Edge, Episode Two: Season One (Edge, A Serial Series Book 2) (2 page)

One night she waited for hours just
outside the council room doors. Kenson was in there, along with Jamison, and Lorecan, all the elders. She could hear the arguments, and she whole-heartedly agreed with Kenson, and it wasn’t because she was in love with him.

He was stating that the battle the coven wanted to engage
in was fruitless. The coven had nothing to gain but enemies from such an endeavor. The others thought they needed to stake their claim on the land they were on. They said the coven needed this land, that it was rich with spirits, that and if they didn’t stand up now, others would come.

When the meeting adjourned Reveca stayed in the shadows of the second floor, stared down at all the men, watched Jamison, Kenson, and Lorecan conference with her father. Though Kenson kept to his argument his glance found Reveca
. She smiled and nodded her head. The glint in his eyes was his silent yes.

Reveca felt her heart flutter as she ducked into her room.

Saige moved in her sleep, so Reveca waited for her to settle. Then went to the window, climbed out and ran, ran as fast as she could across the field to a distant river, one that tended to pond in shallow ponds.

Bold. Kenson had always told her she had to be bold. Always told her that any fool could see how powerful she was, that if she tried to hide it or refused to acknowledge it that it would be a show of weakness.

She’d tried to be bold with him, but in most cases her nerves would get the best of her, and she’d let him guide them, which led them to where they were—her with an aching want and no way to know if he saw her the same way, or if he was just humoring her while his armies were camped within her village.

A man as bold as Kenson would have no issues asking for something he wanted.
Or needed. That’s how she saw it, why her mind toyed with her the way it did, gave her doubt.

In the shadows of the brush, Reveca let her gown fall. She waited until she heard his distant approach before she waded into the
water, let it cover her to the point of her shoulders.

She watched as he scanned the bank looking for her, grinned when she saw the look of disappointment in his eyes.

“Are you looking for me?” she said with a sly grin dangling on her lips.

Kenson returned that smile the second he saw her. He’d never admit it
aloud, he just wasn’t made that way, but Reveca had stopped his heart the first time he laid eyes on her. Miles before he reached her village he had felt an insane pull on him. It stirred him so deeply that he rode far ahead of his navigators, needing only that pull to guide him. The closer he got to her the more invincible he felt…the more vulnerable he felt.

She was a walking fantasy. A woman that was not afraid to speak her mind. One that was comfortable in
her own skin and drop dead gorgeous. Her eyes would be the death of any man. They had a lure to them, and when he managed to get past that point, let his stare travel down her body, he thanked every God he knew in his life that at the very least he was able to cross that enigmatic beauty’s path.

“Swimming?” he said with a lifted brow.

“It’s hot.”

Kenson looked down at his uniform. He was dressed for battle, one he would lead men into in just a few short hours. In all truth he should be prepping them, but the opportunity to see Reveca was too tempting for him to pass up.

Slowly he unbuttoned his coat. When she whistled he chuckled a near silent laugh, flashing a carefree smile that he only let her see.

He took
everything off but his bottom undergarments. He’d sensed her fear, that trembling that possessed her when their moments became too intimate.

Deep down
, that innocent girl that she was would emerge in moments like this. He didn’t want that girl to ever leave Reveca, would wait forever for her if he had to. He’d traveled less than stellar roads in life, lived through one too many dares, and even though while he was doing that he was fighting for much needed change, he still crossed lines that were better left alone. He wanted it be different with Reveca. He wanted to savor her for all that she was.

Slowly he made his way into the water
. She eased back. That innocent little sexy smile was on her lips, but he could tell she was nervous.

“You sounded so fierce tonight
,” she said finally.

He raised his brow as he lowered himself in the water. “You heard me?”

“Maybe not every word, but I knew it was you.”

“It was intense,” he said as his stare slowly moved across her face.

“You don’t agree with them.”

“I don’t agree with a lot of people.”

“But you’re going to listen to them?”

Kenson bit his lip. If this were any other time, he would
have moved his armies on. He would have told this coven that had sought his protection that he didn’t have time to protect them from wars they invented. But it wasn’t any other time. This time Reveca was involved. This time his fight had a deeper reason. He was fighting for honor, the honor of holding a noble woman for the rest of his life.

He wasn’t clear on where Jamison or even Lorecan came from
. He’d heard the legends, seen their power, no doubt. What he was clear on was that they were not hired henchmen; they were not brute warriors but the men behind the war, the ones moving the pieces, those that supposedly had the ability to see the ‘big picture.’

Kenson believed that in order to have the favor that either of those had with Reveca’s father, he’d have to bend to their will.
Without doubt, it was not easy for Kenson to bend. In fact, it was a brutal hell.

“I’m going to defend your land
,” he said finally.

“Mine.”

“Yes, yours…the nature here calls you by name.”

She laughed. “Most of this land is swamp. Am I the queen of the slithery things that crawl through the night?”

“No…you’re the queen of that power I see in your eyes. There’s enough there to create your own little world.”

Reveca blushed and hoped that the moonlight didn’t reveal that.

“Why do you keep moving away from me? It was your idea to swim,” Kenson said as he splashed her.

She splashed back. “I don’t get you.”

Kenson ran his fingers through his dark, wet locks. “What’s there not to get? I’m by far not as complicated as your father’s favorites.”

“You’re not as damaged
, either.”

He lifted a brow.

