by Lacy Danes
Celeste turned in the other direction. Jordan had Hudson dangling like a string of dead fish over his shoulder. Completely naked, Jordan’s skin slowly transitioned back to pale creamy pink with a hint of blue iridescence when his muscles moved, beautiful in a mad way. The white stripe of his hair hung in ringlets covering his face, and determination filled his blue eyes. Her heart pounded with each breath. My stars, how he impressed her.
“Is he well?” Celeste stepped toward them and forced her sight to Hudson.
“I am certain that is up for debate, but he lives.”
“What happened to him?” Celeste picked up Hudson’s clammy hand.
“A hasty jab to the jaw.”
“Jordan.”
“Celeste. He smashed me with the anchor and threatened our lives. I am not going to lay idle and let him do as he wishes.” He tilted his head to the side, then walked past her and toward a trail that led into the trees. “The house is this way.” His creamy backside flexed with each step he took away from her.
She would stare at that the entire walk to the house. A smile curved her lips, and she scurried to follow him.
Then she stopped and spun back. She stared at the sea in wonder. Her throat tightened. She hadn’t drowned. In fact, she’d triumphed over the fear that had plagued her all her life. If Jordan had not found her and if she had not trusted his words, she never would have accomplished that. She hastened her steps and caught up to him.
Celeste followed Jordan up the well-worn dirt path to a clearing at the top of a small hill. “There it is.”
She looked around. The top of the hill was flat and distant, with a view of the sky like she had never seen. “What am I looking for?”
“The house. Concentrate; you will see it.”
She sucked in a startled breath. The edges of the house shimmered out of the clouds. The outer wall was made of a whitish-gray stone that reflected the sun. It was not the sky, as she first thought. If one didn’t concentrate, the building disappeared. They continued to walk toward the outside wall. The closer they got, the more the architecture exposed itself to sight.
The house, as he had called it, was an enormous estate that rivaled Hudson’s. There was an outer wall and an inner, taller one. In the center, forming a perfect circle, lofty spires towered to the sky. The mansion’s image imposed but was beautiful.
“How long have you lived here?” She rushed to keep up with his elongated strides.
“I have lived here a little more than a hundred years.”
Celeste stopped in her tracks. “Pardon?”
“I will tell you more once we are inside and I can set Hudson down. I never would have thought such a short man would be so heavy.”
A hundred years. A hundred years. Impossible. A nervous laugh caught in her throat again. She had to have misheard him.
Jordan pulled on an iron-looped chain on the outside of a large, arched wooden door. The metal chain scraped against the wood, creating an eerie sound.
A small window opened, and a young woman with straight black hair and teacup-saucer-size eyes peeked through the opening.
“Open, Astrid.” Jordan shuffled Hudson on his shoulder.
Astrid immediately shut the window, and the black, dragon-shaped hinges creaked as the arched door swung outward.
They stepped inside. Celeste’s footfalls echoed on the floor. She glanced around. Jordan continued down a narrow corridor made completely of stone. Astrid had vanished. Which was a good thing, she supposed. Jordan was still completely naked. Then again, maybe she was accustomed to seeing the brothers that way.
Celeste ran to catch up. About halfway down the hall, three arches set fifteen paces apart cut through the stone to the outside. The sea air blew through the opening as they passed. She shivered straight down her spine to her toes, and her wet clothing stiffened against her skin. A fire would feel lovely.
Celeste sat on a square, tufted pillow before the fire in the bedroom Jordan had led her to so she could bathe. Her damp hair hung down her back, making the large white shirt that someone—presumably Astrid—had left for her cling to her skin. The flames danced red and yellow behind the fire screen as she stared unseeing at the embers.
She would need to learn Nordic and how to swim. With a sigh, she closed her eyes.
She’d married Hudson to escape her father, to bend to his wishes when she wanted to marry for love. Now she sat here in another man’s home, while her husband went insane down the hall.
