Furever Loyal

by Riley Storm

  Maybe she could trust him, even just a little bit. Especially if it would stop him being so close and making her heart do all sorts of weird things.

  “It was in college,” she said quietly.

  Kincaid only nodded, staying silent so she could talk at her own speed and comfort level. He did, however, give her hands a gentle squeeze, using pressure to let her know everything was okay.

  “I told you, I wanted to go into politics. Well, I was heavily involved. Student Council, working with local and state elections. I knew most of the people involved, and I was, in a way, an aide to the governor. Unpaid intern really, but it was my in. All I had to do was keep working at it, and when I graduated, I could get a job, and eventually run for office of some sort myself.”

  Falling silent, she relived those days, some of the good times, both with her school friends and then on the campaign trail. She’d truly enjoyed doing that in her spare time, even while she studied business.

  “What happened next?”

  Shaking herself from the memories, she continued with the story after a minute or so.

  “We were within months of graduating,” she explained. “My friend convinced us to go out. I wasn’t a big partier, but it was also my birthday, and they wanted to celebrate. So, we went out. We drank, a lot. I’ve been drunk before, but this…this was one of those nights.”

  Kincaid nodded, letting her know he understood what she meant. Everyone had nights where they drank and had a good time. Every so often though, the night lined up perfectly, and it became one of those nights. There was no drama, no tears, nobody puked, they danced, flirted with boys and drank champagne from bottles bought by people they’d never see again. It was a good night.

  “Then the end of the night came, and we walked home.” She looked down, embarrassed about what happened next. “I made the mistake of not going to the washroom before we left, and about halfway home, I had to go. By this point I was absolutely wasted. It was like three in the morning, we were full of booze and late-night pizza. I just decided what the hell, it’s fine, I’ll go in the bushes over there.”

  She hiccupped once, trying to fight back tears as the memory of what happened next burned its way back into her memory, pouring heat into her face as shame she’d forgotten about resurfaced.

  “Someone caught you,” Kincaid supplied when she couldn’t go on.

  “The police. Turns out we had been making a lot of noise and someone called to complain about us. Well, they just so happened to roll up while we were on a public schoolyard.” She felt warm liquid drip down her face as she started to cry. “They arrested me, Kincaid. They charged me. Because it was a place with children, I’m now a registered sex offender! For peeing in a bush at three in the morning on a weekend!”

  She broke down into sobs, wanting nothing more than to sink into the ground and disappear. “All because I broke the rules. I shouldn’t have gone out. If I’d just stayed in like I wanted to, I would have it all. Instead they took it from me. Everything. No politician is willing to touch me now. Not with a record like that.”

  “You can get that expunged,” he said.

  “I know. I did. But it’s too late now. I’ve been barred. Black-listed.” She shivered as he used the sleeve of his sweater to gently wipe away her tears. “I can’t let that happen again Kincaid. I just…I can’t.”

  He let go of one hand, reaching up to gently brush back the hairs that kept falling into her face, lovingly tucking them behind her ear to keep them out of the way. She tried to look down, to obscure her face, but he tilted her chin up, forcing her to meet his eyes.

  They were the same blue as always, a gunmetal, tinged with gray, but the hardness was gone from the edges. Instead, they swam with caring, compassion and sympathy for her. Kincaid let her know, by simply staring into her and letting her gaze back, that he was there for her. That she didn’t have to worry. She was safe with him.

  “I won’t let anything like that happen to you,” he promised. “You’ll be safe with me.”

  “Kincaid, we’ve already ended up in jail once. I don’t want to go back a third time. Three strikes and you’re out,” she whispered.

  “I got sloppy and believed we had more time. Now I know what we’re up against, and soon I’m going to find out who,” he growled, his voice vibrating so powerfully she felt it in her chest. “Then we’ll end this and put it all behind us for good. We can move on with our lives.”

  She knew he was making it sound far simpler than it actually was. They still had no leads, and things were only bound to get worse before they got better.

  “I don’t know if I can do that,” she admitted. “I’m scared, Kincaid. I’m so scared.”

  Without speaking, he crouched down, wrapping his arms around her body and picked her up, holding her tight to his chest as he walked to the far end of the basement where he sat into the couch, still holding her tight. Haley rested her head on his shoulder, one arm draped across his chest, the other holding tight up his back.

  “I know,” he said, kissing her forehead softly. “I know. It’s going to be okay. We’re going to figure this out. I promise you.”

  He kept kissing her forehead, and the top of her head. Then he trailed it down her cheek as she slowly raised her head.

  Kincaid didn’t stop. His lips found hers, and the instant they touched a blazing bolt of lightning exploded down her spine. The shock woke her instantly to his presence, setting nerve endings on fire and kick-starting the flow of blood from her heart.

  They started off slowly, gingerly. It wasn’t anything like the hurried, rough kiss that they’d shared in the hallway. They had time now, time to do it right, and they both took it without consulting with the other. They were simply on the same page now, their desires finally lining up at the same time and bursting forth.

  Haley hadn’t known she was interested in going that far with him, but as his hands ran up her sides, denial became useless. Whether she’d been blissfully unaware, or purposefully blinding herself, it was clear some part of her body wanted it.

