The Shadow Queen (20 page)

Roan looked abashed. “I know,” he admitted, “but the truth is I always enjoy seeing Dasras’s enthusiasm for my mares. And I did not think you would come this year, Lara. I do not know how Terahns mourn.”

“In very much the same way as the clan families. Magnus’s funeral pyre was escorted to sea three days after his death,” Lara said. “My husband would have expected me to continue on as if he were here. Taj needed a carefree summer with his friends. He has taken his responsibilities as Dominus most seriously, and it is a heavy burden for a boy of thirteen,” she said.

“But you rule for him, do you not?” Roan asked.

“The Dominus rules,” Lara replied. “I but advise him, and I do so from the shadows behind the throne, for Terahns do not have female rulers.”

“Aah,” Roan replied, understanding dawning in his dark blue eyes. Then he grinned mischievously at her. “I have always liked dominant women,” he told her.

“Pah! You like all women, Roan of the Aghy,” Lara mocked him. “How many women do you call wife now?”

“Eight,” he replied, “yet none satisfy me as I know you could.”

Lara looked at the Aghy Horse Lord. He had always lusted after her from the first moment he had met her. She remembered Vartan, her first husband, warning his friend off. What kind of a lover would Roan be? Lara wondered. He probably lacked finesse, but would be as lusty and enthusiastic as his stallion. She had to admit she was curious.

“Do you want to take pleasures with me, Roan?” she asked him.

His mouth dropped open with surprise, but he quickly recovered. “Aye!” he said. “You know I have always wanted you, Lara. Do you want to take pleasures with me?”

“Perhaps. Perhaps not,” Lara answered him. “If the moment is right it will come. And then it will go, for I am not of a mind to keep a permanent lover, Roan.”

“Nor I,” he told her. “And I need no more wives. I already have too many,” he said with a rueful smile.

“You could hardly take the Domina of Terah for a wife.” She reminded him gently of her status. “But mayhap we will enjoy each other’s company during the weeks I am here visiting my daughter and her family.”

He knelt before her, smiling. “Do you not age at all, Lara? You are more beautiful than ever if such a thing is possible,” he said. His big hands slipped beneath the soft cotton gown she wore, sliding slowly up her legs to her thighs. “Your skin is like the finest silk,
Domina.
” Then, bending his fiery head, he began to follow the path his hands had taken, kissing and licking his way to the junction of her closed thighs. He could smell her female scent, and it was intoxicating to him. He nuzzled at her, and her legs slowly opened to him. Pushing his head between her legs, he peeled her nether lips open with his thumbs, staring at her sex with admiration and awe, licking at her juices, which were already beginning to flow for him.

“May I suck you,
Domina?
” he asked her softly, and when she nodded his mouth closed over her love bud, and drew upon it.

Lara closed her eyes, the better to enjoy the tugging sensation upon that most sensitive part of her anatomy. She had not expected such delicacy and elegance from the Horse Lord. His teeth nibbled gently upon her, then he sucked several hard tugs on her flesh, and she murmured with her appreciation. He brought her to a perfect wave of pleasures that flowed over her, leaving her relaxed and sated. “That was very nice, Roan,” she complimented him. “May I return the favor?”

“Nay, it is not necessary,” he told her. “I can give a woman a taste of pleasures to come without needing to rut like a boy, Lara. I enjoyed the interlude. Next time, however, we will take pleasures of each other.”

“We will indeed,” Lara told him. “You surprise me. I had not expected such finesse from you, my lord.”

Roan chuckled as he rose to his feet, drawing her gown back down again. “I have had many years of practice, Lara. I know how to give a woman pleasures, and I know you are skilled in giving a man pleasures. I will look forward to our coming together tonight.”

“I will recall Dasras on the morrow,” Lara said to him. “You mean to remain the night, then? If you wish to return home now I can easily send you, my lord.”

Roan laughed. “You will scream for me,
Domina,
” he told her softly. Then he left her in the garden where he had found her.

Now it was Lara who laughed. Roan had always been supremely confident where passion and pleasures were concerned. It would be fun to have a lover for a brief time. She was faerie, and her desires ran hot. Soon enough they would return to the castle, and she must take up her duties as the Domina, as the Shadow Queen behind the throne of the young Dominus. But it was summer now, and the New Outlands were rich with growth as the cattle of the Fiacre and the horses of the Aghy fattened themselves in rich green meadows. The moment was ripe with possibilities, and the air lush with the anticipation of a new lover. She hoped he would not disappoint her but the little demonstration he had just offered her was certainly encouraging.

