0449474001339292671 4 fighting faer (18 page)
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She saw Luc tense, heard him swear and then watched while he collapsed into an armchair and closed his eyes on a sigh.
“Luc?”
He didn’t say anything, but she saw him rubbing his hands over his face, so she knew he was still conscious.
“Luc,” she prodded, “answer me. Tell me what the Queen meant when she called you my heartmate.” He shook his head. “Corinne, that’s…I really…it’s just too much to go into right now. It’s complicated.”
“So simplify it for me.”
She watched his face carefully, noticed the wary expression in his eyes when he finally opened them to look up at her. “Baby—”
“Don’t baby me. Tell me what the Queen was talking about.” When he continued to hesitate, she sighed and sat down on the arm of his chair. He looked so wary and tired and vulnerable that she couldn’t manage to keep up the uber-bitch routine. She stroked a hand over his tousled hair. “Look at it this way.
You might as well tell me now, when I’m all tired and ready for bed. If you wait until I’m alert, I’ll just have that much more energy for being mad at you.”
“You have a point.” He took her free hand in his and brushed a kiss over her fingertips. “But you don’t really need me to tell you what you already know. It’s a sort of self-explanatory term.” She slid off the arm of the chair and into his lap. “Then it’s the same sort of thing as when Graham calls Missy his mate. It’s like a…like a…wife?”
He rested his cheek against the top of her head and wrapped his arms around her, cuddling her close.
“In a way. The Fae don’t have any formal marriage ceremonies. Couples stay together because they want to stay together. If they change their minds, they go their separate ways.”
“Does that mean you might change your mind about us?” She heard the smile in his voice. “Never. I can’t. To have a mate in Faerie is one thing, but to have a heartmate is entirely different. A mate is a companion you choose and discard as it suits the both of you.
A heartmate is the other part of your spirit. Fate chooses for you, and the bonds last forever. It doesn’t happen for all Fae, but when it does, it’s seen as a blessing from the goddess Anu.” She was silent for a few minutes, listening to the echo of his heart beating beneath her ear and his words swirling in her mind. “Forever, huh?”
He nodded.
“And you’re sure that’s what’s happened to us. It’s not just the companion thing?”
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Corinne heard the note of vulnerability in her voice and winced. She didn’t want to turn into the weepy, clingy, needy type, but damn, this was hard. It tied her thoughts in a tangle and her stomach in knots and her heart in a butterfly net. She tried to at least keep her head down so he couldn’t read her expression, but he touched his knuckles to her chin and gently raised it until he could look into her eyes.
“I’m more than sure,” he said, his green eyes deep and solemn and potent. “A heartmate can see through glamours to the truth that lies beneath so that deception can never interfere with Love’s Truth.
The minute you saw through my human disguise, I knew you were my heartmate. Not even the gods can change that now.”
She held his gaze for the span of a dozen heartbeats before she felt her mouth begin to curve in an irrepressible smile. “All right, then,” she said, laying her head back against his chest. “I’ll take your word for it. For now.”
He chuckled. “And what will it take before you’re fully convinced?”
“Not much. Only a decade or two.”
Again, Corinne woke to the feel of teeth delicately nibbling at her skin, but this time it was accompanied by the hot, heavy glide of a cock sliding from behind deep into her sleep-softened pussy. She gave a drowsy moan and arched her back to deepen the contact. Strong, callused hands slid around her body to cup her breasts and knead gently.
“Good morning.” Luc’s raspy morning voice rumbled against her ear, the vibrations traveling all the way down to where their bodies were joined and making her contract around his hard shaft.
“Mm.” It was the only answer she could manage.
Instead of struggling to speak, she reached up behind her and buried her fingers in his hair, pulling the long strands forward until they blanketed both of them, covering them in a thick, silken sheet that smelled of woodland and spice and strong, vibrant male. She heard Luc’s purr, and his hands shifted. One continued to cup her breast, teasing her nipples alternately with soft caresses and gentle pinches. The other hand slid down her torso, over her ribs and down to rest on her belly. His fingers spread wide, spanning the space between her hipbones and pressing her back against him as he began to move his hips in a deep, lazy rhythm.
