Shadows and Stars

by Becca Fanning

  “Hey.” He snagged her hand when she started forward, and tugged until she turned to face him again. The storm of fury was still raging in his eyes, and it bothered her that she’d done it to him. He let go of her hand and reached out, tucking a strand of hair behind her pointed ear. “You look at me when we get inside of it, alright? You look at me, and you focus on breathing, and it will be over before you know it.”

  She turned more fully toward him, and without her permission, her body moved closer to his. Something squeezed her heart when he bent toward her without missing a beat, closing the height distance between them so she didn’t have to crane her neck all the way back. “How do you breathe in a metal box?” she whispered, her eyes searching his.

  “Then don’t breathe,” he murmured, as the air between them pulsed with raw need. “Do this instead.”

  His mouth closed over hers. She barely had time to grip his shoulders to steady herself before he banded an arm around her bottom, lifting her all the way up, until he was the one having to tilt his head back. She wound her arms around his neck because all she could do was hold on as his mouth took hers with such complete possession, Katenia wasn’t sure there would be anything of her left when he was done.

  But her Nathan didn’t just take. What he gave back to her was so much more than what he demanded of her; it was as if he was pouring his soul into her. He wrapped her legs around his waist, then went back to gripping her bottom like it was his lifeline, while his mouth devoured hers and the world spun and tilted around them.

  The groan that sounded in the back of his throat was the most erotic thing she’d ever heard, and desperate to hear it again, she yanked open his shirt and shoved her hands inside, finding his chest and exploring. Her soft moan of pure female appreciation blended with his dark growl of need, and the next thing she knew, she was backed into a wall, his hands under her shirt.

  * * *

  “Mine, mine, mine, mine, mine.” She chanted it under her breath as she gripped his head and pulled it back, her tongue and lips tasting his throat, reveling in the dangerous male taste of him.

  His eyes were hot, smoldering on hers as he nudged her head to the side with one hand. He scraped his teeth over her throat, her collar bone, then dragged his tongue over the swell of the breasts he’d palmed and pushed together. Her head dropped back on a ragged gasp. She never would have believed in a million years that her breasts were this sensitive. Or that someone would enjoy them this much.

  Female fairies were slight creatures—gently rounded hips, breasts never too big. It was just another reason Katenia had never been fully accepted by her people, even though her bloodline was purer than most.

  But it was as if Nathan was worshipping the one part of her body she’d always been most sensitive about. She could love him for that alone. For making her feel accepted and wanted for the first time in her life.

  He flicked his tongue over her nipple, and rational thought vanished. She wasn’t sure when he’d gotten her out of her shirt, or even laid her down on a bed, but as he kneeled over her, his gorgeous chest bare, she couldn’t seem to care.

  “Where are we?” she managed to murmur, her voice trembling with the shivers racing over her skin.

  The most beautiful, crooked, cocky smile tugged at one corner of his mouth. “Magic.” He winked at her, and leaned down, trailing his lips down her belly, and back up to the valley between her breasts. His hands molded around her hips as his mouth moved lower again, gently nipping at the sensitive skin along her hipbones, and around her navel. “Christ Jesus, woman, you’re perfect. So fucking beautiful.”

  Her heart soared, no longer caring why this was a bad idea. She slid her hands as far around his biceps as she could get them, and lifted her hips to help him pull her bottoms off. When she was naked underneath him, he sat up again, and just stared down at her in wonder. The storm of fury that had raged inside of him had been replaced with a blue fire that was all lust.

  He gripped her feet gently, then slid his large hands slowly up her body, molding and testing every inch of her, as if memorizing her. If that wasn’t dazzling enough, his fingers shook and his face was awestruck as he touched her. When he got back to her face, he leaned down to take her mouth in another dizzying, drugging kiss.

  She was clinging to him, her body desperate for release, and so ready to beg him, when he pulled her up with him so she was kneeling on the bed.

