Song of Desire Read online

  Aquee spoke to the remaining guards. “Seize him!”

  Two guards, standing on either side of the door moved to block the exit. Without breaking his stride, he thrust out his right hand, fist clenched. When he opened it, a bolt of energy danced from his palm and surrounded the guards.

  They struggled against it.

  Thorn turned to face Aquee again. “Tell them to stand down or I’ll be forced to hurt them.”

  “Do you know how many guards are at my disposal? I can have you surrounded and subdued in a matter of minutes.”

  He met her gaze. “You are Sierra’s mother and sovereign in Bluhari. I have no wish to disrespect or threaten you, but I’m leaving. If you call more guards, I’ll be forced to subdue you.”

  She rose to her feet and glared at him. “Are you threatening me with physical harm, rutter?”

  “I’m telling…” He paused, thought of Sierra, and dropped to one knee. From his kneeling position, he looked up at her. “I’m asking you to allow me to leave without harm to anyone. I have it in my power to forcibly subdue you all. My regard for Sierra would make that a hard choice, but I have to leave now. I…beg you to allow me to leave.”

  “Highness.” Caronae, who had stood watching in silence, moved to stand in front of Aquee. She caught Aquee’s gaze, then dropped to one knee. “Perhaps the tales we heard of Denhari and the Crystal Falls were not myths. If they were not and he is who he says he is, we can’t hold him. Let him go in peace, Highness.”

  Aquee’s gaze danced over Caronae before settling on him. She sighed and sank into her seat. Breathing deeply, she inclined her head. “Go, Knightrose.”

  He rose. “Thank you, Your Highness.” He glanced at Caronae. “Take care of Sierra.”

  “That has been my duty and pleasure since she was born, Healer.”

  He nodded and strolled past the four guards.

  “Aren’t you forgetting something, Knightrose?”

  He turned at the door and lifted his hand, releasing the guards. “May Heoptin himself watch over you and your kingdom, Highness.”

  After a moment of shocked silence, she inclined her head. “May the Goddess grant you favor and all your heart desires, Knightrose.”

  That was hardly likely since he was leaving Sierra. He turned and left the assembly hall.

  He encountered Hawk on the palace steps.

  “Why aren’t you with Sierra, Thorn?”

  He took Hawk’s arm and drew him down the stairs and away from the men standing guard in front of the palace. “I’m leaving Bluhari.”

  “What? How is that possible?”

  “I know who I am.”

  “And who is that?”

  “Rutledge Thorn Knightrose of the Crystal Falls.”

  Hawk stared at him. “Damn. Heoptin Healer?”

  He nodded. “I have to find my brother. We were separated after we fled Telmira.”

  “But…what about Sierra? She’ll be devastated.”

  He shook his head. “I’ve taken care of that. Her memory of me will fade. Until it does, you’ll be around.”

  Hawk shook his head. “Aquee won’t allow me anywhere near her once she learns of my true sexual preference.”

  “Aquee won’t have any say in it. Just…cherish her and love her enough for both of us, Hawk.”

  “I do love her.”

  “And she loves you.”

  “She does? How do you know?”

  “She admitted it to me.” He sighed. “I have to find my younger brother.”

  “Will you return when you have?”

  “I don’t know how long my search for him will take or even where it will take me. By the time I find Joshli, she’ll be bound to Drakon. But even if she weren’t, I have obligations that will preclude me from mating with her except during a special month long feast. She deserves more than that. She deserves you.”

  “But what if she’s pregnant? Can you just walk away from her and your child?”

  “Despite Mila’s claims, I have not impregnated anyone on Bluhari.” The muscles in his jaw clenched. “Those of us born under the Crystal Falls are not often parents. There is very little chance of her having my child.”

  “There’s nothing I can say to change your mind?”

  He shook his head.

  Hawk gripped his hand. “Then may the Goddess go with you and grant you success and happiness in all your endeavors.”

  Touched by the sincerity of his good wishes, Thorn replied with the traditional Telmiran farewell. “Live, love and stay free, Hawk.”

  He nodded and hurried up the palace steps.

