A Trail of Echoes(12)

“Goodbye, darling,” he said. “Your mother and I will miss you.”

“I’ll miss you too,” I said, pressing my warm cheek against his.

Then my parents said goodbye to Caleb and stepped back onto the jetty with Vivienne, Xavier, Corrine, Ibrahim, my grandfather and a crowd of people who’d just gathered.

Caleb and I were due to leave now, but we stepped off the boat to say goodbye to the rest of them. Micah was standing—in his wolf form—near the front with his girlfriend, Kira.

“Have a good one,” he growled, butting Caleb in the side with his head.

Then he nuzzled my leg.

“Bye, Micah.” I ran my fingers through the fur on his neck and gave him a pat.

Then we spent the next ten minutes saying goodbye to Claudia, Yuri, Anna, Kyle, Griffin, his parents, half a dozen of my girlfriends, and finally, just as we were about to head back toward the boat, I noticed that at the back of the crowd, Jeriad was standing with his girl of choice, Sylvia.

Leaving Caleb, I walked toward the shifter. I was surprised to see him present. I’d hardly seen any of the dragons since my wedding. It was as if they were avoiding me.

He looked at me steadily as I approached.

“Hi, Jeriad,” I said, looking from him to Sylvia, whose arm was looped through his.

“I wish you a safe journey,” he said, his voice deep and rumbling.

“Thanks,” I replied, eyeing him closely. I was about to ask how he and his companions had been, but he didn’t give me a chance. Taking Sylvia by the waist, he walked off with her into the woods.

I looked over at Caleb. He raised a brow. I shrugged and made my way back over to him.

“Not sure what’s going on with those dragons,” I muttered, sliding my hand into his.

We said our final goodbyes and then, clutching the bag of chocolate bunnies Griffin had given me for the journey, I boarded the boat with Caleb. He headed to the control room, while I remained at the stern of the boat, waving and blowing kisses as Caleb navigated the ship to the boundary. As the figures on the beach grew tiny, I joined my husband. I took a seat by his side and looked at him.

His eyes were fixed forward in concentration. I followed his gaze, then spotted the hunters’ gray ships surrounding our island.

“Do you think they’ll detect us?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” Caleb replied. “But it doesn’t matter too much. As long as none of them follow us.”

“Yeah… That wouldn’t make for such a relaxing trip.”

Even though I knew we were safe within the witch’s spell, my palms still grew sweaty as Caleb navigated the boat beyond the boundary. He moved slowly at first, skirting close to the boundary as he kept watch on the ships, and then he began speeding us away along the choppy waves, toward the wide-open waters.

Once we had traveled miles and the ships were nothing but dots in the distance, I was able to breathe more easily.

After two hours, Caleb was confident enough to put the boat on autopilot. He stood up and looked down at me, a small smile curving his lips. Taking my hand, he led me out of the control room and onto the moonlit deck. I breathed in the fresh salt air and looked around at the endless expanse of water, relishing the cool wind against my skin. The star-strewn sky was breathtaking. We walked to the front of the boat and stood listening to the rolling waves.

He stood behind me and his mouth found the back of my neck. He trailed kisses along my skin, which heated up beneath his touch. I bent my head backward so he could claim my lips. I felt his body tense against me. The next thing I knew, he was pulling me across the deck, down the staircase and into our bedroom. We took turns undressing each other, and then made love between the silk sheets.

Each time Caleb had slept with me since our wedding had been magic, but there was something about being on a boat again that made that night even more exhilarating. Our first time had been on a boat. That beautiful boat he had constructed for my birthday…

I’d been under the impression that the first time was always awkward, but it hadn’t felt like that with Caleb. He’d taken me as he’d said he would. He’d made me feel owned, possessed, cherished, and he’d left no room for doubt or uncertainty.

Being so intimate with a vampire, I’d expected to feel more pain. But except for a dull ache between my thighs, I had barely felt discomfort. I wondered if my body was tougher than that of a regular human, or, perhaps more likely, the pleasure I found in Caleb’s arms was too overpowering to feel much else.

Caleb often tensed up, and I could sense what a struggle it still was for him to reel in his craving for my blood. But he did. His fangs hadn’t yet broken my skin. There were times, in the heat of his passion, when he seemed to forget his strength, but I was so used to Caleb being gentle around me that, if I was honest with myself, I relished those moments of roughness and reveled in his abandon.