“Thank you, Delia, I won’t forget. You and the girls will live once more as you did. You’ll remember my promise, but not until it’s kept.” In one swift motion, Bodhe’s sword handle came down hard on Delia’s skull, the cracking bones making his stomach turn. With a few words, he took the memories of their talk and left her crumpled on the floor. She would heal, but Feiren wouldn’t see the conversation they had.
He flew to the room Delia told him Isabel was in and entered quickly, seeing her standing motionless by the bed. She was holding onto the bedpost, her eyes lost in the scene outside. It took his breath away to see her alive, part of him never thought he would make it in time.
*****
“Gods, Isabel, I thought I’d lost you forever!”
She froze at the sound of his voice, her spine straightening. Well damn, this wine was really good.
“What’s in that spring wine, anyway? You look so much like him...” she muttered to her hallucination.
He grabbed her and swept her into his arms kissing her everywhere he could reach.
She sucked in a sharp breath as she shoved him forcefully away. “Well, you don’t feel like a hallucination. Bodhe? Is—is that you? Or are you an Uglie pretending to be Bodhe? Just get this over with already! I’m tired and no longer in the mood to play your games. Kill me then, and be done with it.”
His heart shattered hearing her words. Oh Gods, the necklace. She was probably hallucinating. He pulled it from his neck and put it around hers swiftly.
“Shhhh, Isabel, of course it’s me. See, here’s your necklace, I’ve gotten it back for you. I can’t hold them off for long when they come through that door though so I need you to be quiet. We don’t have much time and I’m going to apologize in advance for this...”
“What are you talking ab…”
*****
His lips crushed hers hard, and his tongue drove deeply into her mouth. She bit his lip hard enough to taste blood and then pushed him away from her. A hand went toward his face to strike the bastard, but she was still far too tipsy. Damn, she missed him. “It is you! Get the hell away from me, you liar!”
Anger seethed from the Prince. “Isabel, I’ve never lied to you. Look, we don’t have time for this, they’ll be coming for you now that you’re drunk with wine…your emotions are so intense right now. And I just knocked out the Queen, so there’s that. We’ll talk later, but we have to get home now.”
“I’m not drunk!” she slurred, “And if you mean the Uglies, they won’t come for me for weeks yet! They told me so,” she said as she stumbled backwards. “Besides, how the hell did you even get here?”
“Look around my neck. See anything familiar?”
She gazed at the same necklace that was around hers with disbelief. “How did you get that? My mother left this for me twenty-two years ago?”
“Yes, and she left me one as well. Apparently she thought I may need it to get to you. Big shock there since she saw everything else, too.”
Her stupor subsided and she directed her heated gaze at him, gold flaming from her eyes and her hand on her pendant. “They could make these by the dozens in Loveryn and sell them at local flea markets. I don’t believe you! How could you pretend to love me like that? All for what, Bodhe? The safety of your damn crown? Well it’s safe now, I’m going to die here in Uglyville and won’t cause anyone anymore problems, least of all, to you.” Tears pricked at her eyes. “I don’t care anymore about you. But I’ll never see my mother…I’ll never be able to wake her up. They’re going to dry suck me and I’m going to die in this hell. How could you do this to me?” She hurled forward and pounded her fists against his chest.
He was actually grinning and fighting off laughter as she pummeled him. “Princess, I didn’t pretend. I love you more than anything in the world. Why would I be here if I didn’t? The Unseelie are coming soon. This is their way to get your emotions accessible first.”
His eyes shone with honesty but how could that be? Well, he has had centuries to practice after all. Bastard. She stood there eyeing him with her hands over her chest. “Well sending you to me sure worked to set my emotions off. Look, I don’t know why you’ve come to join me in hell, but since you’re here...why don’t you tell me about Rhonan,” she said coldly.
“She was never mine, I didn’t even know her.” His eyes flashed black and he spoke through gritted teeth, “Listen to me. I can explain everything but we have to get out of here first. Please, trust me, I’ve never done anything to intentionally cause you pain, but we don’t have time for this.”
