by Ophelia Bell
She’d been at the party waiting and waiting, but no one had come for her. Everyone else in the crowd had gradually paired off, the handsome sons of the clan leaders getting their wish and finding a statuesque woman who looked nothing like Nessa. Even Bryer and Ignazio had headed off with someone, a single blonde woman whose face she couldn’t see, but who she knew without a doubt belonged with the pair.
Yet still she remained standing alone in the middle of the crowd, forgotten.
The matchmaker had finally arrived and given her the bad news—that she was unmateable. Nessa had nodded as though unsurprised while secretly shattering inside. She still couldn’t shake the feeling of loss and rolled over, pressing her face into the pillow.
Gradually, the dream faded, and she looked up again at the gleaming wooden beams, then to one side where a set of glass doors overlooked a wide balcony, and beyond, where morning mist still hung heavy over the aubergine trees. She knew that balcony . . .
She turned her head, her heart racing again as she sat up and looked the other direction. Morning sun streamed in through cathedral windows, turning the railing of the interior landing to fiery gold and washing across the crisp white comforter that covered her.
She gripped the smooth, fluffy cover in her fists, then spread her hands out, pressing it flat. A comforter that was on a bed, in a room . . . a room that hadn’t been more than empty space the last time she’d seen it.
Now, as she peered around, she remembered with vivid detail the evening she’d seen this space, but the difference in it now was shocking. There had been nothing but bare studs and sawdust before, but now the floors were highly polished wood inlaid in lovely starburst patterns, and there was furniture: a wardrobe, a dresser, and bedside tables, all of which looked expertly crafted by hand.
And a bed. A bed with massive carved-wood posts that were reminiscent of the front porch posts of Gaius’ house, only with floral carvings covering the surface. Lengths of gauzy white fabric draped between them, swaying in a faint breeze that flowed up from the first level.
How could this be? She’d fallen asleep the night before on the ride home, imagining all the ways she would help Gaius finish the house. Somehow everything she’d pictured had come true, but more spectacularly than she had even thought.
She pushed the covers off and slipped over the edge of the bed. Her reflection in a full-length mirror caught her eye first, and her heart warmed at the sight of the red threadbare flannel draped over her body. Gaius’ shirt. He’d carried her to bed asleep and put her into his shirt.
She wished like hell she’d been awake for that. For all of it.
Heavy footsteps echoed through the house, making their way up the stairs in a deep rhythm. Gaius appeared, buck naked and tousle-haired with two steaming mugs in his hands. Nessa watched him in the reflection as he paused and took her in, his gaze raking over her in a look of such blatant possessiveness her core warmed.
He took a few more steps and set the mugs down on the nightstand, then moved behind her. Nessa licked her lips at the sight of his arousal thickening between his thighs the closer he got to her, until it was obscured when he paused just behind her.
“Welcome home, Ness,” he said, slipping close and sliding his arms around her waist. He rested his chin on top of her head and she leaned back into him, letting out a soft hum of interest when his hardness pressed into her lower back.
“You should’ve woken me up last night,” she murmured.
“I should’ve carried you home with me a week ago, whether you liked it or not,” he replied, grazing his lips over her temple and jaw. She tilted her head to the side to give him access to her neck, shivering when he kissed the sensitive spot beneath her ear. He slipped his hands up her sides and over her breasts, tugging at the buttons of the shirt until they came free and the sides fell open, revealing her to him in the mirror.
His heated blue gaze met hers in the mirror as he cupped her breasts, hefting them both and tweaking her nipples until she gasped. Slick heat flooded between her thighs, her core throbbing with need for more.
Gaius continued to brush soft kisses over her neck and shoulder as he tormented her breasts, alternating between harsh plucks and pinches and soft caresses of her nipples.
Nessa craned her neck, desperate for his mouth on hers. Gaius complied, hungrily clasping his lips over hers as he spun her in his arms. He crouched and cupped her under her bottom, hoisting her in his arms as they kissed. Eagerly, she wrapped both arms and legs around him, relishing the long-missed sensation of his skin against hers, the glorious furred muscles of his chest hard beneath her breasts.
