Riding the Fae Knight Ch. 02

Carterhaugh called again but this time, Janet didn't resist.

She didn't dress like she was going to church. She didn't braid her hair. She left her shift loose and unlaced, her thighs bare, her body already warm with anticipation. The forest was quieter than before. As if it, too, was holding its breath. And this time, he was already there.

Tam Lin leaned against the old ash tree, shirt unbuttoned, chest pale and gleaming in the dappled light. His arms were folded, but his jaw was tight, his gaze intense. She felt it immediately. He wanted.

"You're late," he said, voice like gravel and smoke. "I almost came looking for you."

Janet tilted her head, lips twitching. "Did you miss me?" she asked.

He didn't answer with words. Instead he crossed to her in three strides and pulled her against him, rough, restrained only by reverence. His mouth slanted over hers, tongue demanding, teeth grazing. She let him kiss her like that. Let him feel the ache she'd carried since last time. But when he tried to deepen the kiss, she pulled back, breathless.

"Not yet," she said.

His brows rose. Surprise flickered in those now pale eyes. She took his hand and led him to the mossy bank where the sun broke through the trees in golden shafts. Leaves fell slow around them, gilding the air. Tam Lin sat. Watched her. She dropped to her knees between his legs.

He inhaled sharply, hips shifting. "Janet--" She didn't let him finish.

Her hands went to his trousers, deft and confident. She freed him with a smooth pull, and he was already hard: long, thick, flushed dark at the tip. Janet curled one hand around the base of him, just to feel the heat, the weight. She looked up and held his gaze, before lowering her mouth to him. Tam Lin groaned. Loud. Head tilting back, fingers clutching at the moss beside him.

She started slowly. Licked along the underside with the flat of her tongue. Teased the head, circled it, sucked it gently, just enough to make his thighs tense and his breath hitch. Then she took him deeper. Her lips stretched around him. Her mouth was slick, hot, relentless. Her fingers stroked what her mouth couldn't reach, and she watched him.

He was coming undone.

"Gods, Janet--" he rasped, voice ragged. "You'll undo me..."

She moaned around him in answer, and the sound vibrated through his cock. His hand found her hair, not to guide her, just to feel. She could feel him pulsing, hips tensing, nearing the edge. And just before he tipped over-- She pulled off him.

He swore. Eyes wild. Chest heaving. Then she shoved him--hard--onto his back.

The air left him in a grunt. He didn't resist. Just looked up at her, stunned, and aroused beyond reason. Janet straddled him in one smooth motion, hiked her skirts up, and took him inside her with a long, slow slide. He was so deep.

"Janet--" he groaned again, now gripping her hips.

She moved with purpose. Controlled. Her rhythm was steady, deliberate and possessive. She set the pace and rode him like she meant to leave marks on his soul. Tam Lin arched beneath her, eyes wide and desperate.

"You're mine," she whispered, nails digging into his chest. He didn't deny it.

Their bodies moved in a rhythm older than language. Her breath hitched with every thrust. The way he filled her, thick and perfect, drove her higher, tighter. She felt him throbbing inside her, felt his restraint slipping.

"Don't hold back," she said, voice shaking. "Give it to me."

He did. With a shout, he spilled inside her, hips surging up to meet hers, hands clenching around her thighs. She followed seconds later, her climax tearing through her like lightning, back arched, mouth open in a silent cry. They collapsed together.

Breathless. Slick with sweat. The scent of sex and moss and autumn thick around them. Janet leaned forward, chest against his, cheek to cheek. His heart thundered beneath her. Neither spoke for a long while.

When she finally rose, his eyes followed her like she might vanish if he blinked. She smoothed her skirts, kissed his forehead, and whispered, "Next time, I want you on your knees." And she left him bare, trembling, and smiling like a man who would gladly be ruined for her.

He didn't sense her arrival. That, more than anything, chilled his blood.

The forest around him had just begun to settle, the birds returning, air cooling, moss damp beneath his back. The memory of Janet's mouth still haunted his skin. He was dazed. Spent. Satisfied.

And that was when the air shifted. Not with leaves or wind, but with will. She stepped from between two trees like a shadow peeled from bark.

The Faerie Queen.

---

Her beauty was still staggering even after all this time.

Not the beauty like Janet had: warm, human, honest. No, the Queen's beauty was forged in cold iron and moonlight. She wore a gown of gossamer and thorns, bare feet pressing the moss flat, not disturbing it. Her hair was silver and floating, as if underwater. Only her eyes betrayed her fury: ancient, violet, and dark as bruises.

"Tam Lin," she said, soft as silk sliding from a blade.

He stood, slowly, heart pounding. He didn't bother to hide his nakedness. She had seen his body before. Claimed it. Molded it. Used it.

"My Queen," he said, bowing his head.

Her expression didn't shift. "You reek of her."

He swallowed. "She is not like the others."

"No," the Queen agreed. "She is bold. Mortal. Fertile. She bleeds with the moon and dreams of love. I saw you both. Did you think the forest does not whisper to me?"

