by Lauren Dane
“I’m going to run you a bath,” he said. “The soreness will ease in the hot water.”
“I’m guessing that there’ll be some healing herbs in the bathroom. You won’t find any place a Charvez spends any amount of time in without them and this is my sister’s apartment. They’ll help.” She started to walk into the bathroom but he swung her up into his arms.
“Tell me where they are, I’ll get them.” His voice was tight and his mouth was in a flat line. His forehead was creased into a big, angry frown.
She looked inside the cabinet and found the jar, dark glass to keep the herbs fresh and potent, and he poured them into the tub as the water ran.
He helped her inside and sank down next to the tub.
“Aren’t you coming in with me?” she asked.
“No,” he said tersely.
Her heart fell. “You don’t have to stay if you don’t want to. I won’t make a scene or anything,” she said with a coolness she didn’t feel.
He grabbed her chin and turned her face to his. “You can’t brush me off so easily. I’m here to stay, you’d better get used to it.”
“Why are you so angry with me? I’m sorry I wasn’t some super sex goddess, I’m sure you’ve been with women who are better and more experienced at sex than I am.” Her voice trembled and her bottom lip was threatening to actually pout. She was mortified but she couldn’t help it.
He stroked over her with a soft washcloth and looked up, surprised. He saw her upset face and he gentled. “What the hell are you talking about? I’m angry because you didn’t tell me you were a virgin and I hurt you. If I’d have known I would have entered you more slowly instead of plunging inside.”
Feeling mollified, she leaned back against the edge of the tub and closed her eyes as he ran the cloth over her skin in large, soapy circles. “I liked you plunging inside. Okay, so it hurt more than I thought it would at first, but after I got used to it, it felt really, really good.” She opened her eyes and looked at him. “In fact, when can we do it again? I’d like to return the favor and go down on you. I probably won’t be very good at it in the beginning but I’m a very fast learner.”
Against his better judgment, he laughed at her earnestness. Leaning in, he kissed her shoulder. “We should wait, you’re sore.”
She dunked under the water and stood up, the water sluicing down her body. “No, I’m not, but you can make me that way. Some aches are better if they’re well-earned.”
“What have I created?” he murmured.
She quirked up a corner of her mouth and held out her hand to him. “And anyway, my mouth isn’t sore at all and I’ve always wanted to know what a cock tastes like.”
The body part in question swelled up in response. “Wait.” He tugged on her hand. “Let me take a quick shower and I’ll be right out.”
“I can help you,” she said in a sexy murmur.
“I know, but I’d end up fucking you standing up against the tiles and I want your lips around my cock first. Wait for me in the bedroom. I’ll be in in a few minutes.”
“Oh, all right. Spoilsport. Do Faeries drink wine? There’s a great bottle of cabernet open.”
“Yes, we drink wine and I’d love a glass.”
She smiled at him and sauntered out and he nearly put an eye out as he walked into the glass enclosure around the shower.
* * * * *
When he walked into the bedroom ten minutes later she was laying naked on the chaise near the French doors leading to the terrace. The morning sun was lighting her creamy skin, she looked magical, sultry and sexy.
She stood and walked toward him, holding out a glass of wine. “It’s early for alcohol, it feels so hedonistic to be standing naked before a drop-dead sexy man with a glass of wine in my hand at seven in the morning. I like it.”
“As long as I’m the only man you’re standing naked in front of, that’s fine with me. We can do this every morning as far as I’m concerned.” He drank the wine and placed the glass down on the table. He took her glass from her hands and put it next to his.
Tossing a pillow on the floor, he grabbed her, his large hand gentle around her neck, and pulled her close. With lips barely touching hers he growled, “Now on your knees and suck my cock.”
She shuddered as the dark command made her pussy weep. She slowly slid to her knees before him. “Tell me what to do, what you like,” she whispered, looking up at him.
His hands cradled her skull and his thumbs traced over her eyebrows tenderly. “Take me into your mouth, just the head.”
He jerked at the sensation of her hot, wet mouth sliding over his cock head.
“Touch my balls, yes, like that,” he said. She held him in the palm of her hand and rolled them gently. The other hand was holding him at the root of his cock, keeping him steady as her mouth was on him. “Hold me tighter.”
She gripped him tighter and he hissed when she dipped her tongue into his weeping slit. She swirled her tongue around him. “That’s it, baby. Right there, underneath the head, oh yeah,” he mumbled as she found the sensitive spot and flicked her tongue over it. “Use your teeth.”
She lightly scraped her teeth over the sweet spot and dragged her fingernails gently over his balls. She could feel the veins beneath her hand pulsing as he grew harder. His balls drew tight against his body.
“That’s sooo good.” He took her hand and pulled the skin down, tightening it. She took more of him into her mouth, keeping the skin of his cock taut.
She gloried in the feel of him. She’d always thought of blowjobs with slight unease but this was incredible. Just feeling the changes of his body as her mouth was on him, how much each little thing she did affected him, turned him on… It turned her on. Her pussy was clenching, reaching for him to fill her up. He tasted salty and tangy and his skin was silky but he was oh-so-hard.
