Broken Gates

“Let me make love to you,” Khol growled against the bare skin of my chest.

When had that happened? I wondered.

“Let me erase the bad memory of the first time we were together”—his voice cracked as his warm hands deftly dipped below the waistband of my jeans—“and what followed . . . with me worshipping your body and laying claim to you the way I should have from the beginning.”

I’m sure Khol didn’t mean to stir up bad memories, but the mere mention of our first time made me remember the feeling of my heart turning to ice in my chest even as he delivered me physical pleasure. He hadn’t raped me, but he had blackmailed his way into my bed by threatening Bryn’s life. Shortly afterward I had tried to end my own life in order to save Bryn’s. Khol had caused all of that to happen and yet . . . I had forgiven him . . . truly. Or maybe I saw the Khol that was currently trying to push his long fingers past the barrier of my panties, as a different man than the one who had done those things to me. And maybe he well and truly was, just like Bryn had accused me of not being the same P.J. he had once known, maybe Khol wasn’t the same either. Maybe none of us were the same.

But I wasn’t ready to let Bryn go, and I wasn’t ready to pull away from Khol’s touch either. I had absolutely no idea what to do. “Khol—” His name turned into a moan as his fingers finally accomplished their goal. “Khol . . . wait.”

“Just let me do this just for you. Let me take away some of your pain.” Khol’s gruff voice seemed to tickle things on the inside of me and I shuddered. “Your hormones are out of control, I can feel it, let me take some of the edge off.”

I couldn’t deny the extreme lusty feelings that my pregnancy hormones seemed to constantly stoke. And no longer having a regular sex partner really seemed to be doing a number on my brain, and by number I mean turning it to mush. A thought dawned on me. “You made it so my morning sickness is gone.” Funny, how I hadn’t really thought about its absence until now.

He tugged at my pants and soon I lay before him with only one small scrap of silk keeping me from being naked. “Yes, and I could do so much more for you if you just let me.”

I bit my lip and met his fire backlit eyes with uncertainty. “But you won’t try to take it farther than I want? You won’t try to claim me when I can’t think straight?” Which I was dangerously close to already. “I don’t trust myself with you.” It had to be said, even if I hated admitting it to him and myself.

A small smile tipped up the corners of his supple mouth. “Then trust in me, my little Queen. My pants will stay on; I swear it. I will only touch and kiss you, nothing else. I will never claim you again unless you beg me for it.”

What the hell was I doing? But I wanted it, so badly. I swore I would never make fun of Jenna again for being a slave to her hormones. “Okay,” I murmured knowing I most certainly would come to regret the decision that my pregnant brain coupled with Bryn’s fresh rejection was making for me. Khol was offering me both pleasure and acceptance, the two things that I needed more than anything in that moment.

The word had barely escaped my lips when Khol ripped my panties from my body. I shivered under his rapt gaze and fought to keep from blushing as his rough palms skimmed down my body only to push up underneath me to lift my core up toward him. “What are you doing?” My voice shook with nerves as he dipped his head to hover where his fingers had been minutes before. “You said touching and kissing only.”

His eyes, completely filled with flames now, met mine as they looked up the line of my body. “I didn’t say where I would kiss you.”

Understanding skittered through my mind, pushing past the shock his words caused. I hadn’t even considered . . . I just assumed he would continue to use his fingers. “Oh God!” I screamed as he kissed me long and deep in a way that I’d never experienced before. Bryn had wanted to do this for me, but I had been shy, despite everything else we’d done. And boy was that a mistake . . . I never knew what I was missing.

