Suddenly, heat suffused her, radiating out from the heartstone. Every scar on her body felt as if flames licked along them. She gasped and Marcus held her hand more tightly, his eyes staring into hers.
“Let me do this, my love. Let me give you back your life,” he whispered.
He kissed her, his lips moving softly against hers as his magic combined with the power of the heartstone worked on her scars. The trails of flame along each scar indicated that healing magic had begun to reverse the magic that had created the scars. Sweat slicked their bodies as the heartstone grew hotter. Finally, the stone grew cool and the glow settled to a muted red. Marcus opened his hands and took it from her, setting it on the bedside table. Cool air wafted over Tait and she drew a shaky breath. Marcus took hold of her arm and brushed his hand over her skin. With a gasp, Tait saw that the scars were gone.
“Oh my God,” she murmured, turning her hand over and seeing nothing but smooth skin.
Trembling, she sat up and swung her feet to the floor. She made her way to the small bathroom and turned on the light. In the mirror, she saw a face she hadn’t seen in six long years. A face without scars. A body without scars. Her breasts looked as perfect as they had on the day Marcus had left for the Mellonian realm. The only sign of her trauma was her white hair. She burst into tears.
Hard arms wrapped around her, pulling her against an equally hard chest.
“Sssh, baby. It’s alright. Everything is over now,” he murmured into her hair.
“Oh, Marcus. I love you, love you, love you,” she chanted pressing kisses to his breastbone.
Soft laughter echoed in the bathroom. “I love you too, Tait. You see what the power of the heartstone can bring about? It didn’t even take much of my magic to remove the scars. The stone did most of the work,” he told her.
She stared up at him, feeling as if she’d awakened from a very long nightmare, shaken by its events and relieved to be awake once more. “I know. I felt its power. I’m so glad you outbid me for it. I would never have known you were alive otherwise.”
He shook his shaggy head. “That’s not true. Eventually, Bran and I would have discovered the truth and come looking for you. We were meant to be together.”
Tait hugged him tightly, feeling desire rise within her. “We were. I’ve always known it.” She tilted her head back to look at him. “Now what?”
“Shower. Sex and more sex,” he grinned, looking happier than she could ever remember seeing him.
“No. I meant beyond tonight.” She stroked a hand over his scarred shoulder. “We could get rid of this one too you know.”
Marcus shook his head. “It’s okay. That’s a battle scar. I’m used to it. It’s a waste of magic to be rid of it.” He stroked a hand down her back. “As for tonight and every night after, it’s your choice my love. I will give you whatever you want.”
“I don’t want to be a soldier, Marcus. I’m done with the Elite,” she said.
He nodded. “That’s fine. Besides, I think I have a job for you all lined up.”
“And what’s that?”she asked as she rubbed herself against his swelling cock.
“Being my wife,” he replied and kissed her.
Tait gave herself up to the love and passion Marcus offered her. For six long years she’d suffered without him. Having him in her arms meant more to her than anything else she’d been given that night. Like him, the scars meant nothing beside her chance to be with him. If she’d had to choose between getting her looks back and having Marcus, she would have chosen him. Luckily, she hadn’t had to choose, but she knew where her priorities lay. Everything she needed was right there in the bold masculine form of the man who kissed her with every ounce of love in his heart.
Unbreak Me (Spellbound Treasure)
Unbreak Me (Spellbound Treasure)
Chapter Nine
Estep Realm
Boland Estate
The mountain air rushed into the room the instant Tait opened the French doors. She stepped barefoot onto the stone balcony and the night breeze molded her sheer nightgown to her body. She glanced over her bare shoulder at the master bedroom which glowed from the light of a hundred candles placed on every available surface. The scene had been carefully set, not for seduction, but for a wedding night.
Since Marlowe had been taken into custody and sentenced to death, many things had happened. General Cochrane had taken a position on the Pythian Elite counsel and Tait’s father had agreed to come out of retirement to head the Elite once more. One of his main goals with this new appointment was to train Branson to take his place in five years or less. Bran had received a promotion to Major and had been given the opportunity to rebuild their former unit. Marcus had stepped down with the General’s approval, but had been given a job teaching at the Elite’s Academy so that his knack for strategy might still be used by the Elite while he trained a whole new generation of warriors.
As for Tait, she’d willingly let her discharge from service stand despite being offered a reinstatement. However, the minister had changed her discharge from dishonorable to honorable. Her court-martial had been wiped from the record as had her prison stay.
She gripped the stone wall in front of her as she leaned into the breeze. Her arm no longer bore the marks of the prison tattoo and the fine network of scars on her body were gone as well. The removal of the marks on her body had helped her put the trauma she’d been through behind her. Her hair had remained white as snow to her disappointment. At least, it had until Marcus had taken her, draped once more in the Alizar cloak, to see a diminutive Asian woman in the Avenal.
