Damien's Destiny (22 page)

Before he made another move he must get Toria by his side.

His power now flowing brightly through his veins, he wished her over Red’s body and beside him.

Smiling at her astonished face as she stood beside him, he leaned over and kissed her softly.

“Good to see you, my love. You were wonderful. I must remember not to make you angry.”

She looked both amazed and delighted.

“I flew, didn’t I? I actually flew.”

He knew this was the time to make sure she understood exactly what he was.

“Well, almost but not quite. You know I’m a mage. That conveys a lot of power with it. I can sometimes move objects just by thinking about them. I want you to understand me. I’m a true mage, as my father was before me. I can even change my shape when I choose.”

She thought for a moment and then his amazing girl laughed. “You were the old earl as well as the present one, weren’t you?”

Relieved, he still felt compelled to make sure she understood.

“I can also read people’s minds. With those I love I have never, nor will I ever, invade unless at their request. I have never used that power on you. But yes and I can work a magic spell or two.”

She looked at him in silence for a moment, while he literally held his breath. They’d come so far in their journey toward each other but she must accept him as he was or they could go no further.

Toria reached up and patted his face, suddenly looking more serious than he liked.

“Can you forgive me for breaking my word to you, Damien?”

“I knew you were forced, love. None of that matters.”

“And what you just told me doesn’t matter, Damien. Your abilities are even more than I suspected but I don’t care how much or how little power you have. You’re uniquely you. And it’s you I want, if you still want me.”

Obsessed with the urge to make their way out of the tunnel so he could kiss her properly, he turned to Tom. The man was as motionless as if he’d been cast in stone but his eyes were wild and frantically afraid.

“You’re lucky, Tom. Suddenly I don’t want you around and I really don’t like killing people. I also don’t want your body in the way. I’m going to free you from this spell and if you have a brain in your head you’ll run out this tunnel as fast as the weasel you are. Now go.”

Tom was only too glad to leave this frightening pair. The minute Damien freed his muscles he dropped the torch and wheeled and scurried out of the tunnel. The air from the ocean came wafting in and Damien realized they were very near the end where the tunnel emptied onto the beach. Taking a deep breath of the fresh, tangy air, he waited just a moment to give Tom time to run as far from the cove as he could. Damien wondered if he should have let him go but then grinned as he thought of the government men on the march to this location. Doubtless some had been dispatched to the hut and some to the cove. He didn’t think Tom would get very far.

The torch had gone out when it fell to the dirt and Damien considered relighting it. Starting a fire was so elemental for a mage. But Tom’s departure had let a slim sliver of light into the tunnel and Damien didn’t bother. Taking Toria’s hand, Damien led her to the almost hidden entrance on the sand.

He didn’t have much time before either the government men or Rafe showed up. He checked in his mind to see where they all were and then turned to his love. He intended to spend every minute convincing her they belonged together. He knew well he must continue his patience with her but he hoped to induce her to give him another chance to win her love. Although love for her tended to tie his tongue, certainly he could be persuasive enough to hope she’d eventually accept him as her destiny. He’d wait whatever time she wanted to claim her body, although right now he was shuddering with almost uncontrollable desire for this wonderful girl.

Chapter Nineteen

Toria trembled from head to foot when they exited the cave. She’d never felt such desire before, she thought, although she’d longed for Damien’s kisses. This hot ardency was entirely different, burning her senses and lighting her body. She couldn’t wait to put her hands all over him and to embrace this wonderful man. An irresistible compulsion urged her on, a craving she didn’t understand but didn’t try to resist.

She wanted him. All of him.

She looked around and saw a sandy spot to the side of the exit. She didn’t even check to see if anyone else was on the beach. She threw herself at him, clutching his hair and forcing his lips down to hers.

“Damien, I want something, I’m not sure what but it’s so strong. Compelling. I want your body joined with mine. I know you can satisfy this craving. It’s funny but I can barely keep from tearing off your clothes.”

While he stood motionless with a stunned look on his face, she stripped off her jacket and placed it on the sandy spot.

“Now you, Damien, take off your coat too. Spread it below mine. Lay down a kind of bed so we can make love with each other. Here. Now.”

She would have smiled at his astonishment were it not that the urgency of her desire made her run her hands under his coat, helping him shrug it off while she delighted in the feel of his muscled chest and back. His powerful shuddering pleased her enormously.

Damien reacted quickly, folding her jacket to make a pillow for her head and then spreading his coat so he could position her hips. Sand in the area he knew he’d soon be invading would be uncomfortable but his own need made his hands shake. He knew well the urgency she was experiencing and thanked all the powers in the heavens. Their escape from near death had left her with a driving desire to reaffirm life in the most elemental way.

He could feel his erection surging to full force, larger than he’d ever known before. He’d desired her for such a long time and spent so many nights fighting the demand to take her and show her she was his for all of time. He cautioned himself to slow down and not frighten her again but the pressure building in his body made it even more difficult than usual.

Toria seemed to have her own ideas. She practically accosted him. Well, hell, she did accost him, her slender fingers going immediately to the buttons of his trousers. He realized dimly she’d stepped out of her drawers while he was positioning his coat for her comfort.

She caressed his arousal through the thin material of his pants and then tugged at them.

“Pull these stupid things down, Damien. How can we join bodies when you’re still clothed?”

If he could, he’d have collapsed from surprise and delight but she already was tugging his hand to urge him down to the makeshift bed. While he fought the longing to take her on the spot where she stood, she hastily lay down and held out her arms to him.

