Pleasure of a Dark Prince (23 page)

“Aye, Lousha.” His gaze raked over her and his voice deepened. “The fact that you’re going to like it.”

Merely talking about marking her flesh made Garreth grow hard as steel. It was a burning need within him. “Do you want to know the rules or no’?” At her glare, he said, “Now, I’m sure you want your bow back. And every indication from you says you want my… knowledge. So you’re going to let me have my way with you each night we’re aboard. And also whenever there’s a storm with lightning to disguise yours—”

“It won’t happen! Does what I need or want count for nothing in your mixed-up idea of a relationship?”

“Aye, if you’ll admit what you
truly
need and want. My Instinct’s screaming that you need
me,
that you
ache
. I sense it in you—hell, I’m sensing it right now. I canna rest until I ease you.”

“I didn’t ask for this! For you—”

“You ask for it every goddamned time you’re near me, beauty.” He closed in on her, until their bodies were only inches apart. “Doona ever doubt that.”

She gazed up at him, lips parted, her breaths shallowing.

“Do you know what it’s been like to scent your desire for me? I’m lured by it, wanting it so badly, and then you lash out at me. Can you imagine the frustration, Lousha? I’ve got a year of it pent up inside me.” He leaned down, and against her neck, he murmured, “Or what it was like to find my female after so many centuries and then to be a heartbeat away from being inside her?” At her ear, he said, “I canna count how many times I re-imagined that night, fantasizing I’d sunk into your trembling body. In my mind, I’ve claimed you a thousand times. And from your expression, lass, I am no’ the only one who’s imagined us together.”

“No!” she cried, even as she stared at his lips and moistened her own. Her hips had begun subtly rocking toward him. Her hardened nipples were jutting points against her red shirt. “Let me go!”

“Damn you, Lousha!” He twisted away, launching his fist at the exterior wall, punching a hole straight through. “What do you want from me? Tell me why your words never match your actions! Why you respond so sweetly, then grow afraid?” He exhaled, regretting his show of temper. “It’s making me crazed.”

She backed away. “I can’t. Because you wouldn’t understand.”

—Soothe her. Be gentle. She knows fear.—

Lucia looked woebegone and fragile. And as much as Garreth talked a big game, the Instinct was driving him not only to claim her, but also to please her.

When she dropped her head into her hands, his brows drew together. “Come now, doona fret like this.” He curled his forefinger under her chin, lifting her face. “Vow to the Lore that you never want to see me again. And I’ll go,” he said. “That’s all you have to do to end this running.” What a gamble.

What a lie…

TWENTY-FIVE

Say it!
Lucia’s lips parted to answer, to tell MacRieve that she wanted him gone from her life, never to return. To tell him she didn’t desire him and never would.

But everything he accused her of was true. He touched her and judgment was lost, discipline gone so easily she knew she never had a chance of denying them anyway.

Damn it, tell him you hate him!
No words came out. When she glanced away, he said softly, “Face it, lass. Respect my will in this. I’ll be inside you this night.”

“I’ll fight you.”

“Ah, we both know you’ll melt for me. One kiss and you’re mine.”

He leaned down to kiss her ear.
Not the ears…
Her nipples budded even harder. Even as she wanted to arch her back to rub them against his chest, she murmured, “Impossible.”

Before she could protest, he’d lifted her in his arms.

“MacRieve, no!”

After kicking the balcony doors closed, he carried her to the bed.

“I can’t do this! I won’t do this.”

Once he set her down, she scrambled to the head of the bed, curling her knees to her chest. “I won’t let you make love to me.”

“Ach, woman!” He raked his fingers through his hair. “You want me as much as I want you.”

“Assuming that’s true—”

“It’s true.”

“—I
can’t
. Not now.”

“It’s no’ your time of the month. I know that.”

“Ew.” Valkyrie didn’t have periods. “You’re the only one here with a monthly cycle, werewolf.”

He scowled. “Then what?”

“Have you ever heard of the Skathians?”

He thought for a moment. “Aye. Man haters. Like the Amazons but crueler. And with arrows.”

She raised her brows at that. “I happen to worship the great huntress Skathi.”
Worship, but sometimes I hate her.

“You? Nay, you canna. The Skathians were from ages ago.”

“I’m over a thousand years old,” she said. “Skathi is the one who gave me my bow.”
And my abilities. She can take them away as well. She longs to.
“I’m chaste in her name.”

Oh, bluidy hell, no.
“You canna be serious.”

“I am. I made vows, MacRieve. My reasons are my own, but I will never take a man into my body. It’s a religion to me.”

Suspicions arose. Was she lying? “I never heard this about you.”

She glanced away, and her hair fell over the side of her face. “Besides you, only Regin and Nïx know.”

“Why would you do this? A life without sex?” His tone was astonished—he could barely comprehend such a lack.

“Again, my reasons are my own. But it
is
done.”

“And can easily be
un
done.”

“MacRieve!”

“Never take a man into you? You’re… a
virgin
?” Garreth had suspected so, and didn’t know how he felt about that. Once he introduced her to sex, would Lucia be tempted to sow her oats with other males? His claws dug into his palms at the thought.

“I wasn’t born into that order,” she said, with a shadow of some unrecognizable emotion in her eyes.

Cryptic words? So she wasn’t untouched. Now he had to wonder how many lovers she’d had. “When did you join?”

“What does that matter?” she cried.

“There are no ways around this vow of yours?”

