Gates of Rapture (The Guardians of Ascension) (41 page)

The men, as well as the women bonded to Kerrick, Marcus, Medichi, Jean-Pierre, and Thorne, all gained their feet and held up a variety of glasses in Grace’s direction. The woman blushed at all the praise.

“To Grace” resounded to the top of the dining hall rotunda, then back again.

The sound, made big because of so many masculine voices, pleased Endelle’s soul.

She sipped her tequila, smiling as she drank. Goddam but she felt good. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d felt this fantastic, this free, this satisfied, and sex hadn’t been involved at all. But this had been as good as a good lay, flying like that, knowing she could pose for the cameras and show off her costume, heading up her army, leading obsidian flame. Yeah, damn good.

But that fold! Especially while in full-mount and not one feather out of place once she hit the ground. Shit, that had been something else. The power had rolled along the parade route starting at the back, like an all-encompassing wind that passed through her body yet caught her up at the same time, and shunting her in a quick ride through nether-space. Her wings had held—another miracle provided by obsidian flame. No way in hell would she try it on her own. Wings could get thoroughly trashed during a fold, and that kind of destruction would hurt like a motherfucker.

She glanced at Grace. The woman had truly surprised her in about every way possible. That she’d left the Creator’s Convent in Prescott Two to shack up with Casimir-the-Hedonist on Fourth Earth had been one of the shockers of the century. But that she’d come back so changed was another shocker, wearing loose clothing, lots of makeup, and her hair curled. A lot of her restraint was just gone. Maybe Casimir had done that for her, or maybe being with Beatrice, or maybe it was the
breh-hedden
.

So Grace was back, the third leg of a now über-powerful obsidian triad, and all cuddled up with Leto. Endelle had extended her hearing a couple of times, because eavesdropping was just plain fun. Grace kept whispering to Leto that she wanted him to “go beast.” Endelle was pretty sure she knew what that meant, and if she’d been in Grace’s shoes, she would have done the same thing.

She sipped her tequila, then laughed again, no less so when Leto called out to Thorne, “Hey, how about having Jeannie fold us back to my cabin.”

Thorne frowned slightly. “The cabin in Seattle?”

“Yes,” Leto said. “The colony is secure, and I’m going to create my own dome of mist over my property.” He glanced at Medichi and smiled. “Besides, I think the villa will be crowded tonight.”

Medichi laughed. “Very crowded.” He leaned close to Parisa and kissed her full on the lips.

Thorne opened his mouth, probably to argue with Leto’s request some more, but Leto already had his tongue in Grace’s mouth again.

Endelle met Thorne’s gaze, but she understood the need for some alone time. “I’ll add my own dome of mist over the cabin.” She then called out to Jeannie and gave the order.

Leto and Grace vanished.

Endelle was almost tempted to open her voyeur window and have a brief look-see at the couple, but she really was trying to work on her boundaries. Alison kept preaching to her about them, and she supposed she was right. So, instead, she poured another shot of Silver Patrón and savored the moment.

Tonight had been a major victory, maybe not the final one that would end Greaves’s plans for good but a solid step in the right direction. She had no doubt that
the little peach
would retaliate, but she doubted it would be in the next few hours. Would he want a straight-up battle, now that he’d lost half his force? She honestly didn’t know.

*   *   *

“Go beast for me,” Grace whispered, licking at Leto’s neck.

Leto was in agony. She’d gotten him worked up at the palace, but each time she said, “Go beast for me,” he swore he almost came.

Maybe it was the way she said it, kind of pleading with an ache in her voice. He could also feel just how aroused she was, her nipples in hard beads against his palms. So strange to feel her sensations at the same time he pressed his hands into her breasts.

He leaned against the wall by the fireplace, and she leaned into him, her hips pressing upward in a sensual roll, stroking the full length of him with her body.

“Go beast for me, Leto.”

He wanted to, but he also wanted to take his time with her. “You were wonderful tonight,” he said. “You were amazing.”

