Dark Sonata Page 3

  His eyes widened when he saw that she was right next to him. “My Lady!” he yelled through the storm, “W-what the devil are ye doing out ‘ere?! ‘Tis not safe!”

  “You will not shoot my mare!” She hollered back then wiped the rain from her face. The man looked exhausted and very cold, his nose was bright red while the rest of his face was alarmingly pale. His gray overcoat was black from being soaked and his hat had water pouring off the brim.

  He started to say something but was yanked backwards.

  A vicious canine was pulling at his clothes, growling, ferociously shaking its head back and forth, tearing at the wool fabric. She ran to help him but was stopped abruptly in her tracks; three more dogs appeared, circling around her, looking as though they had never eaten before.

  The growling grew louder as they eyed her. The rain seemed not to affect them and even the other dog left the gunman to join the inspection of her. “Bloody hell,” Victoria cursed. Here she thought that her life could not get any worse and that just showed she lack a sufficient imagination. She slowly backed up while the dogs grew nearer, just waiting for her to bolt. Victoria raised her trembling hands, as if that would ward them off. “O-old Blue, it’s me. R-remember?”

  He did not.

  The old canine jumped forward snapping its razor teeth then retreated a step. Victoria sharply inhaled trying to wipe the rain from her face to see them clearly, not wanting to miss anything.

  “Miss, dona move!”

  “What the pissing hell do you think I’m doing?!” Victoria hissed back to the man who was still struggling to get up, slipping on the wet ground with his lumbering movements. Her body refused to move another inch and her joints trembled without pause. “Use the b-bloody gun you f-fool!” she screamed, still standing perfectly motionless, arms up to ward off any attack.

  One dog lunged, clasping its jaws on the meager fabric. Victoria fell backwards, screaming as the others joined in. She was being pulled in all different directions, her dressing gown ripping with each violent shake. Victoria reached up frantically trying to rip what was left of her robe free from their jaws, yelling for them to stop! She yanked again and kicked a snapping jaw. “Get a—way!”

  A gunshot rang out.

  The four dogs instantly fled from the deafening sound. Relieved, Victoria looked over to the man who still held the gun up high. A look of fright was etched into his pudgy face.

  “Come over ‘ere!”

  She crawled her way to him wanting desperately to be by the gun in case the dogs came back.

  “You alright?” He inquired not bothering to look her way but rather was peering around looking extremely paranoid. “Where is your bloody mare at?” he asked, frowning into the night.

  Victoria got up on her bruised knees, looking around in the darkness. “Maybe they got her to calm down?” she offered back feeling very uneasy. Her body shaking with adrenaline and cold.

  The man rubbed his baldhead, his hat lost to the darkness. Suddenly he grabbed her arm squeezing it for he had gone three shades paler. “Devil take it! Run!”

  Run?!

  Victoria looked to where he pointed to see her white mare racing straight for them. Charging was more like it! Her horse looked malevolent, its eyes glowing crimson. She was paralyzed for one frightening moment then let out a shriek. They both got up and took off, but sure enough the horse was zoned in on her, deliberately seeking her out. Her tattered dressing gown snagged on a thorny bush temporarily pulling her to a sudden halt. “Ah!” she cried, peering back at the nearing mare, hooves pounding the ground in a mad gallop. Adrenalin pumping, she yanked off the gown leaving just her stays and shift then sprinted. The cold of the night was also forgotten as she raced towards the manor determined not to be trampled to death. Victoria risked another glance behind her and could not believe what she saw.

  Victoria‘s mare was closing in on her fast, yes, but someone was also closing in on her horse.

  A man on a leviathan black stallion chased after her mare gaining on her rapidly. Dear God her mare didn’t have a chance for no other horse seemed to possess such speed as this stallion. It didn’t seem real.

