Darkness Embraced Read online

  “You are new to prostitution?” Dredd continued to stand over her, watching her neck as she swallowed nervously, imagining his tongue there, his teeth as he nibbled her soft skin. With shock Dredd realized he was aroused. Really aroused.

  “Y-yes. I’m sorry. I don’t think...I don’t think I can do this.”

  ****

  Dredd stiffened, and Ivy knew right away that he thought it was him she didn’t think she could do. Her head reeled from seeing him, speaking with him. He learned Islesh since last they met, and he spoke it very well. Ivy was proud of him, and wanted to tell him so. She wanted to tell him how she longed to see his face, that she wanted to finish what they started that day by the creek. But she knew the minute he discovered her real identity her fantasy would come to an end, so she said nothing.

  When she spotted him in the parlor she lost her nerve. And then when he followed her to the alcove she felt a moment of sheer panic, fearing he recognized her. But as he looked down at her now, his expression showing only interest, Ivy calmed; she wouldn’t let herself ruin it.

  “I’m not skilled at this I’m afraid,” she said looking up at him with a small smile, and noticed his posture was still stiff. Dredd was awaiting rejection. Ivy melted. “Which is unfortunate, because as soon as I saw you in there, I wanted very much to be good at this.”

  Dredd’s eyes widened slightly at her admission. She shocked him.

  Good.

  Ivy savored her success and went for more, shifting her position on the padded cushion, knowing it would expose her cleavage to his gaze. “I wanted to be seductive and assured and irresistible. And instead I lost my nerve and ran. You must think me very childish.”

  After several seconds of silence he said, “When I look at you I see nothing child-like.”

  Ivy smiled, wanting to dance around with excitement. He was flirting with her! Two could play that game. “When I look at you I see a legendary warrior of the arena, strong and brave and admired by thousands. I suppose you can’t blame a girl, even a courtesan, for being nervous around you.”

  The corner of Dredd’s mouth lifted slightly. Ivy knew for him this was equal to someone else’s beaming ear-to-ear smile. Ivy heartily wished she could remain in costume forever.

  “I do not wish for you to be nervous.” Dredd replied, his gruff voice, which was just as she remembered, causing shivers to race through her.

  “I just can’t believe I am speaking with The Undefeated Ajax,” she gushed.

  “Call me Dredd.”

  “Please have a seat, Dredd. And you can call me Scarlet.”

  Dredd sat, his large frame looking out of place in the small plush alcove. He wore a vest-like tunic, which left his muscled arms exposed to her gaze. Ivy longed to reach over and trace the intricate tattoos with her finger and then realized she could. She was playing a prostitute after all. Ivy scooted closer to him, and tried to channel Sloane, who practically oozed seduction and sexuality. She reached out, her hand trembling as she began to trace his tattoos. His skin was warm and smooth, his muscles rigid. Heat suffused her body as she caressed him, she was so aroused by a mere touch. As she dared a glance up at Dredd’s face, she knew he too was affected. His eyes were heavy-lidded and his gaze was filled with...heat.

  “Most females do not react to me as you do.”

  Ivy was surprised at his honest admission, relishing this new communicative Dredd. “Oh? And how do they react?”

  “With fear. Or revulsion,” he replied simply.

  Ivy’s heart broke. She knew he included her in with those women he was thinking of. Women who rejected him, who ran from him.

  “Maybe you mistake uncertainty for revulsion, hmmm?”

  He said nothing. Ivy feared she was losing him, his mind venturing back to past transgressions. She needed him here, in this moment. With her. She grabbed his hand, placing it on her breast, above her heart. “I am feeling many things for you, Dredd, but revulsion definitely isn’t one of them.”

  Dredd growled, his face full of amazement as he began to squeeze her breast with his hand. Ivy grew wet, the reality so much better than any fantasy. She wanted him so badly.

  “Can I tell you a secret?” she whispered to him.

  “Anything.”

  “I’m not really a prostitute. I’m the maid here at Doves. But I asked to participate tonight...for you. I wanted a chance to be with you.”

