by Anny Cook
He lightly brushed against her fangs again and held her while she quivered in reaction. Lifting his head, he blinked and stared at her. “Well. I think that I could get used to that very quickly!” Pulling her back in his arms, they slid into another kiss that seemed to have no end, until reluctantly, he moved back. “I’m willing to do this all day but we must find a position that is more comfortable. My legs are hurting and I need to touch you.”
“What do you want me to do?” she asked looking at him anxiously as she slid from his legs.
“Here. Get the sheet out of the way,” he directed, pushing at the tangled fabric. When she had it shoved over the chair arm, he motioned for her to sit on his lap, facing away from him. Puzzled, she complied, though it felt odd. “Spread your legs, sweetheart.” When she did, his hard cock slipped into the damp, slippery furrow between her thighs. “Now scoot up here on my belly just a little, so I can reach your pretty petals. Ahhh.” She gasped as she felt the hard length of him stroking gently against her. “Hmm. Doesn’t that feel good? So much more fun to play together, isn’t it?” he whispered. “Here. You play with Mr. Peter and keep him out of trouble while I play with your beautiful breasts.” Wrenna proudly felt his cock swell and grow harder as she gently stroked and played with him. Involuntarily, she rocked against him when he tweaked her nipples, shocked at the sensations that raced through her. “Oh, yeah. Do that again, Wrenna.”
“What is it, Trav?” she asked shuddering. “What’s happening to me?”
Gently nibbling the nape of her neck, he explained softly, “The same thing that happens to me when you play with me or take my cock in your mouth. This is what you make me feel, Wrenna.” When he brushed his palms across her nipples and then plucked them to hard little points, she contracted against his erection and shattered. “That’s the way, honey. Move against me just like that.”
Suddenly driven by something she didn’t understand, she rocked frantically against him, reaching for something she only dimly perceived. When she thought she would die from frustration, he reached down and lightly flicked her hard little clit hidden in her soft curls. She unraveled, crying out over and over, as he joined her, spilling hot, slippery semen in her gentle hands.
She lay panting quietly in Trav’s firm embrace, wondering where the staggering sensations had come from. “Trav? What just happened?”
“That was what people call an orgasm. Ugly name for something so beautiful and stunning, isn’t it?” he murmured darkly against her ear. “I think we should think of a more beautiful name for it.”
“I thought that could only happen when you were inside me.” Blindly, she twisted her head so that she could meet his lips.
As they kissed, he slid his fingers down and toyed with her wet pussy. When they came up for breath, she wriggled against his fingers. “Trav! It’s starting again!” she whispered frantically. “Do something!”
Chuckling softly, he said, “I am doing something, sweet. Doesn’t that feel delightful? Ah, look, Mr. Peter thinks it is quite delightful. Here, baby, play with my cock.” She moved against him, clutching his cock and rubbing her hot pussy mindlessly against it, whimpering as wave after wave of fire washed through her. His dark velvet voice whispered, “I bet you didn’t learn about this in your classes,” and then she heard no more as the tension snapped and she unwound like a broken watch.
“Again?” he inquired when she could breathe again. “No?” as she shook her head. “Well, perhaps not, today,” he agreed reluctantly. She felt him tug the sheet over them as she sank into sleep.
Dai opened the door to let Trav know that Dancer was coming to visit and stopped dead when he saw them together in the chair. “Traveller?”
“Come in, Grandfather,” he invited calmly. “Wrenna and I have agreed to be bond mates as soon as I’m recovered enough.” Involuntarily, he tightened his embrace. “We were getting acquainted but I think I’ve worn her out…”
“You are sure this is what you want? Even though she’s a Llewellyn?” Dai insisted.
Trav looked him squarely in the eyes. “I want her. I need her. I would walk through fire for her—if I could walk.” She whimpered in her sleep and he gingerly shifted her so that he could hold her more securely. “She’s mine,” he said implacably. “Llyon explained about his parents coming to the valley to escape from Free. But if Free ever shows up, all bets are off!”
“I see. Well,” Dai sighed, “you’re going to have to let her go so you can get cleaned up.” He wrinkled his nose. “There’s no doubt about what you’ve been doing this morning. We need to air this room out. Dancer and Eppie are coming to see you.”
“He always did have a rotten sense of timing,” Trav muttered under his breath, watching Dai lay out a clean sharda and bath sheet. “Granddad, can you please bring Wrenna a clean meerlim and another bath sheet? She can help me.” He smiled wickedly. “Or I can help her.”
Shaking his head, Dai just replied, “I should get Merlyn to bring them to you, he just brought Jade home.”
But Trav wasn’t to be denied. “Do that,” he suggested in velvety dulcet tones. “I’m sure the discussion will be most interesting.” Their eyes met in a brief war, before Dai shrugged impatiently and left.
When he returned with Wrenna’s meerlim and the bath sheet, he informed Traveller, “Dancer and Eppie are already in the village, so I suggest that you wake her immediately. I’ve asked Arano to fix them some tea.” He flung open the windows and began stripping the bedding from the hanging bed in the corner.
