Chapter 5

"Thank you! We'll be in touch!"

Sarah watched the applicant get up, a cold but amused smile curving her mouth an instant as he fumbled with the folder in his hands, before extending it to shake hers and the rest of the panels and exiting.

"That was colder than usual, Sarah."

"But necessary. He is a potential recruit for an organization that will be far more rigid in its approach than I have been. If he wets himself here, he will not be a good bet to forward. But if you're questioning my methods?"

Sarah inclined her head at the panel member before her, leaving her statement to trail off as he shook his head and took his leave of her, closing the door behind him with a distinct click.

Sarah felt the façade drop as she spun away from the desk to look at the creeping twilight through the window. She was going crazy. It had been a week, long seven days in which she had counted the one hundred and sixty eight hours in eighty six thousand, four hundred minutes since she had found herself, alone, on the floor of her living room, in her own robes, the silver skein on her wrist, now cold but still very visible. She rubbed it now, almost absently knowing that it was all that she had to prove to herself that she had been in the land of the fae for a time; not just the land but before the council where she had recounted the prophecy her mother had revealed to her. And had seen the awareness in the eyes of the fae and taken in also, that the prophecy concerned herself and Ada'an.

She let her breath out on a sigh knowing it wasn't just the revelation or the circumstances that were bothering her but also that she did not know what would happen now especially with that infernal, infuriating Prince who had become her lover, succeeding in drawing her out in a way that she had only seen in her dreams. The disturbing dreams had stopped too, and Sarah was alarmed to think she missed the eroticism of her charged visions. But she snapped back at the crackle of the intercom as the call came through for the next meeting.

"Sarah, the meeting is about to start."

It had been a long day, again and Sarah knew she looked exhausted. She was burning the candle at both ends but somehow, she couldn't sleep and seemed to have this constant urge to keep busy, almost afraid to know what would happen if she had time on her hands. And Di, still wasn't back. For all her flightiness, Sarah knew she could talk to Di, even if Di recommended going to a shrink.

But for now, she just wanted a bath, warm enough to sink and sleep into and it was these thoughts that led her through her apartment, dropping her jacket and scarf and pulling the pins from her hair to allow it fall from her tight scalp. Her shoes followed and then her trousers, passing through her bedroom in darkness dressed just in a lace and froth concoction that just as soon may not be there. She walked into the bathroom, switching on lights, almost grinning at the opulence there at odds with the minimalist approach in the rest of the apartment.

It was large, since she had converted the second bedroom into her own personal fantasy. The large sunken tub had a Jacuzzi and was its own personal world, illuminated by lights placed behind glass in little alcoves in the wall. A large mirror beyond the tub, added to the size of the bathroom, with a large marble counter with the sink placed at an angle before it.

Sarah felt the temperature of the water, slipping off the rest of her clothes before piling up her hair on of her head, loose enough so that a few strands slipped loose, turning off the larger lights before sinking into the froth of pale pink bubbles and the lightly churning water.

Even as she felt the water soothe her body, her eyes closed her head laying back, her mind wandering, and in that state susceptible enough to allow her fantasy prince an access she would never have admitted to. She could almost feel his fingers tracing the curve of her shoulders dotted with froth here and there, over the vulnerable curve of her neck to the sweet hollow between her collar bones. She could feel his breath deepen as his hand would move lower, beneath the bubbles, curving around her breast, each touch gentle, almost reverential so as not to shake her fantasy and her mouth softened and curved into a smile.

"I'm glad to see the thought of my touch at least makes you smile my Mistress!"

And the voice, the soft amusement seemed so much a part of her imagination that it took an instant for her mind to recognize that her skin was heating, not from an imagined touch, but a very real finger that caressed her and her eyes flew open, almost sitting up, before the hand forestalled her.

Ada'an had no chance of stopping the grin that stretched his wide sensual mouth and added to the gleam to his eyes that were already molten as he looked at the color that now climbed over her cheeks.

"It also adds to my pleasure that you missed me."

Sarah's eyes narrowed, as she curved away from his hand, watching the smile widen as he sat back on the steps leading to the tub in all his princely glory, even the torque around his neck suiting the otherwise very human garb of form fitting jeans and a similar shirt with the sleeves rolled up.

"What are you doing here, Again? I thought your task was done?" Sarah's inner self actually went through the notion of slapping a hand over her mouth, not at the words, but at the faintly accusing undertone that they carried.

"I knew you missed me!" He grinned again at the hiss of breath that was expelled but wiped all vestige of amusement from his face as he continued.

"My task is over which is why I have been restored. However, even you must have understood that I would have come to see you after the prophecy was revealed. A prophecy, I might remind you that links you and me with the destiny of both our worlds."

