Ass burning like it was on fire, he knelt, scooped large handfuls of icy cold water, and splashed it on his face. The water dripped down his neck to his bare chest, cooling him and his temper. A bit. Why the hell had the damned thing stung him?
He splashed more water on his hair, trying to flatten it. Only there were long tangles in his hair—no, wait. Things that stuck straight up like wheel spokes all over his head.
He groaned.
When he finished washing his face and wetting his hair, he stood and raked his hand through it, only to get his fingers tangled in the braid creations. He snatched up his shirt from the grass where he’d tossed it, and took the leather lace out of the neck opening. He caught his hair and tied it all back with the lace so that it wasn’t sticking straight up any longer.
Tiernan glanced to where Copper had been standing. She wasn’t there. But he thought he saw the hint of her vine-and-leaf dress from the opposite side of the apple tree.
His gut twisted. Damn. He’d acted like a total ass. He was an ass.
She had saved him from a nasty fall, and even then, after all she’d been through, he had taken out his frustration on her. What kind of man was he?
Shit.
No wonder Zephyr had stung him.
He wiped water from his face with the back of his hand, strode to the apple tree and around to the other side, his buttock burning with every step.
When he rounded the tree he saw that Copper had her face in her hands and her body shook with silent sobs.
She was crying.
Gods. He deserved to be strung up by his toes from the topmost branch of the apple tree. He winced. No doubt the first chance they had, Copper’s Fae friends would be delighted to do just that, and Zephyr would help.
Tiernan sat down next to Copper, his thigh touching hers. She jerked her leg away as if he’d burned her. What should he do now?
Hell, once again he didn’t know what to do with a crying woman, especially when he was the reason she was crying. Last night had been different. He had held her because she had needed him.
Did she want him to hold her now? Would she let him?
Zephyr gave another angry buzz from where he perched on Copper’s ear.
Hesitantly, Tiernan reached out a hand and held it above her back. He slowly lowered it until his palm rested on her vine-and-leaf dress. She flinched beneath his touch.
That ache in his gut was as heavy as a rock quarry. He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and pulled her in tight.
“I apologize.” He breathed in her apples and cinnamon scent and his belly twisted even more at what he had done to her. “I should not have taken my anger out on you.” He rubbed his thumb in a slow circle on her shoulder. “Will you forgive me?”
There was a long pause. Finally, Copper raised her head, but she didn’t look at him. Her eyes were swollen and red again, and he felt even more like an ass.
“Whatever,” she mumbled, still not looking at him.
He grasped her chin and forced her to look at him. “Please?”
Copper’s throat worked as she swallowed. Her eyes met his and for a long time he held her gaze. She took a deep breath, let out a long exhale, and said, “Okay.”
Tiernan almost couldn’t catch his own breath as he studied her face. Even with her eyes red and her face streaked with tears, she was beautiful. When he had seen Copper’s picture in her sister’s home, he had memorized her features down to the sprinkling of Faerie kisses across her nose.
Why it had seemed so important to him then, to find her, he didn’t know. But here she was. Here he was.
Copper wiped away her tears with the heels of her palms and took another deep breath. She reached up and touched his hair and gave him a small smile. “I like the way you’ve pulled it back. The bouquet of flowers at the end is an especially nice touch.”
He rolled his eyes and she laughed.
She had a beautiful laugh.
“Come on.” She grabbed his hand as she stood, and tugged at him until he got to his feet. “Let’s get rid of those braids and that Afro.”
Copper’s hand felt good in his as he allowed her to lead him to the water basins. “Sit,” she ordered. He raised an eyebrow, but obeyed.
Tiernan plopped himself onto the grass, one knee bent with one forearm resting on it as he watched her turn away and head toward the shelter. His groin tightened as she got onto her knees to scoot into the shelter, and he had a nice view of the upper part of her thighs. Just a little more...
