First Night Read online

  Behind her, Cho’s body stiffened and shook, and she sighed. His complete terror of sharpened sticks was a mystery to her. He denied his fear, but the proof was in his horrified black eyes and trembling body each time he neared one.

  “Menda’s Eve,” the Ednian finally said, interrupting the councilor’s unending stream of words. “I will wait.” At last he looked away, freeing her from his stare. “Show me to my quarters. I’ll have food and a maid to warm me.”

  “Scum,” she whispered, but no one heard. She wished with all her heart that an Ednian from one of the other clans had been chosen. But there was nothing she could do about it.

  “You’ll have no female,” the councilor said. “Your seed is not to be wasted. Come First Night, you’ll have Mila and only Mila until the day you return to your people.” He looked around, his gaze confused. “Where is your watcher? He’ll need to see that you keep your careless cock to yourself.”

  The Ednian grinned. “He’ll be along soon.”

  “What are you called?” The councilor’s wife asked, peering up at him curiously.

  Mila’s ears perked up. What would he be called?

  “Lake,” he told the woman. He glanced at Mila. “Lake Caution.”

  Mila snorted. Of course he would have a strange name. She turned her nose up and pretended to ignore him.

  The councilor motioned to the girls standing with his wife. “Show him to his new home. Take him food!” This last was bellowed as he waved the crowd away and started back to his house, the wife and shadows following.

  Before he followed along behind the waiting girls, the Ednian shot a cocky grin down from his lofty height to the smaller Mila. “Have someone see to my horse.” He looked around, raising his eyebrows as well as his voice. “Do not try to ride him. He will not accept the seat of a Myaian. And especially not a…a…wicked vampyr.” He spat at Cho and stomped off behind the girls who would take him to his new—albeit temporary—life.

  “I despise him,” Mila said, putting her hand upon Cho’s shoulder. “How shall I fuck a man I so despise?”

  “You will close your eyes and pretend he is someone else,” Cho replied. “And will remember that which you want more than anything shall be the outcome of such a hated union.”

  Mila started nodding and couldn’t stop. “That’s the way it will be. Yes. I will do this.”

  “As if there were any doubts, my sweet. You would lie with him were he hideous if it would get a child.”

  Mila looked down at him, surprised. “But he is hideous.”

  “Mila,” he reproved.

  “He is.” Suddenly angry, she glared at Vera, who had risen and was loudly berating Ponga. “He is.” Throwing her arms up at the lot of them, she stomped off, much as the Ednian had done, to find a place of solitude. Tonight they would celebrate, the Myaians, and whether she liked it or not, she would join them. She would take her place of honor beside him, the hated Ednian, and pretend she was ecstatic over her good fortune.

  Otherwise, the councilor might deem her unworthy of her recent providence and choose someone else to take her place. Someone like Vera.

  She shuddered at the thought of her unborn child being taken from her and placed in the vicious, ungrateful, poisoned womb of Vera. No. She would do anything to get her babe, and that included showing the entire village that no matter what, she was blissfully happy.

  On Menda’s Eve, she would more than prove it to them.

  She wandered away from the village, her feet carrying her to the water. Sitting on the lush, green banks, she watched the turquoise water run busily by, and despite the Ednian, let the enchantment of her good fortune once again take her.

  * * * *

  Lake stepped inside the hovel in which he was to live, his upper lip curling quite unintentionally as he surveyed the small, single room that comprised his quarters. Sighing, he ran his hand through his hair, grimacing at the flying dust. He’d been on the road for too long and needed a bath.

  “Where is the river?” His very voice seemed to frighten the timid maids who had led him to his room. His laugh rang out as they put their short, plump arms around each other and backed toward the door.

  Brown eyes wide with fear, they both answered, “Follow the two tree path to the end.”

  He looked at them, blank. “Two tree path? Should that make sense to me?”

  The girl on the left swallowed hard enough for him to hear. “We will show you. Come.”

  As he followed them back into the sunlight, he glared at the villagers who stood in small groups, nosy and curious as they watched him. “Do not follow me,” he bellowed. Damn Myaians. He was not going to have any peace while he was here, that was for sure.

