23. Full
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
FULL
AURORA
S pinning, I saw Deke storm across the room wearing a fancy white suit.
Heaven must have a dress code.
Anger tightened his features as he headed straight for me. I didn’t back down, cower, or flinch. I knew I didn’t have to.
Deke would never hurt me—even if he did look murderous.
Sure enough, his touch was firm but tender as he cupped my cheeks and pulled me to him, his mouth covering mine in a rough kiss. We were both panting by the time he tore himself away, but he didn’t release me. He plastered my body to his. “I thought you’d be at the cabin.”
“When you didn’t return, I loaded Victoria into the truck and drove here.”
“Spiffy suit,” Juno said. “You’ve been gone for five years.”
At his flare of panic, I put my hand to his chest. “It’s been five days.”
“This is exactly why I said you shouldn’t return to Maine,” Nate put in.
Denny wrapped her arms around him. “No one likes a know-it-all.”
“But I do know it all, my little hellion. Yet no one wants to listen.”
Other than a quick glare at his brother, Deke ignored everyone but me. “To me, it felt like hours, and even that was too long to be away. I’m sorry, my one.”
“They let me know time passes differently there. I’ve been okay.”
He tilted my head up. “You were terrified.”
“That must’ve been when her fiancé grabbed her,” Juno not-so-helpfully filled in.
“He’s not my fiancé,” I rushed out.
At the same time, Deke’s face darkened, and his quiet voice still seemed to echo. “He touched you? I will rip his head from his body.”
“Too late.” Denny lifted her hand. “Already dead and dusted.”
“But if you want your bits to remain outside of your body, heed my warning.” Juno jabbed a finger toward the kitchen. “Do not make Aurora a frittata.”
He blinked, completely lost, but that didn’t stop him from agreeing. “Of course not. She hates them.” He scanned me again like he didn’t trust I was okay. “We’re leaving.”
“There’s much to discuss,” Nate started before sighing. “Tomorrow.”
“Victoria—”
My words were cut off by Juno. “Lea has her and Tom. Have fun releasing some of that pent-up… magicks.”
Her lovely cackle faded along with the room. When everything sharpened again, we weren’t at the cabin, Stellan’s house, or even the truck I’d left parked outside of Juno’s.
We were in some woods.
Still breathing heavily from the thrill ride, I turned.
And what little air I had in my lungs was pushed out in a scream.
“It’s okay,” Deke reassured me. “It’s just a monument.”
“Where are we?”
“An abandoned cemetery.”
That’s not ominous.
I scanned around us. “What if someone was here? If they saw us? Do you know the kind of unhinged conspiracy theories you could’ve created online?”
“Felt that it was empty before I brought us here.”
“Oh.”
With a hand on my lower back, Deke guided me the short distance to the exit and down the block. He remained tense and silent the whole way. When we neared a row of businesses, he finally whispered, “It’s okay.”
I didn’t have the chance to ask what he meant because he opened a glass door to reveal people. A lot of them. It wasn’t dinnertime yet, but the restaurant was already packed. Not an empty table or barstool was in sight.
I was comfortable with Deke. And, thanks to a few days in their company, his family.
Strangers was a different story, though.
I stayed quiet and pressed to his side.
Despite the busy day, the hostess had a genuine smile as she hurried over. It made a matching one spread across Deke’s face.
“Hi,” she greeted. “Sorry, we’re booked for the night. If you’d like, I can set you a future reservation.”
“Not needed. Is Monica here?” Deke asked.
“One moment.” She disappeared into the back, and I wanted to ask Deke who Monica was, but it would have to wait.
A minute later, an older Black woman came out, wiping her hands on a towel. It didn’t help the puffs of flour—or maybe powdered sugar—that’d mixed with the gray in her curly hair. “Someone’s looking for…” Her words and her steps both faltered as she spotted Deke.
I had the same reaction to him, but hers wasn’t because of how hot he was. Her mouth dropped open, and she looked like she’d seen a ghost.
“Daniel?” she shakily whispered.
“Was my grandfather,” Deke said.
It was a lie, but so smooth and undetectable, I nearly believed him.
“I’m Deacon.” He held out his hand. “Deke.”
