by Hazel Hunter
In the light of the lamp, he looked uncertain, almost nervous. She held her hand out to him.
“Come sit with me,” she said softly. “I need you close.”
Obediently, he came to sit at her side on the window seat. She only hesitated a moment before she leaned against him, burrowing into his side. His arm around her felt like the warmth that she had been seeking her entire life.
“You have a decision to make,” he said finally.
When she tried to sit up, he held her closer. Giving in, she snuggled closer against him. In the dimness of the room, it felt like everything outside was a story, a fairytale that was designed to frighten her. This was real.
“He cannot take you from here unless you wish to go. That is not something that I will permit. Unless you say that you are willing to go with him, you will remain right where you are, and he will leave empty-handed.” Piers paused. “I understand that you have a history together.”
“Piers…”
“It is one that I respect. Hailey, if you want something, I think I would move heaven and earth to get it for you. I understand that he has been someone very important to you. The fact that he had a hand in making you who you are, that alone would be enough.”
“Piers, I do love you. Please, you must understand that as well.”
Piers’s smile was crooked.
“And if I thought that love was enough to make the world work the way that I wish it to, I would be a far happier man, I think. I love you as well. However, I’m not so great a fool as to think that you don’t love Kieran McCallen.”
Hailey bit her lip.
“But we’re not talking about love right this moment,” Piers said. “What we are talking about is a choice that you have to make. It is up to you whether you want to aid Kieran McCallen on his mission. However, that is your choice. You do not need to fear him or the Magus Corps. They may stamp and bluster. Let them. There is no way on earth they can pull you from these walls if you do not wish to go.”
“But…but they help Wiccans. They protect us.”
Piers shook his head.
“They may do that for other covens. I would even guess that they do it very well and very willingly. However the Castle has always been different. We have always been a place that is self-sufficient. We protect our own, and we do it without needing to resort to the services of the Magus Corps. Things are different for other covens. I understand that. However, they have no authority here.”
Hailey thought for a moment.
“Thank you,” she said at last. “I need to learn more to decide what I want to do. But Piers, what if I decide to go with him?”
Piers was silent for a long moment.
“Then you will. That is your decision, and just like Kieran cannot force you to go, I will not force you to stay. What I want for you, what I want for every Wiccan, is freedom of choice. You are not my prisoner, and you are not his tool. You are a person who has been asked to help someone who needs your skills––or thinks he needs them.”
Hailey’s smile was faint, but it was real.
Slowly, she leaned up to kiss him. The kiss that they shared was almost chaste. They had only recently begun to learn each other’s bodies. She could feel the spark there, lying under the surface and ready to get fanned into flames at a moment’s notice. She warmed herself against it for a moment before turning away.
“I want to come to you tonight,” she said huskily. “That is one thing I want. However, before I do that, I need to talk to him.”
Piers’s face was very still, betraying nothing.
“Go and be quick, then,” he said softly. There was a certain heat to his voice that made Hailey blush. “I’ll be in my quarters, come looking for me when you are done.”
Feeling more calm, if not more in control, Hailey hopped off the window seat and followed Piers to the door. When she stepped into the brighter light of the corridor, her eyes widened.
“Piers, what happened to your chin?”
There was a dark bruise on Piers’s face. It was a vivid purple. He had definitely not had it when she’d been with him earlier.
“Some understandings are created through fair words and considered speech. Some…are not. Let’s leave it at that.”
Hailey decided to let it go. With another gentle kiss, she walked down to the guest quarters where she knew Kieran was going to be sleeping.
• • • • •
When she knocked on the door, she could hear a stirring inside. Kieran opened the door, and immediately she presented him with a piece of cold steak from the kitchen.
“I figured you would need this.”
Kieran frowned, but then he shrugged, a rueful look on his face. It would have been useless to protest given the black eye that he bore.
“Can I come in?”
He nodded, gesturing her in. The guest quarters were quite bare, but it struck her suddenly and with a forceful blow how little he traveled with. She understood in a vague way that the life of a Magus Corps officer must be a rather barren one, but it had never quite occurred to her how barren it might be. Kieran’s effects seemed to consist of a small duffel bag and a larger bag that she knew contained his weapons.
She seated herself on the arm of the couch, watching him as he sat down on the other end. He pressed the cold cut of meat against his bruise and picked up the tumbler of alcohol that he had obviously put down to answer the door.
The quiet stretched between them, but Hailey was patient. She had become strong in the face of silence. Finally, Kieran spoke.
“I didn’t want to come here,” he said.
Hailey felt a brief pang at that, but she kept her face calm.
“Why is that?”
“Because I didn’t want you mixed up in this. You… You already have more experience in killing Templars than most recruits do in their first year. You’ve done enough. You’ve found your place.”
“Have I?”
Kieran quirked an eyebrow at her.
