by Ann Gimpel
He slid his hands lower and cupped the curves of her ass. Where most lassies were soft, Maggie was hard, tight with muscle. She hooked a leg around one of his, and he felt the heat of her center as she pushed herself against his leg, moaning softly. Lachlan broke their kiss. “Lass. It has been long since ye’ve lain with a man. I see it in your mind. Why? Do men from your time not appreciate your beauty?”
“I don’t want to talk. Not now.” Her words sounded garbled, as if she were underwater. She thrust herself against his leg. If he were any judge of things, she was on the edge of spending. Her head fell back on her long stalk of a neck. Her marvelous blue eyes fluttered shut; crimson markings splotched both cheeks. He ran his mouth down the side of her face with gentle, nibbling kisses to get himself under control. If he didn’t rein his lust in, he’d shove her to the cave floor and have done with things. That was not the way he wanted their first time to be. Nay, he wanted flowers and a bower lit with hundreds of candles. He wanted the Celtic marriage ceremony to bless their joining.
“Maggie.” He unwound her leg from around his thigh and laid a hand on each of her hips. “Lass.” The words stuck in his throat. What could he say that wouldn’t make him seem less than a man? “I want for this to be special for us. When we join our bodies, ’twill also join our hearts and souls. For that we need someone to bless our union.”
“What?” Her eyes were glazed with heat-lust. “You want to find a priest? Didn’t you Celts shun organized religions?” She made a grab for the front of his breeks. Her hand closed around his erection. “You want me. I want you. What could be simpler?” Her fingers worked the breek’s buttons and pushed inside the confining material. She extracted his cock from its trouser-created hell.
Her hand on him felt exquisite. He pushed into her fingers, and all his carefully crafted resolve blew away like so much chaff. “If ’tis so simple, why have ye kept to yourself for so long?”
“I was busy.” She bent toward him and licked his neck, while knowing fingers milked his shaft. Somewhere along the way, she pushed the breeks down his legs, and he stepped out of them.
Lachlan’s balls tightened. He laid a hand over hers and pried her fingers off his cock. “I’ll spend if ye keep that up.”
She eyed him. “Yes, that’s the general idea. I’m so hot, I can’t think. We need to do this, you and I, so we can keep moving forward.” Maggie grasped his face between her hands and forced him to look at her. “I know you want me. Why are you suddenly acting like a nervous bridegroom?”
Heat moved from his belly up his chest and neck. “I would see us wed, lass. To start our life together properly.”
Her brows knit together. “But we barely know one another. You believe in some ancient prophecy that says we belong together. I’m still trying to absorb all this. At least in my time, the custom is for a man and woman to spend time talking, getting to know one another, having sex together. Then, if all that feels right, they seal the deal.”
“Seal the deal? Ye make it sound like buying a flock of sheep from the neighboring estate.”
She snorted and then laughed. “See. Perhaps that’s why I haven’t had any lovers for a couple of years. I’m too matter-of-fact for romance.” She shrugged and had the grace to look a bit embarrassed. “Maybe that’s something you need to know about me before you tether your star to mine.”
Maggie took a step back. Her eyes lit with mischief and frank, sexual need. Reflected by his mage light, they glowed like exotic blue gemstones. In one fluid motion, she took hold of the bottom of her shirt and yanked it over her head. Before he could stop her, she undid the scraps of cloth holding her breasts and dropped them atop her shirt. With an expression worthy of Aphrodite, Maggie raised her hands over her head, and thrust her chest toward him.
Lachlan’s throat thickened. It was almost impossible to breathe around the thrum of blood racing through his body. “Ye are truly bonny,” he managed, though his tongue felt clumsy and stupid. He couldn’t tear his gaze from her breasts. They rode high on a sculpted ribcage. Red-brown nipples puckered as if begging for the touch of his lips.
She ran her tongue over her lips and circled one peaked nipple with her own fingers. “It would feel ever so much better,” she said, panting, “if your hands were touching me. I know what mine feel like.” She rubbed one foot against the other and toed off her shoes.
