Patience, she decided, was everything.
Maybe courage as well, since that’s what it had taken this evening just to cross the street to him. What followed, including getting him inside the time-path with a vampire ready to deliver a killing blow, had also required all the nerve she could summon. She still couldn’t believe she’d essentially saved his life.
Glancing toward the ground, she saw they were flying in over his apple orchard on the north side of his small farm. He had a number of acres at the base of the hills. She also knew that to the east, his boundary abutted Mastyr Rez’s land. The men were neighbors and friends. She hadn’t been surprised at all he’d phoned Rez.
Emily knew Rez’s history as did most of Tannisford. He’d lost his father and grandfather to the Invictus, though she believed his mother had died early on in his life of a rare realm disease. Later, Rez’s wife and their two young boy had been killed. His teenage daughter was still missing.
Kyle had railed against Rez’s refusal to rejoin the Guard, but Emily hadn’t agreed with him. Rez had lost his entire family to the Invictus. She didn’t blame him for being unable to cope with his grief. Devyn’s attitude had been much more forgiving. He also believed Rez had never stopped batting the Invictus, but had patrolled the remote eastern sector of the realm on behalf of the local villages.
Emily’s agreement with Devyn during that time had been just one of the arguments she and Kyle had engaged in over the years.
Now she was here with Devyn, in his arms as he landed her on his farmhouse porch.
His home was set back from the main thoroughfare by at least a hundred yards. He had a barn and other outbuildings scattered across the property and a caretaker to manage the night-to-night work. She saw horses and goats and knew he spent his off-hours tending his livestock and his land.
He didn’t release her right away. Instead, he slid her down his body to let her feel her feet, then drew her into his arms. But it wasn’t like the trip over. Instead, what struck her in this moment was how tender he was. His embrace was gentle, warm, and it was everything she’d hoped.
A kiss followed.
Devyn was kissing her.
Yes. At long last.
She melted against him. This was Devyn, the man she’d basically assaulted in the coffee shop with snowflakes all over his navy outer coat.
Her throat grew tight with tears. She finally saw and acknowledged just how much love she felt for him, suppressed for years because she’d been committed to his twin brother.
She wrapped her arms around him and savored the feel of his tongue searching her mouth then plunging in and out. His hips curled at the same time. She felt his arousal and she uttered a soft cry. Take me inside.
He released her, but dipped down and slid his arms beneath her knees. He lifted her up to cradle her in his arms. Just before he opened the screen door, he asked in a deep, husky voice, “Sure you want this? Because once we start, I won’t be able to stop.”
“I’m sure, Dev. More than I can say.”
He flipped the screen back then pushed the door open. A mud room appeared next. He moved swiftly so that she saw a blur of rooms, a small office, a large open kitchen, and a living room. He banked right since he was levitating, then right again as he swept her up a side staircase to the second story.
Once at the landing, he moved straight across into what was a suite of rooms all in dark woods and white upholstery. A full wall of windows, broken up into rectangles, faced north with a view of the orchard, pasture and hills.
He turned to the left and flew her into his bedroom.
The next few minute was about getting rid of boots and leathers, her top, bra and jeans. She had to stop for a moment, pull her snug jeans back up and take her shoes off.
He’d made a similar mistake with his boots, but the problem was corrected in vampire speed.
By the time he was naked, she was stretched out on the bed, her back against a soft comforter.
He froze as he stared down at her from the foot of the bed. His gaze took in a slow sweep of her body.
For a terrible moment, she feared he would invoke Kyle’s ghost then refuse to make love to her. Instead, he took his cock in hand and stroked as he moved closer.
She trembled now. What she’d wanted forever was here, right now, towering above her.
He surprised her by slowing things down, which made her wonder if he’d imagined doing this with her before. She hoped with all her heart this was just the beginning and not a hook-up he could easily dismiss.
