“Why don’t you hop into the truck and I’ll drive you to the house?” Despite the bright sunshine, he could see her cheeks looked a bit dull and waxy. The cold didn’t bother him in the slightest, but she looked like she was getting frostbite.
“It’s not that far of a walk.”
“I know, but I came to visit with Aniela, so you might as well sit in the front where it’s warm.” Also, that would allow him a few more moments to bask in her scent. Holly refused his help, hopped over the edge of the truck, and gracefully dropped to the ground. For a moment, Colwyn would have sworn a soft breeze blew her scent over his face, opposite to the direction the wind was blowing. A witch, that had to be it. She was a witch…There was no other believable explanation.
“Come in and have something warm to drink. Aniela makes the most incredible tea. It’s called coffee.” Holly opened her own door and got into the cab. That comment was strange, because she acted as if she’d never had it before.
Stepping into the big old house felt like stepping back in time. He hadn’t been here more than a handful of times in the last decade. Being here, surrounded by memories of a much happier time, made his chest squeeze painfully tight.
“I’m in the kitchen, Holly.” Aniela’s gentle voice echoed down the hall.
He followed the voice and Aniela gave him a big smile when he came through the door.
“Colwyn, how wonderful to see you! Have you met my guest, Holly?”
“Yes, I have. She was outside when I pulled up, but I’m afraid that she might have a bit of frostbite. Although looking at her now, she looks fine. Her cheeks were looking a bit waxy outside.”
“Oh, I feel fine now.” Holly stood at the counter with a large plate in her hand. Wait, how the hell did she get out of them so quickly? He glanced over and noticed her coat hanging on the wall next to him. Now that was impossible, because I would have seen her hang it there, and I didn’t.
“You were sent by Brand, weren’t you?” Aniela patted him on the chest over his heart. She knew that he still mourned his lost friendship with Brand. He never hid that fact.
“I have no idea what you are talking about.”
“Yes you do, and I can’t tell you how thrilled I am that he called you. I’ve been hoping that he would do that for years.”
“You didn’t set all this up on purpose, did you?”
“Goodness, no. I'll have to thank the fates for this one. It’s a magical time of year, and a lovely bit of fortune is following me. You’re here, Holly’s here, and soon I hope that my nephew will be arriving. Then I want you both to convince him to stay.”
Colwyn wished it were that simple. “I don’t think he wants to, Aniela.”
“Well, I don’t think he knows what he wants. I know why he left, Colwyn. Most of the town thinks it’s out of grief, but I know it was guilt. Neither of you ever had anything to feel guilty about. It was a terrible tragedy, but that is a conversation for another time.”
“I don’t think that delving into old pains will help anything.”
A melodic chime danced through the house and Aniela glanced over at the door that led into to the shop. “I have customers?” She clapped her hands. “Oh, I have customers.” She practically danced out of the room. Holly stood there sipping her coffee with kind amusement and affection in her eyes, but not surprise in any way.
“Exactly what were you doing up in that tree?” Colwyn was thankful for the interruption. The wound on his heart from Brand couldn’t handle a lot of poking. Some hurts never scabbed over.
“Decorating.” Holly’s lips quirked up in one corner, making her look like a mischievous pixie. “Aniela has this big, beautiful Christmas tree here in the house, and I thought that the trees outside looked so bare. They needed some decorating as well. You had wonderful timing showing up when you did.”
“Something tells me you weren’t going to have any trouble getting out of that tree. I’m trying to figure out why.”
Holly stepped closer to him and her scent danced along his skin. Never had he met someone whose scent was almost playful and ethereal like this. He closed the space between them, wrapped his arms around her trim waist, and gently tugged her closer. He wanted her scent on his clothes. Or better yet, on my skin. “Holly, what are you?”
She shrugged, stepping back away from his embrace, but he wouldn’t allow her to go more than an inch. “A faery.”
That made sense. He looked above her shoulder and reached out to stroke the air there. A tingling sensation danced over his hand and she physically trembled against his chest.
