Heart of Darkness (23 page)
He moved back to holding her ass and also thanked all the years of physical activity that he could fuck his woman up against a wall and not collapse.
She fluttered around his cock, then tightened. The muscles in her forearm corded as he knew she was making herself come. So. Fucking. Hot.
And the slow build was nearly over. Need took over as the pleasure she gave herself only made him hotter for her. Her body slickened around him as she made a soft gasp as he picked up the pace.
Faster and faster, harder and harder, until she arched and exploded around his cock and there was simply no way not to come. He bit her shoulder and pressed in hard, coming with a groan that echoed all round them in the tiled enclosure until there was no other sound but panting for breath and water hitting bodies.
He kissed her; the ability to be slow and gentle had returned, but her response was wilder than he’d expected, which he liked. A lot.
He put her down carefully and she kissed his chest over his heart, hugging him.
“Let me get your back,” she said quietly.
He turned and let her minister to him as he closed his eyes and let the comfort of the bond take over as well.
Chapter 18
“ARE
you certain it’s the time to be making this trip, Meriel?” Edwina stopped Meriel in the hallway. She and Dominic would be heading to Bend for the next several days.
you certain it’s the time to be making this trip, Meriel?” Edwina stopped Meriel in the hallway. She and Dominic would be heading to Bend for the next several days.
“There’ve been no more attacks since Tuesday. Nell has done a great job with patrols. Our people are safe. This is the man who is in every way, but biological, Dominic’s father. I want to meet him and Dominic needs to tell him face-to-face about all this.”
Edwina paused and took a deep breath. “You’re very exposed. It makes me nervous.”
Meriel smiled.
“I saw the way Dominic fights, Mother. He’s just as able to protect me as Gage or another guard. I have the magick part down. You can see his magickal skills improving every day. At the rate he learns, he’s going to be as easy with his magick as I am in a month or so.”
Edwina nodded curtly, but it was clear she approved. “Yes, he’s a very quick study. Helps that he’s naturally very powerful, but he has excellent concentration. He’s been a very good student. I wasn’t sure how he would be. He can be irreverent at times.”
After her interrogation of Dominic on the night he and Meriel ascended, Edwina had decided
she
would be the best person to teach Dominic. Whatever her mother’s flaws, being a good teacher wasn’t one of them. The two had clicked quickly and Dominic soaked up everything Edwina threw his way.
she
would be the best person to teach Dominic. Whatever her mother’s flaws, being a good teacher wasn’t one of them. The two had clicked quickly and Dominic soaked up everything Edwina threw his way.
Surprised and amused, Meriel laughed. “Irreverent is a good way to put it.”
“The two of you are clearly made for each other in that respect.” Edwina sniffed. “You will call to check in. Your father worries about you and then he’s out in his garden all day and I can’t take him deciding to rip up more of my land for one of his projects.”
Meriel’s dad did have a way of dealing with his stress and worries through his
projects.
Edwina had ambition and drive. She was an intense person who ate stress for breakfast and dared it to give her a bellyache. Her father was more relaxed, but he didn’t cope the way his wife did. It made them a good fit as a couple, but Meriel could see how having your spouse always ripping up and rebuilding things in the yard might get a little annoying. Then again, she imagined her dad went out there to get away from his wife’s way of dealing with stress, which was to take care of things and order everyone around.
projects.
Edwina had ambition and drive. She was an intense person who ate stress for breakfast and dared it to give her a bellyache. Her father was more relaxed, but he didn’t cope the way his wife did. It made them a good fit as a couple, but Meriel could see how having your spouse always ripping up and rebuilding things in the yard might get a little annoying. Then again, she imagined her dad went out there to get away from his wife’s way of dealing with stress, which was to take care of things and order everyone around.
“I’ll call when I get to Bend. You have my cell and I’ll be sure you have Tom’s home number as well.”
Edwina nodded. “All right then. Tell Dominic I still expect to see him for our lessons at four on Monday.” She turned and walked a few steps before pausing to turn back to Meriel. “I think having this hunter train our people is a good idea. I’m charging you to create a committee to figure out how to get our people into these classes. I put some funds for it in your budget. I want this up and running as soon as possible. I assume you’ll be in contact with your aunt?”
Well. This was unexpected. Appreciated of course, but her mother had essentially just given the green light to something she’d argued against only a month before.
“Thank you. I’ve got some ideas on how to get started. I’ll definitely coordinate with Gennessee on how to get their people trained as well.”
“I spoke with Rebecca about the attack on Dominic on Wednesday. She is similarly putting energy into this project.” Edwina took a deep breath but said nothing else. Mostly likely it was that her aunt would see this as a much bigger threat than Edwina would simply because Gennessee’s territory was a far different animal than Owen’s was. More dangerous. Gennessee’s hunter team was fierce and well trained. Nell had long wanted to bring some of the basics of what they did into Owen’s structure but Edwina had resisted.
Edwina’s half-sister, Rebecca, was the leader of Clan Gennessee. Meriel’s grandfather had been married to Rebecca’s mother, but after she died in a house fire, he’d then met and married his bond-mate, who happened to be next in line to run Owen. It was sort of
Jerry Springer
territory, but they did manage to be a family.
Jerry Springer
territory, but they did manage to be a family.
This cemented the dominance of the entire western United States by the same family. Gennessee started when a small group of witches, including an Owen sister, chose to stay in California when the rest of the clan headed to Seattle.
