“I do not do it for my mother,” Anoush replied. “I do it for me.”
Magnus Hauk chuckled. “Has the Great Creator given me two headstrong daughters to raise?” he demanded to know in pained tones.
“I am much better at minding than Zagiri,” Anoush said primly.
“I am relieved to learn it,” the Dominus said.
“Will you find our mother, Papa?” Anoush asked him again.
“I will find her, I promise you, my daughters. And I have never broken a promise,” Magnus Hauk told them. “I will find Lara. And I will bring her safely home.”
Chapter Three
SHE awoke, her green eyes scanning her surroundings. She lay in a huge bed of furs in a dim chamber. There was a great hearth opposite which burned high.
She was naked, and as she turned her head, her gaze met the dark silvery one of a naked man next to her. Where was she? She wondered. And then a sudden terrible fear gripped her, almost paralyzing her. Who was she? She did not know who she was! she struggled desperately to think—to remember—but for the life of her she couldn’t. A small cry of panic escaped her and she sat up, clutching the furs to her breasts.
The man sat up, too. “Ah, my precious Lara,” he said to her in a deep, musical and very soothing voice. “What is it? Have the pains returned?” He caught her hand in his and kissed it lingeringly.
“I…I…I don’t know who I am or where I am,” she half sobbed.
“You are Lara, my mate. I am Kol, the Twilight Lord. You have been very ill for many weeks, my precious. You are only just now beginning to recover.”
“But why can I remember nothing of it?” she asked him.
“The physician said that your memory could be temporarily lost, for you burned with a deadly fever for many days. He has assured me that it will return. Slowly, my precious, but it will return.” Kol wrapped his arms about her, holding her close.
The warmth of his body pressed against hers was comforting. Lara let her head fall against his shoulder. “You will not leave me?” she asked him.
“Nay, my precious, I will not leave you,” he promised her. “I have not in all these weeks. I have remained by your side, and governed from this room. Alfrigg has not been pleased with me at all, I fear,” Kol told her.
“Alfrigg?”
“My chancellor, sweeting. But he has of course prayed to Krell for your recovery. Everyone in the Dark Lands has, Lara. You are my mate, and it has been foretold that you will be the mother of the next Twilight Lord.”
“Who is Krell?” she asked him.
“Why, our deity, my precious. Krell, Lord of Darkness,” he explained. Then he pressed her back upon her pillows and pulled down the furs covering her bosom. His eyes admired her breasts and leaning down, he kissed each nipple.
Lara shivered slightly.
“Ah,” Kol chuckled. “I think you may have a small memory of pleasures,” he teased and was rewarded by her blush. “I am relieved, for the mating lust has been upon me for several days now and I long to sink my rod into your sweetness.” Bending again, he now began to lick at her nipples, finally taking one into his mouth and sucking on it with strong tugs of his lips. Her little cries of obvious appreciation encouraged him onward. His rod began to throb and swell.
Lara felt a corresponding tingle in her nether regions, and made a small murmuring sound of satisfaction. “Oh yes, my lord! Oh yes, that is nice.” She wasn’t quite so frightened now. This was something she seemed to understand. Pleasures. Yes, she knew pleasures. She liked pleasures. Her fingers threaded themselves through his ebony hair, then slid down to caress the nape of his neck.
Kol fought back the mating lust that demanded he impale her immediately with his burgeoning rod. Instead, he began to explore the beautiful body he had desired for over a year now. The flesh of her breasts was firm despite her three children. Her belly was a soft delicate mound that he covered first with kisses and then tasted with his tongue. Her thighs fell open to him with the barest encouragement. He stroked the inside of the tender flesh.
She pulled her nether lips apart for him and he played with the tiny lust orb that swelled with his attentions. He rose and kissed her mouth, his tongue twining itself about hers as he pushed a single long finger into her. She moaned against his lips for more and he complied, adding a second finger and finally a third. She was tight and hot and her juices ran down his hand. Withdrawing his fingers he looked down into her glittering eyes and then sucked upon his wet digits.
Her tongue ran quickly about her lips and she smiled up at him. “I remember pleasures, my lord,” she admitted softly.
“Good,” he replied, his own eyes blazing. Then he mounted her and pressed his rod forward until he was totally sheathed within her body. He rested there a moment, letting her feel the throbbing as his rod increased its girth. He let her enjoy his as she had enjoyed other rods. But there were certain features of his rod only possessed by a Twilight Lord; he would later introduce her to them. Not tonight. Tonight would be about tenderness and sweet lust.
Lara wrapped her legs about Kol so he might delve deeper into her body. Had she ever enjoyed a rod so thick? She didn’t think so but her mind was still very hazy. And when he began to move upon her, his rod flashing back and forth within her, Lara lost herself in the fiery pleasures he engendered within her body. She let herself soar and reveled as the stars exploded behind her closed eyes. And then when she could climb no higher and his rod burst forth its juices, Lara screamed with her satisfaction, a sound overpowered by his leonine roar of exultation. She lost consciousness briefly. When she came to herself again her sex was being tenderly bathed by tiny winged elfinlike creatures, as was his.
“Have they been here all along?” she asked Kol.
He nodded. “They are Lustlings. It is their duty to refresh us in the afterwards,” he explained. “You have never minded before, my precious.”
“I do not recall them, my lord,” Lara answered him.
“You enjoyed pleasures? You always did previously,” he told her.
She smiled at him. “I think I am hungry for food and then I would take pleasures with you again, my lord, if you would take them with me. I feel safe then, and knowledgeable, which I do not otherwise as my memory is impaired.”
“Your memories will eventually return, my precious,” he promised her. Then drawing the furs back over her, he clapped his hands and servants began entering the room with bowls and platters of food. “I will feed you but a little, Lara,” he advised her. “You have not had solid food in many weeks. Open your mouth now for me,” and when she did he gave her two raw oysters before swallowing down a goodly dozen himself. He fed her a bit of poultry, allowed her a bite or two of buttered bread. He dangled asparagus over her open mouth; he groaned as she sucked the stalks. Finally he offered her several plump strawberries he first dipped in cream and then rolled in sugar. As he fed her he told her what each item was. Holding a goblet of something sweet to her lips for her to drink, he said that it was frine, a mixture of fruit juice and wine. What he did not tell her was that aphrodisiacs had been mixed into the frine to increase her own natural desires. He suspected she didn’t need it but still he gave it to her.
“Tell me a little about myself,” Lara said. “Where did I come from and how was I chosen to be your mate, my lord Kol?”
“You come from a faraway land called Hetar,” he explained to her. “When I visited it last year I went to a bride fair to see the maidens offered and you were among them. Because you were so beautiful your father was asking a very high price even though you are of peasant stock. It