Page 13 of Beltane

The puzzle pieces fell together. “The queen? That’s your big move?”

Lex leaned forward over his books, eyeing me with that piercing stare. “Remember when we were in Faerie and I tried to use my gift on her?”

“Yeah.” The memory seemed comical now, considering all we knew. Lex had been arrogant and naive, and we were damn lucky she hadn’t ripped his head off, especially after she threatened to.

“She told me she was older than anything I’d ever seen, that she was the Great Source. All of it, everything, it lived inside her.”

I remembered that, too. Her power had been overwhelming and intimidating. It lured me in and frightened me at the same time. I thought she’d kill all of us as a show of strength. She hadn’t. Then the king had attacked, she’d shoved Poppy in my arms, and we escaped.

Lex pursed his lips, going back to his books. “The Great Source of what, I wonder. Fairy magic? Gifts? And justhowold is she? Old enough to remember how the fairies trapped the king the first time?”

Good lord, he was right. I sat up straight, my mind racing faster than I could speak. “She must have been there. Siobhan said the king and queen were equals, that one could not exist without the other.”

“When he got trapped in Faerie, so did she,” Lex continued.

“When she got loose, he followed her.” They were linked by more than we could ever understand, but it seemed similar to what the four of us experienced. We couldn’t be apart. What affected one of us impacted the rest.

“This can’t be the first time a fairy’s mind has gotten fried.” Lex went back to flipping through his books. “There’s got to be lore about it. I saw everything from sacrifices to changeling children to getting stuck in Faerie forever.”

“Sacrifices?” My mind danced with images of medieval rituals and bloody still-beating hearts.

“Yeah,” he said, rubbing a hand back through his hair. “But who the hell knows what’s real and what’s fake. It could all be bullshit.”

I watched him while he talked, taking a moment to revel in our reconnection. I had missed him so much. I always did, but the ability to leave him was getting harder every time I had to go. I stood and moved around the dining room table, keeping his gaze as his eyes tracked me. I stopped right in front of him, taking the cigarette from between his fingers so I could have a drag before stabbing it out. Inhaling a deep breath, I ran the length of my disheveled king. Dark circles lined the bags under his eyes, and the crease between his eyebrows had grown more pronounced. And was that a gray hair by his temple?

“No one looks at me like that and gets away with it, Chicago.” He licked his lips and smirked, mischief floating just behind his gaze.

“By God, don’t start now.” I kneeled between his knees, mirroring his pose moments ago, and ran my palms up his thighs to the button on his jeans. He didn’t say anything, just watched as I pushed the metal through its hole and pulled the zipper down. Lex shifted his hips so I could yank his pants and boxers to his mid-thighs, freeing his beautiful half-erect cock. “You need to relax. We all do.”

I spat on my hand and grabbed his shaft, giving the tip a good squeeze that had him groaning and sinking farther into the chair.

“There’s a mad fairy king on the loose and you want to suck my dick.” He rolled his eyes and playfully scoffed. “Typical.”

“I think you’d move mountains if it meant you got your cock in my mouth.” I leaned over his torso, bringing my lips to his neck so I could kiss my way over his pulse. He still smelled the same, like cigarettes and deodorant and him, and I wanted to bury myself in it. It reminded me of the first time we hooked up, all those years ago in London. I’d been so wide-eyed and carefree, and Lex had barreled over my innocence with his extravagant debauchery.

He grabbed the back of my neck and brought his lips to mine, biting inside my mouth until he could wrestle my tongue with his own. I loved him like this, rough and hard, all sharp edges looking to polish themselves against my rock-steady grace. He coasted his fingers higher up my head, tunneling into my hair so he could fist a handful and yank my head back.

I hissed as agony zigzagged through my skull.

“You want my cock that bad?” Lex shoved my head into his lap, forcing his dick into my mouth. “Fucking take it.”

I did. I licked and sucked, a thrill shooting down my spine into my balls when he groaned and dropped his head back against the chair. He tightened his fingers, gripping me so he could angle me the way he wanted it.

I let him use me. It had been a stressful week resulting from a stressful four years. Even though it felt like it was all coming to a head now, we still had the worst of it yet to survive. These precious moments, these few hours when we could take our pleasure freely, they might be our last. And damn it, I was going to enjoy it.

“Fuck, Chicago,” Lex murmured, making me feel like a God. Look at how willing and pliant this monster became once I had my skin on his. When I gripped his balls and teased a finger farther back, he shifted his hips and spread his legs wider, urging me on.

I chuckled, and he must have liked the sensation because he hissed in a breath, his hazy eyes squinting as he watched me. I was about to venture lower down, but he yanked my head back and leaned down, bringing his face inches from mine.

“Stand up, pull down your pants, and bend over the table.”

I gave him a lazy grin and licked my lips, swallowing his lingering taste. “No.”

Oh, the look he gave me then—his jaw so tight, the muscle by his ear twitched, his eyes shooting daggers right through my heart. I would bet Lex had only been told no a handful of times in his life, and probably only by me and Weeds. How I lived to make him submit to me for a change. Lex ran his gaze over me, trying to decipher if I was drawing a hard limit or if I was playing the great game.

I let him see the truth, that I wanted him to let out some steam, and the only way he was going to do that was by opening the valve with me. He and Weeds had their own brand of roughhousing, one that had been there since they were children. But Lex and I were nearly the same height, and even though I’d put on some muscle for my job,he didn’t have to hold back with me. More importantly, I didn’t have to hold back with him.

“No?” Lex raised an eyebrow, his smirk indicating he had realized I wanted to play the role where he owned my body and I let him. “Carter Scott, get on your fucking feet.” He stood, dragging me with him to my full height. Even though he only had an inch on me, he filled the room with power, the proverbial Titan in a world full of peasants. “Pull down your pants.” Lex growled the words, sending a submissive shock down my legs. My knees trembled as I unbuttoned my jeans, tugging down the zipper before digging my thumbs under the waistband of my boxers. I intentionally moved slowly, trying to draw out the anticipation, but he’d had it. Lex shoved his fingers under the fabric and dragged it down, scratching the skin near my belly button with a satisfying burn.

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