Law was coming out of his damn skin as he pulled into the driveway. The last twenty miles were pure torture. He needed Kenna in a way that defied logic. The idea of Kenna coming so close to unseen danger was making him nuts, and he was already behaving like the perfect bastard. He needed to make her his, right now.
Law’s body trembled with the need for her. At first, she wouldn’t understand what he had to do for them, but she would. She had to understand because this was the sanest thing to do for either of them. He dragged a shaking hand down his face before he got out. He muttered the words needed to prevent a pregnancy as he went around to the passenger side to help her out of the truck. Disease was a non-issue for them.
He tugged off his shirt before opening the door. A hard visual for her had to help get this started. A mind-maddening boil had already started in his blood.
Her eyes widened as she stared at his naked chest. She made a small squeaking sound before she reached out to sample what rightfully belonged to her.
Molten lust flooded his body at her touch, but he managed to maintain control as his hands slid around her waist.
They were face-to-face. Not even a breath’s width apart.
Not even the gods could help him now. Kenna was so freaking hot, and he could see the desire in her eyes. His hands went tight around her waist, and he jerked her into him. His mouth was on hers in the next second.
His hand slid into her hair, and his fingers tangled in the silky tresses to tug her head back just to where he wanted it. He dragged his mouth down her throat before he came back up and captured her mouth again with his. He used his tongue to simulate the deeper exploration he would make of her body. He wasn’t going for fair. He needed her.
Damn it!
This was supposed to be about her needs, not his. Any thought of what she might need quickly melted out of his mind.
He pressed his free hand into her back, scooting her forward and stepped in between her legs. The denim of her shorts didn’t cover much of her thighs. Her legs wrapped around his waist. He rolled his groin against hers, knowing exactly how to move his pelvis against hers to get what he needed from her.
This had to be all about her, it did, but she was wrapped around him. He used the lie to convince himself. He released her hair to explore her breasts over her shirt. He slowly ground his hips against hers, knowing if he did it just right he’d be able to make her come.
Her head dropped back, allowing him to taste along her throat. He shoved one strap of her tank top down so he could nip at her shoulder. He kept the steady, rolling rhythm of his hips against hers.
“Bran.” She moaned his name.
He was going to hell. He might be the only one there in a Celtic hell, which didn’t exist yet, but he was going. The gods would make one just for him.
He looped his arm under her ass as he pulled her out of the truck and closed the door with his hip. He used his mouth to keep all her attention on him as he walked to the front door. The wooded lot would keep anyone from seeing them from the road if he decided to take her right here, but he couldn’t do it to her. He pushed her up against the front door and dragged his hands down the length of her. His mouth lingered on her throat as he got his keys out of his pocket.
The moment he had her in the house, they slammed hard up against the door. He used the tips of his fingers to feel the soft skin of her sides as he dragged her shirt up over her head and threw it on the floor.
He shuddered when her hands slid over his feverish flesh.
It took him a second to unhook her bra and toss it in the opposite direction of the shirt. He lowered his head and took the tip of one of her breasts into his mouth. His hips kept their steady rhythm against hers. She was so wet he could feel her moisture through his pants.
Her body arched, her hips grinding into his. His mouth skimmed over her skin.
Her hot little hands captured his face and guided him back up to hers.
He stared into the wicked green of her eyes for only a moment before his mouth fused with hers. He touched her everywhere he could easily reach with the position they were in. He swung her around and managed to make it the few strides to the stairs before lying her down. He lost his pants and she her shorts before he was on top of her again. She lightly sucked at the hollow of his throat. He groaned as he started slowly thrusting over her. Her legs locked tight around his waist.
The front of his boxers became damp with her juices.
If he died right now, every moment of unrelenting torture would have been worth it to live now, in this moment, with her.
Using the heels of her dainty little feet and her elbows, she started a slow, erotic slink up the steps, one stair at a time making him follow her to get what he wanted. Her back arched with each move, brushing her nipples against his chest.
He let her shimmy up a few more steps, kissing his way down her beautiful belly. His teeth caught the waistband of her panties. A low growl vibrated in his chest, and he grinned up at her.
She looked down at him and then smirked as she slinked up the next two steps to the hallway. Her panties were down around her knees. He yanked them off and then trailed the tip of his tongue along the inside of her thigh. His broad shoulders forced her thighs apart, and he settled his face between her legs.
One of her hands knotted in his hair. Then her body was rocking and moving as she made the most delicious sounds. He used his tongue and all his expertise. Her body rippled, and she moaned his name.
He kissed the inside of her thighs before dragging his mouth up her stomach, lingered over her breasts as her body quivered. He hooked an arm around her waist and hauled her up to her feet. He nibbled down her throat and walked her backward toward his room.
