Chapter Nineteen

All week Garen had anticipated this moment. Touching Melody was too much of a burden when he didn’t dare bring her close, knowing that she would have to wait days for Skye’s reprieve. But today he could without feeling guilty about his own craving. Today he could bring her to the very precipice and leave, simply satisfied with imagining how she looked when she tumbled over.

A small pang of regret spiked in his chest. Skye was worthy of her—Garen couldn’t deny that. Yet he wished he could have been with her fully, just once, to share their energy the way she’d shared Skye’s, and to see her infused with his energy the way she’d been with Skye’s the week before. But the beginnings of the bond with him couldn’t be encouraged if she was to be Skye’s mate. He knew his purpose and tasting her essence again was out of the question, no matter how much Skye requested that Garen help her rebel against him and her contract to try to break her bond with Kol.

Her eyes were bright with excitement as Garen walked toward her. She’d turned her barstool around and waited, her aura pulsing alluringly, still bright from the arousal of whatever she’d been dreaming before she woke up.

How to begin today? He’d had all week to plan, but knew he wanted it to be different than the last time. Sweeter than last time, but he wasn’t sure if he could top that. He decided to try something new.

“Why did you stop?” Melody asked when he paused a couple feet away from her and stood with his hands clasped behind his back. He’d given up trying to conceal his erections from her—they happened periodically and she was gracious enough to ignore them, but today he hoped she wouldn’t.

“It’s your call how today goes. Tell me what you’d like first.”

“Come here,” she said without a pause. So he walked forward and stood just in front of her, looking down into her eyes. He could almost hear her heart pounding, her energy pulsing with each beat.

“Undress me,” she said in a breathless whisper.

Garen took his time, lifting her camisole over her head slowly, making sure to let his fingertips graze along her sides and up the undersides of her arms as he moved. He tossed the garment aside and slid his palms down her sides again, sliding his thumbs over her nipples as he moved. She leaned against the back of the barstool with a sigh and wrapped her lower legs around the backs of his thighs, pulling him closer.

Sweet Mother, today would be a test for him, but he was determined to enjoy every second he could, including encouraging her to do more than be a passive participant. The more he tested her resolve, the better.

He hooked his fingers in the elastic waist of her pajama bottoms and tugged. She lifted her hips to let him pull them off, reaching up to grip his arms for stability. When she was fully naked he paused with his hands resting on her thighs.

“What now?” he asked.

Her brow furrowed. “I can ask for anything?”

“Within reason, but yes. I want to know what turns you on the most.”

“Everything you did the other day,” she said.

“Anything in particular?”

She licked her lips, considering, as her eyes raked down his torso and lingered at his crotch. Then she reached out and grabbed the front of his shirt, tugging him toward her. Her legs went back around his hips, pulling him tight enough for him to feel her heat through the front of his pants.

“Just … kiss me,” she said, one hand grasping at the back of his neck and urging him down.

Her mouth was sweet and soft beneath his, and tasted faintly of melon. He tasted her gently, letting his lips slide over hers and his tongue tease between. She seemed to want more, pressing forward, but he held back, curious to see how much she would press her desires without his input or instruction urging her on. Would this be enough to finally rid her of Kol’s bond?

Skye would be the one to judge the progress, since he was the only one who had access to her deeper emotions. All Garen could do was try his best and hope she didn’t drive him mad with lust in the process.

~Too late for that,~ he thought.

Melody slid her hand up under his shirt, fingertips teasing over the contours of his muscles. He let out a soft grunt against her lips when her other hand slipped down inside the front of his low-slung sweatpants and gripped his cock in a tight fist. He nearly jerked back, his fear of going too far with her overwhelming him, but fuck it felt too good to be touched by her this way.

He opened his eyes for a second to see how her aura looked. She had a look of grave determination on her face that alarmed him a little, but her aura was still safely pale gold. He tilted his hips into her stroking hand.

“Is this okay?” she asked. “I know how crazy it makes me to be turned on and not be able to finish when I want.”

“Mmm, you can do whatever you wish today. I can’t finish, and I won’t let you, so we’re safe.”

“Safe making each other miserable until he decides to fuck us, right? Is he finishing you off, too, or did I steal him from you?” The bitterness in her tone wasn’t lost on him.

“We didn’t have an agreement for more secrets today,” he said, his stomach heaving against the hand she’d left resting against his torso under his shirt. He hastily tugged the garment over his head and bent to kiss her again before she could protest.

