In the still quiet of the cabin, only two hearts beat to disturb the silence. Moonlight spilled through the open doorway and pooled about the wide bed with hazy brilliance. A gentle, sweet-smelling breeze wafted in to touch and caress the two still beings lying together in growing enchantment. Green eyes and purple gazed deeply, saw completely. The moonlight wrapped about them with wispy, insubstantial arms, just as it had embraced the magic of a Unicorn Dance.
His hand brushed a strand of her hair from her brow with infinite slowness, and the spun-silver threads seemed to cling to his fingers with a life of their own. The moonlight appeared to shift, almost blinding them with radiance as her hair became a nimbus of iridescence and her eyes glistened with luminous intensity.
It was a sight the gods would have denied to mortal eyes, had they that power; it was given only to Hunter, now, to see how love transformed his woman…warrior…Keeper…lover…into something resplendent, something wondrous.
She was almost translucent, the seductive shape of her woman’s body blurred into softened enchantment. Love aglow, entrapped within its frail human shell, beckoned with a siren’s bewitching smile, a child’s innocent touch, a woman’s knowing laughter.
She was breathtaking.
A very old instinct told Hunter that he would never again see her in quite this way. Whatever the future held for them, this first joining as lovers would never be repeated, never be duplicated. He knew there would never be less between them; he knew there could never be more.
Siri watched, lost in the stillness that surrounded them, as the moonlight veiled him in dazzling brilliance. In wonder and in love, she felt the winging of her senses, felt the strength of a woman’s need to know her man. Her breath came quickly; she was unable to breathe. There was a roaring in her ears; there was a great silence. She saw with stark clarity; she was blind.
She was loved.
Loved.
She welcomed his mouth when it closed over her own. So warm and sweet, a slow caress that pulled a whimper from her throat. She felt his tongue tracing the sensitive inner surface of her lips, then slipping inside her mouth to explore in a stark thrust of preliminary possession, and a shiver passed through her body. His lips hardened, slanting across her mouth, his tongue driving more deeply and twining with her own in an erotic duel.
Her fingers found and clutched his shoulders, frantic to hold something solid in the dizzying whirl that had become her world. His skin was hot and smooth, the muscles coiling like living animals beneath her touch.
His power and tenderness moved her unbearably, his strong male body an alien, fascinating, beautiful thing so different from her own. The very texture of his skin beneath her fingers seeped into her being and became, curiously, her own skin. His beating heart matched the rhythm of hers, surrounded hers, became hers. The softness of his breath left her lips.
He lifted his head at last with a harsh sound, and his vivid green eyes moved down over her body slowly. One large hand reached to touch her flat belly, and her muscles contracted convulsively as she bit her bottom lip to hold back some faint sound struggling desperately to escape.
“Don’t hold back,” he said thickly, seeing her struggling not to give in to her senses. “Let yourself go, beloved. Let yourself feel. I want to teach you all the pleasure of love.” His head bent suddenly, and his tongue stroked the hard pink tip of her breast, and Siri gasped as a wave of hot need shuddered through her wildly.
“I—I feel…I can’t control it,” she whispered unsteadily.
“Don’t try,” he told her in that thick, strained voice. “Let it control you, beloved.” His face was taut, his eyes blazing, but the curve of his lips was tender.
“I—I’ve always controlled,” she managed, biting back another wild moan when his hand slid up over her midriff to warmly cup her straining breast.
His eyes softened, and Hunter bent his head again to nuzzle his lips across the flushed skin of her breast. “Not this,” he murmured hoarsely. “No one controls this.” He lifted her hand from his shoulder and placed it on his chest. “Feel my heart beating for you?” He caught his breath, half-closing his eyes when her fingers moved convulsively in the dark mat of hair covering his chest. “I can’t think for wanting you,” he groaned. “I can’t control my need for you.”
