Entity Mine (16 page)

Her
man. Was he that? Her mate? Yes, there was no question about that, but would she claim him as more? No. He couldn’t hope for that. Life had taught him too well. He wasn’t the kind people loved.

Her hands reached the smooth ripples of her ribs and worries dropped away. He held his breath as the hem cleared the edge of her pink bra. There was decoration, but the garment didn’t need any, what it concealed was sexy enough. She abandoned her shirt and reached behind her to unhook the silky undergarment, eyelids half-lowered, watching his reaction. The tops of her breasts swelling over the seams gleamed pearl-like in the light, and he let out a heavy breath as the fabric fell away and her nipples came into view.

He could have inhaled her at that moment, if his eyes could keep more than her image, he would have.

She was breathing heavily, and each breath trembled through her breasts like an ocean current. She was the sea, mysterious and changeable. Her skin the inside of a conch shell, shading from rich cream to honeyed melon. Her eyes, clear and deep enough to drown in, the indescribable brown of living coral reefs.

He cupped her warm breasts in his palms, letting the silky, resilient flesh settle in his palms, the way he might cradle a passing fish while scuba-diving, fearful he might hurt her in his excitement, but she was having none of that, pressing forward so her nipples budded against his rough, hungry hands. A wave of her scent, sweet and heady swirled around him like foamy surf.

He dragged his callused skin across her nipples and her groan washed away his hesitance. She made him feel like there was nowhere he couldn’t go, nothing he couldn’t handle. Dive to the deepest chasm in the ocean? Hell, yes. Storm an enemy stronghold with only a knife? Just point him in the right direction and stand back.

He lowered her to the bed. He hadn’t been joking. It was his turn and he intended to see and taste all of her. He had no idea how he got her jeans off, but they were gone and his hands found the fragile construct of lace she called panties, sliding them down her lean thighs and off over her peach-painted toes.

The curve of her belly rose slightly in a satiny sweep over a tangle of hair the same color as her head. He had the impulse to dive head-first into that creamy expanse of skin. To pillow his cheek on her tummy and live there, just feeling the rise and fall of her breath and inhaling the fragrance that belonged only to her, but her mouth and her breasts and the bend of her neck called him.

He kissed her, and the kiss was a fall, slamming into him like gravity. That mouth, that tongue, the meeting of that which were always meant to be joined.

The feeling spiraled higher and he had to draw back to see her face, to assure himself that she felt it, too.

Her lips were red from their kiss and her eyelids hung at half-mast over shining eyes.

She smiled a little, but the smile was wondering. “What?”

He shook his head. “Nothing. Everything. Too much.”

She bit her lip and shrugged a pale shoulder. “That good?”

“That great.” He trailed his lips from under her sleek jaw to the fascinating hollow beneath her collarbone. Nibbling and sucking. Her sighs and tiny moans music in his ears. He wanted to discover her like some hidden reef, to take the time to explore the effect of a nip, a suck, a lick, on every bit of tender flesh, but the truth was the little he had done had him on the edge of bursting.

Still nothing could stop him tasting her breasts. He circled around the outside of a globe with his tongue and she shuddered. He took a spiral path until he reached the disk of her nipple. He laved thicker skin, alternating watching her face and studying the way the melon-colored button crinkled beneath his attentions.

“Ethan.” She moaned and clutched at his head, pulling him closer.

His smile was broad and he leaned down, at last engulfing the sensitive crown in his mouth.

He sucked, his gaze on her face, the feel of her nipple in his mouth making him pant to keep from going over the edge. He released her swollen and glazed nipple. He covered the nub with his hand, thumbing it, and moved his focus to her other breast, following a similar path, until she again begged for his mouth.

After torturing her other nipple to aching hardness, he slid down her body, loving the bow of each rib and the incline to the dip of her navel. He swirled his tongue around the edge, then dragged his tongue down her belly, and her body shook with a giggle.

He froze with embarrassment. Had he done something wrong?

She put her compact hand on his head. “Just a little ticklish.”

He planted a kiss on that spot and nestled his cheek in the softness of her stomach. He couldn’t live there as he wanted to, he was too close to exploding without burying himself inside her, so he settled for scraping his evening stubble against the velvety surface.

She groaned.

“Not so ticklish now?”

