“Emma …” Aiden’s voice was raw. His magic still thundered through his veins. “Emma.” He turned his bowed head just enough to see me, power blazing brightly in his eyes. “I’m sorry I —”
I held up my hand, letting the keys dangle from my fingers. “What do you say to a drive, sorcerer? Take me anywhere you want.” I shrugged. “Maybe they’ll all kill each other while we’re gone.”
He straightened, moving as if every bone in his body ached. My own chest constricted. I knew it was his heart that had just taken the biggest hit. He thought he’d been in the process of watching Opal die — with both of us powerless to stop it. And he’d still tried to shield her — and me — from his terror while calmly fixing the situation.
His gaze flicked from me to the keys in my hand and back again. A smile softened his hard expression, not quite reaching his eyes. “Take you anywhere I want,” he murmured. “Am I driving, then?”
Other than occasionally pulling it in or out of the barn if I wasn’t around, no one drove the Mustang but me. Though Lani Zachery was slowly setting the groundwork for asking to take it on a road trip in the summer.
“Don’t make me regret the offer, sorcerer.”
He closed the space between us, hand reaching out to cover my hand and the keys as if he was worried I might withdraw. He brushed his other thumb over my lips. Magic was so bright in his eyes that I couldn’t see their natural color.
I bit his thumb.
“Ouch,” he grouched playfully. Then he spun me toward the Mustang in some sort of dance move. I managed not to trip, but only because he checked me with a hand on my hip.
Then he took the keys from me and slapped me on the ass. Hard. “In the passenger seat with you, woman,” he commanded, stepping around and opening the passenger door for me. “Right where you belong.”
His grin and tone informed me that the order was some sort of game. Except I didn’t play games. Not well, at least.
But for Aiden, I would try. Using my own set of rules, of course.
Furrowing my brow furiously, I sauntered over. But just before I stepped into the car, I leaned over and whispered, “I’ll make you regret that, sorcerer.”
He groaned softly into my hair. “God, I hope so.”
I laughed and sat down, making certain my dress was clear of the door.
Aiden shut my door, then took a couple of steps back — whereupon he launched himself up and actually slid over the hood of the car. There had to have been magic involved for him to make the move work with so little momentum.
I cinched my seat belt, checking that the data signal on the iPad was active, and confirming that Opal hadn’t called back yet. Then I tucked it next to the seat. Aiden jumped into the convertible without opening the door. Still playing. Playing really, really intensely. As if doing so might chase all his conflicting emotions away.
He started the Mustang, put it in drive, and eased it out of the barn. Khalid was on the front patio of the house, smoking. Everyone else had dispersed.
Aiden hit the gas, fishtailing the car on the gravel and shooting us down the driveway.
Straight toward the gate.
“Aiden!” I shouted.
Grinning madly, he barked a command. The gate opened, just in time for us to clear it and make another mad turn onto the road, heading out of town.
I glanced back. My hair was wild, caught in the wind. The gate was slowly closing. Aiden had spun huge ruts into the gravel drive, presumably matching those he’d left by the barn as well.
“Aiden!” I howled above the wind.
He laughed, shouting. “I’ve been saving that spell to show off.” He glanced at me, magic dancing in his eyes. “Did it work?”
“Christopher is going to be pissed about the driveway.”
He shrugged. “I’ll fix it.”
Shaking my head at him, I reached around, stretching against my own seat belt to grab his and buckle him in. As I straightened, he wrapped a hand that should have been on the wheel around the back of my head and pulled me in for a fierce, hard kiss. There was nothing playful in his demeanor now.
I bit his lip.
Grinning, he let me go.
I straightened, then opened the glove box and pulled out a hair elastic. I struggled to smooth my hair back, getting the elastic looped once. Aiden reached over and yanked the tie out of my hair and hand, flinging it from the car.
I stared at him.
He laughed, stepping harder on the gas.
