by R. E. Butler
She undid the buttons of the uniform top of his costume, shoving it off his shoulders as their tongues dueled. Her nails scraped along his shoulders as she pushed off the top and he broke the kiss long enough to wrestle his arms from the sleeves and throw it aside. Catching the broken string of her corset, he undid the binding, loosing the tight leather swiftly. She lifted her head and pressed her lips to his with a hungry groan as her hands swept up his shoulders and sank into his hair, tugging the tie free and releasing his hair.
Pushing open the corset, he kissed down her throat, sucking on her neck in the place where he would soon sink his fangs. She canted her hips against him when he pulled down her blouse to expose her breast. Lifting from her throat, he gazed down at her, her pale skin tipped with a dark pink nipple. He kissed her nipple and then licked it, swirling his tongue over the bud as it tightened. Baring her other breast, he paid the same attention to the nipple, licking and sucking it until she writhed under him. He rose over her once more, straightening his arms so he could take in the sight of her – tight, dark nipples, chest heaving, lips swollen from kissing. Her eyes were bright with passion.
“I want to see you like this all the time,” he said roughly. “You’re beautiful.”
“Careful. A girl could get used to so many compliments.”
“You should. I plan to shower you with them constantly.”
She smiled and bit her lower lip, her eyes dancing. He kissed her lips just once and moved to kneel beside her. He wiggled the corset from underneath her as she lifted the blouse over her head. He noticed that her hair had a blue hue in places, like someone had streaked it with color. Rubbing a lock between his finger and thumb, he said, “Did you do this yourself?”
“It’s my power,” she said as she stretched out on the bed, her thumbs hooking in the waistband of her full skirt. “As I sing and alter people’s emotional state with my power, it feeds my nature. My hair turns blue as my power flares. When I’m fully satisfied, I’ll have bright blue streaks. As my power fades, my hair goes back to plain brown.”
“Are you hungry?” he asked, noting the blue was barely visible. He worried they were rushing into becoming beloveds when she needed to feed her nature.
She cupped his face and lifted her head, pressing her lips to his. “Just for you. Please, Mishka, make me yours.”
Releasing her hair, he kissed her and then joined her hands on her skirt, helping her to push it over her hips. As her hips lifted, he pulled the material down her thighs, revealing her scandalously tiny panties and thigh-high stockings. The skirt went airborne, and she laughed at his eagerness. He felt like he’d been waiting his entire life for her, even though he hadn’t known she existed.
She pushed him to his back suddenly with a soft growl and pressed a kiss to his navel. “You don’t get to have all the fun, my Mishka,” she said, her breath skirting over his skin. She undid his trousers, kissing his exposed flesh as she tugged them down his legs. When his cock was freed, hard and ready, she grinned at him before kissing the crown.
“Can I just say that I love that you went commando?”
“You can feel free to anytime, too,” he said. He touched the string of her panties and tugged, tearing the seam easily. When he’d torn the other side, he ran his palm over her bared bottom, as she pushed his pants down his legs. When he was free of his pants, she swung her thigh over him, moving back until her pussy hovered over his face. Her flesh was bare and glistening with arousal, and the sweet scent of her was enough to drive him insane.
She didn’t say anything as she kissed the top of his dick again, and he wasn’t sure he would be able to articulate how happy he was that she was his. He might not be able to speak the words right now, but he could show her. Grasping her hips, he pulled her down to his mouth, and stroked his tongue along her pussy. He wiggled her clit and then pushed his tongue into her, finding her taste even more addictive than her scent. She took him into her mouth, rubbing her tongue along the underside of his length, bobbing her head up and down as she played with his balls and drove him wild. He pushed away the climax that tingled at the base of his spine, wanting her to come first before they made love and then bonded together.
Tilting her hips, he drove his tongue into her pussy, and then lapped at her clit. The bud tightened under his tongue, and she writhed above him. He held her still, driving her to the peak of pleasure. Closing his lips over her clit, he sucked the bud into his mouth and slid his hands over her thighs and pressed his fingers into her pussy. She moaned, the sound rippling down his shaft, and he used his fingers to spread her pussy apart for his questing fingers as he laved her clit with his tongue. Her whole body trembled, and her clit throbbed against his tongue as she lifted from his cock and shouted his name. She writhed on top of him, and he almost lost it.
He pushed her gently to her back and moved over top of her, stopping to kiss her sensitive clit and lick the sweet essence of her arousal from his fingers. Kissing up the center of her body, he slid into the cradle of her hips and probed her entrance with his hard length. She wrapped her legs around him and fisted his hair with a soft cry of need. Her eyes were brilliant blue, shining as if lit from within, and he felt the first early connection of their bond strengthen. He pushed into her until their bodies were tightly wed and gazed down at her.
Her pussy gripped him hard, and his cock twitched. He reached for the headboard, anchoring himself to the wrought iron frame as he gripped her thigh and pulled it higher up his side. Moving slowly, he eased out of her heat until only the tip was inside, and then he pushed forward. She met his thrusts, twisting her fingers in his hair and holding his gaze. He pulled out again and pushed forward, feeling his control slowly unraveling. He increased the pace, using the headboard for leverage as he moved in and out of her. She moved one hand to his bicep, wrapping her hand around it and digging her fingers into his flesh.
