Pleasure of a Dark Prince (18 page)

“Why do you keep saying that?”

“You’ll see.” Barefooted, he unzipped his waterproof bag for a pair of faded jeans and a black T-shirt.

Her eyes widened. “You’re not changing in here.”

Fingers on the fly of his low-slung jeans, he raised his brows at her. “Oh, I’m no’?” He leisurely tugged down his zipper. “Leaving on wet clothes in the Amazon? Lesson one—that’s no’ too bright an idea.”

Her first instinct was to whirl around, but then she’d be turning her back on a disrobing Lykae who lusted for her. Yet the alternative was just as bad. To see his naked flesh again?

How many times had she fantasized about his big shaft, remembering how it’d looked when he’d been pumping it into her fist between those bars?

Don’t look at it.
Blushing, she finally whirled around from him, but then she was forced to listen to the sounds of his undressing. His smooth, tan skin would still be damp, as it’d been that rainy night in the bayou. She swallowed, assailed by memories of touching him, touching him everywhere….

“So, Valkyrie. Mind telling me what we’re doing in Amazonia, of all places? I’d vowed I’d never return to this hellhole.”

Without turning around, she said, “I do mind. And if you vowed never to return, then you—should—leave.”

“Here’s a thought. In the last year I’ve been chasing you, did you never consider hiding out at the Ritz?”

“Here’s a thought. Stop chasing me!”

Suddenly she felt his breaths—on the back of her neck. She twisted around, craning her head to stare up at mesmerizing golden eyes.

As he gazed down at her, he rested his hand against the wall above her head, fingering a lock of her hair. “Ah, lass, I will. Now that I’ve caught you.”

He had little flecks of black within the gold of his irises. She’d never noticed that before. And she dimly perceived that he had in fact redressed.

Was she disappointed? “Caught me?”

“Oh, aye.”

The reality of her situation sunk in. She was the object of a Lykae’s unwavering obsession. They just didn’t give up. And the Valkyrie’s usual remedy for this—a slaying—wasn’t an option.

She
was
caught, she couldn’t get rid of him, and short of leaving this boat, she was going to have to deal with MacRieve.

She’d have to try to reason with him. The only problem? He made her feel anything but reasonable! Even now, she wanted to rise up on her toes, rubbing against his chest on the way up, to whisper in his ear that she needed to be kissed. “I’ll make a deal with you, MacRieve. If you leave me alone for just one year, then we’ll meet up. I’ll let you court me. But I need you off this boat, now.”

“Meet up? Like that time in the swamp?” he said pointedly.

“I’d vow it to the Lore. Just leave here now, and I’ll contact you as soon as I return from the Amazon.”

“This is no’ open for debate. I’m no’
bargaining
with you. That time is past. We do things my way now. I’m in this cabin and in that bed with you. Best come to terms with it.”

“You can’t be serious!”

“Are you no’ tired of running? Settle this with me.”

“One more time—I’m not running from you! I have an urgent matter to attend to, and I need to be focused. Which means you need to leave.”

“Tell me what you have to ‘attend to.’”

For a wild moment, she considered revealing everything about Cruach. She believed that the Broken Bloody One could in fact bring about an apocalypse—if she couldn’t cast him back to the bowels of his lair for another five centuries. Nïx had said his power would now spread like wildfire,
like a plague
, if unchecked.

But Lucia knew if she laid it all out there, the Lykae would simply inform her that
he
would take care of Cruach. A male like MacRieve would never accept that she alone had the power to defeat a monster so powerful he could destroy the world.

“Tell me, Lousha….”

She steadied herself. Because she’d trusted one male, she was in this predicament—she wouldn’t be blindly trusting another one to get her out of it! So she answered with a question: “How could you possibly get here so quickly? I saw you in the Northlands.”

“I have ways. And I’ll be as forthcoming as you are with me.”

“Damn you, MacRieve, you can’t comprehend how important this is.”

