She ran her fingers through his thick hair, trailing the backs over his cheek and down his neck. Alternating between the pads of her fingers and the scrape of her nails, she caressed him over his chest and shoulders. The only outward response Bale gave was a slight flare of his nostrils, until she pinched his sensitive nipples between her fingernails.
Both men gasped with the pain as a fissure of fire raced down Lucian’s belly to inflame his cock.
Bale seemed to notice Lucian’s presence for the first time and tried to block his hatred but didn’t even come close. His eyes narrowed and a tic pulsed in his jaw as a million pinpricks scratched across Lucian’s skin.
Amaryllis looked back and forth between the two men with an interested arch to her brow. “I see there’s no love lost here. Tell me, Bale. Why do you hate Lucian so?”
He drew in a large breath but remained silent. With a slight smile, Amaryllis continued to caress his chest, leaving pink lines on his skin as she dug her nails into his flesh. His abdominal muscles flexed the lower she touched and his breath caught as the tips of her fingers slipped beneath the codpiece.
Lucian gasped as heat erupted around his groin. Amaryllis was twisting the hair around Bale’s cock and the sensation traveled straight to Lucian. The biting pain tapered off, leaving him surprisingly aware of his aching erection and the pressure building in his balls.
“The story I heard is you blame Lucian for the death of your family. Is that true? Tell me your story, Bale.”
His breath grew ragged and as harsh as a rusty chainsaw.
“Tell me, Bale.”
When he continued to remain silent, she pulled away. His body followed, betraying his eagerness for more of her touch.
“What was your wife like? Was she cold? Unfeeling? A vicious, cruel bitch?”
That broke his silence. “She was perfect,” he spat. “Gentle. Kind.”
Amaryllis smiled. “Beautiful.”
“Yes.”
“A good mother.”
He closed his eyes and sighed. “Yes.”
She resumed running her hands over his chest. “How many of Hamerkind’s men ambushed your colony?” She stopped her caress when he didn’t answer.
His throat worked as he swallowed. “Fifty-five.”
She rewarded him with more touching. “How many left that night?”
“Fifty-five.”
“How many are alive now?”
“None.”
“You killed them all?”
He nodded.
“Good.”
He looked at her sharply and blinked with surprise. “What?”
“If I were your wife, I’d want them all to suffer for what they did to me and our child. And you made them suffer, didn’t you, Bale?”
“Every last one.”
She swayed as she moved behind him. From the side table Lucian saw her retrieve a whip and uncoil the long length. “And who did you kill after that?”
Lucian tensed, sensing Bale’s confusion.
Amaryllis ran the blunt end of the whip down his spine and Lucian felt the pressure along his own vertebrae. “After you killed those soldiers, who was next? Tell me. As your wife, I’d have the right to know.”
A thin whistle preceded the crack of leather on flesh. Lucian and Bale arched with a surprised hiss as the burn of the lash raced across their backs.
She flicked the whip a second time, scoring his other shoulder. “Tell me, Bale. Tell your wife who it was.”
“No one,” he panted. “No one she’d know.”
“Then why?” She threw the whip twice more. “Why kill if it wasn’t for her? Is that who you thought she was? Bloodthirsty? Cruel? Is that how you remember her? As your wife, I’d demand an answer.”
With each question, the whip fell in steady strokes. The scorching heat mellowed into a sizzling simmer that tightened all of his muscles and constricted his chest. Lucian bucked in his restraints as did Bale, whose body swayed in time with his punishment, not to get away from the lash but to seek more of the pain.
“Answer me, husband. Did you think I’d be honored by you spilling innocent blood? By living a life drenched in vengeance? Is this the type of father I’d want for my child?” Bale held back a strangled sob. “You were my husband. As my bonded mate, how could you think I would want this?”
Bale froze and Lucian’s hearts stopped with him. His throat closed up as a sense of shame filled his lungs, drowning him with such guilt, his knees buckled.
Amaryllis sucked in a breath as her eyes widened at the concession. “You never bonded,” she murmured and laid her hand on his shoulder. “Why?”
