The Lord of the Clans (7 page)

“Unfortunately, I don’t have the luxury, or the time, for love.”

His cold voice suggested he’d never let himself care for anyone. Heart heavy, she stretched out while he finished off his plate. He didn’t want to love a woman. He just needed to mate with one.

A wave of weariness descended on her as she cast a glance at the large pallet, the place where bodies slept, or coupled.

She didn’t have to be told he had every intention to spend the night there, but what about her? Lying by his side would be a mistake. On the other hand, she didn’t fancy sleeping on the cold floor.

“Don’t trouble yourself, Ariana. I have the perfect solution to your inextricable and dramatic dilemma.”

His knack for sarcasm obviously wasn’t buried very deep, just momentarily misplaced. A fleeting smile playing on his lips, he stared at her with an intensity that made her quiver.

“Tell me something first. Are you a virgin?”

His bluntness took the breath out of her. How did he dare ask such an intimate question? Well, he dared because he was her ruler, and she had to answer him. Willing her cheeks to stay pale, she murmured with difficulty.

“No, my lord.”

He pushed his chair back, walked to the cabinet, and retrieved a blanket. When he reached the bed, he rolled the cover into the shape of a long tube, and laid it in the middle of the pallet, like a barrier.

“Here you go. This will be more than adequate to guard the virginity you no longer have.”

She must have blushed because a silver streak flashed in his eyes. Infused with discomfort, she watched him snuff out the candles and hop onto the bed. He wedged his back against the blanket and closed his eyes.

“Come get some rest, Ariana. We have a long day’s ride ahead of us and, please, stop calling me ‘my lord.’”

He really meant to sleep. Unable to tell if she felt relieved or disappointed, she used the light from the fire to approach the pallet. Loosening the folds of the fabric so she could breathe easier, she then lay down on her side of the blanket.

Tiredness pulled her down.
So much so that the images behind her eyes seemed to belong to the realm of dreams, but...

She woke up moaning from pleasure. Her back blazed with heat and her breasts swelled with desire. She touched her side, only to find that the towel and the blanket separating her from the Lord of the Clans had disappeared.

Chapter Nine

Air rushed out of her lungs. The skin of her back prickled against his strong chest, and her stomach tightened with want. She felt his face in her hair, his hard sex pressed between her buttocks.
So hard.
So big.

“I desire you much more than I should, Ariana, but I’ve never forced myself upon anyone.”

A violent need to become slave to his passion overwhelmed her. Limbs quivering with lust, pulse throbbing, she gasped as his confession ripped her mind apart, as his cock stiffened like an iron bar.

Her pussy didn’t seem to belong to her anymore, but to the heated flesh pushed against it, to the powerful man who enfolded her in the clutch of his desires. A surge of wetness pelted out of her while his voice against her ear couldn’t conceal his feral arousal.

“Do you want me, flower?”

So much.
Her out of control body pleaded to be stroked, penetrated,
taken
. It demanded the thick shaft inside, rubbing, thrusting, invading. She demanded it too, and a single word burst out of her like a long-awaited liberation.

“Yes.”

His harsh intake of breath inflamed her, yet she couldn’t move. Eyes closed, she let herself melt down under the touch of his hand. As if she was a fragile trinket, he passed a gentle finger along her side, around the curve of her buttock. Goosebumps erupted wherever he caressed her. A fierce craving drilling her stomach, excitement swallowing her, she opened her mouth to pant.

His rigid sex shivered against her folds. Although he wanted her as badly as she wanted him, he didn’t appear to be in any hurry. But the fire blazing inside her belly needed to be quenched.

When moisture doused her expectant slit, she brought a finger to her mouth and grabbed it between her teeth. His face still buried in the mass of her hair, he moved closer to whisper in her ear.

“Let me make you happy.”

He slid his hand toward her belly. The warmth of his palm fuelled her lust to the point where she couldn’t hold her hunger any longer. When she started moaning, he took her breast into his hand.

