Their trysts were for a greater purpose than physical pleasure. Hartley had still not gotten Eden with child. It was the one darkness in the world of light they created together, and his failure continued to trouble him. It was almost as if his own fertility was the price for the dale’s.
Tonight, in the spirit of the ancient rites, he had prepared the wood to welcome Eden as if she were a goddess and he was about to take her in ritual marriage. The birds would sing late this eve; their song would join that of the beck and the wind in a symphony sweeter than any mortal man could devise. The path to his bower was lined with summer wildflowers, chosen for their beauty and scent. And he had gathered berries and fruit as ripe and delicious as any found in Tir-na-nog.
If he could go to that happy land and bring back a thousand treasures for her, he would do so. But once he passed through that gate, he would not return.
A rush of wind warned him that Tod was near. He materialized close to Hartley’s perch in the fork of a birch and sat cross-legged on a young branch that would have snapped under a mortal’s weight.
“She comes,” he said with a grin. “The lady comes, like Titania to Oberon.”
“Tonight I am as powerful as Oberon,” Hartley said. He leaped down from the tree. “And you are as swift as Puck himself.”
Tod laughed. “Swifter by far. The sour-faced mortal had to be convinced to seek her bed.”
Hartley did not ask how Tod had convinced Claudia to retire. Eden had come, and all else was unimportant. “Go back and watch,” he commanded.
Eden floated into Hartley’s view dressed as the sylvan nymph he had imagined her, clad in an insubstantial, nearly transparent gown that hinted at her body without completely revealing it. The silky fabric slipped between her thighs, caressing her with every step. She wore no undergarments. Claudia could not have seen that gown without understanding Eden’s reason for donning it.
With hungry impatience, Hartley strode to meet her. He lifted her high in his arms and kissed her urgently. She opened her mouth to accept him with a soft groan. Her nipples were firm nubs against his chest, begging to be suckled. The scent of her body grew rich with arousal.
He had wanted her to see what he had prepared, but all his intentions fell by the wayside. Her mortal steps were too slow for him now. He swept her up and carried her through the woods, over hidden paths that revealed themselves only to him. Her breath came swift and shallow with the same desire that raged in his blood. When they reached the bower, he forced himself to set her down gently and allow her to keep the gown in one piece.
But her hands were already at work on his shirt before her feet touched the ground. He tugged it off over his head. Her cool hands rested on his chest, and then her hot mouth kissed and caressed where her hands had been.
He bent back and allowed himself a moment of surrender. Eden had learned the arts of love with remarkable speed, enough to more than match her reputation among her own kind. And all of her skill and enthusiasm was for him.
She nipped the skin of his shoulder, and he grinned fiercely at the challenge. There were still some things at which she could not best him. Tonight he was not the gentle lover, one who might find a place in the Fane queen’s elegant court. Tonight he was like the stag whose form he could assume, intent upon only one conclusion.
With consummate care he pinned her arms to her sides and nipped her ear in return. Then he soothed the mock bite with his tongue. When she was pliable in his arms, he rained kisses from her neck to the barely contained swell of her breasts.
After months of loving, she still gasped when he caressed her. Her nipples were firm and dark beneath the diaphanous bodice. They grew darker as he covered her breast with his mouth and wet the fabric until it was almost invisible. He lifted her higher against him and suckled. Her hair came loose and draped like a veil over his head. She wrapped her legs around his waist, and he knew he could wait no longer.
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