by Eden Rivers
When he took her face between his hands and kissed her, she decided the touching might be the best part. She felt lost tonight. Hollow and wrung out. And his thumb stroking her cheek told her someone cared. Been a long time since she could say that.
You like to cast yourself in the role of loner, Skylark. But you deserve loving as much as anyone else.
Something about having Zach brush his thoughts against hers ‑‑ and use the nickname Alec had given her ‑‑ undid her. She closed her eyes, determined that not so much as a single blessed tear would sneak out, and thankfully Zach didn’t comment on her dark mood. Instead, he moved down between her legs, rubbing his silken soft hair against her inner thighs like a puppy.
As the knot of sadness eased loose, she reached down to touch his head. Zach provided exactly half of what she needed right now. The other half wore his hair as wavy and wild as Zach’s was downy soft and neatly groomed, and pretty much hated her at the moment.
“Hey!” She flinched when Zach nipped the crease of her thigh, catching her off guard.
“I’m here. I like you plenty. Stop wallowing and come for me.”
While she tried to decide if she should be pissed off or amused, he dragged his tongue directly over her clit, then swirled it lower, dipping into her pussy like a hummingbird sipping a flower. He stroked her thighs and stomach, teasing patterns of pleasure across her skin, and under his touch, her entire body felt like an extended erogenous zone.
She clenched up and rose off the bed, pulling his hair for all she was worth. He took her clit between his teeth and shook his head ever so gently, teasing the tender flesh until blue sparks exploded behind her eyelids. She screamed as her body bucked under his mouth. When the world returned to its normal shape, Zach detached her fingers from his hair and moved up to kiss her, his mouth wet and tangy with her scent.
“Making this too easy for me, witch.”
When he got up to turn out the light, then lifted her to pull the coverlet out from underneath her, she watched him move with a mix of awe and curiosity. “No guy ever brought me off that fast.”
Of course, she didn’t add that Lena used to be able to, all those years ago. She watched as he summoned a swirling green orb over his palm and tipped the glow sphere onto the bowl of scented oil on the bedside table. As the sphere floated on the sweet-smelling oil, the room filled with the scent of lavender, and green light cast wavy patterns on the walls.
With his shirt unbuttoned halfway, he reminded her of a partially unwrapped present. Something about the combination of sleep deprivation and emotional pain made her insatiable, desperate to lose herself under his body and block out a world of harsh reality.
“Shirt can come off if you want. As for losing yourself for a while, no harm in that. I can do with a little less reality myself, at present.” Settling beside her on the bed, he brought her hands up to the buttons. “And FYI, I’m not competing with Lena, or Alec, or anyone else. Tonight’s just about being together. Feeling good. Caring about each other. And forgetting the details of the lousiest fucking day I’ve had in years.”
Making quick work of the buttons, she tossed his shirt aside and traced the outline of the hawk tattoo with her fingertip. “Sorry. Never going to get used to being linked so close…oh!”
His aura flared to life with so much energy that hers shimmered free of its own accord. Her clit twitched at the joy of being able to mingle power like this again, her pure, healthy violet intertwining with his emerald green. He used his hands to touch the energy in all the right places, sending a ripple effect through her body.
Drunk with pleasure, she settled back against the pillows as he once again took up position with his head between her legs. Worry and stress melted off her as he dragged his tongue across her clit in a side to side motion guaranteed to make her come in about two minutes, if only he kept moving just like that.
What about this?
Shifting tactics, he rubbed his face against the sensitive skin of her inner thigh, his stubble providing just enough friction to make her squirm. He reached up to hold her hips between his strong hands, pinning her to the bed, and rather than feeling trapped, she felt safe. Before she could dwell on why, he plunged his tongue inside her with an upward stroke guaranteed to send her senses reeling. Liquid and trembling, she rolled with the movements of his mouth, arching into the heat, wanting him to fill her with more than just his tongue.
Patience. Two more first, remember?
