Instead, we pulled up to the veranda steps with my honor intact. Although, Torin's pants were strained to capacity and my heavy train got left behind on the bench. Torin helped me down from the coach and lifted me into his arms to carry me up the steps and into the manor. Lights already shone through the windows and a pair of soldiers opened the front door for us with smiles and murmured congratulations.

  “I thought we were coming here to be alone?” I asked Torin.

  “As alone as royalty can get,” he countered. “Especially after what happened at your last wedding, I didn't want to take any chances. A whole contingent of onyx knights is guarding the property.”

  “Let's hope that's overkill.”

  “Let's hope there will be no killing at all,” he amended.

  Dark, polished wood permeated the place; floors, cabinets, furniture, and swirling banisters. Rich fabrics enhanced its depth and added to the ancient feel. But at the top of the stairs, Torin took me into an airy room with a bed covered in white silk. I smiled as he set me down on a plush carpet. Dainty furnishings decorated the room and lavender wallpaper gave it an even more feminine feel. I lifted a brow at Torin.

  “I thought you might like something a little less...”

  “You?” I asked with a laugh.

  “Somber.” He smirked. “This is a happy occasion, after all.”

  “I hope we'll make it much more than happy.” I turned and offered him my back. “But first, we need to get past this battalion of buttons.”

  “Sweet stones, why are there so many?” Torin growled as he set to work on the tiny, silk-covered buttons.

  “You're the one who chose this dress,” I reminded him.

  “No; I helped you pick from the two you'd narrowed it down to,” he corrected. “But I didn't realize the back was entirely made up of buttons.”

  “Not entirely.” I glanced over my shoulder at him as he undid the final one.

  Torin slid the silk over my shoulders and down my arms. It puddled around my feet as I turned to face him. His wedding cloak had been discarded on the way upstairs, the brooch still clutched in my hand. I tossed it onto a dressing table as I went to work undressing him, and he started undoing the laces of my lingerie.”

  “Did you choose these garments simply to frustrate me?” He slanted a sly look down at me.

  “Did you wear a sword because you thought we might be attacked or because you know it makes you look more manly?” I countered.

  “Both,” he said instantly.

  I undid his belt and his manly sword thumped on the floor. Then I pushed away his fumbling hands and slipped easily out of my underwear. Before Torin could grab me, I clambered onto the bed and lounged back on the pillows. As I held his glowing, sapphire gaze, I spread my legs slowly and trailed a hand down my breasts and over my sex.

  “So, Your Majesty, what do you think your wife needs tonight? A fucking or lovemaking?”

  “Neither,” Torin grinned as he crawled up the bed and settled himself between my thighs. “She needs a tongue-lashing; a thorough laving and thrusting and licking. And when I've determined that she's had enough of that, only then will I have glorious, wild sex with her.”

  I moaned as Torin's mouth settled over my core and began his promised lashing. His hands slid around my thighs and pulled me closer to him as he licked and sucked aggressively. A soft blue glow lit my belly as Torin shining stare shifted up to meet mine, and I spread my fingers through his hair as I stared back.

  “I love you,” I whispered.

  Torin's eyes answered me in kind while his tongue continued to give his wife exactly what she needed. Soon, my legs started to shake, and I jerked against him as I came; his name on my lips. Torin kept going until I begged him to stop, and then he pulled me down his body, settled me beneath him, and eased his beautiful cock into me. My husband went still a moment as we both shuddered through that blissful completion, and then he began to move slowly inside me. His mouth went to my breast and sucked as urgently there as it had on my sex. I cried out again as I writhed beneath him.

  “When are you going to get to the wild part?” I purred in his ear.

  Torin suddenly reared up, pulling my legs up with him and bending my torso until he loomed over me. He held my legs out to the sides and pushed down, pinning me in place as he began to slam into me. The entire bed shook as Torin gave in to the savage passion that had been building between us all day.

  “Is this wild enough for you, Wife?” He growled. “Or do you want more?”

  “I will never stop wanting more, Husband,” I growled back as I spread my legs wider. “Give me everything you have. Give me more than that even.”

  Torin grinned wickedly as he surged deeper, filling me until I couldn't feel our separation anymore. He gave me everything, just as I asked, and I intended to give him all I had as well. Everything and more until death do us part.

  Keep reading for a sneak peek into the next book in the Spellsinger Series:

  Anthem of Ashes

  Coming to Amazon in Summer 2019

  Chapter One

  Heat; blessed heat. It soaked through my body and shivered out into the world. I watched the very air burst into flames around me and then closed my eyes to enjoy the tickling teasing delight of fire licking my skin. Everything burned; the buildings, the people, the trees, even the damn sky was on fire.

  It was glorious.

