Micah cupped my cheek in his palm, his skin hot—his touch chasing away the doubt and the dark memories of my time without a soul. I’m not sure who moved first, him or me, but I lifted and he bent until our lips fit together like two missing pieces finding their other halves.
Passion ignited—a deep-rooted desire that overwhelmed. Electric sensation washed through me and I trailed my hand from his muscular stomach to his chest. I curved my caress higher and stroked his neck. A low, hungry growl rolled from his chest and he cupped my ass, forcing my body to his—taking control—taking possession of what was his.
The first inklings of hope surfaced. I wanted to be his more than anything. He nipped my lower lip and swept into my mouth. I moaned at the wet, erotic slide of our tongues, the way he dominated our kiss. Passion exploded, a rich elemental sensation that far surpassed anything I’d felt with the bond.
This was our choice. Our want. Our need that couldn’t be tamed.
I ran my fingers through his hair and held him closer. His cock was a hard, solid length pressing against my stomach, proof of how I affected him. He lifted and I wrapped my legs around his waist. He carried me to the bedroom and laid me out on the bed.
The mattress dipped beneath our combined weight and I felt only the briefest of chills before Micah closed the gap between our bodies. I spread my legs and he fit his pelvis against mine.
Micah broke from my mouth and stared down at me, his gaze hot and hungry. Possessive. He pushed the wet strands of my hair from my face.
“I can see the lingering doubt your eyes, the wall you’re building to protect yourself. You don’t know where we stand, what you mean to me.”
I drew my fingers through the soft hair at his nape to tell him he was wrong, that I knew exactly who and what I wanted. “Micah—”
He shook his head, silencing me. “Let me clear it the fuck up right now. I didn’t think it was possible to love someone as much as I love you. You are in my bones, Ella. In my soul. I can’t live without you. Won’t. You’re mine—the man’s and the demon’s. All the facets of you are embedded in me.”
The conviction in his eyes, the sincerity in his voice melted me. The knot inside my chest eased. He’d seen the truly awful parts of me, knew better than anyone what lurked inside. Despite it, he loved me anyway. Tears pricked the backs of my eyes—fucking pregnancy hormones—and I captured his lips before he could see them.
I refused to be the weak, whiny, hormonally challenged woman I had been days ago. Micah deserved someone as strong as he was. I pushed at his shirt, wanting it gone, needing his skin against mine.
Between us, he unzipped his jeans and toed off his boots. He pulled away only long enough to shuck his clothes. Micah moved over me, fitting his hips between my thighs. The combined heat of his skin and the energy flowing between us made the water lingering on my body evaporate.
Micah rubbed my leg from the calf up to my thigh. Never breaking eye contact, he spread me wide. In one slow thrust, he pressed his cock into the slick opening of my sex.
I sucked in a breath at the deep penetration and arched my back, trying to get closer. This was so unlike any time we had been together. When he was in to the hilt, Micah paused. His cock pulsed.
“You’re mine.”
“Yours,” I agreed.
Micah dropped his forehead against mine and brought our bodies together in a slow, powerful rhythm that rocked me to my core. I cried out and clutched his shoulders, needing the connection to anchor myself. Micah’s mouth found mine in a heated kiss.
His thrusts came harder, quicker, and I knew he was close. When his body started to tremble and his skin pebbled, I knew it would be over. I never wanted him to stop. I never wanted this exquisite pleasure to end. Hooking a leg around his hip, I rolled until Micah’s back was on the mattress.
I rose above him and let the damp strands of my hair tickle the hands he brought up to hold my face.
“I love you,” I whispered.
I sank down and took his cock into me. His eyes darkened with pleasure. He moved his hands from my cheeks to my breasts and cupped the tender mounds. I threw my head back and rocked my hips. My internal muscles convulsed and I sensed Micah fighting the urge to throw me back and take control.
Instead he wrapped his arms around my back and sat up with me in his lap.
“Marry me,” he gasped as he thrust up into my body.
There was no hesitation. “Yes.”