For now, she set her fears aside and focused on him and on the magnificence of his muscled, Guardsman body. He leaned over her and dipped down to kiss her cheek, the side of her mouth, then drifted his lips along the line of her throat. He licked her skin. I can smell your blood, Emily. It’s like your summery scent, full of wildflowers and you.
Somehow, she wasn’t surprised he’d become poetical with her. He had depth and was very present in his life. He saw her as no other man ever had.
She responded in kind. Your scent is intoxicating, like sipping a glass of lemonade beneath an oak tree.
He lifted up enough to meet her gaze. “Is that what you smell?”
“And something more. You.”
His hand drifted down her breasts, fondling, touching. His lips soon followed.
Devyn, her Devyn, sucked her breasts, taking turns. His tongue swirled around her nipples. Her back arched. He sucked harder.
She slid her hands along the heavy muscles of his shoulders, her fingers tracing every ridge and valley. He was built and corded, physically powerful.
Devyn.
His name kept flowing through her mind, filling her heart with warmth and light. Her chest felt heavy with so much feeling, weighted and wonderful.
He kissed his way down her belly until he reached her sex. He move back on the bed, placing himself between her legs. He slid his arms beneath her thighs.
He nuzzled her first. Your scent. I can’t get over it. He lapped and groaned with each graze of his tongue over her lips.
Her hands were in his hair, his long bond Guardsman hair. She found and removed the woven clasp, setting it aside. She drove her fingers through his thick locks, pushing on his head as he lapped at her.
Changing position, he went lower. She cried out as he penetrated her with his tongue.
“Oh, Devyn.”
He drove into her hard and without warning, she felt a vibration on his tongue. She pathed, Sweet Goddess! I didn’t know you could do that.
It’s a mastyr thing. How does it feel?
Like heaven.
He strengthened the vibration and continued to tongue-fuck her with rapid thrusts. The orgasm swept over her. Aloud, she cried, “I’m coming.”
Ecstasy rolled. She rose to the heights and cried out again and again. Devyn had done this for her.
Devyn.
When the sensations finally passed, she lay limp on the comforter. She giggled. Maybe she cooed as well.
He lifted up to smile down at her. “Good?”
“Perfect.” It was everything she wanted so far, Devyn loving on her body and really with her.
He moved closer and rubbed his erection over her bare sex. His hips undulated and created pressure in a couple of places that made her body roll.
“You ready for me?” His tenderness again. He leaned down and kissed her forehead, her cheeks, then her lips. “I want to be inside you.”
Best words she’d ever heard. “I’m very ready.” This was what she’d wanted, this connection.
He planted his hands on either side of her shoulders, then took his cock in hand. Her heart thrummed with need, desire and pure anticipation. She'd waited for this for so long. Now it was here.
He pressed against her then began to push inside. She moaned as he entered her for the first time.
“Fuck, you feel so good, Em.”
She loved that he called her ‘Em’.
As he drove all the way in, she
surrounded his neck with her arms and held him close.
Her hips rocked with his then against him, seeking the deepest connection possible. He moved steadily.
“You’ll make me come again.” She whispered against his hair then kissed the same spot. Even his hair smelled of lemons and oak.
His tongue found her ear as he licked the curves all the way to her ear-point. He swirled over the emerald stud. Her body shivered then rolled with pleasure.
He drew back enough to find her lips and kissed her hard. He drove his tongue inside, thrusting the way his cock moved. She moaned, savoring everything he was doing to her.
After a moment, he looked down at her again. His pupils were dilated, his lips swollen. “I want to drink from you, from your throat this time.”
She caught the back of his neck. “Yes. I want it, too. All of it. I want you to come while you’re taking down my life force.”
His whole body shuddered with desire, a sensation that tightened her sex. She tugged on his cock as he drove into her and pulled out, then drove back in. So much perfect pleasure.
He only stopped as she presented her throat to him with an arch of her neck. She threw one arm above her head and closed her eyes. She wanted to experience it all.
