Charming Marjani

by Rebecca Rivard

  She did it again.

  The cat purred. Mine.

  “You could be a model,” she told him. “If you’re looking for a job.”

  He let out a startled laugh. “I don’t think so.”

  “Oh, you could be. But you know something? Never mind. I want you all to myself.”

  His cock twitched and lengthened, and this time, it just fed the warm tingles.

  His smile was slow and intimate. “I know you’re the only woman I want. The only woman I’ll ever want.”

  “Good. Because if that red-haired fae lady starts rubbing up against you again, I just might have to take her down.”

  “Just so you remember it goes both ways.”

  “Of course. We’re mates. And I don’t get off on making men jealous.” She toyed with the wiry nest of hairs encircling his cock. “You’re dark here. Like your beard.”

  He sipped a breath, and she knew he wanted her to stroke him. But she didn’t. It was more fun to tease. Instead, she circled her index finger around the base as he watched, heavy-lidded.

  “You like to play, do you?”

  She tilted her head, considering that. “Maybe I do. When it’s you.”

  “Have at me, then,” he said in the tone of a man sacrificing himself.

  She couldn’t help smiling—and the boa constrictor released its grip on her chest. “All right. But you can’t move.”

  Placing her hands on either side of his hips, she leaned forward to lick him. Slow, languorous licks. He stilled, his free hand clenching, but he kept it on the bed.

  “Mm.” She pressed a kiss to his hard stalk. “I like how you taste.”

  She drew her tongue up and down him, swirling it around the cap. Tonguing the sensitive underside.

  He groaned. “Jani?”

  She hummed against his flushed skin. “Yeah?”

  “You’re killing me here.”

  She wrapped her fingers around him, lapping at the salty pre-cum coating his head. “Should I stop?”

  “Gods, no.”

  She gave a soft hum against his cock and then took him fully into her mouth. As she relaxed and began to enjoy herself, the mate bond heated in her chest.

  She felt his excitement, and it fed her own, turning her insides hot and liquid.

  She played with him for long minutes, learning the taste and feel of him. And when he reached for her, saying, “I have to be in you,” she was as ready as him.

  She crawled up his body, kissing each male nipple, smoothing her hands over the dark, gold-tipped hairs on his chest. But when she reached down to take him inside her, he gripped her hips and lifted her higher—and then scooted down the bed, muttering something about “returning the favor.”

  She knew the man had a talented mouth, but this time was even better than the first time. He positioned her so she straddled his face, and then opened her with his thumbs so he could swipe his tongue along her weeping slit.

  “God’s balls,” he growled. “You’re so wet.” He went to work on her clit, sucking and swirling his tongue around it in slow, incredibly arousing circles.

  She arched her back and set her hands on her calves, opening to him.

  “That’s it,” he husked, low and rough. “It’s your turn to stay still. All you have to do is enjoy it.”

  Shivers tripped up and down her body. Her skin heated. She gripped her thighs and moaned his name. Close…so close, but not quite there.

  “Take it, love.”

  He gripped her thighs, his thumbs brushing the soft skin next to her sex. Meanwhile, his mouth kept up its magic. He swirled his tongue through her juices and thrust into her, while his thumbs toyed with her clit. She felt like he was touching her everywhere.

  He pressed a kiss to the sensitive skin of her inner thigh.

  “Fane…” She shook her head.

  He rubbed his lips over her other thigh. “Tell me what you want,” he coaxed.

  She brought her hands to her breasts and pinched them. “Please,” she said. “Touch me. Take me.” And had the brief, sure realization that there was no shame in begging. Not when it was her and Fane. This wasn’t meant to break her, just pleasure her.

  Then her whole body went taut as a wire stretched to its limit.

  “That’s it,” he murmured. “Come for me, love.” He gave a hard suck to her clit.

  Her sex clenched. Lightning shot up her spine, flashed behind her eyes.

  She grabbed the headboard and held on as the climax rolled over her in endless, searing waves. When she opened her eyes again, she was surprised to find the room was still filled with sunlight. She could’ve sworn a storm had broken over the bed.

