King of the Unblessed Read online

  “Lord Bellemare, such a temper,” Tania scolded, fluttering just out of his reach. Her gown shimmered beautifully, but he didn’t see it. Her gaze drifted over his chest and she affected a pout. “Don’t you know we faeries don’t like tempers?”

  Hugh continued to glare. It was a good thing they had him chained. If he was free, he’d be sure to strangle the aggravating wench.

  “Your sister is well. Your brother and Sir Nicholas are being attended by my ladies of the Feia court. Trust me, they are well looked after.”

  “Trust you? You hold me prisoner and then ask for my trust? Are you mad? What are you up to, woman?” he growled, thrusting his arms angrily against his chains.

  Tania leaned over the bed and slapped him. Hugh’s face didn’t move, not even to flinch. His eyes stared into hers as she withdrew her hand. “Mind your tone, mortal. I am a queen.”

  “Nay, you are an aggravating wench.” Hugh ground his teeth as Tania gasped. He wanted to say more. Only the fact that she was a lady kept him from turning the full force of his words on her. Infuriating or not, there were some things a man didn’t say to a woman.

  Tania pulled away from him. Tears outlined her eyes, but Hugh couldn’t say he was sorry for it. She’d lost his respect the moment she slapped him in her hall for no reason. Besides, queen or no, the woman was frustrating and something inside him strove to annoy her.

  Tania turned from him, her wings fluttering so fast she hovered above the ground. Her body was slender and she was taller than the rest of the females of her kind, even some of the men. Still, with her feet on the ground, her head only came to his chin.

  “Stop thinking those things,” she demanded, trembling. Her lip pushed out with an adorable sulk. Hugh didn’t like it. He didn’t want to think anything about this woman was adorable. Right now, she was the enemy. Her tone was hard and she looked at him in complete frustration, as she added, “I have not given you permission.”

  “I don’t need permission to have my own thoughts,” Hugh said. “Besides, how can you possibly know what’s in my head?”

  “When you have those thoughts, I see them too.” Tania hovered closer to him, getting in his face. “You do not have permission to think of me in such a way. You must cease at once.”

  Hugh snapped his teeth as if he would bite her. She gasped and instantly drew back. Tilting his head back, he laughed.

  “Cease at once!” she demanded, pouting her lip and tapping her foot in the air.

  “Do you mean these thoughts?” Hugh grinned, instantly imagining Tania naked. Even though he was mad at her, she was a beautiful woman and it wasn’t too much of a stretch to fantasize about her. He watched her face as she paled.

  “Nay,” she demanded, crossing her arms over her chest. She was still clothed so the gesture was pointless.

  Hugh’s grin widened. He licked his lips, imagining that she straddled him on the bed and that her small hands were on his body, slowly stripping him of his clothes even as he was chained. Closing his eyes, he imagined himself naked, her soft lips on his neck and chest, her hands reaching down to the erection growing between his hips. He imagined her wings to flutter as she drew her kisses lower, down his stomach to wrap around the hard length of his…

  “Argh!” Tania screamed.

  Hugh opened one eye. He’d only had the fantasy to annoy her, but succeeded in giving himself a very uncomfortable mass between his thighs. Forcing a frown, he asked, “Do you mind? I wasn’t finished. It was just getting good. That is unless you’d like to…” He nodded down his body, arching a brow in invitation. If the pretty faery queen wanted to give him pleasure, he’d not deny her. Although, right now, she looked mad enough to bite.

  “You are an uncouth barbaric mortal,” the queen announced. “How dare you?”

  “I dare much.” Hugh narrowed his eyes, giving her his most intimidating look, a look he reserved for the practice field when disciplining his men. She flinched, actually looking scared of him. “I’ll imagine this and so much more until you let me go. I’ll imagine you in ways you’ve never dreamt possible.”

  “I’ll let you go, but not just yet. We must give your sister time, Lord Bellemare,” Tania answered, her voice small.