~Did I steal him from you?~ The question hung in his mind while he continued kissing her and touching every smooth inch of her body he could reach. Her assessment was not wrong. Skye was no longer coming to him for relief, and had stopped offering to satisfy his needs in between. Yet Garen didn’t regret a second of that lost time. Melody might only be his like this for a few hours, but she was his in other ways in between, and he wouldn’t exchange his time with her for anything, even the chance to find release.

His balls still ached ferociously after being near her, but an infusion of magic from another willing human usually helped the pain subside enough to keep it from being distracting. He would absolutely need to find someone tonight.

More distracting was the feel of her warm skin sliding along the length of his shaft when she tugged his pants down over his hips and released his cock. What the hell was she about?

When she aimed his swollen tip at the wet heat between her legs he groaned into her ear. “What are you doing, Melody?”

“You said yourself—” she said, pausing with a deep sigh as she rubbed him up and down along the length of her slit. “—you can’t finish, and you won’t let me, so we’re not hurting anything by having a little fun, right?”

Her thighs clamped around his hips and she shifted toward him, pressing him deeper. He tilted back, but her grip prevented him from moving.

“This is a bad idea,” he said. “I can’t finish, but that doesn’t keep me from trying.”

“Are you saying you won’t be able to stop fucking me once you start?”

“Yeah, and you might come. And I might hurt you, because I want it badly enough to keep going.”

“What happened to that amazing self-control you keep pretending to have?” she asked, smiling at him mischievously. “Just let me feel you once. You got to have a little taste of me when you shouldn’t have. Since we’re apparently not going to stop breaking the rules, let me have this. The thing that matters most to Skye is that I save my orgasms for him.”

“Yes, and that means you can’t have one ~with me. ~Not again. You’re going to be his at the end of all this.”

“Oh, give me a break, Garen. I’m not trying to. I just want to ~feel~ you. To know how perfectly you would fill me, if we ever could. Why won’t you let me have just a little?”

Why, indeed? He was at a loss to find an answer and his body was apparently betraying him when, in spite of his wishes to the contrary, his hips slowly sank toward hers and her slick heat enveloped him by slow increments. He looked down between them, staring as though somehow his mind was stripped from his body and he could only watch. The sight itself would have been mesmerizing no matter what. Her beautiful, pink petal-like lips spread wide, accepting his thick girth. The swollen nub of her clit glistened just at the apex of where they were joined.

“Sweet Mother …” he whispered, willing himself to stop but unable to. He kept going, ever deeper until he was seated completely in her, his entire length engulfed and his sensitive tip pressed against the deepest part of her.

She whimpered, and her clutching hands pressed flat against his chest, now pushing instead of pulling. “Oh, Jesus, you feel too good,” she said. “You’re right. You need to stop. God, if you move, I might …”

“Don’t move,” he groaned, closing his eyes and enjoying the squeeze of her flesh around him. He didn’t want to leave her yet, but didn’t want to jeopardize her bond with Skye. Only one thing could calm her and he just hoped his breath wouldn’t do just as much to dilute Skye’s energy in her. He would try anything to keep her this close for just another moment of the sheer bliss of being entirely enveloped in her.

He pressed his lips on hers again, plunged his tongue in forcefully to open her mouth to his breath. She moaned against him, her aura a tingling cloud of energy surrounding him, but she inhaled without having to be asked. His calming breath seeped through her quickly. Its effects would behave like a drug, leaving her euphoric at the same time as it eased her need.

“Better?” he asked when he pulled away, still leaving his cock buried inside her. He hesitated to move, as much for fear of crossing the line with her again as for an unbearable desire to simply stay right there forever.

“Hmm,” she said, fluttering her eyelids up at him, her gaze hazy and content. “How do you do that?”

With regret, he pulled slowly back, laughing when she dug her heels into his ass right before he slipped out of her entirely. “Too big a risk.”

She giggled. “You drugged me, didn’t you? With your sweet breath. That ~has~ to be against the rules. Too big a risk sounds like you’re afraid to get me pregnant.” She frowned then, her foggy gaze cleared. Dropping her legs and closing her thighs abruptly. “Oh … oh shit.”

“What is it?” he asked, concerned.

“I forgot to take my pills this week. Fuck! So, so stupid!”

She moved to get up but he grabbed her by the shoulders. “Stop. It’s all right. You don’t need to worry about that.”