Her eyes were dreamy as she sighed and moved where he wanted her to go. The only thing protecting her was his boxers. Part of his brain knew this could still go badly if he didn’t handle it right. There was something he should be remembering about a faery who had a predestined mate. It eluded him, and his concentration was on her beautiful body. He pushed her onto the bed and couldn’t stop himself from settling himself between her legs to grind his pelvis into hers.
The front of his boxers was soaked.
He had to take them off.
He shoved her up farther on the bed and stretched his body out next to hers. She quivered as his hand slid over her sensitive skin. He dropped his head to take her mouth with his. His fingers inched down heat-silken flesh. They brushed against soft curls before finding fiery moisture. He slowly slid one finger inside of her. Her eyes widened. Her body arched up. He held the finger still for a moment before he stroked inside of her. She groaned as her hips moved with his motion.
He grinned. His thumb lightly swirled over her delicate nub. Then she was grinding into his hand. He slipped another finger inside of her. His fingers worked slow and steady inside of her, stretching her out. He slid his other arm behind her and hooked it around her to roll a nipple between his fingers. She nestled against his shoulder as she moaned and twisted her hips against his hand. He nuzzled her neck and behind her delicately pointed ear.
He was at the absolute end of his ability to control himself when her silken, wet channel convulsed around his fingers.
He pulled his fingers out and wiped them on the sheets. He moved between her legs. She panted as her body shook. She held his face as she bowed up off the bed. She kissed him hard as her bottom scooted on the bed, and then she lay back as her hips came up. Her slick sex glided against his.
He groaned while holding himself above her. There was something he needed to remember, but her pelvis came up to beg his once more.
He lost the battle.
He positioned his body over hers. The head of his cock butted against her entrance. His eyes locked onto hers, and he used the last remaining shreds of his willpower to enter her slowly, sinking into her velvet-wet center. She grimaced once as her body went stiff.
He stilled as what he was supposed to remember slammed into him, hard. The elusive instinct he’d needed to kick in smashed into him like a sledgehammer to the gut. She would only ever be his. No way was he able to turn back. He rocked against her once, hoping she hadn’t noticed his moment of panic.
She met his motion.
All self-control and thought abandoned him as he sank into her, balls-deep.
His fingers laced with hers as he dragged her hands over her head. He started a slow grinding as he watched her face. Kenna watching him back was probably the single most erotic thing he’d ever witnessed. His teeth clenched. Sweat beaded on his brow, but he was determined to do it one more time. He shifted the angle of his hips, making sure to grind just so into her, rubbing his pubic bone just where it needed to be.
Her body arched, the action causing her chest to thrust against his as her head dropped back. Her eyes fluttered half-closed, and then she screamed when her entire body spasmed.
Law’s shoulders trembled. He dropped his head and buried his face against her throat as he whispered the words needed to make a mating binding forever. Only then did he let the magic of her take him to bliss. A violent groan vibrated out of his chest. He came hard. Spindles of white-light power threaded around them and through them. They spiraled up and out of them before bursting in a sparkling shower of faery light, and then they settled back into them.
He caged her with his body, mostly because he was afraid to move, or face her.
She panted hard. Her body shuddered every few seconds before she wiggled. “Bran?” Her tone was worried. “Are you okay?”
He eased out of her before he walked back on his hands and sat back on his heels. No. He wasn’t okay. It had seemed like a great idea when he’d come up with it, but he should have told her what he was doing first. He should have thought about her needs first.
She sprawled naked on his bed, and he couldn’t exactly remember how’d they managed to get to this point. Oh, he remembered every exquisite second of pleasure with her. He ground his teeth together. Why in hell wasn’t she screaming obscenities at him? He’d just mated them together for life without asking her first!
“Bran?”
Oh shit! He’d really screwed himself over. There were tears in her voice. Not on her face, yet, but they were in her voice.
“I’m sorry.” It was just about the lamest thing he’d ever mumbled. “I-I didn’t mean it, Kenna. I’m so fucking sorry.”
She propped herself up on her elbows and canted her head at him. “You didn’t hurt me. It was really—Wow. I mean, like, wow.”
Pain seared his chest. She was humoring him. He backed up off the bed and stared down at her. Of all the fucked-up, stupid things he’d ever done in his life! How the hell could he have screwed this up so profoundly?
“Bran,” Kenna said softly. “You need to breathe. Calm down and breathe.”
Yes! It was a fabulous idea, only he couldn’t. He’d mated Kenna to him, and she’d been a…
He hadn’t asked her if she’d…
Fuck! This could only be undone by the gods themselves if she decided insanity was better than spending an eternity with him. Druids wanted to kill her. The faeries wanted to keep him in a perpetual state of torment. Druids wanted to kill her. His jaw twitched. Pure, unadulterated rage coursed through him. Druids want to kill my mate!
“Bran!”
He turned his head so he could look at her as his fingers flexed, the command to bring Cóir from its resting place in Tír na nÓg on the tip of his tongue, but instead, he said “Yes?”
