Betrayal's Shadow

by K H Lemoyne

  “I kept a journal.” She bent her head for a moment, but his finger beneath her chin urged her up again. “I needed to make sense of everything. It’s an old machine, no connectivity to anything. The Archive just started hanging out in the kitchen after I began to keep records.”

  “Excuse me?” He bit back a laugh at her annoyance.

  She glanced away for a second, seeming to fortify herself, and then turned back with a lick of her lips. “It just appeared, kind of shimmers there, and I can, well, I can sort of work my way through different entries and levels. It’s difficult to get any specific data.”

  Turen leaned his forehead against hers and waited. “Maybe I should ask if there’s anything you haven’t done.” He lifted his fingers to her lips quickly. “I was kidding. I’m awed to watch you knock down walls with nothing but your persistence. I love you just the way you are.” Her eyes still looked haunted with concern, and he brought her fingers to his lips. “Given you’re my mate, it’s reasonable that you’ll be able to do things neither of us can anticipate. It’s new. We’ll learn together. Trust me.”

  “I always have.”

  Yes, she’d always given him her trust and her heart. Where it had been a huge responsibility before, he now felt like Atlas positioned between Mia and the crush of earth’s orbit.

  “Tell me what you’re thinking.” Her voice relayed her need.

  Finally, a worry he could ease. “About us?” He placed her palm over his heart and leaned to whisper in her ear as his fingers curled into the softness of her chestnut-colored hair. “In those dark cells, you shared your soul with me. You made me whole. I’m yours. That’s why I came to you.”

  His fingers brushed at her belly and then cradled her closer to him. “I’m pleased about our son. He is also the proof I need to protect you in my world, to keep you safe.” Her delicate hand slid around his neck, her fingers teasing at his hair. Desire reciprocated in his loins. Instead, he continued. She was his forever, not just an illusion or fable. She needed—no deserved—more than just his lust. “I’d given up on believing. You’re my miracle.”

  “It’s about time.”

  “Mine.” His lips covered hers as his tongue and lips sought to express more than his words. He gathered her closer to press them together at every point possible, needing her connection to him, yet forcing himself to be gentle.

  “You can tell just by touching me?” she whispered. “About the baby.”

  “It is part of who we are, what makes our paternal bonds so tight.” He murmured the answer and then paused. “Do you mind knowing it’s a boy? I didn’t consider—”

  She stopped him with her fingertips. “I’m glad to know you can feel him, that he’s healthy, and that you’re okay with this.”

  He kissed her fingers and brushed his thumb across the wrinkle between her brows until the frown disappeared. She had doubts, but he resolved to move her past her fear. “I’d already chosen a future with you, no matter the outcome. I’m glad we get more of a fighting chance.” He stroked knuckles over her cheek. “I regret you’ve gone through so much alone.”

  “I made it this far because of you.” She gave him a brighter smile. A tiny dimple appeared in her left cheek, and the muscles in her shoulders relaxed beneath his hands. “So what do we do now?”

  For a second, he stared at her, memorizing her happiness and trying to pinpoint the unfamiliar feeling that made his chest ache. Joy? Hope? Since the Sanctum, he’d never been subject to the extreme of this emotion.

  Part of him dared to embrace the wave of emotion. Part of him chilled at the reality of how much he had to lose. With a mate and son to protect, he couldn’t afford to discount Xavier’s accusations of murder and the threat to his new family.

  “We make every minute count.” He shook his head to clear his expression and loosen the negative thoughts. Mia deserved his strength, not his fears. “We’ll enjoy these days and sort out our options later.”

  The quizzical expression she gave him ended in a smile.

  That smile and the shine in her eyes, he seared into his mind, the expressions indelible. He knew every emotion from the sound of her voice, but to see love written in her every gesture was a gift.

  “Would you have done anything differently?”

  The concern in her voice, the need to offer him some way out, made him want to laugh, but he held it in check. She could read him so well. “I’d have found you sooner.” He brushed her hair from her shoulders, marveling in the sheen created by the fire’s light. Resting his hand over her collarbone at the tender junction of the hollow of her neck, he waited on the tremor of her pulse.

