An Ordinary Fairy (39 page)

“My Noah,” she whispered.

The enchantment was complete. He was hers to command.

“No one has ever claimed me as their own,” he said.

“I claim you now. You brought my light back.”

“I see that.”

“I don’t mean this,” she said and waved a hand at her face. She straightened her legs out and leaned her head against his arm. “I haven’t been able to illuminate for a long time. Many years.”

“Since your parents disappeared?”

“Longer. Much longer.”

“But you glowed the night I saw you fly.”

“The magic had returned by then. Noah, I liked you the first time I saw you. That’s why I let you photograph the pond. When we touched hands that first day, I sensed something special between us. I didn’t know what, and it frightened me, but it drew me, too. I told you to call me Willow. I’ve never done anything like that, but deep inside, fairy intuition or whatever told me it would be okay.

“When I got back to the cottage that first day I went into the kitchen to clean up the dish I dropped when you knocked. I saw a glare on the microwave door. It was me, glowing. I was thinking about you.” She grinned. “I was thinking about you the next day at the pond, too, when you saw me fly. The magic has grown stronger ever since, and so have my feelings for you, despite all my tantrums and starts and stops.” She caressed his face again. “Those beautiful gray eyes … I can’t look into them enough. Fairies all have brown eyes, you know.”

Noah blushed fiercely.

“Noah, about what I said in my parents’ room…” She paused, seeming to collect her thoughts.

I will never forget those words.

“My heart won, Noah. I had everything backward. My head told me I had to work through all my issues before I could love again, but tonight my heart spoke louder. Or maybe it was yours. I need to love and to be loved. I can’t deal with my problems alone. I need you, Noah.” Willow took his hand in hers and kissed it.

Noah’s heart swelled with emotion. “I love you, Willow.”

“I love you, too, Noah.”

At last.

He leaned down and kissed her, a long soft kiss. Fairy fragrance filled his senses. They shared the kiss that has its own life; nothing else existed except The Kiss. While it lived, there was no Willow and no Noah. Life became the soft swirling of senses fused by the blessing of their enchantment. How long did The Kiss last? Eternity and an instant. Their lips could not part until The Kiss released them to become Noah and Willow, human and fairy, man and woman, separate again.

Willow moved a hand to Noah’s mouth and gently stroked it with her fingers. “Wow,” she said. Noah could only nod his accord.

Noise caught their attention, disturbed their reverie: the teakettle whistling. Willow jumped up to attend to it.

Who cares about tea at a time like this?

Noah’s neck hurt from bending to kiss a little fairy. He twisted it to work out the kinks. Willow likewise rubbed her neck when she returned from the kitchen. They spied each other and giggled together.

“The hazards of loving a fairy,” Noah said.

“Or a cowboy,” Willow said. “Let’s try this.” She sat on his lap with her legs perpendicular to his, with her wings hanging straight down. She put her arms around his neck and pulled herself close to him, bathing Noah in her warmth. They dared return to The Kiss, and lost themselves in its spell.

After The Kiss left them, they sat quietly for several minutes with Willow’s head laid on Noah’s shoulder.

Did we kiss once or was it many times? For a minute or an hour?

A soft crackle floated from the woodstove. Willow stirred and sat up straight. They kissed again, less intensely, exploring, experimenting. Noah caressed her cheek, her neck and then her shoulder, admiring the softness and smoothness of her skin. Illumination appeared wherever he touched her. His hand floated down her chest and caressed her through the camisole. When he touched her breast, she broke off the kiss. Her glow failed, and disquiet filled her, he sensed.

Did I do something wrong?

“What is it?” he whispered. “Should I not…”

“No, no, you’re fine,” she said, shaking her head, but with a halfhearted smile.

“Willow, if you’re not ready to do this, it’s okay.”

“I want to, really, I do. I want you to touch me … all of me.” She lowered her eyes to examine his chin for a moment. “Noah, I haven’t been with a man for a long, long time.” She raised her head. “Your touch … it’s so tender. But it brings back awful things.” Her eyes drifted away, and she touched the scar on her left wrist with the other hand.

If I could just kill the bastard that hurt you, with my own hands.

Noah stilled his rage.

What can I do to help you, my love?

“Sit up straight and look at me,” he ordered. Willow sat up and he placed her hands in her lap. She said nothing, though her face was full of questions. “Keep looking at me, no matter what. Okay?”

Willow nodded.

Noah took a deep breath and let it out. “Did you know this thin, sexy camisole you’re wearing has seven little buttons?” Willow smiled and raised her eyebrows.

“It does,” Noah went on. “I know it does because I counted them the night you came to my motel room. While we sat and talked I counted them fifty times.”

“I’ll bet you did.”

“I did. I really did. Since then I’ve thought about this little row of buttons every day and night. I’ve thought about what it would be like to unbutton them. One at a time.” Willow’s radiance brightened. Noah reached for the top button and without hurry, unfastened it and then let his hand rest on her bare leg.

“One,” he said. Willow’s expression was a mixture of arousal and terror, but she kept her eyes locked on Noah’s. He raised his hand and starting at the bottom, played his way up the camisole to the waiting second button, stopping to twirl each tiny white disk. Her stomach muscles contracted slightly. He unfastened the button.

“Two.” He pulled his hand away for only a moment before his fingers returned and approached the third button. He didn’t touch it but instead parted the camisole and stroked the soft skin beneath. Willow’s eyes flicked down for an instant. “No cheating,” he said. “Eyes on mine.” She nodded. He drew circles on the soft flesh between her breasts, spiraling up to her neck. Her glow spread with his touch and he felt her fear subside as the balance tipped toward excitement.

Progress!

