Hidden Magic Ch. 06

Tomass' home was clean of spells. As soon as the horses were bedded down he cast what he called a barrier spell over the stables and we walked to the house.

There was an indoor well, and he lit the torches and bade me to pump water while he cast another spell over his home. I poured enough for us to wash, and more for the morning.

When I came back he was peeling off his robe to his simple dress, and the more flesh that was bared in slow, sleepy movements, deceptively seductive, the faster my heart raced.

I looked around and saw it was one large room with two doors not outside. One lead to the well and was near the hearth, the other was at the far end and suggested a garderobe, something one did not see outside tall estates such as mine.

There was only one bed, otherwise simply short stools, one chair at a desk filled with books. The bed was large; with his great size it had to be, but there was only one.

I unpacked my bedroll and began to unfurl it by the fire.

"What are you doing?"

"Being a gentlewoman," I muttered back, my mind and my body at war.

"It is cold and drafty on the floor. The bed is big enough for us both."

It was late and we were both exhausted. I was cold, cranky, and more aroused than I could remember, my patience strained as I fought to do the right thing. I simply gave him the stare that had sent more than one enemy fleeing in terror on the battlefield.

He laughed. I blinked, taken aback. He laughed!

"You laugh at me?"

"It is late, we are both tired, and you need more sleep than I. I doubt you'd have the energy to seduce me."

I raised a brow. I wasn't that old I couldn't muster an entire night's worth of pleasure giving. My control shredded and as he slipped beneath the heavy blankets I stood, prepared to give in and teach him a lesson.

He lay on his back, his head turned towards the window, away from me. I undid the ties of my simple dress and slid it off, leaving only the binding of my breasts underneath my thin shift.

He did not turn as I undid the binding, did not turn as I raised the blankets and slid into the warmth he generated. I turned on my side and slid an arm across his chest, delighting in the firmness of the muscles there.

He moaned softly- and then snored slightly.

Damnation. I raised up on one elbow and looked down. He was deeply asleep, again looking innocent, pliable, and ungodly sensual.

With a growl, I laid my head back down and did my damndest to get to sleep.

***

I woke from a surprisingly peaceful sleep bathed in warmth. I opened my eyes to see I laid on my side facing the embers of the fire, and the blanket was pulled to my chin.

Coming more awake I realized Tomass was curled behind me, nestled against me like two spoons, and one large arm was draped over my waist, his hand laying on the soft bed, pressed partially against the tip of one breast. The second I realized it, that nipple pebbled, and my body felt languorous desire claim me.

He breathed evenly and deeply against my neck. I closed my eyes and told myself to simply enjoy this pleasure before he woke.

To be so ensconced by a man was considered bad form, as if the act of holding a woman imbued a man with power. I myself favored this, and could not imagine how a woman could forgo the pleasure all her life.

However I did not want him to wake to this. I did not want him to think there was truth to his foolish notions of equality. In my heart, I knew he was right, but I also knew how cruel and cold the world could be to anyone who dared voice such impossibilities.

He was an innocent, and if I took that innocence and left him I would be a cad; if I took his innocence and then his freedom, I would be a monster. I could never imprison him in a world that would cage him at every opportunity.

I pushed those thoughts away and snuggled into him. I snuggled close enough I felt his hardness behind me. It was...most impressive.

The yearning for comfort easily became heated need. Damnation; we were on the trail of a killer sorcerer and a murdering duchess who wanted me dead. There was no time for this.

What I needed was an hour or two away with a simple whore.

I crept out of bed, away from him, and found the necessary. I bound my breasts after I cleansed, then returned to the main room to seek my clothes.

I was stepping into the draping cloth and seeking my sandals when Tomass' deep voice rumbled, "What are you doing."

My instinct was strangely to cover my nearly naked body and then hide behind a piece of furniture. I forced myself to stand straight and watched him sit up, eyes widening and darkening as he took in my form.

I waited to see the disgust at my scars. Women, expected to be warriors, were still expected to be smooth and unblemished. I could not boast this; I had seen too many battles, fought too many fights.

I did not see disgust or reproach; I saw pure desire. His eyes lit like twin fires of magic.