He groaned as she disappeared into the shelter, then shook his head and smiled. He was acting like some young warrior who had never bedded a woman before.
When she slid out into the sunshine, she was carrying a wooden cup and a wooden container with a lid, and her wand. By the patterns on the wood he knew the cup and container were Faerie-made.
“Hmmm. How’s the best way to do this?” Copper kneeled beside him and eyed his hair critically as she set the cup, container, and her wand on the grass. “Those little buggers sure had their fun with you.”
Tiernan grimaced, but as Copper reached up to touch his hair, he went stock-still. Her vine-and-leaf-covered breasts were directly before his eyes. They swayed with her movements as he felt her begin to undo what the Pixies had done to his hair. His gaze was fixed on her as she removed the tie, and he saw soft white flesh through that skimpy dress.
“Ooooh, they got you good.” Copper leaned forward, getting so close he could move just a bit and—
“It’s going to take me a while to get these all out,” he faintly heard her say.
He was so hard beneath his leather breeches and it was only becoming more painful by the moment. As she worked on his hair, flower petals from the Pixies’ handiwork drifted to the grass beside him. The perfume of the petals blended with Copper’s own unique scent.
“So tell me about your home world.” Copper’s fingers skimmed through his hair when she freed it from the lattice braids. Gods, he hoped it took her a long time to finish.
“Um, Tiernan?” He looked up to see her looking at him, mischief in her eyes. “Did you hear me, or are you too busy staring at my boobs?”
“Boobs?” He shifted so that he could relieve some of the ache.
Copper had the hint of a grin on her face as she settled back on her haunches and cupped her breasts. “These.”
Tiernan groaned out loud to see her holding herself.
When his eyes met hers again, her grin widened. “Thought so.”
The heat in his groin was so intense he was ready to pull her to the ground now. At that moment, he could not think of one reason not to.
“Watch it, little fire,” he said, his voice low and gravelly.
Still with that quirky grin on her face, Copper released her breasts and moved so that she was behind him, her fingers in his hair once again. “So you’re a breast man.”
Said breasts rubbed against his bare back as she moved close to work on his hair. Tiernan swallowed hard. The woman was teasing him—and she probably had no idea what he would do to her if she continued.
“I asked you a few moments ago,” she said as she worked on his hair, “to tell me about yourself.”
He cleared his throat. “I am a D’Danann Enforcer, a warrior of my people.”
“Yeah, yeah.” She tugged at one particularly stubborn knot. When she couldn’t get it untangled, she grabbed her wand and gently zapped it free.
When she set the wand aside, she said, “Tell me about you. How old are you? What are your parents like? I’d love to know where you live, what your favorite color is, and what you do when you’re not being a he-man. Those kinds of things.”
Tiernan took a deep breath and shifted again to ease the ache in his groin. “I am over two thousand years old.”
Copper’s hands paused in his hair and she pressed closer to his back as she peered around him to look at his face. “No shit?”
He grinned. “No shit.”
“Well.” Copp
er went back to working on his hair. “I should have figured that since you all were former gods before you left to live in Otherworld. It’s just a trip to hear you say it.”
This time her tug at his hair was hard enough to make him wince. “Sorry. Tell me more.”
Tiernan paused for a moment, trying to decide exactly what to tell her. “I am a lord of the House of Cathal in the D’Danann court. My mother and father are ready to retire from their responsibilities and wish for me to take them on.”
“A lord, eh?” She finger-combed part of his hair. “Do you want to? Take over the responsibilities of your house?”
“It is my duty,” he said automatically.
Copper attacked what he hoped was the final Pixie braid creation. “But do you want to?”
“Of course.” That was his destiny. It always had been. But right now he didn’t want to think about his destiny or duty.
“Okay.” She tugged at another braid. “So what’s your favorite color?”
He turned just enough to grab one of her wrists, forcing her to stop and look at him. “Cinnamon eyes and copper-colored hair.”
