Crystal Shadows

by Joy Nash

  Gina picked up one of the vines and gave it an experimental tug. It was surprisingly tough. Liana showed her how to lay the thicker strands as ribs while weaving the thinner ones through them. When dry, she told Gina, the basket would be very strong.

  Two baskets quickly took shape under the girls’ nimble fingers. Gina did her best to reproduce Liana’s technique, but somehow the larger vines wouldn’t stay in place when she pulled the smaller ones tight. And when she tried to tie off each end, it unraveled as if it had a will of its own.

  She was comparing her poor results to the perfectly shaped oval baskets produced by the girls when Derrin appeared on the stone stairway, his face thrown into shadow by the late afternoon sun. Gina blinked up at him. A tingle of awareness shuddered up her spine, leaving her slightly breathless. She hadn’t seen him since the night before, when the notes of his flute song had left her with a fierce yearning.

  Afterwards, she’d fallen asleep in White Otter and Kaila’s dwelling and dreamed of dark pleasure, of possession and surrender, of a lovemaking that was as violent as it was glorious. She’d awakened flushed and needy, glad that Derrin had slept elsewhere. He would have taken one look at her and known.

  A flick of his fingers sent the girls scampering into the cave, giggling. When they had gone, he picked up Gina’s basket and examined it solemnly, turning it over and scrutinizing it from all directions. His eyes glinted and the corners of his mouth quirked.

  “I know, I know,” muttered Gina, finding her voice. “I better not quit my day job. But it was kind of fun to make.”

  He flashed a smile and set her basket with the others. His gaze touched her, sweeping slowly over the fall of her unbraided hair, then dipping lower.

  When he raised his head she saw the teasing light in his eyes had been replaced by a much more primitive expression. Her heartbeat accelerated.

  He extended his hands. “Will you come with me, Gina? There’s a place I want to show you.”

  She gazed at his palms, strong and calloused, and at his fingers, agile and tanned dark by the sun. She had watched those hands spark fire, craft tools, prepare food. They had comforted her while she wept, protected her from danger. She remembered their touch on her face.

  Now he held them open before her. She hesitated a brief moment, then reached up and placed her hands in his, sensing as she did so that she accepted far more than a simple offer of assistance.

  His easy strength lifted her, pulled her close—so close she could feel the tense energy rippling in his muscles. She sensed the turbulence of his emotions easily, as if he no longer felt the need to shield his mind from her. A tendril of heat uncurled low in her stomach, and with it came a wash of uncertainty. What did he want? What would she be able to give?

  Belatedly, she tried to extract her hand from his, but Derrin didn’t allow it. He laced her fingers securely in his own.

  * * * * *

  The narrow ledge meandered up the steep slope through several turns and switchbacks. The village had long since dropped out of view below a scattering of pines. Derrin climbed steadily, paying more attention to the trail than was necessary. He was thankful for Gina’s silence behind him. Truthfully, he didn’t trust himself to speak.

  “Where are we going?” she asked at last.

  “You’ll see.” He glanced back at her and caught a glimpse of wide dark eyes. Her sun-browned skin glowed and her dark hair flowed over her shoulders like a shining cloak. Her soft panting called an erotic image into his mind.

  She regarded him quizzically, but gave no indication of what she thought of his request for her company, or of the fact that her hand was still clasped in his own. He sensed her nervousness, and her trust. He fixed his gaze on the trail and forged ahead.

  He halted at a low opening in the face of the hill, the entrance to a narrow tunnel forming a link to the sheer cliffs on the opposite side of the mountain. Ducking inside, he drew Gina after him.

  They emerged from the passage and entered the glow of the setting sun. A smooth platform of moss-covered rock overhung the valley. The scent of pine drifted from the gnarled trees perched above the mouth of the cave. Directly ahead, on the far side of the valley, the sun sank into the embrace of the mountains. Tufts of amethyst clouds scattered over a dusky rose sky.

  The colors deepened into liquid indigo and smeared the crimson blaze of the sky. Too quickly, they faded into twilight. Derrin turned his gaze to the clear line of Gina’s profile. A breeze caught a silky strand of her hair and flung it across her lips. He caught it, letting it slid through his fingers before letting go.