  “They’ll probably try to hold my hand as I fuck the girl,” he snarled, expecting no answer and surprised when he got one.

  “It is their right to do so,” one of the girls replied.

  “What is that you say?”

  She hastily backed away, eyes wide. “I meant only that it is the clan’s right to watch as you get Mila with child. On Menda’s Eve. After that, they will leave you be.”

  He had a lot to learn about these strange people. “We’ll see about that.” He crossed his arms, impatient as he looked down at the small Myaians. “Point me to the river and go back to whatever it is you do.”

  “But—”

  “Do as I say! Unless you wish to join me in the river?”

  “Oh! Never!”

  He raised his eyebrows at the unintended, he was sure, insult. “Then show me the way before I lose my patience.”

  One girl lifted a trembling finger rose and pointed to the north. “There are the two trees guarding the pathway. See how they join overtop? Follow the path and you will find the river.”

  He nodded once, and started away, then remembered Slawomir and turned back. “My watcher is a bit behind me. See to him when he arrives. My belongings are in the wagon he brings. Have someone put the things in my…house, but do not unpack them. I will see to them myself. Understood?”

  With an affirmative nod and a quick bow, the two girls scurried away.

  Finally alone, he started toward the river, allowing himself to survey his surroundings. The village was pleasing to the eye, he’d give them that. Clean and tranquil, with the huts all surrounded by gardens of bright flowers and clean paths. It was a quiet place. Too quiet. There were not a lot of noisy children about, and what few he spotted seemed too well behaved for his liking, surrounded by women who seemed to actually be guarding them. From what, he could not say.

  He was accustomed to the boisterous noise of his own bustling, overcrowded village, with children laughing and playing, the men and women at work during daylight hours, building and hunting and plying their trades. At night they sang and ate and fucked and fought and danced, and a sudden pang of homesickness made him pause on the path.

  He’d have to get the Myaian Mila pregnant soon. He didn’t want to stay here any longer than he absolutely had to.

  Intent upon his own dark thoughts, he was nearly upon the girl before he saw her. He slipped back behind a huge tree, unsure of why, but desiring to watch her. For a time, this girl was to be his mate. He might have stepped out and made his presence known, perhaps would have undressed and stood before her huge and bare and scared her back to her people, but the shadow stopped him.

  Mila’s shadow stood watching her, much as Lake watched him. What was it she had called him? Cho. Yes. The shadow Cho was turned away from him, but Lake could see by the slump of his shoulders that he was…morose.

  Cho might have been perfect had he been bigger, taller. His small stature, despite his muscles and masculine shape, made him seem somehow delicate to the big Ednian, accustomed to his huge clansmen.

  Long, straight dark hair fell in a thick sheet over his shoulders, ending at nearly the small of his back. The shadow wore leggings, tucked into the tops of tall leather boots that ended right before they reached his knees.

  Hi
s tunic was a dark green, and around his waist was belted a wide sash in which was tucked a wicked looking knife. From what he’d heard of shadows, they did not need knives to kill.

  Lake started when the girl spoke and took his gaze quickly from the shadow. To his dismay, he was aware that as he’d watched Cho, his cock had slowly risen, and he shook his head, shocked. He was not a lover of men. Something was wrong in this village. His body, his very thoughts, were not his own here.

  Or maybe it was just the fact that from behind, the shadow looked like a small woman, with that long hair. Surely that was the reason his cock stirred. Yet another reason to hate the shadows.

  “Cho,” Mila said again, and Lake watched as the shadow glided toward her.

  Mila reclined back on her hands, and the sun glinted off the multicolored strands of her long hair. Her dress was a simple, drab sleeveless covering, its shapelessness hiding the body beneath it. The body he would soon lie with.

  When Cho stood beside her, Mila rose to her knees, holding her arms straight up. Lake’s mouth fell open when the shadow reached for the bottom of her dress, lifting it over her head with deft practice.

  He folded it carefully as though it were the most precious of fabrics and placed it on the ground. But Lake was no longer thinking of the shadow.

