“Fifty-nine,” Lynk answered automatically. “We stop growing older when we reach the age we were when we were cursed. I was twenty-four. I can be killed, but none of us will die from old age or disease.”
“Which means that I won’t either since we’re bonded, right?”
“Well, I have to claim you first. But yes, you’re right. Once I twine our souls, basically stitch them back together, neither of us can be killed while the other one still breathes.” Lynk frowned and shook his head. “Well, with a few exceptions like beheading.” Kieran chuckled under his breath and jerked Lynk down to the mattress. “I get it, Lynk. I’m not freaking out, and I’m not running.
Will I be able to remember our time together once you claim me?”
“Yes, I think so.”
“Then what are you waiting for?” Before Lynk had a chance to answer, Kieran pinned him to the bed and attacked his mouth with enough heat to send the room up in flames.
The plunge of Kieran’s tongue into his open mouth mimicked the wicked ways the man would make love to his body. While Lynk should have been content to let things run their natural course, there Flawless 67
were still things to be said, things that might have Kieran rethinking wanting to bind himself to Lynk forever.
Pushing at his lover’s chest, Lynk jerked his mouth away and panted for a moment before he could get enough air into his lungs to speak. “Wait. I…There’s more that I need to tell you. About my life before I came here.”
“It doesn’t matter.” Kieran chased his lips again, but Lynk turned his head, fighting against his desire to just shut up and let his mate ravish him.
“It does matter. You need to know everything before I claim you.” His heart pounded wildly, and his body trembled with nerves. The things he secretly craved in the dark of night had driven a wedge between them once before. If it was destined to happen again, he wanted to know up front before his heart was too invested.
“Lynk, I’ve already claimed you. Nothing you can say is going to make me walk away from you. Don’t push this. You’re not ready, but you’ll tell me when you are.”
“I can’t take it back once I claim you. I have to tell you now before that happens,” Lynk argued, losing his courage with every passing moment.
“I can’t take it back, either. You’re stuck with me.” Realizing the words were true, a little piece of Lynk’s heart died.
How long before the rest of it shattered as well?
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Chapter Eight
He didn’t know what he’d said wrong, but he’d obviously screwed up somehow. Lynk was so stiff, his muscles tense, and his joints locked. He’d also gone very quiet and wouldn’t look Kieran in the eye any longer.
“Lynk, look at me,” he coaxed, stroking the side of his lover’s face. “Tell me what’s wrong.”
“Maybe it can wait.”
Two minutes ago, Kieran would have agreed. Now, he wanted to know what the hell was going on in Lynk’s pretty little head.
Whatever it was, it had him all tied up in knots, and that just wouldn’t do. “You can tell me anything.”
He didn’t want to push and make his lover uncomfortable, but there seemed to be a big stone wall constructed between them. Until he could tear it down, he had no hope of having the type of relationship with Lynk that he wanted.
“Can I promise to tell you later?” Lynk reached out tentatively and skimmed his fingertips down the valley between Kieran’s chest muscles. It was the first contact he’d initiated between them, and Kieran couldn’t suppress the shiver that rushed up his spine.
“Lynk.” He tried to speak firmly, but the single word rushed out on a shuddering breath as his cock swelled and his pulse galloped.
Since first catching Lynk’s intoxicating scent on the front steps of the house, he’d been beating back his basic instincts to fully claim his mate—inside and out. While Lynk bore his mating mark on his neck, it wasn’t enough. Kieran’s beast was howling to have their mate Flawless 69
beneath them, naked, moaning, and writhing, delirious with pleasure from their touch.
“When the time is right,” Lynk whispered, craning his neck up to capture Kieran’s lips. “I promise I’ll tell you soon, Kieran. Please.” His slippery tongue swirled around the jumping vein in Kieran’s neck.
“I need you.”
While part of him recognized that he was being manipulated, Kieran really didn’t give a damn. According to Lynk, they had eternity to share the secrets of their pasts. Whatever was lurking in the dark places of Lynk’s mind, Kieran would eventually ferret it out. The trick was to take it one day at a time, prove himself worthy of his lover’s trust. Everything else would fall into place as they went.
