"Now maybe," he said, a touch of wickedness to him, "the salamander doesn't look so bad."

"I wouldn't go that - " She broke off as a couple, their nightclothes flapping at their ankles, clattered out of the inn, torches held aloft. "Micah, if they do indeed have night-horses, I think we should rest here," she said to him before Esme's sister - and with those cheeks, it was surely her - and her husband came within earshot. "It'll be the only chance we have before Elden."

Micah gave a single nod as the couple reached them. Emmy proved not as stout of heart as Esme - she took one look at the Guardian of the Abyss and fell into a dead faint. Scowling, Micah bent down, picked her up without effort and glared at her gaping husband. "Take us inside."

"Yes, my lord!" The man hurried ahead, his torch bobbing wildly above a head covered by a long white nightcap.

"Yes," he said when Liliana asked about the nighthorses while Micah placed the man's wife on a table, "we host a pair. My Emmy is a healer of beasts - they come to see her, stay awhile, help the travelers they like. Magical creatures, you know, can't force them to do anything."

The inside of the inn explained why they'd caught the couple so unprepared - the place was empty but for the four of them. "We used to be busy as bees, we did," the innkeeper muttered, his long face mournful. "Then him came and now everyone's too scared to pass this way. He's got monsters guarding the roads into Elden, hasn't he? And most folks, they passed this way toward the kingdom, didn't they? Such a wonderful place it was - sad what's become of it. Sad indeed."

He continued to mutter away under his breath, not realizing he'd driven a spike of ice into Liliana's mind. She hadn't known about the monsters, hadn't prepared for them. What were they going to do? The time -

Fingers closing around the back of her neck, a small squeeze. "We will consider it in a few hours, Lily."

"Lord." The innkeeper bobbed his head. "Here we are. One room for the lady and one room for yo - "

"One room." Micah's tone left no room for argument.

The innkeeper's eyes swung to her, but instead of the scandalized reproach she expected, she saw only pity. Her first response was to ignore it, so used was she to that look...but then she caught the fear behind the pity and realized the poor man thought Micah was going to eat her alive or something else horrendous - after all, he was the Guardian of the Abyss.

Rather than disabusing the trembling man of his erroneous notions, she did her best to look fearful when the innkeeper gave her the keys and showed them to the simple but large room. The Guardian's reputation did as much to protect the Abyss from encroachment as the dangers of the badlands.

Kicking off her shoes and tights the instant they were inside, she pulled off her tunic, pushed down the sheet and crawled in. A naked Micah followed at almost the same moment, hauling her against him and throwing a heavy thigh over her own. Safe, she fell into darkness.

Chapter 24

Micah woke to the realization that dawn remained at least an hour away. Heading out into the dark wasn't an option - light would be their friend when facing the monsters the Blood Sorcerer had created. Which meant he'd have to use that hour some other way.

Glancing down at the woman curled up against his side, he told himself she was tired, that he should let her rest. It would be the right thing to do. Unfortunately, the good part of him was totally overwhelmed by the part that wanted to roll her onto her back, part her thighs and slide into her deep and hard.

Extricating his arm from under Liliana's head, he nudged her gently onto her back. She mumbled something but didn't wake. The depth of her trust in him made a quiet, fierce happiness hum through his blood. That trust, the wicked part of him murmured, should make removing her underthings so much easier.

Peeling down the sheet until it lay at her feet, he smiled in satisfaction as her tight, bitable breasts were exposed to his gaze. Warm and relaxed in sleep, one arm thrown over her head, and with only a whisper of fine cloth hiding the curls between her thighs from his gaze, she presented a luscious picture. He thought about sucking her nipples to wake her up, but he was enjoying the view too much.

Bracing himself beside her, he looked his fill, running his gaze over those firm little peaks with the dark nipples and wide areole. His cock, already hard, pressed insistent and demanding against her thigh, and she made a restless movement before settling. But she'd cocked her leg, the thin fabric that covered her mound stretching tight.

Stroking his hand oh-so-gently over her thigh, he got her to straighten up her leg again, and then, not wanting to lose the opportunity, inched down the tease of clothing that covered her until he could pull it off and discard it over the side of the bed.

Now, she was naked. And all his.

Braced beside her again, he insinuated his hand between her thighs, waiting until she settled before rubbing one finger along the seam of her flushed folds. A tiny sound, her body arching into the caress. Liking that, he repeated the act. Her breathing altered, and he froze...but she remained asleep.

