Cataclysm (41 page)

With a look that said she was giving herself completely to him in hopes that he would do the same, she sat back, stretched her legs out in front of her, and then lay down in the rain-soaked grass while extending her arms above her head.

Dominic stood and looked up into the sky, drawing her attention in the same direction. In all their passion, they hadn’t noticed that it had stopped raining. The clouds opened up overhead, revealing the nearly full moon and every star in the midnight sky.

He looked back at her, his eyes never leaving hers as he kicked off his boots and pushed his drenched jeans down his legs before pulling them off along with his socks. Then he lay down beside her, propping himself up on his elbows. It was another invitation, and she would not pass this one up.

Kerrigan sat up and straddled his lap. Of all the times they had been together, he was always the one in control. Never had they made love in this position before, and she hoped she knew what she was doing.

She kissed him, moving her lips against his in fluid motion. Dominic lifted her by the hips while she positioned him at the perfect angle and slowly sank down, sheathing his cock deep inside her. Their kiss broke as they both moaned out in unison at the sensation. Kerrigan shifted, drawing him deeper still.

Dominic bit down on his bottom lip when Kerrigan raised herself up and sank back down again. She buried her face in his neck, her hands hooking under his arms and over the top of his shoulders. Back and forth she rocked, grinding against him with each rise and fall.

Kerrigan’s head fell back, the tips of her long, wet hair brushing against the top of his thighs. He dipped his head and took her breast into his mouth, the dual sensation of his warm skin and frosty mouth creating an erotic mixture that fueled her further.

The moonlight shone down on the landscape around them, shading some scenes and bringing others into full light. The air around them was fragrant with the perfume of flowering spring buds. Crickets chirped their night song, and the wind blew warm and gentle against her bare skin. But of all those sensations, there was only one she truly felt—her connection with Dominic.

His mouth moved along her neck until he reached her ear. His teeth tugged at her earlobe while his tongue and lips sucked it into his mouth to entice her further while pushing and pulling her hips along his engorged cock. A sultry moan spilled from her lips, and she buried her fingertips into his skin, desperate to hold on.

Their bodies moved together, both with their eyes closed, savoring each breathtaking moment of their lovemaking. She bit her lip and held him to her while he buried his face into the side of her neck. Grunts and moans escalated as they each worked toward the peak of pleasure.

Ever the gentleman, Dominic waited until she got there first. When he felt the familiar tightening around his cock, he pulled back to watch her face. Knowing that was his favorite part, Kerrigan opened her eyes to let him see the proof of her ecstasy. Her eyes glowed a brightened baby blue, the charcoal lining around her irises gone, morphed by the power of the orgasm that overtook her. She bit down hard on her lip as the pulsating squeeze and release around his cock reached full capacity. Unable to hold it in any longer, her head fell back and she called out his name in a long, straining moan.

He let her ride it out, never faltering in his movements as he took over for the both of them. But when she lifted her head again and pressed it to his, he wrapped her up in his arms and swiftly flipped her over until she was on her back below him without so much as a jostle. He planted one hand on each side of her shoulders and plunged into her. His hips rotated with each inward thrust. She grabbed his ass, loving the way the muscles there tensed and relaxed with his movements.

The cold breath he forced from his lungs with his exertion bathed her skin, and she dug her nails into his flesh. Faster, he moved with more urgency behind his thrusts until finally, he stiffened. His back arched, the muscles and veins in his arms bulged, and the tendons of his neck strained as he cried out, spilling his essence into her. Once, twice, three more times he pumped into her, milking the last of his seed. And then he pulled out and collapsed in a heap beside her, completely spent.

Neither of them said a word as they fought to regain control of their breathing and come down off their high, basking in the after effects of their postcoital bliss. Dominic stretched out beside her and propped himself up on his forearm, smiling down at her and pushing the wayward strands of hair away from her face. She looked a mess, she knew it, but he didn’t seem to care. He looked her up and down, finally resting his gaze on her belly. He lifted his hand and laid it there, his movements slow and careful.

“We’re having a baby. I’m going to be a papá?”

Kerrigan put her hand on her stomach as well, linking her fingers with his as she smiled warmly and nodded.

“You should have told me, Querida, but I understand why you didn’t. I had no right to throw a tantrum and act like an insensitive ass.” He could tell she was about to say something, but he leaned forward to stop her with a kiss. He pulled back, his lips hovering over hers. “And for the record, I am
very
happy that you’re carrying my baby.”

She grinned from ear to ear.

“You might want to hold that smile because I’m not finished yet. It really hurt to find out that Drew took you into his sanctuary when you couldn’t take me into yours. I know that’s not your fault, but I can’t help how I felt. It hurt even more that he knew about our baby before I did.”

“I know,” Kerrigan said with remorse. “But you have to know that it wasn’t intentional. Drew told me he knew I was pregnant because in a Guardian’s sanctuary, nothing is kept hidden. He can see all truth there, just like I would be able to in mine. He did ask me when I was planning to tell you about it. He didn’t think it was right for me to keep it from you either, but I begged him not to say anything because I was worried you’d try to keep me from training or carrying out my duties as a Guardian... like confronting Sinclair and Drake tomorrow night.”

Dominic sighed in defeat. “You’re not going to let me win that argument, are you?”

She shook her head. “I have to go. Lucy told me what I need to do to keep from hurting myself, and I think I can.”

“You think?” Dominic laughed sarcastically. “That doesn’t make me feel better about this, Querida.”

