Blaize and the Maven: The Energetics Book 1 (24 page)

She examined the trellis door, which had a sort of shimmer effect inside it. She thought she could see his garden through it, but the image wasn’t still. It was like the heat haze you sometimes got from hot sun on tarmac.

Should she step through? Would that take her to his Haven? She assumed so, but what if she needed to draw on her power to get through it? She hadn’t used her power since the dreams had started and wasn’t sure if now was the time to start.

She cautiously moved her leg forward when Cuinn popped back—and stumbled straight into her, knocking her to the ground.

Stunned, she lay beneath him.
 

“Third time’s the charm,” she mumbled, still dazed.

“What on earth were you doing standing there? Didn’t you move at all?”

“No … you didn’t tell me to move.”

“Oh, so now you’re obedient?” He shifted his weight and put one hand on the ground to push himself up. She felt his muscles flex and the warmth of his breath on her cheek. There was a flash of heat in her groin.

He stopped pushing himself upright and put his hand under her head, cradling it. He raised and tilted her head until they were staring into each other’s eyes, scant inches between them. “Are you okay? Blaize?”

She sighed, and gave in to the inevitable. She loved a man’s hand on her neck. She snaked her arms around his neck and pulled. He fell to his elbows, one hand still supporting her head.
 

She closed the gap between them, and pressed her lips softly to his, her nerves overstimulated, on fire.
 

At first, he resisted, mumbling something against her lips, but she used the opportunity to bring him closer by slipping her tongue into his mouth, and opening her own to invite him to do the same. His mumbling turned into a moan that vibrated through her.

His body pressed tightly against hers, pushing her into the earth. She didn’t mind the hard ground against her back, but they’d have to do this again in bed one day. Her body hummed, tingled with energy and power. She wasn’t actively pulling power, but it was as if she was swimming in it.
 

She wrapped her legs around his hips and moved her hips to rub his hardness against her softness. He returned her kiss, and she sighed and poured passion and need into the kiss.

She shifted her hip and put her foot on the floor so her leg was bent. Then she pushed and used the force of the movement to flip them both over, so she was on top. As she did, she caught sight of something in the garden, something that hadn’t been there a minute ago.

She sucked in a breath and stopped halfway back to Cuinn’s mouth.

He was instantly alert. His eyes snapped open and he took her with him as he sat up, his arms encircling her so she sat in his lap. He had gone from lover to fighter in seconds. “What?”
 

She pointed a finger at the object that had appeared in the garden.

Cuinn followed the finger with his gaze, and the tension in his body flowed out of him. He laughed. Big belly laughs, coming from somewhere deep inside him. He hugged her to him, his body heaving with amusement.
 

“W-what the hell?”
 

“You must have created it. Because I know when I create something on the astral plane, and that wasn’t me. We’re definitely going to have to teach you how your Ajna works, or your subconscious is going to be stripping you bare all over the place.”

“What?”

“You wanted a bed. Or some part of you wanted a bed. And so, your energy gave you—a bed.” He gestured towards the object that had appeared out of nowhere as they’d been kissing. It was, indeed, a bed and a glorious one.

The bed of her dreams.

It was big, and both solid and delicate. Gothic-looking, black ornate iron scrollwork danced upwards in straight lines and curls. Two smooth, hard posts reached upwards from each side of the bed, joined by another black rod that went between them. The rod supported gauzy red curtains that looked like living flame. Serving no purpose other than decoration, the curtains dropped gracefully from the rod down past the headboard made from iron scrollwork to the floor.

“Wow,” Blaize said.
 

“Yeah.” Cuinn stood and took her with him, her legs around his hips, his hands cupping her buttocks. She wriggled with desire, trying to move her hands closer to the space between his legs. He hadn’t stopped smiling.

He walked the few yards to the bed and released Blaize onto the soft red sheet that covered a firm surface. He drew his own shirt, pants, and boxers off before following her onto the bed, pinning her arms above her head with one hand. He used his other hand to shimmy her dress up over her head, leaving it between her head and her elbows to hold her still.

His heated gaze raked over her body, catching on her slight white underwear, and her nipples peaked in response. She shifted on the bed, urging him to touch her. His skin was pale and his hair fell scruffily around his face, the dark of it contrasting with his ivory skin. An indigo shimmer surrounded him, his Ajna aura flaring, pulsing in and out of existence. He was hard and ready. She wanted him inside her.

Cuinn kissed her again, licking the flesh surrounding her collarbone. She moved her hips restlessly, trying to get him to shift down on the bed and move against her.
Why doesn’t he use his hands?
Her blood pumped hot around her body, pressure building between her legs. She jerked her wrists, meaning to take back control, to free herself from the dress. She needed to remove her underwear, and she urgently wanted to touch him. To take all that male firmness inside her body and pleasure them both.

She noticed too late the red silk that seemed to be growing from the ironwork at the top of the bed. He pulled the dress free as the silk flowed towards her and trapped her wrists in a strong hold that left Cuinn free to use his hands in other ways. Cuinn threw the dress out of harm’s way, then dragged her underwear down her legs, and scraped his teeth and tongue after them. “You’re out of your depth here, Blaize. I’ve been using Ajna for centuries.” His grin was wicked now. “Play nicely or who knows what I’ll conjure up.”

Her eyebrows rose at this new side of Cuinn.
It was always the quiet ones
. But that was her last coherent thought for a while. She tugged against the bonds—bonds she could burn away in an instant—not because she didn't like them, but because she relished the unusual feeling of someone else being in control. It was a measure of how much she'd come to trust Cuinn, despite everything, that she found the silk wrapping her wrists added to her excitement rather than anything else.
 

