“That sounds suspiciously like an order.”
“It is.” Her only protest was a token shift of her body.
“You need to feed. Feeding will make you strong. If you do not, all that was done will be undone.”
“Oh God.”
Her stress levels increased. He caught a flash of an image, of her face grotesquely distorted to that of a monster, mouth gaping open with red-stained teeth and blood all around. He sighed. She feared turning into someone like she saw on TV. “That will not happen, Edie.”
“I went crazy before.”
“Your body was unbalanced then. You are balanced now.”
“How do you know?”
He slashed his chest. The blood flowed. He felt the leap of interest inside her. Her body’s understanding of what it needed, but there wasn’t the insane urge to feed they had battled before. “I am not holding you and you have not fallen upon me.”
“But I want to.” Her eyes never left his chest, watching the blood flow, her expression one of horror and desire.
“The urge to feed is stronger because you have gone too long without, but you can control it.”
The shower washed the blood away as fast it poured, sending it in pink rivulets down the drain. “Let me help you, my heart.”
She looked up at him. The confusion in her eyes hurt him in ways he didn’t know a Chosen could be hurt. He took her hesitation as an answer. Sliding between her uncertainty and her desire, he clouded the moment, bringing her mouth to his chest, barricading everything from her knowledge except his order to drink and the pleasure she gave him as she did so. As her mouth met his chest, he curved his index finger through the joining ring, completing the connection.
Her lips and tongue sucked at his flesh, stroking him softly, not with the hard edge of a Chosen woman but with a delicacy that worked his lust into a fever pitch. He tugged the ring with the same delicacy, nurturing her desire and his own. By the time she’d had her fill, his hands were shaking and he was on the verge of coming. He needed her. Needed to touch her, to make her his so no other could ever take her away.
He closed the wound with a brush of his hand, sliding his thumb between her lips, groaning as she sucked it with the same delicacy. He stood, taking her with him, shielding her from the spray with his body as he turned off the water. He carried her out of the shower, her weight barely registering. Such a small, frail body to house such a huge spirit. He put her down in front of the sink. With her mind still fogged, she swayed. He steadied her, helping her rinse her mouth—he did not want the lingering taste of blood to spoil her plans for the evening—before wrapping her in a towel and freeing her.
She blinked, clutching the towel to her. “Is it over?”
“Yes.” He took another towel and rubbed her hair. The strands went from dark to light, regaining their curl as he got most of the moisture out. He touched a long spiral next to her cheek. It wrapped around his finger. “Your hair is beautiful.”
Her right hand came up immediately, squashing the curl he toyed with. “It’s the bane of my existence. “
An image flashed of her desire to cut it short.
“It is the joy of mine. You will not cut it.”
She sighed and shook her head. “It’s my hair.”
“And my pleasure.” He closed his hand around the curl. “Would you deny me that?”
She bit her lip, her gaze dropped. Then her chin came up and she shook her head.
“Not tonight.”
He released the curl, hearing what she hadn’t said. “And tomorrow?”
She smiled, the edges blunted with uncertainty and determination. “Tomorrow doesn’t exist.”
“So we agreed.” He tossed the towel on the floor. “Are you feeling stronger now?”
“You know…I am.”
“Your surprise is insulting. I told you feeding would strengthen you.”
“Call me a skeptic.”
“Another mate would take offense.”
“But you won’t.” She let go of the towel and linked her hands around his neck, pressing her soft breasts, with their silky hard tips into his abdomen. “Not tonight.”
The towel fell, wadding up between them, preventing him the full impact of her damp skin against his. “No. Tonight is for us.”
“The way it should have been…”
“From the beginning.” He flicked the towel away and pulled her tightly against him. Damp and moist, rich with her scent and the promise of completion, her skin melded to his. He ached to his back teeth with the desire to make her his. Now. No more waiting, no games. He slid his hand through the tumble of curls, letting them ensnare his fingers the way she’d already ensnared his soul. She was a wild, sweet, courageous bundle of suspicious passion, and she was his. From now until the last breath left his body, she was his. The back of her skull fit his palm as if sculpted to be there. Everything about her was perfect from her wild curls to the tips of her small toes. Perfect for him. He tapped the inside of her ankle with his toe. “Spread your legs.”
She parted them a few inches. Another tap, this time on the opposite ankle gained him the last few he needed. He stepped back, letting his cock trail down her belly. When it reached the tip of her sex, he stepped forward, sliding it down along the crease until his groin met her stomach. Her nails bit into his forearms as he arched her back, pressing her clitoris into the wiry hair surrounding the base of his aching cock. Her gasp whispered into the quiet of the bath.
“Do you like the feel of my cock between your legs, Edie mine?”
“Yes.”
He nudged her legs a little wider and thrust slightly. “How much?”
Her “Very much” was more squeak than words.
“You are going to have to show me.”
He bent her back farther until the clean line of her throat was exposed. Her hair fell away from her face, revealing her bone structure and the confusion in her blue eyes. “Uhm, don’t take this wrong, but I don’t know what response you’re looking for.”