The big man shuddered and bowed his head.
“I loved you?” she asked.
“Yes,” came the choked reply.
“You loved me?”
He closed his eyes and nodded.
She brushed her lips down his corded neck. “Why didn’t we bond?”
His grief ripped through Lucian as he whispered, “I didn’t trust you.”
“That’s not true. You trusted me to care for our home and our family. But that’s not what you mean, is it?” She lifted her gaze and stared at Lucian with those all-seeing lavender eyes that speared right to the heart of the truth that both men harbored. “There’s a darkness that lives inside every Llanos. It allows you to give your life for your people, to fight for innocents like me. It allows you to do unspeakable acts if needed and drives you to live a life of extremes. That darkness is what you couldn’t trust me with. Am I right?”
“You were so pure,” Bale muttered, lost in his memories. “You deserved so much better than me.”
“But I wanted you anyway, Bale.” Amaryllis stepped back. “Your fear that I would regret bonding with you kept us apart.”
Lucian fought the tears Bale’s remorse brought forth. To bond with another was the most sacred and humbling of experiences. You were laid bare, every fear, every hunger exposed to your mate in an inseparable connection. Bale craved dark hunger, he liked the fight, he liked the bite of the whip and the rake of a woman’s nails over the welts. Lucian imagined that in Bale’s mind, Natalia had been so delicate and pure, he refused to blacken her in any way. It was the same reaction he had when it came to protecting Amaryllis from his darker nature. Only now was he realizing that his mate was more than capable of handling all of him.
“I couldn’t.” Bale shuddered. “Couldn’t give you what you asked.”
“And that’s why you kill. I died and you were truly on your own. Alone with the regret that you somehow failed me.”
Crack!
She had moved so quickly, Lucian didn’t see her lift her hand until the leather struck Bale’s back.
“I ask you again. How does bathing in the blood of others make up for your lack of trust? Hamerkind destroyed us, yet you willingly become his lapdog to inflict the same pain. Make me understand, husband,” she shouted and let the whip fly.
“I’m sorry,” Bale wept. The chains around his wrists kept him from doubling over. The realization of his acts washed over him and Lucian in an icy waterfall that hurt more than the lashes falling on his back and legs. “I’m sorry.”
Soon the room became filled with the primal beat of groans, sobs and the crack of leather. Bale’s defenses were shattered and all his emotions were funneling directly to Lucian. That’s when he realized that Amaryllis had been right.
Along with the pain came relief and with it, pleasure. Yes, in this he and Bale were very much the same. They both failed their families, yet no one else believed as they did, and so no one gave them the punishment they felt they deserved. Lucian’s isolationism, Bale’s descent into ruthless killer were attempts to atone for crimes they believed they committed, but it wasn’t enough. It would never be enough. Until a penalty was carried out by someone else’s hand, the sacrifice would never outweigh the guilt.
Amaryllis was the avenging goddess who understood exactly what they needed. Her pale skin shimmered with perspiration and the skirt
of her gown billowed around her. Her lavender eyes glittered with determination and a knowledge that sent a bolt of heat from his chest to his groin.
“Give me your darkness,” she commanded them. “Let me take care of you and give you what you need.”
Lucian couldn’t look away from the tableau before him as sweat poured off him. His cock was so stiff, the slightest breeze coming from the whip was as firm as a lover’s grasp.
The buck and sway, the writhing bodies, as Amaryllis worked both men over like a master conductor was breathtaking. Her will was strong, yet Bale continued to hold out, relishing in his punishment but maintaining a thread-thin hold on his emotions.
Amaryllis narrowed her stare and swung her arm in a round arc, the tip of the whip kissed his tight sac, detonating the last of his control.
Lucian clenched his jaw, holding back a scream as his cock erupted and his seed jutted out onto the floor. His head swam as if filled with helium as he drifted in and out of consciousness.
Amaryllis dropped the whip and wiped at the sweat on her brow. She wrapped her arms about Bale’s heaving shoulders and found Lucian with her steady gaze.
