She did. All of it. Everything. So much a fresh release swelled inside her, burgeoning up from her toes and crouching low in her belly, ready to leap. She whimpered and clutched his shoulders, hanging on for the merciless ride.
“I know you do, because you were made for me.” He held her hips in place, grinding his pelvis against her clit on each upward advance. “We were made for each other.”
He slipped the hand above her ass lower, curving it around and running his fingers alongside where they were joined. “There is nothing I won’t give you. No boundary I won’t cross, because you belong to me.” Fingers coated in her wetness, he slicked them backwards. “All of you.”
He circled her anus and she jerked against him, digging her nails deep in his skin. “You wouldn’t.”
“Oh, I would.” Back to her sex he delved, gathering more of her juices and heading right back to her ass for another teasing touch. “I will.”
A violent tremor racked her body and the building release inside her ratcheted higher. A tension poised with the ferocity of a spring stretched to the peak of its limits. “Priest!”
Over and over, he primed her, steadily coating her in her essence. When she finally relaxed and welcomed him with a fresh stroke by lifting her hips, he hummed and murmured against her skin. “That’s it.” He circled again, this time harder, barely breaching the surface. “Let it out.”
As soon as he said it, he backed away. A slight respite that made her fists clench in frustration and her groan rip up her throat.
He nipped her neck and resumed the pressure she’d begun to crave. “Welcome it.” He pushed past the barrier and drove his cock to the hilt. “Come for your mate.”
On demand, her body obeyed. Filled and possessed in ways she’d never believed she’d welcome, the whole world opened up. Blossomed bold and beautiful while her sex convulsed around his shaft. She was his. The missing link that hitched together the empty spaces inside her and made the overall plan make sense. A safe place where what she wanted was not only accepted but championed.
He growled against her shoulder, still pumping his finger inside her ass in alternating strokes with his thick shaft, wringing one contraction after another from her sex. “Fuck, yes. My woman.” He licked and sucked the spot where her shoulder and neck met and stabbed deeper. “My. Fucking. Mate.”
He drove to the hilt, wrenched her down and sunk his teeth into her flesh, the triumphant roar as his cock jerked inside her setting off powerful aftershocks.
She held on tight, arms trembling as wave after wave rippled through her gobsmacked body and the room’s chilled air danced against her damp skin. Earth-shattering physicality aside, this was more than sex. More than chemistry and compatibility.
It was magic. Sensual. Carnal. And yes, maybe a little dirty, but still absolutely beautiful. And for once she didn’t care to understand how or why it worked. Only that it did and that it was hers. That this man was the one who’d not only guided her to it, but vowed to give her more.
She smoothed her hands along the back of his neck and rubbed her cheek against his temple. “That was...” God, what could she say? As much as she wanted to say something, no words felt right. None worthy of what he’d given her.
“As it should be.” He kissed the tender spot he’d bitten and stroked his hands along her spine, lazily petting her the way she’d stroked his panther that first morning. “What it will always be.”
It was perfect. A summation she’d never have found on her own that cast a spotlight on the vast world they’d just opened up. One that both excited and scared her silly.
Holding her to him with one arm, he leaned forward, laid her on her back and pressed a reverent kiss to her lips. “Thank you, mihara.” The next kiss he placed just below his pendant and another above her heart.
She savored the thick fall of his hair between her fingers and the velvet glide of his lips as he moved farther down her torso. “I’m not sure why you’re thanking me.”
His shaft slipped free and she whimpered, the loss more tangible than on a purely physical level.
“Because you took the risk.” As if to prove his point, he ran his fingertips through their joined release seeping from her sex. “You were afraid and you still jumped.”
She swallowed huge, reality rushing in faster than she cared to welcome it. “I’m still afraid.” The honest admission slipped out, bolstered by his nearness and the utter certainty that, no matter what she faced, he’d be there. Rock solid and ready to help her through it. “This feels huge. Bigger than anything I know how to deal with.”
