Crystalfire (6 page)
Authors: Kate Douglas
Three, Taron. Don’t forget me.
He laughed and Willow’s heart lurched in her chest at the wonderful, deep sound he made. “I’m sorry, Bumper. You’re right. What was I thinking?”
Then, before Willow knew what he intended, Taron went still. He looked down and stared directly into her eyes. His gaze was so intense it was moderately unsettling, but she couldn’t look away.
Then, so slowly she could have easily escaped had she wanted, he leaned close and pressed his lips to hers. She wasn’t at all ready for the sensation of his mouth on hers, the soft press of his lips, the warmth—she really had not expected him to kiss her. She’d seen plenty of kisses. You couldn’t hang around Eddy and Dax or Ginny and Alton or even Dawson and Selyn and not see kisses, but she’d never had any idea what they felt like.
No wonder everyone did this so often! Kisses were wonderful. Taron’s lips were soft and full and moved over hers with a whisper of sensation that made her toes curl. If she actually thought about it, she had no idea what to do. Thank the gods, her body seemed to know. Following her instincts, Willow wrapped her arms around Taron’s shoulders and stood up on her toes, curled or not, so she could reach.
The slight movement raked her nipples over his chest, and even though their bodies were separated by his flannel shirt and her cotton tank, she felt a sharp zing of current that raced from those sensitive points. It was lightning—a fiery need that shot from her breasts to her belly. She’d barely gotten past that amazing sensation when she parted her lips at the insistent pressure from his tongue, and the kiss leapt to an entirely new level.
This is arousal,
she thought.
This is desire.
she thought.
This is desire.
This is why you have your puppy parts!
Not now, Bumper.
Bumper grumbled and went quiet.
Taron groaned. His arms tightened around Willow’s waist and one big palm cupped her bottom. She lifted her left leg and wrapped it around his thighs, pulling him close against her, close enough to feel the thick ridge of what had to be an erection pressed tightly against her belly.
She knew about those things, a vague knowledge that must have been part of what the Edenites had given her so that she could function as a living creature and help Dax, but they’d not described how it would feel. Nope. They hadn’t gone anywhere near the actual sensations and they’d certainly not given her enough details.
Even if they had, she might not have believed. How could anyone describe this to someone who’d never been kissed?
He surged against her, a hard, fiery brand that felt as if it marked her, even through denim. His other hand came under her bottom and Taron lifted her, pulling her closer to him, aligning her perfectly so that he rubbed himself against whatever it was between her thighs that really needed rubbing.
The sensation was exquisite.
It was unbelievable.
It was driving her absolutely insane!
He was hard where she was soft, her curves fit perfectly into his valleys and vice versa. Amazing. She wanted him. She wanted more, she just flat out wanted. But what, exactly? She’d never stayed in the same room when Dax and Eddy made love. She’d always managed to be far away whenever any of her full-sized friends were intimate with one another, and now she didn’t know!
Why hadn’t the Edenites given her more information, damn it all? They’d skipped the specifics altogether. Somehow, she’d have to figure it out on her own, though with Taron’s help, it shouldn’t be too difficult.
He was male. Men knew these things, right?
The forceful, hungry, all-consuming pressure of his mouth against hers abruptly ceased.
Well, damn. It looked as if it wasn’t something she was going to learn about now, either.
Taron ended the kiss with a slow slide of his mouth over hers. His retreat seemed to be filled with regret. He pressed his forehead against Willow’s, breathing hard but chuckling softly. His hands still cupped her bottom, her legs still wrapped tightly around his waist, and she clung to him, breasts to chest, crotch to belly, but it was obvious the moment had ended.
Taron’s sigh rivaled any sound of frustration Bumper could make. “I’m sorry. I had no idea how much I wanted to kiss you, or I would have been able to stop myself before it got so ...” He glanced at the way he was holding her and grinned. “Intense. That’s the word I want. Before it got so intense.” He planted a brief kiss on the end of her nose. “I was kissing you with too much feeling before I knew what I was doing.”
