Tested by the Night (17 page)

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Talon sat on the edge of the bed watching Mia stuff, unstuff, and restuff her traveling bag with all manor of things. Tunics and breeks, books and baubles, lacy undies, and at least three pairs of shoes all inadequate for the landscape she’d be facing. And no sooner would she slip an object into the satchel, then she’d remove it again and replace it with something else. An extra hairbrush alone had made at least five trips back and forth.

At this rate, and with the untimely visit of Mia’s mother and aunts, they weren’t going to even come close to meeting Mia’s self-imposed deadline of two turns of the hourglass. That was, unless he did something drastic to get her moving. And they really needed to get moving if they hoped to reach the faraway shores of Bane by the next morning.

She shoved the hairbrush back into the bag, gulped twice, and closed her eyes.

“What’s wrong, princess?” Gently, he grasped her hand and immediately noticed how cool her skin felt beneath his fingertips and how she trembled. “Talk to me, Mia.”

Her eyes overflowed with unshed tears when she opened them. One slipped down her cheek followed by another and then another. “The thought of this whole quest thing was so much easier when I only had myself to disappoint,” she sobbed. “What if I let Mother, Aunt Lark, and Aunt Briar down? Oh, my God Draka, what will Father and Zander think of me if I fail? What will all of Alaria and the barbarian nation think?”

He wrapped his arms around her and brought her in close to his heart. “You won’t fail.”

“But what if I do?” She sobbed louder.

He sighed, ran his fingers through her hair, and rubbed the back of her neck. He nuzzled a spot right below her left ear with his lips, kissing, licking, and nipping as he went. He knew his actions would distract her from her present course of thought, counted on it even. “If by chance you don’t succeed, princess, you’ll simply choose a mate. There is no disgrace in that.”

She lifted her face and looked at him solemnly. “If I don’t succeed, if I end up being forced to choose a mate, what would you say if I chose you?”

He held his breath. Had he heard her correctly? She couldn’t really mean, could she?

He slowly shook his head. “No, not me, princess. You can’t pick me. I’m not worthy and will never be. I’m the great, great, whatever grandson of a famous traitor, remember? The barbarian people would never accept me as their king, and I don’t blame them.” He cupped her chin. “You can do better than me, much better.”

Mia sniffed and buried her face in his chest. She trembled in his arms, and it broke his heart. “But what if, by chance, I do succeed? Would you consider becoming my mate then? I know I promised not to, but I’ve begun to care for you, Talon. A lot.”

His heart constricted painfully in his chest. She hadn’t come right out and said she loved him, but it was plain she was headed in that direction and he had to stop her before she fell over that dangerous cliff. He didn’t want to hurt her tender feelings, especially since he’d developed more than a few of those same feelings for her over the last few weeks. But wasn’t it kinder, more noble even, to gently discourage her now, than it would be to see her devastated later?

He kissed her forehead and looked her straight in the eye. “I care for you also, princess, probably more than I should. You’re kind of like a bratty little sister to me.” She cringed in his arms, and Talon knew he was on the right track. “That’s the reason I can’t do as you ask, not ever. We’d end up hating each other when the entire barbarian kingdom turns its backs on us. After all, and as you well know, I’d refuse to sit idly by your throne like a pet while you rule or take your name or even keep my mouth shut like a good little concubine should. I’m a man, Mia. And for better or worse, I’ll live and die with my dignity intact. I don’t belong with you and I never will. I belong at Zander’s side, as his friend, his general, as it’s always been.”

She shook her head. “In time, I could make you happy. I know I can. And I can force our people to accept us together. There must be some way.”

Talon sighed. “There isn’t. Even if you staked me out bare-assed naked in the middle of The Academy’s arena and declared with your own words and body your intention to have me as your husband before an audience of every single person in residence and the barbarian council, it still wouldn’t work. Neither one of us can change the fact I come from a traitor’s linage.” He rubbed her shoulders. “And what of your father and mother? Would you really put them through such an ordeal for your own selfish wants?”

