Wicked Enchantment (16 page)

Gods, his kisses did things to her that no man’s touch had ever done. She didn’t think it was his magick enchanting her. She hoped not. From the first she’d seemed immune to it; in fact, it had made her dislike him. But was it possible his natural powers of attraction were working on her now?

Yes, perhaps.

But she didn’t care.

Gabriel broke the kiss and set his forehead to hers for a moment. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Aislinn. You’ll be there for the queen’s verdict, right?” His voice was low and rough.

“Of course I’ll be there. I’m your court companion.” She licked her lips. “You sound like you’re leaving.”

He pulled away from her. “I am.”

She lost her hold on his shoulders as he backed away and she felt the loss of the contact. Suddenly her apartment felt cooler and a little bit emptier. She reached out and touched his arm just as he turned away. “Don’t go.”

He faced her. “Aislinn, I know what will happen if I stay.” His eyes flashed dark suddenly, like a thunderstorm passing through. “It wouldn’t be right. The longer I stay the more I want you. I need to leave now before I do something I’ll regret.”

Shocked anger flashed through her veins. “Regret? You’d regret spending the night with me?”

“Not in that way.” He tipped his head back and groaned. “Gods, not in the way you’re thinking. I’d regret it for other reasons.” He hesitated, then looked directly into her eyes. “I’d regret it would be the last time I could ever touch you.”

“That’s why I want you to stay. I know you’ll be gone tomorrow, so give me tonight at least, Gabriel.”

He shook his head. “Not like this, Aislinn.” His voice had grown rougher. “Don’t tempt me.”

“I’m confused. I thought you wanted—”

He reached out and pulled her close. “Aislinn, I can’t. I want you, but it’s not a good idea. Not now.”

His body pressed against hers took her breath away. She could feel that he was aroused. “I don’t understand.”

“Me, either.”

Now she was getting angry again. “Stop being cryptic and talk to me.”

“Maybe I will take a taste of you before I go, Aislinn,” he murmured. “Just the flavor of you to keep on the back of my tongue. Something I can take back to the Black Tower with me. Something I can keep for a while and savor in my memories.”

All her anger left her in a whoosh, along with her words and her ability to think. The way he looked at her, the intensity of his words, the low voice in which he uttered them—all of it combined to produce the most arousing, romantic thing that a man had ever said to her.

He moved her back toward the couch and kissed her again. This time it wasn’t soft and it definitely wasn’t sweet. This kiss brought to mind bare skin and smooth sheets, bodies fusing in passion.

His fingers skated down her bare back to the edge of the fabric just above her rear. “Ever since I bought this dress for you all I’ve been able to think about is taking it off.”

“So do it,” she murmured, her hand straying to the tie he wore and loosening it. “I won’t complain.”

Two little movements and the gown slipped off her shoulders to become a very expensive blood red puddle around her feet.

She wore the lingerie he’d bought her beneath it.

He backed up a little so he could take all of her in. His gaze swept her, heated and hungry. “You’re gorgeous,” he murmured. “You’re the most beautiful thing I’ve ever laid eyes on.”

She raised an eyebrow. “Gorgeous enough to convince you to stay the night?” She kicked off her shoes, stepped away from the gown, and laid it over the arm of a nearby chair. She’d never owned something as beautiful as that dress and it meant even more to her because Gabriel had bought it for her.

Then she walked to him, confident that he enjoyed the look of her body, mostly undressed as it was, and removed his tie. She worked the buttons of his shirt free one by one and pulled the tails from his pants as he tangled his fingers through her hair, freeing it to fall over her shoulders.

She pushed his shirt off and took in the sight of his bare chest for a moment. He was any woman’s idea of perfect male beauty—muscled and strong, broad shouldered, with rippling abs. The kind of body that made a woman feel safe. Once his arms came around her, Aislinn knew nothing in the world could hurt her. Admiring him, she skated her palms over his chest. His skin was warm—silk over steel. A small amount of dark hair adorned it, tapering down his abdomen and disappearing past the waistline of his pants.

Aislinn really wanted to follow that trail.

