by Hazel Hunter
“Adam was the best second I could have ever asked for, and the toughest damn colonel the Corps ever had. I failed him, with Darren, and it cost him his head.”
He blinked and felt feather light hands reaching around his shoulders and then arms hugging him tight. He burrowed into her, her embrace like a refuge.
“Jesus,” she said lowly. “I’m so sorry. You had to watch?”
He sat up and shrugged, looking down at her. There was no point in reliving the horror. He gently stroked auburn ringlets back from her face.
“So did you. We’ve all had losses. I still blame myself. If I’d been smarter or faster. Hell, if my famous luck had actually been worth a damn.”
“How many people have you saved? Not just me and my sister. I mean how many novice witches have you saved from the Knights over the years? How many men would have died in battle without you? You can’t save everyone.”
“He was the best friend I’d ever had. I let the person who mattered most down at exactly the wrong time. I…I learned I could fail. What if I fail you?”
She smiled softly. “You won’t. You didn’t. You saved me. We saved each other.”
Logan considered that, watching the tender curve of her lips. “Maybe we can both learn that it’s okay to be taken care of.”
She blinked at that, and then her smile grew to a grin. “Teamwork. It sounds awfully good to me.”
“Me too.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
LOGAN’S HAND TENSED while holding Caitlin’s, and he had to remind himself not to squeeze too hard. But Jonathan’s withering gaze was on them both. In the conference room of the DC coven’s headquarters, he sat across the table from them and looked silently from one to the other.
“It’s true,” he finally said.
Logan could have rolled his eyes at the drama.
“You already knew that from Sheila. Caitlin has the Eyes of Fate.”
“But what she overheard doesn’t compare to our own seers sitting with Caitlin and assessing her sight.”
Despite himself, Logan had to beam at her.
“You’re the first witch in almost two millennia to have this ability,” Jonathan said. “It’s like a deliverance.”
Caitlin shook her head. “I’m not a weapon for you to wield.”
“Exactly–” Logan started and then stopped when she side-kicked him under the table.
“I’m not a weapon,” she continued, “to be played with by the Corps’ higher ups, but I’m not a wilting flower either. I want to be trained up, and work in the field.”
“What?” both he and Jonathan said.
“I want to help in the fight. I’m serious, but I need to do it my own way. One day maybe what I can see can turn the tide, but if Logan’s out there, I want to be by his side. A team.”
Jonathan considered that, purple sparks of electricity arcing between his right fingers as he thought over her request.
“I’ll allow that you’re sorely in need of training, but eventually you will take your place among our precious few seers. Make no mistake. We’re losing this war and it will take every last one of us to survive.”
Logan held his tongue. Though Jonathan was his friend, he was the commandant first and foremost.
“But for now?” Caitlin demanded.
“For now you’re allowed to train with Logan as you wish. Maybe you can also talk some sense into that hard-headed sister of yours.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
LOGAN WAS SURPRISED when Caitlin stilled at the bedroom doorway. They’d made love before, and it had to be more foreign to his young witch to have sex as part of a ritual than to caress on red silk sheets. Still, Caitlin was practically shaking at the threshold and wouldn’t move forward.
“Are you all right?”
She shook her head. “I saw this. The first time I touched your hand, I got this clear vision of us here.” Caitlin blushed and her fair cheeks flamed almost the color of her hair. He loved that he could make her do that, that even after all they’d done together she could grow shy about it. “I saw us make love.”
“I want that,” he said, turning toward her. She shuddered under his grasp and made a small moan. She seemed so ready. But was she? “It’s not about giving you more powers or mastery of your skills. It’s not about the war. It’s about us. I love you, and I want to feel myself inside of you, joined without a barrier.”
Her eyes fluttered for a moment as she stared up at him.
“Make me immortal?” she asked.
“You were almost killed more than once in the last few days. I can’t lose you,” he said, his voice low. “I just can’t.” But he paused, forced himself to let her go, and took a step back. “But this is your decision. It has to be. If you decide against it, I will still be there to protect you. Always.”
Her response was so immediate, it took him by surprise. She stepped over the threshold and directly into his arms.
“I don’t think I could stay away from you if I tried.”
She shuddered under his embrace as he drew her close. “Oh Caitlin, just let me love you.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
SHE WAS FINALLY there, naked on the red silk sheets she’d seen in her vision, the feel of them luxurious and tantalizing against her bare skin. They had undressed each other, almost nervous, as though it were their first time. Logan looked down at her, his heated gaze lingering, as a flush rose to her cheeks. Slowly, he knelt on the bed, his arousal already immense. He loomed over her, the muscles of his arms and chest rippling as he moved up her body. Though he had yet to touch her, her body quivered under his steady gaze.
As he settled to his elbows, she felt the silky glide of his shaft up the inside of her thighs. She bit her lip, spreading her legs, trying to encourage him. Never in her life had she wanted something so badly. She needed to feel that completion, that nearness to him, like soul touching soul. Finally, the tip of his hot flesh slid along her wet slit, and she gasped. Though he’d barely nudged inside, he stopped. Blue eyes like sapphires stared hard into hers. He cupped her face in the palm of his hand.
