by T. J. Quinn
Chapter Ten
Her cousin Joseph and she had decided to build a square base with pebbles from the nearby river for the fire, and the structure was still there.
Still smiling, she left the cave and looked at what was supposed to be their final destination – the Devil’s Mountains. They would have to walk a whole day to get to their foothills and there, set the camp as they started looking for the gold they had come for.
It was still mid-day, but if they tried to get to the foothills that same day, the night would catch them halfway there, unless, he took them there flying.
It felt a bit unfair to even ask him that, but it would take them to their destination a lot faster, and they would be able to start looking for gold the following morning, saving a day.
“What are you doing out here? I told you to wait inside,” he snarled, landing next to her and dropping their bags at her feet.
Startled, she turned to look at him, furious. “You scared me. I don’t follow orders, I thought you knew that by now,” she added, in a sassy tone.
“That attitude will get you in trouble,” he warned her, trying to hold back a smile. She didn’t need encouragement.
“I thought we shouldn’t stay here,” she said, changing the subject. “I’m probably asking too much of you, but if you flew us to the mountain foothills, we would be saving a day,” she explained.
“That wouldn’t be a problem for me. Where are we headed?” he asked, curious.
She showed him the dark mountains a few miles from where they were standing. “Those are the Devil’s Mountains. We’ll set camp at their foothills and start searching from there.”
The mountains looked steep and with very little vegetation in them. But Kael was sure he would be able to scan them, and if there were gold in them, he would find it.
“Very well, the faster we get there, the faster we’ll get back to the village,” he agreed. “I’ll take you there first, and then I’ll come back for the bags.”
“Are you sure that won’t be too tiring for you?” she asked, realizing all he would have to fly with her in his arms. She wasn’t very light.
“Of course not, don’t worry about it,” he assured her.
“Perhaps it would be better if I climbed on your back,” she suggested, not sure that was even possible.
“No, I wouldn’t be able to get a hold of you. Don’t worry, I’ll be fine. If you want to make it more comfortable, just wrap your legs around me,” he suggested, with a faint smile.
Carrying her up the mountain had been a hard exercise on his self-control and taking her the rest of the way promised to be even harder, especially if she did as he told her.
But he didn’t care. Having her in his arms was probably the closest he had gotten to paradise, and he would take every opportunity he had to do it again.
“Let’s go, then,” he said, pulling her closer.
She wrapped her arms around him, and when he grasped her waist, she wrapped her legs around his strong body. Her heart immediately started drumming in a deafening rhythm she was sure he could hear.
“Ready?” he asked, smiling.
“Yes,”
His wings moved, and in a blink of an eye, they were up in the sky. It was fantastic to see the world at their feet, and she decided she would never get tired of it.
Being in his arms only made it more special, and she loved every second of the experience.
This time, it took them a couple of hours to get to their destination. She hadn't thought it would take them so long and she apologized to him. “You must be exhausted,” she said, flustered when he put her on the ground.
“No, I’m not. I’m used to flying long distances,” he assured her.
“Yes, probably, but certainly not carrying a heavy load like me,” she pointed out, feeling the heat coloring her cheeks.
“Heavy? You’re not heavy. Females of my species are heavy. They are almost as tall as I am and their muscled bodies are quite heavy. You don’t weigh a thing in comparison,” he retorted.
She wasn’t sure she liked his comparison. She knew she was small and chubby and judging by his words, anything like the women he was used to. If she wanted evidence he would never look at her twice, he had just provided her with it.
“Even so, it was a long ride. Why don’t you get some rest before you go for our bags?” she asked him, looking anywhere but at his face.
“There’s no need for that. I want to get back before it gets dark. Find a place for us to spend the night, but don’t go far from here. I’ll be back as soon as possible,” he said before he flew away.
She sighed and looked around trying to find the cave her family used to stay in. With luck, it would be as empty as the other one, and they would be able to set their camp there.
While she was searching, she collected all the firewood she was able to find. There weren’t many trees around, but she was able to find enough wood for the night.
The cave was there, and as empty as always. Its entrance was too wide and open to be attractive to animals, but it was perfect for them. Rhiannon deposited the firewood she had gathered and looked around, remembering the fun she’d had with her cousins there.
Life had changed way too much since then. She found the pebbles they had used to make their fire, but these were scattered through the place. She quickly gathered them and started a fire. It was beginning to feel cold, and she knew the night would be even colder.
When she had a good fire, she decided to go back to where Kael had left her to wait there for him. She knew it would still take him some time to return, but she was too restless to stay still.
To her surprise, she didn’t have to wait long for him. He had been away for less than an hour when she saw him coming.
“That was fast,” she said when he landed next to her.
“I didn’t have a special cargo this time,” he said, smiling. “Did you find us a shelter?” he asked, still carrying all their bags.
“Yes, I did. We’re staying in the same cave where I used to stay with my family,” she explained.
“Lead the way,” he asked her.