His cock felt like an iron bar curved against his stomach. If he did nothing, he’d spend anyway. His balls were too full to be denied. He took a step toward her and then another. “Do you have a bed in here?” She moved her other hand between her legs. “Because if you don’t, the floor will work just fine.”
Lachlan’s control snapped when she touched her core. He surged forward and latched his mouth over one of her breasts. He licked and suckled until she squealed with delight, and then he moved to the other. He lost count of how many times he switched sides. Her hands found his cock again. This time, both of them closed about him. His lust was like a knife on a grindstone, honed to the sharpest edge.
He raised his head and claimed her mouth again. Tongue buried in her mouth, all he could think about was sinking another part of him deep in her body. He reached between her legs. The heat of her center was like an electric shock. With shaking hands, he fumbled with the unfamiliar fastenings of her pants. And then she was helping, and the soft fabric slithered down her hips. He pushed a hand between her legs again and rubbed her sensitive nub, slick with her arousal. His fingers slid back and entered her body. He was about to pull back and push inside her again when her muscles clenched around his fingers and clenched again.
She was coming, and he rubbed the seat of her women’s pleasure with the other hand to intensify her sensation. When her body quieted, he pulled his fingers from her and sucked her sweetness from them. She sank to her knees before him, twitched his smallclothes out of the way, and took him into her mouth.
Lachlan groaned and twined his hands in her hair. He showed her the motion he needed. It didn’t take long, maybe half a dozen strokes in and out of her mouth and he felt his balls snug up against his body. She must have known how close he was, because she upped the pressure and grazed the delicate skin around the head of his cock with her teeth. Pleasure spewed out of him in hot, burning jets of ecstasy. Maybe he should have spilled his seed on the cave’s floor, but she didn’t give him any choice, holding him closer once the first spurts flooded her mouth.
He joined her on the floor and pulled her body full length against his, murmuring brokenly in Gaelic. He kissed her and tasted the sharp flavor of his semen. His cock, which had barely deflated, sprang to attention instantly. He strung kisses lower until his mouth hovered over the junction between her neck and shoulder. Lachlan sank his teeth into sensitive flesh until he tasted blood. He drew back and licked the wound clean, sealing it with magic.
“What are you doing? I’ve heard of love bites, but—”
“Sssh, lass.” He rolled onto his side and smoothed wild locks that had escaped from her braid away from her face. “Ye know I am a dragon shifter. Kheladin, my dragon side, reminded me of his part in the mating ritual.”
“But we haven’t actually had sex yet. Although,” —she moved a hand between them and curved it around him again— “it looks like we could. You’ve got plenty left where the last climax came from.” She smiled devilishly at him and pushed her hips against his body suggestively.
“Gwydion could marry us.”
“I’m sure he could, but he’s not here now, and we are.” She turned her blue gaze on him. “From what you said earlier, the sooner we make love, the sooner that powerful magic will start brewing.”
Lachlan started. What she said was true, so why was he staving off such an important joining?
Knowledge hit him like a runaway carriage. Somehow, against hope and reason, Rhukon was still within these walls. Maybe not all of him but enough to subvert the magic that would be his undoing. For some unknown reason, Maggie was immune to the bl
ack wyvern’s magic. Thank the goddess for small favors. Even Kheladin was doing his part by forcing the mating bite.
Lachlan fanned magic around them, creating a double warding. If he were correct, Rhukon would intensify his efforts the moment Lachlan sank himself into Maggie’s willing body.
“Well?” She gazed at him, eyes looking ancient beyond measure.
He didn’t answer with words, just pulled her close, rolled her body atop his, and guided himself home inside her. When the heat and warmth of her body closed around him, it was all he could do not to shriek his joy. The sensation was so intense, he rushed toward a precipice. There’d be no control, no gradually bringing the lass to peak after peak while he controlled his lust.
“Ride me,” he gasped through gritted teeth. “Take your pleasure. I willna last. Not this time.”
She sat over him, ribcage arched like a bow. Her head fell back; her neck corded. Blonde curls that had come loose from her braid cascaded around her body. She twirled her nipples with both hands and pushed her core against his pubic bone.
