by Tasha Black
“You mean that,” she said.
He nodded. Of course he did.
She smiled and he smiled back. Starlight warmed his heart.
“You once made me an offer,” she said. “An offer no woman in the world would turn down. But I had some stuff to work out. Do you remember?”
He nodded, not trusting himself to speak for fear of stopping her before she could say the words he longed to hear.
“I never thought you’d actually be the one helping me get my shit straightened out,” she said. “But here we are.”
“It was my privilege to be part of your journey,” Conan told her carefully. “But I would hate to think that you view mating with me and having problems to solve as mutually exclusive. As I understand it, the human life is fraught with troubles. Though I would not wish for misfortunes, these may not be our last.”
“That’s very true,” Brooke said. “But if we can handle them the way we have this week then we have nothing to worry about.”
“This excellent logic is exactly why I wanted to mate with you in the first place,” he declared.
“Really?” she asked, feigning disappointment. “That was the only reason?”
“That’s it,” he said, sweeping her over his shoulder and marching away with her. Conan wasn’t going to tell her what else he admired about her. He was ready to show her. And he was pretty sure she was ready too.
“Hey,” she protested, laughing, the bell-like sound sending shivers of anticipation down his spine.
“Nope,” he decided. “I’ve waited long enough.”
“Wow, see you later, Brooke,” Veronica called out as he passed her without breaking his stride.
“Bye,” Brooke said, managing to sound amused and sheepish at the same time.
“Aren’t you going to feed her first?” Trinity asked. “We’re going out for pizza.”
“No time,” Conan said. “Bring us your leftovers.”
Brooke giggled into his back.
Lobo grinned at him and Hawkeye eyed him with what was probably envy, but he was too cool to fully show it.
Conan wanted to feel bad for his brother, he really did.
But his joy was so great there was no room for sorrow in his heart tonight.
When they reached the dorm he took the stairs two at a time, with Brooke laughing delightedly all the way.
He set her down on her feet at last in the third floor bedroom.
“Hi,” he said.
“Hi,” she blinked up at him, looking almost shy.
“We don’t have to—” he began.
But she was already flowing into his arms, stopping his words with a kiss that turned from softness to steam in a heartbeat.
Conan’s blood thundered in his ears and the world disappeared. There was nothing but this woman and his need to claim her.
The need must have been mutual. She was already tugging at his clothes.
“Slow down, love,” he chuckled.
“No, no, no,” Brooke whispered greedily, peeling her own t-shirt over her head. “We’ve waited long enough.”
The tantalizing sight of her exposed flesh overwhelmed him and he found himself helping her remove her clothing, and allowing her to slide his pants down as he lifted off his shirt.
When they stood before each other naked, nothing between them but moonlight pouring in from the window, he felt relief and desperation at the same time.
Brooke smiled up at him and he reached out to cup her cheek.
She closed her eyes and leaned into his hand.
He pulled her close and kissed her forehead, her eyelids. Her cheeks puffed out with her smile as he kissed them.
She sighed happily and he led her to the bed, laid her down.
Brooke reached for him and he tried to memorize the haze of moonlight around her pale skin, the curve of her hip, the longing in her eyes.
But his need beat out his sentimentality and he found himself pouncing on her with a growl, burying his face in her neck, nuzzling and nibbling until she arched her back, pressing her breasts to his chest.
He kissed his way to them, loving the way she trembled, as if remembering the pleasure he had given to her before.
But then they had been in the gym and unsure of one another. Now, they were truly alone, and their intentions were pure.
He sucked one of her stiff little nipples into his mouth as she whimpered, and his cock throbbed in response.
Slowly, he admonished himself, but his body didn’t listen.
He kissed his way down her belly, nuzzled her quivering thighs as he gently pressed them apart.
Brooke moaned and lifted her hips.
He smiled, enjoying her excitement for a moment before lowering his head to take his first taste.
Brooke gasped and he heard her head fall back on the bed.
“Good girl,” he murmured and sank his tongue into her again.
The taste of her was indescribable. Conan couldn’t get enough. Brooke wiggled and whined under him as he licked and lapped her mercilessly, avoiding only her clitoris as he knew instinctively that she would climax as soon as he touched it.
When her soft sounds of need evolved into cries, he knew it was time.
He crawled up to her, caging her head between his arms, gritting his teeth against the desperate need he had to bury himself inside her.
“Conan,” she breathed.
“Brooke Singleton, I choose you as my mate,” he told her. “Will you accept me?”
“Yes,” she told him, her eyes filled with happy tears.
His heart leaped and he leaned down and pressed his forehead to hers.
“Then I will claim you now,” he told her tenderly.
26
Brooke
Brooke gazed into the kind hazel eyes of the man whose mate she was about to become.
This was it. There would be no turning back.
Good thing she had zero doubts and zero regrets.
The only thing she wasn’t sure about was whether she would survive another second without having him inside her.
