In the Service of the King

  She gasped and her mouth dropped open. He was more fascinating, more gorgeous, than she had even fully recalled. Fire danced behind his eyes, and flashes of gold shined out through the emerald. He was smiling, and it highlighted the strong masculine angles of his jaw and cheeks so vividly it stole her breath. A reaction amplified by the appearance of the sharp tips of his fangs. Shayla licked her lips.

  Despite being on his knees, he radiated such palpable power she could feel it jangling in the air between them.

  Oh, God. He’s on his knees. A throaty sigh escaped her as she dropped to her own. She was always to be below him.

  “Now I can’t see you again.” The warm, amused tone was back. “Please look at me.”

  Taking a deep breath, Shayla finally obeyed. Her gaze raked over his intricate tartan robes before finally settling on his handsome face. When their eyes met, the smile he let loose dazzled her, and she smiled back. His playfulness, the incredible sense of ease now possessing him, made it harder to hold on to her anger.

  “Thank you,” he said. She nodded. “I have some things I’d like to say to you. Are you willing to hear them?”

  “Of course, Your Highness.”

  Kael frowned for a moment, and Shayla didn’t have time to figure out why before he spoke again. “I hurt you, and I owe you an apology.”

  She inhaled to speak, but he cocked his eyebrow and she fell silent. She nodded again instead.

  “I don’t just mean for hurting you with the knife, although I am…beyond sorry you had to endure that.” He grasped one of her hands in both of his and her lips fell open. His touch was so warm, so encompassing. “I lost control and it compromised your safety, your well-being, and that is my first responsibility to the Proffered.”

  Shayla’s shoulders and gaze dropped as he referred to her title again. She internally reprimanded herself for expecting anything else.

  The fingers on his free hand nudged her chin up and beckoned her to look at him. “Shayla, I lost control because I…I felt something, with you. Something I don’t feel…ever. I…”

  She should’ve been focusing, listening, but… Did he just say he felt something for me? With me? Lost control because he felt something…as in, he has feelings? For me?

  He chuckled. “Where did you go, young one?”

  Shayla shook her head. “I’m sorry, Your Highness.”

  He squeezed her hand and dipped his head to look up into her once again diverted gaze. “Shayla, could you please call me Kael?”

  Her eyes flew to his and she gaped. “Yes?”

  His grin brightened his whole face. “Was that a question?”

  “No, Sir—er, Kael.” A blush bloomed hot on her face.

  “Mmm, that is lovely. And so fragrant.” He fingered her cheek. “I would like to taste you, Shayla.”

  She gulped and shuddered as her heart took off at a mad gallop. “O-okay.”

  “Okay,” he whispered as he leaned in.

  This wasn’t the wild kiss he’d claimed her with earlier. His lips found hers gently, reverently, as if he was savoring small tastes of a rare gourmet meal. One large hand grasped her shoulder and the other cupped her cheek—both brought her closer to him. He pulled and sucked at her lips, his hair falling around their faces as he rose up over her. She opened herself before he even demanded it of her—her body remembered his exquisite taste and begged for its return. Their tongues stroked and explored, but she needed more. She pushed forward just enough to suck his whole tongue deep into her mouth.

  Sweet fulfillment exploded against her taste buds, dragging whimpers and moans from her. He groaned and her hands flew to his hair. Her left hand found masses of thick silky bronze she gripped and tugged as she held him to her, but her right hand fell on his jeweled braid. Knowing the significance of it, she yanked her hand back, afraid she’d offended him.

  But then his big hand grasped hers where it rested against his chest and pulled it back up to his head. “Hold me,” he whispered against her lips. “Touch me.”

  Shayla moaned her assent as her fingers wrapped around the braid and the jewels bit lightly into her skin.

  Kael wanted to go slow. He wanted to seduce her—not just her body, but her heart, her mind. But his body was nearly vibrating with the difficulty of restraining himself. Her lust and adrenaline were heady scents in the air, but nothing compared to the tantalizing aroma of the sweet cream of her arousal. Except maybe the deep sense of psychic calm that had invaded him since she’d returned.

