Chapter Fourteen
Dark thoughts plagued me the next day. I had not said a word after Val's confession, just used magic to bring my entourage with me to the bungalow. I had taken Diego for a swim while my wolves kept watch from our balcony. I swam and swam and swam but could not burn off the thoughts.
There was an out-clause. There was a way I could step down as ruler and keep my lovers, all I had come to want. But to do so would endanger the people I was supposed to rule.
All my life it had seemed whenever I came into contact with others it was a constant struggle between my needs and theirs. True freedom, I thought, was to live without such restrictions, to know others' could see to their own needs and you to yours. I had thought magic might provide such, but instead it had brought more responsibility to bear on me than I had ever known.
I could live up to that responsibility or I could escape.
The next day Val's lessons were all about responsibility. I didn't know if he understood the irony. Learning the laws of magic, the limitations, the borders between light and dark. It was a bit like taking three years each of college level biology, chemistry, and physics in one day. I thought my head would explode.
I hadn't slept well the night before. My wolves had sensed my mood and no one pressured me for sex, a blessing. Instead we had let Jerry and Liv celebrate their newfound freedom and then all went to sleep. At least they had all eventually slept. I had lain awake, wondering, and in the morning used magic to refresh myself.
If I stayed, and if Valerius was correct that Kenneth was a threat, I had only two options. I could have a child, something I never dreamed of, or I could kill Kenneth.
"Dark thoughts still?" Pierre asked me as Diego and I emerged from the resort's main building.
I stopped and appreciated the view. He wore a tank top as black as his hair and blue swimming trunks. All his beautiful muscles were on prime display and my treacherous body reminded me I had forgone my nightly sexual sport.
"Not at the moment," I said as he bent down to greet Diego.
His hair was tied back and eyes were hidden behind sunglasses, but Pierre's smile was brighter than the late afternoon sun. He scratched behind Diego's ears at the same time he rubbed my pooch's chin and Diego looked as if he was in heaven. Watching those strong fingers work, I understood the feeling.
"The problem is lately everyone wants to discuss serious things. You need an afternoon off."
I spread my hands out and gestured at the island. People bathed on the sand, frolicked in the surf, socialized at the outdoor bars, or laughed at the volleyball nets. "We're on a vacation at a resort, how the hell would I take a break from a break?"
He stood and grinned. "No homework today?"
"All up here," I tapped my temple.
"Come on." He grabbed my hand and tugged me along in a jog.
When Diego fell in and raced around us in circles, I couldn't help but laugh. Pierre always had a sense of almost child-like amusement to him that seemed fresh. Watching him now, no one would ever guess his real age.
We ran in the hot sun past many speculative stares of witch and wolf alike, all the way to our own hut. There Pierre slowed only ling enough to order Diego to run to Liv who watched us go with a raised blonde brow.
Without warning Pierre dropped my hand and ran into the ocean. He tossed off his sunglasses and shirt and I stopped at the edge of the water dry mouthed as all that masculine beauty dove beneath the foaming waves.
He surfaced and back paddled, grinning. "What are you waiting for?"
With a wave of magic I changed my shorts and t-shirt into a sports bikini, and my still-possessed training wheels in the form of a magic box zipped into a small pocket at my hip. I ran in and dove like he had, finding the same spirit he held.
When I surfaced, however, Pierre began to swim away, towards the large rock near the volcano. I swam after, following, but magic or no, even if Pierre had been merely human, he was so strong that he pulled himself through the water like a Selkie, and I just couldn't compete.
As we rounded the rock he treaded water, waiting for me. Nearly panting I pulled up to him and did the same. I saw what looked from the beach like a single nearly conical rock was actually the corner of a large formation. There was an arch like a doorway, and inside lay a pristine white beach, and the cove ring of rock kept the strong waves from pounding it.
"That's where we're going," Pierre said, and then he was off.
I lumbered after him feeling like a guppy trailing a shark as I approached here Pierre treaded close to the beach. I swam to him and with a grin he reached out and grabbed me, scooping me into his arms as he began to walk through the water towards the shore. It was like being carried by Poseidon and I clung to him, laughing even as my body heated under the hot sun.
"So what are we doing?" I asked as it became clear the only way to access this little cove was from the water, making it very private, and it was completely deserted when we arrived.
"Well madame witch, why don't you get us some towels, some suntan lotions, and whatever else you want."
I raised an eyebrow at him as we reached land.
Still smiling he set me down and I made sure it was a slow, sensual slide against him. God, he was so hard all over, so sculpted and warm, but deliciously I felt the thick hard bulge of his cock. Once my feet found purchase in the sand I reached between us and stroked it, delighting in his shiver. To have ay kind of power over someone so strong was a heady aphrodisiac.
"Right now I think I have what I want."
He leaned in close, brushing his lips against mine as his arms wrapped around me. "Al well and good, my sweet, but might I suggest a towel? Sand has a way of getting into awkward places."
I laughed and waved my hand, and a towel large enough to cover a full size bed spread out on the beach a few feet back from the water. Pierre grinned and kissed me then, and it was like being stormed. I loved the way he could be so relaxed and happy one moment, and then thoroughly lose himself to passion, and take me spinning along.
