The Mortal Falls

by Anna Durand

  I jerked out of his grasp. Bad idea. Now I could see every glistening inch of him, as well as the beads of water rolling down his body to drip onto the floor. It took all my willpower to resist the urge to dry him off with my mouth. "Where are you taking me?"

  "To my home. Where I can keep you safe."

  "You have a home?"

  He glanced at me sideways. "Did ye think I lived in the bushes?"

  "I never actually thought about it." Too distracted by sensual fantasies, and the occasional threat of imminent death. "Is it like a house or a cave? Maybe an underground lair?"

  His full attention snapped to me, my stomach fluttering at the intensity of his stare. He curled his fingers closed. The doorway telescoped shut.

  I cleared my throat. "Uh, you know, I don't think this portal thingy likes me, so maybe we should go back to the woods. Or forget the whole thing. Yeah, that's the smartest move, let's shake hands and say goodnight."

  "No." His tone brooked no argument.

  But I argued anyway. "We barely know each other, and as you've pointed out so many times, I'm horribly pent up. We should think about this."

  "That's the problem. You're thinking too much." He marched to me, grabbed my ass, and hefted me off the ground. "I can remedy that."

  A chill washed over me, eradicated in an instant by the fire of his flesh against my bare skin.

  My bare skin? What?

  I glanced down. "Oh!"

  My clothes — every scrap, from the T-shirt to my panties, even my boots and socks — were gone. His loincloth had melted away too. I wobbled in his grasp and locked my arms around his shoulders for support. The friction of his skin on mine unfurled sinuous tendrils of desire in me. I was naked. With him. Against him. On him.

  He exerted a light pressure to spread my thighs a few inches. It was enough. His erection slipped between my already damp thighs, torturing the swollen, aching flesh at my core. I gasped, digging my nails into his shoulders. He rocked his hips to torment me more. I tried to open myself to him, but his hands kept me locked in place. His face had turned to a mask of control, his eyes narrowed, the rest of his body as rigid as his shaft.

  "Nevan." I whimpered his name.

  With a faint groan, he rushed forward until my back slapped against the rock wall. His teeth nipped at the hollow of my throat, tracking down my skin with every little nip, edging nearer to the swell of my breasts. He let go, bent his head, and covered my nipple with his mouth, suckling fiercely, stunning a cry out of me. He nipped me, laved his tongue over me, sucked so hard the pleasure burst through my sex like fireworks inside me. I arched into his touch, expecting — praying — he would drive into me at long last and end my torment.

  Instead, he took hold of my left thigh and hitched it over his shoulder, then did the same with the other leg. Perched on him, his face perilously close to my throbbing core, I slapped my hands on the wall, clawing for purchase but finding none. He eased me toward him, his mouth so close to my flesh, excitement intensifying every sensation. What the hell was he doing to me? I tried to squirm out of his grasp, but he held on.

  "Nevan?" Fear tightened my voice.

  His eyes met mine, burning, swirling, promising everything I'd denied myself — and he uttered two syllables that annihilated my inhibitions. "Trust me."

  I stopped squirming. Let my body go limp. And closed my eyes.

  He cradled my hips in his hands, tipped me toward him, raked his tongue across my rigid nub. Pleasure broke through me, so hot it almost hurt. His tongue licked and stroked with merciless precision, and his mouth closed over my nub to suckle with ruthless strength. I bucked against him, clutching at him, my hands digging into his hair, his scalp, urging him deeper into me. He worked his way down my cleft, inch by inch, stroke by stroke, traversing the length of me with his lips and tongue. I lost all sense of reality, as my guttural moans and feral cries echoed off the walls. Pressure escalated inside me, squeezing out whimpering pleas. His tongue thrust into me and twirled, propelled me higher, consuming me with one thrust after another, delving deeper and harder as my nails scraped his scalp.

  My body convulsed with a thunderous orgasm, wave after wave of earth-shattering ecstasy ripped through me. As the exquisite pleasure settled into a dull ache, I floated away on a cloud of endorphins, higher than the moon. I was dimly aware of Nevan moving, picking me up, carrying me. By the time I drifted back down, we stood before the pulsating doorway, with me cradled in his arms. Still naked.