Noss rejoined her. “Roan was whistling when he returned to the hall,” she said.

“I think I shall take him as a lover while I am here,” Lara said casually.

“You must tell me then if he is as good as he claims he is,” Noss replied with a rich chuckle. “He has desired you for years, but you know that. Why now?”

“It pleases me now,” Lara responded.

“Something is coming,” Noss said, suddenly serious. “You pleasure yourself because it gives you strength for the hard times. I know you, Lara. What is it?”

“Kol had a daughter by one of his women. A Darkling named Ciarda. She seeks to destroy Kol’s sons and rule the Dark Lands herself. Her magic is strong. If she is allowed to have her way she will reach out her hand to wreak havoc in Hetar first and then Terah. There is a rumor there now that the Hierarch is coming.”

“The Hierarch is a myth,” Noss said.
“Isn’t it?”

“I honestly don’t know,” Lara said, “but I do know Ciarda must be stopped. Kol’s sons are practically grown, and they continue to battle for supremacy in the Dark Lands. I must seek them out, and learn which of these two evils is the lesser. Then I will destroy the other that Ciarda may be exposed. Her half brother will control her once he has the Dark Lands firmly in his grip. It will take years, and the darkness will be kept at bay.”

“You must destroy your own child?” Noss gasped.

“I birthed them, but they are not mine,” Lara said. “They are Kol’s sons. You know I was entrapped into having them. Few know my connection with the Dark Lands, Noss, but you are my friend, and know what I went through.”

Noss nodded. “I was honored that you could confide in me,” she remembered. “I cannot imagine what you suffered then, and must now suffer.” Noss reached out and took Lara’s hand.

Lara squeezed the hand in hers. She and Noss had a long and deep bond even if their lives had gone in different directions. “It will be easier, I think, for not knowing them,” she told her friend. “I hope it will be easier, but even my cold faerie heart quails at the thought of condemning someone to death. Still it must be done.”

“Could not someone else do it?” Noss asked her. “Why did the Shadow Prince make you the responsible party for such a heinous act?”

Lara sighed. “Is it monstrous to condemn a monster?” she asked. “And Kol’s sons will be monsters you may be certain. Those who have been responsible for raising them will have seen to that. They will have vied with each other to produce the most atrocious and shockingly evil creature.”

“Do not think about it,” Noss said. “It is too awful to even contemplate.”

“Nay, I shall not think about it. I shall think of the Horse Lord instead,” Lara said with a small smile. “Tonight I shall enjoy his passion, and tomorrow he will be gone. He will be a perfect divertissement, and I will not consider what is to come.”

“They say his manhood is as big as a stallion’s.” Noss laughed softly. “You will tell me if it is so tomorrow, Lara.”

“I will,” Lara promised, and then she chuckled.

“You are like a pair of young maidens, heads together, giggling,” Noss’s husband, Liam, leader of the clan family Fiacre, said as he joined them. “What is it that amuses you two? What mischief are you up to this afternoon?”

“We are speaking on the subject of men,” Noss told her mate. “Lara has decided to take pleasures with Roan.”

“Good!” Liam replied. “Now maybe he will stop mooning about each time he learns you are here in the New Outlands.”

“Or maybe he will moon even more,” Lara teased Liam pertly.

Liam threw back his head and laughed heartily. “Be gentle with the fellow for all our sakes, my lady Domina,” he said.

At the evening meal Roan could hardly keep his eyes from Lara, and when his hand went to his cup once too often she laid her own hand over his saying softly, “It is impossible that a man of your years and experience could disappoint me, unless of course he grew too drunk to enjoy what we both anticipate. After this afternoon’s little demonstration I am eager to be with you tonight, my lord Roan.”

“I yearn for you, and yet you terrify me now that what I have so longed for is to become a reality,” Roan admitted, low.

“Then we shall not wait any longer, my lord,” Lara said. “Come,” she said, rising from her seat at the High Board and leading him from the hall.