He cupped my breast, bent and drew my nipple into his mouth. The rough scrape of his teeth sent me spiraling into orgasm and I cried out. Pleasure engulfed, stole my breath. My nails scored his back and the spicy scent of his blood brought out my fangs. Despite the teeth, he gave me a deep, long kiss.
He bucked his hips and ripped his mouth from mine. Our eyes met. Held. His lips parted on a deep moan. The blue-green shade of his pupils mixed, swirling together as his demon rose to the surface. His cock jerked and the hot wash of his seed filled me. Mid-climax, Micah growled and pushed his tongue into my mouth. He poured everything he had into me. I took it all and gave him all of me in the process. My body trembled and we fell back onto the bed in a tangle of limbs.
I took a long moment to catch my breath before I rolled into him and asked, “Did you really ask me to marry you?”
He ran a hand down his face and grinned devilishly. “I did. And you said yes, so don’t try to take it back. I won’t let you.”
I pulled my lip between my teeth. Was this about the baby? I’d told him…well, evil-psycho-bitch Ella had told him.
“Isn’t there a rule that says you can’t propose like that?”
“Fuck the rules. I want you to be my wife.”
“Wife.” I marveled at the word, its meaning. A different kind of bond between people, one forged by love—by choice and sometimes out of obligation. I needed to know which. “Does this have anything to do with the baby I’m carrying?”
Micah went absolutely still and his skin paled. The rhythm of his heart quadrupled. Several long seconds passed before he managed to form words.
“Baby?”
His fingers twitched against me before he trailed his palm to my stomach, to where our child grew. As if it sensed his touch, the tiny life flared, the faint echo of his crazy-fast heartbeat increasing.
He looked up from where his hand, large enough to span my entire stomach, rested to my eyes. Awe replaced the shock. “I didn’t believe her. I thought she was just fucking with me, saying the absolute worst thing she could to win.”
She. He’d separated me into two people.
“I’m terrified, Micah,” I admitted. What if I fuck up this kid’s life? The prophecy was vague. The Demon Son would bring mayhem and destruction. But did that have to be bad? Evil Ella seemed to think so. Me, I was a bit more hopeful. Perhaps a part of me was still naïve.
Micah swept his thumb over my lower lip. “I’d be lying if I told you I wasn’t scared shitless too. But I’m also excited. It won’t be easy and we’ll make mistakes, but I’ll tell you one thing for sure.”
I curled into him and rested my head on his chest. He scratched his fingers up and down my back, drawing a purr from my throat.
“I’ve got a great example of how not to be a father. I refuse to fuck up this kid’s life, and that—I think it’s enough.”
“I don’t think we should tell anyone,” I said.
“We’ll wait, see a doctor or some shit.” Micah kissed the top of my head and rolled over me, reaching for something on the floor.
“Ugh,” I protested, slapping his finely crafted ass. “You’re squishing me.”
“Get over it,” he grumbled.
Micah reversed his direction, rolling off me, and I sucked in a breath now that I could breathe.
“Here.” He set a small, dark wooden box between my breasts.
I stared at it, my eyes crossing when I tried to focus on it.
“What is it?” I alternated my gaze between my present and Micah, my curiosit
y mounting by the second.
“The reason I wasn’t here when you woke up. Hours, I sat by your bedside, held your hand—nothing. I even pissed in a bottle because I didn’t want to leave you.”
Now that was romantic. I stroked the smooth, satin-like top of the box reverently, as if it held all the secrets of the universe in it. He’d never given me a present before. “What’s in it?”
“Just open the damn thing.”
I sat up and caught the box as it tumbled down my stomach. I lifted the lid, the creaking hinges sending a tingle down my spine. I stared, completely dumbfounded at the ring within.
I didn’t know much—okay, anything—about jewelry, but this…this was something special. The band was brimstone, the squared gems artfully arranged to stagger onyx and diamond.
I lifted my gaze to Micah’s. “Where did you get this?”
“Derrik, my father, wanted to give it to my mother. Castro’s been holding on to it. When he went to retrieve the files, he got it for me. Thought I might want it. He gave me this long speech about how to propose—while I was inside you was the number one way I shouldn’t do it, by the way.”
