Seduced by Magic (13 page)

Tiernan rose from the ground, his eyes focused above him, his face into the breeze. Copper watched in amazement as the powerful wings carried the large man up, up, up into the sky. He circled above the meadow and Copper didn't know if she'd ever seen such an incredible sight. He was magnificent.

Tiernan soared higher, until he looked no bigger than a bird. As he neared the barrier, Copper held her breath.
None of the Fae in the meadow had ever flown so high. Could Tiernan find a place where he could break away to freedom?

She watched him draw closer to where the wall should be. He touched it with a wing.

He gave a loud cry as he was flung back.

And then he was falling. Tiernan was falling. End over end.

Copper shrieked, her heart pounding and her mouth dry. She scrambled to her feet, never taking her eyes from the figure plunging through the air, getting larger and larger as it approached the ground.

Instinctively, Copper used her witchcraft to fling up a spellshield and prayed to the goddess that it would catch Tiernan. This was the only hand-magic she'd ever performed without her wand, and she hoped it would work and she wouldn't get squashed flat. Damn, if her wand weren't in the shelter, it would have helped her make the shield stronger.

She concentrated with all she had, holding her arms up high and feeling the weight of the shield on her hands. She couldn't drop him. She couldn't!

The figure hurtled directly at her. She didn't dare move for fear of breaking the spell that held the glittering gold shield above her.

She clenched her teeth as his body grew close. When he was inches away from the spellshield she doubled the power of her magic.

And felt him slam into the shield.

The force of his landing knocked Copper to the ground, flat on her back. The power of the fall made her head spin and her back ache. But she kept her hands up, balancing him several feet above her. Sweat broke out on her skin and her arms trembled.

He was unconscious, that much she could tell. He had landed facedown, his wings resting on his back. His cheek
was pressed to the shield, making him look as if his face were smashed up against a window.

Her arms trembled so badly now that she didn't know how much longer she could hold him. She had to move him so that he wasn't directly above her, but she was afraid she might break the spell and he'd slam into her. His bulk was so great, and she was so small.

The pressure on her arms began to lighten. Copper turned her gaze just enough to see Riona and several of the other Faeries with their arms outstretched and Faerie dust rising up from their wings. They were helping her.

Slowly they eased Tiernan away so that he was no longer above Copper.

Her shield failed. Tiernan dropped a good three feet. He landed facefirst into the grass with a loud thump.

Her heart pounded a little harder as she moved to her knees and pressed her fingertips to his neck. His pulse beat, sure and strong.

She looked at Riona. All the other Faeries had vanished. “Why did you let him fall the rest of the way?” Copper asked.

The Faerie grinned. “Deserved it, didn't he?”

Copper frowned. “How?”

Riona waved her hand around their prison. “He showed no respect for the Fae as he stomped around our home.”

“He's Fae, too.” With an exasperated sigh, Copper shook her head. “He was just trying to help us.”

The Faerie flitted so that she was above Tiernan. “But he's arrogant and so awfully grouchy.” She gave a little shiver of her wings, and Faerie dust sprinkled onto his face. Immediately he groaned and stirred. “You will have your hands full with him. Yes, that you will,” she said before disappearing in a flash.

Copper stroked Tiernan's frizzed hair and part of a lattice as he groaned again. He smelled of sunshine, wind, and leather, and of the flowers twined in his hair. His
wings began to fold away and she watched in fascination as they disappeared behind the leather of his shirt as if they had never been.

He pushed her hand away, then slowly got to his knees to sit on his haunches. “What happened?” he said in a voice so gruff it surprised her.

“You blacked out and fell.” She glanced in the direction Riona had disappeared to. “I threw up a spellshield to keep you from hitting the ground, and the Faeries helped me get you safely down.”

“Thank you,” he said, but he didn't sound pleased. More like pissed. Probably from his failure to get out of their prison.

His chest rose and fell as he took a deep breath. Grass stuck to his cheek and his clothing, dirt smudged his face and sleeveless shirt, and his forehead glistened with sweat.

