The truth was she didn’t have to. As he described it, even in those simple words, the feeling unfolded itself to her. She felt a shimmering thread linking them together, as surely as she felt the smooth cotton sheets beneath her.
“Yes, I feel it.” Her whisper caused him to shudder, and she could feel his skin prickle. It made her want to smother him, to wrap the entirety of his body with hers and hold him there for as long as she could. “What does it mean?”
“That’s a huge question.” He breathed in deeply, and his chest called out to her, so she nestled up against him as much as she could. “It means that what we have is like fate. That it’s not an accident.”
“That we were made for each other?” The offer had an almost schoolgirlish sentiment to it, except that it felt entirely true. Genuine in a way that defied the cliché of it.
“Exactly.” Dain relaxed his hand until just the tips of his fingers traced the ridges and valleys of her body. “You and I were destined to find each other, Galwyn. I actually can’t believe it.”
She felt, rather than saw, him smiling broadly. A crackling elation flooded her. To think that something could be so right, so quickly. The perfection of the way she felt with Dain surprised her. Even then, something dark fluttered around the edges of it all. A sinister feeling that she went searching for, in spite of how much she wanted to push it away.
And then she found it. The darkness rode up her spine like a shot, and she sat upright, turning to face Dain in the dim haven they’d found.
“What is it?” he asked.
He clearly sensed her anxiety but wasn’t able to help himself from gazing at her naked bits. She flowered under his gaze, basking as his eyes wandered from her shoulders, along to her still tingling breasts, and even lower. Drinking in his admiration, she steeled herself to break it all to pieces.
“I’m a null.” The words leapt out of her, and she watched as he furrowed his brow.
“I’m sorry?”
“I need you to know,” she said, her heart pounding even harder than a few minutes earlier. “Because, all of this? It’s dazzling. Amazing. Quite honestly, a miracle. But I don’t expect you to take a null as a mate. I don’t bring any powers to the table, and that would be unfair to you and your clan.”
“You really think that?” His expression was unreadable, no matter how hard she tried.
“You needed to know. As much as I’d love for it to not be true, it is. And I couldn’t wait another second to tell you. All of this”—she waved her arms around—“has been wonderful, but if you wanted to leave it at this, I would understand. You’re a ruling fae lord. You deserve the best.”
She held her breath as she waited for his answer, her stomach tied in knots.
“Deserve is such a funny word.” He lay back and raised a hand up to trace a finger across her cheek. “This isn’t about what I deserve. It’s about what I want. What I need. And I want you, Galwyn. I need you.”
As soon as the words crossed Dain’s lips, Galwyn tipped over him so swiftly she might have caught the last words leaving his mouth. She kissed him with everything that she could muster. He had given her a kind of gift that she never would have expected. Least of all from a man like him.
“Thank you,” she said when the kiss ended, her loose hair creating something of a shield around them. She kept her forehead pressed to his, and her eyes closed. She needed to be able to kiss him again in an instant, and worried that tears of relief might break over her at any second.
“There’s no need to thank me,” he said with a smile. “It’s the truth. And I’ll tell you what else.” Again, his hand found that golden spot on her ribs, and he pressed her up to sitting. Just as before, she felt his hungry eyes on her, and the richness of it prickled her all over her skin. “You’re probably not as null as you think.”
“Oh!” She let out an almost mawkish little laugh. “I definitely am. Like, for sure.”
“Then what about that feeling inside you? If you were fully null, you wouldn’t be able to feel our bond, would you? That kind of thing is lost on those who don’t have any magic.”
Oh shit. The truth of what he said amazed her. She put her hands on top of his, as if to press him even more deeply to her. Like that would fan the flame inside her. And, in an odd way, it did. The hum inside her grew the more she gave herself over to it.
Galwyn was speechless at the thought that there were aspects of herself that she still had the chance to learn. Uncharted territories that she would be able to explore—all with this shockingly handsome man to help her find the way.
