One Thousand Kisses

by One Thousand Kisses

  Hands clutched his vest, snatching it off him. Once he was freed, Anisette dragged him up. He broke into the air with a gasp.

  “Embor, I’m here.” She wrestled him, shook him. “Relax your body. I can keep you afloat as long as you relax.”

  All around them, waves and blue water stretched as far as his burning eyes could see. No land, no boats, no safety. How had this happened? How had they been sent here instead of the Ellsmen station?

  Curse these Torvals and their blasted ambushes.

  Salty water entered his mouth. His head went under, back up. Under. Panic bulged no matter how he tried to tamp it down. He reached frantically for magic, and it slipped from his grasp like the water that surrounded them.

  A surge ballooned over their heads, pushing them down. Instinctively he struggled. Weeds, no, Anisette’s hair wrapped around his hand. Their knees bashing, she pushed them to the surface.

  He coughed and spluttered, gagging on seawater. Anisette grasped his face and pressed her lips to his.

  As she infused him, or tried to, they dropped beneath the surface. He panicked, broke contact. She pulled him against her, and this time she didn’t infuse him.

  Sudden drowsiness crushed his panic like iron. Weights pulled at his legs. Hauled him down. His eyelids fluttered shut. Water currents surrounded him, lifting his body to the surface.

  Fighting sleep, he forced his eyes open. Anisette supported them, somehow. She caught him under the arms.

  “That’s right,” she crooned. His legs tipped up, buoyant. His arms floated out to his sides. “Let yourself float. It’s okay.”

  He sank into her spell as the water enfolded him. Her arms were a cradle. Water splashed his face and he breathed. She kept talking to him, reassuring him. Telling him they were together, she was with him, they’d get through this. He knew it was possible for a person to swim. He’d read the manual. Don’t struggle. Just keep yourself afloat.

  Over the slosh and slap of water, his meditative state was interrupted by an angry, high-pitched growl as out of place in the ocean as he was. A quick flash of black at the peak of a swell, yellow eyes furious. The cat.

  “Thank the spirits, there’s Master Fey.” Anisette began to tow Embor through the water toward the animal. His limbs were too tired to help—or get in her way.

  The undulating surface bobbed them up and down. The cat shot through the water like a tiny shark, and the next thing Embor felt was Master Fey scrabbling for purchase against his chest and climbing onto his head.

  Embor cursed, swatted and went under. His composure shattered. Water and noise echoed in his ears. With a rip, the cat released his scalp.

  From behind, Anisette heaved his head above the surface and yelled in his ear. “Quit fighting, dammit!”

  He jerked away from the sudden pain that shocked through him from her touch. His skull bashed hers, and she released him with a cry.

  “Anisette!” He tried to stay calm when she didn’t reappear. She could breathe underwater. At the top of the next swell, he saw the cat paddling toward him but no Anisette. His movements forced him beneath the surface. Opening his eyes wide, he stared through the fuzzy, greenish water. Where was she?

  Something large bumped his legs. He glanced down. A sleek form, moving fast.

  He opened his consciousness as far as it would go and tried to contact Skythia. Static. He flailed toward the surface. Where was Anisette? If ever he needed her, it was now. And what if she needed him?

  Help me!

  An unseen body rammed him from behind, tumbling him head over heels. Air rushed from his lungs in a watery whoosh. He righted himself, barely, but his attacker struck again, battering away his chances of survival.

  He couldn’t breathe. He couldn’t not breathe. The surface was so far away, the sun a fading beacon. Weeds floated around him. Black spots in his vision. Agony, desperation. Graceful arms parted the water. In his peripheral vision he glimpsed the tiny figure of the cat and a long, Piscean tail before he blacked out.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  For the second time in a couple days, Ani woke on a deserted beach. Something sharp and wet scraped her face, and she batted it away.

  Wake up, said Master Fey, his face next to hers. The tip of his tongue disappeared into his mouth.

  “Kitty, thank the spirits you’re all right.” She sat up and cradled his fuzzy body, her head whirling. “Do you have any idea what happened?”

  Yes. He blinked slowly, staring across the sunny beach.

