Bastion: O-Men: Liege’s Legion

by Elaine Levine

  In the shadowy light, she could barely make out her own outline—she couldn’t see him at all. His hands spanned her ribs as he bent to kiss her shoulder.

  Selena put her hands over his, pressing him tighter against herself. She could feel the bumps of his knuckles under her palms, but when she peeked into the mirror through the shadows, she saw nothing. For a moment, all sensations from him wavered, as if he existed only in her belief, not in her physical reality.

  It was disorienting.

  Move back to your bed, Bastion said.

  She got back in bed, and as she turned to her side, she saw him stretched out next to her, a faint glow coming from him, letting her see him in the dark…and letting her see through him at the same time.

  Bastion, come here. I mean in person.

  No. You aren’t ready to trust me yet.

  You don’t know that.

  I read energy, remember? Maybe it isn’t me you aren’t ready to trust but your own self.

  She squeezed her eyes shut. The shadows from the past and her reaction to them had formed the foundation of her adult life. Without them, she had no protection. I can’t yet.

  He must have seen the sadness in her eyes. Her reluctance had cost her many a relationship, some with great potential.

  Maybe your soul knew that you were waiting for me, but your mind wasn’t listening.

  I didn’t wait for you or anyone. I did what I wanted at the time.

  Which was always give the least amount of yourself to your lovers as possible.

  That’s not true.

  I see the truth of that in your eyes.

  Could he see that? Was he right? Was that why none of her relationships had lasted more than a handful of weekends?

  They scratched an itch, and scratching can only exist for a short duration before it causes pain. I, on the other hand, soothe your soul. He grinned at her, bracing his phantom head on his hand as he watched her.

  He did seem to have that effect on her. He was noisy, boisterous, troublesome, and…peaceful. She’d never met someone who calmed the emotions raging inside her.

  I give you all of my days and all of my nights for the rest of my life, Selena.

  That won’t work. You’ll outlive me by some huge order of magnitude. Unless I take the modifications. Do you want me to do that?

  His soulful eyes grew pensive. Selfishly, yes. I want you with me forever. And it is also strategic, as you’ll see in the training you’ll do tomorrow. But realistically, it’s too dangerous. I would die if you didn’t survive the change. And putting you through it now will render you your weakest when we need you at your strongest, given the dangers we’re facing. So no.

  Yes and no. She sighed. We’re all having to decide this. I have no idea what the guys will choose.

  You don’t have to decide right now. He leaned over and kissed her forehead.

  Bastion, I want you here. I mean your physical body. No sooner had she said that than his shimmering image vanished. She heard a door slam somewhere down the hall, then seconds later, her door opened, closed, and locked.

  Bastion walked in, already pulling off his T-shirt. He unzipped his jeans and kicked them off, leaving only his black boxer briefs. He hurried around the bed and settled on it on his side, just as his astral self had done moments earlier.

  “Where are your boot casts?”

  “Guerre has said it was safe to remove them.”

  Wow. That was really fast healing for the degree of injuries he’d had.

  “I don’t like being away from you,” he said.

  “Me either. Maybe you should just bunk in here.”

  “Agreed.”

  She regretted having shut her blinds and closed her curtains, for it was far too dark in the room to see much of Bastion’s face. As if responding to her thoughts, both window coverings opened themselves.

  “How do you do that?” she asked. The man really was magical.

  Bastion set a hand on her ribs and leaned over to kiss her neck. “It is not a topic for discussion right now.”

  His body was warm next to her—and deliciously solid. “You can’t be on top.”

  “Bien. But to the side is all right?”

  She nodded. “Or under me.”

  “Good. We have options, then. You see I am not between you and the door.”

  Selena squeezed her eyes shut, hoping Bastion hadn’t read all of her secrets. She pushed them from her mind. Perhaps if she didn’t think about the terrible things, then he wouldn’t know them. She reached up and threaded her fingers into his dark hair, feeling the thick, wavy strands. She pulled him close as she turned to her side. His arm went beneath her head. Their lips touched. She pressed her face tighter against his, suddenly loving his beard and mustache. This was Bastion. Dark and hairy and beautiful and magical Bastion.

