“Okay.” He mentally calculated a rough date. “So, sometime late March or early April?”
“Aye, around then.”
“We should celebrate your birthday on March thirty-first.”
“Why is that?”
“’Cause that’s my birthday, and we can double up.”
“We’d have to quadruple up.” She giggled. “I’m a triplet, remember?”
“I haven’t forgotten.” He rolled her over onto her back, splayed his hands either side of her face on the pelts and trapped her underneath him. Her beautiful eyes glittered in the trace of moonlight filtering through the cream-colored canvas walls. “Scrape your fingernails down my back, hard, extremely hard.”
She locked gazes with him, dug her nails into his back then ran them in a gentle, ticklish move downward. “How’s that?”
“I said hard.”
She giggled again. “’Tis best I dinnae always give into your every request. If I do, I doubt anything good will ever come of it.” She tipped her head to the side and tapped her neck. “When you give me your claiming mark, it resonates deep within me. I need another.”
“As your claiming mark does with me too.” He pushed her knees apart with his own knees, the heat from her entrance washing over his cock, which had gotten even harder since joining her in bed.
“Mmm, I love kissing you.” She slid her hands up his chest, speared her fingers into his hair and drew his mouth to hers. She kissed him, then trailed nips along his jaw and down his neck. She nibbled on his sensitive skin where his shoulder and neck met.
He wanted to go up in flames. Every nerve ending exploded with tingling pleasure. “Ailith,” he panted, almost lost for breath, “I need to complete the bond with you, right now.”
Chapter 19
Ailith rolled her hips against Hunter’s as she gripped his hair and tugged on it. “Make us one, Hunter. ’Tis time.”
“I crave you.” He sucked one of her nipples deep into his mouth and her mind fuzzed.
She wanted him, desperately, particularly since she’d finally accepted that a bond existed between them and she no longer needed the full moon to validate the depth at which it already pulsed. She no longer wished to wait, but to spell his soul to hers and ensure his immediate immortality.
“How do you want to do this?” Golden eyes smoldering, he captured her mouth in a scorching kiss, his big muscled body a fierce heat she wanted to embrace in every way.
“However you desire,” she panted, when he allowed her a breath.
“Then hold on tight, because I desire more of you first.” He trailed his lips down her body, over her breasts and in a swirl across her belly. He slid down to the end of the pelts, widened her legs and stroked along her inner thighs, his fingers moving along the crease of her groin. Nuzzling her mound, he gathered in a deep breath, spread her legs even wider and revealed all of her to his hungry gaze. “I want my cock inside you, right here, Ailith.” He caressed one finger along her wet slit. “Within the next thirty seconds.”
“Agreed.” Thirty seconds was all she had, her body so on edge for his. “I’ll begin the countdown. Twenty-nine, twenty-eight—”
He blew warm air across her lower folds, his grin wicked.
“—twenty-seven—”
He latched onto her nub and sucked it, hard.
“—twenty-six…” She speared her fingers through his hair and held on. Oh goodness, where was she up to? What an amazing mouth he had. Twenty-something.
A deep probe of his tongue and she exploded, her orgasm shooting through her, then he rose up and whispered, “Twenty-five,” and thrust through her barrier and buried himself deep within her.
Back arched, she gasped as a moment of pain washed through her.
“Hell, hell, hell.” He gritted his teeth, his body shaking and his head tipped back, the entire length of his neck exposed to her. “Ailith, that feels incredible. You feel incredible around me.”
Completely open to him in the way of lovers, she tunneled deep inside his mind, right along the private pathway that already belonged to them. Aye, this was the link she’d created with him before, but now ’twas different. Incredibly different. ’Twas filled with more vibrancy and shine. Brilliant golden filaments lined each side of the pathway of their telepathic connection, which hadn’t been there before. Oh goodness. The difference was the merged link of a mated pair, in which he could open the link as well, and not just her. Their joining had enhanced what she’d already created. Heat pulsed in her core and he growled deep in his chest.