And she knew it was true, knew that he was as much a prisoner of desire as she was. Accustomed to controlling her world and herself, Siri abandoned that control consciously for the first time, giddy with the freedom of it. And she was suddenly, furiously impatient. “Show me,” she gasped, her nails digging into his skin, the heat of her body something she was wild to dampen. “Take me, Hunter!”
“Shhhh,” he whispered, the hand at her breast lifting to cup her cheek as he kissed her lips gently. The strain in his face was growing, but there was a sudden flicker of harried humor in his vivid eyes. “Don’t tempt me, dammit. There’s nothing I want more, love, but I have to go slowly. I don’t want to hurt you.”
That hadn’t occurred to her. “Will you?” she asked, blinking dazed eyes at him trustfully.
He groaned. “God, I hope not.” But compelled by her trust, he had to be honest. “I might hurt you—I don’t know. The first time…”
Siri saw his worry, and it moved her unbearably. “Just teach me to feel these pleasures,” she whispered. “I love you, Hunter.”
Had she only known, her total love and trust did nothing to ease his sudden burden. As desperate as he was to lose himself in her, to take her as he had ached to do all this time, he was very conscious of the importance of guiding her through an experience she had absolutely no knowledge of. If he was rough or awkward in his own need, he could easily ruin things for her.
Reining his own impatience as tightly as possible, he murmured, “Close your eyes, beloved. Just let yourself feel.” And when she obediently closed her eyes, he swallowed hard and forced his mind to concentrate only on pleasing her.
It was, in truth, what he wanted to do. The only problem was in convincing his body to remain patient. He managed it. Barely.
Siri felt his lips cover hers again, and she opened to him with a kittenlike sound of pleasure. With her eyes closed, she could only feel, and the moist warmth of his agile tongue sent hot shivers all through her. Unconsciously, her body moved, and her tongue responded to his as though with a will all its own. She felt him draw her tongue into his mouth, stroking it with his own, inviting her to explore, and she accepted the invitation eagerly, with growing ardor.
When his lips moved finally to trail down over her throat, she heard his rough chuckle and realized that she herself had made a sound of disappointment when his mouth had eluded hers. But the frustration was brief, because the pleasure of his lips moving over her flesh was exquisite. She could feel his teeth nip in tiny bites, his tongue soothe, and her head moved restlessly on the pillow as heat swirled all through her.
His hands surrounded her breasts gently, the long fingers tightening and relaxing in a rhythm that stole what was left of her breath and yanked a moan from her throat. Her own fingers threaded through his thick, silky hair, holding him to her, and she arched in impatience against him. His tongue was gliding between her breasts, down one slope, into the damp valley and up the other slope, teasingly avoiding the tight pink tips.
“Hunter,” she moaned, “I need—I need—”
He breathed warmly on one straining bud, then flicked his tongue over it again and again. “Tell me what you need,” he whispered thickly. “Don’t be afraid to tell me, love.” But she didn’t have to, and his lips closed over her nipple, drawing it into the heat of his mouth strongly while his tongue swirled.
Siri couldn’t believe the molten pleasure of that caress, and was hardly aware that her breath escaped her in little pants and her heart was pounding, smothering her. She moaned when he moved to the other breast, lavishing it with his lips and tongue, his hands still squeezing gently. One of his legs slid between hers, drawing them slowly apart, the fi
ne hair covering his flesh a sensual abrasion against her soft inner thighs. And she felt a faint, distant shock, a sudden awareness of surrender and submission.
Forbidden…Outcast…
She shook her head to throw off the ancient warning, but it was the instinct of an innocent female body that tightened the muscles of her thighs in an equally ancient fearful response.
He was murmuring wordlessly against her skin, and one hand left her breast to stroke slowly over her quivering belly until he found the soft silver down at its base. His fingers moved gently among the pale hairs, tearing a gasp from her throat, tightening her muscles even more. But his touch was insistent, knowing, and when he found the damp heat of her womanhood, new instincts burst into life. Her thighs relaxed slowly, then tensed again, but this time because they were parting for him, obeying the gentle pressure of his leg.
