by Grace,Viola
Zemuel let himself out of the vehicle, and he walked up the steps, ringing the bell and waiting with his wings folded.
The scaled green features were familiar, and he grinned. “Harcourt!”
“I go by Emile now, but yeah. Wait, Zemuel, is that you?”
They clasped hands and slapped shoulders.
“Emile, who is this?”
The feminine voice was smooth to Zemuel’s ears, and he looked past his old friend to the elegant woman walking toward them.
“Master Mage, Dr. Lenora Ganger, this is an old friend. Zemuel.”
“Madame Lenora, it is an honour to meet you.” He bowed low and took her hand in his for a moment before releasing it.
She smiled. “It is an honour to meet any friend of my husband’s. Please, come inside.”
He could smell Minerva. She was close, but her scent was even throughout the halls and building. She had been here and then left... or was there something he was missing.
Tea was produced, and as the tray flew in and settled, Lenora poured for all of them.
“Cream or sugar?”
“Just sugar, please. Two.” He inclined his head as she handed him the delicate saucer.
When they were all settled, Emile smiled. “Now, not that I don’t enjoy seeing you, but why have you come?”
Lenora’s eyes were suspicious, but he was polite to both when he said, “I am seeking my mate. I believe she is in this city, and I need your help to find her. Will you help me?”
Emile smiled. “Of course.”
“Emile!” Lenora tried to stop him, but the words were spoken before she could.
Zemuel sipped at his tea. It was quite good. “I am looking for Minerva Rogati.”
Emile winced and looked at his wife in apology. “Sorry, but he did have to come in through the door.”
Lenora growled, an incongruous sound from such an elegant woman.
“Fine, but she is having a shower. I will go and get her in an hour. Do not worry, Zemuel. She is not leaving this property. I will abide by my husband’s asinine promise. We will help you find your mate.”
Zemuel inclined his head. “I have heard of the Ganger family since coming to Redbird City. I never connected it with you Har—Emile.”
“I repented my wild ways and settled down with the only woman I could ever love, who would tolerate me enough to give me a child.” Emile reached over and took his wife’s hand, kissing the palm.
“Your daughter is recently married?”
Lenora smiled proudly. “She is in the XIA. Her team are her mates, and it is a good fit.”
Zemuel raised his brows. “The entire team?”
Emile chuckled. “Vampire, elf and lion shifter. It is a good match, and she is my daughter.”
Lenora jerked her chin up. “Minerva designed the binding spell.”
“Which was compromised by some enchanted equipment, but it all worked out in the end.” Emile nodded.
They sat and chatted about Beneficia and her mates for an hour before Lenora rose to her feet and left the room.
“Where is she going?” Zemuel nibbled on a cookie.
“She is keeping my promise. Don’t worry. You will see Minerva in the next hour or so.”
“Why so long?”
“I am guessing that Lenora will have to pry her fingers from the doorframe. Just a guess though.” Emile grinned.
Zemuel sighed. So close and yet Minerva might as well be half a world away. Not that he wouldn’t still find her, but though time didn’t mean much to him, he was filled with an urgency that was hard to pin down.
If he wasn’t sure that it was impossible, he would say that he was excited. He was far too ancient for that kind of foolishness.
Chapter Nine
Minerva was wandering around the new guesthouse when Lenora knocked. There was no doubt of who it was. The house shivered with her energy.
Wearing the fuzzy robe that the guesthouse had provided, she answered the door. “Lenora, what is wrong?”
“May I come in?”
“Of course.”
She stepped aside, and her host entered, pacing up and down the living room nearly immediately.
“Spill it, Lenora.”
“Zemuel is here.”
Minerva felt her body go hot. “He is?”
“He is apparently an old friend of Emile’s, and he believes you are his mate. Is there a reason for that?”
Minerva held up her hands. “We just had sex.”
“I recognized his scent from that morning. Did you do anything or say anything that would indicate you had bound yourself to him?”
Minerva shook her head. “No. There wasn’t a lot of talking to be honest.”
“Mating marks?”
“Nibbles and scratches but no bites. I was healed up in two days.”
Lenora smiled. “What do you think of him?”
Minerva blushed hot. “Uh...”
“I see. So, lots of hormones and not a lot of thought.”
“Something like that. I just thought he would make a fun and enjoyable one-night stand.”
“Did he?”
Minerva had to be honest. “Definitely.”
Lenora cocked her head. “You knew he would come after you.”
“I thought my memory spell would hold him.”
“Did you remove all traces of yourself?”
Minerva winced. “No.”
“Then, on some level, you wanted him to come for you. You are too experienced to think otherwise.”
Minerva thumped down onto one of the couches. “I knew he would.”
“So, you ran. Like a mate. You are making him chase you, and he has caught you, so to speak.” Lenora came up behind her and placed a hand on her shoulder.
“What are my options here?”
“In this house, none. Emile promised his friend that he would help find the mate before we knew it was you.”
Minerva grimaced. “Oh well. I will get dressed and go and meet with him.”