When she spoke, her words were for her mate as well. “You were meant to be more than a harbinger of death. Your purpose is to fight for justice because no one understands injustice better than you. Not even our great powers can change the past, and wallowing in regret dishonors those who loved us. You have been given the gift of today and the possibility of tomorrow. Don’t fix yesterday’s regrets by making new ones. Live, truly live. Use your wife’s memory to do good. That’s how you can honor her.”
Lucian, so overwhelmed with love and pride in his wife, collapsed. The ropes around his arms were the only thing keeping him from tumbling to the floor.
A strong arm wrapped around his waist, startling him. Male. Solid. Lucian struggled to focus on the man loosening his bindings. It was the smug grin stretching his lips that revealed his identity.
“Don’t be angry with her, cousin,” Dhavin said as he helped Lucian down. “She loves you. As do I.”
“Which is why I haven’t taken you out at the knees,” he slurred.
Dhavin half-dragged him to a bed and helped him lie down. Lucian kept an eye on his mate who was releasing Bale from his cuffs. Jorges worked the chain and stepped back as Amaryllis lifted Bale in her arms and set him on a second bed. After Bale was secured to the headboard by cuffs around his wrists, she hurried to Lucian’s side.
“Thank you for not being mad at me.” She brushed the hair from his damp brow.
He caught her hand and pressed it to his lips. “You would have made a magnificent queen. I am so proud to be your mate.”
Her eyes sparkled. “I’ll be reminding you you said that later. Please, let Jorges see to you. I need to care for Bale.”
“Go to him.”
She pressed a kiss to his forehead then fit their mouths perfectly together in a kiss that was more about their bond and respect than about lust.
What Gods had he pleased to receive such a treasure? Lucian sighed and continued the descent from the wild high.
“You’re a lucky man, Lucian,” Jorges murmured as he bathed the sweat from Lucian’s arms.
“That I am.” He allowed his eyes to close, but not all the way. He needed to have her in his sights and bask in her loving gaze as she glanced his way. “That I am.”
Chapter Ten
Amaryllis kept one eye on her sated husband and the other on the broken warrior shaking violently on the bed. She ran a cool cloth over his body, removing sweat and tears from his golden skin.
Bale and Lucian were made from the same mold. Both sturdy in muscle but incredibly weak when defeated. One-hundred-ten percent of their effort was not enough. Those they loved were sacred and any slight against them was a sign of their failure. They allowed their capacity to love to become their greatest weakness.
Only when they were broken down to their essence could they have the capacity to comprehend that they were part of a whole. They were but a single cog in the wheel of humanity and not solely responsible for the continuation of the universe. Amaryllis imagined that for these two men, a fact of such magnitude would be difficult to accept.
With softly murmured words and tender touches, she eased Bale down from the rush of submitting to his desires and fears. Tonight he took a small step toward the light. An important step, for certain, but he had a long journey back from the darkness he had resided in for so long. His path was still in his hands, but Amaryllis was confident he would continue in the right direction, especially with the support of her and Lucian.
“Why?” Bale whispered. His eyes drifted open to gaze at her with a mixture of awe and humility creasing his brow. “Why?”
“You had a need. It is my duty to see to my people.”
He shook his head, as if unable to comprehend such compassion. “Lucian was right. You are a queen worth fighting for.”
“Are you swearing your fealty to me, Llanos?”
He drew a deep breath before answering. “I am.”
Amaryllis let the statement hang in the air like a promise. Bale’s devotion wasn’t her objective, but it was a gift she’d gladly accept as quietly as it was offered.
A few more seconds passed when he asked, “What’s it like? Being bonded.”
A giggle burst from her lips. “It’s the most wondrous and maddening thing to ever befall a person.”
“And it frightens you,” he noted with a quiet surprise.
“Yes. Right now I can feel Lucian’s love for me, his pride that I am his mate. But I can also taste his worry. Will he be able to provide for me in all ways? Will he have the courage to let me have my independence when all he wants is to lock me in a cage?”
