Twisted Devotion: A Fae Paranormal Romance

by Jessi Elliott

  “That’s it,” he says, “push your hips up.”

  I follow his direction, and a deep groan rumbles through him. His teeth scrape my neck, and I shiver in delight as he kisses me there, swirling his tongue over the sensitive skin.

  “Again,” he says against my skin, and I comply.

  I meet each thrust even as they quicken, and my climax builds, lifting me to new heights. It’s not going to take much more to set me off, and the hammering of Jackson’s heart as well as the sweat beading on his brow makes me think he’s as close as I am.

  One hand is pressed into the mattress beside my head, holding him up as he pounds into me, and his other hand continues teasing my clit. A few more thrusts and everything comes to a peak, exploding inside me with more pleasure than I’ve ever experienced.

  Jackson’s climax follows closely after mine, and he buries his face in my neck, breathing heavily as he pulls out of me, making me tingle with the aftershocks of my orgasm.

  “You are exquisite,” he murmurs, peppering kisses along my jaw until he reaches my mouth and brushes his lips against mine.

  My chest rises and falls. “That was incredible.” With my pulse still racing, I already want to do it again. And that terrifies me.

  Chapter 15

  After a night of incredible sex with Jackson, the last thing I want to do is sit beside him in a meeting with the fae leaders. Yet here we are, in Jackson’s living room, with Skylar and Nikolai. It’s not even nine in the morning.

  Skylar takes a sip of her coffee and sets the mug on the coffee table before glancing between us. “You fucked.” It’s not a question.

  My eyes go wide. “What?”

  Nikolai laughs, and she sighs. “Jackson, you just couldn’t keep your hands to yourself, could you?”

  He grins at her. “They are very talented hands. It’d be a shame for them to go to waste. Wouldn’t you agree, Kelsey?”

  I gape at him before having the sense to snap my mouth shut. Turning my attention to Nikolai, I say, “Can we get this over with, please?”

  He nods. “Do you have any updates to share?”

  I’ve done a decent job at sending daily emails, so I shrug. “You should have everything. The only real incident was at the facility, but you already read my report on that one.”

  Skylar scrolls through the tablet in her hand. “You handled that very well.”

  I nod. “Thanks. What happened to the woman?”

  Skylar pauses. “Nik?”

  He sighs. “She continued to express aggression toward our guards . . .”

  My stomach plummets. “Tell me you didn’t—”

  “Of course not, Kelsey. She’s human. We took her home and wiped her memories. She won’t be a problem,” he says.

  Relief eases the weight on my chest. “Okay.”

  “There have been a handful of attack attempts on the house,” Skylar says, looking at Jackson now.

  My eyes flit to him, but he doesn’t look surprised or concerned. “What? When was this? Why wasn’t I informed?”

  “The perimeter guards handled it before it was close enough to alert you. And some of them happened while the two of you were at the facility,” Nikolai explains.

  I pin Nikolai with a stare. “I don’t care. I want to be informed about every attempt, regardless of the magnitude. I thought that was clear from the beginning of this assignment.”

  Nikolai lifts his brows at me, and Jackson whistles under his breath. “I’ll make sure to let you know next time,” Nik says.

  “Thank you. Now, if there isn’t anything else to add, I’d like to shift the topic of the conversation to my replacement once my contract is fulfilled,” I say.

  Jackson stiffens beside me, and I can’t bring myself to look at him. I didn’t mean the question as an insult to him, but I am leaving eventually, and I’d like to know who is taking over my position given its importance.

  And Jackson’s.

  My heart skips, then speeds up. I haven’t given much thought to what life would be like after this assignment, and thinking about it now makes me a little nauseous.

  “We can discuss that, yes,” Nikolai says, “Skylar and I haven’t started vetting candidates yet, and I’m leaving tomorrow for a week to visit Aaron.”