She should check on Hudson, even though she did not want to. He was, after all, her husband and the duke. His servants most assuredly had told the authorities of his disappearance. Her father would be so angry with her for this jumble.
The smell of the sea floated over her, and the hairs on her neck stood to attention.
Jordan stood in the doorway, wrapped in a blue-and-gold silk dressing robe. His hair hung in ringlets down to his shoulders. The white streak, a contrast against the rest of his black strands, added mystery to his already grand appearance. “I hope you are feeling more relaxed.”
Warmth seeped through her stomach, and she did not attempt to stop the smile that turned her lips. “Quite.” “Thank you.” Her cheeks warmed. Though less so, seeing you dressed in that. She yearned to run her hands through his hair and pull him to her in an intense embrace. Concentrate on the items at hand. She turned on the pillow and faced him directly. “How is Hudson?”
“He is resting. I have scribed word of his presence here to both his valet and to Ferrous. I also requested Ferrous to bring your grandmum here. Would you like to send a note to be included to her as well? And one to your father?”
“Thank you. I am certain Grandmum is worried. By the time she woke this morning, we were gone.” She fidgeted on the cushion. “I do not want to care what my father thinks, and if I write to him, I will only incense him.”
“You do care.”
“It is not easy to account for.” She bit her lip, then released it. “He has always been heavy-handed with me… Well, really, with all of the women in his life. We simply bended to his will. I tried to please him for so many years, and part of me still wishes to do so even though I don’t want to, and I don’t want to care.” She wet her lips with her tongue.
“That is understandable. You can always write to him once this situation is straightened.” His eyes glimmered with compassion she felt to her core. He did understand. “There is parchment and quill in the drawer of the small desk by the window, so you can write to your grandmum.” He walked into the room, and the air glimmered with moist heat.
She inhaled to steady herself. The salty clean smell of the open sea filled her nostrils, and warmth spread along her skin as if he had wrapped his body about hers. She wanted him to protect her and to be yearned for, both for her body and her mind, not for an arrangement she had nothing to do with. She wanted him to love her. Sucking in a startled breath, she tried to remind herself she was still married to Hudson.
“You are destined to be with me.” Jordan’s voice was calm and determined. Destiny was a word she had never dreamed she would hear from a man. But destiny was not love.
He went to the small stool tucked under the desk. His large hand covered more than half the seat as he pulled it out. He turned and held out his hand to her. “Come.”
She wanted to touch every part of him again, but this would have to do. She slipped her fingers into his hand. Tendrils of sultriness snaked up her arm and slipped down her belly to between her thighs. Never had she so desperately wanted a man to touch her wherever he wished. A fever of desire overtook her. As she rose to her feet, the large shirt tumbled down to below her knees, and the soft fabric dropped from her right shoulder to her elbow.
Jordan stared at her exposed shoulder. The calm blue of his eyes swirled to a deep green. He craved her as badly. Wetness coated the lips between her thighs. They should not indulge until she was free to do so. She pulled her hand from his and reached for the fabric.
His fingers firmly wrapped about her wrist before she could reach the shirt’s edge. He leaned in and pressed his lips to the round swell of her shoulder. Slow flicks of his tongue wet along her collarbone. Goose bumps washed her skin. She wanted this. No matter how wrong his touching her was… “Mmmm.” Her head fell back, giving him access to her neck. Desire babbled like a slow brook through her body.
She should be….
She wanted…
Oh! She didn’t care what she should be. This was now. Her body trembled with that acknowledgment. He continued to flick his tongue up her neck. Yes, she wanted that.
A groan rumbled from deep in his chest. “Celeste.” Her name danced in the air. “Write your note. I want to swim with you.”
“Swim?”
“Quite so, but not in the sea. In something warm.” His lips continued to press and nip the flesh of her neck. Hours prior that one word would have terrified her. So much had happened, she now questioned that fear. He slowly backed the two of them toward the stool, then rotated his body behind her and pushed her down with his hands.