  He leaned forward and tasted with his tongue what his fingers caressed. “All this time you’ve been teaching me. I thought myself beyond instinctual behavior. Loving you was something I couldn’t fight. Every instinct you evoked in me has sent me down paths of awakening to change me, to change my people forever.”

  Her indelicate snort vibrated against his lips and he smiled against her skin.

  “There’s nothing wrong with your instincts. But I think I’ve come out ahead on the educational scale,” she said.

  After one quick nuzzle against the flesh at the top of her breasts, he glanced up and stilled in his attentions. “Are you okay with this? You mentioned once you didn’t want children. My ignorance of our connection has stripped away your option to choose.”

  When he would have pulled away to scrutinize her expression, she held him to her. The calm, sure beat of her heart thrummed beneath his fingers with no reluctance, no regret. The instincts bred into him searched and waited, needing assurance. He’d boxed her into this life with little regard for the outcome when he’d refused to consider what his feelings had screamed at him to understand.

  The truth of his taking away her choices grated at his conscience. He couldn’t fix this if it wasn’t what she wanted.

  Eyes bright, she met his gaze and held it. “I wasn’t born yesterday, Turen. Just because you said we couldn’t have children didn’t mean I bought it. I made the decision to make love with you with my eyes open.” She rubbed her hand along her belly. “I didn’t want children with Alex. I love you. I want this baby and his father.”

  He could almost see her mind race ahead to her next conclusion as she frowned.

  “You’re thinking too hard.” He kissed the valley between her breasts and lifted his head to place a kiss on her lips. “I don’t need to prepare for you or our child.”

  Wounds shadowed her eyes. Old ones, faint ones, pain deserving no place in their future. He’d do everything in his power to close the door on her past and seal her to him with ribbons of emotion so strong they’d become unbreakable. The process had started. They belonged to each other. A fight so hard and a goal so precious, he wasn’t going to let anyone, not Salvatore, not Xavier, not even their own doubts, stand in their way.

  “There is no reason to fear a dark lining here, love.” He stood and held a hand to help her rise.

  So delicate and strong. He brought her close, searching for the outward signs to match the light trembling beneath his fingers until her eyes closed in a soft sigh. He rubbed his cheek against hers and gently nipped her ear. “I’ve missed you. The compulsion, it lingers in my body for you, always. No respite.”

  “Sounds painful,” she said with a trace of humor. The warmth of her breath bloomed across his skin and snaked to his groin.

  He nipped her bottom lip and licked over the spot. “Your screams of pleasure are the only thing that will ease me.”

  “Such a focused solution,” she said with a small chuckle.

  “Is it only my focus you find admirable? I’ll have to work harder to expand my skills.” He nipped along her neck next, followed by teasing licks until a whimper escaped her lips.

  Her warm, deep-throated laugh ended in a screech as he swung her into his arms and proceeded down the hallway.

  “Your skills left me sleeping for two days. I don’t think you need any
more improvement. A bed would be a nice change.”

  “My lady’s wish.” Lowering her gently to the bed, he gave a quick glance around. Clicking on one light and then a second, he made it back to her side in time to catch her wrists before she could pull the edges of her shirt together. “I want to memorize every luscious curve.”

  He pressed her back down on the bed, cushioning her fall. “I want those moans and screams of pleasure.”

  “Again with the screaming.” She smiled and bit back a laugh. Her hand drifted from her bra to her belly. “Some parts you’ll see more than others.”

  Bending lower, he kissed the creamy swell of her naked belly. The parted shirt gave him an unfettered view of the curves of her pregnancy. “All mine. My mate, my child, nothing is more beautiful.”

  He swept aside her bra and captured a ruby red nipple between his teeth. Diligent attention turned the nub hard as Mia’s chest rose and a soft moan issued from her throat.

  “A moan is good. A whimper is even more intoxicating, but a scream…” He nibbled his way to the other breast and suckled that nipple with vigor only to let it pop from his mouth as her cry grew louder this time. “A scream is an expression of unrestrained pleasure.”

