by Claudy Conn
~ Ten ~
JACIE MOVED IN RETAAL’S BED to face him. Earlier, before she fell asleep, he had laid his palm over her wounds. The heat that emanated from his touch was earth-bound and deep. His power came from nature and she could feel her body respond to that earthiness almost immediately.
He had kissed her then and told her to sleep. She had said she couldn’t sleep at all and promptly dozed off.
“Hmmm,” Jacie said, and touched his face with one finger, tracing his jaw line. “It’s so dark…how long did I sleep?”
He raised his naked self onto his elbow and softly told her, “Only two hours…it is just after nine. Go back to sleep.”
“Can’t,” Jacie said as she felt a rush of desire. She was totally healed and she was hot, seriously hot. Her dreams had tickled her libido. “Need you.”
“Need me to what?” He raised a brow and his smile was so sexy she couldn’t do anything else but kiss him.
Her tongue dove and found his. She didn’t want a gentle waltz. She wanted a feverish tango, and so she showed him.
His hand went to her breast, his other hand found her butt and drew her in. She felt his hard-on press against her and wanted him inside. She didn’t need or want foreplay. What she wanted was a hard fuck!
“Now…” she said breathlessly as she drew away from his lips. “Fuck me now…I want your fucking dick inside me…do me, Ret, now!”
He didn’t say a word. He simply pulled her up as he lay on his back and propped her on top of him. “Go ahead…that fucking cock is yours. Do what you want!” he growled low and hungry.
She took a hold and stroked its length and moaned as she positioned it at her wet opening and brought herself down hard, ramming it inside her.
“Baby!” He almost howled. “Baby…oh, you are so good.”
She worked him then, rotated her hips as her sex swallowed his dick. She pumped and leaned backwards as she filled herself with him.
He reached for her. “Come this way…I want those luscious tits.”
She moved forward, allowing her muscles to clench at his cock as she moved and he took her breasts in his hands and said her name, “Jacie…Jacie, I love you.”
The words sent her into the heavens and she began pumping against him faster, and faster still, until she exploded into a myriad of stars, which filled her body and sent off little explosions all through her nerve endings, all through her body. She sank against his hot chest, pleasured and satisfied.
He chuckled and said, low and determined, “Oh, no, we are not done, not by a long shot. I am going to make you go off over and over…and...” He rolled her onto her back, inside her all the while, and began his own version of a dance. “Over and over…no rest, baby, not letting you rest.”
Later, so much later, as he spooned her body and nuzzled the top of her head, she said, “Ret…we have to get back to the city. I need to get those termites on the job and I don’t think I can do that from here.”
“We are going tomorrow. My team will be waiting for us at my headquarters.”
“Oh, will it be okay…to bring me in? Will they look at me as an intruder? I don’t want to get in the way,” she said, and frowned.
He laughed. “In the way? An immortal witch with the kind of power you have could never be in the way…anywhere.”
She snuggled again, sighed, and fell into a deep sleep. When she woke next, she found him sleeping soundly and got up to head for the bathroom. On the way back to bed she found her open suitcase, where he had packed a little black negligee she had bought on a whim. She smiled to herself. It still had the price tag on it. She smiled, removed the tag, and slipped into it.
She looked towards the bed to find him awake, his hands behind his head as he watched her, a grin across his handsome face.
“Oh, baby, you sexy piece of ass…come over here,” he said in a voice that made her lick her lips.
“Oh…and if I do, what then?”
“Let me show you,” he said.
She slid onto the bed and tucked her legs under her as she teased him and dropped one black spaghetti strap over her shoulder. “Show me? Show me what?”
“First, answer me this, when you bought this number…” He reached up and tugged on the strap until the scoop neck of the transparent number exposed one full breast. He made a low feral sound in his throat and thumbed her nipple. “Who did you have in mind? Who, baby?”
She smiled. “If I am truthful, Ret…you…as mad as I was with you…I still had my dreams. I arrived here…knew I would be freeing you, and…well, I just bought it.”
He got to his knees and towering over her, he took her face in his hands and kissed her, hard, long, and thoroughly. “Mine…Jacie…you are mine.”
“So I am, and you?”
“Am yours…forever,” he answered, and pulled the rest of the transparent garment down to her waist. He buried his face at her breasts. He licked and nibbled at her nipples and she groaned as he brought her to full heat.
He cupped her sex with one hand and said, “I’m going to pleasure this…pleasure you for all our lives.”
“Oh, Ret…you told me recently that forever is a very long time…sure you can handle it?”
“As sure as I am that I am breathing,” he said, and positioned her on her hands and knees. “Ah, baby, you are so ready…so wet and ready,” he whispered as he set his shaft in place and slammed himself inside of her.
They pleasured each other with a passion Jacie prayed would last into eternity. Retaal took her in ways she had never known existed. She sucked and licked his huge cock until she made him shoot his seed. His stamina seemed endless as he lowered her back to the bed, held her in a spoon position and lifted one leg back over his hip to enter her again.
Well into the night, they slept, then awoke to the sunrise beaming through their panoramic windows.
