Once inside the cabin, Rand didn’t want to release Ariel, needing to reassure himself she was okay. He’d experienced anger before, but nothing like the blind rage that had driven him at seeing Bob’s hands on her. He’d wanted to kill the man.
Perhaps it was best he had been knocked unconscious. He might have actually succeeded. He gingerly touched the back of his head. Aside from some tenderness, he felt fine.
Only one problem remained—he was stuck overnight in a tiny one-room cabin with a woman he wanted beyond reason. Outside, snow continued to fall, slower now, but still creating a sense of isolation—and the impression that he and Ariel were the only two people alive. Night had arrived, turning the trees outside to shadowed guardians.
He ran his hand over Ariel’s hair, breathing in her special scent. If he lived to be two hundred, that smell would always remind him of her. And no doubt would induce the same physical reaction—hammering pulse, rushing blood, and a hard-on that strained against his pants.
He could list a hundred reasons why he should relax—she’d just been traumatized, she was near the end of her term, she had used him once long ago and intended to ditch him as soon as the baby was born, leaving him to his mother’s wrath; but none of that mattered. The light in her eyes when she looked at him set his blood on fire.
He’d almost lost her. He never wanted to lose her again.
When Ariel eased out from under his arm, the sense of loss was immediate. “Where are you going?”
“I thought I’d make you some coffee if there is any.” She opened the cupboards and peered into them.
“I don’t need coffee.” Besides, Rand didn’t trust any of the dishes here to be fit for human use. He crossed to behind Ariel and ran his hands down her arms. “I need you.”
She stilled. “What?”
He turned her to face him and found her eyes wide and wondering. “I need you.” God help him, she had gotten under his skin and stayed there.
The smile she gave him lit up the room brighter than the lantern on the table. “I’m here.”
She placed her palms against his chest, her touch warming him even through his clothing. Rand didn’t bother to think, to rationalize all the reasons why this was a bad idea. He simply bent and kissed her.
Her lips softened beneath his, then parted, inviting him to explore, and he did. Her mouth held a magic all of its own—soft, sweet, and very, very hot. Rand had to force himself to concentrate on just the sheer pleasure of Ariel’s lips.
He could kiss her for hours.
He drew her as close as her belly would allow. Seeking entry, he dueled with her tongue. She gave as good as she received, answering him kiss for kiss, clutching the front of his shirt with her fists.
And he wanted more.
Even pregnant, she fit within his arms as if designed for them. When she released a small sigh of contentment, it added to the ache deep within him.
He left her lips to blaze a trail along her jawbone, to nuzzle the tender flesh beneath her ear, and her sighs gave way to moans, her breathing ragged. “I want you,” he whispered against her ear.
“Oh yes,” she murmured. “Please, yes.”
To hell with the past, to hell with the future. All that mattered was now and the woman in his embrace. Tonight they belonged together, his worries forgotten.
Finding her lips once more, he cupped her breast, the flesh so full it filled his hand. Her nipple hardened beneath his thumb, and Ariel breathed a moan into his mouth.
Desire raced through his veins, a mixture of pain and pleasure so intense he knew nothing but the satisfaction of Ariel. The softness of her lips, the fullness of her breast, the eagerness that matched his own.
He only lacked the feel of flesh against flesh. Tugging at the edge of her sweater, he pulled it over her head, then released the clasp on her bra to remove it. Her breasts jutted free, the areolae darker, the nipples taut peaks begging for attention.
Attention he was more than willing to give.
He led her over to a chair and straddled it, then pulled her down to sit across his lap facing him. His erection strained against his pants, her inviting heat so close.
Claiming her mouth, he caressed her breasts, gently at first, then more firmly as her moans turned into small cries. By the time he left her lips, her nipples had become tight pebbles and he drew one peak into his mouth.
She squirmed against him, inciting him even more. Rand shifted. There would be time soon enough. He wanted to savor this pleasure, the unique scent and flavor of Ariel. He had denied himself this for far too long.
He left her breast as she tugged off his sweatshirt, but returned to love the other while she ran her fingers through his hair, her head thrown back and breath coming in gasps. She rocked against his erection until he could barely stand it.
Rand stood her on her feet and shucked his jeans and underwear in record time. Ariel’s eyes widened as he sprang forth, ready for action.
Grinning, Rand reached for her pants, but she abruptly brushed his hands away. “I’m grotesque,” she protested. “I’m so big.”
“You’re not grotesque.” Rand slid her pants and underwear off, revealing her swollen belly. Yes, she was large, but she carried a child in there...their child.
He dropped to his knees to place tender kisses over her abdomen. “You’re beautiful,” he murmured, “in every way.”
