Carlton, Amber - Trinity Magic (Siren Publishing Romance)

by Amber Carlton

  Ryder was so beautiful, but he would never be enough to keep her from the Between Times. No mortal man had the power for that. But he stood before her, and he had felt good under her hands, and he had felt good between her legs.

  “Come back to me,” she said. “Let me touch you. I’ll do anything your body wants. We could do some of the wicked things you want to try.”

  She ran her finger down his cock, and it stirred, swelling under her touch. She smiled and glanced up at him. He stared at her, his fists clenched at his side, his brown eyes full of anguish, fury, sorrow. His gaze searched her face for something.

  “I want you to touch me again,” she whispered. “You can make it stop.”

  He shook his head. The flush of his skin disappeared, and he paled. His eyes were suddenly blank, pools of emptiness.

  “Come back to bed,” she begged. “Touch me again.”

  “Not in this lifetime.” He bent down to search the floor for his clothing. He gestured toward the rumpled sheets. His cold voice stabbed at her, and she flinched. “Glad I could be of service. Without that little annoyance, you can whore around all you want.”

  Arleigh glanced down and saw the stain of blood. She felt the wetness between her thighs. She pulled at the sheet and wiped the blood away.

  Arleigh glanced up, struggling to meet his eyes. “But you can make it stop.”

  “Not interested.”

  He pulled on his breeches and gathered his clothes in his arms. He tossed her torn nightgown to her.

  “Pack your shit and get out.”

  She pulled the nightdress against her. His glance raked across her. It was almost painful.

  “A little too late for modesty,” he said. “I think I’ve already seen everything you have to offer. Flynn was right. You are a good lay, but I don’t fucking share.”

  “I need more,” she said.

  “I don’t,” he said. He reached down and grabbed her face in his hand, pulling her. She had no choice. She stood up. He squeezed, gently, so controlled she barely felt it, but the tone of his voice was deadly. A shiver ran down her spine. “Now get the fuck off my island.”

  He shoved her away and went into the keeping room. The door slammed. A tear slipped down her cheek and, absently, she brushed it away.

  Chapter 23

  He didn’t see her leave. He yanked his clothes on outside the front door and headed toward the barns. If he had to see her face again, he knew he wouldn’t be able to control himself. He would strangle her, hit her, or fuck her. He didn’t know which one, and it didn’t seem to matter. Christ, none of it mattered at all. She didn’t even want him.

  He rode around the island on one of Stephen’s horses for several hours. The beauty of the island did nothing to improve his mood. Sitting on the banks of the James did nothing to improve his mood. Talking with Jack Kensington did nothing to improve his mood. In fact, talking with Jack made him feel worse because Jack had delivered Arleigh to Cardew. He rattled off questions for which Ryder had no answers.

  He left the cottage pissed and returned to the cottage pissed. He knew she didn’t have many belongings, but he looked around anyway. Her clothes were gone from the pegs upstairs and her tiny chest emptied. Her cloak, brushes, and little bottles of violet and lavender water were gone.

  His head ached, and his eyes burned. His stomach twisted into so many knots he knew he would puke soon. None of that mattered either. He chopped firewood to ease the pain. He struck the ax through the wood again and again until his stack of logs reduced to tiny bits of kindling. The sweat poured down his face, stinging his eyes. His hair hung in lank strands around his face, and the stubble on his face itched like crazy. He kept swinging the ax, and each time he felt the ax strike its target, he thought of Flynn. Finally, even thinking of killing Flynn wasn’t enough.

  “Goddamn it!”

  He flung the ax away, and it buried itself into the earth. He kicked his pile of kindling until the entire front of the cottage looked like a field of wood chips. Eventually his energy gave out, and he dropped to the ground, pressed his face against his knees, and tried not to think of anything. But of course, thoughts of Arleigh spiraled through his head.

  He didn’t know how long he sat there. The seconds seemed like hours, the minutes like days. The sounds of voices finally tugged him out of his misery. He lifted his head up and looked toward the river. He stood up.

