by Lexi Ostrow
“No son of mine will run about the streets like a … like a vagrant!” his father shouted the last word.
“Us vagrants saved your brother’s life! Us vagrants protect this city and the cities of the world, day in and day out. Us vagrant’s deserve more than just your funding, we deserve your respect!” McKenna spat.
Jacob cringed at her terrible English.
His father’s eyes narrowed, and he spoke only to McKenna. “You will mind your tongue. What I speak of with my son is of no concern to you. I am grateful for your people’s services to the Crown, but I am not foolish enough to want a high born noble running amok with guns and science that ought to not exist.”
“Father, you will not speak to her that way.” The words were out of his mouth as quickly as his father’s hand slapped into his face.
“You have spent too many days in their company. You have forgotten your place.”
Jacob refrained from rubbing his cheek to ease the sting. “I have not forgotten my place. You asked who this young lady is. She is a serving wench who lost her parents, and whilst here, was sold to the Alliance like a slave. She is strong, brave and one of the best hunters, or she wouldn’t have been guarding me in Hell. She is also the woman I love, and the reason why I will be a hunter, with or without your approval,” Jacob’s words were steely, and he felt no fear as he defended McKenna to his father.
His father stared at him for what felt like an eternity before giving a sharp nod of this head. “Jacob, I have been waiting all your life for you to speak so passionately about something, anything. Of all my sons, you are the only one to have fallen through the cracks at court, and when you demanded to go on this mission, I feared you sought to kill yourself. To see you home and happy is enough. If you wish to be a hunter, you may have my blessing.”
His jaw gaped open, but McKenna gave a loud whoop and threw her arms around his neck. She nuzzled the crook where his head met his shoulders, and Jacob instantly forgot about anything but the woman in his arms. It didn’t matter how much time they’d spent together the last eve, two months apart had been far too long for both his heart and his libido. He leaned back to kiss her, but she stepped away, thankfully one of them remembered their heads.
“I can see that your manners have escaped you and that there is more to discuss than your change in occupation.”
Jacob flushed and leveled his gaze at his father. “I wish to court McKenna, to make her my bride.”
“Son, I do think you ought to ask someone at the Alliance’s permission, as this is a matter to be discussed at lengths, and you said her parents perished. Political ties are always welcome, and to see the fire in your eyes as you look at her is a wonderful start. It will be easy enough to overlook and craft a tale of why she was mistaken for a servant without parents to help her in court.”
He turned to look at McKenna. Her eyes looked as if they might pop from her head, but she did not speak. It was up to him to do this, and if his father found out later, McKenna would be publically shamed.
“McKenna is not of noble blood father. This union is not about politics and alignments. This union is about love, and I will forsake everything to be with her. I am a bastard without a title as far as the court and ton are concerned, it will not harm me to leave my belongings and life here for one with her and the Alliance.”
He watched as his father’s nostrils flared, and his eyes turned a dark blue, the same as Jacob’s did when he was mad. “This is your choice then? A common marriage that will gain us nothing and to sleep amongst the workers in a guild? You will not receive a pence of mine if you choose this life. Think carefully, son.”
“I will not marry him,” McKenna said and took his hands. “When this began, you promised me nothing more than one night to learn what being touched by a man was. I think I had loved you from afar since that drunken kiss almost ten years ago. I have known love and to be loved. I will not let you ruin your life for fun with me.”
Tears slipped down her cheeks with her words, and Jacob felt as if someone had ripped his heart from his chest.
Pressing his lips to her, he kissed her. A slow, tender kiss to ease her pain and calm her. “I am going nowhere, McKenna. I gave you my word in Hell that I would find a way to be with you forever. If this is the only way my father will let our union be, then I would happily give up everything I own to call you my wife.”
