A Little Night Muse by Jessa Slade Page B

desires.”
    Blood pooled hot and heavy in his cock.
    In his chest, his heart strained with equal yearning. This was
not the place for them. Here, under the lies was only this cold, hard, steel
gray. They should be back in his valley, the sun shifting to stars as they made
love through an entire day and night.
    “That’s it,” she crooned. “You want it. And I want you. It’s up
to you, Josh, my love. Believe it.”
    As his belt buckle clicked open, he grabbed her and swooped
down for a tongue-tangling, breath-stealing, soul-searing kiss. She threw
herself into his embrace, knocking him into the steel doors behind him.
    Which swung apart at their touch.
    He staggered backward, clutching Adelyn to his chest.
“How—?”
    “You know metal, and metal knows you. How else do you make such
beautiful pieces? They love you. But not as much as I do.”
    She yanked the doors closed behind them. Ahead of them, pines
grew in a tight circle, needled boughs towering into darkness.
    “This is one of the phaedrealii ’s
forever gates.” Adelyn took his hands in hers and stared up at him. “Your heart
brought you to me, Josh. Now I want to go home. To your valley. To your bed.
Take me there.”
    She lifted herself to her toes, and the serpents flowed back
from her face.
    He plunged his hands into the tangle of scales and kissed
her.
    The sound of a dog barking interrupted.
    Josh pulled back. “Wolly?” A bundle of bristling red fur and
stub tail butted his knees, and he stared around in confusion. These trees were
not in a circle, and between the trunks, the white glow of snow in evening light
lit the scene. “I say again, how—?”
    “This is our forever, Josh. This is where we are meant to
be.”
    He shook his head. “Is that how phae magic works?”
    “No. That’s our magic.” Gently, she
pulled away. “If you still want it.”
    He scowled. “How can you ask?”
    “Because the Queen never does. No one should be trapped,
Josh.”
    He looked down at his boots. “I can’t let you go, Adelyn. But I
would if you asked.”
    She lifted her arms to him, making Wolly bark. “You, you are
what I want.”
    Vaile and Imogene were waiting at Josh’s cabin, minus their
humanizing glamour. His black leathery wings overlapped hers, like a white
butterfly, protectively. Adelyn held her breath as the Hunter and sylfana looked her over with measuring gazes. They
knew there was more to the tale, and she fully intended to tell them and to get
their story in return. The phae realm was changing,
and they were only among the first.
    Obviously sensing the undercurrent, Josh stepped in front of
her, Wolly at heel. “She’s my muse.”
    Imogene smiled. “Then we’re glad you found her.”
    Vaile slammed down a brand-new frying pan on the porch railing.
“This complicates matters.”
    Adelyn shook her head as she stepped up next to Josh. “It’s
very simple, really. He saw past my veils, and I will never go back. I love
him.”
    Josh stroked his hand possessively down her back and pulled her
to his side. He smiled at her, the reflected love in his eyes as clear and
bright as the mountain spring sky behind him.
    Later that night, as she took him into her arms and into her
yearning core, tears prickled from the corners of her eyes and rolled across the
flannel sheets.
    “Stop that,” he murmured. “I have enough already for a set of
crown jewels.”
    “Starting with a huge belt buckle.”
    “The biggest and shiniest. And still it won’t rival what I feel
for you.”
    She kissed him. “You make me believe any dream can come
true.”
    “And here I thought you were the muse.” He kissed away the
tears before they could escape. He wrapped his hands in her hair, curling the
black locks in silky ribbons around his knuckles, and gently drew her close.
“Now, let me really inspire you.”
    * * * * *

Return to Jessa Slade’s sensual world of
the phae in Dark Hunter’s
Touch , available now from Harlequin Nocturne