His teeth scraped up to her ear, and her knees buckled. She sat with an ungraceful thud, the desk before her and Jordan behind.
He knelt and trailed his fingers along her exposed shoulder blade. His breath puffed in her ear. “Write.”
She picked up the quill and flipped open the ink. Her soul played with his as she placed the quill to paper. His fingers shifted around her sides and gently pulled the fabric up her legs to pool in her lap. Her insides quivered, and the flesh between her thighs wept, wanting his touch. His teeth scraped along the back of her neck, and with a feather-light touch, he traced her right nipple. Her vision hazed, and her hand moved the quill without thought on the paper. Heat pulsed through her body to the core of her sex.
She slipped her legs apart. Her head fell forward, and her hand hastened across the paper. His fingers traced and then flicked her nipple. She lifted the quill, dipped the tip into the ink, and placed it back on the paper.
His other hand dropped to the swell of her belly and directly to the curly hair beneath the edge of the cotton shirt. Her stomach jumped and quivered. His fingers pushed down and rubbed two firm circles at the apex of her thighs.
Twinges clenched the lips of her sex. He certainly did things to her body in a way she had always imagined passion could be. He circled his fingers downward and pushed the fabric between her legs. He wiggled his fingers and parted the lips of her sex through the cloth. Her cunny contracted, and her mouth dropped open. The quill stopped on the parchment. He tapped his fingers against the lips of her sex. The cotton shirt clung to the moisture of her opening. My stars, the shirt’s barrier stopped his fingers’ entry and she wanted his touch inside her. She wiggled her hips, and his fingers retreated, continuing the circle’s path up and around the top of the hair.
“Concentrate on the task at hand, Celeste,” he scolded in a playful manner.
Her hand continued across the paper, but words blurred in the sensations he created.
His lips seized the column of flesh just below her ear, and the hand that teased her breast pinched her nipple. She arched her head away from him. She wanted him to bite her again as he teased her with his hands. Would he?
His breath warmed her ear. “Not now. Finish your letter, and we shall go for a swim so I can teach you more of what I know and don’t know.”
She turned her head and gazed into his eyes. “You don’t know?”
“There are so many questions all of us have. You need to know them. Since we found each other, I don’t know more than I did before; I know less. I am sure that is a scary prospect for you.” His face was soft, and his eyes held a hungry desire unlike anything she’d ever seen between couples she’d known.
She laid the quill down on the paper, sprinkled the drying powder and turned on the stool to face him.
He tightened his hold around her torso. “Done?” His eyebrows lifted.
“For now.” Honestly, she had no idea what she’d written. She touched the front of his shirt, needing to feel him beneath her fingers. His heart beat equally as fast as hers under her trembling palm. “I need to know more.”
He pushed up to stand. “Then come.”
He led her out of the room, down a lengthy hall lined with landscape paintings. The cool stone beneath her feet, combined with the fresh air that drafted through the hall, chilled her through. She shivered.
Jordan wrapped his arm around her shoulder and hooked her knees with his other hand. He swooped her up. “The house is drafty. I am sorry. Ilmir needs the air movement to remain comfortable. I will keep you warm until we get to the water.”
Ilmir? Carmen had said Ilmir was Jordan’s brother, the one who had opened the sash at Hudson’s. Possibly for more air movement? But why had he been in her room? She bit her lower lip. She had so many questions for Jordan. He said he would teach her, and she would try to be patient.
They turned down another long hall. She laid her head on his chest, and his heart beat beneath her ear. The hall decorations turned from landscapes to tapestries. The first was of silver-stitched swirls with elongated tails. The second was copper-stitched in the shape of a triangle with rolling lines inside. “What do the symbols stand for?”
“They are our symbols of power. Our elements. Come, you shall see.” He stopped in front of another tapestry. This one was stitched in silver with blue gems attached in fluid, swaying curves, giving the effect of water. Water. She shook her head. She never would have thought that at any point in her life she would think of swimming or water and not have her stomach ball into a knot that could sink her. There was no knot now.
