Authors: Charlotte Boyett-Compo
“Why?”
“You know why.”
The Reaper cursed and flung himself into one of the oversized chairs. Stretching his long legs out in front of him, he crossed his ankles and laid his head on the tall, leather back, gripping the thickly upholstered chair arms as though he were choking an adversary.
“What should I do?” he asked.
Turning around, Lord Kheelan came over to sit in a chair across from his Reaper. He almost smiled at how young Coure looked barefoot and with his hair wet and clinging to his forehead and neck. Under ordinary circumstances, he would have severely chastised the young man—perhaps even remanded him to a con cell for a few days—but he knew Bevyn was more upset than he’d been since his untimely death.
“Lady Aingeal and Lady Danielle have agreed to speak with Lea,” the High Lord informed Bevyn.
The Reaper had been staring at his bare toes. He looked up. “Danni is out of her room?”
Lord Kheelan nodded. He clasped his hands together and put them behind his head, reclining in the chair as his guest was doing. “It seems she wanted to experiment with her new station in life without having anyone seeing her. She has come to terms with the Transference.”
Bevyn nodded then smiled, the twin dimples in his cheeks making him look even younger. “Cyn said Aingeal is really proud of her tail.”
“And rightly so, I’m sure,” the High Lord agreed. “I believe Lady Danielle believes her ruff is quite fetching.”
The Reaper grunted then raked his fingers through his wet hair to push it back from his forehead. “I can’t allow Lea to leave me, Your Grace,” he said.
“You can’t or you won’t?”
Bevyn looked him straight in the eye. “I won’t.”
“The decision is yours,” Lord Kheelan said, surprising Bevyn. “The Shadowlords will not interfere.”
“I should have settled this with her long ago,” Bevyn said.
“Aye, you should have.”
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Prime Reaper
“Will the Shadowlords stand behind me if I give her a fledgling?”
Lord Kheelan frowned. “We’ll not censure you if that is what you are asking and we are prepared to allow you to legally Join with her, but we will not condone the use of violence. You know that.”
Bevyn groaned. “What am I going to do if she won’t accept Transference? If she continues to want to leave me?”
A shadow passed over the High Lord’s face. “If you wish her to remain here, she will remain here. That is a given. Our first priority is you. That is the chance you take when you mate. That is why we would prefer you not do so. She may never accept Transference and since she was the mate you chose, you will never have another. If she refuses you from now on, you will be a miserable man, I’m afraid.”
“For joy, for joy,” Bevyn mumbled.
“Let’s see what Aingeal and Danielle can accomplish with your lady. Perhaps they will make her see the advantages to becoming a Reaper.”
Bevyn nodded. He was quiet for a long time then seemed to shake off his worry.
“Have you heard from the team?”
Lord Kheelan nodded. “They left for the eastern coast of Diabolusia to rendezvous with the
Bonnie Doneen
later this afternoon.”
“How’s Arawn?”
“Handling the situation quite well according to Lord Cynyr. He had a few touchy moments but he sees the advantages in having a Reaper mate as I hope your lady will.”
* * * * *
Arawn looked up as a seagull soared above them. He could smell the salt tang in the air though they had yet to see the water. He was completely unprepared for the soft voice that touched his mind gently.
“Mo shearc?”
The Prime Reaper drew in his horse. “Danielle?” he questioned, and motioned his men on ahead. “Are you all right?”
“
I am fine. How are you?
”
“
Worried sick about you,
a ghrá mo chroí,” he told her. “
Why did you hide your illness
from me? Don’t ever do that again! I am your husband and it is my right to know these things!
”
In his mind he heard her sigh and could picture her shaking her head at his demand. Her words only underscored the exasperation he felt coming to him from across the miles.
“
I did what I thought best, Ari.
”
“
Aye and in the doing you took a hundred years off my life, wench
,” he complained.
“Tá aiféala orm,” she said, telling him she was sorry.
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“
You should be
,” he said then smiled as he heard her laughter across the distance.
“Tá grá agam duit,” she whispered to him.
“
I love you too.