“I love you, Caitlin,” he said, quietly. “I always will, no matter what. Are you sure?”
For a moment she thought of simply answering with her body, but that would have been too easy. She drew in a shaky breath, not sure if she could trust her voice. She looped her arms around his neck.
“I love you too,” she said, her voice trembling. “I’m sure.”
He lowered his face to her, his lips caressing her mouth in a feather-light kiss, as he eased himself inside her.
Caitlin hissed.
Slowly, inexorably, he filled her. Their bodies slotted together as though they’d been made for this moment. He speared into the core of her, as heat flooded between her legs. His masculine scent filled her nostrils as his cock filled her channel. She lifted her knees, opening herself to him completely.
His next penetration was even deeper, sinking himself to the hilt. He moaned with the slow downward stroke, and sucked in a breath as he drew back. But when her legs tightened around his waist, her ankles crossed in the small of his back, something in him unlocked. His hips twitched, and he thrust hard.
A small gasp was forced from her at the thudding collision, and he did it again, then again. He slid one hand down her side, then under her buttocks, supporting her hips, as he pounded into her. Her G-spot vibrated under his relentless rhythm, her hips bucking in time to his. She grunted with each possessive thrust and the tension that coiled deep inside. A wave was building, rising higher, and as though he’d sensed it, he responded. A primal rhythm joined them, his powerful body arching over her, as she writhed beneath.
Every nerve was alight, their quickening tempo like a drum beating in her core. Logan grunted as her lungs heaved, their breaths mingling like a breeze. Then she saw it.
The golden cord of his life tied against a scarlet one she could finally see. Her own future and his were entwined.
The
y rocked even more fiercely as the spiraling wave began to crash through her. Her climax exploded in a paroxysm of ecstasy and passion.
“Logan!” she screamed, as his climax overwhelmed him.
“Oh Caitlin,” he whispered harshly as his hot seed slapped into her.
Molten pleasure spread like fire, burning her, filling her, until she had to cry out again. What she screamed she did not know. Her mind shattered as lights flashed behind her eyes. It was almost too much, and yet she couldn’t let it end. She milked him then, grinding her sensitive nub on him until it was almost raw, her body no longer hers to control. He spilled into her again with a great, shuddering groan. The sound reverberated through her body, and she quaked with the animal satisfaction of it. He collapsed on her, his hips pinning hers, and still her body didn’t stop. As he wrapped his arms around her, her hips bucked up to take him one more time. His shaft thickened and jerked within her, as the great wave began to ebb.
Her legs released him, no longer able to hold on. As his body slid sideways though, he gathered her up in his arms. He still filled her, the connection unbroken, as she curled into his chest. Though she shuddered, a deep peace washed over her, as he held her even closer. They were together, truly together, and for the first time in many years, Caitlin felt safe.
As her eyes slowly closed, she had one last vision. The brilliant ropes of their lives shone into the future, but they were no longer two. Instead their pulsing glow was one. And with a smile as consciousness began to slip away, she knew they always would be.
EXCERPT FROM COLIN: Her Warlock Protector Book 4
Selene didn't know what she was doing.
That's what she told herself, but if she were being more honest, she knew exactly what she was doing. She was kissing a man who felt like water in the desert. She was touching a man who left trails of fire along her bare skin.
Outside the sky was lightening minute by minute, and she knew suddenly that she couldn't bear the light. The light meant that there was a new day dawning, a day when she had to decide once and for all what she was going to do about this troublesome man. A lifetime of hiding and dodging caught up with her. In that moment, she knew she did not want to be seen.
She broke the kiss, drawing a frustrated sound from Colin, but then she took him by the hand and led him to the bedroom. The drapes held out the light, and the soft glow of the lamp gave everything a rich and luxurious glow. The bed seemed to go on for miles, and when she pressed him to lie down on it, he looked up at her solemnly.
“What do you think you're doing?” he whispered.
If she’d had an answer, she would have given it to him. Instead, aware of those green eyes trained on her every move, she knelt on the bed and stripped her shirt over her head, removing her bra with a few expert flicks of her fingers. Her breasts were soft and heavy, and because he still looked like he wanted answers, she took one of his calloused hands and brought it to rest against her breast.
With his other hand, he drew her close. He cupped her jaw as he kissed her deeply. He pulled her tongue into his mouth, suckling on it tenderly before releasing it. The rhythm of their bodies together awakened a slow-burning fire in her belly, and now more than ever, Selene knew what a dangerous game she was playing.
NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR
Dear Wonderful Reader,
Thank you so much for spending time with me. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate it! My newsletter will let you know about new releases and only new releases. Don’t miss the next sizzling, hot romance! Visit HazelHunter.com/books to find more great stories available today.
XOXO,
Hazel
COPYRIGHT © 2015 Hazel Hunter
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
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