Earth's Requiem(38)

She let go of him long enough to fumble with the fastenings of her pants, undo one boot, and free one leg. When she reached for his pants, she saw he’d beaten her to it. Aislinn pushed Fionn onto his back. Wrapping a hand around his shaft, she straddled him and then guided him inside her. The shock of his body within hers rocked her. She’d had plenty of sex, but never, never like this. Orgasms crowded against one another till she wasn’t sure when one ended and the next began. His hands gripped her hips. She heard breath rattle in his throat, color splotched his face and chest. He cried her name, voice hoarse with need, before his own release took him. Fionn shuddered inside her for a very long time.

Aislinn collapsed over his body. He stroked her back and her hair, murmuring wordless endearments. “Look at me,” he said at last.

She pushed away, feeling cold where his body no longer lay against hers, and rolled into a sit, legs tucked beneath her. “I’m looking. What I see is beautiful.”

He colored. A tender smile tugged at the edges of his mouth. “That’s not why…” he began. Fionn shook his head, levered himself up, and sat across from her. He laid his hands on her knees. “I’m of two minds about your plan to go to Taltos alone, but I do think it’s better than letting them see us together. Especially after what we just shared.”

Realization raced through her. Like books and maps, relationships were also on the best not do it list. No one had any problems with humans having sex. They just weren’t supposed to develop feelings for one another. One more way to keep us isolated. And them in control.



He must have divined her thoughts, because he laughed wryly. “Oh, it wouldn’t have mattered whether or not we actually fucked. They’d sense that we lusted after each other. It would make them…uncomfortable.”

Intuition chimed a sharp note. “That’s not all you want to tell me.”

He nodded. Smiles and laughter gone, he looked serious as death. “You will not do anything to jeopardize yourself. You will come home to me.” He moved one of his hands from her knee and closed it about her wrist like a vise. “I will not lose anything more to them.” Because he’d stopped shrouding them, heat from his emotions seared her.

She swallowed. This was what she’d feared—and wanted. He cared about her. And I care about him. Christ, I hope this wasn’t a mistake.





Chapter Nine


If Fionn was one type of problem, Rune had been another. To say the wolf was not pleased by her plan was an understatement. He’d run off into the woods and shielded himself so she couldn’t find him.

“I’m afraid he’ll track me on foot,” she said to Fionn, returning after a fruitless hour hunting for the wolf. “After all, he knows where the place is.”

“We have some time yet.” Fionn’s deep voice sounded reassuring.

“I suppose we do. There’s nothing magical about me showing up at the gateway tomorrow. We can wait him out, but it makes me nervous setting up a camp so close to Taltos.”

“Hmph. They’ll probably think we’re spying on them,” he concurred, scratching at his beard. “Um, taking your bond mate with you isn’t such a bad idea—”

She whirled to face him. “What if something happens to him?”

Fionn tipped her chin upward with a finger. Their gazes met. “Something could happen to any of us. It’s why we’ve avoided…entanglements.”



So I’m not the only ambivalent one here. “Guess I just haven’t gotten used to having an animal companion.” She prevaricated, finding it easier to focus on her feelings about Rune than the jumbled mess inside her whenever she thought about Fionn.

“They’re pretty good at taking care of themselves.” He smiled. It was a toned-down version of his ten thousand-watt grin, but it still made her guts go all mushy.



“Rune,” she tried again, using mind speech this time. “Come to me.”

“Mistress.” His voice dripped censure.

“I am not your mistress. But I’d like to be your friend.”

“Then stop trying to foist me off on others. We are bond mates for a reason.”

“Can we talk about this?”

“We are talking. If you’re trying to get me close enough to trap me, forget about it.”



She looked at Fionn. “Did you hear that?”

“Every word.”

“What do you think?”

“Rune definitely has a mind of his own. I say we ask him what he thinks of your plan and take his counsel into consideration.”



The wolf sauntered out of a grove of blue firs. “At last, a human with sense.” He growled, keeping his distance from her. His hackles were at half-mast, his amber eyes chilly.