“Must we?” he asked in a teasing tone and Copper gave him another sound kiss.
Her belly rumbled and she laughed. “See? All this sex has made me hungry. We didn’t even stop to eat last night.”
“Truth be, a D’Danann warrior cannot go long without food.” Man, did she ever love his sexy Irish brogue. He helped her roll off him and they climbed out of the shelter into the early morning sunlight.
After they both washed up with the chilly water in the basin, they slipped into their clothing. Fortunately Copper had thought to tuck them into the shelter before they slept or surely the Brownies or Pixies would have stolen them overnight.
To Copper’s pleasure, the Faeries had left another large breakfast that would tide them over for the afternoon, too. Just as she took a bite of an apple tart and Tiernan stuffed a piece of root bread that tasted like pumpkin into his mouth, Riona fluttered around the rock outcropping and landed on the shelf beside the food. Her long hair covered her breasts, but the rest of her was completely bare as usual.
“What’s the special occasion?” Copper asked, gesturing to all the food.
The Faerie queen gave a mischievous smile. “The performance last night. I do not think we have seen anything like it in millennia.”
A hot flush crept up Copper’s neck to her face and she heard Tiernan choke on his bread.
“I can’t believe you watched.” Copper set her tart down and braced her hands on her hips. “Can’t we have a little freaking privacy?”
Riona laughed. “I do believe that yesterday the Fae enjoyed more pleasures than they have since we have been trapped here.”
The heat in Copper’s cheeks grew as she glared at the Faerie. Before Copper could say anything else, Riona flitted away, leaving behind a small cloud of Faerie dust.
Tiernan snorted back what sounded like laughter and Copper elbowed him. “Just eat, you big lug.”
When they finished eating, Copper did her morning workout. Tiernan watched with an expression that said he was either amused or impressed. He leaned against the apple tree while she did her pull-ups using one branch of the apple tree.
“Is this what you have done while you have been in this place?” he asked.
Copper tried not to look at him because he was just too distracting with all that blond hair and those muscles. “I had to stay in shape somehow.” She didn’t even pant she was in such good shape. She had to keep adding reps just to benefit from the exercises, and always tried to change her routine a bit.
When she finished her pull-ups, she landed lightly on the grass. “Let me guess. All you warriors are built that way and you don’t even have to work at it.”
He shrugged the shoulder that wasn’t against the tree. “We train and spar regularly on the training grounds. The peasants and the lords and ladies of the court do not perform the same activities as the warriors and do not have the same physiques. Very few of us who are of the court are also D’Danann Enforcers.”
“Peasants?” Copper picked up a big rock and started doing arm curls with it. Her biceps were well sculpted for a woman, without being overly muscular. She frowned at his comment. “You actually call people peasants?”
“Of course.” Tiernan pushed away from the tree as Copper switched hands and started working out her other bicep. “That is the way of this Otherworld.”
“So you’re a lord, are you?” Copper grunted from the strain of working her muscles. “How did you become one?”
Tiernan folded his arms across his chest and widened his stance as he looked thoughtfully ahead. He looked so damn yummy in all that black leather. She especially liked that he wore a sleeveless shirt so that she could see his biceps flex with his movements.
“I was born into the House of Cathal,” Tiernan said. “My father has been lord of the house for centuries, and once I am wedded, it will be my responsibility to carry on the family name.”
Copper switched arms and started working her other bicep again. Intrigued by the differences in their worlds, she said, “Tell me more about the part of Otherworld where you live.”
Tiernan started out by telling her about the D’Danann warriors and how they were a neutral race like the Drow, only the D’Danann were neutral-good, while the Drow tended to be neutral-evil. He frowned at that piece of information.
Copper paused in her exercise. “The Drow, evil?”
“Not exactly,” Tiernan said. “They side with whoever, whatever they can benefit from the most.”
Copper started working out her left arm again. “Neutral-good, neutral-evil—what does that mean?”
