Chapter 12
Gavin’s hands roamed over her body, igniting fires in their wake. The fire of desire consumed her as he undressed her. She pushed at his clothes in return, wanting to feel the heat and smooth texture of his skin against her fingertips and the rest of her body.
He obliged, wordlessly removing all the barriers between them, moving slow so as not to rush her, but she was in no mood to be denied.
“Gavin…” She whispered his name as he caressed her breast.
His mouth moved to kiss her nipple, and she squirmed with desire at his lightest touch. Then, he sucked her peak into his mouth, and she nearly exploded as sensation stole over her.
This was new and exciting. Sheltered as she’d been, she’d never experienced the touch of a man in such an intimate way.
She hadn’t been kissed. She’d never dated.
Never flirted. Her only experience of a desirable man was with Gavin, and he was more than enough.
He fired all her senses and made her want things she didn’t even know how to describe.
He made his way down her body, and she opened for him, wanting to know what happened next.
She felt like she was reaching for something that only he could give her.
When he kissed his way past her navel and then down to the apex of her thighs, she nearly screamed as he licked over the tiny nub that seemed to be at the center of her pleasure.
A sexy laugh rumbled from his chest, and she could feel his lips smile against her most intimate area. She couldn’t quite believe the things she was feeling, but she knew she wanted more. So much more. She’d take whatever he would give, and then, she’d do her best to give back to him.
She wanted to please him almost as much as she wanted him to pleasure her. That’s when she knew she truly cared for the man in a way she’d never felt before. Gavin Kinkaid was, indeed, something special.
His tongue was doing something amazing to her. Her passion rose as he toyed with her until she fell over a cliff she hadn’t known was there, and he caught her, keeping her safe as he rode her through her climax.
Then, he kissed his way back up her body, pausing here and there to lick and suck, reigniting the fire she’d thought had just been extinguished. Boy, had she been wrong.
When his lips finally returned to hers, she met him with everything inside her.
All the longing, the reignited passion, and the new feelings for him she couldn’t yet speak aloud.
She wasn’t afraid of him. When he whispered her name again, reverent as a vow, Marigold knew she’d chosen right.
This was healing. This was hope. This was joy being born in the fire of everything she thought she’d lost.
And when, a few minutes later, he gently joined his body to hers, she finally discovered what lovemaking was all about.
It hurt a little at first, but that was nothing compared to the pleasure that came after.
He initiated her into sex in the most gentle, loving way a man could, and her body flew to the stars and back with him. More than once.
After, she dozed in his arms, feeling a little achy, but also deliciously sore in some spots.
In the middle of the night sometime, she woke to find him bathing her with a warm, wet washcloth, taking away the evidence of her virginity.
There was an almost smug look on his face when he did so, but he was showing her such exquisite care, she didn’t feel much like objecting or teasing him about it.
He was a predator. Maybe there was some instinctual thing about claiming a woman’s virginity that made him look that way, but there was no way she would ever ask.
It was enough that he treated her gently. She felt cherished in a distinctly different way from the hazy memories of her childhood and her parents care for her. This was a grown-up feeling, for certain, and one she had waited far too long to experience.
When he came back to the bed, he simply pulled her back into his arms and instructed her to go back to sleep. Surprising herself, she did so, sleeping long and deep for the rest of the night, secure in her lover’s arms.
The next morning, sunlight spilled through the sheer curtains, soft and golden.
Marigold blinked awake slowly, her skin still humming with the memory of Gavin’s touch.
For one disorienting heartbeat, she remembered her old life and waking in strange rooms, drained from her power being used, her body aching from the pain that had been inflicted on her to get her to give up the goods.
But this wasn’t even remotely like that.
The warmth around her wasn’t false. It was Gavin.
Solid, steady, his chest rising and falling beneath her cheek as his arm lay draped protectively over her waist. The faint rumble in his chest as she moved was a sound she felt more than heard, vibrating softly through her.
She felt safe with him. That thought whispered through her mind again and again, calming the old reflexes.
She was safe. Last night hadn’t been about being used for her power.
It had been about pleasure and mutual desire.
Gavin had given her a choice at every step, and she had wholeheartedly said yes.
Her cheeks warmed at the memory. The way his eyes had glowed, the gentleness that lived beneath his hunger, and the reverence in the way he’d touched her made her feel warm and cosseted. He’d made her feel like she was more than scars and shadows. He’d made her feel alive.
Tears pricked the corners of her eyes, but this time, they weren’t born of fear or pain. They were something else entirely. They were tears of hope.
“Goldie?” His voice was rough with sleep, his breath stirring her hair.
She froze, caught between embarrassment and the sudden, fierce joy at hearing the nickname only he had ever called her.
“I didn’t mean to wake you,” she said softly.
His arm tightened around her, pulling her closer. “Don’t care.” He pressed his lips against the crown of her head, a tender kiss that made her throat ache. “You okay?”
She swallowed hard, her voice trembling with truth. “Better than okay. I didn’t know it could feel like that.”
His hand rubbed slow, soothing circles over her hip. “It’s only the beginning.”
Something in his rough tone settled deep inside her.
Marigold let herself believe in a future that wasn’t chains and fear.
A future where she could wake like this again and again.
She snuggled closer to him, closing her eyes.
For just a few more minutes, she let herself drift in the warmth of his embrace.
Gavin lay awake long after Marigold’s breathing evened into the soft rhythm of sleep again, her body tucked warm against his side. The early morning light slanted across the room, gilding the strands of her hair where they fanned over his chest.
He should’ve felt guilty. He did feel guilty, in some distant, logical part of his mind. She’d been through hell, had barely found her footing, and what did he do? Took her into his arms, and right into his bed. But damned if he could be sorry.
