Chapter 16
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Calli tugged Malcolm into the house, gripped by a desperate need to feel his hands all over her body. She wanted to taste his skin and needed to feel him conquer her in that rough mating that lit her soul on fire.
She pushed him back against the closed door. “Kiss me,” she said, as the familiar patter of paws on the wood floor retreated to the kitchen, assuring they were alone.
“Calli, honey.” Malcolm jerked his leather jacket until it slid free of his shoulders. “What—”
“Kiss. Me.”
Their eyes met, and he finally realized what she needed. Him. Not just now, but forever.
It was impossible to explain why the northern wind that had blown into the tiny town had left her feeling so wild and reckless. It warned her of the coming of winter, the coming dark, and the quiet, deathlike sleep of her gray world. That must have caused her to feel this desperate need to live.
Malcolm’s green eyes sharpened as he switched their positions so she was pinned against the door, arms above her head, wrists trapped in one of his hands. He was everything the cold northern wind wasn’t. He was fire. He was warmth. And his green eyes reminded her of everything worth living for.
He jerked up her skirt, scrunching it around her waist. He nudged his knee between her thighs, and she rubbed against his hard leg.
Excitement rippled through her as the friction drove her mad with a desire so strong that she was close to begging for him to take her.
Tilting her chin up so she looked into his enchanting eyes, Malcolm stroked the pad of his thumb over her lips suggestively.
Caught up in her own desire, Calli sucked on his thumb, drawing it in her mouth.
Malcolm groaned as he pressed her harder against the door.
The heat of his body, the hardness between his hips, pressing against her own body, the wild beat of his heart so close to hers, trapped her in a blissful world where only they existed.
He fisted her panties in one hand and tore them off her with a snap.
“Fuck me… here…” Calli gasped as he lifted her into the air and a shiver of heated magic drifted across her skin.
The shirt and bra she wore disappeared with a magical pop and sizzle in the air, leaving her naked except for the skirt that was bunched up around her waist. His mouth took in one nipple, sucking on it as he freed Calli’s wrists.
She wrapped her arms around his neck, cradling his head to her breast, her fingers sinking into the strands of his dark hair.
“Malcolm… I need you inside me,” she moaned.
His mouth released her breast. “You want me?”
“Yes! Please!” She tugged on his hair, needing him to feel her urgency. It was an exquisite punishment to wait for him to fuck her, but thankfully he didn’t make her wait too long.
He adjusted his body, still holding her against the door with his body and one hand while the other unfastened his jeans so he could free his cock.
Before she could lock her legs fully around his waist, he was thrusting into her.
The wood door banged into the frame as he sank all the way in.
It was a rough, wild claiming of her body she needed.
“Oh God…” She hissed at the pinch of soreness and then the fullness of him within her. Malcolm’s mouth moved to her neck, nipping and sucking at the sensitive parts of the skin that lit her up like a star turning into a supernova.
He rammed deep into her again, the door protesting each time with a heavy thud as Malcolm fucked her within an inch of her life.
Her body quivered and shuddered as a climax hit hard and fast. She came, screaming his name. New wetness rushed to coat his shaft, which allowed him to move even faster, penetrating her even deeper.
Calli never wanted to lose this feeling of being so truly connected to him. The thin veil that separated them was just that, a whisper thin barrier. Would this be the moment that finally bonded them?
“You’re mine,” Malcolm rasped in her ear. “You will always belong to me. Just as I belong to you. This”—he punctuated with a grunt and a thrust—”Is ours. It’s us… only us.”
“Only us,” she whimpered as her body came apart with another orgasm, this one longer, softer…
sweeter. Even as he took her so roughly, the passion between them scorching the very walls around them with heat, she felt truly loved.
This feeling was different than anything she’d experienced before, different in ways she still couldn’t make sense of.
When he made love to her like this, it felt like lightning captured in a jar and suddenly released.
Malcolm’s mouth caught hers and he continued to drive into her until he came, filling her with his own wet heat as he continued to kiss her. His breath was ragged against her lips, his eyes clouded with passion, and Calli held on to him for dear life while her body shivered.
“You okay, honey?” he asked.
