Eighth Wand

by December Quinn

Ah. More kissing. More music. And still more kissing…in fact…quite a lot of kissing. The woman’s dress slid off her shoulders, the man’s shirt opened, they tumbled onto the bed.

  Royd was right. Humans were definitely more open than the Fae when it came to pleasure.

  Tempting as it was to sit and watch this all afternoon, he had more important things to do. Prudence might not be down there for long and Royd wanted to know more about her. What better way to do that then to assess her belongings? He could get a sense of her tastes that way, what books she read, what colors she liked, if she always wore lovely silky things to bed at night as she had the night before…

  Apparently not. Her closet revealed a disappointing lack of silky things, and more plain outfits. The drawers were the same, although he did manage to find several garter belts and lacy pairs of panties. The garter belt confused him, but after fiddling with it for a few minutes, he had an idea what it might do and the thought of what it might look like on Prudence made him put the things back hastily lest he embarrass himself.

  The room had such a temporary feel. She’d said she hadn’t been here long, and if he’d doubted it before, he didn’t anymore. Boxes still rested on the floor of the closet and lined one of the walls. He opened one. It was full of books, books with stunning cover images of half-naked men and women. He opened one and read a few sentences, then dropped it, his face hot.

  Prudence was even more demanding than he thought. What if he wasn’t enough for her?

  The idea that he might not be enough for a woman would have made him laugh only a few days before. With his reputation as a warrior and cocksman, he usually had no trouble getting women to lie down for him and even less satisfying them. Though they didn’t scream and burst apart the way Prudence did, their pleasure was no less evident.

  But now here he was, facing a woman he wasn’t sure he could dominate, a woman who challenged him in a way he’d never felt before. He wanted more.

  And he couldn’t have it. He had only a few days here. Even if the time discrepancy meant he could stay longer than a few days in her world, he had no idea for how long the window between them would stay open.

  The thought made him slump onto the edge of the bed, his head aching. Actually, his head had been aching a little all morning, had it not? The room felt so stuffy, despite the thing humming in the corner and dispensing cool air.

  The window didn’t want to open, but he finally got it and stuck his head out to take great gulps of sweet freshness.

  Or not. Even that air didn’t taste or smell as fresh as home…as sweet as home.

  If time moved so much more quickly here, did he age more quickly as well?

  Now the air really didn’t taste good. Royd’s head buzzed as he settled back onto the bed. Was he aging at the speed humans did, had he entered their time completely? He didn’t want to believe it, but he shouldn’t have slept the night before if he wasn’t. In his world, by the time he’d finished making love to Prudence, only a minute had passed, less than a minute. Like all men, he often found himself sleepy after love. But not like that.

  Maybe Prudence didn’t like that he’d fallen asleep. Maybe she—

  No. He knew that wasn’t true, even as the thought entered his mind. She did not know of its theft, of that he was certain. Years of experience had taught him to read people and, for some reason, it was easier to read Prudence than anyone he’d ever met. Perhaps because she was human, but somehow it seemed to be more than that. He felt…close to her. As if he’d known her forever. As if she’d known him.

  He rolled over on his side, staring blankly at the TV for a few minutes. More people talking. Things moved so fast on the TV. It made him a little queasy, so he focused his gaze on the red numbers of the clock instead, watching them tick away. Which made him wonder how quickly his own life ticked away, how quickly he aged.

  So he opened the drawer of the little chest next to the bed, and dug around in it until his hand grasped something smooth and cool and soft, something with an odd texture. He lifted it up and almost screamed.

  A penis. Prudence had a man’s penis in her bedside drawer.

  * * * * *

  Prudence sighed and closed the door, finally allowing her shoulders to sag and the bright smile to leave her face. Through the glass panels beside the door, she watched Kym bounce down the stairs and slip into Kristof’s low-slung sports car. How he’d planned to get any of the furniture he kept making insultingly low offers for into that thing she had no idea.

