“Am I?” Her voice was so quiet, he could barely hear it. “Or am I a problem to solve?”
Every fiber of his being needed to make her feel better. He inched closer, dragged her into his arms and curled her close to his chest. “If you weren’t important, I wouldn’t want to help with your problems.”
She was gazing up at him. Her body plastered against his, and his body reminded him that it hadn’t relieved itself inside of her in the most primal way.
Melody’s salted caramel scent surrounded him, sending his blood scattering to claim her. His fangs throbbed, his shaft grew thick.
Damn these shorts.
He claimed her mouth. There was no hesitation on her part. None on his. They devoured each other, their fangs clanging together, their tongues twining.
He pushed her to her back and stretched out over her.
She dug her claws into his back, but he pulled away long enough to secure each of her hands above her head. The male in him needed to claim his female.
He growled at her top and jeans and yanked her shirttail out of her pants.
She freed her hands and he paused. When did she have the strength to do that?
She rolled her shirt off and unclasped her pants. He went from driving the situation to being a bystander as he tracked every inch of skin she bared.
Putting his weight on his knees, he helped her jerk down her pants and get them off her legs.
He tossed them aside and looked his fill.
Creamy, soft skin was open for him, but a light pink bra covered her precious breasts and matching underwear blocked his access.
“You hate pink?” His words were guttural, lust making his voice rough.
She nodded. He plucked her bra apart in the middle and shredded the underwear.
She didn’t shrink back or try to squirm away from him. Her horns were wrapped around her head like a crown, her fangs peeked out—sexy as sin. Her legs were spread on either side of him, her sex open.
“It’s my favorite color,” he rasped.
Desire flared in her eyes. “Undress,” she demanded.
Had he ever missed his timid Melody? No, he liked this side of her.
He ripped his shirt off, buttons flying and bouncing off the floor and wall. Her greedy gaze licked down his torso. The shorts were shucked down and kicked off as he spread over her again.
“You don’t wear underwear. I always wondered.”
He paused. Good thing she hadn’t asked earlier. He would’ve had a hard time not proving he went sans anything under his pants. “Now you know.”
She craned her neck to keep looking at his erection. He propped himself on an arm, pleased to let her look her fill.
“I still can’t believe how big you are.”
“And I can’t believe how sexy you are.”
Her blue gaze flicked up to his. “Really? I don’t have all the vampire buffness.”
“No, you have all your natural beauty.” He traced his fingers along the swell of her breast and down her abdomen. “Like the way your hips flare out. All I can think of is how I can fit between your legs, how you’ll look spread wide open.”
Her cheeks flushed, her gaze dipped down to where he was nestled with his cock straining for her. “Then you need to find out.”
Her blatant invitation staggered him. Had she always been this open and uninhibited during sex, or was this the effect of the power?
Shit. What if it was only the effects of her power? Then he’d be taking advantage of her. If she survived having them taken from her, she might never forgive him.
She rolled her hips, her moves impatient. “What’s going on in that pretty head of yours?”
He should stop, but she deserved the truth. “I was wondering if you’re always this enthusiastic. Or is it Hypna’s powers?”
Green flared in her eyes. “They aren’t Hypna’s anymore. And I’ve never been with anyone as hot as you. With abs. And a big dick.”
Something a guy never tired of hearing. “You’re sure about this, then? Some part of you isn’t screaming for me to stop?”
“It’s screaming all right.” She reached between them.
He hissed when her hot hand gripped his shaft. She guided him to her entrance.
The tip of his cock pushed into her wet heat. A ragged groan left him, and he dropped to a forearm.
“Hellfire, Melody. You’re so tight.”
She removed her hand, wound her legs tightly around him, and tilted her pelvis. He slid in farther.
Her eyes hooded. He rocked back out to coat his length with her wetness. Slowly, he inched back in.
With a jerk, she sheathed him halfway. His arms were shaking. The blinding ecstasy. Her body was more than he could take. Had he ever cared as deeply for a female? Was that the difference? Melody was fast becoming the most precious living thing in his life.
He rocked back again and thrust, seating himself all the way inside.
The first few thrusts were exploratory. How’d she feel when he went slow? Fast? Did she like it when he angled up or down? She loved when he teased her entrance before impaling her hard.
He caught her lips, tasted her, devoured her. He didn’t know where he stopped and she began. Her walls clenched him so hard, rippled along his length, promising a hard orgasm that could stop his heart.
Whimpers came from her between gasps and he moaned. He pounded faster, harder. She shouted for more.
He reared up, bearing his weight on his arms. He had to see her splayed under him, had to watch himself pin her again and again and again. Sweat beaded along his back as he swung his hips.
Melody clenched the sheets, writhed as she kept up with him, her hair splayed around her like sunshine fighting off a tidal wave. Large tears in the sheets formed where her claws frayed the fabric.
Her heels dug into his ass and her breasts bounced in the most enticing way. He clenched his jaw, fighting off the orgasm until he could watch her come.
It hit. She arched with a cry. “Creed!”