The woman had poured her a cup of tea then ran her small hands through the long white strands as Tait drank. Finally, she took the pot of tea and poured it over Tait’s head while murmuring an incantation neither Tait nor Marcus could make out. As the tea soaked her hair, it had turned each strand from white to its original strawberry blonde. Marcus held a mirror up and Tait had stared in amazement at her dripping wet hair before bursting into tears.
The two things Marcus hadn’t been able to fix were the tremors in her hands and her unnervingly easy descent into tears. Because of that, Tait had turned down offers to teach at the Academy and be the head of the Elite’s training facility where units trained on a regular basis throughout the year. Instead, she had taken a position with the Theurgic Counsel, the governing body for all things magical, helping to identify those students who would be a good match for the Pythian Elite.
Fortunately, both her new job and Marcus’s didn’t start for a couple of months. That left them with eight weeks to enjoy the solitude and beauty of her father’s ranch in the mountains. The General had been all for the two of them starting their married life with a very long honeymoon far from the city.
Tait closed her eyes and breathed in the fresh air. Her senses seemed much more finely tuned than they had been for years. She heard things, smelled things, and saw things she hadn’t noticed since her first year in the Academy. Once she’d focused on her career, she’d used her senses solely for that and never for enjoyment. Now, everything was reversed.
The cold metal of her wedding ring felt heavy on her finger. The cool breeze pressed the silk of her nightgown against her stiff nipples. The smooth stone beneath her feet made her think of her feet pressed to the backs of Marcus’s hard calves as he lay cradled between her thighs.
A sigh of longing escaped her as a hand swept her hair over her shoulder. Warm lips pressed an open mouthed kiss to the nape of her neck. Her already hard nipples tightened into painful nubs. She gripped the wall in front of her as a hot, damp body pressed against her back.
“Mrs. Renniger, I presume.”
The purr of Marcus’s voice made her smile. She twisted around and lifted her arms to encircle his neck. Pressing against his naked body, she wished she hadn’t put the silk gown on. She could already feel the thick evidence of her new husband’s arousal against her belly through the thin silk, making her ache to be naked.
/> “You are correct, Mr. Renniger,” she replied, breathless with lust.
Marcus grinned and swept his hands down her body, caressing her through the thin silk. “I never thought I’d ever make love to a married woman,” he murmured teasingly. “But you are a mighty fine looking married woman. How can I resist?”
He reached up and grasped her arm, pulling it down so he could kiss her ring finger. His lips trailed down her forearm where the prison tattoo had lain for six years. Tait watched his dark head move as his lips tasted her flesh. The most important thing she had lost had been regained, and that had been Marcus. To have him alive and well and home meant everything to her. The six years she’d thought he’d been dead had been the worst years of her life, not so much because of what had happened to her as because of her belief that the man she loved so deeply had died.
Two tears slipped down her cheeks and seeing them, Marcus frowned. He thumbed them away, whispering, “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” She smiled at him through the tears. “Everything is finally right. The doctors and therapist tell me I won’t cry so easily after some time has passed. I know that we both will always bear the marks of the life we’ve lived up until now. You cannot unmake an assassin or warrior. But I think we’ll actually be okay with the past now.”
His arms encircled her waist and tightened around her. “We will be more than okay, Tait. And I do understand that we will always be who we were trained to be, but I promise not to bring too many weapons to bed if you promise the same,” he said with a grin as he leaned his forehead against hers.
“The only weapon I expect to find in our bed is this,” she joked softly, her fingers stroking the length of his engorged cock.
“Let me love you,” he whispered against the side of her neck as he began to kiss her.
Tait caressed the long muscles of his back. “You’ve unbroken me, Marcus. My heart, my soul, my spirit. You’ve unbroken them, healed the wounds…”
“Put Humpty Dumpty back together again?” His voice held a note of amusement as he continued to rain kisses on her neck, throat and shoulders.
Her hands gripped him tightly. “Yes. You have. And the happiness you’ve given me is something I will cherish forever.”
Her words came out choked with emotion and Marcus lifted his head to stare down into her eyes. She smiled at him, knowing that her tears of happiness spilled over once more.
“I can feel it you know.” He tilted his head toward the bedroom.
Her smile widened to a grin. “I can too.” She knew he referred to the heartstone that lay on the bedside table. They both knew it glowed and throbbed with the heat of their emotions.
“Do you still think you are No One?”
She shook her head slowly, feeling the strands of her hair brush her bare shoulders. “No. I know exactly who I am. Tait Renniger, beloved wife of Marcus Renniger and one day maybe even mother to his children.”
