It was afternoon and Copper leaned against the apple tree, her favorite spot. She and Tiernan had just eaten a lunch of what had been leftovers from the large breakfast the Faeries had provided.
She picked at a leaf on her vine dress while she watched Tiernan approach the barrier of their prison. Zephyr was off playing with the Faerie children in the flowers.
The Faerie queen appeared out of nowhere and perched on Copper’s shoulder, and Copper caught the scent of roses. She glanced at Riona and saw that the Faerie had a wicked glint in her lavender eyes.
Riona twisted a lock of her black hair with one finger and her pale purple wings opened and closed, sprinkling iridescent dust on Copper’s shoulder.
“This should be fun,” Riona said in a small but sensual voice.
Copper’s lips quirked as she turned to look at Tiernan. The Fae certainly had their fun laughing at Copper every time she had tried to get through the barrier.
She glanced around the meadow and spotted the Undine poking her head above the water basin and Brownies lying in wait—no doubt to bite Tiernan’s ankles if he got too close.
Pixies flitted about like gigantic butterflies, ready to perform some kind of mischief. The Pixies were no larger than a human hand, but their bodies were as round as Copper’s upper arm. They had tiny green eyes, green and yellow butterfly wings, pale green skin, and malicious grins.
Of course, there was no sign of the Drow because they could not tolerate sunlight.
Riona leaned forward, her elbow on her knee and her chin in her tiny hand as she watched the D’Danann warrior. Tiernan approached the invisible wall and stood there for a moment, studying its shimmer. His hair lifted from his shoulders in a light breeze, his features intense, as if he could will the barrier to vanish.
He brought his hand up and placed it against the wall.
The moment he touched it, a jolt shook his body. His hair frizzed and stood on end. He shouted a curse, snatched his hand away, and stumbled back a few steps.
Riona burst out in a fit of Faerie giggles and Copper snorted, trying not to laugh. But when Tiernan wheeled around, his hair looking like a long Afro, she couldn’t hold back her own giggles. He wore such an angry expression.
And his hair! Goddess, how could she not laugh?
All around them tiny gales of laughter sang from the treetop, rocks, grass, and the bushes.
“What?” he shouted, tossing a look from Copper to the Faerie queen, who was nearly doubled over.
Copper bit her lip, trying to hold back one last giggle of her own. “Your, um, hair.”
Tiernan raked his fingers through his hair and his expression grew even more furious when he touched it. He used both hands, trying to get his hair to stay down, only to have it pop up again.
As soon as he marched back to the barrier, two Pixies flitted above his head and started weaving lattices, like connected rope ladders, in his hair, and tied little flowers on the many peaks as they stuck straight up with the rest of his hair.
Riona managed to flit away before Copper rolled over from laughing so hard. Her stomach hurt and moisture dampened her eyes. It felt good to laugh after all the sadness she’d experienced since yesterday.
When she could keep a straight face, Copper righted herself. “The Faeries gave me some dandelion shampoo that you’ll have to use to get it to go back to normal.”
He glanced over his shoulder, narrowed his gaze, and she tried to look serious. “You might as well do all the checking you’re going to do with your hair the way it is,” she said. “Because touching the barrier is going to do that every time.”
Tiernan gave a curse that came out as a low growl. She knew that like her, he was feeling an urgent need to get back to her city—there was so much on the line.
Goddess. Balor set free?
Tiernan glared around the meadow as if daring any other being to laugh and growled again when little sniggers came from various parts of the meadow. When he stalked off toward another side of the invisible wall, he stooped down to draw his sword from where he had left his belt draped over a rock. Copper called after him. “You should probably leave your weapons. Metal of any kind only makes it worse.” He grumbled and set the sword belt back down. At least in that he was listening.
She had firsthand experience. When she’d touched the end of her wand to the wall, trying to spell it away, she’d been thrown back at least ten feet from the shock of it
A shout and a curse cut her attention back to Tiernan, who stood beside another portion of the barrier, his hair frizzier than ever with lots of flowers poking out of the mass. Muscles worked in his jaw and there was absolute fury combined with determination on his expression.
He held his hand out and began to run his fingers along the invisible wall, his arm jerking with the force of the electrical shock he experienced. But he didn’t stop. He kept on going, stomping through grass and bushes along the way until he had circled the entire meadow and come back to where he had started.
By the time he got back, two Brownies clung to each boot and had shimmied up high enough to bite his knees through his leather pants.
“Damn!” he shouted and kicked each foot so that Brownies went flying through the air, only to land safely on their little gnarled feet.
