Magical Moments Part 20

orderly world that brought the chaos."

He looked at her oddly, losing himself in the depths of her amazing soft blue eyes. They imprisoned him

and yet freed him, and they made him feel alive with every bit of his senses and every breath he took.

Kiss me, Dagon, please kiss me.

He heard her soft plea in his mind, and it echoed down to his soul. Without thought or reason he stood,

grabbed her around the waist, and lifted her up, his mouth meeting hers. The kiss shocked them senseless, rationale thought escaped them, blind pa.s.sion devoured them. He carried her to the washing machine and sat her down hard on top of it. His hands rushed down her legs and up her jumper all the while his mouth continued to feed with hers. Two hungry souls aching for the nourishment of love. His fingers squeezed along her thighs and slipped between her legs with an eager roughness that excited them both. He worked one finger beneath the edge of her panties, finding her already swollen nub of pa.s.sion and tormenting it beyond reason. She moaned and tore her mouth away from his, her head falling back and her sensual moans resonating around him, fueling his own feverish emotions. His fingers moved to swiftly enter her, and she cried out at the sheer pleasure of his determined entrance.

She moaned, his fingers working their magic so fast and furiously that she was sure to climax, and she cried out to him, "Dagon, please, I'll-" "Come," he urged, "I want you to." His fingers turned frantic and his whispered urgings pushed her over the edge. She climaxed fast and furiously, her satisfied cries filling the room. When she thought it over and a final shudder drifted away, he ran his thumb intimately over her one more time causing a small yet powerful climax to shudder her entire body.

He pulled her to him, her head dropping to rest on his shoulder, her legs draped limply at his sides and her arms barely able to hold on to him.

He brushed a kiss over her lips. "I like the feel of you when you come."

She breathed a heavy sigh and shivered in his arms.

He held her close and whispered in her ear, "You did say whatever I liked."

She nodded against his shoulder, her breath laborious, her heart pounding, and her body pleasured beyond reason.

"You drive me to the brink of insanity, Sarina," he said, nibbling at her neck.

She sighed, her skin still tingling from the aftermath of her climax, and her reply was barely audible. "Then join me in this madness, for I want no one else."

He looked into her eyes and saw the sweet gratification he had given her, and he shook his head. "You were not part of my plans."

"Nor you mine." She kissed him gently and urged, "Come tempt fate with me."

He shook his head again, and she knew he attempted to shake sense into himself. She would not push, nor grow impatient. She had made her choice, and now he must make his. And she must accept the consequences.

She offered him time. "Think on this, Dagon, for the next time we come together, it will be a complete joining or none at all. And the decision will ultimately be yours."

Dagon sat alone in the small receiving parlor, brandy in hand and his eyes intent on the low flame burning in the hearth. He had not fared well at all after leaving Sarina in the laundry room.

He returned to his guests after freshening himself and found his mind constantly wandering to Sarina and his conversation with his dinner guests sorely limited. She tormented his thoughts and his heart, not to mention his emotions. He did not know what to do about this unexpected situation. He had thought his plans were set, his future basically secured, and now?

He wanted to throw his hands up in surrender to a blueeyed, powerless witch.

He was crazy.

"Troubled thoughts?"

Dagon looked to the doorway with a smile, and he held an inviting hand out to Ali. She hurried to the sofa to join him, her bare feet peeking out from beneath her long white silk robe. She cuddled beside him on the couch, stealing his gla.s.s to sip at his brandy.

"You torment yourself, you know," she said, handing the gla.s.s back to him.

"I don't recall asking for advice."

"You need it."

He laughed. "From you?"

Her expression softened to one of concern. "I owe you, Dagon, for all the sc.r.a.pes and troubles you got

me out of, for all the times you have protected me even against myself, and for always being there like a big brother and loving me no matter how irrational or how foolish I act. You're like a brother to me and I love you and I want you to find a love as rare and magical as the one I share with Sebastian."

Her words touched him, and he hugged her to him. "I love you, too, and you are a sister to me in heart and soul. The first day we met when your parents visited here with mine and left us to play by the mermaid pond, I knew I would spend the rest of my life looking out for you."

"It was your fault I fell into that pond," she said with a playful poke to his ribs.

Dagon smiled. "I wasn't the one looking for a toad you insisted you could make fly."

"You told me there were toads in there."

"No, I told you there might be, but as usual you leaped before you looked."

Ali laughed. "And you got all wet saving me."

"And scolded for not watching you properly."

"Your own fault for telling me there were toads in the pond," she said and s.n.a.t.c.hed his brandy gla.s.s to

take another sip.

Dagon shook his head and s.n.a.t.c.hed his brandy gla.s.s back when she finished sipping. "I envy the love you share with Sebastian."

Ali remained quiet, knowing he needed to talk.

"I think that's why I wanted so badly to help the both of you. After watching your heart almost break

and Sebastian hurt with the pain of loving you yet feeling himself helpless, I realized you both shared a love worth saving. It also gave me reason to pause and examine my own life."

