by Hazel Hunter
Hailey did as Liona said, feeling shockingly young and inexperienced under her guidance. She knew that Piers and Kieran were centuries older than her, but it was different with Liona. She was a powerful witch with a thousand years behind her, but she was also beautiful and tough, with a ready smirk and an open laugh. In that moment, Hailey wanted nothing more than to do exactly what Liona said.
As she pleasured Hailey’s mouth, her delicate fingertips traced a line down her jaw, then her neck, dipping lightly into the hollow between her collar bones. Moving under the blanket, her light touch skimmed Hailey’s breasts, her belly, and slowly circled the dip of her navel. The tender touch was just short of teasing, and way past maddening. Hailey gasped when Liona nipped her lower lip firmly.
“You were made for many things. I hope you understand that,” Liona said softly. “You were made for love, and passion, and for pleasure as well. If I give you anything, let me give you the last, for I can see that you have the rest in abundance.”
Liona’s hand reached down and flipped up the hem of Hailey’s nightgown. She sleeked her palm up the curve of Hailey’s hip and then down between her thighs. Hailey’s breath caught when Liona paused. Then with a soft sigh that Liona drank into her own mouth, Hailey parted her legs.
“So beautiful,” Liona murmured. “Have you been with a woman before?”
Hailey blushed.
“No, I–”
Liona silenced her with another kiss, even as those clever fingertips played along Hailey’s slit. She was already a little wet. She could no longer deny that the more sensual aspects of Liona’s story had aroused her. She wondered if that was what Liona had intended, but she put the thought away. It was unworthy of Liona, and unworthy of her own desire to think so.
Liona’s fingers found her clit with startling swiftness, but she didn’t rub it. Instead, she ran the pads of her fingers around the already pulsing nub, stroking the flesh surrounding it as much as the sensitive part itself.
Hailey found herself pushing her hips towards the other woman’s touch, begging for it with little squeaks and moans. When Liona’s fingertips grew dry, she dipped them down further into Hailey’s channel, bringing the liquid up to bathe her flesh.
“Close your legs around my hand. Close them tight.”
Hailey did as Liona said. In a matter of moments she was riding the other woman’s hand, her body trembling and shaking with desire.
“I think I’m going to…”
“Do it.” Liona’s voice was a whip crack of command.
The ecstasy, bright as the sun, ripped through Hailey’s body. She shook hard, crowding against Liona, who never stopped the movement of her hand.
“Keep your legs tight,” Liona murmured harshly. “Give me more.”
When she kept her legs closed instead of relaxing them, the tremors of her climax died down, but they never finished. To Hailey’s shock, they started rising again, faster this time. She was helpless at Liona’s touch. She moaned with the need for release, her belly clenching and her channel pulsing.
“Please…” Hailey gasped. But Liona only twisted her hand, coiling even more tendrils of pleasure in Hailey’s mound. “Oh gods, Liona, please…”
Her harsh whisper was like a godsend. “Now.”
Hailey’s back arched and her entire body quaked with her second orgasm. Liona cupped her mound, squeezing her pounding clit. Hailey could hardly get a breath. Her hips were no longer under her control. They obeyed Liona––and she wasn’t done.
Hailey’s mound pushed into Liona’s hand as the woman’s fingers cupped her harder, then relaxed, then cupped her again. Tremors of ecstasy rose and fell in time, as she rocked Hailey in her arms. Only when Hailey whimpered into her chest, did the hand that controlled her finally begin to slow. With steadily lessening pressure, Liona’s gentle clasp guided Hailey’s hips in small, languorous circles. The rhythmic gyration helped the last waves of pleasure to dim. Finally Liona’s hand came to a rest.
Hailey collapsed back to the bed as she gasped. She was spent, her belly warm and her limbs wonderfully languid. For several moments, there was only the sound of her panting breaths. When she could finally glance at Liona, the other woman was lapping Hailey’s juices off her hand, a look of pure satisfaction on her face.
“What a little beauty you are,” Liona purred. “If I had more time, and I thought you could take it, I would do so many things to you.”
Something new in Liona’s tone cut through the haze of lingering pleasure.
“Things?” Hailey breathed. Though she tried to stop herself from asking, she couldn’t. “Like…like what?”
“Oh, so many things. I would love to see if you could make me climax the way that I made you. I would love to see that adorable rear of yours pink and sore. I might like to see if you could take my fist inside you.”
Hailey grew redder and redder with every word, but she couldn’t deny the rush of heat that suffused her face and other parts.
“You are a dangerous woman to know,” she whispered.
“So I’ve been told. Sometime, you should come to Rome and see where I live. I’m not so blind that I think you are a single woman, but you could bring your coven master as well.”
“It…might not just be Piers.”
Liona’s laugh was rich and lovely.
“More like me than I thought! Well then, after all of this is over, you’ll come to Rome to see me. Bring your lovers. I have so many lovely things to show you.”