  Thorn watched the male he no longer considered a rival disappear inside before he turned and walked through the palace gates. His next stop would be to his so called mistress. Then he would leave this place with but one regret…that he was leaving his heart behind.

  Channeling his energy, he lifted his right hand, moving it in a wide circle. After several attempts, he felt a tingling sensation on his palm, signaling the presence of a portal.

  He continued to move his hand, in a smaller circle, feeling the soft pulse an opening portal emitted. As he watched, a flickering blue circle of light appeared before him. With a long glance over his shoulder, he sighed, and stepped through. He quickly closed his eyes to avoid the brief blindness many of the older portals caused. As he did, he heard the almost inaudible closing sound of the gateway to Bluhari and Sierra.

  Giving himself a mental shake, he opened his eyes and stepped into a different world. He looked around, channeling his senses. He felt a faint, familiar whisper in the air. His hopes rose. Joshli had come through this portal. Heoptin willing he would soon locate Joshli. Once he had, he might allow himself the luxury of a brief return to Bluhari to ensure Sierra and Hawk were happy together.

  A week later, weary and lonely, Thorn stepped through a new portal into a different world on the planetary cluster of Aeolia. Traces of Joshli lingered near the portal, but after several days of exploration, he knew his search for his brother would extend beyond that world.

  That night, he laid alone, thoughts of Joshli and Sierra warring for dominance in his mind. When he closed his eyes, he dreamed of her pregnant and happy with Hawk as her shadow cohort. He woke from the dream with the taste of bile in his mouth. He needed several hours of prayerful chants before he wrestled his errant emotions back under control. Then he bathed, ate, and continued his search for Joshli.

  Each new planet brought new doubts and fears for Joshli’s safety as well as a growing hunger to see Sierra again. Although his calling as a healer precluded a normal relationship with her, dare he hope she and Hawk would welcome him into their lives for the one month of the Feast when his obligations would allow him to freely satisfy his sexual desires?

  Four weeks after leaving Sierra, Thorn emerged from a portal onto a wind–swept desert world. As he stood gazing along the swirling sands, he sucked in a breath. The link he and Joshli had always shared felt stronger. Soon, Heoptin willing, he would be reunited with his brother.

  He closed his eyes and channeled his soul song. Joshli. Joshli. Where are you?

  Astride a horse on a desert dune, he took one look at the tall, dark female standing outside a large white tent and knew he’d finally found one of the fabled Willoni. Who but a Willoni, could possess a beauty so enduring just the sight of her robbed a man of his ability to breathe? Who but a Willoni would choose to pray nude in a wind–swept desert?

  He took several long moments to study her form. Her long, dark hair fell over her shoulders in a heavy curtain that caressed her large, perfectly formed breasts. Her stomach was flat. Her legs long. With such a perfect body, she would surely have a round, well–padded ass to compliment the dark riot of curls between her shapely legs.

  Oh for the freedom to plunge himself deep into her as he kissed her lush lips and palmed her ass. The thought of the contrast of his pale palms cupping and massaging the large mounds of her beautiful, dark flesh sent a wave of longing t
hrough him.

  Feeling his cock harden, he released a slow breath. He was there to find his brother—not indulge his illicit hungers. Wrestling his desire back under a measure of control, he sent his horse galloping toward the tent.

  Kalleni’s lids swept up and she stared at the handsome male with green eyes mounted on a large stallion atop the hill. The breath caught in her throat. She blinked. Surely she dreamed again. Riding toward her on a huge, dark horse was the man whose constant haunting of her dreams had made a mockery of her vow of celibacy.

  As in her forbidden dreams, his green eyes silently sang the song of the winds to her. His warm, deep song blended with her soul song, conquering her heart and making anything but total surrender to him impossible.

  This was the way it was meant to be. A woman…a Willoni with a tall, green–eyed desert dweller riding toward her over the blue sands. Riding out of her fantasies and into her arms and her heart.

  About to step out of the tent to welcome him, her creed song sounded in her ear. We are the Willoni. The protectors of all lands graced by the gods. We have forsaken carnal pleasures in pursuit of higher goals. We are the Willoni.

