FOURTEEN
What Llyr had done with a spell, Reece did with a kiss. His tongue slid into her mouth in long, mating strokes as he drew on her lips hungrily. Erin gasped against his mouth as heat raced through her body to gather in her nipples and between her thighs. He dragged her close, then closer still, as if craving the contact. His arms felt hot as they circled her. One big hand cupped her butt and lifted until her soft belly pressed against his thick hard-on. She caught his shoulders out of sheer instinct, clinging to the one solid thing in a world that had suddenly gone molten around her.
He was biting at her lips now, his teeth just short of stinging. She threw her head back, fighting to suck in a breath through the sudden, staggering arousal whipping through her body. He went right on kissing her, stringing tiny licks and bites over her chin and across the angle of her jaw. When he reached her ear, he breathed, “I don’t need a spell to make your body burn, Erin. You’re Maja now. And I’m going to show you just what that means.”
“You can’t…” She had to stop to gasp. “…can’t change my mind with sex, Reece.”
“Don’t bet on it.”
For a dizzy instant she felt herself falling with him. She landed on the yielding softness of the bed behind her, Reece’s big body pressing down on hers. He lifted his head, and his jungle-green gaze burned, wild with hunger—and something else she didn’t dare name. Then his hands were on her, cupping and stroking her bare breasts until she arched into his hold with a low moan. “Yes,” he purred. “That’s right.” He moved down her body and lowered his head just over her jutting nipples. Watching him, she held her breath in anticipation.
But instead of licking or sucking her as she’d expected, he inhaled deeply, breathing in her scent. “God, you were delicious before, but now you smell like distilled sex.”
Automatically she drew in a breath and realized what he meant. She’d never been so aware of the eroticism in a man’s scent. His was clean, but with a trace of some dark musk she couldn’t identify.
Vampire?
Then he bent his head lower, and she went still in anticipation. His first lick across the peak of one breast made her suck in a breath. That tiny, hot contact felt so much more electric than before. He looked up at her, and a small, satisfied, very male smile curled his lips. “Maja to my Magus, Erin. We’re two halves of a whole.”
Then, his gaze still locked with hers, he closed his mouth over her nipple and began to suck. Each pull of his mouth sent streamers of pleasure curling through her body to coil in a burning ball low in her belly.
By the time he lifted his head again, she was trying not to writhe on the slick, cool sheets. “Feels good, doesn’t it? Even better than it ever has before,” he said, in a low, knowing voice.
“Yeah,” she admitted on a gasp, unable to lie in the face of such searing pleasure.
He gave her another lick, and her spine arched. She caught that satisfied smile again before he sat up and reached for the button of her jeans. “You’re not just a woman anymore, Erin.” She heard the zipper hiss, then felt his big hands catch her waistband. “You’re a Maja, and a Maja is more than magic.” She watched, feeling dazed with need as he stripped her, dragging the jeans off her legs.
Then he simply wrapped his fist in her panties and jerked. She caught her breath as he reached between her legs to find her hot, buttery core. The entry of one of his long fingers dragged a whimper from her lips. Possessively he watched her face as he stroked deep. “You’re as wet as I am hard. You want me as much as I do you.” His voice hardened. “The way you’ll never want that fucking fairy.”
Erin blinked at the sudden ferocity in his voice even as she recognized the truth in his words. “He’s a good man. Ruthless, maybe, but he loves his people. I could see myself falling in love with him—”
“No,” he growled, his hands leaving her body as he rose from the bed with an easy, muscular flex. His hands went to his zipper, but his hot eyes were locked on her face as he stripped off his jeans. “Oh, yeah, I’m sure you’d come to feel some pale affection. But it’ll never be what it could be with me.”
She licked her dry lips as his cock sprang free, thick and hungry, a drop of pre-cum on its tip. “Getting a little arrogant there, Champion.”
“I have a lot to be arrogant about.”
Well, she thought, looking up at that broad, powerful body with dazed admiration, it’s hard to argue with that.
Naked, he slid a knee onto the mattress and reached down, jerking her up and into his arms. She caught her breath as her body collided with the hard muscle of his. “The Gift made you a vampire’s perfect mate.” His breath was hot on her lips. The hunger in his eyes was suddenly more than a man’s need. More consuming, more predatory. “You crave me now, as much as I crave you.”
