She shivered, a draught reaching her again. She pulled her cardigan tighter. “It’s getting cold, we better go in soon.”
Her mother chatted on about their nomadic heritage, and Sunny was deep in thought, finding an odd connection with a history she’d never really addressed before.
Moments later another bitter chill descended. Sunny frowned.
Out of nowhere a black shadow swamped them. It came on quite suddenly and was gone just as quickly.
Sunny drew to a halt, her pulse racing.
She blinked and looked up, but saw no clouds.
Had she imagined it? She turned to her mum, meaning to ask if she’d noticed it.
Her mum seemed oblivious.
Sunny looked skyward again, squinting against the light. Had it been the raven’s shadow? The thought made her stomach knot.
“Talking of Marrakech,” her mum continued, “I do hope you’re going to rent out the cottage once you’ve finished the renovation, so you can come and live with us. It would do Ben good to have his big sister around, and your cousins are always asking after you.”
Sunny couldn’t respond at first, distracted as she was by that strange shadow.
“Bring Cullen with you,” her mum added, clearly trying to encourage her.
Sunny’s heart felt tight in her chest. Any time she thought about the future it happened to her, and now she’d witnessed the Raven’s shadow falling over her, a horrible sense of loss crept up on her.
Their thirty days would be drawing to a close soon.
“Visiting is always an option,” she eventually managed to reply. “Right now I can’t imagine living anywhere but Raven’s Landing. I have such good friends around me, and I love the landscape. I can work from home, in peace, with all this beauty around me.”
“I can understand that.”
They walked on, circuiting the house.
When they reached the front garden, Sunny was surprised to see Eben and Aveline walking past the cottage as if on a casual stroll. They waved as they passed by, but she saw concern in their eyes. Sunny returned their wave, and wondered if there was more to it. Had they seen the shadow of the raven too? In which case, she hadn’t imagined it. Members of the coven had—both as a group and individually—promised they’d be around to support her when the time came. Was Eben and Aveline’s presence close to the cottage a coincidence, or another sign? Had Celeste asked them to pass by, to patrol and report back? The urge to be by Cullen’s side was suddenly the only thing on her mind.
“We’d better go inside, see what the guys are up to,” she said as she hustled her mum indoors.
“What’s up, hun?” her mum asked, frowning, once they got inside the hallway.
Sunny stared at her mum silently, and then grabbed her in a hug. “Nothing. I’m just really...glad you came.”
What else could she say? That she was under some sort of curse from an evil witch who would tear her and Cullen apart without a second thought, for the sake of more power? That she was having to learn about magic she scarcely believed in? That she was in love with a man from another time, who might be gone in a heartbeat? So she stayed silent and clung to her mum, taking strength from their visit.
“Really glad you came,” she repeated.
“I wouldn’t have missed meeting Cullen for the world,” her mum said as they drew apart, and laughed. “Now you hang onto him, he’s a good guy.”
Sunny mustered a weak smile. “I’ll try.”
CHAPTER TWENTY
SUNNY QUICKLY CHANGED her mind about sharing her concerns with Cullen. The meeting with her family had gone so well, she didn’t want to ruin his good mood. It could wait until morning. Right now, she wanted to enjoy every precious moment she had with him.
“I knew something was wrong the moment I saw your face,” Cullen said as he kicked off his boots.
Sunny laid back against the pillows, watching him chat about his error with the vibrator. “Now you understand why I was embarrassed.”
“I’m not sure I do.” He feigned a confused expression. “Explain it to me again and, this time, I’ll concentrate even harder.” He gave her a suggestive smile as he sat down on the edge of the bed, then picked up the vibrator and toyed with it in one hand.
He’d already had the technical explanation. She decided to give him the more intimate explanation this time. “When I used to get hot for you, after I’d dreamt about you, but couldn’t touch you,” she licked her lips, remembering, “I’d wake in the night and I’d need to feel something hard moving inside me, while I imagined you were there, taking me over the edge.”
