Hunter Deceived

by Nancy Corrigan

  “Not a ghost. You’re real. I’m glad too.” She leaned closer. “I’ve fantasized about you for years, and this…” She ran her fingertips over his cheek. “This face is more captivating than any I could’ve imagined.”

  The rightness he’d experienced nine years ago returned, stronger than before. He wanted Harley’s lips on his. Needed it. “Kiss me.”

  She shook her head.

  “Harley.” He waited until she met his gaze. “Kiss me.”

  Hesitantly, she pressed her mouth to his. He nudged at the seam of her lips with his tongue. She parted them, and he slipped inside. Her flavor hit him. She tasted of candy, a delectable treat he could easily become addicted to. He moaned and kissed her harder. After a long moment where he led her into passion, she dragged her fingers through his hair, grabbing sections of the short strands and tugging him closer.

  On a whimper, she linked her legs around his waist. Her heat pressed against his stomach. He automatically arched his back to line up his erection with her sex. Her small stature and his tight bonds prevented him from experiencing her tempting warmth along the length of his shaft. It didn’t dim the lust consuming him. The scent of her arousal and her squirming body intensified it.

  He took control of the kiss, needing her wild. He wouldn’t settle for anything else. Quicker, deeper, he stroked his tongue with hers. She tightened her grip on his hair and returned his passion. Their teeth banged as the melding of their mouths grew wicked, and her blood flavored the kiss. Blood that held the tang of pure chaos. It was her taint, a curse from her father and the reason she was turning into a monster.

  He turned his head, breaking the kiss. The evidence of the stain working its way through her body and soul, infecting her slowly and steadily, dimmed his runaway desire.

  She eased back. The weight of her stare forced his lids open. Tears welled in her eyes, yet her expression remained neutral. “You can taste it, can’t you? It’s not just me.”

  He nodded. “It acts as a disease. Dar became infected when he turned his back on the strict laws of the Seelie Court and opened himself up to the chaos. It gave him strength, power, everything only the highest-level gods could achieve, but he was never meant to harness the uncontained raw force. It corrupted him.”

  She swallowed hard. “And he passed his infection to me.”

  Unable to lie to her, he met her gaze and let her see the truth in his eyes. A single tear trailed down her flawless cheek. She shoved away from him and fell back on her rear. More tears dripped from her eyelashes, while anger contorted her face. She trembled, visibly fighting her emotions.

  “Be calm, Harley.” He reached out to her with his mind as he’d done earlier in the day. She shoved him out.

  “Don’t try to pacify me.”

  “I’m not. I’m trying to help you.” At her narrowed eyes, he sighed. “Giving in to anger will quicken your transformation into an Unseelie fairy.”

  She dropped into a crouch, rocking on the balls of her feet, then stood as tall as her petite body would allow. She raised her chin. “I’ll kill myself first. I will never become like them.”

  “You’ve matured. It’s too la—” He snapped his mouth closed, not soon enough. Her eyes widened. She took a backward step.

  The thought of her leaving him sped his pulse. He strained against his bonds and stretched his arm toward her.

  “Don’t leave me.” She froze at his words. “Don’t condemn me to suffer here when I could be hunting Dar. You do want me to stop him before he rapes another woman and gets her with child, don’t you?”

  Her eyes turned to saucers. He hated seeing the despair and sadness in them, but he couldn’t allow her to abandon him.

  He inhaled slowly and forced his muscles to relax. “That’s right. While I hang here, unable to carry out my vow to protect humanity, Dar is creating more babes who will suffer the fate you’ve been handed. Your sisters and brothers are dying as we speak.”

  “They’re going to die anyway!” She strode closer but stopped just out of reach. “Once I release you, you’ll carry out your purpose. You’ll kill Dar, then sweep the world and pick off each of his tainted creatures, including his children…including me. Won’t you?”

