Chapter
Sex had never been like this, and they hadn’t even gotten to the main event yet.
For Kady, sex had been a fumbling, under the covers, lights out, ten-minute deal with guys she told herself cared, but who she knew didn’t really.
Not with Black, he wanted her. His need was palpable, and yet so far, it had been all about her. God, he was being so sweet and gentle. Nothing like any other guy she’d ever been with.
He wasn’t like any other guy. He was sexy, and rugged, and the exact opposite of the maxi-zoom-dweebs she’d dated before.
Not that they were dating.
“Open yourself to me.” Black stroked over Kady’s skin, never taking anything until she gave it.
Man, did she want it. Every touch sent fire burning through her. There was something more than just foreplay going on here. A deep need glowed in the base of her spine.
He held her hands securely above her head, so she couldn’t move. He was in control, guiding everything that happened, and she found a freedom in that. A way she could relax and let anxiety fall away.
She spread her legs, letting go of the fears that her body wasn’t good enough. If Black wanted it, her, she would give herself to him, and enjoy it while it lasted.
“That’s it.” Finally, he dipped into her folds. She knew she was already wet, ready for him. “Mmm, your body is so responsive, so beautiful.
She still had a hard time believing that, but she wanted to, and that was enough for now. “Please, Black. I want you inside of me.”
“Like this?” He pushed two fingers in, filling her, stroking.
“Ohh, yes.” Her back arched of its own accord, trying to get more of him. She closed her eyes, trying her best to only feel.
“Look at me, Kady. Let me see how good I make you feel.” Black slid his thumb over her clit, back and forth, spiking the pleasure pulsing through her.
She dragged her eyes back open and found his. They were dark, and sparkled with lust. She could so easily fall in love with him.
“Tell me what you like, what you want.”
“This.” She lifted her head and kissed him. She licked his bottom lip and sucked it into her mouth. He tasted like Thanksgiving and Christmas, the deep woods on a crisp winter day, a crackling fire and a hot cup of spiced wine. He tasted of home.
“Fates above, your kisses are so sweet. I don’t know how you do that, but I want so much more.” Black kissed her harder, his tongue dancing in and out of her mouth, tangling with hers.
His fingers matched the dance, crooking inside of her, finding just the right spot to make her cry out. “Black. Black. Don’t stop.”
“Yes, my sweet Kady, that’s it.”
They’d barely begun and Kady had never gotten this turned on this fast. It was like Black knew exactly what her body needed, when it needed it, to drive her closer to coming.
“Look at me when you come. Let me see your soul on fire for me.”
She stared into his eyes, that seemed to glow. Her breathing was coming in fast gulps of air, her skin prickled with awareness of every molecule in the room, they all caressed her, joining with Black to push her to the brink of exploding.
Golden wisps floated through the air, wafting from her skin to his, surrounding them both.
“Kady, my Kady, come for me, my love. Come for me.”
Kady cried out, calling Black’s name, and the room exploded into a million sparkles, like the light of the sunrise across an endless ocean. Her body and mind floated in the pleasure, held to Earth only by the anchor of Black holding her there, sharing in the glow.
Black released her arms and pulled her close to him, stroking her back, and her hair. He was warm and safe, and all the things she needed.
When she could breathe again, she could speak again. “What was that?”
He kissed her on the top of the head. “You, love, sharing your soul with me.”
“Does that always happen during alien sexy times?”
Black chuckled. “No, I’ve only heard that it can happen between fated mates.”
Fated mates? Like they were mates now? That wasn’t how love worked. She only knew she was drawn to him, no, more than that. She wanted to be near him, with him.
“Black, what is this thing between us? I have all these feelings for you, but I hardly know you.”
So, why was she in bed with him now? It didn’t feel like a mistake, but her mind said it must be.
He was quiet for a minute. “It’s the Fates. They have put us together. I knew you were my mate the second I saw you. My soul ember, the bit of my soul pulled from me and placed into an amulet, began to glow before I even hit the ground. It knew you were close and that you were mine.”
Kady sat up, grabbed the sheet from the floor and wrapped it around herself, giving her mind a minute to wrap around this idea. “Fate? Like we were pre-destined to be together?
