Rescued (Book One of the Silver Wood Coven Series): A Witch and Warlock Romance Novel (10 page)

He looks at me the way Michael did,
Summer thought, but couldn’t hate herself for thinking of the big Templar.

“Michael,” Troy muttered, his mouth tight, and then shook his head as if to clear it.
 

“It’s all right,” she murmured, and pressed her palm to his cheek. “I know. I feel it, too.” Desire was burning her up now, the suddenly insane need for him. “This is our night. Show me how it can be with you, Troy.”

He hesitated another moment before he groaned and gathered her against him, his hips working hard between her thighs as he shafted her over and over with deep, forceful thrusts.

“Is this what you wanted? Can you feel that? I’ve wanted to do this since the first moment I laid eyes on you, my sweet witch.”

Summer’s breasts heaved as she writhed under him, her sex growing slick as he impaled her over and over with his steely girth, until the desire inside her blossomed into a ferocious need.

Troy seemed to sense how the new hunger gripped her, for he pulled back onto his knees, cradling her hips as he fucked her harder and deeper, his thumb burrowing between her folds to stroke steadily back and forth over her clit.

“There it is,” he muttered, his eyes narrowing as he watched her breasts bounce. “I want it, Summer. I want to feel it squeezing my cock. Give all your wanting to me, my lady.”

Her spine bowed as she took another thrust, feeling it from her toes to her lips, and then cried out as the hot delight sizzled through her to burst into fiery pleasure. Dimly she felt Troy stiffen and jerk, his groan of satisfaction pleasing to her ears, the pulse of his shaft inside her softness almost as sweet as if he had filled her with his seed.

Not yet,
the old cronish voice inside her murmured.
Thee must wait.

Troy rolled to his side, his eyes closed and his face suffused with pleasure. He held her and stroked her back as their heartbeats slowed, but he was the first to drift into sleep, murmuring under his breath as he did.

Summer caught the words and frowned.

Something about his brother?

• • • • •

Michael Charbon arrived back at his apartment after another long day on patrol. Since announcing the plan to raid a mid-winter mass gathering of covens Nathaniel Harper had been as demanding of his men as he was secretive about the exact location. He had also been disappointed by Michael’s repeated failure to produce Summer.

You must find her, my son,
the Temple Master told him.
The Emerald Tablet is too important to our cause now. If we can recover it before we move against the pagans, we can assure our victory.

After showering and picking at a meal he didn’t want, Michael sat before the fireplace and brooded over his increasingly vexing dilemma. With Nathaniel so convinced that Summer was the key to prevailing over the pagans, Michael knew he could never allow her to fall into the hands of the Temple Master or any of his brothers––particularly Gideon, whom Michael now knew was the rapist who had attacked her. Something was very wrong with Gideon as well, but Nathaniel’s steward was the least of his problems. He was almost convinced that the attack his master was planning would be carried out to the north––and Silver Wood might be one of the covens at the gathering.

If Nathaniel captured Summer during the raid, he would have her tortured to try to discover the location of the Tablet. Since she had no memory of her life before she came to Central Park, Summer couldn’t tell him what he wanted to know, and would likely die on the rack after weeks of agony.

No.
Everything in Michael rebelled at the thought of Summer falling into Templar hands.
I’d kill her myself first.

Michael closed his eyes and let his head fall back against the cushions. Attending to his duty and doing what he thought was right could no longer be aligned or fit together. He had tried to follow the true path, and serve the order with honor, but he knew the mass extermination of pagans was wrong. No victory in war could be honorably decided by genocide.
 

Won’t you let me stay with you?

The memory of the last time he had spoken with Summer swept over him, and his mouth curved a little as he remembered her lovely eyes, and how they beseeched him. He had wanted to keep her for himself, and there would always been a part of him that regretted sending her away. He could recall perfectly every second of the few hours they had spent together. To his shame, on several nights since she had left, he had thought of the wild, abandoned kiss they had shared while he stroked his cock. When he spilled his seed over his fist, he had not felt a single twinge of shame.

That is because you belong to me now, Michael,
Summer’s voice whispered in the darkness.
When you come to me, I will show you how it will be.

