by Honor James
Grabbing the bottle back from him, she frowned. “No. I don’t think I’ve had e-fucking-nough, you asshole,” she said and took another drink. “You have no right in my life. Remember you walked away three days ago. What was it you said again? You didn’t think that it was wise for us to see each other again? Wise? God, what a douchebag. You made me fucking fall in love with you.” Another drink, more spilling down her chin then into her mouth. “And then you walked away from me. No, you ran from me. All because I told you that I loved you.” Lifting the bottle, she toasted the new moon again. “Fucking karma. I had to have done something extra special bad to have had this all happen,” she said with a sob.
Looking up at him, she shook her head. “You still look too good. You still have me all turned up inside. How?” she demanded and lifted the bottle again. “How is it that you can turn me inside out? Even now, even with you breaking my fucking heart I still love you. Asshole,” she muttered.
Flinching at her words, he sighed softly and took the bottle from her again. This time he kept it up out of her reach. “You need to go home and get some sleep, Dahlia,” he told her simply. “You’ve had more than enough alcohol by the looks and smell of you, and you are in even more need of sleep, baby.” Ducking down, he hefted her up over his shoulder.
“You have no right!” she yelled and hit his back with her fists. “Or to call me baby!” She sobbed. And then in a much softer voice whispered, “You left me. You broke my heart, Davyn, why?” Tears were falling freely as she spoke. “I love you so much and you broke my heart. You killed a part of me when you told me that you didn’t think it would be wise to see me again. Why? Why wouldn’t it be wise?”
“Dahlia,” he said on a groan as he carried her to his jeep. Sliding her down to her feet, he stared down at her. “I never meant to hurt you, sweetheart. I swear I didn’t. But I also didn’t want…” He paused and swallowed hard. “I didn’t want you to think I would be a replacement for what you lost. I wanted you to want me for me and not to fill the hole in your heart.”
She sobbed and shook her head. “I loved you before what happened with my mom and dad,” she whispered softly. “I think I fell in love with you the moment that I first met you,” she told him with the shake of her head. “You aren’t a replacement, weren’t a replacement. But now you are a nobody. You should let me go.”
“I’m not going to let you go, sweetheart, not after you just told me that,” he whispered. Cupping her face, he kissed her gently, teasing her slowly. “I can’t let you go, not again, Dahlia, never again.” He didn’t care if he ever found his bond-mate. Dahlia was the only woman he could ever truly love. “I’m never letting you go,” he whispered, kissing her again.
Leaning in, she kissed him again, too, tears running down her face as she did so. “If you try to push me away again, I don’t think that I will survive,” she admitted and all but climbed over and onto his lap. “Everything. I want everything, Davyn.” she whispered. “No stopping. Right here. Right now. Everything. Love me, Davyn,” she begged.
He was all for that. Oh they’d likely regret it later, but what-the-fuck-ever. Leaning back, he pulled his jacket off. Cupping her face again, he kissed her hard, opening her lips to stroke his tongue to hers. Sliding his hands down, he pushed her jacket off her shoulders and went to work on the buttons of her shirt.
Dahlia was in such a hurry that she ripped his shirt in her haste to get him naked as well. Panting against his lips, she grinned. “How about we get naked, toss our clothes on the ground, and make love under the moon? That sounds like a really good idea to me.”
Undoing her pants, Davyn pushed them down. “Under the moon, on the hood, in the grass, or up a tree, I don’t care. I need you now,” he said on a growl. Lifting her from her jeans, he put her down on their jackets before getting rid of his. “I want you now,” he told her, the Wraith too close to the surface and riding him really hard now.
“And I you.” She pulled him closer to her body. “I just need you.” She had never been with another man in her life, but God, she needed him. She needed and wanted him so very, very much. “I love you, Davyn.” Leaning in, she pressed her lips to his neck, his chest, and she bit him lightly. “Now. I need you now.”
Kissing her again, he stroked a hand up and down her body lightly. Nipping at her lips, he breathed her in slowly. “In a minute,” he told her. “I want you so ready for me that it’s nothing but pure bliss all the way.” Dipping his head, he caught her nipple and suckled gently, sliding his hand down to cup and stroke her in rhythm with his mouth on her breast.