“I doubt a cage will hold you.” He shied away from her touch. “You don’t need to care for me any longer. I’ll be fine. Go to your mate. I can taste his hunger for you. Go, Your Highness.”
She placed a kiss on his forehead. “Rest, my Llanos warrior.”
She pulled a velvet drape to afford him some privacy then hurried to her husband’s side.
“Wait.” Lucian stopped her with a raised hand before she reached the bed. “Take off the dress.”
The force in his command sent a current of heat through her veins. He propped himself up on one elbow and readjusted the position of his growing erection. The leashed power in his hot gaze and coiled muscles charged the air between them, ratcheting up the temperature as control shifted from her to Lucian.
She slowly pulled her arms out of the filmy sleeves and shimmied the gown down her body. Lucian held out his hand, pulling her onto the bed and into his arms the moment their palms touched.
His kiss was hard and fiery. A final warning that his will would be obeyed and a wicked promise Amaryllis was frantic to collect.
Lucian pulled back and ran the tips of his fingers over her cheek. “I love you. All of you.”
A lump formed in her throat as the truth of his words cascaded over her in warmth and softness. She kissed his fingers, too overcome to speak.
“I need, Amaryllis.” He pushed at her shoulders, fisting his heavy cock and guiding the wet tip to her lips. “Open that pretty mouth and suck me deep.”
Oh yes, her general was in charge. Just how she liked it.
She licked her lips and eagerly took the rigid shaft to the back of her throat. His legs fell open as he held her by the hair, taking his pleasure as he saw fit. That left her hands free to stroke his thighs and hips, leaving pink welts with her nails as she ran them up his legs to his tight sac.
Lucian released a moan of pure bliss then hissed as she scraped his length with the edge of her teeth and her tongue danced along the underside.
“Ack jus, akita, you’re going to make me come. Up.” He pulled at her hair. “I want to hear you scream. On your knees. Ass high in the air.”
She obediently climbed to her knees and lowered her chest to the mattress. Her hearts beat so ha
rd, she swore they made the mattress vibrate. The bed dipped as Lucian disappeared from her field of vision. She gasped when his big hands tilted her hips higher. He spread the cheeks of her ass wide and notched the head of his cock at her entrance.
“Please, Lucian.”
“You’re so wet. You like sucking my cock, don’t you?”
“Yes. Gods yes.”
He drove deep and fast, lodging all the way to the balls in one lunge.
Amaryllis slapped her hand against the mattress to keep from pitching forward. She braced her knees farther apart to steady herself against Lucian’s powerful thrusts. Now it was her turn to fight for breath as he took her hard and fast.
This was not a gentle lovemaking but an all-out carnal assault meant to rob them both of their senses. He ran his hands over her shoulders, down her breasts to tweak her nipples before delving into the folds of her sex to rub her clit.
“That’s so good,” she groaned and arched her back to take his thrusts deeper.
She lifted her sex-drugged eyelids and was caught by Bale’s dark gaze.
The curtain had been brushed aside and Bale watched them with a deceptively blank expression on his handsome face. He might not have looked it, but he was intensely interested in their coupling. The muscles in his arms flexed, the links of the broken cuffs jangling softly. His chest rose in a rapid rhythm until it matched her own ragged breathing. Most of his body was concealed by the drapery, but she was able to see down the line of his torso to the jut of his hard cock.
Curiosity and longing shone in his eyes, not for her specifically, but for a love and connection he had been too afraid to trust in. She hoped he could see the power that came from entrusting one’s inner self to another. Was it frightening? Bloodcurdlingly so. But the reward was far greater than the risk.
“You need more, don’t you?” Lucian panted in her ear and nipped at her shoulder.
“Yes. Yes,” she sobbed.
He smoothed his hands down her spine and cupped her hips. His fingers fanned out over her rear and his thumbs brushed the crease of her ass before he pushed both digits into the tight hole.
“Jesu, Lucian!” she screamed as the sharp burn stole the last of her composure. “Don’t stop. Please, don’t stop.”
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