All Sophie could do was stare. She knew it was rude, but she couldn’t help it. The creature that stood in front of her was horrifying, sad, painful-looking. She looked like the twisted, stunted trees that grew for acres around the big Victorian house in which Esme lived. “A glamour?” Sophie finally asked.
“It’s a spell. I can hold it for quite a while, to make me look the way I once did.” She sighed. “But it’s tiring, so unless I’m with other people, I don’t bother holding it. One of the many reasons I live alone: I don’t need to keep up the glamour. It draws a lot of power.” She looked back at Sophie. “This is what he does when you make him angry. And you have enraged him. You’ve stolen his power. He might not have the magic left in him to do this to you, but he’ll find ways to hurt you, to make you wish you were dead. What he might lack in power now, he makes up for in pure evil. And despite what you want to think, Shadow and evil are not the same thing.”
The air around Esme shimmered again, and she returned to her young, beautiful appearance. “So you need to get over this shit with missing the Light. You’re Shadow. And Shadow will be what saves you. But you need to pull your head out of your ass first. Come over tomorrow and we’ll try again.”
And with that, Esme was gone. Sophie took several deep breaths, feeling like she was on the verge of a panic attack.
What the hell was she supposed to do against that level of sadistic evil? To do that to someone, to force them to live like that… Sophie felt her legs start to give out, and she sat down on the ground before she fell down. She couldn’t get that vision of Esme out of her mind.
If he’d done that to Esme, simply for getting in the way, what would he do to her?
“He doesn’t have enough power anymore,” Sophie whispered, trying to reassure herself. “He can’t do that much damage.” Even if Esme was convinced he’d still hurt her, there was no way he could go that far. That level of magical torture, to make Esme look that way… there was no way Marshall was still capable of that.
After a while, Sophie pulled herself up and headed into the house. When she stepped into her living room, she looked out the front window, across the road toward Calder’s house. She saw Calder’s brother, Jon, standing in the driveway with him, both of them looking at the car they were restoring. From what she understood, Calder did most of the actual restoration. Jon helped hunt down parts, arranged the purchase of the cars, and sold them. He did some restoration, too, but the bigger ones were left to Calder.
Her heart squeezed at the memory of Calder’s voice that morning, the hurt in it. She was always doing that to him, hurting him in one way or another. She knew it shouldn’t matter if the curse had played into them ending up together or not. She knew she loved him. The curse being gone hadn’t changed how much she loved him, except that she seemed to fall a little deeper for him every day. She’d made it sound like she loved him less, when nothing could be further from the truth.
She could admit it: she was afraid of the affect magic had had on both of their lives, and learning about what Marshall had done to Esme didn’t make it any better. She didn’t trust magic. The idea that it was there, somewhere, tangled up in what was between herself and Calder… it made her afraid. So far, all magic had given her was trouble.
And wasn’t that pretty much what Esme had been warning her against, that her issues with being able to make Shadow work were in her head, in her beliefs? If she wanted to keep everyone safe from Marshall, she needed to figure out a way to get the hell over it. How to suddenly decide that there was nothing to worry about with Shadow was another thing entirely. How do you pretend at something you know you don’t believe?
As she stood there, she watched Jon and Calder get into Jon’s truck and drive down the road. She took a deep breath. Spending time with his brother was good, even if Jon pretty much hated her. He and Calder were close, and she knew Jon would keep him safe if Marshall tried anything. She dragged herself into the bathroom to take a shower, hoping the hot water would work some of the aches out of her body, then she pulled on some yoga pants and a soft sweater she liked and climbed into bed.
Getting your ass kicked magically was really, really tiring, she thought as she closed her eyes and drifted off. She’d fix things with Calder when he got home. It would be fine.
When Sophie woke up, the house was dark. A glance toward the front windows showed an orangey glow, and she sat up with a yawn. Sunset. She hadn’t expected to sleep that long.
And then she remembered that the front of her house faced north, not west.
“What the hell?” she muttered. She got up and moved toward the front door, and it was then that she smelled the smoke. She pulled the front door open just as a fire truck pulled up on the street.
Behind it, Calder’s house was burning. She looked around in a panic and saw Calder and Jon not too far away, looking at the house with stony expressions. She slipped into her shoes and ran toward them
“Are you okay?” she asked. Calder turned.
“I’m fine. We pulled up and saw it burning. I didn’t know you were home,” he said.
“I was asleep. Oh my God,” she said, looking at his house again. The old farmhouse was an inferno. The three of them stood and watched as a second fire truck pulled up and the crews worked to put the fire out. She glanced up at Calder, and one look told her that he was beyond pissed. That muscle in his jaw was jumping, and his blue eyes were narrowed. She slipped her hand into his and, after a moment, he gave her hand a gentle squeeze.
“You can stay with me,” Jon said as they watched. It was clear that the house was a loss.
“That’s too far away. I’ll stay with Bryce.”
“Layla’s staying with Bryce,” Jon said, and Sophie and Calder both looked at him. “I ran into him earlier. He was buying paint, and he said he was repainting the kitchen because Layla suggested it and she’s staying with him.”
