His left hand joined his right, caressing his balls, tugging gently. A soft moan escaped him now and Prudence echoed it with one of her own. Her pussy was entirely wet, slick and plumped beneath her hand. Her fingers scissored around her clit, pressing it between them.
“You have no idea how beautiful you look,” he whispered. “How beautiful you are, to me.”
The words made her bold. She rolled over him to his other side, suddenly determined that if he wanted a memory, if he wanted to picture her pleasuring herself, she would give him something to picture.
Her head rested now on the pillows. She spread her legs wider, aware as she did so that this was turning her on in more ways than one. The blackness in his eyes was almost frightening, the naked desire on his face intoxicating.
His hand moved faster as she started moving faster too, dipping her fingertips into her cunt and bringing them back out coated with her juices. Every bit of skin between her legs was over-sensitized and needy, and everywhere she touched brought a different sensation, a different shock of pleasure. She slid her fingertip around her entrance, then just inside, then around again, spreading her legs as wide as they would go. She slid her left hand down too, to hold her lips apart.
“Yes, Prudence,” Royd gasped. “Show me everything.”
Without planning to, she started talking. “I wish this was your hand,” she whispered. “Your fingers slipping into me. It’s so hot in there, Royd, so hot and so wet. Can you see how wet I am?”
“Yes,” he groaned. “Yes.”
“That’s because of you. Because I’m thinking of you, thinking about your tongue and your fingers and your cock…I want you so bad.”
She rubbed quick circles over her clit. Her hips began pumping in time, reaching up toward her hand. She was so close that there was no way to stop it. Not when the fever infecting her body had so obviously transmitted itself to him and his hand was almost a blur.
“Royd,” she moaned. “God, Royd, I’m…” One finger was all she needed now, one finger to run directly over her clit, faster and faster until her eyes wanted so badly to close that she had to force herself to keep them open. “I’m gonna come, I’m…”
“Yes.” The word sounded ripped from his throat, half whisper, half groan. “I’m ready, uishta, yes…”
Under her fingers, her clit swelled further and stiffened as her orgasm started. Royd leaned over and shoved two fingers into her cunt, stretching her just as her walls tightened. Her low moan turned into a wild, abandoned cry. Her heels dug into the bed and she shoved her hips forward, still moving her finger frantically over her clit.
Something like a roar sounded in the air around her as Royd lunged forward, pressing her back to the bed with his hot, solid body. His lips found hers, too passionately for finesse, his hand still moving on his cock, impossibly fast.
“Royd, come on, Royd, come on me—”
He did, lifting his hips from hers, the bed shaking with the force and speed of his hips and hand. The muscles in his arms, his chest, all tightened, and then he was coming, his hot seed spurting onto her chest and stomach, and without thinking, she slid her hand up to gather it and used those slick fingers again to bring herself to a second, fast, powerful orgasm beneath him.
Royd shifted his hand to caress her cheek before letting go and pulling away from her. “Thank you,” he said and kissed her softly.
She returned the kiss and they lay there for a few more minutes until he spoke again. “I hate to get out of this bed, but I know you have plans for us.”
“Suddenly they don’t seem as important.”
“They are to me. Let me give you what you want, uishta. Let me give you your day. We made a bargain, and I don’t break my bargains.”
She smiled. “Race you to the shower.”
Since they wouldn’t be able to trace the wand until after dark, Prudence had decided today she would show Royd around modern America. They were going to a movie and the mall. They would eat in a nice restaurant and go for a walk in the park and perhaps to a museum as well if there was time.
They could have gone to Kym’s place right away, but Prudence didn’t know if the wand would be there and she didn’t know where Kristof lived. Plus they decided it was better to go in at night, when it would be impossible to deny the wand’s presence, rather than during the day when it would be easy for Kym and Kristof to lie.
So this day, the third of the five total they had, would be the kind of day Prudence had always dreamed of and it was already off to a roaring start. A day spent relaxing with her…well, with her boyfriend.
With her only-here-for-two-more-days Fae warrior boyfriend.
Sure, what woman didn’t dream of that?
* * * * *
The sun warmed his aching shoulders as he sat at the little table outside the café, and he relaxed, closing his eyes and letting his head fall back.
“Comfortable?”
He opened one eye to see the look of amusement on Prudence’s face. “Yes, should I not be?”
“No, I just…you look so content.”
“I suppose I am. As content as I can be, that is.”
“I guess you won’t feel really happy until you get back home, huh.” It was said matter-of-factly, but the way she twisted the arm of her sunglasses in her lap as she spoke told him more than her tone ever would.
He reached for her hand. “I’ll feel safer at home. We’ve already discussed happiness.”
She stared at his hand covering hers for a minute, then lifted her head. Her smile may have fooled the people around them, but it did not fool him.
Although he didn’t know why. Why wasn’t he fooled? How did he know what she was thinking, what she was feeling?
He knew her better than he’d ever known anyone. And that didn’t make any sense at all, because he’d only known her a few days—a few hours in his time, if he was still on his time, which he didn’t know.
