The Sorcerer King and the Fire Queen

by Ana Lee Kennedy

  The dog raised his head, perked his ears.

  Quietly, I opened the door, poking my head inside. The Malamute shoved his fuzzy mug between my leg and the doorframe. Solomon sat in an easy chair, wearing only a pair of shorts, his legs stretched out, ankles crossed. A small lamp glowed on the tiny nightstand to his right.

  He grinned and asked, “Can’t sleep?”

  “No.”

  He motioned toward the nightstand. “There’s wine left if you want some more.”

  I shook my head, waiting for the dog to back up before I closed the door. As I gazed at Solomon, I realized why I’d come to his room.

  “Something on your mind?”

  “Everything is on my mind,” I replied, feeling as though I bore the weight of the world on my shoulders.

  “Are you worried about Anthony?”

  “Amongst other things.”

  “You have to do what you feel is right, babe.” Solomon kicked in the recliner’s footrest and stood. He motioned me toward him.

  “I tend to let my mind have too much free rein,” I said.

  He held his arms wide. I hesitated.

  “It doesn’t hurt to let someone comfort you once in a while.”

  He was right. I nodded and stepped into his arms. As always, I felt like I was home again, and the fact he’d called me ‘babe’ instead of Ruby warmed me from head to toe.

  He tightened his arms around me. “Care to tell me about your son?”

  “Not now.”

  “I thought you said you weren’t ever married?”

  I nestled my face against his shoulder and breathed in his tantalizing scent. “I wasn’t. I was very young when I had Anthony. Can we please change the subject?”

  “What else?” he asked.

  “What do you mean?”

  I didn’t want to look into his powder-blue eyes, but I couldn’t help it, couldn’t fight it. Raising my head, I locked gazes with him. He stood two or three inches taller than me, but he might as well have been ten feet tall. His magnetism and sexual aura had me feeling tiny and vulnerable.

  “Am I on your mind?” Solomon questioned.

  The way he asked tugged at my heart. He really needed to know how I felt about him, but if I was honest, what we had now would turn to shit. Whenever I let myself care about someone, I’d lose them somehow. It never failed.

  “Do you want my kisses? My touch?” He caressed my face, tracing my jaw line with his index finger, creating invisible sparks along my skin. “Why did you really come to my room, Ruby?”

  His breath on my neck awakened gooseflesh.

  “Do you want me?” he pressed.

  “I just wanted…”

  Shame filled me. I was embarrassed to need him, to want him. A lot of years had gone into creating an impenetrable heart guarded by a barbwire mouth.

  “Just wanted what?” he asked softly, burying his hand in my hair. “Just wanted me to do this?” His head descended toward me, his lips millimeters from mine. I almost whimpered when he didn’t make contact. “Or are you playing more games? Are you testing me, trying to find out if I’m using you only to later kick you to the curb?”

  “I came here because…”

  Could I say it? He’d told me the next time we were together would be because I went to him first. Oh, how I wanted him!

  “Because?”

  The same war raged between my head and my heart. Did I dare be honest? And if I walked out of his room, would I regret it?

  I couldn’t breathe. Anxiety leapt through me and squeezed my heart. What if I said the words and Solomon turned into a different person? Every time I let my guard down with someone new, they proved they were untrustworthy or worse, a monster in disguise.

  “Ruby?” he said.

  The hope in his voice forced an answer from me. “Because I need you,” I whispered.

  “Finally. A step in the right direction.” He claimed my mouth in a deep, hungry kiss.

  The sensations that swirled through me took my breath away. He urged my lips apart, and our tongues dueled, creating a playful sparring session. He felt so good, his body firm, warm, and mine molded against his as if I were composed of putty. Solomon released my lips, peppered my jaw with kisses, and moved down my neck. He slid his hands around my waist and over my ass, kneading each muscle, his fingers biting, yet gentle.

  A tremor began in my body. It raced up my legs, shivering through my folds and torso, shooting through my arms. I sighed with pleasure as his mouth traversed my collarbone. He grasped the hem of my nightshirt and pulled it up over my head, tossing it aside. I stood before him in only my white cotton panties.

