Immortals After Dark 09 - Pleasure of a Dark Prince

me?”
    She faced him at once. “I’m not!”
    “Lie to yourself, Lousha. No’ to me. I was there with you that night, remember? You might be trying no’ to recall it, but it’s seared into my head.”
    “No, actually I want to recall it—I like to remember my mistakes. So I don’t repeat them.”
    “A mistake then? Is that what Valkyrie call scream-wrenching orgasms?”
    Between gritted teeth, she said, “I asked you not to do certain things, and you just ignored me.”
    “Like what?”
    “Like not taking off my underwear. You ripped them from me, then
stole
them! Why would you ever?”
    He cast her a shameless grin. “To do unseemly things with them.”
    She held up her hand. “I don’t want to hear more. Again, MacRieve, why did you come to Val Hall that night?”
    “Because you were screaming like a banshee? I saw scattered arrows on the floor. No’ a one bloodied. Did you pay for missing? Maybe you did make a deal with the devil to shoot like that.”
    Her eyes flashed silver. “You know nothing!” She shot to her feet and ran, climbing the stairs without looking back.
    “Come back here, Lousha!” The charade was over; he wanted out of the cage. Clenching his jaw, he tried to bend the bars—nothing. “Damn you, Valkyrie.”
    Once he got loose… all the witches in the world couldn’t protect her.

TWELVE

    Lucia had told MacRieve that she wasn’t bound by his animalistic needs. And in that deep rasp, he’d replied, “After one night with me, Lousha,
you will be
.”
    He’d been right. She couldn’t stop thinking about him, recalling how he’d touched her.
    Now in the dead of night, she lay in her bed—a
single
bed because she was never supposed to be sharing it—puzzling over the male trapped downstairs. Desperate to determine his power over her, she stared up at the ceiling fan, as if it would have all the answers to the conundrum that was Garreth MacRieve.
    Granted, the Lykae had obvious attributes: his golden eyes, his muscular body, his broad shoulders that seemed made for her to hold on to.
    His firm lips.
Not a minute passed without her remembering how they’d felt on hers. She didn’t know how she’d gone so long without kissing. Or how she could ever go back.
    Lucia even appreciated the ferocity she’d witnessed when he’d bitten that vampire’s throat out. But something more was at work, some connection to him. Even during their exchange earlier tonight, he’d affected her. But he hadn’t given her
that
look—the one that said hewas about to do wicked things to her body—which was probably the only reason her mind hadn’t gone blank.
    She feared he was the type of man women got reckless over, made stupid decisions for. He made her think,
Vows of chastity? What vows?
    That night in the swamp—when she’d been so close to letting him take her—had been the first time she’d had an orgasm with a man. No wonder she was continually thinking about him—he’d made her climax.
Of course.
Naturally she’d want to experience it again.
    Just recalling how his eyes had been filled with lust made her heart race all over again. She’d witnessed him almost completely naked, with only his jeans at his knees, and had seen tantalizing glimpses of his thick erection. If she’d had any hesitation about being with a male, or fears from her past, he’d quelled them with his toe-curling kisses against her panties.
    Now her nipples budded against her camisole, her breaths quickening. She was wet for him, aching for more. She turned onto her front—which was worse, so she flipped back over. Glaring at the ceiling, she realized there was no fighting it.
    Her hand eased into her panties.
    Something woke Garreth, putting him on edge. It was an uncanny feeling, as if the air were crackling with electricity. Shouldn’t be surprising—lightning struck constantly in this bizarre place, like ongoing mini-explosions.
    Some bolts hit so close, the entire manor quaked, dust raining from the ceiling—ominous signs in astructure built so long ago. And between the lightning strikes, he heard Valkyrie shrieks, the drone of the TV, and jaunty video game music that was like nails on slate.
    Adding to his misery, Garreth could scent Lucia at every hour, could hear her voice, hear her whispers to the glowing freak:
    “I sense he’s getting more powerful than ever before,” Lucia had said this afternoon.
Who?
    “Then I’m glad we have a back-up plan,” Regin had replied.
Back-up to