A Distant Tomorrow Page 12

  “No, my lord Dominus. I am warrior-trained by the Shadow Princes of Hetar. When I completed my training the sword was a gift from the great sword master Lothair. It possesses a victory spirit who is called Andraste.” Lara carefully drew her weapon from the sheath on her back. Holding it flat upon her two palms she displayed it to him.

  The Dominus reached out to take the sword, but jumped back startled as a deep and powerful woman’s voice warned him off.

  “Greetings, Dominus Magnus Hauk. I am Andraste, and I permit only my mistress’s hand to touch me. I drink the blood of the wicked.”

  “What magic is this?” Magnus Hauk asked suspiciously.

  “The magic of Hetar, my lord Dominus,” Lara answered him. “The staff I carry also has a name, and a voice.” She turned Verica to face the Dominus.

  “Greetings, Magnus Hauk. I am Verica,” the staff said.

  The Dominus stared hard for a moment, and then he said, “Your face is a noble one, Verica. I greet you.”

  Andraste began to hum low. The Dominus had not greeted her.

  But then he turned back to the sword, saying, “You are every bit as beautiful as your mistress, Andraste.”

  “And far fiercer, Dominus,” Andraste replied tartly, and Lara knew her weapon was slightly offended by Magnus Hauk’s patronizing compliment.

  “With your permission again, my lord Dominus,” Lara said, “I will resheathe Andraste.” She quickly did so, and at the same time set Verica aside.

  “I will not take your weapons from you,” Magnus Hauk told Lara. “You have my word on it. But I would have you put them aside now. I cannot take pleasures with an armed woman.”

  “I will leave you now,” Captain Corrado said bowing to his kinsman.

  “Thank you, Captain, for your courtesy and kindness,” Lara said quietly.

  The sea captain bowed briefly to her, and hurried from the chamber.

  “You have obviously impressed him,” Magnus Hauk said. “I have never known him to bow to a woman. Our silent women are hardly worthy of such respect.”

  “All women are worthy of respect, my lord Dominus,” Lara told him.

  “Even in Hetar?” he asked her softly.

  “What do you know of Hetar?” she countered.

  “Very little,” he admitted. “And other than the Coastal Kings, Hetar knows nothing of us. Are you going to remove your gown, or must I rip it from you, Lara?”

  “Are you always so impatient, my lord Dominus? I learned long ago that patience leads to greater pleasures than a hasty coupling.” She undid her gown at a shoulder, and shrugged it off. The silvery fabric slid to the stone floor of the chamber with a faint hiss.

  Lara now stood quietly, and very still.

  Magnus Hauk stared at the beautiful woman before him. She was the most perfect female he had ever seen in all his days. “Are all Hetarian woman as beautiful as you, Lara?” he asked her, genuinely curious.

  “No,” she replied honestly. “I am unique by virtue of my faerie blood, my lord Dominus. I expect women, like men, wherever they are from, come in many shapes and sizes. Some are always fairer than others. Some are plainer than others. Will you remove your robe so I may view your nakedness as you now gaze at mine?”

  Magnus Hauk didn’t know whether to laugh or remonstrate with this bold woman. Terahn women were silent and obedient. They always did as they were bid. But this beautiful female could be an interesting puzzle to solve. She intrigued him in spite of himself. A quick smile touched his lips. He undid the frog closures holding his garment shut, and shrugged it off. His eyes were fixed on hers.

  Lara held his gaze for a long moment, and then breaking it, she looked him up and she looked him down, walking around him slowly as she did so. “You are a man of impressive attributes,” she finally told him.

  Reaching out he drew her against him. His hand began to slowly caress her heart-shaped face, the tips of his fingers brushing lightly against her skin as he traced the delicate structure. His turquoise eyes caught her green ones in a mesmerizing hold. His dark gold head bent as he murmured softly against her lips, “And you, my faerie beauty, are intoxicating.”

  His touch on her face, on her lips, set her heart to racing. She had cared deeply for Vartan of the Fiacre, but she was ready to love again. Yet something about this man cried danger! Instinct warned her that this was a man who could capture her heart, and break it. She shivered with the knowledge. He smiled wolfishly down at her as if he understood her very thoughts. It was a mistake on his part. Lara toughened her softening heart. To give this man an easy victory would be a great mistake, and she had no intention of erring where Magnus Hauk was concerned.

