"You still have your clothes on and I'm totally nude."
He bent over her, his breath warm when he got close to her breasts. "Always good at stating the obvious, aren't you?"
When his mouth pulled on her nipple, all coherent thought fled her mind. Only Drew's mouth and the distant sound of the chanters mattered in the universe.
* * * *
Drew felt crazed. He had to tone it down or he was going to take Marina in a frenzy he'd regret later and probably hurt her in the process. No, he needed to breathe. In through his nose, out through his…
Marina stroked his cock and it jumped in his pants. He'd not been so hard since…well, he couldn't remember the last time. Sex had always been really uninteresting to him the few times he'd done it and once he'd understood the soul mate concept he didn't want it with anyone but her.
He'd spent so much time pushing down his constant need for her; his desire might actually explode from his body.
"Drew." She wiggled her arms and he let them go although he'd have them back restrained before the night was over. He'd spent too many nights imagining her the way he had her, gloriously naked with his arms pressing into hers while his cock brought her pleasure over and over again.
Marina placed his hands on both his cheeks. "Don't get lost in your head. Be here with me."
"I'm not lost." He sucked on her other nipple because it was so pink, and pretty, like it called out for him to do so. She tasted of cherries and he moaned when he did because even though he would have thought it impossible his balls hardened even more than they had. "You found me."
With his mouth on her, he could feel when the goosebumps broke out all over body. All from his speaking to her telepathically? He'd all but denied her the mental touch, basically to save himself, for years. Guilt rushed in as it always did whenever he dwelled on the years he'd had no choice but to keep himself away from her.
"Like me in your mind?" He pressed in again. To do so felt like a caress, like he could touch her, thought to thought, as he could stroke her body with his fingertips.
"I do." She replied and he grinned.
"Stay there," he whispered. No one would hear them. The cave had great walls, which kept everything nice and private. "I like you in my head." Feel how I need you."
He ran his hands down her body, stopping to explore every curve he'd kept his palms off for so long. She was softer than he imagined. He'd not known how perfectly his hand would fit around her hip, or the way something primal in him would open up when he smoothed the skin over her stomach. They didn't have gentle lives but he would see to it nothing ever harmed her.
To love Marina was his privilege. He'd lived with not having her. He wouldn't abuse the gift she was to him.
"I need to touch you. Will you take off your clothes already? Or let me do it?"
Drew smiled. The muscles in his cheeks ached from disuse. When was the last time he'd felt as much as happiness as he did lying in the bed with her? Had he ever?
"You keep your hands to yourself. You touch me and I'm lost."
He did want her fingers running up his abs, stroking his cock, in his mouth where he could suck on them. Not all at once but over the course of time. First, he wanted to pleasure her and doing so wouldn't happen if he let her feel him too soon.
The last thing Drew wanted was to come in her hand before he felt her sweet pussy around his cock. He moved back only long enough to shed his clothes before he pressed his naked body on top of hers.
"You're beautiful. You know that right? There isn't a woman anywhere who can compare to you."
She pursed her lips. "You look at me through soul-mate tinted glasses."
"Bullshit. I would love you regardless of how you appeared on the outside. Trust me when I say, you are the walking definition of female perfection."
She sucked in a gasp. "You've never said the words before."
He knew exactly to what she referred. "Female perfection?"
Marina pinched his arm. "Ass."
"Minx."
He kissed her again, because he had to, because he loved it, because he could. Drew leaned on his side before he stroked her body, tracing a line from her chin down to her core. He pushed a finger inside of her, feeling her warmth before he found her clit.
A shudder worked through him. This was really happening. All of the imagining didn't compare. The little noises she made, the way she squirmed. He hadn't known how precious she would be to him.
How the intense need he'd always had to protect her would double in an instant. His need for Marina surpassed everything else in the universe.
She sucked in her breath. "I've never…" Her voice trailed off.
"I know. Trust me?"
"Completely."
Her fast answer alone would have brought him to his knees were he standing. Instead, with shaking hands, he scooted backwards until he could line up his head with her sweet pussy. His mouth watered. He dreamed of getting to taste her.
She smelled sweet and so completely his. "Keep your knees open for me."
"Are you going to—"
Before she could finish her sentence, he licked her clit. As though he'd been born to do so—and he supposed he had been—he found her bundle of nerves immediately. She tasted like manna from heaven. Strawberries and honey, Marina tasted of all his favorite things. He licked and nipped, loving every second of his pleasuring her, with each moan she made moving through him as though the pleasure noise sounded from him.
Her pleasure was his.
"Oh." She sighed her words. "Drew. Yes. More. That."
He loved hearing her voice, only he would have known what to do from the way her body squirmed alone. Each movement showed him what she liked and what she didn't. He'd give her anything, everything. Whatever she wanted. Always.
Drew sent the last thought into her mind and it surged her forward until she came around his tongue. He'd never felt so completely happy, as though he was finally doing what he'd been born to.
When she calmed, he pulled back to look at her. "You are so beautiful."
She sighed loudly. "Drew. You blow my mind. Inside of me. Please. That was…fantastic. But I've dreamed of our joining for so long."
