Into the Fire (The Unseelie Court Book 4) by Gwen Rivers (free ebooks romance novels .TXT) 📗

arms and see he is staring down at me. “I have to stay here. I can’t ever go back.”

“I know.”

“But you can.”

He shakes his head. “No.”

“Aiden. Think about it for a second. Harmony, Liam and the pack, our daughter. They are all in Midgard. I’m trying to be fair to you.”

He curls one finger beneath my chin, forcing me to meet his gaze. “No, Nic. I’m done being apart from you. You must stay here? Fine, I’ll stay with you. Together we’ll rebuild this place. Bring the fey who are left out of the dark ages. We have friends that can go back and forth. But I will not cross that Veil again without you. Understand?”

My lips tremble. “Okay.”

“It’s a bargain well struck.” His head dips and I catch a glimpse of his wicked intent a moment before his lips brush gently over mine. Sealing our agreement with a kiss.

A kiss that heats into need.

I pull away, shocked.

“What is it?” He asks.

I lick my lips, savoring the tingle there. “I thought…part of the sentence for becoming Underhill was that I didn’t have any physical urges. But I want you.”

He pulls my shirt from my head and then crouches down to work the buttons of my jeans open. “Maybe your sentence is different because you chose it.”

I steady myself on his broad shoulders as he drags my pants and panties down my legs. I step out of the fabric. Nervous, because it’s been so long and we’d only done it once. I lick my lips and am about to tell him when he grips my hips and buries his face between my thighs.

Nerves don’t stand a chance.

An hour later, I sigh and lean against him in the bath. His hands rove over my body in steady caresses.

He tells me of Rodrick and his parents. His mother finally stepping up to help him in his time of need. I tell him about Angrboda and about Addy. I describe all my dreams of Pharaildis and her life.

“She wasn’t all bad.” I fold my fingers through his.

He shakes his head. “No one is. That’s the whole problem.”

We are quiet for a time, both of us lost in our own thoughts.

“Would you really have let her live? Knowing what she’d done?” he asks.

“Everyone deserves a second chance, Aiden. You gave that to me. I offered her the same gift.” I swallow hard. “Even after everything she’d done. To the fey, to you and me. She saved me from the Fire Throne. I would have died there if she hadn’t ripped me free from the explosion.”

“She was going to kill you herself,” Aiden points out.

“Yeah.” I thought about what I’d seen in her eyes. The terror there, the fear that overrode the hope. “And then you saved the day. Like I knew you would.”

“You scared the hell out of me when I saw you on the throne. If I hadn’t caught your scent…” He pulls me tighter. “Sixteen years is a long time.”

“What is it?” Curious at his mood swing, I tilt my head to see a muscle jumping in his jaw.

“You said Liam stayed with you. Did you and he ever…?” The thread of possessive jealousy in his voice makes me shiver.

I can’t help but tease him. “What would you do if I said yes?”

“Kill him.” The answer is immediate. His hands clamp on the side of the tub so hard the cast iron bends. He releases a breath. “First, I would thank him for watching out for you and Addison. Then I would rip his head from his body.”

“Even though you managed to share Nicneven with her fey nobles?”

His gaze burns into me. “You’re not Nicneven. You’re my Nic. Now answer the damned question.”

“Nothing happened, you maniac.” I shake my head against his chest, unable to suppress a smile. “Liam is a bit of a manwhore, but he never came on to me. He is honorable and decent. And I’m pretty sure he views me like a sister.”

“Really?” The hands on the side of the mangled tub relax, the claws receding.

“I would have waited twice as long,” I turn to face him fully. “I would wait for you forever.”

His expression softens, green eyes glowing in the low light. “I don’t know what I did to deserve this. To deserve you.”

“You are.” I lift my hips to take him inside me again. He gasps and I smile as I begin to move in a liquid rhythm. “That’s more than enough.”

The One True Queen

We stride to the throne room together. Aiden holds my hand in his. Nahini and the ghosts are already there. Nahini’s cheekbones jut out at even sharper angles but her hair is clean.

“You need some food,” I tell her.

She makes a face. “I’m too tired to find the kitchen.”

I whisper something to Aiden and he nods once, then vanishes in a shower of sparks.

“Where’s he going?” Freda asks as she strides into the room alongside Jasmine. Both look clean, but tired.

“We have some new thralls to break in,” I say. “Former FBI, total wackos. Let’s hope some of them can cook.”

Nahini laughs. “Let the punishment fit the crime? They kept you now you’re keeping them for a year and a day?”

“It should take us about that long to figure out what to do.”

“What to do about what?” Taj asks as he and Soladin enter. By the flush of love that covers the two of them, I can tell they spent the last few hours reconnecting the same way Aiden and I did.

“About Underhill.”

Aiden reappears, followed by Agent Hanson and company. Her eyes are glazed, her hair sticking up every which way and she is carrying a tray piled high with fresh bread, fruit and cheese.

“No meat?” I ask Aiden.

He raises a brow. “Since when do you eat meat?”

“On and off since I was pregnant with Addison. I blame you and your wolf for that. And Angrboda for insisting I try bacon. I am now a bacon vegetarian.”

He grips me around the