Bronwyn padded through the great hall with only moonlight to guide her. She pushed open the barrack’s door and entered.
“Blessed.” Thomas materialized in front of her. “You are well?”
“I’m well.” Her magic coursed inside her, ever present, a living part of her that she couldn’t imagine now being without.
Thomas smiled. “You are strong in your power, Healer. I feel we will have more need of you before we are done.”
She nodded, because as much as she didn’t want to acknowledge it, she knew he was right. “We need more Rodericks.”
“Anything is possible.” Thomas smirked and drifted away.
Roderick’s door was open, but he wasn’t in his room, and his bed was still made. He didn’t admit it, but the big guy was no fonder of sleeping than Maeve was, and the two of them often spent their nights together.
Light glowed from the doorway beside Roderick’s, and that’s where she was headed. There was so little certainly around them, and it really left her with no good options but to follow Dee’s advice. Her gut had kept her alive this long, and she would need to trust it more and more in the days to come.
Alexander stood with his back to the door, staring into the night. “You should be sleeping.”
“So should you.” She joined him by the window.
Twinkling village lights ended in the dark mass of the sea.
They’d never spoken about what had happened in that cottage, and it poisoned the air between them. Alexander’s guilt writhed like living flame. It had taken her a few days to process it, but making her pact with Goddess had helped heal her pain.
Bronwyn put her hand between his shoulder blades. Her magic quested for his heart, swirling around his previous injury, searching for residual damage.
A soft smile tilted his mouth as he looked down at her. “I’m fine.”
“I know.” She smiled back. The low light from a bedside lamp loved on the clean, aquiline lines of his beautiful face. Rhiannon had succeeded in making a nearly irresistible man. “We should talk.”
“Three words no man relishes.” He shoved his hands in his pockets and stared at the view.
Bronwyn took that as a sign he was listening. “I don’t blame you,” she said. “For what happened, for what she forced you to do.”
“Really?” He scoffed. “Because you should.”
“Really?” She’d let him explain why she should.
“You know you should.” He hunched his shoulders. “I knew what was happening, and you didn’t. You were mine to protect, and I failed you.”
“That doesn’t make you responsible for me.” Yeah, this medieval man thing had its drawbacks. “I belong to me, and I am responsible for my safety.”
“Indeed.” He didn’t believe a word of what she’d said, and they needed to work on that. “It might have been better had Roderick left me there.”
Pain pierced her chest and robbed her of breath. “No.”
“For as long as I am alive, you are not safe.” He finally turned to look at her. In his eyes, she read a torment so long and soul-felt it made her want to cry.
She did the next best thing and put her arms around him. “Don’t say that. Your dying is no longer an option.”
“Little witch.” He cradled her face. “You and I can’t be together. You must know that.”
She was so tired of people telling her what she could do, and what she couldn’t. This beautiful man had appeared in her life like a blessing, and then it had all turned nasty. She hadn’t even had the chance to enjoy him before everything went to crap.
Strangely, all the players in this drama agreed one thing: Alexander was hers, and she was his. But she was also tired of everyone—including some ridiculous prophecy—telling her what life looked like and what she should and should not do.
“I’ll tell you what I know.” She covered his hands with hers. “I know you had ample opportunity to get into my bed. I wanted you there, and you could have had me at any point, yet you didn’t.” Rising to her toes, she looped her arms around his neck. “I know that you almost died trying to protect me from her and trying to fight her.” She pressed her face to his warm, smooth neck and inhaled the unique scent of him. “And I know I’ve never felt anything close to this with anyone else, and I don’t believe I ever will.”
“That could be the prophecy talking.” His expression gentled, and his gaze warmed.
“It could be.” Bronwyn brought her body flush with his. “It could be a lot of things, but putting labels on things seems truly counterproductive right now.”
His hands gripped her hips and his voice sounded rougher as he said, “We cannot take chances with the prophecy. If you and I lie together, we will create a child.”
“About that.” She gave in to temptation and kissed the underside of his jaw. “I know something the prophecy couldn’t possibly predict.”
He groaned and pressed her closer to him. “What’s that?”
“Durex.” She positioned her mouth over his. “Birth control.”
Heat flared in his eyes, and a flicker of hope. “It may not work. I’ve seen stranger things happen.”
“I’m also on the pill.” She touched her lips to his. “Got any more thoughts you want to discuss?”
He lifted her off her feet and headed for the bed. “Not at this precise moment.”
Lowering her to the bed, he came down beside her. Gently, he brushed the hair from her face. “You are so lovely.”
“You’re biased.” She was pretty enough, but with him looking at her like she was the center of the world, she felt beautiful. Tugging his head down to hers, she kissed him.
Unlike their other kisses, this one was tentative and unsure, as if they were both waiting for something.
His tongue touched her bottom lip and she opened for him.
Still, he was hesitant as he explored her mouth. Beneath her hands, his muscle was taut with controlled tension. He was holding back, because of her.
She broke the kiss and slid her hands into the silky hair at his nape. “I want this.”
“I don’t want to frighten you.” His eyes were dark with concern.
“I know.” Bronwyn shifted and rolled them over. “I’m not frightened.”
