by Tes Hilaire
“Heck no! Way too much weight for my shoulders. We just advise.”
Uh-huh. And why didn’t Katrina believe that? It was obvious Mike didn’t either, because his face remained stoic and he didn’t question further. Though maybe that was simply his concern that she was going to keel over on him.
“Anyway, I’ll step out and you guys can get dressed.” He stopped at the door, his bourbon gaze hooded as he glowered at both of them. “Just do me a favor and resist attacking each other when the door is closed. Jacob is pretty high strung and gets all wound up if he has to wait too long.”
Valin left, Shae, after one last order to take it easy for the next couple days, followed. And then they were alone. And, okay, she hadn’t even been thinking about jumping Mike until Valin had told them not to, but now that the idea was planted into her brain…
This could be my last chance to make love to him.
“God, beauty, don’t look at me like that.”
“Mike… I need…” she didn’t complete the statement, just reached for the knot at his waist, because she did need. She needed this. Needed him. Needed to touch the heaven he’d shown her just one last time before she lost it all.
“Aw, Christ.” He swore as her fingers grazed his cock. Already hard, already weeping. His own need slammed into her back across their bond and she knew she had him.
His hands clamped down on her upper arms, the sheet hissing as it fell to the floor. Her hand closed over him, her eyes closing at the feel of the hard iron beneath the soft skin.
“You are so amazing,” she told him, looking up at him through her lashes as her fingers fluttered over the hot length. He was more than well endowed, not just in length but breadth. If she hadn’t had proof of how well they fit, she wouldn’t believe that she could take him. The memory of him filling her, straining and stretching until he was seated all the way to the hilt, her body so full she felt like she was going to burst…or fly. She shuddered, her vulva pulsing eagerly.
“Damn, but I can’t resist you.”
And then he was there, his hands untying the last knot of that stupid hospital gown as his mouth descended upon hers, devouring her. And, heaven help her, she could live on the taste of him alone. Hot and primal and oh so very much Mike. His tongue rasped against hers, the press of his lips demanding she yield. As a succubus she should feel the need to turn the tables, regain control. Instead she gave over to him, not at all scared by the firm press of his mouth or the rough hands that yanked the gown off her shoulders, inadvertently pinning her arms because he was too insistent on kissing her to take the time to pull the material the rest of the way down. She didn’t feel trapped at all, just desired. Desire, need, and oh, hell, wanted. How could he want her so much?
And then he stopped, the loss making her whimper as he tipped his head into her forehead, breathing heavily. “Because I love you, beauty. I love every single bit of you, inside and out.”
Her throat closed down, a sob clamped tight in her throat, her heart twisting beneath her ribs. He loved her. More than need. More than want. He. Loved. Her.
“Katrina, it’s okay…”
No it wasn’t. He thought she couldn’t say the words back because she wasn’t sure. Because she didn’t believe in the bond he felt. Because even if she did, she didn’t know how to deal with the emotions that spiraled out of control when they were together. Nothing could be further from the truth. She loved him, too. How could she not? This man was everything a girl could ever have dreamed of and more. The white knight. The hero to the masses. Honorable. Kind. And, yes, sexy as hell. And hers, all hers. All she had to do was claim him. And though she was more a physical type than the wordy, she also knew that he wanted, no, needed, to hear the words.
“You hold my heart, Mike. I’m yours. Heart, body, soul, I’m yours.”
His eyes dilated as she spoke, then narrowed, burning hot as he drunk in her words. “Ah, beauty. You’ve done it now. You are mine. All mine. And I’m never going to let you go.”
“Then make love to me, Mike.” She tried to pull him down, but he resisted, shaking his head.
“You can’t be ready…”
But she was, oh she was, and she proved it be grabbing his hand and dragging it down to her core and…
“Oh, fuck your wet.” His eyes glowed as he looked up at her. “Have to taste you.”
