Текст книги "Once in a Blue Moon"

Автор книги: Delilah Devlin

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Текущая страница: 3 (всего у книги 5 страниц)

Chapter Four

Ethan braced himself for her screams. She was a witch. Delicate. Meant to be protected from rough souls like himself. Tales of trolls kidnapping witches were told by mothers to daughters as cautionary tales.

Trolls devoured witches. Trolls broke their birdlike bones in their stony fists.

And yet she lived. She lay against the cushions, her breaths coming in quick pants. Her thighs still spread. The wet gleam of his seed drying on her luminous skin. Not only did she live, she’d shouted her pleasure despite the fact she’d figured out there at the end that she’d been tricked.

He wanted to shout. To drag her up and over his shoulder. To carry her into hiding, away from Others. To have her at his mercy again and again. Her heat was addictive. Like heroin to a human. He understood that now. He’d never willingly release her.

And yet his satisfaction with his victory was tinged with regret. Bryn’s face was pale. Her eyes watery. Her mouth trembled. Her entire body was shivering in the aftermath.

He reached for her, intending to draw her against his chest to comfort her, but she scrambled backward. “Don’t. Touch. Me.”

His face hardened. “You do understand what this is? What I’ve done?” he said, keeping his voice even.

Her head shook. “It’s not a claiming.”

“And yet you’ve taken my seed.”

“And I can fix that,” she ground out.

He went cold. “You will not.”

Again, she shook her head, this time so hard her hair waved around her shoulders. “I don’t concede.”

“Those aren’t the rules. Concession isn’t required. I marked you.”

“And yet,” she said, tilting her head to glance up at him from beneath her lashes, “there was no echo of your victory.”

Ethan held still, realizing what she said was true. The skies weren’t rumbling. The ground didn’t shake. He sucked in a deep breath. “You’ve already been claimed. By whom?”

Her smile was without humor, a thin-lipped curve that made his chest tighten nearly as much as her brimming eyes. “I was claimed by Merrick.”

Ethan sat back on his haunches. “The hellhound?”

Bryn nodded. “I escaped. We all did.”

“Your sister witches were also claimed?”

She shook her head. “Betrothed. When they saw how I fared with Merrick, we plotted.”

“It’s impossible to escape the bond. How could he not track you?”

“We made use of another blue moon. All our entreaties concentrated on one desire. Freedom. And now you’ve ruined it all.”

“There was no echo when we climaxed. If you and your coven already broke the bond—”

“We broke nothing,” she shouted, her voice harsh. “We simply hid our trail. Muted it. But now that you and your friend know, our secret will leak out.”

Ethan squared his shoulders. “Then I’ll face him. Force him to release you.”

“He’ll kill you,” she said, her voice thickening with tears. “And then he’ll kill me. For betraying him and making a fool of him when I escaped. And my sisters will be returned to their owners.”

“A witch bond isn’t enslavement.”

Bryn snorted and a tear ran down her cheek. “It is when you belong to a council member. They’re entitled bastards. They don’t respect us.”

His jaw tightened. “And how did you fare with the hellhound?”

Her glance fell away.

His stomach dove. “I meant no harm to you.”

“And yet you have.” She scrambled to her knees and wiped her eyes with her fingertips. “Renner?”

“A draugr.”

Her mouth curved into a bleak smile. “And my sisters are all bent on seducing him.”

Ethan raked a hand through his hair. Damn, he wished Renner hadn’t been so eager to lay claim to the coven. “We should get back. You’re about to have more company.”

Her eyes rounded. “What have you done?”

“I invited friends of ours.” Her expression was bleak, but when he stood and held out his hand, expecting her to ignore it, she laid her hand inside his.

“Ethan?” she asked, raising her face to stare him in the eyes.

“Yes, Bryn?”

A shaky breath blew through her pursed lips. “You have to protect me.”

“I will.”