“As far as the D’Danann are concerned,” he told her, “the Chieftains will only allow our warriors to assist other races if they believe it is the natural order of things. In the case of the Fomorii in San Francisco, the Chieftains agreed that the D’Danann Enforcers could assist the witches who fight the demons and the Balorites.”
“So the Drow tend to assist the side that is evil?” Copper twisted her lips. “I can’t imagine Garran and his bunch doing that.”
“Possibly,” was all Tiernan said in response.
When she asked more about his homeland, he explained how the Dryads had allowed many of the D’Danann to live in the trees, creating huge homes within the enormous tree trunks. The peasants tended to live in huts while the members of the court lived in mansions on the forest ground.
When she asked about the village, he smiled and told her about the vendors, the stores, the pub, and the Pleasure Houses.
At that Copper paused in her biceps exercises. Still holding the rock, she cocked her head. “Um, Pleasure Houses?”
He gave another casual shrug. “It is a place where D’Danann warriors and members of the court can enjoy pleasures of the flesh.”
Copper cleared her throat, not sure how she felt about that. “So you’ve been there a few times.”
“Many.” He looked so casual, yet a frown furrowed his brow as he added, “My betrothed preferred that I relieve my needs at the Pleasure House rather than with her.”
Copper’s whole body began to tingle and she felt light-headed. Had she heard him right? “Your betrothed?”
Seemingly oblivious to the anger flooding her, Tiernan continued, “Airell and I were to be wed today.” He sighed. “However, I postponed the date as a difficult situation has arisen, and I must come up with a solution.” He glanced around the meadow. “It is not something I can speak freely about here.”
Copper was on fire. Fury surged through her so hot and molten that she almost couldn’t see straight. “So you fucked me even though you’re supposed to marry another woman,” she stated.
The bastard actually looked puzzled. “I—” he started.
“Don’t even speak to me.” Her arms trembled and she clutched the rock tighter. Goddess, how she wanted to deck him.
With all her might, Copper flung the large rock at the shimmering barrier of their prison. The rock exploded and pieces rained down around them.
After one glance at the look of surprise on his features, she turned her back to him, fisted her hands at her sides, and marched away, trying not to cry from anger. Her piss-off meter had just gone off the charts. If she’d had her wand, Tiernan would be across the meadow, smack up against the bubble’s wall.
A thought intruded on her anger. Where was her wand, anyway? She hadn’t seen it since she’d washed Tiernan’s hair last night.
She almost screamed at that thought. The intimacy, the things they had shared. The sex they’d had.
And the bastard was fucking going to marry some woman in a few weeks.
Tremendous satisfaction filled her as she heard Zephyr’s buzz and Tiernan’s howl of pain as her familiar had hopefully stung him in the ass.
She hoped it was multiple times and that he couldn’t sit for a week.
That night Tiernan slept out on the grass and every now and then she heard him give a shout, and she was certain it was the Brownies nipping at him. She hoped the Pixi
es attacked his hair, too.
The son of a bitch.
He’d tried to talk with her all day long yesterday, but she’d merely given him the finger, a lot of good that did. By the bewildered look on his face he didn’t even know the meaning of the offensive gesture. Still she avoided him, as best she could in the freaking confined space.
Copper rolled onto her back and stared up at the rock ceiling of her shelter. It was early morning and she was fighting not to relive the memories of their union.
She let out a shuddering sigh. Was that all it had been to him? A warrior just wanting a good fuck? Of course, she’d more than encouraged him.
She knew she meant nothing to him—they hardly knew one another, for the goddess’s sake. They’d only met the day before she’d teased him—and wanted him.
He hadn’t made the advances. He’d warned her, and she’d ignored him.
Still, that didn’t make it right.
Her gut twisted and she forced those thoughts away. Instead, she recalled her conversation with Riona yesterday and grimaced.
When she had gone to search for her wand by the stream, while ignoring Tiernan, Riona came up to flutter beside Copper. “What are you looking for?” the Faerie queen had asked.