  The dark rider’s mount almost dwarfed hers and Brat was a good-sized mare with long muscular legs. Victoria stopped, completely stunned as she watched, breathing hard from her exertion. Time seemed to slow down for she was so enthralled by the grace of the rider and magnificence of his mount. Her eyes squinted, trying to focus through the rain. She could tell the man was big and muscular exuding grace with his long legs clamped around the horse. The rider matched his animal to perfection—commanding, mysteriously gallant, and with an unexplainable power.

  Yes, she picked up on all of those traits.

  He wore no hat; his hair completely soaked as was hers. The man possessed midnight hair and his pale skin almost glowed from within, so radiant in the darkness. The rider’s black overcoat flapped in the wind as his horse hammered the ground in a mighty gallop. He stood up in his stirrups while he reached over and grabbed Brat’s reins, yanking the mare’s neck aggressively to the right.

  Victoria’s eyes widened.

  Her horse almost did a full turn for its force plummeted her to the ground. Brat rolled on her back, struggling to get up. Victoria covered her mouth in fright then frowned; the rider held his hand above her struggling horse and she instantly felt a deep vibration. The sensation went up her legs to the flush of her cheeks. Brat finally got up, shaking its head looking nothing like the killer she had been minutes before.

  Victoria's heart started to pound.

  What did he just do? Her horse took off in a gallop towards the stables. Before Victoria could wrap her mind around what just happened she heard ferocious barks and growls.

  Victoria shot a glance to her right and saw the dogs sprinting back towards her. Gasping she took off into a run, cursing her bad luck to hell! Another dog appeared before making her change directions, running away from the manor. She screamed as she felt the dog snatching at her heels probably loving the chase she provided. As she was sprinting Victoria suddenly felt the impression of thunder, the ground rumbling behind her. The powerful sound neared quickly as the tremors intensified.

  She felt the dog snatch at her ankles with its jaws making her lose her footing. It didn’t seem like a normal dog could have so much speed or force but all the same she found herself slipping in the wet grass. But before she fell something grabbed her arm yanking her upwards, her limbs flailing like a rag doll.

  It happened so fast that everything blurred together until she found herself sitting face to face with him. Victoria was draped across his lap on his giant black stallion. She looked up, bewildered, her eyes trying to focus.

  Their gazes clashed.

  The Earth might as well have swallowed her whole.

  The thumping of her heart was embarrassingly loud—her breath became quicker as she took in the sight of him. She might have made a noise but she couldn’t be sure. The man looked like the Prince of Darkness, sin incarnate.

  Oh Victoria … look what you have gotten yourself into now.

  Or onto.

  Only meaning that she was sitting on the man—no, sitting on a Greek god. This will go down into the books. If she had the strength to raise her finger and point at him, she would, rudely, finger shaking and scream.

  He was frightening.

  There was no other way to describe him with his pale skin and hair as black as a raven’s wing. But the rider’s shocking feature was his eyes—a shining silver, molten mercury, the purest of grays. She shivered, his eyes were anything but normal, she might even say he could be blind, but that was ridiculous. He was gazing at her so intensely that she was scared to move. His lips were full, soft looking against the rest of his harsh features. The man was handsome beyond rational reasoning, if one was into dark and disturbingly eerie men.

  Oh no, no.

  He was not human; he just wasn’t. No human man had this amount of magnetism. And the darkne
ss that swirled around him was proof that he was not what he seemed. Something told her that he was not her knight in shining armor here to rescue her, for if he was she wouldn’t be feeling this amount of trepidation. But that fact didn’t make her heart any the smarter for it fluttered and dipped, not knowing how to handle such male perfection.

  Victoria frowned. His mouth was moving and his pale eyes were franticly searching her face. Ouch, his eyes were so unsettling.

  Wait, was he talking to me?

  Must be, but she couldn’t hear a word.

  Her body felt disconnected, light as a feather. That’s when she felt his hands on her, moving over her skin. Her first reaction was to scream. But, Aah, they were so warm that she leaned into him desperately wanting more warmth emitting from his large body. But most of all she wanted to sleep … just to close her eyes. She could just drift into a happy place where he was, in fact, her knight in shining armor. Mmm …

  Victoria felt a release of pressure that surrounded her chest then realized the back of her corset was being ripped down the middle.

