by Zoe Chant
“But it isn’t the end. If you can feel the same spark of potential inside yourself that I felt just now, there’s hope.”
Please. Please let there be hope. Let me be able to fix this.
“I feel—” Keeley shook her head, her gaze skittering away from his. “I thought there was something, still. Afterwards. But I must have been imagining it.”
“Please. Try. For me.”
Keeley’s eyes shot to his as she heard the tremble in his voice. Her throat bobbed as she swallowed. “Okay.”
Her voice was barely even a whisper, but it made all the hairs on Lance’s arms stand on end.
He knelt, frozen, barely daring to breathe as she closed her eyes. A line formed between her eyebrows. The corners of her mouth turned down in concentration.
Lance had one hand on the small of her back, the other holding hers. Physical touch.
Every atom of his being longed for more.
Keeley’s breath stuttered. “I see it—but I can’t—”
Inside Lance, his snow leopard raised its head. The faintest hint of light spilled from under its front paws.
Let it out, Lance urged it. His snow leopard raised its paws, one by one, and the tiny spark of hope floated up in the dark not-space of Lance’s soul.
He reached out psychically until he could almost feel the tiniest flicker of heat, and then focused his sight on the outside world again.
Her face was screwed up. Lance didn’t need the mate bond to see the frustration and fear rolling off her. Her fingers tightened around his.
Inside him, his snow leopard leaned forward, eyes fixed on the spark of light. Together, they pushed it toward Keeley, forging a new path where the old bond had broken.
Keeley’s eyes flew open. Her lips parted, and as Lance’s eyes locked with hers, he finally sensed the spark of light inside her soul.
Hope shivered down his spine.
“See? I knew you would find it,” he whispered.
“But it’s tiny.” As she said it, the light inside her flickered. “And—what are we even doing? Why do you want to fix it? Everything’s fine, we caught the bad guys… you don’t need to be stuck with me anymore.”
Lance pulled her closer, until their foreheads were touching. He breathed in her scent.
“I can’t lose you, Keeley. Fate has given us another chance to make this work. I know there’s no one in the world who could make me as happy as you do.” He brushed his thumb across the palm of her hand. “Will you give me a chance to make you happy, too?”
Keeley hesitated. Her eyes darkened, and she licked her lips.
Lance waited. He knew how hard it had been for her to tell him her story—and it broke his heart, how she’d spat the things she’d suffered at him as though she expected him to reject her.
“Before,” she began, and paused again. “When you asked me if there was anywhere I’ve ever felt safe. I could only think of one place. One time.”
She drew a ragged breath. Lance was barely able to breathe himself. He felt frozen in time.
He had pushed the spark from his own soul out towards Keeley, and cold was pricking his heart now that it was gone.
The mate-bond was a one-time thing. Either Keeley accepted him now, or…
“The last time I felt safe was the first time we fell asleep together.” Keeley’s voice was barely a whisper, but her words brushed against Lance’s skin like the warm caress of a flame. “Being in your arms…”
Heat shivered across Lance’s skin, like he was sitting too close to a fire. He leaned forward.
“Don’t let go of that thought.”
He nudged the bright spark from his own soul towards the flickering ember in Keeley’s heart. She gasped as the two sparks almost touched.
“What now?” Keeley breathed.
The two sparks moved slowly around each other, like dust motes caught in a soft breeze. Dancing, spinning—but still separate.
Lance gritted his teeth. “I’m… not sure. I’m kind of making this up as I go along.”
A muscle in his jaw hopped. Why isn’t this working? Keeley was relying on him. If he failed now—oh, God.
She meant so much to him, even without the mate bond. And now that he’d seen under the tough face she showed the world, he knew how vulnerable she was.
If this didn’t work, Keeley would blame herself. She would lock the pain away inside and let it eat away at her, like she had with everything else.
That was worse than all the pain he would feel from losing her.
“You’re making it up as you go along?” To his surprise, Keeley laughed.
