In the Beginning... Read online

  I don’t like to wait when I want something. You should take note. She wrapped her legs around his waist and arched her back. She pressed against him, the only thing separating her flesh from his being the small scrap of green silk.

  He ripped the material so easily, and flung it across the room. His hand was reverent when he touched her for the first time. Soft brushes of his fingers first, then deeper.

  She was ready for him. It didn’t take her arching into his hand for him to feel that.

  She was ready, completely. But by goddess, he did not want to rush.

  This was their first time together and he wanted to savor it.

  His fingers went to the front fastener of her bra and he popped it open. Her breasts moved, freed from the material. He pulled the green silk back and looked his fill. She wasn’t overly abundant in the breast area, but what she had was perfect. His hands covered her flesh and she arched her back. He laughed. You like that.

  Yes.

  I thought so. He brushed his thumbs over both nipples and she shivered. He did it again, then dropped his mouth to first the right breast, then the left. He kissed each nipple, pulled one into his mouth and suckling for several moments. She squirmed beneath him, humming low in her throat. The sounds she made thrilled him. She rarely made any noise, and knowing she was doing so in response to what he was doing to her heated him.

  He released her nipple and turned his attention to her other breast. This time he ignored the tip and nipped the flesh surrounding it, until she was quivering and begging. Please, please, please!

  There is no rush, female. We have forever together. We can do this every day if you wish it.

  She nodded this time. Just please, don’t make me wait forever!

  He laughed, then kissed her again. Hold on to me, tight. I want to feel my female pressed against me.

  For once his female did what he’d told her. Cormac adjusted her legs around his waist, then slipped his hand down between them. Jocelyn. My Jocelyn.

  Hmm. Kiss me again.

  He did as ordered, kissing her as he joined them together. Both paused for a moment. Her eyes looked into his. He stared back. Nothing had ever felt so right. He began to move, slowly at first. Then a little quicker. Her eyes had closed and her arms tightened around him. Her ankles were locked around his waist. He moved more quickly; she arched up each time to meet him.

  Jocelyn, my love. My Rajni. You are beautiful. Goddess, you are the most beautiful creature I have ever seen, ever felt. Ever tasted. Love me!

  Cormac! Don’t ever let go!

  He silently vowed to her that very thing. He would never let her go.

  ****

  Twenty minutes later and his heart rate had finally returned to normal. He had her snuggled into his chest, the blanket wrapped around them both. Her fingers were tracing the patterns of his tattoos. He combed through her hair with fingers that still shook slightly. Are you ok? I didn’t hurt you, did I?

  I’m fine. Better than fine, actually. You didn’t hurt me. I’m a little sore, but it’s a good sore. You’re definitely not a small man.

  No, that I am not. Cormac kissed her forehead, not the least bit reluctant to show her the affection his mate deserved. Any regrets?

  No. I would not have been with you if I didn’t want to. If I hadn’t made that choice.

  Cormac relaxed the breath he’d been holding. So you are ready to begin our life together?

  She was silent for several long moments. Then she brushed a kiss against his neck. Once. Twice. Her teeth sank deep, the move surprising the hells out of him. But he didn’t pull away. He let her feed, tucking her as tightly to him as he could get her. She fed from him for several long moments, then pulled back and stared at him. Jocelyn?

  You never answered my question.

  Yes. I am ready…our life together starts now!

  Cormac yanked his woman over him and kissed, tasting his own blood on her lips. I love you, Rajni. Don’t you ever forget it.

  I love you, too. But Cormac?

  He stilled. What? Yes, my love?

  Your attitude about being in charge of me? You might as well rethink that.

  He laughed. Yes, ma’am! Anything else?

  As a matter of fact, there is.

  He frowned, thought for a moment. What?

  You left the dog in the garden. She wants in! His woman extended one hand in the direction of the glass garden doors. Cormac followed her fingers.

  Sure enough, a soaking wet Border collie sat staring at them through the glass.

