Seeing Eye Mate (12 page)

“I’m going to have another one,” she whispered.

“Another what?” His strides ate up the hallway and before she knew it, he was laying her on the bed and leaning over to place a soft kiss on her temple.

Shit, she hadn’t meant to say that out loud. Too late now. He’d needle her all night if she didn’t tell him. What she should be doing is getting rid of him. One time was enough for him to see her in action.

Instead, she found herself saying, “A vision.”

“Christ. How do you know? What can I do to help?” His fingers brushed the bangs off her forehead, his words agitated.

An unidentifiable emotion clogged her throat. Not since her gramama had been alive had anyone ever been there for her during an episode. The comfort felt good, too good. It overrode the roiling of her stomach and her common sense. She couldn’t believe she was about to tell him this. To leave herself vulnerable to the pain and suffering he could so easily bestow upon her.

The front door slammed, echoing through the house, but she barely heard it.

“It killed her,” she rasped and her heart felt strangely lighter. Like a weight had been lifted off her.

Caelan’s heart skipped a beat. What other “it” could she possibly be talking about? When Eli had first told him about her clairvoyance, naturally it had run through Caelan’s mind that she might be able to help uncover the identity of their killer. He didn’t know how her ability worked and he didn’t care. But he was certain he didn’t want her involved. Not now, with her carrying their child.

Tieran’s eyes were unfocused, yet she stared straight ahead, seeing something he couldn’t, her face a pasty shade of white.

It took everything in him not to shake her and demand she tell him what she was talking about. He sucked in a deep breath, forcing his wolf to back down and let her go at her own pace since she was obviously locked in her own kind of hell.

“It was so big. She never had a chance.” Tieran idly scraped her fingernails on the sheet. “She was looking for someone named Micah.”

Surprised, Caelan narrowed his eyes and a shiver passed over his spine. The way she talked made it sound like she’d been there when it happened. Her visions were a lot more involved than he thought. Fuck.

The pictures he’d seen of Micah’s mate were gruesome enough on paper, he couldn’t imagine seeing it in his mind as she apparently had. Damn, he wished he knew a way to shield her somehow.

How did she live with this?

His skin tingled on a cool draft of air. Caelan searched the darkening room for any evidence of a breeze, then remembered what Tieran had said earlier about her grandmother.

Was it her, trying to communicate somehow? Goose bumps crawled up his arms, providing his answer.

“I’ll keep her safe,” he vowed silently.

“I know you will.”

Caelan jerked at the barely audible words he swore he heard. Not possible! He was imagining things he wanted to hear. That was the only plausible explanation.

“It jumped at her from the woods, tearing at her clothes and skin. There was so much blood,” Tieran murmured. Her face paled even more. “It had a scar on its shoulder, like Eli.” Her voice shook with what sounded like anxious confusion and her brows drew together.

Now they were getting somewhere. At least he could tell everyone they were looking for a shifter with a noticeable scar. “That’s good, Tieran. Those kinds of things give us a place to start.”

Her gaze sought his for the first time since he’d laid her there.

“You don’t understand,” she pleaded. “It was on the same shoulder.” Her words were hushed, her eyes sad, but clearly she was trying to tell him something.

Her implication set in like a bomb dropping. Caelan lunged to his feet. She thought Eli did this? The idea was inconceivable, ludicrous.

The only thing keeping him from ripping his clothes off, shifting and loping off to have a minute alone to lick his wounded pride was the look on her face. She obviously hadn’t been thinking along these lines the whole time. In fact, in retrospect, she hadn’t been anything but normal in Eli’s presence until he’d taken his shirt off in her bathroom. Now he knew the reason for her sudden intake of breath.

“You can’t be suggesting that Eli could do something like this. The scar is a coincidence, Tieran, that’s all.” If he sounded harsh, he couldn’t help it.

A forlorn look crossed her face. Nodding, she turned her head into the pillow. “You’re right.”