“My wand.” Copper had sat back on her haunches and gazed around the meadow. “I left it here yesterday.”
“Good luck,” Riona had said as she flew back to the clump of flowers and bushes that shaded the mound where the Faeries were currently living. “Garran would like to get you belowground again . . .”
Copper returned to the present and groaned at the thought of what the Faerie queen had insinuated. Garran had her wand. “Great. Just freaking great,” she muttered, as she stared at one particularly jagged rock in the ceiling of her shelter.
A shadow briefly blotted out the morning sunlight and immediately she saw that it was Tiernan. He lowered himself so that he was settled with his back against one end of the shelter entrance, his long legs stretched out in front of him, crossed at the ankles, and blocking the doorway. He folded his arms across his chest and stared at her with an unreadable expression.
Copper gritted her teeth as she pushed herself to a sitting position. “I thought I made it clear that I don’t want to talk to you.”
He studied her for a long moment, his blue gaze captivating hers.
Damn those sexy eyes.
Finally, he said, “I had no intention of hurting or upsetting you.”
“I’m not hurt.” She raised her chin a notch. “I’m pissed.” Okay, so she was hurt, she just wasn’t going to let him know that.
“You did not allow me to finish, and you have refused to listen to me.” Tiernan shifted and crossed his ankles the other way. “We will remain here until I have had my say.”
Copper pushed herself up and sat Indian-style. She crossed her arms over her chest. “Get it over with.”
“Yes, I am betrothed to a woman of the D’Danann court.” He held up his hand to shush her when she opened her mouth to let him have it again. She bit down on her tongue just in time for him to say, “However, I just learned that Airell is carrying another man’s child.”
Copper’s jaw dropped. “Some other guy knocked her up?”
Tiernan gave her a puzzled look, but continued, “When I first told you of Airell, I did not wish to explain such a matter before the Fae. I do not want her to be humiliated.” He leaned his head back against the rock wall behind him and stared into space. “I must find a way to keep her from being marked and cast out of the Fae realm. And a way to keep her lover from being sent to serve the most evil of bastards.”
Despite herself, Copper was beginning to soften toward him. “You would do that?”
He sighed so deeply that his shoulders rose and fell with the inhale and exhale. “I do not wish to be wedded to a woman heavy with her lover’s child. But neither will I allow the alternative to happen.” He still had a faraway look to his gaze. “Somehow I must come up with a solution that will please the court, make Airell and Urien happy, and release me of my vow.”
“Do you love her?” Copper asked softly.
Tiernan plucked a thick blade of grass from outside the shelter, held it up, and twirled it between his fingers. “I am over two thousand years older than Airell. I have known her since she was a baby swaddled in blankets and held to her mother’s breast.” He flicked the grass from his fingers and looked at Copper. “The joining was arranged by my parents and hers when she was born. It was deemed I would wed her after she turned eighteen.”
“But do you love her?” Copper asked again. She wasn’t sure why she needed to know, but she did.
“Not as a lover or husband would.” He pushed his fingers through his blond hair. She noticed a couple of welts from bee stings on his biceps, and she winced at the sight. “I care for her, yes. But I do not love her.”
“Then why were you going to marry her?” Copper rubbed the thick bracelet on her wrist.
“Shortly before Airell’s birth, the House of Torin had just risen to wealth and power,” Tiernan said. “My parents and hers chose to combine forces to become one house. Together our houses would be powerful enough that they would have the greatest voice on the Council and influence with the Chieftains.”
“What about you?” Copper asked. “What did you have to say about all of this?”
He fixed his blue eyes on her. “It was not my decision to make.”
“Bullshit.” Copper met his gaze head-on as she uncrossed her arms and braced her hands on the grass-and-leaf bedding to either side of her. “You aren’t the type of man to be told what to do. Even I can see that.”
