“Oh, it will fit very nicely I assure you.” Argon positioned her legs around his hips and the tip of cock at the wet core of her. “Ready?” He laughed suddenly. “You’re gritting your teeth. It’s not the Inquisition you know.”
“I’m just—”
“I know.” Argon linked his hands with hers and raised them over her hands as he started to slide within.
Augusta eyes locked with his as he entered her. She could see everything he was feeling and for one second she wanted to cry because his eyes were so soft and tender on hers.
“Augusta True?” He stopped in concern.
“Don’t stop, Argon.” The heat of his penis pushing into her made her body stretch, welcoming the fullness of him. It was almost like it recognized this was some missing part she had been needing. Augusta had heard the expression of two becoming one but she never really understood it until now. His total full possession of her body made her stiffen in shock but his mouth sought hers to soothe whatever discomfort she felt.
Once fully inside Argon stopped. “Okay?” He kissed her lips lingeringly.
“Oh yes.” It was the first time in her life that Augusta felt beyond okay. She actually felt loved and as crazy as that was she wanted to experience every second of what she had right now.
“Want more?” Argon’s voice was low and husky with the sound of a man barely in control. His hands unlinked with hers and caressed her breast.
Augusta sighed with pleasure. “Oh, Argon.” This was almost too perfect. Normally perfection worried her but right now she wanted to think of only him and her and nothing else.
Argon grinned at her and kissed her nose. “That’s my girl. Hang on Augusta True.”
Her hands sought out his ass and gripped it as he started to move within her. The rocking sensation had a primal rhythm that Augusta started to pick up and she began to move with him.
“You are so lovely,” Argon growled as his mouth lowered onto her breast and sucked on her nipple.
Somewhere in the back of her mind, Augusta remembered her best friend Tilly telling her first time at sex was awful.
“This is perfect,” she murmured out loud not meaning to do so. Never had she imagined that she would ever feel this close to anyone. It was not just her body joining to his, it was kindred spirits meeting and acknowledging a deeper connection. Her body was on fire and she knew at that moment she would never be the same again. When she heard Argon chuckle she blushed slightly.
“It always will be so for us.”
“Oh, Argon,” she gasped as the orgasm hit. What was happening? Augusta’s whole body felt like it was going to explode. It was like nothing she had ever imagined. The intense feeling of pleasure radiated all over her body making her shake as she tried to keep pace with it. She clutched Argon to her never wanting him to leave. This was why she had waited. She knew no other man could ever make her feel like this. Augusta felt his body stiffen and his cock jerk inside her as he came. Her eyes met his.
“Don’t leave me,” she whispered breathlessly.
“I will never leave you.” There could be no more solemn promise to Argon than that. As much as he wanted to stay locked inside Augusta he knew it would be uncomfortable for her. He withdrew from her body, waving the spent condom away, and rolled onto his side, pulling her into his arms. Despite walking the Earth for centuries, he had never felt more alive then he did at that moment lying beside Augusta. “I love you.” He smiled softly when he saw the panicked realization in her eyes. He knew he was not the only one feeling the intensity of the emotion that engulfed them. Excellent. “This is for you, Augusta True,” Argon waved his hand again and a ring appeared. He picked up her hand and slid the ring on the appropriate finger on her left hand. It was never too soon for a Cardissan male to claim the woman he loved for they never changed their minds once made up. Augusta was his woman.
“It’s beautiful.” Augusta gasped in amazement as she stared down at the solid platinum band that adorned her ring finger like a promise of more to come. The twisted vine-like band was thick and studded with glittering diamonds. It ran from the base of her finger to her knuckle.
Good, he wanted to shock Augusta. He was going to have much pleasure in initiating his woman into the delights of love making. He, too, remembered the dream she mentioned briefly and was pleased she had. Although it was impossible for him to sleep, as immortals did not need to, there had been a moment when he had gone to look at the sleeping Augusta. But one thing led to another and temptation had gotten hold of him. The need to touch and taste her had been overwhelming. It had taken all his control not to make love to her then as she had writhed uncontrollably beneath him. Argon wanted her but he wanted her awake, willing and aware for he would not take her otherwise.
