“Do you need any help?”
“No, thank you.”
The sounds of the heavy traffic disappeared as he walked into the lobby of the building. He was back where he started from. Upstairs an empty apartment waited for him. He took the elevator as he pondered what he learned in the Sudir village. Nathan said he wasn’t dying, and he was right, but when had the process reversed?
He walked into his apartment to find it untouched, and sorrow touched his heart. He allowed his body to drop into a chair as he thought about Grace. A smile curved his lips even though he hadn’t wanted to smile. Grace accepted him. It didn’t matter to her what he was or what he looked like. She simply accepted him. She curled her body into his and made him feel alive for the first time in his adult life.
He accepted himself because she accepted him. He hadn’t changed; there was nothing different about him; he simply saw himself through her eyes now, and her eyes were full of acceptance. He wasn’t dying, the smile he gave himself was bitter. What use was life if she wasn’t there to live it with him? The one thing he wouldn’t do was throw the gift of life that she gave him away, even though he wanted to.
His body felt heavy as he dragged it out of the chair and into the kitchen.
“I’m hungry would you make me something to eat, too?”
“Grace?” He spun around to see her moving through the living room. “Grace!”
His long strides took him to her quickly. He picked her up and spun her around before tucking her into his arms and sitting on the couch.
“I thought you were dead,” he said, placing small kisses all over her face. His eyes roamed her body still afraid that she was an illusion he conjured up during his sadness.
She gave him a shaky smile and held onto him with the strength she had left.
“What happened?”
“I fought the witch who placed the curse on my family. I won, or at least I think I won, but now I’m so weak I’m not sure.”
He stood up with her in his arms and took her to the kitchen. He wasn’t sure what she needed, but he knew he could cook for her. She wiggled around in the chair when he let her go to get comfortable. His heart contracted; she looked like she had been living under the bridge again.
“How long have you been gone, Grace?”
He pulled out the ingredients to make a chicken salad and waited for her answer.
“I don’t know, it felt like minutes and hours rolled into one. This place plays tricks with time. So I never know how long I’ve been somewhere.”
“What happened with the witch?”
“She acted like a spoiled teen who had never been taught right from wrong. My ancestor was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and we all paid for it.”
“What happened to the witch?”
“She’s learning that decisions have consequences, and not all of them are nice.”
Joaquin finished the food thinking of some of the consequences he had to endure for his actions. He plated the food and soon they were both sitting at the table eating.
“I like how you do things.” Grace said as he collected the plates, rinsed them for the dishwasher and cleaned up after himself.
He chuckled, “I like how you do things too. Like the way you moaned when you were in my bed.”
He walked over to her picking her up. They went into the bedroom where he laid her down. She took off the pants she was wearing then changed into one of his shirts. He lay on the bed with her, and she rolled into his arms.
“When I wake up,” she whispered. “I’m going to love you so hard that you’ll never doubt how I feel about you ever again.”
She closed her eyes and fell asleep snuggled close to his chest.
*~*~*~*
She woke to feel Joaquin’s fingers sliding down the side of her hip.
“Hi sexy,” she grinned at him.
“I thought you would never wake up. I’ve been lying here wanting to touch you for hours with this completely hot vision of you making my body sing.”
She gave a small growl from the back of her throat. “My poor baby.”
Her hand went down under the cover until she touched his thick hard cock.
“Mmm,” she licked her lips. “What have I found under the covers?”
Her lips turned up into a bright smile that he couldn’t resist, so he leaned over and kissed her. She deepened the kiss, sucking his tongue into her mouth as she dueled with it.
“Joaquin, you should be registered as a deadly weapon,” she said before kissing him again.
She loved the way his tongue flicked over hers before carefully tugging on it as he sucked it. Her body reacted by tensing up as she felt pleasure crawl through her then relaxing, inviting him to do it again.
She pushed him down onto his back before sitting on his chest.
“Now where were we?” she asked as her fingers stroked the column of his neck. He shivered when she touched the middle of his neck, so she did it again.
“I think your sensitive right here.” She stuck her tongue out and licked him before sucking on his skin.
His moan of approval was all she needed to keep going. She opened her mouth and nipped him where he was sensitive.
His hand went to the back of her neck. “Harder,” he growled.
She bit him again, and he rubbed his thick cock against her pussy almost driving her insane.
“You're trying to tempt me, but it won’t work. I’m a woman on a mission.”
She licked down his neck until she got to his shoulder. She placed a string of little bites along his shoulder before she sucked hard leaving a mark so everyone would know he was with her.
He loved what she was doing and encouraged her. “I want everyone to know I belong to you.”
“They’ll know,” she said in between licking his chest. “Just like they’ll know I belong to you.”
It was that easy, Grace thought as she sat still for a minute. Between the space of one thought and another, the realization that she loved Joaquin was there. She loved him, the one thing she fought because she knew that love could lead her to have children and pass on the curse.