  We are the Willoni. The Willioni. She dared not surrender to her carnal lusts. She turned and fled back into the tent. Before she could don her robes, the flaps of the tent opened and he stood nude and aroused in the opening.

  The sight of his erect cock flooded her channel with moisture. She longed to stretch on her back, part her legs, and welcome the huge, thick length protruding in front of his big, muscular body inside her. But she was Willoni or would be again if only she could conquer her rampant hunger for illicit pleasure. Giving into such hungers would only lengthen and reinforce her exile.

  “I am Willoni,” she lifted her right hand, palm outward. “Stay away.”

  He stepped inside and let the flaps fall shut behind him. “You have strayed from your chosen path, Willoni. As have I.” He crossed the tent to stand in front of her. He extended his hand. “Let’s continue the descent into carnal excess together.”

  His warm, deep voice echoed through her veins, sending a chill of warmth sizzling along her nerve endings straight to her heart. She felt and heard each softly spoken word deep within her inner being—her soul song. With a sense of delight overwhelming her, she stepped forward and placed her hand in his.

  He swept her off her feet and carried her effortlessly across the tent to the big bed along the back wall. She closed her eyes and sighed with pleasure and joy when he slipped between her legs and gently pushed his cock into her body.

  Any remaining doubts she had vanished as the sweet motion of his cock sliding ever deeper inside her body quickly and ruthlessly drove her to an explosive climax that shook her to her core. As she came, she clung to him, sobbing with pleasure. Rather than savoring her orgasm, she tightened her vaginal muscles around his cock, and squeezed and massaged it until the tension in the big body pressing hers down indicated how close he was to his release.

  Then she stroked her palms down his back to part his hard cheeks. Sucking his tongue into her mouth, she pressed her finger against his nether hole until she could slip it up into his anus.

  He gasped, shuddered, and thrust his cock so deep inside her, her toes curled and her back arched. With a riot of songs filling her ears, she experienced the second most incredible release of her long life.

  Devouring each other’s lips and both sobbing with intense pleasure, they collapsed together, their bodies still locked and his ejaculating cock blasting jet after jet of seed deep in her pussy.

  Later, when she surfaced from the fog of enchantment she’d lost herself in, he held her in his arms, whispering slowly to her. “Help me.”

  She turned in his arms to gaze up into his eyes. “I’m Willoni. You’re Heoptin. We’ve both made commitments that forbid what we just shared.”

  He glanced down, pleased at the sight of his pale palm stroking and caressing her dark, velvet flesh. “You’re so beautiful that I wouldn’t trade what we shared for anything. I have no regrets.” He lifted her chin. “Don’t be sorry. Can’t you feel our soul songs singing together in perfect harmony?”

  Her soft lips parted. Her dark green eyes shone with tears. “I’ve always wanted to serve as a Temple Priestess. I’ll never accomplish that if I don’t learn to control of my passions.”

  He sighed. “I’ve had my aspirations shattered as well. The things I’ve done in the last years when I didn’t know who I was or what my calling was will haunt me for a long time.”

  “What have you done, Healer?”

  “I’ve spent my time mating with a succession of women who meant nothing to me for financial gain.”

  “You were a rutter?”

  He lowered his lids, shamed at the admission that one who had taken an oath to heal others had fallen so far into sin that he had become a rutter. And had enjoyed each thrust of his cock into the countless pussies of strange women. “Yes.”

  She caressed his cheek. “And you...enjoyed it?”

  He sucked in a breath and gazed down into her eyes. “Yes. I did.”

  “Then enjoy me too,” she whispered. “And after you have, you’ll heal me and I’ll help you find that which you seek.”

  He blinked. Instead of the condemnation he deserved, she offered a solution which would probably send them both deeper into a pit of lust neither might be able to climb out from. He glanced down at her soft, dark body pressed so temptingly close to his pale one. And was lost.

  He thrust his cock deep into her and lost himself in her arms and the sweet promise of her lips.

