Flight (Children of the Sidhe) (6 page)

Tessa shivered, feeling
shy. How long had it been since she felt
shy
? “I would say we are more forthright than humans on the subject. More free with our affections. Why do you ask?” she stalled.

“I don’t wish to offend you, and I don’t know the customs among the
Sidhe,” he returned. “How about I just kiss you, and we’ll see where we land?”

Her belly dropped frightfully. Why did his ardor scare her? She’d been with dozens of
Sidhe men. Men of all manner of ability, physical and magical. Her lovers had numbered among the most sexual creatures in existence. Yet the half-human made her belly drop, making her feel like the innocent she hadn’t been in an age.

He followed through, capturing her lips with his mouth hungrily. The flame in her blood swept higher, taking her reservations with it. She answered his kiss with
her own need, her arms tightening around his neck.

“How did you go through life thinking you were human?” she uttered when he broke the kiss and watched her hungrily.
Tessa suspected the man was wearing too many clothes for the plans she found herself making. She let him go and waved a hand, and they were both nude.

Nathan looked down. “Okay, that really takes the romance out of this.”

“Oh, sorry…I thought–”

Then his eyes were on her body, his slow perusal of her form giving her the urge to cover herself. An urge she
would not
give in to. She was the Sidhe, the powerful one, but somehow Nathan had turned the tables and she was under his spell. She wanted him, and half-human or no, she wanted him to want her.

He
caught her hand and pulled her into his arms, skin to skin, and kissed her. His warm skin against her made her cuddle closer, her breasts pressing against his chest. Were Sidhe men so warm? She didn’t remember them being so warm.

Tessa ran her hands over
his back, feeling his muscles ripple as he lifted her.

“Is there somewhere you’d like to go?”

“My room is at the end of the hall, on the left. Are you carrying me?”

“A romantic custom among my people. Indulge me.”

Tessa leaned her head on his chest. She could get used to this treatment – to someone taking care of her for a change.

She waved so the door would open before him.

“You have to teach me some of that. I could use the clothes trick, since I don’t have any real clothes. I’d like to be able to wear something more my style.”

Tessa wrinkled her nose. “So I should teach you so you can dress yourself like a human? That’s not very compelling reasoning.”

“How about you teach me because you like me, and you want me to be happy here.” He dipped his head to kiss her as he laid her on the bed. Once he’d devoured her lips, he moved on to her neck, her earlobe – sending delicious waves of pleasure coursing through her. She arched her back, craving more of him, but he held her apart, worshipping her body with his mouth. Those flecks in his eyes, which seemed amber most of the time, glowed almost golden at the moment. He didn’t know it, but he was using his draw. He might not understand his Sidhe nature, but along the way, he’d definitely become a confident lover. His tongue swirled over her skin, and she leaned into him instinctually. One of his large hands gripped her wrists, and held her hands above her head.

Tessa frowned. “You employ our tactics, that’s for sure.”

Nathan laughed. “Do I? And here I thought I came up with those on my own. They’ve always seemed to work rather marvelously, to tell you the truth.”

“Will you let me free
so I can show you some of
my
tricks?” Tessa wasn’t sure why she needed to prove something with him, but she did.

“Not yet. I’m not done.”

Tessa resorted to tricks anyway, turning so that his
cock pressed against the cleft of her naked bottom. “I may not have my hands free, but I will have the upper hand.”

Nathan chuckled, his breath right in her ear.
“You obviously don’t need your hands, Tessa.” A shiver ran up her spine at the sound of her name as he breathed it onto her tender skin. He kissed her neck, her shoulder, one hand still gripping her wrists. His other hand descended to stroke the line of her waist, then her hip. She couldn’t help herself, she parted her thighs before he even got there, knowing he’d find her slick with wanting him.

He slid a finger against her, and groaned into her ear
, making her nerves tingle in anticipation and her belly clench. She lifted her hips, grinding her ass against his erection. It had been so long since she wanted a man like this.

He’d apparently forgotten about restraining her hands. When she found them free, she reached behind her and gripped him in her hand
, the warm length of him driving a tortured moan from her throat. She turned around to face him, her breath coming fast as their eyes locked. He moved on top of her, until his cock pressed at her core.

“Yes,” she whispered.

He sighed as he entered her, “Tessa. You’re so beautiful. Like a woman from a dream.”

Her hands moved lower on his back, urging him on as he thrust into her body, his rhythm in perfect harmony with hers. She moaned as the pleasure built, and he dipped his head to capture a nipple in his mouth.
Her back arched at the sensation. He thrust harder, faster, his eyes on her face as her body exploded in sensation, and she shouted his name.

His body clenched as she came, and
she knew he was trying to hold back, but she’d have none of that. Tessa tilted her hips to take more of him, her fingers digging into his hips as she urged him on. “Nathan…” she whispered, closing her eyes. Her nipples tingled at the rough tickle of his chest hair on her sensitive flesh as he moved against her.

He drove into her, each stroke blissful torture after her orgasm.
Her body taut with renewed need, she marveled when he pressed her thighs further apart, shaping her to his will. His fingertips seared her skin with their warmth, the slow pressure building, her pulse hammering.

With a low growl,
he spent himself inside her. She clung to him as the wave crested, her strangled scream hovering on the air. He held her open, his body nestled deep inside hers, thrusting slowly as the pleasure receded.

Propping
himself up on his elbows above her, he kissed her chin, her cheekbone, her eyebrow. Each touch was feather light. “Beautiful,” he said, his expression dreamy. He smiled softly and pulled from her body, wrapping himself around her.

