by Honor James
Nodding tightly, Raven pushed his hands through his hair roughly. “Yes. She was born with an ability and her so-called family sold her to the highest bidder,” he bit out. Turning, he paced away and then back again to stand looking down at her, “They are using her with her father’s blessing,” he spit out the words in utter revulsion. “There is nothing we can do. He’s her legal guardian, and if he dies her brother takes over, and if he dies, the non-Vampire half of the Alliance takes over her care. There is no way around it. It’s legal, binding, and fucking signed, sealed, and delivered on a silver platter to them.”
“What was she born with that they want to use so badly?” Jamison asked, her horror written all over her face. “That baby was born with more than one power, though, I bet. I’m positive that they wouldn’t be so interested in her silver ability if that is one of them. It has to be whatever the other one is.”
“I don’t know, Daegan couldn’t say. He told me that it wasn’t in the file that he was able to access at home. But he’s going to dig further when he gets into the city and get to the originals.” Raven fought for calm. He did not like losing his temper and didn’t trust himself when he did. “He’ll let me know what else he can find out,” he told her as he still struggled to get his temper reined in before he touched his wife, not willing to hurt her, ever.
She trusted him, completely trusted him and so, moving to his side, she laid her hand on his arm and then wrapped her arms around his middle. “I love you, Raven. We will figure it all out, my love. We will figure out how to keep her safe.”
“Gods I hope so,” he whispered, wrapping her close to him and resting his lips to her temple. “I hate how they are using her and she’s so small, so young. She deserves to have her innocence preserved, not ripped away.”
“I agree, Raven. She’s an innocent. She’s completely an innocent and yet they are using her like a weapon.” She hated it. She hated to know what could be waiting for that child at her supposed home.
“There is nothing we can do about it right now, love,” he said, gently rubbing her back in long, soothing strokes. “We will fight when we know what we are up against. Until then we have to remain on the sidelines and help where we can, love.”
“I hate that you’re right, Raven,” Jami whispered and sighed. “I need to be naked against you. Make love to me, Raven. Love me so that we can try to begin to put this behind us?”
“Always, love,” he told her honestly, cupping her cheeks. Kissing her gently, he sucked on her full lower lip for a long moment before letting her pull back. “Last one to the bed is on the bottom,” he told her softly, stepping back to pull at his clothing.
She laughed and shook her head. “I love the bottom, Raven. Now you are making me want to drag my feet so that I will get the coveted bottom.”
Tossing his pants aside, he grinned. “Why do you think I’m racing to strip?” he asked with a wicked grin. “I happen to love you on the bottom as well, my love. Gives me oh so many options.”
She didn’t touch her clothes, simply watched him as he stripped naked until he was gloriously bare before her. “Gods you’re beautiful.” Her words were a whisper of sound, hushed with need. Slowly she began to peel her clothes when he lay back on the bed, giving him a slow and tantalizing strip show.
“Slower, love,” he said, propping his head on his arms. “Nice and slow,” he murmured. “I want to enjoy this as long as we both can stand.”
She slowed down on removing her clothes, tantalizing him with hints of flesh, only to cover them once more. She didn’t come too close to him as she peeled the layers off, but was close enough that if he was ready to end their torture, he could by moving slightly to drag her to him. “Like this?” Her voice came in a husky, deep whisper.
Growling at her, he watched her tease him. She was the only one he’d ever let taunt and tease him in any way, but she was his so she knew she could get away with a lot. “Just like that,” he told her on another growl even as he fisted his cock to tease her in return. Stroking his hand up and down his length, he licked his lips. “More,” he demanded.
She watched his hand moving up and down and wanted to be the one moving on him, wanted her body to be wrapped round his cock, but she wanted to give him what he wanted and what he needed, too. It wasn’t far too long until she was completely naked and moving her hands over her body as well. “Tell me, Ra, what do you need? What do you want, my love?”
