by CC MacKenzie
"Where did you learn that?" he gasped.
Since she was licking him as if he was her favourite ice cream she didn’t reply at once.
His shaft came out of her mouth with a little pop.
She stared up at him with big dark eyes.
"In my dreams. We do a lot of things in my dreams."
Her fangs shot through her gums.
Marcus carefully withdrew his aching manhood from the danger zone.
"Darlin’. You need to feed."
"Aww, poor Marcus, scared?"
"You need to learn to control your vampyre because she’ll trigger mine."
Her eyes went flame red and that soft voice purred, "Wanna come out and play, big boy?"
His vampyre sat up like a dog being offered a double chocolate chip cookie.
Ooooh boy.
Big boy was a good description as his torso expanded, his thighs went rock hard with solid muscle and his shaft felt too heavy between his legs.
A deep rumbling laugh exploded from Marcus’s chest and his eyes went the color of claret.
His fangs gave Anais a moment’s pause but he hadn’t hurt her the first time his Vampyre took control, apart from spanking her which had, in a weird way, been incredible.
He leaned over her, placing his elbows either side of her as he nuzzled her neck.
Wantonly she arched her back under him, spread her legs and gave a little mewl deep in her throat as he rubbed his shaft up and down her swollen, slick heat.
"Take me. Now," she said. It was an order not a request.
Marcus raised his head and stared deep into her eyes.
His hips thrust once.
Her breath hitched in her throat as his shaft impaled her. He over-stretched, over-filled her in a way that made her wonder how she’d ever lived without him.
His huge body might be trembling, but he held the position absolutely still.
"Bite me," she commanded.
He studied her for an endless moment before slowly lowering his head.
His tongue lapped over her carotid artery as she waited breathlessly for pain.
The realisation that his saliva had a numbing effect helped her relax.
He swivelled his hips and the sensation was so wonderful her womb clutched.
With a growl he pulled her tight against him and sank his fangs into her artery.
Panic hitched her breath but then Anais was soaring as he tipped his pelvis back and forth, back and forth.
Oh God, it felt amazing.
The way her orgasm gathered took her breath as he sealed the wound with his tongue.
Then he gently pressed her head to the hot skin of his chest, encouraging her to bite just above the frantic beat of his heart.
"Feed," his deep growl rumbled in his chest, just under her mouth.
Her fangs sank into his skin like a hot knife through butter.
The rich liquid, warm and peppery, filled her mouth, ran down her throat and hot into her belly. The sensation had her interrupt the blood flow, letting it gather in her mouth as she waited for stomach cramps, which thankfully never came.
Marcus’s rock hard shaft took her now with a smooth rhythm of his pelvis.
The unforgettable feeling overwhelmed her that they were made for each other.
This man, she knew with utter certainty, was her destiny.
Anais gave herself up to the slow slide of flesh on slick flesh, the heady scent of arousal, the sound of her gasps and his moans as they journeyed higher.
He loved every part of her flesh with his hands, his mouth, with his whole body.
Dark eyes burned into hers as he clasped her hands, linked their fingers and pressed them into the mattress either side of her head.
"I love you, Anais. Never doubt it. You are my heart, my soul, my life."
The orgasm that gripped her was impossible to cope with in its intensity.
He swallowed her cries of completion as he groaned and went utterly still as his seed flooded her womb, with one final thrust, he laid his forehead on hers, their hearts thundering as one.
Gentle tears trickled into her hairline.
Marcus lapped up the evidence of her overwrought emotions and Anais opened her heart and let him in.
"I love you, darlin’," she said. Her perfect imitation of his Scottish accent making him smile.
"I don’t have a high girly voice like that," he teased. Then those deep blue eyes went serious as they searched hers as he spoke from the heart, "I know you’re scared about the future. I promise everything is going to be all right. Trust me."
Her mouth trembled even as courage entered her eyes.
"I trust you with my life."
Chapter Twenty Two
Anais awoke to find the bedroom in darkness.
After sleeping and feeding for two days she felt like a new woman, which indeed she was.
She was alone in their big bed.
Her hand drifted across the crisp cotton sheets to find the indent of Marcus's head on the pillow.
With a wide yawn, she sat and realised Marcus was sitting in a chair in the corner of the room, unashamedly naked, simply watching her in the silvery light of the moon.
The fact he'd been watching her while she slept, should have creeped her out.
Not so long ago it would have done just that.
Instead, Anais held out her hand.
"Come here," she demanded in a tone that made his gorgeous mouth twitch.
He didn't move and his eyes never left her face.
"He has feelings for you."
Marcus's voice held no inflection.
However, Anais knew who he referred to since she'd picked up the jealousy vibe. It was bad of her, but she couldn’t help it, a little thrill of sheer lust curled low in her belly. Marcus was so attentive these days and she was becoming used to him obeying her every need, her every whim.
With a sigh, she realised he wasn’t coming back to bed until she’d answered him.
So she relaxed back against a waterfall of soft down pillows.
