Slayer's Kiss: Shadow Slayer, Book 1 (23 page)

“Would you like for me to stay with you during your time with him?” He didn’t know if he could without punching somebody, but that was nothing compared to what Julian would do to Jaxon if the other warrior so much breathed in Kara’s direction.

“Uh…” She nestled closer to Gavin’s chest. “Outside the door, maybe? Just in case…”

“Kara, tell me what you’re going to do.”

“Please, don’t ask. Let me fix this mess I made.”

“Promise me you won’t let him touch you.”

“I promise.” She squeezed his shoulder. “And because he’s sworn to me, he won’t hurt me or…force me…even if he wants to?”

“No.” His feet touched down on the balcony railing of Kara’s room in the palace. “The Warrior’s Bond seems to give a man more will than he could ever find on his own. If you say no, he won’t force you.”

Kara stepped onto the marble floor. “Explain everything to Julian for me. Tell him I’m still planning on him coming to dinner tomorrow night.” She gave him a tremulous smile, but her skin glistened like a wet rose petal in the moonlight. She had no idea what Julian’s seed was awakening in her. He wanted to kill his best friend for what he’d done to Kara. He wanted to flog himself for not telling her the truth. It was simply a matter of not wanting her to shut them out of her life. She needed their protection more than she knew.

“I’ll tell him,” he said. “He’ll understand.” Gavin was glad his nose didn’t grow like the fairytale boy made of wood. Julian was likely going to strip the living flesh from Jaxon’s bones the moment he woke. Gavin’s only hope was that Kara wouldn’t be around to see it. “I’ll be waiting at your front door. One word from you and I’ll be there.”

“Thank you, Gavin. For everything.” Kara reached up on her tiptoes and placed a soft kiss on his cheek, then turned and walked through the sheer curtains.

Chapter Sixteen

Kara wasn’t sure what to expect from her new room in the palace, but since she’d never had a nice place before, she almost rocked to a stop when she saw the lavish furnishings and the softly feminine decorations in different shades of cream and blue. Some things looked way beyond antique, but the room also carried the scents of new rugs and fabrics.

The more she looked around, the more she was convinced the room had been recently decorated. How had Gavin known she would be visiting? Why would he think she would even want to stay one night on Mercury Island, much less have her own place here?

Kara saw the light blue silk comforter on her king-sized bed shift, and she crept forward to inspect the restless lump. Jaxon’s face was visible, his eyes firmly shut, but the rest of him was tucked under the blanket. He was freshly showered, already looking much better than when she’d first seen him. What had Lace done to him to have him in such a filthy state? How could Gavin and the other lords allow the women to treat their men that way? It was sickening.

On the nightstand next to the bed was a leather-bound book. The journal Gavin had promised? She might have grabbed it right then if she hadn’t glanced above the bed and been stopped dead in her tracks. Hanging on the wall was a huge painting of a beautiful woman. Was that her mother? She looked more like the woman in the square than someone related to Kara.

The curvy blond staring back at her wore her hair in a regal bun, with wisps of flaxen hair falling around her face. Instead of the gown Kara would have expected, Deanna was wrapped in a soft blue cloth, clutching the fabric to her body, covering her most intimate parts. The artist had captured the exact essence of spirit Gavin talked about. Sweet. Docile. Seductive. All the things Kara would never be.

She squinted and crawled up on the mattress, hiking her dress and scooting on her knees toward the headboard to get a closer look.

Jaxon shot upright in bed. “My lady. I wasn’t sure you would come. Forgive me for…” He gestured to the rumpled blankets.

“Hey,” Kara replied in greeting, trying to pull her gaze away from her mother’s image.

Jaxon must have been oblivious to the undercurrents in the room. He had his own worries. “I’m sorry for imposing on you…but I suppose this is where I belong now.”

He didn’t seem too happy about it, and Kara couldn’t blame him. He’d been with Lace for over a century. Any other living situation was going to take some getting used to.

Kara sat on the edge of the bed, pushing her parents out of her mind until she could be alone. She wasn’t even ready to tell Abbey what she’d discovered.
First things first.
“I’ll be going home soon, Jaxon. You can stay here until we figure something out.”

“I’ll go where you go.”

“No, that isn’t necessary.
Really
.” She put a little too much emphasis on the last word.