She wasn’t sure she liked the sound of that, being a fan of free will and all.
Black watched her, a wariness, a worry crossing his face. “You were chosen for me, and I for you, but ultimately we still have a choice. If we decide we don’t want to be together, it will be difficult.” He took her hand, and stroked the soft skin of her palm. “There will be an emptiness in our souls that can never be filled, but I have seen others do it, go on to live without mates.”
He was giving her an out, and the pain that caused him sparked across their connection. It hurt. An ache built at the base of her throat. “We don’t have to be, like, married tomorrow or something?”
“No, mah wah. If we were on Honaw I would court you, seduce your mind first and then your body. Our run in with the TFO and my mission has turned things around, and I’m sorry for that.”
“Court me?” She wrinkled up her nose. Sounded so old-fashioned. But, maybe she could use a little of that in her life.
“You are the only one for me, forever, I know that deep in my heart, down to my soul, even without the ember.” He swallowed and tipped his head. “If you don’t want to be with me, you don’t have to. Because as hard as it would be to be separated, it would be even worse to feel forced to be together.”
A vulnerability she never expected, poured off him. This, from a giant of a man, who could turn into an even bigger bear, and who had just given her a soul scorching orgasm.
She wanted to soothe him, but was it even possible?
“Can we even be together. You’re an alien bear shifter and I’m—” She couldn’t say it. She couldn’t believe it.
“A beautiful, sensuous human witch. There is no physical or biological reason a bear and a witch can’t be together.”
She bit at her lip, wanting to accept his words, but finding it hard. “That whole witch thing is way weird.”
He played his fingers across her skin, touching such benign places on her body, like the inside of her wrist, the crook of her elbow. Each caress built the fire inside for him again.
“It doesn’t have to be. There are others like you.”
Ha. Yeah, right. “I doubt that. Other people aren’t like me. Other people don’t even like me.”
He lifted her chin with his knuckled and stroked her cheek. “I like you.”
She found anything else in the room to look at, but him. Because if she did, he’d see the stupid sloppy grin his words had put on her face. “You’re just trying to get in my pants.”
“I believe I was in your pants about ten minutes ago.”
“Okay, that’s true.” She took a deep breath. Why not accept the good the Universe or the Fates or whoever had brought her? The last few hours had been the craziest, and best in her life. She’d be a fool to not grab on and never let go. “Where do we go from here?”
Black smiled and pushed her back on the bed. He kissed her and kissed her and kissed her until she could hardly think. He stripped the blankets from the bed again and settled himself between her legs.
“First, I’m going to make you come another six times, at least.”
Six? “Umm, how about we split the difference. I get three and you get three.”
She could feel his cock pressing against her, and it liked her idea better. She wiggled her hips against him and laughed when his eyes rolled back in his head and he growled.
“That is no way for a bear to treat his mate. You’ll get six and like it.”
She had no doubt about that. “Don’t make me use my magic on you. I can make it snow, I’ll have you know.”
He started kissing his way down her body, stopping at each breast, making her lose her mind. Right before he got to her upper thighs, he stopped. “You can do a lot more than that, mah wah. Tomorrow, I’ll show you. Tonight, I’ll show you my powers.”
He spread her legs and kissed her upper thigh, then the softest part of her inner thigh. Soon he was doing a whole lot more than kissing her thighs.
He licked and suckled her clit, sending pure carnality coursing through her. It didn’t take long before the colors and sparkles carried her away.
He didn’t let up until she cried mercy. Five orgasm later. She hadn’t even thought that was possible. He was the one with magic powers.
“Black, please. No more. It’s your turn, please, let it be your turn.”
He crawled up her body and kissed her. She tasted herself on his tongue and lips. She was beyond sated, but he hadn’t even come yet.
“You owe me one more orgasm.”
She held his face in her hands. “I don’t think I can.”
“What if I do this?” He tilted his hips forward so the head of his cock pushed in exactly the right spot.
“Oh, god. Maybe.”
“And this?” He pressed forward, slowly entering her, stretching her. If her body wasn’t already relaxed from the orgasmpalooza, she doubted he’d fit. He tilted his hips, pushing into her, never taking his eyes off her, filling her, deliciously.
