Free Wicked Lord: Part One by Shirl Anders Page B

the
quietness behind them.
    "I can feel you," Beth whispered.
    "I can feel you," he responded. He could
feel her body flowing with the desire for more of his blood as his
body flowed to give it to her.
    "What's happening to me?" Her plea sounded
as lost as he felt.
    He could tell her he didn't know, because he
didn't, but he couldn't frighten her. "The affects will wear off."
He grimaced at the lie, even when he was such a good liar.
    "No!" The word was a small cry from her
plush lips as she twisted her wrists beneath his hand. "Please,
Lord Trinity, please let me taste more. I will do anything." Her
breath panted with temptation.
    Trinity could feel her craving like a live
thing skittering in his mind. The innocent Lady Beth Winslow was
gone, and he knew … he knew all he had to do was to release
her and she would curl and press her naked body against his. Her
body would move with driving lust for more of his essence, but not
of her own conscience. It would be his blood's fake allure.
    All he had to do was release his hold.
"Maiden, you must be stronger than your urges, you will regret them," his voice rasped low over the pain in his fangs.
    Beth mewled in disappointment and he could
feel the battle she waged internally. She wanted him. He wanted
her. Why must they deny it?
    "You want my blood, not me," he
charged harshly.
    "That's not true," she cried. "I-I …"
    "You are too innocent to know the
consequences."
    "You are so cruel," Beth sobbed. "I hate
you!" she cried.
    "You would tempt the beast?" he asked with a
harsh snarl as he pushed away from her, releasing his hold.
    "Trinity!" Beth implored, rising upward. She
turned to sit, clutching the bed linens to her chest as her gaze
frantically shifted over the room looking for him. He was
gone.
    "No!" she cried tragically. "You cannot
leave me like this."
    Large tears fell hot on her cheeks as she
whimpered with loss. Her desire was to feel the heat of Trinity's
blood again. It held the most exquisite feelings she'd ever felt.
It made her feel worldly and mature. She thought with the essence
of it flowing through her she understood the desires of men and
women, something she was innocent of before. She'd also felt the
dark demons that lurked in Trinity's soul. Things that drove him,
but he feared to look at too closely.
    Then tingling began in the far reaches of
her limbs, like the sparks from fire, moving up her arms and legs.
Haunting intuition told her the amazing effects of Trinity's blood
were leaving, and she moaned in denial, falling on her side,
unconscious.
     
    ***
     
    Adam closed the door on the doctor's
carriage and stepped back. The driver up top set the conveyance
into motion and Adam turned back to his step uncle's mansion.
    "She's going to be all right," he muttered
to himself, still feeling bone-deep relief. Yet he walked to the
door in conflict. The doctor had said not to bother Beth until
morning, but he worried about leaving her alone … at night. So
vulnerable. At the same time, he wanted to tell the authorities
about the woman in the woods and he was uncommonly nervous about
Lady Ariel and what she might be doing.
    Beth won, of course. He couldn't leave her
where Fanton might soon be lurking, so he retrieved a wingback
chair from the front parlor. He carried it to her door, set it
down, settling in for the remainder of the night. Once the
quietness soothed his body into relaxing, his mind wouldn't forget
the evenings perplexing questions.
    "Who is Christian Blacknall?" he muttered.
"What is he?" Whatever they were, and Adam knew the Blacknalls were
not human men, they seemed to have a code of morality about them.
"Men who many times look like men but are not men?"
    He tugged a hand through his hair, shrugging
in the chair, remembering the last sight he had of Christian
Blacknall. The man's handsome face had looked fiercely primal. Adam
knew he would sound insane trying to tell anyone about the things
he'd seen that night. Something, however, inside