Jumping in Puddles (24 page)

His soapy hands swept her chest, and he tugged her closer, his fingers rubbing her nipples. With his cock nestled in the crease of her butt, he lowered his mouth to her neck. As he teased with his lips and his teeth, Ellie’s breathing stuttered. When his fingers slid between her legs and he groaned in her ear, her brain turned to mush, and her problems gurgled down the drain. For these precious moments, the future didn’t matter. The only thing Ellie wanted was to be safe in Jago’s arms.

Slick with shower gel, they rubbed together like sinuous cats, caressing each other with arms and legs, their fingers entwined, arms and legs linked. Ellie tipped her head back so she could kiss him, and Jago’s tongue speared her mouth with a deep possessiveness that clutched at her heart. Mouths fused, their movements hardened, fingers digging into hip bones as they rutted together. When they pulled back for air, Ellie saw in his face the pleasure she brought him, the flush of his skin, the quickness of his breath, the slight curve of his mouth.

“You undo me,” he whispered.

Jago knelt behind her, and when he pressed his face into her butt, Ellie sucked in a lungful of water, but even as she coughed, she spread her legs wider. He licked her thighs and laved her backside as he massaged it with his palms.

“The cutest butt,” he mumbled.

When her knees buckled, she rested her elbows on the shower wall, lost in the unexpected bliss of having her bum played with.

Then he licked her asshole, and Ellie slammed her mouth against her arm to muffle her squeal.

“What…?” she gasped and tried to pull away.

“Let me. Please.” Jago held her firm, and really, she didn’t want to go anywhere.

He nudged her legs apart, spread her butt cheeks with his hands, and teased her, the roughened pad of his finger circling her tightening hole.

“Relax,” he whispered. “Trust me. I’m a doctor.”

She laughed. “I can’t believe you said that.”

“Did it work?” He nipped her backside.

“Ouch. No.”

“Just let me touch you. Don’t think about it; slide into it.” He landed a flurry of kisses over her lower back and down the line of her bottom.

Ellie imagined herself dissolving as water cascaded over her head and tension seeped from her muscles to make her sag.

“You have to stay on your feet,” Jago said with a laugh.

His finger was still nudging her anus, circling, pressing. She sucked in a breath against the sharp burn when it slid in, but he was slow and gentle and persistent, twisting in and out until Ellie stopped thinking about what he was doing and began to enjoy the sensation. When he moved his other hand to her clit and rubbed her there, a deep ache swirled tighter and tighter around her womb. She wasn’t sure how much longer her legs would support her.

Somehow he turned her round so he knelt facing her, his fingers back in both entrances to her body, and he fluttered his tongue over her clit. Looking down at his dark head flipped switches in her body one after the other at supersonic speed as if she was wired into a circuit. Crackling fire raced up her nerves with the speed and power of an electric storm. A wicked nip at the tight bud of her clit, and she flew apart before she could take a breath, flailing in a maelstrom of pleasure. And all the time Jago licked and sucked and lapped and fucked her with his fingers.

As she floated down, he pushed himself to his feet and lifted her so her legs were over his arms and he supported her butt. Ellie clung to his neck.

“You’re going to put your back out,” she whispered.

“Totally worth it, especially if you kiss it better.”

The ball of his glans pressed against her folds, and as he slid his tongue into her mouth, he arched his hips and pushed his cock inside her. The pleasure was so intense Ellie wondered how she’d lived without it, yet understood that all this time she’d been waiting for this man.
I can’t lose him
. In this position, he had to do almost all the work. Ellie could do little more than hang on for the ride and enjoy it. She clenched around him on each upthrust, watched the changes in his face, and felt the moment his body shifted toward orgasm.

He pulled her down harder, held her closer, ramming his hips to drive his cock into her at jackhammer speed. The pressure in her head rose, an overheated steam engine ready to blow. Ellie couldn’t bear it, yet didn’t want it to stop. She clenched hard around him, her muscles giving a final kiss to the sensitive head of his cock, and they exploded together. Jago’s cock swelled and jerked inside her, bathing her in hot spurts of cum.

He pressed his mouth to her ear. “I love you; I love you; I love you; I love you.”

