I’ll leave that to Belle, Fluffy said. She likes him one hell of a lot better than I do.
Scottish castles, grim gothic towers, French châteaus, Italian villas—you name an architectural style, and somebody had built it along the cobblestone streets. Yet somehow it all fit together, gleaming under the moon, surrounded by rolling green lawns and flowering trees and topiary shaped like knights and dragons.
“Some of the younger witches get a little carried away,” Belle explained with an indulgent little smile. She’d dropped back to watch Eva gape like a tourist. “Everything here was built from magic. The more elaborate the structure, the more powerful the witch who created it.”
“It’s ostentatious,” Tristan growled. “Not to mention a waste of power.”
“But good practice,” Belle pointed out. “Once you learn to manipulate and stabilize magic on such a scale, you can put it to good use in combat.”
“Either way ... Wow.” Eva blinked as a tiny glowing figure zipped by, gossamer wings a blur. “Was that a—?”
“Fairy? Yep. Probably a courier carrying documents to the Sidhe kingdom.” Belle nodded toward a three-story stone house surrounded by great mounds of blooming white rose-bushes. A single massive oak tree presided over the house, its great branches spread wide. “And there’s Pendragon House. Come, child. It’s not every day you meet a legend.”
Eva’s brows shot up as she followed her new allies up the stone walk. “Arthur lives here?”
“Expecting Camelot?” Tristan sent her a sneer. “Castles are drafty as hell, miserably cold in the winter, and you need a staff of a hundred to run one. Those of us with nothing to prove go for comfort over ostentation every time.” He paused. “Except for Morgana and that palace of hers. She always did have to outdo everybody.”
“Or maybe she just loves beauty.” Belle stepped up on the stone porch to knock on the polished oak door.
It promptly swung wide to reveal a soccer mom, the kind of slim, delicate blonde that always made Eva feel like a moose. She wore a peach polo shirt and dark blue skinny jeans, with white Nikes on her dainty feet. Actual Nikes, like she shopped at Target. “Arthur, they’re here!” She grabbed Belle’s hands and kissed her on both cheeks. “Gods, I’m glad to see you.” Soccer Mom turned a dazzling smile on Eva. “All of you.”
Belle walked into the blonde’s arms for a quick hug before stepping back and beginning the introductions. “Gwen, this is Eva Roman, who sheltered Smoke when he lost his memory.” She turned to Eva, one arm still around the woman’s narrow waist. “Eva, this is Guinevere Pendragon.”
Eva had deduced as much, so she managed to shake Gwen’s hand and greet her without swallowing her tongue. “It’s an honor, Your Majesty.”
“Oh, please.” The blonde swept her into a warm hug. “I haven’t been a queen since before the Norman Conquest. Call me Gwen like everyone else.”
“I hate to interrupt the love fest, but can you point me somewhere I can put Smoke?” Tristan curled a lip. “He could stand to lose a few pounds.”
“Hey!” Eva turned on him, indignant. There wasn’t an ounce of fat anywhere on David’s solid muscle, and she should know. Jerk, said Fluffy. Let me bite him.
“She’s in love.” Tristan rolled his eyes.
Hell, Eva thought, as her cheeks heated, I’m going to bite him myself.
Gwen sighed. “Tris, must you be so bloody rude?”
“Apparently,” Belle growled. “I’ve been working with him for days, and he seems to treat being a jackass as performance art.”
“Critique my manners later,” Tristan retorted. “I need to either put Smoke down or turn him back into a cat.”
“Come on then,” Gwen said, and turned to lead the way down a short foyer and up the stairs. “Though I would suggest that if you’d hit the gym more often, you might not have that problem.”
Tristan shot her a glare. “You want to carry him?” He shrugged as if to transfer David’s solid weight to the blonde’s delicate shoulders.
“Fine.” Gwen made a swift, sharp gesture, and David levitated off Tristan’s shoulder. A flood of sparks spiraled around him as if forming a cradle for his big body, and he floated upward in the witch’s serene wake.
“Show-off,” Tristan grumbled.
Belle laughed at him. “She certainly showed you.”
