by Ann Gimpel
“I’m never truly ready to leave the sea.”
He swam close enough, his body touched hers. “’Tis on account of your dual nature. Some Shifters are more human than animal, but not us. That ye’ve managed to maintain your human side as well as ye have is surprising.”
“I had no choice.”
Even she heard the bitterness beneath her words. She’d tried to join a pod and been rejected, so she’d assumed no pod would want her. Not that it would have mattered since she had no idea where to find other Selkies beyond her Scottish home.
“I’m sorry, Raene. Truly, I am.”
“If you’d been king then, would my petition have had a different outcome?”
“Probably, but for all the wrong reasons.”
“What does that mean?” she bristled.
“Och, lassie. Ye’re so beautiful. All I’ve been able to do since we met is think about you, imagine making love with you. Ye’d asked what the third thing was. I was hoping ye’d accept me as your mate.”
He lifted himself partially out of the water and looked at her, his seal eyes dark and intense and his long whiskers quivering. She longed for arms to draw him into, but maybe it was good she was a seal.
“But the war…” she began, not certain where she wanted to go with that.
“The war will happen. We may not survive. I would hold you in my arms, taste the wonders of your body before we’re so lost in combat there’s nothing around us but death and loss and suffering. We may not have another chance, Raene. I love you.”
“You only think you do.”
“Nay, lassie. I’ve lived long, and I’ve found in you what I’ve sought for centuries. Be my mate, Raene.”
The caution that had been her constant companion all her life dribbled away like foam on the sea. So overcome with emotion, she could barely breathe, she said, “I accept.”
The sea exploded as Aegir jumped high, clapped his flippers, and then did it again. She barked laughter at the spontaneous display of delight. One of his descents landed partially on top of her, and he rolled her belly down. “Swim, darling. We could love one another as seals, but our first time should be as humans. I canna wait to reach shore.”
She couldn’t either. “Is there some rule about how mates come together?”
“Nay, but I want my hands and my mouth, not just my cock. Have ye never had sex as a seal?”
“Nope. Too many unknowns.”
“Excellent. I shall be honored to be the first. We will have many adventures, léannan.”
She didn’t mention the war again. Didn’t want to think about it. Whatever small island of peace and love they could carve out during the next few hours would be their special place. One she would cherish if neither of them survived the struggle to maintain Arcadia as a repository of magic. If only one of them made it through unscathed, she hoped it wouldn’t be her. To declare her love, only to have it ripped away, would be more than she could bear.
Don’t. Her mind voice was stern.
Raene understood all too well. Her usual method of planning and second-guessing everything wouldn’t work. Not here. And not with the man swimming by her side. If she wanted a prayer of returning to her nice, safe bakeshop, the time to have left would have been before she’d ridden a dragon. Before she’d gone to Fire Mountain, and certainly before she’d pledged her aid to the Druids.
Her belly scraped the shoreline. She called shift magic to become human and conceal her pelt. By the time her transformation was complete, Aegir’s arms wrapped around her from behind. He turned her so she faced him. The setting moon provided plenty of illumination to study his beautiful face.
“Are ye certain, lass?” He cupped the side of her cheek in one long-fingered hand.
She nodded, too overcome by emotion to manage words. She was scared for them. For magic. For what would become of Earth if good magic failed, but she and Aegir only had now to love one another. She wouldn’t ruin it by voicing her fears.
He smiled, lazily, as if they had all the time in this world and others, and draped wet hair behind her ears just before he closed his mouth on hers. He wrapped his arms around her, and she hugged him back, wanting to get as close as she could. This was nothing like how their last kiss had begun. His lips were demanding, almost rough as they claimed hers. It was the kiss of a man who knew exactly what he wanted. His tongue pushed inside her mouth, and she sparred with it. Teasing, biting, sucking, they moved from mouth kisses to stringing them along any vacant real estate they could find. He nipped her lips. She nipped back, licking saltwater off his skin as she followed the line of his cheeks and jaw with her tongue.
It was cold on the beach in the pre-dawn chill, but she scarcely noticed. Where her body molded to his, her nipples pebbled, sending sparks to her belly. His cock shot to attention, curving against her hipbone. She thought she’d die if she couldn’t touch him, so she moved a hand from where she’d been gripping his high, tight ass and stuffed it between them.
He groaned when she closed her fingers around his erection, and she moved to the side a bit to give herself better access, but also to straddle one of his legs. She pressed the center of her heat and need against his damp thigh, hips thrusting with a will of their own.
Raene hadn’t come in forever, and she was beyond the point of controlling her perpetually denied arousal. He raised his mouth from the hollow of her collarbone and lifted her easily, balancing her thighs atop his lower arms. She closed her legs around his waist, feeling the tip of him searching for her entry. She was so wet, a bit of slithering moved him into position.
He sank into her, stretching her, making her scream with heat and need as she clawed at his back. Once he was fully encased in her body, he stopped moving.
“Nooooo.” She rocked against him, urging him to do something. She was so close, a stray breeze would push her over the edge into a long, rolling climax.
