by Tina Folsom
Tessa, her face tear-stained, shot up from the couch, shrieking. Aiden, who’d been pacing, spun around, clearly relieved to see him.
“Leave us,” Hamish ordered his fellow guardian.
Aiden nodded and left the apartment the same way Hamish had entered it.
For a moment there was silence between them. His eyes strayed away from Tessa’s face to her arms, which were bare. He realized that this was the first time he was seeing her in a short-sleeved top. He homed in on the inside of her elbows, checking for the telltale bruising that drug addicts who used needles exhibited. Her arms were pristine—pale, but unblemished.
“That wasn’t me in that photo,” Tessa said, her voice cracking.
He searched her eyes. Was she telling the truth, or was she lying just like Olivia had lied to him? Could he really trust anything a human said? Could he trust Tessa?
“I don’t want you to lie to me. If it was you, I’ll help you get through this. But you have to be honest with me.” He didn’t even know why he was offering his help. To do what? To get her clean? What for? Now that her reputation was tarnished in the eyes of the citizens of Baltimore, her chances of becoming mayor were practically nil. His work here was done. The demons wouldn’t bother her again now that she’d destroyed her own career.
“You have to believe me.” She took a few steps closer, her eyes pleading. “Please, Hamish. I’ve never taken drugs. Never in my life.”
He dropped his lids, avoiding her gaze, and stared at his boots instead. “Are you saying we’re all blind and the woman in the photo isn’t you?”
“It must be photoshopped. It can’t be me! It’s impossible!” Her voice took on a high-pitched tone.
“At least admit it,” he begged. “So I can help you.” Because despite everything, despite her deception, despite the blow she’d just dealt her race, despite the huge advantage she’d just handed to the demons, he still felt something for her.
More tears shimmered in her eyes. She pointed to the laptop that sat open on the coffee table. “Her face might look like mine, but her body doesn’t.”
Tessa suddenly gripped the hem of her yoga top and pulled it over her head, then tossed it to the floor.
“Tessa, what are—”
She wore a simple white cotton sports bra underneath. But that wasn’t what had shoved his words back down his throat.
“Oh my God,” he choked out and bridged the distance between them in two steps, reaching for her.
Her stomach was covered in scars. Small round scars. He’d seen enough scars in his long life to know what they were: burn marks.
“The woman in the picture has flawless skin,” Tessa continued, tears now streaming down her face. “She’s perfect, and I’m not.”
Hamish touched her stomach, but she shrank back.
“No, don’t!” she cried out on a sob.
“Tessa, I’m so sorry. I should have never doubted you.” He reached for her then and pulled her into his arms, stroking one hand over her back, trying to soothe her, but her sobs kept coming. “Please forgive me.” He pressed a kiss on top of her head. “Please, Tessa, I should have had more faith in you. But…” He hesitated, but he needed to let her know how he felt, and why he’d reacted the way he had. “I loved a woman once. Her name was Olivia, and I thought she loved me, too. But it was all a lie… And then I met you, and when we kissed, I felt something so strong…”
Tessa lifted her head from his chest and looked up at him. “You told Enya it meant nothing to you.”
“Because I didn’t want to admit it to Enya or to myself. But it meant everything. That kiss awakened something in me that I thought had died for good with Olivia. I thought she loved me, but she deceived me. The demons, they were using her to get to me. And I didn’t see it, because I was blinded by love.”
She sniffled. No words came over her lips, but she was listening intently.
“The demons had their claws in her so deep that there was no way of bringing her back. She was already lost. I had to kill her, Tessa, I had to kill the woman I loved.” He felt tears stinging his eyes. “When I saw the photo, when I thought that everything you’d shown me about yourself was just a cover, a lie, I thought that my heart would break a second time.”
He took her face in both hands. “Tessa, I put chains around my heart so nobody would ever get inside it again. I wanted to be my own master again. The ruler over my own heart, my own emotions, my own destiny. Nobody was supposed to ever get close enough again. But then I touched you. And when I kissed you, those chains around my heart started to loosen. But when I saw that photo, I thought you’d deceived me, too.” He searched her eyes for a sign that she understood. “Please forgive me.”
27
Forgive him? There was so much more that she wanted to do, and his words had given her the courage to act. To be brave for once and demand what she desired.
“Then please kiss me, Hamish.” Tessa raised her hand and laid it on his nape.
It felt like a dream in slow motion as Hamish dipped his face to hers, his eyes locked with hers and his lips parted. His breath brushed against her face, making her shiver in anticipation, because she knew that this kiss would not end with a stumbled apology or more awkwardness. She saw it in his eyes: the hunger, the need, the desire. And she knew he would see the same in her eyes.
His lips were firm and warm, and they took hers with a demand she’d never experienced before. This was how a real man kissed. A man who knew what he wanted; a man who took what was offered freely. She tasted him, tasted the powerful male, the warrior, the man who’d kept her safe these last days.
