Taken By Storm (24 page)

Everything he did was precise, carefully controlled.

He was a Master-level Mage, a distinction that took twenty cycles to attain. And his desire for her had snapped that practiced control.

“I forgive you,” she said, making her voice low and breathless.

“Look at me like that and I’ll teach you the meaning of utterly selfish.”

She laughed, loving the feel of his body pressing her down, buried deep inside her.

Reluctantly, he rose and pulled her to her feet.

“This was supposed to be about
your
pleasure.” Looping her arms around his neck, she smiled into his eyes. “I found pleasure in knowing how badly you wanted me.”

He swept her into his arms without saying a word.

Charlotte expected him to open a vortex and return them to his chamber. Instead he helped her shed the robe and walked into the water.

Her bare bottom touched the pool and she gasped.

“That’s cold.” She wiggled, tightening her arms around his neck. Despite her initial protest, he soon had her submerged to the shoulders. Squirming out of his arms, she lowered her legs, but her feet didn’t reach the bottom. He grinned. She could cling to him or tread water.

He pulled her against him, guiding her legs around his waist. “Relax,” he murmured against the wet skin of her shoulder. “I have you.”

“Our current position isn’t conducive to relaxation,” she said with a little laugh.

“I know.”

His hands roamed over her back and bottom, teasingly tracing the sensitive crease. She shivered and pulled his face away from her shoulder. “Kiss me,” she said.

For a long moment he looked into her eyes, communicating a wealth of emotion. He wanted her.

He needed her. He cared for her. She saw fear there as well. Why would he be afraid of her?

His mouth covered hers, his tongue slipped inside for a slow, gentle sweep.

I am not afraid of you.
His voice sounded in her mind.
I am afraid for you.

He traced the even line of her teeth and the ridges along the roof of her mouth. She caught his lower lip between her teeth and nipped. Heat pooled low in her belly, stoked by his lightest touch. He left her mouth, nibbling a path down the side of her neck. Cool air played across her wet skin. She shivered.

She felt his hands on her bottom lifting, pushing, until his mouth latched on to her nipple. The breeze chilled her skin while his caresses fanned the flames deep within her.

Firmly cupping her bottom with his hands, Tal strode across the pool. A rock ledge protruded between the falls and he set her upon it. Charlotte shuddered as her back pressed against the stone wall.

Worn smooth by the tumbling water, it felt silky and cold.

They were far enough from the falls that only a fine mist rained upon them. It was the most stimulating combination of heat and cold. Charlotte squirmed helplessly as his mouth continued to tantalize her breasts.

She needed more. She needed him there, stretching her, filling her, completing her.

“What will give you the most pleasure? Shall I use my fingers, my mouth or my mind?”

“Yes,” she murmured, wanting everything all at once.

He chuckled, immediately beginning a descent along her torso. The night moon bathed them in soft amber light. His hair fanned out on the water, creating a silken web around her legs. He combed his fingers through her feminine curls and Charlotte trembled.

“Like this?” He lightly traced her slit, touching but not entering. “Or like this?” Slowly, he pushed two fingers into her throbbing core.

Charlotte could hardly stand the pleasure. She squeezed him greedily, pulsing with the need for a greater penetration.

His arm encircled the small of her back and his fingers pressed deeper. Covering her mouth with his, he delved boldly with his tongue. She didn’t understand the precaution until she felt his telepathic caress.

Like the soft, ticklish brush of a feather, she felt his psychic touch circle the nerve center of her body.

Groaning into his open mouth, she tightened her inner muscles around his fingers. He did it again.

Charlotte returned his kiss fervently, rocking her hips. He matched each slow slide of his hand with a psychic caress. She panted and arched, knowing her climax was upon her.

“I don’t want to come like…” Her words faded into a keening moan as her body erupted in pleasure.

She clutched his shoulders and rolled her head back against the rock wall, helpless to stay the waves of release.

“I wanted you inside me,” she whispered when she could think again.

“I want to be inside you,” he whispered in return.

