by Vivi Anna
She flushed, his compliment making her hot inside.
“But do you not see? I’m no good for you. We can’t be together.”
She frowned. “Why not? Is it because of Edward? I already told you twice I wasn’t going to marry him. That he means nothing to me.”
“It’s not that, Drea. Well, maybe it is a little bit of that, but it’s that...I’ll be leaving.”
“Now?”
“Not now, obviously, but eventually. If a portal did indeed open, then that means my brother has come. And when we find each other we’ll be looking for another portal to leave through. I will eventually be going home.”
In an effort to show him what he’d be missing, she grabbed his head and pressed her lips to his. What she didn’t expect was the instant jolt of pleasure that pierced her body. She’d kissed other boys—three, to be exact—but nothing had prepared her for the utter thrill of kissing Sebastian.
His lips were surprisingly soft beneath hers. The taste of him filled her. A pleasant mixture of the stew they’d just eaten and wildness, a flavor she could only describe as magic.
He didn’t deepen the kiss but he didn’t pull away either, so it afforded Drea an opportunity to sample him further. She opened her mouth a little and nipped on his full bottom lip, and that was when he pulled back.
“Drea, don’t do this. You’re better than this.”
She stood. “I can’t believe I kissed you.” She had every intention of stomping away and going upstairs to one of the rooms to sleep off the tipsy feeling, but she stumbled sideways and nearly fell. If it hadn’t been for Sebastian’s quick hands, she would have.
With hardly any effort at all, he carried her up the stairs to one of the vacant rooms. It would’ve been as black as pitch up there if it hadn’t been for the lightning flashing now and then illuminating the way.
He laid her on the bed, found a blanket and spread it over her. She sighed in pleasure at him tucking her in. He’d done this even after she made a fool of herself. He was the gentlest soul she’d ever met.
“Get some sleep. We’ll find our way tomorrow.” He turned to leave.
“Who’s Evangeline?” She hadn’t meant to ask, but the mead and lack of sleep had made her extremely loose-lipped.
Sebastian stopped but didn’t turn around. “Where did you hear that name?”
“You were mumbling it in your sleep.” In the flashing light she could see the tension in his shoulders and back. “She must be very important to you.”
Slowly he turned. “She was.”
“She’s back where you came from? This London?”
“She’s dead.”
“Oh Sebastian, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to pry.” She’d asked selfishly about the woman and seeing the pain on his face made her ashamed. The healer in her wanted to soothe it away. She’d healed his body, now she wished to heal his heart, if only he’d let her.
She reached out a hand toward him, afraid he wouldn’t take it.
But he did. And she pulled him toward the bed, shuffling aside to make room for him. He sat beside her and she continued to hold his hand.
“Did you love her?”
“Yes,” he said, “but not romantically. Everyone thought we were lovers but we weren’t. She was my closest friend.”
Drea didn’t know what to do—she could tell it was painful for him to talk about, but she sensed deep inside that he needed to talk about it. Maybe he’d never had a chance to.
“How did she die?”
He closed his eyes and his hand tensed in hers. “I killed her.”
Chapter Nine
To hear the words out loud from his own lips gave Sebastian a strange sense of relief. He’d been carrying this knowledge for so long with no one to share it with. He’d never spoken to his brothers about it, and definitely not his father, and Evangeline had truly been his only genuine friend. So there’d been no one else. No one he could confide in. No one he could trust.
Except now for Drea.
He thought she’d recoil when he’d said the words, but instead she just watched him, continuing to stroke his hand. He saw no judgment in her solemn eyes. Just an urging to tell his story. To confess it all.
Finally after five torturous years, he did just that.
“Evangeline was a prostitute. She used to proposition me every time I saw her. One night I decided to take her out for a meal instead. This of course surprised her.” He smiled, remembering how suspicious she’d been of him. He hadn’t blamed her, considering the circumstances and how prostitutes were usually treated.
“There was something about her. A spark. A light. I guess of something more than what she was. I took her in after that. Cleaned her up, fed her, gave her a place to stay and a new job.”
“You’re a kind man to do something like that for a stranger,” Drea said. “What kind of job did you give her?”
“She was my stage assistant. I performed magic twice weekly at a theatre.” He’d loved his time on stage, being in front of a crowd, mesmerizing them. The allure of it was addicting. “She was a beautiful woman and the crowd responded to her. We put on a good show. Sold out performances every time. Even the queen attended.”
Drea frowned, and he could tell she wanted to ask, “What queen?” but she remained respectfully silent and let him continue.
“The more we performed, the more I wanted to amaze the crowd. I craved new spells, new illusions. I craved more magic. What I had inside wasn’t enough.” He stood, too anxious to sit still any longer. He paced the room as he spoke. “I discovered a new illusion that no one had dared to try before. It required great skill and great control. I wanted it to be so shocking, so explosive, that I didn’t even tell Evangeline how it would work, just to trust me.”
His gut churned. He didn’t know if he could finish telling her the story. Saying the words out loud, going through it step by step, transported him back to that night. He could see every detail of the stage, smell the anticipation of the crowd and hear Evangeline’s voice telling him she was ready to do the illusion...