“I know.” She was quiet for a moment, remembering the rest of her conversation with Lucy. “It’s my fault Grammy’s dead.”

“What?”

A tear slid down her cheek. “It’s my fault. Lucy told me they weren’t after her. It was me. They used her emotional attachment to me, her passion to protect me, against her. It was too much, and it killed her.”

“Ah, Querida... come here.” Dominic wrapped her up in his arms and hugged her to him. “You know as well as I do that once Availia sets her mind to something, there’s no way you can change it. Of course she would sacrifice herself for you. Not only did she love you, but you have an important role in something greater. We just don’t know what that is yet.”

Kerrigan sniffled. “Yeah, well... apparently, I hold the key,” she said theatrically.

Dominic pulled back. “What key?”

“Lucy couldn’t tell me.”

“Couldn’t, or wouldn’t?”

“A little of both I think. She’s bound by some rule that she has to let nature take its course, and I wouldn’t want her to go against what she knows is right. She said she tried to warn Grammy before she died, but she wouldn’t listen to her.”

“Yeah, that sounds like Availia, but she always knew what she was doing.”

“Let’s just hope I inherited a little of that wisdom,” Kerrigan said. “I have a feeling I’m really going to need it tomorrow night.”

By the following evening everything was back to normal—as normal as their abnormally exceptional lives allowed them to be, anyway. Olivia and Sydney had made up with Tyson and Talon, and, if the sounds coming out of Gabe’s bedroom when Kerrigan had gone to the bathroom in the middle of the night were any indication, so had he and Colton.

She had every reason to be happy, ecstatic even, but she couldn’t allow herself to be. There were still so many reasons for her to be petrified. Dominic was mostly in his spectral form, she had just learned her grandmother died trying to protect her, and they still had to face off with Sinclair in less than two hours. Worse still, she didn’t know how to channel her emotions into the moonstones on her bracelet like Lucy had suggested.

Not knowing where to turn, she went out to the garden. She walked along the edges of the yard, her fingertips dancing over the soft petals of the various flowers in full bloom. When she reached the coral seas passion flower vine, she paused. Several of the blooms were missing, reminding her that Dominic had sent Gabe out to the garden to collect a generous amount of the buds—just in case.

Despite her adamant protests, the whole gang would be accompanying them to the cemetery. Gabe threw a hissy fit about Colton being in danger and not being able to be there should “some shit go down,” and Colton refused to go if Gabe couldn’t because they had just made up, and if he was going to die, it wouldn’t be without his precious princess by his side. So when Dominic relented for his brother’s sake, Tyson and Talon offered their assistance, waging the argument that the more muscle they had on their side, the better their chances were. Dominic thought that made sense. Sydney and Olivia didn’t, which was why they were also tagging along. They had their own mini army, but they were untrained and naïve if they thought their presence would intimidate Sinclair into giving up.

The whole situation just stressed her out even more. Because if something did go wrong, there were that many more people to worry about, that many more people to safeguard, that many more people she chanced losing.

People she would disappoint if she failed.

They were all counting on her, and that was a pressure she wasn’t sure she could handle.

She plucked one of the flowers from the vine and went to the center of the garden to sit cross-legged in the plush grass. Inhaling the crisp aroma of her grandmother’s favorite and most prized flower, she closed her eyes. “Oh, Grammy... I need you more now than ever.” Hopefully, the wind would take her words to the one person she was counting on to answer her plea for help.

She looked up to the sky, hearing nothing but the sound of leaves rustling in the trees. The silence was haunting. She would have given anything just to hear a measure of
This Little Light of Mine
so that she would know her grandmother was at least listening. But there was nothing.

“Grammy, please... I have no idea what I’m doing and so many people are counting on me.” She sat still—listening, waiting, hoping. Silence was her only answer. Never had she felt so alone.

“Kerrigan.” The voice didn’t belong to her grandmother. A light caress of cold air brushed her neck, and her hair was pushed back from her face. “You don’t have to do this,” Dominic’s disembodied voice whispered into her ear.

If only that were true.

“Yes, I do.” She turned to look at him only to be met with thin air. “Let me see you,” she said with a halfhearted smile.

Silence, again. She almost screamed just so there was at least something to pierce the foreboding silence that isolated her.

“I can’t, Querida. I don’t have the energy to manifest.” She could tell by his intonation that it wasn’t something he took pleasure in confessing. He was running out of time. She could practically hear the tick-tock of the clock counting down. Finally, sound—just not the sound she wanted to hear.

Drew came down the steps of the back porch. “It’s time.”

She stood.

“Querida...”

Drew must have sensed their need to be alone. “I’ll get Colton and meet you guys out front,” he said, turning and disappearing back into the house.

Donning a mask of false assurance for Dominic’s sake, she smiled. “Don’t worry. Everything will work out. You’ll see.”

“It’s not that.” Frustration laced his words. “Fuck! I just really want to kiss you right now.”

“So kiss me.”

“But, I’m...”

“Kiss me, Dominic.” Where there was a will, there was a way.

She closed her eyes, tilted her head back, and waited. When she felt the first frosty evidence of his kiss, she parted her lips with a gasp. She was accustomed to his wintry kisses, but this was different. This was like standing in the middle of a magical castle of ice, the absence of a roof inviting beautifully sculptured snowflakes to fall where they may. With each inhale of breath, tiny flakes danced their way into her lungs, awakening her senses.