by Amy Pennza
I shook my head. My mother had been beautiful. I was just me.
“Keep playing with yourself,” he whispered.
I circled my clit. Light smacking sounds rose in the air, and little sparks danced over my skin. My nipples ached.
More lightning streaked his eyes. He eased inside a couple more inches.
I’d braced for it to hurt, but it . . . didn't. Instead, a delicious wave of pure bliss rolled through me. I lifted my hands and palmed my breasts, letting my stiff nipples drag up and down my palms.
“Uh.” Hauk stopped, his forehead creased with what looked like pain.
I raised my head. “Hauk?”
“It’s all right,” he gasped. “You just feel so fucking good. Like a hot, wet fist around my cock.”
His words were like a lit match on my desire. Out of nowhere, Asher’s voice drifted through my head. “Raw, wild energy—the kind that makes blood and passion pump through your veins.”
Yeah, that’s what this was.
Hauk pulled back a little, then pushed forward.
Far from painful, the sensation was . . . unbelievable. Heat blasted through me, puckering my nipples and searing my sex.
Have to see this.
I went to my elbows, my lips parted as my breath came in low pants. Hauk strained above me, his thighs taut as he fed his cock into my opening. I lifted my knees, my thighs pressed back, my toes in the air. His shaft impaled me, the veined flesh so tight and hard it was nearly purple. My sex stretched around him, pink and glistening.
“Maybe you should try embracing it,” Asher had said.
I am. Oh, I am.
Thunder boomed.
A flash of heat swept me, forcing my head back. Something inside me shifted.
When I lifted my head, my hair seemed to float around my shoulders, the white strands moving as if underwater. A warm wind swirled through the cave, and the rustle of dry leaves swept around the walls. A laugh built in my throat—pure, unadulterated joy. Whispers filled the air, carried on the breeze.
Bliss. Spring. Autumn. Sun and earth.
Hauk pressed inside, his brow furrowed in fierce concentration. He’d squeezed his eyes shut. “Elin,” he grated. He thrust against me, inching deeper. “Can’t . . . hold . . . back.”
“So don’t,” I said, my voice throaty and deep. I touched his cheek.
He opened his eyes. Then widened them, wonder in his gaze. “You . . .”
“Nymph.” That’s what I was. I couldn’t deny it anymore. Raw pleasure was like a warm current in my veins. I thrust my hips up, taking him deeper.
“Elin,” he said on a groan.
And his glamour fell away.
His cock inside me swelled. His shoulders grew broader, the muscles more defined.
My own eyes widened, awe making me hold my breath. His face was like Crom’s yet nothing like it at all. Where his father’s features had been haughty and cruel, Hauk’s were noble . . . pure. His skin glowed, as if he’d swallowed part of the moon. His eyes were the same deep blue, but there was no alien menace there. And his ears . . .
I reached up and touched a pointed tip.
He shuddered.
“Does it hurt?” I started to draw back, but he pressed his head into my hand, something like a purr rumbling from his chest.
“No. It feels incredible.” He rubbed a glowing palm over my thigh. “You feel incredible.”
My sex throbbed, and little tremors danced over my skin. I was hot and flushed and aching. He was half inside me, and it wasn’t enough. I lay back and wriggled my hips, trying to take him deeper. My inhibitions were dust. Suddenly, I needed sex more than I ever had in my life. Like if I didn’t get it—and hard—I might die.
“Please, Hauk.” I heard the begging in my voice. It didn’t matter. I had to have this. “Please fuck me.”
His breath caught. Shock registered briefly in his eyes, as if he couldn’t believe his good fortune. Slowly, he shifted position, moving over me until he was braced on his elbows on either side of my chest. He sank inside deeper.
“Yes!” I thrust up again, straining to get more of him.
“You sure you can take it?” he asked, a challenge in his deep voice. He gave me a single pump.
My sex squeezed around him. I hooked my thighs over his flanks. “Gods, yes. Give me everything.”