But somehow, when he looked into her blue eyes, he knew her thoughts. When he held her small, warm hand, his chest wanted to burst. When he held her body close to his…there were no words to express it.
He’d waited all his life to meet a woman like her, and now he had and he would have to leave her.
He had no choice but to leave. Aside from his health issues, his world needed to be saved. Without the wand, they would all die and he could not allow that to happen simply because he was falling in love.
The words he hadn’t wanted to admit to himself flew into his head, and once there he knew they wouldn’t leave. He was falling in love with her and he couldn’t tell her, because he knew she felt the same. Once they said those words, parting became more than difficult. It became impossible.
“You can’t come back, can you?”
He shook his head slowly, the movement painful. Saying no to her hurt more than anything ever had. Or than anything ever would, until he had to say goodbye to her instead. “Even if I could, I couldn’t ask you to wait however long it took for me to find another window. Even an hour there could be a year for you. We just don’t know exactly what the time difference is.”
“That’s it!” Her face flushed and she tightened her grip on his hand.
“What?”
“That’s what I couldn’t figure out! Royd, my grandma can’t have stolen the wand because she was never gone for long like that! She didn’t go missing or anything, ever, that I know of. How hard would it be to get the wand, how did someone steal it?” She looked so excited. He hated to be the one to disappoint her.
But then, that seemed to be all he was capable of doing, didn’t it?
“They knocked out the guards. We don’t actually think it was a human, Prudence. A human wouldn’t have been able to bring the wand to your world. We think it was a golem.”
“A whatem?”
He gave her a quick smile. “A golem. A magical being—a slave—made of earth. There were smudges of dirt from your world in the temple and on the guards. We think someone here
—someone powerful—made the golem and sent it to our world with strict instructions. They would have had to wait a few years to know if they’d been successful, but since they were, I’m sure they considered it worthwhile.”
She shook her head. He hated to see her face fall like that. “I can’t believe she would have done that. Gran didn’t know magic.”
“How do you know?”
“What do you mean, how do I know? She was my grandma. I think if she’d been able to make people out of dirt like some sort of garden Frankenstein’s monster I would have known about it.”
“Uishta, I’m sorry, but there is no other explanation.”
“Why would she have done it?”
He shrugged. “Why does anyone do anything? Maybe she did not realize what she was doing. Maybe she thought it was for the best. Either way, what we know is that she did do it or, at the very least, knew someone who did and that someone hid the wand in your home.”
“And never came back for it.”
“Or died before they could.”
They were both silent for a minute. Royd wished he hadn’t said that last bit.
Prudence had a point, though. It had bothered him from the beginning how adamant she was that her grandmother never would have done such a thing. The woman had obviously meant the world to Pru.
And Pru’s opinion meant something to him. It meant a lot.
“Did the wand… Did it make me do what I did last night?”
He squeezed her hand. “It’s made you more powerful, but it didn’t do that. That’s you, it’s your talent.”
“How do you know? What if I didn’t have any talent?”
“Without it, the wand wouldn’t have done that for you. It would have been powerful on its own, and had you held it or said specific words in magic, you could have used that power, although I wouldn’t recommend such a thing. But it could not have given you power without your already having some.”
“So…Kym?”
He shook his head. “I doubt she realizes what she has. And even if she does, unless she attempts to do something foolish like calling the Fae at night, it will be harmless.”
“I wouldn’t put it past her.”
Neither would I. “And that’s why we must find her as soon as possible after sunset.”
Prudence checked her watch. “Which is in…two hours. So if you want to see the park, we should get going.”
They stood up in unison, their metal chair legs grating on the concrete. The sound bothered his ears. Prudence’s world was so loud. So shiny bright. It didn’t scare him, but it did make him long for home.
“You’re looking at everything so oddly,” she said, a little half smile on her face. “Like you can’t decide if you like it or not.”
“I know one thing I like.” He grabbed her and pulled her close, leaning forward to press his lips to hers.
If she was surprised by his sudden move, she didn’t show it, instead leaning into him, resting her hands on his waist and fisting them in his shirt. He knew what she meant. He wanted to hold her tight enough to never have to let go, so tight she would stay with him, a part of him, forever.
Her mouth opened, urging him to do the same, and her tongue swept into his mouth. He touched it with his own, marveling at the connection he felt to her. Her breasts crushed against his chest, so soft and warm… She was something fragile and precious, and no matter how hard he tried he couldn’t help feeling he was breaking her.
Just as something deep inside him broke every time he looked at her, every time he touched her and realized soon he would never be able to touch her again.
Her arms circled him, pulling him tighter to her, tight enough to capture his erection between them. Tight enough for him to feel her heart pounding against his chest. Tight enough that he knew she was thinking the same thing.
He pulled away then. “Come with me, Prudence,” he said, his voice rough. “Don’t make me leave you.”
“I can’t.” She turned her face away, but not fast enough. He saw the tears in her eyes and lifted his hand to brush them away. “I can’t leave here.”
