Incorrect Spelling Read online

  Sky twirled around. Before her stood the biggest, most muscular man she’d seen in her entire life. Much, much taller than her, the dark-haired giant in front of her was built for hard physical labor.

  She’d expected some waif-like entity, with pale skin and a paltry physique. The name Faun certainly didn’t invoke this kind of being. He was monumentally muscled, with a granite-like presence.

  She swallowed hard and stared into his unearthly green eyes. They seemed to glow from some inner source. A gentle breeze lifted his shoulder-length, curly hair and dropped strands of it across his face. A slow, sinfully delicious smile—bright as any sunburst—spread across his slightly bearded, square jaw.

  “Uh, w-we need to talk,” she repeated.

  “Shouldn’t we at least introduce ourselves formally? I know you’re Sky…”

  “P-Pyewackett,” she stuttered.

  “I’m Rowan Sultmhor. I believe you know the circumstances surrounding my appearance in your world.”

  “Uh…M-Mr. Sultmhor,” she began, then quickly licked her lips to quench the dryness in her mouth, “my aunts made a small mistake. I’m sure we can come to some agreement about you. Returning to your world, I mean.”

  “No.”

  She gaped at the summary reply.

  “I’ve already told them that I’m not going back until I’m ready.” He stepped away from cover of the ferns. “And I’m not.”

  Sky felt her entire body go numb with shock. She stared at the nude colossus in front of her, but couldn’t look away. No matter how hard she tried. “Oh, my stars!” she whispered.

  Rowan grinned, as though he was pleased with himself and her response.

  “Forgive my current state of undress, but Fauns don’t like clothing. I’ve told your aunts this.”

  She still stared. He was, according to her experience on the subject, quite above normal in certain male aspects. Particularly those that should be covered.

  “I take it you don’t know much about Fauns.”

  “Huh?” she stupidly uttered, unable to tear her eyes away from the lower half of his body.

  “We’re creatures of the earth. We love nothing better than romping around the woods, and enjoying life to the fullest. But, like my cousins, the Nymphs and Satyrs, our blood runs hot. Making love isn’t a passing fancy with us, it’s an art. We greatly enjoy long, leisurely lovemaking and refuse to be hurried. Satisfying our partners is everything. And we can’t enjoy ourselves fully until our partners are enjoying themselves.”

  “What? What the bloody damned hell does any of that have to do with…” she left the sentence unfinished and finally raised her gaze to his face. “Y-you have to leave,” she uttered.

  He slowly walked forward. “No. I won’t.”

  “Why?”

  “I like your garden. Your aunts are kind women who only wanted to gift you with a special birthday surprise. If you look at it that way, I see no reason why I can’t be the gift, and you can’t take advantage of my presence.” He smirked and briefly held his hands out to his sides. “Surprise!”

  She finally found her voice as reason pervaded her shocked brain. “A-are you suggesting what I think you are?”

  “You’re a beautiful woman. I’m an available man. Why not?”

  Shaking her head, as if by doing so she could put common sense back where it belonged, Sky spoke much more firmly. “I am not one of your Fairy playthings! This is my world, not yours. You don’t belong here, this is a mistake, and you have to go back where you came from. I don’t know who you think you’re dealing with, but I can cast spells that will make you wish you’d never been born. Now…you can choose to stay, and spend a very long time as a dung beetle, tumbling turds in a pasture…or you can willingly and safely go back to the Fairy Realm when I utter the spell to open a portal.”

  He grinned mischievously and shook his head. “You can’t undo a spell originated by others of your kind. I’m not ignorant of your magic. Your aunts’ request brought me here. They need to open the portal to send me back.”

  She glared.

  He grinned. “Even if you open a portal and somehow find a spell that will undo your aunts’ request—”

  “I can!”

