by Sandy James
He might leave her. Soon. Only here. Only now.
“I need you, lass. I need to touch you, to hold you, to love you.” His clever fingers began to stroke her, delving deeper and deeper. “Let me love you.”
“Yes. Oh, yes.”
She had no place to put her hands except the stone wall in front of her. Artair’s palm left her breast to slide to her hip, grabbing her bikini bottom and dragging it down. Between his one-handed effort to divest her of her swimsuit and the magic he was doing with his other fingers, she could barely stay on her feet. Separating her legs so he could drag the clingy bottoms farther down, she realized how frustrated he was getting from the low growl rumbling from his chest. When he pulled his teasing hand away to focus on removing her bikini, she whimpered in disappointment.
The swimsuit bottoms were tugged down until she stepped out of them. Artair quickly removed the top, and then he stroked both of her breasts, pulling her back against him again. Rebecca arched into his touch, turned her face to his and reached over her shoulder to draw his head down until their lips met.
* * *
Artair reveled in her response. She matched his need. She matched his passion. He’d come to Eden to find her because somehow he’d known Rebecca would be here. And he’d come for this very reason. Her kiss told him he’d been right. She needed him as much as he needed her.
It had been a long time since he’d lain with a woman, years since he’d been to Freya’s island, but even in his ancient memories, no woman had ever excited him the way Rebecca did. He caressed her perfect breasts before letting his hands wander over her stomach, her arms, her legs, as his mouth moved against hers. He couldn’t touch enough of her.
Her skin was soft, smooth, stretched over supple muscle that quivered beneath his hands. He’d pulled his fingers away from the heat of her to slow his reaction. Had he played there much longer, he would already have bent her over the wall and buried himself deep inside her body.
His control was tenuous at best. But he vowed to make Rebecca want him just as much as he wanted her, because tonight might be all they ever had to share. The years of watching the end of so many lives had taught him that seeing a new day was never something a person should count on. He would make this time belong to them, would make the night their cloak and would make this place their sanctuary. Artair concentrated on the woman he loved and bringing her the same kind of pleasure she gave him.
He slid his hand down to claim her again, stroking and caressing to stoke the fire burning hot enough to forge steel from his body. His cock was hard as granite, prepared to take her the moment she let him know she was ready as well.
He turned Rebecca in his arms. Artair pulled her roughly against him, drinking in the nectar of her kisses. Her tongue was wild, stroking his, demanding equal response. Firm breasts flattened against his chest, their warmth branding him as hers. Slender arms stretched around his neck as she kissed him with abandon he’d never felt from a woman before. She wanted him.
Could Rebecca possibly love him? He didn’t know. For now, he would take her passion, vowing one day he would earn her love, vowing one day to make her love him as much as he loved her.
* * *
Rebecca’s world reeled. Every time his tongue plundered her mouth, the tension inside her built. Each muscle readied itself for this man. Drawing back her hands from around his neck, she ran her palms over his muscular shoulders, down his strong arms, back up his broad chest. Every inch of him was perfection. His erection was pressing hot and hard against her belly, and knowing she could make him want her as desperately as she wanted him was intoxicating. She would love him, holding nothing back, saving nothing for later. Tonight. All they might ever have was tonight. She didn’t intend to waste a moment of it.
Artair suddenly scooped her into his arms, carried her up the stone steps and put her on her feet in the grass. Grabbing his plaid, he spread it over the ground, then picked her back up and set her down on the soft cloth. He stretched out by her side.
His mouth moved to her breast. With a low moan, she arched into him. He teased and taunted, first one breast then the other, making her chest feel heavy and hot. Threading her fingers through that chestnut hair she’d dreamed of touching hundreds of times, she urged him on. Every nerve tingled, her blood turning to liquid heat, spreading a path of fire that pooled between her thighs.
He shifted to cover her with his body, pushing her thighs farther apart with his knee, and then settling against her to rub his cock against her core. “Now, Becca mine.”
