When she shattered for him, he let her ride the wave of pleasure until he could wait no more. “Turn around,” he said as he flipped her so that she faced the tree. He was still on his knees and was presented with the curves of her backside. He took a moment to gently nip each cheek before standing. As he stood, he let his tongue run the length from her crack to her neck.
Serena whimpered and used both hands on the tree to hold herself up. He ran his hands over her arms and stopped when his hands were over both of hers. “Keep them there,” he told her. He released her hands and pushed his jeans from his body as quickly as he could. “I have to be inside you now,” he whispered in her ear. Serena could feel his cock lying against her back. It was so hot it felt like a steel branding iron against her skin.
“Please, hurry,” she said, wiggling her butt into him.
Gage laughed. “Yes ma’am,” he obliged. He bent his knees to even up their height and stroked his cock along the seam of her body. He felt her wetness coating him, lubricating him.
“Gage!” she snapped at him.
“Yes, Love,” he said as he pushed into her body.
Serena loved the way he felt inside her. He filled her almost to the point of pain. He moved slowly at first, but then increased his speed as his body lit up for her. He put his hand under her chin and moved her head around so that he could kiss her mouth while he thrust inside her body. His tongue matched his hips. Serena felt so complete, so whole when they were together. They fit perfectly. It was as if he were made specifically for her; then she remembered, he was.
“I need to see you,” she whimpered to him, fighting back the tears that threatened to overflow.
He moved her gently and laid her on her back on top of his shirt again. He pushed her legs apart and buried himself to the hilt. She screamed out for him as he made love to her. He watched her beautiful eyes shimmer with unshed tears and knew exactly how she felt, because he was feeling it too. He dropped his head to kiss her, but she moved and latched on to his neck. He groaned at the sharp pleasure he received when she bit the cord of his neck.
Serena knew she was being rough, but she couldn’t help but to mark him. Even if they were not to be together, she wanted others to know he belonged to her. She sucked on his skin and felt his cock swell inside her. One particularly hard thrust of his hips had her biting down on his neck. She was surprised to taste blood where her teeth had broken his skin. It was sweet and delicious, and she licked and sucked the small amount from him. It sent her body flying and she shattered into the most intense orgasm she had ever experienced.
The pleasure of being inside his unofficial mate drove Gage over the edge when Serena nipped his neck. It was a sharp sting, but he felt her licking away the pain. Her body coiled underneath him and he pushed harder into her. When she gave herself over to him, his body shuddered and he came, giving her all he had to give.
He dropped his weight on her and then shifted so that he was lying more on his side. They were both panting for breath and they both had tears streaming from their eyes.
“Gage,” Serena whispered.
“I love you, Serena,” he blurted out. “I know there isn’t a damn thing I can do about it, but I wanted you to know. If you get there and there is any way to change that man’s mind about marrying you, I want you to know that I love you. I will always love you.”
Serena sat up and began to sob. Her shoulders shook with her tears and Gage sat up behind her. He wrapped himself around her body and laid his head against her shoulder. He held her while she cried; never once giving notice to the tears that fell down his own cheeks.
“I love you too,” she whispered. She wanted to tell him that he was her one and only. She wanted him to know that he was her soul mate. But she couldn’t. It would do nothing to change what was going to happen. Her love was going to have to be enough for him to carry with him after she was gone. She knew she would carry his love in her heart for as long as she lived.
Gage knew there just had to be a way to stop this madness of her being married off. He opened his mouth to tell her just that when he heard something in his mind. A voice. No, several voices. He realized what it was and immediately pulled Serena to her feet.
“Your mother has found you,” he said, quickly picking up her dress and pulling it over her head.
“Mother?” Serena asked. The fear in her eyes was painfully obvious to Gage.
He smoothed her hair as best he could. “She didn’t see you, she is searching for you and going on what she has seen in your past. She is coming here and she is not alone.”
“You have to run,” Serena told him. She grabbed his shirt and yanked him to her so that their faces were only inches apart. “She brought my family with her. If they find you here, I am afraid they will kill you.”
