by Vella Day
Her heart dropped to her stomach. So what if one of the women from the pottery shop said the same thing—or had it been Tory? Too much had happened to keep things straight.
“We are.” Zulema was proud of herself for remaining so calm.
“I can’t tell you how happy I am to hear that.” Bevon clasped her by the waist and drew her near.
Zulema expected a toe tingling kiss, but instead, he ran gentle kisses down her neck, causing goose bumps to rise on her arms. The sensuality and luxury of it made her fall a little bit more in love with him. Never did she think she’d meet a man who fit her needs so perfectly—but now she had. The fact he was a prince didn’t really affect her, but it was nice that he was so well connected.
Needing to enjoy him more fully, Zulema slid her hands under his shirt and was thrilled to feel his flexing muscles. How much was he making them move on purpose, versus how much those bulges were moving naturally, was anyone’s guess. Regardless, his body did something to her. All she could say was thank goodness he looked like the Bevon she knew and not like Derrick Valoric.
His erection pressing against her jarred her a bit out of her daydream, creating so many sparks of strong need that desire scattered all over her body. With each kiss, his arms and chest glowed brighter and brighter white.
Zulema leaned her head back, exposing more of her neck. “Your light is growing. Does this mean you’re excited?” She knew the answer but wanted confirmation.
“Why don’t you touch me and find out?”
She laughed, loving that idea. Instead of letting him take the lead this time, she teleported them to the bedroom. They landed on the bed with him on his back. “Much better. How about taking off your shoes and only your shoes?”
“Are you planning on removing the rest one piece at a time?” He grinned.
“Absolutely.”
Bevon swiped his hand to remove his shoes and then leaned back on his elbows. “Let the show begin.”
He sure was ripe for plucking. “Oh, my. I have so much to choose from! Where should I begin?”
“Take your pick.”
Zulema straddled him, unbuttoned his jeans, and tugged. She had to move in order to finish taking them off though. When she saw he wasn’t wearing anything underneath, tingles of excitement stirred her. “I like that you went commando.”
He grinned. “I thought it would be easier for you.”
It wouldn’t have been an issue at all if he’d swept a hand to take off his clothes. “I appreciate that.”
“Your turn.”
Shit. She’d forgotten about that. Sitting on the bed, she ditched her shoes and then slipped off her pants. She left her panties on, as well as her top. Having Bevon remove them might be more fun.
“Nice.” Bevon ran a finger under the elastic of her panties, and her skin heated. The electricity charging through her body made Zulema wiggle her hips.
“My turn again,” she announced. Any more of his touches and she’d have to ask him to swipe off their clothes so they could indulge in her next fantasy right away.
He didn’t listen to her request. Instead, he pulled her to his chest and kissed her. Hard. With dominating passion. Zulema gave in and let her hands roam where they wished. His long, silky hair slid through her fingers. Only when she lowered her palms to his face, did the change in texture register. The slight cheek bristle was a turn on.
To hell with taking off the rest of their clothes. He could use his magic if he wanted. Only he didn’t. Bevon never ceased to surprise her.
He slipped his hands under her shirt and lifted the material. “Raise your arms,” he said. She wasn’t going to argue. In a second, her shirt was history. “Bras suck.”
She laughed, and then it was gone. Two could play at this game. “So does your t-shirt.”
“Is that so?” Poof. Shirt gone. Where it went, she didn’t know, nor did she care.
Bevon rolled her onto her back and then slid down between her legs. The anticipation alone had her soaring. When he widened her legs and swiped a tongue across her sensitive nub, she debated dragging his face to hers and biting him on the neck. They were mates, but she didn’t want to rush the emotional connection, even though they had the physical connection down pat.
In between licks, he slipped two fingers into her opening and found her sweet spot in seconds. Zulema pressed her feet against the mattress and lifted her hips, yearning for more pressure. Heat built inside of her.
This is amazing, her dragon panted. Bite him now.
