The Sword and the Sylph (Elemental Series) (12 page)

She was laying down
at first and he didn’t see her, but then she stood and faced him and he stopped in his tracks, shocked by the sight. The girl was stark naked and looked like a goddess standing atop the mountain with the breeze lifting her long silken hair as it blew around her in the air. A small wreath of woven mountain flowers sat tilted atop her head, and that was the only thing she wore. Not a stitch of clothing.

“Sir Braden,” she cried out. “What are you doing here?”

She did naught to cover herself, just turned slightly as he approached and looked at him through hooded eyes over one shoulder.

“Juturna told me I’d find you here. I saw her in the village,” he explained.

“Why didn’t the wind tell me you were coming?” she asked aloud.

“Mayhap the wind didn’t want you to know.”

“Aye, I see now that it was trying to tell me by showing me your face in the clouds.”

He walked forward slowly, his body
already growing hard beneath his braies at the site of the beautiful fae woman. Her skin was white as snow, her breasts perky, or at least from what he’d seen. She turned her body from him shyly and he felt the need to see her fully. He also felt the need to take her, but was afraid to reach out and touch her. He knew he’d like it too much and wouldn’t want to stop, nor did he know if he’d be able to once he started.

“Why were you looking for me?” she asked.

He couldn’t answer that now. Not when she was so vulnerable – and so naked.

“Does it really matter?” he asked. “The only thing that is important is that I’ve found you, Portia-Maer. I have done naught but think of you for the past two days, so please do not disappear from me now.”

“So, it sounds as if you’ve missed me,” she said, turning slightly, enabling him now to see her two beautiful breasts. Rounded mounds tilted upward with two light pink nipples growing larger in the warm sun.

He
unsheathed his sword and laid it on the ground, not wanting his weapon of death and destruction to come anywhere near her perfect body. Then he reached out for her slowly and carefully, half expecting her to pull away. When she didn’t, he took her into his arms and kissed her gently.

“I have missed you more than you know, my little sylph.”

He rubbed his fingers over the soft skin of her cheek and waited until she raised her bilberry blue eyes to meet his gaze.

“I have missed you as well,” she said softly.

“Portia, I want you. I want you more than I’ve ever wanted any woman before.”

“I am lonely,” she told him,
“but I would not lie with you when you are betrothed to another.”

“My betrothed
loves me not, nor do I love her. I caught her in the shadows with another lover just last night.”

“The stablemaster
?” she asked coyly, and he wondered how she knew.

“You knew yet you said naught?” he asked.

“When two people are in love, they cannot hide it. Nor should anyone tell them they can’t be together.”

“And do we belong together, Portia? Tell me, do you want to make love to me as well?”

“I do,” she admitted, turning around fully, enabling him to see her thatch of silken honeyed hair that graced the juncture of her thighs.

“Then make love to me, Portia-Maer. Right here atop this mountain, right out in the open
air. Take me now, my fae one, so we can both finally be sated by each other at last.”

Portia could barely control the vibrations running through her body. Braden stood before her, his long hair blowing around his shoulders in the breeze making him look like a mountain god. She reached out and undid his belt and he helped her in his disrobing. And when he stood in front of her as naked as she, she couldn’t help but drink in his manly beauty.

His lon
g walnut hair fell loose around his shoulders, raising lightly in the breeze and then gently settling against his sturdy chest. She reached out and ran her fingers down the hard muscles of his upper arms that proved he was a seasoned warrior. She wondered how many battles these strong arms had won by swinging his mighty sword. She let her eyes travel downward, past his sturdy chest and drop to his waist where an arrow of dark curls all but pointed to his manly tool for making love. His need to lie with her was evident and she felt as if she needed to touch him. She took her fingers and ran them over his length, feeling his strength there as well.

He had a sharp intake of breath and in one move swept her off her feet, holding her in his arms and kissing her hungrily. Then he laid her atop his discarded cloak, and slowl
y and carefully settled his body down next to her.

“I’ve dreamed of this moment since the day I saw you in the stone circle,” he told her. “I wondered how it would feel to rub my hands over your soft skin and to taste your sweet lips.”

“I do not remember that day since I was in my etheric form,” she told him. “But today is one day that I would never forget. Take me, Sir Braden. Take me into your arms and enter my body so we can be joined as one. And kiss me again like you’ve done before with your tongue. I want you to taste me, and let me taste you as well.”

He did then, as he started with a kiss,
entering her mouth in exploration. Then he let his lips trail down her neck and over her collarbone. She arched upward as he settled his mouth first over one of her breasts and then the other. She felt herself go erect under his tongue and she reached up and wrapped her arms around his neck. Then he did something she didn’t expect, as he took her arms from around him, sliding downward to taste her in her most private place.

“What are you doing?” she exclaimed.

“You said you wanted me to taste you, my lady. I am only following your orders.”

That wasn’t what she’d meant, but now that he started, she wasn’t going to stop him. She’d never heard of such an action, but the insatiable fae urges inside her was making her want to feel more.

She cried out in elation, feeling her flow of passion ignite. And when she thought she was about to burst with pleasure, he suddenly stopped.

“Please, do not stop now,
” she begged him, teetering on the edge of her sensual precipice.

“I thought you wanted to taste me as well,” he said with a smile that could drive any woman insane.

“That I do,” she said pushing him down atop the cloak and straddling her legs around him. She started out like he did, first with a kiss to his mouth. Then she let her kisses trail down his chest and around each nipple. To her amusement, he became taut there as well.

