Midnight's Temptation

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

A prince. Phelan was a prince.

The words kept repeating over and over in Aisley’s head. She wanted to dismiss what Ravyn had said, but something inside Aisley hesitated.

There was a very real chance Ravyn was right and Phelan was descended from royalty. It would explain the innate self-assured attitude and his confidence.

“Want to go for a swim?” Phelan asked.

She choked on a laugh. “Are you serious?”

“Aye, beauty.” His eyes shone with a wicked light that made her blood quicken. “Are you afraid it’s too cold for you?”

“I’m Scottish, remember?”

He simply smiled at her response before he lifted a brow and took off his boots.

Aisley half expected him to be joking. As his second boot hit the rocks and he pulled off his shirt, she knew he was all too serious.

In a matter of seconds, he was naked. He winked at her before he ran the few steps to the edge of the water and dove in.

She gasped when she spotted the rocks, then let out a rough breath when he cleared them. “Insane. That’s what he is,” she mumbled to herself.

He surfaced and turned to look at her. Phelan jerked his head, sending his hair out of his face while he treaded water. There was no doubt she’d wanted to touch the water since she first saw it.

But Phelan’s explanation of the Dark Fae made her hesitate. She might be a Druid, but she had no idea how her magic would work in the Fae realm. Or if it would at all.

Her gaze locked with Phelan’s, and all thoughts vanished. Nothing mattered. Not Jason, not the Druids, not the Fae.

Only Phelan.

Aisley’s hands shook when she started to disrobe. It was her love of Phelan that frightened her the same time it gave her strength. She doubted anyone would understand it because she didn’t.

She pulled the ponytail holder from her hair and felt the thick weight of her hair fall against her back. Phelan swam closer to the edge, waiting for her. He held his hand out to her, his blue-gray eyes darkened with yearning she understood all too well.

Aisley took his hand and allowed him to gently pull her into the water. The emerald-green liquid was cool against her heated skin, but not nearly as cold as the icy depths of most lochs.

“I’ve never known a woman like you.”

Aisley enjoyed the compliment, but she knew what kind of man Phelan was. “In all the centuries of your life you expect me to believe I’m one of a kind?”

“Aye.”

She swallowed. The truth of his words shone in his eyes. Aisley backed away from him, suddenly unsure of where he was going with the conversation. She knew what she felt, and though she craved for him to return her affections, Aisley could never allow him to love her.

“I’m not who you think I am.”

“Ah, but you are, beauty.”

She shook her head. “I’ve seen the worry in your eyes when I bring up the secrets of my past. You’re scared of what I’ll tell you.”

“Forget the past,” he said as he swam toward her. “The past is the past.”

“Easier said than done.” She didn’t push away when he reached for her and tugged her into his arms. “I didn’t tell you at first because I didn’t want to. Then I didn’t tell you because I knew what you would think of me.”

“And now I doona care.”

“You need to ca—”

He cut off her words by placing a finger over her lips. She was backed against rocks worn smooth by the water. Her heart raced, her blood burned.

And her body ached.

All for Phelan.

He could turn her into a wanton with simply a look. His blood might heal, but it was his touch that she considered life for he had made her feel something good and right again.

Aisley had forgotten what that was. She suffered, she endured, but not once had she ever been so cared for as she was in Phelan’s arms.

His fingers slid around her neck to cup the back of her head. The water moved sensuously between them. Aisley’s lips parted on a sigh when Phelan’s body glided along hers, rubbing against her nipples.

“So damned beautiful,” he murmured.

Blue-gray eyes stared at her from beneath thick black lashes. His large hand held her head steady while he lowered his face to hers.

Her eyes slid closed at the first brush of his lips. The kiss was slow, pleasing, and altogether romantic. Aisley had never had a single romantic thing done to her, and Phelan’s kiss took her aback.

He didn’t let her retreat. Instead, he deepened the kiss, demanding more. She didn’t hesitate to give him everything she was, even a part of her she’d been holding back—the smallest part of her that was still the little girl with big dreams for her future.

Aisley released her hold on herself. She gave him all that she had, including what was left of her soul. Phelan would never know he held her heart and soul in the palm of his hands. It was her gift to him—and herself.

His other hand splayed over her back, holding her tightly against him. It wasn’t until the waterfall fell over her head that she realized he had moved them.

She broke from the kiss and laughed while the water washed over her. A moment later he shifted them so the water fell like a curtain behind her.

“Behind the waterfall lies the door to the Fae. Shall we go?”

Aisley shook her head. “There have been too many interruptions for us today already. The Fae can wait.”

