Birdie’s lids flutter and slowly her eyes open. Another stark difference. Birdie has bright blue eyes, Addie had dark deep brown. I watch her for a moment as she begins to wake and realizes that she is back in her room.
Slowly, she looks down, lifts the bedding and gasps at the sight of herself in nothing but her undergarments. Though I saw it all as I undressed her, I did cover her with the sheet and blanket to at least attempt to give her a modicum of modesty.
“Did you?” she asks on a whisper.
My lips twitch. “You needed to be loosened from that dratted corset. I only took the blasted thing off, then slipped you into bed. I wanted to ensure that I needn’t call a doctor, nobody saw anything, but me.”
“And Martha couldn’t have done it?” she asks as she arches a brow.
I try not to laugh. Nodding, I give her a cheeky smile, attempting not to imagine her rosy-hued nipples from beneath her thin white undergarment.
Though I fail.
They were spectacular and I can’t help but envision what they look like completely bared. I want nothing more than to rip the thin fabric from her body and taste her undoubtedly sweet flesh.
“Perhaps, but Martha didn’t do it,” I say with a grin.
She frowns, but doesn’t respond. Instead, her eyes find mine and she just stares at me for a long, silent moment. I expect her to continue to talk about me undressing her or mention her virtue and how I’m compromising it completely just by being in here with her, but she doesn’t.
Birdie surprises me and perhaps Florence is correct, perhaps she was indeed plucked from some other world and brought to me, because she is absolutely nothing like any lady or soiled dove that I’ve ever met in my life.
“I’m starving,” she blurts. My brows rise in surprise at her outburst. “Seriously, I’m starving. That corset is evil and you can’t even eat when you’re wearing it. Is there any way at all I can ask Martha to get some food brought up here from dinner?”
My lips curve up into a grin and I shake my head once. “Of course, you can, I’ll have her bring up some leftovers later.”
“Later?” she asks.
I dip my chin. “Later,” I murmur.
“After…” Her words trail off as she attempts to get me to answer.
“Were you upset last night?” I ask, thinking about Florence’s claims that she caused the rainstorm the previous evening.
She hums. “I was,” she admits.
“About?”
She shakes her head a couple of times, lifting her eyes to mine for a moment before she drops them to her lap. “No reason,” she lies.
I don’t call her out on her lie, I’m sure she has a reason that she just isn’t ready to tell me yet. Perhaps it’s something as simple as her sisters being missing and not here as she’d anticipated. I have no idea what upsets women or how they think.
“What other magic do you hold?” I ask.
Her head flies up and her eyes meet mine instantly. “I don’t,” she says quickly. “Florence says that I do, but I swear that I don’t. I’ve lived in this body for twenty-nine years, I think that I would know if it held magic. Don’t you think that you’d be able to feel something like that? I think that you could. I mean, I don’t know for sure, because I don’t have any, but I feel like that’s something you could just feel inside of you, to your bones, to your core,” she rambles.
I can’t help but smile at her words. I love the way she does this. It is so telling about her and this is the moment that I know without a doubt that she is telling me the absolute truth. Her mind works so quickly and she voices her words as she attempts to process.
It is endearing—she is endearing.
“I do not know if magic is felt, that is a question for Florence, perhaps tomorrow.”
Birdie’s eyes widen and she leans forward. “Are you telling me that Florence has magic?” she hisses.
Pressing my lips together, I try to keep from bursting out in laughter. I haven’t smiled this much in a decade and this woman causes me to almost be in complete fits around her, she is that comical.
“It is why I had her brought to me. Florence, indeed, holds magic. She is special and the only woman that I know who is in this country with her abilities. Aside from being Logan’s grandmother and a woman I have known my entire life, she is also an asset to my country.”
Saying the words aloud, they feel good. Witchcraft may be something that was illegal, that women were burned for in the past, but I have the power to change that. My position has the ability to reverse that law and no longer make it a crime for women to use the gifts that the gods bestow on them.