  “Then slap me all you want, but I’m going to finish what I started.” Hugh closed his eyes, letting his mind pick up where it had left off. Tania gasped as he envisioned her lips sucking him into her mouth. Hearing a flutter of wings, he opened one eye. The faery queen was gone. Hugh chuckled to himself. Never had he thought such a tactic would serve him in a fight. Then, looking down at his arousal, he sighed. This plan would pain him greatly as well.

  * * *

  King Ean looked up from his throne as Gregor stepped into his palace hall. They were alone. Ean had banished all creatures of his court from him so he could think, so it was quiet. Seeing Gregor’s face, he sighed. “Any word from King Merrick?”

  “Nay, my king,” Gregor answered, bowing his head. “He doesn’t let us pass beyond his castle gate, but met me alone outside the walls. I gave him your missive, but he has no answer. He merely laughed at you and called you a fool.”

  Ean sighed. He’d hoped for another meeting with Merrick, another chance to talk reason into his brother about Lady Juliana. “Why would he attack my men at Rivershire? We were peaceful. We let him pass.”

  “He wants a war,” Gregor answered. “It is the only explanation.”

  “Tell me Gregor. Is a mortal woman really worth starting a war over? Mortals are so temporary, their lives so short.” The melancholy would not leave him and had only grown worse since his talk with Merrick. He felt sick, weak. His powers weren’t what they should be. Ean said nothing of this to anyone. “Perchance, Lady Juliana wants to be with Merrick.”

  “My king, no blessed mortal would choose King Merrick, of that I am sure. Regardless of why she is there, this is not about Lady Juliana. This is about your kingdom. This is about King Merrick wanting a war with Tegwen. If there is to be a war between the blessed and unblessed, it would be started over a mortal but it would be about so much more. By taking your ward, he laughs in your face. If we do not act, word will get out that we are weak, that you, my king, are weak. King Lucien will strike.”

  Ean watched Gregor carefully.

  “I fear he seeks to reclaim the throne that was lost to him,” Gregor said. “He would be both ruler of Valdis and Tegwen.”

  Ean nodded slowly. Gregor’s words made sense, but the idea that Merrick could be king of both was absurd. He looked at his hall, a hall that would have been his brother’s had fate not intervened and turned him dark. “Leave me, Gregor. I need time to think.”

  “There is more,” Gregor said, not meeting his eye. “There have been rumors from the countryside that King Lucien visits the Black Palace.”

  Ean nodded once. “Leave me.”

  “My king.” Gregor bowed and quietly walked out of the main hall.

  “Lucien and Merrick?” Ean whispered, resting his forehead in his hand. It wasn’t unheard of, the unblessed and the damned joining forces. Was that what Merrick had meant when he said Ean would sever their tie someday? “Why come for my throne now after so many years? You know as well as I that a man cannot be both King of the Blessed and Unblessed. Have you gone mad? Unless you are not after my throne at all, but seek to destroy it. Perhaps you seek to destroy all of Tegwen and the blessed with it.”

  Ean sighed. Time and rage were lethal combinations. Merrick had plenty of one and many reasons for the other.

  Looking over his empty hall, he whispered, “What are you doing, brother?”

  * * *

  Juliana lifted her head from her hands, sitting against the wall of a passageway that would not end. Touching the design on her arm, she repeatedly smeared the ink, watching as it collected itself. With her shoulders left bare and the slit up the sides of her skirt, it was chilly.

  Juliana walked for what had to be hours, endless hours spent going nowhere. The hall turned an
impossible number of times until she had to be going around in circles, but the décor changed. Sometimes she’d pass a statue, sometimes a tapestry, sometimes a chair. She’d even tried to turn back around and walk the other way. That was when she discovered the hall shifted and changed. When she turned around, backtracking, the statue she’d passed was no longer there. In its place was a large vase sitting on the floor. She was imprisoned in the never-ending hall.

  “Merrick,” she said, her flat tone resigned. There was no choice but to call to him. “Merrick, are you there?”

  “Aye?”

  She looked up from her arm. He stood before her, lounging against the opposite wall as if he’d been there all along just waiting for her to say his name. Juliana quickly stood, smoothing down her skirt to keep her thighs from showing. The fact that it was pointless, that he had seen her naked and felt every inch of her body, was not lost on her.

