“Goddess, woman!” With a groan, Ric pulled himself off both Meagan and the bed. “Much as I’d like to keep you in bed for a fortnight, we don’t have time.” He grimaced and adjusted himself inside his jeans.
Meagan watched, licking her lips at the sight of his erection straining against the butter-soft denim. One word went through her brain and she barely stopped herself from saying it out loud. She knew this relationship was probably only temporary, but for however long it lasted, the only word she thought of when she thought about Ric’s considerable endowments was a simple, primitive, mine.
His erection grew even further, almost as if he’d heard what she was thinking. “Love, if you keep staring at that, it’s going to overpower my brain, be out of my trousers and inside of you faster than you can blink. We need to get to Aidan’s, catch him up on what’s going on. But I promise there’ll be time later to make use of that lovely guestroom. We aren’t going to deal with Llyris till tomorrow. Tonight you’re all mine.”
“Right.” She pushed her hair out of her face and scrambled to her feet. Ric picked up her suitcase, while Meagan grabbed the garment bag and her purse, oversized to accommodate a sketchbook, and followed him down the stairs. He loaded the bags and the cat carrier into his car while she locked her front door. He held open the passenger door of the Jag, dropping a kiss on her hair as she slid into her seat.
She looked back at her house. Would she ever see it again? When he climbed in beside her, he must have sensed her mixed emotions, because as the powerful engine purred to life, he reached over and squeezed her hand. “It’s only a visit, love. You’ll be back before you know it, with none of your neighbors the wiser.”
“I don’t know,” she admitted, turning her neck for one last look as they turned the corner. “I have this really weird feeling that it will never be home again.”
Aidan met them at his front door when they arrived, his features taut with what she supposed was anticipation. Ric’s call as they drove had been cryptic at best. All he’d said was that he and Meagan were on their way. He didn’t mention the birthmark or anything like that, but she knew that Aidan, or Lord Green Oak, or whatever his real name was, had to be wondering. According to Ric, he’d been looking for her for ages.
As she walked up to the door she couldn’t help staring at Aidan and looking for a resemblance. It was there, she decided, in the reddish tint to his dark brown hair and his bright green eyes. She was a whole lot shorter and plumper, but she fancied that she could see traces of herself in the angular planes of Aidan’s face.
“Ric.” Aidan’s acknowledgement was curt, perfunctory. His eyes never left Meagan’s, just as hers were glued to him. His intense regard was a little intimidating, so she reached for Ric’s hand, grateful for his supportive presence beside her. Aidan’s gaze didn’t miss the gesture, or Ric’s protective stance. One eyebrow arched, but he didn’t say a word.
Meagan smiled weakly at her cousin as he stepped aside, gesturing for them to precede him into the foyer.
Muted sounds from down the corridor reminded her that the house party was still in progress and that it had only been hours since she’d been here before.
Aidan led the way to the library and beyond into what was obviously his private office, his inner sanctum.
Meagan dimly registered the oak paneling, Persian carpet and other luxurious appointments surrounding her.
All her focus was on the two men who flanked her like a rock star’s entourage.
“Sit.” Aidan gestured at a grouping of three leather club chairs that curved around a massive stone fireplace.
Despite the August heat outside, the room was cool and a fire flickered cheerfully in the hearth. At an encouraging nudge from Ric, Meagan sat in the center chair and Ric pulled one of the outer chairs closer, so he was seated well within her reach. Aidan poured three snifters full of a thick amber liquid from a sparkling crystal decanter and handed one to each of them before seating himself in the third chair. He swirled his glass, took a long swallow and swirled the remaining liquid again, while Ric sipped his own drink and Meagan waited.
Finally, Aidan looked up at Ric and spoke. “Well?”
Ric nodded. Meagan watched as the two men faced off, each eyeing the other warily. “It is over, Aidan. You can stop searching, stop wondering. She has the mark.”
“As her cousin, I suppose I should ask how you found it, but I probably don’t want to know.” He turned to smile at Meagan. “Welcome to the family, my dear.”
