Magical Curves Read online

  Published by Evernight Publishing at Smashwords

  www.evernightpublishing.com

  Copyright© 2014 Virginia Nelson

  ISBN: 978-1-77130-712-3

  Cover Artist: Sour Cherry Designs

  Editor: JC Chute

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

  WARNING: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. No part of this book may be used or reproduced electronically or in print without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in reviews.

  This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, and places are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  DEDICATION

  For Michelle. Thanks for everything!

  MAGICAL CURVES

  Magical Trilogy, 1

  Virginia Nelson

  Copyright © 2014

  Chapter One

  The best part of Emily Flowers’ day was the moment she curled around her pillow each night. She tried to stop the rush of adrenaline, the excited tingle of knowing what would come once she closed her eyes. She couldn’t remember a time when dreaming wasn’t a part of her day. Maybe the dreams were a sickness, a symptom of the overactive imagination of an admitted bibliophile—after all, who loves a good story more than a librarian?

  It didn’t matter.

  Not when he waited.

  Slowing her breathing and concentrating on falling asleep, she imagined his face and smile. It eluded her waking life, becoming more a shadow of something half remembered. But with night, the image of him snapped into clarity, the dream surging over her reality, and she smiled. He was always the first thing she saw when she travelled to this place.

  “You’re late.” Something about his grin managed to be toothy and self-deprecating all at once. It always flat-out did it for her, that playful twist of his tempting lips. Then again, as the perfect dream man, there wasn’t a lot about him that didn’t flat-out do it for her.

  “I have a hard time falling asleep, but it helps knowing you’re waiting for me.”

  “I have so much to show you today.” His voice almost shimmered with excitement. She reached out and took his hand, knowing that he would curl his fingers to join hers. Even with the familiarity of a thousand nights of him doing so, pleasure surged when he squeezed her hand.

  “You always have so much to show me.” And he did. That was the wonder of it. In reality, Emily might be invisible, a woman who lived her life in the pages of books. But here, he always waited for her impatiently, wanting to share his world. Kayden always wanted her and no one else. No one in the real world ever met the expectation, the raised bar, because of his unwavering attention.

  He tugged her arm and she followed him. His beautiful world enchanted her, so much more magical than the one of her daylight. Full of ruby red grasses, and seas that shifted from purples to blues in the blink of an eye … Emily explored it with constant fascination. As the prince of this realm, Kayden was as magical as his lands, and he protected her from the dark side of life here whenever he could. They’d once fended off the attack of a dragon from the city gates by combining their magic, a dragon she eventually tamed and called her own. They’d travelled together on quests to locate lost items for his kingdom, Zenith. They’d had adventures better than any movie Emily ever experienced in the waking world, and all from the comfort of her bed.

  Today, he dragged her to a room done in all silver tones. From the translucent flow of fabric on the canopy to the heavily carved posts of the bed, everything shimmered with an unearthly glow. “What is this room?” He’d never brought her here before.

  “My room.” The words touched her, sending a shiver of awareness over her flesh. Emily’s gaze tracked from his shoulders, broad and bare in the light shafting from a tall window, lower, to the dark plaid of his kilt encasing his powerful thighs.

  The transformation from friend to object of lust had been subtle, but her crush on her dream companion only deepened with age. She longed to have him bend her over his arm, part her lips with his own, and kiss her like the prince in one of those ‘happily ever after’ stories.

  But the delicious wonder of the dream tended to shatter whenever those moments offered themselves up. Emily needed to believe—or so he explained. If she suffered from doubt, if her mind rebelled from the dream, it snapped her into waking.

  Even knowing that, she couldn’t suspend her belief enough to believe that this man, this chiseled, handsome, and very sensual magician, could ever want her. She was plain. She was chubby. She wasn’t a princess in a fairytale.

  She was a librarian.

  Emily stiffened with the knowledge that her own reality could shatter this beautiful image. She wished so very hard that she could, just once, feel his kiss.

  Kayden touched her forehead, stroking her hair aside. “Why do you have such a hard time believing I care about you, my Emily?”

  She shrugged, glancing down at her unpolished toes, unable to meet his probing gaze. “I believe you care.”

  “Liar.”

  Calling her out didn’t encourage her confidence. Her clothes were beyond the help of her imagination and always had been, sadly. Plucking at the worn flannel fabric, she searched for a way to believe more instead of looking at the bronzed god standing in front of her.

  “Would you at least look at me?” The sharp commanding tone sounded like Kayden the king, full of imperious demand—a tone he rarely used with her. Sighing, she met his eyes. Ever shifting in color, they glittered a brilliant jade. Surrounded by heavy lashes that almost weighed down his eyelids, they were the one thing she wished she could really picture when she wasn’t asleep.

  “I’m looking at you.” She chewed her bottom lip, hoping for a spark of bravery.

  “Come with me.”

  He led her past the bed. Relief surged inside her—since nothing that happened on that silver altar should be considered if she wanted to stay asleep. Her relief faded as he paused by a mirror hanging on the wall.

