The bird plucked at the meat, turning its head to tug it away, then jerked back its tiny head to gulp it down.
Chessa rushed into the salon, carrying a large box. “What do you think of the stroller? Do you think Bianca will like it?”
Mention of his daughter, who’d been born only days ago, dispersed the melancholy that pulled him down when he thought of Simon and Madeleine.
“Bianca loves only two things at the moment, neither of which Nicolas possesses. Can’t you hear her squalling?”
Chessa tipped her head to listen for the thin cries emanating from the nursery upstairs. “That’s where Nic is, huh?” she said grinning. “Is he ready to pull out his hair?”
“Go rescue him. He refused to let her cry on the nanny’s shoulder. I don’t think he trusts anyone but you with her care.”
Chessa squeezed her breasts. “Ugh! I’m leaking. Just wanted to drop this box with you. It needs assembly,” she said, then rushed out the door again.
Mikaela strolled in after her, her lips curving. “I can’t believe she’s flying around the place already.”
“It’s her vampire metabolism. We’re quick healers.” Alex set the bird back on her perch and patted his leg.
Miki settled there, laying her head on his chest, and sighed. “Is all the excitement finally over?”
“The wolves were safely delivered. Our men are on their way back. I think, for now things will quiet down.” Another furious little cry sounded from the second floor. “There might be one very small exception.”
“She looks like Chessa,” she said softly. “Do you think our child would have looked like me?”
Alex sighed and hugged her closer. Although Mikaela had been reborn without memory, he’d given her his own. She felt the same pain he’d suffered knowing their baby had died inside her body when Dumuzi had taken her heart.
“She would have had dark auburn hair,” he said softly, nuzzling her red locks, “a heart-shaped face, and mossy green eyes. And she’d have been just as lovely as her mother.”
“I’d like to try again.”
“Isn’t that what we’ve been doing every night?”
“Like you said, the house is quiet, no wolves or demons underfoot …”
“Are you feeling neglected?” he asked, blood rushing to fill his cock with heat.
“Just a little empty,” she said, tilting back her head and giving him a saucy look.
Alex sprang from his seat, and carrying her close to his chest, walked up the curved staircase. He headed to the wing opposite the nursery and Chessa and Nic’s rooms, toward his own bedroom that he shared with his new wife.
Once inside, he kicked the door shut and walked straight for the bed, not stopping until he settled her in the center and crawled over her body.
Poised above her, he smoothed her hair back and leaned down to kiss her.
Miki sighed against his lips and melted. “It doesn’t get any better than this.”
Alex made quick work of removing only essential items of clothing. When he was stroking deep inside her, passion rising, he remembered the look that had crossed the demon’s face when he’d first spied Miki.
A flush of happiness, followed by dawning horror had crossed his features, and Alex had known instantly that Miki would never be safe.
Riding her sweet curves now, he branded her with his heat, plunging deeply, trying to give her the one thing that would bind them together forever.
Guntram stuck his nose into the pine needles, searching for her scent. The pack had shed their clothing at the edge of the forest and transformed—wolves loping into the woods, while Marduk took the sky, skimming along the tops of the trees to follow.
Gabriella hadn’t been content keeping astride the pack, she’d streaked ahead, her tail wagging happily, daring him to keep up.
He’d lost her in thick underbrush, but at last picked up the trail. With his head bent toward the forest floor, he hurried forward, letting his brothers peel off to continue their run while he sought another sort of release from the tensions of the past few days.
They’d stopped briefly in Atlanta to report all that had happened. When they’d told the tale of entering the Land of the Dead and returning, he’d noted the incredulous expressions. Not until he’d introduced Marduk and given him the nod to prove their claim had they believed. Marduk’s transformation in the center of the cozy study had them all scrambling for the door.
The wolves hadn’t been happy to know a demon existed and remained among them at Guntram’s invitation, but what could they do? They had everything they’d wanted and more. Guntram had steered the conversation afterward, offering his plans to create a headquarters in Memphis, just up the river from the vampires in New Orleans, to oversee their operations.
