by Susan Conley
“The elfin folk don’t take kindly to mortals who disrespect nature, and they’re a bit sensitive to moods, so it’d be best to cool your temper, since we don’t know our exact whereabouts.” He didn’t miss the irony in him advocating for temperament change.
“Is that so? Well, you can tell your elfin folk friends that this mortal doesn’t take kindly to being manipulated like a checker piece. I don’t recall asking for elf help.” Her mouth twitched at that declaration, but she bit back any humour and fixed a scowl back in place.
“I’ll not leave you here alone. You take all the time you need. I’ll wait.” He walked back to the car and looked out over the mountain.
Finn! Make an appearance, he willed.
“Patience, human!” spilled from the ether.
“Finn!”
But once again Calum’s plea went unanswered.
What the hell was he supposed to have done differently? He’d gotten them bumped off Earth. There was benefit to it. They appeared to be safe. And being here with him — was it so bad? This was paradise. She’d not been complaining. Jacuzzi foot rubs, walks in the woods, languishing by the fireside — she had the whole damn bed to herself. Aye, it’d been terribly rough on the lass.
Beth returned to the car and crossed her arms over her chest.
“Better now?” he asked.
“No.” The woman was frosty.
“Come now, Beth, get over it. We have everything we need. It’s not so appalling. Can we not make the most of it?”
“Get over it? Easy for you to say, Mister Upper Worlds. I liked my world just fine.” She turned her back on him.
He came up behind her and talked over her shoulder. “I know you’re afraid.” His lips brushed her ear. “I’m asking you to trust me. We are not dealing with your world any longer. This is Finn’s world, and as much as it abhors you, this is about pleasure and decadence. We are to enjoy it, Beth, and be patient.”
“Did you talk to him?”
“No. He asked for patience, that was it.” Demanded was more like it, but Calum didn’t want to make Finn sound anything but compliant. It would only worry her.
“Let go, Beth,” he whispered in her ear. “You know what this is? This is our chance to be together again. Listen to your heart. That’s where you know me, inside. I’m not any man, m’eudail, I’m yours. Does your body not respond to me as if your flesh and bones know who I am? When you close your eyes, do you feel me?”
He moved aside her blouse and laid one kiss on her shoulder, one on her neck. Her tension relinquished, slightly. With a hand to her waist he eased her back against him, where she belonged. He didn’t know how else to convince her of that truth but with his body. To feel it. He swept the hair from her neck and claimed her with his lips, his tongue, and his teeth until she let go a soft whimper.
His grip on her hip held tight. I am yours, Bethia, but you best not forget, you belong to me.
She threw back her head and drew a long breath as his unshaven jaw rasped her neck. Her surrender followed. When she turned, he nudged her lips apart with his thumb, and then teased her with the tip of his tongue. Her lips parted, and he slid his lips across hers. There was no urgency. He loved the sensuous build from languorous and slow, the laying down of promises she would anticipate and he would keep. Like the feather touch of his fingertips over the sensitive skin mounding above her bra. He laid a promise there with a brush of his thumbs against the fabric covering her nipples. He knew she waged an interior battle to keep to her rules, knew how to unravel her resistance, knew she would suffer no regret when the time came.
The heat of her mouth instantly warmed the blood in his loins, but he wouldn’t be satisfied until her desire for him turned fierce. Perhaps when he submerged his tongue and stroked hers with long, lazy licks. Ah, she liked that. Her fingers raked through his hair. The taste of her need was sweet and freed a groan from his throat as her lips fastened on his tongue when he attempted to pull back. He could certainly tarry, so he slipped inside to ravage her mouth again.
Finally he lifted his mouth from hers. She was beautiful, skin flushed, lips swollen, eyes closed. “Feeling improved, lass?”
Her eyes opened as if from a dream. She sighed, but Calum read the lines of irritation still present in her brow.
“Am I kissed all better, do you mean?”
His smile was dry. Had he misread her? “Not quite yet, I see.”
“Not quite.”
“Shall I try again then?” He lowered his head.
“No, Calum, let’s go now.”
She drove them back, but didn’t stay. When Calum got out of the car, Beth reversed, and called out the window.
“I need some time alone. Don’t try and stop me. I’ll obviously be back.”
He let her go. What else could he do? Until Finn doled out the final task, he had nothing to do but ease Beth’s worries, temper his physical needs, and practice infinite patience.
• • •
Since the road into the cabin dead–ended, Beth headed back over the same route they had just taken, but she didn’t go far. What was the point? She only wanted to get far enough away so her thoughts were not gilded with pictures of getting naked with Calum.
He did kiss her better, surprisingly, though she’d not felt like admitting it. When he’d made those male sounds of pleasure–giving seduction in her ear and said he wasn’t any man, he was hers, an exquisite hot wave of arousal rippled through her. Calum wasn’t just heat–inducing, he was hazardous and could easily sweet–talk Fort Knox into tumbling open. No, he wasn’t any man. No man charged every particle in her body like he did.
Beth shut the engine off and got out of the car. So maybe they weren’t on Earth any more, she thought, slightly hysterical. They were somewhere spectacular, the air delicious, the sun savoury, the woods wanting and wild.