  He swallowed, his throat suddenly dry. He’d been unable to stop himself from wanting this woman, from needing her, if only for the short time she would be in his world. If she didn’t share his feelings, would he be able to retreat to the edge of his emotions?

  Unsettled, he eased his hand from hers and strode forward, stopping at the very edge of the cliff. A hoarbat darted through the shadows below. He leaned forward, tracking it with his gaze.

  “Watch out! You’ll fall,” Gina cried.

  He turned toward her, a smile playing on his lips. She stood with her arm half-extended, as if ready to snatch him from the jaws of death. Seized by an impulse to make her laugh, he flailed his arms with exaggerated drama.

  She let out a cry and lunged for him. He tried to head her off but stumbled, pitching forward and knocking her to the ground. He landed on top of her, his forearms braced on either side of her head. She stared up at him, stunned.

  Unaccountably, Derrin started to laugh.

  Her eyes narrowed. “You weren’t falling.”

  Another wave of mirth overtook him. He pressed his forehead into the curve of her neck and let it wash over him. It was too absurd. He’d brought the woman who haunted his dreams to the most romantic spot he could think of, set on seduction, only to knock her flat on her back.

  Gina thrust, unlover-like, against his chest. Derrin struggled to regain a measure of control.

  When at last his shoulders stopped shaking, she lay still beneath him. Her scent brought to mind the peace of the valley, the hidden mysteries the wilderness. He raised his head and looked down at her.

  And fell into the twilight pools of her eyes. Doe’s eyes, wide with wonder. Startled by the sudden appearance of danger, yet fascinated, unable to move to safety.

  Her hands inched up his arms, brushed his throat, then one finger traced a trembling line along the scar on his cheek. The surprise in her eyes changed to something else, but Derrin did not dare give it a name.

  “Would you care so much if I fell?” he asked.

  She went very still. A slow blush crept across her cheeks and her eyelids fluttered shut. He gazed down at her, mesmerized by the feathered shadows cast by her lashes.

  “Yes,” she whispered. “You know I would.”

  He lowered his head a fraction, until he felt her breath on his lips. A fine tremor ran through her. Yet he waited, not wanting to take what she would not give freely.

  His unspoken question hung for a trembling beat of eternity in the space between their bodies. Then Gina’s fingers wove through the hair at the back of his neck and he had his answer.

  He kissed her softly at first, molding his lips to hers, drinking in her response to his slow insistence. Then her lips opened on a sigh and he dove deeper, tasting her.

  Her body drew taut beneath him. Like dry tinder swept into a new fire, his desire exploded. All the weeks of denying his need rushed at him like thunder. His cock throbbed harder than he would have thought possible. He was certain he would die if he couldn’t plunge it inside her.

  All thought of restraint, of tenderness fled. His hand closed on her breast in a punishing grip. He pinched its peak through the soft fabric of her dress. Gina gasped and twisted, trying at once to accept and evade his possession. Her arousal, laced with a thread of fear, brushed against his mind. It called to the predator deep within in him.

  The fevered need to know
all of her consumed him. He wanted to feel her impaled on his cock, helpless beneath him as he drove her past the barriers of her control. The memory of the Na’tahar and the dreams they had shared swept through him like a wildfire. He longed to do to Gina’s body what he had done to her mind. When he had, she would be his, utterly and completely.

  A sane fragment of his mind called for him to stop, but its voice was lost in the rush of lust that gripped him. He ripped at the laces of Gina’s neckline, baring one breast. With a growl, he drew her nipple into his mouth and scraped the tender flesh with his teeth.

  “Derrin—”

  He shoved the hem of her dress to her waist and sank his knee between her thighs. His hardened shaft prodded her folds, but couldn’t sink in. She wasn’t wet. Wasn’t ready.

  Gina struggled beneath him. He could sense that her thread of fear had grown wide and overtaken her desire, but he fought to ignore the knowledge. He was drowning in her, struggling to drink her essence as desperately as a man mad with thirst. A man who, after not daring to hope for an end to the drought, had found himself plunged into deep water.