Again she noticed his heat, the comfort of being wrapped in his scent, his naked skin pressed against hers. She could tell when he drifted off, his breathing even and deep.

Tessa was still; her limbs pleasantly limp as she basked in the afterglow.

But sleep eluded her
for a long while. Abarta haunted her thoughts, his laughing visage a punishing reminder of the plots that threatened the man sleeping next to her.

Ten

When Nathan woke in Tessa’s bed, he was alone. Something tapped against the window, and he looked up to find Season watching him with a smile. He frowned, and covered his head with the blankets. The tapping repeated, but Nathan ignored it. He got out of b
ed and looked down at himself. Naked as the day he was born and no clothes in sight. He had to learn the clothes trick. This was ridiculous.

Thinking of Tessa, and the way she’d unclothed him, he descended the stairs, looking for her. Her books were spread out all over her desk, but she was nowhere to be seen. He spent a moment perusing the open books, but most of them were written in odd scripts he didn’t understand. He saw two in what seemed to be Old English. They were poetry books. He shrugged. There appeared to be no rhyme or reason to the collection, and he wondered what she was studying.
He didn’t know much about her work, except that she was some sort of curator of a library. She seemed pretty proud of it, so it might be a big deal among the Sidhe.

When Tessa didn’t make an appearance, Nathan soon grew bored. Had she gone out? Maybe Season would know. He looked down at himself again, but it wouldn’t be the first time the pixie had seen him in the buff. It would probably earn some more giggles, but at least he’d know if she had seen Tessa.

As soon as he stepped outside the pixie blipped into view right in front of him, a maniacal smile stretching her features. “Nathan. You’re without your clothes again.”

“I know. I don’t have any clothes. Tessa just keeps using magic to clothe me, and then when I shift I lose them.” He resisted saying anything about the way he’d lost his clothes last night, though the memory stirred his blood.

Season giggled. “I can help you with clothes. Picture what you’d like to be wearing and I will make it so.”

He closed his eyes and concentrated on the image. He felt the clothes appear and looked down to find…well, Season had gotten it close enough. It was better than walking around nude all day.
He resisted the urge to scratch. What kind of fabric had she conjured here?

“Are you going out to shift?
” Season asked. “You should wait for Tessa – you don’t know the forest.”

“
Actually, I was looking for her. Have you seen her this morning?”

“Not since she rose from the bed she shared with you last night. I had somewhere I needed to be.”

“I thought you were supposed to be watching me. Were you reporting what you’ve seen?”

The pixie darted around the
porch, trailing pixie dust in her wake. “Yes.”

“What exactly did you report?”

“That we’ve met and I’ve extended my offer of help.”

Nathan waited, suspicious.

“And that you have taken Tessa as a lover.”

“What the hell does the Morrigan care if I take a lover? Who is
the Morrigan
, anyway? Tessa didn’t say.”

“The Morrigan is looking out for you. The Blood Wars have resurged, and the half-humans are under threat. Tessa has a history of supporting the wrong side.”

“What does that mean?” Nathan sputtered.

“Tessa was involved with one of those who incited the Blood Wars. The Morrigan killed him.”

Nathan was stunned. But he couldn’t believe Tessa wished him ill…especially after last night. At the very least, he owed her an opportunity to explain before he jumped to conclusions based on the word of a devilish pixie.

Whatever the story, he didn’t wait around to talk to Season about it any further. His words would land in powerful ears, and that wasn’t fair to Tessa.

“A walk doesn’t sound bad.”

“You should wait for Tessa!” Season reminded him shrilly.

He just grinned at her. “You’re welcome to watch.”

He took
off down the trail Tessa had led him on yesterday. He wouldn’t go far. He was growing bored of the four walls surrounding him, and a quick walk was just the thing for his impatience. Besides, as long as he was in a different world, he was going to learn all he could.

Season flitted about nervously. “I don’t think this is wise. I can disappear when I need to, but you have no such power.”

“I could always shift.”

“You have mastered shifting forms in
the last two days, Nathan?”

Nathan waved the buzzing pixie off. She could sure be annoying when she wanted to be.

Season fell silent, except for the hum of her steadily beating wings, for a mile or so. She darted between the branches along the trail, from cover to cover, her tiny mouth set in a grim line. “You shouldn’t be out here. We should return at once.”

“Thanks for the advice.” Nathan kept his original course. He hadn’t left the trail he’d started out on. What could happen?

Yet the farther he went, the more sinister the forest around him felt. It wasn’t any change in lighting, and the trees were about as dense – yet the air felt heavy with despair, and fear.

Season flitted closer, and he held out a hand. She took him up on it, clutching his palm as he continued on.

“You could disappear.”

She thrust her tiny chin into the air. “No. I won’t leave you out here alone.”

Her words brought Nathan to his senses. He was in a different world, a couple of miles deep in an unknown forest, with heaven only knew what inhabiting it. He stopped on the trail, looking around. “I need a container of some sort, and a shovel,” he told Season, his voice sounding loud in the hush of the forest.

“Picture them, Nathan.”

He did, and the bucket appeared in his hand, the small gardening shovel rattling inside it. “Nice work,” he told her appreciatively.

Her wings fluttered, but she didn’t move from his hand.

Nathan set the frightened pixie on a branch with an apologetic glance.
“Okay, just let me collect a sample and we’ll go back.” He couldn’t ignore the hairs standing up on the nape of his neck. His instincts screamed the alarm. This forest wasn’t safe. Not by a long shot.