Page 37

Severin

My wings beat just enough to keep us aloft, my shadows lifting Hannah, stroking her, holding her exactly where I want her. She looks glorious like this, washed in moonlight and flushed with pleasure.

I lick Hannah’s sweetness from my lips, salt and tang and woman. Tasting her is every bit as good as I imagined, an addiction I never want to cure.

“See how good we are together,” I say. “What just happened wasn’t because our magic joined. It wasn’t my aphrodisiac seed. No, everything that just happened was purely due to my hunger for you, and yours for me.”

Her beautiful brown eyes meet mine, full of longing and an emotion I can’t name. Yet it calls to me with a siren’s song, pulling me forward. I want to lose myself in those eyes, lose myself in her .

But first, I need her to agree, to see our attraction is real.

“You came all over my face, your pretty little pussy clenching my tongue. Then you came all over my shadows.” I brush her cheek with my fingertips, trailing them down her neck to tweak a nipple. “Tell me you want my cock. Tell me you want me .”

“I do.” She swallows and licks her lips. “I want you.”

“Good girl.” My shadows slide over her as I pull Hannah into my arms, her legs wrapping around my hips. The head of my cock glides over her stomach, and she gasps as my aphrodisiac starts to work, grinding against me, her wetness soaking my thigh as she bears down.

“Oh, god. I need…” her voice trails off into that moan that drives me wild.

My erection leaps, leaking more fluid onto her. My mouth takes hers, nipping at her lips, drinking down her gasps of pleasure like the finest of wines.

Her skin slides against mine, softer than Faerie silk. I am enraptured. I am undone. My little witch has enchanted me fully.

I lift her higher, sliding her wetness up my length in a hot rush of pleasure. “Goddess, you feel so good. You’re so wet for me.”

We rock together, hovering in the privacy of midair, where nothing can touch us, nothing can interrupt. Here, there is no town to worry about, no other people to satisfy. There is only me and her and this all-consuming desire I have to claim her.

The moon lights her features, letting me see every feeling flickering over her expressive face. Wind lifts our hair, swirling around us and cooling my exposed skin. But where we touch… Goddess, where we touch, we blaze like an inferno.

My hands grip her thigh, her hip, pulling her into place, my shadows coiling around her.

“Severin.” Hannah whispers my name like a prayer as the shadows slip from my cock and glide across her skin. Two more grip the base of my erection and slide the head up and down her folds, wetting her with more of my seed.

Hannah clings to my neck, her mouth falling open, her little heels digging into the backs of my thighs as she climbs my body, bringing me right to her entrance.

I slide into her sweet depths and groan at the heady sensation of her squeezing me. “My Hannah, my good girl, you feel so exquisite wrapped around my cock.”

Her muscles tighten, the pressure amazing, and my hips jerk forward. Over and over, I pound into her, loving the way her velvet heat clutches at me, just as greedy for this as I am.

My magic rises, met by hers, and that wonderful feeling of connection wraps me as tightly as Hannah’s lovely thighs.

It surges back and forth between us, combining a little more with each pass, blossoming outward into a greater whole.

I wanted tonight to prove we don’t need this magical connection to bring us together, but I feel as if everything we’ve shared until now already proved my point.

Now that it’s begun, I cannot regret it, because our magic combining makes every sensation more intense.

Hannah lets out her breathy little moan, making my length leap within her.

Goddess, I will never get enough of this woman, of the little sounds she makes, of her gasps of delight.

I kiss her again as my shadows swirl outward from the base of my erection, stroking her clit and sliding into her ass. The sensation of filling her in two places nearly undoes me.

“Oh, god,” she sobs, her entire body trembling. “Oh, Severin.”

“Feel me. Feel my cock and my shadows filling you everywhere, stuffing you so full,” I growl, plunging deep. “Take my cock, take it all like a good girl.”

Her magic flares, mixing with mine in an added layer of sensation that goes beyond the physical. Hannah’s mouth goes wide as she screams my name, her muscles pulsing around me as I thrust again and again, riding her through her orgasm.

My balls tighten as my climax hits, the heat and pressure of her sweet depths pure pleasure. I jerk part way out, my shadows wrapping the base of my length as my knot swells, ready to lock her to me, to claim her as mine.

Soon, I promise it. Soon I will make her truly mine.

She clings to me, and I support her with my shadows as my hands stroke her back, her soft hair. I tip up her chin, enjoying the satiated look in her dazed eyes as I press kisses to her trembling mouth.

The cool night air becomes more noticeable now that we’re still, and before she can become chilled, I slip the rest of the way from her and magic our clothes back into place.

Then I scoop her up in a bridal carry, and she curls her arms around my neck and rests her head in the crook of my shoulder.

A slow glide carries us toward Hannah’s cottage.

Her soft breaths tickle my neck in long, gentle exhales as if she’s already falling asleep.

When I land in her front yard, she gives a sleepy murmur of protest as her hand pats at her dress. Not finding what she’s looking for, Hannah’s eyes snap open. “Oh, no! I left my keys and phone in my other clothes at Haute and Bothered.”

“Not to worry.” I send my shadows slipping into the lock, shaping them into a key. The door clicks open, and I carry her inside, using another shadow to close the door after us.

