what he imagined was her first orgasm.
Kal moved up her body so he could look her in the
eyes as she started to regain some consciousness. "That's
just the first one, tonight, darling. By the time we're done,
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we're not going to know our own names."
"But what about you, Kal?" She asked suddenly
concerned. "Don't you need to…?"
"Oh," he laughed. "I'm so hard from wanting you,
my little love, and I intend to have you. Don't you worry
about that."
Isabelle's gaze travelled to his penis and he almost
came right there. "Is it going to fit inside of me?" she asked
innocently.
"Isabelle, we were made for each other. It's going to
fit perfectly inside of you. Although you are so small and
tight, baby, I'm afraid it's going to hurt a little bit the first
time. I've heard it can hurt women a bit when they first try
it if the man isn't careful, and I'm going to try to be careful
but you need to tell me if any of it hurts."
Kal reached down and inserted one finger inside of
her. He loved the trust that she was giving him and he
wanted to make sure that she was ready for her first time
with him.
"Isabelle," he sighed lightly. "You don't need to
worry about getting pregnant. It's not the right moon cycle."
Deep in his soul he wished he could get her pregnant right
away, it would be a wonderful way to solidify what was
happening between them. To actually create life with
Isabelle would mean that he really could let everything go
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and just focus on his future with her. But it was not the
right time and he didn't even know if Isabelle wanted to
have children.
She shook her head. "What?"
"I'm the only one who can get you pregnant." He
kissed her head gently. "We're designed to only be able to
do that together but it also has to be done at the right time
when the earth lines up with the sun and during the right
moon cycle. The earth is lined up right but the moon cycle
is wrong. It's complicated, basically my understanding is
that we have four times a year when we can create life and
now is not that time." He hoped he wasn't spoiling things
by talking like that; they should probably have discussed it
beforehand.
"Given that we're soul mates and that we live
roughly two hundred years, I'm sure there will be time for
that."
"How do you hear what I'm thinking so clearly? I
can't read minds like that." Kal laughed.
"I never knew that I could either and so far it only
seems to be working with you. Must be one of those 'we're
made for each other' things? You can control energy, create
energy bubbles to stop bullets, disintegrate bad guys using
electricity from the sky and I can read your mind and go
back and witness events in time but not stop them. Seems
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like fate gave you all the strength and gave me the ability to
assist you and stop you from over thinking things by
yourself." Isabelle caressed his hair.
"Right now, all I can think is that I've got to get
inside of you." He gently slid down her body, taking his
truly erect manhood into his hand. He wanted this to be
good for her, he wanted it to be something she never forgot.
As gently as he could possibly manage, he thrust himself
inside of her feeling for the first time like he'd come home.
He could feel her tight muscles begin to stretch to
accommodate him as he broke through the previously
unbroken barrier inside of her. Isabelle let out a slight
wince that was immediately replaced by a moan as her
body recognized that Kal was actually inside her. His
thrusts began gently, giving her body a chance to get used
to the motion but Isabelle was a quick learner and she soon
began to respond to his rhythm, matching him as her hips
rose off the bed to meet him.
Kal had never known that sex could feel like this.
Every muscle movement, every sound from her throat,
every turning of her head or fluttering of her eyelids
seemed to drive him more and more crazy until he was sure
he was lost in a frenzied stupor. How could anything be this
sweet, this perfect and how had he lived without it? There
was nothing on earth that mattered except Isabelle and
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being inside of her. He knew he was going too fast, too
hard but he couldn't seem to control himself. Her tight body
wrapped around him and he had to take what it was
offering. He had to have more of her.
The pressure built inside of him. In and out and he
moved, desperate for more, desperate to give her
everything, desperate to just be inside of her. He screamed
her name over and over as his release hit him at the same
time he felt hers strike her. The only one ever this deep
inside of her, he wished he could spend eternity right where
he was. This was where he belonged, where he should have
always been.