"Whatever my girl wants."
With his attention off pleasuring Marina, he became all too aware of the ache in his balls. If he wasn't careful, this was going to be a 1-2-3 experience.
"Think I care?" She smirked. "We have our whole lives to get this right."
"Still in my head? Reading my thoughts." He kissed her chin because it was so cute and it jutted out the way it did. Perfect place to plant one. "I don't even feel you in there." As though having Marina a presence in his mind was as natural as breathing.
She smiled, wrapping her arms around his neck. "I'm sneaky that way."
Marina meant the world to him. Did the word love carry enough emphasis on how he felt? How could he really tell her?
"Drew…" She gasped. "Read me. Stay in my head. Know I feel the same way."
"Stay in your mind?" He grinned. "I think the depths of you Marina would be endless and I would get lost, never to be found again." If she loved him even a fraction of the way he did her, he'd never be able to function in the real world again. He'd roll around in her regard and forget to come up for air. Better he stay where he was. "I'm told the first time can be uncomfortable for women."
She shook her head, her brown hair falling over her shoulder. He pushed it back. With it splayed on the pillow she was something out of a painting. He wanted to remember her exactly like she was.
"I think somehow I'm going to survive."
Drew positioned himself to enter her and then with as much gentleness as he could muster, pushed into Marina's welcoming warmth. A million sensations travelled through him with the strongest and most resounding being the absolute rightness of their joining. She stretched to fit him, each inch he travelled earning him a shudder and a moan from his love.
"Good?" He could barely speak but he
got out the question.
Her eyes were lidded as she stared up at him. "Come in my head and see how I'm feeling."
He'd never dove into her mind before, except to send telepathic messages. Deep inside of her, connected as they were, to enter her thoughts was the easiest thing in the world to do. He slipped in. There were too many feelings to keep track of them all. So he bathed in all of them before his cock insisted he move.
Drew pushed in as far as he could and he took a deep breath before he pulled out, achingly slowly. Marina raised her hips to meet him, helping him glide in and out of her in a movement as old as time itself, which seemed brand new to him. He closed his eyes—in and out—he needed her. By the gods, he did.
"Open your eyes. I'm really here."
He hadn't even really realized he'd put distance between them, that he'd dwelled in disbelief. Drew did as she told him; he would always do whatever Marina instructed. He was hers and he'd been an ass to try to hold this off. Pleasure threatened to consume him.
Marina arched beneath him. "Drew. Oh. I had no idea."
Neither had he. He hadn't understood how it would be between the two of them. Over and over, in and out. Reaching between them, he found her clit and rubbed, loving the way her eyes widened when he did.
"Oh. Wow." She cried out, her muscles spasming around him like a vise, squeezing him, milking his cock while her pussy drenched him.
He couldn't hold back anymore. They'd reached their time, they were joined.
Drew spilled himself inside of her, deep and binding. His soul mate. Forever.
Nothing would ever separate them again.
Sometime later he must have moved off her, life blurred into before Marina and after, like everything before their joining was nothing more than prologue.
Drew drifted back to life, to their situation all at once. Marina dozed in his arms, leaning her head against his chest. She breathed deeply. He bet if he went back to sleep they'd meet up in their garden. Maybe he'd been there for a while. Sometimes he couldn't remember. Who knew why?
They spent the whole day in the bed and he couldn't feel bad about it.
Drew hadn't given a thought about the demon, not since he'd woken up and given in to what had to be between him and Marina. He rubbed at his chest, where he'd always imagined the demon lived—in his heart. No way could he protect her from the evil anymore. If he'd been stronger, he'd have found a path where she wouldn't be hurt. She stirred, but not next to him. Instead, he felt it in his head.
Drew ran a circle on her back. "Don't wake up because I'm going dark." He hoped his words in her head would soothe her. "It's nothing new, just the fucked up part of me I'll never get rid of."
Chapter Eight
Marina had gotten incredibly bored with the group think going on with the Outsiders. Zane, their newest member who looked downright wild with his long hair and cruel blue eyes, hadn't uttered a word past hello when they'd been introduced. She couldn't blame him. Joining up with fifteen of them was downright terrifying.
She let her mind wander into Drew's. His attention seemed riveted, watching the argument between Gabriel and Samuel who argued seemingly about every small detail. All of them needed to go see the scribe. The hows and the whats of their job would be worked out. Why did they have to establish every little thing before they left? Nothing ever worked out as they designed it anyway.
Even Eden's visions altered too much to be counted on for much lately.
And the one man who should be sorting through the bullshit hadn't uttered a word.
"What is wrong with Leonardo?"
Drew drummed on his leg but otherwise gave no external indication he'd heard her at all. "He does seem off. Whatever. I don't have any desire whatsoever to get involved in anymore bullshit. It's you and me, 'Rina. We're involved in this as much as it allows me to keep you safe."
She didn't want to argue, particularly over telepathy, only Drew had to stop kidding himself. Their life would never be about the two of them and no others. They had a war to win before they'd have any chance of happiness. Why couldn't he see what the others did?
