Mind Mates (Pull of the Moon Book 2)

by Mary Hughes

  Emma said, “Aye.”

  Gabriel reached for her hand. Grudgingly, he added his “Aye.”

  “Good.” Pan glided to the door, Linda following.

  “Lock up after us.” Just before she shut the door, she grinned. “Enjoy your bed rest.” She clicked the door shut.

  Leaving Emma alone with Gabriel.

  Chapter Fifteen

  The store was suddenly far too quiet. The hush of expectancy settled heavily on Emma’s shoulders.

  Enjoy your “rest”. Linda might as well have winked and added, “If you know what I mean.”

  She had the right idea, Emma’s wolf yipped. Time to get pregnant.

  But Emma stood there, her hand in Gabriel’s. He didn’t seem to realize he was holding hers. She was too embarrassed…too excited…to look directly at him, so she stared at his shoes.

  Her plan was half-baked and flavored more than a little by her desire to go to bed with him. Maybe the plan was actually an excuse.

  Stop thinking so much, her wolf growled. Do it.

  In her periphery, she saw him pull something out of his pocket and finger it. It looked like a small silver medallion.

  He probably hadn’t caught his aunt’s sly smile. Didn’t realize she’d left them alone together to have sex.

  Sex. With all luscious six-five of Gabriel. It made her quiver with need.

  Bonus, if I could get pregnant by him…

  Yes, a one-shot pregnancy, even with a he-witch, was extremely unlikely. Yes, even if she beat the odds, it would be a few days before the pregnancy took.

  But, oh yes, she didn’t care about any of that. Because, well, sex. With Gabriel.

  Finally she couldn’t stand the silence any longer. “So, um…do you think we can get some rest?” She couldn’t help the hopeful little yip that emphasized the word.

  He startled. Looked down at their joined hands. Started to release hers.

  Disappointment speared her. She was reading too much into the situation. Handholding didn’t mean he wanted what she did: kissing, sex, lifetime companionship…

  Good heavens. I don’t want him to save me by making a baby. I want his baby…because I want a lifetime with him.

  Then his fingers firmed, and he tugged her toward the beaded curtain in the back of the store. “Yes. I’ve been denying it too long.”

  Denying what? Rest? Or rest? Lifetime aside, she’d take sex for now. She followed trippingly. Could he be on the same page as she was?

  He dragged her through rattling beads into a homey kitchen.

  “You’re hungry?” she panted.

  “Starving.”

  The blatant need in his voice made her shiver. But did he mean food, or something else?

  He thumbed the medallion in his other hand. A portal opened midair.

  “What is that?” she asked.

  “A workout dimension. But there’s a bathroom with a shower. And, as Aunt Linda so helpfully pointed out—a bedroom.”

  The words resonated in her head…and deep between her legs, pooling there, throbbing. A bedroom. Where they could sleep…or not.

  If we’re on the same page… Her nipples tightened greedily.

  He stepped through the portal and gently helped her in after him.

  She found herself in a large room, a rack of what looked like arcane weapons on one side. Half the floor was padded mat; one wall was a mirror. A door was on the other side.

  As the iris closed behind her, he tugged on her hand, leading her toward the door.

  Her anticipation and hope amplified with each step, until her legs were weak and trembling. She was glad of his hand for support.

  He opened the door to reveal a dark stairwell with a steep set of stairs.

  “Come on.” He started up them, fast, towing her in his wake.

  “Is this like our jail?” She was a bit breathless, not simply because his long legs were eating up the treads. Eagerness tingled all the way from her lungs to her dampening sex. “A pocket dimension where the Enforcer can’t see us?”

  “Yes. Or hear us.” Reaching the top of the stairs, he turned to her, taking both her hands in his. In the dim light, his glasses seemed to glow, his eyes alight behind them. “We can climax as loud as we want.”

  A thrill skewered her. Her breath came in excited rasps. He was definitely on the same page.

  But instead of leading her immediately to the bedroom, he paused, and she thought he’d reconsidered. “Emma, I know we have things to discuss. If you’d rather—”

  “No, I’m fine.”

