Chapter 16

Chapter

Sixteen

EINAR

" A re you sure we're going the right way?" Harper asked, pausing to look at me over her shoulder. She wore her hair in two braids. Thick athletic tights molded to her hips and ass, and a signature tight sweater hugged her breasts. I didn't need hiking poles. My dick had kindly volunteered to take on the role.

"Einar?"

I realized I stood in the center of the trail, probably wearing a dumbfounded expression as Harper frowned at me. We'd been hiking for two hours, and we neared my favorite spot in the mountains. The breeze carried a sharp bite, but the sun was out, making the late afternoon air appear to sparkle.

I cleared my throat. "Sorry, did you ask a question?"

"Yes. I asked if we're going the right way." Harper looked around, her frown deepening. "There isn't much of a trail here."

That was an understatement. I'd worn a few trails into the ground over the years, but they weren't the smooth, manicured terrain Harper was probably used to. They were also narrow as hell.

"I know the mountain," I said. "If you veer off course, I'll tell you."

She grumbled as she faced forward and continued up the incline. "This would be a lot easier if you led us."

"And miss this view?" I asked, looking at her ass for the thousandth time since we left the house.

Okay, maybe the millionth.

She swung around again. "Is that why you insisted on bringing up the rear?"

I grinned.

She closed her eyes on a long blink. "Forget I said that."

I lunged forward and grabbed a handful of the rear in question. Leaning in, I let my lips graze the tender skin under her ear. "Sorry, sweetheart, but it's an unbeatable view." I squeezed her cheek, wishing I possessed the magic to make the layer of lycra separating us disappear. "Also, there's no way I can handle having you behind me. I'd spend all my time looking back to make sure you're okay and probably end up falling over a cliff."

Her soft laughter made joy flare in my chest. She pushed me away with a good-natured shove. "Fine. But this favorite spot of yours better be close."

Worry drifted through me. "Why? Are you getting blisters?"

"No, my boots are fine, I promise. But I'm not a lycan, and my stamina isn't the same as yours."

"Understood." I gestured toward the summit ahead. "We're almost there. Five more minutes."

With a nod, she turned and continued up the mountain. As I followed, her words burrowed into my mind. Because she was right. She was human—and like all humans, she was fragile. If she decided to stay at Draithmere, how much time would we have? A century?

My gut knotted. There had to be a way to extend Harper's lifespan. My brother's wife had been born human.

Yes , a voice in my head reminded me, but Abby is a werewolf now. Even isolated as I was, the news of my sister-in-law's miraculous transformation had reached me. Abby had survived a werewolf's bite—and, eventually, killed her attacker. Eschewing a thousand years of prejudice and tradition, Cyrus made her his queen. I didn't know all the details of my brother's relationship, but rumor had it he was enamored of his unconventional wife. And Cyrus was pushing two hundred years old. He probably didn't have to worry about Abby dying first.

Ahead, Harper crested the barely-there trail. A second later, she sucked in a breath. "Oh, my god, this is beautiful."

I moved beside her, and my negative thoughts dissipated as I caught sight of her expression. She gazed at the scenery before us, her cheeks pink from the cold and the exertion of the climb. The freckles on her nose sparkled like gold dust in the waning sunlight.

"What is this place?" she asked. "Is that a lake?"

"It's a hot spring," I said.

Harper jerked her gaze to mine. "That water is warm ?"

"Very. You want to go in?"

She narrowed her eyes. "You planned this. You knew we'd have to skinny dip."

I tugged the end of one of her braids. "I may have hoped for it. I didn't think this spot could get any more beautiful, but seeing a certain redhead naked in that water is probably going to change my mind."

Lust glimmered in her eyes. Her full lips parted, and her breathing quickened. "I guess a quick dip wouldn't hurt."

"Wouldn't hurt a thing," I agreed.

Giggling like a pair of idiots, we stripped and waded into the water. Harper crowed with delight as she submerged herself.

"It's like bathwater!" she exclaimed, wading deeper. When the water reached her hips, she faced me.