  “I know who you are,” Juliana said. “You’re the King of the Unblessed.”

  “It was never a secret,” Merrick answered. The corner of his mouth curled up in amusement.

  “You let me look for King Lucien. You made me believe—”

  “Tsk, tsk, tsk, I told you I was Merrick and that Lucien controlled the demons. You only assumed that damned and unblessed were the same. You never asked me, so I made you believe nothing.” Merrick took a step closer, crowding in on her. “It was you who assumed that my goblins were demons. Trust me, they are quite a different race.”

  “And the children?” she asked. “Queen Tania showed me the children. They’re not kidnapped, are they?”

  “Now, what would I want with a bunch of mortal children?” Merrick laughed.

  “You lied to me.”

  He shrugged. “That is a matter of perception. You should have asked me where I was keeping them.”

  “You tricked me.”

  “I’m unblessed. It’s what we do.” His gaze moved over her face. She felt the look all the way to her toes. There was something almost reverent in the way he eyed her.

  Juliana shivered. She didn’t want to feel anything for him. Remembering Eadward’s face rotting in his grave, she swallowed, overwhelmed with the sudden onslaught of nausea. “And murder? Is that just something you do?”

  Merrick stepped forward, forcing her to stumble back into the wall. The hard stone pressed along her spine, making retreat impossible. He caressed her cheek, his touch gentle. “I only did what you asked of me.”

  “I never asked you to kill Eadward.” Juliana closed her eyes, balling her hands into fists at her side. She wanted him so desperately, wanted his touch, wanted more of him than he could give her. In spite of what she felt, she knew he was bad for her. He was evil, the king of evil. Whatever she thought to see in him, those facts remained. He controlled the goblins. He twisted her fate. He’d brought her here. He’d killed Eadward.

  Merrick had all but admitted to the crime. He’d promised her that first night that he would see to it she never married and he’d kept his word. For what other way to ensure that she never married Eadward than with the finality of death?

  “You mortals look with your eyes and hear with your ears, but you are blind and deaf,” he said softly. His hand stopped moving. Juliana’s breath caught at his tortured expression. His gaze roamed over her face, studying her intently. She felt no better than a prize mare, or a pet dog. “All I ask is that you see me for what I am, hear me.”

  She didn’t understand what he wanted from her.

  “Desire me.” His voice was hard, commanding, yet his expression pleaded with her, as if he could make her obey him with his look. He drew his hand down her throat to her naked shoulder. The corset’s laces pulled tighter against her chest, causing her breasts to lift up against the bodice’s top as she gasped for breath. His fingers settled on the top of her heaving chest, lying over the mounds. He was so warm. It was strange that when he came to her she felt the cold only to find his body warm. Desire flowed through her at his touch. “Touch me as you did in the water. Beg me to touch you. Ask me not to go.”

  When she didn’t speak, his hand slid up and tightened on her throat. His fingers flexed as if he wanted to strangle her but couldn’t. He didn’t hurt her. His lips parted and he breathed as hard as she.

  “Beg me,” he ordered, though the words were soft. He hooked her bottom lip with his finger, pulling open her mouth. He was close. With one sweep, his finger could brush her skirt aside and press intimately into her. Speaking into her ear, he demanded, “Say the words. Submit completely to me.”

  Juliana tried to resist, but it was hard. She did want him. Even now she felt damp beneath her skirt and her nipples ached where they pressed into the tight material of the bodice. She did want to submit to him.

  “I don’t have to wait for your compliance, Juliana.” His eyes darkened. “I can take you now. I can force you. I can control you. No one will hear your cries. No one will save you.”

  Juliana looked at him. She knew he was powerful, had seen the things he could do. For all his threats, he hadn’t forced himself on her. His eyes bore into hers. And, for all his threats, he was waiting for her words.

  There were so many reasons why she shouldn’t be there with him. At the moment, she couldn’t think of them. She touched his waist, her fingers gliding over the black linen that hid his muscles from view. “You may command my body to you, but that is all you get. It is all I will freely give.”