“Are your wings really there?”
“Yes, but Aniela said it would be better if I kept them hidden for now.”
“Show me?”
She grinned impishly and shook her head. “Not unless you show me yours.”
A pristine joy filled his heart and he laughed as he pulled her close to him to whisper in her ear. “I’m a Selkie, princess. You will have to come home with me to see mine.”
He couldn’t change into a seal like most of the other shape-shifters in town. They morphed into their inner animal. He wrapped himself in his sealskin, and that would trigger the change in him.
“You don’t keep your pelt with you? I remember the old stories about your race. What if someone was to steal it and make you their slave? They could prevent you from returning to the ocean.”
“Now who would want to enslave me? It would cost them a fortune in food to keep me happy. Besides, I’ve gotten sneaky in my old age.”
Holly laughed. The sound danced over his skin like a ray of sun.
Colwyn couldn’t explain this overwhelming attraction to Holly. It was more than her physical appearance or that she, too, was a magical being. She grinned at him and his heart clenched in a way it hadn’t for such a long time.
She slowly moved her hand up and down his arm. He watched her closely. She always seemed to be touching something or looking around.
“Holly, how did you get here?”
“I’ve been trapped for a while.” Her expression darkened, but in sadness or resignation, not in anger. “I did something terrible in the past and was incarcerated in a crystal prison for a long time.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, I could see what was happening around me but it was more like a dream. I didn’t feel hunger or the passing of time. Sounds were muted and I couldn’t smell or taste anything. Now I hope I never sleep again.”
She lifted her hand and ran it through his short hair. “It feels prickly against my palm.” Her hand slid down and she lightly rubbed the scruff on his face and chin. “It’s scratchy, but soft as well.”
Colwyn’s cock filled and he angled his hip away from her. She seemed so innocent in her explorations. He didn’t know how much experience she had, and inside he wanted to groan in frustration.
“I was trapped for centuries, and now the world is completely different. I can’t sense my people as I could before. It’s as if they have all gone into hiding or left this dimension entirely. I’m all alone.”
“You’re not alone, Holly. Aniela wants to take care of you, and now you have me, too. I’ll help you in any way that I can.”
“Really?”
“What do you need?”
“I need to feel…something…everything. It’s like I was trapped in the dark, and now suddenly I’m back out in the sunshine and I can’t get enough.”
A deep sadness reflected in her eyes and he felt the ripples to his very soul. He couldn’t explain this intense attraction to her, including this deep ache at the thought of her feeling any sort of pain or sadness. He moved before his brain registered what he wanted to do. He pulled her small form into his embrace and held her. Burying his nose in her neck, he inhaled the sweet scent he found there.
“What do you want to feel, Holly?”
“Everything.”
“Come on.” Colwyn claimed her hand in his and headed toward the inner door of Aniela’s shop. In
side a bunch of people milled around her store, and Aniela wandered around talking to them and telling them stories about the pieces they looked at.
“Aniela, I’m going to go for a drive with Holly.”
“That’s wonderful, Colwyn. You two have fun. I can’t believe how busy I am in here today. Colwyn, don’t you need to open up your place today?”
“No I’m fine. I hired a high school student to work over the holidays. So I have all day to help out if you need me. Do you want us to stick around and help?”
“No, I’ll be fine.”
“How about I make dinner for the two of you tonight?”
“You are a doll, Colwyn.” She opened her arms and he bent over for a hug. “Thank you for coming over, I’ve missed you.”
Warmth radiated from her hug. Brand was an idiot, and so was he, for staying away from this loving woman.
* * * *
Holly’s heart pounded against her chest as she looked out the window and watched the world go by. She wasn’t entirely certain what the cause was. Finding out that this man was a relation to the man she cursed was a shock. Feeling her own intense attraction to him made it doubly so. She felt alive in a way that she never knew before. The arrogant lord she cursed never made her body react the way this one did. She wanted to feel everything. Sitting in his lap felt like she truly belonged somewhere. If not for the shock of his ancestry, she might never have moved. It felt so wonderful being held again. The way the cold morning had chilled her skin, and yet the moment he touched her, she flushed warm. There were evidently a few twists and turns in his family tree, because she distinctly remembered that the man she cursed was human, and this man was a magical being.
