by Brenna Lyons
“For what?”
“He demanded I land a blow on you. He knew you were carrying my child, and he still ordered me to strike you. I want to kill him right now, Erin. Forgive me for this lack of control, but he shouldn’t have done that to you.” My mate— Erin was his, and Talon posed a threat to her. He set Curt against his own helpless child. The idea of what Curt might have done, innocent of the possible outcomes, shook him and deepened his anger.
Erin smoothed her hands over him, soothing his uncontrolled Blutjagd back into a manageable range and igniting another flame despite Curt’s sick grief at what he might have done.
“Let me explain. You could only take a blow open to you, right?” Erin reasoned.
“Obviously.” Curt met her eyes, drowning in their depths and lost in a need to have her forgive his trespass. “Erin, please—”
She covered his mouth with her fingers to still him. “Did I leave holes near my abdomen?”
He furrowed his brow. “No, that was tight,” he admitted.
“Dad trains with me every day. He knew I was loosening up my chest defense because crowding it hurt, and he knew I’d tightened my abdominal defense. There was only one hole to find. He knew it would be hell on me when you did, but he also knew you wouldn’t do either of us permanent harm with the blow.”
“And he knew I couldn’t bear to hurt you like that more than once.”
“That would be my guess. So, if it comes to blows, don’t hit him too hard.” The impish grin on her face lightened his mood remarkably.
“Me? Land a punch on Talon?”
Erin chuckled. “I’ll teach you how later. I’ll teach you how to take him down.” She ran a hand up his thigh in invitation. “Much later.”
Curt groaned, leaning to kiss her.
Erin held him back with one hand braced to his chest. “Not so fast, Warrior. You skipped a step.”
“What step?” he asked urgently, his blood burning to complete his printing.
“I posed you a question that you haven’t answered. Are you willing to accept the neurotic, hot-tempered woman I am forever? I have to print too, you know.”
“I loved you before. I love you now. I will love you forever,” he promised.
Chapter Fifteen
Erin removed her hand and lunged up to kiss him. It was a fierce, demanding kiss that swept Curt away with her. He removed her hands as she started to undress him, and she looked at him hopelessly.
“I have to have you, Curt. Please, don’t bait me. Not now.”
“I won’t. I just want to explore you. I want to take the time to give you pleasure this time. Don’t make me rush.”
She nodded slowly. “Teach me,” she asked quietly.
Curt removed her clothing, wanting to see and feel her immediately. Erin was glorious. He bent to run his tongue over her nipple gently. Her breasts were fuller than he imagined when he saw the cleavage in her shirt. They were harder now, her formerly-pink nipples a deeper hue close to rose. They were more sensitive. His guess was right on that. They were much more sensitive. He couldn’t dream now of how rough he was the night...
He smiled as he continued running his tongue in swirling circles around her darkened nipples. She threw her head back and cradled him to her. Erin wound her fingers in his hair, groaning in delight at the exquisite care he was showing her.
Curt ran his hand down her stomach lightly. The night our son was conceived— I was so rough with her. I had no patience. He would show Erin infinite patience now. He left her chest to lay feathery kisses down her abdomen. My son.
Erin arched her hips to him, and he moved lower, aching to taste her. He hadn’t taken the time to taste her yet. He spread her legs, and she looked at him with heavy eyes.
“Your clothes. Take them off for me, Curt. I want to feel you, not your clothes.”
Curt nodded and dragged his shirt off over his shoulders. Erin lay back to watch him and licked her lips. Encouraged by her response, he unbuttoned his jeans and peeled them down to free himself.
Her eyes widened, and her breath caught. Curt ran his hand along his length, and she followed the movement with hungry eyes. He stood from the bed and removed his boots and his jeans. As he kicked his socks away, her fingers glided along his length. Erin sat at the edge of the bed, her mouth leaving hot trails along his length as she tested the feel of him in her hand.