A few minutes later, they were back at the cave, and Kael deposited the bags near the fire she had started.
“I should go hunting, find some dinner for us,” he said, with a slight frown, “But I have no idea which animals you eat and which you don’t.”
“Is this place that different from where you come from?” she asked, curious.
“Not that much, but our animals are very different, yes.”
“I’ll go with you and show you. There isn’t much I can do here, for now,” she offered, and they left the cave.
They didn’t have much sunlight left so they would have to hurry if they wanted to find something to eat.
“What kind of animals can we find here?”
“Deer, rabbits, and we can also get some salmon from the river, it’s not far,” she explained.
They walked through the woods in silence for a while until she stopped him and pointed at a rabbit coming out of a hole. “That’s a rabbit,” she whispered.
He pointed his small weapon at the animal and with an accurate shot, he got them some dinner.
“That was easy. Where can I get one of those?” she teased him, smiling.
“I’ll teach you how to use it. It fires a jolt of energy that can be set to kill or just stun, and it recharges itself with the sun’s energy,” he explained, smiling back as they went looking for the rabbit.
Back at the cave, she showed him how to skin it and remove the entrails, before she put it to cook on a stick by the fire.
Like the night before, he went looking for some branches to make her a more comfortable bed and she appreciated the gesture.
“How close do you have to be from the gold reef to find it?” she asked, while they were waiting for the rabbit to be cooked.
“At least, within a radius of half a mile,” he replied. “We could try it now and see what it shows
us,” he suggested, picking up his backpack and removing the scanner from it.
“It would be great having an idea where we should start looking,” she said, with a half-smile.
“I know, I doubt it will be that easy. These mountains are quite rocky,” he pointed out, as he turned on the device.
The mountain was filled with all sorts of metals and minerals, and Kael couldn’t tell which one was gold. He hadn't expected that.
“This place has a lot of metals and minerals in it. I can’t tell which one is gold. I would need a piece of gold for the scanner to recognize, so it searches only for that metal,” he explained, furrowing his eyebrows.
She searched for something inside her shirt and pulled out a thin leather neckless with a gold pendant. “Will this do?” she asked, handing it to him. “That was the first gold nugget I found up here in these mountains,” she explained.
He smiled. “That’s exactly what I need,” he scanned the small nugget and handed it back to her.
With the chemical composition of the metal, he scanned their surroundings once more, but the results were disappointing. There were a few traces of the metal, but nothing worth looking for.
“We’ll need to go higher,” she said when he shared the results with her. “I’m sure we’ll be luckier there.”
“Yes, I’m sure of it too,” he agreed.
The rabbit was finally ready, and she served it with a couple of slices of bread. “This is the last bread we have,” she told him. “From now on we’ll have to hunt or fish our food.”
“I don’t have a problem with that. Anything will be just fine,” he assured her.
“With that weapon of yours, we won’t have any problem getting what we need.”
He laughed and agreed.
Chapter Eleven
After they were finished, she complained about the lack of a bathroom. “I guess when I was a child those things didn’t matter that much, at least, not the way they matter now,” she grumbled.
“You said there was a river nearby. You can use it in the morning before we leave on our first expedition,” he suggested, smiling.
The images of her under the waterfall were branded with fire on his mind. He would never forget that.
“Yes, and I’m looking forward to that. Just wished I could go now, but since we have no idea where the demons come from, I won’t take any risk,” she explained with a scowl.
“I wouldn’t let you,” he assured her.
She snorted, looking at him with a mocking scowl. “And how exactly would you stop me?” she asked.
“Oh, I’m sure I would find a way,” he assured her, with a sensuous tone in his voice.
She could swear his voice had come out huskier than usual, but she dismissed the thought as ridiculous.
“I don’t allow my father to control me, I certainly wouldn’t allow you to do it,” she replied, dismissing his words.
“Then, I would have to persuade you not to go,” he retorted, looking at her with so much lust in his eyes, thrilling chills rushed down her spine.
“I’m not that easy to persuade,” she insisted, her heart already drumming at an incredible pace in her chest.
She couldn’t believe she was flirting him.
He slid to where she was sitting, staying so close she could feel the warmth of his body.
“I’m sure I could find a way,” he said, in a hoarse whisper that had her trembling in anticipation. **
Kael knew he was playing with fire. He shouldn’t be flirting with Rhiannon when he knew he wouldn’t be staying. But he didn’t seem to be able to avoid it. His whole body craved her in ways he hadn't known before.
When she smiled at him, her eyes revealing the same fire, he couldn’t hold back anymore. Cradling her face, he leaned forward and claimed a sweet kiss on her lips, in a vain attempt to satisfy his need, but instead, he only fueled it.
Pulling her even closer, he slid his coarse tongue inside her mouth, eager to delve into every inch of it, in a breathtaking kiss.
Rhiannon wrapped her arms around his neck and melted into his embrace, loving the way his tongue took over her mouth, stealing her breath away and banishing any coherent thought from her mind. All she could think of was him and the passion roaring inside her.
