"James is one of my personal guards. He shall accompany me on my journey. It is his job to see to it that I am cared for."
Rowan looked Cedric over one last time and then smiled. "So, tell me James, if my soul-mate decides to live among the humans can I trust you to accompany her and keep her safe?"
"You won’t try and stop me?" I asked, surprised by his decision to let me go.
Rowan let out a low laugh. "Oh, I think that would be dangerous, considering the last time we parted you left me dazed and unconscious for the greater part of the afternoon."
Cedric laughed softly. I ignored him and focused my attentions on Rowan. There was something that he wasn’t telling me and I was sure that Cedric knew what it was. I wanted to demand answers to the questions I had, but common sense prevailed and I simply gave a slight bow. Rowan caught my arm in his hand and spun me around to him.
"Kiss me before you go and promise to let me know of your whereabouts once you are settled."
He gave me no time to think about his seemingly simple request. His warm lips pressed against mine and stole my question. I closed my eyes and got lost in the moment with him. His love for me was clear and I had thought prior to finding Cedric that mine was too. I pulled back from him slowly and smiled up at him.
Chapter 6
"What do you mean? How does it work?" I asked, most curious about the large square object that he put the food on. Cedric let out a laugh. He pulled me to him and wrapped his arm around my waist.
"It cooks the food. You place these pots," he motioned to the object on the counter top and then back at the stove, "on it and turn it on. Fire comes up and warms the bottom to cook the food properly."
I scrambled to think of how food preparation worked at the Blessed Court but I came up empty. I truly had never seen anyone preparing my meals before. Plates of food just materialized when I was hungry and vanished when I’d had my fill. The fact that I was truly a pampered brat had been sinking in more and more over the last couple of weeks.
Cedric knew all the tips and tricks to survive living amongst humans. He knew about their currency, their customs, and most of all how to blend in. It was easy for him to come up with money for us to secure a place to stay. It wasn’t very big, and was fairly remote, but it did the trick. It also kept me away from the Prince and was somewhere that my mother would never think to look for me.
I let Cedric finish with the food preparations. He’d all but insisted. I think that he was afraid that I’d burn the house down, or cabin, as he called it. I looked around the one room log home and never remembered seeing anything sweeter in my life. I could get used to this and most of all I could get used to Cedric being with me.
He put weight on slowly and I saw the Cedric I knew poking out more and more. The only difference was, this new version of him seemed a bit worldlier and had a harder edge.
The smell of bacon filled the tiny cabin. I turned to find Cedric standing near the small table, putting food onto plates. He looked over at me and winked. He looked so handsome with the light from the window catching the reddish colored highlights he had in his hair. My glamour had held and his scars still weren’t visible. I’d offered to drop it, but Cedric seemed disappointed, so I left it up.
I walked over to take my seat. Cedric stopped what he was doing and moved closer to me. I closed my eyes and tried to prepare myself for the feel of his touch. Hot breath blew on my face as he whispered to me. "Mackenzie, don’t shut me out," he said, touching my eyelids softly. If I looked into his blue eyes I’d give in and make love to him, and I couldn’t do that. I’d already made a big enough mess of things, and I didn’t need to add to it.
"Mackenzie…." His sexy voice danced around in my head.
"I can’t."
"Why?"
"Because I can’t say no to you. I’ve never been able to say no to you," I said.
He let out a small laugh. "If only that was true."
This comment made me open my eyes. I looked up at him with a questioning look. "What do you mean?"
He kissed my forehead softly. "It’s okay. I understand that you don’t share my feelings. You don’t have to pretend."
"Pretend to what? Cedric … explain what in the hell you’re talking about."
His large hands cupped my face gently. "Mackenzie, I thought you knew…. I mean your mother told me that you said yourself that you didn’t love me … that’s why she didn’t allow me to marry you before I left…. I tried, I even had my father try … still she said no, and when I heard that you’d told her that you’d never be caught dead marrying a guard."
My stomach lurched and my head fogged. Cedric’s arms circled around me to keep me from falling. I thought about everything that he’d just told me and still couldn’t make sense of it. "What? Are you saying that you wanted to marry me?"
