by Cheever, Sam
She wrapped her arms and one leg around him, then planted the other foot and shoved hard. Magic sparked against his skin as she used it to give her the power to roll him beneath her.
“It’s my turn to drive,” she told him with a smile. Kissing him quickly on the lips, she sat up and straddled his hips. With a playful smile, she rolled her hips to grind her pussy into his cock.
Draigh groaned. “I don’t know how much longer I’ll last if you keep that up, witch.”
Her only response was a husky laugh. Ardith slid down his body, the gentle scrape of her crisp petticoats abrading his sensitized skin, until she could clasp his dick in her hand. “Mmm, lovely,” she murmured before opening her lush lips and sliding him into the heat and pressure of her mouth.
Draigh’s head went back and his limbs weakened under the delightful feel of her velvet lips and tongue sliding over his length. His toes curled when she wrapped that tongue around the thick head of his cock and teased the tender skin there.
He cried out as she inserted her talented tongue into the slit at the end, gently squeezing his balls as she tasted his most sensitive flesh. “Gods.” His back arched and his thighs tightened beneath her. Then she abandoned the slit and lowered her mouth over him once again, nearly to the balls, increasing the pressure of her delightful lips as she dragged her mouth back to the tip. All the while the exquisite clasp of her fingers weighted his balls and teased the sensitive skin behind them.
Draigh was afraid he wouldn’t last much longer. His muscles quivered under the need to bury himself deep and pound hard and fast into her body. As the knot in his belly tightened, and his vision fractured with stars, Draigh knew he had to stop her or he’d succumb to his release without the wondrous pleasure of her body tightening around him. He reached for her, dragging her up and attempting to roll her beneath him.
He bit back an oath as her skirts scraped delightfully over the sensitive skin of his cock. She happily settled over him, sliding her tongue across his lips. But she wouldn’t let him take the superior position.
Ardith placed a restraining hand on his chest. “No. Just lie there. I want to ride you.” She grasped the mass of skirts and petticoats and lifted them, rising above him to position herself over his cock.
Draigh’s heart pounded hard against his ribs as he took in the delightful picture of her crouching over him, holding a sea of fabric in her hand and still wearing dainty black boots and lace edged socks. She guided his cock toward the moist, swollen lips of her pussy.
He gasped as the first inch of his cock slipped inside. His eyes closed and he nearly came on the spot as she wriggled her hips and slid down his length. She stopped as her buttocks hit his thighs and the walls of her channel pulsed around him.
It was the most incredible feeling.
Draigh opened his eyes and looked at her. She straddled his hips, her head was dropped back, her eyes were closed, and she’d pulled her lush breasts free of the taut material of her dress. She was tweaking the pert, dark pink nubs and breathing in short, sharp little bursts, with his shaft buried deep inside her channel.
Draigh had never seen anything so erotic in his life. His cock twitched with pure delight and she moaned at the feel of it.
He reached up and slipped a finger along the pale, perfect roundness on the underside of one breast, watching her reaction to his touch. Her mouth parted farther and her tongue came out to slide along her lower lip.
He skimmed a finger along the top edge and arched his hips, burying himself more deeply inside her.
Ardith cried out and started to move. Her body caressed his cock like a silken glove, teasing the sensitive skin in exquisite friction.
Draigh reached up and covered her hands on her breasts, squeezing them gently. Ardith’s hands slipped out from under his and she skimmed them over his chest, tweaking his nipples as he gently pinched hers.
Her body moved over his with renewed urgency. A flush rose into her face, pinking her cheeks. Draigh watched her pretty face as she strove toward release. He felt himself barreling toward his own orgasm.
And when she dropped forward, capturing his lips in a voracious kiss, Draigh growled out his pleasure and rolled, taking care not to crush her with his weight. He covered her mouth and throat in hungry kisses. Tasting, nipping, laving them with a need so rampant he wasn’t sure he would survive its culmination.
His hips pistoned, driving his cock into her with a mindless lust that she met thrust for thrust. She bit his lips and cried out, her channel pulsing around his cock. Draigh tasted blood and growled in response. He captured her small, soft hands and pulled them high above her head. He lowered his head and sucked a rosebud colored nipple into his mouth, biting it just to the point where she cried out, and then sucking it to ease the sting. He followed suit with the other nipple, all the while pounding himself into her body in building frenzy.
Ardith screamed out another release and Draigh felt his own orgasm rolling over him, tightening his muscles and sending bright stars to burst before his eyes.
Then his cock twitched, hard, and his balls tightened, and he cried her name as he spent himself deep inside her body.
~AM~
By unspoken agreement, Draigh left her alone in his rooms to dress. Ardith suspected he was feeling some of the same things she was feeling and wasn’t any better than she was at dealing with them.
They’d made love all afternoon, culminating in a truly stupendous episode in the shower. But it was time to say goodbye.
She didn’t know if she could do it. Her heart actually hurt. Real, physical pain at the idea of leaving him.
She could still feel his hands running over her…taste his lips…and smell his intoxicating male scent on her skin. The thought of going back to being without him was like a knife buried deep in her heart. The sensation was so real she found it hard to breathe around the pain.
The door to his rooms opened and Ardith looked up, expecting to see the pert, pretty face of the little maid again. Instead she found the wide, handsome face of the man she’d come to love. Despite her better judgment.
His silvery gaze took in the slightly rumpled dress and the damp tangle of her hair which she was preparing to braid. He frowned suddenly and looked away, his jaw flexing with some kind of emotion. “We’d best be going.”
Ardith took a deep, shaky breath and nodded. She headed toward the portal, stepping past its shimmering, magical face and waiting for him to join her.
Draigh stood outside the portal. With a jolt she realized he wasn’t coming with her.
