Page 26 of A Dance with the Fae (Mistress of Magic #1)

He began running the length of his tongue up and down her, from the opening of her to the top of her clitoris, lapping her gently like a thirsty dog.

He knew that soft, regular movements and a gentle growing intensity of pressure was what she liked, what felt good to her, and somehow it continued to feel to Faye as if she was reaching a plateau, approaching an orgasm that never came.

Instead, every moment, every breath, was a continuing orgasmic moment.

Suddenly, he stopped, and stood up. He held out a hand for her, and guided her gently to the bed. Laying her down on the silky material, he kissed her, and she tasted herself on his lips.

‘You did very well,’ he murmured. ‘I know that was difficult for my little sweet one. She has been so patient with me playing with her. But I enjoy playing with my little doll so very much,’ he breathed.

She wanted him inside her so badly by now that she could no longer control herself at all. She kissed him deeply, and reached for him. He was hard with desire for her, and he moaned deeply as she moved her hand gently up and down.

‘Faye. Faye, bruadarach, neach-gaoil ,’ he murmured, opening his eyes to meet hers. His fingers stroked her, but she was so wet now, so swollen and ripe and full of pleasure, that they could find no purchase except to slide inescapably inside her.

‘Not yet,’ he said, and pulled her back to him.

He took one nipple in his mouth and licked and caressed it with his tongue, while stroking her clit gently.

Faye felt herself close to orgasm almost immediately, and he seemed to know, because he stroked her more slowly and returned to kissing her mouth and neck.

‘Please. I want…’ she gasped.

And as she was moaning loudly, lost on the waves of desire and pleasure, he pushed deep into her.

He filled her totally, and their bodies fit together as if they were one. He groaned, growled, deep in his chest and held her tight as he thrust inside her deeper and deeper.

‘Now, you may come,’ he whispered in her ear.

Faye had no consciousness apart from pleasure; the hot, sweet orgasm rose from her like an unstoppable wave, reaching higher and higher as Finn stroked in and out of her slowly, deeply.

She was with him under the waves again, in the rolling of the salt water that was their sweat and saliva; they were the power of the ocean, and they were life and death and pleasure combined.

Finally, she shouted for him to come into her as hard as he could, and felt herself clutching and biting his shoulder as her climax came, bigger than she had ever had before.

Her whole body was aflame; pleasure screamed and sang in her stomach, in her elbows and toes.

She was screaming his name and other words she had no awareness of.

She came again and again against him, feeling him deep and hard within her, returning his urgent, hot kisses as he called out her name, mixed with the Gaelic words she did not understand.

And yet, at the same time, woven among her cries of ecstasy, Faye felt an undercurrent of danger.

Perhaps it was because they were in the faerie realm, where time operated differently, but there was an uncountable moment when Faye saw a darkness open up around her.

It was like being at the bottom of the ocean, and she felt the terror of drowning.

And in the second before she opened her eyes to return to her body, Faye remembered the expression of Levantiana’s human lover, lost in a desire he could never control.

The moment of darkness was fleeting, but Faye came back to her body with a sense of foreboding that nestled alongside the pleasure of being next to him, feeling his skin against hers, and dismissed the visions – of drowning, of the ocean, and of Levantiana’s human lover – as a moment of mindlessness.

They lay entangled in each other; he kissed her forehead, the end of her nose, her fingertips.

Her heart felt as it never had: open, raw, like a rose that had bloomed before time, and it hurt a little from the intensity of their connection.

She felt tears start in her eyes, and wiped them away.

But the ache wasn’t pain or regret; rather, it was a sadness that she had waited all this time to know this kind of pleasure.

He kissed away her tears.

‘What troubles you, neach-gaoil ? You are safe with me. Do not be frightened. You are my lover now; remember, mine is a broken heart that needs to heal. Be happy that you are doing that.’ He put his hand on his heart, then on hers.

‘Here. To here.’ He kissed her again tenderly.

‘There is a bond now, not easily broken. I enjoy playing with you, just as you enjoy being played with, my sweet one. But our union is more than that. You know that it is.’

‘I…I haven’t known that before,’ she stammered, trying to grasp on to some kind of clarity.

‘The love of a faerie king is not something that many mortals will ever experience.’ He gave a soft chuckle.

‘Why me, then? I am half faerie, so you say. Why is that so significant, if it’s true?’

‘It is true. And it is very important. You are important: to the future of Murias, and the future of all the faerie realms. You have a special magic in you, Faye, that I doubt you know exists,’ he murmured.

‘And we can make each other whole, if we let ourselves trust each other: human and faerie, in balance, as we should always have been.’

‘There was something in my Grandmother’s grimoire about the rule of balance,’ she said groggily.

‘The Rule of Balance applies between the faerie and the human worlds. Each world depends on the other to exist, and there is a natural ebb and flow between the realms. If one realm seeks to overpower the other, chaos reigns. If they work harmoniously together, peace reigns.’ He quoted it exactly as she remembered reading it.

‘This rule is the most important of all. And it is, sadly, a balance that has been lost.’ He sighed, and circled his fingertip lazily around her right nipple.

‘This is causing great conflict between the faerie realms. A war is here, because of it. A war that humans know nothing of, but that cannot be kept from your mortal lands for much longer.’

‘A war?’ she asked sleepily. Though somewhere inside her she was deeply troubled by what he was saying, she was struggling to stay awake.

‘Yes, my sweet sidhe-leth . A war that you must help us end.’ She felt him kiss her gently. ‘But that is for another day. Sleep now, my love.’

She started to dream as he was still talking. Images flitted in her mind’s eye, nonsensical combinations of faerie creatures, cartwheeling, dancing, twirling. Faeries fighting, with long swords, terrible, savage weapons.

‘I will adore you, Faye Morgan, if you do me the same kindness,’ he whispered. ‘Give me the whole of yourself and I will give you the world. I will give you everything that my kingdom can command.’

But in her dream, Faye was at sea on board a boat built for war, and Finn’s voice was the sound of screams in the water.