Moving back to her clit, he teased with the tip of his tongue, featherlight and so fast, she squealed under the intensity of the caresses. Then, he covered her throbbing, swollen lips with his mouth, sending shock waves rippling all the way up to her nipples. She knotted her fists in the sheets to avoid tearing at his hair again, and with a sharp nip, followed by more rapid strokes of his tongue, he sent her crashing into nirvana.
Before she had a chance to stop shaking, he sat up and pulled her onto his lap, his cock pressing hard against his pants as he settled her bottom against him. This felt good, the holding part. Screw Alec for rushing off to hunt down dark lords, without so much as stopping by to see if she was okay. Served him right, missing out on this.
“Hey.” Zach’s voice touched her the same way his hands cradled her, with warmth and affection. “Alec came undone earlier, while we waited outside Jaimis’s wards. Knowing you were inside ‑‑ in danger, maybe hurt ‑‑ but unable to enter. I thought he’d go insane with worry. Thought I would too, for that matter.”
Her anger toward Alec melted away, replaced by a dull ache. Didn’t pay to let people get close. Just hurt more when it came time for them to leave.
“You really got hurt when Lena left, didn’t you?”
Fucking link. “I hurt her, scared her off. Then all but destroyed her life when I went to the press after the pentacle rite.” She couldn’t even talk about the part when Jaimis made her hurt Lena, marking her former roommate ‑‑ former friend, former lover ‑‑ with the bite of the whip.
“Want to explain why it all happened? Sometimes it helps to have a sympathetic ear.”
“Stupidity and naiveté. Jaimis is charismatic as hell, or was, before he started going mad. He presented a compelling picture. A world where witches could openly embrace our true natures. I fell for it all ‑‑ thought humans would rush to thank us for bailing them out of an environmental mess with the pentacle rite. Jaimis had me that blinded. Didn’t figure out the part about the blood rites until too late. By then, he intended me and Alec as his next sacrifices.”
Shuddering, she fought back a wave of bile at the thought of the rogue witch drawing their power into him, taking their energy as his own as he dragged a sharp blade across their throats. But that hadn’t happened. She clung to Zach’s salty scent, and the warmth of his body against hers, as an anchor to the present.
Zach rocked her for a while, stroking her face and running his hands through her hair where it pooled around him like a black shawl. “Ready for number three?”
“Hell, yes.” She kissed the side of his neck, shivering as their auras danced around them. Anything to chase off the after tremors of horror from having faced Jaimis on his own turf less than twelve hours ago and her creeping fear when she thought about what could have happened. “And thanks for listening.”
As she settled into her nest of pillows, she expected him to move back between her legs. But instead, he snuggled in beside her and covered her breasts with wet kisses.
You said mouth, no hands. Didn’t say where my mouth had to be.
As he nibbled her flesh, working his way inward toward the areola, she felt the painful tightness in his balls as if she inhabited his body. The more heat they built, the more the link overwhelmed her shields. She felt the press of his zipper against his cock through his thin boxers, painful and irritating, and wiggled out from underneath him to free him from his pants.
When she fumbled with the zipper, he moved her hands away and did it for her, discarding his silk boxers
as well as his pants. Then he lifted her and laid her back on the pillows, her hair spreading out around her on the sheets. He moved back to her breasts, his brown eyes serious every time he looked up to check on her.
“Worried I’ll get bored?”
“More like I’m concerned I asked too much. Maybe shouldn’t have dragged you back to relive painful choices. Especially after what you went through today. Or I guess that’s yesterday already, since midnight’s long past now.”
Taking his head between her hands, Sky guided his mouth toward her right breast. “I’d rather you understand ‑‑ Alec too, for that matter ‑‑ than have you think I’d followed Jaimis out of greed, seeking power or prestige.”
She sighed when he took her nipple into his mouth and sucked, sending zings of sensation across to the other side, then directly down to her clit. “My family was big on hiding who we were. They were so ashamed of me. Not just for what they called ‘tramping around,’ but for how much I used magic. That I’d snap my fingers to stop the plunge of a dish toward the floor. Kindle a light sphere rather than turning on a lamp.”
