Eclipsing Dawn (Dusk takes Dawn) (5 page)

"Atreyu?"

A pause.

"We’re set and ready steady. Please inform Mr. McKinnon that I’ll be sending his sapphire back directly. He prefers FedEx, isn’t it?"

She scratched at her forehead and decided to remove her wig. Her baldhead shone beneath soft, bluish overhead lights when the scratchy thing came off.

"Overnight it is." A pause. "What was that?"

Teeny pumped a bit of lotion into her palm from the bottle on her desk and rubbed it into her itchy scalp.

"Yes indeedy, you were right. A bad reputation comes in handy when you’re wanting a pair of justice loving detectives to steal your blood without feeling bad about it."

Pulling a FedEx box from a nearby shelf, she grabbed Mr. McKinnon’s sapphire and dropped it in.

"No, I didn’t tell them they might break both curses tonight. You want to give them performance anxiety?"

Disarmed by the charming Mr. Atreyu, she clutched his ruby close to her heart.

"Of course, I know how important tonight is. But don’t you think they’ll do better if they think they’re only having a bit of fun? I’ve seen them in action and, believe me, they’re exceptional at…
fun
."

The wait nearly killed her. Dawn couldn’t risk being late. Not tonight.

After leaving Teeny, she’d rushed home, bathed, and flat-ironed her hair into glossy sheets of chestnut parted down the middle. It’d taken two outfit changes to get her looking good. She hoped she looked good because she’d actually changed clothes six times. All right, seven but the importance of the night allowed for a girly indulgence. Or eight.

She’d settled on a printed wrap dress in shades of lavender, violet and periwinkle to bring out the honey in her skin. Duncan’s gift of a strand of chunky, pearlescent gray beads adorned her neck. Make-up wasn’t necessary. Her man didn’t like it. So, only a coat of apricot lip gloss topped off the look.

Now she sat cross-legged on the roof at the foot of Duncan’s statue. Waiting in the same spot she’d been in since getting dressed hours ago. She rolled the crystalline ball between her palms and whispered her hopes and desires into it. If she’d done things right the magic would prove true. If not…

Her chest tightened as though it would collapse upon itself when the sun set. She lifted her dirk off the rooftop beside her and laid the sphere in her lap. Slicing her palm proved easier than she’d thought. Purpose gave her strength and afterward she dropped the dirk, retrieved the ball, and pressed it into the fresh cut. The magic in the amethyst pulsed with a living heartbeat.

"Bring my man to me." She breathed life into the incantation. The intent, not the words, mattered most.

Once she’d finished she couldn’t move. She might as well have been stone. She had closed her eyes when she chanted the spell and no matter how much she willed them to open, her eyelids refused.

Whether time froze or moved forward, she couldn’t say. She’d gone numb. Even the weight of the crystal in her hands had disappeared, and silence clogged her ears.

Nothing.

Then sensation rushed her senses like she’d come into the world for the first time. Every sound, scent, and feeling heightened to their most sensitive. Her veins pulsed in symphonic resonance. She felt truly alive in a way she hadn't before, but she didn’t have the nerve to open her eyes.

The knuckles of a single finger brushed along her cheek. She stopped breathing.
Please let him be real.
A tear slipped from between her closed lids. Dawn had no idea whether she remained frozen in a marble-like state or if she simply couldn’t to move.

A manly exhale washed over her and she opened her eyes by increments, too afraid she’d deluded herself.

Her man crouched before her, his arms resting on his knees, hands overlapping at the wrist to hang between his legs. He smiled with a glint of white teeth. The amethyst crystal glowed faintly as it floated overhead, and magical lights flickered across the sky in sets of bursting aurora borealis. Dawn cried full out. They’d stretched the moment between Halloween day and All Hallows Eve and claimed it for their own.
The magic worked!

Damn it. The witch with a capital ‘B’ wasn’t supposed to cry but she couldn’t stop.