“I can talk to her,” Gage pleaded.
“No!” she said. “You have to run. Please, don’t let them catch you. I won’t have your blood on my hands. If you really love me, then you will leave and let me go, knowing you are safe.”
Gage struggled with the inner battle that constantly waged inside of him. In the end, giving Serena what she wanted won out. “I will find you,” he promised her. He kissed her hard on the mouth and turned from her. “I promise, this is not the end.” Her family was very nearby now and he knew he had to go. “I love you,” he said before turning and running away from her, just as she asked.
“I love you,” Serena whispered into the wind, just as her mother and her family broke through her spell and saw her.
CHAPTER NINE
By the time Gage strolled through the front door, Angel was furious. “Where the hell have you been?” he demanded of his friend as he walked right by Angel as if he weren’t standing in the doorway. “This behavior cannot continue. If we can’t be honest with each other, then we really don’t have much of a family, do we? I don’t pretend to understand, or even know what’s going on with you. I can’t. You won’t let any of us in.” He stared at the back of Gage’s head.
Gage stopped and stood perfectly still. He had wondered how long he was going to get away with it, and since he could feel Angel banging at the brick wall he had carefully constructed around his mind, he figured that he had run out of time. He was going to have to come clean. But if he thought Angel was angry with him now, he knew all hell was going to break loose the moment he took that wall down.
“Well, it’s about time you got home,” Leigh said as she walked into the room. She was holding little Toni in her arms and was no doubt getting ready to feed her breakfast. Leigh started to sit on the couch, but stopped when she was close enough to see Gage clearly.
“What the fuck did you do to yourself?” she demanded, coming closer. She stood on her toes and leaned forward, getting right up in his space and examined his skin. “Angel, have you seen this?”
Angel shook his head, but came no closer. “Turn around, Gage.”
Gage took a deep breath and turned slowly to face his leader. His brother. The one man who he trusted above all others.
When Angel saw what Leigh was talking about, Gage felt the kicking at his mind stop completely. The banging in his mind had been going on strong for so long, that he felt eerily silent and empty without it.
But Angel had lost his grip on trying to get into Gage’s mind and stood there, dumbfounded. When he finally found his voice, he asked, “Why?”
Gage shrugged his shoulders. Angel made his feet move and slowly walked closer to Gage. He looked at the brand new ink that had been etched into Gage’s skin. He reached up and pulled the collar of Gage’s shirt down so that he could have a better look. There, on his left shoulder, was a beautifully tattooed butterfly. It was purple and blue and black. There were highlights of red and white in it as well. The body of the butterfly rested on his shoulder, but the wings reached up onto the side of his neck. It seemed to almost shimmer on his skin.
Even though it was beautiful, Angel immediately knew the reason for the mark. Underneath the healing skin of
the tattoo, was another mark. It had been intricately worked into the tattoo and was nearly indistinguishable from the ink. But Angel’s keen eyesight saw it. It was a mating mark.
He took in a deep breath and said to Gage, “What. Did. You. Do.”
Gage tried to pull off a nonchalant shrug of his shoulders, but it didn’t work at all. Angel grabbed him by the shoulders and shook him. “It is time you talked!” Angel said in a voice that was almost a yell. “If you have done what I think you’ve done, then you have put us all in danger!” Angel remembered the words his young daughter had said to him earlier that night.
Gage knew there was no more hiding. Hell, he had known his family would be able to see the mating mark even under the tattoo. He had only put the ink there to protect Serena. He was tired of hiding from them and he was mentally wiped out from leaving Serena. He drew in a deep breath, holding it for a second, and then let out a long exhale. With the release of his breath, he brought down the walls around his mind.
Angel knew the second Gage had given in. He felt the barriers within his friend’s mind drop like a guillotine and Angel was overcome with everything Gage had been keeping from them for the past month. He saw Gage and Serena together. He saw when they lost control and gave in to their need to be together. He saw every conversation, every hooker that was paid for her perfume, he felt Gage’s love for his mate, but most of all, he felt his brother’s pain.
