by DHP Authors
Reghan held her and wouldn’t let her get up out of bed.
“The kitchen will be flooded!” she cried.
“No, it won’t. I took care of it.”
“You turned off the water?” she asked.
He nodded.
“Are you sure?”
“Trust me,” he said.
“Okay.” How could she not trust him when he said he’d turned off the water? She’d trusted him with her body. And that had turned out to be a glorious decision.
Chapter Two
When Reghan awoke, Berta was nestled against his chest. He kissed her forehead. He still didn’t know what power this woman held over him, but he was becoming convinced that she hadn’t knowingly bewitched him. Maybe someone else had bewitched them both.
She stirred and then opened her eyes. “Good morning.”
“Good morning, Berta. You are, you know.”
“I am what?” she asked.
“Splendid,” he said. “It’s what your name means, or didn’t you know that?”
“I didn’t. But thank you.” She traced one of his nipples with her fingertip. “What does your name mean?”
“Regal.”
“Because you’re a handsome prince,” she said.
“A prince, yes.”
She chuckled. “How are you feeling this morning?”
“Stronger,” he said.
“Let me make breakfast, and then maybe we can eat in bed.” She started to get up, but he held on to her wrist.
“Food will give us the sustenance we need to…well, do whatever we’d like to do today,” she reminded him.
He smiled. “Then go. Make food.”
****
Berta was shocked when she walked into the kitchen and saw that it was spotless. The dishes she and Reghan had used last night were clean and in the dish drainer, the table had been washed down, and Roux—who had been outside—was lying by the back door.
She returned to the bedroom where Reghan was propped up in bed.
“Change your mind about breakfast?” he asked.
“No. I just wanted to come back and thank you for cleaning the kitchen last night and letting Roux in,” she said. “You didn’t have to do that, though. I would have cleaned when I got up.”
“I know. It was no trouble.”
She nodded. “All right. Well…will ham and eggs be okay?”
“Yes. And could we please have more of the bread we had last night?” he asked.
“Of course.”
Berta went back into the kitchen and made breakfast. She began humming a love song. She intended to make Reghan feel as wonderful today as he’d made her feel last night. She believed he’d be gone soon—it was a thought that would trouble her if she let it—but for now he was hers, and she was going to enjoy it for the short time she had left.
She took their breakfast into the bedroom on a tray. She was looking at Reghan and not paying attention to where she was walking, and she tripped. Everything on the tray pitched forward.
Suddenly, the tray was on the nightstand and Berta was on the bed beside Reghan.
“What happened?” she asked.
“You brought us breakfast,” he said.
“But I tripped and…” She looked at him bewildered. “I was falling.”
“You were. But it’s all right now.”
“How?” she asked. “How is it all right? How did I get here and the tray get on the nightstand without anything spilling?”
He shrugged.
“You did it. I know you did. But how?”
“I told you last night,” he said. “I’m a leprechaun.”
“Oh, please. Leprechauns are tiny men who wear green jackets and bowlers and protect their pots of gold,” said Berta.
“Do you put such stock in all information you glean from cereal boxes?” he asked.
“All right. If you’re a leprechaun, prove it.”
“I thought I just did,” he said.
“Well, do it again. Let me see you do something…magical.”
He arched a brow. “Magical? Or magically delicious?”
Berta couldn’t help but smile. “You did that last night.”
The breakfast tray was suddenly on their laps.
Berta gazed at Reghan with her mouth hanging open.
“Let’s eat before it gets cold,” he said.
“Are you really a…a leprechaun?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“And you really were attacked by…what did you call them?”
“Clurichauns,” he said. “For some reason, I kept being compelled to come farther and farther from the heath that is my home. I think they must have lured me out away from my brothers so they could attack me.”
“But why?”
“Because I’m the oldest and heir to the throne,” said Reghan. “If they’d killed me or captured me, it would have been quite a feather in their cap.” He frowned. “In fact, they should have taken me captive and tried to negotiate with Father. I wonder why they didn’t.” He looked toward the kitchen.
Roux trotted into the bedroom and sat at Reghan’s side of the bed.
“You came to my aid against the clurichauns night before last,” Reghan said to the dog.
The dog inclined its head.
“But there were so many. How did you manage?”
Roux lifted his head and looked into Reghan’s eyes.
“Coyotes, eh? Good job,” he said.
They both looked at Berta then back at each other.
“I’m sure she’ll understand,” said Reghan. “I’ll explain it to her. Thank you.”
Roux went back to the kitchen.
“What…what was that all about?” Berta asked.
“Roux came to my aid against the clurichauns. Two coyotes helped him, and in return, he gave them a chicken. He felt he had no choice, and he said he did choose the one who always pecked at your ankles.”
Berta’s jaw dropped. “I wondered why I haven’t seen Miss Priss!”
“Please don’t hold her demise against Roux,” said Reghan. “Had he not sacrificed her, the pair of coyotes wouldn’t have helped, and the clurichauns would have certainly taken or killed me.”
