by T. S. Joyce
Her eyes burned with emotion, but she blinked hard so she wouldn’t cry here with Aric. These tears were left over from Brock, and they didn’t belong here now.
He rubbed her back in gentle circles and whispered, “Please stay.”
And suddenly she wanted to. She wanted to be strong and brave like Aric. She wanted to dig her heels into a place and make it hers. She wanted to stop living a half-life on the run. She wanted to see this thing through with the man who had saved her life, covered for her, thought of her, and drew her face. She wanted to see if there was a life with the good man her animal had chosen.
“Okay,” she murmured.
“Okay what?”
Oh, he wanted her to say it out loud so he had no doubts. So he could hear the honesty in her voice, and she got it. If he was the one thinking of leaving, she would want that same security, too.
Sadey inhaled his clean, crisp scent and nuzzled his neck affectionately, then smiled against his skin. “Okay, Aric. I’ll stay.”
Chapter Seven
Sadey leaned against her rental car outside the firehouse, waiting for the clock to hit five a.m. Aric’s boss, Fire Chief Lang, always let him off in plenty of time to get home before dawn if they weren’t out on a call, and since the fire truck was still parked in the towering garage, the excitement in her middle had been growing for the past half hour.
The nights he was on shift were the hardest because she didn’t get to see him much that day. The past week had been amazing. Every minute spent with him made her feel more alive, more vibrant. So it wasn’t a normal dating relationship. They couldn’t go out during the day, but she’d always been a night owl anyway, and her online graphic design job allowed her to work odd hours that she could move around to get more time with the man she was falling in love with.
She would much rather deal with the oddities of this relationships than the abusive one with Brock.
Aric was teaching her she could trust people again. He was showing her there was still good people in the world, and he was the best she’d ever met. He was easy with his compliments, and an easy smiler. He was sensitive when she’d had a rough day, and she could tell he tried to tamp his brutal vampire instincts around her.
One thing that hadn’t happened, though? Aric had taken her out on dates, talked for hours and hours on her front porch, but past kissing and petting, he had been avoiding intimacy.
That shit ended now.
A happy purr crawled up the back of her throat. She was on the hunt because he’d been revving her up for days with his gentle touches and how damn sexy he looked. Even his laugh melted her into a puddle of hormones.
Aric waved to someone in the garage she couldn’t see from this angle, then he shouldered a gear bag and strode a few steps out of the station. His nostrils flared slightly, and he jerked his attention to her. Despite his greeting smile, his eyes were too dark, too hungry.
Maybe it had been a rough shift.
“Hey,” he said in that deep, sexy timbre of his as he jogged across the street. He slipped his hands to her waist and pulled her close. “This is a good surprise.”
“I didn’t want to wait for you to come tell me good night. Or…good morning? I wanted to spend extra minutes with you.”
Aric chuckled and lifted her knuckles to his lips, let them linger there before he said, “You missed me.”
She giggled and play-nipped his chest. “I always miss you.”
“Who are you?” a man called from the open door of the firehouse garage. A taller man in a fire department T-shirt jogged over and stood beside the other, who was squinting into the dark at her.
Aric nodded his head toward them and pulled her hand, led her back to the station. His eyes might be dark and roiling with something she didn’t understand, but Aric’s steps were light and confident as he pulled her in front of him and rested his hands on top of her shoulders. “John, Nick, this is Sadey. She’s my…” Aric cleared his throat and frowned at them each in turn. “She’s mine.”
The taller one, Nick, jacked up his dark eyebrows. “Whoa, vamp has a girlfriend.”
But that didn’t sound right. He was more to her, and from the way Aric acted, she was more to him as well.
Beside her, Aric was as tense as a stretched rubber band, and his eyes were narrowed suspiciously on his fellow firefighters like he expected them to stake him at any moment.
He’d told her about the tension in the crew already. They were supposed to be close-knit, because their lives often depended on each other when they were out on calls, but Aric was struggling to adjust to the new station.
Sadey shook their hands and politely murmured, “Nice to meet you. Aric has told me a lot about you.”
“Oh, yeah?” John asked. “Anything good?”
“Hell no,” Aric muttered. But his tone was softer, teasing maybe, and when she looked up at him, he wore a slight smile just at the corners of his lips.
Sadey giggled and played along. “It’s true. He goes on and on about what assholes you both are.”
“My feelings are hurt,” Nick said with a grin at Aric.
“I’m pretty sure it’s impossible to hurt your feelings,” Aric murmured. He intertwined his fingers in Sadey’s. “Night.” Aric led Sadey to her ride, but behind them Nick called out, “Bye, Sadey!” in a baiting tone.
John was making kissing sounds and poked a finger rhythmically into the hole he’d made with the other hand.
Sadey laughed. She couldn’t help it. “Y’all stay out of trouble.”
“You stay out of trouble, Sadey!” John called. “Protect your neck from Blood-Suck Aric!”
She was snickering like a lunatic as she climbed into the passenger’s seat. Aric was holding the door open for her, but he had a troubled furrow between his dark brows.
“What’s wrong?” she asked as he climbed in behind the wheel.
