“I don’t want you, Sheridan Kelly.”
She jerked in his arms, her eyes blinking rapidly as she was thrown out of her dream-like haze. “What?”
“I don’t want you,” he repeated, his expression hardened with desire. “I crave you. I burn for you. I… Want just doesn’t cover it, love.”
He undid the button, making her squirm the way his words had. “Point taken.”
He opened the panel of his pants and she could feel his hot, impossible erection pressing against her thigh. Yes. But not close enough. Not nearly close enough. “Anything else?”
“Yes,” he rasped, looking down to watch as he lined up his cock with her sex. “There are no magic words to end this thing between us, Sher. Our destiny is set. But I can promise you that this won’t be enough for either of us. Whether you like it or not, you won’t get me out of your system so easily.”
She knew. Oh God, she knew.
When he began to push slowly up inside her, she knew it would feel just as good as it had in the dream. Just as powerful. She didn’t know it would be better. The sweet pain that came as her body struggled to take his hot thickness, the stretch as he filled her. It was real. It was physical and raw and messy and perfect.
She rolled her head on the rocks behind her, loving the sharp scrape of them, the light scratch of his pants against her calves as she tightened her grip to pull him closer. “Finn.”
“Don’t,” he growled. “Don’t say a word, Sher. Don’t beg for more. Don’t say please so sweetly that I lose what little bit of control I have left and this ends too rough and too fast.”
She hummed, rubbing her breasts against him. “Rough and fast sounds good.”
He swore. “Yes it does. But so does savoring how you feel wrapped around me. Hot and wet and tight. My home. I’ll never want to be anywhere more. I told you, you’ve bloody ruined me, Sher. I hope you’re happy.”
She was. She cried out when he bent his head and took one nipple between his teeth, biting as he swung his hips against hers, giving her more. Making her crazy with it. Crazy for him. This was what she wanted. To be lost to him.
There was no shame and no regrets. They were outside, where anyone could come and find them and she loved it. Maybe she understood the Fae tendency for exhibitionism after all. She wanted to be watched as this man worshipped her with his mouth and owned her with his cock. To show them how it was supposed to be done. How a woman could be made to beg.
Finn was lifting her thighs over his arms now, lifting her up so she could take every last inch of him. So he could take away her control. “Yes, Finn. Oh fuck yes.” She gripped his hair and tugged sharply until he was looking into her eyes. “I can take it. Don’t hold back.”
His eyes were flames of violet and black. Wild and fierce. His skin was shimmering with light. He growled and pumped his hips harder against her, making her cry out. So full of him, stretched so tight she could feel everything. As if they were merging. As if there were joining in a way that was intensely physical, but so much more than that.
“I can’t hold back, love. You don’t understand, I know.” His breathing lifted his chest against her and she trembled. So close. She was close to something amazing. “You’re mine. My síorghrá. My other half. I need to be inside you. I need to feel you shatter around me as I come, knowing nothing can separate us once it’s done.”
Nothing? Something on the edge of her awareness woke at that. Pulled itself out of sensation and heard his words. “I don’t understand.” Why had he spoken? Why had she listened?
His voice was a rasping rumble in his throat. “Neither do I. Didn’t believe in it. But now I know. When I come inside you—oh fuck I need to come inside you—when it’s done, you’ll know you can trust me. You’ll know everything. And then I’m going to fuck you again.”
She’d know everything. He’d know everything. He couldn’t. Not yet. Not until she was sure. Not until she understood. And the games…
Her worry couldn’t dim what was happening inside her body. A thousand fires and lightning strikes. An endless wave of pleasure that was building in strength and ferocity, close to consuming her.
Sheridan kissed him and whispered against his lips. “On the ground. I want to ride you.”
She sensed his knees buckling as he complied, ensuring he didn’t lose contact with any part of her body until he was in position. “Whatever you want,” he groaned. “This time.”
She couldn’t be this greedy. Couldn’t take from him and leave him nothing in return. She lowered her head and dug her nails into his chest. Son of a bitch.
