Page 6 of Kiss the Dawn (Order of Helsing #4)

I made to scream, but a hand covered my mouth and the scent of sweet evergreen hit me.

Ordell?

The shadows fell away, dispersing to reveal my mate, as if they’d been nothing but a cloak. “What. The. Fuck.” My words were muffled by his hand.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.” He released me.

“What was that? How did you?—”

“I don’t know. I just…I have a key, and I wanted to see you, and I remember thinking I didn’t want to wake anyone, so I let myself in and then…This happened. I think it’s a new development for the curse.”

“A handy one.”

He was leaning over me, one knee on the mattress, his hand now pressed to the spot beside my head. Heat beat off him and kissed my skin, and something inside me stirred.

He must have sensed it because his eyes darkened, gaze dropping to my mouth. He licked his bottom lip. “There’s an hour before dawn. If we’re quiet, then?—”

“Yes.” My whisper kissed his lips, hands coasting over his muscle-rounded shoulders to slide up his powerful neck and into his silken locks. I claimed his bottom lip, sucking on it and pulling him down to me, over me, so that he was crushing me into the mattress.

“Orina…”

“I want you.”

“Yes.”

“Now.”

“Yes.” He unzipped the sleeping bag, unwrapping me like a prize.

His hot fingers grazed my skin as he lifted my sleep tee to press his mouth to my stomach.

He licked my belly button and trailed hot kisses up my torso, nudging my sleep tee out of the way as he went. My lungs grew tight, breath coming fast and shallow as he bared me, inching closer and closer to?—

The flat of his tongue ran over my nipple, and I arched, swallowing a cry as a sweet ache bloomed there. He covered it with his mouth, sucking hard enough to make my pussy throb. I clawed at his scalp, holding him to me as he did things to my breasts that left me wet and pulsing.

“Ordell…Please. ”

The soft snap of his waistband was followed by a tug as he yanked down my panties. I kicked them off, opening for him to settle between my thighs, his hot, hard length pressed to the hungry, wanton part of me.

“I’ve wanted you for so long,” he growled.

I knew what he meant. His beast may have chosen me, but it was Ordell with me now. Just us. Consummating what had sparked between us all those months ago.

He rolled his hips, velvet skin caressing the soft places between my thighs, his cock sliding over my sensitive flesh, teasing my clit in a way that formed knots in my breath. I gripped his biceps, digging into taut flesh with my nails as he continued to tease, rubbing until I was hurtling toward being undone.

“Please, Ordell, please?—”

He kissed me hard, swallowing my plea as he adjusted himself so that he was pushing at my entrance. I pushed my hips up, and he sank into me, inch by inch, stretching me until I was gasping into his mouth, hips jerking to urge him on.

He groaned into my mouth then broke the kiss, cursing raggedly as he bottomed out. “Ah, fuck, fuck.”

I was full, too full to the point of pain, and yet it felt so fucking good. I shifted my hips, and he froze, cock jumping inside me in a way that made my eyes roll.

His large hands bracing my hips flexed in warning. “Don’t. Fucking. Move.”

Wicked delight flared in my chest, and I shifted again, biting back a cry as his cock hit that same spot that made my insides clench.

He growled, and the low reverberation made my nipples hurt with how hard they got.

I licked my lips, looking down between us at the spot where his body fused with mine. “Ordell, did you lock the door?”

“Yes.” He rolled his hips, and a low moan crawled up my throat. “You need to make noise?”

“Yes…Oh fuck, yes.”

He adjusted his grip. “Yeah?” He withdrew a fraction, and a sob bloomed in my chest as my body mourned the loss, but then he slammed back in, and my vision whited out for a moment.

His low growl of satisfaction vibrated through me before he did it again, and again, until I was sobbing and clawing at his arms, begging him to keep going, to not stop until the words turned to strangled sounds of pleasure that rose above the slap of flesh on flesh, and my climax hit in rolling waves that left me trembling at his mercy.

Only then did he withdraw so he could find release. I gripped his cock, pumping him as he came.

He dropped his forehead to mine, breathing hard as we came back down to earth together.

“I need to get some protection,” he said. “We were forced to be careless last time.” He searched my face. “It’s not that I don’t want to have children with you, I just…I can’t risk passing the curse on especially now that…”

“You think the triplets may have it…”

He groaned and closed his eyes. “I’ve completely killed the vibe, haven’t I?”

I wrapped my arms around his neck. “No. I want you to talk to me about this stuff. To share your worries and your thoughts with me.”

He regarded me with a soft gaze. “I love that about you. I…I love you.”

Joy ballooned inside me. “Yeah?”

