Puca Read online

  The little white ruffle that peeked out from under the hem gave him a funny little tickle in the pit of his stomach. He licked his lips and noticed he could see a hint of her bra through the thin white cotton top she wore.

  Emma walked down the steps and across the yard 178

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  to the clothesline. The Puca shifted, his jeans becoming uncomfortably tight as he watched her put the basket down and begin hanging wet clothes on the line. He found himself holding his breath every time she bent to pick up another bit of clothing. She finished and walked back toward him, stopping next to him. He smiled up at her and wondered if she knew how the sight of her navel just above her waistband turned him on.

  “It’s much too hot to be sitting out here,” Emma said. “Come inside.” She held her hand out toward him.

  He looked into her eyes, and the warmth there took his breath away. Taking her hand, he stood and followed her into the house. Inside she pulled him along down the hallway and into her small bedroom.

  She let go of his hand and he watched her shut the bedroom door, locking it, a white-hot coal settling in his belly.

  She took him in her arms and he pulled her closer, his hands sliding over her, never tiring of discovering just how soft and warm she was. He sighed deeply and closed his eyes. Loosening his hold, he stepped back and looked into her eyes. They were dark with desire, burning with passion he knew was reflected in his own emerald eyes.

  “Are you sure you’re recovered enough for this, my love?” he asked softly.

  “Yes. Hush.” She touched her lips to his and parted them with the tip of her tongue, slipping it inside and twining it with his in a deeply sensuous kiss.

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  She led him to her bed and sat him down. He swallowed hard, licking his lips, as she unbuttoned the top she was wearing and slipped it off. He reached out to touch her and she caught his hand, bringing it to her lips and kissing each finger. Still holding his hand, she reached up to her honey-gold hair and tugged on the scarf holding it back.

  Emma pushed him back against the brass headboard then reached for his other hand. He put his hands together and held them out to her in trusting surrender. Carefully she tied them together, and then tied them to the top of the headboard over his head. He watched her kneel in front of him and unfasten the lace bra that covered her breasts. He gasped when she put her hands on his knees and pushed them apart.

  His breath quickened as she unbuttoned his shirt and laid her hand on his chest. He watched her move her other hand down to his jeans, popping the button and easing the zipper down with agonizing slowness.

  She slipped her hand inside, finding the waistband of his black silk boxers and lifting him free. He moaned softly when she leaned forward and kissed his neck, her fingers exploring him.

  She looked into his eyes, and his breath caught at the promises there. Lowering her head, she kissed him and teased him with her tongue until he could not keep his hips still. His breathing was ragged and she backed off, using a trick he had taught her and allowing him to calm down before moving over him.

  She covered his mouth with hers and he clenched 180

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  his hands. Her breasts skimmed over his chest making him shiver. Rising up, she leaned forward and he opened his mouth taking a silky soft nipple in.

  She tasted salty sweet and hot, and he laved over the hard tip, sucking and kneading, gently grazing his teeth over the sensitive skin. Her moan sent a tremor through him, making his toes curl.

  Pulling away, she lowered her head to his chest and brushed her lips and tongue over his hardened nipples. He moaned her name softly and twisted his hands until he could grip the rail of the headboard, arching his back toward her. She shifted and cupped his face in her hands, slowly lowering herself onto him, taking him all the way inside.

  He groaned and bucked his hips off the bed. She gasped, and he felt her untying his hands. Free, he wrapped his arms around her, pulling her against him and threading his fingers through her hair. He kissed her and reached for the scarf. Gently he tied the scarf over her eyes, blindfolding her. He held her close, his arms protectively around her.

  “My turn,” he whispered, licking her ear, then kissing her once more.

  He kissed her wrist and eased her back, sliding out of her. Taking her in his arms he turned her, laying her back against the pillows. He moved her legs over his hips and around his waist, then catching hold of the headboard, he slid into her hard and fast. She wrapped her arms around him, crying out. He ground himself into her until she moaned with each thrust. She dug her fingers into his shoulders and he 181

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  slowed, tugging the blindfold free and touching his lips to hers in a soft breathless kiss. He stilled, pressing against and into her.

  Emma gasped and held her breath. He felt the beginning of her release and rolled his hips against her, sending her over the edge. He gasped and whispered her name brokenly as he melted into her.

  Pulling away slowly, he gathered her into his arms and held her, nuzzling her neck and burying his face in her sweat-damp hair.

  * * * * * *

  Far out in the forest, an oily shimmer and the stench of decay silenced the birds and small animals. Even the larger creatures cringed and huddled in their bolt holes. Finvarra, King of the Daoine Sidhe solidified in the clearing and looked about himself. His entourage of Red Caps and Fir Durgs waited for their orders.

  Smiling, the Elf waved a hand and the creatures dispersed. Kian would be humiliated and broken before he was killed. Finvarra chuckled softly.

