Wicked Lord of Thessaly (Halcyon Romance Series Book 3) Read Free Page B

her arms around his neck and urged him on, kissing him with the ferocity of the huntress he’d encountered this morning. Her mouth fastened to his, tongues tangling in a duel neither would win. She was right. Though she might appear to be a delicate flower, and none had plucked her yet, she was in fact, a wild rose, whose thorns proved as sharp and fierce as her petals were fragile.
    Her full breasts plumped against his chest while she scrambled closer, their bodies melding and leaving nowhere for his erection to hide. As though determined to observe the proof of his passion, her hand shifted lower, skimming the front of his breeches and framing his aching length.
    Her panted gasp and following moan fired through his veins, demanding he stake his claim on her. Now.
    While she was so very pliant and willing.
    Eione’s hand rested against his sex, rubbing in a hesitant and inexperienced manner. Her body told her what she craved, even if she couldn’t name it yet.
    Oh, but she would. He would instruct her.
    Wrenching his mouth off hers, he clasped her wrist and gazed into her eyes. Wanting and, strangely, trust, sparkled in those depths.
    Damn. What the hell was he thinking? He shouldn’t do this. Not with her, not like this.
    She was a mate . A creature to be cherished and worshipped. Among his people, the greatest and most sacred gift.
    One did not romp about in the hay with one’s mate.
    Nay. A respectable centaur offered her everything he possessed if she would but do him the honor of wedding him. He pledged his life, his possessions, his soul, to her.
    Any male who did anything less wouldn’t be worthy of the mud caking her boots.
    “Eione,” he panted, nudging her hand off his stiff shaft, the torment worse than a thousand arrows to his centaur heart.
    “You are the most desirable female my unworthy eyes have ever laid upon, and I cannot tell you how greatly it pains me to stop, but this isn’t right.”
    Her lower lip trembled and she drew the plump flesh into her mouth. He couldn’t bear to meet her stare, lest hatred for him burned within, but he gathered his courage, tucked his finger under her chin, and tilted her face toward his.
    Slowly, her lashes lifted. “You’re right, of course.” She blinked back what might be a tear and disengaged herself from his embrace. “You should be well enough to depart on the morrow. Please, go before the sun rises.”
    She scurried from the den, wrenching his human heart along with her.
    ***
    Eione fisted her hands in her skirts and dashed toward the manor. Foolish girl. She shook her head, fighting tears. That male hadn’t crossed her path to rescue her from her fate. No one could.
    Not even a lusty centaur craved her innocence. She wasn’t worth the risk.
    The grey stone manor rose before her and she straightened her shoulders. Tomorrow, Agrius would be gone and with him, any chance to change the course of her future. No Lapith would dare defy her family. The only male who would ever touch her would be the one her family sold her to.
    She clenched and unclenched her fists, then straightened her skirts, and marched inside the manor, past the guards.
    “Ah, milady.” A brown-haired handmaiden curtseyed before her. “Your father and brothers have asked for you. They are in the Great Hall.”
    Inclining her head, she veered to the right, through the tapestry-lined stone walls of the corridor, and stepped into the Great Hall. Her elder brothers, father, and sister reclined around the large oak table. The twins cast her sinister smirks. Nileas and Myron were both tall, husky males with ashen hair and blue eyes like their father and sister. Eione’s other elder brother Antion and her younger brother, Dryas, resembled their mother, with violet eyes and golden hair.
    Platters of meats, cheeses, breads, and extravagant dishes stretched across the table’s surface, threatening to sink the top beneath their weight.
    She frowned at the table and directed her attention to