“Where are we going?” Holly asked.
“Someplace where you can show me yours.”
It wasn’t the words that caused Holly’s heart to race and her body to tingle. His tone was seductive and playful, and she suspected that he would be a very caring lover.
Colwyn lived up to the Selkie reputation of being a beautiful man, much better looking than the men from court she grew up around. The men of the fey court were almost feminine in appearance. Colwyn was as handsome as them, but there was a sincerity to his soul, a rugged edge to his beauty that took her breath away.
“Are you certain you are warm enough?”
“Yes, absolutely.” She smiled at him and hoped that he wouldn’t catch her lie. While she wasn’t as affected by the cold as a human, her garments were still only glamour, and her magic wasn’t as strong as it once was. Still, she wasn’t going to miss this for the world.
He pushed a couple buttons and warm air blew from small holes in the barrier in front of her. She couldn’t help but move her fingers through the airstream and then jiggle the little levers on the shutters that caused the air to move in different directions.
“Oh, fantastic!” She heard one of the actors say that on the show she watched with Aniela every day. Her favorite character was the ugliest woman she ever saw, but Holly loved the colors she dressed herself in.
Colwyn reached behind her seat and pulled out a large blanket for her to lay over her legs. She ran her fingers over the short bristles, which she thought felt very much like his face. This was no simple blanket. It felt like she would imagine a seal skin to be. “This is yours?”
He nodded. His expression looked guarded, but she was certain he watched her from the corner of his eye. She ran her hand in the same direction as the fur and it felt like silk under her fingertips. “It’s beautiful. May I see you in it?”
Holly’s fascination with the sealskin draped over her lap distracted her, and before she knew it they pulled up to the edge of a large, snow-covered lake. She understood what an honor he offered her. Selkies were notorious for being incredibly private beings, and here she was about to be shown something few ever saw.
No one had ever offered to share such a personal aspect of their life with her. She’d been good enough to be in their bed but not enough to share their secrets. Colwyn was offering her a much more intimate moment than a simple physical act. “Does it hurt?” Because if it hurt, she didn’t want him to suffer for her.
“No more than you using your magic hurts.”
He got out of the truck and walked around to open her door and lift her out. The wind whipped over the lake, stinging her cheeks with its cold bite. She lifted her face to it and then Colwyn pressed his warm hands against her cheeks, creating an incredible contrast.
He frowned slightly at her. “I didn’t think this through very well, and it’s colder out here than I thought it would be.”
She could see the concern in his gaze, but she didn’t want to pass up this opportunity. With a soft exhale, she dropped the glamour that hid her wings, which allowed her to protect herself from the elements better.
Colwyn did a double take looking over her shoulder. He reached out and ran his hand along the face of one wing. It felt like she stood too close to a lightning strike, only all the prickling sensations centered directly on her pussy. He might as well have had his fingers between her legs, rubbing her wet folds so the trembles would radiate along her limbs. She trembled and Colwyn’s gaze dropped to her eyes.
“They’re sensitive. That’s good to know.” His grin held a wicked tilt to it, making her ache more for his touch. Would he take his time or push her back against the seat and push his cock deep inside?
“I want you to be careful because when I first put on my skin it takes a moment before I remember who I am. Now your scent is part of me, too.” He fingered the pelt lying across her lap. “I’ll always remember to come back to you.”
He pulled her closer and pressed a kiss against her lips. He deepened the contact and swept his tongue inside her mouth. She clung to him. Her pussy throbbed and her heart raced. It felt as if she waited her entire existence for this exact moment. The sensations pounded at her, threatening to pull her under.
Colwyn broke the kiss and hugged her tight. “Are you all right?”