As if reading her mind, he jerked his black shirt over his head and wiped the sweat and dirt from his face. Copper watched in fascination as the muscles in his arms flexed. Her gaze traveled over his well-defined chest and abdomen. Wow.

He flung the shirt aside and glared at Copper. He looked as if he was furious with her.

She blinked. “What'd I do?”

“You brought us to this damnable place and there's no way out.” He pushed himself to stand and continued to glare at her.

Heat crept over Copper's face and her stomach clenched. “Do you think I did this on purpose?”

“You're a witch.” He waved his hand as if to encompass the meadow. “Get us the hells out of here.”

She got to her feet and balled her hands into fists. “I've tried. And tried and tried.”

“Try harder.” He turned away and strode to the stream tumbling over the rocks.

For a moment Copper just stared at him as he stomped
away from her. She wanted to blast his butt with spellfire so badly she could taste it. Damn. Where was her wand when she needed it?

But then her stomach sank. It was her fault he was here. The weight of everything crashed down on her so hard that her shoulders ached with it. Copper moved to the other side of the great apple tree, away from Tiernan, where she could no longer see him and where he couldn't see her. Goddess, she needed some space. She slid down its trunk with her knees bent nearly to her chest. She leaned forward and buried her face in her hands.

The range of emotions made her feel like she was in a vortex, spiraling out of control. Grief from her mother's death; the brief respite of laughter as she and Riona watched Tiernan; fear when he plunged to the ground; anger at him for what he'd just said; and sadness beyond sadness again at the thought of her mother's death. She wanted to throw up, scream, and cry all at the same time.

And she wanted to punch Tiernan so, so, so bad. It didn't matter that he'd told the truth, that it had been her fault he was trapped here. She wanted to lash out at something—someone.

She barely noticed Zephyr racing past her with an angry buzz.

Tiernan stomped to the small stream at the rock outcrop-ping. Just as he started to bend over to slip his hands beneath the trickling stream, he heard a loud buzzing.

A sharp pain buried itself into one side of his ass and he shouted.

Heat burned through his entire backside.

It took only a second for him to realize what had happened. Zephyr zoomed around his head, around and around, with a furious buzz.

“Damned bee,” Tiernan started to say, but cut himself off. No doubt the thing would attack him again if he didn't
watch it. He sucked in a breath of relief when the familiar zipped away.

Ass burning like it was on fire, he knelt, scooped large handfuls of icy cold water, and splashed it on his face. The water dripped down his neck to his bare chest, cooling him and his temper. A bit. Why the hell had the damned thing stung him?

He splashed more water on his hair, trying to flatten it. Only there were long tangles in his hair—no, wait. Things that stuck straight up like wheel spokes all over his head.

He groaned.

When he finished washing his face and wetting his hair, he stood and raked his hand through his hair, only to get his fingers tangled in the braid creations. He snatched up his shirt from the grass where he'd tossed it, and took the leather lace out of the neck opening. He caught his hair and tied it all back with the lace so that it wasn't sticking straight up any longer.

Tiernan glanced to where Copper had been standing. She wasn't there. But he thought he saw the hint of her vine-and-leaf dress from the opposite side of the apple tree.

His gut twisted. Damn. He'd acted like a total ass. He
was
an ass.

She had saved him from a nasty fall, and even then, after all she'd been through, he had taken out his frustration on her. What kind of man was he?

Shit.

No wonder Zephyr had stung him.

He wiped water from his face with the back of his hand, strode to the apple tree and around to the other side, his buttock burning with every step.

When he rounded the tree he saw that Copper had her face in her hands and her body shook with silent sobs.

She was crying.

Gods. He deserved to be strung up by his toes from the topmost branch of the apple tree. He winced. No doubt the
first chance they had, Copper's Fae friends would be delighted to do just that, and Zephyr would help.

Tiernan sat down next to Copper, his thigh touching hers. She jerked her leg away as if he'd burned her. What should he do now? Hell, once again he didn't know what to do with a crying woman, especially when he was the reason she was crying. Last night had been different. He had held her because she had needed him.

