Highland Pull (Highland Destiny 2) by Laura Harner, L.E. Harner Page B

nervous; he probably wanted the smiling Randi back, but she wasn’t feeling very happy at the moment. She didn’t object when he put his hands around her waist and pulled tight against her for the ride back to the house. There was comfort for both of them in their closeness.

Chapter Eleven
    Liam sat on the hard wooden chair and watched Marie gather her supplies for the ritual; he was taut with desire, anxious for the ceremony to begin. He was dressed in a pair of white drawstring cotton pants and naught more, his chest and abdomen were a complex pattern of symbols that disappeared below his waistband. The ritual they would perform tonight had been successful only once before, nearly a hundred years ago, and the spiritual leaders of Voodoo were counting on Marie to be able to perform it again. His magick was in stasis, not accessible to him. Whatever spells this woman had placed on him kept him tightly controlled and subject to her every demand. And she made many demands. Earlier, when she started to untie him, he’d stopped her with a word. He wanted to lose control, to be at her mercy. He knew she could kill him with a spell or potion and none would ever know. It was exhilarating.
    They had been at it for hours. She had given him a potion that prevented his climax without diminishing his abilities or desire. When he’d told her to take what she wanted, she’d given a slow, feral smile , then her clever mouth had tasted, licked, and kissed every part of him. He bucked his hips, cried out with frustrated desire, and made demands of his own. Marie just laughed and continued to seek her own pleasure.
    When she straddled his hips to lower her nipple into his mouth, he’d sucked it so hard he drew a cry of pain from her that quickly turned to moans of pleasure. When he’d nipped her in a particularly sensitive spot in his frustration, he’d earned swift retribution that he was helpless to avoid or escape. Marie had been satisfied many times and in many ways, yet his own release remained elusive. All he could do was serve at her pleasure.
    She had promised his release would come with the letting of the blood, and that it would have the blessed strength of the spirits. He was more than ready. He had no fear for his safety; he knew she was using his power to supplement hers, to strengthen the magick that had been decimated by a force of nature. How fitting his own magick would help to restore magick weakened by a hurricane so close in name to his own mother, Katerina.
    A woman called out from a boat on the bayou. Even without his magick he sensed an enormous force of power. Gabhran was outside the shack. Marie told him to wait inside while she went out to talk to the new arrivals. He wondered what game the Voodoo Queen was playing?
    How ironic it was that he’d spent months tracking Gav in order to bring him completely under the spell of darkness. Now the man was here, and Liam prepared himself for battle. He wouldn’t kill him unless it was absolutely necessary—but the woman with him could easily go. It would be all the push Gav needed. He had waited behind the door, but Marie had sent Gav away, and spoke not of the encounter, so he kept his own counsel.
    As the others arrived and drums began to pound, rhythmically, calling to a primitive part of his soul, he knew the ceremony was about to begin. Marie came and got him and led him to the center of a ring of people. A large bonfire appeared to burn on top of the water nearby, and candles lined the deck railing. Marie began the ritual prayers and invocations; a man stepped forward and draped a large snake across her shoulders. The snake hissed, eerily holding its head up, while it sinuously twined around her. Her body glistened beneath the sheer white fabric, and Liam was rock hard with suppressed desire.
    Everyone was twirling and chanting, dancing and crying out; the drums grew louder. Marie closed the circle she was dancing around him until she could touch him. She