His hands gripped the material of her slip and fisted in the silk. With a hungry sound in the back of his throat, he pulled her toward him—flush up against all that lovely male chest—and he dragged the slip upward. Silk slithered over her skin, up farther and farther. The sensation of it combined with the look in his eyes made her body respond, her nipples going hard and her sex heating. The simple act of undressing her was pure foreplay. Finally, he drew the garment up and over her head and let it puddle to the floor, and she stood before him with only air and light to clothe her.

Making a low noise in his throat that sounded part appreciation and part torment, he kissed her, pushing her backward and down onto the couch. He knelt between her spread thighs, his hands slipping down over her breasts as his tongue speared into her mouth. Her nipples hardened against his palms and he petted them, exploring every ridge and valley with his masterful hands.

She shifted on the couch, pleasure coursing through her and centering between her thighs with a need she wanted assuaged. She moaned into his mouth and he moved—cupping the back of her neck with one hand and dipping lower with the other, over her abdomen to between her thighs, where she so wanted him to touch her. He found all the sensitive, secret places of her body and stroked, until she wanted to purr like a cat.

Finding her pouting clit, he petted it with his thumb until it bloomed beneath his touch. He dropped his head and his hot, wet mouth closed over one nipple and then the other. Giving each breast equal attention, he laved them with his tongue until they were hard and rosy and Aislinn was a hot, messy puddle of squirming need.

Her hands moved over his shoulders and back, but every time she tried to unbutton his pants, he stopped her. She made a sound of discontent and he shushed her. Yanking her forward so her rear was just on the edge of the couch, he covered her body with his, slanting his mouth over hers and sliding his hand between her thighs once again. Suddenly she couldn’t remember why she’d been frustrated.

He kissed her hard, his tongue stabbing into her mouth just as his fingers thrust in and out of her sex. The fabric of his pants rasped against her inner thighs with their movement, reminding her that he was still clothed from the waist down.

“Come on, Aislinn,” he murmured against her lips as his fingers speared in and out of her. “Come for me, love. I want to hear you scream.” He found her G-spot deep within and stroked it.

Pleasure rose and increased with the power of an oncoming train. He knew exactly how to touch her, just how much pressure to use, just where and how to caress her. He wanted to make her come, that was clear enough. He wanted it fast and powerful.

It broke over her with a force she could never remember experiencing, washing through every pore of her body and mind, making her toes curl and her sex spasm around his thrusting fingers. Her back arched and she cried out. She could do nothing, think nothing. The only thing she could do was
feel
—and hold on through it as it went on and on.

“That’s it, love. Good girl,” he crooned to her.

Her neck arched as she moaned from the waves of it coursing through her, her head hitting the couch behind her. He nibbled her throat and breasts and whispered soft, dirty, almost unintelligible things to her, still stroking her sex, extending her orgasm as far as it would go.

Finally it eased away and she slumped backward under the force of it. “Gods,” she whispered.

She reached for him, wanting more of him, wanting him naked and his body against hers, inside hers. But he pulled away and gathered her up in his arms, drawing her to the soft carpet of the floor and kissing her temple.

“Gabriel—” She felt so relaxed now, all the tension washed from her body by the stroke of his hands. Her limbs felt as insubstantial as the silk she’d worn that night.

“Shhh, look, Aislinn.” He pointed out the window. The stars seemed especially bright. “Soon the Wild Hunt will ride.”

She snuggled against him, enjoying the feel and scent of him and the afterglow of her orgasm. He felt so good against her, even half clothed. The sound of his breathing calmed her and the strength of his body made her feel safe.

Soon she drifted to sleep. When she woke, she was in her bed, sheets and comforter pulled over her. Her gown and lingerie were laid carefully over a chair in her bedroom and her shoes were on the floor near them.

Gabriel was nowhere to be found. If her body still didn’t hold a delicious tremor of memory from their encounter, she would have thought she’d dreamed it all.

 

 

 

 

GABRIEL
inclined his head. “Thank you for your gracious invitation, Queen Caoilainn, but I decline. The Seelie Court isn’t a good fit for me and I intend to return to the Black Tower.” His words were blithe. Didn’t he realize the danger he’d just put himself in?