Jacie opened her eyes and found him staring at her, his finger pushing aside some of her tangled locks. “Do you know what I feel?” he asked her, and took her hand and put it to his heart, beating so furiously in his broad chest.
“I hope I do,” she said softly. She saw adoration in his silver eyes and her heart filled with joy.
“Jacie…no matter what happens in the days ahead, always remember—my heart beats your name, the air I breathe has your name written in the wind, and my eyes only look for you when you aren’t in the same room. Remember that always.”
“Ooh, that sounds worrisome. Do you anticipate trouble between us?” she said, suddenly worried.
“Yes, I do. Here, you and I live the fantasy of peace, of contentment. Out there…where we must go, there is no peace and no time for what is important just between us. Do you understand?”
“I think so and I’m ready,” she said.
“Are you, baby? Because truthfully, now that I have had this time with you, I’m no longer content to drag this conflict out. I want peace…now! I want to take you back to Devos and begin a life with you, but we can’t until we find a way to bring humans to the table.” He clucked his tongue. “I know Niall isn’t in the right of it. More killing will bring more hate, but maybe we are being too kind to a race that despises us…will always despise us. Maybe there is another road all of us can use.”
“I am confident that between us, Ret, we will find a way,” Jacie whispered. “We can’t think of anything but a successful conclusion and work towards it. We have to keep trying a bit longer, and hope for peace without war.”
“I am beginning to have doubts. Everything that has happened to date, Jacie…has opened my eyes to a truth my father doesn’t see. Humans will never trust us. Look what they did to Dog…to his little mate? Look how they treat the Cumas and supernaturals in the Dank? I just don’t know if continuing this mission of peace through diplomacy works for me any longer. And yes, I agree that killing must be a last resort, but diplomacy…is taking too long.”
“And why this new philosophy. What has changed?”
“You. You chang
ed it all. Jacie, I want to start a life with you, and one that is free of the constraints we have put on ourselves because of humans. We don’t need to do that. Father is kinder than I.”
“No, Ret, you would hate yourself if you killed those unable to protect themselves against your might. How about if we compromise? How about we agree to do what we have to do to get our brethren out of the Lower Planet…and tackle the philosophy of what comes next after that?”
He kissed her long and hard. “I love the way you think and behave, Jacie,” he whispered against her lips.
~ Eleven ~
THE GLORIOUS MORNING TICKLED JACIE who had dosed off. She smiled with renewed hope for the future. Sunshine radiated through the panoramic windows. She did some stretches as she relived being in Ret’s arms all night. She looked around and wondered what he was doing.
Hurrying, she padded towards the bathroom to take her shower. Ret must be anxious to get to the city and to his team, and she didn’t want to keep him waiting.
As she soaped herself down in the soothing hot water, she recalled how irritated he had become when she suggested they get in touch with Niall and discuss the possibility of working together.
He had opened a mind-link and she decided to use it, but when she put her request to him, all Niall would say was, We’ll see, Jacinta…we’ll see.
She supposed that was something at least. A few moments later, she was dressed and brushing out her long red hair, tangled from Ret’s ministrations. She smiled and used magic to finish the job.
Retaal stood in the doorway, staring at her.
She smiled at him and a moment later, he was pulling her into his arms. “Good morning, beauty.”
“Good morning,” she said, and beamed at him.
“Do you know you literally made my heart stop when I saw you just now? Jacie, do you know how stunning you are?”
She pulled a face. “I am quite certain that in all your years you have been with prettier women.”
“Never,” he said earnestly. “It isn’t just your gorgeous hair, your violet eyes…your incredible body. Jacie…it is you. Everything you are just glows and pulls me in.”
She threw herself against his chest. “Ret…I wish we could stay here…at this house, just you and I, and…”
He brought up her chin and dropped a light kiss, which turned into something deeper, and lustier.
“Yes, I like this community…Shelter Island. Remote enough and many of the people here are wealthy vacationers. They come and go without drawing too much attention. Makes it a perfect safe house.” He rubbed his hard-on against her belly.
She giggled and pushed away. “Oh, no. We have work that needs doing.”
“How about just a quickie?” he teased.
She laughed. “You don’t know the meaning of the word. Now, come on, time to have some coffee and food. Then off we go.”
He grinned like a boy and shook his head. “What has happened to you, son of Apollo? When did a slip of a witch take over your life?”
She laughed out loud and took his hand. “Feed me, son of Apollo.”
“As my witch desires,” he answered, and allowed her to drag him away from the bedroom.
Hunger was appeased and as they got ready to shift to Ret’s headquarters, Jacie took up her orb. “Niall didn’t readily agree when I suggested we work together. However, I may not need to work with his rescued witch. There is a spell Mama taught me. Once I was practicing magic, and I was only seven, I took myself off to a fantasy play-land and couldn’t find my way back. I finally called on Mama and she came and scooped me up. She taught me at that time, that if for any reason ever I couldn’t contact her or Papa, I was to contact Celine. I just have to remember the words. They were just a bit different than a direct mind-link to my mother. I just have to remember exactly how it goes…”
“And if you can contact Celine, will she trust you to rescue her witches?” He beamed.
