Total pages in book: 98
Estimated words: 92476 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 462(@200wpm)___ 370(@250wpm)___ 308(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92476 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 462(@200wpm)___ 370(@250wpm)___ 308(@300wpm)
“But…why does it feel that way?” I demanded, as he rose to his feet and put a hand under my elbow to help me up as well. “Your magic, I mean.”
Liath shook his head.
“Don’t know. Possibly because we’re meant to be together. Though I’ve never heard of any other couple being able to affect each other in this way. Never heard of anyone who could feel magic on their skin like you do either though,” he added. “Hold still. We’re both wet from kneeling in the snow and I need to dry us.”
“Oh, do you have to?” I exclaimed.
He frowned.
“You’d rather be wet and miserable?”
“No, it’s not that…” I broke off, biting my lip. “I just feel like…it’s…it feels so good when you…when you do magic on me and it seems like that can’t be right.”
“Can’t be right?” He frowned. “What does that mean?”
“I mean, well…it’s forbidden. For a maiden to…to have that kind of pleasure. To be touched in such a way,” I nearly whispered. “At least, in the Seelie Court, it is.”
“What fucking nonsense is that?” Liath exclaimed, frowning. “Why shouldn’t you have pleasure?”
“Because it’s forbidden,” I emphasized again. “You do know what forbidden means, don’t you?”
“What I know is that it sounds like someone filled your head with a lot of nonsense,” he rumbled. “But I don’t have time to deal with it now—we need to get to the Pool of Seeing. Just hold still—I promise the drying spell isn’t nearly as intense as the healing and purification.”
He pricked his finger and made a motion with one hand. Suddenly a warm, dry wind seemed to spring up around both of us. It swirled around my skirts—and even reached under them to tickle the spot between my thighs which was still wet and swollen from Liath’s earlier intense magic.
“Oh!” I gasped, putting my hands to my skirt to try and keep it down as it tried to fly up and show my legs. “You did that on purpose!” I accused Liath, who was laughing at me.
“Maybe.” He gave me an unrepentant grin. “But at least you’re dry now.”
It was true, I was. Well, my skirt was. The place between my legs was most definitely still wet from all the magic he’d been doing on me.
“Come on—we need to get going,” Liath told me. I expected him to forge on ahead of me again. Instead, he bent down and lifted me off my feet, making me gasp.
“Oh! What are you doing?” I exclaimed.
“Carrying you so we don’t have any more accidents,” he said shortly. He held me as easily as though I weighed no more than a fluff of thistledown—which I assure you is not the case.
“You can put me down if I get too heavy,” I said quickly as he continued tramping through the forest. “I really can manage—I’m just not used to walking through the woods in Winter with all the snow.”
He frowned down at me.
“What makes you think you’re heavy?”
“Well…I mean, compared with the other Seelie maidens…” I began.
Liath gave me a stern look.
“Listen to yourself, Alira—do I need to show you your beauty again?”
I thought of how he had stood behind me, cupping my breasts and teasing my nipples and bit my lip. Just thinking of it made my pussy feel even more wet and hot than before.
“No,” I whispered. Though to be honest, I rather wished he would.
“Has it ever occurred to you that the reason the males of the Seelie Court like stick-thin females is because they’re too damn skinny themselves?” Liath said.
“Er…well, no,” I admitted. Certainly none of the tall, slender, blond males I had grown up around was as muscular as my Unseelie husband. I doubted any of them would be able to lift me and carry me through the snow as he was—not that any of them would want to.
“Forget all the bullshit they taught you at the Summer Court,” Liath advised me. “Half of it was meant to control you and the other half is just plain lies.”
“How do you know what I learned growing up in the Summer Court?” I demanded.
“I’ve had Seelie friends in the past,” was his answer. Surprising, since our Courts have been at war for centuries. “Well, one friend, anyway. A good friend,” he added.
“Who was it?” I asked. “Do I know them?”
But Liath shook his head, his face going dark.
“Never mind. I’ll tell you later.”
I wondered how much later but didn’t dare to ask. The look on his face was foreboding, as though the memory of the friend was a bad or possibly a sad one. Also, I noticed he had spoken of this friend in the past tense. Perhaps he or she was dead? It was certainly something to consider…
“There it is.”
Liath’s voice made me glance up and I saw where he was looking. Right ahead of us was a clearing in the forest where the trees had not quite lost all their leaves. But the leaves they retained were blood-red. They waved like flags from the skeletal branches, blown by the icy breeze.