It rolled over him like a cement truck, crushing and destroying his heart as it went by. It was so intense that his knees threatened to buckle under him and he didn’t know just how Gage was still standing. He felt a familiar pang in his chest, knowing exactly what it was like to be mated to the woman he loved and not to have her by his side. It was only a few short years ago that Angel had been in the same situation. Well, sort of.
“Mon Ami,” Angel breathed through the pain and shaking his head. “What have you gotten yourself into this time?” There was no longer any anger in Angel’s tone. There was only sympathy and grief.
“I’ll tell you what the fuck he has done,” Leigh snapped. “He went got mated to a woman he can’t have!” She laid the baby down gently, her actions in stark contrast to her angry words. She stomped over to Gage and shoved his chest, fire blazing in her golden yellow eyes. “Just who the fuck do you think you are?” she demanded. “You saw what happened with Angel. You saw what happened to Antonio after he lost Macy! Do you have a fucking death wish?” She huffed and turned from him. Then she stopped herself so abruptly that her long black hair swirled around her body when she turned to face him again. “I don’t want to hear that you don’t want to live without her,” she snapped, having heard the words in her mind. “Did you even consider what this would mean for the rest of your family? No, you didn’t, did you? You didn’t think at all because you are a selfish bastard. You didn’t think of how it would affect your brothers to watch you die! You didn’t think about the possible danger you could be putting them in! You just didn’t think!” Gage knew she was right on all kinds of levels. He didn’t argue with her, only hung his head and took her verbal beating. He could smell the air changing and felt the temperature rising. If Leigh dragoned-up and toasted him, he knew he deserved it.
At some point, Jacque and Rebel had joined them and they just stared at Gage. The ring in Jacque’s brow made the quirk he was wearing even more pointed and made him look dangerous. Well, that and the snarl his brother was sporting on his face. Gage had let all of his barriers down and the whole family could see and hear his thoughts. They would all know his situation in a matter of minutes. While Leigh continued to curse a blue streak at Gage, Rebel only watched. Brea sat in the corner with her head in her hands, shaking it side to side. Gage was overcome with guilt. Leigh was right. He didn’t think. Hell, he hadn’t really meant to mate himself to Serena. It just happened.
“Are you even listening to me?” Leigh snapped at him. She growled at him and Gage prepared for more of her wrath.
“Love, let’s let him be,” Rebel finally intervened. “He is feeling very guilty and ashamed of himself right now.” Gage breathed a sigh of relief when Rebel took Leigh’s left arm to lead her away from him, but that didn’t stop the right hook that Gage never saw coming.
He landed hard on his ass. He was shocked to say the least, but knew he deserved it so he didn’t retaliate when he stood. Leigh had broken free of Rebel’s hold and was standing there, daring him to make a move.
“I guess I deserved that,” he said, rubbing his jaw. That little woman packed one hell of a punch. “You guess?” Leigh said, raising her brows. “You fucking guess?” Her voice raised a whole octave. They had barely begun to live on after the loss of Antonio and he fucking guessed he deserved it? He deserved a hell of a lot more than a punch. “Damn straight you deserved it. I don’t know who the fuck your maker was, but I know it wasn’t Angel. And thank God for that. Angel wouldn’t need that kind of shit on his shoulders. You are a pathetic excuse for a vampire and your maker, whoever it is, must be really fucking proud of you right now,” she sneered at him sarcastically. The entire time Leigh was pregnant she had done her best to keep her temper in check. She had stomped down the urge to cause bodily harm to anyone. But Gage had really done it this time. She was not prepared to lose another family member, and she feared that was exactly what was going to happen. If Gage didn’t drop dead from a broken heart, one of her other family members would likely die trying to get his mate back to him; and they would try. It was an inevitable certainty. He had shoved the entire family into a situation that could have been avoided, and damn if that didn’t feel like a slap in the face. To her, it was a slap in the face to his entire family.