She squeezed his hand hard. “You have to protect my sisters. You stole my choice and have likely filled me with your child. But I will make a bargain with you.”

A flare of elation filled him at the mention of a child. And something in the set of her chin, in her stiffening posture told him she wasn’t going to lament her fate any longer. There was hope she’d agree to their union. “What do you ask?”

“Don’t give them away. Accept that you’ve become my family, just as they are mine. And that it’s your responsibility to protect their free choice.”

Such a bargain was unheard of. Free choice? For witches? “You’d sacrifice yourself for them?”

Her gaze locked on his face. “Will it be a sacrifice, me giving myself to you?”

Ethan reached out both arms, challenge in his eyes. Bryn didn’t shrink from him as he brought her against his chest. He bent and brought his face close to hers. “If you surrender everything to me, I will fight with my last breath to give your sisters the choice of their mates.”

“And if they don’t want to accept one?”

“Then they will become part of our household.”

Still studying him, her gaze narrowed on his eyes.

He held his breath, not wanting to let her see the snarling beast inside him. She stared so long, he began to worry.

But then she rose on her tiptoes and reached behind his head to bring him the rest of the way down. Her nipples scraped his chest. Her mouth was an inch from his. “Then I am yours.”

It was a dangerous bargain. Outside the strictures of their society. But then he was a troll. Already an outcast, damned by his birth.

“We’d better hurry.”

The house was eerily silent when they stepped inside the kitchen. Bryn gave Ethan a questioning glance, but he shook his head. He took her by the hand and pulled her behind him as they made their way to the parlor.

Inside, she halted. The room was crowded with men. Others. She knew because each was perfectly formed as only otherworldly creatures could be. They appeared happy to see Ethan. So they were friends of his. She hoped he’d stay true to his word. Although now, she worried he might be torn to pieces when he told the group they couldn’t take the women.

Her sisters sat, four in a row on the couch, their hands clasped together, eyes wide as saucers. When they saw her, they all began shouting.

“They’re demons.”

“Ethan’s one of them.”

“They’ve come to claim us.”

“Fucking bastards.” That last comment came from Darcy whose green eyes flashed.

Bryn shook her head, telling them silently to be quiet. Then she bowed her head.

Her sisters gasped at her submissive gesture.

Ethan’s arm encircled her waist. He tipped up her face. “We made a bargain, and it didn’t include you bowing to my will.”

Her gaze clung to him. What was he doing?

His glance swept the men gathered in the parlor. There was over a dozen of them—dark and fair, burly and lean, all with shining eyes. Renner’s sea-bright gaze was so intense, she wondered how they’d missed the fact he was Other. All of the men shared the same hard-edged, feral look. Their expressions had grown shuttered, their gazes watchful. Even Renner, who had seemed so easygoing, was frowning.

“There are complications,” Ethan said. “Bryn was already claimed. But we’ve mated. She tells me she may already be pregnant. Her sisters,” he said, nodding to the quiet women, “are mine to protect.”

Renner stepped forward. “You’re keeping them? All of them?” he asked, his voice rising.

Ethan’s frown was fierce. “I won’t be bedding them. But they will remain in this house with us. And they have my protection. I’ve promised Bryn that her friends will be given their choice of mates.”

The expressions of all the men darkened, fierce scowls that made gooseflesh rise on Bryn’s arms.

Ethan squeezed her hand and glanced down at her. “Bryn was previously mated with a hellhound. Merrick, to be precise. And since you all know his reputation, you know that when he finds us, he’ll try his best to kill me. You have no obligation to stand with me. If you leave now, you won’t be implicated.”

Bryn offered him a small smile and then they both turned back to the group.

Renner’s gaze shot to the women. His frown eased as he gave each a thorough glance.

Bryn knew what he saw. Four very frightened but determined women.

He raised his head to meet Ethan’s stern glance. “I’m staying. I’ll help you protect them.”

