Red As Blood Part 6

After looking at the rope for several minutes, she bent down and took hold of her skirts in the back, bringing it up between her legs and tucking it into her sash so that it would not hinder her climbing. Seizing her courage, she grabbed the make-s.h.i.+ft rope and began lowering herself from the window.

Closing her eyes against the pain, she began muttering her mantra, "I can do this. I love Daegon. I can do this for Daegon."

She was almost halfway down when she realized that as much as she loved Daegon, she was not going to make it to the bottom unless one considered the possibility of dropping like a stone. She paused, gasping, her hands burning like fire. They were going to find her broken body at the bottom of the tower.

"Cerise," Adriana whispered loudly, "are you down yet?"

Cerise looked up at her sister's face in the window and felt dizziness a.s.sail her. "Soon," she whispered.

"In about two seconds," she muttered, realizing there was no way she could hold on with one hand and lower herself. Fortunately, it was dark at the bottom. She had no idea how far she was going to fall.

"Daegon," she whispered, "I love you with all my heart."

She let go. She felt herself falling and falling. The jolt startled her. There was surprisingly little pain. She opened her eyes. "Daegon?"

He was smiling at her. "You are mad, my love."

She smiled. "It really is you. You came for me!"

Slowly, they floated to the ground. "Aye, love," he said, "I came because I love you with all my heart too."

Epilogue.

"You terrorized my father, Daegon," Cerise chided as Daegon kicked in the door to their bedroom and swept inside, depositing her on the bed.

"He's my father now too," Daegon said, grinning, coming onto the bed and stalking her across the mattress on his knees.

Cerise giggled and said, "He didn't really want us to get married."

"He didn't really want the alternative, either," he said huskily and came down on top of her, rolling them onto their sides so he could access her lacings.

"I feel sure your charm would have swayed him more easily."

He grunted as he pulled at her lacings, then pushed her onto her back and ripped the front of her gown. She moaned in excitement at his aggression.

"Daegon," she said, breathless as he struggled with the tiny fastenings of her corset, "you are going to have to stop ripping my gowns. I like it far too much."

"Aye, my love, I know you do," he said, raking a heated gaze over the tops of her b.r.e.a.s.t.s.

Finally, he worked the corset free and flung it across the room. Cerise was breathless with excitement. "Never wear this torturous garment again."

"It is not so bad as that. I'm quite used to it."

"I'm not," he growled, descending for a kiss.

His lips covered hers, and she parted them immediately, thrilling at the hot, shocking glide of his tongue in her mouth. He kissed her greedily, his tongue mating with hers as he pulled at his s.h.i.+rt with one hand. He broke away from her with a frustrated groan, sitting on his knees as he dragged his s.h.i.+rt over his head.

"I see you do not rip your own garments," Cerise said wryly, marveling at the power and strength exuding from him. "Hold a moment," she said when he would have come down on her. "I want to see you."

"Anything you wish, my love." His eyes gleamed as he got off the bed, bent, and removed his boots and breeches.

Cerise's heart skipped a beat to see him so. His chest was covered with hair, but it couldn't hide the sculpted muscles that rippled down his belly to his groin. His legs were powerfully built, sprinkled with hair, and shaped in a way that had her blood pounding and her fingers aching to touch him. But his manhooda. She went weak looking upon it. His shaft stood proudly, thick and engorged, the veins straining with the potent beat of his blood. The head was shaped like a helmet of yore, with a tiny, clear bead of moisture on its tip. Her muscles quivered and moistened with the craving to feel it inside her. She'd waited so long, forever it seemed.

"Enough," he said, his voice hoa.r.s.e as he came upon the bed, "I can wait to taste you no longer."

He bent and ripped her s.h.i.+ft from her body. Cerise gasped, partly in outrage, but mostly in desire. "Daegon," she moaned as he crushed his naked length against her. "I could have removed that easily."

"Then you should have," he growled, kissing her. His tongue thrust inside her mouth, sweeping through her crevices with savoring slowness.

