by Viola Grace
Lysette shifted, but the fact his attention remained keen to her every action assured her escape was impossible. “I’m in a fairy tale.” She studied him. As of this point, the man did her no harm and his interest fascinated her. The earthen scent coaxed her to wiggle her body against him. “Do you agree to stop when I say? Oh, and no pain.”
Arrden rubbed her cheek with his. “I will stop at your command and there is no pleasure in pain for one as lovely as you.” He sat up, eased her slippers from her feet and proffered his palm. “Stand while I admire you.”
“Are you so sure you’ll like what you see?”
“If I didn’t, I wouldn’t be pursuing you here and now.” He wiggled his fingertips. “Please?”
Lysette accepted his offer and stood. Apprehensive, she struggled to keep her breaths even, but lost the battle. “No one ever did this before.”
Arrden came to his feet. “No one ever realized how beautiful you are.”
“This is making me nervous.”
* * * *
“Close your eyes and feel what I do, sweet wood nymph.” His every touch reverent, Arrden slid his hands under the straps of her sundress, eased the bands of material from her shoulders and admired the silken smoothness of her flesh while his palms glided to rest on her waist. Ever so gentle, he gathered the fabric and tugged the garment down her body. He smiled when it pooled at her feet and no longer shielded her from his gaze. “So beautiful.”
Lysette shivered. “Arrden—”
He pressed a gentle forefinger over her lips. “Hush and trust me, Lysette.” He eyed the front clasp of her bra, ascertained its operation and released its grip. Careful in his movements, he eased her full bosoms free of the confining contraption and cupped the supple mounds. The undergarment hit the ground. Large pink areolas boasted perky nipples, which demanded his attention. His kiss on the hardened peak an enticement, he encircled the pebbled bud with his lips.
“Oh god.” She gasped and clutched his shoulders.
His gentle sucks turned into long hard draws. The innate rock of her hips against his elicited a deep growl while his hands become more firm in fondling her luscious breasts. When his mouth withdrew and left her nipple, she whimpered her objection until he latched onto the other peak with a fierce hunger. Arrden released the teased bud with a soft pop. “Shall I stop?”
Lysette fisted his hair. “No! Please no.”
His caress adoration, Arrden knelt as he scattered light kisses down her belly where his fingers hooked the waistband of her panties and guided the cotton undergarment down her sexy legs. Their gazes unbroken, he slipped the panties off, then rose to her side, placed an arm behind her shoulders and coaxed her down onto the bed of moss. “Lay down,” he said gently and, with his side toward her, yanked off his boots and shucked his pants. “How many men have ever pleased you, Lysette?” Enticed by her blush, he stretched out beside her, captured her chin between his thumb and forefinger and compelled her to meet his gaze. “Tell me.”
“None I call memorable.” She blushed and lowered her gaze.
“I want to exceed any expectation you ever imagined,” he said as his tongue lapped at her lips. He teased her lips until she whimpered. Pleased with her responsiveness, he claimed her open mouth and locked it in a sultry kiss of intense passion. Unhurried, he plunged his tongue deep and savored her sweetness. A moan escaped her and she trembled. He swallowed that delicious utterance and cupped her ample bosom again. The rub of his thumb over the protruding nipple teased while his body covered more of her perfect figure.
Lysette pushed into his palm in an insistent demand for his touch. She moaned again and begged for more. Her leg bent and the inside of her thigh caressed the outside of his hip.
Arrden wanted to taste her, to sample every delightful curve and valley, to merge with her as a lover. Breaking their oral embrace, he unleashed an amused chuckle at her whined desperate objection. He then leaned into her and began to nip and kiss a heated path down her throat to the valley of her bountiful cleavage. A luscious bud peeked up and he slid his tongue over the teasing peak. With a groan, he latched on and sucked with hungered desire. Each caress of the tight nipple over his tongue accompanied her soft, feminine mewl of wanton need and another possessive growl.
