Desire After Dark: Lords of Pleasure (9 page)

The answer was instantaneous:
Because Luc is my mate. Mine! And while it’s fine for him to take pleasure in the natural drive of a vampire to feed and fuck, albeit with my permission, I won’t tolerate further intimacy between him and his Chosen.

That self-realization was shattering. She was bound as securely to Luc as if they’d been tethered together by enchanted rope. What was more, she was certain he didn’t yet feel the same pull as she did. Weren’t vampires supposed to know their mates upon meeting them? How frustrating!

Yet his ignorance of the true situation gave her time to think.
Her existence that had become so ho-hum in recent years was suddenly anything but, and she had no idea how to deal with complications that couldn’t be dispatched with her sword.

Caught up in her thoughts, she didn’t realize she was looking for Taryn until she found him in the courtyard. He was practicing his fighting skills with a guard named Darius, using the sword she’d given him as a gift for his last birthday, a fact that pleased her. Not only would his skills be necessary in their often-brutal world, once he’d perfected them, but he loved that sword because it was a present from Kass. He enjoyed feeling useful as well, which gave him a break from his other duties.

Right now, however, his duty to his mistress would take precedence.

“Darius!” she called, striding forward. “Give me your sword!”

“Yes, Commander!”

That was the title with which their guards and other soldiers were expected to address Kass and her sisters, rather than “mistress” like the household staff and pleasure slaves. Their soldiers were considered more their equals, but they were still deferential to the Valkyries, as their station dictated.

Confident, Darius tossed his sword, and Kass easily caught it by the hilt. She nodded to him, and he stepped back, content to watch her and Taryn spar.

She circled her slave, who was giving her a feral grin, the light of battle in his eyes. The familiar thrill zipped through her blood, the need to test her skill against a worthy opponent. In four years, Taryn had come far.

Raising his weapon, he made the first strike, a move that surprised her in its skill and speed. Immediately he put her on the defensive, driving her back with powerful blows, taking no
prisoners. She blocked them, countered his thrusts, and then leaped backward, putting some distance between them to recover.

Taryn’s swordsmanship had come a long way. For a brief time, he had her on the run and knew it. He moved in for the kill, increasing the frequency of his strikes, his arm a flurry of movement, his expression more feral than she’d ever seen, filled with battle lust.

To her astonishment, she tripped and almost fell. She fumbled her sword but managed to recover just in time to lunge, sweeping Taryn’s legs from underneath him. He planted on his ass in the dirt, and she held him at sword point, the tip about an inch from his throat.

“Do you yield?”

“Yes.” Taryn laughed and took the hand up that she offered. “But you almost dropped your weapon! I don’t think I’ve ever seen you so distracted. Does your vampire have anything to do with it?”

“None of your business.” She gave him the evil eye as he brushed the sand off his rear, but he wasn’t deterred.

“His feeding went well, did it?” he teased.

Standing, she pushed his hand away and brushed off her rear. “You have to ask? You’re the one who picked out the most tempting servants the palace had to offer.”

“At your request.”

“Maybe next time you shouldn’t do your job so well!”

“Wow, he
did
get to you.” Stepping close, he lowered his voice seductively but didn’t touch her. “Do you need me, mistress? You have only to ask.”

“Must I? As long as you’ve known me and have become accustomed to my moods?”

“Of course not. Forgive me,” he murmured, reaching out to smooth her hair from her face. “Where?”

“Right here.”

“Exhibitionist.” His affectionate tone said how much he loved that about her.

“As if you can cast stones.”

“I’ve never been innocent, nor would I want to be.” His lips curved. “As someone once said, sinners have more fun.”

“That was Adam, I think.”

“Hmm,” he said, pulling her close. “No, I’m sure it was Eve.”

“Actually, it was the devil’s idea.”

“Always a man’s fault.” He sighed, rolling his eyes playfully.

“Who else? When the first evil male tempted the innocent female, how was she to know better?”

“Which explains why innocence was lost long before you and I were born.”

She smirked. “Lucky for us.”

Done talking, Taryn brought his mouth to the curve of her shoulder and proceeded to nibble the delicate skin. He bit gently, causing a minishock of pain, then soothed the tiny hurt with lips and tongue. The need that had been simmering since she watched Luc with the faery ignited, stoking a fire in her sex. She wanted, now.

Her hands skimmed down his bare torso, feeling the cut ridges of his abdomen. Her fingers worked at the button on his pants, popped it free, and then attacked his zipper, freeing his erection. He was already hard for her, his shaft reddened and leaking. Closing her hand around him, she pumped, knowing he was ready to pounce.

Then Taryn made a move he rarely dared, in spite of her
earlier words about his taking the initiative—he pushed Kass to her knees.

She would have admonished him, but an image of Luc came to her—of him standing over her just this way, strong and self-assured. But the scene with Luc would be different somehow, and she didn’t want to think of that.

Pushing the picture away, she focused on enjoying her slave and licked the crown of Taryn’s cock. She swirled around it and trailed down the underside, along the heavy vein all the way to his balls. She laved and nuzzled them, then took as much of each one in her mouth as possible, getting them nice and wet. Her goal was to drive him wild, and by the time she moved back and gave one simple swipe along the ridge of sensitive flesh behind his balls, she’d succeeded.

“Gods!” Pulling Kass to her feet, he led her to a bench on the outer edge of the courtyard and gestured to it. “Undress and kneel.”

She smiled, pleased, and set about removing her clothing. Any of her sisters would have punished him for issuing such a terse order, but not Kass. She considered it a testament to her oral talents that her well-behaved boy would lose his cool so completely and become an animal that must rut.

Once naked, she knelt before the bench and bent, bracing her arms on top of it, her ass poking out. At once Taryn was behind her, using his fingers to stroke inside her channel, spreading her moisture to make sure she was prepared. This done, he didn’t linger.

