Chapter 12
Blaze
Sammy went quiet. Really quiet. She seemed to be observant by nature, but this silence was loud. Deafening.
“Miss Olivia?” I asked. “What do you think? What’s in your heart? Do you believe I was the boy the witch meant to kill?”
“If you’re Sammy’s mate, then yes, they were trying to kill you.
” She leaned over and patted my knee. “I’m sorry, dear, but it’s extremely likely.
I don’t know what happened or how you’re still alive—or who she really killed, if anyone—but that’s the funny thing about fate.
I’m guessing the witch who was supposed to kill you wiped your memories instead. ”
Sammy’s eyes widened. “You didn’t block yourself.” She stared at me like it was the first time she’d thought of it. “Someone blocked you.”
I’d considered the possibility, but it seemed farfetched. Why would anyone want to block my memories?
Olivia took Livvie’s hand. “Blocking memories serves its purpose if it’s done for the right reasons.” She looked sad as she regarded Livvie. “I had to block Livvie’s memories for years to keep her safe,” she explained. “I had a real reason, so it made it worth it.”
What was the point of doing it to me?
Sammy was still quiet, but she hadn’t let my hand go. I squeezed her fingers, and when she looked up at me with her big, icy blue eyes, they were full of fear.
The need to protect her from anything that might cause her any fear overpowered me, full force. I cupped her face with my free hand, and to my delight, she didn’t jerk away.
But her inaction also worried me. She had to be upset if she was letting me cup her face. “Sammy,” I said softly. “Talk to me.”
“I dreamed of the high priestess,” she said quietly. “She has a young witch with her. She’s exploiting her. And then I dreamed she was hurting you. I think she may be coming to do the job she wanted done when you were a child.”
Her hand began to vibrate with energy. “Sammy,” I whispered. Her magic moved throughout my body, incredibly powerful.
“I won’t let this woman get to you,” Sammy said. “I’ll kill her first.”
Sammy’s energy filled the room and the tea in the cups on the table began to shake.
“If she doesn’t calm down, she’ll bring the house down.” Olivia looked around worriedly.
I doubted that was literal, but it was possible. I did the only thing I could think of that was almost guaranteed to throw her off her game. I pulled her by the hand and clasped her in my arms… then pressed my lips to hers.
Sammy relaxed into me, gasping against my mouth, and just as she got into the kiss, she bit the shit out of my bottom lip. I jerked back with a yowl.
“What the hell are you doing?” Sammy nearly shrieked. “You can’t kiss me without my permission!”
“Well, I had to do something. You were so worried about me that you were about to take the whole damn house down!” I stared her in the eyes and didn’t back down as she sputtered.
“You’re delusional. I wasn’t worried at all.” I nearly laughed at her face of denial, but she wasn’t done postulating. “I’ll turn your tongue to stone if you ever do that again,” she hissed.
“I believe it was your tongue in my mouth.” I arched my eyebrow and waited for her next attempt to deny what she felt as Olivia and Livvie chortled, and Sammy’s blush deepened.
But the kiss had the intended effect. The energy in the room had calmed down and we were no longer in danger of shaking the pictures off the walls.
Olivia sighed and we all turned to look at her. “Fate is never wrong,” she said with a shrug.
She’d told us all she knew, so Sammy poofed us back to Anthony’s house. He was in his office.
“We know a little more about my past,” I said. “It’s a doozy.”
“Tell me.” He steepled his fingers under his chin and listened intently as I explained that it might’ve been a dark witch that killed my parents and stripped my memories.
Anthony stared at me with his mouth slightly open, shocked by the words coming from my mouth. “You’re sure?” he asked.
“No,” Sammy said in a sour voice. “We still don’t know anything. But that was the rumor around my old coven, that the high priestess had murdered the boy who was supposed to grow up to become my mate.”
Anthony rubbed his hand over his mouth and then through his hair.
He wasn’t hiding his emotions well. “You may not remember this,” he said in a rough voice.
“But we were best friends. I’ve been trying to be neutral, but I can’t begin to explain the joy of knowing you’re not dead.
Jace feels the same way.” He cleared his throat and blinked several times. “We have to celebrate.”
I grimaced and started to protest, but he kept talking. “I promise not to make any announcements on your behalf, not until you’re ready for that. But with all this stress and worry, we need to throw a party. Lighten the mood.”
He must’ve already had something sort of planned, because it didn’t take long to get a small dinner party together. Just Sammy and me, Skye, and Anthony, and Jace and Briana. Bianca, Briana’s sister, came by and got all the kids to take out of the way of our little get-together.
