“Good,” He rolled onto his back and reached downward, unfastening the hooks the held his robe closed over his hips. “Reach inside and tell me what you feel.”

  She did, but even before her fingers went fully under the robe, she found a hardness. Exploring further, her hand found a shaft covered by skin but encasing something rigid underneath.

  “Is this you?”

  He sucked in a breath. “Yes.”

  She ran her hand along the thing. “It’s very long and thick.”

  “It’s been this way since I washed you.”

  “Does it hurt?” she asked.

  “Does my touch hurt you?”

  “It feels wonderful,” She circled her fingers around the thing and squeezed.

  “Does this feel good to you?”

  His whole body shuddered. “It makes me want to plunge inside you.”

  So she could give him the same pleasure he gave her. She could command his body the way he commanded hers. How wonderful.

  “May I look at it?”

  “If you want.”

  She guided the thing out the gap in his robe and stared at it. Even larger than she’d guessed, it was a shaft as thick as her wrist at the base. It ended in a sort of knob at the end with a pucker on the underside. A very strange object, certainly, and yet compelling. Could this be what a man put inside his wife? How could it fit?

  “What’s it called?” she asked.

  “My cock.”

  Cock. She’d heard that word and hadn’t understood when it hadn’t seemed to mean a bird.

  “Your cock,” She stroked it, savoring its velvet feel. “Will you put this where your fingers were last night?”

  “Not today. You’re not ready.”

  “But I may play with it.”

  He groaned. “I swear, you’ll drive me mad.”

  She couldn’t help but smile at the idea that she could make him mad. She lay there, grasping his cock and running her fingers up and down its length. He rested back and closed his eyes, much the way she had while he’d pleasured her.

  On a down stroke, her fingers found a sac at the base of him. More velvet with two egglets just under the skin. She cupped that and rolled them gently.

  “Gods,” he gasped.

  “Did that hurt?”

  “Good. Damn, so good.”

  What an amazing thing this cock was. As she stroked it, it seemed to grow even larger, and it turned a ruddy color. She stroked harder, taking care to press against the tip. His chest rose and fell erratically as she worked him.

  A tiny droplet appeared at the dimple on the head. She leaned over and licked it off. Salty.

  He let out a roar. “Stop!”

  “You don’t like that?”

  “Gods!” He took deep, gasping breaths. “You don’t know what you’re doing.”

  She pulled her hand back and sat up. “I’m sorry. I thought if your mouth felt good on me....”

  Things had gone so well, and now she’d done something stupid. She clutched her hands together and looked down at them.

  He took her chin in his hands and made her look at him. “It feels much too good.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “You can do that on another day,” He took a few more breaths. “For now, use your fingers.”

  She nodded, and he lay back and guided her hand back to his cock. By closing her fingers around his shaft, he signaled the right pressure and rhythm. He seemed to want hard, fast movements, and so she gave him that. She squeezed and rubbed the length of him, only stopping at the head from time to time to flick her thumb around the tip. He rewarded her with a soft moan, and his eyes closed behind the mask.

  His face might have looked like her own in the moments before the passion took her. She didn’t dare remove the mask, of course, but she’d ask later. The thought that she might give him the same bliss he’d shown her warmed her heart. He was so much bigger than she and much more powerful. He’d laid himself open to her, and she’d rather die than disappoint him.

  The moment his lust claimed him came as quickly as the lightning his storms released. His moans built to a roar, and his hips thrust upward several times. Every muscle in his body clenched, and a spray of something shot from the head of his cock. It came in several waves, hot and liquid. Some landed on his robes and some on her hand. She kept pumping him until it stopped and he sagged against the bed.

  Finally, she removed her hand and studied the liquid there. It had come from Raelen’s body, and if she’d been kissing his cock, it would have gone into her mouth. There was so much of it. Had he stopped her to spare her the shock? Another gift from the dark lord she’d given herself to. Another tender gesture to hold

  next to her heart and cherish.

  After several moments, his eyes opened. “Thank you.”

  “Thank you for letting me watch. It was quite—” Quite what? Remarkable sounded tame. Miraculous sounded, well, silly. And yet it had been a miracle. “Did I do it right?”

  He reached up and stroked her cheek with the back of his fingers. “Yes, you did it right.”

  She couldn’t hold back a silly grin. Of all the difficult lessons she’d learned in school, all the praise the sisters had given her for her learning, none measured up to his smile and the warmth in his eyes.

  “We’ll eat something,” he said. “Then, I’ll leave you alone for the rest of the day.”

  An entire day with her books in this beautiful and peaceful place? What a treasure. And yet did she really want him to stay away?

  * * *

  Raelen didn’t only stay away for the day. Elsbeth didn’t see him at all, even at dinner. She found something when she’d gone to the dinning room — cheese, sau-sage, some hot soup and bread. She’d waited for him to join her but finally gave in before the soup grew cold. Now, here it was the middle of the night, and she’d had no word from him since the morning.

  She threw back the covers and climbed out of bed. Moonlight spilled over the sea below, leaving a trail of fire in the waves. It caught on something closer as well.