“You fit here the way a hand fits in a glove. You’ve grown here even in the short time you’ve been here. You deserve to be here, Hailey. I didn’t want to be the one who took that away from you.”
Did you intend to leave me at the airport the way you did? Is it only your humanity that twinges when you think of me? Do you think of me at all?
“I need to know more about what you want me to do,” she said instead. “I need to know what is at stake.”
Kieran shook his head.
“I’ve already told you most of what I know. There is a place in the Alps that seems to be sucking in Magus Corps officers. They go missing, and they’re never heard from again. We believe that there’s Templar activity in the area. We need to find out what’s going on. The last person to disappear there was of an equal rank with mine. This is not a simple mission, and I did not want to involve you.”
“Simply because of your conscience?”
She was watching him closely. Kieran was a master of ice and cold. He could be as still as a frozen pond if he wished. She saw him stiffen as if someone had taken a whip to his shoulders.
“I can’t… I don’t want you to make a decision based just on…”
“I’m going,” Hailey said, her voice crisp. She hadn’t known it before she said it, but when she said it, she knew that it was the truth. “It’s more than just the Magus Corps having done me a good turn. If there are people out there in trouble and I can help them, I can’t stay safe behind Piers’s walls.” She paused. “What I need to know is why you were so reluctant to come. You are devoted to your work and to your brothers in arms. You believe in what the Magus Corps does and stands for. Why would you hesitate when you have a tool like me here? Why would you even pause before–”
Hailey’s words were cut off when Kieran jumped to his feet. He laid his alcohol and the cut of meat aside. He crossed the space between them to loom above her.
“Gods above Hailey, don’t!”
That cry stopped her the w
ay that even a slap wouldn’t have. His voice was hoarse, as if he had been running for a long time. It occurred to her somehow that he was exhausted, that he had been even before she ever met him.
She started to say something, but then she was interrupted by his mouth on hers. She nearly tipped off of the arm of the couch. Instead, she had to cling to him for stability.
She should have been terrified. Perhaps she should have been furious. But this was Kieran, and there was something about him that was so right. Perhaps it would always seem right to her, no matter what was between them.
Hailey clung to his straining body, kissing him back with all of the passion that she felt for him. When his tongue pushed between her lips, she whimpered, pulling it in and wanting more. She could no more stop her hands from roaming his body than she could stop the string of broken sounds she was making.
His body was shaking when he pushed her down to the couch. She could feel the weight of his body on top of hers. She could feel how much he wanted her. The pleasure was overwhelming. She was ready to give herself up to it.
Then she pulled her mouth from his. Her hand came up and settled over his lips.
“No, Kieran, let me up.”
He moved as if he had been shocked. He stumbled back from her. His face was pale, and his blue eyes were nearly black from the way his pupils were blown wide.
“Hailey, gods, forgive me, I didn’t mean…I wouldn’t do anything against your will…”
Hailey sat up, her head swimming. If she stayed on the couch, if she stayed on her back with that beloved body looming over her, she didn’t think that she would be able to resist him. The pull between them was powerful, but she couldn’t give in to it, not right now.
“I never thought you would do anything against my will,” she said. “I swear it. I know that much about you.” She stood up, straightening her clothes and stepping wide around him. “There may be people in trouble, and I can help them. If I’m realistic about it, that is really all that I need to know.”
There was a moment where Kieran could have taken her in his arms, explained what he felt to her. That would have been all that it took for her defenses to fall.
The moment passed.
“Hailey…” Her name was a whisper on his lips.
“I’ll see you in the morning, Kieran. I’ll be ready to leave no later than noon tomorrow.”
She wanted a hand to wrap around her wrist, she wanted him to ask her to stay. Instead, she walked out of the room, shutting the door gently behind her.
• • • • •
An hour later, she knocked gently at the door to Piers’s room, holding her long bathrobe tightly around her body.
Piers opened it immediately, sweeping her in his arms. Her damp hair clung to his face, making her giggle a little when he pulled back to spit it out. He carried her to his bed, where he sat down with his back against the headboard and settled her on his lap.
“Is all well? Did he hurt you?”
Hailey shook her head.
“I am going with him tomorrow, Piers,” she said softly. “That is not something you can talk me out of. However, I am here tonight, and I want you.”
Piers sat very still for a long moment. He was dressed only in a pair of old pajama bottoms, and seated on top of him, she could feel his cock stir.
“Are you sure? I understand that with McCallen here…”
“Are you going to question what I want too?” Hailey snapped, her temper licking up. “Why is it that when I express something that I clearly want that two of the most important men in my world keep asking me if I’m sure?”
Piers’s laugh was soft. He nuzzled her behind the ear, making her purr with pleasure.
“Well, when you put it that way, it makes me sound like an ass,” he murmured. “Still, I think I’m allowed to have questions, don’t you?”
Hailey started to answer, but she jumped when his hand slid underneath her robe. She was completely naked underneath it. She squirmed as his warm hand crept from her knee up to her thigh.