“It’s best if we part here,” he told her in a voice that was more growl than words.
Ardith bit her lip, nodded. Then, she wasn’t able to keep from reaching a hand toward him, through the snap and sting of the magic layer separating them.
He stared at the offering. His face was taut, the muscle in his jaw jumping. His hands were clenched so tightly at his sides that his knuckles were white.
Confused and unsure, Ardith started to draw her hand back.
Draigh growled and lunged for it. Ardith gasped as he grasped it and yanked her back out of the portal. “Gods save me I can’t let you go, witch.” He wrapped his arms around her and dragged her into the familiar and comforting heat of his big body. “I love you. I’m not sure I can go on without you.”
Ardith gave up trying to stop the tears from falling. She released a shuddering cry and held onto him with every bit of strength she had. “I love you too, Draigh.”
They stood that way for a long moment, each of them lost in a sea of emotions.
When Draigh started to shake, Ardith thought he having a convulsion. She reared back and looked up at him, alarmed. She was amazed to see a tear glistening on his ruddy cheek and a grin splitting his face.
She frowned. “What are you laughing at?” Then she realized he must have been toying with her and she shoved away from him. “You monster. Did you say you loved me just to get me to say it back?”
Dra
igh shook his head, his grin widening. “Nay, you little nut. I love you so much my belly feels as if it’s stuck with knives. I’m laughing because I’m so happy to hear you say it.” He reached to tug on her braid. “And because that’s the first time you’ve ever actually said my name. And you didn’t even spit when you said it.”
Ardith let her frown slide away and, though she fought it, the smile came. “There’s still time to spit. I don’t think I’ve ever met a more exasperating man.”
He abandoned the grin in favor of a full out belly laugh. After her shock at seeing him laugh, Ardith found it highly infectious and didn’t even bother to try to fight it. In fact, they were laughing so hard they didn’t even notice when Blackthorne joined them in the room.
At the sound of his cleared throat they both jumped. Ardith spun around, her hands already holding sputtering balls of witch fire as her mind registered who she was seeing. “Mage, for someone who’s lived hundreds of years you aren’t very wise,” Ardith scolded. “You really shouldn’t sneak up on us like that.”
“Gods, man. I could have pierced ye before I saw who ye were.” Draigh had his long knives clutched in his fists and was frowning.
Blackthorne’s handsome, black face was characteristically morose, but Ardith noted a telltale spark in the dark gaze. “I have a high opinion of your restraint, epoch mage.” He inclined his head toward Draigh. “And yours, hunter.”
Draigh just shook his head. “What brings you to my home, mage?”
“I come with news. It appears that the authority and the council were well pleased with your work in capturing the rogue Edwige.”
Ardith rolled her eyes. “Yeah, they should be. We kicked ass.” She grinned at Draigh and he smiled back, pulling her under his arm.
The spark in Blackthorne’s eye sharpened. If Ardith didn’t know better she’d think he was happy about something. “Yes. Well. Be that as it may…the elders have decided it didn’t make sense to split you two up. In fact you’re about to make history.”
Ardith’s heart started to beat as the pain there lessoned slightly, replaced by hope. “What does that mean exactly?”
“It means you and the hunter are to be the first ever permanent hunter and mage partnership. You’ll be watched carefully of course, to monitor how the partnership is working.” Blackthorne cocked his head, allowing a small smile to curve his lips. “But I believe the elders will find the arrangement satisfactory, don’t you?”
They stared at him for a long moment, speechless.
Blackthorne frowned. “Unfortunately your first assignment is to find the witch Edwige and her apprentice again. I’m afraid Joris managed to release the rogue from the Social Club prison before we could get her safely ensconced in the Authority dungeons.”
Ardith was stunned. “Oh my god! Tell me it isn’t true?”
Blackthorne held her gaze, his dark eyes snapping with pique. “I’m afraid I can’t do that, Ardith. Lady Penelope is not pleased about the lapse and the black mark it has given the council.”
Draigh sighed, his big hand sliding possessively over her arm. “I think I begin to see why they decided to keep us together, witch.”
She looked up at him and couldn’t help grinning. She and the hunter were about to embark on a partnership that promised to keep them together for a long time to come. If she had Edwige and her boy toy to thank for it, well then, so be it.
It had never been done. Most believed it wasn’t possible. The two organizations had a long history of being at odds. Most of the time a hunter and a mage couldn’t even be in the same room together without bloodshed. Yet she and Draigh had done it already. They’d worked together and both survived the process.
More than survived it.
Much more.
“Remind me to kiss the rogue on the lips when we find her, for making it possible for us to stay together,” she told Draigh.
His wide mouth turned up into a smile and his silvery-blue gaze sparkled with good humor. Draigh gave a whoop and Ardith jumped, laughing as he lifted her off her feet and swung her around the room. His lips found hers and she sighed against them. Suddenly the hunger they should have assuaged with hours of lovemaking was back, its power stealing the very air from her lungs.
Ardith twined her fingers in the heavy silk of his hair and her tongue slipped through to tangle with his.
At some point Blackthorne disappeared from the room. Ardith didn’t even notice his departure.
Her world had righted. The pain in her heart was gone, replaced by a knot of longing in her belly that demanded release. And the man she loved with all her heart proceeded to set her newly righted world to spinning again.
Only this time she fully intended to enjoy the ride.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
USA Today Bestselling Author Sam Cheever writes romantic paranormal/fantasy and mystery/suspense, creating stories that celebrate the joy of love in all its forms. Known for writing great characters, snappy dialogue, and unique and exhilarating stories, Sam is the award-winning author of 50+ books and has been writing for over a decade under several noms de plume.
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