The Mortal Falls

by Anna Durand

  With one fingertip, he charted a path down my breastbone until my shirt's neckline interrupted the journey. "The next time you beg me to take you, best make certain of your meaning, because I will take you at your word."

  The sight of his penis peeking out from under the loincloth ripped away any response I might've formulated. I gave myself an actual shake, like a dog shedding water, but the discomfort lingered. "Take me to the damn Unseen realm."

  Nevan surveyed the tree branches as if hunting for something, but then gave up the search. "Before I can take you there, I must make certain you have the touch. If you don't, the veil will not open for you."

  "I don't understand."

  "You must have a touch of the Unseen realm in you."

  "And how do you figure out if I have it?"

  "With a test." He twisted his mouth into a grimace. "You may not like what's involved."

  "Just tell me."

  "I must enchant you."

  "Enchant?" My throat tightened, my jaw too. "That's what you did to Sandy."

  His grimace dug in deeper. "Yes."

  The blonde girl's face, dazed and befuddled, flashed in my mind. My muscles seemed to calcify, freezing me in place. "How is it any different from what you've been doing to me all along?"

  "I've done nothing — to you." He slanted forward, his face hovering above mine, his breaths slow and deliberate. "I have never enchanted you, I swear it."

  His fevered gaze bounced from my eyes to my lips and back again.

  I laid a hand on my chest, but the tickle behind my ribs refused to quit.

  "Not once," he said, "have I used magic on you. I wouldn't, unless I sensed the touch in you. And I haven't sensed it — yet." He closed his hands around my upper arms. "I do not wish to do this, but it's the only way. You must believe me."

  Though the silent please in his tone had my lips straining to smile, I clamped them between my teeth. He was all but begging me to believe him, and if I wanted to fix the mess I'd stumbled into, I had no choice except to trust him. To let him enchant me. And kiss me.

  My lips tingled. I became acutely aware of my hand on my chest — the warmth of it on my bare skin, the way my wrist brushed against my breast — and the feel of his hands on my arms. God, I wanted him to kiss me, like I'd never wanted anything.

  He let his hands fall away from my arms and shifted his weight to one hip. "If you still wish to cross over into the Unseen realm, we should do this quickly. The sheriff, that persistent beggar, will soon find us."

  Boy, my two cavemen totally despised each other. I couldn't understand the depth of their dislike, because it struck me as jealousy, which made no sense. Nevan being jealous, I could see. But Travis?

  No time to worry about it. I had to fix my life, and a single viable option was available to me.

  "Okay," I said. "If enchantment's what we have to do, I give you permission to go ahead with it."

  He marveled at me as if I were a goddess incarnate, descended straight from the heavens, shimmering with remnants of stardust.

  A rock settled in my gut. He'd called me intriguing and unusual, but then he also said he didn't want to enchant me. Maybe he didn't want to do it because I wasn't Sandy. I lacked the va-va-voom all men seemed to crave. Then again, he had gaped at my breasts.

  He gripped the nape of his neck in one hand, his head lowered. "There is more."

  "You can tell me."

  His fingers, woven with mine, tensed. He expelled a ragged breath and wrapped his other hand around our joined fingers. "The test requires intimate contact."

  "We are not having sex right here in the woods."

  "Not that intimate." He started to chuckle, but stifled it. He watched me with uncertainty in his eyes. "You know of what I speak."

  I let out the breath I hadn't realized I was holding. "A kiss."

  "Yes. But I promised to keep my lips away from yours."

  My mouth watered as my body began to ache in places I wished it wouldn't. "You have my permission. One kiss."

  He took one large step backward. Though the gap between us measured less than an arm's length, the withdrawal of his body seemed to strip the oxygen from the air. His eyes burned with twirling flames of every color, spinning faster the longer he beheld me. My gaze traveled down to his lips, full and ripe and parted for a deep kiss. He swiped his tongue across his lower lip, leaving it glistening and slick.

  "What are you doing?" I breathed.

  "Unleashing my ethereal senses."

