by Misty Dietz
Her sudden release came with a scream that echoed off the marble and filled him with complex emotions. He wrapped his arms around her and buried his face against her head, fearful of what she might see if she peered too closely.
When she went limp in his arms, he remembered that she was still not fully herself.
How had she carried on so long when she was so sick? He’d never seen another Guardian this depleted, who managed to pull through.
He grabbed two plush towels off the counter as he carried her into the bedroom. He laid her down, thought her clothes away, toweled her off, and then lay down beside her, pulling her close. For two hours she slept, utterly still. Endless minutes while the sun crept across the late afternoon sky, and he had nothing but his thoughts. It was odd to be so stationary while awake. He usually puzzled things out while in motion. Fighting, running, sailing, exploring. These quiet moments with Katherine lying in his arms were foreign.
Not altogether comfortable.
The setting sun was casting peach rays against her upholstered headboard when her fingers curled on his belly. He froze, hardening instantly. He knew what was coming. As much as he thought he was prepared for it, how could a male Guardian ever fully calm himself enough to be merely an instrument for his mate’s healing?
Her soft fingertips slid down the center line of his abdomen, pausing to dip in his belly button before continuing down, following the fine-haired trail down to his erection. Her fingers wrapped firmly around the base, the thumb of her other hand slicking across his damp slit. He groaned low, his heart thudding as she brought that thumb to her mouth, sucking his essence with a shiver of pleasure. His entire body pulsed with a fire to cover her, fill her, heal her.
Dying to touch. Bury myself so deep we are never parted again.
She smiled at him—soft, sweet, coy—and his out-of-control breath calmed.
Because that wasn’t Kat’s smile.
She wasn’t herself right now. Her Guardian spirit was on autopilot, sensing her soul mate, seeking his body to restore her power.
Katherine wouldn’t willingly choose this if she were awake.
He inhaled and exhaled slowly, painfully, as he angled from his side to lie back down on the bed. Her eyes tracked across his body, darkening when they focused on his erection. He curled his hands into fists, the fingernails biting into his palms doing nothing to ease his need to move. To be in control. To orchestrate her release.
No. Let her lead. Use him as she wished. It was the only hope he had that she wouldn’t hate him when this was all over.
“Tibi cedo, meus amor aeternus.” His whispered submission in the old language between compars unraveled the last of her hesitation. The sheet fell from her body as she rose to her knees, her breasts exquisite in the late afternoon sunlight. Light pink tips puckered, the creamy undersides perfectly circular. She bent over him to run the tips of her silky blonde hair over his nipples, down, down, to tangle in his body’s precum. She chuckled deep in her throat when his hips jerked. She was going to kill him.
But oh, what a way to go.
She pressed a kiss to his head, then licked the long, hard length of him like she was enjoying the most decadent popsicle ever created.
Thor’s blood.
When her warm mouth closed around him, he growled, his hand shooting into her hair for a moment before he came back to himself and let his hand drop beside his thigh. She frowned and shoved his legs apart, settled between them and looked up at him, his cock in her mouth, her eyes daring him to move, damn her.
He pushed up to a sitting position, sweat rolling between his pecs, his muscles tense all over. A frown marred the smooth expanse of her forehead like she couldn’t understand why he wouldn’t touch her, and he was sorry for it. But if he instigated, it would almost feel like rape.
“Use me, elskan.” The words rasped from his throat. “Take everything you need.”
She blinked and looked down at his erection. Then sat back on her ass, lifting her legs to drape them across the tops of his thighs, scooting forward, her sweet lips parting only inches from his cock. His hands slid roughly up her shins, knowing she might vilify him if she remembered he touched without permission.
She raised one leg, settling the back of her heel on his shoulder, one hand going to her pussy, rubbing slow circles that made his breath erratic and his cock pulse with yearning.
