Embrace the Magic (The Blood Rose #2)(44)
Author: Caris Roane

“That’s it. That’s what I wanted. To see you like this, your lips parted.”

He drew close and rimmed her lips with his tongue then pistoned his h*ps and kissed her hard at the same time.

Crying out against his mouth, she came, pleasure rising to a sharp crescendo, streaking through her body, up her abdomen and tightening her fae frequency to join in more pleasure so that she arched her neck and she screamed.

He pistoned hard, his c**k ready. He shouted as he came, which brought her again, another flare of sensation that caused her body to writhe beneath his, her hands gripping his muscled arms, her well tightening around him, making him twist over her as the last of his pleasure flowed.

She breathed hard as he eased down on her and as her own body let go and relaxed into the bed.

Perfection.

Couldn’t agree more.

He was breathing hard as well.

She surrounded him with her arms. Even their joined frequencies had relaxed but remained connected. She loved this, all of it, the giving of her blood, their frequencies joined, and sex with Ethan.

She didn’t want to give this up, but how far would she need to go from all her previous heartfelt plans and dreams, to stay here with him? She didn’t know if she could do it, not deep in her heart.

The superficial part, the simple desire to keep making love with him, understood exactly what she should do.

But she was old enough to understand that relationships were anything if not complicated, that pure desire, of any kind, couldn’t cut it for the long haul. And by everything she’d seen in the world of the Nine Realms, life would become increasingly complex, not less so were she to fully embrace her fae-self.

“You’re thinking hard.” His voice came out muffled, pressed as he was against the side of her head. She felt his lips kissing her hair.

“I woke up with a lot on my mind. So tell me about Bergisson, why you love it here.”

He took her on a journey of his childhood and how for the first fifteen years of his life, he’d explored every cranny of his world, every mountain and vale, every river, even the oceans between the realm, a world apart from earth, just somehow conjoined.

He spoke of traveling the next fifteen years from realm-to-realm, of meeting each of the mastyrs and knowing from an early age that he would one day be a mastyr and possibly rule a realm, but he’d never really believed it. Ry had ruled Bergisson for a long time. No one could be more powerful than Ry, but so Ethan had proved.

He stayed with her in bed for a long time, naked, sharing his life with her, his thoughts, his memories. Later, he brought them a platter of food, and a bottle of wine. His evening patrols wouldn’t begin for a little while longer, though he wasn’t sure he’d be leaving her because of what happened the night before.

Samantha treasured this time as Ethan shared with her. He’d never exchanged histories with any woman before, that much he told her. A strange kind of magic surrounded the sharing, and the entire time, he kept his personal frequency open so that though their bodies had disconnected, even when he’d gone to the kitchen, she’d remained joined to him.

So, this was what it would be like, she thought, as she pushed a strand away from his face, tucking it behind his ear. Juice from a ripe peach he was eating, dripped down his chin. She leaned close and quickly caught it with her tongue and the moment seemed right again.

He pulled her on top of him and she rode him to the pinnacle, as once more he took from her vein.

When she lay in his arms, she laughed at the site of all the disturbed fruit and cheese and thought she could stay this way forever.

*** *** ***

Ethan held Samantha in his arms, his c**k still inside her though only half-erect now. He’d come again and again. He was fired up because of her blood, and eased at the same time. His stomach no longer cramped; he was satisfied.

He didn’t want to let her go, not now, not ever. He wished he understood the mystery of what was happening between them. The logical part of him kept calling him away from his house. By now, he would have been down at the training camp with his Guard, going over the terrain of Bergisson once more, devising new strategies, taking charge, ordering the patrols out, watching his men fly.

It was almost full-dark and still he didn’t leave. He just held the woman, half-fae, half-human, tight in his arms, almost unable to release her. Definitely, unwilling.

He’d never experienced a connection like this before in his entire life, although shades of it felt very much like his birth family, the closeness he’d known with his sister and with his mother and father, now long gone.

Was that what Samantha had become to him in only a few short hours, his family?

That’s what she felt like, something he must protect with everything in his body and soul, to his dying breath.

He loved…

Sweet Goddess, did he love her?

He lay with her quietly for a long time, even as he watched day give way completely to night.

Finally, his compulsion to be with his Guard, to protect Bergisson became a pulsing weight in his chest and he sighed heavily.

*** *** ***

“You need to contact Finn. I can feel it in you, like a boundless drive, stronger than any other part of you.”

“Yep. Exactly. I’m sorry, Samantha.”

She rose up and smiled down at him then kissed him once on the lips. “Never apologize for that. It’s your finest quality, your loyalty and service. I value that about you. Remember that, Ethan.”

He nodded.

She grabbed for a washcloth he’d provided and caught their shared wetness as she rolled off him, away from the platter of food. But she stayed in bed, letting him go about his business, taking the food away and putting it in the living area of his suite then heading into the shower.

The sight of him was beautiful and for that reason alone, to get to watch such masculine perfection walk around na**d in a room she shared with him, was sufficient reason to stay.

She lay on her side enjoying the show as he showered, lathering up, his brow growing more furrowed by the second.

The connection of frequencies grew thinner and thinner until at last they dissolved, almost naturally, which was nice except now she didn’t have the warmth of his spirit caressing her abdomen, because that was the only way she could explain what now felt cold and almost empty within her body.

She pressed a hand there, wondering if Ethan felt it as well.

I thought it for the best.

His voice in her mind startled her. Were you reading my thoughts?

No. But I was feeling the loss of your fae frequency and figured you might be experiencing something similar. Were you?