He jerked his hips, seating himself deeper. “Then . . .” Deeper. “Everything.” Deeper. “Is what . . .” Deeper. “You’ll get.” He slammed inside to the hilt.
At once, an orgasm blasted through me. I squeezed my legs around him and cried out, every nerve ending primed and firing. I keened, ecstasy making me break apart, reform, and fly apart again.
His hips bucked forward. He grunted as he pumped, rocking my body up and down on the rock.
Up and down. Up and down. Up and down. He gripped one of my hips, digging his fingers into my skin as he railed me.
“So hot and tight,” he gasped. “I can feel you clutching me.”
Yes. I felt it, too. My pussy grabbed at him, the muscles clamping down. His angle avoided my clit, which was good. I was so hypersensitive, I couldn’t have withstood the contact.
As my release waned and another built, he continued his frantic thrusts.
I spread my legs wide and cupped my hands around his face.
He lowered his head to my shoulder, then put his lips to my neck, his mouth hovering over my pulse.
“Greedy nymph,” he muttered, his voice thick with lust. He scooped his hips forward, lifting my ass off the ground. “You’ll steal every bit of my seed from me. Wring me dry with your tight little pussy.”
The filthy words made me moan, another orgasm gathering. I ran my fingertips over his ears. He sucked in a breath and increased the pace of his thrusts.
His balls slapped my ass, smacking against private places—the exquisite, forbidden sensation raising goosebumps on my skin.
The rock scraped my shoulders, but I didn’t care. I pulled my legs back and held them, taking him impossibly deep.
He reared above me once more, pounding my sex. His cock pistoned in and out, the thick length coated with cream as it plunged up and down.
I grew even wetter, moisture leaking around his shaft.
“Gods!” His harsh cry echoed around the cave. His chest heaved. Sweat dripped from his shoulders to my chest, bouncing against my breasts.
It was animalistic. Fierce. A collision of bodies and lust.
I gritted my teeth, spreading myself open as wide as I could, my knees against my shoulders. My tits jiggled furiously, the nipples like little spears. Wind blew through the cave, making whispers swirl around us. The fire shot up, the flames dancing in wild abandon.
“Coming!” he yelled. His eyes blazed, his stare gripping mine. “You’ll take it. Every bit of me.”
“Yes!”
His back bowed. With a mighty roar, he jerked his hips forward and shot deep inside, filling me with scalding heat.
Another release screamed through me. My clit buzzed. My muscles spasmed around the thick length driving in and out of me.
“Ah, Elin!” His movements grew disjointed, his hips jerking as he emptied himself. “Giving you every . . . last . . . drop.”
He did. The jets seemed to go on forever, filling me. Hot moisture dribbled between my thighs and seeped down to my crack. Through it all, unbearable waves of pleasure swept over me.
My mind blanked. The world was this. Just this. Blissed out, I closed my eyes and let sensation carry me off.
Eventually, my senses returned. The fire crackled. Something heavy lay on my hip.
I opened my eyes.
Hauk stared back at me, one arm under his head. His glamour was back up, his face once more that of a tanned Norseman. We faced each other, one of my thighs tucked between his.
He caressed my hip. “You okay?”
I did a quick mental inventory of my body. Sore as hell. Might not walk again. But good.
Yeah, I
was really freaking good.
“Yes,” I said, my voice hoarse. Oh right. From all the screaming. “I’m totally okay.”
His grin was so self-satisfied and smug, I couldn’t help but laugh.
But I punched his shoulder anyway. “You’re really pleased with yourself, aren’t you?”
He brushed my hair back from my face. “Pleased with the show you gave me.”
I bit my lip. “You noticed that?” Who knew embracing my nymph side would allow me to accommodate a monster erection with no problem?
And not just accommodate. I’d reveled in it.
He quirked an eyebrow. “Pretty hard to miss whispering and phantom wind.” He ran a fingertip over my lips. “And I certainly noticed your abandon.”
Abandon? “That’s a good thing?”
“A very good thing.” He leaned over and kissed me, his lips soft and gentle against mine.