Gaius carried her to the bed and climbed on, never once relinquishing her mouth even for a breath. When he found the center, he settled on his haunches with her still wrapped around him, her core pressing hotly against the base of his cock.
She tilted her hips, aching for more contact, and moaned at the sliding friction he granted when he moved his own hips in kind. His cock dragged along her soaked channel and she braced her hands on his shoulders to lift up and give him access. All it took next was for her to succumb to gravity and he was inside her, and they rocked against one another.
They moved slowly at first, still kissing, but then his tempo increased and Nessa’s crescendoed to match as her pleasure and need grew in equal measure. She tore her mouth away from his and tilted her head back with a gasp of ecstasy, meeting each driving thrust with a desperate twist of her hips seeking to pull his thick length as deep into her as possible.
Somehow this time was even more frenzied and desperate than the last. It was as though they’d spent a lifetime apart and not just one week. They’d left too much unsaid and undone the last time. This time she was all-in, and she needed to make sure he knew.
“Gaius, please!” she begged, surging up and clinging to him, burying her face in his neck as she sought to get even closer. He thrust harder and faster, digging his fingers hard into her hips as he guided her rhythm to match his own.
“You’re mine, Ness,” he growled into her ear. “Never leave me again.”
“Never,” she agreed, her entire body set alight when he brushed his lips over her shoulder and opened his mouth, grazing his teeth across her skin.
Nessa pressed her face tighter against his neck and opened her mouth in turn. If she was his, then he was hers, and she meant to prove it.
Gaius let out a groan when she summoned her bear’s spirit and manifested the sharp incisors she needed to mark him. At the same time, he pressed his pointed teeth against her own tender skin.
They sped up their fucking, frantic now with the promise of permanence. God, she wanted this so much more than she had ever wanted anything else.
With his teeth pressed into her skin, her pleasure soared and her body rocketed to an explosive peak unlike any she’d experienced. Reflexively, she bit down, and the coppery taste of blood flooded her tongue.
Gaius roared, his cock surging violently into her. Pain shot through her shoulder, but it only served to heighten her rapture as his seed filled her core.
They clung to each other tightly, breath rasping in tandem as their bodies continued to tremor with the aftershocks.
Nessa pulled back and kissed the side of his face, then his mouth, ignoring the glistening swipe of red that colored his lower lip. They had done it. They were one now—irrevocably, permanently mated, and she couldn’t be happier.
He groaned into the kiss, his tongue sweeping deep and sliding against hers. His cock surged and swelled inside her again, but she pushed back, looking up into his lust-drenched gaze.
“I love you always, Gaius. Always.”
His desire retreated slightly, replaced by a smile of adoration. “I’ve loved you every second since we met, Ness, and I will love you for all the others too.”
He started to tilt them down to the bed, but Nessa yelped in alarm. “Wait! You’re all bloody. Don’t mess up the sheets already! Here . . .”
She clambere
d back onto her knees as she hurriedly slipped out of the ratty old shirt and pressed it to his shoulder. Gaius gave her a long-suffering look.
“What? Everything is so perfect. I don’t want to mess it up.”
“But you’ll ruin my favorite shirt?”
“Psh, it’s got more than enough character to handle a little bloodstain. Besides, what better memento to carry it than this shirt?” She pulled it away from his shoulder and stared, tilting her head in wonder at the perfectly sealed wounds that were now no more than a series of upraised scars in his skin. “How . . .?”
“Champion training, baby,” he said, pulling the shirt out of her hand and pressing it to her shoulder. “Talk to your bear for a second. Hold her close to the surface, just enough that she’s almost coming out, but don’t let her. That power will heal you quicker than you would by keeping her buried. You should listen to your bear more often.”
Nessa closed her eyes and did as he asked, but her bear was already right there waiting, so it didn’t take much effort.