  “Derrin, no.” Gina grabbed a fistful of his hair and pulled hard.

  He struggled to regain control. He left her breast and kissed her lips again, less roughly, willing her to come with him.

  Her body went rigid beneath him. She tried again to push him away. “Derrin. Stop. Just stop. Please.” A burning river of shame and revulsion poured from her mind into his.

  His chaotic senses reeled with the obscenity of it. What was he doing? What kind of man was he?

  Summoning his last shred of willpower, he shoved himself off Gina’s body and braced his weight on one shaking arm. His chest heaved.

  “I—” The single word was all he could manage. He drew a ragged breath.

  Gina rolled out from beneath him. She yanked her dress into place and hugged her legs to her chest. “I’m sorry. Oh, God, Derrin, I’m sorry!”

  A suffocating tide of self-disgust washed over him. “Tarol’s blood.” She was sorry? After he’d fallen on her like a rutting buck?

  He forced his breathing to steady. Even so, some time passed before he trusted himself to speak, and he couldn’t bring himself to look at her at all.

  “Don’t you dare apologize to me.”

  “Derrin, I—”

  “I all but forced myself on you. It won’t happen again.”

  “No!”

  He raised his head. He could make out little of her expression in the falling dusk, but now that the craze of his lust had abated, he sensed the fear and shame pouring from her were not directed at him, but at herself.

  “Derrin, it’s not you—it’s not what you did. I want you that way, too. Not gentle. Wild. Brutal, even. I’ve dreamed of it. But when you touched me…” Her voice faltered.

  “What, Gina?” He started to move toward her, but stopped when she looked away.

  “Something’s wrong with me, Derrin. It’s why my ex-husband found another woman.” She swallowed hard. “He was a lot older than me, and very particular about having things a certain way. About me being a certain way. When I didn’t meet his expectations, I could tell how I’d disappointed him. It began to interfere with our sex life. He’d want me to respond in a certain way, and I couldn’t get turned on. Everything he did hurt. I let him do it anyway. I pretended it was good, but he could tell I was faking. Finally he gave up. It was my fault he had to find someone else.”

  “Is that what he told you?” Derrin asked hoarsely.

  Gina nodded. “I thought it would be different with you, because I want you so badly. I’ve even dreamed of us together. But when you get too close, I can’t handle it. My mind wants one thing, but my body goes numb.”

  At that moment, Derrin would have gladly beaten Gina’s former partner to a bloody pulp. “Your partner was a swiving fool,” he said evenly. “Gina, you don’t have to try with me. You don’t have to pretend to be something you’re not. There isn’t anything about you that doesn’t please me.”

  He knelt in front of her, running his palm over her shoulder and down her arm. Then, when she didn’t protest, he took both her hands in his own and massaged her palms with his thumbs.

  She raised her head. He waited, not speaking, wishing he could see her face more clearly, but the mountain hid the rising moon and he could discern little more than the outline of her body against a sea of darkness. He searched for the words that would call her back to him, but discarded each phrase that rose in his mind. He couldn’t bring himself to offer her flattery or sweet endearments. Not when his feelings for her were so raw and primitive.

  He could only offer himself, with all his regrets and imperfections, and hope it was enough.

  He reached for her with his voice and his mind. “Gina, I brought you to my mother’s people to hide you from Balek, but I dreaded every step that brought me here. I meant to return to Galena the next day.” He drew back, releasing her. “But I found I couldn’t leave you, not after we’d been joined in the Na’tahar. I needed you too badly. So I stayed, and led you into the heart of everything I had fought so hard to forget.”

  He rose and paced a few steps away. “At times, I could see what I had lost so clearly, feel it so acutely that I thought every breath of the wilderness would drive me mad.” He fought to keep his voice steady. “But it didn’t. Because you were by my side. You showed me the place I belong. With you, Gina. Even if it’s for only the briefest of moments.”

  “Oh, Derrin.”