“Good girl. You can always bespell him and run later. There is a family that made a tradition out of it.”
Minerva nodded and headed to the bedroom where her clothing was draped over the edge of her bed. She flicked a spell that cleaned her underwear and got dressed. She wasn’t heading into a room with Zemuel without underwear. Well, not again.
Dressed and steeled for the meeting, she linked arms with her master, and Lenora led her out, across the open field where the fey horses occasionally ran, though now, they hung out near the dowager house where Benny and the guys were living.
The path that led from the guesthouse to the main house felt like a road to her doom. She ruthlessly squashed the part of her that was feeling trills of excitement.
Her inner novel-reading teenager needed to zip it.
Once inside the house, Lenora nodded. “They are in the sitting room.”
Minerva headed down the hall and looked into the sitting room. She muttered, “Not anymore.”
She continued on and into the library. It was Emile’s favourite spot, and he was showing his acquisitions to Zemuel.
The dragon turned the moment she came through the doorway. His smile was slow, but she could feel her mental block in his mind. He had sought her out without remembering everything.
“Minerva Rogati. I am pleased to meet you... again.” He walked through the banks of tables and stopped in front of her. He bowed low and took her hand.
“Lord Zemuel, I am surprised you sought me out.”
“Once I had caught your scent, there was no stopping me. It was easy to do, it was all over me.”
She blushed. “I knew I should have taken more time with the spells.”
He shrugged, still holding her hand. “You panicked. I did as well the moment I knew I had met my mate and she had escaped. Norman had to remind me that I had surveillance footage of the meeting earlier that night.”
She paled in horror.
He raised her hand to his lips. “My surveillance ends at the bedroom door.”
She shivered at the touch of his lips against her. A thousand and one memories assailed her, and he smiled.
“I am really missing those memories if a kiss to your hand does that to you.”
She licked her lips and cleared her throat. “Your memories aren’t missing. You are too powerful for that. I just subdued them. They are still there.”
He leaned down to her and whispered, “What will it take to wake them?”
She stared into his eyes, the silver of his face was completely unmarked by time, but his eyes showed that he had seen more than her lifetime had to offer.
“Uh. I could remove it now, but it would kind of rush in on you.”
Emile muttered, “Take him to the guesthouse.”
Minerva panicked. “What?”
“You broke him, you fix him. Those are the rules.”
Lenora was in the doorway with a tray. “He’s right. Those are the rules.”
Minerva felt like her skin was radiating ice and fire in turn. The rules of the Ganger house had always been clear. If you used a spell that affected someone, you had better know how to undo it.
She was a little plaintive when she said, “Can I have some tea first?”
Lenora fixed her cup and handed it over. “There you go, precious.”
Minerva scowled and took her hand back from Zemuel to take the tea. He didn’t let go easily.
With the cup in her hand, she headed to one of the nearby couches and took a few sips of the hot brew.
The familiar taste relaxed her, and she settled into the seat while Zemuel watched her with amusement, and Lenora got Emile his cup.
Zemuel came to stand next to her. He crouched down and smiled. “I will not jump on you the moment the suppression comes off.”
She looked at him glumly. “That is what you say. I have done this kind of thing once before, and it ended up in a fight that nearly killed him.”
He chuckled. “I can take whatever you have to give, little goddess.”
She froze. Lenora and Emile looked at her in surprise. “Why did you call me that?”
He sipped at his own tea. “I have met many goddesses in my time. You radiate with that particular energy.”
Lenora had a weak smile. “Did you know?”
Minerva nodded. “I haven’t had a proper chance to tell you.”
Zemuel looked to her master and Emile. “You didn’t know?”
Lenora smiled. “I knew she had power and abilities beyond standard magecraft. I did not know she was born to be a deity.”
Minerva made a face. “How could you know? I was adopted. It wasn’t like my house was shaped like a temple.”
Emile cocked his head. “Do you know your origin?”
“I do. It is a bit private though.” She glanced at Zemuel.
He nodded. “I will leave you for a few minutes. Do not doubt that I am staying close.”
He snagged a cookie on his way past the tray and closed the doors to the library behind him.
Emile and Lenora came close, and Minerva explained the goddesses and the incarnations they appeared in.
“Well, the titan portion explains your height.”
Minerva chuckled at the observation. Apparently, she hadn’t changed in her master’s eyes. “I suppose so. Rhea took great pleasure in my physical appearance.”
Emile nodded. “You are an impressively built woman. If I didn’t have Lenora, I might have tried my luck.”
“And I would have blasted you back to the demon zone, but it is a good thing that I think of you as aunt and uncle.” She winked.
Lenora gave Emile a sharp elbow. “Yes, good thing.”
Minerva laughed and she sighed. “I don’t feel like anything else. I mean, I still feel like me.”
Lenora stroked her cheek. “I am guessing that you have been a goddess all along.”
“Thank you, Master.”
“You are welcome, Master.” Lenora chuckled. “Now, go and put the dragon out of his misery. Stealing time from him was not well done of you.”
