax seal secured the flap closure. Cordelia recognized the seal of the
Tzava Ha’or
—The Army of Light. “What is the item?”

The prophetess curled a finger under Cordelia’s chin to draw her gaze. “Listen to me, dear one.”

The grave expression on Malloren’s face made Cordelia shiver.

“You must not open this pouch or you will undo all we are working toward. Do you understand?”

“Yes.” She swallowed.

Malloren presented a folded piece of parchment. “You will take this pouch to the location detailed on this map.”

Cordelia set the pouch on her lap and pried open the edges of the paper.

“You must be at that designated location just after nightfall three days hence. Not one day sooner or later. A man will be waiting for you. The pouch is for him to open and none other. He has further instructions inside.”