Pleasure of a Dark Prince (12 page)

Now her nipples budded against her camisole, her breaths quickening. She was wet for him, aching for more. She turned onto her front—which was worse, so she flipped back over. Glaring at the ceiling, she realized there was no fighting it.

Her hand eased into her panties.

Something woke Garreth, putting him on edge. It was an uncanny feeling, as if the air were crackling with electricity. Shouldn’t be surprising—lightning struck constantly in this bizarre place, like ongoing mini-explosions.

Some bolts hit so close, the entire manor quaked, dust raining from the ceiling—ominous signs in a structure built so long ago. And between the lightning strikes, he heard Valkyrie shrieks, the drone of the TV, and jaunty video game music that was like nails on slate.

Adding to his misery, Garreth could scent Lucia at every hour, could hear her voice, hear her whispers to the glowing freak:

“I sense he’s getting more powerful than ever before,” Lucia had said this afternoon.
Who?

“Then I’m glad we have a back-up plan,” Regin had replied.
Back-up to what?

“Everything depends on finding it. If I have to go inside for this round, then I want to be able to get back out.”
Find what? Where the bluidy hell is she going?

“How much time do we have?”

“Maybe a year. Before they come…”

Before who—or what—came? What had Lucia meant?

It maddened him, and she wouldn’t return no matter how much he bellowed. The most mysterious female he’d ever imagined, and all day and night, the mystery deepened—

Suddenly, he caught the scent… of her desire? He felt the current in the air, sensed it came from her.

Realization hit.
No, it canna be. She would no’ be….

Lucia’s eyes slid shut as her fingers dipped into her panties, seeking—and finding—wet flesh.

With a sigh, she gave a stroke against her swollen clitoris, fantasizing about MacRieve’s body. The already continual lightning built. Another stroke as she envisioned his poor battered chest, packed with muscle. She rubbed faster… faster…

His torso tapering to his narrow hips.
She moaned.
That trail of dusky hair leading down to his shaft—

“Lousha!” he bellowed.

She shot up in bed, yanking her hand away. He couldn’t know… surely not.

“Come to me!”

He did know!
Oh, gods, what do I do now?
Her sisters were already suspicious, intimating that maybe the interest went both ways.
What to do?
Her eyes darted around the room.

When he yelled her name again, she leapt from the bed and snatched a robe from her closet. Hastening from her room, she stole down to the basement.

Once she entered, he quieted. Like the trapped beast that he was, he eyed her every move.

“What’s the matter with you?” she demanded as she neared the cage. “Why do you keep roaring for me? I’m the one with
no
power to free you.”

“You can unlock this.”

“I won’t. Save your breath.”

Studying her expression for weakness, and apparently finding none, he changed tactics.

“Then come to me.” His irises wavered from blue back to gold.

“Why?”

“So I can finish for you what you started in your bed.”

She felt her cheeks flame. “I don’t… wh-what are you talking about?”

“Come here, Lousha.” His voice was as mesmerizing as his eyes.

“If you think to seduce me to free you, it won’t happen.”

“Seducing you is its own end, love.”

She hesitated, glancing over her shoulder.

“Remember how good it was that night in the bayou? How I made you feel?”

A night of sweat and need and lightning. She shivered at the memory. “That was a mistake—I shouldn’t have encouraged you.”

“Come to me.” He had
that
look in his eyes again.

“And do what?”
Mind going blank.
Damn him, what hold did he have over her?

“Let me kiss you.”

Her lips parted and lightning struck just outside. “Through the bars?” That aspect actually appealed to her. The bars were about six inches apart, so it’d be possible for them to kiss—but unlikely to get out of hand.

I could control the situation better than before.

“Aye. Just need to kiss you. Touch you.”

“No, I can’t,” she whispered, even as she found herself easing closer to him, as if drawn by a magnet. “Why do you keep pursuing me—when you say I’m not your mate?”

“Because, Valkyrie, you’re the most desirable female I’ve ever known.”

And you’re the most desirable male I’ve ever imagined.
Yes, through the bars. She could satisfy her curiosity—determine his appeal.
So I can better fight it.

Her legs felt weak.
I could control it; we’d just bring
each other pleasure.
When she reached forward to steady herself, putting her fists on the bars, he snatched her hand. He sucked the tip of her finger—the one she’d masturbated with—between his lips, growling, “Ah, gods, woman,
your taste
…”

Lightning built to a furor, and she melted for him.

THIRTEEN

Garreth sucked, shuddering in bliss. Licking her honey from her own finger. When he’d scented her desire earlier, every muscle in his body had clenched with want. Lykae males yearned to pleasure their mates, and he was crazed to satisfy Lucia.

The cage, her deceit, the unsettling news she’d delivered earlier—all became secondary to the need to make her come, as she obviously yearned to.

Slowly, he withdrew her finger from his mouth. Cupping the back of her neck, he brought her face close to the bars for a kiss, slanting his lips over hers. With each stroke of his tongue, she began to relax. She grasped his shoulders, her wee claws digging into them.

He broke the kiss to say, “If you start this, Lousha, you finish it.”

Her eyes were half-lidded. “What does that mean?”

“It means that unless you’re going to make me come this time, you’ll be icing down my aching bollocks, just as I did that last night.”

She frowned, “Why didn’t you, you know… ?”

“I
did
,” he rasped. “Again and again with those sleek panties of yours wrapped around my shaft. I could still taste you on my lips. It maddened me.”

Her breath hitched at that, her eyes growing silvery.

“Do you want to start this, then?”