She grabbed ahold of his mind and cemented his presence even stronger within her own, then along the link, she murmured, “Do you see what I see?”
“Aye, it’s the merged link my shifter kind forge with their mate when they join together as one. I could sense it roaring through me when I tore through your barrier.” His mind surged so strongly around hers, this private connection between them one that would only ever be theirs. “You’re now mine, in every single way.” He glanced down to where they were joined, lifted up a touch and rubbed his thumb over a smear of blood along her groin. “Do you feel any pain?”
“I did, but ’tis receding. Go deeper inside me. That’s what I wish for.”
“That I can do.” He dug his fingers into her waist, his golden shifter eyes blazing in the dark as he thrust deeper, just as she’d asked.
She braced herself against the pelts as he bucked, frantically. Intense heat built in her middle. More heat than ever before. “Touch me, Hunter.”
He swept one finger over her nub, and sent liquid heat surging through her middle.
She cried out as she rode higher and higher with each of his mind-bending strokes. Such pleasure overtook her, rolling through her in a fiery blast. “I love you, Hunter.”
“I love you too.” He lunged deep inside her again and again. “You are my everything.”
She cried out a second time at their fast joining, wrapped her legs around his legs and stabbed her fingers into his shoulders. She held on as a wave of heat soared through her, another orgasm pummeling through so fast after the first. Breathtaking. He was all hers, forever and always.
“Every inch of me is on fire and burning for even more where we touch.” He captured her mouth with his.
She clung to him, her fingernails digging into his flesh.
Over and over, Hunter drove deeply into her and as he did, he licked the skin of her neck then sucked it between his lips. She wanted this, his bite, and to bite him in return, and when he cupped the back of her head and brought her mouth to his neck, her mind whirled into a tailspin.
Rocking underneath him, she couldn’t halt her body’s need to move as one with him and she scraped her teeth back and forth over his racing pulse point, just as he did the same with her.
“I can’t hold on any longer.” He bit down and a roaring blast of pleasure consumed her.
Clasping his butt tight, she sank her teeth into him in return and he bellowed and plunged balls-deep inside her, his pace beyond feverish and his thoughts bombarding hers with pure heat and passion. She clamped down on the other side of his neck and marked him a second time, their joining intense and his entire body shaking and making her channel tighten so wickedly. She careened over the edge and soared to the heavens, her inner muscles squeezing and dragging his cock right to her core.
More and more warmth spilled from him and coated her deep within and as it did, she looked deep into his eyes and spoke from her very heart and soul, the spell embedded into their memories at birth. “From this moment forth, I hereby bind Hunter Matheson’s soul to mine. Give me a piece of his inner light so that I might guide and watch over him, throughout all of time. He is mine, just as I am his.”
A golden glow radiated out from around his body and tendrils separated and floated toward her. She opened her mouth and breathed them inside her body, allowing the merging of all that they were, heart, body, and soul. ’Twas done, a binding of souls that no one could e
ver tear apart. With tears streaming down her cheeks, her heart so full of new and intense emotions, she murmured, “We are one.”
“As we always shall be.” He grinned, his golden eyes glowing and his teeth a bright white and looking sharper than ever. He nipped her bottom lip, hard enough to draw blood then he sucked on it until it healed over. He nodded. “I want you to do the same to me.”
“Hold still.” No hesitation. She bit his lip in return, licked along the bloody, torn edge and smiled as it healed before her eyes, far swifter than his shifter healing could ever do. “Welcome to the immortal world of the fae, Hunter Matheson.”
“So, now I’ll survive an arrow to the chest?”
“Aye, but I dinnae recommend it, otherwise I will be very angry with you.”
“I’ll take that into consideration should I see one flying my way.” He kissed her again, then closed his eyes and rested his forehead on hers.
