by Ann Gimpel
“Who’s we?”
“Och aye, and ye’re going to interrupt every thirty seconds?”
“No, only when I need to know something.”
“We is Gwydion, Bran, Arawn, and me. Bran went after Dewi. Arawn went in search of more Celtic gods. The plan was to meet here, draft a plan, and then go after you. Gwydion and I had only thought to do a small reconnaissance—to assess the lay of things, ye understand—when your wolf bolted.”
“Ingrate,” Rune growled from the corner where he’d settled. “The minute I was fully into Taltos, I sensed my bond mate. I had to find her. Good thing, too—”
“So you and Gwydion followed Rune?” Aislinn drew her brows together into a worried line.
“Aye, that we did. Not that we had much choice in the matter.” Fionn glared at Rune.
The wolf snarled, hackles at half-mast. “Be sure to tell her what happened next,” he muttered through a growl.
“I was planning to.” Fionn inclined his head. It was a struggle not to oust the wolf from the room. It’s no wonder he and Bella get along so well. They’re cut from the same cloth.
He turned back to Aislinn. “The wolf located you almost at once. I understood ye were being marched to some sort of interrogation chamber. For once, Gwydion and I agreed we couldna afford to wait for the others. So he took yon wolf—”
“Against my will,” Rune noted stiffly. “That will not happen again.”
“—and I went after you.” Ignoring the wolf, Fionn sucked in a breath. The ground they’d just covered was the easy part. He turned over the next bit in his mind.
“You’re trying to sugarcoat something,” Aislinn snapped, sounding nearly as surly as her wolf. “Just spit it out for chrissakes.”
He nodded. “All right, then. Keep in mind, I doona know any of this for a fact. It is all conjecture. I suspect the reason ye were able to run from them is because the Old Ones had discovered my presence and turned their attention away from you. I sensed something dark behind their group intelligence orchestrating things. Mayhap Perrikus. Mayhap D’Chel—”
She gasped, and then her mouth formed a hard line. “I knew it. I couldn’t figure out why they sat back and let me pull magic so I could run from them. They had the power to flatten me. To kill me where I stood. I’ve seen them do it…” Her voice ran down. The hand she laid on his arm shook ever so slightly.
“Aye. If the dark god—whoever it was—instructed them to target me, that would explain things. And lass, it was close. I felt their magic closing about me. We had seconds to spare. If ye had hesitated the second time I told you to drop your warding…”
A shudder ran through her. Fionn pulled her against him and buried his lips in her hair. Love welled within him, along with a savage protectiveness. “Mo croi. If ye’re gearing up to tell me I should have run when things got dangerous, save your breath. I was not leaving without you.”
“You should have.” Her voice sounded muffled against his chest.
“Hmph. Not a chance.”
“Because I’m the MacLochlainn?”
He pushed away from her and laid a hand on either side of her face. “Nay, mo croi. Because ye’re you. I love you. I doona think being a MacLochlainn has aught to do with it. After all, I dinna love your mother. I couldna, no matter how hard I tried.” He twisted his mouth into a crooked smile. “There were no other MacLochlainn women for me to practice on.”
The corners of her mouth twitched. “Borrowing from your earlier conversation with Bella, point taken.”
She slid off the bed and started shucking clothes. When she was down to silky wisps of panties and bra, he said, “Not that I’m complaining, mind you, but I thought ye wanted to talk.”
She waved her hand nonchalantly. “You’ve told me everything important.”
Surprise wafted through him. “How can ye know?”
“Two can play that mind-reading game.” She shot him a smile worthy of one of the Sirens. “What? Isn’t the sight of my near nudity driving you crazy? I know I probably don’t smell all that good, but there was a time—”
His feet hit the floor. He pulled her against him, bent his head, and settled his mouth over hers, desperate for the taste of her, for the feel of her against his body. She sucked greedily on his tongue when it parted her lips. He inhaled the scent of her like a drug, drawing it deep. She tasted of honey and wildflowers, spicy, exotic, and alluring. Aislinn wove her arms around him; her fingers clutched his shoulders. The peaks of her nipples pressed into his chest. He pictured them, strawberry circles tipping her full breasts. His cock hardened and throbbed where it rubbed against the junction between her belly and thigh.
