Blood Tied (14 page)

When I sat up, I winced. A huge knot had formed in my neck muscles and between my shoulder blades, most likely a combination of poor sleeping posture and tension from the impossible feat that awaited my brothers and me.

I rubbed the sleep from my eyes before once again focusing on the blurry lines of text that sprawled across the desk. The fruits of my previous labors had been disappointing.

I’d found spells that allowed the caster to open portals or teleport, which would potentially allow us safe passage to Otherworld, but without a means of detecting the weakened boundaries between worlds, they were useless.

The answer had to be in here somewhere.

“Good morning, Thaddeus.”

Aiden stood from the couch where he must have fallen asleep, and stretched. He still wore the sweatpants I’d given him last night, and the waistband dipped as he worked out the kinks in his muscles. A dark brush of hair peeked out over the fabric as if inviting me for a closer look.

“Good morning,” I finally said when I realized I’d been spending too much time staring at Aiden’s crotch instead of the green eyes that greeted the world with a smile. “I didn’t know you were here. You could have slept in my bed.”

My cheeks immediately flushed at the unintentional suggestiveness of my comment. Under ordinary circumstances, a blunder like that wouldn’t have affected me at all. I probably wouldn’t even have realized what I had said, but when I was around Aiden, the emotions I tried to hide had no problem springing to the surface.

“But you weren’t there,” he said with a grin. “So I stayed here with you.”

I didn’t know how to respond. After my tantrum last night, I figured Aiden would stay as far away as possible, but my outburst hadn’t affected him. Was that because he was a fire fairy? Emotions were their bread and butter, after all.

“I’m sorry about last night,” I finally said, surprised that an apology slipped so easily from my lips. That had never happened to me before, either.

“You were tired,” he replied. He stood beside me, looking at the books that had been my bedding. He smelled like cinnamon and musk. “That’s nothing to be sorry about.”

“Not about that. About the way I acted in the hallway last night. The things I said. They were uncalled for, and you were just trying to help.” I took his hand in mine, rubbing my fingers across the smooth, creamy flesh. “I’m sorry.”

He cupped my cheek in his big hand and smiled down at me. “That’s very sweet of you to say, especially since I can tell apologizing is not something you often do. So while it’s unnecessary, I thank you anyway.”

“How do you do that?” I asked, leaning into his touch.

“Do what?”

“Read me the way you do. Is that your fairy magic?”

“It’s part of who I am,” he said with a nod. “But it’s not the whole answer.”

“Then what?”

He scrunched his lips, evidently uncertain if he should tell me.

“I really want to know,” I said.

“My answer will likely make you uncomfortable.”

I nudged him with my shoulder. “Tell me already.”

He let out a long sigh before answering. “Like I was telling you last night, I can see you. The real you. Yes, that’s part of being a fire fae. We can look into the hearts of humans and inspire the passion and creativity they might lack, but with you it’s different.”

“Why? Because I’m a warlock?”

He shook his head.

“Then what is it?”

“Well,” he said before a long pause. “I like you.”

I couldn’t help the smile that turned me into a grinning idiot. “I think Charlotte already established that I like you too.” I stood, stepping into the space that had previously separated us. “And that’s pretty out of character for me. I don’t typically allow myself to feel for others.”

“Why is that?”

I glanced away, embarrassed by the words I was going to let free. “Emotions are deadly. You don’t control them. They control you.”

“They can,” he admitted. “I have a temper. My father says it’s because I’m an only child, who has been spoiled rotten. But that’s not it. I’ve always felt things deeply. It’s who I am, and I’m not going to change or apologize for it.”

“And you shouldn’t,” I said. “But if that’s who you are, isn’t not expressing or liking emotion who I am too? I shouldn’t have to change or apologize for it either, right?”

“If that was who you were, I would agree.”

I cocked one eyebrow at him. “Are you trying to say you know me better than I know myself?”

“Not at all. I just don’t believe that’s truly who you are. I think you want to feel, to express what’s in your heart, but for some reason, it terrifies you.” He locked gazes with me. His eyes were wide and sympathetic. They told me he wanted to know why I was the way I was.