  “I’ll say this again. I’m not leaving until I’m good and ready.” He moved to within inches of her. “Finally, I didn’t try to enchant you. What you’re feeling is your own response to being lonely. I can sense your inner need. It’s not my doing. It’s yours.” At her snort, he held up his hand to stop her defense. “You won’t harm me by turning me into anything. Your magical creed is to harm none. More to the point, my queen will have your home and life in complete turmoil if you do.”

  “Your queen could wreak havoc in this world if you don’t go back?”

  “Nonsense. She knows that I’m here and that I’ll eventually return.”

  “How can you be so sure?”

  He shrugged. “If she had objected to my coming, I would have been immediately ordered not to cross over. The Fairy Ring…the small round circle of mushrooms on the ground, at the back part of your property…served as the connection between our two worlds. The Queen of the Fairy Realm would certainly know if that dimension had been breached. She knows every time a Fairy Ring is entered or tampered with.”

  “So, you can stay as long as you please?”

  “Within reason.”

  “Then I’ll make it my job to see that your reason for staying isn’t all that good,” Sky swiftly returned.

  He arched one brow in what Sky took to be a show of superiority.

  “You’re denying what you want, Sky. And you’ll pay for it. When a woman responds to one of my kind, even in the smallest way, it’s because she truly wants the contact. Deny it, and you’ll feel the nasty effects, later.”

  “You arrogant, oversized, oversexed…intruder! If you’re remotely implying that I feel sexually attracted to you—”

  “I’m stating it as a fact. I told you, I can feel the loneliness in you…and the frustration. Apparently, the lovers in your life haven’t done enough for you.”

  “Why, you—”

  “All you have to do is say the word, and I can fulfill your innermost desires. I can rid you of any reticence. I can sense how long it has been since you’ve sought release.” He tilted his head, studying her for a moment. “The experience left you yearning. It wasn’t what it should have been.”

  “Your ego is unbelievable!”

  “I’m trying to help you. I’m using my senses to ascertain—”

  “I don’t give a bloody damn what you…ascertain! I want you gone by tomorrow morning. Is that clear?”

  She turned and stalked back to the cottage.

  “Don’t say I didn’t warn you,” he murmured at her retreating form.

  Chapter Two

  All through dinner, and into the night, Sky had an increasingly strange feeling. It was as if she was coming down with some ailment.

  First, she felt feverish. Then, every joint began to ache, and her throat felt raw and began to burn. By the time she finished showering, dried her hair and put out the light, her head was aching as much as the rest of her body. It didn’t help that Eartha and Windy kept asking about the Faun in the garden.

  ‘Do you think he’s hungry?’

  ‘Why can’t he use the spare bedroom?’

  ‘Why is he sleeping outside in the night air?’

  She had to explain, until she was almost ready to scream, that Fauns were creatures of nature, and preferred sleeping under the stars. The truth was, she didn’t want him near her aunts, parading his perfect, nude body around them or her.

  She tossed around in her bed for over an hour before realizing she wasn’t going to get any sleep. Even taking aspirin hadn’t helped.

  She finally got up, went into the bathroom, and turned on the light. The image in her mirror said a lot. She looked like a shipwreck; one that had happened in a hot, tropical setting.

  Beads of sweat broke out on her
forehead. She took off her nightgown and fanned herself with her hand, but the heat seemed to intensify. A few moments later, she realized her other symptoms had disappeared, but the heat kept rising. It was the kind of heat women feel when they need sexual attention.

  Magic. There was no other explanation.

  The thought of the green-eyed brute in the garden came, unbidden, to her mind. He was probably out there laughing his butt off at her discomfort; knowing that he was the cause. She grabbed up her silk robe, and slid her feet into a pair of house shoes.

  In the garden, Rowan knelt before the small fire he’d built. As a rule, Fauns didn’t need the warmth of flames unless it was winter. Finding fuel and the rocks to circle the flames was a chore meant kept his mind off his physical condition. Its intensity was something he hadn’t bargained for.

  Sky was a very beautiful woman.

  Their mutual attraction was born of physical need. It wasn’t anything he could stop. Not even if he wanted to.