“Only ever you, love,” he told her softly, his hand moving a little faster. “Are you wet and ready for me, love?” he asked. It was all part of the game they played with one another, pushing their limits until they were crazed for one another. She so liked their game.
Smiling saucily, she moved her left hand down from her breast, tweaking the nipple one more time before smoothing it over her belly and then down to her mound. Her fingers caressed the smooth flesh there that she kept hair free for their enjoyment and then dipped one finger into her pussy, her eyes on him. “Yes, Raven, yes, I’m so wet for you.” Pulling her finger from her body, she stepped closer. “Taste my need.” She growled and extended her shaky hand toward him.
Reaching up with his other hand, Raven pulled her fingers close and, slipping them into his mouth, sucked hard on the moisture there. Gripping himself harder, his eyes fluttered closed and then snapped open to watch her. His tongue slid around each finger as he pumped his fist up and down his throbbing cock.
A moan of need escaped her lips as she watched him in hunger. “Raven, I need,” she whispered.
Drawing her fingers from her mouth, he pulled her to him and, catching her, rolled her under him. Settling between her legs, he thrust into her pulsating pussy. “I need, too,” he breathed out, his voice rougher than normal.
“Then take,” she gasped and watched his face. This was what she loved. When he would be on that edge of losing control and snapping. Jamison had always loved rough couplings before she met Raven, and he was so controlled at all times that he very rarely gave her what they both needed, roughness, dominance, complete and total possession.
Trembling with her aching need, Jamison rolled them. “I get to take, too.” She growled and let her nails rake over his chest lightly, not causing serious harm, but scraping the skin. “More, Raven, you need to take more.” She needed this, he needed this, they needed this.
Growling at her, he flipped them over again and this time caught up her legs, letting them hang over his arms as he pushed up over her and thrust harder. “Mine,” he bit out before taking her nipple roughly into his mouth, his teeth scraping over her flesh roughly as he pounded his cock into her aching pussy over and over again.
This was it. This was what they both needed. Her nails scraped over his back and brought blood to the surface, and she growled at him. “Mine, fuck me, husband, give us both pleasure from the pain.”
Snarling at her softly, he sank his teeth into her breast and sucked hard at her as he pounded her body with his cock. Each scrape of her nails, each moan and whispered word had him doing more of what she liked. He hated to hurt her, but she knew that they both needed roughness at that moment.
Jamison screamed as she exploded in his arms. The intensity of the feelings cascaded over her body so rapidly that she was sure she was going to die from the sheer pleasure alone. Holding him as close to her as she could, she sobbed his name with the second orgasm that shook through her and waited for him to give the third with her.
Carefully he lifted his head, his tongue sliding slowly over her skin before dropping a light kiss to her skin. “I love you, Jamison,” he spoke softly against her mouth, and when her nails dug into his shoulders, he let everything go with a bellow of pure pleasure. His seed was a hot splash to her womb that had her screaming out as a third orgasm had her pussy clamping down on his cock.
Both lay panting on their bed, limbs intertwined and connected at the most intimate of places. Jami’s head was on Raven’s shoulder, and a grin curled her lips. “Gods I love you, Ra
ven.”
Chuckling, he stroked her hair lightly. “Of course you do. I make you scream so wonderfully in the most amazing of manners, too,” he teased.
“Thank the gods that you soundproofed our room or your daughter would be in here demanding to know just why her mother was screaming her father’s name so very much.”
“I think my baby has already figured out just why her mother screams her father’s name so much and with such pleasure. She, thank the gods, just hasn’t figured out why her mother enjoys all that her father does yet. When she does we will have to lock her in her room,” he teased.
