by Faith Gibson
“I might walk a little funny tomorrow, but no, you didn’t hurt me. Can we do it again?” She didn’t care how funny she walked. She was ready to have her mate filling her up, giving her more pleasure than she knew was possible.
“Already? You’re going to kill me, woman.” Nik laughed and rolled to the side. His cock was half-hard and all messy. She didn’t care. That was their fluids mixed together. She couldn’t think of anything more perfect than two beings fated to be together doing what they had only moments before. And if they got a little messy in the process? That’s what showers were for.
“Oh, I thought with you being a big, bad Gargoyle, you’d be able to get it up again right away.” She blinked at him and shrugged.
“I can, you little minx,” he huffed. “I’m thinking of you and your fragile state.”
Sophia laughed and ruffled his hair. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen your hair this long.”
“I’ve been a little busy, if you’ll recall. Besides, I don’t trust anyone here to give me a haircut. I’m afraid they’ll mess it up and try to cover it up with a turban.”
She laughed again. “I like it long. Gives me more to hold on to,” she said as she grabbed a handful and used it to pull him to her. Nik growled and rolled on top of her, kissing her with lots of tongue. Sophia hadn’t kissed a lot of men, but the few she had didn’t come close to being as good as Nik. She could kiss him for days. When he rose up on his arms, he got a serious look on his face.
“What’s wrong?” she asked as she pushed the hair back off his forehead. She really did like his hair longer.
“Was it good for you? Seriously. It was your first time, and we completed the bond.”
“Oh, Nikolas. I already told you, I don’t think it could be any better.” Was her mate insecure? She knew this wasn’t his first time, not that she really wanted to think about how experienced he was. Sophia had no problem stroking his ego. She would stroke his ego and his cock at the same time. He was one fine specimen of a Gargoyle. “Seriously,” she mimicked, “if it gets any better for me, I’m not sure I can handle it.”
“But you don’t have anything to compare it to.”
“No, but you do. Even if I did, I don’t really want to compare past lovers. We’re mated now, and like you said, for better and even better than that. If you thought I wasn’t going to be better than past lovers, you shouldn’t have mated with me.”
“That isn’t what I meant.” Nik sat up and pulled her into his lap. They really needed to take a shower. “I vow on my oath as a Gargoyle, that was the single best sexual experience of my life. The fates couldn’t have chosen a better mate for me than you. This I swear.” Nik fisted his heart and bowed his head to her.
She grabbed his fist and placed it over her own heart. “And I vow to you, Nikolas Stone, it was so much more than I expected, better than I dreamed. You are my perfect fit. My perfect mate.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Sophia was sore, sleepy, and sated. After she assured Nikolas she was happy, they took a long, hot shower. While under the water, Nik lifted Sophia against the wall and had his way with her. It might have been at her request. After they bathed each other, they changed the sheets and talked. The last time Sophia glanced at the clock it had been almost three a.m. Now it was a few minutes past seven, and she was cocooned against her mate’s chest. Not that she had a choice in where she slept. Nikolas had rolled her to her side and pulled her up against him, wrapping his arm around her. She woke up in the same position she’d fallen asleep in.
She loved her grandfather dearly, but if she had only gone with her gut instead of his paranoid ravings, she could have been enjoying this type of sleeping arrangement for years. Now if she could find her parents, her life would be absolutely perfect. Nik’s morning wood was nestled between her legs. If she wasn’t on her period, she’d scoot herself back onto his erection and give him a proper good morning. Instead, she decided on a different type of wake-up call. She slid down the bed and rolled over so she was face to face with the object of her body’s affection.
Sophia had read about blowjobs and watched them being given on videos. Being a virgin, she wanted to at least have some knowledge of how to please her mate. She was curious as to how a dick would feel on her tongue, but more specifically how the semen would taste. It couldn’t be any worse than the slop she’d eaten in jail. The women in the videos didn’t seem to mind it. Instead of studying his erection any longer, Sophia decided to go for it. She stuck the tip of her tongue to the slit where liquid was glistening. It was a little salty, but kind of bland. She licked the tip again, and his cock jerked. When it did, she pulled her head back, waiting to see if it would happen again. When it stayed still, she decided to put the head in her mouth. She sucked on the end before sliding it farther back on her tongue. When she felt she was getting the hang of it, she remembered how she’d seen it done on videos and began emulating the pros.