  Her anger died when air seemed to rush into her body filling up her lungs as she heaved against him, coughing through the pain in her chest. Air! She could breathe. I need air to breathe, she frantically reminded herself. Her vision blurred for a second then righted itself. Muffled sounds seeped back into her ears and then instantly they came back with alarming force. Victoria jerked her head up with newfound energy and surprising clarity.

  “Can you hear me?” His gloved hands were on her shoulders, rubbing up and down seeming to warm her.

  She glanced at his hands on her then back up to him. “I … am not deaf, and you can stop that at once,” she got out, not knowing why she was trying to save her dignity. She was trying to be proper right now? After all, he did save her from being ripped apart by rabid dogs.

  “Stop what?” she heard him say.

  His voice was soft and hard at the same time, like slowly melting chocolate. Delicious. She glanced up and almost lost her nerve. “Touching me,” she whispered. That was somewhat of a ridiculous demand seeing how she was sitting in his lap. Her reputation was no doubt dwelling in the fiery pits of hell. And looking into his pale gaze, she really could give a rat’s ass.

  He raised a dark brow and tilted his head. “You’re aggressive for almost dying of hypothermia, love,” he softly reprimanded.

  Alright, keep calm. His voice was chilling and distressing on so many levels. I think my ovaries just exploded.

  As she stared at his mesmerizing eyes she felt fabric sliding over her skin when she moved her arms, jerking her head down she gasped. Her corset fell off, fluttering to the ground leaving her bare to the night’s chill and to the dark stranger before her. Victoria heard him curse then his arms circled around her pressing, her too him. Panic swelled inside her and she shrieked, “Let mee-h go!” She shivered uncontrollably, suddenly feeling the chill of the night. The rain had stopped but the wind was biting, her breath visible.

  The absurdity of this situation was astounding. Suddenly warmth engulfed her, his black overcoat wrapping her tightly like a cocoon.

  “You need to breathe easy,” he whispered in her ear. How many times can she say his voice was undoing her. But now she detected a chilling note to it, like as cold as death itself. “Sit still and warm yourself or you will be no good to me ill.”

  The smell of his cloak was toxic, like a love potion.

  Victoria pushed her embarrassment down and nodded then frowned. You will be no good to me ill? Who did this man think he was?! “T-take me b-back. Now!” She still shivered and her body trembled. This was so wrong; no proper lady would ever get herself into this sort of awkward situation.

  His mount jumped around bouncing her closer to him. “Yes,” he said as he got a hold of the reins, “you don’t want to be late for the ball.” Victoria barely heard, not sure if she detected a hint of sarcasm. Yes, by the dark look he was giving her he was definitely being cold, ill-mannered.

  Mercy.

  How intently he was staring at her could make a nun blush. The length of his midnight hair was soaked, curling slightly around his ears making him look dangerously appealing. She must not be thinking clearly for she was picturing someone who wasn’t really there, a dark angel perhaps, a fragment in her mind. Maybe she was dreaming …

  “Are you feeling better?” he lightly inquired, his stallion jumping to the side jolting her again. He quickly reached around her waist to pull harder on the reins coming within inches of her face and his hands slightly grazed her thighs as he did so, sending her senses into a panic. She had never been this close to a man before, ever. The dark rider leaned back so that their gazes met, his face just breaths away. It was in that moment that she felt like a wild animal being cornered and faced by a true predator. The lion and the lamb. One false move could mean her demise.

  Her heart beat accelerated.

  He grinned at her then, like he could sense or see the fear etched into her face and liked it. Victoria felt her pulse beat harder against her neck as she stared back at him, not knowing what do say or do.

  She had a fleeting and wild thought that he might kill her, or do something equally as morbid, never mind his handsome face. In that moment she had never been so scared in all her life.