“What the hell? Of course I need to worry about it! Do you have any idea why I signed the contract to start with? To have a fucking ~life~. Not to have a kid! I ruined my mother’s life because she had to stay in that backwards town to make sure I had a stable childhood, when what she really wanted was to see the world. I can’t risk getting pregnant!” Melody pushed at his chest and he stepped back, watching as she darted naked up to her room.

His breath had done its job on her body, but apparently had failed to have any influence on her mind. If she were any normal human woman she should have been happy and oblivious, if a little bit goofy for a good hour or more after being introduced to his calming breath. Either Alec’s blessing was counteracting his influence or her own will had overcome both.

With little else to do, Garen tucked his cock back into his pants and followed her. He found her in her bathroom, digging through the small handbag that had been the only belongings he’d allowed her to carry with her. Her other things were still in the process of being packed, but wouldn’t arrive until the following week. She’d surprised him with her relative adaptability to the new situation—more evidence of the blessing at work.

“You don’t need those, Melody. I mean it.”

“Just because you don’t come in me doesn’t mean it’s safe. And I’m fucking ~full~ of Skye’s … sperm. Shit!” She stared at the ceiling, tapping her fingers in succession against each other. “It’s been five days since I came here. The night before I met you was the last time I took one.”

Her distress was becoming almost comical to watch and he was tempted to see how far she would go, but couldn’t bring himself to let her continue.

“Melody!” he said, letting his voice fill with the resonance of his energy. The sound reverberated around the room and finally made her pause and turn to stare at him. “I have another secret to tell you, if you’ll stop long enough to listen.”

She blinked and nodded, sitting down hard on top of the toilet lid.

“You can’t get pregnant just by having sex with us. The circumstances under which that can happen have to be absolutely ideal for both parties. It definitely won’t happen before you know what we are.”

“Huh,” she said, the information sinking in. “Not ever?”

“Not unless both parties want it enough, ~after~ you’ve learned our true nature. This is how we’re sure the man your mother was with when you were born is not your father. He wouldn’t have impregnated your mother without her knowing what he was.”

“Oh, sweet Jesus,” she said, throwing her head back and laughing. “You mean I don’t need those damn pills anymore? Ever?”

“Well, as long as you’re with us, you won’t,” he said. ~Never again, if I have any say.~ Something she’d said just a moment earlier sank in, however. “Do you really never want children?” he asked.

“I do, but not for a while. My mom was pretty young when she had me, and was pretty much alone with very little resources after Daddy left us.”

“He didn’t leave her anything?” Garen asked, though he knew the answer to that. Alec had had a fortune hidden in some cache somewhere in the world, but apparently hadn’t given Melody’s mother access to it. And he’d indeed left something for Melody, too. Something powerful that was as much a blessing as it was a curse. They wouldn’t know the true nature of what his blessing meant until she was mated to one of them. ~Mated to Skye~, he corrected.

“Nothing but a broken heart, and me.” She frowned. “Not me after all, I guess. I hope all of you guys aren’t like that.”

“We aren’t, and I don’t believe he was like that, either. Your mother would have died, had she been in a position to know what he was. The knowledge comes at a price, so he chose the alternative to let her live and raise you. I have no doubt that he loved you both.” Garen’s only doubts were why Alec had failed to leave his wealth to Melody and her mother. Until Kol tracked it down, they wouldn’t know.

She heaved a sigh and stood, shaking her head and tossing her handbag onto the bathroom counter. “You guys are exhausting. Even old memories of men like you wear me down.” She walked to the sunken tub and nudged the hot water lever with her foot.

“We can be a challenge, I grant you that,” he said. “But if you give us a chance, we’re worth it.”

She let out a soft snort. “I’m beginning to wonder. You keep saying I’m going to be Skye’s, but after the other day, I worry all he’s good for is making me come. Maybe it would be better if I just see the contract through, get my money, and don’t look back. Leave your ~nature~ a mystery and move on. Then Skye won’t have to worry about my trust at all.”

“That’s one option,” Garen said, frowning. Maybe she was right, but the idea of losing her caused a tight knot to form in his belly. If she came to the end of the contract and still felt that way, he’d have to try to change her mind. Damn Skye for making this more challenging for her than necessary. His ultimatum wasn’t having the effect he’d probably hoped for.

She turned and gave him a small smile. “Well, until I decide, I might as well enjoy myself. I think a bath is safe enough for us. Join me?”