She hadn’t come to him out of desperation or fear.
She’d chosen him clearly when she could have easily turned away.
He’d given her the chance to stop him a dozen times, and she hadn’t.
No, she’d pulled him closer, demanded more, and something deep inside him had snapped clean in two. Now there was no going back.
His lion stretched contentedly in his chest, smug and possessive.
The beast didn’t care about complications, about clan politics, about the war still raging in the shadows of the Rollins dynasty.
The lion cared about the woman curled against them, her scent on their skin, the faint pulse of her heartbeat under his palm.
Gavin dragged a hand down his face, sighing quietly.
He had a job to do. Sam had entrusted him with dismantling the Rollinses, with ending their poison once and for all.
Marigold was a key to that. Her knowledge, her insight, and maybe even her power, if it ever broke free, could be a huge help to his plans, but that also meant she’d have to turn totally and completely against her own flesh and blood.
They might have been terrible to her. She might have run from them, but when push came to shove, they were still her family. Like it or not. He wasn’t sure he could ask her to aid him in ending them once and for all. That felt kind of extreme.
She was also a complication. The kind that made him second-guess every plan, every risk. The kind that made him imagine what would happen if he lost her before they’d even really begun.
But looking at her now, her lips parted in sleep, her hand curled trustingly against his chest, he knew he’d burn the world down before he let the Rollinses take her back. Complication or not, he wasn’t walking away.
A short while later, Marigold stirred faintly when he eased out from under her, but didn’t wake.
Gavin lingered for a moment, brushing a loose strand of hair away from her cheek.
The talisman gleamed faintly at her throat, reminding him of the woman who’d given it to Marigold.
He wanted to have a long talk with Claudia about the Rollins family.
That thought firmly in mind, he let out a breath, then slipped away. He grabbed his clothes and then pulled the bedroom door shut behind him.
The penthouse office was quiet, the city sprawling beyond the windows, but Gavin’s desk was still cluttered with files.
He poured himself a coffee, settled into the chair, and forced his mind into work mode before he placed a call to Claudia.
It was after nine in the morning. Most everybody would be up and working already.
“Good morning,” Claudia answered briskly. He was only just getting to know the woman, but so far, she was proving to be everything Granny Tucker had promised. Competent, skilled in magical matters, and highly intelligent. He liked that and enjoyed working with her.
“Morning, Claudia. I just wanted to touch base and see if you’re free for another meeting today,” Gavin said.
They wouldn’t discuss too much detail over the phone, just in case the Venifucus or their agents were more tech-savvy than Gavin thought.
In person meetings in secure locations were still preferable to keep things as private as possible.
“Depends on when and where,” Claudia replied.
“The apartment, and whenever you have a free moment,” Gavin answered, sipping his coffee, his gaze straying toward the closed bedroom door.
“The Rollinses aren’t sitting still. Yesterday’s attempt to find her confirmed they’re hunting.
I’d like your opinion on some of the information I collected yesterday. ”
“Are you concerned they’ll keep trying to find her?”
“You know they will,” Gavin said. “They want her back, and at some point, they’re going to get desperate. Desperation makes them sloppy, but it also makes them dangerous. And I don’t want her blindsided.”
There was a pause, then Claudia’s voice softened slightly. “You care about her.”
“That’s not the point. She’s under my protection.” He hadn’t denied Claudia’s statement, but he hadn’t confirmed it either.
Claudia let the silence stretch before answering. “All right. I’ll come over for lunch again, and I’ll bring Chinese, if that’s all right.”
“Perfect.”
“Good. And Gavin?”
“Yeah?”
“Don’t underestimate her,” Claudia warned. “There’s more under the surface than either of you realize. When it breaks free—because it most likely will—you’ll need to be ready.”
The line clicked off, leaving Gavin staring at the phone. He set it down slowly. He wasn’t really sure anyone could ever be ready for what Marigold carried inside her, but he’d damned well try.
He set the phone down, thinking about what Claudia had said. So far, she had impressed him as being efficient, practical, and not above bribing him with food. He smiled a bit at that. She seemed to know her way around shifters. No wonder Granny Tucker sent her here.
Gavin leaned back in the chair, sipping his coffee, letting the steam curl around his face as he considered how Marigold would react.
She’d liked Claudia and seemed to trust her somewhat easily.
Still, bringing Claudia back might shake Marigold’s nerves.
He’d have to keep close and make sure she knew she wasn’t being judged, just protected.
The sound of movement in the hallway drew his attention. Marigold padded into view a moment later, hair tousled, the gold pendant resting against her collarbone. She looked softer somehow. She was still wary, of course, but not as brittle as yesterday.
“Good. You’re awake,” Gavin said.
Her lips curved faintly. “I smelled coffee.”
“Good instincts,” he told her, rising to go out into the kitchen with her to get her a mug of coffee. “Claudia’s coming by with lunch again. She’s bringing Chinese this time.”
Marigold blinked, wrapping her hands around the mug Gavin handed her, inhaling deeply before taking a cautious sip. Her eyes flicked to the door, then back to him.
“That’s great. I like her,” Marigold admitted.
He nodded in agreement. “Good. Because we’ll need her.”
The doorbell buzzed a while later, announcing Claudia’s arrival. Gavin rose to answer it, his senses sharpening automatically. He opened the door to find her standing there with two bulging takeout bags in hand and her satchel slung over her shoulder.
“Hope you’re hungry,” Claudia said, breezing in with the efficiency of someone who didn’t waste time. The smell of sesame, ginger, and soy sauce filled the apartment instantly.
Behind him, Marigold’s stomach growled loud enough to make Gavin bite back a grin.
“Looks like you brought the right stuff,” he said, ushering Claudia inside.