Irish Seduction

by Ann B. Harrison

  It was a frustrated team that returned home that night. They had met with claims of denial when they approached the head of the O’Reilly household. Yes, he wanted to take over Jasper’s land and offered high price for it, but once again, Jasper refused. He left with his men and a warning. He would not tolerate any more attacks on his tenants or his land. Next time he would attack back with all the force he could muster.

  His mother was waiting in the garden when he rode in. He went to her once he had unsaddled his mount.

  “Mother, do not fret so,” he said, pulling her frail body to him and holding her tight. “It will all work out fine. I have warned them for the last time and they know that. Next time they try to hurt any of ours, we will attack without mercy.”

  “Thank you, Jasper. I knew we could count on you. What happened last night at your meeting and the gods?”

  Jasper looked away from her, afraid that her wise eyes would see that he was keeping something from her. It had been late when he had returned to the house last night and he was spared the task of relaying to his mother what had transpired with his visit.

  “They requested that I teach their youngest daughter element spells,” he said in a hard voice. He turned to look at her, trying to soften his words. “Elena sent you a potion to help heal your sorrow, Mother. She worries about you.”

  “It is a great honor, Jasper, to be called to teach one of the gods.”

  He knew that she would be puzzled by his tone. He was revered far and wide for his skills as a teacher and a healer. Why would he be surprised or angry that they had called him for this purpose?

  “I know, Mother. It has just come at a difficult time.”

  It would always be a difficult time when Leona was concerned. He had found it hard to concentrate today on the business of the estate. He must toughen his heart before he returned to Upper Therrus for the first lesson next week. Leona showed no recognition when Jasper had arrived at the palace. She obviously knew nothing about his dreams.

  “I must see to the men, Mother, and then I will join you in the library.” Jasper left her standing in the garden and led his horse to the stables.

  Jasper made a fuss of the animal, trying to delay his return to the house. He gave his soldiers instructions for the hunting parties that would roam his lands and keep an eye on the warring neighbors. Only when he had nothing else to distract him did he join his mother in the library.

  “When do you go back?” she asked, her eyes lighting up with interest.

  “Early next week.” He sank his body fluidly onto a chair in front of the fireplace. He leaned his head back, letting the tension ease. “I have undertaken to visit once a week until I feel that she has a basic knowledge. Helan would like to see her master the elements before she learns anything else. Leona is hoping to pay a visit here when she has progressed enough.”

  “It will be lovely to see her, Jasper.” His mother poured tea and passed it to him. “It has been a long time since we have had a visit from them.”

  “At least we know that we have done nothing to displease them when they stay away from us,” he grumbled. He took a sip and placed the cup on the small table beside him. The warning that Helan had insinuated at their meeting came back to him. Gods did not mate with witches or humans. Not if they wanted to keep their heads.

  “Jasper, about your promise to your father.” His mother ran her hands over her dress, smoothing it over her knees, and gazed intently at him. “Have you decided which girl you will take for your bride?”

  He sprung to his feet, frustration seeping out of every pore. He tried to contain his anger so that he would not upset his mother, breathing until he found enough control to speak.

  “Mother, I love you dearly. Never doubt that, I beg of you. But I cannot in all conscience take either of these young women for my bride.” He leaned his hands on the fireplace with his head between them. Pressing his forehead into the warm stones of the hand-carved lintel, Jasper closed his eyes to the pain he knew would be shining in his mother’s grief-stricken eyes.

  “You promised your father on his deathbed, Jasper.”

  “I promised him I would take a bride, Mother.” Jasper turned to faced her. “But I will take a bride of my own choosing. The name of Kilcane will continue on, that I promise you, but she will be someone that pulls at my heart with everything she is. I will not marry for convenience, not even a deathbed promise that I had no intention of keeping.”

  He walked away. His mother sat silenced by his words. Standing at the window, Jasper looked out into the evening drizzle that was running down the lead lighting panes of glass, pooling onto the stone ledge outside. The mist was coming over the ocean and the sun was setting on the horizon, promising them another cool damp evening.

  “Things have a way of sorting themselves out,” he said, turning to her. “By the Fates, you will have children around your skirts before too long, that I will promise you. Just let me do things my way, I beg of you.”

  “Of course, Jasper, you are now the head of the household and I will do what you say,” she replied, her head bowed.

  “Mother, no. That is not what I meant,” he cried. “What have I ever said that would make you think that I would act only to hurt your feelings? Please try to understand, I must do what is right for me.”

  He raked his hands through his hair, shaking his head. How could he make her understand his feelings when she was the product of an arranged marriage? He knelt down in front of her and took her hands in his.

  “Mother, please listen to me,” he whispered, trying to find the words. “I have met the woman that I wish to marry. She comes to me at night in my dreams and I have denied for too long that she is real, telling myself that it is but a dream. But even though I try to fool myself otherwise, I know she is exists. I know she is the one for me. Don’t you understand that I cannot take any other now that she has shown her face to me? It would be unfaithful of me. I just have to find her. I know that she waits for me.”