"You want love," she said, understanding his need.

"So badly that it frightens me," he admitted. "And I had thought to secure it for myself and yet now I wonder if I do the right thing."

"If you question it, then perhaps you have your answer."

He tapped her nose with his finger. "How did you become so wise?"

She smiled with appreciation and love. "My big brother taught me."

"If he's so bright, why does he feel so stupid?"

"Love can rob you of your senses."

"How did you know you loved Sebastian and wanted him for a lifemate?" he asked seriously.

Ali answered just as earnestly. "I knew the moment I looked into his eyes. I could see and feel the love.

Oh, how I felt it, Dagon. It wrapped around me and invaded my heart and soul."

"You were that certain?"

"Love doesn't come with a guarantee or a refundable receipt."

"Then how-"

"Could I be certain that I loved Sebastian?" she finished and answered quickly, "I made a choice and took a chance."

"On love," Dagon confirmed.

"Yes, that's all any of us can do, whether witch or mortal."

"I thought I knew of love, but . . ." He shook his head.

"Don't look to know love, Dagon, free yourself to feel it." She kissed him on the cheek. "I'd better get back to Sebastian."

"You mean you want to get back to Sebastian," Dagon said with a grin.

"That's love, darling," she said with a smile and a pat to his cheek. "Try it."

She hurried out of the room and up the stairs. Her robe fell to the carpet after shutting the door to their room, her nightgown followed, and she slipped naked into the bed.

Sebastian's eager arms greeted her. "Is he feeling any better?"

She cuddled against him, running her leg up and down his, the tiny bell on her toe ring chiming. "I don't know, I hope so, but it wouldn't hurt for you to speak with him."

"Not now," he said firmly.

Ali laughed softly and ran her hand over his body until she cupped him intimately. "No, darling, not now."

Sixteen.

"Has anyone seen Sarina?" Dagon asked of anyone who could provide an answer when he entered the formal dining room.

Several servants shook their heads and returned to their tasks.

Ali, who was seeing to the seating arrangements for the dinner party that evening, said, "You've lost her?"

"Something needs to be found before it can be lost," Dagon informed her, attempting to keep the irritation out of his voice. He had searched for Sarina for a better part of an hour and had not been able to locate her. He had wanted to invite her to the dinner party this evening. He felt it only right she attend after having been of so much help to Ali-at least that was the excuse he gave himself. If he were honest with himself, which he was trying to avoid, he would admit that he wanted her with him tonight.

Ali cleared her throat to revive his attention.

He shook his head, shaking himself from his mental stupor.

Her charming smile warned him that her words intended to impact. "We often don't realize we've found

something until it hits us square in the face." Dagon looked about to retaliate when he suddenly shook his head, thinking better of it, and walked out of the room. He met up with Sebastian in the foyer. He looked relaxed and refreshed, his cheeks full of color from the crisp fresh air and his jeans stained with the rich soil of Mother Earth. He held an armful of freshly cut white mums. "Sarina?" he asked, as if Sebastian was his last hope. Sebastian told him what he knew. "Last I saw of her was this morning with Margaret in the kitchen." "I have already looked there," Dagon said, sounding extremely disappointed. "Is something wrong that you're looking for her?" Dagon glanced around the large foyer, making certain no one lurked about, and then spoke low to Sebastian. "I want to invite her to the dinner party tonight." "You mean you have yet to extend her an invitation?" Sydney asked from the top of the steps. "Now you're in for it," Sebastian said with a laugh and left Dagon on his own. Dagon knew better than to disregard Sydney's question, and he walked to the bottom of the staircase and politely waited for her to descend before he answered. And besides it gave him time to formulate an answer.

"I will have the truth," she said to him and held out her hand as she reached the last step.

"You're intruding," Dagon said as politely as possible and took her hand, slipping her arm through his and walking with her to the receiving parlor, where he wasn't surprised to see tea and biscuits waiting.

"No, dear boy, you are not concentrating, you have left yourself open."

He sighed and rubbed at the back of his aching neck after a.s.sisting Sydney to sit on the small sofa and then sitting down beside her. "I can't seem to think straight of late. My thoughts go here, there, and everywhere."

"Without focus and awareness we see and hear nothing," Sydney said like a schoolteacher reminding a student of an important lesson. She went on as if continuing the lesson. "I am sure if you focus, you will realize Sarina's whereabouts, instead of acting like a witless witch."

"You are scolding me," he said, accepting the direct reprimand as a loving gesture.

Sydney shook her finger at him but once. "I remind, never scold-even when scolding is necessary."

Dagon smiled and reached his hand out to take hers, so slim and delicate and yet possessed of a power and a wisdom that he hoped to attain one day. "I once told Sebastian to be foolish, for in his foolishness he would find the answer. Should I now be foolish?"