Mia gulped, and even though they were alone, she whispered, “Well, if you won’t allow me to consider you for a mate, would you at least be willing to toss me down upon this bed and fuck me as fast and hard as you possibly can? Even though you consider me more a bratty little sister than a woman. Just a quick tumble to take the edge off and relieve my nerves before we set out?” She wrapped her arms about his waist and rubbed herself against him seductively.

It was Talon’s turn to cringe as he inhaled the fragrance of flowery, prissy princess combined with sexy, erotic, barbarian temptress. A sister, bratty or not was the last thing he would ever consider Mia Hammerstrike. “Oh, I think I can put it out of my mind and do as you asked. I’m at least willing to give it a try.”

It took exactly fourteen heartbeats to divest himself of his clothing and another twelve to relieve Mia of hers. He knew precisely how many heartbeats it had taken because he’d counted them. It was the only thing he could think of to take his mind off of the fact his cock was already standing at attention, stiff, and demanding immediate penetration into her awaiting hot pussy.

Though Mia had alluded to the fact she wanted it fast and hard, he was pretty sure she at least meant for them to be naked and lying down first. He chuckled, well, perhaps not both of them lying down precisely.

He grinned and backed her up until her knees hit the frame of the bed. With a gentle push, he had her flat on her back with her feet dangling over the side and her legs spread wide before she even had the chance to realize what he was up to.

His mouth watered at the sight set before him. All that sweet, juicy, pink flesh for his dining pleasure, yet he didn’t dare partake of a single taste. She’d said fast and hard, and there could never be anything fast or hard about loving Mia’s pussy with his mouth. Oh, no, doing her justice with his lips and tongue and teeth would take a whole lot more time than they could afford to spend at the moment. Even a lifetime of afternoons like this one wouldn’t be enough.

He settled for grasping her thighs, positioning himself against her opening and thrusting forward quickly. Warmth enveloped him as he slid home. In response, her muscles clenched tight holding him in place, daring him to withdraw.

Talon took a deep breath, drew part of the way out, before slamming all the way back in. She gasped beneath him, laughed, and then rocked against him once more, hard, demanding he continue. He closed his eyes and quickened his pace. Glorying as tendrils of excitement ricocheted back and forth through his lower back, his balls, and his cock, and finally landing deep within the pit of his belly. His throat constricted, his breath caught in his chest, and his toes curled.

She locked her feet behind his back and grinned up at him impishly. “You call this fast and hard, barbarian? I bet my grandparents could fuck faster and harder than this.”

Her tinkling laughter shot straight through his heart, and with a grin matching her own, he answered, “As you wish, my lady”.

With that, he doubled the rate of his thrusts, and then redoubled them again, his breathing coming fast. Giving no quarter, Talon slammed his cock home as deep as it would go, kissing first her womb, and then caressing her soul.

If Mia truly wanted fast and hard, then that was exactly what he would give her.

He closed his eyes and allowed the red fog of barbarian lust he normally kept at bay to take them both where it would.

Waves of pleasure overtook him. They crashed down upon him like a man drowning in a sea of pure emotion. Lightning fast tremors of electricity tingled the length of his cock as his balls expanded and contracted with spasms of delight.

He heard her cry out her release somewhere beneath him and marveled in the walls of her pussy clenching tight about him, but he was too far lost to the red fog to slow down now.

He fucked her faster, and then faster still, pounding into her unmercifully as the pressure of his own release continued to build.

She cried out again as yet another orgasm overtook her, and then again only moments later. Had that been three or four or possibly five? He wasn’t sure, and he didn’t care as long as he was giving her what she’d asked for.

The only thing Talon Starkweather cared about in all of Albrath was making love with Mia Hammerstrike so passionately she’d never be able to completely forget him. Not even when she was a very old lady, long married to a worthy barbarian who was not him. Not even after she’d become the mother to a passel of some other man’s children. And not even after she’d become a queen and he’d remained nothing except the grandson of a traitor.

But then, wasn’t that exactly what he wanted to happen? What he was tasked with accomplishing? In the end, wouldn’t she be better off with someone like Alistair Daggertoss and forgetting Talon Starkweather ever existed?

