He purses his lips. “And you went right from making the potion into the elders’ chambers for them to check it against the one that killed Amos?”
I nod. When Taj’s eyes cloud, I reach for his hand. “What is it?”
“When Silas and I tried to come in after you… Not all witches are like you, Bryn. That’s why this Lillian woman is so interested in you. Your affinity is so strong, it seeps out of you even when you’re not actively calling on it. But for me… It takes considerable concentration to summon a fireball. Except it didn’t when we were coming for you. I thought it was just adrenaline, but what if it’s more than that?” He turns my palm over, rubbing the pad of his thumb over the crow etched there. “Maybe this curse isn’t just linking us for death. Maybe it’s linking our lives, too.”
My head swims as I try to take in what he’s saying. “What does that mean?”
“It means I think I’m somehow drawing on your magical energy. I think we all are.” He stands, pacing. “Can… Can I try something?”
When I can’t nod, I utter a weak, “Uh-huh.”
Taj sucks in a breath and holds out his hand in front of him, palm up. In a flash, a flame the size of a baseball fills his hand. He glances at me. “Do you feel any different?”
“No.”
Pursing his lips, he returns his attention to the fire. In the next second, the blaze expands to an inferno the size of a basketball.
Energy drains from my body and blackness threatens to pull me into unconsciousness.
As quickly as it arrived, the heat of the flames disappears. “Bryn? Are you all right?”
Taj’s voice sounds like it’s coming from far away, but his hands on my cheeks pull me back from the edge of oblivion. It takes several tries before I manage to open my eyes. “Felt something that time.”
A relieved smile cracks his face and he presses an urgent kiss to my lips. Something in me wakens and surges, but it’s gone as soon as Taj pulls back.
“I’m sorry.” He straightens, scooting back a few inches. “I didn’t mean to…”
I prop myself up on my arm—a feat that would have been impossible moments ago. “It’s okay. Your experiment proved your point. When you made the fireball bigger, I felt it.”
He nods without looking at me. “That’s not it. I shouldn’t have kissed you.”
The words hit me like a punch in the gut. He didn’t seem to feel that way last night. Can it have been less than twenty-four hours ago? I had wanted to know what it would be like to kiss him then, but there’s more to it now. I need to kiss him. I feel like if I don’t, I may drift to sleep and never wake up. “It’s all right, Taj.”
“But…” His gaze flicks to me. “Calder spent the night in your room last night. I assumed…”
Blood rushes to my cheeks and heat surges in my core at the memory of my time with Calder. I wouldn’t trade last night for anything, but that doesn’t change the desire pulsing in my veins now.
“You were right. You’re drawing on my magic. But when you kissed me just now, I felt like I was being recharged.” I sit up and reach for Taj’s hand. He doesn’t pull away when I lace my fingers with his. “But even if that weren’t the case, I’d want you to kiss me. I want Calder, but that doesn’t stop me from wanting you, too. You’re two parts of my life that I can’t choose between. I talked about this with Calder last night. He’s not going to make me choose. Are you?”
He releases a ragged breath. “Bryn…”
And then his mouth is on mine. I pull him onto the bed, on top of me, and the pressure of his body against mine excites each of my nerves. As he runs his hands up my arms, my skin erupts in tiny flames that shoot straight to my center. Wetness gathers between my legs as his tongue explores my mouth. I’ve wanted him exactly like this for so long.
I grind my hips against his, gratified when I feel his heat stirring against my jeans.
“What are you doing to me, love?” His hands rest at the back of my head, his fingers weaving through my hair. But mine explore the broad expanse of his back, skating along his shoulders and down his spine. When I slip my hand under his shirt, he pulls back to jerk the garment over his head. But when he dips back to reclaim my lips, I hold him back, studying the gorgeous planes of his chest, the cut of his abs. “All those times in the compound, I never imagined… This is everything I dreamed of, but I still want more.”
