Chapter 22
Chapter Twenty-Two
Gus
RECLINED, BARE ON THE BED, I stretched out and watched Kit climb over me.
He’d tossed a small jar of petroleum jelly onto the bed, and when he settled, kneeling over my hips, I bit down on a groan.
He was beautiful, his hard cock bobbing and curving upward.
I wanted it back in my mouth, to taste him again, to make him come apart for me, but more than that, I wanted inside him so bad it was a struggle to wait until he was ready.
Dragging my hands up his thighs to where they met his groin, I teased them over the swell of his ass as he bent low to reach for the petroleum jelly.
His stomach grazed mine, and before he could sit up again, I kissed him, slipping my tongue into his mouth and getting a taste that way.
He was so warm in my palms, and he smelled like some fancy aftershave I didn’t want to like but did.
Kit’s tongue swirled around mine, and he sucked my lip as he pulled away, flushed and gorgeous when he dropped his gaze to my chest as he unscrewed the cap.
I flexed for him, and he smirked, though there was something I couldn’t read in his expression.
Some sort of wistful hunger. “You put on muscle while I was gone,” he said, tone appreciative.
“So did you,” I answered roughly as I stroked down the toned length of his thighs and back up to the firm, rounded curve of his ass.
I didn’t want to be reminded of everything we still needed to talk about.
Really talk about. I just wanted to feel this with him.
To be back where I belonged. Where we both belonged.
Like we were thinking the same thing, Kit scooped out some petroleum jelly and reached behind himself. The slick sound of Kit getting ready made my stomach muscles clench and my cock bob, pleasure already aching in my balls, anticipation almost as sweet as the first hot slide into him would be.
Or so I thought until his sticky-slippery hand pumped my sensitized flesh and my hips rolled up to meet his grip.
My eyes rolled back and I groaned, trying not to crest too soon.
Kit caught on and let go, leaning forward and teasing his smart mouth over my chest, giving me a minute to get it together.
“Slow down,” he whispered into my feverish skin. “You might need to breathe through this next part.”
“What—” My question melted into a moan as Kit guided me into his body.
There was a long moment of resistance before his muscle gave and I sank slowly inside, his ass squeezing so tight around me that I was struggling for air, sweating, and trembling at the edge of climax again by the time he was fully seated in my lap. “Kit, Kit, Jesus.”
He nodded, his lips dark pink and parted, his face and neck flushed red and so beautiful, twin shadows of pleasure and pain in his glassy green eyes.
He swallowed hard, and I watched his throat work.
His mouth opened again like he wanted to say something, but nothing came out as I reached for the hard length of him resting just over my abdomen and stroked it.
Instead, he let out a strangled noise and made shallow abortive thrusts into my grip.
Fuck. “You’re so tight. So fucking… unbelievably tight, Kit. How long…?”
He rose up a little and let gravity bring him back down around me. Hot, wet, snug, and so damn good. So right.
“Since you,” he admitted with his eyes closed, his voice barely more than a half-embarrassed whisper. “Not like this since you.”
My stomach clenched hard, balls drawing up tight, and I had to grab his hips to make him hold still while I backed away from the edge. He could’ve lied, could’ve distracted me. What did it mean that he’d told the truth? What did it mean that he’d saved this for us?
I wanted to puzzle out the answers, but it wasn’t hard for Kit to redirect my attention.
He bent down to consume my mouth, his desperate kiss forcing me to focus on how good he felt in my arms, how good it felt to be inside him.
As my grip on his hips relaxed, he started riding, building up to longer, faster strokes as I shivered and touched him all over.
His body rose and slammed down over and over and over.
Our fingers tangled and he held the backs of my hands against the bed, exerting more control, making me whimper against his neck. We were a symphony of needy noises and slapping skin, wet sounds, and I met him thrust for thrust.
When he straightened up for better leverage, I couldn’t decide where to look, my gaze flickering from his sweat-damp hair to his lust-bright eyes to the bounce of his jutting cock, so hard it had to hurt.
“Touch me,” Kit pleaded, but I could tell from the strain of his muscles and the flush of his skin that if I did, this would be over.