  Although she still had her doubts of the situation as a whole, when Kincaid began to gently lift her shirt, Haley didn’t resist. She raised her arms, her only regret the time she spent not kissing him as the sweater and her own shirt all came off as one.

  27

  The feeling of air on suddenly exposed skin sent a shiver through her entire body. Kincaid noticed and paused, leaning back from her.

  “We can stop if you’re not comfortable,” he whispered, still stroking her head gently but avoiding any sort of sexual contact besides the fact that she was sitting on him.

  “I was just cold,” she explained. “A shiver. You need to come here, I think. Come closer, keep me warm in your arms.”

  Kincaid growled excitedly, lifting his own shirt free. “I can do that.” He kept kissing her as he lay her back onto the couch. “I can definitely do that.”

  She wrapped her arms around his neck as he lowered himself to her, the furnace that was his skin blasting her with warmth as he pressed tight. Her one leg was pinned to the couch, but Haley wrapped the other around his waist.

  The gentle drag of his skin across her body, and the gentle rustle of his small patch of chest hair left her breathing heavy and aching for more of his touch, but the couch was simply too small for him to do more than support himself on.

  “This isn’t working,” she announced.

  Kincaid frowned. “What? I thought you said you were okay?”

  “The couch,” she said, snaring his lips and parting them with her tongue, making it very clear she didn’t mean him. The heat she was feeling was no longer being generated just by Kincaid. Her own body was responding. Haley could feel it most between her legs, what started off as warmth was now becoming a burning need.

  Lifting her clear of the couch with a casual display of his strength that had Haley once again biting her lips in anticipation, Kincaid brought her to the bedroom. Holding her up with one arm, he pu
lled the covers down, pushing her back into the sheets themselves, treating her gently.

  He was about to follow, but she raised a hand, a slow, sensual movement that had him frozen in his tracks before he knew what he was doing. Rolling onto all fours she crawled to the edge of the bed and began fiddling with his pants. Kincaid took this time to slide his hands down her bare back and caress her ass.

  The touch of his giant hands was so firm, so possessive that a soft moan slipped through her lips. She didn’t stop him when he reached around her sides and swiftly undid her own belt and button, having much better luck than she was having with him.

  “Fix this,” she said, putting as much sass into it as she lay back and stripped off her own pants, too busy watching him to put any effort into making it sexy. She simply yanked them down and tossed them on the floor. Her mind was elsewhere now.

  Haley needed him. Needed his touch. She wanted to feel him against her, in her, and she had only thoughts about that. The moment he dropped his underwear, she began to think of what it would feel like to have him take her.

  His body was hard. All of it. His abdomen rippled with muscles, each one perfectly sculpted, right down to the little v-shaped handles that stopped just above his hard cock. She’d never been with anyone so in shape before, and the excitement of that served to amplify her already considerable desires.

  She thought about taking some time to play around, but not today. Today she was too impatient. It had been too long. They could take their time as he slid inside her, but she was more than ready.

  Kincaid seemed to read her mind, climbing onto the bed and atop her, his knees gently spreading her legs wide, exposing her completely. As he leaned in to kiss her, one hand slid up the inside of her leg, gently teasing her with soft, slow movements, until Haley was practically shuddering in anticipation of what would happen next.

  “Stop teasing me,” she said, the words coming out in a growl. “I want you inside me. Now.”

  “I don’t want to hurt you,” he whispered, gently sucking on her earlobe as he waited for her reply.

  “Then go slowly, but don’t you dare waste any more time.”

  There was no getting around it. She was going to be sore the next day no matter what, but just then she needed what she needed, and Kincaid was going to give it to her.

  She shivered with nervous anticipation as he moved up closer. The pressure of him against her was almost more than she could take, but it was only when he first slipped inside of her that Haley lost control. It was unexpected and took her completely by surprise. The eruption of dormant desire burst its seal without warning.

  Muscles locked up, then spasmed. Her back arched and she bit down hard on her arm to keep the cries from growing louder than they already were. Bucking her hips upward, she tried to capture more of him, all of him, but succeeding with only another inch or so.

  Stars exploded across her vision. Haley had forgotten what it was like. What it felt like on such a primal level to lay with someone and make love. She’d so long buried that urge that the wonder and ecstasy accompanying it had faded into the dust of her memory, dimmed by the long time between partners.

  Now she remembered. Now she experienced it anew, and with it came the hunger for more. More…

  “More,” she gasped. “Please. I want more.”

  Kincaid growled and bit her neck, pushing deeper inside her.

  Haley screamed. It hurt, but beyond that, past the pain, there was more. Much, much more. “Oh, my God,” she said. Probably. Her body wasn’t responding properly, it might not have said anything intelligible.

  A presence descended over her. Kincaid lowering himself onto her completely, his elbows on either side of her head, his massive body atop hers. She welcomed the closeness, reveled in it, in the way he seemed to read her body, to listen to her breathing and feel her muscles. Each time she began to relax, he moved further inside her, until they were hip to hip, grinding against one another.

  “Kiss me,” she ordered.