  Something ghostly seemed to float just above the windowsill. A flower. Its stem disappeared down the outside wall of the castle. It was a nightrose, pure white and fragrant. The plant had climbed all the way up from the ground below, leaving a path of blooms along its length. She bent and smelled its perfume—citrus and spice, almost intoxicating.

  From here, the whole side of the castle fell under her view, including one window with a light coming out. Unless there was a third person about— and she hadn’t seen one— Raelen was down there. She’d go and find out.

  She left the room and found the curving staircase. With only the moonlight that came in the tiny windows, she had to tread downward carefully on the stone steps.

  Once on the floor below, she had even less to guide her. However, flickering light did pour out from under one of the doors along the hallway. Feeling along the wall with her palms, she made toward it. When her hand hit the wooden beams of a door, she knocked.

  No answer, so she knocked again. “May I come in?”

  The only sound was a swish of fabric. Raelen’s robes?

  “Please,” she said.

  “Go back to bed.”

  “I’m all alone upstairs. I’m frightened,” What an utter sham. If she had any de-cency, she’d be ashamed of herself.

  “Nothing frightens you.”

  “Very well, I lied,” She rested her cheek against the door. “I miss you.”

  A long pause followed, and she held her breath. Useless. He’d come to her in his own time. Still, if she could feel his lips against her forehead for just a moment....

  “Come in,” he said finally.

  She tried the latch. When it opened, she stepped inside and closed the door behind her.

  This had to be his workroom. Rolled-up scrolls filled several shelves. On a large table, one lay open, a map that showed the entire inland sea. In one corner sat a huge globe with a moon hovering above it on a wire apparatus. An astrolabe and other instruments she couldn’t name lined more shelves. An ornate star chart hung on one wall.

  Raelen stood at the window, facing outward. When he turned, she couldn’t help but gasp.

  “Where’s your mask?”

  “I don’t need it anymore.”

  Until that moment, she hadn’t dared to imagine what the mask had hidden. Without even thinking, she’d assumed he was malformed, too ashamed to show what he looked like. Although no woman would call him beautiful and he appeared many years her senior, his features had their own power. Angular cheekbones and a long-ish nose gave him a predatory appearance, but full lips softened that impression.

  His jaw was firm, rather square at the chin, and yet the golden color of his eyes kept anything about his face from seeming harsh.

  “If this is what you look like, why wouldn’t you show yourself to me?” she asked.

  “I didn’t look like this when you came.”

  Of course. He had changed. His hair was no longer white, but a rich brown, salted with gray at the temples. She’d had it wrong. He was beautiful.

  He pointed to a chair by the table. “Sit.”

  She did and waited for him to speak. Now that she’d found him, her mind went empty about what to do next. He looked restless, his hands firmly behind his back as if letting her see them might give him away somehow. If she started chattering now, he’d likely retreat into himself, so she sat in silence, enjoying his mere pres-

  ence.

  “What did you expect in coming here?” he said after a bit.

  “I didn’t know what to expect,” she answered. “I only knew I had to do it.”

  “What did your books tell you about me?”

  “There are two main schools of thought. One, that you’re a hideous beast who demands a blood sacrifice in return for safe seas.”

  “Gods.”

  “The other holds that you’re a benevolent spirit and the girls who come to you go to heaven as a reward.”

  He lifted an eyebrow. “Which do you believe?”

  “Well, you haven’t killed me yet,” She looked down at the map. “And it does rather feel like heaven when you touch me.”

  “I could still kill you.”

  She stared up at him only to find him smiling. Before, she’d seen no more than a lift to his lower lip. Now she could take in his entire face. Mirth in his shining eyes, the curve of his mouth. She really must remember to win his smile more often.

  “I imagine you will kill me with that huge cock of yours,” Saints, when had she started saying such naughty things?

  Instead of disapproving, he threw back his head and laughed. At that exact moment, a warm breeze washed into the room from over the sea. It ruffled his hair and played in the hem of his robe.

  She’d pleased him.

  “May I ask you something?” she said. “This morning, when I touched you, and you—” Blessed be, she didn’t have a word for what he’d done.

  “Climaxed,” he said.

  “Climaxed,” she repeated. “Did you feel the way I feel when you touch me?”

  “I can’t know how you feel. I would guess so.”

  “Good,” she said. “And that liquid?”

  “Sperm.”

  “If you release that inside me, will you get me with child?”

  His smile faded. “You ask a lot of questions.”

  She lifted her chin. “I think I need to know.”

  “No. I can’t.”

  His tone had gone cold, much the same as it had been when she first arrived.

  She’d have to settle for this information, at least for tonight. She rose.

  “Thank you for telling me.”

  He didn’t answer but gave her the tiniest of nods.

  “And thank you for letting me visit here. May I come back?”

  He inclined his head just enough to grant his permission.

  “I’ll go back to bed now.”

  “I’ll take you,” he said. Instead of walking to her, though, he went to a shelf and pulled down a large volume. Torchlight flickered off the gold lettering and jewel-like binding. He joined her and put it in her hands. “A real history of Shandikar.

