Chapter Twenty
Chapter 20
K elyn waited for his brother Trouble to open the front door, and before his oldest sibling could manage a grin, Kelyn swung up his fist and laid his brother out with a right uppercut.
Mostly.
Trouble wobbled, stepped backward, put out his arms to balance, then landed on the easy chair behind him with a grunt. “What the...?” He rubbed his jaw. “Dude, you really have lost your strength. That punch should have knocked me flat. Good try, though.” He smirked.
Kelyn strode inside and closed the door. He had gotten that out of his system, but he still felt dissatisfied. As if his lady’s honor required defending. So he bent before his brother. “That was for making me think you and Valor had something going on.”
“Me and the witch? Of course we did. We used to get together for Netflix and chill all the time.”
“You made me believe you’d slept with her.”
Trouble shrugged. “A guy can’t have too many notches, can he?”
“But you didn’t earn a notch from her.”
Another shrug. Yeah, so Trouble had a habit of boasting about his conquests. Real and, apparently, imagined. Kelyn had always figured his brother padded the number and the experiences with his own ideas on what that total should be. But Kelyn had always believed he and Valor had had sex. It was the very reason he’d not pursued her and had such a tough time initially trusting her.
“So what’s the deal?” Trouble shoved Kelyn backward. “You and the witch getting it on now? She’s the one who stole your wings, man!”
“For the last time, she did not steal my wings. And yes.” Kelyn fiercely stabbed his brother’s chest. “She. Is. Mine. Got that?”
Trouble put up placating hands. His smirk was a constant. But for once could the guy move beyond the childish teasing and boisterous grandstanding and attempt to show some understanding?
“She means something to me,” Kelyn insisted, “so you stay the hell away from her.”
“I have been walking a wide circle around that witch. As you should be. What happened on your trip that changed your mind about hating her?”
“I’ve never hated her. You know I don’t hate on women. I sacrificed my wings for her, Trouble. She had nothing to do with that decision. It was all my doing.”
“You sacrificed your wings because you are a good man and you could never let a woman suffer or die. Which would have happened had you not made such a selfless sacrifice. But she meant nothing to you at the time. You meant nothing to her. She played you, man. You were a sucker!”
Another punch was due. This time Kelyn managed to clock Trouble up under the jaw, shifting his skull on his spine. That knocked him out.
“She’s always meant something to me. It just took me a while to figure out what it was, exactly.”
Standing over his silent brother, Kelyn heaved out a frustrated sigh. This was not his way. He didn’t beat on his brothers. Not unless it was a friendly fight. And such scuffles had happened often growing up in the Saint-Pierre household.
Why now was he so defensive over what he had with Valor? He knew he didn’t have to protect her from Trouble. To defend her honor. A simple stay away would have sufficed.
He rubbed his fist, coming down from the anger.
What an asshole to come here and do such a thing. He turned and opened the front door.
Behind him, Trouble roused and muttered, “My little brother is in love.”
Fingers clenching the door frame, Kelyn tightened his jaw. Was that it? Was he in love?
Maybe he was.
Yet the witch gave no clue that she felt the same way. So what was he going to do about that?
* * *
An hour after Kelyn had left Valor alone at her loft, her door buzzer rang. Tossing aside the towel with which she’d been scrub-drying her hair after a long shower to erase the travel from her skin, she checked her reflection. The soft pink velvet sundress she’d slipped on because it had been conveniently hanging on the back of the bathroom door hung to her thighs. She slept in it, but it was a dress, so she could answer the door in it, as well. Wasn’t like she had abundant cleavage to worry about flaunting. She was flat chested, but never too pissed over that. Especially since lying on her stomach was the only way to sleep. Suck it, big-busted women.
Dodging Mooshi, who was sprawled on the floor beside the sofa, belly up, she glided up and slid the massive rolling door open. Kelyn stepped over the threshold, cupped her head with both hands and gave her the most sudden and delicious kiss she’d ever gotten. It stole her words. And it erased her anxiety over his earlier abrupt departure.
Wrapping her legs about his hips, she tasted mint on his tongue as it danced with hers. He clasped her thighs, kicked the door shut and carried her in toward the kitchen and beyond, not breaking the kiss.
“Watch out for the—”
Mooshi meowed angrily and scampered off while Kelyn managed to double-step to avoid a stumble. And then he resumed the kiss, which was so greedy and demanding it felt as though he was begging for her without words.
