by Tate James
“You flicked me!” he exclaimed, coming to a stop right beside me at the island counter.
“Ah yeah,” I agreed, continuing with my flour measurements. “Like fifteen minutes ago. Don’t tell me that was your off switch and it took you this long to reboot?”
“Christina,” he growled, and I could feel his anger coursing hot, stoking my own back up once more.
“Kit,” I corrected him with narrowed eyes.
“We aren’t done with your lessons.” He spoke with a jaw clenched stubbornly and his brows drawn into a tight line.
“Yes, we are. You’re being a petty, snarky little child, and I have had enough of it. I put up with your little mood all fucking day yesterday, and I have had it. So, fuck off. Sort yourself out, go punch a tree or whatever, just get your mixed-up, crazy-pants emotions away from me right now. You’ll taint my cookies.” I dismissed him, continuing on with my recipe.
“No.” The stubborn asshole dug his heels in, folding his arms over his chest and blocking me from getting to the fridge to retrieve the butter. “No, that’s not how this works. You don’t get to stand there all high and mighty and tell me that my emotions are tainting your cookies. Not after you keep me awake all fucking night with your screaming orgasms with practically everyone in this house other than me. I have every damn right to be pissed off at you, and you are not allowed to just wave me off.”
“Oh, so you’re calling me a slut now?” I yelled back at him, pushing him out of the way to grab the butter out of the fridge and bring it back to the island.
“No, you dense bitch! I am not.” He slapped the stick of butter out of my hand, and I gasped as it hit the floor. Without really thinking about what I was doing—something I was doing a lot of lately—I reacted on instinct. And slapped him across the face.
In my defense, it wasn’t a hard slap. It could have been a hell of a lot harder if I’d wanted to hurt him, but I didn’t. I just wanted him to shut the hell up, and he did.
For a second, we both stared at each other in shock. Austin’s cheek was rapidly turning pink in the shape of my hand, which clued me in to the fact I had probably hit him a smidgen too hard. But whatever, it was done now.
“You...” He recovered quicker than me, raising a hand to the cheek I’d slapped, then glaring at me with a look that said he wanted to rip my damn head off... or my clothes. Like I’d already pointed out, I wasn’t the best at reading his emotions.
The answer became pretty clear, though, when his hand shot out faster than a whip. Instead of the reciprocal slap I’d braced for—because I totally deserved it—his fingers closed around my wrist, yanking me into his chest, and he slammed his lips onto mine.
For a heavy, weighted moment, we both froze.
For once since we’d bonded, I actually paid a little more attention to what Austin was feeling, and what I found there left me with only one clear option. My lips parted under his, and my hands grasped hold of his head, returning his kiss with equal force.
How it happened I wasn’t altogether sure, but one moment we were standing there, kissing like our fucking lives depended on it, and the next Austin had lifted me onto the island. My bowl of flour and sugar went flying, but who gave a shit about flour?
We separated just long enough to yank each other’s shirts off, and then we were straight back on one another like we were starving. In some ways, I suppose we were...
“How dare you,” he panted after some time when he pulled back with swollen lips and lust-filled eyes, “get angry at me for my emotions when you know better than anyone how I feel about you?”
My breath caught in my throat, and I swallowed painfully. That moment... it had me more terrified than I could ever remember being in my life. Fuck torture and near death. Waiting to hear someone put voice to their feelings was unbearable.
“Say it then,” I whispered in a husky voice, thick with desire and panic. “Tell me out loud because I promise you, you’re as easy to read as a fucking hieroglyphic.”
His emerald-green eyes trailed over my face, catching on my lips as I licked them nervously and then returning to my eyes with so much... frustration...
“I’m in love with you, Princess.”
Floored. I was totally floored. That was not what I’d been expecting. I mean, sure, I was expecting something along those lines but more like, I don’t know, “I really like you.” That would have sufficiently stunned me, but he just jumped in there with both feet.