She also understood why her parents had her because love made you believe, it made you hope that the future for your children would be different, better than yours had been.
She loved him. Would he run if she told him?”
“Grace? What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” A single tear ran down her face, and he reached out to catch it.
“Then why are you crying?”
“I just realized I love you. It came from nowhere like it was waiting for the right moment to spring the news on me. I love you, Joaquin.”
She leaned down to hug him and his arms went around her hugging tightly like he was a vice.
“I won’t let you change your mind, Grace, and I won’t give you up. I never thought I would love, and then you came into my life. Piecing me back together with your acceptance and those smiles that touch my heart. I watched how brave you were when you thought you were going to die and how you cared for others even when you knew you couldn’t save them.
“I don’t know when I fell in love with you, Grace. I just know I love you.”
“You’re never getting rid of me,” she told him before taking a nipple into her mouth and sucking on it. Her hands played with his chest as her fire came out to stroke him. She drew a trail of fire over his stomach causing him to laugh when she found a ticklish spot.
“Mmm.” She rumbled in the back of her throat as she did it again. The sound of his laughter and his passion eased the tension out of her body. The more she played with him, the stronger she could feel the connection between them.
She took her tongue and followed the little trail of hair he had leading down his body until she was back where she began with his cock in her sight.
She reached out and licked at the head. The pre-cum was sweet and salty making her want to suck him down so she could have him all at once. She restra
ined herself and licked at the head of his cock again. She let out a moan as his taste invaded her senses.
“You taste so good.”
“I love how you look with your mouth wrapped around my cock.”
She looked up to see he had managed to stack the pillows, so his upper body was high enough for him to look down and watch her. His eyes were now a bright silver and every time she licked the head of his cock they flared brighter.
She could do this forever and be happy. She wrapped her hand around him then took her tongue and started with the head and licked her way down his cock until she reached his balls. She took them into her mouth and loved the way they moved for her. His deep breathing turned her on along with the sound of his voice it was guttural and thick touching places deep within her. Her tongue licked up his cock until she was wrapping her tongue around the head. She opened her mouth and took him deep inside of her.
His deep groan did her in as she sucked on him. He filled her mouth, and she knew there would be no way she could take him all in, but that didn’t stop her from trying. Her cheeks pulled in as she sucked harder. He gave tightly controlled punches of his hips that spurred the pleasure but weren’t enough to choke her.
His hand came down and stroked her hair while she sucked on him making him want more.
“Grace,” he called her name and tried to reach for her.
She pushed his hands away. Not this time. She wanted him to know she was giving him pleasure. She wanted him to lose control as her mouth pulled on his cock, and she wanted to drink every bit of him down like he was the finest wine she ever tasted.
She used her hand, pulling it up and down on his shaft to match the movement of her mouth. His skin was so soft under her hand, and he was so hard under his skin that she felt like she was being overwhelmed by sensations. When his groans and growls got louder, and his hips started to rock faster, excitement grew inside of her. She wanted this, she wanted to have him spill in her mouth.
“Joaquin, mine to love,” she said around his cock as she sucked him harder and moved her head faster.
“Grace,” he screamed her name as his hips punched up and his body started to shake. Spurt after spurt of his essence flowed from him, and she caught it, drinking it down until finally, his body collapsed under her.
“Grace.” His hands were in her hair stroking it.
She finally climbed his body to smile at him. “We should do that again. Soon, like as soon as you recover.”
He smiled. “What am I going to do with you, Grace?”
“Just love me.”
Chapter Fifteen
Waking up on the water wasn’t something Grace wanted to do ever. Fire and water don’t get along, but that’s where she found herself. She was in the middle of the ocean; it could have even been Lake Superior for all she knew. She simply couldn’t see anything that looked like a land mass from where she was.
She was in a wooden canoe. It was deeper than she thought they were that made her feel a little better. The wood meant she couldn’t use her fire, not that she could have used it on the water. It was one thing to pour her fire on the surface of a pond, but it was totally different pouring fire onto a surface that was so deep she would never survive if she was submerged under the water.
She was dead. If she tried to swim her fire would eventually go out, and it would kill her. She was so integrated with her flame that she couldn’t live without it at this point in her life. She doubted she could have lived without it even at birth. She picked up the only thing she had, a paddle.
In her heart, she had entertained the possibility that the trials didn’t want to kill her. When she ended up in Joaquin’s apartment yesterday, the relief had been overwhelming. For the first time since she turned thirty, she thought they had a chance to be together, to soul-bond, to have children. She was wrong, the water that surrounded her would kill her, and she didn’t know how or why but the trials would kill Joaquin too. They were never meant to be together.
Taking the paddle, she dipped it into the water and began slowly pushing the boat. She went to the right because she thought there was land always to the right. It would be nice if she could go north or east but she’d never been a girl scout and had no idea where north or east was in relation to where she was, but she did know where the right was, so that’s the direction she went.