“Now. Oh yes, now.”
He entered her in one strong thrust.
Rebecca wrapped her legs around his hips, pulling him as deep as she could. He filled her completely, making her body sing. He started to move, to pull away then sink back inside her. “Oh, God. Artair, that’s so… You feel so…perfect.”
He moved in a hypnotic rhythm that captured her, pulling her higher and higher as he whispered in her ear how beautiful she was and how much pleasure her body was giving him. She couldn’t slow her reaction, couldn’t savor what he was doing to her, and couldn’t make this time together last forever. Her body tensed, her knees lifting to draw him deeper before everything inside burst to spread a melee of sensations through her. She cried out his name.
He thrust into her one last time and shuddered. Then his body relaxed as his weight settled on her.
Rebecca was the first to stir, tapping Artair’s shoulder to get him to move. He wasn’t accommodating. “I can’t breathe.”
He rolled to the soft moss and sprawled on his back. “You cannot breathe, and I cannot move. You were more than I bargained for.”
Not sure what to make of his comment, she was suddenly vulnerable. Naked and exposed and wondering what had just possessed her to throw herself at a man she could never have. All the tenderness of making love to Artair vanished.
Damn it to Hell. She’d made love to her Sentinel. She’d bared all her feelings to him. She’d complicated things between them so much, there could be no going back.
And when it was all said and done, he’d still leave. Her heart felt as brittle as shattered crystal.
She scrambled to her feet to search for her towel, feeling the need to wrap it around her, wanting to hide from his gaze.
His hand shot out to grab her wrist. “Where are you going?”
“Back to my cabin. I—I have to go.”
His eyes widened at her words. “Nay.”
She tried to pull away, nearly desperate to cover herself so he wouldn’t look at her nudity any longer. Artair clung to her wrist.
“Let me go. Please, let me go.”
“Nay.” Rising, he tugged her into his arms before she could scurry away. He kissed the top of her head. “What’s wrong? Did I hurt you? I know I was a little rough…”
She shook her head, unable to speak.
“You wanted me, lass. As much as I wanted you.”
God, what had she been thinking? He wanted to leave, and she’d thrown herself at him. He probably assumed she’d been selfish and tried to hold on to him by sleeping with him.
“Don’t leave, Becca. I want you to stay. I—I need you.”
She rubbed her nose against his chest where she’d buried her face. Knowing she was taking an ostrich’s way out, she didn’t care.
“Don’t leave.” His voice had taken on a hard edge, the same edge he’d get right before he’d make her move rocks or scrub garbage cans.
She wanted to shout the same words right back at him. Don’t leave! Don’t leave Avalon! Please, oh please don’t leave me!
He tensed before he put his hands on her upper arms and put some distance between them. “Did you nae hear me? I need you.”
What was she supposed to say? Emotions raced through her with the violence of a summer thunderstorm. Love. Fear. Grief. The tree branches of the glen suddenly whipped in rhythm with her panicked thoughts. “You don’t have to say that, just because we… Please don’t say t
hat.”
* * *
“Don’t say what? That I need you? But I do.” Artair had never seen her look so frightened, not even when she’d been surrounded by revenants. Rebecca’s face had blanched, and she trembled despite the warmth of the air. “What’s wrong?”
Didn’t she know what she meant to him? If she reacted like this when he told her he needed her, she’d probably run far away from Avalon if he confessed his love.
He grasped for a way to understand why. As usual, all he knew to do was push. He was, after all, Sentinel. “I need you, Becca mine. I want us to be together.”
Until the time I have to go.
By the Ancients, how he wanted to tell her all that was in his heart, how he had grown to love her. The words wouldn’t come, couldn’t come until he had things straight in his own mind.
Her eyes widened and she shook so hard her teeth chattered. “No. No, you don’t. It was just a—a fling. I—I don’t expect anything. We can just forget it happened.” She tried to pull away, reaching for her crumpled towel.
