His premonitions had been frighteningly accurate, yet he’d had dreams just as frightening that were nothing more than dreams.
The secret lay in determining which was which.
His thoughts slipped back to the trip they’d all taken to Tia Mason and Lucien Stone’s wedding in San Francisco, and the hijacking that had almost succeeded in ending their lives.
He’d worried about that flight for days. Had put his unease aside, assuming the graphic dreams were merely those of an overly concerned mate and Keisha’s advanced pregnancy.
Then he’d come so close to losing her. So close to never knowing Lily, to never again holding his beloved Keisha in his arms.
Anton wrapped his fingers loosely around the back of Keisha’s neck. He wondered if she felt his tremors. It took only a small amount of pressure to bring her close, to touch his lips to hers.
Lily slept on. The morning sun caressed Keisha’s dark skin with golden fire as Anton slowly kissed her full lips, nuzzled the tender skin beneath her right ear. He twisted his fingers in the silken strands curling against her throat and drew her close.
She arched against him, her body supple and sleek in spite of the extra pounds she carried since giving birth. Her full breasts, heavy with milk for their daughter, drew Anton. He ran his tongue across one turgid nipple, tracing the taut edge of darkened areola.
Keisha moaned and lifted her hips, pressed her mound against his burgeoning erection. The sleek brush of her pubic hair tickled the underside of his penis where he was most sensitive and forced his shaft up against his belly.
He reared back and slipped his cock down between her slick folds, sliding over her clit with his entire length. Raising up again, he dragged himself slowly back and then surged forth at the same measured pace, sensing her growing arousal with the increased heat and friction.
Keisha moaned. She spread her thighs and arched against him. With his hips maintaining a slow but steady rhythm, Anton’s tongue lightly circled the darker edge at the base of her nipple. He pressed his lips around the swollen tip and flicked the sensitive nub with his tongue.
“Ah,” she breathed, laughing softly. “Be careful, my love. I’m really sensitive and my breasts are so full they ache. Lily’s not fed for almost four hours. We could end up with a very big mess.”
He chuckled and gently ran his tongue around the taut curve beneath her right breast, then the left, careful now to avoid her tender nipples. Keisha’s fingers clutched at the tangled bedding beside her hips and he felt the rush of slick fluids between her legs. The knowledge that she was so ready for him sent a new surge of blood through his loins. His engorged cock, already aching and hard, grew even harder, stretched even longer.
Her desire was a potent aphrodisiac; the evidence that she needed him every bit as much as he needed her. Raising his buttocks, Anton carefully positioned the sensitive head of his cock between her slick folds. He held still for a moment, savoring the heat and moisture, the soft clasp that teased him. Then he thrust forward, slowly entering her tight passage.
Amazing, he thought, how this rippling channel that clasped him so warmly could be the same passage their daughter had taken when she entered their lives. The same passage his seed had traveled almost a year ago.
Keisha enclosed him within her heat and sheathed him like a warm, wet glove, holding him tightly, drawing him forward.
Anton sighed. Nothing in his world felt better than this. Nothing.
Keisha raised her hips, inviting him deeper. Tiny whimpers escaped her parted lips when the head of Anton’s shaft touched the hard mouth of her cervix. He held himself there, immobile, relishing the enduring warmth of his beloved mate, the tiny sounds she made that told him she was lost in desire, caught completely in sensation.
He was caught as well, preternaturally aware of her halting breaths, her beating heart, her desperately needy cries.
Then she shuddered beneath him and her thoughts grabbed his, sharing the pressure of his cock deep inside, sharing the ache in her breasts and the urgent yearning of her body for the friction that would take her so quickly over the edge.
She wanted. She needed. She must have more of him. More of his heat, more of the fullness, the thick girth and filling length of his cock. She wanted the pain that so quickly leapt into pleasure when the flared crown of his glans pressed against her cervix. The pressure inside when he filled her, then slowly retreated, only to fill her once again.
Anton began to move, thrusting deep and slow, driving the solid length of his cock over her swollen clitoris with each deliberate penetration. Her growing arousal fed him, her need increased his own. He felt the rhythmic clenching of her powerful vaginal muscles as Keisha reached for her climax. She arched her back, pressing him even deeper and he drove into her harder, faster.
Keisha cried out. Her fingers clutched his sides and her nails scored his back while Anton raced her to the next orgasm.
She won, shuddering beneath him once more. Her long legs wrapped tightly around his hips. Her heels dug into the hard muscles at the backs of his thighs and she strained against his lean torso.
Clinging to him, Keisha met him thrust for thrust. Anton wrapped his arms around her and reared back, carrying her with him. When he sat on his heels and felt the tight clasp of her vaginal walls holding him close, pulling him deep, their minds and bodies linked. Their thoughts blended into a single tortured flash of fire and light, and still he held on, still his hips thrust hard and fast against his mate…and his arousal grew, hot and demanding.
Anton groaned, caught on the precipice of climax. He buried his face in the silken curve of Keisha’s throat. He was enveloped in her scent, her warmth, the salty dampness of her skin. He existed only in the firm clasp of her rippling sheath, the rhythmic plunge of his hips as he drove into her warmth.
Then Keisha nipped his shoulder. The stinging pain from her sharp teeth sent him flying over the edge.
A white-hot flash of pure, indefinable power rolled from spine to balls to rock-hard cock. Burning a trail of pleasure so closely linked to pain, it coiled and struck him like a bolt of lightning. His body surged forward. He felt the hot blast of his seed and the familiar touch of Keisha’s mind to his.
Lungs bursting, lights flashing behind his tightly closed eyes, he cried out with his release. Still holding his mate in his arms, Anton’s hips continued their steady thrusting into her welcoming body. His heart opened to her love. His mind, all his thoughts and fears, were now an open book.
He could never hold a secret from his mate. No matter how hard he tried, in this she would always have power over him. Taking his seed into her body, she took his fears and his love into her heart. They fell together, collapsing against the thick comforter and tumbled sheets, their bodies still linked, their thoughts as one.
Keisha brushed the sweat-tangled hair away from Anton’s face and kissed him softly on the mouth. Her tongue circled his lips and tangled with his for a brief moment, easing him down from such a mind-blowing climax. Her taste was ambrosia to him, the food of the gods, and it was his alone this morning.
Just as his thoughts, his dreams and all his fears, were hers.
Keisha’s lips moved once more against his mouth. She sighed, a soft sound of exasperation and love. “It was a dream, my love. When will you learn to share your worries? You have to learn to tell me your concerns, not hide them from me. We’re mates. You’re not meant to carry these unnecessary burdens alone. No one will ever take me from you. No one will take Lily. We are yours and you will always keep us safe.” Her fingers combed through his long hair. Her beautiful amber eyes glistened with tears. “We will keep each other safe,” she said, and kissed him once again.
That she would try to shoulder his fears made him feel small and vulnerable, but her thoughts laughed at his foolish notion.