“Rand.” Her voice held tears and he glanced up to see them glistening in her eyes. “I want you inside me.”
“Soon.” He touched her, finding her already moist nub, and caressed her there until she dug her fingernails into his shoulders.
“Please, Rand.”
He stood slowly, kissing a path up to her lips. He’d never made love to a pregnant woman before, which called for slight modifications. Perhaps sitting had been the right approach all along.
Taking his place on the chair, he drew her down over his erection so that he entered her slowly. Her tight opening wrapped him in ecstasy. He groaned as he filled her completely, then he reached to hold her bottom and guided her to meet his thrusts.
Only with Ariel had making love been so satisfying. Only with her did he feel as if he was joining with his soulmate.
Her breasts moved before his face and he found one with his mouth. His hands might be busy, but this method certainly had other advantages.
Ariel gasped, but didn’t slow her pace, her hips moving rhythmically. Her gasps quickened until she pulsed around him, sweetening his pleasure.
He exploded as her climax eased, finding release so close to heaven he could’ve died and not known the difference.
They stilled, but remained wrapped around each other, the only sound that of their erratic breathing.
He stole a quick kiss, then met her gaze. “You know, for a faery, you’re pretty good.”
She smiled and swatted ineffectually at his chest. “And here I was going to say the same thing about you being a mortal.”
“I guess we deserve each other.” Even as he said the words, they echoed in his head. Did that contain more truth than he’d intended?
Her eyes darkened in intensity. “I guess we do.”
His heart gave an extra beat. Was she reconsidering her decision to stay with him?
She shivered despite the heat pouring from the wood stove, and Rand eased her to her feet. “Let me fix up the bed.” He managed to find clean sheets in a box by the bed and remade it m record time, his glance constantly straying to the enticing figure of his pregnant faery.
By the time he pulled back the covers and waved her forward, he had decided he could handle another round. Ariel eyed his erection as she climbed into the bed, then stroked him, wrenching a groan from Rand’s throat.
“Maybe you’re not just a mere mortal,” she said, mischief dancing in her eyes.
“Mere mortal? Me?” Rand wrapped her in his arms and rolled her onto her back. “We’ve only just begun, m’lady.”
He made love to her again, slower this time without the fierceness of their first union but equally as intense. Her touch, her cries drove him to heights he hadn’t imagined. Amazing what making love to the right woman could do.
The right woman.
That thought sent shivers along his spine. What had happened to his plan to avoid women, to remain single for the rest of his life?
He grimaced. Ariel had dropped into his life, that’s what.
She snuggled against him, and he wrapped his arms around her as the wind howled outside the cabin. If the snow didn’t die down soon, they might not be able to leave tomorrow, either.
He didn’t mind that at all.
Making love to Ariel was heaven. Their first joining had been from lust, but this...this was a sharing of not only bodies, but souls. For the first time in his life, he’d felt like more than a physical participant in the act.
He leaned forward to kiss her forehead, then jerked as a rose dropped from the air to land on the blankets. As he sat upright, Ariel giggled.
Picking up the flower, he turned to look at her. Humor lit her eyes. “Changed to roses, have you?”
“It’s not me.” She took his hand and placed it against her prominent belly. “The baby has the hiccups.”
He actually felt the next little hiccup inside her followed by another rose that hit his head on the way down. He couldn’t help but smile. “Looks like we have another flower faery.”
“I expected as much.” Ariel laughed as more flowers fell, following a succession of hiccups. “Too bad this didn’t happen when Bob was here. I really would’ve scared him then.”
“Scared him?” His petite Ariel couldn’t scare a mouse.
“I had him terrified for a while.” Ariel’s gaze fixed on something only she could see. “But I didn’t have the magic to see it through.”
At the sadness in her voice, Rand lay down and cuddled her closer. “What did you do?”
“I told him all the things I could do to him—turn him into a toad, drop him in the middle of the ocean, plague him with ailments for the rest of his life.” She sighed. “I still intend to plague him once my magic returns.”
“Can you really do all that?” He’d had no idea her magic was that powerful.
“That and more.” Ariel yawned suddenly and covered her mouth even as she closed her eyes and wrapped one arm over his chest. “You wore me out.”
Rand, grinned and kissed her. “Then sleep, my little faery. I’ll be here to protect you.”
Her eyes flickered open, the blue dark like a stormy sea. “I’m counting on it.”
Within moments her even breathing signaled that she’d drifted into a deep slumber. Rand merely watched her, studying the arch of her eyebrows, the fine line of her nose, the curve of her cheek, the sensuous bow of her lip.