He reached under her knees and pushed her legs up and back. Charlotte bit her lower lip. She was so open like this, so vulnerable.

I won’t hurt you, Charlotte. I would never hurt you.

She felt his psychic touch again, tracing her, parting her. The blunt head of his erection found her but he didn’t push home. His mind flicked across her swollen nub until Charlotte cried out.

“Now…please now!”

With one forceful lunge, he filled her. Charlotte cried out again and reached for his face. She sealed her lips over his and thrust her tongue into his mouth each time he drove into her body.

He continued to accelerate her arousal with his mind. Charlotte arched as much as the position allowed. Water sloshed, dousing her thighs with each thrust. Tension coiled, tightening with ruthless force until Charlotte tore her mouth away.

The metaphysical plane erupted in her mind, heightening the intensity of his mental stimulation.

She screamed but it was too late to break the link.

Sensation burst around them, consumed them completely.

Tal’s harsh, panting puffed across her breasts, drawing Charlotte back to her senses. His forehead rested against her shoulder and his hands clasped her hips.

“What just happened?” she asked in a small, shaky voice.

“I have no idea. Did you activate the catalyst intentionally or did…”

His question trailed away and Charlotte’s heart slammed into her ribs at his expression. “What?

What’s wrong?”

He made the palm of his hand reflective like a mirror and held it in front of her face.

Charlotte looked at her image, stunned and confused. Though the basic arrangement of her features hadn’t changed, her eyes were now a swirling combination of green and blue.

She truly looked Ontarian. The thought filled her with wonder until she realized where she had seen this particular shade of turquoise.

She had eyes like Dez dar Joon.

“I understand your confusion, Master Aune, but there is nothing
wrong
with her,” Director Aksera insisted.

“Look at her eyes!” Tal gestured toward Charlotte so forcefully that his tightly coiled hair whipped around his torso and snapped his back.

“You brought her to me because your most accomplished Mystic healers were unable to identify her ailment. My team has analyzed every element of her physiology, including an in-depth DNA profile.

She is a perfectly healthy, Ontarian female. There is nothing wrong with her.”

A firm knock on the office door drew the director’s attention away from Tal. Charlotte silently thanked the intruder. Each of Tal’s objections stung a little more, made her feel…diseased.

Before the director could make it around his desk, the door opened and Trey Aune stepped into the office.

“Pardon the interruption,” he said, and turned to his brother. “I’ve been looking all over this complex for you. Dro Tar told me you brought Charlotte in, that she…” He approached her, muscles rippling beneath the supple material of his clothing. Stopping well out of arm’s reach, he stared. “What happened to your eyes?”

He made no effort to hide his horror. His bronze-tinted features twisted and his amber gaze darkened.

She wanted to weep for the friendship disintegrating like a snowman on a sunny afternoon.

Tal’s reaction had been no different. As soon as her eyes turned turquoise, he couldn’t get away from her fast enough. He’d transported them back to the Conservatory and summoned a healer. It wasn’t as if she’d done this on purpose!

“I don’t know what the hell happened to my eyes but thanks for your compassion,” she snapped.

She rose from her chair in front of the desk and moved to the other side of the office. Floor-to-ceiling windows showcased Frontine’s impressive skyline.

The sophistication of Trey’s ship should have prepared her for the Ontarian capital, but their arrival this morning had left her reeling.

Tal went to her. “Charlotte, I’m not angry with you. I’m concerned that Joon—”

“Contaminated me?” she cut in. “Yeah, I figured that much out already.”

“I can show you the results of the tests, if you like,” Director Aksera said. “Take you through them screen by screen.”

“That won’t be necessary,” Tal said.

“Well, then from a medical standpoint there is nothing else we can do. There is nothing that needs to be done. Perhaps the Mystics can…”

“I appreciate your assistance.”

The director nodded and quietly left his office.

“What did Vee have to say about all of this?” Trey asked.

“Vee was still at Fortress Joon when we left the Conservatory this morning,” Tal explained. “The overlord has dispatched troops from the City of Tears to secure the fortress so Vee should have returned by the time we get back. We’ll speak with him next.”