She welcomed his forceful invasion, his strong tongue exploring her, his lips touching hers, his arms holding her, making escape impossible. She wanted to feel his hard, muscular body pressed against her curves. Needed to feel his physical dominance, his preternatural power. She was drawn to it, to the way it made her feel: weak, yet safe and, first and foremost, desired. Desired by an immortal, a man who could have any woman. A man who’d had many before her. But it didn’t matter now as long as he gave her what she needed. A taste of lust, of passion. A chance to forget all the terrible things that had happened. A chance to let herself fall and know he would catch her.
His passionate kiss was heating her insides, making liquid pool at the juncture of her thighs. Instinctively she undulated her hips to rub herself against him and find relief. She found more than that: a hard ridge that curved against his groin and pressed against his cargo pants. Involuntarily she moaned. In response Hamish dropped his hands to her ass and jerked her against him, rubbing his cock even harder against her.
But she needed to feel more. She needed him closer, needed to feel his skin, his heat. She pulled his Polo shirt from his pants and pushed it up. He helped her and broke off the kiss for a moment to pull his shirt over his head. While he tossed it on the floor, she got a glimpse of his chest. A light sprinkling of dark hair covered toned pectorals. It got thicker farther down, blazing a trail over his stomach and disappearing into his pants. As if she needed directions.
Her hands were already on his fly. She opened the button, but he stopped her by putting one hand over hers.
“It’s been a long time since I’ve done this,” he rasped, making her look up at his face.
“It’s like riding a bike,” she murmured with a smirk.
He chuckled. “Trust me, I know how it’s done.” He released her hand and pulled her flush to him, his chest crushing her breasts. “But if you continue like this, I’m not gonna last long.” Then he reached for the clasp of her bra and unhooked it. “So why don’t we start with you?”
Before she could protest, he’d relieved her of her bra and was caressing her naked breasts, while he sank his mouth back onto hers and continued his sensual onslaught. She gasped and felt bolts of heat shoot through her core. Oh God, how she needed his touch!
She suddenly felt herself lifted off her feet and knew they were moving, until she finally
felt a wall at her back and Hamish pressing her against it. He ripped his mouth from hers and dipped his head, capturing one nipple with his lips and sucking on it.
Tessa moaned out loud, gasping for air.
His hands weren’t idle either, both of them now sliding under her yoga pants, pushing them and her panties down to mid-thigh, then dragging them lower. She kicked her shoes off and freed herself fully from the garments.
When he brought his hand between her legs and finally touched her drenched folds, she lost all ability to speak. Warm fingers played with her, caressed her, explored her. Shudders of pleasure charged through her, making her shiver uncontrollably.
“Easy, lass,” he murmured at her ear, before he proceeded to kiss a path down her neck and reclaim one breast with his mouth.
But how could she go easy, when he touched her like this, when his fingers and his mouth drove her insane with lust?
“Please!” she begged.
He understood as if she’d told him what she needed, and drove one finger into her.
“Fuck, Tessa, you’re tight.” He lifted his head from her breast and stared at her. “I’m not gonna last ten seconds inside you.”
Her eyelids fluttered as he began to pump his finger in and out of her, while he rubbed his thumb over her clit.
Her cheeks were blazing with fire, while she stared into his eyes that now looked like dark molten lava, black with flecks of gold. “You’re gonna make me come,” she choked out breathlessly.
One side of his mouth lifted. “That’s the idea, lass.”
She loved the way he rasped that last word. It was like a caress.
“Now let yourself go,” he demanded, pinning her with his eyes.
Her lips parted, and air rushed from her lungs. She felt the earth turn around her as if she were floating, when the first wave hit her. Like a tsunami, it crashed over her, pleasure and lust drowning her, making her gasp for air. She dug her fingers into his shoulders, holding on for dear life, her legs shaking, her knees buckling. But she didn’t fall. Hamish was there to catch her.
Then his lips were on hers, and he kissed her without restraint. Harder than before. With more passion, more determination. She panted, and despite her climax only seconds earlier, she felt more need rise in her. But this time, the need was different. She wanted him to surrender to her like she’d surrendered to him.
She pushed him back to make enough space between their bodies to get to his zipper. Before he could protest, she lowered it and pushed his pants down. His gray boxer briefs stretched tightly over his erection, and a wet spot was showing where his cock had leaked pre-cum.
She hooked her hands under the waistband and lowered his briefs. His shaft sprang free.
“Fuck!” he hissed and reached for her, but she was already dropping to her knees, pulling his pants down all the way.
He helped her and kicked his boots off. A dagger fell to the floor, but she ignored it and brought her head level with his groin. His hands were already on her biceps to lift her up, but she protested, “No!”
A ragged breath was his response. She lifted her eyes to look at him and saw him stare at her in disbelief. “Lass…” he groaned. But he released his grip and waited, the look in his eyes confirmation that he wanted this as much as she did.
She dropped her gaze to his cock then, and wrapped her hand around the thick root. She felt it pulse in her palm.
“Beautiful,” Tessa murmured and moved closer.
The head was almost purple, so pumped full with blood that it looked ready to burst. It was time she took mercy on him. So she licked over it with her tongue, tasting his salty essence, before she wrapped her lips around the tip and slid down on him, taking him into her mouth.
