Strange sensations twisted Keir's gut as he stood in Rhiannon's apartment and watched Cassia treat Rhiannon's wounds with creams that smelled of chickweed, aloe, and comfrey. Blue sparkles radiated from Cassia's fingertips. The burned area lightened and no longer looked charred, yet remained red and blistered.
The feelings inside himâgods, he had never felt this way about anyone in his lifespan. Centuries had passed and suddenly one woman arrived in his life who practically wrenched his heart in two by almost being killed.
“It won't completely heal for a couple of days.” Cassia taped a pad to Rhiannon's chest, covering the burned area. “But it should feel better.”
Rhiannon's chest rose and fell as she took a deep, audible breath. Keir found himself taking a breath with her.
“Who's treating Jake's wound?” Rhiannon asked as she leaned back in her bright blue overstuffed chair.
“Silver and Hannah have him covered,” Cassia said.
Spirit kept twining himself around her ankles and making soft mewling sounds. Keir went to Rhiannon's kitchen, used a can opener, and put cat food in Spirit's bowl. The cat immediately ran into the kitchen, rubbed against Keir's leg, and purred.
“The wound on my chest is already beginning to feel like
it's not there,” Rhiannon was saying as she started buttoning a bright pink blouse over that thing she called a bra. She had showered and her hair was damp. He thought about the ruined T-shirt and the strange body armor that human law enforcement used. He thanked the gods for that armor or his treasure would have been lost.
Cassia gathered the small vessels she had brought with her then paused to look at Rhiannon. “You must speak with your Coven sisters soon,” she said, and Rhiannon's face fell from a smile to a look of sadness as Keir watched her. “I know of the power within you, and it's time your sisters know, too. And of your heritage.”
“I'm not ready,” Rhiannon said in a husky voice and Keir moved behind her and gripped her shoulders as he studied Cassia.
The half-Elvin witch's voice lowered. “You must be ready. They need to know.”
Rhiannon nodded and Cassia smiled at her, then Keir.
“Take care of her, Keir,” she said before walking around them both.
He barely heard Rhiannon mumbling, “I don't need to be taken care of.”
His gaze landed on the carved bird he had given her in Otherworld. She had set it upon a small table at the end of her couch and it pleased him to see it there.
After Cassia slipped out of the apartment and closed the door, Keir massaged Rhiannon's shoulders for a bit and she sighed and let her head loll forward.
When he believed she was a bit more relaxed, he let her go and moved in front of her, crouched on one knee, and pushed her thighs apart to get closer. She wore a short article of clothing she called a skirt, and it showed a great deal of her beautiful legs. It barely hid the soft flesh beneath the material.
“What are you doing?” she whispered as he took her face in his hands.
He captured her mouth in a swift kiss, the only answer he needed to give. Rhiannon moaned into his mouth as he brushed his lips over hers.
Keir rubbed his thumbs over her cheeks as he slipped his tongue into her mouth. She tasted sweet. Like apples and cinnamon from the tea she'd been drinking as Cassia tended to her wound.
Rhiannon moved her hands to his chest then slipped them around so that her palms were on his back. She clung to him like one might cling to a tree limb when being swept down a river. He bit her lower lip softly and she moaned again.
Gods, the feelings inside him had already stolen his breath and swept him down the same river. He could get lost in this woman. A sense of being off-balance, almost dizzy, had him spinning into a whirlpool of desire.
He moved his hands slowly over her body, tracing her curves. She shivered and raised her chest, offering herself to him as he drew small circles around her nipples with his thumbs. He took great care to not touch her wound.
When his palms rested at the indentations at her waist, he drew away from the kiss. Rhiannon's eyes were heavylidded, her mouth moist, and her lips swollen from his kiss.
“Don't stop.” She gripped him tighter and wrapped her legs around his waist.
“I want to bed you,
a stór
.” He stroked her from her waist, past her skirt, to her bare thighs and knees. “I want to be inside of you.” He needed the closeness, needed to know she was alive, to feel her alive. But he said, “I fear for your injury.”
“I'm okay.” Her green eyes grew to a shade of emerald darker than the ones on the High Chieftain's rings. “We can avoid touching my burn. Just take me to bed.”
Keir kissed her hard again, then slipped his hands under her ass while she continued to cling to him with her arms and thighs. He rose up with Rhiannon cradled in his embrace, taking care not to hold her too close. It was but a few strides to make it to her bedroom, where he pushed aside her tangled sheets and blankets with one hand then carefully laid her on the center of the small bed with her head on a pillow. She smiled up at him, and his heart twisted again.
Rhiannon began unbuttoning her blouse as he pulled off her skirt and tossed it aside. She was already barefoot. He went
back to draw down her undergarment but saw she'd finished unbuttoning her blouse and helped her shrug out of it. She had shown him how to unclasp the undergarment that hid her beautiful breasts. If he had any say in the matter, she would wear nothing beneath her clothing. But with Rhiannon ⦠she was so stubborn he did not know if she would do as he requested. Perhaps if he used that word “please” that she seemed to like so much.
When he removed her bra and other undergarment, for a moment he could only look at her. He studied her lovely body from her short auburn hair, to her breasts and the hard peaks of her nipples. The bandage just below her breasts caused a tightness to squeeze his chest.
Keir forced himself not to linger on it and instead swept his gaze from her belly to the full flare of her hips and the auburn curls of her mound. He could already scent the musk of her desire and his cock grew even more painful against his breeches.
“Your turn.” Her smile made his gut turn inside out.
He shucked off his boots, untied his leather breeches, and stepped out of them, then practically ripped his shirt over his head. When he was naked she studied him as he had studied her.
