Master of Desire Lacey Alexander (novels to read in english .txt) 📖

Shaena smiled into her eyes. “He is gruff, but  I saw real affection for you in him last night, Teesia. I sense things changing for you.”

Teesia nodded. “I do, too.”  The thought warmed her heart.

Soon after Shaena departed, Ralen returned. “Shall we go?” he said, his voiceechoing good cheer as he took  her hand.  Just that simple touch, paired with the tenderness in his eyes, nearly turned her inside  out.  It  was  just  as  Shaena  had  said —things seemed different between them now.

Stepping out into the bright Caralon sunshine was like swallowing a warm drink ofwine that oozed all through Teesia, body and  soul. She turned her face up  to the blue sky to soak in the comforting rays.

“A beautiful day,” Ralen commented, clearly seeing her enjoyment.

“Indeed.” She raised her gaze to her husband,  whose dark hair shone like silk in thesunlight. “Thank you. For bringing me outside. It feels wonderful.”

If she wasn’t mistaken, a hint of guilt  flashed through his expression—something she’d never thought to see in Ralen. “I’m glad to share a walk with you, Teesia.” He squeezed her hand tighter in his large one. “I thought you might like to visit my stables.”

“Oh yes,” she said, her spirits lifting  even higher. “Nothing would make me

happier.”

The walk to  the stables from  the main fortress was a  short one, and Teesia enjoyed

seeing the elaborate stone exterior of her  new home. The coast was visible in the near  distance over ancient battlements that still existed from the Before Times.  “I miss the

sea,” she murmured without forethought as she drank in the scent of an ocean breeze.

“I shall take you there,” he promised. “Would you like that?”

She smiled up at him, nodding. “Very much, master.”

As usual, the endearment filled his expression with the dark heat she’d learned to

love so dearly.

88

Master of Desire

Nearing the stables, they approached a  small corral where a number of frisky horses frolicked. Teesia  was immediately drawn to a lovely little sorrel with a white staron her forehead who came directly to the fencing when they grew close, allowing Teesia to feed her a palmful of grass. She stroked  the animal’s neck and cooed to her, “What a pretty, friendly girl  you are.”

It warmed Ralen’s heart unexpectedly to  see how taken Teesia was with the horse, the very horse he’d thought of for her. “If you’d like her,” he said, “she’s yours.”

His bride’s eyes lit with a pure joy that  trickled all through him. Ares, but she was captivating. In her sexuality. And in her purity, as well.

Was  she pure? he wondered, shocked by his own thought. Had she been as pure upon coming to him as she claimed? He’d  asked himself the question less and less lately, and when he did ask it, he realized he’d slowly begun to believe in her. Deeply.

“What’s her name?” Teesia asked,  scratching the sorrel’s nose.

Ralen couldn’t resist grinning down at her. “Vixen.”

Her pretty,  trilling laughter filled the air around him  and he bent to kiss her as  automatically as if they’d been  married  for fifty years. The mere meeting of their  mouths stirred him to excitement, making  his cock twitch between his thighs. There  was something oddly…freeing  about being out in the warm  sun with her, kissing her  while fresh air and the  salty scent of the sea surrounded them.

When the kiss ended, she gave  her chin a saucy tilt. “What’s  your  horse’s name?  Master?”

He chuckled. She  was  a little vixen, in more ways than one. “No—actually it’s the

very uninspired Charger. That’s him there,”  he  said, pointing to the shiny black stallion

that trotted on the far side of the fenced area.

She cast a coquettish grin. “Perhaps we could nickname  your  cock  Charger. It doescharge into me so…”

Growing harder, just from that—his wanton  making a dirty joke—he leaned in to her hip to let her feel the evidence of his  arousal. “That it does,” he purred near her ear.  “And do you love it, my little vixen?”

She awarded him with  another tantalizing grin, her blue eyes filled with the heat he adored. “You know I do, master,” she said softly. Then she looked back to the corral.  Vixen had sauntered away and now shared  a trough of grain with Charger nearby.  “They make nearly as handsome a couple as you and I.”

“Perhaps I shall consider breeding the two next year when Vixen is of the right age,” he said, the thought just occurring to him. “See what sort of  lovely little colt they produce together.”

She bit her lip, peering up at him. “I have  no doubt their offspring would be veryfine.”

89

Lacey Alexander

And quick as that, he found himself bending to give her yet another kiss—this oneslight, only on the forehead—but it happened  without his quite deciding to do it, which took him aback.

“Shall we go for a ride  together?” he asked to cover his unease. “We could take the horses up the beach if you’d like.”

Again, her eyes lit and it was like the first burst of sunlight beaming over the  horizon at dawn. “Yes, that sounds wonderful!”

Ralen instructed one of his stablemen to bring the two mounts out, and soon  he and Teesia were riding up the coastline, the horses’ hooves leaving two soft trails in thesand. “You ride well,” he said, taking note  of the way her body swayed comfortably with the horse’s movements, and also remembering the fearless way she’d climbed upon the mounting block outside the corral.

“I’ve not ridden  much,” she admitted, glancing over at  him. “The horses my father owns are used primarily by he and his men,  but I’ve relished the opportunities I’ve had,  often begging my father to give me lessons  when he’s had the time. I’m very fond of  horses.”

“As am I,” he agreed  with a smile, thinking  how fortuitous it was that he should  end up with a wife who possessed that particular affinity. Horses were so rare in most  parts of Caralon that many viewed them as animals best left in the hands