Anger boiled up in Gage’s chest. “Someone please take the children upstairs,” he said through clenched teeth. “You don’t know shit about my maker,” he told her. “You need to watch that mouth of yours.”
“Or else what?” she demanded. “You gonna take on a dragon? Let’s do it then. I been itching for a fight for a while now, and you are just that kind of stupid. I’ll see you outside.” Leigh huffed off and stormed out to the beach behind the house.
“I’m sorry,” Rebel said to Gage. “Her hormones still aren’t right.”
“She’s right,” Gage said. “But damn if I didn’t have to bite my own tongue off.”
“She won’t hurt you, not really,” Rebel said. “Just give her time to cool off.”
“You need to tell her to shut it,” Gage snapped. “She has no right to bring my maker into this.” Rebel opened his mouth to say something, hell, he wasn’t even really sure what to say, but he never got the chance. From outside, Leigh was still talking. “Bet your mamma’s real proud to have raised such a pussy,” she shouted.
Gage snarled and ran outside. There were many things he would take, but talking about his mother was not one of them. Rebel tried to reach for him to stop him, but he wasn’t fast enough. Gage flew through the house like a bolt of lightning, crashing through the glass doors that led to the beach and sending glass flying everywhere.
He slammed his body into Leigh’s, knocking them both to the ground. He lay on top of her, holding her down by putting his arm across her throat. “You will never speak of her again,” he snarled in her face.
Leigh laughed out loud. “Such a mamma’s boy,” she taunted. Gage growled and pulled his arm back.
He was not one to fight a woman, even if she was likely to kick his ass. He only wanted to make a point. Leigh took the opportunity to shove him off of her and leapt to her feet. Gage was thrown so hard that his back hit the side of the house.
“You bitch,” he snapped. He lunged for her and slammed his shoulder into her chest. Leigh flew back several feet and landed on her ass. That only fueled her anger more.
“You are a selfish, ignorant bastard,” she screamed at him as she hurled herself toward him. She football tackled him to the ground and rolled on top of him. She straddled his chest and pulled her fist back. She let it snap f
orward and connected with his mouth.
Gage rolled them over quickly and sat on top of her. He spat blood to the side and gave her an evil sneer.
“What, is that all the big bad dragon has? I’m disappointed. Bet your mamma is real proud too, can’t even take out a single vampire.”
Leigh screamed in frustration. “I’m gonna kill your stupid ass,” she said, her words dripping with venom. She leapt up and while Gage was getting his footing, she tucked her foot behind his leg and clotheslined his chest with her arm. He went down, but rolled and just stood right back up.
“Gonna take more than that to kill me,” he growled.
“Leigh!” Rebel shouted, running toward her.
Leigh snapped her head in his direction and let a stream of fire shoot out of her mouth toward him. “Stay out of this, Cowboy,” she yelled at him. “This don’t concern you.” Gage lifted his hand in a stop motion and Rebel hit an invisible wall. What. The. Fuck.
Rebel backed off, allowing Leigh to blow off her steam. He knew she wouldn’t kill Gage. At least, he hoped not.
Gage and Leigh spent several minutes just crashing into each other and spitting insults back and forth. Finally they both stopped to catch their breath.
“Didn’t know you had a sore spot for your maker,” Leigh said. “The mother, I get. The maker, he just left you all alone in the world. And now we know why. I wouldn’t cop to being the one responsible for making you.”
Gage didn’t have any fight left. Fuck it, if she wanted to kill him, he was going to let her. But not before he told her something. “Yeah, I know. My maker left me when she was killed. My maker and my mother are one and the same vampire, only she didn’t make me. I was born this way.”
Leigh watched in stunned horror as Gage turned his back to her and walked back into the house. Well, shit.
CHAPTER TEN
Serena glared at her mother. She knew she was acting like a petulant child, but she was out of options. She had spent the early hours of the morning first pleading with her mother, and then raging in anger.
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