  From what I’ve heard from Allison and Aurora, he hasn’t seen his son since everything went down with The Experiment. Having been an integral part of the organization, I can imagine Aaron’s been having a difficult adjustment since its collapse. At least he’s still kept in touch with his dad and Skylar. If Nikolai had to say goodbye to his son for a second time, I’m not sure how he would handle it. Not well, if I had to guess.

  Letting out a slow breath, I nod. “Okay. Let me know if you need help.” I try to throw some humor into the mix by adding, “It takes a special kind of crazy to deal with this one.” I jerk my thumb in Jackson’s general direction, earning a deep-throated chuckle.

  “Hey, quit trying to get rid of me so quickly. You’re still stuck with me for almost two months,” he says.

  I plaster the sweetest smile I can force onto my lips and flash it at him. “One month, three weeks, and four days.” I’d saved a countdown on my phone the day I took the assignment and I happened to glance at before the meeting.

  He blinks at me, then surprisingly, he frowns. It only lasts a second, but I catch it, and the sight makes my stomach drop. I guess I haven’t given a lot of thought to the end of my assignment. As much as I dreaded going into it, there’s a small part of me now that isn’t looking forward to it being over. Granted, that part is likely located between my thighs.

  Before I can say anything, Skylar clears her throat and says, “If there’s nothing else, Nik and I should get back to the hotel.” She looks at me. “Send me an email if you need anything.”

  “That’s it?” I ask, and she nods. “Seems like this could have been done over the phone. And not so early,” I finish after yawning.

  “They probably wanted to make sure you hadn’t hog-tied and gagged me and shoved me in a closet somewhere,” Jackson offers.

  Nikolai laughs. “Something like that,” he says, going on to elaborate, but I’m not awake enough yet to listen.

  With the meeting adjourned, Jackson and I head over to the facility for the afternoon. There aren’t any procedures scheduled, but Jax said he had paperwork to go through, so I lie on the couch in his office and stick my nose in a book while he works.

  My eyes blink open when my phone chimes on the table beside me, and I quickly glance around the room to find Jackson still behind the desk. I didn’t mean to doze off. I swipe my phone open and pull up the new message—it’s from Kyle.

  Whatcha up to? Want to meet for dinner tonight?

  I chew my bottom lip, wondering if I can get one of the senior guards to cover the evening rounds at the house.

  “You look deep in thought,” Jackson comments, leaning back in his chair as he watches me.

  “Kyle wants to have dinner,” I tell him.

  “The elusive foster brother?” he asks, to which I nod. “Interesting. Do you want to go?”

  “Of course.” I tap my phone to keep the screen from timing out. “I just . . . I don’t know. It’s still weird. And I’d have to find another guard to—”

  “Go. I’ll message Nikolai and see if Skylar can come back later to babysit me for the night.”

  I can’t help but smile. He didn’t have to do that—offer to give me the night off. Technically, when we’re at the house, I’m not on active guard duty, but after the attack at the facility, I’ve been on high alert no matter where we are. Having Skylar there will calm my nerves about not being there myself. “Yeah, okay. Thanks, Jax.”

  “My pleasure, Red.”

  I quickly type a reply to Kyle and haul myself off the couch. “I’m going to take a lap and check on things. You good here?”

  He nods, turning his attention back to his computer. “We can head home when you get back.”

  Ky
le texts me the address of an Indian restaurant in downtown Rockdale, and I meet him there shortly after six. The place is small and quiet. The lights are dim, but I recognize Kyle from across the room.

  He stands as I approach the table and hugs me. “Good to see you, Kels.”

  I smile at him, hanging my purse on the back of the chair before I sit. “You, too. I’m really happy I ran into you at the café.”

  “Same here,” he says, beaming. “I wish it hadn’t taken us so long to reconnect. I feel like we have a lifetime of things to catch up on.”

  He’s not wrong. Too bad I can’t share much of what’s happened in my life since he left it.

  The young-looking waiter approaches our table with a pitcher of water and tops off Kyle’s glass before filling mine. “Good evening,” he says. “Can I get you another drink?” he asks me.

  I shake my head. “Water is fine, thank you.”

