Page 18 of Christa's Obsession

“Dakata erased the threat.” The softly spoken words had no less impact with the truth behind them.

“Is that possible? Those demons, they…” Wanda had no words to describe the vileness of them, of what they had done to her. Something she would have to bear in her soul for eternity. “They were intent on destroying Dakata because of his goodness.”

Goodness. He is good. Christa… is good.

Those thoughts lingered as Silas sat back, a soft smile replacing his frown. “They tried and failed. But I sense these questionsaren’t about Dakata…” His brow arched and the knowing look made Wanda shift in her seat and return her attention to her cooling tea.

“Christa, she’s…”

“Your blissful one,” Silas finished, when Wanda couldn’t.

Her curls tumbled around her shoulders as she nodded. “Seeing Christa, here, everything about the demon, that woman is there in her eyes. I can’t deny it. The sense of longing. The wrench I felt when she left—will she feel it, too?”

“She will if you have touched each other. Dakata has explained this is how the blissful bond, for the demon, creates an unbreakable connection. She bonded to your trees, also. Dakata and my tree have come to an understanding so he can leave as I do.”

They had touched and still Christa had honored Wanda’s wishes and left her, despite the pain it would have caused. Her trees had touched Christa too,given her leavesto protect her.

A shudder ran through Wanda as she acknowledged how selfish her reaction had been, even when done under the duress of her own fear. There was no way to excuse her behavior.

“I believe she would never harm me,” she admitted aloud for the first time. Christa’s actions spoke to the truth. Something Wanda’s trees understood and now, as she held Silas’s stare, she did, too.

How could she tell Christa this when she had rejected her? She would have to figure that out alone, and soon, to ensure Christa didn’t suffer further.

Her fear of the demon realm and those who inhabited it was something else entirely. That was a problem that would need to be considered once she spoke with Christa.

Silas wore a somber expression as he murmured, “Sometimes, to protect what we hold most precious, we must sacrifice a part of ourselves. Don’t let you fear diminish you. It will if you let it and it will steal your happiness. Don’t let it do that to you.” He rose and kissed Wanda’s cheek. “A blissful one is a blessing.”

Wanda thought of those words now as she returned to her orchard, waving goodbye to Dougal before slipping inside the nook that was her home.

Outside her trees, she was demure. Inside, she was a sexual being with needs. Would Christa understand that about her connection with her beloved trees? That as a dryad, she could never be parted from them or not want their touch. Would Christa want the touch of her trees? Allow them to bond with her as they had done with Wanda?

She is ours already.

Her sex grew warm and pulsed with arousal at how beautiful Christa would look, bound in the branches as they pleasured her. As they touched her as intimately as they did Wanda.

Naked with a thought, she lay on the soft bed of leaves and witnessed the branches open above her head to allow the soft moonlight to bathe her body. She envisioned Christa above her, watching her fingers trace the curves of her breasts, the silky skin pebbling under her touch as her nipples budded with desire.

Would Christa understand, if she could see her now, what she was offering?

She will know us soon, our beloved, we promise.

Wanda added her own wish to that of the magic of her trees.

Please let her not see me as sullied.

Chapter Ten

Christa

“We need to speak to Vince and ask if we can have the venue for an additional night. Tickets sold out in three minutes and demand suggests it would be financially worthwhile.” Christa said, going over the list she’d created to keep her thoughts firmlyaway from Wanda. From the failed visit to the forest, and from what Dakata had said. Then there was what had happened while she dreamed after the visit.

I have such a wonderful escort to keep me safe.Those words had been on repeat until the pattern had broken with sleep and erotic dreams of a woman, naked in the moonlight, pleasuring herself…offering herself to us.

Please, I’m in a business meeting.Heat unfurled in her core at how much she wanted to believe that was exactly what Wanda had done. It was all so damn confusing. Yet, common sense wanted to prevail when Christa could not discount Wanda’s fear.

Her fear of us is real.

Not us, of the situation in the demon realm. Go to the king and ask him for protection for the forest. To stop demons from entering that haven’t had an invitation.

---