“Attagirl,” he said, then pressed a quick kiss to her shoulder. He handed the shirt back to her and she shook it out, but couldn’t even make out the blood against the multicolored check of the fabric. Lifting a hand, she ran fingertips over her shoulder, smiling up at Gaius when she felt the four upraised bumps where his teeth had pierced her skin and the wounds had healed over.
“Now you’re stuck with me,” she said.
Gaius snorted. “Does that mean you’re back to cooking my meals? Because I’ve been mighty spoiled the last few months, then you left me high and dry. My knees missed you.”
“Just your knees?” she asked, giving his freshly hardened cock a tickle.
He abruptly grabbed her behind the knees and toppled her back against the pillows. Nessa squealed and laughed as he settled between her thighs, peppering her face and shoulders and chest with slow kisses.
“My knees, my belly . . .” He lifted his hips and eased into her slick depths again. “My cock . . .” As he pumped into her, he lifted up, bracing himself on his elbows and staring down into her eyes. “My heart.”
“Oh, baby, my heart missed you too,” Nessa said, then pulled him into a kiss. She pushed her hips up into him, meeting him thrust for thrust until they were both gasping and shaking from another shared climax.
Gaius fell to the side and hooked an arm around her, pulling her tight against him. When they caught their breath, he rumbled against her ear, “So about that cooking . . .”
Twenty-Four
“Be careful, or I might start to think all I am to you is a cook.” Nessa punched Gaius’ shoulder lightly and rolled over to get up, eager to explore what other new changes he’d made to the house since she’d first seen the almost bare frame two months earlier.
“You’re everything to me, Ness. I should’ve figured that out ages ago and said it a hundred times. I mean to make up for it every day for the rest of our lives.”
Looking back over her shoulder, she found herself overwhelmed with love and utter adoration at the sight of his handsome, rumpled visage. His hair stood on end in all directions, the silver strands glinting in the early morning sunlight. Impulsively, she reached over and tousled his tangled curls. She leaned in to kiss him, then turned and hopped off the bed.
She shrugged back into his old shirt and padded across the room to a door to one side of the fireplace that hadn’t existed last time she was here. Inside she found a large and mostly empty closet, a quarter of it filled with soft flannel shirts and jeans and work boots. It smelled of sweet evergreen wood and was illuminated by a skylight.
To her right just inside the closet was another door. She opened it and peeked in, letting out a sharp gasp at the sight of the vast, luxurious bathroom complete with a giant sunken tub large enough to fit two and a rain shower built from the gold-hued stones the waterfall coaxed out of the mountain in its path down the peak. She took a leisurely stroll through, marveling at the attention to detail. Like the bedroom, it was even more beautiful than she could have pictured on her own.
Nessa came to stand in front of the mirror over the counter and stared at herself for a moment. Like the closet, sunlight filtered in from a series of skylights high above and lit up her flushed cheeks. Gaius filled the second doorway behind her that led back out into the bedroom on the opposite side of the fireplace from the closet.
“Gaius, this is beautiful. Somehow I don’t feel the least bit worthy.” She smoothed her hand over the shining surface of the counter, similarly crafted from a large slab of the same golden stone as the shower and polished to a high shine.
“It isn’t what you pictured? We can change it.”
“God no! Don’t change a thing. It’s perfect . . . better than I imagined.”
He grinned at her in the mirror. “Wait’ll you see downstairs.”
Nessa took his proffered hand and let him lead her down the stairs, which were now fully finished with shining wood banisters. She stared out the massive two-story windows as they descended, breathless at the sight of the spectacular Nova Aurora sunrise. Both big orange orbs were chasing each other up past the horizon, casting twin sets of rays down over the vivid purple trees in the distance. The river fed from the waterfall shimmered as it passed by the deck outside.
This was Nessa’s home now. This view, this house, and this man. She paused at the bottom of the steps, still drinking in the vista, and turned back to express her love to Gaius again when something oddly familiar and out of place caught her eye.
She turned her head and her heart stopped.