  He reached out a metaphysical hand and cupped her mound. She squeaked and tumbled forward, exactly the response he wanted. He caught her with his free hand and yanked her against his body. She fought him, pushing and squirming against his iron grip. He reached around her rear and pressed his hand between her legs. She stilled and stared at him, shock and desire simmering in her dilated eyes.

  “And what about the humans who die to sustain his redcaps or the unfortunate ones who are turned into sluaghs?” He narrowed his eyes, letting her see the seriousness in his pointed questions, hoping she’d understand. “And don’t forget the humans that his creatures torture and rape for fun. What about them? Only the Huntsmen can mete out justice, but we can’t because my siblings struggle under the curse they were never meant to carry.”

  She flinched.

  He hated having caused her discomfort, but the situation was too important. She needed to understand that he couldn’t allow any corrupted fairy to live, even if it meant killing her siblings.

  “It is only because of the Huntsmen that the barrier to Hell remains closed. That is Dar’s goal. He wants to free his Court from Hell and rule over the human world. Only my siblings’ endurance has stopped him.”

  He considered telling her how they upheld the barriers—by offering their pain and suffering to appease the fairy curse Arawn had placed upon the Unseelie Court as punishment for their crimes against humanity. The myriad of emotions that flashed across her face stopped him. He couldn’t risk pushing her over the edge if she knew what awaited her should she turn Unseelie.

  “I promised you I’d live, but now you’re telling me it was all for nothing. I’m fighting the inevitable.” She stood on her tiptoes, bringing those turbulent eyes closer to his. “I would’ve given up years ago if it hadn’t been for you. You lied to me. I have nothing to live for except this, releasing you. I’ve watched friends and family suffer and die so I could live long enough for this moment. Am I right?”

  The full impact of what she’d endured hit him with her confession. She’d fought the darkness and won…for him. He’d seen with his own eyes how quickly the fairies fell once they became infected. The chaos acted as a drug, and the euphoric high it gave lured even the most noble to give in to the temptation.

  The woman before him had experienced the effects of it. Although still mainly Seelie, there were pockets of damage on her aura. She’d tasted the power being Unseelie could give yet had turned her back on it. He’d been right. She was his salvation, his heaven.

  The decision he’d made nine years ago was the right one.

  She was his.

  “No, my precious flower, you’ve lived long enough for us to save each other.” He stroked his thumb over the opening of her cloth-covered sex. “Kiss me. Open yourself up, and let me inside.”

  Chapter Five

  Harley’s entire focus centered on the man lazily rubbing her cleft. The look in his eyes stripped her bare, left her aroused and wary. She didn’t understand what he asked of her, but she sensed it would change her for all time.

  She leaned back to take in the full force of the powerful man and try to get a clue as to his motives. Wavy brown hair with a multitude of highlights from blond to chestnut hung in choppy sections around his rough face. His pale blue eyes stood out against his tanned skin. She suspected they could appear as cold as ice at times. Not today. No, lust heated them.

  He wasn’t gorgeous, despite what she’d claimed, not in the same sense as the singers and movie stars she’d had crushes on growing up. Calan’s striking features gave off a commanding tone that appealed to her.

  She wanted to kiss him, ride him and love him with everyth
ing she had. The yearning she’d carried for him had grown over the years. No other man had been able to break her fascination, despite her limited view of him. His eyes, the same ones that watched her with hot, uncontrolled hunger, had ruined her for any other lover.

  If it was sex he wanted, she’d give it to him. The possessive edge to the way he focused on her warned he wanted more, which didn’t match what she suspected would eventually happen between them. That he would kill her.

  She shook her head. “No, I—”

  He stilled the back-and-forth motion of his finger and pressed the pad of his thumb to her clit. The damp cotton of her pants separated them, but the promise of what one flick could do hovered within reach.

  “Wrap your legs around my waist and kiss me.”

  The command slammed into her just like the one he’d given her all those years ago. She thought about resisting. It’d be better if they talked, but desire to feel his powerful cock between her thighs wasn’t a temptation she wanted to pass up. She settled over his thick length and dropped her head back on a groan.

