Healing Eden (27 page)

Her bold, earthy taste exploded on his tongue, and the sharp musk of her arousal filled his lungs. Her cries echoed through the tiny inlet, and she shuddered beneath him with each lap of his tongue. This was what he’d waited and suffered for, a feast for all his senses and a succulent reward.

He pushed a torrent of energy around her breasts, plucking the tips with intense sparks she’d feel like the scrape of teeth.

“Reese.” She arched into the invisible caress, straining for more of the dark touch.

“Fuck, yes.” He splayed one hand on her belly, fingers stretched wide to hold her in place. With the other he teased her entrance, slipping through her wetness, and coaxing it up and around her swollen clit. “I love it when you let go.” He pressed two fingers deep and her tight channel clamped around them. “Love the way your pussy grips me.” Another press, crooking to nudge her front wall. “Tight and greedy for more.”

She fought, legs trembling with need as she tried to wiggle her hips. “Reese, please. It’s not enough.” She opened her eyes, such need reflected in them he felt it like a grip at his nape. She undulated against him, writhing through a long moan. “I need your cock.”

Sweet Great One on High, he loved her voice like this. Grated and husky, dirty and blatant. He shifted, anchoring one hand by her head and guiding his staff with the other. No one would ever have her this way again. No one but him. “Mine.”

He surged forward.

Galena’s cry fired through the grotto and her hips rocked against his in a frantic dance, two mindless souls in perfect sync, barbaric and beautiful.

Christ, he needed control. Needed to bind her and claim her before they both shot straight to climax. He shifted and put his weight on his heels. Anchoring his hand above her heart, he deepened the stream of energy at her nipples and slowed his thrusts.

“I vow to the Great One,” he rasped, “to love and provide for you until I leave this life.” He captured her right hand and anchored it over his own heart. “I will see to your needs and the needs of those you hold dear. Protect you at all costs, even to the point of death.”

Her heart pounded against his palm, a powerful match to his own.

His lungs burned and pleasure pooled at the base of his cock. “No other will be placed before you.” He hesitated and the muscles behind his shoulder blades tensed, braced for the pain. He’d bear it. He’d bear anything to earn her trust, or die trying. “You have my heart until I breathe no more.”

Instinct took over, some fundamental fragment from his soul spearing past flesh and sinew to surround her heart.

Pain speared as fat as a broadsword into his chest, and heat scorched and fired out in every direction, hot enough to shrivel every vein. He couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t see. Wasn’t even sure his heart still beat.

The trial. This was it, and it was pure, scorching torture. No way would he give in and rescind his bond. She’d either accept him or he’d die trying.

A shout filled the grotto, an agonized wail too deep to be Galena’s. Darkness crowded his vision and torturous shards pierced from somewhere in the center of his brain to the souls of his feet.

If you let go, it will all be over. Peace and comfort will all be yours.

The thought lured him, dangling like a wind chime on a sunny, spring day.

He pressed harder against Galena’s chest, desperate, feeling for the reassurance of her heart’s beat against his palm. He wouldn’t give in, never again. He’d die before he let her go.

A powerful force slammed into Reese and latched around his heart, the sting of anchor-like pegs digging deep into the vital muscle. His torso jerked on the snap of an invisible tether and his breath caught.

Galena. She’d accepted him. Pleasure lanced through him, licking every vestige of pain he’d endured in an exotic stroke. Quaking muscles roared with renewed strength and his balls drew up tight, his release not far behind.

“Reese.” Galena’s nails bit into his shoulders, her sweet plea smooth against his ears. Her legs draped wide over his straining thighs. Her breasts bounced with each thrust, the contrast of the creamy, soft swells to his dark hand pressed to her sternum blatant and erotic. Her kiss-swollen lips curled in a satisfied, open-mouthed smile and she splayed her legs wider. “Mine.”

The husky claim spurred his beast. Hell, yes, she’d accepted him. This was his woman. To protect, to love, and to pleasure. With his mind, he unleashed a rampage of energy, swirling unmercifully at every pleasure point and simulating the sensation of both fingers and mouth. He gripped her luscious hips and pistoned deep.

She took all of him, tip to root. Decadent sensations warred for surrender, the slap of his tight sack on her flesh, the musk of her arousal, and the slippery sounds of his cock pounding through her wet channel.