“Are you ready?” Evangeline asked him.
Taking a deep breath in, he nodded. She took his hand and they walked out onto the stage to thunderous applause. They’d already performed several tricks and illusions, whipping the crowd into a frenzy.
Sebastian led her to a table draped in red silk and had her lay down on her back. Hovering, he ran his hands up and down her body. There was an electrical current in the air. It was his magic sparking to life. After doing this three times for the crowd’s pleasure, the men in the audience were leaning forward with avid interest. He took hold of the table and wheeled it out from under Evangeline. She hovered in midair, her beautiful long hair hanging down from her body, the tips just skimming the stage floor.
The crowd gasped, then cheered. Sebastian was pleased but it wasn’t the end of his illusion.
Dramatically he held up his hands toward Evangeline. Then he flung them upward, taking her with them. She sailed up into the air toward the ceiling. The crowd gasped again, some cried out in fear. Just before she hit the ceiling he stopped her, letting her hover there for a moment, creating the most dramatic effect. Then he let her drop.
There were screams. From the crowd. From Evangeline. A woman in front fainted from her chair.
Sebastian gathered his magic and squeezed and the air around her as hard as he could to catch her before she hit the floor. He did. And she ended up back where she’d started.
But he knew even before he saw her face that something had gone wrong.
As the audience jumped to their feet and erupted into wild applause, Sebastian took Evangeline’s hand and tilted her back to her feet. She was smiling at the crowd, ever the consummate professional, but beneath the smile she was grimacing in fear and pain
. Her eyes screamed at him.
Once off stage, she collapsed into his arms. He scooped her up and carried her to the room above the theatre where she lived. He laid her down on her bed.
Tears ran down her cheeks and she coughed. Blood bubbled up between her ruby-stained lips. He’d broken something inside. He’d squeezed too hard with his magic and injured her organs. He felt her chest and stomach. She winced and cried out as he touched. He’d broken her ribs, all of them, and punctured her lungs. She was drowning in her own blood.
He sprang to his feet. “I’ll get someone. A Druid healer. He’ll be able to fix you.”
She grabbed his hand before he could leave the room. “Don’t leave me.” She coughed again. More blood spewed forth.
“I have to, to save you.”
She smiled then. “You have saved me.”
He dropped to his knees beside the bed. The tears came. “No, I’ve killed you, my darling.”
She cupped his cheek. “When no one would help me, when everyone looked at me like scum, you rescued me from the streets. You gave me a beautiful life, Sebastian. And I wouldn’t change it, not one part of it, for anything.”
He’d taken her hand and pressed the palm to his lips. She’d smiled at him, but it quickly faded. Her life had been slipping away. He’d been able to see it wither from her eyes until there was nothing there but an empty shell.
He shivered at the memory and turned away from Drea’s gaze. “I searched for a way to make it right, to go back in time so I could stop myself from performing the illusion,” he said, his heart numb. “I heard about a portal that could push a person back and forth through time, so I opened it and went through. And that’s why I’m here. It didn’t work and I’ve been stuck here for five years.”
The tears came again but Drea was there to comfort him. She’d risen from the bed and gathered him in her arms. His first instincts were to push her away that he didn’t deserve comfort, but he wrapped his arms around her in return and let her soothe him.
“It was an accident.” She ran a hand up and down his back. “You never meant to hurt her.”
“But I did.”
“And you’ve atoned for it. You made a mistake and you’ve paid the price.” She pulled back and smoothed his hair from his face. “You’ve found redemption, here in this place. You are a good man. You need to start believing that again.” She traced her fingers over his brow and down his cheek to his lips.
Her touch woke something dormant inside. And he couldn’t deny it, he didn’t want to.
Leaning down, he gently pressed his lips to hers. His salty tears mingled with the taste of her. Burying a hand in the wild tangle of her hair, he deepened the kiss until they were both gasping for air.
She fisted his shirt and held on as he took her mouth. Teeth, tongue, lips. He couldn’t get enough of her. She tasted like a hot summer day. Spicy, tantalizing. She made his heart race and his gut clench. No other woman had been able to elicit such sensations from him before.
He nibbled on her bottom lip, then pressed kisses to her chin, over her neck to her ear. With his tongue, he made little circles just under her earlobe. He was rewarded with her quick gasps of pleasure.
“Sebastian,” she panted.
“Please don’t ask me to stop. I won’t be able to bear it. And although I don’t deserve you, I need you right now.”
“Then don’t stop.” She nipped at his lips. “I’m yours.”
Covering her mouth with his, he ran his hands over her, seeking her flesh. He needed to touch her now. To feel the silkiness of her skin beneath his palms.
His fingers fumbled with the buttons of her dress and, although impatient to feel her, he tried not to tear it. Once opened, he gripped the two edges and slid them down, off her shoulders and down her arms. Her breath hitched in her throat as she pulled her arms out of the dress.
Sebastian leaned down and pressed his lips to her shoulder, trailing his tongue along her collarbone. Drea let her head fall back as he tasted the hollow of her throat and worked his way down.