  He shifted his hand to her ass as he’d done earlier and caressed each cheek. The reverent way he touched her made her feel as beautiful as a flower. She’d been told countless times she was, had even been offered modeling and acting jobs, but never had she felt worthy of people’s attention.

  The stain on her soul tainted her view of herself. She hated looking in the mirror, knowing what lurked inside her body—the remnants of the monster who’d created her. Calan’s confirmation that it was festering and spreading chilled her soul.

  “How can you save me?” She cupped his face between her hands. “How, Calan? You told me—”

  “Shhh, my flower. Forget what I said, and kiss me.”

  He ran his finger down the crack of her ass to the spot where his length stretched along the seam of her sex. With his big palm on her bottom, he held her immobile and rocked against her. The bonds locking his body in place prevented him from stimulating her the way she would’ve liked, but the slow grind of his hips skipped electricity over her swollen lips to her clit. Pleasure built deep inside her.

  She shook her head, trying to clear the lust, but her body wanted what Calan teased her with. All the nights she’d fantasized about him added to the moment. Emotions rose, ones she didn’t know what to do with. Hope, uncertainty and restraint warred within her. He bent his head and nibbled on her jaw. Her arousal flowed in response to his nipping bites. Licks of his tongue followed, cooling the sharp sting. Each swipe weakened her. She clasped her arms around his neck and matched the gentle thrusts of his hips. It was impossible not to follow his lead.

  He was seducing her, but the growing passion between them tempted her beyond anything she’d ever encountered. Knowing it was Calan, her ghost man, who touched her made it better. She’d never been able to let him go or find any other man who made her feel a tenth of what she’d experienced each time she pictured his eyes. Goodness knew, she’d tried.

  “Calan, I want…” She stopped herself before she begged him to fuck her. What they were doing was wrong on so many levels, but she needed his smoky taste on her lips one more time. A kiss. Just a kiss. That was all. She sifted her fingers through the strands of his hair and leaned closer until only a hairbreadth separated them. “You. I want you.”

  “Harley, my beautiful flower, I want you too.” The words whispered into her head slipped through her in an intimate caress she hadn’t known was possible.

  He explored her mouth, stroking and licking every inch as if he loved her taste as much as she enjoyed his. The appreciative moans spilling from his throat revved up her needs. She shifted her hips, grinding against him as if she had every right in the world to take her pleasure from his hands.

  She tried to lead him in a quicker dance, but he ignored her demands. He eased back and allowed her to kiss him wildly. The opening to have her way with him would’ve been welcome any other time. At the moment, his passive response tore a whimpered groan from her.

  “Please, Calan.”

  “Open up. Let me inside. Let me shield you from the taint your father left on you.”

  “I don’t know how.”

  His gaze dropped to her mouth. “Kiss me, and let go. I’ll do the rest.”

  She did as he ordered. She kissed him, allowed him to lead her and gave herself up to the emotions he stirred. With each stroke, her tension eased, but her needs grew. She wanted to take him into her body and make love to him the same way he worked her mouth—slowly, as if they had eternity to worship each other.

  Something soft and silky wrapped around her, filled her up and completed her. The brush of his fingers along the column of her throat matched the gentle caress she felt deep inside her body. The burn, the constant unsettling reminder of the taint she carried, calmed. Still there, still a part of her, but the satin presence he poured into her covered it and gave her peace.

  “Take my hand, Harley.”

  She linked her fingers with his. Heat spread where their skin touched, not painful or unwelcome. His warmth seeped into her and rushed through her body much the same way his silky caress had. She breathed a sigh of contentment he eagerly swallowed.

  Their kiss turned into a full-body experience. Every particle within her hummed under Calan’s skilled touch. She didn’t care what he did to her as long as she could hold on to the feeling for as long as possible.

