Ruairi started counting, and I caught Aveen before she could run off, evanescing straight into the study. I lifted her onto the desk, nudging her knees apart with my hips. She opened her legs with a breathless gasp as I stepped between them.
“I’m pretty sure leaving the room is cheating,” she giggled.
“They play their games while I play mine.” And in the dungeon earlier, she’d claimed to be ready to play. Did she still feel the same, or had she changed her mind?Only one way to find out. I kissed my way down her bobbing throat to her breasts peeking from beneath her dress. “Stay with me tonight.”
Her back arched, thrusting her chest forward. “Why would I want to do that?”
“Because if you don’t, I’ll fill your bedroom with mice so they can nibble your toes. Or burn the entire castle to the ground except the dungeon.” Oh, yes. That’d be fun. Chained up beneath me again. Taking her hard and fast against the stones.
Her fingers laced in my hair, pushing me down to her pebbled nipples. “I suppose I don’t have much of a choice, then, do I?”
“Hostages rarely do,” I murmured against her breast before taking the hardened peak into my mouth and flicking it with my tongue.
“Let’s go before they find us.”
I didn’t have to be told twice, evanescing upstairs and carrying her straight to my bed.I took my time stripping her bare, kissing every inch of newly exposed skin as I went. She helped me out of my clothes until nothing but air separated us.
She kissed me, soft and slow, as I eased into her tight heat, her heels at my back urging me to sink faster. Her tongue tangled with mine, matching each thrust of my hips.
If I could have loved, I would have loved her.
Still, I gave her everything. The shattered pieces, the blackened bits, the parts no one wanted. When I told her again that she was mine, what I really meant was that I was hers.
My hand fell between us, my thumb landing on the spot that drove her wild, drawing a moan from her lips. My hips found hers over and over again, bucking faster and faster until her cries formorewere drowned out by whimpers.
She lifted her arms to keep her head from slamming into the headboard as I drove us both to the edge. My last thought before freefall was that maybe a heartless shell could learn to love after all.
27
I knewAveen and Eava had plans to cook this morning. I also knew that Eava would be running late. How did I know? Eava told me. She’d also asked if I could pass on the information to Aveen. I had every intention of telling her, but then I had this brilliant idea to tease her instead, so I went with the latter.
I’d glamoured myself to look like the old witch a handful of times before—mostly to mess with hungover Tadhg. One time, I got him to eat an entire custard filled with eggshells and sand. He hadn’t wanted to make Eava feel bad, so he didn’t comment as his teeth crunched against the extra special “ingredients”. The bastard had gotten me back by taking a knife to a pair of my dress shoes.
When Aveen stepped into the kitchen, I twisted back toward the pots on the stove filled with leftovers from last night. Eava was never one to stay still for long, so I kept moving, sprinkling herbs into the pots and stirring away until my arms ached.
“Good morning, Eava,” she greeted, as pretty as a picture in one of the new dresses I’d bought for her. Although I missed the way she looked in blue, the soft gray color was almost as nice. I waved her off, moving pots from burners and making myself look busy. “Morning, child. Good to see such a fine color in yer cheeks. Tearmann suits ye.”
Aveen’s cheeks turned as red as the dishtowel on the counter. Was she remembering the way I’d bent her over the desk in my room and made her cry for more?
“I think you may be right,” she said, a smile playing around the corners of lips I’d kissed until they were swollen.
I had to force those thoughts from my mind. I may have been glamoured to look like the witch, but the body beneath still belonged to me. And the memories from this morning made me swell like I’d been stung by a feckin’ wasp.
I stole one of Eava’s aprons and threw it at Aveen so she didn’t notice me adjusting myself beneath my skirts. “Put this on so ye don’t ruin yer dress.”
For once, the woman did as she was told. I helped her tie the thing at her back, loving the way the printed fabric accentuated her hips. “Now fer the blindfold,” I said, shifting a strip of cloth and doing my best not to burst out laughing when her eyebrows bunched.
“Blindfold?”
I tied the cloth over her eyes, and my mind immediately conjured images of Aveen blindfolded up in my bedroom. This woman. My wanting hadn’t waned after having her. If anything, my obsession had gotten worse.
I made up some shite about needing to feel the ingredients to know the right amounts, which sounded so ridiculous, I was certain she’d cop my ruse.
“You don’t follow a recipe book, then?” she asked.
“My recipes live up here.” I gave her temple a tap that left Aveen’s brow furrowing.
Now to find some ingredients.