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 c**k buried as deep within her as possible—joined at lips, hips, and heart.
After 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 ni**les 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.