She looked dazed. “I… we…” With a hard shake of her head, she said, “We can’t have sex.” Her eyes darted. “Because of the bars.”

“They’re half a foot apart—I should be able to squeeze my shaft between them.”

“MacRieve, I’m serious!”

“The bars would no’ stop me. I could take you from behind, just spread you in front—”

“N-no sex.”

Garreth narrowed his eyes. Could she be…
virgin
? At a thousand years old? Maybe
that
was why she’d stopped them the other night. “Verra well, no sex,” he lied.
Until I seduce you into it.

“Then… then what do you want from me?”

“I want to stroke you until you come and have you do the same for me.”

She swallowed. “Would you turn again?”

“Nay, lass,” he said absently, struck anew by how lovely she was. Her long hair curled around her elven face, the tresses as shiny as the modest silk robe she wore. Her whiskey-colored eyes were sultry, her cheeks flushed.

But he wanted to see her body, naked to his gaze. “Let me take this off you.” He reached forward to tug free the sash on her robe, then skimmed the material over her shoulders. When it pooled at her feet, she was left in skimpy panties and a filmy camisole top. Her nipples were hard, her lips parted and moist, so sensual….

My mate’s incomparable.

At this point, he wanted to chew through the bars to get to her.

Even more so once he worked her top off, baring plump, perfect breasts that taunted his grasping palms. The peaks were dusky rose and begged for his lips around them.

In a moment of insight, he realized he could forgive much in the face of those exquisite breasts. He’d best never let her know that.

“Look at your nipples pouting to be sucked.” He reached forward, pinching one to hold it in place as he lowered his head. She seemed to stop breathing.

He brought his mouth close, tickling her with his breaths as his free hand skimmed down her flat stomach, but she tensed.

“Uh, wait. What about you?” Her hands went from clutching his shoulders to exploring his body. “You said we’d
both
touch each other.”

Her words made his shaft go so hard, he thought he’d bust through his zipper. When she brushed her fingers near his cock, he shot upright. “Take it out for me, then.”

As he shook with anticipation, Lucia drew down his zipper. Tentatively she reached into his pants for his shaft, gasping when it sprang forth. He thought she whispered,
“Oh my.”
She also seemed to be about to lose her nerve.

“Ease me, Lousha.”

Though she nodded up at him, she acted as if she’d never done this before. Sensing her hesitation, he took her hand, placing his cock in her warm palm. Just preventing himself from running his shaft over it, he grated, “Make a fist.”

She couldn’t close her fingers around it. “I can’t,” she murmured, then glared at him when he had to bite back a chuckle.

“Then just stroke it like that.” With her first tentative glide up and down, his breath whistled out. “You doona know how good that feels tae me.”

As she began slowly stroking, she gazed up at him, her dark eyes studying his reaction. His little mate was learning what pleased him. The idea of that gratified him beyond measure.

“There’s my good lass.
More
.” When she did it harder and faster, he groaned, “I’ve got tae touch you now. Take off your panties.”

She shook her head.

He growled with frustration. “Woman! When I finally do get your panties off, I’m going tae be wedged so deep inside your body, you will no’ know where you end and I begin.”

“They stay
on
.”

“Then I’ll be going
in
.” As he eased his fingers into her panties, he felt her body trembling—with nervousness? Eagerness? He kissed her again, twining his tongue with hers, as he dipped lower through soft curls.

When he found slick flesh that wept at his touch, he groaned against her mouth. She gasped against his. Between kisses, he grated, “Gods, you feel so damned good… hot and wet for me.”

But when he delved near her opening, she tensed.
So that’s the way of it?
She
was
a virgin. She began to draw back from the kiss.

“Shhh, Lousha, I will no’ do that again. Only this.” His forefinger covered her swollen little clitoris and slowly rubbed.

With a moan, she tightened her grip on him, panting as she stared up into his eyes.

Building her pleasure, he lazily stroked her while thrusting into her fist. His hip bones banged against the bars, but he didn’t care. Once she was ready to receive him, was wetting his fingers with need, it was everything he could do not to turn her around and take her. He could force her back to him, capturing her wrists behind her, then be inside her slick heat in a heartbeat’s time.

—She’d never trust you again.—

Yet it was so close.
A thousand years I’ve waited for this….

Just as he’d taken her right to the edge, MacRieve slowed his touch to keep her in agony, murmuring “
Do you ache here?
”

Her toes curled—she realized she loved it when he talked to her like this, with his accent growing so thick. In fact, she was learning much from this time with him.

She’d been amazed to discover how such a small touch, a mere caress on his shaft, affected him so strongly. But if that caress had affected him, this hard, steady milking made him
crazed
. As she neared her peak, the head of his penis grew moist, and he bucked his hips madly.

“Just hold me tight. I’ll do the rest.” At her ear, he grated, “Now do you feel we’re
enemies
, Lousha? When I’m about tae come in your hand and you on mine?”

The
last
thing she considered him at that moment was an enemy.

“Has another male made you feel this?”

“No, no!”

“Then tell me I’m the only one.” When she didn’t, he slowed his fingers and she whimpered in distress. “Tell me, Lousha.” He kissed her hard, seeming to brand her.

Against his lips, she moaned,
“You’re the only one.”

In reward, he cupped her flesh completely, pressing the heel of his palm against her clitoris. As he worked it against the swollen bud, she went boneless, her eyes sliding shut. In a harsh rasp, he commanded her, “Look at me when you come!”

Her lids fluttered open. Their eyes met.
Lightning, heat, tension building, building. Then release.

He covered her mouth with his own, drowning out her scream, as the pleasure went on and on….