“This time I can’t have what I want. This time I have to change my mind. Damn it.” She felt a sob welling up in her throat and her body’s angry shout of denial. “And I need you to keep your word. The first one where you said you would wait for me—for this—until I’m ready.”
He loosened his grip on her hips enough for her to roll off of him. She stood and took several steps back, covering her breasts with her hands. She was suddenly keenly aware of her lack of cover. Her scars.
Finn leaped up from his prone position on the ground to stand in front of her with legs spread and eyes blazing. He looked crazed. Wild and angry and it was all her fault. “Is that what you were waiting for, lover? Were you waiting to pay me back for the night I left you? Playing with me until I gave in? Come on, Sher,” he mocked. “Call me a Faery Fool and say something clever. Twist the knife a little more.”
“No!” She couldn’t blame him. Why wouldn’t he think that? She’d begged him. Stripped and laid herself at his feet. And now she’d stopped before either of them found release. But he couldn’t know. Not yet.
Still, she had to tell him something. “I couldn’t lie to you.” His gaze narrowed on her and she shivered. She didn’t want to lie to him. She wanted him to know everything. She wanted him. But she couldn’t have that. Him. Not yet. “I did speak to Danu. And Danu wants me to…”
Finn put his hands on his hips, drawing Sheridan’s hungry gaze to his thick, impossibly beautiful erection—still glistening with her arousal. “Danu wants you to what, Sheridan? String me along some more? Fly to the moon? What?”
She lifted her chin, her own anger rising to meet his. “You keep begging me to trust you, Finn. You say the prophecy wills it, that you’ve earned it, but you’re wrong. At every turn you choose not to trust me. You think that I can’t handle myself. That you’re responsible for me. I don’t have to know you to know that you’re the one with the chip on his shoulder. I refuse to give my trust to anyone who won’t give me his in return.”
Finn winced as though her words had cut him and looked away. “What does Danu want, Sheridan? What did she say?”
She took a breath. “Danu wants me to be the Fianna champion.”
It was true. Mostly. Though he might want to kill her when he found out all she wasn’t telling him. Trust was less a two-way street lately and more of a twisting labyrinth.
* * * * *
Meru banged on the table that had been set on the Guardian Mother’s balcony, drawing Sheridan’s wandering attention. “Walk me through this again. You got a weird feeling at dinner, got to really know a few Dwellers and now you’re going to fight in the Fae games for the Fianna. Am I right? Please tell me I’m not right, Sher.”
Sheridan tried to smile. Tried not to think about last night. About Finn. “You’re right. You know how Danu is. She speaks, we listen, right?”
Her cousin narrowed her deep blue eyes and frowned. “What I know is that you’re a really pitiful liar. Raj and I both can see you’re hiding something, can’t we, Raj? Are you going to spill or do I have to pull the book out and find out?”
She placed one finger over her lips and then looked over at the usually serene dragon shifter, watching him pace the long stretch of balcony. Sheridan forced a chuckle. “Worried I’ll make you look bad, Master Sparky? Don’t the Fae have fireballs I’ll have to dodge?”
He wasn’t laughing. “I
trained you for fast and dirty fighting with the Dark. But skilled Fae warriors on their turf?” He shook his head. “Either they will go easy to publicly shame you, or you will be hurt. The Fae are stronger than they look. Much stronger. No one without Fae blood has ever—”
“I know. I know,” she sighed. “Raj, it’ll be fine. I promise. And thank you. For worrying. For giving me a place to heal when I needed it. For forgiving me for throwing it back in your face when I realized where we were.” She looked into his eyes and saw the surprise and relief there. Had she been that much of a bitch? “Even now, you’re making sure I get some time alone with my cousin and being such a wonderful coach. So I know it will be okay if I ask you for something else. One last time?”
“What is it?” Raj seemed genuinely concerned. “You’re trying to pretend, but I can see a sadness in you. Why? What can I do?”
She reached across the table and took Meru’s hand. “I need to talk to Meru, I need a computer and I need you to distract the others. Especially Finn. I have a feeling he could use a little of your serenity right now.”