Dark magic battered Lachlan’s ward with a fury, but Rhukon wasn’t strong enough to break through. And then nothing mattered but Maggie, the heat of her, the musk of her arousal, her hands that had moved to grip his shoulders. His cock bucked and shook as he came again. Maggie screamed; her muscles milked him, intensifying his climax tenfold.
She collapsed atop him, breathing hard. Lachlan closed his arms around her and held her tight, his shuddering cock still buried in her body. The deed was done. She was his.
Maggie turned her head to one side and said, “I felt something…evil trying to get us.”
“Aye, lass. But he dinna topple my wards.” Lachlan repositioned them so they were lying on their sides with him still inside her. He stroked her cheek with one hand. “It took me a while, but I finally realized part of my reluctance was Rhukon’s intervention.”
She crinkled her nose and laughed. “Oho! Now you’ve had me, you’re not so certain about that marriage proposal.”
“Nay, lass, not at all,” he began, before he understood she was teasing him.
“Good. Because now I’ve had a taste of you,” she contracted her cunny muscles around him, “I’m probably spoiled for any other man, ever.”
“Only probably? Ye’ll never have another man—”
“Pfft. Stop. Don’t go all Neanderthal on me. If I could go for a couple of years without fucking anyone, I don’t think it’s a big risk that I’ll suddenly turn into a hoyden and screw everything that moves. Besides,” she laid a hand over his on her cheek, “I like you. A lot. And I trust you, which is more important than almost anything.”
Lachlan’s head spun. He needed a dictionary to translate some of what Maggie said. “Aye, lass. Trust is important. So is this.” He flexed his shaft and was rewarded with a squeeze from her.
“Ah, whoops.” She bit her lower lip. “We should have used something. I’m not taking birth control anymore. Why should I be, since I didn’t plan to break my sex fast with anyone?”
“I only understood part of that. If ye’re worried about bairns, I control when my seed creates life. ’Tis one of the lesser magics and easily mastered.”
“Okay.” She nodded. “That’s one less worry, but they had sexual diseases back in the sixteen hundreds. You may have called it some sort of pox.”
Lachlan drew back, struggling with righteous indignation. She canna know, he reassured himself. He clamped his jaws and made an effort to speak calmly. “The same magic which allows me to determine when I create new life also tells me if a woman is infected with disease. I would never—”
“Never mind.” She patted his hand. “I should have known that myself.” The corners of her mouth twitched into a smile. “I was too swept away by your considerable charm to bother to check. Witches have a similar radar. They’re good at avoiding anyone with communicable diseases. And at protecting themselves if they have to have contact. It’s one of the few magics I cultivated.”
“Why would ye pick that one?” He shifted to a more comfortable position, and his cock slipped from her body.
She rolled to a cross-legged sit. “It will take a while for you to learn about all the ways the world changed while you slept. I told you I’m a doctor. We spend most of our time with sick people. While I was in medical school, and my first year of training after that, I spent a lot of time in hospitals. It was convenient not to fall prey to staph, strep, and other bacterial infections when they ran rampant.”
“Bacterial infections?”
Maggie grinned at him. “Aye, wee beasties that get inside your body and make you sick.”
Lachlan chuckled. It morphed into a full-blown laugh. “Now ye stop that. I’ll admit ye can do a credible Highland accent, but I prefer it when ye sound like yourself.” She shivered. “Ye’re cold.”
“Yes, and hungry, too. Do you have food down here?”
“There’s cold, pure water from a spring, but for food, we shall need to return to the world above.”
She looked around her, shuddered again, and reached for her discarded clothing. “I still feel it.”
“Feel what, lass?”
“It’s hard to describe, but it’s like a dark shadow scrabbling at the edges of something you have draped around us.”
“The lass is perceptive,” Kheladin said.
“What was that?” Half into her top, Maggie whipped her head around.
“Kheladin.”
“Your dragon?”
Lachlan thought about it and murmured, “I think he would say I’m his human.”
“Regardless.” She flowed to her feet in one easy motion and reached for her pants. “Why can I hear him?”
“Because ye’re bonded to the both of us.”
