Chapter 9
It’s Him
I t all happens so fast. One minute, my heart is racing as Ferg stands before me with a tight grasp on my arm. The next, Big Red pulls up, looking like he’s about to tear him apart.
The moment when I feel like I’ve lost my mind is when my heart begins to race faster than when I thought I was about to be attacked. Almost ten times faster. I look into my biker’s eyes, and I swear there are flames glowing inside them.
However, when he opens his palm and a flame rests in it, I know I must be dreaming. I tear my arm from Ferg’s grasp and stumble back against my car.
“Come to me, baby girl,” Big Red commands.
His voice. It’s so deep and strong. It’s like listening to a fire roar. All warm and gravelly.
I couldn’t ignore his words if I tried. Instead, I want him to keep talking to me. It’s almost as if I need it.
My veins feel like they’re on fire. My skin feels like it’s going to sear off from my body, but I can’t stop it. A chilling shiver runs through me as I begin to feel lightheaded.
His lips curl into a smile as he sees my reaction to his voice. I go to take a step toward him, but a flash of light grabs my attention. I turn my head to look across the street.
Right as I do, a rumbling growl fills the air. My waist is wrapped in a tight, warm grasp. I yelp as I’m plopped on the back of the motorcycle.
“Hold on to me.”
I whimper from the sound of his voice as it vibrates through me—like a force all its own. However, I do as he says and wrap my arms around his waist. I sigh as I melt into his heat.
He’s extremely warm, but it’s welcoming. As is his scent. He smells like hot chocolate and smoke. Not cigarette or cigar smoke, but like a warm roast, as if he’s been sitting before a fire for hours at a time.
The aroma makes my mouth water. His leather cut seems to have taken on the scent as well as it overpowers the leather’s natural odor.
Pressing my face against his back, I close my eyes and breathe him in. The moment my lungs fill with his delicious fragrance, I open my eyes and lick my lips. My eyes widen as I begin to feel a pulse between my legs.
I tighten my thighs against him involuntarily. It’s all I can do to keep from reaching beneath his T-shirt to feel his skin against my palm.
His warmth is so welcoming I close my eyes again as the adrenaline wears off. The wind is whipping against my face, but there’s nowhere I’d rather be.
This feels like coming home. Like I was meant to be wrapped around him, riding on the back of his bike. I still don’t know his name, but I don’t want to let him go.
As if reading my thoughts, he covers my linked hands on his stomach with his big one. Damn, this dude runs hot. Any hotter and he’d scorch my skin.
I like it. I would prefer heat over being cold any day. I’m stunned when he pulls to a stop and cuts the engine.
I wasn’t expecting the ride to be so short. I wanted to hold on to him for just a bit longer. I open my eyes to what looks like an underground garage.
Slowly, I release him and slide off the bike, almost falling on my ass. He catches me swiftly before I can tumble to the floor. I lock eyes with him, and he gives me a smile. My heart is racing a mile a minute again.
“Careful, baby girl,” he rumbles.
My lips part and a moan leaves my mouth as his voice rolls through my entire body. His brows shoot into his hairline and his nostrils flare. I shiver as his gaze drops to my lips.
“Where are we?” I say quickly before I embarrass myself any further.
“My clubhouse. You’ll be safer here with me.”
I nod as if I’m in a trance. Damn it, I am. His voice is so hypnotic.
He lifts from the bike and swings his leg over, not releasing me from his hold. Once he’s standing before me, I finally get to measure how much taller than me he is. I crane my neck to look up into his eyes.
He gives me a wolfish grin and reaches to tuck my hair behind my ear. His touch leaves my skin tingling. I bite my lip and bounce from foot to foot.
“I don’t think he meant me any harm. We were supposed to be on a date. I was leaving after I thought he stood me up …”
I trail off as a growl rumbles from his chest. Clamping my mouth shut, I gulp down a breath. Instead of saying anything else, he reaches for my hand and cups it in his.
It’s like sparks fly up my arm and radiate throughout my body. I just barely manage to bite back a whimper. As he tugs me along with him, he rubs his thumb back and forth over the back of my hand.