Brownies were ugly things—brown as the bark of a tree with pointed wrinkled faces that made them look like old women eating something extremely sour. Their bodies were bare, their joints knobby, and their hands just as gnarled as their feet.
After the last Brownie went sailing, Tiernan turned and glared at Copper. His hair was downright curly now, still standing on end, and the Pixies had made no less than six connected lattices that stuck out like thick flower stalks with bunches of blooms at each end. Copper had the hardest time not bursting into laughter again.
In the next moment Tiernan unfurled his wings. Huge, brown wings the color of milk chocolate. Copper’s eyes went wide. She’d known he was Tuatha D’Danann, but this was the first time she’d seen the true proof of it. He flapped his wings once, twice, three times, stirring the air, and her hair fluttered around her face.
Tiernan rose from the ground, his eyes focused above him, his face into the breeze. Copper watched in amazement as the powerful wings carried the large man up, up, up into the sky. He circled above the meadow and Copper didn’t know if she’d ever seen such an incredible sight. He was magnificent.
Tiernan soared higher, until he looked no bigger than a bird. As he neared the barrier, Copper held her breath. None of the Fae in the meadow had ever flown so high. Could Tiernan find a place where he could break away to freedom?
She watched him draw closer to where the wall should be. He touched it with a wing.
He gave a loud cry as he was flung back.
And then he was falling. Tiernan was falling. End over end.
Copper shrieked, her heart pounding and her mouth dry. She hurried to her feet, never taking her eyes from the figure plunging through the air, getting larger and larger as it approached the ground.
Instinctively, Copper used her witchcraft to fling up a spellshield and prayed to the goddess that it would catch Tiernan. This was the only hand-magic she’d ever performed without her wand, and she hoped it would work and she wouldn’t get squashed flat. Damn, if her wand weren’t in the shelter, it would have helped her make the shield stronger.
She concentrated with all she had, holding her arms up high and feeling the weight of the shield on her hands. She couldn’t drop him. She couldn’t!
The figure hurtled directly at her. She didn’t dare move for fear of breaking the spell that held the glittering gold shield above her.
She clenched her teeth as his body grew close. When he was inches away from the spellshield she doubled the power of her magic.
And felt him slam into the shield.
The force of his landing knocked Copper to the ground, flat on her back. The power of the fall made her head spin and her back ache. But she kept her hands up, balancing him several feet above her. Sweat broke out on her skin and her arms trembled.
He was unconscious, that much she could tell. He had landed facedown, his wings resting on his back. His cheek was pressed to the shield, making him look as if his face was smashed up against a window.
Her arms trembled so badly now that she didn’t know how much longer she could hold him. She had to move him so that he wasn’t directly above her, but she was afraid she might break the spell and he’d slam into her. His bulk was so great, and she was so small.
The pressure on her arms began to lighten. Copper turned her gaze just enough to see Riona and several of the other Faeries with their arms outstretched and Faerie dust rising up from their wings. They were helping her.
Slowly they eased Tiernan away so that he was no longer above Copper.
Her shield failed. Tiernan dropped a good three feet. He landed face-first into the grass with a loud thump.
Her heart pounded a little harder as she moved to her knees and pressed her fingertips to his neck. His pulse beat, sure and strong.
She looked at Riona. All the other Faeries had vanished. “Why did you let him fall the rest of the way?” Copper asked.
The Faerie grinned. “Deserved it, didn’t he?”
Copper frowned. “How?”
Riona waved her hand around their prison. “He shows no respect for the Fae as he stomped around our home.”
“He’s Fae, too.” With an exasperated sigh, Copper shook her head. “He was just trying to help us.”
The Faerie flitted so that she was above Tiernan. “But he’s arrogant and so awfully grouchy.” She gave a little shiver of her wings, and Faerie dust sprinkled onto his face.
Immediately Tiernan groaned and stirred. “You will have your hands full with him. Yes, that you will,” Riona said before disappearing in a flash.
Copper stroked Tiernan’s frizzed hair and part of a lattice as he groaned again. He smelled of sunshine, wind, and leather, and of the flowers twined in his hair. His wings began to fold away and she watched in fascination as they disappeared behind the leather of his shirt as if they had never been.
He pushed her hand away, then slowly got to his knees to sit on his haunches. “What happened?” he said in a voice so gruff it surprised her.
“You blacked out and fell.” She glanced in the direction Riona had disappeared to. “I threw up a spellshield to keep you from hitting the ground, and the Faeries helped me get you safely down.”