She needed to expend some energy. A brisk walk would ease her agitations and get her mind off seduction — focus on the pull of different muscles for a change.
Leaves rustled in the canopy high above a trail that looked inviting. She headed that way. What if she gave herself to Calum, her spirit guide warrior, gorgeous and impassioned and bloody good with his hands? She’d hardly experienced that sensuous mouth of his, not to mention what he had in his …
Oh! How easy her mind slipped into thinking about Calum’s body parts. She needed to focus on dire matters. Like how in this world was she going to get back to her world? It all came down to that Finn character. Calum said the immortal deferred to humans. She was human. Why couldn’t she summon Finn?
Beth stopped cold. A strange looking man sat with a casual air on a tree stump so close, she came to an abrupt halt to avoid smacking into him. Why had she not spotted him from farther back? Must be those camouflage clothes — he wore a comical green suit and a smile of pure mischief. His long white hair blew in a breeze that wafted Beth’s neck. Wait. Unless he was a Cirque du Soleil performer, no one could defy gravity like that. The seat of his pants hovered over the stump. There was no contact!
“Hello, Bethia,” he said.
Her heart thumped into her rib cage. She shrieked, turned, and ran in a beeline for her car with that strange wind tickling her nape.
The creature popped into place in front of her.
Ack! She skidded to a halt. How’d he do that? “That’s not fair!”
The elf being, for it couldn’t possibly be human, smiled. “You’ve no idea how fair I really am.”
“Perhaps we could discuss that later … in the next century.” She took a retreating step.
He smiled pleasantly. “You called me.”
“No, I didn’t. I would know if I did, and since I’ve no idea who you are, it’s safe to say I didn’t call you.”
He held his head at a regal tilt. “I go by many nam
es. You’ve settled on Finn, so be it.”
“Pardon?” His name had blown over her like a puff of smoke, sounding something like ‘Phew.’
“You may pronounce it F–I–N Finn. You humans don’t have the capacity to address me properly.”
She took a closer look. Did he have pointed ears under that hair? “You’re Finn?”
“Ah, you’ve heard of me then.”
“Briefly.” She had thought Finn would look like a picture–book elf, but he was fairly easy on the eyes for an unworldly creature. “I was thinking about you.”
“Yes, I pointed that out. Strange that you beckoned, yet when I came, you shrieked an annoying sound that still rings in my ears and ran. Very strange behaviour, indeed.”
Her behaviour was strange? “How was I supposed to know you’d appear floating over the ground like that? You nearly scared me to death.”
“Not yet, dear Bethia, it’s not your time. Are you going to explain your summons?”
She suddenly felt like she’d won the lottery again — her very own elf to do her bidding. Sweet. “Why do you call me Bethia? My name is Beth, or don’t you have the capacity to address me properly.”
The creature’s eyes widened and seemed to flare with gold fire. It sent a hissing sound that blew Beth’s bangs off her face. Sweet? Apparently not. Finn disappeared then suddenly reappeared behind her. Startled, she stood perfectly still while he circled her.
“You know …” She swallowed. “Bethia is just fine. As a matter of fact I quite like the name — means life, or so I’ve been told.”
Finn came to a stop in front of her, a blatant invasion of her personal space. “Good, Bethia. I know what you want, and I’m going to grant it, but first I want to talk about you and Calum.
“Okay.” Like she had a choice.
“He may not know it, but I’ve a fondness for the human.”
“Calum?”
“Yes,” Finn said with a nod and amiable demeanour. “You know why he’s here, don’t you? To save you, Bethia. He’d give his life for yours without thinking. He has before. Now, you may not consider it a great sacrifice, thinking he carried the knowledge of life–after–life, but he did it without that wisdom. Do you think it a great sacrifice?”
“Dying for me? Yes, I guess that qualifies.”
“How generous of you to say so. You’ve a sympathetic heart to be sure. That’s why I want you to know that Calum has a problem.”
Her heart pumped a shot of alarm through her body. “He does?”
Finn nodded again, his thin lips pressed in a tight curve. “You see, ideally, Calum walks the earth and you find him, but you’re too disconnected in this life. It’s the Old Ones doing, they like to manipulate you poor souls while keeping you in the dark.”
What was he talking about?
“Irregardless, Calum found you, but he paid a price, Bethia. Something vital was taken from him.”
Finn looked quite compassionate. It must be something terrible. What had Calum sacrificed to rescue her? “What was taken?”
“Calum is a man of great passion, Bethia.”
“I’d be hard–pressed not to have noticed that.”
“Good. Did you know that energy from passionate people such as Calum is fodder for the universe, so to speak.”
“Fodder?”
“Yes, and the world is in need of that kind of energy. There’s an imbalance — too many are driven by greed — it’s abhorrent and it pains me.”
What was this goblin getting at? He started to hover off the ground, floating back and forth in front of her.
“Could you perhaps stay rooted to the ground?”
Finn ignored that request. “I want to see Calum restored. Would you help?”
