More Than Life (Arcane Crossbreeds) (33 page)

The blow-dryer clicked off.

“Raife?”

Raife swallowed and lifted his head. “Yeah, baby?”

Silence. It drew out. He refused to invade her thoughts even though his dragon skittered beneath his flesh to do just that.

Dropping his hand from the frame, he stepped forward and followed that shaft of light through the darkness of the bedroom into the open door of the bathroom. The steam from her shower still clung to the corners and surfaces of the room, giving it an ethereal look. Especially with Katya standing there, all that white blonde hair flowing around her shoulders, her pale skin still flush from the heat of her shower. Leaning a shoulder against the doorjamb, he drew her in, careful to guard his need and protect her from his rioting emotions.

She looked at him over one bare shoulder, the dark blue of the towel wrapped around her making her eyes glow cerulean. She blinked at him, gold brows lowering as she studied him. He could feel her light touch over his mind, and everything in him stilled.

The touch of her left him feeling strangely reassured, like a cool, soft hand over his fevered brow.

A small smile kissed her lips and disappeared. She turned away and lifted a bottle of pale yellow lotion. It was her favorite scent, he remembered from the rare few times he’d escorted her to the mall in the past. He’d made sure she had it when she’d come here. He’d felt the need to give her something of what she’d had taken away from her, but it’d mostly been for selfish reasons. He loved the smell of it. It smelled like that moment when the sun just started to crest the horizon. Fresh and warm, especially after it heated on her flesh, mixing with that unique scent that was all her.

“How did your meeting with Forestor go?” Her voice was soft, neutral.

The meeting had been hell. Tag had been keeping Dr. Mahoney under surveillance, but she’d drugged him and escaped. He knew Tag suspected the doc was his mate. Not that it mattered. Even if the doc was compatible, Tag couldn’t mate her. He wasn’t…whole.

Raife shrugged. “We’ve tracked the doc back to GenTest.”

She paused with her hand on her arm where she’d been rubbing the lotion into her skin and leveled those incredible blue eyes on him in the slowly clearing mirror. The scent of it infused the warm air, and he stirred, his cock pushing against the front of his zipper.

“So the doc is a traitor?”

“Tag doesn’t want to believe it but the evidence is pretty damning. She’s wiped the files in the lab. There’s nothing of importance on them. Forestor suspects she took the files with her.”

“Did you tell them about my brother?”

“No.” That had been a hard decision that Katya had left up to him. Despite the man’s crimes, he’d done everything he possibly could have to save Katya. For that Raife was willing to give him time. It was obvious he had some end game that involved the fall of the Triumvirate. Enemy of my enemy and all that shit.

She raised one brow but didn’t question his decision. She trusted him, and that was a fucking miracle all by itself. A sad smile tilted her full lips as she leaned down to rub lotion on her legs.

“How are
you
doing?”

She jerked her head up, and a mix of emotions coalesced on her beautiful face. Her sigh was slow and filled with acceptance. “I’m working on it. There’s a lot to process.”

He was dying to pull her to him, wrap her in his arms, and he would have if he felt like he deserved her, even a little. He’d contributed to the last year of her life—hell—the past twenty years of the lie she’d lived. “I know, baby. I’m so fucking sorry.”

She turned to face him, the edge of the towel tucked between the pale rise of her breasts, drawing his gaze. “So you keep saying.”

Raife shoved his hand through his hair and blew out his breath, trying to keep his eyes off her breasts. And those curvy bare legs. “It’s my fault. I let you down, I –”

“Now that is where you are wrong, Raife.” Her smile was soft, eyes glowing with an emotion he didn’t dare acknowledge. “Of every person in my life, you are the only one who didn’t. And I’m sorry if I made you feel like you did.”

Her lips trembled as she advanced on him, catching his hand between hers before he could push it through his hair again. He looked down. Her hands looked so pale and small next to his behemoth paw. Hell, the top of her head barely reached his chin. She seemed so fragile, so easily broken, but nothing was further from the truth. She was strong in ways he never could be.

His hand trembled in hers, and he cursed.

She threaded her long slim fingers through his thicker ones until their palms touched; energy arced between them. She looked up at him. Those eyes… He could fall into them and never resurface. Happily. He loved her. He always had. It filled him until he could barely breathe around it. She was his life. Fuck, she was more than life to him. She was everything.

“Out of everyone that claimed to care for me, who
should
have, you were always true to it. Every decision you made from the moment you rescued me was in my best interest, no matter the cost. Even if you should have let me be more involved in the decision.” She narrowed her eyes on him, but her free hand pushed into his hair, her wrist resting against his cheek. “I know that. Even when I blamed you I trusted you. Deep inside, I always knew.”

A tremor worked through his body as her absolution melted over him. Even if he didn’t agree, he wasn’t a fool. He was going to take it, grab her with both hands before she changed her mind.