  "Where are my clothes?" I asked absently, not really caring anymore.

  "I sent them to my home. But you won't be needing clothes tonight."

  My body responded to his promise, but my head battled to sort out what I'd just done. Or rather, what I'd let him do. "That was… I don't know what it was, actually. Unexpected, for sure."

  "Lindsey, my love." He kissed the tip of my nose. "That's how you let go."

  I grinned. Couldn't help it, though I must've looked like an idiot. I was beyond caring. Nevan had liberated me from a terrible burden, and tonight I soared with a freedom I'd never known before.

  The grim concentration on his face told me how much he'd restrained in the last few minutes. I brushed my hand over his cheek. I needed to tell him something before he took me through the veil and I couldn't say it anymore. "This might sound idiotic, but I'm going to say it anyway. Thank you."

  He smirked with what I took for masculine satisfaction. "Save the gratitude for after I'm finished with you."

  "Finished?" It came out whiny. "Are you… That sounds kind of final."

  "Ye must stop thinking the worst. I meant finished for tonight." He adjusted my weight in his arms and his erection grazed my buttocks. "I'll never be completely done with you, not if we both live to eternity."

  "Okay." Two distinct syllables, divided by my crumbling will.

  "What happened a moment ago, that was for you." His voice had grown raspy, strained. "Now it's my turn."

  He strode through the portal.

  22

  Whisked away the moment we exited the portal, I squeezed my eyes shut against the gnawing chill of the tunnel. Nevan's arms bound me to him, cradling me to his body, and I knew without any doubt he would keep his vow and never let me fall.

  Light extinguished the darkness as we exited the tunnel, into the Unseen realm. Radiant warmth washed over me.

  I cracked my eyes open. We stood inside a windowless room, hewn from solid rock, with smooth walls and an earthen floor. Oil lamps affixed to the walls kindled a golden glow within the space, but shadows lurked beyond the doorway at the far end of the oval-shaped chamber.

  Nevan settled me onto a long bed precisely the size of one tall, sexy sylph. My feet hung suspended several inches above the floor. My bottom sank into the bedding, fashioned from something thick and plush, with a fur blanket on top. I combed my fingers through the lush, silky hairs of the blanket, loving the way my skin sensitized at the feel of it. I registered nothing else beyond the bed, thanks to the man poised before me, an arm's length away.

  With no conscious intent, I touched my fingertips to my lips. The faint rush of air escaping them tickled my skin. I beheld him with unabashed fascination, taking in the panorama of his stunning, nude body and the luster of water droplets that clung to him. The flames of the oil lamps licked at his skin, exactly the way I wanted to lick him. Everywhere. Over and over. Right now.

  His rigid shaft rose up at my eye level. Desire shimmered through me, warm and familiar, electric and silken at the same time. God, I wanted him. And after what he'd done to me — for me — behind the falls, I'd shed any guilt or shame about craving this man. This elemental spirit. My Nevan.

  Mine.

  The thought fired an erotic missile down my body, from my lips into my nipples, and straight down to my sex. No wonder he relished calling me his, if he experienced anything like this whe
n he spoke, or even thought, the word.

  He delved a hand into my hair, stroking my scalp. I leaned into his touch, eyes half closed, but the bliss disintegrated with a single memory that slashed through my mind. Skeiron. A sword. Blood.

  "You're thinking again, love." Nevan's voice lured my gaze to his with an inexorable pull. "You're thinking of reasons to stop."

  His fingers trailed down my neck, across my shoulder. I longed to tilt my head back and offer my throat up for his ministrations, but he was right. The memory of Skeiron's attack had me doubting everything again.

  Nevan dragged the backs of his fingers down my arm. "You're not stopping now."

  I wanted tonight to stretch on to eternity, with the two of us holed up in his lair, entangled in every way. But could we afford to ignore the threats looming outside this protected haven?

  "Skeiron," I said, battling to ignore the storm of sensations triggered by his fingers as they skated down to wrist. "He's out there, hunting for us."