  He nods. “And you, sir?”

  “I’m good, too, thanks.”

  “Will you be needing more time with the menus?”

  Considering I haven’t even had a chance to look at mine, I say, “Yes, please.”

  The waiter nods, wiping his hand on his apron, then walks back into the kitchen where soft music and the sounds of dishes clanging together float into the dining room.

  There are a few other tables around us with people eating their meals and chatting, but I do my best to tune out their words—and their emotions. I want to attempt to have a normal dinner with my foster brother.

  “Do you know what you’re getting?” I ask, still glancing over the menu in front of me.

  “I’m a plain guy. I’m going with the butter chicken with chick peas and rice.”

  “Mmm. That sounds good.” I fold my menu and look up at Kyle. “So, what’s new?”

  “Since I saw you the other day, or since we lived together years ago?”

  I chuckle. “Fair point. May as well start at the beginning.”

  Kyle nods. “After I was relocated, I had to switch schools. There was a teacher there I really came to like, who encouraged me to get into science. My foster parents, while very supportive, couldn’t afford to send me to college, so I started working as much as I could. I worked at a country club for a few summers as a server, which made me decent money. The tips were great, too, but having to work while being in school made keeping my grades up more difficult than I initially expected.

  “The Christmas before my high school graduation, my foster parents gave me the money for my first semester so I could get on my feet and settle in before getting a job.”

  “Wow,” I say. “That was generous of them.”

  He nods. “Fast forward through my bachelor’s degree, a.k.a four years of hell, living off very little sleep, coffee, and ramen noodles, and now I’m in grad school. Because apparently my undergrad wasn’t torture enough and I enjoy being deep in debt.”

  I press my lips together in a feeble attempt to mask my grin. “You’ve accomplished a lot, though,” I praise him. I never had the opportunity to go to college. Though, I suppose I could now—or, after this assignment—if I wanted to, but the desire to sit in a classroom for so many hours every week doesn’t do anything for me. I’ve learned a lot by the experiences I’ve had and that suits me just fine.

  Kyle smiles. “Thanks, Kels. I don’t have long to go now, which I’m grateful for. One final project this semester and then next is a work term.”

  Nodding along, I ask, “What’s the project?”

  “I have to work with a local business . . .”

  Kyle goes on to describe the project and I’m quickly lost in a fog of business terms I don’t understand. I should’ve brought Aurora to translate—damn business major.

  “That’s . . . Wow,” I finally comment, and he chuckles.

  “Yeah, I know. It’s a bunch of gibberish if you don’t know the lingo.”

  I nod in agreement. “Have you found a local business to work with?”

  He exhales a deep breath. “No, and I’m starting to panic a bit. The ones I’ve reached out to apparently don’t have the capacity to take me on.”

  I chew my bottom lip. “I think I have a solution. That is, if you’d be interested in working with a multi-million-dollar hotel entrepreneur.”

  His eyes go wide. “You definitely have my attention.”

  “I’m friends with the owner of the Westbrook Hotel downtown. I’m sure he’d be happy to work with you for this project. He’s worked with college students before.” The Westbrook Inc. Gala is coming up and it’ll be the first one since Tristan took the company back from Skylar. Should be an interesting event, and I’m sure Tristan could use the help.

  “Really? That would be amazing.” His eyes glimmer with appreciation. “Thank you so much, Kels. Seriously. You just saved my butt.”

  “Happy to help,” I say with a smile. “I’ll have Tristan get in touch with you.”

  “Thank you,” he says again, holding my gaze before sighing. “Okay. I’ve bored you to death with my life story, now it’s your turn.”

  I open my mouth then close it. This is going to be tricky without lying to him, which I physically can’t do. Luckily, the waiter comes back and buys me a few minutes while he takes our orders.

  Once he’s gone again, I purse my lips and say, “After we left the care of the Youngs, I wasn’t placed in a new home. I stayed with a friend for a while. You know as well as I do how over-populated the system is, so they weren’t about to fight to get me into a new home.”

