Savage Possession (Temple of Luna #1) (2 page)

Celine was the kind of woman warriors
challenged just to see if they could win. Many men had tried to
claim her during the years before her ascension to the coveted
position of high priestess of the Temple of Luna. Rumor had it only
one man had succeeded in the winning the devotion of Luna’s most
dangerous servant.

The high priestess of the Temple of Luna
gave her obedience to her Goddess and King alone. Anyone else was
as likely to get the sharp side of her tongue and a firm set-down
if they stepped out of line.

Even the King’s heir.

Rais found her in her usual chair, deep
within the Temple. Sharp brown eyes tracked his approach and. By
the time he’d reached her, she’d set aside her computer tablet in
favor of leaning back and crossing her legs. “That look in your
eyes makes me nervous.”

He didn’t waste time. “Dhaval’s niece,
Avani. She’s still in gold bands, but I want her.”

Celine actually blinked. “Are you out of
your mind?”

“
Do I look crazy to you?
Wait, don’t answer that.” Rais drew his hands through his hair and
straightened his loose linen shirt. “I hope we can speak frankly
about this. Does Avani have any hope of advancing here?”

“
Why do you...?” The
woman’s nostrils flared and she narrowed her eyes. “You have her
scent on you. How far did it go?”

“
I kissed her, that’s all.
It was stupid, and entirely my fault.”

Celine closed her eyes and sighed. “No. She
has no real hope of advancing. I thought... She’s a strong woman.
She’s got the fire and temper of the formidable warriors in her
father’s family. But she’s too gentle. Trusting. If I can’t find a
way to fix it without breaking her then she’s done on her
twenty-fourth birthday. Five months from now.”

“
Some women just need time
to grow into their power.”
Avani’s words
came back to him. She’d be devastated to be turned out of the
Temple. “I won’t let that happen.”

“
You can’t stop it, puppy.
Not unless you want to come back here in six months or a year and
find she’s been traumatized by a warrior who took what she offers
too readily.”

Rais had to unclench his jaw to speak. “No
one’s pride is worth what could happen. I understand that, which is
why I need tonight. Give her to me.”

Celine spoke with her usual
bluntness. “To do what? Even if you
can
control yourself enough to keep
from hurting her, what do you hope to accomplish?”

The words were ridiculous. Insane. “I want
to be sure and claim her before I go out on my last
deployment.”

“
Claim her.” Flat words,
spoken without a hint of emotion. “That must have been quite a
kiss.”

He met her stare with a stony one of his
own. “I’ll need a mate before the year’s out. Avani’s lineage is
impeccable.”

“
Which is why she doesn’t
need to be rescued. She could leave here tomorrow on the arm of any
of a dozen men, were she not stubbornly determined to serve Luna.
You won’t be doing her any favors by snatching her up in a moment
of foolish chivalry only to tire of her.”

It was an insult, not only to his pride but
to his honor. “I don’t easily give my word, Celine, and when I do I
keep it.”

“
That’s what worries me.”
Celine sat back in her chair and watched him with those hard brown
eyes. “I suppose the future is your choice and hers. But the
present is my responsibility. Can you control yourself with her?
You’re overdue a visit.”

He owed her the truth. “I may frighten her,”
he allowed reluctantly, “but I have my control. I won’t harm
her.”

“
Fear can be worse than
pain, Rais. If you terrorize her, her uncle will thrash you and
your father may let him. And if she isn’t willing, if she isn’t
eager, this
will
terrorize her.” One slim eyebrow went up. “If I send for her,
will I find her willing and eager?”

Rais couldn’t check the laugh that burst
free of him. “You think I’d trouble you to send a novice to my bed
if she didn’t even want to be there? That’s preposterous.” He
recalled the way she’d trembled and melted against him, on fire and
sweetly aroused. “Of course she wants me.”

Celine rolled her eyes toward the heavens
and reached for her computer tablet. Her fingers flew over the
screen in silence, and she glanced up at him. “You match your
father for sheer ego, my boy. You’ll find an acolyte waiting
outside my door. She’ll take you to a room fit for wooing a nervous
novice. If Avani is willing, she’ll come to you. If not, I’ll send
someone sturdy enough to quench your frustration.”

Rais hesitated, torn. He wanted her promise
that she’d send Avani, and he wasn’t even sure why. He’d done
everything in his power to secure her; the final decision was hers,
as well it should be. “You have my thanks, Celine. I shall
look forward to seeing Avani.”

And Goddess help me if you send anyone
in her stead.

Avani’s fingers trembled as she tried to
push the tiny pearl button through its hole. Donning the ceremonial
costume of a priestess preparing to gentle her first warrior was
supposed to be a solemn event, one a woman had plenty of time to
prepare for.

She’d had ten minutes, and
her hands hadn’t stopped shaking once the whole time. She cursed
softly and lifted her gaze to her best friend. “Whose idea
were
these tiny little
buttons? What warrior will want to wait for me to get them undone
again?”

Branwen chuckled. “I believe that’s quite
the point. They’re to be ripped off, not unbuttoned.”

A fact Avani would have remembered if her
thoughts hadn’t scattered the moment Celine had handed over the
dress and the location of the room where Rais waited.

For me. Rais is waiting to
rip this dress off my body. Rais is waiting to...
Her cheeks flushed, and she lifted her hands to
cover her face as a shiver claimed her. The worst part was not
knowing if it was nerves or anticipation. “I’ve lost my mind,
haven’t I?”

Branwen shrugged one shoulder and smiled
slowly. “I don’t know. He’s a strong warrior. Not a usual first,
but...”

