Then I hightailed it out of there.
When I got to the cabin, I saw the good news was Skylar was a really good cabin boy. He didn’t make the bed because there was pretty much no point but he delivered water for washing, took it away, cleaned out the basin, brought food, took away the dishes, cleaned clothes and spent not a small amount of time shining brass.
He also made sure I had a kettle of boiling water, a cup and tea infuser.
The bad news was, by the time I made it to the cabin, I’d begun to get nervous.
What if it didn’t work or it went wonky? What if Frey wasn’t into this kind of thing? What if we got a bad batch and not-so-good things happened?
I stood by the boiled kettle that, in the not even close to warm cabin was cooling fast and worried my lip. Then I heard a noise outside and jumped, thinking it was Frey. I looked to the closed door; it didn’t open so I looked back to the kettle.
I did not partake of drugs, this was an adventure Mom and Dad warned me (repeatedly) was not worth risking.
But this was the bark of a beautiful tree. It was natural. It wasn’t drugs… exactly.
Shit!
There was another thump outside and I jumped yet again, looking to the door. After several moments with no Frey I decided to suck it up.
It was now or never.
And I lived in the now… with Frey.
I grabbed the infuser, poured the tiny, glittery, gorgeous pieces of bark into it, shaking the pouch to make sure they were all out. Then I screwed the infuser closed, dropped it into the cup and poured over the steaming water. Then I waited, staring at it wondering how long it should infuse. Then wondering if I should wait for Frey before I tried it.
Then I took hold of the little chain, dunked the infuser several times and watched with fascination as glitter flowed out of the infuser, permeating the liquid and making the water in the cup actually glow.
Yes… glow.
Totally freaking cool.
I pulled the infuser out, set it aside and after taking a deep breath, before I lost my nerve, I lifted the cup to my lips and took a sip.
Holy moly!
I stared into the glowing cup.
Heaven. Absolutely divine.
I took another sip tasting licorice and peppermint with hints of vanilla.
God, celestial.
Taking another sip I decided that the gods of this world had to exist. No other being could create something so heavenly.
On sip four, I felt it start and on sip five it grew stronger. I knew it because I was no longer tasting the tea, I was feeling it. The flavor had intensified to such an extent it was a thrill simply experiencing it. Sip six brought more, the coolness of the air in the cabin started stinging my skin, the drafts gliding across were almost physical. The shine on the brass on the instruments on the walls had grown so bright, it was nearly blinding. I could feel every centimeter of the handle of the cup weighing on my fingers. I could hear the men moving about on deck above me.
Wow. This stuff worked fast and it was awesome.
Sip seven and I’d had half the cup. I wanted more, it was delicious, divine, freaking bliss in liquid form but I forced myself to set the cup down to save the second half for Frey.
Then the warmth slid through me, starting right in my sex and slinking up, down and out until it heated me from top-to-toe, every inch of my skin, every centimeter of my innards. The warmth was so intense I had to put my hand to the table to hold myself steady because I thought my legs might buckle from under me.
It didn’t freak me out because the sensation was nowhere near scary.
It was beautiful.
So beautiful, so intense, so pervasive, I felt like I was going to overheat.
God, if Frey didn’t get to the cabin soon, I was going to have to take care of myself.
And I knew I’d enjoy every… freaking… second.
I heard his boots on the steps outside and my feet moved me directly to the door. They did this because suddenly my hands itched to touch him, my tongue was dry with the need to taste him, my stomach was hollow with hunger for him and my sex ached for his to fill it.
And because of this, he barely closed the door when I was all over him, pressing close, my hands gliding up his chest to curl around the back of his neck. In position, I insistently pulled his mouth down to mine.
“Fin –” he got out which was good, perfect, his mouth was open and since my lips were there, my tongue slid inside.
Oh yes. Ho boy. Yes.
I had my answer. I’d never tire of the taste of him, ever.
I felt his hands on my hips and the touch was light but it burned into me and felt so freaking good I moaned into his mouth.
That mouth tore from mine as he shuffled me in a few steps and I pulled on his neck to bring him back.
“Wee one, what on –?” he asked but something caught his attention, he glanced beyond me briefly then did a double take, his head jerking to look back at the table.
Then he looked down at me, his eyes locked on mine and he studied me intensely as his arms glided around me, pulling me close.
I bit my lip at the touch of his hard body against mine and wondered if he’d be put off if I started tearing off my clothes (and his) when his head bent and his face got close.
His voice was a low rumble that reverberated through me, causing my knees to go weak (and a variety of other things, all so fabulous they were nearly tortuous), when he asked, “That cup, Finnie, it glows. Have you drunk of the adela?”
I pressed closer, my lids had lowered, I was trying to focus on not pressing my mouth to his (or pressing it other places) but instead answering his question and also assessing his reaction to this idea and I whispered, “The girls gave it to me. Uh… to us.”
He stared at me for a second that seemed to last five hours then both his hands were suddenly on either side of my head, he tipped it back and thank God, thank God, thank God, God, God, he was kissing me, hard, deep with lots and lots of tongue.
I shivered against him and held on tight.
Oh man. I was going to come just from kissing.
His mouth tore from mine, the heat in my body was communicated in the heat in his eyes and he growled, “By the gods, wife, you suit me.”
Then he whisked me up in his arms, carried me to the table, planted my ass on it and curled a hand around my neck as he curved the fingers of his other through the handle of the cup. He picked it up and I held my breath as he held my eyes while he brought it to his lips. Then I lost his eyes as his neck bent back and he downed the whole thing in one gulp.
Okay, evidence was clearly suggesting Frey was really, really into this.
His head righted, he set the mug aside and he grabbed my legs behind the knees, opened them and moved between.
Oh yeah. Now we were talking.
My hands slid up his chest to latch onto his neck and my legs lifted up, knees bent, to press against his hips as he leaned into me.
“They explained what the adela does?” he asked as he braced one hand on the table while the other arm curled around me.
“Unh-hunh,” I mumbled, staring at his mouth and wishing it wasn’t so damned far away.
“And you want this, Finnie?”
I forced my eyes up to his and my mind to concentrate. “Is it bad?”
“No,” he replied, his arm lifting me up from the table and pressing my body into his as I watched his heated eyes start to scorch. “But it’s powerful, wee one. You do not share the adela cup with someone you don’t trust with every inch of you.”
Oh yes. Every inch of me.
I liked that. I wanted to get to the every inch of me part.
“But you drank it,” I whispered instead of whined because he still wasn’t kissing me but he’d bent lower, his arm curling around and cushioning the back if my neck, his body leaned deep into mine, pressing it into the table even as he pulled it up and into him.