by Sadie Carter
By the time he had finished, everyone in the room was glaring at him. Why? He had no idea. She was the one who had foolishly risked herself. She could have been hurt. Could have died.
“Why?” he snapped at her.
“Why what?” she asked.
“Why did you try to climb down the cliff? Were you trying to kill yourself?”
She looked up at him. “If I was trying to kill myself I would have just jumped, wouldn’t I?”
He clenched his jaw, the idea that she could have died ate away at him, like acid being poured on his insides.
“You could have been harmed.”
“Yeah, you don’t have to tell me that.”
“Then why?”
She stood, putting her drink aside. She’d been so pale when they’d finally reached the balcony, he’d actually thought she might be ill. She’d recovered quickly, though, and he was grateful to see some color in her cheeks.
“Why do you think? Because I’m being held here against my will, perhaps? Because I can’t move out of this house without two great hulking guards on my heels. Because I’m living with a man, who detests me so much that he can’t even be in my presence for more than an hour at a time.”
“That is not why I have not been here.”
“No? Then why? Why have you been avoiding me if not because you detest me.”
“Because I knew if I spent any time with you then I would do this.” He drew her close and kissed her.
Fireworks went off through her bloodstream, shooting through her body. Her clit throbbed, her body melted, rejoicing in his touch.
“Because I knew I could not resist you.”
“Then don’t,” she said, surprising herself. “Don’t resist.”
“You want this,” he stated, moving his hand over her form-fitting black top. This was the outfit she’d worn to sneak around in. He pinched a tight nipple, and she groaned.
“Yes. I want you.” She couldn’t resist any longer. Didn’t want to resist.
He pinched her other nipple, and her breath caught then released. “Macon, please.”
“You like that.”
“Ah, yeah.”
Reaching down, he sucked on her nipple through the top, then bit it.
“Oh, oh.”
Moving suddenly, he stripped her top off, his movements rough and hard. Her breasts were bared to his hungry gaze. He grabbed her around the waist, lifting her into the air, so her breasts were level with his mouth. He held her easily as he feasted, nipping on each nub, licking, sucking, biting.
“Macon, please, put me down.” She grabbed hold of his shoulders, pressing her nails against his skin. Needing to mark him as hers.
He strode forward until her back hit the wall. He set her on the ground and tugged her pants down as she tried to regain control of her breath. Stepping back, he pulled off his leather vest, and her breath left her in a long whoosh. God help her, he was gorgeous. Muscle rippled down his stomach in undulating waves. His chest was wide, his waist trim.
She watched as he grabbed hold of the top of his tight pants and pulled them down. His cock sprang free. The head was wide and rounded, veins ran up the sides of the large shaft. She licked her lips and dropped to her knees, pulling his cock towards her, running her tongue over the head.
“Annabel, what are you doing?”
“I was planning on sucking you off.” She took his head into her mouth and sucked, delighting in his groan.
“No.”
“No? That’s the first time I’ve ever had a man turn down a blow job.”
“I cannot have you touch me. I will come too soon.” He pulled her up and turned her around. “Lean over.”
“But I can’t see you,” she complained, even as she did as ordered.
“Spread your legs.”
She spread her legs and leaned her arms against the wall. “Funny, I had you pegged as a missionary-only type.”
“What?” he asked as he knelt behind her and slapped her ass cheek.
“Hey! What was that for?”
“For scaring me. Do not do it again.”
She’d scared him? Did that actually mean he cared? Fuck, she was confused and right now, she didn’t want to think. She just wanted to feel. She groaned as he parted her lower lips. Her clit was swollen and aching, desperately needing his touch. He stroked her clit with his thumb as he circled her entrance with his tongue. Around and around, he teased her until her breathing came in harsh pants, need a writhing beast inside her.
“Please, Macon, damn it. I can’t stand it!”
He thrust two fingers deep inside her, and she cried out, arching her back. She was so close. So close.
Suddenly, he withdrew and stood. She turned, glaring at him. “What the hell? I was nearly there.”
“Turn back around and face the wall. You need to learn patience. And obedience.”
“I told you. I’m not the obedient type.” But she turned.
He reached around and squeezed her nipples. “Oh hell.”
“You are too short for this position,” he complained. Then he lifted her, carrying her to the sofa and placing her stomach down over the back. She reached down and steadied herself with her palms on the seat. He spread her legs, drawing her hips back and plunged inside her.
Annabel let out a screech at the sudden penetration. It was almost too much. He was almost too big.
“Oh fuck. Oh, fuck.” But the slight pain soon morphed into a greater pleasure, and as he moved, plunging in and out of her, he reached down with one hand to finger her clit. Ravenous, aching pleasure filled her.
“God, Macon, God!” she screamed as she fell over the edge into bliss.
She heard him shout behind her, felt him coming inside her before blackness engulfed her.
***
Where was she? Damn it, this was happening way too much. She rolled over, looking around her. Her bedroom at Macon’s house. Why did her body ache so much?
She froze. Because they’d fucked. Finally. And it had been…magnificent.
