Tabitha Bradley: Enticed

Destiny… Power… Passion…

Yes, Samuel thought, gazing into the blood-red depths of the Daestrian Glass as it drank in and refracted the flickering light of the low-banked orange coals smoldering in the fireplace. My destiny … my power…

Stormy gray eyes, silken ruby hair, the scent of warm cinnamon and dragon's blood resins, the sensual heat of her soft, curvaceous body as she writhed against him, moaning.

Nicolette.

My passion.

My Nicolette.

Yes, Samuel, yours, a soft, deep, ancient voice whispered in his brain, your passion, your destiny. Your power. Infinite power. Isn't that what you've always wanted?

Samuel grunted softly, shifting in the chair he'd been sitting in since Gareth took his leave three hours ago. His eyes were dry and aching, as though he'd forgotten to blink for a while.

Yes.

Then take what belongs to you. She is the key to your destiny, Samuel, to the power that is rightfully yours. Daestrian power.

How long had he been in thrall this time?

"Gerik," he rasped, surprised to find how dry his voice was.

"Yes, sir?"

His House Commander's voice came from the door to the suite. He was leaning in the small alcove, smoking a cigar. Samuel focused on him through lowered eyelids.

Kazi was regarding him calmly, his dark brown eyes alert.

"Status?"

"Prisoner is still asleep on the sofa, sir," Gerik said with a slight quirking of his lips, "I took the liberty of thoroughly searching her for hidden weapons and removed her boots." He snickered softly. "As for Adelar, he's presently sleeping off his latest interrogation session in the dungeon. I think he may be close to breaking. The Janassi Interrogation Master the Duke was kind enough to provide me with has managed to extract quite a bit of information from him about the operations of the county and various other items of minor interest. He does still believe the Glass is locked up though. And, as requested, he has not been informed of Nicolette's arrival."

"Good," Samuel grunted, rising slowly, dropping the ancient scrying mirror into a pocket. He turned and looked at Nika, slumped on the settee where she'd been left, her clothes badly rumpled now and it was obvious Gerik had taken his time

'searching' her. She sighed in her sleep, shifting slightly as he watched her.

He growled softly in his throat.

She's always been yours, Samuel. No one else can touch her.

He knelt next to her, his fingers smoothing over the strands of ruby hair, laid out like threads of silk, against the worn brocade of the settee.

She is mine.

He frowned slightly.

What about Gaston?

At first, the news that she'd held up and played with Gaston was immensely amusing. If anyone deserved to get fucked in all senses of the word by a bitch like Nicolette, it was his brother. And she certainly deserved someone like Gaston, who was a fiendish bastard in his own right. He'd imagined it had been a rather vicious coupling. Violent, nasty and swiftly over.

His fingers trailed over her cheek and she sighed. Shivers went through his body.

Nika's reaction had been anything but casual and that made him angry. She had spoken as though she cared about the asshole. That was completely unacceptable.

His fingers brushed over the fine silver chain around her neck. Disappearing into the enticing valley of her soft cleavage was a pendant. Samuel dipped his fingers between her breasts and brought it out. Nika moaned softly, licking her lips slowly in her sleep, her hand brushing sleepily at his as his fingers lingered between the full, warm softness.

Why didn't she like to wear ladies attire, he wondered absently, caressing her.

"Mmm … oh Gaston…" she breathed, "please…"

Ice shot through Samuel's veins, followed by a sharp arc of electricity. His fingers tightened around the delicate chain and he tore it from her neck.

Damn you, Gaston!

She cried out in her sleep and Samuel felt the Daestrian Glass burning against his thigh, heavy in the pocket of his brocade tunic. A small sharp prick of heat was searing his fingers and he opened his hand to look at the small pink gemstone in the pale white metal setting. Silver and pink … topaz? Tourmaline? Not sapphire.

He frowned intensely, staring at the rose pink stone, glittering in his hand.

Singularly refractive. Then it couldn't be topaz, nor any aluminum silicate. Nor was it rose quartz or any quartz derivative. He wasn't sure how he knew this. It seemed as though it was something a Crystal Master ought to know. Not morganite or any beryl. And he, Samuel, knew it wasn't jade, because it wasn't an opaque.

Jade was his stone.

Gaston's hands on her body. His name on her lips. His mouth on her, kissing her, sucking her … fire was racing through his veins as the unwanted images came to his mind. His mouth on her breasts, his hands between her legs… Fucking her…

Making her scream…

Grinding his teeth, his eyes narrowed to dark amethyst slits, Samuel ran his free hand over her half-exposed breast, squeezing, feeling the soft rise of her nipple and the small hard nub at its tip. He rubbed her, feeling it harden beneath his fingers, and he growled deep in his throat.

It's rhodolite garnet.

"Gaston…" she whispered, squirming a little.

Garnet!

Samuel growled deep in his throat. "Garnet…" he hissed, "why you little slut…"

He looked down at the tiny, rich pink stone glimmering in his hand.

Gaston had always been very proud of the fact that he was the only Garnet Key in several generations. And about the fact that only VonTesmars spawned Garnet Keys. Their most celebrated ancestor, Varek, had been The Garnet Key and The First Master when Thrax had been hunted down and destroyed. He would have succeeded Thrax as Keeper if he hadn't died in the final battle.

Precisely.

Samuel snarled.

Slut. Wicked little slut. She deserves to be punished for her audacity. How dare she defy me like this? With him? When she knows she belongs to me and only me!

He threw the pendant across the room into the fireplace, making Gerik snort and look into the room. "Sir?"

Samuel ignored him. His fingers tightened around Nika's full breast, squeezing until she gasped in pain and her eyes fluttered open. He watched with a dark satisfaction as she blinked, whimpering at the pain he was causing such a soft, sensitive part of her body, and tried to focus on him. Her lips fell open and he saw a flash of fear color her storm-dark eyes.

"Samuel?"

"Slut," he snarled, and backhanded her.

She gasped, her head snapping to the side as his hand made contact with her cheek, his other hand, still wrapped around her breast, twisting and tearing her shirt from her body. She gave a startled scream of fright and instinctively curled her body away from him, into the back of the sofa.

He grabbed her by the roots of her hair and yanked her back towards him, hot fury pounding through his veins like fire. "Slut," he repeated, "you thought perhaps my dear brother might take you away? Hide you?"

Nika's eyes widened in dazed confusion, fear, wariness. "No. What? Samuel?"

He grabbed her and pulled her up, pushing her back into the sofa. Her shirt hung in shreds, and only the suede vest she'd chosen to wear over it, covered her breasts from the intense gaze of Gerik, who was still standing in the alcove smoking, only now he was watching the developments on the sofa with a slight, nastily amused smile on his thin, wide lips.

"You ought to know that would never happen, my dear," Samuel hissed, leaning in close, his eyes fixed solidly on hers, "he could never keep you from me. If I wanted you, Nicolette Adelar, no man, woman or beast on this earth or any other would keep me from taking you."