UNDER HIS SPELL (18 page)

He didn’t give her the chance to respond before curling one arm
around her waist and drawing her up against his chest.
 
His lips savaged hers, licking and nipping
until Skye caught the same spark.
 
She
responded to his intimate quest, pushing against his chest to change their
positions.
 
Rane tumbled to the bed and
Skye straddled his hard thighs.
 
His
hands captured her breasts and her head tipped back on a low moan.
 

“We shouldn’t do this now,” Skye offered one more token resistance.

“But we are,” Rane responded, tugging her shirt free from her
jeans.
 
“I want you out of these
clothes.”

“Then take me out of them.”
 
She held her arms wide.
 
“Use your
magic, wizard.
 
I want to feel it.
 
I want to become a part of it.”

Rane had them both naked in an instant.
 
He slid her down to his thighs and propped
himself up on his elbows to capture the full view.
 
“You are beautiful,” he whispered.

Skye slid her hand down to the full strength of him, closing her
hand around soft skin covering hard muscle.
 
“So are you,” she murmured.

Rane slipped one hand low, his fingers finding her wet sheath.
 
Skye arched her back and caught her
breath.
 
He’d found her, that small point
of flesh which electrified her.
 
His
fingers moved slowly then faster until Skye could only focus on the touch of
his hand and then, the pressure stopped.
 
Panting, Skye lifted to head to look at him.

“What’s wrong?”
 
She
whispered.

“I want to taste you.”
 
He
lifted her, pulling her slowly up his length.
 
He turned ever so slowly, pressing her spine against the mattress.
 
He kissed the inside of her thigh, her bikini
line, allowing his breath to bathe her silky softness.
 

Then he touched her.
 
Intimately.
 
Just a brief taste of
her petal smoothness.
 
Skye breathed out
a long sigh.
 
His tongue swept over her,
circling her, caressing her and Skye closed her eyes as wave after wave of
pleasure washed over her.
 

Their soft sighs combined, uniting in the air.
 
She heard him whisper her name, urge her to
feel each stroke.
 
She didn’t need the
encouragement.
 
Each brush of his tongue
sabotaged her senses.
 
His hands cupped
her bottom and brought her closer.
 
Each
powerful taste brought her closer and closer to the edge until finally, the
orgasm ignited, and Skye screamed out his name.

The release poured over her like a waterfall, engulfing her,
dragging her under until, exhausted, she collapsed back against the bed, her
eyes closed.
 
She couldn’t lift her arms,
couldn’t speak.
 
She felt him slide up
next to her.
 
His hands cupped her
breasts and she turned into him.

He kissed her briefly.
 
“Skye,
open your eyes.”

She did, smiling with feline satisfaction.
 

“You taste like magic,” he intoned in a voice wrapped in velvet.

Skye’s breath stuttered out of her lungs.
 
She leaned in closer, preparing to kiss him,
but he stopped her.
 
“What are you
doing?”

“We need to stop.”

She frowned.
 
“Stop?
 
I don’t understand.”
 
She slipped her hand down between their
bodies and felt his erection.
 
“I know
that’s not your brain thinking.”

He closed his eyes and caught hold of her wrist.
 
“When we make love, I want to be able to take
my time with you, to learn every inch of your body and show you every inch of
mine.
 
I want to know our hearts and our
minds are focused.
 
Right now, we cannot
focus.”

“You seemed to do a pretty good job of faking it then.”

He tucked her hair behind her ear.
 
“You needed the release.
 
I felt
the tension in your body when I touched you.”

“So this wasn’t about making love to me, then?”

Rane grinned.
 
“I do want to
make love to you, Skye, but I knew when I touched you that it was not what you
needed.
 
You needed me to show you the
man you have never seen, the man who will belong to you as much as you will
belong to me.”
 
He kissed her again and
stood, clothing himself instantaneously.
 
“Come.
 
We should go talk with the
others.
 
We have much to learn and…”

“Do you think you’ll ever be as you were down on Earth?”
 
Skye asked as she stood beside him.

He frowned.
 
“How do you
mean?”

“Here you are more the wizard than the man.
 
Just now, I did see that man.
 
I think I like him a lot better.”

Rane took her hand.
 
“We
should go.”

“I’ll take that as a no.”

“I cannot separate the man from the wizard, Skye.”

“That wasn’t the wizard on that bed with me.”

Rane brought her hand to his lips and kissed her palm.
 
“He was there.
 
I simply chose not to let you feel him.”

Skye allowed him to lead her out the door.
 
“You know, I’m not saying I would mind making
love to the wizard.
 
In fact, I’m
thinking that might have a few perks.”

Rane laughed and pushed her on ahead.
 

***

Rane kept a hold of Skye’s hand even when they entered the Assembly
Room.
 
He led her to the first available
chair and pulled it out for her.
 
The
other wizards didn’t comment on her presence and that allowed Rane to relax a
little.
 

Jaxon stood at the head of the table, dressed casually in jeans and
a button-down shirt.
 
He placed both
hands on the table, palms down and called everyone’s attention.
 
“I have asked you all here because of what
occurred when Rane left us last evening and I shall let Rane take it from
here.”

Rane hadn’t bothered to sit down and now, he walked to stand beside
his brother.
 
“We have a new enemy, one
that is not a witch.
 
It is powerful,
intelligent and very intuitive.
 
For as
long as we battled, neither of us did any damage.”

The wizards murmured among themselves, but it was Jensen who finally
spoke.
 
“Son, are you telling us that
there is something out there we cannot defeat?”