A violent release burned low in his shaft, each ragged mewl from her lips lending unbearable pressure. “Come for me, Galena.” Sliding a hand between their bodies, he ran his thumb through the wetness where they joined and circled her swollen clit. “Surrender.”

He struck without leniency, pressing the nub beneath his thumb, and latching onto one turgid nipple with urgent lips.

Velvet heat clamped down on his shaft and Galena’s haggard wail rent through the room. He came with her, long, jerking spasms he felt to his toes. In that moment, they were one. Two halves joined, male and female bound by heart and soul. His existence without her meant nothing.

The rhythmic press of their bodies eased. The kiss of water-cooled air fanned their slick flesh, raising gooseflesh in its wake. He cupped her beautiful face and grazed each perfect angle with his lips. Resting on his elbows, he pushed a stray lock of hair from her brow. “I love you.”

Shocking blue eyes opened to meet his, so filled with passion his heart buckled. “My fireann, my love.”

He had a mate, a baineann of his own who loved him without any secrets between them. He cradled her tight and rolled them to their sides. Their clamoring pulses warred beneath sweat-slick skin. For the first time in his life he felt centered. Complete in a way he never knew existed. For her he’d endure any pain, or kill any being that came between them.

Faint light flickered against Maxis’ closed eyelids, plucking him from a deep and peaceful sleep. He stretched, luxuriating in the rasp of cool, well-worn sheets on his bare skin as he blinked his eyes into focus. Two candles burned on the nightstand, barely illuminating Uther’s lackluster décor and scenting the bedroom with tallow.

Throwing off the covers, he sat up and hobbled to the window, his muscles stiff from lack of use, but blessedly pain free. How long had he been out? Hours? Days? He pushed the heavy drapes aside.

The Underlands’ black and barren soil stretched as far as the nearly darkened skies allowed him to see, with only a tiny hint of blue staining the horizon. Feeling for the sun’s position with his mind, he let the curtain fall back in place. Barely past sunset, though it still didn’t answer how many days had passed.

His clothes sat folded on a trunk at the foot of the bed. He snatched his loose cotton shirt from the top and tugged it over his head. A clean, generic scent he didn’t recognize lingered on the fabric. He must’ve been out a long time if Uther had stooped to acting as laundress.

He pulled on his wool pants and reached for his boots. The room spun and he caught himself with a heavy hand against the trunk just before his kneecap smacked the wood floors.

Sitting on the trunk, he waited for his vision to still, fighting to calm his panting breaths. Maybe he’d had fewer days on the mend than he thought. He shoved on his boots and stood, locking his knees. From the looks of things, the only way he’d get answers was if he got up and took them for himself.

The door groaned opened and the scent of wood smoke filtered past the threshold. Gold and orange firelight danced against whitewashed walls, and the crack and roar of flames filled the silence.

Footsteps sounded from beyond the front door. A light tread.

The knob turned and Serena shuffled through the opening, her head ducked in a distracted pose. He’d never seen her in the casual tunics and leggings the newer generation favored, but the colorful blue fabric certainly fit her curves. The dirt and wrinkles down her front were another matter.

Something angry and downright proprietary punched him in the gut. “Where have you been?”

Serena’s head shot up and her hand pressed against her heart. She sputtered and shut the door, scrutinizing him head to toe. “Handling details. How do you feel?”

“Like Uther must have graduated past shitty field medic.”

The door re-opened as his words trailed off.

Uther strode past Serena and wiped his hands on an already filthy rag, not so much as a hint of surprise at seeing Maxis on his feet. He tossed the rag on the counter that separated the living area from the kitchen and fell into a worn, oversized tan chair. “Love to claim the promotion, but your mate’s the one responsible.”

The level of filth on Uther’s attire topped Serena’s my several degrees, his ivory shirt coated in four or five layers of dirt and his face coated in sweat.

Maxis stared at Serena. “Explain.”

Serena’s lips pursed and twitched on one side. “I went home for news, got it, and was about to leave when I decided to bring a little help with me.”

Maxis studied Uther. No help there, not so much as a flicker of attention. He pegged Serena with a raised eyebrow.

