Her words stuck in her throat as she caught sight of Leigh swimming toward her. He cut through the water effortlessly, a smooth and silent predatory with stormy eyes locked on hers, daring her to feel comfortable in his overwhelming presence.
“Race you to the raft?” she offered. Leigh gave her a faint smile.
“What are the stakes?” he purred back as he treaded water.
“Use your imagination.” After making her proclamation, Mallory submerged herself once more and scissored her powerful legs, shooting through the water toward the raft.
Leigh continued to smile after her, giving her a small head start. When he pursued, it was with a speed that the swiftest of sea creatures would envy.
Mallory’s strokes caused explosions of bubbles to erupt around her and sent strong currents out behind her. When she saw the anchor line for the raft, she began to surface. Looking up, she saw Leigh’s sleek and strong body above her, plowing through the water with remarkable speed.
Fantastic, she thought to herself. Poseidon would be jealous.
Leigh hit the raft first, but Mallory had more than anticipated it. She’d banked on it. As planned, she came up right behind him, hooked an arm around his leg, and hauled him back into the water. His shocked look was priceless and she laughed as she scampered up the ladder and stared down at him, crowing in triumph.
“King of the raft rules, buttercup!” Her good-natured jeering amused Leigh, but he plastered a scowl on his face as he joined her on the raft.
“Seems shady to me,” he complained as he sat with his bare ass on the raft’s scratchy green covering, long legs lazily sweeping through the water. “So, you win. What does your imagination decide your prize for victory should be?”
Mallory wanted so desperately to propose keeping him alive, remaining as they were, and figuring out how to fight the Munetero as her reward. However, she knew he would deny her and end the night. She wanted to enjoy what time with him she could.
“How about you lie down and I’ll figure it out?” Leigh arched his brows, taking in her suggestive tone and sly eyes.
“This padding is uncomfortable.” The lame excuse was a poor attempt to dissuade Mallory from her intentions. He knew as soon as she touched him, he’d forget about any discomfort, and she knew it, as well.
With one finger on his shoulder, Mallory pushed Leigh back. Resisting her didn’t seem only difficult, but bordered on the impossible. For one night, if it was their last night, he could stop trying to protect her and simply love her.
Pillowing his head with his hands linked behind the back of his skull, Leigh felt relaxed and content. He stared up at the night sky, the glow of stars all the covering he needed. They bobbed on the minute waves of the lake and he blessed Mallory for her wonderful idea.
Mallory placed a warm kiss on the skin of his thigh, startling him, so he switched his attention to her. Contentment turned to heat as he saw her crouched between his knees, looking up at him with a small smile. The water had cleansed her soul, he realized. She was more centered now, more confident in who she was.
“This seems like a reward for me.” Mallory licked along his other thigh, bringing her face closer to his groin with every movement. His body responded to her nearness eagerly, making Mallory’s smile widen.
“Depends on who enjoys it more,” she teased.
“Ah, I refuse to believe that could be you.” Leigh’s response made Mallory’s laughter echo over the lake. He loved the sound of her mirth over the water.
You may not love me like Marlyna, Mallory thought to herself. But you damn well want me just as much.
Slipping her mouth over his hardening length, she took him down to the base before he became too big for all of him to fit. Leigh gave a breathy little groan. The sensation of growing hard in her mouth, with her tongue sweeping over the stretching skin and lips massaging the sensitive flesh at his base was electric.
Mallory backed away and swallowed a gulp of air. She admired Leigh’s erection for a moment. He was slick with her saliva and she gripped him in one hand, feeling the wet strength against her palm. She was worried about mixing oral with newbie fangs, but she wanted him in her mouth again. From the dark, hungry look in Leigh’s eyes, she knew he echoed the sentiment.
Instead of filling her mouth with him again, Mallory brushed her tongue along the underside of his member and swirled it up to the crown. Stroking him gently with her hand, she used her free fingers and her tongue to fondle his fleshy sack. Leigh rewarded her with a sharp intake of breath and sounds of satisfaction. She loved how verbally responsive he was.
