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totally bemused by the fact that he d laughed the demon? She didn t think
so. It was Cavan, and he was growing stronger. More and more, she heard
him in the things that he said, and the way that he behaved.
Heartened, she ignored the chill of the water and waded toward the
pool. The water was almost up to her breasts by the time they reached the
water fall, and the chill made her breathless. She held out her hands beneath
the falling water and finally moved closer, stepping beneath it and allowing
it to pelt her for several moments before she stepped out again.
They had not brought either soap or cloths to wash with, but Mariel
felt clean and fresh when at last they waded out once more. She shivered as
the night air caressed her skin and Behsart drew her closer as he led her
back to the fire. Taking one of the blankets, he wrapped it around her and
urged her to sit on the bedding that he had lain out near the fire, then knelt
behind her, raking his fingers through her long, dark hair until he d removed
most of the tangles and the fire had dried the dark mass.
Finally, his hands fell still. Mariel held her breath, waiting.
Clutching her hair in his fist, he tugged on it until she lifted her face
to look up at him.  You are a fever in my mind. My body hungers for you
until I can find no rest. Are you a sorceress?
Mariel swallowed with an effort.  I am only a mortal woman.
Cupping the side of her face, he leaned down and opened his mouth
over hers hungrily, thrusting his tongue into her mouth and exploring the
exquisitely receptive flesh, sending flashes of heat through her. Mariel
sighed into his mouth, stroking her tongue along his.
Breaking the kiss after only a few moments, he pushed her back
against the bedding and followed her down, moving his mouth over her
face, her neck, the upper slope of her breasts ravenously, as if he wanted to
taste all of her at once. His breath rasped harshly from his chest.
Nuzzling her chest, he placed a kiss over her madly pounding heart
and traced a path with his tongue to one nipple, teasing it with the tip of his
tongue and the heat of his breath before he took the engorged tip into his
mouth and sucked it. Keen pulses of heat rushed along her nerve endings to
her sex, making it contract so tightly her belly ached with the tension.
Impatiently, he cupped her other breast in his hand and suckled the
tip, moved down and sucked the flesh underneath it. Shifting, he nibbled a
path over her ribs and down the center of her body to her belly, placing little
sucking bites across the quivering flesh.
Abruptly, he shifted once more. Catching her legs, he parted them,
sucking a trail of kisses along the flesh of her inner thigh. When he reached
her pussy, he let out a harsh breath, parted her nether lips and opened his
mouth over her hungrily.
Mariel cried out, arching up to meet him as she felt the heat of his
mouth, the flick of his tongue. He finessed her tender flesh more lavishly,
dragging his tongue up her cleft, flicking her clit with the tip, fastening his
mouth over her and sucking until she was gasping hoarsely, her body
trembling with imminent release, sucking until she began to thrash about
mindlessly and finally began to jerk and shudder as her body convulsed in
an explosive orgasm.
He moved over her then, propping his body on one arm as he reached
between them and pushed his cock along her cleft until he reached the
mouth of her sex. Thrusting the head of his cock inside of her, he hunched
upward, claiming her wet channel by inches, withdrawing slightly and
driving deeper each time until he had possessed her fully.
Lifting his upper body slightly away from her, he watched her face as
he undulated his hips, pushing deeply inside of her, withdrawing, pressing
forward again. Mariel parted her thighs wider, lifting up to meet him. A
tremor skated up his arms and through his body. Groaning, he lowered
himself fully against her, buried his face against her neck and set a more
desperate rhythm. The stroke of his flesh along her sensitive passage, the
urgency of his thrusts, sent heat spiraling through her once more, lifting her
rapidly toward her pinnacle. As she felt his body jerk and shudder with
release, her own soared over the edge once more.
Gathering himself after a moment, he slipped an arm around her and
rolled onto his back, carrying her with him. When he had dragged one of
her legs across his, he caught her hair and tipped her head back, kissing her
without hunger, or heat, but instead with warmth and tenderness. He tucked
her head against his shoulder then and sighed gustily, stroking her back.
 Offer prayers to the ancient ones, my love. We need all the help we can
get, he murmured.
* * * *
There was no warning, no sign that they had reached their destination
until they broke from the forest. One moment Mariel lay against Behsart s
chest, half drowsing, the next she saw the Temple of Annomiz looming
ahead of them.
They had traveled for three days from the Temple of Raezitath,
camping the first night beside the pool, the second on the eastern slope of
the mountains they had scaled, and the night before, they had stopped beside
a forest stream.
Cavan had not emerged since that first night beside the waterfall. She
had drifted to sleep in Cavan s arms and woke with Behsart, who was
almost as ill tempered over his lapse as he had been that he had been denied
in the first place. He had taken her to the pool the following morning and
told her to scrub herself, making her stand in the chilly water for nearly an
hour before he was satisfied and allowed her to come out again.
His temper had mellowed very little since, but although Mariel took
care not to stir it, she was inwardly pleased, for she had had Cavan with her
much of a day before he vanished again far longer than any time before.
That warmth had sustained her through the wearying travel.
It deserted her as she stared in dread at the temple they approached,
the Temple of the Demon Annomiz, the stone demon, the demon of fire and
ice.
Chapter Eight
The walls of the temple seemed to exude cold, but Mariel wasn t
certain if that was actually the case, or if it was fear that made her bone deep
cold as she was escorted down the main corridor into the temple and
prepared to receive the stone demon of fire and ice.
The name alone struck terror into her heart. Try though she might not
to think about the rites at the temples of Bileezal and Raezitath, she could [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]