Outcast (Book Two of the Forever Faire Series): A Fae Fantasy Romance Novel (5 page)

“You knew you were going to die,” Beck muttered as he watched the card curl up and blacken. Fear constricted his throat. “What more did you know? What did you see in those bloody cards?”

Flames engulfed the chair, but when their smoke reached his nose, Beck smelled the flowers of an eternal spring. He spun around, and saw the fireplace filling not with flames but blooms made of soft, pink light.

“Fuck you and your witchery, you old hag.”

He turned on his heel and walked out to the cab where his cousin waited. Someday there would be no limit to the mortals he would kill. Someday he would kill enough to build a house from their bones. Someday…

“Why are you grinning like that?” his cousin demanded.

“I think I know how to get all of us into Forever Faire,” Beck said, his tone placid. “We will need more bikers. Many more bikers.”

“My father refuses to send more men,” Dirk reminded him.

“Not our clansmen.” He started the engine. “Mortal bikers.”

“
H
AVE YOU SEEN Tara
?” Kayla asked Christine as she delivered the last platter of burgers to the dining hall buffet table.

“Last I heard, she went to run up a few more tablecloths for the feast tables.” Christine scattered a handful of cherry tomatoes over a large salad, each landing in precise, evenly-spaced spots on the mixed greens. She glanced up and frowned. “You’ve already checked the costume tent, huh?”

“She probably went back to the lodge to take a shower.” Kayla felt something stir the hairs on the back of her neck, and gritted her teeth. She didn’t have to look to know who was causing it. “So what are you wearing tomorrow night?”

“Only the latest fashion for serving wenches.” Christine whipped off her apron to reveal the white linen blouse, black leather bustier, and full red skirt she wore. She turned from side to side. “What do you think? Doesn’t it shriek ‘Tug on my laces, Hot Stuff?’”

Kayla’s gaze shifted to Colm, who stood talking with one of the cooks. “I don’t think he’s a tugger, honey.”

“I see someone who is,” her friend said, and nodded past her. “If mine doesn’t work out, can I have him?”

“Sure,” Kayla said. For a moment she wondered if throwing Christine at Ryan would actually get him off her back, until a startling surge of jealousy raced through her. “I’ve got to get the horses bedded down for the night. See you later.”

Pulling down the cap that went with the squire costume Tara had made for her, Kayla walked quickly out of the back of the tent. She made it halfway to the barn before Ryan stepped in front of her.

“You cannot outrun me. My legs are twice the length of yours,” he said, eyeing her hose-clad thighs. “Hiding will not work, either. You leave a trail of your scent as well as your life energy wherever you go. I have played this game of princess and monster for sevenday now. I will not permit you to win it again.”

So he knew she’d been avoiding him. “We call it hide and seek now. What do you want, other than everything you’re not going to get?”

As a group of vendors passed them Ryan took her hand and led her to a more secluded spot between two tents. “I know you wish Tara to be safe, but as long as she is here, the Blackstones will not leave. Neither of you can go beyond the faire grounds while they are here, or you will be taken.”

“Haven’t we been over this?” She realized she was still holding his hand, and pulled it away. “We won’t step foot outside the gates.”

His lovely, sexy mouth tightened. “This is a stalemate, Kayla, but it will not remain so. The Dark Fae are not only powerful, they are resourceful. Eventually they will ferret out a way to breach our boundaries.”

She silently agreed with everything he said, and hated herself for it. “So what do you suggest we do? Call in the National Guard? They can’t see them.”

“Wallace believes the Blackstones are tracking you by the curse that cloaks Tara.” He stepped closer, and before she could back away, he caressed her cheek. “It is too powerful and well-cast to be removed, but we can make it weaker.”

Although his touch made her want to fling herself into his arms, Kayla forced herself to focus on his words. “By separating us.”

Ryan nodded. “There is a Fae clan whose leader is indebted to me. I can arrange for him and his kin to take Tara, and move her somewhere far from Forever Faire.”

That he’d even consider such a thing made her blood boil. “No.”

“They are kind, good people, and will safeguard her against the Dark Fae,” he assured her, “until such time as we can defeat the Blackstones. Once she is away, you and I will–”

“Shut up.” She shoved him as hard as she could, which was the same as trying to push over a brick wall. “You think I don’t know what you really want? You and me, alone here in our little medieval love nest, without Tara to spoil things. Well, it’s not happening, Ryan. You’re not sending my sister anywhere. But I’ll tell you what: first thing tomorrow morning, we’ll leave, together. As for you and I, we’re done now. Stay away from me.”

