Chapter 22
Chapter Twenty-Two
Still six years ago…
Bad plan to arrive at the mage’s house uninvited. Even worse, the nine tequila shots Evie drank an hour ago, which were intended to drown out the hormones pounding through her body, had done little more than lower her already minimal inhibitions.
A wave of lust at the mere thought of Dom compressed her middle with a wave of longing to the point she almost fell to her knees, but she’d never do that.
As a tough-ass lycan who still took occasional hit contracts when the Madonna gave her the go-ahead, she would control this hormonal overload.
However, the full moon about to crest in the sky posed a big problem.
Standing on his doorstep, finger outstretched toward the doorbell of his fairytale-esque stone chateau in the middle of acres of unused farmland south of Krakow, she didn’t push it. The house was a newer property for him. She’d found the address while dream walking last night.
She should be strong enough to drug herself into oblivion and wake up a day from now. Then this painful drive for sex would be done. I don’t need him.
I can’t resist him.
Bitter wind whipped up her skirt and shifted the fabric against the bare skin of her legs.
She’d chosen not to wear leggings. The mere touch of anything to her skin, even the dress, hurt with the heat hormones spiking everything to super sensitive levels.
Tight leggings made the drive to mate twenty times worse.
She caught the skirt against the wind, not that she cared if she flashed her nakedness to the world.
Go back to the rental car. Drive the mile down the dirt road back to the highway.
The door flew open.
Too late.
With a start, she stepped back and blinked up at him.
She drank in the sight of his wild blue eyes, olive-skinned features, and the hard, tall body hidden from view by a dark kimono.
He only wore the cover when practicing an ancient martial art she couldn’t pronounce, doing the silent, fluid motions that kept his body honed for battle.
This is why she was here. To see him…feel him.
He pulled at strands of his thick, dark hair that the wind thrust into his face. “Do you plan to stand out here like a drunken siren or ring the bell?”
“I can’t get drunk.”
If she weren’t desperate to see him, she’d punch him for the judgmental thinning of his lips.
“I can smell the alcohol.” He crossed his arms.
She glared. “Five fucking weeks of no communication. No replies to my phone calls or texts. I thought you were dead.”
“I was ignoring you.”
“On purpose. What the hell?”
He blinked back, unintimidated. That alone turned her on. Everyone else in her sphere wouldn’t dare challenge her. “I have things in my life that don’t concern you.”
She craned back as if he slapped her. “There’s someone else?”
“I have complications in my life. That doesn’t mean I’m off fucking my way across the world.” His arms dropped. “You’re not going to say ‘I missed you’? Not even a ‘you’re so sexy I couldn’t stay away’?”
As if his ego needed stroking. “You’re the one who missed me, it seems.” She leaned forward to touch the pulsating vein in his throat beneath the tattooed sigils. She dragged a finger through several days of stubble growth to bracket his chin and force him to meet her gaze.
He sucked in a startled breath but didn’t back away.
His black hair had grown, as if he hadn’t taken time to get it trimmed, and it now curled above his shoulders like a pirate’s.
Everything about him, unyielding and powerful, called to her need to demonstrate that while he may profess he was powerful enough to terrify most other creatures in the world, he would yield to her. She held that power over him.
His jaw clenched. As always, he maintained a tight leash on his emotions, which annoyed her.
Through clenched teeth, she said, “Your ‘my way or nothing’ doesn’t work for us. If you can’t learn to compromise, or at least communicate with me, you lose.”
“You being here in those red heels means you’re going to accept my way.”
She squinted a silent fuck you and turned around. She marched down the stone walkway toward the car. Her high heels clicked on the stones, and her skirt blew wildly in the wind.
As she reached for the doorhandle of the black sedan, he caught her arm. “Evie…” He pressed her body into the side of the car. Every touch of his hardness against her backside sent chills through her. She bit back a moan.
His voice lowered to a hoarse whisper. “I missed you too bloody much.” He buried his nose in the side of her neck. “Is that what you want to hear?”
“Didn’t seem to hurt enough for you to visit me, did it?”
He dropped to rest his head against hers. This was the closest to an I’m sorry as she’d get.
She turned and bunched her hands at her sides. “We’re too old for bullshit. The last thing I wanted was the complication of needing you, but sometimes… Damn it, Dom, sometimes I need words. Fucking words. I refuse to be alone in feeling obsessed and in love with you.”