“ ‘People come and go so quickly here ...’” Eva muttered, quoting The Wizard of Oz as she followed Tristan and Belle up the winding stairway.
The woman really didn’t look anything like Queen Guinevere ought to look. Blond and pretty, yes, but not the kind of Helen-of-Troy-gorgeous Eva would have expected. Her delicate oval face was more wholesome than femme fatale, as if she spent her time driving the kids back and forth between Little League games and piano recitals. She sure as hell didn’t look like a fifteen-hundred-year-old witch.
“This should do.” Gwen floated David through a door at the top of the stairs into what proved to be a guest room. It was homey and well appointed, with tapestries on the walls and gleaming mahogany furniture.
She sailed David to the huge bed that dominated the room, its thick hunter green comforter flipping aside without anyone’s touching it. The witch gestured, and the flood of sparks settled David’s sleeping form on the fine cream sheets.
Automatically, Eva stepped forward to cover him with the comforter. She looked up from smoothing the fabric over his broad chest to find all three Magekind studying her with lifted brows.
It felt as if her cheeks burst into flame.
“See what I mean?” Tristan said to Gwen, his tone a trifle smug.
“Good for you,” Gwen told Eva.
Before Eva could think of anything to say, a dark-haired man wandered in. He wasn’t particularly tall, but he was as broad and powerfully built as a professional athlete. He wore his hair down to his brawny shoulders, and a beard framed his handsome mouth and square chin in a dark goatee. “I see you found the cat. Good work.” He slapped Tristan’s back, which clanked as he gave them all a broad smile. “I imagine you’d like dinner. Come on down and eat.”
This, Eva realized numbly, had to be Arthur Pendragon, a suspicion that was confirmed when Gwen introduced them as they walked back down the hall.
“Thanks for taking care of Smoke,” Arthur said, shaking Eva’s hand. “He means a lot to us.”
“He means a lot to her, too.”
“Shut up, Tris,” Belle told him.
The Pendragons escorted their guests to the family dining room, where Arthur and Tristan drank a goblet or two of witch-donated blood—eeew—while Eva, Belle, and Gwen ate thick rib eye steaks, baked potatoes, and tender green asparagus with hollandaise sauce.
Meanwhile Belle and Tristan briefed the couple on the fight with Warlock.
“We’re going to have to do something about that bastard,” Arthur said grimly.
“Yeah, but it won’t be easy.” Tristan shook his head. “And it’ll probably be bloody. The rest of the wolves are going to be pissed.”
“Too damned bad,” Arthur said, with such a cold, ruthless gleam in his eyes that Eva could suddenly believe he’d once been High King of England.
After dinner, Eva excused herself to slip upstairs and check on David.
It didn’t look as if he’d twitched so much as a muscle since they’d gone downstairs. His broad shoulders seemed to take up half the bed, and his tanned skin looked dark against the pale sheets. Eva sat down next to him with an exhausted sigh. “Well,” she said softly, “it’s been one hell of a day.”
“Apparently.”
Eva looked up to see Guinevere leaning on the door frame watching her. The ex-queen’s gaze was so interested, it quickly drove Fluffy a little nuts. “Do I have spinach on my teeth, Your Majesty?”
“Gwen,” Guinevere corrected patiently.
“Sorry.” Eva scrubbed both hands over her face. “I’m a little frazzled.”
“You have reason to be.” Gwen crossed the room to stand ne
xt to her. For a moment, both women looked down at David. “I can’t get used to seeing him as a human. Or a Sidhe, anyway. He’s always been a cat of one kind or another.”
“He’s been human—Sidhe—with me. Except for a little while earlier today, when he became a house cat and scared hell out of both of us.” Eva frowned. “Why would he choose to be a cat most of the time?”
“I have no idea.” Gwen eyed her with that calm, compassionate gaze that made Eva want to jump out of her skin for reasons she didn’t really care to examine. “You love him a great deal, don’t you?”
The words lodged a hot little needle of pain inside her heart. “I don’t know.”
Gwen lifted a blond brow. “A woman doesn’t watch a sleeping man with such intensity unless she’s in love.”
