Sword of Darkness (10 page)

Her breathing labored, she lay there not sure if a person could still be alive after such a thing. Unbidden, a single tear of joy slid from the corner of her eye.

Kerrigan took form immediately by her side. She saw the deep concern in his eyes as he looked down at her.

“You are still intact, Seren,” he breathed, taking her hand into his. He led it down to the extremely sensitive flesh between her legs. Using his own finger, he pressed her index finger deep inside her until she could feel her maidenhead. “I didn’t take your virginity from you. I swear.”

A foreign tenderness flooded her at his words…at the concern he was showing for her. She knew how rare such a thing was for him.

And in that moment, she wanted the very thing she’d never known before. She wanted him…mayhap it was wrong, but she already knew that she had no way back to her world, to her place. Morgen. Kerrigan. The Lords of Avalon. They
wouldn’t allow her to return to her loom in Master Rufus’s shop. Ever. All of that was behind her now. Even if she escaped, so long as they believed she was destined to fulfill some kind of prophecy about Merlin, they would bring her back. She’d seen enough of their magic to know that she couldn’t fight them or elude them.

All she had to protect her from the others was Kerrigan. A man who claimed he held no heart, and yet he’d been nothing but kind to her.

And she wanted to show him how much she appreciated his protection. How much she appreciated him…

Her heart quickening, she stared up at those dark, soulless eyes and offered him a tender smile. “Can you show me what it would feel like to have you inside me?”

His eyes blazed red a moment before she felt something thick and hard inside her. Seren shivered at the unexpected pleasant sensation. She hissed as it pounded through her in the most wickedly sensuous rhythm, but Kerrigan was still fully dressed and lying by her side. It wasn’t he she felt inside her, but rather a facsimile of him.

His eyes continued to flame as he watched her with a feral tic in his jaw. She saw the strain he felt as he gave her pleasure without taking any for himself. It was inconceivable to her that this man who lived only by his own rules would be so giving. It wasn’t in his nature to be like this, and that only added to the delectation she felt.

Again the intense pleasure built as her body
shivered uncontrollably. It was unlike anything she’d ever imagined. And she wondered how much better it might be to have him there instead.

Seren couldn’t speak as she bit her lip and squirmed in ecstasy. She reached out and seized the vambrace armor on his forearm as her body again shattered.

Kerrigan couldn’t breathe as he watched her climaxing again. He wanted inside her so badly that he could taste it. The need was all consuming, and yet he found the strength to keep himself from yielding to his lust.

He wouldn’t take that last bit from her. Her body was the one thing that was hers alone to give. No matter what it cost him, he would leave her virgin.

Just when he was about to move away, she opened her green eyes and pinned him with a heated stare.

That look held him captive.

“That wasn’t what I meant, my lord.”

Kerrigan cocked his head in confusion as she released his vambrace, then moved her hand to touch his. She led his hand over the curve of her stomach, down to the short crisp hairs at the juncture of her thighs.

“I wanted to feel
you
inside me, Kerrigan. Not your magic.”

He lightly skimmed his fingers over her mons as disbelief filled him. “Why?”

“Because I want to give myself to you.”

Anger coiled through him. He pulled back, only to find her rising with him.

“I have no need of your gift,” he snarled.

“And that is the beauty of a gift, my lord. If someone needs it, then it is charity. It is only when you give someone something that they want and have no need of that it becomes a real gift.”

Still he glared at her, and still she showed him no fear. “This will change nothing between us, little mouse. One physical act will not endear you to me in any way.”

“I know.”

She shivered as he dissolved her gown from her. Kerrigan held his hand out to conjure the far wall into a mirror. He pulled her from the bed to face it.

Seren swallowed at the sight of her nudity as Kerrigan placed her before the mirrored wall. Still fully dressed in his armor, Kerrigan stood behind her, his eyes piercing her with an unfounded anger.

She looked so small compared to him. So insignificant.

“Is this what you would offer me?” he asked softly in her ear.

She nodded.