He dragged his mouth from hers. “I assume this means no bath?”
She laughed, a husky, passionate sound. “Told you that earlier. Door number two.”
“I dinna know what ye meant.”
“That, my love, is because you probably never watched television.”
“Och, but I—”
She rolled her eyes. “Never mind.” She plucked at the waistband of his jeans, undoing them with nimble fingers.
His throat was dry. His heart thudded so hard it echoed in his ears. Och aye, I’m like a lad about to lose his virginity. Fionn stopped thinking. Nothing beyond their bodies twined together mattered. He helped her push his pants down, and then he stepped out of them. She closed her hands around his cock. He groaned from the pleasure of her touch. Electric, it sent jolts of pleasure to every nerve ending.
He unclasped her bra and had just bent to take one of her nipples into his mouth when she slithered down his body, running little, lapping kisses across his chest. When she trailed her lips down his stomach, all his muscles tightened in anticipation. He didn’t have to wait long before the heat of her mouth closed about his shaft, and she began a slow, sensual licking around the head of his cock while sliding her hands up and down him. The sensations were so incredible, it was all he could do not to come. He got harder and harder until controlling himself was almost painful.
Without warning, she moved her hands behind him, grabbed his ass, and pulled him farther into her mouth. Fionn pumped his hips and thrust deeper. He buried his fingers in her hair and heard himself cry out. An orgasm spooled deep inside his belly, almost past the point of no return. She pushed a finger between his legs and rubbed the base of his balls. They tightened against his body, and control fled like so much fairy dust. His climax developed a mind of its own and raced outward in burning jets as he drove into her again and again.
The sound of his ragged breathing was loud in his ears. Cock still buried deep in Aislinn’s mouth, he gazed at her hair cascading down her shoulders like a curtain of living flame and was overcome by how much he loved her. Tenderness nearly overwhelmed him. Hot tears pricked behind his lids, and he tightened the fingers twined in her hair.
Apparently feeling his gaze on her, she moved back, releasing him. The sensitive skin of his cock felt cold where her mouth had been. “So.” Her eyes twinkled as she looked at him. “Was that what you had in mind earlier?”
“Nay.” Seeing her worried expression, he hurried on. “’Twas a million times better than my imagination.”
Fionn smoothed her hair back from her face and reached for her. He lifted her easily and placed her on the bed, then bent his head to kiss her, tasting himself on her tongue. The salty tang of his semen made him hot all over again. She arched toward him. He flicked his tongue into her mouth, withdrew it, and teased her lips with nibbling kisses.
She pulled away. “Come here.” She wrapped a hand around his cock and tugged. “Or are you going to stand over my bed worshipping me from afar, like a vestal virgin?”
“What would you like, mo croi?” He loved looking at her. With her long legs, flared hips, and full breasts, she was as close to perfect as a woman could be. He took a strand of her wonderful silky hair and let it play through his fingers.
She captured his hand and guided it between her legs. Her panties we
re soaked. Liquid slicked her thighs. He pulled the lacy fabric down and settled next to her. Fionn lay on his side, propped on one elbow. He took a nipple in his mouth and sucked, while cupping her pussy under his hand. The heat of her seared him. Her hips bucked. He knew what she wanted, because he wanted her the same way. Their lovemaking always ended up the same, bodies crashing against one another, frantic with need.
She mewled low in her throat and spread her legs wide. Aislinn pushed insistently, positioning him to enter her. Fionn knelt between her legs and drank in her beauty. Sometimes, like now, he wanted her so much, it humbled him. As hard as if he hadn’t just come, his cock jutted in front of him. She snared him with her golden gaze.
“Now,” she cried. “I need you now.”
He touched the head of his shaft to the wet, magical spot between her legs. She wriggled against him, and he sank slowly into her while she wrapped her legs around his waist and dug her hands into his shoulders. Her back arched as her hips ground against him and she sank her teeth into his neck.