  She opened her eyes and caught him watching her. Silhouetted as he was against the faint light from outside, she couldn’t read much of his expression, but she knew he was letting her set their pace, yielding so she could take what she wanted of him. She flattened her hand against his cheek. “Don’t ever shave this off.”

  “Never.”

  “Even if facial hair goes out of style.”

  He seemed affronted. “I am Bastion. I set styles, not follow them.”

  A broken breath slipped from her chest, half laugh, half sob. This man had a beard. This man she would know in the dark as well as the light.

  I smell different as well. And my energy is unique to me. You will always know me.

  She leaned her face against his and nodded. He kissed her forehead, her cheek, then caught her mouth again. His tongue slipped inside her mouth, letting her taste the sweet essence of him. This she would always know too. This was what her man tasted like. She stroked his tongue with hers, wringing a moan from him.

  “Did you bring any condoms?”

  “Non. I do not need them. Because of the modifications, I cannot get or transmit any diseases. And I can shield you from becoming pregnant.”

  “Mmm. The perfect man,” she said.

  “I am the perfect man. For you.”

  She looked at him, still holding his beard. “Do you really believe in the Matchmaker? If we’d met somewhere else, would we have known we might be like this together?”

  “Until the Matchmaker connected Liege and Summer, I did not believe. And even then, having not experienced it for myself, I was not convinced. But now I have seen the fiend, and because of him, I have you, so I do believe. Completely. But I think he may have only sped things up for us. I would have found you. My heart was screaming for you; I just did not recognize the pain it felt was loneliness.”

  That had been exactly what Selena felt when, one by one, she witnessed each of the guys on the team find their perfect partners. And as each had left the single life behind, she’d felt more like an outsider. She hated being jealous of her friends. Jealousy was a weakness, a belief that she couldn’t have what her friends did.

  Now she thought maybe that hadn’t been the problem at all. Her heart was just pointing to what she most wanted: a love of her own.

  Still, she had a lot of fear and doubt and worry.

  I know. Bastion pulled her closer.

  Maybe that was all behind her now. She was here, in her bed, with this very male mutant.

  We are like fortune cookies—always add “in bed” to the end. Like this: Mutants put regulars to shame. In bed, he said.

  Humility is a good thing, Bastion.

  I will be humble for you. I am humble for my team. For the rest of the world, I am Bastion.

  Selena tried fighting the chuckle his arrogance aroused, but she wasn’t entirely successful. His humor made some of her anxiety recede. She found herself entirely focused on the feel of his big body lying next to her. He was heavier than she was, so gravity naturally pulled her toward him.

  Or maybe that was more of his magic.

  One of her arms was folded between them as they lay on their
sides, but Selena explored his chest with her free hand. Running her fingers through the coarse texture, she was surprised, given how hairy his forearms were, and with all the hair on his head, that his chest was only lightly covered.

  She pressed her face into his neck, burrowing beneath his beard to the soft skin there. She drew his delicious clover scent into her lungs with a long pull of air, which made her want to be even closer to him. Pushing her knee between his, she wrapped her arm around his ribs and stroked his wide, smooth back, then moved her hand lower to the small of his back, then his curved, muscled ass, then his heavy thigh.

  “This is so much better than being intimate with the astral you,” she said.

  “Oui.” That single word seemed strained. She smiled to herself and kissed his neck, the side of his Adam’s apple, the hollow between his shoulder and neck. When she teethed his collarbone, he sucked in a ragged breath.

  Bastion threaded his fingers into her loose hair, fisting it gently but firmly as he said, “It is torture letting you explore me but not getting to do the same to you.”

  “In time, you can.”

