From the author: feedback, comments, etc, are all appreciated, even suggestions on how to improve, what is lacking, and the readers feelings about the story, good or bad. Chapter Two will be forthcoming. Thanks for reading!
Shadow
Each weave of moonlight distorted vision in the night fog. Laughter and loud music echoed from open doors far off to Fiachna's right, deadened and unreal. Dark demons of lust cavorted in his soul. He thrust his fingers into the long tresses of the woman kneeling before him and locked her head in a vise.
Cold lust, heartless and cruel, siphoned passion from his soul until all that could possibly remain was mindless excess. His low, sepulchral voice insinuated itself into the fog. "Take it, wench. All of it."
She opened her lips, and he lunged forward. Dangerous teeth scraped tortuously over his distended flesh. He withdrew, only to thrust further inside her throat, choking her.
She brought her hands up to stop him, and finally forced him from her lips to spew his seed to the ground.
His stomach clenched with each spasm. The last jolt rumbled through his loins, and he let go of her hair. The cold wrap of her hand retreated and he tucked the softening shaft back into his trousers.
"Damn it, Fia." The soft voice had a tight edge that forced its way through the fog. Lust and anger mingled in the tone.
Fiachna looked up at the pale-eyed man who stepped from the shadows, and smiled slightly. "Trynt."
"You have a new wife waiting for you."
"And now I won't jump on her like some ravening animal," Fiachna answered calmly. "If I recall, you were the one who told me not to hurt her." Silence, but he could still feel that pale glare, so familiar he felt comforted.
The woman at his feet spoke softly. "May I leave, Sir?" She kept her eyes on the ground.
"Stand up," Fiachna ordered. "Trynt, meet..." Frowning, he stared at her down turned face. "Just what is your name, anyway?"
She stood, but kept her eyes down. "Mairead, Sir."
"Meet Mairead." He tilted her head up with a finger. "Trynt will take care of you. I have other things to do."
"It's terribly nice of you to arrange my night."
The comment was soft, but had a bite to it that turned Fiachna toward Trynt. "I don't want you lurking around my bedroom door all night waiting to save the terrified little virgin. If I find you there we'll have a fight. Do I make myself clear?"
"Aye, Cap'n, Sir. Transparently clear."
Fiachna eyed his first mate for a long minute, glanced down pointedly, and then gave him a shove toward the woman. "You look like you could use a little relief, yourself. Take advantage of it."
Trynt's glare also contained guilt, but Fiachna ignored it. Instead, he turned, and with an unerring sense of direction even in the fog, he made his way toward the open doors of his home.
Inside, the wedding celebration was well on its way toward complete inebriation. A pack of pirates made for a noisy time of it, and half his crew was singing the bawdiest songs they could remember. Fiachna winced. Off-key singing made his head hurt, but he didn't stop them. Instead, he poured a drink of whatever smelled the strongest, and tried to pass the time until he could go upstairs to his β now his wife and his β bedroom.
His cock told him the interlude with Mairead hadn't made much of a difference.
*
Spun gold fell around Aingeal's shoulders; a halo. White lace dripped from her nightdress, as full as the wedding dress she'd been wearing earlier. Blue eyes the color of an endless summer sky contemplated Fiachna as he entered the room. Bathed in fire light, she waited for him to speak, and he stood, transfixed by the soft appearance of his new wife.
She was an angel, everything about her reflected innocence and a purity that set his soul on edge. God had placed her on earth, minus only the wings that would have alerted the world to her true nature. My God, what was she doing, marrying a man such as he?