Her home is built on a smaller scale than I’m used to, having grown up in a palace. Yet it feels comforting instead of smothering. It’s a warm house, a lived-in space, full of little touches of Hannah: the art on the walls, the colorful rugs on the floor. I like it.

She points down the short hallway, guiding me to the bedroom.

As I stride across the floor, I whisk her clothes away.

Hannah gives a breathless little laugh, and I send a shadow tendril racing forward to pull down the bright-purple comforter so I can lower her onto the bed.

When I try to straighten, she keeps hold. “Stay.”

“Are you certain?”

She nods.

I’ve never spent the night with anyone before, never wanted to. It’s a level of intimacy I’ve never known. But goddess, do I want it with her. The lingering echo of our magic combining twangs in my chest.

With a flick of my fingers, I banish my clothes and crawl in beside her, wrapping her in my arms as a shadow tendril pulls the covers over us.

Hannah burrows into my side, her head pillowed on my shoulder, and makes the sweetest little sound of contentment.

Goddess, that sound undoes me. No one’s ever simply held me before or taken comfort from my presence. I don’t know what to do with such trust.

She falls quickly asleep, but I lie awake for several hours, reveling in the new feelings my little witch has brought into my life.

I slip from the bed as the first rays of light strike the windows of the bedroom.

Hannah’s nose scrunches up in the most delightful way as she mutters something incoherent and rolls into the spot I just left. She lets out a happy sigh, her body relaxing as I pull the comforter up over her shoulders. I hope she’ll sleep long enough for me to offer her one more surprise.

Rune steps out from behind a tree as I open the cottage door. We share a nod, then I’m off, flying toward Ferndale Falls and the promised breakfast I arranged with the brownie last night.

The tulips stir when I land on the green, pulling their little root feet from the soil to race over to me, flower heads bobbing. I take a moment to brush my hands over their soft petals, sending little trickles of plant-healing energy into them.

“Much better,” I say. “Continue to rest in your beds each night.”

A flock of mourning doves land on the other side of the green, and the flowers race away, as curious as small children.

The birds startle at first, lifting a few feet into the air to come down a couple of yards away.

The flowers approach more slowly, long leaves reaching out to pet the birds’ backs as the doves peck bugs from the damp grass.

Morning sunlight strikes the bright-pink front of Cake My Day, making the bakery glow like a beacon guiding me through a rough sea of lumpy porridge to the safety of a perfectly baked loaf of bread.

The bell over the door gives a happy chime when I open it. Past me would have hated that noise. New me reacts like a trained dog, salivating at the thought of the treats within.

My conjurers did an especially good job refurbishing the building to Pepperpot’s standards, and the brownie’s hearth magic did the rest. Little round tables painted in soft pastels fill the front of the room, each surrounded by chairs in contrasting colors.

Small vases full of wild flowers top each table, and murals of mountain meadows covered in those same flowers decorate both of the side walls.

But the real stars of the show are the two glass cases that stretch across the back of the store, shelves filled with the most delectable baked goods known in all the realms. One contains various sweets, and savory breads line the shelves of the other.

The smell of yeast and sugar teases me with the promise of perfection. My stomach gives an angry rumble, and I think I even drool a bit. Goddess, the last several weeks have been severely trying, but now that I have access to a brownie baker again, anything seems possible.

Pepperpot bustles from the kitchen, a tray of raisin-dotted sweet buns held before her. “King Severin, was everything all right with dinner? You left before you said.”

“Dinner was excellent.” I tip my head in thanks. “I merely wanted to partake of your breakfast offerings as well.” It’s a lie. There’s no “merely” to it—I would do bodily harm to anyone attempting to keep me away.

She slides the tray into the sweets case. “What would you like?”

I pause. I’ll be happy with anything, but what will Hannah like best?

Skipping over the cookies and cakes for now, I focus on the breakfast offerings. “One of each.”

Pepperpot adds sweet buns, rolls, and pastries of various types to a paper bakery box. When she gets ready to fold the top closed, I say, “Go ahead and add an extra of the item you consider your best.”

“They are all my best.” She spears me with her little brown eyes.

“Then I’ll take an extra sweet bun.”

I eat it on the flight back, unable to resist, still shadow fae enough to be unable to wait.

But Hannah laughs as I climb onto the bed and reaches out to wipe a bit of icing from the corner of my lips. “That good, huh?”

“The best.” I flip open the lid of the wide box, filling the room with the combined smell of the treats, heady and sweet.

Her eyes go wide as she scoots upright, tucking a sheet around her as she reaches for one of the swirled buns. Taking a big bite, she moans, “Oh, god, this is the best cinnamon roll I’ve ever had.”

She glances at the box and must notice there’s not another of the same type, because she extends it toward me. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to hog it all.”

“It’s clearly your favorite.” Instead of taking the roll, I push her hand gently toward her mouth. “I want you to enjoy it. I can try one another day.”

She smiles and takes another bite, umming happily, unfazed by my actions.

Yet shock courses through me the moment I realize what I’ve done. I’ve schemed to get these brownie baked goods for weeks, and here I hand them over as if it’s nothing. When have I ever given up any kind of delight to please another over myself?

Never. Until her.

Sleeping beside her all night, holding her in my arms with no immediate thought of carnal pleasure, enjoying simply being with her…

I didn’t think myself capable, yet now I have to wonder. This strange feeling in my chest, this joy I feel every time she smiles… is this love?