“Yeah.” He rubbed noses with me, expecting nothing in return for the gift he’d just given me, for the words that echoed the feelings deep inside me. Feelings that had begun weeks ago. Feelings I’d pushed aside because they’d seemed impossible.

I cupped his face and stared deep into his eyes. “I love you too, Ordell. So very much.”

He exhaled sharply, the silver flecks in his ocean blues glowing before he kisssed me with such tenderness it made my heart hurt.

When he drew back, there were shadows in his eyes. “I wish I could come with you.”

“Yeah, me too. But I’ll be back soon. Five days, in fact. Ezekiel’s orders.”

He chuckled and dropped another kiss on my lips. “Sounds about right. I should shower and get cleaned up. Care to join me?”

My phone chose that moment to ring, and Ordell plucked it off the bed above us and handed it to me. “It’s Micah. I’ll get the stall steamed up.” He hauled his sexy ass toward my ensuite, leaving me to take the call.

“Hey, Micah.”

“Orina. Are you okay?”

“Why wouldn’t I be?”

“I heard there was some kind of personnel audit being done, and I hadn’t heard from you. It’s protocol for me to be checking in so…just ticking a box.”

Protocol…shit. “Actually, I have to leave Dracul territory for a couple of days.”

His tone sharpened. “What? Where and why?”

He was going to find out soon enough when Hemlock and the mageri pressed the Order. “Do you know about the Isle?”

He was silent long enough for me to deduce that he did, but he was trying to gauge how much I knew.

I decided to make it easier for him. “I know there are witches there.”

“How can you know?”

“Because it turns out I was born there.”

No one said a word in the sitting room when Ordell and I walked in together, but the looks on their faces spoke volumes.

They knew what we’d been up to .

Lorenzo was on the balcony on his phone. I grabbed coffee then joined him. It was overcast and dull outside, but the air was crisp and clean, giving my body the wakeup that great sex and a shower had been unable to.

If Lorenzo had heard anything, he didn’t show it, holding a finger up to indicate that I wait a moment as he finished his call.

“Right…I understand…” he said into the phone. “That works for us. Thank you. Bye.”

“Everything okay?”

“Fine. A car will be picking us up in an hour to take us to our Rim transport.”

My stomach bubbled. “And we’ll be on the road for a day and a night?”

“Yes. The vehicle is an armored mobile home design, so it will be perfectly comfortable. The route we’re taking is also one of the safest.”

“Have you been out there before? Into the Rim?”

“Once or twice.”

Ordell stepped onto the balcony behind me and wrapped his arms around my waist. I leaned back into his warmth on instinct.

“I’m Ordell,” he said to Lorenzo.

“Yes, your brother said you’d be joining us this morning, although I didn’t hear you come in.” His eyes narrowed. “I’m a light sleeper.”

He was also mageri and probably had some kind of mystical radar .

Ordell shrugged. “I can be stealthy when I want to be.”

Lorenzo’s expression said he didn’t buy it. “What did you do to cloak yourself?” he asked bluntly.

Ordell tensed. “Why do you need to know?”

“Because there should be no way that you could sneak past me, and yet you did, so it either means my instincts are failing or you’re using a power that is stronger than my detection ability,” Lorenzo said. “I’m hoping it’s the latter.”

“It’s the latter,” Ordell said. “Your instincts are fine.”

“Good,” Lorenzo said.

And that was all. He didn’t probe further, and after a few seconds, Ordell relaxed and asked, “Do you believe there’s a loophole in this contract her family has with the witches?”

“I believe it’s worth examining,” Lorenzo said.

“And if there isn’t?”

Lorenzo’s gaze flicked to me, and he arched a brow as if to say You haven’t told him, then?

I’d been hoping to avoid it. I’d told Hemlock the consequences of not finding a loophole, but I was pretty sure he hadn’t shared that with Ezekiel or Ordell, and Ezekiel had asked me about it in our dream visit, and now Ordell was here and wanted to know.

Heck, he deserved to know. “If there is no loophole, then I’ll have to go back there once the curse is broken and marry some witch guys. ”

Ordell’s body, already taut, stiffened so it was like leaning against stone. A low, menacing growl vibrated his chest. “No.”

My stomach hollowed. “Yes, Ordell. As much as I hate the idea, there is a threat on that Isle, and I’m a big part in helping them to fight it. They need the immunity in my genes.” I explained the ancient blessing and how it was stuck on me right now. “If we can’t find a way to shift it to Eliza, then I’ll have to step in.”

His chest heaved against my back. “That won’t happen because Mr. Crescent will find a loophole.”

“I’ll do my best,” Lorenzo said.

“They’re not having her,” Ordell replied.

Lorenzo sighed. “We can worry about that if the time comes.”

I had no doubt that if that time came, the men that were quickly finding a place in my heart wouldn’t let me go so easily.