Seventeen
Gareth
Riley was getting in his head. Dredging up the memories of his past would do that, though.
But I needed him here and present with me, so he could have a little piece of happiness after all that had been done to him.
He needed to know that good times were ahead for us once we got rid of the blight that was his stepfather.
“You know that it wasn’t just stealing. Boyce… he controlled me. He used me like a puppet and then tortured me if I dared to speak back.”
I turned Riley’s face toward mine. The shadows in his eyes spoke of how deep his hurt ran.
My mate had been battered and bruised from another’s magic.
He may never fully heal from it, but at least he knew he was safe from me.
My magic would only ever be used to shield him.
I pressed a feather-light kiss to his lips.
“I know. That’s enough for today, sweetheart.
You don’t need to tell me everything all at once.
I’ll always listen, but this won’t do you any good. ”
He sighed and rested his forehead against mine. “You’re right. It’s just so hard to let it go.”
Cupping his jaw, I kissed him again, deeper this time, sucking his tongue into my mouth, and nibbling on his lip. I broke away to ask, “Ready for bed?”
In a flash, he shifted, and a mouse scurried down the sofa to the floor from the heaped pile of his clothing. He shifted back as he got to his bedroom door, giving me a great view of his bare ass. “Your turn to top!” His lascivious grin had me charging to follow him.
Laid out on the bed, still smirking, Riley looked like all my dreams come true.
His skin still held the glow of a summer tan.
Naked, I could see where he’d worn shorts, the paler skin still stark.
With his olive-toned skin, he had a fine layer of dark body hair all over.
He had a trim waist with long limbs and wide shoulders.
In my haste to be naked with him, I tossed my clothes into a distant corner of the room. I couldn’t believe after our rocky start that he was willing to be with me like this, so I didn’t want to take any opportunity for granted.
I crawled onto the bed and held myself over him, my arms shaking a little. What? So I wasn’t athletic. I was an academic. I didn’t have shifter strength either.
Riley laughed and tapped my arm. “Let me up.” I moved away and slumped onto the other pillow. He straddled me, leaned down, and kissed me. “Much better.”
We made out for a while. I enjoyed the feeling of Riley surrounding me. My arousal was simmering underneath my skin. Just one touch would set me aflame.
Neither of us had the patience to drag it out. The touches started exploratory, then I concentrated on opening him up for me. He groaned so beautifully, tossing his head back when he came down on my cock.
Riley rocked, rose and fell, working us slowly higher and higher. My magic reached for him, not touching him, just surrounding us in a cocoon.
Unable to keep my hands in one place, I let them wander as I allowed myself to feel him. The solid heat around me, muscles clenching. I was ruined for all others.
“Touch my cock, please,” he begged in a whisper. “So close!”
Wrapping a hand around this thick cock, I stroked in time with his movements, which became jerky and rough. Sweat ran down his chest. I leaned forward to lick at it and laid a nip to his collarbone.
With a cry, Riley came, squeezing so tightly around me that I yelled in surprise. He slumped against me for a moment, my release just out of reach.
He eased off me and reached for my dick. His movements were sure as he worked me. He kissed my chest and licked my nipple. He sucked then bit as he twisted his fingers over the head of my cock. I came in spurts over his hand and my stomach, my vision blacking out.
Thrashing woke me in the night. Riley was having a nightmare. I heard him cry out, “No!” and “Don’t!” In a quieter voice, he begged, “I don’t want this, stop.” What had my mate’s stepfather done to him?
Talking through his memories must have stirred everything up, and now that the door was open, Riley’s dreams were a battleground.
While I wanted to use my magic to soothe him, Riley wasn’t awake to consent to it.
For far too long, magic had been used on him without his permission.
All I could do was pull him into my arms and whisper to him, “I’m here, you’re safe.
” After some time, it worked, and Riley fell into a deeper sleep.
It took me a long time to drift off once more.
At first, I thought another nightmare had woken me, but beside me, Riley slept peacefully, having rolled away from me in the hours since his bad dream.
It took me a moment to realize what was wrong: Riley’s cabin was ice cold again.
He couldn’t keep living like this. I had to convince him to move in with me, or to move somewhere that was better for him.
