Lord of the Forest Read Online Free PDF

mouth. The tart nectar reacted on his tongue. It made his heart race, and he seized her in strong arms and pulled her into the hammock.
    “What are you, little vixen—angel, devil, sorceress?” he panted. “You have bewitched me!”
    “I have told you,” she murmured. “I am spirit.”
    “That I believe,” Marius said. “You have haunted me since we met.”
    His hands slid the satiny length of her spine. Inching lower, they cupped the globes of her buttocks, and he groaned. She was irresistibly soft, warm and willing in his arms, yielding to his touch, to his voice, to his will. The maidens of midsummer were submissive, but she was his . Not just her body, but her spirit, her mind, the very beat of her heart raced for him.
    He’d grown hard, his thick shaft leaning against her belly as she lay atop him in the gently swaying hammock. He moved underneath her, spreading the scent of honeysuckle as his body crushed more of the delicate flowers. She tasted of the tart pomegranate juice. He licked it from the soft lips so eager for his kiss. When she took his face in her hands, he drew her thumb into his mouth and sucked and teased it with his tongue until his hips jerked forward.
    Having made short work of the grapes Linnea had given him, Esau hopped down from the ferns and flew back into the hammock, where he began pecking at the discarded pomegranate, plucking out the fleshy pips one by one while making loving little pleasure clucks. Tenacious in his attack, he persisted until he’d knocked the fruit to the ground, where he pounced upon it, tossing back his sleek black head to devour it in bits and catch every succulent drop of juice trickling down his white breast and distinctly marked sides.
    “Esau has stolen your breakfast,” Linnea said, her tender lips against his.
    “Magpies are shameless thieves,” Marius said. “Esau is no exception, I’m afraid. Leave him to his pleasure while we take ours, my beauty.”
    “Should we not be resting now, like the others?” she inquired. Her hands, cool and soft, traced the outline of his broad chest and narrow waist and inched ever closer to the throbbing hardness flattened against the soft swell of her belly. It was almost beyond bearing.
    “We are not like the others,” he murmured. “You have already seen me at my worst. Soon the moon will go entirely dark, and it will happen again. The change depends upon it. I do not want the beast to spoil the magic. There is so little time.”
    “How did it happen before if the moon is not yet dark?” she asked.
    “Lately, the beast has been emerging when I am agitated or aroused—or taken by surprise, Linnea.” She only laughed. “I have no control over the transformation when the moon goes dark.”
    “What did you do to anger the gods so greatly that they have punished you thus?” she asked. Her innocent curiosity overwhelmed him. What a strange, complex creature she was, possessed of an awestruck innocence, yet smoldering with sultry passion that defied description. She was at best an enigma, and he longed to peel away the mysterious layers of her psyche and solve what lay hidden behind the veil.
    Marius hesitated. It was a fair question. “We lords of the green who tend the forests of the world are duty-bound to protect the land and creatures in our charge,” he said. “I killed a centaur, and the gods punished me by making me live in the body of one during the dark of the moon.”
    “But, if it was an accident—”
    “What happened was deliberate, and I am punished because I will not repent of it.”
    “Whatever provoked you?” she breathed, incredulous.
    “Surely you have heard the tales,” he began.
    “I do not listen to tales, only truths.”
    “My tale is that,” Marius shot back. “But why darken the day with it, when our bodies are so in tune with Midsummer revelry and our appetites are so eager to be slaked?”
    “Because,” she insisted, “you have piqued my curiosity now, and I would