He frowned, but he really wasn’t looking at Willow anymore. It was almost as if he were arguing with himself. Lemurians were known for their love of debate. But now?
He focused on her once again. “I certainly didn’t realize how kissing would not be nearly enough, but this is something I’m totally unfamiliar with. Will you accept my apologies, Willow? I believe I was out of line.”
She leaned back and glared at him. Her body literally trembled with unmet needs and he was busy having a debate all by himself. Of course, his beautiful green eyes sparkled, and he didn’t look as if he regretted kissing her all that much, but what did she know?
“Why?” she demanded. “Why would you want to stop yourself? What was out of line?”
A tiny frown appeared between his brows. “I shouldn’t be kissing you like that. Becoming so aroused.”
“You don’t like being aroused? You didn’t like kissing me?”
He leaned his head back and closed his eyes. He had a rueful smile on his face when he said, “Willow, you have no idea.”
“Well, of course I don’t. I’ve never been kissed before, but I thought it felt pretty good. You’re saying you don’t want to do it anymore?”
His eyes flew open. “You’ve never been kissed? Ever?”
She sighed. “Taron. Think about it. I was less than two inches tall. Then I lived inside a dog. Of course I’ve never been kissed. Who would have kissed me?”
She unhooked her heels and let her legs slide to the floor. Taron relaxed his grip on her butt, and draped his hands loosely over her shoulders, but he had a stupid grin on his face.
“I guess I never thought about it. I mean, I just figured that if there were tiny little women, there must be tiny little men.”
She shook her head so hard her stupid curls bounced around her face and shoulders. “Maybe you
should
think about it. I was created for Dax. My sole purpose was to help him function in Earth’s dimension by gathering enough energy to feed his demonic powers. I started out as a fairy light, otherwise known as swamp gas.” She snorted. “Even you must admit, Taron, that there is nothing remotely attractive about the thought of kissing swamp gas.”
should
think about it. I was created for Dax. My sole purpose was to help him function in Earth’s dimension by gathering enough energy to feed his demonic powers. I started out as a fairy light, otherwise known as swamp gas.” She snorted. “Even you must admit, Taron, that there is nothing remotely attractive about the thought of kissing swamp gas.”
He laughed at that, a soft, sweet chuckle that made her tummy clench again. Willow sighed. “For awhile, I actually thought I was in love with Dax, but obviously I didn’t have a clue what love was, at least not the kind of love that Eddy feels for Dax and he feels for her. Not what Alton and Ginny share. Point being, I didn’t exist until Dax existed, at least not as a woman. I was barely sentient before the Edenites turned me into a sprite.”
“Oh.”
His expression didn’t fit his simple statement. No, not when his eyes flashed and his hands tightened on her shoulders. Then he hugged her close against his chest and rested his chin on top of her head. “I don’t feel nearly as stupid as I did a moment ago.”
“Why would you feel stupid?”
He leaned back and smiled at her. “Because that was my first kiss, too. I’ve never kissed a woman before.”
She frowned at him. “I don’t believe you. You knew exactly how to kiss me.”
“I’m a scholar, Willow. I study everything, including sex. It’s not all that difficult to figure out. It’s true. I’ve never kissed a woman, never even held one in my arms. The closest I’ve gotten to a woman is swordplay during training.”
When she opened her mouth to disagree, he merely smiled and shook his head. “Don’t look at me like that.” He kissed her nose. “I’m telling you the truth. No kisses, no women. Not ever. For one thing, it’s not my way. I think Alton might have been with someone many years ago at some point, though I’m not even sure about that. But for me, life has always been my studies and learning.”
He sighed. “And my own inexcusable cowardice.”
“Cowardice? Are you saying you’re afraid of women?” He certainly didn’t seem to be afraid of her, but then Taron had known her when she was barely two inches tall, and maybe ...
