Something inside him knotted. He felt drawn to her, and he also felt a strange sense of recognition, some sort of identification with what she had said. It was as if they stood together on the edge of something very significant, but what? What did this mean? He didn’t understand it, but he felt compelled to believe.
He moved closer and drew her in against his body with one hand, offering comfort. “I heard a tale about a man who had traveled from the future, in London last year. My sisters were all talking of him.”
“And what happened to him?”
“I have to admit I took little notice.”
Her face fell. “Me neither. I mean, I’ve seen time travel described in books and movies too, but never thought about it being truly possible.”
“Movies?”
She stared at him in silence for a moment. “Oh, never mind, it’s something from my time you don’t have yet. Kind of like books and pictures, together. Believe me, it would take hours to explain. I really wish we had the time, though.”
She rested her hand around his neck and looked at him so beseechingly his heart leapt in his chest and he drew her closer again, wrapping her into his arms.
“I will have to leave here soon. My voyage will begin today.” He spoke the words he felt inevitable, but he didn’t want to leave her. The idea of it had begun to feel very, very wrong. “Will you come with me?”
Her eyelids lowered. “I’d like to, really I would, but I can’t. I feel I must stay close to the cottage in order to return to my time. The cottage exists in both realms, so it’s the commonality. I can’t leave it.” Her thick eyelashes lifted as she met his gaze. She studied him for a long, silent moment, then reached out and touched his cheekbones, running her fingertips down to his jaw. “I’m so glad I dreamed about you at the cottage. I wouldn’t change that for the world.”
Her gaze was seductive, fast affecting him. “Good dreams, were they, lass?”
“The best.” Her eyebrows lifted suggestively, leaving him in no doubt as to her meaning.
Never before had he seen such passion in a woman’s eyes. The sight of it took a hold of him, firing his blood.
While he looked at her soft, rosebud lips, craving them, they parted. “Kiss me again, Cullen,” she whispered.
Cullen was more than happy to oblige, claiming her mouth with his, meshing his fingers in her wild hair, wishing he could tether them together that way.
Those soft lips parted under his, her body arching up, her arms locking around his neck. Such eagerness, such wanton behavior, and yet it seemed fully natural, as if she was meant to be this way.
She clung tighter to him, crushing her breasts against his chest. He rested his hands against her back, holding her close while he looked down into her eyes. She was so warm and inviting, and the liquid fire of her spirit was reflected in her gaze. It made his blood surge, and he longed to couple with her again. “May I hold you again, lover?”
“Yes, please, and make it so I’ll always find your arms around me whenever I dream.” She trailed her fingertips down his neck and over his arms, squeezing the muscle there. “Just the touch of your hand on me...” She gave a low growl in her throat in response to his hand enclosing her warm flesh. “Your touch makes the worried thoughts slip away. I truly believe you could make me forget anything and everything.” She reached for him, tangled her fingers in his hair.
The nature of her response captured him in an instant. Her eyes simmered with passion, the atmosphere between them heavy with reciprocated carnal longing. The heating of their blood was so well matched, he was filled with the need to lock his body with hers. They clung hungrily to each other, their curious sense of identification arresting them in a magic embrace.
“Come then, let us pass the time more pleasantly.” He bent his head to kiss her rosebud mouth again, before turning his attention back to her bountiful breasts, so beautifully outlined through the thin material of his shirt. She’d secured the torn fabric by tying it in a knot, and he untied it, lifted the shirt and bared her. He circled one breast with his hand, caressing it and taking the nipple into his mouth, tonguing it then grazing the peak with his teeth.
“Oh, that makes me go weak at the knees,” she murmured. “You really can push all thoughts out of my head.”
“Good.” He liked the way she expressed herself to him. It was unusual in his experience. He turned his attention to her other breast, tonguing it fervently.
“Oh, Cullen, you’ve mastered me so thoroughly.” She gave a husky laugh but it was edged with a note of desperation.
Something twitched inside him, an urge to possess her completely, and it was fiercer than anything he’d ever known.
He stood up and abandoned his shirt while Sunny kicked off the borrowed slippers and struggled with the laces of her breeches. She rose alongside him and offered the laces to him. He took a moment to rest a kiss between her breasts then jerked the baggy breeches down her legs. She moaned softly when he tested her with his fingertips. She was already warm and slick between her legs. Her blazing eyes ate him up. She was so lusty, her instincts and desires thoroughly blatant.
“Let me look at you, too. I want to savor you,” she whispered, showing she also regretted the thought of their imminent separation. “You’re the most incredible man I’ve ever met.”
Pride soared through him.
She circled him, touching him longingly.
He took pleasure in her need for him, and when she dropped to the floor in front of him and whispered, “Cullen, I’m desperate for your cock,” he almost came undone there and then.
“Hellfire, woman, what are you trying to do to me?” He couldn’t help himself. She was incredible. His heart thudded loudly within his chest, his body on fire for her.