  He gazed in the direction of the back door when he sensed her presence. With his otherworldly vision, he easily made out her graceful body in the green silken robe. With all that dark brown hair spilling around her shoulders and her chest, her ethereal presence was almost more than he could take. He briefly closed his eyes and took a slow, deep breath to quell the symptoms his body displayed. The erection he had wasn’t going away, no matter how he focused. Finding it easier to kneel beside the fire again, he did so and concentrated on fueling it.

  Sky marched forward, toward the glow of the tiny fire. He heard every step she took. The woman wasn’t hiding her angry stride through the plants.

  “I see you’re making yourself right at home. In our garden!” she furiously proclaimed.

  Rowan didn’t rise. He couldn’t. Her proximity caused his senses to reel. He kept his hands over his genitalia, to keep her from becoming even angrier at his obvious sign of arousal. Finally, he moved his palms away.

  She gazed down at his erection, but amazingly said nothing. Then, her gaze wandered over his body.

  “What’s wrong with you?” she softly asked. Your skin looks flushed. Are you ill?”

  “It’s not an illness. What’s wrong with you is the same thing that’s wrong with me.”

  “Well…stop it! Quit trying to use some sort of magic, to force me to come to you. That’s what you’re doing, isn’t it? It’s repugnant!”

  He shook his head. “Forcing any woman to do anything isn’t how I operate. In case you haven’t noticed, I’m in the same predicament that you are. Only worse.”

  She looked him over again. “You are ill, aren’t you?”

  “No. This is what happens when a Faun and his chosen woman don’t satisfy their sexual desires. Together. It only happens if both of us are attracted to one another.”

  “That’s insane!” Sky blurted. “I’m not anyone’s chosen anything.”

  “If you intend to bitch at me for wanting you, please get it over with, then walk away. The closer you are, the worse my physical condition gets.”

  She tilted her head and stared at him for a long moment.

  He glanced at her several times, before focusing on the fire again.

  “Rowan, you really aren’t using some kind of Faun power to conjure this, are you? You wouldn’t make yourself subject to one of your own spells.”

  “Please leave, Sky. Your presence isn’t helping. You won’t admit you want me. I’ve been told that anyone lacking Faun blood won’t suffer through this the way we do. If you go, I think you’ll be better near dawn.”

  She put her hand out.

  “Don’t! Don’t touch me if you don’t want me to respond.” Rowan finally dragged his gaze off the flames and looked her over. “I can’t help wanting you. That’s the way it is. I’m a creature of instinct. My instinct is driving me to desire you.”

  “W-what will you do?” she asked.

  He shrugged. “The farther you get, the better off I’ll be. Right now, my blood feels like lava. Please…leave,” he demanded.

  Completely ignoring his request, she put her hand on his shoulder.

  He shuddered. “Either leave, or let me touch you. Don’t torture me,” he begged.

  “I didn’t mean to cause you pain. You didn’t tell me you’d go through a physical response like I did. When you said I’d suffer by denying you, you never said you would hurt. Why?”

  “Y-you weren’t exactly in a r-receptive mood. D-didn’t think you’d believe m-me.”

  “You’re turning pale. Rowan, you’re really burning up.”

  “I’ll b-be all right if you l-leave.”

  Perversely, the woman knelt beside him and ran her hand over his arm. He gasped, and gripped a piece of firewood with both hands. She didn’t realize what her touch and her proximity was doing. He refused to take her without her full cooperation. That meant that he would suffer until he either got her to come to him willingly or she left. But, how far away did she need to get? If the walls of the house didn’t stop this attraction, only leaving the premises altogether would.

  “Rowan, if you go back to the Fairy Realm, this will stop, won’t it?”

  He nodded and gripped the firewood in his hands tighter.

  “Then go home.”

  “N-no.”

  “Bloody hell, you’re stubborn!”