“Jamison, he’s running from something. Broke away from some life he didn’t want to live anymore. He doesn’t even know who he is. Lorecan, I don’t know, he’s too calm. You always have to watch out for the quiet ones.”

He lifted a brow. “The loud ones are dangerous too, always masking something.”

“And you’re neither.”

“You do get me,” Kenson said with a sly grin.

“No I don’t. I don’t know what I am to you.”

Something changed in the energy around them
, it became heavier. The playfulness evaporated in an instant.

After an awkward moment she spoke again. “And your silence…it speaks volumes.” She moved
past him. “I didn’t mean to spoil our escape.”

When she felt him reach for her arm she sucked in a deep breath, sensing that surge of energy
swarm through her body awaken an unclaimed sensuality.

“I don’t want to terrify you.” His voice was quiet, deep,
so smooth.

“I’m not terrified of a broken heart
. I’ve been expecting it.”

His grip tightened on her arm. “That’s not what I meant.” He urged her to face him
. She did, but she stepped back, stayed hidden in the water. Kenson let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding. “You’re innocent…you’re perfect. Someone like me, telling you that you’re everything—that would terrify you.”

“Everything?” she repeated with wide eyes, eyes that the moon was basking within.

“Everything. I’ve loved you from the first glance. I felt you before I arrived. I inhale your presence each day. I plot. I plan. I want nothing more than to make you mine and I will, one day. But I know that the gift of you, it doesn’t come without patience. It’s a gift that will test me.”

“You love me.”

Kenson clenched his jaw, unable to read her expression. He cursed himself for speaking his mind. It was inevitable, though. Each night before a coming battle he tended to do such things, yet usually that was him telling his men how much of an honor it was to know them. He’d never once told a woman anything even remotely close to this. “I do.” His stare moved over her angelic face. “You can run if you want. I get it.”

She didn’t run, she lunged across the water at him, molded her lips to his, just before parting them with
sheer passion. The moment she felt his tongue move against hers she moaned.

Kenson wanted to stop, wanted to point out that she was
very
nude, that her body was wrapped around his like a vice and testing any and all restraints a man could be asked to have but he didn’t, couldn’t. No, she was life, and she was clinging to him.

Beneath the water he let his hands slowly move across her, felt
himself smiling against her lips with the sound of her responsive moans. His touches were innocent thus far, but hearing those sharp breaths would lead you to believe they were anything but.

His lips broke away from hers, biting her bottom lip as they did so
. Utterly slowly, his lips moved down her neck. That alone was wreaking havoc on Reveca’s emotions, her body, but when she felt his hand slide down her back, squeeze the flesh of her ass before moving lower, she quivered with a deep want that she had never felt before. The second she felt him slide his fingers within the heat of her, her entire body tensed. His lips halted on her neck.

“You feel that?
” she gasped.

She could have sworn she felt his lips smile against her neck.

She rocked her hips forward. “Not this.” Her hands reached for his face, then moved down his shoulders. “That hum.”

He lifted his head and
looked into her eyes. “That’s us, love. That’s us coming home.”

A gasping smile came to her just before her lips crashed into his. Her body rocked with his hand, and she fought not to let his lips leave hers, but when his lips moved down her neck,
past her shoulders, when they claimed her chest she decided he must be a God, had to be. He was everywhere all at once, stimulating, pushing, awakening every inch of her mind, body, and soul.

She felt that hum began to build, growing and growing
. It was like a flame, one that was meant to erupt, would dare to, only to settle once more.

“Kenson,” she breathed when she couldn’t focus her thoughts anymore
. She felt a high began to consume her. All at once, the very cliff her body had been edging upward met its climax, and she cascaded over it. His lips broke away from her chest as he felt her began to quiver.

“Look at me,” he breathed.

And she did. She stared at him as she felt her body become utterly unraveled.

“Beautiful
,” his husky voice said into the darkness.

Reveca’s body felt like it had just performed every spell in the book, as if her energy had been pushed to its limits, but at the same she felt like she had been empowered
, revitalized.

Her hands moved down his shoulders, down his chest, over every ridged muscle there, finally slipping beneath the only garment between them. He groaned as her hand ran the length of him.

“I want to make you hum,” she whispered as his eyes became hooded with every stroke of her hand.

“Love, I never stop in your presence.”

She claimed his lips then, rocked her body against his, moaned when she felt those deft fingers began to usher her toward another cliff of ecstasy.

Kenson felt his legs began to grow w
eary. The barrier of water was more than he could bear to stand any longer. He wanted to lay her across the bank. That one sliver of good in him hoped that transition would give her a second to think, a second to ask them to wait, and he would wait. He would fight this battle, and he would come home, demand her hand. He would demand they were joined that night, and if they were denied that, he’d ask her to leave with him, beg her to if need be. Hell, he’d downright insist that she did so.

Just as he
rose them out of the water, her legs still wrapped around him, he heard a gasp from someone else.

On the bank were her parents, apparently out for a nightly stroll.

It was chaos after that point. Reveca unraveled her body from Kenson but she didn’t hide herself, she stood proudly by his side. That stubbornness didn’t last long as her mother ripped her away. Marched her to her room.

Reveca fought like hell to get back to Kenson, to defend him, told everyone in shouting distance that he took nothing she did not give him, that she loved him. When she started to pack her bags, her mother and her chambermaids tied Reveca to a chair. Told her that distracting a man before a battle was a bad omen and she had done just that.