  With his grip in her hair, he drew her head from his body and crushed her mouth with his. “In time for what?” he growled in the middle of the kiss. “While we both still live?” He kissed her again.

  “When I’m ready for you.”

  “Better get ready.” He caught her chin with his teeth. He kissed her neck, the corner of her jaw.

  She took hold of his face and kissed him again. It was delicious to have his firm body next to hers, to feel his heat. She didn’t complain when he wrapped his arms around her and rolled to his back, moving her on top of him. She straddled his hips and pushed up from his chest. She could feel the hard length of him against her core. When she looked into his eyes again, she realized they’d begun glowing a warm orange color.

  He sat up and wrapped his arms around her, flattening her breasts against his chest, holding her as he arched beneath her, rubbing himself against her. Pulling back slightly, he caught her breasts in his hands. She looked down to see the orange glow in his eyes become hooded as he focused entirely on nuzzling, sucking, nipping her breasts.

  His mouth moved over the scars on the side of her breast, making her tense. She shut her eyes at the butterfly-light touch there.

  It was a decision point.

  He knew about her scars. And he hadn’t run for the hills or reviled her for them.

  He’d accepted her. And that was magical.

  Before she could think her way out of what was happening, he took a nipple into his mouth; she arched her back, shocked at sensations he was causing through her body. His beard and mustache on her skin lifted gooseflesh down her arms. All thoughts of ending this vanished. She wanted him to taste all of her, every inch.

  “I will. In time.” His breath was as hot as his lips.

  “When? In our lifetime?” she asked, mocking his earlier complaint.

  He leaned back, drawing her down over his chest. He ran his hands down her hips, slipping his fingers beneath the rim of her panties and pushing those down her hips, leaving them mid-thigh, where they sat like a soft binding, keeping her from spreading her thighs. He pushed his underwear down as well, freeing himself. He positioned himself to slide between her legs, against her sensitive core but not in her.

  He kissed her mouth as he slipped his hand between their hips. He cupped her mound, then pressed one finger between her nether lips. Selena broke their kiss as she gasped at the sensations he was giving her, gently massaging her clit, his body rocking under hers, his cock sliding between her legs. His hand moved deeper between her legs, and he slipped two fingers into her. Thrusting gently, he used his thumb to work her clit.

  An orgasm hit her, fast and violent. She cried out and dug her nails into his shoulders as she surrendered to the waves of ecstasy.

  He reached down to push her panties to her knees so she could kick them off, then he held her hips as he lifted her up his chest then to his mouth. “I want to taste you as you come.” He held her hips, moving her back and forth over his mouth, licking her from her clit to her opening, fucking her with his tongue.

  Selena held on to her headboard, her long hair curtaining her face as she watched what he was doing to her. Too soon, she was orgasming again, her body rewarding him with the nectar he sought. He moaned against her wet core. Before the last throes of her orgasm settled, he moved her back to his hips and thrust his heavy penis deep inside her. That was all it took to send her deep into another orgasm. Bracing her hands on his pecs, she rocked and ground against him. He was pounding his hips up to meet hers, taking over their rhythm. He sat up and wrapped his arms around her body, moving her to meet his thrusts. She took his face in both of her hands and kissed him, then cried out as a long, endless orgasm exploded from between her legs, out through her whole body. She felt as if she’d been blown apart and put back together at the same time, shattered and whole.

  Bastion must have reached his peak at the same time, for she felt him slowly relax beneath her. His eyes had changed from the burning orange to a glowing green. “You are mine and I am yours, Selena, so long as we both still live.”

  Forever.

  She wasn’t certain if that vow came from her or him, they were so deeply connected.

  28

  Bastion quietly shut Selena’s door behind him using his telekinetic skills. Two men were approaching in the hallway, Val and Owen—the blonds he’d been most concerned about when observing this group. They moved toward him with intent, eyeing him distrustfully.