  He tried to smile, but his blood seemed to scorch every vein in his body. The pain was almost unbearable. He’d never suffered through anything like this. Still, he wasn’t leaving. His physical response proved, as nothing ever had, that he was overwhelmingly attracted to the woman next to him. His curiosity about her was aroused to an absurd level, even as his body burned.

  She pushed his hair back with the fingers of one hand as her other one ran down his back.

  “You really are magnificent. I do find you attractive. Any woman would. You’re so…so…perfect.”

  “A-admitting the attraction will help you.”

  “But it won’t cure you completely, will it?”

  Rowan slowly shook his head, even while his hands were still clenched around the small piece of wood.

  She reached for the wood he gripped, and pried it from his fingers. “It…it has been a long time between men. The last one only cared about how good he felt the next morning,” she admitted.

  Rowan saw her gaze slide down to his erection. “Don’t toy with me. If you d-don’t want me, please leave now? I can’t say it strongly enough, woman. Why aren’t you listening?”

  Ignoring his begging, she kept speaking. “In a way, we’re both creatures of magic. Aren’t we?”

  He watched her dark gaze as it softened. When she suddenly leaned into him, and kissed the corner of his mouth, he felt his body tremble with anticipation. It took strength he never knew he possessed to keep from pushing her beneath him and taking her.

  Her physical contact was already easing his discomfort. In place of the pain, a rush of energy flowed into his veins. His senses fixed on her. He let her take command, and knew he would do whatever she wanted.

  “Rowan, lie down.” She patted the soft ferns already lying flat beneath her legs.

  He did as she asked, in double quick time, and stared up at her. Surely, she wouldn’t renew his pain by teasing him and walking away? What woman could be that cruel? She might be angry over his arrival, but that technically wasn’t his fault.

  She tucked her hair behind her ears, and began a slow, soothing stroke of his chest and shoulders. “Is that better?”

  Yes,” he softly responded.

  “I don’t like to see others suffer,” she said as her fingers ran lightly across his chest and wandered downward.

  He closed his eyes as her hand wandered lower and lower. “Don’t stop,” he begged.

  Aroused, and no longer caring whose magic might or might not be the reason, Sky knew she wanted this amazingly handsome creature more than she’d ever wanted any single thing in her life. She placed the flat of one palm over his rock-hard abdomen
and pressed against his flesh. Rowan breathed as if he couldn’t get enough air. He dragged it into his lungs.

  The amount of control he displayed was astonishing. The way his glowing, green eyes fixed on her told her he was trying, with every beat of his heart, not to touch her. For some reason, that really turned her on.

  She leaned over and ran her tongue across his lips. “Kiss me.”

  He opened his mouth, took her tongue in his mouth and moaned as the kiss deepened.

  For the next hour or longer, they made love like two souls who couldn’t get enough of each other.

  Eventually, Sky rested her head against his chest as he began to run his hands over the length of her body.

  “You’re beautiful,” he murmured.

  “So are you. If that adjective can be applied to a Faun,” she joked.

  He grinned. “A man should make it his life’s ambition to satisfy you.”

  “I’ve never been with a denizen of your realm. Was I…pleasing?”

  “I can barely breath,” he responded. “And I am quite satiated. This experience is beyond words.”

  “I think I could sleep for a week.”

  “Rest then. I’ll still be holding you when you awaken.”

  She drifted on clouds of beautiful fulfillment until the first rays of dawn lit the little garden.

  As she opened her eyes, he kissed her face and began a new exploration of her body with his tongue. Sky was enchanted with his determination to please. He carried on, with great gentility and care. Eventually, when they were mutually pleasured once more, they stretched out next to each other. He spoke first.

  “I cannot believe that what we’ve experienced is merely because you are from this world, and I am from another. What we’ve shared is special. It is more than coincidence that we met. I know it!”

  She smiled up at him, and played with the soft strands of his hair. “Why do you say that?”

  “It’s no mere chance that we met. You gave me your heart when we made love. I felt it.”

  She stared at him for a moment. “I don’t even know you. We only just met last night.”