  Of course, he probably hadn’t planned to take it with him today. He’d pay her for it, then leave it for a day or two. That way he could claim she’d damaged it and try to weasel some of his money back. Jerk.

  Jerk and bitch. After returning from the bathroom, Kym had barely spoken, just sat with her bright eyes following the conversation. And on leaving, she’d kissed the air by Prudence’s cheek. Prudence hated that. It wasn’t that Kym had missed, it was that she couldn’t be bothered even to pretend to.

  Oh, well. Prudence had managed to get rid of two boxes full of stuff she didn’t need or value and she was three hundred and fifty dollars richer. Kristof would probably make triple that, and Pru would have to seriously look into getting an honest dealer to come value her things for her, but until then, she could pay some bills and eat for a few weeks before having to dip further into her savings or the small sum of money Gran left.

  Among other things Gran left. Thank the gods, Royd had stayed upstairs. I wonder if he found the movie channels, she thought with a smile. Her legs still ached pleasantly from the morning’s exertions as she made her way up the stairs. I bet he’s up there now watching sports or one of those soft-porn movies…

  But the TV was off when she entered the room. Instead of seeing muscle-bound football players on the screen, she saw the muscle-bound man on her bed.

  Saw all of him. He reclined on the ivory-colored sheet, wearing nothing but the cord around his biceps and a wicked smile. In his hand was the largest of her three vibrators.

  Chapter Six

  She stood rooted to the spot, unable to think or speak. This was surely the most embarrassing moment of her entire life.

  It was one thing to have wild sex with a man she hardly knew. It was one thing to let him insert fingers into places a lot of people wouldn’t insert fingers and to let him know how very much she was not one of those people who wouldn’t.

  But for him to have looked in her drawers, to have found the other things she liked inserted in various places, for him to know what she was in the habit of doing… All the smiles in the world couldn’t erase the hot flush of shame. Not just because of what he found, but because she was ashamed in the first place.

  What was the matter with her? So she had needs, so what. She was a red-blooded American woman, damn it, and if she liked to make herself come three or four—or seven or eight—times a week, what business was it of his? Who the hell was he to judge her when he showed up out of the blue and started playing with her breasts and talking about pleasure?

  She strode across the room and snatched the vibrator out of his hands, too angry to even notice the clatter as it knocked the clock off her bedside table as she swung it away.

  “You’ve been going through my drawers? How dare you?”

  His eyes widened and he scooted away from her, toward the wall, his handsome face paling. “Prudence, I don’t think—”

  “You don’t think, you don’t think what? I don’t think what I have in my drawers is any of your damn business, that’s what I don’t think. Asshole!”

  “Wait, wait,” he said, rolling over the footboard—providing her with a glimpse of his firm, round ass that would have made her mouth water if she hadn’t been so inflamed—and standing up. The palms of his hands looked damp as he showed them to her, projecting innocence. “Prudence, you don’t understand, you—”

  “Raargh!” She’d never heard herself make a sound like that as she leapt toward him, forcing him to stumble backwar
d and fall in an undignified heap onto the floor.

  Maybe that’s what did it or maybe it was the unladylike growl or the belated realization that when a man gets naked on your bed and brandishes a sparkly pink vibrating jelly dildo at you, he probably isn’t planning on laughing at you too much. Whatever the reason, Prudence started laughing, and after a minute, so did Royd.

  Together they huddled on the floor until their laughs turned to giggles, until the giggles turned to sighs. Finally Royd pushed his dark hair back from his face and spoke.

  “I am sorry, Prudence,” he said. “I didn’t think—well, I didn’t think it would be embarrassing to you after what we have shared.”

  She shrugged, knowing her face was already pink from laughing, so the added blush wouldn’t matter. “I kind of went off on you a little there. I’m…I just hate Kym and her stupid boyfriend. I hate having them in my house. They make me feel…never mind.”

  His fingers caught her chin, directing her to look back at him again. “They make you feel what?”