  Through the curtains he hadn’t closed.

  The damned dog, and whomever else might have happened by, had probably gotten nine hells of a show. The dog let out a bark and grinned a doggy grin.

  Cormac laughed.

  The dog and her mistress were his family now. And he’d cherish them always.

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  We need to meet the Dahr. He wishes to discuss what is to be done with your grandfather.

  His words brought her back to reality, but Josey knew he was right. She pushed Freedom off the bed, brushing at the muddy prints the dog had left on the silk blanket. What are the options? He’s an evil monster. Shouldn’t he face the consequences for what he’s done?

  She didn’t even want to think about exactly what he had done to her, and to the countless other people who were his victims. Why? What justification could he possibly have for his actions?

  Maybe she did need to see him after all. Hand me clean clothes.

  He pulled a set of white clothes from her drawer, and a fresh scarf from a pile. I’ll be ready when you are

  .

  ****

  Josey refused to let him lead her into the conference room where her family waited. It had been just ninety minutes since Mickey and Mal’s mates had come to her office to tell Cormac about her grandfather.

  Ninety minutes was not very long in the grander scheme of things. But her choice had been made in that ninety minutes.

  No, he wouldn’t lead her into the room, she’d enter by his side.

  She wanted her family to know that she had made the decision to stay with him.

  And him alone.

  She could work in the family lab, in the family business, without staying with Cormac. But that was not what she wanted. We go in together.

  Ok. The doors are certainly wide enough. It was a double-doored entryway into the main conference room. Josey took a deep breath and put her hand on the handle. The other hand she wrapped tightly around his. Let’s do this. I need to ask him.

  You know the answers he gives might not be satisfactory, right?

  What kind of answers would be? I don’t think a satisfactory answer exists in this situation.

  No. I don’t see how one could. Cormac pushed open the doors.

  Her father was there. Her sister, her cousins—Rand, Mickey, Mal, Emily. Barlaam, Theo, Aodhan, Dahr Rydere—they all sat around the table. They looked up when Josey and Cormac entered.

  Her father nodded, rose and approached her. He hugged her, then pulled back so she could see his mouth. “Sweetheart, are you ok? Theo told us you two would need some time.”

  Will you help me tell them? She faced her father, then forced air through her throat. “I am fine now. I learned something that upset me.”

  Of course, I will. Cormac pulled her toward the empty chairs at the left of Emily’s mate. Josey took her seat, licked her lips. Her cousin Mickey was on her left side. Mickey usually had the task of translating for Josey. Had since they were girls. Josey quickly signed, “Grandfather is responsible for me being deaf.”

  Mickey faltered, then repeated Josey’s words to the group, for the benefit of the Dardaptoans who didn’t know sign language.

  Josey knew it would upset her father, but she continued. Mickey’s hands dropped to her side, as Cormac wrapped Josey’s hand in his. She watched him address the rest of the table. Explain to them.

  She knew he acted on her words when her fath
er and cousin Rand grew angry. When Jade started to cry. Mickey wrapped her arms around Josey’s shoulder and held her. Mal jumped to her feet and began pacing around the room, her emotions making her agitated like they always did.

  Emily tried to gain control of the family like she always did.

  Josey observed it all as if through a glass window.

  They were mad and hurt for her. They were her family, too. I still love my family. I can’t not be a part of Taniss Industries. It’s a big part of who I am, despite my grandfather’s actions.

  His hand let go of hers then rose, wrapped around the back of her neck, beneath her hair. The gesture wasn’t a claiming, but a comfort, uniting them. I know. And I will not ask you to ever do that. We have your grandfather now. He will pay for his acts against our people. Not you, and not your relatives. Never again. This I promise you.

  The family around her began having one of the heated discussions Josey was so accustomed to observing. Her inability to hear everything that occurred had often led to her being the observer of the group. Dependent on one or another of her cousins to keep her up with what was going on.

