There wasn’t enough air in the world to supply him at that moment, while he gritted his teeth and fucked her harder, and harder still. Grunts escaped his lips, low, feral sounds as he pounded her, letting the rough fever take over. His chest ached, his arms trembled with the effort, but the feeling of her tight walls gripping him, of the delicious heat of her caressing him, overruled all. One of the Rachanyi Fae from the battle could have sneaked up behind him and cut his head off and he wouldn’t have noticed or cared.
The sweat on their bodies made his hands slip on her hips. He spread his legs as wide as he could with his pants still on and took a step back, gaining better leverage. He hooked his arms more securely under her knees and wrapped his hands around the post behind her. The cool metal soothed his burning flesh.
Her head fell back, exposing the slim, pale column of her throat to him. From her lips came a constant stream of sound, a keening wail that sent shivers up his spine as he shoved himself into her over and over, thrusting with enough force to make the pole move. The faint ringing sound made by the metal as it vibrated mixed with her cries, with their cries, to make something like music in Royd’s ears.
He leaned his head forward, planning to kiss her neck, but instead found himself sinking his teeth into it, like an animal holding his mate in place. The pitch of her voice raised an octave and her arms convulsed around him.
Violence and madness filled his mind, madness and a light so intense it hurt. Her cunt clutched at him as if it had a mind of its own. Nothing, nothing in the world, had ever felt like this.
“Prudence, uishta, hassmera, come for me,” he groaned, knowing if they did not end this fevered coupling soon, the power would overflow, that it would kill them. “Come for me. I need to feel it.”
She moaned in response, passion and fear equally present in her voice.
“Prudence,” he said, more urgently this time. “I can’t hold on. Please, please…” He gritted his teeth, fighting with every ounce of his remaining strength not to explode inside her. His swollen cock was on fire, his balls lead weights. “Don’t be afraid. I’m here, I’m here, let go.”
As if those words were all she needed, she screamed, her walls tightening further than he’d thought possible. The energy gathered, and his own voice rose in a hoarse, agonized shout as he finally allowed himself to climax.
The fierce rush ripped him from his body, waves of unbelievable ecstasy rolling through him, power grabbing him, shaking him as it left. Prudence screamed, holding him tighter as she throbbed around him. He knew she felt it too, though he didn’t know how he knew.
Something popped and shattered around them. Tiny pinpricks of pain erupted on his neck and shoulders. He barely had the presence of mind to duck his head, to cover Prudence’s body with his own, as his confused and overtaxed body read the pain as pleasure, but his mind knew something was wrong.
Another explosion followed the first, then another. Glass. It was glass, tinkling on the street, and Royd opened dazed eyes and saw through the almost blinding glow of their passion that the streetlights were blowing up.
He stared, awed, as every light as far as he could see shattered, as the windows of the homes nearby—their occupants somehow unaware of what was happening, which Royd attributed unthinkingly to the power they’d just released—went black. Every house on the street, one after the other. The low hums of air conditioners stopped, the faint strains of music on the next street over ended abruptly. All was silent and dark, and Royd and Prudence clung together in the blackness while the night air dried the sweat on their cooling skin.
Chapter Ten
Ravenancia placed the wand back in the jar and set the lid on. “I think we’ve done a good night’s work, don’t you?”
Kym and Kristof, who hadn’t so much “worked” as “watched”, nodded. Neither of them wanted to contradict the woman they’d just watched turn water into wine.
And not by adding grapes and yeast and allowing it to ferment, either. No, she’d literally turned water into wine, right there in front of them. Kym had almost peed her pants.
She’d made more fire fly from the tip of the wand. She’d levitated some paper. She’d blown a fog of purplish smoke across the room.
“I’m going to do some more studying today,” Ravenancia continued. “I think we’ve learned a lot about what the wand will do for us. But I want to know what it does for itself. I want to know how we can use it to contact the Otherworld.”
“We think we kind of did,” Kristof piped up. “When I cast the circle, we saw—”
“I know what you saw. But standing between the worlds, safe in the magic circle, is nothing different from what witches of my ranking do every day. I want to know how to enter the Otherworld, to stay there.”
“Is that really a good idea?”
Ravenancia rolled her eyes. “I thought you were a good pupil, Kym. How many times do I have to tell you, the universe is full of love and light? Nothing in the world of Spirit wants to hurt you. Only humans are capable of harming others.”
This didn’t sound quite right to Kym, not the way it had before. She’d always believed Ravenancia when she said magic was beauty and love, but now…she shivered. Ravenancia hadn’t seen those faces outside the circle.
Kym wasn’t sure she ever wanted to see them again.
“Tomorrow we will try to move into other realms. I expect to see both of you here at eight sharp.”
* * * * *
Prudence lifted her sore arms gingerly and rubbed shampoo into her hair. Every muscle in her body ached, especially her back. Hopefully the Advil would start to kick in soon, thank the gods for modern anti-inflammatories. The hot shower would help too, though her various scrapes and cuts stung.
Royd wasn’t so lucky. Pain relievers and muscle relaxers were out, for obvious reasons, and he was doing his best with magic. “Too bad I’m not a healer,” he’d said ruefully, wincing as he tried to flex his arms.