So angry she could barely see straight, Kayla left him and ran to the barn. Once inside she slammed the door behind her, falling back against it and beating her fists against the old wood until she saw every horse in the barn staring at her.

“Sorry, I’m– Sorry, guys.”

She rubbed a hand over her hot face and retreated to check that she had all the gear she would need for tomorrow night’s show. As she passed each horse, they stretched out their necks, trying to nose her. Surrounded by saddles, blankets and bridles in the tack room, Kayla felt calmer. She switched on the light, and surveyed the wire racks of show accessories. She might as well start pulling and organizing things now.

“Send Tara away, my ass.” She jerked down a handful of blankets and sorted through them, picking out the colors that would complement the Winter Feast’s theme of white and blue. “Why don’t we just kill her? No more changeling, no more issues. Isn’t that the perfect solution?”

The door to the tack room suddenly opened with a squeal of hinges, and a shower of tiny white stars cascaded down to bounce around the floorboards. Ryan stepped inside and kicked the door shut before he finished transforming.

“We are not done,” he told her, his eyes glowing so brightly his gaze seemed to burn into her head.

Kayla set aside the blankets and folded her arms. “You touch me, or use your magick to make me want it, and I swear to God I will find a way to hurt you. Even if it takes me the rest of my dumbass mortal life.”

“I don’t have to touch you.” He swept up his hand, and bridles began to fall off their brackets. “Nor does my magick.”

Kayla felt something curl around her ankle, and glanced down to see two coils of rope encircling her boots. Regret finally seeped through her fury, for despite his thick skull and utter unconcern for her feelings, this was Ryan. Ryan, whose passion had taken her apart and rebuilt her. Ryan, who had made her feel hope…and this sick, twisted love that wanted her to go along with his horrible plan.

“Please, don’t do this.” She hated how pitiful her voice sounded. “I can’t take anymore, Ryan.”

“’Tis the same for me, my lovely one.” He flicked his fingers, and the buttons on her jacket fell off and rolled away. He bent down, not touching her at all as he breathed in. “I see you and it seizes me inside, with the gilt talons of your eyes. The dark satin of your hair peace-bonds my heart. I am bound to you by every blink of your lashes, by every crystal ring of your laughter.”

He had her bound by the wrists and ankles, and when the leather and rope tugged her back against the shelves of curry combs, Kayla didn’t fight them. Some perverse part of her wanted to see just how far he would take this.

“I dream of us now, every night.” Ryan unbuttoned his own tunic, stripping it off to reveal his broad, beautifully muscled chest. “In the cabin, in the snow, high atop some icy waterfall. We are naked and the world dwindles as we reach to each other. You whisper my name just before my hand covers your naked breast, and then I awake, alone and cold and hard. So hard.”

Kayla’s jacket simply evaporated, leaving her in her tunic and hose. She kept her gaze locked with his as he stripped off his boots and trousers. His pale white skin took on a subtle glow as he straightened, naked and fully erect. Only then did she feel the rest of her costume peel away from her skin, leaving her in her underwear. She could feel her panties clinging to her sex, which had grown damp and throbbed urgently now.

Ryan moved close enough for his body heat to sink into her skin, and put his mouth beside her ear. “I never have to touch you for you to make me like iron, my lovely one. Then all I must do is what is necessary to find peace.”

The whisper of his breath against her ear and cheek made her swallow a moan. “What do you do?”

He stepped back, watching her face as he reached down and wrapped his hand around his engorged shaft. “This.” Slowly he began stroking the length of his cock, his arm flexing and his chest heaving as he dragged in more air. “I remember how it was in the cabin, that night we first had each other. Touching you. Putting my mouth on you. Fucking you.”

Kayla turned her face away, but listening to his hand pumping made her clit pulse, and her nipples pucker into tight beads. “Is this why you tied me up? To torture me?”

“No.” He murmured something else, and light filled the room.

When Kayla’s dazzled eyes cleared, she saw Ryan bound by rope and rein to the shelves, and she was standing where he had been. Her panties and bra were gone, too. She should have run for the door, but her feet took her to him. “I think that spell backfired, my man.”

“This is how you have me.” He looked down at the full, straining bulb of his erection. “And I can find no relief from it. Not even when I use my hand and pretend it is you.” He lifted his head and smiled wanly at her. “Why should tonight be any different?”

Kayla imagined walking out of the tack room and leaving him there to stew, but her heart brought her closer still, until she could rest her cheek against his smooth skin. She felt the hammering of his heart increase as she brushed her lips over one small, flat brown nipple, and smiled against it before she caressed it with her tongue.