Argon knew by the sleepy, sensual look in her eyes that Augusta was as content as he. As much as he longed to plunge back inside her, he refrained for he knew she would be sore from his possession. That she had waited for him to be her only lover filled him with power and pride and yes, sheer male delight. My woman. My lover. My wife.
“It is a Cardissan tradition to give a token of affection to his lover.” Argon did not add that a Cardissan only presented his bride with such a ring and once on, it meant they were married and that ring would never come off. Whether Augusta chose to believe it or not, they were meant to be together. Argon was more certain of that than ever. His eyes ran over her beautiful, naked flesh and he thanked Hester for her curse. Maybe others fought their fate, but Argon embraced it with a passion that surprised him. I have waited long, lonely centuries for you my love. He lifted her hand and kissed her palm. With this ring, I thee wed. The bond they now had would never be broken. Once married, Cardissans never divorced.
“Why give this ring to me?” Augusta looked uneasy as she sat up, clutching the sheet to her body as if suddenly aware she was naked and with whom.
“You know why.” Argon sat up with her, not surprised when she let out a wild series of hiccups. He smiled as she tried to pull the ring from her finger as if the significance of it suddenly occurred to her.
“Look, we had sex.” Hiccup. “I do not expect any commitment from you.” Hiccup.
Even her hiccups were cute to Argon.
“But I expect it from you, my love.” He had a feeling it was going to be fun seducing Augusta into giving into what they both wanted. He hadn’t been challenged by anything really meaningful for years.
“If this is just because you were the first—” Hiccup. She yanked furiously at ring.
“And the only one ever for you.”
“That’s pretty old fashioned—hiccup—of you.”
“As are you Augusta True. I like that you waited for me.” If there had been another, it would not have mattered for in the end Augusta Lawrence was always meant to be his woman. But Argon had to admit there was this primitive and masculine feeling of possession that he had about being her one and only. It was not something he took lightly.
“Oh for God’s sake, I was not waiting for you.” Hiccup. “Why won’t this damn ring come off?”
“Because you are the true owner.” Argon just smiled when she let fly and slapped his chest. He caught and held her hand against his bare flesh.
“Did you do some magical thing to it?” She tried to pull her hand out from under his.
“The only power that holds it in place is the power of you and me and our unbreakable love for each other.”
“Now you sound like a greeting card.” Augusta yanked her hand free. Toppling backward as she did. “I think you should leave.” She folded her arms over her bare breasts to cover them.
“We cannot go back.” Argon had no intention of doing so. He eyes slid down her creamy flesh to the uncovered juncture of her thighs. He longed to taste her once more and while the look she gave him was “don’t even think about it” he knew it would take very little to have her writhing under him in passion once more. But now is not the time, man.
“And we ca
nnot go forward.” Augusta crossed her legs tightly as if she suspected where his thoughts were headed.
Argon leaned down over her, his body lightly skimming hers.
“How I adore you.” He kissed her nose teasingly.
“Piss off,” Augusta enunciated with clear intent.
“I’ll be back.” That was a promise. Argon would be with Augusta come hell or high water, curse or no curse. “You are mine, Augusta True.”
“Oh fuck, what have I done?” she muttered as he disappeared from the room.
Chapter Two
Present day
“Fucking curse,” Augusta Lawrence swore and then hiccupped as she slammed the Markwell file in beside T for Taylor in the filing cabinet. She had long since given up worrying whether the filing was alphabetical or not. How could she concentrate on names when she kept seeing that ring on her finger? It was taunting her, reminding her of what she had done. “What an idiot you were.” She hiccupped again, dumping all the files but one into a heap on the floor, as she leaned against the metal cabinet and stared at the ring on her finger. It was beautiful. It was the sort of ring any normal woman would kill to have. “But I’m not normal and neither is he.” He. Argon Cardissan. Just thinking of him made her feel wet. “Great now, I’m not only depressed but horny.” She sighed heavily and filed Xenides under C beside Cartwright.