Trav woke Wrenna with a touch. “Come on, honey, time to wake up.”
Eyes blurred with sleep, she looked around. “Trav?”
“Hop up and help me to the bathing room. Dancer and Eppie are waiting to see us.” He flung the sheet to the floor. Wrenna cautiously slid over and stood next to him, ready to help him to his feet but he changed his mind and waved for her to go on ahead. “You get the tub ready. My grandfather can help me up.”
She went into the bathing room, opened the water spigot for the roof reservoir and tossed a handful of bath salts in the tub. When Trav hobbled through the door on his grandfather’s arm, she was ready to help him into the tub. After he was seated, he motioned for her to join him, “Come on in. No need to waste water,” he teased gently.
“Trav?”
“Uh-hmm.”
She looked at him with dark worried eyes. “What we did in the chair?”
“Yes?” He glanced up when he realized she was troubled.
“Did it hurt you? Should we not do that until you’re better?”
He laughed very quietly and pulled her down into his arms. The warm, silky water lapped around them, soothing their sore muscles. “Wrenna, love. My heart. What we did in that chair—and almost certainly will do again—is what is going to keep me sane until we have the pledging and binding. And no, it didn’t hurt me.” A thought occurred to him. “Did it hurt you?”
She burrowed closer. “No. It was just so… so… scary. I thought I was dying.”
“It’s a very powerful thing. In this valley, I think it is more so,” he said thoughtfully. Dunking the washcloth to get it wet, he trickled water over her back. “It is sometimes even called the ‘little’ death. But don’t be afraid, honey. I won’t let anything happen to you!”
“Dai knows,” she said as though it had suddenly occurred to her.
“Yes. And by the time we are dressed and ready to see my brother, I expect this whole village will know,” he admitted with a laugh. “Dancer will be shouting it from the dometops.”
She leaned back and looked at him curiously. “Why would he want to do that?”
“Oh, because we absolutely swore that we would never get married—and here we are—he’s bonded and I’m anxiously waiting to be bonded.”
“Weren’t there women where you came from? Why didn’t you bond with one of them?” Her brow wrinkled. “How many years do you have?”
“Thirty-three. And you?”
&n
bsp; “Twenty-two.” Looking at him very soberly, she asked, “Didn’t any woman ask you to be a bond mate?”
“Yes, as a matter of fact a couple of women did,” he acknowledged quietly. “But I think I was waiting for you. I’m so glad I did.”
Chapter Twelve
Bish searched out Merlyn and Jade. He found them sitting in the warm sun on a tiny patio outside their bedroom. “Come join us,” Merlyn urged as he got up to bring another chair from their bedroom. “We’re sorry we had to be gone just as you arrived.”
Shaking his head, Bish replied, “Dai explained it the best he could. I find the entire process very strange but I’m trying to keep an open mind. I came to find out if you’re both okay now.”
Jade laughed quietly. “Considering how many times we’ve been through it, you would think we would be able to get it right but we’ve never timed it right, even once. Poor Dai is always having to track us down in some out-of-the-way spot and get us under cover.”
“I’m just glad that you’re home. I have so many questions that I don’t know where to start.”
Merlyn yawned widely. “I’m sorry, Bish. We’re still catching up on our sleep. Dai told us he explained about schalzah and schalzina. Somehow, though, I don’t think you want to know about that, do you?”
“No,” he replied baldly. “I want to know what happened when you were abducted. What happened?” He looked from Merlyn to Jade, baffled but certain that they were reluctant to speak.
Jade reached for Merlyn’s hand. “You might as well tell him, darling.” She tenderly kissed his hand, before tightly clasping it in her own.
Refusing to look Bish in the face, Merlyn looked out over the back stone wall enclosing his yard. “When we were abducted from the reception, at first we thought it was some kind of sick joke. It was our wedding! They put us in the limo and drove off. After a couple minutes we decided that it wasn’t a joke and we started asking questions. All they would say was that we had a job to do.”
“Who? Who was it? Dad worked day and night and he never found even one shred of evidence to point to where you were! Not even one little hint!” Bishop ruffled his short hair. “The whole department worked around the clock…the FBI was called in…the television stations all ran your pictures…”
Merlyn squeezed Jade’s hand and just shook his head.
“It would have been a miracle if they had found anything,” she said softly, kissing Merlyn’s hand again for comfort.
“Well? Who was it? And how did you end up here?”
“It was Dad, Bish. Dad had us abducted because he was crazy wild to find this place.” After Merlyn’s flat statement there was a long silence. “Nikolas didn’t tell you?”
Bish looked around them like he expected someone to jump out and say “surprise”. “Nikolas? Nikolas Alexander?” He shook his head. “Our brother has been so fried on drugs he can barely remember his name.”
Jade laid her head down against Merlyn’s shoulder. “That’s how they controlled him? Oh, God, Merlyn. We should have made him come with us.”
