Chapter Fourteen
Exhaustion had finally called an end to helping Bre with her memories.
Jonah knew she was upset she hadn’t shaken more loose than the vague images involving her brothers.
At least, those had been enough to release what had held her back from Finn and Murphy.
She was still reserved, but she’d accepted hugs from both of them and made plans for breakfast together, which would be happening in the next few hours.
Jonah needed to wake her soon. She’d had a restless night, though. She’d cried and fought and screamed, and he’d held her through every moment of it. He’d soothed her back to sleep only to have her awaken again and again. The memories she’d chased now chased her.
She stirred against him, turning into him and rubbing her lips against his throat. One palm stroked down his chest only stopping when she cupped his shaft, giving it a playful squeeze that had him groaning. He did his best to ignore it.
“How’re you feeling this morning?” he asked, pulling her hand up to his chest.
She blinked her gorgeous eyes open. The liquid pools of green tugged him closer until their lips touched. He meant to keep it light, but there was no light with Bre. She met him with a passion she rarely kept leashed around him.
“Bre—”
“I need you,” she whispered, pressing her finger firmly against his lips to cut him off. “Please.”
She must have seen something in his eyes that had her adding that last plea.
“Bre.” Her name was a call of worship. A need to touch and taste every inch of her.
“Yes,” she moaned as he ran his lips along her neck then along her clavicle, licking and giving a moan of his own as the taste of her skin lit his tastebuds.
He moved downward, trailing fingers as well as teeth and tongue along her skin.
His mouth explored her full breasts and the tight, red nipples that begged for attention.
He lavished it on them, sucking and biting, while she undulated beneath him.
Her cries fed his need and had him reluctantly leaving her chest to explore lower over her taut stomach and further, until he was spreading her thighs and burying his face between them.
She was sweet and succulent, like a ripe berry on the vine ready to be plucked and devoured.
He ran his tongue over her, catching the slick of her passion and groaning.
“Fuck. You taste incredible. I could eat you all day every day and still not be satisfied. Still want more.”
“I need you inside,” she begged, tugging at his hair while her legs flailed beside his shoulders.
“Not yet,” he muttered as he greedily worked her toward orgasm.
He wanted to feel her sex pulse around his tongue.
She screamed as she broke, riding the pleasure as she did his face.
Her words were incoherent as he drew her up again, tossing her into another release with his fingers buried deep while he teased her clitoris.
“Jonah!” Her hands became fierce as she pulled at him. He gave in with a growl worthy of the shifter who’d mated him.
“Now,” he vowed and thrust home. She wrapped around him, holding him tightly in her embrace while they moved together. There was love and acceptance here. For both of them. “Love…you…”
She nodded, lips glancing along his as she moved to her claiming mark, licking it in preparation for the bite he anticipated. For the connection that formed when her teeth were in his flesh the way his cock was buried in hers. Deep penetration. A claim no other would ever make for either of them.
“Fuck!” he cried when her teeth found purchase.
It was like a lightning strike to his heart, the way she lit him up from the inside out.
The way pleasure tore through him as he spilled his seed.
He never wanted it to end, yet he knew there was no way to physically sustain the heightened state of so much bliss.
It was long moments before he could untangle from her and collapse to the bed at her side.
“It just keeps getting better and better,” she murmured, turning into him and stroking a hand up and down his sweaty chest.
“Mmm,” was about all Jonah managed in reply.
Bre giggled, and he blinked his eyes open to take in the joy on her face. It was much better than the sounds and expressions she’d made in the night.
“Feeling better?”
Another giggle had his lips tilting upward.
“You’re lovemaking always makes me feel better. Actually, you in general do. You’re like the elixir that heals all my wounds.”
He brushed his finger under her eye. “You had a rough night. Do you remember any of the dreams?”
“Bits and pieces,” she murmured, cuddling into him and putting her head on his chest. “More about Finn and Murphy when we were younger. Still in Ireland. Pieces of my father, or the man I thought was my father. Him taking me. Handing me off. There are bits and pieces of other things. The room where they cut me open. The cell they kept me in. Being put under then finding myself no longer in Ireland. Going into that place in the ground. It kills me to know Murphy was there also. That they had us both. Torturing us rooms apart.”
“Look at where you both are now. And them? Most of them are dead,” Jonah reminded her.
She nodded. “I see others. Shadows mostly. I still can’t make them out. Someone is whispering my name. Telling me to wake up. Telling me to be strong. I know him.” She patted her chest. “I feel it, but I can’t see him. I can’t remember.”
“The man you said was trying to help you?” Jonah asked.
“Yes. I don’t know how I know, but I’m certain he killed the man who gave me to those labs in Ireland. I think he was close to getting me out when they sent me away. I think that might be why they gave me up.”