He gently set her on her feet and reached out for her hand. He pulled her to stand directly before him. “Place your hand on the threads.”
She spread her fingers along the smooth fabric.
“Grøn vandagame.”
The fabric before her rippled, and a golden glow filled the space on the wall that the tapestry had hung in. She squinted against the brightness. Was there anything beyond the light?
“Step in.” Jordan’s hand pressed firmly to the small of her back and urged her forward.
She squeezed her eyes shut, lifted her foot and stepped into the warm bright light. Her eyelids fluttered, and she concentrated on the elaborate blue-and-gold-tile floor beneath her feet. Jordan entered behind her. She spun about and took in the space she had stepped into.
In the center of the large room was a pool. The bottom was a warm gold color that sparkled with the light that poured in through the three curved glass windows that graced the ceiling. Iridescent stars made of glass or gems surrounded the windows. Wood alcoves were carved into the walls, and in each niche stood a different statue unlike any she had ever seen. One had many snakelike arms and an oblong, bulbous head. The next one was a fish standing on a tail that was twice its length. It had a large mouth and pointed teeth. Monsters of the sea.
The next was of a dragon emerging from the crest of a wave. The image of Jordan cresting the wave in the same manner, with smoke billowing from his mouth as he cried out to protect her, came to her mind. They were not statues of sea monsters; the statues simply depicted creatures of the sea.
She turned to Jordan. “This room is beautiful.”
“Each of the tapestries in the hall holds behind it a space that instills tranquility and power to each of us. I have never seen my brothers’ spaces. You are the first to see ours.”
Ours… She turned away from him. Every part of her body said this was correct, and she wanted him, but she was still wed to another. She had never considered herself someone who would be unfaithful. “Jordan—”
“I know. Our timing is not ideal. I will make this work. Hudson wants something. Of that I am certain. I will make a deal he cannot refuse.”
“He told me he wouldn’t let me go.”
Jordan frowned. “That is not an option.”
She didn’t want to think of such things i
n such an amazing place. Celeste walked to the pool. “I’ve never seen anything so wonderful. Tell me more.”
“When we were born, each of us received a small journal. The journal held little information except for this.” He waved his hand out over the pool. “That we each needed a specific element to remain strong. For years, I lived on a lake up in the mountains, but the locals noticed I didn’t age. They then hunted me as a death walker.”
She sat at the edge of the pool and dipped her toe into the water. The warmth startled her senses, and she tensed, then relaxed, slipping her entire foot in.
“Indeed, the water is warm. Not like the sea, but like the hot springs high in the mountains. I spent the second part of my life in a cabin by a river tucked away from the world. That is where Ferrous found me.” He shrugged out of his robe and walked along the edge of the pool to the opposite end. He dove in, and his skin changed to iridescent blue as he swam the length of the pool toward her.
His head surfaced at her feet, and water ran down his face in glimmering trails. “He brought us all together, Ilmir, Madoc and I. He searched us out, found us, brought us to this house and made rules for our existence. He gave us purpose, and a name. Zir. He is the reason we have survived.” His fingers gently clasped on to her calves.
Her legs jumped. Gracious, she needed to relax. She smiled down at him.
One side of his mouth quirked up, and he continued. “He had found other beings that were not human and had formed friendships with them. Friendships that led to stories, and stories that led him to know he was not alone in what he was. Those same friendships led him to small pieces of our lore and what little we have found so far about how we came to be. Hudson was one of that quality of friend. His fascination with the otherworldly and his power in human society has made him a great family ally.”
Oh, she was certainly an unwanted knot in their family thread. She stared at the water as it rippled around him. “Hudson has a fascination with the otherworldly?”
“Quite an obsession of his, actually. When his wife died, he tried at first to bring her back.”
