I wasn’t sure what Padric expected me to do, but I was willing to try. My heart stopped as the crowd parted and I saw Dev standing before a smaller fire. He was dressed only in white pants, his glorious hair crowned with a garland of small yellow flowers like the ones that adorned mine. He was so beautiful I wanted to run to him, but Padric held me back.
“Follow the rules for now,” he chided me. He walked slowly to Dev, who smiled down at me. I could feel his tension as Padric put my hand in his.
Padric stood in front of the boy he’d helped to raise, smiling at him with great affection. “As the Oak King gives way to the Holly King this night, so I give this woman to you. Do you accept her as your goddess?”
Litha marked the midpoint of the year when the waning sun took over from the waxing sun. The Oak King, who ruled from Yule to midsummer, gave up his throne to the Holly King in ancient pagan lore.
“I do.” Dev took my hand firmly in his.
“Then go forth and prove your godhood,” Padric challenged. Padric started up the hill to join Declan. Dev pulled me into his arms. He held me for a long moment before lifting my chin and dropping a sweet kiss on my lips.
“Thank you for saying yes to me, my mistress,” Dev said solemnly. “I will not call you that again after this night.”
I was kind of fond of being his mistress, but I could settle for goddess. His body was tense despite the smile on his face.
“Devinshea, is everything all right?”
“It’s fine,” he replied, kissing my forehead. “Everything will be fine.” He leaned over and picked me up, cradling me in his arms. The crowd cheered as Dev turned and in one graceful move, leapt over the small fire. He landed on the other side and winked down at me. “It’s tradition. It ensures wealth and fertility for the couple.”
I didn’t think I needed anything but Dev to ensure my future fertility, and he had the wealth thing down, but I was being a good goddess so I made no comment on the subject. I wrapped my arms around his neck as he climbed up the hill. His long legs ate the distance and before I knew it, he placed me on the ground before the altar, my feet nestling in the soft grass. The altar itself was made from stone and covered in a soft white pillowy fabric. The coverlet was strewn with yellow and gold marigolds and handfuls of shamrock.
Declan came forward with a golden goblet in his hand. It was large and carried the same symbol he wore on his crown. He was dressed in all white for the occasion and looked more serious than I’d ever seen him. He offered his brother the cup with all due formality. Dev picked up the goblet and brought it to his lips, drinking deeply. He passed the cup to me.
“You’ll like it,” he said when I hesitated because I’d been offered some pretty freaky stuff before. “It’s honey mead.”
“Alcohol, nice.” I took a long drink of the sweet beer-like liquor. It was good to become reacquainted with booze.
“Zoey,” Declan began as I handed him back the cup. “You are here of your own free will.”
“Is that supposed to be a question?” Because it hadn’t sounded like one.
Declan groaned impatiently. “Fine. Are you performing this ritual with the priest of your own free will? Do you take him as god to your goddess?”
“I do,” I replied.
“Carry on,” Declan said with a royal wave of his hand as he returned to his place.
Dev leaned over and kissed me. He put his hands around my waist and lifted me up on the altar. Gently he parted my knees and made a place for himself. He laid delicate kisses across my face as his hands stroked up and down my arms.
“It’s going to be all right, Zoey,” he whispered. “I know you’re worried about being embarrassed. I’ll be discreet. I’ll treat you with the utmost respect.”
He took my mouth, kissing me deeply, his tongue lazily playing with mine. My hands found that gloriously cut chest of his and moved against it, loving the feel of those hard muscles. I moved forward to get my legs around his hips and pull him closer. He found the bottom of my skirt and lifted it to my knees, his left hand starting to work on the tie at his waist. I knew he was hard, but he was almost always hard the minute he kissed me.
What he wasn’t was ready to go.
I pulled away because his skin, while warm, wasn’t even beginning to get that hot sweat that covered him when his magic started flowing. When we made love, I always felt a pulse of energy roll from his body to mine. It had been that way ever since that night in Vegas when his magic had come roaring back to life. Now I was getting nothing, and it scared the hell out of me. I touched his arm, trying to find the connection, the crazy, intimate, I’ll-do-anything-for-him connection I felt when his magic got rolling. There was nothing coming off him.
This was what Danny and Padric had warned me about.
“Dev, what’s going on?” I wasn’t quite able to keep the panic out of my voice as I stared into his eyes. They were his normal green, not the dark, deep emerald they should be by now.
“Nothing’s wrong,” he insisted, but I heard the doubt in his voice. He was getting flustered. “We’ll just keep the dress on and no one will be able to see you. We can make this work. Just follow my lead.”
Normally, in all sexual situations, following the sex god’s lead is a really good and potentially mind-blowing idea. But this time the sex god was trying to please too many people. He had to please the wolves who were counting on him. He had to please his brother and de facto stepfather or he would be considered weak for the rest of his life. He had to please me, and he was trying to please me on a non-sexual level by treating me like a china doll so no one thought less of me. All of this pressure was resulting in one thing and that was complete failure on the magical front. Dev would be perfectly able to push my skirt up, shove his way inside me and get off. None of that would result in the pulse-pounding lust that he needed to get his magic started.
Dev needed to start thinking about pleasing Dev.
Even from high on the hill I could feel the confusion of the crowd below. They were expecting something to happen and it just wasn’t. Dev was starting to panic as he tried his damnedest to solve every one of his problems.
“I told you this would happen,” I heard Declan saying. “He required six women to get him into this state before. He is not that strong.”
I knew Dev heard it, too, when I saw his face fall and his concentration falter.
“I should never have let him try this,” the future—if I let him live—king of Faery was saying.
Maybe I was going about this the wrong way. I was trying so hard to be a good goddess when what Dev needed was a bad one. Dev needed to get turned on, and soft, sweet, gentle lovemaking just didn’t do it for him. Dev liked it dirty—the dirtier the better. Unfortunately, he liked it a certain way, too. He would fight me if I tried to take the lead. Dev liked to be in control, but more than that, Dev liked to dominate. He even struggled to give up control to Daniel in the bedroom. We played at those little fantasies with padded handcuffs and gentle submission.
Tonight, we were going to have to go a little further because those priestesses needed to know who was in charge, and so did Declan.
Sometimes, a girl has to be a little cruel to be kind.
I pulled away from Dev, and his head shot up. “What’s wrong, Zoey? Are you afraid, sweetheart?”
I winced inwardly because I’d really done a number on my lover when I refused him the first time. I needed to make up for it, but he wasn’t going to like how I had to do it, at least not at first.
“No, I’m not afraid,” I said in a sarcastic voice. “I’m bored. What’s wrong with you tonight? Those wolves are waiting and I’m pretty sure they’re not going to hang around forever.”
His jaw clenched, frustration apparent in his every muscle. “Zoey, I’m trying. I just need a little more time.”