Parallel Heat (39 page)

Jared nestled Kelsey closer against his chest. ‘‘Thank you, Thea. Your affection for her means’’—his throat tightened inexplicably—‘‘a great deal to me.’’

‘‘I understand love better than I did when you first bonded with her.’’

Jared leaned his head against the wall, studying his cousin. ‘‘Will you mate with Marco now?’’

Thea flushed visibly, making a great show of studying her data collector. ‘‘You know what this means, don’t you?’’ she said, pointedly avoiding his question. ‘‘These codes aren’t ever coming out of her, Jared.’’

‘‘I realize that.’’

‘‘I don’t think they’re supposed to come out, either. I think she’s our key—
the
key—to operating the mitres.’’

Jared gave a thoughtful nod. He’d already reached the same conclusions that Thea had, and the weight of them were already bearing on him like a dimensional shift.

‘‘Does that scare you?’’ Thea pressed.

He rubbed his palm over the top of Kelsey’s head, stroking her hair as he thought. At last he put words to the idea that had slowly been forming inside his heart. ‘‘It’s the way of it. She’s the Beloved of Refaria, and we both know how important that makes her.’’

Thea’s head jerked upward in surprise. ‘‘You believe that part of the letter, then?’’

‘‘Marco told us,’’ he replied, ‘‘and that’s the only proof I need.’’

‘‘You trust him then? Completely?’’

Jared smiled at his cousin, lifting a hand to her cheek. ‘‘You love him, and that’s the only additional proof I need, dear cousin.’’

Thea’s blue eyes shined with deep emotion, and for a long moment she said nothing. ‘‘We’re already near-mated,’’ she confessed at last. ‘‘It’s how I communicated with him on the base.’’

Jared was hardly surprised; he’d already surmised as much, but he gave a hearty show of approval, bobbing his head up and down. ‘‘Good. Most excellent news. I can only assume the mating rites will be completed then?’’

‘‘Jared!’’ Thea cried, blushing furiously. ‘‘You could make this a bit easier, you know!’’

‘‘It was an honest question,’’ he teased.

‘‘Yes! We will complete everything!’’ She wagged a finger at him. ‘‘But that is all you’ll know.’’

‘‘Unless you display a mating glow like certain other royals did after their wedding night,’’ he teased, and her eyes widened in mortification. ‘‘Then, surely, all the camp will know.’’

‘‘There will be payback at some point, cousin. You wait!’’

The radiant smile on her face, the sparkle in her eyes, told him everything he needed to know about her choice of a mate. Thea Haven had found the love of her life, and Jared for one, couldn’t have been happier for her.

Chapter Twenty-four

He was on her before she had time to say his name, before she could utter so much as a word or cry her exultation. In the space of a heartbeat he had her, catching her hard against his body and half tackling her to the ground. It was graceless, unpoetic. Desperate. And Thea had never wanted Marco as badly. She could taste the lust and need pulsing between the two of them—and that before his lips had ever met hers. Their grunting sounds punctuated the silence, then soft gasps and whimpers as they fell together, rolling on the leaf-strewn earth as one.

‘‘Baby, baby,’’ he murmured, pushing her onto her back. She felt a rock lodge beneath her leg; she didn’t care. With both hands she clutched at him, reached, tried to draw him closer against her body. Their lips met, his mouth crushing hers hard as he reached to unbuckle her belt, then her uniform slacks. She knew she smelled like smoke and battle grime, but that hardly mattered; all she wanted was Marco inside of her. Now. Forget the waiting, the endless days of torturous waiting.

Tilting her pelvis upward, she reached for him, aligning her hips against his. Against her thigh, the prominent bulge of his erection nudged her as together they began to thrust, his hand half inside her pants, she pulling at his hair.

Pressing her eyes shut she ignored the morning sunlight, dappling through the trees—and she ignored the very real possibility that a patrol might discover them. There would be no stopping now, no waiting for the ideal moment for mating. They’d done a damnable amount of waiting, and she didn’t want any more of it.

He could be gone by afternoon. They could both be dead. ‘‘I won’t die without having you,’’ she panted in his ear. ‘‘I won’t wait another day for this.’’

Shoving her pants further down her hips, his large hands cupped the bare skin of her thighs. ‘‘I won’t wait,’’ he groaned against her shoulder. ‘‘Look at me, I’m shaking all over for you.’’ His palms slid down her legs, clutching at her while she struggled with unfastening his jeans. He reached between them and unsnapped his pants, then tugged on the zipper, cursing under his breath in low Refarian until they finally came open.