Gabriella had sat at his side, her lips firmly sealed, although he invited her input. She’d told him later she didn’t want anyone doubting their claim of having mated. Glances had slid between the two of them, seated side by side, and not one of the males had demanded she be removed from the room. He’d set their expectations from the start that they’d forged a partnership rather than a more traditional union.
Gabriella had been suitably appreciative of his efforts … later.
Guntram found Gabriella in a clearing. Pine needles cushioned the pads of his paws as he drew near the woman, lying with her arms beneath her head as she stared up into a starry sky.
Shaking his fur, he drew on his humanskin to join her.
Her lips were curved in a smile that was at once lusty and sweet. Her head turned to catch the fading sounds of the whomp-whomp of Marduk’s wings. “He’s leaving us.”
“I know. I arranged the tickets. He’s heading to the Middle East to visit old haunts,” he said, kneeling beside her. Holding her gaze locked with his, he asked, “Will you miss him?”
“I think I will.”
“What precisely will you miss?”
Her eyebrows rose. “Not what you’re obviously thinking. I haven’t had sex with him since we left Kur-gal.”
“Will you be satisfied with just one lover?”
“For the rest of my life?”
Guntram swallowed hard, prepared to accept either answer she gave him. He loved Gabriella, loved her lusty nature and her stubborn belief in her own invincibility. Placing bonds on her unfettered passions might kill the very qualities that attracted and held him bound to her.
Gabriella’s eyes shimmered with moisture and she reached up to slide her hand over his chest, pressing her palm above his heart. “With my vow, I grant you dominion over me and our children; I place my heart in your keeping. I pledge my troth to you and promise to honor our commitment.”
Guntram held still, drinking in the words. His skin felt hot and cold at the same time, as a lush warm breeze sifted through the trees and bathed them both with fresh scents of the woodlands and their own rising passion.
“Thank you,” he said simply, because he hadn’t the words to express his happiness. “You won’t regret it.”
“I won’t let you disappoint me, you know.” She lifted her arms and opened them.
Guntram slid over her, welcoming the clasp of her strong, sturdy thighs around his hips. His cock nudged between her folds and he laid his forehead on her shoulder as he stroked inward.
Fingertips raked his scalp, and he groaned, lifting his head to press a kiss to her lips.
Their tongues stroked together, silky slides that tasted and aroused. As his mouth lapped, sliding over hers in drugging, gobbling circles, he gathered his knees under him and drove harder toward her core.
At last, she broke the kiss, gasping as her body began to undulate, curving her hips to meet his steady strokes. “My Raven,” she whispered, gliding her lips along the side of his neck. “I love you.”
Guntram stroked once, then withdrew, coming to his knees. “Turn around,” he said, his voice rasping.
Excitement sparked in her eyes, and she quickly complied with his command, roll
ing to her belly and coming up on her knees. She eagerly scooted her ass backward until she rubbed against him.
Guntram smiled, knowing if she looked back now, she might begin to worry a bit. Feral pride filled him. She’d given him her heart. Pledged her fidelity to him alone. She’d gifted him with her love. Everything he’d ever wanted was his for the taking.
Given freely.
There was enough of the proud male wolf inside him to want to howl his triumph to the moon.
He laid his palms on her buttocks and stepped backward on his knees. Then, bending over her, he tongued a spot, wetting it, and then nipped it. He repeated the action over and over until she was jerking and trembling, her breaths coming in soft gasps.
When he pressed his nose to her skin and nuzzled, her back sank in the middle, lifting her bottom, and raising her sex—offering herself for his exploration.
Guntram rubbed his nose and chin in the dampness, stroked her labia with his tongue and drew the thin inner lips between his teeth.
He nibbled and stroked, moving downward. His tongue glided over her clit, then retreated.
Gabriella widened her stance, giving him greater access. He swooped downward, spread her folds with his thumbs and stroked his tongue inside her, lapping at her cream and groaning because his own body was wound tight, close to exploding.
“Guntram, please,” she moaned. “Come inside me.”
And only because he’d teased himself beyond resisting her plea, he straightened, grasping the notch of one hip and funneling his cock through his fingers to slide into her silky, wet sex.