Heat surged through me and as if someone—aka the baby—tugged on my emotions, tears filled my eyes. I didn’t know if I could last however many months chicks pregnant with demons stayed knocked up if I was destined to cry at the drop of a hat. This crap could get annoying real fast.
“I can’t take this.” I snapped the box closed, felt a pang of regret in my chest and handed it back to him.
“Bullshit.” Micah removed the ring from its case and tossed the box.
He grabbed my hand and slid it on my finger. The jewelry was heavier than I would have guessed, something I’d have to get used to. I stared at the sparkling diamond, forced myself to stop looking at it like an idiot.
“You like it?” he asked cautiously.
“Like?” I shook my head and threw my arms around his neck. I crushed our bodies together in a rare, totally uncharacteristic show of pure girlish delight I’d spend the rest of my life denying and most likely taking crap from Micah about. “I love it and if you try to take it from me, I’ll cut off your hand.”
Micah’s low, rumbling laugh lifted the corner of my mouth in a smile. “There’s my girl. For a moment I was worried you’d start squealing and jumping up and down.”
No need to tell him I might have done that in my head.
Chapter Twenty
A wariness that pissed me off filled the limo and made the roomy interior feel like a coffin with too many corpses packed in. I glared at Eli, then Dante, where they sandwiched Hannah between them as if Ella was going to reach across the seat and snap her neck. Their rigid posture and pinched faces made me think they’d all shoved sticks up their asses before leaving Julian’s mansion.
Ella’s sister, who hadn’t earned a free pass from my annoyance, chewed on her thumbnail. She’d been staring out the side window for the better part of an hour so she wouldn’t have to look at anyone—specifically Ella. She bounced her leg up and down in quick jerky movements. I was seconds from slapping a hand on her thigh and yelling at her to stop.
Shame the fuck on them. They should know better—realize and accept that Ella wasn’t going to hurt anyone.
Oh, we’d gone through the heartfelt apologies back at Julian’s mansion. We’d had the tears and the pansy-ass hugging that Ella took like a champ, but it hadn’t been enough. Not for Hannah, who would never forget every single word Ella had said to her. Not for my brother, who’d gotten a thorough mind fuck. Not for Dante, whose balls had been handed to him on a silver platter, leaving the pussycat emasculated. I half expected him to whip out his dick, just to show everyone it was still there and no doubt massive.
The only person who didn’t treat Ella any different was Roy. He travelled in the limo behind us with my mother. If I could have stomached the thought of being away from Ella, I would have forced her in the car with him so she didn’t have to deal with this shit.
Wasn’t stress bad for babies or some crap? She’d acknowledged her actions, accepted they were forever a part of her, and realized she would have to deal with the struggle. My brother had better get his shit together and stop looking at my girl as if he was about to pull a gun on her.
My feral side surged to the surface with violent intent, the demon even more volatile where our girl was concerned. She carried our child. Anything that affected Ella, touched her, made her sad or hurt her was unacceptable.
Beside me, Ella might have appeared unaffected by the silent judgment and fear radiating by our family, but I knew better. She sat straight with her chin tilted up. There was a stiffness to her body that shouldn’t have been there considering I stroked my hand up and down her back in the way I knew she liked. Under my touch she was supposed to preen and melt, go all soft sex kitten. Wasn’t happening, not even close.
So I sat and I stewed, affected by the emotions around me. Trapped under the oppressive fabric of the black three-piece suit I’d been talked into wearing, the heat radiating from me quadrupled. Sweat beaded on my flesh and the fire brimming under the surface boiled it into steam that crawled over my skin. I now understood why smoke curled from beneath Castro’s tailored clothing, and I wondered if that was my fate.
The miles of highway stretched on in silence. I hooked an arm around Ella’s shoulders and pulled her into me. Head on my chest, she rolled her gaze to mine. I thumbed her lower lip, remembered tasting her, kissing her, making her cry out.
“You okay?” I asked.
She shrugged and nestled in closer, allowing the small comfort. I bent and trailed my lips over the shell of her ear. I pitched my voice low, for her ears only—if such a thing existed in a car with two shape shifters. “Maybe you should place an order of ‘I’m sorry I was such an evil blood-sucking bitch’ coffee mugs?”