‘‘Good.’’ She panted, sliding her palms around his hips, feeling bare skin. Like most Refarian males, he wore no underwear at all. The feel of his satiny warm flesh dusted with bristly hairs caused a jolt of desire to crest inside of her.

Their hands were everywhere, exploring, ripping apart, opening. His hair, so much longer now, was silky thick between her fingers. ‘‘Marco,’’ she cried, tugging his head down for another kiss. ‘‘I can’t wait. Please don’t make me.’’

He arched his back, rising off of her onto all fours, and shoved his pants all the way to his ankles, then slid atop her, levering his hips together with hers. He pressed his erection between her thighs, pushing at her opening; she was wet and hot and ready for him. She wanted him with all her heart and soul, but nothing had prepared her for the suddenness of such intimate proximity. Pushing against her opening, she realized that Marco would not be stopped, nor did she want him to be. Nothing could stop her anyway.

‘‘I thought I’d never be with you again,’’ she whimpered, feeling tears streak down her face. ‘‘Amazing, you’re amazing. Nothing will ever separate us. We’re one.’’

But then he did stop, growing utterly still against her. Lifting his head, he stared into her eyes, his own dark ones wide with panic.

‘‘No, Marco, keep going,’’ she pleaded, unsure what had caused his hesitation. She pushed her hips upward, working to take him inside of her, just a bit, but he braced his hands by her shoulders and held back, shaking his head adamantly.

With a quick curse, he growled, raising his hips and slipping off of her. ‘‘All wrong,’’ he whispered. ‘‘Baby, this—can’t happen. Not now.’’

She dug her fingers into both of his shoulders, urging him back down onto her. ‘‘Don’t you dare pull away now!’’ Too many times before now he had come near, only to shove her to the far side of his emotional universe. ‘‘I won’t let you, not this time,’’ she said fiercely, holding him hard and close. The tears that had already been in her eyes turned to sobbing, her chest heaving. ‘‘Now is the time, not later, not someday. Now, Marco!’’

He palmed her hair, stroking it back from her eyes; his expression filled with raw anguish. ‘‘I have to talk to you first, baby,’’ he explained. ‘‘Please.’’

And then they lay together, he still and drawing in huffing, urgent breaths, she sobbing softly. ‘‘Talk to me, then.’’ She forced the words past her tightened throat. ‘‘Whatever it is, just say it.’’

‘‘Not like this,’’ he whispered, cupping her beneath the chin. ‘‘We can’t breathe, neither one of us.’’ He began to ease off of her, straddling her. ‘‘Give me a minute.’’

She slapped his chest furiously. ‘‘This is it, McKinley. You’ve done this to me for the last time.’’

He shook his head, sliding off of her and sitting beside her on the cool ground. He drew his knees to his chest and buried his face in his hands. ‘‘Don’t hate me—not yet, baby. Please, just hear me out.’’

With a jerk, she pulled her pants back up to her waist and began frantically fastening zippers and buttons. She’d be damned if this man would leave her here, not with her half-nude.

But she noticed he wasn’t going anywhere; that fact had to account for her anger suddenly cooling a bit. ‘‘Go on,’’ she told him tightly. ‘‘I’m listening.’’

Dropping his hands away from his face, he met her hard gaze. His hair shot in every possible direction, disheveled by her own hands. ‘‘Nothing will ever separate us again,’’ he began softly. ‘‘You’re totally right, sweet Thea.’’

‘‘So what’s wrong with that?’’

‘‘Think about it—think deeply. Everything that I am, you will become. Not by half measures or near-mating. You will be me and I will be you. Me. You’ll have it all. Including this cursed thing that lives inside of me—my empathy.’’

‘‘I already have your gift!’’ She gave the ground a stomp.

‘‘It hasn’t even manifested yet. You have no idea how strong it will become,’’ he warned her.

‘‘I don’t care, Marco! I’m ready to be with you, fully, completely. Nothing will ever keep me from you again.’’

‘‘Do you have any idea what those words do to me?’’ He laughed huskily, thinking what this bonding would mean to him; how it would change his internal landscape. More than that, of how profoundly he loved the woman beside him. ‘‘I have never wanted anything more than this, not in all my days.’’

She opened her arms to him, reaching, and he nuzzled her, nipping at her throat with a quiet growl of arousal. ‘‘But it’s not just the empathy,’’ he cautioned her. ‘‘It’s the Madjin. It’s the Circle.’’

