The Light of Shadoewynne: Book 2 of the Shadoewynne Series Page 5

  It was dark due to the overcast skies when I woke up an hour or so later, and a light dusting of snow covered everything outside. It looked like the temperature had dropped, and a winter storm was coming in. I went searching for any of the guys I could find. I eventually found Travis and David in the man-cave watching Terminator. They were quoting the lines along with Arnold, with the worst fake accents possible, and cracking up at each other. I stopped in the door and watched them. The way they were acting was cute. I haven’t gotten to see this side of them. After a minute, David turned and winked at me. Busted. I wonder how long he knew I was there?

  Travis turned and blew a kiss at me. I laughed softly and went to them. They made a space, so I sat between them. We watched the rest of the movie, and I joined in with my best impression as well. We were laughing so hard we didn’t hear the movie for most of it. It was exactly the afternoon I had needed.

  Shortly after the movie ended, Sarah called us for dinner. I wasn’t hungry, but I followed them into the dining room anyway. Again, it smelled like Sarah had made a wonderful meal. I was starting to feel like a freeloader, since I wasn’t pulling my weight. After resolving to talk to Sarah after dinner, I sat down between David and Kait. They both looked at me with concern in their eyes. I waved my hand at them. “I’m fine, guys. What’s for dinner?”

  David stared at me a minute before he shrugged. “I just show up to eat. I don’t know what’s for dinner.” He looked at Kait, who also shrugged.

  Sarah came in the room with her hands full. She put a plate piled high with steaks on the table as well as a casserole dish of homemade macaroni and cheese. Travis followed close behind her with a basket of rolls and the condiments. They set everything on the table and sat down. “Dig in, everybody!” Sarah waited for everyone to get a plate before she helped herself. Kait took the opportunity to lecture us on strategies to work as a team and defend against multiple attackers.

  “David and I are mind readers. We need to leverage that ability to synchronize our attacks. This will increase our chances of success and decrease the chance of serious injury. I propose one of us, most likely me, will act as a hub of sorts, taking everyone’s thoughts and broadcasting them to the team.”

  I turned red. “All thoughts?”

  He smiled. “Yes. In a battle situation, I can’t be sorting through them to decide what everyone should hear. I already share much of what I hear with Travis. It’s not fair to him if I don’t.”

  “I understand, but I don’t always want you in my head and sharing everything. I deserve some privacy!”

  “Yes, you do. Work on your block.” He just stared at me, and when I stared back, he sighed. “I understand why you feel that way, but I can’t just turn off my powers. If you don’t want me in your head, block me. That is the only way to stop it. I will warn you, though, as our relationship progresses, as we become closer to each other, it will be harder for you to keep us out. Trust naturally weakens mental barriers, and so does love.”

  I decided to ignore the last part of his comment as I crossed my arms over my chest while focusing on building the wall. I arched an eyebrow at him. “There. Can you hear me now?”

  “No. But you need to learn to keep it up. Eventually, even while you sleep. We also need to work on selective blocks. And this is for everyone. Planning and strategizing in our heads during battle doesn’t do us any good if the enemy can pick up on it as well.”

  I gawked at him. I think my mouth was physically hanging open. “What? How do I do that? So, I would block from say, David, but not from you?”

  “Exactly. When you build the wall, you have to keep in mind that you only want David and me to hear you. The rest should come instinctively.”

  That made no sense, so I switched topics. “What did you tell the Svikari?”

  “I told them we would be willing to meet, and I will let them know the location an hour before the meeting time, which I set up for Friday at 6 pm. That will give us the afternoon to secure the location and you won’t have to miss classes.”

  I nodded. “Alright. Have you set up the dinner with Alarr yet?”

  “Yes. That is all arranged, too. I would like you to wear the knife-proof clothes and have several sets of protective spells on you as well.”

  “Okay. Is it going to be Monday night?”

  “Yes. Work on your barriers tonight and tomorrow. We will do more training tomorrow, as well.” Kait was firm.

