Page 142 of At Her Will

“Before you do what you plan, I need to say this, in front of the family you found and that found you.” His serious gaze held hers. “I would like to love you, Mistress. With everything that I am now, and everything that I may become. May I have your permission to do that?"

Despite the emotional power the words brought, she managed a steady reply. "You’re already doing that.Withoutmy permission, I might add.”

"Couldn't help that. You made it impossible to do otherwise."

She sighed. "Blaming your Mistress. There will be penance for that."

"With you, penance is the first whiff of cotton candy and popcorn at the fair, when you walking toward the gate." He exchanged a look with the other three men, all of them knowing just what he meant. And in that look, she saw confirmation that he’d been accepted as one of them.

Then Rev wrapped both his hands around one of hers. “You know what I’ve thought about, almost every day since I met you? That if ever you would do me the honor of being my wife as well as my Mistress, I want that. I want to have children together, however God wants to give us that.

“I not asking you to offer me anything you don’t want to give, Veracity,” he said. “Whatever you can give, I’ll take. Though I’ll probably always ask for a little more than that, because when it comes to how I feel about you, the wanting and needing never stop.”

Her heart thudded in her ears. She saw smiles from Abby and Skye, approval from Cyn. And Ros, the most cautious member of their group on these decisions, because she was the head of their family, and because she’d seen at least one member choose disastrously, had wet eyes, a blessing all its own.

She took a breath. “Do you remember what I told you about the Great Rite, Rev?”

“It a sexual rite, bringing down energy through a coupling between a priest and priestess.”

“Yes. I would like to do that, direct it toward our commitment to one another, to strengthen and guide it.”

He looked at the women. “With them present.”

“Yes. As the four quarters of the Circle, holding it in place. And to give their blessing to the union.”

“In our family, it’s a way of saying you belong to her, but you also belong to us.” Ros drew his attention. “You’re ours to care for, as Mistresses. And as family.”

The wedding guests had departed for the planned reception, so Rev’s gaze stole to the empty chairs, the pillars threaded with gauze ribbon and flowers. “Pretty as this is…you not thinking of doing it here. Out in the open.”

“This is New Orleans. Why not?” Cyn deadpanned, then grinned. “Rev, you just went pale as a vampire.”

“Do I have to belong to her, too?” Rev asked Vera.

A chuckle rippled through the group. Vera laid a reassuring hand on his arm. “I wanted to ask you here, because if you aren’t comfortable with the idea, but wish to commit to me in the spirit of that ceremony, we can do a symbolic Great Rite, in this lovelysetting. If you wish to do the other, we’ll move to a more private location. It’s your choice, and I whole-heartedly accept either direction. Or you can tell me you want to wait and think about it. You’ve said you want to be with me. That’s enough for today. Truly.”

Rev looked at each of the men, then the Mistresses. Then his attention came back to her. Her heart ached with a surfeit of emotion, because she saw the answer in his gaze, even before he spoke.

“I’d like to become yours and your family’s, Veracity. I’ll do it the way you wish, because I want to serve you with no reservations. I trust your care, as much as I want you to trust mine. Let me become yours, Mistress, in every way you want to claim me.”

They took him to Ros’s home in the Garden District. The cream-colored historic house had salmon shutters and multiple levels. He wasn’t in the right head space to absorb too many of those details, but inside, the formal dining room grabbed his attention right off.

A mat, cut to the large table’s oblong shape, had been laid upon it to protect the wood, and it was scattered with flower petals. A sheer blue cloth covered the side bar, a silver chalice and knife with a gold handle resting upon it. There was also a flogger, its ribbonlike tails arranged in a flourish.

A decanter of wine, a plate of crescent-shaped cookies and a bowl of the sugared pecans he liked were grouped with several bottles of essential oils. Incense gave the air a fire and sea water scent.

“Lawrence, Mick and Tiger prepared the space,” Cyn noted. “Neil sent the pecans.”

The men were absent now, but like Neil, they’d all made their presence known with the preparations, proof of their support for Vera’s choice. The look in his Mistress’s eyes as she surveyed the extra effort they’d made for her said how much it moved her. He was glad for it.

Before the men had departed, he’d had a chance to speak to Lawrence. “I should have asked you more about this ritual,” Rev had said.

The former SEAL’s attention had touched on his own Mistress before a smile wreathed his handsome features. “Wouldn’t have done you any good. This wasn’t what they did for me. It’s been different for each of us. It depends on what your Mistress wants, and knows you need.”

At some point, he and Vera might stand in front of a preacher or a priestess like her, or both. They’d make their vows and become married in the eyes of the law and all the faces of Divinity, but this was that first step. Like an engagement, it was significant. So he let go of any lingering worries over it, because they didn’t matter.

“Go to the upstairs guest bathroom,” Vera told him. “Take a thorough shower. As you clean yourself, do that breathing exercise we did together. Think about all parts of yourself, inside and out, that join with me when we come together. When you’re done, there’s a robe on the back of the door. Wear that and nothing else. You come out with a clear head and soul, waiting to be bound to your Mistress.”

She took his hand and put her own on his face, her beautiful breasts against his chest, her hip and thigh brushing his. The eyes that looked upon him were his Mistress’s, but something else, too, as if what she planned to call down into them was already there, waiting. He felt it in himself, a simmering energy.

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