Key to Redemption

by Talia Gryphon

  Well, all righty then. It wasn’t anything she couldn’t handle. If he was ready to go for it, that’s what they’d do. They could fine-tune his responses later. Right now, it was definitely time to push onward with his therapy.

  Giving herself over to the kiss, letting him control it, Gillian consciously made her gestures less assertive. If he needed to feel a measure of dominance, she’d let him have it as long as it didn’t go too far. Lightly, she ran her hand down his back, skimming his butt, then around to play her fingers down the straining outline of his erection.

  Perrin made a guttural sound into her mouth, bringing his hand down from cupping her head to place it over hers, pressing it against his engorged organ. Gillian complied happily; he was initiating sexual contact and that was what they were there for.

  Soon, getting into the spirit of it with him, she ran her hand around his butt, pulling him to her, wrapping her leg around him as high as she could. He responded instantly, hand skimming the outside of her thigh, leaning down a little then cupping her butt to lift her up and hold her tightly to him so that they were eye level with one another.

  Through their two layers of clothing, Gillian could feel the deep pulse of his distended flesh against her core. Gently, she broke the kiss, whispering to him on his masked side, “Make love to me, Perrin. I need to know what you feel like.”

  Perrin needed it too. He could feel her damp heat through their clothing. His Gargoyle heritage gave him highly perceptive pheromone receptors, which scented her, telling him she was open and wet already. A surge of more blood to his groin, and he saw spots for a moment. Almost savagely, he took her mouth again as he carried her to the couch and lay her down on it, pausing to look at her, marveling at her dilated eyes, tousled hair and moist, parted lips. Beautiful, she was beautiful and passionate. And taking off her clothes.

  Numbly, he watched as she removed her boots and pants. Her shirt was next, then her bra. No underwear. The spots came back before his eyes as his body insisted on pumping more blood into a space where there wasn’t room for more.

  Gillian watched raw need and desire flood his features. Well, the ones she could see anyway. The mask was distracting but added an element of mystery to him that was endearing and dangerous at the same time. Reaching up, she traced its edge, noticing that he looked at her warily, but when she made no move to take it off, he relaxed visibly.

  She observed that the gray green eyes glittered with flecks of gold as part of his arousal. Also that he kept looking her up and down, not resting on any one part of her body, as if he were a starving man who was shown a banquet and couldn’t decide what to eat first. He was beautiful to her, and she let him see it in her eyes as his rose to lock with her heated gaze.

  “Now your clothes,” she prompted and he began to unbutton his shirt, almost mechanically. Always helpful, she moved to unfasten his pants while he pulled his shirt free and off. Perrin stopped her at that point and sat on the edge of the couch to quickly remove his boots and pants. He wasn’t wearing underwear either, she noted, smiling at his physical beauty.

  Perrin watched her as she looked him over. If he hadn’t been so sexually stimulated, he would have been embarrassed with her frank appraisal of his dimensions. He could tell that what she saw pleased her, and lifted a hand to her in invitation.

  Gill took his hand and let him draw her to him, leaning in to kiss him and letting him roll her down and under him. Opening her legs, she moved his hips over her and gently grasped his rigid sex to guide him. Holy Mother Nature, he was as endowed as Aleksei, she realized when her fingers wouldn’t meet around the thick shaft.

  Condom! Shit! Where was a condom? They were in the box, in the bathroom . . . No wait; reaching back with her free hand, she found the ones she had placed on the table the night before and swiftly opened the foil container.

  Watching her, Perrin’s entire body stiffened in anticipation. Her touch was deft and sure as she placed it over the head of his penis, which was already beaded with pearly moisture, and rolled it down easily. Gritting his teeth, he felt her take him in her hand again, and position him against her wet, heated opening.

  “Now, Perrin, make love to me.” Her eyes were cool green pools for a man to drown in, her body a welcoming shelter for his battered psyche. Perrin wanted to kiss her but kept his eyes locked on hers as he sank gratefully into her, feeling the tight wet bands of silken muscle stretch to accommodate his size. She gasped as he pressed inside, the muscles of her canal tingling and stinging a little as he filled her completely, lodging finally at the very opening of her womb.

