by Sarah Marsh
Chapter Twenty-Seven
A few months later
“You look like you could use a little break from the festivities, babe.” Halle stifled a grin at the look of dejection on her mate’s face right now. When her mother had said they’d be having a small gathering to officially celebrate their mating, she hadn’t had the heart to warn him that her mom’s idea of a “small gathering” was going to seem like the sixth level of hell to someone who’d spent years isolating himself. “Come with me, I have something I want to show you.”
“Gladly.” He took her offered hand and followed her up the stairs and down the long hallway, away from the crowd until they came to a familiar door with her name in letters on the front. Halle’s pulse skipped a beat at the look of heat she saw in her mate’s eyes as he slowly shut the bedroom door closed behind them.
“Well, you wanted to see my old bedroom, and here it is.” Her voice was a sultry purr, imagining all the dirty things she wanted to do to him in here. It was exciting to think that there was a house full of people downstairs completely oblivious to what they might get up to.
“Hmm, what a naughty little thing you are, tempting me to ravage you in your childhood bedroom while anyone could walk in and catch us.” This particular smile he gave her was a favorite—it usually happened before he did something deliciously kinky, and kitty liked her some kink. Her new mate had decided to take her sensual education firmly in hand and teach her everything she’d been missing out on … and there had been so much she’d been missing out on.
“Oh, I am super naughty—I think that maybe you should punish me.” She blinked up innocently at him.
“Punish you?” His low laugh made goosebumps break out all over her skin in anticipation. “Come now, sweet, if I were to do that the entire house would know what we were up to because you’d be screaming my name.”
Halle’s breathing became heavy as Viktor stalked closer, backing her up against the wall slowly until his body was so close to hers she could feel the heat coming off of him.
“No, I think I will wait to punish you until we get home.” He ran a fingertip gently from her cheek, trailing it down her neck, following the deep V neckline of her wrap dress. His fingers tugged slowly on the tie until it released and the soft green material fell to the sides of her body, revealing the lace bra and panties, “For now, I want you on your knees.”
A warm pulse of excitement rushed through her body at his words. Halle loved it when Viktor took charge in the bedroom. She was only just discovering the freedom of submitting to him, and it was thrilling. Her body quickened, moisture pooling between her thighs as she dropped to her knees before him on the thick carpeting.
“Take out my cock,” he commanded, his voice thick with desire.
Halle slowly ran her fingers along the thick ridge of his desire beneath the expensive material of his dress pants, and she could feel his flesh jerk under her fingertips before she undid the closure and lowered the zipper. The low groan from her mate as she licked her lips was music to her ears, and when his thick shaft sprang forth she wasted no time in leaning forward to collect the drop of moisture beading at the tip with her tongue.
“Mmm, that’s right, baby, suck me down.” He moaned as she took his length into her mouth, swirling her tongue along as she went, savoring the taste of him. Halle suckled and moved along his shaft with enthusiasm, the tension in his thighs under her hands letting her know exactly how much he was enjoying her mouth on him. “Ahh, fuck, babe. That’s so good, but I need to be inside you before I can go back out there and deal with that.”
She wanted him, too, so she relinquished his cock with a loud pop, and then he was lifting her up to lay on the edge of the bed. Halle lifted her arms up above her head, and he smiled in approval, as he slowly pulled her panties down her legs and dropped them to the floor.
“Keep those arms up, and show me what’s mine,” he growled as he pushed her bra up and over her breasts, palming the sensitive flesh in his strong hands.
Halle spread her legs wide open, revealing her swollen folds to the man that she loved. Viktor fell to his knees beside the bed, his hands grabbing her knees and jerking her closer towards him. She had to bite her lip to stop the moan that threatened to break forth as he leaned forward and took a long lick from her drenched opening all the way up to her sensitive clit. A small whimper escaped her when one of his fangs circled the swollen nub, and he chuckled.
“Quiet, remember, baby? You don’t want your mom catching us in here, do you?”
“Ugh, please don’t talk about my mom when your mouth is on my pussy, okay?” Her voice was trembling, due to the fact that he was still teasing her clit.
“Fair enough,” he answered before he kissed his way back up her stomach and along her breasts until he finally reached her mouth. His kiss was slow and sensual as his tongue teased hers. Halle moaned as she felt the fat head of his cock slide through her folds until he found her entrance and slowly pressed inside. She felt every inch of him, and though her hands itched to trace over his beautiful body, she kept them above her head as she’d been instructed to. His thrusts were drawn out and deliberate, and she sucked on his tongue as it invaded her mouth and was rewarded as his hips began a faster pace.
