by Bonnie Vanak
A tower of razor-sharp crystals, buzzing and whirling, headed straight for Marc. The need to slice and dice raged through him.
“Oh shit, man,” Marc screamed.
Ciara stopped sobbing and cried out. “Xavier, please, stop it!”
He could not think, only act on his rising rage.
The cougar raced to the sliding glass door. Xavier charged forward. The sofa by the bed splintered into foam and shards of bamboo as he cut through it like a buzz saw. Chunks of plaster flew into the air, gouged out by his deadly crystals. He came closer to Marc, closer…
“Xavier, please, calm down,” Ciara cried out.
“Fuck this. Tristan! Tristan, help me, get this crazy wizard off me! Please!”
The Silver Wizard materialized before Marc.
“Get him off me! He gets me here, gets me all cranked up to have sex with her, and then he goes batshit crazy!” Marc yelled.
Tristan stood before Xavier. In his red haze of rage, he saw only an obstacle. He spun toward him, grating against Tristan’s black tunic.
His razored crystals had no effect on Tristan. It was like trying to slice through steel.
Tristan looked at him with sympathy. “Steady, X. Breathe. Let it go. He didn’t do anything to your nymph.”
Xavier slowed. Finally he managed to get his rage under control. Xavier resumed his normal form, clad in a Hawaiian shirt and lime-green shorts.
Tristan shook his head. “I think I prefer you as a mass of sharp crystals. In this outfit, you are hurting my retinas.”
Xavier ignored him and went to Ciara. He gathered her into his arms as she stared up at him with large, wet eyes.
Tristan sighed. “I will take care of cleanup.”
Meaning, the Skins and Others who had heard the fracas now were gathered outside the room, looking on in stunned amazement through the doorway.
Tristan went to them and waved a hand, and they left with dazed looks on their faces. They would remember nothing.
He waved another hand and replaced the kicked-down door on the frame and the room returned to what it had been before Xavier went on his rampage. Tristan shook his head. “Take care, X. And good luck, my friend. I left you a gift in your room…in the nightstand.”
Tristan looked at Marc. “I believe you need a reward for all you have endured today. I know two cougar shifters who are looking for a threesome. You will more than suffice, after I make introductions.”
Marc brightened. “Seriously? Let’s go.”
“Ah, my people. So singular in their thinking,” Tristan murmured, and waving a hand, he and Marc vanished.
Xavier continued to stroke Ciara’s hair. “Shh,” he crooned. “It’s all right. He’s gone now.”
Finally he stood and fetched a box of tissues from the bathroom. She dried her eyes and blew her nose. Her lovely, green eyes—red-rimmed—regarded him in abject misery.
She tugged so at his heart, this little Nymph.
“You frightened me. What you could have done to Marc,” she whispered.
“I was not thinking,” he admitted. “You screamed, and I could only think you were hurt.”
Pink flushed her cheeks. She bit her lip and looked away.
“What happened?” he asked gently.
“We, we got up here, and…” She hiccupped and wiped her eyes again. “He kissed me. It wasn’t bad. Then he told me to take off my bathing suit. I took off my top, and then, and then…”
He waited, tamping down his anger at the cougar shifter. Xavier squeezed her hand. “You’re okay now. You’re safe.”
Ciara hung her head. “And then he told me I had the loveliest tits he’d ever seen. And then…he touched me.”
Xavier blinked. “What?”
She looked at him, sorrow etching her expression. “It felt all wrong. He touched my breasts and said I had tits like a shifter. He said I was built like a cougar. And the way he looked at me, like I was a piece of meat. I felt cheap.”
Ah. He began to understand. “What else?”
“He said Nymphs loved sex and that made up for them being so damn skinny. All of a sudden, it reminded me of every bad thing Shifters and Nymphs said about me. I wanted him to leave. I asked him to leave, politely, but he had this crazy look in his eyes, as if he was all nuts.”
“The mating drive,” Xavier murmured. “Older shifters have control over it, but Marc is less…disciplined.”