He kissed her again and again before he started to take her clothes off. Piece by piece, he took it all, never stopping kissing and caressing her.
Revealing her voluptuous body to his eyes and hands was one of the sexiest things he had ever done. With each layer of clothing he removed, his arousal climbed to a new level, and by the time he had her completely naked in front of him, he held onto his self-control by a thin thread.
Eager to have her, he took his clothes off before he made her lie down on the bed he had prepared for her. After a few more kisses, his lips finally left her mouth, to trace a fire trail along her cheeks and down her neck, combining kisses and nibbles.
Each caress ripped a moan of pleasure from her lips, and her whole body rocked to meet his, revealing a passion as fiery as his.
Encouraged by her eagerness, he cupped her big, round breasts, slightly squeezing them and teasing the hard peak with the tip of his claw, feeling it getting even harder under his ministrations. By the time his lips reached her hard nipples, she was moaning and whimpering, wholly lost in the haze of the passion they had conjured.
The first time his coarse tongue reached her nipples she sobbed, as bursts of pleasure rushed through her whole body, making her shudder and squirm.
Eager for more, he slid a hand down her belly, right to her mound, cupping it for a few moments, before he slid a finger down her slit, feeling just how wet she was for him.
He licked her folds a few times before he reached her engorged clit and teased it. A few rubs and pinches and she flew over the edge, right into the embrace of the most potent orgasm she had ever felt.
He loved witnessing the pleasure he had given her, but his body craved for more, much more. Without wasting another second, he crouched between her legs and rested his hard cock at her entrance. Placing his big hands on her hips, he slowly pushed inside her, going inch by inch, feeling her walls stretch to welcome him, and rubbing each and every one of his ridges on his way in. The pleasure was mind-blowing, and he had to gather all his self-control in a huge effort not to lose his mind.
But when she let out a loud moan and wrapped her legs around his waist, pulling him closer to her, he lost it all.
Thrust after thrust, he set out to conquer the pleasure that she promised each time her walls clenched hard around him. It didn’t take him much to meet her on the waves of pleasure and bliss she still sailed on. Their bodies were nothing more than shuddering masses, moaning and grunting underneath the effects of the powerful orgasms that ripped through them.
He finally collapsed next to her, still breathing hard, amazed at the pleasure he had experienced in her arms. It was like nothing he had felt before and so much more than he had ever dreamed possible. He had always thought he would only know such pleasure in the arms of his soulmate, and yet, Rhiannon hadn't awakened his instinct.
Confused, he closed his eyes for a few seconds.
Rhiannon looked at the cave’s ceiling, her eyes watching without seeing the games of shadows the flames played in it.
Waves of pleasure still rushed through her body, but her mind was already working extra time, trying to analyze what had just happened between them.
Sure, she had never felt a passion like the one he had conjured within her. Not that her experience was vast enough as to consider it special, after all, she had only been with one man before, one she had grown up with and the one everybody had expected her to marry.
But though she had loved Matthew, deep down, she had known her love for him wasn’t the one a woman should feel for her husband. After some time, struggling to make things work between them, they finally admitted they weren’t meant for each other, and they moved on.
Her father hadn't been v
ery pleased, but he ended up accepting her decision. It was her life, and she wasn’t willing to allow anyone to tell her how to live it.
Now, she was in the arms of a man she barely knew, and yet, she had never felt so close to someone as she felt with him. She knew she shouldn’t feel this way for him since he was only passing by, but she guessed you couldn’t tell your heart what to feel.
Perhaps, she shouldn’t have let him show her paradise since now she wouldn’t settle for less, but she wasn’t sorry she had. Life was short and the better way to live it was to make the best of it.
So, yes, she would lose him, sooner or later, but at least, she would have the memories of the moments they spent together to warm her future. Someone had said once it was better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all.
With a silent sigh, she cuddled up against him, resting her head on his chest. He kissed the top of her head.
“You’re an amazing woman, did you know that?” he whispered, kissing her again.
She chuckled. “Of course, I am. You should know that by now,” she teased him.
He laughed. “Yes, you’re right, I should.”
“But now, I really need to get some rest, or you’ll have to carry me all the way,” she said, yawning.
“I wouldn’t mind, at all,”
She chuckled. “Such a gentleman, but I know I’m a heavyweight,” she scolded him in a soft tone.
“You, my darling, are perfect. Capable of making me lose my mind with a simple wink of your eye,” he replied, in a way too serious tone.
A bit surprised, she tilted her head to look at him. “Oh, is that so?” she asked, winking melodramatically, challenging him to prove his words.
He laughed again and pulled her up, making her rest her whole body on his. “Yes, it is,” he assured her before he claimed her lips in a passionate kiss that unleashed the passion still burning between them.
A few moments later, they were entangled once more in the oldest dance of the universe, seeking once more the pleasure they now knew waited for them at the end.
