What a Wolf's Heart Decides (Lux Catena Book 4)
Page 28
“Do you like it?” Bard murmured.
She tucked herself under his arm and stood on tiptoe so she could peck his cheek. “I love it.”
“We never got to celebrate your birthday.”
“I don’t care about that.” She smiled. “I got what I wanted.”
He hugged his arm around her waist and used his free hand to grasp her chin in a gentle grip. “Me too.”
She put a palm on his cheek, intending to pull him down for a kiss, but he shook his head. “Not yet. You have to open your presents.”
“Bard, I don’t need—”
“Hush, wife. Let me spoil you.” He grabbed her hand again and led her toward the tent.
Her stomach did a little flip. Funny how just a single word—wife—could do that. Although the mate bond didn’t require a human marriage, they made it official anyway. And she’d said her vows with tears streaming down her face after Max, Lizette, and all her other friends from the New York Territory surprised her by showing up for the ceremony. The only absence was Lily, who was too pregnant to travel. However, Dom improvised by holding up his phone so she and Posey could watch the wedding over FaceTime.
The lanterns flickered in the breeze as Bard pulled her to the tent’s entrance.
“Be careful!” she called as he navigated around the stakes.
He stopped before the flaps and pulled her against him. “I’m okay, love. My leg might be gone for good, but all the damage is healed.” He gazed down at her, his blue eyes soft. “You saw to that.”
“I still can’t believe I have a Gift.”
“I guess if anything good came of Sabine’s curse, it was that.”
Haley bit her lip. “You really think she won’t come back?”
“According to Max, she won’t. He had a long talk with Damian, who said witches don’t feed in the same place twice.”
She suppressed a shudder. “That will always give me the willies. She creeped me out from the first time I met her.”
“It might be your Gift.”
“My Gift?”
Bard nodded and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “Damian says it’s part of being an Augmentor. Your Gift works on other Gifts, and it makes you more sensitive to magic. He thinks you probably sensed the charm without realizing it.”
She drew in a sharp breath. “The way my ears started ringing as soon as I got here.”
He nodded.
“I thought it was the altitude.”
“Nope.” He brushed a thumb down her cheek. “It was your Gift.”
She let out a soft laugh. “Finally.”
He turned her toward the valley, then put his mouth next to her ear and murmured, “Some gifts are worth waiting for.”
She heard it first.
Thunder.
Impossible when the sky was a clear expanse of black speckled with twinkling stars.
Then she saw it.
Them.
She saw them. And she forgot how to breathe.
Wild horses poured into the valley between the mountains, their manes streaming behind them as they galloped through the snow. It flew off their hooves, white specks that seemed to dance in the air. There were horses of every color—red roan and brilliant white, bay and buckskin, sorrel and brown. They flew across the valley, their bodies sleek and shining in the moonlight. The ground shook, the whole cliffside trembling.
As soon as they appeared they were gone, leaving nothing but a riot of tracks in the snow.
Haley’s heart raced as she turned to Bard. “How did you know they would come tonight?”
His eyes smiled. “Damian. He wanted to explore the land a bit to see if he could figure out which magical house Sabine is from. He has a knack for understanding animals.”
“Are you sure it’s wise to let him loose in the territory? I know witchborn isn’t the same as a witch but . . .” She let her sentence drift off. Bard had given her an incredible gift. She didn’t want to ruin it with an argument.
But he smoothed his hands up her arms. “If you think it’s unwise I’ll tell him to get lost.”
“You would?”
“Just say the word.”
She licked her lips, trying to buy some time while she dealt with the surprise of his response. “No one’s ever listened to me before.”
“They do now.” He ran his thumb over her lower lip, and desire flared in his gaze. “I listen to you, Haley Michaels Bennett. You’re the love of my life. My rescuer. My mate.” His gaze grew more intense, and his voice got husky. “My beautiful, beautiful wife.”
Heat pooled between her legs. “You’re going to make love to me, aren’t you.” She made it a statement. There was no need to ask when the answer was certain.
“It’s a full moon.”
She bit her lip. “I’m not a virgin anymore.”
“Definitely not.”
“You’ve seen to that.”
“Dozens of times, in lots of places.”
Memories flooded her, and her heart skipped a beat. “In the shower.”
“And the kitchen.”
“The closet.”
“Multiple closets.”
It was getting hard to speak. “You bent me over the dining room table.”
“I was just thinking about that.”
“Me too,” she said weakly. It was where he’d claimed her, sealing their mate bond. They spoke their vows at their wedding ceremony in his family’s ancestral home, surrounded by planters overflowing with roses. And they’d planned to take care of the rest of the ritual later that night when they were alone. Then they ended up sneaking away from the reception and kissing in the dining room. One thing led to another and her wedding dress was on the floor and Bard was behind her, his cock poised at her entrance while she sprawled face-down on the mahogany table, her panting breaths making little condensation marks on the wood.
“You okay, baby?” he asked, his voice almost too low to understand.
“Yes,” she gasped. “Please.”
“I don’t want to hurt you.”
“You won’t.” He’d made sure of it. In the days after the showdown in the conservatory, he’d used his fingers and tongue to open and stretch her, preparing her for what was to come. Yet he hadn’t claimed her. “It’s special,” he’d said. “I want to save that for our wedding day.”
She’d started to protest. But then she remembered it was special for him, too, and that he might be just as nervous. He’d spent twenty years believing he was doomed to stay impotent forever. So she’d agreed to take things slow, letting him tease her and teasing him back.
The result was she was nearly mindless with lust, her sex throbbing as she widened her stance and tilted her ass up. “Please, Bard,” she said, uncaring how desperate she sounded. “Please.”
He drew his fangs down her neck, raising the tiniest line of blood. Then he nestled the tip of his cock inside her and eased in, whispering, “My life for yours.”
Her pussy clenched around him.
He licked the blood from her neck and seated himself to the hilt, his cock brushing her clit.
Just like that, she was off, her body exploding in a thousand pieces. When she drifted back to earth, he was there to catch her, his big hands stroking her sweaty hair away from her face as she shivered with aftershocks.
“Your turn, baby,” he murmured, putting his hand to her lips. He’d bitten the meaty part of his palm, and blood welled in the puncture marks.
She sucked at it, drawing a groan from him. With his essence in her mouth, she said, “My life for yours.”
Wind swept down the chimney and a thousand whispering voices filled the room. Warm air swirled around them, tugging at their hair. Bard pressed his lips against her neck, his mouth on her pulse point as the lux catena washed over them, binding their lives together in an unbreakable chain of love and commitment.
The whispers built, growing louder and louder as the wind fluttered the draperies and rustled the flower arrangements bro
ught in for the wedding. Haley closed her eyes, content to let the breeze dance across her skin as she dozed in the arms of the man she loved.
A tent flap slapped against the canvas, hurtling her back to the present. Bard gazed at her, a soft smile pulling at his mouth.
“Your heart is racing,” he said. “You’re tachycardic.”
“Really? Maybe I need a doctor.”
He drew her against him, one hand stroking down her back to palm her ass. “Oh, I think you do.”
She brought her lips to his and whispered, “Lucky I found one, then.”
About the Author
Amy Pennza has been a lawyer, a soldier, and a copywriter. She’s worn combat boots and high heels in the same 24-hour period—and she definitely prefers flip flops. Actually, she prefers going barefoot while writing steamy romances about strong women and alpha men with hearts of gold. After years in Tornado Alley, she now makes her home in the Great Lakes region with her husband, kids, and more baskets than any one person should own. (You can never have enough.)
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