Someday soon, though…
“Kaisie…”
Her voice sounded breathless and he loved it. “That’s right, sweetheart. Beg me.”
She shook he head. “No…”
He stroked his hand across her ass, letting one finger play along the seam and making her squirm. “Oh, yes, you will. You’re going to beg me to make you come again.”
She gasped, though she tried to hide it. “Do you always talk this much during sex?”
Good thing she couldn’t see his expression right now. Didn’t want his bared teeth to scare her. “Wouldn’t want you to forget who was here with you. Besides, you like to hear my voice.”
She gasped as he drew the zipper down on his jeans. “I don’t know what to do.”
“You don’t have to do anything right now. I’m gonna make love to you and the only thing you need to do is enjoy it.”
Her hands gripped the cushion until her knuckles turned white. “I want to.”
“Then I’ll make it good.” He let his hands pet her ass and down her thighs then stepped closer and let the tip of his cock brush between her legs. She shuddered and started to push herself up. “No, stay there. Don’t move.”
He put one hand on the small of her back, the silkiness of her skin distracting him into petting a hand up her spine for several seconds. Until his aching cock drew his attention back to his main purpose.
Getting inside her again. Making her his.
He already knew how hot she’d be, how tight. His heart pounded like a teenager about to get to third base for the first time.
Stroking his hand between her legs, he groaned at the soft, hot flesh spreading around his two fingers. Gods damn, she felt like silk.
Grace moaned, using the cushions to muffle her voice, as he stroked his fingers in and out until she clenched hard around him.
Damn it, she was so close already and he didn’t want her to come until he was buried deep inside her.
Slipping his fingers free, he grabbed her hips then held her steady as he positioned his cock. The head brushed against the swollen lips of her sex, making his balls tighten in response to her wet heat.
The sensation was so good, he had to ring the base of his cock with his fingers and squeeze to stave off his orgasm. So fucking good. She felt so fucking good.
He let his cock swipe against that warm flesh, coating him in her wetness and pushing him closer to the edge until he couldn’t wait any longer to have her.
With a groan, he thrust forward. Not hard, just enough to bury the head of his shaft between her legs. He stopped so he could soak in the sensation of her snug pussy.
“Oh Gods, Kaisie. That feels…”
Her voice stroked across his senses, and he grabbed tight to his control so he didn’t just start to thrust. He needed to make it good for her. Not just get himself off.
“Feel good, baby?” He pushed farther inside, his cock swelling as she gripped him tight. “I want you to feel good.”
Her head twisted to the side so he could hear her voice more clearly. “It feels amazing. Don’t stop.”
His jaw locked as he heeded her command. “I’m not fucking stopping. At least not until you come all over my cock.”
Grace gasped and clenched around him, forcing an answering growl from him as he plastered himself against her back and let his hips begin to swing more freely.
Her scent drew him closer and he buried his nose in the softness of her hair at her nape. Damn, she smelled amazing.
He wanted to keep her pinned beneath him all night, keep his dick buried inside her until he couldn’t get it up anymore. Which he didn’t see happening for hours.
She turned him into a horny teenager all over again. Not that he was complaining.
Especially not when she wriggled her ass against him, telling him without words that she wanted him to go faster. Or clenching around him when she wanted him to go even deeper.
He followed every one of her silent commands, giving her exactly what she wanted.
But it still wasn’t enough for him. He wanted to see her face when she came. Wanted to watch her eyes drown in pleasure and her mouth part on each gasp.
When he pulled away, she cried out in frustration, making his lips pull back in a fierce grin.
Pulling her up, he spun her around and slammed his mouth down on hers for a wickedly carnal kiss even as he lifted her into his arms, wrapped her legs around his waist then pressed her back against the arm of the couch and slipped inside her again.
Now he had her exactly where he wanted her. In his arms, plastered against his body. Her arms around his neck, her mouth on his, stealing his breath.
