Page 35 of Countdown to Murder (A Paranormal Halloween #3)
One Year Later
Mira
I awoke before the sun rose, managed to get out of bed without waking my lion, donned leggings and a long-sleeved shirt, grabbed my running shoes and four protein bars made special for my needs, and snuck out onto the back deck.
I ate two of the bars, donned my shoes, took a few moments to stretch, and ran towards the woods behind our house.
Our house.
We lived just down the road from the home where Nathan’s personal Pride lived, and we were responsible for their security when we were home. In fact, the trail I was running on would take me to the Pride lands. My legs pumped, and the forest went by me in a blur.
We lived on a mountain, and I ran to an overlook, sat, and ate the other two bars while I watched the sun rise and illuminate the earth. Our mountain isn’t especially tall, but it let me see the shadow move across the valley, chased away by the sun.
So much had happened in a year. It had taken me nearly two weeks to recover from the silver poisoning, and a few days in — when I was bawling my eyes out because I was so fucking weak, and so damned pissed off, and thinking up ways to hurt Apollonius and whoever else had forced the Slayers to bring me to the edge of death — Panda had told me he loved me for the first time.
I think, if he’d handed me flowers and tried to make it romantic, I might not have believed him. May not have understood the depth of the feelings that made him say it.
But in that moment, when I looked into his eyes, I got it. He loved all of me — sick-and-weak-and-pissed-off Mira, plotting-for-revenge Mira, descendant-of-Echidna Mira, ex-assassin Mira, former-virgin-who’s-learning-about-sex Mira. All the parts of me, even the ones that aren’t so pretty.
And I’d realized in that moment how much I cared for him. I’d felt my heart reaching for his, and the words had come out without angst or worry or fear.
“I love you, too, with all my heart, and with every cell in my body.”
Apollonius hadn’t started the paperwork to try to have me returned on the summer solstice until forty-five days before.
In my opinion, he’d been prepared to write me off as a loss, but then they saw me function quite well as a Drake employee, and changed their minds.
Unfortunately for them, Mordecai pulled in some little-known law that applied only to the descendants of Chrysaor, and he even brought the old god into the human realm to argue for my freedom.
Chrysaor was Echidna’s father, which meant, for the first time ever, I knew someone I was related to. And, more than that, he stepped in and protected me simply because I was his.
Chrysaor is the son of Poseidon and Medusa, which means I have quite a heritage. So far, I haven’t met anyone else I’m related to.
Panda and I had spent a week in Faerie, and my great-great-ten-thousand-times-great-grandfather taught me more about my magic, my control, and my abilities. My limbs never turn into snakes during orgasm anymore, or any other time I don’t mean for them to.
And Drake security made us a permanent pair, always sent out together.
Panda and I work well as a unit, but that took some work, too.
We decide who will be in charge when we are given the case.
Most of the time, he’s in charge when we guard a female, and I’m in charge when we guard a male.
It makes it simpler, since this puts one of us on the job of protecting the client close-up and the other from a little farther away.
The one with the best view, farther away, is in charge.
If a particular job speaks to one of our skill sets, though, then that person is in charge.
The sun was fully up, and I ran across the top of the mountain, to look off to the west, where parts of the sky weren’t fully lit. The moon hadn’t yet set, and I mentally lined the sun, earth, and moon up in my head, visualizing the shadow of the earth on the just-past-crescent moon.
Tonight would be one year since that first orgasm, but that wasn’t really when everything had changed.
No, everything changed for me when Panda came into my life. I hadn’t known it at the time, but he brought feelings into my world that Fawn hadn’t been able to help me experience. She’d tried, but they weren’t there.
It didn’t take long for me to run the three miles back home, and the chilly, fall air felt easier to run through than the summer, humid, soupy air had.
Panda had pancake batter in a bowl, bacon already cooked, and the bacon grease ready for the steaks and eggs — and pancakes.
I’m better at cooking now that I have to eat so much, so I cooked the eggs and kept an eye on the steaks while he made the pancakes, which turned out to be peach pancakes because he knows how happy that makes me.
“Peach preserves on peach pancakes, drenched in butter, with a side of steaks, eggs, and bacon,” I commented after I’d had my first bite of pancakes. “I feel special, Panda.”
“Good, because you are. How was your run?”
“Nice. I stopped for longer than I usually do to watch the sun come up. Today’s kind of an anniversary for us, isn’t it?”
