Microsoft Word - The Mammoth Book of Vampire Romance.doc (59 page)

When she swayed on her feet, he eased her onto the bed and came down beside her. Sighing deeply, he rolled her on to her side. Looking into her eyes, he slid his hands over  her body, stroking her arms, her neck, her breasts. When she arched into the caress, he bent to take one distended nipple into his mouth, sucking strongly, drawing on her.

Letting the hot, needy feeling envelop her, she raised her hand, touching his body, awed to be playing her fingers over his broad chest. Leaning forwards, she circled one flat nipple with her tongue, pleased at the way it beaded in response.

His indrawn breath made her feel powerful.

In the next moment, he reached down to touch here where no one else had ever dared touch, his fingers tangling in the triangle of blonde hair at the top of her legs before slipping lower, into her moist folds. The sensation made her gasp.

She gasped again as his finger dipped inside her and circled, then  moved all the way up to the place where her greatest sensation resided.

“I want . . .” she gasped.

“What?”

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She felt her face heat. “I don’t know how to say it.”

He watched her face. “But you’ve felt sexual climax?”

“What is it?”

“The ultimate pleasure  for a woman. And for a man.”

Was that the word for it? The secret, forbidden pleasure.  She couldn’t meet his eyes as he rolled her on to her back and continued to stroke her, angling his hand so that he could press against the throbbing place of greatest  sensation as his finger stroked the inside of her.

She felt her tension climbing, climbing.

“Let me make you come,” he whispered, then bent to tease

her breasts with his mouth again.

She felt the explosion gathering inside her.

“Garon.” She called out  his name in wonder as waves of  pleasure vibrated through  –  more pleasure than she had ever  known in her own, lonely bed.

And as the waves began to recede, he covered her body with his and plunged inside her. There was a moment of pain. But she was so relaxed that she hardly noticed.

He bent his mouth to her neck, and she felt another small pain as sharp teeth pierced her flesh. His mouth sucked at her as he stroked in and out of her, his being vibrating with tension.  Then she felt him go rigid, felt him  suck more strongly as his body jerked and went stiff.

She lay breathing hard, overwhelmed by what they had just done. He eased off her and rolled on to his back. She knew very

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little of what happened between men and women, but she

suspected that what they  had done had been extraordinary.

When she turned her head, she saw her blood on his mouth.  Maybe that should have horrified her, but she only felt limp and relaxed.

She had come here to save her people, but they had receded into the background as he fulfilled a longing she didn’t know existed within her. She wanted to tell him what making love with him had meant to her, but was afraid to reveal too much.

So she only said, “You gave me great pleasure.”

“And I took your blood.”

“I gave it to you,” she  answered.

He sat up and looked down at her. “You knew I drank

blood?”

“Yes,” she whispered. “I read the old stories. They said the

cuts on my feet would tempt you.”

“You read?” he asked in surprise.

“Yes.”

“Who taught you?”

“I taught myself.”

“Well  if you read about me, you know I don’t just drink

blood. I live on it.”

She nodded, then asked in a small voice, “Where do you get

enough to sustain you?”

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“I have a herd of deer that feed me. They come when I call

them. They are my friends.”

His friends. She tried to imagine how lonely he must be.  Emotions welled inside her. She felt something for this man that she had never felt before and didn’t understand now. She only knew that her heart seemed to swell inside her chest.

“Human blood tastes better,”  he said, then looked away. “So  I must stay away from the communities of men. If I take too  much from one person, I kill him. Or her.”

“You didn’t kill me.”

“I could have.”

“I think you’ve learned control.”

“I frighten humans. With good reason. You were very brave

or very foolish to come here,” he said.

She lifted her chin. “Call it what you want, but I feel better

than I ever have in my life.”

Ignoring her words, he added. “Your journey to this place

should be rewarded. You said your people needed my  help.”

“The Digons have laid siege to my father’s castle. They are  barbarians. They will kill our men and rape our women and  make them slaves. And they will take the kingdom for their  own.”

“And you think I can save your people?”

“Yes.”

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He stood up, strode to the door of his bedroom and pushed it

open. From the mouth of the cave, she saw the dawn coming.

“I must sleep,” he said.

“But . . .”

“We will talk when I wake up. But first, I will get you food

and drink.” He walked into the front room and vanished.

She got up and pulled on her gown  and the gold chain, then hurried to the place where he had been. While she was trying to work out where he had gone, he reappeared, holding a tray of meat, fruit, cheese and bread and a crystal goblet of cold water.

Her eyes widened. “Where did you get that?”

“From the other side of the mountain.”

“So quickly?”

“Yes.”

He walked back towards the bedroom. “I will sleep until the

sun is low in the sky. You are welcome to stay here. Or not.”

He swept his hand towards one of the rugs and she saw the sandals she had taken off on the other side of the sharp rocks.  He had brought them to her, so she could walk back the way she had come. Before she could tell him she had no intention of running away, he closed the stout  door between them, leaving her alone in the beautiful room.