“Thanks.” Needing an anchor, she reached out a hand to Ric. The firm warm clasp of his fingers around hers helped steady the overwhelming turbulence of her emotions.
Aidan frowned at Ric, narrowing his eyes. “My thanks, bard. Apparently I should have asked for your help some thirty years ago.”
Ric didn’t appear to be bothered. If anything, he slouched into his chair and held Meagan’s hand even more tightly, as he gave his head a slow, negligent shake.
“Aidan, you know perfectly well that I’d have helped any time you’d asked, but to tell you the truth, I don’t think it would have worked. Fate had more to do with finding her than any skills or magic of mine. The cloaking spell on her is some of the strongest magic I’ve ever encountered. I’d have never been able to penetrate it. Perhaps now is simply the right time.”
Aidan nodded slowly and reached across to clasp Ric’s hand in a brief, conciliatory gesture. “You’re probably right and I still owe you my thanks. Rest assured, Meagan, I am delighted that you’ve been found at last. Anything you need or want, anything I can do, you’ve only to ask.”
Meagan looked back and forth between the two men, who were both suddenly so important in her life. She knew Aidan was offering her a blank slate, including wealth beyond her wildest dreams, but all she really needed now was information.
“There’s so much more I want to know,” she said, studying Aidan’s lean, unlined face, framed by the tiniest flecks of silver in his hair. She guessed he was in his early forties. “You don’t look much older than me. How can you have possibly known my father?”
Aidan slanted his head at Ric, who shrugged.
“Didn’t get to that part.”
Aidan sighed and Meagan watched as her cousin’s glamour began to fade. The gray strands disappeared and like Ric’s, his features elongated and sharpened. As a human, he’d been stunningly handsome. As an elf, her cousin was masculine beauty personified. Even so, while she appreciated him from an artist’s point of view, his looks didn’t hold the visceral appeal of Ric’s more rugged sexiness. Which was a good thing, since she now knew they were related.
“The gray is part of his glamour,” Ric explained. “Our people age more slowly than the average human, so when we’re living on this plane, we periodically add some cosmetic changes in order to stay undetected.”
That made sense, she supposed, though it left some niggling worries in the back of her brain. Pushing those aside for now, she turned back to Aidan. “I’d really like to know more about my birth parents. What was my father like?” In her own voice she heard the wistful plea of an abandoned child, the eternal hope that someone, somewhere was thinking of her.
“Look into the fire.”
She did and as she stared, a face began to appear in the flames. The image was three-dimensional and it slowly took form until it was as clear as if he were with them in the room, with the bottom edge fuzzy where it met the flames.
It was a face she’d seen in her dreams. Similar to her own and Aidan’s but different enough to be a distinct individual. It was a youthful, friendly face, without the hard planes of Aidan’s or Meagan’s softer roundness.
Meagan stared, barely feeling the twin tears that rolled silently down her cheeks.
“You’re a lot like him,” Aidan said softly. “But with your mother’s bone structure.” Another face began to appear alongside the first; a young, clearly human woman, whose brilliant smile, freckled, heart-shaped face and vivid blue eyes were r
adiant with love.
“You knew her, too?” Meagan didn’t know why she whispered, but she was afraid to move in case it broke the spell.
“Not really. I only met her once, at their wedding. But their love for one another, the strength of the bond between them—no one who’d ever seen them together could have doubted it. They had only just learned she was pregnant and they were so thrilled, so full of hope. Even before you were born, they both loved you, Meagan.”
The images blinked out and Aidan cleared his throat, as if uncomfortable with the level of emotion that had filled the room. Meagan sipped at her drink, coughing as it burned her throat on the way down.
“What is this stuff?”
Ric laughed, squeezing the hand he still gripped in his own. “Cognac. Old and rare. Your cousin enjoys his creature comforts.”
“Which explains why you like to visit.” Aidan swirled his drink again. “Have you told the queen?”
