Chapter 11
Chapter
Eleven
Of course we didn’t land back into our bodies. That would be far too easy. We were right back where we started, trapped underground.
“Did you mean to do this?” Rowan asked.
“Yes,” I snapped. “I love it here, trapped underground.”
The Lord chuckled. “Sorry. I just assumed we’d land back in our bodies.”
“Again, fate adores me. It’s a whole schtick we have going on. I do something normal, the universe intervenes and screws everything up.”
Rowan, still holding onto me, laughed against my hair. “How do we get back up?”
“Technically, we’re already there. This,” I said, waving a hand at our bodies, “is similar to an astral projection.” I sighed and laid my head back against his chest. “I’m exhausted, Rowan. I may not be able to get us back up there for a while.”
“No problem,” he said. “Want to take a nap?”
I really, really did.
“I’m serious.” His voice rumbled against my back. “We don’t have anywhere else to be. You’re tired. I’m tired, though understandably less than you. Let’s take a nap.”
I thought about it. Until I was powered back up, we were stuck here. “Usually, I pass out after using too much magic. Today, I’m just tired. It’s kind of nice, actually.”
“Did you siphon enough?”
I flexed my magic and felt the pull of exhaustion but not a burnout. The well was still there, but it was almost empty. “I did.” My eyes grew heavy. “A short nap. That’s all. I promise.”
“A short nap,” he agreed.
“Mmm,” I said and sank into Rowan.
I awoke in a cocoon of roses and thick and twisted bramble, the heady scent of roses tickling my nose. Something warm wrapped around me. I blinked the sleep away and shoved my hair out of my eyes.
A few things quickly became evident.
We were back in our bodies.
My clothes were gone.
The something warm wrapped around me was very male, very naked, and very Rowan.
I froze. Next time I did this, I was going in alone. If I kept waking up naked with men, I was going to get a reputation.
Rowan stirred, the heavy arm locked around my waist tightening for a moment. I knew the second he came to awareness.
“Evie?” his voice rumbled against my ear.
“Yes. Don’t panic. We’re safe. This is…somewhat normal.”
“If this is normal, I’d like to do this every single day.”
A surprised laugh bubbled from me. “Rogue.”
He made no move to let go of me. “How long until this thing opens up?”
“Soon. There’s no real way to tell.”
“We’re trapped in here?”
“Someone broke me out of here once, but I’d rather not damage the plants.” I paused. “If that’s okay with you.”
“There’s not a lot of room in here.” He shifted and—
Whoa.
I cleared my throat. “I’m aware.”
“So I can’t really let go of you.”
He could, but it would squish us into an even more uncomfortable position. “We might be able to shift a little.”
“Where you’re facing me?”
“Or away from each other.”
Rowan said nothing for a long moment. “Is that what you want?”
“No,” I said and sighed. “I think that would make it even more uncomfortable. At least this way, we can move a little bit. If we were back-to-back…”
His breath ruffled the hair on my neck. “Are you uncomfortable?”
I laughed. “You and I are trapped in a living cocoon, naked and spooning. Today has been weird all the way around.”
“And we did other things,” Rowan hedged.
Here we were. At the point where neither of us could walk away from a conversation we needed to have and, yet, it was the one conversation I didn’t want to have. “We did.”
Another silence, and then, “You are my friend,” he said. “You will always be my friend. But…you’re more than that to me. You always have been.”
I felt the same way about him. “I know. We’ve always blurred the lines a little, haven’t we?”
He exhaled, his breath warm against my neck. “What if we kept blurring those lines?”
I stilled, my thoughts a maelstrom, unsure of how to respond to such a…whatever this was. Proposal? Suggestion? Proposition?
I swallowed, my throat clicking. “You could have your pick of any woman in the world.”
His voice dropped into a low, husky timbre. “I don’t want any other woman in the world.”
A slow glide of his hand over my abdomen, making every muscle in my body tighten. He pressed a warm kiss to the base of my neck.
“Rowan.” My neck tilted back, allowing him easier access, even as I wondered what in the hell I was doing. “I’m not the kind of woman who dates around.”
“Good,” he growled. Another warm kiss in the place where my shoulder met my neck.
My blood went thick and heavy, heating inside my veins. “That means I don’t want to be with a man who does the same,” I said breathlessly.
“Even better.”