“Who knew he had it in him?” She kind of felt bad that she’d thought he’d been boring in bed.
“Annabel? You are awake?”
With a gasp, she turned to find him sitting in the armchair in the corner.
“Shit. You gave me a fright.” She sat. “Why are you sitting in the dark?”
“I apologize.”
Funny, she felt like he was apologizing for more than just frightening her. He was acting weird. Weirder than usual. She pulled the sheet up to cover herself, feeling vulnerable.
“Are you well? Do you need a healer?”
“Why would I need a healer?”
“I was not gentle.”
“Neither was I.”
He stood. “I will leave you to rest. If you are certain you do not need a healer.”
“Wait. Why don’t you sleep here?”
“I do not think that would be wise.”
“Okay, just stop. What happened? Why do I feel kind of weird?” How come she didn’t remember ending up in bed?
“It is probably the mating bond. We have mated.”
Mated? They were mated? Oh shit. It shouldn’t be a surprise, but it still shocked her slightly.
And he was just going to walk away without telling her?
“You’re obviously overjoyed about it,” she said, slightly bitter.
“You need to rest. We will talk about this tomorrow.” He left without a glance behind.
Fuck. This was messed up. Mated. She was really mated to him this time. She took a deep breath and centered herself. Yep, she definitely felt different, a connection, although it was weak, to Macon.
Oh God. Rich was gonna kill her.
Chapter Nine
“Macon, how is your mate? I have not seen her lately.”
Macon looked up as Jaxan approached. He wiped his sweating brow as he stood. He was in the training room, doing some press-ups. This was the only place where he managed to push himself so hard that he fo
rgot about Annabel for a short while.
Forgot about what he had done to her.
“She is well.”
Jaxan frowned. “So why are there guards at your door?”
He had been waiting for someone to question him about that. Everyone now knew about the mating. The day after it had happened, he had gone to Hagartha and told her the truth. He had owed her that much. To say she had not taken it well was an understatement. Not that he blamed her. She had every reason to be upset with him.
News had soon spread of their mating, and many had started to ask him when they were going to have their official mating ceremony. He had managed to avoid giving a set answer. He had not spoken to Annabel about the ceremony. He had barely spoken to her at all. He was too ashamed of the way he had treated her to even look her in the eye.
She must hate him. She might even be frightened of him. What if she wanted nothing to do with him? He was surprised by the alarm filling him.
She was a liar, she had secrets she would not tell, he still did not know who she truly was.
But that did in no way excuse his rough treatment of her. She was a female. A tiny, human female. Fragile. His mate. Even if he could never fully trust her, she still deserved his protection. And that included protecting her from himself. His need for her had overridden his good sense. If only the mate bond had settled in properly, he would know what she was feeling.
“I do not know. We have not discussed it.”
“I suppose it is early days. I do envy you, though. I only hope one day I can find my mate.”
Macon frowned as Jaxan walked away.
“Macon, I wish to speak to you.” Dex came towards him, and Macon straightened.
“Do you have need of me?” Today was his day off from his duties, but he was always on-call.
“Just to speak to you.”
“I was on my way home.” He had the sudden urge to check on Annabel.
“I will walk with you. I wish to talk about Annabel with you.”
“She has not spoken of who sent her.” And he had not asked her lately.
Dex frowned. “I did think she would have told you by now. Mates should not keep things from each other.”
No, they shouldn’t. But then, he would have to be around her in order to speak to her.
“But I wished to speak to you about the fact that she does not leave—”
A sudden wailing noise interrupted them, and Macon looked up in surprise as Hagartha came barrelling towards them. She looked disheveled, her hair falling down around her face, her clothing rumpled. She threw herself into his arms, and he caught her, shocked.
“Hagartha? What is it?”
“She attacked me! That human attacked me!”
***
Annabel looked up as the door opened, tensing. If that was that bitch, Hagartha, again, then Annabel was not going to hold back this time. Macon strode inside, looking tense. But then, when didn’t he look tense?
“Annabel?”
“Here,” she said, standing. “You’ll never guess—”
“Macon! Macon, you must protect me.” Hagartha raced inside and threw herself at Macon.
Annabel rolled her eyes at the other woman’s dramatics. She expected Macon to shrug Hagartha off. Instead, he patted her hand. “It will be fine, Hagartha. You are safe.”
Dex entered the house, his face stern.
“Of course she’s safe,” Annabel said. Did they think she was going to throw herself at Hagartha?
“She attacked me!” Hagartha pointed right at her. “Do something.”
“Um, I did not. I opened the door, and you sprang at me. I protected myself.” Annabel looked up at Macon.
“She’s lying.” Hagartha sobbed. “Look at me. She hit me.” She pointed at her cheek.
“You did that when you tripped over and fell.” Annabel sighed. “She took a swing at me. I ducked. She ran at me, tripped over the edge of the sofa and smacked her cheek on the ground. I didn’t even touch her.”
Macon stared down at Hagartha, then over at her. But he didn’t immediately nod. Instead, he glanced over at Dex.