“He wouldn’t, honey. You know we tried.”
Bish looked at them in horror. Finally, he whispered, “You’re trying to tell me that Dad really had you kidnapped? You’re serious? What kind of crazy story is that?”
“The truth,” Jade said flatly.
“Why? Why would he do that? You’re crazy!” he declared. Merlyn just looked at him with a steady, sober gaze. “Okay. Suppose I believe you? Why did he do it?” he asked quietly.
“Do you remember the McCrorys and the Taylors?” Jade asked diffidently.
“The two scientists and their families who disappeared a couple years before you? Your sister Rebaccah was married to McCrory, wasn’t she? What about it?” he asked, bewildered by her question. “What do they have to do with this?”
“I understand that you’ve met Samara? Her last name is McCrory,” Jade revealed gently. “Her father is Hamilton McCrory. Ham and Rachel came through the passage with their oldest little girl Elizabeth. Rachel was pregnant with Samara. Three weeks later, Nathan and Morgana Taylor came through with their oldest boy Joshua.”
“Okay…” Bish was still confused. “Suppose they did? What does that have to do with you, aside from the relationship?”
Sighing so deeply it hurt to hear him, Merlyn explained, “They left some of their working notes behind when they disappeared. They discovered some anomalies they couldn’t explain that led them to postulate the possibility of this place—or at least some place like it—a place with an invisible entrance that took up unseen time and space. They speculated that it might be a different dimension or a hidden UFO base or…I’m sure you can fill in the possibilities yourself.”
“So far, I’m with you. Then what?”
“Dad had Jade working on the papers before we married. The week before the wedding, she finally figured out what they found. When she realized what she had, she decided that she couldn’t let Dad get his grubby mitts on it so she destroyed all of the notes, set the computer programming to self-destruct, got rid of every scrap of paper.” He raised Jade’s hand to his mouth and gently kissed it. “Dad found out the day of the wedding. When we were abducted, we were brought to the Bright Shadows Mountains and locked in a hut with Nikolas. Dad came along and threatened to kill Nik and me if Jade didn’t tell him what she knew.” He swiped at a stray tear that trickled down his cheek. “Jade told him to kill us all as she would never tell him anything. He had them strip our clothes off and locked us in.”
“I don’t know if you remember but it was December and below freezing. Jade did that mind trick she used to do on the lock. It took hours!” He remembered with anguish. “Finally, she had it unlocked and we spent a good hour crashing against that door until it jarred the hasp loose.”
“You got away? Why didn’t you tell someone?” Bish demanded.
Jade screamed in frustration. “You still don’t get it, do you? Who were we going to tell? The Department has sticky tentacles in every office in our government. Wherever we went—whoever we told, we were endangering more innocent people.” She wanted to hit something but she calmed down when she felt Merlyn squeeze her hand. “So! When we got out, we decided to try to find the hidden place. Hell! For all we knew it was a complete void and we would die! I just knew that your father couldn’t get his hands on it.”
“So you found it. How?”
“The same way you did. We took shelter in a cave. When we smelled the roses—in December!—we followed the scent but Nik refused to come and we couldn’t wait there to convince him.” For the first time, Merlyn smiled. “Dai was meditating in the little cavern when we came through. He didn’t turn a hair when we arrived stark naked and blue with cold.”
Jade laughed out loud. “He was so funny. There we were, freezing and he’s talking to Merlyn about some bonding. All we wanted to do was get warm. Well, we certainly got warm!” Her laughter took on the edge of hysteria. “We haven’t been that warm since. We almost died from schalzah but I can definitely say we weren’t cold anymore.”
Merlyn got up, plucked Jade from her chair and sat back down with her in his lap. He held her close and comforted her, “Shh. It’s over, Jade. All over.” Looking at Bishop, he added, “Dad’s still looking, you know. When we searched Dancer’s clothes, we found a tiny electronic device. Ham’s pretty sure that it’s some kind of transmitter. He destroyed it but there may be others.”
“You think he was following Dancer to find this place? That all that rot about the Waterloo Group going after him was just to get him to find the valley?” Bish just stared at them. “What about Trav and me? And why is it so important?”
“We don’t know. You didn’t seem to have too many hiding places on you but Trav seems to have brought quite a pile of stuff with him. We’ll have to go through his things carefully. As for why? Dad said something about an old journal he inherited from Great-Uncle Cage. I think he thinks there’s a treasure here.”
&n
bsp; “Huh. What about the Taylors? You know that Morgana is Dancer and Trav’s aunt, right?”
“What?” Merlyn frowned at him. “Are you sure?”
“Pretty sure. She’s their dad’s sister.” Bishop’s brow wrinkled in concentration. “It was in all the papers last year when they were murdered. All about how tragedy continues to strike the family.”
“Nate and Morgana went down to Rebaccah’s Promise right before Dancer arrived. They probably don’t even know that they’re here,” Jade whispered softly.