“She knows that Meagan’s been found. I thought we’d wait until morning to make the trip. Meagan’s had a lot to deal with today and I thought she might want some time to adjust to the idea before she has to face the court. I also thought it might be easier on her if you were to accompany us.”
“Fair enough,” Aidan agreed, looking at Meagan.
“Llyris can be a bit overpowering. I’d be happy to lend some moral support. Anything else I should know?”
Ric nodded. “In order to survive at court, Meagan’s going to need access to her powers. I tried to break the blocking spell, but I couldn’t put a dent in it. Since Emery was your cousin, I hoped you might be more attuned to his magic, be able to unravel the spell.”
“It’s possible,” Aidan agreed thoughtfully. He lifted the glass out of Meagan’s unresisting left hand and set the brandy on the hearth, clasping her now-free hand in his own. He closed his eyes for a moment, his features taut with concentration.
“I can, I think,” he said moments later when his eyes fluttered open. He set down his own drink and reached across the rug for Ric’s hand to complete a circle. “But damn, it’s going to be close. I never realized Emery was that good. I could use your help, Ric.”
Ric clasped Aidan’s wrist and tightened his grip on Meagan. She could feel the energy flow among the three of them, as though by joining hands they’d completed a circuit. She marveled at the electric tingle she now recognized as magic.
After long moments, she felt something pop and it was as if an enormous weight had suddenly been lifted from her shoulders. Sounds were clearer, colors crisper and the whole room pulsed with energy. The men shook their heads, released one anothers’ hands and looked at each other.
“You didn’t mention the mionn.” Aidan sounded almost shocked as he spoke to Ric. Meagan had no idea what they were talking about.
Ric shrugged. “You didn’t ask.”
The corners of Aidan’s mouth twitched. “This keeps getting more interesting. You know the queen is not going to like it.”
“No kidding.”
Aidan bowed his head almost formally and spoke to Ric. “My self and my house are in your debt. Any and all to you and yours. My oath on that, my life on my oath.” It sounded like Aidan had returned Ric’s so-called oath of fealty on behalf of her family.
A lump formed in her throat. Her family. Impulsively, she leapt out of her chair and hugged her cousin.
“Thank you, Aidan. For everything.”
“You’re welcome. I’m so glad you’re here at last.” His return hug was warm and tight. “And one day soon, we’ll sit down and I’ll bore you for hours with stories about your father. But for now, I think, you need food and some rest. With the spell removed, your powers will be trying to surface. It may be a bit disorienting.”
“Powers?”
“Yeah, I think I mentioned those earlier,” Ric answered. “You’ve always had the rudiments—your dreams, your intuition. Those will be stronger, sharper, more under your conscious control. There will be others, too. It will take you a while to control the magic, but Aidan and I will be here to help.”
“I think a meal is the first order of business,” Aidan repeated. “I’ll have something sent up. I’ve already sent your luggage to the guest suite, along with cat food and a litter box.” He stood and strode to the door of the room.
“I’ll also take care of increasing my security measures. Get some rest and we’ll talk more in the morning.”
“Well, that went better than I expected.” Ric chewed on a bite of the steak that had been waiting for them on a covered tray in his room. They sat next to each other at the small round table near the window, close but not quite touching. Meagan hadn’t said much since they’d left Aidan’s study and Ric could practically hear the gears grinding in her head as she processed all the information that had been dumped on her in one day. She ate slowly and methodically, her eyes focused on some distant point beyond the window, her cat curled up and purring at her feet. Calculus had polished off a dish of lobster tidbits and what Ric assumed was genuine Beluga caviar. Nothing but the best in Aidan’s household.
“What’s so funny?”
Ric nearly dropped his fork, the soft sound of Meagan’s voice startling after such a long silence. He smiled at her and pointed at the empty crystal bowl on the floor. “Caviar and lobster. I’m guessing that’s not his usual dinner.”
That earned him a snort of laughter and he was absurdly pleased at having made her smile. “Mine either.”
She used her fork to gesture at her plate. “And while I’m not real fond of the caviar, the lobster is absolutely yummy. How’s your steak?”