Nik grabbed a handful of her hair and stopped her motion. She pulled off his cock and looked at her mate. “Good morning?” she tested. Maybe he didn’t like being woken up that way.
“Morning, Baby. Let me turn over. Easier access to the goods.” Nik rolled onto his back and bent one leg at the knee. He was right. She could get to him better this way. Sophia scooted closer and returned to sucking her mate. He didn’t release his grip on her hair. If anything, it tightened. When she got comfortable with the depth, she tried to take him a little bit farther in. His cock hit the back of her throat, and she gagged a little. She tried it again, this time breathing in as it got close to her tonsils. Much better. The saliva was pooling in her mouth, so she swallowed around his dick. Nikolas moaned and grabbed her hair even tighter. Her mate liked that.
“Sophia, Baby…”
She didn’t remove her mouth, but she did look up into his face. She raised her eyebrows and mumbled, “Hmm?”
“You are too fucking cute for your own good. And too good at sucking dick, too. I’m about three good swallows away from coming. If you don’t want me shooting down your throat, you need to pull off now and finish with your hand.”
“Mmm hmm,” she replied and went back to work. She wanted him to shoot down her throat. This was her mate, and Sophia wanted to please him in every way possible. If that meant swallowing his little swimmers, she would. He was wrong, though. It only took her swallowing around his dick two more times before he lost it. When he was pulsing in her mouth, he held onto her head, keeping her from pulling off. She didn’t mind it. She actually thought it was kind of hot in a caveman sort of way. When Nik was spent, he let go of her hair. She slid his dick out of her mouth, but not before she placed a kiss on the head. “There you go, little fella,” she told his penis.
“Little fella? You trying to give me a complex, woman?” Nik put his arms behind his head and studied her.
Sophia wiped the slobber off her mouth before informing her mate, “He is little now. Deflated. Used up. Give me a minute, and I’ll remedy that. Then he’ll be big fella.” She winked at him as she slid up his body. When he still didn’t smile, she licked his nipple before biting at it. Nik squirmed beneath her and flipped her onto her back.
“Uh uh. No ma’am. You’ve already had your wicked way with me. Now it’s my turn.”
Nikolas latched onto one of her nipples right as his phone rang. “Fuck, me.”
“That’s what I was going to do but you so rudely fli… ahhhh,” she screamed as he bit her nipple.
“Hello? You are? Shit, I’ll open the gate. Hang on.” Nik thumbed off his phone. “Julian’s here,” he said and rolled out of bed. He slid his jeans on commando and headed for the door. Before he got there, he came back, kissed her hard, and said, “Julian’s here!”
Sophia pulled the covers up over her breasts and smiled. She had heard in Nik’s voice how much he cared for his brother, but seeing the joy on his face made it perfectly clear how glad he was to have him there. Nik had told her how he and Julian spent all their tim
e together. He also assured her that now she was first in his life. She promised him that she was happy he had someone so close.
She knew it was pointless to stay in the bed, so Sophia went into the bathroom and freshened up. Once she was dressed, she made her way toward the sound of men talking and laughing.
As soon as she stepped foot into the living area, Nik’s gaze found hers, and he held out his hand. Sophia went to him without delay. He kissed her on the temple before introducing her to his brother. “Julian, this is my mate, the troublemaker.”
She slapped him on the stomach and laughed. “It’s good to finally meet you.”
Julian fisted his heart and bowed low. When he uncurled his body, he said, “On my honor. I’m sorry it took me so long to get here.”
“But you’re here now, Brother. Come on, I’ll show you to your room.” Nik was literally bouncing on the balls of his feet.
