Because I can’t stand the thought of anyone else laying claim to her. Besides, there is no way I am going to put her through the agony of waiting for me while I go off on missions.
Not that I can stop myself from the buzz of adrenaline either… The goals of the Fae Corps have changed. We no longer kill, we protect. And isn’t that the irony of it all? The fact that I have always had it in me. It just took the attentions of my Starlight to bring that out. Now don’t go thinking that I've gone all wooly inside. Well, a little, just a tad. Especially when she gazes at me with those silver eyes as she is now. My woman stalks forward next to me, her hand grasped in mine. Her shoulders square, and her spine is erect. She swings that thick hair back and jerks her chin toward the courtyard that comes into sight.
“You gonna kick his ass, Dante?”
I grunt. No, I don’t reply, for that would be giving away just how much her nearness still affects me. That even now the feel of her skin against mine heats my blood. That her scent tugs at my nerves and her cries from when she last came apart in my arms rings in my ears. No, I don’t need to tell her all that because I know she is aware of it already. I reach out through the mating bond and flick out a lick of heat toward her. I ease it down her chest, heading straight for that secret core of hers, the one that belongs to me, that is owned by me. I did break her after all, only I ruined myself in the process. I knew what I was doing, no regrets.
She shivers, and her fingernails dig into the palm of my hand. Already the blood rushes to my groin. I pause at the perimeter of the courtyard before we enter the fray where my opponent awaits, then I pull her to me.
She swings around and gasps. Her eyes dilate, her cheeks flush. “Fuck, Dante, you turn me on the way no one ever has.”
“You better remember that, Starlight.” I know I sound way too possessive, and I don’t care. That’s what I am. No longer a killer but a lover, a man mated to the most seductive woman of all.
She is mine, and I belong to her. Hey, no shame in admitting that I’m chained to her, that when it comes to her, I am helpless. And I am going to make sure everyone else gets the message. That they can’t touch her. She is my property. To break and put back together, again and again. Each time I find a different part of her, a side she’s hidden away. Parts she still tries to hold on to, not knowing that I won’t stop, not until I know her every secret.
Some of my emotions bleed through the bond, and that’s okay. It only adds to the excitement of this chase, this game between us, a secret language of our own that no one else knows about.
Her lips tremble, and her eyes grow hooded. I crush her breasts to my chest, and a shiver runs down her spine. I grab her hips and grind her against my already hard erection. “As you can see, the feeling is mutual.”
A smile lifts her lips, and damn, my heart stutters. This woman, she can cut me off at the knees. She can slay me with just a touch, lay me low with a kiss. She lifts her head and brushes her lips over mine. Then she steps on my feet, heaves herself up to tiptoe, and wriggles that deliciously soft core at the apex of her thighs against my erect dick. My cock throbs. I thrust my tongue into her mouth, suck on her essence, and take in a huge gulp of that sweet honey of her. She moans in her throat, and my head spins. I am tempted to simply teleport us away from here, back to my bedroom in our apartment in the city, where I’ve kept her captive for the last week. The only thing that dragged me out was the prospect of thrashing Tristan’s ass in the weekly Dare. The first one since Boris was defeated.
She bites down on my lower lip, and a growl rumbles up my throat. All other thought slips from my head. “Fuck this. Whose idea was it to keep this challenge today anyway?”
“Hey, lover boy, you want to show off just how powerful you are to your mate?” Tristan’s voice booms out.
“Right on cue.” I groan against her lips.
Starlight tears her mouth from mine. “You gotta go, Dante.”
“Says who?” I tighten my arms around her.
“Dante, Dante,” the crowd chants.
Right, the weekly Fae Corps challenge always had the locals turning up. It was the nature of the Fae, to go for the fight; to feel that edge of violence. Regardless of who the challengers were, the important thing was the faceoff itself. It wasn't just the prospect of two grown men beating the shit out of each other that attracted them either. Many came along in the hopes of bedding one of us…them. Yeah, I am officially off the scene, and I have no qualms about making that known either.
“Go.” She leans up and rubs her nose against my throat. Like a little kitten who likes to nuzzle into me.
There is a warm feeling in my chest. Yeah, I am well and truly a goner.
“What if I don’t want to?" I frown at her.
That’s a first, me shying away from a fight.
From the chance to beat up my annoying ex-partner. Yeah, I am not going on another mission, not for a while, for my duties have changed. Hell, I make the rules now and I’ve made it clear that I am not moving anywhere, not until my mate is well and truly settled and our mating bond has been consolidated; and yeah, not until she’s pregnant with my child. “Mine.” I dip my head and lick the scar of the mating bite, the one I marked her with on the side of her throat when I claimed her.
The one that signals to everyone that she belongs to me. That is, if they don’t already smell me on her.
Tristan's voice booms through the space, “Yo, Killer. Or should I change your name to pussywhipped now?”
“More like pussy breath,” I smirk, then rub my cheek against hers.
She giggles. And the sound is so light it’s a fucking ache in my heart. Yeah, that’s how the mighty have fallen. How my everything now belongs to her. Only her.
“Go and whip his sorry ass, Kill.” Her breath flutters over my cheek.
“Damn, woman. From your throat, every one of my names sounds sexy.” She blushes, then steps back, knowing I am referring to all the other ways she’s called out to me, various secret names moaned by her, that I have torn from her, in the privacy of our bedroom.
It’s amazing how being mated to a woman makes everything so much more satisfying. I’d thought sex was something to be enjoyed on a purely physical level. I’d never been more wrong. When you bring the mating bond into the equation, you have the ability to reach out to each other. To interpret the unspoken commands, the ability to foresee what the other wants even before they have a chance to tell you themselves, it elevates the entire experience to one which is near cataclysmic in its ability to shake you to the core. Hell, she shakes me to my core every single time.
She winks at me, then, turning, moves away to join the rest of the six in the Fae Corps. The only other males I trust her with. It’s the privilege of those of us who are so different, so powerful in our attributes. The fact that only eight of us remain with the power to teleport in the Fae world, now that Boris is gone, has only brought us closer. And it’s the only reason I am here, prowling into the ring in the center of the courtyard where Tristan awaits, instead of making passionate love to my mate.
“This had better be worth it, Chef,” I growl and step into the ring.
45
Gia