She wanted to object. She wanted him in her, but then his was moving down her body, his hands cupping her ass as he pulled her to the edge of the exam table. And then he was there. He swiped his tongue over her drenched opening, then closed down over her clit as he suckled the little bundle of nerves. Fire danced through her body, Mike’s hunger slamming into her. And oh, yes, this was it. His mouth on her, alternating those soothing licks with the sweet suckling that made her want to buck and scream. And his hands, those diabolical hands that pulled her closer, parting her ass, kneading...
She couldn’t stop it. She was going to come right now after barely thirty seconds of loving. And she did. The shock of her orgasm taking her under so that for a moment she swore she blacked out. Only Mike didn’t let her remain there, he all but roared, his body sliding over hers as he seated himself then slammed all the way into her throbbing core.
She gasped, overwhelmed by the sensation of his cock, thick and hard and all the way inside of her. She felt like she was going to split in two, felt like she was going to just come undone and unravel by the sheer overwhelming feel of being possessed by this wonderful, beautiful, sexy man. Her man.
“That’s right, beauty. I’m yours.” He kissed her, the taste of her desire still hot and musky on his tongue as he began to rock inside of her. And, damn, it felt so good. Nothing should feel this good. The waves of pleasure so intense she couldn’t recover from one to the next.
Mike purred, his thrusts deepening as he grabbed her hips, pulling her impossibly down further on his throbbing cock.
“Mike… I can’t…” She wiggled, trying to angle herself just… right… Mike swore, shifting her. At the same time power slammed into her, carried by Mike’s lust and desire, driven home by his overpowering love. Love for her. Love for the woman beneath him that completed him so fully. He shamed her with the power of that love, yet she couldn’t help but bask in it because, help her, she loved him like that too. She loved him with all that she was. She loved him so much she would die for him.
Mike stilled above her, his eyes glowing, his voice choked as his agony snaked across their bond. “But will you live? Will you live for me? For us?”
“Yes, Mike. I’ll live. I’ll live for you. For Mia.” She told him, only allowing the fact that she meant it with all her heart to slip through, burying beneath it the rest of the truth.
She would live. She’d live every waking second of every moment here on this earth she had left for this man. She’d cling to the memory of this moment, this man, because she knew where their journey was going. And she knew, deep in her gut, that that journey was going to require a sacrifice and she refused it would be Mike.
And as Mike rocked into her, loving her with all he had, she soaked every ounce of that love even as she cried, knowing it would need to sustain her for an eternity.
For even after that sacrifice, she would live. After what she’d done, Ganelon would make sure of it. But deep in her soul she was also going to tuck this memory. Because if she had to sacrifice it all, living in the deepest reaches of hell for all eternity, it was going to be with the knowledge that she’d at least had the courage to ensure both Mike and Mia were beyond that madman’s reach.
Chapter Nineteen
Katrina dreaded the moment when they pushed through the door, stepped into the hall, and had to meet the face of the Paladin warrior who’d been impatiently waiting. Only, when they did, Valin didn’t seem that impatient. He was standing at the end of the hall, chatting it up with another soldier as if he didn’t have a care in the world. He said something else, the soldier nodded, taking off down the other way, and
then turned to wait for them, a knowing glint in his eyes.
And, hell’s bells, they had been rather loud.
“Feeling better?” he asked when they approached.
“Um, yes. Thanks for the clothing.” She could feel the heat rising in her cheeks, so she occupied herself with dusting an imaginary speck off the cameo pants she was wearing. He’d brought them both cameo pants and a t-shirt. Her shirt was a little tight in the bust and hips but other than that they fit well. Mike’s was just about right, other than that he’d had to cinch the belt down tight to keep the pants up on his lean hips. The slightly loose pants didn’t affect the overall packaging though. With his stubble grown out and his contacts shed yet again, Mike, with his scruffy two-day beard and piercing ice-blue eyes and lovely hard muscling, looked like a complete bad-ass. And sweet Lilith, if she didn’t want to take her bad boy back into that room and make Jacob wait just a little bit longer.