He stroked gently into her mouth, careful not to go too deep. He was too big for her to take all of him. It was difficult to believe this was her first time, she was turning him on more than he’d ever been before. Her mouth over his flesh was paradise. He looked down at her and watched his cock disappear into her mouth and come out again, wet with saliva, glistening and red, Her hair, dark as night, contrasted against the Sidhe gold of his skin.
“Oh fuck, you’re so good. I’m going to come,” he managed to get out, turned on beyond bearing as he thought about being the first man to shoot his seed down that pretty throat. That thought pushed him over and he came with a roar, his hands tightening in her hair, holding her to him as burst after burst of hot cum hit the back of her throat.
She swallowed over and over and licked him clean as she pulled her mouth from him. He slumped onto the chaise and she moved to sit on the pillow, her cheek on his thigh. He said nothing for a while as his hands stroked through her hair.
After a bit she turned and knelt between his thighs. “I really liked that, how’d I do?”
Her enthusiasm was touching and very sexy. “You did great, and I really liked it too,” he said with a chuckle. He moved so that his back was against the arm of the chaise and his legs stretched out in front of him. “You there with the light behind you like that, it’s one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen. Come here, straddle my thighs.”
She licked her lips and obeyed. He positioned her so that her pussy was over his reviving cock. “You’re scalding hot,” he murmured and pulled her down, rubbing her over him, bathing his cock in her juices.
Her eyes glazed over. “Yes,” she hissed.
He grabbed her hips, stroking her over his cock slowly, grinding against her. “Move so that I can suck your nipples,” he ordered after she’d gotten the rhythm down. She whimpered and moved her upper body forward. “Hold your breasts up for me.”
She cupped her breasts and offered them up to his eager mouth. She sighed at the incredible feeling each time his mouth tugged on her nipple. The shock of pleasure jolted her as she rubbed her pussy over his cock. She went up on her knees, ra
Her movements became less controlled as he ramped her up. He slid a hand behind her, down the crack of her ass, dipping his fingers into her wetness and then back up to tickle over the pucker of her rear passage. He slowly pushed a finger inside as he began to focus her weight over the head of his cock, letting it brush her clit over and over. This in concert with his finger slowly thrusting into her tight rear passage. He watched the flush work its way up her skin, her nipples getting darker, harder, elongating. He sucked one hard nipple into his mouth and bit down and she threw her head back and came on a silent scream as she ground herself desperately onto him, her anus clamping down on his finger. His cock, knowing when it had a good thing, shot until the two of them were reduced to a warm, wet heap of twitching muscles.
Chapter Four
The next time she woke up it was due to hunger. She looked at the bedside clock and discovered that it was after eleven. The sun sat high in the sky and she sat up, feeling muscles she’d forgotten existed but wearing a satisfied smile. Boy, she might have been a late bloomer in the sex department but once she got started she really did it right.
Speaking of that, she looked around. Con was nowhere to be found. She shrugged and called out his name but he didn’t answer. She got up and ran yet another bath with the healing herbs. She sank into the water and picked up the phone to check her messages.
With a sigh she listened to them all. As she’d predicted, her family had decided that she was a total infant and unable to be away without constant supervision. There were messages from both of her brothers. Eric sounded amused but Niall sounded perturbed that she hadn’t been there to answer her phone. Her father had called once, reminding her that in London they call the police bobbies and that she should call the hotel if there was an emergency because Aidan had set it up for them to help her should she need it.
She rolled her eyes as she went through the three from Lee ordering her to call and explain what was happening. She knew she’d have to call her mother back—one didn’t ignore Maman’s messages—but she’d call the others back later, on her own schedule.
She loved her family for their concern but resented it at the same time. That they thought she was so ill-prepared to deal with the basics of life just showed how little they understood her. And how could that be? Em knew that being the youngest child made the others see her as a responsibility. They all felt protective of her. She knew that they understood the strain of constantly being bombarded with the emotions of everyone around her and that they had sought to keep things calm for her when she was younger just to save her nerves. But she wasn’t eight years old she was twenty-five!
Quickly calculating the time difference, she dialed the phone number. They should be awake. Regardless, her mother had said to call back no matter what time it was and so she did.
“Hello?” Her mother’s richly accented voice came over the line and Em smiled, even through her annoyance.
“Maman, how are you?”
“Cher, I’m good but not as good as you, eh?” her mother said with a laugh.
“What?”
“Something happened to you last night, yes? Something important. I felt it. Just as I felt when your sister was with Aidan that first time. Your heart has found her partner.”
“Oh, I don’t know that I’d go that far. I also don’t know if I should be creeped out that my mother knows I had sex.”
Her mother laughed. “Cher, I know you’ve waited twenty-five years to do it and it must have meant a lot for you to do it now. I hope this man understands the gift you’ve given him. Is this Faerie worthy of your love, Em?”
“Whoa! Love is jumping the gun a bit, Maman. And how did you know he was a Faerie?” She gritted her teeth—damn that Lee! “Anyway, sure I like him—a lot—but I don’t know him well enough to be in love with him.”