Giving in, I leaned back in my seat, holding the bulk of my hair in my hand and simply watching Aiden drive. His deeply tanned hands gripped the wheel, long legs stretching under him. His face was mostly in profile, though he snuck a few glances at me. His teeth were an occasional flash of white. His bright-blue eyes were his own again, not swamped by his unhinged power.
He was so beautiful.
Aiden had thought he was broken. That he’d been healing, and that he might now be on the edge of breaking again. I felt that complex mix of concern and fear every time I touched him. Since he’d opened his father’s letter, then even more so with the knowledge of his mother’s betrayal. And now the sharp adrenaline surge from Opal’s frantic call.
He thought he was broken. But for me, for what I needed — for what was needed by all the people he himself had declared as family to his blood relatives — he was perfect.
We had to slow to the speed limit while cutting through Youbou. Then we were winding through towering trees, catching glimpses of water, and mostly alone on the road. I checked the iPad again, wanting to make sure we weren’t going to lose the signal so that Opal could call.
I leaned against my seat belt again, sliding my hand into Aiden’s lap. He flashed a grin at me, shifting forward obligingly as I slid my hand up. I caressed him through his jeans as he rose under my hand, groaning.
He slowed the car further as I tugged at the buttons of his jeans — then sucked in his breath as I worked my way through his underwear, freeing him. I wrapped my hand around his girth, delightfully skin to skin, and started slowly stroking, pausing to tease the tip with my thumb.
I watched his face as I pleasured him. Tension lined his jaw, but for completely different reasons now.
He suddenly pulled off the road, turning sharp onto a logging side road. Gravel and dirt churned under the tires as the forest closed in around us.
I released my seat belt, ducking under his arm to lean over his lap, thankful that the floor-mounted shifter was far enough forward that it didn’t impede me. He groaned gutturally as I took him in my mouth, still keeping my hand in play.
I sucked, gently at first, still teasing. But as my own desire ignited, I tightened my grip and took more of him into my mouth.
He panted quietly, murmuring moans of pleasure. More heat flooded through me, loosening all my limbs even as a tension built between my legs.
The car rolled to a stop. My shoulder banged against the steering wheel, but then Aiden was grabbing me, lifting me over him.
“In you,” he muttered, moaning. “I want to be in you. Please.”
I tried to oblige, settling over him in an awkward tangle of limbs and clothing, and with the steering wheel in the way.
He tore my underwear off with a whisper of magic, slipping his fingers inside me — checking to make sure I was ready. I was. He wrung a groan from me as he withdrew his fingers, gripping my hips.
I slid onto him. Warm and wet, melding with him. My head fell back. His hands tightened on my hips, as if I was his anchor. I set a fast and hard pace, riding up and down his length.
“Look at me,” he demanded hoarsely. “I’m not going to last. Look at me, my Emma.”
I wrapped my hands around his face, gazing deeply into his eyes. His expression was a mixture of pain and ecstasy. He groaned, fingers digging into my hips, pleasure spasming through him. The orgasm hit him first, practically dislodging me from his lap. Then it flooded through our empathic bond.
I cried out at the sud
denness of it, still riding him as he panted underneath me. Reaching my own crescendo just as he pulled my face to him and kissed me hard, darting his tongue in and out of my mouth. I cried out again, my teeth scraping both our lips and tongues.
Shuddering, I braced myself on the seat, allowing the pleasure to linger, then ease.
Aiden reached up to stroke my neck, both our faces curtained in my hair. “I love you,” he murmured, kissing me gently.
“Even all sticky?” I said, becoming suddenly aware of our awkward position — and the fact that we were in the middle of nowhere with no running water nearby.
“Especially all sticky,” he said quietly. “But don’t move just yet? I’d like to be here, in you, for a little while longer.”
So I refrained from shifting off him, ignoring the fluids soaking in to our clothing. I tucked my face next to his, cheek to cheek. “You were brilliant,” I whispered. “With Opal. If it had just been me, or even me and Christopher …” My words got tangled in my throat.