He lowered his face, nudging her thighs apart with his cheeks. She clutched at his head as he tasted her and he smiled, her scent all around him. He learned her preferences, varying his strokes until her breathing sighed through the room like the wind over sails, then slid a finger inside her, making her curl over him and say his name.

The plea in her voice excited him even more than her soft liquidity and he slid up, finding her mouth as he plunged forward and her body welcomed him. No dream had ever been as good as this and he moaned into her mouth. They moved together, urging each other on. Her nails scraped at his skin, the tiny pain thrilling him, spurring him faster, harder, higher. He wanted to be inside her forever, but he knew he couldn’t last. She squeezed him, crying out, and all his good intentions flooded away and he shook, the electric pleasure rocking him to his core.

He collapsed beside her and drew her into his body. She nestled her face into the curve of his shoulder, her breath sweeping his collarbone. Sleep crowded in around him, but was driven back as a horrible realization slammed through him. He’d told her she was his mate, but he hadn’t told her what that meant.

Chapter 25

Devon glanced around the breakfast table. Of the group she, Jake, who John had just retrieved, and John, looked rested. Beth and Ethan had dark shadows under their eyes. Beth, she could understand. Beth’s ordeal had terrified her, understandably so, but the origin of Ethan’s worry was a mystery.

She’d fallen asleep fast, tucked into the warm strength of Ethan’s frame. She hadn’t felt so safe and protected since before her father had died when she was ten.

She sighed into her coffee mug. Ethan glanced at her, and she smiled. She’d awakened before him and come down to make breakfast, so this was really the first time she’d seen him that day. Drinking in his muscled form while he was sleeping didn’t count.

His returning smile didn’t quite clear the clouds from his features and a weight settled in her chest. Something else was wrong, but now was not the time for a heart-to-heart. Beth needed her.

Devon turned to John. “So what’s our next step?”

John drained his coffee mug and set it down with a firm thud, his demeanor grim. “Harvey said he’d be back. I guess we’re in a holding pattern until then.”

Beth swallowed. “I wish I could call Matt, but he’d never believe any of this. I wish I didn’t.” She inhaled. “I could feel everything, but I couldn’t
do
anything.”

Devon leaned over and patted Beth’s hand. Finding it shaking dug a hole in her chest. “We’re here and we’ll get rid of it. No matter what we have to do.”

Beth tried to smile, but her chin crumpled.

Devon stood to go to her, when a sudden pain strafed through her with the force of a bullet. She stumbled to her knees. The pain of striking the floor didn’t come close to the twisting red-hot knives piercing her muscles and joints.
What was happening to her?

Terror drove her heart rate to bursting speed. She slid to the floor, rolling back and forth, desperate to find a position that would relieve the searing agony
.
She must be dying.
Surely, no one could survive this much pain.

“Devon!” Ethan knelt beside her, his face furrowed with panic. “What is it? What’s happening? Talk to me!”

But, Devon couldn’t speak. The pain was too great. So intense that the room grayed. She fought against unconsciousness.

Jake crouched next to her. He tried to touch her arm, but Ethan snarled, his handsome face twisted, his eyes electric green, and lashed out, forcing him back.

Devon wanted to reach out to Ethan, but her limbs didn’t seem to be under her control.

“Ethan!” Ky’s voice cleaved like an axe through the air. “Get control. She needs you calm.”

Beth yanked her phone from her robe pocket and started to dial. John lunged for her arm and snatched the cell away, holding it high.

“What are you doing?” Beth jumped up to try and take it. “She needs an ambulance!”

Yes
! Devon gasped, trying to speak.

But John held Beth away with his other hand. “Doctors can’t help her.”

Throwing the phone to Kyle and dismissing their struggle with the shake of his head, John leaned down, and this time Ethan let the half-demon touch her wrist.

He checked her rampaging pulse and crouched so she could see his craggy face. “Devon, your chimera genes have been triggered. I know it hurts. Just let go. Don’t fight unconsciousness.”

Devon managed to force some air into her aching lungs. “Chimera—genes?”

Jake shot a glance at Ethan. “You didn’t tell her?”

Ethan’s jaw clenched. He swept an unsteady hand over his hair. “I— My head wasn’t on straight. I’m sorry, Devon.”