She could only murmur in reply. She’d gone from being indifferent about sex to craving it.
“Hang on, let me get you cleaned up.” He withdrew from her and gently set her down on her feet.
Calli had to brace herself against the door as her legs shook.
She chuckled as he awkwardly pulled up his jeans before he quickly stole a kiss and headed to the bathroom down the hall.
Sex was messy, that was for sure. But she found that she didn’t mind.
Malcolm returned with tissues to help clean her up, kissing her, his lips soft as he held her close and took care of her.
“I seemed to have magicked your clothes off to God-knows-where again,” he said. “Why don’t you put something cozy on and we’ll sit by the fire?”
Calli glanced down to find herself naked except for that short skirt. Her torn panties were on the floor at her feet. “Okay.”
She managed to get upstairs and throw on a comfortable sweater dress, a fresh pair of panties, and some thick socks.
She ran a brush through her wild hair and stared at her reflection in the mirror.
Her lips were extra plump from kissing, and her hazel eyes had become luminous.
She looked well-loved. With a happy grin she came downstairs and found Malcolm waiting for her, a cup of cocoa in hand as he sat on the couch.
She curled up beside him and took her mug from him. He pulled her legs over his lap and added a blanket to cover them both.
“You’re incredible,” Malcolm murmured, brushing her hair back from her cheeks with tender fingertips.
“So are you,” she replied.
He shrugged. “No, seriously. At the risk of sounding like I’m lost in a post-sex afterglow, I think…” He flashed her a shy smile, something so pure, it triggered some instinct in the back of her mind that had her leaning towards him.
Whatever he said, Calli knew it would level her. She held her breath.
He paused and gave a small huff of a laugh, his eyes crinkling as he continued to stare at her, light shining from those emerald depths. “I think I’m in love with you.”
She swallowed her breath, heat rose to her cheeks as she waited for him to continue, half expecting him to hedge around the words in some way. His face softened with that half-smile that he gave in unguarded moments of affection.
“For years, I ran from magic, but I also ran from love. I was afraid of something that felt real, afraid of feeling this.” The puzzlement in his voice only added to the honesty she felt in his words.
“It’s like my chest is so full with the weight of loving you, it aches.
” Her heart thudded as his voice dropped lower.
“And now that I know what a love like this feels like, I wouldn’t give it up for anything. ”
All her thoughts of the north wind and the urgency she’d felt just moments ago now turned tender and demanded that she take her time.
The weight of his love settled over her like a cloak, comforting her in a way she hadn’t known she’d needed until now.
This would bind them together for the rest of their lives.
She didn’t want to run from the bond, wasn’t afraid of it or him.
But in a way she was afraid of how much she had come to care for him.
But that was a very different sort of fear.
It was a fear of what she stood to lose now.
“It’s scary to care about someone this much,” she agreed. “But I want my parents had. That kind of love means everything. That kind of love builds dreams and makes wishes come true. And I’m glad I can have that with you. It’s worth every risk.”
He set his mug down on the table, then took hers from her hands and placed it beside his own.
Then he leaned over on the couch and gave her a lingering, exploring kiss punctuated with soft sighs and full of ardent longing.
Calli’s heart hurt, and she understood what Malcolm had meant.
There was so much love inside her right now, it couldn’t be contained.
Only kisses like these could ease that ache in her chest.
The night darkened around them as the fire burned low.
After a while, Hades and Persephone crawled up onto the couch to join them.
The kitten nestled in Malcolm’s lap and Hades lay his head on Calli’s thigh.
This was a perfect moment. She wanted nothing else in life than to have a thousand more nights like this.
A few hours passed with them snuggled on the couch, the fire still glowing warm and bright thanks to a spell Malcolm had figured out.
Then, close to midnight, Hades jerked awake and barked like a hellhound.
He raced for the front door, almost knocking over an end table along the way.
Persephone hissed and darted up Calli’s arm to perch on the back of the couch, her fur on end.
“Hades!” Malcolm shouted, then froze. “Wait. Did you feel that? That burst of magic?”
She nodded. It had made the hairs on her arm stand up and sent a frisson of otherworldly awareness down her spine. A moment later, there was a frantic pounding on the front door.