“I…I understand.” Berta put her hand up to her head.
“You don’t,” he said. “You’re confused by all of this.”
“You’re right. I am,” she said. “Ten minutes ago you were simply a man I wanted to come in here and make love to. Now you’re…a mythical creature.”
“I’m no myth. I’m flesh and blood. You know that much to be true.”
She leaned her head back against the pillows stacked behind her. “I’m not sure what’s true anymore.”
“This is true.” Suddenly the tray was gone, and Reghan was kissing her. “The way you make me feel is true. The way I make you feel is true.”
Tears slid from beneath her closed eyelids. “But…”
“No buts,” he said. “Do you want this? If so, have faith.”
****
She wanted him as much as he wanted her. He knew that much. But was she willing to take a risk? He had. After all, she was human! And, yet, she beguiled him like no one else ever had…ever could.
She hesitated only for a second before kissing him back. Then, suddenly, she was the aggressor. She pushed him onto his back and lowered her mouth onto his erect cock. He groaned as she sucked him, and then teased the head of his dick with her tongue. He put his hand on the back of her head as she went down on him again and again.
She rose up and lowered her hot wetness onto his dick. She leaned forward and kissed him, her nipples brushing against his chest. She rode him then, throwing her head back and pleasuring him as well as herself as she bounced on his long, thick cock.
Her whimpers of pleasure escalated as she came.
Suddenly, Reghan was behind her, holding her hips as he thrust into her. He took one hand and fingered
her swollen clit, making her cum again as he ejaculated deep within her. A pale light flooded the room.
Reghan held her against him for a moment more before pulling out and cradling her body against his chest.
“I love you,” she whispered.
He kissed her temple, certain that it was the sensations he roused in her body that had elicited the confession.
****
About a mile from the house, Sloan lay scowling in a tent beside his fellow clurichaun and lover Duncan. Two other warriors were resting in their own tent.
Duncan ran his hand across Sloan’s hard, muscular chest. “What’s wrong?”
“The others want to go back.” His dark eyes narrowed in contempt. “They want to rest. He is one leprechaun…and he’s injured!”
“They’ll come around.” Duncan lowered his mouth to Sloan’s chest and took his nipple between his teeth. He sucked it until it was hard. “Let me get your mind off Reghan.”
“Right now my mind isn’t on Reghan. It’s on those cowards we call comrades.”
Duncan took Sloan’s cock in his hand and was gratified to learn that his lover was already hard. “I can make you forget about them too.”
“Fine. But as soon as the sun goes down, we take Reghan.” He flipped Duncan onto his back and kissed him. Then he raised his head and gave Duncan a devilish smile. “All this talk about forgetting… I’m about to make you forget your own name.”
****
Berta woke up snuggled against Reghan’s back. It felt so natural to be with him…so perfect. She had one arm around his waist, and his warm hand lay on her arm. She examined his broad back…the small ginger freckle on his right shoulder blade. She kissed it.
So Reghan was a leprechaun prince. And she was a nobody. She’d been laid off from her job as a newspaper reporter over a year ago. When she’d lost her steady income, she’d lost her boyfriend. She’d never lived up to her parents’ expectations. She’d decided to find happiness out here on her own…in the middle of nowhere. And she had…until Reghan had come along and showed her everything she’d been missing in her life.
He would be leaving soon. It was inevitable. What did she have to hold him here? So she faced a choice: be bitter because she couldn’t continue to have him in her life, or be happy for this brief time she spent with him.
She chose happiness. She kissed his back again.
This time Reghan rolled over. “Good morning…again.”
“Hello. Are you hungry?”
“Ravenous,” he said.
“I’ll go fix something.”
“We have something. Remember?”
Berta looked at the now unappetizing tray of food. “I’ll make something fresh.”
“Just sit up.”
They sat up in the bed, and suddenly the tray was between them—the food steaming and looking just as delicious as it had before.
Reghan took a slice of the hot buttered bread and winked at her. “You must give this recipe to my mother.”
“Of course. I’m sure your mom wants a bread recipe from a…a human,” said Berta.
“If she tasted this, she would.”
She looked down at the tray. “She’d never accept me. No one in your family would.”
“They would…in time,” he said.
“I realize you’ll be leaving soon. Let’s not spoil our time together thinking about what can never be.”
“You don’t want me to stay?” Reghan asked.
Berta bit into the bread. “This is good.”
“You don’t then,” he said. “You’re avoiding the subject because you don’t care for me. You feel I have nothing to offer you.”
“It is I who has nothing to offer you, Reghan.”
He started to protest, but she put a finger to his lips.
“Please, eat. Let’s enjoy our meal,” she said.
Chapter Three
After breakfast, the couple got up and dressed. Reghan said he wanted to go for a walk…to show some things to Berta. As they headed out the door, Reghan and Roux shared a pointed look, and then the dog sprinted away.
Hand in hand, Berta and Reghan walked to her garden.
“I grow vegetables in this part, and flowers in that section,” she said.