  His mouth brushed hers. It had been months since she had experienced a warm mouth on hers. It felt wonderful, but her own lips remained cool and uncommitted to him. This was a battle that the Dominus was not going to win. His kiss deepened, becoming fierce and demanding. His body was hard against her. His tongue forced its way into her mouth. Lara briefly lost control of herself as the hot wet digit brushed her tongue. But then she recovered and firmly pulled her head away from him.

  “You are bruising me,” she complained to him. “My skin is delicate, and I will be marked by your roughness.”

  He stifled the groan that threatened to explode from within him. Women did not complain to or deny Magnus Hauk. Nor would they, had they been able to speak. Women yielded to the Dominus and were grateful for his attention. He grasped one of her beautiful breasts and squeezed it hard. “You,” he said with emphasis, “belong to me. You will obey me as your master.”

  “Will you beat me if I don’t?” Lara asked him. The look in her eyes was wicked.

  “You belong to me!” he repeated.

  “My lord Dominus, let us settle this matter immediately. Arcas of the Coastal Kings has done a stupid thing by sending me to you. I am Lara, daughter of Swiftsword of the Crusader knights, and Ilona, queen of the Forest Faeries. I am the widow of Vartan, Lord of the Fiacre and head of the High Council of the Outlands. I am no man’s slave. Arcas is a fool, and he cannot know that his behavior was but a means for me to cross the sea, to come to Terah. I have a destiny to fulfill, and believe me when I tell you it is not to be your Pleasure Woman.

  “You are a means to an end for me, Magnus Hauk. But until my instincts tell me otherwise I am content to remain here with you. And I will share pleasures with you. I find you handsome and virile. I even think I might desire you a little bit.” She smoothed a hand up his bare chest. “Yes,” she purred moving closer to him again. “I desire you.”

  “I may kill you,” he growled at her. In his wildest imaginings he had never thought to hear a woman speak, let alone speak the words she had spoken to him. She was a defiant creature, but she challenged him to conquest. He would tame her, and she would be his as long as she continued to please him.

  She laughed into his face. “How will you kill me, my lord Dominus? Tell me it will be with pleasure, with your hands, your tongue, that great weapon hanging between your legs.” Reaching out she began to stroke him, fondling the seed sack beneath his rod.

  Fiery heat suffused his big body, and he felt suddenly weak with his need for her. Taking her face between his hands he began to kiss her. Her lips now responded to his, parting slightly, moist and inviting, luring him onward. Magnus felt the strength filling him once more as she seemed to yield slightly to him. The tips of her breasts were like hard little nubs against his chest, her mons hot against his groin. He was backing her toward the hearth, and then suddenly he kicked her legs from beneath her, and lowered her to the floor.

  Lara had regained control of herself. Her faerie heart had learned to be icy cold again. It would protect her. But she was also beginning to enjoy the man making love to her. She could tell he was skilled at it. He would give her pleasure, true, but she would give him pleasure such as he had never known in return. She would bind him to her, Lara knew. He would not realize it at first. He would just appreciate the physical
sensations she offered him as their bodies met. But before long, he would be hers. He moved to mount her, but Lara held him off. “Not yet, my lord Dominus,” she whispered, pushing him over so that he rolled onto his back. “Let me offer you sweetness beyond measure.”

  His need for her was desperate, but something in her voice caused him to lay back. Kneeling next to him Lara began to place feathery little kisses over his torso. She did this for some minutes. Then she began to lick the flesh she had previously kissed. Her tongue was warm and slicked across his torso, lighting tiny fires as it traveled. He was burning up as she climbed onto him, pushing a nipple into his mouth. “Suckle!” she commanded him.

  He obeyed, drawing on the nipple strongly over and over again while his hand kneaded her other breast. After a time he released the nipple and turned his head to its twin. He sucked on it, even grazing the tender flesh with his teeth briefly. When she took her breasts from him and slid her body down his, he almost cried out like a maid.