  His mother loosened her hand and held his face close to her.

  “My son, that is your right,” she said. “Your father would understand because that is how it was for us.” Her eyes glazed over and she smiled. “When we first met, he told me that he had seen me in his scrying mirror. He was twelve years old at the time and he told his father he knew who he would marry. It was not long after this first sign that his father approached mine for my hand and we became betrothed to wed when we became of age. We were always meant to be together. If there is any chance, Jasper, that you can find her, you have my blessing.”

  “Thank you.” He closed his eyes, resting his head on her knee. She brushed his hair away from his face. He could feel the heat of the calming energy she forced into his mind.

  ***

  Lady Ellen climbed the stairs slowly with a great amount of trepidation. With heavy steps toward her workroom, her heart pounded. She had avoided spending time here and denied herself her heritage when she realized that none of her potions or spells would help her husband’s desperate urge to cling to this world. She had felt like a failure watching the life slowly ebb from his once strong body.

  “It is my time, my love,” he had told her. “There is nothing that you can do. Let me go without too much grief and I will wait for you until your life has been fulfilled and it is time to join me.”

  She would no doubt grieve her loss for the rest of her life, but her main focus now was to help her son find the woman that had appeared in his dreams, just like she had done with her husband. That would mean she is a lady of magic. Thankfully, the bloodline would live on in future generations. For that she was grateful. If it would help her son, she would gladly dust off her crystal ball and call up the power that she had kept buried for too long.

  She entered the room and crossed to the table where the covered crystal ball stood on the workbench. The cloth that hid it from the light was covered in dust and she shook it before putting it away. Her heart racing, Lady Ellen ran he
r hands over the smooth cool surface. The energy flowed up her arms and she connected with the warm magic soothing her soul. She gazed into the ball, through the mists of time, the passing days, until her eyes fell on the blonde-haired young woman that sat on the clipped lawn with her head turned to another who had flaming red hair.

  “No, it cannot be,” she cried out, drawing back in horror. “I must be wrong. The gods would not tease us this way.” She staggered from the room, her eyes wild and frantic. She made her way downstairs, calling for her son.

  Nellie, Jaspers nanny when he was a babe, found her searching the ground floor rooms, frantically crying for her son. She let her servants soothe and settle her in the library in front of the fire with a cup of tea to calm her nerves. Then they sent someone to find the master.

  By the time Jasper had been alerted to his mother’s distress, she was calm.

  “Mother, what happened to upset you so?” he asked, kneeling down and grasping her hands in his.

  “I looked for your bride. I went up to my workroom and looked into my crystal ball. You must be wrong, Jasper,” she cried, the panic starting to rise once again. “They would never let you marry her. She is not one of us. You know the consequences of overstepping the boundaries.”

  “Aye, I do,” he whispered hoarsely. “I could not believe it when I was introduced to her and told she was to be my student. How do you think I felt when she looked at me? And with her parents in the same room with us, I could barely think. I was mortified to think that she was the one. I was hoping against my heart that I was wrong.”

  “It is her, my son. But it is against the law,” Lady Ellen said. “What will you do?”

  “What can I do?” He got up and turned from her. He ran his hands through his hair, his actions sharp and angry. Jasper turned back to face her and confessed what he had done.

  “We are doomed,” she gasped, her hands clasped to her chest.

  “No. I will ignore her, push her away and pretend that I do not love her.”

  “How can you go against your heart?” she asked.

  “I have no choice,” he replied. “We will lose everything and I will be banished. I cannot do that to you.”

  “You cannot turn away from your true love, Jasper. It is something special that you deserve to savor. Your father fought to have me for his bride, you must do the same.”

  “How can I do that? Helan pointed out to me the rules that govern us and our kind. If I go against him, it will be the end of us. I cannot do that to you after all you have been through. No,” Jasper said. “I will do this my way. There is no more to be said about the subject.”

  Lady Ellen watched him storm from the room, her heart breaking for her son. When she had looked into the crystal ball for her true love and had seen Jasper’s father, she had done everything in her power to make him notice her. It had worked because that was the way it was done. The females of their standing did the choosing, unbeknown to the men. If this young lady had decided that Jasper was the one she wanted, there would be no stopping her, regardless of what he said. It would be hard for Lady Ellen to watch her son struggle to distance himself from his love when he was asked to teach her. It would be interesting to see how far Leona would go for what she wanted, especially knowing she would be going against her father’s laws.

  ***

  When Jasper retired to his room that night, he was determined to refuse her advances if she appeared. He was convinced now that she was real, especially after his admission to his mother and hearing the story of the romance between his parents.

  He pulled his tunic over his head and threw it on a chair. Jasper sat on the window seat and slowly pulled off his soft leather boots. Then, with his elbows on his knees, he laid his head in his hands and breathed deeply. His mind knew what he must do, but he feared his body would follow his heart. He could smell her sweet perfume and feel her soft skin on his hands even now. The blood pulsed through his veins and heated his body when he remembered what he was trying to push away.