I opened for him, letting my tongue glide over his. My breasts brushed his chest, my nipples dragging across his pecs.
His breath hitched, and he pulled away, his cheeks flushed. “Gods, you tempt me.” He grimaced. “But we need to sleep. I want to leave for Radegast’s fortress at first light.”
Panicked awareness jolted me. In my lust-fueled delirium, I’d forgotten all about Radegast—all about the quest, my mother . . .
The lie I’d told Hauk.
“Hey.” He touched my cheek. “It’ll be all right. I’ll do all the fighting.”
It wasn’t that, of course, but it was easier to let him think I was nervous about the upcoming battle.
I looked down. “I know. Just looking forward to getting it over with.”
“We will.” He smoothed my hair again. “And after this is over, I’m looking forward to what the future holds.”
My heart squeezed. He meant more than sex. He thought we had a future together.
But in a few hours, I was going to blow it all up.
15
Hauk’s voice reached me across the snow. “You okay?”
I looked up. Weak morning sunlight made him stand out against the snow. He watched me over his shoulder, his blue eyes the only visible part of his face behind his ski mask. It gave him a bit of a serial killer vibe—something the broadsword hilt sticking over his shoulder didn’t help.
Today, he’d tied a rope between us. That way, if I passed out, he’d feel the weight of my limp body dragging on the ground and know to stop before I froze to death.
I hated the Ural Mountains.
I spit snow out of my mouth. “Yes. How much farther?” I sounded like a kid pestering their parents on a road trip, but I didn’t care. He’d promised the journey would be easier—and shorter—today. But we’d been walking for hours. The protein bars and powdered eggs he’d served for breakfast were nothing but a memory. Now my muscles were burning muscle. My thighs burned, and my head felt muzzy.
He pointed. “There.”
Hope swelled inside me. I followed the direction of his finger. A low valley spread before us, and a line of tall evergreens stood in the distance.
My shoulders slumped. I raised my voice over the wind. “I just see a bunch of trees.”
“Look closer!”
I squinted. Still nothing. Except . . . there. The top of a turret was just visible over the trees.
Radegast. Apparently, he didn’t live in a treehouse, after all.
“You see it?” Hauk said.
I swallowed against the apprehension brewing in my gut. My job today was to slut it up for a Slavic god—and hope I didn’t get killed in the process.
No big deal.
“Elin?”
I swallowed. “Yeah. I see it.”
Hauk gave the rope a gentle tug. “Let’s go.”
The trees were farther away than they looked. As we neared, it became obvious they were no ordinary trees. For one thing, they weren’t all evergreens. Asher had made me learn all the various and sundry types of trees as a child, and my practiced eye picked out plenty of deciduous species that shouldn’t have kept their leaves in the brutal Russian winter. Despite the cold and snow, there were willows and maples, birch and ash. Several black walnut trees ranged around the border of what was clearly a thick, tangled forest.
The crunch of our booted feet in the snow reached my ears.
I stopped.
I shouldn’t have been able to hear it.
And that’s when I realized the snow had stopped, too.
Hauk paused and unhooked the rope from my belt.
“Hauk. There’s no snow.”
He glanced up. “I know,” he said quietly. “I told you it was a spell.”
The forest was silent, the leaves still. Nothing moved. “This isn’t normal.”
“No kidding.”
I looked at him, anger leaping to the fore. “I’m not kidding, either. Maybe it’s a trap.”
He pulled his mask off and stuffed it in his pocket. “I’m sorry. I just . . .”
“What?”
He sighed and brushed his gloved fingertips over my jaw. “I shouldn’t have brought you here. It’s too dangerous.” He frowned. “I’m a selfish ass.”
Guilt swamped me. Here he was apologizing for putting me in danger, when I was planning to sabotage his quest for my own purposes.
“You’re not selfish,” I said.
He gave me a small smile. “But still an ass?”
“Neither of those things.”
His smile grew. For a second, I thought he might kiss me. But then he looked into the forest. “We should press on. Who knows what tricks this place is hiding.”