Jamison’s mind went to that moment when Emily had come in on them. It had been very amusing to watch Raven scrambling for something to tell their daughter. She, of course, hadn’t helped, not that she could have given she’d been laughing hysterically at the whole thing. Looking back, it did make her cheeks warm with a blush, but she’d never change a single moment she got with her husband. “Gods I love you, husband. That was about the funniest thing that I have ever felt in my whole life.” Once she had gotten past the horror that their child came in on them that was. “That’s why you soundproofed the room that very next day, isn’t it? And why you have worked your way through the house.” Because she and Raven had a tendency to want to make love at the drop of a hat wherever they could.
“Damned straight,” he grumbled with a grin. “She doesn’t need any more of an education on that than she’s had, which I think was more than enough.” Of course, the conversation after, as they’d tried to explain that Raven hadn’t been killing Jamison with anything but pleasure, had been less than fun. His face had been a bright red for over a week. Especially since their rather outgoing daughter had proudly run around announcing that her daddy made her mommy scream with pleasure a lot and it was a good thing.
Jamison could only giggle. “Emily is very vocal isn’t she, darling?” Their daughter was as bold as they came. She knew the line that she couldn’t cross but toed it on a daily basis, all because her father had raised her that way. And Jamison couldn’t be prouder. “You are an amazing man, Raven Kato, and don’t even argue with me,” she added as she saw him drawing in breath to do just that.
Huffing out a breath in her direction, he glared at her. “I’m pretty sure that it’s written in the terms of being a soul tie that I get to argue with you over anything I feel like. How else am I going to make up with you so we can have even more mind-blowing sex to strengthen our bonds of love?”
“You know, as much as I want to, I can’t fault your reasoning, Raven.” Jamison laughed and shook her head. “Because I have to be honest. It is exciting to be spitting mad one minute, ready to beat the other person, and the next second be in your arms, having you kiss me and both of us so lost in the passion we tear off the clothes we are wearing just to get skin to skin.” Which, sadly, happened a lot with the two of them.
“You do seem to get great pleasure from our quick and dirty couplings,” he teased her. “I definitely can’t complain about them either, though. You get so impassioned that it’s all I can do to even slide into your luscious body before coming.”
“This is true. I get great pleasure from them but even more when we are in our bed at night. We have all the time in the world, and we make love for hours and hours on end.”
“Got to love the slow and relaxed loving,” Raven murmured with a smile, propping up on an elbow, watching her. Stroking back her hair, he gave a slow stretch as he fell onto his back once more. “We should go and find our daughter and see what the feisty little fiend is up to.”
“Knowing your daughter”—Jami made sure to stress the important part of that—“she is likely practicing with the guards on the training grounds.” At his look she laughed. “Raven, honey, you are the one who told the guards to train her as they would a son of yours.”
“I just hope she can flatten them one day soon to prove that I was right to do so,” he muttered under his breath. “Do you hate me for wanting her to be able to protect herself?” he asked quietly. It had been bothering him of late especially with how much Emily always wanted to learn something new.
“Not at all, Raven. I love that she’s so outgoing and strong.” Jamison snorted. “Raven, my love, remember how I was raised. Do you honestly think I would take offense at my daughter having the same upbringing?”
“I just worry that her upbringing is too closely mirroring my own,” he said softly. “We both know how well that turned out.”
“Raven.” Jamison frowned and shook her head. “Raven, honey, she is loved. You didn’t have that as a child. Emily knows that she is loved so very much, and while you are giving her a way to protect herself, you’re also showing her what to demand of life, what to demand of her soul tie when he finds her.”
“He’s going to hate me I’m sure,” Raven murmured with a slight smile before it slid away. “I just feel as though I’m being too hard, too demanding on her. She’s a little girl, and she should enjoy her childhood, and yet here I am encouraging her to learn weapons and self-defense nearly nonstop.”
“No, Raven.” Jamison chewed her lip and then said, “She does enjoy her childhood. Even when you aren’t pushing her, as you call it, she loves this. I know that you haven’t really seen a lot of her being taught because you normally are the one teaching her, but I’ve seen it, Ra, and she loves it. She loves the training. Her mind needs the discipline, I think.” Jami didn’t know why but for some reason she felt as if their daughter would need to be able to separate from her mind, and Raven’s training was going to allow her this ability.