“It was my duty, my responsibility.” His jaw hardened. “I made the vow to join with Airell at my parents’ request. To break that vow would be dishonoring Airell and her family, as well as my own.”
He rested his head against the rock again. “That is why finding a solution to this situation will prove most difficult. There is no single way that all will be appeased. Someone will be hurt by the choice that I make.” He sighed. “If we wed, neither of us will be happy. She loves Urien and I will be raising another man’s child. If I refuse to wed her, and it is learned what she has done, she will be marked and banned from the Fae realm, and Urien sent belowground to serve the Drow.”
For a moment neither of them said anything. Finally, Copper said, “Sounds like you’re stuck between a rock and a hard place.”
“That would accurately describe it,” he replied after a moment.
Out of habit, Copper started picking at the hem of her vine-and-leaf dress. “So you . . . I was just like one of your pleasure partners.”
Tiernan reached forward and cupped her cheek. She wanted to lean into him, oh, how she wanted to. “You will never be that to me,” he said softly. “From the first time I saw your photograph I knew you were special.”
Copper felt weighted down. Pressure built in her head. She pulled away from his touch and rested her face in her hands so that she couldn’t see him.
But he didn’t stop touching her. He gently caressed her hair away from her face and she couldn’t help an involuntary shiver.
“Copper, let us at least be friends.” The way he said her name sounded like a caress. “I want more from you, but I will not take what you do not wish to give.”
She raised her head and his fingers trailed down the curve of her neck. “Sex, you mean.”
Tiernan let his hand slide down her arm until he no longer touched her. “That and friendship is all I have to offer. All I can offer.”
One rule of thumb was to never get involved with an engaged or married man, and she’d always followed it. Why, then, was she even thinking of taking him up on it even if he was trying to find a way out of the situation? Sex and friendship. No commitments, just sex and friendship, both sides knowing exactly where they stood.
Copper took a deep breath. “I’ll take you up on the friendship thing, but sex . . . you’re on your own, budd
y.” Damn, it killed her to say that.
Ten
San Francisco
To Darkwolf’s irritation, Garran, the Drow king of a faction of Dark Elves, smirked as he reclined against a massive wooden leg, called a pile, one of the many pilings supporting the pier. They stood on the rocky shore of the bay, at the base of the abandoned pier where centuries ago the Drow had created an entrance from Otherworld that was hidden from any eyes but their own.
The wind was mild yet chilled, and it carried to Darkwolf the earth-and-moss scent of the Drow king, mixed with Sara’s jasmine perfume. Junga and Sara both stood off to the side, watching. Sara had a satisfied expression on her face, while Junga looked surly.
“Are you certain Balor will give us what we want in return for our service?” the king asked, an arrogant tone to his voice. “We wish to once again walk in the light.”
Heat rose in Darkwolf’s chest like fire and his head ached with Balor’s invasion in his mind. The sharp pain was even more intense than usual. The insolent bastard of a Drow would pay one of these days if he continued to express his doubt of Balor. Outwardly, as always, Darkwolf kept his expression unreadable, his emotions hidden.
Junga looked from the warlock to the king, one eyebrow raised as she watched the interplay. Due to the nip in the air, she was wearing form-fitting jeans, a snug sweater, and her hair hung loose about her shoulders. Sara was dressed similarly, but where Junga had a haughty, bitchy look, Sara’s was one of confidence—and perhaps a little deviousness, too.
Garran had the bluish-gray skin of the Dark Elves, and silvery-blue hair that reached his shoulders. He wore leather straps that crisscrossed his bare chest, a dagger and sword on a belt slung low about his hips. He was as tall as Darkwolf, but larger in build.
“You shall have it,” Darkwolf said. “However, you must deliver the witch, Copper, as well. Balor has relayed to me that he requires her services.” Her blood. Balor cared only for the powerful witch’s blood.
Garran’s expression grew fierce. “Copper is mine . When all is said and done, I will claim her. I wait only for the door to be discovered and opened, and for her to come to me willingly.”
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