by Lexi Post
* * * * *
Content to be on Synn’s lap, Rena enjoyed the beat of his heart against her cheek. She’d purr if she knew how, all dry and warm in her peach robe with his hand stroking her arm. She would love to stay like they were all night. The storm had passed and there was only a soft drizzle outside.
Now that the Masque was complete, she wanted Synn to herself. Maybe now they could have a chance. He could put her first? They had sex in many ways over the last two months, but never alone, never unplanned, and never without an alternative purpose or mask. She wanted to show him how she felt.
“Rena?”
“Mmm-hmm.”
“You need to go to bed.”
“Okay.” She didn’t move. Weren’t they already in bed? All he would have to do is lie back and they could fall asleep together, but instead he stood and set her feet to the floor.
She sighed and watched him pull the covers back to allow her to crawl in.
“Synn.”
He faced her, casually putting his arms around her waist. “Yes.”
“I want you to stay with me tonight.”
His body tensed and her senses went into high alert. Now what? What possible excuse could he give tonight? What additional piece of information had he not told her that would prevent him from sleeping with her? She could feel her adrenaline building.
He met her gaze. “I shouldn’t.”
“Why?”
“I owe it to—”
Rena stalked up to him and slapped her hand over his mouth. “Don’t you dare. Don’t you dare say you owe anyone anything. You have atoned for your one mistake, if you can even call it that, though how you would have known you carried the Red Death is beyond me. And you have paid for that for over one hundred and fifty years. That’s long enough, Synn. It’s time to move on.”
His eyes crinkled and his mouth moved beneath her hand. When his tongue licked between her middle and ring finger, she pulled away at the erotic sensation, but not before he caught her wrist and brought her closer. “You are right.”
She relaxed. “I want you to stay with me tonight, in my bed. We can just sleep if you want.”
He pulled her tight against him, his hard cock pushing into her abdomen. “I’m not tired.”
She smirked. “So you want to watch me sleep?”
He grinned. “Maybe.”
“Oh, you better not do that. If you—”
His mouth on hers cut off all thought. She wrapped her arms around his neck and thrust her tongue to meet his, more than ready to explore every inch of him all over again. When her knees were weak and her breaths short, he broke away and untied the knot on her belt. “I want to see you again.”
She allowed him to slip the robe off her shoulders to fall in a clump on the floor at her feet. His gaze heated her skin though he didn’t touch her.
“You too. I want to see all of you too.”
He wiggled his brows as he divested himself of the black pantaloons.
Now they stood naked, but a foot away from each other. He was every woman’s dream—hard muscle, kind, honorable, and very naughty. How did she get so lucky?
He touched her face. “You are beautiful. When I first saw you, I thought Aphrodite had returned to Earth.”
“Really. Wasn’t she depicted as plump?”
He shook his head. “The paintings I remember showed her curves. They made her to be explored, touched, made love to.”
Her body heated in so many places at his words that she wondered if she would melt before she got him to bed. Not a chance. She took his hand and pulled, but he didn’t move. She looked at him. His gaze was intense.
“What?”
“I’ve never made love to a woman before.”
She rolled her eyes. “Really? You could have fooled me. I’ve never had anyone so experienced before and you are telling me you have never made love?”
He grinned and finally gave into her tugging. “I’m your most experienced lover?”
She shook her head as she pushed him onto the bed. Men and their egos. “Yes, you are. And you have brought me more pleasure than all my former lovers combined.” He didn’t need to know how few there really were.
Synn lay back and tugged on her hand to join him, but she wanted to show him how special he was to her. Crawling onto the bed, she knelt between his legs.
“Rena, what are you about?”
She grinned and licked her lips. “I want to taste you.”
He growled something unintelligible that ended with “woman”, but she ignored him. Instead, she began a thorough examination of his strong cock…with her tongue. She explored his smooth texture down to his balls, taking each one into her mouth in turn. She found the movement of his thighs fascinating, so much so that she licked the grooves of the taut muscles as they moved with her ministrations. Licking her way back over his sac, she ran her tongue up the length of his cock before sucking the head into her mouth.