  She shook her head. “Really, never mind. Are you hungry?”

  His eyes told her he already knew what she refused to say. Why did he have to be so perceptive? They’d only just met, only spent one day and night together. So why did she feel not only like he knew everything about her, but as though she knew everything about him too? Was it magic or was it…something else?

  The room glowed gold as the sun started lowering in the sky, its light shimmering on his tawny skin. “In my homelands,” he said slowly. “I am a warrior. Now. But I was not always.”

  Pru started to ask what he meant, what he was telling her, but something in his voice made her press her lips together. Without thinking, she reached out and took his hand. His fingers squeezed hers.

  “My family is not high in the ranks. We are not as old as some, not as powerful as many. One of my ancestors was exiled, and for that we still pay. So I determined to become the strongest, the fastest, the most deadly the Radeuan Laam had ever seen. Not just for me, not just because I take pleasure in it. But because I did not want anyone to be able to make me feel less than myself ever again.” He glanced at her. “It makes sense, does it not?”

  She nodded, blinking back tears. That’s exactly how Kym and Kristof made her feel, how so many people made her feel. Less than herself. Less than them, less than anyone. And she stuck up for herself as best she could, but it didn’t always change the way they made her feel.

  “But Prudence,” he said, his voice barely audible over the low hum of the air conditioner, “I quickly came to understand that no matter how many opponents I bested, no matter how many rewards I collected, no matter how high my ranking and wealth and power rose…I still felt less. Because I made myself feel it.”

  “Nobody can make you feel inferior without your permission,” she murmured.

  “Yes, that’s exactly what I mean,” he said. “You understand.”

  “Eleanor Roosevelt said it.”

  “Is she a friend of yours?”

  “What? No, she—oh, never mind. It’s good advice. Thanks.”

  He nodded, their eyes meeting. Prudence shivered.

  “It is cold in here,” Royd said. “That machine makes it so.”

  She placed her palm on his forehead, wondering as she did so if anyone, anywhere, ever actually managed to identify a mild fever by that method. Lips worked better.

  Of course, he was so much taller than she. If she wanted to kiss his forehead, either he would need to bend down or she would need to…straddle him.

  He didn’t react as her leg swung over his, as she lifted herself up then down, centering herself smoothly on the firming ridge of his cock. The skin there was definitely warm.

  Unfortunately, so was the skin on his forehead when she pressed her lips to it. “Are you feeling okay?”

  He shrugged. “I’m a little tired, and my head hurts. It’s not a problem. I think it is merely the air here.”

  “I’d hate to think you’re getting sick.”

  “It does not matter. The wand is here in the house. When it gets full dark we will find it, and I can go home to heal.”

  “Right.” She bit her lower lip and looked away.

  “Or I can stay four more days,” he said softly. “I am free to be in your world for that long.” He shifted his weight under her, his hands sliding under the hem of her skirt to rest on her thighs. “Five days total, in your time.”

  “I don’t want you to get sick because of me. To feel sick because of me.”

  “But you can make me feel so much better.” His hands inched farther upward, until he could slide them over her ass. Her muscles tightened. Beneath her genuine concern for his health lay another, darker need. She wanted him. Oh, she wanted him so badly, wanted the oblivion he brought her with his hands and tongue and that glorious cock of his. She never wanted him to stop giving her that pleasure, and the knowledge of how deeply she’d already come to need him was enough to make her climb off him.

  Or would have been, if he hadn’t grabbed hold of her and pulled her back toward him for another kiss.

  His fingers twined in the hair at her nape, pulling it even as his hand forced her head closer to his. It wasn’t only his forehead that felt warm; his lips, his chin, his chest against her hands, all burned, warmer than they had been before. She wanted to pull that heat into herself, to let it surround her. Her tongue slid into his mouth, finding his.