She took it and forced a laugh that was no less shaky than her whisper. “Right. Of course. That was… Sorry. I knew him when I was a little girl. Before my daddy took over Limos. God bless both their souls.” Seeming to realize she still shook his hand, she released it and nervously fluffed, folded, and refolded the towel. Her gaze was stuck on him the whole time. “You just look so much like him.”
“So I’ve heard.”
“I should have a picture around here of the two of them. My daddy and your granddaddy. I can get you a table and see if I can find it.”
That time when Deke smiled, it didn’t reach his eyes. “That’s okay.”
“Right. You know what Daniel looked like.” She cleared her throat. “What can I do for you?”
“Wanted to let you know that my girlfriend and I will be staying up in the apartment. So if you hear anything, it’s not raccoons that broke in again.”
The woman’s expression turned panicked even though she tried to hide it.
That was okay. Mine probably looked the same.
Girlfriend.
He just called me his girlfriend .
It was a silly thing to freak out over. Obviously, girlfriend would garner fewer follow-up questions than calling me his fated-by-the-universe soulmate.
Less of a tongue twister, too.
And a girlfriend wasn’t even that powerful of a title compared to the whole mate thing.
But it was a more common word. One my brain instantly recognized and reacted to.
“The apartment,” she said. “Right. I don’t think there’s anything in there. It hasn’t been rented in a few months, but the cleaner recently came by, and there’s…” Her nervous rambling trailed off, and she cut to the chase. “Limos?”
“Is yours. I just inherited the building.”
For the first time since she’d seen Deke, Monica visibly relaxed. “Oh, thank goodness. I was worried you’d found out Daniel sold this place to my daddy for a dollar, and now you were here to contest it, and I’m just now realizing I should’ve kept my mouth shut in case you didn’t know that.”
Deke chuckled. “I knew. It’s still yours. Like I said, just wanted to let you know we’d be staying upstairs.”
“I just made a batch of beignets. Want a baggy to go?”
Deke looked down to check with me. Still queasy from the nasty house, I shook my head. He did, too. “I’m beignet’d out today. Maybe next time.”
Why is he beignet’d out?
“Well, call down if you change your mind. I’m gonna get back into the kitchen before I put my foot in my mouth again.”
Deke used his hand on my back to steer me outside and to the side of the building.
“Your key ring is still at Juno’s,” I told him.
“Not necessary.” Green smoke drifted into the lock, turning it.
The fiery sweetness from my vision.
It’s his magicks.
“What’s Limos mean?” I asked as we walked up the stairs.
“Famine in Greek Mythology. Hunger.”
Fitting name for a restaurant.
And the man knows how to stick with a theme.
At the top of the stairs, he did his green smoke thing again and swung the door open.
I’d anticipated a small one-bedroom apartment or maybe a tiny studio. Instead, it was an expansive spread with aged brick walls, exposed beam ceilings, and shiny hardwood floors.
“Wow,” I breathed. “I mean, it’s no cabin, but wow. We lucked out that it wasn’t being rented.”
Deke ran his palm over his beard. “Not luck. Something told me not to list it when the last renters moved out.”
“Oh.” I walked farther in, my steps echoing.
I didn’t get the chance to ask about furniture—though I would sleep on the floor if it meant being with Deke—before that green smoke filled the room.
I let out a happy giggle as joy and fire and fullness swirled around me.
When it faded, it didn’t leave me bereft with a reminder of how hollow I always was. Because that wasn’t how I felt thanks to Deke.
I looked around to see furniture that was similar to what we had in the cabin, just newer. “How’d you do that?”
“It was empty. I filled it.”
I’m empty, too.
Fill me.
Take me.
Make me yours.
My voice came out thick. “I didn’t know you could do that.”
“Been a long time since I have,” he said from right behind me, his rumble just as gruff.
Heated.
I barely had time to turn toward him before I was up and being carried through the space. His mouth covered mine as he walked, dominating it in the way that set fire to my veins.
Releasing his tight hold on my ass, he lowered me to stand before gripping the shirt I wore and tearing it over my head. His hand spanned my ribs right under my breast, and he tugged me toward him as he ducked to trace my scar with his tongue. Not avoiding it. Not focusing on it until it made me uncomfortable. Just showing me that he wasn’t disgusted by it before moving on to tease the swells of my breast, following along the line of my bra.