The slave grasped her hips, pushing inside. His filling her felt so good. Always did. Once his rod was seated fully, he wasted no time establishing a rhythm of hard and deep strokes. Flesh
slapping flesh, he owned her body, taking them higher—and higher still…

Until his entire frame tensed and he shouted, plunging deep and holding there. He shouted and his cock began to jerk, and his release triggered her own. Hot spurts of cum jetted in her womb, and she rode their orgasm. So good.

At last he stilled, breathing hard. Smoothing a hand over her hip, he rasped, “Are you well, mistress?”

“Better than,” she assured him. “That was fantastic.”

“I’m glad you’re pleased.”

Taryn withdrew, then helped her to stand and brushed the dirt and grass off her knees. Always, he took care of her. Especially after one of their sessions in which he took charge. She secretly liked when he fussed over her, and he seemed to need to do so.

“Let’s put ourselves back together, and then you can help me with my sword skills. Obviously, I’m rusty.”

“As you wish.”

A quick peck on her lips, then he turned to dress and fetch his sword. Kass watched him, but as she did, she couldn’t stop her mind from drifting to Luc and how, upon taking control, he might have been even more forceful still than Taryn had been.

And how deliciously decadent it would feel when the vampire—her mate—finally sank his fangs deep while owning her.

Body and soul.

O
din strode through his palace, long legs carrying him quickly toward the training yard. Damn those fools on Olympus!

He’d been gone far too long, mired in their petty squabbles when he’d rather be here, whipping his soldiers into shape in preparation for the next battle. He never knew when the other gods would call upon his immortal army, and they’d expect immediate action—and to Hades with the fact that the gods themselves were probably at fault for any delay.

At the edge of the yard, he stood under the awning next to one of the massive support columns, studying the activity, fists on his hips. Scores of soldiers practiced both with weapons and in hand-to-hand combat. As usual the conflict was bloody, intense. These men had literally given their mortal lives to be in Odin’s service, whether they’d wanted to or not. Be that as it may, they were here and there was little else to do but fight.

For these soldiers, pleasures of the flesh were rare. Only the
very best and most dedicated were rewarded with willing bed partners, and it was a hard-won honor. Odin believed in keeping the men on their toes, and giving them a goal to work toward. And the possibility of sex was a big motivator.

Of course, Odin had to suffer no such restriction. One of the perks of being the boss.

Scanning the groups and pairs of combatants for the five newest recruits, he mentally checked their names off his list as he spotted them.
Holmes, Stevens, Wright, Baker…Fontaine?

His gaze roamed the men again. His scowl deepened when he didn’t find the man he was searching for. “Benji!” he bellowed.

Across the yard, his assistant’s eyes widened. The auburn-haired young man hurried toward him, sudden panic on his face. “Y-yes, my lord?”

“Where the fuck is the vampire, Luc Fontaine? He should have arrived days ago!”

The redhead’s complexion paled, if possible. “W-well, to my understanding, he was, um, delayed. Slightly.”

“Delayed?” he repeated incredulously. The concept was foreign to him, and ridiculous. “The three Fates choose a worthy soldier, and I add him to my list. Then when the soldier is killed, one of the Valkyries brings him here to serve me. It’s not a difficult fucking process to understand or follow.” He leaned down, his voice low and ominous. “So, tell me how in blazing hell he gets
delayed
, as though he had a flat tire on the way to work?”

Benji cleared his throat and not so bravely stood his ground. “Yes, that’s usually how the delivery g-goes, unless the Valkyrie in question…r-rescues the soldier instead.” He met Odin’s furious glare and flinched as though he expected to be hit.

Odin kept a leash on his anger. Barely. He’d never hit the boy
and wouldn’t start now, over something that wasn’t his fault. “Which sister, pray tell, was tasked with bringing Fontaine to me?”

“Kassandra, my lord.”

If gods could get headaches, he’d be developing a large one right about now. That particular female was a headstrong, stubborn pain in his ass. Even so, no matter how much she might strain against doing her job of late, she’d always performed it. Until now.

“Unbelievable. Has she or any of her sisters given an explanation for her blatant disregard for the Fates’ decree, or for pissing me off?”

“No, my lord, I’m afraid not. I sent an inquiry on the matter in hopes that I’d have the situation resolved before you returned, but there’s been no reply at all from the Valkyries.”

For a long moment, Odin watched his soldiers without really seeing them, contemplating the dilemma Kassandra had put him in with her impetuousness. What in the gods’ names had possessed her to save this particular man over countless other souls she’d escorted to Valhalla? And a vampire, no less. Though he wasn’t sure her reasons mattered.

Personally, he knew his army wouldn’t suffer from the loss of a single recruit. But she’d put him in a difficult position with the gods. As much as he hated political posturing, all of the whipping out of dicks to compare sizes, it was part of his existence. And losing face with the others was not just humiliating—it could be hazardous to his health.

Unless he received infallible counsel.

Swearing, he shoved a long strand of silver hair from his eyes. “Benji, I have to leave again for a few days. Keep an eye on the soldiers in my absence and call out if you need me.”

If his assistant was distressed by this news, he didn’t show it. “As always, my lord.”

Clasping the boy’s shoulder briefly in reassurance, Odin steeled his resolve and vanished from the yard.

He had an appointment to beg with the three cold bitches who literally held the fate of the universe in their delicate hands.

So far, the slave gig was pretty easy, Luc thought. He had a fancy roof over his head, food and sex at his leisure. So what if he had to follow a few orders from the hard-ass female warrior? This could be a pretty cushy life for however long he was here.

Feeling smug and relaxed, he stretched out his legs and folded his arms over his stomach, watching some sort of waterfowl paddle about in the garden pond.