  The Myaian girl gathered her hair and slung it over her shoulders, and Lake nearly swallowed his tongue as he took in her lush body.

  Mila was shorter than his people, as were all the Myaians he’d seen so far, and her tiny waist looked too delicate to hold up the large breasts she’d been gifted with. An equally plump, delicious looking ass curved above her smooth legs, and as though he silently commanded her to do so, Mila arose and turned toward him.

  The slit between her legs was bare, smooth and hairless, and at the sight of it, Lake’s cock roared to life. The girl had been hiding a body to kill for.

  Suddenly things didn’t seem so dire, and thoughts of his home faded quickly from his mind. His brethren who’d gone before him had either lied to scare him or had never seen one such as Mila. But come to think of it, none of the women he’d seen here had been the monstrous creatures his clan had spoken of.

  A slow smile broke over his face. Here, in this village of naked, willing females who wished for nothing more than his cock to spit its seed inside them, was utopia.

  Cho stepped to her and bent over to thrust his tongue into that tempting slit, and Lake was helpless to do anything but watch.

  Her large breasts trembled as she placed her hands on the shadow’s shoulders and urged him on with quiet cries. Lake wished for nothing more at that moment than to take her ripe, berry-red nipples into his mouth and suckle her until she begged him to sink into her moist depths.

  The shadow gobbled at her like an overeager piglet, the smacking noises of his mouth reaching Lake’s ears, making it impossible for him to do anything but reach inside his own breeches and fondle his stiff, aching cock.

  Cho pushed her around, urged her to the ground. Once she was on her hands and knees, he dropped to his own knees and went back to work, lapping and eating at her pussy from behind as though it was a peach and he were a starving man.

  Her breasts nearly brushed the ground as she thrust against the shadow’s mouth, her sparkling little voice driving Lake mad with desire as she sang out her orgasm.

  He had to have her. And he wasn’t sure he could wait for Menda’s Eve to get her.

  Chapter Four

  Mila lay in the grass with Cho beside her, the sunshine blissful upon her bare skin. “I feel better now.”

  She could feel Cho’s smile. “You never get enough.”

  “You are complaining?”

  “No.”

  “Join me in the water?” The cool, fresh water would be soothing on her tender, sore sex. “You were rough with my cunt.” She stuck her lip out, pouting, but not meaning it.

  He sat up and, with a whisper of a touch, trailed his fingers between her legs, over her swollen clit to rub gently at her hole. “I’m sorry.”

  “That wasn’t rough, Mila Wineberry. When I have you, you’ll learn what rough is.”

  She screamed and sat up, shading her eyes to peer up at him. Cho continued his gentle petting, fingers barely moving over her pussy. She wasn’t about to give Lake the satisfaction of making her uncomfortable, so didn’t make Cho stop. “What do you want?”

  His gaze trailed over her body, hesitating on her breasts then lower to watch Cho’s fingers between her legs. “You.”

  She couldn’t help the hot spark of pride that shot through her. “You shall have me soon enough.”

  He shook his head, slowly, his eyes coming up to meet hers. “Oh no, pretty girl. It will not be soon enough.”

  She shrugged and, despite the fact that she’d just climaxed multiple times, began to feel the heat of passion once again, beneath the Ednian’s dark stare. She leaned back on her elbows, her clit beginning to throb.

  Cho rested his head on her chest, his fingers still moving with that gentle, soothing touch.

  The Ednian’s full lips turned down in a frown of contempt. “You should not let such filth touch you.”

  She narrowed her gaze and, as he watched, lifted her breast to rub her nipple along Cho’s lips. He opened his mouth and sucked her nipple inside his mouth.

  Letting her legs fall open, she moved her hips in little circles as Cho massaged her clit with a little more pressure. “You should try it,” she told the Ednian. “Cho is very talented.”

  At her words, Cho pinched her clit. Hard. She knew he was telling her, Don’t offer me to the Ednian. I can do that myself should I feel the need.

  She would apologize later. Right now nothing seemed to matter but annoying Lake. At her words, the big Ednian flushed, his eyes narrowing to dangerous slits.

