He growled again and captured her lips, nipping and licking. He wanted to prolong this sensation. It overwhelmed him.
Her tongue thrust into his mouth, and he slitted his eyes open. She stared straight back, desire, longing and purpose binding them solid. All was meant to be.
His sac contracted with haste, spurting his essence into her wetness. His body jerked, and he held back a cry of pleasure that would have woken the house.
Shaken to his soul, he untwined his fingers, and her hands fell to flutter on his back as he leaned into her. He couldn’t catch his breath. His cock still stood hard inside her. His essence marked her by more than a supernatural bite and blood. A new generation would grow with them. His throat tightened on emotions he fought to hold down. He leaned back.
“Celeste… I… Are you well?”
She stared up at him and then turned her head to look at the door. Her eyes widened, and she quickly concealed her face against his shoulder.
Jordan turned his head to glance at the door. Nothing was there. “What did you see?”
She glanced over his shoulder at the door. “A man. I-I thought it was Hudson.”
Jordan glanced back. The door was shut. He would have heard the door and felt the change in atmosphere on its inward swing. He had seen much in his life, including some otherworldly beings that could walk through solid objects. Hell, he had just become the water he envisioned in his mind. But Hudson? Hudson was human through and through.
He glanced up at the ceiling. A strange dark-gray-feathered raven sat on the window watching him. As he stared at it, the bird’s eyes glowed a pale green. He had seen the bird before. The night he’d found Celeste, he’d seen a bird with green eyes. “Your bird?”
She turned her head and lifted her graceful chin to gaze upon the odd-colored raven. “I have never seen it.”
“He watches us for a purpose.” Jordan’s vision colored. He tensed, and his eyelashes prickled. In a flash of blue light, he saw a man kneeling, holding a woman, in what could only be the main hall of a castle. The walls shimmered with rubies and sapphires pressed into them. The man stared at the ceiling. His complexion was ghost gray, and his eyes glowed with green power in their depths. The woman did not move. Her black hair hung down to the floor in curly waves, and her ebony complexion was icy to the touch. Tears streaked the man’s already pale skin and turned to blood as they hit her gown. He raised her arm to his lips and trailed his tongue along a gash in her wrist. He lifted his head, and fangs extended from his mouth.
The vision vanished. Jordan shook his head. A vampire? Or one of them?
“Are you well?” Celeste gripped his shoulders.
“I am…” He gathered his attention back to her. No. He would not start this out with lies. “I had an odd vision. They used to only come to me in water.” Though since he’d met her, he had them at other times. Even as he’d dragged her from the ocean, he’d had flashes of her in the sunshine. But this vision had nothing to do with her.
“I have been hearing a woman’s voice since I awoke on the beach.” Her voice came out a whisper.
Jordan tilted his head to the side. Her eyes remained closed, and a warm pink touched her cheeks. She was embarrassed by this admission. He clasped her hand in his and gently rubbed the back with his thumb. “Nothing to concern yourself with. Many hear things. Doing so is simply another sort of vision. What does she say?”
A tear ran down her face.
“What is wrong?”
“Hudson bedded me before you arrived tonight.”
Jordan’s stomach pitched, and he clenched his teeth.
“My family is important to me. I-I had no choice. I wed him.”
Jordan stared at her green eyes filled with tears. He hated that another had taken her, but it changed nothing. She was his. She needed time. Time to mentally and emotionally adjust to the fact that she was no longer normal. That society’s rules did not apply to them. She would grow to understand she was powerful on her own and more so with him. That would only come in time.
“I understand, Celeste. I told you not to bed him, and this will be dealt with. We are fated. We belong together. Nothing can change that. To ease this for you, I want to do this as correctly as possible. If you need me to court you, to prove beyond this physical perfection that we do belong and your family will be safe, I will do that.”
He stepped back from her, and he slipped from her warmth. Her body trembled, and he held her until her legs stood firmly without shaking on the ground. “I will not walk away, Celeste. Parting is simply not an option.” He leaned in and gently kissed her lips. “But I will give you some time…” He pulled her robe closed about her waist and inhaled the scent of sweet orange blossoms and candied cherries once more. Her scent…so sweet. He wanted to ask her if she knew she smelled like such a delicacy and if in fact she liked candied cherries. But that would have to wait. He turned from her.