LAYING THE LICH

Jackie Boxx

 

EXCERPT:

I must remember that I'm still in a battlefield, she thought. And that this man before me is no man, but a lich animated by the darkest magic. He set out to destroy the land and people I love.

Nonetheless, she felt no loathing inside her, but a deep warmth as she stared at Cerric, even a kind of admiration. A voice whispered inside her, "Here is no perfumed courtier, but a real man, who takes what he wants and never stints. He is driven and ambitious, a true hero."

This, she knew, was the kind of man she had always wanted. Not a doe-eyed, virtuous youth like Gendran or a blustering soldier like her father, but a man of action, cunning and passion. This was the kind of man she had always dreamed would one day claim her and possess her.

Possess her-Kindra was a virgin, but she ached for a man's arms around her. Each night she lay in her bed dreaming of the man who would take her out of herself and make a woman of her. By day she walked in her garden, seeing the face of her hero in clouds, or the massed boughs of trees. The war with Cerric's liches had forced her to abandon those dreams for the sake of duty, but now the dreams returned. Under the influence of the wine, they were strengthened, their potency freshened until they threatened to sweep her away.

Her nipples stiffened under the smooth silks of her robe, a knot of fire tightened deep within her, pleading for release. She stepped forward towards the man Cerric had been-she could not look away from him. Nor did the warlock king shrink from her honest gaze. He put his hands on her shoulders. "Your answer to the message I sent your father...you agree to my terms?"

"I do," she breathed. "I always agreed. It is why I'm here now."

"Yes. But you came to me tonight out of duty. I want the answer not of Torisan's princess, but of the woman before me now. Will you lay with me tonight? Will you return with me to the Deadlands and there be my bride?"

"Yes," Kindra said, and rising on her toes she kissed him.

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