“Don’t listen to him,” Blane said. “All he cares about is finding a profit in your problem.”
“I still don’t understand.” Ange looked at Rabuth and Remereador. The blood rose in her cheeks but she had to ask. “Were you going to impregnate me with your child?”
Rabuth lifted his head, a proud look in his eyes. “I sought only to arouse you to orgasm. In the throes of that ultimate bliss, your species releases a powerful hormone, a hormone that activates our sluggish reproductive systems and helps us to conceive. That is why my mate, Remereador, lay beside you as I stimulated you with my tongue.”
Ange blushed at the memory.
Blane frowned. “And was I used in the same way when I came into your realm years ago?”
Oberon nodded. “Yes.”
His eyes flashed. “Coming here cursed me. I was left with the smell of your dust, a smell that makes me irresistibly attractive to others. I’ve had to flee from love, never knowing if it was real.”
The king gazed at him with compassion. “Your glamour does not come from the dust but from your Fa’erie blood. That blood awakened as you approached puberty and led you to this meadow, but the glamour would have struck you wherever you lived.”
“That’s what happened to me, then.” Ange swallowed a mixture of anger and relief. Anger for all she had suffered, relief that the piece of the puzzle that had been missing all of her life had finally clicked into place.
“The Fa’erie must sometimes breed with humans if halflings exist,” Ryol said.
“We can take human shape and intermingle with your kind, although we cannot remain in your realm for long periods of time. The vibrations are too low for us to endure. Some of our men have succumbed to the temptation to experience the sensations of love in your physical dimension.”
“My mother—” Ange’s voice faltered.
Oberon gave her a gentle look. “Your mother knew one of our people. They shared a brief love, and you are the happy result. It is no coincidence that you have found your way to Kyffin and this meadow. The magic of your heritage drew you here.”
“I see nothing magical about a heritage that feeds off innocents to survive.” Blane raked a hand through his hair, his eyes smoldering.
The king’s gaze turned impassive. “Be still! The cosmos might have wiped your kind out long ago were it not for our protection.”
“Like the wipe out you’re headed for if you can’t reproduce?” Ryol laughed. “Sounds like we need each other. If you want human hormones, I can supply them. Supply and demand is my business.”
Wrath darkened Oberon’s eyes as he turned to Ryol. “You press me too far, human. Even our powers have limits. Higher beings than us will be aroused to wrath if they learn we are buying humans from you like some leftover goods. Nor will they be happy to learn what you are doing with the dust you took from this meadow. Your use of our Fa’erie dust will stop.”
Ryol jutted out his chin in defiance although fear flickered in his eyes. “How do you plan to stop me? Hold me imprisoned in this Otherworld forever?”
“It’s simpler than that,” the king murmured and waved his hand over Ryol’s head. A shower of golden light descended from his palm to shimmer on Ryol’s skin and hair before sinking into his flesh.
The merchant’s face twisted in rage, then went blank. He blinked and looked around, his expression that of a lost child.
“Time for you to return to your world,” Oberon whispered and waved his hand again. Ryol vanished.
Chapter Seventeen
The king turned to Ange and Blane. “He will wake with no memory of us or this meadow, or of his magic dust.”
“He’ll wonder why he came to Kyffin,” Blane pointed out.
Oberon smiled. “Why, to rescue the colonists, of course. He is a good man, a generous man. He’s worked hard to earn a fortune so he could afford to come back here and save the colonists.”
The king’s dark gaze turned to Ange. “Can you make room on your ship for so many?”
She nodded. “It will be close quarters, but we can do it.”
Blane still looked doubtful. “What about Ryol’s perfume? What will others think when it loses its potency?”
“When your brother arrives home, he will decide to get out of the perfume business. Those who used Scent of Magic and want it kept secret will let him do as he wishes.”
“You seem to have a great deal of power to influence events in our world,” Ange said, not sure she liked the revelations this night had brought.