Damn it! She made him feel like he’d kicked her puppy and crushed any confidence she might have been building up to confide in him. Caelan knelt down and tilted her face with a forefinger under her chin.

“You are my mate, and as such I am bound to keep you happy.” He tapped her nose when her eyes widened a second before she squeezed them shut and tried to turn away from him again. “Don’t close your eyes.” Seconds passed and he growled in frustration while she decided whether or not to obey his quiet command.

Finally she did. Her eyes were liquid with unshed tears.

“Okay, that didn’t come out right.” He laced his fingers with hers and kissed the knuckles along the top ridge. “What I mean is, I will never do anything, on purpose, to hurt you.” He moved, trailing his lips up her arm, pausing to swirl his tongue in the crook of her elbow, gripping her hand tighter when she started to pull away.

“You are my heart,” he continued, working his way over her shoulder and along her neck. She shivered when he nipped at the delicate skin of her throat. “My soul.” He bit gently on her earlobe. Tieran angled her head, giving him better access, and moaned. “My mate.”

Caelan caressed his way up her belly with his free hand and palmed one of her perfect breasts. The nipple stabbed into his palm through her T-shirt.

“But I cannot, in good conscience, allow you to go on believing Eli had any part in what you saw. He didn’t do it,” he whispered rigidly in her ear.

She whimpered and twisted beneath him. Warm lips met his.

“I’m sorry, Caelan. I’m so sorry.” She sniffled and brought her hands up to frame his face before pressing her mouth more firmly onto his.

A feeling of pure desperation thrummed through Tieran’s body. A desperation to obliterate the notion of Eli and the beast being one and the same. To destroy the idea he may have had anything to do with murdering defenseless women.

She was desperate to postpone the inevitable vision looming on the horizon. But most of all, she was desperate to get closer to the man pressed on top of her. To feel his hardness penetrate her body and take possession, to be marked again by his teeth, branded by his kisses.

She needed this more than anything right now. Needed him. She would never be able to look at another man without feeling Caelan’s lips on hers, his teeth sinking into her skin, his cock embedded in her pussy. He had woven a spell around her, declaring for the entire world to see that she was his in every way possible.

His tongue invaded her mouth, plundered its depth, taking without mercy. She threaded her fingers through the hair at the nape of his neck, dragging him into firmer contact with her body. It wasn’t enough, would never be enough until he was inside her, seated to the hilt, making them one whole instead of two halves. One whole, when yesterday she’d been happy with hiding away from men for the rest of her life.

The bed dipped when he crawled over her and straddled her torso. His hands rested on either side of her head, supporting him so he didn’t crush her. He tasted so good, like a flavor she would crave for the rest of her life. She dueled with his tongue, parrying back and forth between their mouths, and lapped at his elongating teeth, mesmerized.

Tieran slid her hands down his shoulders, smoothed the length of his upper arms, then back up and under his armpits. He jerked and grunted against her mouth when she hit a ticklish spot along his side.

She gently scratched the spot again. Caelan jackknifed above her and trapped her roving hands at his sides with his arms. A smile played at his lips and she pouted.

“You don’t play fair, my own.” He tsked, wiggling a finger at her.

She took advantage, pulling her hand from its confinement, and walked her fingers up his rib cage.

“Why can’t I resist you?” she whispered.

His eyes seemed to glow in the dim light of her bedroom. The teasing smile faded into a possessive snarl.

“Because your body belongs to me, and it knows it, even if your mind wants you to think differently. This is the way things are between mates. Your senses will grow stronger, they will detect me even when you can’t see me. A part of me will be with you, always.”

His fingers cupped her breasts and pinched the distended nipples. Tieran arched her neck at the twin sensations zinging straight to her core. She ached to feel his hands on her skin, instead of through the cotton covering her body.