Did she want him to hold her now? Would she let him?

Zephyr gave another angry buzz from where he perched on Copper's ear.

Hesitantly, Tiernan reached out a hand and held it above her back. He slowly lowered it until his palm rested on her vine-and-leaf dress. She flinched beneath his touch.

That ache in his gut was as heavy as a rock quarry. He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and pulled her in tight. “I apologize.” He breathed in her apples-and-cinnamon scent and his belly twisted even more at what he had done to her. “I should not have taken my anger out on you.” He rubbed his thumb in a slow circle on her shoulder. “Will you forgive me?”

There was a long pause. Finally, Copper raised her head, but she didn't look at him. Her eyes were swollen and red again, and he felt even more like an ass.

“Whatever,” she mumbled, still not looking at him.

He grasped her chin and forced her to look at him. “Please?”

Copper's throat worked as she swallowed. Her eyes met his and for a long time he held her gaze. She took a deep breath, let out a long exhale, and said, “Okay.”

Tiernan almost couldn't catch his own breath as he studied her face. Even with her eyes red and her face streaked with tears, she was beautiful. When he had seen Copper's picture in her sister's home, he had memorized her features down to the sprinkling of Faerie kisses across her nose.
Why it had seemed so important to him then, to find her, he didn't know. But here she was. Here he was.

Copper wiped away her tears with the heels of her palms and took another deep breath. She reached up and touched his hair and gave him a small smile. “I like the way you've pulled it back. The bouquet of flowers at the end is an especially nice touch.”

He rolled his eyes and she laughed.

She had a beautiful laugh.

“Come on.” She grabbed his hand as she stood, and tugged at him until he got to his feet. “Let's get rid of those braids and that Afro.”

Copper's hand felt good in his as he allowed her to lead him to the water basins. “Sit,” she ordered. He raised an eyebrow, but obeyed.

Tiernan plopped himself onto the grass, one knee bent with one forearm resting on it as he watched her turn away and head toward the shelter. His groin tightened as she got onto her knees to scoot into the shelter, and he had a nice view of the upper part of her thighs, close to her ass cheeks. Just a little more . . .

He groaned as she disappeared into the shelter, then shook his head and smiled. He was acting like some young warrior who had never bedded a woman before. When she slid back out into the sunshine, she was carrying a wooden cup and a wooden container with a lid, and her wand. By the patterns on the wood he knew the cup and container were Faerie-made.

“Okay, now how's the best way to do this . . . ?” Copper kneeled beside him and eyed his hair critically as she set the cup, container, and her wand down on the grass. “Those little buggers sure had their fun with you.”

Tiernan grimaced, but as Copper reached up to touch his hair, he went stock-still. Her vine-and-leaf-covered breasts were directly before his eyes. They swayed with her
movements as he felt her begin to undo what the Pixies had done to his hair. His gaze was fixed on her as she removed the tie from his hair, and he swore he saw hints of her nipples and the soft white flesh through that skimpy dress.

“Ooooh, they got you good.” Copper leaned forward, getting so close he could move just a bit and suck the nipple through the dress . . . “It's going to take me a while to get these all out,” he faintly heard her say.

His cock was so hard beneath his leather breeches and was only becoming more painful by the moment. As she worked on his hair, flower petals from the Pixies' handiwork drifted to the grass beside him. The perfume of the petals blended with Copper's own unique scent.

“So tell me about your home world.” Copper's fingers stroked through his hair when she freed it from one of the lattice braids. Gods, he hoped it took her a long time to finish.

“Um, Tiernan?” He looked up to see her looking down at him, mischief in her cinnamon eyes. “Did you hear me, or are you too busy staring at my boobs?”

“Boobs?” he said, narrowing his eyes and shifting so that he could relieve some of the ache in his cock.

Copper had the hint of a grin on her face as she settled back on her haunches and cupped her breasts. “These.”

Tiernan groaned out loud to see her holding herself.