“Is this what you want, little one?” He pulled his mouth away to watch her face intently as he fucked her harder.
“Yes, I need to come,” she whimpered, her fingers thrashing in the battle to follow his instruction. “Please, Viktor!”
He said nothing in return. He simply brought one finger down to circle her aching clit as he thrust into her faster and faster, all the while, watching her face like he’d never seen anything so enthralling.
“I love watching you as you come apart for me, baby.” He finally placed his thumb over her clit and rubbed furiously as his hips slammed against hers.
Halle was thankful that he dove down to cover her mouth with his in a soul-stealing kiss as the pleasure crested inside of her and she shattered around the length of him. Otherwise, the entire house would have heard her scream his name as she came. He thrust a few more times inside of her before he pushed deep and a ragged moan joined hers as he followed her into bliss.
****
“I can’t believe you talked me into accepting this job, love.” Viktor sighed as he pulled at his tie once again.
Halle knew he would’ve stayed the entire evening held up in her room if it had been up to him, but she’d simply laughed thinking that it had been a minor miracle already that her mom hadn’t sent someone to track them down. They’d reluctantly gotten dressed and headed back down to the party.
He obligingly nodded to various people he didn’t know as the strangers said hello, and he held Halle’s arm as they walked through the lavish ballroom.
“It’s a great opportunity, both for you and the rest of the covens here. I think you’re going to do a fantastic job as the new Coven Leader of North America. Conrad was such a douchebag that most of the older vamps had just left altogether. We’ve already gotten hundreds of petitions for members to return back to your territory,” Halle said, as she sipped from her glass of champagne. “You don’t give yourself enough credit, Viktor. You’re a very competent and fair leader. Otherwise, Burton would never have recommended you for the position in the first place.”
“I’m so lucky you’re willing to help me with all of this. You’ve got a gift for dealing with others, Halle,” he answered while still trying to smile at strangers. “I’m still not quite used to so much socializing after keeping to myself for so many years, and there’s just so many … people.”
Halle laughed at the tone of his voice. He sounded like he’d just found something disgusting stuck to the bottom of his very expensive shoes. She had to agree, though, at least on the number of sheer people that had attended tonight. Her parents had gone overboard on their party, and she knew there would only be more to come. Viktor had wanted to get married, and Halle was fine either way. Most shifters
usually had a party once they mated, so her mother had been ecstatic at her first opportunity to plan an actual full on wedding with all the bells and whistles. Plus, with Viktor’s new appointment to Coven Leader, it meant, even more people they didn’t know wanted to congratulate them and come to celebrate. All the socializing was practically giving her mate hives.
“Well, I warned you, baby, shifter parents aren’t really good with boundaries. I told you we should’ve bought a house in a city that was farther away from the pard,” she answered right before her mother snuck up behind them and grabbed the glass right out of her hand.
“Hey! I was drinking that!” Halle protested, as her mother just ignored her and beamed up at Viktor.
“This has been such a lovely turn out, Viktor. Everyone seems to be pleased as punch that you accepted the Coven Leader position,” she cooed before she downed the rest of Halle’s champagne. “And all the other ladies in my wine club are beside themselves with jealousy that my Halle has mated herself such a handsome and important male!”
The exaggerated eye roll Halle gave her mom was totally ignored by the older woman, of course.
“Really, Mom, how do you manage to make everything about you?” Halle asked as she flagged down another server with a tray of drinks.
Her mother grabbed a smaller glass off the tray filled with pink sparkling juice and handed it to her with a pointed look.
“You shouldn’t be drinking in your condition, sweetheart. I don’t want to take any chances with my grandcub,” her mother gushed, right before catching sight of someone she knew and rushed off to gossip.
Halle heard the crack of the crystal glass in Viktor’s hand, and she felt like an idiot for not realizing sooner why she’d been so queasy for the last couple of weeks. They’d barely been mated for three months and so much had changed for Viktor in his life, she was almost scared to look up and see his reaction to the news that she was pregnant.
“Truly, Halle?” he whispered in a quiet voice.
She finally looked up to see the tears in his eyes, and with the sheer look of wonder on his face, all her fears evaporated.
“Well, I haven’t taken a test or been to the doctor, but my mom’s nose never lies. Are you happy about this, Viktor?” she asked, as she took his hand in hers.
“I am … surprised.” He seemed to be struggling to find his words. “Of course I realized that it was possible…”
Halle began to worry that this was too much, too fast for her mate. Vampires as a rule did not usually procreate as the amount of extra blood a female would have to consume to carry a child to term was tedious—she’d done a little research on that when her father had told her about Conrad. But it had happened. She and Viktor hadn’t talked about children once they’d mated. They were too busy enjoying themselves—hence the bun currently in her oven. Halle wanted to be excited about the life they’d created, but would Viktor be? He must have seen the concern in her face as he smiled and quickly took her hands in his own.