Increasing the speed of her strokes, she gave him a quick squeeze, testing his reaction to a slightly rougher play. She wasn’t as afraid of hurting him as she would be with a human, but it was a delicate body part she was playing with, regardless of a man’s species.
Moving so she was at Leigh’s side, Mallory angled herself to ensure easy access to his engorged member. She found she was shamelessly exposing herself to Leigh. He had a direct line of sight to her most intimate parts. Finding the exposure absurdly arousing, she bent her head back down toward his hard length and whispered against his skin, “Touch me, Leigh.”
Her breathy command excited him so much he almost lost his control as Mallory slid him back into her mouth. He buried his hand in the soft mound of wetness and heat she offered him and groaned at the dual pleasure.
Mallory murmured her approval of his questing fingers. Her hips dipped excitedly as he played his thumb over her sensitive bud. Too distracted by Leigh’s hand and the electrical shocks of pleasure it delivered, Mallory moved her mouth off of his member and licked and stroked him instead of sucking. She didn’t trust fangs to mix with flesh when Leigh’s dancing, plunging fingers were causing her such distraction.
The overly sensitive nature of her altered flesh had Mallory poised on the edge of orgasm with surprising quickness. She released her hold on Leigh altogether, still fearing injuring him with her mostly untested new strength.
“Ride me.” It was Leigh’s turn to issue a command. He could feel how close Mallory was and could almost taste the clenching, shivers, and shudders that preceded her explosion of pleasure. His body called for hers, wanting to feel the trembling of her ecstasy from the inside.
Panting, Mallory straddled Leigh. Her legs shook, but she guided his length into her with confidence. She craved the heat and hardness of him within her.
Leigh took Mallory by her hips and when he didn’t fear he’d hurt her, he rocked her against him and thrust himself up to meet her. The raft surged and tipped precariously, turning them into an epicenter for waves that licked across the lake before expending themselves in the deeper water around them.
Mallory felt the surges of pleasure singing through her as she ground herself into Leigh. She knew she was close. A few more strokes and she would come.
Leigh wanted Mallory to reach her orgasm before he spent himself, but with every plunge into her tight, wet heat, he brought himself dangerously closer to his own edge. Just as he lost the grip on his control, Mallory began moaning and bucking on top of him. She drove herself onto him even harder, bringing him violently. His seed pulsed into her, dragged from him with fierce intensity. Mallory gasped and groaned, loving the aftershocks of her pleasure mingling with the force of his.
Stay with me…Mallory silently whispered the plea with her bliss-drenched body, her sweat-slicked skin, and her drowsy blue eyes. Leigh heard the soundless plea and his body returned her longing in kind, but his mind fought to remind him of the danger he kept her in if he tried to keep her as she was. He was not destined to have her with him and the pain cut through his satisfaction to leave him feeling cold and empty.
“Where did you want to stay tonight?” The question threw Mallory for a moment and she wanted to punch Leigh in his gorgeous face for taking such a lovely moment and spoiling it with casual conversation. She knew what they had meant more to him than he was showing, damn it! Why did he keep
pushing her away?
Climbing off of him, Mallory struggled with herself not to feel dirty or used. There was more than mutual pleasure between them. She needed to find a way to make him admit it, to her and to himself.
“Gran’s house,” Mallory answered, her voice bland. “Follow me.”
Without waiting for Leigh to respond or react, Mallory dove into the water, heading back toward the shore. She stayed underwater until it became too shallow for her to do so. Being underwater was almost as good as running, even though it didn’t dull her overwhelming sensations in the same way.
Leigh watched as Mallory swam away from him. Pain tightened his chest. All he wanted was to stay with her. He yearned to hand over his heart with no secrets, no strings, and no complications. With that option inaccessible, he prayed she would find it in her to kill him quickly. Otherwise, the pain would be the death of him soon enough.
Chapter Fourteen
Mallory pulled herself onto the dock, drip-drying in the moonlight. Gran had towels in the enclosed patio so Mallory gathered up her discarded clothing in a bundle, trying not to get them wet, and made her way up the small hill toward the house. She didn’t look to see if Leigh would follow, because she knew he was trailing not far behind her.