He felt his father’s hand come down strongly on his shoulder. Pride beamed out of his tone as he spoke, “There will be no need for either. Your duty is not to your country, Jacob. You are an asset, and in line for the throne if tragedy ever struck your six elder brothers and the two children in our family, but that is unlikely. If you wish to marry this woman, I have two conditions for both of you.”
“Name them, Father. I will do whatever meaningless tasks you wish in order to wed McKenna at the end of the next courtship season.”
“Then you will find these terms agreeable, I am certain. You may train to be a hunter, if they allow, and it sounds as though they have. You may marry this wonderful young woman. But first, you must allow me to create a history for her. I can get patents of nobility squared away, but it will take time, so you must not rush this courtship. Secondly, you will live here, in court. If you do not wish to be inside the palace, I will have something constructed on the grounds.”
His father stopped talking, but neither Jacob nor McKenna spoke. His head was reeling. He had been envisioning this discussion since they’d climbed aboard the submersible. It oft went as badly as it had been going, but it certainly never was this fruitful. His father was not known for being cruel, spending what he spent to finance a second expedition to Hell proved that, but Jacob had never expected this. Jacob looked at McKenna, and her jaw was open, and her eyes were wide, but she wasn’t saying a word. Swinging his gaze back to his father, he saw the smile on the man’s face and knew it was not a joke.
“Are these terms serious?” he finally asked.
His father gave a bellow of a laugh. “Yes, Jacob. They are quite serious. Do you find them to be disagreeable?”
It was his turn to grin from ear to ear. “No father, they are most generous.” He turned to McKenna and went down on one knee as he took her right hand in his. “McKenna Caffery, I might have ruined you when you were only seven and ten, and it might have taken me time to understand our connection to the past, but now that I have, I will never let you go. Will you do me the great honor of making an honest man out of me and becoming my wife?”
“Yes. Yes, a thousand times over.” She pulled his hand up and flung herself at him.
Their lips met in a kiss that made him feel as if no one else was in the room with him. He’d never felt such a sense of joy envelope him as their lips moved together, and he didn’t think he ever would.
Epilogue
McKenna peeked out of the lush, velour curtains. The courtyard was a fantasy she had never dreamed could happen. As was the lavish pink dress that felt awkward and cumbersome on a body used to corsets and skirts. Two days since, the king had changed her world forever, and it felt as if she’d never get used to the lifestyle without Jacob to guide her.
She felt Jacob walk behind her and wrap his arms around her waist, placing a kiss at the nape of her neck.
“You shouldn’t be in here,” she said with a smile as she turned in his arms and kissed his lips.
He smiled, still kissing her and pulled back. “I would sneak into any room to be with you, McKenna.”
She laid her head on his chest and simply stood with him, embraced in a chamber she should never be in, save for to clean, and now she called it her room.
“Did you ever expect to be here?” Jacob asked and kissed the top of her head.
“I never expected anything with you, except that you could drive me to tear my hair out.” She winked up at him and wound her hands around his neck. “You went to all this trouble to be with me and to be in my rooms. I think it’s time I showed you how much of my hero you
are.”
Rising on her tiptoes in the light slippers, she kissed him. Her tongue traced a sensual path over the seam of his lips and slipped inside. Heat raced through her body as if they had been touching one another intimately for minutes, not seconds. She was the one who moaned first as she nipped and tugged at his lower lip before breaking the kiss.
“It is you who are my hero, McKenna. But I’ll allow you to indulge my male ego desires and let me ravish you as heroes ravish their ladies.”
She flushed a deep red, pulled off the white gloves, and let them glide to the floor. Using the lapels of Jacob’s coat, she pushed it over his muscled shoulders. She loved the feel of his body under her hands as she massaged it through his grey shirt.
His hands went behind her and pulled at the horrible buttons on the back of the dress. Vaguely, McKenna could feel them releasing and the dress opening. But she was too intent on running her fingers up and down his hard stomach to notice much of anything with her own clothing.
“I believe that is a yes then?” Jacob said huskily before taking her mouth in a kiss once more.