Calder looked back at his house.
“You can stay with me,” Sophie said, leaning against him.
He didn’t answer for a while. “Are you sure?”
“Yeah.”
Calder nodded and squeezed her hand again.
With the fire mostly out, one of the firefighters walked over to them, pulling his helmet off.
“You the homeowner?” he asked Calder, and Calder nodded.
“Looks like a loss, man. I’m sorry.”
“You and your guys did the best you could. Any idea what started it?”
“That’s what I wanted to talk to you about. Found three big gas cans just outside your back door, which was where it started. You have them stored there?”
Calder shook his head. “No. I have one big gas can in my garage.” Sophie glanced to the garage, grateful that it seemed okay, along with the cars inside it.
“We’ll have the arson investigators come by. We’ll need you to stay away from the house until the investigation is over with.”
Calder nodded and gave the firefighter his contact information, then they watched as the crews finished up. Calder thanked each of them, and then, after making sure Calder didn't want to crash at his house, Jon drove off as well, leaving Sophie and Calder standing near the road, looking at the charred remains of Calder’s house.
“Good thing I wasn’t attached to that house, I guess,” he said after a while.
“And you didn’t have much in it,” Sophie added. Calder’s house was very bare bones. He’d only bought it back when he and Jon had first plotted to force one of Migisi’s descendants to try to break the curse. The plan had been to use the house to keep an eye on Evie, and then whoever ended up inheriting the house after she passed. Sophie had moved in, and her first few meetings with Calder afterward had been her trying to talk him into not seizing her property in the auction that was scheduled to pay off Evie’s debts.
Seeming to sense what she was thinking, Calder gave her a little smile. “I was a dick when you first moved back here.”
Sophie nodded. “You were. I�
�m glad you didn’t keep acting like that.”
“As soon as I knew it was you, I wanted to pull the plug on the plan,” Calder admitted.
“Desperation. We’ve had a lot of that.”
Calder nodded, and she tugged his hand, pulling him toward her house.
“Sophie… are you sure? Really?”
She stopped and looked up at him, then ran her fingertips along his jaw. “I am. All of that, earlier… I just hate feeling so out of control. And I know you’ve been through a hell of a lot since we’ve been together, and I have, too. I guess I was just feeling tired of being jerked around by magic and curses and all of this other crap.”
“Okay. But what changed between then and now?” he asked.
She pressed herself closer to him, and his arms went around her automatically, as if his body and hers both knew that was exactly where she belonged. “I realized that I don’t care how we got together or why. We’re here now, and so many times, we almost weren’t. I’m tired of wasting time,” she finished.
He leaned down, and the second his lips touched hers, she was lost. The familiarity of his body, of his lips on hers, paired with the excitement and lust that never failed to ignite when he touched her was an irresistible combination. She put her arms around his neck and pulled him closer, and Calder held her tighter. In between kisses, they eventually made it up her front stairs and into the house. The second they were inside, Calder closed the front door and pressed her up against it, claiming her lips again, holding her close, trapping her between his big body and the solid door behind her. She was trembling, a mix of need and excitement that overwhelmed her with its intensity. They hadn’t been together since before she’d enacted her ruse with Jack to break the curse. Months. She moaned when he bent his head and gently nipped her neck. His hands roamed her body, moulding her hips, then sliding up her body, awakening every nerve, rendering her almost insane in her need. When he finally cupped her breasts, she moaned in need.
“It’s been so long, Sophie,” he said, his voice low and hoarse in the darkness.
“Yes.”
He massaged her breasts, pressing his thumbs to her nipples as she groaned in frustration.
“Too much clothing,” she muttered, and he laughed, but it sounded strained.
“I should run, kitten,” he murmured before bending his face to her neck again.
“I trust you,” she whispered. “I need you now, Calder.”
“Sophie,” he murmured, and she kissed him again, clinging to him. She wrapped her legs around his hips and gently bit his lower lip and she could sense the instant he decided that running was overrated as a form of stress relief.
Especially when they were so good at relieving stress together. Within seconds, her top and bra were off and flung somewhere in the darkness. His hands were on her breasts again, gentle at first, and she shifted her hips against his, trying to get some relief. When he rolled her nipples between his fingers, she cried out, and he let out a low laugh and did it again.
“Strip and get in bed,” he said quietly. She slid down his body and he groaned, almost a growl, a warning that he was at the edge of control as it was. Her stomach fluttered as she remembered the only other time he’d allowed himself to take her when he was barely holding on to control. It had been hard, punishing, animalistic. She needed that now, and from the way he’d groaned, he needed it, too. She quickly stripped and climbed onto the daybed. She waited, and heard his zipper, the rustle of him removing his clothing. She wished for a light so she could see him. He was a shadow in the dark room. He crawled onto the bed, too, pushing her thighs open so he could kneel between them. He kept her like that, thighs spread, waiting, while he ran his fingertips over her thighs, up her hips, over her stomach. She felt like she could barely breathe. When he reached her breasts, he rubbed and tugged her nipples, not exactly gently, and she let out a wail of need. When he lowered his head and pulled one tender peak into his mouth, she cried out again, arching her back for more of him. He obliged, sucking her nipple into his mouth, torturing her with his lips and tongue before releasing it with an audible “pop.”
