by Isabel Wroth
His hands were full of her soft, warm skin, the echo of her heartbeat softly pulsing in his ears. Every moment of every day for the last twelve years, he focused on the moment when he would break free of the Silver Wives and find Kerrigan.
Her face, her beautiful smile, and the sweet joy of her laughter had been his totem. Her words of love, the spell she cast to keep him alive.
He was so tempted to give into his own needs, to claim her in all ways as a triumphant way to wipe a decade’s worth of horror and torment from this house. A beautiful, blissful way to erase what Vivica had done to them.
Maksim was silent long enough to make the brightness of Kerrigan’s smile falter. “Too soon. Got it. No worries.”
She tried to brush off her invitation and apologized, but the uncertainty that twisted through her eyes was impossible to miss.
“Mark me, Kerrigan. I have waited and dreamed of making you mine from the first moment you turned your big, beautiful eyes my way and fearlessly demanded to know if you were safe with me.
“This house is saturated with evil, and I want us gone from here, away from the memories of what we both endured at the hands of the Silver Wives so badly I will deny us both the pleasure of bathing with you in order to hasten our departure.”
Compassion flooded her expression instantly, her fingers twisting and combing gently through his hair.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t think—”
Maksim leaned in to silence her with a deep, hungry kiss. She fed him eager, intoxicating sounds, opening her mouth to the press of his tongue, tightening her arms around his shoulders as she rocked up on her knees to plaster herself against his chest.
When they parted, she was quivering and panting to catch her breath, her cheeks flushed, lips red and swollen, eyes dazed and sparkling.
The scent of her arousal was so thick in the air he could taste it, her heartbeat hammering within the thick vein pulsing in her throat. His fangs and cock throbbed in time, both appendages furiously demanding to be sheathed in Kerrigan’s soft, tender flesh.
Control on the verge of shredding like wet paper, Maksim gently pulled away, certain if he’d been forced to suffer this kind of torture for years on end, he would have broken.
Pain meant nothing, but denying himself, denying his Bride, was the cruelest form of punishment he could imagine.
“Take your shower, love. I want to leave this place and never return.”
She nodded, licking her swollen lips before shakily untangling herself from his embrace. He helped her stand, making sure she was steady on her feet before reluctantly letting her go. She gave him a shy smile, reaching up to unclasp the necklace he’d given her,
“Will you hold this for me?” she murmured, cheeks flushed with warmth, sighing when he held out his hand to take it.
The beads clicked together as she spilled it carefully into his hand, leaning in for one more sweet kiss before retreating.
Maksim bit back a groan when she turned and walked away, reaching down to adjust the iron bar in his trousers at the sight of her long, pale legs bare from ankle to ass, the cheeks of her backside peeking devilishly out from beneath the hem of her tunic.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Three hours later and a pit stop at a large gas station to let Maksim grab a snack, Doyle turned onto the driveway that would take Kerrigan home. They’d barely left the main road before Ilex was wide awake and wanting to be let out, clearly dead set on getting home to his own cabin as fast as possible. Reece gave Kerrigan a look that was rife with unspoken concern.
As gently as possible to keep from offending his male sensibilities, Kerrigan played the only card she had.
“If we just toss you out here to let you walk all the way home, Ivy will have my ass, and you know it’s not good for her to be upset right now. Let Reece and Doyle drive you.”
Ilex gave her a look that said he saw right through her. “Well, I certainly wouldn’t want to upset my delicate sister, would I?”
“Nope!” Kerrigan answered with a sunny smile. “I could even tell Juliet you’re terribly ill and don’t want Ivy to know about it. She’ll run right over and spend all night fussing over you if you’d like her to.”
It was cute to see the son of a forest god blush, and for a minute, it looked like Ilex might take her up on the offer to help get things moving between him and Juliet.
But then he winced in pain and shook his head carefully. “I would prefer to spend the rest of the evening in solitude. If you wouldn’t mind, Doyle, I believe a ride home would be much appreciated.”