  “Do not push me if you can’t accept the consequences, girl.”

  “I am not afraid of you.”

  His gaze dropped to her pussy. “Perhaps you should be.”

  Cho’s fingers hesitated at her shiver. “Go away, Ednian,” she said, and wished very much that her voice hadn’t quivered.

  But he kicked his boots off and, as she watched, began to undress. “I thought Ednians were a prudish clan,” she said, and cursed herself for her telling, breathless voice. “You are going to disrobe before me, Cho, and yon watching villagers?”

  He pushed his breeches over his hips and stood before her, naked and proud. Glancing over his shoulder to see if the clan was indeed spying, he put his hands on his hips and waved his enormous cock at her. “I don’t know what you’ve heard, Mila. Ednians would make you blush with their unashamed ways.”

  She barely heard him. Oh…the man was pure masculine beauty. He was sex. Her pussy clenched with the desire to have him inside her. Her lungs froze, refusing entry to whatever air she might be able to drag inside her gaping mouth. Unable to swallow, she feared she might actually drool in front of this man. This god.

  Cho had stopped sucking at her breast and stared at Lake with her, his fingers forgetting to move between her thighs.

  Their reactions seemed to please the big Ednian. “I will bathe. Join me, Mila.”

  “My shift, Cho.” She spat the words at him from the corner of her mouth, as though the Ednian might not hear them.

  Cho handed her the old dress, and she jerked it over her head, feeling suddenly, terribly naked. Face burning, she did the only thing left for her to do. She ran.

  Before she’d gone too far, she couldn’t resist turning to see if he stood with that magnificent cock waving in the wind watching her go.

  He didn’t.

  He loped toward the water, his firm ass drawing her gaze. How tempting it was to throw all the rules aside and jump in the water with him. A more irritating, full of himself man she’d never met, but when he’d bared his body to her and asked her—told her—to bathe with him, she’d nearly gone. She closed her eyes and leaned her forehead against a tree, the rough bark biting i
nto her skin.

  “Mila.”

  “I find it very difficult to resist him, Cho.”

  “You only have to resist him for a little while.”

  “Yes.” Somehow that knowledge didn’t soothe her. Deep inside were mocking voices telling her that it wasn’t only his body she was drawn to. If she’d ever been in love, it was with Creasy. She didn’t even like the Ednian. The reasons why he made her clench her thighs and want to jump into his arms were only reasons of lust. Pure lust.

  Mila didn’t lose control. Ever. Her emotions did not rule her. Perhaps she allowed her body its way too often, but still, the control was there. This Ednian, however, could easily take her control away. She knew it. She felt it. It came from him in hot waves, this scary, awful dominance. And that made her squirm with a sort of hopeful panic.

  She forced herself to walk away without looking at him again. His splashes taunted her ears, and her feet almost took control and led her straight back to him. In the end, with Cho’s somewhat worried gaze upon her, she left Lake to his bath and walked home to hide.

  *

  Lake cursed himself loudly and succinctly for his lack of control, diving under the cool sweet water again and again, hoping to cool off his overheated body and painfully stiff dick.

  He wanted to take the girl and show her everything she only thought she knew. Her big eyes and curvy body, her plump lips and shining hair…everything about her tempted him.

  He groaned and closed his eyes, picturing her as he’d seen her, naked and unconcerned, her body so ripe and ready and lush, needing a strong hand and a dominating male. He’d seen it in her. Whether she realized it or not, the girl wanted to be mastered. He was just the man to do it. He ached to do it. Not here even a day, and Mila already had him panting after her. Not good. He was going to have to do something about that.

  His hand seemed to have a mind of its own, skimming over his hard belly to fist his rigid cock. He slid his hand up and down, imagining he plunged into Mila’s wet, warm pussy. Peace descended. All was quiet; the sun shone hot and bright, and the cool water lapped at his thighs. He had nothing more to worry about for the next year than fucking a girl he wanted more than any other female he’d ever known. Luck had kissed him, and kissed him hard.