“Wren.” He lowered his kisses to my throat, grazing his tongue against my collarbone. And then he was back at my lips, kissing me and at the same time, sliding his hands to my ass to anchor me in place as he made love to me. “Wren, I’m falling in love with you.”
“And I love you, Asher, I do.” I pushed my hands into his dark, wavy hair and pulled him into another kiss. “Promise you won’t leave me.”
“I won’t, I swear.” He rolled onto his back and hoisted me on top of him. “Let me look at you.”
I pushed my knees into the mattress, using the muscles of my lower body to keep our rhythm going. He ran his hands over my breasts and my low abdomen, then reached down and pulled my legs in closer to his body.
He chuckled. “You left your stockings on. It’s a little dirty…and I like that.”
“I like dirty.” I planted my hands against his chest and leaned over him; his mouth was hot on my nipple. “Do you want to spank me?”
He closed his eyes, whimpering slightly, and cupped his hand around my hip, anchoring me in place. “That kind of talk will push me right over the edge, beautiful girl. I don’t want this to end yet.”
I laughed, adjusting on top of him so I could kiss his lips. “I don’t mind dirty talk either…like how much I love it when you fuck me. When you take your cock and—“
“Beautiful and dirty?” He chuckled and wrapped his arm around me, easing me over and onto my back. Cupping his hand around my calf, he guided my knee up and over his shoulder. It changed the feeling inside me; it felt like each thrust was hitting deeper. His eyes fluttered again and his lips stayed parted, as if there was more he was going to say but he’d lost his train of thought.
Instead of saying anything, he moved his hands into my hair and cradled me to him. We kissed, breathlessly, we touched and explored. Every thrust of his hips was better than the last and the first time he made me come, he pinned my hands over my head with one hand and pleasured me with the other until I came again.
When he climaxed, he pressed his forehead to mine and squeezed his eyes closed. Green light radiated off his bedsheets and, for a moment, I was so caught up gazing at his handsome, angular face that I forgot to breathe. I’d never experienced sex like that before…it was more like our souls had merged.
And when he sat up to kiss me, we both saw the intense glow from his bracelet. The energy meter hadn’t just risen to a deep green, full reading.
The stone had cracked.
Thirty
We didn’t get dressed until the sun had long set and the lanterns in the house were lit. Laying together in bed was like paradise, just whispering and touching, kissing and laughing. We eventually took an impromptu nap and then, comfortable, we just snuggled together in silence. He pulled out his sketchbook and started drawing our sparrow tattoos, face-to-face like some perfect, infinite love.
I didn’t want anything else—ever—except for that moment never to end.
He was whispering in my ear where he’d have to put his face if he wanted our sparrows—on his chest and my thigh, respectively—to kiss, when someone pounded on the door. “Dinner will be served shortly, Master, your parents have requested your presence in the dining room.”
“Tell them we’ll be down momentarily.” He leaned forward and kissed the tip of my nose. “And, Nerys? I want the tub filled in my bathroom; the hottest water you can bring in. Fresh soap, clean towels. That way once dinner is done, my bride and I can retire to my room for the night.”
She was silent for several minutes and then mumbled, “Yes, sir.”
He rolled his eyes. Hopping up from his splayed out position on the bed, he pulled me up after him. “You don’t mind me saying that, do you? That you’re my bride?”
“Well, it’s true isn’t it.” I leaned over to retrieve my shorts and, when I straightened, caught him staring at me. His cheeks reddened, and he pursed his lips together—feigning innocence, no doubt—so hard that his dimples deepened in his cheeks. “Are you…gawking at me?”
“Um…no.”
“You are.” I put my hands on my hips, gratuitously running my eyes down his lanky frame. Every inch of his body was toned, his shoulders broad and muscular and his waist trim and tight. And lower…. “Well, you’re not so bad yourself.”
He touched himself suggestively and then cocked his head at me. “Come closer and say that.”
“I have to get dressed.”
