Everlong

by Hailey Edwards

“There’s a fallen tree to your left. Just sit. I’ll guide you down to it.”

  I sat, relieved to run my hands over the coarse bark covering of the log. I felt much more at ease with my feet planted firmly on the ground and my bottom settled on the log. It gave me some sense of my surroundings.

  “You made it.”

  I glanced around out of habit and then remembered I couldn’t see Figment anyway. “I wondered where you were.” Still wondered, actually.

  “I’ve been around, scouting mostly.” The sound of her voice was muffled, almost like she was speaking through a tube. “Magic is a very precise craft, you know.”

  “No, I didn’t know. I don’t have any magic of my own.” Nor had I seen anything outside of what glamour could accomplish, so I was curious. “What exactly are you doing?”

  “Clayton didn’t tell you?”

  I heard him off to my right. “I wanted it to be a surprise.”

  “I don’t like surprises.” Not when you considered the kind I’d been getting lately.

  The log shifted beneath me, bowing under additional weight as he sat down beside me. “You’ll like this one.”

  I leaned over, trying to find him in the dark. “Can I have a hint?”

  He captured my searching hand and brought my fingers to his lips to nip across the pads. “Figment is weaving a protective glamour over the new colony site, which is where I’ve brought you.”

  I suddenly had a lot more respect for the power held within her quirky body. “That must take a lot of power.”

  “Yes, it does, which is why she uses hers sparingly.” His voice trailed off as a sphere of light danced towards us. The tiny orb stopped and hovered just above my knee.

  “I’ve finished weaving.” Sparkles showered my lap. I heard a yawn in her voice. “This place is larger than the last. I must go to rest. Safe night to you both.”

  “Thank you.” He lifted the ball, blew gently across it, and sent her drifting away on the slight breeze.

  “Bye.” I watched her bob in acknowledgement and continue on her way. With her went the light. “So, is that why we came? Seeing Figment without a form was kind of cool, but not exactly worth the drive.”

  “That’s not why we’re here.” His voice deepened. “Come closer.”

  Chills spread across my arms, but I did as he asked and scooted until I felt heat rising from his body. “Now what?”

  “Come a little closer.”

  When I shifted to move, he grabbed my waist and tugged me off balance. I braced for impact, still not sure where in this void I was headed, only to come down with an “oomph” and a handful of hard male.

  He grunted, but settled me across his lap and tucked my back to his chest. His chin rested on my shoulder as he took my hands and folded them across my lap. “Are you ready?”

  I swallowed. “Yes.”

  He nuzzled my throat, pulling my hair aside to nibble the skin there. “Good, because the show is about to begin.”

  “What show?”

  Almost on cue, a hazy cloud of incandescence extended across the sky, encasing everything in a pale, pulsing light. Tiny sparks rained down around us, sizzling pleasantly as they landed on my skin. Everything touched by Figment’s magic twinkled softly.

  I looked over my shoulder, finally able to see Clayton in the faint glow. “It’s beautiful.” I leaned my check against his. “Thanks for sharing this with me.”

  His answer was a low growl as his hips shifted below me, bringing my attention back to his obvious arousal. I leaned against him, and his heart beat steadily against my back. Lower, he pulsed to the same rhythm, growing larger and firmer beneath me.

  “I want you.” His hands molded my rib cage, his thumbs teasing the soft undersides of my breasts through the fabric of my shirt. “So much it hurts sometimes.”

  I rocked my hips across his lap, encouraging him. His hands jerked down to hold me in place. I tried to wiggle, but he held tight. “Did I do something wrong?”

  His hands softened. “No.” He nipped me where my neck met shoulder. “You’re perfect.”

  “Then why did you stop me?”

  “If we do this tonight, I won’t let you walk away in the morning.” His fingers stroked my side just beneath the hemline of my shirt. “You must be certain of your choice.”

  Certainty sang through my body. Knowing he was primed for me and feeling his need rise beneath me was more intoxicating than any pheromone.

