0286054001339292639 3 faer fetched (4 page)

Seocopen his mouth to protest, but she never let him speak.

“You are the most morally reprehensible person it has ever been my misfortune to meet,” she hissed,
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leaning forward until her braids fell over her shoulders and almost brushed against the hands he had clenched on the arms of his chair. “I ought to use my amusing little human mind to devise a fitting punishment for you, but I’m afraid the only ones I can thinkof now involve a lot of pain and bloodshed, and I have a delicate stomach!”

The fae’s eyes had gone wide as dinner plates as he squeaked out a protest. “If you try and harm me, I’ll freeze you just like I did the changeling. O-o-o-or I’ll t-turn you into a…into a toad.”

“Go ahead,” she said, her lips curving in a snarl. “At least that way you’d have a kindred spirit around.” He lifted his trembling hand and Danice braced herself.

“ Seoc!Try it, and I’ll take a few minutes to beat you senseless before I bring you back to your aunt.” The deep, menacing and decidedly unfamiliar voice came from the door of the theoretical hotel room and had both Danice and Seoc jerking their heads around in surprise. A ridiculously tall, ridiculously well-muscled man stood just inside the door with one hand still poised on the knob and one hand on the hilt of a sword that was probably almost as long as Danice was tall. He had eyes greener than the color green, pointed ears, long, dark hair and a furious expression on his handsome face.

Danicestraightened up and turned on him like the new target he was. “Oh, just what I need.
Another
strange man to see me naked. I’ve always wondered what it would be like to make it three in one night.” The green eyed, sword-wielding newcomer blinked at her, his glower changing to a look of confusion.

“You’re not naked,” he pointed out, even gesturing with his sword. “You’re wearing a—is that a bed sheet?”

“Um, she’s a little sensitive about the whole clothes, no-clothes thing,” Mac said from his immobile spot behind Danice . “I wouldn’t dwell on it, if I were you.” Danice’shead turned very slowly around until her gaze locked on Mac and made his eyes widen. “I’ll deal with you later.”

Before she could open her mouth to say another word, Seoc leapt up from his chair to face the newcomer with a childish look of defiance.

“I won’t go back,” Seoc said, planting his hands on his hips and putting his chin in the air. “I’m sick of the way everyone there treats me. No onesgives me any respect, and I’m tired of it. I’d rather stay in Ithir . At least the humans don’t try and tell me what to do.”

“That’s not an option,” tall, dark and well-armed said. “The Queen sent me to fetch you—again—and that’s what’s going to happen. If you don’t like it, you can take it up with your aunt.” Seoc’sdefiant pose crumbled, and he stomped his foot and whined like a three-year-old. “But she never listens! Last time you brought me back to her, she confined me to Faerie for months! I wasn’t allowed to go anywhere interestingor do anything fun.”

The other fae’s eyes narrowed, but he sheathed his sword, which made Danice relax a little. “You’ll be lucky she doesn’t make it years this time,” he said. “But if you try and run now, I’ll only come after you.

And when I find you, I’ll make sure the Queen feels even less charity toward you than she does right now.”

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Danicecould almost see that warning sink in to Seoc’s thick skull. She watched his face sour, hisposture relax and his shoulders sink before he shuffled reluctantly forward until he stood next toDanger Man.

“Fine,” he pouted. “If that’s the way you’re going to be, then let’s just get it over with.” The stranger grunted and put his hand on Seoc’s shoulder to steer him toward the door.

“Hey! Are you forgetting about something?” Mac called, sounding seriously peeved. Not that Danice could blame him. If someone had paralyzed her for a good ten minutes, she’d probably be pretty anxious to get back to normal, too.

Seoclooked back at them and frowned. “Oh, right. Sorry about that. The spell holding you here will expire in a couple of hours, and you’ll be back in the human’s apartment. The halt spell I can do now.” He snapped his fingers, shot the stranger one last disgruntled glance and they both left. Not through the door, because that would have been much too normal for the day Danice had been having. They walked
up
to the door, paused, and then just disappeared.

