Say my name, Igraine. She heard his voice right inside her mind.
There it was again, that strange name. Why did he keep calling her "Igraine"? He didn't know her. And she most definitely hadn't ever met him before.
Stay out of my head, she thought.
She just wanted him to take her right now, before she died from unfulfilled desire. Her body arched up against him. But he didn’t give in to her silent pleas, just repeated his cruel command inside of her mind.
Say my name. You know it, Igraine.
“No!” she breathed into his ear, playing around its side with her tongue until she reached the sensitive tip. Somehow she knew that he enjoyed this very much. He groaned and rubbed his manhood against her heated flesh. She sensed how much it cost him to hold back, and she smiled to herself. Her mysterious stranger wanted to love her as desperately as she needed him.
Say my name.
He reached down between their bodies and let his thumb glide over her throbbing, sensitive nub. She came instantly at the light contact, her explosion so intense that she was drowned in a sea of darkness for a moment. When she finally floated back to reality, she knew. She knew his name.
“Elathan,” she whispered, molding her body against his.
He didn’t need any more encouragement. With a single mighty thrust, he entered her. Fully embedded to the hilt, he stopped for a moment, closing his eyes. Not only their bodies seemed to be connected, but their souls as well, for their thoughts spoke to each other. She thought she could remember more now, but when she tried, the raging pain inside her head started anew. This time, he felt it and sheltered her, sending her a fiery shot of energy that brought back more memories, one after another. Groaning, he began to move deep inside her female core. He grabbed her hips so she couldn't control the rhythm of their lovemaking. Slowly pulling back, he waited until she moaned with frustration, sighing his name. Only then he drove himself forward again, moving deep within her.
A scene flashed before Igraine's eyes. His naked body between her thighs, pressing her against a tree in a lovely clearing. Elathan shoved himself into her body once more, moving deep within her, and she remembered. His face in the soft light of a fire while he spoke to her, his eyes directed to a faraway place, another time. He moved faster, the delicious hardness of his cock stretching her inner walls. She moaned into his hair and repeated the name that came from her lips like a song now, filling her soul with joy.
Elathan. Elathan.
He threw back his head, moonlight hair falling over his shoulders as he laughed, the sound so wonderful it made her tremble. His beauty was beyond words, terrifying. His thrusts became deeper every time she called him by his name, as if the word carried a magic of its own. He rewarded her by riding her harder, knowing exactly what her body yearned for. Constantly repeating his name, her voice was hoarse with raw desire as she moved against him, her passion equal to his.
He laughed huskily. “Insatiable wench.”
Memory after memory welled up in her, filled her with happiness or grief, but she embraced all of them. In a corner of her mind she realized that he was giving her his strength, keeping the pain at bay to make her recall everything that had been lost to her.
“I remember now, beloved,” she whispered while their bodies moved in perfect unison. He cupped her soft backside with his large hands and pushed her up against him, going deeper, faster. His mouth was everywhere on her skin, marking her, devouring her alive. The hardened peaks of her breasts rubbed against his hot, wet skin. The heavens poured rain down on their entangled bodies, but they didn't care. All she felt was his overwhelming, boundless joy to hear her say his name.
His happiness warmed her soul, his desire made her come alive. He took her lips in a searing kiss. His tongue imitated the love play in which their bodies were engaged, sliding in and out. They were burning, their love a flame in the night, in the rain that couldn't quench the magic fire engulfing them. Between kisses, he told her how much he missed her, loved her, that he wanted to make her his queen. He promised her anything her heart desired if she only came back home with him. Her own words were less poetic, but she told him that she loved him, in her own and his language, and she kept whispering his name. She cried, but she felt his tears mingling with hers. They tasted salty on her lips while he kissed her as no other woman had ever been kissed before, his passion and love beyond anything a human could feel.
My love is eternal, he whispered in her mind. I am yours forever, mo ghrá.
A few more slamming thrusts, then she convulsed in a chain of spasms, more powerful than anything she had ever experienced before. As she buried her face in his neck, carried away by wave after wave of pure rapture, he found his shattering release, thrusting into her like a wild beast until he lay still, at last.
When she finally came to her senses again, she took his face into her hands and looked up into his face, smiling. “My love,” she whispered. “Elathan.”
He didn't answer, and she searched his eyes to see their expression. Her heart grew cold. She saw raw lust in their golden depths, freshly satisfied and already reawakening. Apart from this, his eyes were wide open, and he seemed to be lost, bewildered. Hearing his name on her lips made him look at her questioningly. During their lovemaking, he had given her all his strength, not asking anything in return. Now this place had taken his own memories away. This time, she was a stranger to him.