Time slowed, inched almost to a halt. Every second was a brief eternity, to be treasured and held for as long as possible. He could feel her heartbeat beneath his lips; the increasingly frantic flutter of a caged bird’s wings. Her smooth skin wore the sheen of polished gold and shared the warmth of light itself. Like a lodestone, her body drew his touch.
His arms cradled her in strength and gentleness; his touch was the shatteringly tender and passionate touch of love. Unhurried, each movement achingly slow, he learned the secrets of her body. And she was awakening, responsive; there was no effort now to smother the sounds of passion. Her husky moans and sharp gasps were spurs to his own passion, and every muscle of his body was rigid with the effort of control.
Their bodies responded to one another as if with an old, tender, passionate memory, a certain knowledge.
The moonlight shifted, now veiling them in brilliance, now lighting each, starkly real, for the other to see. The soft breeze caressed them in sweetness.
“Hunter…”
“Yes, beloved,” he murmured harshly, his breath rasping. He had lifted his head from her breasts now and was watching her, his fingers still moving in a steady rhythm over her slick, throbbing flesh. Her body was tensing, her hips beginning to lift to his touch, and her feverish eyes fixed on his face with the sudden, breathless panic of a female body reaching desperately for the satisfaction of release.
In an agony of need, her body strained at the brink, and she hadn’t the breath to ask him why he was doing this to her. It was a sensation beyond anything she had ever known, a sweet, wild, mad spiraling of all her senses, a coiling of tension that felt as if it had to break her into countless shattered pieces and fling her into the winds. And then she did break, her body convulsing against him, a cry torn from her throat as wave after wave of pleasure swept over her body, her senses, her dazed mind. And the tension drained from her in a rush, leaving her limp and shaking.
“You’re so beautiful,” Hunter murmured in a strained voice, nuzzling his face between her breasts while his hands stroked her body gently. “So passionate…” A guttural groan escaped him. “God, give me patience!”
She was stroking his damp back with trembling hands, and felt the coiled tension of all his muscles. Still drifting in the lingering soft ripples of pleasure, she was nonetheless aware that Hunter had shown her only a part of lovemaking. And with the wonder of what he had shown her, she was utterly unafraid of what was to come. Her body was already renewing its need, and she sensed that his was almost out of control.
“Love me,” she whispered, lifting her head to press her lips against his hard shoulder. “Love me again…”
He drew a ragged breath as he lifted his head, and his eyes were wild. “Siri…” His mouth found hers fiercely, driven, and her instant response made his already pounding heart beat like a savage thing fighting to escape his chest. Spring-coiled tension stole into fragile human bodies, winding tighter and tighter, compelling, insisting, driving. His muscles were rigid with intense restraint, and he thought he’d burst with the feelings.
Siri was with him again, her body moving against his, her hands stroking over his shoulders and chest. And her need was impossibly greater than it had been before. There was a terrible, empty ache deep inside her, and she moaned wordlessly, trying blindly to draw him closer. “Hunter…please…”
He was breathing as if he had run some long, desperate race, trying fiercely to control his body even as he gently widened her thighs and slipped between them. And only the sudden, almost unconscious shock in her face enabled him to retain some faint measure of control. “Siri…?”
She fought a last silent battle with a ten-thousand-year-old taboo, until the ancient voice stilled in defeat. She held his shoulders fervently and her legs cradled him as she felt the warm hardness of his body seeking entrance. “I love you,” she murmured, conscious now only of the need to belong to him.
He lowered his head to kiss her deeply, then watched her face intently for any sign that he was hurting her as he began a slow, careful pressure. Never before forced to hold back and take care, Hunter discovered a wild pleasure in the very restraint he had to exercise. The slick heat of her flesh against his caused savage ripples of pleasure to course through him, and feeling her body open to him slowly was a caress unlike anything he had ever known.