“Then enlighten me.”

She pursed her lips.

“Will no’? Then I doona give a damn about your business. All I care about is having you in my grasp. Maybe I dinna make myself clear. Before I would have been good to you, spoiled you. And I might have bargained with you. No longer. Now I simply want the use of your body and revenge for all you’ve done to me.”

Stunned, she bit out, “Go to hell.”

“Been there, Valkyrie. For the last twelve months.”

“I’ll escape you, MacRieve, just as I have time and again. If you want to play dirty—”

“I’ll
always
play dirty with you, because it’s the only way to win.” His hand shot downward. Would he grab her, stroke her—

But he never touched her. Her jaw dropped.
He snagged my bow!
She lunged for it, but he yanked it back.

With a look of diabolical satisfaction, he said, “Bet this has no’ been out of arm’s reach in centuries.”

“Wh-what are you doing?”

Her look of horror would have told Garreth all he needed to know even if lightning hadn’t struck just off the port window. She’d do
anything
to get this back.

“Give it to me!” She made another futile grab.

“Ah-ah, Valkyrie.” He half turned from her, examining it, checking the lines. Etched into the wood were bizarre symbols that raised his hackles, made him wary. Esoteric ones that he’d never seen, as mysterious as the woman before him.

Not for the first time, he felt as though he didn’t know Lucia at all.

“If you want this back in this century… you’ll do whatever I say.”

Her lips thinned.

“I think we’re beginning to understand each other. Now to make you more cooperative.” He unstrung the bow, placing it into its case.

“MacRieve, no!”

He tossed the case on the bed. “Calm yourself. I’ll give it back when you vow to the Lore that you will no’ run.”

“I can’t believe you would do this to me!”

He cast her an amused look. “Believe it,” he said, savoring this victory, knowing he’d finally won a round—and it was decisive. “I’ll do this and more. Show you all the mercy you showed me. You’ll do whatever I tell you for the duration.” He stepped back, his gaze raking over her body. “And right now, I’m telling you to strip for me.”

TWENTY

She froze, glaring up at him. “When I get that bow back, MacRieve, I’m going to use it to kill you.”

“What’s new there?” His gaze dropped to her lips. “For the last year, you’ve been exploding things at me and trying to end me.”

“I’ve never
tried
to ‘end’ you before—as evidenced by the fact that you’re still alive.”

“What about the log truck? And the warehouse fire?”

One single flaming arrow plus a New Year’s cache of fireworks equaled a whistling, popping, screeching inferno—that he’d been directly in the middle of.

He hadn’t even brought up the Austrian incident: Regin, some shrieks, an avalanche, and a buried, pissed-off werewolf.

“Not to mention what you did to my quarters in Louisiana!”

She might have ordered “her subjects” to relocate the horses from the stable to his rooms. And possibly she’d cut all his more costly belongings in half, removing fifty percent of them. “What about your lies?” Lucia snapped. “Saying that I wasn’t your mate!”

He didn’t address that. “I’ve been patient with you, Lousha, forgiven any
slights
against me and my family. No more patience. I’m a different man now than I was then.”

A darker, even more attractive man. Or beast. “Slights? If you wouldn’t have
stalked
me—”

“Luckily, I did, so I could repeatedly save your pert arse.”

“And yet I survived the previous
millennium
without your assistance!”

“I could have taken you from Val Hall that night of the vampire attack, away from the threat. Instead I stayed to save your sisters’ lives. I did this
for you.
”

She knew this!

“So I was a shade pissed that I’d made a sacrifice for you and you threw me over at the earliest opportunity. And there are a dozen more incidents when I’ve had to save you.”

“Listen to you, talking about your good deeds!”

“I’ve got a few of them to speak of where you’re concerned. And in the last few weeks, your foes have been increasing in number—”

“I swear it’s like you believe your deeds are credits, and if you do enough or remind me enough, then you can buy me.”

