Caressed by Ice

EPILOGUE

It happened in the middle of a wild outdoor lovemaking session that had gotten more than a little vigorous. Winter had left with languid softness and now spring was a cool breeze on her skin. Judd picked Brenna up and put her flat on the ground. Her breath rushed out—not because he’d used excessive pressure—on the contrary, her landing had been angel soft. No, it was because he hadn’t used his hands.

Attuned as he was to the bond, he froze in the act of ripping off his shirt, leaving his ridged abdomen bare. “Brenna.”

“I’m okay. It was a surprise, that’s all.” She meant that. Her mate was a powerful telekinetic and she trusted him never to use that Tk to hurt her.

His eyes darkened, then he smiled. “Do you like surprises?”

That still-rare smile had the ability to send warmth rushing to the juncture of her thighs. Squeezing them together, she nodded. That was when her pants unzipped of their own accord and began being pulled down her body along with her panties.

She couldn’t help it. She cried out, especially when he lifted her bottom to help drag the clothing off. They flew to land on the branches of a nearby tree. “Some surprise.” Her heart raced. “What’s next?”

Not answering, he walked around to stand at her feet, looking down at her body with blatant possessiveness. Her shirt was open and parted to reveal her breasts, her lower body naked, her knees raised. She had never felt more deliciously exposed.

“Spread your thighs.” A low, rough order.

She blushed at what he was asking her to do but even as she hesitated, phantom hands began to spread her. Shocked, she didn’t fight because those hands felt just like those of the man who watched her—watched her as if she were a feast he was waiting to gorge on. Then those invisible hands slid down to her curls and paused.

Dangerous Psy eyes clashed into hers. “I want to open you.”

Brenna had known she was getting a dominant male when she chose Judd. His intensity didn’t scare her. Rather, it sent erotic need rushing over her body, further tightening the already taut peaks of her breasts and dampening the woman core of her. But what seduced her to complete submission was that, even violently aroused, he had stopped to check how she was handling this escalation of their sexual life, the working of his Tk fully into who they were together.

“Do it,” she whispered, the words so thick she had to force them out.

Those phantom fingers spread apart her intimate lips, baring her to the air…to his gaze. Blood flooded her cheeks and she could feel herself flushing in other, normally hidden places. An invisible finger dipped into her, pushing in an inch before spreading her cream over the hard bud he’d exposed to the air.

“Judd!” When she could breathe again, she looked up to find he’d undone his pants at last, releasing his erection.

“I want.” A bold sexual statement she could only make because this was her mate.

He fisted himself. “This?”

She couldn’t believe it. “You’re going to tease?” Two could play at that game, even if Judd was undeniably the more skilled at it. Sliding one hand down her own body, she dipped her fingers into her heat, pleasuring herself with lazy strokes, while she used the fingers of her other hand to caress her breasts, pluck at her nipples.

Judd’s eyes followed the movements of her hands, his own moving over rigid flesh in unconscious synchrony. The sight clutched at her stomach, made her want to speed up her strokes, push herself over the edge. But she was determined to seduce him this time.

She withdrew her fingers from her body on a groan…and held them out. “How about a taste?”

The tree branches over her shifted in a breeze she couldn’t feel, new spring-green leaves flying every which way. Judd. He was making it happen, loosening his rigid control. Instead of fear, she felt pure exhilaration. And when he dropped down on his knees between her spread thighs, all she could see were the glowing embers of a very masculine desire in his eyes. Taking her glistening fingers, he tugged them back down to her sex.

“Touch,” he ordered, voice harsh. “Show me what you like.”

“You know what I like,” she said, but followed the command.

Putting his hands on her raised knees, he spread her even farther, as if to better his view. She was so spellbound by the sexual chains of his unashamed hunger that she was barely aware of the crashing movements of the tree branches, the whiplash speed of the leaves circling around them. Her heartbeat was in her mouth, alive and demanding. Her whole body felt flushed to fever pitch. She wanted something thicker and harder than her fingers stroking in and out of the melting warmth of her body.

Without warning, Judd dragged away her hand and took over the task. His strokes were deeper, rougher than her own and they made her cry out in shocking pleasure. She wanted to wrap her legs around him but one of his hands remained on her knee, telling her he wanted her spread open for him. So she kept her feet flat on the earth.

“Good.” He slid that hand down the inner face of her thigh to grip her hip firmly as she twisted under the force of his driving strokes. All thought of taking charge was lost, but it didn’t matter, because in this sensual game, surrender was the sweetest of victories.