“This is the part where you say it back, baby girl,” he teased, but there was a tightness around his eyes that matched the spike of panic running through him.
“Sorry,” I blurted. “I wasn’t... I didn’t think you were going to say... that. Holy shit, Austin.”
“Seriously?” he scowled, pulling back from me a little farther. “Unbelievable.”
“Oh, crap! Fuck, that’s not what I meant. You just really took me off guard. Jesus fuck, yes, you infuriating piece of shit, I’m in love with you too.” I reached out and grabbed him by the back of the neck, slamming my lips against his and reigniting the fire that had just seen the downfall of my baking attempt.
“Thank fuck,” he groaned, his hands in a frenzy as he pushed me back onto the counter and climbed up on top of me. Dimly, I heard the glass measuring cup smash as it got knocked off, but my main focus was on getting Austin’s damn fly undone. Why was it being so hard to undo?
“What the fuck is this made of? Barbed wire?” I muttered, feeling my finger snag on the metal teeth.
“Oh my God, it’s not that hard,” Austin snickered, flicking my bra clasp open with a deft snap of his fingers and then throwing the flimsy garment across the kitchen. “Here.” He sat up a little, smacking his head on the low-hanging pots, and ending up ripping the button completely off his fly.
“Well, that works too.” I nodded, taking over from him once more as his hands returned to my body. I yanked his zipper the rest of the way down and greedily reached for his hard cock straining against the thin fabric of his boxers.
He moaned a low and sexy sound when my hand met his bare flesh, rolling my finger over the silky skin and tugging on his piercing. Breathing heavily, he claimed my lips in another bruising kiss while his hands worked some sort of magic that saw my yoga pants and lace panties end up on the floor.
Austin’s ink-covered hand cupped my cheek, and he pulled back for a moment as his pierced shaft met my naked cunt, rubbing down the length of me and making me shiver with delight.
“Say it again,” he demanded in a raw and sexy voice.
Meeting his eyes, I dropped the act, letting him feel the full scope of my emotions as I spoke what felt like the first truly honest words I’d ever given him.
“I love you, Austin.”
A deep shudder ran through him, and he groaned, dipping his head to kiss me again, and this time the rush of pure, undiluted, and burning hot love that crashed into me was his. There was not a single question left in my mind as to how he really felt.
Reaching between us, I grabbed his cock with sure hands, guiding him to my opening and pushing my hips up in encouragement. We didn’t need any more words between us; instead, we let our bond guide us as we fucked hard and fast on the kitchen counter.
Austin’s teeth nipped at my neck while my nails raked lines down his back. My legs locked around his waist, pulling him closer to me, and I gasped with ecstasy as his piercing scraped my g-spot with unwavering precision.
“Fucking hell, you drive me insane,” he moaned, trying to slow his rhythm, but my legs held him tight against me, allowing me some control of the speed with my own hip movements.
“The feeling is entirely mutual,” I replied, then employed a touch of my own speed and strength to flip our positions without sending us crashing to the floor. “Much better.”
Looking down at him flat on his back, I grinned. I hated the asshole, but I really did love him too. This was going to be fun.
“I’m okay with this,” he murmured, li
cking his lips and cupping my breasts in each hand as I rode his cock with determination. Within moments I was coming, grinding down on him hard and throwing my head back.
“Shit, baby girl. You’re the devil,” Austin moaned, grabbing onto my hips and following my climax within seconds as my cunt clenched and pulsed around him, dragging the orgasm out of him whether he was ready or not.
“Oh yeah,” he panted as I sat there on his still twitching dick, trying to catch my breath, “I could get used to this.”
A small, euphoric laugh bubbled out of me, and I looked around at the mess we’d made of the kitchen. The responsible thing to do would be to clean it up...
“Want to check out my room?” Austin offered up a much more attractive option. “Tyson is sleeping, so there won’t be any furry interruptions.”
Grinning, I stroked a finger down the tattoo on his arm that was his familiar’s resting place. “Hell yeah. Then later you can show me how to use your tattoo gun so you can pay up on our bet.”