Curt smiled as he caught her look of amazement. He had to remind himself that his responsive little bride was still practically virginal. Despite the fact that she carried his child, Erin’s experience was almost non-existent. One rushed, groping experience and one equally-rushed romp on an almost pitch black night were the sum total of her experience. Where Curt had taken the time to look at her their first time, Erin hadn’t taken the time to do more than react to the rush of feelings, a fact that was both exciting and lamentable in hindsight.
Erin met his eyes and blushed. “Are you— Have you always been this big?” she asked in embarrassment. Her shy inquiry made him want her all the more. How could a woman be so much a vixen and an innocent at the same time? It was intoxicating.
He chuckled. “Do you know how perfect that is? A man can’t ask for more, you know.”
“Have you?” she asked again, honestly interested in the answer to her question.
“Only for you.”
She furrowed her brow.
“What’s wrong?”
“I’m...” Her blush deepened. “It’s silly to wonder how it fits comfortably. I know that a woman stretches for it as she does to deliver a baby, but—” She shrugged.
Curt threw his head back and laughed that time. “Well, we know it does fit. I suggest we do research into the subject and come to our own conclusions.”
Erin smiled widely and stroked him again, watching as he ground his teeth in the shock of it. At the moment he was regaining his control, she sank to capture him in her mouth. Curt wound his hands in her curls and groaned as her head moved in her intimate assault on his plan of a long, slow seduction.
“How the hell did you learn this?” he pleaded. “Have you experimented? If you have, I don’t know whether to thank the man or kill him.”
She released him, giggling wildly, and ran her tongue over the sensitive underside. “No. I simply snuck some videos that belonged to Hunter.” Her eyes glittered.
His smile widened. “Did you enjoy them?”
“Not particularly, but they were very informative.”
“Ah. Well, since this is a learning experience, I’m going to show you what it does to me.”
“How?” Her voice was a mere whisper, but he read her hunger at the suggestion.
Curt climbed back on the bed and spread her legs, kneeling between her thighs. Erin was so trusting. She simply waited patiently, eagerly for his next move. He cupped her chin in his hands and kissed her gently.
“I’m going to show you how it would have been our first time, if I had known you were still untouched.”
She nodded slowly. “I’d like that.”
He pleasured her slowly, tasting her mouth until they were both mindless. When Curt moved to her breasts, she moaned beneath his gentle ministrations. His fingers found her sensitive folds, and Erin lay back and arched to him. Curt played his fingers in her, driving her toward release.
“Curt, please,” she pleaded with him.
“We’re not done yet,” he soothed her. “You don’t know what you make me feel yet.”
Erin groaned. “I need you, Curt. I won’t survive much more.”
“I love it when you beg for me. I thought it the most erotic thing in the world when you ordered me into you while your eyes pleaded, until the first time you begged me to take you. I love to hear my name as a plea on your lips.”
“I’ll beg, Curt. Please, take me.”
“All right.”
She sighed in relief then bowed up, as his fingers spread her to the first caress of his tongue inside her. Erin cried out as Curt swirled within
her, cupping her taste into his mouth and finding himself drunk on her essence. When he felt she was at the limits of her endurance, he moved to her clit, sucking gently.
Erin screamed in pure need. “Please, Curt,” she sobbed.
Curt responded by flicking his tongue over the sensitive ridge.
“I understand now. Please.”
He returned his fingers to her, smiling as she shuddered. “So close, Erin. Will you come for me?”
“Always. Take me, please.”
“Soon,” he crooned, dipping his fingers into her. He sucked in his breath as she moved against him, reaching for a climax that was very close to her now. “Come for me, Erin. Come for me, and I’ll show you how painlessly your maidenhead should have been taken.”
Curt returned his mouth to her, driving Erin onward until she shattered around him. He buried his cock in her smoothly as the first contractions gripped her. His groan was lost in her scream of pure pleasure. Curt moved against the continuing contractions, her cries gripping his heart as her hands and her internal muscles gripped his body to her. His climax took him before Erin’s had a chance to abate, and her body drew in his seed greedily, taking all of him as if starving for his touch.