“Hush, léannan. Trust me,” he crooned as magic cascaded around them. Tiny streamers brushed her nipples. Others moved lower, wrapping around her nub as he flexed his cock within her. He caught the back of her neck with one hand and kissed her again. The pressure of his mouth against hers coupled with her nipples rubbing his chest and the magical ribbons of light pulsing against her clit turned her entire body into heat and lust and desire. Climax pounded through her, followed almost immediately by an even stronger one.
Her breath came fast against his mouth, and she felt the quick beat of his heart in the magic surrounding her. She didn’t realize she’d closed her eyes, until she pulled away from his kiss and opened them.
“Greedy wench. Will that hold you till we’re inside and in a bed?”
She tightened her vault around him. “Damn. You feel amazing.”
“So do you, darling. My darling. I hate to disturb you”—he twitched his cock—“but inside offers so many more options.”
Raene laughed. “Like we get to lie down?” She hip-butted him. “And I get to taste you.”
“Now there’s incentive.” He laughed too and lifted her off his cock. It jutted from his body huge, hot, and proud.
It was all she could do not to fall to her knees and take him into her mouth. “If you’re dead set on inside, we’d best go now.”
“What man could resist such an invitation?” He scooped her into his arms and ran lightly up the beach toward the cavern he called home when he wasn’t in the sea.
Chapter 15
Aegir was grateful his control had held. When Raene had dissolved around him in a flood of heat and contractions—twice—he’d clung to the thinnest of margins. He wanted to make her come a hundred times. The expression on her face when ecstasy took her melted his heart. She’d trusted him, allowed his magic to titillate her. If he’d had to thrust to make her come, he’d have lost it. Not that he couldn’t have recovered to come a second time, but this was better. It kept him riding a fine edge of lust and made him a more creative lover.
Her body fit in his arms as if they’
d been made just for each other. The globes of her breasts pressed against him, and her skin was pure silk where he touched her. Soft, but with strength hidden beneath.
He carried her inside the cavern and sent a blast of magic at the hearthstones to warm the enclosure. It had grown chilly during their absence. Not surprising since they’d been gone a long time. Shouldering the curtain that stood between the main portion of the cave and the sleeping alcove aside, he sank to the low bed with her still in his embrace.
She’d threaded her arms around his neck, and was busy running kisses along his collarbone and up to his ear and back.
“Ye’ve a wicked tongue, lass.”
She lifted her head and gazed at him. “I do, huh?”
“Aye.” He rolled onto his back, still holding her, but she wriggled out of his grasp and knelt over him, tracing the lines of his body with both hands.
“You’re so beautiful.” She pinched a nipple on her way down to his hips.
Sensation ratcheted through him and he made a grab for her, intent on dragging one of her legs across his body so he could get back inside her, but she evaded him easily.
Raene traded her mouth for where her fingertips had been. Slow and intimate, she licked and tasted, making hungry little sounds as she moved from lips to cheeks and chin and on down his chest to his nipples and lower still. Sparks of exquisite lust speared him, the intensity so brutal it was all he could do not to grab her and impale himself in the mystery of her body. It had felt incredible the brief time he’d been within her, but he’d been so focused on not coming, he hadn’t truly immersed himself in loving her.
Now he could.
After drawing her tongue across his stomach, moving side to side to lick down each hipbone, she traveled lower and pushed his legs wide enough for her to kneel between them. Her long, wet hair fell across his loins as she let her lips hover over him. Hot breath puffed over the head of his cock, but she stopped shy of actually touching him.
He gripped the sides of her head, encouraging her to do more than breathe on him, but she was strong and resisted his urging. Suddenly a trail of unbelievable heat ran from the base of him to the tip. It took a moment before he realized she’d licked him.
And then, she did it again before curling a hand around his unruly appendage, an appendage screaming it was on the verge of release. He rode herd on himself as she swiped her tongue around the head of his penis. First one direction then the other before she finally, finally, sank her mouth over him.
He jackknifed his body around until the musk of her surrounded him. While she worked him with hands and mouth, he pushed a hand between her legs until he could tease her vault with his fingers. At the same time, he fastened his lips over her distended nub of flesh, nipping and running his tongue around and around the ridges of her clit. She writhed against him and worked him harder.
Aegir gave up a losing battle with control and became a slave to the sexual heat and need pouring through him. Raene was his. His. Her nectar coated his lips and tongue, and her vault tightened around his questing fingers before another climax raced through her. He felt her release in his bones, in his soul, and semen bubbled from his balls, jetting into her.
He came hard, but all she did was hold him tighter, stroking and sucking until their ecstasy played itself out. He untangled their bodies and lay next to her, holding her and crooning wordlessly in the Selkies’ language. She clasped him to herself, clearly wanting to erase any distance between them.
The gesture warmed him and touched his heart. Raene had accepted him, wanted him with the same single-minded intensity he craved her. She’d been on her own for so long, he’d wondered if she could lower her walls and let him in.
“I love you, lassie.”
“Love you too.” She nuzzled his neck.
They might have dozed off. The next thing he was aware of was kissing her, tasting him on her lips and tongue. Desire spiked again, and he pulled one of her legs over his hip and entered her. Heat closed around him, and he rolled them until she straddled him, her hair trailing across his chest. Her pale skin was still blotchy with passion from their last round of loving, but the color deepened as he gripped her hips and rotated his cock deep within her.