It’s an edict I’m all too happy to obey. In the time I’ve known him, he’s shown me flashes of this desire, but here, he’s unleashed, showing me the parts of him he’s kept quiet for far too long.
I run my fingers down his sides, loving the contrast of my light skin against his mocha-toned flesh. “Roll over,” I murmur.
Taj wastes no time complying, and I straddle his hips, feeling the pulse of him through his pants. His eyes widen when I tug my own shirt over my head. “Bryn,” he says so reverently, my heart shakes in my chest. All those times he kept a cool demeanor, he was holding back the devotion in his eyes that’s shining through now. I love the way he shines for me.
His hands are on my exposed breasts in an instant and a moan escapes me. I lean down to kiss him again and his hands slide around to explore my back, dipping lower with each sweep until they grip the globes of my ass, pulling me closer until his cock digs against my center.
“Tell me you want me, love,” he begs in a husky voice that makes my toes curl.
I want him—all of him. “Everything,” I answer without filter. “I want all of you. More.” I take his word and put it back on him, hoping he knows how to give me all the more I’m craving. A hundred flickers of memories pass through my mind’s eye—my guard finding small ways to be near me, to make me feel that rare thing called safe. He’s the man to take this next step with, I’m sure of it. Taj will always keep me safe.
Taj chuckles. “You asked for it.”
Something in the air shifts with new possibility. With each passing moment, my body sings with a new energy that revives every cell of my being. Whatever power he took from me to enhance his own magic is surging back into me in spades. Green and gold threads unravel from somewhere deep within me, seeking out a connection. As they travel, one by one, through my skin and down into Taj’s body, his kisses deepen and his muscles coil.
He kisses his way down my neck and along my collar bone before taking my nipple in his mouth. A gentle nip sends a pulse of pleasure straight to my apex. I scrape my nails along his shoulders and he shudders.
Every touch of his skin sets off a constellation of explosions through my body, each more extreme than the last. He suckles on one breast before moving onto the next, his fingers picking up where his mouth left off. “Do you like that?” he asks, though I can’t imagine he doesn’t already know as much. I’m panting and writhing embarrassingly on top of him, but he wants my voice. He wants me.
I rub myself against his hard body, needing to be closer still. “More,” I say again, giving him whatever green light he needs to hear to keep this euphoria going.
He responds by grazing my nipple with his teeth, cracking a wanton cry from my lips. The sound is so desperate, I barely recognize it as mine.
“Wait.” I pull away, eliciting a groan as my nipple slips from his lips. As amazing as his tongue and teeth feel, I don’t want to simply receive—I want to make his body light up like mine is. I kiss my way down his neck to his chest, pausing to circle my tongue around his nipples. “Do you like that?” I want the question to sound sexy, but my voice is higher than usual.
“Yes,” he breathes.
My confidence soars at the need in his voice, pushing me to explore uncharted territory. He sucks in a breath as I rake my teeth against the dark nub before moving down, kissing his abs. I can’t get enough of him. I want every part of him, want to make him feel as amazing as being in his arms makes me feel.
He doesn’t stop me when I reach for the button on his jeans. He only whispers my name as my fingers graze the bulge in the front of his pants while
I tug down the zipper.
He lifts his hips to help me pull off the denim and cotton of his boxer briefs. His erection springs up when I release it from its prison and for a moment I can’t do anything but stare. In my cell at the compound, I used to imagine what it would be like to have this incredible man in my bed, but all of those fantasies pale in comparison to the column of hard flesh in front of me, begging to be touched.
I flutter my fingers over Taj’s cock from the base to the tip, my fingers barely grazing the skin. He sucks in a breath and his whole body goes rigid under my touch. He wraps my fingers more firmly around his shaft before moving back down, coaching me into the pressure and rhythm he craves. I want to know how to touch him, how to make him come alive. Back at the compound, I started to forget who I was. It wasn’t until Taj arrived that I remembered that life—even my life—was worth living. I want to give a measure of that joy back to him.