  He slid with me beneath him to the ground. I looked up into his face, backlit by the flickering overhead, and cupped his cheeks between my hands. “I’m sure.”

  He let me pull him down for another slow meeting of lips, but I needed more. More skin, more of him. My fingers fumbled over the buttons of his shirt, eagerly jerking the shirttail free of his pants and working the shirt from his arms.

  I leaned up as far as I was able and rubbed my face across his chest, teasing the flat disk of his male nipple with my tongue. With a slow slide of my nails down his well-muscled chest, I went lower until I found the button of his pants and worked the closure open.

  Drawing the zipper down, I slipped my hand beneath the elastic band of his boxers. My fingers tunneled through crisp hairs to find his erection. I stroked him once, twice, glorying in the slide of delicate skin over hard male. When I cupped his sac, the warm weight filled my palm. His body was such a curious mix of textures. I wanted to explore more of him.

  “Madelyn.” His husky whisper said he wanted me to stop, but the tense lines of his body said otherwise. He captured my seeking hands in his. His shoes were kicked off in the grass, then his pants.

  He pulled me upright as he straddled my legs and tugged my shirt overhead. His nimble fingers unhooked my bra and discarded it behind me. All the while, his dark eyes never left mine, sensing perhaps that I needed that connection with him. When he reached for the closure of my jeans, I lay back down and helped him rid me of the clothing left between us.

  He braced over me with one hand planted on the ground just beside my head. His chest lowered to mine and I whimpered at our first touch of naked skin to naked skin. He swallowed the sound, leaving me hungry, desperate to feel his skilled mouth on other parts of my body.

  “Tell me I can touch you.”

  I licked lips gone dry. “Please…touch me.”

  His dark head lowered, kissing across my collarbone until his eager lips found the tip of my breast and drew it into the moist heat of his mouth. His teeth tugged the hardened peak and I arched up to him, unable to stop my body’s reaction. And that wasn’t the only one.

  Lower, I felt different, wet and soft, ready.

  With a final swirl of his tongue, Clayton cupped the small mound in his palm and squeezed. “You can’t know how long I’ve imagined this. Being with you this way.”

  He nuzzled his face between my breasts while his fingers pinched the tips until they pebbled harder against his hands. His lips brushed a trail of light kisses down my stomach towards my navel. When his clever tongue dipped inside, I jerked beneath him.

  He continued his downward path with focus that unnerved me. The lower he went, the more I squirmed and scooted to try and keep up with him.

  He chuckled softly. “You have to hold still.”

  “I can’t.”

  “Or won’t? Don’t you like how this feels?” His sharp teeth closed over my hipbone.

  A breathless sigh was all I could manage. I feared the slow burn building where his kisses neared. Something told me once he reached his destination, he would know exactly how much I enjoyed his ministrations. Heat flashed in my cheeks.

  His hands smoothed over and under my hips until he cradled the cheeks of my bottom in his large palms. My legs splayed open, exposing my core to his eager gaze.

  “Relax, deshiel. I’ll stop anytime you tell me to.”

  My throat closed shut on the protest I knew I should have made. The thought of Clayton as my consort, training my body to respond to his desires, made me quiver
in his grasp. Fears of what might have been had I stayed in Askara dissolved beneath his soft lips.

  Duty had no place in this. Only desire fueled the string of kisses trailing lower than any male had ever touched. He wanted me, and not the crown or throne or title I no longer bore.

  The sudden warm slide of his tongue parting my folds had my elbows digging into earth and my shoulders pushing free of the ground. His fingers gripped tighter as he glanced up and growled like a predator interrupted from his feast.

  “I don’t think you’re supposed to do that.”

  My breath caught as his face clouded with desire.

  “And I’m certain I am.” His expression softened just before lowering his head. His tongue entered me again and my legs slapped shut on impulse, locking his face between my thighs. He hummed contentedly, mistaking my uncoordinated reactions for encouragement. Perhaps they were.