“Fuck, Mishka,” she moaned, meeting him thrust for thrust.
“Mine,” he growled, lowering his head to kiss her. She sucked on his tongue with a sultry sound, arching under him as her pussy hugged him. He pushed his hand under her lower back and lifted her from the bed. His pelvis rubbed against her clit, and he knew he’d found a place to take her over the edge again as she sucked in a breath.
He held her tight, moving in and out of her as fast as he could, using all his strength to hold his own pleasure back until the end, until she came apart on a keening cry, her body locking down on his and pulling his climax from him. He shredded his wrist with his fangs and pushed his bleeding arm against her lips. She moaned as she latched onto him. He sank his fangs into her throat, his body still spasming in the throes of the most intense pleasure that he’d ever had.
As her blood crested his throat, the connection between them snapped into place. Her blood was thick and sweet on his tongue, and he closed his eyes as her life flashed in his mind. He saw her childhood, her father’s illness and death, her friends rallying with her as she began her search for her beloved. He saw what looked like dreams and knew he was seeing himself, as surreal as it seemed. He was humbled that she had been looking for him, hoping to find him as she moved from city to city.
He extracted his fangs and licked the marks. They would close quickly but scar permanently. She released her hold on his wrist and tenderly kissed the wound. “You taste like honey,” she said. “I thought you tasted metallic before, but I was wrong.”
Her eyes were half-lidded and sexy as hell. “My beloved Harmony, you are a wonder.”
“I’m just yours,” she said. “Forever.”
“I vow on my life to be the best mate. Your happiness is the most important thing in my life now.” He wasn’t really sure he’d ever said anything more truthful. He could feel their connection as beloveds, and although he didn’t love her yet, he knew he would soon. She was his perfect match, and he was hers. For a male who’d been alive for five hundred years, he’d finally found someone worth living for.
Chapter 6
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Harmony stared at Mishka as he slept. Through their connection as beloveds, she’d actually been able to feel when dawn arrived. It was as strange as it was awe inspiring. In Mishka’s underground chamber, where she shouldn’t have been able to tell if the sun was in the sky or not unless she looked at a clock, she’d actually felt the night fading away and the sun’s affect on not only Mishka but also on the other vampires in the coven.
Her sexy mate slumbered next to her, his hair a tousled mess. The beloved bond had been far stronger than she’d imagined. She hadn’t realized that sharing blood with him would connect them so tightly. Because beloveds shared memories, his entire life had flashed through her like a movie on fast forward. She’d seen his childhood, when he’d been turned in his mid-twenties, the males and female he’d turned as he aged, and the brutal war that had secured him as master of the Cleveland coven. There was peace in Cleveland because of him, but she could sense that the peace wasn’t easy to hold.
She knew she should sleep. Mishka was a night owl by nature, and she would need to be one, too, but she was having trouble turning off her mind. All she could do was wonder what the future held, not only for them but also for her friends. Mishka stirred next to her, and she turned into his embrace, resting her cheek on his bicep.
“I thought I wore you out,” he said with a low voice that tickled over her skin.
“You did. I’m just thinking too hard to rest.”
“Tell me what’s on your mind. A burden shared is half the weight.”
“I didn’t know that we’d share memories.”
His brows rose. “You said we were beloveds. I assumed you knew what it meant.”
“I thought I did. I knew we’d be connected, but I didn’t realize how deep the connection would go.” She ran her thumb along a scar on the edge of his collarbone. “I saw your life.”
“I should have stopped us last night to ensure you understood. I’m so sorry, my heart.”
She smiled at the nickname. “Before I started dreaming about you, I didn’t spend a lot of time in vampire clubs. I knew my truemate was out in the world somewhere and that when the time was right, the dreams would start. Muses always find their truemates through dreams. When I mentioned to Wyst that you were a vampire, he said that meant we were beloveds because a perfect mate for a vampire would be his or her beloved, not simply a truemate.”
All supernatural creatures had the ability to have truemates, but only vampires had a deeper connection with their beloved, a truemating on steroids. “You’ve only changed a few into vampires. They’re special to you. How did you choose?”
“I have my family. They’re what you might call my ‘inner circle.’ One of the vampires I turned left my coven right after I took over here. He opted to start his own coven in Australia where his mate was from. I think the winters here didn’t agree with him. But the others – Cella, Temple, Traz, and Ven - were turned before I came here. Vex and Rage, the twins – they joined my coven before the takeover, and Brone has been with me the longest. He’s over one thousand years old.”
“Wow. He must be a really good fighter to have lasted so long. Or extremely lucky. The oldest vampire I met was seven hundred. I think he wasn’t so much a good fighter, but he had surrounded himself with people willing to fight for him.”
“It takes cunning as well as strategy to stay alive,” he said, running his fingertip along the edge of the fur that covered them. “I know some masters who turn anyone who will oath themselves to the coven, but I picked the few I did because they brought something to the table that I knew I could use in the future. Cella is an organizer, Temple is a researcher, and Traz and Rage like a good fight.”
