A Bite of Magick

by Rhyannon Byrd

  She smiled down at him, wondering why she didn’t shine with the brilliance of everything blossoming inside of her, and he clutched at her with desperate fingers biting into her tender flesh, as if he’d restrain her from leaving.

  “Dinna,” he grunted, the harsh word stuck in his throat. “Dinna—”

  With trembling fingers, Té smoothed his tangled hair back from his wet face, tucking it behind his ears. He was unbelievably hot, pouring off heat, his skin slick with sweat and the unmistakable splashes of blood from his earlier kills in the outer hallway. “Don’t what, baby?” she asked in a gentle voice, trying to soothe the anxiety she could feel in his biting grip. The pain in his expression burned so brightly, so intensely for her that it filled her with fire, scorching her veins.

  His lips parted, breath panting, voice still on the raw side of inhuman, gruff and undeniably dangerous. “Dinna…run…from…me.” The plea came halting and passion-filled, thick with obvious fear.

  Té shook her head. Beautiful, perfect, stupid man. Well, Warlock, she playfully corrected herself—a soft, mysterious smile spreading across her face.

  Her Warlock. Her wolf.

  Hell, whatever he was, she loved him and she always would.

  Did he honestly not know how much she felt for him…would do for him…even die for him?

  “Do you really think I would run from my Black Knight, now that I’ve finally found him?” she asked, holding him to her. “No one’s ever protected me before, Kieran. I don’t have anything to thank you with but my body and my heart and my soul, which I offer freely for the rest of my life.”

  He trembled. And then the cocky arrogance that trapped her every damn time resurfaced in the sexy twist of his lips. “That’s no’ good enough, lass.”

  She arched her brow. “Yeah?”

  “Aye, I’ll no’ be happy with just one life. I want them all. An eternity, and I’ll no’ take anything but a yes for your answer.”

  She smoothed his hair off his wide brow with trembling fingers of her own. “And what if I were to give you something even better?”

  “Better?” he repeated.

  “Aye,” she drawled in imitation of his sexy burr. “How about a yes…and a very heartfelt I love you.”

  “Oh hell, you would do this to me in front of these asses.” His face pressed into her middle, and she could feel the telling vibration move through his powerful frame. He was danger and violence and strength personified, and here she’d shaken him to the core with the simple declaration of her love. “The miserable bastards will never let me live this down,” he muttered, deep voice muffled by her sweater.

  Té tried to push his hair back from his face, a strange suspicion falling over her. “Kieran, baby, are you…crying?”

  His cheek brushed against her midriff. “Shut up, Té,” he growled.

  She snorted, and it was so cute and sexy all he could do was smile against the heat of her belly while the hot wash of tears continued to fall over his face.

  “I give you my love and you tell me to shut up,” she giggled.

  “Damn, lass, are you trying to completely unman me?” he strangled out, the clear evidence of a smile in his rough voice. “I’ve loved you since the moment I set eyes on you, no matter how impossible it sounds. My heart loved you before my body even knew you, and I’ll love you from now until—hell, Té, not even death will keep me away from you, woman.”

  A smile of pure, wondrous joy broke across her bruised mouth, fingers unable to stop stroking him. “Forever, then, Kieran.”

  “Aye, Té, forever,” he vowed, and then suddenly glared up at her. “Though I still canna believe you dinna trust me to handle this myself,” he muttered, ending the statement with a dangerous growl.

  Té shook her head, blinking slowly down at him. “Don’t you get it? I came here because I do trust you. Do you think I would’ve taken this risk if I hadn’t thought you would be able to find me, kill the creep, and then bag the babe?” she asked with a teasing wink. “The babe being me, of course.”

  “I think you’d have sacrificed yourself,” he snarled in a low voice, the sharp edge rough with emotion and lingering fear, “if you thought it would keep those you loved safe.”

  “Hmm…you’re probably right. I guess it’s a good thing that the one I love most of all is the biggest bad-ass around, huh? He can save me from my harebrained schemes and anything else that comes along.”