She stopped licking his neck and looked up at him. Her gold-green eyes glittered. “It was an incredible experience,” she said. “Have I thanked you for supporting me like you did? I’m not sure I would have gotten through it without your help. You calmed me enough to get the fold done.”

He kissed her. “You’re welcome … again. For about the hundredth time.”

She smiled and kissed him back. “Don’t you think I deserve a reward?”

“Oh, I don’t know.” But he pressed her bottom with both hands and flexed his hips.

She hissed, and her hips responded so that she rolled over him again. She licked his neck, but this time she began to suck. A shudder went through him.

Go beast for me, Leto. I want you big … everywhere.

Leto closed his eyes and just let the pleasure of her mouth on his neck ride him. He could feel how much she enjoyed her lips on his skin, and sucking at him. But it was all too much.

The only question he needed to answer was simple:
Where?
Then he remembered how much she liked water. He groaned and tried to calm down.

He pushed her away. “I have an idea, but you need to be naked.”

She nodded. Her lips were so swollen. She waved a hand, and her flight suit disappeared.

He had to close his eyes again for a couple of reasons. One of them involved how easy it would be to just spill all over the floor, but the other was much more critical. The hidden colony was still covered in mist—Endelle had seen to that, and she’d covered his cabin as well. But not the hot spring. Mentally, he got the deed done. Yep, power was great.

“How about a soak?”

She drew in a deep breath. “Your bathtub might fit us both, but not if you’re in a beast state.”

His woman had a one-track mind. “I’m thinking about the hot spring.” He waved his own hand this time, and his clothes disappeared.

Her turn to shudder. Her knees buckled, so of course he had to catch her. “I’m going to fold us both to the edge. You ready?”

She nodded. “Uh-huh.” Then she kissed him.

He landed on the rocks, and because her lips were still pressed to his, he barely kept his balance. He drew back and smiled. “You’re so anxious.”

“I’m hungry,” she whispered.

“Well, let me feed you then.”

She listed sideways, so he did the only sensible thing: He fell sideways, pulling her with him straight into the pool.

The warm water helped to calm things down. For a reason he couldn’t explain, some inner desperation perhaps, he really needed this time with her to last. He felt oppressed with things he didn’t understand. Yes, they’d had a victory tonight—and yet had they done anything more than just infuriate a tyrant, a man with no conscience, who had a vast army?

“Leto,” Grace whispered against his ear. “Why so distressed?”

He looked at her. “You can feel that?”

“Yes. Your whole body has grown tense. I want to make love to you, and your thoughts are practically shouting at me.”

He shook his head. “I’m not sure exactly what’s bugging me. I’ve been uneasy ever since seeing the southern sky lit with those bombs. Greaves will want revenge. We’ve wounded something far worse than anything physical.”

“His pride.”

“Yes, at the very least his pride. But we’ve stripped him of his advantage.”

She pushed away from him and threw herself backward into the water only to rise and float, her breasts like two small islands, her eyes closed.

Leto watched her float. Dammit, he’d ruined the moment for her. He had only been thinking of his own fears and concerns. But Grace was the one who had done the heavy lifting tonight, and her success should be celebrated.

“I feel like an ass.”

“Well, then come feel my ass but not until you’re ready. I can wait.”

He stood up and pushed through the water to get to her. She stayed floating on her back. She was looking up at the dark night sky.

“The mist you created over the pool is beautiful. You have a small swirl that’s quite elegant.”

He dipped down and put his hands beneath her back to support her, then he moved her in a circle faster and faster until she was giggling. But the restraint was there, within him, almost screaming at him:
Don’t get involved, don’t get close, don’t give your heart, don’t forget how quickly a war can rob you of everything.
Would he ever be free of this terrible holding back, this unwillingness to engage fully with her?

He feared the answer.

And he was definitely being an ass.

So he gave her the one thing he could give her, but this time all he had to do was think the thought and he began to transform.

*   *   *

Grace felt the movement in the water, like gentle pushes here and there. Leto had released her back. She sighed. But her eyes were closed, and she was trying hard not to be so disappointed.