As Erin looked into his blazing green eyes, a delicious kind of fear stole over her she’d never felt before. A woman’s fear of losing herself in a man’s hunger—and her own. She denied it anyway. “I don’t make a habit of giving into my cravings.”
“Maybe not, but you’ll find this one a lot harder to fight.” Sitting back on his heels on the mattress, he spun her around to face away from him, then pulled her back between his spread knees. She felt his breath on her pulse as he lowered his head to her throat. “Because you’ll know how it feels when I feed from you, when my fangs slide into your skin. When I drink of your blood.”
She shivered at the velvet threat in his low whisper. “I already”—she had to stop to lick her dry lips—“already know.”
He licked one of the tense cords of her throat as he cupped one breast in long fingers. “But it’s never been like this. It’s different when you’re a Maja. Hotter. More intense. Spread your legs.”
Erin blinked at the rough command, but found herself obeying, easing her knees apart.
“Wider,” he growled.
She swallowed and did as he demanded. Then she felt his long fingers tangle in her hair, pushing her head down. She bent and braced her palms on the mattress.
“Yeah,” he said, his tone dark with anticipation. “Like that.” Erin fisted her hands in the sheets as he stroked one calloused hand over her backside as he kept the other wrapped in her hair. Not pulling, but sending a silent message that he was firmly in control.
She knew she should protest the blatant dominance in the gesture, in the way he touched her as though establishing a claim. But she couldn’t seem to manage the words.
It felt too damn good.
“God, I love your ass,” he said, caressing her with those deliciously rough fingers. “Just enough muscle, with a perfect peach curve.” He found the cleft of her bottom and slid his index finger down it as she gasped. “I love to watch you walk across a room. Makes me want to bend you over every time.”
“Aren’t you being a little…Ah!…politically incorrect?” she managed, then moaned as he worked that wickedly skilled finger into her tight sex.
“Definitely,” he agreed, a dark male chuckle in his voice. “But I just don’t seem to care.” A second finger joined the first, stretching her deliciously. “And I don’t think you do either.”
She closed her eyes as he began giving her slow, arousing strokes. “I should kick your butt for this,” she managed.
He laughed. “And you probably would if I were anybody else.” A third finger joined the other two, and she jolted. “But I’m not, and you like it.”
The bed shifted as he moved off the mattress. Almost shaking with arousal, Erin gripped her fistful of silk sheets and waited to see what he’d do next.
She didn’t wait long. Suddenly she felt his face against her backside as he angled his head to slide his tongue through the seam between her sex lips. Erin caught her breath.
“You always taste so damn good,” he rumbled. “I could bathe in you.”
And if he kept that up, he’d be able to, she thought, dazed, as he went to work with tongue and fingers, lips and teeth. Stroking and teasing until she braced herself on her elbows and let herself float in exquisite sensation. Her aching nipples brushed the cool silk each time he angled his head to torment some new and ever more sensitive part of her sex.
It didn’t take her long to feel the first hot coils of her orgasm tightening around her spine. Normally she would have gone over in minutes, but this time…This time she felt the need for something more.
She wanted to feel him take her—and not just with that powerful cock. She wanted to feel the erotic sting of his fangs sinking into her throat, his mouth working on her skin as he drank from her. Okay, she thought. Getting kinky.
She didn’t care.
“Reece…” Erin moaned.
She felt him lift his head. “Need something more?” His voice was dark and knowing.
Her first instinct was to deny it, but she couldn’t. “Yeah. Please…”
He straightened. When she felt the broad, rounded head of his cock touch her damp curls, she moaned in relief.
Then he started entering her.
It seemed to take forever, an endless slick glide of shaft stretching her creaming channel, working deep and deeper. Slowly. She felt her knees shake.
“Ah,” he purred. “That’s nice. So wet. So tight.” He flexed his hips against her ass, sliding the last fraction home. “How does it feel?”
Stuffed. She was completely stuffed. “I don’t seem to remember you being quite this”—she had to stop to breathe—“big.”
He laughed softly. “You have that effect on me.”
Then, as she bent before him, her hands braced on the bed, he fucked her in slow, deep thrusts, working that thick cock in and out as he stood beside the bed. Each thrust slid pleasure through her, burned and teased her closer to the orgasm she could feel building just beyond the next deep thrust.
She found herself bending her arms and lowering her head to the mattress, letting him in deeper and deeper.
It wasn’t enough. Even as full as he was filling her, she needed something more.