  Kieran’s breath released on a long, meaningful sigh of relief, as if he was only just now starting to accept that they had won and the danger was over—at least for the moment. “Aye, that he can.”

  A wicked grin curled her lips. “Are you going to let me make it up to you?”

  “When Blu’s no longer watching you like a drooling mutt, you bet your sweet little ass I will.”

  Té looked over her shoulder in time to see Blu dragging his hot gaze back up to her face. She shook her head at his outrageousness, and the sexy rascal had the audacity to wink at her. Looking back to Kieran, she sighed and said, “You know you can’t hurt him, Kieran. He only does it to rile you, anyway.”

  “No,” he countered, big hands holding possessively to her waist, “he does it because you’re a beautiful woman and he likes the view. So long as he’s only looking, I’ll let him live. But if he ever tries to touch it—”

  Blu threw up his hands in surrender. “I’ll no’ touch what doesna belong to me, Kieran. Two banished family members are enough. I’ve no wish to end up like Colin, the poor bugger. Or Zach, for that matter.”

  “Who are Colin and Zach?” Té demanded with wide eyes. “Just how many of you McKendricks are there?”

  “It’s a long story, love,” Kieran explained, rising to his feet, not a stitch of clothing covering his magnificent body as he pulled her into his side and reached for the bag of clothes a laughing Mal was handing him. “A verra long story, so I’ll be tellin’ ya after.”

  “After what?”

  His hot eyes burned into her, smoldering with promise. “Why dinna you try to guess?”

  Chapter Seventeen

  “I’m too on edge right now. I willna be able to control it,” Kieran rasped, his eyes wild, focused intently on the bruised bite in her shoulder, the flame of possession and desire and what was most definitely love igniting his gaze. They stood before a roaring fire in what had once been his bedroom, but would now be theirs.

  Té stroked her greedy palms over the flat, ripped planes of his naked chest, marveling at the carnal beauty of his body. He’d already used his miraculous power to heal her wounds, easily done since Maldari had no longer been fully Magick, and now he’d heal her heart. “Good—I don’t want you to,” she whispered on a husky moan, leaning forward to nip his left nipple, his breath hissing between his lips like a rush of pain-edged pleasure. “What I want is for you to fuck me. What I want is for you to take me the way you need to—no matter how that might be.”

  “You take me any better and it’ll kill me, lass. But I’ll no’ hurt you.”

  “Don’t make me force you, Kieran.”

  He snorted, eyes bright with challenge and lust…and something remarkably beautiful, sparking in the liquid black pools of his eyes. Devil’s eyes, like the wicked bastard he was. Mesmerizing and erotically seductive, bringing her to her knees…literally.

  He stared down at her, his mouth opening and closing twice before he was able to form the words he needed to say to warn her. “Saephus, dinna be doing that, Té. If you fuck me with that hot little mouth, I’ll lose it before we ever even make it to the bed. I’ll change on you before you know what’s hit you, and you’ll find a wolf’s cock crammed down your throat, darlin’.”

  She worked rapidly on the button fly of his jeans, quickly pulling them down over his hips with one great shove that included the dark gray boxers Mal had brought him as well. Immediately, his cock sprang free, so many incredibly long, thick inches of male perfection, eager to breathe now that she’d offered it freedom, one s
hiny drop of fluid already glistening at the heavy, plum-sized tip. Her breath caught in her throat, and she leaned closer, rubbing the hot blaze of his silken skin with her cheek, savoring his warm, delicious scent. “Why don’t you just shut up,” she sighed, voice breathless with anticipation, “and let the poor pup have some fun.”

  “Pup?” he half snarled, half laughed, the outrage he’d been trying for lost in the rough purr of arousal as he tangled his hands in her mane of red-gold silk, every muscle in his body drawing so tight with expectation that he was amazed when he didn’t snap from the tension.

  “Yeah, he wants to have some fun and get nasty with me, but you’re cramping his style. So beat it, or learn to play along.”

  “I dinna understand you, woman. You should be running…screaming…no’ tempting me to fuck this sweet, angel face. It’ll no’ be easy, Te. It’s hard enough no’ hurting you as a man. I’m too fucking strong and too bloody big.”

