Free Shadow's Light by Nicola Claire Page A

that he wasn't just sinking into me in one hard thrust. Taking me, like I was picturing in my mind. I shouted in my head for him to pay attention, this is what I want , I thought, as I showed him exactly what he could do to me.
    “Fuck me,” I said as I stroked Michel. “Now.”
    “Shit,” he gasped. “Ms. Monk...”
    Ms. Monk? I mentally shrugged my shoulders, Michel was playing a game. I forced more colour, sound and sensation into the movie I was making in my mind, reinforcing just what I wanted Michel to be doing.
    And then suddenly I wasn't in Michel's bed, but lying in the grass on the hills above my parents' farm.
    “ Ma douce, ” Michel's voice whispered against my flesh. His lips brushing my fevered skin. His tongue lapping a long hot, wet line between my breasts.
    Oh, this was different, so intensely vivid, so real .
    “Michel,” I whimpered.
    “Shh,” he said as he positioned himself above me and finally, thank Goddess, entered me in a slow, hard thrust.
    I cried out in relief and heartache. A cocktail of emotions that should not exist side by side and made absolutely no sense at all. My orgasm came quickly, his hips rocking back and forward at a slow and steady pace. Then he shuddered above me, sinking as hard and far as he could inside and then stilled. Looking down at me with such love and devotion.
    I noticed the shadows beneath his eyes then. The sweat on his brow. He looked different somehow. He was also shaking with the effort of what we had just done. But, it had been over so quickly and he had taken it so slowly, it shouldn't have left him gasping for breath.
    “I cannot stay. You must find a way to detect them sooner.” Them ? A creepy feeling started to settle between my shoulder blades, my mind lifting out of a fog. Then he kissed me, long and hard and full of everything I wanted to say to him but no longer could. “ Je t'aime, ma douce. ”
    And then he was gone.

Chapter 5
Fey Protection 101
    “Fuck,” I shouted, jumping up from the bed. I was fully clothed and completely bewildered. “What the hell just happened?”
    “Well,” Avery drawled, “you have been under the mind-control influence of a fairy and I brought you back.”
    “No you didn't. That was Michel.” I began pacing, trying to get my nerves back under control.
    Avery stiffened and looked at me strangely for a moment. I ignored him and continued to pace.
    “Who the hell was that fey?” I asked through gritted teeth, as memories of the street in Rio came crashing back into my mind.
    “A member of the Royal Court of Ljósálfar .” Avery answered and then added unnecessarily, “The portal here is open.”
    “No shit,” I snapped. “How come you didn't sense him?”
    He looked a little uncomfortable then, but straightened his shoulders slightly and said, “I did. I had hoped the experience would be a good training session for you.”
    “You what?” I asked, stopping my pacing to face him, hands on hips. “Stuff you, Avery, you thought I'd just stumble on a fairy and be able to hold my own? A test, huh? It fucking backfired, didn't it?”
    “I hadn't expected there to be three,” he admitted, reluctantly. Wait, there were three? “If I had thought you would be in danger, I would have prepared you better. But it seems, they are determined to return you to their prince.”
    “Their prince,” I muttered to myself. Then fixing Avery with a hard stare, asked, "Just what happened on that street? What did you see exactly?" I was thinking it was probably different from what had happened in my mind.
    "You about to waltz off to Álfheimr without a backward glance."
    Shit. "He made me think something else entirely."
    “Yes,” Avery said languidly. “I am well aware what the fairy made you think." He paused and ran a hand through his hair, a subconscious movement to make sure it was all in its rightful place. "The fact that they are working in groups is alarming though. What did you feel before you came out onto