I peer through the mossy trees behind us. There, watching from the shadows, a dark figure looms. He’s twice the size of a man, with massive horned antlers and a long, mossy beard filthy with leaves and sticks. Beneath thick brows, his eyes glow green.
“Cernunnos,” I whisper. The beast behind us doesn't move.
I look down at my lover, fear squeezing my chest, but he only smiles, his eyes glinting with mischief.
“Cernunnos,” I whisper again, but he only pulls me closer, pressing his mouth to mine and rolling on top of me, pinning me beneath him.
He’s hard for me again, and my core blooms with a fresh ache of desire, but the beast behind us is still watching. Warning.
My lover breaks our kiss, and I gasp for breath, my heart hammering wildly as the lush, green world around us begins to dim. I try to focus on his face, his lush lips, the thin sheen of stubble on his jaw, those devilish eyes, but it’s all fading… fading… gone.
The lush, sun-dappled meadow is a field of boulders in the moonlight, the tittering birdsong now a rushing river.
“Cernunnos,” I whisper again, but the eyes looking back at me now are no longer the eyes of my mysterious lover from the meadow.
The eyes looking back at me now belong to Baz Redgrave.
Thirty
BAZ
Cernunnos.
The witch shouldn’t know that name.
She shouldn’t be looking at me like that either, wide eyes full of desire, lips parted, cheeks darkening.
But shedefinitelyshouldn’t know that name.
Hell, my heart’s slamming into my ribcage so hard I can barely think straight, but I gotta ask.
“What did you say?” I whisper.
“Cernunnos,” she mutters, delirious, still struggling to break into consciousness. “Don’t. Please don’t.”
I lean in close, my ear brushing against her soft mouth. “Don’t what, Stevie?”
“Don’t. Don’t stop… Don’t stop touching me. Don’t ever stop touching me.”
Oh, fuck, this woman’s about to give me a heart attack. And on any other night, I might just let her do it, too. But not now. Not like this.
Damn it, where the hell is Ani? I turn around and peer into the darkness, but he’s nowhere to be seen. I sent someone to go find him, but half these drunk fucks don’t know their asses from their elbows right now.
The girls, of course, are gone. High-tailed it right out of here as soon as I pulled Stevie out of the water.Fucking Carly.
I shake off the anger, turn my attention back to Stevie. Behind us, the river rushes past, the bonfire nothing but ashes. She can’t stay out here like this—she’ll freeze.
“Wake up, baby. You need to wake up.” Using my sleeve, I wipe the river water from her chin. “Come on, Stevie. Come back.”
She coughs again, then blinks rapidly. When she looks up at me now, I see the recognition in her eyes. “Baz?”
“The one and only.”
“I… what happened?” She tries to sit up, and I slide a hand behind her back to steady her.
“Careful, Stevie. You swallowed a lot of water.”
She clears her throat, then presses her fingers to her lips and closes her eyes. “You… you kissed me.”
