“Ah, Taryn, you’re going to come first.” And he stroked her again, and again, and again.
Cupping his face, she pulled him down, needing his mouth on hers, because she was about to come, and if she yelled, she’d wake Mrs. Gustafson. He made love to her mouth with his tongue, mimicking the same steady rhythm of his hips. He required an embarrassingly short time to achieve his goal. As he swallowed her soft cries, she arched upward in a powerful climax. If he hadn’t had her pinned to the bed, she believed she might have flown.
As her world spun and she quivered in his arms, his rhythm changed. Now his hips rocked with more speed and less care. Lifting his mouth from hers, he began to pant. “Yes...yes...now...Taryn...now.” With one final thrust, he drove home, his body shuddering with the aftershocks of his orgasm.
Sliding both hands under his shirt, she caressed his sweaty back. Her hands remembered the texture of his skin and the ripple of his muscles. He liked to be caressed after sex. She’d forgotten that. Each memory that surfaced was a treasure she’d kept locked away, but now she could uncover them all. Cole was back in her arms at last.
* * *
Cole’s technique had lacked eloquence, but he was pleased with the end result. Brushing a kiss over her full lips, he eased away from her and gave her a Schwarzenegger “I’ll be back.”
“You’d better be,” she murmured. “And next time I want it long and slow.”
“Me, too.” He headed for the little bathroom with its white antique fixtures. He’d never stayed here, but he’d toured the place. Whenever they had non-magickal folks visit Evergreen Industries, he put them up at the Nutcracker Inn. Everyone raved about it.
Good thing he wouldn’t ever stay here, because now the place would be loaded with memories of Taryn. A sharp pain in the vicinity of his heart reminded him of the risk he was taking by falling in with her plan. These few days could turn him into an emotional cripple, but he was willing to pay that price.
Now that he realized no one else would do but Taryn, and Taryn was forbidden to him, he’d stay single forever. That might have sounded harsh to someone else, but to Cole, it made perfect sense. Marrying someone he loved less than Taryn would be unkind to them, and to himself.
Taking off his shirt, he walked back into the room and paused. She’d always been speedy at undressing, but she must have set a world record this time. Gloriously naked, she crouched beside the fireplace with a lit match in her hand.
The small flame illuminated her delicate features, and another pain sliced through his heart. So beautiful. She tossed the match into the fireplace and swore when it fell uselessly through the grate. Opening the box of matches, she struck another one.
Silly as it was, he wanted her to succeed, but he didn’t give her method much chance. Focusing on the logs arranged in the fireplace, he timed his muttered incantation to her match-tossing. The logs caught.
“Yes!” She turned to him, her smile bright. “You were standing there thinking I wouldn’t get it started, weren’t you?”
“Actually, I thought you would.” He’d simply increased her odds.
“Let’s make love here in front of the fire.”
“Why not?” He was touched that she’d ask, and that she’d used the phrase make love instead of have sex. They used to make love in front of the fire. His duplex had been a real find—a rental with a woodburning fireplace. He’d used magick to keep the blaze going while they were otherwise occupied.
An unmagickal fire required constant tending, which meant having sex by the fire was romantic in theory but inconvenient in practice. She’d never questioned the consistency of their fires. He hoped that was because she’d been too busy enjoying herself.
He wondered if she’d ever tried having hearthside sex with anyone else. If so, she would have discovered it didn’t work quite the way it had with him. Selfishly, he liked knowing that their experience would stand out in her mind.
She rose from the hearth with an unselfconsciousness that showed she hadn’t really been worried about revealing her body. He couldn’t stop looking at her. She was the same, yet different.
The tiny mole positioned over her heart was still there, waiting for his kiss. But her breasts were more voluptuous now, and her hips flared a bit more, emphasizing her narrow waist. His gaze traveled the length of her slender legs. He had fond memories of those legs wrapped around his hips. She knew how to lock him in tight while giving him room to move. He didn’t need much, just enough to create the right kind of friction....
She said something, but he was so lost in memories he missed it.
“Earth to Cole.”
“Hmm?”
“Your clothes, Evergreen. Lose ’em. I’ll fix us a bed by the fire.”
He grinned at her and snapped a quick salute. “Aye, aye, cap’n.”
“Smart-ass.”
“Sweet-ass.” How quickly they’d become comfortable with each other again. Ten years had vanished, replaced with the easy relationship he remembered so well. Taryn got him. Well, not completely, because she didn’t know about the magick. That should have been a huge omission, but somehow, when they were together, it didn’t seem to matter. They made their own magick.
By the time he’d shucked the rest of his clothes and located another condom, she’d spread a quilt on the floor and tossed a couple of pillows there, too. He walked toward her, his cock already standing at attention. “You made your bed. Now lie in it.”
“I thought I would.” Dropping to her knees, she stretched out on the fluffy quilt with the lithe movements of a cat. Then she glanced up at him. “Come on down.”
“I will, but I just realized what’s different. You’re not squinting.”
“No, I’m not. Want to see my bedroom eyes?”
“Absolutely.”
“Watch this.” She lowered her lids to half mast and her eyes took on a smoky quality.
His balls tightened. “That’s good.” He swallowed. “Very good.” He started to kneel.
“Wait. I’m not done.” Her gaze dropped to his feet. Then it traveled slowly up his calves to his knees, and beyond his knees to his thighs, until finally coming to rest on his pride and joy. At that point, she ran her tongue over her lips.
“Now you’re done.” He sank to his knees before she figured out he was shaking again.
“No, I’m not.” She beckoned to him with a crook of her forefinger. “C’mere.”
A stronger wizard would have refused the temptation she offered. He’d intended this session to be all about her. Apparently he wasn’t as strong as he’d like to think he was. He stretched out on the quilt and allowed her to have her way with him, and it was so good the fire roared in the hearth.
She drew back, startled. “Why did that happen?”
His breathing wasn’t very steady, but he gulped in air and managed a quick explanation. “Pine knots. They flare up.”
“Oh.” She wrapped her fingers around his bad boy and leaned toward him. “Sorry for the interruption.”
“No, it’s a good thing.” He cupped her cheek, stopping her descent. “I was about to get carried away.”
She glanced up at him with a seductive smile. “That’s the idea.”
“Not this time. I have a few plans of my own. Be fair. Take turns.”
She hesitated.
“You used to really like some of