  I strode through the flames with my shoulders back and my chin lifted proudly. I was the creator and destroyer of worlds. With Fire and Light, I could incinerate everything that stood in my way. My bare feet left footprints of magma in my wake and my hair trailed embers that ignited new fires. Light fueled me and lifted my heat to incredible heights. No one could stop me.

  “Ellie,” a voice I knew; one in pain.

  I stopped. Listened.

  “Elaria!”

  My parents called to me from the window of their home. The whole of their tree was aflame. My mother could have saved my father—flown him to safety—if her wings hadn't been burned to blackened stubs.

  I stumbled.

  “El,” Cerberus groaned.

  I turned to see my best friend limp over to me and then fall at my feet. His face was a bloody mask and his body covered in welts. I crouched beside him and started to lay my hand on his face.

  “Stop!” Cer shouted. “Don't touch me!”

  I looked at my hand. It was burning; covered in fire. I stumbled back and fell on my ass.

  “Little bird, you need to stop.”

  “No,” I whispered, knowing who that voice belonged to.

  “Little bird.”

  I glanced at Torin. He knelt on the black earth, hands draped loosely in his lap. Before him, Slate laid. My gargoyle was an open wound; every inch of skin burned away. His silver stare was set on me in accusation but there was no life within it.

  Slate was dead.

  “No!” I screamed.

  “Stop, Elaria,” Torin insisted. “You must learn to control your Fire or it will consume us all.”

  “No!” I kept screaming. “No!”

  “Elaria, stop!”

  I struggled against chains that suddenly bound me. A lake of fire bubbled beneath me, pulling me down into an eternal prison.

  “Elaria, stop!”

  I lurched upward and gasped, my eyes popping open. I sat among black silk sheets. Slate crouched beside me, his hands on my arms and his eyes gleaming in the darkness.

  “Elaria?” He asked hesitantly.

  I realized it had been his voice calling to me; telling me to stop.

  “I'm sorry,” I whispered. “What happened?”

  “You started hitting me,” he said with a worried smile. “Not that I don't enjoy a little S&M but warn a guy first. I was sleeping.”

  “So was I,” I said as my dream came back to me. Correction; my nightmare. “Of fire and death.” I let out a long breath. “Your death.”

  “Lovely.” He grimaced. “Don't worry about it. You're probably still mentally venting from that whole Lucifer thing.”

  “I don't think so.” Although, there had been that lake of fire.

  “Then what?” Slate pulled me down beneath the covers with him and cradled me against his chest.

  “When I was in Heaven, I discovered that there's a small ember of my Fire magic left inside me,” I confessed.

  I felt Slate's powerful body tense.

  “Lucifer tried to teach me to control it, but he failed.”

  “What does that mean?” Slate asked warily.

  “It means that every time I tried to access my Fire, it turned me into Faenestra.” I glanced over at him. “Or a new version of her.”

  “A new version?”

  “Lucifer believes that magic affects the soul, not the other way around,” I explained. “The part of my soul that I kept was changed by the human lives I lived. Now, it's coming into contact with Fire, and the goddess magic is affecting it.”

  “In a new way.”

  “I think so,” I whispered. “The nightmare I just had; I think it's my soul's way of telling me that I need to learn to control my Fire, even that small piece of it, before it controls me.”

  “I think I agree with your soul, sweetheart.” Slate nuzzled his cheek down beside mine. “We'll find you a teacher. Just as long as it's not Lucifer.”

  “Slate—”

  “No, Elaria,” he said firmly. “You already admitted that Lucifer couldn't help you. Even if I didn't want to kill that god, he wouldn't be the best choice. We can go to see Odin in the morning. He'll know what to do.”

  I sighed and snuggled in beside my gargoyle—my perfectly healthy, living gargoyle—and sighed deeply. He was right again. Slate had a tendency toward being infallible. It was damn annoying, but I was beginning to appreciate it.

  I turned in his arms and kissed him suddenly; passionately. There were other things I appreciated about Slate, and I had a feeling they would chase away the remnants of my nightmare better than his assurances.

  Slate groaned and slid me over his chest, our legs entwining for a moment before I straddled him. He grew erect in seconds as his hands filled with my ass. I ground against him urgently and rubbed my breasts over his chest until he jerked away from our kiss and yanked me up his body to suck a nipple greedily into his mouth. As he did, I eased his solid sex inside mine.

  We both moaned as I sank onto him and started a slow rhythm. Slate's hands on my ass clenched tightly and pulled me onto him faster. I laughed as I got to my knees, dislodging his mouth with a popping sound, and sped up. The clean, mineral scent of Slate lifted from his body and filled my head. I stared down at the chiseled angle of his jaw, a rough fuzz of stubble coating it, and reached down to run my fingers over its rugged appeal. Slate would shave it off in the morning, going right back into the sharp businessman persona he cultivated, but I loved seeing him this way. The gargoyle trying to emerge from the man. His silver stare sliced me open and bared both my lust and love to him. I could see him analyzing both.