“You pleasured yourself then?” His eyes were gleaming with interest.
She nodded and reached over to his hand. “I used to touch myself. It was the closest I could get to having you, while you weren’t here. A vibrator feels good, and it moves...women enjoy that. I used to use it when I lived in London and I wanted to feel that pressure.” She put her hand on his thigh, squeezing it.
He smiled darkly. He knew she was teasing him, urging him to get into the bed and make love to her. But he had a measured look about him. He wasn’t about to cut to the chase just yet. “Hmm, I might have to take one of these back to my time,” he mused, directing his attention to the vibrator, “if they make such an impression on women.”
She gave a low growl and sat up. “You’re so bad.” She began to undo his shirt buttons. “Please don’t say that,” she whispered against his mouth as she kissed him in small, demanding bites, drawing him closer.
“About other women?” He kissed the tip of her nose.
“Yes, that too, but don’t talk about going back to your time, not yet.” Her hands instinctively clutched at his shoulders. “No matter what happens in the next few days, remember you’re the only one I want. Promise me. You know I love you.”
He kissed her deeply before he answered. “And I love you, too. You’ve given me sanctuary, and I promise I’ll never forget this.” He looked thoughtful. “I’ll make Nathaniel pay.”
“No, Cullen!”
“I must, I simply have to.”
Her frustration boiled up and over spilled. “When will you learn, I am the hero in this story, and it’s okay for women to be the hero in 2020!”
He lifted his hands in despair. “Let’s not discuss it.”
He went silent a moment.
Sunny knew he was making plans of his own, and there was nothing she could do about it. Thankfully, he dropped the subject. They always argued when Fox was mentioned, and time was too short.
“Besides, I have my new gadget to play with.” His eyebrows lifted and his smile was wicked.
With the tip of the vibrator, he pushed the hem of her short nightdress up, exposing the tops of her thighs. He ran the tip into the warm groove at their juncture, teasing the sensitive skin of her mons. “I want to find out exactly how this works.”
Her heart began to thud, naughty thoughts racing through her mind. “You want me to demonstrate?” She opened her legs, her fingers slipping into the heat between her thighs. She ran one finger over her clit, watching his eyes narrow and his smile tighten a fraction.
He watched her movements for a moment and then reached over to her wrist. “No.” He pulled her hand away. His tone was demanding, his eyes glittering with erotic suggestion. “Allow me.”
She inhaled slowly. He had a thoroughly determined and devilish look about him. A dark tremor of apprehension passed through her body.
He stood up and finished undoing his shirt buttons, dropped the shirt to the floor. He climbed over her, his denim-covered thighs straddling her hips, capturing her. His hands moved down her arms to her wrists. He yanked them away from her body. She let out a small growl of surrender, her head rolling on the pillow.
A shadowy smile passed over his face, partly hidden in the hair that fell forward as he bent over her body. She watched his bare chest, exquisitely masculine, as he lifted her nightdress and pulled it up and over her head, watching
as her breasts bounced free. He kissed her deeply, thrusting his tongue into her open mouth, before he moved back down the bed, yanking her legs apart as he climbed off the mattress.
“You’re wanton,” he whispered with admonishment, looking down at her. “You’re such a wild woman.”
Fluid seeped from her exposed pussy. The chastisement in his voice and the accusation of her uncontrollable lust were answered by her inner self, regardless of what she might have said. “It’s your fault.”
He reached for the vibrator and bent over her again. Burying his head between her spread legs, he tasted her with the very tip of his tongue. Bolts of pleasure roared up from that tiny movement, suffusing her groin with heat and a delicious sense of anxious need.
“So wet, so delicious, so ready...I want to take you to your peak, I want to see it happen.”
She moaned, feeling sure that her peak wasn’t far away at all, and desperate for him to take her to it and force her right over it. Cullen, however, had other ideas. She heard the flick of the switch and the low hum of the vibrator. He traced it down between the damp folds of skin framing her opening, teasing her, then up and over her clit, causing her to moan and wriggle on the bed.
