A Kiss of Magic: A Kiss of Magic Book One (7 page)

“I cannot believe this is true,” he ejected. But even as he said it he knew it was true. That she had had a unique perspective into the worlds both majical and not. “I do not wish to believe this is true,” he amended himself.

“But it is,” she said gently.

He frowned darkly. “Then you and I…we must work together to make changes in our world. As a Gestalt couple we are going to have tremendous power. You must help me to use that power for the good of the nons in this world rather than the majji who already have so much.”

She smiled at him.

“I would like nothing more,” she said before leaning in and gently kissing his lips. “You are a good man, Dendri Adiron. I do not know what I ever did to deserve you.”

“You are a special creature,” he said. “And to my last breath I shall endeavor to deserve you.”

Chapter Five

Yasra blushed under his compliments. It was completely surreal, hearing someone like him say such things about someone like her, but she knew he would not be saying such things if not for the Gestalt. It upset her a little to think of it, so she tried to put it out of her mind. They were there now, sitting naked in his tub, making majic happen in so many extraordinary ways. It still felt so strange, the ability to do things like warm the water.

“Now,” he said, changing the subject back to a previous one, “whenever you wish to speak to me you merely need to think it in your head and I will hear it. I will set a part of my mind to always be in contact with yours in some way. I will always know when you need me.”

“Will you read my thoughts even when I don’t intend them for you?”

“I may by accident if they are particularly strong thoughts, but I will make an effort to respect your privacy until such time as you are more open to the idea of me being a part of your mind.”

“Thank you. I appreciate that.”

“It is no trouble,” he said. He then glanced over to his right. He reached out and snagged a sponge and a bar of floral scented soap from the ledge and quickly lathered the sponge up. He touched it to her chest and she drew in a little breath. She still felt over stimulated from her orgasm of earlier, and just the memory of how unbridled it had been made her blush. She had not known she was capable of such strong, and loud, passion.

He washed her over her chest, just above her breasts which were puckered at the tips, as though waiting for his return to them. He lifted his knees from the water and she reclined back along his thighs, giving him full access to her torso. He washed her slowly, thoughtfully, and in total silence for several long minutes. It was soothing…relaxing. He didn’t try to stimulate her sexually, but he was doing so all the same. There was something very compelling in his touches, something erotic without trying too hard.

His sponge dipped below the water, doing a thorough enough job. He stroked down the length of her belly, in and out of her navel, and on to her pubic hair. He scrubbed her hair in soft circular motions before lifting her up and washing her sex as thoroughly as he could. She released a little moan as he stimulated her, her hands gripping at his biceps. He obliged her by sliding a finger inside of her. She tensed at the invading feel of him, then relaxed as she adapted to it. But before she could get any really useful sensations from this, he withdrew from her and continued to wash her legs and feet.

“Turn around,” he said as he dropped his knees. She looked at him skeptically and he laughed. “Go on, turn around. I’ve gotten the front, now I have to get the back.”

“I’m perfectly capable of—“

“I know you are. You’re perfectly capable of doing all of this. But that would take away all of my fun now wouldn’t it?”

She could hardly argue with that. She turned around in his lap, presenting him with her back. She gathered up her wet hair and drew it forward over her shoulder. This left him with the entire landscape of her back to wash, and he promptly did so. He washed her from top to bottom, even going so far as to shape each of her cheeks lovingly. She had never felt so attended to, so much like she was the center of attention. Good attention. Not like the attention she had suffered when she had failed to test out in front of so many people, year after year.

“Don’t think of troublesome things,” he whispered into her ear. “You’re just supposed to relax.”

“It’s hard to relax when you are touching me like this,” she admitted to him.

“Very well. It’s your turn then.” He turned her around and put the sponge in her hand.

“To wash you or myself?” she asked dumbly, trying to absorb all that was happening. She was so incredibly overwhelmed by him.

“Hmm. An excellent question,” he purred. “Perhaps in the future I will watch you bathe yourself…watch you touch and stimulate yourself to orgasm.” He paused as if mentally savoring the idea. “But for now I will settle for having your wonderful little hands on my body, stroking me to the brink of orgasm.”

“But…but what if I’m not—“

She was going to say not good enough, but something told her it would not be a well-received speculation. The truth was, she had such little experience pleasing men. Her one love affair had been so sedate. So pedestrian. This was a man who had had many lovers over many years, a man who knew what he wanted and knew how to take it. A man whose tastes and expectations were probably far from ordinary.

“I am unsure of…how to begin with a man like you,” she said timidly.

“Well, you would start from the top, just as you would any man,” he said with an amused grin twitching at his lips.

“But you are not just any man,” she whispered, her gaze dropping away from his.

He reached out with a wet hand, drawing gentle fingertips along the line of her jaw.

“I am yours to do with as you will,” he said softly.

“And if my will does not match yours?” she asked shyly.

“It will. I will be content with whatever you wish to give to me.”

She turned the sponge over in her hands. She was not satisfied with his response. It told her only that he would bring himself down to her level, not that she might be capable of reaching up to his. She was much too far out of his sphere.

For now, he was bringing himself into hers and she could not make herself resist the temptation he presented. She slowly lathered up the sponge as she eyed him, judging her approach. She touched the sponge to the side of his neck, and then slowly washed all around his throat.

Dendri tipped his head back, allowing her free access to wherever she wished to go. She washed him along the benign length of his neck and throat thoroughly as she worked up the courage to move on to other landscapes. He smiled when her sponge curved over his shoulders and swished across the width of his chest. It drew down and spanned him from nipple to nipple, and she felt his fingers flexing against her where they were settled around her arm.