  In soft strokes, he rubbed his face over her skin, branding the scent and feel of her to him. The woman sent for him as partner, treasure and perfection had known his passion only in the starkness of a prison cell. They’d conceived their child in those cells. He pressed a kiss to her shoulder. Tonight he would start to erase the darkness from their past. He delivered a bruising kiss, one intended to drive her beyond reason, to evoke her response without time for thought.

  No hurry, no rush, a voice murmured inside him.

  Yet time and distance lent desperation to his need. He grasped her hair as his tongue delved through the sweet contours of her mouth. Seconds before he was prepared to stop for fear of pushing her too fast, her hands ripped at his shirt to get closer.

  With a groan, he pulled back and tossed off his shirt, followed quickly by the rest of his clothes. Naked before her, he waited at the upturned command of her hand and the quick flash of her smile.

  Crossing his arms he waited, allowing her the same access and perusal of his body he’d had of hers, though being on the receiving end was torturous. Tiny flares of heat percolated along his skin in the wake of her gaze. He sucked in a deep breath and held his position. The feminine glint of power in her eyes enticed as much as the physical effect of her touch. Her blue gaze, now a deep midnight steeped in passion, shifted to the mark swirling up his thigh and around his hip.

  Her fingers stroked him there and played along each line and turn of the glyph, building sensations that thickened his already painful erection. Turen drew in a tight breath and grabbed her hand, moving to kneel before her with a smile. They wouldn’t get far if she focused on his mark. His desire was strong enough without the added stimulus.

  “I want to play with you first.” He pressed her fingers to the coverlet.

  Her pants, loosely gripped in his hands, slid from her legs in a whisper. He discarded them on top of his clothes.

  The pale ivory of one instep beckoned for a taste there and a sample farther up her arch. He lingered from her ankle to the gentle curve of her knee, needing firm flesh to convince himself she was real. Only at the delicate pocket between her thigh and the lace of her panties did he stop.

  Blowing gently across the lace covering, he glanced up at her. She stared back with her elbows braced on the bed, lips parted, and a subtle inhalation audible to his ears. He licked her through the thin fabric. Quick gasps followed, sharp and shallow as her thigh quivered against his cheek.

  Lovely.

  “Don’t tease.” Her order trailed out in a low, harsh whisper. The fists at her side and the blush on her cheeks were hardly threatening. Gaze still on her, he suckled her through the lace, a slow constant motion until her neck arched back, long and sleek in conjunction with her soft moan.

  Lifting both of her calves over his shoulder, he snapped the side of the lace bit of fluff and freed her, leaving her pink and moist to his view. His finger came away shiny and slick from a glide through her folds. “Are you ready to scream for me, love?”

  She tried to pull off a laugh. Her effort turned to a gasp and then a whimper as his lips closed over the delicate flesh. He suckled with care, visiting every detail as he had her nipples.

  “We’ll have to do much better than a whimper.” Holding her open with his thumbs, he delved straight into her core with his tongue. The pitch of her cry, the shake of her legs and the quiver of her internal muscles all roared through his nerves in an erotic heat wave. Determined to draw out her pleasure, he kept his sensuous assault a fraction from where she needed. “Better, love, you can do more.”

  His fingers delved in lieu of his tongue, his thumb massaging just shy of the sensitive pearl as she tried to shift his attention, yet he held off. He stroked deeper with his fingers and twisted, reaching a spot that elicited tremors. Her moans were now louder, interspersed with soft pants, her responsiveness hardening him to the point of wonderful pain. He could lie here between her thighs and pleasure her forever.

  He licked again at her flesh, reveling in the taste of her. The memory had been enough to give him an erection at the worst of times. Only Mia, only her body, her soul, could ease this craving and nothing would ever diminish it.

  The rise in her voice finally reached a mewl. He curled his lips around her clit and suckled her hard, whipping his tongue across the hard nub of flesh until her muscles clasped in rhythm around his fingers. Her hands fisted in his hair, and she screamed his name as he soothed her flesh, gentling her until sated lethargy took hold of her muscles.