Just when she’d been bumming that he’d walked away from her without wanting to stay, he returned. And without a word he was proving how much he wanted to be here now.
Setting her on the big round table before the windows, which she generally used for cleaning auto parts, Kelyn moved the kiss from her lips to her jaw. A few hungry nibbles with his teeth and lashes with his tongue had her cooing and squirming upon the table. He glided those teasing kisses up to her earlobe, which he suckled. Drawing his teeth along the shell curve, he tickled the top inner cove of her ear. That was a new erotic spot.
“Mmm, I was hoping to see you again. I didn’t think it would be tonight.”
“Need you,” he muttered and pushed up her dress. “Right now. Wait—a dress?”
“Don’t read too much into it.”
“Not a problem.” He unzipped and shuffled down his pants. Commando was his style and his cock sprang up at attention. “Yes?”
So he was a man of few words? Worked for her.
Bracketing his hips with her legs, she turned her feet inward, pushing him toward her with her toes. He bowed over her, one hand guiding his hard-on into her while the other gripped her wet hair as he kissed her breast none too gently. The hot, searing heat of his entrance granted Valor a rush of giddy pleasure. She gasped and pulled at his hair and then pushed up his T-shirt so their bodies could be skin on skin.
His intensity was off the scale. He thrust roughly inside her as if he were trying to pin her to the table. This pinning she could handle. Digging her fingers in at his shoulders, she moaned and whispered, “Yes.”
A nip to her breast deepened her pleasure and then she muttered an actual swear word. He pinched her other breast, and the shock of it increased the high of this wild and wicked coupling.
When dust exuded from his skin, it put off a sweet, tantalizing scent. And maybe she got a little high from it, too. Not as high as she had been at the dark witch’s home in Paris. But it added another element to their coupling that pushed all sensation high up the charts.
Licking his shoulder, Valor bit him, testing his reaction.
“Oh, yeah?” He bit her breast but kept his lips over his teeth, and then toyed with her nipple until she pumped her hips roughly against his, demanding, seeking, wanting.
And when his body began to tremor above hers, Valor reached down to tighten her fingers about the base of his cock. But he thrust too rapidly for her to keep a good hold, so she let him come inside her. His loud, short shout sounded like a yes mixed with a sigh.
He hilted himself within her, pushing up and lifting her derriere from the table, the fingers of one hand still at her breast as he tilted back his head and rode the orgasm. “Dr. House!”
Valor laughed and snorted, which sent him into a delicious growl. With a slip of his finger over her clitoris, and as she ground her mons up against Kelyn’s torso, she, too, reached orgasm and shuddered beneath him, her elbows knocking the table. She almost slid off until he caught her and bowed over her, laying his head against her chest.
Somewhere in the loft a cat meowed, with judgment.
“Just needed to be inside you,” he said. A jerk of his hips tightened his erection within her. He groaned and rocked his hips, the move further rubbing him against her clitoris, which prolonged the exquisite aching giddiness. “Feels right here.”
Gasping and breathing heavily, she clasped her hands over his head, holding him there as they experienced a long and delicious gaze into each other’s soul. Their sweat-sticky bodies melded skin against skin. So much in his violet eyes. Could it all be hers?
With a kiss to her breast, Kelyn collapsed on top of her and they lay there for long minutes in a silence that harmonized with their breaths and sighs.
* * *
Valor sat on Kelyn’s lap, and he sat in the big wicker chair placed before one of the tall windows overlooking the street below. This end of town was mostly residential apartment complexes and some old factory buildings that housed hip restaurants and coffee shops as well as a quilting store and a couple art shops.
She licked the cherry Popsicle she had suggested they share to cool them down. She hadn’t pulled up her dress, and her tiny breasts hugged his bare chest. With a bite of the Popsicle, Valor pulled away from Kelyn as she giggled and teased him with the red frozen treat.
He bit off a big chunk and let it melt in his mouth. Then, before the juice was completely swallowed, he kissed her, dashing his cherry-sweetened tongue with hers. She curled into him, and he cupped her ass to hold her tighter to him. He’d pulled off his pants, and his cock was hard. Valor’s foot toyed with it absently, but when she noticed, she turned her attention to stroking the side of it with her toes.
“So we have all the ingredients, then?” he asked. “You got the fifth and final?”
“Yep. I had it in stock like I thought I would.”
“So that was tears of love or something?”
“True love’s first tears. Silly stuff.”
“Right. And tell me why or how a witch keeps something like that in stock?”
“I had it right next to my frog’s bellow and banshee’s scream.”