Her warm skin against his fingers, the slight sting of her tears, made him want to hold her again. He wanted to beg. He wanted to tell her how he felt, but he couldn’t. After everything he’d done for his family, how could he fault her for not wanting to leave hers, for not wanting to leave her world?
So instead he took her hand and squeezed it. “Show me the park. Show me more of your world, so I can imagine you in it when I’m gone.”
Chapter Eleven
A cloud passed over the sun and cast them into shadow. Prudence shivered. Something about the sudden darkness after a cloudless day felt ominous.
Or maybe it was just the despair she tried so hard to fight rising back up in her chest.
Despite her desire to have a fun day, it was almost impossible. Every time they laughed, she thought how she wouldn’t be able to laugh with him again. Every time he bent his dark head to hers to kiss her, every time he put his arm around her and pressed her to his side, she thought of how she wouldn’t feel his lips or the heat of his body again.
“What kind of tree is that?”
“I don’t know. I don’t actually know much about trees.”
“And you call yourself a witch,” he joked.
She blushed. “I’m still just learning.”
“Yes, but…couldn’t you find a better teacher? A better place to learn?”
“There aren’t many teachers here. It’s a straight-laced small town, you know? Well, no, I guess you don’t know. It’s not really, um, welcoming to those of…alternative religions.”
He nodded. “I understand, but I urge you to seek someone else. Those women you study with…they don’t know what they’re doing.”
“I didn’t think they did, really. If I was honest about it.” She hadn’t really thought of it before, but it was true. “I stayed because I hoped—”
“But why would you want to be friends with those people?”
The words stung, and she took a step back. He was right, she knew he was right, but that didn’t make it any easier to hear. “Because I’m not like you, Royd. I’m not perfectly happy to be on my own, eating my meals alone in my cabin or whatever, like you said you do. I’m not perfectly happy to have everyone fear me and think I’m all scary and tough so I reject them instead of the other way around.”
“What?”
“You heard me. You think I don’t know that trick? I do. It doesn’t work very well for me because I’m a little blonde woman and not a tall tattooed warrior, but I know it.”
“I do not—”
“Yes you do, yes you do! But I don’t want to be like that. I don’t want to avoid everyone else. I want to be the kind of person people like to be around and that means at least trying to find friends who share my interests. So I go to that stupid coven and listen to morons like Ravenancia because I don’t want to be alone.”
“You don’t have to be alone.” His chest was hard and so, so hot against hers as he pulled her to him again. His eyes burned with the kind of fire she only vaguely remembered from the night before, the kind of passion she’d never dreamed she would see in a man’s gaze. “You can come with me, damn it. Come with me and stay.”
His lips cut off her reply. Not like they had at the café, when he kissed her tenderly, sweetly. This was punishment. This was possession. In that kiss he claimed her, forced her to obey, and before she knew what she was doing, she accepted.
His low growl made her lips vibrate as he forced her mouth open, invading with his tongue. His fingers clutched her upper arms, digging painfully into her skin. She didn’t care. Her head swam and she tasted blood in her mouth and all she wanted was for him to tear her clothes off right here in the park while the wind whistled over their bodies.
He must have been thinking the same thing, because his hands snaked down her sides and lifted her hem to play over her upper thighs, to grip her ass and squeez
e her closer.
“This is a public place,” she gasped. “We can’t—we have to go home.”
“No. Here. Now.”
“But—”
“I will have you now.”
His tone brooked no argument and his fingers now sliding between her legs to brush against her clit through her panties made her forget what she wanted to argue about. What was a little bust for indecent exposure when his cock seared her skin even through their clothes?
Besides, it was a weekday. The park was deserted.
Her fingers fumbled with the button of his jeans. Inwardly, she cursed the stiff new denim, but before she could change her grip, he scooped her up from the ground and headed to their right where a stand of pine trees—one tree she did know—jutted into the sky.
She’d thought the pine needles might scratch, but they didn’t when he set her down on them. She reached again for his zipper and this time he helped, undoing the button while she opened his fly. He wore nothing underneath and the sight sent a jolt of electricity through her body.
She took his cock in her hand and stroked it. His gasp echoed in her ears, reverberated through her entire body. It was all she wanted to hear, all she wanted to see and touch. She sat up and leaned forward to caress it with her lips and tongue. He tasted faintly of soap and salt and himself, as if his soul somehow came through to her as she pulled his most delicate skin into her mouth.
His hands found her head and tangled in her hair. “Yes, Prudence, uishta, yes.” The ragged, naked need in his voice made her pussy throb.
There was no fear now. She reached up to his chest and urged him back, taking her mouth off him so he could lie down himself. His eyes were dark and glazed with desire as she straddled his knees so she could bend over him and pull him back into the wet heat of her mouth.
Her other hand slid down into her panties, onto her incredibly sensitive clit. She moved farther down, slipping a finger into her cunt, drawing her silky moisture out to spread over her aching flesh. Her hips jerked.
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