His fingers were digging into the muscles of her arms, but she frustrated him almost beyond words. “’Twas nae a fling. I wouldn’t shame you that way. And I don’t mean to forget what happened between us.” He wanted to shake some sense into that head of hers. “Listen to me, lass. I’ve wanted you since I first saw you.”
The vulnerability in those dark eyes made him want to prove to her just what their lovemaking had meant to him. Artair reached down, grabbed her towel and wrapped it around his hips, tucking it tight. Then he calmly walked over, picked up his plaid and returned to her side. He draped the material over Rebecca like a toga, covering those perfect breasts, and scooped her into his arms. Turning on his heel, he marched back toward the cabins.
“Where—where are you taking me?”
“Home.”
She clung to his neck, staring up at him as he worked his way through the trees and finally reached the clearing. The cabins came into view. She squirmed, awkwardly rearranging his plaid over her. When he walked right past her cabin, she squeaked her surprise. “We shouldn’t—”
He squeezed her tighter against him. “I told you, Becca mine. ’Twas not a fling. I’m taking you home.”
Striding into his cabin, he kicked the door shut behind him. He let her legs slide down the length of his body as he reluctantly put her back on her feet.
“This is home?” she asked, looking around.
“My home. ’Tis your home now as well. You shall be staying with me.” He had to swallow the rest of the thought that she would stay here with him until Rhiannon returned him to the world. But, now…
Now things were different.
He had no idea how he could ever let her go or how he could ever leave her behind. Rebecca Massee was a complication he’d never dreamed of, nor had he had the time to ponder such a beautiful obstacle to all his plans.
“Everyone will know.” Her teeth tugged on her lower lip.
“I don’t care. I need you here with me.”
“Rhian—”
Artair stopped Rebecca’s words with a kiss.
He’d meant to simply give her a subtle censure so she would stop worrying about the goddess, but her lips were so sweet, so warm, so perfect. And she went all soft and loving on him. The kiss turned carnal.
* * *
Rebecca felt like Dorothy over the rainbow. None of this was real. It couldn’t be. Artair was kissing her, stroking her mouth with that skilled tongue, coaxing her back to the fiery passion she’d known in Eden.
This was what she wanted—he was who she wanted. His kisses were so hot, so loving, drowning out all her resistance.
Her heart slammed against her ribcage as naked hope wound its way through her mind. I need you, he’d said. They weren’t the three words she wanted to say to him, the three words her heart yearned to hear, but they sounded sweet nonetheless. “Say it again.”
A smile slowly curled his lips. “Say what, sweeting?”
A slow rumble shook the ground. His smile grew.
“Will you hold me down with your wee vines if I don’t tell you again?”
The rumbling intensified.
“I need you, Becca mine. I—”
She threw her arms around his neck and kissed him before he could say anything else.
The plaid was pressed between their bodies. Artair ravaged her mouth as he slowly pushed them apart, just until the material slipped between them and puddled at their feet. His towel quickly followed. Rebecca suddenly found herself scooped in his arms and laid across his bed. He eased down beside her.
She wanted to touch him everywhere and smooth her fingers across every handsome piece of his bronzed skin. She started with the most interesting part, wrapping her fingers around his erection. He hissed his approval and took possession of her mouth again, stroking his tongue across hers.
His skin was like hot silk covering the hardness beneath. Letting her fingers roam and stroke, she savored his responding growls. He brushed her hand away before she had a chance to do all she wanted to.
“Nay, lass. You make me want you too much.”
Rolling to his back, he pulled her until she was on top, straddling him. He gave her braid a tug until she leaned closer so he could free the restraining band. Slowly, he unplaited her hair, spreading the tresses over her shoulders.
“So verra beautiful,” he said, putting his hand behind her head and dragging her down for a long, drugging kiss.