“You’re thinking,” Birdie whispers.
Jerking my chin, my gaze swings to hers. “I was.”
Her lips turn up into a small smile, one that I wish I could kiss in this moment. “You’re handsome when you think and I know that it must be something important, because you’re really focused.”
“It was, life changing for some, I suspect.”
“You’re going to do something to change your country, aren’t you?”
I don’t know where she gets any of these ideas or questions, but I wonder if her magic is something that is subconscious, perhaps she wields it without even knowing that she is using it.
“Perhaps, little dove.”
“Little dove?” she asks, scrunching her nose.
“Your name is indeed, Birdie.”
“I prefer, darlin’” she states.
I smile again, and lean forward, lifting my hand and touching that scrunched up nose of hers. “Alright, darlin’.”
Chapter Nine
BIRDIE
Colt is staring at me. My nose tingles from where he touched it just a few moments ago. I am seriously hungry, but that fades away as he watches me and another desire begins to stir. It shouldn’t—I shouldn’t. He was married, very much married and she’s gone in a horrific way. I need to respect that, respect his wife.
“Birdie,” he rasps, his hand is lifting again, wrapping around the back of my neck.
I try to hide my shiver when the thrill slides up my spine and the goose bumps appear all over my flesh from his touch.
I fail.
Completely and totally fail.
I expect him to release me and walk away, to ignore me some more, considering that’s what he’s done since I arrived, but something in his gaze has shifted.
“Colt?” I breathe.
He shakes his head once, then without saying a single word, he leans forward and touches his mouth to mine. I gasp, my lips parting and giving him the opportunity to slide his tongue inside of me. Without hesitation, he fills me and tastes me, in one swift swoop.
I hear his growl, it fills me from the inside and almost spills out. It’s deep, vibrating, and intense. Full body chills roll over my entire body. Colt pulls away from me, breaking the kiss for just a moment before he stands, never releasing his grip from the back of my neck.
I expect him to let his hand fall from me, but he doesn’t. Instead, he climbs onto the bed, his knees straddling my thighs, his eyes never breaking contact with my own. He’s breathing heavily, but I only know because his chest is rising and falling.
My ears are roaring with the blood that is pumping hard throughout my entire system. I can’t hear anything, I can only see his eyes as they stare down at me. His starving eyes. He growls again, his lips curving up into a snarl.
I lick my lips, wondering what he’s going to do next, especially since he seems pretty angry right about now. This is wrong, I know that it must be, considering I read his devoted wife’s diary and she really, really, loved him.
This isn’t cheating, but man does it feel like it. Then there’s the fact that my body is starting to ache with need. It’s almost painful as it begins to take over from deep inside of my belly. It begins to flow through me, it starts out as a warm, aching need, then slowly, it begins to cause my blood to almost boil beneath my skin.
This isn’t a
want any longer. This is a need. A need that isn’t going to go away until it’s satisfied and I’m not sure how to do that, but judging by the way my pussy hurts, not just aches, but flat-out hurts, I have a feeling there is only one way to make this go away.
Colt releases my neck, then straightens himself, but he doesn’t make a move to climb off of me. Instead, I watch as he takes his shirt off. My entire body freezes at the sight of his bare chest.
Reaching out, I can’t stop myself, I can’t help placing my palm against the smattering of hair at the center of his chest.
He lifts his hand, curling his fingers around my wrist, and holds me there. His eyes connect to mine, his facial expression is unreadable, but he watches me and I wait for him to speak. He is thinking of something, I can tell that he is almost lost in thought, but he stays quiet as seems to be his way.
Shifting my hand from his chest, I slide it down to the side of his waist and dig my fingernails into his skin. He grunts, shifting forward, and plants his hand in the pillow beside my head. I lay down flat, looking up at him. He grins down at me, but it isn’t a true smile, it’s a smirk and it’s hot as shit.