The king inclined his head, his expression grave. “We do. But since our races mingle, perhaps you will forgive us if we look upon the humans of this universe as our children and guide you as we think best.”
Rabuth stepped forward. “I ask your forgiveness, halfling child. Among our people, sex is a joy to be shared. I did not realize you are vowed only to your mate.”
Blane laid a possessive hand on Ange’s shoulder. “I trust you realize it now,” he growled.
Rabuth lowered his head. Beyond him, Remereador stood quiet, her sapphire eyes shimmering with unshed tears.
“Wait.” Ange’s heart filled with sympathy for the faerie woman. “You want a child?”
Remereador blinked and one silver tear slid down her cheek. “More than life itself.”
“And you can’t conceive without the stimulus of my hormones?”
“No. It is as the queen described.”
Ange slid a glance at Blane, a question in her eyes. “This orgasm that releases the hormones—does it have to be Rabuth who brings me to climax?”
Hope sprang alive on Remereador’s face. “No. As long as you have an orgasm and I am near enough to inhale the scent you release, that is enough.”
Ange tilted her head at Blane, her eyes aglow with sudden mischief. “What do you think? I’m game if you are.”
He looked nonplussed. For a moment, she thought he would refuse. Then he bent over her and took a deep breath. “Hmmm. Sex with an audience. You’re a kinky lady.”
“You have a kind heart,” the queen said.
Oberon beamed at her. “You will be remembered among our people for this deed.” He held out his hand to his queen. “Now we must go and leave you to your privacy.”
“But what of Kyffin?” Ange demanded, realizing how much more needed to be discussed. “What will you do after the colonists leave?”
Oberon smiled. “You are not the only one of the halfling blood. And Kyffin does not hold the only meadow. Do not worry. Our people will survive. And now, farewell.”
As he raised one hand, the nimbus of light around him and the queen grew brighter. Ange blinked and they were gone.
“Come and share our pleasure.” Rabuth gestured toward the bed that waited in the shadow of the trees.
“Come on, stud.” Ange repressed a smile as she pulled on Blane’s elbow. The erotic flame kindled earlier by Rabuth smoldered inside her still, but Blane was the man she wanted in her bed, inside her body.
She aimed a teasing smile at him and ran ahead, up to the edge of the bed. Stopping there, she turned around and let his jacket slide off her shoulders and fall to the ground. The dappled light played over her nude body. Blane’s eyes widened as he caught up to her. His gaze swept from her laughing face to her high, proud breasts with their rosy tips and on down to the golden curls that marked the entrance to her feminine delights.
Silent as wraiths, Rabuth and Remereador withdrew to the other side of the bed. Their hands grasped together and their wings enfolded each other in a silvery cocoon of light.
Blane’s gaze fastened on Ange. “I see you’re ready,” he said with a grin. Even as he spoke, he began undressing. Heat burned Ange’s cheeks as she watched. Goddess, his body drove her temperature at least twenty degrees higher on any scale. She eyed his muscular chest as he stripped off his tunic and smacked her lips at the thought of that magnificent physique looming above her, taking her.
She turned her head toward the bed and saw
the Fa’erie lying at the far side, watching.
“I’m not sure I can do this,” she said to Blane in a surprised whisper.
His gaze strayed across the bed as he nodded his understanding. He discarded the last of his clothes, pulled her into his arms. His warm breath stirred her hair as he planted a tender kiss on her forehead. “A moment ago you were eager.”
She let her head fall against his shoulder, glad of his strength, and giggled into the mat of hair on his chest. Her fingertips traced the hard curve of his pecs. “A moment ago I was thinking how much I wanted you inside me. It’s the audience that gives me pause.”
She glanced up into his violet eyes and saw them darken with desire. The naked need in his gaze sent a lightning bolt of heat streaking straight to her core.
“I can make you forget the audience,” he whispered hoarsely.
