mythean arcana 06 - master of fate (13 page)

She wrapped her hand around his on his shaft and he moved it so she could grasp it alone. She marveled at the thickness between her fingers. With her hands and mouth, she set up a rhythm of squeezing and licking that had tension radiating from him. Rough noises came from his throat as his hips fought against thrusting into her mouth. She took as much of him as she could, far more than he’d given her, and delighted in the noises he made. Rough, needy noises that made her shiver.

“Gods, that feels so good,” he groaned. “Your mouth looks beautiful wrapped around my cock.”

Need streaked through her at the words. His darker side ignited hers.

“Harder. Stroke me harder,” he said.

She tightened her grip, timing her hand with her mouth so that he shuddered. She reached out to cup his balls with her other hand and his hips jerked.

“Gods, I’m close,” he bit out. “Will you swallow what I give you?”

She picked up her pace in response. She wanted whatever he had. His balls tightened beneath her hand as his shaft jerked in her mouth. He roared like a beast as the hot fluid shot from his shaft and coated her tongue in spurts. She devoured the hot, salty stuff, desperate to feel his responses. Her own were so great that she might have another orgasm from this alone.

She felt as though she were falling down a rabbit hole and she might never want to get out.

His shuddering slowed until he was still. She felt his hand on her head gently moving her away. He pulled up his breeches, then reached for her and dragged her into his lap. He pressed a hard kiss to her mouth.

“Thank you,” he said. 

She grinned and kissed him back. This was going to become something magical. She knew it.

CHAPTER NINE

South of Edinburgh, Scotland

1664

“Aurora? Wake up.”

Blackness engulfed Aurora, but she heard her name. Concern echoed in the voice. 

She opened her eyes to see Felix kneeling over her. His brow was creased with worry and his hand hovered over her shoulder as if he wanted to reach out to her, but he didn’t make contact. What had happened to him that he couldn’t touch? He hadn’t always been like that. He’d been
far
from that when she’d first met him. Memories of their time together were coming more often now.

“What happened?” she asked.

“You passed out after your spell on the farmer. I caught you.”

Of course. She’d completely tapped out her energy. And he might have caught her, but he’d let go of her as soon as he could. She forced herself to sit up. Just being near him revitalized her power. She was still close to running on empty, but she was slowly filling up again. “I’m fine. Let’s get to that cabin.”

He nodded and she stood. They set off toward the east. She wanted to be in before it was fully dark. Being back in 1664, a year she hardly remembered but knew had been bad, made her want to stay the hell out of the dark. They could get to Edinburgh tomorrow.

She tried to soak up some joy from the rain as they walked. Come hell or high water, she’d force herself to remember that she was
free.
She wasn’t in the aether and she’d enjoy every second of it even if she had to force herself. At least her power was being restored, if slowly, courtesy of Felix.

“That man wasn’t supposed to be able to see me,” she said.

“No, he wasn’t. It’s strange. Perhaps soulceresses have the rare ability to interact with the past? It could be helpful. I know a person who can help us at the university. Since you can speak to him, we could learn more about what’s going on.”

“But they’ll probably want to kill me. In 1664, I was pretty busy wreaking havoc.”

“Word of that hasn’t quite reached the university. I was there. If I’d heard of you or where you were, I’d have come for you. But your notoriety hadn’t spread that far yet.”

She blinked. He’d have come for her? Quickly, she shoved the thought aside lest it weaken her defenses. “Okay, that makes sense. I went straight to Europe after my mother died. Spain in 1664, I think. It would have taken a while for word to reach the university. Who are we seeing?”

“My brother, I hope.”

Her gaze swung to meet his. “You found him?” She’d known how desperately he’d wanted to find his brother. He’d gone off to hunt for him just before her mother had been killed and she’d stolen her first soul in her grief and rage. 

“Aye. He’d been captured by another warlock. I made it to him just in time. But I failed you. I’m sorry I wasn’t there when your mother died, or for the rest of it.”

“You mean, when my grief turned to madness from all the souls I stole? Don’t worry. I own my decisions, no matter how bad they are.” She drifted into silence. After a while, she asked, “We’ll leave for the university in the morning, correct?”

“Aye.”

It didn’t take them long to find the cottage, but it was pouring by the time they arrived. Felix knocked on the door to confirm there was no one there, then let them in. Embers burned in the hearth, illuminating the moderately sized room. A smaller one led off it. The rooms only reminded her of her past, and losing her mother, and she hated it. 

She kept her gaze glued to Felix as he stoked the fire, reminding herself that she was in the better part of her life now. It wasn’t perfect, but it was so far removed from the misery of her past that it might as well be.

When the fire was blazing, Felix took off his damp shirt and hung it to dry on a rack there for that purpose. He wasn’t trying to hide his scars, which she couldn’t see from this far away anyway. Either they didn’t bother him, or he was more comfortable because she hadn’t mentioned them last night.

She plucked at her wet sweater, which was damp around the neck and down the back. She could use some power to dry it and Felix’s shirt, but she hadn’t siphoned enough from Felix yet, so she had to ration. Normally she’d absorb it faster than this, but she’d been draining him all day and he couldn’t absorb it quickly enough from the aether. She couldn’t dry their clothes and launder the farmer’s sheets too. 