  “You’re such a beauty,” Solomon said. He caressed one of my shoulders, his fingers leaving trails of fire upon my upper arm then back up to my neck where he grasped a thick lock of unbraided hair, spreading it over my shoulder and one bare breast.

  I closed the distance between us, my breasts brushing his chest. “I want you.”

  He groaned and pushed me against the bedside. Pulling my panties down, Solomon knelt and swirled his tongue along my inner thighs. I shivered in delight, but knew in moments the heat between us would be our undoing. He stood, grabbed a pillow, dropped it on the floor and knelt again.

  “Turn around and kneel over the bedside,” he said.

  I did as instructed and felt him behind me, his cock proud and eager against me. An overwhelming hunger blazed within my core, and I wriggled closer. He moaned, but instead of penetrating me, he slipped his cock between my legs and rubbed it back and forth in my moist folds.

  Gasping, I gripped the bedcovers and reeled at the surge of desire washing through me.

  “Don’t tease,” I whimpered. “I want you. Please, now.”

  He chuckled and plunged his cock into my body. He filled me, touching that deep, special place. I bit down on the bedspread.

  Solomon waited as I adjusted to him. Once I relaxed, he began a rhythm that I met with little backward motions. Electricity coursed through my body, everything funneling into my most intimate place. The sensation kept building, his member stretching me so I felt both skewered and euphoric. Each of his thrusts bumped my womb, and the itch inside me built to dangerous proportions. Solomon moved his hands from my hips, gliding them around my body. He grasped a breast in each one, fondling, squeezing.

  He groaned loudly, his excited breathing spurring me on toward that peak which seemed just out of reach. Whenever I thought I could grasp a piece of the heavens, he withdrew, leaving me suddenly void and unsated.

  I uttered a disappointed sound. Chuckling, Solomon turned me and deposited me on my back upon the bed. He clutched my legs, shoved them upward, pressing my knees to my breasts. His mouth ravished me, his tongue darting in and out until I could stand it no longer, but just as I was about to find that pending release, Solomon stopped.

  “You’re driving me insane,” I gasped.

  “Good.” He laughed, pinned me, and then entered me again.

  His mouth claimed mine, hips thrusting, and I met his every movement. Faster and faster, our bodies slapped against one another until Solomon slipped his hands under my ass holding my hips stationary as his ground into mine.

  Finally, I cried out, and he swallowed my screams. He shuddered, stiffening as he thrust harder. His hot essence spurted into me, and I rode waves of ecstasy, reveling in the sensations, marveling that the human form could feel such pleasure.

  Spent, we reclined together, our bodies entwined. I had just started to doze off when he stirred.

  “Where are you going?” I protested, raising my head to watch him saunter across the room, his bare rear startling white in the glow of the little lamp.

  “I’ll be right back.”

  He stepped into his boxers, opened the door and sauntered out into the kitchenette. The bathroom light popped on then darkness filled the doorway as he closed the door. Moments passed, the door opened again, and then I heard the bathroom dispenser rattle. With a seductive smile
on his lips, he entered his bedroom and held up a packet of flavored lubricant for me to see.

  A thrill spiraled through me and I giggled. “You’re going to wear me out.”

  Already aroused again, Solomon slipped into bed and helped me lay flat on the mattress in the missionary position. “Good, you’ll be too tired to think of any barbed remarks tomorrow.”

  “I’m never too tired to smart off.”

  He laughed. “We’ll see about that.”

  I sobered and looked into his pale eyes. “Seriously, though, we need to get up in a while so we’ll need some rest.”

  He kissed me, his tongue dueling with mine, his right hand sliding over my belly to lay at the junction of my thighs, the heat from his palm matching the heat building in my loins.

  “Say no and mean it,” he whispered against my mouth.

  “Yes,” I said, parting my legs. It might not be the wisest choice, but I’d never desired a man so much before. The need to be one with him was all-consuming.

  He released my lips and then licked all my sensitive places from my neck to my breasts, my belly and my inner thighs until I thought I would go mad with need.

  I gasped, wiggling under his ministrations. “Please, Solomon!”