Their tongues danced and twirled as expertly as any kiss before, and likely as perfect as any kiss after would be. There was nothing but her and Jacob in the world when they kissed. Everything slipped away as need bubbled and rose inside of her. She could feel the wetness betwixt her legs and whimpered as Jacob stepped back and pulled his shirt off over his head before tugging her dress down so quickly, the tearing of fabric echoed loudly in the room.
“I don’t think your mother is going to enjoy you having done that,” she said breathlessly as his hands moved to untying the corset she hated.
“It wouldn’t be a proper ravishing if clothing did not tear or buttons didn’t pop off,” he said with a rakish grin. “The buttons are all done, so we will have to stand for simple tearing this time.”
Her corset fell in betwixt them as he undid the final tie, she was so transfixed by the way his fingers had glided over her skin, she gasped as her breasts unexpectedly tumbled free. His mouth sucked a rosy peak in, and she groaned, as did he. Her hands twisted in his hair. He paid her no mind and dragged his nose across her skin as he moved his mouth to her other nipple. She shuddered as he circled it with his tongue and tweaked it betwixt his fingers.
He swept her off her feet so quickly, her head spun. When he laid her down on the bed and covered her with his body, she arched greedily against his. His lips trailed hot kisses from her sternum to her navel before he gripped the top of her knickers with his teeth and pulled them down, just enough before using his hand to tug them off her completely.
His tongue slid into her wet core as sinfully as she could have imagined it. Jacob swirled his tongue, thrust, slid and lapped at McKenna with it. Her mind was in pleasure overload, and the colors in the room around them began to blur together. When his mouth closed around her clit, she cried out and bucked off the bed. Jacob paid her no mercy. His hands wrapped around her thighs and forced her slowly closing legs apart, so he could continue to make love to her with his mouth.
“Jacob,” she panted and tried to slide up the bed. “I want you. I want you to ravish me some other time.”
Is laugh was lusty sounding, and he swirled his tongue in her folds once more before pulling back. She felt the cold air in the room rush over her wetness and shivered from the pleasurable sensation. As he undid his trousers and pushed them down with his undergarments, she couldn’t take her eyes off him. His muscles rippled with the strength of a warrior, even though his body lacked the scars of one. He might have a long way to go before he could be a true hunter, but he was already a hero to her.
His body was back, hot and heavy over hers, and she ground her hips greedily up at him. She reached out and wrapped her hand around his thick length. With two quick pumps of her hand, she guided him to her entrance. She loved the way the muscles in his neck tensed as he let himself slide into her until he was balls deep. Nothing separated their skin, and when he began to move, she jolted, relishing in the way his prick hit her pleasure spot.
“Jacob…” she said as their hips began to thrust together.
Their coupling was fast, an erotic fantasy come to life as he drove into her body so hard, the bed thumped into the wall. Her body raced to meet his, thrust for thrust, even as her legs fell further open to take him at a different angle.
Pleasure shattered through her on the first stroke. She came undone, screaming his name even as his lips pressed against her throat, and his cock slammed in and out of her body. Her breathing was loud but quieter than Jacob’s grunts as he slid in and out, in and out until his own release ripped from him with a growl.
Their bodies were glistening with sweat as he pulled out of her and rolled over her to lie on the side. Her hair was more out of its perfect bun than in, and she could feel strands of it sticking to her neck. But she didn’t care.
She propped herself up on an elbow and smiled at him coyly. “Do you think you can pull that off one more time?” she asked as she straddled his body.
“I can do anything one more time with you,” he said and pushed her hair out of her face. “Anything and everything for the rest of our lives.”
There were numerous things Seraphina should have been doing. She could not seem to settle. It had barely felt like more than a day since she had killed Neal, let alone over two months. She had taken many lovers less skilled than the Ice Demon, but her body was wet with desire. Growling at her reflection in the looking glass, she turned away and paced about her room. If she wasn’t careful, she would find herself in Kellan’s arms, desperate to remove the longing the blood sharing had created.