“You recognized it?”
“I know the symptoms. Shoo.”
She got up and set her cup back on the tray. As she straightened her shoulders and opened the door, she heard Lenora murmur, “Do you remember when I did that to you?”
Emile chuckled. “Not until your master made you reverse the spell.”
Her tutors laughed together at close proximity. Minerva knew that sound. She was going to have to leave the house anyway. Things were about to get loud.
Zemuel was standing still in the hall with his eyes closed. As she stepped toward him, his eyes snapped open and she closed the library doors behind her as laughter and murmurs increased in volume.
“Come with me, Lord Zemuel.”
“I will follow you, Mage.” His lips quirked in amusement at the formality.
She turned and headed out the back door, across the deck and down the path. She didn’t say a word until they were in the new guesthouse.
She waited until he was inside and she had closed the door, shoving the coffee table out of the centre of the room.
“Kneel here.” She tossed a cushion down for him, and he looked at it in amusement.
Minerva put her own cushion down and knelt.
He ignored the cushion and knelt in front of her.
She sighed. “Probably better this way. Are you comfortable?”
He shrugged. “I am used to hard surfaces.”
“Right, well, do you want the spell removed slowly or quickly?”
“What is the difference? Pardon, but I am not often bespelled.”
She blushed. “Right. Um... slow will be an easing of the memories back into your mind. Fast will dump the entire night into your thoughts in one burst.”
“Slow then. I want to enjoy each memory as it surfaces.”
She blushed and closed her eyes, muttering the spell swiftly. When she finished, she opened one eye and he was looking at her expectantly.
“Damn. I must be missing something. Just a moment.”
She closed her eyes again and ran over the circumstances of the first spell. “Oh, damn.”
“Is there a problem?”
She wrinkled her nose. “I cast the spell while we... while you... damn.”
“What is the issue?”
“You were inside me while I cast the spell. That is the missing component. The physical connection.”
He grinned. “I believe that we could re-enact that.”
She thought about it for a few seconds, and then, she stood. He watched in surprise as she stripped to the skin.
Before she could lose her nerve, she knelt on the cushion again, and she said, “If you would slide a finger into me, that should be enough for the spell. I would have taken one into my mouth, but I need to be able to speak.”
His wings lifted slightly, and he leaned forward, running his fingers across her breasts and down her belly. He drew designs on her skin as his digits got closer to her sex, and when he parted her lower lips, she gasped.
He thrust his finger into her, and they groaned in unison.
She clutched at his arm and started muttering the spell again. This time, his eyes widened and she could feel the block peeling away.
Chapter Ten
She whispered the chant to keep it echoing and moving through his mind, but it was difficult as his finger was also moving inside her.
His gaze was distant as he relived their verbal foreplay. She knew when he got to the kiss, because his lips caressed hers. The spell had enough momentum now; it was cascading through on its own.
Stroking his tongue with hers seemed natural considering the occupation of his hand. She sighed against his lips as he stroked her clit with his thumb, and she dug her nails into her palms. She tracked his memori
es, and when he reached the moment when he slid into her, Zemuel backed up.
He pulled his finger from her and stood up.
Aching and frustrated, she watched as he stepped away from her. To her surprise, he wasn’t taking his memories and leaving. He was stripping.
The form he was wearing was his most human. At six foot six, it was as close to human as he could get, but his wings were still manifest. Those who didn’t know what they were looking at might have mistaken him for a gargoyle, but the silver of his skin didn’t look like anything other than metal.
The feel of him wasn’t that of icy metal; there was nothing but heat when he touched her.
He wrapped his arms around her and lifted her from her kneeling position. “I told you that something had begun that would not be undone.”
Her face was nearly touching his. “Careful. That is when I zapped you.”
He grinned and walked toward the bedroom. “I will risk it.”
Her feet dangled off the ground, and his erection was pinned between them. She didn’t ask how he knew where the bedroom was. He could probably smell it.
Dragons were an exercise in the senses. Smell, hearing, touch, taste, each sense helped them keep their hoard safe. Sight was nice, but the others warned of danger long before it came into view.
He settled her on the bed and smiled. “This is familiar.”
She leaned up on her elbows and cocked her head. “Is it? I don’t remember you being this chatty.”
He let out a chuffing sound, deep in his chest, before he parted her legs and pulled her knees up, widening and opening her in one move.
His wings extended, blocking out the light from the windows. All she could see was Zemuel, and he nudged her folds with the head of his cock before sliding inside.
She arched her back and groaned as he moved into her in increments. He was nearly inside when she bucked and let out a coughing moan.
“It would sound so much better in my bed, but I will take it.” He leaned down and nuzzled her cheek.
She turned her head and kissed him. He delved into her mouth as he thrust completely inside her.
The slow rock of his hips against her was a beat she wanted to remember.
Sweat gleamed on her skin, and she raised her hips to meet his. He braced himself on his arms and continued to kiss her slowly as they mated.