  He brought his cupped palms to his chest, though he was unsure if she could see the gesture in the dark. “You are in my heart, Gina. It may not be wise for me to ask, but will you have me this night? This night and for as many nights as we are given before you return to your world?”

  The silence lay fragile between them. “I… I don’t know what to say,” she whispered at last.

  “Say what’s in your heart. Say what you want.”

  The stillness swelled again until it threatened to swallow the night. Then, through the velvet blackness, he saw her arm sweep forward. Her open palm came to rest on her breast.

  “I want you, Derrin. You’re in my heart. And somehow…it seems you’ve always been there.”

  A fierce joy unfurled and soared. Derrin took a quick step forward and pulled Gina into his arms, tangling his fingers in the silky weight of her unbound hair. His mouth covered hers. He dropped to the mossy ground, her arms tightening around him.

  Hot desire flooded his veins, flinging him beyond any emotion he’d ever experienced. His tongue sank between her lips, explored the contours of her mouth.

  But after one wild drink he retreated. He traced the outline of her lips with his tongue and trailed hot, openmouthed kisses along her jaw and neck. Easing her dress over the smooth curve of her shoulders, he freed her arms from the sleeves and let the soft material pool at her hips.

  One finger traced a featherlight circle around the tip of her breast. He dipped his head, taking the hardened nipple into his mouth, gently this time. Gina moaned and arched against him, her fingers tangling in his hair, pulling him closer.

  “Don’t tease,” she whispered. “Not now. I’m not afraid any longer.”

  Fire exploded in his loins at her words, but he forced it to a slow burn. He sucked her nipple deeper into his mouth, his heart catching when a small moan of pleasure escaped her. She held his head tight against her breast, traced circles on his scalp.

  Her skin was soft and welcoming. Her scent was that of the forest, a warm mystery, alive with promise. She was all he thought she would be, and he wanted to savor every moment of their lovemaking. He kissed his way from one breast to the other, then, still licking and suckling her nipples, he rolled onto his back and pulled her atop him.

  When his mouth finally left her breast, Gina whimpered and rubbed against him, urging him to return. Instead, his hands moved over her torso, cupped her breast and belly. His fingers combed through the soft triangle of hair betw
een her thighs. He found her damp center and teased into it. The wild, musky scent of her desire reached out to him, beckoning. Moisture flowed over his hand. He smeared it on her soft folds.

  A low moan vibrated in Gina’s throat. “Come inside me, Derrin.”

  But he remembered his earlier loss of control and clamped down on his desire. Forcing himself to a slower pace, he grasped the bunched fabric of her dress and slid it up, over her head, careful not to tear the soft doeskin. Gina’s fingers tugged at his kilt. By the time he’d stripped off his shirt she’d untangled the knot at his hip.

  She straddled his bare thighs, fingers wrapped around his rigid cock. It leaped in hot pleasure. He lay motionless, shuddering, while she teased him. She drew his foreskin up, then back, over the outer ridge of his head. Her hand tightened with each successive stroke. She wet her fingers with moisture gathered from her own sex and lubricated his shaft. Her hand slid again on his cock and he thought he would go mad with wanting her. A low growl emerged from his throat, a sound more animal than human.

  He suffered her attentions for as long as he dared, then hauled her into his arms and rolled her beneath him. He covered her, trapping her with the length of his body, pressing her into their bed of moss-covered rock.

  Her nakedness felt so glorious against his body. His damp skin clung to hers. He began a slow exploration of her curves, his tongue plunging into the honey-scented hollow between her breasts, then dipping lower, to dart into her navel. Her arousal was an earthy perfume, drawing him to her center.

  He breathed a hot trail to the curls between her thighs and inhaled the aroma of her body’s nectar. He tasted her there, his tongue plunging deep. Gina gripped his hair, her hips writhing as he feasted on her. He sensed she had little experience being pleasured this way. She wanted to retreat from the intensity of the sensation, but he refused to allow it. He held her thighs open with his palms, not yielding even when she cried out. His tongue moved in hard, deliberate strokes, building a hot, wet fire.

  When she was panting with need, he drew back a fraction. “You taste sweeter in the flesh than you did in our dream.”