Chapter 20
So much heat pounded into Ailith’s back as Hunter grumbled before sliding one muscled leg over top of her legs. His purr was loud in her ears, his stubble tickling her cheek and his possessive arm curled around her waist making her pulse race. She wriggled, the tent’s pale canvas walls lightening as dawn approached. Goodness, she needed to check for a vision, to get her hand on the soil. She clambered across Hunter’s muscled abs, her hand inches from the ground she needed to touch.
“Oomph.” He nabbed her around the waist.
“Never mind me,” she breezed, almost there, her fingertips grazing the matted flooring.
“Here are the rules going forward.” He lifted her back into bed and tucked her underneath him then with one eyebrow cocked, muttered, “I wish to ogle every fine inch of your flesh before you get out of bed in the morning, and by ogle, I mean not while you’re trying to escape me.”
“Lilias intended on doing another check of the loch afore dawn and I needed to check for a vision. Which means we should probably get dressed and ascertain how things are outside.” She heaved one arm far enough out of bed to nab her satchel and drag it back to her. She flipped the top flap back, pulled out a pair of black leather pants, stuck them under the pelt, but got no further as Hunter blocked her path to her legs with his body.
“Reach out to Lilias telepathically, then add me to the mix. We can ascertain how things are going right from this bed.”
“All right.” She could do that. She touched her mind to her sister’s then Cherub’s as well, before bringing the three of them together through her telepathic ability and connecting Hunter in too. “Any updates at present?” she asked Lilias and Cherub.
“I’m out in the loch patrolling the waterways as I promised.” Lilias. “Tis difficult to see more than a few feet in front of me though. A thick fog rolls in.”
“I’ve done a sweep overhead, and found the mist rather thick as well.” Cherub. “The warriors are all on full alert, with men stationed everywhere. Kirk has even sent a team wide, beyond the sentries along our land border with the MacKenzie. He’s with them right now.”
“Where do you want Hunter and me?” She pulled a forest-green tunic over her head, but it got caught over Hunter’s head as he suctioned his mouth over her nipple.
“I need you to stay close to camp, where you’ll be able to pick up any visions with far more ease.” Cherub’s voice filtered through, strong and firm. “Report back if you have any. Meanwhile, I’m going to join Kirk on his scouting mission now I’ve run my aerial check.”
“Stay safe, both of you.” She closed her connection with her kin, her toes curling under the pelt as Hunter continued to suck madly on her breast. She cupped his face in her hands and smiling, lifted his gaze to hers. “I’ll never let Colin MacKenzie hurt you.”
“Since you’re the one who ends up in his dungeons now, in that blackguard’s hands, that’s my line, not yours.” Grinning, he suctioned his mouth back over her nipple, licked and nibbled on it before sweeping to the upper curve of her breast and sinking his teeth in deep. He didn’t break her skin, but she wanted him to, her body throbbing everywhere.
Cheeks burning with heat, she pointed at her boots. “You should be helping me dress.”
He tapped his chest instead. “Bite me first, same place, then I’ll help you get dressed.”
“Stubborn mate.”
“That is how I’ll always be.” Tenderly, he palmed the back of her head, brought her mouth to his chest, right over his pec muscle and held perfectly still.
She trailed one finger down his wide chest, slithering in an S shape back and forth over each of his defined abs, then she merged her mind more deeply with his so he could see just how much she loved him. Gripping his shoulders, she ran her tongue over the sharp top edge of her teeth.
“Cease teasing me. Do it, now.”
“You are so impatient.” Yet she gave in, bit into his flesh and tore his skin. He moaned and rolled his hips against her hips, his cock thick and wonderfully stiff, so she dug her teeth in even deeper.
“I need you. Can’t wait.” He spread her legs and rubbed his cock along her slit. His look was agonized as he thrust deep inside her, jerked once, twice, three times. His warmth shot to her core in wave after pulsing wave and he mumbled into her hair as he held her tight against him, “Sorry, sorry, sorry. I didn’t mean to come like that, but damn it, when you bit me that deeply and strongly, I didn’t have a choice.”