Austin groaned painfully, but I silenced him with a long kiss.
“Fine,” he finally growled. “But you better not draw a cartoon dick, or there will be hell to pay.”
17
My foot tapped the floor impatiently while Austin explained to me again how his tattoo equipment worked.
“I get it, Aus.” I rolled my eyes and held up my wrist with the tiger lily tattoo. “Magical learning spell still active, remember?”
His lips pursed, and I was torn between wanting to flick him in the forehead again and wanting to kiss him. Damn, this new development was going to be confusing.
“Can you let me do it now?” I prompted, and he sighed heavily.
“Fine. I guess if you really fuck it up I can just erase it with magic.” His confidence in me was staggering. “All right, where is it going?”
I beamed. Silly, silly man. He had been so confident this far because he was already so covered in ink that one more little design would just get lost. But I had a better idea.
“Lie down,” I ordered, patting his bed, which we were sitting on the edge of. “On your front.”
Austin gave me a suspicious look but did as I asked, stretching out on the bed with his arms propped under his head, probably thinking I was putting it on his back.
Hopping up from where I had been sitting, I resituated myself to straddle the backs of his legs, then slipped my fingers under the waistband on his boxers to slide them down, exposing his totally uninked backside.
“Princess,” he growled. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
“Shush,” I replied, leaning over to his bedside table to grab the tattoo gun we had already prepared with black ink. “You lost our bet fair and square. Now just lie there and take it like a man.”
Finally I began to feel a bit of concern from him, and I snickered as I began the design I’d already mapped out in my head. We’d already established that I was no van Gogh, so Austin had used a washable marker to ink a small talent spell into my right hand which would give me enough artistic ability to pull off a half-decent tattoo.
Not that this needed Rembrandt-level artistry.
“Hey, Austin. Have you seen”—Caleb cut off as he opened the door and saw me straddling his half-naked brother and brandishing a tattoo gun—“Kit. Huh, guess it’s payback time, is it?”
“It sure is.” I grinned at him and winked. This had been his idea after all.
A wicked smile curved his lips as he sat against the headboard to watch.
“That’s a nice T-shirt you’re wearing, Kitty Kat,” the observant bastard commented, and I looked down at the vintage Guns N’ Roses concert T-shirt I had stolen from Austin’s drawer. It was long enough that it wasn’t totally obvious I had nothing else on. Not even underwear.
When I said he had done something magical to get them off me, he really had. Or maybe we just hadn’t looked hard enough before disappearing up here.
“Thanks,” I smirked back. “I think it really brings out my eyes.” I batted my lashes at him, and he gave me a knowing wink.
“Cal,” Austin muttered, “tell me what she’s drawing on my ass.”
Caleb leaned forward to peer at my half-completed design and snorted. “Nice one.”
“I thought so,” I preened, but neither one of us responded to Austin.
“Guys...” he groaned, and I slapped his other bare cheek.
“Just shut up so I can finish. We should probably go and clean up the kitchen too,” I pondered aloud while I continued on the tattoo. That magical learning spell was seriously coming in handy because my first attempt at a tattoo was turning out pretty damn great.
“All right, done,” I announced, wiping it off with a cloth and replacing the gun onto the bedside table.
Austin craned his neck to see, then slapped me on the leg so he could get up and look in the mirror. Caleb and I exchanged grins as Austin stood in front of his ensuite bathroom mirror for a really long time.
“Babe?” I called out in a sickly sweet and very sarcastic voice. “Do you love it?”
There were a few moments more of silence before he stalked back out of the bathroom to glare at the two of us, his underwear still pulled down under his seriously tight butt cheek.
“You were in on this too, huh?” he asked his twin, and Caleb snorted a laugh.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about. You’re on your own, Kitty Kat,” he chuckled, racing out of the room again and slamming the door behind him.
Austin levelled a glare on me, but I could already sense he wasn’t anywhere near as annoyed as I had aimed to make him.