  He gave her a last lick and then slid out from beneath her. She rolled onto her back and he came over top of her. Setting his forearms on either side of her head, he captured her gaze—and slid into her.

  “Fane,” she moaned, the thick glide almost too much against her sensitized flesh.

  He halted in mid-thrust. “Too much?”

  “No.” She wrapped him in a hard hug and they shared a kiss. She could taste herself on him, a salty musk. “I like it. Just like that—nice and slow.”

  “Then that’s what you’ll get.” He stroked out and then back in. Sweet, easy strokes, parting her a little more deeply each time, until he was all the way in.

  She squeezed around him, enjoying his moan of pleasure.

  “Fuck.” He stopped moving. “No condoms. You want me to pull out?”

  Her eyes widened. A cub—her? She’d never, ever thought she’d be a mother.

  The idea warmed her to her toes—but not today, or even this year. She pressed her lips to his stubbled cheek.

  “Yeah. For now, anyway—I want you all to myself for a year or two. But someday, yeah. I’d love to have a baby with you.”

  He met her eyes, his soft with affection. “Exactly what I was thinking.”

  He started to move faster, harder. Angling himself to stroke against the knot of pleasure on the upper wall of her pussy.

  It seemed with every stroke, their bond grew stronger, so that she was feeling his arousal along with her own. She closed her eyes and tightened around him, and came again in another hot, bright explosion.

  “That’s it, love,” he said on a groan. He thrust in hard and then pulled out to spend himself on her stomach.

  His head rested on the pillow beside hers for a minute. Then he rolled onto his back, tucking her into his side. She set a hand on his chest. He was warm and a little sweaty, his heart thumping as if he’d run a race.

  For a time, they were silent in the sunshine-filled room. Then Fane kissed her forehead.

  “I’ll do my best to be a good dad. I know I could’ve done better with Evie, but I was always afraid the king would use her against me. And yeah, some of it was me being an arse. I didn’t want the court to know I had a kid with a human mother.” He swallowed. “Gods, that sounds so fucking shallow. But it’s the truth.”

  She tangled her fingers in the fur on his chest. “She loves you. You must have done something right.”

  “Yeah?” He looked at her, pleased. “You think so?”

  “I do. But it’s not too late—I think she’d like to get to know you better.”

  “I’d like that, too.” He let out a breath. “Guess I’m coming home with you. You think your brother can make a place for an unemployed, penniless fae envoy?”

  “He won’t like it,” she said, “but he’ll come around. He loves me.”

  It wasn’t Adric she was worried about so much as the clan. Everyone had expected her to mate with Luc. They wouldn’t be happy when she brought home Fane instead, a part-fae who had been part of the ice fae court for six decades. Especially when they found out Luc had accepted a geas to save her.

  She tamped down the guilt that flared in her. Now was for her and Fane. She’d worry about Luc and the clan when they got back to Baltimore.

  “But what about you?” she asked, those doubts she’d had
in Iceland returning. “You gave up everything for me. You’ll never have a place in any fae court again. You sure you want to mate with a woman from a poor clan in Baltimore?”

  He touched her face. “Forty, even twenty turns of the sun ago, that might have stopped me. But now, all I want is you. You’re too good for me, Marjani. You think I don’t know that?”

  He meant it. She scented the truth in his words, saw it in his eyes.

  “And besides,” he added, “I didn’t do it only for you. The last few years, I could barely stand returning to the court. I just didn’t have anywhere else to go. But now I do.”

  He rolled on top of her and, capturing her wrists in his hands, pressed them to either side of her head. The hard ridge of his erection nudged against her stomach.

  “We’re mates, Jani. I’m not going anywhere. Get used to it.”

  She frowned. “I don’t want you to go anywhere. I just want you to be happy.”

  “Then stop trying to convince me I’d be better off without you.”

  She gave a jerky nod, and then turned her head, offering her throat to him. Inviting him to mark her in a way her cat craved.

