Read Online Bride by Midnight by Linda Winstead Jones - Free Book Online Page A

would be. She still had so much to learn; there was so much to be taken from the world.
    She would not let two pitiful humans get in her way. Joined or not, prophesied or not, witch or not... they were only human and should be easy enough to kill. The witch, the blade... perhaps both of them, just to be safe. She could not allow them to get in the way of what she wanted.
    “Princess” was a start, but one day... one day she would be more than a Princess. Empress? Queen? Goddess? Her life, her rule, had only just begun.

Chapter Five
    The final peal of the midnight bells faded away. Lyssa held onto Blade, who was moving in and out of her at a slow, steady pace. There had been some pain at first, but she could not say she felt pain any longer. A little discomfort, maybe. Mainly it was just odd to have a part of a man inside her. Odd and strangely compelling. Her hips moved against him, almost without thought or intent, as if she had an itch and he was scratching it gently. Gently. Oh, not always gently.
    She’d known what to expect, in a vague way, but his manly part was bigger than she’d thought it would be. She hadn’t gotten a good look at it, because it was so dark here in the shadows, but she could certainly feel it. And it was so hard . How did he keep that thing under control at all times? How on earth did any man walk down the street without waddling? She would have to ask Blade how he handled normal activities with such an impediment, but now was not the time for such a question.
    How desperate she must be not to become a nun, to allow herself to be here, in this position, with this man she’d just met. Blade Renshaw was her husband, yes, but she didn’t know him at all. Well, she knew that he was kind enough to rescue a woman in need, even though he didn’t look at all kind. She knew he had no real desire to take a wife, though he didn’t seem to mind this part of the arrangement at all. He had once been a sailor and a ship builder, he’d said, so why did he no longer live by the sea? She knew he was most likely a thief, perhaps a beggar, perhaps both, but he’d spoken to Father Kiril as if he were a gentleman.
    She really could not think of Father Kiril now! He would be shocked to see her in such an undignified position. She was shocked herself. This was certainly not how she’d imagined the night ending. She’d imagined a proper bed, one candle on the bedside table, some kissing before and after. Instead she was... here. And what was happening here had completely scattered her wits.
    The important thing was that she was married and bedded, albeit without the bed. She was a wife in all ways. Maybe she didn’t know much about the man she’d wed, but she had taken a husband before her twenty-third birthday. She wouldn’t live her life alone in darkness, as her dreams—and that awful witch Vellance—had warned.
    Her thoughts came quickly, disjointed. She really needed to stop thinking so much. The movement of her husband within her was terribly distracting, and soon she couldn’t think of anything else but the way it felt there , where their bodies came together. She shifted, and he thrust deeper. She buried her face against his warm neck and breathed in his manly scent. It was intriguing; intoxicating.
    Her body warmed, and her breath came differently, as if she had to work to bring air into her lungs. She forgot everything but the way it felt to have Blade inside her. She even forgot that she was in an alley, with her back against a rough wall and her skirt bunched up around her waist.
    Blade moved faster, and so did she. It was as if she was driven instinctively to take him in. To rub her body against his and urge him deeper. She wanted more, but she wasn’t sure exactly how to get it or even what it was. He drove deep and held himself still, and he shook. She felt his release inside her own body, heard a low groan in her ear. He went still, but for the effort it took for him to breathe. His body