Lust

by Charlotte Featherstone

  Faster and faster, he fingered her until she was spreading her legs wide for more. Three fingers were inside her now, filling her until she could barely gasp, until he felt his fingers were coated with her arousal. Until he could not stand it any longer and brought his glistening fingers to her neck, drawing them down her throat so he could taste—lick—her arousal from her skin that was covered in the perfume, the very essence he had used to enter her world.

  Her throat was scented with her sex, and over and over he flicked the tip of his tongue along the musk-scented column as his fingers once more sought the flesh between her legs.

  It was the most potent aphrodisiac he had ever known, and when the animal within him could not be tamed any longer, he growled against her.

  “Up,” he commanded. With a wave of his hand, their clothes disappeared, becoming mist. She gasped, and looked at him over her shoulder. The wonder in her eyes was arousing.

  “Thane?” she asked, her voice concerned for the first time.

  She moaned when he fingered her and tried to shift her hips so that he could enter her sheath with his cock. “Not yet, love, but soon.”

  Chastity cried and whimpered as he sunk his finger deep inside her. She was completely naked, utterly spread out on his lap, like a pagan beneath the moon. She should be absolutely mortified.

  “Tell me how much you want this,” he murmured as he licked her neck, tasting the wetness of her sex that he’d placed on her skin. “Tell me how you’re burning to feel me up inside you.”

  Chastity couldn’t help but lean back against him, hoping he’d give her more of what she needed. “Face me.”

  She willingly obeyed him, and he surprised her by lifting her onto his thighs, wrapping her legs around his waist. “Look me in the eye and tell me that you want me, your Dark Fey lover,” he commanded, cupping her heat with his palm.

  “You know I want you,” she cried, caging his face in her hands, trailing his lips and chin with soft kisses. “I just want you,” she whispered. “My heart belongs to you and I think…I think I love you.”

  “Do you only think?” he asked darkly. “I already know that I love you, and I mean to show you. Ride me, Chastity,” he moaned, fitting himself inside her, showing her how to move atop him, moving her up and down, the slide fast and urgent. His thighs felt hard and relentless beneath her. His hands at her waist were just as hard, and his lips just as demanding. He was panting against her, urgently pushing up inside, lifting her off his lap. When she felt his hands steal down her buttocks, spreading them, letting his fingers stroke her entrance where he was joined inside her body, Chastity began to tremble. It was so terribly wicked for Thane to want to feel himself inside her as he made love to her—but it was deliciously wicked, Chastity suddenly realized as Thane groaned against her throat while skimming his wet finger around the rim of her while he filled her.

  “I love the feel of you stretched with my cock.”

  Emboldened by his touch, by his low growl, she gave herself permission to love him as her body desired—as he willed it.

  “Touch yourself,” he mumbled against her lips.

  She put her hands on her breasts and cupped them as he had done for her. “Beautiful. Now touch your cunt as I fuck you.”

  “Thane!” she exclaimed, wanton eagerness making her heart race at the very thought of doing such a thing.

  “Put your hands over your mound and pleasure yourself, Chastity. I want to watch.”

  And she did. Nearly exploding with desire and excitement. It was almost too much, feeling Thane inside her, his fingers teasing the stretched entrance of her body while her fingers furiously worked to pleasure herself. There was nothing soft and romantic about their coupling. It was frantic, furious, hard and unyielding, and Chastity took it all in, reveling in the strength, the raw power of Thane in a full-blooded lust.

  With a deep groan, he rocked against her, splashing his seed into her while he buried his face between her breasts, panting harshly against her skin. She cradled him then, rocking slowly against him till his breathing slowed and quieted.

  “I should never have done that,” he murmured against her. “It was too rough. Too much.”

  “No,” she whispered. “No, it felt wonderful.”

  Lifting his head from her chest, he looked down at her. “For the first time, I could not hear your thoughts. See inside you. I…wasn’t with you, but apart from you.”