He touched her again, so slow and stealthy, felt a slick of dampness.

Removing his hand, he spread her thighs and moved over her, fitting his cock to the entrance that was so wet and hot for him. Her eyes snapped open as he began to push into her, her hands fisting in his hair when he dropped his head to suck at her nipples, doing that thing with his tongue that had made her clench around his hardness the previous night. It did so now, too. Groaning deep in his throat, he reached down to spread her wider, and then he shoved in all the way.

A cry muffled against his chest, but it held only pleasure, no pain. He would never hurt his Liliana. Pumping into her in short, hard thrusts, he lifted his head to claim her mouth. She wrapped a leg around him at the same time, attempting to brace herself against the bed with the other.

Laughing at her frustration at being unable to control the rhythm, he squeezed one breast with a surely proprietary hand - after all, she was his - before flipping them so that she was on top, with him below. "There, Lily. Am I not generous?"

She brought herself up into a seated position with her palms flat on his chest, moaned. "You're very hard."

Gripping her hips, he urged her into a slow rotating movement that felt very, very good. "It's morning. You're naked. There is no mystery here." The last words were a groan because she was starting to squeeze him with her inner muscles as she moved and, oh, he liked that.

"Micah, wait." She pushed at his hands when he would've urged her to increase the pace.

Deciding to occupy himself elsewhere, he cupped her breasts in the curve created by thumb and forefinger, squeezed in to pinch her nipples. "Come closer," he said, her breasts sweet temptation. "I want to use my teeth."

"Horrible, teasing beast." Pulling his hands off her breasts, she used their handclasp to brace herself and lift up off his cock.

The exquisite silken suction bowed his back. Then she slid down and the shock of liquid heat had his balls drawing up tight to his body. Knowing he was going to spill sooner rather than later, he broke her hold and reached down to flick that tiny nub between her thighs.

"Micah." She shuddered around his cock on her second downward stroke, and after that, there really was no hope for either of them.

Finishing her bath in the shallow tub, Liliana pulled on fresh underwear, part of a set of two that Micah had made a predawn trip into the village to get for her the morning they left the Black Castle. She'd never be able to face the shopkeeper again, but at least she felt decent. That done, she was bending over to grab her tights when she found herself being pulled backward and into Micah's lap where he sat half-dressed on the bed. Settling in, she wrapped an arm around his neck. They had time yet - the light hadn't touched the horizon.

He slid his hand up her rib cage to cup her breast, and while it was a lusty act, as he was an unashamedly lusty man, it was also affectionate and comforting. "Don't be afraid," he said, winter-green eyes clear and free of deception, yet no less strong for their purity. "Your father won't win."

"I just..." Drawing in a deep breath of the morning air, she nuzzled her face against the solid warmth of his neck. "He hurt me," she said, telling him because he was Micah, who would never betray her. "Part of me is still that scared little girl, hoping my door won't open at night, that I won't be dragged screaming, sweat-soaked and shivering to - " a huge knot in her throat " - to witness him slit the throats of innocent men and women, watch their blood drip along the channels carved into his killing bench and into the enspelled pots that keep the blood ever-fresh."

Micah's hand clenched tight on the back of her head. "For that alone, I will make him suffer before he dies."

"No, Micah." She couldn't bear the thought of him becoming tainted in any way by the Blood Sorcerer. "I needed you to know in case I freeze up during the fight." It was a humiliating and horrifying thought, but she had to consider it. "If I do, please don't show any mercy in trying to wake me. Slap me if you have to, but get me out of the nightmare."

"I won't slap you, Lily." A brutal line to his jaw. "I might just kiss you, though - and use my tongue."

That suddenly, her worry transformed into a need so intense it scared her. "Save yourself, Micah," she whispered. "Whatever happens, please don't let him kill you." He was someone unique and wonderful and she couldn't bear to think of the world without him.

"If you die, Lily," he said, fondling her breast, "I'll steal your soul and take you to the Abyss, where I will keep you in my magical dungeon so you can never escape." The threat was sealed with a Micah kind of kiss. Hot and dark and possessive.

The pleasure drugged her until she could almost not taste the guilt. Because she'd broken her promise and lied to him again - a lie of omission, but that had been her sin the first time, too. Yet how could she tell him about the death spell when she knew he wouldn't allow it? No, dishonorable as it was, she couldn't bring herself to confess her secret - not when it might mean Micah's life.