Sophia grinned at her mate. “I’ll put some coffee on and see what we have for breakfast.” By the time she had the coffeemaker going, everyone else was awake and in the living room. Tessa stopped in the doorway, grinning.
“What?” Sophia asked.
“I know that look,” Tessa said, crossing her arms over her chest.
“What look?” Sophia played innocent although there was nothing innocent about what she wanted to do to her mate. She was ready to haul his gorgeous ass back to bed.
“The sated mate look. I see it every time I look in the mirror.”
Sophia grinned. She couldn’t deny it. Besides, everyone probably heard them when they made the bond official. Nikolas might have roared. “Yeah, but just think; we both could have been wearing these goofy grins for years now if we hadn’t listened to JoJo.”
“About that. Why didn’t you tell me you had transitioned? I would have helped you through it.”
Sophia didn’t want to lie to her cousin, but she wasn’t ready to tell her the truth either. “You were out of town when it happened. It took me a while to figure out who my mate was. When I finally did, I didn’t mention it then because I couldn’t go after Nik. At least not until the Gargoyles knew about us.”
“Well now they know. I can’t believe how you, Isabelle, and I are all mated to Di Pietros. Talk about the fates keeping it in the family.”
“Speaking of Isabelle, how is she? I know firsthand about being kidnapped. It sucks.”
“She’s wearing the sated mate grin, too. And now, she has Connor with her full time. She’ll be happier when Maria is up and around. It’ll take some time to get over losing Rico, but she’s tough. And she has Dante. He’s like the Gargoyle whisperer. One touch and you’re calm.”
Nik and Julian returned from the back of the villa and poured themselves a cup of coffee. Sophia opened the fridge. The cool on her front was overridden by the heat on her back. Nik was behind her. Right behind her. She glanced over her shoulder and cocked an eyebrow. “Is there something I can assist you with?”
He bounced his hard-on against her ass and grinned. She shook her head and returned to the contents in front of her. She grabbed stuff for omelets. She and Tessa set about making breakfast while the men talked about the photos. Sophia was glad to see Zeke fitting in with the full-bloods. They treated him as one of their own, because in truth, he now was. They all were whether JoJo liked it or not.
Once they had finished eating, Zeke put the dishes in the dishwasher, and they all sat down with a laptop. Sophia grabbed the one she used most often. When she logged on, she noticed some of her folders were open. “What the hell?”
Nik grabbed her hand and rubbed his thumb across her knuckles. “I did that when you went missing. I was hoping I could find a clue as to where you’d gone. Please don’t be mad.”
“I’m not mad, Gorgeous, I’m just surprised you were able to get in, that’s all. Nothing I have on here is a secret from you. You’re the keeper of the gate for the Gargoyles, so I would assume you want this information on the half-bloods. How did you get into my system?”
Nik thumbed over his shoulder at Julian. “He did it.” She looked at Julian, and he shrugged.
“I’m impressed. Jonas can’t even hack my system,” she said as she put the folders back the way she had them.
“He’s tried?” Julian asked.
“Yep. I had to have someone test it out. Who better than the mad genius?” Everyone laughed, because most of them knew she wasn’t kidding.
“I do want to talk about all the information you have on the Clan, though,” Nik whispered in her ear.
Sophia couldn’t tell if he was mad or curious. She pulled back so she could see his eyes. He must have felt her uneasiness, because he kissed her on the nose and said, “Later.”
Julian had numbered the photos, so they could split them up. Sophia was trying not to cry as she studied the picture she was holding. It was hard not to focus on her parents, especially her dad. Theirs was a special relationship. She lit up around him much the same way Nik did around Julian. A thumb swept across her cheek. She blinked her eyes and kept the rest of the tears at bay. “I’m okay,” she whispered. Nik smiled and returned to his own photo.
They had decided to order lunch when Zeke’s phone rang. He looked at it and announced, “Xenia. Hello? You did? Okay, hang on. You’re on speaker, go ahead.”