  With his dark blue eyes intense on hers, he lifted her hands and placed them on his chest. “Touch me,” he growled out. “However you want. Wherever you want. I want to feel your hands on me before I take you.”

  His hand slipped between her legs. She gasped as his fingers slid over her wetness, once, then twice, just light, butterfly touches that made her want to beg and scream for more.

  His cocky grin was back as the pad of his thumb brushed over her sensitive nub. “You’re so wet for me, baby. Now touch me. Show me how bad you want me.”

  Her body felt like a live wire, every nerve ending ready to spark until she went up in flames. With her eyes locked on his, she crawled a step closer to him and dragged her hands over his chest, down his torso. Her fingers dipped just into the top of his pants before she pulled them back, all the while soft whimpers tearing out of her, begging him for release.

  “Soon, baby,” he promised, a low, almost violent growl rumbling through him as her fingers gently found him through the front of his jeans. His head dropped back, the corded muscles in his throat working violently as if he was fighting himself. “So close,” he growled again. “Just a little bit more.”

  Realization hit her, and she grinned with it. Crawling another step toward him, she nipped at his tattooed shoulder as her hands undid the fastener of his pants. As soon as he was free of confinement, she wrapped her fingers around him, and he gave her what she so desperately needed. His fingers plunged into her, sending her body shattering somewhere among the stars.

  TEN

  SHE WAS beautiful as she came, her head thrown back and her perfect, curvy body flushed in satisfaction.

  With his heart trying to jackrabbit out of his chest, Nathan dragged himself to his feet just long enough to shed his suit pants and boots, and yet it was still too damn long. Grasping her hips, he lifted her off the bed as he turned, straddling her over his lap as he sat on the edge of the bed. She lifted graceful arms and stretched, her body still trembling with aftershocks, before collapsing against his chest. She purred like a contented cat, and her hands were everywhere on him, trailing heat everywhere her fingers touched.

  “Mmm,” she murmured, as she tilted her head back and licked at his throat. “So that’s what the big deal with sex is. Never could figure it out.”

  Nathan barked out a laugh. He twisted her hair around one of his hands and gently tugged her head back. “No way, baby.” He arched her back until she was resting against the arm he had curved behind her, and dropped his head, his tongue scraping over her nipple, before he pulled it into his mouth and sucked gently. “That was just the warm-up. I’m nowhere near finished with you yet.”

  She fisted his hair as he dropped his mouth down again to worship her breasts. He held her body still, wanting her to feel all the pleasure he was determined to give her, and when he slipped his fingers over her heat again, his thumb brushing over her clit, she went crazy in his arms.

  “Nathan!”

  He grinned, loving how she restlessly moved against him, her mouth and hands all but devouring his body.

  In one fluid move, he flipped her back over and followed her down, using his knees to spread her legs apart. Once he had her where he wanted her, and knew she was ready for him, he hooked his arm around her waist and lifted her hips, his mouth devouring hers as he drove into her.

  The fairy came unglued. She met him thrust for thrust, all inhibitions gone as she moved with him, and when he altered the angle until he somehow managed to go even deeper, she came apart on a scream. She hooked her legs around him, her short nail
s digging into his shoulders as she rode the storm with him.

  This time, when the fury broke and she shattered, she came screaming his name. The sound of it, the wildness of his fairy screaming for him, sent him over the edge and into oblivion.

  “Nathan.”

  One corner of his mouth tilted up. With his body too exhausted to even manage prying an eyelid open, all the senses he was left with was hearing and scent. And taste. He could still taste her sweet skin on his tongue, and if he’d had the energy, he’d dive into that most heated part of her and devour.

  But it was her voice getting to him now. Soft, lilting, with just a hint of an accent he couldn’t place. It occurred to him that he’d been so focused on everything else about her, that he hadn’t paid attention to the little things. Like how sweetly she said his name, or how damn good she smelled.