  He responded with a gasp, sliding his free hand down under her panties, over her ass and forward so his fingertips brushed against her pussy from behind. Her hips tilted back, pressing herself closer, urging him to touch her more deeply. The movement rocked her clit against his now-erect cock. The slick and wet fabric of her panties added another layer of friction, another layer of delight, to the contact.

  All the while their mouths moved, searching, finding. The kiss deepened, grew more passionate, until Prudence almost wasn’t sure anymore where she was or who she was. There was only sensation, only warm lips and bodies pressed together. The roaring of the blood in her veins echoed in the room like a freight train. Their gasping breaths were stage whispers in a silent cathedral.

  Royd’s hands left her, returned to massage her breasts, to twist her hard nipples gently between them. She flung her head back to let him kiss her throat, to let his hot lips trace her collarbones. He forced her back even farther until she could plant her hands on his knees and attacked her nipples with his tongue, tugging her light dress aside so he could flick them, so he could suck them into his mouth. Hard, then harder still, while spasms of pleasure ran through her body. They were so powerful that she thought for a minute he must be feeling them too, that somehow the entire street, the entire neighborhood must be feeling them.

  He rolled sideways, taking her with him and shifted his weight until he lay beside her. His fingertips hooked under the low waist of her panties and she lifted her hips so he could peel the now-soaking fabric away from her. The scent of her arousal, of their earlier lovemaking, filled the air between them and Royd’s nostrils flared. Prudence’s face might have grown hot if her blood wasn’t busy elsewhere, filling her clitoris, plumping the lips of her pussy, hardening her nipples and racing through her body.

  Besides, the approval in Royd’s half-closed eyes drove away any vestiges of shame she may have had and filled with her the kind of power she’d only ever felt when alone. Why should she be embarrassed, she who owned three vibrators and used them frequently? She never felt embarrassed while she used them, did she? While she curled up in her bed reading an erotic romance or watching Tristan and Isolde or The Big Easy or Dangerous Liaisons, letting her fingers play over her clit, pumping her dildo in and out of her slick cunt, even using the silver vibrator in her ass. She wasn’t embarrassed then, she was proud of herself, proud of being open and satisfying her needs.

  So damn it, here she was with the most handsome man she’d ever seen up close, and he had a big, hard cock just for her and he would
be gone in another couple of days if he didn’t leave tonight.

  He was her fantasy and she was going to take what she wanted. And if anyone thought she should be embarrassed about that, they could go fuck themselves.

  His fingers zeroed in on her clit, unerringly finding the exact spot and pressure she needed. Before she even had time to think, her body was arching off the floor, her knees drawing up as she came. The orgasm was so sudden and unexpected she screamed, both in pleasure and shock.

  Royd’s own gasp seemed to echo from her ears through her entire body. She’d never thought she would actually be able to feel the delight her partner took in her pleasure, but somehow in that gasp she did. His desire washed over her, joining hers, and in an instant she went from aroused to feral.

  She wanted him inside her, wanted to act out her every fantasy, wanted him to act out his. Now. Tonight. And for as long as she had him.

  She reached up and grabbed his hair, tangling her fingers in the long, silky dark strands, and yanked him down, forcing her tongue into his mouth, wrapping her thighs around him. He gripped her thigh hard enough to hurt, ramming his erection against her. He felt it too then. She knew it and the knowledge drove her into a greater frenzy until her vision blurred and her heart seemed ready to leap from her chest.

  Together they rolled on the floor, their arms and legs tangling together. She ripped at the laces on his pants, trying frantically to yank them down even as she rubbed herself against him and wrapped her legs around his waist. He fastened his mouth over her left breast, sucking through the fabric while simultaneously attempting to pull the dress over her head. Neither of them cared if the actions contradicted each other; neither could focus their thoughts enough to make sense of what was happening.

  His hands were everywhere, caressing her head, her breasts, then dipping down. He jammed three fingers into her weeping cunt and she screamed again, pulling away enough to finally tug his waistband down to his knees. His cock pulsed against her thigh, seemingly moving with a mind of its own.