Chapter Twenty-four
With the help of two Guardians, Lexine brought Jett to her apartment. After they left, she stripped him of his blood-soaked clothes and sponge bathed him. She arranged his weapons carefully on the couch.
As Raphael had warned her, Jett slept for hours. She lay down next to him on the bed. When he finally stirred, the sun hung high in the sky.
His fingers brushed her hair. “Lex?”
She propped herself up on her elbow and kissed him. Light. Tender.
He lifted the blanket and looked under it. “I’m nude.”
“Yes.”
“I’m healed.”
“Yes.”
“But I lost too much blood to survive the healing fever. How…?”
“Raphael.”
“Raphael went to the lake house?”
“He’s fine. He’s back at home.” She bit her lip. “I think I heard Lark yelling from here, though.”
Jett sat up. The ivory sheet pooled around his waist. “Why did Raphael go after me?”
“Because I asked him to.”
“You what?”
She lifted her chin. “After you left, I went to see Ginger. I saw her computer and the pictures of the lake house. That kitchen floor was in my dream. I saw you die on that floor. I had to do something. I asked for help the only place I could think of.”
He glowered at her. “Lexine.”
She folded her arms and stared right back.
“I love you.”
The tension eased from her body, and she took his face in her hands. “I love you, too.”
He pulled her down to the pillows with him. An arm over her chest and a leg over her thighs, he held her, his eyes closed.
“Lawrence is dead,” he said after a while. “So is the accomplice who kidnapped Bryce.”
She nodded. “I’m not glad for death, but I’m glad we’re all a little safer.”
“Yes.”
“Raphael called a little while ago. He said to tell you Drew will be fine.”
“I’m glad. You’ll never believe who I talked to.”
“Who?”
“My father. While I was bleeding out on the floor, I heard his voice.”
She held him tighter. “What did he say?”
“That he loved me, and that he left something for me in his office.”
“Then we better go see, shouldn’t we? How are you feeling?”
He kissed her lips and worked his way down to her throat. “I feel fine, but we’ll go out later. First, we have a problem. Two problems, actually.”
“Oh?”
“First, I’m nude, but you’re not.” He eased her sweater over her head. He unhooked her bra and flung it across the room. He kissed her stomach and worked her jeans free of her hips, tossing them away, as well. Her panties followed.
“Second.” He knelt between her legs, his hands flat on her belly. “I still want you. I still love you.”
She bit her lower lip.
“Lex, there is a job I have to do, and a strong female I want by my side. I’ll have long hours, grave responsibilities, and my life will be in immediate danger at times. We won’t always be able to protect each other. But, if you’re willing, I want to love you and have you as my mate.”
She sat up and laced her fingers into his hair. “Yes.”
She’d barely gotten the word out when he seized her mouth in a fierce kiss. He ran his tongue over her fangs and sucked her lower lip into his mouth as his hands smoothed over her body. When his mouth followed his hands, he teased her with his fangs and she cried out.
They made love, their union both a relief and an additional torment. He stilled, pinning her beneath his weight. He lifted her left hand and kissed her fingers. The back of her hand. Her palm. Her wrist. He kissed his way up the tender skin to just below the crook of her elbow, pressed down with his fangs, and met her gaze.
She rubbed his nape with her free hand. “Yes, Juneau.”
“No.”
“No?”
“Not yet.” He nibbled her skin. “Not until after I’ve told Lark and Raphael we’ll be taking at least a few days to be alone.”
“Ah.” She smiled. “Good plan.”
…
That evening, Jett returned to the office where his father had worked for so many years. He lit the demon fire lantern on the desk. Jett pulled the journals from the shelf and set them carefully on the table. He opened the safe. Inside, a set of gold wings—fascinating in their intricacy for their inch width—rested in a box on a piece of black velvet. A note in his father’s handwriting stated that he’d made them himself, just in case his son took the path of an archangel’s Guardian.
Jett couldn’t sense anything unusual, but he knew his father stood at his side at that moment. “Thank you, Dad. I haven’t earned these yet, but I will. I promise.”
Jett closed the safe and replaced the journals, leaving the wings for safekeeping, and left the office. No rest for Guardian trainees, especially if he wanted to earn the time to properly make Lexine his mate.
Chapter Twenty-five
Another month of training passed before Jett took Lexine out of the colony in a black SUV fitted with a standard Vermont plate on the back and the “I am Vermont Strong” plate on the front. A trip like this would be next to impossible after he became an official Guardian to Raphael’s family, so as irregular as it was, he insisted on the plan and the colony provided the funds as a mating gift. They packed for a week, including everything they needed to pass off as humans. He’d had plenty of experience with that, after all. They’d only need to mind their fangs.
Niagara Falls, not because it was a popular wedding destination, but to take Lexine to the plethora of wineries in the area. He’d hoped the trip would make her happy, and sure enough, they went all day and most of the night, nonstop, so she could see everything she wanted to see.
Well, almost nonstop. On their second night, after viewing the falls, they returned to their room, bathed together, and curled up in bed.
“You’re sure you don’t want something more fancy?”
“I just want you,” she said.
He cradled her in his arms and pressed his mouth to hers, taking his time, just savoring her presence, her skin, her scent. Kissing his way down her throat and arm, he pinched her skin with his teeth, teasing her. She shivered.
“Jett,” she said. “Please.”
He wrapped one arm around her shoulders and lifted her left arm—the traditional choice—to his lips. He kissed the soft skin just below her elbow and pressed his fangs in just hard to break the surface, numbing the spot with venom. Pausing, he let the full weight of what he was doing wash over him. He trembled and his heart flailed, unable to maintain a steady rhythm. “I love you,” he whispered.
He tightened his embrace and bit harder. He targeted muscle, aiming to infuse her body with venom without spilling any more of her blood than necessary—he’d been man enough to get some advice on technique, though the conversation had been uncomfortable as hell. For Lexine, it was worth it. He wanted this done right. Within seconds, pain coursed through his body, an effect of the forming mating bond, which he’d been warned about.
Her body tensed as the same unusual pleasure-pain rocked through her, her fingers fisted in his hair. After she relaxed with a contented sigh, and his own discomfort gave way to pleasant warmth, he withdrew his fangs. He licked her wound and held a white cloth to her skin until the bleeding stopped. All the while, she gazed up at him, her head resting on his shoulder.
She kissed him. “I love you.”
He opened his eyes wide at the sound of her voice in his mind. “I thought they were joking.”
“Someone told you?” She scowled. “I wanted to surprise you.”