“How do you expect me to ever trust you again? Or to get out of here? Do you have a magic portal maker? Because last time I checked I’m minus my raka and my sword, and worst of all, I’m without hope for the first time since all this insanity began.” The tears that had threatened to fall, now slipped down her cheeks. Son of a bitch. He’d made her cry three times now, and only once was happy tears. Not a good track record.
With a swift move, the jerk wrapped himself around her again, wiping away her tears with his fingertips and caging her within his arms. “Please, Isabel, there’s only one way out of here and you are the portal maker. Hate me for the rest of your life if you have to, but please let it be longer than twenty-four hours. If you don’t try to believe in me, that’s all it will be.”
She looked at him, her lids heavy from the wine. Why did he have to keep going on about being honest with her and throwing out all that, ‘please believe in me’ shit? Game over, the END! He shouldn’t be here…Morkain should be saving her, right? She looked into the sea of green and felt the fire of passion lick her skin, their glow beginning to ignite, even in Unseelie hell. She tried not to react to him. God, did she ever try. But he smelled so good, and the wine…yes, it must be the wine that made her anger go away and see him the way she always had. As the most beautiful creature on earth. Isabel shook her head and dropped her gaze, the taste of his blood still on her lip as she licked it.
Bodhe refused to let her look away, lifting her chin. “We’re leaving, Isabel. Now.” His tongue licked her lips and his arms flattened her against him. His heat radiated into her, making her feel warm for the first time since she’d gotten here. She hadn’t realized how cold she was until she was buried in the warmth of his arms.
A soft moan rumbled in his chest and he pulled her harder against him, his arousal evident against her. Isabel lifted her hands against his thick mane and though he seemed a bit worse for the wear than he usually was, she wanted, no needed, him. Just his scent was more intoxicating than the delicious wine she’d so recently consumed. Woods and spice teased her nose and sent liquid approval right down to her thighs. She groaned as she tried to fight the sensations and remember why she hated him so much. No, she didn’t want to die here with the Uglies, but how was she the portal maker? Reality cut through the fog of the wine then, and her eyes popped open with understanding and disbelief.
Oh, fuck no! A thousand times no!
“Oh no you don’t! Did they put you up to this? I’m so sick of all of this. Go HOME, Prince! If you expect to waltz in here after your partner tried to kill me and just…”
It would’ve been a great sentence if he hadn’t cut it short with his mouth. He handled her roughly, forcing her hand on the bulge in his pants as he growled and put her other hand on his chest above his heart. “So help me, Isabel, if you call that traitorous bitch my partner one more time I’m going to lose it. I’m trying to be gentle with my wee mortal, but give me a damn break. You, me, eternity. That’s how this ends. Not us dying in the Unseelie realm. Got it?”
Against every instinct she squeezed his arousal and moaned from deep within her throat as she felt his spike of pleasure. Eternity, what? She tried futilely to struggle with both her body and her mind but it was a half assed attempt, and she knew it. Bodhe picked her up in his arms, her legs wrapping around his waist tightly before throwing her on the bed, caging her once more. His hips thrust against her core, and the need to
be consumed by him took away every other rational thought.
“I’ve never touched another female, Isabel. But tonight, I will touch you over and over again. You were always mine, and I will eternally be yours. Whether you want to hear that right now, or not.”
He bit down on her neck and scored her skin hard with his teeth. His hand covered her mouth as she screamed, both pleasure and pain vying for the limelight in her voice. When she bit him back, a sound more animal than man came out of him. “Yes, Princess, it’s time to taste me. You’ll know every part of me soon and I’ll invade every inch of you…mind, body and soul.” A small gasp came from her parted lips as Bodhe ripped off her dress, the beautiful, red fabric shredded and thrown to the floor. Reality passed through that very moment, and the red turned to mangled grey threads. Isabel looked to Bodhe quickly to see if she was being deceived, but thankfully he remained in his true form. She didn’t know what was happening, but her nerves were on fire, electricity humming between the two of them as they glowed in the room. Footsteps could be heard far down the hall of the Unseelie King nearing, and it made her pant with fear. Not yet, dammit, not yet. Bodhe ripped his own pants off and rose above her in all his glowing, golden flesh on the bed.