“I have no place here anymore, and when the men discover you didn’t truly want me, the torment will not end. To be rejected by not one but two females who have chosen me… It won’t go well for me.”

She scooted a little closer, trying to ignore the clean, masculine scent of him as she wiped at her damp skin. “I have an idea. And after we’re through, no man here will doubt you belong to me in every sense of the word.”

His eyes widened. “You want to consummate the bond?”

Kara couldn’t help being slightly offended by the lack of enthusiasm in his voice. “No. Not exactly.”

“I don’t want to appear ungrateful, my lady, but it’s been a long night. I’m confused.”

Kara took a deep breath. “All we need to convince them is your scent on my body, right?”

He frowned and seemed to stop breathing for a moment. “If you want me, I’m yours to take. I won’t deny you, mistress.”

“Oh, Jaxon, no. I’m not trying to force you to ‘mate’ with me. I don’t want that, and it’s clear you aren’t ready either. But…if you could…” She could barely choke the words out. “If you could maybe…” She grimaced. “Oh, crap. This is harder than I thought.”

When she rested her chin in her hand, Jaxon smiled and took her other hand in his. “Tell me, mistress. I’ve never known a Demiáre female who couldn’t speak her mind. You must have led a strange life.”

Not nearly as strange as the conversation she was having now. She tamped down her embarrassment, thinking it was nothing compared to what Jaxon would go through if she returned home without taking care of this.

“Here.” She reached under her dress and pulled off her panties. “Go into the bathroom and, uh…put your ‘scent’ on them. I’ll wear them back to the village and no one will be the wiser.”

“Oh,” he replied. “I see. That is clever.” But the look in his eyes expressed more doubt than encouragement. “That sounds easy enough.”

Kara stared at Jaxon’s uneasy expression, noting he didn’t so much as twitch a muscle toward the bathroom. “What’s the matter?”

He took in a deep, slow breath, as though even speaking took energy he didn’t have. “I’m not sure I would be able to accomplish that tonight. I’ve had a difficult time since…” He glanced down and his face flushed. “The trials she put me through were not…kind.”

What had Lace done to this poor man to turn him from a favored lover to a scrap of his former self? “Why did you let her treat you that way, Jaxon? I don’t understand.”

“It’s not her fault.” His voice held a hint of defiance. “At your age, young mistress, you can’t fathom what the monotony of the years can do to the mind. Inside, I know she’s still the beautiful woman I loved for over thirteen decades.”

Kara leaned back heavily, resting her hand on the smooth silk of the comforter. “Fair enough. I don’t know you. I don’t know her. All I know is if we don’t do this, it will be obvious to everyone that we broke some stupid, sacred law. Right?”

He nodded, then stared at Kara for a long moment. “Why do you care what happens to me? Even my own brethren turned me away when Lace cast me out.”

Images of her own childhood flitted past her eyes and she didn’t know which was worse—the scrawny girl in the filthy clothes stealing food to eat, the evenings she’d spent sitting on cold porch steps to avoid the fighting and anger inside yet another foster home, or the cruel witches who had made her high school years a living hell. “I know what it’s like to be an outcast. Nobody deserves it.”

“Maybe some do.” He swallowed hard.

Her nostrils flared. “Yeah, maybe some do. But you’re not one of them.”

He turned his face to Kara. “You are truly an angel, my lady. But I haven’t got anything left in my body to give.”

Kara slid off the bed, pulled the covers back, then crawled underneath the heavy blanket. “Are you mine? Did you tell me I could have you if I wanted you?”

Jaxon peered at her like she was a poisoned apple. “I did.”

She crawled closer to him, ignoring the heat radiating from his body and the answering fire in her own. This was for him. A good deed. Nothing more.

He sucked in a breath when Kara trailed a hand down his naked chest and began massaging his hard abs. “You owe me nothing,” he said. “If the law is broken, it’s my fault for not pleasing my mistress. The blame doesn’t fall to you.”

“Shhh,” Kara whispered. Her hand crept lower, her soft palm bumping against the first stirring of his erection. She prayed he wouldn’t fight the pleasure. “Mmmm. You’re so warm.”

She took it slow, touching his sensitive skin with the tips of her fingers until she felt him start to harden, then she wrapped her fingers around the base of him and began to stroke. “I feel you coming alive in my hand. You’re so big, Jaxon. So hard.” It wasn’t difficult to infuse her words with desire—it was too damn easy.