  They ran toward him. Three little girls, their hair flying behind them, their cloaks swirling around them like cotton candy. His heart skipped a beat when they rushed toward him and threw themselves at him. He found a way to hold all three of them at once. Finally they pulled away, and their faces were filled with anguish. He knew the feeling well. He also knew what they would tell him, because he knew this wasn’t his lucky day. He had figured that out a couple of hours ago, when his heart had been ripped out and shoved down his throat. It had taken only one word.

  “He let us come home,” Fiana said.

  “Uh huh,” Ryder said. “He’s a regular prince.”

  “Arleigh is at Cardew,” Fiana said.

  “I know,” he said.

  “Why did you let her come?” Fiana asked. “How could you let her come?”

  “She’s a grown woman. She makes her own decisions. There’s such a thing as free will. I encouraged her to make a decision.”

  Fiana stomped her foot on the ground and looked at him hard. “What brought her to Cardew was not free will!”

  He took a step backwards. Christ, she was angry with him, all bunched up in a little fury under that red cloak. And that look in her eyes scared him. How could he explain this to a kid her age? She wouldn’t understand that, when your lover decided she wanted to fuck someone else, you fucking let her go or blew your brains out. He had no idea what to tell her. Images of Arleigh flickered through his mind like fireflies. He could still smell her on his skin, taste her in his mouth, feel the warmth of her pussy on his cock. And he heard her voice whispering a name that wasn’t his. He rubbed a hand across the fierce ache in his forehead. The railroad spike was back. What a fucking nightmare.

  “It doesn’t matter what brought her there,” Ryder said. “She had a choice. She doesn’t want me. End of story.”

  “It is not the end of the story,” she said.

  “Look, honey, I don’t know what story you’re reading, but I read the last chapter. I have no right to demand what she doesn’t want to give me. I’m not that kind of guy. Okay, yeah, maybe I was that kind of guy this morning, but it happened only once. And a couple of times before, I came pretty close, but the woman is bloody impossible. I’m not proud of any of it.”

  “She loves you,” Hannah said.

  Ryder shook his head. “She’s not said it.”

  “You love her,” Corliss said.

  “Doesn’t matter,” Ryder said. “I’m not what she wants.”

  “But your love is real,” Fiana said.

  “If our love was real, she wouldn’t have left me standing in the bedroom with my…never mind. Trust me. She made a choice. She could have had me. I practically offered myself on a silver platter. I spilled my guts to her. It doesn’t matter. It’s over. She moved on. Better-looking guy, more money, place in the country, the whole works.”

  “This is not helping us,” Fiana said. “Stop feeling sorry for yourself.”

  “I’m not. I’m trying to live in reality. Look, for the past couple of days, I’ve been in some kind of weird fairy tale. I’m in a place where I don’t know my ass from a hole in the ground, surrounded by witches and faeries, a Leanan sidhe, and a Highlander. You pulled me through some kind of gigantic worm hole that has closed behind me. I’m stuck in a place I can’t handle and a time I don’t understand. And the woman I gave my heart to, the woman I actually loved…”

  He stopped talking, because he thought he would choke. He couldn’t get his breath. They watched him with concern, their little faces scrunched. Corliss reached out and took his hand.


  “Don’t worry,” he said, gasping. “It’s a panic attack or something.”

  Corliss shook her head. “We know you’re sad. We’re sad, too. It’s okay to cry.”

  He blinked, and before he could think, before a thought filled his head, he fell to his knees on the carpet of wood chips and crushed her against him. A sob tore through his chest. He buried his face in a little girl’s shoulder and wept like a baby. He felt their hands in his hair, across his back. He had not even cried at his own father’s funeral, and here he sat in a pile of sawdust, being comforted by three little girls who had lost their mother, their father, their home, and the person who loved them most.

  “God, I hate this freaking place. I’m so bad at 1639 that I can’t even cut firewood.”

  “Well, it is a little small,” Corliss said. “But I think we can still use it.”