“That’s fine, too, because I’ll enjoy taking your clothes back off after dinner.”
We were still laughing by the time we got down to the dining room. His parents were already seated; his father glared at him the instant we crossed the threshold. “You’re late, Asher.”
“We were busy.”
“Doing what?”
“Being busy.” He put his arm around me and, although I’d stopped at the door, guided me forward. “You could have started without us.”
Meleri raised a goblet to her lips, but stopped before actually taking a drink. “I won’t have her sitting at our table, Asher. Not her kind.”
“She’s my bride, Mere. She will sit at my side and be at my side and live at my side for the rest of eternity.” He glared at her. In this light, I could see the shade of his eyes had returned to a deep, emerald green. “That’s how it will be or I’ll eat with her in my chamber.”
Tobias wiped a cloth across his mouth, his brow furrowed down over his eyes. “You act as if she’s your equal. She’s not.”
“She’s better than me, Da.”
Meleri slammed her fist against the table; the dishes clattered together. “She has him under some kind of spell, Tobias. She’s cursed him senseless—I told you that a witch was nothing but a—“
“We’re done here.” Asher laced his fingers around mine and pulled me across the room, towards the kitchen door. He pounded on the frame. “Raina! Wren and I will take our dinner in our chamber. Plate it and I’ll carry it up myself.”
“Be reasonable, son.” Tobias speared a piece of asparagus and examined the end. He nibbled on it, immediately wrinkling up his nose, and plunked it back on the plate. “Her role here is to serve you, not sup with us at the table.”
“I’ve been reasonable for twenty-three years of my life. I sat by and obeyed you with everything; with everyone else dying, with being trapped in this damn, frozen castle you insist is our lineage. Our right. And now, I fall in love with the woman you forced me to marry—and you’re pissed?”
Meleri’s fork clattered to the plate. She shoved back and away from the table. “You…love her?”
“You’re god damned right I do.”
Meleri glared at Tobias. He remained silent.
The kitchen door slowly opened; Raina was on the other side. “Master?”
He grabbed the two plates of food from her and nodded, almost curtly. “Thank you. Wren, come with me.”
The look of disgust on their faces was almost enough to make me smile.
****
We ate dinner on the floor in his bedroom and, once we were finished, he led me through a narrow door at the far end of his room and into a tiled bathroom. It reminded me of something in a 1930s era movie: small black and white tiles arranged in a fashionable motif, surrounding a large, clawfoot and porcelain tub.
Asher reached behind him, peeling his shirt over his head and shoulders. He then pulled me close and tugged at the corset laces with one hand. His kiss was brief; he turned his attention—and lips—to my earlobe and throat. “Take your clothes off for me.”
I sucked in a sharp breath as his tongue flicked against my earlobe. “And then what do I get?”
“I’ll kiss every inch of your body.”
I laughed. Whether he meant it or not, and I assumed he did, I wanted him to look at me; to touch me and lick me. That looked of desire was back in his eyes and I wanted it—I wanted him.
I took a few steps backwards and unlaced the stays, wriggling and adjusting until the corset peeled off my body. As soon
as it was on the floor, I slid my skirt and shorts down and then unhook my bra. Slowly turning in a circle, I dropped the bralette to the floor. I took my time moving around; I let him look at every curve and angle I had. “I love it when you stare at me like that.”
“Mmmm.” His lips spread into a smile and he caught me in his arms, backing me up against the tub. I was half sitting, half leaning on the edge and could feel the steam rising up off the water. Asher tipped his finger into the water and, gently, ran it down my breast and nipple.
Pleasure radiated through my body. I sucked my lower lip into my mouth and let my head loll backwards. “Do it again.”
He dipped his hand back in the water and moved to my other side; this time, he dropped his hand between my legs and trailed his fingers down me. Leaning over me, he wrapped his free arm around my waist, keeping me from falling back and into the water while he touched me. “We should leave this place.”
“Uh…what?” My brain was having a hard time catching up. The feeling of his fingers circling my clit, dipping inside my body, was making it hard to think. “Where do you want to go?”
