by Misty Dietz
“There’s a female heartbeat out there. Get some clothes on your relentless body, Viking, or somebody’s gonna get hurt.” Kat slipped into the itty bitty, satin robe he’d relished peeling off her last night. At the moment, however, he wasn’t too keen on her wearing it in front of another male, even if said Guardian was already bonded.
“Relentless, huh? I’ll show you relentless.” He lunged for her. She squealed and snatched a towel from the back of the chair, snapping it across his pecs so hard it left a mark.
“You’re going to pay for that.”
“Gladly.”
Saucy. He growled to hide a smile, cinching the towel around his hips before opening the door.
Nate had an arm around the shoulders of his bonded mate, Jessie Blaze. He moved a half step back, smoothing the feathers of her long white wings so they wouldn’t touch the door jam as the angel entered the room.
“Thank God, the mighty Viking listens to you, Katherine.” Nate winked at his Unholy Inc partner. “My eyes couldn’t have handled him starkers this early in the morning.”
“Get on with it, English. And it better not be bad news. The last thing I feel like doing is hurting you, but believe me, it’s still on the list.”
Jessie’s lips curved at Katherine. “I’m sorry to bother you so early and indelicately with my Neanderthal in tow. But as soon as Raj filled us in on your battle against Leviathan, we had to come. We are still grieving the loss of Hector, but we are very grateful you were able to retrieve the Rod of Moses. Well done, you two.” She approached Katherine, arms outstretched.
Ari watched the shifting play of emotions on Kat’s face as she fought against her inclination to shun physical contact, to ward off intimacy. It all happened in the blink of an eye, but he saw her triumph over the artificial walls she’d kept up for so long. Kat wrapped her arms gently around Jessie’s wings and closed her eyes, feeling the embrace so thoroughly that Ari felt its echoes through their soul bond.
I love you, North.
Katherine opened misty eyes and blew him a kiss before pulling back from Jessie to smile warmly. “Welcome to what’s left of AQUA.”
“I wish we could stay to help clean up, but unfortunately, we have to hustle to Spencer’s,” Nate said. “He’s snookered with Baal still throwing a spanner in the works at IGNIS.”
“When you get there, let us know if you need some extra hands. My staff is competent enough to handle the clean up.” Katherine crossed her arms under her breasts, drawing Ari’s undivided attention, inspiring all manner of erotic—
Fingers snapping in his face.
“Up here, Grimm.” Katherine pointed to her amused eyes, then glanced at Jessie. “Looks like you’re not the only one cavorting with a caveman today.”
Ari advanced on her purposefully, unable to resist touching her for another moment. Countless times yesterday he wondered if he’d ever have the chance to hold her in his arms again. Because of that, last night, not one hour—not one—had passed without feeling her skin next to his.
It was a healing for both of them.
He pulled her against his side. “You wouldn’t want me any other way.”
Nate smirked at Jessie. “What he said.”
They all laughed.
“We’ll let you know if things deteriorate further at IGNIS. What we’re more concerned with is Alexios,” Nate said quietly.
A bad feeling settled in Ari’s gut, remembering how Alexios looked on the beach the first day he’d arrived on Oahu.
Katherine had gone completely still. “What’s wrong with Alexios?”
“He’s been increasingly absent from ETHER, and when he is at the club, he’s….volatile,” Jessie responded. The unflappable Guardian leader has always been their rock. If something rattled the Spartan, it was truly cause for concern.
“I don’t think he’s located Sophia yet,” Ari said. “The only other time I’ve seen him this unstable was when he couldn’t find Sophia in the sixteenth century.”
“Is he sure she’s even reincarnated in current times?” Kat asked.
Nate nodded. “In each of Sophia’s reincarnations, Alexios feels when her presence enters the ether. He knows she exists somewhere on the planet, but he can’t locate her until she is in danger. It was part of the original pact Alexios made with Michael to keep Sophia with him for eternity, even though she was unqualified—meaning, too good—to be a Guardian. Jawahar thinks the difference this time is that Alexios feels her need of him, but can’t find her.” As ETHER’s head of security and Alexios’ closest friend, Jawahar Bajwa would be the one to know.
Ari pulled North to his side. “That would drive anyone mad.”
“But especially the oldest of the Guardians,” Jessie added.
“At various times over the centuries, I’ve had concerns about how he was able to go on. Having to lose your compar over and over like that. To watch her die, not knowing where or when you’d see her again…” Ari trailed off, and the four of them remained silent for a moment.
“What can we do to help?” Kat asked.
“When you have things squared away here at AQUA, you might want to check in at ETHER. Jaws is completely capable, but your help was invaluable to me at TERRA. There’s really nothing we can do to help Alexios find Sophia, but helping out at ETHER would let him focus on her recovery.” Nate smiled and squeezed Jessie. “We should probably leave now to let these two return to their slap and tickle. Unless you want to grab a room of our own—”
Jessie open-mouth kissed him, then shoved him back with a smile. She turned to Kat. “I want to apologize for calling you stuck up and sexually repressed that first day we met at TERRA.”