“What did you do? The light show. It did something and now you’re flaking out on me.” She was sitting up now with the sheet wrapped around her magnificent body.
He went over to the dresser and pulled out a pair of sweatpants and a T-shirt. He pulled on his pants, letting them ride low on his hips before handing her the shirt and sat on the corner of the bed. “We’re mated. We share the same fate if we split up. We’ll both go nuts.”
*
Kenna didn’t react as she pulled on his shirt. How was she supposed to react? The first absurd thing that popped into her head came out of her mouth. “Thank you.”
He turned his head to look at her over his shoulder. “That’s it? You don’t hate me?”
Oh boy. There wasn’t an explanation she could come up with that didn’t make her sound pathetic. She scooted on the bed until she was able to curl up against his back. He was her mate, and she’d use it to help give herself a tiny bit of strength while she dealt with this. If she couldn’t talk to him, then whom could she talk to about the mess of her life? She rested her head on his beautiful back. “You didn’t have to put us on equal ground.”
He let out a huff with a slight manic hitch to his laugh. He turned and wrapped his arm around her. “I hadn’t thought of it that way.”
She snuggled into him and drew in a deep breath. “Bran, I…Thank you for making this a little easier, but you need to know I am a person with a lot of, um, issues and needs.”
“You’re part faery,” he said dismissively. “Everyone has different needs, and your issues are only issues if you’re living in a predominantly human environment.”
She peeked up at him. “Please tell me that both of us handling this well is because of the mate thing.”
He leaned forward and kissed the center of her forehead. “Not at all.” He smirked at her. “Good sex, on the other hand, makes a whole lot of things better.”
She giggled as she pulled back and swatted at him. “But only until the euphoria wears off.”
His brow arched up, and an easy smile turned the corners of his mouth. “Then we’ll have to keep up the euphoria.”
Her eyes narrowed on him. She sensed rage buried in him. “Right, we’ll have to try it again.” She couldn’t help the shy smile. “Soon.” She frowned. “What’s going on in your head? You look a bit unstable.”
He hooked his arm around her, hauled her up, and straddled her over his lap. His intense eyes stared directly into hers for a long time before he looked away. “Someone wants to kill you.”
“We already established that,” she said in a whisper.
“Aye,” he said in his thick brogue. He brushed her hair back and tucked it behind her ear. His finger lightly caressed the outer shell of her ear, and then he softly kissed it. “I’ve been living alone for so long.” He let out a sigh and leaned back on the bed, bracing himself up on his powerful arms. “We’re both screwed, and not in the fun way. The best we can do is fight like hell and hope the gods take pity on you.”
“Me?” His emotional whiplash continued to plague her, but at least she knew he wasn’t going to just up and walk out on her easily. It made this whole crazy mating thing more bearable. He’d chosen this, so at least she was willing to pretend he’d had a choice while her body still tingled from what they’d shared together.
“Our pantheon has no love for me.” His dark eyes seemed to bore into her. “But you are part faery. They may decide to relent in their torturing of me for your benefit.”
Talking about mythological gods as if there were real was a new thing for her. “What did you do to them?”
“I made an oath to protect one of their precious little pure-blood fae,” he said and then shifted and laid back fully on the bed.
Kenna found herself locked against his chest with one of his arms banded around her. With a finger, she traced the Celtic knot pendant he wore. “She died?”
“Sacrificed by Druids,” he said with a sardonic twist of his mouth. “Back then I didn’t have the power I have now.” He cocked his head so he was able to see her face. “I’m The Celt. The name faery parents use to frighten their children into behaving.”
“You…” She started and then hesitated. The emotional conflict vibrating around him was palpable. He didn’t like faeries now. “You loved the faeries once.”
“I did,” he said and rolled onto his side, making it easier for them to look at each other while they talked. He cupped the side of her face with one of his large hands. “What about you? What else makes us perfect for each other?”
It took her a second to figure out he’d meant what else made her as messed up as he was. She pressed her cheek against his palm. “I lied to you,” she whispered. “My last name isn’t Greer. It’s Fitzpatrick. My fa—” She stopped herself from saying father because he wasn’t. “He’d raised me thinking I was his.” It only seemed right to share this with Bran, her mate. Anything she could tell him had to help them. She was sure of it. “When he found out I wasn’t even fully human, he lost it.”
“Shh,” Bran murmured as he wrapped her up safe and tight in his arms. “We’ll work through this. He won’t know to look for you here, yet. Druids of ancient bloodlines will know my name, and they will fear it. I will put an end to this.”
She buried her face in the crook of his neck and shoulder, needing, even if for only one night, to know someone cared about what happened to her. To know someone cared enough to keep her safe, for as bright as the future appeared in this moment and with Bran, she knew all too well how quickly the world could change.