Enchanter's Echo (24 page)

A sharp cry shot from her mouth. She yanked the bottom of his jacket to cover her ass. Threads popped with her effort. “Edmund Rallis, put me down right now.” She barely caught his chuckle from the blood rushing through her ears.

He mounted the stairs, one arm tight around her thighs, his other hand gliding over the skin of her upper thighs. The echo of his stomping upwards vibrated through the enclosed space. “Oh, come now, princess. This is better than walking up these prickly stairs with your bare feet and I won’t be huffing nearly as much carry you like this.” He traveled his hand upward until the heat of his palm rested on her bare bottom. “At least not from exertion. You have the softest skin.”

“Edmund!” She would have squirmed but if he dropped her, neither of them had the vibes to halt their fall. All she could do was hang there and take it. Sensation flooded her body.

Trailing his fingers over the back of her leg and higher, he conquered the climb to the beat of her gasps. He headed toward the bamboo plants that divided her sleeping quarters from the living space. The rugs that covered her floor passed beneath her gaze as Edmund rounded the plants. He lowered her into his arms, cradling her until her back touched the messy, crumpled blankets on her low bed.

He stared at her with that dark blue, greedy gaze and then reached for something at her side. Lifting it, he shook his head. A button from his suit jacket.

“Terrible quality these days.” His gaze took in her breasts and belly and beyond, all exposed beneath the wide-open coat. “Can’t say I mind.”

He knelt at her bedside, staring, wanting. Beneath his gaze, her abdomen rose and fell with the heavy press of lust.

“What are you waiting for?” Her words formed slowly, tied down by the weight of anticipation, the distraction of desire.

“May I?” The heartfelt question, the stripped-down stare…every mask he’d ever worn seemed yanked off, leaving his true self exposed.

As if she could deny him. She reached for his hand, threaded her fingers through his and tugged him nearer.

He leaned forward, the low bed meeting his waist and leaving him plenty of stretch to reach her body. His lips hovered just beneath her belly button. “I’ve been waiting to taste this again.” He pressed a kiss so light and tender it might have been the brush of a butterfly’s wing. He gave a roguish smile as she sucked in a sharp breath. She’d been waiting for it, too. Memories were a poor substitute.

He moved up higher. “And this.” One kiss above her belly button.

Pleasure spread, rippling over her skin and sinking into her core.

He tilted his head to brush his lips against the curve of her waist and then higher to the underside of her breast. “And especially this.” He placed his hands at her sides as she arched toward him. He closed his mouth around one nipple and she reached to pull his hands up, cupping them around her breasts.

“Oh, princess,” he spoke around her. “You have the most beautiful breasts in the Republic.”

She laughed, love and desire sprinkling over her like a gentle rain that soaked instantly into her skin. She laughed again at the sensation. “Seen them all, have you?”

His tongue swirled around the hard bead, his breath puffing around it as he spoke. “Once I saw yours, I knew it was true. It couldn’t possibly not be true.” His thumbs brushed the tips of her nipples.

“Sweet talker.”

“Truth talker.” He let her go and her breasts bobbed at the suddenly loss of support. He tugged one side of the jacket down her shoulder. She leaned to the side to pull out her arm and the coat slid away at his pull.

She twisted back around only to have a yawn stretch at her mouth. Once it started, there was no stopping it. She clamped a hand over it and turned away, hiding it. Way too late, of course. Oh, for goddess sake, what kind of lover was she to yawn in the middle of sex? Sex that she wanted with a fiery desire at that. “I’m sorry.” A mortified blush burned at her face. “I do want this.”

He slipped a single finger through the wetness between her legs. “I know.”

She cried out at the bold move, a high-pitched huff that slipped out of its own accord.

He leaned in and kissed away her cry with a brush of lips and nuzzle of his nose against her cheek. “It’s almost five in the morning and you’ve had about two hours sleep. It just means I need to hurry things up.”

“I’ll help.” She shifted to her hip and reached for his tie, clasping the silk in her hand. The knot resisted her fingers. Pulling at the right place seemed to elude her.

“I’m your first tie, am I?” He slid the already loosened knot down farther and pulled one end out. “Can’t say that I’m disappointed. I’ll teach you some other time.”