“Kat, yes, baby…” He grasped her hips, watching her play with herself, her escalating moans like the final seconds of a ticking bomb, ready to tear his body apart. He bent his knees, feet touching behind her ass to give her more space. Her legs began to shake, her eyes squeezed shut, but her orgasm wouldn’t come. He wrapped his arms behind her back, supporting her as she struggled to find release. She opened her eyes, her gaze pleading with him.
Fuck this. She needed him.
He grasped her waist, lifted her, spreading her legs over his hips and sliding her along his length until her moans grew louder than the glossy, erotic sounds their bodies’ slick flesh made. Up, down, hot, slippery, perfect. “Look at me,” he demanded. Her blue-green eyes more green than blue right now—her—yet not. “Tell me what you want.” He didn’t know how much longer he’d be able to hold out. Felt so good.
She pulled her leg down from his shoulder, pushed up to her knees, and his breath stopped. She wrapped her arms tightly around his neck, pressed her lips to his pounding carotid, and lowered her body over his, taking him in, restarting his heart, body, and soul simultaneously. His arms squeezed her closer, closer, his ass contracting, reaching up into her as she lifted away, then returned all that heat and acceptance. The essence of her that he would never get enough of.
She loved him, slow at first, her movements limited because his arms wouldn’t relax his hold on her. Little hip rocks, slight shifts, the pleasure built. It flowed out of their mouths—breath, pores, sighs, all of it an expression of their connection.
“Ari.” Her hands wedged between them to press against his chest. His arms unlocked around her, sliding down her backside, cupping underneath to feel their intimate joining. His breath shuddered out of his mouth, eyes slitting, hungrily watching her breasts bounce faster as she took her pleasure from him.
Her vocalizations rose and fell, building, reminding him of when he’d loved her thoroughly on the shores of Tylösand, Norway. Day had given way to a purple dusk. They’d made love, and as he held her, stroking her belly where their unborn baby slept, she’d told him she thought she could be happy there in his homeland.
He’d believed her. Less than two months later, she’d shut him out.
Ari looked into her eyes. What can I do to make your walls come down and stay down? What can I do to trust you won’t reject me over and over?
He grasped her hips, grinding her against him every time she descended, until that beautiful contraction within her meant imminent release. Gratitude rippled through him as her cries filled his ears and her breasts crushed against him. She stilled in a moment of perfect implosion as he absorbed her pleasure greedily.
“Give it to me,” she demanded in a voice not her own. Buried in her, he felt her energy ramp, her light, her power rise several notches.
Finally okay to let go.
His orgasm wrenched violently through him, spurting into her as she curled around him, wrapping her arms and legs about him, whispering to him in the old language. Thanking him, spurring him on with warnings and promises. Wringing power and healing and energy from him. He thrilled in his loss because it meant she would rise from this bed strong and restored.
They were both shaking when it was over.
She was asleep even before he eased her back down onto the mattress and cleaned her with the towel he’d dried her with earlier. He balled the towel and chucked it across the room, then tucked in beside her. As he pulled her into the shelter of his body, she whispered in her sleep, “alis volat propriis.”
She flies with her own wings.
Aye, she certainly
did.
He closed his eyes, angling his head on the pillow by her hair, almost desperate for sleep. He’d need it in the coming hours when she woke and sought his body again.
And again.
Needing him like this would likely seal her hatred of him for all time.
He sighed and reopened his eyes to stare out windows at the growing darkness, wondering if he’d ever find peace.
Chapter 7
Oh, warm. This dream was incredible. Katherine burrowed further into the heat, squeezing her eyes shut more tightly against the brightness, wishing she’d remembered to draw the curtains before going to bed. And, heavens, something smelled divine. She wanted to laze here for hours and hours, shirking all responsibility to humanity.
The heat curled tighter around her left hip like it had a life of its own, turned her gently to her other side, then pulled her a short distance across the silky sheets till she felt a pulsing wall of heat pressing solidly against her backside.
The heat slid up her bare belly as soft as angels’ wings toward her breasts where it explored the tender undersides like they were a boundless mystery. A moan slipped from her lips as she shifted restlessly on the bed.
