Lord of the Hunt (15 page)

Taryn swallowed. She didn’t want to be trapped here forever and she was fairy, but she had to say something. “Precisely.”

The Queen might be filled with rage and hate, and people might fear her moods, but this woman was far more dangerous. With her white-blond hair and pale pink eyes, she looked so harmless, all sugar, no spice. Yet Sulia was beginning to scare her. She needed to be very, very careful. With friends like Sulia, she didn’t need enemies at Court.

Her gaze strayed to Verden’s back. He acted like he was above the gossip and rumors, but he wasn’t. He knew and heard far more than he let on. Dating in the mortal world was so much simpler. Sometimes she wished she’d been born a changeling. Today was one of those days. There was no way her life could get any more complicated.

Chapter 10

A frisson of danger slipped down his spine and spread over his skin. Every time he crossed the veil with Taryn, he knew he was breaking every rule he should be upholding and every oath he’d sworn to Gwyn, and yet he couldn’t stop. She was the rush that had been missing from his life for too long. A spark that made every breath dangerous. However, instead of playing against her and trying to stay one step ahead of her game, they were playing together. It was them against the Court.

How long could the odds hold in their favor? He pulled her through the doorway and then hard against him, his lips on hers. He wasn’t wasting a second of the time they had together. It had taken too long for him to leave dinner, the Queen watching his every move. They should have waited another night and been more careful, but he needed Taryn.

Her fingers gripped his waistcoat, fisting the fine fabric, but he didn’t care if he went back looking like he’d tangled with a bear. Not right now anyway. He would later, but the part of him that played by Court rules and gave a damn was shut down with the thrill of getting away again, of having someone to get away with—someone who was having as much fun as him.

He cupped her cheek, his thumb smoothing over her skin. Fun had been missing for too long. But even as he looked at her, he knew that this was more than just fun. It cut too deep when she sat with the King. His King. Warning brushed over his skin like a cool breeze. Too many things could go wrong, and she still needed her father’s pardon.

“What’s wrong?” she whispered against his lips.

“Nothing. Let’s move away from the doorway.” As they walked away, he glanced over his shoulder but saw nothing to concern him.

“You can’t lie to me.”

Couldn’t he? He lied to everyone else, including himself. “Why do you keep risking everything by crossing the veil?”

She looked at him for a few heartbeats, as if she didn’t understand the question. “For the same reason you do, I think. At Court I do what is required and what is expected…but here, with you, none of that matters.” She drew in a deep breath and tipped her face to the sunlight filtering through the branches of the trees. “I am just me and you are just you. It’s easy.”

Easy. Was that it? Is that why he was craving these times, because it was easy and he didn’t have to be anyone except himself?

“And if I asked you the same question?” She raised one eyebrow as she moved toward a sunny clearing big enough for him to lay down his cloak.

“I want to be with you and I can’t do that at Court, yet.” Maybe never. He should be making plans, alliances, and working out what he was going to do after the power shift, but he cared less and less. All he wanted was Taryn.

She watched him, as if weighing his answer. “I want you too.” She beckoned him forward.

He used a little magic to gather fallen leaves to soften the ground, then took off his cloak and spread it over. A perfect place to spend a mortal afternoon while Annwyn slept. He sat down and let the tension of Court dramas fade. The weight would be there waiting for him to pick it up later. There would be plots to unravel, the mortal world to watch over, and the Queen to avoid, the same as always. He relaxed onto his back.

Taryn didn’t sit next to him; she sat on him. Straddling him, her dress pooled around her. “Do you know where we are this time?”

“Yosemite.” He only knew the name because he’d had to clear up a Grey problem here a few years ago, maybe ten years ago. It was so easy to lose track of mortal time. Humans and a small gang of Greys looking to make trouble were never a good mix. Those Greys were now much further north and well away from civilization.

She smiled. “I’ve been here before.”

Damn. He’d been hoping to take her to places she’d never been. “I didn’t realize.”

“So you do know places closer to towns.”