Kat raised an eyebrow. “Do you now?”
Jessie’s smile slipped and a furrow appeared between Nate’s brows. Apparently Kat’s haughty expression was only transparent to Ari. He tried not to laugh. After all their time together at TERRA, Nate should be able to tell Kat was fronting. You’re being mean, Ari pushed at her.
Do you really expect me to change overnight? I have decades of bitchiness to beat back, you know.
Her blue eyes blinked up at him as he approached. Excuses, excuses. You expect me to believe you aren’t strong enough to overcome things you yourself want to change?
Too late she realized his intentions. He bent down and pulled her over his shoulder, her mouthwatering ass next to his face. He kept his back to Nate and Jessie so they wouldn’t see her nether regions exposed under the flimsy robe. In case you’d forgotten, accepting an apology is one of the cornerstones of friendship, North.
The pads of her fingers played over the muscles of his lower back, dipping beneath the edge of the towel. He closed his eyes to focus on the lesson, but his body had other ideas. Her leg shifted slowly, deliberately across the bulge in the front of the towel making him cross-eyed.
Oops, she whispered throatily, then pushed laughter into his mind.
His fingernails dug into the backs of her thighs to hold her still while he angled his body to the side to address their guests. “My apologies. It seems my mate is more interested in corporal punishment than graciously accepting an olive branch. I will deal with her accor—”
“Oh, stop. Really, Grimm, this responsible, teach-Katherine-how-to-be-nice side of yours can be so annoying.” Put me down. Now.
When he did—carefully so as not to expose her bits—she took Jessie’s hands in her own with a secret little smile that Ari didn’t quite trust. “Look, I’m no an angel. I never will be. I’ve pretty much deserved everything I’ve been doled out. So I’m exceedingly grateful for your apology. I give you mine as well, even though I’m damned jealous of those gorgeous wings.”
Jessie laughed and pulled her into a hug. Ari caught Kat’s brief surprise before she hugged her back. “Then all’s forgotten.”
This time, Kat wasn’t the first to pull away. That, more than all her words, made Ari realize she was truly opening her heart. He rubbed at the sudden warmth in his chest
as Nate and Jessie bade their goodbyes. Kat closed the door behind them, then leaned back against it for a moment. His feet felt rooted to the middle of the floor as he looked at her.
She cinched her robe tighter as the tropical sunlight slanted through the windows and struck her golden hair. “What are you staring at?”
“You have no idea how long I’ve wanted to bond with you.”
She pushed away from the door. His heart rate accelerated as she moved toward him. “You are a persistent man, I’ll give you that.” Her lips curved softly.
Her smile made him happy. “I will never give up on you. Don’t ever forget that.” His skin warmed every place her gaze strayed—his lips, neck, shoulders, chest….
“You’re pretty hard to forget.” Her lips quirked as her gaze traveled further south. “Perhaps I should say you’re a hard man in general.”
“Indeed.” He closed the last few inches between them, his thumbs hooking under the lapels of her robe to slide the material down her sleek shoulders. He bent down to feather his lips against her neck. Her swift intake of breath was all he needed right now.
All he needed. This moment with her.
He kissed his way down her body as he went to his knees before her. His fingers pulled on the ribbon that circled her waist. As the black satin fell away, he watched his own hands as they skimmed up and down her curves, her skin alive, quavering, reaching for his touch. A poetry all its own.
He built the pressure in the air behind her, then eased her back to float semi-reclined on the dense atomic mass that molded comfortably around her body.
She sighed and closed her eyes. “Ah, fancy tricks. Being so old has a few perks, I guess.”
“Old, you say?” He waved his hands at the windows to draw the curtains. No one else was going to partake of the coming view. “That mouth of yours is going to get you in trouble if you don’t have a care,” he warned, hopeful she would misbehave as he bent to kiss his way up her calves.
“I can handle any trouble as long as I have a fresh coat of lipstick.” Her breath hitched as his lips moved to the insides of her thighs.
“Is that so?” he whispered, pressing her legs further apart to nip, lick, and suck on her flesh like it was his last meal. Deliberate. Wanting to savor the moment. The feel of her fingers pulling at his hair. He shifted between her legs, aligning his mouth with her sex. “Then maybe I should concern myself with your lips as well. No?”
He blew softly on the landing strip of caramel-colored hair, then swept his tongue, broad and slow across her softness. Again and yet again as her hips rolled. He vocalized along with her.
When she was at the brink, he pulled back on his heels to smile at her.
“O-oh my god, w-what are you doing? Come back here,” she panted, holding out a hand.
“Old men like me, we need our rest, you know.”
“Oh f— You. Big. Baby. I was only joking. Look at you. My God, you’re…” Her body pulsed from her scalp to her toes just looking at him.
His lips tilted in that thoroughly sexy way of his. “I’m what?”