Rebecca rubbed her core against his erection, wanting to show him how hot he was making her. She’d never warmed to a man the way she responded to him. He was so masculine, so powerful, yet he’d never hurt her. Leaning down she pressed her breasts against his chest, wanting to feel the heat of his skin touching hers.
* * *
Her teasing was driving Artair insane. The hardened pebbles of her nipples rubbing against his skin burned him like branding irons. The rush of fire to his groin was exquisite. He needed to be inside her.
With a quick move that made her squeal, he had her on her back. As he moved to enter her, she wrapped her legs around his hips and raised herself to meet him halfway.
He almost came from just the feel of her heat sheathing his cock. Taking deep breaths, trying to hold back the enormity of his response, he looked into her eyes.
The brown staring back reminded him of the finest uisge beatha. And those eyes made him feel just as drunk as that aged whiskey.
Rebecca rocked her hips against him, and he was lost. The primitive mating ritual took over as he drove into her again and again, the sound of the bed squeaking in rhythm with their movements filling the cabin. The instant her inner muscles tightened around him and she called his name, he gave up control. He poured his essence deep inside the woman he loved.
Several long moments passed before Artair came back to his senses. Afraid he was crushing her, he rolled to his back, hauling her up against his side.
“I—I need you too.”
Her words were hesitant, so soft he almost missed them. While there were different loving words he wanted to spill from her lips, he’d take what she offered for now and be satisfied. After the way she’d made love to him, there was nothing else to feel except content.
Trying to contain the smile that threatened to burst across his face, Artair teased, “Did you say something, Becca mine? I heard a wee squeak, but it could just be a field mouse.”
She slapped his chest. He chuckled then and allowed himself to smile.
“I need you.”
“Aye, lass. I ken it.”
She took a little nip at his chest before soothing the mild sting with a lick of her tongue.
“You’ll have to give me a few minutes if ye want more loving. I’m nae a young man anymore.”
Artair leaned over, grabbed his plaid from the floor and draped it over them. Tugging Rebecca closer against his side, he kissed the top of her head.
He let the tempo of her breathing lull him to s
leep.
Chapter Seventeen
“You best have a good reason for pounding on my door!” Artair shouted at whoever was incessantly knocking.
Jerking awake when he bellowed, Rebecca blinked back the sleep from her eyes. Sunlight streamed through the windows. It had been a long time since she’d slept past dawn—not since she’d become an Amazon. “Who is it?” she whispered.
He shrugged. A few more knocks, louder this time. “Give me a moment,” he yelled, “then you may enter.”
She grabbed the plaid that they’d kicked to the foot of the bed, frantically pulling it up to cover her bare body. “You can’t let anyone in.”
“Why not?”
“They’ll—they’ll know.”
“Aye, they will. I told you, yer staying here now. ’Tis nae a secret. ’Twill be fine.”
She’d die from embarrassment.
Megan’s voice filtered through the door. “Artie? Are you in there?”
“Aye. Come in, lass.”
Rebecca squealed, yanked the plaid over her head and tucked herself harder against his side. She sure didn’t want to see Megan’s reaction to finding her in Artair’s bed. Her face was on fire. Even her ears were burning.
The stupid Scot was chuckling.
“Are you decent?” Megan asked, the creaking floorboards announcing her entrance.
Then the cabin grew so quiet, Rebecca couldn’t stop herself from peeking out from under the protective cover.
Megan was grinning like she’d just been crowned Prom Queen. “Gee. I guess you’re not decent. At least not as decent as I thought.”
“What do you want?” Artair asked.
“I forgot.”
“Then ye may leave.” His tone had changed from gentle lover to Sentinel.
Fire gave him a cheeky smile. “I remembered.”
“And?” he barked.
She took a deep breath and her grin shifted to a frown. “I can’t find Sparks. I think she’s gone.”
His sigh filled the air. “I feared as much.”
It was what Rebecca dreaded, and it seemed she wasn’t the only one.
Another knock rattled the door. Artair bellowed, “Come in!”