For the Good of All (Law of the Lycans Book 7) (48 page)

“I’ll try to accommodate you.” Reno took his leave and Stone relaxed beside her.

“You know, I’ve been thinking…” He let go of her hair and began to twirl his empty glass instead.

“Yes?” He seemed hesitant and she wondered if he was he going to mention the link.

“I need to do something with my time. When we met I was thinking of working on the docks, something simple, uncomplicated.”

“I could understand you wanting a break.”

“Yeah, but now I’ve changed my mind. I think I’ll resurrect Virtus again.”

“That’s the organization you started when you first left Lycan Link.”

“Yep. My sister screwed it up, but with her gone I can try again.” He took a deep breath. “If nothing else, these past few weeks have shown me there are still lots of people out there who need help, who might have nowhere to turn.”

“People who need you.” Tina momentarily forgot about their link and the fact he hadn’t told her about it yet. She could sense how he was feeling; his desire to help others, the uncertainty about the past that still plagued him.

“Or someone like me.” He turned to look at her. “My last mission, the one in the desert, I still feel I screwed up, that I made mistakes. It haunts me.”

“I know.” She placed her hand over his. “You did your best in horrible circumstances and that’s a lot more than other people might have done.”

“Maybe.” He shrugged one shoulder. “I’m not perfect but if people have no one else to turn to, I’m better than nothing.”

“You’re a lot better than nothing.” She hit him lightly. “So where are you going to set up headquarters? Here in Chicago?”

“No, I don’t think Damien and Sam would appreciate me intruding on their territory.”

“Oh.” This was where he’d tell her he was leaving and that he’d look her up again if he ever was in town. Damn, they’d already played this scene before. Little wonder he hadn’t mentioned the link. He had no intention of hanging around.

“I was thinking of heading up north, checking out Canada. It’s a big country. According to Lycan Link’s records there are a lot of areas without Lycan packs.”

She nodded fighting to keep her face impassive. “Sam went there to find Damien at one point. It was a little place called Stump River. I remember it was winter and she said it was cold.”

“Do you like the cold?”

“It’s okay for a while, I guess.” She took a deep breath and stared across the room wondering what it would be like to live without Stone in her life. They hadn’t known each other that long but after what they’d been through—

“So you won’t mind moving there?”

“What?” She swung her head around to stare at him.

“I was hoping you’d be my first employee.”

“Me? Work for you? As part of Virtus?”

“Yeah. I figure we did good together in Cantala. And having a witch on the team might be useful.”

“I don’t know what to say.”

“Yes is pretty easy to say.” He gave her a crooked smile.

“Then yes, of course. I’d love to work with you.” She hugged his arm and he pressed a kiss to her forehead.

“Good. It will take a lot of planning and we won’t be leaving right away.”

“That’s okay. I have stuff I need to do here first, anyway.” Like witch lessons with Gwyneth, she added to herself. That reminded her that Stone still hadn’t mentioned the fact that they were linked.

“Ready to leave?” He gently nudged her and she gave a start.

“Hmm? Yeah. Let’s go home.”

He put a guiding hand in the small of her back as they left the club. She walked silently beside him, preoccupied with what Gwyneth had told her and wondering why Stone was holding back. The more she thought about it, the more upset she became. Keeping secrets from each other was not a good thing in her book.

“You’re quiet tonight.”

She made a noncommittal sound and kept her eyes fixed straight ahead.

“Something bothering you?”

“If you can’t figure it out, then I’m certainly not going to tell you.” She clamped her mouth tightly shut.

He gave her a sideways look as if she’d grown horns or something.

Men!

She knew she sounded pissed off and she was. He hadn’t made any attempt to tell her they were linked. It was pretty important news, in her mind, and should have come from him. Had he ever planned on telling her? She shoved her hands in her pockets and stepped away so he was no longer touching her.

He sighed. “Gwyneth told you.”

“Yes, she did.” When he didn’t comment back, she pursed her lips, her temper slowly starting to boil. “I really think it should have come from you.”

He rubbed the back of his neck. “Yeah. It probably should have.”

His admission cooled some of her anger though not all of it. “Then why didn’t it?”

“Good question.”

“Do you have a good answer?”

“No.”

She shot him a glance over her shoulder as they climbed the stairs to her place. “Well, that’s honest if nothing else.”

“I’ve always tried to be truthful with you, Christina.” He held the screen door for her while she unlocked the other.

“And I appreciate that but not saying anything is lying by omission.”

“I’m sorry.”

Those two words accompanied by him looking her straight in the eye was her undoing. No deception. No shirking of responsibility.

She sighed, the cool, distant feeling fading. “I’m sorry, too. I know you didn’t know. You and Esteban were trying to save my life.”

“Will it be that awful, having a permanent link to me, having some sense of what I’m feeling?” He stroked her cheek with his knuckles, then tucked a wayward strand of hair behind her ear.

“No. Not really.” She stared up at him, taking stock of his familiar features. She loved his evening stubble, his strong jaw, the scar on his face. The way his dark eyes stared so intently at her that she felt he was looking at her soul. “Actually, having a permanent link to you sounds pretty amazing.”

“That’s what I was thinking, too.”

“No you weren’t. You were thinking being saddled with a wacky, neon-coloured witch was going to drive you crazy.”

The corner of his mouth curled ever so slightly. “That might have crossed my mind as well.” He put his hands on her waist and drew her close so he could murmur in her ear. “But mostly I was thinking ‘hot damn, she can’t get away from me now’.”

“You know what I want, Stone?”

“What?”

She hit him lightly. “You’re supposed to say ‘of course, I know what you want.’ We’re linked together.”