“Whatever is said, whatever is done,” Ryan told her, his voice going so deep it growled against her ears, “I am yours, my lady, to do with as you please.”

Kayla kissed her way across his chest to his other nipple, giving it some attention as she curved her hands over his tight, bulging shoulders. That this huge, brawny man was telling her that he was her toy made all kinds of ideas fill her head. “I like how you taste.”

“Then have me.” His eyes searched hers. “Feast on me.”

Putting her mouth and tongue on his body gave Kayla a heady sense of power. She reveled in it as she ran her hands over him, mapping every long stretch of skin and the delicious strength knotting beneath it. She toyed with him, pinching his nipples until he groaned. She caressed them with her fingertips as she used her tongue on his belly. The columns of his thighs turned to steel as she knelt and shook her hair back, wanting him to see as well as feel the moment she kissed the slick, satiny bulb. It throbbed so strongly now it tapped her chin.

“Hmmmm.” She kissed him, and let her lips linger. A pearl of bitter sweetness seeped from the velvety eye of his cock, and she lapped it up before she opened to engulf him.

“Ah.” Ryan shook, making the shelves rattle behind him. “Now you make me dream again, oh, my lady. More, yes, take more of me. Take all of me.”

Kayla slowly worked her lips down, sucking firmly as he glided in and out. She didn’t know if his hips were thrusting or her head was bobbing. They were one instead of two now. He possessed her, his cock pushing in her mouth, and she devoured him, her lips caressing as she took every inch. He felt so large and hard she wondered if he could last much longer, and prayed that he would. Nothing felt as good as this. Rubbing her palms against his thighs, she reassured him, and then goaded him by cradling the tight bulge of his balls with her curious fingers.

Rope tore, and leather shredded, and when Ryan pulled her up into his arms Kayla wrapped hers around his neck.

“Again I break my promises.” He walked her back until he braced her on the work table, and stepped between her thighs. “You make a liar out of me and I do not care. I must be inside you. Will you let me give it to you now, love?”

Kayla leaned back, using her legs to draw him closer as she tasted him on her lips, and smiled. “Yes, Ryan. Unless you want me to throw you to the floor and–”

He pushed his hands under her bottom as he thrust inside her, his hips jerking frantically as he worked into her clenching opening. “Kayla, help me. Look at me, show me your eyes. I cannot stop, I cannot wait, I cannot think.”

He had filled her so completely that she could no longer tell where she ended and he began. “Then stop trying,” she whispered. “Nothing matters but this.” She tightened around him until he began to move.

Ryan draped her over his arm, urging her back so he could get at her breasts. At the same time he worked between her thighs, plowing in and out with deep, hard thrusts until the table under her began to pound just as rapidly against the wall. Kayla gripped his strong arms and rolled her hips up and down, fucking him back as she heard herself make a soft keening sound. He was going to split her in half soon, and she didn’t care. It meant nothing as the tides of hunger swelled and rose within her. When he came into her in the next moment she jutted her breasts against his mouth and cried out as lights burst behind her closed eyelids. The rest of her exploded in fast and furious surges of pure, hot ecstasy.

Ryan said something as if from a distance, and then released a guttural sound as his big body shuddered over her. Deep inside, his shaft swelled even larger and then pulsed with every thrust as he pumped his creamy seed into her again and again.

They held onto each other until the last of the delight faded, and Kayla shivered and huddled close to him. Ryan held her against his chest, murmuring to her as he rubbed his cheek on the top of her head.

“We do not have to dream in solitude,” he told her as he drew out of her and lifted her from the table to her feet. “We can have what we desire. If you will only hear me, and trust in me, there is nothing that can come between us, love.”

Kayla looked down as her clothes settled over her naked body, and turned away from him. She took in a breath and smelled the scent of their bodies and sex, blended now like some secret, erotic perfume. This moment should have been glorious and satisfying, but he’d reminded her of what did stand between them. Tara. Nineteen years old, frightened and helpless, and with no one in the world but Kayla. God forgive her, but Kayla found herself wanting to agree with him.

All right. Send Tara away with your friends.

But the words never left her tongue. They soured there as she faced her own selfishness. She wanted him more than her sister. She was tired of taking care of her. Everything about Tara was dark and depressed and a dead end. Tara gave nothing back. She was like a vampire, always demanding more and more because no matter what Kayla did, it was never enough. It never defeated the nightmares, the depressions, the despair. Since they were kids it had always been about Tara. Every time her sister looked at her Kayla could almost hear it:
Help me, save me, love me and only me.