This Blood that Bonds Us (This Blood that Binds Us #4)

42. Forty-Two

Forty-Two

Aaron

“How is he?” Kimberly asked while folding clothes on the dresser.

The cabin was aglow with warmth and the smell of the fire burning.

I took a moment to admire it—the mundane—and how I was the luckiest person in the world to get to see Kimberly Burns folding our clothes. Our shirts were mingled in one basket, along with our underwear and socks. I’d have killed for that moment a year ago. Back when she was a stranger who I couldn’t have feelings for, but I did. I had a lot of feelings, and mostly, I wondered what Kimberly did behind closed doors. Now I didn’t have to guess. It was our room. Our life. I liked her things with my things. Her hair pins on the dresser and her socks in our bed. Makeup smudges on the bathroom mirror.

“Yeah, he’s okay. He really perked up on the car ride back.”

I’d put her on speakerphone while I helped Presley tell Kilian his story. We sat in Kilian’s living room, and Presley took the seat closest to the door because he was sure Kilian would flip out.

“Kilian really wasn’t mad?”

“You know how he is.” Kilian was actually excited The Family was attempting to lure us. It opened a new avenue for him to access them and incorporate it into his battle plan. He didn’t seem to have any real concern about them taking us against our will. He got that faraway look in his eye when we went to leave, and that meant he’d be retreating to his study to draw it all out. I was looking forward to helping with it, but first, I had other things on my mind.

She wasn’t facing me, but I saw the muscles in her jaw flex into a smile while she folded my socks into little squares. My mouth salivated when I tuned into the soft thrum of her heartbeat.

“We should do something together tomorrow. We’ll . . .” Her voice trailed off as I came up behind her, teasing the skin on her neck with my lips.

“We’ll spend the day tomorrow doing whatever Presley wants to do. But I think right now he needs some time alone to rest. You do too. It was a long day.”

“I’m not tired.”

“You will be.” I kissed the soft skin where her pulse drummed.

Biting her didn’t always lead to sex. Okay, maybe it did, but it didn’t have to. It came naturally. Tasting her blood brought us closer on a whole other level I was certain didn’t exist in human capacity. I missed being human a lot less when that’s what I got to have instead.

I savored the way her shoulders dropped as I wrapped my hands around her stomach and continued assaulting her neck with my lips.

“Mrs. Calem, you look intoxicatingly beautiful tonight.”

She drew in a breath. “You’ve never called me that before.”

“I’m testing it out. Seeing how it feels to say,” I said with my lips at her ear.

Girlfriend was a nice title, but it wasn’t enough. It wasn’t anything close to what I truly felt for her. I’d already thought ahead, and every day that passed, I looked forward to the end of the cold and the end of our pain. I would take her somewhere sunny and bind her to me for everyone to see. All of my brothers would be there and likely obnoxious and embarrassing, and I couldn’t wait.

Her hips moved back and into mine while I slid the sleeve of her shirt down to expose the skin on her shoulder.

“What’s the consensus?” she asked while I kissed her shoulder.

“I love it. Are you partial to Burns? You can always keep it.”

“No. Not at all . . .” I grabbed her stomach and pulled her harder into my hips. The pressure of her sent my mind racing. I wanted to strip her, but I had to be patient.

My mouth salivated as my fangs descended. “I think I’d miss calling you Burns. But I like Mrs. Calem better.”

“Me too.”

A part of me wanted the blood-drinking to stop, but a much larger part of me didn’t. I wanted to taste her, and I loved being the only one who could. I liked having a part of her no one else got. Her blood was mine.

She fell into my rhythm as I grinded into her from behind and sank my teeth into her skin.

It didn’t have to lead to sex, but I couldn’t stop myself from gliding my hand up her shirt to caress her chest as I drank. Her bare breast filled my hand as I teased and touched her till she moaned for me. The sounds of her set my blood ablaze. I wanted to mark her. She opened herself up to me, arching her neck and letting me take more of her blood. The warmth of it on my tongue sent me into a frenzy that had me squeezing her tighter.