  He might not be a fada, but he understood. He stilled, and then lowered his head and bit her. Just hard enough to leave a mark.

  Her hips rocked up. Heat bloomed in her belly.

  He laved the mark with his tongue, and while she was sucking in a breath, thrust inside her again.

  Their loving this time was hard and fast. Marjani let her wild side out, and Fane met it with some wildness of his own. They ended with her on her hands and knees, him thrusting into her from behind.

  “Touch me,” she begged, and his long fingers stroked over her body, pinching her nipples and rubbing her clit until she split apart in another earth-shattering orgasm. He pulled out and came right after her, breath sawing in and out, spilling hot against her lower back.

  After that, all she wanted to do was sleep, but she made herself call Adric first. He wasn’t overjoyed to learn she was bringing Fane Morningstar back to Baltimore, but she was pretty sure he’d guessed they’d mated. She didn’t tell him though. That news could wait until she was home.

  “I heard from Luc,” he said. “He told me what happened.”

  She gripped her quartz. “He’s okay?”

  “As far as I could tell. The fae bitch allowed him one call, and then he’s not allowed to contact me for the length of the geas. I had to banish him from the clan, Jani. I can’t have a man under a geas connected to me and the clan that way. She could use Luc against us.”

  “Oh, Ric.” She rubbed a hand over her face. “I’m sorry.”

  “He understood. Hell, he suggested it. And he knows he’s welcome back as soon as he serves out the geas.”

  “I tried to save him.”

  “I know you did. It’s okay, Jani. He did it for you.”

  “That doesn’t make me feel any better.”

  Adric blew out a breath. “What about Corban?”

  “Dead.”

  Something about her tone made him ask, “What is it? He is dead, isn’t he?”

  “Yeah. I made sure of it.”

  “Good.”

  She sighed. “It’s just…he was our cousin, Ric.”

  “That didn’t mean he wasn’t trying to kill us both. Corban could have accepted me as alpha. Hell, I made him a sentry. He would’ve made lieutenant eventually, if he’d just given me a reason to trust him.”

  “I know. You did what you had to.”

  “And so did you. You’re…all right?”

  “Yeah.” She glanced at Fane. “Better than all right.”

  “Then get your ass back to Baltimore. I need you here. But keep an eye out for the night fae. The prince has eased off the pressure for now, but he’s not going to let this rest.”

  “We’ll get a flight as soon as we can. And Ric? I miss you. So much.”

  “Miss you, too,” was the gruff reply.

  She ended the call and crawled back into bed with Fane. Strong arms hauled her close to him.

  “You’re tired. Go to sleep.”

  “Kay.” She curled up against Fane and fell like a stone into a deep, dreamless sleep.

  When they awoke, it was early afternoon. After a long, hot bath in the clawfoot tub—and another round of lovemaking, this time tender and drawn-out—they hiked into the village.

  It turned out Fane had close to a hundred thousand dollars in his bank account.

  “I never touched it,” he said with a shrug. “Just used it to pay for the house’s upkeep. The interest kept compounding.”

  She snorted. “Must be nice to be rich.”

  “Well, I’m not rich anymore. But at least I won’t be totally dependent on you. That would be one more black mark against me as far as your brother is concerned.”

  He withdrew enough to pay for their flights back to Baltimore, plus some extra, including some American dollars for after they crossed the border. Then they ate a chunky fish chowder in a pub and bought groceries, including a box of condoms. In a gift shop, Marjani even found a new leather thong for her quartz. She fastened it around her neck as soon as they left the store; the connection worked best when the crystals could vibrate against her skin.

  Their errands done, they headed back to the cozy saltbox house and stole another night and day just for themselves. Adric would just have to understand.

  To her surprise, Fane had a down-to-earth side. He pitched in with the cooking, chopped wood, took her on long hikes along the cliffs. When she mentioned it, he shot her an affronted look from where he was lighting a fire in the big fieldstone fireplace.

  “I spent twenty years as a fisherman,” he growled. “And working for the king wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows.”