He turned the engine and pulled out onto the two lane road. “I wouldn’t bite you without permission.”
“I know that.”
He ran his hands over his clean-shaven jaw and took a left, headed back to her house. And it struck her. His dark eyes, the gaunt look of his face. “How long has it been since you fed?”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“It does to me. How long?”
Aric clenched his jaw once before he leaned back in the seat and draped one arm over the steering wheel. “Since you.”
“Aric,” she drawled out in admonishment. “It’s been a week!”
“Well it hasn’t felt right calling one of the girls after bonding with you. Everything has been perfect.” He flashed her a dark-eyed glance, then dragged his gaze back to the road. “I know you don’t like the idea of me drinking the other girls, and I don’t want to rock the boat when you make me this fucking happy.”
“Wait, is this why you’ve been avoiding intimacy with me?”
“Hell yeah. The first time we slept together, I bit you and bonded us, and I wanted to give you time to wrap your head around a relationship with me.”
“What am I to you?” she asked suddenly.
“What?”
“Don’t think. Just tell me the first word that comes to your head. What am I?”
“My mate. The shifter word for it feels right.”
She blew out a relieved breath and grinned at him. “Okay then, mate. You can talk to me about this stuff. You’re a vampire. And yeah, it weirded me out at first, but it is what it is. You eat what you eat. Hiding that part of yourself from me won’t help us. It’ll keep me at a distance, and I don’t want that.”
“What do you want?”
“All of you. I want it all—the good, the bad, everything.” Crossing her arms over her chest, she admitted, “I like brussels sprouts.”
The tension faded from Aric’s rigid profile as he pulled into her driveway. “Well, liking vegetables and liking blood are different.”
“I also like my steak rare. It’s the leopard in me. Walk my cow past the
fire, and I’m good.”
Aric slid his strong hand over her thigh and squeezed her gently, then gave her that sexy crooked grin he’d been sharing more and more lately. Faint dimples bracketed his sensual lips right now. God, he was stunning.
“Thanks for understanding. I’ll call one of the girls tomorrow then.”
“Or…” She waggled her eyebrows. Hint, hint, hint.
“Or what?” he asked in a careful tone. Were his eyes growing even darker now?
Sadey gave him a flirty grin and flounced out of her car, then sashayed up the walkway toward her front door. She could smell him following but couldn’t hear his footsteps, and when she looked over her shoulder, he was practically floating behind her with a drunken look in his hungry eyes. She unlocked the door and stepped into her living room, now unpacked and in order again.
Aric stopped at the door, rested his palms on either side of the door frame. She hadn’t invited him in yet so he was good and stuck.
Slowly, she pulled her sweater over her head and draped it across the back of the couch, her eyes never leaving his. Sadey adored the way he looked at her, as if she was the most beautiful creature he’d ever laid eyes on. He made her feel like a goddess. With a wicked grin, she shimmied out of her shoes and jeans. Then she locked one arm against the couch, poking out her hip so he could enjoy all her curves.
Aric’s hungry eyes raked down her body, pausing on the hot spots. He blinked slowly and lifted that roiling black gaze back to her. That crooked smile was back.
“Do you want to come in?” she asked, teasing him with the almost-invite.
He nodded once, and now she purred under his sexy stare. Anticipation zinged up her spine as she parted her lips and whispered, “Aric, won’t you come in?”
His form dissolved into a cloud of bats and smoke and then, in an instant, he was solid again right in front of her, driving her backward as the door slammed behind him hard enough to rattle the room.
She gasped as her back hit the wall and his long, thick erection pressed against the apex of her thighs. His lips were on her now, moving against hers like water, so hard his elongating teeth were grazing her tender skin with every stroke of his tongue.
“Oooh,” she moaned. He linked their hands, then shoved them up the wall above her head.
Sadey arched her back against the wall, desperate to be closer to him. In a moment, he released her hands and tore his shirt off, undid his pants, and rolled his hips against hers. Her panties mate a soft riiiip, and then they were on the floor with his shirt and, oh Mylanta, she’d never gone from revved up to inferno this fast before.
He made a low, wild sound deep in his throat as he pulled the backs of her knees up around his waist and slid into her. Resting his head against her shoulder, he froze when he hit her clit. “God, you feel so good,” he gritted out. He eased back and then shoved into her again, and again. Faster as the pressure of blinding pleasure expanded in her middle. He was so big, so thick, filling her. Sadey hugged him desperately, sank her nails into his back because he was slamming into her hard now, and she was so close.
“Aric,” she whispered, arching her head back and exposing her neck.
He hugged her waist tight, pulled her against him as he stayed deep, pumping into her. He let off a needy sound as he kissed her neck, dragging his fangs across her skin in a delicious tease.
“Do it!” she cried as the first pulse of orgasm exploded through her.
His teeth were so sharp she didn’t feel them enter her skin. Not as he bucked into her, conjuring every pounding aftershock. She pressed her hand against his throat just to feel him swallowing. He froze, and wet heat throbbed into her. He reared his hips back and then rocked against her again. Over and over, his shaft swelled and pulsed as he emptied himself
His grip around her ribs tightened as he drank her. “It’s okay. Almost done. So good.”
