Forged by Love: Even Gods Fall in Love, Book 4 (25 page)

“Take your wife out of here,” he said to Harry.

He glanced at Harry’s mother, who shook her head vigorously. “I’ve never seen anything like this. It’s positively inspiring.”

“Let her go,” Harry said quietly. “The net is hers, meant for her. It will find her again.”

“After her mind is completely addled?” Blaize said. “Can I reach her when she is trapped?”

“Yes. It only restrains her. You must do the rest, as we always planned.” Harry sounded calm, but triumph was nowhere in his tones.

The column of whirling air in the centre of the room slowed, then stilled. Blaize made a chopping motion and it disappeared completely. After all, it was only air.

The dowager gazed up at the gap in the ceiling. “I never did like that chandelier.”

Her voice dropped into the sudden silence. Harry spluttered into laughter, his big body vibrating under Virginie. Recovered now, she went to get to her feet, but he held her firmly on his lap.

Deirdre collapsed on the floor, and as she did so the net moved. It covered her again as if she was a magnet to the iron. This time she didn’t move. Her clothes were in complete disarray, her skirts barely covering her. Her fichu, knotted neatly at the front, had turned around and ripped. Drool trickled from a corner of her mouth. She stared at her daughter, but Virginie saw no intelligence in her mother’s eyes.

Blaize stood over her, his eyes flaming with steely intent. He said nothing, but it was clear he was working, his mind in hers, sifting and stirring.

Bile rose to Virginie’s throat, and this time when Harry stood with her in his arms, she didn’t resist.

When Harry saw Virginie clawing at her throat, fighting for breath, he would have done anything to save her. Nothing else mattered. He released the Titan with barely a thought, only allowing the net to fall where it could find her again, if it found the chance. But he would not risk his wife’s life. If that meant that Dione lived, then so be it.

Virginie was shivering. In their room he stripped her, and then himself, and slid into bed, holding her close, warming her back to life.

She slept for two hours. Harry didn’t move. He’d heard from Blaize, a voice in his head dryly informing him that he had the situation in hand. Dione was irreparably insane, and he would make the arrangements to house her somewhere comfortable, but with guards that would not allow her to escape.

Harry replied that he didn’t care how comfortable she was, and that eventually the net would become part of her. Nobody would be able to see it, but it would confine her and keep her wherever he ordered her to be. But she must keep breathing until they found a way to break the threat to Virginie. After that, he cared not what happened to Deirdre.

A Titan. She had kept herself hidden, considering herself a rival to Kronos, or Boscobel as the world knew him. But now she shared his fate, and while the body she occupied held her essence, she would be no further threat to them.

When Virginie stirred, he smiled down at her. “She’s gone,” he said.

“Dead?”

“No. But she won’t bother us any more.”

She leaned up on one elbow, smiling back at him. “Bother?” But the smile quavered and melted away. “I can scarcely believe I didn’t notice anything that made her different. I was sure she was mortal.”

“Because she wanted you to see her that way. You loved her, at least in your childhood, and you didn’t want to see. Had she been innocent, she would have told the truth and we could have released her.”

She nodded. “I hoped for it.”

He stroked her shoulders, admiring their perfect form. “We don’t always get everything we want.”

“I have it all,” she murmured, going back into his arms. “I have you and now we have a baby arriving. I would that my mother had not been as she was, but she brought her fate upon herself. I’ve known Titans content not to join the struggle. One, anyway.”

“Interesting. Who?”

“Kentmere’s father-in-law. Eros, you know.”

“Yes I do, but I wasn’t aware he was a Titan. Is he safe?”

“Completely.” She stroked his chest. “I feel safe with you, for all your size and ferocity.”

“So you should. You are more than safe with me.”

“Not always.” She bent her head and kissed him.

He returned the kiss. How could he resist Venus? Even more, how could he resist Virginie?

Already he understood her. She wanted reassurance and confirmation of their love as much as she wanted passion, and he would give it to her. He would never fail her, not all the years of their lives, he vowed.

He urged her down and came over her, still kissing her. He kept the kiss soft and undemanding, just absorbing, trying to convey everything he could in the melding of their mouths.

His shaft found its way home as she curled her legs around him, holding him into her, pressing her heels against his backside. He made love to her sweetly, steadily, building their orgasms so they grew as naturally as breathing.

Their trust was rich enough for them to let it happen. Together their arousal grew and swelled. Together they blossomed, giving themselves up to love.

She might not be completely cured or completely content, but they would cope with what life threw at them. Together they would conquer it.

This time they both slept, but he woke a few minutes before she did. That gave him the chance to leave their bed and fetch a box from his room. When he returned, she was awake, blinking away the sleep.

“My love? How do you feel?”

“Better. More settled.” Her voice had returned to its usually soft tones, the huskiness from her near throttling gone.

“Blaize has gone. He took Dione with him.”

She nodded.

“I have something for you.”

He placed the box on her lap when she sat up. Wondering, she unlatched the mahogany container and opened it, revealing his gift to her. She lifted the delicate object, holding it against the light.

“It’s your own net,” he said, as the links twisted in the light from the window. The jewels he’d embedded in the soft gold mesh twinkled. He’d used all the most beautiful stones he could find, rubies, sapphires, diamonds, emeralds, pearls and others, so the object glittered with colour. “It’s a belt,” he said.

