Kay Hooper - The Wizard Of Seattle

Serena would have protested-if only weakly-that the reply hardly satisfied her curiosity, but his hand slid to her nape and pulled her head down so that he could kiss her quite thoroughly.

"I think you're incredible."

She felt the words murmured against her lips, and almost whimpered in pleasure when the tip of his tongue glided along the sensitive inner surface of her bottom Up.

"And I think I'll never be able to get enough of you, even if I live a long, long time."

"You can have all of me," she murmured, her lips clinging to his and her tongue darting out to answer his maddening little caress. "I want to give you everything."

He kissed her, his mouth fierce, and his eyes burned into hers when she finally raised her head. "If I'd known it would be like this, I would have fought like a demon to have it long ago," he told her, his voice strained with feeling. "To have you. There was an empty place in me, and I didn't even know it."

Serena could feel the heat building in both of them once again, and she decided her curiosity had been satisfied far enough for the moment. Merlin obviously decided the same thing, because he was kissing her again, shifting them until she lay on her back, pushing the blanket off them. Her arms were around him, her fingers probing the muscles of his back, and her mouth was eager under his.

"I don't want to hurt you again," he said against her lips.

"You won't."

Rain woke them hours later, after midnight, the sound almost unfamiliar because it hadn't rained the entire time they'd been in Atlantis. It was a steady rain, not light but not a downpour, and they lay close together watching it.

"Another portent of destruction?" Serena wondered in a hushed voice.

"No," Merlin replied softly, his arms tightening around her. "Just rain."

Serena listened for a while to the soothing sound, wide awake now. They had eaten hours ago, a rather sumptuous meal complete with a bottle of old wine, and then had made love again before falling asleep. She felt rested, and boneless with satisfaction, and she didn't want to move a muscle, because he felt so wonderful against her. They were lying together like spoons, both on their sides as they faced the brightly burning fire and the rain.

He moved slightly, his right hand drawing the blanket up around her shoulders, and she found herself staring at the reddish mark of the owl with which he'd been branded at the gates of Sanctuary. She wanted to try to remove it, but since they were planning to return to the city again, she knew she couldn't. Instead she caught his hand and brought it to her lips.

His ringers twined with hers "What is it?"

"Nothing. Just… I hated it when they marked you like that."

"It's all right, Serena."

"Yes. But I hated it."

"How did you feel when I marked you?"

"Strange. Somehow connected to you. I think I needed that when you went up to Varian's palace and we didn't see each other for so long. The more I learned about Sanctuary, the stranger it seemed, and I needed to feel… anchored."

"I'm glad it helped you. I can remove it now, if you like."

"No. No, not yet."

He rubbed his chin gently back and forth against her head, silent because he sensed she had another question to ask. Finally, abruptly, she did.

"Why did you mark me with a heart?"

Merlin smiled to himself. "Why are you asking me only now?"

"I don't know. Because there wasn't time before, I suppose. Or because I didn't think about it until now. Why did you, Richard?"

In a musing tone he said, "I used to watch you at parties without your awareness, watch the way people were drawn to you, the way their faces lit up when you smiled at them. And everyone brought their problems to you, because they knew you'd do something to help them. It worried me sometimes, your kind heart. I'd been taught all my life that a wizard was detached, that he couldn't let himself be… dragged down by the troubles of those around him, but I watched you, and over the years I realized your heart made you a better wizard."

After a moment she said, "So that was why you marked me with a heart?"

His arms tightened around her. "No. I didn't mark you with your heart, Serena. I marked you with mine. Something you've had for a long time."

Serena didn't move. She didn't even breathe. She didn't dare. She thought this might be as dose as he could come to telling her that he loved her, now at least, and her eyes closed briefly as she tried to endure the shattering wave of emotions that washed over her.

With desperate calm she finally said, "You'll accuse me of being prosaic again if I confess that I decided you chose a heart simply because no other male wizard here would have."

"That," he said in a thoughtful tone, "never even crossed my mind. Go to sleep, Serena."

The rain began to come down harder just then, and Serena closed her eyes, smiling, listening to that and feeling his heart beating against her back. Without even realizing she was going to, she drifted off to sleep.

"Where do you suppose Roxanne and Tremayne are?" Serena asked early the next morning. She was standing near the edge of their little clearing, looking down on the valley as the last of the Curtain dispersed in the sunlight.

Merlin came up behind her. "Why don't you reach out and try to find them?" he suggested.

When she'd tried to do that in the past, Serena had never been able to gather anything except vague impressions, but she made the attempt now because she was curious. She closed her eyes, since it helped her to concentrate, and sent her senses winging out over the valley.

Sounds. Bird sounds, she thought. The smell of wet earth and the whiff of sulfur that is always present in the valley. What was that? A hit of motion? No… a child's laugh…

Behind her Merlin lifted his hands and put them gently on her shoulders.

Serena gasped and opened her eyes, startled. She could feel Merlin's power spreading through her body, warm and tingling, and an image promptly formed before her eyes. The image wavered as her concentration faltered, but then she focused intensely, and it was as though she were looking at a hologram-three-dimensional, alive-suspended in the air several feet away.

Roxanne and Tremayne were walking slowly, his head bent attentively toward hers, an expression of shy eagerness on her face as she talked to him. They were holding hands. Holding hands . And a little girl rushed up to them-Kerry-talking rapidly, a doll held in the crook of her elbow. Tremayne seemed more amused than annoyed by the interruption, and Roxanne's delicate face softened as she answered the child. Then Tremayne put his free hand on Kerry's shoulder and they kept walking, and Roxanne turned her head to look up at him so seriously, talking…

"Damn, doesn't this channel have sound?"

The image vanished instantly.

Merlin took his hands off her shoulders and sighed.

Serena turned to face him, grinning a little. "I know. I'm such a trial to you."

He bent his head and kissed her. "Yes, but the advantages seem to outweigh the disadvantages."

" Seem to?"

"We've only been together nine years, so it's a little early to be sure," he explained gravely. "As an Apprentice wizard, you have a long way to go."

"Obviously." Thinking about what had happened, she said, "Your power helped me to see them, right?"

"Yes."

She had several questions about that. "You've never done such a thing before. Why?"

"Because I didn't know it was possible," he answered readily. "After what happened with Varian, it was obvious our energy could combine. Something I somehow doubt my ancestors knew. And after last night… well, I had the idea that either of us could enhance the other's abilities by sharing power."