  Aware he was still half sprawled on top of her, having only managed enough common sense to at least leverage the majority of his massive frame to the bed, he hooked his arm around her waist just in case she got an idea in her head to leave or something.

  A finger poked him in his side. “Nathan.”

  “What do you want, woman?” he growled, finally managing to pry an eyelid almost halfway open. “You wore me out.”

  She laughed, and he swore it was the most enchanting sound he’d ever heard. She leaned forward and pressed her lips softly to his, then raised her gaze to meet his eyes. “I like you, Nathan,” she murmured.

  He nodded. Wrapping his arm tighter around her waist, he pulled her a little farther underneath him, then threw one of his legs over hers to hold her where he wanted her. “Good. Because I like you, too, Katenia.”

  “Katen,” she said softly. “I like when you call me Katen.”

  He didn’t know why such a simple request had something inside of him softening, but he didn’t bother fighting it. Not yet, anyway.

  “Sleep, Katen,” he whispered, shifting just enough to pull the comforter over them. He knew daylight would bring all the problems roaring back, but he was going to take this time while he had it.

  She dreamed about home.

  She was a fairy again, and delighted to have her wings back, she shot into the air, twisting and twirling around and around, her head tossed back in pure abandon. She had missed this, the sensation of wind in her hair, being carried along on the soft breeze with the scent of wild lilies enveloping her.

  This was her home. This was where she belonged. And for just a moment, as her laugh bubbled out of her, she couldn’t remember why she’d missed this.

  “Katenia.”

  She spun around as hope spread through her chest like a painful ache, but it was him. Shooting forward, she slammed into him so hard they both tumbled backward in the air. “Linx, it’s you.” She wrapped her arms around him in mid-somersault, and just held onto him until the spinning stopped.

  He grabbed her hand and led her to the very edge of their valley. The old weeping willow tree was her hiding spot. She couldn’t remember how many times her oldest brother had found her hiding among the branches, avoiding one punishment or another.

  Once they were deep inside the branches where no one could see them, he let go of her hand and crouched, his gaze focused somewhere far away. It was a long time before he turned his head toward her. “What have you done, Katenia?”

  Shock barely registered through the hurt slicing through her at the leashed fury in his voice. Linx had always been her voice of reason and her champion, even when she’d least deserved to have someone in her corner.

  She shook her head slowly, refusing to let the betrayal show in her eyes. He’d been gone for ten years, and he was angry at her? “I was kidnapped, Linx.”

  He shot to his feet then, towering over her. “You had sex with a human!” he roared. “Do you know what the Council will do to you? Do you have any idea what you have done?”

  Instinct had her fluttering backward as unease rippled along her skin. This wasn’t Linx. It couldn’t be. Her brother would never intimidate her this way. “He’s not cruel, Linx. He’s not like the others. He’s kind and gentle and…”

  He barked out a harsh laugh and shot forward, gripping her arms and yanking her toward him. “He’s human.” He spat the word like he’d swallowed something nasty. “You have gone against everything you’ve been taught, everything we believe because you think he’s kind?” He shook her once before shoving her away from him as if she was tainted. “What were you thinking, little sister? I’m not here to protect you this time, and there will be no amount of pleading and begging that will get you out of whatever punishment they decide to enforce on you.”

  Hot, angry tears welled in her eyes, and before she could stop herself, she fluttered closer to him and shot her fist into his face. Shock rippled through his eyes, but she didn’t care. “You…you…you bastard!” she yelled. “You knew what Finn would do to you if you took another of his women, but you did it anyway. You were banished and disappeared, and you are yelling at me for screwing up?”

  “You don’t get it.” He moved away and turned his back on her. His white-blond hair was longer, falling to mid-waist, but everything else about him was the same. He’d pulled the sides back and braided it, and it was all so familiar, from his warrior stance, to the sword strapped diagonally across his back, the markings of their people etched into his biceps…it had all the grief and rage and pain inside of her bubbling to the surface. But the fury in his grass-green eyes when he turned back to her was staggering, and his next words broke her heart. “They’ve already made their decision. They will make you choose between Aeron, a cruel, evil little male, and banishment. Either way, you are dead. Do you understand that? As soon as you pass on the bloodline to the Council’s satisfaction, they will ostracize you, and leave you in the cold.”

