Immortals After Dark 09 - Pleasure of a Dark Prince

fleeing from an enemy was something Valkyrie tended never to do.
    Have to shoot him between the eyes if I must.
From close range. Otherwise, with his speed he could dodgethe shot. And put her in agony. “MacRieve, I’m giving you one last—”
    He silenced her with a sizzling kiss to her neck, his tongue flicking against her chilled skin. Shivering with pleasure and surprise, she gazed up at the tree limbs above her, biting her lip.
    Yet when he pressed his erection against her, she cried, “Let me go
now
!”
    He didn’t, so she gouged her thumb into one of his wounds. His dark claws dug into the tree, but he didn’t release her. “Woman, that bluidy hurts.”
    “Then stop kissing me!”
    “Nothing hurts
that
bad.” His mouth descended to her neck once more. He seemed to be not only kissing her but tasting her…
gentling
her.
    “I can make it hurt that bad,” she said inanely, striving to keep her eyes open as his tongue darted.
    “I feel only one ache in my body.” He drew back, and the corner of his lips curled. “And you’re soon to ease it.”
    So earthy and sexy.
Lucia couldn’t remember the last time she’d felt this much excitement with a male…. Her thoughts trailed off.
    No, I
can
remember the last time.
Vividly. Lucia was still paying for it. She attempted to pull away, but he clutched her to him. And Freya help her, she wanted him to.
No!
No more pretending that she was a normal woman about to have a clandestine affair with the most sexually attractive male she’d ever seen. “Never, MacRieve.”
    She could be as vicious as any of her sisters. Just because a Valkyrie’s innate ferocity wasn’t her first impulse in a conflict didn’t mean she couldn’t draw on it when she needed to. “Kiss me again, Lykae, and I’ll make you regret it.”
    He kissed her again. So she kicked him between his legs, ducking from him. As he dropped to his knees, she hastened away. But she heard him grunt,
“Still doona regret it.”

FIVE

    Stalking her through the bayou once more, he tracked her heady scent—with his bollocks aching from her kick and his chest wounds on fire.
    “I can scent you, know you’re near.” Yes, she was close. He circled in place, his eyes narrowed. “Doona run from me! You will no’ get away.”
And we crave the chase. Ah, gods, we crave it.
“You’ve only got one arrow left.”
    “But I’m going to make this one count,” she whispered above him.
    Before he could swing his head up at the sound, she’d tackled him into a bed of moss, knees into his shoulders, her arrow pressed into his forehead.
    In a slow, awed tone, he rasped,
“I—like—you, lass!”
So lovely, so wild. An avenging angel, with her bizarre bow seeming to glow above him.
    When blood welled on his forehead and trickled down his temple, he said, “You canna release your arrow, Valkyrie. You feel something for me, too.” She looked stunned, as if her hesitation baffled her. “I’ll bet when you set a course of action, you doona falter.”
    At that, she gritted her teeth, like she was redoubling her resolve.
    “But you canna do it.” The instant she relaxed the tension on her bowstring, he tossed her on her back, covering her body with his. He groaned to feel all her lush curves pressed against him. Both of them were out of breath, her breasts rising and falling so temptingly.
    She was a wee beauty, with her smooth golden skin and plump lips. Her hair had begun drying into a deep caramel color. It felt like silk and smelled like heaven.
Like home
. “You ken this feels right between us.”
    Ah, gods, it does.
As if they’d done this before. As if she recognized his touch and remembered the breathless way she felt at this moment.
    What was happening to her? He was right—when she set a course of action, she’d never once faltered. Yet she couldn’t shoot him!
    His mouth descended on hers. Just as she was about to shove him away, he groaned, as though the mere contact of their lips brought him so much pleasure he couldn’t contain it. He deepened the kiss, pressing his firm lips harder, coaxing her with his tongue to respond.
    The shock of being kissed after so long. The heat of his body over hers in the cold rain.
    Lightning struck above them, and she knew it came from her. Her bow hand unclenched, her other palm clasping the back of his neck. When she parted her lips on a gasp, he stroked her mouth with his delicious tongue while she remained still, merely taking his