  Merrick closed his eyes and slowly nodded. Juliana made the first move, even as she knew it was madness to give in. She pulled his waist forward, drawing his body to hers. He was as aroused as she. Groaning, he kissed her hard. The onslaught of his demanding mouth only excited her more as he drew a hand over to her bodice, cupping a breast. The part of the bodice covering her breasts disappeared. His hand was on her naked flesh, kneading. The corset was still tight to her waist, pushing her breasts up from underneath.

  Her hand kneaded his shirt, pulling at it. The material dissolved from her grasp. She looked at his chest in awe. “How?”

  “Everything in this castle is mine to control,” he answered. “Even you.”

  Juliana wanted to protest, but he again kissed her so passionately she couldn’t think. His hands seemed to be everywhere at once, roaming over the formfitting bodice that pushed her breasts high. His mouth moved to her chest, licking and sucking a fiery trail. Her skirt softened, closing along the sides, baring her legs to him. It split up the front, revealing her thigh-high boots and naked sex. She felt the material against her butt, so light it tickled the backs of her thighs as she moved. There was something sensual in being thusly attired.

  Merrick reached into the skirt’s front slit, pushing it aside as he grabbed her naked hips. He left her dressed in the strange outfit. With one firm pull, he lifted her up against the wall as if she were no heavier than a feather.

  Juliana’s booted legs dangled behind him as he pressed forward, crushing her against the stone. Merrick’s breeches dissolved, leaving him completely naked. His arousal pressed into her thighs, rubbing along her sex without penetrating as he rocked himself against her.

  Juliana remembered all too well what it was like to have him take her. The heat of him teased her flesh as he rocked faster, refusing to thrust up inside her willing body. She moaned, gripping and pulling his flesh, scratching him in her urgency.

  As she kissed him, she demanded, “Merrick, take me.”

  “I want to hear you beg for it,” he answered into her mouth. “Tell me you want me.”

  “Please,” she obeyed, mindless. “Please, I want you.”

  With that, he thrust into her. Juliana cried out softly. The hard stone softened and when she opened her eyes, they were in his bed.

  Merrick consumed her with every inch of his body, thrusting hard and deep and slow. Her thighs spread as he pulled his knees forward. He stretched her legs wider, gripping the boots along her thighs to control her body on his as he fell onto his back. Juliana moaned so
ftly to find herself on top of him, but didn’t stop the rhythm he’d set. Every inch of her reached out to him. It was impossible to deny what her body so desperately wanted.

  Juliana rode him, touched him, leaned over to kiss him. His firm lips felt good and when he touched her, she felt protected. The tension built within her and she was mindless, wanting, needing. Nothing mattered but Merrick—his touch, his smell, his sound.

  Juliana stiffened, crying out in soft surprise as her climax finally hit her. She felt him jerk, his body tensing beneath her. He let go of her thighs. An animalistic sound of pleasure escaped his throat, primal and raw. She fell forward on his chest, breathing heavily, caught between fulfillment and fear.

  Her eyes widened and her whole body tensed. The full extent of what she’d done overwhelmed her senses. She didn’t dare move.

  * * *

  Merrick lay sated. Juliana’s body pressed into him and he knew he should be satisfied that he could control her willing body, but he wasn’t. He wanted her complete submission, wanted her to enslave herself freely so he could rule over her. Even now, he could feel her spirit resisting him.

  She pushed off him and crawled backward to the head of the bed. When she looked at him it was an expression of misery that crossed her features, not pleasure. It tore at him to see it. Her round eyes looked first at him, then down at herself. Juliana hid her body from him, pulling the sheer skirt he’d given her and crossing her arms over her chest. “Why do you do this? Why me? Why this?”

  Merrick didn’t move. He turned his head to watch her, forcing dispassion into his gaze. Tears gathered in her eyes. His heart tightened to see them.

  “Let me go, Merrick. You’ve gotten what you wanted. You’ve proven I am nothing more than your whore.”

  Whore? Merrick wanted to scream at her, hit her. He wanted to hurt her as she hurt him. They’d come together and she dared to say she was a whore? As if being with him cheapened her somehow. Not lover, not friend, but whore. Instead of lashing out, he buried it all inside. “You’re trapped here, Juliana. I will never let you go. You are mine.”