“It’s doesn’t work that way. It’s not like a true blood-bond. You can sense me but I can’t sense you.”

“Whatever. Take a guess at what I’m thinking.”

“Umm... You’re horny and want to get laid?”

She frowned. “I think you’re confusing your feelings with mine.”

“You don’t want to get laid?”

“I do, but—”

“See? I was right.” He laughed, scooped her up and carried her to the bedroom.

Stone set her down gently, his teasing mood gone. He looked at the woman before him, laughter dancing in her eyes, spring green hair framing her face.

She is colourful, but she is ours,
his wolf observed the witch indulgently.

“I lied to you.”

“What?” She looked confused. “But you just said…?”

“I know.” He sighed and looked away. “I’ve always told you the truth except this one time. I didn’t tell you about the link because…”

“Because?”

He returned his gaze to her eyes. “I was afraid.”

“Of being linked to me?”

“No. Of how you’d feel about it.” He reached down and took her hands in his, rubbing his thumb over her knuckles. “I didn’t mean for this to happen but the fact that it has doesn’t upset me. In fact, I’m pretty damned pleased.”

“You are?”

“Yep.” He raised her hands to his lips and kissed them. “I love you, Christina.”

A smile slowly appeared on her face and then grew wider and wider. “I love you, too.” She reached up and stroked his cheek. “But I thought I’d have to hex you before you ever admitted to returning the feeling.”

“I guess it’s a good thing I finally manned up to my feelings then.” He gave a crooked smile.

“Darned right ’cuz you know how my hexes can turn out.”

“I’m trembling with fear.”

“No you’re not. I’ve got an inside scoop on your feelings now, remember?”

He pulled her closer. “We could even the playing field.”

“What do you mean?”

“If I were to bite you, drink some of your blood, we’d have something like a blood-bond. Gwyneth told me.”

“You’d bite me?” A worried look appeared on her face. “Would it hurt?”

“No.” He shook his head. “You won’t even notice.”

“Oh.” She was quiet for a moment, a frown wrinkling her brow. “This is permanent, isn’t it?”

“Yes. We’d be mates for the rest of our lives. No escaping me.”

“And you couldn’t escape me, no matter what colour I make my hair!”

He tweaked a lock of it and laughed. “Right.”

“In that case, I accept your proposal.” She grinned up at him.

Stone studied her upturned face and the laughter slowly faded away. Quirky, brave, smart… “I really do love you, Christina. More than I ever believed possible.”

A sheen covered her eyes and she blinked rapidly. She placed her hand on his chest over his heart. “I know.”

He leaned forward and kissed her brow, her temple, the curve of her cheek. She murmured her pleasure when he nuzzled the sweet spot behind her ear, sighed softly when he finally brushed his lips over hers.

Tenderly, he undid the buttons of her shirt, easing the material over her shoulders and letting it drop on the floor. Her bra followed and then her skirt and underwear. When she was completely naked he laid her on the bed.

Deliberately, he knelt beside her, lightly resting his hand on her ankle, then sliding it up to her shin, curving around to brush over her calf, then repeating the action on her other leg before moving up to her knee. “I’m going to touch every inch of you, claim every part of you. My blood is part of you and that makes you my woman. Mine and no one else’s.”

His words made her heart beat faster, he could hear it, see it in the pulse at the base of her neck. The scent of her desire caused his own heart to race, his body to harden. She belonged to him and the primitive need to claim her overtook his senses.

Eyes half-closed, she relaxed into his touch, as he skimmed his hands and then his lips over her thighs, her hips, the curve of her belly, the ridges of her ribs. By the time he reached her breasts she was quivering, soft sounds of need escaping her lips. She was hot, aching with need. When she placed her hands on his back urging him to move up so she could kiss him, he resisted, paying homage to each breast, her collarbone, the dip at the base of her throat. Not an inch of her was left untouched.

Finally, he cupped her head, his fingers threaded through her hair, his mouth hovering over hers, his eyes looking into hers. “Mine.”

That one word, spoken in a deep rumbling voice was enough to cause her to melt. She wrapped her arms around his waist, pulling him down so his weight rested on her and kissed him with everything she had. Nothing was held back.

And when he finally pulled away and knelt over her, her hands reached eagerly for him, unbuttoning his shirt and pushing it from his shoulders. She skimmed over his hair-roughened chest, his defined abs. Her man. Hers.

In anticipation, she watched him slowly undo his waistband. The metallic sound of his zipper being undone broke the quiet of the room. Then he parted the material, freeing his hardened flesh.

Her body clenched at the sight, memories of the feel of him as he moved inside her almost enough to send her over the edge. She sat up and touched him intimately, the feel of his hot flesh in her palm sending frissons of excitement through her. He groaned as her fingers gently played over him, teasing and stroking as she mimicked the act they’d soon begin.

She pushed him onto his back and removed the rest of his clothing. Like some god of old, he lay before her, perfectly formed, powerful, controlled. With lips and hands, she paid homage to him, claiming each inch of him as he’d done to her, breathing in his scent, absorbing the taste that was uniquely him.

When he rolled both of them over, she opened to him, inviting his possession, revelling in the feel of his heat pressing into her, filling her deeper with each stroke until she was gasping, sure she could handle no more yet never wanting the feeling to end.

Filled. Possessed. Claimed. She wrapped her arms and legs around him, hanging on tight as the ride to ecstasy began. It was wild, primitive; urgent yet tender. Sweat slicked their bodies, their hearts were pounding. Panting, they strained to reach that perfect moment. It was close, growing nearer, a glowing quivering explosion of feeling just beyond reach.