She clutched his hair and held him close. “Don’t stop,” she rasped. “I’m begging, please.”
He released her pink peak and smiled tenderly into her flushed face. “I won’t, my sweet.” He kissed the curve of her supple mound and nibbled his way down her scrumptious body until he lay nestled between her heavenly thighs. His gaze settled on the silken nest of downy red hair while his expert fingers opened her to his view. Her satin folds glistened in the dappled rays of the overhead sun. Ravenous for the honeyed cream the delight before him promised, he lapped her tender clit with his tongue. Tantalized by her delectable flavor, he trailed the tip of his tongue the length of her shimmering slit.
* * * *
The slide of his leg between hers danced shivers along her spine and his immanent possession promised a fulfillment she long craved. Fire pooled in her lower belly and ignited into an inferno, which spread through her body and threatened to burn her to ash. Lysette wove her fingers through his hair and shuddered as the heat of his mouth assailed her most intimate core. She thrust her hips into his caress and screamed her release as his tongue plunged into her silken passage. Every lick and stroke surged fire pulses through her very soul. “Arrden!” The next utterance of his name began in a whimper and ended in a surge of ecstasy.
* * * *
Arrden tightened his hold on her hips and delved deep inside her velvet pussy in search of her sweet nectar. The wildness of her orgasm forced him to confine her until he collected his fill. Even then, he didn’t relent. “Just once more, Lysette. Maybe twice, my delectable little wood nymph.” He lowered his head and twice more enjoyed her. Every quiver of her figure a compliment, he nipped and kissed a path up her curvaceous body. Her lack of strength consent to the nestle of his hips between her spread thighs, he poised the crown of his veined hardness at the heated entrance of her wanton body.
She slid her hands to his shoulders, down his sides and cupped his backside. “I’m no innocent school girl, Arrden.” She dug her nails into his buttocks and pulled, urging him to take her.
“I want to take you slow, to feel every silken caress of your hot satin sheath on my shaft, to claim you in this manner will be exquisite pleasure for both of us.” The seductive and deliberate slide of the head of his thick length inside her body pushed them both to the brink. Inch-by-inch his rigid erection penetrated her slick tunnel until her sharp intake of breath garnered his attention. He started to retract, but the insistent clamp of her muscles held him snug.
“No.” She grabbed his hips and shook her head. “Don’t take it away, Arrden.”
He froze at the tears in the corners of her eyes. “I’m not stopping, but I have no desire to hurt you either.”
“You won’t.” She tugged at his hips as if in fear of the hollowness his absence might create inside of her. “But if you leave me like this you will.”
With his body lowered to rest on her perfect figure, he kissed the tears from her temples. “I’m not going anywhere. Not until you tell me to.” He claimed her mouth in a passionate embrace as his body continued its languorous possession of her satin sheath until he bordered on her limit. Unable to contain his urges any longer, he withdrew and sank deep inside her velvet pussy with a savage rhythm. His strokes dynamic, his thrusts hard, he milked her, caressed her and plummeted them both into euphoria while her climax slicked his cock and his seed filled her.
Lysette pressed her forehead against his chest and sucked air into her lungs. “I can’t believe I laid here in the middle of the woods and enjoyed sex with a stranger.”
His chuckle warm, Arrden propped up on his forearms beside her shoulders. “I can.” Her stunned expression perfect, he stole a brief, but intense and passionate kiss. He bro
ke their oral embrace and, expectant, eyed the precious beauty.
“You… you just—”
“Made love to the most amazing woman I ever encountered in over eight centuries and I enjoyed every delicious second of our time together.”
Lysette stared. “In what?”
“Eight centuries.” Arrden winked. “You didn’t think I was some young thing, did you?”
“Well, you look in your…early thirties at best.”
“Thank you. And you’re starting the climb toward your sexual peak.”
Lysette opened and shut her mouth three times before she recovered her wits. “How do you know?”