“I wish we could be like this forever,” she murmured, eyes brimming with emotion.
“We can, lassie.”
“Promise?”
He started to say, “Aye, of course,” but he wouldn’t lie to her. He loved her too much for that. Instead he said, “I will move heaven, earth, and every borderworld imaginable to hold our love sacred. And create a place safe enough for you and our children. Ye do want children, lass?”
“Of course. I hope I’m not too old for them.”
“Ye’re not. As Selkies go, ye’re on the youngish side.” He tightened his grasp on her, running his fingertips over her back and shoulders. Her body was amazing, perfect with its high, full breasts, rounded hips, and flat stomach. Long legs and an ass that would drive any man crazy completed the picture. The images in his mind mingled with the reality in his arms, and he blessed the goddess who’d been watching over them the day he’d noticed Raene swimming in the seas.
A bittersweet smile curved the edges of her lips. “Thank you.”
“For what?”
“Being honest. I know what we face.” The wistful expression was replaced by fierce determination. “Today is ours. Ours. Nothing else will intrude.”
Aegir wasn’t as certain. He’d been expecting Krise to show up with a phalanx of Selkies at any moment, but he didn’t know that would happen. Not really—and not right away. He pulled her so she lay on top of him and fastened his mouth on hers, savoring the incredible sweetness of the woman in his arms. His cock swelled with new urgency as he made love with her, knowing the magic they made together would only grow richer and sweeter as they became more familiar with one another’s bodies.
Time passed. They made love, ate, and made love some more. They were drowsing against one another when Aegir felt a swath of familiar magic moving toward them. He reached around Raene to drag a blanket across her body.
“What?” she asked sleepily.
“Da is leaving the sea. He’ll be here soon with others.”
Raene’s blue-green eyes creased in the corners. “Will he be angry? I’m not a full-blooded Selkie like I imagine he wanted for a daughter-in-law. Plus, I’m scarcely on his favorite Selkie list. Not after how he and I carped at one another.”
Aegir pushed to a sit and laughed long and loud.
“What’s so funny?”
When he got grip on his mirth, he said, “Da will be overcome with joy. He’s been nagging me to come up with a mate for several hundred years. In truth, he’s been silent for the last fifty, but ’tis on account of him having given up.”
“Oh. Well, that’s good then, I guess.” She grinned. “He likes my baked goods. I can just see the two of you sitting in my shop, eating it down to the bones.”
Aegir bent and kissed her, short, hard, and sweet before getting to his feet. “I’ll rescue our clothing. If we got verra lucky, it willna have rained since we tucked them beneath those rocks.”
This time she laughed. “A day without rain? In Scotland? You’re daft.”
“Well, I did put mine on top of yours, so if anything got soaked, ’twill be my garments. Back verra soon.”
“Thank you,” floated after him.
He turned. “For what, léannan?”
“Taking a chance on me. I was such a bitch when we met.”
“Och, I’m good at seeing through smokescreens people throw in my face when they’re nervous.”
“I was not nervous—” she began, but he ran to get their clothes and missed the rest of her teasing denial.
Night had become day, and the day shaded to twilight, while he and Raene had been lost in one another; the sky held a purplish cast to the west. Krise and a flood of Selkies were lumbering out of the water, shifting as soon as they could. Aegir gathered t
he pile of clothing he and Raene had left. Mercifully, the top layer was more-or-less dry, which meant it had sprinkled throughout the day, but not actually rained. He darted back to the cavern and tossed the clothes within.
“Here ye are. I’m just going to greet the others.”
She’d walked beyond the curtain separating the sleeping alcove and stood near the hearth. Red curls fell past her waist. Nipples peeked through the curtain of hair, enticing, inviting. “Thanks.” She winked and hurried to collect the garments she’d culled from the trunks in the northlands.
He turned to leave, but she called after him, “What about your things?”
“I’ll get them soon, lass. A whole lot of naked Selkies are about to converge on this spot. More than will fit inside the cavern, truth be told.”
“They must be on their way through to Arcadia.”
He’d guessed much the same. The enchanted land would provide both clothing and weapons for them, much as it had for Raene when she’d journeyed there on her own.
He hurried back the way he’d come and bowed to his father. “Da. ’Tis good to see you.” He scanned the ranks of Selkies, recognizing some from Gregor’s pod.
“Ye as well, son. We shan’t remain long. Arcadia summoned me, and so I gathered all who were capable of fighting. The only Selkies left are the verra young and a few of the women to keep them safe.”
“If fortune doesna fall to our side, nowhere will be safe.”
“I ken as much.” Krise nodded solemnly.
Raene walked from the cave and scooted to Aegir’s side. She held out a hand to Krise, and he shook it. “I heard the part about Arcadia summoning you,” she told him and then glanced at Aegir. “Did you sense the same mandate?”
He shook his head. “’Twill come soon enough, never fear.”
“I didn’t think we’d be left out,” Raene replied. “I like to understand how things work, though.”