“Please, sir,” Lynk whispered against Kieran’s jaw.
The quiet plea snapped him, and a primal growl rumbled in his chest as he pinned Lynk back to the mattress and attacked his mouth with a savage intensity. One hand fisted in his mate’s hair to hold him in place while the other made quick work of removing Lynk’s boxers, shredding them until the scraps fell away to leave only smooth, tanned skin.
“I could have done that,” Lynk panted before diving back into the kiss. In the next heartbeat, Kieran’s boxers vanished, and he groaned into his lover’s mouth when their heated flesh met.
As much as he was enjoying himself, they needed to move things forward or he was going to blow before they even got to the good stuff. He’d been wound so tight, trying to keep his desire in check, and now that he’d been given the okay to unleash it, he was quickly spiraling out of control.
Thankfully, Lynk didn’t seem to mind, if the moans and whimpers pouring from him were any indication. His lean muscles flexed and stretched as he squirmed on the bed, rocking his pelvis so that their hard cocks grinded together.
A thin sheen of perspiration glistened over his supple skin, making him almost glow in the soft light from the bedside lamp. In 70 Gabrielle
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that moment, with his face flushed and his eyes closed, his mind obviously lost in pleasure rather than whirling with doubts and worries, he was flawless. Kieran had never seen a more perfect creation in all of his life.
While he lost himself in his contemplation of his lover, Lynk rolled to his side and fished around in the drawer of the nightstand, coming back with a barely used bottle of lube that he offered up to Kieran like a virgin sacrifice. “I can stretch myself if you want.” What a ridiculous question. “Why would I miss an opportunity to touch you, sugar?” He grabbed the little bottle and clutched it in his fist before crushing their lips together again and delving inside for another taste of the moist depths of Lynk’s mouth.
“Please, sir,” Lynk practically sobbed. “Please, hurry.” Kieran didn’t understand his mate’s desire to call him sir, but he couldn’t deny that it did explosive things to his libido. That was something they’d have to discuss—much, much later. “Quiet, baby.
Let me take care of you.”
Lynk quieted instantly, and his body relaxed as the most blissful expression settled over his face. Happy to be able to put that smile on his man’s face, Kieran shimmied down Lynk’s body, trailing open-mouth kisses over his damp skin. Those little, brown nipples called out to him, practically begging to be sucked, nipped, and lavished with attention.
When he had one nipple standing at attention, swollen and red from his attention, he moved on to the next while he used his hands to knead the yielding flesh around Lynk’s hips. His mate made the most enticing noises when he forgot to be all proper and high-strung.
Though his cock was hard as stone and leaking freely from the slit, Kieran was more than happy to ignore his own needs and shower attention on his lover.
Moving farther down Lynk’s body, Kieran swirled his tongue around the man’s belly button and lapped at each brick of hard abdominal muscle. His sculpted body was a treasure, and at the Flawless 71
moment, it was Kier
an’s playground. He’d never seen so many beautiful muscles on such a small man before.
While he wasn’t normally attracted to large men like himself, he had always had a fascination with muscles. It had been quite the dilemma until Lynk had popped into his life. It was as though he’d been made just for Kieran, molded to be his every fantasy and desire come to life.
As he worshiped the man’s body with his tongue, he flipped open the cap on the lube and slathered his fingers with the gel. Urging his mate’s legs wider with his shoulders, he skimmed the crease of Lynk’s ass before pushing between the rounded globes and zeroing in on his quivering pucker.
Groaning against Lynk’s stomach, he ringed the twitching muscles, coaxing them to relax until he could insert one finger into the tight, heated channel. He pumped lazily, stretching Lynk’s hole while he flicked his tongue over the head of his dripping cock. His man went wild, jerking and bucking, impaling himself on Kieran’s digit. His cries of pleasure rose in volume, bouncing off the ceiling and walls and right back to Kieran’s ears like a sweet symphony.