“The underground.”
“I’m not rooming with those hooligans in Come-By-Chance, or wherever we were, you can just forget that now.”
“Shhhhh.” He scooped me up in his arms and carried me back to his bedroom, gently laying me back down on the bed. “Tell me you want me.”
“Fuck, Asher, I need you. Once isn’t enough.”
He peeled his trousers down his legs and then hopped up on the bed, easing his weight down on me. This time, though, he didn’t rock his hips forward. He let his cock rest just against my hot flesh. “My soul craves you. You’re my everything.”
“Asher, fuck me. I’m begging you.” I squirmed against his body, anything to feel him inside me. “I can tell you need me, too.”
He pretended to think about it, tilting his head to one side so that his hair tumbled down into his face. “Well, I mean, you’re pretty intense.”
“Yeah? And you’re some kind of tattooed, fae prince or something. Archduke, I’m sorry. Tattooed, green-eyed fae archduke.” I nibbled on my lower lip, gazing up at him through my eyelashes.
His lips were slightly parted; he finally dipped his head down and kissed me, drawing m lower lip into his mouth. He sucked on it, nibbled on it.
And then he yanked the sheets and blankets over our heads, crushing his lips to mine. “I’m going to ravish you all night.”
“I’m going to hold you to that.”
He thrust his hips forward, in one move siding inside of me. It took my breath away and I arched my back, trying to raise my hips to meet his and make the feeling last longer.
He chuckled and pulled both of my legs up around his shoulders. “Think you can handle it?”
I thought my eyes were going to roll into the back of my head. I clamped my hand over my mouth for a moment and then nodded, pulling my hand away and smiling seductively at him. “There’s only one way to find out.”
****
I woke up with chapped lips and a sore body. Asher was pressed against me, his face buried in my hair and his hand firmly rooted against my thigh. I was exhausted.
And, frankly, I’d never been happier.
I let my eyelids flutter closed, sighing softly. I smelled him on my body; I’d given myself to him in ways that I’d never done with any other man—not even Vaughn—and he’d made love to me until he physically couldn’t anymore. Then we’d laid awake, we kissed and talked and laughed until we both fell asleep. I’d never loved someone so much; I’d never felt this loved. This desired.
His father may have bought me, but Asher had made me his.
I stretched my arms above me and yawned, arching my back and feeling every muscle in my core stretch and release. I’d told him I wasn’t flexible and, of course, he’d proved me wrong. God, it had been fantastic. Lazily, I opened my eyes and inhaled a deep breath.
A man was standing at the foot of the bed. His head was shaved bald, his sandy brown beard was scraggly and matted; he was touching himself and smiling a disgusting smirk. “Good morning, wench. Did ya have fun last night?”
“Lux!” I screamed the command out, holding my hands out in front of me. Blinding white light filled the room and he stumbled; a quick burst of energy from my palm threw his across the room and into the wall. “Asher!”
He was already up, grabbing me by the arm and yanking me across the bed so hard, I thought my shoulder would pop out of the socket. As we ran to the still open bathroom door, two more men ran into his bed room. I heard a man yelling behind us, “Stop them!”
Asher pulled me into the bathroom and slammed the door closed. He locked it and then stepped back, throwing his shirt at me. “That door isn’t going to hold.”
I pulled it over my head and then quickly tugged my lace undershorts up my legs. “Who are they?”
He was jerking his legs into his leather trousers. “Hired punks; men who used to be in the guard and part of the elite. Once the ice took over, they fell apart. Now they’re just murderers and thieves.”
Something slammed against the door; it shuddered in its frame. I held my hands up, trying to force it closed. “I don’t think I’m going to hold either.”
“I know who did this—my fucking parents did this.” He pulled a brass handled plunger out from beside the toilet. Popped off the rubber piece at the end, he grasped it in both hands and swung it at the far wall like a baseball player aiming for the stands.
