Blood Ties (8 page)

And when
she came, he couldn’t look away from the ecstasy on her face, the
pleasure and abandon she’d saved only for him.
Mine,
he thought again, knowing it was true, and that
thought was enough to trigger his own orgasm. He came hard as her
body convulsed around him, milking his cock for every last
drop.

She collapsed on top of him, both of them
breathing as if they’d run a marathon. He cradled her close and
stroked her hair until she stopped trembling. The silence was warm,
not strained. He held her and closed his eyes, content to stay here
forever.

“Did you mean it?”

Her whisper tickled his chest, soft as a
caress. He didn’t need to ask what she referred to, didn’t need to
touch her mind to know. “I meant it,” he answered. “All of it. I
have loved you since the first day you walked into my office and
turned me upside down.”

She trembled and tightened her grip on him.
“You should’ve told me sooner,” she whispered. “Damn it, Orion, do
you have any idea how many times I almost reached out and touched
you, almost said something suggestive to see how you’d react,
almost snuck into your room to lie beside you during the day and
find out what you’d do if you woke to find me there?”

Just the thought revived hot memories of the
first time he’d awakened with her in his bed. “I’d have screwed
your brains out,” he assured her. “Repeatedly, if you’d done any of
those things.”

She laughed softly and shifted so she could
look up at him. “I suppose you’d probably like me to tell you if I
love you now?”

“It’d be nice, yes.”

She smiled. “What if I decide to make you
wait as long as you made me wait?”

Orion lunged, tumbling her onto her back and
pinning her before she could so much as gasp. “Then I’m afraid I’d
have to screw your brains out,” he growled. “Repeatedly.”

“Oh, there’s a wicked threat,” she laughed,
wiggling beneath him. “I’d hate that.”

He glowered at her. “Kira…” he growled
warningly.

She reached up and cupped his face in her
hands. “I love you,” she said, letting him see it in her eyes. “And
I don’t ever want to have to feed from another man, do you hear me?
I don’t care what happens. I’m not biting anyone but you and if you
don’t like it --”

He silenced her with a kiss. It started soft
and sweet but when she sighed and tightened her thighs around his
hips, it became progressively wilder until he finally had to break
away for air. “I like that idea just fine,” he panted, already
wanting her again. “There’s only one problem.”

Her warm smile faded a little. “What’s
that?”

“You’re still a fledgling, sweetheart. You
need more than I can provide on my own.” He kissed her forehead.
“We’ll work around it. You can always bite women. If I have to,
I’ll feed for both of us.”

She relaxed. “I thought you were going to say
something about the Nighthawks.”

The word was like a splash of cold water,
robbing him of his peace. What was he thinking, making plans for a
life with her while Gregori and Barrett and the rest of the Clan
were still hunting him? He took a deep breath and blew it out as he
rolled to the side, no longer pinning her down. “We do need to talk
about them, actually,” he said reluctantly.

Kira sat up and made a face. “I knew I
shouldn’t have said that,” she sighed. “You always go all serious
and cranky when they come up.”

“It’s because it’s a serious subject, and I’m
not cranky.” She stuck her tongue out at him in a gesture that
reminded him strongly of how she used to tease him until she got a
reaction before Barrett’s attack. He pinched her, smiling when she
jumped, before reaching down to pull up his jeans. “Kira, we need
to decide what to do. You need to decide what you want to do.”

Her light mood, already fading, died
altogether. “I already don’t like where this conversation is
heading.”

He sat beside her and took both her hands.
“Gregori won’t stop hunting me while I’m within his territory,” he
said. “I can’t best him in battle -- he’s over a thousand years old
and his power is legendary -- and I won’t rejoin him, which means
the only solution is to leave his territory. I don’t have a choice
in that, but you do.”

“Are you trying to tell me you want me to go
play house with the Clan and watch you ride off into the sunset?”
she demanded, incredulous.

“No, that’s not what I want,” he said,
squeezing her hands. “But it’s a choice you have. I don’t offer you
an easy life, Kira. Before this, I was merely an outsider, but if I
ignore this summons -- and that’s what Barrett’s attack was, a
summons -- I’ll be an outcast. The Nighthawks will swear a blood
feud on me and try to kill me on sight. No other Clan will want me
in their territory. Should you be with me, they would attack you
first, knowing that you are my weakness, the best way to destroy
me. Even alone I might only escape notice for a year, or I might
stay hidden for a century, but eventually I will be forced to
relocate or fight, over and over.”