  The gentle feathery kisses on his eyelids woke him from a tormented sleep. He opened his eyes to see her sparkling green irises inches from his face. Her body was pressing firmly into his, her head lay on the pillow beside him. He sucked in a painful breath and pushed himself up onto his elbows, brushing her hands from his body.

  “No. There can be no more of this, my lady,” he said in a pained voice. “You know that your father would not allow it.”

  She sat up facing him with the sheet clutched to her breast, her hair falling over her naked shoulders. She leaned over to run one fingernail down his chest while watching his nipples tighten and pucker in reaction to her touch with a small smile on her face.

  “We can do whatever I want to,” Leona said, her head tilted to the side while she watched how his body reacted. “Why stop now? You have already had your way with me, taken the most valuable gift that I could ever give you.”

  “I did not realize who you were. Gods, I did not even realize you were real. I thought it was all a dream. If your father finds out, I am a dead man, my lady.”

  “He will find out when I want him to find out,” she whispered. “What we have is for us alone, for now at least.”

  “I cannot do this to you,” Jasper insisted. “I cannot offer you marriage. It is against the law.”

  “Do you not want me, my lord?” she asked. She dropped the sheet, her eyes never leaving his.

  Jasper’s throat worked to swallow and he gazed at her firm white breasts. Her rosy pink nipples were taut and hard, and his hands ached to cradle them, his mouth to kiss them. His breath caught when she leaned into him and kissed his mouth, nibbled his bottom lip, and lightly ran her moist tongue along the seam, working to force his lips apart. With a groan of resignation, he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her to his chest. Her breasts burned him, his skin sensitive to every curve of her body.

  He laid her down against the pillow and cradled her head in his arm.

  “I want you so much, mo ghra, that my body aches with need.” He traced lines around her lips with his finger.

  She opened her mouth and drew his finger in, holding it firm with her teeth, then swiped her tongue over it and sucked gently.

  Jasper groaned with the sensations that ran through his body. His cock sprang to life and he rolled over and pinned her to the bed. “I must have you again, my lady. I will die with the need of you in my blood, but I cannot deny myself your body.”

  He kissed her rosebud mouth, inhaling her scent, then deepened the kiss before working his way down. Jasper took one nipple in his mouth and his fingers toyed with the other. She lay under him, sighing and arching her body up to his. He worked his way from breast to breast, teasing and tasting her soft skin. Taking her nipple between his teeth, he tugged and bit down gently. Her cry of pleasure made his cock throb and he wondered how much longer he could pleasure her without disgracing himself. He nuzzled his lips up into her armpit, his tongue darting over her skin, making her tremble. He licked the side of her breast, made his way down her stomach to her belly button, then left light lingering kisses on her skin.

  Jasper groaned in pleasure when he spread the smattering of hair that covered her sex. She moaned and arched her hips. He put his hands under her cheeks, lifting her core higher up to his mouth. Darting his tongue into her hot crevice, he made her squirm with pleasure. She grasped at his hair and tangled her fingers in it while he sucked and nipped at her. She rose higher to open herself to him, crying out in pleasure when he felt her body explode with sensations that left her breathless. Before she could relax from her orgasm, he was suckling on her nipples, his hardness pressing against her.

  Her hand worked its way down between their bodies to his grasp his erection, massaging and squeezing him gently. He lifted himself up slightly. She ran her fingers the length of him before guiding him into her body. Jasper breathed a sigh of relief when they joined. Relaxed, he lay quietly for a while, relishing her warmth wrapped around the h
ardness of him. Jasper rested his forehead on hers, nipping her mouth with his teeth, his eyes searching hers. Finding nothing but boundless love gazing back at him, he slowly withdrew and gently slid back again into her warm pussy. The lust took over and he moved faster, plunging deeper, moving with her. The motion spurred them both on until he could hold back no longer. His orgasm erupted seconds after hers and she held him tight, the waves of passion rocking them both while he roared his release.

  She kissed him on the shoulder, her teeth grazing his skin. Leona’s hands traveled down his back and cupped his butt while his body convulsed gently. She held him tight until he lay still on top of her spent from their lovemaking. They held each other long into the night, talking of their future or, in Jasper’s view, lack of it.

  “Your father will flay me to within an inch of my life, mo ghra, and then banish me,” he said while stroking her hair. She lay beside him with her fair head on his chest. “My poor mother will not be able to survive alone. This is a terrible situation we find ourselves in.”

  “I will not let that happen to you,” she said. “I will find a way for us to be together. That I promise you.”

  “How will I face your parents when I visit for your lessons?” Jasper was worried that anyone would be able to see the love he felt for this woman written on his face.

  “Father expects that we will dazzle any male that comes with a mile of us, so do not let that worry you, my love.” She laughed at the thought. “I will do my best to be the haughty goddess forced to take lessons from you.”

  “Pouting will only make you more beautiful in my eyes,” he said, kissing the top of her hair.

  She lifted her head to look at him. “It will work out. You can be sure of that. I will never taken no for an answer. I am my father’s daughter, am I not?”