“Of course. How stupid of me not to know that is standard witch’s gear. So, when are we going to do this?”
“We have one more thing we need.” She hooked a thumb over her shoulder, pointing to the paper lying on the kitchen counter under a yellow highlighter. “I had a chance to read over the whole spell that Certainly copied for me, and it looks like I’ll need a familiar.”
“You mean like a cat shifter?”
“They come in all breeds, but yes, cat shifters are the most common familiars. My best friend Sunday is a familiar.”
“Dean Maverick’s wife?”
“Right. Dean was promoted to principal of the Northern pack because Ridge Addison has retired. But I’m not sure I should ask Sunday to do such a thing for me. The familiar needs to lead us through the portal into Faery. Could be risky. And I don’t want to endanger Sunday.”
“You don’t have to. I think I have something better than a familiar.”
“What’s that?”
“Matilda.”
“Should I ask?”
“Matilda is my kestrel falcon. Well, I don’t own her, but she is my friend and we’ve been together since I was little. I don’t keep her in a mews, though. She lives free in the Darkwood. Whenever I visit the woods she finds me. She can cross over to Faery.”
“Really? Wow.”
“She’s gone into Faery many times. Likes to bring me back things. Like these.” He held up the mouse alicorn and the tourmaline cipher. “She could guide us through the portal. And it would mean a lot to me to finally get to Faery accompanied by the one friend I’ve had for so long.”
“I think that’ll work. It’s only nine. We could head there tonight, if you want to.”
A huge red drip from the Popsicle splattered Kelyn’s abs, and Valor bowed to clean it with a lash of her tongue.
“That,” he said on a low growl. “Or we could have sex again?”
“I vote for the sex. The spell didn’t specify a time of day, only during the waning moon, which it is, so I think we can do night or day. And if I have to return to that place, I’d prefer day.”
“Are you okay with going back into the Darkwood?”
“Honestly?” She curled up against his chest and met his gaze. “I’m a little scared. Hell, I’m freaked. What if that tree comes after me again?”
“I’ll protect you.”
“You will. But you’ve nothing left to sacrifice this time.”
“I would give everything I have for you, Valor.”
“You already have.” She caught a breath in her throat, feeling it tickle and threaten at tears. “We make a good team, yes?”
“That we do.”
She kissed him and he made a grab for her breast while he was still holding the melting Popsicle. Valor jumped at the cold touch against her nipple. The soft treat crushed into her skin, and the stick fell to the floor. “You going to take care of this mess?” she asked her lover.
“I thought you’d never ask.”
* * *
After sex, and a shower to wash off the faery dust and Popsicle juice, Kelyn suggested they head out on the town for a little celebration. He wanted to take Valor out, treat her special.
“You could wear the dress you had on before our wild table sex,” he said. “Never thought I’d see you in a dress.”
“I do dresses. When I feel like it.” She was still naked and combing her fingers through her hair at the end of the bed. “But you know, I’m not actually a real girl, Kelyn. In case you hadn’t noticed.”
“What in the world does that mean?” He pulled up his pants but didn’t zip and leaned over her to kiss the crown of her head. “You’re real.”
“Yeah, but not in the girlie sense. I don’t do pink or ruffles or makeup. It’s just not me. So if we go out...”
“You can wear whatever you like. It doesn’t have to be a dress. And I think you’re a girl no matter what you say. A girl who rocks combat boots.”
She smirked, but he sensed her reluctance. So she was a tomboy. Didn’t bother him. Valor was the first woman he actually felt comfortable around. No need to worry what the chick would think of him if getting on his horny exploded dust all over her skin. And, seriously, what man liked sorting through ruffles and tons of makeup to get to the real woman beneath?
“Where did you plan to take me?”
He figured someplace too upscale might freak her out. Much as he wanted to treat her and show her a good time, they could do that anywhere, really. Didn’t have to be a four-star restaurant or a fancy ballroom. Of which Minneapolis didn’t have a lot to offer.
“How about the Blue Room?”
“The nightclub in St. Paul?” She shrugged, indifferent. “That’s cool. Maybe I could manage a little makeup for that place.”
“The whole place is blue, including the lights. Makeup will make you look weird. Go natural, the way I like you.”
She nodded. “Okay, but let me find something to wear. I can be ready in ten.”
“I’m going to head down to the car and give Blade a call. Ask him about entering the Darkwood by his place tomorrow. I’ll wait for you outside?”
“Yep.”