Nothing about this was usual. She hadn’t
been called before the high priestess and granted her white bands,
or acknowledged at dinner with an invitation to the priestess’s
table. She was still the novice she’d been an hour before when Rais
had pressed her against a door with the hard wall of his body and
taught her in one instant that she was nowhere near ready.

And now he wanted her. He was the King’s
son, the heir to the throne of their people. Being called to his
bed was the highest honor for any priestess, especially when
everyone knew he still looked for a mate.

But when she looked at Rais she didn’t see
the all-important heir. She saw the handsome soldier her uncle had
brought home for the first time just after her twelfth birthday. In
her uncle’s home Rais hadn’t been royalty. He’d been one of her
uncle’s men, the latest in a line of rugged soldiers who owed her
uncle their obedience.

He’d received no special treatment in her
uncle’s home, and she’d been fifteen before she realized the man
who took her constant teasing with such unruffled good nature was
the King’s only son. The last time he’d visited, she’d been sixteen
and starting to notice boys who were starting to notice her back.
But Rais had been exactly the same, ruffling her hair before asking
her about her studies and her class work.

The memory of her teenage
indignation at being seen as a child was almost amusing now.
She
had
been a
child then, an innocent with only the vaguest idea of what went on
when a warrior took someone to his bed.

Avani dropped her hands and stared at
herself in the mirror. Not a child anymore, and certainly not an
innocent. The slender, jeweled leather cuffs buckled around her
wrists and ankles had been fitted to her before her first night in
the bed of a trainer, and her gown was designed to taunt a man with
what he couldn’t quite see.

If it hadn’t been for the nervousness in her
eyes, she would have looked like a woman ready to enjoy a lusty
night in bed. She turned to Branwen and twisted her hands together
to hide their shaking. “What if he changes his mind? What if I
can’t please him?”

Branwen drew the ivory-backed brush through
Avani’s hair again. “Remember your training. Remember what he
needs, and how to help him. Don’t panic, and don’t try to force
anything. Just enjoy it.”

Enjoying it wouldn’t be the problem.
Enjoying it too much was the real danger. Letting Rais crawl under
her skin until a young woman’s affection changed to a grown woman’s
need.

Nothing to be done about
it now.
She caught Branwen’s hand and
slipped the brush from her friend’s fingers. “Thank you for helping
me prepare, but I need to go. He was already tense. The longer I
wait, the worse off he’ll be.”

The pale brunette hesitated. “Be careful,
Avani. Be safe.” She turned and hurried out.

Alone in her room, Avani reached for her
robe and paused to brush a finger over the gold bands that
encircled the sleeves. The heavy robe of a novice instead of the
lighter, softer robe of a full priestess. It felt strange to pull
it over the costume of silk and lace that barely covered her body,
but she had nothing else to wear.

Her footsteps seemed to echo in the empty
hallways of the Temple. She’d never been so aware of what was
happening behind the soundproof doors she passed, of the tangle of
naked flesh and the carnal fucking that left a warrior gentled and
a priestess sated.

They’d given Rais one of the opulent rooms
tucked in the far corner of the Temple, rooms reserved for the
strongest and neediest warriors. Avani’s hand trembled as she
lifted it to the small scanner by the door. It would already be
programmed to recognize her, and once she touched it and crossed
the barrier, the room would become inaccessible to any but the
Temple guards and the high priestess herself. A safeguard for the
priestesses who handled possessive men who could turn violent if
someone seemed determined to interrupt them, but a terrifying act
of finality for a nervous woman.

In the end it was Rais who decided her.
Rough and dangerous as he obviously could be, every instinct she
had screamed for him. He would never hurt her, never cause her pain
or distress. The worst thing he could do to her was reject her.

Avani blew out a breath and
settled her hand against the panel. A heartbeat later the door
whispered open, and her body tightened as she felt his power. Male.
Warrior.
Yes.

“
Come in,
Avani.”

Her feet moved without her permission,
carrying her across the threshold. The door slid shut behind her
and she caught her breath as her eyes adjusted to the dim room.
Rais stood by the window, looking out into the sunset.

He’d discarded his shirt, and slanting light
gilded the hard planes of his chest and shoulders. When he looked
at her, his eyes were shadowed. “I want to speak with you. Before
you come any closer.”

It wasn’t what she’d expected to hear, and
her fingers stilled on the ties of her outer robe. “Yes?”

He only stood there, arms crossed over his
chest, but his gaze was fixed to her unmoving hands. “I have enough
control for now, but I don’t know how long it will last. If you
aren’t absolutely sure you want to be here, you should go now.”

She knew the clearest way to show her
willingness. It was so much a ritual it had become a symbol. A
priestess in full robes was a woman to be approached with respect
and deference. A priestess without them...

It was supposed to be smooth. In her
imagination she envisioned her robe sliding down her body, pooling
at her feet as she stood in silent offering. But nerves made her
hands tremble, and the knot in her belt seemed tied too tightly.
Not even an inelegant tug freed it, and furious heat rose in her
cheeks as she looked down at her hands.

Rais stalked silently across the polished
floor and plush rugs. “You’re to shed your outer robe, priestess.”
He came out of the deepening shadows, and she saw his eyes blazing
with unfed hunger. “Open it, or I will.”

Avani swallowed and spread her arms wide,
giving him her trust as well as permission to claim her body. “I’m
at your mercy, warrior.”

His eyes flashed again. He ripped the belt
with one tug and left it dangling, frayed and ruined, from her
robe. “Better?”

“
Much.” She lifted her
hands caught the edges of her robe, unable to tear her gaze from
his face as she pulled the fabric open and let it slide from her
shoulders.