elemental 06 - the best man (6 page)

“You aren’t going to regret this, you know?” Aiden told Aira softly, kissing her on the lips as lightly as he could. As much as he wanted to pull her body close and feel her yielding to him once more, he was just as exhausted as she was; he wasn’t ready for it yet physically. Aira opened her eyes and looked up at him, smiling faintly.

“I wouldn’t have said yes if I thought I would,” she told him, raising an eyebrow. “Thank you for waiting until I was ready.” Aira turned onto her side, reaching out and idly running her fingertips along his arm, across his ribs. “When we go on our honeymoon, we need to pick somewhere isolated.” Aiden chuckled, gathering up a few locks of her hair in his hand and giving it a playful tousle. 

“Why is that?” Aira’s hazel eyes danced with mischief.

“Because that way there will be fewer people to remark on how frequent lightning storms have become. And we’re bound to end up lighting something on fire. The fewer people there are to notice, the better it will be.” Aiden grinned, leaning close and nibbling playfully along the column of her throat; he had made a point of learning each and every one of the spots on Aira’s body that made her melt, that made her breath catch in her throat, that made her moan and arch into his attentions with abandon. That she had learned similar insights about his body—the spot she could knead with her fingertips to bring him to his knees with pleasure, the way to run her fingers along his spine to quicken his pace—didn’t bother him at all.

“We’ll have to find a place that does unobtrusive room service,” He commented, letting his hands slither down along her body, between her thighs. He stroked her lightly—not intent on bringing her to a fever pitch just yet, but wanting to feel her shiver with the first tingles of desire. “I am not going to let you leave the room, and we’ll have to eat sometime.” Aira rolled her eyes, giving him a playful shove even as her hips pushed down, her body trying for better contact.

“We’ll have to leave the room sometime. Even with all the sex in the world, I can’t imagine we wouldn’t eventually get bored of the same four walls.” Aiden brought his lips up to hers and kissed her hungrily. He felt desire flood through him all at once—a banked fire that flared up with the slightest encouragement from Aira’s body.

“There’d be a bathroom—eight walls. If we got a suite, we’d have a living room, too. Twelve walls. We could stay very entertained there.” Aira laughed out loud, the sound breaking into a moan as Aiden stroked her more firmly, finding her pleasure center and rubbing it in circular movements with his fingertips. 

“Stop distracting me!” she cried out, threading her fingers in his hair and holding him close. “You’re not going to convince me to go somewhere boring.” Aiden pressed her onto her back and covered her body with his.

“Never anywhere boring. I wouldn’t do that to you. But I’m just saying—as long as we have food and drink, I won’t have any reason to do anything other than love you, over and over again, until neither of us can even move… and then, once we recovered, do that all over again.” He thrust into Aira slowly, slipping his arms under her body and holding her close as they began to move together. He loved the way she felt—the velvet depths of her body, the slick sweat that built up between them, the way she flexed and twisted and writhed. They had explored each other’s bodies with only a little restraint since they had bonded; they both knew that there was a very real danger between their volatile essences in continuing beyond the point of reason, in exhausting themselves almost to the point of illness. The connection between them was intense—it would be easy to become addicted to each other, to lose all control. But in spite of that awareness, they had made love as much as they could: in the shower, in the bath tub, on the floor, in so many positions that Aiden almost considered buying a copy of the
Kama Sutra
just to have a checklist. 

Aira’s voice filled his ears, rivaling the rumble of the thunder and shriek of the wind outside. Aiden had no idea what time it was—they had gone up to Aira’s bedroom as soon as they could, not wanting to leave Dylan out of their society nor appear to rub his face in their happiness. Aiden had proposed on impulse, somehow knowing that the time was right, that Aira was ready. It had been a proposal with little ceremony; they had come home from a meeting between Aira and the Elders, and Aiden while they were all talking about the outcome of their last assignment, winding down, and getting ready for a few days’ rest, had taken the jeweler’s box out of his pocket and gone on one knee.