  "Not yet." Nevan lowered onto one knee, his face level with mine. He took my hand and feathered kisses across my knuckles one by one. "The king was grievously injured, at the hand of my courageous love, and he will require a good deal of time to recover."

  "Tris told me the fae won't help him, because he murdered their witches."

  "It is true." Nevan turned my hand over, flittering his lips over my palm, up to my wrist. His tongue teased my tender skin, and all the while, his gaze held mine. "But I would rather discuss what I want to do to you tonight."

  "Oh." I couldn't break eye contact, my body overwhelmed with a riot of sensations set off by every word he spoke and every whisper of his skin on mine. "Tell me."

  "Perhaps I should show you." His thumb massaged the inside of my wrist, while his other hand coasted up and down my arm. He pressed a damp kiss to the hollow of my shoulder and I sighed with pleasure, helpless against the onslaught of his touch. His lips curved up in a gentle smile. "You, my little kettle, truly could drive a man mad by looking at him the way you're looking at me."

  His hand on my wrist moved up to my inner elbow. His thumb manipulated the flesh there as his lips found my throat, lingering on my skin until I let out a long, breathy moan.

  "Forget Skeiron," he breathed onto my throat. "Forget everything for this one night. You hunger for me and I hunger for you — your mind, your voice, your lips, every part of your luscious body."

  "Me too," I groaned. "Want yours, I mean."

  His chuckle liquefied what little remained of my willpower. He ran his tongue up my throat to the spot just under my ear, then took my lobe between his teeth, flicking his tongue across it. I sagged into him, powerless to move or speak or breathe as he breezed his lips down my jaw to my chin. He pulled in a harsh breath, his voice going rough with barely contained passion. "I need to be inside you."

  "Oh… " I arched my back as his lips found the corner of my mouth. "Nevan, yes, now."

  "On your back, love." He drew his head back to meet my gaze. "Please."

  An odd sensation rippled through me, a cross between static electricity and faint needle pricks. I stiffened. "What was that? Did you feel it?"

  "Yes." He nuzzled my cheek, my hair, my neck. "Don't worry. I asked permission, which is a kind of debt — a very small one."

  "Permission. You mean saying pl — the P word?"

  "Correct."

  "Why would you do that?"

  I felt him smile against my throat. "You seem to have an obsession with politeness." He swept a hand up my belly, between my breasts, to spread his palm over my my heart. "And I need to make certain you feel no compulsion to give yourself to me."

  A tendril of ice coiled around my heart. "Magic?"

  "No." His hand stayed on my chest, its heat penetrating my skin, but his lips ghosted over mine in brief, light kisses. "As you may have noticed, I can be rather demanding."

  "Right." I dared to rest my hands on his back, sliding them over taut muscles. "You are bossy. But since you asked nicely… "

  I stretched out on the bed with my arms above my head, exposed more than I'd ever been before, with anyone. "You're the first man who's seen me naked."

  His tongue slicked over his bottom lip, his eyes burned a brilliant shade of brandy. "I want to be your first and your last. Your only lover."

  I linked my hands over my head, wondering how I could ever be with another man after him. He did things to me, without removing a stitch of clothing, I couldn't have imagined were possible. Not because he was a sylph. Because he was Nevan.

  His weight settled onto the bed, eliciting a soft creak, as he straddled my legs. The entirety of his body towered above me, transformed into a golden statue by the sensual lighting and the tension in his muscles. Soon he would touch me, take me, do everything I'd longed for him to do to me.

  My mouth went dry. Sex with a supernatural being. Was I ready for this? Was it safe?

  Nevan's gentle smile slanted downward. His brow crinkled. "What is it?"

  Hugging myself, I averted my gaze to the wall beside us.

  Nevan kissed my forehead, the bridge of my nose, the tip of it, the little dent above my mouth. I couldn't stop my eyes from seeking his, but a pang pinched the back of my throat.

  "Tell me," he said, without a trace of demand, only a tenderness infused with an unspoken plea.

  Hands joined over my belly, I caught my bottom lip between my teeth. If I wanted him to make love to me, if I wanted some kind of relationship with him, I'd have to learn to express my concerns. Not my strong suit. "Well… I was wondering if it's dangerous for a mortal to have sex with an elemental."