He inhaled deep and rubbed his coated fingers atop her mound. As if he were marking her in a far more primitive fashion. Leaving tangible proof of his claim behind.
Slowly, he lifted his gaze to hers and shifted so he lay beside her, propped on one elbow. He fingered the pendant at her throat. “Maybe it seems too big because you’re looking at it from the wrong angle.”
Of all the things he could have said, a logical slant was the last thing she’d expected. Especially in such a poignant moment. “Well, it feels like I’m looking at it dead on.”
He smiled at that, a soft one only shared by those who were intimate, and wrapped his arm around her waist. “You’re looking at it backward, mihara. This isn’t the end. Not a shackle to endure.” Tangling his legs with hers, he rolled to his back, pulled her with him and hugged her close. When his lips grazed the top of her head, she felt it everywhere. A benediction and a promise all rolled up into one. “This is the beginning.”
Chapter Twenty-One
It was too early. Even hovering beneath the upper veil of sleep, Priest’s humming mind insisted it wasn’t yet time to rise and face the day. Though, to be fair, his brain might be biased by the soft, welcoming press of Kateri next to him and her breath whispering against his chest.
He stroked her bare back and palmed her pert ass, every spectacular detail of last night rising to the top of his consciousness like a cloudless sunrise. Taking her again was tempting. Disturbingly so. But between their first wild joining and the two more tender ones through the night, she had to be sore. Not to mention exhausted.
Hugging her tight, he nuzzled the top of her head and tried to slip back into sleep, hoping the tangible contact would ease whatever had woken him and left his cat on edge.
But the mental nudge came again, even more insistent—and this time the source was unmistakable.
His eyes snapped open to the pre-dawn darkened room and the inner compass he’d come to rely on homed in on the tugging sensation.
A soul quest.
Damn it.
As shitty timing went, this was the worst. Yeah, Kateri was a reasonable woman. More so than many he’d known. But last night had been huge for her. A step into something completely foreign. Reasonable or not, odds were good she’d be pissed if she woke up the morning after and found herself alone. Hell, he was pissed and he wasn’t even gone yet.
He rolled to his back and fisted his hair on the top of his head. Whoever’s quest it was, they were reaching the Otherworld fast. Far faster than normal. Either that, or he’d simply been so preoccupied with his mate, he’d subconsciously turned a blind eye to reality.
Beside him, Kateri lay perfectly still, sleeping so deeply his movement hadn’t seemed to faze her. It was odd seeing her like this. He’d grown so used to the nonstop intellectual fire burning behind her blue gaze that studying her in repose was like spying on an intimate moment.
He liked it, though. Loved how innocent she looked. How even in the shadows her pert nose, cupid lips and high cheekbones made him think of a sleeping yet mischievous pixie.
Yeah, definitely shitty timing. The first time since the Keeper named him high priest that he’d regretted his responsibility.
He propped himself up on one elbow and skimmed his lips across hers.
T
hey parted only a fraction and a soft sigh slipped free, but otherwise she kept sleeping. Interesting, because every other kiss he’d given her she’d woken in an instant, eyes flashing with awareness to find him not only close but naked against her.
Chuckling low, he pulled the covers up around her shoulders and eased from the bed. His poor kitten. Clearly, he’d worked her harder than he’d thought. He snatched his jeans from the floor near the foot of the bed and tugged them on, the rough denim offensive compared to Kateri’s warm, silky skin.
Screw the soul quest, the darkness prodded. Stay with her. We’ve earned it. She deserves it.
He hesitated at the door to his room, fisting the knob nearly hard enough to do damage.
Bundled under the blanket, she looked so tiny. Engulfed by the size of his bed and achingly alone. Giving in was tempting. Painfully so. But it was the wrong choice. One even Kateri wouldn’t ask him to make.
