Walk on the Striped Side

by Jessie Lane

  Glancing over to his phone discreetly, she took in the timer. Eight minutes. That’s how long she had to make him come to win her question. That wasn’t a lot of time, so she had to make the most of it. She started a punishing rhythm, riding him in a quick tempo that had her breaths coming out in harsh pants and her eyes rolling back in her head.

  Gage was a vocal lover, demanding more and crooning encouragements to her. It didn’t take long for him to figure out her rhythm and start thrusting back up into her every time she dropped down. The added thrust made it travel deeper inside her and she couldn’t help the moans it forced from her. She needed more of him, though. Needed to see marks made by her on his body. Little, sensual brands of her ownership over him.

  Digging her nails into his chest, she dragged them down until she scratched down to the bottom of his six pack. When he growled low in his throat, she worried that she’d gone too far, but his next words put her at ease.

  “Fuck, yeah, baby. AGAIN.”

  She placed her blunt fingernails back on his pecs and scratched down to his abdomen again, a little harder this time, and the red lines that bloomed in the aftermath of her path were one of the sexiest things she’d ever seen. His body was her playground and he hadn’t pulled out of those handcuffs yet to stop her. He’d let her mark up his body by hickies on his nipples and scratching him all over, giving her words of encouragement for more.

  Gage’s movements were starting to become frantic. He was so close that she could feel his body trembling in anticipation. Elena kept up her rapid cadence while sliding both hands back up his chest where she grabbed both of his nipples in her hands. He snarled at her because of their bruised sensitivity and she gave him a snarl of her own back as she pinched both of them simultaneously.

  He roared, she laughed. “I’m going to win this round, kitty.”

  “NO. I will outlast you.”

  “Not a chance, Gar-field.” Elena knew what she was going to do next would be a mix of sweet and plain, ol’ mean, yet she couldn’t wait to push him over the edge. Already she felt her center fluttering around him in impending orgasm and she wanted Gage to come with her. As she leaned forward and sank her teeth into his chest to give him a love bite, he went wild beneath her.

  Elena heard the crack of wood, but didn’t bother to look up and see if he’d broken the headboard. She just kept sinking up and down on his engorged flesh as she leaned backwards. In that instant, she saw two things that made her burn hotter than she ever had before. One, she’d left a pretty impression of her teeth behind on his skin as a souvenir. Two, Gage had not only broken the wooden slat on his headboard, but he had snapped the chain on the cuffs, as well. His hands were now free, the tips of his claws out and simultaneously clutching and shredding the comforter beneath him.

  Gage was snarling denials at her now, taunting her with his stamina and how she wouldn’t make him lose control in time, but Elena also knew he was full of shit. He was almost there and she was about to send him soaring over into his orgasm.

  Leaning back, she braced one hand on the top of Gage’s thigh and grabbed her feathered wand with her other hand. Holding the top of the wand just under the feather, she brought her hand closer to the juncture of his thighs, though she didn’t touch him yet. She had one last thing to do before she startled her poor kitty.

  “Gage,” she panted as she sunk down on his length.

  “WHAT?” he growled.

  Letting all of her emotions, her lust, her passion, her affection and love shine through her eyes, she said the words. “I love you.”

  She felt his body tense under her and then she brought the feather up and tickled his balls with it. Gage’s hips arched both in surprise and instant orgasm and he threw his head back and roared until his voice was hoarse. The sight of him in the throes of ecstasy sent her over on her own orgasm and she clamped down, convulsing around him as she screamed his name. Her completion rolled over her in explosive waves that racked her body with small tremors.

  Unable to hold herself up anymore, she collapsed down on his chest, uncaring that they were both a bit sweaty now from their love making.

  A hard hand grasped her hair and pulled her head back so that she had to look at Gage. When she did, he once again demanded, “Say the words.”

  No sooner had the ‘s’ in ‘words’ been spoken than his timer alarm went off. He reached over without looking and tapped the screen to turn it off, keeping his eyes glued to hers.

  It was time for her to take that final leap of faith and hope like hell that he didn’t break her with his answer. “I love you, Gage. Now will you please tell me why you pushed me away two years ago?”

  CHAPTER-TWENTY-FIVE

  Gage

  Dreading that this moment had finally come, he pondered the best way to break the news. He didn’t want to tell her the truth, however honesty was the best policy in this situation. He’d been hoping that she’d figure it out on her own instead of him having to tell her. His Amazon was too impatient for that, though.

  Not knowing what he could say to soften the oncoming blow, he gave her the reality of their situation. “You, Elena, are the beginning to my end.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “That means I’ve lived two hundred sixty-two years never worrying about what tomorrow would bring, thinking I would live forever to do whatever it was that you do in life, and in no hurry at all about doing any of it. Then you came along. After six months with you, I realized that I’d gotten in too deep; come to crave you too much. There were moments in my day that I wanted you more than I wanted my next breath… and that was the problem.

