Chapter 13 #2
Still, as far as injuries went, it could have been so much worse.
Everything could have been so much worse.
But everyone was alive. Voodoo had been able to find Indigo’s internal bleeding, stop it, and save her life.
The poor man was exhausted. When he wasn't keeping vigil at Indigo’s side, he was making the rounds, checking on Leo, who had been sleeping a lot but seemed to be improving, checking on Rose, who was conscious again and had thankfully suffered no life-threatening injuries, although she was covered in vicious-looking bruises and not able to move well.
Ariella’s cuts had eventually clotted, and while scared and extra clingy, both of which were perfectly understandable, she seemed to be doing okay.
Everyone else was dealing with their injuries the best they could, saving their limited supply of painkillers for Rose and Ariella.
Kate didn't care that each breath she took felt like a thousand knives sticking into her lungs, there was no way she was depriving her daughter of anything that would ease her suffering even just a little bit.
Although she wished Leo had agreed to take something. She hated seeing him in pain. Even now, as she perched on the edge of the bed, watching him and their daughter sleeping side by side, her chest ached a little more because she couldn’t take this pain for him.
Way too wired to sleep, she was keeping watch over her little family, while Steel, Dragon, Blade, and Thunder kept watch for real, since no one knew if their plane had been sabotaged.
Praying no one would be tracking them to this abandoned farmhouse was about all they could do right now.
With too many injured people, they couldn’t move, and they had no way of communicating with anyone because everything had been destroyed in the crash.
They were lucky enough that Voodoo had been able to find enough medical supplies to save Indigo’s life, and that some of their suitcases had been salvageable.
“You should be resting.” Leo’s voice startled her, and she found him watching her.
“You should be resting,” she countered. Those minutes when she hadn't known if he was dead or alive, but feared the worst because they’d just plummeted out of the sky and slammed into the hard, unforgiving ground, were some of the worst of her life.
Every time she thought of them, emotion threatened to choke her.
“Been resting most of the day,” Leo reminded her. “Have you even closed your eyes for an hour? A minute? A second?”
“Busy watching over the two people I … love most in the world,” she said, holding his gaze as she spoke so he knew that she was serious.
That her love for him wasn't just still there, but it was enough to get past everything and focus on a future full of possibilities instead of a past filled with pain.
Shifting carefully so as not to wake their sleeping child, Leo reached across the bed to palm her cheek.
Nuzzling into his hand felt like the most natural thing in the world, and she didn't even try to fight against her instincts. Her heart knew she was making the right decision, not just for her future but for her daughter’s as well, even if her head understood it would take time to rebuild the relationship they’d once shared.
“I love you, Katie-Bear. Always have, and always will. I will spend the rest of my life making it up to you for the things I said that day, and I will die before letting anything happen to you or our little girl,” he vowed.
Tears swam in her eyes, and she choked on a sob. “You better not go and die when I've just got you back.”
The hand cradling her cheek stroked her temple.
“No intention of dying now that I have you back,” he soothed.
“Would never be stupid enough to lose a second chance at a life with you. I love you so much, babe. And I could have lost you today.” His fingers tightened against her skin, almost hard enough to leave bruises.
“But you didn't,” she reminded him, lifting her hand to press against his. “I’m right here. Ariella is right here. All of us are right here.”
“Trying to believe that, Katie-Bear.”
She was trying to believe it, too. Only there was too much distance between them. Kate wanted Leo’s naked body plastered against hers, skin to skin. She wanted to feel him buried inside her.
They couldn’t do that, though. Not now. Not when Leo was still recovering and needed rest, not when Ariella was fast asleep and shouldn’t be left alone. Not when a whole house full of people were also resting or keeping watch.
“Can guarantee we won't be the only ones,” Leo said, his touch on her face becoming gentle again.
“Only ones doing what?”
“Making love,” he answered simply.
