he followed her down onto the bed. The fabric of his jeans scraped against her bare skin as he slid between her thighs to plunge his hands into her hair and kiss her. He nipped at her lower lip and then dragged it gently through his teeth, making goose bumps erupt all over her body. Her hands strayed to the button fly of his black jeans, eager to stroke what she’d never been able to touch so many years before.
“You’re mine,” he growled into her ear. “I’m making love to you now and claiming you as forever mine. Do you understand that, Bella? There’s no going back this time, no denying what we have between us.”
Biting her lower lip, she found his gaze and nodded.
“Are you ready for—”
She stopped his words with her mouth. Breaking the kiss, she whispered, “Shut up, Ronan, and put your hands on me.” To seal the deal, she cupped his cock through the fabric of his pants and stroked it. He groaned her name.
Using the pressure of his mouth, he pushed her back into the pillows while her fingers sought and freed the buttons of his jeans. There was something incredibly erotic about undressing this man and having him slowly undress her. The deliberate revealing of warm, bare flesh. The leisurely press and slide of skin against skin.
Undressing alone took her breath away.
Then they were completely naked and he was kissing her throat, nipping the tender part of her neck just under her earlobe, and Bella’s rational and ordered cognition disappeared.
He rasped the edge of his teeth along her skin, raising goose bumps and making her nipples go hard, then slid his tongue along her skin, headed toward her breasts. In the back of his throat he made a low noise like the taste of her skin was intoxicating.
Stopping at one nipple and then the other, he gave both lavish attention, tracing every pucker, every hill and valley, with the tip of his tongue until she squirmed beneath him, arching her back.
He dropped down, dipping the tip of his tongue into her belly button, and then moved even lower. One strong hand planted on her inner thigh, he forced her legs to part then lowered his mouth to her sex. He teased her clit with the tip of his tongue, flicking back and forth until it grew swollen with need. Rubbing his finger around her opening, he petted her until she wanted to scream, before spearing two thick digits within and thrusting in and out. He sealed his mouth over her clit at the same time and worked it with his tongue until she writhed and bucked beneath him with the need to come.
He didn’t allow it.
Building her toward an incredible, explosive climax instead, he kneed her thighs apart and braced his hands on either side of her head. The smooth head of his wide cock nudged her entrance, and all her female muscles deep within clenched in anticipation.
He stared down at her. “I haven’t been with a woman since I met you, Bella. There is only you for me.”
Her eyes widened and her breath caught. Then he thrust the head of his cock inside her, parting her folds and stretching her muscles. Inch by slow, mind-blowing inch, he fed her his wide, long shaft. Her head fell back into the pillows on a moan, and her spine arched as he went to the hilt inside her, filling her completely.
Tears pricked her eyes. “Ronan.” His name came out broken. Grief for the years they’d lost warred with the joy of their reunion. The joy won.
Then he was thrusting in and out of her and primal lust took over.
“Look at me while you come,” he commanded.
She forced her gaze to focus on his as the climax he’d withheld crashed into her with double the force. Pleasure filled every part of her body and mind as she came around his pistoning cock. Bella cried his name, tears squeezing from her eyes as sweet emotion and sexual ecstasy ruled her. As it ebbed, she held on to him, shuddering, her body eager for more.
He nipped her earlobe before dropping his head to lave over a diamond-hard nipple, nipping at it gently with the edges of his teeth. “There are so many different ways I want to take you. We have decades to make up for. Turn over.”
He turned her to her stomach and slid a hand under her hips, forcing her bottom to fit against the hard jut of his cock. Parting her thighs, she dropped her head and offered herself to him completely. He ran his fingers over her sex and thrust inside, making her shudder. Then he guided the head of his cock in and drove it to the hilt in one long, hard, deep thrust that made her eyes roll back into her head.
Gliding a possessive hand from her breast, over her abdomen, and between her legs, he found her clit, engorged and sensitive, and petted it lightly as he mounted her. He slid in and out of her, slowly at first, teasingly rubbing around her swollen clit and stroking down farther to play where his cock thrust inside her, then back up through all her sensitive folds. Under his masterful touch, she was lost in a sea of pleasure and clawed the bedsheets.