He put his fork down. “Yes, it is, and once I’ve fed you, and you’ve had a shower, I’m taking you back to bed.”
* * * *
Panda
While Mira showered, I opened my gun safe and pulled the ring out. In my mind, the anniversary was the following day, but I could see how she’d view it as today. The nearly four hours in the SUV, handing out candy, and then her first true sexual experience.
Still, I’d planned to ask her to marry me the following day, and I was going to stick to it.
Kirsten was going to flash us to the beach house, which I’d rented for the week.
She’d also flash the meal I’d ordered from Mira’s favorite restaurant to us, so we could have a romantic dinner on the porch with the waves crashing upon the shore, and I could ask her to marry me in the house we’d first made love.
Okay, so our first time had been rough-ish sex, but we’d made love later.
Today was about friends and family. I’d expressed to Nathan how I was torn between Halloween parties.
The new Master Vampire had invited us to their party at the coterie house, we’d been invited to Aaron Drake’s home, and the RTMC had invited us to their party.
Nathan had mentioned he’d be expected at Homewood since he lives there part time, so he’d only be able to stop in at the Drake party, which wouldn’t really work, either.
And because he’s Nathan, he brought everyone together to talk about it, and now there was going to be one huge party. Homewood seemed the best location because it was large enough to handle everyone, and because the wolves are friends with all the factions.
I looked at our costumes, hanging on the laundry-room door, and smiled.
The theme this year was television and movie characters, leaning towards sit-coms, and the best pairing of the night was going to be Josef and Ronnie, who were going as Lucifer and Chloe.
The devil and the detective. It was perfect.
Nathan, Mordecai, and Kirsten were going as book characters. As of the previous day, Nathan and Mordecai still hadn’t resolved who would be Morelli and who would be Ranger.
My love and I had considered going as Mr. and Mrs. Smith, because if it’s ever us against the world, then it doesn’t look good for the rest of the planet, but then Mira had told me she wanted to be Scully, and I didn’t really mind being Mulder.
I could shave my beard and wear a suit, and Mira can rock a blond wig.
I heard the sound of the water change and was pretty sure she was rinsing the conditioner from her hair. I went to the dryer to pull the three towels out I’d put in.
* * * *
Mira
My crazy lion was standing outside the shower with warm towels when I turned the water off. I let him wrap me in the biggest, and I leaned over and put my hair into the other. Wrapped in heavenly warmth, I let him dry my arms and shoulders, then my feet and legs, and finally my torso.
“Why did we put in for eight days off?” I asked.
He hadn’t told me before, but since today was our first official vacation day, maybe he would now.
Instead, he lifted me over his shoulder in a fireman’s carry, walked me to the bed, flipped me onto it, and was between my legs in seconds, and there was no room in my brain for thoughts. Those skilled fingers and heated, magical tongue. Fuck.
The sides of his tongue are soft and warm and heavenly, the top is like sandpaper, and he uses every available texture to take me to the heights of ecstasy.
Stroke after stroke. Layers of pleasure and bliss.
My back arched, lightning shot through my veins, and I surrendered everything to him. All of me.
And then he rose over me, and I pressed my hands to his chest, wanting to look at this beautiful sexy man who was all mine.
“Fuck, you’re beautiful,” I told him, “and I love you more than I know how to say.”
He lifted my legs, pressed my knees beside my ears, and teased my entrance with his cock.
“No one but you thinks I’m beautiful, Darlin’.”
“Then they’re all fucking blind.”
His gaze was molten heat, and I squeezed myself closed and then open, hoping he’d stop teasing.
“Want you. Need you.”
“I know what you need.”
And he did. He always knew what I needed.
Three hours later, we settled in for a nap, my head on his shoulder, one arm and one leg flung over his body.
“Did you set an alarm?”
“Yeah. Three o’clock.
Because I loved him so much, I wouldn’t tell him I’d overheard a conversation and knew he’d had a custom ring made for me, or that I’d made such good friends with the slayers in New Hampshire that three of them had called to let me know he’d rented the beach house for a week beginning November first. Ruth, of course, had more information than anyone else.
The two of us had grown quite close over the past year, and I was looking forward to seeing her again.
The ring had me wondering. Was it an anniversary gift, or was he going to ask me to marry him? I told myself I’d be okay either way, but in my heart, I hoped it was the latter.
I felt sleep taking me under, piling on top of pleasure and bliss, and once again thought that home was in my Panda’s arms.
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