The edge beckoned, promising hot twisting pleasure/pain that would cut through her body like lightning and turn her mind to pure fever for long pleasure-drenched moments. Anticipation had her holding her breath. One more caress—

Judd withdrew his fingers.

“No,” she moaned, so ready to go over she could hardly think.

He shifted his body closer. She felt the tip of his erection nudge at her. Then he gripped her hip tight and pushed in. All the air left her lungs in a harsh exhalation as she felt every thick inch of him scrape past her desire-swollen flesh. Her fingers clawed the earth, but she never took her eyes off his face. What she saw set off the ripples that announced an impending explosion.

He was watching their bodies join, his expression that of a man driven to ecstasy. Red streaked over his cheekbones and his jaw was clenched hard enough to have cracked stone. Beautiful and so sexy she could barely believe he was hers.

He pushed home, going so deep she could feel him in dark unexplored places. Against her spread flesh, the rough material of his jeans, the cold teeth of his zipper, provided an added erotic sensation, a quiet reiteration that Judd was no longer in control.

His eyes finally raised to hers, the gold flecks almost glowing against the bitter chocolate. “I’m going to move now.”

That was her only warning before her lover began thrusting into her with hard strokes that bowed her back and tore a scream from her throat. Pure sensation shot through her, eclipsing the anticipation and cascading into her mind…a bolt of white lightning that traveled from both ends of the bond to create a sensual inferno.

Male to female. Psy to changeling. Mate to mate.

She stepped over a broken branch to retrieve her pants. “Baby, I love you, but when we go furniture shopping, I want titanium alloy.” In the months since their mating, he’d already destroyed the wooden stuff. Four times. Currently, they had no table, no sofa, and no chairs. “Thank goodness the walls are stone and the bed’s got a metal frame.”

Her teasing made him stretch out, half-naked and indolently at ease on the forest floor. “If you’d stay still, I’d be fine.” Except he didn’t sound particularly enthused by the idea of her remaining still.

Turning to face him, she pulled on her pants over bare flesh, shoving her panties into a pocket. She very definitely had his full attention. “Where would be the fun in that?” Grinning, she left her shirt open and walked to kneel beside him. His abdomen was pure hard muscle under her touch. “Aren’t you going to get up?”

He put a hand on the curve of her hip, a possessive gesture that had already become familiar. “No. Let’s have more sex.”

“Insatiable.” She kissed him, loving that he trusted her enough to allow her to see him without barriers. As far as the rest of the den was concerned, he was still the Man of Ice. They couldn’t understand how she could have mated with him. But he’d earned his stripes as far as being Pack went so they shrugged and accepted the pairing. “Any more sex and we’ll expire. Don’t you have a meeting with Hawke anyway?”

A grunt and he deigned to get up. Kissing her as she rose to her feet, too, he zipped up his pants. His shirt continued to hang open—from the look in his eye, he was more interested in watching her button up her own. “Shooting practice with Dorian?” he asked after she’d finished.

“He says I’m getting really good.” Though that didn’t make up for what Enrique had done to her, what he’d stolen, it helped to know she could still defend herself, as well as protect those who mattered to her.

“Hey.” Her mate stroked her hair off her face. “No being sad. I can’t handle it.”

She knew he was speaking literally. He continued to find it difficult to process certain emotions, but he was learning. “I just”—she gripped his waist with one hand—“I just wish I could go wolf again.” But then she smiled and it was real. “I’m happy and strong now, but I’ll always miss that part of me. As you miss the Net.” He never complained about the loss but she was beginning to understand the depth of what he’d given up to save his family. It must have felt like cutting off a limb.

He kissed her. “You’re the sexiest wolf I know.” A pulse of love came down the mating bond. It was rich and unashamed and it exploded in her like a bomb.

She was about to reply when her claws sliced out, drawing Judd’s blood. She jerked back. “Oh, God, I’m so s—!” Everything disappeared in a familiar burst of searing agony and endless ecstasy, her cells changing on a level that was emphatically changeling.

Judd froze as the world dissolved into a multicolored shimmer around Brenna. Shifting was something he’d witnessed with other wolves, but this was different in the most fundamental way. This was his mate. He could feel what was happening to her as if it were taking place in his own body. Sheer torment and excruciating bliss, an exquisite mix unlike anything he’d ever before experienced.