  Several days later, he woke alone in the bed. Although he had long lost track of how many times they’d pleasured each other, his hunger to bury his cock deep in her remained rampant. Even more shameful was the almost insatiable need he felt to cherish and protect her. For the first time in his long life, he had fallen in love.

  If not for his need to find his brother, he would gladly welcome condemnation if it meant he could spend the rest of eternity with the sensual, beautiful Willoni who had done what no other women ever had—make life outside the service of Heoptin appealing.

  When he found his brother, if she were willing, he would come back to her and spend the rest of his life loving and cherishing her.

  Eager to gaze upon her perfectly formed body and into her serene green eyes, he slipped out of bed. He found her praying nude on the desert sands. Watching her, he longed to sweep her into his arms, carry her back inside, and spend the next few days exploring her dark, lush curves, and loving her.

  But it was now time to resume his search for his brother. He walked across the sands to her. “I need your help, Willoni.”

  She turned to face him, lifting her chin. “My name is Kalleni and I will gladly help you, Healer if you’ll tell me who I’ve spent the last few days disowning my oath with.”

  “My name is Thorn.”

  Chapter Nine

  Her eyes widened in surprise. “Thorn, and you were a rutter?”

  He nodded. “Yes. Have I become infamous?”

  “Who on Aeolia hasn’t heard of Thorn of Bluhari?”

  He stiffened. “Thorn of Bluhari? There’s a rutter on Bluhari called Thorn?”

  “Yes. Isn’t that where you were?”

  “No.”

  “I don’t understand. You said you were Thorn and you’d been a rutter.”

  “On Aeolia Prime. Not Bluhari. That’s where he must be!”

  “Who?”

  “My brother.”

  “Who is your brother, Healer?”

  “Rutledge Thorn Knightrose.”

  “Then who are you?”

  “I’m Joshli Thorn Knightrose. You’ve just told me where I can find my brother. Thank you!” He swept her up into his embrace, kissed her soft, sweet lips, and reluctantly released her.

  She cupped her hands over the lush, dark mounds of her breasts. “You’re leaving me now?”

  “I have to make sure he
’s all right.”

  “And when you have?”

  “When I have, I’ll be back, Kalleni.”

  “For what purpose, rutter?”

  “To spend the rest of eternity rutting in you.”

  She sucked in a breath and sank her teeth into her bottom lip. “That way lay certain condemnation for us both, rutter.”

  He shook his head. “I don’t care. I want you and I’ll be back for you. Where will I find you?”

  A soft, sensual smiled curved her lips. “Here in the desert.”

  “In prayerful solitude to renew your oaths in preparation for temple service?”

  “No. Eagerly awaiting your return.”

  A rush of emotion tightened his chest. “How long will you wait, my enchanting Willoni?”

  “Until the end of time if necessary. But no longer.”

  He took her hand and pressed his lips against her palm. “Stay chaste while I’m gone.”

  “You’ve mastered my song soul. My heart and my body belong only to you.”

  Such sweet words made leaving her difficult. But he had to discover Rutledge’s fate before he could consider his own pleasure. “Until I return, know I’ll carry you in my heart wherever I go.”

  “May the Goddess always look upon you with favor and may the song of the winds guide you swiftly back into my arms. Go, knowing you take my heart with you, Joshli Thorn Knightrose.”

  Three months later Sierra, garbed in the ceremonial mahogany and gold dress royals wore at their commitment rite, stood in the assembly hall of Queen Aquee. On the royal dais, Aquee sat. By her side, a tall, handsome blond male with dusky skin sat. Lord Borika was Aquee’s consort and Sierra’s and Sorenia’s father. Sorenia sat at his right.

  On another newly mounted dais, Drakon’s parents, a slender, dark skinned woman, and a tall male with pale skin and auburn hair sat close together, their fingers entwined.

  While Sierra was entering into her union with Drakon with no expectation of personal happiness, she at least had the hope that Sorenia would fare better. A week earlier, she had entered her sister’s chambers and discovered Sorenia happily riding Ren’s thick cock while they both gasped out words of pleasure and love. The following morning Sorenia confessed she carried Ren’s child.