  Her frumpy image reflected her internal belief and the source of all her problems. Her hair wasn’t something from a shampoo commercial. It hung in fat and uncontrollable curls around her face. Her glasses—why had she thought thick black plastic frames were a good idea?—hid her gray eyes, and her body... Well, the fat polar bears had plenty of room to romp across a field of her oh-so-far-from-sexy-blue-flannel, at least.

  Kayden stood behind her, dwarfing her in both height and shoulder span. His large hands on her shoulders kept her facing the glass, when she would have turned away in disgust. “I don’t get why you hate your body so.” His simple words weren’t a balm. They were a lie, and Emily shrugged them off.

  “I don’t hate it.” Time to change the subject. “So, are we going to practice flying again, today?” Usually, she could distract him. Kayden seemed more than willing, most nights, to satisfy her curiosity, allowing her adventure after adventure, like her own personal Peter Pan.

  The hardening of his jaw warned her, before he actually spoke. Tonight was not going to be one of those nights. “I want you.”

  The unexpected declaration sucked the air out of the room. Her pulse thudded, hard and loud in her ears. “I wish I could believe you, Kayden.”

  She did wish she could believe it. Maybe if she wished hard enough…

  He snapped his fingers. Magic brushed against her senses and her nightgown vanished. Suddenly nude with her dream man, Emily gasped and twisted away from the mirror again.

  Kayden wouldn’t be dissuaded, encasing her in the safe cocoon of his arms and holding her in place. “I want to try something, Emily.”

  His breath whispered across her earlobe as he
spoke. She shivered, but not from cold. Squinting her eyes shut, she prayed to stay asleep long enough to feel his touch. “What do you want to try? Is it magic?”

  Their powers combined in her dreams could do fantastic things. She hadn’t expected it, but together they united and changed things. Together, they fought off any darkness that challenged the Land of the Setting Sun.

  “It’s definitely magic.” He pressed his lips against her ear, teasing the skin with his breath and tongue. “Let me touch you.”

  Delicious tension like nothing she ever imagined spiraled tight in her belly. He sucked at the delicate flesh of her lobe before trailing down her neck. Emily reveled in the caress. She’d waited so long for the feel of his kiss.

  When he bent her head to an angle and closed his mouth over hers, she sighed.

  And then, they kissed.

  The dance of lips, followed by his tongue, tempted. She longed to turn in his arms, to catch his face in her hands and deepen the kiss, but Kayden kept her trapped.

  Frustrated, she opened her eyes and glared at him. “If we’re going to kiss, why won’t you let me move?” She’d managed to stay asleep. She didn’t want to waste a moment of her bravery, fearing it would run out.

  His soft laugh, somehow more dangerous than flying or fighting dragons, wove another layer into his sensual spell. “I want you to watch.”

  She bit back a growl and turned her face away from him, only to see the damned mirror again.

  But somehow…

  Somehow she couldn’t remain disgusted by the image reflected back. His hands slid down, resting above her hips, and looked so dark against her pale skin. He ducked his head down again and nibbled at her neck. The sensation, combined with the image, caused the most decadent shivers, and she watched her nipples harden in the glass. One of those dark hands moved, the reality not nearly erotic as seeing it close over her large breast, capturing the now sensitive nub.

  Her breath caught and she wriggled, feeling his hardness against her through the rough fabric of his kilt. Emily wanted more and yet she was unsure how to ask.

  He journeyed lower with his free hand and slid between her legs. He found her mound and she arched into his touch.

  “Kayden.” The desperate whisper of his name seemed all she could force out between her panting breaths. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to beg him to stop or demand more.

  “Emily,” he whispered back, rubbing his fingers in her wet and needing slit. “How can you not feel my desire for you?”

  Her body relaxed under his ministrations and she watched, fascinated, riding his hand with abandon in the reflection. He pulled her tighter into his embrace, allowing his hands to roam her body like she’d become some musical instrument only he knew how to make sing.

  The peak, the pinnacle, hovered just out of reach. Her arms, almost seduced by the view of their bodies lost in passion, rose around his neck, bracing to receive the delicious torture of his touch. The thickness of his cock proved Kayden was as lost as she was, yet Emily couldn’t turn away from the feel of his finger sliding inside her while his thumb continued its gentle rocking of her clit.

  Spreading her legs, allowing them to fall to either side of his, she gasped at the view of her pussy open, tortured by his demands. His mouth found hers again, ending her voyeuristic view into his lovemaking. His tongue tangled with hers, eating the sound of her cry as he plunged her into orgasm.

  Panting, Emily met his gaze, suspended in the wake of her climax in his arms. “Mine,” he whispered. “I need you to be mine, woman, and not just in your dreams.”

  She opened her mouth, planning to answer, when the alarm clock beeped and shattered the dream.

  “Fuck.” Punching her mattress, Emily stared at the ceiling in frustration.

  Chapter Two

  Kayden stomped his foot, pulse still racing. She’d faded before the sun fully rose in the eastern sky. She always vanished, like some dream too elusive to survive in the light of day. His hands still carried the scent of her, ripe and alive, even if his arms were empty. He cursed fate for leaving him hard and ready for a woman who haunted him.