  She stroked his salt-crusted fur. When he didn’t elaborate, she asked, “Can you tell me?”

  “Mrow.” His whiskers twitched.

  It could mean he’d reached his daily quota of words, and it could mean it had something to do with the information block. They were in the Realm; that she could tell. Her clothes were itchy but dry. The sun shone hot and orange. The last thing she remembered was trying to keep Embor afloat long enough to heal him, but in his panic he’d knocked her unconscious. Her forehead felt tender. She’d have continued to breathe, but…

  Great Hella, had she washed to shore without him? Releasing the cat, she stumbled toward the water until she noticed him sprawled down the beach from her. The surf lapped his feet.

  “Embor?” He didn’t react when she dropped to her knees beside him. His flesh was warm, his pulse steady. He’d lost his shirt and shoes in the sea. Filling herself with magic, she extended her healing senses over him.

  His globe addiction had fully manifested. The areas of emptiness had joined to form a chasm through his psyche, and he was in a coma. This wouldn’t be a simple fix, but it had to be done. Now. She couldn’t sense Talista and had no idea what had disrupted their trip through the green ring. Had it happened to everyone or just them?

  Ani needed Embor well and strong to help salvage the operation. Placing her hands on his bare chest, she exerted her power to repair the damage he’d begun and the sea had completed.

  The last time she’d tried to heal him, he’d been painted in brilliant reds and oranges with shards of black. Now his spirit was dark, roiling, disconnected. It sucked her in until she collapsed across his body, close enough to touch every wounded part of his soul. She closed her eyes and dropped the rest of the way inside him, spreading all the balm she could muster. With every skill at her disposal, she knit his tattered psyche into a whole.

  Embor’s spirit rebounded faster than expected. Before she could withdraw, his fire asserted itself with a roar of scarlet. White-hot blues, scorching deep reds immersed her body with heat. She found herself kissing his soft, salty lips, infusing him with a needy urgency.

  Spirits, this was taking a lot out of her. Right before the rift inside him sealed, a luminous glow poured out and slammed into her. She hit the ground as a wave washed up the beach. The chill water was welcome after the heat inside Embor. Though she’d never seen it before, she presumed the recoil had been bonding magic, responding to their intimacy.

  Ani dashed the water off her face and hovered over him, dripping on his bare skin. “Embor, can you hear me?”

  When he opened his eyes and smiled, her heart lurched. At last she knew why. How many times was this man going to have to be near death for her to realize she couldn’t bear to lose him?

  She took his hand tentatively, and he brought it to his lips.

  “I love you,” he said calmly. “Are we dead?”

  Her mouth dropped open. “What?”

  “At least we’re together.” He sat up and watched the frothy tide rush over his legs with a cocked eyebrow. “I didn’t picture the spirit world as a beach, but I’ve nothing to fear from water anymore.”

  He thought they were dead, and he loved her. She latched onto the more astonishing of his two statements. “You love me?”

  “I was slow to realize it.” He stretched his spine before holding his arm in front of him. “My scars are gone.”

  “I healed you.” She’d poured so much of her strength into the job, she wouldn’t
be surprised if he’d lost his split ends. “I’m sorry, did you want to keep them?”

  “Not at all.” He shaded his eyes and inspected the beach. Palm trees, sea grass and a trailhead marked the beginning of dunes. “Looks like Fiertaggen.”

  “It probably is.” Ani flicked sand off her face with a trembling hand. His hormone levels appeared to be normal. The cat minced up and plopped down beside them. “The transportation spell went awry.”

  “Miaow,” said the cat.

  “Master Fey has also died, I see.” Embor stroked the cat’s shiny black fur, and the cat allowed it. He arched under Embor’s caress before dancing out of the path of another wave. “Sorry, cat. We tried.”

  “Embor.” Ani reached for his broad shoulder. His pale skin was hot, reddening slowly with sun exposure. “We’re not dead.”

  He swiveled to meet her gaze. “You’re here, the water doesn’t bother me and I feel completely repaired. This has to be the spirit world.”

  “We survived.” Ani’s throat tightened. “I think I…I love you too.”

  “Hm.” His gaze intensified as he focused on her. “Good.”