Taking control of the kiss, she let her reaction to him catch fire and burn. She kissed him like she had wanted to from the first moment she had seen him.
Alexander groaned and caught her buttocks in his hands. “Bronwyn, be sure?”
“I’m sure.” She pressed against his growing erection. “I’m more sure than I’ve been of anything in my life.”
He slid his hands beneath her boy shorts and stroked her ass. “No going back now, little witch.”
“Not even if you beg me.” She sat up and whipped her shirt over her head.
His eyes darkened as he looked at her, lingering on her breasts and then down her stomach. Sliding his hands up her sides, he stopped with them resting frustratingly close to her breasts.
“Touch me.” She put his hands on her breasts.
Sensation shot through her, and she arched into his caress. All the pent-up emotions he’d stirred in her since meeting him surged to the forefront and swept her along with them. Being with him was more right than anything in her life, and she didn’t care why. The connection between them flared into brilliant, hot life and demanded fulfillment. They belonged together. It was visceral, it was powerful, it was inevitable.
He plumped her breasts in his hands, then sat up and fastened his mouth around her nipple.
Wet heat of his mouth made her cry out. Her body was on fire for him. Heat pulsed between her thighs, and she ground down on his cock.
She grabbed his shoulders, needing to anchor herself before she got swept away. His T-shirt pissed her off, and she tugged at it. She was desperate for his skin against hers.
He released her nipple to tug his shirt over his head, and then he moved back to her breasts.
Bronwyn stroked his shoulders, his chest, his biceps, any part of his hot, silken skin she could touch.
“Lift up.” He gripped her hips and lifted her off him.
Bronwyn whimpered at the loss of him against where she ached.
Alexander tugged off her shorts and then slid off his jeans and boxers.
Naked, he pressed her back into the bed.
Friction of his chest against her breasts was almost too much, but not nearly enough and she writhed beneath him.
“Little witch.” He pressed hot sucking kisses to her chest, and to her stomach. “My everything.” He trailed his mouth over her hipbone and settled between her thighs. “I’ve dreamed of you like this.”
Raising her leg, he placed it over his shoulder, opening her to his gaze and then his mouth.
A sob broke out of her as he worked his tongue over her, taking his time and learning what she liked. His mouth drove her close to release and then backed off. She was almost screaming her frustration as he drove her higher and higher but denied her the pinnacle.
“Please,” she sobbed, her voice hoarse with need.
Alexander sat up and reached for the condom. “I want you to come with me inside you,” he said as he slid the condom over his cock. “I’ve waited a lifetime for this.”
Hard and thick, he pressed into her.
Her wet slick flesh made space for him and took all of him. When he was seated fully inside her, Bronwyn gripped him tight with her arms and her thighs. She’d never felt anything like it. The connection was complete, perfect, and she surrendered.
Alexander moved inside, deep and hard.
Tension coiled in her belly and spread through her. She grabbed his ass and dug her nails in. He was exactly where she needed him most.
Heat built quickly, flaring out of control. His thrusts grew deeper, less controlled.
Face taut with concentration, he locked his dark gaze on hers and held her captive.
Reaching down, he used his fingers as he continued to thrust in and out.
Their gazes stayed locked as Bronwyn’s climax overtook her.
She watched as he joined her, the connection almost too intimate to hold.
Tears gathered and seeped down her face.
Wiping them away, his face gentle, he said, “You are mine now, little witch.”
Her smile felt like it came from the deepest part of her. “And you are mine.” Her tears of joy eased into laughter. “And I’m not giving you back.”
Alexander left Bronwyn curled up in his bed, one hand tucked beneath the pillows, her hair spilling over her shoulders. Fierce primal emotions warred in his chest. She was his, his to protect, his to love and his to keep. Goddess help the person who thought to change that.
And it seemed the prophecy had not taken modern prophylactics into account. No broken condoms to worry about. Perhaps his little witch was right about that after all.
Perhaps not, and either way, he would be happy. He didn’t deserve her or the joy she brought but he would cling to the gift like a starved mongrel.
His bare feet slapped against the stone floors as he made his way through the silent barracks.
“I’ll be watching you.” Roderick emerged from the gloom of the practice yards. “I’d love you to prove me right not to trust you.”
Some things never changed, and Alexander grinned at him. “Aren’t you sweet?”
Roderick folded his arms and watched him.
Alexander went through the dim castle and let himself into the bailey. He opened the door and took the stairs to the caverns. She was in there, Goddess, and they needed to chat.
Goddess was an almost tangible presence now that the water cardinal point was awake and functioning. She would have to grow a lot stronger to face Rhiannon. And the confrontation was looking inevitable.
In the central cavern, Goddess Pool glowed azure.
Alexander checked behind him to make sure nobody was watching. He had no idea what to make of his secret, and he wanted to understand it. He took his hand from his pocket and called his power. Delicate lines of red, green, yellow and blue played between his fingertips before twining into one thin white line that shot out of his hand and flared into a bright white light.
It looked like magic, even felt like magic, but that was impossible because there had never been a male witch.
Ripples broke over Goddess Pool.
Alexander glanced at it and smiled. “You seem to have left me with a somewhat confusing gift.”
A woman’s mellifluous laughter rolled gently through the caverns. “Blessed.”