She didn’t have very clear memories of the night before. Everything up until she decided to try soaking up some energy was fine, but after that…she got vague images of her lawn covered with bodies, of the world through a lens of green and silver, and then…just Royd, his hands on her body, his head between her legs, his cock thrusting into her as if their lives depended on it.
She remembered feeling so free, so high, so full of passion and power that she thought she might burst apart from it. She remembered the lights on the street going out, and Royd’s body outlined by moonlight as he did some magic and made the bodies disappear from her lawn.
Then, nothing, until she woke up this morning in her own bed with Royd’s tired eyes watching her.
Those same eyes watched her now. She jumped and almost slipped. “Will you stop that?”
He smiled. “Sorry. I forget you don’t hear as well as I do.”
“Especially not in the shower. I’m going to get a bell to put around your neck, I swear.”
His smile faded. So did hers. They wouldn’t need to get him a bell, because he only had a couple of days left. He couldn’t stay. “How are you feeling?”
She closed her eyes and leaned back to rinse her hair, aware that he still watched. Under his gaze she felt loose-limbed and sexy. The hot water ran down between her breasts, between her legs. Her nipples hardened. “A little better,” she said, raising arms that didn’t hurt quite so much now to smooth her hair back as she rinsed.
“You look…fine.”
“Just fine?”
“I…better than fine.”
“Thanks.” She leaned forward, swaying her hips a little so he could see her ass as she picked up the bottle of conditioner, squeezed some into her palm and set it back down. Moving slowly, she slicked it through her hair, tilting her head to the side and detangling, letting her body curve so her hip stuck out.
He didn’t speak, but when she glanced over her shoulder at him, he was staring at her, his eyes dark and hooded with desire. Muscles deep in her stomach tightene
d. “You want to wash my back?”
“Yes.” He didn’t move.
“Um…are you going to?”
“I want to watch you for another minute first.”
“Oh.” She knew she was blushing, but tried to appear unconcerned as she picked up her shower scrunchie and squeezed gel onto it, as if she showered in front of handsome men every day.
Where to start? Probably her shoulders and arms. That way the suds would run down over her breasts…
“What’s happening to us, Prudence?”
“What?”
“You heard me. What’s happening to us?”
She had heard him. She just didn’t have an answer. “We’re just…we’ve got a lot going on, that’s all. We’re trying to save your world, after all, and luck seems to be running against us. It’s natural we would be…that we would have some intense feelings in an intense situation.”
She hadn’t seen him undress, but suddenly he was behind her in the tub with her, water coursing down his broad chest as he gripped her shoulders and turned her to face him. “That’s not it.”
“It is. We don’t know each other, Royd. We don’t know each other at all. Great sex does not equal a relationship.”
“It’s a better relationship than I’ve ever had.”
“It’s probably also the shortest.”
“I don’t need months to know how I feel, what I want.”
“You can’t make lifetime decisions based on nothing but hormones, either.”
“I don’t know what those are, but I know what I base my decisions on.”
She didn’t want to stand there anymore, to stand face-to-face with his tattoo, trying to avoid the dark intensity of his gaze. Taking a step back, wrenching her shoulders away, she quickly ran the scrunchie over the rest of her body. She wanted out. If she stayed in the tub any longer, he’d push her into something. An admission, an agreement of something, and she couldn’t do that.
A lonely life had taught Prudence not to trust people to take care of her. Not to trust them to stick around. The only one who ever had was Gran, and despite the betrayal Prudence felt, she still owed that woman something.
So what was she supposed to do now? Leave the house Gran gave her, leave the world she knew—cruel as it was, it was home—to head off into some unknown realm? A realm apparently warlike and dangerous, with a man she’d just met? Who, for all she knew, was great the first week and then turned into an asshole?
Never mind that she knew, deep down, that wasn’t the case. Things still might not work out. This wasn’t like moving into her own apartment with a boyfriend when she was twenty-two. When she’d discovered he was cheating on her, she had somewhere else to go.
If she went with Royd and they split up, discovered their feelings for each other really were nothing more than great sex…she’d have nothing, and no one. Not only would she not be able to go back to Seattle, she wouldn’t even be able to go back to her own time period.
She’d be stuck. Stuck with a race of non-humans who would probably view her with anger and suspicion. She shook her head, blinking back tears. “It’s impossible. Why do you keep doing this to me? Why do you make me—just stop.”
“Why do I make you what?”
“Never mind.” She pushed past him to stand under the spray herself, wanting to rinse the conditioner out of her hair and get out of the tub. She couldn’t concentrate with him there, so close, so real. Her traitorous body wanted nothing more than to press against him. Her traitorous heart wanted nothing more than to spill itself to him.
If she was going to get through this at all without wanting to kill herself, her brain would have to take over.
“You can’t escape the subject simply by hiding your head under the water.”
“I’m not trying to escape the subject. I’m trying to escape you.”
The minute the words were out of her mouth, she regretted them. He blinked, then his face smoothed as if he’d turned to stone. “I see. I’m sorry to have troubled you.”