He thrust faster and harder, finding her clit and rubbing it as he took her.
Pleasure built, swelled, and then exploded through her. She called his name as it crashed over her in waves, each one more intense than the last. He milked every last ounce of it from her that he could, pushing her from one stuttering climax into a second one. She heard Ronan cry her name as he came and they collapsed to the mattress in a sated tangle.
After a moment of heavy breathing, Ronan rolled to the side and dragged her along with him. The blankets and sheets were in an awful knot, and she had a twinge of regret for messing up someone else’s bed, but somehow she thought that’s exactly what Aurora had expected, had wanted even.
She snuggled into the curve of his body with a happy sigh. “Remember what you said on the rooftop about fear robbing us of so many years?”
He stroked her bare shoulder with his hand. “Yes.” His voice rumbled out of him deep and steady. It could lull her to sleep, that voice.
“Let’s not let fear steal any more time from us.”
He tightened his embrace. “No, my love. No one is stealing anything away from us now, not even the Summer Queen herself.”
Bella shivered. She hoped not. That was a bridge they had yet to cross, and the queen was not the forgiving sort.
Nor was she the bargaining sort.
They stayed on the bed, letting the fire warm and illuminate the room and watching the snow gently drift down past the tree limbs above them, land on the glass ceiling, and melt. Day faded to twilight and then to darkness. Tomorrow night was Yuletide Eve. The winter solstice.
The longest night of the year.
Ronan allowed his hands to stray over her body, touching her possessively. He stroked her breasts and nipples constantly, brushed her shoulders, back, and stomach as if trying to memorize every inch of her flesh.
Often he delved between her thighs and thrust his fingers inside her over and over, let them play on her clit until she was a messy jumble of panting desire. He brought her to shuddering climax after climax until she could barely think, let alone walk.
In the middle of the night she awoke to him between her thighs, his shaft thrust within her and his hands stroking over her as though he were starving and she were sustenance he could consume through touch.
She orgasmed yet again in the dead of night with his mouth covering hers and his cock buried as deep within her as possible—joined at lips, hips, and heart.
fter their shower the next morning, Ronan unwrapped the cheesecloth with Bella near him. It was a small piece, made of crystal, steel and bronze, smooth on one side and jagged on the other, making it look like a misshapen half-moon. There was part of a pattern on the front. It looked like junk, unless you were sensitive to the power it gave off. It rippled and pulsed with magick against his palm, cavorting with his own and sending little shocks up his forearm.
Bella sucked in a breath and went to touch it, but pulled her hand back at the last moment.
“Do you know what it is?”
“Oh, Danu,” Bella breathed. “One of the sections of the bosca fadbh. It’s one of three puzzle pieces that unlock part of the Book of Bindings.”
He nodded
. “That part of the book contains a spell that will tear down the warding around Piefferburg.”
She looked up at him sharply. “This is what the Phaendir contracted you for?”
“It was being kept in a vault of a government building. I had the right skill set, magickally speaking, to break in. They contacted me, trying to appeal to my Phaendir blood, and offered me more money than I could use in three fae lifetimes. I agreed, but not because of the money. I pulled the job with the intention of never letting the Phaendir have the object.”
The Phaendir were druids, strictly speaking, though both Ronan and his half brother, Niall, had a touch of druid blood as well. The Phaendir were powerful beings, powerful enough to trap and imprison all the fae of the world—as long as the fae were weakened in some way. Their magickical ability was mostly based in books and spells, in knowledge. Though over the years they had evolved a sort of magickal hive mind and that’s where the power that kept up the warding around Piefferburg was stored. Still, they lacked the natural raw inner magick of the fae, lacked many of the abilities that Ronan and his Tuatha Dé mage brethren possessed.
It really chapped their hide too. They had hated having to come to him for help. Ronan smiled even now when he thought of it.
“Why didn’t you give it to the Summer Queen? She could obtain the other pieces, and the Book of Bindings, and break the walls of Piefferburg.”
