“She’s been busy while you were gone.”
The comment snapped Jason back to the present and he gave the healer’s face a quick assessment. “But she’s all right?”
“Just fine. Fully recovered, with enough energy to charge a small city if we could just harness her.”
He laughed in agreement, giving Grimm a closer look. He hadn’t referenced his own fatigue but Jason could do the math. He’d been by Briet’s side and on-call for her entire illness. Aside from working with her during the day, Grimm also put in time and effort afterward on another project to keep the Guardians safe. “Who tells you to take some time off?” Jason asked.
Grimm’s mouth twitched into almost a smile. “Until Turen found his mate—no, Mia found Turen—I had way too much free time. With the resurgence of our people’s future I’m happy to give up some sleep.”
“Yeah, well you’re done today, Doc, and so am I.” He reached out his hand and met Grimm’s firm grip. “See you tomorrow.”
***
The bedroom was empty. The door to the bathroom stood ajar and the splash of water echoed from the shower. Jason pushed open the door and leaned against the frame.
“You okay?”
Briet looked at him over her creamy, pale shoulder. The steam shrouded her image: petite, curved, and luscious.
She laughed. “You can’t think I need a bodyguard in the shower.”
“I figured you’ve been sick and might be feeling a little weak, peaked.”
“And you’re volunteering to come in here with me to make sure I don’t pass out. How valiant.”
He gave her his best wolfish smile. “Always willing to provide you support.” He tossed his shirt to the floor and toed off his boots. The pants followed, his clothes a line of offerings to his goddess before the stone cubicle of her alter, the shower. In reverence, he pulled Briet to him, aligning every damp inch of her body against his skin. He bent his head and inhaled the light scent of her hair as his hands traced a path down her spine. His fingers paused to play with the small dimples on either side of her tailbone.
“You have no idea how much I’ve missed being so close to you,” he whispered. He traced the curved shell of her ear with his tongue before a nibble on the lobe and a tiny suckle to tease. The little whimper from her throat streaked straight to his groin, his cock already hard and ready against the softness of her belly.
Licking a path over her rapid pulse, he suckled until he couldn’t wait any longer. With hands too impatient, he slid his fingers along her scalp, tipped her head, and devoured her lips. His groan reverberated off the stone walls as she opened to him and he tasted the sweetness of her mouth. Tongues dancing, they played, both seeking a closeness sheer physical touch couldn’t deliver.
He pulled away, allowing them both to breathe. Not that he needed anything as trivial as air. Wrestling the soap still cupped in her hands, he turned her around. Her back pressed against his chest offered him an ample view of her breasts and dusky pink nipples, the mounds just hiding the curls between her legs and the sleek curves of her thighs. He was going to taste her from top to bottom before he was done. Hands lathered in soap, he cupped those breasts and rolled the nipples, watching them harden. The pink flesh taunted him.
She gave another delicious whimper and he tweaked one, pinched for a second, reveling in her body’s rub against him in pleasure. Her ass cheeks cradled his cock in wonderful torture.
“I was pretty much clean,” she said, a twinkle in her eyes as her head turned up for another kiss.
“Just being thorough.” His lips captured hers as his hand slid lower, his fingers spearing through her curls and into the slick heat of her folds, already so hot and ready for him. A wave of satisfaction swept through him. He stroked with one finger, waiting until she pressed into his hand and whimpered for more. With two and then three fingers, he circled and teased until her pants were heavy against his cheek. Her body’s responses as much as her exclamations of pleasure and the tight grip of her hands on his forearms, escalated his own pleasure. He licked and nipped at her lips, turning the peach to a rosy pink.
His pace quickened and then slowed. Faster, then a light touch. He splayed her labia between his fingers and tormented her clit with another until her fingernails dug into his arm. “Come for me, Briet. You don’t know how long I’ve waited to feel you this way.”
Her body tightened beneath his hands and her cries echoed off the walls. His arm anchored beneath her breasts as he held her to him and cupped her mound, still hot and trembling from his attention. Her body felt so perfect against him he didn’t want to move, but the water and the soap weren’t ideal for what he had in mind.