  She shook her head denying it, but he rose from her, untangling his long limbs from hers. “I let…him have you. And I will never forgive myself for that.”

  “Him, whatever are you talking about?”

  “I have to leave.”

  “But you’re taking me with you, right?”

  No, he couldn’t. Not after this. After discovering how it was not to be with her, to allow Lust to have her.

  Thane moved as far away from Chastity as he could. Lust was still blinding him, clouding his thoughts with roars for more. He could not let him have his way.

  He made himself think of what he had done to her. The moment he slid inside her, he had waited to feel her response inside him, to feel her euphoria, to hear her thoughts. He had wanted to see inside her, to join with her, but he hadn’t. Because it had not been him with her.

  “Thane?” she whispered, and he flinched at her touch on his shoulder. “What’s wrong?”

  He heard the fear in her voice and was helpless to stop it. He would only hurt her more if he continued this way.

  The court needed her, but he could not subject her to his sin. To the way he must live his life. But most of all, he could not stand to make love to her, and not feel her inside him.

  “I’ve lied to you,” he said, steeling himself for her anger. “I pursued you because I must have you. Not be cause you’re lovely and I love you, but because you and your sisters are needed for the survival of my court. The Unseelie are dying, and you and your virtuous mortal blood is the necessary ingredient to break the curse.”

  He heard her breath catch, and he refused to turn and look at her. Coward that he was, he kept his gaze averted.

  He had done what he promised never to do. Hurt her.

  “I…I don’t understand.”

  “I am not only a Dark Fey. But am consumed by the cardinal sin of lust. I need you—my opposing virtue—to bring you to court. To corrupt you with my body and seed. I need a child from you, to break the curse.”

  He saw the first tear fall from her eye and splash onto her cheek. And he lost the war with himself. She tried to turn from him, but he captured her in his arms and brought his cheek to hers and caught her tears onto his face, tasting the salt, feeling the warm wetness slide down his face.

  “I never wanted to hurt you, to deceive you, but I did. And I can no longer do it.”

  “You’re…a monster,” she sobbed. “Lust…? Is that why you wanted me, because your sin needs me?”

  “I need you in my court, willingly coming to me. But you won’t. And now that I care…now that I love you, I can’t let you, because inside I am a monster. I can’t be what you want.”

  The tears fell in earnest and he gathered them onto his face, feeling her pain, absorbing her. “I can’t cry. I don’t have a soul.”

  He felt her pain as his flesh took in her tears. “I am doing this to protect you. It’s the only way I can. I’ll forsake my court for you, for your happiness.” I’ll show you my love this way, he silently added.

  “No,” she cried, clinging to him, then struggling to break free. “Why have you done this? You’ve made me want you. You’ve ruined me, awakened me to new feelings that I never dared to dream about, and now you’re going to leave me. Alone. Hurting?”

  “I’m not what you need, Chastity. You deserve more than to be used by my court. You deserve more than a fey prince consumed by sin.”

  “You don’t know what I need,” she cried, pummeling his chest with her fist. “Up until I met you, I didn’t even know what I needed.”

 
; “It isn’t me, muirneach. I know that. I’m not the kind of man you need in your life.”

  “Let me decide. I will do anything. Be anyone, if you will only take me to your court and allow me to be someone else. Someone different from what I am, and what I will always be forced to be.”

  “You don’t understand. I am darker there. Dominant. My sin is always more difficult to control. You wouldn’t like me. And I fear showing that side of myself to you.”

  Her struggles stilled and she gazed up at him, her lashes soaked with tears. “I never knew myself until you came into my life. Perhaps I can show you another side to you—a different side that I see in you. Like the side you knew was in me.”

  “Chastity,” he whispered. “It’s not like that.”

  She clutched him, leaned up and kissed his mouth. “Perhaps I am ready for a taste of sin.”

  Behind them, the gate crashed open, and Lennox and Crom stood there. Shielding her with his body, Thane protected her from her father who would give her away, and the bastard who would take her.