Emily Owen had taken a name from their mother’s family, Gennessee, and they’d built their own branch of Clan Owen. Because of this, Owen witches would come to hold a great deal of power as the land recognized their magick and had connected with it over the generations. Owen witches, be they Gennessee or not, were the strongest in the world in their own territory and because the font included over twenty-five hundred witches, even outside their territory they were a force to be reckoned with.
Not that things weren’t complicated sometimes between Gennessee and Owen. But they would always hold together against an outside force.
“I’ll keep you apprised.”
“Of course.” Edwina nodded. “Be careful. Please.”
Meriel waved at her mother’s retreating back, smiling.
DRIVING south and then east toward Bend, Dominic felt freer the more miles he managed to rack up. She’d gone to work for a while, long enough to let him sleep after a late night at Heart of Darkness. Though she’d claimed otherwise. She took care of him like no one else ever had. And she’d just done it as if she always had. A little over two weeks and his life was totally different and, he couldn’t deny, totally better, even with the crazy business with the mages.
She’d arrived at his apartment with hot coffee and fresh bagels. A very nice way to be woken up. She smelled good and felt right and he loved the way she looked, cool and professional in her feminine suit, her hair a soft tumble of curls held back by a pretty clip he’d given her a few days prior.
He’d lured her to bed and even now she looked sexy and sort of disheveled, though still lovely in jeans and a sweater. He’d asked, and she’d let her hair stay free. She had her boots off and he could see she wore his favorite socks.
Whimsy to balance the heavy task she would bear as she took over the clan. It made her perfect to him. Gorgeous. Intelligent. Talented and powerful witch. Uninhibited in bed, or out of it. The sex was mind-blowing. He couldn’t even make up a fantasy as good as what they managed to get up to pretty much as often as they could. Well, maybe if it was a threesome with her clone. That could work.
Mmmm, yes.
“Whatever are you thinking about?” his lovely woman at his side asked, amusement in her tone.
Of course she had files on her lap and had spent the last two hours tapping away on her laptop. He’d been amazed by her capacity to work at any and all times. In the beginning anyway. Now he just accepted it as another one of her incredible gifts.
“I was thinking about a three-way with you and your clone, as it happens.”
She started laughing. “Really?”
“Really.”
She leaned over to kiss the side of his neck. “You’re so delightfully single-minded about sex.”
“I seem to recall I’m not the only one.”
“Very true. And what can I say? I’m rather flattered that if you’re thinking about three-ways you’d make me both women instead of adding a supermodel or something.”
“None of them have a thing on you.” Which wasn’t a lie at all.
He wanted to show her off, he could admit it, at least in his head. He wanted to present her to Tom and have Tom see what an amazing woman he’d fallen for. Wanted Tom to approve of how he’d made his life better.
Dominic had resented the iron-fisted way he’d been raised, but now, on the other side of a really dark time in his life, it had been Tom’s upbringing and his steady way of being in Dominic’s life that had given him the biggest push to finally get his act together.
“It’s going to be fine,” she said before answering her ringing phone.
He liked that too. Her way of knowing what he needed to hear and giving it to him.
He drove as her voice soothed him in the background. And then he smiled as that tone changed.
In addition to a host of positive qualities, Meriel Owen was really, really bossy, which he admittedly had only recently come to find attractive in a woman. Watching her work was sexy and inspiring. She was effortlessly efficient. She dealt with her mother by simply letting Edwina wash uselessly around her. It puzzled Edwina, Dominic thought. She didn’t understand her daughter so she provoked her, constantly trying to figure her out.
Meriel, to her great credit, did seem to understand her mother. And as much as she could, without harming her own perspective, she let her mother organize and tidy, knowing it’s what Edwina did to express her affection.
With him too, Dominic supposed, Meriel understood his need to protect and lead. He loved that she could be so in charge in every aspect of her life. But with him she softened, let him be in charge. It soothed him. Not that she didn’t push back when he got too bossy. She let him know when he overstepped. Which meant there’d be really smoking-hot make-up sex in store.
The scenery changed as they drove. From the lusher forests of western Washington into the warmer and drier climate of central Oregon. There’d been snow several places along the way.
Meriel, like most other Seattleites he knew, was fascinated and slightly fearful of the snow. But he’d grown up with it—with
lots
of it—his whole life. For months on end.
lots
of it—his whole life. For months on end.
But he’d stopped and let her take pictures of it. She brought that into his life too. The little experiences he’d forgotten about.
She gave orders in the background as he thought about this place and wondered why Tom had settled here. He’d grown up on the East Coast, but when he’d gotten the call that the baby of one of his friends needed a home, he’d come out west and had built a home and a life for both of them.
But every summer Dominic had worked to keep his body strong and his mind clear as he’d worked with Tom on his backcountry trips. They’d canoed and white-water rafted. Hiked. Biked. Camped.
In the winter it had been skiing and sledding on the trips they’d taken. Snow camping.
It had kept him out of trouble because he was too tired to get out of line. He’d respected his body and his mind. Until he’d left and binged on all the larger world had to offer.
And now he’d come full circle.
When she hung up he touched her hand, because he could and because he wanted to. She smiled and tipped her wrist up to capture his fingers with hers. “Hey there. I’m hungry. At the risk of sounding like a kid, are we there yet?”
“We’ve got another three hours or so. But Tom’s making a feast, he says. He’s a great cook so that’ll be true and believe me, you want to have plenty of space in your belly to eat. But let’s stop and stretch in the next town. I’ll get gas and look the other way when you drink yet another cup of coffee.”
“We all have our addictions, Mr. Bright.” She said it primly but the grin at the end sort of messed up that delivery.
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