  “We should figure out—”

  He dragged her across his thighs and stopped her words with a kiss.

  Conscious of the cat, their mission, she protested. “We don’t have time—”

  He anchored his fingers in her wet hair. Tugging her head back, he parted her lips with a demanding tongue. Ani tasted him, salt and sea and passion. He bit her earlobe, spat out some sand, returned to her mouth and kissed her until her head began to spin.

  She slid her arms around his neck and felt a surge of magic inside him. With a groan, he ripped her shirt in two, tossing it aside. He removed her brassiere the same way, with magic-fueled strength. His restored vitality melted her. His mastery over his power and her body had her shuddering with desire.

  But this wasn’t sensible. The Torvals, their team—she and Embor had no idea what was going on. They had responsibilities.

  “Embor,” she managed, “we can’t do this now.”

  “I don’t care,” he muttered against her neck. “I need you so much I can’t stand it anymore. Let me love you, Ani. Let me inside you.”

  He lifted her to her knees and encased her nipple in his hot mouth. Lust bled from him into her, and she let it come. He licked the sensitive flesh before he sucked so hard it hurt.

  Yearning suffused her like an arrow of fire to her core. She moaned, throwing her head back and gripping his shoulders. He took the other nipple just as roughly. His hands wrapped around her to seize her ass, no, her pants. When he drew magic into himself to tear them off her, it poured through her as well.

  The sun beat down on her naked skin, even as a wave splashed her backside. He dug his fingers into her behind, drawing the cheeks apart and kneading them.

  She had no thought for rituals or numbers. Her puss throbbed as his fingertips brushed her. Rubbing her. Readying her. Over and over. Hot cream slickened her folds. The water rushed up her calves and subsided, a sensual counterpoint to his touch. The sultry bite of his mouth on her nipple deepened, so she grabbed his hair to make sure he wouldn’t stop.

  Still supporting her ass, Embor slipped a hand between her thighs and rubbed silken moisture across her clit. When she whimpered, he pinched harder, catching the tender flesh in a vise of pleasure. Flicking his fingers, he chafed the tip until she felt herself, her spirit, begin to unfasten.

  Ani moaned and widened her thighs, sinking onto his lap. Her consciousness swam with need. He drove two fingers inside her slick pussy right before the tide rolled up his body. His hand worked inside her, his palm on her clit, protecting her from the churning, sandy water. She kissed him, trying to anchor his head the way he’d anchored hers.

  After a moment, he shook his head free and bit her neck. Ani’s pleasure escalated. His cock, trapped inside his trousers, pulsed against her bottom. She ground against his hand, and he lowered his mouth to her nipple. In perfect timing, he sucked and plunged, rubbed and nursed, so she felt like the only things in the world were his mouth and fingers.

  “It’s too much.” Waves pushed their bodies, and blackness darkened the edges of her vision. No, not blackness. Indigo and red. His fire engulfed her.

  “I have to taste you,” he muttered before heaving her into the air and carrying her above the tide line. She used a whisper of magic to unstick the grit from their bodies. He lowered her to soft, dry sand. As she slid down, she tried to remove his pants, but he shoved her onto her back. When she reached for him again, he pushed her knees up and apart.

  For a long moment he stared at her pink creases as if deciding on his next action. When he took his hands off her knees, he glanced at her with eyes gone dark grey with passion.

  “Don’t move,” he warned her. “Not an inch.” Sunlight glinted on a few grains of sand on his well-muscled skin.

  She licked her lips and watched as he shucked his trousers. The ocean wind blew across her moist flesh almost like a touch. She exhaled slowly, trying to prepare herself. This was it. They’d come together, they’d join. They’d be one forever. Never before and never again would they make love for the first and most binding time.

  His erection sprang free and jutted forward, but he paid it no attention. Was he thinking too of what was about to happen and what it meant?

  How could he not be? He’d known for so long.

  The thought of Embor wanting her for years heightened Ani’s desire. Her feelings threatened to crest as he stood there, staring. His body was magnificent; his nature held such wild, hidden depths that would be hers alone to explore.

