Page 31 of Fated Protector

He laughs and scoops me into his arms, carrying me to the couch. “Oh, princess, we have hardly begun tonight.”

* * *

I've never beenin love before. Sure, I’ve dated before, but nothing lasted more than a few months, and never with this amount of passion. I don't know if this is love, or the effects of the Mate bond, or just the aftermath of incredible orgasms. Still, whatever this feeling is, I don't want it to ever go away. So I'll call it love. Because deep down, I have a suspicion that it is.

I love Jack.

We kept each other up most of the night, switching between murmured secrets in the darkness and repeatedly bringing each other pleasure with hands, tongues, and mouths. Jack and I were both insatiable, more than I have ever been in my entire life. Even now, as we lay in each other's arms, sticky and sweaty as if we've run a full marathon, I find myself squirming and needing pressure of the best kind.

Jack's lips are against my temple, and I feel him smile against my skin. "Does my princess need something?"

I want to shove his head between my legs again, so he can use that clever tongue of his to bring me off once more. But the real world still exists, and we have work to do. "I think just a drink of water," I say reluctantly.

He stands up, naked as the day he was born, and I can't help ogling every muscular bit of him. He walks to the kitchenette but pauses when he comes across the two books on the counter.

"So this is how you knew about the pennies," he says, thumbing through the book on Rougarous. "Smart girl."

"Will told me about it," I confess, and he scrunches his nose.

"Then I’m gonna have to read the rest of it to make sure there's nothing else you can use against me." His attention is drawn to the battered book underneath, and he quickly abandons the Rougarou book. "Anna, what is this?"

"I found it downstairs. I thought it might have something about the vampire’s amulet."

Jack starts flipping through the pages, his face intent. Suddenly, he stops and lets out a crow of delight. "Anna, this is it! This fixes everything."

"What does?" I join him at the counter. We probably look very odd–two naked people standing in a kitchen looking over an old tome–but nothing surprises me anymore.

"Look." His finger trails along the margins where Sasha's handwriting covers the pages in hurried notes. "Sasha knew about the amulet. She knew something was going to happen. And I bet they knew thatsheknew."

"Aunt Sasha was killed for this?" I back away from the book as if it is the murder weapon itself. "But why?"

His dark eyes flick back and forth as he quickly reads the passage. Then he jabs his finger at one of the paragraphs. "Because of this. It describes an amulet very similar to what Will told us that Louis has been wearing, but without the spell –" he circles part of the page with his finger, "he can only control one creature at a time. If he uses the spell, he could control any number of them all at once." He looks up at me with weary eyes. "Which would really, really suck."

"Then this is it." This is what we need to take back to your family. They can show it to the vampires and identify the amulet."

He shakes his head. "It ain't that simple. We don't know if all the vampires are in on it or if Louie is acting alone. I think we need to hide it. "

He’s probably right. No sense running in with all our cards on the table. "Okay, where do you want to hide it?"

His gaze trails along my naked body, and I suppress a shiver as he bites his bottom lip. "How about my apartment?"

* * *

When we arriveat Jack's tiny apartment, he calls his father, explaining what we found in the book. His father lets him know that the vampires are coming for a discussion the following day and that it would be best if Jack were there. When Jack hangs up, he tosses the phone to the couch and whirls on me.

"Okay,cher," he says in a low voice. "We've got a little less than twenty-four hours, and I'm going to use every minute of them. Are you ready for this?"

I study the face of the man I'm about to tie myself to forever. I can't think about the future, the logistics of it all, because all that matters is Jack standing here before me. I catalog each and every one of his traits as if they are precious; his wavy hair, the curve of his nose, the little dip in his chin that deepens when he scowls. All of it makes up the man that I want to be with for the rest of my life.

I nod and step forward, giving him my hand. He searches my face and then breaks out in the biggest smile I've ever seen on him. Tenderly, as if my hand is something fragile, he places it over his heart. "You are mine," he says in a trembling voice.

I take his hand with fingers just as shaky and place it over my chest. "And I am yours."

I feel a tug deep in my chest, and a wave of intense joy floods me, almost overwhelming in its intensity. Jack's eyebrows raise, and he has a dumbfounded expression. He picks me up, and though his eyes are hungry, the action is pure and sweet. He lays me down on his big bed and sits next to me.

"You're mine," he says in a reverent voice. "All mine."

"All yours," I confirm.

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