And there was no way in hell she was sleeping on that farmer’s dirty sheets, so magical laundering it was. And she liked the view of Felix’s broad chest and cut stomach muscles. His wide shoulders and strapping arms bore the tattoos that she wanted to inspect more closely. She missed touching him. It would distract her from being in this place, in this year.

“I’ll find us something to eat,” Felix said. He walked to the rustic kitchen—a table, a basin, and a cupboard on which stood a pot and some crockery.

“Thanks.” She could barely cook even with modern technology. She sure as hell didn’t want to fuss with that archaic mess. Forgetting the past was one of the ways she tried to hold on to her sanity.

She kept an eye on Felix as she took off her jacket. She was unable to look away from him preparing dinner shirtless. The tattoos that decorated his arms and shoulders danced with his muscles, making it impossible to glance away. Distractedly, she removed her sweater and hung it over the rack in front of the fire. She was a bit chilly in just her T-shirt, but the fire would warm the room quickly.

Felix approached with an iron skewer stuck with sausages. He nodded at it with an inquiring glance.

“Sounds good,” she said.

She tore herself away from the sight of him cooking their dinner in front of the flames. She didn’t want to think too much about the food and its preparation or where it had come from. Once, she wouldn’t have cared. She’d grown up living exactly like this. But her time in the aether had been so
long
and devoid of anything at all that she was no longer connected to this type of life. Sometimes she even had trouble eating and drinking in the modern day because she hadn’t done it in so long while she’d been in the aether. The magic had kept her alive, but it hadn’t kept her happy.

She was making a better life now, one that would include eating sausages cooked over the fire by the only man she’d ever loved. If only part of her didn’t itch to take his soul. She looked at him and saw the handsome, kind man that she’d fallen for three hundred years ago. But the twisted part of her also saw the delicious power of his soul and thought about how easy it would be to take it for her own.

No.
Not an option. She had to fight that. 

It didn’t take her long to explore the rest of the cottage—the other room held only a moderately sized bed. She used most of her regenerated power to put fresh sheets on the bed, then returned to the main room.

“Dinner’s ready,” Felix said. He handed her a big piece of bread with a sausage on top. “Couldn’t find clean plates.”

“This is better,” she said. It was like a rustic hot dog, a modern-day food that she approved of immensely.

Mouse sat on the table, eating a pile of chopped sausage that had been served on a trencher.

He’d thought to feed Mouse. First breakfast, now dinner. He’d always liked Mouse. She swore she felt her heart swell in her chest and tried to ignore it. She took a seat in one of the two surprisingly comfortable wooden chairs set in front of the fire.

Felix joined her in the other chair and they ate companionably. She’d been on her feet—in too many locations and centuries—for way too long.

The food and the warmth lulled her. So did his quiet presence. Being with him was comfortable, despite the fact that his ridiculous sexiness kept her on her toes. Easily as comfortable as being with Esha at the university. More so, if she were honest with herself. It made sense. They’d been so close for six months before her mother had died and she’d lost her mind. They might both have changed, but the core of that ease was still there.

Gods, how she wanted him. Not only was he ridiculously kind and capable, he was handsome as hell. She warmed inside as she watched the firelight flicker over his bare chest and wondered what it’d be like to touch him. Would it be as good as it had been before? The idea made her quiver. Honest to gods quiver. 

It was ridiculous—as was staring at him—but she couldn’t help it. She wanted more of what they’d had. The memories of it were starting to burn her from within.

It was a dangerous idea, that she wanted that touch so badly.
His
touch. The dark, forbidden pleasure they’d so briefly shared had been seared into her memory. A few feet of space separated them, but her mind was so honed in on him that it felt like inches. His skin would be warm from the fire. She ached to feel it beneath her fingertips as she traced his tattoos.

But if she touched him, he’d freak out, no doubt. Maybe she could help him get over it? She scoffed at herself. She was seriously thinking of trying to heal him with her magic vagina. Yeah, right. It seemed he’d been like this for a while. What could she really do to help?

The thought filled her with despair. She couldn’t sit here and stare at him longingly, all the while knowing he wouldn’t touch her. That he
couldn’t.
The idea of whatever had hurt him so badly made her chest physically ache. But she didn’t want to ask what it had been. 

“I’m headed to bed,” she said. “There’s room for two. Room enough that we won’t touch, I mean.”

CHAPTER TEN

Felix watched Aurora walk toward the bedroom, her thin shirt clinging to her curves. He’d seen her naked. He knew what lay beneath the cotton and he wanted more of it. His fingertips itched to touch her.

The way she’d stared at him tonight...

As he stood, he tried to shake away the memory of her hot gaze upon him.
Doona think of her.
He retrieved Mouse’s soft carrier from where it sat on the table. She meowed as he carried it back to the fire and placed it on a chair with the opening facing the flames. The heat from the fire would filter in through the opening. The little black cat left her spot on Aurora’s chair and hopped over to the one he’d abandoned, climbing inside the carrier and curling up. 

His smile faded as soon as he looked toward the bedroom door. Aurora was in there. And she wanted him. Worse, he wanted her—so badly that his cock was achingly hard. Sitting near her as her gaze had roved over him had been torture.