Legacy: The Niteclif Evolutions, Book 1 (18 page)

With one smooth move he dropped his shorts and answered my question. While he was physically built like a human man, his proportion was outrageous, even to my limited experience. His erection pushed his navel with every heartbeat, and I worried about us making this work physically.

He must have seen the look of worry on my face because he said, with a combination of pride and sympathy, “It will take some doing, but we’ll go slow.” And then he lowered himself on top of me. I braced for invasion but he only began kissing me again. I squirmed underneath him as I started to reheat, my need rising faster with each stroke of his hand on my bare skin. He worked his way down my front, paying attention to nearly every square inch of my body until he reached my center. I gasped as he breathed hot air on my lower lips, and groaned when he nuzzled my inner thigh.

“Bay, please,” I begged, arching my back as he gently bit the tendon at the inner crease of my hip and thigh.

“Please what?” he teased.

“Less talking,” I repeated on a hissed breath as his mouth brushed across my mons.

With a sigh, he settled in and began laving me, rasping his tongue across that centralized nerve bundle again and again. I felt the orgasm building almost immediately and I strained for it, amazed that he could bring my body to pleasure so quickly.

Pausing he lifted his head and said, “Relax, Maddy.”

I whimpered and pushed at his head, trying to force it down. He chuckled darkly and set to pleasuring me with a zealous fervor, kissing, stroking, sucking. The orgasm built, layer upon layer, as he massaged my hips with his hands. In one minute it was building, and the next it was wracking my body and overwhelming me with its intensity. I screamed out my pleasure, arching my back and digging my heels into the bed. Bahlin didn’t relent but pushed me harder, drawing out my climax until I was physically spent, my body limp.

Before I could completely come down from the high, Bahlin crawled up my body. Without a word he lifted one thigh up, hooking it over his elbow and placing his hand flat on the bed beside me. The other hand he used to guide his erection to my entrance. With gentle but unrelenting pressure he began pushing his way inside me.

“Holy shit, Maddy, you’re tight,” he groaned, pausing to allow me to adjust to his girth.

I gasped at the feeling of him, only partially inside me, stretching me almost too tight. The feeling was borderline painful.

“Don’t stop, Bahlin, please don’t stop.”

“I don’t…think…I can,” he grunted and pushed forward some more, pausing with every inch. I must have winced because he began to ease out.

“No,” I said, wrapping my free leg as far around his hips as I could. I pushed my hips up off the bed and reclaimed the ground, and then some that we’d lost when he retreated. I hissed in discomfort at the reclamation. His head fell back, and he breathed hard through his nose.

“Maddy, I won’t last long, sweet.”

Turning my face toward his arm I breathed, “Finish it, Bay.”

He surged forward, seating himself all the way to my womb and I cried out. He held still for a few moments, giving me precious time to adjust to his girth and length, before he began to move. I whimpered at the feeling of being stretched to the point where pain and pleasure converged and were indiscernible from each other. Hearing and recognizing the sound, Bahlin stopped being gentle and began to pound into me in earnest, forcing me into the mattress with every downward stroke. In no time at all I was meeting his thrusts with my own and grunting as the head of his penis hit my cervix over and over again. Without warning, the orgasm crashed over me and I tightened around Bahlin’s cock, gripping his shoulders hard enough to dig my fingernails into his flesh and draw blood.

I yelled his name to the heavens, pleading for more and he gave it, drawing out my orgasm. With a shout he joined me, and I could feel his ejaculate pulsing into me with hot urgency.

He held there for a moment longer before he collapsed on his side, breathing heavily, a look of sheer awe on his face. He drew me closer, kissing me more gently now, and running his hand up and down my back slowly.

“I had no idea it could be like that,” he said softly, lifting a heavy limb to caress my face.

I turned my head into the caress and whispered, “Me either.”

“You were amazing, love. I’m not sure I’ve ever been quite so swift in reaching the finish line.” His smile was self-deprecating.

“Not a cold fish?” I asked, old insecurities rising to the surface and I resented the hell out of their presence in this bed.