Hailey almost couldn’t think of a future so bright: when she was healed, when she might have Kieran and Piers together. A whole other life waited for her, one that was almost beyond her ability to imagine. She curled up at Liona’s side as if to protect herself. It was too much to hope for. She couldn’t think of it.
Instead, as the tremors of pleasure Liona had given her dulled to an abiding warmth, her mind drifted back to Liona’s story.
“You were telling me of your rescue,” she said. “Gaius and Lucius had come for you.”
“You asked before if this story had a happy ending. I am willing to call it happy. For the rest, well, as I know very well, and I think you will too, life is very long.”
• • • • •
Liona never remembered the time after their rescue very clearly. She knew that they had looted the temple before leaving it. The treasure that they had found allowed them to rent a villa on the edge of what she now realized was Alexandria. The other rescued people stayed with them. She could hear them sometimes, talking, laughing, crying and sometimes shouting.
The villa smelled of roses, and when she could rise from her bed, Liona found out why. There were rose bushes everywhere, small, and left to grow weedy and wild. There was a wrought iron symbol that represented a rose above the villa’s gate.
She and Augusta slept in the same bed, eating slowly and healing. Gaius was by their side constantly. He fed them; he allowed them up for walks when he thought they were strong enough; he kept them abed when they were not. Slowly, they gained their strength. Liona saw the shadow in Augusta’s eyes, however, and some part of her still feared for the sister she once knew.
Lucius came to see them often, but there was something dark about him. There was something that kept him restless, even when he was sitting beside her. She thought she knew what it was. She clung to his hand, trying not to think about it.
Liona slowly got her voice back. First she could speak only in whispers. After that it was almost a week before she could make a sound. Two weeks after that, Gaius judged that she was healed well enough to do as she pleased, a moment that she had been waiting for.
That night, for the first time since they had found each other again, she left Augusta’s bed. She found the room that Lucius and Gaius were sharing. When she joined them there, she raised an eyebrow at them.
“Are you ready for me?” she asked, her tone throaty and nervous at the same time.
Gaius smiled as if the sun would never set. Lucius’s gri
n was pure wickedness.
Almost as one, they lifted her and carried her to the bed, their mouths ravenous on her mouth, her cheeks, her shoulders. They stripped her clothes from her as though they were parchment, leaving her bare and needy.
“Come see what we have learned while you left us,” Gaius muttered hotly against her skin.
“I never want to leave you again,” she said.
When Lucius paused, she leaned up to wrap her hand around his neck, bringing him down to kiss her.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
LIONA HAD A month of the life that she never knew she wanted. The villa was isolated, an old property from when Rome ruled over the entire region. Now it was left empty, though refugees from the golden god, other people of power, were finding and making it their home.
She and Gaius created a list of work that needed to be done, allocating tasks to those best suited for them. She was delighted to see the way that people healed and rallied. The going was slow, but the villa was turning into a place of safety and warmth.
Lucius was not a part of that. Liona watched as he closeted himself with Titus and increasingly with Augusta too. She knew what was going on.
One evening, Lucius asked Gaius and her to take dinner with him. They followed him to the beach where Titus and Augusta waited for them. There was a feast of cheese, bread, fruit and lamb waiting for them. The sun was setting over the water. Liona ate the food, but it tasted like ashes in her mouth.
“They’re still out there,” Lucius said finally. “The servers of the golden god. They called themselves the Order of the Dragon, but that is not the only name that they use. They hunt us, and this cannot be allowed to stand.”
“Oh?” Gaius said. “And what do you propose to do about it?”
Liona glanced at Gaius, who seemed genuinely startled.
“They’re going to go hunting,” she said sadly.
Lucius watched her warily.
“This is something that needs to be done,” he said. “As long as they are hunting people like us, there will never be any kind of peace.”
“And so you will chase them like a hound on the scent, across the world, across the water, far away.” She couldn’t keep the bitterness out of her voice.
“He’s right,” Titus said. “They will never stop, and that means that we can’t either, not while they live.”
She had gotten to know him over the past weeks. He was a gentle man, amused at the aridity of the region and how hard it was for him to summon the clouds that could bring rain. She could see why Lucius loved him so well.
“That doesn’t mean we have to go looking for them,” Gaius said, his jaw set. “That doesn’t mean we have to go looking for a war.”
“We can find it or it can find us,” Augusta spoke with calm determination. She had healed well after her ordeal, but the scars she bore from the sacrifice table would be with her for years if they ever faded at all.
“All three of you are fighters,” Liona said. “You will go with all the love and all the luck I can give you.”
Gaius stared at her. “You can’t be happy that they are doing this.”
Liona’s laugh was dark.
“If I thought it would help, I would chain them down until they came to their senses. Gaius, they cannot be swayed from this. In a fashion, they are right.”
“In a fashion?” asked Lucius.
He still looked wary. It occurred to Liona that he thought she could change his mind. She knew she could, but it would never stick. He might stay for a month, a half dozen months, or a year, but after that, the call to battle would be too strong for him.