  Kincaid grinned and obliged her. Haley had long ago lost all sense of time. They could have lain together for an hour. At least twice more, she climaxed. Her body was battered and weary, but above all else, it was satisfied. Almost. There was one thing missing.

  “I want you to fuck me now,” she said, pulling back just enough to look him straight in the eyes.

  Blue met hazel. They were locked on, totally lost in one another. Kincaid’s hips rose and fell, driving the air from her each time he thrust deep. Her eyes watched him, noticing the way his face twitched and the pleasure on his face as he did the same to her. It was that most intimate of moments, where all guard is dropped and the truth of a person is revealed.

  Haley liked what she saw. A lot. Kincaid was a good man. There was dark in his past, and hurt at the corners of his eyes, but in his core, at the depths of what made him Kincaid, there was nothing but good. She saw this, and once more felt at ease with her decision.

  “Yes,” she urged, watching him intently. She was enjoying this, but her body was spent. Her attention now turned to him. She wanted him to gain the same enjoyment, the same closeness she was currently feeling.

  “Haley, I’m going to—”

  “My stomach,” she urged, biting her lip, letting her eyes go big and round.

  His face tightened, sharp lines growing sharper and she watched, thoroughly aroused simply by looking at him as he withdrew swiftly and emptied himself onto the exposed skin of her stomach and up to her chest. The heat of it made her gasp in surprise, which delighted Kincaid.

  After he was spent, his face finished contorting, he half-sank, half-fell onto his side, bouncing the bed slightly as he collapsed next to her. Haley turned her head, still watching him. It never ceased to amuse her how soft and cuddly men became after sex. Personally, she thought it was adorable.

  Kincaid nuzzled up next to her, kissing her neck, her cheek and her ear. “I’ll get you a towel,” he said, still half out of breath.

  “No,” she said, reaching out to hold him tight.

  “Are you sure?”

  “Normally I’d say yes,” she told him with a smile. “But…I don’t want you to go. Not yet.”

  Kincaid kissing her cheek, his free arm coming around to stroke her forehead. “I’ll stay as long as you want me to, Haley.”

  She smiled happily.

  “As long as you want,” Kincaid echoed.

  She wanted to fall asleep, just like that, in his arms, feeling safe and secure, but with their fiery session over, the rest of the room came into focus again, and she was reminded of where they were, of the predicament they were in. Most importantly, she was reminded that she had exactly no idea what the hell they were going to do next.

  “Hold me,” she whispered, pulling his arm in tight, needing his presence more than ever.

  28

  He eased the floor plate back into place as quietly as he could, hoping it wouldn’t disturb her. Pausing, he listened for sounds that he’d awoken Haley, but the soft breathing from through the doorway below continued unabated.

  Breathing a sigh of relief, Kincaid crept down the last of the stairs, depositing the contents on the counter. It wasn’t precisely early, but the two of them hadn’t gotten to bed until very late, and he wanted Haley to get as much rest as possible. Things were bound to get more intense as they put the pressure on the people trying to frame him, and he needed her in top shape.

  Other than getting them some breakfast with cash he’d left stored in the safe house, Kincaid had spent most of his morning trying to wrestle the various pieces into some semblance of a picture, with almost no luck.

  They had plenty of angles to work with, but no matter how he turned them, nothing seemed to fit the puzzle. They were missing a key piece. In his mind, it was the piece that held it all together, linking the various puzzle fragments.

  There was the Canis attempt to frame him.

  The dead rogue mage Samuel Girard.

  The restaurant
.

  Krawll’s attempt to kill him.

  Laurent Canis, Reaver of High House Canis.

  Somehow, all of those things came together. Probably. It was entirely possible they were completely unrelated, but he doubted that. Occam’s Razor said that the simplest explanation was often the correct one.

  Now, if only I had a simple explanation.

  To add to his frustration, after their escape from Ursidae Manor last night, Kincaid knew he would be locked out of all his accounts, and unable to access any of the resources of his House. That left them with one black SUV, around twenty-thousand dollars in cash, two sets of ugly brown sweatpants, and a week’s worth of non-perishable food.

  How was he supposed to use that to unravel a mystery so far becoming more and more obscure the more they learned about it? His frustration was mounting, not to mention his pain.

  Nothing physical, by now he’d long recovered from the tickling Kvoss had given him. The Assassin might be an excellent killer, but he was not adept at torture, that was for sure. Kincaid had dealt with worse.

  No, the pain he felt was the insult to his honor—to have to not only escape from the custody of his own family, but to know that they believed so firmly in his guilt that they would come after him relentlessly, using whatever method they could to track him down. That cut deep, in a way nobody could see and only he could feel.

  Kaelyn is on your side, that’s all that matters.

  It might be all that spared his life if they caught up to him, but it wasn’t going to be enough. Her position as head of High House Ursa was still shaky. She’d only come to power because the King, her mate, had been killed during the uprising.

  Normally, the succession would fall to the Knight of the House, a position not of blood, but designated by the sitting ruler. Whether the ruler chose to step down, was killed, or simply died of natural causes, the Knight would be the next ruler of the House. The problem was, the Knight had been killed as well.