Page 16 of The Never List (Never List #1)

Rylee

The carpet is soft beneath my bare feet as I race down the hallway, skidding to a halt at the top of the wide staircase.

Kal pauses at the bottom, eyes cast upward. They widen when he spots me.

“Have you slept at all?” he asks, climbing the stairs. He shrugs out of his leather jacket and folds it under one arm.

My breath is tight in my chest, some feral thing inside me wanting to roar at him while simultaneously sighing in relief at the sight of him alive. “That’s the first thing you have to say to me?”

He stops in front of me, towering a good six inches over my head. Confusion flickers in his eyes. “Is there something else I’m supposed to say?”

“How about an explanation!” I’m fuming, even though I feel like I can breathe for the first time in hours. “How about—” I stop short, noticing a cut above his left eyebrow. “You’re hurt,” I whisper, concern washing over me like a wave. I reach out on instinct, grabbing his wrist as if I can hold him there. I scan him, noting a smattering of other wounds seeping through his shirt. “Goddesses,” I say, a lump in my throat. “What happened?”

He shrugs. “I’m fine.”

“You’re bleeding.” No wound looks too deep or too serious, but fear crackles up my spine. “Where is your bathing chamber?”

Kal points toward his room.

“Come on, then,” I say, tugging him toward the double doors on his side of the floor. “Let me clean you up.”

“It’s not your responsibility,” he says but follows me anyway, tossing his jacket on a hall table. “I can handle it myself.”

I flash him a glare over my shoulder—one that doesn’t leave room for argument. We walk through the doors, and I give myself all of fifteen seconds to survey his rooms. The walls are a soft white, the furniture a combination of luxurious crimsons with pops of blue here and there. There’s a sitting area, a study area with a desk and tons of books, and a massive sleeping area with a bed draped in red silk sheets and thick white blankets, large enough for five or more people.

I spy the bathing chamber tucked in the farthest corner of the suite and head that direction, trying my best not to ogle the bed too closely—is that a mirror positioned above it?

The bathing chamber illuminates as I enter, and I’m grateful for the magical conveniences the Legends’ wealth affords them. It certainly saves me time. I force Kal to sit on the closed toilet while I hunt for cleaning materials.

“Under the washbasin,” he says, amusement dancing in his blue eyes.

The washbasin in question is set inside a polished marble slab spanning the length of the generous space, complete with a garnet stone shower that is larger than Ivy’s flat and a tub that Layce would literally murder someone to get a dip in.

Digging through the cabinets, I find what I need and quickly drop to my knees before Kal.

I reach for the bottom of his wrecked shirt. In this light, I can see black marks splattered across the material. “Are these… burn marks?” I ask, tugging it up and over his head.

Good goddess, the man is comprised of eons of smooth skin over rippling muscles that look flexed even though he’s just sitting there . What does he eat to look like that?

Warmth floods me at the memory of him devouring me , and my fingers tremble as I dab a cloth with purifying balm and start to work on his wounds.

He doesn’t even flinch. “Yes,” he answers, watching me work.

“I thought your power included ‘impervious to harm’ as well as ‘incredible strength and speed,’” I say, focusing on the next wound. His skin is burned around some of the cuts, but nothing is gushing, so I think we’re in the clear. “Not to mention immortality.”

“I can be harmed,” he says.

“Obviously.”

“But it’s difficult to do,” he explains. “These people…they have numbers and are hard to predict. They also have weapons, some advanced, some not. They got lucky. And yes, I’m immortal, thanks to my mother, so I won’t die of natural causes or old age. But I can be killed. It’s hard to do but not impossible.”

I swallow the rock in my throat. “Is everyone else okay?” Apprehension claws up my body at the thought of any of them hurt worse than this.

“Jax took a wound to the shoulder,” he says. “But he’s okay. Axl and Pierce handled the one that got him.”

I grind my teeth as I finish disinfecting and prepare to bandage. Except I freeze, clenching the bandages while I watch the wound I was about to cover seal itself. My eyes flick from his to his wounds and back again. They’re all sealing, even the one above his eyebrow.