“Do you need something?” he asks, his voice deep and husky.
I could play coy. I could pretend that I don’t want what I want. I should do just that and let him walk away. Maybe even push him away, but I can’t. My entire body feels as though it’s on pins and needles, like when your foot falls asleep and it’s waking back up—it fucking hurts.
“You.”
The single word, it’s simple and it doesn’t say much, it’s a single word, but it also says a hell of a lot. It says everything, because in this moment, it’s all that I can say.
His growl fills the small bedroom and I feel his hands at my hips. He grips my thin undergarment shirt and tugs it up and over my body.
I should probably be self-conscious because this is a stranger and he’s just taken my shirt off, but I’m not. The only thing that I can think about is him inside of me, relieving this ache.
I don’t know why, I’ve never felt this way before, but I only have the sensations of need and desire flowing through me. I need him to cure this ache and I desire his touch, his gaze, and his lips everywhere on my body. I’ve never felt more confident than I do right in this moment.
Reaching between us, I find the button to his pants and tug against it. Colt moans, leaning forward and touching his mouth to mine. His tongue slices across the seam of my lips and I open for him, wishing both of our bottoms were off so that other parts of him could slide into other parts of mine.
I’m surprised when I don’t find a zipper. After I unbutton the waist, there is a string that ties the fly together from the inside of the pants. Releasing those, I reach to the sides of his waist, having noticed earlier that there were small buckles on each side that cinched the pants tight and release those.
When I’ve finally got the waist of his pants undone, only then do I push them down slightly and reach for his length. He grunts as I begin to stroke him. I’m careful not to go too hard or too quickly, wanting this to last as long as possible and since we don’t know one another’s bodies, yet, that could get tricky.
“Birdie,” he rasps, breaking the kiss, but not before he nips my bottom lip and slowly shifts away from me completely.
Unlike me, Colt is no stranger to the clothing from this time, or to women’s clothing at all. He has my little bloomer long shorts off in an instant, my smaller little bloomer panties are off even faster.
Then, before I can blink, his trousers are thrown off to the side and I’m in nothing but some thick thigh-high stockings. They’re gorgeous, by the way, they must be made of silk, they’re so delicate and held up by ribbon at the tops.
Why can’t I stop thinking about these insignificant things when he’s right here in front of me?
Colt is on his knees at the foot of the bed, completely naked, his hand wrapped around his hard cock and his head tilted to the side as he watches me, his eyes roaming up and down my body several times before they find mine again.
Pressing my lips together, I inhale a deep breath and without being prompted, I do something that I’ve never done before.
Rising to my hands, I place my palms next to my hips and I bend my legs at the knees before I slowly spread them wide, exposing all of myself to him—to a virtual stranger, possibly in another dimension.
COLT
My body jerks the moment her legs spread wide and I can see every single aspect of her body. This should not affect me this much, but it does. My body doesn’t just want her—it needs her. I’ve never felt this way before and I know, in the back of my mind that this is all the gods doing.
None of this is real, this need isn’t real, it was created by the gods and has nothing to do with her or me, it is just a façade. But my cock isn’t so sure, it only knows one thing. That it would do anything to slide inside of her wet heat.
I let out a moan, and stroke myself a couple more times before I slowly lean forward. Instead of sliding inside of her heat and pounding hard and fast until I come, I dip my chin and do what I’ve imagined doing since I stripped her corset from her slight body.
Opening my mouth, I wrap my lips around the hardened bud of her nipple, then suck her there before I taste her with my tongue. She moans, letting her head fall back between her shoulders. I hear her suck in a breath as she pushes her breast against my mouth, a silent beg for more.
Sinking my teeth into her flesh, she cries out, lifting her hands and burying her fingers in the hair at the nape of my neck. She grips my hair and pulls me even closer. I will no doubt leave marks on her flesh, but I’m not sure if either of us cares in this moment.