Duncan moved so quickly she had no idea how she’d wound up in his arms, cradled like a child with her face buried in his neck.

He felt marvelous. The smoothness of his skin barely contained the strength in the man. His potency didn’t stem from his muscles. It radiated from his being.

"Causing my woman to break into tears the minute she sees my face isn’t good for my ego." He waited a moment. "You should probably stop," he said, his voice more thrilling in life than in any recording.

"I can’t." His neck muffled her words and his scent, aromatic wood and mountain air, muddled her brain.

"How much time did Teeny say we have?" he gruffed.

"More than two hours, less than four."

He shifted, burying his nose in her hair. Breathing deeply, he nuzzled her ear. "If I know her at all, she meant roughly three hours."

Dawn tried to merge her body into his. She curled more tightly around him and squeezed his neck to breathe in his natural cologne. "Not enough time."

"No," Duncan said. "Not enough time for me to love you as a man of Clan Craig does his beloved. No time to pamper you. To cook the foods you like most and watch your eyes light up." He slowly released her legs, letting her body skim down his. "I won’t have the chance to cuddle up with you in my lap while we read your books, or to take you hiking and carry you home afterward because you’re too tired to walk back."

Her feet touched the rooftop, but Duncan kept his arms wrapped firmly around her waist. Dawn laid her head against his chest and synced to his rhythm, breathing in and out with him.

"Dammit, Dawn, open your eyes." The softness of his voice belied the command. She did as he wanted.

Her breath caught. He looked so damn good. His blue-grey gaze blazed a trail over the features of her face, lingering over her lips and rising to meet her eyes.

"There will be no date nights. No romantic movies I hate or rowdy Craig cousins you can't stand because they come over too often and stay too long." He laid a kiss on her forehead. One of his hands slid into her hair at the base of her neck. Inhaling deeply, he rested his face near her temple.

"Three hours isn’t long enough to love a woman like you properly, my jewel." His sudden growl shocked her and Dawn pulled back to stare at him. He took her face in his hands and kissed her quick, his expression ferocious. "But fuck it. I’ll take it. I’ll take it and thank whoever I have to for the best damn three hours of my life."

Joy leaped into her throat, but she only managed a short cry of elation. Duncan gently shook her. "Are you hearing me?"

"Yes."

"Good, because there’s only one way to show you how much I love you in the time we have." He leaned in and nipped the tip of her nose. "And you are fucking up my timetable."

They laughed together.

Their romance had started with laughter. The sound filled Dawn to bursting. She’d always thought ‘filled to bursting’ sounded corny, especially when she’d read it in books. Now she understood. Duncan had taken over her entire world. His feelings for her and hers for him filled her until anything else would bust her at the seams.

Gradually, Dawn noticed the heavy bulge pressed into her belly and liquid lust fueled the glow of love. Duncan sniffed the air. Dawn caught a glimpse of his wicked smile before he spun her around. Closing his chiseled forearm across her belly, he held her in place, pressing his erection into the small of her back

All breath escaped her. His voice licked the curve of her ear. "Should I tell you what I’m going to do to you?"

Dawn exhaled slowly. "Yes, but first--," she said, turning to reach for the fly of his jeans. She wanted to free him, to lick and suck him into oblivion. Duncan grabbed her hand and firmly planted her backside against him. She protested deep in her throat.

“First,” he said, growling the words into her ear. “I’m going to punish you.”

“For what?” she whispered.

“One, for sexually harassing me while I slept the stone sleep. Two, for practicing on a surrogate Duncan.” He ground his hard body into her. “I consider that cheating.”

“He was you.”

“Not quite. If you want lessons, I’ll teach you.” He nipped her earlobe with a sharp edge of teeth. “Lastly, you’re going to pay for making me waste time explaining why I’m punishing you.”

Duncan’s tone allowed for no argument. His command of the situation titillated her and once again she didn’t refute him.