“Just like that, love.” Taj groans through his exhale.
I’m surprised by both the heat and the feel of something so hard and so full of life. I stroke the dark curls at the base before sliding my hand back up, loving the smooth feel of the skin in my palm. I have no idea what I’m doing, but the eager look in Taj’s dark eyes and the way he sucks in sharp breaths through his parted lips makes me think I’m getting something right.
My own center aches as I move my hand up and down. Taj’s eyes close as I find a slow rhythm for my strokes. But with each pass, my own need grows so overwhelming I can hardly bare it.
I don’t just want to feel him. I want to feel him inside me.
Taj’s eyes snap open when I remove my hand, and they darken when I unclasp the button on my own jeans. His eyes widen and he inhales shakily as I wiggle out of both the pants and my underwear. His fingers twitch like it’s taking all his willpower to keep from touching me.
It’s only when I’m fully naked in front of him that I’m overwhelmed by the situation. His gaze sweeps down my body, but before I can feel self-conscious, his eyes lock once again on mine. Desire pools in those dark depths, yes, but there’s something more there, too. The same tenderness that first drew me to him at the compound remains, different only in magnitude. His sweet fondness burns with such intensity I couldn’t look away if I wanted to.
I want this—I want him. But what about…
As if sensing my doubt, Taj sits, cupping my face in his hands. He folds his legs beneath him and rises up on his knees before kissing my forehead. “You’re in control here. If you want me to leave now, I will.”
A laugh bubbles out of my lips. “You leaving is the last thing I want.”
He smiles, the curve of his mouth as sexy as any other part of his body. “Good, because I don’t particularly fancy leaving, either.”
And then we’re kissing again. Both balanced on our knees, our arms wrap around each other as our tongues clash together. The length of his body presses against mine, and his hardness pulses between my legs.
I want him. More than anything I’ve ever desired, I want this man.
He doesn’t resist when I nudge him backward and lay atop him. Taj kisses my neck as I adjust my hips until his cock is wedged between our bodies. “Oh,” he moans. “Bryn, you’re… This is… You’re perfect.”
With each rock of my hips, my tight nub slides against his hard heat. My body climbs higher and higher until I’m sure I’ve reached heaven. But something inside me pushes further.
“More.” The word escapes my lips like a plea. A prayer.
“Anything you like, love. I’ve always been yours.” His words are simple enough, but he whispers them so sincerely, I can’t help but kiss the lips that spoke such sweetness. I slip further with each contraction of my pelvis until the tip of him locks into place against my slick slit.
I pull back just far enough to look into Taj’s eyes. He holds my gaze as I hover at the edge of what we both want. If I decide now it’s too far, that this is too much, he would stop. I know it as clearly as I know my own name. But it’s not too far.
“You needn’t worry,” Taj says, his voice tight.
A laugh bubbles up in me. “What could I be worried about right now?”
His hands grip my hips. “Safety. Unintended… consequences. Mona had every girl in her possession spelled against pregnancy. It’s reversible, but you’re still under its effects.”
Embarrassment swells in my chest, but it’s chased by a wave of peace. I never gave much thought to having children of my own. I figured it was a future not open to me. To know that it could be—one day—is a gift I never thought I’d have.
But even sweeter is the fact Taj wants me to have this information now. Far from killing the mood, his desire for me to be in control, to have all the information, only makes me want him more.
My whole body screams with need, and, holding Taj’s gaze the entire time, I press myself down until he’s sheathed completely inside me. I move slowly, waiting for the pain I heard whispered about by older girls in Mona’s collection, but it doesn’t come. Instead, there’s only a satisfied fullness as he fills a space I never knew was empty.
“So good, love,” Taj murmurs as I press my chest against his. His eyes flutter closed as I start to rock against his hips.