” He scowled. “
Danni, how is it you are speaking to me now? We did not
share blood and—
”
“
Lord Kheelan gave me Sustenance from you. He did not know if we could communicate but
it seems we can.
”
“
That is because you are a mindshielder
,” he said with a slight hint of censure in his tone. His scowl deepened when he heard her laughing at him.
“
You poor baby
,” she said. “
Does the big, bad Reaper have a problem his little she-wolf
needs to take care of?
”
Arawn’s eyebrows shot up. “
Do you think you can?
”
“
Well, let’s see…
”
He felt her lips on his cock and drew in a ragged gasp, nearly tumbling from his horse. She had sucked him in and was deep-throating him so strongly he could barely draw breath from the pleasure of it. His thighs clamped together against his saddle and he let his head fall back, closing his eyes to the delicious warmth plying the flesh restrained in the fabric of his leather uniform pants.
Then the most wondrous thing happened to Arawn Gehdrin. He was no longer sitting astride his mount in the desert but was lying naked on a mat of cool, fragrant grass under the massive, spreading arms of a midnight tree. Opening his eyes and lifting his head, he stared in amazement at his lady kneeling between his open thighs.
“How?” he whispered.
“Mindshielders have talents I believe you will find welcome,
mo shearc
,” she said before bending over his rigid shaft. Her tongue swirled around the head, dipped into the opening to send shivers of delight racing through him. Somewhere in the greensward surrounding him Arawn could hear a night bird calling to its mate. Crickets chirped and the leaves above him rustled as his lady’s lips and tongue plied his rigid flesh. He could smell the hint of gardenia wafting through the darkness and it only added to the fevered lust that was shimmering through him. He pushed away from the grass and reached for her, completely amazed he could feel her flesh as solidly as if they were actually together. He took her upper arms in his hands and turned so that she fell lightly to the grass.
“Was I not satisfying your needs,
mo shearc
?” she asked with a pout.
“There are needs and then there are needs, milady,” he told her as he stretched out atop her then slid down her until he could take her sex into his mouth. Wickedly plying his tongue against her clit and the sweet, honeyed folds—the scent from which drove him made with desire—he slid one finger into her cunt and another into her anus, half smiling at her gasp of delight.
“Isn’t magic wonderful?” she asked with a sigh.
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Prime Reaper
He dragged his tongue along her pink folds as he fingered her, gently easing those strong digits in and out of their tight sheaths. His teeth grazed her swollen clit and the moment he felt her hands spike through his hair to hold him still, he laughed—sending warm breath between her quivering thighs.
She arched her hips up to give him better access to her moist heat. Her fingers tightened in his hair as he stabbed his tongue repeatedly against her clit until she began to writhe on the soft, sweet grass.
“Have pity,
mo shearc
!” she said. “I need you in me!”
“Not yet, little she-wolf,” he said, and pulled away. He reached for her ankles, pushed her legs up to her belly then flipped her over, dragging her beneath him as he stretched out upon her back.
His weight was delicious as it pressed her to the ground. The ripe, fertile scent of the soil and the sweet fragrance of the grass were intoxicating as she lay there with her cheek against the earth. His heavy cock was wedged between her thighs, her ass riding its steely length.
“Beast,” she whispered, and wriggled her bottom against his hard erection. Coming up on his knees between her legs, he put a heavy hand to her shoulder and drew her up so she was on all fours in front of him. His cock poised at the entrance to her sex.
“Are you bragging or complaining?” he asked her, his right hand tight on her shoulder as his left reached around and under her to roll her clit.
“Arawn!” she gasped. She bounced her bottom against him. “Stop playing with me!”
He bent over her so he could lightly sink his teeth into her left shoulder, rolling her clit expertly as he ground his shaft along her cleft.
Danni bucked under him and growled low in her throat. His fingers were torturing her and the feel of his rod sliding just along her folds was driving her insane. She wanted that hard, long, pulsing cock inside her to satisfy the itch already beginning to form.
The Reaper flicked his tongue over the shallow bite then swept it up to her ear, thrusting it into the sensitive spiral chamber and chuckling at his lady’s irritated groan.