A deep breeze suffused with the most erotic sound she’d ever heard feathered in her hair at the shell of her ear. She shuddered, undulating her body back against the furnace. Again. And then once more. Against the shaft of heat that hit her in the most perfect spot. The heat lifted her upper leg in a tender vise and set a carnal rhythm against her bare flesh that soon made her breath rush between her lips, her mind imagining laughing blue eyes and a pair of broad shoulders she would ever yearn for. Her body arched at the exquisite peak of her passion, head thrown back, her chin caught in a warm grip. Pressure, like that from a thumb, tugged across her lips before delving into her mouth.
Liquid fire roared in her veins.
Ari.
Another flutter of wind at her ear, a seizing behind her, then, I am here, elskan.
As you are meant to be… Her sated body drifted in a drowsy cloud, listening to the chirp of fairy terns. There was also a heartbeat.
Actually, two.
What? Birds and heartbeats?
The heartbeats were in unison. She hadn’t felt that sensation in—
Her eyelids flew open, the bright daylight making her blink in rapid succession until her full consciousness rose and she realized she was in bed at her AQUA penthouse. She glanced down, cringing to see a heavy forearm dusted with golden hairs draped over her arm, a tanned, sculptural hand nestled between her breasts.
Oh damn, and here she was buck-ass naked pressing her nether regions into his groin like an animal in heat.
“Blazing hell! No, no, no.” She shot up and away from Ari, her knees and feet tangling in the sheets. She yelped, tumbling headlong toward the floor until strong hands grasped her upper thighs and hauled her back onto the rumpled bed linens that smelled like sex and heaven.
“Did…did we…?” Her voice actually squeaked.
He laid on his side and propped his head on his arm when she kicked his hands away, his smile more beautiful than any Hawaiian sunrise.
“Repeatedly.”
The satisfaction in his voice made something give way in her chest.
She felt amazing all over. Like she could run marathons, climb mountains. Maybe even wade into the loathsome ocean.
This was terrible.
She didn’t do happy. The few times she’d tried, it didn’t end well.
She rolled out of bed, grabbing a barely-there robe off the hook on the door. The urge to rail at him, to accuse him of forcing her to go to bed with him ran her hard, but it would be a lie. She didn’t remember the details, but she knew in her weakened state her Guardian instinct would’ve sought restoration in his body.
Had probably demanded it.
Heat poured through her face and down her neck. Yes, it would be a lie to say he’d had his way with her without her permission. And it would be the coward’s way to deal with this day-after awkwardness. The best thing to do was pretend it didn’t mean anything and move on.
Don’t look at him or you’ll want to crawl right back into that bed and never leave.
“I appreciate your…services,”—he raised an eyebrow at that, but she soldiered on—“but you can go now. I’ve got a lot to do before the club opens in...” She picked up her phone to check the time and gasped. “How can it be Tuesday? Where did Sunday and Monday go?”
All traces of humor fled his face. “You almost died, Kat.”
Memories of starting the exorcism, feeling the evil press into her, and then the rending of her flesh came pouring back. She stiffened as a subtle thread of pain crept through her, sapping some of her renewed vitality. She plunked into the chair by the nightstand. “Well, that sucks.”
Ari ran a hand though his hair and swung his powerful legs to floor. Sitting naked at the edge of the bed, all his golden skin was dangerously appealing. Her gaze tracked hungrily across the washboard expanse of his abs, up his rock-hard chest, to his eyes that burned with black and blue fire.
“Come here.”
Her joints softened at his low tone. “I can’t.”
He lifted a hand toward her. She wanted so badly to take it. “Of course you can. Right leg first, then your left.”
“Knock it off.”
“As your compar, nothing brings me more pleasure then restoring your vigor.”
Her heart squeezed. So stupid. “I despise the fact that this is your duty. Don’t you?”
He stood and stalked toward her. “Not at all. I am one hundred percent focused on you because I want to be.”