I stand suddenly, taking a step back.

“I told you it wasn’t necessary,” he says.

I can’t stop scanning his chest and abdomen as if the wounds will reappear…but there’s nothing. Nothing but his glorious body, displaying all that strength. “Explain.”

“We heal faster than normal,” he says so matter-of-factly I almost laugh. “What happened tonight…” He sighs. “They have something. We’re not sure what, but it delays the process. Under normal circumstances, these would’ve healed before I got home.”

My mind whirls with the power he’s demonstrating. I knew all the Legends had powers I couldn’t fathom, but seeing it…seeing his body heal itself, it’s jarring.

My anger returns, and I focus my glare on him. “You should’ve warned me.”

“About my powers or about the potential for attack?”

“Both,” I say, though I know I’m being ridiculous. I can’t even really explain the rising anger myself. But there’s something inside me that’s furious with him for leaving me behind.

“I’ve known you all of two days,” he says, an edge to his tone I’ve not heard before. “I had no idea how you would react. The others never wanted to know about Legend business. They avoided it like the plague it can be—”

“I’m not them!” I toss the bandages at his chest, and his eyes flare wide. “I’ll never be them.” My entire body is shaking now, adrenaline pushing me right out the washroom door and into his bedchamber. I fully intend to stomp back to my room, but I run into Kal’s chest before I can even make it to the doors. I didn’t even see him appear in front of me.

I splay my palms on his bare skin, and heat soars through my blood at the contact.

“What are you more upset about?” he asks, gently clutching my wrists, holding me there when I try to move away. “That you didn’t know I could heal, or that I didn’t warn you about the dangers—”

“You left me behind,” I cut him off, the truth making my throat raw. “You left me…” Tears well up behind my eyes, angry and grief-stricken, and it hits me like a bolt of lightning.

The last time I was left behind, I lost Erin. I lost the other half of my heart, my sister, my soul’s twin. And I may not care for the Legends like I do my sister, but our survival is linked, and they left without any promises of returning.

“Rylee.” He sighs my name, the tone soft as he releases my wrists. “I didn’t mean to hurt you,” he says, “but I’ll always do whatever it takes to keep you out of danger.”

I raise my chin, allowing a little of my true self to seep through. “I’m not some dainty princess,” I say. “I’ve been taking care of myself for a very long time. If you’re looking for someone to coddle, you can blame Jax for choosing wrong.” My emotions are a tangled mess. I can’t separate my feelings, and I have no idea if the connection I feel to him is real or some creation concocted out of desperation.

I move to leave, but a strong, muscled arm cuts in front of my path. Kal’s hand slides along my ribs, and he shifts so he’s in front of me again. “Nothing about you is dainty,” he says, smoothing that hand up and down, eliciting chills everywhere he touches. “And Jax didn’t choose wrong. I know he didn’t.” He skims his other hand over my hip, eyeing the oversize tunic I’m wearing.

Everywhere he touches aches. Everywhere he looks leaves a brand on my skin.

“It’s so early in our time together,” he says. “I didn’t know you’d be so worried about us.”

Mirren said no one cared to worry about them before, and that statement hits deeper at his words.

“Well,” I say, swallowing hard. “I was. And I’m not some breakable thing. I can handle the Faders or any other kind of trouble as well as you can.” Well, maybe not as well—I’m not anywhere near as powerful as the part-god Legends—but I can hold my own.

“Mirren told you about the Faders,” he says, sighing.

“Yes, and she told me that they’ve been able to wound you more than once. And now you’re telling me their weapons stop you from healing. I think I’m more than justified in—in worrying that one of these times, you might not come back. That you’ll die out there, and I’ll be trapped here, and I won’t know, and I won’t be able to do a thing.” I rest my forehead on his chest, then turn my head and press my ear to his heart. “I thought there wasn’t anything that could hurt you,” I whisper.

Kal laughs sadly and wraps his arms around me, kissing the top of my head. “There never has been before, but we’re…we’re not at our full strength.”

I pull back to look at him again. “What do you mean?”

Kal gazes off to the side, folding his sadness away. “The tribute we pay our mothers—the power we give them, to maintain the wards—without our mate, it’s begun to cost us.”