She opened her eyes in shock as he filled her. The backwash of his release sealed his printing, and he guessed that she felt it too. The tension that had been building for the last month seemed to flow out with his seed. Curt sank over her shoulder, feeling as if a portion of his soul would remain in her forever but feeling Erin’s answering presence in him. He kissed her neck lovingly, feeling her skin tingle beneath his lips.
“Do you see how you make me feel?” he breathed.
“I wish I had told you that I was untouched.” Her voice was light but laced with a longing that touched him, making Curt wish he had asked for her choice the first time — or the second.
He chuckled as her words set off a new train of thought in him. “That may have been a problem.”
“Because you wouldn’t have taken me at all,” Erin guessed, looking lost and forlorn.
“No,” he teased, “because your screams would have drawn a crowd.” Curt nuzzled her breast then glanced up at her with a hungry look. “Let me make you scream like that to drive your father mad,” he begged.
Erin laughed hysterically, nodding her head as she wrapped her leg over his thigh in a strangely comfortable manner.
Curt joined her laughter as his cell phone started ringing. “Perfect timing, at least,” he muttered as he fished for his jeans.
“If it’s my parents, tell them to bring back orange juice, strawberries, and chocolate ice cream. Oh, and bananas.”
He looked at her in shock, ignoring the second ring. “Are you craving already?”
“No. I want you again and again. Give them as many errands as you can arrange. It would serve them right.” A crooked smile curved her full lips as she raised an eyebrow. “You can make me scream tonight or tomorrow. You can make me scream every time,” she invited.
Curt flipped his phone open. “Hello,” he laughed into it.
“Well, Curtis. You’re in a fine mood today,” Kord commented.
“Yes I am, my Lord. What can I do for you?”
“It’s nothing important. I was just wondering if you have a time frame for returning to our range.”
“Hold on, Grandfather.”
“Certainly.”
Curt pressed the phone solidly to his shoulder. “You said Jeremy is your favorite doctor in all the ranges, right?”
“Yes, but why?” she asked in confusion.
He drew Erin to her side and ran a hand over the damp curls above their still-loosely-locked bodies, shivering at the knowledge that his son slept safe inside her.
Erin nodded in understanding. “Yes. Please, I want Jeremy to deliver me.”
Curt kissed her and returned the phone to his ear. “Checking the schedule, Grandfather.”
“And the schedule says?”
“We’ll be there for a short visit within the month. Our long visit will be in January.”
“We? Our?”
“At least my wife and I,” he countered smoothly. “The rest of the family is optional, but they’ll probably tag along for the ride.”
“Wife! When did this happen? I only spoke to Talon last week,” Kord demanded.
“Recently.”
Erin stifled a blast of laughter at that one.
“Who is she?”
Curt chuckled, grimacing and sighing inwardly as he softened enough to slide from her warm body. Obviously, Talon had been filling Kord in on the disastrous state of affairs, and Kord assumed Curt went off half-cocked and took another woman to mate, screwing up the stone’s plan for them all.
Kord caught on quickly. “You’ve got to be kidding. Don’t you know that you should have informed the houses immediately?”
“Spread the word to those baiting bucks that my wife — that Erin is off the market permanently. Any man who dares molest her will answer to me, and I will make it a most painful affair.” He looked at his wife sternly. The days of Erin fighting her own battles were at an end until his son was safely delivered of her.
She nodded her agreement without argument.
“Is there anything else I should know? Or they should know?” he asked pointedly.
“You’ll need to contact Jeremy for me.”
“Is there a problem?” Kord’s voice was abruptly urgent.
“Not a problem at all. Let him know he’ll be delivering the newest König in January. I want the initial work-up within a month. Set it up, and we’ll work around that.”
“I don’t suppose you mean Hunter’s wife,” he replied acidly.