“No problem, bro.” Doyle looked over his shoulder at Kerrigan and gave her a lift of his chin. “You need us for anything else?”
Maksim shook his head when Kerrigan looked his way. “No, we got it from here. My Jeep is parked behind the shop. It feels really inadequate after what happened the last few days, but thank you, all of you, for helping us.”
“That’s what friends are for, sweetness,” Reece told her with a wink.
Maksim helped her out of the truck, lifting his hand to Doyle when he waved, standing there in the dark with her while the taillights disappeared around the bend.
Maksim made no attempts to go anywhere; he simply stood and held her hand, his face lifted toward the breeze. In the pale glow of the security lights at the back of the coven shops, Kerrigan could see the peaceful expression he wore as he inhaled slowly.
Kerrigan waited, wondering what he was thinking, what the wind on his face must feel like after being a prisoner for twelve years.
She tried to look through his eyes—metaphorically speaking—at the wooded land she’d come to call home.
It was just after midnight; the sky was an inky blanket of stars, not a cloud to be seen. It smelled like the first days of winter; cold, crisp, and a little damp. A perfect backdrop for the scent of Ivy’s night-blooming flowers.
Maksim gently squeezed her hand to keep from startling her when he finally spoke.
“How far is your home from here?”
“Not far. Less than a half-mile that way.” She pointed down the shadowy road to the right, seeing the lights glint off his eyes.
“If you aren’t too tired, I would very much like to walk.”
“I’m not tired at all. Let me just drop my bags in my car.” Maksim kept pace with her, releasing her hand only long enough for her to open the back hatch and drop her stuff, giving her time to snatch up one of Rowena’s Never-Cold cloak pins to stick into the lapel of her coat.
It was windy and nippy out, and as soon as she stuck the pin through the fabric of her collar, toasty warmth spread across her torso.
“I have an extra blanket in the car if you’re cold.”
Maksim only had a zip-up hoodie on over a thermal shirt, but he shook his head at the offer of another layer.
“No, thank you. The chill in the air feels wonderful.”
She took the hand he held out and started to stroll with him up the newly scraped driveway.
Their path was perfectly illuminated by the moon overhead. It was huge, almost full, reminding her she had work to do tomorrow night.
“It’s very peaceful here. Quiet,” Maksim murmured, looking up at the canopy of trees that swallowed them, settling into the darkness with an audible sigh of pleasure.
Kerrigan leaned her head on his arm, tucking her free hand into the warmth of her coat pocket.
“I would have thought you’d gotten sick of peace and quiet.”
“Love, there’s peaceful quiet, and then there’s unnerving silence broken only by the occasional scratch of rat claws across the stone and your own sounds of pain. The rats stop coming eventually, once they realize they’ll become a tasty snack should they get close enough, and then all there is, is silence.”
He spoke about his time in the dungeon—as a wizened mummy, so hungry he ate the rats that got too close to him—like it had been all just been one big joke.
“Maks—”
“All things conside
red, it really wasn’t that bad.”
“Wasn’t that bad?” Kerrigan echoed dully, choking on her guilt.
She clung to his hand with both of hers to dispel the memory of touching his paper-thin skin, unable to help the way her imagination ran wild with what it must have felt like to feel himself withering away, day by day, until all he could do was lie there and let the rats crawl over him, taking sips of life from those disgusting little vermin until they learned to stay away from the starving predator.
Her breath turned white in front of her, and despite the warmth of her coat, she couldn’t stop shivering.
Maksim pulled her to a stop, carefully spinning her around to face him. He splayed his palm against her low back, keeping her tucked in tight against him, brushing at the tears she hadn’t realized she’d been crying with tender kisses.
“I should not have been so cavalier, please stop crying.”
Kerrigan bit down on her bottom lip to stop it from trembling. With his dark hair and pale olive complexion, the green eyes she’d chosen for him were beautiful, but she missed the deep Prussian blue she remembered.
