by Nikki Winter
He neared her but didn’t touch her. “Callum. Every now and again he’ll switch languages, and I’ll find myself remembering the few things I used to know. The name itself…somehow suits you.”
She choked out a small laugh, wrapped her arms around herself. “It was my mother’s. Enilo lost his shit when he found out I was using it to sell my art.” Kamali waved a hand around. “He never understood this, never even tried. It was something he couldn’t control again. Something that was slipping through his fingers so he…” She drew in a deep breath. “He wanted it forgotten.” She opened her eyes and found Kaisal staring down at her. “It reminded him of her. I reminded him of her. He didn’t want that, he didn’t want any more reminders, any more memories and that’s what I was. He tried so hard to smother whatever he saw in me that brought her to mind.”
Kaisal reached out and swiped away moisture that had spilled onto her cheeks. “But it didn’t work, did it?”
Shaking her head, she gave him a watery smile. “I wouldn’t let it go. Even when I stopped selling my art and took up working with him I still drew, painted. It was the only time I’ve ever been unconcerned about what he thought of me, what he wanted. It was my escape and in some way, I wonder if it was my connection to her.” She held his hand to her face, rubbed up against the rough palm that had been a party to this beautiful gift. “We never talked about her. There were no late nights with home movies and pictures. I didn’t hear stories about what she was like at my age. It was as if she were a goddess that was simply swept away by history, her worshippers moving on and leaving no remnants of her behind. She was the taboo subject in our household because she broke his spirit. And seeing me every day, watching me grow to be like her, was salt on an open wound that wouldn’t heal.”
“He loved her,” he stated.
“Beyond comprehension,” Kamali added as she interlocked their fingers. “My father wasn’t a bad man just…a hard one. The moment my mother stepped onto the other side she took whatever ability he had to relate, to emote. He went through the motions, remained responsible, overprotective, controlling, and manipulative. There are times when I think I can hear his voice. GbÍ si mi! Listen to me! Mo mÍ ohun ti o dara fun awÍn ti o j¹! I know what is good for you!” She tried to laugh but it got stuck in her throat. “We all have a plan mapped out, an idea of what we want from life. And the gods have plans, plans that we have to interpret when we finally realize we don’t control the paths, we just choose which one to walk.”
Kaisal ran his thumb over her cheek, his irises full of an emotion she didn’t want to name as of yet. “And your path?”
Reservations, fear, and restlessness aside, she answered, “Has become a lot clearer.”
He stared at her intently for what seemed like forever. “Mine has also, but it wasn’t always that way.”
Her brows drew downward. “Meaning?”
Taking in a deep breath, Kaisal looked just over her shoulder. “After retiring from the Navy there were some things I did, things that changed my nature.” He brought his stare back to hers. “My relationship with my father is similar and yet so very different from what you had with Enilo. I followed in his footsteps and he didn’t want me to. Despite the fact that I was good at what I did, possibly one of the best. It tainted me.”
“Kaisal?” Kamali held fast to his hand when he tried to pull it away. “What did you do?”
He swallowed, avoided her eyes. “I was a contract killer for certain government types. It was steady work and always for the purpose of protecting sensitive information for both the human and supernatural worlds but it became less of a job and more of a…career. I enjoyed it too much, my beast enjoyed it too much, and sometimes I can still feel those compulsions seeping into—”
“Stop,” she commanded quietly.
His mouth closed and she reached up to smooth the lines from his brow. “The man I know—the one I’m currently staring at—is not an animal that can’t be controlled. The preconceived notion about strength in our community is that killing gives us power.” Kamali shook her head. “It’s the ability to resist those compulsions, those urges, which makes you one of the most compelling men I have ever encountered. You’re not tainted Kaisal, you’re layered. There is something in you that loves this side of your life entirely too much to ever go back to that place. I can see it in just the simplest gestures.” She waved a hand around. “A tainted man doesn’t do things like this. He doesn’t care as strongly as you do, and he definitely wouldn’t be able to keep me here willingly.” Her fingers trailed over the angles of his face.
Kaisal closed his eyes and whispered, “I can’t promise I’ll always be able to resist, princess. But I can promise you won’t be hurt in the process.” His lids slid open and he thickly added, “Your enemies won’t be so fortunate.”
She shrugged lightly. “Don’t care about my enemies. I care about you.”
His smile did something inexplicable to her insides. Suddenly he backed away and began to strip.
“Erm…what are you doing?”
He tossed his shirt and then undid his jeans. They dropped to the floor and he stepped out of them before tugging down his boxer briefs. “Callum is going to be out for the next few hours due to a healthy sum of money paid to my younger con-artist of a brother. Therefore”—he lay down on his side, spread out on the rattan couch, propping his head up on one arm—“I want you to paint me like one of your French girls.”
That was when she began laughing and couldn’t stop.
***
“You know,” Kaisal stiffly stated. “When I made this suggestion I was hoping my getting naked would induce the urge to ravish me.”
“Quiet down and hold the pose, man.”
“I feel ridiculous.”
“But you look incredible. Just stay still.”
