She gasped as she felt his kiss and gasped again as he began to lick and suck at her.
She cried out, “Enough. I want you inside me.”
He covered her body with his as she closed her fist around him again before guiding him inside her.
He had been frantic to join with her. Now he went still, looking down at her, meeting her gaze.
“My one and only love,” he murmured.
She reached up to touch his face, her eyes full of wonder. “I never thought to have this.”
“You have me. As long as I live.”
“And after.”
“What?” he asked, not understanding
“There is no death here unless the gods decree it.”
He hadn’t thought about the future—about what it might mean for him. Ultimately. He could hardly wrap his head around it, but he stopped worrying about what would be as she began to move under him.
He picked up the rhythm, slowly at first and then with more force. He wanted this lovemaking to last. But the moment was too emotionally charged. Both of them surged against each other, driving for completion.
He struggled to wait for her, but when her hands clasped his buttocks, he came in a great roiling climax. And he felt her exploding with him.
They hung onto each other as the storm swept them away in time and space. To that place that only the two them could enter.
And when they floated back to earth, he raised his head and stared down at her again, a grin on his face.
“I never would have imagined this. Permission to be with you in this place.”
“I never imagined myself with anyone.”
“How long can I stay here now?”
“Until morning, but it will seem longer. I can stretch the time.”
He settled down beside her, clasping her to him, marveling that they belonged together now.
He didn’t know exactly how it was going to work, but they would find out—together.
He couldn’t hold back a surge of joy as the true implications sank in. For the first time since he’d lost his leg, he had a future he craved. A future that included the woman he loved—the woman who loved him.
oOo
Epilogue
Seventeen years later
Frank Decorah cuddled his beloved against his side, so thankful that this amazing woman was still with him. Every time he looked at her, he marveled at her beauty—and her youth. There was not a gray hair on her head. Not a hint of sagging in her marvelous breasts. She looked exactly the same as she had when they’d first met one very strange night at the Naval Medical Center. Too bad he couldn’t say the same for himself. His hair was turning gray, and his jawline wasn’t quite as firm as when he’d been a Navy Lieutenant Commander. But he kept his body in excellent shape, thanks to the gym he’d installed in the back room of his house—overlooking the gardens that Ariel tended for him. By magic. He had no work to do there. He had only to enjoy the flower beds, fountains and sculpture she had artfully arranged.
He lived in an old farmhouse he’d picked up for a good price after finishing rehab at Naval Medical and resigning his commission.
The property was in the low-rent district between Washington, DC, and Baltimore. Twenty acres in Beltsville, near the Agricultural Research Center, which gave him a buffer zone between himself and the creeping urbanization that had overtaken the once rural area.
The house itself was shielded from the world by the force field Ariel had erected. Nobody got inside unless he wanted them in here, and the visitors had been few and far between.
Which was how he liked it. He and Ariel had redone the interior—the easy way, by magic. He had only to show her a picture in a magazine or on the computer screen, and she made it real.
The house was a refuge, like her house in the other plane. He’d fought demons with Ariel, sometimes using modern technology like Tasers and computers that were foreign to her. A Taser did a lot of damage to a demon. More than bullets, which tended to go right through them.
But he’d also established something very worldly of his own—a detective agency called Decorah Security that took on clients others might have turned down, clients with problems a normal agency wasn’t equipped to handle—where the line between the invisible world and this one wasn’t always so clear cut. He’d assembled a team of men and women with special powers. And he had an instinct for knowing which ones to send on which assignments. He sometimes even silently helped clients realize that they should hire his agency.
And over the past few years he’d opened offices in other cities so his operatives could be on a case in minutes, if necessary.
Along the way he’d made a lot of money—much of it from a grateful client who’d left him a small fortune in her will. He paid it forward, taking jobs at cut rates when someone couldn’t afford to pay.
He loved his job, and he loved searching out people who could provide something extra to Decorah Security. He had a couple of werewolves on his staff. As well as other operatives with various useful paranormal powers, like the ability to tune in on the last memories of dead people. And he was always on the lookout for other men and women who would fit into his program.
The phone on the bedside table buzzed, and Ariel raised her head, but she didn’t pick up the instrument. As far as anyone knew, he lived alone.
He pulled the receiver to this ear. “Yes?”
It was Zack Marshall, one of his werewolves, who had the job of monitoring communications at the office that night.
“Sorry to disturb you,” Zack said.
“That’s okay.”
Under the covers, Ariel knitted her fingers with his and squeezed. They were always prepared to separate—when one of them had a job to do.
“There’s a case I think you’ll want to consider, but we shouldn’t discuss it over the phone.”
“On my way,” he said, swinging his leg over the side of the bed and reaching for his prosthesis.
Ariel also sat up and came around to his side of the bed. Standing in front of where he sat at the bed’s edge, she wrapped her arms around him, pulling him close and cradling his face against her middle, she pressed her lips against his hair.
“You’re making it hard to leave,” he muttered.
“But you will.” She turned him loose and stepped away. “I’ll go back to my house.”
“And I’ll meet you there as soon as I can.”
“Stay safe, my love,” she murmured.
“You, too.”
He watched her step away and vanish into thin air, a trick he’d never quite gotten used to, even when he did it himself. Still, it was part of their way of life, a life more fulfilling than anything he could imagine when he’d first gone to the Navy Medical Center, mangled and wondering what his future could possibly be. Now his work and his life with Ariel were the most natural thing in this world for him, or any other world.
He climbed into his Mercedes and drove to the office, eager to find out what new assignment Decorah Security was going to take on.
THE END
Afterword
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About the Author
A USA Today Best-Selling Author, Rebecca York is a 2011 recipient of the Romance Writers of America Centennial Award. Her career has focused on romantic suspense,
often with paranormal elements.
Her 16 Berkley books and novellas include her nine-book werewolf “Moon” series. KILLING MOON was a launch book for the Berkley Sensation imprint. She has written 50 books for Harlequin Intrigue, many in her popular 43 Light Street series. Her recent releases include DARK WARRIOR for Berkley and DARK MAGIC for Carina Press. Her Harlequin Intrigue, CARRIE’S PROTECTOR, will be published in July, 2013.
Rebecca has written for Harlequin, Berkley, Dell, Tor, Carina Press, and Pageant Books.
Her many awards include two Rita finalist books. She has two Career Achievement awards from Romantic Times: for Series Romantic Suspense and for Series Romantic Mystery. And her Peregrine Connection series won a Lifetime Achievement Award for Romantic Suspense Series.
Many of her novels have been nominated for or won RT Reviewers Choice awards. In addition, she has won a Prism Award, several New Jersey Romance Writers Golden Leaf awards and numerous other chapter awards.
Contact Information
Rebecca York loves to hear from readers!
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Copyright Information
Published by Light Street Press
Copyright © 2013 by Ruth Glick
Cover design by Earthly Charms
All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or other—except for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
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Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Afterword
About the Author
Copyright
ON EDGE (Decorah Security) Page 8