“You don’t believe me. Seriously. What? You think she came here to give me her congratulations and I just attacked her for no reason?”
“You attacked me because you know that Macon really wants me, not you. He hates you inferior humans. And he could especially never care for a traitor.”
Annabel stiffened. Then turned to Macon accusingly. “You told her.”
“No, I did not.”
“I overheard Zoey and Mila speaking of you. They are actually worried about you. Pathetic.”
“That is my mate and Empress you speak of,” Dex said in a cold voice.
Hagartha actually managed to look slightly ashamed. “I apologize. But they should not feel sorry for a traitor. It is only right that Macon keeps her locked up. She cannot be trusted.”
“I am not keeping her prisoner.”
No? First she’d heard about it.
“And soon everyone will know what she did, as they should. She cannot be trusted, particularly if she is going to attack innocent people. She should be banned from Zerconia.”
So that was her game? Prove that Annabel was a threat and have her removed.
“Jesus, lady, you’ve got some balls.” She looked over at Dex and Macon. They were both staring at her assessingly. Could they actually believe this bullshit?
“You don’t believe her, right? Dex?”
He was silent.
“Macon?”
His silence was even more deafening.
“Fine. You know what? I was sent here to spy on you. And no, I’m not going to tell you by who. However, I would like to point out that I came here without knowing any of you. And once I was here and got to know you, I tried to convince the person that sent me that he was wrong about you all. Because I kind of admired you guys. Your honesty. Your integrity. Yeah, I stole some documents. But I didn’t do anything with them. I didn’t leak them. I didn’t even tell my handler about the mating fever, something that was left out of the information we were given before signing up to come to Zerconia. At the time I decided to come here, I didn’t owe you my loyalty. It’s obvious that no matter what I do or say you’ll never believe me. I didn’t touch her. But you’ll think what you like. I’m tired of talking now. I’m going to my room.”
Macon watched Annabel leave the room. He wished the mating bond was stronger, that he could sense what she was feeling. If she was lying. If she wasn’t lying, that meant Hagartha was.
“I believe it would be best if you return home, Hagartha,” Dex said.
“What? But why should I go home? She is the one who attacked me!”
“Because this is not your home. I will have Que escort you.”
He could still hear Hagartha complaining as she was escorted away. He winced. Why had he never noticed how loud and grating her voice was?
“Hagartha will not let this lie,” Dex warned.
Macon sighed. “What shall I do? She cannot be allowed to attack our females.”
“Are you sure she did?”
Macon frowned. “What do you mean? That Hagartha is lying?”
“One of them is. Who do you think lies?”
“Annabel has lied before.”
“Yes, she has. That would make it difficult to take her word. Do you still have the cameras on?”
Why did he not think of that? “Yes.” He’d set cameras up when he had first brought Annabel back to his house, partly to watch her, partly in case she said something useful.
He brought up the camera vid on the large projector in the living room. He had locked down all of his external computer systems, only his personal communicator had access to the external systems. He hadn’t wanted to risk her getting into his systems and contacting anyone.
Macon sped through the camera until he saw Hagartha standing at his door. Annabel opened the door, and Hagartha barrelled through, pushing Annabel who barely mana
ged to keep her footing. Hagartha outweighed her by a good fifty pounds.
Hagartha screamed at her, accusing her of stealing Macon. He winced at the fury in Hagartha’s voice. Then she took a swing at Annabel. Macon growled quietly, his hands clenching into fists.
Annabel ducked, moving back. When Hagartha raced forward, she tripped and landed heavily on the floor. Macon paused the vid after Hagartha went racing off.
“It happened just as Annabel said,” Dex said unnecessarily. “She didn’t lie.”
No, she hadn’t.
“I will deal with Hagartha,” Dex told him, standing. “I will leave you to speak to your mate.”
She shouldn’t feel so betrayed. Of course, he didn’t believe her. Macon wasn’t a guy who forgave easily. They might be mated, but that didn’t mean there was anything between them but lust. And he hadn’t touched her since that first night when they’d fully mated.
Damn, this caring about people sucked. It sucked because they were bound to let you down. She should have expected it. She’d been let down by others all her life; why should Macon be any different?
Because you want him to be different. Because you want him to care about you the same way you do him.
Fuck. She was messed up.
Her door slid open. “Annabel.”
“You ever heard of knocking?” She lay on the masic with her back to him.
“I need to speak to you.”
“I’m listening. Not like I’ve got much choice.”
“I know you did not touch Hagartha.”
Okay, that was unexpected. She rolled over and sat up. “You believe me?”
“I had cameras on. They recorded the incident.”
She pushed that little tidbit aside for the moment. Cameras? Wonderful. “So you believe me because you found evidence backing up my story. You couldn’t just trust what I said?”
He looked away.
“No, of course, you couldn’t. You’re never going to trust me, are you, Macon?”
“Perhaps I could learn to trust you if you were fully truthful with me.”
“Yeah, not going to happen. You know, you haven’t exactly been entirely truthful with me. Your halo isn’t as shiny as you think it is.”
“What do you mean? What halo?”