“You’re body is an incredible work of art and deserves to be ravished on a daily basis. I’d be very happy to do the honors if you enter the woods when you desire a lover.” Arrden pushed his rigid hardness deeper and adored her wide-eyed gasp. “Something wrong?”
“I thought once was all you wanted?”
“Oh no.” He nipped her shoulder and welcomed her squirm. “Anything as delicious as you must be sampled again and savored a third time.” And that’s exactly what he did for a few more hours.
Several weeks passed and Arrden eagerly welcomed her daily visits to his realm and her eventual capture of his heart. Whether he explored her body in lovemaking, shared with her the wonders of the forest or simply held her as the nearby waterfall cascaded into the bathing pool they often enjoyed a swim in, he loved her. He often groped her backside for he appreciated the jiggle of her flesh.
The weeks turned into months and he disliked the way her color drained while her every trip to visit him seemed to wear her down. Worried by her second missed visit, he paced along the edge of the forest. When she finally appeared, his heart leapt. Careful with her, he wrapped his arms around her and held her tight against his body. “You have the most beautiful smile.” He narrowed his eyes when her happy expression dimmed. “What troubles, my wood nymph?”
Lysette wrapped her arms around his neck. “Hold me,” she whispered, pressing her face against his chest.
Arrden scooped her into his arms, carried her to his glen and sat on a moss bed. He tightened his embrace, wanting to protect her from whatever was distressing her. “Talk to me,” he said, stroking her hair. “Tell me what troubles you.”
“I must leave next week.”
“What?” Panic tightened the muscles in his stomach. “No.”
“Hush and hear me out. There is a unique disease destroying my lungs and the doctor is ordering me from my home.” Lysette pulled back and looked at the man who owned her heart. “If I stay here with you, I die for lack of a sterile environment, but if I let them take me away, I’ll die for the lack of you.” Tenderly she cupped his cheek. “I want to live and I want to stay with you, but I can’t do both.” She sobbed against his chest. “I’d rather a few days with you than a lifetime without. Please just stay with me.”
Arrden cradled her close and kissed her temple. With his cheek resting against her head, he weighed his options. Ever powerful, he knew he was helpless to cure her unless he surrendered the one thing he possessed for all time—his forest, his immortality, his very life. He looked down at the woman in his arms, treasuring every tear that fell on his chest and trickled down his body. “I can save you, Lysette. I can give you a chance for life.”
She pushed up and met his gaze. “There’s no cure, Arrden.”
“I am the cure.” He framed her face between his palms. “I can give you the gift of live your life if you wish it.”
Lysette smiled. “How, my sweet forest lord, can you succeed where medical science in all its glory has failed?”
Arrden adored her. “I don’t rely on machines,” he said. “I listen to Gaia. All cures reside in Nature’s medicine cabinet, if you know where to look.” Suddenly sad, he pursed his lips thoughtfully. “Over the centuries, I’ve witnessed my domain shrink while civilization grows. In time, I will be destroyed with it, but where will I have left my mark to say I even existed? In this chance with you. Just as you lack the desire to live without me so do I lack the will to live without you. Let me pay the price to heal you.”
“What price?” Her eyes were wary and she pulled back from him. “What are you going to do?”
“I can trade my immortality for your life.”
Horrified, Lysette shook her head. “No!”
Arrden wished to tell her more, but such remained a forbidden secret. He eased her from his lap and sat them face-to-face. “I will help us both.”
“You’ll die.” She shook her head. “I won’t allow it. Not now, not ever.”
“It is my choice.” Gathering the immortality from the forest on the wind, he cupped her face and kissed her lips. The power poured from the wind, through him, collected his immortality and plunged into her. Their lip lock broken, he held her. Black mist seeped from her body and faded into oblivion. Weakened, he clutched her close and inched lower until he lay on the ground, his head in her lap.
“What’s happening?” Lysette stared. “I’ve never seen you so…pale.”
Arrden smiled when color returned to her face. “And I’ve never seen you more beautiful.” He closed his eyes.