  His cock came to life, his fangs stretched out and rubbed dangerously against her tongue and lips. He pulled back. When he bit her this time, he didn’t want it to be an accident.

  “Can you forgive me, Shayla?” He searched her blue-green gaze. His life seemed to hang in the anticipation of her words.

  She was breathing heavily and trembling. Her gaze was just as searching. “You hurt me.”

  Her words crushed him with guilt and enlivened him with pride in her for standing up for herself. The multiple sides of her personality fascinated him. She could be both submissive and fierce, obedient and challenging. And he adored that about her. “Yes.”

  “Don’t do it again.” The cocked brow above her blue eye enchanted him.

  This wasn’t a woman he could push around. This was a woman who would push back. He was thrilled. He bowed his head. “You have my word.” She studied him, then nodded. He smiled. “Yes?”

  “Yes,” she whispered.

  He grasped her cheeks and pressed his lips to hers. “Thank you.” He tilted his head and kissed her right eye. “Thank you.” Then her left. “Thank you.”

  She giggled as she fisted her hands in the thick folds of his robes. The delighted sound made his chest expand.

  “My Shayla.” Ask her. Tell her. Kael pulled back and licked his lips.

  “What is it?” She reached a tentative hand up, her eyes asking permission. He nodded and her small, warm palm cupped his cheekbone, stroked his brow, tucked a thick strand of hair back off his face. Each gesture left him with the overwhelming feeling of being cared for.

  It has been so long….

  “I need you to understand me.” He grasped her hand and kissed over her life and love lines. She tilted her head. “I want you.”

  “Good.” She smiled. “You have me.”

  Chapter Six

  Shayla meant it. She’d fantasized about this man for years now. She’d had her first orgasms at the mere idea of him. Later orgasms had involved the only image she’d ever seen of him—a portrait in which the artist had well captured his powerful otherworldliness that attracted her so. Not all her fantasies involving him had been sexual, either. She’d dreamed of fighting by his side, gutting a Soul Eater from navel to sternum and watching the life bleed out of his eyes. She knew that wasn’t likely, of course. Though she was trained in martial arts—as were all the Proffered, she knew enough to know she didn’t have the expertise to be anything but liability in a real fight. But that didn’t keep the violent images out of her secret imaginings.

  Now that she’d met him, though, felt the unbelievably intense pull to him, she knew her attraction was to more than just the idea of him, the fantasy of him. It was to Kael, the man.

  And he wanted her, too.

  “You have me,” she repeated. “Have me.”

  Kael’s mouth dropped open and Shayla gasped as she caught the white flash of a sharp tooth again. She was darkly fascinated by this side of him and shivered at the thought that the man before her was not just a man, but a vampire. Wanting him to know she was serious, she extended her wrist to him.

  In one swift motion, he grasped it and pulled both of them to their feet. She gasped and fell into him. “Not this time. Come. Please.”

  She frowned but followed him to the massive iron bed. She watched, fascinated, as he unclasped his magnificent tartan robes. He still wore the thin green silk robe from before underneath, but she was distracted from thinking about that when he turned toward the
bed and, in a graceful flick of his wrists, unfurled the layered tartans out over the bedding in a soft, gentle pillowing of fabric.

  Shayla was glad he turned back to her so quickly. She wanted what was about to happen and her body ached for things she didn’t even have the words to name, but if he gave her the chance to get nervous, to overthink it, she might.

  He didn’t give her the time.

  He grasped her shoulders and pulled her against him, his mouth finding hers as if they’d never left off earlier. As her lips and tongue responded, he wrapped his arms around her. One large hand cradled her head while the other smoothed down over her back and settled just above her rear. The strength of his embrace pressed their bodies together. He was hard and thick and long between them. She writhed and pushed against him.

  They kissed and explored each other until Kael was all that existed. His heat surrounded her. His male spice filled her nose and excited her palate. His touch, tender and possessive at the same time, set every nerve ending on fire.