She needed his bite.
“Reece,” Erin panted.
He pulled out of her. “There something you need?”
The rich amusement stung. “Dammit, you know what I want.”
“Oh, I know.” He picked her up and tossed her farther onto the bed, then pounced after her. Caging her in his brawny arms, he drove into her in one hard, deep thrust. “Because it’s exactly what I want,” he said in her ear.
“Yeah!” She angled her head, offering her throat.
But he ignored it as he instead began to lunge against her in jarring strokes that made her gasp at the ruthless delight. “God,” he growled as his hips slapped her butt. “You make me so damn hot and hungry, all I want is to empty my balls and sink my fangs in that long swan throat.”
“Now would be good,” she agreed.
Reece laughed in a triumphant masculine rumble. “You want my fangs, Erin? Is that what you need?”
“Yes!” The admission exploded from her, forced out by desperation.
He chuckled, pressing lower, his weight urging her to relax her braced arms and legs until she was spread on her belly, her ass lifted into his thrusts. Propped on his elbows, he gathered her into his arms, still spearing her. “Your wish is my command.” A big hand closed over her chin, cocked her head at the angle he wanted. From the corner of one eye, she saw him bend toward her pulse.
Just before his lips touched her mouth, he rumbled, “No goddamn fairy can give you this, Erin.”
The sting of fangs sinking deep jolted her with a lushly erotic pain that was somehow shocking. It hadn’t felt like this the last time he’d taken her.
He drove in a particularly deep thrust just as he took that first deep swallow.
Heat and fire roared out of nowhere. “Reece!” she screamed as the orgasm engulfed her in a crashing wave of pleasure.
She tasted like straight white lightning as he drank her blood in searing, erotic mouthfuls. He could hear her heart pounding. She writhed helplessly in his arms, overwhelmed by a Maja’s pleasure in feeding a vampire for the first time.
He knew just how she felt. Deliciously erotic as it had always been, the experience of taking a Maja had never been so intense. Maybe that was because the Maja he’d known had been too wary to surrender themselves, too conscious of their power to welcome any attempt to dominate them.
But he knew this was more than just a simple sex game, a bit of delicious kink.
This was Erin.
His beautiful, courageous, intelligent Erin, whom he’d come so close to losing. Erin, magnificent enough to attract a king’s attention.
Llyr was right, Reece thought as he drank from her. She would make a magnificent queen.
Should he step aside, stop fighting, let it happen? She was right; the High Court would be unable to touch her once she was Queen of the Sidhe.
No.
As he felt her silken depths caress the length of his cock, his entire being rebelled at the thought of giving her up. He’d protect her, even if he had to take on the entire Round Table to do it. She was his, and he wasn’t giving her up, not to Llyr. Not to anyone.
He loved her.
As that realization rolled over him, he stiffened, feeling the heat detonate in his tight, aching balls. Releasing her throat, Reece threw back his head in a bellow of raw need and determination. “Erin!”
And he knew as he emptied himself in her depths that he’d never let her go.
When Llyr walked out into the palace gardens, he wasn’t surprised to find Janieda perched on the petals of a rose. But for once, she showed no interest in harvesting nectar, normally her favorite treat. Instead she sat with her tiny legs drawn up to her chin, an expression of deep melancholy on her little face. She looked up at his step and stood, stepping off the petal and growing to full size in a blink.
She met his gaze with her own rainbow stare. “Did you propose?”
He wasn’t surprised she knew his plans. Janieda was far more intelligent and perceptive than anyone else realized. She’d told him once she chose to play the fool because it made others underestimate her. She’d have made a good queen if she wasn’t so hot tempered and impulsive.
Llyr sighed, knowing he was probably in for a display of those less attractive qualities now. “Yes, I did.”
Janieda studied him with that too-perceptive gaze. He’d long suspected she could read his mind right through his shields. “And she’s considering it.” She grunted in disgust, an odd sound in that high, musical voice. “Of course she is.”
Llyr shrugged. “I caught her at a vulnerable moment.”
“I should have let her die,” Janieda growled as she turned to pace. “I knew from the moment I saw her in my vision that she’d destroy you. Then, when she escaped, I thought I had best warn you anyway.” Bitterly she added, “What a fool am I.”
Llyr sighed. “She won’t destroy me, Janieda.”
“Doom hangs around her, My Liege.” She turned to him, imploring. “Send her back to the Magekind where she belongs.”
