She had no words. In all the years she lived, and the few she spent on Earth, she’d never marveled at a more beautiful site. She sat the mug on the ground and walked down the hill barefoot. The grass reached her knees and she remembered his earlier words. Trailing her fingers through it, she made it to the edge, and dipped her feet in the sand. The top layer was warm and dry but the deeper the grains were cold and wet. She took another step, and another, until she reached the water’s edge. It smelled like salt and clean air. She berated herself for not coming down sooner, now she would only have a day to enjoy it.
A few moments later Arwan stood beside her, wiggling his toes in the sand, digging them in, lifting them, only to bury them once more. “I missed it here.” He took in a great gust of air and let it out slowly. “I missed this scent.”
Something in his face lightened, and he relaxed standing at the water’s edge. The tension between them stretching tight with possibility lifted, and they were two people standing on a beach enjoying the ocean air and cool sand on their toes. Katherine wondered what this place would be like in winter. Would white caps dot the water and ice buildup on shore? She didn’t think she’d mind seeing it. Unlike a cold blustery NYC winter with everyone passing this way, and that way, unable to spend a moment enjoying each other, let alone the landscape. It would probably take a couple miles walk to find another person out on the edge of the world.
“What are you thinking about?” He asked.
She looked up from drawing absentminded symbols with her toe in the sand. “Hmmm?”
He chuckled. “What are you thinking about?”
She let out a sigh and released it slow and steady. “I was thinking about how calm it is here and how beautiful it must be in the winter.”
“Aye, it is lovely. In any season.”
She missed New York but after a week of living in the Welsh wilderness she had an inkling she would miss a little of it, too.
“I have to go soon; you know that right.”
He bit his lips and stared down at his feet, avoiding her gaze she assumed. “I know. I’m doing better thanks to you.”
“No, you’re doing better thanks to proper bandages and antibiotics…also I’m sure your other condition helps with all that, too.”
He gave her another chuckle and they lapsed into a comfortable silence staring out at the water reflecting glass crystals across its surface.
It looked cold even if the day wasn’t so chilly. She stepped back a little careful to keep a distance between her bare feet and the looming surf.
“Are you afraid?”
His accent so thick in the question she could barely understand him.
“Oh, no. I just don’t want my feet to be frozen off.”
“It’s not too bad if you don’t stand in it long.”
“I’m good. I think I’m going to go back up for a refill. Do you need help getting up the hill?”
“No, if I can’t make it I’ll go around a ways and climb up on the shallow side.”
The sun gleamed around his profile and she took a moment to admire it. His messy hair, scruffy face, and full lips. He was a beautiful man but he wasn’t hers, and she had a flight to arrange.
Chapter 10
Katherine didn’t realize it, but Arwan watched her trail all the way back up the steep hill and into the house. To her credit, she only slipped on the sand once. He almost scrambled after her to help but then her remembered he wouldn’t be scrambling much for a while yet. When her shapely behind disappeared in the cabin he turned back toward the ocean.
The salty breeze invigorated him and let his hard on subside for the first time since he woke up wrapped around Katherine. She had a sensuality about her she didn’t realize. There was innocence there too, but every part of her moved with a liquid grace then sent fire through him when he watched her, and he did so as much as he could.
He shook off the arousal beginning to take hold again and stretched his torso a little. The wounds pulled with each movement but as long as he didn’t make any sudden moves they would heal fast.
And then Katherine would be gone.
The first day he met her getting rid of his nursemaid was his only desire. Now the he’d spent time with her, he wanted to know more. So much more. He liked the way she blushed when she read a sex scene in one of her novels. The soft gasps she would let out without realizing it. He loved when she bobbed her leg over the edge of his chair in a steady beat. The book arranging, he did mind.
She probably didn’t realize he noticed, but she’d begun to alphabetize his collection. He knew where every book sat on those shelves and they never deviated, but now with each book she moved he found himself reorganizing in his mind. As if when she left he would leave the books there.
He suspected she had a little OCD by the way she lined up the handles on the coffee mugs and arranged his ground selection by roast type. None of those things concerned him and if they occupied her while she cared for him then he would endure it. Now the dilemma was how to get her to stay a little longer, and perhaps in that time, get her in his bed.
There had been few women in his life, the main one having betrayed him utterly. He didn’t see that characteristic in Katherine. In fact, the opposite. She appeared incapable of doing anything for herself, always sacrificing for others.
Then, he considered the rumors featuring the Horseman of Famine. That she had a dark side was the only whisper, and that side was worse than the rest of the women combined. She hadn’t shown any part of that either, so he was beginning to question the validity of those reports. But rumors were never really reliable.
The air began to chill him so he turned and made his way back up the hill. By the time he reached the door his side burned but didn’t open up. A fine sweat had broken out on his brow and he opened the door with a sigh. The warmth of the fire she started in the hearth juxtaposed with the cool air at his back reinvigorated him.
“What the hell?” She shouted, launching herself from the chair.
He was impressed it was the first curse word he’d actually heard her utter. “I’m fine, only a little winded.”