She paddled keeping an eye on her surroundings, but most of her thoughts were centered on Joaquin. Where was he? What was he doing and most importantly was he okay? Let him be okay she begged silently, foolishly believing that someone might be able to hear her.
When she saw a wall of water rising she knew, she was in trouble. She lay down on the floor of the canoe and wrapped her arms around the seat. If she went under she was as good as dead, and she waited, the paddle was cradled against her body because if she lost that she was as good as dead. The canoe began to rock violently.
“Please, please, please…” was all she could say when she saw a wall of water coming for her. She closed her eyes saying goodbye to Joaquin one last time and hoping with all of her heart that he knew she loved him.
The water hit; she felt it cold and icy like death sliding over her. It pressed down against her face taking away her ability to breath as the canoe flipped over several times rolling like the wheel that came loose from a car. When the canoe stopped, she was suffocating, knowing she was about to take in a large lungful of water but unable to stop it from happening. She put the last of her energy into flipping the canoe, immediately throwing up water even as she clung to the side of the canoe.
A small chill was beginning to enter her body; her fire was going out. It took time and strength she didn’t have to spare but eventually she managed to get back in the canoe. Her paddle was gone, but she was lucky to still be alive. There was water at the bottom of the canoe weighing it down further into the water, and there was something circling just ahead. Her life would once again be measured in hours.
*~*~*~*
Joaquin woke with a smile on his face as he reached out to touch Grace. His smile turned into a frown quickly when he realized she wasn’t in the bedroom. Don’t panic, he told himself silently as he padded across the floor naked to the bathroom. It was empty, but he still refused to panic. She would be in the living room or the kitchen he assured himself. He walked through the living room to the kitchen, but she wasn’t there.
He bought nice furnishing because he was able to but his heart was never wrapped up in them. All he wanted to see was his living room burn because Grace lost control for a minute. All he wanted to see was Grace.
“I would appreciate it if you would put on some pants.”
Voyager was sitting in the living room looking just like his dad and for once, he didn’t care. Sheer rage took over and he attacked Voyager—attacked his father.
“You left me,” he screamed as he continued to hit him. “You left just when mom and I needed you, and now you let The Trialx take Grace. I hate you,” he screamed.
Joaquin’s body collapsed on the floor; the anger and the frustration and the fear he felt as a child poured out of him. Then he lay there because there was no reason to get up now that Grace was gone. He would simply wait for his death here.
Voyager stood and sat on the floor next to Joaquin, his hand rested on his shoulder.
“Do you know your Uncle Colun has a special gift?”
“I know, so what.” His voice was lifeless.
“Every original Arbrin/Matra received a special gift on the day the two became one. I do not know why I like to think it was the universe's way of righting a wrong. Their gifts weren’t the same. Your father had the ability to see what would happen to his family. What would happen to you. The day your father died he saw you lying in a pool of blood because he couldn’t save you from what was coming only your Uncle Colun could. Your dad saw his brother dying along with the children they were protecting because he wanted to live.
“Your dad had a choice to make and only a spli
t second to make it. He could save his brother, the males they were trying to protect, and his son or he could let them all die for one more day of life. In the end, he chose you Joaquin, and you have spent your life throwing his gift away.”
Voyager stood and walked to the kitchen. “Let me know if you still wish to choose death. I will carry out the sentence quickly.”
Joaquin stood up and walked back to his room. His mind consumed with the bitterness he spent centuries feeling and now he had a different version of his pain before him. Whatever the reason his father left him he still felt the pain of him not being there, but the truth was there were times parents sacrificed for their children. He needed time to process and forgive, but he would do both of them.
What he needed more was Grace. He dressed and ran into the kitchen.
“Where is she?”
Voyager lifted a brow and looked at him.
“Where’s Grace?” He didn’t want to play; he wanted the woman he loved because it wouldn’t be fine without her in his life.
“She is dying.”
Joaquin tried to throw himself at Voyager but couldn’t move.
“I allowed you to use me as a way to drain your pain and your grief but no more. If you think, you are ready to try and save her we can go. I suggest you say you are ready because she will not last much longer.”
*~*~*~*
Grace smiled at Joaquin, she placed her hand against his face and traced his lips before she tried to kiss him, but he floated away like the mirage he was. The sun beat down overhead drying her out, making her even more parched, it had been two days maybe three. There was no food and no water. There was no paddle, sometimes when she got determined she would put her hands in the water to move the canoe along. That wasn’t often, especially after something tried to take her finger tips off.
She raised a hand, and a tiny little spark of a flame danced on her baby finger. That was all the flame she could make now. That, if nothing else, told her death was imminent. Having nothing else to do, she talked to the trials, told it all about Joaquin and why he was worth saving. She understood why she needed to die. Cursed people shouldn’t be allowed to live to hurt others, but Joaquin wasn’t cursed, so she pleaded one last time that the trials would allow him to live before she closed her eyes.
Joaquin's Saving Grace (Alien Mates Book Five 5) Page 9