“But why?” I ask.

“When our mothers chose to mate with our fathers, they bestowed them each with a drop of their infinite power, making them immortal. But soon they learned that, through their new magical bond, their mates could siphon and use one another’s powers at will. It created a relentless power struggle between the kings, which our mothers frowned upon.” He runs a hand through my hair, and I shiver, but his eyes stay distant. “Not to mention, siphoning too much from one another nearly killed them a few times.

“By the time our mothers bore us, they wanted no such life for us. They used their collective power to suppress our gifts, magically weaving locks in our souls that can be opened by one mate and one mate only. Someone who would choose us and act as our tether to Lumathyst. Someone who would balance us and bind us together, forestall any fight between us, and ground us when our powers reach their full potential. Only with our fated mate did our mothers think us protected enough to fulfill our destinies.”

He finally looks at me again, and he must see something in my face, because his brow smooths immediately. “But that is our concern, not yours. We don’t even fully understand the Faders’ agenda yet, and it’s just as likely that we won’t need our full powers to defeat them. It’s not your fight.”

Realization washes over me like a bucket of ice-cold water. The Choosings, the yearly event…the real reasoning behind it. And goddess, if people knew? If their enemies knew? They’d likely use the information to sabotage the Choosing. They’d use it to ensure the princes never reach full power, never ascend the thrones. The Legends need a mate for so much more than a royal agenda. They’re willing to use me just as much as I’m using them.

But I’m not… There is no way I’m their fated mate. I snuck into that event with the sole purpose of finding my sister. There was no hope in my heart for becoming theirs , and yet, if I reveal those truths, I’ll be imprisoned or executed for my lies. Despite all that, there’s something deeper, an instinct screaming at the notion that Kal was harmed tonight, that anyone harm the Legends I’m now tied to, and I can’t ignore it.

I trail my hand up Kal’s rigid abdomen and over his chest, unable to resist with him so close. He smells so good, feels so good against me, and there is the relief inside me that he’s here…safe.

“If it’s yours,” I say, “if it’s the Legends’ fight, then it’s mine.” I might not be their fated mate—and guilt springs up that I might even be preventing them from finding her and reaching their full power by continuing to stay with them—but I can’t trade my life to appease that guilt. They’ll have another Choosing after this one, and I’ll do what I can to protect them until they have another chance at finding their true match.

Kal’s blue eyes flare with emotion as he snakes his arms around my waist, hauling me closer. “Where did you come from, Rylee Gray?”

I bite back a grin. “You really don’t want to know,” I try to joke, but I feel the truth of the statement in my heart.

He doesn’t. If he did…

“That’s my tunic you’re wearing,” he says, pulling back enough to look down at it.

“It was in my room.”

“It looks good on you.”

I wet my lips, the tension tightening between us.

“It would look better tossed over that chair,” he says, motioning toward the chair a few feet away.

Shock ripples through me. And delight. A whole heap of delight. This…this physical attraction, this undeniable chemistry, it’s much easier to focus on. Easier to lose myself in it than the reality he’s just revealed.

I reach up on my tiptoes, gripping the back of his hair hard enough to sting as I bring my lips within an inch of his. “Don’t ever leave me behind again.”

“Never,” he says and moves to kiss me, but I pull just out of reach and hold him at bay.

His grip on my hips tightens, and shivers race through me. “You won’t always like what you see, Rylee,” he says, seriousness threatening to steal the heat from his gaze. “But if you want to see it, I won’t stop you.”

Relief flutters inside me, and I release my grip.

His mouth is instantly on mine, and I sigh between his lips. Goddess, he kisses like a dream. The taste of him is like no other, all sweet and citrusy mixed with a whole mess of power. It makes my head spin and my legs tremble.

I wiggle out of his grasp, flashing him a teasing smirk as I grab the hem of my tunic and hike it over my head, tossing it right where he said he wanted it. Nerves threaten to steal my breath as his eyes trail my bare skin, but the look he’s giving me washes any doubts away.