Lance frowned as she lifted her hands to his shoulders, then his face. She smoothed her fingertips down the strong line of his jaw, and Lance opened his eyes to find himself already caught in her gaze.
Keeley’s stormy eyes were half-laughing, half-sad. With his eyes open, Lance couldn’t track the sparks of the mate bond, but suddenly, it didn’t matter.
“We screwed this up together,” Keeley said, her voice hitching. “I think we have to fix it together, too.”
Before Lance could respond, she kissed him, and it didn’t matter that his eyes were open, because the world filled with golden light. And when Lance closed his eyes, sinking into the kiss, his mind’s eye found the mate bond blazing into life, joining him to Keeley heart and soul.
When they broke apart at last, he and Keeley were both kneeling on the ground. Keeley’s chair was overturned behind her. Lance’s hands were around her waist, holding her close against him, and she was cupping his face in both hands.
“Oh,” Keeley breathed. “I think… that worked?”
Her smile was tentative. Lance’s protective instincts surged; even now, she was still afraid that none of this was real. That she would lose him.
It was time to kill that fear once and for all.
“It worked,” he said, and kissed her.
Inside him, Lance’s snow leopard rumbled with a happiness deeper than he’d ever known. The mate bond between him and Keeley was shining and new, like the first sunrise after a night of storms.
“Let’s get you home,” Lance murmured to his mate.
Keeley
Keeley tumbled out of the car the moment Lance opened the door for her. She half-stumbled, half-threw herself into his arms, laughter bubbling out of her.
Lance kissed her long enough that if it wasn’t for his arms around her she really would have fallen down. Then he raised his head, and the expression on his face made her legs go liquid.
“You know what I’ve just realized?” he asked her, his eyes dancing. “This is the first time I’ve brought you home.”
The low rumble of his voice sent delicious shivers up Keeley’s spine. “It’s not like I haven’t seen your place before.”
“Hmm.” Oh, God. More shivers. “Teleporting in while I was passed out from a gunshot wound wasn’t exactly the most romantic introduction. This time, I’d like to—”
He interrupted himself with a kiss that made Keeley’s knees go weak and left her with no doubts about what he wanted to do.
“I thought this was supposed to be a quick stop?” she murmured. “Grabbing overnight bags before we get on the helicopter?”
They’d left Maggie under the safe eyes of Parker, Yelich, and a half-dozen watchful meerkat shifters. She’d been cheerfully smearing gold ink over her sibling eggs, none the worse for wear for her latest adventure. Lance had murmured something about him and Keeley needing to pick up their toothbrushes from his apartment while Harley got the chopper ready, and…
… and every single other adult in the room had given them a Look that said they knew exactly what they were actually heading home for.
Well, fuck it. Lance was the best thing to ever happen to her, and she didn’t care who knew how much she loved him.
Lance chuckled and began kissing her neck. Keeley let her head fall back.
“Just—a quick—hey!” she giggled as he caught her dress in
his teeth and began to pull it over her shoulder.
“I’m sure we could be very efficient about it,” Lance rumbled. His eyes flashed as he looked up at her, his breath hot against her skin. “But I don’t want to be. I want to take my time.”
“Hngh.” Keeley groaned and tried again. “Take your time, huh? Is that code for ripping my clothes off in the parking lot?”
Lance’s eyes narrowed. “Hmm,” he said, straightening. With an expression of extreme solemnity on his face undermined only by his sparkling eyes, he offered her his arm.
Keeley took it, feeling like she was walking on clouds. Lance walked her formally to the elevator.
She managed to wait until the doors closed before the urge to kiss him became too strong to resist. Lance pressed the button for his floor, and the moment his attention was distracted, Keeley struck.
Lance murmured in surprise as she dragged his head down. His lips were soft, and his surprise melted away as she slipped her tongue between his lips, replaced by urgent passion.
“Oh, God,” he muttered when they finally broke apart. “That’s really not fair.”