Her body bowed into him, but he didn’t touch, didn’t lick, didn’t nibble, just wrung every millisecond of pleasure from her.
With her mouth open in passion, her body taut with climax, he was done. No male could last through that vision without being affected, and he had the tight hold of her body over his cock. He couldn’t fight it anymore.
“My Melody,” he called as he released inside of her with two hard thrusts, dying into short bursts.
He sagged over her, weak at the peak of orgasm, his body shuddering.
She held him and whispered comfort in his ear. Between his thudding heart and rasping grunts, he couldn’t make out what she was saying.
Eventually, the words “I’m yours” sunk in. His first instinct was to scramble back and inform her of all the reasons this bond was a bad idea. What if she couldn’t control her mood swings? What if she hurt someone who didn’t deserve it? It was his job to stop her, no matter what. He should share the truth: If they could return her humanity, the thought of watching her die terrified him.
But he didn’t. Unless her orgasm took out another wall, she’d calmed down and wasn’t a threat to anyone but him. He’d take that risk and keep them all safe by pleasuring her. He’d return to his selfish ways and keep Melody until the demon brothers came back with a solution.
***
Melody pushed her hands into Creed’s shoulders and rode him in a slow, sensual pace.
Except for the venom and she-rage, this supernatural biology rocked. She didn’t tire. Neither did Creed. They’d fucked for hours. Easy and sweet. Hard and fast. There was no way her human body would’ve lasted past the third round.
Melody 2.0 couldn’t get enough. Correction: Each time satisfied her to the rafters, but as soon as she laid eyes on Creed again, or his scent burrowed into her awareness, her body flooded with need. And, as if he sensed it, he was ready for more, his cock thick and hard.
While she was with him, the devastation she caused
was pushed to the corners of her mind and she had no worries. Just her mate and intense physical attraction.
If only it just was that fueling her desire for Creed. His looks were above and beyond any male she’d ever seen. His irreverent attitude that changed around her to ultimate protection and concern. For her.
He alluded to his family and their atrocities. Was it his rebel appeal? The good guy who shunned his evil family?
Maybe, but she didn’t think so. It was the times he brought her to peak before himself. The way he watched her as if he delighted in her passion more than she did—which was friggin’ impossible. Throughout their time together, she’d gotten a lot of glimpses into the real Creed, the male only his team knew, and she wondered how well at that.
He was so duty bound, did he joke around with the guys? Did they share pizza and beer? How much did the others know of his history and how much it deeply affected him?
A small voice whispered to her that it was his duty to be with her, that he wasn’t here because he wanted to be. The demon situation forced his hand. It was silenced when he gripped her waist and set the pace.
She let the bliss take over. With him inside, filling her completely, she had no room for insecurities. She could express what she really felt, and what she really felt was elation.
“Yes! Yes! Yes!” Her climax hit, passed, and she collapsed on his chest. His strong arms wrapped around her.
She sighed into him. They embraced for several minutes, not saying a word.
“I don’t want this to end,” she murmured.
“Me either.”
Sliding off him, she rolled to his side. He tucked her into him.
Reality slipped its oily fingers back in to her. “It’s going to, though, isn’t it?”
He blew out a long, slow breath. “It has to.”
Honest. She waited for the black pit to open, but it’d been sexed shut. Might as well talk while she was stable. “Why? I know why, but why are you so against me as a human. We’re obviously physically compatible.”
“It’d be harder if the demon part of you didn’t give you stamina and healing abilities.”
She drifted her fingers over his chest. His cock twitched; he was half-mast. Seizing this opportunity to talk was too important to her, otherwise she’d go for another ride. “Is that the show stopper? Don’t vampires hit it with the humans ever?”
He rolled to his side to face her. “Yes. And I have before.”
She flinched, hurt causing a fissure in her emotions. “And how’d it go?”
“She passed away after a horrible illness. A common occurrence for humans during that time,” he said, his voice flat.
She gasped. After what she’d experienced since her transition, gratefulness that she was horrified at the outcome prevailed. “I’m sorry.”
The smoky blue of his eyes dulled. “Do you want to know why you terrify me?”
She nodded, but her confidence ebbed. Two seconds ago she would’ve begged to know, but his solemnity scared her.
“You’re human, and my family trafficked humans.”
“For blood.”
His gaze remained unwavering. “For whatever.”
Uneasiness stirred. Much more sinister than just blood. Did she remind him of his horrid family?
“I helped. Ran the books, found buyers, it didn’t matter. It was my life, all I knew.” Remorse blinked through his expression. “Then one day I had to move…product. There was a young woman, about my age in human years, mid-twenties. I can’t explain why her terror bothered me more than the others.”
His loaded statement stole her breath. More than the others, meaning he’d terrified more than one—plural—and even now, he said it in an offhand way. Like, those days before this girl just had never bothered him.
“How was she different?”
He didn’t answer for a long moment, just held her gaze with his unwavering one. “I don’t know. I can’t explain that, either. She pleaded for help like so many others. She protected those weaker or younger than her. Many humans did that. She was lovely, of course, and I was male. That’s all I can attribute it to. She caught my eye when others didn’t. I took notice. I…bought her as my own.”