He dimly realized she was almost as crazed as he. He knew in the back of his mind what frenzy possessed them both. Often after extreme danger, one is filled with gratitude for escaping overwhelming odds and suffused with an almost uncontrollable desire to affirm being alive. A zest and an urgent need for life to reassert itself. The same compulsion seized them both. He was on fire as well as too thankful for the chance to prove to his love for her to attempt to try to slow her.

He sank quickly to his knees, straddling her body and leaning down to kiss her seeking lips. He plunged his tongue in immediately, seeking out the sweet crevices of her mouth as she opened to give him easier access. Their dueling tongues stroked each other with equal ardor. He imitated the mating action, as their passion blazed even hotter.

He kissed and sucked her nipples through the material of the dress he longed to rip from her but instead shoved it up around her waist. He wished his trousers off him and didn’t even notice as they fell to the sand.

Toria slipped her hands under his shirt and gasped as she felt his muscles ripple and strain against her hands. He felt so blatantly male, so alive and responsive as she caressed his chest with her mouth and her hands and moved down his body, lingering just a few seconds over his navel and then traveling even lower.

As her fingers enclosed his erection Damien jerked as if she’d hit him with a whip. Reaching for her wandering fingers he tried for her sake to hesitate. He hoped he wasn’t crushing her with his weight but she didn’t seem to care.

“Toria, we’re already going much faster than we should. You can’t be ready for me yet, although by every hell if you touch me again I’ll probably explode in your hand.”

She responded by looping her hands behind his neck and arching her body fully against his. With the smile of a born siren she whispered, “Please go faster, Damien. I want to feel I’m truly yours.”

To his utter delight when he reached down to the curls of her mound he found her as moist as he could wish. With a groan and unspoken prayer to try to go slowly he positioned his heavy erection between her legs. He tried to probe gently but she grabbed his hips to force him in, lifting her hips to take him fully inside. When she pushed against him he gave up the fight he wasn’t at all interested in winning and plunged deep into her welcoming warmth. His body screaming for release, he tried to control himself to make this rapture last. Once, twice, four times he thrust into her, so deeply he felt he was touching her womb. To his delight he felt her respond eagerly to every plunge. They crested together on the fifth stroke, the quickest and most ecstatic climax Damien had ever experienced. And she went soaring with him.

She cried out his name with joy and triumph and he shouted his release. He lay limply on her, marveling at the sure knowledge she’d found pleasure too. And he knew she realized every wonderful moment that it was he, Damien, filling her so completely and with so much love. She’d never doubted his presence as her lover.

He tried to move but she held her to him.

“Don’t move just yet, Damien. I love your being in me like this. By your Merlin, if I’d known you’d bring me such pleasure I wouldn’t have waited so long to insist you give me another chance.”

He kissed her sweetly and with infinite gratitude. “Even I didn’t know it could be like this, my dearest love. Although I think you had to come to me on your own to make it so wonderful. I’ve never experienced such pleasure. Thank you, Toria.”

She looked at him in wonder. “Damien, your-your
rod
is growing again inside me. Does that mean we can do it again?”

He pulled out of her and stood. A little ruefully and certainly with regret but he managed.

“It most certainly does, my dear love but not now. Much as I’d enjoy taking you again here and now. Rafe will be here soon with Araby and so will the government men. But I promise I’ll come to you tonight and every night thereafter. Then I’ll show you how much more pleasure is possible when you mate with your true love.”

She beamed at him as he took her hand and raised her to stand beside him. She jumped to her feet with the smile of a fulfilled woman. She reached over for her drawers and as he admired her grace he noticed her legs running with moisture. His seed and her own juices. That might make for an uncomfortable ride home for her.

He grinned at her. “I didn’t think to bring a towel. Here love, let me help with this little problem.”

He summoned a small warm wind and directed it to her legs, smiling into her questioning eyes as she felt the breeze gently dry her. She laughed out loud when the breeze moved and next dried the damp spots over her breasts where he’d sucked her so frantically.

She laughed. “Damien, is there anything you can’t do? I must say loving a mage is a fine thing.”

He stopped still and stared at her. “Do you realize you just said you loved me?”

“Well, of course I do. Realize I said it and that I love you. I’m not a lackwit, you know.”

He hugged her to him hard but briefly. She’d just presented him with two wondrous gifts. Her passion and her love. What more could any man want?

“Come on, my intelligent bride-to-be. Let’s make ourselves look as respectable as we can.”

He donned his trousers and they tidied themselves just as Rafe rode up with Araby on a lead behind him.

“I’m glad you didn’t come any quicker, Rafe,” Damien said dryly. “Toria and I had a few things to discuss.”

“I don’t doubt you a bit,” Rafe said with a laugh. “Did I give you enough time to finish your—ah—discussion?”

Damien took a mock swipe at him and turned to go.

Rafe stopped him. “Er, Damien, that boat out there is coming in fast. Is it supposed to?”

Damien peered at the rapidly approaching ship. “No, not yet. The government men are coming soon. I’ll stop the boat for about ten minutes as they will definitely want to interview these gentlemen.”

“Smugglers?”

“Of the worst kind,” Damien answered in as grim a voice as his companions had ever heard from him. “They bring in contraband goods, some drugs and take out young girls destined to be sex slaves.”

“My god,” Rafe whispered. “But you still want them to land.”

“Definitely,” Damien answered. “I want the government to have them right and tight. I’d better stall them for now ’til the agents arrive.”

He stood staring out to sea, saying nothing and a small storm immediately whipped up between the ship and the shore.

“That will hold them off just long enough. Let’s go home.”