Rook pulled his fingers from her and lifted her body weight, shifting all at once so that his shaft plunged to the hilt in her tight wet heat. Sparks burst before his eyes, a surge of pressure rushing through him as the shimmer between them grew, forging a magickal bond. He groaned with the force of it.
Cate rocked back and forth on him. She looked glorious, her dark wet curls a riot about her face, her skin flushed pink and glistening. He imprinted the image on his mind, never wanting to forget the moment. Her fragile human beauty, the pure pleasure she radiated like sunlight in an aura around her, nearly blinding him. He grasped her hips.
§
The water sloshed over the edge of the tub as they moved in rhythm with each other, each seeking to touch the other’s soul. Cate’s head tipped back as she shuddered, her entire body tensing around him.
A blinding shower of sparks in her vision struck her momentarily blind as she climaxed and gladly followed him into the light.
Cate collapsed against him, her whole body feeling weightless, almost foreign to her. Rook’s bare chest lay damp beneath her cheek, his heart beating frantically. His hand gently stroked her hair, letting the curls tangle around his fingers, then down her wet back. Cate shivered. He held her so tenderly, as if she weighed nothing more than a pillow.
Her hand brushed along his shoulder, then encountered the wet roughness of cloth. She pulled back and glanced down, realizing it was the bandage.
“Your arm!”
He grunted, lifting her out of the water and striding from the tub. Cate unwrapped her legs from around his waist and slid down the length of him, her body tingling from the connection. The air seemed chilly after being in hot water with him, and her skin prickled into goose bumps.
“It is of no consequence.” He pulled a huge fluffy blue towel from a stack beside the tub and wrapped her in it. Instantly she was warmer.
“Well, at the very least, let me look at it,” she said stubbornly. The O’Connell women were not known for their easygoing nature.
“There’s no need, the healers—”
“Aren’t here,” she finished for him. “Sit down and quit being such a baby about it.”
He grumbled, wrapping a towel around his waist, then walked over to the edge of the bed and sat down. “Are you always this persistent when you want something?”
Cate padded over to him and smiled. “Yes.” She untied the wet bandages, unwrapping them and tossing them to the floor with a
splat
.
She was shocked to see the cut was healing so quickly that the skin was almost closed, but it was still angry and red. “You heal quickly, don’t you?”
Rook shrugged. “Told you it was of no consequence. As long as it isn’t iron, we can heal very quickly from the bite of a sword.”
Cate readjusted her slipping towel, tucking it in closer around herself, suddenly aware that she was completely nude in a strange place, in a foreign world with one hell of an attractive man who’d managed to strip her bare to her soul while she was in his arms.
“It could still do with being re-bandaged.”
“If you wish,” he murmured.
“Don’t want it ruining your clean clothes,” she answered softly.
Desire flared to life in his gaze. “You want to get dressed so soon?”
Cate fingered the damp curls on her head. Unless fae had blow-dryers, her hair was going to be a hopeless bush. She tried not to think too hard about what she might eventually look like if they rolled around on the massive bed behind him for a day or two or three.
“I didn’t say that, it’s just…” She bit her lip. How could she tell him she didn’t want to spoil the moment? Didn’t want to inject the harsh reality that no matter what she felt for him, she couldn’t stay? And she needed to ask him about more important things.
The warm, lazy smile on his face disappeared, his expression hardening into the far more serious warrior facade she remembered. “You want to find your friend. I haven’t forgotten.”
“It’s more than that.” She locked gazes with him, forcing herself not to look away. “Before I go home, I want to know about the invasion.”
And just like that, any trace of the man she thought she might love evaporated, replaced by the fae Prince of Shadows.
Chapter Eight
Not giving a damn if he were naked, Rook stood and let the towel drop to the floor. With an air of indifference, he pulled on the black shirt and black pants laid out for him on the dresser, as if her manner hadn’t wounded him. He hastily buttoned his blue wool military jacket with shaking hands, trying to block out the bruising hurt that overtook his chest.
She didn’t want to be here. She was as clever as any politician and had used his greatest weakness, his fondness for her, against him. Sucking him in like a fool to believe he loved her.
The thought that she might leave him, even after all they had shared, struck an arrow to his heart. He’d promised to help her find and save her friend. He’d been too blinded by love and need, and yes, too damned
stupid
to see that Cate intended to return home once she found her.
He deliberately ignored her question.
“The servants have left out clothing for you as well.” He paused, not sure he could let this time end so easily without telling her the truth. He shifted his weight and ground his teeth.
“Where are you invading?”
“Upland.”
“Why would you invade our world?”
He glared at her. “Because it was ours to begin with! We only want what is rightfully ours. And to save both our worlds.”
Cate bit her lip, her eyes troubled. “You knew this all along didn’t you?”
Rook nodded. What else could he do? It was the truth.
“So what does this have to do with me being a Seer?”
He tensed, his entire back going rigid. “Maybe it has nothing to do with it.”
Cate glared at him, and instantly Rook felt like a toad. He’d abducted her. Taken her from her family. And now she was going to face three trials in front of the Shadow Court to test her as a Seer.