Siri’s eyes widened in wonder and in the purely female shock of possession. She could feel her body stretching to admit him, feel him moving deeper, filling the emptiness that had ached for him. The throbbing hardness of his body was alien for a stark instant, but then she could feel the acceptance of her own body, and the coiled tension and heat that had remained suspended began to build again.
Hunter half-caught his breath in relief and pleasure as the heat of her body sheathed him tightly, completely. She had taken all of him, was, even now, moving sensually against him, and the pleasure was unbelievable. He was mesmerized by the wide dark eyes fixed on his, by the tremulous, wondering smile curving her lips, and he kissed her deeply as he held himself still deep inside her.
Siri moaned softly, her limbs holding him with lithe strength, and when he began moving she nearly cried out at the sensations, the silken friction of their bodies driving her need abruptly higher. What he had shown her of lovemaking had been only a prelude, she realized dimly. The emotions and sensations of before were pale things, and her body responded to his now with a wild desire that nothing could have prepared her for.
And Hunter, the need for caution and care seared away in the fire of her response, lost the last threads of his restraint. He wanted more of her, all of her, everything he could possibly hold of her. He could never get enough, but the drive to try gripped his body, his mind, his soul, in urgency. He buried himself in her again and again, raw sounds of pleasure torn from his throat. And it still wasn’t enough.
It would never be enough.
Exquisite torment trapped them in its toils, carrying them ever upward in a mindless ascent. They rose, bathed and blinded in moonlight, held aloft by a scented breeze, ensnared by each other. She was woman incarnate; he was man personified; they were lovers enchanted, bewitched, set free.
They were one.
It was a sharing so total, a joining so complete, that they were transported beyond anything either of them had ever known. And both knew, dimly, that it was granted to mortals to touch that wondrous place only once in their lifetimes. This first time between them was a treasure.
There could never be more.
There would never be less.
—
The moonlight had crept away softly, but the scented breeze remained, a reminder of a trip to gossamer enchantment. The cabin was quiet now, and contained only mortals who would hoard a special memory close to their hearts. Lovers.
They didn’t sleep for a long time, but lay entwined in breathless wonder. It was Siri who spoke first, her voice shy and wondering.
“Is it…always like that?”
Holding her close, Hunter continued to stroke her spun-silver hair tenderly. He didn’t quite know how to answer her. He could answer from his own experience,
but there was more to her question than simple experience versus innocence. A whispery little voice in his mind murmured in answer to his own musing, and he didn’t even wonder from whence it came.
“No,” he answered finally in that certainty he didn’t bother to doubt. “No, it’s never been like that before. And it will never be quite like that again.”
“Because there can never be another—first time?”
He nodded, watching her intently, hoping in a deep and secret place of his heart that she was not disappointed but, like him, would cherish a magical memory from another plane of existence.
Her eyes glowed in purple wonder. “How lucky we are,” she whispered, and he knew that she shared his feelings.
“I love you,” he said, the utter stillness of his voice filled with more raw power than an exultant shout could have claimed.
She pulled herself forward to kiss him softly, then lay with her head pillowed on his broad shoulder. “I love you, Hunter. I didn’t know what it would be like to love a man; I didn’t know I could love a man like this. But I’ve never been more happy than I am right now. I’ll never regret loving you.”
Hunter listened as her breathing became deep and steady, knowing that sleep had finally claimed her. He held her securely, the old fear of waking to find her a dream haunting him. Because her last words held the sound of a vow, and he wondered with a pang why she should feel the need to deny possible regret.
Stoically, he placed that pain far back in his mind to share the pain of knowing she loved the Unicorns best, that he was second in her heart. He could only love her, unreserved, undemanding, holding on tightly to the knowledge that she had chosen him, that she loved him as much as it was possible for her to love a man.
It would be enough.
It would have to be enough.
—
Siri woke slowly. She was conscious of gray dawn light filtering into the cabin, the sun obviously reluctant to provide the bright dawn to which the valley was accustomed. Birds called to one another deep within the forest, oddly timid, oddly repressed.