She stared, wide-eyed.
Faerie spirit. Google had been right. When he wasn’t standing, well, sitting, in front of her, doubts crept in. But now, she wouldn’t dare to doubt him, or his existence, in any way. He was fae.
His lips curved in a smile, one eyebrow raised, and she turned away again rather than face the intensity of his scrutiny.
Her neck stung. She put her hand there. It came away stained with watery blood, and she recalled the spinning leaf that had done that. Forensics would have fun. What in the name of…of anything would you charge Aroha with? Assault with a deadly leaf?
What had she gotten herself into? The blood spread, staining the lifelines on her palm. Not make-believe. Not anymore. Faeries were real. And from what she’d seen, they packed serious weaponry.
This clearing was carpeted with soft needles. Pine needles. How was that possible? Where were the trees they’d come from? The world, the normal world, seemed to be falling away from her. Emergencies and the unexpected were meat and potatoes to her, but no matter which way she turned this, it overwhelmed her. Faeries and magic. Maybe if she said that over and over enough times?
Heketoro smothered her hand in his. Pleasure shimmied through her, sending her blood humming.
A whine at her feet reminded her of Killer. He looked up at her, tongue out as always, before giving Heketoro’s foot the next slurp. Little twigs stuck out from Killer’s sodden, tangled coat.
“Your taste in men has gone downhill,” she muttered under her breath. Faeries, magic and sex. What a combination.
She’d come here out of curiosity and to find out why he thought she should help him with this curse. She’d come because, in all honesty, she was half-besotted. Now she was here, she didn’t need any more convincing about magic, and Aroha had given her a new piece of information that altered everything.
Heketoro brushed his fingers across the top of her ear. Nice. She inhaled through parted lips, her lids half closing, then snuggled her head back against his chest
“You seem to have recovered.” His voice, just behind her ear and so deep, it seemed to rumble through her soul and then quicken the ache between her legs.
She’d almost drowned, surely she shouldn’t be thinking about sex? There must be something wrong with her.
Her clothes, of course, were soaked. Her T-shirt clung to her body, every contour of her breasts outlined. Her black gym shorts, being Lycra, did that anyway. And she was rapidly warming up, everywhere. Maybe she should move away from him. Except, it was so nice, cradled here between his legs.
Think of something else. “Your half sister mentioned the curse.”
“Yes. I told you this, also.”
“Hmm. Why me, Heketoro? Why’d you pick me out of everyone in the world?” He paused for a long while, and she wondered why. Surely he knew?
At last he sighed. “I don’t know if I should tell you much more. But this… I chose you because I wanted you.”
Oh, hell. That answer didn’t help. The egg throbbed inside her, broadcasting heat and desire. Eyes wide, she put a hand to her belly.
“You feel it awakening. I feel this also, as can Aroha. The egg, the toah—it’s how she found you. I have to destroy it.”
Blood warmed her cheeks. The fae could sense a toah from a distance? Aroha had known—that was horrendous. The silence lengthened.
She cleared her throat. Questions, questions—so many of them swirled about in her head, she didn’t know where to start. “If you destroy it, how will you get rid of this curse? And you don’t know if you want to tell me more? I don’t understand?” That seemed odd, when he’d wanted her here so he could explain.
He said nothing, only smoothing his hands down her arms, then resting them on her thighs. With her legs inside his, she felt trapped, but in the nicest way. Her surroundings shrank away, making her mindful of every place his body shaped against hers.
“Mmm.” She wriggled her bottom before she could stop herself.
She’d kept his egg inside her, and from what he’d said before, it stored sexual energy. This was a recipe for trouble. The hard length of him against her bottom was giving her precisely the wrong sort of ideas. She didn’t want to make love to him again, did she? All the little signals her lower body had been sending her beat in rhythm at her, low and intense.