  And then he smiled. Softly, tenderly; a smile Slate Devon, Zone Lord, would never show the world. It made his scrutiny worthwhile; that gift of his secret smile.

  “I love you,” Slate growled, the smile turning fierce. “But I'm done with this bullshit.”

  Slate grabbed me around the waist and lifted me up. I found myself on my hands and knees, facing the foot of the bed. The mirror over the dresser across from us gave me a clear picture of Slate and me in his utterly masculine bed. Of Slate coming up behind me, angling his cock into me, grabbing my hips in his strong hands to slam himself home.

  Slate lifted his silver stare and joined it to mine in the mirror. He smiled again, wickedly, as his muscles bulged and his body slapped mine in the most delicious way. I grinned back, but a flash of his burned body covered him for a second, and I broke our stare. Slate growled and quickened his pace, determined to fuck away whatever he had seen in my eyes.

  I dearly hoped he would be successful.

  Grammar Giggles

  And just for a little giggle, here are some grammar mistakes found during the editing of this book.

  Correct Line: Something cooled my raging thoughts, and I went limp.

  Giggle: Something cooled my raging thoughts, and I went lip.

  Correct Line: You know, she used her name to create us; that's why it has such power over her—why our names hold such power over us—and it was how she was trapped in the end.”

  Giggle: You know, she used her name to create us; that's why it has such power over her—why our names how such power over us—and it was how she was trapped in the end.” (What? Just... what?)

  Correct Line: On behalf of my planet and my firebrand queen.

  Giggle: On behalf of my plant and my firebrand queen. (He had a very grateful plant)

  Correct Line: To carve my love in stone and know that even my Fire couldn't burn it away.

  Giggle: To carve my love in stone and no that even my Fire couldn't burn it away. (Talk about wrecking a beautiful line.)

  Correct Line: As Banning went to make our plates, Torin leaned over to kiss me hello.

  Giggle: As Banning went to make us plates, Torin leaned over to kiss me hello. (I don't think Elaria wanted Banning to make her into a plate)

  Correct Line: Take what you learned and use it.

  Giggle: Take what you learned and use tit.

  Correct Line: Luckily, it wasn't too far from the palace or I would have been tempted to have our first sexual experience as man and wife in the back of a coach.

  Giggle: Luckily, it wasn't too far from the palace or I would have been tempted to have our first sexual experience as man in wife in the back of a coach. (Okay, yeah; that works too)

  Pronunciation Guide/ Character List

  I'm trying to limit these to characters who appear in more than one book or people and things who have names that are really difficult to pronounce.

  Aaro Devon: Gargoyle, Slate's older brother

  Adam MacLaine: Human client

  Aoide: E-da, Elaria's aunt and siren

  Arnet: Are-net, Knight of Flourite

  Ava: A-vah, Queen of Sapphire

  Banning: Ban-ing, Gheara of the Kansas Gura

  Barret: Bare-it, Commander of Chrysocolla Army

  Binx Devon: Gargoyle, Slate's younger brother

  Bran: Bran, King of Garnet

  Branna: Bra-nah, Duchess of Jade

  Carrick: Care-ick, Knight of Onyx

  Ceana: Keh-na, Torin's mother

  Cerberus: Ser-bur-us, Demi-god dog-shifter

  Cyrus: King of Copper

  Danyon: A leader of the Coral Court

  Darcraxis: Dar-cracks-es Ex-God of Darkness, Water, and Earth.

  Declan: Deck-lan, King of Alexandrite

  Diana: Blooder of the Sofia Gura

  Edmond: King of Jet

  Eileen: I-lean, Queen of Copper

  Elaria: Eh-lar-ee-ah, spellsinger

  Finbar: Fin-bar, Duke of Sapphire

  Gage Saeiqa: Gauge Sah-E-kah, griffin

  Galen: Gay-lin, King of Sapphire

  Garret: Gare-it, King of Topaz

  Gerard: Jare-rod, Knight of Onyx

  Giovanni Borgia: Blooder gheara

  Hugh: Hew, Knight of Onyx

  Isandra: I-san-dra, Queen of Diamond

  Jack Armstrong: Loup

  Jameson: Jay-meh-son, Knight of Fluorite

  Janae: a mermaid

  Jarlath: Jar-leth, King of Diamond

  Junjie: Joon-gee, Emperor of Zhenzhu (Zen-zoo) City

  Jonah Malone: Human gangster

  Kalliope: Kah-lie-oh-pee, Elaria's mother and a siren

  Kean: Key-in, Knight of Howlite

  Lorcan: Lore-can, King of Copper

  Maeve: May-ve, Queen of Peridot

  Moan: Moon, Torin's father

  Moirin: Moy-rin, Queen of Tiger's Eye

  Mrs Chadwick: Adam MacLaine's housekeeper