“I didn’t want to be with him, and then he said something about how he wanted to suck me hard, and I screamed. I’m sorry! I didn’t want you to hurt him. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I feel all bottled up and antsy, and I want to have sex, but the thought of having sex with him made me sick to my stomach.”
Xavier kissed her forehead. He meant it as an avuncular gesture to calm her, but her skin tasted sweet as berries beneath his lips and felt soft as silk. His cock gave an interested twitch. That anatomy hadn’t even been one bit interested at the mention of a threesome with the sexy cougar shifters, but a single press of his mouth against her forehead had his dick doing the happy dance.
But she looked at him with such woebegone eyes that he couldn’t help himself. Xavier kissed a stray tear trickling down her cheek. “Shhh. It’s okay, little one. I’m sorry. I should have found someone more considerate and kind for your first time.”
Her expression was so sad, and he felt all his protective urges surface. Xavier gently kissed her lips. She tasted like berries and the most delicious chocolate, and for a split-second, the image of a malted milkshake sprang to mind. He kept gently kissing her lips, a butterfly brush of her mouth against his.
“Hush, it’s going to be fine. Don’t cry.”
Ciara rubbed her eyes with a fist. “I should have known better and picked a guy out for myself. You’ve been so nice to me, and I can handle this on my own. It’s ridiculous to have you find my first sex partner for me when you have all these other responsibilities.”
“No,” he said a little too vehemently. “I’ve neglected you all these years. You’re my responsibility. I should have not paired you with a cougar like Marc. He’s a tomcat.”
Her mouth quirked up in a tremulous smile. “He’s just a pussycat, deep down. Meow.”
Xavier chuckled, glad to see her regain her lost composure. For some reason, this little Nymph had him longing for something he did not quite understand nor was certain he deserved.
Then her smile dropped. “I wish I didn’t have mixed blood,” she whispered. “I’m a misfit. I feel like I don’t belong in either group.”
“You belong to yourself. You’re perfect the way you are,” he said fiercely.
Xavier hunted around for her top, found it, and handed it to her. Standing, he pulled her upright. “Let’s go for a swim.”
“Now? Looking like this?”
“It will calm you down, help you relax.” And it’s easier than taking a cold shower, he thought grimly.
Waving a hand, he clad himself in blue-and-white Hawaiian swim trunks. Ciara studied him with wide eyes.
“What?”
She inhaled deeply. “You’re amazing looking.”
He should have conjured sackcloth and ashes. This was all wrong. But a small part of him cried out to remain with her. “Let’s go.’
Downstairs, they walked to the pool deck. Xavier fetched towels from the pool boy and tossed them onto two chairs. Ciara was already in the water, head thrown back. Her long, blond hair fanned out behind her.
He swallowed hard. Steady.
Wading into the water, he looked around the pool. The Troll couple who had been at the beach sat in plastic chairs, staring at him with anxious expressions.
Their little boy played in the shallow end. Xavier frowned. They were not attentive parents. Most Trolls were fiercely dedicated to their young and would never allow a child to remain in the pool without a parent.
He sent a nudge of telepathy to a nearby Lupine mother watching her young play, and the Lupine turned her head to w
atch the little Troll boy as well.
Interesting. Definitely something was there with those two Trolls. And then he saw Ciara again, her head thrown back, a look of ecstasy on her face.
She would look like that if he took her, look like that as he thrust hard and deep inside her, giving her one orgasm after another.
Xavier groaned and dove into the pool. He headed for the deep end, clinging to the side.
He was getting in deep, all right. Too deep. And if he wasn’t careful, he could drown…in the lovely Ciara.
7
The Crystal Wizard took her breath away. Xavier was much more handsome and kind than the panther shifter who’d looked at her as if she were a piece of meat.
Seeing Xavier swim to the pool’s side, Ciara dove down to the bottom. Her thoughts were jumbled, her hormones screaming in need, her face flushed.
Did he sense she’d been daydreaming about making love with him?