He closes the distance between us, smoothing his hands over my body, taking his time, taking control like he had in the café. But now it’s my turn.

I unfasten his pants, dragging them and his undergarments down in one frantic motion.

“Sit,” I demand, pushing him toward the chair. He goes willingly, dropping into it with a thunk . The man dominates the piece, his massive body shifting as he stretches out his legs. My eyes widen at the sight of him, at what is hard and ready between his massive thighs.

So, it’s not only his power that he gets his effortless confidence from. Good to know.

I run my fingers up his thighs, massaging the muscles as I plant teasing kisses along his abdomen, his hips, touching every spot but the one he wants me to. He shifts in the chair, letting out a low rumble as he tangles his fingers in my hair.

“Rylee.” He says my name with an edge that vibrates right between my thighs.

“Yes, Kal?” I ask sweetly, flicking my eyes up to him from where I hover just above his lap.

“You’ll be the end of me,” he says. “I can already tell.”

I grin at that. “You have no idea.”

I wrap my lips around his length before he can respond, swirling my tongue as I move up and down. Kal hisses, his hips thrusting upward to go deeper.

I loosen my jaw and add my hand, working it up and down while I adjust to the size of him. I pull off to trail my tongue along his length and back up, sucking on the tip and moaning around the taste of him—all salt and citrus and him .

“Fuck,” he groans, and a thrill rushes through me at the power I feel. He’s letting me take care of him, letting me take the reins from him and show him how I feel, when normally he’s the one always taking care of everyone else. I’m pulling those sounds out of him. I’m the one he’s touching with greedy fingers. I feel like a queen already, and we’re only getting started.

I up my pace, sucking him into my mouth and lowering myself as far as I can go. I breathe through my nose, my eyes watering at the sheer size of him, but my entire body is buzzing with need. Up and down, up and down, I work him until his thighs tense and his grip in my hair stings.

“Rylee,” he groans before tugging on my hair, pulling himself from my mouth. He drags his thumb over my swollen lips, his chest rising and falling as he leans forward in the chair. “When I come tonight,” he says, voice hoarse, “it’s going to be inside you.”

Lava pools in my belly. He hauls me to my feet and swipes one arm beneath my knees, cradling me to his chest effortlessly as he walks us to his bed.

My heart climbs higher in my throat with each step he takes. I want this. I actually want this. Want him.

In this moment, it’s not a game, not an act, not a need for survival. I simply want to be devoured by this man in every possible way, and I don’t waste a second thinking about the repercussions of wanting someone so badly so soon.

“A mirror,” I say when he gently lays me on the bed.

He smirks playfully and glances up. “There’s one here, too,” he says, pointing behind me. I rise up on my elbows and tilt my head back to see that his headboard is a mirror. My skin flushes over my whole body at the sight of the two of us—me sprawled before him, his massive, powerful body over me as he stalks up the bed.

“You like to watch,” I say. Likes to watch and likes the element of getting caught. I file away the desires, biting back a smile.

“That depends on who I’m watching,” he says, his fingers gliding over my legs in languid strokes. “Look up,” he demands at the same time he drags my ankles down, laying me flat on the bed.

I do as he says, my heart racing. I watch him in the mirror, watch us in the mirror. His smooth, lightly tanned skin stretches over the muscles in his back, flexing as he shifts on his knees. His dark-brown hair is the perfect silkiness to grip as he spreads my thighs and—

Shock flares through my body as he drags his tongue down the center of me. He moves his hands beneath my ass, palming me as he lifts, giving him a deeper angle to lick me again. And again .

He thrusts his tongue deep before pulling out to tease that bundle of nerves that is aching, pulsing for him. He works me up so fast I can barely breathe around the need, around the ache—

He sucks hard, sending me crashing over the edge in a wave of pleasure. I arch against him, desperate and greedy as I ride it out.

“That,” he says, moving to settle atop me, arms resting on either side of my head, “I could watch all fucking day.”

I note my lust-glazed eyes in the mirror, the flush on my cheeks, the give in my body under his. Then my eyes snap to his as he nudges at my entrance. He hovers there, eyes on mine.

“Is this okay?”