He shook his head. “No, Bella. We can’t get the other pieces or the book, because they are beyond the walls of Piefferburg. It’s an impossible task. I wanted to ensure that the Phaendir never got their hands on this piece of the bosca fadbh. So I hid it here, in the lair of the most powerful fae I’ve ever encountered. I knew the birch lady would keep it safe. She wants peace, just as I do. Giving it to the Summer Queen will accomplish nothing. It will only assuage her ego.”
Bella took the piece in her hand and stroked it with the pad of her index finger. She was still naked from the shower, and her nipples were hard from the slight chill in the air, as red and suckable as pert little berries. “It’s so unassuming.”
Ronan reached out and fingered a tendril of her hair. “I believe this piece is worthless in the face of having not recovered all the rest of the necessary items, but now it’s my pass to freedom and to my life again. Now it’s valuable. The Summer Queen will want this and will bargain with me to obtain it. She’ll give me my life.” He paused, holding her gaze steadily. “Will you be in that life again, Bell? This time for good?”
“What about the Unseelie blood we share? What about our potential offspring, Ronan? Aren’t you still afraid we’ll be exiled from the Summer Court?”
“With you at my side, I’m not afraid of anything. Are you?”
“After seeing the beauty that lies beyond the Rose Tower, how could I be?” She cupped his cheek in her hand. “I want you, Ronan. I’ve always wanted you, no matter the cost. I wish you could have realized that thirty years ago.”
She stepped forward, closing the distance between them, and went up on her tiptoes to press her lips to his. The kiss was teasingly light and he wanted more. He caught her against him, pressing the piece of the bosca fadbh between them and slanting his mouth hungrily over hers. Then he lowered her to the soft mattress and kissed her lower down, taking her clit against his tongue and tasting the center of her until her cries echoed through the room and made the soft buds in the trees above the cottage explode into bloom as the magick in the air around them reacted.
He’d been in love with her since the moment he met her, and it had never abated, not in the thirty years since they’d parted ways. Now he felt flush with her, filled with the love he’d always needed from her but thought he’d never be able to accept without ruining her life, tearing her from the safety of the Seelie Court, and eventually making her resent him for it all.
He pulled her close to his body and inhaled the delicious scent of her hair. Even after all this time, he still remembered that distinctive fragrance of shampoo, perfume, and natural scent. “Ready to go back?”
Her embrace tightened a degree. “I’d rather stay here.” Her voice held a note of fear in it, fear that she’d lose him again. He could feel it in her.
TEN
Bella didn’t want to do this. Oh, dear Lady, she didn’t want to face the wrath of the Summer Queen, didn’t want to run the risk of Ronan disappearing from her life again.
They walked into the square, and Ronan released the glamour he’d been holding around them for the last twelve blocks. A layer of snow had fallen throughout the day and coated the square in a glimmering sheet of white and ice that reflected the silvery light of the full moon above them. Lights in the evergreens twinkled and sparkled with a Yuletide Eve merriment Bella didn’t feel. Ordinarily she would be at a fete tonight, dressed to kill and drinking champagne.
Above them the clock in the center of the square struck the witching hour—winter solstice. The moment the twelfth chime ended, fireworks were launched from the top of every building, raining down sparkles and bursts of light. Booms, whizzing sounds and the joyful cries of the spectators filled the air.
Their uncertain future unfolded before them. The winter solstice was the shortest day of the year—but it also marked the point when the daylight would begin to increase. She would hold on to any bit of positive symbolism she could find.
It took only a handful of steps before the Imperial Guard marching in the square—undoubtedly on high alert—spotted them and trooped over. Harsh hands grabbed her and pulled her away as two of the men muscled Ronan to the ground and handcuffed him in iron.
“Get off me!” She shoved at the guard manhandling her, her hands finding only smooth, cold rose and gold metal.
“I abducted her,” Ronan yelled. “She’s been a prisoner ever since I broke out of Her Majesty’s Prison. Leave her alone!”
“No.” The guard released her, and she glared at the hulk who’d put bruises on her upper arms. “He’s lying. I went with him of my own free will.”