Somehow the frank expression of love on his unbearably handsome face had rendered her unable to express herself in words. She wrapped her arms and legs around him in a not-so-subtle hint that she was ready to be claimed.
He smiled down at her, took his cock in his hand and guided himself against her.
Brooke nearly swooned.
He was big, so big. She shouldn’t have been surprised, after all the rest of him was enormous and he had been custom-designed to please the women of Earth.
But when he pressed slowly inside, she found that somehow she could take him.
The stretching sensation evolved to pleasure in an instant, like cotton candy melting on the tongue. Brooke sank her fingernails into Conan’s biceps, desperately trying to anchor herself in the face of a sensation that threatened to rip her apart.
“Oh, Brooke,” he breathed, his arms shaking with the effort not to move.
She tilted her hips up to him, urging him on.
With a growl he withdrew from her then invaded again.
“Please,” she whispered.
He groaned in surrender and thrust into her again and again.
Brooke lost herself to the sensations. She felt as if she were being lifted higher and higher until she was teetering over a precipice.
Then Conan was sliding a hand between them to massage her clitoris.
She cried out and felt her whole body burst with impossible ecstasy as she tightened around him, galaxies forming behind her eyes as she felt him swell inside her, filling her with his essence as he howled out her name, the air seemed to be humming with electricity, as if it too were obliterated by the rightness of this joining.
When every tremor of their shared pleasure was spent, Conan rolled onto his back, pulling her onto his chest.
He stroked her hair gently. The only sounds were their panting and the calls of the cicadas outside.
“Wow,” she
sighed.
He smiled into her hair and kissed her on top of the head.
It occurred to Brooke that in spite of his masterful performance, this had been Conan’s first time. And the surge of electricity she’d felt in the air must have been him clicking permanently into his human body.
He had explained it to her before, but she hadn’t expected to actually feel it like that. Maybe he hadn’t exactly known what it would be like either. It wasn’t like he’d done this before. He’d also said something about how he couldn’t wait to share his gift with her. Brooke wondered what he’d meant by that.
But before she could talk to him about any of it she decided to rest her eyes. Just for a second.
His fingers trailed down from her hair to her shoulder blades in whispering loops.
Sleep carried her off in a moment. And for the first time in a long time, she wasn’t afraid of where it might take her.
“You can open your eyes now,” Conan’s voice was sexy, dark and gravelly.
Brooke opened her eyes.
Above her the stars winked. There were so many of them and they seemed so… close.
She turned.
Conan smiled down at her, devastatingly handsome in a formal suit and tie.
Music began to play somewhere faraway, a slow waltz, all sighing violins and tinkling bells.
“Dance with me,” he said, offering her his arm.
“Wait,” she said.
“What is it?”
“This is familiar,” she said.
He smiled at her in agreement.
“This is dream walking,” she said, feeling pleased.
He smiled.
“Oh,” she said, realizing something.
He waited.
“My bad dream wasn’t the only one you visited,” she said, working it out as she thought about it.
He shook his head.
Brooke felt her face turn red.
“God, how embarrassing,” she muttered.
“No,” he told her, tilting her chin up with a warm hand. “Your dreams were what kept me determined to be human before you accepted me in your waking life. I lived for your dreams.”
“Oh,” she said, disconcerted by his honesty and by the rush of emotion his words invoked.
“Dance with me,” he urged her again.
She allowed him to pull her into his arms and she forgot everything but the warmth of his large hand spanning her waist and his steady hazel gaze.
Brooke closed her eyes again.
“Look at me,” he commanded.
She looked at him once more and nearly swooned at the fierce expression of love in his eyes.
He spun her as if she were light as air, then dipped her so low that her hair skimmed the ground.
She gazed up at his handsome face and the backdrop of stars so close it seemed she could touch them.
“Wait,” she said. “Wait.”
He lifted her up again and studied her quizzically.
She looked down at the pale sand at her feet and then to the scene around them.
Black cliffs, as smooth and shining as glass jutted out of the ground, pointing heavenward. This was not like anywhere she had ever been. This was not like anywhere any human had ever been.
They were on Aerie.
“Look around,” she whispered.
He only smiled at her again. He must have been waiting for her to catch on to what was really happening.
“We’re not in my dream, are we?” She asked.
He shook his head.
“You’re not dream walking,” she told him. “I am.”
27
Brooke
Brooke surveyed the gym with satisfaction, then wrapped her arms around herself and twirled in an uncharacteristic gesture of delight.
Absolutely everything was back in its place. The mats were laid down, the bags were hung, the motivational sayings were back on the walls.
The gym looked the same as before. Better really, with the addition of Keisha’s Teen Division trophy in the case and Brooke’s own second place tournament ribbon beside it.
“Looks like home again,” Conan said, wrapping an arm around her.
“Yes,” she agreed. “Home.”
The word meant so much more now. It meant family.
She wondered vaguely if she might be pregnant already and the thought gave her a warm feeling, rather than frightening her. She would be a good mother. Her family could count on her. She could count on herself.