“Skathians are chaste. Period. We’re expected to be pure.”

“Do you believe that rot? That you have to be chaste or virgin to be
pure
?” he demanded. “Or that it’s preferred anyway? Does that mean all mothers are impure?”

“Of course not. But I believe in believing in something, a higher purpose. This is mine.” When he was still shaking his head, she asked, “MacRieve, what do you hold most sacred in the world?”

You
. “My clan.”

“Imagine if I forced you to forsake it for eternity. You’d grow to hate me. The same applies here.” She met his eyes. “I will hate you forever if I lose this part of me.”

This
was the reason she’d run? His hackles rose again. The Instinct was sharp.
—She means what she says. Coax what you can’t take.—

But anger surged inside him. He’d never doubted that she wanted him back, and so for months, he’d wrestled with confusion, grasping for answers. The mystery had eaten at him, the bewilderment…

In China, she’d gazed at him with longing—right before she’d loosed a flaming arrow to blow him up.

She
had
wanted him, but instead of welcoming him to her bed, she’d honored this
Skathi
. Lucia had denied them to keep her ridiculous,
useless
vow of chastity. Which was nearly sacrilegious in itself to a Lykae—their kind revered all things physical, like
sex
.

A year of his life…
wasted
. He shot to his feet and paced. “This was why you ran? Over some purposeless vows to a second-rate goddess?”

She gasped. “I
left
because I have things to do around the Accession.”

“What things?”

“
Private
things!”

“So many bluidy secrets. Has anyone ever told you that you’re a high-maintenance mate? By the gods you’re a complicated woman! The first night I saw you I wished for a female who would give me a challenge. Now I wish I could take it back.” After digging his sat-phone from his bag, he stormed for the door, snatching up the bowcase on the way out.

Out on the deck, the rain was a cool mist. Garreth raised his face to it, struggling for calm. Once he’d gotten the worst of his ire under control, he called his brother. “Lachlain, I have her.”

“That’s excellent! Are you being patient with her?”

Hesitation, then he admitted, “Nay, no’ exactly, but I’m trying to be.”

“Watch yourself, brother. I will never forgive myself for the things I did to Emma.” Lachlain’s voice was rough with regret. “Doona make the same mistake. And no’ like Bowen either. Learn from our misjudgment.”

Their first cousin Bowen had treated his mate, Mariketa the Awaited, even worse than Lachlain had Emma. Before Bowen had accepted that Mariketa was his, he’d almost killed her.

“Is the Valkyrie bristling that you’ve caught her?”

“Oh, aye,” Garreth said, relating all that Lucia had just told him, from the apocalypse to the vows, finishing with, “I want to throttle her.”

“You’re no’ really letting her go with you to stop this apocalypse?”

“Bluidy hell, no. Just letting her think that until I can get more information out of her.”

“Good then,” Lachlain said. “For now, you can start fresh with the Valkyrie. You have the opportunity to no’ fuck up with her. Find the patience.”

Patience?
Before Garreth could correct him, Lachlain said, “Take the edge off by yourself if you have to.” He added in a mutter, “Gods know I did.”

Garreth heard Emma sleepily say, “Lachlain, come back to bed. It’s late.” Two in the afternoon in Scotland was late for a vampire.

“I’ll be there in a second, love.”

Garreth felt a moment of envy, then grew shamed. After Lachlain’s torture and imprisonment at the hands of the Horde, he above all men deserved the solace his pale-haired bride had been giving him over the last year. “Go to your queen, brother.”

“Call me tomorrow,” Lachlain said. “We have much more to discuss. Remember—she’ll come around if you treat her well and respect her beliefs.”

Her beliefs.
Little hypocrite.
Garreth loathed vows like hers, thought them ridiculous. Lykae revered food, touch, sex. She didn’t eat, wouldn’t have sex, but by the gods, he’d set to touching her. Tonight. Aye, he would—

“Remember, Garreth, you only get one female.
Ever
.”

After he hung up with Garreth, Lachlain returned to bed, quietly easing in beside Emma.

But she was still awake. “Was that Garreth?”

“Aye.” He pulled her into his arms, inhaling her sweet scent. “He’s found the Archer.”

“How’s she taking it?” She briefly peeked up, reading his expression. “That good, huh?”

“It’s hard when one’s mate is
other
. Think of what we went through. And Bowen and Mariketa?”

Bowen had probably had it hardest of any of them. He’d believed his mate was dead, had mourned her loss for well over a century. Then, just this year, he’d met Mariketa the Awaited, a witch. When he’d begun to fall hopelessly for her, he’d hated himself for his unfaithfulness, hated
her
for tempting him, accusing her of casting a spell over him. Bowen had found out nearly too late that things… weren’t always as they seemed with Mariketa.

Emma asked, “Do you think it will work out for Aunt Luce and Garreth?”

“I do know this—my brother is nigh head over heels for your aunt.”

He could feel her grinning against his chest. “If he’s anything like you, then my aunt is going to be head over heels for your brother.”

“Let’s hope. Garreth has long needed a good woman in his life. Now,
aingeal
”—he curled his forefinger under her chin, lifting her face—“did you happen to wake thirsty?”

TWENTY-SIX

Though exhaustion weighed on Lucia, she had no hope for sleep.

A storm was boiling outside, and as the boat slogged through the night, the bow collided with log after log, keeping her on edge. Now she understood why the fore cabin wasn’t preferred.