Busted. Eva sighed. “I’m in love with David, but I don’t know if that’s who he is now.”
The witch frowned. “David?”
“The Sidhe part of him didn’t know his own name, so that’s what I call him. There’s David, Cat, and Smoke, but I’ve never known them as one united person.” Sudden frustration made her growl. “Why the hell won’t he wake up?”
“Probably because he needs to sleep.”
Eva scrubbed a hand over her face. “So do I. Changing back and forth from werewolf form always wipes me out.”
“Then I’d better let you get some rest.” Gwen gave her a smile and headed for the door.
Boy, that hadn’t come out right at all. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to be rude.”
“You weren’t rude.” Gwen paused to look back at her. “But you do need sleep. That and a good breakfast in the morning will do you a world of good.”
“As if I didn’t eat like a pig at dinner.” Eva was a trifle embarrassed at the way she’d literally wolfed that steak. But then, it had been so thick and tender, she hadn’t been able to resist. Especially given all the shapeshifting.
“Magical transformations burn a lot of calories. Good night, Eva. Sleep well.” Gwen stepped out and shut the door behind her with a soft click.
Tired to the bone, Eva wasted no time turning out the bedside lamp, slipping out of her clothes, and easing naked into bed. David still wore his jeans and shirt, but she was afraid stripping him might wake him up. Instead she curled against his side, closed her eyes, and was asleep two minutes later.
Eva woke to magic dancing over her skin like the brush of feathers and fur, a warm electric tingle that swirled over her erect nipples and stiffening clit. She inhaled sharply. David’s scent filled the air, masculine, warm, with a trace of animal musk. Licking her lips, she arched her breasts into the flickering heat, savoring the lush pleasure, the eager need. Her hand slipped between her legs and found her flesh swollen and slick. She moaned helplessly and opened her eyes, then sucked in a startled breath.
David floated above her in a cloud of golden sparks. When she looked down the length of their bodies, she saw his erect cock pointed at the apex of her spread thighs. A stream of sparks spilled from the rosy plum head, feeding the swirl of magic that glided over her hungry body.
“David,” she whispered. “God, what are you doing?”
“Making you come.” He gave her a wicked little smile, his eyes white hot with magic, his hair a dark nimbus around his head. His hands glided over her body, fingers a hair’s breadth from her flesh, trailed by the glittering dance.
His eyes glowed brighter, and the heat intensified until she writhed, craving the penetration of his cock. “Fuck me.” The words emerged in Fluffy’s feral growl.
He only grinned. “Not yet.”
But his cock was right there, a fraction of an inch from her desperate sex, and she was not in the mood to wait. Not with heat running through her in pursuit of his magic, not with her cunt heating, tightening in juicy anticipation.
Finally Eva could take no more. She reached up and grabbed his warm, muscular shoulders, hooked her legs over his ass, and pulled.
She’d intended to drag him down to her, but instead the magic swept her upward, supporting her as if she were as weightless as a dream.
Unable to resist his taunting smile, Eva slipped a hand up and fisted it in David’s hair, pulling his head down for her kiss. She moaned against his lips.
He tasted of mint and magic, and he smelled of a cool spring breeze sweeping through a forest of pines. His tongue slipped into her mouth, and magic seemed to burst between them. Her vision went white.
In that instant, David drove that thick cock into her with one ruthlessly delicious thrust. His arms closed tight around her, one hand slipping down to support her ass as the other threaded through her hair to cup her head.
Then he began the rolling thrusts that always drove her right out of her mind. His cock slid deep, pulled out, pushed deep again through swollen, slick lips, until she could feel his balls brush her ass. Her climax danced like a mirage just beyond her reach.
“God, David, you feel incredible.” She whispered the words against his mouth as she rolled her hips, surging up at him, craving that last hot push that would send her over the edge.
“Good.” A triumphant grin flashed across his mouth before he claimed her lips again, kissing her as magic swirled around them and their bodies ground together, rolling, pushing, striving, the swirl of sparks triggering lust everywhere they touched.
The climax stormed over Eva, and she threw back her head, gasping, her hair tangling with his, her sex gripping him hard, thighs clamping over his ass.
