Page 24 of Mountain Man's Muse
She kissed him, tasting their desire and desperation, unabated. “No words. I can’t.”
He kissed her back, so hard she thought he might break her promise to herself.
But she realized now, as she hadn’t before, that the faedrealii still had a claim on her. Josh had shown her the promise of a new start, but by betraying the runaways to the Ruiner, she had stolen that from others who might be seeking a new way, much as her old life had been stolen from her.
Josh started to rise but she clung to him. “Please, just a little longer.” She had refused to beg Raze the Ruiner for her life, but she would beg Josh for these last moments.
He relented, and she pulled him in to kiss him again.
A deep kiss, a musetta’s kiss. She kissed him down to his soul where he kept the passions that drove him. She tasted herself on his tongue, then, past that, she found the wide-open sky and deep mountain valley that echoed his big heart. She kissed him until her own heart ached, breaking at the simple, unbounded beauty.
Too much. She couldn’t hold it all, couldn’t hold him… Her musetta tricks honed in the faedrealii failed her, and her only hope was to crack herself apart and take what he had to give. In the skylight above, the first stars were gathering in the darkening sky, but tears blurred her vision as if the sunlit world was fading away.
She inhaled, filling herself with the scent of sex and snow and Josh. She held the breath…
And Josh slumped across her.
For a moment, she held him, feeling his heart thud steadily against her breast. Then she rolled him over. His eyes were closed, lashes a pair of short crescent fans that trembled with her breath when she kissed him one last time.
He sighed but did not wake.
A musetta could rouse to action, but her withdrawal caused exhaustion in equal measure when she took her power away from a man.
Not for long, perhaps, not with a man like Josh who would not let himself be stopped by a mere lack of inspiration. But he would rest for awhile, and that was all the time she needed.
She rose from the bed and dressed in her fae veils which, left to their own devices, had shed most of their filth. She combed her fingers through her hair as the silky folds settled around her.
Josh’s lashes fluttered and she caught the faint gleam of his eyes. He would think he was dreaming this. And that was all it had been, all it could be: a dream. Without her presence to remind him, she would fade into the darkness of his mind.
She did not look back as she left the bedroom, but when she passed the dining room table, she dropped her tears into his dish of stones. The pearls, diamonds and rubies made a hollow sound, as hollow as her heart, but at least she would leave a part of herself behind in this place that was more precious to her than any dream.
Chapter 10
A ringing phone broke Josh from his restless sleep. Was it time to feed the cows? It was always time to feed the cows. Rising in the dark mornings of winter was tough, especially when he’d been having such good dreams. Dreams of a woman. And such a woman…
Obviously he had been living alone too long.
He groped for the annoying cellular buzz. “Hello?” His voice sounded slurred, as if he had been drugged.
“Josh.” It was Vaile’s crisp voice. “We’re back. What’s going on?”
Josh pushed himself upright, blinking hard. He couldn’t very well tell his neighbor what he’d been dreaming about. But there was something he was supposed to tell Vaile. If he could just remember what. He rubbed his eyes. “I can’t…”
“Did you set the fae wards? Have there been any more imps? Where is the musetta?”
The strange words peppered Josh like buckshot. “I don’t—”
“Wake up, human!” Vaile’s shout ripped through the lingering dream.
Human. Fae. Musetta.
“Adelyn?” Josh let the phone fall to his side as he twisted around in the bed.
The empty bed.
His fairy princess was gone.
He jolted to his feet. “Adelyn!”