  “Mating myself to a human with a finite lifespan was basically signing my own eventual death warrant because, the moment you take your last breath, I will cease to want to keep breathing that same air. So I did something cowardly and pushed you away, thinking I was saving myself when all I did was condemn myself to something much worse. A life less lived. A life without you. It didn’t take me long to figure out that I would rather live and love you in the span of your human lifetime than live without you for the rest of mine.”

  He could almost feel the pain radiating off her as she realized what he was saying.

  Closing his eyes against the tragedy that was their situation, he chose to look at what he did have instead of what he wouldn’t have. He wouldn’t have immortality with the woman that was meant for him in every way, however he would have all of her days. Wasn’t that so much more than an eternity of emptiness?

  He ran his hand through her hair in soothing strokes, but he knew it would only soften the emotional blow a little. When he felt the small, wet drop hit his naked chest and smelled the salt that accompanied the tear, he felt like someone had taken a thousand razor blades to his insides and torn him to shreds. He’d give anything, absolutely ANYTHING, to spare her this pain.

  He heard a feminine sniffle that was definitely a sound he’d never expected to hear from his fierce Amazon and then felt a few more tears hit his skin.

  When she spoke, her voice was hoarse, both from their previous pleasure and her current pain. “I don’t want you to die for me, Gage. If I’d known why you’d pushed me away, I would have never pushed my way back into your life.”

  He fisted his hand in her hair and once again turned her head until he forced her to look at him. “It wouldn’t have mattered, Elena. I’d gone two years without you and I was miserable. I might not have admitted it to myself yet, but it was only a matter of time before I would have tracked you down. Don’t you get what I’m trying to tell you, baby? I don’t want to live this life without you. You are the thing that makes it worth living, and I mean it when I say that I’m content having just one lifetime with you because, baby, that’s all we need. We’re going to live and love so hard and so much, living each day to its fullest, that the world will envy our love story even if it is short. And when that time comes that I follow you off this earth, I’ll die the happiest man this world has ever seen
because I’ll have had you by my side for all of those days in between now and then. Now give me the words. I want to hear them again.”

  With tears running down her cheeks, her nose running, and the most devastated expression he’d ever seen on anyone , she was still more dazzling than any jewel he’d ever seen. More precious than any treasure he’d ever owned and more important than any victory he’d ever won on a battle field. She was quite simply, everything.

  “I love you, Gage Ivanov.”

  “I love you, too, mate.”

  Now he had to make sure that she didn’t try to leave him in a warped attempt to save his life.

  CHAPTER-TWENTY-SIX

  Elena

  How could someone be both happier than they’d ever been and utterly heartbroken? The combination seemed impossible, and yet, as she lay there cuddled next to Gage, that was exactly how she felt. The happiness she was feeling? That explanation was easy. He loved her and he basically always had. Hearing it that morning had finally patched together the broken pieces of her heart that she’d thought were too damaged and too jaded to ever be repaired.

  Of course, the truth he’d given her to make her happy had also crushed her in the same breath. If Gage stayed with her—mated her as shifters liked to call it—then she would be the cause of his death. Women the world over cooed about how men lived and breathed for the women they loved in romance novels and how they would give anything to have a man like that—a man who would give his life up so that he could be with his woman. Elena could only think that the reality of being the cause of your man’s death wasn’t as romantic as those books made it out to be.

  Gage’s chest rose and fell underneath her cheek with his deep, even breathing, inadvertently reminding her just what was at stake here. Could she really do this? Could she sign his proverbial death warrant? The bigger question was, if she walked away again, would he let her go? Something told her no, he wouldn’t. He’d already literally handcuffed her to keep her at his side. If she tried to leave him, Elena had a feeling that handcuffs would be the least of her worries. He might chain her inside the house and never let her step foot outside of it again.

  So what was the solution here? What in the fuck was she supposed to do? She needed time to think. She could use a little space from Gage so that she could think about this clearly, however with as paranoid as he was about her leaving him, she was pretty sure hell would freeze over before she got that space.

  Fingers shifted through her hair and then his sleep laden voice rumbled, “I know you’re awake.”

  Needing the touch of his skin on hers for comfort, Elena rolled on top of Gage so that her head was now cradled on her arms on top of his chest and she was looking down at him. “How long have you been awake, cat?”

  His hands snaked up her back and he started lazily circling her back. “Longer than you.”

  She snorted at his non-answer.

  Unsure what to say or how to broach the subject, she hesitated. “Gage… we have a lot to sort through today.”

  He paused from stroking her skin and froze underneath her. When his hand finally moved off her back, she thought it was because he was going to resume his petting, but a hard slap landed on her backside instead.

  “Ow! What the fuck was that for?”

  “We’ve got to get our asses up and going, woman. You’re right. We have a lot to get done today.” He rolled her off him, stopped long enough to drop a kiss on her forehead, and then got out of bed.

  Elena lay there and listened to him move around the room while she stared at the white ceiling, a bit confused. That had gone over easier than she’d thought it would. She’d thought for sure that Gage would fight her on any kind of conversation she wanted to have about them and what he’d told her earlier that morning. So what did this turnabout mean? She opened her mouth to ask him just that when clothes hit her right in the face.

  Sputtering, she pulled the garment off her face and snapped, “What was that for?”