David roared out his climax. Magic poured into her with every hot jet, tingling waves of it that made her entire body tighten and jerk and writhe in helpless delight. Sending her orgasm higher, higher, as she gripped him with nails digging into his ass.
The deep jerking pulses finally quieted as the pleasure receded like a passing storm. Eva was barely conscious when her back touched the sheets again and David’s warm weight settled over her. He braced on elbows and knees to keep from crushing her and buried his face between her head and neck.
Drawing him close, Eva let her eyelids drift closed as the thunder of their heartbeats began to slow in her ears.
“Damn, that was amazing,” she said when she was capable of speech again.
His teasing grin flashed. “You’re welcome.” Pushing off her, he rolled onto his back and looped an arm over her shoulders, pulling her into a full-body hug.
Eva nestled into the warm, smooth curve where shoulder met chest. “Where the hell did that come from?”
He turned his head on the silken sprawl of his hair. “I wanted you.”
“And you got me.” She smiled lazily and turned on her side to drift her fingertips down the hard muscle of his chest, over the warm ripple of abdominals to the slack, sated curl of his cock. She cupped his balls, rolling the soft skin between her fingers. To her vast satisfaction, David shivered.
Her stomach picked that moment to growl. Loudly.
David’s laughter rumbled softly. “I think that’s my cue to feed you.” He sat up and gestured. Magic spilled from his hands, swirled over the edge of the bed, and pooled on the floor. A moment later, the golden sparkles congealed into a red checkered tablecloth spread over the floor. A selection of dishes were arrayed across it, emitting the delicious odor of ham, eggs, bacon, and pancakes. “Breakfast,” he announced with a wicked little smile, “is served.”
Eva eyed the spread hungrily. “It looks delicious, but I think Gwen was planning to feed us.”
“Gwen’s immortal—she can wait. I want to spend a little time alone with you.” There was something in his eyes. Insecurity? Where the hell did that come from?
“Oh. Okay. It does smell good.” She let him tug her out of bed and followed him over to his impromptu picnic.
It proved to taste every bit as good as it smelled, which was why fifteen minutes went by before Eva managed to stop eating long enough to talk. “You’re really good at the magic thing,” she observed, licking maple syrup off her fingers.
“
I’ve had a lot of practice.” David picked up a piece of bacon and crunched.
Eva cocked her head, ogling him shamelessly.
He tucked a lock of hair behind one pointed ear and grinned. “What?”
“So you really are a fairy?”
David smirked. “Have you been paying attention? I’m definitely straight.”
“Smart-ass. I mean Sidhe.”
He lifted one shoulder in a half shrug, picked up a strawberry, and popped it in her mouth. “Yep.”
Eva had to chew the berry before she could go on. Like the rest of the meal, it was delicious, squirting juice over her tongue. “So now that you can remember who the hell you are, tell me about yourself.”
David looked a little wary, and she wondered why. “What do you want to know?”
“The usual.” Before he could grab it, she snatched the last piece of bacon and bit down, enjoying the smoky crunch. “How did you end up a trio?”
“I already ... I mean, Cat already explained that.” His gaze shifted away from hers. “The Dark Ones had invaded and were killing people. My tribe needed to fight them off, so he and Smoke needed a body with hands.”
“Yeah, but what did you think about having them move in?”
“What did I think? Sweetheart, I fought like hell for the privilege.” He snorted and flicked his fingers. Another plate of bacon appeared, and he picked up a piece. “All the men of my village competed. It’s not every day you get a chance to become one with your god.”
“Smoke said something about that. Your tribe really thought he was a god?”
“We’d been worshipping that cat for generations.” He lay back on the floor, bracing on one brawny elbow. “This was a long, long time ago, before the Sidhe became immortal or gained much in the way of magical abilities. My people were essentially a Stone Age tribe then, and Smoke impressed the hell out of us with his powers.”
“What was it like?” Fascinated, Eva sat up tailor fashion. She couldn’t imagine any life further removed from her own middle-class childhood of comic books and school. “I mean, growing up like that?”
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