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  Chapter Eighteen

  mma sat at her desk, going over the accounts. She Ehad read the same page at least five times and still had no idea what it said. Kian still had not come back from wherever it was he had gone, and the woman trying to get in touch with him was driving her up the wall. She jumped, startled by the insistent ring of the phone. Sighing heavily, she answered it.

  “Good afternoon, Toddle House,” she began.

  “I will speak with Kian,” a woman’s voice demanded.

  “He’s not available—” Emma said, trying to be polite.

  “Get him,” the woman commanded, cutting Emma off again.

  “Excuse me?” Emma asked. She was beginning to get irritated with this nameless woman.

  “Get him. Now,” the woman said imperiously.

  “I’m sorry, Kian is not available. If you would care to leave a message, I may try to see that he gets it when he comes in,” Emma said sweetly.

  “You will get Kian immediately,” the woman began angrily.

  “Kian is not here, lady. I’m sorry, but that’s just a fact you’ll have to deal with,” Emma said shortly. She squeezed the receiver so tightly her knuckles were 183

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  white. “Now, either leave a message or stop calling.”

  Emma heard the woman gasp and then say something in that singsong language Kian spoke sometimes. Whatever she said didn’t sound at all nice.

  “I’m sorry, I don’t respond well to insults and attitude, thank you for calling,” Emma said politely and hung up the phone.

  Emma went back to work on the accounts. Ten minutes later she heard Kian in the kitchen and the phone began ringing again. Emma calmly wrapped the cord around her hand and yanked it out of the wall. She looked up at Kian as he walked in the door.

  “Hi,” she said brightly and heaved the phone at him.

  “Tell your girlfriends not to call here anymore, this is a business phone.”

  Kian caught the phone and stared at Emma in shock for a long moment, her words sinking in slowly. He shook his head and dropped the phone, walking to the desk where Emma sat concentrating on her computer screen. “Emma, love,” he said.

  She studiously ignored him in favor of her accounting program.

  The Puca knelt beside her chair and tried again.

  “Emma, my heart
,” he began.

  “Save it for your other women, Kian,” she said never looking away from her screen.

  “Emma. Please look at me, my love. Tell me what has made you turn so cold?” He reached out, gently caressing her cheek and turning her face toward him.

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  lover. The hurt there took her breath away. She took a deep breath, steeling herself. “Kian, I realize that I’m not the only woman you see, but I would prefer not to have to speak to any of them.”

  “Emma, I see none but you, I love no one else.

  You’ve naught to be concerned with, my true love,”

  the Puca said, taking her hands in his and softly kissing her fingers.

  Emma leaned forward, intending to kiss him. The phone lying in the floor began to ring. She looked at it, the hair on the back of her neck rising up. Kian turned. Neither made a move to pick it up, and Emma counted thirteen rings before it fell silent.

  A soft sound caught Kian’s attention. Icy cold gripped him. He knew that sound, even though it had been more than five hundred years since he had heard it last; the swishing of royal blue velvet robes.

  Looking up at the doorway, he silently wished Emma anywhere else at that moment.

  Donagh stood framed by a bluish glow, looking at them with all her regal arrogance. Kian bowed his head and felt the hot tears of despair spilling from his eyes. His Queen would make demands on him that he would be honor bound to obey. Sweet Emma will never be wanting me again, he thought sadly.

  “Kian Puca,” Donagh said coldly.

  He lifted his head, allowing the Queen to see the tears coursing down his face. “My Queen,” he answered.

  Donagh raised her eyebrows. “Stand,” she said.

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  “Kian Puca, the ban is lifted. Finvarra has broken the Tradition to seek you out,” she said.

  The Puca froze inside. He knew that the Elf King would find him, particularly since he had been forced to destroy the Asrai. And finding him, the hateful Elf would go after that which he held most precious. He waited for Donagh to state her demands with a heavy heart.

  “Kian Puca, come home to Tara, I require your service,” Donagh said, holding her hand out to him.

  * * * * * *

  Emma watched the Elf woman who had appeared in the library. A part of her shriveled inside like a tender plant wilting in the heat of the noonday sun as she looked at the burning beauty of the Elf Queen. She felt lost as Kian stood to the Elf’s command.

  Emma resisted the urge to reach out and catch hold of Kian’s black leather belt. She clenched her teeth against the words that wanted to rush out, begging him to stay. He would go like all the others who had proclaimed their love. Her plainness could not compete with the Elf Queen. Slowly she stood and stepped around him, careful not to touch him. “I’ll go inform Tilly and Pin that we have an extra guest,” she said quietly and walked toward the door.

  Kian watched Emma as she passed Donagh, watched her avert her eyes from the Elf Queen. All Donagh’s pale silver beauty with her velvet robes the 186

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  color of the evening sky and spangled with jewels could not compare to the soft warmth of the human woman who held his heart. He could feel her hurt and fear, see it in the way she stood absolutely straight and in her carefully measured steps. Unable to stop her, his heart broke.