Xenia’s voice came over the small phone, but with everyone in the room being a shifter, they could hear her with no trouble. “I think I found something. Look at photo seventeen. In the top left corner, there are several round glyphs. If I could get that blown up a little, I could be sure, but it looks like a drawing of the Cleopatra Disk.”
While Julian began working frantically on his computer, Sophia looked closely at what her aunt was referring to. Julian said, “I have magnified the corner images and sent them to everyone’s email. Xenia, yours, too.”
“How did you get my email address?” she asked as a ding sounded over the phone.
Nik answered, “He’s Julian. Just go with it.”
Sophia studied the new version of the photo and said, “You’re right, Auntie. It looks exactly like the artifact. But we still don’t know what it means or where they are.”
“Hold tight, little dove. I came across something in one of my father’s journals that I’d never seen before. I’ve already scanned it in; I was waiting on an email address. Julian, I’ll respond to the one you just sent, and if you would please, forward it on.”
Within a minute everyone had the document she was referring to. “My father never mentioned anything about this particular expedition. After reading his notes, I think he was close to finding what he thought was Antony and Cleopatra’s burial site. Sophia, I might know where your parents are.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
Nik prayed Xenia wasn’t giving Sophia false hope. When they all calmed down, Xenia confirmed his suspicions. “Hold on everyone. I know the general area where my father was searching. The documents are dated 2035. That was twelve years ago. This same area has been used by rebels in recent years. It’s a dangerous location. Probably one of the most dangerous in the country.”
He interrupted her, “So what you’re saying is this may not be where Sam and Monica are.”
Sophia stood and walked over to the window. Nik followed her and wrapped his arms around her waist. She leaned her head back and said, “Something Xenia said stirred a memory... a map…” Nik didn’t speak. He let her mind focus on what it was trying to recall.
Julian spoke up and told Xenia, “Thank you for this information. There is another matter we need to see to at the moment. If you don’t mind, we’ll call you back.”
“Of course, I’ll be waiting.” The phone disconnected and the room was silent.
Nik said to the others, “I’m taking Sophia outside for a minute where she can concentrate.” He led her out the front door onto the huge porch. They sat in one of the cushioned love seats, and he held her hands in his. “I want you to meditate.”
“I don’t know how
.”
“I’m going to give you a crash course. Now, get comfortable and close your eyes.” Sophia leaned back, and he placed her hands in her lap. “I want you to pretend your mind is a filing cabinet. Separate the noises you hear and put them in the bottom drawer. Take your pain and put it in the middle drawer. Focus only on the memory from your past. I’m going to be quiet so you don’t have to shove me somewhere.”
Nik closed his own eyes and called his shifter to the front of his mind. Can you sense her?
Of course. But she doesn’t need help. Sophia’s mind is strong. Sharp.
Nik was still trying to wrap his head around the fact he could communicate with the being inside. He’d always thought they were one and the same. He didn’t mind it, though. Especially since it could speak to Sophia’s shifter. Now that they were fully mated, they would be able to sense one another as well. He attempted something he’d never tried before; Nik concentrated on Sophia’s mind. He did as he instructed her to do and focused only on his mate. At first there was no connection. Then it was as if someone cracked a door to a theater. Nik was seeing snippets of something… a memory…
“Nik!” Sophia fussed. “I had it until you joined the party. How did you do that anyway?”
“You could feel me?”
“Of course. But you could have tiptoed instead of stomping around inside my head. Warn a girl next time.”
“I wasn’t sure it would work. I wasn’t trying to invade your privacy, more like offering a boost of power.”
Sophia grinned at him. “Gorgeous, I’m not mad. I already told you, there is nothing I have to hide from you. Are we not partners now?”
“Yes, but…”
“No buts. You just surprised me is all. If you tell me you’re going to join me in my thoughts, I’ll try to open the door for you, if that’s even possible.”
Nikolas couldn’t keep his hands to himself any longer. He pulled Sophia into his lap. She circled her arms around his neck and leaned in for a kiss. His dick thought it was play time and got hard. Sophia broke the kiss. “As much as I’d love to get naked with you right now, I need to look at a map.”