"Because I'm stubborn, honey." He rubbed the back of her neck. "And I want what I want. I've had enough Sebastian. What I want is you."
"Our lives can never be entirely our own."
"Bullshit."
Marina's hands hurt. She looked down at her palm, rubbing it. Why did she feel like she was about to crawl out of her skin?
"You okay?" Drew's voice moved through her head.
"No."
She jumped to her feet. "Enough with this crap. Who cares about the details? There's a person out there who needs us. Whose only crime is he was born to have this stupid role where he writes our destinies. I'm sure he'd rather be doing something else. Baseball or something. Who cares?"
"Marina. You're sounding like you're ranting again. The past lives bugging you again?"
Damn Drew. Why did he have to sound so calm and rational? Why wasn't he annoyed?
"No, I'm not thinking about past lives."
"We have to go." She'd stomp her foot if doing so would get them moving. "Now. Leonardo, help me."
Her oldest friend eyed her silently for a moment. "What do you think, Drew? Do you want to go? Save the scribe?"
What the hell was Leonardo playing at here? "I'm talking to you, not Drew."
"I can hear you. I asked Drew a question. What do you want to do?"
Her soul mate stepped forward, tension evident in the way he held his neck, slightly to the right. His posture wouldn't put anyone else off and yet she knew him. He was mad.
"I want you to answer my girl." Drew kept his gaze level with Leonardo.
Leonardo took another step. "You two brought this to us, you two decide."
"What is this? Some kind of new Leonardo who isn't micromanaging us?" Drew shook his head.
She could feel the frustration radiating off him. "Are you bored with being in charge?"
Their leader, who was making no sense, shrugged. "No. But there's a new policy in place here. Whoever brings us the mission, runs it. Drew, we are all in yours hands. Take care of us. Tonight, it's all on you. Unless you want me to make this all Marina's problem?"
"Dirty tricks, Leonardo." And strangely brilliant in the typical Leonardo don't-see-him-coming kind of a way. Somehow he knew Drew was all but checked out of their war. Putting him in charge and responsible for all of them gave Drew no choice but to reconnect.
"Wait just a damn minute…"
She leaned on Drew's arm. "I think he wants you to participate."
"Fuck. Fine. You want me to play a role in this? That's just what I'll do. Everyone out. Now. Some man with magical powers is all that's keeping us alive, I don't want demon boy to kill him."
The group gathered into their usual positions to travel through space. With only Gabriel and Drew holding the power to move all of them, it was all about the groupings to manage the distance.
She took her love's hand in her own. "When we were growing up, Veli used to call him the evil one. I think I like demon boy better."
"We're all so sick in the head." He tugged her against him. "Let's go save the scribe."
* * * *
"No one is here." Drew stated the obvious as he wandered through the house.
As a group, the Outsiders could be downright silent when need be. Marina stood listening to the crickets outside. At first glance, Drew was right. The scribe's house seemed empty of life.
"Not true." She shook her head. "I can feel him on my skin."
"What?" Drew looked at her, disbelief radiating in the lifting of his eyebrows.
If she made no sense to even her soul mate, she should consider herself lucky the others didn't lock her up.
How to explain? "I don't know if I can make more sense than I already did. I just know."
Leonardo nodded. "I trust you. If you feel him, he's here. Lead us to him."
"Now?" Drew shook his head. "You suddenly want to be in charge
."
Her best friend patted her soul mate on his back. "Just trying to motivate you, buddy."
Across the room, Jason groaned. Something male was going on here but she had little time or interest in figuring out the man-moodiness present in the room with her. The guys could work out their stuff later. They had some kind of male version of PMS.
She walked through the house, knowing all eyes were on her. Lately, being stared at had become her norm. Was it her fault her powers ran so differently than everyone else's? She'd never stared at Isabelle when she travelled through time, or thought Samuel crazy when he changed his appearance. How were they any more normal than her?
Marina couldn't worry about it anymore. Drew's presence surged into her mind. His worry bugged her. Did he really think she was going to get lost in past lives again?
"Maybe we don't have enough history here to know if you will or you won't."
There were downsides to telepathic communication. She wasn't going to be able to hide much.
Her skin crawled as she wandered the one story ranch house. Like something walked on her grave. If Drew picked up her thoughts, he no longer commented. Sebastian had wanted the scribe and being a demon, he wouldn't have been content with simply killing the man. The wards in the place looked solid.
Unlike the rest of the Outsiders, Marina could actually see the spells she and others set. The scribe's crisscrossed the whole outside of the house like a spider web. Unless there was a hole somewhere, and she highly doubted she'd find one, Sebastian hadn't been able to float his incorporeal self inside.
He had Alexa. She could have walked through the front door. Outsiders were clearly not forbidden inside. Then who knew what would happen?
Her skin went from crawling to burning and she nearly doubled over before she gripped the wall. In under two seconds, Drew was at her side.
"What is it?" He pulled her against him. "What's giving you pain?"
"Sebastian was here." She could feel him like it was the demon's arms around her instead of Drew's. "Let go."
Drew dropped his embrace and jolted backwards. "Did he get into you? Through me?"