Okay, so that was a yes; she might as well sit on a bass amplifier as have her bottom where it was, pressing into his crotch. Oh-h, the man got to her. But still, not yet—no thinking of that until she’d sorted everything out. He was holding back for some reason, and she’d find out why. Maybe a different line of questioning would work?
“Er-em. That tornado, windstorm…whatever.” My God, it still seemed unbelievable. “Why did Aroha attack me?”
“I would imagine you’ve aroused her interest. She thought I planned to complete the ritual with you in two days and destroy the curse. She wants to be free to return to our world.”
“But, so you do, don’t you? And why attack me if she thinks I’m going to help you?”
“Because…she is mad. Over the last hundred years, she’s slowly lost her reason. I no longer understand why she does anything. She’s unpredictable, dangerous. Promise me, you’ll never let her into your house. We fae cannot enter without permission. Remember that; it is very important.”
“Of course.” Why would she even consider letting her into her house? She squeezed her eyes shut. This was getting her nowhere.
“You told me to come to the lake so you could explain, and now you’re going around in circles, avoiding my questions. Deliberately. If what Aroha said is true”— here it is, if I say this I’m committed—“then in two days, you’ll both die as a result of this curse exploding, or…or sucking out your life, or hell, I have no idea how it will happen, but you’ll die! And stupid as this may seem, I care about that happening.” She swallowed, and a tear slid down her face. “I don’t want anyone else dying on me.”
Heketoro flinched, then put his hand atop her head. “Anyone else? Who has died?”
She worked her throat a moment before the words came out. “My brother. Jacob. He’s in …he was in the army, and deployed in Afghanistan. Never came back.”
“I’m sorry, Danii.” He stroked her hair, pulling it behind her ear and down her back, breathing slowly until the calmness in him made her tears dry up.
“The truth is, with Aroha behaving unpredictably and the inherent danger in destroying the curse, I don’t think it’s worth involving you. She is wind fae and though the curse is constructed so that I have to be the one who stops it, she has somewhat more power than I do. I cannot guarantee your safety.”
“The curse is constructed? That sounds terribly like a town planning document or something. Is that a job description? Curse Constructor?” So, one way, his death was certain—the other way, she might get hurt? Seemed uneven, and it seemed inconceivable to choose certainty over maybe.
“We have what are called Justices, like your judges. Once I was found guilty of killing the Goddess’s son, Justice Emana Tatu—one of our higher judges—crafted this curse.”
“And are you a murderer?” she asked quietly.
“What do you think?”
She clasped her hands together in her lap, frowned. All her instincts said no. Else what was she doing sitting here?
“No. Here though, I guess we’d haul you up before a court and convict you of manslaughter. Send you to prison.”
“The curse is my people’s way of doing that.” He tugged on her hair again. “Does it bother you?”
“No.” She shook her head. She didn’t have to think at all for that answer.
“Thank you,” he murmured, his breath feathering her hair.
“You were saying…about the curse?”
“Ah, yes. The curse winds down after one hundred years, and then, yes, our life essence is extracted from us. We die. The toah egg, if charged sufficiently, could be used to both destroy the remnants of the curse and to
open a portal into my world. The three days is simply a requirement to make it difficult for me to succeed. Normally there is no such restriction on powering a toah. There, I’ve told you the facts.
“In a few minutes, you will remove the toah. If it’s inside you too long, the magic will make it meld with you, then more magic would be needed to shift it.
“I will destroy it; then we will have nothing more to do with each other.”
What the hell? Her heart quailed at his words. He’d rattled all that out like it were the details of a parking ticket.
“Then why are you still holding me?”
He cleared his throat, and she heard his heartbeat quicken. Did he regret what he was saying? Did he have deeper feelings for her? She squeezed her eyes shut. This seemed to imply exactly that. Maybe there was hope for me?
“Why? Clearly it’s because I like doing this. Holding you.” His voice tightened in command. “Now be quiet and let me have this last bit of pleasure.”