She looked eager as he undid his breeches. His cock sprang out, hard and ready for her. She took it in her hands, trembling. His fingers slid into the rumpled mess of her hair and he held her head as her tongue darted out and licked at him. When she plunged the shaft into her mouth and ran its head against the roof of her mouth, he cursed again. She drew back, moving over the swollen head with deliberation. She plunged again and again.
He all but cried out for mercy, brimming over with pleasure. Her fingers slid down and held his sac. She moved fast and well, and she was bringing him to seed very quickly. He gripped her shoulder with one hand, the other closed on the stem of his cock. His head fell forward, his legs flexing as he spent.
She looked up at him, her eyes flashing with pleasure. He dropped down beside her on the floor of the cave. He moved his hand up from her belly to her neck. She moaned as she laid back, her eyes filled with longing, with challenge. She looked so very beautiful, her cheeks glowing, her eyes so dark and full of passion. He moved and she gave a low guttural moan when she felt him, signaling her approval. That was good, because he was desperate with the need to be inside her. He grabbed her legs, pulling her body nearer with a jolt.
“Pardon my rush, but I’m eager for more of you,” he whispered low against her ear, the tension of holding on almost threatening to undo him for a second spill right there and then.
“Believe me, I want it, too, hard and fast,” she murmured.
The things the woman said, she was wanton. It took a lot to weaken a man like him, but those words nearly did it.
“Feel my heat.” She took his hand and slid it down to her groin so he could feel the needful damp, cloying heat emanating from inside her.
“God in heaven, you are on fire...” He moaned quietly against her mouth and kissed her deep. His cock reared up again, demanding contact. He heard her breath quicken when she tested him with her hand. She was unbelievable, a canny witch all right, one who could entrance a man with her passionate ways. The light caught her expression, wild and filled with desire for him, and he had to be inside her.
She leaned back against the rock, bracing herself. “Cullen,” she cried.
“Oh yes.” He groaned as he experienced the grip of
her flesh on his. “This is too good. God help me, I may miss my ship, but I can’t miss out on this.”
She gripped his shoulders when he filled her to the hilt. She grasped at him, her legs locking tighter on him. She was so eager, it made something in his chest roar with pride and possessiveness.
He held her hips down with his hands and filled her, throbbing against the moist walls of her enclosing flesh. As her body rose up toward him, one arm sliding around his neck, he leaned down and sank his mouth onto her shoulder. She made a sound, a cry, and fell away from him again. He rode her, but kept them close, moving in deep thrusts, their bodies clinging together in the gloom. The dank smell of the cave, combined with the heady smell of their mating, filled the atmosphere.
“Cullen...I’ve never had it like this, it’s so hot,” she whispered.
He could only mutter incoherent words in response.
She leaned further back and pivoted against him. He was crushed inside her, the angle affording him access to her deepest spot. His manhood was massaging the very core of her womanly flesh and he was already near to shedding his load. And she was close to her end, too.
Her hands tightened on his shoulders, her head rolling.
He cursed under his breath and ground into her deep and hard, riding her against the cave floor insistently.
She began to tremble and a low sound escaped her mouth.
He felt her spasm, and he thrust deep and fast, driving them both over the edge of the precipice within seconds.
CHAPTER NINE
Wellington sat by the fire, seemingly content, even while he watched his mistress pacing back and forth in front of the hearth, wearing the rug threadbare.
Celeste’s insides were in a knot. She’d been fretting for hours. Something was amiss, and she couldn’t see or feel clearly what might have occurred.
She paused at the table and took another look at her matchmaking handiwork, hoping for a clue. The pendant she’d created from the two gems lay in the centre of the table on a scarlet velvet cushion. She put it there for safety and under the colored glass lantern over her table, so that she could study it in all manner of colored light, to try to glean what was happening with Sunny and Cullen.
The only thing she knew for sure was the gems she’d brought together were meant to be entwined. Each complemented the other beautifully. Thinking her work done several hours earlier, she put the gems on a silver chain, a heart-shaped loop fixing them in place. Then the two gems began to vibrate, buffeted as if by external forces, and rolled across the table, falling to the ground.
She’d watched it happen in dismay.
Quickly rescuing them, she put them safely on a cushion. Ever since then they’d been roiling and rolling, buffeted by strange forces around them. No matter how hard she tried to discern the nature of the forces, they were shielded from her by darkness. In her experience, it was very unusual.
She was close to the point of exhaustion, and yet couldn’t stop herself from watching over them, feeling responsible for whatever was going on. Perhaps she’d set Sunny too great a task. Both she and Willow had been sure Sunny’s magic would come to the fore when needed, that had never been in doubt, but Cullen Thaine was a mystery man. Why had this stoic soul been lost to history?
An answer had presented itself but she pushed it away, unwilling to acknowledge the dark forces roving free in Raven’s Landing. Nothing could be done until later in the morning. She lifted the chain from the velvet cushion and dropped it into her trinket box, closing the lid.
“All I can do now is keep them safely together and comfortable, and wait for tomorrow,” she said to the cat as she took off her spectacles. “I wonder how Cullen will fare in this modern time.”
The cat gave her an admonishing glance.
“Yes, I know, it was a big risk, especially now Fox is back in town, but I’ll keep watch. The matchmaking magic can always be unstitched...if needs be.”