  He pulled away from her mouth and she gasped for breath, then moaned as he trailed openmouthed kisses and licks and long teasing drags of what had to be his fangs along her jaw and down her neck. He sucked on the pulse point below her ear. “I will take care of you, Shayla,” he whispered. She shivered and tilted her neck for his exploration.

  She cupped the back of his head as he leaned down to explore her body. The cool silk of her robe slid off her shoulders under the direction of his hands, then settled around her biceps like a shawl. He fumbled at her waist and the belt dropped, freeing the robe to swing open. He raked his gaze from her face to her legs. His observation set off an electric current down her center. His lips glistened as he licked them.

  When he met her eyes again, his were blazing. The brilliant green hue wavered and intensified. He yanked the tie to his own robe free and the fabric fell open, revealing a swath of muscular and marked male flesh from throat to groin. An intricate black design pulled her attention from his face to the light golden skin of his chest. Mostly visible between the hanging green silk was a large round tattoo of a series of interlocking Celtic knots surrounding a regal Pict horse. The Celts’ knot work represented the complexity of life, and the more overlapping the lines, the greater the protection against evil was supposed to be. If the symbolism was true, Kael should’ve been well served by this beautiful mark.

  Every inch of his body was lean golden muscle, much of it decorated by beautiful Celtic artwork. Every rippling of his shoulders and clenching of his defined abdomen radiated leashed power. Her eyes bulged and she whimpered when she took in the thick, long shaft protruding from the bronze curls covering his groin. She might have been a little scared if her pussy hadn’t tingled in need and anticipation.

  For long moments, she drank him in. When she noticed the faster rise and fall of his chest, she finally looked back to his face.

  He was watching her observe him—his mouth hung open and his Adam’s apple bobbed in a rough swallow. The lengths of his fangs were completely visible to her for the first time.

  Her eyes widened and dilated. She shifted her stance, adjusting to the moisture between her legs. She couldn’t stand the distance between them and closed it with a sure step. With one hand against the horse on his bare chest, she reached up with the other and cupped the back of his head and pulled him down to her. She was stunned to feel a rhythmic beat under her hand and realized how much about him she wanted, needed, to know. Later…

  This time it was her mouth that claimed his. His fang pinched her lip and she moaned. Then she wrapped her tongue around the other fang and flicked it repeatedly. His mouth tasted like danger and ecstasy. Embracing his nonhuman side so wantonly felt decadent, but also like the most natural thing she’d ever done.

  Kael fisted his hands in her hair but couldn’t decide whether to pull her away or hold her there forever. Definitely forever. Now that he’d accepted the magic weaving around them, he felt it down deep. Being with Shayla this way was as right as breathing, as drinking blood. Her tongue curled around his right canine and he sucked in a breath and growled. His fangs were so fucking sensitive and her tongue was relentless. Pre-cum slicked the skin of her stomach where he thrust against her. She lifted a leg and wrapped it around his thigh. The spicy-sweet scent of her arousal exploded into his senses, called him home.

  He groaned, then grabbed her shoulders and forced her backward until her body met the tall column of the iron poster on the bed. It took a little effort and even more resolve to release her from the kiss, to give up her stroking of his fangs. But his patience had just run into the negative.

  Shayla gasped as her back bumped into the cold metal, which he imagined got colder as he pushed the robe the rest of the way off her arms.

  “Arms up and grasp onto the post.”

  Breathing harder, she responded immediately and the pose perfected her posture and lifted her breasts.

  “Yes. Yes, Shayla. Beautiful.” He hummed in appreciation and pulled the belt off his robe, then shrugged out of it altogether.

  Desire and need drew a low growl from his chest as he reached up with the silk tie. Seconds later her hands were secured to the bedpost above her head. Kael ran his nose up her cheek to her ear and inhaled deeply. “I don’t want to drink from you just yet—” he licked the shell of her ear “—so we’re going to keep your hands up there where they won’t be able to urge me to do something I’m not ready to do.” He nipped her earlobe and she rubbed her cheek against his smooth jaw. He leaned back to find her gaze intense and aroused. Her teeth sank into her bottom lip. He narrowed his eyes at the sight. “And, so long as I can’t bite you, no biting yourself.” His thumb pulled the plump skin free of her teeth then rubbed across it. He couldn’t begin to allow himself to imagine her doing the biting. “Fuck.”