Lifting her leg, she wrapped it around his thigh, pulling him closer as she kissed him as well. “I’ve never been with anyone before. I swear I’m ready for you now though. I don’t think that I’ve ever, ever felt this needy before in all my life.” Again Dahlia lifted against him, need so alive in her that it was clear on her face and in the tense lines of her body.
Sliding his finger into her wet body, he stroked her slowly. “I want you so ready you come as soon as I slide into you and then you come again and again every time I tell you to.” Biting her breast lightly, he slid his tongue over the small mark as he slipped another finger into her body and began to stretch her.
“I don’t think that will be an issue.” Dahlia’s words came out in a desperate pant as she lifted her body to meet his more. “And what makes you think that you can make me come just by telling me to?” she demanded, the little bit of booze she’d managed to get into her before he stole her bottle was making her far bolder than she normally was.
“Because I know I will be able to,” he said, nibbling down her belly slowly. Pressing a kiss to her inner hip, he nipped lightly. “I will say the word and you will come in an instant.” Plus with a little help from his Wraith he could manage it.
“I like that,” Dahlia told him happily. “Oh Gods, yes.” She growled and lifted up against his hands once more. “More, I’m so close, Davyn. So close.” She was about ready to come. “Make me scream.” It was a demand more than anything else.
“Scream for me, Dahlia,” he whispered before he put his mouth to her clitoris and sucked hard, scraping his teeth lightly over her soft flesh as he nipped very gently and tugged. Rubbing his tongue to her flesh, he pressed a third finger into her body, stroking her harder and faster.
It was as if he was pulling her strings, and she did just that. Screaming his name, she arched up into him and came with a blinding explosion of need. Her hands buried into his hair as she came, and she shivered.
Scraping his teeth off the nub lightly, he grinned at her. “That’s very good, my sweet.” Moving up and over her, he pulled his hand slowly from between her legs. Pressing a kiss to her lips, he eased over her and pressed the head of his cock into her body.
Dahlia whimpered and, lifting her leg, wrapped it around Davyn’s hips and held onto him. Shuddering, she licked her lips and looked up at him. “More,” she whispered to him and caught the look in his eyes. There was something there. She didn’t understand it, but there was something in his eyes, looking back at her.
Sliding in slowly, he let her still-spasming body pull him in deeper. Catching her hand, he lifted it up and dropped a kiss into her palm. “All of me,” he whispered quietly. Cupping her bottom, he lifted her slightly as he pressed in until he ran up against her hymen. “Kiss me,” Davyn demanded before taking her mouth with his, waiting for her to go soft before thrusting deep into her, past the tiny barrier and seating himself fully.
Dahlia cried out even though he had prepared her as best he could for their joining. Pulling back, she looked up at him and cupped his cheek. “All of you, Davyn. I take all of you,” she whispered before kissing him again, moving her body slightly under his and crying out in pleasure as she did so.
Cupping her bottom, he thrust into her hard before withdrawing slowly and thrusting back in again harder, faster. Moving his hips quickly, he felt the Wraith shifting, reaching for her, not out of malice but out of
pure need and love. Letting the beast do what it wanted for the moment, Davyn bit her lip and tugged. “I love you, Dahlia, now and for all time,” he whispered. When she died he’d never survive it, but it was fine. He didn’t care. He didn’t want to live in a world without her in it.
“I love you, too, Davyn.” Even though she was regretting those few drinks she loved him. Before the booze she’d loved him. Now she loved him. “More,” she begged. She saw it again then. She saw something shifting behind his eyes, and reaching out, she touched her fingers to his cheek and then dipped into his hair. “All of you, Davyn.” There was something different about him, something profound, but she didn’t care. She loved him.