“I think so. I just have to remember the words. In the meantime, I’ll send in the termites, the supernaturals will get air and some of their strength back, we go in, you open the portal, easy-peasy.” She stuck her fist in the air.
“Things that look that easy, rarely are, baby,” he said doubtfully.
“Yeah, I know,” she said, and sat thoughtfully for a moment.
She nodded and Retaal squeezed her hand as he shifted them to his New York headquarters.
* * * * *
Niall threw off his black leather jacket and stomped across the marbled floor of the rebel underground headquarters.
He was sick with disgust. A traitor lived in their midst and he was yet to find the bastard. He was sure of it now that Jacie’s partner had been outed.
His Intel advised him that Jacie and Retaal had managed to rescue the wolf shifter and his mate, but not before the two shifters had been tortured. Damn, how he hated ACE.
Somehow, he had to find a way to set a trap for the mole working amongst his most trusted intimates. Why would a supernatural work with humans against supernaturals? For power amongst humans? No, he did not see that as a viable conclusion. What then?
His team members had filed in and moved in different directions across the long expanse of the main chamber. He could see that in spite of their easy manners, each one was edgy. He realized that their second failure to penetrate the Lower Planet in the early hours of the morning had them out of sorts and looking over their shoulders. Someone had informed ACE, who had been there waiting for them.
At least the redhead witch had managed to help Retaal free himself. And it had been done without collateral damage. No humans had been killed. Not that he cared what happened to the humans, but it was remarkable. She was, in fact, an unusual entity in all of this. He wanted her on his team. Damn, he wanted her in his bed.
Bloody hell, his body got tight when he thought about undressing Jacie and taking her to his bed...he couldn’t remember ever wanting a female as much.
However, there was a danger in that. She was so much more than just a fine piece of ass. Jacie would not give herself away easily. She would require more of a lover than a toss in bed, and he wasn’t about to give more of himself to any woman. No—not he!
Jacie had the ability to wield a magic that could not be challenged by any other witch. She not only was a purebred witch, daughter of a powerful warlock and witch, but Apollo had been her guardian and protector. Niall also knew that Apollo had given her some additional abilities.
The Purge had sent so many supernaturals and witches into hiding. The reclusive nature of immortal witches kept them from detection. How Crawly had managed to locate Celine’s coven was still a mystery.
Then there was Retaal. He had watched Retaal mature over the centuries, and although Retaal upheld his father’s ways, he was very different from Apollo.
Could he convince Retaal to join with him? What an asset that would be!
Niall loved and respected Apollo, but Apollo was flawed by his affection for humans. Retaal might be a bridge between their two ways of thinking.
Perhaps the time was right to approach Retaal with a plan that would—could use a compromise between the rebels and Apollo’s peacemakers?
The mole in his midst was evidence that he needed to do something different. However, would Retaal and Jacie hold him responsible for Dog’s capture?
Dog had been outed, and Niall was fairly certain he had been outed by the traitor in his own midst. There was, of course, the outside chance that the traitor was on Retaal’s team…yet his gut told him otherwise.
He surveyed the room and each of his members milling around, jesting with one another, as they poured wine and laid out a board of cheese and fruit. Who amongst them would work with the humans? And why?
His eyes came to rest on a lovely, most regal blonde Anunn—Lali. She was one of his favorites, as she had the ability to control the electricity in the air.
She must have felt his gaze and turned to give him a smile.
He had oft
en bedded her. It meant nothing to either of them…at least, he had always believed that. Had she been hurt by him? Had she felt scorned? Had she turned on all of them because of something to do with him?
Impossible. There was Savon—big strapping Savon. He was a full-blooded Cuma. God of Granite. Keeper of the Mountains. Savon was laughing with yet another of his big strapping team members.
Niall wanted to rant at the heavens. None of them would have outed a wolf shifter! Cumas and shifters were bonded. Shifters were pack-family based. Cumas revered their values. No.
But then who?
Had his loft been somehow bugged? Had they not realized it?
Niall blinked and said, “My rebels. I need Savon and Lali.” He turned to another one of his favorites, a mortal warlock. “Henry…you as well. We need to go in cloaked. Can you do that for us?”
Henry, a huge black man whose smile could, and often did, melt hearts, inclined his head. “I can and shall.”
A moment later, Niall opened a portal and they stepped out, totally invisible, into the loft he had used temporarily to be near Jacie.
“We need to search for any of their mechanical devices…anything that doesn’t feel right to you,” Niall said.
They spent forty minutes shredding the place with magic and could find no evidence that the human ACE team had planted a listening device.
Niall was back to his original belief, one of his own was a traitor. Could he trust Savon, Lali, and Henry?
Yes. He would keep his suspicions to himself, however. He needed to trip the mole while he or she was in action. He needed to give false information to each member of his team and see which information would be followed by ACE.
Tricky and dangerous, but it had to be done.
He indicated the portal through which they had arrived. “Go on back…relax. We’ll figure out how the humans listened in on us.”
Henry, Lali, and Savon nodded, but Henry lingered as Savon and Lali stepped into the portal. “Niall…I have to say it—I think we have a mole working with ACE.”