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Chapter Eleven
Sometime later as Isabelle lay still, allowing the
minor tremors to resonate through her, she let her eyes
open. Kal lay next to her on his stomach. His head turned
towards her, his eyes closed as he absentmindedly stroked
the side of her face. She let herself stare at him for a few
minutes, knowing he was unaware of her observation. He
really was a beautiful man.
No one would ever call him pretty—his features
were hard. But she knew now they could be caring and
gentle. He seemed to have been made for warfare, his
muscles hard and his shoulders broad and she knew from
brief glances into his head—and it was happening more and
more that she caught glimpses of what he thought about—
that he thought very little of himself outside of that purpose
but she knew in her heart he had been waiting for her and
that he needed her as much as she needed him.
Something was coming for them and the joining
they had just shared had made them both stronger. She
knew without him telling her that he intended to avenge her
parents. He intended to find the still unnamed murderer,
police officer or not, and end his life—even if he had been
under the influence of someone else. She knew she should
stop him from this venture, that it could get him killed. But
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she also knew that Kal couldn't change who he was
anymore than she could. Asking him to change his warrior
nature would be like asking a tiger to change its stripes. She
was deeply in love with him, even if she shouldn't have
been, and
loving him was going to mean living with the
dangers that came with him. She knew she could do it; she
had been born to do it.
They had been selected for each other even before
they were born.
Alone she was weak, and although he was stronger,
he would be a force now that they had found each other.
She knew nothing of the history of the Outsiders but from
what Kal had told her they were meant to go through life
joined with their other half, each better with the other one's
presence. He belonged to her and she was going to take
care of him and not lose him to either physical danger or
his own demon thoughts.
The whispered chanting that had been with them for
hours slowly started to recede in her ears and she found she
was lonely for it. She knew Kal would stir when it stopped,
missing the sound of it, too, so she took one last moment to
try to see if she could read his thoughts. How deep could
she go? Could she read his memories? Charma had read
and healed hers, making it possible for her to function, to
join with Kal. Could she only read what he was currently
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thinking the second he thought it?
She found herself grasping for his mind with her
own thoughts. He was sleepy, she could feel that
immediately. Achingly tired, to be more exact, and she was
sure that he almost never slept, had never slept well even as
a child, and needed to desperately. This made perfect sense
to Isabelle because in her dreams, the ones that she was
now convinced Kal shared with her even if he didn't
remember them, Kal always left sooner than she did. He
never seemed to have time, even in his sleep, to really relax
for very long.
Her heart reached out for him. He may have been
one of the three sent immediately to Veli, aware of who he
was, aware of his own powers and heritage, but he had also
always known that he wasn't safe. Even as a child he had
known evil was looking for them and had felt a deep
responsibility to protect his small clan. She had been
luckier than he was. She may have had no one to explain
what was happening to her and she might have
unknowingly had to repress her powers, but she had been
loved and protected, blissfully unaware as a child that
anything could ever go wrong.
She could see that he had deliberately placed
himself in danger again and again, desperate to draw the
attention away from the others, thinking somehow that their
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survival was more important than his own. She wanted to
weep from needing to comfort him, from needing to make
him see how truly important he was. The chanting stopped
and her ears were met with sudden quiet. Kal's eyes began
to flutter open and as soon as he saw her, he smiled.
"What are you doing?" He rubbed his nose in her
hair as he began to place kisses on her head.
"Reading your mind," she answered truthfully. She
wasn't a liar and she didn't want to lie to him, ever.
"Ooh. Seeing my dirty little thoughts about your
sexy little body?" He practically cooed in ear, apparently
unable to stop himself from wanting a second go.
"No." Isabelle's insides started to melt. "I can see
that you're exhausted and I think I saw flashes from Bosnia
and Afghanistan."
He yawned. "Was I thinking about Bosnia and
Afghanistan? Why was I thinking about that?"
"I imagine you are always thinking about it, sort of.
Why do you do that? Why do you place yourself in danger
to report in places where no one with a lick of self-
preservation should be hanging out?" Isabelle asked,
coming up on her elbow to brush the hair out of his eyes.