She slanted her body, meeting his, completing their joining. Their bodies together, as one, felt right, complete.
Black withdrew and thrust again, then again. She matched the cadence he set, their bodies dancing in perfect harmony. With every movement, their pleasure increased, and soft glow emanated from them.
Black made love to her, coaxing the pleasure from her body. Golden swirls raised from their skin, or from a deeper place inside, lighting up the room. With each touch of Black’s body to hers, the lights intensified.
This time, Kady had no problem believing in what she was seeing. Before the light had come only from her, but now Black’s soul was aflame and intermingled with her own.
Her own light reached for his, swirling together all around them like smoke and embers from a fire, but much more beautiful.
She wrapped her legs around the back of his thighs, holding him closer, never wanting to let him go. The light mixed with their emotions, with their desires, multiplying it.
Black buried his face in the crook of her neck, pressing his lips to her pulse point. “Kady, I’ve never felt anything like this before, fuck, you’re amazing.”
He reached between them and found her clit, so sensitive. With each thrust of his cock inside of her, he stroked his fingers over her, pushing her toward pure bliss.
“Come for me one more time, mah wah, I need to feel your hot pussy come on my cock. Tell me you’re close, because I’m not going to last much longer.”
“Come with me, Black. Make me yours.”
Black growled deep from within, and bit at her skin of her shoulder. He lost the rhythm and drove into her wildly, stretching her, sending her plunging into another, deeper orgasm.
Her entire body shook, flashes of light shot from her body. Black thrust once more and groaned out her name as he came, his body locking with hers, his light shining like a thousand golden suns.
They stayed, joined together, so intimately, for only moments more. They were both breathing hard, and the light gently faded with each beat of their hearts. When he pulled away, Kady tightened her legs, not letting him go, just yet.
“Just a little bit longer,” she whispered.
“Forever.”
He kissed her, taking her mouth, in a deep, soul deep, way. When he unlocked their lips, he did the same for their bodies. She groaned, protesting, but he rolled them both, so she lay in his arms.
They drifted to sleep that way, linked by more than Kady ever imagined was possible.
Not so quiet whispers outside the bedroom door woke her in the morning. Black was gone and the bed was cold.
She reached for her clothes, and remembered she only had a towel. Well, damn.
“Dear Universe.” Man, she felt dumb, but if she had some sort of magical powers, at least it could cloth her.
“Dear Universe, please help me out with some clothes.” With only the words and a thought, they were on her body. She been thinking they would manifest where her towel had been or something. She hadn’t been trying to put them on, she’d just wished she was already dressed. Then poof, she was.
She’d need to learn to tightly control that particular part of her magic, or she and Black would be naked all the damn time.
“I think we need to wake her. It was her magic that brought them.”
“You don’t know that. Maybe it was her magic that kept them at bay.”
The Gunderson’s were arguing. Kady stuck her head out of the room. Margreth was futzing about in the kitchenette and Sigar was pacing. She didn’t see Black anywhere.
“I don’t suppose you could show me how to manifest some coffee, could you?”
Margreth smacked her husband on the arm and gave him the shut-your-pie-hole look. “No need, dear. I have some all ready for you. Figured you’d need it after your fireworks show last night.”
Kady turned forty-nine shades of pink. They had seen that?
She took the coffee, which already had a ton of cream and sugar, exactly how she liked it, and took several gulps to hide her embarrassment.
“Your bear is waiting outside for you. We’d better go take a look with him.”
What were they looking at?
The sun shone, and the sky sparkled a deep blue. In fact, it sparkled too much. All across the sky, just above the trees, black and blue cracks, like spider-webbing in a broken windshield fizzled.
Black stood a few feet away, wearing only his torn pants, staring up at the cracks in the sky. His arms were folded and hard lines crossed his face. Concentration and worry were marred by his frown.
“Black? What are those? It looks like the sky is cracked.” Kady stepped beside him and stared up to the same place he looked.
“It’s not the sky, but the protective wards the gnomes have set up around their garden. They form a dome shape. What you’re seeing is the damage caused by attempts to break through their wards.”
“By the TFO?”
“No. Something much worse.”