Her yearning sighs sent my blood south. We spent a lot of our time working toward an unknown future, but this was our time. It overwhelmed me till my head swam with images of need.

Training and The Legion didn’t always leave us enough time to enjoy each other’s company. I missed all of it. The nights sitting on the roof at OBA. Secret getaways to the pool. There wasn’t time for any of that with the battle looming closer and closer. There were only stolen moments that reminded me of what we were fighting for.

When she turned to me, her face was flushed. “For the record, I’d love to have the Calem name.”

I pulled her to my lips again, this time harder. “Sorry, that was just so hot. We can stop.”

“You want to stop?”

“No. Definitely not, but . . . I still don’t know how I feel about everything, and this seems to lead to sex, and I just want to make sure you feel comfortable—”

“Aaron.”

“Yeah?”

“Just touch me.”

“Okay.”

She didn’t need to tell me twice. I let her take my clothes off, and the blush in her cheeks deepened. She took her time, and I stroked her slowly and deliberately, careful to brush next to the most sensitive areas on her chest and thighs. I knew where she wanted me to touch. It ended with an index finger underneath her jaw and my thumb on her bottom lip.

“Do you ever think about it?”

“Think what?”

“About marrying me.”

I pulled her underwear down, and she gasped.

“Yes.”

She barely got the word out as I grazed her core, and the wetness on my fingers told me she was ready for me.

“Are you sure you’re not just saying that to make me feel better?” I asked before kissing and nipping at the skin on her chest. I placed my hand at the small of her back and pressed her to me.

“Stop teasing me.”

She let out another small gasp as I ran my tongue along the curves of her breasts. I was starting to memorize her body. The curve of her hip bones and all the little marks on her skin. All the dips and the sensitive parts that made her dig her fingers into my back.

I lay her back flush on the bed so I could admire her.

“But it’s so easy.”

My lips grazed a beauty mark on her rib. A mark I’d doubt many had seen. I was the only one who she’d ever trusted enough to touch her. It made me want to be gentle and ensure she enjoyed every second.

I moved my attention to the thin white scar diagonal to her belly button. It was so faint you’d need to be close to see it. Her blood was in my veins, and her hands were in my hair. There wasn’t a universe in which I wouldn’t enjoy every breath and sigh that poured from her lips.

I licked her scar, and she shrieked, pulling me to her until I was staring into her blue eyes again. On her wrist was the mark of my own doing, barely visible in the dim light, and I kissed it.

“Tell me more about your visions of marrying me.” I lingered at the pulse in her wrist and fought the urge to bite her again.

“I . . .”

I ran my hand between her thighs.

I was getting better at self-control, but it was hard when we were naked and she inched closer every second, squirming and asking for me. Wanting me. It took everything in me not to go too fast. She deserved deliberate love.

“No words for me?”

“I want you to stay” was all she said while I moved my hand to give her the pressure she needed, and she rocked into me. “I want you to be mine.”

“I am yours.”

I plunged two fingers into her, and she gasped my name. She was already close. I was learning her body like my own, and I knew the pace she needed and where she needed more pressure and movement.

“Always.”

I curled my fingers, and she fell over the edge in seconds while I admired it all—the intimacy of our own bedroom and the feel of her orgasm as she was wrapped around my fingers. Once wasn’t enough. I needed to give her more.

“Stay with me forever,” she said as I moved to lay on top of her and pin her to the bed. I drank in the sight of her beneath me. Vulnerable and open. My Kimberly.

I pinned her arms above her head.

“Oh, I’m here.” I slid into her, stifling every word lingering on her tongue, and placed a kiss in the corner of her mouth. “I’ll stay till you’re sick of me.”

I couldn’t look away as she writhed beneath me, her hands in mine while she moaned my name softly.

“You’re so pretty, Burns.”

With each breath, I sank into her deeper and deeper. I wanted to take my time with her. To feel every brush of her skin and the surge of euphoria when I moved within her. Now that her blood was drumming in my veins, the wildness in my blood was soothed and dormant.

