Page 43 of Shaw

“I reckon ’twas your boon, and my thoughts,” he said, leaning over to kiss her brow. “Mayhap the beast made use of us both while seeking vengeance.”

He was always so determined to hate the Big Bad and blame it for everything that went wrong. This time she knew he was wrong, and he needed to see that.

“Come here.” She tugged him onto the bed, shifting over to make room for him. “Why would it go after these people for something that happened a thousand years ago? They weren’t around back then. I know the druids can reincarnate, but your ink could have brought you here any time. If it really wanted to get even, why would it wait so long?”

“I dinnae ken the mind of the beast,” he snapped.

“Yes, you do.” She pushed him onto his back and straddled him. “You know it likes me, and doesn’t want to hurt me. It tattooed me, right? Even if you’re a dark Pritani spirit, you don’t do that to someone you don’t like. It’s the same with you. The Big Bad doesn’t hate you, Shaw. I think it just wants to protect you, and make you happy.”

“What?” Shaw looked outraged now.

She pressed his inked hand to the mark under her breast. “Like this. What do you want to do right now?” She shifted back so she could cradle his sudden and ferocious erection between her thighs. “Have sex with me, right? I really want that, too. When you touch me there my headache goes away like instantly. Hold on.” She reached between their bodies, but his trews were laced too tightly for her to pull them down out of the way. “Note to self: Lark really needs to invent the zipper.”

Shaw’s eyes turned black, and he took hold of her by the waist and flipped her so that she was on her back and he was on top of her. He did that so quickly and smoothly Julianne hardly realized she was pinned down until he tore his laces open with one hand while gripping her by the neck with the other. He wasn’t trying to strangle her, but he was going to make sure she didn’t move.

Because he wants me right this minute. Julianne saw his tats moving over his chest and down his belly, as if they were running away from his arm. I think someone else does, too.

He finally got his trews shoved down to his knees, and his thick, swollen shaft bobbed as he slid back and spread her thighs. Julianne saw his ink spill onto his crotch and whirl around the base of his penis just before Shaw notched his cockhead against her pussy. The cold fire of his tats and rigid velvet of his shaft made her gush as if she had already come.

“Don’t worry about it, Shaw,” Julianne told him when he hesitated. “I know you won’t hurt me. You make me hot, and sexy, and so happy.”

He came into her before the last word left her lips, plunging so deep inside she arched up with a cry of surprised delight. With just her heels and her shoulders against the bed she shook wildly, and he held her against him as he began pumping in and out, filling her with all that glorious girth. Inside her softness the purring, undulating cold heat of the tats seemed to swell, which set off the strangest reaction deep inside her. She was growing hot now, so hot she wondered if she would melt the Big Bad, and then Shaw’s inked hand slid up under her left breast, as cold as if it were covered with snow.

Fire and ice.

The light of the room faded as darkness surrounded her, and moved over Shaw as it turned him completely black from head to toe. He kept plowing into her, his eyes never leaving her face as he took her, but he wasn’t just her guy anymore. Julianne knew this was the Pritani spirit making her see him like this, as if it had come out of his pores to envelope her lover. No doubt it would have terrified another woman to witness such a transformation, but she didn’t spook so easily.

I shall ever possess you, my beauty. His lips didn’t move, and the rumbly, gravelly sound of that voice in her head was definitely not Shaw’s, yet it sounded almost tender. Give me all I wish, and you shall command me as well.

Julianne knew she could give into the fear of this terrifying vision, or she could turn this into an opportunity to get closer to the Pritani spirit. She went with her second option, wrapping her long legs around his as she thought back to him, Be nice to me, and we’ll see how it goes. What’s your name?

Bàs.

She reached up and kissed his black lips, which seemed cooler than Shaw’s. That sounds like the fish. You’re not a fish. I’m going to call you Buster.

You dinnae fear me, truly. He stuffed his black hands under her, lifting her hips as his thrusts slowed. For such I shall give you all you wish, Beauty.

Then give me back Shaw, Buster, Julianne suggested.

The darkness lifted, showing the room again, and the chieftain wasn’t all-black any more. He seemed not to notice anything had happened, and she certainly wasn’t going to tell him. Shaw might stop making love to her, and she was on the verge of an orgasm so huge it might be the best one of her life.

“You shall take us whenever you wish,” her lover whispered against her ear, a deeper tone to his voice. “We’re your slaves now, my sweet merrow.”

“Don’t say that.” She pulled him down and kissed him all over his sweaty face. “We’re in this together, the three of us. Like Caroline and her guys, only more complicated. Oh, that is amazing.”

A little shriek escaped her as he pulled her legs up over his shoulders and began stroking into her so hard and fast it was all she could do not to shake herself to pieces with the pleasure of it. Then a climax swept through her, becoming a rip tide of bliss that took her almost back into the dark again. Distantly she heard Shaw grunting and sensed his big body jerking as he came into her one last time. The jetting force of his seed made her orgasm stretch into a sea of pleasure with wave after wave of sensation. Julianne wondered if she would float away like this forever if she stayed and had Shaw and Buster inside her every night.

Might as well try. She closed her eyes and held onto him.

Shaw woke just before dawn, stunned that he had fallen asleep after loving Julianne. He could not recall the last time he’d slumbered through the night. Somehow his merrow lass had also put to sleep the beast, for it had gone entirely silent and still. Looking down at his woman’s peaceful face where it lay against his shoulder made him want to kiss her awake.

Yet he could not pass up this last chance to find reason in the madness of his past.

After he gently eased Julianne onto her back, he rose and pulled on his trews and tunic before emerging from the shelter. Outside he found two younger druids standing on either side of the entry. Both held scythes with golden blades that had been etched with protective symbols, and had the flat, narrow gazes of much older men.

“You shouldnae wander here late at night, Chieftain,” one of them said. “The tribe doesnae wake until after sunrise.”

“The head of your tribe, he’ll no’ sleep until my lady and I leave your forest.” He pointed toward the dwelling that appeared the oldest. “Fetch him, for I would speak of your outcast brothers that became the NightRiver.”