She ate some of the food and drank from the goblet, then wandered around, taking in the details of the room. It was wonderful, with more treasures than she could ever have imagined. Diamonds, emeralds and rubies sparkled in a silver

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bowl. A large crystal globe had images of the moon and stars  embedded inside it. There were tables of what looked like

scientific instruments. Some, like a telescope, she recognized;  others were a complete mystery to  her. And beside them were  quill pens, inkwells and stacks of notebooks where he had  written in a language she could not read.

Enthralled by everything she saw, she drifted around the room, inspecting his treasures. Tables held shells from the sea, crystals, bottles of coloured glass, boxes carved of stone and wood, and cunning images of animals, some real and some from stories. She found a beautifully carved dragon, a unicorn and a bear that was completely white.

She left the best for last. On the shelves  was a treasure trove of books and ancient scrolls, beautifully illuminated. She opened books on history, philosophy, science, geography and language: all the subjects she had longed to study when she had been forced to join the other women of the castle learning weaving, embroidery and how to sew clothing, because that was all females were good for. That and marriage and having babies.

Now she attacked the riches of the library, pulling out volumes that interested her and carefully putting them back before she picked up another,

She could stay here for a thousand years, she thought, reading. And learning from the man who lived in this remote place. He was no longer a monster to her. He was like no one she had ever met  –  not her parents or her brother or the people of Balacord, who spent their lives working for the good of her father’s household. She saw that he had curiosity and the leisure time to learn all the disciplines of the world. And that he had travelled from this place and brought wonderful things back to enrich his life. Yet he must be lonely living here alone.

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Time sped by. When the door to the bedroom opened, she blinked. Garon stepped out. He was dressed in black, as she had first seen him.

“You’re still here.”

“Of course.”

“I must eat.”

She stiffened, wondering if he was going to take her blood again, but he walked past her, out into the night, and she realized he was going to his deer herd. A pang of guilt assaulted her. She had lost herself in his books and her people were still in mortal danger.

When  Garon returned, she went to him.

“Will you help me now?”

“It might not come out the way you expect.”

“Why not?”

“You must see that for yourself.”

“How?” she asked.

“You will come with me.”

There was no other choice. “All right,” she answered

immediately.

“You might yet lose your nerve.”

“I hope not.”

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“You said you were from Balacord. I know the place.” He  tipped his head to the side and looked at her. “What do you  know of the legends?”

“That when the people needed a boon from you, they

brought a virgin sacrifice to your mountain.”

Garon considered her answer. “Those women were brought

here against their will. You came on your own.”

“I had to.”

“Few people would do it.”

He sounded so grave. And she heard herself ask, “What did

you do with them? The virgins.”

“I took them to the other side of the mountain, where I

bought them husbands.”

She stared at him. “I thought . . .”

“What?”

“That you ravished them and . . .”

“Killed them?”

“Yes,” she whispered.

“I made love with them. But I do not kill for pleasure. I do  not kill the deer. There are enough of them to feed me without  killing.”

“But you will kill the barbarians?”

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Garon was silent for a long time, and she felt her heart pounding  as she waited for his answer. “Yes. For  you. Because you had the will and the courage to ask.”

“Then we must hurry. They have laid siege to the castle.

The people cannot hold out for much longer.”

“We will make you ready to leave.”

Morgan felt a pang. She didn’t want this time with him to

end. He had listened to her, really listened. And he had shown  her more regard in a few hours than she had ever experienced in  her whole life. She felt the sadness of that and struggled to push  it away. She had work to do, and she must not let her own needs  distract her.

He walked further back into the cave and returned with a

shirt and pants and a set of leather armour.

“Put this on.”

“Why?”

“Because you are going into battle.”

Morgan swallowed and turned her back so she could take off the gown and pull  on the shirt and pants. Then she picked up the top part of the armour, turning it in her hands. “I don’t know how to fit it to me.”

“I’ll help you.” He slipped the upper piece over her head  and hooked it together under her arms. “Put your hands on my  shoulders.”

She did, closing her eyes as she clung to his strong body, wishing they were back in bed together. And when he fitted the leg guards over her thighs, she fought a surge of heat.

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Maybe he felt it too, because she heard his breath catch.

“How did  you find armour that fits a woman?” she asked,

trying to distract herself.

“Magic,” he said. His voice thick.

He picked up the helmet from the bed and fixed it on her head, carefully tucking her hair out of sight. Then he pulled back a drapery and turned  her around so that she could see herself in a long mirror.

She stared at the warrior confronting her. “I look . . . fierce.”

“We’ll see if your heart matches your appearance. Come

outside.”

She followed him out of the bedroom, through the room with the  wonderful books and then into the night. The moon was so bright that the rock outcroppings cast shadows.

“Stay there while I change,” he said.

“To what?”

He stepped back, a few feet from her. Then began to grow and transform. She gasped as scales covered his body. His neck and head elongated. His arms turned into wings and his feet became talons. In seconds a terrifying dragon stood before her, towering twenty feet in the air.