  Usually her family made adjustments to keep her in the discussions, bumping their hand against a table to send vibrations her way. She’d look at them in time to catch what they’d said. But sometimes—quite often in a family with as many different temperaments as hers possessed—her cousins forgot to signal her. Then she missed something.

  It took an hour of deliberations before a decision was made. Her grandfather would be confronted in the conference room, with his family present. They would be free to question him without Dardaptoan interference.

  The Dardaptoan Rajnis had not been happy with that. Especially Cormac. Josey understood it; he’d lost so many people he’d loved to her grandfather. Only her dad’s promise to keep her safe had her Rajni relenting even slightly.

  The only compromise he’d been willing to make was that he be allowed to be the guard posted on the inner door of the conference room. Dahr Rydere had agreed, almost too quickly.

  The king of the Dardaptoans apparently had a lot of faith in Cormac. In his ability to not kill her grandfather on sight.

  Josey wasn’t so sure. She’d seen and felt the rage he had for her grandfather— justifiable rage. Why are you so insistent you be here?

  He pulled her close, ignoring the rest of her family watching. He’d stayed, when Dahr Rydere and the others had left. He gripped her behind her neck again, his thumb brushing against her pulse. Because you’re here. And because he hurt you. None of the others can say that. He hurt you and he hurt my sister and he hurt my niece. No one else deserves to be here as much as I. I don’t care what your father promised; it is my responsibility to keep you safe. And that is what I’ll do. Either I stay with you—or I carry you out of here.

  He kissed her quickly, then returned to his seat near the door. Aodhan would be bringing her grandfather in at any time. That had her trembling. What would she say to the man responsible for so much pain? For hers? Her father’s? Her Rajni’s?

  So many countless other victims. She’d seen many of their faces in the files, in photographs, on the videos. She’d probably remember them for the rest of her life.

  Did her grandfather remember them, too? Did they haunt him at night?

  The doors opened and she saw the movement, close as she was to Cormac.

  Aodhan entered, along with a male Josey didn’t recognize, but assumed was a guard.

  Her grandfather walked between them. His head was held arrogantly, his eyes apathetic as they studied the room and its occupants.

  Josey saw him form her father’s name. Her father stood erect and immobile beside Jade. Josey moved to her father’s other side. His arms encircled both their waists, uniting them as a family. Mickey wrapped her hand around Josey’s and Josey squeezed the younger woman’s fingers in response. Em moved to Mickey’s other side, and Mal flanked her. Protective, as always. They stood together, united as a family. Only Rand stood apart, his body placed between their grandfather and the rest of them.

  Josey studied her grandfather for a moment. He was as tall as her father, but where her dad looked handsome and strong, her grandfather looked gaunt. His hair, once the color of Rand’s auburn, was now nothing but sparse gray. His eyes were dulled, his skin dry and cracked.

  He was ill. Probably dying.

  She had a hard time finding it within herself to care. Except that if he was dying already, how could the Dardaptoans receive the justice they so deserved? They deserved something for the pain her grandfather had caused.

  Josey felt herself moving before she even realized it. She forced the words out aloud. “Grandfather. Why did you do it?”

  In that moment, staring at the man who’d fathered her own father, Josey realized she’d never spoken to him. Not since the night he’d given her the supposed antibiotics. Not since that next morning when she’d woken in the hospital, held tight in her dad’s arms, locked in a world of silence. Had he ever spoken to her since that event? She didn’t think he had.

  He barely looked at her. She spoke again, conscious of her father’s hand wrapped around her shoulder. “Why did you hurt so many people?”

  He looked right at her as he answered, and she had not trouble reading the hatred on his face, in his words. “People? They are not people. Any more than you are now. Animals the lot of you.”

  That was the only answer anyone got. Josey knew then that he would never answer their family. Would never admit to any wrong-doing. Because to him he had done no wrong. That was evident in his eyes.