Zulema didn’t have time to debate the timing of their mating, so she didn’t respond. What she wanted was Bevon’s cock—any way she could get it. He wiggled his fingers back and forth, eliciting wave upon wave of erotic lust. As much as she wanted him to plunge into her, she wouldn’t beg. At least not yet. Bevon continued teasing and tempting her, seemingly to need the release from all that happened today.
Bevon reached up and brushed his palm against a sensitive nipple, and her body caught fire at the intimate touch.
“Harder,” she cried out.
“Easy, princess. You’ll get what you want in a moment.”
Bevon returned to frustrating and exciting her. Each swipe sent shards of joy racing up her spine, forcing her to grab his shoulders. As much as she tried not to let her orgasm take over so quickly, when he drew her tiny nub into his mouth and flicked his tongue over her clit, Zulema lost control. Her climax swooped in and claimed her.
Her breath whooshed out. “Incredible,” was all she could manage to say.
“I have a lot more in store for you.”
Keeping his gaze on her face, he elbowed his way up to her. As soon as his lips were close to hers, he slid into her wet opening. Joy surrounded her, as did his white glow. Her nails sharpened as the heat inside her fired up again.
His kisses ignited her desire, and Zulema met his thrusts with equal fervor. Careful to avoid breaking skin, she dug her nails into his shoulders, never losing contact with his luscious lips.
Bevon grunted, and when his eyes flashed gold, he looked like a god. The harder he hammered into her, the higher she soared. Her world spun, and she ceased to think of anything but the incredible joy this man brought to her life.
Bevon broke the kiss, sucked in a big breath, and drove in once more. When he closed his eyes and opened his mouth, Zulema came with the intensity of a hurricane.
A few seconds later, Bevon followed, his cock pulsing and throbbing. What happened after that was a bit unclear. She awoke all snug in the bed with Bevon smiling down at her.
“What happened?” she asked.
“I tired you out. Get up. Time for my makeover.”
Chapter Twenty
While Bevon was working with his mother to create a new persona, Zulema teleported outside to the garden. Arianna had told her that Zulema’s mom was going a bit stir crazy and asked to be allowed to explore the grounds.
When Zulema spotted her mother leaning over some flowers and smelling them, her heart swelled. How was this possible? Every doctor claimed her mother’s condition was fatal. Never did Zulema expect to see her up and about again.
“Mom?” Zulema called. Her mother spun around, smiled, and waved. Zulema jogged over to her. “You look positively radiant.”
Her mother hugged her. “It’s a miracle. I can’t thank you enough for bringing me here. The medical staff is exceptional.”
Bevon’s mom didn’t work for anyone. “Maybe we could sit down. I have some explaining to do.”
Arm in arm, they sauntered over to a bench that was surrounded by richly colored and fragrant flowers, most of which Zulema couldn’t identify. She inhaled. “I love the smell of roses.”
Her mother tucked in her chin. “Roses? They most certainly are gardenias. I should know. Those are my favorite flowers.”
And roses were Zulema’s favorites. Was it possible the scent was tailored to each person? Given what Bevon could do, Zulema was starting to believe anything was possible in F
eyrion. “Maybe they are.”
“Tell me how you found this place. I didn’t see any other patients.”
Oh, my. This would take some work. Now that her health was on the mend, Zulema didn’t want to lie anymore. “This is someone’s home.”
“A home? It’s so big.”
“The woman who treated you is the queen of this realm.”
“This realm? We’re not on Tarradon? Are you saying we’re on Earth?”
Zulema inhaled. This might be more difficult than she thought. “No, not Earth. It all started when someone kidnapped me.”
Her mother sucked in a breath. “What! Why?”
For the next twenty minutes, Zulema detailed her agreement with Derrick and how she ended up falling in love with Bevon. “I know, I know, it was wrong on every level to agree to take another person’s life, but I couldn’t let my captor kill you and Maylora. In the end, everything turned out okay.” She explained about Bevon faking his death.
