Authors: Delilah Devlin
After Dark
Delilah Devlin
Scotland, 1310 A.D.
N
ATALIE TOUCHED DOWN LIGHTLY INTO THE MOONLIT CLEARING
deep in the forest, using only a few running steps this time to stop her forward motion. Neither did she have to concentrate hard to fold away her wings, absorbing them into the pouches that melted between her shoulder blades.
Just as Simon said, her wings had come to be an integral part of her body—flying, as instinctual as walking.
Regrettably, taking to the sky didn’t mean she escaped her worries. Her joy at discovering her newly emerging abilities had waned. The more she came into her Born self, the more withdrawn Rene, her lover, had become. Her bitterness over his abandonment wasn’t something she could deny anymore.
Perhaps if she tired herself enough, she could smooth the nasty edge that had crept into her voice whenever she spoke to the others living in the monastery. They didn’t deserve her anger. After another quick glance around, she “popped” her wings again, fanning them wide, intending to take one more flight around the secluded valley.
“You do seem to have a flare for the dramatic,” Simon murmured from the edge of the woods.
Natalie’s hands went automatically to her breasts even though the mage had been training her for weeks and had often seen her seminude. Her wings had shredded several shirts and gowns before she resigned herself to the fact modesty couldn’t be a vampire’s trait.
She let her hands drop to her sides, narrowing her gaze as he stepped into the moonlight. She didn’t understand her particular annoyance with him. He was only trying to prepare her, to ease her way since she didn’t have a vampire mentor.
However, to his discredit, his glance did flicker downward, touching her nipples before coming back to meet her gaze, one sardonic brow rising high.
Her chin came up. A wash of heat filled her cheeks, irritating her more. “Don’t you have somewhere to be?” she bit out. “Like stirring up trouble in some old caldron?”
A grin brought a devilish glint to his eyes. “I think you’re ready.”
“If it’s sword play or sticking something with a pike, you’re right.”
“Not the sort of bloodletting I had in mind.”
Blood! Damn, did he have to mention it out loud? She’d taken blood from a milk cow before fleeing to the skies, but
that hadn’t satisfied. Nothing would, except the life source of the one man she couldn’t have. “Where’s Rene?”
“He’s already gone to bed.”
The heat of her irritation cooled. Her glance slid sideways. Rene had avoided her again.
“You know,” Simon said slowly, “he’s going to have to make a decision sooner or later. Or you’re going to have to make it for him.”
Natalie turned away. More concerned with hiding her expression than her nudity. “He’s avoiding me. I have the feeling he’s already made his decision.”
“He’s stubborn,” Simon said, a palm smoothing along the edge of her wing as he stepped in front of her. “He doesn’t realize the anger he feels inside himself isn’t with you.”
“I thought it was a forgone thing,” she said, fighting to keep the thickening emotion from her voice. “The first bite was supposed to link us. He’s supposed to want this—
want me
.”
Simon lifted her chin with a finger and brought her gaze back to his. The understanding in his expression nearly did her in. “That bite did bind you together, but Rene’s older than most mates Born women choose. His will is strong.”
“I didn’t ask him to come with me through that portal, Simon. He stepped through it all by himself.” She sighed, trying again to stem the tears underlying her blustering anger. “I’m confused.”
“Just because he couldn’t bear to part with you doesn’t mean he’s as accepting of his role as your consort.”
“I’d never make him serve me. Not in the way the other Born expect their
Revenants
to behave. I love him.”
“You’re changing, growing confident and stronger every
day. You’re not the young, frightened woman you were whom he had to protect. He has to be wondering whether you need him for more than just to feed your hungers.”
“But what can I do?” she asked, finally letting her eyes fill.
Simon’s hand slid behind her neck and pulled her closer as he leaned his head down.
Her breath caught, sure he was going to kiss her. A sensual touch would be her undoing, as her body was so primed for sex.
Instead, he leaned his forehead against hers. “Natalie,” he whispered, “the same sexual frustration you feel right now is just as strong in Rene. He’s been slicing slivers off his trainers all week.”