“You’re not planning on showing this to anyone when you’re done, are you?”
“Depends,” Kamali answered, her bottom lip caught between her teeth as her hand flew over sketching paper, the other holding an eraser while she gave minute glances toward Kaisal, who’d been instructed to lie on his stomach on the couch, one arm swinging lazily off the side as he stared straight at her.
He jerked. “Depends on what?”
Her lips curved into the easiest grin he’d seen her give all day. “On whether or not you annoy me. Should you avoid doing so, Naresh will never have a reason to nickname you ‘Baby yams.’”
“That better be in reference to the perfection that is my ass, woman.”
Kamali’s eyes sparkled. “Mebbe…”
Kaisal chuffed and she burst into laughter. That sound, the subtle sweet quality, washed over him and he knew then that he’d do anything in his power to keep her laughing, keep her lips curled in the same mischievous look Callum often wore. Kaisal was in love. He didn’t know every minute detail of her. He couldn’t even comprehend the way her mind worked sometimes, but he knew what love felt like. The completely open expression she’d worn while talking to him about her father and the way her gaze never once turned judgmental or disgusted when they talked about his past caused him to tumble right into the emotion without resistance.
He understood that this unerring commitment to belong to Kamali and Kamali alone could only mean that his beast wasn’t the only one between the two of them who’d found his other half. Kaisal was gazing right at his other half and the loose-limbed way she sat in her chair, knees to her chest, gorgeous dark skin covered by one of his shirts, socks slouching over and her hair in a catastrophic state, made him briefly close his eyes to block out the image. He didn’t want to ruin the ebb and flow she’d garnered while drawing.
The idea to move his den to the garage and remodel the room into a small art studio for Kamali seemed to be a decent enough. Even if she never used it he figured there might come a day where she’d sit down at the drawing table and work on something simple. Her reaction had been more than he’d hoped for. The genuine joy in her expression had be
en his silent thank you, and the fact he was her first model in what she’d admitted to be months only solidified his choice.
She’d been edgy lately, jumpy. Kaisal had noticed it a few days ago but chose to gloss over it in hopes she’d relax. She hadn’t and he knew why. Someone was watching them. Basanti had noticed it and asked if he wanted it taken care of and his answer had been a succinct no. He wanted the fucker to keep watching, keep skulking about. Because eventually, whoever it was would slip and Kaisal would free his wrath. Once that happened, his and Dublhainn’s plans would come to fruition and he’d have Nico Traore in his grasp. When the bastard left it, he’d leave without his throat.
The lion male had a clean record in their community—was barely even perceptible—but Kaisal suspected that had more to do with his ability to slip in under the radar. If his assumption was right, Nico and those who followed him were drifting criminals who took every advantage they could and stayed low in the grass until they could catch their prey. No matter, they’d understand what a true predator was soon enough.
In the meantime, Kaisal would concern himself with his mate and content himself with the energy of his son. They needed his attention and he was all too happy to give it.
This was why he suddenly sighed and asked, “Are you hungry?”
Kamali’s head rose. “You and the food. What is with you and the food?”
He ran his fingertips across the floor. “You’re bellowing instead of answering my question.”
“Because I’m trying to determine why you’re so concerned about my digestive system.”
“You make it sound like I’m going to attempt to take it out at some point.”
“The thought has crossed my mind a time or two…”
“Och!” He sat up. “I try to make sure you’re nourished and well-loved and you insinuate that I may be a serial killer? How is that okay?”
“I didn’t insinuate anything, and would you mind at least putting a pillow over your lap? I can’t talk to you with that”—she waved a hand at his cock—“staring at me.”
Kaisal leered. “Is it staring at you? Or are you staring at it?”
“Kaisal…”
He looked down at his groin. “Oh…and there it goes. The leaning tower rises to stand strong.”
She put down her pad and pencil. “This session is over.”
“But—”
“Over!” Kamali turned on her heels and began to march out of the room, shoulders back, head held high.
She had to know it would only make him chase her…
***
Kamali didn’t even make it down the hall and, if she were being honest, she really hadn’t expected to. She’d learned to recognize that look on Kaisal’s face and it meant one thing and one thing only—something else was possibly about to be broken in a frantic bout of haphazard sex. Therefore when she found herself slung across his shoulder as he marched them to what he kept calling “Our cave of miscreancy and crimes against the flesh”—also known as their bedroom—she wasn’t the least bit surprised, particularly because she’d provoked him on purpose. Watching his thighs flex from this angle was most certainly interesting. Whoever said a naked man was a scary sight clearly hadn’t been in the presence of so much tanned, well-muscled, deliciously scarred flesh.
Kaisal smacked her on the ass. “Dirty lioness. Staring at me with iniquity in your heart.”
She snorted. “I have iniquity but it rests a lot lower than my heart, Hobbes.”
He growled as he stepped into the well-lit room and kicked the door closed with his foot. “How low?”
Kamali ran a hand down his back. “I could draw a map or you could discover it for yourself.”
“I think I prefer option B but let’s not take the first one off of the table just yet…” he replied, gently tossing her onto the California king sized mattress.
