Page 68 of A City of Emeralds and Envy
As we draw closer to the spot where Caer disappeared, I fall back, letting Jasper, Fiero, and Riordan move ahead. My skin prickles with a subtle awareness, the instinctive knowledge that I’m being stalked.
I’m nearly to the place where Caer vanished. If he leaps out at me, it’ll be from there, and I’ll be ready—
An arm wraps around my breasts and a hand clamps across my mouth. I’m yanked against a firm chest, and he whispers in my ear, “Too easy, mouse.”
He must have darted into the bushes, turned invisible, and then crossed the road and backtracked to surprise me.
When he takes his hand from my mouth, I gasp, “Well done. You nearly scared the piss out of me.”
He chuckles against my neck, flashing visible again even as he keeps me pinned to his chest. He inhales deeply against my pulse point. “Your scent has been tormenting me all day. Do you think Riordan would kill me if I fucked you quickly behind that tree?”
“If it’s because you’re in heat, he might make allowances.”
“And you?” Caer nuzzles up to my ear and nips at the lobe. “Will you make allowances for me?”
“Gods, yes,” I breathe.
Picking me up, Caer darts to the great tree he mentioned and whisks us behind it. I wore a green dress today, with nothing beneath—slutty of me, maybe, but I couldn’t help myself. I’m ravenous for these Fae men in ways I didn’t know I could be—half-mad with the excitement of this new dynamic among us all.
Caer bends me over and groans with delight when he finds nothing in his way. He takes out his cock and slips into me easily, holding my hips while I brace my palms against the tree. His tail coils around my leg, a sinuous, silky caress that I find wildly titillating.
“Every time I fuck you, it’s like coming home.” Caer speaks the words tentatively, quietly. “It’s like an embrace, or a nest made just for me. I love Riordan, I do—but you—fuck, I’m devoted to you, Alice.”
He pulls out, flips me around, and drags me close for a passionate kiss, his wet cock pressed against my skirts. His mouth is wide, wicked, and full of teeth. Kissing him is a sweet insanity, a delirious danger. I whimper into the dark space between those serrated jaws, and he chuckles, sending his long tongue into my mouth, a tempting, teasing flicker of heat. Frantically I bunch my skirts around my waist and he lifts me up with one hand, using the other to tuck his cock into my entrance while I hitch my legs around his waist. He sets my back to the tree and fucks me with firm, hard jerks of his hips, while I gasp at the grind of his body against my clit. When he comes, the tiny barbs along his cock extrude again, sealing us together as his cum pools inside me.
He kisses me while we wait, palming my breasts and whispering sinful things in my ear.
When his cock is smooth once more, we separate, and he slides to his knees. He lashes his slick tongue over my clit, then buries it deep inside me, alternating those sensations until I finally come, with one hand in his black hair and the other clamped around my mouth to muffle my own screams.
When we stumble back onto the road, giggling, we find Riordan standing there, arms folded and feet braced apart. Jasper sits crosslegged behind him, playing with Fiero’s ears.
“Finished?” asks Riordan coolly.
“I’m in heat,” says Caer, with a cocky lift of his chin, as if he’s daring Riordan to protest.
“In heat? As if that matters! You’ll be in beast form forever if we don’t get this done,” snaps Riordan. “No more sex until this is finished, one way or the other.”
Caer winks at me as if to contradict the order, but there’s a shadow of genuine anxiety in his gaze. He walks on without another word, and throughout the rest of the afternoon, his antics are more restrained.
As evening falls, we notice a storm gathering to the south. The edges of it spatter us with light rain, but we forge on, pursuing the western road until Jasper points out something in the far distance—a wall of greenish cloud, barely distinguishable from the overcast sky.
“I see it,” Riordan says. “The West Witch’s domain, shrouded or protected somehow. I’d be interested to know what spell he used—”
“Never mind that now,” Caer interrupts. “The important question is, can we get through it?”
“Run ahead, Cat, and see,” Riordan suggests caustically. Caer races away, pursued by Fiero, and Jasper runs after both of them.
Riordan mutters, “I’m going to have to fuck Caer’s ass again to remind him who’s in charge.”
“Equals, remember?” I slide my hand up to his shoulder. “Relax. We’ve made it this far. Once we get past the border into the West Witch’s lands, maybe we can get directions and hire mounts. Although—shit—the Witch can see us, can’t he? I keep forgetting. So he knows we’re coming.”
“He’s bound to put obstacles in our path,” Riordan says grimly. “And we lost so much time—we have none to spare. We shouldn’t have stayed the night in the palace. We should have left at once, after you’d been healed and fed.”
I stiffen, frowning. “I’m not a pet you need to care for, you know.”
He glances down at me. “I know.” His voice is soft, sorrowful. “I don’t blame you. I blame the Wizard, and I blame myself for yielding to your charms, for giving in to—all of it. I should have known better.”
“Well, I don’t regret the time we spent together. Maybe I wish we’d shortened it, but—if this doesn’t end the way we want, at least we have those memories.”