Forcing himself into motion, he strode across the catwalk that separated his suite from the rest of the bedrooms toward Tate’s room. With every step the urgency lashed harder. As if the distance he put between him and his mate drove the quester closer to the Otherworld.
But that couldn’t be right. Kateri might have accepted him physically, but she hadn’t accepted their bond yet. He’d have felt it. Every male he’d spoken with who’d ever earned their mate’s bond insisted the merging was unmistakable. A welcome tether even beyond what they’d experienced when gaining their companion animal. And even if Kateri had accepted their bond last night, a soul quest wouldn’t involve her.
Unless the quest was hers.
He paused at Tate’s door, both hands braced on the frame at either side as the thought rattled through him.
Surely not. She’d not shown any signs. Definitely none as prominent as Alek’s. But then women seldom did. They were better at navigating emotion. Better at rolling with shifting physical changes that often marked an impending quest.
Except Kateri wasn’t an average woman. And she’d been highly emotional yesterday. Conflicted. Wrestling with not only the idea of a fated mate and the overwhelming physical response that went with it, but the death of her parents, too.
And she’d been almost still as death beside him. Not responding to his kiss.
Fuck.
Not bothering with a knock, he barged into Tate’s room. “Alek, get up.”
Splayed in the center of Tate’s pullout and barely covered with a single sheet, Alek grunted and covered his eyes with his forearm.
Always a light sleeper, Tate propped himself up on one forearm in the queen bed along the opposite wall and rubbed one eye with the heel of his hand. “Something wrong?”
“Not wrong, no. But if I’m reading things right, I’m about to have a hell of a challenge on my hands.” He shook Alek none too gently by one shoulder. “Need you up, primo. Now.”
“What the hell?” Alek pushed up on his elbows, squinted into the shadows and fumbled for his phone beside the pullout. “Man, it’s not even six o’clock yet. We only got home three hours ago.”
“The Keeper doesn’t care what time it is, and your grandmother won’t either. You’re Kateri’s brother. It’s your job to wake Naomi up and be with her while you wait.”
“Holy shit,” Tate grumbled, quickly putting two and two together, sliding out of bed and flipping on the light.
Either the urgency in Tate’s tone or the speed with which he’d started yanking on clothes must have penetrated Alek’s sleep-hazed mind, because his whole body finally went on full alert. “Wait with her for what?”
“Kateri’s soul quest,” Tate answered before Priest could.
Alek hesitated only long enough to gauge Priest’s expression then shot out of bed. “Holy shit. She’s gonna freak.”
Satisfied, both men were on track, Priest gave way to the need to get back to Kateri and stalked toward the door. “Like I said, I’m about to have a challenge on my hands.”
“You don’t think she’ll refuse them, do you?”
Alek’s question stopped Priest in his tracks, the fear behind it echoing his own. Yeah, she’d opened up. Had begun to embrace the woman she’d kept deeply buried growing up. But the Keeper wasn’t known for subtleties. More like a ringmaster comfortable with parading a person’s every deep, dark secret out into a three-ring spotlight and addressing it head-on. As a method for matching magic and companion to the quester, it was perfect. For Kateri it could easily backfire. “For her sake, let’s hope she doesn’t.”
The path back to his bedroom went by in a blur, the single intention of caring for his mate and the escalating tug from the Otherworld the only thing his mind could process. By the time he got there, she still hadn’t moved. Not even an inch. But the sun had risen just enough outside to show how pale her skin had become and the light sheen of perspiration dampening her hairline.
He shucked his jeans and dragged on his loosest pair of track pants, wishing like hell he could crawl between the covers and hold her skin to skin as he guided her through her quest.
It wasn’t an option, though. Naomi would no doubt park herself bedside through the whole thing, as was her right, and Alek, for all the level-headedness he’d shown the last many days, would likely pace like a caged beast. Their clan might be immodest by nature, but baring his mate in any way was out of the question. Not to mention, Kateri would kill him if she found out he’d allowed such a thing.
