CHAPTER THIRTEEN
ROYCE SEIZED HER JEANS by the waistband, above the fly, and covered her mouth with his.
Allie gasped at the urgent onslaught of his mouth, while his knuckles pressed low and hard, beneath her denim and the lace of her thong. His tongue swept deep and Allie moaned, pressing her belly outward, against his hands.
Around her, in her, she felt his hot pulse racing in his body, frantically pounding in his veins.
Her own desire soared in tandem with his and she felt his excitement intensifying.
He felt her every response, too. Suddenly he tore her jeans down her hips, kneeling.
Allie’s body went still as his mouth moved over the lace covering her throbbing flesh.
He hooked a finger beneath the thong and swept the scrap aside.
His tongue swept the length of her, down one wet crevice, up another.
She held on to him and gasped with pleasure.
Allie felt him stiffen to incredible proportions and she felt him throbbing; she felt his need to explode. She began to crest out of all control. Clinging to his shoulders, she gasped his name. “Royce—let me come.”
In answer, he pulled her down to the ground, his mouth still on her sex, his fingers in her now. And he said, “I have to taste yer light.”
Allie was briefly confused. And then the strangest thing happened. Something touched her deep inside herself—and it wasn’t physical.
Royce went still—and deep inside her, he somehow touched her again.
His pulse changed. She felt a sudden rush of power expanding in his veins. It heightened her excitement; he cried out again, his grasp on her hips tightening. The wave of pleasure spiraled wildly in him, in her.
And Royce strained inside himself, as if fighting his need to climax. Allie wanted to scream at him to let go, because she needed to let go, when he touched her on some other plane again.
It was a caress between souls.
He had never been as strong, as virile; his power had become huge. He knew it—she knew it.
She felt him start to come.
The climax was unlike any she’d ever had before. He was overcome with the power in his body, but with it was the greatest lust she’d ever felt, an excitement so vast it was blinding for them both. There was only pleasure, power, pain and ecstasy. His climax became hers.
Royce moved over her, seizing her face. She met his wide, blazing eyes, aware he was as shocked as she was.
He surged deep, stretching her tight body wide.
He roared with pleasure. She wept with her own release, riding far and wide, higher and higher still.
The climax intensified for them both, in unison.
They were somewhere above the earth now, shooting through and exploding in the stars.
Allie knew she never wanted to touch ground again.
And he delved deep again, not just into her hot, wet body but into her power, her light, her soul, and Allie embraced him, shattering in rapture and joy.
HOURS LATER, Allie held hard on to Royce’s big body as they both finally became still.
Although stunningly spent, she was spinning mentally, physically, emotionally.
Every time she slept with him, it was off the charts, and better than the time before.
But this time, Royce had made love to her.
She was sure of it. This time, there had been a connection, a union, that wasn’t physical.
She felt as if he had somehow reached into her, entwining her soul with his.
His arms tightened around her.
Allie smiled against his slick chest. He probably didn’t know it, but he was hugging her. And she became aware of how exhausted she was.
For one more moment he held her, and then he moved away, onto his back, beside her. Allie was too tired to move.
They lay outside the chapel on his plaid, staring up at the dawn, for a long time. He finally said, “Did I hurt ye?”
Allie sighed, gathered up her wits and will, and turned onto her side and touched his hard rib cage. His gaze was on her, wide and searching.
She smiled at him. “No. That was incredible. What happened?”
For one moment, he didn’t answer. Instead he sat up. “How do ye feel?”
“Sort of beat.” And she moved closer to snuggle, not really wanting to fight to sit up.
His hand closed on her shoulder. “Can ye sit?”
Of course she could sit. Allie did so, with Royce putting his arm behind her back, as if to prop her up. Instantly she snuggled against him. “I’m cold,” she said. It was probably freezing out, as it was almost dawn, but she hadn’t noticed yet.
He hesitated, then lay back down, pulling her down with him, close to his big, warm body, his arm around her.
It was another victory and Allie smiled, somehow refraining from kissing the skin covering his ribs, his chest, his neck. Love burst in her heart.
He reached past her and covered her with half of the plaid they lay on. “Is that better?”
“Yes, much.” She snuggled even more closely. “What happened, Royce? There was a union between us that was apart from that of our bodies.”
“La Puissance,” he said abruptly.
She had to peer to look up at him. He wasn’t smiling. She wanted him to be as happy as she was. “The Power?”