  She bit her lower lip. “I’m sorry—I didn’t think. You had to be pretty fucking tough to survive as his envoy.”

  He wrapped a long arm around her waist and pulled her close. “I’m not weak, Jani. Don’t make the same mistake that my grandfather makes about me and my dad. Just because we’re easygoing doesn’t mean you can push us around.”

  She slid her fingers into his hair and pulled him close. “I know,” she said against his mouth. “I was there when you gave up your Gift for me, remember?”

  “And I’d do it again in a heartbeat,” he said—fiercely, as if she were arguing.

  She traced the tip of her tongue over the seam of his lips. “I know.”

  “I love you.” He didn’t wait for her to reply, just wrapped his other arm around her and gave her a kiss that she felt clear to her toes. And after that, they stopped talking and just loved each other in front of the fire.

  The second day, he rented a sailboat and took her out on the Atlantic, showing her a hidden cove. They made love on the deck, with the sun shining down on them and a cold breeze biting into their skin.

  “This is fun?” She rubbed the goose pimples that had popped up on her naked body.

  “You’ll warm up,” he assured her, and then proceeded to show her exactly how hot he could make her.

  On the way back to the village, she couldn’t stop smiling.

  Fane would’ve liked to stay longer, but he understood that she needed to get home. And it turned out that during that night in the maze, another ten days had passed in the human world. It was nearly mid-September.

  So two mornings after they arrived in Canada, they caught a flight to Toronto and then back to Baltimore.

  38

  Marjani’s brother was bloody scary.

  A few inches shorter than Fane and cat-lean, with Marjani’s warm brown skin and black hair dyed blond at the tips, Adric Savonett was younger than Fane had expected and good-looking, with a cocky smile. But his eyes were an opaque bronze that sized Fane up, looking for a weakness, like he was prey and not his sister’s mate.

  They’d landed in Baltimore around dinnertime. Marjani had taken Fane straight to her brother’s den.

  “You’re back!” Adr
ic met them at the outside door and dragged Marjani into a hug. “You’re okay?” He held her a little away and scrutinized her face.

  “Yeah.” She slanted a smile at Fane. “Better than okay.”

  “Good. That’s good.” Adric gave her another hug and then turned to Fane. “This is him?”

  “Yep.” Marjani slid an arm around Fane’s waist. “Fane Morningstar.”

  “Evie’s dad.” Predatory bronze eyes narrowed on him.

  Fane decided it was time to speak. The fada respected strength. “Yes.” He stuck out a hand. “Peace, and good to meet you.”

  “Peace.” Adric gripped his hand firmly. His nostrils flared, and then his irises blazed a spooky blue like the flaring of a corona. “Fuck.” He scowled at his sister. “Tell me you’re not mated.”

  “Cut the crap,” Marjani snapped back. “You know I am. We are.”

  “oath breaker.”

  Fane’s jaw tightened. “I’m not proud of that. But if you’ve heard that much, then you know I broke the geas to save your sister. And in the end, the king officially released me from my bargain with him anyway.”

  “That’s right.” Marjani’s chin jutted. “And you know what? I don’t need your permission to mate with him.”

  “But we would like your blessing,” Fane added.

  “The alpha crossed his arms, biceps bulging in his green T-shirt. “How do I know you’re not going to put a cub in her and then disappear like you did with Evie’s mom?”

  Fane drew a slow breath through his teeth. The man might be an alpha, but Fane wasn’t a member of his clan and so was outside the hierarchy. And frankly, it was fucking irritating to be scolded by a man so much younger than him.

  But for Marjani’s sake—and because the man had a point, damn him—Fane replied calmly. “Because we’re mates. And I promised her that if and when we have a cub, things will be different this time. And I give you that promise now, too.”

  “I have your word?”

  “Yes.”

  Adric sneered. “But then, what does your word mean?”

  Fane ground his teeth. But he’d known breaking an oath would put a black mark against his name that he’d have a hard time shaking. He’d probably have to spend the next century living it down.