“Then you’re under arrest too,” answered the guard, turning her around and forcing the charmed iron around her wrists. She gasped at the touch of the metal against her skin and the empty way it made her feel—even her parlor trick amount of Seelie magick was gone.
They heaved Ronan to his feet, and he gave her a look of exasperation as they hauled them off toward the reaching rose-quartz spires of the Seelie Court, past the throng that had begun to form and the camera crew of Faemous, who were out of breath from their run to catch some footage. Bella was sure that even now the two of them were “breaking news.”
The guards pushed and prodded them up the marble staircase and down the gilded halls of the highest tower, straight to the throne room of the Summer Queen. The huge room was devoid of all but her advisors and favor ites. Aislinn was there, white-faced with fear for her friend. Bella met her eyes briefly and tried to smile, but it was stiff because she was afraid too—for Ronan.
The Summer Queen, Caoilainn Elspeth Muirgheal, sat on her heavy, carved rose-quartz throne, royal buttocks cushioned by velvet. The rest of the court had adapted and changed with the times where fashion was concerned, but not the Summer Queen, who was thousands of years old. Ancient even for a Tuatha Dé Danaan, and of the purest blood that could be found. Her long white blond hair was coiled and pinned around her pale, oval face. Her gown seemed to be woven from starlight and gold. She was heartbreakingly beautiful. Delicate looking, but stronger than any fae with the exception of perhaps the Shadow King, her power was linked to her position as the Seelie Royal. Eyes the light blue of a husky dog’s stared at them as they entered. Disapproval etched lines in her timeless face.
They came to a stop in front of her and both knelt, which was difficult to do, given the position of their hands behind their backs.
“Ronan Achaius Quinn, do you understand the severity of the charges leveled against you? Do you understand that the punishment fits the crime?” Her voice held power, strong Seelie magick, an
d it made all the hair on the back of Bella’s neck stand on end.
“It couldn’t be any worse than the punishment leveled against me before I escaped, my queen.”
“Oh, Ronan, you’re so young. There are fates worse than death.”
The timbre of her voice made Bella shudder. It wasn’t fully natural. The queen was very angry, and magick was slipping into her words.
The Summer Queen turned her frigid gaze toward Bella. “It’s you I’m most surprised at. Ronan has always had a rebellious streak, but you’ve never caused more than a moment’s stir at court. The guards tell me you say you went willingly with him. Did you help him escape the prison too?”
“No!” Ronan shouted. “Leave Bella out of this. I dragged her into this mess. It was all my fault.”
“I went willingly with him,” Bella raised her gaze to the queen’s. “And I’d do it again.”
The Summer Queen stiffened. Her spine looked rigid enough to crack. “If you care about him that much, you’ll suffer his punishment alongside him.”
“I have something for you, my queen,” said Ronan. “Something that might sweeten your mood toward my transgression.”
The queen seemed to ice over for a moment. She went perfectly still and white before speaking. “The object you stole for the Phaendir, no doubt. There’s nothing you could have that would sway me in my opinion of what you have done, Ronan.” She gestured to the guards. “Take them away until I’ve settled on a fitting fate for them both. Believe me, it will be something to impress the Unseelie.”
Dark, bloody, and violent. That’s the only thing that impressed the Unseelie.
The guards yanked Bella to her feet, making her gasp.
Ronan shook off the guards. “You don’t want a piece of the bosca fadbh?”
“Halt!”
The guards immediately stopped dragging Bella and Ronan toward the side door, the one that led to the prison.
“Where is it?” The queen’s voice stung Bella’s skin like the lash of a frozen whip, making her wince.
“It’s hidden with magick. You’ll never find it on your own, but before I reveal it to you—”
“I’m the Summer Queen. What makes you think I couldn’t find it?”
Bella stifled a cry. The queen’s voice cut into her mind, becoming more like knife than a whip with every syllable she uttered.
“I kept it hidden from the Phaendir and I can keep it hidden from you.”
His tone held a note of arrogance. Sweet Danu, they were all going to die.
Ronan continued. “I’ll reveal the location of the piece, but you must agree, in front of witnesses, to several conditions.”