“What are you doing?” My body jolted with the percussion of men throwing their bodies against the other side of the door. The pain radiated down my arms, it pulsed in my elbow joints. “You should be swinging at their heads.”
“Just another second.” He swung again; this time, the wall gave way. He hit it several more times and then kicked in the lower portion. It gave way easily. “You run, Wren. You start running and you don’t stop until you’re outside.”
I grabbed ahold of him with one arm, keeping my other hand fixed on the door. “Asher, I’m not going to leave you behind.”
“This was meant to happen. You saved my soul, Little One. And now I’m going to save yours.” He yanked me away from the door and to the hidden passage. “Go, Wren!”
I broke into a run. The corridor was rough, like it was hewn out of stone. God, this was too familiar, I’d been here before. And, in my mind when I’d dreamed it, I’d lost him. I’d run down the corridor, I”d looked behind me for him—but he never showed.
And now I was running, looking over my shoulder, to see if they were behind me. Whoever they, whatever they thought they were; I knew if they caught me, they’d kill me.
Asher’s voice echoed down the hallway, he was screaming at someone. And then he was yelling at me, “Wren! Run!”
I darted down the corridor, I forced my legs forward and back; the muscles flexed and overstretched. This wasn’t like the raids back on Earth, back in the Earth. There was no break in, there was no attack. Someone let them in.
And I knew, beyond any shadow of doubt, it was Tobias and Meleri. They’d bought me to save their son—but they hadn’t wanted us to fall in love. That wasn’t supposed to happen.
But it did—
I burst into the muted sunlight, immediately slamming into someone. I stumbled backwards; my legs were kicked out from under me.
Shit.
I held my hands out and slammed energy into the man I’d hit. The force threw him backwards and I turned, my arms still out to throw power in the other direction. The man behind me was faster: he spun away from me and then rushed me like someone tackling a quarterback.
He wrenched my hands up over my head, then forced them behind me. I bucked against him, I screamed. “Asher!”
The man dragged me to an awaiting car; he threw me into the backseat and slammed the door behind me. I threw myself at the door, I fumbled with the handle.
It wouldn’t open.
The car bolted forward.
I spun around, slamming my palms against the back window. Asher had run out of the hidden passage—I could see him. And I knew, judging my the horror etched across his face. He saw me.
The driver slammed his foot on the gas and the vehicle jumped forward. I hit my hand against the glass again. We were pulling away; there was no way he could catch us. Not on foot.
My heart sank. No. This wasn’t supposed to happen, I was supposed to be with him. I loved him.
The man who’d initially forced me into the car reached back, yanking me down to the narrow floor between the rear seat and the front seat. He grabbed a fistful of my air and jerked me forward. “I hope you’re ready to pay for your sins, bitch.”
I reached forward to hit him with a burst of energy, but he grabbed my wrist first. He wrenched my arm around, he tried to pull my elbow in a way the joint wasn’t supposed to move. I screamed.
“God, shut her up.” The driver leaned over and fumbled with the glove compartment. He pulled out a handgun; he cocked the hammer and aimed it at me. “I’ll blow your brains out. Shut up.”
The man in the passenger’s seat pushed me backwards, still holding onto my arm, and squirmed into the backseat with me. “I’m just going to take her now, get my full before we get there.”
“Yeah, well, keep her quiet. None of that screaming and crying like they do.” The driver glanced at me in the rearview mirror. “I’ll find a place to pull over and we can switch.”
I kicked my legs at the punk on top of me; my foot connected with the bulge in his jeans. He grunted and slapped me across the face. “You’re going to regret that.”
“Not as much as you.”
He dug hid fingers into my thighs, pawing at the edges of my lace shorts. I struggled underneath him, trying to keep as much distance between us as I could. Looking up towards the front of the car, I could see the driver watching us in the rearview mirror. He squirmed in his seat and adjusted it, trying to get a better view.
At almost the same time, he slammed on the brakes. “Fuck!”
Claimed: Faction 3: The Isa Fae Collection Page 27