  The erotic undertone in his voice brushed warmth across my skin, stirring the hairs on my arms and the nape of my neck to rise. With his hands on my shoulders, he drew me to him. My head fell back as my gaze sought his. My whole body seemed to lighten and lift off the ground, though my feet stayed glued to the earth. I battled to resist the allure of total surrender, but the part of me that yearned for it swelled larger and stronger every second.

  "Can ye hear me, love?" he purred.

  "Yes." A dreaminess infused my tone, matching the floaty sensation in my body. Dimly, I realized I should probably worry about my altered state, but the notion flitted away from my consciousness. "Am I enchanted?"

  "Not yet." He ran a hand through my hair, trailing his fingers down to my neck, across my jawline, to curl under my chin. "I want to take you to a special place few mortals have ever seen. Will ye come with me?"

  Someplace special. A thread of anxiety wound tight around my heart. "You told Sandy the same thing."

  He bent his head nearer to mine, his voice barely a whisper. "That was my duty. This is my choice."

  "In that case… Yes, I will go with you."

  "Are you certain?"

  Although my brain might've still been a bit muzzy, I understood what I'd agreed to and what he'd meant when he said this was his choice, not his duty. He'd asked for my trust again and reminded me, in his own way, he'd chosen me — against his duty, against the decree of his king.

  I slanted forward until only a whisper of air separated our lips. "I'm sure."

  His pupils flared wide, the metallic irises shrinking to a narrow ring.

  "When's the enchantment start?" I felt warm and fuzzy, but nothing like what I'd witnessed in Sandy. She'd seemed… mesmerized. "I'm not really feeling — "

  "Quiet." He exerted a light pressure, urging my chin up. "Look into my eyes."

  "Already am."

  He growled out a sigh. "Look harder."

  I rolled my eyes. "What exactly am I supposed to be looking for?"

  "Nothing. Just focus."

  "On what?" I tried to shake my head free, but his thumb and forefinger locked my chin in place. "If you don't want to do this, tell me. I realize I'm not as hot as Sandy, or probably any of the other hordes of women you've — "

  He thrust his thumb up, sealing my lips. "There are no hordes of women. I've told you that before and you claimed you believe me. Perhaps you're the one having doubts about this."

  "No." It came out muffled and squashed, thanks to his thumb over my mouth.

  "All right then. Look in my eyes, and relax."

  I looked. And relaxed. Well, as much as I could under the circumstances.

  Sparks ignited in his eyes, white hot against the warm, liquid shades of his irises. His heat enveloped me, soft and searing at the same time. A breeze tousled his hair and transported his scent to me, tantalizing my senses. His thumb traced circles on my lips, the brush of skin like satin, arousing me with a slow-building desire, until my skin felt tight, my breasts swollen, my lips engorged and aching for his kiss.

  I flicked my tongue out to steal a taste of him. Salty. Earthy. With a spicy undertone. Hunger shivered through me. Seconds ticked by. Tick, tick, tick, went the clock in my head. I dared to lave the pad of his thumb.

  He went stone still, the roiling currents in his eyes th
e only motion within him.

  Tick, tick, tick.

  A mosquito lighted on my nose. I tried to blow it off, but his damn thumb blocked my breath. I swatted the bug away.

  He released my chin, withdrawing his hand.

  I scratched my nose. "Did you start it yet?"

  "Did I start?" His brow furrowed on a slight frown. "Of course I started, minutes ago. Yet you don't seem enchanted. How do you feel?"

  "Peachy. What's supposed to happen?"

  "You should experience a mild euphoria and… " He looked down at his feet. "An overpowering desire to be near me and to please me."

  Laughter exploded out of me on a snort. I held up a hand, struggling to recover from the inappropriate outburst. "I'm sorry. Please don't take this the wrong way, but if that's how I'm supposed to feel then I don't think you're it right."

  "Of course I'm doing it right," he all but snarled. "This has been my duty for a century. I know how to enchant a woman."

  I shrugged. "Guess it just doesn't work on me."

  His mouth flattened into a line as his eyes tightened into a squint. He nostrils flared on an explosive exhalation. "Enchantment never fails."

