she tugged his hair. “More, I need more.”
“You must promise me.”
“Aye, aye, I promise.”
“Diamond,” he said, his hands stopping his caresses and coming up to cup her face. “Dyna, I mean it. Promise me you’ll marry me if you become with child. Promise me. I’ll not have my bairn growing up without a father.”
“Aye. I’ll marry you. Mayhap I’ll even try to fall for you, but not unless you finish this.”
He grinned at that declaration, and she nipped his shoulder. “Diamond, if I’m ever going to fall in love, it’ll be with you and only you.”
He kissed her again, this time tenderly, working her into a feverish pitch that she couldn’t control. She begged him again. “Finish.”
He spread her legs and settled himself between her thighs, his hand reaching for her sex, touching and caressing her until she wanted to scream. She moved against him and spread her legs even wider. It felt so good, so damn good. “Derric…”
She felt like she was on the precipice of the release she wanted, needed, and then he whispered, “I’m sorry.”
He thrust inside of her and searing pain grabbed hold of her. “Derric, stop!”
“Diamond, it will only hurt for a minute or two,” he said, pulling out. “I promise you’ll like it again. I’ll make you beg me again. Trust me.”
A bolt of lightning and a crack of thunder interrupted them. It felt like a sign, and she shoved against him, rolling away, and reached for her leggings, stopping when she saw the blood on her thighs. Derric came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her.
“Dyna, I’m sorry, but didn’t anyone tell you it would hurt the first time? That you would bleed? It won’t last long.”
“I know it won’t last long because you’re done. Get away from me. You set me up. It hurt terribly.”
“It’s not supposed to hurt that badly. It will go away. Give us a chance. Please.”
Hellfire, but she wouldn’t.
She was never having intimate relations with a man again. Emmalin and Joya were both daft. She hated lovemaking.
***
Alex Grant rode to his destination with the man he’d chosen to assist him. They were about two hours away when the skies opened up. A thick grove of pines was nearby, and they raced under the trees as fast as they could. His partner pointed to a large overhang where they could hide from the storm, an outcropping large enough for three men and their mounts.
The sky turned black, thunder clouds rolling in every direction.
The other man asked, “Have you ever seen clouds like that before? They’re going in opposite directions, something I’ve not witnessed.”
Alex got his horse under the stone protection and dismounted, patting Midnight down to console him. Although he was stalwart and footsure in battle, the beast had always reacted badly to thunderstorms, the quaking of the ground too much for him. He whispered sweet words to the animal and pulled out an apple from his saddlebag. The horse took it quickly and munched away, the treat calming him for a wee bit.
Alex set his hands on his hips, staring up at the thunderstorm raging around them. “I have seen one storm like this, and it was not from anything good. It meant evil was trying to steal a sapphire sword belonging to the fae.”
“When did it happen?” the other man asked.
“Avelina Ramsay had control of the sword. She fought with a daft man over it. Her brother told me the storm started because she held the sword overhead. She was driving a man with ill intent away from her. I’ve never seen another sight like it. Howbeit…” He couldn’t help but think of his granddaughter, Dyna. Blessed with the talents of a seer and the odd ability to pull power into her cousins’ swords by holding her bow over her head, he began to see a similarity between her talents and those of Avelina Ramsay. Was there more to the spectral swords than he realized? And what part was Dyna playing in this unnatural storm?
He wondered where she was and who was with her. Then another thought thrust itself into his mind. The sapphire sword. His sister Brenna had said something about a challenge arising every fifty years. Their mother had told Brenna and Jennie about it, about how a fae queen would choose a mortal being when necessary to help save the Scots, but only when all else had failed.
He pushed his memory back to it, trying to remember all he’d learned, how Brenna