And I couldn't contain my groan. She looked like a mermaid in the clear water, her taut nipples like two ripe berries. The spring lapped at her trim waist. Water invaded the sweet hollow of her navel.

"I've never been jealous of water until now," I said, staring at her luscious tits.

A devilish look entered her eyes as she waded to me. "I know the feeling," she said, spreading her palms over my chest. She pushed gently, guiding me toward the edge of the spring. I let her have her way, my heart speeding up with anticipation. My back hit the shore. Harper bit her lip as she trailed her hand to my dick.

"What are you doing?" I asked, a catch in my voice. The second she closed her fingers around my shaft, anything else I might have said drifted away. Now, I was probably capable of caveman grunts. Nothing more. Fine. Who needed speech, anyway?

Harper gazed up at me through the veil of her thick lashes. "I dreamed of this last night. Touching you. Putting my mouth on you."

Holy fuck. Somehow, I managed to form a coherent thought, and I let it flow from my mind to hers. "I'm the one who's dreaming." Her clever fingers plied my erection, sliding up and down, up and down. Cupping my balls briefly before returning to my shaft.

"Can I?" she whispered. "Will you let me suck you?"

I set a record reaching back and shoving my body from the water. As I sprawled on the grass, she emerged after me, her body slick with water. The chill in the air didn't have much power with the heat rising from the spring. Not that it mattered. A snowstorm could have hit and I wouldn't have noticed. Not with Harper kneeling between my legs, one of her hands still pumping my dick.

"I love the way you look," she said, her blue eyes on my cockhead. She flicked her gaze up to mine. "I love the way you taste."

I'm dead. I've died and ended up in heaven somehow.

Water droplets glistened on Harper's breasts. More water clung to the tiny patch of strawberry blond curls between her legs. Forget mermaid. She was a siren. And she was all mine. Something wild and ancient within me lifted its head, its fangs bared at the thought of anyone taking this woman away from me. Let them fucking try.

With another sultry glance, Harper lowered her head and sucked my cock into her mouth.

My groan was probably loud enough to cause an avalanche. My mind went immediately hazy, my thoughts reduced to monosyllables.

Warm.

Wet.

Perfect.

Harper's mouth was all those things. She worked me slowly at first, licking and flicking her tongue over my cockhead as she continued to pump my shaft.

Another groan broke from me as I palmed her head. "Fuck yes, sweetheart," I said, guiding her up and down my cock. "Just like that."

She hummed, sending vibrations shooting down my dick to my balls. Her firm tits swayed with her movements. Her saliva slicked my shaft as she took me deeper and then bobbed her head.

My cock nudged the back of her throat. I tensed, worried about gagging her, but she kept going.

"Baby," I breathed, pleasure pumping through my veins. I stared at the nude goddess deep-throating my dick, disbelief warring with the desire blasting me like a blowtorch. Was this really happening? Maybe I'd fallen on the way to the spring and hit my head. I was unconscious on the side of the mountain right now, and this was a fantasy.

Harper moved her hands to my thighs, her slender fingers digging into the muscle. Her braids flew as she continued bobbing on my dick, her tongue slicking my shaft. My balls tightened. I was going to come.

But not yet.

I tightened my fingers in her hair. "Harper."

She released my dick with a pop. Panting, she gave me an anxious look. "Is everything all right?"

"It's fucking amazing. But I need to be inside you."

The worry fled her gaze. "Okay." She climbed up my body and straddled me, and I almost came on the spot at the sight of her plump, glossy cunt positioned over my straining cock.

"Fuck, this isn't going to take long," I muttered, gripping her waist. A meteor strike couldn't have pulled my gaze from the sight of her pussy swallowing my cockhead. The blunt tip stretched her opening, and then I was inside her, my dick surrounded by her searing hot clutch.

"Yes," she gasped, already rocking. Pink spread down her chest to the ruby-red tips of her breasts. "It feels so good."