“You are so beautiful,” she whispered.
Taken aback, he paused. He certainly had never been called beautiful before. A great lover, aye, but not beautiful.
Lise's comments came to the forefront of his mind as he knelt beside the bed and stroked Rhiannon's hair from her face.
“I wonder what kind of woman it would take to tame you?” Lise had said.
Was he tamed? The warrior inside him wanted to say no, but his heart said yes.
Keir slipped onto the bed beside Rhiannon, propped his elbow on the mattress, and touched her face with his free hand. He trailed his fingertips along the scars on her cheek and anger flared through him again at the thought that the Fomorii Queen had done this to her.
His anger faded, however, as she brought her hand up to his head, and ran her fingers through his hair. She made him shiver with longing and need from just the touch of her fingers on his scalp and the brush of her hand on his shoulder when she reached the ends of his hair.
He cupped her cheek and brought his mouth to hers. He wanted to take his time and explore every inch of this precious woman. Gods, he could have lost her today. Every time the thought crossed his mind, it made him feel as if a boulder was weighted in his gut.
Those thoughts vanished when she moaned and slipped her fingers around his cock. It jerked in her hand and he bit her lower lip with the promise of passion. She slid her hand further to cup his balls and gently fondled them, making him groan. The need to part her thighs and drive into her was so great that he thrust his tongue hard into her mouth and plundered it like he wanted to plunder her tight channel with his cock.
She gave a sigh as he moved his lips along her chin to her earlobe and bit it. He darted his tongue into her ear and she shivered in his arms. At the same time he moved his hand from her face, exploring the curves of her neck and shoulder to her waist and the flare of her hip. He cupped her ass and drew her closer to him so that his cock was against her belly, his hips tight to hers. But he was ever aware of her burn, and careful not to let their chests touch.
“You are mine,
a stór
,” he murmured as his lips moved from her ear to the softness of her neck.
Rhiannon gave soft sighs and moans as he touched her, kissed her, made love to her. She had yet to admit that her heart and soul belonged to him, but he was certain it was only a matter of time. She was his.
He slid down her body so that he could move his lips to the hollow of her throat. “Has anyone ever told you what a wonderful lover you are?” she murmured.
Keir simply continued his gentle lovemaking with Rhiannon. He had been told many times what a skilled lover he was, but he had never made
love
before. He'd fucked countless
women, but he had never wanted to explore a woman so thoroughly, to become part of her, to cherish her, to please her in a way that would steal her breath and his.
Her fingers slid up his cock to the head, where she stroked the slit at the top with her thumb. “Maybe you're such a good lover because you're part Mystwalker,” Rhiannon said in a teasing voice. “Didn't the Guardian say something about Mystwalkers being known as incredible lovers? Maybe I'll keep you around for a little while.”
Keir grunted as his lips moved over the curve of one of her breasts. He would keep her a long whileâan eternity. He licked her nipple in gentle strokes and Rhiannon gripped his cock more firmly as she cried out and tilted her head back. He almost couldn't breathe from the hold she had on his erection and he sucked her nipple hard in response. That only made her grip him tighter and her cries grew louder.
Keir moved his mouth to her other nipple and licked and sucked it. She sighed, she moaned, she made soft mewling noises. All the sounds made his urgency for her even greater than before.
Rhiannon raised herself up and pushed at Keir's shoulder. He let her force him onto his back as she straddled him, her folds slick against his cock.
“I want to taste you,
a stór.
” He gripped her hips with both hands. “You steal from me what I most want.”
Rhiannon smiled. “You can have your turn next. But first I get to taste
you
.”
With a groan he allowed her to slip between his thighs, her body brushing over his painful erection as she moved lower. When her mouth was level with his cock, she looked up at him and smiled again. With her eyes fixed on his, she slipped his erection into her mouth.
His hips bucked up in reaction. “Gods above,” he managed to get out.
Her mouth was warm and moist and when she softly sucked he let out a loud groan. She fondled his balls with one hand while using her other hand to move up and down his shaft in tandem with her mouth.
He gripped his hands in her short, silky hair and held her while his hips bucked up to meet her. She took him so deep. And the way she watched him while she slid his cock in and out of her mouth ⦠he knew he would climax soon.
“I am going to spill my seed,” he said in a voice so rough he almost didn't recognize it as his own. Rhiannon sucked harder and pleasure radiated around his cock and balls. The intensity of the pleasure grew within him until he felt as though his eyes had crossed and his mind had fled.
His orgasm arrowed through him, to every limb of his body, to every hair on his head. She drew his seed from him until he was so sated he thought he might never move again.
She grinned as she crawled up to lie beside him. “Is my warrior tired?”
His lips twitched and he rolled her so that her head was on the pillow again. “This warrior is always ready for a good battle.”
Rhiannon's head spun with the quick movement as he moved her onto her back. She still tasted him in her mouth. What he was doing to her now. Good goddess! He knelt between her thighs and slowly made his way down her body. He stopped to suckle her nipples and she sighed with pleasure. It felt so good. Beyond good. Freaking out of this world good.
Keir suckled her nipples so hard they grew almost sore from the attention, becoming even more sensitive. His rough palms cupped her breasts, kneading them at the same time his lips and teeth paid attention to her nipples.
She raised her hips in an invitation for him to move to where she wanted his mouth. He bit each of her nipples, then kissed the spot between her breasts. He skirted the bandage on her chest and moved his lips to her belly button. When he darted his tongue inside, she moaned and more moisture flooded her folds. It felt as if her navel was connected to her pussy, and she felt a small spasm in her channel.