“Thank you,” he said, but he didn’t sound pleased. More like pissed. Probably from his failure to get out of their prison.
His chest rose and fell as he took a deep breath. Grass stuck to his cheek and his clothing, dirt smudged his face and sleeveless shirt, and his forehead glistened with sweat.
As if reading her mind, he jerked his black shirt over his head and wiped the sweat and dirt from his face. Copper watched in fascination as the muscles in his arms flexed. Her gaze traveled over his well-defined chest and abdomen. Wow.
He flung the shirt aside and glared at Copper. He looked as if he was furious with her.
She blinked. “What’d I do?”
“You brought us to this damnable place and there’s no way out.” He pushed himself to stand and continued to glare at her.
Heat crept over Copper’s face and her stomach clenched. “Do you think I did this on purpose?”
“You’re a witch.” He waved his hand as if to encompass the meadow. “Get us the hells out of here.”
She got to her feet and balled her hands into fists. “I’ve tried and tried and tried.”
“Try harder.” He turned away and strode to the stream.
For a moment Copper just stared at him as he stomped away from her. She wanted to blast his butt with spellfire so badly she could taste it. Damn. Where was her wand when she needed it?
But then her stomach sank. It was her fault he was here. The weight of everything crashed down on her so hard that her shoulders ached with it. Copper moved to the other side of the great apple tree, away from Tiernan, where she could no longer see him and where he couldn’t see her. Goddess, she needed some space.
She slid down the apple tree’s trunk with her knees bent nearly to her chest. She leaned forward and buried her face in her hands.
The range of emotions made her feel like she was in a vortex, spiraling out of control. Grief from her mother’s death; the brief respite of laughter as she and Riona watched Tiernan; fear when he plunged to the ground; anger at him for what he’d just said; and sadness beyond sadness again at the thought of her mother’s death. She wanted to throw up, scream, and cry all at the same time.
And she wanted to punch Tiernan so, so, so bad. It didn’t matter that he’d told the truth, that it had been her fault he was trapped here. She wanted to lash out at something—someone.
She barely noticed Zephyr racing past her with an angry buzz.
Tiernan stomped to the small stream at the rock outcropping. Just as he started to bend over to slip his hands in the trickling stream, he heard a loud buzzing.
A sharp pain buried itself into one side of his ass and he shouted.
Heat burned through his entire backside.
It took only a moment for him to realize what had happened. Zephyr zoomed around his head, around and around, with a furious buzz.
“Damned bee,” Tiernan started to say, but cut himself off. No doubt the thing would attack him again if he didn’t watch it. He sucked in a breath of relief when the familiar zipped away.
Ass burning like it was on fire, he knelt, scooped large handfuls of icy cold water, and splashed it on his face. The water dripped down his neck to his bare chest, cooling him and his temper. A bit. Why the hell had the damned thing stung him?
He splashed more water on his hair, trying to flatten it. Only there were long tangles in his hair—no, wait. Things that stuck straight up like wheel spokes all over his head.
He groaned.
When he finished washing his face and wetting his hair, he stood and raked his hand through it, only to get his fingers tangled in the braid creations. He snatched up his shirt from the grass where he’d tossed it, and took the leather lace out of the neck opening. He caught his hair and tied it all back with the lace so that it wasn’t sticking straight up any longer.
Tiernan glanced to where Copper had been standing. She wasn’t there. But he thought he saw the hint of her vine-and-leaf dress from the opposite side of the apple tree.
His gut twisted. Damn. He’d acted like a total ass. He was an ass.
She had saved him from a nasty fall, and even then, after all she’d been through, he had taken out his frustration on her. What kind of man was he?
Shit.
No wonder Zephyr had stung him.
He wiped water from his face with the back of his hand, strode to the apple tree and around to the other side, his buttock burning with every step.
When he rounded the tree he saw that Copper had her face in her hands and her body shook with silent sobs.
She was crying.
Gods. He deserved to be strung up by his toes from the topmost branch of the apple tree. He winced. No doubt the first chance they had, Copper’s Fae friends would be delighted to do just that, and Zephyr would help.
Tiernan sat down next to Copper, his thigh touching hers. She jerked her leg away as if he’d burned her. What should he do now?
Hell, once again he didn’t know what to do with a crying woman, especially when he was the reason she was crying. Last night had been different. He had held her because she had needed him.
Did she want him to hold her now? Would she let him?
Zephyr gave another angry buzz from where he perched on Copper’s ear.