It took a lot for regular shifters to get sick, and I assumed it would be the same for a metamorph like Riley, but the constant freezing temperatures were sure to do it.
I tried heating the room with some of my magic.
With a thought, I had heat traveling over my body.
Riley was still sleeping, even though he looked a little blue.
Goosebumps covered his skin. I tried sending the heat to wash over him, but nothing happened.
I expected him to react in some way. Either he would relax his hold around the comforter, or the chill would fade from his body.
Nothing. I tried warming my hands, concentrating the magic on them, and then attempted to touch his shoulder. There was a barrier.
My magic, good or bad, couldn’t touch him!
Shaking off the magic, I got out of bed, making sure that Riley was covered properly first. I went to the boiler and got it going before heating some water to make coffee, knowing his feelings about leaf water.
When it was ready, I returned to the bedroom and roused Riley with a gentle kiss.
He opened bleary eyes and smiled as they landed on me.
“Morning,” he mumbled before stretching.
“Morning.” The worry in my tone must have alerted him that something was wrong. He straightened, pulling the comforter higher.
He accepted the mug with a small, “Thanks,” and lifted an eyebrow in question.
“I can’t use magic on you,” I said plainly. Getting it out in the open before it could fester inside me. What this meant for our relationship was terrifying. Would Riley still accept me if I was of no use to him?
He shrugged and took a sip of his tea. “Yeah, so? That’s why I’m here. You’re safe.”
While I knew what he meant, it still rankled. I wasn’t a danger to Riley because I wasn’t an abusive jerk. I didn’t use my magic for my own gain on anyone. “No, Riley. Not just to harm. I couldn’t warm you up earlier. I don’t know if I can do any magic on you at all.”
Now he was alert. He set the mug down carefully and considered his words before he spoke. “What does that mean?”
“I don’t know. What if I can’t touch the curse?”
Silence stretched between us while we thought about this. “Try something else. Try just sending some magic into me to check the curse.” Riley looked as if he was bracing himself for something horrendous, not just a scan. I suppose, though, it was just as scary for him to let me do that.
He looked so vulnerable that I almost didn’t try it. Yet dragging this out, the not knowing was going to suck, and not in the good way. “Okay, just give me your hand. I need a point of contact.”
With his hand in mine, I sent the magic into him. I could sense the curse. A dark, oily sludge that had worked its way all through him. “I can see it.”
“Try, I dunno, breaking it. Whatever you normally do with curses.”
I knew some of it from theory, but had only ever broken simple curses that had been for training. First, I started trying to unbind it. “No, it’s not moving,” I whispered, as if quiet delivery would make the news easier to bear.
Riley’s voice broke. “Try something else. Please, Gar.”
Again, I sent the magic in, searching and unwinding. As soon as it looked like I could touch it, the curse would slip away from me.
“I can’t, Riley. My magic can’t touch you or the curse.”
“There are other warlocks in town, aren’t there?” I could see Riley struggling to put a brave face on it. His pain made me want to crawl into a ball and sob.
I gave up resisting my urges and pulled him into my arms, holding him tightly as he held in his tears.
“Somehow, I’ll fix this. You’ll stay here with me until we can track down another way of breaking the curse.
You can get Pax to come here. Maybe if I can break his curse, we can show another warlock how to break yours.
We can do this.” I didn’t know who I was trying to convince.
I think we had both been banking on me breaking the curse so we could get on with our lives. So Riley could recover.
“What do we do now?” Riley asked against my neck.
“Well, we move you out of here because you’re going to freeze to death otherwise. More snow is on the way and it’s only going to get colder.”
Riley pulled away. “I, uh…”
“I’m not asking you to move in with me.” It was impossible not to hear the lie. Riley belonged next to me. I had a house. Asking him would be demanding more than he could give, though.
“You aren’t?” He did that head tilt thing that I thought was really cute.
“Well, I wouldn’t mind, but if you aren’t ready, that’s fine. We can ask if there’s anywhere else you can stay. Even another cabin while they get this one fixed up.”
He played with my hand, brushing his fingers over mine.
He looked slightly relieved, which shouldn’t have hurt as much as it did.
We had jumped into the physical side of our mating without really discussing anything.
Riley was right to take some space, even with how little time we had.
I’d just have to make sure I had some way of finding him if we didn’t break it in time.