“I’m sure you can.” Tangling her fingers into his thick mat, she pressed her ear to his chest and listened for the steady beat of his heart. His masculine scent filled her nostrils, stronger than all the scents of this marvelous realm. Her loins already ached with desire, but as she listened to his heartbeat, she became aware of another ache, one not located anywhere in her physical body. She wanted this man, wanted him for more than the pleasure he would give her on this bed. She wanted him at her side through all the years that had once loomed ahead of her filled with loneliness.
Was such a thing even possible? Did he feel anything for her beyond the relentless attraction of their Fa’erie blood?
His hands fondled her hair and the tenderness of his touch gave her hope. Surely if this trip to Kyffin had taught her anything, it was that incredible things were possible.
She lifted her face up to him and he bent and kissed her—his lips moving over hers in a leisurely caress. Their lips tasted each other, his firm mouth commanding hers, their tongues meeting and twisting together in eager exploration. His arms slid around her waist and he sank down on the bed, pulling her after him. Their bodies tangled together there as they rolled across the soft surface. Somehow Ange found herself on the bottom, Blane above her, his eyes narrowed with desire as he stared down at her. The heat of his body burned against her flesh, setting her own desires aflame.
“You came after me,” she whispered in wonder as she traced a finger down his jaw line.
“I couldn’t let you come here alone not knowing what might happen to you. All these years I’ve let my loss of memory be, never demanded to know the truth. I even got angry when you said you were determined to know. Maybe I was ashamed of my own cowardice.”
“Nonsense.” She pressed a finger to his lips. “You are no coward. You arrived in the nick of time like a knight in shining armor out of a legend.”
“The nick of time, hey?” He brushed the curls off her forehead. “What was about to happen? Or maybe I don’t want to know. All I do know is that I couldn’t bear the thought of not being with you to face whatever the truth was. So here I am.” He kissed her forehead again, kissed her nose and the corners of her mouth as it turned up in a happy smile. Then he lowered his lips to the vulnerable flesh of her neck where her pulse beat hard at his touch. Sighing with pleasure, he kissed the column of her neck, the curve of her shoulder and the swelling rise of her breasts, his lips leaving a damp line across the curve of satiny flesh to where her nipple rose up, stiff and ready for his touch. She shivered as his lips brushed across her tingling skin.
He circled her breasts with a wreath of kisses and just when she thought she would explode with aching need, he took her aroused nipple in his mouth. Ange moaned with pleasure as her nerves lit up with fire. She arched her back, wanting more, as he suckled her with expert attention. Smiling, he moved from one breast to the other while his hand caressed her flat stomach and stroked lower to the tumbled curls between her legs. His fingers slid between, gently prying her thighs apart, probing the slick, wet flesh that throbbed with longing for his touch.
“I want you, Ange,” he whispered in her ear. He ran his tongue inside the delicate shell, making her shudder as sensation rippled through her body. His warm breath tickled her neck. “I want you now and I want you tomorrow. I want you for all the tomorrows of the rest of our lives.”
Her eyes widened as she drank in the sincere light of his gaze. “Are you sure? We hardly know each other.”
He quieted her protests with a long kiss. When their lips broke apart at last, he smiled. “That’s what all the tomorrows are for.”
“Blane.” She wrapped her arms around his neck, the watching Fa’erie all but forgotten. All she could see, all she could think of, was the love shining in his eyes.
“My love.” He moved over her and parted her legs. She opened with eager joy and welcomed the touch of his hard shaft as it probed into her private flesh. He reached down to guide himself inside her and she lifted her hips and wrapped her legs around him to welcome him deeper.
His arms encircled her, holding her tight. As he began to move, each long, slow thrust ignited a fire that swirled through her. She groaned as the ripples of endless pleasure coursing through her only awakened a desire for more. He filled all her empty spaces and she wanted him deep within her, wanted to feel him penetrate her very core. She tightened her legs around his body as he drove himself harder inside her, no sound now but that of their bodies moving together in an ever-increasing rhythm. He kissed her mouth, her throat, her breasts, and she dug her nails into his back, urging him on.