  “Let her go,” Crom demanded. “You’ve got what you want. You’ve fed your sin. Now leave her.”

  “No!” Chastity shouted, and Crom glared at her.

  “He only wants you to lift his curse. He doesn’t truly desire you. It’s his sin that wants you. You’ll be left at his court. He’ll discard you.”

  Thane felt her indecision. The thoughts that tripped through her mind. He could sense Crom using his magic upon her, making her question her belief in him, a belief that had restored his hope.

  “He speaks half truths,” Thane said. “I do need you to lift the curse. The whole court does, but I do not know if claiming you will rid me of my sin. It might not. But what is not true is that I will discard you once there. I won’t leave you. As long as you’ll have me, I’ll stay with you.”

  “My family?” she asked, her resolve wavering. “My sisters? Will I see them again?”

  “My brothers pursue them. If they are successful, then you will see them again.”

  “And if not?” she asked.

  “Then they will be part of the Seelie Court and you will not see them ever again.”

  “No!” she cried, clinging to him. “I can’t leave them to the Seelie. My parents—”

  “Cannot come where he is going to take you,” Crom announced. Holding out his hand, he walked toward them. “If you come with me I will promise that you will have your sisters and parents. You will all live at my court—peacefully.”

  “He lies.”

  “I offer you something the Unseelie cannot. Respect. Adoration.”

  “I don’t want to be adored and put on a pedestal. I want a life.”

  “You won’t find that with him.”

  Thane held on to her tightly. He wanted to take her, to run with her, but he couldn’t.

  “I don’t know,” she whispered, and he felt his connection with her slowly pull away. She was pulling away from him, the Seelie magic poisoning her mind against him. She was leaving him, and the bastard Seelie knew it.

  Suddenly, his Dark Fey blood exploded and he became mist and took Chastity in his arms and lifted her high into the sky, only to disappear amongst the moon and stars. When he became his fey self, he was in his room at court, and Chastity was lying on the ground, naked, at his feet.

  “This is a side of me I didn’t want you to see,” he growled. She looked up at him through a curtain of blond hair, and his blood sang. “This is the Dark Fey coming out.”

  He reached for her and brought her up before him.

  “Dark. Dominant. Demanding. I never wanted you to bear witness to it, but now you must. It’s the only way I can make you stay. Corrupt you. Seduce you, lure you with my dark magic.”

  “I’m ready,” she replied, a measure of defiance in her words and eyes. “Do your worst.”

  NINETEEN

  THANE WAS GONE BEFORE SHE COULD BLINK. HE was mist, and then he was gone. She was left alone in his chamber, a world that was not hers, a place that was utterly foreign to her.

  Had he abandoned her? Now that she was here, was he gone, never to be seen again?

  No, it was not true. The lingering effects of Crom’s voice in her head made her doubt Thane and her own feelings. There had been no doubt there before Crom arrived. There could be none now.

  She had spoken the truth. Had wanted to come to the court, and even though he had carried her off, it did not mean she did not want to be there.

  “Thane?”

  She closed her eyes, tried to quell the shiver of fear.

  She was alone. She didn’t want that. She wanted Thane. His body loving hers. She wanted to be his in every way possible.

  Stilling her mind, she tried to slow her breathing, quiet her thoughts. When they’d made love she had heard him, seen his desires, and she tried now to connect with him.

  It wasn’t difficult. The image of him came clearly, and what he wanted was whispered in her ear. He was hiding not from her, but from what he truly was. She had hidden her entire life beneath a useless cloak of chasteness. It had enslaved her, but it was Thane who had set her free.

  A gilded door drew her attention and she walked to it, opened it and stepped into another room where a fire in a massive hearth roared. In the chair, before the fire, sat Thane.

  “You must leave,” he said. “I don’t trust myself around you. Not yet.”

  “I trust you.”

  He groaned, tossed his head back. “Leave, Chastity.”

  This was the scene she saw in her mind. What he needed—or at least wanted. Submission.