He was going to make her say it. Say it all. Jackass. She came up on her elbows, watching his pupils dilate even more as her breasts jiggled. “Touch me, Grimm. I’m dying for any part of you on me.”
When he climbed back onto the air mass to kiss her legs again, her victory felt petty and hollow. She pulled on his shoulders, moving him up her body until he rubbed his stubbled chin against her belly. Then he pressed his lips against her sensitized, reddened skin with velvet kisses. His bold hands kneaded her breasts almost making her forget what she needed to say.
“Grimm.”
“I’m busy.”
Gods, yes, he was, and gloriously so, doing all those lovely things to her neck with his tongue.
But, he deserved more.
“Grimm.”
He sucked her earlobe into his hot mouth. “You really want to talk right now?”
No. “Yes. I have to tell you something.”
He pulled back, streamed them to her king-sized bed, and lay beside her, head propped on his hand. She ran her thumb across his bottom lip, giving her pulse a moment to settle. He kissed her thumb, then raised an eyebrow at her serious expression. “If you’re about to say something nice, I need to get my phone so I can video the moment.”
She laughed then, her heart lighter than she could ever remember. “I’m that much of a bitch, huh? Oh wait, I think you called me a harpy.”
He cocked his head, running his fingers through her hair. “Nay. I know you’ve got a heart of gold under all that biting wit and emasculating sarcasm. And trust me, someone who has enough compassion to give an archdemon the benefit of the doubt has more love in their heart than most.”
Her face and heart warmed all at once. “Don’t tell anyone.”
The sun slanted through the crack between the linen curtains, highlighting fine lines when his eyes crinkled. “Your secret’s safe with me, North.”
She knew it was. With her Viking, every piece of her felt safe.
She sat up and pushed back the errant golden lock that always fell across his forehead so she could see his eyes. “What I was going to tell you before was…” She held her breath, then let it out, feeling almost lightheaded. “You’re all I’ve ever wanted. You’re my home base. I’m not worried anymore about where life takes us. I will always need to spend time here at the club, but when you need to roam, I have a team who can run this place in my absence. I always want to be by your side.”
Butterflies exploded in her belly as his face lit with a glorious smile. “We’ll find our balance, North.” He pulled her down into the bed’s softness and moved his muscled body over her. “My True North.”
She opened to him then, opened her whole self—heart, body and soul—to his deep passion that filled all her empty places. Filled them with his sighs and groans, his sweet, dark whispers, his gritty masculinity.
His big, big love.
She gasped, holding onto his steady shoulders, looking into his intense eyes. His powerful strokes drove her higher. Toward union. In his focused gaze, she saw forever. The unknowns were there in the fathomless blue, yes. The unknowns whether she’d be able to give him the family he longed for.
That she longed for.
The unknowns if they were wise to even try to find a way to bring children into this world with the dangers they still faced. A lifetime of battling demons and archdemons and who knows what else the Guardians would be called on to defeat.
But just now, the unknowns didn’t matter. Their fingers entwined on either side of her head, their breaths mingling, his body covering hers, giving her promises, ecstasy, hope.
Love.
Her hair tangled on the pillows as the climax ripped through her. Ari’s mouth slashed across hers, taking her vocals, giving her back…
More.
He let go, and she felt their power threads meet and knit together.
As it’s meant to be.
Yes, she breathed back.
He held her as the tremors faded and the hours passed with more love and whispers and the sun dipped lower in the horizon. Too soon, she could hear the booming of the bass start in the club as the DJ prepared for the show to go on, despite the wreckage across the city. She sighed, not wanting to leave this bed and face the mess downstairs, but really, nothing could get her down tonight.
She smiled and kissed him again. “I guess that’s my cue to get to work.”
He hooked an arm around her naked waist, not so gently pulling her back into the sheets. “Not so fast, woman. You still have to pay for that towel whipping.”
She laughed. “Show me what you’ve got, Viking.”
And so he did.
Thank you, dear reader, for spending time with my characters!
If you enjoyed Kat and Ari’s story, please share a brief review on your retailer of choice to help other paranormal romance lovers discover the Unholy Inc world.
With much app
reciation, Misty :)
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ONE
Fargo, North Dakota
Sunday Morning, August
Zack Goldman slapped at a mosquito and leaned against his truck as Morgan Sawyer sashayed down his rutted gravel driveway like she’d driven up in a limo instead of a Corolla sporting a spare tire. She was the sister he’d never had, earning her PhD in urban wiles and tomfoolery when they were adolescents—alone, but not so innocent—on the streets.
He’d bet his river-side acreage that she’d left the cryptic WHERE IS SHE note on his door this morning to punk him. Something was definitely going on if she was up—and put together—this early. “I was on my way into town. After my errands, I was going to stop by your place to see if you were still alive. Haven’t seen you in weeks. How’d you manage to crawl out of bed before noon?”
Her red-painted lips tilted up at the corners. “Haven’t gone to bed yet.”