His jaw tightened.
“Evie…” He pulled her into him. His lips captured hers. It wasn’t a gentle or easy kiss. It was rough and demanding as he enfolded her tight to his body. “I’m going to make you beg for it.”
“Are you? It’ll be you doing the begging.”
“You’re a witchy wolf, you know.” He carried her into the house and slammed the door behind him.
“Don’t call me a wolf.”
“It’s sexy when you go feral.” He nuzzled her neck.
She shouldn’t do this. Not during a full moon while in heat.
She should tell him about the hormonal craze.
Hell, she shouldn’t be here. But she was so old it was virtually impossible for her to get pregnant.
She’d gotten her kids free of the curse that bound them to the monarch a few weeks ago.
Now that they were sorted, she wanted to be able to focus on what lay between her and Dom and talk about the future.
Right now, she needed relief from the only being who could give it to her the way she needed it. She needed Dom for this one night.
He threw her onto his unmade bed. Odd for him to have anything disheveled in his house. He hated chaos. She shuddered at the intensity vibrating through him as his gaze raked her body. Her skirt had ridden up on her legs, and she slid her fingers over the bare folds between her legs.
Dom groaned. How she loved that sound. His eyes went wild as he went on his knees and pulled her to the edge of the bed. With his large fingers, he caressed the divide where she was throbbing and swollen. He put his lips on her.
Within moments, the finesse of his tongue was too much. She needed him inside her. She sat up and undid the tie at his waist holding the black wrap around his body. “I dare you to fuck me like you mean it.”
He parted her thighs to step in between them, but before he moved, he said hoarsely, “I always mean it.”
He pulsed into her, filling her in rapid, hard strokes that answered the call deep inside her. White-hot sensation rippled through her, more intense than any other time with him.
He moaned. “Gods…Evie.”
“You missed this.”
“You missed me.” A sardonic smile twisted his lips. “You’ll always miss me.”
“Wouldn’t be here if I didn’t.”
As her body charged toward the high she sought, he gripped her chin to force eye contact.
The look on his face brought tears to her eyes.
To have someone look at her with such passion, as if she was the center of his world, was humbling.
“Say my name, Evie. I want to hear you know this is me. That you’re mine. You won’t come until you do.”
She traced the patterns etched into the skin of his neck and shoulders. “Dom. My Domini.”
He stroked deep inside her. Maybe he shot some magic into the caress. Her core clenched, poised for his permission to detonate.
She clenched her teeth. “You’re mine just as much as I’m yours.”
“That’s my Evie. Fight me. Earn it.”
She brought her knees up to dig her heels into the mattress, opening her legs wider, straining for the pleasure. Her hips thrust in time with his.
“Gods, yes, Evie. Show me how high you can fly.”
The climax hit her like a lightning strike, so strong she almost blacked out from pleasure.
He pounded into her hard as he came apart.
White light, warming and healing, bathed them both.
The energy came from within him. She’d asked him about it once.
He denied it. He didn’t realize it happened, and that it healed him—both his body and soul.
He needed her, even if he wouldn’t admit it.
He pulled her into him and whispered words in her ear in an ancient language she intuitively understood. “Always you.”
“Always,” she whispered.
Eight hours later
“Evie.” Dom’s voice was thick. His eyes were hollow, tormented. “I wish…” He gulped hard, swallowing the emotion on his face. He rarely showed this much of his feelings, and it raised a red-alert warning in her mind.
She mustered the energy to shake her head, which was hard since they’d gone at each other for hours. Words came out in a hoarse rasp. “Whatever you’re about to say, don’t. Let’s just…be.”
He framed her face with his large hands. “Listen to me very closely. This is not my choice, but they’ve given me no option. I delayed seeing you for weeks. I don’t want to…but they’ve given me an ultimatum.”
“What’s going on?” When he got serious about “them,” it meant the ones who’d threatened and imprisoned him. The Conclave.
“They know about you. They’ve threatened you and the boys and Efrem.
I don’t have a lot of time.” He covered his face with a hand, something he never did.
“I have to cast this spell. It’s going to break us apart in an unforgivable, awful way.
” He kissed each cheek, her nose, and her mouth.
“I swear to you, I will find a way to reverse it once they’re not a threat to you and our family. ”
“Our family?” she whispered.