Immortals After Dark 09 - Pleasure of a Dark Prince

everything he accused her of was true. He touched her and judgment was lost, discipline gone so easily she knew she never had a chance of denying them anyway.
    Damn it, tell him you hate him!
No words came out. When she glanced away, he said softly, “Face it, lass. Respect my will in this. I’ll be inside you this night.”
    “I’ll fight you.”
    “Ah, we both know you’ll melt for me. One kiss and you’re mine.”
    He leaned down to kiss her ear.
Not the ears…
Her nipples budded even harder. Even as she wanted to arch her back to rub them against his chest, she murmured, “Impossible.”
    Before she could protest, he’d lifted her in his arms.
    “MacRieve, no!”
    After kicking the balcony doors closed, he carried her to the bed.
    “I can’t do this! I won’t do this.”
    Once he set her down, she scrambled to the head ofthe bed, curling her knees to her chest. “I won’t let you make love to me.”
    “Ach, woman!” He raked his fingers through his hair. “You want me as much as I want you.”
    “Assuming that’s true—”
    “It’s true.”
    “—I
can’t
. Not now.”
    “It’s no’ your time of the month. I know that.”
    “Ew.” Valkyrie didn’t have periods. “You’re the only one here with a monthly cycle, werewolf.”
    He scowled. “Then what?”
    “Have you ever heard of the Skathians?”
    He thought for a moment. “Aye. Man haters. Like the Amazons but crueler. And with arrows.”
    She raised her brows at that. “I happen to worship the great huntress Skathi.”
Worship, but sometimes I hate her.
    “You? Nay, you canna. The Skathians were from ages ago.”
    “I’m over a thousand years old,” she said. “Skathi is the one who gave me my bow.”
And my abilities. She can take them away as well. She longs to.
“I’m chaste in her name.”
    Oh, bluidy hell, no.
“You canna be serious.”
    “I am. I made vows, MacRieve. My reasons are my own, but I will never take a man into my body. It’s a religion to me.”
    Suspicions arose. Was she lying? “I never heard this about you.”
    She glanced away, and her hair fell over the side of her face. “Besides you, only Regin and Nïx know.”
    “Why would you do this? A life without sex?” His tone was astonished—he could barely comprehend such a lack.
    “Again, my reasons are my own. But it
is
done.”
    “And can easily be
un
done.”
    “MacRieve!”
    “Never take a man into you? You’re… a
virgin
?” Garreth had suspected so, and didn’t know how he felt about that. Once he introduced her to sex, would Lucia be tempted to sow her oats with other males? His claws dug into his palms at the thought.
    “I wasn’t born into that order,” she said, with a shadow of some unrecognizable emotion in her eyes.
    Cryptic words? So she wasn’t untouched. Now he had to wonder how many lovers she’d had. “When did you join?”
    “What does that matter?” she cried.
    “There are no ways around this vow of yours?”
    “Skathians are chaste. Period. We’re expected to be pure.”
    “Do you believe that rot? That you have to be chaste or virgin to be
pure
?” he demanded. “Or that it’s preferred anyway? Does that mean all mothers are impure?”
    “Of course not. But I believe in believing in something, a higher purpose. This is mine.” When he was still shaking his head, she asked, “MacRieve, what do you hold most sacred in the world?”
    You
. “My clan.”
    “Imagine if I forced you to forsake it for eternity. You’d grow to hate me. The same applies here.” She met his eyes. “I will hate you forever if I lose this part of me.”
    This
was the reason she’d run? His hackles rose again. The Instinct was sharp.
—She means what she says. Coax what you can’t take.—
    But anger surged inside him. He’d never doubted that she wanted him back, and so for months, he’d wrestled with confusion, grasping for answers. The mystery had eaten at him, the bewilderment…
    In China, she’d gazed at him with longing—right before she’d loosed a flaming arrow to blow him up.
    She
had
wanted him, but instead of welcoming him to her bed, she’d honored this
Skathi
. Lucia had denied them to keep her ridiculous,
useless
vow of chastity. Which was nearly sacrilegious in itself to a Lykae—their kind revered all things physical, like
sex
.
    A year of his life…
wasted
. He shot to his feet and paced. “This was why you ran? Over some purposeless vows to a second-rate goddess?”
    She gasped.