A smile of exquisite happiness lit Marcus’s face as he lifted her into his arms and carried her into the bedroom. The light from the candles cast golden shadows across his handsome face and Tait rubbed her hand over his scarred shoulder as she stared up at him. They had been through more than any couple should ever have had to endure. But through the pain and loss they had gained a future so bright and wonderful, Tait didn’t think anything would ever dim it or mar it again.
Marcus laid her on the silk sheets and stripped her gown from her, coming down onto her naked body. She welcomed him with open arms as he settled between her thighs.
“Oh, I think definitely, mother of my children,” he said, his gaze holding hers as he rubbed his cock against her moist heat.
“Then you’d best get started,” she purred. “Make the heartstone sing.”
“Fuck the stone,” he growled. “I’ll just make you sing with pleasure.”
His mouth took hers in a deep kiss that fulfilled every dream, wish and want Tait had ever had in her life. With her past left firmly behind her, she clung tightly to Marcus as he made her unbroken soul soar.
Unbreak Me (Spellbound Treasure)
Epilogue
Crossroads
Spellbound Treasure Storeroom
“I told you the heart would end up where it belonged. The magic in it was created with love. There is no more powerful bond,” Etienne murmured.
Robin smiled wryly. He’d long given up on the notion of ever besting her. She always knew how the stories would end. He watched her slender fingers toy with a carved golden ring.
“Not this time, my friend.” She held up the ring and it caught a shaft of sunlight, sparkling as the runes carved into the smooth interior caught the light. The glitter of the ancient carvings gave Robin shivers. Old stuff always did. It called to his demon nature, a nature he tried to suppress.
“What do you mean, not this time?” he asked, unable to look away from the ring.
Etienne glanced at him, her eyes sympathetic. “I don’t know how this story will end.” She indicated the ring. “I don’t know how it began and I don’t know how it will end. I don’t even know who will show up to buy it.”
Shocked, Robin’s brows rose. “I thought the twin who’s been here before would come for it.”
Shaking her head Etienne placed the ring on the counter, on top of a Spellbound Treasure bag. “Branson is the obvious choice, of course. But the twin who resides in darkness, the one who does not exist, he’s the one who could well show up, Robin.”
She turned her head and their eyes met and held. “Benedict will feel the power of the ring more strongly. He has nothing and no one except Branson. His life in the shadows begins to wear on him. He’s tired and heart weary. The power of the runes will call more strongly to him than to Branson who has the love of friends as well as his twin. Benedict is isolated. The runes love that sort of desperation.”
Robin drew a long breath. “Why would any father do such a thing to his sons?”
Etienne placed a hand over Robin’s when he reached to touch the Ogham ring. She stayed the movement of his hand scant inches from the ancient gold. “You already know the answer to that, Rob.”
Her whisper filtered down to the part of him he liked to call his soul. He wondered if it truly was.
“The ring will right this wrong,” he said, conviction making his voice stronger than it needed to be in the confines of the storeroom.
Etienne smiled and Robin had the instant sense that the sun shone through the rain, creating a rainbow in more colors than normal. He adored her smiles. She didn’t do it enough to suit him.
“It shall. The lives of these twins now begin the circle back to the beginning and thence to the place where it ends and ever shall be again,” she murmured and slipped the glowing ring into the bag. “Besides, there are still secrets in the Citadel to uncover.”
Robin shook his head at her cryptic words. Branson and Benedict Gaines had lived a lie their entire lives. But their grandmother’s ring would ensure that those lies and the newer web of lies that encircled them and reached to the highest places in Estep Realm’s government were exposed. How that would affect them was anyone’s guess, least of all Robin’s. And apparently, for once, Etienne didn’t know either.
Tapping the keys of his computer, Robin put the Ogham ring up for sale. He didn’t know which twin would arrive to buy it, but either way, he’d be ready.
Unbreak Me (Spellbound Treasure)
About the Author
Lex has been writing stories and poems ever since she could hold a pencil. A few years ago, she got caught up writing in an online paranormal serial story. The story was very intense and a challenge to her writing skills. As she began to write more and more, fans of the story and her blog readers began to encourage her to submit her writing. Lex lives in Orange County, California with her long haired musician husband and her teen aged daughter. Lex loves loud music, reading hot stories, reading her friends’ blogs and hanging out with them, enjoys building her own computers, and has a p
ropensity for having very weird vivid dreams about Nikki Sixx.
Author Website – http://www.lexvalentine.com
Series Website: http://www.talesofthedarkworld.com
Author Blog – http://www.sunlightsucks.com
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Unbreak Me (Spellbound Treasure)
Make sure you don't miss any of the books in the Tales of the Darkworld series by Lex Valentine. Available individually or in specially priced book bundles for both the print and electronic formats.
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