  He tipped his glasses onto his head and his beautiful blue-green eyes searched hers. “You’re not, not really. So if you want to delay, I’d understand.”

  “Well…I do want to talk, but I’m good enough for now.”

  “Good enough isn’t enough,” he said simply, and she melted a bit more for him. Most people, caught up in their own lives, only wanted to hear her, “I’m fine.”

  Gabriel really cared if she was happy or not.

  Whatever was or wasn’t between them, he truly was her friend. “That means the world to me.” She squeezed his hands as an underline. “But frankly, I have other needs first.” Both her wolf and her woman charged the word with months of frustrated yearning and the sizzling knowledge of that magically charged orgasm.

  “Oh yeah. Me too.” He turned and practically dragged her to the end of the corridor, where he opened one of two doors. Then he stopped again, and her belly dropped, fearing that, despite everything, he’d changed his mind.

  “Um, there’s the bathroom.” He pointed behind her. “If you want to, um, freshen up. I’ll need it after you. I’d like to brush my teeth and wash my…and wash.”

  Fierce satisfaction shook her. “I’ll be right out.”

  Shutting herself in the small half-bath, she used her index finger to scrub toothpaste over her incisors, molars, and gums then gave herself an abbreviated wash. She was about to open the door when she thought, in for a penny, in for a couple of twenties.

  She kicked off her shoes then stripped off her T-shirt and jeans. As she folded them, she checked out what was left. Linda’s magic had given her a pretty, matching bra and bikini set. Okay. She placed her clothes on the sink, settling her journal carefully on top.

  Heart pounding, clad only in her underwear, she opened the door. He was leaning against the wall opposite.

  At the click, his gaze lifted.

  He straightened with a gratifying speed, his fly inflating like an airbag. His eyes dilated to huge pools of black, gaze roving over her body. She preened a bit at that.

  He swallowed, hard. “I-I need to wash.”

  “You can wash later. I want to get you really dirty first.” She lifted her breastbone, thrusting her tight nipples against the cloth of the bra, feeling the cool air rumple her cleavage.

  He tried to swallow again, didn’t quite make it. “I want to go slower this time. Do it right.”

  “You did it right last time.” She walked toward him. Her wolf knew how to raise its tail seductively, and she let that sexy saunter creep into her gait as she closed the gap.

  His Adam’s apple bobbed as he finally managed the swallow. “I thought slower would be better for you.”

  “Now would be better for me.” She placed her palms against his chest. His pecs were as rock-hard as she remembered them. Even as an iota, she’d had her share of sex, but none of the wolves, lean to the point of stringy, had felt like this. This wizard prince’s muscles were made of chunks of granite. Huge heavy chunks. She let her hands rove over him, palms and fingers tasting their fill.

  He grabbed her hands, stilling them. “Wait.”

  She didn’t want to stop. But when he released her hands it was to grab the bottom of his sweater vest and tear it over his head.

  He started fumbling open the buttons of his shirt. “I want your hands on my bare skin.”

  Me too. “Last time you poofed the clothes.”

  “This time we’re g
oing slower,” he insisted, wrestling off his shirt, his arm and chest muscles jouncing until she wanted, no needed, to lick every inch.

  “You can try.” She stripped off her bra, wiggled out of her panties and posed nude for him, stretching herself out for his gaze.

  His hands dropped to his sides and swung there like lead weights. He stood staring at her, eyes almost glazed with lust, nostrils flared with panting, fists clenched so hard his knuckles were white.

  But not moving any other way. All that control.

  Going up in flames if she had anything to say about it.

  She put her hands under her breasts and plumped them.

  A strangled sound emerged from his throat, but he still just stood there.

  So she used her thumbs to brush her erect nipples. Flick, flick… Still nothing. Did he need to hear it? She groaned from her soul, “Gabriel. Fuck me before I rupture.”

  He roared and swept her up in his arms. Her stomach tumbled as he whirled into a small bedroom with two twin cots. “Join,” he snarled, and the cots became one large bed. Good thing because he practically launched her onto her back in the middle of the mattress. She bounced, landing on her elbows with her legs spread.