Her legs twitched.
However brief, the spasm pushed his cock against her pussy.
She bit back a cry and he couldn’t refrain from groaning as he cupped her mound. A grunt escaped his lips, the exciting sound quickening her pulse. Without ties to bind her to reality, she rejoiced in the sensation of his strong arm around her, of his chest fastened upon her back.

Deeply conscious of his every move, she twitched as he straightened his palm to draw circles on her nipple. Delightful shards ran through her, consuming her from head to toe. He took his time. He rubbed her bud as if the night would never end and she vibrated under his slow strokes.

“Do you like what I’m doing to you?”

The compulsion to open her heart to him took her by surprise. She’d never felt like speaking words of love before, but she did now, and the unfamiliar clamour heightened her senses. As he caressed her erect flesh, she pictured the severe lines of his face drawn with passion.

“I do. Please, don’t stop.”

He shuddered. His rigid cock slipped past her wet opening and he seized her nipple between his fingers.

“No, I won’t.”

His strained voice betrayed his ardour. When he kissed her neck, she thought the bed shifted under their weight. When he twirled her tit with increasing speed, she believed her racing heart would come out of her chest. He rolled her bud. He brought it alive. She yielded to his fondling, buttocks stretched to encase the length of his erection, pussy dying to be opened and filled.

Although hindered by a lifetime of repressed impulses, she longed to declare her wish. The challenging words tumbled down her throat while he continued tweaking and rubbing her nipple with
an eagerness
that left her breathless, but they didn’t come out, and the ensuing ripples of frustration shaking her body increased her desire. She wanted to tell him. She had to tell him.

His hard-on soaked in her
wetness,
he still didn’t attempt to gain admittance. His patience spoke volumes, though, and an unbelievable urge to say it out loud staggered her. Set on fire by his relentless strokes on her quivering flesh, she gave in to her most sacred instincts.

“Take me, my lord.”

He instantly released her nipple to lower his hand down to the top of her thigh. His panting grew harsher, his chest palpitated at her back, but he kept on waiting, and she knew why. As if a connection linked them, she understood what he wanted from her. Sweat dampened her brow. Flames ignited her stomach, and she licked her lips.

“Take me, Cameron.”

He groaned again before he tightened his fingers on her thigh and slowly pushed his cock through her drenched slit. Inch by inch, he sank into her. She trembled against him. The powerful sensation generated by his gradual penetration frightened her. How come she didn’t know about this incredible feeling? What was he doing to turn her into this mass of pure desire?

He brought her to him with a gentle nudge of his hand, while his considerable member filled her to the brim. Her pulse rivalling the capricious course of her blood, she squeezed her eyes shut when he withdrew the thick shaft holding her to mighty life. As easy as the first time, he slid inside her again and she moaned with irrepressible pleasure while he grunted against her neck.

“You’re so tight, Ariana. I’m...
Oh, dear Gods!”

He sounded almost in pain, yet his aching tone made her crave more. She hankered for his steely erection rubbing her most intimate part, for the wild commotion jumbling all her senses. He extracted himself from her and this
time,
the words flew out of her mouth.

“Do it again. Please, Cameron, do this to me again.”

She felt a long shudder course through him while he seemed to hesitate. Then he dug his fingers into her buttock and drove his cock into her. Once, twice, three times. She uttered a sharp cry. Her pussy throbbed, calling for something, burning with a strange fever she couldn’t name.

With his lips bearing down on the back of her shoulder, he wheezed like a dying man. She thought she heard him curse, but the sound got swallowed in the mishmash of her loud moans.

He shifted his hips to bury his dick deep inside her. She jolted, submerged with an uncontrollable emotion. As if her tremors touched something in him, he pressed his forehead against her shoulder bone.

“I’m sorry, flower, I can’t—”

His voice broke off. She’d never heard such aching intensity in his tone before, but the exhilarating pangs whipping her belly wouldn’t let her dwell on it. Laboured breaths made her throat itch as his whole body hardened like stone, and he clenched his fingers around her thigh.