  He tried to smile. “I went a little nuts. A lot nuts. Sorry about the meltdown.”

  “What are you going to do about Arleigh?” Fiana asked. “Go to Cardew and get her?”

  Man, the chick was all business.

  “It won’t help,” he said. “I told you, she doesn’t want me. I can’t love a woman who doesn’t want me. Besides, she doesn’t belong to me.”

  “She does belong to you,” Fiana said. “Legally.”

  “I’m not talking about the indenture, Fiana. I already twisted that little legality to get what I wanted. I’m talking about love between a man and a woman. When you love someone, you give your heart to them, you give your soul to them. I gave them to Arleigh, and she threw them back in my face.”

  “I know what love is,” Fiana said with disgust. “But love is not what we should discuss right now. We must think of Arleigh because she is not herself. She is under an enchantment. Master Flynn will use her until she has nothing left to give. She will die, Ryder. Do you understand that? You cannot allow her to die because you think it’s her choice. I know she hurt you, because I can see the pain on your face. I know you are angry with her, your pride is bruised, and your manhood has been questioned. None of that matters. Do you understand?”

  She stood with her hands on her hips. Her eyes flashed liquid sapphire. He understood all right. He’d seen it before. She would get her way.

  “What do you know about my manhood?” he asked.

  “More than I care to know,” Fiana said.

  “Why, you little witch. You read my mind,” he said, and the blood drained from his face. “Oh, my God, how much did you see?”

  “I saw enough,” Fiana said. “Are you going to go get her or not? I did not bring you across more almost four hundred years for nothing. I brought you for her.”

  “I thought you brought me here to save you. To be a hero.”

  “We can obviously save ourselves, thank you,” Fiana said. “I can take care of my sisters. You have always been for Arleigh. You are the one she has always loved, and you have always loved her. You are linked through memories and lifetimes, through faery spells and reality. Without each other your souls will wither and your lives will hold no meaning. Don’t let her die, Ryder. She is a most perfect gift. We have given you to each other once again. You have tamed the spirit within her, Ryder. She has given her soul to you without taking yours in return. Please love her. If you do that unconditionally, she will accept you with open arms and heart and soul. You can make it stop. And our lives will continue the way fate has meant them to be.”

  The other girls nodded.

  “I can make it…?”

  He thought of Arleigh’s words, her pleas. He had thought it had something to do with Flynn, that perhaps he could drive out the memory, exorcise the enchantment by possessing her and making her his own. But it hadn’t worked. He had forced her, pressed her down on the bed, taken away her choice, and then she had quickly turned it around, seducing him, filling his body with such craving he would have died if he hadn’t fucked her. And still she had not seen him. Not enough to keep Flynn out of her mind.

  “I can make what stop, Fiana?”

  She cocked her head and rolled her eyes. “The curse, of course. Love is a gift, to be given freely, not taken or coerced. Please do what I ask and accept our gift. We want you both to be happy.”

  “Why would you do this for me? You don’t even know me.”

  She offered a tiny smile. “I have always known you, Ryder, in this life and others. Will you please do what I brought you here to do?”

  “Honey, I don’t understand half of what you said. But if you think we belong together, I guess I’ll have to trust you. Do you think this indenture legality will work? Sounds like another loophole. I mean, I’d pretty much have to carry her away screaming.”

  “If that’s what it takes. Master Flynn will not want a scandal. He is an important man in this colony. He will not hold her if you claim her. You won’t have to control her for long. We have a few things to work out. Hannah, make sure our chests are handy. Corliss, gather anything else you think we might need.”

  The girls ran off to do their sister’s bidding.

  “Just like home,” Ryder said.

  Fiana watched him from the corner of her eye. If he had been holding a drink in his hand, she would have taken it. He thought about his last encounter with Arleigh, and his face flushed. God, he hoped Fiana hadn’t seen too much. He should have been paying attention. He kept forgetting the things they could do.

