by I. T. Lucas
He could see a lot of himself in Kian’s sister. She was extroverted, confident, stylish, and had a good sense of humor. And on top of that, she was also a professor of neuroscience.
Quite impressive.
What Kalugal found odd, though, was that the goddess’s daughter had given Jacki a haircut and even styled it for her. How had she even learned to do that?
Apparently, Amanda had many talents.
If he hadn’t met Jacki first, and if Amanda was single, he would have courted her like there was no tomorrow. Not only was she perfect in every regard, but their union could have also united their people.
But the Fates had different plans, and now that he had Jacki, he wouldn’t trade her even for Annani’s daughter.
Besides, they were cousins, so there was that.
Maybe that was what had upset Jacki? Perhaps the same kind of thoughts had gone through her head?
It made sense. He still remembered Jacki’s freak-out when she found out that his mother was a goddess.
And Jacki had described herself on several occasions as a nobody.
Besides, Amanda was so over the top in everything that she could intimidate a queen, let alone a girl who grew up in foster homes and had no higher education. She might have inadvertently made Jacki feel inferior.
As he headed upstairs, Kalugal resolved to pay Jacki numerous compliments to shore up her confidence.
Knocking on her door, he waited patiently until she opened up.
“Hello, gorgeous.” He pulled her into his arms and dipped his nose into her hair. “You smell absolutely fantastic.”
She tilted her head up and frowned. “It’s the perfume you got for me, and I’ve been using it every day.”
“It must be the shampoo then.” He wrapped his arm around her waist and led her to the master bedroom’s sitting area.
Shamash had already brewed coffee, and a tray with cookies, fruit, and nuts waited for them on the table.
It wasn’t a romantic setup, but it was cozy.
For tomorrow, he would have to come up with something more exciting. Perhaps he should scatter flower petals all over? Or light scented candles? And he definitely planned to put on soft classical music to enhance the romantic atmosphere.
The preparations would have to be delegated to Shamash, so everything would be ready for their first night together.
“What’s that smirk about?” Jacki asked.
He hadn’t been aware of smiling. “I’m just happy.” He took her hand and kissed the back of it. “Tomorrow, you will be my wife, or mate. Which term do you prefer?”
“I like mate because it’s gender-neutral.”
He smiled again. “I guess it’s more politically correct than the terms husband and wife, but it doesn’t work well in a ceremony. If we had someone officiate over our wedding, he or she would have said, I pronounce you as mates. You may now kiss the mate.”
Jacki chuckled. “It sounds funny. I think 'you may kiss the bride' should stay.”
Kalugal pulled her closer against his side. “If it pleases you, I can ask Kian to officiate.”
“No, I like the idea of us pledging ourselves to each other.” She looked down at her engagement ring. “That’s what’s important, right? The promise we make to each other.”
He’d managed to lift her mood for a few moments, but now her anxiety spiked again.
“What troubles you, my Jacqueline?”
She smiled. “Is it so obvious?”
“To me, it is. Has someone said something to upset you? Talk to me.”
Taking in a deep breath, she looked him in the eyes. “I don’t want to wait until tomorrow.”
As his shaft sprang to attention, Kalugal opened his mouth to respond, but Jacki wasn’t done.
Squeezing his hand, she smiled excitedly, and the cloud that had been hanging over her head dissipated, turning into a halo of sunshine. “Let’s pledge ourselves to each other right now, just you and I.” She turned her face heavenward. “With fate or God or whatever higher power brought us together as our witness.”
74
Jacki
As the words left Jacki’s mouth, a sense of rightness enveloped her.
Her and Kalugal’s union was first and foremost a covenant between them. She might have needed the reassurance of having witnesses a few days ago, but that was no longer the case.
Kalugal loved her, she felt it with every fiber of her being, but it was time for both of them to stop playing chicken and lay it all out.
Except, her man, who was usually so eloquent, seemed lost for words and looked like he needed help to breathe.
Jacki squeezed his hand. “Did I shock you?”
He shook his head. “I don’t have my pledge ready.” He looked in the direction of the bedroom. “I have nothing ready. I wanted to make it perfect for you, with flower petals, and wine, scented candles, and soft music.”
Jacki smiled. It seemed that Kalugal had been anxious as well, and he’d put a lot of thought into planning the perfect wedding night for her.
This was just as much uncharted territory for him as it was for her, and thinking about preparations had eased the weight of expectations that by now had reached monumental proportions.
It was kind of funny that she’d had the guts to say that she was ready, but the great Kalugal didn’t have the guts to admit that he wasn’t.
“If you want to wait until tomorrow, that’s fine. You made all those beautiful plans, and I don’t want to shortchange them because suddenly I don’t feel like waiting anymore.”
With the glow in his eyes telling a different story than the excuses he’d just given her, Jacki had a feeling that her proposal was about to get accepted.
“What prompted this?”
“A gut feeling.”
He lifted a brow.
