“Impossible. You couldn’t have heard anything.” She backed up until the mirror blocked her path. “There’s no flute here. Do you see any?”
Kailen stopped in front of her. As he was a head taller, she’d have to look up to speak to him. She refused. He was invading her space, her precious refuge. Why would she play nice? She focused her attention on the top button of his Henley shirt.
“It is a mystery, I will admit,” he murmured, lifting her chin.
His delicious scent, clean and masculine, crashed into her with overpowering force. He’d not done a thing and her body was ready to yield. Her mind, however, clung to the last bit of rebellion.
“Why are you here?”
“You’ve been avoiding me.”
She scowled. “You can be so irritating. Talk about avoidance. Will you ever give me a straight answer?”
“As soon as you come clean with me.” He leaned closer to her face. His gaze called, pulled her in. “Your absences are all too timely, too perfect to be coincidences. At breakfast time, I was told you’d just left. Later, I checked on Brysys and Malcolm, and I got a similar explanation. I asked about you at lunch, and no one knew where you were, and tonight, I ate alone. Meanwhile, I enter a room or walk along the hallway and your teasing aroma still lingers in the air as if you’d passed by. I can’t help but wonder, what is your game?” Narrowing his eyes, he cocked his head.
Anger hobbled her tongue. He’d confused play with escape, hardly the same concept. Just because she didn’t want to witness his infatuation with Brysys, that didn’t make her a manipulator. She was sick, tired of bleeding.
“N-no…n-no game.”
He placed a finger on her lips. “Oh yes, a stór. The game is very real. You don’t have the guts to face or voice your emotions. So, you throw guilt my way, making me responsible for your hurt. That’s bad form. Come on, I dare you. Tell me your truth.”
“My truth?”
“Indeed.”
He clasped the base of her throat. Although he was careful not to cut off her air, his possessive grip asserted an arousing dominance she found impossible to resist. If he asked her again, she’d speak.
“I know what pains you. But I’m not going to make this easy for you. You’ve tried to cover up the yearnings of your heart, and ironically, you express them with every glance and gesture. You wear angst like a cloak. Be brave, Talaith. For once in your life, step out of your stiff silence and speak. Yell if you must. I won’t mind.”
Kailen’s last three words lifted the gate partway. The suppressed pain, years of self-doubt and inadequacy pounded on it, demanding freedom.
Still, she held back…
“I-I…can’t,” she stammered.
“Sure, you can. Take a chance, tell me.” Whispering, he crowded her against the mirror.
“You… You forgot about me.”
“Never,” he growled, and his mouth took hers in a forceful kiss. Sweetness and gentleness didn’t play a part. This was a claiming kiss, and he pushed through with his tongue, probing his territory and stating ownership.
Wrapping an arm around her waist, he arched her upward so tightly, no separation existed between them. She mewled with delight.
“Why on earth would you think I’d forget you?”
He trailed his moist, burning lips to her cheek, the edge of her jaw, and slid down to the juncture of her neck and shoulders. Kailen concentrated his attentions on that spot, nibbling and teasing with the edge of his teeth. As he grazed lightly back and forth, she dug her fingernails into his shoulders. Taking her cue, he suckled her flesh with such hunger, her core fluttered at the edge of climax. A vision of Kailen marking her filled her mind, and she trembled with excitement.
Half dazed, all inhibitions lost, she blurted out her fear. “Because…because she’s so beautiful.”
“She? Brysys? Nonsense. This…” He clutched the back of her neck. “This is beautiful.” Wrapping one arm under her bottom and the other around her lower back, Kailen hoisted her up to his waist. “Brysys pales next to you. She’s nothing. Don’t you understand? It’s you… You I want.”
For now, at least. Doubt remained. Too many years of being berated and humiliated had done a thorough job. Regardless, the universe had granted her a few moments with Kailen, and wasting them would be a sin. She buried her face against his shoulder as she clung to him.
“Yes, a stór,” he murmured to her ear. “Give yourself to me.”
Squeezing her legs around his waist, Talaith leaned her head on the mirror as she tugged at the nightgown that had wrapped around her thighs. He understood her effort. One-handed, he held her hip in place, supporting her movements, while with the other, he unzipped his fly.
