AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I like that,” he growled. “I like your foreign garments and all of your invitations, Lady Sorceress.” Then he released my hair, slid my panties down to my ankles and dug his fingers into my ass, holding my groin to be consumed next.
Funny, his hunger for me had become more interesting than what I felt. When he nuzzled my thighs apart, I let him, distantly observing that the stroking of his tongue, while pleasant, didn’t hold a candle to the rush of feeling him want me. With Rogue, my own desire had risen up to match his. I began to wonder if this experiment would fail. I put a hand on Liam’s head, ready to disappoint him.
With a crack of ebony, the room broke in two.
Liam dropped me and I fell in a disgraceful heap, askew on my heels, tangled in my panties.
Rogue stood over us, a slash of cobalt black, a silver sword blazing in the now-billowing firelight.
Chapter 34
On the Beach
‡
With a seasonedwarrior’s reflexes, Liam ducked the lethal swing of Rogue’s sword.
And with shocking alacrity, he grabbed his own sword and shot out the door.
“Hello, Gwynn,” Rogue said with ice-blue calm. “You’re looking…lovely tonight.” The black lines crawled over the left side of his face like vipers.
I wrenched out of the one heel still clinging to my toes, scrabbled my feet under me and crouched, shielding myself from his deadly glare.
“Don’t fret, you’ll have time to dress yourself while I dispatch that impertinent human. Then you and I have things to discuss.” He paused, dark thoughts swirling that I couldn’t quite catch. Was he…hurt? Surely not. “We need to talk.”
Rogue turned and strode out the door before I could gasp out another word.
Liam. Oh, no.
“Rogue! Don’t you dare hurt him!” I yelled out, yanking up my panties. Where they should have stayed, dammit, if I had any sense. I pulled on my dress and flung myself out the cottage door, trying to get the zipper at least partway up and scanning the night for the sounds of conflict.
All I could hear was surf.
Clouds scudded across the sky, dashing themselves against the moon and fleeing again.
I ran for the beach, the snaky grasses grabbing at my toes, slicing at my ankles. The soil turned to sand under my tender soles and I burst like a wild thing onto the clear shore. The moonlight reflected cool blue on the fine sand.
Rogue and Liam fought, silhouetted against the phosphorescent surf.
Liam surged in close, his shorter, stockier frame wedging up underneath Rogue’s sword arm, grappling with him in a maneuver even I could see was desperate. As I struggled through the sinking sand toward them, Rogue yanked Liam’s head back by his hair. Liam thrashed, but Rogue held him with ease. He took a step back and stretched Liam out, holding him with unnatural strength while he brought his sword around, and laid the tip against Liam’s chest.
I remembered who had all the power.
“No!” I screamed.
The crashing surf swallowed the sound.
But Rogue looked up at me. His eyes captured the moonlight and shone with an impossible cobalt reflection. He cast Liam aside, a rag doll on the sand.
He strode toward me, an avenging demon, the wind whipping his long black hair, those eyes shining as bright as the sword he carried.
I lost all breath.
He seized me by the throat with his left hand, firm but not hurting me. Even now, one hand only.
“Why?” he thundered in my face. His skin gleamed glacier-cold in the moonlight. The black pattern of his face looked larger, more complex. As if it were visibly growing. “All the time I watched you, waited for you. How is it that you don’t feel what is between us? You drive me to despair, Gwynn. How could you deny me the least crumb and offer that dreg of a human everything?”
Not even a squeak escaped my throat. I had no ability to answer.