“A cold fish?” he asked incredulously. “Whoever told you that was lying to cover his own inadequacies,
mo chrid
. You are wildly passionate and incredibly responsive. Why, I thought you’d milk my cock to—”

“Okay.” I laughed, blushing like mad. “Okay. Thank you for that, I think.” We lay there looking at each other, the silence unexplainably comfortable. “What happens since you broke your word after my good faith negotiations earlier?”

He laughed out loud, pulling me tighter into his arms. I went willingly, pressing flesh to flesh and finding comfort in his touch.

“My love, you are a wicked woman.
I
didn’t seduce
you
, rather
you
seduced
me
, so no promise I made was broken.”

“Well, shit.”

I laid my head on his shoulder and it fit well. He massaged my head with deft fingertips, and I was asleep in moments.

A car door slammed, and I jerked awake. Bahlin’s side of the bed was warm but empty. Why had he left me alone? I looked around the room for clothes but the only thing remaining was in shreds, evidence of our lovemaking. I heard the rumble of his voice and an answer too soft to make out, though I thought it was Brylanna. Foregoing politeness, I dug through Bahlin’s dresser and grabbed a long T-shirt that covered the important parts. I sidetracked to the bathroom and cleaned up, then snuck down the hallway toward the voices. They paused when I got near.

“You might as well come out, Maddy,” said Bahlin. “I can see we’ll need to work on your stealth skills.”

Harrumphing, I walked into the living room and saw that I had been right. Brylanna had returned. I walked over to Bahlin and, before I could protest, he pulled me into his lap. He was wearing the same boxers he’d had on earlier.

“I see I was right,” Brylanna said coolly, looking me up and down.

“Brylanna, you
will
be courteous at the very least,” Bahlin said, his voice warming with anger. “I’ve warned you about this before.”

“So you have,” she said. She tipped her head toward me in apology. I shrugged.

“Right about what?” I asked.

Bahlin’s chest rumbled with a deep growl.

“I foretold that he would screw—”

“No need to be crass,” I interrupted her, a flush climbing my cheeks. “I’m fully aware of what we’ve done, and don’t need to know you can pull a play by play from the stars, or however you do it, because that’s just seriously wrong. Do me a favor?”

She looked at me intently, then nodded.

“Stay the hell out of my love life,” I commanded in a tone leaving no room for argument. “I don’t care if you see a ménage a trois in my future. It’s none of your business, so don’t go looking for it. And especially when it comes to your brother. That’s just squicky. Who looks in on their brother’s love life anyway?”

She looked astounded that I’d speak to her that way. Little did she realize that I was only pausing for breath.

“And furthermore—”

Bahlin interrupted me by gently covering my mouth with his hand. “Enough, Maddy. Your point is made. And we’ll likely need her in the future so there’s no need to alienate her, right?”

I didn’t answer him.

“Maddy,” he warned.

I nodded, and he removed his hand.

He bent me backward and looked at me, quirking his eyebrow.

“Right,” I groused. “You’re right.”

He sat me back up, hugged me tighter and pressed a kiss to the back of my neck.

Brylanna watched our exchange with interest and then sat across the table from us. “I’ve come with a warning. The weyr has met and is prepared to offer you its protection, Maddy.”

“The weyr?”

Bahlin stroked my back and said, “A group of dragons is called a weyr. Our weyr is very powerful, so to have their support is a good thing.” To Brylanna he said, “They must not believe she killed Gretta without cause.”

Brylanna looked at him for a quiet minute and as I was getting ready to break the tension when she said, “I told them what I had seen regarding the fight. Combined with your account of things, it will be enough for them for now. The King and Queen of Faerie are imploring us for help in find Tarrek before it is too—”

“Can you see him?” I asked, interrupting.

“Tarrek? No. All I can tell is that he’s bound and is in a dark place, but nothing more comes to me.”

“Maddy,” said Bahlin, “we need to get back to London. How soon can you be ready?”

“Um, I need to borrow some clothes.”

“Brylanna? Take her to your room and get her outfitted. I’ll put together a few supplies, and we’ll be off.”

Without a word Brylanna stalked down the hallway. I followed after her keeping a cautious distance.