  Gold and silver flecks glimmered in his irises as he tugged at my lip with his teeth, encouraging me to free it. When I at last loosened my hold on my lip, he drew it into his mouth, swiping his tongue across it, releasing it little by little — so gradually I felt his smooth flesh sliding over mine. "Ah, you do fret about everything. Don't ye, darlin'?"

  "And this is news to you?"

  "Hardly." He hooked an arm under me and flipped us over. I yelped, suddenly on top of him. The lightning-fast movement ensured I wound up straddling him with his knees bent behind me for support. His rock-hard arousal was trapped underneath me, between my thighs, the ridge of it pressed into my cleft with the head jutting out over his stomach.

  He hit me with that devastatingly wicked grin. "You're in control, to do with me as you wish."

  My mouth opened, but my voice had abandoned me.

  His big hands came up to curl around my hips. "No harm will come to you. Countless elementals have bedded countless mortals. Even gods may engage in relations with humans."

  My hands rested on my thighs, though I yearned to explore his body. "You're at my mercy?"

  "I am." He rocked my hips forward, pushing my swollen flesh into his shaft. "Do with me as you will."

  "That may be the hottest thing anyone's ever said to me." I gazed down upon the raw maleness laid out beneath me and wrung my brain for some sexy thing to do, but I came up empty. Dammit.

  "You look perplexed, love." He frisked his hands down my thighs to where my hands rested, encircling my wrists, lifting my hands, threading his fingers loosely through mine. "Touch me."

  I stared at his chest, longing to do as he suggested but uncertain how to do it. I had no experience with seduction.

  He let go of my wrists and curled his hands over my hips again. "You've avoided touching me, for the most part. But when you did, you drove me wild." He rotated his hips, grinding his arousal into me. "Give it a go."

  Excitement rushed over my skin, raising the fine hairs, as I splayed my hands over his chest, relishing the feel of his smooth, supple skin contrasted with firm sinews. Do with me as you will, he'd said. All right then.

  I spread my hands and began painting swirls on his pectoral muscles with my palm
s and fingertips, exploring the canvas laid out beneath me, a masterpiece of muscle and skin and bone. For the second time tonight, I set my mind loose, shedding all my worry, doubt, and inhibitions. I let my body take over, moving without conscious thought. My hands wandered up his throat to his face, my thumbs glanced over his lips before my fingers covered his mouth, the tips playing with his pliant flesh. His lips were warm and full, sinfully lush. His breaths whispered over my fingers, sneaking out between his slightly parted lips, and when his tongue flicked out to taste my fingertips, I froze for a moment, paralyzed by the sudden rush of liquid fire between my thighs.

  He must've felt my wetness on his erection, nestled against my sex, because he groaned softly, his eyes fluttering half closed and his breaths growing heavier.

  My body had come alive from head to toe, awakened to every sensation like never before. I plowed my hands into his hair, plying his scalp, delicately at first, but then harder and faster in time with my quickening pulse. I skimmed my fingers down his face and throat, into the uncharted territory of his body. Earlier, I'd fantasized about mapping out his flesh. Now, I charted every inch of his sculpted muscle and soft flesh, kneading and stroking, as stimulated by it was he was — evidenced by his pulsating shaft and shortening breaths. His eyes, though hooded, ignited with fiery shades of scarlet and amber.

  I moved to elevate my hips, but his hands bound me to him.

  "Not yet," he rasped.

  "You're a glutton for punishment?"

  He rolled my hips forward, grinding my sex down on his cock, choking back a hoarse groan. "Your naked body on mine is not punishment. It… Ahhh, it is the most exquisite reward."

  Another rock of my hips. His fingers sank into my hips, urging me into a rhythm. My slick flesh slid over his shaft, back and forth, inflaming my need and propelling my body toward climax. Panting, gasping, I slapped my hands onto the blanket at either side of his head and dived my head down to his. Our lips collided. We ravished each other's mouths with velvet strokes and desperate moans, starved for the taste of each other, lost to the craving that would not be denied. His hands raked up my back. I crushed my body to his, my taut nipples scraping on his skin as everything inside me clenched, hurtling toward release.