“Not yet,” I panted through gritted teeth. Rolling us, I was as surprised as Kit when he ended up on his back beneath me, pinned to the bed by my cock.
We shared a wide-eyed gaze, and I almost laughed. I bit my lip on a grin instead and hooked Kit’s legs over my elbows, folding him up more so I could thrust better and find the spot that always got him so hot for me. He went to grab his cock, and I shook my head. “Wait for it.”
“Gus,” he groaned, part frustration, part desire, but I wasn’t done. Not yet. If I was probably only getting this one chance to be back here with him, I wasn’t going to let go easy.
I rolled my hips slow and fluid, rocking into him so he felt every inch of me, angling until he was swearing and writhing, his head thrown back against the pillows, his cock purpled and steadily leaking onto his belly.
He pushed up to meet me in a kiss, his arms wrapping around my shoulders.
And it was perfect, a culmination, a soaring, glorious moment I’d remember the rest of my life—the way he kissed like I was home, and he was finally, finally going to stay.
Once Kit was nothing but incoherent moans and tight whimpers, I finally guided his hand to his cock.
His eyes flew open to catch mine, and they were stunning, wide and wet and full of trust and something so much deeper, passionate and aching.
Pleasure licked up my spine, flowing over me in coiling waves that felt so good I might die.
If I did, I wouldn’t care. He was worth dying for. “Kit. I’m not going to last.”
“It’s okay,” he gasped, his hand speeding as I picked up my thrusts. “Neither will I. Oh. Oh, fuck. Gus, August.” Spurts of creamy white coated his chest, his face glowing with intense joy, and who could watch that without coming too?
I slammed in deep, my entire body pulsing with my release, pleasure percussing through me in a beat I felt from the tips of my hair to my curling toes. My hips bucked forward, grinding closer, and I groaned. My heart battered my rib cage and my ears rushed.
It felt like ages before I remembered to breathe again as Kit pressed sweet drowsy kisses to my face.
I loved him so damn much, and I didn’t have a clue what to do with it.
Gus
I COULDN’T TELL WHAT WOKE ME, but something was wrong.
My mind flared from fast asleep to fully alert in seconds as my eyes slit open, then flew wide.
On the other side of the bed, a huge shadowed man held a wicked-looking knife to Kit’s fast-asleep throat.
My stomach lurched and I moved without thought, launching myself across the bed and tackling him to the floor.
As we fell, he was already fighting, his knee landing in my gut, blade slashing my arm.
I grabbed his knife hand as we crashed together.
With my other fist I landed a punch to his cheekbone; pain exploded through my knuckles.
I tried hard to hold on as he shoved me away.
My grip slipped, nails gouging and scraping his skin. We made it to our feet in seconds.
Instinctively, my fists came up again to fight, as if they had much of a chance against sharpened metal.
Harsh breaths echoed in the room as he weighed me up, and I felt a flush of mortification that I was standing here naked and weaponless.
But at least he’d forgotten about Kit who…
wasn’t in the bed anymore when my gaze darted there.
Fuck. He was right behind our attacker. My racing heart pounded harder, a hard knot of fear and fury. Kit was going to do something foolish, and I couldn’t let him get hurt.
“Who are you?” I demanded, my guttural voice startling both the stranger and Kit.
He didn’t answer, not that I expected him to, but he took it as his cue to charge me and that got him away from Kit.
His arm shot out to plunge the knife into my chest. I knocked it wide, my left shoulder searing as it took the hit.
My right fist slammed into his nose, bone and cartilage crushing, blood pouring from his nostrils as he reared back.
I grabbed for the knife while he was stunned, and we struggled.
Kit landed on the man’s back, arm locking around his neck, choking him.
I fought harder to hold onto the knife, to pry it from his grip as he stumbled and gurgled, but his fingers were squeezing tight.
He tried to punch Kit, but I blocked the blow, slamming my elbow against his forearm.
An angry pulsing vein on his forehead fluttered, his face turning purple and red.
With surprising strength given the lack of air to his brain, he raised the knife, tugging me forward.