  He couldn’t breathe. This was how he was going to die. Asphyxiated during his first sexual experience. Perrin’s mind and body were coming to terms with what it felt like to be sexually aroused yet have the potential to alleviate that need wrapped tightly around his rock-hard erection like a fist.

  Gillian moved her hips lightly to encourage him and the dots were back in his vision. “Please . . .” His voice was guttural and thick with need. “Oh god, you do not know what it feels like . . . Gillian!”

  It was suddenly too much for his overwhelmed, overburdened sexual sensory panel. Crying out, his body contracted, releasing a quick, hot torrent into the condom, leaving Perrin shuddering over her, trying to remember how his lungs worked and holding on to her with a death grip.

  “Perrin?” Gill squeaked. “Can’t breathe!” She was delighted he’d finally experienced what he was looking for, but he had to release his hold on her rib cage.

  “Mon Dieu! I am . . . Merde!” Perrin found out his lungs worked after all and let go of her. Raising himself up on his arms, he looked down at the beautiful woman he was still sheathed within.

  “I did not know . . .” Words failed him and his eyes sparkled with unshed crystal tears over the gold and green.

  “It’s okay.” Gillian smiled up at him, smoothing her hand through his wavy, ebony hair. “Now we will take it slowly, let you see that you can be in more control.”

  Without waiting for him to think, she pulled him down to her, kissing him deeply. It registered to her that they needed to exchange the condom for a new one so she paused, detaching their bodies for a moment while she fumbled for a new foil packet on the table. He was still giddy with the tingling feelings of release and the monumental hope that crashed down over him. Perhaps there was a chance after all. He might live a normal life, like a normal man. She had given him that. Given him the manhood he thought he would never achieve.

  Gill saw and felt that a maudlin episode was welling up. Oh hell no, not now. Now was for healing, not crying. Quickly she kissed him, stimulating him back into readiness and expertly situating the condom once more. Lying back, she guided him over and inside once more.

  Perrin surprised himself by instinctively sliding his arm under her hips, lifting her, elongating her line, giving him a fraction of an inch more to fill, which he did with a light contraction of his hips. She responded, flexing her inner muscles around him, actually pulling him in deeper.

  “Don’t think, Perrin,” she warned him. “Just go with it. You are part Gargoyle and part Sidhe. Your body is built for sex. It knows what to do, just let go; let it happen.”

  Now, fully seated within her, he was trembling with desire, uncertainty, need. He knew he had exploded like the untried male he had been only moments ago. Gillian was pushing him, trying to keep his mind off his ineptitude and focus him on what they were there for. He would love her forever, for her patience, unbelievable kindness and acceptance.

  She waited, feeling the dial twisting on Perrin’s emotional glamour; patiently stroking his back. Softly, she urged him on, “That feels just wonderful, Perrin. You feel wonderful, now move for me.”

  “Move?” He couldn’t think. Move where?

  “Move, inside me. Just go with your instincts.”

  Letting his body guide him, Perrin gave himself over to feeling. His hips flexed, shoving him against her womb, then pulling him nearly out of her. Expe
rimentally, he thrust again, finding the pleasure intensified. Gillian whispered words of encouragement, shifting her body a little to accommodate them both and beginning to set a rhythm for them.

  Perrin felt her respond and begin to meet his inexperienced thrusts. Quickly he caught on to her rhythm and began to take over their dance. Gillian let him, understanding that his Gargoyle blood needed to feel dominant in this situation.

  He was thick, hard, angled just right; she felt every inch of him gliding in and out. Filling and stretching her, moving deeper. Plus, he felt good. Very, very good. Exquisitely good. Oh holy mother, so good. And getting better with every single deep stroke. So good, in fact . . .

  “Goddess! Perrin!!”