  His hot flesh instantly filled the gap, naked abs searing her pussy, pressing her into the yielding bedding, his mouth already seeking hers, lips questing. One hand cradled her head as his tongue drove into the depths of her. His belly rasped against her with his panted breaths. The corrugated rocks of his abs scrubbed her like a washboard.

  She snaked her hands between them to work at the waistband of his slacks. He made a throttled noise, rolled off her an instant to lose the rest of his clothes, tossing his glasses on top, then was back between her legs where his cock filled and fattened against her. The erection pushed into the crook of her leg as it unfurled.

  Oh heavens, yes.

  If that fat monster felt good in her palms, she couldn’t wait to get it inside her. She twisted her hips until it slipped in her slick honey, popping in line with her slit.

  Another jerk of her hips, and the engorged head locked into place.

  He groaned. “No.”

  “Yes,” she said. “Please.”

  “Not yet,” he muttered against her lips. “So much more to taste first. To feel.”

  “Later. You, inside. Now.” She arched and writhed, trying to slide him in. His hips retracted, head falling away. She moaned her disappointment.

  Only to gasp a second later when his finger filled the gap.

  “I can’t use magic.” He nibbled down her jaw, her throat, to her breast. Laved the nipple with his tongue.

  “No?”

  “Too dangerous.” He suckled while he thrust and rubbed her clit to hard attention. “My control is almost gone.”

  “Almost?” Not good enough. She bore down with every internal muscle she had, clenching tight around his finger.

  He gave a throttled groan. “Stars and moons. You’re so tight and wet. Searing hot.” He moved his finger in and out, his thumb vibrating on the nose of her engorged clit. She gasped as dazzling shocks crackled from her groin to all points.

  “If that isn’t magic, you’re unfairly talented. Gimme.” She reached for his cock. When he ignored that to lick to her other breast, she nearly screamed. “Get your hips up here before I explode like a firecracker finale.”

  “Are you?” he panted against her wet nipple.

  “Am I what?” Quizzes when she was all swollen clit and slit and nipples?

  “Ready to explode?”

  At that she did scream. Using her wolf, she twisted out from under him, so fast he splatted on his belly like a tablecloth trick. She leaped onto his back, landing with her knees spread around his body, her pussy kissing the small of his back, her thighs clamped around the taut strength of his buttocks. “Yes, I’m ready to explode.”

  He chuffed a laugh. “With frustration or with climax?”

  “Frustration, climax, same thing with you. Roll over.”

  “Slow.” He glanced over his muscular shoulder to give her a warm smile. “Right.”

  “Wounded.” Growing a claw, she traced the line of his lats along his back. “Scarred.”

  “Turning.” Chuffing another laugh, he rolled so fast he took her down with him.

  Not under him, she was too quick for that, but they ended up side by side in a tangle of arms and legs.

  She hooked her ankles behind his hips so he wouldn’t get any slower ideas, or at least wouldn’t get away with them.

  He almost howled. “I wanted to—”

  “I’m certain you have the most talented mouth on the planet. I know your hands are capable of making the most delicate machinery sing and dance. But right now I feel that thick monster playing against my leg, and I want him inside me.”

  He sucked in a breath. “My dick…I’ve been told I’m big. You may not be ready—”

  “Does this feel not ready?” She ground her pussy against his hips, catching the bottom of his cock in a wet, open tsunami of ready. “Gabriel, I am aching for you. If you don’t get inside me this instant, I may have to try to deep throat you. And I’m too excited for that. I know I’d choke.”

  “You don’t have to mouth-fuck me for me to mouth-fuck you—”

  “Argh! You are so single-minded. Well, I have news for you. I’m stubborn too.” She jammed a hand between them, grabbed his cock, and levered the first two inches inside.

  He sucked in a breath.

  The moment stretched, pulsing, heavy with anticipation. He groaned, “Emma…”

  “That’s my name,” she said sweetly as she slowly, inexorably, pushed her hips onto him. “Say it again.”