She tensed and for a moment didn’t dare to speak. But, pleasure? He liked just holding her. For some reason that unraveled her, and she sat in silence doing exactly what he’d said—enjoying being held.
Killer rested his head on Heketoro’s thigh, standing calmly as his ears were patted. The branches of the willow trees hissed as they swayed in some unseen wind. She wondered if they somehow echoed the emotions of their creator—if that was what Heketoro was.
She couldn’t and wouldn’t give up. Tentatively she spoke.
“I would still like to help you.” She put her hand up and captured his where it rested in her hair. Pulled it down and kissed the back. “No one dies on my watch,” she said more firmly. “If I could bring back Jacob, I’d shift heaven and earth to do it. I can’t, but you’re not getting rid of me. On my world adults get to make their own decisions.”
At least, he’d not get rid of her until he went back to his world. What a depressing thought. She shook it off. No use thinking that. Here and now, Danii, here and now. Though for a fleeting second, she couldn’t help but wonder what it would be like to go to another world.
He sighed, freed his hand, and drew his arm across below her breasts. “I see you need training in what be quiet means. If I had you on my world, that would be swiftly punished.”
She stiffened. Punished? I’d like to see him try.
He hugged her tighter to him. “And no. I will not permit this help of yours.”
“When I’m told to walk away, I only get pissed off and more determined.” She writhed a bit, trying to sit up straighter, though it didn’t work too well. “You don’t want to see me when I’m pissed off.” She set her mouth in a line.
“Oh? Are you sure?” He turned her chin, smiling down at her. “I’ve seen every other side of you. Though I’m sure it won’t be as nice as this little bottom of yours pushed up against me.”
At that, she froze. The hardness behind her wasn’t a faerie wand, that was for sure. She imagined him sliding into her.
“Stop toying with me.” The words came out husky.
“I assure you, if I was toying with you, you would know.”
Damn him. The familiar heat shivering through her played havoc with her thoughts.
“You forget that the toah makes you more aware. And when I say aware, I mean sexually. Or have you not noticed? This decision of yours is being influenced by your body’s reaction to me. This is also the truth.”
God. Was he right? No. I felt this way, this attracted to him before the toah was inside me. “Wrong.” She croaked out the word. “You know I’m attracted to you anyway. Hell. How could I not be?”
“Are you flattering me?” He chuckled. “You can’t win this argument. I can change how you see the world in ways you cannot imagine.”
“Are you certain? I’m part fae myself, remember? This little tattoo thing?” She tapped her forehead. “Maybe I can resist you and Aroha, more than you know.”
As they argued, Killer sat there watching, his gaze flicking from her to Heketoro and back, as if this were a tennis match being played without a ball.
“Danii, why do you think you still have the toah inside you? Without my use of glamour, you’d have removed it and thrown it away. With enough power, a fae can make a human see…” he touched her eyelids “…feel…” trailed fingertips across her cheek “…taste…” one finger slipped partway into her mouth “…and hear…” last of all, he swirled that finger in the curves of her ear “…almost anything.” She couldn’t help shivering. “I know this because I’ve tried the toah in the past on many, many women, and that is what happens. It’s a natural response. I tricked you. Now, let me remove it. And then we’ll be done with this.”
She slumped forward and put her head in her hands. Damn him. Glamour—another one of those mythical things they said the fae could do.
“You’re doing it now though too. Trying to influence me. Many women? That’s to put me off, isn’t it? Maybe I wouldn’t have thrown it away even without this glamour. I’m not your average shrinking violet, Heketoro. I’ve always known there was something odd about my family. Mom said it to me often enough.” She gritted her teeth. “Let. Me. Help. I’m an adult. Let me. Please!”
Let him simmer a while. He’d come round.
He let go, leaned away from her.
Right. She knew how to ignore as well as he did. She picked up a bunch of pine needles and spread them out like a fan. An ant crawled along the length of one and she watched it, thinking, waiting.