Like two kids in a stolen moment, still dressed and desperate for each other in their parents’ living room, they writhed together, straining toward completion.
He felt her hands sink into his hair, clutching and scraping at his scalp. Her legs tightened around his waist, her hips moving in rhythm with his. Her breasts crushed against his chest, tight nipples poking through her shirt. He bent to take one in his mouth. His teeth closed around the tip, causing her to arch and press more of her breast into his mouth.
“Harder. Gods, Kaisie. Harder.”
“Yes.”
She tried to thrust against him but couldn’t get the right angle sitting on the arm of the couch.
So he lifted her, turned and put her back against the wall of the house. Then he loosened his restraint until he lost it all together. His teeth dragged across her nipple until she cried out and yanked on his hair so hard, it hurt.
He licked a wet swath up her throat, tasting salt and sweet, warm woman. Nipping at her jaw, he sucked her skin into his mouth, marking her, as he tunneled into her, his hands filled with her gorgeous ass.
As she clung to him, heels digging into his ass, hands pulling at his hair, he thrust without finesse or control. He covered her mouth with his, kissing her hard, sucking her sweetness into him.
He couldn’t get enough of her, strained to get closer, deeper. Emotion boiled in his gut, combining with the lust until he couldn’t separate the two.
He needed her with an all-consuming desire. Loved the way she opened only to him.
Her breath felt like a brand against his neck and he let his head tilt back when she opened her mouth on his collarbone to muffle her scream as she came.
She jerked in his arms, her sheath milking his response until he couldn’t hold it back anymore and exploded.
Chapter Six
“You’re going to be the death of me.”
Grace knew immediately that it was absolute wrong thing to say as Kaisie went stone still beside her on the couch.
After they’d come together against the wall and Kaisie had gently cleaned her with his t-shirt, he’d taken her back to the couch on the warm porch and settled her on his lap. With her ear against his chest, she heard his heart calm from thumping arousal to contentment.
“And why do you say that?”
His tone was deceptively calm. In the short time she’d known him, she’d learned that when he sounded like this, he was wary. Full-out pissed involved hand-waving and yelling.
This was worse, she decided.
“I only meant that I can barely breathe when I’m with you. You’re like a force of nature, a tornado that’s going to spin me around and spit me out. I don’t know how to handle you.”
He relaxed with a soft huff of a laugh. “Grace, I think you’re doing just fine so far. So…when do you want to move in? I should have the new bath and bedrooms framed out by the end of the week. Should be able to call in a few favors, get a few guys over to help. Alex and Amy can share the other bedroom until then. We’ll make one of the rooms big enough for Mara and the baby until she figures out if she wants to stay with us or move into her own house. Yours’ll be open by then— What? Why are you shaking your head at me?”
Emotions she couldn’t control struggled for dominance. Desire, longing, fear. Blessed Goddess, she so wanted exact
ly what he was offering to her in such nonchalant tones. But she knew she shouldn’t. If Ettore was still alive, he’d be coming for her and the children. And he’d kill anyone in his way.
Her hand on his neck gripped him tightly. “How many times do I have to say it, Kaisie? We can’t stay here.”
“And how many times do I have to tell you everything will be okay? I know trust is hard for you to come by. I understand you’re going to have issues that will drive me up a freaking wall. But trust me when I say I’m gonna make it safe for you to stay here.”
Her need to kiss him bit at her with sharp little teeth, sinking into her heart. “Short of killing Ettore, you can’t ensure that.”
She felt him shrug. “Then I’ll kill the bastard. No skin off my nose. I can take care of you and the kids. You just have to have a little faith.”
Blessed Goddess, she wanted to. And she had no doubt Kaisie could take care of himself. But he was only one man. “I think you may be asking too much of me.”
“No, I’m not. You’ll see. Everything will work out.”
“And when it doesn’t? When Ettore descends here with an army and lays waste? What then? I won’t be able to live with the knowledge that it’s my fault.”