“I’m glad I was there,” he said. “I never want to be anywhere else. I just …”
He didn’t finish his sentence, and I didn’t prompt him. I simply enjoyed the feeling of his chest rising and falling against mine, his stubble on my cheek, and the trickle of emotion from him … lingering desire, contentment …
“I never wanted you to see me like this … among them,” he whispered.
“This isn’t our life,” I said firmly. “It’s a momentary blip. An obstacle. And we are both extremely skilled at overcoming … anything.”
He smiled thinly, his cheek tightening against my own. “Are we?”
His use of ‘we’ was laced with so much sarcasm that even I heard it. And that tone somehow sliced across my chest, as sharp as any magically honed blade. Which was absolutely ridiculous.
I shifted back, brushing my lips across his. “Shall I let you inscribe truth-telling runes all over me, sorcerer? Just so you can feel my sincerity?”
He laughed. “How long would they last against the onslaught of your magic, amplifier?”
“For one question, at least. You are highly skilled.”
He chuckled. “Well, if I only get one question, it won’t be to verify your sincerity. Which I never doubt anyway.”
“Oh yes?” I asked. “What question would you ask then, sorcerer of mine?”
He sucked in a breath, staring deep into my eyes. His mouth parted slightly. Hesitantly.
“Would you have me, Emma Johnson? For ever after?”
Back in February, Aiden had teased me about proposing, about making our commitment to each other official. But I hadn’t thought the parameters of that through. Hadn’t truly thought what it would mean for him.
“Do you really want me?” I asked. “With everything that comes with me? All the danger constantly on my doorstep? Literally?”
“Well,” he drawled playfully, “I haven’t met Amanda yet. Is she the worst of the bunch?”
I grinned at him. “You’re already in love with the worst the Five can offer.”
“All right, then.” Aiden’s tone hushed, turning serious again. “With you, I can weather anything, confront anything. With you I can … believe. With you at my side …” His eyes welled with tears. They didn’t fall, but he didn’t try to hide them either.
And suddenly I was crying as well, picking up his emotion but also my own joy. “When the final adoption papers come through for Opal, I want your name on them.”
“Yes,” he said, wiping a tear from my cheek. “I want that too.”
“So then, we’d better get married,” I said. “To make it all official.”
“Oh yes,” he breathed. “To make it all official.”
I kissed him gently.
He opened the car door and lifted me from his lap, following me out. Undressing me with reverence, he whispered spells that removed any and all stickiness from our clothing and skin. As he murmured endearments filled with magic, I made quick work of his clothing as well.
When I lay down in the cramped back seat, on a blanket procured from the trunk, and invited him to me just by opening my legs, I did so with whispered promises of my own. Magic traced around us as he climbed over me. With the car doors open and the front seats shoved forward, it gave his legs a little more room — and made for some delightfully utilized leverage.
“I love you,” he said again, breath warm in my ear.
“I love you,” I said, wrapping my arms and legs and magic around him. “Aiden Azar Myers. All of you. Every broken part.”
“No,” he whispered, hand cushioning my head while the other hand slipped down between us to tease more slow licks of pleasure from me. “With you, I’m whole.”
“Yes,” I said.
And I believed it. For both of us. And Opal.
We dozed. It was too uncomfortable curled up together in the back seat to actually sleep. The noise of the forest around us rose again, birds and small animals returning after having been disturbed by the Mustang roaring up the logging road. The iPad was in easy reach, and I’d checked that we still had a signal. But Opal hadn’t called yet.
Aiden’s heartbeat was steady under my ear, his fingers lazily combing through my hair, gently untangling it from the effects of the windy drive and the sex.
No.
The lovemaking.
And it was completely okay to call it that, even if only in the depths of my mind. To acknowledge that. Because even setting aside all the playfulness, the consideration, and the occasional rune that Aiden usually brought to our bed, our need to be with each other this day — twice in rapid succession — had been completely different.