Her body craved the pleasure that Cuinn was now bringing with mouth and hands. His skin was smooth on hers. Droplets of sweat from both their bodies mingled and minimised friction. His teeth were a dull rasp as he dragged his mouth down from her breasts, over her belly, and to the hot flesh between her legs.
 

Here was relief from her worry about how to find Indigo and how she was going to develop her Ajna quickly enough to beat her. Here was a beautiful distraction, strong and masculine. Here were cool hands that traced her curves and ran over her hips.
 

And here finally,
finally
, he drove two fingers inside her.
 

The shock of it sent adrenalin coursing through her body and she gasped, raising her hips higher, driving them against his fingers to push him deeper. Her breath came in short pants, her heart beating like a hummingbird's.
 

He slid his fingers out, and stroked her, urgency compelling them both. His shaft was taut, and she wanted all of him inside her, not just his fingers. She shifted her hips again, and he rolled eyes the colour of granite up to look at her, his gaze fierce and possessive.

He was magnificent.
 

When her orgasm crested, she grabbed the bonds and clenched her fists around them, her body bowing, as she pushed herself into Cuinn’s palm, his fingers and tongue dancing in and on the hot flesh at her core.

Tension she hadn’t even known she’d been holding onto released, and her body lay limp beneath his, endorphins chasing pleasantly around her body in the after-glow.

He paused a moment, eyes still locked on hers. The savage desire in his gaze made a shudder run through her. But he wasn’t finished. He worked his fingers more deeply inside her, stroking the spot that made her cry out with the violence of the feeling. She made breathy sounds as she tried to relax into it, but her body instinctively twisted away from the intensity that hovered on the edge of too much.

“Blaize.” His voice was a low rumble.
 

She could take more. She would take more.

He'd conjured a condom from somewhere, and she moaned a little as she watched him roll it over his impressive dick. He slid up her body so he lay on top of her, skin pressed together. He kissed her neck and replaced his fingers with his dick, thick, hard and ready. He entered her liquid heat with a gentle push that quickly turned into something much more forceful.

She welcomed him in. Had she ever wanted anything so much?
 

“Oh.” He drove the shocked noise out of her as he changed his angle and penetrated her more deeply. She made a long, low sound as the visceral feeling transformed again. It hurt a little, but it also felt good. Really good.
 

She felt a hot flush move across her chest and climb up her neck. He kept his movements rhythmic and constant, and she curled her legs around him, digging her heels into his buttocks to draw him in closer. They moved in time, and her head fell to the side. She wasn’t sure how much longer she could straddle the fine line between ecstasy and too much. She paused and looked up at him.

“Relax Blaize. Trust me and let go.” He growled out the words, seeming to read her mind.

As their eyes met, some final barrier lifted, and their energies bled into each other’s. His power raced through her, the light mystery of Ajna, and the heavy grounding of Muladhara. He captured her body and mind.

Her own energies smashed into him, the fire of Manipura dominating, but threads of Ajna woven through. She wanted to burn him up from the inside, to consume them both in an orgasmic fire. He was hers.
 

Stars formed and exploded inside her, and her whole body was suffused with energy and light.

Cuinn groaned. He held himself over her, one hand on the bed, and the other grasping her head and holding it firmly in place under his. He covered every inch of her with his body and kissed her again. Their mouths formed another conduit for the power that now spun and mingled around their bodies.

Cuinn’s long strokes deep within her continued, drawing out the experience, her core rhythmically clutching and squeezing him to his own explosion, causing her in turn to crest another peak.

The aftershocks rippled through her body as she shuddered beneath him, her body trembling, eyes closed, head lolling to the side.
 

Cuinn.
 

At some point, he’d released her arms from their silken shackles, and she brought them around him now to hug him as close to her as possible.

He relaxed against her, and burrowed his face, his hair hanging around it untidily, into her shoulder. He nipped at her neck, and she wriggled underneath him. “Cuinn! Enough! I’ve got nothing left.”

His head came up, and he smiled at her again, his face relaxed and open in a way she hadn’t seen before. It was as if all the troubles that were weighing on him had fallen away.
 

“I do.” He raised his eyebrows. “And I’m sure I can re-energise you. …” He drew away from her and sat up, straddling her waist. As he did so, his attention focused on something behind the bed. He froze, and his jaw dropped. “Um … Blaize …? I think you need to see this.”

Sex with Blaize hadn’t just been amazing because it was Cuinn’s first time in a while. There had been an … intensity in his connection with Blaize. Deeper than the physical.

And if he hadn’t already thought that, the scene that greeted him when he raised his head would have been evidence enough. The previously simple space, the pretty English garden with grass, some wooden tables and chairs, and a few trees providing shade had blossomed.
 

If that was the word for it.

The warding boundaries were thickly covered by climbing roses, with pink, red, white, and yellow blooms in full flower.
 

Blaize propped herself up on one elbow and gazed at the garden around them. As well as the roses, the grass had also blossomed with wildflowers, a riot of colour with the bed at the centre.
 

Ajna energy responded to the creator’s thoughts and desires. The bed had given him the confidence to respond to Blaize’s kiss, a clear statement of what she wanted from him.

And this time, unlike Sophea, he wanted it too. They were equals. Blaize was strong. More than a match for him. He wasn't going to hurt her like he had hurt Sophea.

The explosion of flowers said that he wasn’t alone in his feelings about the sex they’d just had. It also said that Blaize had a great deal of power waiting to be tapped. “I see you’ve started creating.”