“Very few.” And they weren’t the places he really wanted to take her, but she’d asked. “I don’t come across the veil to share you.” He drew her down for her kiss, but he wasn’t just bringing her across the veil for sex—although sex with her was different than the calculated couplings at Court. With Taryn, no one was keeping score and she wasn’t going to screw a deal out of him. And he didn’t want one from her; that she was here was enough. He started undoing her dress, wanting to feel her skin against his.

She pulled the dress over her head and tossed it to the side. His fingers traced over her stomach and around each breast. She shivered and her nipples hardened into tight peaks that needed to be touched. He sat up and took one in his mouth. She arched her back, her fingers digging into his shoulders. He liked the press of her nails. It wasn’t done to leave a mark or prove a point. Her fingers flexed against him depending on what he did, her reactions natural and unforced. She wanted him to know when she was enjoying something, and she responded to his touch. It was as if they made their own magic when they were together.

With a final lick, he released her. But she didn’t release him. Her fingers pushed into his hair, tugging out the binding so his hair fell free; then she tipped his chin up so she could claim his lips. Her hips moved and his shaft pressed against his pants. There was entirely too much fabric between them, and she seemed to agree, her hands sliding under his shirt.

He rolled her over and stripped off his clothes.

“You swear that bears aren’t going to find us?”

“I swear.” Although he probably would have promised anything right then as he lay over her, both of them naked. If any human did stumble into the clearing, they wouldn’t see anything; they’d just have a strong urge to leave. Mortals couldn’t see fairies unless the fairies let them—and even then most didn’t show their true face. It suited their purpose to not be seen right now.

She slid one leg over his hip. “You’re just saying that.”

He eased forward, his shaft pressing against her waiting sex. “You aren’t exactly rushing away.” He kissed her before she could speak again. He didn’t care if a family of bears ambled into the clearing—not that they would. The forest was quiet, and there was very little wildlife around. He wasn’t careless with their safety in either world. “If you want to see bears, we could go somewhere else.” He pretended to draw back, knowing she’d stop him.

Her other leg hooked over his thigh. “Here’s fine.”

She reached for him, her fingers feathering over his shaft as he watched. Her lips parted a little, a smile curving the corners as though she were a forest nymph free of all responsibilities. Maybe that was just what he wanted, to know what it was to be truly free again. He moved closer, sinking into her. For the moment, he was free of everything and everyone except Taryn and his desire to be alone with her.

While she admitted to needing these breaks from Court, he couldn’t. It went against everything he’d worked for. It was much easier to lose himself in her and pretend that he came here to be with her. She was the reason he was craving more than what the Court offered.

She was his craving.

Taryn moved with him and the sound of skin on skin filled the air. She moaned against his lips, her hips lifting to meet every thrust, her fingers digging into his skin. He nipped at her lip, and she responded in kind. Her breaths shortened, and she urged him faster. He gave her what she wanted, holding back until her core tightened around him and she came. Then he let himself slide over the edge to drown in pleasure.

***

The bed of leaves tickled her back even through the dark cloak spread over them. Every movement made the makeshift mattress rustle. Verden lay next to her, with one arm over his eyes to shield them from the glare of the sun, which had moved. He was thinking, and she knew what he was thinking about.

He’d told her about his run-in with the Queen. Just hearing about it had been enough to make her heart clench in fear. But all her doubts about sneaking off vanished when she was in his arms in the mortal world. Here, she saw who Verden was when he wasn’t hiding behind the mask of Hunter. She rolled onto her stomach and propped herself up on her elbows, stretching out in the dappled sunlight.

He’d assured that no bears would disturb them, but Yosemite had bears, and deer and all kinds of things. Wondering about wildlife wasn’t particularly relaxing—not that she’d been thinking about wildlife as they’d given into the lust that was becoming harder and harder to keep locked away.

“There is a café down the hill a bit I believe.” This was as close to home and the familiar as she’d come, and she didn’t want to let the opportunity slip by without seeing people and eating normal food and feeling like the world as she knew it still existed. In Annwyn, it was easy to forget there was more across the veil.

“We just ate.” Verden opened one eye.