Her trinket box vibrated on the table.
She put a soothing hand on the lid and sighed. “I do hope it’s not necessary though. They seem so well matched.”
Wellington got up and stretched, then strolled off towards his cat flap and away into the night. He had a tendency to vote with his paws when he thought she was getting carried away with her magic. Celeste sighed, picked up the trinket box and put it under her arm as she mounted the stairs for some sleep. It was already dawn, but she needed to rest.
Once she’d plumped up her pillows, she pulled back her hair and wrapped it into a loose bun, sitting up and focusing on the window.
Wellington rejoined her a moment later.
“Is it going to be a good day?”
He curled up in a ball at her feet.
The sunshine filtering through the curtains told her the day was good here in 2020. But in 1820?
The Cornish weather had an uncanny ability to change at the most inconvenient of moments, throwing the best-made plans into confusion. “A storm has to be endured, in order to find a rainbow, right?”
Wellington meowed in agreement.
The storm would prevent Cullen from leaving. At least, that was her hope. Other forces were at play though. She tried not to fret. Clever, creative minds would always find a way to make the best of any situation, and she was sure Sunny and Cullen would find the right path, no matter what.
Uncertainty still clung to her. She looked at the cat. “I doubt I’m going to get any sleep. Perhaps I’d better check in with our friend Willow.”
She picked up the phone and scrolled to Willow’s number.
Willow yawned. “How’s it going?”
“From what I can tell it’s going okay.” She paused. “I had a caller last night, after you went home.”
“Seriously, Fox had the nerve to come that soon?”
“Yes. He said he knew I was matchmaking.”
“Well he’s always known what we’re up to.”
“Exactly. Something in particular is drawing him on this occasion though.”
“Did he say anything useful?”
“The usual, offered with one hand and took away with the other.”
“Did you discuss Sunny?”
“Yes. He’s clearly interested in her. Says he wants a new apprentice.”
Willow snorted. “What happened to the last one?”
“I dread to think. I’m not sure that’s the whole picture, though.”
“Can you tell how Sunny is coping?”
“They’re definitely together, which is a relief. We were right to act on Sunny’s dream. But there are storms all around them.”
“Inevitable, I suppose,” Willow replied.
“Oh yes, something else about Fox,” Celeste added. “He knew Sunny was Hanna’s granddaughter.”
“That’s worrying. He’d obviously observed Hanna from a distance, and knew she was a powerful one. Hanna would laugh, she couldn’t stand the man.”
Celeste chuckled, amused by it too. “Let’s just hope Sunny picks up on that. She should. She’s a sensitive soul, perceptive.”
“I’m sure she will. It’s a shame he caught sight of her with us.”
Celeste sighed. “I don’t think it would’ve made much difference. He was on to her anyway.”
“What do you want me to do?”
Celeste took a deep breath. “Gather the coven. We need to be ready.”
CHAPTER TEN
While the passion between Cullen and Sunny rolled back and forth, fierce and undeniable, the weather outside had become darker and more unruly. The sky was overcast and swift moving, the waves crashing against the nearby rocks.
Cullen rose to his feet and walked to the entrance of the cave.
Sunny watched him with a pang of regret.
When she moved, the surface of the rock felt rough against her back, sending an after-tremor of pleasure through her entire body. Would she ever recover from being so thoroughly shagged?
“Accursed weather.”
“What is it?”
she asked, pulling the baggy shirt on and joining him close to the mouth of the cave.
“If it stays like this, the Gloriana won’t be able to come into dock.”
The waves were wild. “Because of the rocks?”
Her thoughts raced. She’d learned about the rocks from local historical accounts. They were filled with tales about ships getting into difficulty at the jaws of the rocks outside the harbor, large and dangerous stony outcrops known as the Bedruthen Steps. Would this keep his ship at bay, and would she have more time with him as a result? Sunny felt a wave of longing spring up at the very idea, her heart aching for every precious moment she might spend with him.
“The rough seas will hold them off. The Gloriana might not be able to come into the bay until the morrow.” He pulled on his clothes as he spoke. “I’ll go up to the headland to take a look.”
While he was gone, Sunny darted out to the shore’s edge and splashed her face with icy water, then she sat inside the mouth of the cave and tried to work out what the hell had happened to her.
As logically and rationally as she could, she worked through events to see if she could figure out how she’d traveled back in time. There were the dreams—she couldn’t discount them. Some element of destiny was being played out, for sure. But there was more. She’d wished for him to be real as she fell asleep the night before. He said he wished for a wench.
Was it the key, that the two wishes fulfilled one another?
How would she travel back? It had to be by the same means. Therefore she had to wish it. At the cottage? Did it have to be there? They’d both been there when it had happened, she supposed.
When Cullen left on his ship, she would go back to the cottage and wish. A shiver passed right through her bones when she considered what might happen if it didn’t work, if she was left here alone, without him, but in his time. The idea of him leaving was, in itself, making her despondent, let alone the rest.
“There’s no sight of the ship and no hope for several hours with the weather like this.”
A Coven of Her own Page 7