Danicewas still staring at the spot where they had been standing when she felt a pair of newly familiar hands settle on her shoulders.

“So, uh, are you still mad at me?”

“I haven’t decided.” Shrugging off his hands, she gathered up the trailing ends of her sheet and headed toward the door.

“Where are you going?” he demanded, and the genuine fear in his voice gave her a certain sense of satisfaction.

“Into the bathroom.I want to take a shower.”

She stepped into the surprisingly spacious bathroom, turned on the water, dropped her sheet and began counting to ten. She made it to four, maybe four-and-a-half, before Mac pushed the door open and stormed inside.

“I was just as much a victim in this as you were,” he said, glowering down at her. “I had no idea what was going on until this morning. Last night, I thought—hell, it felt so incredible to touch you that I didn’t think at all. Go ahead and hate me for not being able to stop making love to you, but I want you to realize, you have no right to blame this on me.”

She pushed the door closed behind him, then stepped into the shower. “I know.”
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“Maybe I should have made sure I wasn’t dreaming when I reached out and felt you curled up against me, but you were so—” he broke off his tirade and stared at her through the spray of steamy water.

“You know?”

“I’m not stupid. I got that when Seoc confessed.” She picked up a paper-wrapped bar of soap, tore it open and threw the wadded up paper at Mac. It bounced off his chest while he stared at her, dumbfounded.

“Then why are you still mad at me?”

She almost felt sorry for him. Men could be so thick sometimes. “I didn’t say I was still mad at you. I said I hadn’t decided whether I was or not. But now I have. And I’m not.” He blinked. “You aren’t?”

She rubbed the soap until she worked up a thick lather and began to massage the suds into the skin of her shoulders and chest. It took all her willpower not to grin when she saw his eyes follow the motions.

“No. Oh, I’m still a little ticked, but not at you. You, I forgive, though I can’t pretend I might not bring this up occasionally in the future when you piss me off.” He stood rooted to the spot, almost as if he’d been paralyzed again. Danice chuckled and shook her head, holding her hand out to him. He stared at it.

“Come on,” she encouraged. “If I’m not mad at you any more, that means we get to have make up sex.” He stepped into the shower with her, wearing nothing but a dazed expression. She had to bite back a laugh.

“Make up sex?”

“Absolutely.Don’t tell me you’ve never heard of it.” She pressed her slick, damp body against his and tilted her face up so she could see him. “It happens right after the fight, but before the adrenaline has all burnt off. It can be quite an adventure.”

His laughter burst out of him, as if he’d just been released from another spell, and she felt his arms wrap around her to squeeze tightly and lift her straight up off the floor. “Is that right,” he rumbled. “Sounds intriguing, I’ll admit, but I think you’d better demonstrate. Just so I know what you’re talking about.” She grinned and wrapped her legs around his waist, feeling his erection growing until it prodded against her insistently. “Well, normally I don’t give seminars, but I suppose in this instance I might be persuaded to make an exception.”

He captured her mouth with his in a consuming kiss. Tongue licking, teeth scraping, lips sucking, he kept at her until just that kiss was enough to make her body melt and ache for him. When she felt her moisture well up and rain all over him, she moaned. He pulled back with a grin. “I’d really appreciate it.” Danicenarrowed her eyes, licked her lips and shifted her weight so his cock prodded firmly against her entrance. “In that case,” she said, gatheringherself up and then allowing herself to sink slowly down onto him, savoring the tense, relentless pressure of his penetration, “you’d better brace yourself.”
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She heard him moan,then felt his arms shift to allow her to sink even further onto his cock. He thrust his hips up against her until he was buried inside her sodeeply, she swore she could taste him in the back of her throat. She moaned softly and pressed her cheek against his shoulder, fisting her hands in his long, silky, dampening hair while the water beat down over them and her heart beat in a rapid, unsteady rhythm. She used the grip of her legs around him to raise herself up, shuddering at the reluctance of her own flesh to give up its grip on him. Then, unable to bear even that much separation, she let herself sink back down, enveloping his thick cock with a moan of relief. He let her repeat the motion once more before his hands clenched tight on her hips and jerked her hard against him.