  She could come right now with a simple kiss. Oh, Hella, it needed to be now.

  But instead of mounting her, he lowered himself between her legs, caressing the insides of her thighs, and took a long, thorough lick of her pussy.

  “Embor, no, I want—”

  He licked again, and she cried out. He drew her clit between his lips, stroked it with his tongue. The ache between her legs erased her resolve. When he thrust his fingers into her body, she arched off the sand and squeezed her eyes shut.

  Heat bathed her skin, from the sun, from him, tightening her nipples and her tension. He increased the pace of his tongue and fingers, adding a third so it stretched her sheath with a delightful sting. He pressed her thighs higher, her feet in the air, pushing her into the sand. His teeth closed on her gently, and he licked her snared flesh.

  He tugged, pulling the skin. Pain rippled through her like pleasure, and still he licked. She didn’t think she could take any more until he slipped his fingers from her body and caressed her tight anus. Her hands fisted in the sand as he pushed inside her there, raw and terrible and overwhelmingly good.

  He released her clit, which tingled with renewed sensation as blood rushed into it. When he began to slide his finger in and out of her anus, she constricted everywhere. Her muscles, her pussy, her spirit, her heart. A sensation akin to panic mounted higher and higher. Magical tremors coursed through her body. She was at the crux, open and pleading, while he was so far behind. Did he not mean for them to join?

  He licked softly, his finger deep, and nearly undid her. She fumbled at his head, trying to drag him up her body. “I want to be with you. I want you inside me.”

  He held his position, far too strong for her to budge.

  “Do you want everything it means?”

  “I do. I do.” Her hands flopped uselessly. “Please, Embor.”

  With a groan, he latched onto her clit with a wet, fast friction. Ani climaxed almost instantly, gasping and crying. Her spirit lay ready. As soon as her delicious spasms ended, he rolled her onto her hands and knees and lifted her ass into the air.

  Positioning his cock at her entrance, he eased into her pussy so slowly she could count the inches. She squirmed, willing him to go faster, but it was several more inches before he hilted himself. She concentrated on the sensation of his cock in her sheath, the glow of t
he bonding magic awakening in them both.

  He snaked a hand around her to her clit. With restrained shifts of his hips, he worked his cock just enough to call it movement. He filled her and rubbed her, each push so impossibly deep. She tilted her body toward him and sought him with her mind.

  Not there yet. He strummed her clit, thrusts quickening. Lengthening. His breathing grew harsh. There. There. His cock swelled, and she could almost touch him through the magic.

  Spirits, yes. Faster. She glowed, she longed for him, she wanted it now. Her body curved to take him, her arms and face angled against the sand.

  He plunged harder, slapping against her backside. With each deep jolt, their bodies nudged forward, losing traction. Shell fragments abraded her cheek. Before the next thrust, she maneuvered free and spat. Shaking her sticky hair, she glanced up at his shocked expression and smiled.

  “I’m getting sand burn,” she said with a shaky laugh.

  He raised an eyebrow, his chest heaving, his erect penis glistening with her moisture. “What do you suggest?”

  She had a suspicion it took a massive amount of willpower for him to cut their bonding short when it was finally starting to glow around them like the stars. Instead of making him voice more words, she pushed him onto his back and whispered in his ear. “I want to see your face.”

  Then she climbed onto his body and sank onto his cock as slowly as he’d first entered her.

  He swallowed and grasped her hips, holding her immobile. His jaw clenched as he sought control. “Kiss me.”

  She bent down, hands curled over his shoulders, and licked his bottom lip. His fingers tangled in her hair as he kissed her desperately. Their tongues danced and dueled. When she raised her hips, allowing his cock to slip almost all the way out of her body, he moaned into her mouth.

  She reseated herself with pleasure. The hot, wet clutch of her inner muscles constricted his length. His hormones flickered red and orange.

  She liked having him beneath her, both of them suffused with lust—but she was on top. She leaned forward, rolling her hips so his cock became a luscious glide of sensation. Her nipples rubbed his chest. Her hair fell around their faces. When their gazes locked, her desires sharpened. He caught her face in his hands. After another long, deep kiss, she sat up and touched herself intimately.