Desire Awakened (Aaron's Kiss #13) (20 page)

“You wish to secure a haven for them.”

He nodded. Lachesis touched his cheek, and
he felt power surge through him.

“It’s a deal, Logan the Warrior.”

Lizzy was in the kitchen when she felt Logan
enter the house. Her body seemed to burn for him, and she went into
the living room to find him standing there. He was different,
more…more of everything. She waited for him to turn to look at her
and saw it. She smiled. “The Fates have talked to you.”

He nodded and grinned at her.

“They gave you something and you’re nearly
brimming over with it. How do you feel?”

“Like I’ve stuck my finger in a light socket
and it’s running through me at full blast. I’ve never felt so
energized before.” He walked toward her and she stopped him with a
raised hand. “I need to touch you. If I don’t, I feel like I’m
going to explode.”

He ran his fingers along her throat and then
up and over her head. She felt the power he was giving her, and her
body trembled with it. When she touched her arms, wrapped both his
hands around her upper muscles, she shivered and looked at him. His
green eyes were glowing.

“You know what they did to me?”

She nodded.

“I can hardly contain it. I just want to
fly!”

“You more than likely can. Did you know that
you’ve been marked? That they branded you?”

He shook his head.

“Look at your chest and tell me what you
see.”

He let her go with one hand, but held her
with the other. As he lifted his shirt, he never took his eyes from
her until she reached out and touched the mark on his chest. He
looked down then back at her.

“It’s the mark of the Royal Guard. And this
is the mark of the royal court. But this one marks you as theirs.
You’re a servant of the Fates. What have you promised to do for
them?” The crossed claymores were what her grandfather and mother
wore; the tree of life behind it was what made him royalty. She
bore the same mark, but hers was smaller, and until she’d met him,
invisible to everyone but her. She would bet he could see it now if
he looked. But it was the three in the fae language that she knew
had made him a servant. And until he did what he’d promised them,
it would remain.

“I have to find a book. A book of spells
called
Spells of White and Black.
They said that Megan has
it. They want me to find it.”

She nodded. The book had been missing for
centuries. Long before she’d been born. Her grandfather had told
her that he thought Sherman had destroyed it, but apparently not.
She realized then that Logan was not just powerful from something
they had given him, but there was something else. When he smiled at
her, she was afraid she knew.

“We’re going to have a baby. We’re supposed
to name him Rythen. Do you know who that is?”

She nodded.

“I saw his name and no other with ours.”

“You saw the Tree of Life.”

He nodded.

“Who took you to it? Shamus or Mel? And
why?”

“Shamus, and I don’t know why. He said that
the Fates wanted to talk to me, and that’s where we met them. The
tree showed me the rest.” He frowned at her. “Are you upset about
something?”

“No. Not upset. They told me that no one had
ever seen what I’d seen before. I’d seen my name there with the
name Rythen when I was a child. Your name wasn’t there, but…” She
had to sit down or fall over and went to the couch that still had
the plastic covering it. “Rythen was a great warrior during the
great war between the black and white users of magic. He was
supposed to have ended the wars by showing the people what was
going to happen to them if they continued fighting as they were. He
is the being that created my grandmother, the original Queen of
Magic.”

“So he created Elizabeth so that she’d
govern the world of magic and keep all mankind safe.” She told him
yes. “What happened to him? I mean, if he was that powerful then
I’m assuming he couldn’t die or be killed.”

“He’s not dead, but in the fade.” He looked
confused. “He’s gone to sleep, sort of. There is supposed to be a
fairy ring in the magical world of Avalone where he sleeps. No one
knows where it is, and it’s said that every few hundred years or so
he wakes to make sure things are all right, then moves to another
resting place. He holds some magic back. It’s told that he will
give to one that will succeed him.”

“Do you know who that’s supposed to be?”

She leaned back on the couch and closed her
eyes, not answering his question.

“You have an idea, don’t you?”

“I do now. I think perhaps it’s the child
you and I are to have. I thought that long ago, actually, but
never…” She opened her eyes to look at him. “I’m not pregnant,
Logan. Now that you hold power like mine, you’ll know when I can
get pregnant, but I’m not yet.”