“Damn it, Reaper!” Danni snarled. “Do me!”
He reached down with his left hand to guide his cock into her, thrusting deep—
going all the way to the hilt so that his wiry curls tickled her soft ass. “Like that?” he taunted.
She ground against him, arching her hips, pushing against his stiffness. His right hand still gripped her shoulder—pulling her back against him then pushing her away as he set the rhythm for their lovemaking. His left hand had returned to her clit and his fingers were rolling that swollen nub and stroking it until Danni was nearly mindless with lust.
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Their bodies rocked together as Arawn thrust hard and deeply into her moist channel. He once again sank his teeth into her shoulder and when he did, he felt the first vibrations of release undulating through her cunt. With his teeth locked on her flesh he told her to come for him, to give him all she had. Danni was panting and slamming back against him as hard as she could. Her rocking motion made him grunt with the force. She wanted to draw him all the way into her, to suck his body deep into hers and hold him there forever. The strength of his erection, the width and breadth of his deliciously hard cock, the slap of his balls between her thighs, his fingers plying her clit, his teeth gripping her shoulder—tongue swirling over the flesh—all combined to start a snapping flame of pure lust deep in her very core. As that flame leapt to life, it rushed through her cunt like a wildfire and flashed along the walls of her channel. Tiny bursts of energy flashed along with it and the climax that shot through her was so violent, so intense, she screamed with the pleasure it wrought.
Arawn’s cock was like steel as he pistoned in and out of her fiery slit. His knees were digging into the fecund earth as he rocked, as he slammed into her. At the moment he felt her release begin and the warm wash of her fluids flowing over his straining cock, he unleashed his own shattering climax that felt as though her hand was inside her milking him, pulling on him, dragging at his flesh, squeezing and teasing and pleasing him in ways he’d never experienced.
“Danielle!” he howled as he came, spurting into her so hotly, so thickly, so copiously, that he felt bathed in the seminal fluid. He continued to pump into her until every last drop of him had been drained and when he felt the last pulse of his rod, he collapsed atop her, driving them both to the ground.
They lay there in the darkness beneath the spreading oak tree with its massive, moss-draped branches and listened to the night sounds that were so soothing, so calming, that nothing else save their love mattered. The evening wind played over their naked bodies and the scents of the greensward vied with the heady scents of their spent lust.
“I love you,” he said, and gently kissed the nape of her neck.
“I love you too, my Reaper,” she said.
And then as quickly as it had begun, it ended and Arawn’s eyes snapped open. He groaned to find himself fully clothed atop his steed, the horse’s reins held tightly in his sweating palms.
“
Hurry home
, mo shearc,” she said, the last words fading away on the wind. Arawn hung his head and sighed deeply. The magical pleasure she’d given him would have to last until he could hold her in his arms once again. He had no idea how long his interlude with her had lasted but he doubted it had been as long in reality as it had been in his soul.
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Prime Reaper
Cynyr was waiting for him just before a rise over which the other men had already ridden. Cree was sitting astride his horse with his arms crossed over the pommel. He smiled at Arawn as the Prime Reaper reined in beside him. “Your lady is well?”
“
Sí grá mo chroi
,” Arawn said, still basking in the afterglow of the pleasure he’d been given.
“As Aingeal is the love of my life,” Cynyr acknowledged. “But…?”
“I may have bitten off more than I can chew by Joining with a mindshielder,” he said. “She fair rode me to the bone tonight.”
“Oh,” Cynyr said, and looked away, grinning.
“I told her she had shortened my life with her antics.”
“
Mairg darab galar an grádh
,” Cynyr said with a chuckle.
“Aye,” Arawn agreed. “Love is a sickness.”
“But one we gladly endure, eh?”
They kicked their mounts into motion and crested the rise. It was a glorious view that greeted them with a crescent-shaped bay formed like a luscious turquoise sheet of satin undulating to the pristine white shore. A little ways out, a black schooner lay at anchor, her black shrouds furled tight to the crosstrees.
“Now that is a Reaper ship if ever I saw one,” Owen commented as Arawn and Cynyr joined the other men. “Look how she gleams in the sunlight.”