Synn’s hands buried themselves in her hair.
She smiled inside at the pleasure she could bring him and slowly glided her mouth around him, stroking him. She palmed his balls in her hand, waiting for them to tighten. When he was primed, she lifted her head and licked the top of his head around the ridge, and lapped up the pre-cum from the tip.
Synn’s voice rasped at her. “Vixen.”
Oh yes, that and more. Reverently, she glided her body up his, rubbing her breast along his cock until her lips could reach his nipple. With gentle strokes, she teased him with her tongue before nibbling.
His growl surprised her as he pressed her to him and rolled her over onto her back.
He gazed at her with such intensity, her heart beat a determined tattoo in her chest. He laced his hand with hers. “You mean more to me than anyone else in my life. If you had said the words to stop me in the Bondage Room, I would have, even if it meant the Masque would be incomplete. I want you to be happy, always.”
Her heart burst with love at his words. She smiled as she moved her fingers through the hair at the base of his neck. “Always sounds wonderful. Can we start now?”
He brought his lips within a hairsbreadth of hers. “I’m going to make love to you, Rena. This is all about you.”
She sighed even as she touched his cheek. “No, it’s all about us.”
Chapter Twenty
Synn’s mouth proceeded to worship every inch of her body. From the crease of her elbow to the side of her ankle, he investigated all her hills and valleys with his hands and lips. She had never been so loved, so cherished.
As he finished with her toes, he rose and gently laid himself over her. “Your softness is my undoing.”
She held him tight against her, reveling in the weight of his body pressed against hers, his cock hard between them. His kiss upon her lips was gentle, sweet. She enjoyed the new closeness they had and kissed him back with the love in her heart, but even as she gently stroked his back, their need for each other grew.
Her pussy tightened with the knowledge that it would soon be entered and her hips moved against him. Synn didn’t disappoint. As if understanding her need to be closer, he positioned his cock at her entrance and pushed, slowly. He entered her while their tongues mated and her hands grasped him to her. As his cock reached its hilt, he broke their kiss.
She whimpered in disappointment, but his head dipped to her breast and suckled. The heady feeling of being loved caused small waves of slow pleasure to wash over her, building subtly. Synn moved inside her deliberately. As her pleasure built, she wrapped her legs around his, moving her hips in unison with him.
He moaned as he left her breast and caught her lips once again in a kiss. His hand moved behind her head to hold her lips to his even as his cock pushed deep, spreading her, filling her. She held on to his back, keeping him as close to her as possible, needing him against her, inside her. She didn’t want it to end, but Synn’s growl against her mouth set off her orgasm. Her body released her pleasure as his cum flowed inside her,
and she pulled her mouth from his to take in much-needed air.
His cock buried deep within her held her in place, their fluids mingling together.
As her body relaxed, Synn lifted to allow her deeper breaths. She gazed into his eyes. She should tell him how she felt, right now, but he looked away.
He pulled out of her and lay down next to her. “My beautiful Rena. You are the only one to ever exhaust me.” He cuddled her closer and she laid her head on his shoulder, content to hear she affected him as much as he had her. Draping her arm over his chest, she lifted one leg to tangle with his.
This is what she wanted. To fall asleep, safe in his arms, protected. Loved?
When her breathing returned to normal, she glanced up. “Synn?”
He didn’t answer. She placed her head back on his chest. His heartbeat was strong, more proof that the man she loved was not a ghost, just a very old man. She grinned, relaxed, and let sleep take over her exhausted body.
* * * * *
Synn woke unsure of his surroundings, but Rena’s body snuggled into him brought back the memory of their lovemaking. He hadn’t slept since the day he was shot. He had tried, but it never worked. He glanced at the window. The barest of gray shaded the night sky. He hadn’t slept long, but he had slept. It had to be because of Rena.