All her life, men had bored her. She had no interest in the male species and hated her life because she was a Nymph, a female who was supposed to be irresistible to men.
Ciara also hated being a half-breed. Not a Shifter but possessing a Shifter’s instinct to mate for life and be selective about her sex partners. And not a full-blooded Nymph, with a Nymph’s insouciant attitude about sex and no desire to pair off with one single mate but possessing a Nymph’s burning desire all the same.
I’m so screwed up. She swam underwater in strong, sure strokes. Her father had taught her to swim. Her father, who’d loved her unconditionally, unlike her mother, who also loved her, but saw her as an embarrassing mistake produced by a careless night of reckless abandon.
When Marc had reached for her, lust glinting in his gaze, Ciara had felt all her past misery and doubts crash to the surface. She deserved better than a quick hookup in a hotel room. She wanted more, at least a lover who would be gentle and considerate her first time, not brag about how he could initiate her “both ways” to sex. She hadn’t dared tell Xavier that part.
“My nickname with the ladies is Back-Door Don,” Marc had told her.
Ciara swam to the surface and saw Xavier watching her as he treaded water by the pool’s side. Such a stunning man. Wizard, she corrected. He had been nothing but sweet and kind to her.
Though she knew she should fear him because he was her judge and guardian, she did not. Ciara had heard the other Nymphs in her mother’s colony whisper about the Crystal Wizard, who had the power to obliterate someone with a casual flick of his finger. Only one Nymph in her colony had met him when she’d been caught trying to seduce a Skin into having sex with her on a very public beach. Xavier had appeared out of nowhere, taken her by the arm, and dragged her out of there.
“His eyes flashed like diamonds. He was so angry. I thought for certain I was doomed,” the Nymph had gushed as they’d sat around the living room, listening in fascination. “But he merely left with a warning. He was ever so handsome, but all that power, it made me terrified.”
Xavier wasn’t terrifying. Power shimmered around him like an electrical line, sizzling and crackling, but it was subtle. His eyes were the deepest blue of the ocean one moment and the gray of stormy skies the next. And his smile, with a hint of boyish mischief, made her melt.
And that body, clad in Hawaiian swim trunks… She sighed in frank appreciation.
He swam over to her and treaded water. Droplets clung to his long, black lashes and the short hairs of his beard and made the crystals tipping his hair sparkle in the sunlight.
“You okay?” he asked.
She nodded, wishing he would kiss her again. Xavier was an expert kisser. So gentle and tender…
Maybe he’d get angry. Or do something dreadful, like turn her into a toad. But Ciara had lived her entire life according to other people’s rules. First the Nymphs, with their insistence she be shuttled away to her father’s house when they went into heat, and then her father, ordering her to stay away from other shifters, like cougars because they would find her irresistible.
Always the good girl.
And she could not ignore the nagging feeling she had met him somewhere before, sometime. The recognition was overwhelming.
For the past two weeks, she had experienced vivid dreams. In those dreams, Ciara danced to an oldies tune with a handsome stranger, whose face remained a blur. And then the dream changed. She stood outside an iron cage, whispering a promise to a man. And then sorrow filled her as he screamed as if he suffered a terrible agony…
Each time, she awoke sobbing, her pillow damp with tears.
Ciara’s heart told her the man was Xavier, but she doubted it. It was merely a wistful longing, made up by a Nymph’s hyperactive imagination. If Xavier had known her in a previous life, he would recognize her, for he was immortal.
He looked around the pool. “I need to find you another partner.”
I don’t want anyone else but you.
Frustrated, Ciara swam over to where she could stand. He followed. She stared into his eyes.
“Thank you,” she said softly. “Thank you for being so sweet to me.”
Xavier blinked hard, and his gaze grew stormy. “Dammit, I swore I wouldn’t do this, but you’re driving me insane.”
And before she could even draw close, he kissed her. His mouth upon hers was warm and firm. Ciara moaned and opened her lips to the insistent pressure of his. Xavier tasted like her favorite milk chocolate and sweet wine, dark and intoxicating. He kissed her as if he would die if he did not taste her, and when his tongue deftly slipped into her mouth, she shyly met his skilled thrusts with advances of her own. He would be like that in bed, dominating and commanding but gentle.