"Well," he started. His gaze bore into hers. "I
suppose it's threefold, really. First on a very basic level,
someone has to tell the stories about the atrocities that take
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place or no one would tell them."
"Fair enough," Isabelle answered. "But I suspect
you don't really have that reporter drive that I've heard
mentioned by any newsperson I've ever met. Do you really
get off by finding the story and reporting it?"
He shook his head. "No. You're right. The other two
reasons are probably more important. I like to put myself
out there for, lack of a better word, the Darkness, or at least
the guy who is currently personifying the Darkness, to find
me so it's always looking for me and not for Charma,
Marina, or Leonardo. Or even Veli, I guess. Not that they
couldn't handle it, Leonardo has a fierce side to him even if
he can seem cool and calculating, and Veli is maybe the
best warrior our people ever had. God knows Marina lived
through atrocities and Charma has seen it all in people's
heads. But somehow I've always felt it was my job to take
it, to handle it, maybe to die from it. And I guess I'm also
drawn to the evil myself and I want to see if I can really
withstand it, if I can stop myself from becoming evil. The
others, I don't think they feel it like I do. Like they could
change, become part of it. I could change. I've always know
that was possible."
"No, you couldn't." She bit her lip. "I know these
things, I can see in your head."
Kal laughed out loud at that remark and she
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grinned. It felt great to laugh together.
"You've been reading minds for twenty-four hours
and already you're an expert, huh?" He grinned, tickling her
stomach.
"It's like using a muscle you haven't used in awhile.
It hurts a little bit but I know how to work it and I think the
more I do it, the better I will get at it," she answered.
"Well feel free to practice on me. I will have no
secrets from you."
"I don't want you going to those places anymore,"
she confessed. "I want you to stay here and take care of
me." Maybe it wasn't modern, but it was how she felt.
"You're safe here, baby, I won't leave you." He
smoothed her hair on her head.
"Whatever this evil is, it found me and I wasn't
using powers. It wants me and it's looking for me. It knows
you're with me. It's going to come here and we've got to
figure out how to fight it. I'm strong and I'm a fast learner
but you are sheer power, Kal, and I need you," she blurted
out, feeling better for having said it but worried he would
think she was weak.
"Then I guess it's a good thing I'm head over heels
for you and have no intention of leaving you, ever. I will
stay here while Leo and Veli figure out how to train you in
your powers and act like the lion guarding the lair. How's
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&nbs
p; that sound?"
"Perfect," she purred, reaching out for him.
"I have to tell you," he confessed. "I get a little
funny around full moons."
"Don't tell me you're going to become a wolf and
now I'm going to become one," she demanded.
"No," he laughed. "We all have our little quirks.
Marina needs to be near water or she gets a little stir crazy.
Charma has to have enough sunlight on her every day or
she starts to become really withdrawn. Leonardo needs
time alone every day. Veli has some sort of ritual at sunrise
and I start to get really antsy during a full moon. I feel
exposed and vulnerable somehow. I start to kind of prowl,
to pick fights. In college I used to take myself away till the
moon changed. I had to have Marina spell-cast me a decent
test schedule so I didn't flunk."
"Spell-cast again, huh? Marina seems pretty good at
it."
"Marina can manipulate fate a little bit. Not major
things, mind you, but little things like your tire. Doing it
over space is a new thing for her, I guess she and Leonardo
have been working on it. I think she could do more than she
does but she's afraid. Not that she'd admit that, she just
pretends like she can't do them."
"I have so much to learn," she sighed. "And I
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shouldn't be feeling this good."
"In a few weeks, Charma's help will wear off a little
bit. You'll start to mourn more then, but it will be in a way
that won't destroy you. You'll feel pain but not so
overpowering that you can't get up or live your life. She
wouldn't have done it if she didn't think you were in
danger. Don't feel guilty. I don't think your parents would
want you to be destroyed. Your mom especially looked
tough. I think she'd want you to fight," Kal said.
"You're right, she would." She couldn't stop herself
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