I forced it lower. Kit sucked in a gasp and the hairs on my arms stood on end, the damp earth and thunderstorm smell of Kit’s magic registering as our attacker jerked suddenly, frost coating his eyes.
His entire body went slack, and I lost my grip as he fell.
Kit went down with him, and a pool of dark liquid spread onto the carpet beneath them.
“Fuck,” I muttered, breathing hard. “Kit you hafta let go. Are you okay? Your magic, did it hurt you?”
Kit scrambled up away from the collapsed attacker, eyes wide with panic as he held up his reddened palms. They looked chapped, but not frostbitten. “I don’t… I didn’t mean to. Fuck!”
Stumbling a few steps forward, my leg screaming from the stress I’d put on it, I crouched and rolled the man over.
The frost covering his eyeballs had disappeared, no trace of magic left behind.
He wasn’t breathing, but I reached out to check his pulse.
I held my breath and waited for a sign of life.
Kit was already carrying around enough guilt thinking he’d killed Elsie with his magic.
I adjusted my fingers, hoping, and was let down.
My gaze met Kit’s stricken one. “It wasn’t your fault.
He was going to slit your throat.” I dug through my underwear drawer and pulled out a charmed salve for minor injuries and cuts; I’d picked it up in Maine.
This situation looked bad enough without it being obvious Kit’s magic was involved.
“Put this on your hands and then we need to get dressed. You hafta go into Ted’s room and mess up the bed.
Make it look like you were sleeping in there.
You heard the struggle and came to investigate. Got that, Lovely? Get your clothes.”
Kit nodded, but he didn’t move, his focus drifting to the body, trapped in horror. I skirted the pool of blood and grasped Kit’s chin, tilting his head and forcing him to look at me instead. “You probably saved my life, Lovely.”
He looked like he was going to cry, and I wanted to wrap him in my arms, but we needed to get moving.
We had to call the Mounties, and we couldn’t be found like this.
I pressed a quick kiss to his mouth, then dropped my hold on him.
I’d left blood streaking his pretty face.
How badly was I hurt? Shit. “Come on, don’t look at him.
Give me your hands.” Kit extended them palm up and trembling.
I unscrewed the cap on the salve and scooped a glob into his hand before closing it up and tossing it onto my bed.
I’d put it away once I got him going. As gentle as I could, I rubbed the salve into his skin.
Red quickly faded to pink and then almost back to normal.
No one would think twice about it. “There. One thing at a time, okay. Clothes, next. Let’s get yours on. ”
I had to guide him at first, holding his pants for him to step into, but after a moment, he seemed to snap back to awareness and took over so I could dress myself. I was fumbling up the buttons on my dress shirt, wincing as blood soaked through the material, when Kit asked. “What now?”
“Go to Ted’s room and rumple the covers, drag them half off the bed as if you got up in a hurry. And make sure the pillows are scattered. Can you do that?”
His gaze snuck to the body again, and he shrunk in on himself before agreeing.
In the meantime, I gathered up anything in the guest room that might be incriminating to hide it.
Frost had spread over the man’s eyes like what was found on Kit’s mother and father.
His father, whose death had been ruled an accident by a man who’d now been found dead under ice. Fae magic.
We needed to talk to Meggie O’Shea again. We needed to know about the other fae in Halifax.
When I checked on Kit, he’d done as I’d told him and was sitting at the edge of the bed, doubled over with his head in his hands. “C’mon, Lovely. Only a few things left. We need to wash your chin off. I got blood on it.”
His head shot up. “You got…” His gaze narrowed on the red patch spreading on my shoulder and the trickle down the arm of my sleeve. “Hell, you’re bleeding!”
“It’s not bad, it’ll be fine.”
“It’s not fucking fine. You’re not fucking fine.”
If I hadn’t already been worried about him, the anguished swearing would’ve tipped me off.
“Yes, I am, and it will be. You just hafta hold on, okay? I’ll get some stitches, be good as new.
But we’ve got a body in your bedroom and people will be here soon asking a lot of questions.
” He cursed again under his breath, but I had his attention.
“Let’s get you cleaned up while we go over our story. ”