“What vegetable is your favorite?” he asked.
“I love tomatoes, but they aren’t in season. I have some that I canned earlier this year, if you’d like some.”
“I’d like a fresh one with dinner.” His blue eyes sparkled with mischief. “Wouldn’t you?”
He bent down and touched the vine. Immediately, the plant budded and a tomato began to grow. Before Berta’s eyes, it grew into the most beautiful red tomato she’d ever seen.
“How can you do these things?” she asked. “Why couldn’t your magic protect you from those clurichauns?”
“I can do these things because I have certain gifts. The clurichauns have gifts of their own,” said Reghan. “When you found me, I was injured. The moment you touched me, however, I began to regain my strength.”
Berta smiled and looked away.
“What?” he asked. “What aren’t you telling me?” She still refused to meet his eyes, and he gently lifted her chin with his fingertip. “Tell me.”
“The moment you touched me, I began to regain my strength as well,” she said.
Reghan pulled her into his arms and kissed her. “We don’t have long.”
“I know.” Her voice trembled when she said it. “But I’ll take every moment I can get.”
Reghan reached into his pocket and drew out a small green emerald. He pressed it into Berta’s hand. “It’s the color of your eyes. Take it.”
“I’ve already told you. I don’t want your gold. I don’t want your gems.” Tears listened in her eyes. “You owe me nothing.” She shoved it back at him.
He refused to take it. “It’s not a payment, mo shearc.”
She frowned. “What did you call me?”
“I called you my love.”
Berta dropped the emerald at his feet and turned her back to him. “You don’t owe me that either, Reghan. Just because I gave you my body doesn’t mean you have to pretend to love me and give me some token of your affection before you leave.”
“Then this is how you want to spend our last evening?” he asked. “Rejecting me? Rejecting my gifts?”
“No.” She turned back around, bent and picked up the emerald. “I’m sorry. You’re right. I promised myself I’d take whatever time I have left with you. I meant that. I’ll cherish it.”
He smiled. “Then take me to your bedroom and give me a memory I’ll take to my grave.”
****
They went back into the house, strewing their clothing as they went. Their mouths and hands were all over each other. Nothing Berta had ever experienced had felt this wonderful…this perfect.
By the time they got to the bedroom, she was already wet and aching for him. She could see that he was hard by the erection pressing against his jeans. She watched as he took off his jeans—he’d already discarded hers by the kitchen door. He was lit with a glow again, as if a ray of sunshine was piercing the curtain and kissing his body. But it wasn’t sunshine. The radiance was coming from within him.
Reghan got on his knees in front of her. He picked up her ankles and spread her legs wide. He penetrated her pussy slowly…deeply…moving her legs like scissors while he drove deep inside her.
As Berta writhed and arched to meet his thrusts, he taunted her…first with slow teasing prods and then with deeper, more forceful plunges. She felt as if she were at his mercy, and she loved it.
“Yes…yes…yes!” she cried. “Give it to me!”
He suddenly stopped.
Her eyes opened wide. “What? What is it?” She was aching with need, and he’d simply stopped stroking her?
He grinned. “Say please.”
She groaned. “Please!”
&n
bsp; He chuckled softly as he began pounding her pussy with his cock again. He stopped teasing her as they both got closer and closer to orgasm. They came together in an uninhibited expression of satisfaction that made Berta glad she had no neighbors to overhear.
As they lay spent in each other’s arms, both knew they were joined in the desire to never have the moment end. And, yet, both knew it would end all too soon.
****
They were still in bed at sundown, when suddenly Berta realized they were both dressed.
“They’re here,” said Reghan.
“Who? The ones who hurt you?”
He nodded. “Stay in this room. They won’t hurt you. It’s me they’re after.”
“You’re not well enough to face them,” Berta said.
“I’ll be fine.”
“No! I won’t let you do this!” she shouted.
“You can’t stop me.” He kissed her tenderly. “I never knew I could love anyone…especially not as quickly and as certainly as I’ve come to love you.”
Now that the time had come for him to go, Berta realized she wasn’t giving Reghan up without a fight. She didn’t know how leprechaun women did things, but human women fought beside their men. They didn’t hide in the bedroom.
Reghan got out of the bed and walked to the door. He turned to look back at her once, and then went into the kitchen.
Berta quickly got her rifle from the closet. She didn’t use it often, but she could shoot…and had been pretty accurate the last time she’d fired at anything.
She waited until Reghan had stepped out onto the porch. Maybe he was wrong. Maybe there was no one there.
She knew it wasn’t true…but she could hope. She chambered a round just in case.
“So you’ve come out to greet me,” said a masculine voice. “How gracious.”
“Let’s just get this over with, Sloan,” said Reghan.
“As you wish.” There was a pause. “Gentlemen…”
Berta raised the rifle to her shoulder and stepped out onto the porch beside Reghan.
“Stop right there, or I’ll shoot!” She stared down the menacing dark-haired men. “I’m not afraid of you!”