A small laugh left her throat, the sound easing my anger. “I don’t think that’s going to cut it. Not this time. They just need time to get over it. I’m okay with that.”
For some reason, I didn’t believe her.
We pulled to a stop in front of an unmarked warehouse in the middle of nowhere. Unless you were intent on vandalism, a normal person would keep driving. I kissed the top of Ella’s head and stared out the darkly tinted windows. There was dirt, more dirt and some more dirt on top of that. Without the city lights, stars twinkled against the black backdrop. I’d grown up here, played tag with Eli on these grounds, set up cans to use as target practice when I hadn’t been able to stand being trapped in the confines of the Agency Headquarters any longer.
Cameras winked at me, the glint of their lenses barely visible where they were camouflaged as well-placed rocks. If I didn’t know exactly where to look, I might not have spotted them. I got out of the limo and scanned the barren desert, looking for any type of a threat before I tugged on Ella’s hand and helped her out of the backseat.
This was it—do or die. By die, I meant anyone who would fuck with me or mine.
The cold night air swept over me, a frigid caress across my overheated skin. Anticipation filled me, a sense of justice about to come to fruition. Richard was going down. Death would have been too quick when I could systematically remove what mattered most to him—power. Humiliation was a much greater punishment.
At our approach, a dented metal door rolled open, revealing an empty warehouse with clean, dull concrete. With each step, Ella’s high heels sank into the layer of finely pulverized copper sand. She’d bitched about the shoes and her outfit, but I didn’t know why. She looked kickass and sexy. Sophisticated. Every inch the Vampire Queen she’d accepted about herself. Sure, shit still needed settling—the Fenrir primarily. We’d decided to tackle one problem at a time and Eiven, with his blood fetish, would have to wait.
Ella’s black knee-length skirt and matching heels gave her height and made me think about her legs wrapped around my waist while I pounded into her. As we crossed the open area to the agency’s entrance, s
he smoothed a hand down the wrinkle-free black blazer that hung open, revealing a simple blouse the same shade as the jacket. The shirt was partially unbuttoned and showed a hint of cleavage I really wanted to bury my face in. I’d gotten a glimpse of the lacy bra she’d shoved her tits into and was looking forward to running my tongue across the scalloped trim.
The brief taste of her I’d gotten earlier wasn’t nearly enough to sate me. I could make love to her five times a day and it still wouldn’t be enough. Without the bond between us, every touch, every kiss, every fucking stroke had a deeper meaning. Instincts demanded I claim her, but I wasn’t going to force Ella into that again. The demon part of me—still smug and satisfied at the thought of implanting its seed—wasn’t pressing the issue. Yet.
Ella looked up at me and narrowed her eyes. Whoops. Maybe I’d projected that last thought a little too clearly. I gave her a wicked grin and flicked my tongue across my bottom lip, recalling the taste of her skin. “You know,” I said softly, “all you need are some glasses, your hair twisted into a bun and we can play out the librarian fantasy I’ve had since Miss Scott in the seventh grade. I think you dropped something on the ground, Miss Grey, why don’t you bend over and pick it up for me.”
She rolled her eyes and flipped me her middle finger, showing me exactly what she thought of my proposition to role-play. With a chuckle, I pulled our clasped hands to my lips, kissing her knuckles as we walked inside and into the simple, unmarked elevator at the back of the warehouse. The doors dinged open before I’d even pressed the button. Inside the cab was sleek and silver, a direct contrast to its exterior surroundings. There was no music, no sound except the whirring of the motor as the elevator descended.
When we stopped, the doors opened to a pure-white room. People dressed in white robes—a symbol of their so-called ‘purity’, fucking hypocrites—roamed the halls, looking up from their conversations to stare at Ella and me.
I glared until they looked away. A tiny woman who had to be a good three inches shorter than Ella in her bare feet moved out from behind a horseshoe-shaped desk and met us in the hall. She swept a judgmental glare over first Ella, then me.
Dark Secrets Page 24