  “Do you have somewhere more private we can go?”

  There was no turning back now. “Y-yes. We can go to my room.”

  “Good. Because I want to be inside you. Deep and hard and for a long time. And I don’t want anyone’s eyes on you but mine when I do it.”

  Ivy nearly fainted. Hearing Dredd articulate the very thing she’d fantasized about for so long sent a thrill through her. Somehow they made it down the stairs to her basement room. Dredd picked her up and threw her none too gently on the bed, then quickly covered her body with his own. His weight upon her felt so right.

  “I am glad you have the lanterns lit. I want to see you, all of you, when I claim you tonight.”

  “I want to see you too,” Ivy breathed, reaching up to touch the scars on his face. “I love your scars. They show how strong you are. But I’m saddened to know you suffered pain to receive them.”

  “I would gladly receive them a thousand times over to have your hands on me,” Dredd replied, leaning down to nip her neck with his teeth. “Take off your mask.”

  Ivy paled.

  Not now!

  She needed more time! “Please...I’d rather keep it on. I’m very shy and it seems to help me...lower my inhibitions.” Ivy licked her lower lip slowly, in what she hoped was a seductive maneuver.

  Dredd studied her, pinning her with his gaze for several moments. “Then by all means keep it on.”

  ****

  Dredd felt lightheaded with desire. He was on a bed with a beautiful and willing woman beneath him. A woman who wanted him. And he wanted her too. So much. But even as her body under his felt delicious, and strangely right, he couldn’t stop thinking about Ivy. It didn’t help that Scarlet favored Ivy with the same build, the same full lips, the same soft white skin. She even had the same jasmine scent. Why couldn’t he be doing this with her?

  Enough!

  He would forget about her, at least for tonight. Scarlet wanted him. And his erection clearly wanted her in return. He cupped her breast, wanting to feel its perfection again. “When I’m inside you, Scarlet, you will be wearing nothing but your mask.”

  She shivered. “Kiss me, Dredd.”

  He hesitated. He had never kissed anyone before. Once again, Ivy flashed through his mind. Why hadn’t he kissed her? She might have liked it, have warmed to him...Damn!

  Enough, you arse.

  He spent the last two annums searching for a female who didn’t want to be found.

  But he just didn’t want to mess it up too badly. Dredd leaned down, and instead of capturing Scarlet’s lips with his own, he placed a kiss on her breast instead. She made a little purring sound in the back of her throat and that was all the encouragement he needed.

  “I’ve longed for this,” Scarlet whispered.

  Dredd was mindless with need. He moved the dress down her chest. Just as he was about to expose her breasts he uttered, “Gods, I’ve longed for this too, Ivy.”

  The woman beneath him gasped and froze. Dredd leaned up to look at her face. What was wrong?

  And then he realized what he had called her. Fool! He was finally about to lay with a female, who happened to be gorgeous and responding to him so hotly, and he just ruined it by calling her another female’s name.

  Damn you, Ivy.

  Why could he only think of her when he was with Scarlet?

  “Scarlet, I’m sorry. I did not mean…” Dredd stopped when Scarlet raised her palm to silence him.

  She reached up to untie the mask, her hands shaking again. “I’m sorry too, Dredd. And I want you to remember all of this when you see
who I really am. I meant everything I said.”

  “What do you—”

  The mask fell to the bed.

  “YOU! You bitch!” Dredd roared as he flew off the bed.

  Ivy bolted up, scooting backwards as she pulled her dress back in place.

  “You dare toy with me this way?!”

  “Dredd it’s not like that at all. Please listen! I knew that you wouldn’t be reasonable if you knew who I really was. I just wanted—”

  In an instant he was over her, his hand around her throat. “Not. Another. Bloody. Word.”

  Ivy’s eyes were wide, her lower lip trembling. But she said nothing.

  “Get up.”

  Ivy started shaking. “No. I don’t think that—”

  Dredd grabbed her and slung her over his shoulder. He carried her toward the stairs.

  “What are you doing!? Let me go!” Ivy pounded on his back. “You are really scaring me!”