“I never imagined in my wildest fantasies that I could be as happy as you make me, Halle,” he answered, pulling her in close to press a soft kiss to her lips. “I never dreamed that I would once again be blessed with a family of my own.”
“I guess we should both send Dori a fruit basket or something then, huh?”
“I think she stole my car from where we left it en route to the Council Building that morning. When we arrived back home that afternoon, I found a note in the pocket of those ridiculously tight leather pants that said, ‘You missed the last oil change on your Aston Martin, and your door fell off. You really should take better care of such a beautiful machine. But no worries, sweet cheeks, I have the perfect mechanic to take care of it!’ She has yet to return it, so I guess we’ll just call it even then,” he said, as he hugged his mate close and secretly thanked his Fairy Godmother.
And they lived Happily Ever After.
Epilogue
“I have to admit, girl, I never thought you’d pull this off.”
Dori’s Nana just stood there in the kitchen while she had the oddest expression on her face. It was almost, a smile?
“Gee, thanks, Nan.” Dori just rolled her eyes and went back to the debacle she was working on at the kitchen table.
She was surprised when the chair next to her pulled out and her grandmother sat down.
“So what’s your plan now? Are you picking the next name or are you going to advertise on the para black market?”
Good grief, Dori had never heard her grandmother sound so excited about anything, ever. Could it be the old battle-ax had finally gotten bored of society gossip and endless rounds of cribbage? Pandora just looked over at the woman for a moment with a measuring stare.
“You want in, Nana?”
“Well, you’re clearly going to need some help if you expect not to get caught by the Fairy God Council. I did date every single one of them. So, I can make sure they’re looking the other way,” Nana said as she tried to look coy and primped her hair.
“All of them Nana? Even that ass-hat Basil?” Dori tried to hide the fact that she was secretly impressed with her grandmother’s promiscuous ways, cringing when she accidentally imagined the super old Grand-Fairy Council Master Basil buck-ass naked.
Ugh. There were some things you just never wanted to imagine.
“We all make mistakes, dear,” she answered with a wink, right before Dori’s mom burst into the kitchen.
“Why in the heck is my office all pulled apart, young lady?” Dori’s mom yelled as she walked into the kitchen and stood there with her hands on her hips looking serious at least for a moment until she saw what her daughter was doing. “Are you writing a letter on stationery?”
“Yes, and let me tell you, my handwriting is not what it used to be,” Dori sighed as she crumpled up the sheet she’d been working on and started another.
Cripes, no wonder the computer had been invented! It would have taken people ages to get anything done if they had to write stuff down on paper all the time. Not to mention the gross ink smudges all along her skin due to her superior left-handed awesomeness.
“Well, I’m certainly not one to condone a waste of magic, as you know,” her mother said, as she plunked down in the chair across from her, “but why on Earth don’t you just create one if you have to, instead of writing it by hand?”
“Trust me, I would if that was an option, but he always smells the magic and refuses to open any correspondence that hasn’t been done completely manually.”
“He who, my dear?” her Nana asked while getting up to pour herself a cup of coffee. “I can’t imagine why you’d go to this much trouble for anyone.”
“He is Barrett, my mechanic. I need to bring Viktor’s car in for a repair,” Dori said, as she very carefully signed her name to the completed request for an appointment time when she could call him. “He’s an ogre with some severe OCD issues, and trust me, you do not want to surprise him in any way. He has a tendency to get a little Hulk-Smash-y when he’s startled.”
Dori folded the letter in half and handed it to her mother carefully like she was afraid she’d accidentally trip and spill coffee on it or something.
“Can you please take this to the post office and mail it to the address at the top?”
“Sure.” Her mom agreed and then flipped open the letter to read what her daughter had written.
“What? You’re asking him for an appointment time so that you can then text him to make another appointment time to be able to call him?” Tabitha asked in disbelief, looking back at her daughter. “Is this guy crazy, or what?”
“Look, Mom, I told you he’s got some issues. But he’s literally the best mechanic on the West Coast … and as long as he doesn’t see me coming, he’s also going to be our next client.”
The End
www.sarahmarshfiction.com
Other Books by Sarah Marsh:
www.evernightpublishing.com/sarah-marsh
If you enjoyed this book,
you may also like:
Sixth Surprise by Mary Abshire
The Power of Mates by Sam Crescent
A Midnight Spell by A. J. Márquez
EVERNIGHT PUBLISHING ®
www.evernightpublishing.com