“Oh Gaius . . .” She was only able to get the two words out before her eyes teared up and her throat constricted. Her hand flew to her mouth as she collapsed against his side, unable to hold herself up from shock at the wonderfully unexpected sight before her.
Gaius hooked his arm around her waist, supporting her, and kissed the top of her head. “It would’ve been a shame to see the whole lot go to reclamation after all the times I made love to you in that kitchen.”
She swiped at her eyes, but was unable to stop the flow of tears and the soft sob that welled up. It was too much. Not only had this wonderful man finished his house just the way she had imagined . . . better than she had imagined . . . he had also installed a kitchen that there was no mistaking was for her and her alone.
It wasn’t a new kitchen, by any means. The old enameled equipment with its copper accents had been polished so the copper gleamed. The worn wood-slab island still had the same well-seasoned surface. Even the deep copper sinks had been installed—also polished and shining in the sunrise. Her father’s entire kitchen had been transported to this house. Every last piece. And she had no idea how in the world she would ever thank Gaius for something so grand.
He shifted his stance beside her and rumbled uncertainly. “Ness . . . You do like it, don’t you?”
Shakily, she inhaled and spun around, surging up into his arms and claiming his mouth in a kiss, at a loss for any words to express exactly how she felt.
But Gaius needed no words to grasp what she needed from him. He carried her into the kitchen and set her on the island in the center, then proceeded to make love to her, re-christening every surface as if the room were brand new. While they made love, Nessa reveled in the absolute fullness of her heart, and knew without a doubt that she had earned this love and would never, ever let it go.
Epilogue
One Year Later
Gaius swept his brush in one final coat over the windowsill and stood back to admire his work. A pleasant nutmeg scent wafted from behind, and he unconsciously reached back, pulled Nessa under his arm, and bent to press a kiss to her forehead.
“It’s done,” she said. “You’ve outdone yourself again.”
He grunted, knowing full well that the nursery was only the beginning of the renovations he’d have to make to the house over the next two decades. He set the brush back in the empty bucket at his feet and pressed his palm over Nessa’s
round, pregnant belly.
“Don’t get too attached. They’ll have it torn to pieces the second they can crawl.”
Nessa groaned. “Of course it had to be twin boys. Me, stuck in these mountains with the testosterone brothers. After dealing with Ig and Bry and you and Levi, I deserve a daughter, dammit! It’s all I asked.”
“Soon as they’re out of you, I’m happy to work on putting a girl in you, baby,” he said with a cocky grin.
“We’ll work on that when the time comes, I promise. This summer, my mission is to find Ig and Bry a mate.”
“One mate? Singular?” Gaius asked, lifting an eyebrow and looking down at Nessa. She grew pensive, her brows scrunching together and he knew she was thinking about Bryer, who was still in the League hospital recovering from a near-fatal arena injury.
She swallowed and nodded. “I had a long talk with Dr. Taji. She believes finding him a mate is the only way to get him fully healed. But I don’t see those two lasting if one of them gets mated and the other doesn’t, and their godforsaken bet isn’t doing them any favors, so . . .”
Gaius heard the equivocation in her voice and chuckled. “What’d you do, Ness?”
“Oh, I just called Gerri Wilder and told her to be on the lookout. Bonus points if she can find a substitute chef for them while I’m on maternity leave. After the babies are born, I’ll need the help anyway, especially with the feeding regimen Dr. Taji recommends for Bryer after he’s released. It’s going to be a long, hard road for him. I want . . .” She paused and bit her lip, her eyes searching his.
Gaius knew what she was thinking. Ever since their mating, he’d been a new man. It hadn’t even required a special diet, though Nessa’s cooking didn’t hurt. His knees never once twinged, and some of the gray had even left his hair. It was almost as if his bear had been reborn twenty years younger.
He’d even entertained the idea of competing again, but dismissed it the very second he learned of Nessa’s pregnancy. He had more than he needed right here with her and his construction business, so he was more than certain Bryer’s doctor was right. The boy needed a mate.
