Banished Read online

  Banished

  By Tamara Gill

  Banished

  Copyright Tamara Gill, 2012

  First Published 2012

  Published by Tamara Gill

  PO Box 129

  Stockwell, SA 5355

  URL: http://www.tamaragillromanceauthor.com

  All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a database and retrieval system or transmitted in any form or any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the owner of copyright and the above publishers.

  Prologue

  Scottish Highlands – The Dark Ages

  Chloe watched the once powerful druid from the trees. His arms flexed with every axe stroke against the wood. His chest, chiseled like that of the god Heracles, was of perfect proportion and shone with perspiration. Chloe bit her lip, wanting to lick every drop from his body. To taste his skin and the essence that made him who he was.

  His trews sat low on his hips. The toned, flat muscle formed a vee that pointed toward the one spot she craved the most. She squirmed as liquid heat pooled at her core from imagining those strong hands lifting her up so he could impale her with his cock. Chloe almost moaned as the image of his strong hands clasping her and pulling her onto him bombarded her mind.

  She wanted him.

  She ran her hand down toward her sex and touched herself. Closing her eyes, she imagined him playing her body to the tune they both would enjoy. His fingers were long and held the axe handle with ease. Chloe wanted him to slide his touch against her aching flesh and delve between her folds.

  Never before had she seen such a beautiful specimen of human masculinity and never had she wanted a man as much as she did right at this moment. That he was a druid and, therefore forbidden, only made him even more tempting. But she liked breaking the rules. Especially when it meant she would spend time writhing in pleasure under the powerful druid before her. It made any punishment her father could bestow trivial. After all, how angry could her parent become? She was only having fun.

  Looking down at her gown of white and gold braided silk, she ran her hands over the material, ensuring all was perfect, like herself, before stepping toward the clearing. He would not have seen her or sensed her; she had ensured her glamor, to remain unseen, was well in place. If the Druid had looked, he would have viewed only the trees and cotton-grass swaying in the wind and nothing more.

  Walking toward him, Chloe allowed herself to be seen and willed him to look at her. Needed him to notice her presence. His gaze, first wary, soon turned to heated desire, heat so hot that even in the cool highland wind she was warm.

  She smiled. “Hello, druid,” she said, her voice like a cat’s purr, a tone she used often when she wished to seduce a man. Chloe devoured his form as her nearness allowed her to see things she had missed from afar. Like the little scars over his chiseled chin, a large slash across his chest.

  The wind picked up and Chloe caught the scent of the druid’s masculine odor and something else. Something tangy, yet sweet.

  His desire ...

  She ran a hand down his chest before flattening it against his stomach. Muscle quivered under her touch, and still he did not speak. But there was no need. His heightened breathing and manhood, now straining against his trews, told Chloe he welcomed her. She purred and clasped his cock before meeting his gaze.

  She liked men of this era; rough and hardly controlled emotionally. All these traits made Chloe a happy goddess. They were hard, ruthless, their only goal survival in this dark time. The dissatisfaction of sleeping with men far into the future told her where her desires lay. The modern men in their evolution were tame housecats in bed compared to the wolfhound she knew this druid would be.

  She licked her lips, couldn’t wait to taste him and hear his growl.

  Cian McKay swallowed ... hard. The beautiful maiden walked toward him, her gown billowing behind her, allowing him to see every delicious, perfectly proportioned curve hidden beneath the folds. Hair the color of warm, vibrant brown cascaded about her shoulders, just veiling the swell of her voluptuous breast. Eyes of the brightest green stared at him with unmasked desire.

  His heart accelerated as her hand grazed down his chest. Who was she? Was she a lewd hallucination he had conjured up in his isolation? Her gaze raked him and spoke of endless nights of pleasure.

  Yet the window to her soul also reflected an eternity of wisdom as old as the world itself. Caution that the woman before him was not what she seemed made him step back. “Who are you?”

  She smiled and his heart thumped hard.

  “Chloe. Goddess of Mt Olympus and eldest daughter of Zeus.” Her eyes flickered with an unearthly light. “Are you afraid of me, druid? I only want to play.”

  Cian reeled back. His mind refused to believe a woman of divine birth was before him. What did she need from him? Yes, he was once a druid, but a druid who served himself and no other. And not for many years had he sought the teachings of his forefathers. He raked a hand through his hair, watched as her eyes flickered and glowed, her attention never wavering.

  “What is it you want?” he asked, clasping his axe handle as if such a weapon could keep her at bay.

  “You.”

  “You can’t have me,” he answered looking around the glade for any more of her kind.

  She chuckled as she continued to stroke his engorged dick while kissing his chest with a longing that confused him. She desired him.

  “I can have anyone. Even you, druid.”

  Cian tore away from temptation incarnate. He couldn’t lie with a goddess. Not only was it forbidden, but she was the supposed daughter of a most powerful divine being. Touch her once and he would be lucky to live out the rest of his life as a toad. He spun away and walked toward his hut, steeling his back to continue the path away from her.