“Then why hasn’t your sister been freed?”
Zulema was happy that her mother could follow the series of events enough to realize what had transpired. “That is what Bevon and I are about to find out. For now, she and Aislin are safe and hidden in a home somewhere.” Zulema held up a hand. “Don’t ask about my source. It’s complicated.” No one could comprehend Fairies disintegrating into points of light unless they’d seen it with their own eyes. “Bevon and I are going to talk to Derrick to see why he is still holding them captive.”
“But he’ll see Bevon isn’t dead.”
She explained about his mother’s ability to change his looks. “It will be okay. Bevon is far more powerful than Derrick. Nothing bad is going to happen.”
Just because the warlock could take away her powers for as long as he desired, it didn’t mean he could do the same to Bevon. Even Derrick seemed afraid of him. Bevon was a Fey, after all.
Her mother clasped her hand. “This worries me that something will happen to you.”
Zulema figured her mother would respond that way. “I will be fine. I have Bevon.”
“Where is this man? I want to meet him.”
Her mother had met him when Bevon carried her here. Mom must have forgotten. “He’s putting on his disguise for when we meet Derrick. He’ll stop by here soon.”
Her mom’s smile appeared briefly. “If you’re happy, so am I, but be careful. I would die if I lost you.”
“Don’t worry.” Or were those famous last words?
Bevon appeared a few feet from them and smiled. Thank goodness his looks hadn’t changed to her. “How did it go?” Zulema asked.
“My mother made me ugly.”
Zulema laughed, but when she looked over at her mom, her turned down lips implied he was right. Bevon did seem to take pride in his good looks. “Now you get to see how the other half lives,” she said to him.
“As if you know.”
Her mother stood and held out her hand. “Thank you for everything. You saved my life.”
“My mom actually saved you.”
Her mother looked over at Zulema. “But you saved my daughter, too.”
“Zulema saved herself, but I’d like to help your other daughter next. For that to happen, Zulema and I need to leave.”
“Of course.” Her mom turned and hugged her. “Hurry back.”
“We will.”
Zulema pressed her communication bracelet to her chest to activate it. “Where to first?” she telepathed.
“I’ve asked Fay and Meena to confirm that Derrick lives where Logan claims. We’ll stop by the cabin first and move on from there.”
She loved that he wasn’t going to wing it. Derrick Valoric was a dangerous man and needed to be treated with caution.
Once on the front lawn of the castle, Bevon made his usual portal, and seconds later, they were inside his Tarradon cabin. It was almost like home sweet home.
He pressed a hand to his ear. A second later, his two sisters appeared. “How did it go?” Meena asked.
The strange part was she didn’t act surprised by Bevon’s new look, not that Zulema could see it. Maybe Fairies were immune to facial changing too.
“Did you check the address I gave you for Derrick Valoric?” Bevon asked. “We want to speak with him. Now.”
“We did. He’s home—or he was a few minutes ago. But what do you hope to gain?”
Bevon explained about Tristan’s claim that he never said anything about Bevon being Tamarella’s killer.
“Then why did Valoric commission Zulema to kill you?” Fay asked.
“That is what we’d like to find out,” he said.
“You believe he’ll tell you the truth?” his older sister asked.
“I won’t know unless I confront him. It’s not as if he can harm me.”
Zulema was thankful for that.
“How about we take you there? You know I’m not good at giving directions. Once we arrive, Meena and I will check up on Zulema’s sister and her friend to make sure Valoric doesn’t issue some kind of kill order.”
Zulema’s heart plummeted to her chest. Bad news rarely affected her when she was in her bodyguard mode, but when it came to her family, she was way too sensitive.
“I appreciate that.” He looked over at Zulema. “You okay with that plan? I know you’d rather free them first, but I think this is the better approach.”