  Unable to hold back a satisfied smile, he moved above her, lifting his wet fingers to paint her lips in a juicy feast for his tongue to follow.

  At the murmur of rising passion in her throat, he shifted to nuzzle at her temple. Pulling her into his arms, he stroked his fingers across her skin until little shivers followed his teases.

  “Did you hear what you wanted?” She gasped as his fingers drifted to her nipple and squeezed.

  “It was a wonderful start. I want this to be what we remember most, the joy, the desire, no holding back. You’re beautiful when you let loose.”

  “Such wants and needs.” She laughed, but some truth must have struck her, because she blinked back tears.

  “Give me another two hundred years. We won’t scratch the surface of my needs for you.” He kissed her as his hand eased her thigh over his hip. “Look at me, Mia.”

  She slid her hands along his arms and looped them around his neck with a look that tore the breath from his lungs. His mate. A vibrant being of passion and love destined for him.

  “No doubts. I’m yours forever. I was from the moment I picked up your scent from the earring in Xavier’s tunnel.” He stroked the side of her face as he leaned his forehead against hers.

  With slow deliberation, he sank his cock into her hot, silky folds and watched her face. Inch by delicate inch, he worked into her heat until he thought he might burn alive from the bliss of it. Watching carefully for any sign he might cause her discomfort, he continued until his balls encountered the warmth of her body as her muscles clenched in a glove around his erection.

  As sensational as this physical connection was, the link to her soul he felt beyond measure held fast and secure by the bond between them.

  He moved and stroked inside her, the essence of her caressing him. Emotions flickered across her face; pleasure and excitement flowed in a blush whispering across the top of her cheeks. Love glowed from her eyes. Her every expression was worth all the long aching years he’d waited for her.

  The tip of her tongue traced her upper lip, and her white teeth pulled at her lower lip.

  “My destiny.” He captured her lip between his own as he moved back into her, his strokes firmer, moving faster as her hips urged him on.

  “Are y
ou going to tease me all night, Turen?” She whispered the fractured words.

  “What do you need, love?” He bent his head to bite tiny nips along her neck and shoulder.

  “Faster.” She closed her teeth over his jaw in provocation. “Not a piece of china.”

  He grunted as her muscles squeezed around him and he gave her what she asked for. His hand tightened at the top of her thigh. He gave fast and hard until the sizzling heat streamed from his cock up his spine. It took all the restraint he had to hold back for her, sweat glistening over their bodies, his balls drawn up tight like walnuts. Yet more than his own release, he wanted hers.

  So close. Her nails bit into his biceps. He groaned at the sensation as the pink blush deepened across her chest and neck. Her cries shattered his little remaining control and he gripped her to him. His name poured from her lips, and he roared hers, releasing into her body until he could no longer feel her tremors clasping him.

  The soft murmurs she muttered against his chest burrowed into his heart as he withdrew from her body. He tucked her close, cradled her in his arms, and tried to mesh her and their baby to him in a human cocoon. She fit. A perfect mold to him, a perfect fit to his heart, an unbreakable tie to his soul. With a sigh, he nuzzled in the soft sheen of her hair and grabbed the blanket from the bed to cover them.

  “To finally have you beside me when I sleep and next to me as I wake—” He couldn’t force the words past the swell in his throat.

  They stayed fused together, lights on, desire not sated but humming quietly at bay on the perimeter of their consciousness. Peace wrapped around him; their bodies blended.

  To sleep with her in his arms was almost too good. The reality would be too painful if he woke to find this was a dream. Turen shifted, wedging his hand beneath her, just enough so he could feel her there as he drifted into sleep. Her hand stayed gripped on his forearm as if her determination could keep him from being ripped from her side.

  Perhaps it could.

  If anyone could hold him by sheer force of will, it was Mia.

  He’d told her the truth. She owned him, heart and soul. For her he would crawl to hell and back. He hoped it wouldn’t come to that, but he kissed her shoulder and murmured a silent prayer.