Having him fall over her like a blanket, his mouth curling just at the corners seduced a smile from her in return. “What am I going to do with you?”
That sense of calm was back. As was the urge to blurt out that she was quite possibly falling for him and all his strange tiger ways. Kaisal was full of contradictions that somehow made him perfectly imperfect. He was fiercely overprotective with a wicked sense of humor. He was undeniably strong but so incredibly gentle natured. He was remorseful for his rage but didn’t apologize for wanting to bring that very thing down on the head of Nico. And he understood her. Kaisal didn’t simply hear her when she spoke, he listened. Her mate had taken his sanctuary and replaced it with hers just to show her how much his home was her home.
The hesitation on his face when he’d told her about his past made her ache for him. To carry that around, never sure if you can trust yourself or if others will trust you, had to be a hard battle. And yet, he did so. He’d managed to show her all these lovely little facets to his personality that never failed to amuse and exasperate her. If Kamali knew nothing else about what her life would be from this day on, she knew it was meant to be spent with him, watching his eyes glaze over into a white-hot stare of pure animal attraction, wanting him to touch her so badly that her nails scored his shoulders when she jerked him down to her fully.
A gasp expelled from Kamali as he settled between her thighs, his chest flush with hers. They didn’t move any further, just watched one another through shifted gazes, mouths open, pants pouring out. Kamali couldn’t verbalize her thank you because there truly were no words that would describe precisely how safe she felt in his presence, but there were ways to show gratitude without ever speaking. Stroking a hand through his multicolored locks, she observed the way he shook when her nails gently scraped just behind his ear. When she ran her fingers over the spot again a rumble vibrated up from his chest.
“Who’s the pretty kitty?” Kamali teased. “Who’s the most beautiful kitty in the world?”
His satisfied expression broke with laughter. Kaisal gripped her hand and pulled it away. “Leave my happy spot be, woman!”
Giving him a wicked grin, she gripped him about the waist with her thighs and rolled until she was straddling his hips. He tried to sit up and she shoved him backwards. “Stay.”
He blinked. “You do know I’m completely feline, right? We don’t take commands. We take…period.”
Kamali gave him a patronizing grin and patted his chest. “Yes, my big, strong, thick-furred, weather-adapted male.” Leaning forward, she swiped her tongue just under his chin and whispered, “But if you dangle the right incentive”—she nipped his collarbone—“even the wildest beast can be tamed.”
“If you’re trying to make me lose control,” Kaisal gritted out, “it’s working.”
She was no longer listening, too busy trailing her lips down the delineated muscles of his stomach, catching the way they contracted with every sharp inhale. Kamali paid special attention to the scars lining his torso and what looked to be claw marks just beside his belly button. Every mark represented the many occasions where he’d put his life on the line to protect someone else. How he could ever think to be ashamed of that she didn’t know but she’d pay homage to him the same way he’d done to her from the very second their eyes met in the parking lot of a gas station she saw every time they left home.
He concerned himself with all things regarding her safety when he could’ve simply handed her over and avoided whatever dismal consequences were on the horizon but he hadn’t. Kaisal guarded her the way she guarded Callum. He treated her son as though he’d been his own from the moment he bellowed his way into the world, golden eyes furious because he’d been taken from the comfort of his mother’s womb. Kamali paused just at the ridge of her mate’s pelvic bone and touched a hand to her now-flat tummy, briefly wondering if the empty space would soon carry Kaisal’s child. It was too soon to decide on that, right? She shouldn’t have even been considering it but the thought of feeling another precious life steadily grow inside her, a life she’d created with this man, doubled the rate of her heartbeat.
The second her hand curled around the heavy length he jerked as though jolted by electricity. Kamali stroked him, biting the inside of her cheek to resist the urge to simply skip the pleasure of foreplay and impale herself. Instead she ran her tongue along the underside of his member and heard him hiss as she swirled around the head and briefly enveloped it.
He grunted when she backed off, his thighs jumping as she went down further on the second pass. Kaisal’s hand sifted through her hair, found the band holding it, and gingerly removed it, allowing her mane to fall. He brushed the strands back before fisting them and bringing his hips up to meet the motions of her mouth. Her name spilled from his lips along with a chant of, “Thank you God… Thank you…”
Kamali dug her fingers into his thighs as she swallowed the complete expanse of hard flesh, her eyes closing on every connection of her tongue to his cock. Kaisal’s hips rocked and rolled in tandem with her movements.
“Princess, you have to stop…” he gasped.
She shook her head, continuing. This wasn’t about her; it was about him. No matter how many times she’d done this very act—which had been many, many times—none of them compared to right now because it wasn’t out of the simple need to have him in her mouth. No, she wanted to be as unselfish with him as he’d been with her. As his breathing grew shallower, she slipped a hand between her own thighs, feeling the wetness that had soaked her briefs and pushed the crotch aside to circle her clit. The plump bundle of nerves surged under her ministrations, the sound of Kaisal groaning making the sensation just that much stronger. And the second his entire body went rigid right before his cock jerked, emptying itself, she followed him over the edge.