“Not that any of it matters,” Dain whispered as he tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. It might have been a cheesy, clichéd move, but it felt perfect to her.
“It doesn’t?”
He shook his head and smiled up to her. “Even if you never had any powers or skills of your own, it wouldn’t matter to me. It couldn’t. I knew the moment I saw you that you were the one for me. If you hadn’t dragged me here, I was going to drag you somewhere myself.”
As he spoke, his hand wandered up from its spot to cup her breast. The desire radiating in his palm as he stroked a thumb across her nipple set that warmth pooling in her core again. Surrendering to his strength, a small whimper broke free from her throat. Leaning forward, she braced her hands against his chest.
“Dain,” she breathed with pure happiness.
Letting her hands explore the firm, tight lines of his body, her excitement only grew. Easing lower, she found his growing girth and marveled at the size of him. Had she really held all that inside her at once? She began to stroke him lightly, flushed with pride as he nudged his hips up to meet her hand.
“Galwyn?”
“Hmm?”
She leaned over him, and he slid his hand down to grip her hip. At last, her tightening nipples brushed against the plane of his chest, and her lips were mere inches from his.
“Please,” he said simply.
She stroked him harder, and heard the breath catch in his throat. Her own was coming in with deep, rasping gulps. She shivered with need for him.
Then she grazed along his body, letting her breasts caress him as she planted kisses down toward his belly. He dug his fingers into her hair, and clung to her as if he might sail off into the ether at any moment.
When at last she was face to face with his hardness, any doubts she had entertained before flew from her mind. She was going to have him again. And if anyone was looking for them…well, they’d just have to wait.
Chapter Seven
The night had been so far from Dain’s expectation his head spun. The turn from vengeance-driven troublemaker to besotted lover was surprising and confusing, but he was more than ready to give himself over to it. Particularly given the wildly satisfying introduction he and Galwyn had enjoyed.
They lay together in the darkness under the stairs, basking in the glow of another passionate session. The way her body curled against his felt so right, so perfect, that he wondered how he had ever managed without her. That angry demon that lived inside his chest was quieter with her close at hand.
“Do you suppose they’re looking for us?” Her wide eyes turned up to him. He basked in the adoration behind them.
“Does it really matter?” Dain tickled his fingers along the flat of her thigh, raising goosebumps as he did. “I don’t think anyone in there is really going to miss us. My cousins, maybe.”
“Well…” A wicked glint crept across her face. “And Lord Rutherford, I imagine.”
Dain’s stomach tightened at the name. Not that he felt any jealousy over the old man—what could the withered little prick really hope for from her? Even so, the memory of those wrinkled hands helping themselves to Galwyn only made him clutch her harder.
“I’m sure it’s past his bedtime.”
Galwyn stifled a laugh and sat up. “Well, regardless, we can’t stay here all night. Have you seen my glasses? Oh, there they are.”
She was right. As
much as Dain would have loved to stay on that floor, dozing and making love until the morning, he knew there would be plenty of time for that.
Galwyn giggled her way into her pretty blue dress, almost making a show of her body as she slid back into it. He also sensed her watching him every bit as much as he was wolfing her up with his eyes.
“You’ve got some lipstick,” she whispered as they crept out of their love nook and back out into the light. Dain ducked his head, and reached up to wipe around his mouth with his thumb while Galwyn pulled her hair back into a low ponytail. Everyone was going to know soon enough, but he didn’t need to broadcast it at a wedding reception.
As the newborn lovers stepped back into the packed hall, Aquaria Murphy was waiting for them in a fit of pique. Dain and Galwyn may have been intent on avoiding a scene, but Aquaria was bent on causing as much trouble as she could manage—which, unfortunately, turned out to be a great deal.
“Look at the two of you,” she sneered, striding up to get in their personal bubble. Heaving in a breath, she turned the entirety of her ire onto Galwyn. “It’s a disgrace. Imagine! Sneaking away at a wedding like some low-class tart. And don’t try to tell me you weren’t doing anything—I know what you were doing!”