But then uncertainty made you do dumb things like jump into bed with the sexy, forbidden man and take on an incredibly boring filing job like she was doing. The bed thing she did not want to think about. As for the filing, Augusta needed the money and there was no other option. While she understood that her best friend Tilly no longer wanted to keep the Matilda Moor agency going, it had been a personal blow to Augusta. She had genuinely liked the job. Sure, investigating supernatural beings and dealing with plain crazy people was not always easy but then it was never dull. She and Tilly and seen some stuff that would make most people’s hair turn white. But not them. They liked investigating weird phenomena, hunting down supernatural misfits like ghosts and werewolves and convincing vampires it was time to move on. That was until those carnivorous freaks of nature had targeted Tilly and forced her to act. Although they had won that battle, it was understandable that after that Tilly wanted to give up the agency and do something simple with the love of her life, Taliesin Trevelyan. Both he and Tilly had been through a lot to be together. It was only natural they wanted to stay that way in peace and not have deal with the unknown and potentially dangerous.
So the Matilda Moor Agency, housed in the exotic surrounds of Tilly’s garage, had closed down and Augusta, at nearly thirty years of age, was suddenly unemployed. The agency had been the only job she had known. Tilly’s Aunt Sage had started the agency after many of the clients who came to her for clairvoyant readings asked her to do other things like exorcise malevolent spirits or rid people of what they considered evil. And surprisingly there was a lot of that around even in the suburbs. Augusta had thrived on the job. She loved researching legends and myths and working with the two crazy Moor women. However with the closure of the agency, Augusta was at a loss what to do. There was not much call for a sidekick to a hunter of the supernatural in the employment adverts. She was even toying with the idea of re-opening the agency.
“You’re smart, Rowdy. You can do anything.” Tilly was the only one who called her Rowdy. It went back to their childhood. They had met in Miss Woodburn’s math class when they were five years old and although they were totally different those differences worked for them and they become fast friends. Augusta was always the quiet watchful one as Tilly’s aunt had observed. “Almost like you are waiting for something you know is coming.” She was so quiet that Tilly started to call her Rowdy and the name stuck. Tilly had rubbed her friend’s arm supportively as they had stood in the cleaned out shell of an office cum garage a few day ago. “You’ll be okay.”
“Sure,” Rowdy had replied, not having a clue what to do. The agency job had given her a routine and a chance not to think about her thirtieth birthday and what that would mean.
Several years ago, before she had died, Sage Moor had taken Augusta aside.
“I don’t know exactly what it is that you fear,” the clairvoyant had said. “But I know that you will have to face your destiny and chose one of two paths. I fear that both have the power to destroy you if you are not strong.”
“Yes.”
“I feel there is a dark man.” Sage watched as Augusta nodded. “Whoever this dark man is, remember to look beyond the surface into the substance of the man. He has the power to heal and destroy and you can control him if you are strong enough.”
“And if I don’t want to?”
Sage smiled sadly and shook her head.
“Child, you know you cannot change your fate.”
Augusta looked at the ring on her finger once again. She was turning thirty next week and she knew only too well what that meant. “Fucking fate.” Hiccup.
* * * * *
On her sixteenth birthday, Augusta Lawrence’s adoptive parents had handed her a letter and said to her, “This will explain all your questions.”
As a child growing up so many questions brewed in her mind. Augusta knew she did not fit into the neat, tidy world she had been placed in. She had always felt she was an outsider, so as each year passed she asked why. What was wrong with her? Who am I? But the only response she got was that she would be told when the time was right.
“What does that mean?” she would ask, hiccupping nervously as she did. It was a habit she had when stressed.
“Just be patient, Augusta. Things happen for a reason and it’s not the right time for you to know.”
It wasn’t that she was adopted. That was no surprise. It had been one of the first things Augusta had been told as soon as she had the ability to understand what it meant. She appreciated knowing that truth. Although the people she called her parents cared for her and loved her, she always felt like she did not belong. Consequently as Augusta grew up she tended to be a loner. Only Matilda Moor, with her crazy Aunt Sage who gave spooky palm readings and chased ghosts, understood her.