“No,” he grunted over her breathy cry of pleasure. “I’d rather brace you.” And he did, right up against the cold tile of the shower wall.

She yelped in shock and tried to squirm away, but he pinned her in place with the weight of his torso, grabbed her thighs to hitch them higher up around his waist and began thrusting.

Danicethrew her head back, not even noticing when her skull thunked back against the tile hard enough to raise a lump. The only raising she cared about was the way tightening the grip of her thighs allowed her to raise herself higher up off Mac’s cock, because that made the return thrust that much longer and sweeter. She clutched him with arms and legs and moaned helplessly as he quickened his rhythm, pounding harder and faster against her.

“Mac!Ah!”

She heard her cries from a distance, just like she heard his grunts as he pistoned inside her. His hands loosened from her thighs and slapped dully against the tile beside her head as he braced himself there and fucked her even more strongly. Danice could feel her throat growing raw from the harsh, strangled cries he tore from her, but she didn’t care. All she cared about was the feel of him inside her and the climax she could feel looming ever closer. She screwed her eyes tightly shut and lifted her face to the water, feeling the droplets sting her face, the hot water almost tepid against the burning heat of her skin. The tension was unbearable and she wondered if she would be reduced to begging for release.

It never happened. She came on the next hard thrust, bucking and shuddering between the wall and Mac’s body, her ears ringing with the intensity of her pleasure and the roar of Mac’s ecstatic cry.

When she could hear the patter of the water again, Danice realized she had survived the climax. It had been touch and go there for a couple of minutes, but apparently she hadn’t died after all. When she wiggled her fingers and toes, she discovered all her parts still worked as well. Things were looking up.

Mac moaned and shifted against her, reaching over to turn off the shower. She clung to him like a barnacle while he stepped out of the tub and reached for a bath sheet, wrapping it around her back as he carried her into the bedroom.

They tumbled onto the bed in an exhausted heap and cuddled together, the huge towel wicking away most of the moisture.

She chuckled. “If I’d bothered to walk into the bathroom, I’d have noticed immediately this place was magic.”

He grunted, but in a questioning sort of way.

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“The towels,” she said. “No real hotel has towels this big.” He snorted and rolled them over until he lay on his back with Danice curled up along his side, her head pillowed on his shoulder. “See, magic isn’t all bad.”

“Yeah.I may have you magic up some of these towels when we get back to my apartment. I could learn to like these.”

He stiffened and opened his eyes to look down at her. “Does this mean you want me to stick around once we get back to reality?”

She grinned.“Of course. I’m not stupid enough to let you get away now.” His grin was instant and enormous and beautiful. “Good. Because you couldn’t get rid of me if you tried.”

They shared a kiss that was sweet and tender and hungry all at once, and when it ended, Danice snuggled back against his shoulder with a sigh. “It’s going to be weird to be back in the real world,” she said. “It took me weeks to adjust to the whole vampire and werewolf thing. I imagine it’ll take at least a few hours to process the fae /changeling thing.”

He hugged her. “Well, at least you know you’ll be able to talk to your friends about it, and they won’t think you’re crazy.”

She laughed. “True. Because if I have gone around the bend, they’re already there waiting for me.” She ran her fingers over his gloriously muscled chest, and her mouth curved in a wicked smile. “Of course, I might have to tell them I’m out of town for a few days first.”

“Oh? Why’s that?”

She rolled onto his chest and grinned down at him. “Because as much as I love my friends, I can think of a thousand things to do over the next little while that will be a hell of a lot more fun than talking to them.” Mac’s mouth curved in a matching smile and he ran his hands down her back, cupping her bottom in his palms and squeezing. “Is that so?” he purred. “Why don’t you go ahead and show me what those are.” She wriggled against him and felt his cock harden against her belly. “All of them? Because there are quite a few…” She leaned down to nip at his mouth.

“Start with the first one that pops into your head,” he instructed, guiding her hips until he could slip back inside her welcoming pussy. “And we’ll work our way down the list.”