  “I give myself freely to you, my Harley. I ask nothing of you in return. Take me, treasure me or walk away, but know I will always be yours.”

  Power whipped through her before she could question his words. Pain followed. Her back arched. A scream crawled up her throat. The sound of her anguish never escaped. He blew a stream of heated, smoke-scented air into her lungs. The agony ceased as quickly as it came, and pleasure replaced it. Her core tightened, and waves rolled through her from her womb to her fingers and toes.

  The orgasm he created with only a kiss went on forever. She trembled under the force of it. Her eyes rolled back in her head. Colors sparked in an array of light over the inside of her eyelids. And the sound of their hearts, beating as one, echoed in her ears.

  Finally, the pleasure faded. Sensations returned, and she sagged against him. He broke the kiss on a low, guttural groan. “Never knew how good…”

  “Calan.” His name was all she could manage. Never before had she experienced anything like what they’d shared. It had been more intimate than sex yet not quite as satisfying. It only made her want more, all of him. She banded her arms around his chest and held on, hoping he understood what she couldn’t say.

  “Harley, I need you.” He opened his eyes. A hazy ring of darker blue surrounded the pupils of his pale orbs.

  “What? Your eyes…different.” She couldn’t get the words out. She felt drunk on desire. Her mind wouldn’t work.

  A lazy, satisfied grin spread over his mouth as if he knew exactly why she couldn’t form a complete sentence. “Unlock me.”

  The compulsion behind his order hit her harder than any other. Before, she’d wanted to obey him. The command he’d just uttered demanded her obedience. She shoved away and fell on her backside for the second time.

  “Harley, come here and unlock me. I want to make love to you.”

  He curled his fingers. A tug accompanied the simple motion. The pull tightened the silky second skin he’d spread throughout her body.

  She sat there, muscles tensed, and breathed through the undeniable urge to close the distance. “What did you do to me?”

  He watched her with hungry eyes but didn’t answer.

  “Dammit, Calan, tell me the truth. Did you kiss me so you could force some kind of control over me?”

  “I kissed you because I want to save you.” The bite to his words matched the glint in his eyes. “Now come here and release me. I need to finish it.”

  She wrap
ped her arms around her knees so she didn’t run to him. “I don’t understand. I thought allowing you inside saved me.”

  He flicked his gaze between her hand and her face. “It started the process.”

  His harsh tone didn’t match the seductive whispers from moments ago. Wariness settled over her. She forced her attention from his and glanced at her hand. A swooping X marred the center of her palm. She traced the black lines.

  “You will need to cover that. The redcaps will recognize the sacrifice I made for you and report it to Dar. You’ll end up in an eternal prison too.”

  She peered at him, but his expression was one she couldn’t figure out. “What did you do to me?”

  He didn’t answer her. Another curl of his fingers matched the rough jerk on her body. She locked her knees, but not before she took several steps closer to him without realizing she’d moved. She glared at him.

  He sighed. “Do not be stubborn, Harley. Come here.”

  “No, I will not be your puppet. Release me!”

  The yank cut off abruptly. She fell a third time but scrambled up and ran for the door. An invisible hand wrapped around her waist and spun her so she faced him. “You are not a puppet, but I need you to release me. Both of our fates depend on it.”

  “You tricked me, exactly as you did all those years ago. ‘Live for me. Let me save you.’ Bullshit!” She strained against his unseen grip and forced her feet to move. One step, two. She grabbed the doorjamb and hung on for dear life. “Both times you acted for your wants, not mine.”

  He stared at her for a long moment and finally released a long, weary breath. “I am sorry. I truly am, but this time my motives include you.”

  She shook her head. “No—”

  “Take the night to think on what I’ve said, then come back to me. What’s one more day in hell?” He snorted, the bitter sound one she didn’t want to hear. “Promise me, Harley. Return to me tomorrow night and deliver my fate.” He shifted his gaze to her hand. “I gave myself to you. What will you do with me?”