“No, Royd, I’m sorry—”
But he was already stepping out of the tub and wrapping a towel around his waist. “No, I’m sorry. I was foolish and I’ve forced myself on you.”
“No, you haven’t, please stop!” How long was it going to take to get that damned conditioner out of her hair? Fuck it, it was good enough. She stepped out of the shower, not bothering to grab a towel, certain for some insane reason that if she didn’t catch him immediately, he would disappear.
His skin radiated warmth when she grabbed his upper arm in one wet hand. “Please stop, Royd, I’m sorry. I just…” She lowered her head, ignoring the trickles of water flowing down her face from her soaking hair. “I’m just as confused by all this as you are and I don’t know what to do and talking about it just hurts so much more and I just wanted to have a day with you, you know? A fun day, where nobody gets upset, and where we don’t think about the future? Can we do that?”
His fingers curled under her chin, lifting it. Through the blur of tears in her eyes, she saw his own sadness. “I think we can do that.”
“Thank you.”
He leaned forward and kissed her, his lips soft on hers. It was the first time they’d kissed like this, without it being foreplay or a further attempt to devour each other sexually. It was a real kiss, a kiss given and received simply because it felt right and good to kiss.
Of course, it also sent rivers of thick heat flowing through her entire body, but she tried not to focus on that.
Apparently Royd felt the same way, because his right arm slid around her wet, naked body like it had a mind of its own and pulled her closer to him. He was still naked too, and his erection pressed into her stomach.
“Actually,” he said, a wicked gleam in his eyes, “I think we can make a bargain.”
“A bargain?” She tried to hide her smile and look innocent, but didn’t think she was fooling him.
“Yes. We can have your fun day, uishta, but first…”
He took her hand, sliding it gently over her breast, down her stomach, ending with her fingertips just resting over the soft, short hair on her mound.
“Royd, I—”
“Shh.” He kissed her softly. “Watch me.”
Her heart pounded as she looked down, her gaze traveling over his broad, manly chest, down his flat stomach to where one large hand already gripped his cock. She bit back a moan.
“Have you ever watched a man do this?”
She shook her head. Her throat was too dry to speak.
“Would you like to?”
She wanted to say no. Wanted to say no, because she knew if she watched him the way she wanted to—the way she was desperate to—then she would have to let him watch her as she’d said she would. But, God, she wanted to see him. Just the sight of his hand wrapped around his hard length, just the idea of what he must be feeling, how it might excite him to have her watch and how it would excite her to watch made denial impossible.
So she nodded, looking up into his face, into his eyes already dark with desire. He bit his lip. She felt his hand move against her stomach and tore her gaze away from his.
His wrist twisted slightly as he stroked himself, slowly moving his hand from the very base to the very tip. Air hissed between his teeth. When she glanced up at him, he was staring at her.
“You should sit on the bed,” she whispered.
“Only if you come with me.”
Together they moved as one, falling back onto the bed. His free left hand still held her, clasping her to him. Soft shivers ran though her body as he kissed and nibbled at her throat, but she didn’t turn her face away.
A bead of liquid appeared at the tip of his cock. He gathered it in his fingers and kept moving, still with the same slow pace, until his entire shaft glistened. She licked her lips, reaching for him, but he shook his head.
“When I do this,” he said into her neck, “when I do this at home, uishta, do you know what I’ll be thinking of?”
She shook her head, still unable to stop watching. He ran his palm over the head, then swirled it back down, his fist tightening.
“I’ll think of this. This, now. You watching me.”
Now she understood why he wanted this. Not just because he wanted to see her open herself in such an intimate fashion. But because he would be alone again, alone and thinking of her.
And he was right. She would be able to picture it. Would be able to picture him in the big lonely bed he’d described to her last night when they’d talked after giving up the search, thinking of her and alleviating his need the only way he could.
Later the thought would sadden her. For now she was too mesmerized by the sight before her to think too much. Her body buzzed, her pussy swelled. She wanted him to touch her too. Wanted his fingers and his mouth. Wanted to dip her head and taste the salty-sweet excitement coating his thick cock.
“I’ll think of your body,” he continued. “How it feels to be buried inside you. How you look at me, the sound of your voice. The scent of your skin. The taste of you.”
Again she reached for him. This time he let go of himself and took her hand, guiding it to her pussy.
She bit her lip. “Royd, I—”
“Show me. Give me something more to picture in my mind, something to imagine you doing. Let me pretend we’re doing it at the same time. Please…”
She hesitated, aware that beyond everything else they’d done together, this was totally uncharted territory.
Aware it was something she could give him that would be his alone.
Her thighs parted. She leaned away from him a little, enough to let her left hand slide all the way between her legs. She gasped as her fingers traveled a little farther, gathering wetness and bringing it back up to circle her clit.
“By the Mistress, uishta…”
His hand circled his cock again, moving more forcefully. Her eyes felt like saucers in her face. She’d never realized how erotic this could be, how hot this could make her, but it did. She hovered on the verge of orgasm already, just from watching his hand move, watching as his head darkened and swelled.
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