Lifting her in his arms, he dripped water across the bathroom and bedroom floors until he reached the bed. He lowered her onto the soft spread and covered her with his body. Halfway to capturing a delicious nipple in his mouth, her hands stopped him. He winced as her thumb brushed at the residual cut and bruise from his fight with Taylor.
“Jason?”
“It’s nothing,” he murmured, gazing into her light brown eyes, streaked with golden highlights and worry. Putting up no resistance, he allowed her to pull him closer to kiss away the hurts. Soft butterfly kisses, her lips tender with a gentle sweep of her cheek against his jaw, her expression delicate in tandem with her touch. He could come home every day from fights and battles and find ease in this gentle nurture. He dipped closer to her lips. No pain, only heat, blossomed as he captured her mouth beneath his.
Now he had to taste. To feel her come alive for him one more time before he took her with a greedy surge of need.
He pulled away from her mouth to finally close his lips over the hard morsel of her nipple. Suckling her flesh with his tongue, he reveled in the delicate pulse of her heart, a rhythm against his skin. The curve of her breast cupped in his palm, he moved back to blow over her damp flesh and watch it pucker. She arched into him, his cock answering her move with a jerk against the softness of her inner thigh.
Not yet.
His mouth slid lower, worshiping, tasting. It seemed so long since he’d experienced her body. Yet the memory was still so vivid.
Mine.
The woman. Her love. Her passionate response. All his, only his.
Almost reaching his goal, just a breath shy of parting those curls for a taste, she surprised him. Pushing hard on his shoulder, she flipped him over with a tight grasp of her thighs, straddling his abdomen with a wicked smile, her damp, moist heat a temptation against his erection.
She leaned down, those luscious nipples grazing his chest, her back bowed, the white globes of her ass raised high like a cat stretching.
“Baby, if you wanted control—
All thought stopped as the wet, warmth of her mouth covered him and gave a gentle suck. “Jeez, Briet—”
On instinct, he lifted his hips and offered more of himself as his fingers wrapped in her hair. Her tongue, the playful glint in her eyes, the motion of that beautiful mouth—his total undoing. He watched her lick and tease, his cock disappearing into her mouth. Threatening to blow any second if she didn’t stop, he withdrew from her warmth. As much as he enjoyed her attention, he wanted to be hilt-deep inside of her when they both came.
“Briet.” His tug on her hair stopped her motion. “I want you.”
She’d released him from her mouth, but her hand held him tight, her thumb teasing at a sensitive spot just beneath the crest of his head. Sucking in air, he barely managed to wrestle back control. His pull grew tighter on her hair, not wanting to hurt her, but needing clarity since he wasn’t sure he could get the words out.
“I don’t have any protection here,” she whispered against his flesh.
He pulled again, control finally conquered. “I don’t care, just come up here.”
Not the time he would have chosen to have this conversation, but not a bad time for it either. As she released her precious grip on him, he grabbed her by the waist and pulled her up his body until she lay nose to nose on top of him. If he moved his hips, even slightly, he would penetrate the moist heat between her thighs and breech her entrance. His arm tightened around the back of her waist as he cupped the side of her face to stroke her cheek and looked into her eyes. “Don’t you want to have a baby with me?”
He expected to wait. To have to coax her to tell him what he already knew. He’d expected to exert more effort getting her to talk to him than they would actually expend during sex.
Instead, she met his question with a look of resolve. “I do. I also know you’ll be a wonderful father.” She gripped her hand over his as he blinked at the vehemence in her voice. “I’m willing to take as much time as it takes to convince you of that. I’ll help you every step of the way, but you don’t need to do this now just because we’ve missed each other for so long. We can take all the time we need to work this out.” She gave her head a shake. The wave of burnished gold above her right brow bounced with her emphatic tone. “Though I’m not giving up on a future with our children.”
How he loved this woman. Her guard, usually so high was steeled to take him on, defending him at the same time she attempted to save him from himself. He nodded but didn’t let her go, shifting that marginal inch so she could feel him start to enter her. “You’re right. I do want you. Very badly. Now.”
He moved her face closer and sucked her lower lip between his teeth, his eyes still staring into hers. “But I had already come to terms with wanting us to have a child before I stepped in the shower with you.”
“Jason.”