Aira hadn’t even hesitated. Her eyes had widened when she saw the ring, when she understood what it meant. “Yes!” she had exclaimed, the word flying off her lips before she could even think. “Yes, I’ll marry you.” It had been torture to wait, to go to dinner with Dylan when Aiden’s whole body was vibrating with the need to demonstrate to Aira just how pleased he was that she was willing to make their bonding official.

They both fell into stillness together, panting slightly, and Aiden nuzzled into Aira’s neck, breathing in the scent of her body, closing his eyes for just a moment in a mixture of delicious exhaustion and the need to take her in as much as humanly possible. As the aftershocks of pleasure began to fade, he lifted himself up and sank down onto the bed next to her, draping his arms around Aira’s body lightly. “Who are you going to have for your maid of honor?” he asked her, taking a deep breath as his pulse began to slow back down to normal.

“I don’t have any idea at all. I assume Dylan’s going to be your best man.” It wasn’t quite a question.

“I think everyone would kill me if I didn’t ask him,” Aiden replied; he couldn’t think of anyone else he would want to have as his best man—there was no friend close enough, no relative dearer than his brother. “Find someone hot for him. He’s lonely.” Aiden had started to worry about Dylan; his younger brother wouldn’t abandon them, but he knew that Dylan longed for a connection of his own. He had seen the hunger in Dylan’s eyes, watching Aira interact with him. Dylan didn’t want Aira for himself—Aiden was possessive, but not insecure enough to suspect his brother—but it was easy for Aiden, contented and satisfied as he was, to understand Dylan’s yearning.

“Oh God,” Aira said, burying her face against his chest. “Your mom’s going to make this be a big stupid ceremony, isn’t she? I’m going to have like eight gaudily dressed women behind me and a billion flowers and a huge reception with people I don’t even know.” Aiden smiled to himself ruefully, kissing Aira’s temple and stroking her hair.

“You’re royalty; of course you’re going to have to have a royal wedding.” He shushed her gently as she started to fuss, clenching her teeth and tensing against him in instinctive rejection. “We’ll make it as small as humanly possible.”

“I just want to go to the JP and have like, three people there, and that’s it.” Aiden shook his head.

“It won’t be as bad as you think. But you know good and damned well that they won’t let you have a wedding like that. It’s going to be a big deal. You’re in politics now, beautiful girl. Let my mom help you figure it out, let your mom help you figure it out.”

“That’s just what I’m afraid of.” Aira shifted in his arms and sighed, and Aiden held her close, unable to stop smiling as they both dropped into an involuntary doze.

Jessica gave Aira a long list of suggested guests, and Aira turned her ire on Aiden—who didn’t know why Aira was “making such a big deal” of the dozen or so names. 

“How many people do you want to have to feed?” Aira asked him, arms crossed over her chest, face a blaze of red frustration. “While we’re at it, we might as well do a ceremonial bedding—I mean, hey, you said it yourself: It’s a political wedding ceremony, I have no right to any privacy. We could let these dozens of people chase us into a bedroom and watch you screw me for the first time as my husband.”

Aiden’s face went from a deep red to nearly purple. “That’s not what I want and you know it!” he shouted back at her. “But you’ve known for weeks that you’d have to invite people you don’t even know. Stop taking it out on me.”

The fight escalated while Dylan watched, amused and exasperated. Finally, Aiden grabbed Aira by the shoulders—and the tension had crested between them, diverting from anger to lust as it so readily did. They disappeared up the stairs, and the next day, Aira pared down his mother’s list to six names.

CHAPTER SEVEN

DYLAN LOOKED OUT OVER THE crowd of wedding guests, smiling faintly to himself. It was finally done; Aiden and Aira were married. Aira had—kicking and digging in her heels, fighting every inch with that contentious spirit he admired—finally invited about half of the people that her parents and Dylan’s mother had insisted needed to receive the honor. It had been worthwhile for Dylan to watch the proceedings—to enjoy the amusement of Aira’s planning. Aiden had quickly learned that his opinions on the event were not, strictly speaking, necessary, as Aira repeatedly rejected the larger plans that Jessica and her own mother had for her wedding. 

