He needed her to move. She could feel that now. So Nika moved.
The groan of pleasure Madoc let out was the sweetest thing she’d ever heard. He pulled her down against his chest, rolled her beneath him, and began a slow slide and retreat.
The first time had been nothing like this. There was no pain, no tension, only the slick glide of skin on skin and his hungry mouth on hers.
The pressure inside her built. She could feel it growing in both of them, too sharp and demanding to resist. His thoughts whispered inside hers, knitting them together in a way she hadn’t known existed.
His powerful body surged as their need increased. She felt that pleasure building inside him as he opened himself up to her. The connection between them swelled and pulsed with power.
Madoc lifted her hips with one hand, grinding her against him in a way that brought tears to her eyes and stole the air from her lungs. And then everything came crashing down. Madoc’s body tensed as he drove deep. He swelled inside her and the first hot jet of his release pulsed in her core, setting off her climax.
She cried out, holding him tight as his release filled her. The waves crashing over her throbbed in time with his, melding the sensations together into one continuous blur of perfect sensation. It seemed to go on forever, but once it was over, it was gone too soon.
They were both still breathing hard when Madoc flipped them and draped her over his chest. He was still hard inside her, still throbbing in time with their rapid heartbeats. Sweat cooled across her back, but her front was blissfully warm.
Madoc hadn’t shoved her away this time. He was still inside her mind as deeply as he was inside her body.
Which was why she could hear his thoughts. Not only had he been planning to give her away to another man; he was also still planning to keep her here when everyone else went to rescue Tori.
“I don’t care how good in bed you are,” she said, pushing herself up on his chest to look down at him. “There’s no way you’re convincing me to stay behind.”
He opened his mouth and said something, but Nika couldn’t understand a single word. All she heard was the sound of her name in a scream of pain that echoed inside her skull.
Tori. Tori was trying to reach her.
Nika opened herself up and pulled some of Madoc’s power into her so she could find where that contact had come from. As soon as she did, a wrenching pain shot through her body, making her jerk against Madoc. She’d never felt anything like it before. It cut off her breath and shrank her world down to a pinpoint of light. Everything else went gray.
She heard herself scream, felt Madoc’s hands on her body and his thoughts in her mind.
“Tori!”
I’m sorry
, she heard her sister sob.
I’m so sorry.
Chapter 21
G
ilda had lifted her hand to knock when her daughter’s door opened. Sibyl looked up at her, her eyes the same pale blue as her father’s.
Angus. Gilda already missed him.
Sibyl’s blond ringlets were tangled, her dress wrinkled, which was not at all like her. Dark crescents hung below her eyes, dulling their normal sheen.
“I guess it’s that time,” said Sibyl.
Gilda was shocked at being spoken to after suffering her daughter’s silence for so long. “What time?”
“For you to die.”
“You’ve seen that?” Gilda hated it that her daughter was plagued by visions of the future, but she’d never considered she’d have to endure seeing her own mother’s death.
“I’ve seen many things. Too many.” Sibyl stepped back, allowing Gilda to step inside her suite. The frilly furnishings seemed wilted today, their normally bright pink dull and dingy.
Gilda settled on the dainty couch. “I won’t stay long. I know things are strained between us, but I felt compelled to see you again.”
“Nothing between us has changed,” said Sibyl. “I can’t suddenly forgive you because you’ve decided to kill yourself, can I?”
“I’m not asking for your forgiveness. I was just hoping that you’d . . . let me hold you one more time.”
“I’m not a child. You’ve trapped me inside this child’s body, but I’m not a child.”
“You’ll always be my child. Just as Maura is.”
“Maura won’t talk to me about you. She refuses.”
“You speak to Maura?”
“Sometimes. When she’s afraid.”
Gilda hated the idea of her little girl being afraid, but Maura had made her own decisions. She had to live with the consequences, just as Gilda did.
“Will you tell her I still love her?” asked Gilda.