He moved to take her small shoulders in his hands. “You know as well as I do there’s no evil in her, Janieda.”
The fairy waved a dismissive hand and pulled from his light grasp. “Perhaps not, but she’ll be your destruction anyway. Or at the very least, mine. She’ll accept your proposal, and then you’ll never touch me again.” Her mouth pulled into a bitter line. “You’ll not risk dishonoring your wretched queen.”
“Janieda, you knew I would wed sooner or later.”
“Yes!” She spun toward him, glaring at him. “But all I wanted was another century or so. Can’t you give me that much time? She’s immortal—she can wait.”
Llyr sighed and raked his hands through his long hair. Janieda’s passionate nature was one of the things he loved most about her, but it could also make his life extremely difficult. “One of the primary attractions of my offer is that it would keep the Majae’s Council from ordering her death.”
“Oh, let them kill her. It would solve a multitude of problems.”
He shot his lover a chiding look. “Janieda.”
“She’s a threat, Llyr!” his lover exploded. “Can’t you feel it?” Suddenly she froze. Her face went blank, eyes wide in an expression that made the hair rise on the back of his neck. “I see thee lying in thy castle, thy magic gone, drained away to her. And the great demon laughing at the terror of your people.”
Llyr took a step back, feeling the chill spread over his skin. “No.”
Janieda blinked, life flooding back into her face. She frowned, reading his expression. “I had another vision, didn’t I? I don’t…I don’t remember this one. What did I say?” Sometimes when the future spoke through her most strongly, it left her with no memory of what she’d seen.
In this case, that was a very bad sign.
“Geirolf is going to be a problem.” Llyr straightened his shoulders. He’d diverted Janieda’s predictions before, and he’d do it again. He’d built a life from wrestling his fate in the direction he chose, and he wouldn’t let her frighten him from his course now. “But I’ll deal with it. As to Erin”—he focused on her face, willing her to listen, to yield to his will, to stop fighting him—“I need her as my queen, Janieda. I need her strength and her sense of duty, and I need the children she’ll give me. And I mean to have them.”
The fire bled out of Janieda’s rainbow eyes, and her wings drooped. “Even if it costs us our love?”
Despite his determination, Llyr felt a shaft of pity. She really did love him with all the considerable passion in her small body. And in his way, he returned it, though he’d never felt the same blazing emotion he’d sensed in her.
He stepped close to her and lifted her chin. “I have my duty, love. No matter how I may feel about it.”
She gave him the small, rebellious pout he’d always found irresistible, even when his better judgment advised otherwise. “I would have made as good a queen as she.”
“No, darling,” Llyr said gently. “You wouldn’t have. Your heart has always been stronger than your head. And perhaps that’s why I love you.” He leaned down and brushed his lips across hers in a tender kiss.
Something told him it would be the last they’d ever share.
When he drew back, a single tear rolled down her fragile cheek. “The thing I hate about you,” she said in a low, intense voice, “is your refusal to give me the comfort of a lie.”
In a blink she was no bigger than his index finger. With an angry beat of her wings, she soared off.
As she flew past, he thought he heard a tiny sob.
Parker crouched in one of the clumps of thick foliage that surrounded the palace, stewing with frustration. He dared not go a step further for fear of running into the wards he could sense mere feet away.
The trail of his spell had led here, only to veer suddenly and wildly away. He strongly suspected it had been diverted by someone’s magic. And now Champion and the little bitch were safely ensconced among a collection of magic users of some kind. They had a different feel to them than Erin had—some other species, perhaps, but he wasn’t sure what. In any case, Parker knew they’d chew him up and spit him out if he were stupid enough to test those wards.
On the other hand, that was nothing compared to what Geirolf would do when he learned his sacrifices had slipped beyond his reach. Parker swore.
Just then, something glowing zipped past the wards. He ducked instinctively.
The tiny figure stopped in midair and screamed in pure rage. “That bitch! That thrice-cursed bitch is going to ruin it all!” She took a sobbing breath and called, “Ahern! Are you here? Come out!” She darted off.
Parker eyed her glittering path in speculation. “Well now. That’s interesting.”
He rose from his nest of bushes and slipped off in pursuit of the tiny glowing figure.
Erin lay still in the cage of Reece’s arms, listening to his heart pound in concert with hers. He covered her, a hot, lightly sweating blanket of masculinity. Though he braced his body on his elbows, she was acutely aware of his weight and strength.
