Enchant the Dawn (23 page)

Soon enough, given his sour expression, he was allowed out of the circle of well wishers with much laughter following his dash into the woods. Let them have their fun. He was the one who would have the best of rewards this night.

As he crept silently through the trees, memories of his childhood surrounded him. The soft crooning of night birds and the rustling of leaves was as soothing as a lullaby. In a remarkably short time the city fell away completely, no matter that this was its busiest hour. The honking swirling volume of a million people faded to nothing in this vast overgrown wilderness.

He looked for evidence of her passing, the mark of heavy footfalls, a broken branch, something—but her stories of growing up running wild through the trees around her home must have taught her something of how to avoid detection. He followed one promising trail, of recently disturbed leaves and a twisted branch, only to find hanging on a branch a pair of tiny lace underthings that made his cock twitch with desire. He rubbed the silky fabric against his cheek, inhaling the subtle fragrance that was distinctively Sophia. Then as some blood finally returned to his brain, he realized that she’d planted the trail and left him a prize for being fooled so thoroughly. He didn’t know whether to stand there and laugh heartily or to turn her over his lap when he did find her and give her a good spanking. Hell, she probably wouldn’t think of it as a punishment actually. Again, he stood still, his erection throbbing in the constriction of his trousers as he imagined the sound of her moans and the slap of his hand against the beautiful curves of her backside. He could practically taste her skin as he soothed any lingering redness with the lapping of his tongue. She squirmed under him and he finally eased her suffering by sliding inside her…

Ah! Chovihani!
The woman has bewitched me.
He turned around and retraced his route, wondering where she may have gone. He was tempted to try to simply feel for her presence but they had agreed that little use should be made of their powers or the Hunt would not be very difficult at all.
Why the hell did I agree to that? Because I didn’t think she’d be so good at hiding.

Long minutes passed where his irritation grew until he heard something like a gasp far ahead of him on his right. He pitched through the trees, his blood surging in him to ready himself for a fight. In his mad dash, he almost missed the silver tinkle of her laughter. He stopped suddenly and then jumped as a fat ginger cat streaked by him, apparently affronted at being disturbed in his nighttime prowling by an upstart girl. Restraining his own amusement, he followed the feline’s direction to see where it might lead.

He walked slowly to the edge a small meadow and out of the corner of his eye saw a flash of white. Rather than react in case she’d already caught sight of him, he made a thorough study of the fresh tufts of spring grass a few yards from his feet. He knew she was perched above him in that ancient oak tree. The light of the rising moon had touched the pale skin of her calves as she scrambled up the wide trunk, her skirt rucked up around her waist like a wood nymph. He knew she had all manner of hidden talents that he looked forward to discovering but tree climbing was one he never would have guessed.

Despite their tacit agreement not to overtly use their powers, this close he could sense her mirth and knew that she thought she had him fooled. He made a show of coming out into a clearing and stalking about as though he had lost her trail. But it was no longer possible for him to lose her and this was the truth she needed to understand. He had already learned his lesson for the night—never underestimate Sophia Hunter.

He left the clearing in a direction almost opposite to the tree she was ensconced in. Then he crept back around, through the cover of the maples and beeches, knowing his dark garments would help him to fade into the surrounding overgrown brush. Working silently around to the majestic oak tree in the center of the stand, he looked up toward the sturdy high limb she’d picked for her hiding place. He wished he’d kept his gloves on for scaling the rough bark as quietly as possible. Still old skills returned from his youth and he managed to ascend without snapping any branches or causing her to look beneath her instead of in the direction he’d originally disappeared.

The sweet curve of her neck was revealed as she looked toward the ground and the hem of her dress was still tucked into the belt at the waistband as she straddled the thick limb of the tree. She looked wild and utterly perfect, the most vital woman he’d ever met. He worked himself around the trunk until he slid into the small gap between her beautiful ass and the main tree trunk, wrapping a hand over her mouth to make sure she didn’t scream.

Rather than startle, she darted her tongue out and swirled it across his palm. Arching her back against him and rubbing her firm ass against his painfully hard cock, she drove him half mad. It was clear that they’d both been playing games and she’d known exactly what he was doing the entire time he’d been stealthily approaching her. He chuckled, nipping the back of her neck and dropping his hand from her mouth to cover the swell of her breast instead.

“You found me.” Her voice was husky and a little breathless, either from desire or the climb. “Did you like my present?”

“What, these?” He pulled the fine lingerie from a pocket and dangled it on a finger. “Do you enjoy torturing me, little vixen?”

“Only because you seem to enjoy being tortured so much!” She reached back and squeezed his erection through his trousers. He dropped the lacy treasure down through the rustling leaves. Her squeak of displeasure was quickly silenced as he plucked hard at her nipples, then flicked at the buttons of her dress. Her breasts spilled out into his hands and she leaned into him as he ran his fingertips over her nipples with the softest touch, feeling them harden and relishing the soft whimpers she gave him as her head rested against his shoulder.

Soon he wasn’t satisfied with the lush feel of the globes of her breasts and the sparks of arousal that flowed between them. He wanted them both to burn. Her skirt was already shortened for her climb, so it was simple for his hand to skim up the supple skin of her thighs. Those thighs were gripped hard around the hefty tree branch on which they were suspended but he wrapped an arm around her waist and she relaxed enough to open her legs to him. She was hot to touch, her lower lips parted for him. He stroked a finger in a slow circle around her clit. She twisted against him, frantic to get closer to those teasing fingers. He smiled at her enthusiasm, until he grunted in pain as her elbow managed to bang against his ribs as she tried to grip his thighs for leverage.