  Stepping around the chair, she stood before him, watching as he pleasured himself. He was thick, hard and aroused. He looked different, more wild, less controlled, and this new Thane spoke to her. To the newly discovered side of herself.

  Dropping the sheet she had used to wrap around herself, she stood before him, naked, listening to his sharp inhalation of breath, watching as his fist tightened around his staff.

  Then, she lay at his feet, just as she saw in his mind.

  “No,” he whispered, but she knew this was what he wanted. Her to come to him willingly. To accept him as he was.

  Thane could not control himself. He wanted her, to show her his love, but that would hold her hostage. She was too new to pleasure. Too innocent to realize that it was not him she wanted, but his sin.

  “I love you,” she whispered, and she rose to her knees, before him. She watched as he touched himself, and he wished it was her touching him.

  “You should not lay yourself at my feet,” he warned.

  “Why? Will you carry me off to your dark chamber and ravish me?”

  “Perhaps.”

  She smiled and reached out to cover his hand with hers. Carefully, she peeled back his fingers and wrapped her fingers around his cock. “Oh, I do hope so.”

  “You should be careful what you wish for.”

  Holding his gaze, she challenged him with her eyes as she lowered her mouth over the head of his cock. It took every bit of strength he had not to thrust deeply inside her.

  “Chastity,” he moaned, and he reluctantly he reached for her, drawing her closer, thrusting upward. “Ah, yes.”

  Without so much as a word, he reached for her and guided himself in her mouth, a primal groan, long and deep, came from him, spurring her into recklessness.

  There was something about him like this that made her wish to follow him wherever he would lead. He was dangerous—virile, utterly male—and it made her aware of her sexual power.

  He groaned again as she took him in her hand and sucked him, fast, furiously hard. Chastity knew he was watching—could feel his dark eyes studying her from behind black lashes, and the knowledge emboldened her, making her wish to give him a performance he would never forget.

  She felt him swell inside her, felt his fingers shaking against her jaw and her throat.

  Resting his head against the back of the chair, Thane fought for control,
fought to keep his eyes open, watching Chastity watch him. Was there anything more powerful to a man—or fey—than to see a beautiful woman on her knees, his throbbing cock in her mouth, and loving it? She was loving it, he realized.

  “Stop,” he commanded, but she continued on, sucking and laving his cock, until both the Dark Fey and his sin were purring inside him.

  He wanted to come in her mouth, to feel her drinking him down. She heard him, and sucked harder, giving him his wish.

  He came, filling her, and she swallowed him, her hands caressing his flesh. She didn’t run from him, from his desires. And when he was done, he was still hard, his cock still wanting to nudge up inside her.

  Wrapping his arm around her waist, he brought her back against his chest, his hands taking her breasts, cupping and squeezing, his fingers pinching her nipples, making her wet between her thighs. “You didn’t come to the Unseelie Court on your own. The curse won’t be lifted, and I don’t give a damn,” he growled next to her ear. “I’d have taken you kicking and screaming if I had to.”

  She moaned, feeling his hands on her body, the force of the fey magic in his touch. The magic he no longer hid from her.

  “I might have searched you out because of the curse. But you’re not here because of it. You’re here because I couldn’t bear to be parted with you. Because I, a prince of the Dark Fey, is so deeply in love with you, a perfect, virtuous mortal.”

  She sighed, and he nestled her deeper against him.

  “Believe me,” he whispered as he rose from the chair and carried her into the next room. Softly he lowered her to the bed and caged her with his arms, his long, hard body.

  “I believe you,” she whispered back. “I didn’t believe in me. In what I could allow myself to feel.”

  She reached for him, and instead of rubbing his shoulders, she touched his ears, and caressed them, making him shudder. He held himself above her and Chastity watched as he closed his eyes and moaned. Between her thighs, his cock stirred, pressed against her and she opened herself to Thane, to the Dark Fey and the Unseelie Court that would forever be her home.