Even still, he looked at her with the same expression of calm, steadiness.
“I failed you when I brushed aside your concerns about the lengths your parents were willing to go to use you for their gain. All that happened after was because of my arrogance.
"I came for you and walked right into a trap. I saw you struggle, I watched you fight, and with every fiber of my being, I believe if there had been a way to free us both, you would have done it.”
Kerrigan opened her mouth to tell him how sorry she was for failing him. How sorry she was she’d been too weak then to stop what Vivica and her parents had planned, but Maksim pressed a finger to her lips and shushed her.
“There was nothing you could do.” He pressed a kiss to her temple and stepped around to hug her back against his chest, his wicked, velvety voice whispering across her ear. “Listen, love, and try to let it go. For me, hmm?”
Kerrigan shivered now for a different reason, but Maksim’s arms were solid around her, one cinched across her belly, the other around her shoulders to keep her close.
“There’s a nest of rabbits over there in the roots of that tree. There’s a rhythm of insects harmonizing, and up ahead, I can hear the hum of voices. I can hear water and a deer splashing into the stream to drink, and above it all I can hear your heart beating. It’s the most beautiful sound in the world.”
Kerrigan blew out a shaky breath and nodded, letting her head fall back on his shoulder, “I never thought I’d be here with you.”
“It was only a matter of time, love.”
She turned around with the intention to kiss him under the moonlight, but Juliet’s voice cut through the night with all the subtlety of a sonic boom.
“SHOULD ASTRID PORTAL YOU SOME RUBBERS OR WHAT?”
Kerrigan hissed with her lips barely brushing Maksim’s, regretting not taking a little more time for themselves.
“That would be Juliet.”
“NEVERMIND! I FORGOT, VLAD SHOOT BLANKS! CAN I OPEN THE WINE?”
Maksim was grinning from ear to ear, clearly amused by her craziest sister’s complete and total lack of a filter. Kerrigan dropped back down to her heels and let her head fall forward against Maksim’s chest.
“You’ll have to excuse her; she was born without a filter.”
“I am eager to meet your family, love. Filter or no.”
*****
Her house was gorgeous.
Walking up the lane to see the beautiful black and white two-story modern Tudor was exactly how she’d imagined it, and Kerrigan couldn’t believe it was so close to being finished.
She loved the black frames of the windows, the steep gables of the black roof, the grand entryway painted black, all against the backdrop of the pristinely white house.
The lights were on, the warm glow spilling out into the darkness of the night, the scent of something delicious wafting out through the open kitchen windows.
It looked like… home.
“It’s a beautiful house,” Maksim said appreciatively.
Kerrigan wrapped her hands around his bicep, smiling up at him so wide it made her cheeks ache.
“You think so?”
“Most definitely. Is that a graveyard over there?”
She looked over to the left of the property. Six hundred feet away, the moonlight glinted off the wrought iron fence that surrounded the Little family plot.
The beautiful headstones were sheltered beneath a pair of towering oaks, and after choosing the land, Kerrigan made sure to sit down with Rowena’s ancestors to ask their permission to build near their resting place.
They happily agreed, and Kerrigan promised to keep the graveyard clean and well-kept for the rest of her days.
“It is, but the spirits there won’t bother us. They’re at peace and resting comfortably. I um, I do upon occasion attract the random ghost when my emotions are running high, but I swear I’ll keep them out from now on.”
Maksim hummed an affectionate sound and smiled down at her.
“I trust you will.”
Kerrigan wanted to ask him if he could picture himself living a quiet country life here, or if the city and its noisy hustle and bustle were more his style, but the wide glass door opened, and a gaggle of witches spilled out onto the porch.
“Welcome home!” Rowena greeted with a wide smile, wearing paint-speckled yoga pants and an old shirt that read, Witch Please.
They all wore junk clothes and had paint flecks decorating their hands and faces. It was obvious they’d been working inside the house too, getting it ready so Kerrigan had a place to bring her man for some much-needed privacy.