“All right.” Jacki let out a breath. They were supposed to lay it all out. “So, Amanda said something about a bond between immortals that can only form when they become intimate with one another. But the bond doesn’t happen for everyone, only for those fated to be together. And I got scared that maybe it’s not going to happen for us, and then I thought that we need to be brave and just admit that we love each other and that this is it for both of us, and that we don’t need witnesses to validate how we feel about each other.” She sucked in a breath. “Sorry. I always talk too fast when I’m nervous.”
Kalugal smiled. “I love you.” Wrapping his arms around her, he lifted her onto his lap. “Tell me that you love me.”
“I love you.”
“Now, kiss me.”
Smashing her lips over Kalugal’s and winding her arms around his neck at the same time, Jacki plastered herself to him and held on tight.
When she came up for a breath, she pulled back a little and looked into his eyes. “I’m never letting you go. You are mine.”
“And you are mine, and I’m never letting go of you. That will do as far as our pledges to one another. We can embellish on them tomorrow.” Holding on to her, he pushed to his feet and started walking toward his bedroom.
Correction, their bedroom.
The bed was only thirty feet or so away, but it was enough time for Jacki to pepper Kalugal’s face and neck with soft kisses. “I love your smell.” She buried her face in the crook of his neck. “Not the cologne, but the natural smell of your skin. I can lick you all over.”
The glow in his eyes intensified, and his fangs elongated. “Careful, my love. I’m in no state for teasing. Your best defense is to appear virginal and a little scared.”
She chuckled nervously. “I don’t need to try too hard. This is precisely how I feel.”
Somehow, he managed to hold her up with one arm while flinging the comforter off with the other, and then he laid her down gently on the bed.
When she reached for him, he gripped her wrists, pulled her arms over her head, and then let go.
Jacki stayed exactly as he’d positioned her. She knew what he wanted, and wh
y he wanted it like that, and she was fine with that.
Sitting on the bed beside her, Kalugal looked at her with glowing, predatory eyes, his fangs protruding slightly over his lower lip.
But she wasn’t scared.
Kalugal was a predator, his cultured and sophisticated veneer skin deep. The only way he could summon the patience and softness she needed for her maiden voyage was if she offered him her complete submission.
Not a problem.
That was precisely what she craved.
75
Kalugal
The trust in Jacki’s eyes was as precious to Kalugal as her declaration of love, and it coated his iron-clad determination with an added layer of graphene.
Even if it killed him, he was going to give her a maiden voyage that was all about pleasure and not an ounce of pain.
But Kalugal wasn’t deluding himself. It would be extremely difficult to stifle his urges and give Jacki the tenderness and the attention she deserved.
The last time he’d been with a woman was the night Jin and Jacki had made their first attempt at tethering him, and that had been weeks ago. Making love to a virgin after the longest dry spell of his adult life was asking for trouble, but it wasn’t as if he could have done anything about it. Regrettably, masturbation was not a viable solution for an immortal male, and slaking his need with another woman had been out of the question as well.
Perhaps that should have clued him in that he was in love with Jacki long before she’d coaxed the truth out of him.
As much as Kalugal had tried to keep his heart out of it until Jacki transitioned, he’d failed, and he’d been fooling himself for days.
He was in love with her.
“I love you.” He encircled one slender ankle with his palm, lifted her foot, and took her shoe off, then did the same with the other.
Lowering himself by her side, he wrapped his arm around her middle and turned her toward him.
Despite her trusting expression, Jacki’s muscles felt tensed, and her body was stiff in his arms.
“You are so beautiful, my Jacqueline.”
Holding her gently, he kissed her slowly, softly, and as his tongue penetrated her mouth, Jacki moaned, and her body softened in his arms.
Pulling the blouse out of her pants, he slid his hand under the soft fabric and put it on her quivering belly. “Are you scared?”
“A little.” She chuckled nervously. “Your fangs are really long.”
So that was the problem. She trusted him but feared his fangs.
“I promise that they will bring you only pleasure.” He slid his hand upward and cupped one bra-covered breast.
“Oh, God.” Jacki arched up.
He chuckled. “Yes?”
That brought a smile to her face. “Why does your hand on my breast feel so much better than mine?”
“No one has ever touched you here?” He circled his thumb around her nipple.
Her smile wilted. “Not like this.”
A growl started low in his throat. “Tell me who was the bastard that groped you, and I’ll tear him apart with my bare fangs.”
“Please, I don’t want to think about anything other than you and me, right here, right now.”
Jacki was right. The last thing he needed was to add aggression to his lust. This was about her and her pleasure and nothing else.
Starting on the blouse’s bottom button, Kalugal concentrated on slowly opening one at a time and kissing every inch of skin he exposed. By the time he reached the top one, he was back in full control of himself.
But as the silk parted, sliding down to the sides and exposing Jacki’s bra-covered breasts, that control wavered again.
“Gorgeous.” He dipped his head and kissed her nipple through the sheer fabric of her bra. Resisting the urge to suckle and lick, he moved to the other one and kissed it softly as well. “Let’s get rid of this?”
As Jacki nodded and lifted her back, he removed her blouse, opened the bra clasp, and then slid the shoulder straps down her arms.
