“I don’t either, baby.” He caught her hands, lifting them over her head, and pressed them against the bed. “But I promise it’ll be worth it. Hell, we haven’t even gotten to the good part yet.”
“Oh, God,” she groaned. “You’ll kill me.”
They both stilled the moment the words left her lips, but she was the one who moved first, pulling one of her hands from his hold and pressing it to the side of his face. Noah turned his head, pressing a hot kiss against the center of her palm. “I’d never hurt you,” he told her, the quiet words as solemn as a vow.
“I know. That’s why I’m here. I trust you, Noah.”
He believed her, and yet, he could see there was something she wasn’t telling him. There were still secrets she was holding close to her chest, and he forced himself to ask, “Are you sure you want this, Will?”
Her eyes went wide, as if she couldn’t believe he’d asked that question.
“I need an answer, honey.” The words were low and rough. “Before it’s too late. Are you sure this is what you want?”
She took a deep breath, curled her hands around the back of his neck and brought his mouth to hers. “I’m sure.”
WIPING THE BLOOD and sweat from his face, Damon turned in a slow circle, surveying the destruction that spread out around him. Even without the gore and blood from the carnage, the flat patch of land where they’d performed the ceremony only moments before was bleak. No wonder Dorothy had wanted over the fucking rainbow.
It’d taken him a while to get things set up, the intricacies of the ritual circle making his head pound. Damon had used his blood in the initial stage of the spell to pull the Death-Walkers there, the sounds of their rage something he knew would stay with him for a long time. The second step, which used Willow’s blood, was even more complicated, taking him longer than he’d expected. The Watchmen had been forced to fight off the Walkers that were being pulled into the power of the circle, the creatures’ bodies literally crashing from the sky. Now that the battle was over, the group of warriors looked a little worse for wear. But despite being bloody and bruised, they were smiling and slapping one another on the back as they took a moment to celebrate the fact that they were all still standing.
Then they gathered around Damon, offering him their thanks and congratulations for a job well done, and he realized he actually liked these guys. Liked their style, their humor and their willingness to fight as dirty as they needed to. Not a single one of them had curled their lip at the idea of working with a demon. Not even one who was a sex-eater, though there’d been some good-natured ribbing about keeping him away from their women. It hadn’t taken them long to earn Damon’s respect, and he was even thinking he might offer to help them out again someday. Maybe hunt down some of the Casus shades still trolling around. Lend his hand in taking out some rogue vamps.
Of course, he’d have to deal with the ex–Mrs. MacCaven first, which wouldn’t be easy. She was like a rabid beast on his trail and she needed to be put down. For good.
“Shit,” Ashe muttered, sliding a slow look over the land, where thousands of nonhuman bodies littered the ground. None of them had expected the process of “sucking out the evil” to be quite as gruesome as it had turned out to be. “Cleaning this mess up is going to take for-friggin’-ever,” the vamp complained.
“At least it’s over,” Kierland rumbled, pulling his shirt off so he could use it to clean his blood-smeared face.
Kellan’s smile was wide as he looked at his friends. “Guess we’ve got some weddings to plan now, and I, for one, am done with waiting.”
“Screw the planning,” Aiden muttered, pressing his hand against a nasty wound that sliced across the top of his shoulder. “When we get home, I’m dragging Liv’s little ass down to the village church and making it official. I don’t care what she says.”
The others laughed, teasing the tattooed tiger-shifter about how easily his woman could twist him around her finger. Aiden was in the process of some good-natured retaliation, pinning Kellan in a headlock, when the Watchmen realized Damon was heading back toward the trucks they’d parked about a half mile away.
“Where the hell are you going?” Ashe called after him. “You helped make this mess, demon. Now you can bloody well help us clean it up!”
“I need to get someplace where I have cell reception so that I can call Noah,” he shouted over his shoulder.
Ashe nodded, then narrowed his silver eyes. “You’re coming back after that, right?”