Dylan smirked to himself, remembering Aiden and Aira’s argument about the guest list from the other day, but his ruminations were interrupted by someone appearing at his elbow. He turned his head and saw a woman standing next to him, a look of amusement on her face. For just a moment, Dylan couldn’t help but stare. She was short, with red hair so bright it almost glowed in the low light of the reception hall. She wore it pulled back from a sharp-featured, almost elvish face, with big, bright green eyes. Dylan remembered that she had been with the delegation of earth elementals who had attended the wedding; in typical earth-aligned fashion, she was in a beautiful, probably hand-made gown, a deep green color; the gown hugged the curves of her ample bust and hips, obscuring her legs completely as it fell in rich folds almost to her feet. She glanced down to see that he was paying attention to her and blushed, smiling with just a hint of embarrassment. “I’m sorry to bother you,” she said, her smile stretching slightly wider. “You’re the best man, right?” Dylan nodded, firmly telling himself to stop staring and pay attention.

“Yeah, I’m Aiden’s brother—seemed like the natural thing to accept the nomination.” The woman smiled again.

“Then I assume you know both him and the bride quite well?” The woman’s voice had a faint accent—Irish, Dylan thought; there was also a rich, secretive amusement in her tone. 

“We’ve been through a lot together, that’s for sure.” Dylan couldn’t quite stop his gaze from traveling over the woman’s body. He clenched his teeth together and shook off the sense of familiarity, the sense of intense interest that was stirring up the tranquil waters of his mind. “I’m sorry; I don’t think I’ve had the chance to get your name.” He gestured to the empty seat next to him; the maid of honor, Aira’s best friend from her middle school years, had gone to wander around and socialize. The woman who had approached him sat down, shooting him a grateful smile.

“It’s Leigh. I should tell you: I’m here as a spy.” There was a mixture of amusement and seriousness on the woman’s face, mischief dancing in her eyes even as her lips twisted in a wry smile. 

“Is that so? You’re spying on my brother and his wife? That’s not very friendly conduct.” Leigh shrugged in return.

“I didn’t say I liked it. But my family pressed for an invitation because they wanted to see just what kind of couple Aiden and Aira made. Now that they’re fully official, of course, there are some…concerns among my fellow earth elementals.” Dylan licked his lips, remembering Alex and Dolores, reminding himself that he was just as apt to make a mistake as his brother had been. How much to reveal to the surprisingly candid spy?

“There are some people in your alignment who think that our community would be best served if Aira were deposed.” 

Leigh shook her head.

“That’s true enough; my family isn’t—mostly—part of the group that wants her kicked out. There are a few cousins who are extremists, but my parents had me invited just to see. Isn’t it exhausting being around them so much?” Leigh pointed to where Aiden and Aira were dancing—slowly, entirely absorbed in each other, the air around them practically crackling with the continual tension between them, ready to flare up into a blaze at a moment’s notice.

“It definitely isn’t boring,” Dylan said, smiling broadly. “They bicker and fight but they also have this… this kind of magnetism between them.” He shook his head, clearing it. “And if you’re reporting back to your family, you should tell them that as long as they’re together, there’s no chance anyone could ever depose Aira. She’s powerful on her own, and together they’re nearly unstoppable.” Leigh turned her attention back onto him, and Dylan saw the seriousness in her eyes.

“Your brother’s essence is to protect the people and things he loves; Aira’s a very lucky woman to have him. Especially given the attitudes of some of the people in my element—and in his.” Dylan heard the warning in her voice.

“What side are you on?” Dylan asked, feeling his heart beating a little faster. It would be so easy to succumb to the woman’s charms, but he knew that in spite of what he had told her, Aira and Aiden were walking targets—and that the right attack would separate them, make them both vulnerable. Leigh shrugged.