Before Rane could respond, the wall slid open and Falcon strode into
the room.
 
“I apologize for my
tardiness.
 
Rane, if you do not mind, I
will respond to Jensen’s question.”

Rane swept out a hand.
 
“By
all means.”
 
He stepped back but remained
standing.

Falcon took position on Jaxon’s opposite side.
 
“His true name is Unger and he is known as
the Master.
 
His powers are obtained from
different sources, ancient witches, decrepit gnomes, whatever he can best at
the moment.
 
As Rane said, he is
intelligent, extremely so, which is why we cannot let down our guards.
 
As for whether or not we can defeat him that
remains to be seen.”

Nexon stroked his long, white beard and surveyed the group of
wizards for a long moment before he finally spoke.
 
“But is his battle with us?”

“Does it matter?”
 
Rane
parried his question with one of his own.
 
“We cannot let this Unger run wild wherever he may be.
 
Not only is he a danger to mortals, but eventually,
he could be a danger to us all.”

Falcon nodded his silver head.
 
“I agree.
 
Danni had a vision this
morning of a terrible battle, fraught with death and destruction.”
 
He said the words bluntly, without
emotion.
 
Falcon dealt in facts, solving problems
quickly and efficiently without allowing feelings to interfere in the process.

Nexon slid his chair back and pushed himself to his feet.
 
“He is after the witch.”

Rane came around to stand behind Skye, placing one hand on her
shoulder.
 
“For now, that is true, but we
have no way of knowing if he will one day want one of us.”
 
He swept his eyes around the table.
 
“Or all of us for that matter.”

“Then I say we deal with it then.”

“We do not back down from trouble simply because it is not our
trouble,” Rane bit out.

Skye lifted her hand to cover one of his, but the reassurance didn’t
quell Rane’s escalating temper.
 

“If we continually invite trouble into our realms, we are no better
than the witches we try to eliminate,” Nexon returned in a placid tone of
voice.

“We shall deal with the situation,” Jaxon inserted in a
brook-no-argument tone of voice.
 
Both
Rane and Nexon quieted, although Rane had to bite his tongue to do so.
 
He’d never felt such consuming fury,
especially directed at Nexon.
 
The wizard
wasn’t the type to challenge anyone.
 
He
could hold his own in battle, but, ordinarily, he didn’t search one out.

Falcon walked toward the only window in the room, his hands open
wide.
 
“Unger waits for us even
now.”
 
He stared out at into the swirling
mist.
 
“I do not believe his fight is
just with the witch.
 
He wants us
all.”
 
He spun around and lifted a finger
to point directly at the center of Rane’s chest.
 
“Especially you.”

Rane pointed at himself as well.
 
“Me?
 
What did I do to him?”

“It is not what you did.
 
It
is who you are,” Jensen finally spoke up.

Rane shot a glance at the wizards gathered round.
 
“We are all the same.”

Falcon chuckled and moved in closer to stand behind Rane.
 
“That is where you are wrong, my young
friend.
 
You are the wild card, the
rebel.
 
Unger cannot trust that you will
fall into line with what wizards normally do.
 
You do not always follow the rules.”

“Really?
 
I find that hard to
believe,” Skye muttered below her breath.

Rane picked up the words and he glowered down at the top of her
head.
 
“He has more reason to fear you or
my brother than he does me.”

Again, Falcon laughed.
 
“Sometimes, it is the unstable ones who you must fear the most.”

“Unstable?”
 
Rane didn’t like
the terminology.

Jaxon joined Falcon’s laughter and strolled toward his younger
brother.
 
He slapped him on the shoulder
cheerfully.
 
“Unstable.
 
Yes, I believe that word adequately describes
you, little brother.”

Rane flicked him a dismissing glance.
 
He’d deal with Jaxon later.
 
“We need to make some plans.
 
Skye wants to take Emily home.”

“She’ll be safer there,” Skye added, “and I wouldn’t worry about
her.”

“You would not stay with her?”
 
Nexon wanted to know.

Rane breathed out slowly to control his anger.
 
“This beast isn’t after Emily.
 
Skye needs to stay with me.”

“Needs or wants?”

Rane slammed back from the table and whipped around to the other
side while Jaxon cleared his throat loudly.
 

“Rane, Nexon, we have to work together if we are to defeat this
creature,” Jaxon called out.

His smile fading, Falcon nodded his head.
 
“Jaxon is right.
 
He knows better than anyone that no one wins
these types of battles.”

Rane took a step back and followed Falcon’s line of thinking.
 
Andion.
 
The pompous, sarcastic, challenging, and in the end, noble wizard who’d
given his life to save Tess.
 
The same
wizard who days before had sought to end it.
 
Rane fixed his eyes on Nexon’s face and saw the slight smile the wizard
bore.
 
“I understand you have doubts
about Skye.
 
I do not.
 
That should be enough for you.”

Nexon steepled his fingers together and peered at Rane over the
top.
 
“I believe you are making a
mistake, but as you wish.
 
I shall say no
more.”

The truce broke the tension in the air, but not the tension inside
of Rane.
 
Even inside the safety of the
Assembly Room, he felt the danger lurking.
 
Waiting.
 
Hiding.
 
Planning.
 
His hands clenched into fists at his sides and he closed his eyes,
attempting to restore the balance of his emotions.

He felt Skye’s soft hand slide along his forearm and he looked down
to meet quizzical, green eyes.
 
He
covered her hand and gave her a reassuring smile, one he didn’t feel, but even
as he did so, the winds outside began to howl, the mist to swirl.