Pursuit (Through Time 1)

“Let go of me, and where are we!”

“Aye, take a good look about, lovely Royal Princess. This is where ye belong … at a place like this, with a man, ready to pleasure ye …”

She made a fist and punched him in his rock-hard stomach. Milesian strength was comparable to Fae strength, and he didn’t flinch. Frustrated she said, “How dare you!” Silently she marveled at her stupidity. How dare you? What was she—from a medieval time?

He ignored it and said, “Ye should be back in Faery. Ye should be doing … lovely things with yer lovely …” He took her fingers and put them to his lips, brushing them with his lips, and she felt her eyelids get lazy. He moved further down her hand to her wrist, placed a warm kiss there, and whispered, “… with yer lovely hands. Ye should leave the battle to the warriors who know how to stay alive.”

“I … I …” She was trapped in sensation. His kiss on her fingers had sent shooting stars through her brain, frying all meaningful thought. She was momentarily stunned and refused to admit her overwhelming sexual attraction to this big, blond he-man.

She had to get it together, she told herself, and tried speaking once again. “Don’t speak to me like that. You have no idea what I am capable of doing. Perhaps you and Trevor will be pleasantly surprised.”

He grinned a superior grin, and she wanted to slap it off his handsome face. Before she could put thought into action, however, his mouth managed to find her lips, and that was the end of all logic for Princess Royce.

His tongue teased her bottom lip and then entered and tasted her waiting tongue while one hand went to the nape of her neck and drew her closer. She found herself meeting his thrusting, oh so delicious tongue with her own. She found herself bending to his touch, melting against his body.

What are you doing, Royce? A voice inside her head attempted to bring things back to order. Shut up, another voice answered. She didn’t know she had so many females in her brain!

His kiss lasted, or had he moved it into kiss two without her realizing? All she knew was that she wanted the kiss to go on and on. She wanted this feeling to continue to cover her and keep her, and she was damn sure she had never been kissed like this before.

When he released her, his hand moved from the back of her neck down her spine, sending tingles of wondrous shivers through her body. His hand went further, grabbed hold of her ass, and pulled her into him with a gruff, determined movement, and he whispered hungrily, “Now that, wee beauty, is what I want to do with ye. That is what ye be made for. So doona ask me to make ye a part of a team out to do one thing, kill … ye weren’t made for killing.”

A part of her ‘thinking’ brain conceded silently that he was right. She had never wanted to kill anything, but she knew she had the skills to help him and Trevor find their foe. She could help with the finding.

“I … I don’t mean to fight, though I will if needed. What I can do is all about the tracking … I have special skills for tracking,” she whispered.

His hands went to either side of her head. He took fistfuls of hair, raising the tresses up and then suddenly dropping them as he let go and stood back. His voice was low and husky and made her body silently moan for more of him. “L

ovely …” he said.

“Stop—you have to stop and take me seriously.” She made a valiant attempt to get matters in hand.

He ignored this and took her back into his arms, bent his head, and kissed her hard and long, and she allowed him. Hell, she thought, it was as though her body begged him to kiss her.

It was true; she just had never experienced anything like him before. He was larger than life and full of himself, yes, but with good reason, and she was on sexual fire. It was time, wasn’t it, that she found herself in that position?

All she knew was that she was totally aroused, in body, heart, and mind and wanted more. However, she was made of sterner stuff and managed to pull out of his hold.

“Enough. I can help, and I am going to help—get used to it.”

“Ye are helping. Giving pleasure to a warrior … is a great deal of help …” Chance said huskily.

It is amazing how the wrong words can reverberate in the air until you can hear nothing else, she thought as she replayed his words. Give pleasure to a warrior? That was how he saw her—e just for pleasure? Well, maybe that was how Milesian females allowed themselves to be perceived, but she was a Fae, a Royal Fae at that, and proud to be a female and an equal! Chance’s words woke her from the dreaminess of his kiss and set her on her own two feet!

She snapped to and pushed away from him. “Maybe it is you that should be staying home and pleasuring yourself. Here you are dallying with me when you should be using my skills to help you find the Dark Prince!”

A bark of a laugh twisted out of him, and he took her wrist and pulled her up hard against his body. She gave him a fierce look, but everything he did sent slivers of anticipation through her. He brought her inner being to life and to the fore.

She took matters in hand and shifted them both back to Dravos. Even as they stood in the village square, even as she sensed Trevor bearing down on them, she did not break the stoic look she still glared Chance’s way.

Trevor shouted irritably, “What the hell?”

“Remind your big friend here that I am a Fae princess and do not appreciate being whisked off and manhandled,” Royce said, her chin up even as she broke away from Chance and moved towards Trevor.

“It is what ye were destined for … manhandling.” Chancemont grinned, unabashed. However, he put up a few fingers and waved to stall her response as she spun around and looked daggers at him. He said softly and just to her, “Ye shouldna be tagging along with warriors. Ye will be in the way, and I will no have yer blood on m’hands.”

“It won’t be on your hands, big man!” she snapped at him. “If I am so stupid as to allow anyone to harm me, it will be on my hands—mine alone. And I am every bit as much a warrior as you!”

He made an impatient sound and bent to look into her eyes of variegated aqua. “Ye be a slip of a woman, nothing more, when it comes to the Dark Prince. He’ll chop ye up and serve ye fer lunch, he will, and I’ll no have it!” Chance raged at her. “I doona want another Fae underfoot. I already have more Fae at me side than I want.”