  “Aaaah,” Bastion said, smiling as if he’d just downed a cold beverage on a hot day. “Bonjour, mes amis.” He spoke in a hushed whisper so he wouldn’t wake Selena. The men did not give him a warm greeting. In fact, it looked like he was about to get the third degree. Interesting. They’d left their own warm beds to roust him from his—except he hadn’t been there, which must have been what alarmed them. “By what time must Selena awaken?”

  “We meet at eight,” Owen said.

  “Wonderful.” Bastion gripped their shoulders and turned them to walk with him as he led them away from Selena’s door. "I know she fired both of you. You are both losers. I have won the ultimate prize. Selena is mine."

  Owen tossed his arm off.

  “I’m surprised,” Val said, leaning forward to look around Bastion at Owen. “I really thought she’d go for another blond.”

  Bastion laughed.

  When they reached Bastion’s door, Owen faced him. “I don’t know you. I don’t trust you. And I don’t like that you’ve been manipulating one of our own.”

  “Ah. I see,” Bastion said. This confrontation was long overdue, in his opinion. He clasped his hands behind his back and rocked back on his heels. “So where does that leave us?”

  “Leave her alone,” Owen said.

  Bastion looked at Val to see if he was on the same page as his boss, but the big blond only continued assessing Bastion. “Well, I cannot. She is my light.”

  Owen scoffed. “Bullshit. She’s just a tool to you.”

  Bastion felt rage explode within him. He let the first wave of it wash through him, then settled into the quiet that followed. “She is my woman. Mine. The one I have wanted my entire life. No one will take her from me.”

  “And what exactly are your intentions toward her?” Owen asked.

  Bastion let that question hang in the air a long moment before answering. “I intend to feed her, fight beside her, and fuck the hell out of her for the rest of our lives.”

  Val laughed. “Just don’t get in her way, Bastion. That’s the one thing you won’t survive.”

  “You’re okay with this?” Owen asked Val.

  “Sel deserves happiness, O,” Val said. “When he stops making her happy, she’ll eat him as she did all her other partners. While I don’t trust him, I do trust her.”

  Bastion nodded as he gave them a look of pity. “I know that she fired both of you. Though yo
u are losers in love, I do not wish us to be enemies because I won what you could not.”

  Owen looked like someone cut off the blood supply to his head.

  Val fought to not laugh. “That’s not how it went down. She knew we weren’t a match, either of us. And she was right, because we both found our one-and-onlys. Sel has too, it seems.”

  Bastion gave him a nod. “I am happy for you. All is well then.”

  Owen gave Bastion a hard glare. “We may have started out merely a team, but we’re family now.”

  “She has said this to me. Have no fear—I have told her I will love and protect you, her family.”

  “We don’t have fear. And we don’t need your protection,” Owen said.

  “Not yet, perhaps. But for what’s coming, you do. I look forward to beginning your training this morning. But for now, I’m going to shower and then see if Russ will let me assist him in the kitchen.”

  Selena was glad Ace was the only other person in the gym that morning. She was jogging on one of the treadmills. One look at Selena and she shut her machine off.

  Selena used her phone to turn off the surveillance equipment monitoring the gym. She didn’t want anyone watching or listening to the convo she was about to have with Ace. There were just some things she didn’t want to share with the guys.

  Ace peeked at her over the white hand towel she held to her face. Her eyes were alight with hope and joy.

  Selena went over to lean on her treadmill. “Oh. My. God.”

  Ace shrieked and bent over the handlebars to hug Selena. “It was good?”

  “Better than good. Better than ever before. We talked, we had sex, we talked, we had sex. All night long.” Selena teared up. “What if I’d never met him? What if I’d never known he existed?”

  Ace shrugged. “Sometimes I do believe in fate. I don’t think you could have not been together.” Ace took her hand and led her over to a bench. “Tell me everything.”

  “I thought I’d hate his beard and mustache, but you know what? I love them. They’re a constant reminder of who I’m with. He made me feel safe and important.” She waved her hand. “I know that’s crazy. You and I, we make our own safety.”