Within (Walk Through Shadows Book One)

Chapter Seven

Isabelle had learned about sex like any other teen aged girl who believed she was in love with her first high school boyfriend. Hurried, hushed, and very awkwardly in the back seat of his car. Things improved in college with new boyfriends and new loves. Not quite so hurried but still a bit hushed, sometimes a bit awkward. A person doesn't have a whole lot of privacy in a dorm.

In her third year she'd met John and her sexual education got an upgrade. Gone were the playful gropings in stolen moments of quiet on the busy dorm floor.

John came from money so he hadn't been confined to a small room on campus. Instead his parents had paid for a two bedroom apartment a few blocks away. Far enough that he could escape campus life but close enough that he could remain involved in it if he chose to.

The two of them had spent months in that well appointed corner suite, wrapped up in each other, slowly broadening their knowledge of each other's bodies. John couldn't believe his luck and had told her so often. She had laughed and told him he was exaggerating.

Deep down she'd known why he had said things like that. She was one of those girls a person would expect to find on the arm of any one of the popular guys in school. She had the looks the jocks seemed to like, tall, athletic, and leggy. She was beautiful in a conventional sense with big blue eyes that studied everything around her thoughtfully.

With his much less conventional, and if Isabelle was completely honest rather nerdy looks, they had been an unusual pair. But she had adored the way his curly chocolately brown hair framed his face when he leaned over her. How his warm brown eyes lit up behind his glasses whenever he looked at her, and how his lips curved into a sweet smile just for her when they woke up together.

It hadn't mattered to her that he was only a few inches taller than her or that he couldn't pick her up and throw her over his shoulder like a caveman. It mattered that he talked to her like an intelligent human being, that he listened to her with all of his focus when she spoke. And that he had loved her with all the devotion he'd had in his big romantic heart.

In so many ways they had been perfect for each other. When they came together intimately John had always been kind and attentive, sweet, and gentle. Isabelle never had a reason to doubt his passion for her. But their lovemaking hadn't prepared her for what she experienced once Alasdair was free.

Wild faerie sex had been amazing but faerie lovemaking was something else entirely. The first night had a surreal edge to it, like neither of them could believe that he was really free. The second night gave her a glimpse into the world romance authors had been writing about for years.

She was sure there wasn't any part of her body Alasdair hadn't kissed and caressed. She imagined, when she looked in the mirror, that she could see the imprint of his love of her skin. When he hovered over her belly and the tiny secret she was holding back she held her breath and hoped he didn't have the same ability as his mother.

She might have changed her mind about waiting if she'd known that he'd been imagining how beautiful she would look with his child growing in her. That, as his lips trailed across her skin, he'd whispered a prayer to the stars for that day to come soon.

But she didn't change her mind. Instead she waited for the proverbial other shoe to drop. His summons would come, soon if her instincts were correct, and there was nothing they could do to avoid it.

She could feel it bearing down on them just as clearly as she could feel the feathers tickling her cheek on the third morning after Alasdair had been freed. Her hand swiped at them and she settled into the pillow a little deeper. The feathers did it again and her eyes opened a crack. Alasdair was watching her in the dim predawn light, with a smile on his perfect lips.