‘‘Sabrina told me that all that business about you not being able to mate is nonsense! She told me she had a husband and a son—that you can mate too.’’

‘‘That’s not it—it’s that you’ll become one with the Circle. Did she tell you that?’’

Thea shook her head. ‘‘No, she didn’t.’’

‘‘Did you tell her about us?’’ he pressed, wondering what Sabrina would say about the reality of his taking a lifemate. Of his marrying a woman of a class far above his own servant status.

‘‘I didn’t, not exactly.’’ A frown creased her forehead. ‘‘I indicated we had feelings for each other, but . . . I didn’t get very specific.’’

‘‘I have to ask her permission before we take this step—there’s so much at stake. The curse inside me; your new link to the Madjin. She’s my unit leader and I’ve got to talk to her first.’’

She groaned and fell back onto the leaves, fastening her belt. ‘‘Waiting. Always waiting. First one thing, then another. Damn it, Marco!’’ she shouted. ‘‘I can’t keep doing this.’’

He sprang atop her, suspending himself over her by bracing his hands on both sides of her head. Still, their hips pushed together, their bodies felt as one. Panting heavily against her cheek, he breathed words of intent: ‘‘This won’t take long. I swear it. I’ll leave you now and go to talk to her. That’s all the time I need.’’

She braced his face within her hands, cool against his fevered cheeks. ‘‘And then?’’

‘‘And then we will go wherever you want and mate. Forever. No stopping or holding back—’’

‘‘No more fears?’’

He shook his head, pressing his lips against hers. ‘‘Never.’’

Their kiss deepened and once again they began to rock their hips together in a titillating gyration. She gripped him from behind, caressing and urging him onward as if he were a wild stud running for the finish line.

Pulling his mouth from hers, he trailed his tongue across her cheek, tasting the salty sweetness of her. With a dragging inhalation, he swilled her scent into his lungs, feeling his hard-on grow even harder.

She slipped her hands lower down between his legs, slowly caressing the sensitive place behind his erection. He buried his face in her hair, stifling his intense, yelping growl. She made him wild; she brought out the most primal side of his nature and he burned with it whenever he fell into her arms this way. His entire body blazed with her natural heat and fire.

‘‘Help me, baby,’’ he begged of her, unable to pull away. ‘‘We c-can’t,’’ he stammered. Somehow, in her arms, his facility with speech always faded a bit. In a way, he grew as primal as he knew her to be.

‘‘I don’t want to help you.’’ She laughed huskily in his ear. ‘‘You know what I’m after.’’

‘‘Please. Please, Thea. Please.’’ He groaned his need as her hand tugged between his legs, tight against him where his thighs met. He arched, throwing his head back with an unsuppressed bellow of longing. ‘‘Got . . . to stop.’’

She stroked him harder.

‘‘You are a vixen,’’ he rasped in her ear.

She gave a coquettish laugh. ‘‘But I’m your vixen.’’ And with that, at last, she shoved him off of her. ‘‘Now go!’’ she said in obvious frustration. ‘‘Just go! And have your big talk with Sabrina.’’

He studied her closely. ‘‘And then? Tonight?’’ The words rushed out in a breathless exhalation of need. Only this time, she was the one to put the brakes on.

‘‘No, not until we’re married,’’ she told him, her eyes dancing with excitement. ‘‘Then we will mate—after. Not before.’’

He couldn’t help giving her a sideways, grudging smile. ‘‘Payback, huh?’’

She leaned forward, kissing him softly on the mouth. ‘‘It’s just more romantic that way. We’ll have a royal wedding!’’

‘‘How can I argue with that?’’ he laughed, feeling nervousness flutter in the pit of his stomach. A royal wedding where the groom had spent a lifetime in servitude. What would the elders say to that? Good thing his wife to be didn’t seem to care.

 
‘‘I plan to mate with Thea.’’ Marco stood before the leader of his circle, the woman he had always thought of as his true mother. ‘‘I want to marry her, too. Tomorrow. I want to seal our marriage before the Circle—before everyone. I know you won’t approve, I’ve already been over it hundreds of times in my head—’’

‘‘You can’t mate with her, Marco.’’ Sabrina blinked rapidly, staring at him—almost as if gazing right through him—and then her expression softened. ‘‘I know you love her—’’

He took a step closer toward his adopted mother. ‘‘You can’t begin to know how deep it is.’’

She smiled faintly. ‘‘And I know that you’re near-mates—that you feel a deep, intense connection with her.’’