She was his.
Keir kept Rhiannon close as they mingled with the witches, D’Danann, and other Fae from all walks of his centuries of existence. The fact that these comrades, these friends accepted his half-Elvin—half-Drow—mate made his jaded heart melt a little bit more, as Rhiannon had done from the first moment he met her.
He almost grinned as he watched Galia zip around the room, creating havoc in her wake. She sprinkled pink Faerie dust over the merrymakers, went skating on the buffet table, and with the help of two Pixies, made rows of braids in Tiernan’s long blond hair when he wasn’t paying attention.
Keir did chuckle when Queen Riona flew up to Galia, grabbed her by the hand, and pulled her from the room. “You will work in the kitchens for a month!” the queen was saying as she passed by with Galia in tow.
Galia wailed as she was dragged from the great hall. “But, Aunt Riona, I was just having fun!”
Keir shook his head and brought his attention back to his mate.
The air still carried the smells of the roasted beef, bread, potatoes, cakes, and ale that had been brought in. Laughter and chatter filled the large gathering hall, enough to make his ears ring.
Another fellow warrior slapped Keir on his back with words of congratulations and Keir sloshed his ale onto his boots. He nodded and mumbled words of thanks and kept trying to work his way to the exit with Rhiannon in tow. Perhaps they could make their escape soon.
He set his tankard of ale on a table and started to hurry Rhiannon through the room.
They pushed their way further on until they ran into his half-brother. Silver, Hawk’s mate, stood beside him.
Hawk smiled and held out his hand. “Congratulations, brother.”
Keir paused then grasped Hawk’s arm and slapped him on the back.
When they released each other, Hawk turned to Rhiannon. “I am proud to call you my sister.” He looked down at Silver and kissed the top of her head. He touched her belly that still showed no signs that she carried his child.
Silver grinned and flung her arms around Keir. He stiffened in surprise before relaxing. “I think it’s awesome that you and my best friend tied the knot. I can’t wait for you to have children of your own!”
Keir glanced at Rhiannon to see her cheeks flush as she said “Er, let’s not be in too much of a hurry,’kay?”
Silver released Keir, turned to Rhiannon, and hugged her. “I love you, Rhi.”
“I love you, too.” Rhiannon smiled. Silver gave another quick hug before she took Hawk’s hand and they wandered over to a table laden with desserts.
“Phew.” Rhiannon looked up at Keir. “Things went well at least with your brother.”
“Aye.” He and his brother had come to an understanding. Perhaps for the next two thousand years their rivalry would fade.
“Think we can get out of here?” Rhiannon said in his ear, her warm breath stirring his desires to be alone with her even more. She still wore the flowers on her short auburn hair but the wreath was skewed to one side. She pushed it up with one hand while she squeezed his fingers with her other. She gave him a mischievous grin. “I think we can do a little celebrating of our own. Alone.”
The thought of carrying Rhiannon straight down the hall to the Chieftains’ chamber, then taking her on the great dais crossed his mind and he nearly groaned aloud. He could push up her dress, tear away her undergarments, release his cock from his breeches and drive into her.
His erection grew painfully hard against its constrictions and he lowered his head and gave a soft growl in her ear. “I want to take you now, a stór. I do not know if I can wait much longer.”
Her tongue darted out to touch her lower lip and this time he did groan out loud. She grasped his biceps and raised herself on her toes to whisper in his ear again. “Think anyone would notice if we made our escape now?”
A rumble rose up in Keir’s chest and he tugged her with more purpose toward the door. No matter how they tried to make it through the crowd with a hurried pace, they were waylaid every step.
Lise stopped them just at the door. She and Rhiannon were the same height, and Lise took Rhiannon by the shoulders and kissed each of her cheeks again. Lise gave Keir a sly look before she turned back to Rhiannon.
“This one will need much work to keep in line,” Lise said to Rhiannon with a grin.
“Don’t worry about that.” Rhiannon returned a grin of her own. “He’s all taken care of.”