He could not go to her, but he could imagine it. His fantasy of her took him away to a soft bed of white before a blazing fire, where Summer lay naked and slumbering, her lovely face peaceful. Michael knelt beside her to brush a strand of silky hair back from her cheek, and traced with his fingertip the high curve of her cheekbone.

Dark opal eyes opened to gaze up at him. “Michael.”

“I am here,” he murmured, trailing his hand down her throat and over her collarbone.
 

Touching her naked breast made his cock lengthen and stiffen, and he brought her hand to it, wrapping her cool fingers around his girth.

“You’ve been thinking about us,” she whispered.

He stretched out beside her, using his palm to massage her hard nipple, and pressed his cockhead into the soft notch between her thighs. The sweet, wet warmth of her honey spread over his aching bulb.

“You are wet for me.”
   

Summer nodded solemnly. “I want you. You knew that when I kissed you.”

Michael reached down to stroke her sweetness, and felt other fingers caressing her folds. His eyes narrowed as he saw Troy rise up behind Summer, his blue eyes reflecting his own shock.

“Paladin.” Troy tilted his head as he studied him, and then his mouth hitched. “So we share dreams outside prison cells, Brother.”

“We are not brothers.” Michael glanced down at Summer, who rolled over and began kissing the pagan’s long, hard shaft. “I will leave you to it.”

“Don’t go.” Troy said as he cradled the back of Summer’s head with his hand. Her mouth enveloped the reddened dome of his cockhead. “Her hunger is for us both.”

Michael saw Summer lift her hips and spread her legs, presenting him with the slick, sweet, jewel box of her sex.
 

“You must give her all of it, Brother,” Troy murmured as he guided Summer’s bobbing head. “Your hard cock, deep inside, where she needs it.”

He should have felt repelled by the pagan’s suggestion, but Michael crawled over to kneel behind Summer, and stroked her heart-shaped buttocks with his rough hands. He looked at Troy again, who nodded and watched as Michael fisted his throbbing cock and brought it to her opening.

Summer moaned and let Troy’s penis pop from her lips. “Yes, please, Michael.”

The pagan brought her head back to his crotch. “Greedy little witch.” As her head bobbed, he looked across her back at Michael. “I want to spill inside her mouth while you pump into her pussy.”

Michael pressed in, and groaned as her hot wetness clasped his cock. The feel of her squeezing his shaft made his hips recoil and thrust heavily against her as he gave her his full length.

“That’s it,” Troy crooned. “That’s what she needs. Suck my cock while Michael fucks you, sweet lady. Show us how much you need us to pleasure you.”

Michael couldn’t stop himself from plowing into Summer’s tightness any more than he could avert his gaze from her mouth as it rode the pagan’s stiff penis. His hips bucked against her, and when he crouched over to cup her bobbing breasts he felt her trembling.
 

“Help me play with these lovely tits.”

Troy nodded, and his hands joined Michaels as they caressed her. “Later we can suck them together and play with her little nub until she comes.”

Summer groaned, her whole body shaking now.

Michael felt his balls drawing tight and shifted his hands to her hips. “I can’t hold back.”

“Not anymore,” Troy said as he and Summer began to fade away. “Come to us, Brother.”

Summer lifted her head and gave him a pleading look. “Soon, Michael. You have to come soon.”

“Summer.”

Michael sat upright, and looked down to see his own hand pumping his stiff penis. He wanted her so much he had been masturbating in his sleep, something he had never before done. He felt a stab of loneliness so acute it bit into his chest like a blade.

At least she and the pagan had each other. All he had were dreams that could not come true. So he would sin alone.
 

Slowly Michael sat back, and watched his cockhead grow darker as he continued to stroke his shaft. The remorse he should have felt for yet again violating his vow of celibacy never rose inside him, nor did he feel particularly disgusted by his fantasy of sharing Summer with Troy. Everything about it had felt immensely arousing––and completely right.

Michael imagined Summer’s luscious mouth suckling the pagan’s cock while his own pushed deep inside her pussy, and he came like a fountain, his shaft jerking over and over as the thick jets spurted over his fist.