“It won’t be your fault. It’ll be Marrucini’s fault. But he won’t get the chance because I’ll take care of him before that happens.”
“Then what about Amy? What are we going to do about her? She’s Mal, Kaisie. Eventually…”
They’d been over this already. Talking in circles. With a huff, she pushed off his lap and onto her feet. Standing in front of him with her arms on her hips, she wanted to pull her hair out by the handfuls.
But her breasts, still unbound, felt tender and heavy. And her sex still pulsed with remembered sensation, distracting her as she stared down at him.
Kaisie just shrugged. “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. For now, I don’t think we have anything to worry about. She’s not going to murder us in our sleep. She hates Ettore as much as you do. No way will she go back to him willingly.”
“And if he’s still alive then he won’t stop until he has her back. And he’ll make her pay for what we did.”
“Then I’ll just have to make sure he can’t.”
“The only way to make sure is to kill him.”
He shrugged again. “Then I’ll kill him.”
He said it with such calm purpose, she actually shivered, even though it wasn’t the first time he’d said it.
She let herself take a few moments to wonder what it’d be like to know Ettore was gone. Completely and forever. She’d planned his death so many times in her mind. She wasn’t normally a bloodthirsty person. She was the kind of person who opened a window and shooed out the flies that got trapped in her apartment.
She’d been horrified to learn that the men she’d hired to help her find the right test subjects for her first trials for Alex’s drugs had harmed innocents.
Still, it hadn’t stopped her from continuing with her experiments, had it?
She’d lived with the specter of Alex’s death for so long, the thought of causing anyone’s death usually made her physically ill.
Not Ettore’s. She would dance on the bastard’s grave.
“You would do that for my children?”
“Yes.” No hesitation in his voice, his gaze steady. “I’ll do it for the kids. Mostly, I’ll do it for you.”
*
Kaisie had just set the coffeepot back on its burner when he heard someone knock at the back door. Just once and only loud enough for another lucani to hear it.
Cole waited there, wearing a pair of jeans and faded black sweatshirt. Dorian stood at his back in tactical pants and a tight, black top. She reminded him of that actress from the second Terminator movie. The one who kicked ass and took names.
“Morning, Kaisie.” Cole made no move toward the door when Kaisie opened it.
“Cole, Dorian. You want coffee? Just made a pot.”
They both shook their heads but only Cole spoke. “We need to talk. Let’s go for a walk.”
Well, shit. This wasn’t gonna be good. “I’m not leaving them alone.”
Dorian rolled her eyes with a barely contained smirk but Cole just nodded. “That’s why I came prepared.”
Two wolves stalked out of the trees, followed by Race on two feet. Kaisie recognized the wolves as Giovanni and Giorgio Santangelo, two of the most ruthless of the younger soldiers stationed here at the den.
Cole knew Kaisie wouldn’t have left Grace and the kids with just anybody. The boy king was good.
And not much of a boy anymore. Kaisie would have to stop thinking of him like that.
“Are we running on two feet or four?” he asked Cole.
“No running. Just a walk and a few words.”
Kaisie pushed his feet into the running shoes by the back door, nodded to Race, who nodded back then headed into his kitchen, probably headed straight for coffee. Kaisie thought about waking Grace but she needed the sleep. If she woke before he got back… Well, she’d met Race. So had the kids.
They’d be fine.
They followed the trail back into the woods, the birds making a racket over their nearly silent progress.
No one spoke until they’d gone far enough away from the house that the other soldiers wouldn’t hear them.
Finally, Cole paused and leaned against the trunk of a thirty-foot pine.
“All right, spit it out,” Kaisie said. “Whatever’s—”
“Marrucini’s not dead. You need to track him so the sicarii can retrieve him.”
Fuck. Just…fuck. Even though that’s pretty much how he’d thought this was going to go, it still sucked to hear it out loud.