Melody’s eyes went wide. That wasn’t the turn she expected. If he’d said he fought his parents for her freedom, or freed the whole lot of humans and betrayed his parents, she would have zero surprise. But he’d bought her.
“You forced her to be with you?” Could she get past that?
“To feed me, but not to lie with me.”
Still not okay, but not as cruel.
“She begged for her family’s life, her sisters, her parents. You see, we’d abduct the whole family and made it look like they spirited away in the middle of the night. Back in those days, it was easier.”
“Those days?”
“Early nineteen hundreds. This was 1918.”
“You’re old.” She mentally kicked herself. He was opening up to her; this wasn’t the time to be irreverent.
The corners of his eyes crinkled with a minuscule amount of humor. “Compared to some, yes.” Some meaning humans. All of them. “Eventually, we slept together, and it was difficult. I had to hold back in so many ways, but I was determined. By then she’d made me think too much. Would my parents ever fight for me like she championed hers? Would my brother be willing to die for me or be the one to stab me in the back?”
“You have a brother?”
“He was ashed shortly after I was disowned.”
“I’m sorry.” He’d lived a much different life than her.
He lifted a shoulder. “In their line of work, things got violent. Anyway, I went searching for her family, to see if they were alive, if I could buy them back without too many questions. I’d started developing grand plans to smuggle her away. We’d be on our own, be happy, blah, blah, blah.”
“Your family found out?” She couldn’t wait for him to finish. The heartbreak in his voice was devastating.
“They found out. They didn’t kill her, didn’t have to.” For the first time, he looked away. “One day when I got back, Father confronted me. We argued, I stormed away, so sure I was going to live happily ever after. But when I got to my room, Mary Margaret was not feeling well. She looked awful, sounded even worse. My father burst in after me, stopped short, and barked out a laugh. ‘You shall discover the effects of becoming attached to your food, my son.’” A muscle jumped in Creed’s jaw. “I nursed her day and night, but she didn’t survive. Father wiped out the rest of her family on principle, as if afraid the idea of decency would spread.”
Understanding of the words she’d overheard him speak to Rourke was clear. He’d already fallen for a human and watched her die. He knew the pain.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered.
“You can imagine what watching someone I thought I loved die miserably did to me. Living or dying like that is a foreign concept to my kind—the rich. We live extravagantly, at the cost of others, never to us.”
“I never had a chance.”
“You had an enormous chance. That’s why you terrified me so.”
She stroked his cheek. He caught her hand.
Twining her fingers with his, she said, “What if I wanted to keep these powers just so I could be with you?”
He switched his gaze to their interconnected hands. “I wouldn’t object, but the thing is, Melody, I’ve dedicated my life to policing those with powers so they don’t hurt others. If you can’t control what’s inside of you, I can’t allow it to stay there. I can’t allow you to become a danger to others.”
Chapter Ten
Creed let himself into his apartment. He walked back to his bedroom without noticing anything. Nothing had changed since he’d been here last. In fact, nothing had changed since he’d moved in.
He shrugged out of his shirt with its destroyed buttons and stepped out of his shorts. It’d been a long walk from Melody’s place to his. The anxiety in her liquid blue eyes
didn’t belong there, but he feared it was there to stay since he’d announced that if she lost control they’d have to risk her life to strip her of those cursed powers.
He’d noticed her little moments of propriety over her newfound abilities. They’re not Hypna’s anymore.
But he’d had to be honest with her. They were bonded. He couldn’t allow her to continue to want to be with him at the risk of others. Collateral damage was one thing, but rending someone limb from limb was another, and with Melody, he didn’t think the outcomes were separate. They were coincidental. If a concrete wall was in her way, it’d get demolished to pebbles. If a person…
He sifted through his drawers until he found a clean tactical shirt. In his closet, he chose a pair of black cargo pants from among the many pairs.
While in his closet, he selected his favored firearms. Demetrius had called him, interrupting the uncomfortable moments after he’d informed her of her tenuous hold on her demon side. Zoey had taken the demon brothers to find Ophelia for advice on whom to question, and Ophelia was MIA.
Normally, it wasn’t unusual for their friend and teammate to go for days without contact. Ophelia was notoriously private. But she seemed to always have a sixth sense for when they needed her and would call or appear, or just answer her phone for once.
Fyra was called in to babysit Melody. He’d even used that term to see how his mate would take it.
The green flecks had started to glow and his nerves had tingled. She had muttered something he’d thought was “tarp it” and smiled sweetly.
Geared up, he left his place. He didn’t stop in the garage, but went around the compound to the wall that had taken the most damage. Crisp winter air nipped at his cheeks and nose, but he barely felt it. Didn’t even wear a coat. He had too much on his mind to be cold.
His boots crunched through the few inches of snow cover they had. Night had descended hours ago and all was quiet. Birds were hunkered down until dawn. Only his footsteps made noise until he stopped in front of the area he was looking for.
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