There were murmurs from the group, but they stepped forward one by one and gave the same pledge.

Renner smiled ruefully. “For a low-life troll, you’ve certainly reached high.”

“As a bottom-dwelling draugr, you aren’t exactly standing on my shoulders.”

In truth, if all the men in the room were friends to a troll and a draugr, they were from the lowest echelons of demon spawn. It was easy to see that ambition to rise higher than their birthright and their kind had bonded them.

Ethan gave a nod. “So be it. Every woman will have three guards. You’ll work in shifts. One at night, two during the day. And we have to continue the bridge project.” His gaze went to Renner. “You make the assignments.”

Miren cleared her throat, drawing all the male gazes to where she sat on the couch. “Since we’re the ones who have to put up with you constantly underfoot, don’t you think we should choose our own bodyguards? I run a shrimping outfit. Who among you doesn’t lose his breakfast on a boat?”

Renner’s grin stretched. “I’m a sea-draugr.”

Two more raised their hands. “We’re mer-folk.”

And so the assignments were made according to common interests and powers.

Finding beds for all of them proved more challenging. The women took Bryn’s remaining empty rooms. Pallets were made up for the men in the upstairs hallway and on the porch, with one man stationed inside each of the witches’ rooms. Something the women seemed entirely too excited about.

“Sisters,” Bryn hissed after she pulled them into the kitchen for last-minute chat. “I know we’ve been without male company for a while, but you’ve been offered a gift. Don’t allow them to romance the right of choice out from under you.”

“So says the woman who has twice been claimed,” Darcy said with an arch of her red brow.

“Claimed once by a monster. As you well remember.” She sighed. “Please, take your time. We don’t know these men. For now, Ethan seems to have them roped in, but they’ve all caught your scents. We can’t have them challenging each other for your hands.”

“It’s not like we have to choose only one,” Miren said, but then pressed her lips into a narrow line at Bryn’s frown. “Just sayin’.”

Her sisters giggled.

“True,” said Darcy. “And how does one choose between a dragon and a gargoyle?” Darcy ran a crafters’ cottage, complete with pottery wheel and kiln. Her choices had naturally aligned with stone and fire.

Radha giggled. “The satyr offered to let me sheer his fur to make yarn on my spindle.”

Bryn couldn’t help it, a smile tugged at her mouth. “So long as you realize that the moment you accept a mate and he claims you, that the echo will sound.”

“Merrick and his friends might already know,” Aoife said. “How can we trust that every one of Ethan’s friends will keep his silence?”

“There are plenty of games we can play without risking an echo,” Darcy said with a graceful wave of her hand. “A little play might bind them closer to us.”

A rap sounded on the kitchen door. Ethan pushed through it. “The men are ready to bed down. It might be best for the women to retreat to their rooms.”

The sisters shared charged glances. “If anyone cries out,” Bryn whispered, “we shall all answer.”

They nodded, and then the women trailed out of the kitchen, leaving Bryn alone with Ethan.

Bryn sighed. “This is—”

“Complicated,” he finished. “I know. But you can trust me.”

“And should I trust the others?”

He arched one brow. “You don’t think they all fear a troll?”

She shrugged. “I suppose. I’ve never seen you in your true form.”

“And you won’t. Not unless I have to protect you.” He held out his hand. A hint of his earlier arousal was there in his dark eyes. “I’ll be staying in your room.”

Not a question, but she nodded, agreeing. “Of course.”

“Kahn and Sigurd understand that so long as they watch over you during the day, they are free to woo the others.”

She jutted her chin. “You didn’t offer them the chance to share?”

His grunt was wickedly masculine. “Do you really think you could handle more than me in your bed?”

She remembered the immense pressure. She was sure, once she was accustomed to his girth, that just the act of him entering her would be enough to set her off. “No. I don’t want another lover. And we have a bargain. You’re free to include that stipulation.”

“Then I will. Come to bed.”