  Tristan dealt with my social worker, manipulated her mind to make her believe I was old enough to be considered a legal adult, and then he let me stay at the hotel while I adjusted to the newness of being fae. It took almost a year before I felt secure enough to go out on my own, and that’s when he moved me into my apartment, which he paid for until I started making money. “Eventually, I decided to start my own training facility to work one-on-one with people, which I did for a while.”

  Kyle nods. “And now you’re in the personal security game,” he recalls. “You work with any celebs or royals?”

  “Does a royal pain in my ass count?”

  Kyle laughs deeply, his eyes sparkling. “Oh damn. I really have missed you, Kelsey.” He takes a sip of his water as I smile at him. “How long have you been at this job?”

  “A little over a month,” I say, “and I’ve got just under two months left.”

  His brows lift. “What’s next? Are you staying in Rockdale?”

  I shake my head, my stomach sinking when he frowns. “I like to travel. There’s so much of the world I want to see, and I’m lucky that I can do my job pretty much anywhere.”

  “I understand that. I wish you were sticking around, though.”

  I smile. “I’ll keep in touch, I promise.”

  He reaches across the table and squeezes my hand. “You better. I just got you back in my life. It would suck to lose you.”

  I swallow the lump in my throat and squeeze his hand back. “Right back at you.”

  The house is quiet when I get back from dinner with Kyle. Skylar lets me inside and I lock the door behind her, thanking her for covering me tonight so I could go out.

  Once her car pulls out of the driveway, I climb the stairs and kick off my shoes, enjoying the feel of the soft carpet under my feet.

  I extend my hearing to find Jackson, and my cheeks tinge with warm when the sound of his shower filters through. My pulse kicks up a notch at the thought of him naked and soaking wet.

  Shaking my head, I push the wildly inappropriate thoughts away and walk out of my room. I need something sweet to distract me, and the cupcakes I made sound like a great snack right now.

  I walk down the hall toward the stairs to the main level, but can’t help but pause at Jackson’s door. He’s left it open, and before I can stop myself, I’m walking inside. The room is dark save for the bit of light coming from the bathroom. At least that door is mostly shut, albeit not completely clos
ed.

  Swallowing hard, I approach the doorway, my heart hammering louder in my chest with each step I take. I should turn around and leave. Instead, my hand reaches for the door and I push it open enough to step inside and close the door.

  The white marble floor is cold on my bare feet, so I tiptoe toward the giant shower. Steam fills the room, fogging the glass, and I take a deep breath before pulling my shirt over my head and dropping it onto the floor with Jackson’s discarded clothing. It doesn’t take long for me to remove the rest of my clothes and step up to the shower door.

  Jackson’s back is to me, so I slip inside and pull the door closed, sucking in a breath when he turns to face me.

  “Kelsey,” he murmurs, and his soft, mildly surprised voice makes me want to melt into his arms. “What are you—?”

  I press my finger against his lips, making him pause. “Kiss me,” I whisper before reaching up and running my fingers through his hair, gripping the back of his head and pulling him to me. His lips crush mine, kissing me deeply, hungrily, and his arms come around me, pulling me tight against him.

  A deep flush paints its way across my chest when his firm cock presses against my thigh. My eyes fly to his face to find him smirking at me.

  “How was dinner?” he asks, slowly massaging the tension out of my shoulders with deft fingers.

  “Mmm,” I moan, fighting to keep my eyes open. “It was really nice.”

  “Good,” he says, kissing me again.

  I don’t fight it anymore, letting my eyes fall shut as I deepen the kiss and push him back against the tile of the shower.

  He grumbles, grabbing my hips and spinning us around so I’m pressed between him and the wall. “You forget,” he says against my mouth, “I’m in charge here.” His fingers wrap around my throat and hold me in place while his mouth continues devouring mine. His lips trail from my mouth to my jaw, nipping and sucking gently before moving down my neck and sucking so hard I gasp in surprise, my eyes snapping open.

  I nod slowly, swallowing before I ask, “What do you want?”