Cerise moaned into his mouth, stealing his breath and taste, suckling him as though she would die if she could not taste him. He groaned and pushed a knee between her thighs, rubbing intimately against her mound.

She arched, gasping as he broke from her mouth to drag his lips down her throat.

"Daegon," she breathed, her senses rioting, "do not tease me so. I cannot stand it."

"You will take all I have to give you this night, my love," he said hot against her breast, dragging his teeth over the already engorged tip.

She cried out as his heat closed over her nipple and sucked, hard. Fire raced through her veins, spiraling out of control. Her womb convulsed on a sharp spasm of desire. He tugged her nipple, rubbing his tongue rough against it, taking her deep into his mouth. He ma.s.saged her other breast, piquing it for the touch of his silky lips.

Daegon freed her from the ache of his mouth, closing on her other peak, drawing her nipple into a hard bud that shot flames of desire through her nerves. He suckled her as if drawing nourishment from her body, as if he could not taste enough of her.

A hand pushed down her ribcage and flattened on her belly, smoothing down to cup her s.e.x. She moaned, arching up to meet him, digging her hands in the bed covers. She was panting with the exertion of control, the heated torment. She thought he would melt her, soak her into himself.

Two fingers sought her c.l.i.t, rubbing the cream against her achy nub. He pulled his fingers free and rubbed them over one nipple. Cerise's desire soared to smell her own arousal, to see the dark heat in his eyes as he caught the scent.

She shuddered as he brought his fingers to his mouth and sucked her essence from them.

"Your honey drives me mad for want of you. I starve for the taste of your sweetness," he said, his voice thick and rough with desire.

Her v.a.g.i.n.a clenched on a pulse of pleasure at his words. She lowered her lids, looking at him with pa.s.sion shuttered eyes. He watched her as he bent and flicked his tongue over her coated nipple.

Cerise closed her eyes and arched to him, unable to stand how much she wanted him. "Daegon." Her voice trembled with the intense arousal shooting through her body. She didn't know how much longer she could go on without feeling him inside her.

He moved between her legs as if commanded. His hair-sprinkled thighs abraded hers as he lifted her hips onto his knees. Her lips spread as her thighs widened around him. She was exposed and oh so wonderfully vulnerable to him.

He rested his hands on her hips, holding her down as he lifted on his knees and rocked against her heated cleft. His satiny shaft glided through her wet folds, increasing the agony seizing her womb.

"Daegon," she cried, trembling, tossing her head to each side. "You punish my love with torment."

"Nay, my sweet," he groaned, nudging his shaft head to her entrance. "I a don't a want a to hurt a you." He groaned in agony as he pushed inside her core.

Cerise felt her tender muscles quiver at his entrance, gasp and clutch his engorged shaft. She was pinned in place, unable to move her hips as she wanteda"needed.

"You a are a so a tight," he said, his voice a ragged whisper that shuddered through her.

"Please, hurt me. End it now. I will go mad," she cried, tightening her thighs against him.

A hoa.r.s.e, guttural cry erupted from his throat as he plunged inside her, ripping past the seal of her body. Cerise screamed as he sank to the hilt inside her, filling her to the limits of endurance.

He sat still for long moments, until the ragged clutch of her v.a.g.i.n.a eased as it became accustomed to his thickness. Cerise burned where he touched her, agony a ripple that seeped into her muscles. Tears wet her cheeks, but she needed more.

"Do not stop, my love," she whispered brokenly, reaching for him.

"I never wanted to hurt you," he murmured, s.h.i.+fting until he could lay against her, meld his body to her own, their bodies joined together in a place of burning pleasure and pain.

Cerise wrapped her arms around him, clutching him against her, reveling in the feel of his rough chest rubbing her swollen b.r.e.a.s.t.s, his hard muscled arms tight against her ribs as he lifted onto his elbows.