All she had wanted was to be with Leto, and have him go beast for her, but he seemed lost in his worries and she couldn’t fix that. So, she floated and tried not to think about him or the tangible space that seemed to always be between them despite the fact that they were fully bonded.

Then she realized what that pushing sensation was.

She popped her eyes open and stood up in the water.

She gasped. “How did you do that? I didn’t know except the movements in the water felt a little different.”

He looked down at her from his increased height. His fangs had emerged. All that former desire came rushing back to her, especially since the moist air of the hot spring smelled heavily of the forest and man, Leto and beast.

Her nostrils flared as she took in his scent. At the same time, she put her hands on his massive pecs and began to fondle him. She loved his body in this state. She could hardly explain it. But he was just more of himself: more to touch, to feel, to experience from both his sensations as well as hers.

She slid her hands around his waist intending to hug him, but she felt his wing-locks and they were dripping.

She drew in a sharp breath. “Turn around,” she commanded.

His eyelids sank low. “Meadow scent.”

“Just turn around.”

He obeyed, and the water sloshed from his heavy thighs; small waves washed over her. She began at the lowest wing-lock and rubbed back and forth. He arched his back and roared.

The sound gripped her low, which caused him to roar again.

She glanced around the pool and found a large boulder that was smooth as it angled into the water. She took his hand and guided him over to the rock. “You must let me do this to you. I want to. Will you let me?”

He chuffed his response and spread himself out on the rock facedown. The water came up to the tops of his thighs.

Her lips trembled as she moved into him. He was a visual feast, and he was hers, both to command right now and to enjoy.

She moved behind him and pressed her hips against his buttocks. He groaned.

She leaned over him and licked a line straight up the center of his back. She stroked the sides of his hips from his waist down to as much of the thigh as she could reach below the water, then she came back up. The whole time she moved her hands closer to the front of his thighs, slower and slower until she wrapped her hands around the base of his stalk. At the same time, she started licking his wing-locks.

He chuffed against the rock, breathing hard.

Grace, you’re killing me.

Good.

She leaned close and focused her attention on the mid-point wing-lock on the right side of his back. The lock was big, like everything about him right now, including what she held in her hand. She rubbed her cheek along the lock and felt moisture at the aperture. She glided her left hand up his cock and felt moisture at the tip.

She flicked her tongue over the end of his wing-lock. The pleasure he felt, which she could experience because of the
breh-hedden,
tightened her internal well. He tasted of the forest and man.
I wish I could lick both tips at once.

His hips pumped, and he groaned. He planted his forearms on the rock and buried his face between.
I wish you were under me right now.

Grace released him and sank beneath the warm water, spreading his legs wide and pulling them away from the rock. She pivoted and carefully rose up, taking great pains not to clunk her skull on the hard rock.

He kept making room and growling. As her head breached the water, she licked his cock ever so slowly as she continued to rise until she could take his crown in her mouth. He was big and filled her mouth. She sucked.

Grace. My God. Grace.

Her body clenched because she could feel how her mouth felt on him while at the same time enjoying the pleasure of him in her mouth. The
breh-hedden
might have been many things, but
erotic
defined this part. She could feel what he felt, the way his forearms braced his forehead, the way the water felt sloshing around his thighs, and the way her fingernails felt pressing into his buttocks.

She sucked harder and his hips flexed then pulled back. He was close. Hell, she was close.

She released him, and he groaned long and loud. She pushed his stomach away and worked her way up until she was reclining on the rock beneath him. “Is this under you enough?”

He was so beautiful in this state: Leto and so much more. He stroked her face with his big hands, then leaned down to kiss her. When he drew back, he said, “When I enter you, I’m not going to last long.”

She smiled and reached up to kiss him back. “I won’t, either.”

“This whole pool smells like I’m walking through a summery meadow.”

“No it doesn’t, it smells of the forest and man, of you, of Leto the beast.” She smiled and petted his cheek.