“She won’t believe me. She doesn’t believe you can love someone who has no soul.”
“Of course she has a soul.”
“Maura doesn’t believe that. She says you ripped it from her when you tore us in half while still in your womb.”
“What I did to you was foolish. We needed more women to fill our ranks. I thought having twin girls would help us win the war.”
“Maura and I weren’t meant to be twins. You took the defenseless child growing inside your body and
cut it in half
. How could you have done something like that? How could you have ripped a tiny soul in two when you were the one charged with keeping it safe?”
“I didn’t mean for it to be like that. Twins are born all the time. I didn’t realize I was doing anything unnatural.”
“You didn’t realize. Just like you didn’t realize what you were doing the night Isaac died?”
Gilda shook her head. Grief for her son stormed inside her still, even after all these years. “It was another mistake. One of many. I’m so sorry that you and Maura were left to suffer because of my choices. I only meant to protect you.”
“You make it sound so reasonable, as though any mother would have done the same thing.”
“I didn’t know what would happen to you. I swear it.”
“How could you not have known? You came to us that night, woke us from a dead sleep for that sole purpose.”
“No. It wasn’t like that. I needed to hold you—to grasp onto my two living children and reassure myself you were okay.”
“That’s not the way I remember it. I remember you lurching into our room. I remember you were crying. The front of your dress was wet with tears. Maura and I were scared. We didn’t know what had happened and you were crying too hard to tell us. We hugged you, trying in our childish way to comfort you. We would have done anything to make you feel better, and you used that to wring from us a promise we didn’t understand.”
“I didn’t know what it would do.”
“How could you not have known? You looked us each in the eye and said, ‘Promise Mommy you’ll never grow up.’ You knew the power that promise would hold over us.”
“They were just words. I didn’t want you to grow up and join the fight. I didn’t want you to die like your brother had earlier that night.”
“We were eight years old. We didn’t understand what that promise would cost us. I remember giving it to you and feeling the breath being crushed from our lungs. I remember the panic that gripped us as that promise bored into our souls, caging us in these tiny bodies.”
“I’m so sorry, Sibyl. I never meant to hurt you.”
A hollow laugh rose up, too old for the body from which it came. “You did a fine job of it without even trying.”
“One day you’ll understand.”
“How?” demanded Sibyl. “When I grow up and have a child of my own? You’ve stolen that from me. You’ve taken from me everything I should have had, including driving Maura—the other half of myself—away.”
“No. I didn’t do that.”
“You did. She left because she couldn’t stand the sight of you. She couldn’t stand the reminder of what we should have had, what we should have become.”
“She chose to change sides.”
“No. She chose to run away, and the only place where she would be safe was with our enemy. It’s not as if she could have lived on her own.”
“She betrayed us,” said Gilda, knowing Maura had learned to do so from her.
“
You
betrayed us. Your actions set all of this in motion. I’m sure the damage you’ve done hasn’t even finished playing out yet—at least, not for me and Maura.”
“If I could take back what I’ve done, I would.”
“It’s too late for that. Your time is nearly up.”
“So you can see that—see my future.”
Sibyl nodded.
“And your father’s?”
“You’d have to ask Maura. It’s her turn.”
“I wish I could see her again before I die,” said Gilda.
“Don’t worry,” said Sibyl. “You will.”
Madoc’s heart was going to explode from his body. First he had the most powerful orgasm of his life, and now Nika was screaming in pain, writhing in his arms.
“Tori!” she yelled, reaching out as if she could actually see her sister.
“Nika, come back to me.” He didn’t know what was happening to Tori, but he knew for sure he didn’t want Nika anywhere near it, whether in body or mind.
She went still, then opened her eyes and looked up at him. Tears leaked from the corners, wetting the pale hair at her temples. “She was here. For just a minute. They’re hurting her.”
Nika still clutched her stomach. Her legs were curled up tight against her body, and Madoc was certain he knew why. “She’s in labor. There’s nothing you can do.”