“What…what questions do you have?” she gasped.
“Well, for example, I’m curious that after you left the room of a man with whom you have a history, you felt the need to shower before you came to see me. Why would you do that?”
His hand stroked over the curve of her hip. The edge of his thumb traced the curling hair of her mound, making her whimper.
“I…I’ve been in bed for weeks. I wanted the chance to get clean, to just be on my own for a little while…”
“Hmm. It’s a good thing that I’m not a more suspicious man. I might have thought you needed to wash something away.”
Hailey flushed when she thought of what he was implying. The blush was partially out of embarrassment, but there was something erotic about it as well.
She tumbled out of his lap to lie on her back on his bed. She looped her arm around his neck to bring him close to her.
“Are you worried I slept with him?” she whispered. “Are you worried that I stretched out on his bed, just like I’m doing for you right now?”
She teased the hem of her robe open, showing him her pale, slender body. His breath caught looking at her. He slid his palm inside her robe, running it from hip to ribs. In the cool air, her nipples hardened, but he didn’t touch them.
“I know that you didn’t,” he murmured. “I know that you are a woman of honor, and if you had, you wouldn’t have hidden it. Still…would you hate me if some part of me enjoys the idea of you coming from another lover before you came to me?”
Hailey laughed softly, pressing her forehead against Piers’s shoulder.
“I have spent the day listening to an amazing story of a woman with two loves. When she told me of the lovers who shared her and who she enjoyed…well, we might have gotten a little carried away.”
Piers blinked, the sensual haze halted momentarily as he pieced her words together.
“You…got carried away with Liona di Orsini?”
Hailey nodded, a slight apprehensive flutter in her chest. Playful talk with no basis in reality was one thing. Admitting to an erotic encounter with another person was something quite different, and she understood that.
“Tell me what you did.”
Hailey talked about how the other witch had told her about her two lovers, how Hailey’s innocent curiosity had led to a deep kiss that had led to more.
“She told me it was just for the pleasure of it, and I don’t disagree. It felt…it was wonderful though, for what it was.” She paused. “Are you angry with me?”
Piers kissed her comfortingly on her forehead.
“You can do whatever you please, Hailey. You are your own person, and that is one thing that I have always admired and respected about you. All you ever need to do is to tell me.” Piers grinned suddenly, more than a little bit of mischief in his eyes. “On top of that, you managed to bed a living legend. There is really only so angry that I am going to be.”
“In all fairness, it was more like she bedded me. Still, I am happy you are not angry at me.”
She burrowed into his arms, relieved by his open-mindedness. She wondered if the sensual moment had passed, but when his leg pushed between hers, she could feel that it most definitely had not.
“I like the thought of you with several lovers,” he murmured, his voice falling back into that soft, hypnotic register that made her heart beat faster.
She briefly thought of Liona’s lost Lucius, who was born to command. Then Piers’s mouth was on the tender skin of her neck. She stopped thinking of anything except the man who was holding her then.
“You’re such a beautiful and sensual thing, I imagine that it must take a lot to satisfy you.”
“I’m not some kind of monster,” Hailey protested.
Even as she said it, she could feel herself grow wetter at the thought of it. The idea of being passed from person to person, of having hands of all shapes and sizes on her made her shiver.
“I nev
er said you were a monster. Far from it.” Piers paused to suckle gently on first one nipple and then another. “You are a gorgeously sensual, responsive woman. I like the idea of people who are so dedicated to pleasuring you that you fall into a satisfied heap. I want you to be that overwhelmed, that exhausted with your own sensations.”
“Would you tell me to satisfy them as well?”
Hailey didn’t know where the thought had come from, or perhaps she did. At the heart of her, there were sensual daydreams and fantasies that had always flitted in and out of focus. Some of them were simple enough, but others were strange things––things that she never thought could be true. Then she had met Kieran and then Piers. She had flown over Italian mountains and battled a demon. She had fought with men who wanted nothing more than to end her life. She had been bedded by a woman who had seen countries rise and fall.
When she could do six impossible things before nightfall, it made what she did after nightfall seem commonplace.
“Make you satisfy them… How exactly do you propose to do that?”
Piers’s voice was so soft it was nearly a purr. There was a certain knowledge to his tone that told her that he knew exactly what she was asking, but he was still going to make her say it.
“I…with my hands? My mouth?”
“Is that all, beautiful Hailey? Do you think I would let you stop there?”
His hand drifted down between her legs. She found herself opening for him without a single protest. She had allowed him a measure of control over their lovemaking before. This felt natural, a little bit of pretend that she could enjoy in the darkness with him.
“You wouldn’t let me stop there?” she asked softly. His answering laugh was slightly menacing.
“Perhaps I would be possessive and keep some parts of you to myself, but you truly are such a beautiful woman. I can see why others would want to touch you, hold you, explore you.”