My higher intellect shut off completely. I dropped the clothes and strode with purpose to the bed. He gripped the sheet and swallowed, looking nervous and excited simultaneously.

I grabbed that sheet and jerked it free of his grasp. He still wore his clothes, though rumpled and shifted higher a great deal of his beauty was exposed.

I knelt, placed my hand on his chest, felt his heart beating as wildly as mine, and pushed him back into the pillows. I bent my head and captured his lips in a kiss, all the while I boldly stroked my hand down to his length and gripped it firmly. He gasped, opening to me, and I pressed harder into him.

He tasted of sleep, yes, but also the earth, of hot, honeyed man, and beneath that, of magic. My head swam with it, and I could not control my actions. I lifted the cloth between us until my hand grasped that soft flesh, velvet stretched over steel. He moaned, the sweetest, most pure sound I had ever heard.

I stroked, slowly, suckling on his tongue all the while, nipping at his lips. I moved my hand faster and his hands gripped my shoulders powerfully. Tomass' head fell back and he arched his body in sweet surrender.

I was mad with power, stroking faster and faster. I could kiss his lips, I kissed his cheek, her ear, his nose, his neck. His taste was pure sweetness, and I treated my tongue as well as my lips to it.

He gasped, panting, racing for the peak. Somehow in my madness I cared nothing for my own pleasure, but I wanted his. Not to control it, not to enslave it, but to set it free. He was a creature of pure sensuality caged from his potential, and I wished him to find wings and fly free.

I may have whispered some of these mad thoughts, and then suddenly he came. His entire body stiffened and shook, his hands like manacles on my shoulders, and with his cry of utter delight he let loose the fluids of his desire and shook the bed with his tremors.

When it passed I reluctantly let go of him, fearing sensitivity, and I gifted him with one last, slow kiss on his lips.

I did not trust myself to speak so I pulled back, turned, and looked once more for my simple clothes. I had earned a reputation as a giving lover in all my conquests, but never had I so easily slipped into the trap of giving, only to find myself surrendering, and somehow taken.

I was shaken. Never had a man given himself so sweetly. Never had I been so lost to lustful madness.

"No," he whispered at long last.

I stopped my gathering and looked at him over my shoulder. His beautiful eyes was wet, tears threatening to slip. I felt like the lowest bug. "Forgive me for taking such liberties. It was not right, and I was not in my right mind. My control slipped and I should never have let it happen."

He swallowed, the knot of his throat bobbing with it. "It's not that. Why? Why would you do that without love in your heart?"

Did he know nothing of pure desire? I set the clothes down and turned back to him, still sitting on the edge of the soft bed. "I care for you, Tomass, but love is something only poets sing of. Young sorcerers may dream of it, but an earless can never give over to that emotion. I meant no offense."

"You claimed to know of the magic!"

I raised a brow, confused. "What do you mean?"

He sat up and used the sheet to clean the sticky mess from his belly. "You said before- no, you offered to teach me of sex magic. But you know nothing of it, do you?"

I knew that it was said that magic could be built, gathered and poured into one through sex, but that was all I had read in my mother's books. "What offense have I committed?"

"To grant me...release," he ground out, blushing most fetchingly, "without love in your heart is to take magic from me."

"I am so very sorry. I thought...I thought, rather foolishly, I was gifting you."

"As a man, yes, but as a sorcerer this drains me. I will not be strong enough to face M'Graough for a day or two now."

"So they only ways to gain magic are communing with nature, blood, or sexual release with love?"

He shook his head. "You are oversimplifying it."

"I cannot claim to understand it. Then, tell me, without blood or death or frolicking about in open nature, how can we replenish your magic today?"

He blushed darkly then. "There is a balance in nature, in the world, in magic. Energies, male and female."

"But only men are sorcerers."

He nodded, looking out the window, still blushing. "A peak in love draws from both. Without love, my peak draws from me, while to draw from you means..."

I understood him then and even as my mind reeled with guilt, my treacherous body melted and heated at the possibilities. "Tomass..."

"Minnotte...you gave me a wonderful gift. I have never...experienced that with another. I would wish to repay that kindness, but it also will replenish the magic I lost."

"Minn," I said almost automatically. My friends called me that, and after what we had just shared, and with what we were discussing, I hoped I could call him friend.