Fionn threw back his head and laughed. “Bella pecks me. Ye bite me. Must be something ye picked up from the wolf.”
“I resent that,” Rune growled from his corner.
She twisted her head toward Rune. “I’m sure Fionn didn’t mean anything by it.”
The wolf muttered something, but Fionn couldn’t make it out.
Aislinn locked gazes with him again. Her muscles pulsed around his cock, and her hips writhed in an age-old dance of passion. “Move, damn it.”
He knew her well enough to understand how close she was. He drew back so only the tip of him circled her entrance and held himself there. Her panting breath rasped between them. She pulled down hard on his hips, but he just smiled at her. “How much do ye want me, leannán?”
“Not the time for this. You came. I want to. Have to.” She moved a hand from his body, placed it between her legs, and rubbed her clit. Her head fell back against the pillows. Her lips parted, her cheeks flushed. He felt her climax build in the tension of her muscles.
Fionn grabbed her hand, shoved it away, and slammed into her hard over and over again. Her body liquefied around him as her orgasm pounded through her. She cried his name and told him she loved him while her pussy contracted around him. Because he didn’t expect it, his second climax took him by surprise. Carried on the wave of her arousal, he pumped into her, draining himself.
Fionn collapsed on top of her and covered her face with kisses in between crooning to her in Gaelic.
“Watch it,” she murmured, voice still thick with passion. “I understand most of that.”
He rolled off her onto his back. “Good. Then ye know I think ye are the most wonderful, the most beautiful, the most amazing—”
“You can stop now.” She reached for his hand and squeezed it. “I get the picture.”
“Most women like to hear their virtues extolled.”
“Fionn.” She repositioned herself so she was on her side, facing him. “This is not the sixteen hundreds. I am not a pampered female whose self-image rises and falls on the basis of some man’s opinion of me.”
“What would ye like to hear from me?” Truly curious, he turned so he could watch her face.
“Only that you will treat me as an equal partner in all things. That we will stand together. Make our decisions as a team.” She held up a hand. “Think carefully. I am not certain your fellow Celtic gods would approve of including me in what they probably see as men’s business.”
Fionn opened his mouth and then closed it. She was right. While the occasional goddess was included in critical things like strategizing a war against the Lemurians, he was fairly certain it would be an uphill battle to get Aislinn a permanent seat at the table. Then he remembered Dewi. The dragon regarded herself as bonded to the MacLochlainn as surely as the wolf did. It was why Rune hated her. He saw her as competition for Aislinn’s affections.
Dewi was sacred to the Celts.
“It may not be as difficult as ye think,” he began, picking his words carefully. She furled her brows, and he said, “Now stop that. I will always support you, Aislinn. I do not see you as less than me because ye are a woman. I canna control how the others react to you, but Dewi will be your ally.”
The wolf growled.
Fionn got off the bed and walked over to him. He hunkered on his haunches so they were at eye level with one another. “Ye stop it, too. I know ye doona trust Dewi and that ye see her as a threat to your bond with Aislinn.”
The snarling rose in volume.
Fionn laid a hand on Rune’s muzzle. “Ye willna like to hear this, but Dewi’s claim to Aislinn predates yours by a thousand years or better. That dragon has always been linked to a MacLochlainn woman—if one was alive for her to bond with. There were a good many years without any MacLochlainn females. If Aislinn and I have a daughter—which isn’t likely, since males run in the MacCumhaill line—Dewi will be bound to protect her, too.”
“If that’s true,” Rune said huffily, “why didn’t Aislinn know about her?”
“Because Mother hated the dragon,” Aislinn replied. “She fled to America and spent the rest of her life hiding from Dewi. I don’t think Dewi even knew I existed until she found me in the tunnels beneath Taltos.”
“Oh.” There was a protracted silence before the wolf added. “Would you rather be bonded to her?”