Damon didn’t bother to respond, knowing this wasn’t the time for lengthy explanations. Instead, he kept on walking as he pulled his cell out of his back pocket. He hadn’t turned the phone on in weeks, worried the ex might use it to trace him, but he knew that he wouldn’t be sticking around Sampson much longer. When the phone finally booted up, Damon lifted it in the air and searched for a signal…wondering if Winston had managed to wait for his call, after all.
WHEN HIS PHONE RANG, Noah reached for it like it was a lifeline. “Yeah?” he barked.
Damon’s voice was gritty with exhaustion. “It’s done.”
“It worked?” he asked, trying to get his mind to focus. Not an easy thing to do when he was braced on one arm over Willow’s naked body. “And everyone’s all right?”
“Yeah, everything’s fine. The monsters are fried and your friends are all okay.”
“What happened?” he asked, hoping like hell the demon kept it short. At the moment, all he wanted were the cold hard facts…and then he wanted to be done with this call as quickly as possible.
“You know how it is. Blinding lights, scent of sulfur in the air. More blood and guts than we’d expected, and a shitload of dead bodies left behind.”
Noah snorted. “Sounds like fun.”
“Yeah, it was a real blast,” Damon drawled. “Tell Willow thanks for me.”
“I’ll tell her after.” Noah knew he didn’t have to specify after what.
Damon’s laugh was low and husky. “Be careful with her…but have fun.”
“I intend to,” he grunted, disconnecting the call and tossing the phone over his shoulder, not caring where it landed. “What happ—”
Before Willow could finish her question, Noah pushed the head of his cock inside the tender clasp of her entrance, and she gasped.
“I’m…sorry. Can’t wait,” he ground out, unable to keep his hips from rocking forward, working himself in deeper. She was warm and slick and so tight he had to grip down hard on his control to keep from losing it. He didn’t know how she did this to him. Here he was, with nearly fifteen years’ experience on her, and he was the one who felt like the bloody virgin, his body shaking with nerves and desperate need as he worked himself in deeper…and deeper, then finally slid in to the hilt. She was hugging every thick, rigid inch of him, the clasp of her body like a tight, wet mouth, and Noah fisted handfuls of the bedding, the muscles in his arms bulging as he pulled back, then forced his way inside again. It was hell on his system, but he forced himself to take it nice and slow, gritting his teeth so hard he thought his jaw might crack from the pressure.
“Oh, God…that’s… Wow.” She closed her eyes and smiled, looking as if she was savoring the feel of him inside her, and it was the sexiest damn thing he’d ever seen. His cock pulsed, stretching her wider, and she opened her eyes as she laughed, her warm gaze sparkling with happiness. “Noah, you feel so…” She arched a little, trying to get more comfortable, her breath catching as she said, “You feel incredible.”
“You’re so…tight.” He groaned, the slick, dragging suction as he nearly pulled out of her straining his control. He wanted to pound back into her, giving it to her hard and fast, but knew she wasn’t ready for it.
She just didn’t agree with him.
“I want you to go faster,” she moaned, stroking her hands down his back and curving them around his ass.
With a husky laugh, Noah gripped her wrists and pinned them over her head again, the position stretching him
out over her body, her tight nipples rubbing against his chest. “Just do it!” she cried, straining against his hold. “Damn it, I need—”
“Be patient, honey.” His ragged breaths rattled between his parted lips. “I said I wasn’t going to hurt you and I meant it.”
Her voice was hoarse. “But I want you!”
“You’re getting me,” he growled, squeezing his eyes shut, using everything he had to keep it together. “But you’re tiny and tight, and I… Damn it, I’m trying not to screw this up. If I hurt you—”
“Please, Noah.” Her breath caught on a sob, and he lifted his lashes, seeing the tears glistening in her eyes. “I’ve been waiting for you for so long,” she whispered. “Don’t make me wait anymore.”