"Minn, do you understand what I am saying?" He stared hard out the leaded glass and refused to meet my eyes.

"Tomass, we have already crossed a line propriety demands we never approach. I have not fully compromised you and I do not wish to do so. Is there any other way to replenish your magic?"

He blushed anew. "No. Tell me...Minn, what I felt was...incredible. Do you not wish to feel it too?"

I was wet, my sex swollen with need, my nipples hard as rocks. If I closed my eyes I'd remember the feel of him wrapped around my body, the size of his manhood, and I would lose myself to the fantasy of feeling him inside me.

I was shaking slightly, my hands unsteady clenched fists. In his eyes I had seen pure desire, so sweet, so innocent. He knew nothing of the games of society, he was not coy, he was pure and passionate an unashamed. I had never in my life considered dallying with a virgin and never had I met one such as him.

Madness threatened me but still I waited. I had faced the most fearsome of enemies on the field of death, and I had argued alone for causes in the House, convincing hundreds of women to my thinking on sweeping reforms. I had never met a battle I could not win through sheer determination and inner strength, and yet this sweet, simple, sorcerer was the greatest dragon I would ever have to slay.

He moved quickly and I opened my eyes just as he sought my lips in a kiss, his large hand cupping my cheek. I was struck dumb, gasped, and he took advantage. Just as I'd shown him he sunk in, the action echoing the true invasion my body craved.

"Please," he begged against my lips, and my lust-addled mind could not comprehend what he was asking.

He clasped his face to mine and kissed him harder, moaning softly. His hands move to my shoulders and caressed firmly down to my wrapped breasts. There, even through the cloth, his touch burned me and my body grew impossibly hotter.

Here is where with all lovers past I would push him away down. I would smile at him and sensually move my body as I slowly unwound my breasts, not letting him touch. I would stroke and caress his body until we were both hot, and then I would force him to pleasure me with his own hands and lips. Only when I was sated and he was starved, I would cover his body with my own and ride us into pleasure.

Such was forbidden with this man and for the first time since I had been an untried youth, I found myself helpless.

His hand found where the cloth was tucked and began unwinding it. I had never felt such pure, sweet seduction, and my head swam with it. I clung to our kiss as a lifeline in the storm, delighting in the taste of him.

At last the cloth was gone and I was bare. His hands shook as they touched my breasts, and to my shock his moan was louder than mine. He was artless but enthusiastic, moving with maddeningly slow gentleness. No touch had ever felt so pure, so essential.

I had never been so aroused in my life.

Drawn by my hard nipples he dragged the backs of his hands across them and I gasped. Bolder, he used his thumbs and the sensation pushed my consciousness higher and higher. I feared I would leave the bed wet with my juices. He teased me with that deep kiss and the lightest of touches and it took every last vestige of control I had not to overwhelm him and do something we might both regret.

He broke the kiss and sweetly brought his lips to my cheek, and then my neck. I had always been sensitive there and clutched at his head as he lightly nipped and laved the spot. The move spoke of prior experience but the trembling I felt in his body was innocence.

"Tomass, how-"

"I have been trained," he whispered against the spot where neck met shoulder and I shivered.

"But-"

"All sorcerers train, my lady. This is how we raise the magic in the meeting of the flesh, Your pleasure."

His words were given dark weight by his desire and I trembled more, tipping my head back and closing my eyes, praying for strength.

Slowly his mouth met his hands and he took the peak of a breast into his mouth. In that moment I found heaven and hell in the want of him. He moved almost stiffly, as if recalling a memory, at first, but soon my gasps and moans guided him.

His tongue flicked, his teeth grazed, and he suckled. My hands slipped to his shoulders and dug into, nails scoring. He jumped but kept up his ministrations.

For a long moment I was afraid I would peak from that alone like a wild youth with no training or experience.

Suddenly he was lifting me, and the sensation was startling.

"Tomass, a man must never use his strength to-"

"Shhh," he whispered and laid me back against the pillows where he had been just moments before.

He kissed down my chest to my stomach and I knew what he meant to do. That he made me wait for it was a beautiful agony I wanted to end and endure simultaneously.

My legs parted as he untangled his own body from the sheets and lay on his stomach between them. His hands slid beneath me to cup my buttocks and his amazing eyes met mine.

