by Kresley Cole
Voice breaking low, he said, “Like the devil.” A slow stroke had him groaning, “That feels so good.”
“Just cleaning up the mess I made.”
“You keep doin’ that, lass, and I’ll add to it.”
She peered up at him with silvery eyes. “That’s a shame. ’Cause I had plans for this.” She gave him a squeeze.
If not to make love, then … His jaw slackened. She wants to go down on me?
Never had it been so important not to come. Gritting his teeth, he somehow kept his seed as she scrubbed him thoroughly.
Twice he almost spilled it—when she ran her thumb in circles over his cockhead, and when she firmly grasped his ballocks while she stroked. Before this night, he’d had no idea how much he would particularly enjoy the latter.
“There. All done,” she said in a throaty voice. “I’ll bet it’s so clean I could eat off of it.”
Brows drawn, he swallowed audibly. “One way to find out.”
Still holding him, she turned back toward the shore.
Regin had a mountain of a man naked on a bed of grass, with her kneeling between his legs, her palm cupping his shaft. And she wasn’t feeling so much played as powerful.
We won’t do more than scratch an itch, she assured herself. Just as Natalya and Brandr had done.
With his accent thicker than she’d ever heard it, Chase said, “Leadin’ a man by his cock, lass?”
His husky voice made her shiver, her nipples puckering even harder. She was melting for this wicked Celt. “That a problem?”
He shook his head gravely. “Can no’ think why that phrase has a negative connotation.”
Never taking her eyes from his, she bent down and ran her tongue over the swollen tip.
He exhaled a ragged breath. “Almighty.” A wet lick around the crown made him shudder.
He leaned up on his elbow to watch her, the muscles of his torso rippling. With his other hand, he brushed her hair back. “Want to see your beautiful face. Been waitin’ all my life to be with you like this.”
Her heart seemed to flutter. No, just scratching an itch.
Chase certainly didn’t think that. As she brought her lips over the head, she gazed up at his expression—dark brows knitted, gray eyes ablaze with yearning.
When she grasped the base of his shaft and sucked him deeper, he breathed, “Ah, fuck me,” and gods help her, she wanted to at that moment.
He drew his knees up, his hips subtly thrusting as he cradled the back of her head. His thighs were quaking, brawny muscles contracting. Already close.
She broke away to say, “You like this?”
“I hate it.”
She almost grinned. His reactions were seducing her all over again. The low rumbling sounds he made. The way he was so obviously struggling to hold out.
The hand on her head was shaking as he pressed her down for more.
Nothing had ever turned her on so intensely as this. Her nipples ached, her clitoris throbbing for release. She reached between her legs, stroking wet flesh, her eyes closing with bliss.
When she moaned around him, he rasped, “The only thing that could make this better is you comin’ on my tongue again.”
She blinked open her eyes in confusion. He’d pulled out of her grip, maneuvering her body to lie beside his until she faced his shaft—and he faced her sex.
With his fingers splayed tight over her ass, he gave a harsh growl, then buried his mouth between her legs. She could feel his hot breath, the desperate flicks of his strong tongue.
“Chase!” She almost went over the edge right then. When he raised one knee, rocking his hips toward her, she eagerly drew his length to her mouth again, suckling it with greedy pulls.
“Unh …” He groaned against her flesh and bucked to her lips.
But when she grasped his balls and tugged, he broke away to yell, “Ah, more o’ that! You’re makin’ me—”
She sank the claws of her free hand into his muscled ass, clutching him closer. He jerked in surprise, roaring, “God almighty! Comin’, Regin!” then returned to licking her madly.
Yes, yes, yes! Sucking harder, she ground against his tongue, beginning to come in a wet rush. She was screaming around his engorged shaft when he erupted, pumping his semen free.
Mindless with waves of pleasure, she drew him deeper, deeper. …
FORTY-SIX
“ God in heaven, woman.” Declan lifted her, laying her against his side. “That’ll change a man’s outlook on life real quick.”