  He slipped a hand from beneath me to join his mouth in its skilled torture of my tender flesh. He dipped one of his broad fingers inside me, and I gasped and rolled my hips into his palm. My muscles tightened, begged for something more he wouldn’t give me. His questing finger stopped just short of some invisible mark.

  “Please,” I begged. “I need more.”

  He obliged by inserting a second finger and pumping harder as his tongue laved the pulsing, desperate center of me. One final push and pleasure overcame me. My elbows slipped from beneath me. My back hit the ground as my body shuddered and twitched around his finger and tongue. My trembling legs fell open, and he moved into position between them.

  The storm in his blue-gray eyes intensified, blackening seconds before silver swallowed his pupils. His skin darkened, turning the same shade as the night just beyond our cozy bubble of illumination. Then he leaned back to look down at me. “How do you want me?”

  “I—” I had no idea how to answer that.

  Clayton’s glamour fell away as heavy wings arched over me, the thin skin flushing brighter with his intent. His olive-complected skin darkened to a flawless shade of ebony.

  For a full second I couldn’t breathe. His wings stretched and flexed away from his back. When a shiver moved through him, I answered with a wet rush of moisture where his body met mine. My head turned automatically to allow my eyes to follow every movement of his great, scarlet wings.

  “I guess that answers my question.”

  I hoped it did because my mouth had turned to cotton as his wings twitched and flicked out gracefully behind him. I had to touch one. I reached up, smoothing across the leathery skin. Clayton groaned and their color flared brighter.

  I stared. I couldn’t help it. With Clayton kneeling between my legs, his wings outstretched and begging for my attention, he was beautiful. I would never forget this night, this claiming. The way his earnest eyes searched mine for assurance or the way his much larger body looked against the night sky still lit by comet-like tails shooting down to earth.

  My hands buried in his hair and pulled him down for a kiss. His weight shifted, muscles bunching where his thighs parted my own. He sighed as he thrust against me, rubbing his shaft across my sex.

  Hips pushing up to meet him, I drew a strained chuckle from where his cheek pressed against mine. “I need to be inside of you.”

  Snaking his hand between our bodies, Clayton guided himself to my core. The smooth head of his erection seared me, so much hotter than the rest of his body as it nudged at my entrance. His hips bunched, preparing for entry.

  His lips found my ear. “I love you, Maddie. Since that first time I saw you in the gardens of Rihos, I knew you were all there would ever be for me.”

  His wings snapped out, filling the sky behind him with their ruddy fullness. I couldn’t focus when they flittered that way, couldn’t help but watch their dance.

  The tension thrumming through his body released in that moment of disorientation as he slid deep inside of me, breaking through my virgin barrier.

  I gasped as pain and pleasure coalesced, raking his back with my fingernails. “You cheated.”

  I should have known he would have given such careful thought to this moment. Each gentle rock buried him deeper. My untried muscles strained against his delicious invasion.

  His husky chuckle ended on a groan as I wiggled beneath him, trying to get closer and accidentally tensing my inner muscles around him. He rested his forehead on my chest. “I wanted to go slow.” He slid out in small degrees then slammed into my core. “I want this to be good for you.”

  I grabbed his ass and dug in my nails. “Then move.”

  The thrust and retreat of his body into mine was maddening. He wrapped my legs around his waist, opening me to deeper penetration. And then took it.

  His strokes grew harder, longer. His panting breaths matched mine.

  “Clayton.” I wanted to say the words, needed to give them back to him before this final act joined us together.

  His ragged breath caught. “You don’t have to say anything.” He thrust harder now. My head rolled back. I couldn’t think past the pleasure.

  The pressure built until I knew something irrevocable was about to happen. I needed to tell him what he meant to me, but it was too late. I cried out his name as my muscles clamped around the hard length of him.

  Above me, he growled and surged within me. His back stiffened, muscles straining as his breath rushed out over his lips. Hot spurts filled my shuddering insides as he came.

  He dropped his forearms to the ground, resting with our bodies still joined, aligned from head to hip. He brushed sweat-dampened hair from my eyes. He was quiet, and I didn’t like it.