“I can’t hold back.” His gaze bore into hers as he kicked the pants out of his way. “I have to take you now.”
“Yes, please.”
“Tell me,” he crooned. “What do you want?”
“Hard. I want hard. I want full. I want to forget. I want to love.”
“As you wish.”
He shifted his hips, and she looked down. They’d made love before, but this joining was different. A strange urgency rode her. The need was imperative, as if her life depended on this. She had to know to the very last detail how he took her, and the way his sex possessed her. She had to see the fullness of his flesh, and engrave it in her memory. Her mouth dried up when he lined his erect cock at her sheath and thrust.
At the invasion of his hot erection, a burst of colors filled her vision. The world spun around her, or perhaps she spun around the world. It didn’t matter. He held her in his arms, and that was all her soul needed to soar with happiness.
“Talaith.”
Her name on his lips brought the magic forth. Their energies moved and gyrated, keeping tempo with the slow, thorough union neither one wanted to rush. As she ground her hips against his pelvis, their magic flared and threaded into each other. He pushed his member deeper, and the energy mesh tightened. On and on, the voluptuous dance continued. She moaned with arousal, he laughed with satisfaction, and in their bliss and joy, their magic locked as one.
Caught in the swell, she lurched as a rising climax took her to a summit without end. Gasping for air, she flailed and clawed at his chest. Kailen increased the stimulus, stroked her sensitized clit, and her orgasm pulsed endlessly. Exhausted and wilted, she collapsed in his arms.
Talaith lost track of time as she lay belly down on Kailen, his arm wrapped around her waist, and her legs entwined with his. Pressing her ear to his chest, she listened to the soothing rhythmic tattoo of his heart, thinking she should roll to his side, and hating the idea. She wanted to extract the last delicious ounce out of this moment.
The hero in her fantasies was holding her in his arms, and she could hardly believe it. The broken warrior in Khnurn’s hut, who’d been beautiful in his heartache, had captured her childish imagination and nurturing instincts. Sitting in a corner, she’d watched him struggle with drills as he strove to recover. He’d been courageous and indefatigable. And when his spirit healed and he rejoined the world, a part of her went with him. Despite the distance, she had the stories. Ballads of his exploits reached Egypt and she’d relished every word and note: Kailen, gallant knight in Fritiof’s Titanian Court, and the last Danann had vanquished enemies, pacified revolts, and rescued the weak.
She was certain their paths would never cross again…and then the call came.
Talaith had stepped out of the portal to find that the light of tenderness still glowed in his fathomless eyes. Time had not affected his powerful bearing and self-assured expression. More importantly, and what no one spoke about: instead of retiring after ages of dedicated service, Kailen had switched his protection to Soren Westerberg, Lord Fritiof’s firstborn. Proving, without long speeches, the meaning of honor and true loyalty.
Sliding her palms along his rib cage, she imprinted the sensation of his warm skin into her memory. Sighing, she dropped a kiss between the hard
planes of his pectoral muscles.
“That was a loaded sigh, a stór. We’ve fought together, made love, been as intimate as two people can be, and you still don’t trust me enough to open up.”
He brought a pillow over and folded it behind his neck. His questioning expression demanded a response. She resisted, unwilling to give up her short-lived bliss. He didn’t have to rush to ruin the moment. Life would interfere soon enough.
Determined, if not tenacious, was Kailen’s middle name, she’d learned while working the security rings with him. Whenever he got an idea or wanted something, nothing stopped him. Freeing one leg, he threw it over her hips and rolled on his side carrying her.
The sudden movement lifted the scent of their sexual musk, and her libido stirred. He’d pinned her, limiting her ability to self-gratify or tempt him into pleasing her. She squirmed and fidgeted, sliding one hand to her crotch.
“You’re trying to distract me.” He slapped her bum.
She shuddered. Kailen’s light spank, stunned and…gods of the universe, excited her.
“Just as I thought.”
“Huh?”