  His silence wasn’t good enough for her dad. He stepped away from Josey and her sister and grabbed his own father, yanking him from Aodhan and the other guard’s grips. He shook the older man. Josey couldn’t read what he’d said. Cormac? What is my father saying?

  He’s demanding the old bastard account for his sins. Just threatened to break every bone in his fingers—after he pulls the bones free from his flesh first if he doesn’t explain why he did what he did to you. I must admit, I do like your father’s style. I shall help him with that fleshly task, if he desires.

  It’s what any good son-in-law would do.

  Cormac! Stop him! Josey looked toward her mate and waved her hand in her father's direction.

  Any particular reason why? Your father is doing what any father would do learning his child had been harmed. It is what I would do the moment someone harmed one of our children. Your father has just as much right as anyone in your family—probably more so—to make the threats he is making. Any particular reason you want your grandfather spared?

  Cormac, he’s ill. Potentially dying. How long would it take him to stand trial?

  Six months or so.

  I’m not sure he has that long. Can it be moved up?

  Only at the discretion of the Dahr…and the heads of eight of the ten houses.

  Can that be arranged?

  Yes. Within a day or two.

  Good. You might want to have the Dahr do that. My grandfather deserves punished. Deserves what is coming to him. If my father kills him now, how can that justice be meted out to him?

  It can’t. You do realize my people will execute him? That unless he can prove his case sufficiently, he’ll be taken into a public arena and killed. Anyone of our people who wants to watch, who has been grievously harmed by him, is entitled to witness his execution. I will be there. I need to be; for my sister, my brother-in-law. The nephew that Kindara miscarried because of your grandfather’s experiments—they all deserve respect and acknowledgment. As the head of the Jareth House I have to be there. Moreover, I want to be there. I want to see the bastard pay.

  I know. And she did. The physician in her valued life—all forms of it. But what her grandfather had done eliminated that value for her. She couldn’t value his life. Not more than the lives he had already taken. And he should.

  She watched the conversation flowing around her as Rand pulled her father off of
her grandfather. Mickey and Jade were both silent, as they usually were. Mal and Emily were both speaking at once, and Josey didn’t even attempt to follow their conversations.

  Her grandfather remained stubbornly silent. He didn’t care that he was the one responsible for what had happened to Josey, Mal, Mickey, or Emily. All that mattered to him was his own pitiful agenda.

  And they may never know the details of that agenda. Josey would have to accept that. Cormac?

  Yes?

  Take me out of here. I need to get away from him.

  He was at her side in an instant. Let’s go.

  Take him to trial. I don’t think he’ll ever tell us why he did any of it. I don’t know what Emily and my father are wanting to prove here today.

  Sometimes, you have to hear or see something with your own senses in order to deal with it. Anything else you want to say to him?

  No. He doesn’t matter anymore.

  No, he doesn’t. Cormac’s arms slipped around her and he pulled her against his chest. Josey rose on tip-toe and kissed him, not caring who watched or who saw. She closed her eyes for a moment and just absorbed his warmth into her body.

  When she opened her eyes again, her gaze landed on her grandfather. He hadn’t missed the kiss, and the hatred blazing in his eyes made that abundantly clear.

  That’s when it sank in; her grandfather had always looked at her and her cousins that. Especially the girls. He hated them all, for reasons she would never understand. That was how he’d been able to sit back and watch a dangerous drug destroy his grandchild’s hearing.

  He’s a monster, isn’t he?

  Yes. I’ve been in his head. There is nothing there but a mix of intense hatred and arrogance. Nothing else. The closest I could ever label it is sociopath. I had thought before that there had to be some logic behind what he’d done, but now that I’ve read him, there isn’t. Cormac’s hand trailed down her hair and he turned her away from her grandfather. I’m sorry. I know you wanted answers. But you’ll never get more than that. None of us will. Next it will be his trial. Probably within the month, if it all can be arranged. Will you want to be there? As a victim, you’ll have a right to. Just as Kindara and Jierra will represent all the others who died by his hands.