Then before I realize what’s happening, she pulls my head from her breast. I look up at her in confusion and she sits completely up, rising to her knees and makes her way closer to me. The flesh of her ass rests against my thighs, both of us on our knees, me being forced to sit back on my feet as she straddles me.
Her fingers tug on my hair slightly as she lifts her backside and moves even closer. Without a word, I wrap one of my hands around the base of my cock as it aligns with the wetness of her center and she takes her cue to sink down along my length.
Reaching out, I grab ahold of both of her ass cheeks with my hands, gripping them tightly as she takes all of me inside of her body, her eyes never leaving mine. She lets out a sigh once I’ve filled her.
I’ve never.
Not like this.
“Birdie? What’s this, then?” I ask.
She shakes her head, her eyes wild with what I can only assume is a wonderment of some kind. Though, I’m unsure as she’s not a virgin, that much is clear. She leans forward, her lips brushing mine and staying in a barely-there kiss.
“You feel amazing, Colt,” she breathes against my mouth.
I grunt, not willing to agree to her statement even though inside, I completely and wholly agree. Lifting her just an inch by my grip on her ass, I pull her down along my length. I’m surprised when her hips roll and she grinds against my pelvis.
She is unlike the women of this world. I am now more convinced than I was earlier that she is not of this land. She leans back, placing her hands against my knees, and squeezes as she thrusts her chest in the air and rides me.
I’m not a man who enjoys being without control, but I don’t mind it in this moment. She is amazing and gorgeous as she takes from me. Her long black hair skims my legs, her small breasts bounce with each roll of her hips and I grip her ass, powerless to do anything but watch and feel as she takes and takes.
It is beautiful, every part of the moment and I feel my body begin to relax as she shifts and moves. My blood is still hot, almost boiling, beneath the surface of my skin, but I know that sweet relief will be coming soon and I am enjoying the way she moves before me, the scenery is too good to look away from.
Releasing one of my hands from its grip on her ass, I slip it between us and begin to run circles
against the sweet spot between her legs. Birdie gasps, lifting her head to look at me in the eyes.
“Hold my gaze, darlin’,” I demand.
She nods her head, her eyes focused on mine as she rides me, her hips jerking and bucking faster and faster with each swipe of my thumb. I don’t stop, neither does she, and when she finally falls over the edge and succumbs to her body’s release it is the single most magnificent thing that I have seen in years.
Her entire body goes stiff, her hands in my hair grip me tighter before she gasps and pulls my chest against her own. Tilting my head back, I touch my mouth to hers and swallow her trembling cry as her body shakes against my own.
Flipping her onto her back, I wrap my hand around the outside of her thigh, bracing my other hand next to her head and keeping my arm straight. I’m still buried deep inside of her wet heat, sinking my teeth into my bottom lip at just how incredible she feels.
Birdie wraps her legs around my hips and grins up at me, her smile something that seems to be natural and a semipermanent fixture in this moment. She lifts her hands, wrapping her fingers around my biceps and lightly scoring her nails against my skin.
I don’t speak. No words need to be said. My blood is beginning to boil again and the only thing that eases that sensation is moving inside of her. Focusing my gaze on hers, it’s my turn to take and take.
And I do.
Until I spill my seed inside of her, something that I haven’t done in so long that I can’t remember the last time such a thing happened, perhaps when I was still married to Adelaide. It comes naturally with Birdie and I don’t even contemplate the repercussions, it’s as if there was no other option, but to fill her completely full.
Chapter Ten
BIRDIE
I’m not sure what I expected as far as postcoital behavior, I mean he doesn’t seem like a cuddler, but I didn’t anticipate him practically jumping off of me as if his dick was on fire, grabbing his clothes and bolting across the hall to his room, all while I’m lying in the bed, naked, with his cum leaking out of me.
Bride of the Frontier (The Prophecy of Sisters Book 3) Page 7