  Cian ignored her laugh, a tinkling sound that echoed all around him, before entering his home. He stopped. There before him she sat, perched on his wooden workbench ... naked. His mouth dried and his body swelled. What was she doing? Did she have some sort of death wish? Zeus may sleep with mortal women but Cian doubted he would tolerate his daughter sampling the pleasures of human flesh. Especially druid, human flesh.

  Chloe tipped her head to one side, a look of amusement crossing her visage. “You believe I have a death wish, druid. Perhaps I do.”

  Cian stumbled and fell against a stool. She had read his mind? He fought to clear it of any thoughts. One particular thought—of her laying beneath him, his cock buried deep in her heat, her breasts at his lips’ mercy. With his thoughts, he could almost taste her. Smell her clean scent that would seduce any man alive.

  “Your imagining intrigues me, druid. Did you not just intend to clear your mind of such thoughts? Instead I find it busy and full of naughty ideas.” She lifted her leg and placed her foot upon a stool. His mouth watered at the sight of her sweet heat, wet and willing spread before him like a platter of forbidden fruit. Fruit that he wanted to devour no matter how dangerous.

  “Do you still refuse me, druid?”

  Cian tore his eyes from her sex, completely devoid of hair. His gaze traveled up her body, past her flat stomach, breasts perfect for a man’s hands, her slender neck and divine features. He watched her red lips quirk into a smile. His body hummed for her.

  And he would take her.

  “No.”

  Chloe gasped as he strode toward her. He clasped her face and took her mouth in a searing kiss. His insistent tongue thrust between her welcoming lips, and she suckled it eliciting a moan from the druid. He was all hard muscle and smelled of sex. Her hands traveled down his back, slippery with sw
eat from his work and the heat of his desire.

  Chloe rested her hand on his trews before she untied the laces at the front and freed his cock. He murmured his delight as his member sprang free into her waiting palm. Unable to wait, she guided it into her wet heat. An overwhelming need for release assailed her and she clawed at his back, urging him to thrust harder, deeper inside. His grip on her hips was hard, almost painful against her flesh, yet he did not relent. And nor did she wish him to as he endlessly sought to bring her pleasure.

  “Come for me,” he hissed against her ear.

  Clasping his jaw, Chloe feathered kisses down his throat to lick his sweat from the V on his neck. She had wanted to fuck him for so long; it seemed a waste to rush things now. “Not yet.”

  “I can’t.” He gasped. “Ach lass.”

  Chloe purred knowing she had made the chaste druid melt like butter in her hands. One thought of his bed, and within a second she found herself upon his woolen and fur lined quilts. She kissed away his shock before rolling him over and straddling him. Clasping his hands, she placed them against her breasts as she undulated against his manhood.

  A slow hot burn started to ignite inside. Her breathing hitched as the endless torture of riding him became too much. Pleasure unlike any she had ever known shattered throughout her body. This druid was everything she had hoped for and more.

  Chloe laughed before Cian flipped her onto her back and pushed hard and deep inside. She climaxed again not having expected what his actions could do to her still. He moaned as his own release followed.

  “You have gone beyond all expectation.”

  He looked into her eyes and held her gaze. “Have I?” he said.

  Chloe smiled. “Can I come again?”

  Cian swelled hard at her words and pushed into her slick, wet heat. “You may come as many times as you like.”

  Chloe looked into his eyes, eyes which like her own, held many secrets. Her biggest secret was her lust for this human, a man she had longed for, for too many years. A lust that should never have been acted upon. She could never let him go now.

  “I think you may be the end of me, druid,” she said truthfully. Never had any man made her wish to stay, to learn to know his way of life. Him.

  “Never the end, lass, only the beginning,” he replied.

  “We shall see.” Chloe wrapped her legs about his hips and grinned. We shall see ...

  Chapter One

  Mt Olympus – several-hundred years later

  “You defied me, Daughter!”

  Chloe looked at her father and raised her chin in defiance, a trait inherited from her father who stood before her.

  “Yes.” At her words the room dropped in temperature and goosebumps covered her skin.

  “So you yearn to live on the mortal plain, to die after the pathetic miniscule time they call life? To grow old and weak just to be with your Scotian barbarian?”

  “No Father, I do not wish to live in the mortal way. Cian is a druid, a man who has no desire to bring attention to himself. Much like us—”

  “He is nothing like us,” Zeus roared. “It is forbidden for a man to attain immortal life. You knew this and yet you defied me still.” Zeus turned and looked out between two Corinthian columns at the city of Olympus beneath him. “Your love and powers have kept him from growing old. But you are wrong, Chloe.”

  She swallowed her fear as thunder rolled in the sapphire blue sky above. Never had she seen her father so angry and full of hate. Fear unlike any she had ever known slithered over her skin like a snake just waiting to strike.

  “How so?” she asked, at length.

  Zeus laughed, the sound circling her, wrapping her in a blanket of ice. “In time the druid will age and die. The human blood that flows through his veins will not be denied its inevitable course. You will not have him forever.”

  Chloe looked down at the marble at her feet, the stone so highly polished she could see her reflection. A reflection of a woman in love; one who would defy her father and god to hold what was most dear, and for as long as it was possible.

  “I am sorry I have disappointed you, Father.”