We entered the trees, which soared above us. Some species were naturally tall, but not like these. The trunks shot hundreds of feet into the air, their bases large enough around for a car to pass through. The forest floor was also free of branches—something that never happened in an ordinary forest. There were always stumps and fallen limbs to step over, or roots waiting to catch your foot.
But this forest was spotless, the ground dusted with a fluffy blanket of snow.
It was also warm . . . and getting warmer.
By some unspoken agreement, Hauk and I started shedding our clothes. We started with our gloves and hats, then stopped to remove our snow pants and jackets. Even in just my thin, long-sleeved thermal and tight leggings, sweat trickled down my back.
Hauk wasn’t faring much better. He’d put all my extra gear in his pack, which was already burdened with the bulk of our belongings. His hairline was damp, and a patch of sweat had formed an oval on the front of his shirt. After a while, he put a hand out and stopped.
I froze. “What is it?”
“I’m ditching my pack. Do you have anything important in it besides your staff?”
I glanced around. “Here? What if someone picks it up?” In this place, someone could be anyone—including an evil someone. There were plenty of nasty creatures who would love nothing more than to get their hands—or claws—on our personal belongings. Some witches could do nasty things with as little as a few hairs.
A shudder crept through me.
“I never planned on taking it all the way,” Hauk said. He turned his body sideways, exposing the pack. “I have a way to take care of it. Grab whatever you need.”
He was going to “take care of it?” I shrugged and moved behind him. My staff hung in a loop on the side. I slipped it through and tucked it against my shoulder. The wood pulsed near my armpit, and I got the impression of a dog wagging its tail.
Happy to see you, too, buddy. Please only kill bad guys.
My mother’s mirror was the only other item I needed. I’d tucked it deep in a side pocket, which I had to stand on my toes to unzip. The mirror was warm to the touch. I pulled it from the pack . . . then realized I didn’t have any pockets of my own to hide it.
Hauk looked over his shoulder. “Everything okay?”
“Yes,” I said quickly, dropping my hand to my side.
“What’s that?”
&
nbsp; Shit. My heart sped up. Act casual. He couldn’t possibly know what I’d planned. I lifted my hand. “Just a mirror. It belonged to my mother.”
He faced me, and his eyes softened. “An important item, then,” he said quietly.
“Yes.” For some stupid reason, tears pricked my eyes.
“Ah,” he said, his tone gently scolding. “None of that now.” He touched a fingertip to the corner of my eye, gathering a tear. Then he flicked his fingers. The bead of moisture flew through the air. For a second, it appeared to form into a diamond, its facets reflecting the light, before it winked out of sight.
Such a simple gesture, but it made me smile.
“That’s better,” he said.
I met his gaze. “How did you do that?”
“Magic, sweetheart.”
Huh. “You’ve never done anything like that before.”
His gaze grew heated. “Maybe I’ve just been more inspired lately.”
The source of that inspiration was exceedingly obvious. Because my body couldn’t have cared less about my divided loyalties, it responded to his declaration by swaying toward him, need rushing through me like a swift river. My nipples tightened against my shirt, and moisture dampened my panties.
His nostrils flared. “You keep that up, and I’m going to say to hell with this quest and carry you back to that cave.”
“I thought you couldn’t turn down a quest.”
He dropped his eyes to my chest and muttered, “I’ll make a fucking exception.”
We stayed like that for a moment, our bodies tuned to each other like magnets. Eventually, he swallowed and shrugged the pack off his shoulders.
“Stand back,” he said, lowering its bulk to the ground. “I’m not very good at this.”
It took me a second to realize he wasn’t talking about sex. Lust cleared from my brain, and I backed up a few paces. On a whim, I set the staff on the ground. If it was as powerful and unpredictable as I thought, I didn’t want to be holding it when Hauk did . . . whatever it was he was about to do.
He removed his sword and put it on the ground at the base of a tree. Then he walked to the pack and held both palms in the air above it. He closed his eyes, his brows pulled together. His lips moved, and he spoke in a low murmur—some kind of complicated language I’d never heard.