"Ezekiel does have feelings for me. Just not the feelings you’re torturing yourself with."
"He’s in love," he hissed.
"He is," Anais admitted and bit down hard on her bottom lip when he growled, a low rumble deep in his chest, which caused the abused chandelier hanging from the ceiling to shudder and shake.
"How fucking dare he?" Marcus leapt to his feet.
"But not with me," she continued as if he hadn’t spoken.
Marcus stood utterly still in the moonlight.
"With whom?" he demanded to know.
Anais tsked tsked and shook her head.
"That is none of your business and certainly none of mine."
Marcus launched himself on the bed and pinned her beneath him.
"Anais, I am your bonded mate. You must obey me."
She pouted.
"We need to talk about the love, honour and obey part of the deal. I will not agree to obey you. Ever."
He went utterly still.
His eyes pinned on hers with something like disbelief.
"But the marriage vows are sacred, darlin’."
He sat up, switched on the bedside light to stare deep into her eyes, and read the terrible truth.
If she’d slapped him he’d have been less stunned.
It wasn’t often she saw him at a loss for words and Anais made the most of it.
"This is the twenty-first century. Time to get with the programme, big boy. Either obey is removed or no marriage."
Blink, blink.
"But... what will my father say?"
She shrugged, gave him big eyes.
"Although I have the greatest respect for him, I’m not marrying your father and I don’t give a badger’s ass what he says."
He took a deep inhale and exhale.
"Where on earth did you pick up that phrase?"
"Ian," Anais shot back with a belligerent jerk of the chin, dropping the Centuri Co
mmander in deep excrement without a qualm.
Why the fact his woman was being a very naughty girl turned him on Marcus had no idea.
But those flashing eyes, the insolent raise of her eyebrow and the challenge of that chin aroused him painfully fast.
Her gaze didn’t miss the movement between his legs and she studied his growing erection with narrowed eyes as the pink tip of her tongue explored her top lip.
His fingertips reached out to touch the back of her hand.
Dark eyes held his as he stroked the soft, silky skin and he watched her pupils dilate with arousal.
In a flash he'd pinned her under him.
"I yearn for you, my wee darlin’," he told her and tilted his pelvis once, twice.
Her eyebrow twitched.
"These days we call it a boner or a stiffy."
She was deliberately trying to annoy him.
That fact plus the disrespect in her tone made his hand itch to spank her.
His vampyre’s hackles rose.
"What happened to the sweet, shy and retiring Anais I used to know and love?" Marcus said in a smooth tone that should have warned her she was jerking his chain.
Anais rolled out from under him, rose on her hands and knees.
Wearing a scrap of ivory silk that purported to be baby doll pyjamas with matching tiny panties, Marcus received a stunning view of her breasts as they swayed and the nipples beaded as she leaned forward.
Anais went nose to nose with him and studied his mouth for the longest moment, before her eyes met his.
Her skin was soft and smooth and flawless. Her high cheekbones were flushed and those full lips were moist. The scent of her shampoo, warm clean woman, and her arousal made his mouth water and his fangs drop from his gums.
The fact she was stunningly unafraid of his emerging vampyre aroused him even further, although her eyes went like saucers as she studied his bulging erection, an erection that went thick and long and hard as stone.
Those dark eyes rose to his as she wound slim arms around his neck and pressed her soft body from shoulder to hip against his.
"Well, hello, big boy. I wondered when you were coming out to play," she crooned, sounding like Mata Hari.
She nailed her fate when her silk clad pelvis rubbed insolently against his arousal once, twice and a third time.
The fact she truly believed she was in the driving seat in their relationship, that she pulled his strings, led him by the dick, insulted his vampyre’s bone deep sense of machismo.
Marcus tried to reason with him, but it was half-hearted at best, since he had a certain amount of sympathy for the beast. God knew he hadn’t been the same since he’d met Anais.
The time had come to take back control from his mate.
Through slitted eyes he watched her kneel and bring her hands through her hair, stretch her arms above her head as she wiggled her hips and those big dark eyes taunted him, dared him to take her.
His heightened sense of awareness of her knew her vampyre was sitting back, quite content, to enjoy the show.
He leapt.
Anais was on her back and had no idea how it had happened.
The crush of his mouth on hers, the way his tongue invaded, feasted, took without care, without pity, shook her to the core. Not by the bruising force, but by the emotion that had exploded from him without any warning.
A belated sense of self-preservation kicked in.
Anais immediately surrendered.
As soon as she did, he drew back.
The way he was trembling told her he was fighting a losing battle for control.
All the while her heart was hammering in her throat as she tried to catch a single breath.
Agitated now, her vampyre warned her to take care.
Marcus rose and stood next to the bed, a magnificent specimen of masculine beauty, and her throat went bone dry.
"Stand up."
She did, knowing that while his voice was nothing more than a low growl, his mood was volatile and unpredictable.
A heady cocktail of excitement and fear skittered up her spine.