  He gave her a grin that would have melted her panties clear off, if she’d been wearing any. “Get your lazy ass up, woman. I need to get you caffeinated and fed so you’re not grumpier than normal and then we have to take care of this Ninth Circle business. I want to get this bullshit off our plates so we can move on and make plans.”

  A little perplexed, Elena asked, “Plans?”

  He shook his head as if she were a small child and he was wondering if he needed to whip out a sheet of paper and his colored crayons to break this down for her kindergarten-style. “Yes, plans,” he mock growled. “We need to talk about whether you just want a mating, or if you want to get married, too. All of those silly human traditions society has. I figured you wouldn’t want a big wedding or anything, but with those crazy sisters of yours, I’m not going to assume anything.” He pointed a finger at her. “If we get married, I get to pick where we’re going on our honeymoon. And if we don’t get married, I’m still taking you on a honeymoon to celebrate our mating and I pick that, too.”

  Elena sat there on the bed, completely shell shocked. Wedding? Honeymoon? MATING? She was over there contemplating whether she was going to make herself leave him so she didn’t kill him and he was planning their fucking honeymoon? Her sanity checked right the hell out.

  “Have you lost your fucking mind?” she screeched.

  Leaning against his dresser, wearing nothing other than a pair of basketball shorts, he crossed his arms over his chest and gave her a blank look. “Not at all, mate. Why do you ask?”

  She dropped the shirt he’d thrown at her head, completely forgetting that she was sitting there completely naked, and gripped her hair in both hands out of sheer desperation. “This morning you told me that you’re going to goddamn die if you stay with me and you want to know why I think it’s crazy that you’re talking about a honeymoon? There are more important things to talk about than a honeymoon that may or may not happen, Gage! We need to sit down and talk about what we’re going to fucking do here. Do you really think I can stay with you knowing that I’d cause your death?”

  Between one breath and the next he had her on her back and pinned to the bed. His angry face was hovering over hers with that look that said he was absolutely not to be fucked with right then.

  His voice was full of silky menace when he spoke. “Yes, the most important thing for us to talk about is our honeymoon because the shit you just spewed is what we’re not going to be talking about. There’s nothing to fucking discuss here, Elena. The die has already been cast and our fate is already sealed. There’s nothing you can say or do to change my mind, so don’t bother trying to leave me— I’ll only hunt your ass down and drag you back—and don’t think your aunts can hide you away from me to save my life. Because I can guaran-damn-tee you that, even if you did manage to get away from me and hide yourself where I can’t find you, the loss of you would drive me insane. My brother would be forced to put me down.”

  Tightening his hands around her wrists, he pressed them into his bed and snarled, “You are mine, Elena. You may not have a mate bite yet, but it doesn’t matter because in all other ways you are my mate. Do you understand? My heart, my soul, my sanity, my motherfucking life. You are my everything and you will not leave me.”

  Elena’s breathing was ragged, however Gage’s was slow and steady. She was about to crawl out of her skin with insanity and he was staring back at her with grim resolve. She was panicking and he was as he always was, steady as a rock.

  “How can you be so calm about this, Gage? So nonchalant?” she cried. “We’re talking about your death. You’re immortal; we should never be talking about your death!”

  His hands came up and cradled her face where he used his thumbs to wipe away her tears. “I am calm because death does not scare me. The only thing that scares me is a life without you. Nothing else matters.”

  His words caused her to cry harder, therefore he tried to soothe her by rolling to his side and holding her in his arms. She lay like that with him fo
r who knows how long until she had no more tears to cry and the harsh reality of his fate had settled on her conscious like a black mark against her soul. She was both blessed and cursed. Weighed with chains of guilt and remorse, and yet, strangely free.

  Elena couldn’t leave him to save his life, so she would stay with him and enjoy his love for as long as they lived. And in doing so, she would kill the man she loved.

  Eventually, Gage put a finger underneath her chin and raised her tear-stained face to force her to look at him. “Promise me you won’t leave me.”

  She licked her lips nervously and answered carefully, “I won’t leave you, but I also refuse to give up on finding a way for you to survive past my death. Can you understand my need to do that?”

  He studied her closely before answering, “You can search the world over for an answer as long as you don’t leave my side to do it.” That was as much of a concession as she was going to get from her stubborn tiger.

  “Okay.”

  He caressed the side of her face. “We do have to clear Lulu’s name today and get that over with before the situation gets any worse. Are you ready to get out of bed and face this with me?”

  She nodded. “I think that situation is going to be easier to fix than we’d thought. If I remember what I read of the Council’s laws, all we have to do is cast reasonable doubt to delay her being taken into custody by them, correct?”

  Gage nodded. “If we can produce another suspect, they’ll have to investigate them. Why? Do you have one?”

  “Yes. Before you decided to turn all caveman and kidnap me, Lulu had just informed me of some photographic evidence she has that the murdered demon’s wife was having an affair. If we get those photos from her and turn them over to the council, that should be enough evidence to cast reasonable doubt, right? Your sister thinks it was the lover that killed him anyways.”