Pleasure pounded through her body as the waves had pounded on their private beach. A whirlpool of desire engulfed her, dragging her down. The mounting pressure in her loins peaked and exploded like a gigantic supernova, sending her into convulsions of pure rapture. Her whole body shuddered with its release, her erect nipples stabbing into Blane’s chest. Then his body stiffened against hers and she felt his throbbing release as he spilled his seed inside her.
He collapsed on her with a sigh of contentment, kissed her mouth long and hard and rolled off. She snuggled into his arms, her body satiated, but her mind whirling with the promises he’d made. Did they indeed have a future together?
“May I?” The sweet voice above her startled Ange out of fantasies of a life shared with Blane. Laughing, she opened her eyes. She’d forgotten about the Fa’erie.
“Certainly,” she said. “What do you need us to do?”
Remereador fell to her knees beside Ange on the bed. “Spread your legs.”
Squirming with embarrassment, Ange opened her legs as the two Fa’erie leaned over her, breathing deep. She could feel the dampness on her thighs where the juices of her body mingled with Blane’s semen.
“Ah!” Remereador sighed, her eyes half closed in bliss. Her creamy cheeks colored with spots of crimson blood and her sapphire eyes turned black as her pupils opened wide, leaving only a rim of iris.
“Is it enough?” Ange asked, but she already knew the answer. Blane’s arms tightened around her as the mounting passion of Rabuth and Remereador washed over them, drenching them in another surge of desire.
“It is enough.” Remereador touched Ange’s hand, her eyes warm with thanks. “We have kept you in our realm too long already. It is time for you to return. And we have need of this bed.”
“Hold it!” Blane scrambled to his feet and pulled Ange up after him. “I can appreciate that you two are in a hurry to start your family, but we’d like to leave with our clothes on, if you don’t mind.”
The bright sound of Fa’erie laughter rang across the meadow. Blane and Ange gathered up their garments and started dressing. Remereador lay back on the bed, her wings a cloud of light behind her.
Ange slipped on her jacket and turned to the Fa’erie. There were a hundred questions she had yet to ask, but Rabuth stopped her with a commanding gesture of grace and power. Light flared, blinding her, and she felt the universe twist inside out. She reached out for Blane’s hand. His warm fingers closed around hers as they tumbled to the ground.
She stood up and brushed a
t her pants. Overhead, twin moons were setting. A pale red dawn edged the mountain peaks, turning the fresh snow at the summit from silver to rose.
They were back on Kyffin where a blustery wind blew across the meadow. The nights of the double moons were over, the grass was wet with raindrops and the Fa’erie had vanished.
Chapter Eighteen
Ange stood in the doorway of her cargo hold and surveyed the cramped colonists as they made up beds and hung curtains between each family’s section to gain some semblance of privacy.
Running feet pounded down the corridor behind her. She turned in time to throw out an arm and block the girl and boy who came hurling down the passageway.
“No running aboard ship,” she commanded.
“Aye, aye, captain.” The boy snapped to attention and she recognized Michel. Fighting back a smile, she glanced from him to the girl. “Who’s this, Michel?”
“My sister, Michalla.”
“Do you know where your beds are?”
Michel pointed beyond her, into the hold. “Over there, in the far corner.”
She nodded. “That’s a good location.”
“You bet!” Michel beamed at her. “We’re near a viewport. I plan to see a hundred thousand zillion suns.”
“That many?” Blane appeared on the other side of the doorway and fixed Michel with a stern look. “I think your mother is looking for you two.”
With a shout, the two children darted past the adults and disappeared into the crowd in the hold.
“It’s going to be a tough trip for them,” Ange said. “Star flight is not nearly as exciting as Michel thinks.”
Blane leaned against the doorframe, his arms folded across his broad chest. “No tougher than life on Kyffin. Our families will be able to stay together. They’ll have food everyday and a warm place to sleep. And my brother has promised to find the adults jobs at the end of the journey. The gods are good.”
“The Fa’erie king is good, you mean,” Ange whispered, giving him a conspiratorial wink.
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