Fairest

Chapter 21 #2

‘Nothing, you’re right. Forget I said anything. Come on, we should get out.’

But a sudden chill in the air makes me shiver.

For weeks after my parents died, I was constantly looking over my shoulder, feeling like I was being watched, followed even, and I have the same prickling feeling on the back of my neck right now.

I push myself to my feet beside Matt, looking all around, as I sense, but cannot see, something coming towards us.

Suddenly, Matt is falling back into the water, and I find myself staring into the furious face of Cillian Hunter.

‘Cillian. What do you think you’re—’ I only take a single step towards the edge of the jetty, to try to make sure Matt is all right when Cillian grabs my hand and pulls me back against him. I struggle but he’s stronger.

There’s a thud on the jetty behind me and Cillian growls, lifting his head to stare at Matt. I try to turn, but he won’t let me.

‘Go inside,’ Cillian orders Matt.

‘I’m not going to let you hurt her,’ Matt says. ‘You need to calm down.’

I push again at Cillian’s chest. ‘Let me go.’

‘Why? So that you and Matt can finish whatever it was you were doing?’

I look up at him and shake my head at his hypocrisy. He’s the one who has someone else. Him, not me.

‘We were sitting chatting on a jetty overlooking a loch,’ I tell him. ‘What did you think we were doing?’

Matt sniggers behind me, and I see Cillian’s lips curve upwards.

‘That’s not going to stop me taking exactly what I want from you. And you’—he glares at Matt—‘you seem rather amused for a dead man.’

‘We’re not going to touch her, Cillian. In fact, Lachlan suggested that she might be able to help us. You know, if any of us decide to face the Court.’

‘You want her help as what? A lawyer?’

Cillian is still holding me way too tight, but his muscles are relaxing, the tension draining from him with every passing second.

‘Go!’ he says to Matt again.

‘You going to be all right, Gléigeal?’

Cillian’s grip on me tightens. ‘He has a pet name for you?’

‘Declan gave it to me. He said it meant Snow White. You know, out here with seven guys and at least one of them is some kind of mountain man. One that isn’t quite human.’

‘His twin, Niamh. There’s two of them. And the rest of us have secrets, too,’ Matt points out, and he’s grinning now. ‘Let me guess, Cillian. Sal told you where she was.’

‘Declan, actually.’ Cillian’s tone is clipped. ‘But he reminded me of Sal’s somewhat predatory nature.’

Matt sighs. ‘You should know better than to let him rile you up,’ he says, pulling on his robes and letting them fall into place. ‘I’m off. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.’ With that, he heads towards the monastery, whistling.

‘Are you all right?’ Cillian asks, letting me go and looking me up and down.

‘Fine,’ I say dryly. ‘I mean other than being held prisoner, and having to cook and clean for seven men.’

‘That’s all they’ve asked you to do?’

‘Why does it matter, Cillian? It’s not like you want anything else from me. No one does.’

He’s shaking his head. ‘That’s … that’s not…’

I push at him once more and this time he lets me go. I turn away, moving past him to walk up the jetty.

‘Where are you going?’

‘To my room, to shower.’

‘No, not until we’ve talked.’

‘Cillian, I’m hot.’

‘Then take off your robe. Get into the water.’

I roll my eyes. ‘Why so that you can hurl more accusations at me for—’

But instead, he leans over and catches my robe with his hands, pulling it up and over my head. I squeak as I grab for my T-shirt so that he doesn’t pull that up as well.

I stand, watching as he drops his jacket to the wooden boards, followed by his dark dress shirt.

I swallow as he toes off his shoes, then undoes his belt and removes his trousers, folding them neatly and placing them on top of his shirt.

I stare at him, mesmerised once again by the smoothness of his skin, the firm curve of the muscles in his arms and torso.

I’ve seen his tattoos before, but I’m still drawn to reach out for the largest one, the one of Cernunnos.

The image is larger than my hand and I can feel his heart beating through my fingers. Then he grins a wicked grin.

The next second, I’m hitting freezing water.

‘You bastard,’ I yell, spluttering back to the surface.

Baltic doesn’t even begin to cover it. I tread water as my body adjusts, ducking to the side as Cillian dives in beside me.

I swim away from him, but strong fingers grasp my ankle pulling towards him.

He wraps his arms around me, his mouth on mine before I can even wipe the water out of my eyes.

He lifts me, so that my chest is level with his and my legs automatically wrap around his waist. My T-shirt rides up onto my hips and there’s a hard bulge in his underwear, pressing against my most sensitive parts. But he doesn’t try and kiss me again. Doesn’t do anything at all.

The last time we met, this man was hunting me, and now I’m letting him do this.

I want him to do this. I’m not sure what I’m doing right now, I only know that after everything that’s happened, I’m not going to turn this down.

I’ve wanted Cillian Hunter since the moment I met him, and strangely I believe he wants me too.

He circles his hips, grinding me against him and leaving no doubt what he wants from me right now.

Behind him the crumbling stone walls of the monastery are falling into shadow as the sun sets.

I shiver as the breeze hits my shoulders.

‘Cooler now?’

‘Why are you here?’ I want to know what has happened to suddenly make him think I’m his to take.

Every time I think he might want me, he pulls away.

He’s gone from occasionally kissing me to flaunting his relationship with Vittoria in my face for four years.

Yet here he is, again, confusing my feelings and ripping my heart out with every touch. ‘You were going to kill me.’