Mike growled, leaned down, his hot breath tickling her as he whispered in her ear. “You… are a bad girl.”
Oh yeah she was.
“Okay then. We go this way.” Valin jerked his head down the hall. “Jacob is waiting for us in his war room.”
“War room?” Mike asked, wrapping his arm behind Katrina and pulling her close.
“Complete with a big ole map and pinhead soldiers. And just like a general, Jacob gets all stoic and grumpy when he goes in there, too.” Valin tipped his head as if in thought. “Though he’s pretty much like that most of the time anyway, so…”
He gestured down the hall. They fell into step together, Mike’s hand a steady presence at the small of her back. It was surreal walking side-by-side down the chipped vinyl hall, rusted out lockers lining either side. As if they were taking a ghost tour of their old school. Only she hadn’t been in a school. Not one with lockers. Her formal human education had ended when her dad had collected her.
“This is an interesting place,” she said as they squeezed to the side to let a couple cameo dressed men pass.
“It’s a dump is what it is. But it serves our purpose.”
“And what’s that?”
“Recruitment center, training grounds, headquarters for making mischief. We’re a fairly new power on the scene, but Jacob’s recruits do a good job of keeping Ganelon and his minions on their toes.”
The last was said with a certain amount of pride, and Katrina was struck, yet again, with the thought that Valin and Gabby had more of a hand in this mischief making than he took credit for.
“Where’s Gabby?” Mike asked.
“Working on something. She’ll join us soon.”
And that was the end of that discussion. They walked the rest of the way in silence, though Valin did start whistling at one point. If you didn’t know better, you’d think the Paladin didn’t have a care in the world, but the steady anxiety rising off him told Katrina otherwise.
They finally came to a room. An old library, judging by the bookshelves lining the wall. A number of the longer tables had been pushed together to create a space big enough for Jacob’s war map, complete with the pushpins to represent soldiers.
There were three people in the room, two men and a woman. It was easy enough to pick Jacob out. Not only did he simply command attention, but he possessed a timeless, early-thirties look about him that suggested some strong, slow-aging Paladin genes.
Though the other man and woman behind him were obviously younger-early twenties perhaps?-Kat thought they were related. All three were scary tall and had the same golden-brown eyes and high cheekbones, even if the woman’s short cap of hair was fiery red while the men’s hair were definitely brown. They shared another characteristic too: all three bore scars. Jacob’s were jagged and ranged in thickness and seemed to be accumulated over time, some crisscrossing the others. The younger man, heaven’s fires, he must have been in a fight with a pyro or something, the right side of his face, his right arm, and hand all showing the shiny, puckered scarring that indicated a horrendous burn. The woman’s scarring was far less extensive, though Kat got the impression based on how she held herself, she was not comfortable in her scarred skin.
“Yo, Jacob,” Valin called. “Meet our guests. Mike and Katrina.”
Jacob stepped forward, offering his hand first to Mike, then Katrina. “Good to meet you. I’m Jacob, and the leader of this mismatched bunch of vigilantes.”
“Careful, Jacob. Mike may be one of us, but he’s a detective, too.” Valin said this as a joke, but there was a ring of truth in the words. An alarming truth since Mike tensed beside her, suggesting he hadn’t given, or at least hadn’t meant to give away, that information.
Jacob arched his brow, his gaze challenging as he stared at Mike.
Mike shook his head. “Assuming we’re talking about the same kind of hell scum I’ve run into recently, I’d be the pot if I started calling you all vigilantes. I haven’t exactly been working within the system these last few days.”
Jacob nodded, giving a sharp hand signal toward the younger man who must have been a brother or something. The man stepped forward.
“Aaron,” he said, offering his hand to Katrina first. “We actually met at the door, but I’m sure you don’t remember.”