Their connection had grown strong and would be hard to break. He didn’t want her to love him. She already cared too much. He saw it in her eyes, felt it in her touch tonight. Breaking his own heart was enough. He didn’t want to break hers.
The sound of droplets of cold rain hitting the window warned him it would be wet on the roof, but he still carefully slid from the bed and covered Rena to her chin with the warm blanket. To stay with her was a drug more potent than opium, and he was weak.
Turning his back on her, he dematerialized into his own room and dressed. He needed to think, and the rooftop called to him.
The light rain hit his body in a gentle caress as he stepped onto the parapet. From his vantage point, he could tell it would be a long day of gray wetness, but he welcomed it. Such a day reflected his somber emotions. He had to find a way to make Rena leave the Abbey.
Pacing across the wall-walk, he discarded one idea after another. He should tell her he didn’t want her anymore now that the Masque was complete, but he couldn’t. He’d never been a good liar, and she wouldn’t believe him, especially with his cock straining his pantaloons as it did whenever in her presence. There had to be some way to convince her to go.
He stopped at the corner where he had engraved his initials, letters the prince had never seen. He looked beyond them, down at the chapel. His insistence on the chapel being built may very well have saved Rena’s life, for if not for Father Richard, Eric may have had his way and then where would they be? He closed his eyes for a moment, thankful Rena had never known Eric’s touch or what he’d planned for her.
He strode once more down the parapet and slowed at the courtyard with the pond. Matt had done excellent work, clearing the brush and getting the water back into the area. Synn wanted so much to take Rena swimming there, to make love there, but he couldn’t. That would be just one of many small frustrations they would have to contend with if she stayed, and he didn’t want her to grow to hate him. No, it was better that she go home.
How to make her leave? He rubbed the back of his neck in frustration. The sky brightened to a dull gray, the western half still in the dark-blue of night, like himself. His curse shadowed Rena and her natural brightness, and yet his heart still yearned for her. “Bloody hell, what the devil am I supposed to do?”
He swiveled back the way he came, his strides making short work of the length of the wall-walk. Maybe he could talk Valerie into helping him. She might even know what would send Rena back to her home in the United States.
“Synn?”
Her soft whisper startled him and he froze when he saw her. Dressed in what looked like a gray canvas sack, she stood just inside the doorway. The woman embodied the best and worst part of his existence. “Yes?”
She wrapped the coat tighter around her and stepped onto the parapet. “What are you doing up here?”
He tried to grin, but knew it failed when her brows descended in worry. She started to make her way toward him.
“No, stay there. I can walk this in my sleep. I don’t want you to fall on the wet stones.” A shiver raced through him at the memory of the time she did fall and he increased his pace to get to her before she moved any farther.
He was but three strides away when the stones beneath his feet gave way and he fell over the side. He heard Rena’s scream as he grasped for purchase on anything. His hands clutched solid wall, what was left of the embrasure. His heart beat so fast he had to concentrate on breathing.
“Synn!”
He looked up. Bloody hell! Rena stood inches away from his hands and from the break. “Get back!”
“But Synn, you need help.”
His fear for her wasn’t helping him catch much-needed air. “No. Get back.”
She backed away a few feet. He could tell she wanted to rush to his aid, but he’d rather die than have her fall to her death. His heart twisted at the thought, the pain so strong that he had to focus on breathing again.
“Synn, let me help you. You can take my hand.”
“No! Stay back.” Just what he needed, for his weight to pull her down. A numbness in his feet took his mind from Rena for a moment and he looked down. Blast it all, he was disappearing, just as he did when he stepped outside the Abbey. It would only be a few more minutes and he would be gone. What a stupid end to his curse. If he was going to try to get back up, sooner would be much better than… Well, there would be no later.
Something hit his hand and he looked up again. Rena’s canvas coat lay next to where he grasped the stone wall.