He closes his eyes for a second, shaking his head before opening them again. ‘I have a duty, and if you hadn’t made it here… The Wild Hunt… Many choose a quick death at my hands once they know they won’t reach sanctuary.’ He swallows. ‘I failed in my duty that night. I couldn’t pull the trigger.’

‘Except you did.’

‘To shoot the deer. And now you’re safe here. Vittoria is convinced that you’re dead and the hunt is over.’ He holds his hand up, showing me his palm, now free from the strange symbol and my name.

‘So now you can run off here to see me whenever you feel like it and then go back to your life with her?’

‘No. That’s not … I’m not going to … I wanted to make sure you were okay,’ he says. ‘I know they can’t harm you, but that’s not to say that one of them wouldn’t … that you wouldn’t choose to—’

I pull back. ‘So, you’re really here to make sure that I haven’t decided to … what? Fuck any of the seven men you sent me here to live with?’

‘Sal—’

‘—was hoping I was a prostitute,’ I finish.

His jaw tightens. Sal should be very grateful that magic is stopping Cillian from harming him, because I’m not sure anything else could.

‘And then I find you here with Matt—’

‘My best friend’s boyfriend. Cillian, I don’t know if you’ve noticed but up until now, no one has ever been interested in me for longer than a few minutes – a day at most. Even you – you come along, kiss me, occasionally even sleep beside me – but then you’re off again, making it clear that you’re not interested.

That you don’t want me, that I’m not enough for you.

’ I slap my hands on his chest to make him let go.

I should have known better. This won’t be leading anywhere.

Cillian will do what he always does, what any guy I meet does – go so far and then disappear completely.

And you’re probably right. No one sticks around. No one ever wants me enough to—’

‘Niamh, how can you think that? Say that? That isn’t it at all.’

‘Really? Because for years, years, Cillian you’ve kissed me, sometimes even comforted me.

But you’ve always been gone by morning, made it clear in public that I was nothing to you, thrust Vittoria in my face.

Yeah. I get it, I’m the dull little virgin.

And nothing more. Too stupid to understand that you were just being nice, for her sake. And—’

‘That’s not why. That’s not why at all,’ he insists, his blue eyes piercing me.

‘Niamh.’ My hands are resting on his shoulders as we stare at one another, and suddenly he cups my head and pulls me towards him, his lips crashing into mine, kissing me as though I’m the reason for his existence.

The warmth of his mouth sends shivers down my spine as our tongues tangle together, dancing in a rhythm that feels so right.

The muscles in his shoulders harden under my fingers as he pulls me closer against his body. Then we break apart gasping.

He drops his forehead to rest against mine, and for a moment we just breathe.

‘Then why?’ I whisper. But he doesn’t seem to want to answer that.

Instead, he shakes his head. ‘You have to know that you are infinitely … desirable, Gléigeal.’

‘Stealing Declan’s term of endearment for me?’

‘It fits. It’s mine now,’ he promises. ‘If Declan uses it again … it’ll be the last word he utters. I’ve been selfish, Gléigeal.’

‘What do you mean?’

He kisses me again, his tongue pushing its way into my mouth, seeking acceptance as his kisses get deeper and more urgent.

His hand pulls at my wet T-shirt, removing the fabric stuck to my body as he slides a hand under the material.

He presses it against the small of my back, his mouth moving across my lips, down the line of my jaw before he drops kisses down my neck, and I shiver.

I cup his head with my hand and force him to still.

‘Cillian?’

Now he looks at me steadily. ‘Rose is right,’ he says. ‘I’ve kept you for myself, pushed other men away from you. Then abandoned you to be with Vittoria. My only excuse is that if she’d ever realised how much I wanted you, then she would have—’

‘You want me?’ I know he does, I’ve probably always known, but it matters, hearing him say it out loud.

He adjusts his hips, letting me feel exactly how much he wants me.

The hardness of his cock brushes against me as he guides my body in a slow rhythm, the thin fabric between us creating a delicious friction against my most sensitive spot.

I wrap my arms around his neck and he lifts me so my legs tighten around his waist while the cool waters of the loch heighten every sensation and leave me wanting more.

‘From the first night I saw you, I’ve been drawn to you.

It’s as if you were meant for me. But I have a duty to my family, to The Unseelie Court and I thought the best thing, the right thing was for me to marry Vittoria.

You’ve made me feel things I couldn’t let myself feel.

And I can’t leave you alone. No matter how hard I try, I can’t get thoughts of you out of my head. I want you, Niamh. I always have.’

I stare at him for a long moment, the weight of his words and the feeling of his body against mine reflecting everything he just said, but what does it mean?

His arms encircle my waist, and I can feel his hand move further down to my buttocks as he pulls me closer, removing any gap between us. I’m flush to his abs, and I can feel his erection pushing against me.

I capture his lip between my teeth and gently pull, before I kiss him back. ‘And I want you,’ I breathe. ‘I want whatever you’re willing to give me.’

‘I want to give you everything.’ His thumb strokes me, and I gasp as I feel him rub slow circles over my clit.

It’s not the first time he’s touched me but it’s the first time he’s touched me when he knows I want him like he wants me.

And it feels different. And even if it’s just for tonight, here in the Underworld, Cillian Hunter can be mine.

But first there’s something I need to know for sure.

‘What did you mean when you said you kept other men away from me?’