“Do you think he followed you here?”
Another nod. “I think he was in the van. The one I was tossed out of. I think he did it to save me.”
“Bre, they threw you out like garbage. They made you up to look like the woman who attacked Alexi. Whoever sent you here, they meant for us to kill you.”
She shrugged. “Maybe that was their intent, but it wasn’t his. I hear his voice. There’s urgency. I can’t hear what he’s saying, but I know it’s important. And I’ve forgotten. I feel like he’s risked everything for me, and what he needed me to remember is gone.”
Jonah gathered her close as she shuddered. “I’ve got you. You’re no longer alone.”
“Enzo. God, Jonah. His name is Enzo. Tall, dark hair. He worked hard to get me free.”
“Deep breath, honey. You’re shaking like a leaf. What are you seeing? Talk me through it.”
“He had to choose between me and the baby. Toddler. She’d be four now.” She shook her head angrily. “There was no choice. It had to be her, Cilia. He couldn’t get us both. It had to be her, but he was coming back for me. I knew he was coming back.”
“What happened?” Jonah asked.
“They drugged me. I couldn’t stop them. Then I woke up here, in the States. I was here, and I knew he couldn’t get to me.” A memory tugged at her. “But he found me. I almost gave it away.”
“How did he get to you? Was he captured? Or…?” Jonah stared at her.
“He was one of them. Or pretended to be.” She tapped her head. “I see things, but they’re glimpses then replaced by another. It’s like a film that’s stuck on fast forward. I can’t get it to slow down so I can grab onto anything.”
“Okay. We can go see Tony,” Jonah offered, but she shook her head.
“Not yet. I want to see more pictures. Read more files. Not on me but my family. My mother and the father I knew. My brothers. I want more on anything they know about people who were held with me. If there is any record of Enzo. He was there, Jonah. I know he was there. It’s in here.
” She tapped her head again. “I need to remember.”
“Okay,” Jonah agreed, scooping her up then standing. “We’ll take a shower, have breakfast with Finn and Murphy and see what they can tell us. Maybe, they have pictures to share.”
“I’m not sure they were allowed to leave our home with anything more than their lives, and just barely those.”
“Let’s take the day and see what it brings,” Jonah said as he set her on her feet then started the shower.
“I need to remember, Jonah. Every dream, my mother comes to me and urges me to. Tony mentioned hypnotism,” she added out of nowhere, and Jonah jerked to a stop as he faced her.
“Hypnotism? When did he mention that?” Jonah demanded.
“Last night. You were talking with Mitch, and Tony suggested it as a possible option. I think I want to try it. I think I want to immerse myself with my family today then see what Tony can pull out of my head tonight while everything is still fresh.” She took his hands and squeezed them.
“I know it might not help, but I need to try.”
Jonah slid open the glass door, letting steam roll out as Bre stepped inside.
“If that’s what you want, then that’s what we’ll do,” he said as he followed her inside. She spun to face him, and the sight of her naked and wet had him hard in seconds. He groaned as she wrapped her palm around him and used her grip to tug him closer.
“Against the wall?”
He shook his head, freeing her hand then turning her. He grasped one thigh and lifted her leg so she could brace her foot on the built-in seat.
“Grab the bar and hold on,” he ordered. She complied easily, and he took a moment to enjoy the view of her rounded buttocks before grabbing them. He lined up his cock and thrust deep. “Hard and fast,” he muttered.
“Yes!” She reached back one hand, digging her nails into his thigh as she urged him on.
It was never enough. There would never be a point where he didn’t crave her touch, the intimacy of their love play. Soft and slow. Hard and fast. Everywhere in between. He simply wanted her. Needed her in ways he’d never anticipated needing anyone.
“Marry me,” he demanded, the words catching him by surprise as much as they seemed to catch her. He didn’t know why it was important to him. This step wasn’t required when you were mates. But he wanted it. He wanted her to be Bre Conti. Mrs. Conti. Mrs. Jonah Conti.
“We’re mates,” she said through panted breaths.
“I know. Marry me. Take my name the way I take your bite. Wear my ring. Be mine.”
“I’m already yours, Jonah, but yes. Yes, I’ll marry you. Yes, I’ll take your name.”
He pulled out of her, spun her around then lifted her, so her back was braced against the wall before he joined them again.
“I love you,” he whispered. “I love you. I love you. I love you.”
“Yes,” she agreed, lips meeting his. “I love you.”
He took her mouth, swallowing her moans as they reached the peak together.
Once they caught their breaths, they took turns washing each other. By the time they’d finished and dressed, he knew they’d be late to breakfast.
Worth it, he thought with a grin at his mate, at his soon-to-be wife. Well fucking worth it.