Her throat visibly worked. “You are the charmer.”
“Right now that is all I see. All I want to see.”
Copper’s heart pounded and her belly tingled straight to between her thighs. She took a deep breath. Oh, boy, was she playing with fire.
She looked away from him and extracted her wrist from his hand. “I’m almost done with your Pixie braids.” She tried to keep her voice light. Suddenly she wasn’t so sure she wanted to move this fast.
But she wanted him. Goddess, did she want him.
Nevertheless, she hurried to finish the last braid. Without warning him, she took the wooden cup, filled it from the lower basin with ice-cold water, and poured it over his head.
That should cool things down a little, she thought, as Tiernan shuddered and sputtered and turned to glare at her.
She gave him a sweet smile and dumped another cup, then another over his hair. The chilly water ran down his wonderful naked back, that incredible chest, along that flat belly straight below the waistband of his leather pants.
Copper hurried to finish wetting every bit of his hair, which still stuck up despite being wet. She took the lid off the wooden container and tossed the lid aside before using her fingers to scoop out some of the special shampoo the Faeries had made for her own frizzy occasions.
The pentagram on her thick copper bracelet glittered with her movements as she washed his hair with the shampoo. The frizz died down.
Tiernan cleared his throat. “Tell me about your life, Copper.”
“Turnabout’s fair play, I suppose.” She shrugged as she soaped his hair. To keep it from staying curly, the shampoo had to be worked in thoroughly.
“You know about my family.” Her voice caught as she thought about her mother, but forced herself to go on. “You know I’m a witch and I have a honeybee familiar. I’m trapped in some kind of bubble, with a whole bunch of pissed-off Fae, who think this is all my fault.”
She scooped up water in the cup. “Close your eyes because I’m going to rinse the soap out now.”
He leaned over to keep the soap out of his eyes. “What else?” he asked even as he shivered from the cold water.
“Hmmmm. I pitch a mean game of softball and I could probably give you a run for your money. And I majored in education at a university.”
“How old are you?” he asked as more soap ran down his face and body when she poured another cup of water on him.
“Oh, probably what would be a nanosecond in your lifetime.” She was almost finished. She squeezed out the excess water, then finger-combed his hair as he sat back up. “Twenty-six. I went to the university for four years, took some night classes for a couple of years, then went back to work on my graduate degree.”
“You teach?” he asked, as she moved around to face him so that they were eye to eye.
“Not yet, but I plan to.” She pushed her hair behind her ear and wondered where Zeph was. “I’ve been taking it slow. So much was going on with my Coven, including my becoming an Adept. I was also helping Silver run the Coven’s store and taking one night class each semester.”
Their eyes met and held. She was sitting so close to him that her thigh brushed his. “Blue,” she whispered.
He raised an eyebrow. “Blue what?”
“My favorite color today is blue.” She drank in the sight of him. His incredible physique, the intense look on his well-defined features, his wet hair that now fell straight back to his broad shoulders. And those eyes. “You have the most beautiful eyes I’ve ever seen.”
Tiernan moved so fast he caught her by surprise. One second she’d been sitting, the next she was lying on her back staring up at him.
9
Flames burned through Copper like wildfire as Tiernan braced his knees on each side of her legs, his hands on either side of her head, her back pressed against the soft grass.
His musky male scent blended with that of the dandelion shampoo she had just used on his hair. His mouth—she couldn’t take her eyes off his firm lips. Sexy and so very masculine.
He wore an intense expression and her belly flipped as he dipped his head down. When Tiernan’s lips met hers, it was hot, fiery, passionate. He held nothing back, his mouth moving over hers, his teeth nipping at her bottom lip, and his tongue thrusting into her mouth.
Copper moaned and writhed beneath him as she reached up to slide her arms around his neck, beneath his wet hair. She brought him tightly to her and at the same time she pressed her mouth harder to his.
