28. Maeve

Those words – so crass, so forward, so totally unlike me – had barely left my throat when Corbin mashed his mouth against mine.

His fingers wove through my hair, wrapping around the back of my neck and pulling me against him.

My whole body hummed with need as I climbed on his chair, straddling his body and wrapping my legs around him. Corbin moaned against my lips as he ground his hardness into me, and the heat in my veins surged to feel the size of him through his jeans.

Corbin’s tongue pummeled mine, assaulting my mouth and leaving me gasping for breath. His teeth tugged at my lip, biting a little. I yelped at the pain, but my protest turned into a murmur as his fingers snaked down my sides, grazing my already hard nipples through my thin dress.

His body against mine… it felt so good, so right, so powerful. Heat surged down my arms, drawing my hands to explore his skin, to cup his chin, tangle my fingers in his hair, drag my nails over the skin at the back of his neck until he shivered with delight. Corbin ground against me harder, and I pushed back against him, the ache inside me begging to be filled with him.

Never in my life had I wanted something as much as I wanted Corbin inside me, right now. And that included the telescope that I’d begged the Crawfords to buy me for Christmas for six years.

Corbin tugged his lips from mine, trailing kisses along my neck, leaving a blaze of shimmering flutters in his wake. His hands tore at my dress, finding the zipper, his fingers stopping just short of grabbing the clasp.

“You definitely want this?” he asked, his eyes blazing. Just his breath touching my skin made my body pulse with need. “You don’t want to wait until?—”

“Correct. I don’t want to wait.”

“Good. Because you have haunted my dreams for far too long for me to give you up now.”

Corbin’s fingers closed over the zipper and he yanked it down. I lifted my hands and he pulled the dress over my head. I was dimly aware that I should feel nervous about what Corbin thought of my body, all the lumps and curves and bulgy bits, but his eyes sparkled as he drank me in, like I was the most beautiful creature he’d ever seen, and let me tell you, a look like that from a guy like him made me feel like a queen.

Then his lips were around my nipple and all thought ceased.

I moaned as Corbin’s tongue darted across the sensitive bud. Just like in my dream, he licked and sucked and teased me until I was a mess of need. But this was a hundred times better than any dream, because I was awake, and my body was on fire, and Corbin Harris smothered me in pleasure.

His mouth still wrapped around my nipple, Corbin picked me up as though I was made of paper and laid me back across his desk, draping me over the lewd drawing in the open grimoire. Worrying about the ancient book, I started to sit up, but he pushed me back down.

“No, no, this is exactly where you should be.” Corbin’s hands shoved my thighs apart, cupping me under my ass. His face twisted into a look of such exquisite joy that it made me tremble inside and out.

Before I could say anything, he dived between my legs.

His tongue found the source of the pounding, throbbing ache, and Corbin attacked it with the possessive dedication he gave to everything in his life. He drew long strokes across me, then touched only the tip of his tongue to that spot, vibrating it in place and reducing me to a gibbering mess as an orgasm tore through me.

At least, I think it was an orgasm. I’d never had one before, so I couldn’t be certain. My whole body shuddered and jets of molten pleasure flared through my veins. The world spun and red dots appeared in my vision.

“Whoa,” I moaned. I wanted to say it was my first, that I’d definitely never had one of those with Andrew. But all that came out, again and again, was “whoa, whoa.”

“Plenty more where that came from.” Corbin’s mouth finding mine once more. He leaned over me, one hand cupping behind my neck, while his other hand reached between my legs again. He pushed one finger inside me, stroking my wall as his pinkie snaked up and swirled around that spot once more.

Moments later I died and was reborn again in a fire of pleasure and ecstasy. My body slipped off the side of the earth and plunged into nothingness, weightless and breaking into stardust.

I clung to Corbin until the trembling subsided and my veins stopped burning up in the sun.

“That’s two,” he grinned. “Can you feel anything magical?”

“Mmmmm.” I held him. “I feel like I just saw the center of the Sun.”

“I mean, can you touch your power?”

I closed my eyes, drawing myself into my body, searching for some deep-hidden power. But I didn’t even know what I was looking for, how I was supposed to feel. All I knew was that warmth pooled in my limbs, my brain surged with disjointed thoughts and half-articulated flashes of brilliance. I knew there was an ache in my belly and between my legs that still demanded to be sated, and that was more important than anything else right now.