Lise laughed, reached up and kissed Keir on each cheek, then melted into the crowd.
“I like Lise.” Rhiannon watched as she disappeared into the crowd. “How do you know her?”
Their eyes met and he had the good sense to give her a general reply. “I have known many beings during my two thousand years of life.”
Rhiannon seemed satisfied with his reply and he gave an audible sigh of relief as they made their way from the great hall into the empty foyer. He could breathe again—the air didn’t seem stifling in here and the sounds not as loud.
He whirled her around, pressed her up against the wall, and took her mouth, claiming her as his. The soul-bond intensified the kiss and he felt the pull of her soul within his own. The feeling made his cock so hard he was certain it was near to bursting the seams of his breeches.
She tasted of sweet wine and her own special flavor. He delved his tongue into her mouth, and she returned the kiss with just as much fervor. When he nipped at her lower lip, her body vibrated beneath his and she wrapped her arms around his waist. In return, she bit his lower lip with her small white teeth and he groaned.
“Now.” Rhiannon was breathless, her face flushed as he drew away from their kiss. She ran her hands from around his waist up to his chest. “I want to be with you. Fully. I want you inside me now. I don’t want to wait.”
Keir grabbed one of her hands, gave her another kiss, then turned to check the hallway to the right. Thank the gods it was clear. He slid his hand to the back of her waist and guided her.
They slipped down the hallway toward the Chieftains’ Chamber. The doors remained unguarded once the Chieftains had left. He grabbed the handle of one of the big heavy doors and swung it open—
To see the High Chieftain, Chaela, on her back on the dais being fucked by one of the D’Danann warriors—a large blond warrior by the name Conlan.
Chaela’s robe was spread open, revealing her large breasts and her mound. Conlan stood as he drove his cock in and out of the Chieftain. He still wore his leather breeches, opened just enough to fuck Chaela as she lay back on the dais. The low lighting from twin torches on the walls were bright enough that Keir could see her flushed features. Her cries echoed in the room, as did Conlan’s grunts.
Keir glanced down at Rhiannon to see her eyes wide, her mouth open. Chaela cried out and Conlan shouted. Keir was just about to step out of the doorway when Chaela rose from her prone position to wrap her arms around Conlan’s neck.
She saw Rhiannon and Keir.
Chaela gasped and jerked her robe tight around her and Conlan threw a look over his shoulder. The big warrior showed neither embarrassment nor surprise. He turned back to Chaela and brought her close to him, hiding her nakedness.
“Um, sorry,” Rhiannon said as she backed away.
“My apologies, High Chieftain,” Keir added with a slight bow.
They closed the door and looked at each other. Rhiannon clapped her hand over her mouth, only minutely smothering her giggles, and Keir could not hold back a snort of laughter. “Conlan and the High Chieftain. One never would have thought.”
Rhiannon giggled all the way down the hallway as they moved further away from the Chieftains’ chamber to a smaller room used for private interviews. It had a table in the middle with four chairs around it.
He drew her into the empty room and closed the door behind them. He would have barred it if there was a way to, but none of the rooms in the Chieftains building could be barred.
Keir and Rhiannon looked at each other and
Rhiannon’s giggles died away. He shoved her up against the smooth wood of the door, grabbed her ass, and pressed his cock tight against her belly. She gasped and grabbed his biceps.
“I need to be inside you now, a stór.” He pushed up her long dress, then slipped his fingers over the silk of her undergarment. The cloth was soaked when he rubbed his fingers between her thighs against her folds. He pressed hard and rubbed her clit through the material.
Rhiannon moaned. “Don’t make me wait.” She slid her arms around his neck and wiggled against his hand. The wreath of flowers tumbled off her head and onto the floor.
Keir added his groan to her moans, and with a hard tug ripped her delicate undergarment away from her body and tossed it aside. She hooked her thighs around his hips as he rubbed her slick folds with his hand. With every stroke of his fingers, she made small cries that served to make him want her more.