She curled her fingers around the base of his skull and pulled his face down to hers, those full lips brushing over his. A growl swelled in his throat, rumbling against her soft mouth, and he pulled her closer with their clasped hands. She tasted like life to him. Like forever. Sweeter than anything he’d ever had on his lips.

She buried her hands in his hair, and he dropped his hands to grab the curve of her ass through the towel. He lifted her and reveled in the feel of her legs wrapping around his waist. She was perfect for him in every way.

Raife lifted his head to draw in a breath and look down at her face. Her lips were flushed and swollen from his kiss, her eyes glowing with that emotion he wanted to drown in. “Tell me.”

The corners of her eyes crinkled in mischief, and suddenly he was holding nothing but a thick, blue towel clenched in his fists. Pleasure swelled inside him, but he growled for effect, gaze raking the bathroom for his errant mate.

“Kat,” he drew out in warning, turning to look into the bedroom. She was standing on their bed, blonde hair falling around her shoulders and all that smooth flesh bare for him to see. Inside him the last of tension gave way to desire and love. If he lived to be two hundred, he would never see anything more beautiful than Katya Schaffer. “I love you, kitten. No matter what, I have always and will always love you.”

With a blur of blonde hair and pale skin, she was standing in front of him. She drew him to the edge of the bed, pushed on his chest until he sat, and straddled his lap. He left his hands braced on the mattress on either side of her thighs, afraid to touch her. She looked down to watch as her hands pulled his shirt from the waist of his pants and slid over his stomach.

“Did you know you are my first memory? I can’t remember my parents or my brother. Just you. The feel of your strength. The sound of your voice.” Her eyelids slid shut, and she moved her hands higher up his chest. He helped her pull his shirt over his head. He could feel the heat of her body seeping through his clothes, her touch burning him. “There is not one memory I have that you are not a part of.”

His chest tightened at her words, his arms trembling with the need to hold her. He swallowed hard and watched her face as it creased with a frown.

“You followed me into that hole, you know. Straight into hell.”

“Kat,” Raife groaned. She was killing him. His chest felt like it was crushing his lungs. Her eyes opened, glittered like shards of glass. Sharp. Fractured. That gaze cut into him.

“There were days when I hated you,” she confessed softly. “Days when I couldn’t breathe for needing you. I dreamed of you. Cried for you. Screamed at you. But you were always with me. Into the dark. Through the pain. Always.”

Raife dropped his forehead to hers as the pain swamped him. The grief. He wished he had really been there for her. Fuck, he’d do anything to go back and make it all disappear for her. To protect her like he’d promised that little girl she’d been twenty years ago.

She raised her head, frowning as she lifted her hand to touch his face, and looked down at the moisture that clung to the tips of her fingers. “Raife, you
were
there for me. I felt you. Even when I hated you, you stayed with me. You saved me.”

Emotion swelled and rolled over his shoulders, and he hunched them with the enormity of it. More tears slid from beneath his lashes. Fuck. “No, baby, you got it all wrong. You saved me.”

“I love you, Raife. I have ever since I could first remember.”

Raife pulled her against his chest and held her until he could get his emotions under control. After long moments where he just absorbed her, he leaned away and framed her face with hands that still trembled. When their lips met again, he swore he could taste forever.

“I’m going to give you a lot of reasons to never forget it.”

Katya laughed, eyes shining with unshed tears, and pushed him down on the bed. She sat astride his thighs, and he folded his hands behind his head, taking in the sight of her full, unrestrained breasts, the pink tips peeking through her hair, willing to let her have control.

She touched the long scars of his mating marks. The ones she’d given him nearly a year ago. Her fingers trailed down his stomach to the fly of his jeans. She rubbed her thumb over the metal button, her gaze lifting to meet his. Taunting. “Do you promise?”

She slid the button through the hole and tugged on the material. The zipper hissed down, and his straining cock pushed forward into her hands. Her fingers traced his length, circling the throbbing sensitive crown, her gaze holding his.

“I guarantee it.” His breath stuttered in his chest when she wrapped one small hand around his girth and guided him to her pussy. Slowly they merged…bodies, minds, and souls. Her eyelids slid shut, and her lips parted on a hiss. He came to a sitting position and captured her gasp in his mouth when the movement pushed him deeper inside her. Those wicked little fangs lowered past her lip, and he felt his cock jerk inside her in anticipation of the sweet kiss of her bite.

She smiled and wrapped her arms around his neck to tunnel her fingers into his hair. Those beautiful blue eyes held his, and he wrapped his arms around her, splaying one hand low on her back as he rocked gently against her. There was no urgency. No desperation.

Just a sense of finally being home as they merged their bodies. Their hearts. Their lives.

Forever.

About the Author

Amanda Vyne lives in Central Illinois with her husband, two kids, and a little snarling fuzz ball of a dog that hides out under her desk. She’s been reading and writing romance since before it was probably appropriate for her to do so.

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Other Books by Amanda Vyne
:

ARCANE CROSSBREEDS

More Than Blood

More Than Life

More Than Truth

A Little Bit More (An Arcane Crossbreeds Spring Fling)