~ ~ ~
He’d died and gone to heaven. There was no other way to describe what he was feeling right now. Tessa was on her knees in front of him, her lips tightly wrapped around his eager cock, one hand around its root, while she cradled his balls with the other.
“Fuck!” Hamish ground out and braced himself against the wall behind her, his knees starting to shake.
How long had it been since a woman had done this to him? Since a woman had sucked him like this? With such tenderness and such passion at the same time. And this wasn’t just any woman. This was Tessa, the woman he’d desired from the moment he’d laid eyes on her. And now she was on her knees, worshipping him as if he were her master.
He knew what he was doing was wrong. But he couldn’t get himself to stop her, because everything felt so right: her tongue sliding along the underside of his cock as she moved up and down on him, her lips sucking him with such skill, her hands caressing him with tenderness. Everything was perfect.
He looked down at her, watching her as she sucked and licked him with her eyes closed, her soft moans and sighs bouncing off his sensitive skin. He watched his hips move back and forth to demand more, to beg for more friction, to ask that she suck him harder, faster. He watched himself fuck her mouth the same way he wanted to fuck her pussy, with deep long strokes. But if he continued to allow her to suck him like this, he wouldn’t get around to taking her the way he wanted to, because she’d finish him before he ever got a chance.
With the last ounce of his willpower, he pulled himself from her mouth and stepped back.
Tessa stared up at him, stunned. “Was I doing something wrong?”
He grabbed her arms and pulled her up. “You were doing everything right.” Too right.
He spun her around so she faced the wall and grabbed her hips, surprising himself at the roughness with which he handled her. But his control was slipping rapidly, and he needed to be inside her now. He wouldn’t make it to the bedroom.
He pushed her legs apart, dragged her ass back toward him and bent his knees, bringing his cock to her entrance. He felt the warm juices of her pussy coat his cockhead and pushed upward and forward, seating himself.
Tessa moaned and braced herself against the wall, while her wetness engulfed him.
“That’s it, lass,” he encouraged her and withdrew, only to slice back into her with more force. “Like that, yeah?”
“Yeah,” she let out on a strangled breath, her hips meeting him on his next thrust. She turned her head to the side, looking back at him. “Take me.”
He brought his face to hers and sucked her earlobe between his lips, giving it a gentle bite. He felt her shiver as a result and thrust harder into her, perspiration already covering his chest.
“I love fucking you, Tessa! I should’ve done this the day I met you in your office.” He pounded into her, loving the way her muscles squeezed him like a tight fist. “I should’ve thrown you on that desk and taken you.”
“Oh God,” she said huskily. “Just make up for it now. For making me wait so long.”
Her words were like a soothing balm on an open wound, eradicating any doubt that she wanted him as much as he wanted her. He brushed her hair back from her face and stroked his finger over her cheek. “Oh, lass…”
Farther below, his hips worked frantically, his pistoning cock driving in and out of her relentlessly, while he tried to hold back his imminent orgasm with all his remaining strength. He needed more of her, he needed to be inside her longer, to be joined with her.
“Fuck!” he groaned, because he knew he was losing the battle over his body. He blamed it on his long abstinence from women, though he knew that was only partially correct. It was all Tessa’s fault, the way her body welcomed him, the way she responded to him, the way she surrendered to him.
When he felt his balls tightening, he brought one hand to Tessa’s front and found her clit. The small organ was swollen, and he knew just what she needed now. He rubbed his finger over it, making rapid circles, while his cock kept pumping. He couldn’t stop the approach of his orgasm now. His semen shot through his cock and exploded from the tip, filling Tessa’s tight channel. Finally he felt her spasm around him, climaxing with him.
Hamish let out a ragged br
eath and dropped his head against the wall next to Tessa. She was breathing just as hard. He wrapped one arm around her waist, holding her to him. Suddenly he was all too aware of how he’d taken her. Like a savage. He hadn’t even afforded her the comfort of a nice bed. But he couldn’t even regret that fact. Because their lovemaking had been perfect.
28
Tessa suddenly lost the ground beneath her feet as Hamish lifted her into his arms and carried her into the bedroom, where he laid her onto the bed. Smiling, he joined her and pulled her on top of him, his arms wrapped around her, one hand in her hair, caressing her nape.
“I wish I could say I’m sorry about how rough I was and that I took you against a wall…” He put his finger under her chin and lifted her face so she had to look at him. “But I’ve never experienced anything hotter than taking you like that.”
His eyes were blazing with lust again, almost as if he wanted a repeat right now.
Her heart beat rapidly. She hadn’t felt anything more exciting in her life either. “I’m glad you did what you did.”
“Even though a first time should be more… civilized?”
She chuckled, her cheeks still hot and probably red. But she felt no shame for what had happened, no shame for the wildness she’d exhibited. “I can’t imagine you being civilized.”
He moved, rolling them both over so he was now above her. “Are you saying I’m a beast?” He used his knee to push her legs apart to make space for himself at her center.
When his cock settled between her legs, she hummed appreciatively. “I love a bit of beast in a man.”
He smiled and brushed a lock of her hair from her face. “Well, who would have thought that the prim and proper councilwoman was into rough and wild?”