Khol’s dark auburn hair moving between my legs was erotic in a way I never would have imagined. His shoulder length hair had fallen out of the gumband securing it at the nape of his neck, and the silky strands tickled my thighs while he focused on giving me pleasure. The man definitely knew what he was doing, of course he’d had plenty of time to perfect his technique on who knew how many partners, a fact I really didn’t want to contemplate at the moment. I clutched at the bed sheets, finding that not enough, I arched up and dug my nails into Khol’s shoulders, which caused him to practically purr like a cat—after all, he was treating me like a saucer of milk. I fell back onto the bed, my muscles coiling tight, my heels digging into his back, and then I felt his power push its way into me to heighten everything I was feeling times twenty. It was too much, all just too much, and I erupted into a million pieces of pleasure all the while screaming Khol’s name until my voice gave out, followed by my body. I swear I didn’t see anything for a few seconds after my collapse.

“That was—” I started, after managing to find my voice.

“I’m not done yet.” Khol growled before starting back in on me.

“No!” I screamed in alarm, meaning it and yet not. Could somebody die from pleasure? I was pretty sure I was going to find out very soon.

Was it possible to love more than one person at the same time? I had always thought it just kind of a convenient notion that authors of novels and screen plays used to amp up intrigue in their stories. I could remember more than a few times while reading a book or watching a movie, I had laughed and rolled my eyes at the heroine for finding herself in such a situation. And yet . . . here I was . . . in love with both Bryn and Khol . . . at the same time.

I couldn’t pretend anymore that when Bryn and I were semi-mated, my feelings for Khol hadn’t changed. Under those circumstances, those emotions had been allowed to bloom without me feeling threatened by the very man that cultivated them. I hadn’t even realized it was happening until the bond between Bryn and I had been severed completely. Then my attraction to Khol could no longer be overlooked because those feelings ran so much deeper than the superficial ones they had been when we first met. Khol wasn’t a cruel, conniving dragon like I had originally thought, but just a man who hadn’t known how to love me because he’d never loved anyone before. He’d been driven by his dragon instincts on how to claim me, but when push came to shove, he had sacrificed his happiness for mine. He wasn’t stupid. Now that there was another chance to be with me, unlike Bryn, Khol was doing everything in his power to capture my heart . . . and it was beginning to work. I never would have let him touch me the way he just had if things were the same between us.

“Khol?” I whispered. He pushed my still sweaty hair out of my face as I curled into his side. He still wore his pants, as promised, and I still wore nothing, but at the moment I was too languid to care.

“Yes, my little Queen?” He couldn’t hide the smile in his voice, and I for once wouldn’t begrudge him his arrogance. The man deserved every little bit that he felt about himself.

“I just wanted to tell you . . . that . . . well . . .” Should I tell him how I felt? Could I? The nature of our relationship had suddenly shifted and I didn’t quite know how to handle it.

“Shhh . . . my little Queen . . . as per usual . . . I already know what you’re feeling. Don’t trouble yourself in order to tell me.” Yep, he was definitely feeling very pleased with himself.

“Oh, well then you know that this doesn’t really change anything. I still love Bryn . . . too.” I hated having to talk about it, but it was only fair. Although I knew this talk would be much easier than the one I would have to have with Bryn. Or did I have to tell Bryn at all?

I felt Khol’s body tense against mine. “Yes, I don’t need to be reminded of your feelings for him now though. Soon enough we will all have to return to reality.”

I sat up and scowled down at him, my cheeks flushing when I met his eyes. They held secrets now, ones that only lovers truly shared. “I’m sorry. It’s just that I feel so—so confused. About all of this.”

Khol’s gaze flicked away from me. “Will you tell him then? In the sense of fairness, about the intimacies we shared?” Had he picked up on the fact that I was thinking about not telling Bryn?

“No,” I blurted out, deciding on the spot. “I’m not going to tell him, just like I never told you about the things that Bryn and I did together behind closed doors.”

His glowing green eyes flicked back to me with anger. “But I knew. Of course I knew. With me being so closely connected to your emotions, how could I not?” He sat up and threaded his fingers into my hair at the base of my neck. “So I ask you again, will you tell him, or will I have to?”

“Why would you do that?” I asked in horror. “What purpose would it serve?”