As meek as a lamb, she allowed him to lead her through her house and up the wooden staircase. She passed the girls’ rooms, heard laughter, smelled the heady mix of testosterone and estrogen, of arousal so thick her own body began to warm, her breasts and pussy to thicken with her stirring blood.

She stepped around the pallet of blankets and quilts that Kahn had made for himself outside her door. He was jinn, and his talents would have more naturally aligned with Radha’s, but Bryn understood her sister’s reluctance to accept his proximity. He was seduction incarnate when he smiled. His mouth was sensual and mobile, his black eyes filled with mystery. He’d probably scared the dickens out of Radha.

“Sigurd’s on the porch,” Kahn said. “He wants to run in wolfskin tonight.”

She nodded, uncomfortable with the way the men talked openly about their true selves after having suppressed her own for so long except in front of her sisters.

Ethan followed her into her room and began to disrobe.

She stiffened.

He studied her face and stopped when he was wearing only his boxer briefs. “I’ll sleep on top of the covers.”

She shook her head. “We’ve passed that point. But this is an adjustment for me.”

“And I told you before we mated that I’d respect your right to tell me no.”

“I can’t tell you that,” she said, her eyes beginning to well with tears. Her need was strong. And he knew it. A tremble shook her frame and she gasped.

There was understanding in his eyes. Perhaps a little sympathy. A witch’s heightened state of arousal when in the company of a mate wasn’t something she was prepared to fight. Especially not when she knew the pleasure he would give her.

She turned and lifted her hair. And just as he had in the gazebo, he moved closer and pulled down her zipper.

Chapter Five

Ethan stripped her quickly, taking care with her pretty dress, but not so much with her underwear. It lay shredded on the floor at her feet.

“You’ll have to replace those,” she murmured as she glanced over her shoulder.

“You won’t be needing them again, ever.”

While she’d been frightened the first time she’d seen the greenish glow in his darkly hooded eyes, now the intensity of emotion that forest-green light betrayed only fueled her own passion. “You’d allow other men, human men, to see the prick of my nipples?”

His response was a deep, rumbling growl.

She smiled and turned to face him. “Can I tease you? Or will you unleash your inner self?”

“I’m in control. Always, Bryn. You’ll come to no harm with me.”

“And if I want a glimpse…?”

He gave a curt shake of his head. “You should know I’ve worked hard to curb my impulses. I don’t pounce, even when provoked. I don’t accept that side of me. I’ve seen the wreckage of lives a troll can leave in its wake.”

She gave him a small nod and then surrendered to the need to touch him. She smoothed her hands over his hard chest, raking her fingers in the dark hair cloaking his skin. She glided over his shoulders, following the ripple and curve of his arms.

She traced the shape of a tattoo on his shoulder and leaned to take a better look.

A rounded circle with scrolled legs. A troll cross. At its center, was the Nordic P-shaped rune—thorn. Which marked him as a protector. If she’d seen this in the gazebo, she’d have known exactly what he was even before she’d noticed the green glow of his troll eyes.

Leaning toward him, she licked a small flat nipple, enjoying his reaction, a shiver of delight that quivered down his belly. She followed that shiver, bending to trail her tongue over his ribs, licking along the curves carved into his muscled abdomen, an eight-pack that jumped and tightened the lower she traveled.

He fisted his hands in her hair but didn’t tug her in any direction. He allowed her to explore. So she went to her knees, roaming hands over his sides and hips. She nipped the skin of his lower abdomen, swirled her tongue in his navel and then nuzzled his sex, breathing in his earthy musk while she brushed her cheeks against the curling hairs coating his groin.

His half-hard cock stirred, filling steadily, rising upward without a kiss or a lick of encouragement. She sat on her haunches and stared, following its progress as it unfurled and straightened.