“So good. You taste so good, Sophie,” he growled, and then he claimed her other nipple just as his fingers made their way between her thighs. He found her ready for him and he groaned. He knew her body like no one else, knew exactly how to touch her, how hard, how fast, to send her spiraling out of control almost immediately. She screamed his name as her first orgasm hit her, and he kept his attention focused on her, his mouth on her breasts, his fingers working between her legs, and she immediately felt another orgasm building.
“Calder. Please,” she moaned. He slid one thick finger inside her in response, and she thrusted her hips toward him, taking the pleasure he was offering. She knew he loved this part, loved seeing how many times he could send her over the edge with his hands and his mouth before she was sated, her body over-sensitized from his attentions.
He loved taking her then, when she was almost too sensitive to take it, when every touch, every thrust felt like almost too much. He knew, from all the times he’d taken her, helping her relieve the endless lust that came with his curse, that her strongest orgasms would come then, that he’d be rewarded with a scream, with her fingernails scoring his back.
When that point finally came, when he finally pressed into her, filling her, she almost cried in relief. They moved together, hands clasped, fingers twined as he pressed her hands into the bed, every thrust, every groan, every whispered plea like their own form of deliverance. His thrusts became harder, more erratic, and a low growl sounded deep in his throat.
“Let go, Calder. I want it,” she whispered. He still seemed hesitant. “ I trust you. You know you want to remind me who I belong to, don’t you? You want me to feel you inside me every time I move tomorrow, to remember what you did to me—”
She’d been about to say more, but her words had worked as she’d hoped they would, and he took her harder, faster, the bed creaking, the side of the daybed thumping the wall nearby under the stress of his powerful movements. Sophie felt so full, this perfect mix of pleasure and pain that was so them she nearly cried with how perfect it was, with how much she’d missed this. He hammered into her, and she came with a high-pitched scream that only seemed to send him over the edge. He lowered his mouth to her neck and sank his teeth into the sensitive skin there, finishing with several long, hard thrusts that had her feeling like she’d split in two.
When he was spent, he lay on top of her, their body still joined. He knew this, too, that she was happiest when she was crushed under his big body. She felt safe, protected. It was the only time in her life she’d ever allowed herself that feeling, the only time she’d trusted anyone enough to let go of the constant vigilance she’d lived with for so long. She knew he had her. And she had him, too.
“Was it too much?” he whispered after a while.
“Never.” She ran her hands up and down his back, her fingertips tracing the long trails she’d clawed down his shoulders and spine. “It was perfect.”
“Good. Damn, Sophie. I needed that, honey.”
She let out a small laugh. “Me, too.” She could feel him, and she moaned a little. “You’re ready to go again already?”
He sat up and picked her up, flipping her over so she was on her hands and knees.
“Like I said. It’s been a long time,” he told her. Shortly afterward, she seemed to lose the ability to form words as he showed her just how much he’d missed the things they did to one another.
Chapter Twelve
When Calder woke up the next morning, it was to find everything as it should be: Sophie naked in bed beside him, the house quiet and peaceful. His bear would have normally been freaking out after spending this much time near Sophie, but Calder suspected that the energy he’d expended last night getting reacquainted with Sophie’s body had helped with that.
One more reason to make sure he had Sophie naked and screaming as often as possible. As i
f he needed another one.
He studied Sophie as she slept. She was on her side, facing him, her hand resting on his chest. Her curls, always a little out of control, seemed to be everywhere this morning, framing her face, spread over her pillow in billowy waves. Her dark eyelashes fluttered as she dreamed, and he could just make out the faint dusting of freckles over her nose and cheeks. She was the most gorgeous woman he’d ever seen, and that was before he even took her body into account.
It wasn’t just her appearance, either. Sophie was a fighter. She cared so much, and if you were one of the lucky ones she cared about, you knew it. The shit she’d been through before coming back to Copper Falls, and since, had roughened her personality more than a little. She was hard to reach sometimes, and her trust was as easy to gain as that of a skittish kitten. He hadn’t realized it at the time that his pet name for her would end up being accurate in more ways than one. And even if she trusted you, it didn’t mean she’d keep trusting you. He’d been through that more than a few times with her already, and he hated it. He knew why she was like that, but it didn’t mean he had to like it.
Sophie opened her eyes a while later and gave him a sleepy smile. “Morning,” she murmured.
“Morning.” He was more than ready to roll her over onto her back and lose himself in her again, but he knew he hadn’t exactly been gentle with her the night before. Instead, he leaned over and kissed her, and she wrapped both arms around his neck and kissed him back.
“Calder,” she murmured against his mouth. And then she rolled over onto her back, urging him on top of her. She opened her legs, and it spoke to every instinct he had, both as man and beast: when your mate opens her legs for you, you accept that gift like the miracle it is, and make sure she wants to open them for you again soon.
“You’re sure?” he murmured against her throat.
“Very, very sure.”
It was all the encouragement he needed.
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