“Maybe it needs a little something more.” Corbin’s voice was pure silk.

I nodded, reaching down between us and grabbing the belt of his jeans. I slipped the buckle through my fingers and tore it open. Corbin moaned as I reached inside and drew him out.

“Magic has never been this fun before,” he groaned.

I lifted my head so I could see his cock, and wasn’t surprised to see he was exactly the same as in my dream. Huge and long and glorious. I wrapped my fingers around his shaft and gave him a stroke. Corbin’s eyes fluttered closed, and he growled deep in his throat.

Corbin’s hand was on my thigh again, and with his other hand he reached behind me and grabbed the condom from the desk, ripping it open with his teeth and rolling it over his bulging dick. I helped him roll the condom down, then leaned back against the book. Corbin spread my legs again, and entered me with a deep thrust.

I cried out as half Corbin’s length slid inside me, filling the ache that had begged for this ever since I arrived at Briarwood. I wrapped my arms around him, digging my fingernails into his back. Corbin gripped the end of the desk with one hand, the other holding up my thigh, his fingers spread across my ass.

“You feel amazing,” he puffed, as he drew out and then sank into me again, our bodies moving together, rising and falling with each long, glorious thrust. “You feel like magic to me.”

He kissed me, his tongue playing at my lips as his body moved against mine. My legs fell open, begging for more of him. My ass rubbed against the edge of the book.

“Isn’t this disrespecting the Briarwood grimoire?” I raise an eyebrow at Corbin.

He smile back as he cups his hand behind my neck, bringing me closer. “Think about the drawing. If anything, this is honoring my ancestors.”

The desk creaked as Corbin thrust harder, building up a steady rhythm that made the ache inside me pound with anticipation. He angled my ass up and thrust in deeper, filling me, giving me exactly what I needed.

I clawed at his back as the ache climbed inside me, the pressure like a pot reaching the boil. Corbin ground his pelvis against mine, driving deeper still. His thrust tore through me, sending the pot screaming as it boiled over, and molten hot pleasure poured through my limbs. My muscles clenched and unclenched around him, clamping onto Corbin’s cock as I rode my third orgasm until the room swirled in a haze of color.

Corbin stiffened, his muscles clenching. He buried his face into my neck, his teeth scraping my skin as he shuddered with his own release. His body tightened into knots, a snake coiling to strike, and then, with a cry, he pounded into me one final time and collapsed against me.

“Shite,” he whispered, his arms encircling me. His thick muscles embraced me, keeping me warm.

I giggled. “You Brits and your quirky words. I can’t wait to tell my sister I just had my first shag on foreign soil.”

Corbin’s eyes warmed. “How did you rate it, Maeve Moore?”

“A solid twelve out of ten.”

Corbin sighed. “You’ve no idea how chuffed I am to hear that. Are you tired? I’ll take you up to bed.”

“I don’t know if I am tired, but I’d like to go to bed.”

I snuggled against Corbin’s chest as he scooped me in his arms like I was a little kitten, and we wobbled out of the library. He wasn’t as steady on his feet as Arthur, cursing as he stubbed his toe on the bottom of the stair, but the kisses he trailed across my face while he carried me upstairs were uniquely his own.

Corbin pushed the door of my room open and laid me out on my bed. He stared down at my naked body, his eyes filled with a mix of awe and desire and sadness.

“I am not worthy of you,” he said.

“Don’t talk bollocks.” I grabbed him, yanked him down, forcing my tongue between his lips. It only took a moment for him to yield to me again.

Corbin always looked after everyone else, and he never asked for what he wanted. He just thought about what was best for the coven, even if it left him without anything at all. Where was his family? His parents were the ones who watched over me until Corbin was sixteen, and from the way he talked about them, they were still alive. So why weren’t they still here at Briarwood, helping him fight off the fae? There was more than enough room for everyone. And why did Corbin think he was ‘unworthy’ of me? Why did that impossible sadness flash in his eyes when he thought no one was looking?