Kissing her again, gentler than before, he kept thrusting hard and fast. The Wraith shifted and slowly reached out for her. Davyn was more cautious now, his hold on the demon tight but still with some allowance. If it hurt her, at all, he’d yank it back. There was no malice though, only need as the Wraith wrapped her soul up in its…arms for lack of a better term, and gave her of itself. He had not clue what the Wraith was doing, but holy hell the sensations were more intense, more everything. Lifting his head, he stared down at her as he felt the orgasm coming. “Mine,” he whispered in sudden realization. The Wraith had known, but Davyn had been absolutely clueless. Arching his back, he thrust in as far as he could and came, her name a torn, ragged sound from his throat.
Dahlia came right along with him. She had heard herself screaming his name and claiming him as well. She felt it. She felt him wrapped tightly around her and felt her soul wrapping into him. Crying out again and again, she swore she came over and over again. Her eyes closed, her vision wavered, and she knew, she knew that he would always be there to catch her. “I love you, Davyn, all of you, both of you,” she whispered even as her consciousness slipped away.
Shuddering as he felt the orgasm reverberate through him in a nearly overwhelming cascade, he nearly missed her words. Nearly. Instead they resounded in his head over and over again as he lay over her catching his breath. She knew he was more than he seemed. She was his bond-mate. Holy mother of the Gods, what the ever-loving hell had just happened!
When he could move again, he got dressed, got her mostly dressed and into the jeep. Collecting her undergarments, he got in and got them out of there. He was taking her home, his home, and when she came around they had to talk. A lot of talking would be needed. He had a lot to tell her and, holy hell, she was his mate!
Chapter Seven
When she woke, she was in the middle of a huge bed, curled up into Davyn, and frowned, and then smiled. “Davyn?” she asked softly and pulled away, her head was a little fuzzy. “Oh God, I so shouldn’t drink,” she said and pressed her face hard against Davyn’s chest. She knew they had made love, couldn’t ever forget that. She had felt something profound happen when they made love and knew that life would never be the same again.
Shifting slowly and carefully, he grabbed the cold bottle. “Here,” he murmured, softly touching it to her fingers. “Drink some of this Vitamin Water. It will help get your electrolytes back into balance and hopefully keep you from throwing up. I got some into you last night, but you’ll need to rehydrate for the next twelve or so hours.” Pressing a kiss to her hair, he looked down at her. “How do you feel beyond your head?”
“Happy,” she admitted softly. “You stayed with me, you came for me,” she whispered and then frowned. “I thought that you were done with me,” she told him and lifted her head to look up at him. “I meant what I said last night though. I do love you, Davyn.”
“And I meant what I said, too, sweetheart. I love you and I’m never letting you go again,” he said, softly pressing the bottle into her hand. “Drink first, chat after you get some liquid into your poor body. Trust me, your liver will thank you when you’re old and grey.” He wasn’t kidding either.
She took several drinks from the water he offered her but finally she had to ask. “Why did you break my heart, Davyn? Why did you tell me that we shouldn’t ever see each other again? That it was wiser for us to be apart? I don’t understand it. You love me, you know I love you, and you knew then how I felt for you, so why walk away from what we feel?”
“Because I’m an idiot,” he said on a sigh, setting the bottle aside. “I need to tell you a few things about myself and, well, they may change your mind entirely about me. It’s because of what I have to tell you that I thought you should find someone better than I am for yourself to love.”
“Is it going to explain why I felt as if our souls merged when we made love? And it did. I swear it felt as if my soul and yours were pulled from our bodies, forged together, and we now reside with each other. But there was more. It was…” She chewed her lower lip and then came out with it. “I felt it before, when Mom and Dad…” She paused and shook her head. “I felt it then, wrapping around me as if to keep me safe, and then last night I swear I felt it again. It’s like a part of you has been reaching for me and…Well, I don’t get it. All I know is I felt safe in your arms. I always do.”
“Yeah, it will explain most of that, maybe not the why, but at least the what,” he told her quietly. Clearing his throat, he let out a breath. “I’m a Wraith,” he told her honestly. “I have a human form and another that is the Wraith. As a human I can instantly know someone’s health by getting close or within contact of them. Right now, touching you, I know that you haven’t eaten well of late. The alcohol, little though it was, isn’t agreeing with your tired system either. I also know that you have a small wheeze in your lungs, an allergic reaction to something on that hill last night, and it’s clearing up slowly. You had some sort of accident as a child. There’s a minor deviation in your lower leg bone of your left leg, the shin bone.”