  “Mmm…I like you big,” she moaned, lifting up so she could swipe her warm tongue across the wide, blunt head, loving the way it so perfectly topped off what was a perfectly beautiful, brutal cock. It tasted hot and salty, with a touch of musk, the warm skin silky against her lips while beneath he was nothing but granite-hard blood and hunger. “I’m American, remember? We live by that whole ‘the bigger the better’ motto. Big country. Big buildings. I just can’t help it. I see this big, beautiful cock of yours and the Yank in me just turns into a bloodthirsty little nympho.”

  “Ah Saephus, you’re too perfect to resist, you know that?”

  Her lips curled in a carnal smile, clearly enjoying the power she held over him. “Then stop trying, beautiful.”

  “I’m no’ beautiful,” he snorted, obviously insulted.

  “Oh yes, you are. I’m going to have my hands full for years to come, beating off all the little hussies who’ll follow you around.”

  His hands tightened, pulling her hard against his groin. “Dinna do that.”

  Té shifted to better see his face, wondering at the sudden edge of tension in his black gaze. “What?”

  “Dinna ever, for even a single second, worry yourself over that. I dinna want—” he grated, glittering eyes nearly crossing as she made her first full pass across the glistening head of his cock, twirling her pink tongue around the proud circumference before digging eagerly into the wet slit with the tip. “Oh hell…I willna ever want anyone but you,” he finished raggedly, wondering if she was going to drive him crazy, sending him spewing into the air with embarrassing speed from the touch of her lips alone.

  She looked up at him from beneath the thick fringe of her lashes, and he didn’t care for her expression, as if she still thought he was only telling her what she wanted to hear. Hunger exploded through his system on a fierce wave of possessiveness, the need to make her understand exactly what he was getting at burning him alive.

  Heat engulfed his senses, the blunt tip of his cock like a hot brand as it brushed against her cool, silken lips, and he wondered if the top of his head would come off as a knot of emotion threatened to rip through him, shattering his control. Fisting one hand in the luxurious mass of her hair, he tilted her face up to him, his cock bouncing, nudging the side of her cheek. He didn’t want to scare or sicken her, but he could feel the reason of the man slipping away as the wolf’s desire for dominance bled through his lust-thickened system, building a steady, thundering momentum. His lips pulled back over his elongating teeth, and he snarled, “We’re mated—forever—and you carry my bloody mark. Any fucking we do will be done between the two of us—and it’ll be done often. Hard and heavy, as much you can possibly take, woman. And when you beg for mercy, you best be knowing I’ve no stopping point when it comes to you.”

  Her eyes went heavy and she trembled with longing, jerking in his grip until she could run her tongue across the wet, delicious, purpled crest of his cock. “Sounds good to me,” she drawled in a husky rasp, holding his brilliant stare as she scraped her teeth across the slick, bulging head, nipping him softly as his fine musky scent swam through her head, drugging her with hunger. “But I’m not taking any chances.”

  He looked down at her, eyes bleeding to the molten silver of the wolf, and he growled, “You’ll take my bloody word on this woman—my promise…my oath that I willna ever want or take or fuck anyone but you ‘til I take my last breath in this dimension, and even when we move on into the next. You’ve my word as a McKendrick on that, lass.”

  “Then prove it to me, Kieran. Prove how much I mean to you. Change for me.”

  He shook his dark head, black hair flying, the air in the room growing turbulent, whipping the light gauze of the inner curtains against the heavy panes of glass in the windows. “You willna be able to handle it!”

  She licked the wet head of his cock, holding his blistering stare, and smiled her intent. “Wanna bet?”

  “You’ll run,” he snarled.

  She caught the blunt tip of his cock in her teeth and nipped, his size almost failing to fit within the circle of her lips, making her stretch them as wide as possible before pulling slowly back. “Like hell.”

  “The mating curse is broken, Té,” he muttered, beginning to look desperate. “It’s over. Leave it.”

  She shook her head. “No, I don’t think so.”