The cold, smooth hardness of the vibrator nudged inside her, the heat of his eyes following its movement and her every response. Instinctively her body responded, her hips rocking forward onto the hard shaft. The vibrator began to hum louder and she let out a loud moan of relief as the reverberations spread through her entire nether region. He rested his other hand over her mons, his palm nudging her clit closer to fruition.
“Seeing you like this is making me hard as rock.”
“Cullen...” she pleaded. “I want you inside me. I want to feel your body,” she rasped, “your chest, pressed against mine.”
He smiled at her plea. “Not till I see you pleasured.”
Using a vibrator wasn’t usually like this. This was different. This was hellishly different, with him in control and watching her with those eyes, eyes that had haunted her dreams for so many nights. Now, when there was so much more between them, to feel him watching her so keenly, reveling in her pleasure, controlling it—it was too divine. She ached for him, ached in every way. “Cullen...”
He muttered something unintelligible as he bent over her, his tongue lapping at her clit. The vibrations traveled all through her and into his mouth as he sucked gently, a beautiful stark contrast to the rigidity inside her. Sunny lost sight of the room, her body jerking spasmodically as waves of pleasure roared through her. In the distance, she heard her own voice crying out.
Cullen switched the vibrator off, easing it free from her body. He cast it aside, his eyes dark with passion. She could see that he was desperately aroused. The sight of him sent an after-tremor through her. “I want you inside me.”
He stood up, eyeing her possessively as he undid his belt. Her eyes dropped from his as he climbed out of his jeans and she saw his cock rear up, long and thick, its head beautifully defined and dark with blood. He came back and laid over her, his cock pressing against her folds. He rested his hands on her breasts and stroked her, his palms held over the hard nipples. She breathed deep the musk scent of his body. It swept through her like a cloud of smoke, immersing her senses in its cover. His closeness overwhelmed her with a new rush of sensations. She loved him, she was intoxicated by him, she was thoroughly absorbed by his presence. She sucked hard at his mouth, grazing him with her teeth. His hips moved against hers, pressing his erection between her thighs, and it was driving her wild. “Please, Cullen, please,” she pleaded.
His eyes flashed at her, his mouth in a passionate curl. Then he reached down and pressed his fingers inside her. “You’re mighty swollen. I might use that thing on you again after all.”
“I’d rather it was you.” Her hips reached for him.
He gave a victorious smile and entered her. As he drove the full length of his shaft slowly inside, she cried out with pleasure. She felt so exquisitely full and yet bordering on pain. He’d driven her to distraction with that bloody vibrator and now he was moving so in tune with her body that she felt as if she was about to come again, every time the swollen head of his cock crushed against her, so very deep inside.
“You want this, do you?” He rammed home.
“Yes, please,” she begged, clutching him deeper. She felt a sob at the back of her throat and fought it back.
“You are so beautiful, and when you reached your pleasure, you looked like a goddess,” he whispered.
She felt like her heart would burst. Pleasure and love filled her to overflowing. She was in ecstasy, the ache in her chest caused by the thought of losing him melted.. As their movements became more fevered, she bucked against him, her body arching. Her legs climbed up around his hips, locking him in against her. The mutual pleasure of it shot between their locked eyes. Their bodies were harmonized. They moved in quick, even strides, barely parting but to press close together again.
He turned his face into her neck, drawing his tongue along her skin, his breath like a warm sirocco shifting the sands. Their movements were building speed together, perfectly attuned, and rhythmic. They were pacing, ever faster, towards crescendo. As the orgasm came close, his hand slid over her pubic bone, pressing her mons down as he moved against her. His eyebrows were drawn down, his eyes intense, a bead of sweat sliding slowly down one side of his face. His mouth opened and each quick stride drew a harsh breath from him. Heat welled from her womb as if a heavy, hot liquid was held in her pelvis. A shockwave hit, buoyed up against the full head of his cock where it had lodged itself deep and hard inside her.