Natalie felt a smile curve her lips and leaned closer, letting her nipples scrape across the soft linen of his shirt. The delicious rasp had her shivering. “Has he hurt anybody?” she replied just as softly.
“Rene may be a bit ham-fisted when it comes to his knight’s training—no skills, no grace whatsoever—but he’s strong as a bull, and when he does connect with his sword, he knocks them on their arses.”
Natalie’s smile deepened. Rene was a brute. He’d proved that more than once when they made love—once he realized he didn’t need to be gentle with her.
But they hadn’t made love in days.
In fact, unrequited lust was causing her physical pain, tightening her rounding belly. If his desire was even a tenth as deep as hers, she didn’t know how he managed. Masturbating just didn’t provide a strong enough release to take the edge off her hungers.
If Rene didn’t make love to her soon, she might have to find another lover. She drew away from Simon. He was a
handsome man, with his short, rough beard, brown eyes, and broad shoulders honed from years of knight’s training.
But Simon had Kestrel, and although she knew in this other world the rules of fidelity didn’t necessarily apply, she didn’t want to bring either of them pain.
No, she needed to nip the problem in the bud. She had to confront Rene tonight—make him decide once and for all. Either he needed to permit her to turn him, or they would part, because waiting for him was driving her out of her mind.
She straightened her shoulders. “Where is he?” She knew he wasn’t sleeping in their bed.
Simon’s wicked brows rose. “In the barracks. Last cot. And you needn’t bother being quiet. The men won’t mind a bit. They’ll be relieved you’re finally doing something about him.”
She grinned at the wry humor in his voice. With a single downward flap of her wings, she lifted from the ground, leaving the forest behind and heading for the dark stone wall surrounding the monastery.
The long barracks building sat at the back of the enclosure. Outside, she removed the drawstring pants she wore when she flew, and left them at the door. Inside the building the air felt damp and cool against her naked skin, as it would in early autumn.
She sauntered through the doorway, rolling her hips. Wanting everyone to know she meant business, because tonight was the night he would finally succumb…or she would release him.
She tossed back her long blond hair and lifted her hands to cup her breasts, scraping her thumbs across her nipples, causing them to ruche, ratcheting up her own desire and drawing several interested stares. Her breasts were riper,
fuller, growing more sensitive by the day as her pregnancy progressed.
She strode down the aisle, not glancing at the cots lining either side, but hearing the soft murmurs of the wakening men, the creaks of the ropes beneath their thin mattresses as they rose, then the padding of their feet as they left the building.
As if she cared whether they watched.
The narrow cot Rene slept in was just large enough to accommodate his broad frame. A bare, slotted window let in the moonlight, which bathed his body in silver and shadow.
Her heart twisted at the thought that he’d rather sleep here than the comfortable bed in the cottage the monks had provided.
She quietly approached the cot, her gaze roaming his broad, muscled body. She stepped to the end of the bed and slowly pulled down his covers, baring him to her hungry gaze.
He lay on his back, his legs splayed. Perfect.
She almost wished she had manacles to ease around his wrists, just as in the first days of their captivity back in
Ardeal
, before they’d escaped twenty-first century New Orleans to this isolated, medieval Scottish monastery. She’d have preferred to torment him, without any resistance. Still, she didn’t think he’d be able to deny her if she started in the right place.
She climbed onto the mattress, careful not to jostle him, and leaned over his cock, which lay curled against his thigh.
When she lifted it gently, he murmured, his hand sliding once up and down his chest. When she opened her mouth and took him inside, his eyes shot open.
Seeing her, his jaw firmed in denial, but she wasn’t going to allow him a choice this time. She reached inside herself for
the curling heat deep in her womb, visualized it unfurling, radiating a fragrance that wafted the air to encircle him.
His breath caught; his body tightened. His hands fisted at his sides, but he didn’t reach down to push her away. “Natalie,” he groaned.
She knew she could arouse him—his expanding erection told her that. Why did he fight feeling more? Wasn’t he falling in love the same way she was? Or was she in this alone? Did he still have feelings for his partner on the police force, whom they’d left behind in New Orleans seven hundred years in the future?