The thought sobered him quickly, and with it, his libido.

Talon backed away and grabbed up his clothes. “We best get moving if we mean to make Bane by morning, princess. We have two portals, a mountain, and three expansive ice fields to cross.”

She looked up at him with confusion in her eyes. “But you haven’t yet…well, you know. You didn’t…finish.”

Talon shrugged. “It happens.”

She gulped and then nodded. “Because it’s not much fun to have sex with someone you consider a bratty little sister?”

He’d been honest when he’d said they could never have a future together, and if he was any kind of an honorable man, he’d let her believe the little sister lie and start pushing her away this very minute before either of them really got hurt. But he couldn’t do it, not now anyway. He couldn’t bring himself to intentionally say anything that would hurt her or make her believe she’d been inadequate in some way. Especially not with the quest looming over her head.

So instead, he grinned and shrugged once more. “I never had a sister, but when I’m inside of you, princess, trust me, being brotherly is the last thing on my mind. Not getting my rocks off had nothing to do with you. I’m antsy to get underway. I’ll make up for it next time. Wait and see. It’ll be my turn to have two orgasms to your one.”

Chapter Twelve

Mia shivered, and not just from the cold. Without a doubt, the ice desert of Bane had to be one of the most barren, uninviting, colorless places on all of Albrath. Not that she wasn’t used to snow and ice and wind and freezing temperatures. After all, in Alaria, winter had always been more a way of life than it had been the longest season of the year. But here in Bane, here at the very top of the world, and in Talon’s home town, especially with it being technically spring, the frigid landscape had been a surprise, and certainly not a pleasant one.

In Bane, weather was the undisputed king. And if the drawn, worn, craggy faces of its inhabitants were any indication, the climate was a most cruel taskmaster.

There were no pine covered mountains to buffer the harsh winds like there were in Alaria. And there were no pretty little flowers poking their colorful faces up through the snow or ribbons of dancing northern lights in hues of greens and reds to brighten the gray horizon. Only mile after mile after mile of flat, colorless terrain, an endless white landscape, broken only by a group of cold-looking lodge-houses, as Talon had called them. Oblong structures built of large blocks of solid ice sitting upon a solid ice shelf and surrounded by absolutely nothing but more and more ice.

The only things that weren’t icy white were the steady wisps of gray smoke wiggling their way from the frozen rooftops of each structure. But the smoke did little to add to the ambience. As a matter of fact, its pathetic attempt to bring warmth where warm would never be welcome only succeeded in making Mia shiver harder.

But as unwelcoming as the outside elements of Bane were, its people were just the opposite. They had quickly ushered the small group of strangers inside the largest of the lodge-houses and had treated them as honored guests, even Pearl the dragon, as if playing host to a dragon was an everyday occurrence in Bane.

The soft, flickering lights of a hundred candles illuminated the shadows as they were given seats of honor, even, to her surprise, Pierced’s weird blow-up doll Bruno. They were all ushered close to the fire, and warm white furs were handed out for them to sit upon and snuggle under. And the choicest, juiciest, most tasty tidbits of bear meat were offered straight off the spit.

Even the frosty cold ale, poured from a hanging bladder that probably once belonged inside the body of a Bane bear wasn’t anything like she’d expected. The foamy liquid had been passed around in thick stone mugs and was without a doubt the tastiest thirst-quenching drink she’d ever swallowed. And that was saying a lot. The beverages produced in Alaria were known far and wide for their robust flavors, but they all paled miserably compared with the ambrosia she now imbibed. The amber liquid tingled upon the tip of her tongue as it glided down her throat and settled happily, deeply within her tummy.

The man who’d been pouring the ale suddenly turned and faced them. “So, nephew, what finally brings you home after so many years, and who are your friends?”

Mia was surprised. She wasn’t aware Talon had any relatives, still living, for he’d certainly never spoken of them.

Instead of being concerned about his family ties, however, she held her breath and stared straight ahead, knowing what he revealed to these people in the next few moments could very well determine how her quest would or wouldn’t go. She needed the cooperation of the inhabitants of Bane if she hoped to succeed.