“Please,” Lynk begged. “I can take it. Please, take me, sir.” While he was sure that Lynk would be a perfect fit for him, wrapping around his steel-hard cock like a glove, he wouldn’t rush, wouldn’t do anything to even inadvertently hurt his lover. “Quiet,” he ordered again as he inserted a second finger and enveloped the engorged crown of Lynk’s cock in his mouth.
“Oh, cheese and crackers!” Lynk yelled.
Kieran chuckled around the pulsing flesh in his mouth. He’d never heard that particular curse during the throes of passion, but as long as his lover was enjoying himself, Lynk could scream whatever he wanted.
Wondering what other strange sayings Lynk had in his repertoire, he pushed in with a third finger. At the same time, he took his mate’s cock to the back of his throat and swallowed around the tip.
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“Fish sticks, fudge, motherclucker, son of a monkey!” Oh, lord, Kieran couldn’t remember the last time he’d laughed so much during sex. It was the cutest damn thing he’d ever heard, and it only made him want Lynk that much more. Popping off of his lover’s cock, he buried his face in the crease of Lynk’s thigh and chuckled softly as he continued to work his fingers in and out of Lynk’s snug channel.
When he had all three fingers gliding seamlessly without resistance, he eased out and positioned himself so that he was kneeling between Lynk’s trembling legs, gripping the base of his dick to stave off his orgasm. It did nothing to help his composure when Lynk looped his arms under his knees and pulled his legs back to his chest, placing his slicked hole on clear display.
“Ah, fuck, Lynk.” Kieran’s breath lodged in his chest as he surged forward, encasing himself in Lynk’s heated tunnel.
“Yes, yes, fuck Lynk,” his mate babbled adorably while his head whipped back and forth on the pillow and his fingers clutched at Kieran’s shoulders.
Lynk’s inner walls convulsed around his length, squeezing and massaging until Kieran thought his eyes would cross. “Damn, you’re tight.” He pulled all the way out, teased Lynk’s hole with the tip of his cock, and then surged back in to the root. He did it again. And again.
“Oh, oh, oh,” Lynk chanted. His cock jerked between them, rising up before slapping against his stomach and coating his skin in clear drops of pre-cum. “I’m gonna come. Please, may I come, sir?”
“No,” Kieran growled. “Don’t you dare come until I say you can.” He didn’t understand why Lynk would ask him such a question. He understood even less why he’d denied his lover. Most of the blood in his body had pooled in his cock, leaving little in his brain for such things as coherent thought process.
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There were clues there, pieces of the puzzle that would give him a deeper look into what Lynk needed from him. He just couldn’t focus long enough to put them together.
Every hard thrust into Lynk’s welcoming body sent him a little closer to the edge of the cliff. His balls ached as his sac drew up tight to his body. His cock swelled and throbbed inside Lynk’s hole, and nothing mattered but seeing that look of pleasure-pain on his lover’s face.
Lynk’s abs tightened, the cords in his neck strained, and his dick flexed with the pounding of his heart. It was obvious that he needed release, but Kieran’s refusal seemed to spur him on, driving his lust higher. His eyes were wide open, as big around as dinner plates, and staring up at Kieran as though he’d roped the moon and presented it to Lynk with a pretty red bow.
No one had ever looked at him that way before—as though he wasn’t just the most important person on earth, but the only person in the cosmos. He didn’t know what to do with that level of devotion, so he pushed it to the back of his mind to ponder later.
Sweat beaded across his forehead, dampened his hair, and rolled down his chest and back. His heart thundered against his ribs, his skin tingled, and tiny explosions detonated through his body. Harder, faster, he surged into Lynk’s ass, pounding him into the mattress with enough force to rattle his own bones.
Lynk cried out, dug his short nails into Kieran’s back, and begged for more. Just before his orgasm overtook him, Kieran felt his fangs burst through his gums, and his eyes shifted so that everything existed in monochrome. He tried to shake it off, to subdue his wolf, but it was a hopeless battle.