I raised my head, meeting Aiden’s gaze.
A soft smile lifted one corner of his mouth. But before I could speak, before I could express any of what I was feeling, he tugged me into a kiss. And it, too, was different. Gentle but utterly possessive. Lips lingering as if we were trying to breathe for each other, just for that moment.
As if loving, and showing that love physically, was completely different than simply having sex.
“I’m lying here … thinking …” he murmured.
“That you don’t want to go back?”
He laughed quietly. “The opposite. Because not going back means giving in, losing. I’d have you, but not everything else I want. Opal, Paisley, even Christopher. The house, the library … the responsibility. I want to be responsible. I want to contribute. Hell, I want to provide for you and Opal, as antiquated as that sounds.”
I blinked at him, suddenly fighting back another of those weird washes of tears — from overwhelming joy, I thought. Joy in response to the idea that someone, anyone, wanted to take care of me. For me, not because of some blood bond that had been forced upon them. Upon us.
“I … I don’t think I lost sight of that.” Aiden thoughtfully furrowed his brow. “I just … I could feel it slipping away.”
“It wasn’t.”
“I know that. Now.”
I just smiled at him. He’d already said what I’d been thinking, what I’d been feeling. Even without the empathic connection, I’d be able to sense the contentment rolling off him. The steadiness, the resolve.
“Speaking of Opal …” I said.
“Yes.” He kissed me again, then patted my partially covered ass. We’d retrieved the blanket from under us to curl up in, but it wasn’t as nice as being snuggled in our bed together.
I propped myself up — reluctantly, though I took the opportunity to check the iPad yet again — as I tried to figure out how to untangle my limbs from his without putting my knee in the wrong place and causing him bodily harm. My hair fell down around my naked shoulders and chest.
Aiden made the low noise he made when we were alone and he thought I was beautiful. Even sexy. Usually right after he exposed my breasts, or when I was on top of him taking my own pleasure.
“Again?” I teased.
He groaned. “My mind says, yes, yes, yes. But alas, I’m
most definitely spent. Though there is a rune …” He grinned at me wickedly.
“There’s always a rune, sorcerer!”
He laughed as he sat up, shifting so I could find my own footing. He took the opportunity to cup my breast and whisper into my neck, “There is indeed.”
I laughed — though I knew I needed to keep moving before I decided we should put his rune to the test.
We climbed out of the back seat. Gently touching each other, we tidied up as best we could, then climbed back into the car.
I drove this time — and quickly discovered that backing down a single-lane dirt road I’d never driven before wasn’t much fun. Thankfully, Aiden hadn’t gotten far from the main paved road before he’d stopped.
With my head still cranked over my shoulder and the car in reverse, the memory of forcing Aiden to do just that made me smile.
He reached over and ran his thumb across my bottom lip. “What’s that smile for?” he murmured.
I smirked, and didn’t tell him.
He laughed quietly, lounging back in as much of a twist as his seat belt would allow, watching me with a purely satisfied smile on his face. ‘Smoldering,’ it would have been called in a book or a movie.
I recognized it as the same look he got when a spell triggered and performed exactly as he’d intended. A mixture of satisfaction and delight, and of intention. A kind of resolve.
We were halfway back to the property when the iPad started trilling. Aiden grabbed it from beside his seat as I pulled over to the side of the road.
It wasn’t a video. Just a voice call from an unknown number. Aiden answered it.
“It’s me.” Opal’s voice sounded thin on the iPad speaker — and peeved enough to let me know she was okay.
Some sort of emotion tore out of me. It might have been a sob. And for the first time in my life, I pressed my hand over my mouth and had to fight to keep it at bay.
Aiden grabbed my other hand. “We’re here,” he said, his voice steady. “Just Emma and me. We’re worried about you.”
“Yeah.” Opal sighed heavily. “I’m in the principal’s office. On speaker.”
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