The queen took a breath, regaining control—thank Danu—before replying. “You’re not in a position to make demands, Ronan.”
“Well, my queen, I have the piece.” He paused. “And you don’t.”
For a moment Bella thought the queen might explode. Her icy, angry reserve had taken the leap to hot lava in the span of a heartbeat. “I can’t do anything with your piece of the bosca fadbh without its mates. So you see, dear Ronan, your offer might not be as juicy as you presume.”
“But if you have the piece, then the Phaendir does not. I do not need to point out that the Shadow King would also not have it. That should be tempting enough. And perhaps, if you don’t shout Off with his head! I might be able to get the other pieces of the bosca fadbh. Perhaps even the lost Book of Bindings.”
“Impossible.”
“Nothing is impossible if you know the right people and pay the right price.” He paused and lowered his voice. “You of all people should know that.”
The queen said nothing. She only stared at him, her fingers clenching around the polished rose-quartz armrests of her throne, her perfect, beautiful face revealing no hint of what she might be thinking. The entire room seemed to hold its breath—including the guards who still loosely gripped Bella’s arm.
“You’re aiming far too high and assuming far too much about me, Ronan. I dislike it.”
“Forgive me.” He inclined his head. “I seek only to give you what the Phaendir want desperately to possess. Aren’t you at least a little curious about why they want it so badly? I am.”
The queen jerked her chin upward. “Before I make my decision, tell me your terms. Tell me what kind of trade you want me to make for the piece.”
“I require that Bella remains unharmed and unpunished for coming with me to obtain the piece, and for her to retain her position in the Seelie Court, no matter what, until the natural end of her days. No matter what information may come to light about her in the future, no matter what she may do, so long as it’s within the bounds of Seelie Court law.”
The wording was precise and he did that for a reason. The queen was known to try and wriggle through the loopholes of a promise.
The Summer Queen eyed Bella with undisguised curiosity. “That makes me think Bella has a secret or two.”
“No matter what secrets might be revealed about her, she must never be cast from the Seelie Court.” Ronan’s voice was steel to the Queen’s ice and contained a thread of resonating magick of his own. “Not her progeny either. Or her husband. All in her family must be safe from exile.”
“I take it you’re not finished, since you haven’t asked for your life yet.”
Ronan inclined his head. “I wish to retain my life and for all charges against me to be dropped.” Ronan turned and met Bella’s gaze. Holding it, he finished, “And to marry Bella, if she’ll have me.”
The queen drummed her fingers. “You’re asking for too much. Two lives, Ronan? No punishment for your crimes and a happy ending with Bella?” She shook her head. “You’ll undermine my credibility, and my enemies will begin to think I’m going soft and sentimental. I can’t have that.” She considered them for a long moment. “I will bargain for one life. Whose is it, Ronan? Yours or Bella’s?”
“No!” Bella shouted. “Don’t do this, Caoilainn Elspeth Muirgheal!” Names had power, so she invoked all of the queen’s. To no avail.
“Answer!” the queen demanded of Ronan.
Bella knew what Ronan would say before he said it. She had no question he would protect her life over his. Tears pricked her eyes and choked her throat. “No, Ronan, please!” The guards clamped down on Bella’s arms and drew her backward. She kicked and struggled against their strength. This couldn’t be happening.
Ronan met her eyes. Sorrow had turned his pupils a dark blue. “Bella’s life will be spared.”
“I thought as much. Now reveal the piece to me.”
“Ronan! No!”
The guards’ pull was something she couldn’t fight, couldn’t shake off. Inexorably, they dragged her backward, through the huge double doors of the throne room and into the corridor, where her cries echoed as they uncuffed her. Just as the massive doors swung shut, she glimpsed the piece of the bosca fadbh floating eerily in front of Ronan and a guard behind him, a silver sword glinting viciously in the reflected light of the piece of the bosca fadbh.
ELEVEN
The doors slammed shut, Bella stared at the closed entrance to the throne room for a moment in complete shock and then rushed toward the doors, only to be blocked by an implacable row of sh