The antipathy pulsing off him in waves seemed to grow as she stood utterly still, meeting his narrow-eyed stare with one of her own.
Her chin lifted fractionally and that huge body tensed.
"Marcus..."
"Do not speak," he roared.
She could scent his arousal as he slowly stalked around her until he pressed up against her back. His hard arousal jerking against the base of her spine had her lean back.
His strong hand found her throat and intuition told her he needed something from her.
But what?
Under the strong fingers pressing against the flesh of her neck, her pulse began to thud under his thumb.
This time she didn’t give in, but her gut twisted.
The sound from her throat as he ripped her clothes from her body was not a moan but a whimper.
He lifted her.
Fast and furious he had her face down, her torso bent over the edge of the bed.
And his control snapped and just like that, hers snapped, too, as her vampyre rose to meet his in the physical manifestation of love’s brutality.
The flat of his hand between her shoulder blades held her fast as he kicked her legs wide apart.
Her womb clutched again and again as arousal wept.
He spanked her so thoroughly her ass burned and she sobbed, burying her scorching face into the duvet.
Then she was flipped onto her back.
He gripped her hips pulling her toward him as he settled her legs over his shoulders.
Eyes the color of flaming claret burned into hers and she saw dark needs filled with absolute desperation.
Showing no mercy he drove into her up to the hilt.
And pounded into her again and again.
It was too much.
He overstretched her, but it wasn’t pain that had her panicking as her hands fisted the comforter desperate to find an anchor.
She was losing herself as his fingers expertly stroked her and her heart went wild.
He commanded her.
Her body.
Her very soul.
Their breaths were shallow gasps as their skin went damp and slick.
Hot, the friction was too hot as the scent of sex emptied her mind until all Anais could do was feel as he pistoned into her harder, faster, cursing her even as he told her over and over again that he loved her.
Their eyes met once before she flew so fast over the edge her world went dark and her whole body bowed too tight.
Her scream of completion ended on a long wail and she was aware of his big body trembling, convulsing before he collapsed on top of her.
The realisation hit Anais that it was the first time they’d made love without him taking her vein.
And Marcus was still hard inside her, his face shuddering into her neck as his big hands explored every single inch of her body. He was muttering words she couldn’t understand. Warm fluid mingled with perspiration on her neck, alerting her that something was wrong.
Very wrong.
He was shaking now, taking deep gasping breaths and her own breath hitched when she realised he was... weeping?
"Marcus, what is it?"
She pushed.
She shoved.
Until finally, she managed to wriggle free as he slid from her body.
Kneeling over him, her fingers brushed his black hair, soft as silk, from his forehead.
"What on earth is the matter?"
He raised his head and fierce blue eyes, filled with tears of emotions he could no longer contain met hers.
"Don’t you ever do that to me again."
Bewildered and devastated by his obvious distress, Anais simply held out her arms.
With his head buried in her lap, he wrapped his arms around her waist and clung to her like a man going down for the very last time.
"What did I do?" she whispered, absolutely distraught.
He took another shuddering breath before he rose to sit on the edge of the bed.
Pressing his fingertips hard into his eyelids, his voice was hoarse,
"Christ. Jesus. God. I thought I’d lost you. I thought you were dead.” He gave another violent shudder that made her frown. "In my mind I heard you scream. All I felt in my heart was your utter terror. And then nothing but... darkness. Until I saw you with my own eyes, my heart, my soul, believed you were gone."
Anais had a light bulb moment.
"You mean when I was thrown off the balcony?"
Big hands held her by the shoulders and shook her, hard.
Eyes filled with a tormented fury lasered into hers.
"I mean it, Anais. Don’t you ever do that to me again."
Then he pulled her to him and hugged her so hard she was afraid her ribs might break.
Like a mother stroking, soothing a child, Anais rubbed the flat of her hands over the warm skin of his back and felt his muscles, hard and sculpted, clench before he gave a heartfelt sigh and relaxed into her.
"I love you so much, my wee darlin’. I don't know what I’d do without you."
The fact that he’d been so terribly scared and fearful, for her, made Anais realise that she held Marcus's heart in her hands.
And she hadn’t been careful or respectful enough of the depth of his love for her.
Shame slapped her hard.
She’d been teasing him, using his love, his physical attraction for her, against him.
It wasn’t right and it wasn’t fair.
No wonder he was upset.
"I’m sorry I hurt you," she whispered and pressed a soft kiss on the smooth skin of his hard shoulder.
Under that tough exterior lived a heart that was as vulnerable as any mortal man’s.
Anais vowed from now on to take better care of it.
Marcus lifted his head.
His eyes a vivid blue in the calm after the storm were filled with such pure love that her breath hitched.
"I love you, my vampyre. If I must obey to make you happy then I’ll promise to do my best," she declared.
His wonderful mouth twitched.
"Compromising, Anais?"
She sent him a cheeky grin.
Gave into temptation and pressed her lips in a feather light kiss against his.