Ever so gently, he took her nipple between his teeth and pulled away from her body until the flesh flattened out and delicious stretchy-burning sensations raced across her chest.
And then Jaimis offered you acceptance ‑‑ and not just for you, but for all witches.
“A very…” She panted as he moved to the other side, stretching her nipple until the areola flattened out, and she squirmed at the almost unbearable bliss. “Compelling argument.”
Which is why the maniac has picked up so many followers. He may be evil, insane even, but the rogue witch has a vision.
“I’m getting creeped out…” She hissed through her teeth as he nipped her hard enough to send tingles racing across the surface of her skin. “Having this discussion…while…”
What discussion?
Ending the conversation right there, Zach finally scooted down and settled between her wide open legs. Just as he’d pulled at her nipples, he took the swollen tip of her clit between his teeth and stretched until she keened with the urgency of her need. “Now! Oh, fuck, now!”
Chapter Twelve
One, two, three strokes of his tongue, warm and insistent on her burning flesh. Four. Her world collapsed to the size of a robin’s egg. Five. Energy exploded outward, and their auras expanded to encompass the entire bed. Six. Her body convulsed under his mouth. Seven. His tongue drew wrenching aftershocks from her, triggering another round of spasms. Eight.
“No, oh goddess, no more!” She grabbed his hair and pulled him away, still twitching as he moved up beside her and took her in his arms.
“Shh. You’re okay. It’ll be better next time, with something inside you to clench around. Felt that through you. Nearly spilled on the sheets.” Stroking her face, he continued crooning to her under his breath.
“Why don’t you ever lose control enough that your English breaks down, like Alec?” Her heart ached as she said his name. He belonged here, with them. Not off doing something hard and dangerous, after they’d all risked so much already.
“Not a matter of control. You drive me far outside the bounds of that. My parents are big on blending in ‑‑ apple pie on the Fourth of July, and all that. Never let my grandmother teach me Korean.” He smoothed her damp hair away from her face, stroking her with so much tenderness that she wondered what she could have done to deserve his affection.
“Not a matter of deserving, witch. Just is. And as for the bit about Alec, he needs a chance to collect himself. Piece himself back together. Meant a lot to him, when Matt asked for help tracking down some of the names on your list of dark lords. Something else I should tell you, too. Much as Alec’s been clinging to the idea of revenge, it’s a damn good thing he didn’t get his hands on Jaimis earlier.”
Trying to sort through all that, she nuzzled her head against his shoulder, like a cat asking for more petting. He obliged, stroking her hair.
“Alec’s not a killer. Damn witch and I have gone round so many times about me carrying a gun, it’s a wonder we managed to stay friends.”
With a shudder, she wondered if Alec would be able to accept the fact that she’d killed. The ugly reality of taking a life wasn’t sitting too well with her, for that matter. Her stomach clenched as she slid back into the past, pressing furiously with her own energy field to try to free Scott. The dark lord would have died horribly, victim of the same fate he’d subjected Scott to, once she deflected the spell back his way.
“Self-defense, witch. Hard to live with after the fact, but deflecting a spell’s accepted in every book of ethics our people have written. As for Alec, he didn’t intend to slay Jaimis in self-defense. Blood debt’s a hard, cold thing. If he’d managed it, I think it would have destroyed him.”
Unable to keep up with the swings between carnal bliss and cold, hard reality, she let out a distressed sigh, wondering if it was time to call it a night and roll over and go to sleep.
“Just thought you should see the whole picture. Alec thought he could make himself whole by killing Jaimis. But the witch who finally manages it ‑‑ she’ll do it in self-defense.”
Sky shivered, feeling the weight of precognition.
“Not you. And I don’t think it’ll happen for some time yet. But at some point, the rogue witch will strike out at someone capable of fighting back.” Silence loomed between them, thick and heavy, and Zach continued to stroke her, soothing away stress and fear. “Hey, what’s Sorren serving for dinner tomorrow night ‑‑ or tonight, I guess, since we’re well on past midnight?”
“Poached salmon. But why…?”