  The orgasm caught her unexpectedly and she bucked under him, her thighs holding him tightly as the rush hit her, and she clamped down on his turgid erection. The pheromones in the scent of her climax hit his Gargoyle sex receptors as her canal rhythmically clasped, then released him. All instinct diverted to his groin as the need to mate with her took him into a new realm of stimulation, swelling him to incredible proportions and flaring out evenly spaced circular ridges of flesh around the circumference and down the length of his engorged penis.

  It heightened his sensitivity and hers because she responded with a fresh flood of liquid heat over him, drenching him in her scent. To his aroused senses, her aroma called to him to mate with her. Hard. Fast. Now.

  Perrin literally growled and caught her tighter to him. His mouth clamped over hers and he swallowed her cries of pleasure, his tongue matching the motion of his pelvis, plunging, tantalizing, enthralling. Hips grinding, he couldn’t get deep enough inside her. Electricity seemed to be pooling low in his body, winding him tighter and tighter as the newly formed ridges on his cock rubbed a delicious friction over her inner flesh.

  She was exquisite beneath him. The silken velvet of her canal was hot and wet even through the condom; the tight grasp of her pulled him farther in with each clench around his body. Primal noises were in her throat and he enhanced his glamour deliberately, pouring his own raw sexuality over her and into her as she writhed beneath him, opening herself farther to welcome his magically enhanced erection. Tightening his fingers on her hips, he held her angled to give him the deepest penetration possible.

  Anticipation rocketed through him as he felt himself coming to another pinnacle. Every stroke made the need to drive into her more frantic. This couldn’t get any more pleasurable or he would die from it. Gillian was careening over the same precipice, but he didn’t know a woman’s body well enough to know it was coming.

  When she bucked again, gripping him deeply inside her, moaning into his mouth, Perrin knew he was lost but had found what he had sought. He felt a profound jolt start a feeling that he had never experienced. Pure, primal mating instinct took over. His body knew exactly what to do.

  A deep flex inside, then another, driving him up and against the back of her canal. A final hard plunge. Stars exploded in his vision as electric jolts of pleasure bowed his back from the base of his spine to his neck. Tearing his mouth from Gillian’s in a primitive cry, he welded them together, pouring his essence against her womb but into the waiting condom.

  Panting, they held each other, letting the aftershocks subside before Perrin realized he was lying fully on her. “Forgive me, Gillian. How crass of me to leave my weight on you.”

  He started to pull away, but she wrapped her legs and arms around him. “You stay right there and just enjoy your moment.” She smiled at him and stroked his hair back behind his ear. “I’m not a delicate little doll, Perrin, so just relax and tell me your thoughts.”

  It took him a moment before he realized his brain was still functional, even with the prolonged blood and oxygen deprivation. Relief was evident in his voice. “My thoughts? I do not know what to say. I am overwhelmed with all of this. You . . . the sex . . . all of it is unbelievable.”

  His eye traveled down and rested on her breast. A hand followed, caressing her tentatively. “I seem to have forgotten something.” The light smile that she knew meant he was unsure of himself ghosted over his mouth.

  “You didn’t forget anything. One thing at a time. Getting overly ambitious at the first experience would have overwhelmed you. This was exactly how it should have gone.”

  She stroked the back of his hand softly. “Now we do need to move and dispose of the condom before you completely soften. I’m on the pill so you can’t get me pregnant, but you may be with someone who isn’t one day. No sense in taking chances.”

  Slowly he pulled out of her, feeling bereft, and watched as she sat up and deftly removed it, then scooping up the first condom, walked to the kitchen to dispose of them in the trash. As she walked back, he admired her. Confident, poised, beautiful and temperamental. All woman.

  What had she been upset about? “Come here a moment.” It was an order, but she let it go and went to him.

  Perrin wrapped his arms around her, pulling her back so that she reclined against him. “I do not know what to say. Thank you sounds so trite for what you have done for me.” He kissed the top of her head, tracing her face with his elegant fingers.

  “Thank you is fine. And I’m glad you seem to feel good about it.”