“We’re not—”
A finger pressed against her lips, silencing her words. “Oh, we are, Katie-Bear. We absolutely are.”
“But we can't leave Ariella.”
“She’s asleep, and we’re only going into the bathroom.”
There had been three beds upstairs, Steel and Rose were using one, Thunder and Maya the other, Dragon and Cassandra were on one of the couches downstairs, and Blade and Whitney on the other.
Voodoo had Indigo still on the kitchen table, and the final bed was being used by Leo and Ariella, her family.
This left the bathroom as the only place to get any privacy since they clearly wouldn't have sex in front of their nine-year-old when she could wake up at any second and catch them.
“Still we—”
“No excuses, babe, I need you.”
Feeling the raw vulnerability in Leo’s words sealed the decision. She doubted he ever asked for anything, admitted that he needed anyone. There was no way she was going to deny him the comfort he needed when it was exactly what she needed as well.
Climbing from the bed, Leo’s gait was steady, and his eyes clear. His enhanced healing ability seemed to have gotten him over the worst of the concussion symptoms in less than twenty-four hours. Still, when he rounded the bed and leaned over to scoop her up, Kate couldn’t help but protest.
“You shouldn’t be carrying me.”
“Nowhere else I want you than in my arms.”
Since there wasn't really anywhere else she wanted to be anyway, Kate just wrapped her arms around his neck and allowed him to carry her through into the bathroom. They’d cleaned it up earlier, so while it was still wildly outdated and a little dilapidated like the rest of the house, it was free from dirt and grime.
Inside, Leo kicked the door closed behind them, then set her down on the counter. “Touch yourself. Make yourself come while I watch.”
Her cheeks heated at the command. Leo had been her first and her only, and while she had touched herself in the last ten years, she’d never done it with an audience.
Still, the idea seemed to light her blood on fire, and almost without thinking, her hand slipped inside the waistband of the leggings she’d been able to salvage from the clothes that had been on the plane.
She was already wet, and she trailed her fingers through the evidence of her arousal before sliding them to her bud and circling it.
Leo watched, fire dancing in his eyes as he shoved his sweatpants down his legs and freed his already hardening erection, fisting it and stroking for a few moments before he growled.
“Need to see everything.” With that, he closed the short distance between them, grabbed her wrist, and pulled her hand out of her pants.
He then lifted her so he could yank the leggings down her legs, before setting her down.
His hands closed on her knees, and he spread her legs so she was wide open before him.
There was no room for embarrassment when Leo looked at her like he wanted to devour her, so her fingers slipped back to her bundle of nerves and began to circle it. Leo watched, his hand stroking his impressive length, keeping time with her movements.
Pleasure built, starting low in her belly, and she slipped one of her fingers inside herself, pumping slowly at first, then faster, more erratic, as that pleasure crescendoed, until it burst inside her, setting off fireworks of ecstasy.
Head tipped back, Kate stifled her cries as much as she could, because even if Leo was right and all the other couples had been making out as well, she didn't want to draw attention to what she was doing.
Before that pleasure ebbed, Leo was there, lifting her, holding her as he slipped gently inside her so as not to jar her battered body, making her cry out way too loudly. So much for trying to keep what they were doing a secret.
“Keep touching yourself,” Leo ordered as he thrust into her. “This one is going to be gentle but fast.”
The warning was unnecessary, because she didn't care how Leo took her, she only cared that he was deep inside her, that he was here, alive and whole, and back in her life. For good this time.
Clinging to his shoulders with one hand, her other went back to her swollen bud, and she worked the overly sensitive nerves, quickly pushing herself toward another orgasm.
“Come, Katie-Bear, now.”
The growled command was all she needed, and a second round of fireworks exploded through her body.
Leo came, too, burying his face in her neck to muffle his growl.
Together they rode out the wave of ecstasy, clinging to one another, reunited, and this time nothing, not even a crazy scientist lady, was going to tear them apart. Kate wouldn't allow it.