She tackled his shirt. “I can do buttons.”

He brushed her hands away. “You can lay there like the moon goddess you are.”

She laughed and tried again, but he took her wrists in his hands. Bending, he pressed a kiss and then a bite against each one. Dual streaks of heat burned between her legs. The gleam in his eyes turned darker. “I have some rope in the car if it becomes an issue.”

She bit her lip.
It might be an issue
. But his car was so far away. She let her hands go limp. He laid them out to her sides, leaving her on display to his gaze as he stood and unbuttoned his shirt. The crisp white fabric drifted down his broad shoulders to join the rug. Hard lines of muscle made dozens of valleys from his arms and shoulders to his chest and belly.

He toed off his shoes. Belt jingling as he unfastened his dress pants, the duo fell to the floor. His briefs were quick to follow.

She arched with anticipation at the sight before her, squeezing her legs together as her core tingled alive.

“I’m going to move you.”

She had no doubt of that.

For once, she should have taken him seriously. He leaned in, slipping his arms beneath her knees and shoulders, lifting her, scooting her farther onto the bed. “You need a bigger bed, enchantress. I need more room to work. At least I know you haven’t been hosting orgies in here without me.”

“Enchantresses leave the orgies to the sirens.” She caught his form between her legs as he moved onto the bed. The crisp hairs of his legs met the smoothness of hers and she rubbed her thigh over his. He was warm, his muscles hard against her touch. She reached up to his shoulders and lifted her lips to his, mouth parted, wanting to taste him.

He slid his fingers behind her neck and through her hair, pulling her in, taking over the kiss. A soft moan escaped from his lips. The sharp spark that existed between them ignited into a roaring fire as he slowly lowered his hips to press against her core.

She opened her legs wider to welcome that friction, that press of his heat to hers. She sucked in a hard breath, breaking the sealed connection of their kiss. Edmund held on with a soft bite of his teeth around her lower lip.

Power built in him, his vibes reaching out to hers. Or maybe it was the other way around. It didn’t matter. The moment she sensed it, she opened her mage power to greet his. For this, her flooded sense wasn’t an issue. This wasn’t casting a spell. This was one power merging into the other. For this, no control was needed.

Despite her readiness, his vibes shook beneath his skin, not yet breaking the surface, but so full and vibrant there was no way he could hold them back. He lifted his head, his blue eyes almost black, intense and demanding, but fear pulled them wide.

“Edmund,” she spoke with surprise at the sight. “It’s all right. I can handle it. Just let go.” She stroked his back with the words, tightening the grip of her legs as he tried to shift away. He could, of course. She couldn’t hold him there—her physical strength would never match his, but she was stronger in one way.

“It wasn’t like this before.” His words came in a rush even as he pushed his cock against her, unable to resist her.

She smiled. “I hadn’t called down the moon before. Don’t be afraid.” She drifted her fingers over his face. “I’ll meet your every vibe. I want them. Give them to me.” The heat of his power, stifled and dammed, burned at her skin as much as her core ached with need. “I can take it.” She stroked a finger down his cheek. “I hate to tell you, heir of the mighty Rallis kingdom, but you are not my equal in power. I surpass you.”

His eyes narrowed.

“Don’t believe me? Try.”

“If you’re wrong….”

“Trust me.”

* * * *

His vibes exploded out of his skin. He jumped at the uncontrolled rush. His cock caught at her center with his sudden move, her slippery wetness granting him entrance. The bare inch of contact ignited a need so fierce he might have slammed into her if not for her cry. He didn’t think he’d hurt her, but uncertainty reined him in as her entrance stretched around him, holding him tight.

Beneath his gaze, she arched up, eyes closed, her breath caught in a sharp gasp that she didn’t exhale. He had the same dilemma. As his vibes poured forth and his cock throbbed so hard it almost hurt, breathing was impossible. Speech inconceivable. There was no asking her if she was all right.

He leaned down on his elbows and threaded his hands under her head. She lifted up to him, her arms wrapping around his torso as she blinked her eyes open. A sea of swirling green met him.