Heat flared through her body as she thought about his accent screaming her name in pleasure instead of pain, and she snarled. Her hand slammed into the vanity, and the once beautiful piece of wood shattered and crashed to the floor. A stray fleck of wood lodged into her ankle, and she plucked it out with a snarl.
She could call for any number of demons, but should she lose herself and call the blasted hunter’s name, she would lose a foothold on her throne. She would be seen as weak. It would not matter that she could fuck a Fallen and explain why she had called it, the link. It would only end in the same way Neal had, a bloody mess marring her floor.
“It’s time to do things the old way Seraphina,” she said to herself as she walked to her bathing area.
Quietly closing the door with a click, she pulled the white silk dress off over her head. She continued to walk to the bath as she stepped out of her undergarment. Stepping carefully out of them, she twisted the nozzle on the basin, allowing the warm water to flow. Running water was something of a marvel to her still, and she always expected to find a Fire Demon heating the water. Yet, she knew it was just water pulled from a hot spring.
When the level had raised just enough, she slowly stepped into the tub, exhaling on a sigh as the warm water rushed to cross over the fair skin of her foot. Stepping all the way into the tub, she lowered her body into the rising hot water.
The water continued to flow into the bathing tub and wash over her, covering her in its warmth. The water caressed her stomach as it rushed over it. Like the gentle hand of a lover, it was swept across her breasts. Seraphina inhaled deeply at the pleasant situation as the water caused her nipples to pebble. Increased hormones were a danger during any blood sharing, and there had been no shortage as of late. Her mind had been haunting her with images of more than just Demetrious, even if it infuriated her to admit it.
Three times in the past day, she had closed her eyes to see an image of Kellan. Once, it had been nothing more than his eyes, burning into her own with such intensity, she had cried out. The second time, he had been at her neck, sucking down her blood as he possessed her fully. Finally, his body had been atop hers, his weight a delicious press upon her slender form as they’d mated.
A shudder went through her when her hand brushed against her breast as she tried to circulate the water a bit. Feeling the
water nearing her neck, she couldn't help but picture Kellan’s hand stroking across her throat gently before his lips lightly caressed the same place.
Shaking herself from her fantasy, she leaned forward to turn the flow of the water off. She had wanted to see to her own pleasure, not fantasize about the hunter whilst she did so.
Letting her body sink back into the heated water, she laid her head against the tub. Her eyes slowly closed as a smile parted her lips. Her body was still hot with desire, and the water was only egging her need for release on more.
Slowly, she let her hand sink beneath the water and brush over her clit. The sensation sparked through her, and her hips bucked off the bottom of the bathing tub. Seraphina drew lazy circles over her folds, tormenting herself before she allowed her finger to slip inside.
As always the steam and heat from the water made her a little groggy. Seraphina leaned her head back and closed her eyes, trying to block out her thoughts. As her breathing began to slow and steady, an image of Kellan, naked and as powerful as he had been when she’d captured him, stalked towards her in the bathing tub. She had not seen the male disrobed, of course, but it was how she imagined he would look, all raw power and hard lines.
Her breathing hitched at her thoughts. His eyes burned into her as he pushed forward towards her in the bathing tub. His erection jutted high and proud as he raised his left leg and stepped in. Shallow breaths passed betwixt her lips as the fantasy began to take root deeper in her mind the more her finger slid in and out of her tight core.
In her fantasy, her hand reached out and stroked along his lip, and when his lips curled back in a snarl, she stroked her hand down the side of his face and pulled him closer. She pressed her lips to his. In her mind, she was not alone in the tub, nor was she thrusting two fingers in and out of her body.
Kellan was with her. He was so real it frightened her. Her desire for him shocked her because it felt so much deeper than it should have. She was pulled back into her fantasy as her pleasure began to grow.