He was massive. Thick with gnarling veins rising like vines up the shaft. Fantastic for an inner massage, she thought. Her mouth watered and she rose on her knees to smooth her cheek up and down his length, rubbing on the soft, stretched skin, breathing in his scent, which drew a wet response from her. Her sex was growing engorged, hot and aching. She placed a heel beneath her pussy to press against it while she stuck out her tongue to lick her way up to his swollen crown.

Openmouthed, she wagged her head and circled him without latching around him, swiping her tongue over his surface as she learned how he tasted. Salty. Musky. Manly with a hint of grass. Troll.

Her bracelets jangled as she wrapped both hands around his shaft and tilted his cock toward her mouth. Working him with sideways twists, she closed her lips and drew hard on him, sucking, her tongue exploring the texture of his cap, finding the eyelet opening and teasing it.

She glanced upward to find he’d thrown back his head. The tension in his strong jaw had muscles rippling along the edge. She sank deeper, taking more of him into her mouth, and gloried in the hard scrape of his nails against her scalp.

“Enough,” he growled, shoving her backward. She landed on her rump, legs sprawled.

He glanced down, his chest billowing with deep breaths.

The sight of him, so large and so intensely aroused was its own magic. She pushed up from the floor, walked on trembling legs to the bed and bent over the mattress, stretching out her arms to sink her hands into the soft cotton coverlet where they bunched.

He followed closely behind and molded his hands over her bottom, his grip not the least gentle, rotating her cheeks, together, apart, while his feet nudged hers to widen her stance. And then he bent over her, hands braced beside her shoulders.

He licked her. A long swipe from the center of her shoulders upward. Another growl sounded, and she smiled, knowing if she looked back she’d see the animal, the troll peeking out of his glowing eyes.

His cock slid between her cheeks, gave her a grind that made her breath catch. Goddess, she wanted him. Wanted his thickness inside her. Wanted his strength overwhelming her. She wanted to be taken, used…fucked hard and long.

And she didn’t want him holding back. Didn’t want gentleness or restraint. He believed his inner demon was an animal. Well, she wanted that ogre-like strength and ferocity hammering right between her legs.

He clapped a hand against her swollen pussy. “Witch.” He thrust a thick finger inside her. “Wet.”

So he was past stringing words together. A good sign. She bumped up her ass, gave it a wag. A blunt, lewd invitation.

His torso came down on top of her, pinning her beneath him with his weight. “Stop,” he bit out.

She reached back and clawed at his neck, clutched his ears and pulled while she tried to buck.

He gave a low growl and pushed his cock against her opening. He angled his hips from side to side as he worked the blunt head into her pussy. “Hot,” he rasped, “Fuck.”

She sobbed with excitement, raked him again with her nails. “Fuck me, Ethan. Just fuck.”

He arched upward. Gripped her hips. A strong push forced his cock deeper, another push made her hiss between her teeth because he was doing it, giving her exactly what she’d incited him to give.

He began to thrust, each deeper than the last. Her channel heated with the friction and stretch. Moisture seeped around him, coaxed from her core, easing his intrusion. The sounds he made as he pumped, the choked, rasping growls as he churned inside her, made her whimper, had her mewling with pleasure and painful urgency.

She reached behind her, touched his hip and scratched again, nails biting into his skin, demanding more of his rough, plunging movements.

The bed shook, creaked and then scraped on the floor as it shifted with his hard strokes. She was there, almost there, not needful of a finger sliding on her clit.

Suddenly, he pulled away. Left her. She pushed up and glanced behind her. His eyes glowed, his frame was thick, muscles clenched, veins tracing the contours of his arms and thighs. Sweat gleamed on the ridges of his chest and abdomen.

His hands were curled into tight fists and his face was screwed up into such a fierce, frightening scowl, she knew he was barely holding on. She backed off the bed and stood, quivering with need and want but knowing he’d never forgive himself if he hurt her.