I dug my heels into the ground and pumped my hips, bouncing her as I fought for control. "You like that? You needed a nice, big dick, didn't you, sweetheart?" She blushed harder at my filth, digging her teeth into her lip and threatening to make me go up in flames. "I can hear how much you want this," I continued. "Such a loud pussy. You've been wet all day, haven't you?"

"Uh-huh." She bounced harder, her hands on my chest and her head thrown back. Her braids swung wildly. Her tits jiggled, her puckered nipples dark with arousal. Mist rolled around us as we moved together, our moans and gasps joined by the gentle slap of water against the shore.

Harper's pussy strangled my shaft. Nothing had ever felt so good. As I'd predicted, I wasn't going to last.

I reached down and stroked Harper's clit, which swelled proudly from its little sheath. "Are you going to come all over this dick you wanted?"

She cried out, her movements growing more frantic. "Yes! God, yes, I'm going to come!"

"Let's see it, then, beautiful. Get my dick all wet. Soak it with that pretty pussy. Come on, baby." I rubbed her clit faster.

She came on a scream, her pussy clamping hard. My orgasm hit a second later, the force of it stealing my breath. I managed one more thrust before I seized Harper's hips and spurted inside her. She sagged over me, her pussy milking my cock dry.

"Holy shit," I panted, lifting her off me and rolling so we tangled together on the grass. We lay quietly for a moment, and then Harper lifted onto her elbow.

"Thank you for showing me the spring."

I flicked the end of the braid that dangled over her breast. "Showed you a good time, too."

She rolled her eyes, but her lips twitched. "So modest."

"Thank you. It's about time someone noticed."

Now, she laughed. "Please. I don't think your ego can get any bigger."

"When you're around, everything about me can get bigger."

I continued teasing her as we rinsed off and dressed. As we started back down the trail, I eyed her boots.

"Boots still good? Any blisters?"

"No blisters. Arlo did a good job picking out gear for me."

"Yeah. He has an excellent eye for that sort of thing."

Harper gave me one of her curious looks. "Can he really pull anything from anywhere?"

"He told you what he is?" It wasn't all that surprising. Arlo had displayed his gift in her presence often enough. And he liked her. Once he relaxed around people, he tended to open up.

"Yes," she said. "He also told me his people rejected him for being gay." Harper offered me a soft smile. "It was kind of you to give him a job."

I snorted. "It wasn't kindness. It was pure selfishness. Arlo is the best steward anyone could ask for."

Curiosity sparked more brightly in her eyes. "How did you meet him?"

A tendril of discomfort snaked through me. Arlo was a safe enough subject, but talking of him had the potential to lead the conversation down paths I wasn't quite ready to tread. But I had to tread them eventually. I knew that.

Just not right now. Not when things were so perfect.

"It was on this mountain, actually," I said. "About fifty years ago now."

"You've known Arlo for fifty years?"

"Yes. Watch that tree root." I guided her around a thick vein of wood protruding from the ground. "I'm sure Arlo told you that demons can be pretty backward in their thinking."

She nodded. "He said they're usually assassins."

"The Legerdemain are, yes. Arlo didn't want that life, and he wasn't going to settle down with a demoness like his parents wanted. So he found a place in the middle of nowhere and made camp." I smiled at Harper. "He definitely wasn't expecting me to stumble upon him. Literally. I tripped over him on a walk to the spring."

Harper put a hand over her mouth, her eyes twinkling above it. "He didn't know you lived here?"

"At the time, he was fresh from the demon plane and still jumpy around other people. He didn't venture out of the forest, so he had no idea Draithmere was just over the rise."

"So what happened?"

"I invited him to the house. It didn't take long for me to realize how much I needed a steward. And Arlo needed the protection Draithmere provides." I cleared my throat as I searched for a way to tell Arlo's story without divulging secrets I'd sworn to keep. "His people don't like it when one of their own leaves the nest, so to speak. They can be heavy-handed about forcing runaways back to the fold."