  She smiled, a soft grin full of secrets. This girl was worming her way into his heart. And he liked it.

  Chapter 24

  Cameron Flynn stood in the doorway and watched her. She stood in front of the full-length mirror he had imported from London, studying her reflection. The candlelight from the sconces spread a luminance over her skin, turning it to gold. Her lashes cast shadows under her eyes, and although it should have made her look old and worn, the shadows made him think of a tired waif.

  In mortal years, Arleigh Donovan was a young woman. When he glimpsed her on the dock, he had been very pleased to find her. He had waited nearly four hundred years to see her again. To have her land in his town, on one of his ships, had seemed a miracle of sorts. Destiny. He had enjoyed planning for the day when he used his power against her as she had so blithely used hers against him. He had all the time in the world. Immortality was nice that way. He had waited for half a year, but for some reason, as time passed, it became harder to merely plan. He could feel her under his hands, smell her, practically taste her mouth. He had grown impatient.

  He had found many excuses to visit Trinity Island in the last six months. He and Caindale had business dealings and, although he could have sent one of his many assistants, he decided it best if he conducted the business personally. But of course that was only on the surface. He went there to see her.

  He watched her carry out her chores. He noticed many times that she seemed fairly inept at many of them, and he wondered what kind of life she had led before she arrived at Jamestown. He could never find the opportunity or an excuse to ask her. He enjoyed watching her struggle to hang clothing on the line and labor over bread making. He liked seeing her attack the garden with rakes and hoes. But he also enjoyed watching her play with Caindale’s brats. Not that he liked children, because he did not. But he enjoyed watching Arleigh Donovan be herself; not the playacting she did as an indentured servant.

  So he studied her, scrutinized her, and basically enjoyed making her life a living nightmare. Not only did he like to look at her, he enjoyed her physical discomfort and mental anxiety. He conversed with Caindale about harvesting, finances, and shipping. His very presence tormented her, and he relished it. He liked to see her squirm.

  Occasionally he caught glimpses of her in Jamestown, and it became almost too much to bear. If he could find reason, he would approach her and force her into conversation. But these small little interludes that he allowed himself from time to time drew unnecessary attention to him. She was, after all, an indentured servant, and he was a respectable member of Jamestown society
. He could not afford to have people gossiping about him.

  One autumn evening he’d gone to Trinity to discuss legitimate business with Caindale. He’d arrived at supper time and had walked into such a touching family scene that anger had flared inside his head and twisted into a vicious knot. Caindale and his brats had been laughing, and he had seen Arleigh Donovan’s hands lying on Caindale’s shoulder. She had visibly flinched when she noticed him standing in the open doorway, but her discomfort that particular evening did not placate him.

  Emotions brewed inside of him that he had a hard time understanding. The emotions irritated him, and when he left Trinity that night, desolation enveloped him. He felt cheated, betrayed, and hurt. He could not understand why, but the feelings led to a melancholy mood that lasted for weeks and would not leave him.

  He knew then he had to have her. Caindale and his wench had become a little too close for his comfort level. Seducing the wife of another man created risks he couldn’t take if he wished to remain in Jamestown.

  So he had made the decision to kill Caindale and have her for his own. He realized now he should probably have waited longer, used more discretion. His power was a gift, but also a responsibility. The fae frowned upon seducing the very young and taking their lives. He might have to answer to someone for his lack of patience. But he would worry about that later. For now, he had at least seen to that annoying virginity problem. The woman standing in front of him was no longer a virgin, and that removed at least a little of the complication of her youth.

  He could now enjoy the seduction and the revenge. There would be so much satisfaction in the retribution because he owed her for much. How much was a man’s life worth? He would see how long he could prolong her agony. Or in this case, her pleasure. He hoped she might last a very long time.

  He watched her brush her hair. He wanted his hands in it. She ran her hands over her body, and he wanted his own hands to follow. She smoothed the dress he had given her. Emerald green to match her eyes. He had drowned in those eyes once. Now he would make her drown in his.