  Adjusting himself, as if this would offer some relief to the hunger that filled his days, Kayden shoved a hand through his hair. No time to dwell on how close he’d come tonight. He wouldn’t see her until the sun set, and there were things to be done in the meantime. A kingdom to run, and people who depended on him. Duty, rather than desire.

  In the bowl near the door, he found the water the maids set out for him the night before and splashed some on his face and neck to cool the ardor that left him aching and so damn alone. Shoving out of the room, away from her smell and whatever lingering warmth she’d left in her wake, Kayden headed downstairs. Callum, his best friend, caught his arm when he entered the dining hall. “My Lord, you look exhausted.”

  He was exhausted. With the battles continuing on the borderlands, his brother hungry for his throne, and a lover who kept him up each night only to abandon him at sunrise, he hadn’t had the time for sleep in longer than he cared to remember. “I’m fine.” The curt words caused hurt to flash in Callum’s expression, but a king didn’t show weakness even to his best friend.

  “I worry, my Lord, that you’re not getting enough rest to make some of the harder choices that face you in these dark times.” Callum’s tone hinted at becoming less subservient, even if it remained carefully modulated. Only a best friend would, after all, dare suggest Kayden might be full of bullshit.

  “I know.” Kayden swallowed hard, the tension created by holding her withering under the weight of his duty. “I will marry. I understand the council—”

  “It’s not just the council, Kayden. It’s the people, too.” Callum clamped a hand down on his shoulder. Their long friendship sometimes felt more like the brotherhood that Kayden expected from Kallicrates, yet never got.

  “The people have no need to worry. I’ve kept them safe in the years of father’s illness. I’ve made sure we had food, a strong military, magic like this world has never seen—”

  Callum clicked his fingers and pointed. “See, that’s the problem. Magic like we’ve never seen because we’ve never had a person cross the dimensions and join with one of our leaders in the defense of our lands. Emily is a problem. She’s brought foreign thinking, strange ways and magics with her when she comes to you, and—”

  “Leave Emily out of this.”

  Callum stopped him from striding away by again clasping his shoulder. “We can’t leave her out of this. You have to wed before the king dies. Kalli has been married for years to that bitch from the Southern Seas. He is positioned perfectly to assume the throne if you fail. You’ve ruled us, protected us, but do not perform the simplest obligation of royalty—find, wed, and bed a bride to get her with an heir. Ensure the line goes on.”

  Kayden snorted. “Duty? You speak to me of duty and marriage in the same sentence as if they went hand in hand. Marriage is supposed to be about love, partnership, friendship, and passion. Not duty. Kalli married out of duty alone. If the people can’t see that Emily has done more for them than Kalli’s bride, then I don’t feel the need to prove it by wedding her.” No matter how much he longed to keep her with him, always.

  “You might not have a choice.” Callum shrugged. “It may come to the point soon that it’s wed her or someone else…or abdicate your claim to the throne.”

  “Why—?” Before Kayden could finish his question, his brother strode into the hall, robe flaring with every step. The council members followed in his wake. Kalli always had managed to play the part of royal better than Kayden, even if he was far too self-centered to ever actually rule.

  “I’ve been looking for you.” The childish glee on his brother’s face warned Kayden that whatever news he brought, it wasn’t good. “Didn’t think to look here.”

  Kayden refused to rise to the bait, choosing instead to lean against the wall and show his lack of respect for the smaller man.

  “The cou
ncil has been alerted to an interesting tidbit in the rules.”

  Refusing to rise to the bait, Kayden arched a brow and stared down the white-haired old man who struggled with a scroll. “Rules?”

  “Yes, the rules for leaders of the Zenith. It turns out, to assume the throne, the monarch must be wed. You actually have to have a queen, brother.” Kalli wore a smug expression, seemingly sure he’d positioned himself for check mate in their political game of power.

  “An archaic rule from another era when our lifespans were far shorter due to the lack of healing magics. Not something that we, as a modern kingdom—” But Duke Rowlston, head of the council, stepped forward and cut him off.

  Although Kayden bore little love and no respect for his younger sibling, the duke helped raise them and the old man deserved their respect. “Kayden, I hate to say this, but Kallicrates is right. If you’re not wed and your father passes, you would effectively abdicate primogeniture. The throne would pass to Prince Kallicrates.”

  The words froze Kayden and he had to force a slow, unconcerned smile. “So, I marry. Don’t get fitted for a crown yet, little brother.” Stalking away from them, he made it to the garden before he punched a tree. His power buckled the old oak. Golden leaves fell with soft swishes against the ruby blades of grass at his feet, sparkling shards of life ended as thoroughly as his dreams.

  “So, like I suggested before you got ambushed, you may not have a choice.” Only Callum would dare approach him when he was in a temper.

  Turning to his friend, Kayden relented. “I thought I would have more time.”

  “Time?” Callum looked confused.