Moving fast before anyone else descended, he dug out his biggest, softest T-shirt and gently dressed her in it. No easy task considering her body was complete dead weight. He’d just tugged the hem to her hips when a host of footsteps and hushed voices sounded from the hallway.
Out of breath and smiling ear to ear, Naomi rounded the doorway first, trailed by Tate, Alek and Jade. “How close is she? Do you need anything before you join her? Water? Food?”
Priest grinned despite the insistent pull growing stronger and stronger by the second. Leave it to Naomi to not only assume her granddaughter would readily accept her gifts, but was likely already planning Kateri’s celebration in her head. “No time for that. She’s moving too fast.”
He piled the pillows up on his side of the bed, but paused before climbing in and pegged Alek and Tate with a harsh stare. “No one comes in this house until I’m awake. No one. No clan and definitely no strangers no matter what they say or who they are.”
Both dipped short nods, but where Tate was all business, Alek was clearly distracted, the worry etched on his face echoing his own concerns. “I should have told her more about what our magic was like. How it feels. I don’t want her to pass this up.”
“You shared your first shift. She saw what it was like, but the choice is hers to make.” Careful not to jostle her too much, Priest lifted Kateri into his arms, settled with his back against the mound of pillows and cradled her against him.
“You’re not giving her enough credit,” Naomi said. “Neither of you.” Not the least bit uncomfortable with whose room she was in, Naomi sat on the bed and smoothed the stray, sweat-dampened hairs off Kateri’s cheek. “Our girl might have been slow to wake up, but she’s not stupid. She’ll be too curious to bypass this chance. No matter what nonsense my son put in her head.”
She was right on that score. Kateri was nothing if not inquisitive. It was her level of willingness to face the next few hours he was worried about. Still, Naomi was right. If he didn’t go into this quest believing in her, he wouldn’t do her justice. Not as her high priest or her mate.
Forcing his breaths to slow and deepen, he focused on the light jasmine scent that clung to her skin and each exhalation that fluttered against his chest. “She’ll make whatever choice she needs to make.” He closed his eyes and the gray of the Otherworld rushed up to meet him. “And whatever that looks like I’ll stand beside her.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
It had
been years since Katy had been to a circus, let alone dreamed of one, but she loved them. Always had. The spotlights. The colorful costumes and majestic animals. The laughter from the crowd and the booming ringmaster’s voice resonating through the sound system. All of it in a cocoon of black while hundreds of people looked on.
From her place high in the stands she took it in. The bench she sat on was empty as were several rows below it, but the rest of the venue was packed, every eye trained on the performers warming up for the show.
Priest’s amused voice rumbled behind her, close and far more distinct than the sounds coming from below. “Now this is an interesting venue.”
Her heart lurched with a mix of surprise and delight, and she spun on her bench. “You’re here.”
Perched on the bench behind her with his elbows planted on his knees and his hands clasped loosely between them, he cocked his head. “Of course, I’m here. Where else would I be?”
“Well, considering I was twelve the last time I dreamed of the circus, you’re not exactly a participant I’d expect my subconscious to drag into the picture.” As soon as she said it, her mind offered up the memory of the last dream they’d spent together, drawing an entirely different manner of smile to her lips. “Unless this is one of those dreams. Though, I gotta say—recently uncovered naughty side or not—a circus venue may be a little weird for me.”
The lightness in his expression sobered and he skimmed his fingers across her cheek. When he spoke, his voice was gentle. A careful delivery that sent warning prickles along her skin. “It’s not a dream, kitten.”
She scanned the crowds. The three rings and the performers inside them. The air was thick with the scents of animal, dirt and popcorn. Had her sense of smell ever been this strong in dreams before? She had with Priest, but that dream had been different. Guided by him rather than her sleeping mind. “But it can’t be real. I mean, I don’t know Eureka Springs too well, but I haven’t seen a venue that could house a circus. And we were at your house last night.”
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