He stumbled after her wondering what had happened to his confidence. How long had he desired this woman? Years! And now that he was to obtain his heart’s desire he was actually frightened of what was to come. What if he didn’t measure up to her other lovers? What if he disappointed her? Was the anticipation to be better than the reality?

Lara brought him to the small chamber that was hers when she visited the Fiacre. Closing the door behind her, she turned the key in the lock. A mattress upon a slightly raised platform took up most of the space. On the narrow wall a small window was open to the evening sky. Lara shrugged off her pale green cotton gown, saying as she did, “I do not want you tearing one of the few summer garments I keep here.” Then she rotated about so that she was facing him. “Is everything as you expected, Roan?” she asked him.

The Horse Lord’s mouth fell open as his dark blue eyes devoured the female before him. He was not used to women taking the initiative when it came to pleasures. He was not certain as he viewed her perfect form if he liked her boldness, but then she smiled at him.

“Oh, Roan, I have startled you, haven’t I? I am sorry.” Stepping up to him, she brushed her lips across his. “Will you let me undress you? Or do you prefer to do it yourself?” Lara smiled again.

“Nay,” he managed to say. “You do it.”

“Oh, I am glad you will let me,” she purred as her fingers undid the horn buttons on his soft leather jerkin. Beneath he wore a cotton shirt, and she unlaced it, sliding her palms across his smooth chest as she pushed the shirt off over his shoulders and down his sinewy arms. Bending, she licked at his nipples. Then, kneeling, she helped him to pull off his boots before undoing the close-fitting leather pants he wore and sliding them over his tight buttocks. Her hands lingered on his flesh, caressing him teasingly.

He was on fire. His heart was beating so hard he thought it would burst through his chest. When she nuzzled her face into his groin he actually groaned. Roan pulled Lara to her feet and kissed her passionately. Her mouth opened easily beneath his. Their tongues sparred lustfully back and forth. She caught his, and briefly sucked on it. But then Lara broke off the embrace, and stepped back to frankly survey him.

“It is true,” she said thoughtfully.

“What is true?” he managed to ask her in return.

“You are hung as well as your own stallion, my lord Roan. I had heard it said, but so often such rumors have no place in truth.” She ran her fingernails very lightly down his length then wrapped her hand about his thickness, squeezing gently. “Ah yes, I believe we will give each other great pleasures,” Lara told him.

He was beginning to regain his equilibrium. Her boldness was very exciting, but it was not in the natural order of things. He needed to regain control of their situation. Pushing her firmly to her knees, he rubbed the tip of his manhood against her ripe lips, watching through slitted eyes as she opened her mouth and took him in. “Very good, my beauty,” he told her. “Now please me, woman, as you were meant to do.”

A single hand began to knead at her head, his thick fingers digging into her scalp as she tugged and sucked at the large manhood. She could sense its life force as it began to throb. She could taste his excitement. Lara teased the manhood within her mouth, drawing it deeper into her throat. He groaned again.

“Cease your torture, faerie woman! I can bear no more,” he admitted to her.

Lara rose long enough to collapse upon the mattress, her legs open and hanging over it. “Come, my lord, and take what you have so long yearned for,” she invited him.

He knelt down. “First, faerie woman, you must suffer as you have made me suffer,” he told her. His tongue licked swiftly up the inside of one thigh and down the other. It flickered down her shadowed slit, pushing between her nether lips, seeking out her sensitive spot. Her whimper told him when he had found it. His mouth tugged on the little nub of flesh until she was writhing upon the mattress. Satisfied at last he stood, and, sliding his hands beneath her hips, Roan drew Lara to him, sheathing her slowly until he was deep. Then he began to pump her.

Lara’s entire body relaxed as he filled her and began to work his great manhood back and forth. As he moved faster and deeper, her head began to spin with the pleasure that began to arise from deep within her. “Do not stop,” she cried out to him. “Use this mare as long as you can, my great stallion! Deeper! Aah, that is it! Yes!”

Her words seemed to excite him further, and Lara could have sworn that his manhood became thicker and harder within her. She wrapped her legs about his torso, and, well mounted now, he released his hold upon her hips, reaching out instead to grasp her full breasts, squeezing them hard, and leaning forward so he might suckle her, and bite her tempting nipples while his great manhood pistoned her until Lara was moaning with the pleasure he was giving her. Finally unable to bear any more of this delight, she released her juices, screaming softly as she did.