The best way to bring a male back from the brink? Hot oral sex with a Valkyrie. And he finally understood what her little claws were all about!
As a light rain fell over their heated skin, he wrapped his arm around her shoulders, groaning in satisfaction. Complete peace. For the first time in his life.
The strain was gone, and in its place was something like elation. Oh, aye, elation and excitement coursed through him. He finally believed he could look forward to more with her.
His woman. A future worth fighting for. All the things that had been missing from his life for so long.
More.
“That shouldn’t have happened,” she muttered.
“I’ll argue that point to my dyin’ breath. Do you deny you enjoyed that? You’re glowin’ bright as day, and you came hard enough. Twice.”
“Oh, please! I hadn’t rubbed one out in more than three weeks. Diaper play would’ve gotten me off at this point.”
“I’ll make a note.”
She stiffened beside him. “This doesn’t change anything.”
“Regin, it changes everything! You’re attracted to me.” And I can be what you need in bed. “Anything else I can fix.”
“Like your scathing hatred for my world?”
He pinched her chin, tipping her head back. “Then show it to me! Show me why I was wrong to hate it.”
“It’s too deep-seated in you, too ingrained.”
“Maybe it was before, but I must be shakin’ it. Hell, I don’t know up from down anymore. Nothing about me is fixed.”
She murmured, “You’re unfinished.”
“Aye, precisely.”
“I need to go.”
When she moved to get up, he shoved her against his side and slapped her arse to keep her there. “You stay with me.”
She snapped, “What do you want from me, Chase?”
He drew his head back in confusion. “I want everything. You’re mine, Regin.” He’d earned her by right of every miserable second of his life. “Let me tell you how this is goin’ to go down. I’ll get you and your friends off this island, and then you and I will figure out a place to put down roots.” Her lips worked soundlessly. “Speechless? Would’ve thought that an impossibility.” He nipped the tip of her ear. “I might have four or five decades of life left—a blink of an eye in your lifetime. I will have you till I die, so you’re just goin’ to have to suck it up.”
“What gives you the right to demand all this?”
“If your man Aidan actually hitched a ride with me, then I’m entitled to the use of his woman for a few years. And I want to seal this deal with you tonight.”
“No way, Chase. You can’t have sex with me.”
“You want me to.” He studied her expression. “Christ. You need me to.”
“Doesn’t matter.”
She hadn’t denied either! “Because of the curse.”
“Among other things.”
“Like what?” Then it dawned on him. “You’re worried I’ll get you pregnant?” His brows drew together. “Never thought about that before.” He remembered looking around the home he’d known for a decade, thinking how grim and silent it was. How soulless his entire existence was.
Now possibilities spread out before him, ones he’d never imagined for himself. I could be a … da? The corners of his lips curled.
It struck him then that his entire outlook must have shifted. Because the idea of a sprawling lightning-struck house filled with V
alkyrie daughters and berserker sons felt exactly right. “Regin, I’ve got money saved up. I can take care of you and our bairns.”
“Okay, that wasn’t what I was talking about. Valkyrie aren’t fertile unless we eat for a few weeks.”
He’d had no idea. Fascinating.
“But since you brought it up … Dude. You’re a jobless, homeless drug addict. Great daddy material.”
Straight-talking Regin. “I’ll never touch the shite again. I don’t need to suppress my strength or get mindless again—I need to be strong and clear to protect what’s mine.” He squeezed her tighter, pressing his lips against her hair. “As for the job, I’ve money enough to keep you in Aston Martins, Valkyrie. And to buy a home. Or two.” When she raised a brow, he explained, “For twenty years I’ve had zero expenses. I haven’t spent a dime of my substantial salary. And many of my captures carried bounties. Now, what was your point?”
“What if you had a ‘freak’ child? It seems like that’d be your worst fear, to get a detrus pregnant.”