Hesitantly, Tiernan reached out a hand and held it above her back. He slowly lowered it until his palm rested on her vine-and-leaf dress. She flinched beneath his touch.
That ache in his gut was as heavy as a rock quarry. He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and pulled her in tight.
“I apologize.” He breathed in her apples and cinnamon scent and his belly twisted even more at what he had done to her. “I should not have taken my anger out on you.” He rubbed his thumb in a slow circle on her shoulder. “Will you forgive me?”
There was a long pause. Finally, Copper raised her head, but she didn’t look at him. Her eyes were swollen and red again, and he felt even more like an ass.
“Whatever,” she mumbled, still not looking at him.
He grasped her chin and forced her to look at him. “Please?”
Copper’s throat worked as she swallowed. Her eyes met his and for a long time he held her gaze. She took a deep breath, let out a long exhale, and said, “Okay.”
Tiernan almost couldn’t catch his own breath as he studied her face. Even with her eyes red and her face streaked with tears, she was beautiful. When he had seen Copper’s picture in her sister’s home, he had memorized her features down to the sprinkling of Faerie kisses across her nose.
Why it had seemed so important to him then, to find her, he didn’t know. But here she was. Here he was.
Copper wiped away her tears with the heels of her palms and took another deep breath. She reached up and touched his hair and gave him a small smile. “I like the way you’ve pulled it back. The bouquet of flowers at the end is an especially nice touch.”
He rolled his eyes and she laughed.
She had a beautiful laugh.
“Come on.” She grabbed his hand as she stood, and tugged at him until he got to his feet. “Let’s get rid of those braids and that Afro.”
Copper’s hand felt good in his as he allowed her to lead him to the water basins. “Sit,” she ordered. He raised an eyebrow, but obeyed.
Tiernan plopped himself onto the grass, one knee bent with one forearm resting on it as he watched her turn away and head toward the shelter. His groin tightened as she got onto her knees to scoot into the shelter, and he had a nice view of the upper part of her thighs. Just a little more...
He groaned as she disappeared into the shelter, then shook his head and smiled. He was acting like some young warrior who had never bedded a woman before.
When she slid out into the sunshine, she was carrying a wooden cup and a wooden container with a lid, and her wand. By the patterns on the wood he knew the cup and container were Faerie-made.
“Hmmm. How’s the best way to do this?” Copper kneeled beside him and eyed his hair critically as she set the cup, container, and her wand on the grass. “Those little buggers sure had their fun with you.”
Tiernan grimaced, but as Copper reached up to touch his hair, he went stock-still. Her vine-and-leaf-covered breasts were directly before his eyes. They swayed with her movements as he felt her begin to undo what the Pixies had done to his hair. His gaze was fixed on her as she removed the tie, and he saw soft white flesh through that skimpy dress.
“Ooooh, they got you good.” Copper leaned forward, getting so close he could move just a bit and—
“It’s going to take me a while to get these all out,” he faintly heard her say.
He was so hard beneath his leather breeches and it was only becoming more painful by the moment. As she worked on his hair, flower petals from the Pixies’ handiwork drifted to the grass beside him. The perfume of the petals blended with Copper’s own unique scent.
“So tell me about your home world.” Copper’s fingers skimmed through his hair when she freed it from the lattice braids. Gods, he hoped it took her a long time to finish.
“Um, Tiernan?” He looked up to see her looking at him, mischief in her eyes. “Did you hear me, or are you too busy staring at my boobs?”
“Boobs?” He shifted so that he could relieve some of the ache.
Copper had the hint of a grin on her face as she settled back on her haunches and cupped her breasts. “These.”
Tiernan groaned out loud to see her holding herself.
When his eyes met hers again, her grin widened. “Thought so.”
The heat in his groin was so intense he was ready to pull her to the ground now. At that moment, he could not think of one reason not to.
“Watch it, little fire,” he said, his voice low and gravelly.
Still with that quirky grin on her face, Copper released her breasts and moved so that she was behind him, her fingers in his hair once again. “So you’re a breast man.”
Said breasts rubbed against his bare back as she moved close to work on his hair. Tiernan swallowed hard. The woman was teasing him—and she probably had no idea what he would do to her if she continued.
“I asked you a few moments ago,” she said as she worked on his hair, “to tell me about yourself.”
He cleared his throat. “I am a D’Danann Enforcer, a warrior of my people.”
“Yeah, yeah.” She tugged at one particularly stubborn knot. When she couldn’t get it untangled, she grabbed her wand and gently zapped it free.