Not trusting herself to speak because she knew she’d beg, she pointed toward the bed. He stalked closer, butted his chest against her and hung his head, his expression so terrible, so beautiful her chest tightened, stealing her ability to breathe. “Lie down,” she whispered. “Grasp the rails. I’ll give you what you need.”

His face descended. His mouth was curled in a snarl, but he nuzzled her cheek, sent harsh gusts of breath into her ear. A shudder shook his tall frame, but he backed away, gave her a blistering glare and then sat on the bed, lay back, reaching his hands upward to wrap around the spokes of her headboard.

She hoped the thick oak dowels wouldn’t splinter. When he was staring at the ceiling, she climbed onto the mattress, lifted a thigh and straddled his hips. Rising on her knees, she reached for his cock, fisted it with her hand and guided it to her folds.

Just like her dream. She bent over him, pushed down on him and felt the enormous pressure as she crowded downward, taking him. Something was missing.

She glanced at the curtained window, raised a hand in the air and jerked it, causing the curtain rings to glide on the metal rod. An upward flick of her fingers raised the window. Wind rushed through the opening. Moonlight drenched the bed and their bodies.

She shook back her hair and stared down at him. “I’m a witch, but not as delicate as I appear.” Leaning back, breasts thrust out, she drew the moonlight, wrapped it around her body, let it cloak her and sink into her skin.

Then she bent over him and pressed her lips against his snarling mouth. It softened beneath hers. He angled his head and returned the sweet pressure, added suction to his kiss, suction that pulled the moon into his body.

Their communion was sweet and hotter than anything she’d ever shared with the hellhound. Wind gusted against the window, blew inside, lifting her hair and whipping at the tendrils. And still, they kissed, until she heard a rumbling, not from her troll, but from the shuddering of the floors beneath the bed.

There were shouts outside their bedroom, footsteps pounding on oak floors and then the door, but she and Ethan were sheltered at the center of the storm. Static crackled. Electricity arced.

He released the dowels and clamped his fingers on her buttocks. They broke the kiss as the storm heightened, clouds stealing through the open window to push against the ceiling, flashes of light brightening and then darkening in their misty depths.

In the back of her mind, she knew what was happening. Knew there was danger. Knew this was impossible. She’d already been claimed. She’d already mated, and yet here they were at the center of the new storm, a binding that echoed through the ether and heralded a new beginning.

A new beginning with a new mate and a resounding stamp of approval from the Powers That Be. Bryn decided to let go of any doubts she’d held about what they were doing. She’d trust in the Goddess and the demon watching her so closely now.

She smiled, loving the curve of his mouth as he stared up at her. He moved his hands from her hips to her breasts and fondled the pendant dancing between her breasts—the mother symbol, bloated with child. Bryn closed her eyes, breathing harder when he moved to tweak her nipples, pulling and pinching the tips, drawing them into exquisitely aroused points before smoothing downward again.

The roar of voices in the distance receded as she bent and braced against his chest. His bruising grip lifted her and shoved her downward, again and again. They pushed together, drew apart, catching the rhythm of their heartbeats, the pace of their deepening breaths.

Below, her sex clenched around him, ripples moving up and down her inner channel, caressing him, accepting him, gripping him and holding him inside her.

She dug her fingertips into his skin. “I’m there,” she whispered.

“We’ll soar together,” he said, his voice deep, echoing around her. “Once bound, we’ll never part.”

He’d said the words. She had no time to gasp. He rolled them and came over her. Quickly, he shoved up her legs, forced her ankles to lock behind his neck and then he took over, pistoning inside her, faster and faster.

Tears leaked down her cheeks, her hands roamed his face, touched his shoulders. How could this be? This perfection, this brilliant storm. When the moment came, she dug the back of her head into the pillow and screamed as licking fire and static flooded her body and blackness closed around her.

Ethan sagged against her as his balls clenched and he emptied himself inside her.

A thud sounded against the door. He lowered her legs and covered her with his body.

