by Ivy Asher
I marvel at Bastien’s ability to be playful and silly, and yet still so emotionally in tune and mature when the situation warrants it. He sees so much more of me than I thought I was showing, and it makes me feel understood and validated. He can joke and tease with the best of them, and then turn around and talk about real-life, tough-shit in a way that makes me feel lighter and freer than I have in years.
He gives me a beautiful, heart-stopping smile and I find myself wanting to run my fingers through his incredibly inviting soft waves. I squeeze my hands into fists and growl at myself. He’s been here for five minutes, and already my self-control is being smashed into smithereens. I move to get out of his lap, and he lets me.
“Why’d you move? Did I make you uncomfortable?” he asks a curiously.
“No, it just makes it harder to listen to whatever it is you came up here to say, instead of doing other things," I admit, uncensored.
Bastien’s mind-numbing smile is back, and he pulls me back into his lap. Only this time, he positions me so that I’m straddling him instead of sitting sideways like I was before. Well, crap.
“I’m cool with other things," he tells me, and I feel the proof of his statement grow against my ass. I close my eyes and take a couple of deep breaths, to try and refocus my brain.
“What’s up?” I ask, trying to change the subject. I laugh when I realize the multitude of different ways he can answer that question. “I mean what do you want?” I try again with another chuckle.
His smile turns salacious, and he grinds himself against me. “You don’t know what I want Bruiser? I need to make myself clearer?”
I stare at him and groan irritably. Why is this so easy and all so difficult at the same time?
“I mean what did you come up here to talk about?”
I give up my internal battle and finally run my fingers through his waves. Yep, just as gloriously soft as I thought they would be. Bastien hums in appreciation as my fingertips scrape across his scalp, and now it’s his turn to close his eyes and attempt to control his breathing.
“I can’t remember. It was something along the lines of: can we just pretend Sabin is a mute and never told you any of the shit he told you," Bastien asks with a breathy laugh.
“I’m surprised Captain Cockblock let you come up here alone," I admit.
“Bruiser, let’s get a couple things straight. Sabin’s permission is not required. He doesn’t let me do anything. He can feel how he wants to and behave how he wants to, but I’m not him. Also, none of us agree with his assessment of things. So please let it go and hang with us again. You know you miss us," he smirks.
I chuckle and then evilly grind against his massive hard-on, eliciting another groan from him. “Feels like you’ve been missing me, Bastien," I counter, and high five myself internally for the sultry comeback.
“You’re playing dirty,” he accuses.
“I’m playing dirty? You started this,” I laugh, and tug lightly on the ends of his hair.
“I did, didn’t I," he grins while I continue to watch, hypnotized, as his chocolate locks slip silkily through my fingers.
“Tell me you’re going to stop avoiding us.”
“I’ll stop avoiding you," I parrot.
“I knew I could convince you. Are you sure you don’t need more convincing?” Bastien wags his eyebrows suggestively.
“Sorry to bruise your ego but you didn’t convince me of anything. I got some good advice today, and it helped me see things in a different light," I confess.
“Bummer, here I thought I could add powers of persuasion to my magical resume.”
Bastien sticks out his lower lip in a faux pout, and before I can second guess myself, I lean into him and take his pouty lip in between my own. I suck on it for a couple of seconds before I pull back to gauge his reaction.
I don’t get very far before Bastien grabs the back of my neck and pulls my lips back to his. His kiss is fire and passion and everything I need right now. His tongue sneaks in to meet mine, taking things to a whole other level, that sears the feel of his lips and tongue onto my soul.
The dam on my desire breaks, and I bury my hands in his hair, claiming him the same way he’s claiming me. Need burns through every inch of me and my magic begins to build in that same unusual way that it did with Valen and Ryker in the closet.
I moan my approval and Bastien greedily swallows my pleasure. Our kiss slows and languidly, Bastien and I pull our mouths apart from each other. We’re both breathing heavily, chests heaving with effort to fill our lungs and clear our minds.