But he was shaking his head. “No, not of women in general. Of falling in love. Of making myself vulnerable. It’s a long story ...”
“I love stories.” She cupped his cheek with her hand. “What happened?”
Now he merely looked embarrassed. “I really don’t ...” His lips quirked up in half a grin. “Okay. But don’t laugh. It sounds really stupid, but it honestly affected me.”
“I promise not to laugh. Too hard.” She gave him her cheekiest grin.
He smiled and merely shook his head. “Years ago, when I was still young, when we still lived on the island continent of Lemuria before it fell into the sea, Alton and I attended a fair.”
She thought of the only fair she’d ever been to. She’d gone with Eddy and Dax and Alton and Ginny to one in Sedona when she’d been inside Bumper and the demon king had attacked using a huge, angry bull as an avatar. She doubted there’d been demons at Taron’s fair, but she remembered good stuff, too. “A fair? Like with contests and games and food—that sort of thing?”
He nodded. “Exactly. We used to have them when I was a boy. And this fair had a fortune teller, a woman who sat in a dark tent with candles burning all about and a huge crystal ball on a stand in front of her. She looked really scary, like an ancient, evil witch, and she told our fortunes.”
He shrugged. He still looked more than a little embarrassed, but she waited.
Slowly he shook his head and his eyes were focused on something far away and long ago. “I haven’t thought of Alton’s fortune for all these years, but the woman said he would become a great warrior and find love in another land far from his home, but that love would return his home to him. Wow. At the time it made no sense, but now ...”
“She was talking about Ginny and the role she played in helping Alton go back to Lemuria, wasn’t she?”
“She must have been.” He kissed her lightly. “But that makes my fortune even worse, because it means it might come true, too. What she read for me in the crystal was short and to the point, and it made a powerful impression on me. I made my decision then that I would never fall in love, never allow a woman to love me.” He swallowed and looked away, as if he might actually be hearing the old woman’s words. “I decided it wasn’t worth the risk.”
He paused then for so long that Willow prodded him. “What risk, Taron?”
He took a deep breath, as if steadying himself, but he didn’t directly answer her question. “She gazed into the crystal for a long time. Then she stared at me, and I still remember how scary she was. She had one brown eye and one blue and a bunch of her teeth were missing. She had to be as old as dirt, and her voice sounded like she spoke from the bottom of a well.”
He laughed, but it was an uncomfortable sound that raised chills along Willow’s spine. Whatever happened that day had definitely left its mark on the child. A mark that stayed with the man.
“The thing is, Lemurians are almost always physically beautiful people. Our teeth don’t fall out, we don’t usually shrivel up and look old. We are, for all intents and purposes, almost immortal. This woman was a dried up husk, so unusual that her words carried more weight. It’s hard to explain.”
“What did she say?”
He gazed directly into her eyes, but it was more than obvious he was back in that dark tent, staring at that really scary woman, and he repeated the fortune she’d told him with an odd, hollow note to his voice.
“You will love but once. With that love, you will experience unimaginable joy and unendurable pain.”
“Oh.” Willow pulled free of his embrace and rubbed her hands up and down her arms. “That is sort of creepy, isn’t it?”
“That’s what I thought.” He chuckled, but there really wasn’t any humor in the sound. “So, I’ve avoided women my entire life, terrified of falling in love and having to endure all that pain. See? I told you I was a coward.”
He pulled her back into his arms and hugged her. “It wasn’t all that hard, not falling in love. Things are more rigid in Lemuria than they are here in Earth’s dimension. When our continent sank beneath the waves—around the time I grew old enough to realize men and women had such fascinating differences—everything changed. There were many deaths and much turmoil among our people, and since that time, there have always been fewer women than men. Our energy went to building our new home within the mountain. Not as many of our men found mates.”
“But I bet if you had looked, you would not have had any trouble finding a woman for yourself.” He was so utterly beautiful, she couldn’t imagine any woman turning him down, but he was smiling, shaking his head in denial.
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