Page 62 of Light and Shadow
She smiles, and my heart tightens. “I feel as if I’ve had a fierce battle with seven children and a rolling sea.”
“You should have let Cara heal you.” I send the little magic I have to ease her pains. The day has drained my magic and my energy.
Pulling back, she shakes her head. “I’m fine. They’re just bruises. You need to recover, and that’s not going to happen until the sun comes up tomorrow. If nothing attacks us between now and the next time we lie together, you can heal me.”
Why does it feel as if that’s unlikely? “You looked like a warrior when I opened the cabin door today. If I’d been a sea dragon, I’d have run.”
“You’re teasing me?” She hides her face in my arm.
“No.” I wait for her to meet my gaze again. “Nothing was going to harm those children on your watch. The oracle may be wrong about a lot of things, but they were not wrong about you, Harper Craig. You are fierce and brave. You risk everything to keep strangers safe and think nothing of your own safety.”
“Oh, I think about it. It’s just usually too late when I do.” Sighing, she closes her eyes and cuddles against me. “I looked at the stars when I first came up the stairs, but they’re not my stars, and I find no comfort in them.”
On my back, I pull her against me. “Sleep,mo chroi. Find comfort in me and know that your stars are there, if only a bitfarther away.” Maybe one day these stars will feel like home to her.
As the sun rises, I sit and let the warmth and magic fill me. I would have loved to remain with Harper in my arms, but the deck stirs with waking elves.
The breeze has hold of the main sail, and we’re moving west, though a great deal farther south than I would have preferred. This journey feels longer with every step forward.
Her hand slides up my back to my shoulder. “You’re worried.”
Blocking my mind, I turn to find her black eye swollen nearly closed. The side of her face is red, black, blue, and puffed to the point where she’s hardly recognizable. I touch the injury.
She winces and pulls back.
“This needs healing, as do your ribs. You’re in no condition to train.” Lifting my fingers, I keep my touch light and send healing magic to her skin and the cells beneath.
Harper lets out a long breath and relaxes into the comfort of healing. “Train? What am I training to do?”
With the sun’s power flowing through me, I direct more to her ribs and open my eyes to find her staring back, looking much more herself. “That’s better. You’ll train to fight, defend, and most importantly, control your magic. Though, I’m concerned the witch queen can detect your magic here. That training may have to wait until we’re safely home.”
She smiles. “Thank you. I feel much better. All those arms and legs flailing around during the battle, I had more bruisedskin than not.” Standing, she stretches, and I admire the bare legs below the shirt she found.
I touch the soft fabric, then her calf. “It’s not a bad idea to look through the ship more carefully to see what we can find.”
“How will you train me to use magic that you said you don’t understand?”
Holding her hand, I lead us to the lower deck and down the stairs with a wave to Bert at the ship’s wheel. “We have to discover your abilities together and find ways to use them at will, rather than in states of panic and need only.”
In our small cabin, she toes out of her shoes and pulls the shirt over her head. Reaching for her jeans, which hang over a cupboard door, she turns away from me. Her perfect round ass and hips make my fingers ache to touch her. The side of her breasts and the pointed nipples make my mouth water.
Unable to resist, I wrap my arms around her and pull her tight against my thick cock. “You are so lovely. One day, I will make love to you day and night without worry of monsters or demons.”
Abandoning her clothes, she turns into my embrace and leaps off her feet to wrap her legs around me. She grinds her center forward and digs her fingers into my shoulders to pull us tighter together. “Are you making promises or just wishes?”
I grip her ass and lower us to the bed, still made as no one slept in it. I long to rumple sheets and love this woman until we’re both spent and unable to think of danger or despair. “I can promise you that this is what I wish for.”
Her smile is better than sun magic. “Just sex or are there other things? Not that I’d mind sex with you day and night. Just curious if we’d take breaks for food and air.”
The list of things is so long, I’d be embarrassed to enumerate them all. “You are my air and my sustenance.” It’s true, but there’s so much more. “I’d show you the caves where warmsprings soothe all your aches. We’d picnic by the lake and swim. It isn’t the land I was born to, but Tús Nua is very beautiful and untouched by Venora.”
Her smile falters and I regret mentioning the witch. “Why hasn’t she touched it? Is your mother that powerful, and if she is, then how did Venora capture the old city?”
Pushing desire aside, I pull back.
Harper tightens her grip with both arms and legs. “Don’t pull away whenever I ask hard questions.”
I brush her hair, wild from sleep, from her brow. “You want to have this discussion while you’re naked beneath me?”