“Ahh!” Despite her pain, she couldn’t help wanting to soothe him. “Just glad . . . not dying.” She looked up at Jake. “Not dying, right?”

“You’ll be fine. If you feel like passing out, go with it.”

With that, Devon let the gray rise up and cover her.

Ethan slid his arms under Devon’s limp body. She was frighteningly light. If he’d known the transformation would hit her like this, he never would have made love to her, or at least he would have made sure she knew what would happen.

Beth looked pale. She put her hands on her hips and swept them all with a glare that could singe stone. “What is going on and why won’t this, this thug let me call an ambulance.

Ethan nodded at John. “Explain it to her. I’ll try and make Devon comfortable.” A growl threaded his words, but he didn’t give a damn.

He stalked to the bedroom, his brothers following. After he had laid her on the bed, he rounded on them. His lion perilously close to the surface. “You never told me it would hurt like this.”

Ky snarled at the sudden attack, showing fang, eyes flashing gold.

“Hold it in, Ky.” Jake put a large hand on their oldest brother’s shoulder and the other on Ethan’s chest. “There was a lot going on yesterday. There’s more you don’t know.”

Ethan knocked Jake’s hand away and folded his arms. “More?”

“Devon’s pregnant.”

He reared back. “How could you know that?”

“Being around your mate switches on the chimera genes and it also makes the female fertile. Conception triggers the full change.”

When the initial shock wore off, Ethan allowed himself to imagine holding his child. To cradle a tiny, warm body—a piece of him and a piece of Devon—against his chest and feel his heartbeat. He cleared his throat. “So if she’s not pregnant and we have sex, she’ll always be fertile?”

“Mostly, but there is such a thing as birth control these days,” Jake said, his voice dry.

Ethan raised his gaze to the ceiling. “I never had to worry about that.”

“Yeah, me too.” Jake’s mouth twisted to the side. “Which is why Anjali is also pregnant.” His smile loomed large as a container ship over a tug boat.

“Congratulations!” Ethan grinned through the morass of worry and guilt warring within him. He was going to be a father. How could he be a dad? What did he know about babies or parenting? He’d never even owned a pet. What would Devon say when he told her? Would she even believe him?

A sigh rocked through his chest. “Is there anything else you forgot to tell me?”

Jake and Ky eyed each other, then Jake shook his head. “I think that’s it.”

Devon moaned softly and Ethan turned toward her. Jake squeezed Ethan’s shoulder and he and Ky pivoted to leave, when a loud pounding at the front door resounded through the large, old house.

A muffled voice sounded downstairs on the other side of the thick wooden door, but all three brothers heard it quite clearly. “Police. Open up!”

Ethan threw out his arms in disgust. “Could this get any worse?” Muttering, he ran down the stairs, his brothers close behind. The lacquered oak steps groaning and creaking under the stress of their combined weight.

In the foyer, Ethan reached for the ornate brass handle of the front door.

Just as his fingers closed around the cool, polished metal, John called from the kitchen, “Uh, I don’t know if you want to answer that. We’ve got a problem.”

“What more?” Ethan searched for answers in the plaster ceiling.

“The demonic is back.”

The painted door shook as the person outside hammered the surface with his fist. “Police! Open up!”

“Better open the door. I think that’s Matthew, Beth’s boyfriend.”

Recognizing Devon’s voice, Ethan whirled to see her standing at the top of the stairs. Her face gleamed in the light from the transom over the door, but otherwise she looked normal, her hair sweetly ruffled from bed, her usual tank top and boxer shorts hugging her small breasts and exposing a length of long sleek leg.

A wave of relief plowed over him. “You’re okay.”

She swiped a shaky hand through her coppery hair. “I guess.”

“For now.” Jake looked grim. “It comes and goes.”

“Beth!” The man on the other side of the fancy blue door hadn’t gone away. “Open up!”

Great. Ethan slid a glance over Devon and his brothers, then yanked open the door, revealing a reedy, sandy-haired police officer with eyebrows bleached almost white by the sun.

He put a hand on his holster as he saw them, those light eyebrows lowering over blue-gray eyes. “Who are you? 911 got a hang-up from this number.”