She chuckled. “My guys are like that, too. Bridge is a wolf shifter, and he does all our computer work. He’s a whiz at tech stuff. Tamar’s a puma shifter. He has amazing tracking abilities in both his human and shifted form. And Wyst is a falcon. He’s fast with a sword and won’t tolerate anyone bothering any of us.”
He brushed her hair back, tucking it behind her ear. “You’ve surrounded yourself with people who care about you, the same as I did. It’s a wonderful thing. Now, you’ll be mistress of the coven. My people will be yours.”
“Will they care I’m not a vampire?”
“I can’t see why they would care. You’re immortal, and judging by what I saw of your memories, you are sweet and kind, and you’ll be an excellent leader.”
“Do you feel bad that you don’t get to change me?”
“Not remotely.” He lifted a lock of her hair and frowned. “Your hair is very dark. Do you need to feed?”
She was touched that he cared. “Let me see if I can use my power on you. You might be too powerful for me.”
He settled back against the pillow with a playful smile. “Sing me something sexy.”
It took only a moment for her to decide on a song, picking one she’d written about the vampire in her dreams. She tapped into her power, curious to see if it would have any effect on him. The older the vampire was, the stronger his ability was to ward off supernatural charms. As she sang, she focused her power on him, attempting to increase his emotions. He gazed at her with interest, and she wasn’t certain that she’d be able to affect him, until his eyes widened slightly, and she felt herself tap into his emotions.
She could feel how happy he was, how blissed-out and delirious with pleasure he felt to have found her. It touched her heart deeply to feel how much he cared for her already. They hadn’t even known each other an entire day, and she was the epicenter of his universe.
It would be impossible to make him any happier than he was, which made her want to strut around his room. But instead of acting like a nut, she finished her song and eased her power from him. It was akin to wrapping a blanket around a person and then slowly drawing it away. She saw in his eyes the moment he knew she had withdrawn; there was an understanding in the golden depths.
He looked at her hair and made a surprised sound. “It’s blue.” Wrapping a lock of her hair around his finger, he drew it between them, and she saw that she’d indeed fed from him, even though he hadn’t needed any help emotionally. Buried in the dark strands were bright blue stripes.
“That was…easy,” she said.
His brow arched. “I’ve never been called that before.”
Laughing, she kissed his knuckles and said, “My power allows me to alter someone’s mood. Your average supernatural creature in a club might be in a decent mood, but I can always make them happier. That mood changing is like energy for me.”
“But it was easy with me?”
“You’re happy.”
“Very. But surely you run across people who are happy and don’t need mood elevation.”
“Not like this.” She tapped the skin over his heart. “Our connection made you happy. You’re literally the happiest man I’ve ever known.”
He chuckled. “I felt your power. It brushed against me.”
“I think you could have kept me out if you wanted.”
“I didn’t want to keep anything from you. May I try an experiment with my power?”
“Of course.”
He cupped her face and gazed into her eyes. The golden color of his irises seemed to swirl, to darken with bits of bronze. She’d never seen anything lovelier. “Not that I don’t enjoy staring at you,” she said, “but are you doing something?”
He blinked rapidly a few times and smiled. “I was trying. I guess muses are immune to the power of vampiric persuasion.”
She hummed. “You can persuade people to do things?”
He nodded. “Humans are easiest, but most supernatural creatures will succumb unless they’re particularly powerful like an alpha, or very old.”
“What were you trying to persuade me to do?”
“Use your talented mouth for activities besides singing.”
Laughing, she lifted the fur and slid down underneath. “As long as you promise to return the favor.”
�
��Anytime.”
* * *
Harmony held Mishka’s hand as he led her out of the chamber. After they’d made love, she’d been able to fall asleep quickly in his arms. When they’d woken before the sun set, she’d discovered that her friends had brought her things from the RV and left them outside of the chamber. She had no idea how a vampire master’s beloved should dress, and although Mishka said she would be lovely in whatever she chose, she knew one of the first things she needed to do was find appropriate clothes. Mishka wore tailored slacks and a navy dress shirt with diamond cufflinks. His hair was tied at the nape of his neck. Even her nicest clothing looked like bargain-bin finds next to his fancy duds.
Glancing down once more at the black satin pants and aqua tank with embroidery around the neckline, she grimaced.
Mishka stopped and turned to face her. “What’s troubling you?”
“You look like you fell out of a men’s catalog, and I look like I walked out of a discount department store.”
He snorted. “You’re beautiful. You can dress however you like. You’re the mistress of the largest coven in the Midwest. If you want to wear pants with no panties and a top that reminds me of the ocean, then please, for the love of all that’s holy, do.”
She couldn’t stop her grin. “How do you know I’m not wearing panties?”
“Oh my heart,” he murmured, stepping close and kissing the tip of her nose, “I watched you get dressed.”
“I thought you weren’t peeking. I wanted to surprise you.”
“I’ll pretend to be surprised later.”
“I would like to dress nicer. I want us to fit together. Unless you want to go get a pair of jeans and a T-shirt, then I want to dress upscale.”