She felt his tongue first, licking long lines up her neck over and over, an action that caused the vein to rise. Her heart thundered for him now, heavy and ready, wanting to feed him.
He angled his head, his hips quiet.
She waited.
She felt the subtle movement that was the strike.
Her whole body jerked as he pierced her skin then created a seal around the wounds.
He began to suck.
Emily would remember this moment as one of the finest of her life. Her chest was full of pleasurable fire as she began to feed the vampire. He groaned as he drank.
She felt him stiffen within her sex. He began to move his hips slowly once more as he suckled.
The dual sensations had her body writhing.
Her mind was lit with a warm, brilliant light. She swore if she wanted to, she could see well into the future or deep into the past. She could go to ancient times or into realms not yet created.
She was at one with the entire universe, everything that came before. Everything that would come.
His hips moved quickly now. His cock pummeled her sex.
Pleasure built higher and higher. How light her heart felt, now that she’d fed him
He drew back from her throat and sealed the wounds.
“Your blood is like nothing I’ve ever known before.”
“I loved feeding you.” She touched her fingers to his lips. He took them in his mouth and suckled, then released.
His hips became demanding. “I want to come with you.”
So like Devyn. He didn’t even know how generous he was. “I’m ready.” Tears bit her eyes.
He went fast and surprised her again by adding the amazing vibration, this time to his cock. “Oh, Sweet Goddess, Dev.” She uttered a series of cries. “I’m so close.”
“Look at me.”
She met his beautiful brown eyes. This was him. Her Devyn. The man she loved.
Tears spilled as she watched ecstasy arrive for him. She saw it in the almost anguished expression on his face, in the catch to his breath, then the sudden roar that left his lips.
The sounds he made took her straight over the edge once more. Pleasure flowed in a deep river, pulsing through her sex and rising in a beautiful intense stream up through her abdomen and her chest. Her mind was filled with sparkling light and so much feel good, she could only utter a series of cries and gasps.
A lull followed, something full of tension.
She opened her eyes. His were wide.
“Oh, sweet Goddess, Dev! We’re not done yet, are we?”
He shook his head and began to drive into her again. He was still hard.
“But you came.” She was stunned.
He smiled, a lovely wicked grin that grabbed her heart all over again. “Guess I’m ready for a second round.”
She grabbed his waist with both hands. “Give it to me then.”
This time, she held his gaze and never let go as he pumped hard, slamming into her. He added the vibration once more and she cried out.
This time, he went fast, vampire fast and pleasure caught her once more. Only, it was so intense she screamed.
She was transported in that moment, catapulted hard into a future full of light and love then thrust into the past. She saw a montage of moments she’d shared with Devyn, private brief encounters that had all added up to make her love him. He’d bought her a mocha coffee when Kyle had stood her up. He’d given her a book of poems by her favorite Bergisson author. He’d laughed with her at some joke only the two of them got. Kyle had begged to know what was so funny, but neither could explain.
And the first kiss. Suddenly, she was back there, kissing Devyn again. But it wasn’t just a memory. She was there. Yet she was in bed with him here in Boylbury at the same time.
She saw the snowflakes on his navy coat. She felt how warm his lips were and how even then he smelled like oak and lemons.
Then she was back in the present, breathing hard. Devyn lay on top of her, also striving to catch his breath.
He drew back and looked at her, brows raised. “For a moment, I thought we were back in the coffee shop. Remember the time you kissed me? It was winter. I hadn’t met you before.”
She nodded and smiled. So much love filled her heart, she could hardly speak. “You had snow all over your shoulders and on your hair. I think, but I’m not sure, we were there just now. We were in both places. We were here and we were back there five years ago.”
“I don’t understand. What are you saying?”
“It felt real, right?”
“It did. I could smell your shampoo.” He chuckled. “Wait, no. I was smelling your scent even that first time.”