Unable to control himself any longer, he held onto her with one hand while he untied his breeches with his other. As soon as his cock and balls were freed, he placed the head of his erection at her entrance, slipping a little into her channel, teasing both of them. He grabbed her ass with both hands and drove himself deep.
She cried out and he groaned at the feel of her tight, slick core around his cock. With extreme control, he held himself still so that they would both enjoy the moment. “Gods, you feel so good.”
Rhiannon felt so full, so incredible with Keir bound to her like this. He was thick and long, filled her, and touched her so deep it was a wonder she didn’t come with his first thrust. “I love you inside me,” she managed to get out. “And I want more. More, more, more!”
Keir kissed her hard and she felt a small contraction around his cock. He started to pump his hips, slow at first, but then picked up his pace until he was taking her hard and fast. Their kisses grew more frantic and heat rose in Rhiannon like a firestorm.
Their soul-bond intensified and iridescent sparkles surrounded them. Rhiannon felt not only full with him buried deep in her body, but filled with Keir’s soul, too.
In one moment she was feeling what it was like to have him thrusting in and out of her. She gasped as in the next second she felt as if their positions were switched and she was Keir and knew how it felt to him to be inside her. The feelings whirled and she had such a deep connection to him that it was as if his fire was her own.
Their heat joined and they became one burning bonfire. Wild sensations centered where they were connected, building like an inferno, a volcano, until they both exploded.
Keir threw his head back and shouted and Rhiannon’s cry met with his. She felt the power of his orgasm as if it were hers, along with the intensity of her own climax. It was almost too much, yet not enough.
He continued to thrust, driving out their orgasms until she collapsed against his chest and the sparkles around them faded. Her breathing was hard and the scent of their sex was heavy as it surrounded them. He was still inside her and she wasn’t ready to part.
For a long moment he held her, then let her legs slide down over his hips so that his cock slipped out of her and her feet touched the ground. She raised her head to look up at him and he kissed her hard again, setting off more spasms in her core.
She could barely find her voice. “That was unbelievable,” she whispered as he drew away from their kiss.
Keir crushed her to him and pressed his lips to the top of her head. “It is only the beginning, a stór, only the beginning.”
After Rhiannon tugged down her dress and ran her hand over her hair so that she wouldn’t look like she’d just been taken up against a door, she moved her palms up and down Keir’s arms. He tucked his cock and balls back into his leather pants and she thought she felt him shaking.
The idea that she affected him so much made her smile. He hooked one of his fingers under her chin, tilted her face up, and brushed his lips over hers.
“I love your smile,” he said, his expression serious.
“You should smile more often, too.” She brought her hand up and stroked her fingers over his lips. “You are even more gorgeous when you do.”
He gifted her with the smile she asked for and raised her up and spun her around. She laughed and braced her hands on his shoulders until he set her onto her feet. Her beaded dress swirled around her feet.
Keir brought his hands up to hers and laced their fingers together. “Come. Let us return to our home.”
“Our home. Wow.” Rhiannon swallowed down the lump of wonder that had risen in her throat. “But we’ll have a home together in San Francisco, too.” She frowned. “We just have to find one.”
“Aye.” He kissed her again and released one of her hands and opened the door with his free one. “We will have two homes and we can travel freely between both as we wish.”
“I like that.” She smiled. “I like it a lot.”
They hurried down the hallway, back toward the gathering hall where she heard raucous laughter and chatter. It would probably go well into the night—a D’Danann excuse to party, no doubt.
Rhiannon thought they would be able to slip out into the night, but in front of the doors they met up with the warrior who’d been with the High Chieftain. Rhiannon’s cheeks heated at the memory of what they had seen and the fact that she and Keir had found a room to do the same thing. She wondered if she and Keir smelled of sex, then decided she really didn’t care.
“Conlan,” Keir said with a nod.
“Keir,” Conlan returned with a nod of his own.