A crowd had begun to form around them. There was so much venom in Aquaria’s voice that Galwyn recoiled at it. As the bitter old lady sprayed invectives at his love, Dain felt a staggering hatred boiling up through him. All the rage he had ever held against his rival family threatened to erupt from him in a single moment. But he held his tongue out of respect for Galwyn.
“You should be ashamed to call yourself a Murphy. I’m ashamed for you. Even worse—” Aquaria turned her dagger eyes on Dain. “—with him! One of those outcast Oberons. The only reason they received invitations in the first place was because of my impeccable sense of decorum.”
Her last-second swivel into high society manners was the final straw. An inferno raged up from the center of the world, surging into Dain’s body, and roiling to pour out in one, destructive blast.
“Don’t speak to me like that!”
Galwyn’s voice blasted out from beside him, surprising him. Dain blinked the fury from his eyes as he looked down at her. She stood with her feet squared under her shoulders, clutching his hand and quaking with wrath.
“My whole life you’ve talked down to me and scolded me—and that all ends tonight!”
It was as though all the hatred that had just been searing through Dain’s veins was coursing through their joined hands, and making this pint-sized dynamo burst at her seams. The calmer he became, the more outraged she looked. And judging by the way Aquaria flinched under Galwyn’s glare, it was out of keeping with the way his love had lived until that instant.
“Wh-what?” The old woman rocked back on her heels, her hands up as if to shield herself. “H-how dare you?”
“I dare because I was born to dare,” Galwyn snarled. Under other circumstances, he might have laughed at the sheer audacity of it, but to laugh in that moment would have been dangerous. “I never knew it until an hour ago, but I’ve found something new, Aunt Aquaria. I’ve found myself.”
“Have you, now?” The silvered siren began to regain her composure, which smelled like trouble to Dain.
“I have,” Galwyn snapped. “It’s like I never knew myself until tonight.” Looking up to Dain, Galwyn gave a little shake of his hand, and he could see the quiet confidence behind her eyes. “The moment I saw Dain, I knew. And so did he. We’ve been fated to this all our lives. And there’s nothing you can do to change that.”
“Oh, really?” A low chuckle, almost like a death rattle, burbled over the older woman’s lips. “You are such a child, Galwyn.”
“What did you call me?”
The air between them hummed like the string of a violin.
“A child. You are a gullible, silly little girl to be taken in by this piece of trash.”
She crooked a disgusted finger at Dain, and he could feel the tables turning. If only he could grasp exactly how. He didn’t have to wait long.
“The Oberons came here tonight with a single purpose, my dearest niece. Revenge.” The word dripped from her lips and burned a hole in the floor. Hot panic exploded in Dain’s heart. “You have your friend here to thank for the discovery. It’s just a shame that you, of all people, got caught up in their disgusting plan.”
With a light gesture over her shoulder, Aquaria called their attention to the open, worried face of the young witch who’d been dancing near his table earlier. Kelly-something. In that moment, Dain could see the black cloud coming over their love. If only they could manage to get out from under it.
“Wh-what do you mean?” A quaver threaded into Galwyn’s voice, and Dain could feel the courage leaking out of her.
“This destined love of yours? He and his kin came here tonight seeking vengeance for some imagined slight our family is supposed to have perpetrated on theirs generations ago. They’ve harbored the grudge ever since, nursing it like a demon child. And, my sweet, naive niece, you’re the victim of it.”
Galwyn faltered on her feet, her fingers slipping from his. Dain made to grab her hand again and stride away, but found he was planted to the spot as if riveted to the floor.
“It seems that your fae lover here only wanted to force himself on a Murphy woman to even up this preposterous score. Whatever pretty lies he told you, which you were fool enough to believe, were all part of his wicked little plan. I only rejoice that your friend here found me to tell me so.”