“Inside me.” Her sweet whisper was wrapped in her power. Her energy shimmered in the air around him, capturing him, a safety net he could never rip, stronger than he’d ever imagined.

A weight lifted from his soul, one that had blended in with the rest of his troubles until he’d no longer remembered the burden for what it was: fear. But she really was stronger than him. His vibes could not overpower hers. With the relief of that truth, he thrust into her.

She stretched and pulsed around him, clinging to him even as he held her tight to his body.

He pulled out, the slick friction of skin against skin stroked every nerve with a pleasure that spiraled higher. He needed her heat and pulsing sheath back the moment he left it. A too fast rhythm was the only possibility. “Tell me you’re with me, Ror.”

She turned her head, buried it in his chest, and cried out. Her tight walls vibrated around him as her orgasm claimed her. He followed right behind her with one thrust and then another. His seed exploded into her, her body holding on to it as surely as she held his vibes.

He panted above her, recovery slow to come even as her arms relaxed around him and her head fell back to the pillow. He turned his head to kiss her fingers that trailed blindly along his cheek. The aftershocks of pleasure pulsed through him and her body responded. She tensed for a moment until they eased. Her breath slowly steadied. She opened her eyes as he pulled away to lie on his side next to her.

“I was with you.”

He laughed. “I got that.” With one hand supporting his head, he laid his arm along her chest, just under her breasts, enticing their soft weight to lean on him. He stared down at her. “I hadn’t planned for that to go quite so fast.”

“Efficiency is a virtue.” Her eyelashes rested against the blue tinge beneath her eyes. She sidled closer and nestled against his chest, already falling asleep.

Efficiency was not a virtue. Not when it came to loving her. He sucked in a slow, deep breath. She was a bundle of contradictions. She carried the lightest of powers but lived among the dark. She lived hidden away in a junkyard’s old water tower, yet forgot to lock her doors. She’d broken the law to save an old man’s vision but, unlike every other enchantress, she was too proper to take her clothes off to commune with the sun or moon.

He loved her—this woman who held secrets she wouldn’t tell. His chest tightened for a moment. But they’d get there. She’d share eventually. Whatever her secrets were he’d make it right for her, just as she made him right. He almost laughed. She was more powerful than him, than Vincent. Her power probably rivaled the High Councilor’s, possibly surpassed it.

He leaned in to breathe her scent, and the move gave him a view of her fat, rosy nipples. Goddess, they were beautiful. His fingers itched to stroke them, pinch them until they turned to small, hard pebbles from his touch. His cock stirred against her.

He ought to be asleep right along with her, not wanting to plow into that wet, tight core. The woman had just single-handedly blessed their damaged land. She deserved her sleep. He needed some, too, for that matter. But the weight that had lifted from him left him so light that he might have floated right out of the bed.

His power wasn’t the end of the world. He’d found the one person who made him okay and she came with curves and soft breasts and an ass he couldn’t wait to squeeze again.

The summons came before the sun cleared the horizon. Edmund didn’t fight it. He dressed, tiptoed from the water tower, and made his way out of the junkyard. He left his car behind, walking to give his temper time to cool. As he rounded the corner of Aurora’s shop and made his way to the main street of the Pipe, he realized there wasn’t much left of his anger. Loving her had melted it away. He should have taken the car to get this over with faster.

He stopped across the street from the diner, Aurora’s dealer in caffeine. He stared into its windows. Bronte and Vincent sat in a booth, side by side. He loved watching the two of them together. Bronte brought a lightness to Vin that Edmund had never been able to give him.

The senator and his father were at the bar, while his mother paced in front of the tables. She wrung her hands, lifted one to pinch her lips, and then wrung some more. His father stood and walked over to her. He put his hands on her shoulders, stopping her pacing. She laid her head against him. Helpless.

Edmund didn’t envy her. She identified problems and solved them. That had always been her role. When it came to the fissures, she was helpless, paralyzed, and she was fighting it with everything she had.

He would have done the same.

He crossed the street. The diner’s bell pounded with a vicious ring as he entered. Every gaze targeted him.

Bronte tightened her grip on his brother. She smiled, small and anxious. “Hi. How is she?”