Raj furrowed his brow in confusion but disappeared in a flash, hopefully to retrieve what she needed. She lowered her voice. “Meru, we don’t have much time, but stop with the interrogation. I can’t tell you everything because Fae can read you. I have to fight in the games and I did speak to Danu. I also got a weird clue about how to find the spear and, on a completely unrelated note, I may have ruined my chances with Finn forever. But that’s another story.”
“I don’t think that’s possible, Sher. Have you seen the way he looks at you?” Meru blew out a heavy sigh, glancing at her sideways. “You’re trying to distract me with gossip. You know I’ve been going crazy wondering about the two of you and it’s killing me, but this is more important. If you are putting yourself in danger for no reason I will sic Myrddin on you. And your mother.”
She hesitated. “Speaking of Aunt Lily, why are we talking to her if you actually want to go through with this? Because you know if she knows, she’ll find a way to stop you. She’s worried enough as it is.”
Sheridan bit her lip. “We aren’t going to tell her about me fighting. Directly. I need to ask her a question I’ve been waiting my whole life to ask.”
Meru’s eyebrows rose impossibly high, curiosity filling her expression. “What?”
“I need to find out if she knows who my father was. And more importantly, what he was.”
In the long, stunned silence that followed Raj returned with a laptop, a strange Fae-like crystal attached to the side. “A magical modem,” she laughed. “Of course.”
When he left, she made the connection and sent out the call to her mother, holding her breath. The instant the warm, familiar face appeared on the monitor, Sheridan’s eyes misted. It had been too long.
Her mother began to weep openly, letting her know the feeling was mutual, if less repressed. “Baby, is that you? Sheridan, I’m so glad to see you! Are you safe? Do you need me? How are you doing this? Myrddin said we couldn’t communicate until this was over. That we didn’t know who might be listening.”
She’d thought about that. In fact, she was counting on it. “It’s okay, Mom. We’re okay. I just needed to talk to you.” Sheridan caressed the keyboard gently, as if she were stroking her mother’s cheek. “You look wonderful. We’ll catch up when I see you and I want to hear everything you’ve been up to.”
Her mother grew still and stared into the camera. “But?”
“But I talked to Danu. Wow, that feels weird to say to you.” Sheridan shook her head mockingly. “A goddess dialed a Dweller hotline to talk to me yesterday, and she told me I needed to ask you a question about the past.”
“About your father.” It wasn’t a question. It was Lily’s eerie psychic mother thing. She’d been doing it all her life. It always made Sheridan nervous.
“Yes.” She looked around to make sure no one was nearby. “About my father. Let’s start simple. You once mentioned that his name was Louis.”
“Louis. Yes.” Lily sighed. “I should have talked about him more, right? I’m sorry, Sheridan. I just thought, well, he left long before you were born. I never thought of you as his. You were mine. Do you understand? I suppose Danu thinks I’m a bad mother.”
“No, Mom, of course not! I’m not—” Sheridan shifted in her seat. “I never felt like I was missing anything. You made sure of it. This isn’t about that, trust me. Where did the two of you meet?”
“Actually, we met at a Lughnasadh celebration. Before I moved to Houston and bought The Willow’s Knot. Looking back, I think that shop was actually his dream. Or he put the seed of it in my head.” Lily looked uncomfortable, glancing off to the side apologetically.
Myrddin? Was that who she was looking at? He must be nearby. He had been since he’d revealed himself to her family. Sheridan knew he was in love with her mother, but she didn’t like to think about it. She didn’t want her mother to be alone, but she’d always imagined that Lily needed someone stable and steady. Someone more like her. Someone who wouldn’t leave.
She thought about who Myrddin really was. A bossy know-it-all who was constantly trying to control things and spending his life protecting the innocent. Stable and steady and immortal. Hell. She still didn’t have to like it.
“There’s no easy way to say this, Mom, so I’m just going to spit it out. Was he…Other?”