  I raised my hands in supplication. "Hey, it's not my fault you've lost your mojo. Maybe I don't have any magical energy in me."

  "Even if you don't, I should be able to enchant you. But clearly, I cannot." He locked his hands behind his back, rocking onto his heels. "My magic does not fail."

  I patted his shoulder. "I'm sure it happens to every sylph at least once in his life."

  "Bloody hell." He jammed a hand into his hair, scratching furiously. "You must be blocking it."

  "Typical. Blame it on the girl."

  "I sensed an energy within you when first we met. It must be the touch, but you've repressed it. It is unprecedented." He rubbed his eyes with the heels of his hands. When he lowered his hands, he stared at me blankly for a few seconds before shaking his head as a look of sheer wonder overtook his features. "You, love, are a unique human."

  "Thanks. You're pretty unique yourself."

  He cleared his throat. "Remember what I told you about thanking me. Gratitude can be dangerous, and you would do well to beware of expressing it. Please heed me on this, Lindsey."

  "Fine, whatever. Now shut up, will you?" I slanted my body nearer to his, tipping my head back. "Try the kiss thing. Maybe that'll do the trick."

  I shut my eyes. No longer able to see him, I felt the wisp of air displacement as he bent his head toward mine. The breath caught in my throat. I burned to fan my fingers across his chest, to slide up and down that silken skin.

  He cupped his hands around my elbows, gliding them up my arms. His lips skimmed across mine, warm and soft and oh so tempting. I melted into him as he enfolded me in his arms, the embrace tender at first, intensifying little by little, his arms pressing me firmly against him. Plastered to him, aware of every hard line of muscle and his rigid shaft crushed against my belly, I trembled with a desperate hunger that eclipsed anything I'd known before, an all-consuming lust for his touch, his kiss, his body, his —

  My knees threatened to buckle. I clung to him, rocked by the realization of what I burned for most. Him. Inside me.

  His mouth coasted over mine one last time, then retreated.

  I moaned, clutching at his biceps, reveling in the sensation of his sinews tautening under my fingers. His chest rose and fell erratically and he seemed as incapable of catching his breath as I was. I let my head fall back, my lips parting on another moan, guttural and wanton.

  Crushing me to him, his hands fisting in my shirt, he scraped his mouth over mine once, twice, and with a rough, drawn-out groan he possessed my lips with his. I opened to my mouth to him, pleading for more, surrendering my will and my body without reservation.

  "Lindsey," he breathed into my mouth, his lips still on mine. The vibrations from his mouth — from the uttering of that single, reverent word — reverberated through my entire body.

  "Nevan," I murmured, moving his lips with mine. "Please."

  He sealed his mouth over mine, thrusting his tongue inside, our lips molded together as our tongues tangled, as we devoured and tormented and inflamed each other with ever slick glide of flesh over flesh. Famished for the taste of him, I plunged deeper inside his mouth, loving the way he opened more for me and growled low in his throat.

  Slow down, a muffled voice in my head urged. Shut this down before it goes too far.

  But God, I couldn't.

  Nevan's hands dropped to my ass, kneading with ravenous strokes, and I was lost. I flung my arms around his neck, holding on like I'd disintegrate without his arms to bind me together. He raked a hand up my back to spread his palm over my spine, between my shoulder blades, while his other hand clutched my ass, tugging my hips forward, angling them up and into him perilously close to his raging erection.

  "Mm." I tunneled my fingers into his hair, pulling his head lower, opening wider for the kiss. Currents crackled around us, inside me, alive and electric, fueling an irresistible fervor. My head swam. We barreled toward an inescapable destination, about to blast away my barriers — and my virginity — and Christ, I wanted to go there. Right now. With him. With a man who wasn't even a man.

  He wrenched away from me, staggering backward. The loss of his heat, his scent, his flavor, cast me out into an emptiness so vast my thoughts echoed back to me.

  Mouth agape, eyes wild and fiery, he bored his gaze into me.

  A chill frosted over my skin. "What's wrong?"