  “Alright.” He gave me a look that said he didn’t believe my easy agreement. I raised my eyebrows at him, and said, “What? I don’t usually argue with you that much. Why are you looking at me like that?”

  He shrugged. “Just because, Princess.”

  Travis had been quiet, but he finally spoke up. “Does anyone know what the weather is supposed to be tomorrow?”

  “According to the app on the phone, we should get about an inch of snow tonight, and tomorrow will be in the fifties.”

  Travis snorted. “Gotta love the Midwest’s weather.”

  “Why? Is there something you want to do tomorrow?” Kait was almost glaring at Travis.

  “I was hoping we could hike some more. I have more spots I want to show Evalia.”

  “Okay. We will make time for that.” Kait sounded resigned. I wanted to figure out why he sounded like that, but he got up and started clearing the table. I stood to help him gathering the dirty plates. We walked into the kitchen. After we put our dishes in the sink, I grabbed Kait’s arm.

  “Wanna tell me what’s wrong?” I marched around him so he was facing me.

  He looked away. “There’s nothing wrong, Princess. Why do you think there is?”

  “You sounded funny when Travis mentioned hiking. Why don’t you want us to go?”

  He stood up straight, and advanced on me. I backed up until the kitchen wall stopped me. He leaned in, until his lips were brushing my ear. Whispering, he said, “Maybe I was hoping for some alone time with you tomorrow. Maybe there’s something they have experienced with you that I desperately want.”

  My heart skipped a beat, and something low in my stomach warmed. I fidgeted. His head dipped lower, and his lips brushed my neck. I stifled a gasp as that tingle shot throughout my body. He slowly put his hands on the wall behind me, effectively trapping me, yet I didn’t feel confined. His gaze dipped to my lips, then back up to my eyes, as he slowly leaned in. It was all confusing, since he was making all the moves, but I knew, without a doubt, that I was in charge. He closed the last few inches to claim my mouth. It wasn’t a slow kiss like the ones I had shared with David and Travis. This was fast, and hot, and it brought a moan from me as I wrapped my arms around his neck. His hand tangled in my hair and guided my head to the angle he wanted. When he picked me up, I reacted without thinking, wrapping my legs around his waist. He deepened the kiss further and hungrily explored my mouth. His arms tightened around me, rubbing my core against his hardness. I moaned against him, and my hips moved on their own, looking for release from the pressure that was building in me. He abruptly set me on my feet and stepped away after running a finger down my cheek.

  We were both breathing hard, but now I was more confused than ever. Why did he stop? He refused to look at me as he hurried out of the room. What the hell? I am ashamed to admit, it took more than a few minutes for me to gather myself to go back in the other room. When I opened the kitchen door, I heard angry voices farther in the house, followed by a slamming door. I rubbed my eyes. Now what?

  No one was in the dining room, but Kait walked back in a second after the door slammed. I just raised an eyebrow at him. There was no need to vocalize my question. He just shook his head and said “Later.” He was still avoiding eye contact as he finished clearing the table. I held the door for him to bring it all into the kitchen, then I washed the dishes and put them in the dishwasher. Kait bustled around the kitchen, cleaning up the mess from making dinner, while I worked. He never said a word, so I didn’t either. Two could play this game.

&nbs
p; Eventually, he sighed, and came up behind me, putting his arms around me as he did. “I didn’t want to leave you right then.” He placed small kisses on my neck as he said that.

  “Uh huh.” I tried to hide my reaction to the kisses, but I’m not sure I was able to.

  He chuckled against my neck, which did funny things to my stomach. “What, you don’t believe me?”

  I sighed. “No, I don’t.”

  He started moving down my shoulder with the kisses, and an occasional light nip. I couldn’t think. This needed to stop. I pushed him away.

  “You know exactly what I thought, and you know exactly what you are doing to me right now. You need to stop distracting me and tell me what caused you to run out like that.”

  His hot gaze seemed to devour me, and I could almost feel his hands on me. It slowly occurred to me that he was projecting what he wanted to do. “Stop, Kait. Answer my question.” I tried to make my voice firm, but it came out breathy.