Her mind flipped from fear of the King, to fear and anger at a much future one of Loveryn. Damn him! He thought he could just come and take her like this? She hissed at him and struggled against him—against her very fate for a moment. At least they would both die now, so she wouldn’t have to kill him herself. Contemptible? Check. Still the most destructible and delectable being in any world, anywhere? Definite check. Reasoning any of this out seemed beyond her control at this point…but, why not go out in a blaze of passion? Did she hate him? Absolutely. But screw it. Or more accurately, screw him. After all this, she at least deserved that. She didn’t want to die a virgin, and she had tried to give Morkain a chance but he wasn’t who she loved. Even if Bodhe didn’t really love her, maybe this would be enough. This one taste of the greatest lie she’d ever known before her life ended. She knew she couldn’t really have said no to him anyway. Not truly. Probably not even in her strongest form, and presently she was in a very weakened state from the wine and betrayal.
Her passion grew more insistent with every flick of his tongue and bite of his teeth and she stroked him roughly, demanding something from him that she didn’t understand, at all. His warm, thick flesh grew in her hand and he shuddered into her hair.
“Isabel, we must...”
Her hips arched up and she placed his tip against her wetness, letting it slip back and forth and get soaked with her. She watched as he ground his teeth in his mouth, the pleasure so intense on his face. The pleasure was too much for him to handle anymore, a searing inferno that he had no ability to battle further. She knew this because she felt it too. Every delicious second. As the tip of his shaft pushed inside her slowly, she bit his chest and let her heels dig into his back. More. Please God…give me more.
She watched as a bead of sweat trickled down his face. He was trying to go slow so that he didn’t hurt her. Why did he even care? Why be so gentle when he was getting what he wanted anyway? She pushed the thought from her mind. Dammit, she was going to enjoy her last moments! Her insides were being stretched with each inch, and she wanted more.
Pleasure spiked through her core—his pleasure and hers, more powerfully than the pain—and she was becoming dizzy with it. It was supposed to hurt the first time right? Then, why did this feel so good? So intensely freaking good?
“Deeper,” she muttered, as she licked the salt and spice from his skin. “Give me more, lying Prince. We’re dying, I want to know before I do what this is like. Give me that much, at least. Please...”
Fire burned in his eyes as the words tumbled from her mouth, and he pushed to the wall of her virginity, stopping as a bead of sweat rolled down his face. Isabel shook uncontrollably and dug her nails into his back, trying to grind her hips and make him move. Bodhe’s tongue licked at her lips and then whispered in her ear the same words that he had that one night, the ones that she couldn’t believe in anymore.
“Il weiren meyth, Isabel.”
He thrust then to her core in one movement, stifling her cries with his mouth. Fire raced through her body and her muscles clenched around his thickness. Oh God, so this is what it felt like? Searing pain blasted little stars to her vision but it didn’t last long. Bodhe’s pleasure was exploding all around her, like a thousand kisses to her flesh both inside and out. The pain receded long before it should have, she was sure based on what she did know. She moved her hips against him and reached for the warmth of his mouth. Tears streamed down her face, partially from pain, partially from anger, and partially from the love that she felt robbed of, and the love she felt full to bursting with.
“Please, Bodhe…lie to me, kill me, I don’t care. Just for this one moment in time, be mine.”
Bodhe licked the tears from her face, his own eyes glistening in the light. “Lies, Isabel, but none of them are mine. I’m keeping you so much longer than just a moment.” He glided out and back in tentatively, as if she were made of glass. “Am I hurting you?” He stopped moving, concern in his emerald depths. “I’ll kill the entire kingdom if I need to before I hurt you. Just say the word, Isabel. As much as I need you to come home, I think it will kill me to hurt you. Tell me what to do…”
Isabel let her hips glide against him and brushed her fingertips down his chiseled face. Strong, high cheekbones and wide set, emerald eyes smoldered at her. Her thumb brushed along his bow shaped lips and he sucked it in his mouth, letting his tongue run along it before he released her. Chills ran down her spine, connecting right where they were connected inside.