I study him. Would he really stop if I asked? We’re already so deep into this—is he actually asking permission?

“Tell me to stop and I will,” he says as if he can read my mind. “You know I don’t care about the invitation, the Choosing contract. We do this on your terms. Always.”

Warmth pools in my chest and between my thighs. I’ve never been given this kind of compassion and control before, and I suddenly don’t know how to react to it.

Acting on instinct, I reach up and kiss him, more gently this time. Then I move my hand between us, gripping him, guiding him in an inch. A shudder rocks through him, and slowly, almost agonizingly, he slides in.

“Fuck, Rylee,” he groans as he seats himself to the hilt. “You feel so good.”

I tremble around him as he kisses me with long strokes of his tongue, the tastes of the two of us crashing in an intoxicating flavor that has me wrapping my legs around his hips, urging him to move.

He does. Timidly at first, his blue eyes on my face as he gauges my every reaction, almost as if he’s afraid he’ll hurt me. I suppose with his power—his nearly indestructible strength and speed and flight—he could, but it’s the last thing I’m worried about. All I can think, all I can feel, is him. The way our bodies fit together, the way we move together like we were made for it, like we’ve done this a thousand times and know all the right spots to hit.

“Kal.” I breathe his name when he slides an arm under my lower back, hefting me up to take me from a better angle. In this position, his hips grind against my aching core every time he thrusts, ramping up my body so tightly, I can barely speak. I rock against him, needing more—more friction, more intensity, more him .

“Fuck,” Kal says, eyes on me. “Look at you. Look at how perfect you are under me.” He glances up, and I follow his gaze, watching him fuck me. It turns me wholly liquid, the sight of his powerful body atop mine, claiming me in a way I never knew possible.

“Harder,” I demand, and Kal slows his pace, looking to me in question. I playfully bite his bottom lip. “Harder.”

“Fuck,” he groans. “Hold on to me.”

I do as he says, wrapping my arms around his neck and locking my ankles behind his back. And then he unleashes himself on me.

Kal pumps into me hard and fast, gliding against that bundle of nerves while he fills me, and I can’t help my gasp.

“Yes,” I breathe. “Goddess, yes .” He feels like a dream against me, his arms holding me so tight I see stars. Every nerve in my body comes alive at his touch, sparking, pushing me right up to that sweet edge.

I want to lose myself in him. I want to live in this bliss for the rest of forever. I want to live where nothing outside of this feeling exists.

I want to fall .

“Rylee.” He says my name like a plea, and I open my eyes, my entire body tingling. I’m a tight spring ready to snap; my breath quickens as he keeps me right on the cusp. And then I’m pleading, begging him.

“Come with me.” I almost moan the words. “Please. Kal .”

“Say that again,” he demands, pulling all the way out of me, holding me there in anticipation.

“Please,” I beg. “Kal, please come with me.”

He slams home, again and again—

I clench around him, my orgasm ripping through me in a cascade of tiny explosions from the crown of my head to the tips of my toes. Kal follows my release with his own as I cling to him. I feel like I’m floating by the time I catch my breath enough to open my eyes and really look at him—

“Kal!” I tighten my grip on his body, noticing the good five feet between us and the bed.

“Sorry about that,” he says, laughing softly as we lower safely back to the mattress. “That happens when I get…distracted.”

I can’t stop the laugh that comes from my lips. “You can fly,” I say. I knew that, but it’s another thing entirely to experience it.

He nods, trailing his nose along the length of my jaw, kissing down my neck. “I’ll take you sometime,” he says. “If you’re up for it.”

“You should already know,” I say, arching my neck, giving him better access. “I’m up for anything .” I blink out of my lusty, blissful haze with a jolt of apprehension.

Because that wasn’t a lie or part of any game we’re playing. I just gave him insight into me —nothing to do with being the best potential I can be. Even the way we just fucked was all me, and that…that terrifies me. Because if I get too comfortable here, if I lose sight of the role I’m meant to play, I may lose my life in the end.

But even as Kal continues to kiss every inch of my skin, I can’t help but think, At least it’ll be fun on the way down .