She had never had a man take her like this, not even him. When they’d made love before, he’d always played the laughing, tender lover. But tonight he’d been a ruthless seducer determined to stake a claim to her, to possess her. To take her in every sense of the word.
And he’d done it.
He’d branded her senses and her body with himself so thoroughly her body seemed to resonate with his.
And God, it felt so good.
She found herself imagining what it would be like to stay with him just like this. To give herself up to him, to his stunning, dizzying passion. To become part of him forever.
He was right, she realized, with a bitter sense of desolation. She’d never know anything like this with Llyr, no matter how many centuries they lived together. She’d crave Reece for the rest of her life.
Love him for the rest of her life.
And that was why she had no choice. Ironically, the sweet, erotic interlude he’d just given her had driven that home. She’d lost one man. She had no intention of losing another.
“That was incredible,” she said hoarsely, honestly.
She felt Reece smile against the curve of her cheek. “It was my pleasure.” He nuzzled her neck, breathing deeply of her scent. The feeling of his lips against her throat made Erin close her eyes as her body instantly responded to his need.
“But,” Erin said softly, “it didn’t change anything.”
Reece stiffened against her. “What?”
“You’re right,” she told him. “I love you. I need you. And I’m going to miss you for the rest of my life.”
She was unable to keep her eyes off him as he rose from the bed, naked and glorious. Anger and frustration heated his eyes as he realized what she was driving at. “It’s a good thing you can have me, then.”
Erin sighed. “No. I can’t.” She rolled off the bed, aware that he was watching her with a hot-eyed concentration. “The king has asked us to join him for the evening meal,” she said. She hesitated, then added steadily, “After that, he’s going to expect my answer.”
Reece clenched his fists. “Tell me you’re going to say no.”
“I can’t.”
“Goddamn it, Erin!”
“Reece, all the reasons I gave you earlier still apply! The fact that I love you, that I need you, doesn’t do one damn thing to change the situation we’re in.”
“We can change the situation we’re in! Yeah, if you’d gone insane, I might be in trouble with the Majae’s Council now. Even then, I could argue that I’d had no choice except to take a chance. They’re not completely rigid, Erin. That’s why there’s an appeals process.”
“And what if you lose, Reece?”
“I won’t!”
“But you could. If I marry Llyr, I won’t lose. I’ll have the power to protect you and kill Geirolf.”
“At the cost of everything else we have! Since when did you become too big a coward to take a chance?”
“Since I got sick of watching the men I love die.”
“Dammit, Erin, I might as well be dead, because I’ll never be able to touch you again.” Angrily he whirled away and stood rigid, his big fists bunched. “This is such bullshit.”
“Losing David ended my career and broke my heart,” she told him softly. “Losing you would rip out a chunk of my soul. And no, I’m not willing to risk that.”
He looked over his shoulder at her, his eyes narrow. “Fuck that. You’re rationalizing. This isn’t a gallant act of self-sacrifice. You’re just afraid to let go and open yourself up to me. You don’t want to be hurt again. You’d rather live a millennium in a bloodless union with that damn fairy than risk letting yourself love me.”
There was just enough sting in those words to make her wonder if he was right. She pushed the doubt away. “Reece, I want nothing more than to spend the rest of eternity making wild jungle love with you, but that isn’t an option. The Council—”
“—is not made up of complete bitches who won’t listen to reason. But that’s not the issue. Not really. If it was, you’d be willing to take a chance.”
“It’s not just the Council. Geirolf? Remember him? Demonic alien who wants to sacrifice us? Does any of this ring a bell?”
“Oh, it rings a bell, all right. But it’s beside the point.” Slowly he pivoted and began to stalk her. She resisted the impulse to back away. Barely. “The point is, I’m not just Reece Champion, I’m the American Champion. I’m always getting sent out on somebody’s dirty little mission—the High Council’s or the U.S. government’s. Either way, people try to kill me on a regular basis.”
She glared at him. “I wonder why?”
Glaring back, he growled, “You don’t want to take the chance that I’m going to die out from under you like David did. But if you marry the Sidhe, you don’t have to worry. You know you’re not going to fall in love with him, so if he buys the fairy farm, what difference does it make?”
Erin clenched her fists. “Think what you like. I know what I’ve got to do. And I’m going to do it.”