  “Fine. David was having problems with your reaction to me and was shouting at me in my head. I couldn’t focus on you anymore, so I went to deal with him.”

  My stomach dropped. “And the slamming door?” It came out as a whisper.

  “He’s going to take some time to get his head on straight.”

  “He left? Without telling me goodbye?” My heart was breaking. Kait pulled me into his arms.

  “Don’t worry, he’ll be back. He just needs to take some time.” I nodded against his shoulder. “Come on, Princess. Since David left, I’m going to take you to bed.” Despite my heartache, my body reacted to the promise in his words. He chuckled as he ran his hands down my arms, taking my hand to pull me toward my bedroom. I trembled slightly. My body and my heart really wanted some time with him, but my head was screaming all the reasons that wouldn’t be a good idea.

  Chapter 6

  When we entered the room, Kait closed the door softly behind us, and locked it. My breathing sped up as he took off his shirt. My eyes roamed over the muscled lines of his back. He put his arms over his head and stretched, then slowly turned around. I quickly turned my back to him, hiding that I was watching him and liking what I was seeing.

  “Don’t fight it, Princess.” Kait’s voice was husky again. I shook my head. I didn’t trust my voice right now, and my mouth was too dry to talk. I gathered my pajamas and left the room to change.

  When I came back in, Kait was standing by the door. He shut it and locked it again.

  “Get in bed, Princess.” He was using his authoritative voice again, and it unexpectedly caused heat to pool between my legs. He grinned while he stalked toward me. I squeaked and jumped into bed. The look in his eye promised punishment if I didn’t listen and I didn’t want to explore if I would enjoy that punishment yet.

  I laid down under the covers and stared at Kait as he slowly removed his pants, leaving only his boxer briefs that clung tightly to his body. He was enjoying watching me watch him. He climbed into bed with me, and I started to roll over, but he put a hand on my stomach to stop me. When I opened my mouth to ask why he swooped in and claimed my mouth.

  After a moment, his mouth left mine and began moving down my neck. He was alternating kisses, sucks, and little nips, which left me gasping for air. I had never felt like this before in my life. One hand tangled in the covers, and the other found its way to his hair and fisted in it. He was leaning on one arm, while the other hand roamed over my body, tweaking my nipples through the thin pajama shirt. There was a weird mewling noise coming from me that I couldn’t seem to stop. His palm settled between my legs before pressing on a sensitive spot. That stopped the mewling as I gasped.

  He pulled back a little and played with the bottom of my shirt. “Princess, I want you. But I want you to be in control. Are you comfortable with this?” That was kind of unfair. He got me all hot and bothered, then stopped to ask? He chuckled. “Do you want me to keep going?”

  Oh, I was going to combust if he didn’t. I nodded. The image he had sent me before popped into my mind, where his head was buried between my legs. I gasped, and my hips lifted just a bit off the bed. He smiled. “Tell me if you want me to stop, and I will. Okay?” I nodded again.

  He lifted my shirt to take my nipple in his mouth. I couldn’t get enough air, as tingles shot through me, all converging between my legs. His hand tweaked the other nipple. He kissed his way down my body, pushing my pants down as he did. I started to panic. Images of events before assaulted me. Was I really going to let him do this? I pushed back the memories. This was Kait, he wasn’t going to do anything I didn’t want him to do.

  He must have picked up on my mental distress because he slowed down, going back to playing with my nipples while I got the memories under control. When my breathing picked up again, it was because of what he was doing to my body and not because of panic.

  His hand roamed, lightly swirling over my stomach as he worked his way down. He sucked hard on my nipple, causing me to gasp and unconsciously buck my hips against his hand, which had made it between my legs. I moaned as the pressure of his hand caused pleasure to flair, which just caused my hips to move more. His palm pressed on the mound, as his fingers moved between my folds. One finger entered me. I froze, my breathing coming in gasps. The full feeling was familiar, but at the same time not. When this had happened before, I had not felt good like this, either physically or emotionally. I knew I was safe, that Kait would never do anything to hurt me. He chased the demons in my head away. My hips moved against his hand on their own. His finger moved out, then back in, causing my hips to pick up speed. I had stopped thinking and was just reacting to the feelings he was causing.