For a moment Aislinn thought the Summer Queen’s head would explode. The royal stared at Gabriel, her face flushing and her eyes going wide and shiny. Her fingers tightened on the heads of the carved rose quartz dragon armrests of her throne. The silver and gold tattoo from the ring she wore, giving her the power due a Seelie Royal, flashed for a moment in the light. Her entire body, slight though it was, seemed to vibrate with rage and the throne room filled with the power of her emotion, making Aislinn’s ears pop.

“You dare to reject me and my court?” the queen bellowed. Even the hundreds of guards lining the walls of the throne room jerked in the face of her voice. The sound of clanking armor echoed from their mass flinch. “
You
, an Unseelie degenerate, should be kissing my feet that I have allowed you entrance to the Rose Tower.
Guards!
”

The Imperial Guards all moved with a combined thumping sound of boots on marble floor. Every hair on the back of Aislinn’s neck stood on end at the horrible sound. All of them had their hands on their swords. Visions of Gabriel’s headless body hitting the floor, a pool of blood spilling from his neck, filled her mind’s eye. It wouldn’t be the first time Aislinn had seen such a sight. It was always horrible, but it would be unbearable if it was Gabriel.

“No!” The word jumped from Aislinn’s throat before she could stop it. “No, please, just let him leave.”

The Summer Queen’s gaze swung to her like an owl that had just discovered a juicy mouse in the field. “Did you just tell me
no
? Me? Caoilainn Elspeth Muirgheal? Do you expect I’ll obey you, Aislinn?”

Her stomach felt suddenly filled with cold gelatin. “If you harm him, I’ll leave the Rose Tower forever.” It wasn’t much of a threat, but it was the only one she could make.

The queen laughed. It was a hollow, mirthless sound. “Is that supposed to scare me? Why would I care where you go, Aislinn?”

That’s right; she didn’t care where her people went because they were all just puppets anyway. The queen had ensured her people hadn’t developed their magick, so they were really worthless to her in actuality. They were only here to populate the building, worship her, and uphold the tradition of the great Seelie Court of myth and history. More than ever, Aislinn could see that. Maybe she’d always known it on some level, but it had taken Gabriel to fully open her eyes. The truth was a cold swallow of bitter fruit and it turned her stomach.

“What’s to stop me from keeping either of you from ever leaving this room?” the queen continued to Gabriel. “Alive, anyway.”

Gabriel’s voice boomed low and clear through the chamber. “Harm Aislinn or me and you will have a war on your hands. The Shadow King has claimed us both.”

Aislinn jerked and looked over at Gabriel in alarm. This was news to her. He’d hinted at the possibility that the Shadow King would likely welcome her to the Black Tower, but he’d never come out and said that the Shadow King had
claimed
her. He’d never even told her he’d spoken to the Shadow King on her behalf.

Had he told the Shadow King about her Unseelie blood? About her ability? Was that why he’d left the night before? Was that why he hadn’t wanted to make love to her? Could it be somehow related?

Or perhaps he thought the Summer Queen truly did mean to harm her and he was bluffing to get her out of the situation. Either way, the result was the same: she would have to leave the Rose Tower. She’d mulled the possibility, but she didn’t want her decision to be forced. Not like this.

Gods.

For a moment all thought left her mind. It was only a sheet of white, blank—tabula rasa. She blinked stupidly, wondering how large a shift her life had just taken and whether it was a change for the better . . . or the worse. What would soon be written on that blankness?

Gabriel spoke again. “We belong—both of us—to the Shadow King. Harm us at your peril.”

The queen stared hard at them both, her eyes narrowed and her fingers bone white. The guards had stopped moving once Aislinn had yelled no and the queen had entertained her, but their hands still rested on the handles of their swords. The cold jelly in Aislinn’s stomach jiggled and made her nauseous.

“The Shadow King cannot have Aislinn Christiana Guinevere Finvarra. She’s mine,” the queen yelled, losing her frosty composure completely.

Aislinn jerked in surprise at the claim. A moment ago the queen had said she didn’t care if she left the Rose and had threatened to kill her. Ah. Logic cut through her panicked confusion. The queen was only claiming her to thwart the Shadow King. Aislinn was only a pawn in their eternal struggle.