“Oh God, I’m sorry!” She tried to twist around to see to his wound but he refused to let her budge. He tightened his hold around her waist and thrust a finger into her sheath, forcing her back to considering her pleasure rather than his health.

But she was not so easy to distract. “You, Mr. West, are a terrible patient.” She breathed out, turned her face into his neck and planted an open-mouthed kiss against that sensitive skin.

“I am healed, woman. And I am Hunter now, not West.” He twisted his wrist, plunging two fingers deep within her and circling her clit with his thumb in an irregular rhythm meant to drive her crazy.

“Damn it, you really like to play games, don’t you?” She sucked in a breath as he pulled out his fingers and pinched her clit hard. She let out a scream and he rubbed her softly to soothe away the shock.

He put his lips against the shell of her ear to answer. “For a thousand years,
Magi
become part of the family of their
ashavi
. I left my mother’s name in the forests of the Alps when I was called to Search for you. I took a Searching name, West. That was the direction in which I was driven to go. Now that I have found you,” he took the tender lobe of her ear in his teeth and bit softly, eliciting a satisfying moan that reminded him how close he was to exploding inside his trousers, “now that I have you, you are mine and I am yours. I am Daron Hunter.”

She could form no words, only nod her head in response. Writhing against him, she was so close to her peak he could smell her as a bright contrast to the earthy scent of the woods around them. He wanted to bring his fingers to his lips and taste her and wished that there was some way he could pull her hips to his face and lap up her flavor. It was almost impossible twenty feet in the air. He wasn’t sure if it would be possible to scramble back to the ground with Sophia melting in his arms and a cock so hard he could drill a hole in the damn tree.

Sophia solved his problem for him. She tore his arm from around her waist and leaned forward, clutching the wide limb of the tree for support. She planted her feet against the massive trunk and inched backward until she was pressed tight against him. Looking back at him over her shoulder, she bit her lip and reached back, pulling at the fabric of her green dress until her firm buttocks were revealed, her legs wide open and her slick wetness more than ready for him.

As she watched, he licked his fingers of her sweetness and opened the buttons of his crotch, releasing his hardness. It was throbbing with arousal held too long and he needed to be inside her before he lost all semblance of control. He slid the slick skin of his head against her moist slit and almost shivered with the need to bury himself inside her. She growled and he relented, thrusting his hips forward as best he could with his legs still gripping the damned tree limb.

As he slid within, there was a long blissful sigh let loose into the air. Daron wasn’t sure whether it was his or hers or both of them together. It didn’t matter. She was embracing him like no other ever could, her inner walls so tight he felt every shudder of her pleasure. He couldn’t get as deep as he would have liked but together they pushed pleasure higher, with her pushing back against him and making sexy little cries that made him twitch inside her.

He gripped her hips hard and pulled her against him faster, harder. The moonlight seemed to get brighter as it reflected down through the leaves on to her translucent skin. Her strong, sensual hands as she gripped the rough bark, the side of her face as she turned her head toward him her eyes closed in rapture, all of it was turned bright silver. But he realized it wasn’t the moon. It was her power flooding back into both of them.

Just as he could feel her pleasure almost as much as his own, he could now see her essence shining through her skin, radiating her joy as they bound themselves to each other. It drove him to push harder, to grip the rough bark with his knees and drive forward until she screamed and pulsed around him. He was so close to following her he thought he would lose his sanity but he wanted to feel every moment of her orgasm, every wave that shattered her.

He knew he would not find completion until he could lose himself in her. And no matter how enticing his bride was, a tree branch was a difficult place to find abandon. He gritted his teeth against the complaints of his cock and ran a soothing hand over Sophia’s back, calming her as she recovered.

Soon she looked back over her shoulder, a look of mild confusion on her face. She clenched internal muscles and he hissed with the feel of it, trapped on a knife’s edge between fulfillment and torture. “Can’t get… The damn tree is not terribly convenient for…” He trailed off, lost for words and knowing that he sounded like a petulant child upset with his favorite toy.

“Oh! Actually, this particular tree is very convenient.” She pulled herself forward and he slipped out of her regretfully, immediately missing the warmth of her most intimate embrace. Nimble as an acrobat, she brought herself to her knees and then to her feet. She turned around and faced him, placing one foot uncomfortably close to his slick cock as she raised the other to step on another nearby branch to scramble higher into the tree. He caught her thighs in his hands and ducked his head beneath her skirts, running his tongue over the warm cream of her juices. Her hands gripped his head for support and he licked and sucked at her exquisite feast until he feared she would topple as her knees grew weak. He finally let her go and he had every assurance that she was again in desperate need of him, wanting him every bit as much if not more than before her recent climax.

She gave a shuddering sigh and pushed him slightly away from her, finally pulling herself higher into the tree. He watched as she climbed another ten feet into the branches, stopping where the trunk seemed to split into two. There was little choice but to follow her. Wincing, he tucked himself back into his trousers and began to climb.

He was surprised to find that she was not balancing on another precarious perch but kneeling on a small platform wedged in the saddle between the two trunks of the oak. She shrugged at his look of astonishment. “Birdwatchers. City is full of them. Thought this might come in handy someday.” She patted the wood planking affectionately.

Soon he knelt in front of her, close enough for his chest to brush the tips of her breasts. Laughing, she pulled the green cotton over her head and let her dress fall where it will, then she reached up and pulled the leather half-mask he wore over his head. He wrapped his arms around her, crushing her to him and kissing her, letting her taste her own intoxicating flavor on his lips.