A surprised laugh escaped me. “Liar. Everyone talks about how much you date around town.”
Rowan slid a possessive hand over my hip and gently squeezed. “They’re lying.”
“You said the same thing!”
“I lied, too.” He dotted kisses all over, his hand caressing my thigh and up the curve of my waist.
A low moan clawed from my throat. Embarrassment heated my skin. “We should stop,” I whispered.
“Why? Because you’re enjoying yourself?”
I was. Too much. Way too much. I opened my mouth to deny him, but Rowan cut me off. “Don’t lie to me, Evie. I can smell how much you want me.”
“I’m not the kind of woman who will accept second place.”
Rowan’s wicked chuckle sent heat straight to my core. “I haven’t dated anyone seriously in several years, Evie. I haven’t dated at all in over a year. The well has been dry for a long, long time.”
I froze, words and thoughts fleeing my mind.
“I’ve never been someone comfortable with sleeping around or flaunting my power with women.” He took my ear between his teeth and gently nibbled.
I gasped and arched against him. Rowan’s hand slipped between my thighs, the evidence of my desire causing a low groan of satisfaction to rumble from his throat. The sound made my fingers clench against his arm.
“Rowan, I—I don’t know what to say. Why would you make me believe something like that?”
“The why doesn’t matter. You were with Caelan almost from the moment you met him.”
I shook my head. “No. I wasn’t.”
“Caelan staked a claim and warned us all away.”
“You—you wanted me?” The thought floored me. We’d flirted, but I never thought someone like Rowan—
“From the moment I saw you, I wanted you. I know things are complicated, but I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t take the opportunity to tell you.” His clever fingers parted me, and the gods help me, I opened my thighs to give him better access.
His satisfied rumble echoed in the enclosed space, and he shifted, gently rolling me onto my back, his fingers still stroking me.
The space was too small for him to move much, but he rolled onto his elbows, trapping me between the space of his arms as he hovered above me, those sparkling hazel eyes somber.
“Rowan, this is—”
His thumb swept over my clitoris and stayed there. My eyes rolled back in my head, my back arching. He dipped his head and took my breast into his mouth, sweeping his tongue over the tight nipple.
This was different. And wonderful. And frightening.
And I wondered what in the hell I was doing but I knew I didn’t want him to stop.
I didn’t want to stop. I reached for him, lifting his face to mine.
His lips claimed mine in a searing kiss and something, a soft thread of light formed between us, sending a warm, golden glow throughout the cocoon.
His eyes opened, a furrow between his brows as he saw the light, before something flickered in his hazel eyes, a deep understanding of something I wasn’t quite grasping.
He slid a hand down my body and gripped my calf, sliding my leg open and wide.
“Say yes,” he whispered.
I ran my hands over his bare back, exploring the hard, lean muscle in his shoulders, before my fingers slid through his hair. Rowan closed his eyes, a deep, satisfied rumble sounding in his throat at my touch.
His hands played a symphony over my body as I explored him with my fingers, tracing down the cut of his jaw, the rough stubble of his five o’clock shadow scratching against my skin.
Tears filled my eyes as something tugged deep inside me, an emotion that left me breathless with need and want, and the glow brightened inside the cocoon, a warm, burnished gold, the color of ancient coins and a summer sunset.
Rowan buried his face in my neck, teeth nibbling the sweep of my throat. He still held my shin pressed against the back of my thigh as he slid down to claim my breast once more.
“What’s happening?” I whispered.
Rowan did something that drew a deep moan from my throat, those clever fingers sliding against the evidence of my need. “I want you more than I’ve ever wanted anything in my life,” he murmured against my skin.
And even though it was reckless and impulsive and borderline insane, and my emotions were a jumbled wreck, something was happening between us, something bigger than me or him, and Caelan became a distant memory.
Not once had I felt this cherished, this loved. And I knew this wasn’t love between us, not right now, or if it was, it was different than any other love I’d ever experienced, but it was something I couldn’t explain.
This felt right. What had being careful gotten me?
A bad marriage, an irreparable rift between Caelan and I, years of loneliness.
I’d fled my home in fear for my life after being so careful for years to keep my secret.
Here I was safe and warm, worshipped and desired.
Here there was no judgment. And so, for the first time in many, many years, I abandoned all my doubts and fears, all my reservations about what could go wrong or what the future might hold, and I whispered, “Yes.”