The plain fabric of her smallclothes covered the swell of her breasts. Pushing it away with his tongue, Sebastian edged down lower still. He could feel her heart race under the press of his mouth.
Hooking his fingers around the straps of her camisole, he pulled them down. Achingly slow, he revealed more of her flesh. Inch by inch, he moved the fabric down to finally reveal her perfect pale breasts.
“You are so beautiful.”
Blushing, she raised her arms to cover herself.
Sebastian set his hands on top of hers. “You don’t have to hide from me.”
Holding her hands, he brought them down to her sides, then kissed her, slowly taking her down to the mattress. He shuffled her toward the middle of the bed, then settled in beside her, kissing and nibbling on her delicious mouth.
After sitting up, he slid her dress and undergarments the rest of the way off. Underneath, she was gloriously naked. He drank her in, memorizing every detail of her lovely body—every curve and slope. He wanted to press his mouth to every part of her, to taste her creamy skin on his tongue.
She reached up for him, and he linked his hands with hers. “I want to see you, Sebastian. Every part of you.”
Chapter Ten
Smiling, he released her hands and unbuttoned his shirt. Shrugging out of it, he tossed it theatrically on the floor. She smiled, loving how he made her feel so at ease with his playfulness. She gloried in the feeling of being able to give herself freely to Sebastian.
The flashing light from the lightning played over the rippling muscles of his chest. From the way he carried himself and the lithe way he moved, Drea had known he’d be lean and powerful, but she’d had no real idea until now.
His chest was muscular and defined, with a flat stomach. She wanted to trace her finger over every ridge and dip. A light sprinkling of dark hair lined his sternum leading down to the waistband of his trousers.
Feeling bold, Drea lifted her hand and feathered a finger down the path. The skin covering his hard muscles was smooth, and his hair prickled the pad of her finger. Sebastian shuddered from her touch and she smiled, feeling the power of her stroke. She wondered what other sensations she could pull from him using only her fingers.
When she reached his pants, Sebastian drew his hands away, letting her continue. Sitting up and keeping her gaze on his, she unbuttoned them. Her hands shook as she tugged at the fabric, freeing his erection. Not knowing what to expect, she glanced down at him and sighed.
He was more beautiful than she thought he’d be. She’d seen naked men before. She was a healer, after all, but she’d never experienced the same thrill she felt now. Maybe it was because it was Sebastian. He made all the difference in the world.
“Touch me, Drea.” His voice was low and thick with desire.
She did as he asked and wrapped her hand around his shaft. He let out a long groan the second she made contact. Drea reveled in her power to elicit such a response, from a simple touch of her hand on him. He was like silken steel, hard and soft at the same time. Curious, she explored the rest of his rigid length. She touched, caressed and massaged every inch until he grabbed her hand, stilling her movements.
“I want to be inside you now,” he growled.
Keeping her hand in his, he pressed her back onto the bed, taking her mouth once again. When he swept his tongue over hers, tasting, teasing with every stroke, it was her turn to groan. She could kiss him for hours.
After one more thorough caress of his lips, Sebastian sat back and tore his pants the rest of the way off. Kneeling beside her hip, he ran his hands over her breasts, flicking her nipples with his thumbs. Jolts of heat seared her flesh as he rubbed her taut peaks, pulling and pinching.
Leaning down, he swirled his tongue over one nipple, th
en the other. He did it over and over, alternating between the two, giving each one equal, heated attention, until she was mewling in rapture. With every pull on his mouth, she felt an answering tug between her thighs.
Relinquishing his hold on her nipple, Sebastian sat up and ran his hands over her stomach and down her legs. With each stroke, she lifted her hips, arching into his touch.
She was on fire. Liquid heat swirled at her center. She was going to burn from the inside out if he didn’t hurry and quench her smoldering desire.
Sebastian caressed her with his eyes and his hands. He went on a slow ascent of her legs, from her ankles to her thighs. When his thumbs brushed the sensitive inner skin between her legs, she jolted off the bed.
“If you don’t hurry I’m going to scream.” Aching, she wrapped her hands around his arms, unsure what she wanted him to do. Fast or slow, she couldn’t decide. The hot sensations he created in her body left her spinning, whirling out of control.
“It will hurt, but only for a moment.”
Nodding, she dug her fingers into his arms. She trusted him with her body, and with her heart. She knew he’d never intentionally hurt her. Not now, not ever.
Knocking her legs apart with his knee, he knelt between them, keeping his hands on her hips, rubbing his thumbs in circles over her skin.
“Bend your knees for me, Drea.”
His words inflamed her even more. She didn’t think it was possible to feel so wanton, so lustful, from a few kisses and soft caresses. But it was the craving she saw in Sebastian’s eyes that completely took her under desire’s spell. The fact that he wanted her so badly made her feel even more desirable.
Hesitantly, she brought her knees up, feeling open and vulnerable. But at the same time, it sparked an even hotter desire inside her. She ached all the more.
Sitting back, Sebastian’s gaze traveled over her. Biting her lip, she watched his eyes drink her in. The color of his eyes darkened, and the look on his face was one of longing and hunger.