She felt sick to know he’d suffered a terrible affliction to come to her aid and without one complaint. The man defined gallant. “I’ll do whatever I can.”
A wide smile swept over his face. “There should be more humans like you — and Calum, of course — willing to sacrifice for others.”
She stiffened. “What kind of sacrifice?”
Finn made a dismissive gesture. “Oh meager, Bethia, quite meager. As I was saying, Calum thought nothing of himself when he perceived your crisis, and granting him a human form was truly my gift. Calum is a man of great passion — ”
“Yes, yes, you said that. The man is passionate, the world needs more like him, and he sacrificed. I get that. What was taken from him?”
“Impatience is not attractive, Bethia.” Finn held her eyes and drew a slow breath before continuing. “They took a vital thing, that which means the most to him, besides you of course — they stripped from him the vehicle to express his passion fully.”
What vehicle? “You’re going to have to be more specific.”
A slight smile played on his lips. “He is unable to raise the flag, if you catch my meaning.” The trickster glanced at his own groin and grimaced at Beth. “Impotent. Can’t perform.”
A laugh burst from her throat. “Right. There is no way that man can’t perform.”
“It’s quite true.”
“You don’t understand. Calum never stops performing. The man is turned on every moment of every day.”
“I know. His arousal never ceases. It’s quite a pity. All that passion going to waste.”
“You know, Finn, I could believe anything else, but not that.”
His iridescent eyes narrowed as he swooped in close to her face. “I may pick and choose what I reveal, all in good sport, but I don’t fabricate.”
“Okay, okay, it’s just …”
“I know. It’s just that he wants you so badly, dear Bethia. He suffers day and night knowing he can’t please you.”
Could that possibly be true? Beth took a nervous step back and tripped over her feet.
“It was terribly unfair, don’t you think?” He continued. “You must understand that Calum is bound only to you, and wants desperately to renew the union with his only true love. He feels every desire to do so, every aching need, but alas, he cannot.”
She was painfully aware of the aching need feeling. “That is rather awful.”
“Yes. But, you could help him, sweet Bethia.”
Here it comes. “How’s that?”
“If you were to become the seducer, if you allowed your passion to grow with his, if you freed your soul to feel for Calum, then I can assure you, he will regain his ability, and you will not be left wanting in any way. You will never know satisfaction of a greater kind.”
“You want me to have sex with him?”
“Sex won’t work. You have to make love, let your passion for Calum free, feel it, and want him, Bethia.”
A sudden thought occurred to her. “Did he put you up to this?”
“Calum must never know we had this talk or everything will be lost. Everything he came here to put right.”
“But, I have a, uh, a mantra, and — ”
“You must let it go. Have I not made myself clear? You will not be left wanting in any way. You have my word. If you see Calum for the man he is, then the beliefs that hold you back cease to exist.”
“You promised to grant my wish. I wished to go home.”
“I know.” The immortal held up his hand and a crimson key appeared between his thumb and forefinger. “When you want to leave the mountain, this key will let you out. Using it brings an end to the game. All you need do is put it in your ignition and drive. But, Bethia, if you tell Calum that I’ve talked with you or show him the key, it won’t work.”
Game? “What game?” Calum said the trickster liked to play games.
“Now, you choose.” Finn placed the key in her hand and floated backwards. “You either put your trust in the man who spanned worlds to get t
o you, or put your trust in the rest of the world.”
Finn vanished in a gust of wind.
Chapter 20
There’s Nothing Sexier than a Man Cooking Dinner
Beth sat in the car outside their rustic retreat running her fingers through the silver tassel tied to the end of the key clutched in her hand. When given the choice to leave Calum and go back to the real world, she’d not had to think hard. She would stay. It wasn’t because Finn emphasized Calum’s great sacrifice. It wasn’t because she feared the immortal and didn’t want to be in his disfavour. It wasn’t even because Calum needed her to solve his “problem.” It was simpler than that. Neither her mind, nor her body, nor perhaps her soul wanted to leave him. Whether they’d been together for a thousand years or five days, it wasn’t nearly enough. And that had not come clear until she’d had to choose.
With that decision made, she moved on to the conundrum that followed in its wake. Calum unable to perform? She would never have believed it if not for his behaviour yesterday. When she’d become aggressive, he’d fled the cabin with important things to do. Right. His behaviour didn’t add up. The man was atomic energy when he had the upper hand, when he thought she would stay above board, keep to her beliefs. What would Calum do if she didn’t back off?
All her life she’d been fueled by feelings of inadequacy and abandonment. She’d used self–control to feel empowered. But she didn’t feel inadequate or abandoned any longer. If Calum and Finn spoke the truth, she’d sustained the love of the most upright man she’d ever known for lifetimes. She was certainly adequate in Calum’s eyes.
If you were to become the seducer, if you allowed your passion to grow with his, if you freed your soul to feel for Calum, then I can assure you, he will regain his ability, and you will not be left wanting in any way.
So what if it was true? No room there for abandonment. Calum said he was hers — 100 percent committed. It sounded like her quota was filled. Beth stuffed the elf’s crimson key into the back of the glove box and headed for the cabin.