“My nanny,” she said. “Nanny turned housekeeper, I should say. She healed all but the worst of our ailments growing up, so I decided to bring her here.”

“You exposed her to me? To us?”

“Would you rather I let you die?” Serena glided to the fireplace and sat on the side ledge. “Besides, we handled it.” She clenched the rock ledge hard enough her knuckles turned white. Whatever she meant by handling it, it didn’t seem to sit well.

“You handled it.” Maxis shuttled his attention between the two of them, but neither met his gaze. “How exactly?”

Uther lifted his head, fatigue marking the edges of his eyes. “Dead healers make for fewer confessions.” Uther glared at Serena. “They also result in tedious labor.”

“She deserved a pyre,” Serena said, shaking with passion. “Servant or not, she cared for me better than my own mother. Burying her would have been an insult to her gifts.”

“You cared for her.” Maxis crept forward, slow, so as not to miss the play of emotion on her face.

Serena studied the fire, her gaze distant.

“You sacrificed her to heal your mate.” Maxis halted before her and steered her chin to face him. No one had ever put him first, no one since his grandmother all those years ago. “Worried I wouldn’t make it?”

Serena jerked her chin from his grip and sidled out from between him and the ledge. She paced toward the kitchen and crossed her arms. “I couldn’t exactly let you die. My fate is tied to you. If you die, I’m left holding the bag.”

She gripped the raised countertop, the dirty rag Uther had tossed aside wadded in a disgusting heap in the middle of the sand colored stone slab. “You’ve been officially charged with treason. Anyone found aiding and abetting you will be charged as well.”

He wasn’t buying it. She could have let him die and been free of all but his faded mark. Why go to the trouble if she didn’t care? Though he could understand her trepidation in admitting it after the way her father had treated her. She’d be a fool to trust Maxis blindly, but he could bring her around. Eventually. “What else did you learn?”

Uther shifted in his chair and the cushions groaned. “Eryx came clean with the ellan. Spilled every violation of the tenets he’s performed and either cited precedence for the action to explain it, or pointed the cause back at you. In a nutshell, he’s clear unless the council balks, which they won’t.”

That wily son of a bitch. Never in a million years did he think Eryx would confess, though he probably should have. The man had too much conscience for his own good.

Maxis gripped his hands behind his back and circled his thumbs. “Then we’ve got two choices. Either we find a way to discredit what he’s done with the council, or stir bigger problems and distract from the rebellion by divulging our race to the humans.”

Uther’s deadpan response came lightning fast. “Going public’s a shit storm. Panicked humans can do a lot to hurt a handful of powerful men. We’re not ready for that, not in manpower or skills. Not yet.”

“Discrediting Eryx would take years.” Serena leaned one hip on a barstool. “The older ellan might want to upend his influence, but the newer generation adore him, not to mention we’d need some nasty secrets we don’t have. I’m beginning to wonder if he’s even capable of secrets.”

Maxis smiled to himself. How alike he and Serena were, both in action and in thought, whether she realized it or not.

“There is another option.” Uther stood and the wood floors groaned. His boot heels thumped against the planks as he headed toward the kitchen.

The fire warmed Maxis’ clasped hands at his back. “I’m listening.”

Uther leaned over the sink and splashed his face with water, running a hand along the back of his neck not the least bit hurried. He dried his face with a nearby towel before he faced them. “Maxis needs to die.”

Maxis’ laugh rattled the rafters. “You’ll forgive me if I’m not on board with your plan.”

Serena stared open mouthed at Uther.

“I said
Maxis
needs to die. I didn’t say you had to die.” Uther set the towel aside and leaned against the counter, crossing his arms. “If Maxis Steysis dies, he can’t be tried for treason and the rebellion falls off the radar. We lay low for a bit, use the time to make our connections as planned in Evad, and keep building the army.”

Arguments queued on Maxis’ tongue, but he held them back, replaying Uther’s words in his head. “You expect the public to accept word of my demise on good faith?”

“No, I expect you to die quite publicly.”

Maxis looked to Serena. She seemed as lost as he was.

Uther straightened and lowered his arms. “Throw a strike at me.” Whatever idea his strategos had must have been a solid one, because he didn’t seem the least bit concerned Maxis might actually fire as requested.