“Your touch is sweet,” he murmured against her ear after he leaned in close to her. The nearness of him and the intensity of his words were overwhelming. The entire situation was overwhelming. The day had brought things she had never thought in her wildest dreams she would find. She had started the day determined to begin a new life as a non. Now…now she was there becoming the lover of one of the most powerful majji in their world.

“Would that be so terrible?” he asked, reminding her of how easy it was for him to see into her thoughts. “Is it such a terrible idea to become my lover?”

“No. Not terrible at all. Not by far,” she said earnestly. “Only, I feel I am so far out of my depth with you.”

“You are just as worthy to be with me as I am to be with you. Remember that.”

But he could not convince her. She knew exactly how disparate they were. Still, she put that aside for the time being and forced herself to concentrate on the task at hand. Perhaps if she went through the motions of being his lover then she would come to feel she deserved him. That she could somehow be his equal.

She dipped the sponge beneath the level of the water, feeling the resistance of his belly as she pushed against him slightly. She listened to the sound of his breathing, felt the rise and fall of his chest. She still couldn’t get over it. Her. Here. With this man. Like this.

She gave herself a mental shake and focused on him. On learning him. It was possible she might never again be given such an opportunity to be with someone so magnetic. It was possible all of this was just some kind of figment of her imagination. If that was the case, she would need to take advantage of the moment now while she could. She wanted to make memories. Memories that would warm her mind in a cold future without his dynamic presence.

She pushed her sponge further and further down the front of his body until there was nowhere else for her to go that could be considered neutral territory. She squared her shoulders, determined to tackle her shyness. A woman worthy of being his lover would not be so shy. She would be mature and bold. She was determined to be that woman.

She sank down the remaining inches until she had his erection in her hands. He was so warm, even in spite of the heat of the water he felt so much warmer. He was hard and thrusting up from his hips. She ran her sponge all around him, using it as a barrier of sorts as she stroked the full length of him from root to tip. He drew in a sharp breath and her gaze flew to his anxiously.

“No. It’s good,” he assured her. “No, it’s better than good. Your touch is…it is incredible.”

“I wouldn’t say it’s anything special,” she said as she stroked him again. “But if you say so I—“

“I do say so,” he said, cutting her off sharply as he reached to take her face between his hands and forced her eyes to his. He gentled then. “I do say so. And so should any man with sense in his head.” He frowned then. “But no other man will have opportunity to discover this for himself. For you are my treasure and mine alone.”

His possessive words both thrilled and frightened her. He sounded so sure. How could he be so sure? He didn’t even know her!

What she didn’t understand was that an Aspano of his power could learn everything about a person within minutes of meeting them. No, he did not know all the details of her life nor all of her memories, but he knew exactly what kind of person she was in all the ways that mattered. He knew she was honest to a fault. He knew she was kind, especially toward those who had so much less than she did. He knew that she did not hate her parents, even though they had given her plenty of cause to do so. Her one desire in the world had been to find majic within herself, feeling that it would be the answer that would make so many others around her happy. Not herself, but others.

That was when he realized that was exactly what she was doing now, trying to make someone else happy. And that was why he stopped her. He took her trembling hands into his own and lifted them away from his body. The act cost him, his lust for her an acute thing, but he would not satiate his lust at the expense of her self-worth.

“Is something wrong?” she asked as he took the sponge from her hands and put it aside on the edge of the tub.

“You have done nothing wrong,” he assured her. But she looked immediately doubtful. “It is only that I forget too easily how new we are to one another. I should give you more time to learn about who I am. I know you far better than you know me.”

“But you can’t possibly know me. We’ve only just—Oh. I forgot you are Aspano. You probably know every dark dirty secret I have.”

“You know, despite popular perception, it takes much more time, effort and strength to read a person than it would appear. You have spent a lifetime making memories…thousands of days. It would take a lifetime for me to go through every one of those days…especially without your cooperation. There is a great deal of reciprocity required when it comes to the reading of a mind or else it requires a great deal of power. And power has its limitations.”

“Surely not for someone like you. You are a 20th level Aspano.”

“Even for me. My level is only a reflection of my skill and my strength and the manner of things I can do. But even I am subject to things like exhaustion or say…an attack on the mind. Me, perhaps, more than others because I am so sensitive. However, I am also strong enough to erect safeguards against such things, but given the right set of circumstances, even I could be defeated more easily than you might think. I am not all powerful.”

“Well it seems that way to someone like me. Someone who has no majic.”

“You need to stop thinking like that. You do have majic. One day it will be a force to be reckoned with in as much as I am.”

“If I ever am it will be because of you. I’m afraid I bring very little to this Gestalt.”

“Only for now, while you are so newly fledged. But you learn quickly and have remarkable focus already. I have already seen you perform majic well beyond the level of a novitiate.”

“Again, only because of you.”

“I provide the power and strength, this is true, but the control is all yours. It takes control to heat this water just so. Control to speak with your cat. Your years of study, of learning how to remain focused, have brought you that control.”

She still did not believe him. It was written in her expression. But that was all right for now. She would gain confidence as time went on. In the meantime he would have to exhibit a measure of patience and control over himself.

“Come now, the water grows cold again and I find I have an appetite. Surely Bess is missing us.”

“I suppose. But…” She bit her lip looking suddenly and adorably awkward. “But I thought…well, don’t you want me to…to…”

“Reciprocate the pleasure I have given you?” he supplied. She gusted out a breath and nodded her head. “More than anything,” he assured her. “More than you can know. But you are not Aspano and do not know me as well as I already know you. I want you to take time to be comfortable with me. To come to me on your own. I am afraid I have run roughshod over you. It is just that…the sex majic we shared was so profound. I am unused to being drawn like that.” He stood up with her and water cascaded off of their bodies. She looked down and saw the still aroused evidence of his desire for her. “As are you I am sure.”

“I am. But…it doesn’t seem fair. You have given me something…should I not give you something in return?”