"Yes, I’ve loved you since we were seven. I wanted to make you mine and to know that you were spoken for, so no other would try to have his way with you while I was gone, but, wait … you didn’t know, your mother said…."
I cut him off. "My mother is a sadistic bitch. I went to her too, before you left and asked for permission to mate with you. She laughed in my face and told me that I was a fool, that you didn’t love me and that you’d spent the last days before your departure bedding the chambermaids."
His eyes hardened. I reached up and brushed my fingers through his long hair. "Don’t Cedric, don’t let her win now. We’re here and we’re together, that’s all that matters." I brought my lips to his and felt him let his anger go. I pulled away from him slowly. "I can’t do this with you, not until you tell me what’s going on with Rowan."
Cedric let out a wicked laugh. "I think you mean Elwyn Rowan Lockland."
"You mean Prince Elwyn … Rowan is…." I couldn’t even bring myself to say it. How could my beautiful Rowan be this evil man? "Oh gods, that’s why he spent so much time defending the Prince when I spoke ill of him." I thought about the magic we’d shared, and how he’d woken my womb to accept his seed. Cedric looked at me and his eyes widened.
"What?"
I had to look away from him. I couldn’t hurt him anymore. "I didn’t know, Cedric…. I swear that I didn’t know. He shared his magic with me, during sex."
Cedric seized hold of my upper arms, spinning me around to face him. "He did what? Tell me that you’re not serious. Mack, this means that he could father a child with you … oh, gods, you didn’t did you…? You’re not with…?" He panted, seeming to choke on the words.
I shook my head no, and he let out a sigh of relief. "I should have guessed that something was up when I was taken before him and all he wanted to know was about you. He didn’t seem interested at all in the Blessed Court’s plan of attack, he only wanted to know about you, and when I refused to tell him he slit my throat. He waited as I bled to the brink of death then he mind-raped me, Mack. He put his hands on my head and leeched out the memories of you."
I felt sick to my stomach and flushed. I had to turn away from Cedric for a moment to be able to breathe. Rowan had been the one that did those horrible things to Cedric? He’d been the one to leave Cedric scarred both mentally and physically? I reached down and grabbed my stomach. We’d formed a bond, a union, and I would never be able to resist his advances. My body would crave his touch and I would die without it. I turned quickly to Cedric. "He must die."
Cedric’s eyes filled with tears. In all the years I’d known him, I’d never once seen him cry. "Mackenzie, if I was to kill him now then you would perish within a few short months of his death. As much as I dreamed of the day I’d get to see him take his last breath, I can’t do that. I can’t lose you."
"Then I’ll do it," I said, turning and heading towards the door. Cedric grabbed my arm and spun me around, coming down hard on my mouth. His tongue pushed in and his hand moved up and under my dress. His fingers came to a rest between my legs. I wanted him to touch me more, but he stopped and looked at me.
"I think that if what
you say is true, and you love me still, even just a little, we might be able to overcome his magic in you."
I moved my hand to his bare stomach and pulled on the waistband of his pants. I let the glamour I’d been using drop and watched as Cedric’s scars reappeared. He tried to pull away from me, but I held tight to him and leaned up and licked along the large scar on his neck. I nibbled on his chin and tugged lightly on his bottom lip. "Cedric James McKinney I’ve never stopped loving you."
He lifted my body high off the ground. I wrapped my legs around him, and hugged him tight. It felt so good to be near him again. I kissed the edges of his jaw until I came to his soft lips. Cedric smelled of jasmine and lilies. He too, was powerful and a year locked away in a dungeon hadn’t taken away from that. I took in all that he had to offer and savored the scent of him. I had missed it so.
I ran my fingers through his silky hair and it fell all around us, enclosing us in a shell of warmth, a shell of Cedric. His fingers kneaded my bottom as he held me off the ground. He moved towards the bed that we had shared for the past few weeks, but had never actually had sex in. He laid my body down gently on it then slid up and over me. Our mouths never once lost contact and the heat building between us was almost suffocating. I wanted to be touched by him, to be loved by him.