The sparks continue with each pass of his thumb against my flesh. This man has brought me to some strange place after over a month of showing up at the diner I frequent, but instead of running away like I know I should, I’m following him like a moth to a flame.
I can’t help it. If he burned any brighter, I’d go blind. I have never wanted to be so close to someone in my life. It’s like I’ll stop breathing if he lets me go.
I lick my lips nervously. “Um … my name is Taylor.”
He looks down at me and smiles. “You can call me Bradan, little one.”
“Oh,” I squawk.
“Not what you were expecting?” he asks with a lifted brow and an amused grin.
“I don’t know, but I like it.”
“Do you now?”
We step into an elevator. He turns to face me after he presses a button on the panel. I look at his patch and notice his name is spelled Bradan, but he pronounces it as Bray-dan. I like the way he says it. I look up into his eyes and watch as he takes me in.
He tilts his head to the side. “I’ve never seen you dressed like this for me,” he murmurs.
I look down at my feet. “This was for you. I was hoping you would come and be …”
He reaches beneath my chin and lifts my head. “And be what, my sweet little one?”
“Um … jealous. Maybe then you would approach me. I know, stupid, right? You probably have no interest in me.”
He cuts my babbling off as he tugs my body into his and looks down at me with so much lust in his eyes. I yelp as he lifts me onto his waist before taking my lips in a deep, searing kiss.
I cup his face, pushing one hand into his hair and give in to his domineering kiss. I knit my brows as the flavor of smoked chocolate strawberries hit my tongue.
Tightening my hold on his face, I suck his tongue into my mouth, trying to get more—more of him, more of his kiss, more of the intoxicating flavor coming from his mouth. He groans and it vibrates through me, curling my toes.
I’m so consumed by him, I’ve forgotten all logic. It’s when smoke pours from my nose that I break the drugging kiss. Looking into his eyes, my sense begins to return.
There’s fire in his eyes. In the parking lot … that was a ball of fire in his palm. Oh my God, what is he?
I wiggle to get to my own feet and take a step back. A scowl comes to his face, and he looks … hurt? I can’t help myself. I inch closer and reach for his hand.
“Bradan?” I whisper. “What’s going on? What are you?”
“I’m your mate. You are mine. I can smell it on you now. I didn’t know why I was drawn to you before, but now I feel it. I taste it on your lips. I can smell it in your blood. You, baby girl, are mine.”
“Yours?”
My knees nearly give. His words feel like nothing but the truth, but I still don’t understand. He lifts the hand I’m holding to my face and runs his thumb across my lip.
“Mine,” he says more firmly. “You just took my full kiss and true breath. You are definitely my mate and not human as I first thought you were.”
“Not human? Your mate?” I utter like a buffoon.
He chuckles, and it sounds so delicious. However, I force myself to focus on what’s really going on here. I grasp his wrist with both hands as he continues to cup my face.
“If I am not human, what am I, and what are you?”
The elevator dings and the doors open. Bradan turns his hand to take one of mine and leads me off the car. I follow him like a lost puppy, needing to find some answers as my brain scrambles for some semblance of the truth.
He leads me down a long corridor and veers right as we get to the end. Opening the second door we pass; he pushes it in and steps inside with me in tow. Glancing around the room, my eyes grow wide; the place is huge.
There’s a huge fireplace, almost as high as Bradan is tall. Over it is a crest of some sort. However, what grabs my attention is the huge bed and the throne chair that sits on a platform facing the foot of the bed.
My cheeks heat as my mind is bombarded by dirty thoughts. Bradan steps behind me and wraps his arms around my waist. I crane my neck to look up at him.
He’s looking down at me with a smile. “I can’t wait until I can hear your thoughts. I wonder if the gods did as well with your mind as they did with your looks.”
“Huh?”
“I am part demigod, part something other. I have not figured out what species you are from. You smell familiar, yet I know you are of no kind under our current registry.
“But to be my mate, you must be powerful. I’m so happy I have found you. If they would have taken you from me …”
He closes his eyes and rage fills his features. I turn in his embrace and lift on my toes to try to reach for his face. My fingertips end up sliding across his silky facial hair.
When he opens his eyes, the fire is back. Before I can take a step back, he has me in his arms and his lips crushed against mine. As he lifts me, I lock my legs around him and get lost in his kiss once again.
