Page 91 of Broken Veil
The light shivered and darted away as if she’d tickled it.
She turned toward Duncan’s chest and slipped her arm around him. “Don’t burn anything down. I’m supposed to save the world, not burn it.”
“Fine then,” he whispered. “But no trips to Annwn for you.”
“I don’t plan on it.” She lifted her face and kissed him, and the firm press of his lips on hers turned from reassuring to heated in seconds.
She still felt cold from her dream, so when Duncan slipped his hand under the oversized shirt she was wearing, she settled into the spreading heat, easing her leg over his hips as they lay on their sides and pulling him into the cradle of her body.
“Are you still shivering?” He trailed kisses along her cheek and whispered in her ear, “Let me take care of that.”
She smiled. “I hear blacksmiths are good at heating things up.”
“Och, that’s almost enough to make me spank you.” He playfully tapped his hand on her bottom.
Carys muffled her laughter in his chest.
Duncan’s hand was running up and down her side as he kissed her and pulled her closer.
“Shhhh,” he whispered. “When I say the walls have ears, they could literally have ears here. I’ve no idea.”
“Neither do I.”
Duncan’s mouth covered hers as he teased his fingers between her legs, then slid them inside, stroking the channel of her sex as her body grew soft and languid in his arms.
He stroked her over and over until she was arching with pleasure, and then he released his erection and slid inside, making love to her with slow, devastating strokes.
He rolled Carys to her back, his mouth muffling her moans of pleasure as he braced his body over hers and rocked her back and forth in a bed made of twisted branches and living vines.
The chamber filled with soft lights, and when Carys came again, the air was redolent with the scent of jasmine.
Duncan planted his hand next to her shoulder and thrust into her with a sheen of perspiration glowing on his face whileblue and white lights danced overhead. He came with a muffled exhalation, his jaw clenched in pleasure.
He fell forward, rolling to the side and gathering Carys into his chest as his lungs worked like a bellows.
She blinked at the shower of soft golden light that surrounded them and saw lilies, daisies, and daffodils blooming on the walls, the flowers nodding their heads as their soft scent filled the room.
A soft humming kind of music in the air lulled her to sleep as Duncan held her in his arms.
Carys steppedout of Jack’s cottage the next morning and into Sherwood Forest.
Not the magical forest where they’d been but the absolutely average and ordinary forest where she turned and saw what looked like a storage shack standing between two large pines. There was a sign on it, and in the distance she saw a trail marker and an early-morning hiker walking with a dog.
“Well, that’ll do my head in if I think about it too much.” Duncan walked ahead and scanned the area.
Cadell stepped out after them, then Laura and Lachlan and Naida and the rest. Each of them looked around as they stepped out of the shack and into the Brightlands.
Jack was last to leave. He ducked his green head under the doorway, and when he raised it on the other side, he was a jolly-looking young man with a ruddy red beard and bright green eyes, dressed in a flannel shirt and a pair of canvas utility pants.
He nodded at the trail in the distance as he slung a backpack over his shoulder. “Shall we? Your van should be on the road where you left it.”
Laura cocked her head. “You need to teach me that trick, Jack.”
He winked at her. “Can’t give all my secrets away, shadow-walker.”
Cadell was glaring at Jack, so Carys grabbed his arm and dragged him toward the tree line.
“Please don’t murder the nice forest god,” she muttered. “He’s just flirting with her.”