“Property of Princess Kit?” he asked me, repeating the words now tattooed onto his ass. “With a little fox wearing a crown?”
“You wrote Austin in between my butterflies and didn’t think I noticed,” I retorted, and his eyebrows shot up with surprise. “I’d say we’re even now. Besides”—I smirked, grabbing him by the elastic waistband and pulling him down to me on the bed—“you are property of Princess Kit.”
Austin braced himself against the bed, his hands either side of me as he leaned in close enough to kiss. “I am no one’s property, baby girl. You’ll learn.”
He kissed me then, but I laughed against his mouth. If anyone would be learning... it’d be him.
When we eventually surfaced out from Austin’s room, I found the kitchen already cleaned up and a plate of fresh cinnamon-coffee cookies sitting on the table in front of the guys.
“Kitten, there you are,” River commented, looking up from where he’d been leaning over Wesley’s laptop screen. “Sit, please. We have something to discuss.”
“Uh, that doesn’t sound so good,” I muttered under my breath, pulling up a chair and tucking my leg up underneath me. Before coming into the kitchen, I’d ducked upstairs and dressed in my own clothes again, seeing as all of mine from earlier were still MIA.
“It’s... well, you’ll see.” River rolled his neck like he’d been craning over Wesley’s shoulder for too long already. “Go ahead, Wes.”
Glancing around the table, none of the other guys seemed remotely curious, other than Austin who clearly had as little clue what was going on as I did. Which made sense, as we’d been occupying each other all afternoon.
“Okay, so River and I have been doing a lot of reading and research and stuff into Omega Group and your dad,” he started, pushing his glasses up as they slipped forward. I smiled seeing him wearing them again. As much as I knew contacts were easier when we were constantly on the run or getting blown up or, well, making out, his glasses reminded me of when we’d first met.
“Yup, I know this.” I nodded my understanding.
“Right, well, one of my keyword searches of government databases brought up something that concerns you.” Wesley spun the computer around and pushed it across to me to read. A light frown pulled at my brows as I took the laptop and scanned the document in front of me.
“Oh,” I said when I fini
shed and officially felt like my stomach was lodged in my throat. “I knew that doctor was up to no good.”
I pushed the computer away from me and dropped my face into my hands with a groan. Anxiety pooled in my belly like cold blood, and I was pretty sure I was getting a migraine... if that was even possible for Ban Dia.
“So, what I gather from that is that the psychotic little worm who took my blood then left me for dead at Gray’s hands is now conducting experiments on people using a serum made from my blood.” I waved a hand at the document on Wesley’s screen. No one spoke, but Wesley nodded. “So this is Dupree and the Blood Moon labs all over again?”
“Except,” Caleb pointed out as he munched on a coffee cookie. “This guy sounds like he’s succeeding. At least temporarily.”
He was right. I groaned again and bashed my head—lightly—on the table a couple of times before Cole put his hand between my forehead and the wood.
“Okay. So... what do we do?” I looked hopefully around at my guys. Surely they already had a genius plan in mind?
“About him?” River shrugged, “Nothing. He only managed to make off with one small vial of your blood, right?” I nodded. “Well then, hopefully it simply runs out soon. It sounds like this serum he made only lasts a few days, so I think we just let it run its course.”
“There’s something else,” Wesley informed me, and I sighed.
“Of course there is,” I lamented. “Hit me with it.”
His hand ran through his blond hair nervously, and he chewed the corner of his lip. “Director Pierre made contact with us. He wants to meet.”
“Huh?” I blurted, and Austin snickered.
“Very eloquent, Princess,” he mocked me, and I flipped him off before turning back to Wes.
“How?” I asked, sucking a breath in and collecting my thoughts before trying again. “I mean, how did he contact you? I thought we were totally secure on our network?”
“We are,” Wes assured me. “But he knew we would be digging around, so he’d left a message in one of the files I hacked. He wants to sit down and explain things to you before you ‘wind up in over your head.’ His words, not mine.”
