Jacob's Ladder (String of Fate) by Bianca D'Arc Read Free Book Online Page B

but it had never welcomed one the way it welcomed Jake. It liked him.
    No, it was way more than mere liking. It loved the way he made the cat purr.
    “I’ve been waiting for you for a long time, Ria,” he said in a low, seductive tone that shivered through her. “I’ve been seeing you in my visions for years now.”
    “Years, huh?” she was both impressed and breathless. She had never expected to find her mate in such a way, but she knew shifters often knew the moment they met their perfect match. “I knew there was something different about you at the wedding, but we didn’t get much time alone. I’ve thought about you a lot since then, though. A lot more than I should have been thinking about a human I’d met only once. I probably should have realized you were something special.”
    She leaned in, placing her ear over his heart, allowing herself to soak in the feel of his strength, and the warm scent of his embrace. He felt so good. And his heart beat a steady, reassuring rhythm against her ear.
    “You thought about me?” She heard the uncertainty in his voice and was warmed by it. He might be a seer, but he didn’t know everything, it seemed. She smiled.
    “Yeah, I did. Did you think about me?” Her voice dropped low, the cat’s purr breaking through. It had never done that before, but she recognized the sign for what it was. The cat wanted its mate. For that matter, so did Ria. Only, her human half was feeling a bit shy.
    He was human. What if he didn’t understand what mating meant among her kind? Sure his sister was mated to her cousin, but how much had Ellie told him about shifter mating? Did Jake understand what it meant to her? Was he taking this as seriously as she was?
    So many questions jumbled through her mind, but it all came back to one thing. Jake was her mate and she was in his arms. Where she belonged. The cat understood it on the most basic level and her human heart, though scared, felt the same. She prayed to the Goddess that he would realize the import of what they were to each other in time, if he didn’t understand it already.
    “I’ve dreamed of you waking and sleeping, Ria.”
    Now that sounded promising. She began to take heart. Maybe he did understand, after all.
    “You’re my mate, Jake,” she whispered. “Do you understand what that means?”
    He drew back, lifting away so he could meet her gaze once more. “Not completely, but I promise to spend the rest of my life trying to figure it out.” He smiled and she felt a lightness fill her heart.
    “The rest of your life, huh?” She reached up, cupping his cheeks, then moving her hands around to draw his head down toward hers. “I really like the sound of that,” she whispered against his lips. “Mating is forever, Jake. Now that I have you, I’ll never let you go.”
    “I’ll hold you to that, milady,” he replied before taking her lips with his again.
    His kiss this time was spiced with the bite of the Scotch he had drunk. She liked it on him, though she didn’t generally enjoy the flavor of hard liquor. Mixed with Jake, though, it tasted divine. Of course, that could just be Jake.
    She wanted to get closer. She wanted…to get naked with him and spend the rest of the night learning all about how her mate made love. Was it too soon?
    Among shifters, it wouldn’t be. It was natural for mates to come together as soon as they recognized each other and stay together for a lifetime thereafter. There was no doubt when two shifters mated. At least, not in the normal course of things.
    But Jake was human. Magical, to be sure, but still human. That skewed the equation.
    Didn’t it?
    Jake didn’t seem to care. He took the kiss deeper, wrapping his arms around her and moving toward the bed on the far side of the room. She didn’t object. In fact, she helped as best she could while under the drugging influence of his kiss. He touched her skin, revealing it with hasty actions, tugging on her clothes and pulling on zippers