“Aye.” He gazed down at her. “I told ye, I can take power from anyone. I tasted yer power, Ailios. It was good.”
Shockingly she became entirely aroused again, never mind how weak she felt.
So did he.
His lids drifted down. “T’is forbidden, to take power fer pleasure.” Then he gave her a very male look. “But power makes the pleasure so much better.”
“It sure does. Who cares if it’s forbidden?” she cried. “It was the best.”
He suddenly sat up and looked away, appearing dark and unhappy. “The gods gave us the power to take life so we can defend ourselves from evil or heal ourselves if mortally wounded. They dinna give us such a power to use it for common bedsport.”
“What they don’t know…” Allie said, sitting up with an effort. Aware of the cold now, she tugged her half of the plaid over her shoulders.
He met her gaze. “A Master can lose his mind when the power floods his veins. He can easily take too much life—a maid can die if he does.”
“You didn’t take too much from me,” she said, stroking his chest. “I’m not dead, just beat.”
“I have control,” he said. “I’m nay young an’ hot.”
Allie laughed. She couldn’t imagine what he had been like when he had been “young and hot.”
He gave her a long, strange, intense look. He was serious when he spoke, his tone hushed. “Yer power is so pure. I dinna ken any power could be so good.”
Allie became as serious. She recalled the way his aura and his body soaked up her white light the few times she’d dared to try to heal him.
“Yer holy. Yer power is holy. I dinna think the Ancients will be pleased with me,” Royce said flatly.
She didn’t like the sound of that. “They won’t know.”
“They ken all. So does MacNeil,” he added darkly. He seemed very unhappy now.
She grew nervous. “Royce, what happens when a Master violates the Code? Does he go to jail?” she quipped. But she didn’t smile now.
“A fall, or worse.”
“A fall—like the way an angel falls?” She was incredulous—and then, finally, alarmed.
“I willna fall, but aye, Masters have been turned to the dark by tastin’ such power, by takin’ what doesna belong to them, by discovering La Puissance an’ needing it time an’ again.”
Like a drug addict, Allie thought. And in that instant, Allie got it. It was the exact flip side of a pleasure crime. “The demons take all the life from their victims during sex. Obviously it turns them on. Oh my God. Taking power…life…during sex…it’s a huge turn-on for a Master, too.”
“The more power, the grander La Puissance.” His gaze was steady on hers.
“The temptation when ye start becomes terrible to resist. I had to touch yer light. I only meant to touch it, Ailios. Just a single time.” He suddenly cupped her jaw, his hands stunning her because they were so gentle.
“An’ then I tried a sip. A small sip o’ pure white power. I needed ye, lass.”
Allie felt his pulse pounding all over again.
He was thinking about her healing power running in his veins.
He was thinking about the violent yet beautiful ecstasy they’d shared.
“And my power in your veins felt good. I know—because everything you felt, I felt, too. You became stronger, you had more stamina, you were insatiable—and if there’d been a battle, you’d have been invincible, too. ”
“I could have stayed in ye fer days. But ye’d likely be dead.” He stood. “T’is fortunate I can control the urge. Others cannot. I willna take yer power again. It belongs to all of man, an’ I have no rights.” He was fierce as he spoke.
Allie stood, as well. Her power did belong to mankind and there was no point in arguing that. “So what else can happen now? What did you mean when you said you could fall—or worse?”
He made a sound. “There’s suffering an’ death, Ailios. Even Masters pay for their crimes.”
She inhaled, thinking about his death in the future—which they were going to undo. “I am fine. And the Ancients know it if they were spying on us.”
“Are ye?” He reached for his leine and shrugged it on.
Allie bent and wrapped herself in his plaid, worried that he might pay some price for having tasted her power. “Of course I’m fine.” But the moment she spoke, she realized her senses were dulled.
She was still in tune with Royce. But the night around her felt stunningly vacant, when she should have felt the life force of every cricket, every bird, even every leaf and every tree, as well as all the human energy in the buildings beyond them.
She strained and finally sensed the power coming from the Masters and monks in the monastery, but it was muted.
Panic arose as she faced Royce.
“What?” he asked sharply.
“I can just barely sense the men in the monastery. I can’t feel all the life that I know is around us, right now!” She strained anew and finally felt the barest whisper of energy coming from the insects, flowers and fauna in the woods.
Royce took his dagger and sliced his thumb.