“Kelly? Is this true?” Behind her glasses, Galwyn’s eyes shone with tears, which somehow hadn’t broken over to her cheeks yet. Dain ached to reach out and smooth her face with his touch.
“I’m so sorry, Galwyn, but it’s true.” The witch’s voice was small, as if she were a completely unwilling participant in the horrible truth about to crash over them. “When I was dancing, I got close to his table. His cousins tried to discourage him, but this one was adamant. He needed to find a woman to drag down tonight.”
Kelly was crying. Galwyn was crying. And Aquaria looked as though she had no more tears to shed for the rest of her life. All that was left of her was spleen. With a sudden spin, Galwyn turned her streaming face up to Dain, and he could see how much she needed to be saved.
“My love,” he said urgently. “I could never lie to you.”
Her lip trembled, and he gritted his teeth against the inevitability of breaking her heart.
“Is it true?”
“What they are saying is true, but—”
He had to stoop to catch Galwyn by the elbows as she nearly crumpled to the floor. He held tight, hoping the actual truth would somehow leak into her, as his anger had done a moment earlier.
“All of that changed when I found you. From the moment I first saw you, all that hatred, all that poison I’d been carrying inside me melted away. Yes, I said those things, but it was a different me that said them.”
“No.” Galwyn shook her head, and her voice was as thin as a spider’s web. “How can I believe you?”
“Here.” He put her hand on his chest, and reached for the spot on her own ribs. Dain had laid his palm on her bare skin mere minutes before, but as he reached for her now, Galwyn jerked away as if he might burn her.
“No.” She was struggling to get away, but he kept a hold of her wrist against his chest.
“The bond, Galwyn. You felt it, you know you did.”
“Let me go!” Wrenching free from his grasp, Galwyn let out a strangled sob and bolted out of the hall.
The room spun, and Dain had to grab the back of a chair to keep from going down himself. When his eyes focused again, he was nearly eye to eye with the imperious Aquaria Murphy.
“From now on, outcast, you leave my family alone.”
Even as she spat the words into his face, Dain knew that would be impossible.
Chapter Eight
Galwyn sat alone in her apartment, huddled on top of
a mountain of Kleenex. She was certain she’d need more but couldn’t imagine ever showing her face in public again. In truth, she’d been crying so hard for so long, it seemed inevitable that her tears would dry up eventually—even if only due to dehydration.
The look on Dain’s face was etched into her brain as permanently as his tattooed crown. As if he’d been caught. Which, of course, he had.
For the tenth time that day, she slapped her forehead for being so foolish, so blind. She’d allowed herself to be taken in by an Oberon, even when she’d been warned against him—twice! Once by Kelly and again by her aunt. The humiliation of it all felt like it was burning a hole in her stomach.
Great, now she was not only a useless null, but one with an ulcer. What a catch! Not even Lord Reginald Rutherford would give her a second look now.
“Idiot,” she whispered to herself as tears and snot slicked down her face in a constant stream. “Should have known better than to believe a man like that could ever want you.”
Galwyn could be incredibly cruel to herself, so it was easy for her to dredge up each of her old insecurities and take them for a nice, long walk. They all came tumbling through her mind, as she criticized herself. Her friends would tell her not to think that way about their friend, but a lifetime of practice had made that impossible.
As much as she squeezed her eyes shut against it, flashes of Dain’s perfect body kept assailing her. The memory of their clutch only made her cry harder. He must have been so disgusted. It must have really taken a commitment to revenge for him to be with her. Just when Galwyn’s shame spiral was about to get completely out of control, a brisk knock at the door snapped her together. Sort of.
For a moment, she contemplated staying exactly where she was, pretending she wasn’t home, or that she was asleep. Company wasn’t exactly on her list for the day.
“Galwyn?” It was Kelly. “It’s no use keeping quiet. I know you’re in there. Are you going to let me in or what?”
Fae Lord Avenged Page 4