I frantically pushed at the white suit coat. He looked good. But he looked better in his flannels and jeans.
And I knew for a fact that he looked best in nothing at all.
Clothes were hastily tossed aside as our hands and lips connected with any skin within reach. Running my fingertips down the hair that lined his abs, I shoved his slacks off to find he wasn’t wearing boxers. His already hard cock sprang free.
Okay, heaven has a dress code that doesn’t include underwear.
Once we were both naked, his hand fisted in my hair as he backed me up until we reached the bed. My body went down, his following to cover it.
I was instantly surrounded by the smell of woods and a crackling fire and something better.
Something Deke and me.
“This is yours from the cabin,” I said.
It wasn’t a question, but he raised his chin anyway. “The first time I have you, it’ll be on our bed.”
Our bed.
Deft fingers teased my nipples as he kissed down my jaw. Neck.
Lower.
I knew where he was going.
And I wanted him to get there. I did.
But not right then.
Clutching his hair, I halted his progress. “It’s been hours for you, but it has been five very long days for me.” I swallowed hard. “Please don’t make me wait any longer to be yours.”
“You were mine from the first moment I felt you. Since long before that.”
“Prove it.”
The challenge lit his hooded dark eyes, and like in the woods that first night, his growl was more beast than man. He reached between our bodies to fist his cock, his hand sliding up the length and back down again. Positioning himself at my entrance, he pushed the head in.
Just the head. He was barely in, and it already felt like I was going to be split in two.
His body lowered against mine with one hand pinning my hip while the other wrapped around my shoulder.
Keeping me in place where he wanted me.
Under him.
With him.
His fingers shook with restraint as he rocked his hips to ease in.
Inch by very long, thick inch.
Slow.
Shallow.
Tormenting.
“More,” I begged, desperate for it. For him. “I trust you. Don’t hold back.”
His inhale was sharp as his body tensed. “Fuck. Fucking hell fuck .”
I ruined it.
Regret clawed up my throat like it could reach out to grab the words and yank them back in.
I had no clue why what I’d said was bad, but I could backtrack with the best of them. I opened my mouth, but Deke spoke first.
“You trust me?” he asked.
He’s not mad.
He’s full.
“You’re my soulmate,” I said since there was no better answer.
“Fuck yes, I am. Hold tight, my one,” he forced out through clenched teeth. In one brutal thrust, he filled me.
Physically.
Emotionally.
Completely .
He stayed planted there, but my hips began to undulate despite the sting of being so stretched.
His fingers dug in as he immobilized me—which just stoked the fire inside. “Gotta give me a minute, my one. Waited centuries for you. And that torture was nothing compared to the week with you close, wanting you but not able to have you. Surprised my dick didn’t chafe with how often I stroked it while picturing this moment.”
It might not have made it into a Lifetime special movie, but as far as compliments went, that was pretty much the most effective one he could’ve given.
My chest felt like it was going to burst from happiness, but the rest of me would perish if he didn’t move .
I tried again to shift, but he held tighter. “Now that I finally fucking have you, I’m trying not to come embarrassingly fast. But you’re not making it easy on me here, baby.”
“Because I need you.”
“Fuck it. I’ll make it up to you next time.” He started moving, and I quickly realized every ounce of his control was gone. Snapped.
Crumbled to nothing like the walls I’d built around myself.
Power went into his brutal thrusts as he took me. Owned me.
Made me his.
Releasing his hold on my hip, he splayed his hand across my pelvis. “Spread your legs wider, baby.”
I did as ordered.
And he rewarded my obedience by stretching his thumb down to circle my clit.
Body tightening, sweet fire scorched through my veins. Not from magicks or anything like that. Just for Deke and how perfectly we fit together.
Which was its own kind of magic.
With no other warning, I imploded until it felt like my body was being torn apart by pleasure. Eviscerated down to my bones, never to be put together the same again.
I was vaguely aware of Deke’s guttural, “Thank fuck.” His thrusts grew savage as his come filled me before being pushed out each time he plunged in.
Spent.
Sated.
Blissfully happy.
My legs turned to jelly as I tried to drop them and my arms to the side, but Deke stopped me. His lips skimmed from my shoulder to nip my jaw before grazing my own lips as he spoke. “Not yet, baby. Let me savor this a minute longer.”
Who was I to argue?