Daegon withdrew his shaft, slowly, not missing how she bit her lip to keep from crying out in pain. His c.o.c.k was in agony to feel her hurt spasms, the tears drying on her face. He kissed her closed lids, pulling with small movements that had his shaft twitching with need.

When he was at her entrance, he pushed inside her again, and out, stroking slowly until her cream worked deep inside her. "Hush, love," he whispered as she gasped and arched, her thighs tight around his hips.

"Please, I need you. Don't stop, no matter my cries," she begged, her soft pleading his undoing.

His heart thumped hard in his chest. His c.o.c.k seemed to swell with her words, with the aching tight suction of her v.a.g.i.n.a. Daegon bit off a rough, violent curse, burying his mouth against her neck as he plunged to the hilt inside her and built a stroking tempo into her.

Tormented desire blazed in his groin. His muscles felt ripped, burned with the need to come. His heart ached, shredded with the pain he caused. He wanted her first time to be good, more than she could ever imagine.

Her muscles clenched around him, spasming, sucking at his c.o.c.k with each stroke. He looked at her face, saw pleasure and pain mingled in her expression. He felt his control slip, grow desperately weak. The misery that had held him for eons slipped away, replaced by the molten fire melting him in her core.

He groaned as frantic need took hold, clouding his mind to anything but her wet tightness. She cried out as his pace increased, gasping for breath, clutching his back and raking her nails across his flesh.

He arched, deepening the stroke, feeling her tighten and pull around him. Fire lanced his groin muscles. His blood boiled in his veins, rus.h.i.+ng through his body as if he were dying. His c.o.c.k felt wounded by her heat, his shaft a great nerve rubbed raw by each thrust.

He drove inside her furiously, distantly recognizing the tremors in her muscles as her own o.r.g.a.s.m rippled through her. He slid and thrust, burning alive, his heart thundering in his ears. His needs were ravenous, devouring his control, his mind.

She was his, forever and always.

She tossed her head, screaming, trembling, crying out in a desperate plea that shattered his insides. The o.r.g.a.s.m seized him, throbbed inside his c.o.c.k as his seed erupted inside her womb. He exploded inside, groaning as her greedy womb sucked the seed from his body with waves as powerful as an earthquake. Her muscles bit into him, milking the agony and ecstasy through his veins until he collapsed, weak and spent against her.

He panted against her neck, tasting the salt of her skin, shuddering as her muscles quivered and eased with the force of her climax.

They lay there long moments, breathing each other's scent and cooling from the heat of sensual parlay.

"That was beautiful," Cerise whispered, stroking his wet hair away from his face. "But you are crus.h.i.+ng my poor breast with your head."

"My apologies, my dear," he growled, tugging at the nipple near his lips.

"Mmm. Do not, else I would have that beast between your legs service me again."

He grinned against her flesh, flicking his tongue over her nipple playfully. "What would your father say to have such a wanton of a daughter?"

Cerise sat up abruptly. "Oh!"

Daegon propped on an elbow, looking at her. "What is the matter?"

She looked down at him, feeling her heart swell to see him smiling upon her. But her thoughts detracted on the moment. "A thought has just occurred to me. You gave father such a fright, I am sure he will have my sister locked in the tower again by now. Oh, poor Adriana!"

"You are so kind-hearted, my love."

"I am serious, Daegon. She must be rescued. Father will keep her there forever, I am sure." She slanted her eyes at him, knowing he found the look incredibly provocative. "She helped me escape, you know."

Daegon rubbed her nipple between his fingers thoughtfully, ignoring how she slapped his hand away. It never deterred him from touching her. "I know of someone who can set her free. I feel certain, however, that he is precisely the sort of man your father expected to protect your sister from."

Cerise brightened. "Oh, well, Adriana will probably love him then. Bianca and I love our accursed husbands." She chuckled at the fierce look that came in his eyes. He rose on his elbow, reaching behind her neck.

"Indeed," he growled roughly, pulling her down for a hungry kiss.

The End