“No’ buy you.
Earn
you. That’s the Lykae in me. Could no’ turn that off if I tried. Deep down I believe that if I show you I’m a good protector and provider, you’ll surrender to me. You’ll want me in turn.”

“But I
don’t
want you. I couldn’t have made it clearer over the last year. There’s
playing hard to get
, and then there’s
take a freaking hint!
When you followed me, you brought all this on yourself.” They were toe-to-toe, breathing heavily, and she was uncaring of the consequences.

“Doona want me?” His voice dropped to a low rumble. “Ah, lass, do you really want me to make a liar out of you?”

He was about to kiss her, and gods help her, she feared she wanted him to—

A knock on the door. From just outside the cabin, a male said, “Dr. MacRieve,” interrupting her swan dive toward disaster.

The Scot mouthed,
“Dr. MacRieve?”
with a wolfy grin. For the first time his eyes warmed.

She wanted to die!

“That pleases me, Lousha.”

“I didn’t do it,” she hissed. “Nïx did.”

“O’ course.”

At the door, she called, “Um, yes?”

“Charlie here, ma’am. I’m the deck hand.” He sounded young, with a light Brazilian accent. “Just wanted to tell you that the meet-and-greet starts now. The other docs are making their way to the salon.”

MacRieve murmured, “Tell me this isn’t a research vessel.”

“What of it?”

With a scheming look, he said, “And you’re pretending to be one of them.”

More knocking. “Uh, Dr. MacRieve? Can I tell
Capitão
you’re coming up?”

Before she could stop him, MacRieve opened the door. Standing there was “Charlie,” a clearly startled young man.

“The wife and I will be up in ten minutes.”

“Uh, yes,
apreciável
—”

As she gaped, MacRieve shoved the door closed in his face. “Lousha,” he began in a low threatening tone, “no more dallying. Take off your clothes.
Now.”

“I’m going to kill you, MacRieve!” she said under her breath. “Introducing us as married?”

“It’ll happen soon enough.” Though matehood was as good as forever for his kind, the Valkyrie preferred some kind of binding ceremony—Annika had backed down from her hostility a grudging inch once Lachlain had agreed to give Emma one.

So Garreth had decided he would marry Lucia, wouldn’t rest until she saw their union as eternal. “Mark my words.”

“I can’t tell you how wrong you are about that,” she said in a strange tone.

“Would they no’ wonder why we share a last name? Thank your sister Nïx for that.”

“You could have told them we were siblings!”

“Like they’d believe that! When you’re always seducing me with your eyes.”

“I’m not—I never!”

Ignoring her protests, he leaned back on the bed, hands folded under his head. The bow case lay by his side—he all but dared her to try to take it again. “Lousha, you canna go to the meeting sopping wet, now, can you?”

Her eyes darted as she so clearly weighed her options. That she was even considering stripping told him that she did in fact have some serious shite going on down here.

Garreth had figured she was here on some quest—they were common enough in the Lore. Plus, he still remembered her whispering to her sister in Val Hall about locating some mystery item.

Did he need to know what business she had? Absolutely. And the fact that it was here in the Green Hell made him wary. But with Lucia he’d learned to let information unfold—eventually he’d get his way and discover everything. “You want this back”—he smugly patted the case—“then take off your clothes.”

Flashing dark eyes promised retribution. “I’ll get you back for this.”

“You already have, Archer. The shirt’s coming off for the logs. You broke my leg that time. Have you ever tried to swim in rapids with a compound fracture? The pants are for shooting a flaming arrow into that fireworks warehouse—
while I was in it.
”

“That wasn’t my idea, that was Reg—”

“Ah-ah, I’m no’ finished. The bra is for shooting no’ one but
two
MacRieves.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Already forgotten that you shot my brother?”

“While trying to rescue Emma from his castle. And only through his arm, and only because he kidnapped my niece!”