She held his eyes, hardly daring to breathe. “You know?”
“You know who they are to you. That’s what everyone always told me, my whole life. When you meet her… you’ll know.” He looked down at her, his blue eyes full of more feeling than she’d ever seen there. “And then I met you, Mira. And I did.”
Soulmate, she thought faintly. One lover, one person for the rest of her life… she thought of her childhood manifesto, her rigorous list of non-negotiable qualities in a lover. She thought of the strict timeline upon which commitment would operate. And then she felt a blissful smile break out across her face. “So did I,” she told him, stunned by how simple it was, how easy. She’d known, hadn’t she? Even in dreams, she’d known he was the love of her life. Why bother fighting that? Why bother pretending it wasn’t true? “I loved you the minute we met, Conrad. Soulmate, partner, whatever you call it, it’s you.”
And then he was kissing her again, and she could feel tears of joy spilling down her cheeks. She laughed breathlessly as he kissed them away, not feeling even a hint of self-consciousness. Why would she? He was her soulmate… that word just kept unlocking more and more of her heart, joy spilling out of it with every beat. Conrad pulled the blankets over them both and drew her down into his embrace, his kisses growing scorching hot as he mouthed a possessive trail down her throat and across her chest, nibbling at first one nipple and then the other, his hand parting her thighs at the same time and then resting with teasing obstinacy just a few inches from where she wanted it… with an impatient growl, she rocked her hips and hummed approval as his fingers, obligingly, began to stroke her. The combination of his lips on her breasts and his hand between her thighs had her gasping and twitching in no time at all, her body quivering as her pleasure built and built…
Tempting, to simply lay here and have pleasure drawn from her body by his expert hands. But curiosity about his body had been building in her since that first night together, and she shifted her weight after a few moments, rearranging their positions until he was lying on his back with her straddling him. His eyes gleamed with desire in the dark beneath the blankets, and for a moment she was tempted to simply lower herself onto his manhood, to feel the exquisite friction of her body engulfing him… but she resisted that temptation. Instead, she kissed his broad, muscular chest, drawing a soft huff of surprise and delight… and as she began to trail her way lower, she felt his breath beginning to come more sharply. It stopped altogether when she took the tip of his straining cock between her fingers, caressing it ever so gently as she let the heat of her breath ghost across it—he groaned her name, half question, half desperate entreaty.
She lingered there for a moment, enjoying the way he whimpered and twitched beneath her. The power of it… no wonder so many of her friends bragged about how much they liked doing this. She’d never understood it before. But when she lowered her head to brush the head of his cock with her tongue, the way he arched his back and moaned beneath her was almost as enjoyable as the caress of his hands in her most intimate places. And so she explored, setting her own pace, lazy and teasing and knowing without question that Conrad was enjoying absolutely every second of it. When she drew most of the length of him into her mouth, she heard him whispering words she’d never heard before… and she grinned to herself, resolving to ask him what they meant a little later, when her mouth wasn’t otherwise occupied…
But soon enough, her own body was crying out for attention. Cruel of her, really, to neglect her own desires… her lust seemed to have grown tenfold while she pleasured him, driven on by the sound of his gasping and moaning, by the sensation of his hard cock against her lips and tongue. Reckless, aching for him, she flattened her palms against his chest as she straddled his hips again. She held his dark-eyed gaze as she impaled herself on his waiting manhood, feeling him slide effortlessly into the heat of her sex, a spasm of pleasure rocketing through her as her body welcomed his like an old friend.
They moved together then, his hands gripping her hips tightly, her nails digging gently into his chest as she pressed against him for leverage. At this angle, every tiny movement of her hips brought a slightly different sensation, the head of him probing at every sensitive spot deep inside of her… every angle unique, but united in the work it did of driving her ever closer to climax. It was almost embarrassing, how quickly she found herself approaching that edge… part of her had wanted to hold off, to tease him here the way she’d teased him with her hips and tongue. But her body wasn’t having it. There had been enough holding back, enough lingering… now, her body seemed to say, the two of them were going where they were going in as straight a line as possible.
Conrad wasn’t far behind—she could tell by the way he was biting his lip, his hands clenching hard around her hips as he fought to hold back the wave of his pleasure. Seeing that, knowing how hard he was working to stop his desire for her from overwhelming him… somehow, that was what pushed her past the point of no return. She whimpered his name, hands digging into the muscles of his chest as she felt the tension finally give way, blasting through her body so powerfully that it almost overwhelmed her. Conrad was groaning her name as he came too, each thrust of his hips driving aftershocks of pleasure through her, extending their pleasure until they were utterly, utterly spent.
And only then, in a sweaty tangle of her soulmate’s limbs, did Mira finally let herself fall asleep.
It was almost sunset when she woke. She was amused to realize, through the thick haze of sleepiness, that neither of them had moved at all—her limbs were stiff when she extricated herself from his embrace, and she pressed an apologetic kiss to the side of his head when he groaned a protest. She pulled some pajamas out of her cabinet and dressed herself enough to ward off the cool air as she padded into the kitchen for a glass of water.