“Who are you trying to convince, sug? Charvez women don’t dally. We love. You especially. You’ve turned your nose up at every interested male for the last twenty-five years. You don’t take sex lightly. You wouldn’t have shared yourself with him if you didn’t love him.”
“I’m not in London to get a boyfriend. I have work to do. Con is fun and sexy and smart but he’s also quite the ladies’ man according to Aidan, who I’m sure you’ve talked to or you wouldn’t have known Con was a Faerie.”
Her mother made an indistinct Gallic sound and Em could see the accompanying elegant shrug in her mind’s eye. “Eh, so? Your father was notorious with women when I met him. From that moment on he was only notorious with me. Your grandfather was the same. Aidan and Alex too.”
She blocked out the image of her father as a ladies’ man and laughed. “Thanks for the visuals, Maman. I’m sure that’s burned into my brain forever. I have to go. I’ve slept the morning away and the bathwater is getting cold.”
“Em, you be careful. I know you are there for an important reason, more than just to look at a library. I can feel that it could be dangerous if you don’t pay attention. Dark forces are always watching and waiting for a way to succeed. You might try to share what you’re up to with your family.”
Leave it to her mother to get all witchy. “I’ll be careful. I’ll be able to explain more when I get home. I love you.”
“And I you,” her mother said with a sigh, letting the issue go—for the moment, anyway.
Smiling, Em got out of the tub and dried off. She dressed in a pair of jeans and a light blouse. She discovered that breakfast had been delivered while she’d been sleeping and poured a cup of coffee from the carafe that kept it hot. She ate the fruit and cheese and crusty bread. A distinctly French breakfast for a London hotel. Then again, Aidan probably told them what she liked.
She wondered where Con had gone. She tried not to think that he’d thought of last night as a one-night stand. She sure hoped it was more because her mother, as usual, was right. She was more than halfway in love with Conchobar MacNessa, the man of her dreams.
Pushing that to the back of her mind, she grabbed her bag and headed out. A car was waiting to take her to Oxford to meet with an old friend who was a scholar specializing in magical languages. She hoped that he might be able to help her decipher the symbols from the journal.
* * * * *
Con had sifted to meet with Aine. He hoped to get back before Em awoke because he’d forgotten to leave a note. He didn’t want her to think he’d run out on her. But as usual, he got held up by the ridiculous pageantry of Aine’s court.
First he’d had to wait as she heard from other advisors, then he’d had to fend off Ailish, Eire and Sorcha—all past lovers—none of whom were amenable to his turning down their offers of repeat erotic performances. It was nearly two hours before he finally got a private audience with Aine.
“What do you have for me, Con?”
“She knows I’m Fae and she knows I have more than a passing interest in her research. She wants to hear the whole story and I can only hold her off for so long. I’d like to tell her what I’m up to. I think she’ll cooperate better that way.”
“How does she know you’re Fae and that you have more than a passing interest in her research, Con? Are you getting sloppy after ten thousand years?”
“She’s a very clever human. She is also sister-in-law to a vampire I know. He told her who I was. I used my name and she found out that he knew me and asked him about me directly. The last time I saw this vampire was twenty-five years before she was even born.”
Aine stood and walked around him, studying him carefully. “You have been with this human haven’t you?”
“Yes. She’s mine, Majesty.”
Aine stilled and raised a brow. “Really? A human?”
He shrugged. He knew it was true, Em was his. But that also meant that he was hers and while he celebrated that it also made him uncomfortable. It had been a very long time since he’d allowed himself that level of vulnerability to another person.
“You are sure?”
“Aine, my queen, she’s bound to my heart. I cannot imagine a life without her in it. Let me tell her the truth. Please.”
“Your mother will be so pleased by this news,” Aine said with a dry laugh. “Are you certain she can be trusted?”
He nodded. “Yes, she’s got a pure soul. She is loyal and true. She would not use the book or any knowledge to cause harm.”
“You may tell her that the symbol is related to Faerie magic and that we are concerned about the knowledge getting out and causing harm. Do not tell her more than she needs to know.”
He inclined his head in thanks and deference.
He began to leave but she stopped him. “Conchobar?”
He looked up at her. “Yes, my queen?”
“I suppose this means you won’t be making any trips to my bed again?”
He smiled sexily, his eyes twinkling. “I’m sorry to say so, but yes.”
“I am sorry too. This human is a fortunate one to have your undivided attention. Many hearts will be broken and if I were you I’d be on the watch for spiteful females who may feel spurned.”
“Thank you, Majesty. I will.”
* * * * *
Bron MacAillen listened to the news of the discovery of the book with great interest. His father had looked for The Shifting Veil for thousands of years to use against the humans. The magic in the book would allow him to break those ties that created protection from dark forces, leaving them vulnerable. Now, in supreme irony, a human had most likely discovered its whereabouts. A human whose family was the very key to him being able to get possession of the book once and for all.
He paid his spy and sifted from Tir na nOg to a place deep within the heart of the Forest of Infinity. He pulled out the dark book and spoke the ritual words, ending the spell with drops of his blood into the circle he’d erected.
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