Seconds later, it was over. In front of him stood a sleek wolf with soft gray fur that beckoned touch. Without thinking, he went to his knees and stroked his hand over her neck, his eyes locked into those so intelligent and unique that they could only belong to Brenna—in spite of the fact that she’d shifted, her irises hadn’t lost that flare of arctic blue.

She was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.

Something came down the bond. Uncertainty. Fear. “What is it?” He thought rapidly. “You’re perfect, beautiful,” he reassured her. “No errors in the shift.”

Laughter in his mind, joy. Pulling out of his hold, she loped across the clearing they had used for their play. He let her go, an odd sensation tightening his chest. He knew she needed her freedom, no matter that he ached to go with her.

She stopped at the edge of the clearing and looked over her shoulder. His mate might’ve changed form, but he could read her loud and clear. She was throwing down a challenge. Feeling a smile warm his whole body though only a hint reached his face, he rose. “You’re on, Brenna Shane.” The meeting could wait. The whole world could wait.

Brenna didn’t cut him any slack, taking off through the trees like silver lightning. He ran after her, focusing his Tk into this simple exercise so he could fly alongside the gorgeous woman who was his mate.

The early evening turned to true night and still they ran, playing hide-and-seek with each other, trying to sneak up at times, kicking up fallen leaves just to watch them move. Simple play and the closest he had ever come to feeling like a child.

By the time she’d had enough, they had circled back to their original starting point. They were both breathing hard but energy flickered through the air. When she shifted this time, it was even more beautiful, because he could feel her joy from the start. She appeared from the sparkling motes, a lovely naked woman with a huge smile cracking her face.

“Judd!” She threw open her arms and he bent down to lift her up. Her legs wrapped around his waist as he stood and she laughed. “I can shift!”

Spinning around with her in his arms, he kissed the side of her neck then planted his lips on her mouth. She kissed him back with wild abandon and under his hands, her skin was smooth and hot and welcoming. Skin privileges. Breaking the kiss, he drank in the sight of her happiness. “You are too damn gorgeous. In either form.”

Her face filled with tenderness. “I was afraid you wouldn’t…that you’d get freaked out at seeing me as a wolf. Then you told me I was perfect, that I had no ‘errors.’” The last word was a tease.

He was incredibly glad his response had reassured her, even though he’d misunderstood the reason for her worry. “You are.” He held her with one arm and ran the other over her thigh to curve around her bottom. “And you’re naked.”

Her eyes went huge. “My clothes!” She looked around as if expecting them to reappear by magic, though the shift process had disintegrated them. “What am I going to do?”

He felt his lips twitch.

She hit his shoulder with one small fist. “This is not funny!”

“I think you look delectable naked.” He kissed her chin. “Of course, I’d have to kill anyone else who dared put their eyes on you.”

“I can’t walk through the den like this!” she wailed.

He’d noticed that—no matter how blasé they were about nudity otherwise, the wolves followed strict rules in the den about being clothed. The pups were the single exception. “For such a smart wolf,” he murmured against her lips, “you’re betraying a distinct lack of logic.”

“Logic?” She scowled but kissed him back.

“Mmm.” He squeezed her bottom. “Shift. Wear your fur.” That was acceptable behavior. Soldiers often lost access to clothing and had to return in animal form.

Her mouth fell open. “Oh.” A sigh whispered through her whole body. “I’m going to have to get used to this all over again.”

“You’re welcome to forget the clothing anytime you like.”

“Thanks. But you don’t get a vote—you lust after my body.” Her teeth nipped at his lower lip. “Why do you think it came back now?”

“Maybe it was time—you were ready for it.”

She gave him a sweet kiss. “I think you helped with that. Made me understand that my soul hadn’t been destroyed by that monster. That I survived in every way.”

He didn’t agree. She was the one who’d fought to reclaim her life. “Your courage amazes me.”

“And your love makes me whole.” She made her confession without shame.

He wanted so much to say it back but the words stuck in the fading grip of Silence. He’d never be easy saying love words.

Her lips brushed his. “I know, baby. I can feel you loving me deep inside.”

Judd figured he must’ve done something right along the way. How else could a rebel Arrow have earned the right to call this amazing woman his own? Even if it was a mistake, too damn bad. He was never giving her up.

In the psychic plane of the LaurenNet, a wave of love traveled in every direction, emanating from a bond that was not Psy but changeling, a bond that tied an assassin to a wolf, a bond that was…unbreakable.