  “I know all about being scared. Like the moment I realized that my Vessel had poisoned me and I thought I might die.” Dredd’s voice was flat and emotionless as he began ascending the stairs with her.

  “I would never have killed you. I simply wanted to put you to sleep—”

  Dredd jostled her as he moved through the upstairs doorway. “It never occurred to you that a female who knew nothing of the Dark Woods might make an error in the dosage? That a little too much blackwillow might be lethal, even for an Ajax?”

  Ivy gasped. “No! I would never have done it if I knew it could kill—”

  “Silence!”

  “Where are you taking me? There are a dozen people between us and the front door!”

  “None who will dare stop me.”

  As Dredd walked through the parlor toward the door, all noise in the room abruptly ceased. Heads turned in shock.

  Only two people made a move. The first was Sloane. Like an ebony-haired rocket she shot though the crowd, elbowing people out of the way. “Hey, what in the hells are you doing? Put her down!”

  The second was Hollis, his reassuring presence never far from the front door. He came to stand in front of it now, and Ivy blanched. Hollis was big and strong, and certainly brave, but she knew he would be no match for Dredd.

  The Magister, who stood strategically just behind Sloane, tried to sound stern. “Dredd, there is no need for a scene, if you want the whore you can have her here—”

  Dredd snarled without turning, even as he kept walking toward the door. “She is mine. She goes with me. And anyone who tries to stop me dies.”

  Sloane looked from Ivy to Dredd to Hollis to Ivy again. “Ivy?”

  “Just do what he says. I don’t want anyone getting hurt. Hollis, please, move away from the door.”

  Sloane nodded to Hollis, who hesitated then stepped aside, and then she called to Dredd’s retreating back. “Ajax, if you hurt her I won’t rest until you have been castrated and disemboweled.”

  Dredd stalked out of the house and into the night.

  ****

  The evening had not gone as planned, Ivy thought miserably. After a seriously uncomfortable and silent journey through the village of Dimm over the shoulder of an angry Ajax, she was now on a bed in a room she could only assume was Dredd’s. He didn’t bother to give her a tour as she was whisked through a darkened courtyard of the barracks, up a flight of stairs, and unceremoniously dumped onto a bed before he turned and stalked from the room.

  As she took in her surroundings she had to admit they were much better than she had anticipated. Dredd’s chamber was actually...nice. Plush furniture, soft bedding, and a sideboard laden with fruits, bread, and wine. The room was spacious and the large windows along the far wall were slightly open, the sheer drapes rippling in the breeze. Ivy never expected Dredd to stay in such accommodations, a man who was accustomed to the forest floor and caves. Did she even know him anymore? Was the Dredd who carried her out of Doves tonight a very different male than the Dredd she spent those few days with so many moon cycles ago?

  Ivy admitted to herself that she was, after all, a very different woman than the one who fled the woods almost two annums earlier. She created a new life for herself, and though it wasn’t most people’s definition of ideal, she relished the freedom and security her position at Doves granted her. Having it allowed Ivy to become a more confident person, and coming from such a rough beginning gave her the ability to savor the small joys in life.

  Her new outlook was why she made her decision tonight. To give in to the primal urge she felt to see him, to feel Dredd after so long. Ivy chose to walk away from him all those moon cycles ago, and though she remained steadfast as to why she had done it, she always wondered what would have happened if she had stayed. If she had acquiesced to the Ajax’s desires, would she now be living a happy life as the wife of a strong and virile warrior? Would she maybe even now be nursing his child at her breast?

  There is no point in wondering what might have been.

  She wandered the room, touching fabrics. She had set her course on this sea of fate, and she could only hope she didn’t end up wrecked among the rocks. And she must trust that though her Ajax was angry, very angry, he would never really hurt her.

  You mean like when you hurt him? When you tricked him and drugged him with a lethal plant?

  Ivy winced as the thought sliced through her mind. What Dredd said to her earlier really bothered her. Could she have killed him with her carelessness?