Tam Lin said nothing. He had no defence. The moss still bore the marks of Janet's knees. Her scent clung to him. The Queen stepped closer.

"I warned you," she said, voice low now. "You are mine. That was the bargain."

"It was never freely given."

She laughed. A sound like breaking glass. "Nothing in Faerie is freely given," she said. "And you--you, precious knight--owe me everything. Your life, your limbs, your soul. You think to escape with some hedgewitch girl?"

"She's more than that," he said before he could stop himself.

The Queen's lips thinned. Her hand snapped out, grabbing his jaw in a grip that burned. "You forget yourself."

He winced. But he didn't look away.

"You marked her," the Queen said. "Filled her. I could feel the earth thrum with it." She smiled, sharp and cruel. "You planted your seed in her. You think I do not know what that means?"

He did.

A mortal woman, touched by Faerie. A child conceived beneath a thinning veil. It was powerful. It was dangerous. And it made Janet a threat.

"You're afraid of her," he whispered.

The Queen's eyes flared. "I do not fear mortals," she snapped. "But I know what love does. It undoes. It breaks glamour. It binds where I have unbound."

She released his jaw and stepped back.

"You have until Samhain," she said coldly. "And then you ride with the Hunt. If she tries to take you, she will face more than flames and beasts. I will flay her mind before I flay her flesh."

Tam Lin's breath left him. "You'll try," he said, trembling.

The Queen looked at him then, truly looked. And for just a moment, there was sorrow in her face. "You were beautiful once," she murmured. "Before the mortal ruined you."

And then she vanished: petals swirling in her wake, a gust of cold wind flattening the moss, and the taste of blood blooming in the back of his throat.

---

Janet didn't hesitate this time.

There was no need to wait for the forest to call. She was the call now. She walked into Carterhaugh like a woman returning to her lover's bed. The moss welcomed her. The trees parted. The sun was low, golden, caught in the net of branches above.

And he was there.

Tam Lin stood barefoot at the base of a gnarled old yew tree, arms folded, watching her approach with a hunger that hadn't dulled in the days apart. He looked tired. But beautiful still. Shirt hanging loose, trousers already unfastened, like he knew exactly what she'd come for. Janet said nothing.

She reached him in two strides, took his face in her hands, and kissed him like he was the only real thing left in the world.

They didn't undress this time so much as tear at one another. She shoved his shirt off, licked across the scar she hadn't seen before - a pale mark beneath his ribs - and pushed him down into the long grass. He pulled her on top of him, hands fumbling with the tie at her waist, groaning into her mouth when he found bare skin beneath.

"I dream of this," he whispered, voice hoarse. "Of you." She took him inside her in one long, slick motion, hissing at the stretch. He cursed softly. "You're soaked already."

"You're late," she replied. He chuckled, but it broke into a gasp as she began to move.

This time, there was less fury in it. The rhythm was slow. Deep. Janet rode him with a rolling motion of her hips that drew choked moans from him, every thrust pushing them closer to the edge. He reached up and cupped her breast, thumb brushing her nipple.

"You undo me," he said again, eyes locked to hers.

"You let me," she answered, leaning down to kiss his throat, to bite at the skin there until he shuddered. When they came together she clung to him, face buried in his neck, his arms locked tight around her. For a long while, they simply lay there.

Their breathing slowed. Her fingers stroked through his damp hair, and he traced patterns on her bare thigh like he was trying to memorise the shape of her. Then he sighed.

"Janet." Something in his tone made her still. "I need you to listen." She lifted her head. His expression was different. Not the feral lust that usually gleamed in those green-silver eyes. Not even tenderness. This was fear. Real fear. "She knows."

"Who?"

"The Faearie Queen. She saw us. After the last time. She--" He swallowed hard. "She's not like mortal women, Janet. Jealousy isn't a feeling to her, it's law. You broke her law. And I... I let you."

Janet frowned. "Let me?"

Tam Lin cupped her cheek, thumb stroking her lip. "She sees me as hers. A thing she owns. A tool. She doesn't love. She possesses. And when she's threatened, she destroys."

Janet's chest tightened. "What will she do?"

"She warned me. Said I ride with the Hunt on Samhain, as I always do. But this time, she'll make me unrecognisable. She'll twist me. Turn me to fire, to thorns, to beasts. If you try to take me back, she'll flay you."

Janet's jaw clenched. "I'm not afraid of her."

"You should be." His voice was almost a plea. "She isn't flesh and blood. She's the scream in the wind. The shadow in the river. She can take your mind, Janet. Leave you screaming at nothing for the rest of your life."

Janet reached up, brushing her fingers across his temple. "Then I'll hold tighter."

His eyes closed at her touch.

"You can't hold fire," he whispered.

They lay together until dusk bled into night. No promises. No plans. Just breath and skin and the slow inevitability of the turning year. Janet knew she would return. And she knew next time, she would not leave without him.