Lily’s mouth dropped open. “What? I—I don’t— No. Wouldn’t I have known? I mean, he seemed perfectly— He did have unusual eyes, silvery green. But honestly, I only knew him for a few months. He didn’t go odd at the full moon or anything. And I was young. I just saw a beautiful man who loved the same things I did. Someone who had the best smile I’d ever seen. Your smile.”
The lump in her throat made it hard for Sheridan to talk. “Silvery, you said? And you met at a gathering to celebrate Lugh? Can I talk to the professor for a minute, Mom?”
She ignored Meru’s gasp as she seemed to follow Sheridan’s line of questioning at last. Myrddin ducked down beside Lily to frown into the camera, one step ahead of her. “I don’t know if what you’re asking is even possible.”
“Oh it’s possible,” she insisted. “And it would make a few puzzle pieces fit. In my first vision, Lugh said I had an inheritance. Danu said the inheritor will be given the spear. I am more than Druid, if you believe what Badger’s been saying. And I take true knowing to a whole new level of weird. Is there any way you can retrace my mother’s steps and find Louis? His family line?”
Myrddin sighed. “You know what you’ve done by broadcasting this, I can see that you do. This call was too dangerous. Yes. Yes, I will find out and bring you the information. I should be there anyway. This is too important for me to miss.”
Sheridan tried not to roll her eyes. “Just keep my mother safe and get us the information, Myrddin. Damon has everything under control here in Faery town.”
She paused. “But before you go, can you use your powers for good and speed it up a little? Like before tonight’s festivities? I’m on a timetable, and no, I can’t explain why.”
“He’ll do it, honey,” Lily interjected. “If he knows what’s good for him, he’ll get my daughter anything she needs.”
Sheridan grinned, knowing the Archon didn’t stand a chance. “Thanks, Mom.”
She hoped he found answers soon, because she had a fight to enter.
And a Fae to prove something to.
Chapter Nine
Finn was going to kill someone tonight.
All the rage and sexual frustration, all the disbelief and worry, had combined to turn him into one raw, powerful wound—and he was looking for a fight.
“The rules existed when Danu was still among our people,” he barked at Damon, glaring at each member of the Fianna in the room they’d gathered in to discuss the situation, wishing one of them would dare to disagree. “They are not children’s games, they are blood sport. Rough and tumble. She may be stronger than a human
, but she wouldn’t last five minutes alone.”
“None of us like this, Finn.” Damon meant his tone to be soothing, Finn knew, but it grated on his skin like sandpaper. “But we all know how this story goes. Twice now the prophecy steered us in the right direction. Twice now we’ve been given Danu’s aid. Maybe we should listen to her counsel.”
Finn whirled on his Lycan leader and snarled, “She never told me. I am a prince of Aisling, one of the lines most closely connected with our beloved goddess.” He spat the words. “The prophecy told Sheridan to trust a child of Danu, not every bloody thing Danu said.”
“Finn. Think about what you’re saying, man. You’re on dangerous ground.” Val reached out as if to pat Finn on the shoulder, but he brushed the hand away as if it were an insect.
He was feeling bitter. Danu hadn’t listened when he’d begged her to help him save his sister from becoming Horde. She hadn’t listened when he’d offered his life to spare hers. She hadn’t offered him any consolation when, after the bright, happy Fae he’d grown up with snuck away to go on a human killing spree, he’d been forced to fight her. When it was done, he’d had to end her suffering himself.
Now, after all these years of penance—he unconsciously touched the brand on his side—Danu was putting the only woman created who was meant for him in danger. What had he done to be so unworthy in her eyes? Why was he being punished?
“She also told Sheridan how we could find the spear.” He knew he sounded a bit unhinged. He felt the mania creeping in. The desperation. “Why don’t we focus on that instead of allowing my ma—allowing a woman under our care to voluntarily place herself in danger?”
He couldn’t stand the idea. Not once or twice, but three times now, she’d been in a situation that put her in danger and left him on the sidelines. He was older and more experienced. He was Fae. And she was his. He should rethink the tying-her-up option. Especially after she’d led him to the edge of heaven last night, only to turn him away and question his ability to trust.
Behind the Veil: 3 (Temptation Unveiled) Page 17