If at all possible, this kiss is hungrier than the one in the elevator. Bradan claws at my back with one hand and squeezes my ass with the other. That flavor hits my tongue again and my panties flood with my essence.
“Fuck, baby girl, I want you so fucking bad,” he groans into my mouth.
I pull away and look into his eyes. “If I’m yours, can’t you have me?”
His eyes flash between a gorgeous amber color and the bright orange of a fiery flame. So much desire fills his face. I can’t help the shiver that runs through me from the sight.
“There are so many reasons we should wait,” he says, as if in pain.
“Like?”
He releases a throaty laugh. “I will want to seal the bond for one and you seem to know nothing about who or what you are. I also made a promise I should keep. If the gods will let me.”
“There’s someone else,” I murmur, looking down at his chest.
“You are the only one who matters. I will never desire another the way I desire you. Once we seal the bond, the little compassion I have to spare will be gone. I think it kinder for me to do what I must before even that is lost.”
He places me on my feet as my body stiffens. I can’t help wondering if this other woman is more his type. Does he wish she were the one and not me?
“Taylor, the gods made a mate for me that fits me perfectly. I know, in my heart, you are everything I’ve dreamed of. I would strip you bare and fuck you senseless if there weren’t so many unknowns.
“Maybe you should lie down. Take some time to think about what’s happening.”
“I do need to use the bathroom,” I say softly.
“What’s mine is yours. The bathroom is right through there.”
He points at a door on the other side of the room. Turning, I shrug my backpack off and place it at the foot of the bed before heading into the bathroom he points out.
Bradan
My head hurts as I watch her disappear behind the bathroom door. It’s too far away from me. The need to seal the bond is excruciating.
Taylor.
Her name floats through my head like a prayer. As she’s out of my sight, it clicks that Taylor was one of the names the gods gave to Kendrick. I move to her backpack and find her wallet.
Digging inside, I find very little cash and a few cards. Not many. I pull her ID from the leather holder and place it back into the backpack.
The sound of her moving for the door reaches me right as I straighten from placing the backpack where I got it from and slip her ID into the pocket of my cut. The headache lessens as she comes into view. She’s so beautiful.
Seraphina doesn’t hold a candle to my little mate. No one ever could. Her scent alone is driving me crazy.
I should put us both out of our misery and strip her clothes from her to complete the bond. However, I hold myself back. Seraphina will return tomorrow.
I can tell her I’ve found my mate as I promised and then I will take Taylor. By then we will have more information as well. The thoughts make sense in my head, but everything in me wants to say fuck it, then fuck her well into the morning hours.
She comes to me with one of my T-shirts in her hands. The shy woman from the diner has reappeared before me. I have to ball my fists at my sides to keep from reaching out for her.
“Do you mind if I wear this?” she asks, lifting the shirt.
“If you don’t mind it swallowing you.”
Her eyes light up with lust as if I’m speaking of something else. Oh, yes, my little one will be a perfect match for me. I love to fuck, and knowing she will be able to take me at full force has me ready to burst from my pants.
“Lie down and go to sleep, Taylor. My restraint is only so strong. Besides, I’ve noticed you always look like you need rest.”
“I work a lot and I’m a part-time student. Everything is always so expensive.”
“You won’t have to worry about that anymore. I will take care of all your needs. Tell me, little mate, what are you studying?”
“I want to be a nurse. I like helping to heal people. It’s always felt right to me.”
I nod my head. A noble mate as well as gorgeous. I can sense that she is smart as well. It’s something I picked up on as I watched her at the diner.
I keep my back to her as she changes into my T-shirt and climbs beneath the covers. Everything in me wants to strip down and climb in with her.
“Bradan.”
I turn to look at her over my shoulder. “Yeah, baby girl?”
“I don’t think Ferg meant me any harm, but thank you. I was happy to see you.”
She yawns and her eyes close before I can answer. I love the sight of her in my bed. Our bed.
I have found my mate. I will no longer walk this earth alone. The gods have smiled upon me with favor.
I feel my ears lift with my smile. I will protect her with my being and every ounce of power I have. I already love her.
Taylor.