“I want you.” He penetrated an inch more, cataloging the signs of her desire as her lips parted, her pupils dilated, and her hips shifted with his action. “Now and a hundred years from now. I want to work by your side and I want to see you carrying my children. But—” He withdrew from her folds, torturing both of them. He needed the words. Her ability to open up to him, to challenge him, more important than the solace he would find in her body. “Tell me again. Because I love that you trust me enough.”
She sighed as she pressed her lips to his. “You’re mine. Forever.” She pulled back searching his face. “I want your children, but I
need
you with all the essence of my soul.” She clenched her thighs about his and moved her body to recapture the intimacy he’d removed.
He stroked a hand over her cheek. “Are you sure, Briet? Because if you are, I’ll give this everything I’ve got. I just need you with me.”
“I’m positive.” She touched her forehead to his. “Now, quit being a tease.”
His chuckle was smothered with her kiss. He gripped her hips and plunged deep.
Home.
His aching flesh thickened inside her, goaded by the sweet grip of her muscles. He moved, her delicate moans echoing to his soul with each stroke. Yet it still wasn’t enough.
With a quick twist, he flipped them again, pressing her into the mattress, angling deeper for her pleasure. Her legs wrapped tighter around him. Driving into her with possession, determined to mark in her memory the bite of fever she marked in his, he let loose his need. Her moans vibrated along his skin.
He pressed his lips to the curve between her neck and shoulder. She clenched about him, her legs, her channel, and her hands holding him to her as he plunged again.
Not far enough. Not close enough. But the closest he’d ever know to heaven. He coached his rhythm to feed her desire. Her fingernails dug into his back with her rising cries, signaling his success. With a shift of his body, he picked up the speed and sucked the lobe of her ear between his lips, then nipped a pattern along her neck. When her body started to shatter around him, he bit gently on her tender flesh, feeling her orgasm surge higher, pulling him with her as he came with a white, hot blast of pleasure. The wave, the rush, so intense, so prolonged, he clasped her to him, wanting to fuse their bodies the way his heart and purpose had become inextricably tied to hers.
He lay there for minutes, crushing her, too content to want to move. Reluctant to give up the moment, he rolled to the side, keeping her with him. Sweat, first hot, now cool, wicked the warmth from their bodies. He pulled the edge of the cover over them. A subtle shift, but he managed to stayed embedded inside her and clasp her leg that lay, now lax, over his hip. “I love you, Briet.”
“You sure?” She smiled teasingly. “I might need more convincing.”
“Really? You need more?” He kissed her nose, his cock twitching inside her as if in response to her words. Her sultry chuckle against his chest stoked the embers, rejuvenating his muscles. “The way I see it, you’re not taking me seriously.”
Her tongue tickled a spot and then kissed away the tiny itch. He pushed back the hair beside her ear and whispered against her cheek. “If you require more convincing, I’ll need a few minutes but just to remind you, I’m available for the next eighty or so years.”
“Good to know.” She didn’t move from her spot against his chest but intertwined her fingers with his.
“Briet, promise me something.”
She tensed and he placed her hand over his chest, stroking over her fingers as he focused on her expression. Her mouth red from his kisses, her whiskey eyes sated, the light blush of pleasure still dusted over her cheekbones. It was hard to keep focus with such a delectable image.
“What?” The word was a throaty seductive whisper.
Not resisting, he sipped from her lips and pulled back. “When you get pregnant, I want us to come back here until you have the baby.”
Her eyes widened in surprise. He quickly covered her mouth with two fingers before she could speak. “I’ve been beside you for days. The coma—you nearly died in my arms. Twice. I don’t want to go through that again. I can’t lose you. I know you’ll be safe here. Promise me.”
She kissed his fingers to coerce him to move them. “Sounds like this is all for me—I get you, safety, a child. You give up your lifestyle, your job, your success, and what do you get? What will make you happy?”
“Aside from you?” He shook his head in an attempt to dislodge the incredible euphoria of holding her protected in his arms and pressed a kiss to her lips again. “Success for me was money and recognition. I’ve had both. However, dealing with your people, handling special gifts, surviving in totally different circumstances—it has given me a new perspective. I’ve felt more revitalized these last few days than I have in years.” He watched her eyes for a response. She was busy following every word—no judgment—just listening. “I need different challenges, different rewards than my job can provide. I have more to offer than my old life can absorb.”