The man was protecting her. As if things weren’t already complicated enough. A stunningly gorgeous faerie with a BDSM fetish who came from a world where the magic was fueled by these toah eggs. Common, he’d said. So…magic that ran on sex? That seemed so odd. Not creepy, just strange and way outside the realm of normal. Maybe she was lucky he wouldn’t want her to go back with him. Though such a world might be…interesting.
She wound a pine needle round one finger, unwound it, then back again. This curse was going to kill him and Aroha in two days. As if she could or would ignore that after he’d just saved her from drowning. As if she wanted his death on her conscience.
Chapter Seven
She sat in the V of his legs, playing with the pine needle and wondering what Heketoro was thinking. His thighs moved in against hers, holding her as if in a vise. He brushed his hand down the length of her hair to her nape, twisted her hair and tightened his grip, making her head tilt back, with her neck exposed. His other hand cupped her breast, thumb circling her nipple.
She didn’t move…didn’t want to, caught by a storm of desire. “What are you doing?” The words barely made it past her throat, so rapt was she in his caresses.
“Maybe I’m just taking my pleasure a little farther. Or maybe I’ve listened to you, and now I’m going to remove the toah so you can weigh up the facts without it putting other ideas in your head.”
She blinked. He’d listened and was what? Going to—
He captured her mouth.
She sighed as his mouth closed over hers, hard and insistent. His tongue drove in until she gave and parted her lips. A sweet invasion, he kept her mouth open, pushing in, playing with her tongue, moving a little, and taking her mouth again.
With the insistence of his lips and tongue and the gentle fire of thumb on nipple, wetness seeped between her legs. She clutched at him, digging her fingers into muscle, flooding with sensation as he slid his hand down her back to her buttocks and up to glide warmly between her top and her skin, then around to cup her breast again. Too much. She lost track of the whereabouts of his hands and lips. Everywhere throbbed.
Slowly she realized he’d stopped, though he still held her in his arms. Panting, heart rate climbing down from frantic levels, through half-lidded eyes she peered back at him. For once his hair wasn’t gathered into a ponytail and fell loose past his shoulders. She reached out and ran her fingers down a strand, feeling it slip across her skin like cool silk.
“Why did you stop?”
He caught both her wrists, pulled them down, holding them at her sides. “Because you’re ready now. Wet, open enough for me to remove the egg.”
Oh. He’s holding me for a reason. This sound like the start of a gyno examination. She turned her head to protest, and he bent and covered her mouth, kissing her and driving that ache to a higher level. She moaned into his mouth. The kiss was as potent as a stone falling in a pond, with the ripples spreading outward forever. She shuddered.
He drew back and smiled, amusement crinkling the corners of his eyes. A constriction at her waist made her look down. A rope of plaited stems dotted with little pink buds wound round her waist and across her bared belly button before curling round each wrist and holding them immovably at her sides.
“Damn. Roses?” The smallest of thorns pricked at her skin. She rolled her eyes. “You are sneaky.”
“Faeries often are,” he said, voice rumbling like distant thunder. He slipped from behind her to gently lower her onto her back, then rolled down the black shorts and her underwear.
She could have kicked him somewhere tender, but by then her heart thudded so hard she could see her breasts tremble with each beat. She felt like a mouse waiting to be eaten by a big bad ever-so dangerous cat. Screaming might be sensible. Except she knew he wasn’t going to hurt her. The opposite in fact; he was likely to make this feel…nice.
He propped his hands either side of her and bent to tongue her flat stomach, his black hair feathering across her sensitive clit.
Mmm. She curved her back.
His hands nestled into her just where bottom curved into back, and his tongue, soft, kissing mouth, and nibbling teeth cruised southward.
She heaved out a rough sigh. “I might have done this, if you’d asked me nicely.”
“Might?” His eyes glittered.
She stared at him, unable at first to assemble anything sensible in her head.
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