“Please,” Lynk whispered, tilting his head to the side submissively as he urged Kieran’s mouth to his neck. “I need it.” With a loud roar, Kieran embedded his canines in the apex of Lynk’s shoulder, growling like a wild beast at the first rush of blood over his tongue. His eyes closed against his will, his body tensed, and 74 Gabrielle
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his cock erupted as the most mind-numbing orgasm barreled into him like a locomotive.
Pumping furiously through what felt like a never-ending climax, Kieran extracted his fangs and licked over the mark. “Come,” he grunted, barely able to say the one word before another shock of electricity raced up his spine.
Lynk screamed until the windows shook, and his cock discharged between them, coating his chest and abs in rivers of hot, sticky seed.
Words spilled from his lips in a language that Kieran didn’t understand, and he figured it was just more incoherent babbling until it suddenly felt like the sun itself had exploded inside his chest.
“Lynk!” He screamed, actually screamed, while his body went into convulsions, his hips jerked, slamming his cock deeper into Lynk’s body, and he erupted once again. Just before his world went dark and he was sucked into the void, he heard Lynk whispering to him over the beating of his heart and the panting of his breath.
“Given freely. Two hearts as one. I bind myself to you. Offer all that I am and the pledge of my eternal love.” Deciding that sounded pretty damn good to him, Kieran had just enough consciousness left to collapse to the side of his lover, and then everything floated away.
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Chapter Nine
“This stops now. I won’t keep doing this!”
“Please, sir. What did I do wrong? Just tell me what I did wrong.” Lynk knelt on the floor with his hands resting on his thighs and his head bent. He tried and tried, wracking his brain for some infraction that could be causing his Master to be angry with him.
“You didn’t do anything wrong.” Kieran sighed and dropped his head, pushing his hand through his waist-length hair. He was completely nude, his soft cock still shiny with spit from Lynk’s mouth.
The candlelight played over his muscles, highlighting their definition and making Lynk’s mouth water for just one more taste.
His eyes, however, were shadowed, hard, and maybe just a little sad. “I don’t understand,” Lynk whispered. “If you could just tell me what I did to displease you.”
“Do you love me, Lynk?”
Lynk tilted his head to the side, confused by the question. “I worship you, sir. You are everything to me.” Apparently, this was the wrong answer,
because Kieran growled and slammed his fist into the wall of their little log cabin. “I don’t want you to worship me. There is more to life than me, Lynk. I shouldn’t be your everything. Don’t you want anything for yourself?”
“I want you,” Lynk answered honestly. What else was there?
He’d dedicated the last three years of his life to pleasing his lover, mate, and Master.
“What else?” Kieran asked almost pleadingly. “What else do you want?”
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He was growing more confused by the moment. “I don’t want anything. You are all I need.”
“No!” Kieran roared and his body began to vibrate. “What are you going to do when I’m not around anymore?”
“W–What? Where are you going?” Lynk resisted the urge to jump to his feet and throw himself at his mate. “Why won’t you be here?” Kieran dropped his head so that his chin rested on his chest and fisted his hands on his hips as he sighed heavily. “I’m not going anywhere, but we don’t know what could happen. What if I died tomorrow, Lynk? What would you do then?”
“No.” Lynk shook his head firmly. “You won’t die. I won’t let you. We’re bonded. Together forever.”
“I can’t keep hurting you, Lynk. It’s killing me. I don’t understand what you need, and you won’t tell me. I just know that I can’t do this anymore.”
“But I need it!” Lynk cried. “It’s the only way to make everything go away. It’s the only time I get any peace!” Kieran didn’t say anything while he pulled on his trousers and laced them. He didn’t even bother with a shirt or shoes as he crossed the room and paused in the doorway where he spoke without turning.
“I’m sorry, Lynk.” Then he walked away, leaving Lynk alone, still kneeling on the floor in the middle of the room.
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