I turned my head, to warn Starling, but the dark overcame me.
Chapter Twenty-Six
After the Aftermath
Sometimes the fae seem to have no emotions at all. Other times, I think their frame of reference is just so wildly different that it only seems that way.
~Big Book of Fairyland, “True Love”
I came to slowly, aware first of the aching pain in my hands, of their frozen rigidity.
Almost against my will, I flexed my fingers, crying out at the stab of agony.
Darling Hercules brushed against me and the pain receded, washing away again. He sent me loving thoughts, to my gasping gratitude. He slipped away again, but stayed near. I became aware of the cadence of a horse and that I was cupped in someone’s arms. And the scent of sandalwood and Stargazers.
“Rogue.”
My voice came out creaky, mouth dry. I cracked my eyelids open, flinching at the bright light of day. He looked down at me, the left side of his face full of winding thorns, the right impassive.
“You’re awake now?” he asked.
Hello, Captain Obvious. Rogue smiled a little, clearly hearing the thought. But it didn’t move past his lips. He, ever the perfectly powerful one, looked exhausted.
“You’ve been talking since you passed out.” He looked off into the distance. “Calling my name. Sometimes screaming it.”
Oh.
He shifted me in his arms and I realized he had me cuddled on his lap as we rode, held in a grip that would never break. My hands were wrapped in mittens of fabric, curled up against my chest.
“We’ll fix them,” he said. “You’ll be okay.”
“Everyone else?”
“Fine. Riding ahead since I must go slowly with you.”
“But Darling is here.”
“Yes. Insisting on being called Goliath now.”
“Oh yes. Long story.” An uncomfortable silence settled. “I’m amazed the Queen Bitch didn’t kill him.”
“She can’t. That’s why he’s a cat. He used to be a powerful wizard, with certain immunities to her magic. Trapping him in this body with his minor abilities was the worst she could do to him.”
Darling Hercules sent the image of himself as a handsome young man, looking glum.
“Why didn’t you tell me that before?”
“With your attack on her, certain...restrictions have lessened.” He shifted as if uncomfortable.
“Do you need to rest your arms?”
He raised an eyebrow at me, some of his usual supercilious self showing through. “No.”
No. Of course not.
“Are you uncomfortable?” The thought seemed to occur to him and he scrutinized me with unusual solicitude.
Warmth fluttered through me, a furry feeling that faded when I realized what must be behind it. “Are you asking because of the pregnancy?”
His face hardened and he looked down the road again. “I’m sorry for what happened. That I didn’t protect you from that.”
“Protect me? Aren’t you the wounded party here?”
His lips quirked, a little bitter, a little amused. “I can’t escape that I wanted this—no matter how it came about.”
“You tried to stop me and I—”
He squeezed me gently. “I tried to stop you because I knew how bitterly you’d regret it. I don’t want you to hate the child. Or me. Or yourself.”
“Lots of hate to go around.”
“Yes.” His cobalt blue gaze scanned my face, his mind brushing mine. “Will you ever be able to forgive me, do you think?”
“Again—I should be asking you to forgive me.”
He stopped me with a shake of his head. “No. You were forced as surely as I. Ultimately it’s my fault that you’re here.”
“Why is that, Rogue?” I asked softly.
“Because I wished for you.” He said it with a light tone, but I felt the depth of emotion beneath it. The way he held me gave me a different perspective, the way the black lines climbed down his jaw and neck, his sharp profile etched against the impossibly brilliant blue sky. A sweet relief filled me to know that. That he truly had wished for me. It made everything better. Not logical, but there it was.
“What’s done is done. No sense dwelling on the past.”
“Your reasons for not wanting this baby still stand.”
“Yes, but we’ve gone from hypothetical to real. As you pointed out, that particular battle is over. This is the aftermath.”
“True.” He shifted again and I thought he’d rather be pacing. “I can feel that you’re angry.”
“Oh, yes. Yes, I am.” I took a moment to let it simmer down again, push the cat down, my fingers throbbing anew. Darling Hercules sent an inquiry from where he must be riding behind Rogue and I reassured him that I didn’t need another dose. “But I think it would be a mistake to be angry at you. She raped us both.”
“I feel ever so much better now,” Rogue replied in a dry tone, but the relief coursed through him strongly enough for me to taste, like fresh snowmelt. Like mine.
“You know what pisses me off?”
He looked wary. “What?”
“I finally got to have sex with you and it sucked.”
“I was attempting to break Titania’s compulsion, not pleasure you,” he retorted, clearly stung. “Besides, you were in charge, as I recall.”
“Well, it still sucked. First I couldn’t remember it and then when I did...” An involuntary shudder racked me. Rogue halted the horse and pulled me up, embracing me carefully, burying his face in my hair.
“I’m sorry, lovely Gwynn,” he murmured against me. “So very sorry for what happened.”
“I was the weak one. I failed you.”
“You’ve never failed me. Some things are beyond even you, my powerful Gwynn.”
“Yes, well, I got her this time.”
“For the time being, anyway.”