  “Emma. Oh, my beautiful Emma.”

  Her name, coming so reverently from his lips, sent a sweet thrill cascading through her. Inch by thick inch, she took him inside. Inch by thick inch, he spread her, filled her.

  “Emma,” he whispered the whole time. “Emma, Emma.”

  She could only groan. He was so huge that, by the time she hit bottom, she felt as if he filled her all the way to her throat. Or maybe that was simply every bit of flesh she possessed tightening around him, swollen with need.

  She began to move, awkwardly, hooking a single heel into the mattress as leverage—more a billowing of her pelvis than actual pumping.

  His hands came to help, gripping her hips hard, denting them. His purchase against the bed was better, because he filled her over and over in strong undulating waves, tugging her labia against her clit, again and again until she rose in a great crescendo of thundering excitement. Her heart pounded in her ears and her breath rasped in her throat.

  He whispered her name like a chant.

  The storm swelled heavy and hot inside her, pre-lightning jagging through her as she writhed and arched against him, until she was about to break. “Gabriel…I can’t wait. Come with me.”

  He pumped harder into her. “You first.”

  She howled. “Us, together.” She clenched her inner muscles with everything she had.

  He thrust hard, deeper than ever before, and shouted, “Emma, love, now.”

  Love. Her wings spread, and she flew over the edge the same instant his balls tugged in their first hard spurt. Climax hit her as his hot orgasm filled her, ramping her shuddering pleasure into earthquake contractions. She clutched him, damp flesh trembling against damp flesh. Her mouth, open on a gasp, found the muscle from his shoulder to neck, and the taste of male skin and salt lifted her to a keening cry.

  As his body wracked with climax, he clutched her every bit as hard. His cock geysered inside her, buffeting updrafts to her own orgasm, kicking her higher, again and again until pleasure burst in a thousand colors behind her closed lids.

  Gradually her contractions eased. His breath slowed. She cooled, except where she was crushed against him. She slowly became aware of her surroundings, her position. On her side, legs folded in odd directions around his body. Actually, both of them were wound aroun
d each other as if they’d played a particularly sadistic game of Twister. She thought about laughing, decided it was too much trouble. This was too nice. She drifted.

  He moved. A tiny thwuck half-woke her when his chest separated from one of her breasts. Their damp skin had almost fused. She never wanted to separate from him again.

  She sighed. If good sex led to pregnancy, she’d started her first litter.

  * * *

  Gabriel surfaced from the most amazing climax of his life and opened his eyes on the woman he realized could be the love of his life.

  He’d once teased his sister that the female who enjoyed his weird sense of humor would be his true love. She’d responded, “You mean the one who loves you in spite of your humor.” In other words, the female who loved him, flaws and all.

  The truth smacked him between the eyes. Emma was that woman.

  Focusing his gaze on her, on her beautiful, sleepy face, he opened his mouth to say something mushy. Her lids were heavy, eyes barely slits. But it was unmistakable.

  Her irises were no longer brown. They were emerald green.

  Mated.

  She was mated to him. Deep inside him, something feral growled in triumph. Not quite an inner wolf, but the promise of one.

  He shivered in shock. He had the potential for an inner wolf? How…? Had he always had one or had the magic swirling around their passionate sex created one, or had their coupling actually been magical, creating it or…?

  Didn’t matter. Whether he had the potential to mate with her in return someday or not, whether he wanted it or not, she was mated to him now, both the woman and her beast.

  No, that wasn’t quite right. He definitely wanted it.

  The question was, whether she wanted it too.

  And then his brain finally grabbed some blood away from his groin and a more pressing concern clamored through the mush of his mind.

  If Ryder had jailed her simply for unconsummated lust, what would he do now that she was mated to a wizard prince?

  Chapter Sixteen

  “Emma.”

  Gabriel’s tone brought her back from the brink of sleep. She’d heard the full range of his inflections, from calm to crisis, and knew every shading. This didn’t sound loving or happy or any of the things she’d expect after satisfying sex.