Pleasure of a Dark Prince (Immortals After Dark 9)

That was what the wolf in him had been craving. Her approval, her delight. He'd soaked it up. Like a besotted fool, he tended that damned butterfly morning and night, feeding it with a sponge full of sugar water.

And the quiver he'd swiped from the fey? He inwardly grinned. That hadn't gone unappreciated either.

For nearly two weeks, Garreth had made Lucia his study, continuing to dig into her past. And every day he turned up something new and surprising.

She'd revealed more about the foe Nïx had dispatched her to kill, this Crom Cruach. "Those infected with his influence feel compelled to sacrifice whoever they love, in the most ghastly ways. The more they love something, the more they want to annihilate it. Cruach can control their minds, forcing his victims to see whatever he wills them to. Their eyes turn milky white - that's when you know they're lost."

"How does he do this?"

"His powers as a god. And he grows stronger with each sacrifice in his name. Whenever Cruach's human followers from the Cult of Death - the Cromites - invoke him, they pray: To him we sacrifice, for him our cherished." She'd said she couldn't imagine a worse apocalypse - because this one would sweep the world, perverting the purest love and turning it into evil and death.

Lucia was convinced that the dieumort had to be an arrow. Now he'd become convinced as well. If one could be infected by Cruach, then it made sense to strike at him from afar.

Garreth planned to. Alone. The more she told him of Cruach, the more Garreth resolved never to let her anywhere near him. But she'd yet to tell him where to find the god.

One night after much coaxing, Garreth had gotten her to admit she'd only been with one man. "If you've only had sex with one bloke in all this time," he'd said, "then you must've loved him verra much."

She'd turned away, her face paling. So that's the way of it. The man had hurt her.

"Or you hated sex so much you would join a celibate order and forgo it for over ten centuries."

She'd sighed, looking tired, with faint smudges under her eyes. Between her continuing nightmares and his attentions, she hadn't been enjoying much restful sleep. In fact, it was only toward dawn, once her nightmares had ebbed, that she'd fall into a deeper, nearly comatose slumber. "MacRieve, will you just let it go?"

He'd said he would drop it, but of course he hadn't. He needed to figure out exactly how bad it'd been for her. And who the male was. So I can slaughter him -

His phone rang then. It was Lachlain, no doubt calling to see what progress Garreth had made before the looming full moon. In a word: none. Still, the call was a welcome distraction.

Garreth answered with, "How goes it with you and the queen?"

"She took me to a mall yesterday." Lachlain sounded as if he'd just stifled a shudder. "And she pointed to a boy and said, 'I think I want one.' So naturally, I start thinking, Where can I get a wee mortal? But she meant... she meant a bairn - our bairn."

"You still fear getting a babe on your mate? Again, brother, how delicate can she be if she beheaded Demestriu?"

"Ach! No' you, too!"

Actually, Garreth couldn't talk. Before he'd found out the Valkyrie couldn't get pregnant unless they ate regular meals, he'd planned to take precautions.

"In any case, I dinna call to talk about me. How goes it with your Valkyrie?"

Garreth rubbed his palm over the back of his neck. "I'd been so busy chasing her down that I never stopped to see if I truly liked her, had never had the opportunity to discover if I could."

"And now that you've had the opportunity?"

Hesitation. Then he admitted in a low tone, "I like her." Everything about her. Each day, he fell deeper under her spell, his graceful, exquisite mate with her dark flashing eyes. "She's so clever." The speed with which she was learning Gaelic was uncanny. "And I like that she's proud." He'd never thought he would desire such a prideful woman, but now that he'd had a taste of Lucia, he could never settle for less. "And she's... passionate," he said in the ultimate understatement.

Lucia was the best bedmate he'd ever conceived of - and they hadn't even had sex. She brought him greater pleasure than he'd ever known, but released only the worst of the pressure - because she stoked his need beyond imagining.

"And does the Valkyrie return the sentiment?" Lachlain asked.

"I want her more than I've ever coveted anything - but I know she's no' mine. She holds herself away from me, keeps secrets. I fear she always will."

Garreth had told her, "We need to talk about what will happen once we complete this mission." She'd given him a cagey look and said, "Can't we just keep our focus on that for now?" He'd asked her to confide in him, asked her what her nightmares were about. She'd refused to tell him.

"You've got to give her a free rein," Lachlain said. "She's made up her own mind about things for over a millennium - she will no' take kindly to an overbearing male."

"Aye, I ken that." He exhaled. "If Lousha and I are fated, then why is this so difficult?"

"Everybody says the mate phenomenon makes the bonding easier. In my mind, it usually only brings grief, at least at first. Especially if a mate is other. Bowen and I could no' be more content with our mates, but we each went through hell to get her."

Hell. I'm there right now. Restlessness weighed on him. He wasn't running at night, wasn't providing for his mate, and could find no threat to protect her from.

"You're still no' bedding her?" Lachlain asked.

"Nay," he said, then added in a mutter, "Everything but." With each storm, he was taking her back to their cabin. But even when it hadn't been raining, he was tempted, barely stopping himself from it.

He'd grown so desperate he wouldn't have cared if Lucia's lightning struck all around them on a cloudless day.

And when they were in bed together, he was only just keeping his promise to her. Claw marks riddled the cabin wall from the times he'd struggled not to take her, when his shaft had prodded right at her tight core - and instead of fighting him, she'd moaned, "Please..."

Each time he somehow found the strength to deny her, he resented her vows more and more. "I'm trying to be patient," he told Lachlain now, "trying to respect her beliefs, but I doona know how much longer I can do this."

"What will happen tonight?"

"Unless I can get her to accept me, I'll be praying the cuff holds true..." His voice trailed off. Garreth scented her desire. And rain on the air. He turned to Lucia, found her gazing at him with expectation. "I've got to go!"