He hated saying this, but he had to tell her
the truth. “You will be safer here than you’d be with me,
sweetheart. You could stay with the Clan for a short time, perhaps
a decade, just long enough to build your strength and learn your
powers. If you don’t like the life they have to offer, you could
leave the right way, with the Master’s blessing. You have to
consider it.”

She watched him with narrowed eyes. “You said
you don’t offer me an easy life,” she said quietly. “Do you offer
me any life at all, or is this just a complicated brush-off?”

“I’m not brushing you off,” he assured her.
“But I need you to understand that staying with the Clan would not
make you evil. You’ve just shown that you can feed from a human
without harming him. Ellyra has offered to adopt you as her own and
keep you safe. All right? This is one option.”

Kira nodded stiffly. “Give me the other one.”
Even her tone was tight, hurt.

Orion
released one hand to trace the curve of her cheek. “Be my mate,” he
whispered. “Come with me, despite the fact that I can offer you
little besides my love. I cannot defeat Gregori, but that doesn’t
mean I’m powerless. The Nighthawks don’t want to let me go because
I
am
strong. You would be without a
home, but not without protection, and I would die before I let
anyone harm you. Let me help you find your strengths, teach you to
use your powers. Love me and follow me. Be my weakness. That’s the
other choice.”

Her eyes filled with tears, sparkling green
pools he could drown in. “You,” she whispered. “I choose you and
all the danger and bullshit that comes with you. Did you really
think I wouldn’t?”

Orion grinned. He couldn’t help it. Joy rose
through him, echoed in his mind along the mental pathway he shared
with Kira, and spilled over into his smile. “I hoped not,” he said.
“But I had to let you know everything before I asked, didn’t
I?”

“There’s such a thing as too much
information,” she shot back. “Now how do we do this mate thing? Do
we get to say some mystical rhyme that magically binds our souls or
something?” When he laughed out loud, she blushed. “What? I read it
in all the books! All vampires do this magic spell thing when they
get married.”

He bent and rested his forehead against hers,
still smiling. “No spell,” he murmured. “Just a ritual promise,
rather like human wedding vows. And in our case, a permanent
honeymoon vacation.”

“Do I have to wear a big white dress and
smear cake on your face and all that?”

He laughed aloud at that. “Not unless you
want the big dress and cake and all the trimmings of a human
wedding. We don’t even need witnesses. We speak our promises to
each other and that’s it.”

She bit her lip. “And there’s really no
binding magic that keeps us faithful?”

“No magic,” he repeated. “You won’t get
soul-cramps if you break the vows or have an affair, but I warn you
that vampires don’t separate and divorce like humans do -- there’s
usually blood, pain, and messy death involved when the cheater’s
mate discovers it. I should warn you that I’m not forgiving and I
don’t share. If you want to leave me, you’ll have to kill me,
because I don’t plan on ever letting you go. Can you handle
that?”

Kira smiled. “I can handle that. Let’s do
it.”

Orion kissed her, then took her right hand
and placed it over his heart before placing his own over hers.
“Kira Jacques, I swear to share my eternity with you, giving you my
heart, body, love and life until I meet my end.”

No matter what Orion said, Kira felt a warmth
spread through her body as she savored those simple words spoken in
his deep voice. How could something that made her so happy, that
gave her the man she’d always wanted and never thought she could
have, how could these words not be magic? She echoed them back to
him, feeling his heart beating beneath her palm. When she finished
and he tilted his head to kiss her, she pulled back just a
fraction. “This doesn’t get you out of giving me a ring,” she
whispered.

“Anything you want,” he said, and sealed the
promise with a kiss.

Broken Ties--Book Two

Buried Ties--Book
Three
(coming soon)

Hunted--Book One

Outcast--Book Two

Chosen--Book Three

available in ebook or print wherever books are
sold

The Peasant Queen

Riding Lessons

End of the Rainbow

Pandora's Box

Out For Christmas

available in multiple formats wherever ebooks are
sold

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