Corinne hummed and let her head fall back against his shoulder as she surrendered herself totally to his loving. She let his hand guide her hips, rocking her bottom against his pelvis to move his cock inside her while his fingers caught one pebbled nipple and twisted delicately. She shuddered and took him deeper.
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“That’s it, baby,” he whispered, his breath another caress against the curve of her ear. “Sweet and easy.
We have all the time in the worlds, and nothing in Ithir or in Faerie can compare to the feel of your pretty pussy milking my cock.”
“Ah!”
His words sent shivers racing through her and she shifted in an attempt to get closer to him. She reached one hand back, curling her fingers around his firm behind to try and urge him to a quicker rhythm.
“Good girl.” He licked the soft hollow just behind her ear and then groaned when the action caused her pussy to ripple around his cock. “That’s just right. Show me how much you need me, baby.” She parted her thighs, curling one closer to her chest and draping her top leg over his. The position sent him even deeper inside her and she moaned again. Every stroke took him straight to the heart of her, and she felt him like gentle waves breaking over her cervix, just enough pressure to stimulate without discomfort. He was driving her crazy.
She tried to press her hips harder against him, but they were already so close that not even the dew on their skin could separate them. She whimpered and pressed her head hard against his shoulder. “Luc,” she whispered. “I need you.”
He stroked deeply. “You have me.”
Shudder. “I want you.”
He shifted his hips just a fraction, but it was enough to send his cock stroking against a sweet, special spot deep inside her. “You have me.”
She came with a quiet gasp and a rolling wave of pleasure, her pussy clenching around him, dragging him with her into the whirlpool until he poured his seed into her body and his heart into her heart.
“I love you,” he whispered.
“You have me.”
* * * * *
“Shit. Fergus.”
Luc, already out of bed and pulling on his jeans, looked at her curiously. “What makes you think it’s Fergus?”
She gave him a sour look. “I have a doorbell. Who else would be rude enough to ignore it?” Luc laughed, tugged his T-shirt into place and leaned down to kiss her. “Go ahead and get dressed. I’ll answer the door. And if it’s Fergus, I’ll make him promise to mind his manners.”
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“Good luck,” she snorted.
He patted her ass affectionately before heading into the living room to answer the door. Corinne sighed and dragged herself out of bed, feeling a little stiff, a moderate amount sore and a whole lot content. She and Luc hadn’t actually managed all that much sleep last night, but they’d managed to stay energized in spite of it. In fact, she couldn’t wait to take care of Seoc so they could come back here and burn off the rest of that energy in a more satisfying manner than chasing naughty Fae.
She felt her mouth curve in a cream-licking smile. There was only one naughty Fae she wanted to waste her time on, and he fell into a whole different category of naughtiness.
She heard the sound of her door opening, and Fergus’s voice followed by the even deeper rumble of Luc’s before she shut the door to dress. She used the bathroom quickly, then pulled out underwear, a black T-shirt and her beat up old camouflage cargo shorts and began to dress. The shorts were slightly ridiculous in a civilian context, but they were enormously comfortable and made her feel like kicking ass, which she thought might come in handy, given their planned activities for the day. They also had a plethora of pockets so she wouldn’t have to bring her backpack or a purse to the park. Something about taking a purse to a stakeout just seemed wrong to her.
Once dressed, she pulled on socks and laced up her black Doc Marten boots—perfect for hiking—and began to load her pockets. Since she couldn’t hear anything from the other room, she figured the men were being macho together and discussing strategy or something, so she took the time to get everything she thought she’d need now.
She grabbed tissues and Chapstik first, then her cell phone, a mini flashlight and her keys. She was about to head for the other room when she remembered Fergus, so she grabbed her bottle of aspirin. Figuring the rattle might drive her almost as crazy as he did, she emptied a huge handful into her palm and dropped them into a clean pocket. Better lint-covered tablets than a breakdown in mid-stakeout.