“I was a little out of it,” she smiled back, valiantly trying to focus on his eyes and not the rest of his face as she shook the younger man’s scarred hand. The one saving grace was both his eyes had been spared, so although the right lid was pulled down slightly, if you didn’t look beyond the golden-brown eyes, you could almost ignore the rest of the scarring.
“And this is Annie,” Jacob said, nodding to the red-haired woman behind him when Aaron moved on to shake Mike’s hand.
The young woman gave them a quick nod, but kept her arms firmly crossed over her chest, and she didn’t step forward. And okay, friendly she was not, or maybe she was just wary. Though they were fainter than Jacob’s, the scars crisscrossing her face looked newer. More that purple-white color that took time to fade. What’s more, they seemed too precise to be random wounds, rather they looked like someone had tried to carve some sort of design into her skin.
“I’ve gotten what details I can from Valin and Gabby, but it was a little lacking. Why don’t you two fill us in?” Jacob suggested as he shifted back behind his table.
Aaron followed suit, taking up a hip-wide stance behind Jacob. Both men had their hands resting deceptively casual near both a knife and a handgun that graced the utility belts at their waist.
Mike pulled Katrina back against his side, his hand firmly linked with hers. And yeah, it hadn’t escaped her notice that even the woman was loaded with weaponry. Not to mention that they had a Paladin at their back who’d taken up position leaning against the wall beside the door.
She should have been in full-blown panic mode, yet with Mike’s body so solid against her, she felt safe. He’d protect her if this little pow-wow went south.
“I’m not sure where to start,” Mike admitted.
“Start with how you know Lite-Brite,” the younger man, Aaron, suggested.
So Mike did, outlining how he had been Jessica’s partner before she did her whole come back to life bit. He had run into Logan during that time along with Alex, and Roland, though they weren’t exactly friends then since he was trying to put Roland behind bars and was convinced that Logan was the source of Jessica’s problems.
“I take it you didn’t know what you were at that point.”
Mike hesitated, but inclined his head. “I knew I was different. I could sense when someone around me was using their abilities, but I didn’t realize what the tingling itch meant at the time. I was also doing all I could to repress the, ah, beast riding me at that point.”
Valin’s brow flew up. “Beast?”
“Alex called it a berserker,” Mike explained.
Valin whistled, shaking his head. “That’s some pretty powerful genetics you got going on. Hasn’t been a berserker Paladin in centuries. Wonder how you won the pri
ze?”
“I wouldn’t exactly call it a prize,” Mike all but grumbled. Then launched in to how he’d been following a lead on some new drug and when he’d gotten into a tight situation and been about to be pumped full of the shit, his beast had taken over. He glossed over his meeting with Katrina, just saying she’d stumbled upon the wreckage, and that their paths continued to cross thereafter.
“And somewhere in there you ran back into Logan?”
“He actually contacted me. Guess you all have been having some run-ins with a black knife and Jessica was hoping I could get the police reports.”
Valin laughed. “And oh, wow, that must have been a shocker to have your dead partner show back up.”
“Tell me about it,” Mike grumbled. “Anyway. I did do some digging, but Katrina and I have another mission as well. It was as we were doing some scouting that we ran into a soul rider. My beast got a little panicky, though I didn’t understand why until after we’d cut our loses and left, and Katrina filled me in. Still, I think that must be where we picked up the merker tail. Only because I was so wound up I didn’t fucking realize it until it was too late.”
His grip had tightened on Katrina as he told their tale, helpless anger flooding their bond. She curled into him tighter, trying to comfort him.
I’m okay. You saved me, she punctuated the thought, hoping he’d catch it across their bond. It would be damn handy to be able to project her thoughts right now, though he’d picked up on some of her pointed thoughts in the past so maybe he would this.
And I’m okay, she reiterated again, giving his hand a squeeze.
“And Logan sent you here since there aren’t any healers at Haven,” Valin mused. A second later his head snapped up, his gaze intense as the door pushed open and a red-headed woman slipped in.