After tossing both garments on the floor, he leaned back and gazed at her beautiful breasts. Her pink nipples were so erect that he knew they must be aching, waiting for his lips and tongue to provide them with relief.
“Perfection.”
Damn. Taking it slow was going to be the most challenging thing he’d ever done, but he was determined to succeed. Rubbing his hand over his mouth, Kalugal cleared a drop of venom from his lips.
Jacki’s eyes were glazed with passion, her panting breaths the best invitation to give her more.
Lowering his head slowly, deliberately, he circled one turgid nipple with his lips and suckled. As Jacki gasped and arched up, he laid his arm across her chest to hold her down and kept suckling, flicking his tongue gently over the heated point and teasing more sexy moans out of her.
She didn’t sound or act like any of the other women he’d been with. There were innocence and wonder in her eyes, in her soft, throaty moans, and in the way she moved.
Through Jacki, Kalugal got to experience the marvel of discovery as if it was his first time as well.
Moving to her other breast, he drew her nipple into his hot mouth, but he didn’t neglect the one he’d just left, cupping, plumping, and thumbing the wet, turgid peak.
76
Jacki
The sensations bombarding Jacki’s body were making her delirious.
Was sex like that for everyone?
If it was, then no wonder people were so obsessed with it. But Jacki suspected that it wouldn’t have been nearly as intense with anyone other than Kalugal.
After all, she’d experimented with self-pleasuring. She’d cupped her own breasts, tweaked her own nipples, and massaged that little bundle of nerves at the apex of her feminine center. But although the sensations had been pleasant, they had been a weak echo of what Kalugal was doing to her body.
She was on fire, and the more he sucked and licked and even gently pinched, the more she craved. Her core tightened, frustrated that it had nothing to clutch around, and that little bundle of nerves pulsated and throbbed urgently, seeking relief in any sort of friction she could provide it.
Tilting her hips, Jacki rubbed against the leg he’d draped over her to hold her in place, but the angle was wrong and the relief only marginal.
As Kalugal released her nipple, Jacki mourned the loss of the wet heat of his mouth, but he quickly replaced it with his other hand, cupping both breasts, and started a line of tender kisses and small licks down her belly.
Except, when he reached a barrier, he let go of her breasts, rose onto his knees, and pulled her pants down her legs.
The predatory fanged smile he flashed her was both charming as hell and a little scary. He looked like a tiger eyeing a tasty treat a moment before devouring it.
“Oh, my beautiful Jacqueline, how absolutely perfect you are.”
Still fully dressed, Kalugal hooked his thumbs in her panties and dragged them slowly down her hips, leaving her completely bare for him.
If not for the hungry look in his eyes, Jacki would have felt shy, but the approval in his words and his expression made her feel beautiful, sexy, and desired.
God, she wanted him so much.
Tossing her panties to the floor, Kalugal bent forward and dipped his head between her spread thighs, so his mouth was aligned with her mound. For a long moment, he just stared, and Jacki fought the urge to close her legs.
But then he kissed the very top, so softly and gently that if she weren’t so aroused, she probably wouldn’t have felt it, and then he lifted his head to look at her as if asking permission to continue.
Priceless.
Jacki knew what Kalugal was about to do and why, and she loved him all the more for it. He was being so selfless, thinking only of her pleasure and denying himself for as long as he could.
The restraint required would have tested the self-control of any male, let alone an immortal with a ferocious sex appetite who she knew for
a fact hadn’t slaked it with anyone for a very long time.
Jacki nodded.
With a sabretooth smile, he parted her wet folds with his thumbs and pressed his tongue against her throbbing clitoris.
Crying out, she arched into his mouth.
With a groan, he slid his hands under her buttocks and lifted her, opening her up for his expert ministrations.
Using just the very tip of his tongue, he probed her entrance with gentle flicks that were designed to accustom her to the sensation rather than penetrate, but Jacki wished that he would hurry up and relieve the aching emptiness inside her.
Instead, that talented tongue of his slid up through her folds, flicked at her clit, once, twice, and then his lips encircled the little nub, and he sucked.
Jacki cried out, and if not for Kalugal’s tight grip on her butt cheeks, she would have surged up like a rocket.
His fingers digging into the soft flesh, he held on and suckled rhythmically, causing her core to clench with each gentle tug.
The orgasm building up inside of her was gaining momentum with every pull of his lips, and Jacki was desperate for it to reach its culmination.
Except, too many of her self-pleasuring attempts had reached this point only to fizzle out and never peak.
This time was going to be different, though. Kalugal played her body as if it was a musical instrument that he had complete mastery over.
His lips still encircling the most sensitive spot on her body, he lowered her bottom to the bed and pulled his hands out. Parting her folds with his fingers, he gently penetrated her with just a tip of his pointer.
“More,” she groaned impatiently.
He lifted his head. “Patience, my Jacqueline. You are very tight.”
Reluctantly, she nodded.
Dipping back down, he replaced the finger with his tongue, pushing the tip inside as far as it would go, which wasn’t far at all.