“No, I do not. I mean a König with blue eyes — or so my wife wishes.”
“She’d love it,” Erin interjected.
Kord groaned. “I thought Erin wasn’t high cycle when you took her.”
“She wasn’t the first time I took her. Since then... Let’s just say that printing does interesting things to a person, Grandfather.”
“Yes, it does,” he agreed. “You know, I printed at twenty-two. I always knew you’d go early.”
“Not so early. I would have taken Erin to my bed happily at nineteen, had she been inclined to let me.”
“Take care of her, Curtis. I’ll spread the news.”
“Thank you. Now, if you’ll excuse us, we were just celebrating our baby.”
“Of course. Celebrate. This is definite cause for celebration,” he replied in weary amusement.
Curt disconnected and dropped the phone behind Erin as he reached his hand over her hip, hungry for her again already. “I think Kord is in shock, but he’ll get the ball rolling. Now about that celebration...” He dropped his face toward her impish grin and sealed his mouth to hers. “I want you on top of me like I took you at the lake,” he informed her.
“You want to do that right, too,” she teased.
“Mmm…Yes, just the way you deserve to be treated. Think you’ll scream for me again?”
Erin leaned forward to kiss him, molding her body to Curt’s as she traced her hands over his arms and shoulders. Their kiss dissolved into laughter as the cell phone at her back rang again.
She scooped it up before he could. “Lousy timing. It’s either my parents or your brothers. Either way, it’s my turn for fun,” she teased, opening the connection. “Hello.”
Erin smiled at him and rolled her eyes. “Just fine, Mom. We’ll move our belongings later. We’re still discussing things. You did promise us three or four hours, you know.
“You’re right. Dad promised us that long.
“Okay. No ladders for me. I’m sure Curt will hand things down for me.”
He nodded his agreement, fighting the tension in his jaw. No ladders for her indeed. Erin had been climbing into that damned loft on that rickety old ladder for more than a week with his son inside her. The urge to have a long talk with her about her irresponsibility was growing. Tra
ining, climbing, not eating properly. What else did he need to add to it?
Erin ran a finger down his chest, scattering his thoughts with her hungry look. “Yes, actually there are. We have no orange juice, which Curt reminded me is necessary for the folic acid. We could use some fruits and vegetables. Strawberries, plums, bananas and the makings of a big salad sound particularly good. I’d also like something sweet — chocolate ice cream. Oh, and whiting or cod,” she added excitedly.
Curt wrinkled his nose at the sound of all of them in her mind together, let alone her belly. She had to be craving to come up with such a list.
Erin stifled a giggle as she met his eyes. “Well, you asked,” she countered what was undoubtedly a similar complaint from her mother.
Her brow furrowed. “No. That won’t be necessary. Curt and I have decided to use Jeremy in Maher range. Sylvia won’t have to do more than write a few prescriptions and do a few check-ups the months we’re in this range.”
Her smile returned and she ran her fingertips down Curt’s chest to the nest of curls around his cock. He stirred to life, even before she cupped him. Biting her lip lightly, Erin teased him. He lengthened and thickened in her hand, aching to delve into the heat of her body again.
The look of invitation in Erin’s eyes drove him on. Hard and ready, Curt drew her leg over his hip and scooted lower on the bed to plant the tip of his cock in her, relishing it as she closed her eyes to the sensations washing over her. He rocked gently, working just the tip in and out of her while she arched to him, seeking fulfillment.
She met his eyes with a fierce determination. “Mom, I have to go now. My husband and I have more decisions to make.” Erin didn’t wait for an answer before disconnecting and groaning in her need.
Curt continued his play. She strained against him, trying to force him deeper inside her, but he pulled back, teasing her.
Erin bit her lip lightly. “Please, Curt,” she breathed.
“I love it when you say that,” he reminded her as he dragged her hips to him and lunged into her fully. Her sharp cry of longing was music to his ears.
* * * *
May 27, 2029