And just as her fingers began to tingle with cold, he unlatched from her neck and sucked gently on her skin until her shifter healing sealed the cuts. Their heaving chests matched in rhythm. She gripped the back of his hair tightly, unwilling to let him go yet. Her breath shook at how intense and amazing that had been, and when Aric pulled back and lifted his gaze to hers, his eyes had softened to a dark gray.
“Are you okay?” he murmured, concern flashing across his face.
Sadey smiled, and unable to find her voice yet, she nodded.
Aric’s relief was instant. It came off him like a gust of wind. He carried her gingerly into her bedroom and crawled under the sheets with her, pulled her tight against his chest, and let his lips linger on top of her hair.
She clung to him and stared at the window. The sky was lightning on the horizon, and the sunlight would chase away her love soon. Her love? Sadey pressed a soft kiss against his chest and smiled. Yeah, that word felt right. She loved him.
“Sadey?”
“Mmm?” she asked dreamily as sleep tugged at her body.
He lowered his lips to her ear and whispered, “You’re reaching again.”
“Okay,” she murmured as her eyelids grew heavier. How could she feel this safe in someone’s arms?
“Can I tell you something?” he asked softly.
“You can tell me anything.”
He kissed her gently, a slight smile on his lips as he did. And when he eased back, he brushed his knuckle against her cheek and whispered, “I love you, too.”
Chapter Eight
Sadey startled awake. She blinked rapidly, her heart galloping against her sternum. The soft glow of the living room light fixture made her wince. She’d fallen asleep on the couch, and the television now had a frozen screen, asking if she was done watching the show she’d nodded off to.
She exhaled and stretched, then smiled as Aric cupped her breast and settled again. Silly mate, feeling her up in his sleep.
Sleep? She frowned at the window near the door. It was still pitch black outside.
Her blood chilled to ice. Aric was on shift tonight, not lying behind her on the couch. Panting shallowly in fear, she forced her gaze down to the arm draped over her hip. It was bigger than Aric’s, tanned from the sun, and scarred from where she’d raked her claws down it after Brock had hit her.
“Did you miss me, baby?” Brock murmured in her ear. His warm breath made her want to retch.
She lay there, too afraid to breathe, too afraid to move, her palms going damp with sweat. Her animal snarled a warning, but she couldn’t get a single muscle to move when he sat up and pressed his weight onto her, slipped his meaty hand around her throat.
It was the touch of his calloused hand against her skin that woke the fight in her. Sadey struggled like some wild thing, but Brock was twice her weight. She wanted to Change, but he was straddling her now, both hands wrapped around her throat, his eyes glowing the same light gold color hers did. Sadey thrashed and bucked, gasping for air, but Brock’s eyes were empty. They were soulless.
“I knew you were here all along, you stupid bitch,” Brock growled out. “Who do you think ran you off the road? Who do you think has been watching you play house with that fucking bloodsucker? I was going to let you live, Sadey.” His voice echoed with the hollowness of insanity. “If you would’ve come back to me, I would’ve let you live.”
“Please,” she choked out. “Don’t.” Tears streamed down the corners of her eyes. She wasn’t ready to go yet. Wasn’t ready to succumb to the darkness without telling Aric goodbye. Without explaining she’d tried to be stronger for him.
“You’ll die alone now. No people, no friends. No vampire fuck-buddy to save you. He’s working. He’ll find your body long after you’ve gone cold, and that’s my revenge on him for taking what was mine. I can put you in the grave, and he can’t raise you from the dead.”
Wait…Aric. Reach! “Aric! Help me! Please, Aric.” She squeezed her eyes closed against the shattering edges that were demolishing her vision. Sparks zipped this way and that behind her eyelids as she sucked desperat
ely for air. “Aric…I’m sorry. I love you. I’m sorry.”
This was it. The end. The darkness had reached across two state lines and swallowed her up. At least she’d had a good ending. A happy one. How sad would it have been to go still trapped?
The front of her house exploded inward, and when she opened her eyes, sheetrock, siding, insulation, and glass blasted above Brock. His face was red with hate and exertion, but as he looked up, fear flashed in his eyes. And then he was gone.
There was no weight pressing her down, no hands crushing her neck. There was just the beautiful breath of oxygen she dragged into her lungs, and then the pain of her knees hitting the wood floor beside the couch.
Aric was against the wall, and a moment of confusion took her. Where was Brock?
Aric reached in the hole and yanked something massive out of it. Brock fell to his knees, crimson painting his neck and arm.
Sadey winced away from the sight of Brock’s throat, which had been badly torn. Gads, Aric was so much faster and more lethal than she’d realized.
The front of the house was demolished, and outside, the squeak, squeak of bats and a thick purple haze transformed the night. Garret appeared on the porch first, and then one by one, the rest of the Asheville coven solidified.
Aric paced wordlessly, only a deep hiss in his throat as his eyes stayed on Brock who was hunched over and holding his bleeding neck.
“Sadey, are you okay?” Garret asked from outside.
She tried to say yes, but couldn’t get her voice box to work yet, so she nodded instead. Swallowing hard, she wheezed out, “Come in. All of you come in.”