“Synn grab it!” she yelled from somewhere on the other side of the wall.
He looked around, but couldn’t see her. No wait, he could see her foot. She sat on the wall-walk with her feet up against the parapet, her coat slung toward him. She had anchored herself and put the stone between herself and the drop…if it held.
His knees going numb left him little choice. He grasped the coat with one hand. It pulled but held. With a quick prayer, he let go of the castle wall and grabbed the coat with his other hand. It slid downward, but held. Hand over hand he pulled himself over the side until he was able to roll onto the roof.
Rena crawled to him. “Oh my God, Synn, your legs are missing!”
He chuckled. What woman said that to her lover of just hours ago? This relationship was strange, but he didn’t care. Her quick thinking had saved him.
“Why are you laughing? This isn’t funny.”
The sheer panic in her voice sobered him quickly. He caught her hand and held on to her warmth, despite the continued drizzle. “Don’t worry. They will come back. Just wait a moment.”
She held so tightly to his hand as she stared at his legs that he feared he’d lose all feeling in that limb too. Tingling began in his calves, which meant in a few minutes he would be whole again. He relaxed. When Rena’s grip loosened, he pulled himself farther from the break in the wall. She crawled with him, tears filling her round eyes, washing from her cheeks with the rain.
His heart clenched. “Don’t cry. I’m fine. Thank you.”
She shook her head then buried it against his shoulder. He smiled despite himself. To have someone care so much for him truly awed him. It felt damn good. When whole again, he lifted her away and stood, well back from the breach.
He took her face in his hands. “No more tears, Rena. Not for me.”
She swallowed hard, her breathing still labored. “You don’t understand. I love you. I can’t lose you.”
Synn’s heart burst with joy as warmth flooded his body. “My wonderful woman.” The heat faded and a searing pain hit him in the shoulder. He gasped and grabbed his chest.
“Synn! Oh my God! Synn, you’re bleeding
.”
He heard her voice and the sheer panic in it, but it was as if from a distance. “Rena?” He felt himself sink once more to the roof before everything went black.
“Synn! Synn!” Rena hastily moved Synn’s limp hand from his chest and pushed aside his shirt. The place on his chest where he had been shot so long ago bled profusely. Ripping his shirt, she balled it up and put it on the hole. Then she ran to the roof doorway.
“Valerie! Valerie!” Shit! There was no way Valerie would hear her two stories down and in the other wing. She looked back at Synn. His face was pale. Oh God, she couldn’t lose him now. He needed help, but she couldn’t leave him. The sound of a car pulling into the front drive had her peeking over the battlements. Matt. Oh, thank God he worked so early in the morning.
She gripped the battlement and leaned over. “Matt! Matt, up here!”
He looked up and waved.
Shit. “Matt! Call 9-1-1. Synn’s been hurt!”
He nodded and took out his cell phone. Assured he’d make the call, she stepped back, but her fingers wouldn’t leave the stone. Taking a deep breath, she convinced her fingers to relax and pulled them away. She stared at her hands as if they weren’t hers, but as the blood returned to them, she ran back to Synn. Somehow, she had to get him downstairs. Did doctors make house calls? If Synn couldn’t leave the abbey walls, maybe the paramedics could help him.
What the hell was happening? She put pressure on the wad of shirt, not liking how red it was. If he lost too much blood, he could die. Wait, how could he lose blood? When Eric threw him into the pews and his arms were gashed by the wood, he hadn’t bled. But the metallic smell of iron confirmed it was blood, even as the rain droplets washed it away. She had to get him off the roof. Her robe was already soaked through and she shivered as much from cold as from fear. More blood coated her fingers as she held the material against Synn’s chest. Why couldn’t she hear an ambulance coming? Where were they?
“Rena!”
She started at the sound of Valerie’s voice, so caught up in her misery that she hadn’t heard the roof door open.