  He staggered backward another step. The flaming hues in his eyes quieted to a faint glimmer, though he stared at me without blinking.

  Shoving my hands in my pockets, shoulders bunched. "Kissing me was that bad, huh?"

  Whatever panic had gripped him sluiced out in the space of a breath. He folded me in his arms, cradling my head to his chest. I closed my eyes, relishing the thump-thump of his heart beneath my ear. He did care for me, in some way, even if our kiss hadn't left him thunderstruck, the way it had me.

  He nuzzled my hair and caressed my back. "You misunderstand my reaction."

  My heartbeat accelerated, revved by a dangerous hope — and a hint of fear.

  "Kissing you," he said, pressing his lips to my forehead, "transcended anything I've experienced in my entire existence. It was perfection."

  Elation swelled in my chest and I curled my fingers against his chest. "Nobody's ever kissed me like that."

  "Then every man who's touched you has been a bloody idiot." He threaded his fingers through my hair, the tips dancing across my scalp. All the remaining shreds of my anxiety fled and I snuggled into him. He sighed, as if the greatest pleasure of all was holding me. "Your bravery and intelligence impressed me, but your passion… You astound me."

  What he'd said a moment ago resurfaced in my mind and I had to ask. "If kissing me was the highlight of your existence — " A knot hardened in my gut, but I lifted my head and finished the question. "How old are you?"

  "I'm immortal, remember?"

  "You must've been born, or created, or something."

  The tips of his fingers found my nape and rubbed with a slow, sensual rhythm. "How old are you?"

  "Thirty-two. Now it's your turn."

  He fidgeted and coughed.

  I rested my chin on his chest. "Please tell me."

  He nodded and drew in a long breath. "Well now, I lost count after five thousand."

  10

  I stopped breathing, certain my heart had ceased beating too. I could do nothing but gawk at him — with my mouth open, I suspected, given the draft coming in between my lips. Five thousand years old? Five thousand? More, even, since he claimed he'd lost count. This man was older than Stonehenge or the pyramids of Egypt. I had just made out with an ancient being.

  Damn if that wasn't the hottest thing e
ver.

  And sort of ooky at the same time.

  "There's more," he said. "I sensed none of the Unseen realm in you."

  My heart sank to the ground and I swore I heard it splatting at my feet like the limp, clammy rag into which it seemed to have morphed. "I'll go to prison for the rest of my life if we don't do this."

  "I wasn't finished." He tickled my earlobe with his finger, an amused smile on his lips. "There is an energy deep within you, hidden even from your own perception. I've tasted it."

  The idea of him tasting energy that lurked inside me shot an erotic thrill straight into my core. I licked my lower lip, the velvety feel of my own tongue triggering a sense memory of his mouth, his tongue, ravishing me with wild abandon.

  His fingertip teased the skin behind my ear, summoning a little shiver of delight.

  "This energy of yours," he said, "I don't know if it's the right kind to get you into the Unseen realm. It's like nothing I've ever felt before, but we could try."

  "How?"

  "I shall take you to the doorway. If it opens for you, we'll know."

  "Okay, I'm ready. Take me."

  Oh damn. I'd done it again. Stupid mouth, stupid brain.

  His lips eased into a languid grin. "Since ye granted me one kiss only, I can't take ye in the manner I'd most like."

  I opened my mouth to speak, but couldn't muster words.

  His grin closed into a smirk. He knew damn well what kind of effect he had on me and he enjoyed pushing that button. If I were honest, I'd admit I liked it too. I tapped my toe on the grass, creating a faint swishing sound. "You know what I meant."

  "Ah yes, I do." He slid his hands down my back to rest on my hips.

  "Has your test ever not worked before?"

  "Never." A darkness scudded over him, like a gray cloud obscuring the sun. "Everything about you is unprecedented."

  "Do I get a gold medal or something? For being the most difficult human on earth?" After what we'd shared a moment ago, I shouldn't have let him put his hands on me. I ought to pull away right now. If I planned on keeping my wits, I had to maintain a distance from him. But the contact felt soooo good.