Faint music like a choir of angels rose up inside Ariana then, humming around them both suddenly as his hands curled tightly around her, his lips drawing close. She felt how Lucca’s power rose high all around them as it resonated with that sound, stroking her more intently now. As he reveled in her beneath the stars, caressing her with a million fingertips, he was careful to not kiss her.
Though the sexy, dark look in his eyes told her the truth of what he wanted.
“You make me tongue-tied, Dark Fae.” Lucca spoke with that charming dark-bright smile of his. “Like my heart blossoms and fills my throat… and all words fail.”
“You make me feel the same.” Ariana spoke honestly, feeling Lucca’s leaving like a dagger in her heart now, not wanting him to go. As he gave her a sultry look and touched her with his power like a kiss upon the lips, a blaze of heat rushed through Ariana. Rocking with passion, her eyelashes fluttered as Lucca’s entire body trembled from being hit by the same reaction. The darkness was flooded with rainbows then, chiming with an etheric, incredible sound. Lucca’s breath was high and so was Ariana’s, her heart racing as his winds roared around her.
His heart racing also now at their intense connection.
Ariana startled as she realized she could feel Lucca’s heartbeat. Pressing her hand to Lucca’s chest, his quilted silks smooth beneath her palm, she could feel how hard his heart beat at their closeness. As she touched him, Lucca’s breath caught; his eyes blazed sun-hot. As they stared at each other, she felt him sigh.
Like her touch was more beautiful than anything in all the world.
“Why can I feel your heartbeat?” Ariana asked, entranced as she stood with him. “I mean, I have a mystical bond to Quinn now, so feeling his heart beat through my magics makes sense. But why can I feel yours… even when I’m not touching you?”
“I don’t know. Perhaps something in your Vampire powers?” Lucca breathed as he blazed with bright-darkness. Moving seductively around them both, his magic stroked Ariana as it shimmered beneath the stars. “We share no Fae bond that I know of… but when you called to me after bonding Quinn three weeks ago, I heard you. It shouldn’t be possible for me to hear you at a distance, without you and I performing some very deep Fae rituals. But I did. And when I sent you a thought back—”
“I heard you also.” Ariana breathed, fascinated by whatever was happening between them, even as she was deeply aroused by it. Frowning, she suddenly recalled her parents’ words about sending magic at a distance, and wondered if that was what had happened with her and Lucca three weeks ago. But as Lucca cupped her cheek and they gazed into each other’s eyes, Ariana knew it was something more they shared. As if the Summer Fae Prince eased into her very soul, it was erotic as she stood so bare before his beautiful, tremendous power.
And his beautiful, tremendous heart.
“I should go.” Lucca breathed now as he held her close, though his blue eyes burned with all sorts of other things he would rather do.
“Then go.” Ariana spoke softly back, riveted by him.
“Who would have known I would fall so hard for a Dark Fae, after seeking to become one?” Lucca spoke wistfully now as he stroked her hair. Pulling them together, he pinned her close to his strong lean body now, and a deep heat filled Ariana to be pressed hips to chest with him, feeling his beautiful fighter’s grace. Though he had never taken liberties with her before, he did now as he bent his head, whispering his lips over hers. Her heart raced as everything inside her clenched; need surged through her as her dark rainbows expanded in the night.
“I want you, Ariana.” Lucca breathed as his lips caressed hers. “I know you can feel it just as much as I can. But what’s more… I want to be friends with you – not just to have you some dark night when we finally get a chance to be alone together. I am a passionate man, but you hesitated earlier when I made my passions known. I must know – do you truly feel the same way about me as I feel about you? Because this, right now… I feel like we could have a love for the ages. If we give it that chance.”
“I feel it, too.” Ariana breathed as he whispered his lips over hers. “I feel it with both you and Quinn, and even though I’m having trouble wrapping my head around the idea of being with both of you… I know what I feel. You capture me, you captivate me, I want to know who you are, Lucca. I feel we have that chance also… strange as it may be with our excessively odd situation.”
“Who would have known you and I would both fall for the same man at different points in history, then be drawn together because of him?” Lucca chuckled then, though something in it was sad.
“I’m not drawn to you because of Quinn,” Ariana breathed. “I’m drawn to you because ofyou, Lucca.”
“I know.” He breathed back, even though there was still sadness to it. Smiling wryly, Lucca heaved a sigh and pulled back so they could see each other again. As Ariana watched him, she found herself caught in his dark yet bright eyes. He was captivating, he was a rogue; but most of all he was a burning light in her life, a necessary counter to Quinn’s sexy darkness.
As the Summer Fae Prince gave a sad smile, there was far more than simple fondness in it. But just as Ariana’s moon-bright nature rose once more to claim him, Lucca heaved a shaky breath and pressed a gentle kiss to her forehead.
Letting her go.
Ariana could tell it took everything inside Lucca to leave her without a proper kiss. But he was heartbroken right now and she understood, as he turned towards his massive owl. But even as they came to his tawny barn owl perched idly upon the railing, Ariana saw how reluctant he was to leave. Lingering, Lucca gazed at her as he pulled up his charcoal-grey hood and checked the knives in his boots. As he hesitated to pull up his grey facewrap, Ariana felt the pause stretch as if they both had something else to say. With a wry chuckle, Lucca lifted an eyebrow.
And then reached out – seizing Ariana and hauling her in.
Leaning down, Lucca Bellari bent his impossibly gorgeous Fae height as he kissed Ariana, crushing her close to his rock-solid body. She bent like a willow branch beneath him as he kissed her hard under the stars – and both their powers rioted in the night. As Lucca left his kiss upon her, Ariana’s magic poured out in massive wings of midnight, shimmering with rainbows and sound.
But it was Lucca’s power that claimed her now as his magic whirled all around her. Light and bliss and music filled Ariana as he devoured her with his mouth and tongue, holding her close as his magic poured down her throat. Diving into her, his energy seethed with passionate abandon as he took her; and Ariana cried out as his power thrust deep inside her.
Tasting each other’s lips with heady passion, his magic wrangled hers and she let him. Ariana succumbed as he cradled her to his iron-fit chest – something incredible locking inside her as Lucca gave her his kiss and she drank him down like sun-bright honey. With a soft cry, he let her devour him with her Vampire magics as she reveled in him also like a Fae. But at last, he let their kiss part.
But not before pressing one final seal of desire into her lips.
“Goodnight.” He breathed hard with a renegade beauty now, still cradling her close. “Tomorrow can’t come soon enough.”
“I agree.” Ariana gasped, loving how he held her so tenderly and strong as she felt that dark-bright blaze still rushing through them both.
But Lucca had to let her go; and Ariana stood strangely balanced by his power and Quinn’s both rushing through her after that kiss. As her own magic flowed deep inside, she felt how it was tempered now, just like it had been when both men had touched her at the Pitti Palace and at the waterfall. As if Quinn and Lucca’s magics were made to balance each other, Ariana found their powers sing deep inside her with a complementary harmony of dark-light as they both managed to hold her metaphysically at once.