She gifted him with a curious grin. “Hmm…sounds kind of kinky.” Apparently reading his confusion, she clarified, “It means sexually deviant.”
“I resent that.” The dragon stirred within him. Lachlan fought back steam and smoke that threatened to pour from his mouth.
He got to his feet. “’Tis just that she doesna understand. Times have changed since ye and I walked the Earth.”
“I don’t know if I can manage telepathic speech.” A broad grin wreathed her face. “Hey! I’m doing it. Anyway,” she bowed slightly, “I meant no offense. I was being a smartass, er, sarcastic. I was being sarcastic. It was uncalled for, and I’m sorry.”
“Apology accepted,” Kheladin said. “Ye carry my mating bite. Ye belong to us now. Both of us.”
“I’ll do my best to be worthy of the honor.” She swiped at cheeks damp with sudden tears. “Sorry. Guess my emotions are pretty close to the surface. When do I get to see you?”
“If I had my way—”
“Soon,” Lachlan broke in. “Verra soon.”
She cocked her head to one side. “Witches live for a long time—often hundreds of years—but certainly not forever. Are you certain you both want me in your lives? Maybe an immortal woman might—”
Lachlan was by her side in an instant. The lass was skittish as an unbroken colt. He wrapped his arms around her and stilled the rest of her words with a kiss he hoped would put an end to that line of thought.
Maggie gathered the rest of her clothes, shrugged into her jacket, and bent to push her feet back into her shoes. Lachlan picked up his breeks. He considered chucking them and getting another plaid from his clothing chest, but the lass thought it important for him to blend in. “Do ye suppose we might purchase something that isna quite so tight?” He grinned sheepishly. “If I dinna have a constant erection around you, ’twouldn’t be such a problem.”
“Sure.” She grinned back. “I had no idea how big your, um equipment was when I went shopping for you—or that it would be hard all the time. Although I must admit the shop girl and I had the most delightful conversation imagining what you might look like.” Maggie lowered her voice. “I promised her I’d report in if—” A low rumble filled the air, dust
rose around them. Her eyes narrowed. “Rhukon?”
“Aye. I fear he’s doing a better job blocking the tunnel than he did last time.”
“That won’t be a problem, will it?”
Lachlan drew the breeks up his legs and fastened them. Then he pulled Maggie against him. The lass was trying to sound brave, but he’d heard the tremor in her voice. “Nay, lass. I can use magic to move us out of here. Gather your things.”
She ducked from under his embrace and picked up her bag and sweater. “I have everything.”
Exhorting the dragon to lend his power, Lachlan wove complicated magic. Their underground location meant he couldn’t simply blast Rhukon to the ninth circle of hell without compromising the integrity of the cave’s structure. Though he’d told Maggie about the red wyvern and the Morrigan, he didn’t mention them now. No reason to alarm her since he didn’t know for sure if they were a part of Rhukon’s current maneuvering.
The truth of things was, he wasn’t absolutely certain he had enough power to subvert all three. If he and Kheladin couldn’t spring them from the cave, he’d have to find a way to reach Gwydion and Arawn.
Because it couldn’t hurt, and the lass needed to entrain her power, he bent close. “I know ye’re green as the grasses that dot the moors, but look through your third eye, and add your power to mine when I ask for it.”
Chapter Ten
Maggie’s hands balled into fists so hard her nails cut into her palms. It didn’t take magic, or her well-honed intuition, to tell her Lachlan was holding something back. For him to ask for an infusion of power from her must mean things were far more desperate than he was letting on. She stared at him. His hands wove in intricate patterns, and the air around him fairly buzzed with power. If she looked through her third eye as instructed, she thought she could see a huge, dragoneque form hover around him. Coppery light arced between them.
Kheladin? The harder she stared, the more indistinct the dragon essence became, almost as if he didn’t want to be identified.
Maggie fought against helplessness. She’d never cared for the sensation of being mired in a tar pit. Adrenaline soured her stomach and set her nerves jangling. Knowing it was her fight-or-flight response, and that her current level of discomfort was because both avenues were unavailable, didn’t help her control her body’s autonomic nervous system.