“I lost control once. When I was younger.” I closed my eyes, trying to block out the memory of my youth that played in my mind. Pierce and Dad were screaming at me. My mother was trying to snap me out of my anger. And Mason. I opened my eyes and shook it off. He was too young to remember the afternoon that still haunted me to this day. “I can’t ever allow that to happen again.”

Aiden didn’t push for specifics. He rubbed my shoulders. “But there’s a difference between controlling your emotions and denying them. Should we all try harder to rein ourselves in? Yes. But if we stop feeling, we stop living.”

Maybe that was what I had done. Losing control terrified me. It had almost cost me my brother. I had shut myself off from everyone except my mother. Now that she was gone, I had no one because I had let no one else in.

“Let yourself feel,” he said, squeezing my shoulders. I didn’t tense or attempt to shrug off the contact like I had done last night when the emotions got too real. “And never regret those emotions. They make us who we are.”

Aiden was right. Perhaps it was time for me to experience the world the way everyone else did.

A sly grin hooked up the corners of my mouth. “Let’s go,” I said, grabbing his hand.

“Where?”

Instead of replying, I led him up the stairs.

AIDEN ARCHED
his eyebrow as I shut my bedroom door behind us. “Why are we here?”

I responded by unbuttoning my shirt.

He grinned. “I enjoy it when you look at me like that.”

“Like what?” I asked as I swept my gaze over the firm peaks of his chest down to the muscled ridges of his abdominals.

“Like you want to touch me.” He slowly closed the gap between us, and the closer he got, the harder it was for me to breathe.

“I do,” I admitted.

“You can,” he said. His voice had dropped to just above a whisper. “I don’t mind. I like being touched.”

He caressed my cheeks. I closed my eyes and leaned into his touch. We hadn’t known each other long, but Aiden’s flesh against mine felt like home. It was the most bizarre feeling I’d ever experienced. I’d grown used to my solitary life, but being around Aiden had opened up a strange new world of feelings, which both excited and concerned me. It made me vulnerable, but it also fueled an untapped power within me. It grew like a seed, spreading its roots through my soul.

Was this what my father had felt for my mother? Or even what Mason had with Drake? My brother had told me he and Drake were spell bound, a rare, magical pairing of two linked souls.

But that wasn’t what I felt for Aiden. There was no sudden clicking of parts, as if I’d finally found the one I’d forever been destined to meet. It was more primal than spiritual, as if my blood surged through my veins, not in search of my heart, but in an effort to reach the one that beat within Aiden’s chest.

No. We weren’t spell bound. In a strange way, my connection to Aiden reminded me more of my bond with my mother. She called it being blood tied. Since we were family, that meant we’d do anything for each other, love each other no matter what, and even give up our lives if necessary.

It sounded bizarre, but it was the only way I could make sense of what I felt for him. From the moment I’d seen Aiden, it was as if he were a missing part of my family, an unknown blood tie that had been left dangling, but once found, joined me to him completely.

“Do you feel it?” I asked, gazing up into the green field of Aiden’s eyes.

A naughty grin slinked across his lips. “Not yet. But I hope to real soon.”

His gleeful bawdiness made me laugh. “Well, me too, but that wasn’t what I was talking about.”

“I know,” he said. “And I’m uncertain what it means.”

I nodded. “Me too.”

He shoved a stray dark lock from his eyes and bit his lip. “Can I be honest with you about something before we, well, you know?”

“Please do,” I replied. I cherished honesty. Whether it was painful or not, it provided the data needed to make rational decisions.

“Fairies are free spirits, and the fire fae, well, we make the other fae look downright conservative.” He grinned at me and laced his fingers in mine. “We take great pride in the fact that we don’t take anything seriously. Except maybe keeping the hearths burning and the fires of creativity and passion roaring. It’s what we do.”

He wasn’t telling me anything I didn’t know already. “And?”

“Well,” he began, gnawing on his bottom lip. It was an unusual tic for someone of royal fae blood. The Royal Fae Court projected only strength and unity. Right now, Aiden looked uncertain and lost. “For us, relationships are just, I guess, fluid is the right word. We drift on the current, following our passions from one set of arms to another. There’s no rhyme or reason. No commitments are exchanged. We do what feels good when it feels good.”