But when she got back, she froze in the doorway. For a moment, she thought there was something wrong with her eyes. The area in front of her dresser was shifting and warping, and it was only when she’d blinked a few dozen times to no effect that she acknowledged that it was really there. It had woken Conrad, whatever it was—she could see him staring at it, his blue eyes wide with surprise and what was unmistakably recognition. Her mind still blurry with sleep, she wondered if it was some kind of dragon-specific experience. But then, as she watched him hurriedly pull his clothes on, she put a few more of the pieces together.
“Is this—your friends, back home? Is this a portal?”
“It could be,” he said hoarsely, buttoning his shirt up and stepping quickly into his shoes. Then he stood in front of the shifting, swirling mass. It looked a little like a gray mist, but denser somehow, more solid without actually being solid, moving more like liquid without seeming at all wet… her head began to spin the harder she looked at it, and she averted her gaze, looking up at Conrad instead.
“This means you can get home,” she whispered, feeling elated for him. He’d mentioned his homesickness enough that she knew it was weighing on him—and as much as she’d appreciated him being here, she knew that he’d have to go home sometime.
“Come with me.” His blue eyes were bright with joy as he reached for her hand, and she took it automatically, blinking up at him in surprise at the suggestion. “I mean it. Come and meet my friends, explore the Palace… you’ll love it there, Mira.”
She hesitated. She could use a holiday from just about her whole life, after everything that had just happened… but as the portal before them began to shift and coalesce, figures coming into greater focus on its surface, she felt a sudden lurch of unease. What about the wolves she’d just met? What about their still-missing pack member? What about all the information about the Purists she’d managed to steal, that she was yet to get out into the shifter community? Those guys were still out there… and they were probably furious that their building had been attacked. Was she really just going to disappear through a magic portal and let their wrath fall on the rest of the shifters of this area?
She couldn’t do it, she realized. Not even for the man standing before her, a man she loved with all her heart. He may have been her soulmate… but even her soulmate couldn’t ask her to abandon her responsibilities at the drop of a hat.
“I can’t,” she whispered, turning to him with her eyes full of tears. “I can’t just leave everything here, Conrad.”
“Then I’ll stay,” he said immediately. “I’ll stay here, I’ll—I won’t go. I’ll…”
“No,” she said, feeling her heart breaking even as she said it. “No, Conrad. Your home, your work, your friends and family… they’re as important to you as mine are to me. I won’t let you give that up just to be with me.” She lifted her chin, fought back tears. “You go home. Just—come back soon, okay?”
He looked at her for a long moment, clearly fighting with himself… but she knew, even as she spoke, what his response would be. He nodded slowly, unwillingly, his expression conflicted. Then, his voice halting: “I understand. But… Mira, I don’t know when I’ll see you again. This portal… it could be the last for a long time.” Her heart sank. It hadn’t occurred to her that this portal situation might be unpredictable. Conrad grabbed her hands in his and kissed each of them in turn, his blue eyes serious. “I promise you, Mira, I will do everything I can, every single day, to make my way back to you as soon as I can.”
She hesitated, biting her lip, suddenly worried that she had made the wrong choice. But then the portal warped again, and there were unfamiliar voices shouting Conrad’s name. There, on the surface of the shifting gray liquid… It was as though a doorway had opened, showing a slightly blurry image of two people in unfamiliar clothing. They waved furiously as they called Conrad’s name. She could already see the portal’s edges wobbling, and she remembered Conrad telling her how quickly the one that had brought him here had disappeared. They only had seconds. Should she go with him? Should she be reckless, leave everything here behind her, throw her life away to follow her lover?
Conrad stooped to kiss her, sweet and fierce, a kiss that chased every last thought from her mind.
“I love you,” he told her. And before she could even open her mouth to tell him to wait, that she’d changed her mind… he stepped through the portal. The last glimpse she caught of him was his hand raised in farewell, those blue eyes of his full of determination. And then the portal was gone, leaving her standing alone in her bedroom again, utterly shell-shocked.
He was gone. After the most intense, revelatory, life-changing week she’d ever experienced, he was simply gone. She wandered into the living room, too shell-shocked to even cry the tears that were building up in her eyes. She’d cry later. Right now, all she could do was sit on the couch and wonder if she’d just made the biggest mistake of her life.
Chapter 28 - Conrad
“Are you ready?”
Conrad nodded, not bothering to hide his impatience. That won a smile from Lana. Ever since he’d come back from the other world, she’d told him, he’d been a lot more honest with his emotions… a lot easier to get a read on. It made him feel oddly vulnerable, but at the same time, he was glad. There was something to be said for letting the people close to you know the truth about how you were feeling.
“Of course he’s ready,” Cato said impatiently. “Poor guy hasn’t seen his soulmate for six weeks, I’d be losing my mind. I hate not seeing Acantha for sixminutes.”