“We’ve never really talked about it. Do you
want children with me?”

She smiled.

“What I’ve seen, and you have too, we’re to
have a great many children. Will that include the children that we
may adopt into our homes and lives as well?”

“I don’t know.”

Mathew came into the room and stopped just
short of leaping into his dad’s arms. He stared at him for several
moments before he moved slowly forward.

“What happened to you, Dad?” When he didn’t
answer him, Mathew looked at her. “Mom? What’s going on? Did that
lady come back?”

“You remember what Tristan told you about
magic?” Mathew nodded. “Your dad has been given a little more.
Actually, a great deal more. It’ll be to protect us. Mathew, you do
know that neither your dad nor I will ever harm you, don’t
you?”

“What a dumb question. Of course I know
that.” He snorted, and she decided he needed to spend less time
with her dad if that’s what he was teaching him. “I came down to
ask if I could go over to Great-grandda’s place. I wanted to show
him what I figured out today in class with Pete.”

Pete had come and gotten Mathew when the
furniture trucks had pulled up. The two of them were going to work
in his room, but when the men had started bringing in furniture,
she’d asked to take him to the pack house. She’d agreed, knowing
that he’d be safe there and out of the way of the movers. He’d been
home about an hour and had told her how much he loved his new
room.

“I don’t have a problem with it. How long
will you be gone?”

She looked at Logan when he asked, wondering
if he realized how much time could pass for Mathew and her grandda
before they knew it.

“I don’t know. Mel says she’s set me up a
room there. Can I spend the night?”

Logan looked at her and wiggled his brows.
She laughed, stood up, and walked to Mathew.

“You know the rules, right?” He nodded and
rolled his eyes. “Mathew, there are things there that can hurt you.
Not on purpose, but some are very big and aren’t used to little
guys around.”

“I’m okay. Draco said that I’m a mere spit
in his eye and so long as I tell him I’m in the kingdom, he’ll
endeavor not to squash me.” He grinned. “I had to look ‘endeavor’
up. But I will be really careful.”

They let him go, and she went back to the
kitchen to put the rest of the things away that had come that
morning. When he wrapped his arms around her waist, she leaned back
into him. She felt his laughter.

“My son just went into another realm to talk
to a being that is as old as anything I can ever imagine and was
just told to be careful that a dragon not step on him. Oh, and the
fairies too. We can’t forget that the fairies love him to death and
sit on his shoulder while he reads them stories I read to him as a
child.” He kissed her shoulder. “And to think I thought that I’d
never have a life as good as the one I had.”

She turned in his arms. “He also has a
grandda that is two thousand years old who is a vampire, an aunt
that is a wood nymph, not to mention uncles that change to wolves
at least once a month. I think Mathew is a very lucky young
man.”

“I do as well. And because I’m lucky as
well, how about I take you upstairs and I show you just how lucky I
am by letting you help me break in our new bed?” She laughed when
he gave her his puppy eyes. “I’ve had a very strange day and I need
my mate.”

She took his hand and led him to the stairs.
“You do know that none of those dishes are going to be put away on
their own, don’t you? I expect some help when we come back down
to—”

She was suddenly over his shoulder and he
was taking the stairs two and three at a time. Lizzy laughed when
he made a wrong turn at the top of the stairs and ended up in an
empty room. She pointed to the correct bedroom and was bounced on
the bed when he got to the right room.

She looked up at him from the bed and
watched him as he undressed. She wanted this man with every fiber
of her being and wondered how she could tell him. Sitting up
slightly, she smiled at him and he paused. “I love you.”

He grinned and unbuttoned the rest of his
shirt.

“I want you to know that I’ve never loved
anyone before like I do you. My life up until you came into it has
been…well, not boring, but without any meaning. You’ve given it all
to me.”

“I love you too. I never dreamed in all my
life…no, that’s not true. I never believed I could have anyone like
you. You’ve made me believe in love again. Given me so much that
I’ll never be able to convey to you how I feel.” He grinned. “But
if you get naked right now, I’ll do my best to show you.”