Finally ready, she opened the bedroom door and found herself face to face with Fergus. She raised an eyebrow. “Do you have a problem? I’m all ready to go, and that couldn’t have taken me more than five minutes, so save your bitching.” She frowned. “Where’s Luc?” The Fae didn’t say a word, but something about his silence made Corinne look down, and that’s when she saw the knife clutched in Fergus’s hand. The sharp, glittering, blood-soaked knife. Her eyes flew wide open, and she opened her mouth to scream, but she never managed a sound. She saw a fist coming toward her, and then she didn’t see anything else for quite a while.
* * * * *
Corinne felt the air whoosh out of her lungs as she landed on a conveniently placed root that threatened to give her an impromptu appendectomy. She rolled to the side with a moan. “What the hell is going on?” Fergus didn’t bother to answer. He was too busy consulting an ancient-looking map and then glancing down at an object in his palm that seemed to be glowing a sickly green color. Corinne opened her mouth
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to repeat her question—only louder and with stronger language—but she changed her mind. Better to take a look at her surroundings and figure out where she was before she started asking him what was going on.
She was definitely outdoors—the tree root that had dug into her side could attest to that—and judging by what little she could see of the surroundings in the deepening gloom of twilight, she was in a hilly wooded area with her hands tied in front of her and a whole lot of New York spread out below her.
Making an educated guess, she decided she was in Inwood Hill Park, and Fergus was a lousy, no-good son of a bitch. With that four-foot sword strapped to his back.
“It wasn’t Seoc trying to open the Faerie door at all,” she said suddenly as realization flashed through her. Her voice sounded unusually loud in the quiet surroundings. “It was you. Luc was on a wild goose chase looking for the Queen’s nephew while you were off testing the old doorways to see if any of them still worked, you little shit.”
Fergus looked up from his map to sneer at her. “Is this where I’m supposed to tell you the details of my dastardly plan while you saw through the ropes binding you with a carefully concealed dagger? I hate to disappoint you, human, but I’m not that stupid, and you don’t have a dagger. I searched you before we ever left your apartment. I ever took away your keys. So shut up and let me work.” Corinne snorted. “Right. Sure. Let me make this as easy for you as possible, ‘cause that’s my main goal whenever someone kidnaps me.”
He stared down at her with contempt, his lip curled in a malicious smile. “If I were in your position, and I had seen my heartmate’s blood staining the blade of the enemy’s dagger, I think I’d reevaluate my main goal.”
Corinne stilled, her mind flashing to that moment when she’d opened the door to find Luc out of sight and Fergus standing in front of her with a knife and an evil intent. She waited for the sickening wave of grief to wash over her, and blinked when none did. After she and Luc had talked last night about heartmates and the bonds they shared, she expected his death to devastate her. So that meant one of two things: either Luc had been lying about being heartmates, or he wasn’t really dead. Since even the Queen of Faerie had gone with the heartmate scenario, she decided she would, too.
Luc was still alive, and if she knew him even a little, she guessed he would soon be making Fergus very, very sorry for his betrayal. In the meantime, she needed to stay alive and find a way out of this situation.
Just in case.
“If you were going to kill me, you damned sure would have done it by now.” She used her elbows to push into a sitting position, making it seem like more work than it was so she could get her hands into her pocket for a second. She didn’t need a knife or her keys to make things tough for this jerk. “Which means you need me around for something. So forgive me for not kissing your ass.”
“Unlike the mighty Lucifer, I realize a human isn’t worthy to kiss my ass,” he snapped. “And don’t delude yourself. You’re only here in case your friends show up before I get the door open. Once I’m done with that, I’m done with you.”
She stiffened. This guy needed a class in Remedial Bad Guy 101. Telling a hostage you planned to kill her when you got what you wanted took away all her incentive to cooperate and made her that much more likely to fight every step of the way. But hey, she wasn’t going to lose her advantage by telling him that.