Keeley stepped back, smirking. Lance was hard up against the elevator wall. His pupils were blown wide with desire, the cool green of his eyes a thin circle around pools of red-hot darkness.
“What are you going to do about it?” she challenged him.
Behind her, the elevator bell dinged. Keeley thought about taking another step back, dropping her hands from his shoulders and slipping out the door, but her heart thudded no.
She leaned forward instead, trailing her fingertips up his chest. Now that she’d let herself really feel how much she wanted him—needed him, desired him, loved him—she couldn’t stop touching him.
Not even to tease him.
Lance’s eyes were hooded as he gazed down at her. “I’m going to do what I should have done the moment I met you. Take you home, and begin our life together.”
His eyes flared silver, and this time, Keeley was the one taken by surprise as he swept her up in his arms.
“Hey!” she squealed as Lance strode out of the elevator. “What are you—?”
Lance crossed the corridor to the door to his apartment in a few long strides.
“Just what I said. This is what I should have done all along.” He unlocked the apartment door without putting Keeley down. “Welcome home.”
Our home, she thought.
Lance’s eyes flicked up to meet hers, as though she’d spoken aloud and not kept her happy thoughts locked up in her own heart. He smiled gently, and a rush of affection buffeted against her.
Oh. Of course. The mate-bond. She must have sent her feelings through it, and he’d replied in kind.
“That’s right,” he said, the barest hint of a purr in his voice. “This is our home, now. Everything that’s mine is yours.”
The pure flood of love Lance sent her through the mate bond as he stepped over the threshold made her breath catch.
He kissed her, slow and deep, and she thought: If I could send a feeling by accident…
She concentrated. It was like using a muscle she hadn’t exercised, ever. Not just the sending part, but letting her guard down. Letting herself really feel what she was feeling, and not be afraid of her own desires.
Lance’s breath stuttered against her lips. “God, Keeley—”
He leaned his forehead against hers, breathing heavily. Keeley kissed him again and whispered, “Did that work?”
“Did it—? Christ.” Lance groaned deep in his throat, and Keeley giggled, feeling light-headed.
She’d sent him everything he made her feel. Loving and loved. Protected and protective. The sheer joy of the knowledge that she was no longer on her own. From now on, it wasn’t just her against the world. It was her and Lance, together.
Everything that had happened that day felt like part of an intricate lock that she’d worked through stage by stage and had finally clicked open. Instead of a constant ache of stress and worry inside her, there was peace.
Peace… and the desperate urge to screw Lance’s brains out.
Keeley knew what she wanted, and she wasn’t afraid of wanting it anymore.
Lance had lifted her bridal-style, but as he carried her towards his bedroom she wriggled around in his grasp until she could wrap her legs around his waist. This gave her access to his chest. She pulled his shirt up, unbuttoning it and glorying in the feeling of his strong muscles under her hands.
“God, Keeley.” Lance’s voice was thick with lust. She looked up from his chest and almost drowned in the liquid heat of his eyes.
Need pierced her. She let herself drop down lower on his hips, until the hard rod of Lance’s cock rubbed between her legs.
Lance swore, and the sensation that burned down the mate bond made Keeley’s blood catch fire.
They were on the steps up to Lance’s room. Keeley dragged Lance’s face to hers, kissing him and biting his lips until she thought she would explode. He groaned against her mouth. In a rare moment of un-catlike clumsiness, his foot slipped.
With feline grace, Lance caught them both before they could fall. The edge of a step pressed into Keeley’s back. Lance changed his grip to pick her up again, and she pushed back, laying him back against the stairs.
“The bed is literally less than six feet away,” Lance reminded her, his eyes dancing.
“I know.” Keeley slid one hand between his legs. “I don’t think I can wait that long. What about you?”
Lance groaned. His eyes rolled back in his head as Keeley squeezed his cock through his pants.
“You make a convincing argument,” he admitted.