  “Damn it, woman,” he roared.

  “I want this, Kieran. I want you to trust me to know what I want. Know that I want you, no matter who or what the hell you might be. It doesn’t matter. It’s never going to matter.”

  And then she opened her mouth over him, sucking him into the moist, hot cavern of her throat, and he threw back his head, a sharp, rumbling cry piercing the silence of the room. Her mouth tightened on him at the hungry sound, and she sucked him harder, her cheeks hollowing out as she enveloped him in lush, wet heat and struggled to draw him deeper, his cock like a burning, pumping mass of silk-covered steel within her mouth. She loved his taste, the raw-edged energy she could feel blasting against her.

  His hips jerked once, nearly gagging her as his long shaft surged past her comfort point, but she relaxed her throat and was ready for the second thrust. Then he pulled back before the third.

  Kieran tried to stumble away, his mind going blurry as his blood pumped with hunger and the beast stirred to life, crawling beneath his skin.

  Saephus, he was going to change—right here, right now. He took another step back, struggling for control of his body, but she’d followed him, her hot little mouth capturing him again, eager tongue stroking the bulging head of his cock—and he was lost.

  Throwing back his head, he let out a painful, screaming howl as the wolf broke free, feeling himself fall away, the determined strokes of her wet mouth ripping his beast to the surface with each strong, luscious pull against his cock.

  He stared down at her, her deep blue eyes bright with feminine power, rosy mouth stuffed full of his dick, and watched as his body became something so foreign, and yet so much a part of him.

  “Dinna be afraid” he pleaded, eyes begging for her understanding.

  She pulled away from his dick with a greedy moan, licking the swollen, darkening head with her pink tongue, and laughed up at him. “Don’t worry, sexy—I’m not.”

  And she wasn’t. She craved him, starved for the feel of his power exploding into her mouth. She didn’t understand the acceptance spilling warmly through her blood, blossoming to life within her soul. Didn’t understand the power loving him gave her, searing through her veins, throbbing with life, anymore than he did—but she was more than woman enough to celebrate it. She felt each individual cell of her body, living and breathing—every facet of her being focused on the pleasure of being with him…giving to him…taking from him. She should’ve been terrified by the sheer magnificence of his power, but all she felt was love…and the burning need to blow his mind as fiercely as he’d blown hers.

  They completed one another, and the gorgeous, arrogant animal was going to admit defeat one way or anot
her.

  And she’d happily fuck him into submission until he did.

  Releasing his pulsing cock, Té rose to her feet and pushed him backward toward the bed, crawling over him as he fell against the white sheets. With a wicked smile, she straddled his changing cock, positioning him against the wet, pink lips of her cunt, and sank slowly down onto him. Hands which now sported deadly claws gripped her slim hips, careful not to harm her, helping to pull her down until she’d taken every impossible inch, her mouth open and panting, breasts heaving from her weighty breaths.

  When she’d taken all of it, his cock packed up tight inside of her, she smiled down at him, while Kieran stared up at her in helpless wonder, completely in her thrall. Then she reached back between his spread legs and grabbed the hot, heavy weight of his balls, massaging them—squeezing—all the while working his monstrous cock into the wet, luscious heat of her cunt with the steady roll of her hips, and he threw back his head and howled with all his might, the beastly sound roaring through the room, echoing off the walls in a painful blast of sound.

  Saephus help him, he could feel every silken slide of skin against skin as his thick flesh parted her tight walls, stretching her so wide, forcing the delicate slit to accept the brutal possession of his cock.

  He thrust beneath her, pounding into her rhythmic movements, claws clamped possessively on her soft hips as he drilled up into the sleek, sweet suction of her cunt. And then suddenly he had her flat on her back, his hot, heavy body pressing into her, holding her down as he lunged over her, forcing her thighs to spread outrageously wide, completely open to him—to the creature he’d become.

  “Ready to run?” he snarled, rough voice far from natural.

  She shook her head against the stark white of the sheets. “No…never.”

  His eyes narrowed—the silver of his irises gleaming in a spiraling swirl of color. “You asked for this.”