“It’s good, right?” Trinity asked, strolling up to her.
“It’s perfect,” Brooke said.
“Coffee,” Veronica shouted from the stairwell.
“So that’s where you two slipped off to,” Trinity said, jogging over to help.
Veronica came into sight carrying two paper trays of steaming coffee. Lobo trailed behind her with a box of doughnuts so enormous even his huge form couldn’t make it look small.
“Where should we eat?” Veronica asked.
“Let’s have a picnic on the mats,” Brooke suggested.
Veronica and Lobo set the treats down and everyone seated themselves.
Brooke tried not to notice how awkward it was that she and Conan and Veronica and Lobo were cuddled together, while Hawkeye and Trinity sat opposite each other, as if not even daring to risk contact.
Brooke wished she knew what was up with those two. She made a mental note to ask Trinity if she wanted to talk about it the next time she got her alone.
Brooke’s own happiness made it hard for her to imagine a good enough reason for her friend not to share the same joy. But things weren’t always so simple. They certainly hadn’t been for her.
“Are you really going into business with Jade?” Veronica asked.
“She’s already wired me the money to buy the building,” Brooke said shaking her head in disbelief, though she knew now it was all very real. “It hit my account this afternoon. I’m having a title search done today. As soon as that’s back I can settle officially.”
“Henderson must be stoked,” Trinity remarked.
“Henderson was oddly reluctant actually,” Brooke said. “I had to remind him that the building was on the market and I was offering full price, cash. And he was still kind of weird about it. Luckily it’s not up to him. The business office expedited everything. The only drawback is that they may still consider this to be moonlighting and/or a conflict of interest, in which case I’d have a decision to make.”
“That’s not a decision,” Veronica scoffed. “This is your dream. And the cadets can still come see you for extra training.”
Brooke shrugged. Veronica was right though. If the conversation with Jade went as well as she hoped it would, the gym should be making money in no time. Which meant she’d likely want to cut down to one job anyway.
She pinched her own thigh for about the hundredth time in the last twenty-four hours.
Conan must have seen it. He took her hand and squeezed it, smiling that sweet smile that made her melt inside.
“Well, here’s to dreams coming true,” Veronica said, handing Brooke a steaming cup of coffee.
Trinity’s phone rang at just that moment. She pulled it out and scowled at it. Then leapt up and dashed across the gym to the stairwell.
“Is she okay?” Brooke asked Veronica softly.
“Henderson’s giving her a hard time on her project,” Veronica said. “Every time she fills out a form for help or resources they give her crap about the way it’s filled out. Fifty years worth of police academy records have to be digitized by the end of the year and they won’t help her.”
“I’ve been carrying boxes of files from the old admin office over to the new one,” Hawkeye put in. “Before I arrived Trinity was doing it herself. Captain Henderson wouldn’t even approve her request for a hand truck.”
“He’s tough,” Brooke said.
“This is beyond that,” Veronica said, shaking her head. “Something about Trinity must have rubbed him
the wrong way.”
“What about Trinity could possibly rub him the wrong way?” Hawkeye demanded angrily. “She’s hardworking, kind, incredibly intelligent. He could not find a better employee.”
Veronica gaped at Hawkeye, totally taken aback.
Brooke smiled to herself. Whatever the holdup was with Trinity and Hawkeye, there certainly wasn’t a lack of admiration on his part.
As if on cue, Trinity came stomping back. There was a hint of despair in her eyes that was beyond what Brooke had gotten used to seeing there.
“What’s wrong?” Hawkeye asked her.
Trinity flopped down, grabbed a chocolate doughnut and took a huge bite.
“It’s Henderson again,” she said when she had finished chewing. “He turned down my request for a trained assistant for, I don’t know, the twentieth time.”
“I’m sorry, honey,” Veronica said kindly.
“And he told me I don’t have the rest of the year anymore,” Trinity said, her voice brittle. “I only have until the end of the month.”
“What?” Brooke asked, horrified. That was an impossible task for one person and she didn’t have to be an IT specialist to know it.
“I will help you,” Hawkeye said softly.
“You can’t help me,” Trinity practically spat. “You know nothing about the systems.”
“It will be faster for you to teach me and then both of us to work together, than for you to do this alone,” he said.
She opened her mouth and closed it again, then eyed him appraisingly.
Brooke thought she could almost see the tension in the air between them.
“Fine,” Trinity said at last.
Hawkeye beamed.
Brooke tried to hide her smile.
“Miss Singleton,” Keisha’s voice echoed in the stairwell.
“Is it six already?” Brooke asked worriedly. Everything was set up but she wasn’t ready for the evening classes to begin quite yet.
“I’m early,” Keisha said as she stepped into the gym. “I hope you don’t mind, but I wanted you to see the footage from last night.”
“That’s lovely, Keisha,” Brooke replied. “Come on over. There’s enough doughnuts for everyone.”