Kaisie sighed and ran a hand through his hair, tugging on the ends to bring his mind into focus. “You’re sure.”
Dorian sighed, as if disappointed in him, but Cole just nodded. “Yeah. Confirmed by two sources before he disappeared from Florida. We know he’s no longer at the same house. We don’t think he’s left the country but we’re not sure. We need to find him and take him alive.”
Kaisie’s frown made Dorian stand a little straighter at Cole’s back. “Alive’s going to be a problem.”
Cole’s brown eyes held steady. “I understand. Doesn’t change the facts. We need him alive.”
“Why?”
“Because we believe he has information we need. The Mal are mobilizing. Have been for a while. You know that. We need him. He’s high enough on the food chain. He’ll have information we need.”
Kaisie wanted to tell Cole to go to hell but he was Rex. The lucani king. You didn’t tell your king to go fuck himself, even if the king was practically still a kid twenty years your junior.
A kid whose parents had been killed by the Mal and who’d gotten a crash course in coming into power at the age of seventeen. He’d held on to the crown through sheer force of will and Kaisie admired him all the more for it.
But it didn’t change the fact that Kaisie had made a promise.
One he was going to have to break.
“Kaisie.” Cole’s voice held steady. “I understand why you’ve got a problem with this. But there’re bigger issues here. You know that. If I could, I’d give you my blessing to kill the guy. And when we’ve gotten everything we need from him, I promise, the bastard’s yours. But right now, I need you to tell me you can do this.”
Reaching for the rational part of his brain that didn’t want to rip out Cole’s throat, Kaisie took a deep breath and let his head fall back on his shoulders.
The sky above was just starting to lighten with the dawn and he knew he’d have to head back down to Florida to start tracking Marrucini. Leaving Grace and the kids alone.
“I promise you they’ll be safe,” Cole said as if he’d read his mind. “I’ll have Kaine and John move into your place with them until you get back. I’ll assign an entire cohort to guard them. We’ve already had the streghe replace the wards to
ensure he can’t get into the den the way he did before.”
Fine. It sounded like a great plan.
Grace was gonna think he’d betrayed her. And she wouldn’t be wrong. But she’d probably convince herself he’d had to go back on his word. Which he did.
Christ, what a clusterfuck.
The lucani had been at war with the Mal for centuries, since the Mal had briefly enslaved an entire village of lucani and forced them to become nothing more than vicious animals to do their bidding.
Cole’s great-grandfather had fixed that situation and the world had been lightened of more than a few Mal during the bloody liberation.
Now Cole needed leverage. And Kaisie would give it to him.
“I have to tell her.”
Cole started to shake his head but Dorian finally spoke up. “Yes, he does. Cole, she deserves to know.”
Cole’s jaw tightened but he finally nodded after a quick glare at Dorian. “Fine. Tell her he’s not dead. Tell her you’re going after him. Tell her she won’t have to worry about him anymore. Hell, I don’t care if you lie and tell her you’re going to kill the bastard. Just make sure she knows he’s ours.”
“We take him alive and the Mal are going to declare war.”
“That’s why we’re going to make it look like he’s dead.”
Which was a hell of a lot tougher than it sounded because the Mal would only believe it if they actually had a body in their hands.
“Have we made any progress finding out who’s at the head of the Mal yet?”
Cole shook his head. “We only know there’s been an increase in activity in their businesses. They’re making enough money to buy freaking Russia.” Frustration had crept into Cole’s tone and Kaisie saw weariness in his eyes. “They’re up to something and it’s not good that we don’t have a clue what it is. We need to know. We can’t be caught off guard again.”
Like Cole’s parents and his older brother had been.
Vaffanculo, he needed a drink. “When do we leave?”
*
Grace opened her eyes and found herself staring at the wall of Kaisie’s bedroom.
She didn’t remember him carrying her to his bed but he must have at some point.
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