  “Does all this please you, my lord Dominus?” she asked him in a now husky voice. Her eyes had gone sloe with their growing desire.

  “Aye,” his voice almost cracked beneath the raging fire of his lusts. “Now it is my turn to pleasure you, Lara.” Somehow, and he wasn’t certain how, he managed to position himself between her legs. He felt weak with his desire. Lowering his head he spread her nether lips open. She was already moist, and he smiled, pleased. His tongue began to slide across the pinkish flesh. She was almost sweet to his taste. Before him the tiny nub of her sex beckoned him. He touched it first with just the tip of his tongue, and heard a small moan from her lips. He teased the nub gently at first, and then unable to help himself flicked his tongue fiercely back and forth over it until she was almost screaming. The sound was music to his ears. His strength returned, flowing into his big limbs as she sobbed and began to thrash beneath the marauding digit.

  “Tell me what you want,” he growled into her ear.

  “Tell me what you want!” she demanded back.

  “You!” he said.

  “You!” she returned. It was time to give him the victory. She had already proven she was his equal in this game.

  “Do you want me inside of you, Lara?” he teased her, placing a deep kiss on the now swollen nub before he gave it a final nip with his teeth that sent her into a sobbing frenzy of desperation.

  “Yes! I want you inside of me,” Lara whispered. “I need you, my lord Dominus! Hurry, please! Do not torture me any longer.”

  “You deserve nothing more for your bold defiance,” he said cruelly.

  “Please!” she begged him. He was a worthy opponent. She felt him moving on her, the tip of his great manroot preparing to take its revenge. She opened herself to him. “Please, my lord Dominus! Give us the pleasure that only you can!”

  He thrust hard and deep, struggling briefly to prevent his juices from filling her too quickly. She cried out with his advance as he pushed all the way to the mouth of her womb. She was hot and tight around him. He had never known a woman’s body to be like this. He could feel her juices already bathing him. Slowly he withdrew almost all the way from her, only to plunge within once more. Her slender body matched itself to his movement as he began to surge back and forth upon her.

  She could not control herself — his deep well of passion had caught her unawares. She had never known its like. He filled her even as Vartan had filled her, and yet it was different. She felt different. She didn’t understand what was happening, but she knew men enough to know that her unfettered response to his passion was giving him the greatest pleasures either of them had ever know. Understanding she could no longer manage the situation Lara gave into it. She flew. She burned. She melted into a helpless creature lost among the stars. And as the most incredible pleasure she had ever known consumed her, Lara screamed with her rapture, and then fell into a warm and dark chasm that reached up to enfold her.

  His juices exploded with such violence that Magnus Hauk thought Lara would be rendered asunder. Surely there would be nothing left after this lustful bout. Blood thundered in his ears as her scream of delight reached him. His heart was pounding wildly, and for the briefest moment he thought he was going to die from the sweetness that consumed him. With the last of his strength he pulled away from her, rolling onto his back. When he could see clearly again and his heart was beating at a more normal rate he said to her, “I have never known pleasures like that.”

  “Nor I,” Lara admitted softly.

  “Why did you refuse the Coastal King?” he asked her.

  “He is not my fate,” Lara replied. “Why would I waste pleasures on him? I am not some Pleasure Woman who is paid for her services. Nor am I your slave, my lord Dominus.”

  “Nay,” Magnus Hauk admitted. “You are not my slave, Lara, but then what are you to be to me?”

  “Your guest?” Lara teased him gently.

  He roared with laughter, sitting up, and turning to look down at her. “Aye, you are my guest,” he agreed humorously. “And you are my lover.”

  She sat up, nodding. “It is fair,” she said. “But what if I wish to take pleasures with another, my lord Dominus?”

  “I will kill you,” he replied. “You are mine!”

  “Nay,” she said. “You are mine!”

  “A man cannot be ruled by a woman, Lara,” he told her seriously.

  “And I cannot be ruled by any other, man or woman,” Lara responded, looking him directly in the eye.

  The Dominus paused, surprised by her words. “I see,” he said, “that we already have differences between us. We will have to negotiate them, will we not?” The blue eyes twinkled at her.