“Don’t ever use that word to describe yourself again. That was my mistake—not seeing that there are differences among the immortals. Good and evil, just like with humans.”
“Yeah, well, your realization came too late for me.” She shoved away from him, rising to her feet.
With a sigh, he let her go. His skin felt bare and cold without her. All these years avoiding touch, and now he wanted nothing more than to have her warm little body against him.
When she strode over to her clothes, the sight of that naked arse had him hard all over again. Voice rough, he said, “Stay with me.” Had that sounded like a command?
Her back stiffened, then she pulled on her knickers. “Forget it.”
Here goes nothing. He exhaled and said, “I am … sorry.”
* * *
Regin froze. Without turning, she asked, “What did you say?”
He grated, “I’m sorry that I’ve hurt you repeatedly. And that I hurt … people you care about.”
“An apology?” She faced him. “That must’ve been difficult.”
“I thought I was doing my duty with you. With all immortals. I followed my commander’s orders blindly.” He scrubbed his hand down his face. “We … went too far.”
That haunted look in his eyes. She was drawn to his pain, wanting to soothe it. Aidan had never needed her. This man before her needed Regin like a lifeline.
“Webb was your commander?” At his nod, she said, “You seemed close to him.”
“He was like my father and best friend rolled into one. He saved my life from a pack of Neoptera. That’s what did this to me.”
Those creatures were terror personified. She’d suspected, but to hear it confirmed … “How old were you?”
Instead of answering her, he held out his hand. “I’ll only talk about this if you sleep the rest of the night by my side.”
“You sound like Lothaire, making everything a transaction.”
“Maybe he’s right to.”
With a roll of her eyes, she sat down a couple feet from him, pulling her knees up to her bare chest. At once, he yanked her back to his side.
She exhaled, defeated. “How old?”
“I was seventeen.”
“That picture you showed me, it was of your parents.”
He tensed against her. “Aye.”
“I’ve never heard of anyone surviving a Neo attack.”
“Webb saved my life before they finished me.”
Finished him. Everything began to make sense. His family had been massacred, he’d been maimed. And the man who’d saved his life warred against immortals.
“He gave me a reason to keep going. Taught me everything I know.”
Meaning he’d been brainwashed, and at such a young age. Declan Chase had never had a chance. “What will happen with Webb now?”
“If he finds out that I lived and went AWOL, he’ll put a bounty on my head.” There was a thread of something like grief in Chase’s voice.
“That’s harsh.”
“I … I almost killed him.”
“What? Why?”
“He’s the one who ordered you vivisected. Hid it from me. He’d learned I was a berserker by then, so he would’ve known that you were mine.” Chase’s eyes glowed with menace. “Yet he still hurt you. When La Dorada arrived, I was squeezing the life out of him.” His hands fisted even now.
He’d harmed the man he looked upon as a father? Over her? She’d heard his outraged bellow that night. …
“I am done with the Order, done with Webb. Face it, Regin. You’re the only friend I have in the world.”
He thinks we’re friends? “When did you start to feel differently about me?”
“That night in my bathroom marked the beginning of the end for me. I actually considered runnin’ with you to bloody Belfast. Would you have gone with me then?”
So fast it would’ve made his head swim. But she didn’t need to encourage him. Instead of answering, she brushed his track marks. “What happened here?”
“I used to inject a drug to keep my rage and strength in check. It had an opiate in it as well.”
“How long have you been doing it? Some of the marks look old.”
“Over a decade.” He hesitated, then said, “Before that … I shot heroin. When I was younger in Belfast.”
Oh, gods. “Because you always felt sick inside?” His past lives competing with his present, the nightmares and memories. …
He shrugged, but he didn’t deny it.
Then she should have found him as a boy before he got so twisted. Instead of running from Aidan’s latest incarnation, she should have protected him. Guilt was like a lead weight over her chest.