  “It was exquisite, Gillian. I never dreamed it would be so powerful and extraordinary. I will have to adjust my viewpoint of courtly love enough to allow a petite amount of base feelings into it.” The softer lilting tone was back in his voice; he sounded satisfied and content.

  They talked awhile longer, and Gillian let him hold her. She’d felt scar ridges on his back while they were having sex and asked him about it. Perrin was reluctant to disclose that they were lash marks leftover from his captivity of early childhood. Marks of enforced obedience from those who had held him captive for a number of years. He didn’t want to elaborate, just bask in the glow of their shared experience. Gillian let it go for now.

  Finally when it was time for her to go, Perrin produced a robe, watching her dress and go out into the night, alone. Bed for him was out of the question. He felt full of energy and delight. He moved to open the windows around the living room, letting in the night with its myriad of scents and sounds. The piano beckoned and he heeded its call; sitting on its bench, he began to write his first inspiring music in over a century.

  CHAPTER 11

  WISHING she’d had the sense to wear a watch, Gillian walked carefully toward the castle. A few pages of notes would be required to document Perrin’s progress and, after his dimensions, a soft cushion to sit on and an ice pack. What the hell time was it anyway? She veered toward the cars, hearing music coming from the guesthouse, then punched in the keyless entry code to hers, opened the door and slid in to retrieve the key from under the seat, wincing a little as she did so.

  Damn, Perrin’s natural mating ridges had made him much more endowed than she’d anticipated. This was going to make things tender for a while with no special Aleksei interaction to alleviate it. A heated flush came over her thinking of how he had “healed” her before. The dreamy music continued from Perrin’s and her romantic thoughts intensified, focused entirely on Aleksei’s consummate skills.

  Blushing, and cursing herself for wrecking a perfectly good memory of Perrin’s evolution into sex god, she found the key, turned it enough to activate the clock. Nine o’clock?! Good grief. She’d been over there for almost three hours. Losing track of time was not something she was known for. Samuel and Moose would have been waiting. Shit. She needed to get to the castle, pronto, apologize to her patients and find out what had happened with Oscar after the gang had gotten hold of him.

  As she eased gingerly out of the car, her empathy registered a weirdly hollow shift in the rightness of the world. What. The. Hell. Now? Remembering she had an extra gun in the trunk, she retrieved it without a qualm, quickly verifying that the Walther PPK was indeed loaded. The prickly feeling had long since gone from between her shoulder blades but this was a vague feeling of
oppressiveness cloaking everything. It hadn’t been there a moment ago so whatever it was, was alive and moving.

  Closer.

  Toward her.

  Shit.

  Psychologist, soldier, or dumbass, she was going to have to make peace with the different sides of herself or she was going to die. Not paying attention earlier because she was angry about having to be a psychologist when she wanted to be a soldier, then wandering off the grounds like a rookie; not calculating the level of Perrin’s magic and losing her track of time with him, neglecting her other responsibilities. Christ. Maybe she could use that infusion of music teacher discipline. She was so going to kick her own ass for slacking off. That was if she lived through the next few minutes.

  Something was wrong. Very wrong. Perrin’s extra glamour boost had caught her in a very vulnerable preorgasmic moment, and her empathy was enhanced like never before. Briefly she considered getting back into the car, locking the doors and honking the horn until someone in the castle heard her, but she dismissed the idea. Perrin might decide he was brave all of a sudden and come out to look. That would get one or both of them killed for sure. Whatever was out there was stalking her. It had her on its radar; she could feel an indistinct nauseating undertone. Screaming was out. Gillian just wasn’t a screamer . . . well, except in bed. Damn! Blushed again.

  Where the hell were the Wolves? Generally there was a Werewolf or two around the castle any given night. Backing around the side of the car, she tried to triangulate where the bad feeling was coming from. Not the castle, not the parking lot . . . the road? Maybe. The forest? Definitely. Turning slowly, she raised her gun and sighted down her arm, panning the area she thought was right. The car was behind her so she would be fine . . . Aghhhhh! She bit her own tongue to keep from screaming when something nudged her in the back. She whirled to face whatever it was.