“Oh yes...yes,” he murmured, his eyes afire with passion. She felt his whole body arch and bow against hers. Her sex throbbed and gripped his cock as it heaved and lurched, their bodies falling still in the moment of mutual climax.
He gave her a tender kiss then rolled onto his back, taking her with him, staying inside her while he could.
She chuckled, tethered to him like that, yet feeling strangely afloat in the afterglow. Afloat, drifting. Lost in time? The thought brought her down to earth and she sighed.
“Celeste matched us. It worries me.”
He thought about it, and then bent to kiss her. “It shouldn’t.”
“Does it make any difference? I mean, knowing how...?”
“No. It’s good to understand it more fully, but the important thing is this.” He laid his hand on her arm. “We are here together, instead of me being heaven-knows-where for my exile, while you tried to manage this place alone and keep your business going as well.”
Her heart filled, emotions welling inside her. Surely she couldn’t live without him?
“Please don’t talk about your exile, don’t talk about leaving,” she begged, the words blurting unbidden from her mouth.
Neither of them said Fox’s name, as if mentioning him would conjure his presence, but his threats hung in the air between them, as real as if he’d been standing there.
“No,” he replied, “we won’t talk about it. Let’s just enjoy what time we have together.”
She nodded, curling against him.
Would that be enough, though? Would it ever be enough?
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
The following morning, Celeste received a phone call at dawn.
Sunny requested an urgent convening of the coven.
The group were in a perpetual state of readiness anyway, as the date for Fox’s ultimatum closed in. They took it in turns to stay close to Sunny, whilst others observed Fox’s manor house on the hill for signs of activity. Just the day before, several large deliveries had arrived at his homestead, as often happened when he was around.
Celeste rallied members of the coven and quickly prepared pots of tea and coffee. When Willow arrived from the building next door, she brought with her a tray of freshly baked breakfast pastries.
“What do you think it’s about?” Willow asked as they prepared the table. “She needs
reassurance?”
Celeste shrugged. “Could be. She sounded businesslike, which is a good sign. She’s prepared. The deadline is imminent.”
“There’s not much more we can really do,” Willow whispered as the others convened.
Celeste gave her a warning glance. It was true. Their assistance was available, should Sunny require it, but when things came to the crunch, Celeste was ready to make a big sacrifice. She wouldn’t let a young protégé of hers fall under Fox’s power, no way.
When Celeste opened the door, she was surprised to see Sunny had come alone. They’d had several conference meetings and Cullen had, so far, attended them all. Standing alone, Sunny wore jeans and a black hoodie, hood up, hands in her pockets. She glanced over each shoulder as if she expected someone to appear behind her at any moment.
“On your own?”
“I didn’t want Cullen to hear what I’m going to say.”
Celeste ushered her in, concerned. “He let you come on your own?”
“I told him it was just going to be revision of previous lessons.” Sunny rolled her eyes. “He still wanted to come. He’s like a guard dog now we’re closing in on D-Day, but I convinced him it wouldn’t take long.”
“Go through to the back.” She gestured through the shop to the open door beyond. “Everyone else is here.”
However, Sunny hovered nearby, and when Celeste shut the door and the chimes around the shop tinkled in the draft, Sunny stepped closer and gave Celeste a big hug.
Celeste wrapped her arms around her protégé, soothing her. “Hey now, what is it?”
“Needed a hug,” Sunny mumbled against her shoulder.
When they drew apart, Celeste put her hands on Sunny’s shoulders and looked into her eyes. She didn’t have to look far to know how troubled she was. “How’s Cullen holding up?”
Sunny sighed. “It’s as if he’s forbidden to say Fox’s name. It’s his way of dealing with it. There’s a lot going on in his mind. He thinks it’s his job to protect me, and no matter how hard I try to explain ‘role reversal’, there’s no shifting him on that point. He won’t grapple with the concept of me being the hero; refuses.”
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