“A bit overwhelmed, but I don’t mind at all.”
“Good. Watch closely, it happens fast.”
He stood back and stripped his clothes off, handing them to her one by one. “Colwyn, you’ll freeze.”
“I don’t feel the cold at all.”
She watched as he revealed himself to her. She wanted to feel his skin under her hands. His cock was a beautiful sight, quickly hidden from her with a swirling of the large pelt. It looked as though the skin swallowed him, because as soon as it touched his bare skin it wrapped and reformed around him. In what took only moments, a large bull seal bounded across the ice and dove into the icy water. Holly carefully stepped over onto the ice, wanting to get closer and see him move through the water. Where did he go? She remembered stories of how Selkies would sometimes forget to come back to land. She had only taken a few steps when she heard a loud crack.
She fluttered her wings, lifted herself off the dangerous surface, and drifted on the wind back to the shore. The bull seal broke the surface and howled out his concern as he came back to shore. Leaping up onto the rocks, he edged himself closer to her. Holly stood very still, uncertain of the animal’s reaction to her. It seemed to shudder, and then she saw a foot and hand emerge out from underneath. It looked like Colwyn crawled out from under the seal, but the pelt flattened out over top of him.
“I heard the ice crack under you. Are you all right?”
Holly was trying to take in what had happened and figure out how the large animal became a man.
“Don’t think about it too much, it will drive you crazy.”
She watched as he quickly re-dressed. Then, he wrapped an arm under her wings and scooped her up, carrying her back to the truck. He sat in the passenger seat with her in his lap, his pelt around her. Its warmth surrounded her and he caressed her wings with long strokes. Shivers danced along her skin like an electrical current and her pussy throbbed as moisture collected between her legs. She could feel the heat of his hard length
radiating through their clothing. Adjusting her legs, she straddled his hips and pressed her aching pussy against the hard length stretching the front of his jeans. “More, Colwyn. I want to feel more.”
“Not here in my truck, Holly.” Her hands gripped her shoulders as he pressed an openmouthed kiss against her throat. She arched her neck to allow him better access. She loved the way his hot breath felt against her damp skin as he spoke. “I’ll take you back to my place. It’ll be nicer there.”
“Nicer than this?” Holly looked around the area she sat in. She might not understand how this worked, but it was clean, and warm, and private. “The last time I felt a man inside me it was against the wall of a barn while the horses watched and tried to nip at my bottom through the grates. It was dirty and smelled like…well, a dirty barn.” At the time, she had been fascinated by the way the man’s hands had felt on her skin and the realness of it all. Rubbing herself against Colwyn’s hard cock, the friction between her legs made her feel as though she drank too much brandy wine. More. I want more.
“I want to feel my cock pressing deep inside your pussy.” As he spoke, she reached down and undid the button of his pants.
“Pussy, I like that name. I heard lots of names on the television.” She watched many shows after Aniela went to bed and couldn’t believe her eyes when she found one that showed men and women…what was that word again? “Fucking.” She spoke aloud but it didn’t seem to surprise Colwyn.
“Not yet, but soon. We need to get you out of these clothes.”
Holly dissolved the glamour that surrounded her. The cool air touched her skin and she felt her body break out in little bumps. Colwyn paused, slid his hands from her shoulders down her arms, and lifted her hands so he could see all of her. Feeling his hands on her skin left her breaking out in goose bumps. He graced her with a breathtaking smile. “You’re exquisite.”
Knowing that he found her attractive sent a shimmer of hope through her. She wanted to feel loved, even for a little while. She pressed her knees into the seat and lifted up so he could move his pants down his legs. His cock sprang from the confines of his pants and she wrapped her hand around his thick heat. Colwyn groaned and leaned forward. Cupping her breasts in his hands, he flicked his tongue over her nipples. She shivered, arched her back, and pressed her breasts close to his mouth. Every flick of his tongue sent a throb of pleasure between her legs.
Davies, Corinne - Wrapped in Fur [3xtasy Lake 3] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Page 3