“I’m hurting, Bodhe, but not from this. You may have stolen every ounce of love from my heart, but don’t deny me this moment right now. Please. I don’t care about anything anymore…I’m so done with all of this. I want to feel you. It was always you…” She grabbed him and pulled him further into her wetness, eliciting another growl from deep in his throat. Thrusting hard and deep, her eyes rolled back in her head and a ‘yesssss’ hissed out of her mouth. All she could do was moan his name as the heat of his invasion to her wet core became faster. So completely her body was his...even after everything. Why couldn’t he be hers? Why couldn’t this be real?
“Bodhe, I…”
But her voice trailed off and the sentence was overpowered by a moan as he pressed even further within her, his hips pounding against her inner thighs.
“Mine, mine, mine.”
“I am not,” she panted, her entire soul screaming out the falsity of her words. A spike, a crest, a build of tension unlike anything she had felt with him yet. Something was coming that would devour her; mind, body and soul. And God, did she ever want it. Her nails scored his flesh, anger and passion both forcing their way out through her fingertips. His mouth found hers and between the eager tastes of his tongue and the pressure within her stomach about to catapult her to another dimension, she wasn’t sure which she liked more. Both. Oh, God yes, both! She nearly screamed at him for stopping the kiss that was making her toes curl but his length didn’t stop its assault on her greedy flesh and she just lifted her hips, meeting his needs with her own.
“Your body says otherwise, and we’ll see soon enough what your heart really feels. Don’t make me stop. Feel me. Trust your heart.” He leaned down to her and covered her protesting lips with his mouth and barely let her breathe between kisses. Her nails raked his back and she moaned beneath him—the words a jarring reminder of her mother’s when she saw her here.
She wanted to torture him as much as he had her…but she couldn’t. She could barely keep from screaming as intense emotion flooded her. Instead of the hurt she wanted to make him feel, she reached up for her breasts, pinching her nipple to release some pressure there. As soon as he saw what she was doing his mouth replaced her fingertips, his wicked motion within never halting. He bit at her soft skin and licked
the hard pink nubs until she was on the brink of madness with it all. His hands and mouth ravaged every inch he could get to as he throttled her core again and again. She didn’t know anymore where she ended and he began, so lost was his driving need in the slick folds of her body. Her mouth watered as she bit his shoulder, pulling him down. She needed him further inside. Needed to be filled with his love. Just once, God, please, just once let her be loved; filled; desired for the woman she’d become.
“Tell me,” he groaned, “should I stop this?” His tongue tasted her earlobe, licking up to her pointed ears between thrusts.
“Don’t you fucking dare,” she quipped quickly, her entire body shaking beneath his. She was on the brink of mass destruction, and the ride up could only go so far. Isabel was crumbling, and oh hell, it felt better than anything she’d ever known.
“Then tell me you love me.”
She looked up at him, pain filling her eyes before they rolled back in her head. “Never will you get that out of me. I could never love you again. But don’t ruin this, oh Bodhe,” she gritted her teeth and slammed against him now. Gripping his shoulders she dared him to stop. “I feel like I’m about to…”
“Again, Princess? That means that you loved me before. Hopefully, it will be enough to get us home. If not, my love is strong enough to carry us both.” His fingers laced hers above her head as he moved within her voraciously. Isabel gasped at his revelation and as conflicted as she was she couldn’t stop the fact that her body was about to combust. Bodhe’s teeth nipped her collarbone and moaned her name as she felt him grow even larger inside. “Mine, Isabel. This…you…are mine…” He pumped into her faster and the heat of their frenzied lust grew. Even though she was sure she was being torn apart from the inside out, it was absolutely divine. He didn’t need to lie anymore…she wanted this. Just this. It was okay. With her heart, she’d obviously lost her mind. This was not the Isabel she knew. This was a hungry, wanton woman that wanted to take from her lover, wanted to give to him; the only thing she had left to give.
Immortal Dreams (Immortal Realms Book 1) Page 29