  “Not yet.” He slipped off the bed, and, on his knees, turned toward me, pulling my hips to the edge of the mattress.

  He knelt between my thighs, breath tickling my skin, followed by his mouth on my most intimate place, his tongue delving and lapping. I grabbed a handful of blanket and stuffed it between my teeth as I cried out with pleasure. Shock waves crashed through my body pulsating and thrumming so that my legs drew up involuntarily.

  Solomon climbed onto the bed again and sat on its edge. “Come here.”

  He drew me onto his lap, but I trembled so violently from the orgasm that I had trouble moving. He cradled me across his thighs, his member spearing my body, sealing the pact, binding us as one for a few moments of ecstasy.

  At my shout of pleasure and awe, a triumphant sound slipped from Solomon.

  His hands grazed my back to follow the curve of my waist where he grasped my hips. He aided me in a rocking motion that had us panting and moaning against one another’s mouths, necks and shoulders. An orgasm gripped me so strongly I turned lax in his arms, shuddering against him so that he gripped me tightly. His cries grew more frenzied, and finally he tensed. His essence, warm and welcome, spurted into my body.

  Solomon turned us on our sides where we collapsed on the mattress in a jumble of limbs. Breathing heavily, we both enjoyed pleasurable aftershocks and slipped into a light sleep. He roused long enough to pull the sheet over our bodies and then snuggle me.

  “I love you, Ruby,” he said next to my ear.

  Shock sliced through me, followed by disbelief and then hope. Could this be real after all? Did I dare believe him? I couldn’t find my voice and just lay there in his arms marveling over his admission.

  “I know we haven’t known one another long,” he continued, his tone firm, “but I do love you and I feel I always have.”

  I’d never felt so happy or so complete. Most of all, I’d never been so terrified in my entire life. I only hoped he’d forgive me when he found out that Anthony and I had arranged to leave later that night without him or Maureen.

  It figured that the one time I had a real chance at love I’d be forced to walk away in order to protect it. If Anthony was being drawn south, too, then I had to continue the journey with my son. It was the only method I could think of to keep Solomon and Maureen out of danger.

  I only prayed that Solomon would understand.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Leaving the room proved quite a feat. It took me several agonizingly slow, careful maneuvers to extricate myself from Solomon’s sleeping form. I quietly dressed in black terry-cloth shorts and a white t-shirt I’d purchased in St. Augustine with a black-and-white screen print of the Castillos on it. Slipping my sneakers on, I watched Shunka out the corner of my eye. He stood by the door anxiously wagging his tail. Anthony had already taken my suitcase out to his car, so I picked up my purse, duffle, and cosmetics case. I opened the door and tiptoed out.

  Determined to go with me, the dog shoved his head through the opening. I struggled to keep him wedged there between the threshold and the door. My bags and case hit the concrete as I tried to push his massive head back into the room.

  “What’s wrong?” Anthony whispered loudly.

  Still holding the door with one hand and my other on the Malamute’s head, I stepped aside.

  My son laughed softly and hurried over to help. Together, we managed to shove Shunka out of the way, but not before I heard his plaintive whine. That one pitiful noise awakened a gigantic remorse monster in my gut.

  Except for the far corner where the SUV was parked, the security lights bathed the parking lot in silvery light. Insects hummed, and the noise of traffic on The Overseas Highway leading out of the state had dropped considerably. A parrot squawked unexpectedly, and I jumped, my gaze zipping to the middle rooms where the bikers slept.

  Anthony quietly tossed my things in the backseat of his blue Mustang.

  At the car, I paused and glanced back at our suite. I hoped Maureen wouldn’t assume the worst and think I was going after the balance of the money. Quite frankly, I wasn’t interested in the money anymore. Solving the craziness of late was foremost on my mind, and if at all possible, I’d keep Solomon and Maureen out of harm’s way too.

  “Ruby?”

  “Yeah?” I didn’t turn around, but kept my attention on our suite. As each second passed, my worry grew into a mountain.

  “I can’t find my keys.”

  That got my attention. I spun and looked at Anthony over the top of his car. “Didn’t you have them when you came into our room?”

