Twenty-Three

Nessa itched to wrap herself around Gaius, to strip him and make love to him in celebration of this wonderful revelation. But the little two-seater transport they were in didn’t allow for side-by-side seating so she had to satisfy herself with holding onto his hand over his shoulder from the back seat. The Nova Aurora night flew by, the transporter flying over the landscape as quickly as it could go, but it wasn’t a short trip back to the northern mountains.

“There’s our moon, baby,” Gaius said, pointing out the domed glass roof. He squeezed her hand and she squeezed back, leaning her head against the glass and staring up at the silvery moonlight.

“I missed you so much,” she said with a sigh.

“Me too, Ness,” he said, tilting his head down to kiss the tops of her knuckles.

“Sorry about my mom. She has a habit of blowing things out of proportion. If I’d just waited one day . . .”

“Not your fault, baby. I should’ve told you how I felt when I knew.”

Nessa’s chest ached as she recalled all the times he’d asked her to come home with him. She knew he wasn’t big on sharing, but that last night they’d been together had felt different, and not just because she knew she was leaving. Gaius had been different—more intent on her pleasure at every step. Not that he didn’t always care about her pleasure, but there had been a desperation in both their caresses.

She cleared her throat and rasped, “When did you know?”

The silence stretched for several beats before he lifted her hand and pressed his lips to her palm. His beard was luxuriant against her skin, and she kept her hand against his cheek when he released her, running her fingertips over the silky fur.

“From the first day,” he said, his voice catching on the last syllable.

Nessa didn’t respond, too shocked by the confession to know what to say. She remembered the day they met and how he’d gotten under her skin almost instantly and had stayed there. Had her bear’s agitation been attraction—a certain understanding that she’d met her mate? Yet she’d passed it off as irritation at his bull-headedness.

“Oh, Gaius, I’m sorry I’m so stubborn.”

His deep chuckle reached her a second later. “No, you’re not. But neither am I. We were made for each other, Ness. No sense fighting who we are.”

She smiled and fell into a reverie as she stared up at the moon. It always seemed to remain in the same place no matter how far they traveled, a persistent, undeniable presence. She would never doubt her heart again.

* * *

Nessa woke with a start, heart pounding. She stared up at warm wood beams above, barely registering what she saw over the flash of images from the dream she’d been having.

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 clambered 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 . . .”