“When you smell me, immediately your body will prepare itself for my cock. During your heat, you’ll not be able to resist me. In fact, you’ll beg me to fuck you. Fucking will be the only thing that will keep you sane during those intense times of the month. It will ease the hunger inside you, take the edge off, but not for long. Soon you’ll need me again.”

Oh God. He was killing her. His hands kneaded her small breasts and her womb clenched. So far he hadn’t touched her pussy with any part of himself, but her clit was furiously aching. He slid her T-shirt up, uncovering her bare breasts, and she bent her neck to see herself.

The tips stood proud and large, beaded into tight points. A reverent fingertip caressed one.

“Me, Tieran, no one else will ever be able to satisfy your body, nor will you want them to.”

She swallowed. The fierce, determined look on his face said he would kill anyone who even tried to get near her. Then his head swooped down and he strongly sucked a nipple into his mouth, dragging the bud deep inside and drawing it along his tongue.

“Oh, Christ, oh, oh God.” She slapped at his biceps, his shoulders, anywhere she could reach, and dug her heels into the mattress. It was too much. It wasn’t enough. Her womb seized into a tight ball of nerves, contracting over and over again until she thought she would explode. When he turned his attention to the other nipple, she did.

The orgasm slammed through her body. Her legs and arms went rigid. Her toes pointed, her hands fisted in his T-shirt.

And still he lapped at her, finishing her off, bringing her down off her high, soothing her until she sank into the mattress, boneless.

Caelan gathered her weak body to his chest and peeled off her shirt. Then he rose up on his knees and stripped his own shirt over his head. Tieran’s chest heaved with the exertion of her climax as he laid her down again, but her eyes were softly closed and a sweet smile touched her lips. When he abruptly stood on the bed, her eyelids fluttered open to watch while he ripped open his jeans and shed them.

His steely erection bobbed as he balanced on the squishy bed, a tiny drop of come clinging to the broad head. Tieran levered herself up on her elbows and her pink tongue darted out to lick her lips. Caelan’s cock jumped in response.

“You keep looking at me like that, you’re gonna get more than you bargained for,” he hissed.

For long, excruciating seconds she stared at his rock-hard penis, her chest rising and falling with each heavy breath.

“I don’t remember bargaining for anything,” she whispered, and lifted a seductive gaze to his face with a slow perusal that missed nothing on its way up.

Un-fucking-believable. Did she even know what she did to him?

She started to sit up but he stopped her by kneeling again, sandwiching her ribs between his bent knees and forcing her to lie back. Her mouth formed a perfect “O” in surprise. His cock twitched in anticipation of penetrating that sweet circle of lips.

“I need to feel that warm mouth of yours wrapped around my cock.”

“Yes.” Her small hand reached out to wrap around the base of his dick and he sucked in a breath. The tips of her fingers didn’t even touch.

For long, painfully frustrating moments she discovered him inch by inch. She swiped her thumb across the glistening bead of pre-come seeping out and smeared it slowly around the head before sliding her hand back down his shaft and starting the exotic dance all over again.

The glide of her fingers and palm on his flesh was pure heaven. Caelan groaned and threw his head back, fighting the need to howl. His incisors lengthened further, begging to mark her again for everyone to see and know who she belonged to.

With a fist in her hair, he lifted her head to the swollen tip of his cock. “Lick me,” he growled.

Her tongue tentatively flitted out to lap at the underside of his erection. Caelan dropped his chin to his chest and watched Tieran with hooded eyes. So damn good. She tasted him, worked her way down the length of the heavy vein underneath, then around the side and back up to the top. When she flicked at an ultra-sensitive spot, he nearly shot his load early.

He groaned and gripped her hair tighter. “Jesus. Stop,” he gritted out. “I can’t take any more.” Two fucking licks and he was about to go off like a Roman candle.

The little minx doubled her efforts, slurping at him like he was an ice-cream cone, and then her mouth closed on him, drawing him deep and sucking for all she was worth.