“I’ll have to remember that for the future.” She touched the spot where she’d bitten him, the skin already healing and sealing over, just as their immortal kind did. Fisting a hank of his hair, she sank her teeth into his neck this time, and with him still inside her, he got hard all over again and thrust even deeper, his breath jagged and the head of his cock hitting a spot that had her arching her back.
He clenched one hand on her hip, his claws grazing her skin and she broke apart, her channel going tight around his full length. Intense pleasure stormed through her.
He had unleashed her passion so swiftly and she couldn’t have fought it either.
To the very stars, she soared.
Slowly, long minutes later, she finally came back down to Earth, and when she did ’twas to find Hunter shimmying her black leather pants up her legs and tucking her tunic in. He tightened the laces of her leather vest, slotted her feet gently into her boots, strapped her daggers to her wrists and fastened her sword belt at her waist before lifting her from the pelts and setting her on her feet. “Promise kept. You’re now dressed.”
“I love how you keep your promises.”
A grin as he foraged through the clothing in the bag Kirk had given him. He donned tan rawhide pants, tugged a tunic over his head and strapped a multitude of weapons to almost every conceivable place on his body. Lastly, he added a cotun and shrugged on his war coat. He appeared every inch a fierce Highland warrior. Her warrior.
She fidgeted with his collar and straightened it, her throat clogged as she tried to push away the emotions suddenly stampeding through her. Never had she had someone like this, who was hers and hers alone, for her to love, to share her life with, and to be loved in return.
Gently, he caught her shaky fingers and pressed them firmly over his heart. “I know. I feel the same way.”
“I cannae imagine my life without you in it.”
“Thankfully you no longer have to. Let’s go before we end up in that bed again.” He held out an overcoat studded with bits of steel and she slipped her arms into the sleeves, then ducked out the tent as he lifted the flap for her.
A heavy mist, just as Lilias had said, cloaked the waters, the forest, the tents, and she could barely even make out her hand when she waved it in front of her face. A bird squawked somewhere high overhead, and the crackle of burning logs in the central fire pit, sizzled and popped, the glow naught but a faint orange outline in the heavy fog. “We need to take extra precautions today with this mist.”
“It sounds as if Cherub and Kirk already are, your sister and our warrior kin too
.” Hunter lifted his nose to the air and breathed deep. “I’ll stay alert for any unusual scents, while you connect with the land.”
“Aye, I will do so now.” Lowering to a crouch, she flapped out the tails of her overcoat. Fingers spread, she pressed one hand to the dewy grass. The mist thickened even further and the cold numbed her nose and cheeks. She shivered as images shimmered at the periphery of her vision. “I’ve got something.”
“Keep your mind open to mine. I’m catching the flutter of images just as you are.”
“Truly?” Shock coursed through her as he nodded in confirmation. Their mated bond was strong. She opened her mind further to him and he gripped her shoulder where he stood guarding her.
More images swirled, her vision growing in strength.
Two war galleys, shrouded in mist with their sails lowered, sat half-beached on a narrow slice of pebbly shoreline. Dozens of warriors slunk over the bow of one of the vessels and disappeared into the forest. Colin MacKenzie remained at the bow of the second vessel and with one hand raised, gave a silent signal for his men to push them off. Four warriors heaved, then bounded into the galley as it slid back into deeper water.
The water rippled as the vessel glided along the loch, then in the wake of the galley, a seal pup popped its head up. The animal got covered in mist once more and she remained with the MacKenzie. “There’s a mist in my vision, just as there’s a mist here right now.”
“Aye, but there is a mist nearly every morning at this time of the year. Keep watching,” he urged her. “We need more if we’re to learn the exact day and time of his strike.”
“Agreed.” At the bow, Colin MacKenzie stood with his plaid looped over one shoulder, the mist swirling all around him, the war plaits at each side of his head swaying. His men sank their oars into the still waters and heaved. If she could just catch a glimpse of something which would give away enough to determine an exact day and time, then she could halt their enemy before he ever reached their Matheson land.
Highlander's Claim: Time Travel Romance (The Matheson Warriors Book 2) Page 15