  “So frightened and so innocent,” he whispered with a smile so seductive that she was not expecting the tingles that raced down her spine or her somersaulting stomach.

  She was having trouble with her conflicting emotions. What she needed was a moment’s clarity, for someone this terrifying should not possibly excite her too! She should be screaming, calling out for help instead of this instant infatuation. Victoria swallowed, praying he had not noticed her reaction to his dark charms, or whatever magic he was conjuring. Of course the man had a very dangerous smile, a smile that could leaving any woman confused and panting on the ground, wondering what the bloody hell happened.

  The dark rider tilted his head at her and gave her an expression that she could not read, his pale gaze catching the moonlight just perfectly. They were not normal. Animalistic even. She took a shaky breath and breathed, “Who are you?”

  “Someone who just saved you.”

  “That’s not what I meant.”

  “You’re scared of me,” he said with a smile, the wind blowing his raven hair to the side.

  “I am not.” She lied, but held her chin up high anyway.

  “Liar.” He softly laughed, sending shivers down her spine.

  Her mind was reeling. “Just because I look like I’m tattered and broken—“

  “You’re gorgeous.”

  What?! Her mind was misfiring, not expecting his praise. Her common sense told her that she sat topless in his lap wrapped in his overcoat. “Excuse me?”

  He laughed, the whites of his teeth seeming to glow. The look he sent her made her skin tingle and her heart to skip a beat. “I beg your pardon my Lady,” he murmured, his hand coming to brush softly on her cheek.

  He probably saw the after effects of getting slap by the Duke.

  His steal gaze met hers and he narrowed his brows. “I would seem that you need more saving that I originally thought.”

  “You don’t know me,” she whispered, trying to keep her emotions together.

  “Forgive me, your name please?”

  Only an idiot would reveal such a thing to this stranger. The alarms were ringing loudly throughout her head making it hard to think. “It’s not proper, we have not been formally introduced. Please return me.” Even that sounded ridiculous to her, given their odd circumstance. And her state of undress.

  On closer inspection, now that his overcoat was off and around her, she could see more of him.

  He was wearing a shockingly plum dress coat pulled tightly over impossibly broad shoulders with a waistcoat that was striped with conflicting colors. She looked back up at him in wonder. Who the bloody hell was this man? He looked like a man teetering on the edge of insanity,
for no sane man could pull such an ensemble off. That, only terrified her more.

  He was just watching her in that disconcerting way. He leaned into her, his lips grazing her ear, alarming her. Her pulse was now hammering and her senses were on high alert. “You’re right, my Lady, where the devil are my manners?”

  Before she could respond his lips were on hers and for one blinding second her mind went blank.

  Oooh … was all her idiotic mind thought as his hot mouth moved over hers. She didn’t know how long this went on, he consumed her, her mind in a dream state. She was not prepared for this. Her reprimanding thoughts were misfiring as his lips continued to devour hers leaving her absolutely breathless, panting for air.

  “Open,” he demanded in a harsh breath.

  He boldly thrust his tongue into her mouth making her shamelessly moan, molding into his large body like a bloody whore. She didn’t have time to be embarrassed for each deep sweep of his tongue shattered all thought but pure erotic bliss. In the back of her hazy mind she was shocked at the man’s skill and boldness. He groaned deep into her throat and their brazen kiss escalated to daring heights, their breathing mixed and harsh. One of his hands was tangled into her hair while the other was inside her cloak, pressing her back harder to him—if that was even possible.

  Never before had she imagined ever being ravaged like this. She had lost her bloody mind, trying to sit more in his lap, straddling him like she was a plain dockside dolly. The maddening thing was, there was no help for her. Absolutely none. One could not be kissed by someone like him and not lose their awareness to reality.

  It truly wasn’t fair.

  Suddenly her world whipped back into place as she felt him lift his head to stare down at her. It was as if time stood still, their gazes clashing again, their intensity rendering her speechless. The only sound was their harsh breathing and her drumming heart.