She matched his passion, tasting him, biting at his lower lip, and moaning into his mouth. It was the most incredible kiss she’d ever experienced in her life.
Tiernan’s wet hair fell forward to slide over her neck and her breasts. He groaned and drew away from her, his beautiful eyes meeting hers and holding her gaze with such an intense look she couldn’t have turned away if she wanted to. His breathing was hard and she felt the warmth of it against her cheeks.
Her own breathing was just as harsh and the sensations in her body were nearly out of control. Her blood pounded hard in her ears and she felt a zing in her belly all the way down to her core.
“Little fire,” Tiernan said in a low gravelly voice, “I do not think you know how close I am to taking you. Now.”
Copper slipped one of her hands from his neck, and his abdomen tensed beneath her fingers as she trailed them down, down to his pants. She slid her fingertips over his length and his eyes grew dark and stormy. The arms he had braced to either side of her head trembled and his jaw tightened.
“Don’t wait.” She squeezed him and brought her hand up to tug at one of the ties of his tight leather pants. “I want you now.”
“Copper.” His growl grew deeper as she released his cock and ran her small hand up and down his hardness.
“I mean it.” She tugged at him, forcing him to lower himself. “I need this. I need it so badly I can hardly stand it.”
Tiernan moved so that he was between her legs, forcing her thighs wide apart. Sweat had broken out on his brow from the effort to hold himself back.
Copper released him to tug up her dress, baring herself. His masculine scent made her heady.
She wrapped her legs around his hips, forcing him lower so that his length pressed hard against her. She kissed him hard.
“Take me,” she said against his lips.
He raised his face to the sky and with a pained expression he rocked his hips so that he rubbed her bare flesh. But not where she wanted him. She slipped her fingers around him and started to guide it to her center.
“No.” He had a tortured look on his face when his gaze met hers again. “You could get with child.”
“Uh-uh.” Copper reached up to kiss him hard. “I’m a witch. Even without my wand, I can conjure a magical shield within me that protects me from everything.” She brought the head of his length to her c
hannel. “Consider it conjured.”
Tiernan gave a growl. Copper raised her hips so that he slid a fraction into her channel.
“Hurry” she begged. “I need you now.”
With one thrust, he buried himself deep, deep inside her. “Oh, sweet goddess.” At that moment she couldn’t imagine anything else feeling so good. She clenched her legs tighter around him, her body adjusting to the length and girth of him. “Don’t move.”
Immediately he looked concerned. “Did I hurt you?”
“Um, no.” She raised her hips so that his groin was hard against her mound. “You just feel so good.”
A droplet of sweat rolled from his forehead onto her cheek. “I cannot hold back much longer.”
“Don’t” She began moving her hips up and down. “I want it harder than you have ever taken anyone before.”
Tiernan took her at her word and she cried out at the incredible feel of it. She reveled in it. Goddess, but she needed this.
She trembled and a sensation swept through her like a thousand tiny pinpricks from her scalp to her toes.
A flush of heat followed the prickling sensation and her mind began to whirl. She imagined tiny golden bubbles sparkling around them.
As her orgasm burst through her, Copper couldn’t help the cry that tore from her throat. She could do no more than shiver and shudder with every wave of her climax.
Moments later he gave a shout that sounded like triumph, a pure male cry that made her channel convulse even harder around him as he throbbed inside her.
They were both sweaty and out of breath.
He stopped and pressed his hips tight to hers as he looked down at her. “Godsdamn, woman.”
She gave a smile of satisfaction as he rolled onto his side, bringing her with him so that they were pressed chest to chest, his thigh pinning hers down, still inside her. He traced his finger over her nose. “Such sweet Faerie kisses.”
“Freckles.” Copper kissed him, moving her mouth gently over his, before drawing back and looking into his intense eyes. “Ready for another round?”
Words failed him as the beautiful woman untangled herself from his arms and stood so that he was looking up at her.
The Seduced Page 10