Keeley half-stood to mount him and didn’t realize he’d dragged her panties down until they tangled around her knees. Giggling, she let herself fall onto him, kicking her underwear the rest of the way off as he removed her dress and bra just as quickly.
Her nipples tightened as they brushed against his chest. Urgency gripped her, need pounding like a drum between her legs.
Lance’s belt buckle gave way under her light fingers, then his fly, and then she was wrapping her hands around his cock.
“I want you so much,” she gasped as she ran her fingers along his thick length.
Lance’s fingertips dug into her hips. His eyes burned with the same need that blazed through Keeley’s veins.
Biting her lip, she lowered herself onto him.
Keeley cried out. She wanted him too much to wait for her body to adjust; she pushed down, driving herself deeper and deeper, every movement stoking the fire burning inside her.
Lance grabbed her face in his hands, drawing her down to claim her mouth as he surged beneath her. He was as frenzied as she was.
“I won’t lose you again,” he said, his voice ragged with desire. “Oh God—Keeley—”
He was losing control. Keeley could hear it in the hitch of his breath, the gravel rasp of his voice. She pressed her body against his. Every touch set off new flames of need inside her.
He needed her. He wanted her. And she wanted him. Nothing in her life had ever been as right as this.
Keeley thrust her hips forward one last time. Fireworks went off behind her eyes as she came in an explosion more visceral and intense than ever before. Lance wrapped his arms around her and roared as he spilled himself inside her.
Keeley lay limp on top of Lance for a few breaths. She rested her hand on his chest, feeling his heartbeat become calmer. Lance ran his hands down her back in long, slow strokes.
He chuckled. Keeley raised her head.
“What?”
Lance’s gaze was hazy with sated lust, but there was no hiding the pure love in his eyes as he looked at her. “I think I’m going to need to move the bed closer to the front door, if this keeps up,” he said.
Keeley crossed her arms on his chest and rested her chin on them. “I don’t know. This feels fine to me,” she said, and wriggled her hips. Lance’s cock was still buried deep inside her, a
nd the movement set off a new surge of warm, lazy desire. “Feels very fine.”
“Perhaps for you. I’m worried my spine is going to become permanently stair-shaped.” He brushed a stray strand of hair off her face. “But for some reason I don’t want to move.”
Keeley sighed. The lazy desire coiling inside her was sharpening up. But this was only supposed to be a quick stop…
Except. There was one thing they definitely needed to do before they headed away again.
“What are you thinking?” Lance murmured. “I can tell it’s making you happy.”
Keeley smiled.
“I was remembering how attracted to you I was that first morning here,” she said, tracing patterns on Lance’s collarbone. “I thought I was going crazy. I’d never felt like that about anyone before. So… sudden, and intense.”
“That’s because—”
Keeley put her finger on Lance’s lips and rolled her eyes. “Well, I know that now, don’t I? But at the time, I thought I was losing it. And… it was all I could do not to follow you into the shower.”
“Really?” Lance’s smile promised to fulfill all of Keeley’s wildest dreams. “I suppose we do need to clean up before we return to the agency.”
“Um, holy shit.”
Keeley’s legs were still wobbly from the stairs. Her mouth hung open as she looked around Lance’s en-suite.
She’d thought his guest-room bathroom was fancy. This was something else.
There was a shower, sure. Or at least that’s what Keeley thought it must be. There were at least a dozen shower heads arrayed along the ceiling at the far end of the room. Some of them were above the bath. The enormous bath. Everything was warm marble and granite, and Keeley had never seen stone look so cozy and inviting before. Even the long marble block running alongside the bath looked comfy. For a block of rock.
“Okay, I definitely should have snuck in here with you the other day. What was I thinking?”
Lance swept her hair off her shoulder and kissed the back of her neck. “At a guess, something along the lines of ‘Who is this freak who can turn into a giant cat, why am I playing mommy to a baby dragon, and who just tried to kill us all?’”