“You’re worried you’re going to get in trouble if you help me find and free Maya, aren’t you?”
He grunted. “It’s not that.” He knew there would be retribution regardless of what path he chose now.
She came to him, putting her small hand on his chest and looking deeply into his eyes. “What is it? You can tell me.”
Her trust overwhelmed him. Even after she knew of the invasion, she still touched him. But her trust came at the worst possible time. The words revealing his betrayal were right there on his tongue, as bitter as ash, but he couldn’t stop himself from telling her. She had a right to know the consequences.
He reached for her, curving a damp curl of her hair around his finger. “Cate, there’s something else I need to tell you.”
She gave him a small, encouraging smile. She could have just as easily been a Glaxon, ripping the heart from between his ribs with its great claws. It would have hurt less.
“When a Seer is found, they are examined—”
“You mean like a test?”
“Yes, but—”
She shrugged. “That’s no big deal.”
“Dammit, woman, hush and let me say this thing.”
Cate snapped her lips shut and crossed her arms, acting as if she were already a crowned queen rather than a damp woman clothed in a bathing towel.
He closed his eyes, flexed his hands, and let out a slow breath to steady himself. Then Rook opened his eyes and stared at her. “Once you are proven a Seer, you are normally presented to the king. But now that we’ve been bound together, he won’t be able to bind with you. The only way he can access your powers is through our combined effort. You must wait for the right time for me to ask him to free your friend. We can use this combined power of ours as a bargaining chip.”
“Wait. I didn’t hear anything in there about being free to go home myself.”
Rook hung his head, unable to meet her penetrating gaze. “I only told you of the plans for the invasion because they won’t let you return home, Cate. Not now. Not ever.” He caught her gaze, hoping that what he couldn’t say would be understood. “They need you.
I
need you.”
Cate pulled away from him, her green eyes mutinous and her face stormy. “You promised. I will not be your means of destroying my world.”
“We will not destroy your world; merely bring it back under our rule. Our caste sees value in the work of humans, but their judgment has proven destructive. It’s time for us to reverse that. I’m sorry, Cate.”
The hurt look in her eyes speared him to the core. “I thought you cared about me. You lied to me.”
He grasped her upper arms in his large hands, rubbing her shoulders slightly. “I didn’t lie and I do care.”
“Then help me get home.”
He looked at her with regret, his eyes full of pain. “I cannot.”
§
Cate whirled away from him, the potent lust of a few minutes before now replaced by blinding rage—not at him, but at herself. What had she been thinking? How stupid could she have been to trust the promises of a fae? Their rules were different here. Where the hell were her rusted nails? “And what about your promise? I thought fae couldn’t break them.”
“Cate, I
have
kept my word. I only promised to help you free your friend. I never promised to return you home.”
She glanced at the pile of discarded dirty riding clothes as if she could see the nails in the pocket of her suede split skirt through the pool of fabric.
She glanced over her shoulder at him. “Where are the clothes I’m supposed to wear?” she snapped.
He gestured to the golden filmy gown, with a smooth sheath beneath it. The low-cut bodice sparkled with small bits of diamond and topaz, and the skirt flared out from an empire waist. Beside it was a pair of sheer silk hose and golden silk flats also studded with gems.
“Do you want help dressing?” he asked absently, as if he assumed her answer would be no, but he were trying to be a gentleman of his word regardless.
Cate needed to find a way to hide the nails in that dress, which would be best done if he didn’t help her. “I can handle it.
Thank you
.”
He flinched. She said it on purpose as an insult this time and they both knew it.
“There is food if you are hungry.” He gestured to the silver-domed trays neatly arranged on a cart beside the dresser.
“I seem to have lost my appetite.” Her words were polite, though her tone was anything but.
He bowed his head. “Very well. I’ll wait for you outside the door.”
He walked stiffly across his apartment suite and out the black doors. Cate collapsed to the bed, her legs too wobbly to stand any longer. She hadn’t lied about losing her appetite—her stomach swished with a sick, oily feeling. She’d been stupid and rash to abandon her family to get Maya. She knew that. She just hadn’t realized the consequences could be far higher—like losing her heart.
What was she going to do? It wasn’t midnight yet. Surely she could still get home if she could just find a portal. But then what could she do about Rook? After this he’d probably never come to see her again. She couldn’t very well part the veil herself and come to him until the next Midsummer’s Eve. Perhaps that soul-mate connection she thought she’d felt between them was just good sex. Phenomenally world-rocking sex. But sex had never affected her like this before. Never made her twist up inside at the thought of losing the person who made her complete, if only for a brief moment of time.
“Catherine Mary Rowan O’Connell, you are the stupidest stubborn cow on Earth,” she muttered to herself. “Only you’re not on Earth, are you, you twit? You’re stuck in the fae realm with no chance of getting home.”
Her eyes began to burn, threatening tears, which pissed her off all the more. The last thing she needed was to waltz into the Shadow Court with her eyes swollen and puffy from crying. “Get a hold of yourself. You’re not going to cry. Be resourceful. You can get out of this; you just need to think.”