Bastien brushes hair away from my face, and I pull my fingers through his waves one last time. I stroke the back of my fingers down his jaw and he closes his eyes and leans into my hand.
“What kind of spell are you weaving over me, Vinna?” he asks with hooded eyes and want in his tone.
I laugh softly before stealing his lips again, this kiss slower and more appreciative. I try not to move against his hardness, but it’s maddening to stay so still. I retreat, offering one last quick peck before climbing off him. Bastien groans in protest.
The space between my thighs feels empty, and a twinge in my gut tells me to do something about it. I ignore it and offer my hand to help Bastien get up.
“Let’s go before I lose my virginity on this couch," I tease.
Bastien stills immediately and gapes at me. “Wait, what?”
“What?” I ask, unsure why he’s shocked.
“Uh, I just thought otherwise, you’re so...not virginal.”
I laugh. “What does that even mean?”
Bastien runs his hands through his hair. “I don’t know. You’re not shy or awkward. You seem comfortable with things.”
I snort. “Yeah, it’s called romance novels and masturbation, and not always in that order.”
Bastien lets out a surprised chuckle, and I can’t tell if he’s embarrassed to be talking about this or interested.
“I don’t think you have to have sex to be sexual. I know what it entails. It’s also something that’s incredibly intimate to me, and until now I just haven’t met anyone I could be that way with.”
“I’m not going to lie Bruiser; my inner caveman really likes that.”
I laugh. “Don’t get any ideas about clubbing me and hauling me off to be at your mercy. I will kick your ass.”
Bastien chortles. “Don’t knock it till you try it; you might like it kind of rough.”
I laugh even harder and then clench my thighs together at the exciting thought of rough sex.
He rubs his palms together nefariously “Are you ready for the corruption of your innocence to commence, Bruiser?”
“Please, do you know who you’re talking to, what innocence?”
We both laugh.
“This is going to be fun,” he teases, in a singsong voice and gives me a quick peck.
I push his hulking form out of my room, all the while internally shouting, fuck yeah it will be.
26
The ringtone on my phone loudly serenades me, and I’m forced to abandon my dream. I blindly grab for the noisy device, refusing to open my eyes. After a couple of misplaced slaps against the cool wood of the side table, I finally find the phone underneath my grip and bring it to my ear.
“Hello?” I greet, my voice is deep and groggy with sleep. No one responds, and I listen to the silence a few seconds more before I finally open my eyes to see if the call disconnected. It’s still active, so I try again.
“Hello, anyone there?”
Silence.
An odd feeling trickles down my spine. “Talon, is that you?” I ask, and the call abruptly disconnects.
My head falls back onto the pillow and a few breaths later the phone rings again. I don’t check the caller ID just answer it quickly.
“Talon, are you okay?”
“Who’s Talon?” A smooth, melodic female voice asks me. I look at the caller ID and see it’s Mave.
“Just an old friend I’m tr
ying to get ahold of," I croak, still not all the way awake.
“Gotcha, what are you up to today besides sleeping?” Mave teases.
“Hanging with you obviously," I supply.
“Excellent. You need a swimsuit, a towel, and a desire to walk on the wild side.”
“Check, check, and check. Where should I meet you?”
“I’ll text you directions, and you can come pick me up.”
“Sweet, I’ll let you know when I’m on my way.”
Mave hangs up. No goodbye or see you later and it makes me laugh. She’s definitely my people, straight to the point with no side of bullshit. I roll out of bed and get cleaned up. I open my swimsuit drawer and pick out a bikini. I throw on a loose tank top and some denim cutoff shorts. I use my magic to counteract my bed hair, and it’s shiny and voluminous in seconds. Man, I love magic.
The drive to the address Mave sent me is beautiful--not that there’s much ugliness in Solace in general. The trees are much more condensed where she lives, and I picture wolves and other shifters being right at home amidst this wilderness.
Mave and three other people are standing at the end of a dirt road that apparently leads up to where her pack lives. I pull over, and everyone climbs in.