The frame gave, the door splintered, and Renner and Khan fell through the opening, the women and more of his men crowding into the room to stare at the clouds now dissipating, wisping away.

Darcy shoved past Renner and stood with her hands on her hips, glaring at Ethan, her glance going to Bryn’s slackened features. “What the hell have you done?”

Ethan raked a hand through his hair and leaned on an elbow to allow Bryn to breathe more easily. “She’s mine. Claimed. Blessed by your Goddess. There can be no arguing my right.”

Darcy’s eyes filled and dropped to Bryn. “Is she even breathing?”

Bryn’s sex pulsed around his cock, a sexy caress that caused him to stir inside her again. An aftereffect, he knew. She was still unconscious. “She breathes.”

Renner shook his head. “Well, if they didn’t know where we were before, the council’s seeress can point them straight here now. Others in this area can’t have missed the echo.”

“You all came prepared for battle,” Ethan said, frowning at the group still hovering inside the room.

Beneath him, Bryn moaned. Her eyelids drifted sleepily open. Her mouth began to curve as she looked at him, but then she glanced to the side. “Oh Goddess, we’ve gone and done it now.”

Ethan laughed. He couldn’t help it. He was filled with elation.

Bryn’s mouth tightened. She glared at him and slipped her hands between their chests to cover her breasts.

He sighed and reached down to pull the edge of the covers over their nude bodies, although all that was visible of her was sprawled legs. His entire backside had been in full view.

Not that he minded one bit. Theirs was an openly sexual society. Uninhibited by humans’ odd rules regarding modesty.

Her sex clenched again, and his body began to relax, enjoying the feel of her beneath him, of the warmth and wetness that surrounded his cock. “You should leave,” he said, not looking at his men or the sister witches, but at Bryn’s stark gaze.

“Sorry about the door,” Renner muttered.

Their audience shuffled away. The door creaked on strained hinges and several hard pulls finally closed it.

Ethan settled his elbows on either side of Bryn and gave her a nudge with his thickening cock. “There’s more.”

She shoved at his chest. “This is all my fault,” she said, her voice a thin wail.

“How is it yours? I’m here too. And I think I did most of the work.”

The corners of her mouth turned downward. “I wished I’d never been claimed by Merrick. Last night, when we drew down the moon. I wished it. Wished you were Other. That we could be together. I wished for a child.”

“So many wishes…” He smiled inside. She’d wanted him even thinking he was human. For more than just his seed.

“I’ve put us all in danger. Stupid. Stupid.” Tears gleamed in her eyes.

“Bryn, we can’t fight fate. But I will fight Merrick and anyone else who comes for you.”

Her eyes glittered with unshed tears. She blinked, sending one sliding into her hair. “The echo…” She shook her head. “It was so much stronger this time.”

“Because we were meant to be.” He felt it to his toes. Which was why he couldn’t be concerned about repercussions. About what their lovemaking might bring down on them all.

He pushed back the covering and slid his hands beneath her body, down to the sweet round curve of her ass. He gave it a squeeze and flexed his hips, reminding her they were still connected, and that he wasn’t nearly finished.

“We should join them,” she said, gasping. “Plan for a defense.”

“There’s time for that. Later. We shouldn’t disappoint your Goddess.” He lowered his eyelids. “Are you sore?”

She wrinkled her nose. “I have a tree trunk shoved up my vagina, what do you think?”

He grinned. “Are you too sore?”

Bryn huffed. “This is what it’s going to be like, isn’t it? You lolling in bed. Wanting to fuck morning, noon and night. I’ve heard tales about you trolls.”

Ethan nuzzled her ear. “And every one of them is true,” he whispered. Leaning on one elbow, a hand still clamped on a soft buttock, he began to rut in shallow thrusts, because she’d admitted she was sore.

But soon the mattress springs squeaked and the headboard banged against the wall. Bryn’s tears dried as she answered his challenge, raking her nails over his back.