It was there now, creeping in at the edges, even as he kissed me. Of all of us, he had the most to lose if the coven failed, because it was his coven, rightfully. He may think that I was the High Priestess, but I knew the truth – I was just a science nerd from Arizona who had somehow walked into a fairy tale where nothing made sense, except for the fact there were four guys here who cared about me, who wanted me as much as I wanted them, and I’d be damned – I mean, buggered – if I was going to give up this opportunity.

I’d decided, after I went back to my room and read my mother’s letter again, that I was wrong to expect everything at Briarwood to be explainable by science. I expected everything to be wrapped up in a nice little theory, but everything that happened over the last few weeks has taught me that life doesn’t work like that. Maybe I still didn’t quite believe all this stuff, but I did trust my gut, and my gut wanted to be here at Briarwood, helping my guys fight for everything this castle represented.

All Corbin’s talk of orgies and orgasms. That image of the Priestess, so lost in her ecstasy, so different from the “purity pledge” lectures Mom had given me and Kelly. So free of guilt and shame, such a celebration of atoms colliding and electrons firing, of beautiful chemistry coming together and making sparks fly. Sex had never really appealed to me before, because I’d always framed it as a tool of the church used to control people, especially women. But not anymore.

I’d come to Briarwood to push through the grief of losing my parents and find my way again. And if sex with hot English mages would help me find my way again, then damn, I was not going to question it.

I pulled Corbin down and wrapped my body around him, giving in to my inner witch once more.

I stood at the gate to the meadow, the barrier between the safety of Briarwood and the outside world. Moonlight lit the grasses, shimmering with a light dusting of dew. My foot kicked something hard. I bent down and grabbed hold of a scuffed boot. It was enormous – a man’s size.

“Nice night for a walk, Princess.”

I dropped the boot in surprise.

Blake reclined against the gate, leaning over so his face was inside Briarwood’s territory, that self-satisfied smirk plastered across his pouty lips.

“This is my dream. It can be whatever type of night I want it to be,” I said, staring over Blake’s shoulder at the red-tinged moon. After a moment, a huge cloud rolled across the sky, obscuring the moon behind a wall of grey fog.

“Nice one. You’ve been practicing,” Blake whistled. He held out his hand, and I took it, daring someone to come and stop me.

It’s my dream, I can walk with Blake if I want to.

I opened the gate and slipped out, joining Blake in the field, beyond the protection spells preventing the fae from hurting me. I should have been terrified, but instead, a sense of liberation surged through me. This is my dream. I control it. If the fae want to come get me here, I’d like to see them try.

Blake and I walked in companionable silence down the path toward the village. I had so many questions I wanted to ask him – namely, how he came to be a human living in the realm of the fae – but as I studied his razor cheekbones and smooth porcelain skin, each one died on my lips.

That smirk never left Blake’s face, and I hated to admit that the idea crossed my mind that if I kissed him, it might get a genuine reaction out of him. I hated the fact that my lips itched to try it.

Blake stopped in his tracks, yanking my body around so I was facing the castle. Briarwood towered over the landscape, her turrets jutting out from the hillside, telling everyone for miles around who was in charge here.

Blake tightened his fingers around mine. “I want to show you something.”

“What?”

“Your kingdom, Princess.”

He raised his hand to the sky and chanted something in a low-singsong voice. The world around us changed, swirling and shifting, everything wobbling like I was looking through warped glass. After a moment, the surface smoothed out again, everything solid once more. I stood in the same field, looking up at the castle, but everything was different.

Instead of fresh, dewy grass beneath my feet, the earth was dry and parched. The neat hedgerows that circled the castle had grown into an imposing fortress of spiked bramble, so high that only the top of my bedroom tower was now visible. Dark clouds covered the sky, completely obscuring the moon and stars. These clouds hung low, and seemed heavier and denser, as though they didn’t hold water vapor, but something much more sinister. A sickly orange glow lit up the horizon and my throat burned as I breathed in the acrid, sooty air.

“Welcome.” Blake swung his arm around the air, a sardonic smile crossing his lips. “Behold the future realm of the fae.”

“But this is Earth. What did you do to it?” This had to be a trick, an Unseelie Court glamour. The fae realm was supposed to be bright and beautiful, full of luminous light and beautiful glades and never ending revels.

But the fae shook his head. “Not me, Princess. You did this. You burned the skies and poisoned the air and turned the very earth itself to dust. You are responsible for this destruction.”