“Vin this is Kaika, Tru and my little brother Macon.”
I say hello to all of them and throw in a friendly wave. They all grunt various versions of hello, and one semi-grumpy hey.
Kaika and Tru look like they’d fit right in with Jacob from Twilight’s wolf pack. They both have black hair, black eyes, and tan skin. Kaika’s hair is long and straight, and Tru’s is buzzed. Macon looks like a smaller version of Mave. He has the same lanky build and heart-shaped face. He’s missing the septum piercing, and instead of having magenta pink hair like his sister, his is a medium length, blue-black.
“Nice wheels,” Mave tells me, rubbing a hand over the interior of the door.
“Yeah, did daddy buy it for his little princess?” Kaika mocks from the back.
I find his eyes in the rearview mirror. “No, I bought it from all the money I made being a badass," I say, overly sweet and cryptic while fluttering my lashes at the presumptuous prick.
“Kaika, shut up.” Mave turns around and punches him in the thigh. “I told you she’s cool. Try to be at least ten percent less miserable, so you don’t scare her off."
She turns back around, and we smile at each other. I pull off on a dirt road that takes us to a bigger dirt clearing that Mave tells me to park in. We all unload, and I follow them through the trees to a lake that’s surrounded by a sandy shore. Solace is seriously the land of endless lakes.
Mave points out some layers of cliffs to our left. “That’s what we’re doing today. You ready for a cliff jumping good time?”
I laugh as I take in the rocky wall face. Macon doesn’t wait for anyone’s invitation. He strips off his shirt and sprints away, leaving a trail of hoots behind him. Mave cracks up.
“He’s the adrenaline junkie in the family. As soon as he caught wind that I was coming here, he was begging me to come. We probably won’t even see him again until it’s time to leave.”
I chuckle and watch him disappear around a huge boulder. Tru lays out a blanket, and we settle our stuff on it. We all strip down to our swimsuits, and I excitedly follow Mave to the second level of cliffs. The trail up to the different levels of rock is smooth, which shows just how often people trek up here to do this. There’s a light breeze that’s keeping the heat at bay, and the water below us is sparkling and inviting.
“Tru, you jump first to show Vinna the best way to do it," Mave instructs.
Tru nods his head and without any hesitation leaps silently from the safety of the cliff’s edge and plummets toward the water. My heart picks up its pace, and I quickly move to the rocky edge so I can see how he enters the water. Tru breaks the rippled surface feet first and starts paddling to shore.
“Do you want to watch again, make sure you’ve got it?” Mave asks me.
“Nope, I think I’m good,” I say enthusiastically. “Any rocks or other things down there I should be worried about?” I ask as I assess the cliff’s edge around me and the water below.
“No rocks and the lake monster only hunts at night, so we’re good.”
I stare at her, trying to figure out if she’s serious or not. My initial instinct is to laugh and blow off her obvious joke, but now that I know there’s this whole paranormal world out there, I’m not so sure she’s not completely serious.
Mave stares at me straight-faced before a smart-ass glint sneaks into her features.
“Vin, you’re making this too easy.”
Mave cracks up, and I flip her the bird before I join her. I give one final chuckle and step back a couple of paces. I put my fist out, and Mave bumps her knuckles against mine. I take a running leap off the cliff. Holy shit.
The weightless feel of falling is completely liberating. The wind aggressively caresses up my body, taking my excited shouts with it, before I’m enveloped by the cold water of the lake. It’s easy to see why Macon loves this so much. My head breaks the surface of the water and Mave hoots and hollers her approval of my first jump. I have a huge smile on my face. Oh, hell yeah, I’m doing that again.
We spend the next few hours climbing up to various heights in the cliff face and then hurling ourselves over. The highest I managed was a little over forty feet, but it stung going into the water, and I decided that was as high as I wanted to go. Mave stayed with me, but Kaika, Tru and Macon were all jumping from insane heights.
“Your friends are mental,” I tell Mave, as we watch a cannonball contest commencing from what has to be seventy-feet up from the water.