“Speak with him about what?” Charlotte asked. He had been treating her like an object all day. She had had just about enough of his attitude. “I’m sorry the color of my eyes offends you. They function normally.

How many times do you need to hear it, Tal? There is nothing wrong with me.”

He didn’t react to the provocation. “I know you’re still upset about what happened yesterday, but there is much we need to understand. Are you able to explain or may I scan your memory?”

Though Tal had disabled the compulsion to resist telepathic connections, she still cringed at the thought of having anyone invade her mind.

“I’d rather explain.”

A round conference table sat in one corner of the room. They assembled around it and she began. “Did Tal tell you about the captives, what that animal was doing with them?”

Trey nodded. “The Mystics sensed a distortion in Joon’s energy pattern. Now they understand why.”

“Are the women all right?” she asked. “Where were they taken?”

“The one named Cin required medical attention, but the others were examined and released. E’Duri is of the Reformation Sect. She has not yet decided what she wishes to do,” Tal explained.

“He forced this atrocity on one of his own women?” Trey shook his head.

“Is it any less vile because the others belonged to the Traditionalist Sect?” Charlotte objected.

“Of course not,” Trey said, sounding offended.

“What happened before you escaped?” Tal steered the conversation back on course. “How did you discover the women?”

Charlotte folded her hands on top of the table and tried to relay the information without reliving the events. “He trapped me within some sort of energy field. If I tried to move or if I touched the field, it was extremely painful.”

“What happened next?” Trey prompted.

Shifting her weight in the chair, she looked at each brother in turn before she spoke. “That’s when it got really weird. He knew I was using a shield to keep him out of my mind, but I can’t seem to stop broadcasting my thoughts, especially when I’m upset.

When he realized I was a catalyst, he was shocked.

No one is that good an actor. He honestly didn’t know.”

“If it wasn’t your ability that interested him, then why—”

“Why indeed,” she interrupted Tal. “The only other thing he said—before he started raving about all of the delightful things he intended to do to me,” she shuddered, helpless to restrain the memories entirely,

“was that he couldn’t believe I still didn’t know who I was.
Who
, mind you, not what.”

“All this happened before your eyes changed?” Trey asked.

She nodded then pushed her chair back and returned to the windows. Trams raced past at regular intervals, making private transportation within the city all but obsolete.

“He was weak. I could sense his need for energy but he didn’t take it from me. He just left me there and… One of the women contacted me telepathically a short time later.”

Thoughtful silence enveloped the room for a moment.

“Will the Reformation Sect retaliate?” she asked.

“You said armed forces have been dispatched to Fortress Joon. Will this escalate the war?” The men exchanged knowing glances before Trey said, “The Reformation Sect and Dez dar Joon are not one and the same. Close. But there are still a few rational people skulking around in the shadow of that madman.”

Charlotte crossed her arms, tucking her hands tightly against her sides. “We’ve all assumed I’m a descendent of the House of Aune. Maybe we had it almost right. Maybe I’m a descendent, just—”

“Don’t even say it,” Trey cut in.

“Then how do you explain my eyes? Does anyone else on the planet have eyes this color? You have certainly reacted as if it’s unusual.”

Tal gently touched her face, his thumb curving just below her eye. “The shade is unique to the House of Joon.”

“Does this make us enemies?” She meant the question to be funny but it sounded sad, almost desperate.

“Never,” he whispered.

“I guess we should let Director Aksera have his office back,” Trey suggested.

They moved out into the corridor, Tal at Charlotte’s side. “You didn’t answer my question you know,” she pointed out. “Will the Reformation Sect retaliate?”

“What do they have to retaliate for?” Trey protested. “You discovered Joon was intentionally impregnating women to increase the potency of his energy. We have the right to search every nook and cranny of that gloomy heap and make sure there are no more captives.”

“The troops are looking for more than captives and we all know it,” she said.

“Yeah, but the Reformation Sect can’t prove it,” Trey replied with a roguish smile.