“I kind of hoped I’d killed her.”
He cast his eyes to the heavens, just shy of rolling them. “If only it were so easy.”
“Hey—the dragon’s blood extract was a brilliant weapon!”
“Yes. We’ll have to discuss that.”
“If you come up with a suitable gift in exchange, I might teach you how I did it,” I replied in a lofty tone.
He stroked a finger down my cheek. “Oh, I believe I can come up with something. And I promise you, this time the sex won’t suck.”
“I’m already pregnant,” I pointed out. “The deed is done.”
“Don’t tell me your people think that’s the only reason for sexual intimacy.”
“Well, some do, actually.”
“And you?” He held my gaze as he asked the question, as if he truly wanted to know me.
I flushed a little. Such a strange, backward relationship we had. “I’ve always been rather the opposite.”
“Why doesn’t that surprise me?” His quirk of a smile softened into something more serious. “I want to be with you. Let me do that. Believe that what is between us can be more.”
“What is between us?”
“You came after me—that’s everything. All along I knew I needed you. Or the Dog knew. Now it’s clear why.”
“You said you loved me.”
He cocked his head, that indicator that something didn’t translate exactly right. “Is that important to you?”
“I don’t know. Maybe.” I relaxed against him, savoring the feel of his leanly muscled body. “I don’t know anything right now. Do I have to?”
He laughed a little, under his breath, and kneed Felicity to continue. “No. We’ll get to my castle and take time to discuss.”
“What about Falcon?”
“What about him?” Irritation crept into his tone, though his grip remained gentle.
“I still owe him service. As do you, for that matter.”
“I’ll deal with Falcon.”
“How?”
He raised an eyebrow in casual arrogance.
“I told you. Falcon’s rules don’t apply to me. I’ll handle it like I do everything.”
“With obfuscation, tricks and underhanded manipulation then.”
“Gwynn, you wound me—I am never underhanded.”
I laughed and he seemed pleased, grinning at me.
“We have time to settle Falcon. Titania won’t come after us for a while, anyway.”
I tensed and he tightened his arms to steady me. “She will, won’t she? Her game isn’t done. She’ll try to take this child.”
“As surely as the sun rises and the Wild Hunt rides.”
“What will we do about it?”
“Do? I’ll take you home. We will heal, rest, recover and make love. There will come a day when we’ll face war. Until then, we enjoy what life has to offer, lest we forget the very things we fight for. Is that acceptable to you?”
“Thank you for asking.” I let my head fall back to rest on his shoulder, letting him support me for a little while. “Yes, that sounds pretty damn wonderful.”
* * * * *
In a world full of magic and sacrifice, Gwynn must learn control in order to survive Rogue’s erotic torture. Check out the first book in the Covenant of Thorns series now!
Rogue’s Pawn
Haunted by nightmares of a black dog, sick to death of my mind-numbing career and heart-numbing fiancé, I impulsively walked out of my life—and fell into Faerie. Terrified, fascinated, I discover I possess a power I can’t control: my wishes come true. After an all-too-real attack by the animal from my dreams, I wake to find myself the captive of the seductive and ruthless fae lord Rogue. In return for my rescue, he demands an extravagant price—my firstborn child, which he intends to sire himself...
With no hope of escaping this world, I must learn to harness my magic and build a new life despite the perils—including my own inexplicable and debilitating desire for Rogue. I swear I will never submit to his demands, no matter what erotic torment he subjects me to...
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About the Author
Jeffe Kennedy is an award-winning author with a writing career that spans decades. Her works include nonfiction, poetry, short fiction and novels. She has been a Ucross Foundation Fellow, received the Wyoming Arts Council Fellowship for Poetry, and was awarded a Frank Nelson Doubleday Memorial Award. Her essays have appeared in many publications, including Redbook. Her fantasy BDSM romance, Petals and Thorns, originally published under the pen name Jennifer Paris, has won several reader awards. Sapphire, the first book in the Facets of Passion miniseries, has placed first in multiple romance contests.
Her most recent works include three fiction series: the fantasy romance novels of A Covenant of Thorns, the contemporary BDSM novellas of Facets of Passion and the postapocalyptic vampire erotica of Blood Currency. A fourth series, The Twelve Kingdoms, will hit the shelves in 2014. A spin-off story from this series, Negotiation, appears in the Thunder on the Battlefield anthology.
An avid user of social media, Jeffe engages daily with thousands of fans on Twitter, Facebook and Goodreads. She frequently guests on publishers’ Twitter feeds and reviewers’ blogs. She’s been an active member of RWA since 2008. She served two terms as president of RWA’s very large Fantasy, Futuristic and Paranormal special-interest Chapter and continues as an advisor to the current board.
Jeffe can be found online at her website, JeffeKennedy.com, or every Sunday at the popular Word Whores blog.
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ISBN-13: 9781426896453
ROGUE’S POSSESSION
Copyright © 2013 by Jennifer M. Kennedy
Edited by Deborah Nemeth
All rights reserved. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.
All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.
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