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Excerpt from Hair of the Dog by Kate Hill
Available from Changeling Press
Back at the manor house, he took several articles from his bag of belongings and traveled into the nearby woods. Finding a secluded clearing, he undressed and took his flogger. No matter how intensely he focused on his punishment, he couldn’t stop thinking about a mistake that had cost innocent lives and forced him to reclaim immortality from one of his vampiric children.
After several hours with the flogger, his back felt like a raw mass of pure, horrific sensation. The physical pain did nothing to subdue the emotional turmoil of destroying one of his children turned bad. Dropping the instrument of self-mutilation, he walked into the brook, his legs trembling a bit from pain and blood loss. Even the cool water did little to sooth his stinging flesh, yet he began healing rapidly. By the time he stepped out and dressed, the physical pain had significantly diminished.
Sitting under a tree, he caught Adira’s scent. Moments later she entered the clearing.
“Well,” she said, stopping in front of him and folding her arms beneath her breasts, “at least I waited long enough so that I didn’t have to witness you beating yourself bloody.”
“No one asked you to come,” he replied quietly.
“Did it help?”
His gaze flickered toward her in question.
“Punishing yourself. Did it help?”
“Not really.”
“Maybe discipline isn’t what you need for this particular problem. Maybe this will help more.” She knelt beside him and drew him into her arms. Strangely, her embrace did what no amount of punishment could. He felt a slight release of pent up emotion and for the first time in his long life gave in completely.
He wrapped his arms around her and she tenderly ran her fingers through his hair.
“Ariel,” she murmured, brushing her lips across his temple.
Unable to fight off the need burning inside him, he covered her mouth with his. His lips moved sensuously against her soft, moist ones. Adira opened her mouth to his searching tongue. Hers met it, caressing with languid strokes that pushed his desire to fevered heights.
Please. Please. Her spiritual voice spoke to him.
Yes, yes, he answered. I want you, Adira. I need you.
How he did need her! The only way to dull the raw, gnawing grief seemed to be through her. She was giving and taking in a way he never dreamed possible.
“Take me, “ she whispered against his lips. “Ariel, please take me.”
A low growl of desire escaped his throat. He instinctively began to undress her with surprising deftness for a man who spent his life abstaining from carnal pleasure. While he removed her clothes, she tore off his, her hand seeking his bare flesh beneath. The heat of her palms on his skin was too wonderful for words. He groaned with pleasure.
Within seconds they were wrapped naked in each other’s arms.
