Page 36 of Druid Cursed

CHAPTER

Kellen went still, so still that Maggie wasn’t sure he was breathing.

The wind moaned outside the castle walls and lightning struck the sky, painting everything in vibrant color for a moment.

As thunder vibrated through the stones, he lifted his head and met her gaze.

Silver glittered in his eyes, a last reflection of lightning.

“Be very, very sure,” he said in a low, gravelly voice. “Once you tell me aye, there is no rescinding.”

“No refunds, no exchanges.” She managed a shaky smile, her entire body humming with need. “I got it.”

He barked a laugh. “I am certain you do not.”

“I believe you, every impossible word you’ve told me.

” Maggie reached up, removed his crown of leaves and berries, and placed it on her own head.

She planted her hand on his chest, directly over his heart, and a shudder rippled through his big body.

“You tell me the truth, even when it would be easier to lie. You don’t pretend to be something you’re not.

When you look at me, it’s as if you see…

just me. All of me, every imperfect corner.

” Her pulse fluttered, struck by the deep certainty of that confession. “And you still don’t look away.”

Something primal and possessive flared in his eyes, and he took her mouth. The kiss was nothing like the others and everything she wanted. Hot and hungry, a maelstrom of lips and teeth and tongue, as if she were a feast to be devoured and he’d been starved for weeks, months.

Centuries.

The press of his body into hers, all the hard planes and angles fitting so right against her softness, lit a fire in her blood, and she couldn’t get close enough to him.

Maggie slipped her hands under the hem of his shirt, flesh on flesh, exploring the ridged landscape of his stomach.

Good lord, he was finely made, and the muscles jumped and flexed beneath her touch.

“Maggie,” he groaned her name as he blazed a burning trail down her neck with his lips.

Kellen slid her wet coat off her shoulders, and the garment dropped to the floor at her feet.

His large hand squeezed her hip as he dragged her damp sweater aside, exposing her shoulder to the warmed castle air.

He kissed the length of her collarbone and returned to where her neck met her shoulder.

She closed her eyes and bent her head to give him full access, and when his teeth clamped down, she sucked in a sharp breath.

The mixture of pleasure and almost-pain shot explosions in her breasts, stomach, and core, unlike anything she’d ever experienced, and she didn’t question why, whether it was the magic, the primitive, dominating act itself… or the man. Maybe it was a combination.

She didn’t care. She was the torch and Kellen the flame.

He released his bite and licked the sting away with lazy strokes, as her body throbbed in time to the hedonistic beat of his heart.

In the next breath, he lifted her, guiding her legs around his waist. He pressed her hard against the wall, his hips grinding into hers, a delicious friction to all her aching spots.

“Since the moment I saw you wandering in the garden, awash in moonlight, my dream come to life, I have wanted you like this,” he said, his voice hoarse.

“Wrapped around me.” He moved his hips in a slow, torturous circle, and she couldn’t stop a moan.

“Your lovely, perfect mouth on me.” He nipped her throat in sweet, stinging bites.

Maggie dug her fingers into his shoulder and gripped a fistful of his soft, silken hair.

“I cared not if you started at my elbow, so long as you ended here. With me.” Keeping her gently but firmly captive, he held her gaze. “You are mine, Maggie O’Malley. Neither centuries nor curses have the power to alter that truth.”

The shocking inevitability of his words, the ancient power sparking in his black eyes, should have warned her. Instead, a thrill of something traveled through her bones and settled in, making itself at home. She didn’t want to examine it, not right now. She couldn’t even if she tried.

His gaze, savage with need, never left her face as he took the weight of her breast in one hand.

She sucked in a sharp breath at the graze of his thumb over her nipple.

Electric shocks fired through her nerves.

He lazily caressed and kneaded, watching her intently as though he memorized every reaction.

Maggie closed her eyes, and her head lolled back against the wall, lost to his touch.

“I have waited too long to put my mouth on you here,” he murmured. He gently bit down through her sweater, a tug that went straight to her core.

Her eyes snapped open. Hell .

Cupping her ass with both powerful hands, he carried her toward the fire as if she weighed nothing more than a feather pillow.

He claimed her mouth again and fanned the flames he’d already ignited.