When Kerrigan said, “Thank you,” she hoped they understood it was for more than just helping to get the house put together.
A wild mix of happiness and gratitude spun Kerrigan around in circles, and all she could do was sigh and lean on Maksim while she stared at her family.
“Maksim, this is my family.”
“Hello,” he said with an easy smile and a regal nod.
“Welcome home to you as well, Maksim. I’m Rowena.”
Ivy rubbed her cute little baby bump, her green eyes sparkling in the porch lights. “We’re so happy to finally meet you! I’m Ivy.”
“I’m Callie.” The petite alchemist gave a goofy grin and a wave, far more paint splattered than the rest.
“Astrid.” Her cosmic sister was smiling gently, shimmering softly in the moonlight.
Maksim greeted each one with a nod, turning his attention to where Juliet stood, hugging one of the wide columns.
Kerrigan was surprised by the pinched look on Juliet’s face, the smile she wore obviously forced, her gaze just shy of being outright hostile.
“You must be Juliet,” Maksim said with genuine warmth.
“We’ve met,” Juliet replied coolly.
Everyone turned to look at her, but Kerrigan glanced up at Maksim. His head cocked to the side, his brow furrowed in what seemed like genuine confusion.
“Have we? Forgive me, I don’t recall—”
“It was a long time ago,” Juliet clipped out, dismissing him with a rude flick of her lashes. “Where’s Ilex?”
Kerrigan struggled to understand when and how Juliet had met Maksim and what could have happened to make Juliet behave so coldly when just a few minutes ago she’d been all smiles and teasing.
“Reece and Doyle drove him home. But he didn’t want—”
“I’ll go check on him. Glad you made it home safe.” Juliet threw her legs over the porch rail and hopped down, striding off into the dark with a wave of her hand and a brusque, “Later,” when Rowena called after her in confusion.
Kerrigan folded both her hands around Maksim’s, murmuring an apology for Juliet’s behavior. Maksim leaned in to brush a kiss across her temple.
“It’s alright. I honestly don’t remember having met your sister before
, but that doesn’t mean we haven’t.”
“It’s not alright,” Rowena insisted with a huff, but she shrugged it off and moved out of the way. “We’ll deal with it another time. Come inside out of the cold. There’s hot chocolate on for you and some snacks downstairs in the mini-fridge, Kerrigan.
"The basement is all fixed up as a temporary bedroom. It’s soundproof, and there aren’t any windows, so you can rest easy tomorrow, Maksim.”
“Thank you for all your efforts, ladies. Please forgive me if I seem aloof in the coming days; it has been some time since I conversed with anyone of importance.”
Despite his formal speech, Maksim was nothing if not charming. He had all the girls smiling in no time.
“Don’t even worry about it.” Callie sighed with a dreamy smile. “I’m sure we’d all be a little off-kilter after having been a prisoner for so long.”
Rowena started passing out coats and hats, marshaling the troops to move out.
“I expect both of you will be sleeping all day tomorrow, so text me some measurements, Kerrigan, and I’ll have some clean clothes waiting. If you need anything, you know where we are.”
Kerrigan hugged each one of her sisters as they left and waved when they drove off in Rowena’s SUV.
When they were gone, she looked up to find Maksim smiling crookedly at where the car had disappeared, his gaze warm and appreciative when he looked down at her.
“I remember hearing about these women during your school years. I am glad you kept them close.”
“Me too. Do you want to go inside? Or we can stay out here until the sun comes up.” Kerrigan shrieked the last word as Maksim bent and scooped her up into his arms.
He chuckled when she grabbed at his shoulders, carrying her up the porch stairs and through the open front door.
“We must keep up with tradition,” he told her with a wink. She almost asked which tradition, but then like an idiot, recalled the human superstition of carrying the bride across the threshold to keep evil spirits from entering the house.
He set her down on her feet a few steps past the entry, giving her a soft, tender kiss before looking around at what would soon be their home.