Chapter Eighteen

They emerged from Ellie’s room late that afternoon. Not much of their time had been spent sleeping. She’d never felt so close to anyone. They’d talked and memorized every part of each other’s bodies while what would happen tonight hung over them like a black cloud. Ellie knew there was a chance she’d never see Jago again and wondered if he sensed that too, because he kept touching her, always wanting part of his body in contact with hers.

She was thrilled he’d accepted what she’d told him, more than thrilled. If he’d laughed or looked at her in disbelief, she or her parents would have had to wipe his mind, and she’d never have seen him again. Even if he did eventually remember, he wouldn’t believe, and they’d have moved.

Her mother used to read the book to them when they were children, rules they must not break. One said that if they ever revealed they were a faerie and weren’t believed, they’d start to die. She didn’t know whether it was true, but until this morning, she’d never said it to anyone.

Hand in hand, they descended the stairs, and Ellie led him through into the kitchen. Her mother had filled the table with food. Her eyes shone too brightly as she smiled at them, and Ellie’s stomach churned.

“Hope you’re hungry,” her mum said.

The last thing Ellie wanted to do was eat, but she tugged Jago down beside her and put the Kewen on the table.

“Wave to your brother.” Her mother nodded toward the laptop sitting on the counter. Micah’s face filled the screen.

“Hi, Micah. Is all okay at Sharwood?” Ellie asked.

“Yes. Henry is with Diane. I’m in the gatehouse using his computer.”

The door flew open, and Asher strolled in. Ellie felt Jago tense as her brother stared at him. Jago rose to his feet.

“Asher, this is Jago,” Ellie said.

They shook hands.

“Jago knows what we are,” Ellie said.

Asher raised his eyebrows. “Is this the miracle I’ve been ordered home to see?”

Ellie took a deep breath. “I found the Kewen.”

Asher slumped down on the opposite side of the table. “Bloody hell.” He stared at the bag. “Is that it? Can I see?”

Ellie tipped it out.

“Don’t touch it,” her mother said. “Just in case.”

The door opened again, and her sister froze in the doorway.

“Pixie, meet Jago.”

Her sister slunk into the room like a naughty puppy.

Jago stood and shook her hand. “Pleased to meet you.”

“Sorry,” Pixie said. “Sorry, sorry, sorry.” Then she grinned. “That should cover me for a few more cock-ups.” Her face fell when she saw what lay on the table. “I’m not going.”

“Pixie!” snapped her mother.

“I’m not. What if I don’t like it and I can’t come back? You can’t make me go.”

Their father came in, and Pixie flew to his side. “I don’t want to go.”

He raised his eyebrows. “The week before last you were desperate to go.”

“That was because I was being stalked—again.”

“What about you, Asher?” Ellie turned to her brother.

He twisted a fork in his fingers. “I guess I’m a little like Pix. I don’t like the idea of not being able to come back.”

Ellie tensed. “But you’ve always said you wanted to live in Faerieland.”

“Because that’s what we’re all supposed to want.” Asher stared at his father. “It was easier to go along with the fantasy when I didn’t think there was a vampire in heaven’s chance of it becoming reality. I’d like to go, to see it, but I’d also like to come back.”

“I feel the same,” said Micah.

“Me too,” said her mother.

There was silence for several seconds while her father stared slack-jawed at her mother.

“Cait?” her father whispered. “But I thought that was what you always wanted. To go home and see your family.”

“I
am
home. You’re my family.”

Her father pulled her into his arms and hugged her.

Some emotion bubbled in Ellie that she couldn’t identify. A combination of annoyance, relief, and fear.

As she tried to stand up, Jago pulled her down. “Wait. We need to discuss this more.”

“What do you have to do?” Micah asked. “What did the slate say?”

“Jump from London Bridge into the Thames,” Jago said.

Even hearing him say it made her stomach go into freefall.

“Shhhhit,” Pixie whispered.

Asher reached across the table and squeezed Ellie’s fingers. They all knew how scared she was of water.

“The bastards,” Asher muttered. “Why the hell make it so hard to take the damn thing back?”

“Maybe Oberon the fifth never wanted it back,” her father said. “And what he started has merely been continued by his successors. Ellie has evidence the Kewen wasn’t stolen but handed over in exchange for three human children, two of them ancestors of Jago.”