On his knees behind her, he flexed and pushed inside her, cramming past soft tissue that was already beginning the sexy caresses heralding her orgasm. He scooted closer, bending over her, sweeping her long hair over one shoulder to bare it.
“Yes, yes,” she cried as his teeth clamped down on the tender curve of her shoulder and held her immobile. He ground inside her, letting himself go. His balls tightened, and blood surged toward his crown, filling it, expanding it until he filled the narrow space behind her womb and locked with her.
He reached beneath her and palmed a breast, squeezing it and then tugging at the spiked tip. His other hand slid between her legs and drew wet circles on her clit.
She bucked beneath him, her inner walls convulsing as he ground harder, relishing the connection that tied their bodies together as they both exploded and his seed poured in scalding spurts inside her.
Still locked, they both began the slow descent. He pulled them down to the ground, never retreating from her womb, and held her against him, unlatching his jaws to press kisses to her shoulder and neck. “I love you, Gabriella,” he whispered in her ear.
Her hands covered his, clutching her belly and her breast, and they lay like that until his balls had emptied and the rigidity of the knot slowly waned.
Gabriella turned her head and they kissed. Just a brush of lips. Her hand cupped his cheek. “I don’t think I’ve ever been happier. Why did you wait so long?”
Guntram smiled. “You weren’t ready. I wasn’t sure.”
“I don’t regret a moment of our journey.”
“Do you think it’s ended?”
Gabriella’s smile was wide, her eyes teary. She pushed his hands to her flat belly. “Our children were conceived there.”
“We’ll birth hellions then?”
“I’m counting on it. Fierce, independent wolves—with a warrior and a princess for parents, how can they be anything less?”
“Alex and his brood had better be ready.”
Letting his sex slip from her body, he turned her to face him. With her soft brown gaze locked with his, lying side by side in a fragrant bed of pine needles with the distant stars sparkling overhead, he kissed her, renewing his vow as he intended to do every night of their lives.
BOOKS BY DELILAH DEVLIN
INTO THE DARKNESS
978-0-06-116123-0 (paperback)
“From its intriguing and twisted storyline, in-depth and well-written characters, to the torrid sex scenes, Into the Darkness is a must read for those paranormal
lovers who
love to live on the edge.”
—Romance Reviews Today
SEDUCED BY DARKNESS
978-0-06-116124-7 (paperback)
“Devlin’s intricate vampire society is filled with compelling personalities. The chemistry between the characters is explosive…. [It] will raise your temperature, and the ending will leave you begging for more.”
—Romantic Times
DARKNESS BURNING
978-0-06-149820-6 (paperback)
“A dynamic heroine with a mysterious past and hidden strengths pits herself against a truly magnetic hero capable of drawing the reader—and the heroine—into a world of pleasure and sexual
excess.”
—Kate Douglas, author of Wolf Tales
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About the Author
DELILAH DEVLIN
Until recently, award-winning romance author DELILAH DEVLIN lived in south Texas at the intersection of two dry creeks, surrounded by sexy cowboys in Wranglers. These days, she’s missing those wide-open skies and starry nights but loving her dark forest in central Arkansas, with its eccentric characters and isolation—the better to feed her hungry muse! For Delilah, the greatest sin is driving between the lines because it’s comfortable and safe. Her personal journey has taken her through one war and many countries, cultures, jobs, and relationships to bring her to the place where she is now—writing sexy adventures that hold more than a kernel of autobiography and often share a common thread of self-discovery and transformation. To learn more about Delilah, visit www.delilahdevlin.com.
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By Delilah Devlin
DARKNESS CAPTURED
DARKNESS BURNING
SEDUCED BY DARKNESS
INTO THE DARKNESS
Copyright
This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
DARKNESS CAPTURED. Copyright © 2010 by Delilah Devlin.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
FIRST AVON PAPERBACK EDITION PUBLISHED 2010.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Devlin, Delilah.
Darkness captured / by Delilah Devlin.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-0-06-149823-7 (pbk.)
1. Vampires—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3604.E88645D38 2010
813’.6—dc22 2010015011
10 11 12 13 14 OV/RRD 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
EPub Edition © AUGUST 2010 ISBN: 978-0-062-01157-2
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Darkness Captured: A Novel Page 24