She wanted no one else for her first lover.
As she wrapped her arms around his neck, he kept kissing her softly, his lips so warm and firm. Ciara kissed him back. She wanted to lose herself in him, lose herself in his gentle but insistent kisses. Every nerve ending in her body screamed with arousal. Marc made her afraid, but Xavier opened all her senses like a floodgate.
When he finally broke away, his eyes had darkened to storm clouds. Ciara heard sounds of disapproval and glanced around, dismayed at the staring faces. “Everyone can see us. I wish we had some privacy. Someplace natural and fresh.”
Xavier waved a hand and suddenly the pool vanished. They were emerged in a crystal-clear stream, the water up to his waist. A waterfall spilled over the side of a mountain.
“Now, we are finally alone.”
Ciara looked around, her eyes wide. “The water feels wonderful. Is this your magick? What if someone at the pool saw us vanish?”
“One of the benefits of being the Crystal Wizard. I simply created the illusion we left the pool to lie in the sun.” Then his expression turned troubled. “I shouldn’t do this. You’re my charge, and the Brehon never get involved with their charges.”
“Never?”
A sheepish smile touched his face. “Well, some of us have done so, but I have never had sex with one of my charges.”
“Then it will be your first time too. Xavier, I don’t want some uncaring stranger who sees only my body and what pleasure I can give him. I want someone who knows my heart.”
He looked startled. Then he placed his warm palm over her chest. A thrill raced through her at his gentle touch.
“How do I know your heart?” he asked softly.
Ciara wasn’t certain. Maybe she’d sound like a fool, but it must be said in this important moment.
“I’ve had these dreams about you lately. Powerful dreams. They fade to mist when I wake, but I remember saying one thing: ‘I give you my heart so we will always be together, even unto death.’”
He stared into her eyes, his gaze growing soft. “Those words are so familiar and dear to me, but I cannot remember why.”
“You know me, Xavier. You are no stranger to me. I know you feel it as well. I want no other for my first lover.”
Xavier’s mouth parted slightly as he stared at her li
ps.
“Please,” she whispered.
She kissed him gently, her mouth pressing against his. Then he groaned. His hand encircled her waist as he pulled Ciara against him. He sought her mouth, returning her innocent kiss with a passionate one.
His mouth was seeking, demanding, and she uttered a tiny moan as he forced her lips to open to him then teased her tongue with deadly skillful thrusts. This wizard captured her in his muscled embrace and attacked every raging nerve in her trembling body.
He massaged the nape of her neck and raked his fingers through her hair. The handsome wizard gently plundered her mouth, claiming her as his. A firestorm of sensations engulfed Ciara as her limbs turned liquid. Water spilled around them, and for a moment, it felt as if she floated on air.
Swirling flames of pure lust licked her body with erotic pleasure as he coaxed her to open wider to him. He cupped her bottom, kneading it gently, pressing her against his rigid arousal. Her breasts tingled as she rubbed their softness against his hard chest. She wanted to purr from the delicious feel of his muscled body against her.
His persistent ravaging of her mouth tore away all coherent thought. Ciara struggled to remember to breathe as his lips scraped along the sensitive column of her throat, obliterating all rational thought. It had always been her erogenous zone, and had Marc kissed her there before putting his hands on her breasts, the Shifter might have been her first lover.
But Marc could never compare to Xavier. The powerful Crystal Wizard promised to be an excellent, skillful lover. He kissed her as if determined to possess every inch of her body before claiming her innocence.
She might be a virgin, but she had needs of her own.
Skimming her fingers along his bearded jaw line, next she trailed them along his tanned throat from collarbone to the muscled of his broad shoulders. Ciara placed her lips against the juncture of his shoulder and tasted the slight salt of his skin. Flattening her palm against the soft, silky hair on his thick chest, she marveled at the differences between them.