When she set the wand aside, she said, “Tell me about you. How old are you? What are your parents like? I’d love to know where you live, what your favorite color is, and what you do when you’re not being a he-man. Those kinds of things.”
Tiernan took a deep breath and shifted again to ease the ache in his groin. “I am over two thousand years old.”
Copper’s hands paused in his hair and she pressed closer to his back as she peered around him to look at his face. “No shit?”
He grinned. “No shit.”
“Well.” Copper went back to working on his hair. “I should have figured that since you all were former gods before you left to live in Otherworld. It’s just a trip to hear you say it.”
This time her tug at his hair was hard enough to make him wince. “Sorry. Tell me more.”
Tiernan paused for a moment, trying to decide exactly what to tell her. “I am a lord of the House of Cathal in the D’Danann court. My mother and father are ready to retire from their responsibilities and wish for me to take them on.”
“A lord, eh?” She finger-combed part of his hair. “Do you want to? Take over the responsibilities of your house?”
“It is my duty,” he said automatically.
Copper attacked what he hoped was the final Pixie braid creation. “But do you want to?”
“Of course.” That was his destiny. It always had been. But right now he didn’t want to think about his destiny or duty.
“Okay.” She tugged at another braid. “So what’s your favorite color?”
He turned just enough to grab one of her wrists, forcing her to stop and look at him. “Cinnamon eyes and copper-colored hair.”
Her throat visibly worked. “You are the charmer.”
“Right now that is all I see. All I want to see.”
Copper’s heart pounded and her belly tingled straight to between her thighs. She took a deep breath. Oh, boy, was she playing with fire.
She looked away from him and extracted her wrist from his hand. “I’m almost done with your Pixie braids.” She tried to keep her voice light. Suddenly she wasn’t so sure she wanted to move this fast.
But she wanted him. Goddess, did she want him.
Nevertheless, she hurried to finish the last braid. Without warning him, she took the wooden cup, filled it from the lower basin with ice-cold water, and poured it over his head.
That should cool things down a little, she thought, as Tiernan shuddered and sputtered and turned to glare at her.
She gave him a sweet smile and dumped another cup, then another over his hair. The chilly water ran down his wonderful naked back, that incredible chest, along that flat belly straight below the waistband of his leather pants.
Copper hurried to finish wetting every bit of his hair, which still stuck up despite being wet. She took the lid off the wooden container and tossed the lid aside before using her fingers to scoop out some of the special shampoo the Faeries had made for her own frizzy occasions.
The pentagram on her thick copper bracelet glittered with her movements as she washed his hair with the shampoo. The frizz died down.
Tiernan cleared his throat. “Tell me about your life, Copper.”
“Turnabout’s fair play, I suppose.” She shrugged as she soaped his hair. To keep it from staying curly, the shampoo had to be worked in thoroughly.
“You know about my family.” Her voice caught as she thought about her mother, but forced herself to go on. “You know I’m a witch and I have a honeybee familiar. I’m trapped in some kind of bubble, with a whole bunch of pissed-off Fae, who think this is all my fault.”
She scooped up water in the cup. “Close your eyes because I’m going to rinse the soap out now.”
He leaned over to keep the soap out of his eyes. “What else?” he asked even as he shivered from the cold water.
“Hmmmm. I pitch a mean game of softball and I could probably give you a run for your money. And I majored in education at a university.”
“How old are you?” he asked as more soap ran down his face and body when she poured another cup of water on him.
“Oh, probably what would be a nanosecond in your lifetime.” She was almost finished. She squeezed out the excess water, then finger-combed his hair as he sat back up. “Twenty-six. I went to the university for four years, took some night classes for a couple of years, then went back to work on my graduate degree.”
“You teach?” he asked, as she moved around to face him so that they were eye to eye.
“Not yet, but I plan to.” She pushed her hair behind her ear and wondered where Zeph was. “I’ve been taking it slow. So much was going on with my Coven, including my becoming an Adept. I was also helping Silver run the Coven’s store and taking one night class each semester.”
Their eyes met and held. She was sitting so close to him that her thigh brushed his. “Blue,” she whispered.
He raised an eyebrow. “Blue what?”
“My favorite color today is blue.” She drank in the sight of him. His incredible physique, the intense look on his well-defined features, his wet hair that now fell straight back to his broad shoulders. And those eyes. “You have the most beautiful eyes I’ve ever seen.”
Tiernan moved so fast he caught her by surprise. One second she’d been sitting, the next she was lying on her back staring up at him.