  Her mouth dry, Ivy made her way to the sideboard and poured herself some wine. She was nervous enough without going down that road tonight. Longing for distraction from her negative thoughts, Ivy continued to explore. She was eager to glean any details she could about just who her Ajax was now. He was clean and spoke fluent Islesh; what else had changed?

  Ten minutes later, Ivy was perplexed and increasingly concerned. There were no details to glean. Nothing about this room, which was locked, she had checked that right away, gave any indications about its inhabitant. While she knew that the Beasts lived a nomadic lifestyle, constantly moving from town to town for tournaments, it was obvious he traveled with a great many furnishings and conveniences to fill his room. But there was nothing of his personality, nothing that spoke of him. Nothing that reminded her of the Dredd she knew in the woods.

  Was her Ajax dead inside, condemned to existing but not living? She sat down in one of the high backed chairs, and at that moment Ivy heard the latch of the chamber door turning.

  Speak of the devil...

  ****

  Dredd placed his dagger in his belt, took off his knife-tipped metal glove, and exited the practice arena, finally feeling that he was calm enough to go back to his chamber. He had been so filled with equal parts rage and desire when he brought Ivy here earlier that he hadn’t trusted himself. Though it went against everything inside him to leave her, when he wanted nothing but to see her for so long, he had no choice. Dredd didn’t want to do anything he might regret.

  He left Ivy and made his way down to the practice arena, hoping that working out would release the energy inside him that threatened to bubble over. He wanted to take her hard, his shaft still throbbing from their earlier encounter. And he wanted to unleash his rage on her, punishing her for her betrayal. Instead, he took out his feelings on one of the practice dummies until it was decimated and the muscles in his arms screamed with exertion.

  It hadn’t helped matters that he found her, his vessel, in a brothel. A damned whorehouse! Even if she was telling the truth about being the maid and not a courtesan, it made his blood boil to know she had been there, night after night, seeing things that he should have been the one to show her. Wearing things that he should have been the one to see.

  The many other Beasts all knew to avoid Dredd, and moved through the barracks like ghosts to retire to their quarters without being seen. Which was good, as he was not in the mood. His workout had definitely helped, but he was still on edge as he headed up the stairs.

  He wanted to hate Ivy
, yet he found he could no longer. She became his mate the night he found her tied to a tree and he felt bound to her. He would never be free of her, had to possess her in order to ever have some semblance of sanity again. Everything about her called to everything in him.

  But Dredd did not know what in the hells to do when he made it to the chamber door. He hadn’t given any thought beyond throwing Ivy over his shoulder and dragging her to his bed. Though the language barrier was no longer an issue it might as well have been. His thoughts were a jumble and complicated by his unchecked emotions. But, despite what he had feared for a great many moon cycles, she must want him too. Otherwise why would she have done what she did tonight?

  Dredd reached the door and braced himself, as though it was a ferocious creature on the other side and not a soft and diminutive female. But he would do well to remember she was a female who almost killed him. Who managed to survive a trip out of the Dark Woods alone.

  When he entered the room he found her, not on the bed where he left her, but instead sitting in one of the chairs in front of the windows on the far wall, drinking a glass of wine. It still startled him to see her with her hair dyed such a deep shade of red and her face covered in makeup. She looked stunning, though he preferred her natural blonde.

  He approached until he stood in front of her and she had to tilt her head back to look up at him. He pulled the wineglass from her hand and downed the remaining contents in one gulp, aroused by the notion that his lips now touched the rim where hers had been only moments before. The wine was sweet but he knew she was so much sweeter.

  He didn’t even have to utter a question. Words came tumbling from her mouth.”We were too different. There was a rift between us that I felt could never be bridged. I was terrified of the unknown you were taking me to. And though I...I couldn’t deny that I was drawn to you, that I felt something between us, I just c-couldn’t see any way past the confusion and fear and miscommunication. I had just escaped from slavery and was suffocated by the feeling of having no choice. Of living among a strange p-people who didn’t even speak my tongue.”

  “I would never have treated you as a slave.” Dredd’s voice didn’t sound like his own, it was filled with emotion, unsteady and halting.