When Jace arrived, he yanked me into a big hug and slapped me on the back a good two dozen times. “I’m so glad you’re okay, man. I know you can’t remember us, but we remember you.”
“I hope one day soon, I’ll be able to,” I said roughly.
Sammy made small talk with Skye and Briana, as Jace and Anthony told me about their lives and how they met their mates. I didn’t really feel like sharing, not yet. Maybe one day soon I would fill them in on how my life had gone from the point I’d lost my memories. Not yet. This was all too new.
At some point, we went outside to fly, and as I soared over the water, trying to let some of the worry go, I felt a change in Sammy’s location, but it wasn’t much. I headed back toward the house to find Skye and Briana sharing a bottle of wine in front of the fire.
Following the tug of my mate, I headed upstairs and found her sitting on my bed. “What are you doing in here?” I asked softly.
She sighed and met my gaze. “I wondered if you’d notice I left.”
I’d noticed she was holding something back. Like there was an announcement she’d wanted to make or something. I sat beside her and held her hand, waiting for her to speak.
A few seconds later, she shifted back on the bed and crossed her legs.
“I’m not good with feelings. Emotions. I grew up in a coven with no parents.
I was never adopted. More like I was shuffled from host house to host house.
” She paused and thought about her words.
“I don’t mean to be cold and uncaring. I think it’s because I never had it as a kid.
I’m not sure how to be vulnerable.” I squeezed her hand but still didn’t speak, giving her room to get it all off her chest. “I’ve watched fate work out for everyone else.
Never did I think it was in the cards for me.
Witches are known for being alone. We have sex with human men to have our children, but we never fall in love.
It’s foolish to love a human. We always outlive them. ”
Made sense. And I already knew that witches usually begat females. Which was why it was rare to have a baby from a witch father and mother.
“It never bothered me much, since I never thought it would apply to me at all. I never planned to have kids. I don’t know what it means to love someone other than the familial love I feel for my clan.” She lowered her gaze. “I can’t make promises to you. But I can tell you I’ll try.”
Ignoring her demands from earlier, I leaned forward and captured her lips with mine.
She didn’t fight me. In fact, her lips parted, and her petite little tongue darted out, tracing the seam of my mouth.
The next thing I knew, I was on top of Sammy, pressing her into my bed as my hand drifted up her side. “Can you get us out of here?” I whispered huskily against her neck. “I don’t want to be overheard.”
“Those overgrown lizards.” She blinked, and then we were on her bed instead of mine.
“Thank you.” My dragon was in complete bliss as I continued kissing her. I moved my hands up, balancing on my knees, and unbuttoned her top, dying to expose her milky skin and kiss her everywhere I could touch.
“Blaze,” Sammy said in a breathless voice. “There’s something I should tell you before we go any farther.”
Immediately, I backed away. She wanted me to stop, hopefully briefly, and I respected that. “What is it?”
She sucked in a deep breath and fingered her buttons that I’d just undone. “I’m not very… experienced.”
I chuckled and ran my finger along her jawline. That much had been obvious. “I know that. And it’s okay. I don’t mind.” It was actually pretty hot, the idea of showing her how I could make her body sing.
“No.” She sucked in a deep breath and looked up at me, meeting my gaze. “I’m a virgin.”
Well, that was a surprise. I tried not to look shocked. It wasn’t that I didn’t like it. It was just unexpected. I opened my mouth to tell her that I really liked the idea of being her first, but she drew away, pressing herself into the mattress. “Why are you looking at me like that?” she snarled.
“No!” I exclaimed. “I’m not looking at you like anything.”
But she didn’t hear me as I collapsed onto my mattress, back in my room at Anthony’s. In the blink of an eye, she’d moved me out of her bed and into mine, disappearing herself.
I wasn’t mad. I was hard as a fucking rock. I was going to be the first man to slide into her tight little body. She’d come around, and I’d explain about being surprised.
Unbuttoning my pants, I reached into the bedside table to get out the small bottle of travel lube. I’d hoped to be able to use it with Sammy while I was here in Bluewater, but for now, I freed my aching dick from my jeans and ran the lube down my shaft.
Biting back a moan, I imagined the tightness of my hand on the head of my cock was Sammy’s soft, hot body.
One day soon, I’d do this with her. For now, I stroked over and over, imagining Sammy writhing beneath me as I showed her what mates could do together. I didn’t even know how good it might get.
Burying my face in my pillow, I kept going until my balls tightened and I came into a wad of tissues.
Panting, I lay back on the bed and stared at the ceiling. How had I gotten so lucky? I’d found my mate and she’d never been touched by another man.