“You were gnawed on by some Fairy beast, you need to take it easy.” She slid her arm around his waist and supported him toward his bed.
“No, please, I want to sit today.”
She let out a gust of air through her nose but it was the only indication of her annoyance.
Quickly, she led him to the chair and helped him sit. He missed the imprint of her body the moment her arms left him.
“Are you hungry? Do you want anything?”
He moved his shoulders around testing the tension and the dampness there itched against him. “Actually, can you help me take my shirt off? It’s a little damp from that hike up the hill.”
She dropped the mug with a clatter to the counter where she’d been preparing another cup of coffee. “What?”
“I can’t move my arm to do it.”
“Oh, right.”
She marched over to him like she faced a death sentence and he tried not to smile. With efficiency she reached behind him to pull off his shirt and he found his face almost eye level with her chest. As much as he wanted to seize the opportunity he wouldn’t until she told him what she wanted from him. He was confident he could get it out of her, and it would be a fun challenge as well.
She took his shirt straight to the laundry basket and returned to the kitchen without sparing him a glance. For a moment his pride took a hit, then he looked down at the red bruised and battered skin along his side. Maybe he looked worse than he thought. He’d always been muscular from the running he did in hound form and human form on the beach below. She acted as if she had no interest. He watched her, and maybe her lack of interest was too firm. He stretched carefully and ran his hand down his healthy side trying to stretch.
“Can I have some of that, please?”
“Of course,” she intoned, before turning to bring him a mug, looking studiously everywhere but at
him. Gotcha!
“Stop,” he said.
She halted in her tracks back toward the kitchenette. “Turn.”
She followed his directive again, but kept her gaze firmly on the ground. “Look at me.”
Slowly, so slow he almost climbed out of the chair, and his skin, to bet in visual range of her eyes, she met his gaze.
“What?” It came out half whisper half breath.
“Come here.”
His heart battered against his ribs, and he prayed she would give him what he wanted, what he needed, to take the next step.
She set the mug down, marched over to him, and put her hands on her waist. “What?”
He snaked his arm out and dragged her onto his lap. She didn’t put up a fight. Instead, her legs pressed next to him nestling around like she was made to fit there.
“Tell me…” It was a beg, and a prayer at the same time, and when she lifted her lashes to meet his eyes, he knew he had her. There was surrender in them, but not the look of someone giving up something. It was the look of someone sacrificing for something greater. He wrapped his hand around the back of her neck, cradling it under her long messy ponytail. With a gentle pressure he guided her down, so she sat inches away from his face.
“Tell me.”
“I don’t know how or…”
“It’s not something you know. It’s something you feel.” He arched his hips up into her, and she swayed on his lap, closing her eyes. That lovely dew scent ratcheted his cock from moderately interested to rock-fucking-hard.
He planted a kiss on the edge of her jaw and then on the other side matching it. “It’s something that lives in the blood.”
She swallowed heavily as he trailed his lips down the edge of her jaw to the graceful column of her neck. With a gentle bite he wrapped his hand around her back to pull her closer. He wanted the heat of her against his chest. The sensation of her exhale on his bare skin.
“Now tell me what you want,” he instructed.
“I want,” she stopped with a heavy swallow. “I want you to kiss me.”
Not what he hoped for, but a start. He gripped her neck again and guided her to his mouth. But then, all bets where off. He captured her lips with every pent up emotion, every delicious desire regarding her, and showed her how it could be between them. She met his ardor tentatively but when he prodded the seam of her lips with his tongue she released the tight control she held on herself and fell into his arm, surrendering physically and mentally. She tasted of coffee, and chicory, and he lapped at her tongue to get more of the heady combination. When she groaned against his mouth he released her with a gasp. His breath came in ragged pants. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d been so turned on.
“Woman, you make another noise like that and I’m going to take you to my bed and fuck you until I’ve memorized every inch of your skin.”
Her eyes widened and she released the death grip she had on his shoulders putting some distance between them. Ok…too fast.
“Don’t worry, love. I’m not going to do anything you don’t want to do.”
She swallowed and nodded. It wasn’t fear in her eyes, more of a wariness she seemed to adopt when it came to doing something for herself. As if being with him would be selfish. And she couldn’t risk it because she might enjoy it more than she’d allowed herself based on some pre-determinate state in some distant time.
“What…” she began.
He stopped memorizing the swollen shape of her lips to meet her eyes. But he didn’t speak in fear of her stopping.
She licked her lips, swallowed, and then continued. “What would happen, how would it feel?”
That was something he could answer. “You know that ache there?” He reached between them and cupped her hot core in his palm. She gasped out loud.
“That ache that never seems to go away. I can take care of that. Make you feel good. So good you’ll be sated and high from the pleasure.”
“How do you know?” she asked breathless.
He applied a little pressure there and she exhaled in a shudder. “Because you’ll help me figure out exactly what feels good for you. And I so want you to feel good.”
He pulled her down and trailed kisses up her neck as he massaged gently over her shorts. Her breathe fanning over his bare shoulder amped him on.