Nika shoved herself away from him, stumbling from the bed. Her clothes were draped over a chair, and she hurried to put them on. “I have to find her.”
“How? All we know is that she went southeast.”
“She called out for me once. She will again.”
Madoc started to dress, because he knew she’d be tearing out of here at any minute, and he didn’t want to follow her bare-ass naked down the hall and scare all the human children. “And you’ll be incapacitated by the pain again.”
She pulled a shirt over her head. “I don’t care. I’ll be ready for it next time.”
Madoc wanted to force her to stay here. She was too precious to risk. He knew she’d give her life for her sister in a heartbeat and he couldn’t let that happen. He didn’t want Tori to die, but if she did, he didn’t want her to take Nika down with her.
“Just what do you think you’ll have to gain by running off in a panic? We need to go to Joseph and do this the right way.”
“How long do you think that will take? How long do you think Tori has? I can’t wait.”
Madoc grabbed her arm, being careful not to grip her too hard. “What good will it do you to find her if we can’t get her out alive? We have to gather the men.”
“Fine. You talk to Joseph. Gather whoever you like, but we’re leaving now.”
Meghan was on her way out of the office when she came to a rocking halt.
John Hawthorne leaned against the trunk of her car, his thick arms crossed over his chest.
Just the sight of him made something deep inside her loosen up. A familiar pang of arousal shot to her womb and made her knees go weak. She wondered if he’d always have the power to do that to her.
She hadn’t expected to see him ever again. He was just one bright, secret spot in her life she’d hold close and never forget. Seeing him here, in her town, at her work, was completely shocking and completely unacceptable.
“What are you doing here?” she asked, checking over her shoulder to see if any of her coworkers were nearby. Luckily, they weren’t, but that wouldn’t last for long.
“You left. I wasn’t ready for that, so I came to find you.” He said it as if it was the most reasonable thing to travel nearly two thousand miles to finish a conversation.
“You can’t be here.”
“Why not? It’s a free country.”
“If someone sees, they’ll tell my father.”
John lifted a brow. “You’re twenty-eight. I’m pretty sure you’re allowed to date by now.”
“It’s not that.”
“Then what is it?”
Meghan didn’t know how to explain it. Her father had his pride. If he thought caring for him was robbing her of anything, he’d push her away. She wasn’t convinced he was strong enough to live on his own yet. Sure, he was better, but what if he had a relapse?
“We had a great time, John. But you just can’t be here. Please go.”
“Are you married?” he asked, his face darkening with rage.
“Heavens, no. Nothing like that. I just can’t be involved right now. I have too many responsibilities.”
“So do I, but here I am anyway. I thought the two of us had something special.”
“It was special. Can’t we just leave it at that?”
“That’s not enough for me. I have feelings for you, Meghan. I want you to come back with me so we can see where things take us.”
Meghan’s heart squeezed in longing. She wanted so much to give in and throw caution to the wind. Maybe they’d last a week and be at each other’s throats, but maybe there was something real there. She’d certainly never felt like this about another man before.
But what she wanted wasn’t as important as taking care of her father. He had to come first.
“I’m sorry, John. I really am. But this is as far as we go.”
John’s mouth tightened in anger and he swallowed as if shoving it down. “I don’t believe that. And I don’t think you do, either.”
Before she realized what he was doing, he moved in and kissed her.
Meghan’s body responded as it had the countless other times he’d kissed her. Her skin heated, her limbs went liquid, and she flowed into him as if she’d been made to do just that.
He coaxed her lips open, feathering his tongue against her mouth. He tasted like secret dreams—so heady he made her dizzy.
His hand cupped the back of her neck while the other one slid down her spine to her bottom. Streamers of sensation rioted through her bloodstream until she was left breathless, wet, and longing for things she knew could never be hers.
John ended the kiss but didn’t pull away. “Invite me home.”