Conlan was a huge D’Danann warrior with broad shoulders, green eyes, and a dimple in his chin. He was taller even than Keir but his eyes held a certain glimmer that told her he was definitely a ladies’ man.
Conlan said to Keir, “I am to accompany you to the San Francisco Otherworld to aid you in the fight against the Fomorii.”
Keir raised an eyebrow. Through their soul-bonding, Rhiannon sensed he believed the same thing she did. Conlan was being sent away because they’d caught him fucking the High Chieftain.
For a moment Keir didn’t reply. Then he said, “Aye. It will be good to have you fight with us.”
“I will wait for your summons in the training yards.” Conlan bowed from his shoulders and exited the Chieftains’ building without a glance back.
Rhiannon looked up at Keir and grinned as she said, “Well, that’s one more for our side.”
He chuckled and guided her out the doors with his hand at the small of her back. “We could not have a fiercer warrior join us than Conlan.”
This time they escaped without being seen. Rhiannon laughed as she doubled her steps alongside Keir’s. He seemed rather determined to get back to the cabin. As a matter of fact, so was she.
When Keir let her into the cabin, she saw that Spirit had curled himself onto a cushion on one of the chairs. He gave a sleepy meow, then closed his eyes.
Instead of heading toward the bedroom, which she was pretty sure was his destination, she went over to his carvings and touched each one again. His warmth surrounded her, his breath soft against the back of her neck as she picked up the bust of herself.
She stroked the smooth, polished hair of the carving. It was chin-length, like her own. “Amazing that you created this before we met.” He pressed his lips against her own hair as she spoke. “It’s missing something, though.”
“What is that?” he murmured.
“My scars.” She rubbed the burning marks with one hand.
“What scars?” he said, sounding serious.
She turned to face him, the bust between them. She pressed her hand to her cheek. “These, of course.”
He held his hand over hers. “They are a part of your beauty. I would have you no other way.”
“You are an incredible man.” She reached up on her tiptoes and kissed his own scar. “I wouldn’t change a thing about you either.” She drew away and gave him a serious expression. “Except your griping about my going to fight with everyone else every time there’s a batt
le.”
For a long moment he looked at her. “You are a great warrior. You have my promise that I will never hold you back in any way. I will fear for you, and protect you with my life. But I trust you to make the decisions that you feel are right.”
Rhiannon set the bust of herself down on the windowsill then turned back to Keir and flung her arms around his neck. “I love you, Keir. Everything about you.”
“You have my love for all time, a stór.” He scooped her up and she gave a surprised laugh. With determination in his steps, he strode away from the carvings, through his small living room, and down the short hall to his bedroom.
He laid her on the bed and looked at her with such gentleness it tugged at her heart. Slowly he began to take her dress off as if he were unwrapping a treasure. The thought choked her up, causing her eyes to tear a little. That was what he always called her, his treasure.
After he slid off her slippers, he looked upon her for a long moment. “You are so very beautiful.”
She swallowed and held out her arms. “Come to me.”
With every movement he made as he stripped out of his clothing, Keir’s well-defined muscles rippled. She hungered for him beyond words as he toed off his boots then tugged off his shirt and tossed it aside. She lowered her arms and her mouth watered. She couldn’t wait to caress all those muscles and dig her fingernails into his fine ass.
When he was naked, she sighed as she gazed upon his luscious cock that would soon be inside her again. Their first lovemaking after being bonded had been hard, wild, exciting. She knew this would be even more precious. Her soul-bonded mate, her husband.
Keir moved onto the bed beside her and stroked his finger gently down her side, to the indentation at her waist and over her hip to her thigh. His dark eyes held hers the entire time. “I never doubted that one day you would be mine,” he said with a serious expression. “Yet now that it is true, now that we are soul-bonded, I feel such wonder that you belong to me.”
“Don’t forget that you happen to be mine, too.” She traced the Fomorii scars on his neck, then lightly touched the bandage from the battle at the stadium. “Even if we weren’t soul-bonded, I would never let you go.”
Wicked Magic Page 35
