Giving the pale beauty of her body a long perusal, he had to disagree. “This is no healing session, little one.”
“You think not? But each caress you give me heals my heart a little bit more.”
“Then we heal each other.” For he had never known such a sense of peace and belonging as he felt when she was in his arms.
“Yes, let us heal each other.”
He stripped with hands made clumsy by their urgency, her eyes hot on him with love and desire every second it took. He finally kicked off his boots and joined her on the furs.
She didn’t wait for him to renew the kiss but placed her mouth against his. He lowered his body over hers, his aroused and leaking sex trapped between them.
“Heal me,” she whispered against his lips.
His heart contracted and then swelled as it overflowed with love for this courageous human woman. He kneed her legs apart and moved his hand down to fondle her most intimate flesh. Pleasure surged through him when he realized that she was already wet and slick with need.
Nevertheless, he was not going to rush this.
He took his time stretching tissues that had never known any sort of invasion. He could feel the proof of her virginity, but it would not have mattered if he couldn’t. This woman was his in every way and would accept him into her body with the kind of love he had never even let himself dream about.
They moved together, his hands on her body, her small ones exploring his until the time came. And they joined.
There was some pain, but he concentrated his Chrechte gift with more ease than he would ever experience with another and healed her inner flesh even as his body claimed hers.
Soon she was begging him to hurry, to go deeper…and he gave her all that she asked for.
Including his heart.
Chrechte power surged through the cavern when they came and he knew that despite the odds, he had just planted his seed deep in her womb.
Eirik woke with the change in Ciara’s heartbeat that indicated she was aware of her surroundings once again. She had slept away the evening and most of the night. With instincts honed by years of living and hunting in the forest, he could sense that dawn was not far off.
They had shared their dreams again, his raven taking her flying in the only landscape they would ever be able to share the sky together. Then Eirik had lulled her into a deep sleep within her somnolence that would renew her strength more completely than normal rest would have.
“Hmmm…I suppose I should be used to waking in the arms of a dragon, but I’m not. It is magical.”
And do you like it? This magic? he asked via their mating link, sure he knew the answer.
She rubbed her head along his thick dragon arm she’d used for a pillow. “I do.”
Good.
“I think I know where the Faolchú Chridhe is.”
After all the vision had taken out of her, he would not be happy if it were otherwise. Where?
“On MacLeod land, I think.” Then Ciara told him about her vision, repeating her dialogue with the kelle word for word from the sounds of it.
And Eirik could barely breathe for the shock of his mate conversing with one of the ancient ones. Anya-Gra has never spoken to an ancestor.
“Perhaps the Éan have never needed the kind of guidance the Faol do now.”
According to Boisin’s dreams, both our races need you to find the stone. He brushed along her hip with his tail before curving it around her and tucking Ciara closer to his massive dragon’s body.
“You are right. I do not understand why, but I’m not about to question it. Not after everything.”
No. She had seen too much in her own visions to question Boisin’s. We return to the mainland immediately after breaking our fast.
“All right, but can you shift?”
Of course. He did so, allowing his dragon form to shrink back into his man. “You are not yet used to speaking with the mate-link.”
“It’s not that.” The cavern was dark, but he could hear a smile in her voice.
“What then?”
She pulled him into the warmth of the furs, sliding her naked body against his. He’d undressed her, believing she would rest better without all the layers of clothing she usually wore.
She pressed a soft kiss to his lips and then spoke with their mouths only a hairsbreadth apart. “I want my wedding night.”