“Same here.”
She smoothed his hair away from his brow. “I will always remember that kiss.”
Maybe these were the wrong words. Or maybe the memory sparked a series of unfortunate images in Devyn’s brain. Whatever the case, she watched the glow leave his eyes and darkness descend. It was as tangible as watching a fire suddenly burn down to only a pile of ashes.
“You kissed Kyle right afterward. It was one of the few times I wished I wasn’t a twin.”
She placed her hand on his shoulder. “Devyn, it should have been you.”
He reacted so abruptly, this time she knew for sure she’d said the wrong thing. “How can you say that? You were with Kyle. You loved Kyle. I know you did.”
He looked away from her as he slowly withdrew from her body.
Tears started to her eyes. He was leaving her. He was remembering his brother and feeling his guilt about Kyle. She was sure about that now. Devyn blamed himself for his brother’s death and somehow that meant he couldn’t be with her.
She wished now nothing about the coffee shop kiss had intruded into their lovemaking. “I didn’t mean to upset you.”
He shifted to sit on the side of the bed, his head in his hands. “Oh, Goddess, Em, what have we done?”
“Are you sure that’s the right question?” She needed him to really think about his feelings for her. Yet, given the level of his guilty feelings, she wasn’t sure he ever could.
~ ~ ~
Devyn hadn’t thought of his brother once in the past hour. Had to be a record.
Being reminded of the first time he’d kissed Emily, in the coffee shop, cut him deep. He would never forget what it had felt like to be embraced with all that extraordinary affection. Emily had been so free, so unabashed, when she’d grabbed him and kissed him.
On some level, of course he’d known she thought he was Kyle.
Of course.
But for a few seconds, life had laid down a complete layer of contentment to his existence, something so extraordinary he’d wanted to hold onto her f
orever. To this day, he couldn’t explain why kissing Emily had affected him so powerfully.
What he did know was he could never give himself to her fully. She was and would always be Kyle’s woman. Even though she’d intended on breaking up with him, it didn’t matter.
Emily had loved Kyle and shared the same bed with him for years. Devyn had been a mere onlooker, a voyeur at times. How often had he watched them together, wished he could take Kyle’s place. There had been times when his brother’s behavior had appalled Devyn.
Shortly after their engagement, Kyle had taken Emily out on the lake near Boylbury, in a small rowboat. She’d sat pretty stiff and unhappy the entire time.
Kyle had jokingly railed at her. The woman could levitate. Why was she afraid?
But fears were often irrational. Kyle, with his habitual insensitivity kept extending their time on the water and Emily kept enduring it. How many times had Devyn wanted to fly out, pick her up and carry her to shore.
Emily had finally called a halt. Kyle had been furious, though they’d been on the water doing little more than turning in circles for three hours.
“If I haven’t proven myself, Kyle, I never will. I don’t like the water. I saw a drowned elven child once. It was enough.”
“You need to get over it. No future wife of mine will be afraid of swimming of all things. Hell, you could launch out of the water with your levitation skills alone.”
Emily had sighed. “I don’t want to fight about this, Kyle.” It had sounded like an old argument. In how many other ways had Kyle told her she hadn’t measured up?
“We’re going out on the lake tomorrow.”
“No, Kyle. I’m not doing it.”
Kyle had started yelling, saying terrible things to Emily. In hindsight, Devyn realized Kyle must have already started sleeping around.
When Emily started shouting back, Devyn had left. He’d known only one thing in that moment. His brother was throwing away the best woman he would ever know. Then he’d died after making promises he would do better because he knew Emily’s worth.
Maybe because Kyle was his twin, but Devyn couldn’t be with his woman. He wasn’t even sure what kind of madness had taken him over that he’d actually just had sex with her.
He rose from the bed without saying anything more then headed to the bathroom. Once there, he turned the water on in the walk-in shower. Maybe hot water on his body would ease away some of his distress.