  Emma walked down the hall to the kitchen, her heart breaking. She found the Brownies sitting together at the little kitchen table. They looked up with worried eyes as she came in. “There will be an extra guest tonight, I just thought I’d let you know,”

  she said to them, amazed she could keep her voice calm.

  “Aye, we will take care of things, Miss Emma,”

  Tilly said quietly.

  “I know you will.” Emma smiled sadly. She walked to the back door and took her keys off the hook there.

  “M-miss Em-emma?” Pin questioned.

  “I’m going for a drive, I may be a while,” Emma said and walked out the door, leaving the two Brownies to look at each other worriedly.

  Emma climbed into her red Jeep Cherokee and started it up, pulling out onto the drive that led to the main road. She saw Kian watching her listlessly from the front window. The malevolent glow of the rust red eyes that watched her from the hedge at the end of the drive she took for the reflectors marking the way to the house.

  * * * * * *

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  Kian sighed, watching the taillights of Emma’s jeep disappearing down the drive. He turned to Donagh and bowed his head for a long moment. Raising it, he met her sapphire eyes. “I’ll not be returning to Tara, my heart is here with my Emma.”

  “I have need of you at court,” Donagh replied in her unemotional voice.

  “My Emma has need of me more, I cannot be leaving her.” He looked away from the Queen and his gaze fell on the silver-framed photograph next to Emma’s computer. The souvenir of their elephant ride. He looked back at Donagh. “She is the one,” he proclaimed.

  “So be it, Kian Puca, and my blessings on she that has tamed a wild heart,” Donagh said. She smiled a small, tight smile and turned to move down the hall toward the kitchen.

  He turned and followed Donagh down the hall, unsurprised when she faded from view. He walked into the kitchen, where Tilly was preparing to serve dinner. Pin looked up at him wide-eyed, a question in her dark brown eyes. He gave a nearly imperceptible shake of his head, and her face fell.

  The Bed and Breakfast guests were served dinner and went off to their rooms to bed, helped along early by a few well-spoken words of power, oblivious to the tensions in the house. Kian walked aimlessly through the darkened house. He found himself in Emma’s bedroom and ran his hands through his hair.

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  I’ll be after looking for her, he thought.

  * * * * * *

  Emma drove toward town, unsure of just where she thought she was going. She had no idea what she would do when she got back to the house and found Kian gone. She suspected that Tilly and Pin would be gone as well. She remembered the first time she had come to the house with Great Aunt Chloe as an orphaned little girl of seven.

  Emma stood in the rain and looked at the headstones of her parents. A warm hand took hers, and she looked up to see Great-Aunt Chloe. Tears rolled down her face, and she was folded into a warm, strong hug. Emma blinked and found herself at the town cemetery. She parked and got out, walking to the place where Great Aunt Chloe was buried.

  Careless of her dress, Emma sat down on the damp grass. “Well, Aunt Chloe, what do I do now?” she asked.

  Rusty red eyes watched her from the edge of the cemetery where the forest came up to the fence.

  “No one has ever cared for me like Kian. No one else ever made me feel like I was pretty, like I really mattered. What do I do now that beautiful woman has come to claim him?” she said to the growing darkness.

  She sat there listening to the wind in the trees. She could almost hear Great-Aunt Chloe’s voice. “Stand 189

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  up straight, Emma, you’re better than all of them and if they can’t see it, then they aren’t worth the effort.”

  Emma gave a watery chuckle and stood up. She turned to dust her dress off and a movement in the brush caught her eye. Her first thought was Kian had come to find her and she turned, ready to throw herself into his arms. She would beg him to stay with her, throw away every ounce of self-respect she had if he would only stay.

  Her smile died and her blood froze at the sight of the creature coming toward her. The brown sticklike thing wore a dark red cap over its lank, dirty, grayish-brown hair and raised its clawed hands, reaching toward her with an evil smile and a chuckle that sent a shiver of absolute terror through her. A second creature joined the first and made a dry snickering sound.


  Emma slowly backed up, keeping her eye on the two evil things coming toward her. She felt the passenger door of her jeep against her back and carefully reached around to open it. An owl hooted near by and the creatures stopped, looking toward the forest.

  Emma took the chance presented to her and clambered into the jeep, slamming the door and catching her dress. She hurriedly hit the automatic lock button and tried to slide over to the driver’s seat.

  Oh, damn, Emma, you’ve done it now, she thought as she desperately pulled at her skirt. The creatures had resumed their advance on the jeep. Suddenly she heard the satisfying ripping of fabric and scrambled 190

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  over to start the vehicle.

  Emma gunned the motor and floored the accelerator. A shriek of rage sounded from just outside the door. She was not about to slow down to find out if she had hit one of the things or not. She rather hoped she had. The jeep fishtailed onto the deserted main road, but she could not bring herself to slow down. All she could think of was getting back to the house. Back to Kian.

  It felt like forever before she spotted the sign by the driveway entrance. Emma slowed just enough to keep from flipping the jeep over as she turned up the drive.