He gave another low groan, undone by those soft words, knowing damn well that she’d just defeated him. He couldn’t have stopped then if his life depended on it. A graveled curse hissed through his teeth as Noah pulled back his hips, paused, then tightened his muscles…and shoved back into her. Hard. Her slim body arched as if she’d been jolted with an electric shock, a keening cry on her lips that was full of pleasure and lust. God, she was incredible.
He watched her from beneath his lashes, unable to look away, his thrusts getting deeper, heavier, and he couldn’t hold it…couldn’t stop it. He was already coming, the pleasure so intense it almost stopped his heart as he filled her up with thick, scalding streams of heat. It damn near turned him inside out, a guttural cry ripping from his throat that was unlike any sound he’d ever made before. He poured into her until he had nothing left—but he didn’t stop. He stayed hard, going at her harder. She was slick with his seed, and he was being too rough, he knew it, but he was lost. She took all of him, taking him all the way to the root, and he shuddered, undone, the feeling so good his eyes damn near rolled back in his head.
“Noah?” she whispered, the pleasure-thick sound of her voice just driving him on. She hadn’t come yet…but she was close, her body drawing tight beneath him.
“I’m not done with you,” he growled, bracing himself on his knees as he gripped her legs and shoved them wider, opening her to him completely. He watched his cock hammering into her pink, wet sex and nearly exploded with lust. He loved how they looked together, his dark hair meshed with her pale curls, her slick skin stretched impossibly tight around his ruddy shaft. He felt lost, out of control, pushed so far beyond anyplace he’d ever been it was almost frightening.
When she turned her face to the side and caught her lower lip in her teeth, he knew she felt it, too. That blinding, roaring force that was pulling them together. That terrifying loss of self as they merged and changed and became something new. But she was pulling away, afraid. Leaving him there on his own.
With his pulse thrashing in his ears, Noah pushed her legs up higher, leaning over her, grinding his body at an angle that he knew would drive her wild. “Open your eyes, Will.”
Her blond curls flew as she shook her head. “I…can’t,” she panted, biting her lip again.
“Open your damn eyes!” he barked. “If I’m going to fall apart, then you can bloody well come with me.”
Her lashes lifted, eyes glassy and bright with tears. “I know it sounds stupid but I’m scared,” she whispered.
He thrust into her so hard, it shoved her up the bed, his voice a raw scrape of sound. “You think you don’t scare the shit out of me?”
“Hardly.” She gave a breathless laugh, wiping the tears from her face with trembling fingers. “You chase the devil, Noah.”
He swallowed, and had to force his tight throat to work. “Devil’s one thing, Will. He can only kill me. You’re the only person in this world who has the power to take me apart.”
Her mouth twisted with a smile, but the look in her eyes was sad. “You always were good with words.”
“Damn it. I’m not lying to you,” he growled, letting go of her legs and covering her with his body. His hands burrowed into her silky curls, shaping around her skull as he held her still for a deep, ravaging kiss. “I’m good with you,” he said against her soft lips. “Just you, Will.”
Noah prayed she’d understand what he meant as he poured everything he felt into the act, taking her hard and deep, making promises with his body that he couldn’t put into words. His mouth worked over hers as they climbed higher, their skin sweat-slick and hot, steaming with passion as the pressure built. They kissed as if they were starved. As if they were finally feeding a devastating hunger that’d been burning inside them for too many years. He rubbed breathless, unspoken words into her lips as they strained together, his need for her bordering on violence. But she wasn’t afraid anymore. When they crashed over the edge, battered beneath the shattering waves of pleasure, she wrapped him in her arms, holding him close…and trusted him to keep her safe through the storm.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
PERFECT. THAT WAS the only word Willow could think of to describe what had happened between her and Noah. The experience had been more intense than she’d ever imagined, but a mind-blowingly, breathtakingly, scream-because-it-feels-so-good kind of perfect. She wanted to do it again…and again. But she enjoyed this part, as well. Cuddling against Noah’s hard, muscular body, the sound of his heartbeat drifting through her head as she rested her cheek on his warm chest, teasing one of his brown nipples with her fingertip.