In the past two days he’d learned more about Ariel than in the three weeks prior. While she’d mentioned losing her crown, she’d never said it was because of her defense of Robin. And she’d never let on about her loneliness. No wonder she wanted a child so desperately.
Rand tightened his hold around her.
A child he was going to lose when he let her go.
He had to face it. Both Ariel and the baby were magical. For them to exist in his world was asking for trouble. There were too many people around like Bob, who were willing to take advantage of them. Rand had been lucky, locating Bob’s cabin through a combination of Google Maps and a nearby store clerk, but what if their child had been kidnapped? A child too innocent to know not to use magic in front of others? What if Rand wasn’t so lucky the next time?
Ice chilled his blood. He didn’t dare take that chance. Ariel had been right all along. She had to return to her world...with the baby. For their own safety.
Sharp pain stabbed his heart. He closed his eyes even as he breathed in the buttercup scent of Ariel’s hair. Damn, he was going to miss her.
“Stop it, Ariel.”
She laughed as Rand pulled her hands out from under his shirt. “But I like touching you.” And she could never have enough. Sharing her body with Rand last night had been beyond anything in her experience, even more fantastic than their first union. This mortal love heightened everything to an incredible level.
“Dean could be here any moment. I don’t want him walking in on you and me and...” Rand held her hands in his as he placed a lingering kiss on her lips—a kiss that said he wanted her as much as she wanted him. “We’ll be home soon.”
“Not soon enough, but it’ll have to do.” She nipped at his chin, then froze when she heard the sound of a motor outside.
Rand lifted one eyebrow. “See?”
She followed him as he crossed to the door and pulled it open in time to see an SUV slide to a stop beside his truck. “That’s not Dean’s car.”
“Looks more like Jerry’s,” Rand said. “Susan’s husband. It has four-wheel drive.”
As Dean stepped out of the vehicle, Rand started out to meet him, then paused to point a finger at Ariel when she would’ve followed. “Stay here until I have the truck going. The snow’s deep and you don’t have any boots.”
Ariel sighed and crossed her arms. Neither did he, but if he wanted to play the protective male, she wasn’t going to stop him. Today he could ask for the moon and she’d give it to him.
She smiled. That probably went for tomorrow, too. She’d never imagined she could feel like this—as if she could fly without the aid of magic. Even nurturing a field of buttercups into bloom couldn’t begin to compare.
Dean and Rand laughed as they worked together under the hood of the truck. Standing, Dean spotted her and trudged over, stomping the snow off his boots in the entrance.
“How are you feeling? No ill effects?”
Ariel couldn’t keep a foolish smile from her face. “I’m wonderful.”
A sly grin slid across Dean’s face as he glanced from her to Rand. “I imagine so. Maybe I shouldn’t have gotten here so quickly.”
She placed her hands on her nonexistent hips in mock ferocity. “Maybe you shouldn’t have.”
He laughed. “I’ll remember that.”
Ariel studied him. She wasn’t the only one filled with good humor this morning. “Something is different with you.”
“Is there?” Impish lights shone in his eyes. “You must be imagining things.”
“I don’t think so.” She cocked her head. If her suspicions were true... “Where’s Stephanie? Why didn’t she come with you?”
“She was still asleep. I—” Dean cut himself off and gave her rueful smile. “Evil, aren’t you?”
If her joy could be compounded, this news did it. “Just very, very happy.”
“Yeah, me too.” An emotion filled his face—an emotion she could now give a name. Love. “But don’t tell Rand. I’ll do that.”
“I won’t say a word.” In fact, Ariel hoped words wouldn’t be necessary for a long time after they arrived home.
Rand got the truck going and joined them. “That did it. Thanks, Dean.”
“No problem.” Dean turned toward the SUV. “I’m going to head back. Call me on the cell if you get stuck.”
“I should be okay. The truck has four-wheel drive.” Dean climbed inside his vehicle and was out of sight in moments. Anxious to return to a certain sleeping someone, no doubt.
Rand motioned toward the truck. “Your carriage awaits, my queen.” Before Ariel could move, he swung her into his arms.
She wrapped her arms around his neck as he waded through the deep snow. “You don’t need to do this. I can walk.”
“I know I don’t have to do it.” The warmth in his eyes triggered an answering heat in her veins. “But I want to.” He rested her on one knee as he opened the passenger door. “I don’t remember you weighing this much last time,” he muttered.
She gasped. “Aren’t you charming? I do happen to be pregnant, you know.”
“Are you?” Devilish mischief played across his face. “I hadn’t noticed.”