Frowning, he shifted to face her fully. “What do you mean, love?” he asked in total confusion. “I know I’m not all that observant when it comes to you and Em.” He was a self-admitted idiot when it came to the two women in his life, something he’d complained to her often about. “But I really don’t understand what you’re talking about, Jami.”
“She needs the discipline, Raven. This to her is like a big game. I know she doesn’t treat it as one, but it is to her. It’s a big game and she needs to learn the discipline.” Jami sighed and shook her head, “And no, I don’t know why I think that, I just do.”
Raven wasn’t buying it but couldn’t think of any way to understand, so he sighed and nodded. “All right, love, if you say so,” he murmured. Easing down, he rested his cheek to her shoulder. “I just hope she doesn’t think I’m doing this because of, well, you know,” he muttered in reference to his baby girl’s seeming lack of Vampire healing.
“No, darling, she doesn’t think that you are doing this because of her inability to heal. Emily would never think that, darling. She knows that she’s not like other Vampires and that her healing is more that of a Non-Vampire, but she doesn’t let it slow her down.” If anything, it sped her up.
“I hope not,” he murmured softly, pulling her closer to him as he settled back down. Sliding his leg up between hers, he pulled the covers up over them both. “I can’t help but worry, Jami. She’s my baby girl and she seems so fearless all the time, but I know she should be more careful and yet I just can’t seem to want to squash her enthusiasm.”
“Raven, my love, the only reason Emily is so fearless is because you make her that way, and it’s wonderful. She’s fearless because you give her that ability. You give her that confidence in herself and those around her,” Jamison said, stroking his hair in a way that always soothed him.
“Oh gods,” he groaned. “This is all going to come back and bite me in the ass isn’t it?” he asked softly, not looking at her for fear of seeing her howling with laughter.
“She will likely be a force of nature in and of itself, my love,” Jamison agreed. “But would you honestly have your daughter any other way?”
“No.” He had to admit that at least. He never wanted Emily to be weak, but there had to be limits, didn’t there? Sighing, he rubbed a hand down his face. “I want her strong of heart, mind, and body. I want her to be confident in life and in
herself always. But I don’t want her to frighten off her true soul tie, either,” he said, a new worry coming to the fore.
“She will be all those things and more.” Jami chuckled. “Besides, if she could scare away her soul tie, would you really want them for her? I mean come on, my love, would you want her to have a soul tie who could be scared away by a strong-willed woman?”
“Of course not, but any male is going to reconsider if the woman that’s for him shoots him,” he pointed out. Shaking his head, he groaned. “Let’s get off this topic, please, the more I think on it the more I see as going wrong. I need something happy and good to think on for a time, like how delightfully rumpled you appear, my love.”
Jamison grinned. “Well you know, there is always ways to make me even more rumpled. I certainly wouldn’t argue if you had the urge, the need and desire to make me as messy as you want to.” She all but purred as she spoke, her body waking in the need she was feeling.
Rolling over her, Raven peered down into her face with a grin. “I don’t know about messy, but I think I might like to get you a little out of sorts.” Shifting, he yanked the blankets up over his head and headed down under them after he tucked them around her shoulders. “No peeking,” he called out just as he reached her feet.
Jamison laughed and then twisted. “Don’t you dare tickle me, Raven. Remember what happened the last time.” She had kicked and bucked out of knee-jerk reaction and broke his nose and blackened both his eyes. “So be very careful as you are down there doing whatever it is that you are doing.”
“I still get headaches from that,” he muttered, his words muffled from the blankets as she felt the first gentle touch to her leg. His fingers stroked slowly up before the damp heat of his mouth moved over the arch of her foot. Moving slowly, he kissed and licked his way up and over her leg. There was a brief pause before he gave her other leg the same treatment.