"Did you bring the mirror and the blanket?" he asked. She panted and gyrated her butt into his muscular thighs. She loved the forceful edge to his voice. It turned her on. She could only point across the rooftop.

The mirror had slipped her mind. It leaned against the far wall where she’d left it, like Duncan had directed in one of his text messages. He gently pushed her away from him, slapping her ass when she’d gotten a couple of steps away. "Lay the blanket out in front of the mirror."

Dawn glanced over her shoulder, giving him a sidelong look on a slight pivot.

"Now." Duncan crossed his arms in expectation.

Duncan watched his jewel sashay across the roof and spread the blanket out in front of the mirror. She had an ass he wanted to sing about, and her sway showed it off to perfection.

He forced himself to remain motionless while she did what he’d demanded. A foreign cocktail of emotions bombarded his system and, yeah, he’d admit it, overwhelmed him. He’d known lust before. Hadn’t every Craig man? Lust and Craigs were peanut butter and chocolate. They went well together. But love. Love, he didn’t expect. He couldn’t have known how much that unforeseen emotion would amplify his desire to the point his dick felt like a fire hose, not one to put out flames but instead would burn this
fuckin’
building down.

Love was an eighteen-wheeler. It had run him over and backed the hell up for a second pass.

But he hadn’t admitted the most important thing, not even to himself. He realized it as he watched her obey him. All this time he’d been driven by an overriding need to possess her, to take her over more completely than any man ever had. Or could ever hope to. He’d blamed the compulsion on the ancient warrior in him. But no, his need to bend Dawn to his will came out of dread. He secretly feared that if he didn’t prove himself her equal then his brilliant, powerful woman would judge him lacking and leave him behind. Duncan could never allow that. Dawn belonged to him.

Before he realized, he’d closed the distance between them. She rose from laying out the blanket and he encircled her waist with one arm, pressing the tantalizing softness of her body to his once more. She gasped and sighed in contentment as he bent to her ear. Duncan shuddered at the sound. He relished her joy and planned to sustain the sentiment for as long as possible.

"After your punishment, I’m going to take you down on all fours and fuck you like an animal on the prowl. Tell me you understand."

"Yes, Duncan. I understand." She trembled.

"After that, maybe I’ll let you give me head."

"Let me?" Her voice rose dangerously at the end and her eyes narrowed in their mirrored reflection.

"Did I stutter? Or did you forget who I am?"

She bowed her head. "As you wish." A smile played at the corner of her lips and his erection jerked at the sight of it. "And after that?" she asked.

"That," he said, fitting his knee into the back of hers and pushing her down until they were both on bended knee on top of the blanket, "is a surprise."

Dawn would’ve said more if he hadn’t reached under her dress and torn the thong she wore free. She gasped. He took hold of her chin and placed the small scrap of material in her mouth. While she looked on in bewilderment, he ripped a strip of cloth off one side of the blanket and used it to gag her.

Her eyes rounded in objection but he looped his hands beneath the shoulders of her dress and pulled her bra straps down until the C-cups rolled under and pushed her breast up high.

The growl he emitted surprised him, his fingers were deft in removing the necklace obstructing his view. "You’re so pretty, Dawn." he said, filling his hands with her satiny softness.

Duncan’s many fantasies hadn’t prepared him for how good she felt, how her throaty moans behind the gag fueled his ego. Or how much he ached to fill her, to make her moan, to watch her face in orgasm. His fingers rolled her nipples. His nails teased them into even tighter peaks. "Everything about you is too pretty."

He placed a kiss at the base of her spine, while he rubbed the curve of her sweet ass with his right hand. With his left he slipped under her dress and pulled the gift he’d given her free. Her body made a sexy sucking sound as the dildo slid out and she arched her back.

The feminine scent of her arousal caused his body to buck unwittingly. He clenched her hips with the sex toy still in hand and counted to fifteen, allowing the painful rush of blood filling the head of his cock to fade to a dull ache. Duncan’s heartbeat pounded inside his head and the rhythm steadied him.