I didn’t need a road map to tell me where this was going. “So you want me to know I’ll just be another spot along the riverbank, right? That when the current moves you again, you’re going to follow where it leads you.”

“Well, yes and no.”

“I don’t understand.”

He wrapped his arms around my neck and placed his forehead against mine. “What I feel for you is bizarre. Unique for someone like me. It’s like you’re in my blood, if that makes any sense.”

It did.

“Perhaps it’s the conflict we are facing together,” he continued. “Battle has a way of heightening passions, but it’s important for both of us to face the fact. I can’t change my nature any more than you can change yours. I’m a fire fae, and I will always be one.”

Although I didn’t want to admit it, Aiden was right. There was no telling what the future would hold. What stirred my blood—no, our blood—might be a passing phase, and once satisfied, the same current that had brought us together might set us adrift from each other.

The logical course of action would be to not dip our toes in the water. They raged by too swiftly to be trusted, and my heart had already been shattered. Losing my mother, the only person on this planet I ever felt truly loved me or understood me, had ripped my insides to shreds. The pain had been unbearable, and if losing Aiden would come anywhere close to that, could I even chance it?

“I don’t care,” I said, surprising Aiden and myself.

He wrapped his arms tighter around my neck and squeezed. “Really? Because I don’t want to hurt you. Ever.”

I nodded. “I don’t care if this ends tomorrow or two weeks from now. Well, that’s not true. I do care, but tomorrow is tomorrow. We’re here, and right now, here is pretty fantastic.”

Aiden pressed his lips to mine, and I trembled. Although we’d kissed briefly before in the woods, it had been nothing like this. It was as if every cell in my body had come back to life. Had I been dead inside until this moment? It certainly felt like it.

The lingering iciness with which I greeted the world melted, and my blood boiled in response to the fire Aiden’s kiss fanned within me. It rushed forward, filling me with the life energy I’d previously denied myself.

And for the first time in months, perhaps even years, life turned from one big question mark to a giant exclamation point.

I pushed harder into our kiss, exploring the sweet warmth of Aiden’s mouth with my tongue, and I surfed my hands down his smooth, creamy back. I followed the curvature of his spine to the swell of his ass before taking his firm butt in my hands.

Aiden moaned and pressed against me. The fabric of the sweats he wore tented outward, and I eased the pants from his waist.

His gorgeous, seven-inch cock bobbed before me. It was the most beautiful prick I’d ever seen in my life, rooted in a thick nest of hair, out of which hung a pair of the most perfect balls in existence.

“I want you, Aiden. More than I’ve wanted anybody in my life.” I brushed my lips against his, and the slow burn that had built in my body since the moment I first saw him in the woods came to a rapid boil.

“I feel the same way,” he said, panting into our kiss.

And that was all I needed to hear. We melted against each other, his chest heaved against mine, his arms held me as tightly as I held him, and our erections ground between our sweaty bodies.

Aiden gasped as I palmed his ass, squeezing the muscled globes. He found the buttons of my pants and unfastened them before sliding down the zipper. He shoved his eager hand beneath the fabric and took my hard cock in his grasp.

“Fuck,” I mumbled as the warmth of his grip sent ripples of pleasure coursing through me. He pulled on my dick, swabbing his thumb over the head while he worked the shaft with his strong fingers.

I slid my fingers from his hand to his cock. I jerked it between us, sliding my fingers up and down his length before trailing along the curve of his cockhead.

“Shit, that feels good.”

I kissed my way from his lips to his chest, where I took one nipple into my mouth. I fluttered my tongue along the pebbling flesh while I continued to stroke his cock. Precum wept from the slit, and I dabbed my forefinger into the liquid before rising off his nipple and sucking the finger into my mouth.

I shoved my tongue between Aiden’s parted lips, his juices making our kiss even sweeter. He moaned into the lip lock while I clutched at his back, massaging his slick flesh in my hands.

As we kissed, I guided him to the bed, where I gently lowered Aiden onto the mattress. I crawled between his legs, delivering soft kisses to his shuddering stomach. I licked a path through the treasure trail that tasted of sweat and precum before I swabbed along the base of his cock.