Harper made a soft, approving sound. "You gave him safety." She glanced at me. "The same as you did with Myrna."

The tendril of discomfort sprouted another shoot. "Did Arlo tell you about her, too?"

Harper kept her gaze on the trail. "A little. She lives in the maze?"

"Yes." I held my breath, waiting for Harper to keep digging. It was only natural for her to have questions about the maze. She'd seen the centaurs, after all. Of course she wanted to know what other manner of creatures lived among the hedges.

But Harper stayed silent. Grass crunched under our feet, and fingers of crisp wind tugged at our hair and clothes. We walked, content in each other's company, until the sun began to kiss the horizon. Eventually, Draithmere's chimneys came into view.

Finally, Harper stopped. As I halted beside her, she turned to me. "You built the maze for supernatural beings who don't have a home."

I kept my expression as neutral as I could. "I have the space. Might as well do something with it."

"It was a good thing to do."

I didn't deserve her praise, but rejecting it meant opening myself to questions I wasn't prepared to answer. "It was no trouble."

Harper looked toward the mountain we'd just left. "Arlo came here to escape a future he didn't want."

"That's right."

She swung her gaze back to me. "Why did you come here?"

I startled, her question landing like a grenade lobbed at the center of my chest. She held my stare, her blue eyes clear and steady. Like any good journalist, she'd warmed me up, pitching softballs until she reached the destination she'd aimed for all along.

For a moment, the impulse to brush her off was almost too tempting to ignore. It would have been easier to order her back to the house. But it would destroy the fragile thing I'd built with her.

You'll destroy it anyway, a voice of reason reminded me.

Maybe. And I was a coward, because I wasn't ready to watch that progress burn. However, I had to give Harper something. A kernel of truth. She was too smart to back down completely.

I drew a deep breath. "I told you before that my brother is the king."

Harper nodded. "I remember."

"Cyrus and I had a falling out. It happened close to a century ago. I'm not proud of who I was when I was young. I was brash and hot-tempered." I slanted Harper a look. "In modern vernacular, I was a bit of a dick. My brother is a rule follower. He has to be. Lycan society is rigid." And I was stalling. I cleared my throat. "Cyrus is king, but he shares power with a Council of Nobles. I broke the law. I…hurt people, and I shouldn't have. Normally, the king would pass judgment on a criminal. But the council intervened, claiming Cyrus had a conflict of interest because I was a relative. They ruled against me, sentencing me to death."

Harper clutched her throat, her eyes going wide. "Oh my god."

"Obviously, I wasn't executed." I gave a bitter laugh. "Although, for a while, I wished those bastards had gone through with it."

"Don't say that," Harper murmured, her eyes sheened with tears.

I wanted to reach for her, but I forced my hands to stay at my sides. "Cyrus struck a bargain with the nobles. He banished me, cutting me off from lycan society. I'm not supposed to leave Draithmere."

Harper's eyes went wider. "But you came to Seattle. And you went to the grocery store for me."

"Yes. Technically, I broke the terms of my banishment. If the council wanted to punish me for it, they could. But I don't think that will happen. The nobles ignore me. My brother has done his best to forget I exist."

A tear slipped down Harper's cheek.

My heart squeezed. I caught the droplet on my finger. "Oh, sweetheart, please don't cry."

"I can't help it." She stepped into me and cupped my cheek. I waited for her to ask about my crimes. To demand what I'd done to merit such a harsh sentence. Instead, something fierce entered her eyes. "Whatever you did, it happened a century ago. It doesn't define you now. I know who you are. I don't need to know anything else."

I covered her hand with my own, my throat thickening. "I don't deserve you."

She shrugged. "Probably not."

We smiled at each other.

"Are you hungry?" she asked. "I can make us dinner."

I dragged her hand to my mouth and pressed a kiss in the center of her palm. "You make it, I'll eat it."

She held my hand the rest of the way back to Draithmere. And I tried to ignore the truth that pounded an insistent tattoo in my head.

I didn't deserve her.

And I couldn't lie to her forever.