She stood up and crooked her finger at him
to come to her. When he was standing in front of her, she reached
out to take his wrist and she took his cufflinks off. When she laid
them on the dresser next to them, she moved behind him and peeled
the shirt down his back and to his waist.

“I’m going to buy you some t-shirts. Just
plain ones that you can wear with a pair of jeans. I’ve never seen
you in either.” She ran her tongue along his spine, still holding
him captive in his shirt. His moan made her need for him spike.

“I work a great deal and have never been
much of a causal dresser. I’ve never…Lizzy, do that again, please?”
He moaned again when she nipped at his shoulder. “Baby, you’re
killing me.”

“I know. But I’m enjoying myself so just
tell me why you’ve never worn jeans in all the time I’ve known
you.” She reached around him and unbuckled his belt one handed
while he cupped her with his hands that she held behind him.
“Behave, Logan, or I’ll stop what I’m doing.”

He stopped. Smiling, she reached into his
trousers and cupped his hard cock. He rocked into her hand, and she
let his arms go so that she could finish pulling his pants open. He
didn’t reach for her, but let her do as she pleased. When she
walked around to face him, she could see his desire as his eyes had
started to glow again. “You’re showing through again.”

He blinked at her.

“Your power won’t be able to be hidden now.
It’s marking you for all to see. You look magnificent, powerful and
strong.” Lizzy licked along his mark over his heart. “I’ve had one
similar to this one all my life. But it wasn’t until now that I’m
betting you could see it.”

“Show me.”

She nodded and started to lift her shirt
over her head. He took her hands, put them over her head, and held
them there. She watched him as he licked along the column of her
throat and then nipped at her lobe. She was shaking she needed him
so badly.

~~~

Logan could feel the power thrumming through
him. The need to have Lizzy bite him was making him weak in the
knees. He had no idea why now it was so important, but he could
feel it. Moving his mouth along her throat to her pounding pulse,
he suckled the beating vein into his mouth and held her there.
Reaching behind her, he took the back of her shirt and ripped it
from her. Her breath on his face made him moan.

“Logan, you’re making me weak. Please, let
me lay down so I don’t fall.”

He shook his head slightly, then lifted his
head and looked down at her. She was in a mist of red, and he knew
it was a beast that hid deep within him that needed her now. “No. I
need you like this. I want to strip you naked and touch you in ways
that will…” He unhooked her bra and lifted the material from her
full breasts. “There’s a thing, a beast, that needs to mark you. I
don’t know what it is, but I don’t think he’ll hurt you.”

“He won’t. You can control him, but I can
feel him too. He wants to bite me, doesn’t he?”

Logan nodded, leaned in, took her nipple
into his mouth, and bit her.

“Logan, please, you have to help me.”

“I will.” He tore her pants from her body
and she stood before him in her panties and nothing else. He gazed
at her, knowing that she could feel the heat of him because of the
way she was panting. Christ, he wanted her right now. When he tore
his own pants from him, including his boxers, she reached out to
touch him, but he shook his head at her.

“I can’t let you. I need to…Christ, I need
to claim you.”

She nodded at him.

“Lean over the bed for me and spread your
legs. I need to… I have to…” He didn’t know what he needed to say,
but she seemed to understand and did as he had commanded of her. As
soon as she was in position, he came up behind her and fisted his
cock. She moaned when he rubbed his thick head in her juices.

“I feel like I have to mate with you again.
I need to mark you like I’ve never done before. I don’t want to
hurt you, but I have to…I need to hurt you.” She nodded and turned
to look at him over her shoulder. Her eyes were as red as he knew
his to be.

When he rubbed his cock over her tight
muscles of her ass, she pulled away from him. The beast, or
whatever he was, didn’t like that so he grabbed her by the hips and
slammed deep within her. Her scream had him nearly pull out, but
something within him snarled at him to finish. He leaned over her
and nipped at her shoulder. “I’m sorry, baby. I’m so sorry.” She
nodded. “I need you. I need to come in you this way.”