He fell back and closed his eyes, enjoying for once deep satisfaction from an act that usually felt hollow and shameful.

“Thank you, Brother.”

ERICA BUCHANAN FINISHED reading through an ancient book of the dead and carried it back into the warded vault where the coven kept books considered too dangerous to leave out in the open. The sly passages about necromancy had been very detailed, and reading through them left her feeling as if her mind were coated with a thin layer of foul slime, but at least she knew now that what Summer had done with her dandelions was probably not a product of an evil nature.

As I know only too well.

Erica’s single brush with the most evil-natured being she had ever encountered had nearly killed her before altering her life forever.

As she closed the vault and resealed the spells guarding it, the door to the library opened, and Abel came in to scowl at her.
 

“You should be abed, madam.”

She sniffed. “You should mind your own business, sir.” She went back to the desk to collect the notes she had made for Troy. “Am I needed?”

“You are always needed.” Abel came around the desk and pulled her into his arms. “That is why you should be abed, with me.”

Erica smiled as he bent his head to kiss her, and when he tried to heft her up in his arms she broke off the kiss with a laugh.
 

“Abel Atwater, we are too old to be doing this in the library, of all places.”

“Well, then, should we do this?” He plunged his hand in the front of her blouse to gently squeeze her plump breast. “Or perhaps this?” His other hand splayed over her bottom and brought her hips to his.

Erica glanced at the door. “You neglected to lock that again.” She untangled herself from his embrace and patted his chest. “I will come to your bed in an hour.”

“Or sooner, if you want to be pleasured.” He arched one dark brow. “I may fall asleep.”

She eyed the broad bulge of his erection. “Somehow I doubt that. An hour.” She stood on tiptoe to kiss his cheek before she took her notes and went out into the hall, only to nearly walk into Lachlan. “Did you need something, my dear?”

The younger man’s sly blue eyes met hers in a guileless stare. “I was looking for Wilson.”
 

More likely he had been eaves-dropping, Erica thought. Of all the men in the coven Abel’s assistant was the one she trusted the least. He always seemed to pop up where he wasn’t supposed to be. She also suspected his frequent trips into town were not always, as he claimed, to deal with coven business matters.
 

“I saw him go out to the barn after dinner,” she said. “Perhaps he’s still there.”

Lachlan inclined his head and strode off.

Annoyed now, Erica headed to the kitchen, where she found a tired-eyed Aileen standing over a pan of milk on the stove. As she always did when she saw the young witch, Erica forced her mind to blank and her mouth to smile.

“Are you still having trouble sleeping?”

“Yes, and it’s Wilson’s fault. With all his tossing and turning lately I can barely close my eyes for three seconds straight. So tonight I’m drugging him.” She turned off the burner and poured the warm milk into a tumbler before adding some powdered chamomile. “Are Troy and Summer over at his place?”

“Yes. They’ll probably be back in the morning.” Erica had tried to check on them with a quick scry, but something had blocked her vision. “You two should stay here tonight. Wilson has no business dragging you in and out of here on cold nights.”
 

Aileen yawned and nodded. “He says we should help with the preparations for the gathering, but I think he wants to keep an eye on other developments and, of course, me. Just in case I decide to seduce his brother with my awesome body.” She patted the curve of her bulging belly.

“The more they love, the stupider men become,” Erica said firmly. “What do you think of inviting Summer to join our circle?”

“After knowing her only a week?” Aileen frowned. “I really can’t say. She seems very nice, and she’s a hard worker, but I’m not sure she’s ready. She’s a bit resistant to our ways.”

“A bit, yes.” Erica sighed. “You were so different when you came to us––so eager and willing to learn. You spoiled us for all other newcomers.”

“I was so desperate to be part of a family I think I would have done anything to fit in,” the younger woman admitted.
 

Erica felt the void in her chest expand. “Was it so terrible with the people who adopted you?”

“No, they were very kind to me. I never wanted for anything.” A wistful flicker passed over Aileen’s thin face. “But they were human, and I was Wiccan, and as I grew older I realized how different we were. Sometimes I caught them watching me, too, as if they were afraid of me.”