“Fell from my bike. When the leg broke it slivered a part of the bone off. I had to have an operation to fish the fragment from my body,” she whispered in reply as she looked up at him with wide eyes. “I’m allergic to most flowers. Pollen.” She couldn’t believe what he had told her. “What is a Wraith? Isn’t that, well, a ghost?”
“No, not exactly.” He frowned, trying to figure out how to explain it. “When I was a teen, the home where my parents and I lived and they worked was attacked. Most of the villagers, those in the main house, and my parents were killed in the ensuing battle. It was an instant of pure grief, and then the rage came from nowhere I knew of and the Wraith manifested. It’s spectral in form, not solid in the least, and sort of looks like it’s floating from what I’ve seen of the one other I saw a few years back but never met officially. We can slide through anything in that form and, because we’re energy mixed with a bit of magic, we can also kill in that form. Whatever we think we want to happen to a person comes to be, but only when we’re passing through a body.”
“But I’ve only felt safe around you, loved. Revered almost,” Dahlia whispered in confusion. “I don’t understand. I’ve never felt fear with you. Even now I don’t feel fear. I feel joy at being in your arms, happiness, and I know”—she knew this without a shadow of a doubt—“that he, it, whatever came out last night when we made love. I felt it. Saw it. Touched it.”
“That’s because you are the only person in all the world that is safe from him,” he told her quietly. “You’re my bond-mate, Dahlia. More than the perfect other half, you are my everything. What happened last night was our bonding, so much more than marriage because it’s permanent. There is no divorce in our world.”
“Oh” was all that she could say to that. “But I was drunk out of my mind last night. How in the world could we have married?” That was the word she had heard. She couldn’t recall being asked, but so much of last night was a drunken and stupid blur. “I don’t understand,” she added with a frown. “So does this mean that you are stuck with me for the rest of our lives because we made love last night?”
“I’m not ‘stuck with you’ as you so quaintly put it. I’m blessed with you, Dahlia,” he said softly. “For Wraiths we have the moth
er lode of shitty bonding rules. Fortunately and seriously unfortunately for me, you fit all the criteria as of last night. Don’t ask,” he muttered. “I really would rather never, ever tell you what that criteria is, darling. And it’s not so much marriage as bonding, much more permanent because now you are a part of me and I you. We shared souls last night, and we now carry a piece of each with one another.”
“I felt it,” Dahlia admitted softly. “Still do. I like it, too.” It was weird, but she really loved to feel the part of him inside of her, to not be alone any longer. “And can you feel me?” Dahlia asked. “Is that why the heartbreak of losing my mom and dad doesn’t seem as heavy on my soul? Are you sharing that heartbreak with me?”
“I can feel you there, sense you,” he stated quietly. “I don’t know about lightening the heartbreak, but I can feel it. I can’t usually sense what a person is feeling, emotionally I mean. Physical pain, hurt, and such, absolutely. The Wraith is better than any expensive high-tech medical equipment on the planet. But with you, we share a unique and special bond. By the way, the Wraith really, really likes you, darling, which is super rare. He’s kind of a hormonal bastard on the best of days.”
That had her frowning. “You speak as if he is a completely separate part of you, as if he is a whole different being, but he’s not. I feel the connection, the seam that means that you are him and he is you. I’m confused,” she muttered. “And just so you know, I really, really love you, Davyn, and since he is a part of you, him as well. You are both mine. I’m keeping you, honey.”
“He is a part of me, and I’m part of him. We are one, but I think of him as a separate entity so I don’t go crazy. Which, in a way, he is,” he told her honestly. “The Wraith has a different process for thinking and existing than I do. I’m solid in form. He’s not. I can see your shape, feel the heat of your skin, and smell your sexy scent. He can see inside of you to everything that is wrong and right and know just how to kill you without leaving a trace of anything suspicious.”