  What an interesting man, Lara thought. He is strong, and he is arrogant, but he has a sense of humor. “I am said to be very good at the art of negotiation, my lord Dominus.”

  “Are you hungry?” he asked her.

  “Ravenous!” she told him.

  He arose and pulled her to her feet. “Let us get dressed, and then we will eat before this fire where we have already temporarily satisfied our other appetites. Then I intend making love to you again. All night. And after I shall take you to the women’s quarters in the castle where you will meet my sister, Sirvat. She is in charge of the women here.”

  “You have no wife or mate?” Lara asked him.

  “No,” he said shortly, pulling on his dark robe again. “Just women.”

  Lara picked up her gown from where it had dropped. She slipped it on, and finding her sandals slid her feet into them again. It had been a most interesting day, and already the sun was sinking toward the horizon. Toward Hetar.

  The Dominus called for food. When it arrived Lara was pleased by the variety offered. There was roasted meat, rare as she liked it, and as the Dominus obviously liked it. There was a fat, stuffed capon that sat upon a platter amid a sauce of stewed plums and apricots. There were long thin yellow bean stalks that had been steamed tender. A salad of mixed lettuces, some purple and orange leaves as she had never before seen mixed with the greens. The salad had been tossed with a tangy dressing the ingredients of which she could not easily identify. There were two cheeses, one soft with a delicate creamy flavor, and the other hard, very sharp, and golden in color. Yet there was only one small loaf of bread. It was fresh and warm, however, but its flavor was unfamiliar to her.

  They both ate heartily, and drank an intoxicating wine Lara suspected had been well laced with herbs to encourage their evening’s activity. And true to his word, Magnus Hauk spent the hours that followed making slow sweet love with Lara. When morning came, however, he escorted her through the castle and placed her in the care of his young sister, Sirvat.

  The rooms in which she had spent the night with the Dominus were elegant, but spare in furnishings. His chamber held only a large bed and a plain wooden chest. The corridors through which she now traveled were also simple. The walls were a smooth stone of a neutral color, lit by crystal globes filled with what appeared to be fire-flies
. The floors were dark slate. Lara was therefore surprised when the Dominus opened the doors at the end of a long hallway and ushered her inside.

  The Women’s Quarters of the castle were more luxurious than anything Lara had ever seen. The rooms were spacious, yet not overlarge. The walls were painted a warm golden yellow, and hung with exquisite tapestries woven in clear reds, blues, greens, purples and creams. The tapestries told stories, probably of Terah’s history, Lara thought as she admired them. The furnishings were feminine — low couches upholstered in soft fabrics of various hues, plump silk and velvet pillows decorated with gold and silver threads, with tasseled edges. There were delicate tables of inlaid woods and mother-of-pearl. Little velvet stools. Hanging lamps of amethyst glass. There were heavy soft rugs covering parts of the floors.

  As they entered, a lovely girl with golden-brown hair came forward, smiling. She bowed to Magnus Hauk, taking his two hands in hers and pressing them to her heart in a pretty gesture of welcome. Then her curious turquoise glance went to Lara.

  “This is Lara, my Hetarian guest,” Magnus Hauk said to his sister. “Will you see she is well cared for, Sister?”

  The young woman nodded, and turned her smile on Lara.

  “My youngest sister, Sirvat,” the Dominus said to Lara. “Like all our women she hears, but is unable to speak.” He turned to his sibling. “Sirvat, do not be afraid, but the women of Hetar have voices with which they speak and both Corrado and I have heard.”

  Sirvat raised a curious eyebrow, but nodded to her brother.

  “I will leave you now,” the Dominus said to Lara. “You will be safe here.”

  “When will I see you again?” Lara asked him.

  “When you do,” he replied with a grin.

  Lara smiled back mischievously. “You will lust for me soon enough, my lord Dominus. And if it pleases me I will come to you.”

  Magnus Hauk laughed aloud. Then turning, he left her.

  Lara felt a tug on her sleeve.

  “Come along, woman of Hetar,” a soft voice said to her.

  Lara spun about. Were her ears deceiving her? “You speak!” she exclaimed. “Why does the Dominus think you do not?” Were her ears deceiving her.