“I’m your lover, Talaith, not a casual observer. I’m in tune with your reactions, and you respond to rough lovemaking. You crave it. I had to be sure before I guided you down that path. Your enlarged pupils confirm your pleasure. We’re going to have a lot of fun.”
Scenes, moments of their first night at the New York mansion, popped in her mind and heat rushed to her face. Yes, she did like rough. In the throes of arousal and frustration at his initial hesitation, she’d torn her clothing and had thrust her breasts at him. She’d enjoyed being pushed against a wall, lifted against a mirror, and taken hard at her request.
“This is so embarrassing.” She pressed her face against his chest.
“Why?” He tugged her shoulder. “Look at me. There’s nothing to be embarrassed or ashamed about. Your uninhibited passion and wildness are perfect. It’s everything I want and need in a lover. What I detest more than anything, is hiding, pretense, or hypocrisy. And since we’ve come to a long-overdue, reveal-all moment, for the sake of honesty, I’ll go first.”
He kept her close to him as he caressed her lower back.
“I’ll admit, I pushed out of my mind the cute girl with the huge, curious eyes in Khnurn’s hut. I was full of hate then and had no room for gentle emotion. After that, service to the Titanian cause became my sole purpose. Casual encounters satisfied my carnal needs. When I saw you again, a grown, exquisite woman, well… To say you shocked and captivated me is an understatement. We’ve danced around each other since. You’ve been circumspect and hidden your feelings, and I’ve done everything possible to avoid mine. I’m centuries older than you and full of scars. I’m jaded and skeptical. Trust doesn’t come easy. I don’t think it’s fair to dull the brightness in your life with my baggage. But you… In your steady, quiet way, you’ve lured, insisted, and won. You’re the most persistent female in the universe. I can’t say no to you. To be accurate, I don’t want to say no.”
Confused, she scratched her chin. “Was that supposed to cheer me up?”
“No,” he said with a chuckle. “My intention was to make you think. To give you fair warning. For long years, I’ve existed without a mate, meaning I don’t compromise well. You’re tying yourself to an opinionated, grumpy, dominant male. Our life will be full of ups and downs. It won’t be boring, though.”
“You forgot to mention sexy.”
She freed herself and scrambled upward to his mouth, dropped a kiss, then slipped to his side.
“There,” he murmured. “You proved my point. Fiery and exuberant to the end. Which raises the question, where did reticent Talaith come from? What happened after you grew up? I know you didn’t stay in Egypt because I visited Khnurn’s hut on occasion and you weren’t there.”
“I…ah…”
“Acting coy doesn’t suit you, and skirting around the topic isn’t going to work. Honesty between us is the only way forward. I realize Khnurn isn’t the kindly father-confessor type, and you’re not used to opening up to anyone. Start small, then go on from there.”
“All right, all right,” she huffed. “Khnurn sent me to the Germanic forests. I was to spend a few decades with the high priestess of a large pagan tribe.”
“Fascinating… Not to mention revealing. A pattern is emerging with you, Khnurn, and northern Europe. More fodder for my hypothesis. I suppose he didn’t explain his reasons.”
“Khnurn likes his mysteries.”
“Which tribe did he send you to?”
“I don’t recall their name, only their boasting and haughty behavior. The priestess and elder leaders claimed to be the last of the Bructeri and followers of the seeress Veleda.” She circled her finger on his chest in a slow, tiny caress. “When no one was around, some of the tribe’s lesser members revealed they had more Frankish ancestry than anything else.”
“Tough group, though. The Bructeri gave Rome a hell of a headache.”
“Not only Rome. Me too. The old women had agreed to teach me their ancient spells, show me their enchantments, and allow me to practice. Instead, they took great pleasure in shaming me. To them, I was a reject, the atrocious result of a bad experiment, and thus unworthy of their exalted presence.”
He stiffened. “What kind of experiment?”
“Oh.” Talaith sighed. “Priestess Leyna made a grand announcement in council. One of the Furies, Tisiphone the Avenger, while conferring with Erebus, had agreed to share a few drops of her blood to my creation. Perses the destroyer and Scylla the monster had contributed as well.”