“You are trying to drive me from my mind, my little sylph, aren’t you?”

“I am only repeating the actions you did to me.” She lowered her head then and took his aroused form into her mouth. He was more than she could handle, and when he pushed her head downward, liking what she was doing, his form filled her completely and it scared her. She knew she needed to make love to him in the common way instead.

She opened her
legs wide, liking the way the air felt rushing in and around her. It gave her the strength and the life she’d been lacking lately. Then she teased him by lifting herself over him, just touching him but not letting him enter. Her fae playfulness got the best of her again, and she was giddy until he took her hips in his hands and held on tightly.

“I cannot play your fae games one moment longer. I need to feel myself inside you now.” With that, he pulled her body to his, at the same time thrusting his manhood into her. The desire of pent up passion within her was released at that moment and she threw back her head to the sky and cried out loudly,
her voice echoing over the hilltops.

He thrust into her from beneath, then held her and rolled over
to claim the top, enabling him to attain the position of aggressor.

“I am sorry if I am anything but gentle,” he told her, “but I have waited so
long for this moment that I cannot hold back.”

“I am Fae,” she told him
with a giggle. “I relish the roughness as it excites me even further.”

“And that, my f
ae one,” he said thrusting in and out, “excites me to no end just to hear it.”

They met each other then in the beautiful dance of making love. She moan
ed beneath him with each thrust, her body grabbing him on her own, her head whipping back and forth as she squealed with emotion. He seemed to hit a spot of sensuous pleasure with every dip into her womanly form. He was a lion in his love making, telling the truth when he said he could not be gentle. But she loved every minute of it, and screamed out loudly as she climaxed, her voice being swept down the mountain on the wind.

And then, he too
, cried out her name as he finally found his release. Together, they joined as one, the air of the earth encompassing them like the hands of a loving parent. She no longer felt alone, as Braden filled a part of her that had been sad and empty for years now. Her body filled with renewed life, she couldn’t help but smile. Then, as their breathing finally slowed, they lay in each other’s arms feeling happy and sated. The breeze kissed them upon their bare bodies bringing a tingle to their skin. And then because of her joy and happiness, a beautiful rainbow appeared in the sky almost seeming to reach down to kiss them.

Portia kn
ew making love with Sir Braden was not a mistake. Because if it were, she was sure it would not feel so right. They belonged together. She knew this now. She also knew that she had found the man with whom she wanted to spend the rest of her life.

And now she only wondered if she should have told him before they’d made love that she, too
, was promised to another.

Chapter 13

Darkness blanketed the sky by the time they came down from Mount Calila. Portia would have stayed up there forever if she hadn’t been so anxious to get back to her father. Juturna had been right in saying she just needed some time to replenish her energies by spending time atop the mountain in the fresh air. They descended now, fully dressed, making their way back to civilization.

She was so thankful Braden had surprised her, as she had been missing him
ever since she’d left Banesmoor. She had thought he’d be upset with her for the trouble she’d caused between him and his betrothed. But once they’d made love – more than once atop the mountain, she knew that any differences they’d had between them no longer stood in their way.

“Thank you for coming to find me,” she told him.

“Thank you for making love with me,” he answered, giving her a gentle kiss atop her nose. “And I enjoyed watching the clouds with you and eating berries that I never knew grew atop a mountain before.”

“I’ve spent my
days as a child growing up atop this mountain,” she told him. “My mother taught me how to look to the earth for its gifts that would nourish a fae. And my father, being human and bound to the sword, taught me all about castle life.”

“Did he teach you how to handle a weapon?” he asked, turning and putting his hands around her waist to help her descend from a steep drop.

“He wanted to, but I never liked weapons, so I never learned. Besides, I had my fae powers so I didn’t need a piece of metal to protect me, when the elements were a much better choice.”

“Aye, you are right about that,” he said, collecting her in his arms and pulling her toward him. “If I had had the powers you possess, I never would have had to kill so many men in my lifetime.”

“Did your father teach you how to fight?” she asked curiously.

“Nay.
I was fostered by several different lords while growing up. I ended up in Lord Wolfe’s service, and there I’ve stayed for nearly the past decade.”

“Tell me about your parents,” she said, sitting down atop a rock and motioning for him to join her. He looked reluctant at first, but then he sat next to her, letting out a deep sigh.
“I was in the solar in my invisible form when Lord Solomon asked you about your parents. I noticed it upset you, and you avoided his question, not wanting to answer. The breeze tells me this is a hard thing for you to talk about. It that true?”

“Does the breeze ever lie to you?” he asked.

“Nay,” she answered with a giggle. “So you’d better not either, or I would know ’twas not the truth.”

“’T
is part of my past,” he told her. “But it no longer matters.”

“There is something you are ashamed of – something that has to do with your parents.”

“Aye,” he agreed. “I am ashamed of my past, nor do I want to remember it. I would rather not speak of it, it you wouldn’t mind.”

“You have naught to be ashamed of, I assure you. Please, Braden, I want to get to know you, and I’d like to hear about your parents if you don’t mind.”

Braden’s gut twis
ted into a knot just thinking about reliving his past by telling her his awful story. He had never told anyone about his parents. The lords that fostered him thought his parents were someone that they were not. And he’d held the lie within him his entire life, and it begged to be told to someone he could trust.