Compelled to learn as much as she could about him, needing answers to all the questions buzzing through her mind, she asked, “What was your life like after you left Sacred?”
She could hear the smile in his voice as he said, “Don’t you know? I thought you checked up on me.”
“I know about your bar. But that’s all.” She hadn’t wanted to tempt herself with more information than his career, too afraid she wouldn’t be able to resist the temptation of going after him.
He stretched, settling more comfortably into the pillows, and said, “I ran wild once we got to California. I was pissed at my mom for dragging me there. At myself for going. At fate for making it seem like the right thing to do at the time. I drank and got in fights and picked on guys who were a hell of a lot meaner than I was. That’s when I started training, figuring I needed to know how to look out for the family and myself.”
“When I was talking to Kellan earlier, he said something about how your weapon of choice is a knife. Is that true?”
“Yeah, and it’s probably because I’ve spent so much time training with them. I can handle a gun, but in the world of the clans, sometimes a knife is the best weapon you can have when you aren’t sporting your own set of claws.” As if in silent agreement, neither of them pointed out the fact that he had a set now.
He lowered his chin and looked at her. “That’s why you carry a blade, isn’t it?”
She nodded, saying, “Harris taught me how to handle a knife as soon as he thought I was old enough to learn.” A wry smile curled her lips. “But it was Damon who taught me how to fight dirty.”
Running his hand down her back, he asked, “Do you hear from Harris very often?”
“No,” she murmured, glad that he was finally asking about her brother. She thought Noah might have been purposely avoiding the topic, after the things she’d said that first night about the way he’d turned his back on Harris. Touching her fingertip to the leather pouch Jessie had given him, she went on to say, “He’s even worse than Jessie, living in isolation out on the bayou with no phone and no internet.”
“What’s he do for a living?”
Wanting to be able to see his face while they talked, Willow folded her hands on his chest and rested her chin on them. “If Harris has a job, it’s nothing Jessie and I want to know about. She’s positive that he’s become some kind of mercenary.”
He lifted his brows, clearly surprised. “I thought he was planning on going to med school.”
“Yeah, well, you know how that goes,” she said with a sigh. “Things change.”
“I guess they do,” he murmured, his gaze locked on hers
with a quiet, piercing intensity that told her he was thinking about more than just her brother. That he was thinking about them.
Flustered and off balance, she asked her next question before she did something crazy, like admit she was already madly in love with him. “So, you, um, moved to California, ran your bar and seduced hordes of beautiful women. Do I have that right?”
He shook his head, a lopsided smile on his lips. “Not quite. I ran my bar, dated women from time to time and I waited.”
“Waited for what?”
For you, he thought. But Noah kept those telling words to himself, and simply said, “For this crap to start with the Casus. My mother seemed to know that it was coming in our lifetimes. I don’t know how. She just did.”
He took a deep breath and lifted his arm, sliding his palm beneath his head. “That night that I left you—it’s not an excuse, but my mother had just told me that she believed the Casus would return in our lifetime. I think that’s why I lost my control, once I’d gotten you away from Stubb and had made sure you were okay. We were alone, and I knew it would probably be the last time. Knew I was going to need to distance myself from you. That I wasn’t going to get to keep you, no matter what happened.”
“Why?” she demanded in a soft rasp, her throat tight with emotion.
His laugh was gritty and deep. “Think about it, Will. How could I build a life with a woman not knowing if I was going to wake up one morning and find a monster living inside me?”
“Your brother did.”
“Yeah, but…” His voice trailed off, and she knew what he’d left unsaid.
“But his wife isn’t me. She’s not a Chastain witch. Not from a race known for its prejudices.”
His body stiffened beneath her, the muscles under her hands rigid with tension. “That’s not what I said.”
“But it’s what you were thinking.” Willow put her hand on the side of his face, rubbing her thumb against the sensual shape of his lower lip. “Noah, how many times do I have to tell you? I don’t care about your bloodline. Hell, look at mine. The Broussards are all as crazy as can be.”
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