As he set her on her feet again, he slipped her sweater up and over her head.

The air pebbled her skin with goose bumps.

Kellen tucked one finger under the shoulder strap of her bra, his expression one of wonder.

Thank God she’d packed one sexy number of red lace and silk.

When she was with Kellen earlier, she’d wanted to feel sexy around him, even if he couldn’t see it.

“I know not the purpose of this contraption, but I heartily approve.”

She grinned and unclasped the back hooks. “I won’t torture us both by letting you figure out how to get it off.”

“A knife would—” He broke off as she let the bra fall, his gaze on her bare breasts. “ Breathta . You take my very breath, leannán .”

“You say the best things…”

Her humor faded as he made quick work of his shirt buttons and shrugged free, studying her face the entire time.

Firelight accentuated the dips and valleys of his torso, the cut lines of his arms and shoulders.

He was perfect, all strength and power. She wanted to touch him everywhere, wanted to memorize every ridge and scar so she could recognize him even in the deepest dark.

He unbuttoned his trousers, offering a peek at the tempting mysteries beneath.

His abdominals flexed, dusted with black hair, as he hooked his thumbs in the waistband.

He slid his pants over his lean hips, the curve of his thick thighs, lower, and she sucked in a breath.

Her mouth went dry at the evidence of his desire bobbing with each of his movements.

Every hard, male inch of him was a masterpiece.

An impatient groan rattled in her throat, a sound so close to a growl she could hardly believe it came from her.

“Maggie.” Her name was a guttural plea, and his eyes—holy hell, his eyes—were mirrors reflecting a different realm, a different time, where magic ruled and fairies played.

“When you look at me thusly, my restraint frays. Would that I had the patience and control to pay appropriate homage to every detail as you deserve, but alas. I fear that is not possible this night.”

His words awakened a part of her that had been hibernating until this moment.

That she affected him in such a profound and fierce way blew her mind, gave her a confidence she never had before.

Holding his stare, she wrapped her fingers around his arousal, marveling at the feel of silk over steel.

She stroked him, gauging his reactions just as he’d done with her earlier.

Kellen released a ragged breath, and his eyelids dropped to half-mast. His hands curled into fists at his sides, as if he fought not to throw her down and ravish her. It was a powerful, wonderful feeling.

He muttered a curse, and in a heartbeat and a squeak, she was on the soft rug. He crouched, tugged her pants and underwear off, and tossed them aside.

Going still, he gazed at her body as if she were the eighth wonder of the world. “You are lovelier than even my imaginings.”

The passion in his features, the dark need in his eyes, kicked her heart into a staccato beat.

He kneeled by her feet and kissed, nipped, and licked a reverent path up her calf and thigh.

She squirmed at every touch. His hair caressed her, and the heady scrape of his goatee made everything clench and throb.

He leisurely worshipped every inch of exposed skin, wringing sounds from her she didn’t even recognize.

If this was his idea of fast, she wasn’t sure she could bear his version of slow.

Maggie twined her fingers in his hair, urging him to hurry.

He merely laughed against her skin, low and sinful. “We have all night, leannán .”

“But I want you right now— Ohh! ” she gasped as he brushed the wet heat between her legs.

A snarl erupted from him. He dipped a long finger into her core, and she cried out, arching into his hand, needing more. The gentle scratch of his goatee on her thigh was the only sign she got before he licked her center in one slow, torturous trail.

Her back bowed and her hips jerked. At the smooth glide of his tongue, she squeezed her eyes shut. The chaos of sensation became borderline unbearable, and she couldn’t remain still. Maggie squirmed, held in place by his powerful hand flattened on her belly.

And when he sucked on her most intimate spot, she tried not to crush his skull between her knees as her world split and shattered into a thousand mindless pieces.

…

Kellen’s vicious need for Maggie—amplified since the moment she unexpectedly entered his castle like a selkie, soaked with rain and looking at him with blatant desire—threatened to rip his skin.

Her taste enchanted his senses, and her bewitching reactions to the barest touch—every whimper of need, the subtle shift of her hips, her fingers desperately clutching his hair—ignited an inferno in his blood. She was an entire millennium worth of dreams breathed to life.

Mine.