* * * *
As the last breath slipped from his body, the first leaf of autumn floated to the ground and landed on her shoulder. “No.” She sobbed and clutched him tight. “I didn’t want this. It isn’t worth losing you!” Her wails carried through the trees on the wind and echoed deep into the night.
He faded in mere minutes, disappeared and left no trace just as the leaves did over a single season.
Time passed slow and painful for Lysette. There was no joy for her when the beauty of Spring flowered over the forest.
Stepping out onto the porch, she watched as the sun started its descent toward the horizon. She stared at the trees and a longing seized her, bringing agony to her soul. Not even her clean bill of health could console her shattered heart.
“No good came of your sacrifice, beloved. Nothing is worth the loss of you.” Tears blurred her vision and she rubbed her arms as a sudden chill passed over her. Then movement at the wood line caught her attention. Stock-still, she peered between the trees at the worn path and gawked. “Can’t be…”
* * * *
His senses attuned to her presence, Arrden had waited for her all day. He proffered a broad smile and opened his arms. “Will you come to me, little wood nymph?”
Exuberant, she sucked in an unsteady breath. “It is you!” Without hesitation, she sprinted off the porch toward the man she lost at the beginning of the previous autumn. She stumbled a time or two, but never faltered in her headlong plunge into his arms.
He swept her up into his embrace and clutched her tight. The wrap of her legs around his waist earned his sigh. Her wild and woodsy scent filled him while honeysuckle and lilac encircled and embraced his senses. “I knew you would return for me.”
Lysette leaned back and pushed the hair from his face. “So vivid and wonderfully. Never have I seen more beautiful green eyes. I thought I lost you when you died.”
All too aware of the new forest lord behind him who now controlled his once green and vibrant world, Arrden hugged her tight. “You did for a season, but you needed to return and take me from the forest for me to exist again.”
“Take you from the forest? I don’t understand.”
“As an immortal, I was forbidden to leave the forest. The sacrifice of my life granted me the ability to cure you, but I had to release my body back to Gaia and be reborn as a mortal in the following spring.” He untangled her from him and set her on her feet. “The moment we’re at right now is the one that decides if I stay here or live elsewhere.”
Bewildered, Lysette furrowed her brow. “What do you mean?”
“You must lead me from my world into yours.” Arrden held out his hand. If the lady of his heart didn’t accept him now, he faded with the last rays of the setting sun. “Will you take me from my former realm into
yours, little wood nymph, to live at your side as a mortal man for the rest of our lives?”
She stared at the palm held steady before her. “Forever,” she said and clasped his hand in hers. Then she backed into the meadow and led him from the shadow of the forest. The warm smile, which spread across his face, danced her heart on air. Turned and tucked against his side, she managed a few steps toward the cabin before the eerie rustle of the trees drew her backward glance toward the woods.
“Come.” He tightened his arm around her waist and encouraged her forward as the new forest lord faded into the nearest tree. “They’re whispering farewell. Take me home, my love.”
“Forever.”
THE NECKLACE
Kira Chase
Lara hummed softly to herself as she sorted through the miscellaneous baubles spread out on her bed.
“What are you doing?” Ian asked as he surveyed the assortment of earrings, necklaces, bracelets and rings.
She grinned. “I decided it was high time I got rid of some of these things.” She picked up a gaudy looking red-stoned ring. “This can definitely go. I can’t believe I ever wore this thing.”
Ian sat on the edge of the bed. “What are you going to do with all of this stuff?”
She shrugged. “Probably take it down to the thrift shop and donate it.”
He laughed. “I never realized how much jewelry you have. Why did you decide to do this today?”
“I’ve been thinking for quite awhile that I need to overhaul my stuff and since I’m going to be moving in with you in a few days, I didn’t think you’d like all this stuff cluttering up the place.”
“I don’t mind, just so I can have you whenever I want you without being interrupted by your roommate. By the way, where is Skye today?” he asked with a mischievous glint in his eye.