  Zeus looked at her and Chloe caught the flash of pain that crossed his features. “You were my favorite. A child destined for great power. And yet your life will be wasted on a worthless, human druid.” His features turned to stone. “You will be punished.”

  “Do what you will to me, but leave Cian alone,” Chloe begged. “I sought him out, lured him to me. He does not deserve your wrath.”

  His eyes narrowed at her words. “For you to have feelings for this human is not possible.”

  “I love him,” Chloe stated, proud of the fact. She would not defy their vows of love to one another to save herself.

  The room stilled; not a breath of wind dared to enter the royal chamber. Chloe knew her father could be ruthless and cold. He was the god of thunder, after all. But having been his favorite, she had hoped to escape punishment. It did not seem likely now.

  “You love this mortal world so you shall have what your heart desires, my child. Therefore, every new century you shall be reborn a babe, who will grow at the rate of a mortal child. When you reach the age deemed an adult your heart will yearn for a man you no longer know or remember. If your soul is lucky, you shall find your mate and spend a life together. But you, Chloe, will continue to age and will eventually die to be born and live yet again.”

  “Don’t do this, Father. Please, I beg you.”

  Zeus’s mouth twisted as he looked down. A shiver racked her body from the cold sneer. “There is more.”

  Chloe took a calming breath and her eyes met those of her stepmother, Hera. Recognized the hate the woman had always borne for her in her gaze and the undisguised glee at her downfall.

  “Druid of thy mortal vice

  Take thy gift of immortal life

  Forever caught in an undying light

  Through all the ages I give you life.”

  Wind rushed about the circular throne room, the silk hangings and god’s robes billowed from the unnatural force.

  “What are you doing?” she yelled, pushing back a lock of hair from her face.

  “Ensuring your druid lives a long and unhappy life.” He sat on his throne and set his robes about his knees without exhibiting a flicker of regret.

  “How can you be so cruel?” she said, despair tingeing her every word.

  He laughed before halting his mirth. “I am ruler here. No one disobeys me, especially my blood. And you forget, Daughter, you will only have your druid if you find him. The human world grows larger every day. It is possible you will die many lifetimes wondering who it is you seek. Why your life feels empty.”

  “Are you going to allow me to see him once more?”

  “Before you’re reborn as a human babe? No. I will not grant you such favor.”

  Chloe bowed her head and accepted his decree. To argue would be a waste of everyone’s time and energy. All was lost. “This your final decision, Father.” Chloe lifted her head and looked at her parent, holding his gaze. This would be the last time she would see him. See her home, Olympus. Be one of the gods.

  Zeus raised his thunderbolt. Regret passed over his face before the cold calculated mask of ruler reclaimed his features. His voice, a multitude of tones, wrapped around her, changing her genetic pattern, changing her to a lesser being before uttering the words which sealed her fate.

  “So be it.”

  Chapter Two

  Present Day - London

  “Did you pack the socks I had on the end of the bed?”

  Chloe poked her head around the bathroom door and spoke through the toothbrush in mouth. “Yes, everything is packed. All you have to do is have a shower and get dressed.”

  Eddy walked into the bathroom and tapped her, his newly titled fiancée, on the bottom. “Tell me again why we have to travel to the Scottish highlands. It must be freezing up there. We could have spent our money on somewhere warm and sunny lik
e Brazil or Spain.”

  “I know, but I have this strange hankering to see them and I’m not sure why.” Chloe watched as the man soon to be her husband, stepped into the shower. He was taller than her, a nice height, since she stood at five foot nine. He was muscular and lean. Quite a catch really, and she loved Eddy dearly, but for some reason, deep down in her heart of hearts, a tiniest inkling gnawed that something was missing.

  “What time does the plane leave?”

  Chloe spat out her toothpaste and rinsed her mouth. “Once you stop soaping yourself, we’ll be off. The plane departs in three hours.”

  “Don’t want to jump in here with me do you? Plenty of soap to go around.”

  Chloe laughed before turning on the hot tap, giving him a dose of cold water. Hearing him swear, she laughed. “No I do not want to get in there with you. And if you don’t get out, I’m leaving you behind.”

  “God, you’re so bossy.”

  Chloe started at his words, a shiver running over her skin. She frowned and wondered why whenever she heard the word ‘god’ her body reacted in that way. “You have no idea,” she replied, handing Eddy a towel.

  ***

  “Why didn’t you hire us a car?” Eddy said, looking around the airport, annoyance tingeing his every word. “How are we supposed to drive to the highlands without a vehicle?”

  “Shut up Eddy, the man said a car was due back today. All we have to do is wait for it. No one likes to pay late fees so I’m sure it will be here soon.” Great start to the holiday, she thought. Not three hours in and they were already arguing. Being so engrossed over what they were going to see and visit, she had completely forgotten to hire the vehicle to get them to the highlands. Eddy’s constant nagging wasn’t helping the oversight either. Maybe she should have left him home.

  “Sorry love, you’re right, I’m being a wanker aren’t I?”

  “Yep.” She smiled at him, before looking up at the counter as an employee dressed in a red suit dropped off some keys. Seeing the lady behind the desk summon them, Chloe knew their car was here.