Laughing, she held it between her hands, elegantly draped. “Women don’t wear belts these days. But I certainly will. It’s so lovely.”

“You can break it with your two hands, if you wish. It’s gold, and completely without spells or enchantments.”

She turned her attention to him. “I wouldn’t say that,” she said. “After all, you made it, my love.”

They would work together now, and until the end of their lives.

About the Author

Lynne Connolly has the best job in the world. She writes historical, paranormal and contemporary romance and she doesn’t seem to be able to stop. She has won a number of awards, including two EPPIES, and she lives in damp, rainy England with her family and her mews.

Once a year she crosses the ocean to visit friends, attend conventions and other shindigs, and promote her books, so watch her blog if you want to meet her. She loves travelling and meeting people who she will then use in her books, but then, authors are like that.

Her website is at
www.lynneconnolly.com

You can email her at
[email protected]
or
[email protected]

She tweets
@lynneconnolly

Her Facebook is at
www.facebook.com/lynneconnollyuk

And her blog is here:
http://lynneconnolly.blogspot.co.uk/

One day she’ll grow up and get a proper job, but not just yet!

Look for these titles by Lynne Connolly

Now Available:

It All Started at Waterloo

Triple Countess

Last Chance, My Love

A Chance to Dream

Met by Chance

A Betting Chance

Secrets

Seductive Secrets

Alluring Secrets

Tantalizing Secrets

Richard and Rose

Yorkshire

Devonshire

Venice

Harley Street

Eyton

Hareton Hall

Maiden Lane

Lisbon

Even Gods Fall in Love

Lightning Unbound

Mad for Love

Arrows of Desire

Coming Soon:

Even Gods Fall in Love

War Chest

Don’t miss the other titles in Lynne Connolly’s Even Gods Fall in Love series!

When the God of Love falls for a nymph, all seven hells break loose.

Even Gods Fall in Love
, Book 3

Finished with the tutoring that taught him how to be an immortal, Edmund, otherwise known as Eros, steps off the packet onto English shores, and stumbles head over heels in love.

There’s something different about Perdita Seaton and her secretive family, but for now a bigger dilemma looms. Revealing he’s the Duke of Kentmere could cut their courtship short. Yet abandoning his heritage means leaving his beloved sister at the mercy of the Titans.

Even as Edmund steals Perdita’s breath with the speed at which he sweeps her down the aisle, she feels safe in the irresistible tide of passion. Her father, head of a smuggling empire, is Oceanus—and she is a nymph.

Disaster strikes when Edmund races to London to rescue his sister, and doesn’t return. Desperate, Perdita follows him, only to find no light of recognition in his eyes.

Now she must choose. Admit defeat, or fight to break the enchantment keeping Edmund’s heart prisoner—and risk the wrath of a jealous goddess who’d be all too happy to snuff her out.

Warning: Contains a wedding night that transcends heaven, a mother-in-law from hell, and one Titanic case of amnesia.

What the heart wants, it finds a way to take.

Even Gods Fall in Love
, Book 1

When Gerard Sterling, Earl of Ellesmere, races to Bethlehem Hospital—also known as Bedlam—to rescue a wrongly committed friend, he’s astonished to hear a voice in his head that doesn’t belong to his sister, with whom he shares a mind link.

Fascinated and enchanted by Lady Faith Bradley, inspired by her dedication saving her brother from the horrors of the Incurables ward, he includes them both in his rescue mission. But woo her he cannot—not with a fatal disease that saps more of his strength every day.

Faith would slay dragons to keep her brother safe from her father’s scheme to set his simpleminded heir aside. But it’s Gerard, who feels the hot breath of death down his neck, who wins her heart.

Then it is revealed that Gerard is none other than the reincarnation of Zeus, and they face a far more dangerous enemy—Kronos, whose plan to regain power includes Gerard’s death. To foil his plan, Gerard and Faith must hold firm to the power of love…and defy Fate itself.

Warning: Be careful—beautiful clothes, perfect manners and heat between the sheets are bound to keep you awake at night!

The fight for their love will be a battle of Olympian proportions.

Even Gods Fall In Love
, Book 2

Wherever he goes, Blaize, Marquess of Stretton, hears the jingle of keys as society mothers lock up their daughters. No wonder: he is secretly the embodiment of Bacchus, god of wine and madness.

Yet his melancholic heart is lonely. Until he enters a ballroom, hunting for the Titans who destroyed his father. One look at Lady Ariane Wells and he is consumed with an instant, almost violent compulsion to protect her from the attentions of another man who smells of Titan—Marcus, Duke of Lyndhurst.

Ariane is no shy debutante. She knows what she wants, and it is the stunningly handsome Blaize, even if it means defying her powerful mother. When Blaize disappears, Ariane embarks on a treacherous cross-country chase to find him, knowing that if she fails, she must marry her mother’s choice: Marcus.

Now that Blaize knows the true identity of his captor, he will fight for Ariane even if it means using his terrifying ability to drive everyone around him insane—including himself. For if he doesn’t save her, he will truly go insane—forever.

Warning: Contains a rake who can make a woman’s good sense completely melt away, and a debutante who isn’t afraid to spread her wings to fly in the face of convention. Could make even the bluest blood boil.