Never had I felt so helpless to pleasure. His look was not one of a crowing master but one measuring my own feelings. I tried my best to be honest but hide my nerves, and smiled.

He bent and gave one slow, long lick to my seam. I jumped and his thumbs grasped my hips, his arms resting on my thighs, holding them.

He closed his eyes and savored the taste. "Goddess," he moaned, and then bent.

Like before his moves seemed rehearsed at first; long, slow licks until he reached the nubbin. I cried out hoarsely when he touched it and then he circled it with his tongue.

I thrashed about, my hands settling back on his shoulders in the age old war between forcing him closer and pushing him away.

He kissed me there then as one would gently kiss a mouth and I could only blink in sweet surprise. Then he gave me a lovers kiss and suckled as his tongue toyed with the nubbin.

I broke. The strongest climax I had ever known broke over me then, like a cold wind caressing my body and a hot wave inside me I cried out, bucking, and he held on, latched tight. Waves of pleasure pulsated inside me, over me, and it went on forever as he kept up his ministrations.

I came down sobbing and he gently used his lips on me now while I shivered in aftershocks. He moaned, the vibration most stimulating and I gasped, caught in the vortex of need once again.

He licked me again, stiffening his tongue and sliding into my channel, lapping at my juices. I wanted his attention back on the nubbin but he fought me, a master at making me wait.

I rubbed my hips against him, determined to find pleasure once more without the gallantry I had always strived for with other lovers. I was feeling madly selfish and all he did was moan once more, vibrating me most sensually.

"Tomass," I pleaded without shame. I was a mindless creature of need and in that moment I feared I was at his mercy but I cared for nothing beyond the pleasure.

He moved one hand and slid a large finger inside me. I cried out, wild now, and he returned his lips to a tight seal around my nubbin and suckled. I moaned, begging wordlessly for more, and a second finger joined the first. I felt stretched and filled and with each pass back and forth he stroked the spot inside.

"There-oh, there is a swelling inside, can you feel it?"

"Yesss," he sighed out and his fingertips found it.

"Press it-oh!"

He did as I bade and once more his lips suckled. I crested again, sweating, twisting, lost to the pleasure that covered every inch of me.

Juices gushed forth and I shook, crying out his name. when it was over he was still there, moving gently but still attached. I tried to tell him to stop, I begged, but he wouldn't listen.

Again and again he brought me to peak after peak with more devotion and enthusiasm than any lover I had ever known. I peaked again, and again, and again until I was weak, boneless, and more satisfied than I could ever recall.

Still I wanted him inside me. I wanted to feel his youth, his strength, everything of him inside me. I had not the strength to claim him as was right and so I went limp against the pillows and asked him breathlessly to stop.

He did and moved to sit. He was beautiful, disheveled, his bright eyes burning and swimming with magic. He was aroused too, most impressively, and my body hungered to feel him inside me.

I closed my eyes and said all I could think of. "Thank you." He shifted and I opened my eyes to see he was coming to kiss me. "No!"

He stopped, looking hurt.

I reached up and stroked his stubbled cheek. "Tomass, we must stop, or I will take you innocence. It is not for me to do, and I have no wish to dishonor you."

"Honor?" He spat out like a curse. "Honor has naught to do with my body's knowledge of yours. I care only for passion, and with you I have found it."

My heart hardened. "Tomass, you would feel this way with any woman who showed you kindness and pleasure.'

He sat back, eyes narrowed. "No."

"No?"

"Do you think you are the first beautiful woman I have met? The first who has desired me?"

Contrary to my goal of extricating myself I sat up and narrowed my own eyes. "You have never touched another, been touched by another. You cannot lie to me."

"Exactly. I have been waiting for..."

"For what?"

"For you."

I was simply too shocked to respond at first. He was blushing, hiding his face under his hair yet watching me.

"I am an Earless. My fate shall be to tie myself to some boring son of a good house, breed him for heirs, and keep him out of my way. I am a soldier and a politician, a warrior and a woman of consequence. You are a sorcerer, a practitioner of all that is forbidden in my world.

"We will find your sorcerer and kill him, and then we shall part. I will never see you again, Tomass, I must not. Surely you can see that."