Mallory slipped inside the patio, wondering why Gran hadn’t locked the door. She was usually a stickler about that. Grabbing a fluffy blue towel from the stack on the small wooden table to the right of the door, Mallory brushed it down her limbs. In the warm night air, the water had all but been banished before she’d even taken the towel to her skin. As soon as her body was dry enough, Mallory gathered up her hair and twisted it into the towel. She slipped into her clothes, leaving her shoes by the door.
Leigh entered and mirrored Mallory’s drying and dressing process. His thick hair dripped water down his neck, so he twisted it into a turban top as Mallory had. She giggled at the blue-and-orange flower print of the fabric. It certainly didn’t match his all black attire and somber expression.
Leigh wanted to laugh with Mallory, simply because she inspired that feeling in him. Instead, he worked hard to keep the perturbed expression firmly on his face.
Mallory was grinning when she slipped the spare key from beneath a vase on a second little table. She slid it into the lock of her Gran’s door, turned it, and then her smile died. The patio door was excusable, but Gran never, ever left either of her two main doors unlocked.
Mallory pushed inside, shouting for her Gran as she entered the foyer. She was tensed and ready for a fight. If those damn Hunters had come for her Gran…
Darting into the kitchen, Mallory took a quick look and then moved onto the living room.
“Gran!” she called. “Gran, answer me!”
She stumbled when she saw her grandmother sitting in her favorite blue chair, arching one snowy eyebrow at Mallory. She held a paperback novel and her slim, frail body was covered by one of her many handmade quilts.
“Did you enjoy your swim, kitten?”
Mallory’s breath left her in a relieved rush and she yanked the towel off her head before it fell.
“Gran, what the hell?” she snapped. “You scared the shit out of me. Why are you up? What are you doing?”
Heddy Wright lifted her spy thriller to indicate her current activity as she answered her flustered granddaughter.
“Reading. I expected company and wasn’t feeling particularly tired anyway, so I decided to live dangerously and stay up past my old woman bedtime.”
“Party hard,” Leigh encouraged wryly as he entered the room behind Mallory.
Heddy took him in, noting how attractive he was and recognizing him for the otherworldly entity she knew him to be. Mallory was what he was now, but that didn’t matter to Heddy. She knew she owed the two of them thanks even if her youngest son had only offered them curses for saving him.
“Nice headgear,” Heddy responded sweetly to what she assumed was sarcasm on Leigh’s part. The vampire scowled even more darkly and jerked the towel off so his damp hair tumbled in a mass of thick, heavy curls around his shoulders.
“I’ll take those,” Heddy suggested as she stood. Her old bones creaked and she cursed them. Getting old was overrated.
Mallory rushed to her Gran’s side and helped her stand, holding her as delicately as she could. She feared hurting her more than anyone else. Gran had felt fragile even before she’d become a vampire.
“Why was your door unlocked, Gran?” Mallory asked. Her tone had gentled and her gaze had softened as she grabbed the towel from Leigh instead of letting Heddy handle it. “I know where these go. Just tell me what’s going on.”
“Someone needs to speak with you.” Heddy directed her statement toward Leigh, who took the woman at her words. They were a family of psychics. Perhaps Mallory’s desire to swim for the night had even been due in part to her gift.
“Who?” Mallory was on the defensive as she came back from putting the damp towels in the hamper Heddy kept in her bathroom.
“A friend of mine. We’ve worked together before. You aren’t the only enemy of the Hunters, Mal. Our family is not the only family attempting to overthrow them.”
“Great,” Mallory exclaimed honestly. The more help, the better when it came to the Hunters. Leigh would soon try to force her to end her vampire existence. If she was no longer a vampire, what chance did she have at protecting her family if the Hunters hadn’t been eliminated?
“Two sisters should be here tonight. It will be interesting.” Mallory frowned, suspicious of her Gran’s words. Interesting was not a word she’d ever used to define pleasant situations. “In fact, they should be here any minute.”