She was stinging from the idea that Derrick would harm her family even after she’d, in theory, killed Bevon. “I am. Do you think I should carry the medallion? If I don’t have it, I fear he’ll wonder what I’ve done with it—or realize that I know it has a tracking device on it.”
“Definitely take it. You might even be able to use it as a bargaining chip. The medallion for your family.”
“Wouldn’t that be nice? It’s back at my house.”
“Let’s get it.”
Bevon and Zulema clasped hands with the two sisters. A second later all four of them were in Zulema’s house. “I’ll be just a second.”
Once she retrieved it from the deep recesses of her closet, they teleported again to a rather nice neighborhood. This wasn’t the house where her sister and Aislin were being held, but that was okay. Zulema was confident she could get Derrick to release them—even if she had to promise to do more work for him—not that she would, but he didn’t have to know that.
“We’ll make sure Zulema’s family is safe. I don’t trust the Zon not to move them every few days.”
She loved how concerned they were. “Thank you.”
The two sisters disappeared. She was sure they would communicate telepathically if the situation changed.
Bevon faced her. “How about we pretend to be involved romantically?”
That came out of the blue, despite it being true. “Why?”
“At some point I might ask to be exchanged for your sister and your friend. If he thinks I am important to you, he might be willing to make the trade.”
While she loved her sister more than anything, it wouldn’t be fair to ask Bevon to do that. “No!”
He grinned. “It’s not like he can take my powers away. I’ll just teleport out of there if he locks me in a room. If he manages to curb that talent, trust me, I have an arsenal of them.”
“Good to know, but let’s hope it doesn’t come to that. Since I kind of work for him—in a perverted sort of way—let me start the conversation.”
“Sounds good.”
They hadn’t worked out all of the logistics. “What is your name? I can’t call you Bevon or Derrick.”
“What would you like it to be, princess?” Bevon never stopped being the carefree spirit.
“I do love your name, but for obvious reasons, that wouldn’t work. How about Brock Rickart?”
He laughed. “Wherever did you get that name?”
It would be embarrassing to tell him she’d found some silly romance book written by an author on Earth, and that hero was named Brock. “I made it up.”
“B
rock it is.”
She could do this. Zulema just had to think of this as another assignment.
“One other thing,” she said. “We shouldn’t show him you have any abilities. You should pretend to be an ordinary human. Derrick won’t think to remove powers you don’t have.”
His eyes widened as he hissed in a breath. “Even I don’t think I’m that good of an actor.”
He was kidding, so she punched his arm. “You are too. Come on.”
They walked the last few hundred feet to the front of the house. She knocked, hoping Derrick would answer even though he hadn’t responded to her call. Most likely there were cameras pointed at them, so she hooked her arm around Bevon’s.
After a long wait, someone answered, but he didn’t look like the man Bevon had mimicked. This man was several inches over six feet, bald, with a lot of muscles. Bodyguard would be her guess.
“What do you want?” the gruff man asked.
“I’m Zulema Garcia. I’ve completed a job for Mr. Valoric and would like my compensation.”
The man nodded to Bevon. “Who’s he?”
She was so tempted to say he was the man she was sent to kill, but that would be stupid. “He’s my boyfriend, and he insisted on coming with me.” She rolled her eyes, trying to stay in character. “Not that he would stand a chance against someone like you.”
Sure, she’d poured it on a little thick, but having worked with many other male bodyguards, she understood their big ego.
“Come this way.”
Yes! Now came the hard part.
The bald bodyguard led them down a hallway. At the end, he knocked.
“Come in.”
That voice. It gave her the chills. She casually pressed the bracelet to her chest. “That’s him.”
The guard pushed open the door, and they stepped inside. The room was nothing like the opulent office she’d been taken to during her captivity. This one was more modern and didn’t have some fancy bar. Interesting.
Even though she’d seen what Derrick looked like for a small window of time when Bevon had his looks, seeing Valoric in person unnerved her. Since she’d completed the mission—as far as Derrick was concerned—she had no reason to believe he would try to take away her powers again.