He pulled away from me. I wanted to protest, but didn’t when his hands parted my legs. He separated my velvety folds and opened me to the marvel of his gentle touch. I grabbed at the sheets as his tongue flickered over my clit. His fingers pushed into my tight channel, followed close behind by his long tongue. I tipped my head back and cried out as his tongue dove into me again and again. It wasn’t long before my thighs were threatening to seize hold of his head from the involuntary jerking that he caused in me. The combination of his warm tongue and his fingers encased in my body proved to be too much, and I let my magic loose on him.
My power flowed over his face first then move down his body. Cedric pulled back from me and looked down at himself, he was glowing. "Mackenzie?"
I shook my head. I didn’t understand what was going on anymore than he did. "Do you feel alright?"
He slid his pants down, exposing the full weight of what he carried to me. I let out a breath that I hadn’t known I held. He was perfect. He was erect, unmarred, and ready to enter me. I had worried that perhaps he’d sustained some damage during his year of torture, but as far as I could tell he looked fine. No, better than fine, perfect. I moved up the bed and slithered towards him. I stopped long enough to remove my dress, then continued onward with only one thing on my mind, pleasing Cedric.
He stood as still as a statue at the foot of the bed, waiting for me to reach him. I cupped him in my hands and let my fingers wrap around him. I nibbled at the base and licked the edges of his tight auburn curls. He moaned and I knew that he loved every minute of it.
I took the head of him into my mouth and rolled it around with my tongue. His fingers moved into my hair and laced gently into it. I varied the speed at which my hands stroked him and took all ten inches of him into my mouth. It was hard to do, but somehow I managed. I cupped his sac in my hand and worked at it with a ginger touch. I found a steady rhythm with sliding my mouth over the length of his veined cock and stuck with it. I closed my mouth tight around his shaft and sucked hard, pulling my mouth up as I went. When I got to the top, I stopped and pushed my tongue into the tiny hole at the head of his penis.
I laughed softly as he moaned and bucked against me. I wanted to wear his seed, bathe in it, never be without. I had missed him so and never wanted to be without him again. I slid my mouth back over him and repeated my sucking.
Cedric’s legs tightened along with his grip of my hair. I reached around and seized hold of his butt, pulling him closer to me, taking every bit of him deep into my throat, sucking, tugging, fucking him with my mouth. His sac tightened, followed quickly by his release. I drank his hot come down, and licked slowly as I pulled away, not wanting to miss any of his salty delights.
Cedric tackled me to the bed and covered me with kisses. The taste of the others sweet juices on our mouths drove us crazy with desire. He pulled me close to him and wrapped his body around me. "Mackenzie, will you do me the honor of being my wife?"
Time stood still for me. I didn’t know what to say. Of course I wanted to be Mrs. Cedric James McKinney. I had ever since I’d been a young girl, but so much had changed, so many things stood in our way now. "My mother will never allow it."
He kissed my forehead. "I’m not expecting to take you back to the Blessed Court for a ceremony. We could do it here, like the humans do. What do you say?"
"It won’t be legal. It will never hold up at the Blessed Court."
He let out a small chuckle, and kissed my forehead. "I know, but it would mean something to us. We could hand fast if you’d prefer. I’ll take anything, Mack. Anything that will add to our bond and make you mine."
I moved my body in closer to his and kissed his cheek. "Yes, I say yes."
Epilogue
Cedric and I are doing well. We decided to stay in the cabin. It’s turned into quite a cozy little home for the two of us. Being this close to nature keeps our magic strong, and being this secluded keeps our whereabouts a secret. It’s a treat to get to walk among the creatures of the earth each and every day. We went ahead with a traditional human ceremony and are now considered man and wife. This is of no value in the eyes of faerie law but it means something to us. We would have been better off hand fasting. At least that way my mother would be forced to acknowledge us as a couple.
Cedric is working in the city as a security consultant. His military background and past time spent here gave him all the credentials he needed. I volunteer at the local women’s shelter and am still trying to learn to cook. Most of my time is spent scanning the surrounding areas with my powers to try and pick up on any faeries that may be closing in on us. I’m certain that my mother is searching for us, as is Rowan. I had made him a promise to let him know where I was once I was settled and I haven’t held up my end of the agreement. I’m not sure what I’ll do if I see Rowan. Cedric thinks that we were successful in breaking his hold over me, I’m not so sure.
Peace Offerings Page 5