“Gaius and I are building a place for people of power. In a little while, when people are working for pay, we can purchase this villa outright, and it will be truly ours. All who have power will be welcome here. We can help each other, support each other.” She paused. “We will be a home for you to come back to.”
Lucius came to kneel beside her. Gaius pressed against her other side.
“I love you both,” she whispered. “We will have our lives together. We must.”
• • • • •
Liona’s words faded away. It was full dark now, and Hailey released the breath she had been holding.
“That was it,” she whispered, awed. “That was the birth of the coven system. That was the beginning of the Magus Corps.”
Liona laughed. Her voice was slightly rusty from having spoken for so long. She sat up to drink a glass of water.
“Yes. Lucius would chase the worshipers of the golden god for decades. Soon he realized that they called themselves something else, and centuries later, they became Templars. Gaius and I stayed at the villa in Alexandria, and we made it into a place for them to come back to. We found healers and mindreaders, flyers and more. We gave them a home after they had been shunned all their lives. Lucius, Augusta, and Titus sent word to us. Sometimes, they hunted together, and sometimes their travels scattered them across the globe. Augusta and Titus came home to us to be married, but they wouldn’t stay.”
“Did Lucius ever want to come home to you?” Hailey asked, wanting the answer but also dreading it.
“I don’t know. I like to think he would have, but I am likely wrong. He disappeared during the days of the First Crusade.”
Hailey could feel tears pricking at her eyes. She threw herself across the bed to wrap herself around Liona.
“Thank you,” Hailey murmured. “Thank you for everything you did, everything you endured.”
Liona hugged her back just as fiercely. For a long moment, they rocked in each other’s arms, each taking comfort for the other.
A crisp knock at the door startled them apart. When Piers opened it, Liona looked as composed as she had before she began telling the story.
“Hello, coven master,” Liona said cordially. “Afraid I am keeping your patient up at all hours?”
Piers’s smile was slight.
“As you keep reminding me, you will do as you please, and she looks well enough to me. However, I will ask for a moment with her alone. I have news that she needs to hear.”
Liona nodded. She turned to give Hailey a last hug.
“The future is what it is,” she said. “It will come whether we like it or not, but I will tell you this. If I had to bet, my money is going to be on you.”
She left, closing the door behind her.
“She’s amazing,” Hailey said.
Piers nodded. “I’m trying to ask her to talk to our historian. This is something of a once in a lifetime opportunity.” He came to sit on the edge of Hailey’s bed, looking startled when she took his hand. “I wanted to tell you that I love you. I…I know things haven’t been easy. But I do love you. This is a true thing, and I need to tell you. I love you.”
She had been about to say the same words to him, when something else in his voice rang in her ears. There was something more than the words there, something tinged with grief and pain. She couldn’t understand it.
“Piers?”
He took a deep breath.
“Major Kieran McCallen is on his way. He should be here in three days time.”
Hailey felt her heart leap at the mention of Kieran’s name.
“Piers…”
“I understand,” he said softly.
The kiss he gave her was gentle. Then he rose to his feet and walked to the door.
“No matter what happens, I love you,” he said.
Alone in her room, her thoughts whirled like a carousel.
Kieran is coming back. And Piers loves me.
• • • • •
Hailey’s story continues in CLAIMED: Castle Coven Book Four, available now.
For a sneak peak, turn the page.
Excerpt:
CLAIMED
Castle Coven Book Four
An hour later, Hailey knocked gently at the door to Piers’s room, holding her long bathrobe tightly around her body.
Piers opened it immediately, sweeping her in
his arms. Her damp hair clung to his face, making her giggle a little when he pulled back to spit it out. He carried her to his bed, where he sat down with his back against the headboard and settled her on his lap.
“Is all well? Did he hurt you?”
Hailey shook her head.
“I am going with him tomorrow, Piers,” she said softly. “That is not something you can talk me out of. However, I am here tonight, and I want you.”
Piers sat very still for a long moment. He was dressed only in a pair of old pajama bottoms, and seated on top of him, she could feel his cock stir.
“Are you sure? I understand that with McCallen here…”
“Are you going to question what I want too?” Hailey snapped, her temper licking up. “Why is it that when I express something that I clearly want that two of the most important men in my world keep asking me if I’m sure?”
Piers’s laugh was soft. He nuzzled her behind the ear, making her purr with pleasure.
“Well, when you put it that way, it makes me sound like an ass,” he murmured. “Still, I think I’m allowed to have questions, don’t you?”
Hailey started to answer, but she jumped when his hand slid underneath her robe. She was completely naked underneath it. She squirmed as his warm hand crept from her knee up to her thigh.
“What…what questions do you have?” she gasped.
“Well, for example, I’m curious that after you left the room of a man with whom you have a history, you felt the need to shower before you came to see me. Why would you do that?”
His hand stroked over the curve of her hip. The edge of his thumb traced the curling hair of her mound, making her whimper.
“I…I’ve been in bed for weeks. I wanted the chance to get clean, to just be on my own for a little while…”
“Hmm. It’s a good thing that I’m not a more suspicious man. I might have thought you needed to wash something away.”