  Pleasure built as I moved faster and faster. His palm pressed down, causing pleasure to shoot though me as his mouth went back to my nipple, which had been perkily looking for him. I was going to explode; the feeling was building to unimaginable heights. He lightly bit my nipple, and I combusted, going to pieces. I think I called out his name. My hips slowed, as my body shook from the force of the orgasm. I had never experienced anything like that before.

  Kait laughed darkly. “I like you calling out my name like that.” He slowly pulled his finger out, causing more pleasurable spasms, then leaned in to kiss me gently.

  His words caused another tingle to go through me. I tangled my fingers in his hair again as I kissed him. He pulled me closer and deepened the kiss even more. The feeling was building again. He pulled away and lightly kissed my neck again. “Oh, Princess, as much as I enjoyed that, you are testing my self-control with those noises you are making.” He pushed on my shoulder a little. “If you really want to wait, you need to roll over. If you’ve changed your mind, we can keep going.”

  Oh, what did I want? I knew what my body wanted, but how would I feel about it in the morning? That was the important question. I debated a moment. Kait eventually chuckled and pushed on my shoulder again.

  “If you have to think about it that hard, you’re not ready, Princess. As much as I would love you to be, I’m not going to push you into it. Roll over and we will go to sleep.”

  I kissed him once, quickly on his cheek, then turned over, putting my butt to his front. I could feel that he was still hard and without thinking, my hips rolled against him. His fingers on my hips tightened as he kissed my neck, so of course, I did it again. He moaned and moved back.

  “Princess. Stop. You are torturing me now.” The authority in his voice stopped me.

  “Sorry. I don’t know what came over me.” I was so embarrassed by my display; I couldn’t turn to look at him.

  He moved back up to me. “Don’t be embarrassed. It is natural, and obviously, I didn’t completely take care of you right. I will have to try harder the next time. Right now, though, it’s time to sleep. We have to be up early tomorrow for training.”

  I groaned. “Really? You’re going to make me get up early?”

  “Yep. Go to sleep.” He turned the light off with the remote. “Goodnight, Princess.” As I was dri
fting off, I could have sworn I heard him whisper “I love you” as he kissed my hair, but I wasn’t sure.

  What felt like minutes later, Kait was rubbing my shoulder. “Time to wake up, Princess.”

  I batted at his hand, but he just moved it and started rubbing again when I stopped waving my hand. “Ugh. Why so early, Kait? It’s not even light out!”

  “Lots to do, and little time. Travis wants some time with you today, you’ve got train, and I want to go find David. He didn’t come back home last night.”

  That woke me up quick. I sat up and stretched. “Shit. Okay, I’m up. Make sure you get something to eat before you go.”

  He glanced at me, seeming amused. “Okay.” He swooped in and kissed me senseless, not that I had many senses to begin with this early in the morning. When he finally let me up for air, he said, “You look ravishing with bed head, Princess. Especially when I know I’m the cause of some of it.”

  I looked away, feeling like my face was on fire. I didn’t know what to say to that, so I didn’t say anything. He put his finger under my chin and forced me to look at him.

  “I didn’t say that to embarrass you. You are beautiful, and I want you to know that.” This time, he kissed me tenderly, cupping my face in his hands. Eventually, he pulled back and rested his forehead on mine. “As much as I’d love to stay with you in bed all day, we’ve got things to do. Come on.”

  I groaned as I got out of bed. After quickly texting David, I gathered my things and went to the bathroom to get ready. In no time, I was braiding my hair and heading to the kitchen, which was emanating heavenly smells.

  Travis was in front of the stove, with jeans and an apron on, no shirt. It was so adorable, I had to stop and watch. He had earbuds in, and was dancing as he cooked to music that only he could hear. He flipped a pancake in the air, caught it in the pan, and spun around before he set the pan back on the stove. He slowly turned back to me, his face and neck bright red. “Uh, morning, Babe. How long have you been standing there?”