Augusta had phoned her about the letter and the teenage Tilly had immediately gone to her friend’s home.
“Wow, you are so lucky. A mysterious letter is so exciting.” Tilly had been a drama queen even at sixteen. “I bet it’s from some long lost relative who is actually a King in an immensely rich land or maybe you were kidnapped by gypsies when you were young and—”
“Do the McDowalls look like gypsies to you?” Augusta clenched the unopened letter in her hand and looked at her friend. They were in her bedroom with the door shut.
“Well, no, Rowdy, but you have a different surname from them and I’ve always thought that was odd.”
Augusta laughed for the first time that day. Sixteenth birthdays were supposed to be turning points in a young woman’s life and yet all she felt was this terrible sense of something approaching that she was not going to be able to stop.
“Odd? Coming from you, Tilly, that’s funny.” Sometimes Augusta wondered who was the weirder of the two of them. Yet it bonded them and she was grateful for her dramatic friend.
“Hey, I can’t help it if Aunt Sage is spooky.”
“I like your Aunt.” Sage Moor was quiet, thoughtful and never judgmental. She made Augusta feel infinitely at peace when she was around her.
“Yeah, Auntie Sage is crazy but then who isn’t?” Tilly belly flopped onto Augusta’s bed. “So read the letter.”
“What if it’s bad news?” Augusta already knew in her heart it was not good news.
“What if it’s good? Do you want me to open it?”
“No, I’ll do it.” Augusta took a deep breath and opened envelope and pulled out the letter. Her eyes widened as she read the curse.
“What is it, Rowdy?”
“Nothing.” Augusta hiccupped three times in a row as she tried to catch her breath. Whatever she had expected it wasn’t t
his.
Tilly sat up in alarm. “You’ve gone white.”
“It’s just the shock about—um—finally knowing about who my real parents were and stuff.”
“Cool. Let me see.”
Augusta quickly put the letter behind her. She needed time to digest what she had barely scanned. It was hard enough for her to take it in let alone having to analyze it with Tilly.
“Maybe later. I just need to be alone and to think.”
After Tilly left she’d re-read the letter slowly, each word permeating her brain and driving home what she already knew. Augusta now had positive proof of something she had suspected all along. She was not normal.
From this day forth, no Cardissan will be able to resist the lure of the Law-giver. Fate will bring them together when the Law-giver is three decades old and only if so chosen will death separate them. In their great need to be one, worlds will collide and the cost of what they do will wreak havoc on many. Bond they must, and great hardship and danger will they endure. Their weakness will be their strength and many will suffer because of it. Only through the bonds of matrimony will the fate of many be made right and no curse be brought to bear on the innocent.
“Cardissan? Law-giver?” Augusta read the words again slowly. “Death”, “hardship” and “danger”. A cold chill ran down her spine and she swallowed hard on the hiccup that caught in her throat. “Matrimony?” The curse was eerie, however the elegant, spidery handwriting below it made her shiver uncontrollably.
My dearest child,
Take heart, there is never a good time to hear certain truths. As a Law-giver—a Lawrence—you are faced with great challenges. I need you to understand what you, as a young woman, will be faced with. A dark man will come into your life and tempt you with such wondrous beauty that you will be faced with decisions that will affect all those you love for years to come.
I took the wrong path and paid for it. Cardissan men are not to be trusted. I refused Bennett Cardissan for I loved your father. Bennett and your father are no longer with me. My choices destroyed them as they will me. I pass soon and only by the grace of God do I have the gift to see you born before I die. You will be faced with the same challenge when you turn thirty. I cannot tell you how to act or what to do as you will make your own way regardless. But be watchful of the dark man—the Cardissan. He will either be your salvation or your destruction. The choices you make will affect many and once made they cannot be changed. Do not use your heart. Rely on your head. Do not allow passion to overwhelm common sense. You have great power. Choose wisely how you use it.
Rowdy Page 3