Each stroke of him inside me brings me higher and higher. I move slowly, and although his hands remain on my hips, he doesn’t urge me to change my pace.
As my own need dictates the speed of our connection, Taj moans my name again and again. Each time he says my name, the gold and green tendrils of my magic pulse with an energy unlike anything I’ve ever felt before.
A delicious tension builds in my center, and needy cries escape me. Taj’s fingers dig into my hips as he finally takes control of my motion, his speed increasing my pleasure so fast, I’m afraid I may lose myself forever.
Except I won’t truly be lost with Taj by my side.
And when the world rips open, I scream his name as I pulse around his cock until he reaches his own release. His body jerks against mine as he moans, words losing meaning in paradise.
I collapse against him, my lips pressed against the pulse fluttering in his neck. The enormity of what we just shared washes over me. I could have experienced this monumental first with Calder last night, but I know now why it didn’t feel right. I wanted my first time to be with Taj. Although Calder was my first love—filled with excitement and a hint of forbidden danger—when I wasn’t paying attention, my heart expanded to include Taj as well. I’m not sure how two devotions so consuming can coexist within me, but I can’t deny that they do.
“Taj, I…” I want to share truth pounding in my chest, but I can’t piece together the words.
He runs clumsy fingers through my hair as he slides out of me. “Bryn. My love.”
The simplicity of the statement ignites a warm glow inside me. The simple nickname that I figured bubbled to his lips out of habit—the way he calls guys “mate”—suddenly takes on a new dimension. “Love” isn’t just something he calls me—it’s who I am to him.
I fall asleep in his arms, positive there’s never been a more perfect moment since the dawn of time.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Bryn
My body hums with energy as we make our way through the forest at daybreak. Although Silas and Calder look like they could have used several more hours of sleep, Poe insisted we get moving as soon as it was light. Valor marked off several spots where we might encounter Elowen, and there’s no telling how long it’ll take to find her. The last thing we want is to be stuck in the woods at night. According to Poe, shifters usually steer clear of this part of the forest—unless they sense there are people wandering about inside. And I don’t want to chance another run-in with bounty hunters.
Despite the fact that I slept in Taj’s arms all night—or maybe because of it—I can’t help gravitating toward him as we move through the woods. Every time he catches my eye, a smile erupts on my face.
“What’s our plan if this do
esn’t work?” Calder asks about an hour into our trek.
The forest is still waking up, and his voice, though quiet, is like a crack of thunder through a clear sky.
“We check the second location,” Silas says. “Weren’t you paying attention at the long-ass strategy meeting last night?”
Calder stops, shaking his head. With a grunt, Poe, who’s leading our group, turns to face him, backing up against a tree for rest. Silas folds his arms over his chest, and Taj shifts incrementally closer to me until the sleeves of our hooded sweatshirts brush against each other.
“I mean, what if Elowen says no?” Calder eyes Silas. “What if she doesn’t show up, no matter how long we spend tramping through this forest? Or what if her cost is so high there’s no way we can pay it?”
Silas shrugs. “There’s no reason to think she’ll say no. And, really, is anything worse than having a curse kill us?”
“Yeah, actually. Not that I’d expect someone like you to understand that.” Calder crosses his arms over his chest, the move accentuating the considerable height difference between the two of them. “That’s the daemon way, right? Go around controlling people. Cursing them. Not caring who you hurt until it affects you.”
“You don’t know me, man.” Although Silas’ tone is even, his would-be easygoing smile falters for a moment.
Tension charges the air as Calder lets out a snort. “I know your kind.”
Silas balls his fist and leans forward like he intends to take a swing. The last thing we need right now is a fistfight, and I launch myself into the space between them. “Hey, now. Let’s not start thinking about all the bad stuff that could happen. We don’t have any reason to believe Elowen won’t hear us out. And call me crazy, but I don’t think Sophie would have taken us to Valor if she thought the mage was going to hurt us.”
Captive Witch Page 16