“Just what I wanted to hear,” he murmured before he kissed her again.

Their legs tangled beneath the water. Aisley’s arms wrapped around him while the muscles in his back shifted beneath her palms.

He was seduction, persuasion, and temptation. He was desire, excitement, and decadence. All rolled into one mouth-watering, heart-racing, gorgeous package no one could resist. Least of all her.

His hand moved between their bodies. She moaned when he slid a finger inside her before teasing her clitoris in small, rapid circles.

Her breathing became ragged, but every time she tried to wrap her legs around him he wouldn’t let her.

“No’ yet, beauty,” he whispered between kisses.

That wasn’t what she wanted to hear. Her body wanted release. Every kiss they shared, every touch throughout the day had been like a slow, tantalizing enticement.

They’d made love fast and frenzied. They’d made love savagely. But they had never tread where they were headed. The unhurried caresses, the languid kisses were taking Aisley to a place she feared she’d lose herself in.

A place where she forgot who—and what—she was.

When she clamped a hand around his wrist and met his gaze, Aisley knew she couldn’t deny him anything he wanted. Even if what he wanted broke her.

There was no exchange of words. There was no need. The hunger, the passion between them was enough.

Aisley delved her fingers into his wet hair and kissed him. This time when he swam through the water, he took her to a large, flat boulder that was half submerged in the emerald depths.

She found herself placed carefully on the stone so that only her lower legs hung in the water. He leaned up over her before he bent to kiss first one nipple and then the other.

Her fingers dug into his sides as she tried to bring his lower half out of the water. But he had different ideas.

He moved one of her legs onto his shoulder. Her hands fell away to grip the rock while he shifted down her body. A second later and her other leg was propped on his shoulder as well.

Aisley’s sex clenched when his head lowered toward her thighs. He held her hips in his steely grip, glanced at her with his beautiful blue-gray eyes, and then licked her.

Her back arched off the boulder.

Phelan couldn’t take his eyes off Aisley. It wasn’t just her beauty or her magnificent body. It was her passion. She left him breathless with need and aching for more. It didn’t matter how many times he had her, it was never enough.

That thought should give him pause. The things that would have had him on his Ducati for the next bed partner just a few months ago is what kept him next to Aisley.

She knew what he was and wasn’t trying to change him. Her acceptance for everything he was staggered him. Phelan assumed he’d walk the earth until the end of time and never find such a woman.

How wrong he’d been.

Satisfaction coursed through him when her moans filled the air. She looked like a goddess splayed out on the boulder with the light fading in the sky and the emerald waters of the pool lapping at her skin.

He loved the taste of her, but he craved more. Phelan rose out of the water and leaned over her. Aisley’s fawn-colored eyes opened. Her pupils were dilated as she looked at him. Immediately her hands were on him, urging him over her.

Phelan filled her with one thrust. Her nails raked down his back while she quivered beneath him. He briefly closed his eyes and savored the feel of being surrounded by her hot, tight walls.

It was the closest thing to heaven he’d ever found. He looked down as he slowly pulled out of her. Her lips parted, her chest heaved while she waited for him to fill her again.

He set up a leisurely rhythm to prolong their pleasure. There was no way he would allow this to be over quickly.

Aisley’s skin tingled everywhere he touched her. She was coming apart at the seams, waiting for Phelan to take her to paradise.

His thick arousal thrust into her again and again, stretching her, filling her. He rotated his hips as he drove inside her causing a cry to burst from her.

Her hands roamed over his back, feeling the muscles move and constrict with him. She wrapped her legs around him and sighed when he slid deeper.

He moaned and thrust harder. She saw his arms shake as he held himself over her and watched their bodies meeting. Aisley lowered her gaze just as his thick rod pushed into her. The sight ratcheted her desire by several degrees.

As if sensing her heightened need, he bent and scraped his teeth over her hard nipple. Aisley lifted her hips to meet his next thrust.

She felt the water rise around them, but she was too caught up in Phelan to care. His hips pumped faster, harder. Her body was his. All she could do was hold onto him.

The climax was explosive when it claimed her. Aisley screamed Phelan’s name while a luminous light engulfed them.

He gave a final thrust and buried his head in her neck as his seed filled her. Aisley held him tightly while the pleasure wrapped around them, enveloping them.

Surrounding them.

When Phelan was able to lift his head, he knew something profound had happened. Aisley hadn’t just touched his body as no other, she had touched his heart as well.

He knew in that instant that there was nothing in this world—or any other—that would tear her from his arms.