“That’s not going to go down well,” said Asher.

“What are you going to do?” Pixie asked her.

“
We
.” Ellie’s father sat by her side. “We have a number of options. We could carry on as we have been—”

“I don’t think we have options,” Ellie said. “They’ll know by now in Faerieland the ring has surfaced. I think we should assume the banished fae who Pixie spoke to will have used the knowledge to try and lessen their sentence.”

“I’m so sorry.” Pixie gulped.

“What’s done is done.” Ellie gave her a little smile. “We can’t lie about it. In the end that would bring us more trouble. I’ll be expected to bring the Kewen to Faerieland. But what isn’t expected is that I’ll have demands. I’ll leave the original bill of sale here and take a copy. I suspect the current Oberon won’t want his ancestor’s name stained by the truth. So the question is, what do you all want? To stay as you are, going to Whitendale every year to replenish your energy? More power? Less power? A chance to spend time on the other side? The problem will always be one of trust. But if we keep the bill of sale safe, I think that gives us an advantage.”

“Can’t we just recharge somewhere convenient?” Pixie asked. “Does it have to be the middle of a bloody bog?”

“I thought you didn’t want the power anyway,” her mother said.

“I’d like more,” Pixie whispered. “What I have now is neither one thing nor the other. I’m fed up of running out of energy.”

“You should conserve like the rest of us,” her father said.

“I’m happy as I am,” said her mother. “It would be nice to visit my family, but I won’t risk losing any of you.”

“I’d book a couple of weeks’ vacation there,” Asher said. “If I liked it, I wouldn’t mind being able to move between the two worlds at whim.”

Ellie turned to the laptop. “Micah?”

“I’ll jump with you.”

Jago stiffened at her side, and Ellie knew why. He wanted to jump with her.

“You need to come back,” her father said. “We have to do this tonight.”

The laptop screen went blank.

“We might as well eat,” her mother said.

They all picked at the food. Jago had his fingers wrapped around her hand, his foot hooked around hers.

“I can’t let you jump with me,” she said quietly. “I don’t know if you’d be allowed into Faerieland.”

Jago didn’t say anything for a moment, but the grim set of his face, the tension in his jaw told her he wasn’t happy.

“If you end up in the Thames, you might drown. I don’t want you to take that risk,” she whispered.

“What if I do?”

JAGO HOVERED BETWEEN belief and disbelief. He really wanted to believe, told himself he did, and yet deep down, knew he didn’t. He still hunted for some logical explanation. He ignored what he couldn’t explain and thought of magicians who could make coins disappear into thin air, guess what playing card you’d chosen, and make elephants replace jumbo jets. One thing was certain. This family stood together, and he wasn’t prepared to lose Ellie by standing apart.

When Micah walked in less than twenty minutes later, his face gray, his eyes almost white, Jago dismissed the fact that he’d seen Henry’s kitchen in the background of the laptop screen. It had to be a trick, and he was the only one not in on it.

They want the Kewen
. Was that it? This was some elaborate scheme to get their hands on the jewels? Why go to all this trouble? Why not knock him over the head and steal it?

Jago’s brain led him in diminishing circles back to the same point. He either believed, or he didn’t. He looked at Ellie, and his heart hurt with love for her. That was real.

I believe her.

A sense of calm fell over him then, that whatever happened tonight, he’d go along with. But he was jumping with her, no doubt about that.

* * * *

They waited until eleven before they drove into London. After leaving the cars on metered spots near London Bridge Station, they walked the rest of the way. Jago clung to Ellie’s hand. She held the Kewen in her other. Her father had the original bill of sale in his wallet while Ellie had put the copy inside a plastic bag with the jewelry.

“Just in case I go into the water before I get whisked into Faerieland,” she’d told him.

She had doubts too, and Jago wanted to ask her not to do this. Except if he did, it was telling her he didn’t believe. He could feel her shaking. He wasn’t afraid of water, but the idea of jumping into the Thames from London Bridge in daylight let alone in the dark sent adrenaline surging around his bloodstream. The current was dangerous. Boats still moved up and down river even at this time of night. The water wasn’t clean. The fall was more than thirty feet. If he was scared, Ellie had to be terrified.