How loyal am I? I abandoned Aidan to fate. Left a young Declan Chase at the mercy of the world.
As if sensing her turmoil, he said, “Come now, lass.” Whenever Aidan had wanted to look into her eyes, he’d gently cupped her face in his hands. Not so with Declan. He gathered her neck in the crook of his arm and held her steady as he gazed down. “Let’s no’ talk about that. You’re with me now.”
Even after everything that had happened, Regin found herself nodding against him, her arm gliding across his deep chest.
“But I want you to understand that I’m not tryin’ to replace Aidan. Know I can’t. You loved him too bloody much.”
I didn’t. Not irrevocably. The Valkyrie believed that one of their kind could recognize her eternal mate when he opened his arms and she realized she would forever run to get within them. Regin had been so close to running to Aidan, but she’d fought those feelings. “I … didn’t love him.” Hadn’t allowed myself to.
“What? Why didn’t you fall for him?”
“I needed him body and soul, but my heart was still my own.”
Chase stared up at the sky, and the corners of his lips curled. A thousand years ago, Aidan had evinced that same expression. Anticipation. “Then, Valkyrie, it’s still mine to win.”
In time, his breaths deepened, and he passed into sleep. As Regin watched, his eyes began to dart behind his lids, his arm tightening around her.
He’s dreaming. Her own eyes welled with tears as she whispered, “Shh, be at ease. …”
FORTY-SEVEN
She can’t remain on the battlefront with me, Edward thought, his gaze following Regin as she paced his tent. Wending around his myriad weapons, she trailed her fingers over the waist jacket and crested helmet of his cavalry uniform.
Her lovely visage was drawn, her ethereal glow lighting the interior. Already his soldiers thought she was a witch who’d entranced him.
She couldn’t remain with him—and he couldn’t part from her. Which meant he’d be going into her world, he hoped as her husband. Yet the Valkyrie was proving … recalcitrant.
“You’re too young, Edward!”
“I’m twenty-five. Men my age marry.”
“Men your age usually don’t turn their backs on everything they know.
Finish your tour on the peninsula, then go home to your London mansion. Marry a mortal girl who wears dresses and doesn’t have pointed ears. I will bring you nothing but tragedy.”
When she picked up his saddle blanket and saw his embroidered personal crest, her face grew stricken. “Two ravens in flight?” She gave a bitter laugh. “Edward, you must let me go. You have to forget about me.”
He cast her a rueful smile. “What makes you believe I could possibly do either?” She didn’t understand the depths of his feelings, could never be made to. He stood, crossing to her—even moments without touching her proved too long to endure. He rested his hands on her slim shoulders, wanting so badly to kiss her, but she forbade it.
For how much longer can I deny myself a taste?
“Regin, it will always be you. This curse can’t be stronger than what I feel for you.”
“That’s exactly what Gabriel said. On the day he died.”
“It’s just coincidence, love. All of it. Aidan fought vampires his entire life. Is it a surprise that, in the end, he was murdered by one? Treves had repeatedly angered his king—a coward who had him poisoned. And Gabriel? My God, Regin, how many pirates died in shipwrecks?”
“You’re forgetting one thing—the timing. All of these deaths happened within hours of them bedding me. I’m your curse! Why can’t you accept that … ?”
Declan shot awake, eyes darting as he took in the murky morning. Not in a tent? For a moment, he couldn’t place where he was.
Then he spied Regin. She was up, getting dressed, glowing like the sun in the persistent rain.
She tilted her head at him. Under her gaze, he resisted the nearly overwhelming urge to throw on his clothes. Still new to me.
But she gave his scars little attention, and he relaxed, musing about how she’d slept curled against him. Just as protecting her had fulfilled him, so had merely holding her.
Fulfilled. Such an alien feeling, he’d scarcely known how to label it.
The rightness of her in his arms alleviated his lingering withdrawals, gave him something infinitely more pleasurable than the shots had ever provided. …