"It was just a vision, not an indication of what has to come to be!"

"It already has come to be, my reluctant Mistress. It came to be the instant Ah'veel in her judgment 'punished' me by coming to look for you. It came to be in the tumult of your passion that I felt pulse around me, a rhythm, and a reason that found a home within me."

Ada'an could see the shock in Sarah's eyes even as he heard the words himself. A part of him was shocked at the revelation too but it was a part that drowned in the heat that coiled within him as he watched Sarah begin to rise from the water, allowing him a glimpse of skin gone rosy with the warmth of the water, and breasts gleaming under the glow of the lights before she sank back down, her eyes flashing with a little embarrassment and a little chagrin at the belated realization of her circumstances.

"Come now my Mistress, why so bashful? Do I need to remind you of just how deep that link between you and me goes?"

"You wouldn't dare!"

Sarah could have bitten her tongue of as she watched all amusement vanish from that handsome face, overtaken now by an expression of due arrogance and sheer maleness made all the more threatening by an aura that now began to surround him.

"I had asked you to pay heed my impetuous lover, that once the council has met you will be facing a fae with all his powers restored. Would you like to see what that means?"

She could only stare as a long finger lifted, and she felt the thread on her wrist burn as her arms were lifted out of the water and brought to rest against the edge of the tub, the bind gleaming as she tried to move it, only to find that...

"Your arms will only move now when I will them to be around me, my Sarah."

"You can't do this!"

Sarah felt her insides quake as that sensual mouth curved, feeling a warmth sink to the pt of her stomach as the large hand ran over his own body, leaving him naked save for the gleam of metal against the tanned column of his throat.

"Have mercy!"

The thought came unbidden into her head as she took in the sheer size of him; the long length of his legs, leading to narrow hips, skimming over that part of him that now stood long and proud against him, over the muscled stomach, finding nothing lacking in the width and strength of his chest and shoulders over that stunningly beautiful face where he waited with a raised eyebrow to catch her gaze with his.

He had moved while she looked at him, and her breath eased out of her in a tremble as he stepped into the water with her. Even with the depth of the tub, the water barely came up to his thighs and standing as he was, she was on eye level with his jutting hardness. Feeling it inside her had not in anyway prepared her to see it quite this close and she only ended up closing her eyes tight. Ada'an laughed out loud, the rumble jarring her sensitive nerves as she felt him fiddle with the switch beside her to add some more hot water to the now tepid tub, before sinking beside her.

The laughter was gone now for Ada'an. This close, he could see the fine web of veins through the fine skin on Sarah's throat and over her shoulders. He could see every breath she took with the movement of her breasts, smooth with their dusky pink aureole just below the dwindling bubbles on the surface. He extended a finger tip and just brushed the susceptible curve before him, smiling as she shivered but kept her eyes closed as he moved just that tip over her throat stopping at her chin, before tracing just her profile from her forehead to the soft plush curve of her mouth.

"Take me in, please Sarah."

It was the please that had her eyes turning to him, locking on to that gaze that had her in thrall since childhood, feeling the blunt edge of his nail rake over her lower lip, her mouth opening just enough to take the tip in to the moist warmth. Ada'an's eyes grew stormy at the feel of her mouth, hot and wet around his finger, feeling himself swell even more against her thigh, knowing she felt it in the widening of her gaze and the slight hitch in her throat that had him pressing his finger in just a little deeper. He pulled it out tracing a trail over the other shoulder and moving till he was now in front of her, gratified that she moved her thighs to make room for him between them, reaching for the loofah that was just beyond Sarah's arm enjoying the little gasp that came from her as he gently dragged the loofah back over her arm, and her chest sitting back to sink it into the water.

"Ada'an..."

"Shhh my lover! I don't want to spell you into silence because I want to hear the sound of your passion, those little draws on air as your body takes me in; the desperate whimpers as I push you closer to that peak of pleasure and the sigh as you sink beyond it into the abyss."

The feel of his lips brushing her forehead and then sliding in soft butterfly kisses over her eyebrows, her eyes, her temple made her insides quaver with need, with vulnerability feeling the brush of his eyelashes and then his hair, against the curve of her cheek as he followed it to the corner of her mouth, his tongue flicking out for a taste, feeling the vibration as he laughed when he felt her turn her face into his caress when he moved to the other cheek.

But then had the pleasure of hearing him gasp as her mouth caught his, nipping at his lips in a way that had him crushing her lips with his, their tongues mingling, tasting, past teeth and into dark caverns of smooth silk, his chest coming to rest against hers as her back arched in the bonds. She felt the roughness of the loofah against her stomach as his hand came between their bodies, feeling the other nudge her chin up higher to purge her mouth further deeper.