  The moment was lost and I didn’t know how to bring it back. “Clayton—”

  He cut me off as his lips brushed my temple. “You’re mine. That’s enough for now.”

  But it wasn’t enough. Not for me, not for either of us. I couldn’t think of anything else to do, so I did the one thing that never failed to get Emma’s attention. I pinched him.

  He jerked backwards, as startled by my attack as I was. “What was that for?”

  “For being so damn accepting of me, for being willing to settle when you deserve better. You told me you loved me—”

  “And I do.”

  “Then you will shut up and hold still long enough to let me tell you that I love you too.”

  He blinked, still rubbing the sore spot. Then dimples pierced his cheeks. “Can I hear it again?”

  “I love you, Clayton Delaney, and you’re stuck with me now because I claim you as my male, as is my right.”

  His lips curved upward before they covered mine. The fading lightshow flickered out to leave us in darkness. As the last glimmer left the sky, I pulled his chest back down to mine, feeling him stir within me as I breathed in the scent of male and sex.

  My male, and the first of many times I planned to lay claim to him tonight.

  About the Author

  Hailey Edwards lives in a fantasyland of her own creation, where her closest neighbors are Cairine House vampires, Bay Cerise werewolves, and a colony full of Evanti demons.

  To explore Hailey’s world, visit her website at www.HaileyEdwards.net, or to find out all of her latest news, check her blog, www.CairineHouse.com.

  Iron born and iron bred. Trust not iron, it will see you dead.

  Soul Fire

  © 2009 R. F. Long

  Rowan Blake could really use a magic wand to keep her struggling art gallery afloat. But the faerie key she stumbles across is far from a lucky charm. It’s a magnet for danger, and by touching it she’s unwittingly put herself in the middle of a war between the forces of light and dark. And in the arms of its rightful owner, Prince Daire.

  While searching for his brother, Daire finds himself trapped in the Iron World with a mere mortal woman who ignites his passion like no other. Each stolen kiss deepens their attraction and sends him spiraling closer and closer to the edge of his inherent dark desires. Desires that act as a homing beacon for the Dark Sidhe, who are in
tent on forcing him to fight on their side.

  The longer he lingers in her arms—and in her bed—the closer his enemies get to her door. And the greater the risk that the gateway to the Faerie Realm will shift, destroying not only his power to protect her, but his very life.

  Warning Contains enchantments, danger, some very scary monsters, a trip to the dark side and hot, soul-transforming sex with an immortal prince.

  Enjoy the following excerpt for Soul Fire:

  Daire lifted her again and carried her through to the living room, to the same sofa on which he had lain. Rowan tried to fight the exhaustion eating away at her consciousness. With precise clarity of distraction, she watched him turn the catches on the window with the blade of his knife, securing her home, protecting her.

  “What are you doing?” she asked.

  “The original builders of your home knew enough to place iron locks on doors and windows and to bury iron beneath the thresholds. I can feel its sting. As your guest I can bypass them, and any Sidhe or fae with enough strength could break through eventually. Not without pain, or sacrifice, but even iron cannot hold in perpetuity.”

  He took the plant stalks from her unresisting hands, wincing as it touched his bare skin.

  “What’s wrong? What is it?”

  Daire didn’t reply at first. He snapped the long stems and threw them into the fireplace, shaking his hands as if to clear a sting.

  “It’s broom.” He knelt before her. Red welts, raised and obviously painful, covered his palms and fingers. “It likes not my kin and me. If they come, light your fire. Your windows and doors are bound with iron already. The smoke will prevent them using the chimney.”

  “How?”

  He shook his head briefly, a rapid gesture, almost too quick for her tired eyes. “Not now. They’ve gone for now. You need no nightmares.”

  She lay back, closing her eyes in relief. All she wanted now was sleep, to relieve herself of the terrible burden of exhaustion. Deep inside her lay a quiet, dark place where she longed to curl up and hide. She found her consciousness burrowing towards it.