  Now that she was so exposed to him, he took full advantage. He started on the breasts he’d been admiring so greedily all night. They filled his hands with warm weight and he licked and kissed and suckled her pebbled nipples deep into his mouth. He worked back and forth between them, his fingers massaging and tugging the mound his lips weren’t worshipping. She moaned and pushed herself further into his mouth and squeezed her thighs together.

  Kael smiled at her squirming and dropped to his knees. Giving no warning, he pulled Shayla’s legs out from under her and lifted them over his shoulders until her thighs rested on them. Her gasp of surprise morphed into a guttural cry when he anchored his mouth against her swollen, wet lips. He sucked and licked and penetrated her with his tongue. Her juices flooded his senses and coated his throat, taking the worst of the edge off his demanding thirst, but it wasn’t enough. It would never be enough, with her.

  Shayla whimpered and pleaded between cries and moans. “Kael,” she rasped, igniting a wave of his own pleasure at her free use of his name. “Ka—” His name trailed off into a throaty scream as her orgasm exploded around his mouth and radiated through the rest of her body in a series of muscle spasms. Her euphoria was magnificent.

  “More, Shayla. Again.” Making sure her sensitive flesh was well coated with his soothing saliva, he nicked her swollen lip with his fang. She screamed and bucked when he surrounded the cut and her clit with his lips and sucked her flesh and blood over and over again.

  Kael’s body was in heaven and hell. His cock swelled and leaked against his thighs. His sac, high and tight, ached for release. But her taste was so fucking rich and luscious—and, Christ Almighty, her blood was thick and warm and totally life-giving—he couldn’t give any of it up without at least one more fast flow of her cream down his throat. And he wanted her delirious and boneless with pleasure.

  Her keening and clenching muscles told him when she was on the verge. “No, no. I…I can’t. No more. Mmm, Kael…oh, God, don’t stop—“

  Her babbling cut off abruptly as her orgasm stole her breath. Her thighs squeezed his face and her whole body thrashed. Kael supported her entire weight to insure the restraints did
n’t harm her wrists or shoulders. But her ecstasy was glorious and unleashed a raw feeling of masculine pride in his chest. He devoured every bit of her release, relished her sweet taste, her complete submission to his will. And what he willed was her pleasure. Tonight. Forever.

  When Shayla’s muscles quieted, her whole body sagged. Kael eased out from under her, rose and, with a quick flick of his wrist, removed the bonds. She collapsed against him, her movements so fluid someone seeing her might’ve thought her drunk.

  “Shh, dear heart. I have you.”

  She nuzzled her face into the crook of his neck. Competing reactions erupted. The gesture was sweet and comforting, and tugged at his heart. But the proximity of her mouth to his throat also spiked his arousal as it conjured imaginings of her opening her mouth, drinking.

  Sucking in a breath that failed to calm, Kael lifted Shayla into his arms and gently laid her atop his tartan robes on the bed.

  Shayla blinked her eyes open and found herself sprawled out on the bed. Her arm brushed something soft and comfortable, and she recalled Kael spreading out his robes. She stretched and fought the urge to curl up and snuggle into them. His scent lingered all around her. Kael.

  She turned her head and found him. His hard body pressed against the length of her side. A light sheen of sweat covered his brow and his lips glistened with her juices and his saliva. A passing thought urged embarrassment, but she was too blissed-out to feel anything but gratitude and contentment, especially when he looked at her with such hunger.

  Teasing, dragging fingers caressed her from throat to pubis. His voice was raspy. “Are you ready for more, Shayla? I don’t mean to rush you, but I—“

  She reached out and pressed three fingers against his full lips. “Don’t even think of apologizing for needing me.”