The door crashing against the wall, and Baldir’s voice cut in. “Well...here I was worried you two would have killed each other by now.”
Chapter 11
Katherine jumped off Arwan’s lap, ducked her head, and bee lined straight to the bathroom. Her face had taken on a previously undiscovered shade of red in the mirror. There was color in her cheeks and down her neck, her lips were pink and swollen from his kiss. She closed her eyes and let it play over again in her mind. That kiss. Her first actual kiss. And not the joking one Bianca gave her when she found out about Katherine’s virginity. The heat of his hands left ghostly reminders on her skin. Would she have allowed him to do all he promised?
The realization hit her hard. Yes. She would have allowed him so much more.
She sighed long and loud before berating herself. “Get it together.”
With a duck of her head she turned on the water and splashed some cold liquid on her face. It did nothing to quench the fire raging through her. This feeling, this heady awareness, was dangerous ground. She should stay far away from him. Maybe with Baldir back she could leave now, let him finish taking care of his friend who was obviously doing so much better.
In fact, that sounded like the perfect solution. She squared her shoulders and shook off the lust-filled haze clouding her mind, before exiting back into the main room.
Stopping dead she blinked at the scene before her. Baldir stood with his head pressed against Arwan’s, his hand holding the back of his neck. The scene appeared almost intimate. Discomfort rivaled with her desire to get out of there. She cleared her throat and both men angled their head to look at her but they didn’t separate. Baldir whispered something unintelligible and then released Arwan who sat back into the chair, still bare chested.
“I think I’m going to leave,” she announced with mock confidence. Her body still imprinted by the linger of his hands, and her heart only half committed to the statement.
“You can’t leave.” Arwan said in a matter of fact tone.
“Excuse me, you don’t order me around.”
He lifted a brow. The look on his face all challenge and his earlier words flashed in her mind. She didn’t voice her opinion, but stalked toward the kitchenette to make more coffee. It was what she did. Stress became too much the answer was make coffee. A problem vexing her: make coffee. This situation definitely called for coffee.
She tried again. “Baldir is here now. You’re almost better. It’s time for me to leave.”
Arwan pushed himself out the chair, his muscular arms and shoulders working deftly to carry his weight to standing. She swallowed as he stalked closer. “We aren’t finished with this.”
Katherine glanced at Baldir over Arwan’s wide shoulders who was obviously not not watching them.
“What exactly is there to finish? You’re almost healed.”
“That is not what I’m referring to and you know it.”
She did know it. Every part of her body tingled with his proximity and the edge in his voice. “Well, we aren’t going to have sex. So, there really is nothing else we can do.”
A titillating smile turned his lips up. “Oh love, there is so much more we could do before fucking.”
She jerked at the word, his tone, and the intensity of which his eyes bored into her. “No. I don’t want to.”
He snaked his arm out and pulled her in tight. “You do want to. I can smell it in your arousal, I can hear it in the way your heart races when I touch you. I know you want it. Why is it so hard for you to admit what you want? Why is it so hard to let yourself enjoy something?”
Anger simmered replacing arousal. “You don’t know what I want. Hell, I
don’t even know what I want, so how could you?”
He leaned his head down and ran his nose along the column of your neck. “You want me, Love. It will happen. Why not give in? Surrender to me.”
She jerked from his grip. “I’m not the surrendering kind. I may be timid or whatever else but I will not surrender to you, or anyone else.”
“Then we remain at an impasse.”
“This isn’t an impasse, this is me making a decision, and you being gentlemanly enough to accept.”
Baldir cleared his throat and she took it as an opening to take him a cup of coffee and get out of Arwan’s reach.
“Tell me what’s going on with the others.” She said, turning over the cup.
He shifted in the chair and didn’t look at her. “Uh…they are well.”
“Well, huh?” She waited, and when he offered no more she prompted further, “well, and doing what?”
“When I left Gwyn’s place.... have you been there? It’s pretty amazing.”
She frowned at him severely. “Yes, I’ve been there. How could anyone not be impressed by Fairy?”
“That’s actually a fascinating story…”
She held her hand up to halt his tangent. “Stop. I know you’re trying to distract me. It’s not going to work.”
He batted his lashes, in mock innocence before sitting back to take a sip from his steaming mug. “And what have you two been up to?”
Heat immediately climbed up into her face. There was no way in hell she was going to tell him any detail of what passed between her and Arwan.
It seems her hellhound had no compunction when it came to detailing their activities. “Katherine is in doubt about her attraction to me and refuses to see it through.”
Baldir spit coffee onto the hearth. “I really did worry you guys had killed each other or Katherine…” he stopped and Katherine glared at him.
“Katherine what?” Arwan prompted.
“Nothing. Hey, the weather is nice today. Did you guys go down to the beach?”
Katherine continued to glare at them both, wishing she was capable of true violence. “You two keep it up and I’ll make you both regret it.”
On a Black Horse: An Apocalyptic Paranormal Romance (Revelations Book 3) Page 6