With a shift in mood that left her reeling, Zach sat up and clapped his hands together like a little boy on the last day of school. Grinning like a fool, he pulled her close for a hug.
“Right.” Sky raised an eyebrow, startled by Zach’s abrupt change in mood. “We’ve all been under pressure, and you’ve finally snapped. I’ll go get Laura and have her mix up some herbs.”
“So you asked the cook? Discussed the menu with Sorren?”
“No, I just…oh!” Too much sex must have addled her brain, or at least slowed the reasoning process. “He really will serve salmon, won’t he?”
“You know he will. I think what we accomplished at the cabin was more of a balancing of gifts than a power exchange. Alec and I, we balance pretty well to start. My gift of Sight, his disappearing act.”
“But my magic was broken. So I’m the one who benefited, picking up each of your strongest gifts.”
“The Sight can be a valuable tool, though it’ll find you on its own terms and often speaks in incomplete riddles. But it’s saved my ass a time or two. As for who benefited, I’d argue Alec and I got a hell of a lot out of getting closer to you.” He pressed her flat against the bed and eased into position, his cock pressed against her pubic mound.
If she’d had a reply in mind, it got lost as he nudged against her lust-swollen pussy, sinking just the first inch of his cock inside her as she whimpered for more. He slid his hands under her ass to pull her closer and surged forward, hitting her sweet spot on the first pass. Although he wasn’t quite as long as Alec, he was wider. Lots wider. Achy and swollen from climaxes one, two, and three, she experienced every movement as an almost-too-full, slick, velvet rush of energy and heat.
Her aura crackled like sheet lightning, sending violet waves rippling through the room. Zach swirled his hips in a dance guaranteed to bring his pelvis into contact with her clit, and she lost her head enough that she grabbed his injured arm and held on tight. She remembered herself when he grunted, moving her hand safely to his shoulder, but he didn’t seem to mind as he quickened the pace, his balls slapping against her with the force of his thrusts.
She saw herself through his eyes ‑‑ her head tossing on the tangled sheets, eyes shut tight, dark hair shimmering with sparks of energy from their auras. As her orgasm rushed up at her, swallowing air and light, she dropp
ed her shields. Their link catapulted her into the center of him, molten fire and exquisite need as his body tensed, convulsed, and finally exploded inside her in a hot, wet rush.
They lay together, sweaty and utterly spent, and his heartbeat pounded against her as their auras faded, leaving just the glow of the green sphere floating in the bowl beside the bed. When she could take a breath without panting, she gave him a gentle shove, and he rolled to his side, pulling her close with an arm curled around her shoulder.
“What I told you tonight…”
“Mmm?” Zach sounded sleepy, sated.
“It’s okay to tell Alec ‑‑ I mean, if he comes back. A lot of it I’d like him to know, and I’d just as soon not have to say it all again.”
Rather than answer, he pulled her even closer and kissed her hard enough to bruise her lips. Then he snuggled his head against her breasts, and as his breathing drifted into a slow, even pattern, she wondered if he’d fallen asleep.
He’ll be back, Skylark. Rocky path ahead, but he’ll be back.
Sky appreciated his attempt to reassure her. But given Alec’s rage after Jaimis escaped, this time she suspected Zach offered empty comfort, rather than actual insight into the future.
* * * * *
Shivering in the chill of the morning, Sky wriggled out from under Zach’s arm and tiptoed across the room to her pack. Since she didn’t have a robe, she put on sweatpants and a sweatshirt, not wanting to disappear into the tub until Zach woke up. As she reached into the bottom of the overstuffed backpack, searching for the pentacle pendant Lena had given her one solstice, her hand brushed a sheet of paper.
Hope flared as she lifted the unmarked envelope. When would Alec have had a chance to slip a note in with her things? It went a long way toward making up for the fact that he hadn’t taken time to talk with her first before running off with Matt to chase the bad guys.
Fear ratcheted through her, though, when she pulled out the note. A message of words pasted together from magazine and newspaper clippings, like something out of a bad horror novel, wavered in front of her. “Zach?”