  “I thought so. I could’ve sworn I had them in my pants pocket.”

  “Well, look around on the floor and in the seats,” I said. With my luck, Anthony had probably left the keys in the room, and I’d have to knock on the door, blowing our plans of leaving in the night.

  I felt under the passenger seat and over the floorboard. Anthony groped in the crack of the driver’s seat and patted around on the floor.

  “Looking for these?” Solomon asked behind me.

  “Shit,” I whispered. Shame strangled me. I straightened to find Solomon dressed and dangling the Mustang keys in front of me.

  “Want to explain yourselves?” he asked.

  Maureen stood in the open doorway. “Ruby, how could you?” Hurt lurked in her voice.

  A lump formed in my throat. “I won’t be able to live with myself if something happens to either of you,” I replied, trying to speak around the knot. “And no, I’m not after the money, Maureen. I don’t give a shit about it anymore. I just want my life to be normal and put an end to all this craziness.”

  “You’re not going anywhere without us.” Solomon tossed the keys across the roof to Anthony who caught them. “I figured you’d try something like this, so I took Anthony’s keys after you dozed off. We’re all in this together.” He looked over his shoulder. “Right, Maureen?”

  “Right.” She set her backpack and Solomon’s suitcase on the sidewalk and stepped outside, allowing Shunka to follow her. “I’ve left the keycard on the dresser, so we can go now.”

  The dog trotted to my side and sat on his haunches. He snorted as if to say, “You’re not as smart as you think you are.”

  Solomon grabbed their things and strode over to the SUV parked in the darkness.

  “They seem like really good friends,” my son stated.

  “They are,” I replied, feeling both relief and worry. “But I’m scared for them nonetheless.”

  Solomon returned to my side and pulled me into his arms. “Where you go, I go. And you’re not getting rid of me so easily either.” He nuzzled my neck. “I meant what I said earlier. I love you, Ruby.”

  “Solomon, I—”

  “Shh.” H
e kissed my earlobe, and a fire shimmied through me. “I know you’re afraid, so I’m content to wait until you’re ready to love me back. For now, though, you should ride with Anthony. Talk to your son and get to know him.”

  That damn lump formed in my throat again, and I blinked away tears. One thing was certain. Solomon was full of surprises and they were all good ones.

  The dog whined and circled us.

  “I think Shunka wants to ride with you.” Solomon released me. “Is that okay with you, Anthony?”

  “Sure,” my son replied. “He’s a really cool dog.”

  “Go on, buddy.” Solomon flipped the passenger seat forward, and the Malamute jumped in and sat with his nose pressed to the little side window, leaving a wet smear on the glass.

  Regardless of my worry for Solomon and Maureen, I was glad they were going with us. And no matter what Solomon thought, it wasn’t his love that frightened me. It was my usual fear that kept rearing its ugly head.

  Looking into his eyes, I realized one thing. It would kill me if I lost him.

  ****

  Solomon and Maureen followed us in the Excursion. Driving across The Seven Mile Bridge gave me the heebie-jeebies, but I wasn’t about to let Anthony know that. He was jittery enough as it was.

  The deep blue Atlantic stretched out to the left and the bright green Gulf of Mexico sprawled on the right. The ocean view reminded me of a child’s finger painting, a crooked line separating the two colors.

  Dawn brought a brilliant sky. The glare on the water and the blinding sun forced me to dig in my purse for my sunglasses.

  Poor Solomon will feel the sun’s effects down here.

  Inwardly, I groaned. I couldn’t get the man off my mind. Our last lovemaking session played in my mind with stunning clarity. Heat rushed to my face.

  “That bridge,” Anthony pointed, “is the Knights Key-Pigeon Key-Moser Channel-Pacet Channel Bridge, which was built as a railway system in the early 1900s.”

  “What’s the matter?” I quipped. “Couldn’t they decide on a name?”

  Anthony glanced at me with a peculiar expression then burst out laughing. “A hurricane damaged it badly in 1935. After it was repaired, Hurricane Donna of 1960 tore it up again. This bridge we’re on now was completed in 1982.” He chuckled again. “Thank you for riding Anthony’s Guided Tours.”