He swallowed audibly and his large body relaxed into the mattress. “It’s been so long. She hasn’t wanted me in so long,” he whispered.

“Tonight you are wanted. I want to feel you in my hands. I want you to come for me.”

The sweat moistening Kara’s skin seeped through her thin dress, turning the peach to orange where it clung to her. If it wasn’t for thoughts of Julian still sleeping off his mating rage somewhere nearby, she could imagine taking Jaxon into her mouth and sampling his salty flavor. The juncture of her thighs flooded with her juices when she felt his penis harden completely and the thick veins of his shaft stand out from his skin. “Oh, you are magnificent.” She tightened her grip and increased her speed.

A low groan broke from his throat. “Your hands are like satin gloves, mistress.” He squeezed his eyes shut and rested his head against the pillow.

She leaned over him and used the moisture from her mouth to make him slick. He filled her hands as she pumped her fists over his hard flesh. After a few minutes in her care, he was rocking into her hands, the tight muscles of his abdomen clenching with every thrust.

“That’s right, Jaxon. Let go. Feel how much I want you, how much I need you to come for me.” She pressed her knees together, but her clit throbbed. If this was an act to help him along, her body had bought front-row tickets to the show.

He groaned again and Kara felt him pulse in her hands. His buttocks clenched as he thrust upward, again and again, until finally, he wrapped his hands tightly around Kara’s and with another strong thrust, moaned his release as liquid pleasure shot from his crown in thick, milky spurts.

Kara gloried in it, wanting to rub herself along his ridge and capture his essence between her legs. She felt like she was going crazy, considering mounting a stranger when minutes before she’d been talking him through his pain. She clenched her legs together before she did something stupid and grabbed her panties, using them to clean the thick fluid from her fingers and his muscle-corded thighs.

When she finished wiggling into her damp panties and her dress was back in place, Jaxon grabbed her hand, kissed her palm and brought it to rest on his cheek. “Thank you,” he whispered.

His voice was sadder than she’d heard it all night, so when she looked into his face, she wasn’t surprised to see silent tears leaking from his eyes. He kissed her palm once more then rolled away from her onto his side and pulled the covers up around him.

Kara rose from the bed, smoothed out her dress and walked around to the nightstand on Jaxon’s side of the mattress. She took her mother’s journal in one hand and leaned down to kiss his salty, tear-stained cheek. “I can’t imagine how horrible this must be for you, but the humiliation ends tonight. She can’t hurt you anymore.”

As sparkling rivulets trailed down his cheeks, she could barely hear him breathe, “The pain is all I have left of her.”

Kara smoothed a hand through his hair and stood. It struck her as bizarre to be almost feral in her desire and yet be playing nursemaid to a wounded warrior she barely knew. “I wish you the best, Jaxon. A man as devoted as you deserves nothing less.” She walked in silence to the door and slipped from the room.

Before she could even close the door, Gavin was in front of her, wrinkling his nose. “I see your idea came to fruition.”

“Shhh. Let’s not talk here. He’ll hear us.” As Gavin had probably heard every word between Jaxon and Kara.

“This way,” he replied.

He led her down the long hall to the very next door, but when they entered, Kara couldn’t see much. The heavy drapes were drawn and no fires burned to illuminate the dark space.

“Well?” he prompted.

“It’s done. No one should think twice about him belonging to me now. I have the journal and I’m ready to go home. I just need to check on Julian first.”

“Stop worrying, princess. I’ve already received word he’s safe and sound. Aiden has taken care of the most serious concern. Healo will wait to wake him until you’re back home.”

Kara rubbed her arm and her fingers came back damp. Her knees felt like Jell-O, and the sensitive flesh between her legs was swollen and achy. “I need to talk to him.” That was a lie. She needed him to touch her. To give her a moment’s reprieve from this insane wanting.

“Are you really so attached to Julian? Have you chosen him, Kara?”

Kara laughed. “Don’t sound so offended, Gavin. I wanted you first, but you didn’t feel the same.”

“Is that what you think?”

“It’s what I know.”

“You saw enough tonight to understand what it means to be Demiáre. I was trying to protect you. I wanted you to be able to choose, instead of letting your biology choose for you. But look at you now. You have the fever, Kara. Julian did this.”