“Shifters have strong bones and a seriously high pain tolerance,” she offers in explanation of their crazy-ass shenanigans. “Come on let’s go eat; I’m starving.”
My mind jumps back to the arena and the sound of Torrez’s jaw breaking. I shake it off and follow Mave back down to the blanket. She hands me a sandwich from a stack inside the small cooler they brought, and I pull out the bag of drinks I stole from the kitchen. I hand over a water and a soda, and we dig in.
I savagely devour the sandwich in no time, and Mave tosses me another one. I inhale it and then lie back and soak up the sunshine.
“What’s your family like? Is Macon your only sibling?”
Mave snorts into her soda. “No, there are eleven kids in my family. Macon’s second to last.”
“Holy shit, that’s a lot of brothers and sisters,” I declare as if Mave wasn’t aware of this fact until I dumbly pointed it out.
“Mostly brothers. Only one little sister," she corrects.
“Where do you fall in the lineup?”
“Right smack dab in the middle," Mave chuckles. “I like it though. Maybe it’s the wolf in me or my own twisted nature, but I like the chaos and comradery that comes with growing up in a big wild family.”
“I could see that," I admit. “So, tell me about shifters.”
“Hmmm, where to begin...there’s a ton of different kinds of shifters. Solace pretty much only has wolves and cougars, but shifters live all over. We tend to be predatory animals: foxes, bears, wolves, big cats, eagles, etc. We can heal pretty much anything except for a missing head. What else do you want to know?”
“I don’t know. What’s it like? Do you like being a shifter?” I ask.
“Yeah I like it, I also don’t know any different. I’ve always been a wolf. The pack can sometimes be hard. You have to listen to wolves above you in the hierarchy, but that’s life anywhere you go. I like the wildness and power that I have as a wolf. I like being part of a pack, they belong to me, and I belong to them.”
I nod my head in understanding and try to picture Mave in her wolf form. I want to ask her what she looks like as a wolf, or what it feels like to shift but I don’t know if that’s considered rude. I don’t want her to feel like a spectacle. I give her a big smile and get up and wade into the la
ke and Mave follows me in.
“How do you like working at the bookstore?” I ask, changing the subject.
“Oh, I don’t really work there. Some members of the pack own it, and we all help each other out when needed. My day job is at the local tattoo shop.”
“You’re a tattoo artist?” I ask, obviously surprised and noting the complete lack of any tattoos anywhere on her body.
“No, a piercer," Mave grins and flicks her septum ring. “You should come by sometime. I’ll give you the friends and family discount," she tells me, with an enticing singsong voice.“You could definitely pull off a nose ring with that cute little nose you’ve been blessed with.”
I chuckle at her enthusiasm.
“No face piercings for me. They can be used against you too easily.”
Thoughts of a nose ring or belly button ring getting pulled out in a fight, makes me shudder. I don’t even have my ears pierced for this reason. Mave looks at me curiously.
“Hmm something more discreet then,” she smirks. “A couple nipple rings, maybe?”
I laugh. “I don’t think I’m wild enough to pull that off.”
“Oh, I doubt that," Mave chuckles. “You were raised as a non, with monogamy and all that, but how many days were you here before your coven lust kicked in?" She winks at me, and I laugh even harder. “There’s no way you’d abandon the non-mentality you grew up with for the polyandrous ways of the casters unless you had some kink inside of you." Mave’s smart-ass grin grows wider and then she bursts into laughter and splashes me.
“Come on, Vin, your secret’s safe with me.”
She squeals when I pelt her with water.
“Admit it. You know you own a very used copy of Fifty Shades of Grey!”
I start laughing so hard I can’t breathe. “I own the whole series,” I admit through bursts of laughter as splashes rain down on me. Mave loses it with my admission, and we’re both holding our sides as we laugh our asses off.
“Let your freak flag fly, you kinky witch.”
Voices on the beach draw our attention. I look over expecting to find Mave’s friends, but it’s a different group laying out blankets right next to ours. Mave stiffens beside me.