Chapter Nine

The sun was setting as we finished our preparation to return to London. The overcast sky diffused the light and lent everything a softened look. Stone walls became romantic, dirt roads endless and grass greener. Because we didn’t have a car, Brylanna had agreed to drive us back. We were in the countryside near Swindon, about two hours from London, and the idea of being trapped in a car with her wasn’t my first option for a good time. But we needed her if we weren’t going to utilize Bahlin as alternate transportation. I snickered, and he looked at me. I shook my head, and he finished loading a small bag in the car. He’d packed some basic first aid supplies, which concerned me but seemed reasonable given the last few days, and he’d packed a change of clothes, sans underwear, for me. I couldn’t attest to his underwear status, though I’ll admit to being curious. He was wearing a pair of faded jeans and an age-softened navy rugby shirt. I had been dressed by Brylanna and wore a pair of black leggings and a large gray sweatshirt that was too tight across my chest. I bitched. Bahlin said he didn’t mind. I’d stuffed one of his extra sweatshirts in the backseat of the BMW in case I couldn’t stand the trip in the tight shirt.

The windows on the car were darkly tinted and, when we crawled into the backseat to let Brylanna drive, I couldn’t help the flashback to getting in the car with Tarrek only days ago. I felt like I had neglected him today, though I’d needed the actual sleep, and it left me feeling guilty.

We settled into the backseat without a word, Bahlin pulling me under his shoulder protectively. I snuggled into his side as we bumped down the country lane toward the highway. Snapshots from my earlier dream and ass kicking kept coming back to me, and I couldn’t help but try to focus on specifics.

First, I knew the forest was dense and old. The decaying vegetation on the forest floor was seasons worth, and there was little undergrowth except a few shade-loving plants. No solution to the mystery there.

Second, I knew that the attacker had been cautious about attacking me from the front. I thought about my fight with Gretta. Women tend to attack other women from the front. We’re programmed that way, typically because we throw taunts first. Verbal creatures, we. But instances of assault prove that men will often attack a woman from behind. So that led me to believe my attacker was male.

Assuming my second assumption was accurate, then he had, thirdly, disguised his voice. Between the attack from behind and the disguised voice, I deduced that I must have seen him before at some point and would, thereby, recognize him. Brylanna’s foretelling that I had seen him before only reaffirmed my suspicions.

And fourth, and most importantly, I knew Tarrek was the light in the forest because he’d dressed me in almost the same dress he’d brought me in the sithen. He’d reached out to me in my dream, tried to give me answers, and had been stopped by the owner of the voice. He, the voice, had to have some pretty serious mojo to leave me with the creepy crawlies so long after waking.

The car bumped and shifted from the dirt lane to the paved highway and suddenly our travel was quieter, the purr of the engine more intent now than during the careful traversing of the earlier rutted road leading from the house. I sighed and leaned into Bahlin’s shoulder more. I was sore and tired.

“Rest,
a stór
, and I’ll wake you before we get to the hotel,” Bahlin said gently, seemingly reading my mind. He stroked my head with those talented fingers, and I found myself waning to sleep.

“Not for a while yet.” I looked out the window and watched the scenery go by, content but contradictorily tense. I didn’t want any of this to be happening, but I was so happy, at that very moment, where I was.

Something caught my eye out the window and I shouted, “Stop the car!”

Seatbelts tightened, brake pads ground and people grunted as the car came to a radical stop, swaying back on its shocks. I fumbled with the locked backdoor and finally got it open. Jumping out of the car, my exhaustion forgotten, I raced across the empty highway and scrambled over the fence, never taking my eyes off the prize—the stone circle. Stumbling into the center of the circle I fell to my knees, though I felt nothing beyond the bitter taste of desperation. I got up and walked the perimeter, tracing my fingers over the stones, my mind racing in random patterns trying to figure out what I had done that night that made the stones come to life for me. I turned to find that the altar stone was not there. I stared, slack-jawed, at the empty center circle.

“Maddy?” Bahlin asked quietly. “What is it?”

“I thought… See, I thought…” I stumbled.

“Ah, you thought this was the same stone circle you were at previously, right?” His voice came from behind me.

“Yeah, I thought this was it. But it’s not, is it?”

“No, Maddy, it’s not. You’ll remember I told you there are many stone circles about Europe. This one is only a partial circle, thereby its magic is disrupted. It couldn’t have compelled your change.” A heavy hand came to rest gently on my shoulder. “Do you wish so badly to unmake your decision, then?” His voice was carefully devoid of emotion.