“Call me the other thing.”

“Mrs. Calem.” I leaned to whisper it over the cool skin of her chest.

That had her rocking into me harder. Hard enough to take every other thought in my brain with it. Our bodies connected in a way that left nothing to be wanted.

“Aaron . . . please.”

I couldn’t take the begging. It lit every cell in my body aflame to tend to her. I’d give her any part of me that she needed. I would tear my heart out of my own chest if she wanted.

“Tell me what you need, Kim.” My fingers traced right under her belly button, and she arched into me while I was buried inside her.

“I don’t know . . . I just need you. I just want you.”

“Relax. I’m here.” I pressed into her deeper and placed my hand right below her belly button. She gasped.

“I’ll always be here, Kim. I’m not going anywhere.”

That seemed to be exactly what she needed because her fingers ran down my back, and she tightened around me as her orgasm shook through her.

I still wanted more. More of her saying my name. More of her breath in my throat. My blood raced with the need to satisfy her. To fill her completely with warmth and stifle all her desires.

I was eager.

So eager.

I’d do anything.

I moved her hair over her shoulder and whispered, “You’re perfect.”

With my tongue, I teased the skin of her neck, and she tugged my head closer. I would, of course, oblige her request. My fangs pierced the vein in her neck, and her blood poured into my mouth. Then she rocked into me, moving and moaning, and I couldn’t last.

She let go, seconds before I did, with a soft cry as she tightened around me. Nothing in the world could compare. My head rested in the crook of her neck while our breaths synced and our movements calmed.

“Burns . . . I . . .”

I couldn’t form words yet. How could I even begin to describe the feeling of being that close to someone? It was more than sex with the girl I loved. It almost felt spiritual. I didn’t think there could be anything else that good.

“Are you speechless?”

“Mm-hm,” I said before licking her neck to clean the blood off.

That brought a giggle and a smile to her face.

“This is . . .” Otherworldly.

“Intimate.” She played with the strands of my hair.

“Yeah, that.”

Our hearts beat steadily in the dark. I didn’t know where I ended and she began anymore. We were one heartbeat. One vibrant pulse. Her blood was my blood.

“You should ask me,” she said.

“Ask to marry me? Right now?”

We were bare and connected still.

“No. I mean. Yes, if you want. I used to think having a husband would be nice eventually. Maybe if I had to. But this . . . this is different. I like that you want me to be your wife. And it makes me want to . . . be a good one. Or be the best one. Like maybe that could be my thing too.”

“On top of being a master hiker? And a brilliant, successful woman that’s going to dominate everything she puts her mind to.”

“Yeah. Maybe I could do all of that and . . . be your wife. And maybe that could be my favorite thing.”

My heart skipped. I could be one of her infamous favorite things. That was special. I could even be the most favorite thing. The thought had me buzzing with excitement. I had to fight the urge to get up and start pacing and planning it all out and imagining her in a white dress.

Instead, I caressed her cheek and savored her heart slowing. I wanted to ask her. To claim her heart in that interesting new way. For her to be mine even more than she already was.

“I’ll need to get you a ring first.”

“I don’t need one.” Probably because she understood how little we had and how all we had was going to our combined cause.

“Oh, you do. Can we forfeit our no stealing rule?” I smiled, hoping she’d know I was kidding.

She smiled too and shook her head.

“That’s okay, I have something else in mind.”

I moved to separate from her so I could help her clean up, but she bit her lip. Her attention had moved to something else.

“What are you worried about? You can tell me.”

“I’m just afraid . . . the queen will take you from me, and I don’t think I could endure seeing you with Her. Because I want you to be mine. Just mine.”

“Kim, I’m always yours. Only yours. Forever.”

The queen was nothing but a blurry memory. Even the memory of Her blood in my veins didn’t compare to the love I felt for Kimberly. How much more of myself could I give her? I didn’t think there was a way to be closer to her, yet we kept finding new ways. There was so much I still wanted to do for her. I was learning to be the man she needed. I just needed more time.