Now that she knew they were expecting more company, Mallory listened to the outside world intently, hoping to get a feel for the sisters before they came into the house. She heard two separate car engines, two slamming doors, and two sets of footsteps, but no verbal exchange. If she wanted to know about the women coming to meet her grandmother, Mallory knew she didn’t have long to wait.
Lydia and Jade McKinney saw each other at the same time. They moved almost simultaneously to park and exit their vehicles and begin walking toward the wise woman’s home. It wasn’t a coincidence, Lydia knew. It couldn’t have been. She kept as tight a hold on her voice as on her anger, because unleashing one would free the other as well.
Lydia entered the front of Heddy’s home first, after Jade motioned for her to do so. A flash of recognition flooded her and was reciprocated in the wide blue eyes of Mallory, the woman she’d attempted to flambé in Reyna Sommer’s house.
Before any words were exchanged, movement erupted within the room. Mallory rushed forward, fist out, intent on hurting Lydia as quickly and directly as she could. Leigh moved to intercept her blow, positioning himself with superhuman speed in front of Lydia and catching the closed-fist punch on the jaw intended for the golden-eyed woman.
Leigh’s head snapped back with the force of the impact, and he admired Mallory’s strike before taking both of her hands in his and wrapping his arms around her to stop her from trying to hit Lydia again.
“Mallory, stop!” he shouted. “Stop it! Stop!”
“She killed them!” Mallory screeched back. “She killed Tyler and Reyna! I’ll kill the bitch!”
“I saved them,” Lydia snarled back. “Jerry would have destroyed their essences. There was no refuge for their human bodies, but by burning them, I gave their souls a chance.”
Mallory stopped struggling against Leigh for him to free her. She looked at Heddy, still held tightly by the vampire.
“Is it true?” she asked. Heddy was the only person she trusted to tell her yes or no on the ultraimportant question.
“I told Lydia long ago that purity was a part of flame. She made the deduction for herself when it came time to pit her power against theirs in the matter of destruction.”
Mallory angrily shook Leigh’s hands off of her arms when he began to loosen his grasp. He stayed nearby, wary that she
would once again try to go for Lydia.
“You would have broken her neck if I let you hit her.” Mallory wasn’t fazed by his statement. She continued to glare at Lydia.
“She would have deserved it.”
Jade moved forward, pushing her sister aside as she stepped closer to Leigh. Mallory took an instant disliking to the woman, and the proximity to the handsome man she considered appropriate.
“She told me you’d be here. Never let us down once, our wise woman.”
“And what do you need me for?” Leigh questioned. He slid a glance toward Mallory, who was being led to one of the couches by Heddy. Her distrustful expression was focused between the two sisters, but Leigh had nothing to fear from them. He felt what they were, and he was fascinated with them. It had been a long time since he’d met a Dragon.
“The Hunters listed you as a target,” Jade informed Leigh. “I went to your house, but couldn’t find you. I came here, and the wise woman said that you’d be here tonight. She didn’t mention the other complications, though.”
Heddy smiled serenely as Jade caught her gaze. Mallory mouthed, “wise woman?” at her Gran, who shrugged.
“Some know of me and come for my aid on occasion. The knowledge I can impart has been found useful by many. Lydia has long been a client of mine, as has her sister, Jade.”
Heddy pointed to each of the Dragon sisters in turn and Mallory studied them. They didn’t seem supernatural, except for the fantastic shade of their eyes. Lydia’s looked like metal, the gold a brighter shade than Mallory’s hair. Jade had eyes that did her name justice, shining like the jewel she was named for. While her sister’s hair glowed like rubies, Jade’s was so dark it seemed to absorb light and devour it. Shiny black, it looked like onyx as it pooled around her shoulders. They were both slim and tall, but they had surprisingly muscular frames for how small they were. The sisters looked like athletes, or warriors. Mallory felt willowy and weak beside them.
Pierced [Pain & Love 2] (BookStrand Publishing Romance) Page 11