She was tired of the elegant dinners, and she was sick of Court food. The fruit and what they called cake. She craved the sugar and salt of the mortal world. Soft drinks and chocolate and meat. She’d convinced Verden to take her through a doorway that was close to civilization because she wanted him to see her world and realize there was so much more than deals and games. She wanted to see him in her world. As much as she loved the wilds and being with him, she wanted to see if they could play at being human together.

“We ate at Court hours ago.” Since then they’d been entertaining themselves. She plucked a leaf from his hair and tossed it away. At least no keen hiker had stumbled across them. “Can we just go and see?”

“You want to spend the little time we have together surrounded by humans?”

“It’s called a date. Usually men take women out to dinner before jumping into bed.”

“Is that how they win affection?” He reached out and caressed her cheek with the back of his hand.

She leaned into his touch and let herself be pulled into a semi-embrace. “It’s how people gauge interest and compatibility.”

“I’m interested. I’m interested every time I see you.” He took her hand and placed it over his hardening shaft.

“I’ve noticed.” She bit her lip; she didn’t think she was asking too much from him. “I want to be able to sit down and have a meal with you and not hide what I feel. I want to be able to talk to you without wondering who will overhear.” This was the test: could they have a real relationship? She twisted around to look at him.

“I want that.” There was a silent
but
.

She waited. She was aware of his breathing, the lift and fall of his chest against her, and the cooling of their skin. She’d have never lain naked in the forest with a human, yet with Verden it felt right—because it was all they had. She hoped she was wrong and there was more than sex and magnetic attraction.

“I’ve never eaten human food,” he said finally.

“What?”

“I don’t spend any time around humans.”

“How can you not spend time around them when you patrol the mortal world?”

He looked up at her, the sunlight and leaves making patterns on his skin. “I don’t patrol. I simply monitor fairy activity in the mortal world. I relocate Greys, and stop those who choose to live here from making excessive trouble for humans. I am the King’s law in the mortal world. The rest of the time I’m at Court. I’ve been there nearly my whole life. I’ve never had time to dabble with humans, as I was too busy trying to secure my position and, once there, holding it and doing what was required. My life belongs to the Court.”

She didn’t know what to say. Had he ever really lived and had fun? “This is where my life is.”

“You don’t want to live at Court?”

She shook her head. The longer she spent there, the more she disliked it. He was quiet again and she knew he was thinking what she had already considered. This was fun, but at some point it would it end. He was a Court fairy and she wasn’t. She eased away, not wanting to hear him say it. She just had to enjoy what little they had without reaching for more.

“Forget I asked. It was a stupid idea.” She reached for her discarded clothes.

He moved and caught her hand. “No it wasn’t. Let’s have the meal we could never have at Court.”

***

Dressed, they let themselves be visible to mortals. Their clothing was wrong, but a little fairy magic would convince anyone who saw them that they were nothing more than another couple of hikers. Few would bother to look closer for the simple reason mortals didn’t expect fairies to walk among them.

They had found a trail and then walked down the hill to the little village. Village might be generous, as it had a general store, a post office, a tiny museum, and a couple places to eat. Verden watched as people milled about, talking in groups; some walked past and snapped photos of the scenery.

He followed Taryn into a shop where she scanned a board, then turned to face him. Her eyes were bright and she looked relaxed, more relaxed than he’d ever seen her.

“What do you want?”

He looked at the board, but it was all scribbles to him. “I don’t know.”

She gave him a questioning look but said nothing.

He shrugged. “Surprise me.”

It would all be a surprise. He couldn’t read the board. Most fairies couldn’t read; it was a very human thing to do.

“Two burgers with the works, fries, and medium lemonades.”

The man rang up the total, and Taryn handed over two leaves which the human accepted as money without even blinking. Verden bit back the grin. She’d been so worried about pulling that trick off, but as he’d pointed out on the walk down, if she didn’t do it, then there would be no meal. Besides, she was old enough to be doing simple tricks, and it’s not as though anyone was getting hurt. No one was going to lose their soul or get caught in a deal. It was just an extension of the glamour they were using to hide what they were.