  Not the myths they taught you.”

  She looked down at the book. It had to be worth a fortune, but the knowledge inside it out-valued its luxurious materials. “I’ll read it immediately.”

  He draped an arm over her shoulders and led her to the door.

  * * *

  The next day, Raelen stayed away again until the late afternoon. Elsbeth might have imagined their conversation in the room below except for one thing. The book he’d given her.

  By daylight, it turned out to be even more spectacular than she’d thought. He might have called it the history of Shandikar, but it was by no means complete. As ancient as it was— even handwritten by quill — it covered only Shandikar’s early history. Although the early history covered a millennium or more years.

  She scarcely dared to breathe on it as she turned the pages carefully. She’d only finished one section, the most important. It concerned a class of mages Shandikar sent abroad to help less developed people. Raelen was one of them.

  Even with this new knowledge, she still had many questions, so she sought him out in his workroom again, the book in her hands.

  He looked up from his map when she entered and looked as if he’d expected her.

  “I know you don’t talk much,” she said.

  “I owe you an explanation.”

  After all he’d given her, he hardly owed her anything, but if he thought he did, she’d take whatever he’d share.

  “In return for giving my people favorable weather, the gods gave you immortality,” she said.

  He nodded.

  “You’d have to live here, away from your homeland, without the people who loved you. Forever. Isn’t that a burden?”

  “It isn’t what most people would choose. I spend a lot of time alone.”

  “Why did you choose it?”

  “Why did you come here?” he said. “I could have been a monster.”

  “I never believed that.”

  “You couldn’t be sure.”

  She walked to the table, set the book down, and sat. “No being who protects people he doesn’t know can be a monster. Besides, with the storms building, boats lost at sea, so many deaths, I had no choice.”

  He didn’t say anything but stared back at her.

  She reached across the table to him. “You were losing strength, weren’t you?

  “I don’t die, but I do age.”

  “And I reverse that somehow,” she said.

  He rose from his chair and paced around the room for a moment. “Every hundred years, I grow weak. That’s when your people send a young woman.”

  “What is it we do for you?”

  He stopped moving and looked away, a muscle working in his jaw. “I take your innocence.”

  “And that restores you.”

  “Each time we touch, I get younger.”

  “I see,” Her innocence, her lust for him as he called it, rejuvenated him. A girl’s maidenhead was supposed to be her greatest gift to her husband. She’d given it to Raelen instead, and he’d use it to keep the weather in check.

  “Why don’t you tell my people this?” she said. “They wouldn’t have to fear you.”

  “And give up their daughters’ virginity? Some of them would rather their children die.”

  “But the girls would want to come,” she said.

  “To give themselves to an old man?”

  “I see.”

  He looked her straight in the eye, his gaze searching hers. “None of them came to me as you did.”

  “Even with the pleasure you could give them?”

  “None.”

  How could that possibly be? Not a one of them found him pleasing? Not a one could look past his appearance to accept the bliss he offered?

  “Well, then, that settles it,” she said. “We’ll make love at once. You’ll know me as intimately as any man ever knew any woman.”

  He clenched his hands into fists at his side. “I’m not ready.”

  What? That made no sense at all. “How could you not be ready?”

  “I’m still too old.”

  “I don’t care how old you are. I don’t care what you look like. I want you. Now.”

  He looked utterly stricken at that, as if she’d taken all the air out of his lungs.

  Some barrier dropped between them, and they faced each other as equals. Again

  she’d made him vulnerable, but this time more than his body was at risk.

  Finally, he cleared his throat. “One more boon before I show myself to you.”

  “Anything.”

  “Walk to the window. Rest your arms on the sill and spread your legs.”

  Master of the Elements: Chapter 3

  Spreading her legs for him could lead to only one thing — he would work his magic with her sex again. This time, she would look out over his island and the sea while he did it. He’d said he wouldn’t fully consummate their union yet, so she wouldn’t have his cock inside her. But, he might release his sperm again. If they climaxed together, they would forge an even closer bond. He spoke so little, his mind was a mystery. She knew her own though. She’d given him her body the first night here. If they continued, she’d give him much more than that.

  They would continue.

  She waited at the window as he’d ordered. Arms against the stones, her legs spread wide. Below, the landscape had turned green, even more fertile than it had appeared the day before. Was their coupling changing that, too?

  Before she could puzzle that out, Raelen wrapped his arms around her and bunched up her skirts. Now naked from the waist down, she stood exposed to anything he might do. When he pressed himself against her, the hard bulge of his cock pushed against her backside, skin directly against skin. He thrust it against her in a slow rhythm. How would it feel to take all that power inside her? If she shifted just right, could she guide the tip between her legs and trick him into sliding it into her?

  Suddenly, she grew wet as moisture pooled in her core and spread out over her thighs. Her body caught fire. She needed him inside her to make her whole.

  His fingers found her cleft, and he shoved two inside her. She sighed with pleasure and arched her back, pressing her buttocks against his cock.