He brushed her blond hair back from her neck before he leaned down to inhale deeply against her skin. His breath was hot even though his touch was cold.

He looked up to lock gazes with her in the looking glass wall. His eyes were flames that flickered with an unholy light an instant before his armor vanished. All except his sword, which now lay on the ground at their feet.

Seren trembled at the fierce sight of his naked body. Maybe she should be afraid, and yet she
wasn’t. She couldn’t explain it, but somehow this seemed right. She didn’t want to be the bride of some unknown knight. Nor did she wish to be a pawn.

Her life no longer seemed to be her own, and yet this moment was completely in her control. It didn’t make sense that she was here with Kerrigan like this. She knew he held no real love for her.

But some part of her craved him with an unreasoning madness. She couldn’t imagine being with anyone but him. That need, that hunger, they came from him and she wanted to do this.

Kerrigan reached around her to cup her breasts in his hands as he pressed himself up against her back. Leaning against his chest, she closed her eyes as pleasure swept through her.

“Open your eyes, Seren,” he said thickly. “I want you to see me take your gift so that you can never accuse me of having stolen it from you.”

From the way he said those words, she could tell that someone must have accused him of such a thing in the past. “I am well aware of what I’m doing, Kerrigan.”

His face hardened. “No Lord of Avalon will ever have you once they know you have been defiled by me. You will change your destiny.”

She took his hand into hers and led it to her lips so that she could kiss the hard calluses there. She turned in his arms until she could look up at him. “I was born the daughter of a weaver, and being a weaver is the only destiny I have ever sought. This will change nothing where I’m concerned.”

Kerrigan couldn’t understand her madness. She
was throwing away a chance to live as royalty. A chance to live in the gilded halls of Avalon with color and laughter.

If it wasn’t for the fact that he could sense no magic, he would think it was a spell making her submit to him. But there was nothing here but the two of them.

Why was she doing this?

Never look a gift horse in the mouth.

But how could he not? “You accept a demon as your lover?”

“Only if the demon is you.”

Then who was he to argue with her? She was a woman full-grown, far past the age to have known a man carnally. She consented of her own free will to be with him…

Kerrigan dipped his head down to taste her lips one more time. He growled at the taste of her as he held her naked body close to his. Never before had he taken a virgin, but he knew that for them the first time would bring pain.

And the last thing he wanted was to hurt her.

Again.

His heart hammering, he closed his eyes and summoned his magic.

Seren gasped as all the walls and the ceiling above became mirrored so that she could see them from all angles. His eyes blazing, Kerrigan swept her up in his arms and carried her to the bed that no longer had a canopy. He laid her down gently before he joined her.

She should be afraid of this, yet she wasn’t. Kerrigan had been right, she was changing her des
tiny by being with him. Master Rufus would never again want her. He would throw her out of his house. Not that this would have any bearing on his decision. He would have tossed her out anyway for having been gone this long without permission or a chaperone.

Like Gilda, she’d be tossed to the nearest stew.

There was no way to return to the life she’d known. The life she’d intended to live. It had ended the moment she’d taken Kerrigan’s hand and allowed him to pull her across his horse.

And she knew nothing of the Lords of Avalon. Not really. They were vague, dreamlike entities. Story characters who might or might not be what she’d heard from others. Gawain and Agravain had certainly not been what she’d expected.

But Kerrigan was real and she knew him—at least better than she knew any of the others. And for some reason she couldn’t name, she wanted to be with him. To stay by his side.

There was something more to him; she could feel it. He was like a feral beast in the wild that lashed out at anyone who came near it, and yet such a beast could be tamed. A patient hand could bring even the wildest of creatures to friendship.

As a girl, she had been picking berries with her mother when they had found a wolf in a trap. The wolf had tried to attack them, but her mother had very carefully fed and watered the animal while talking gently to it. By the time the wolf had finished its meal, her mother had been able to approach it and free it from the trap.