“Sounds like the tribe twisted the Roman invaders’ religion and the priestess chose those parts that were convenient for her.” He extended his arm over her shoulder. “But why treat you that way? What did she gain?”
“No one ever said. According to her mandate, I was not to be touched unless Leyna supervised and hands were protected with thick clothing or other material to avoid contamination. She claimed I presented a human facade, but internally, I was other, an abomination of the viscera. Ironically, I was forbidden to mingle with the tribe and spent my days and nights alone, wasting away and learning nothing. Meanwhile, the priestess and her attendants sought my magic and divination skills. Sometimes, when despair and loneliness became too much to handle, I’d escape to the forest until they found me and dragged me back to the village. The wood nymphs took pity on me. I learned a lot from them.”
“Abusive, evil bitch.” He scowled. “And of course, you didn’t reach out to Khnurn. He would’ve pulled you out of that situation.”
“I didn’t because I wanted to prove my strength to him.”
“Abuse doesn’t prove a thing. It wounds the spirit and bends the mind.”
“In retrospect, I know you’re right. But I was young and inexperienced, on my first outing without Khnurn’s supervision. I believed life with the tribe would build my character, help me increase my powers, and hone my magic. I had to endure and triumph without Khnurn’s help.”
He tightened his hold. “And so a reserved and quiet Talaith was born.”
She nodded, and Kailen fell silent. He seemed so lost in thought that she respected his reverie. This was her idea of a perfect moment: resting in his arms, no conversation or sounds, two hearts beating in time with each other. She could stay like this forever.
“I have a theory about your origins, and I think Khnurn does too.”
As he lazily twirled a tress around his finger, his chest rumbled under her ear. She didn’t move.
“It’s the reason why he’s sent you to northern Europe time and again. I’m certain you don’t have a drop of Greek Pantheon blood in you, not even from the vanquished Titans like our friends Soren and the rest of the Titanian clan. Not that it matters to me where you came from. I want this, the final product right here.” He kissed her head. “But the knowledge is important to you, and that bears investigating.”
�
�Oh?”
“Talaith is Welsh, kind of a misleading clue, intended to send someone on the wrong trail. Did you know it means diadem or crown?”
“Had no idea.”
“Khnurn should’ve told you. It’s a lovely name, and it fits you.”
She smiled. “Tell me more. You said misleading.”
“Yes, possibly to tie you to Prince Pwyll and Rhiannon the Formidable. But the druid who created the ruse didn’t know about me or imagine I’d be in your life ages later. I met Rhiannon and Pwyll while serving in Oberon’s Seelie Court. They’re Celtic divinities. Their powers are much different from yours. I’d place your origins somewhere in Scandinavia, or the Germanic woods. Your kind of magic is the telltale sign. It is clearly Seidr, same as Frigg’s magic.”
“You said a druid?” She stiffened. “Who?”
“Don’t blame Brysys.” He chuckled. “Astarot had her imprisoned in the exile realm.”
“Right.” She sighed.
“I said druid because the one who kidnapped you had strong powers. How else could this creature have stolen you and escaped with impunity? I presume your parents perished in the struggle to keep you. I’m convinced they passed on to you the seeing magic you wield with such ease.”
Kailen’s words hit a nerve in her. A sheer image, more like a faint cloud of memory flashed past her vision. She sat upright. “Wait, you’re going too fast. I have…had parents?”
He nodded. “Of course, you did. You’re not some weird creation.”
“And what is this Seidr magic? I never heard about it until now.”
“That is surprising, considering Khnurn raised you.” He tickled the corner of her mouth with his fingertip, forcing a smile out of her. “Seidr is the magic of the ancient Vikings and their seers. Their power controls the elements, the ability to divine fate and travel spiritually as you do. And Frigg, the most important Aesir goddess in the Norse Pantheon, is a völva, meaning a shaman, an assiduous practitioner of said magic. Moreover, ancient Germanic tribes venerated her as well, thus Khnurn’s insistence on sending you to northern European forests, where most likely your life began. He was trying to reconnect you with the primal forces that still exist in those woods. See what I mean?”
The Last Danann (Titanian Chronicles, #2) Page 15