He moved to the third button and with maddening slowness unfastened it.

“Three.” Willow breathed through her mouth, fast and shallow. Noah spread his hand and opened the loose portion of the camisole. His fingers brushed the edges of both breasts. Willow’s breath caught in her throat; the past shadowed her face. “Stay here,” he whispered. Her attention returned and she looked as if she’d forgotten him for a moment. Noah removed his hand and caressed her leg. When she relaxed, he raised his hand to the fourth button, only to feel her tense up again.

“Feel the magic, Willow.” She obeyed, and her passion flourished again. Noah unfastened the button but kept his hand still. She looked at him expectantly, but he didn’t speak. They sat motionless for many seconds. Then Willow spoke, her voice husky.

“Four.”

Noah nodded his agreement. His fingers glided down to the fifth button and opened it.

“Five,” he said. Willow kept her eyes on his. Her terror melted into thrill and curiosity. The camisole was open far enough he could expose her with a simple flick of his hand. Instead, he dropped the hand to her leg.

Let’s see how you handle this…

His eyes left her face and caressed her. He studied her neck, her chest and shoulders. As his eyes moved, he might have been touching her, light erupting at each place he admired. As his eyes stroked the exposed upper curves of her breasts, goose flesh started at her neck and spread down her body until the leg under his hand quivered. She squirmed on his lap.

“Did they teach you how to torture a woman at photography school?” she asked.

“Yes.” He returned his eyes to hers. “The first day. And I did extra credit work in torturing little fairies.”

“I believe it.”

Noah pulled her face to his and kissed her. A long, slow, soft kiss. He secretly unfastened the next button, slipped his hand inside the camisole and stroked her stomach. She started at the touch and pulled her mouth away from his, breathing hard. His face remained close to hers, reassuring.

“Six,” he said.

You’re alright. Trust me.

He released her and she sat upright again. The camisole gapped at the front. Noah caressed her warm belly for a moment, then pulled his hand out of its confines, and moved to the last button. He worked it open, but stopped as the button was about to pull through the hole, so that the slightest touch would finish the task. Willow looked at the button, his hand, the camisole, her nearly bare chest, and then at Noah.

“Should I do it?” he asked.

Fear contorted her features, fear that extinguished her glow. Her eyes returned to his but stared into nothingness. A chill swept through Noah; her demons had returned. He sensed the struggle within her, felt her try to force the fiends away. Turmoil of fear and desire painted her face, moving between the haunting of a past she could not escape and the hope of a future she dare not claim.

Please Goddess, take her pain away.

Noah’s heart ached, but he remained still, for no outside force, no matter how well meaning or how loving, could intervene. The whirlpool of Willow’s emotions besieged him. He held her, to be there when needed, however her battle resolved. Her anguish distracted him and he barely heard when she spoke in a quiet, but firm voice.

“Enough. You’ll rule my life no more,” she said to someone unseen. Her hands clenched into fists. Strain paled her face, but Noah sensed a new resolve, a new strength. Her eyes lit with the present again. Color returned to her cheeks and she smiled. Her face illuminated, and before his eyes, she transformed from the sweet, troubled little fairy with a pretty smile to the confident, strong seductress. A wave of desire, her desire, washed over him as radiance raced down her body.

“Yes. Unbutton it.” Before Noah could move, she grasped the camisole from his hand, opened and removed it, and then let the garment slip to the floor. Mixed with her strong desire was an almost teenage bashfulness and embarrassment. She smiled shyly and blushed at her own immodesty.

“Seven,” she said.

You can be hard to keep up with, little fairy.

Noah gazed at her bare torso, as if for the first time. She waited, seeking his approval or rejection. Finally, she took his hand, pressed it to her bare breast and held it there. She closed her eyes and absorbed his caresses. A fresh emotion bloomed, something he could only call
heat
, which kindled to fire and quickly blazed in Noah’s belly.

Willow’s eyes fluttered open. “They’re mostly muscle, you know.”

Noah laughed and took her head in his hands. “Like your brain, Supergirl.” He pulled her face to his and kissed her openmouthed. When they parted, she viewed him through her eyelashes with half-closed eyes.

“I think it’s time we got into bed, don’t you?” she said.

Absolutely!

“Yes,” he said. He slipped his right arm behind her and slid his left under her legs. Willow giggled and quickly wrapped her arms around his neck as he stood up. Noah carried her across the room to the loft stairway. Despite his dignified intentions, he miscalculated the width of the opening and banged her head on the doorway.

“Ouch!” she said, grimacing.

Real romantic, Noah.

“I’m sorry! Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.” She rubbed the injured spot. “It’s mostly muscle anyway.”

“Guess I deserved that.” Noah tried a sideways approach with Willow’s head going first but he couldn’t see to climb. He turned the other way to try sideways again but then her head would hang down backward.

Willow dissolved into laughter. “Wait, wait, wait! Put me down.”

Noah lowered her to standing position. Chagrin filled his features. “I wanted to make a romantic entrance.”

“Right now, I need some release, sweetheart, not romance.” Her smile was lusty. She stretched up and kissed his chin.

Crack!

She was airborne
.

“Wait—” he said as she floated to eye level with him.

“This is a case where flying is safer. I’ll meet you up there,” she said and broke into laughter. She rose straight up, spinning out of control as she laughed, floated too high and bumped one wingtip against a rafter, which made a sound similar to a beater hitting a mixing bowl. “Ouch!”

“Karma’s a bitch, isn’t it,” Noah said with a laugh. Willow stuck out her tongue and zipped over the loft railing out of sight.

Noah climbed the stairs. “Be careful. I expect you to be able to perform when I get up there.”

In answer, her shorts flew over the railing above and landed on his upturned face.