“Did you feed,
chère
?” he growled. He was always so careful to ask—which meant he wasn’t ready to offer up a vein.
She stifled her disappointment and nodded, not releasing him, instead slipping one hand between his legs to caress his balls and encircling the base of his cock with the other.
His eyes closed for a moment. His chest rose sharply, then he reached down and cupped the back of her head, encouraging her to take him deeper into her mouth.
Natalie inhaled, taking in his rich, musky scent, and sank over him, laving his shaft with her tongue as she slid down then up. He needed her now—needed the release she could give him. Being the only woman among forty men leant a certain advantage.
She continued to move up and down, suctioning hard, loving the way his body tensed and his hips stroked helplessly upward.
Suddenly his fingers threaded through her hair and tugged, drawing her off him.
Feeling a little disoriented, so deep was her own arousal, she let him bring her to the mattress as he rolled to his side
to make room. She reached for him, but his jaw flexed and he rolled her again, this time to her stomach, and straddled her hips, trapping her beneath him.
She moaned and blinked back tears, not wanting him to know how his continued rejection hurt.
“Is this too uncomfortable?”
Her belly was barely rounded with her pregnancy. She could lie and he’d let her face him, but she shook her head.
His large hands cupped her shoulders, his thumbs kneading into muscle.
She took a deep breath and attempted to open a conversation. “That feels good.”
His fingers traced the shallow indentions between her shoulder blades. “Did you enjoy your flight tonight?”
“I think I’m getting the knack of it.”
His hands stilled on her back. “You know it’s not that I don’t care, Natalie.”
You just don’t love me.
She nodded and laid her forehead on her folded arms.
“I have so much to learn here,” he said, with the Cajun accent that never failed to make her toes curl. “I don’t want to lose daylight hours for my trainin’.”
“I understand.” This time she did lie.
Didn’t he know he’d gain the strength of ten men as soon as he transformed? All he had to do was die for her—like he’d promised when they stepped through the portal from one world into this one.
If she’d known he’d get cold feet, she might have taken her chances back in New Orleans with a plague of birds and rats and a demon on her tail, rather than spend centuries pining for him after he finally died of old age.
“I want to kiss you,” she said, her tone pouting.
“You wanna bite me.”
The wry humor in his voice made her smile. “True.”
“I’m gonna keep you on your belly, sugar. The temptation might be too much.”
“Do you think you’re so irresistible?”
“
You’re
so irresistible.”
His whispered comment made her grow still for a moment. “Is that why you’ve avoided me?”
His lips glided along her shoulders. His hands tightened on her waist. “I don’t like not havin’ a choice. Not bein’ in charge of my own body or will.”
“You want me that much?”
His hands slipped between her and the mattress to squeeze her breasts. “I want your teeth slidin’ into me,” he whispered into her ear, “your sweet pussy swallowin’ my dick. I’m goin’ out of my mind here,
chère
.”
So he did feel the same way she did. She relaxed. Soon. He’d give into her soon. Maybe even tonight. “Then why fight it?”
“It’s what I keep askin’ myself.” His knees widened around her hips and he helped her turn to face him.
Natalie wanted to wind her arms around him and pull him close. Instead, she trembled, seeing the stark need that tightened his jaw and lips. She waited, holding her breath, blinking against her tears.
His palms cupped her face, and thick thumbs glided beneath her eyes, sweeping away the moisture gathered there. “Don’t cry. I know it’s the only way we can be together. But I wanna get a couple o’ things straight between us first.”
She nodded quickly, realizing he was at last willing to give himself completely.
“I’m no lapdog,” he said, roughly nudging apart her thighs with his knees. “I won’t be a goddamn minion.”
Natalie lay still while fresh, hot liquid seeped into the bedding beneath her bottom as he came over her.
“I’ll be yours. But you’ll be mine.” His cock rooted at her, finding her slick folds, and tunneled inside. “No one will have this of you—ever.”
“No other lovers?” she asked, at last reaching up to grip his shoulders and easing her hips off the mattress to take him deeper. “You might change your mind. An eternity is a long time, Rene.”