She satisfied herself with tugging at a lock of his hair before he seated her inside. “I have ways to make you suffer for that,” she told him, already imagining how she’d torment his body until he begged for mercy.
Then she would take him inside her.
Evidently Rand could read her mind, for he gave her a wicked grin. “I’m counting on it.”
He drove slowly along the snow-covered road leading from the cabin, the only other tire tracks those from Dean’s vehicle. Ariel glanced back at the cabin, oddly reluctant to leave it. For a short time, the mortal world had been kept at bay.
If only it could continue to stay away.
The main roads had been plowed at least once so Rand picked up speed as they headed back toward Colorado Springs. Ariel watched the passing scenery, fascinated. The unblemished snow packaged the world in a sense of purity, of crystal beauty and winter magic. If she hadn’t stayed in the mortal world, she would have missed this.
The evergreens lining the road emitted a joyous sonata, the rustling of their branches musical as they celebrated the new snowfall. Even the aspens, slumbering deeply, added to the melody, the last few leaves clinging stubbornly and dancing in the wind.
“This is so beautiful,” she murmured. The magical realm had nothing like this.
“You’re beautiful.” Rand glanced at her with a slow, sensuous smile that tightened her breasts at once.
“I—” She didn’t finish, aware of the tiny jerking within her. A fragrant red rose drifted to the seat.
When Rand shook his head in mock despair, she laughed. Her child was most decidedly a pillywiggins.
More roses littered the seat before the hiccups eased.
“What am I going to do with you?” Rand asked, his tone light.
“I can think of several things.” All of which involved getting naked and spending many long hours with each other. She hadn’t begun to explore his body, the solid muscle, the toned flesh, the velvet soft length of his masculinity. Even hours wouldn’t be enough.
“I don’t know.” The corner of his lips lifted. “I wouldn’t want to wear you out again.”
“I dare you to try.” She knew enough of that mortal threat to know most men could not refuse it.
“Dare me, eh?”
“Or are you afraid I’ll wear you out?” Ariel slid her hand over his thigh and was rewarded by the tensing of his muscles.
Rand chuckled. “This is going to be a very interesting afternoon.”
“You—” Ariel stopped as a sharp tension rippled across her belly, then faded away. “That was different.”
“The baby?”
“Yes. It was similar to a growing pain, yet not the same.”
The humor fled from Rand’s face and the look he gave her held a hint of panic. “Are you going into labor on me, Ariel?”
“I don’t think so. It was only once.” She waited but the sensation didn’t reappear.
“If it happens again, tell me.” Rand’s knuckles whitened on the steering wheel as he guided them through the winding curves of the pass. “Dear Lord, you could have the baby any time now, couldn’t you?”
“It’s possible.” She had no real way of knowing how close she was to the end of her term other than her burgeoning belly. Though Dean’s rough guess on her accelerated pregnancy set a date of this weekend—only a couple more days.
The solemn expression remained on Rand’s face. “Ariel, I...” He paused. “I won’t stop you from leaving after the baby’s born.”
Her chest grew tight. Didn’t he want her to stay? Now, when she ached to be with him, he wanted her to leave? After what they’d shared?
He hadn’t said he loved her. Perhaps for him, their joining had been nothing more than the pleasure of love-making. Her spirits sank and she turned away to stare unseeingly out the window.
He’d only asked her to marry him out of obligation. She’d known that at the time. Apparently, he no longer felt that obligation.
That made him no different than most mortal men of her acquaintance. They showed little care for others. It shouldn’t matter.
But it did.
Rand wasn’t most mortal men. He was the man she loved.
Who no longer wanted her.
“Did you hear me?” he asked.
“I heard you.” What could she say? What did he want her to say? “Am I supposed to be pleased to have your blessing?”
He snorted. “Yeah, right.” His voice sounded bitter. “My blessing.”
He said nothing more and the silence thickened as he completed the drive to his house. The magic had fled from the sunny day, and she hugged herself to hold in the hurt. Robin had not told her loving could be exquisite pain as well.
“What the—?”
Ariel looked up at Rand’s exclamation to see several cars and vans parked in front of his house and a group of men and women filling the yard. As Rand pulled into the driveway, the strangers turned as one and advanced.
He leaped from the truck. “What the hell is going on here?”
Everyone talked at once so that Ariel could barely understand them. One question came through clearly. “Are you Rand Thayer?”
“I am.”
Ariel stepped out of the truck and walked around the front to join him. “Rand?”
At her voice, the pack whirled on her. She jerked back as a large black knob was stuck under her chin. “Are you Ariel?” someone asked.
She stared at the group, uncertain how to answer.
A man planted himself in front of her, his gaze intent. “Are you the so-called faery?”