  She closed her eyes as the tears started to fall. He was right. Everything she loved, from her wings to her home to her family, everything was lost to her now.

  She was still crying as the dream faded and reality came crashing back down around her. Nathan was still curled around her, and while all she wanted at the moment was to ask him to share this burden, she hurried to wipe her tears before he woke and noticed.

  “Too late.” She winced at his rough voice, and when she turned her head toward his, his dark blue eyes were wide open and staring right at her. “Where the hell did you go, woman?”

  “Nathan, I…” her voice trailed off as her face crumpled. “Just a nightmare.”

  “Okay.” He said it softly, and the next thing she knew, she was hauled underneath him, and his face was directly above hers, his eyes storming and determined. “Let’s try this again, without the lies. Where did you go?”

  “Home,” she said softly. “I went home.”

  ELEVEN

  TEMPER SHOT straight to his brain as he stared down into her terrified face. With a violent growl, he levered himself off her and got to his feet. “Going home doesn’t scare the ever living hell out of most people.”

  She scooted into a sitting position, and glared at him through tear-filled eyes. “It’s not your fight, Nathan. Let it go.”

  “What fight?” He snarled. “What goddamn battle are you facing when you go home?”

  She pushed her hair out of her face with both hands, tucking it behind her pointed ears, before she shifted onto her knees and pointed up at him. “You don’t need to know!” she yelled. “It’s not your job to fix me!”

  He stared at her for a long moment, before he snorted and stalked over to his dresser. He yanked open the top drawer, tossed her a white T-shirt and pulled out a pair of drawstring pants. Once he had them on, he shoved the drawer shut, and rounded on her again. “Look, Katen.” He grit his teeth, and telling himself now was not the time to think about her hot body or those killer curves, he helped her into the shirt. “It’s my family’s fault you’re in this mess. I told you I would help, and I can’t do that if you don’t open your mouth and tell me what the hell is going on.
”

  For just a moment, Nathan was sure the air between them actually started to sizzle, before she let out a frustrated sound, dropped back down on the bed, and pulled her knees up to her chest. “Is it hard being a human?”

  He shook his head at the bizarre question, having no idea how to answer it. “Okay,” he murmured as he crouched on the floor in front of the bed, bringing them closer to eye level, “why are you asking?”

  Another tear leaked out when she closed her eyes. “I might not be able to go home.”

  “What?” He snapped. “Why wouldn’t you be able to go home?”

  She shook her head. “That’s not important—” her voice cut off when she glanced at his face. She dropped her gaze down to her bare toes. “In the Elder Council’s eyes, I’m now tainted.”

  His brain twitched in his skull. He felt it. “How will they know? It’s not like I marked you or branded you, damn it.”

  Her pert nose wrinkled as she sniffled and wiped at her cheeks. “Linx said they knew, and had already decided my fate. One of the Elders is a Seer.”

  Nathan was positive she was trying to drive him mental on purpose. Hadn’t she just told him hours ago Linx had been missing for a decade? He scratched at his chest as he shifted and sat on the bed next to her. “Let’s start over before I get any more confused. What happened in your dream?”

  Her teeth worried at her bottom lip as she peeked up at him before she sighed and just shifted in closer to his side. She leaned into him as she went through her dream, and by the time she was done explaining everything, he’d lifted her into his lap and wrapped both his arms around her as she sobbed quietly against his chest. Fury like nothing he’d ever known before was pulsing through him, and while he knew it wasn’t safe for her to be this close to him until he got his temper under control, he couldn’t get himself to let her go. It scared the shit out of him, but somewhere through the haze of rage was the crystal clear thought that she needed him.