Aislinn sprang off the bed in a flash. She knelt next to Fionn and Rune. “No. Don’t ever think that.” She sank a hand into his neck ruff. “I know I made a fuss about not having Hunter magic when you and I first met, but I have accepted the bond. You and I are bond mates. Until death.”
The wolf whined and licked her knees. “That is how it should be. Thank you. I will try to tolerate the dragon.”
Fionn thought it enough of a concession. And a good place to stop. “Thank you,” he told the wolf. Turning to Aislinn, he said, “How about that bath?”
She yawned. “Not sure. I’m pretty tired…”
“I already drew the water. All I need to do is heat it.”
“In that case—” she smiled “—I’m all over it. I can smell myself. And I can still smell that rotten reptile stench the Lemurians exude.”
Fionn rose to his feet. He walked into the adjoining bathroom and dipped a hand into the water while chanting. Marta’s house still had running water from a gravity feed spring out back, but electricity was a thing of the past. Steam was just starting to rise when Aislinn joined him.
“Is it ready?”
“Uh-huh.” He pulled his hand out of the water, and she lowered herself into it, sighing with pleasure. “Thanks for picking up on my cue back there.”
She cocked her head to one side. “What cue?”
“’Tis always best to stop when things are going well—”
“Oh, you mean with Rune.”
He’d just nodded when the bedroom door flew open. Fionn whirled, hands raised to call magic. Gwydion burst into the bathroom, brandishing his staff. It glowed a deep, angry red, which could only mean one thing: extreme danger. “Ye must come now, man. We’re under attack.”
“Cad a tharla?” Shocked the Lemurians had converged on them so soon, Fionn lapsed into Gaelic to ask what happened.
“Something reanimated the hybrids.”
Not Lemurians after all. At least not directly. Fionn thought of the ensorcelled pair in the attic room above. They held the gates between the worlds open. What would happen if he and Gwydion destroyed them? Would the dark gods be trapped on Earth forever?
The warrior magician spun and took off at a dead run.
Fionn dragged a robe off the bathroom door, threw it around himself, and raced after Gwydion. He called back to Aislinn. “Ward yourself.”
CHAPTER FOUR
Aislinn’s mouth dropped open. Weary from thirty hours without sleep and still tingling from sex, she stared after Fionn, fixated on the empty spot where his body had been moments before. Her mind felt slow and stupid.
She dragged her hands down her face, then slid forward and dunked her head all the way under the water. When she came up sputtering, Rune stood in the bathroom door.
“We need to fight,” he informed her, ears pricked forward. “Why are you wasting time in that bathtub?”
Aislinn rolled her eyes and blew out a breath. She gripped the sides of the claw foot tub and pushed to her feet. Water sluiced down her body. She grabbed a towel and draped it around her head. Once she was standing on the tile floor, she wrapped herself in the other terrycloth robe, figuring it would soak up the rest of the water. She’d hoped immersing her head would help clear it, but so far, it wasn’t working.
“Hurry,” Rune urged.
She eyed him. “Hurry where? Fionn told me to ward myself.”
“Well”—the wolf nailed her with his amber gaze—“so far, you haven’t done that, either.”
Aislinn pushed past Rune and walked into the bedroom. She reached for her magic. It was sluggish and slow to respond. She needed rest and food to recharge. Her Seer skill was strongest of the five magics. It was also the one she was least familiar with. Before she’d met Rune and Fionn, she’d seen herself as a Mage with weak Seeker skills. In the few months since meeting up with the wolf and the Celtic god, she’d discovered she had access to all five abilities. Healing came easily as had her Hunter bond with the wolf. The Seer talent—which allowed her to both see into the future and manipulate it—was much harder to control. It also let her go backward in time and make certain changes.
Wouldn’t it be convenient if I could simply erase the last hour? Maybe, if we’d had more warning…
After several frustrating minutes, Aislinn gave up on deploying Seer magic. She was just too tired. Instead, she summoned her Mage gift to ward herself and the bedroom. Inspecting her work, she shook her head, feeling disgusted. It was one of the worst wards she’d ever built. Amateur and full of holes, it was so weak a six-month-old kitten could have punched through it.