Mists of Velvet

promise.”
    There was no way in hell he was leaving and not coming back to her. Already he could feel her creeping into his heart. This wasn’t just a case of mind-blowing sex mixing up his brain. This was Annwyn and fate, and the idea of a lifelong mate, a person one could feel in one’s soul—a mate who not only made a person feel loved and desired, but also complete.
    Beware Cailleach.
    He laughed. “You don’t have to tell me. I know she’s been after me ever since she learned of my birth.”
    Bronwnn cocked her head and stared at him. She was obviously puzzled. But then she shrugged and looked away.
    “When is it safe to leave? I have to get to the Sidhe king. There are things he needs to know—important things.”
    It’s never safe. The Dark Times have come, and Annwyn is under their pall.
    “ Mo bandia ,” he whispered, “I have to find Bran. It’s the mage I must speak to him about. It’s important, or I wouldn’t ask it of you. I wouldn’t risk you at all if I could find him myself.”
    Tonight I will take you.
    Nodding, he reached for her and brought her down beside him. She was naked still, and he couldn’t help but admire the view or the fact that she seemed right at home in her own skin. “Thank you.”
    She nodded and wrapped her arms around him. She brought her face to the crook of his neck, and he swore he heard her sniffing his skin. He wondered if he smelled bad. He hadn’t showered, and he’d been in that crypt . . . but then she sighed and let her nose trail across him, and he figured he smelled all right to her.
    “You’re beautiful, you know.”
    She pressed into him, and he kissed her temple. “I love the color of your hair, your skin, the feel of you in my arms.”
    Curling into him, Rhys held her close while his hand began to wander. “Your skin is soft, smooth. Like rose petals.”
    She stretched on his lap as his palm skimmed over her breasts and down her belly. “But you’re softest here,” he murmured as he parted her folds and rubbed her with his fingers. “And you get so wet for me.”
    She squirmed on his lap, awakening his cock. He wanted her again, but it was probably too soon. She had been a virgin, and it was little more than an hour since he’d claimed her. He should probably just hold her and talk with her some more. They had much to learn about each other, and he wanted to know everything, but he couldn’t seem to resist her.
    She didn’t seem to mind, though, and when he raked his finger up the seam of her sex, she moaned and sighed. Slowly he circled her, thumbing her clit as he dragged his tongue up her neck. “Spread your legs; let me see you.”
    Her head tipped back as his thumb circled her and his fingers slipped inside her. She moaned, making a deep, husky sound that echoed in the quiet. He glanced down her body and saw his dark hand between her pale thighs. “You’re perfect, Bronwnn, perfect.”
    He watched as he rubbed her, her golden curls shimmering in the firelight. It was growing dark, the moonlight filtering in through the grime-covered window.
    Slowly he pleasured her, watching every nuance of her face, the way her body moved and her breasts tightened. Her nipples were still reddened from his mouth, and he used his tongue to taste her, to flick. She moaned against his throat and cupped her breasts in her hands, offering them up to him. Damn, she was perfect.
    He suckled her deep into his mouth, the rhythm matching the movement of his fingers. She was wet, his fingers glistening with her desire. Spreading her legs wider, she told him without words what she wanted.
    “Deeper?” he whispered. “Harder?”
    She nodded, then gasped as he filled her deep. Her thighs opened wider, and a shaft of moonlight splayed on her. It was then that he saw the blue tattoo that ran the length of her inner left thigh.
    Leaving her pussy, he brushed his wet fingers against the intriguing design. To his shock, she screamed, and her body went rigid in his arms as if she were having a seizure.
    “What’s wrong?” he shouted, though she couldn’t answer. He tried to let go of her and lay her down on the floor, but she held on to him like a dying man hanging on to a rope.
    Her eyes rolled back, and then her body went slack in his arms. Panic seized him. He was out of his element here in Annwyn. He didn’t know a damned thing about medical shit. Helplessly he realized he could do nothing until she came out of it. Until then, he would hold her and