She held up a hand when he got close enough that she could feel his body heat. “Stay back, Ari. Please. I can’t deal with our stuff right now. Not with Leviathan breathing down my neck.” And whatever plague was within, unrelentingly robbing her life force.
“I’ll help you handle her. Then we’ll sort out ‘our stuff.’”
“You make it sound so easy. You always do that. I hate that,” she retorted. “It’s like you expect to pick up where you left off.”
His eyebrows pulled down as he raked a hand through his hair. “I can’t go back and change my actions, but I’m here now. I won’t leave you again.”
Oh yeah, he would, and it wouldn’t even be his fault. His restless soul would make him. But his assurance broke her heart, especially because she knew–—at this moment—he believed it.
Chapter 8
Ari laced his fingers behind his head and leaned back in the chair, his gaze following the path of Kat’s fingers as she eased a black suede boot over her knee and up her delicious thigh. She repeated the process with the other boot, then stood in front of her gilded floor mirror and added an intricate black lace choker that picked up elements of the spindly, black flowers embroidered on her white, v-neck dress. “Your armaments are as alluring as ever. It’s a shame Leviathan doesn’t expire with envy for your unrivaled fashion sense.”
Her gaze found his in the mirror as she put the back on a glittering earring. “Life would be awesome if sweatpants were sexy, but alas…no.” She sighed as she turned to face him. “We’re lucky she didn’t attack while I was out of commission. But now, I wish she’d just get it over with. This waiting for something to happen is worse.”
“That’s what she wants—nerves eating away at you. That way when she does attack, you’ll already be frazzled and emotionally drained.” He eased forward to rest his forearms on his knees, then added, “we could always go on the offense, you know.”
She walked to her dressing table, uncapping a stick of dark red lipstick. “It’s going to be a long night. Where’s my coffee?”
One side of his mouth lifted, but a full-on smile wouldn’t come. Not responding to his suggestion to go on the offense meant she wasn’t feeling as well as she was letting on, she was scared, or both. “I’m happy to be at your service in bed, but you can get your own damn coffee, princess.”
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Her eyes narrowed. “Feeling puckish, are we? Poor Viking, being trapped in this room with such a heavy obligation must’ve cramped your style.”
He leaned into her barbs, buttoning down a surge of anger that her emotional walls hadn’t budged even a little in the past few days they’d spent wrapped around each other. Of course she’d been in healing mode, but still. “You’re just mad that you needed me. I respect your independence, but even great leaders can’t do everything on their own. Don’t fault me for doing what any Guardian would’ve done for their compar.”
“I’m not saying it was your fault. I’m saying I blame you.”
What? He stood up from the chair and grabbed her hand. “Blame me for what? For letting you use me for pleasure and healing? Excuse me if that’s beyond the pale.”
Her lips pursed for a moment before she sighed and composed her features. “Cancel my subscription, I’m tired of these issues.” She tried to pull her hand from his. “Release me, unless you want to give my resuscitated water element a test run.”
“Sarcasm usually masks fear,” he said quietly, letting her go. “You’re afraid of so many things. Why didn’t I see it before?”
“Nooo,” she drew the word out like he was some dim-wit, “I’m allergic to stupidity so I break out in sarcasm.”
“I think you’d actually like it if I spanked your ass, you little magpie.”
“Whatever makes you feel better about your savage self.” She ran a hand down her flowing sleeve, looked up at him, then quickly back down. “She came to me in my dreams.”
He stopped breathing for a moment. ‘She’ meaning Leviathan. He was surprised Kat had admitted such a thing to him. “I figured. What did she say?”
She frowned. “You did?”
“Three times in the hours before dawn you pulled away from me and thrashed around, fighting harder when I tried to soothe you. You didn’t settle down until I spoke the words of the binding ceremony.” He’d wanted to tell her earlier, but from the current stiff set of her shoulders, she clearly didn’t want to hear about it. Well, too bad. “I’m beginning to think neither of us will find peace until we accept our match.”