“Excellent, I suppose.” He looked down at his halfempty plate. “I didn’t even think about it.”
“I’ve been doing nothing but think for the last half hour and it was giving me indigestion, so I stopped.” She grinned and popped another bite into her mouth.
He couldn’t help but return the smile. They finished the meal quietly, only this time the silence was an easier one. It was uncanny how comfortable he could be with Meagan.
When they finished eating, Ric stacked their plates on the tray and set the tray in the hall outside the door.
Meagan stood, stretching her arms over her head. The move lifted her breasts, outlined them beneath her thin knit shirt and Ric slammed the door, ready to pounce.
Then she leaned down and picked up the cat and Ric could have sworn the massive feline sent him a smug look. Before Ric could make his move, Meagan crossed the room and sat down in the single overstuffed chair, cat firmly ensconced in her lap.
“Tired?” He supposed he could keep his hands off her long enough for her to get some rest. Maybe.
Meagan shook her head, auburn curls tumbling about her shoulders. “Not really. Definitely too wired to sleep.”
That sounded promising. He glided up behind the chair and reached over the back to massage her shoulders. She moaned and leaned forward, giving him better access, but squishing the cat. With an indignant snort, Calculus hopped to the ground and padded over to the corner where his bed had been placed.
“I can think of some good ways to help you relax,” he murmured, bending down to her ear.
Her answering chuckle was soft and throaty. “I bet you can.”
He began to sing softly,
“Will ye go, lassie, go,
And we’ll all go together,
To pluck wild mountain thyme,
All around the purple heather…”
He didn’t put any compulsion into his song, that would have been cheating, but he did send a soothing note of relaxation and he suspected some of his own desire echoed through the ancient lyrics.
She went limp under his hands, but her breathing was quick and shallow. She didn’t object when his hands reached down to pull up the hem of her top, simply lifted her arms so he could drag it off.
He stopped singing and caught his breath at the sight of her taut nipples poking through the thin cotton of her bra. He couldn’t reach mu
ch from the position he was in, so he moved around the chair and sat on the arm, drawing her willing body toward his chest.
She groaned, low in her throat, but he could feel her pulse speed up as he cupped her breasts, rubbing slowly through the thin layer of fabric. She rubbed back against his hands, moaning with pleasure. After a few seconds, she turned and launched herself into his arms, sending both them and the chair tumbling to the floor.
“I thought you were tired.” His words were punctuated by nibbling kisses as they rolled on the carpet and clothes went flying.
“I am. What’s that got to do with anything?” Her voice was muffled as she kissed her way down the front of his body.
“Good point.” He barely grunted out the answer since her pointed tongue swirled around his navel, before continuing its downward path. When she reached her target and took his aching cock into her hot, sweet mouth, Ric forgot how to speak. All he could do was groan at the intensity of the pleasure and fight to keep from coming He let her explore, tasting, testing, a nibble here, a suck there. Oh, goddess, there! When he started seeing stars behind his eyelids, he grasped her by the shoulders and tugged, pulling her up and over him.
She made a small hum of pleasure as she wiggled herself into position. With one hand on her hip and another to position himself, he guided her tight, wet heat down onto his rock-hard cock. When she impaled herself fully, her muscles clenching like a fist around him, he called out to her in ancient Gaelic, words of love and desire.
His hips pulsed upward as she rode him fast and hard.
He tried to relax his hands on her hips so he wouldn’t leave bruises. He knew her nails were scoring his shoulder and he didn’t give a flying damn. The universe had narrowed down to nothing beyond his hardness, her softness and the incredible friction between the two.
Half the guests in the house probably heard her scream as she came, her muscles milking his cock, sending him over the edge with her. He probably screamed himself.
Too bad.
When they both finally floated back to Earth, Meagan was collapsed on Ric’s chest, still astride him, while he was still semi-hard inside her. Even though he could have sworn he had nothing left to give, he still wanted her, still didn’t feel like he’d ever have enough.
Motor City Fae Page 10