Afterward, her mother had taken her aside and
set her on a stump with her basket of berries in her lap. Her mother’s blue eyes had been bright as she held her hands and spoke softly to her.
“One day, my Seren, you’ll find another beast such as this one. He, too, will be hurt by the thoughtless cruelty of others—by their fear of him. Remember that no matter how feral he seems, no matter how much he snaps, he is only trying to protect himself. It will take time to show him that you only want to help. Time to teach him that not everyone means him harm. Then he will be yours alone and he will fight to the death to protect you.”

Odd how she hadn’t thought about that in years. Her mother had often been possessed of visions. It was why they’d moved so often. As soon as others learned of her mother’s wisdom, they would grow nervous and start whispering of witchcraft.

Now Seren wondered if on that day her mother had been speaking of the man in her bed…

Kerrigan most certainly fit her mother’s description. He was like the wolf in the wild that snapped every time they neared it.

He’d been hurt; she sensed it. It was why he was so wary of everyone. Wary of her when all she wanted was to touch him.

Reaching up, she cupped his face in her hands. He was so beautiful in the sunlight as he moved to place himself between her legs. It somehow seemed wholly natural that he should be her first, and something inside told her that he would most likely be her last. She couldn’t imagine ever wanting another man like this.

Her heart softening, she brushed the hair back
from his face an instant before she kissed him. His whiskers scraped her palms and lips. She moaned at the feral taste of him. At the rawness of his touch.

He pulled back to give her a look so tender that it brought an ache to her chest. He might claim not to have changed toward her, but that look denied all his protestations.

Gently, he moved to kiss a path down her stomach. Seren hissed as her body erupted in chills. Her head spinning, she watched as he spread her thighs wide an instant before he leaned down to take her into his mouth.

She groaned deep in her throat as she balled her hand in his dark hair. It was the most incredible sensation she’d ever known. Biting her lip, she looked up to watch him in the mirror above as he pleasured her.

At least until she felt a strange, pleasurable burn at the center of her body.

“Kerrigan?”

He pulled back to look at her. “You are a maiden no more, Seren.”

“But you haven’t…”

He led her hand back to the center of her body to show her that her maidenhead was already gone. Then he pressed her hand against his swollen shaft.

She saw the pleasure on his face as she gently wrapped her hand around him. He was so strangely soft and hard against her palm and fingers. He shuddered in her arms as she explored the length of his shaft. “Did I hurt you?”

“Nay,” he breathed as if he were indeed being tortured.

Seren had never given thought to what a man would feel like in her hand. But she liked the feel of him there. The look of pleasure on his face. Carefully, she circled the moist tip as his breathing turned ragged. He moved slowly against her hand, letting her feel the way his soft flesh moved in contrast to his hardness.

It really was like petting a ferocious animal. She knew tenderness was not in his nature and the fact that he was being gentle with her now made her feel special. Wanted.

His eyes flared brighter an instant before he kissed her deeply, then moved her hand away from him so that he could bury himself deep inside her.

Kerrigan couldn’t breathe at the tightness of her body welcoming his. Using his magic, he made sure that she wouldn’t feel anything except the pleasure of his touch.

That would be his gift to her.

In truth he’d never known anything better than the feel of her skin sliding against his. Of her hands skimming over his back as she lightly scraped his skin with her nails. He’d never known real tenderness in his life. His past lovers had always been passing itches with no emotional attachment for him.

But with Seren, it was different. He didn’t want to rush to get this over so that he could leave. He wanted to hold on to her. To watch her enjoy his body as much as he enjoyed hers.

More than that, he wanted to be as deep inside
her as he could get. Rolling over, he pulled out of her.

She gave him a shocked look. “Is it done?”

He smiled at her innocent questions. “Not yet.” Kerrigan pulled her up to kneel on the bed as he moved behind her. He paused as he saw her looking at him in the mirror. Their gazes locked, he spread her thighs wide before he sank himself into her again, going even deeper than he had before.

Moaning, she reached up over her head to sink her hand into his hair while he cupped her breasts in his hands. His heart pounding in tenderness, he thrust against her.