“God help me,” she said, grabbing his shoulders to shake him. “You forgot who I am. It’s me, Elathan. Igraine.”
But the prince’s eyes were empty, and he broke the contact of their bodies, drawing away. While he stood up and towered over her, looking at their surroundings as if seeing them for the very first time, she stayed on the leaf-covered ground, alone and naked. A terrible feeling of solitude and desperation hit her, and she realized that it might be too late.
She couldn't even imagine how horrible it would be to spend eternity on this island with him, looking into his lifeless eyes. This fate seemed to be too cruel, now that he had made her remember him, who she was herself and everything they had shared in the short time given to them. Only now she understood how much he had risked by coming after her to this island, and now he had paid the price. Sobbing, she rose from the ground. Panic held her in its icy grip, and she quickly picked up their clothes, tugging them under her arm as she ran after him.
He had already left her. The prince stood at the shore in all his naked glory, not caring about anything at all. His magic fire that had burned so brightly only moments ago was gone. He didn't seem to feel the receding rain on his skin, nor the sand under his feet. Doubtless, he didn’t even remember his own name anymore. He did not move, but simply stared into the wavering mist that enclosed the island. She ran to him and gently placed a hand on his arm, hoping he wouldn’t shrink back from her touch. “Come, beloved. We have to go now, or it will be too late.”
When he didn’t move, she turned him around to face her. “Elathan,” she said, looking into his eyes. “Don’t you remember? I’m Igraine. Your slave, your mate, your queen, whatever you want me to be. You came to save me. Now it’s my turn to save you, my Prince. Come with me.”
After a long moment, something flickered in his eyes. Igraine firmly grabbed his hand, and he followed her as she dragged him to the elven ship that awaited them, magically drifting on the treacherously calm water. All the way she kept talking to him to make him stay with her, fearing that he'd release her hand. She called him a stupid elf for following her to the lands of the dead and risking his own soul for her, then reminded him of their time in the caves, and of their home in the Enchanted Forest. She told him that even if she might agree to live with him in the palace as his queen and bear his children, she'd insist on returning to the woods for some time every year, to a place where he wouldn’t belong to anybody but her.
After they had left the island, it took Elathan another hour and many of Igraine's kisses before he remembered everything. A smile lit
up his face when he finally took her in his arms and looked down into her eyes, his golden gaze glowing with love.
“We made it,” he said, disbelievingly. “I thought you were lost to me forever.”
“How could you ever lose me, Sire?” Igraine answered, caressing his face. “You ordered me to stay with you so many times. I had no choice but to obey your command. After all, I am bound to a prince.”
He fell down to his knees before her and took her hand, placing a hot kiss in her palm. “On the contrary, sweet Igraine. It is the prince who is bound, and I’ll gladly spend an eternity serving you.”
Then he started to undress her, and as his lips seared a path down Igraine's body, she knew that he had already begun to fulfill his promise.
* * * * *
Dear reader,
Thank you for reading "Bound to the Prince".
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Deborah Court
Coming soon!
Read Calatin's story - in the second book of Deborah Court's Elven Warrior Trilogy.
* * * * *
Table of Contents
Copyright Page/Acknowledgements
Prologue
Chapter 1: Blackfriars Bridge
Chapter 2: The Angel of Death
Chapter 3: Training Day
Chapter 4: The Presence in the Dark
Chapter 5: Pain and Pleasure
Chapter 6: The Prince by the Lake
Chapter 7: Slave of Pleasure
Chapter 8: The Magic Door
Chapter 9: The Hunt
Chapter 10: Mine to take
Chapter 11: The Lover
Chapter 12: Water Lilies
Chapter 13: The Silence
Chapter 14: Bound
Chapter 15: A Sight to Behold
Chapter 16: Old Friends
Chapter 17: Sleeping Beauty
Chapter 18: Calatin
Chapter 19: Flash of Lightning
Chapter 20: The Blue Plains of Debethea
Chapter 21: The Inn
Chapter 22: The Prince's Men
Chapter 23: The Mountain of Gold
Chapter 24: The Forgotten City
Chapter 25: An unexpected Arrival
Chapter 26: The Well
Chapter 27: The Royal Chambers
Chapter 28: The Sun and the Moon
Bound to the Prince Page 29