Devon came down the stairs. “It’s fine, Matt.” She put her hand on Ethan’s arm as she arrived next to him. Her fingers felt warm and soft. The gesture, almost a claiming, calmed his inner cat and made him want to rub her hand against his scruffy cheek. “These are friends of mine and Beth’s. We’re staying for a few days to help with the renovations. Painting and stuff. Beth’s still sleeping.”

Matt leveled an assessing glance at the group, lingering on Ky, Jake, and Ethan as if they might be threats to his relationship. Or a trio of serial killers.

Ethan hurried to introduce himself and his brothers, hoping to relax the man’s raised hackles.

“I’m Ethan. I used to stay at Beth’s rental house.” He let his hand cradle Devon’s delicate shoulder, staking his claim. “These are—” He stopped before he could say, ‘my brothers’ and cleared his throat. “This is Ky”—his oldest brother threw a glance Ethan’s way at the omission, but gave a short nod—“and Jake.”

As if picking up on the police officer’s jealousy, Devon hugged Ethan’s arm and added, “Ky lives in New York City and Jake just got engaged.”

The press of Devon’s softness against him was intoxicating and it was all Ethan could do not to scoop her up and carry her upstairs, but he just smiled. “We’re sorry about the hang up. Devon tripped over a ladder and for a minute we thought she’d broken something.”

Thanks for making me the klutz.
Devon lifted an eyebrow at Ethan.

Ethan hid his shock at the telepathic thought that burst into his head. He didn’t even think she was aware she’d sent it.

Matt measured him for a moment. Whatever it was that made people nervous around the brothers seeming to slow his response, despite Devon’s familiar presence, then he pressed his thin lips together and bobbed his head, his shoulder turning toward the door. “Tell Beth I’ll see her tonight.”

Devon smiled, walking forward to escort the young officer out the door. “Will do.”

He returned the smile and stepped out the door.

Crash.

The sound of something being thrown in the kitchen jerked all their heads in that direction.

“Let me go!” Beth’s voice tugged Ethan’s stomach toward his feet.

Damn it. They’d been so close.

“Asleep, huh?” Matt spun and ran into the kitchen.

Ethan and the others trotted after him, exchanging worried looks. The second Matt saw Beth tied to the chair with John standing over her, the unmistakable sound of a gun being torn from a leather holster zinged through the room. A surge of adrenaline charged through Ethan, thoroughly raising his lion. He reached for every ounce of his training to rein it back. It would be far too easy to kill Beth’s boyfriend in the heat of the moment.

Matt pointed his weapon first at John and then raked the business end of his sidearm in Ethan’s direction, his gaze darting over each of the men in turn. “What the fuck is going on, Devon?”

The sight of the weapon made Ethan grit his teeth. The fact that his mate was facing attack brought his lion dangerously close to the surface. His gums ached with fangs burning to erupt and his fingers panged, his claws one second’s loss of control from sprouting.

Ky growled and a glance showed Ethan his brother was even closer to the edge than he was. Ky’s eyes flashed neon green. Jake put a hand on his brother’s shoulder, but the sheen of sweat on Ky’s arms and face said this standoff needed to be ended now or young Matt was a dragon treat.

Ethan raised his hands, palms out. “Easy there.” He took a step toward the young man, dredging through his mind for a plausible explanation. “This is nothing but an intervention.”

Matt snorted. “An intervention? For what? Beth doesn’t do drugs and she only drinks on the weekends.”

Jake cleared his throat and Matt leveled the gun in his direction, giving Ethan the time he needed.

He lunged, disarming the young man with a well-practiced two-handed maneuver. Ordinarily, at this point he would have knocked his enemy out cold, but his lion side roared for blood and he didn’t dare lay a hand on the officer for fear he might kill him.

He backed up, putting space between himself and Matt. The younger man looked at his now-empty hands as if he couldn’t believe what had just happened.

“Don’t feel too bad, kid.” Beth said, her voice deep and gravelly, clearly not her own.

Matt’s eyes bugged out in stunned surprise.

Beth let lose a laugh rich with malevolence. “Ethan here was a Navy SEAL.”

Devon walked over to Matt and squeezed his arm, her eyes dark with apology. “I’m sorry we had to lie to you.” She took a deep breath as if about to dive into freezing water. “This isn’t an intervention. It’s an exorcism.”