When he suddenly pulled back, she had the impression that the simple move demanded an impossible effort. What was going on? The sudden void in her called out to be filled again. Ruled by the need to reach something she couldn’t fathom, she followed her instincts and pressed her butt against him. He jerked. She felt his erection quiver against her slit as he uttered unclear words.

“Damn, I can’t bring you there.”

He rammed his cock into her.
Needles of pleasure spread all over her body.
Her pussy throbbed with unbroken pulsations as a strange sensation stirred within her, like a mighty force asking to be let out. Like a revelation she didn’t quite understand.

Long shivers ran him through while he let himself go. Shaft embedded in her, hand gripping her hip, he grunted so roughly that she pictured the roar of a mountain lion. A ferocious beast brought down by a devastating impact. He twitched inside her. He trembled against her back.

The uncanny feeling tossing her about subsided by degrees and she was able to inhale more easily. She took deep breaths while listening to the decreasing beat of her heart. Although she hadn’t yet recovered from this wonderful experience, she sensed an abrupt tension between them.

She needed to tell him that she had never felt anything like this before, that their astonishing mating had changed her life, but he pulled out of her before she found the right words. He released her hip, fumbled with the covers, and rolled over to the other side of the pallet. Coldness crept over her. Did she hurt him somehow? Was he displeased with her?

Kelton’s handsome face entered her mind. They mated whenever he asked her to, but she always welcomed the end of his rubbing and twitching. Afterward, she sometimes needed to apply a soothing balm over her private parts to ease the itchiness. In spite of his charming ways and gentle caresses, he certainly never turned her into a living flame.

Yet the fact that he didn’t ignite violent emotions in her didn’t change what she had just done. She’d been disloyal to him. She had broken the pledge. Without plausible reason, but a compelling heat in her loins, she’d given herself to the Lord of the Clans and betrayed Kelton. Could she ever face him with such dishonour in mind? For that matter, she feared her shaman even more.

She might have found some measure of comfort if Cameron had shown a propensity to listen to her and alleviate her distress, but he’d turned his back on her as soon as the mating was over, and she knew what his gesture meant. He’d soon discard her like a used bauble.

She needed to sleep, and forget. A yawn stretched her mouth as she closed her eyes to avoid looking at the motionless shape beside her. Then the world of dreams snatched her into its inescapable grip.

A rough pull on her shoulder jerked her awake. He stood by the bed, fully dressed, his blank expression chilling her to the bone. His cold gray gaze fixed on a point above her
head,
he spoke to her as if she was a stranger.

“Get up. It’s time to go.”

He strode out of the room before she could dispel the last tendrils of sleep. Well, he didn’t want to catch a glimpse at her bare body now. He had seen and touched all of her after all, so what was left for him to discover? Clearly nothing, yet the idea hurt.

Whatever his issues, she needed him to guide her to Frahern. Shivering from cold, she got dressed, fastened the double sling across her back, gathered her belongings, picked up her saddlebags, and went down to the stables.

He already sat astride his horse, his face inscrutable. Without dawdling, she got on her mount and followed him through the cobbled streets. They cleared out of the town in no time. As soon as they found themselves on open ground, he took a direction she hoped would lead them to her aunt.

He avoided all main roads and beaten pathways, as did Coreen the previous day. Also
,
 
like
her, he didn’t open his mouth.

They rode on for hours. To top her discomfort, it rained most of the afternoon. Heavy showers slowed them down a little, but he maintained a fast pace and she barely managed to drink a few sips of water from her goatskin.

She was famished and exhausted by the time the sky darkened on the horizon. Just when she thought of shouting at him to call a halt, he reined in his horse to glance back toward her. Did he have in mind to stop for a while?

She trotted to catch up with him, hope spurring her forward. Although he clearly meant to inform her of something when her mount came abreast of his, he didn’t get the chance to say it.

An ear-shattering, high-pitched noise pierced her brains. She howled. A blinding pain stabbed her. She flattened her hands against her ears but couldn’t muffle the atrocious skull-splitting shrill. Her legs lost tension and she felt herself sliding off the horse. Then her head exploded.