“Oh, god, Koa.” My voice is a ragged whimper. My arms are limp around his shoulders.
He gradually slows and then holds me so tight in his arms. I feel as though I’ve ascended to the most beautiful place in the universe. Nothing compares to these moments of oneness with my beautiful panther.
Lifting his head, he looks deep in my eyes. “You and I will never be apart. Not ever again.”
I smile, touching his lips with the tips of my fingers. “No more going ahead without me, sending for me once you’ve found a place?”
“My place is wherever you are.”
“And my heart will always belong to you.”
He moves to the side, and I curl into him. His large hand strokes the skin of my back in warm circles. My entire body relaxes into him.
“I had pretty much decided my life was over when I set out from Princeton,” he says, and I love the vibration of his low voice.
“Then you came here,” I say with a grin.
His warm hand cups my chin, lifting it so our eyes meet. “I’d do it all again so we could be together. I love you, Mercy.”
Reaching for him, I pull my body against his, the warmth of completion hugging around my heart. “I love you, Koa. I can’t wait to start our life together.”
He leans down, nibbling the side of my neck. Shivers scatter down my body, and I laugh in delight. “We’ll start our life tomorrow. Tonight I’m catching up on everything I missed.”
“Insatiable,” I purr against the side of his face. He rises and captures my lips, pushing them apart and taking me with an aggressive growl. It’s incredible and amazing and everything I want.
He lifts his head and looks deep in my eyes. “We’ve been to hell and back. The only thing left for us is heaven.”
His gorgeous mouth covers mine, and heaven is right where he takes me.
The End.
New Start
Koa
Soft beige sand slips between our toes as we walk along the shoreline barefoot. Breakers crash, and the briny air pushes Mercy’s long dark waves behind us. The day is cool, but our shifter blood keeps us warm, and Mercy is hugged tight against my side, my arm around her shoulders as we walk. She’s holding my waist with a contented smile on her lips.
Bayville, New Jersey, is a far cry from San Francisco. I still can’t believe Mercy agreed to go east instead of west when we finally sorted out her situation in Woodland Creek.
Once Hayden was exposed as the lying motherfucker he is, he returned in a self-righteous godlike huff to the underworld to lick his wounds, and I’m sure regroup to resume his trickery on some other unsuspecting female.
Mercy stayed with me in my aunt’s garage apartment until she was sure Dylan and Penny were settled and could stay in the mansion. The High Council granted her family ownership rights of the house and the grounds as restitution for all the years they’d been enslaved to Hayden. He claimed he didn’t want the place anyway.
We were all set to head west when Slayde called me out of the blue one night.
“We could use a guy like you,” he’d said, an unexpected smile in his voice. “Instead of starting over alone in a new city, think about coming home where you have friends.”
Friends. Yes, we are friends. Saving Mercy had changed everything, and my old bitterness at his work and his new life has been washed away.
Still, I couldn’t ask Mercy to give up her dreams. It’s exactly what Hayden had done. I hadn’t expected my beautiful little lynx to be right at my shoulder listening to our conversation.
“Derek Alexander gave Slayde a second chance,” she’d said later that evening after I’d fucked her royally and was holding her in my arms. “Who says he couldn’t do the same for you?”
“Mercy,” I exhaled against her skin, pressing my lips against her beautiful neck where I’d tasted her. “I found my second chance the moment I laid eyes on you.”
Pushing me onto my back, she’d propped her elbows on my shoulders and looked deep into my eyes. “Tell me about Princeton. Could I do my art there?”
“Slayde and Kenny actually live in Bayville. It’s a little coastal town about forty-five minutes away. Kenny is a painter.”