“The way your sweet pussy is creaming my cock is a good start.” The faint pink on her chest flared to a bright red. He ran the edge of his tongue over the heated flush as it rose up her neck. She swallowed hard, the underside of her chin, pushing against his tongue as he trailed upward. He kissed the rounded point of her chin and shook his head, his hair falling forward to tangle with hers. Light with dark. Male with female. “Now, that was not.”
“What?”
“You held back.” He tested the little crease beneath her lower lip with his tongue. “I do not approve of your holding back.”
“You don’t?”
He smiled at the breathless little question. He let his mouth hover above hers, so close a piece of paper couldn’t slide between, but not quite touching, prolonging the moment before contact, drawing out the anticipation. Her heartbeat went from gallop to thunder, her vaginal muscles clenched and released, the slick, wet heat of her labia stroked his cock with a feminine entreaty that everything male in him roared to answer. He held her like that for an endless moment, letting proximity and her own imagination heighten her senses. She sucked in a deep breath. Her pupils dilated and then contracted. “Do you want my mouth, mate?”
“Oh God!” Edie sagged in his arms. He did not allow her the respite of distance, just held her there with his hand behind her head, and his arm across her back.
“That was not an answer.” Her body was already giving him his answer, her need so strong he could taste it on her scent, but he wanted the words to come from her. Needed them to. For all the times he’d heard them in his dreams, this time he needed to hear them in reality.
“Please.”
“You do please me.” He lowered his mouth to hers, gently, carefully, fitting edge to edge, seam to seam, sealing their lips the way he wanted to seal their bodies, until even the concept of separation was unbearable. She responded deliciously, her hips lifting to his, her head twisting in his hands. He clenched his fingers
around a fistful of the damp locks. Her soft cry at the twinge of pain pelted his mouth at the same time that her delight swamped his senses. Desire, hope and embarrassment rolled from her to him in desperate waves. She wanted more, but was shy.
He touched his tongue to her lower lip. “There is no shame between us. You but need to ask, and I will give you anything.”
He pressed gently until he came in contact with the inner lining. Her unique flavor rolled through his mouth in an addictive incentive to pursue more. “Just like you’ll give me anything, will you not?”
“Yes.”
“Open your mouth.” He caught the plump fullness of her lip between his teeth and bit down gently, taking her gasp as his. “Let me in.”
She didn’t have a choice. Eden opened her mouth and her soul to his. She might have been able to hold out if Deuce had been rough or selfish, but his gentleness and patience in the face of the violent desire shimmering around him touched her in ways she hadn’t expected. He was bigger than her, a different species than her, capable of doing things she couldn’t even conceive of. Despite the danger that lurked around him like a dark cloud, his touch on her back was gentle, controlled, as he slid it down to her buttocks, his fingers sinking into the soft flesh, pulling erotically on the cleft between as he drew her up and into his kiss.
He was a creature of the dark, but when he held her in his arms he created light— pure, clear, brilliant light that started behind her closed lids and exploded through her head, her body, until it consumed her in the a fiery heat that left her dizzy. He kissed like a lazy summer day, heat and warmth seducing her into a complacent lethargy. Between her thighs, the ring heated, adding fuel to the fire in her blood. She slid her hands up over the swell of the hard muscles in his arms to his broad shoulders, pulling herself closer to the flames.
He pulled her mouth away. She shook her head. “More.” She needed more. More of his energy, his heat and the pleasure he held out like a shimmering enticement.
Deuce bent, swung her up in his arms and strode out of the bathroom. She turned her mouth into his chest, finding his nipple, licking it, sucking it, catching the small, flat nub between her teeth and biting down. He stopped dead halfway to the bed, his head dropping back, his hair swinging against her arm. “Edie.”
She looked up. “What?”
He looked down. “You should not push me this time.”
His expression alone should have scared her witless, but it didn’t. Knowing she aroused him to the same level that he did her was heady and restored her sense of balance. “If you don’t hurry, I’m going to finish this without you.”
His head jerked back and he looked down the length of his nose at her, every century of living packed into the arrogance of that look. “You will not come until I give you permission.”
“Then you’d better hurry.”
He took a breath. She lapped delicately at his nipple, nudging it with her tongue. She could feel him reaching for control, and knew he found it as the heavy lust that swirled about her abated to a dull roar.
“Be easy. I’ll give you what you want.”
But not fast enough. She could tell he had no intention of giving her what she needed as fast as she needed it. She’d spent years being good, years being what her grandfather wanted in gratitude for him raising her, tamping down her natural impulses so he would be proud of her. She wasn’t going to start that again with Deuce. She wasn’t going to be a good little girl who buried her desires behind a façade. She was his mate. If Deuce wanted her for his mate, he was going to take her as she was, whether that fit his plan or not.
“I don’t want easy. I want you.”
He took the last four steps to the bed and held her above it, his black eyes deeper than midnight, swirls of red glinting through the opaque surface. “You will have me.”
“Now.”
“You are not ready now.”
If she didn’t think he’d enjoy it so much, she’d bite him for that display of arrogance. “I’ve waited forever for you.”
“And I have waited even longer for you, so we will do this my way, and I will determine when you are ready.”
The slide down his body was pure torture. Every hard ridge of muscle teased her sensitive thighs and stomach, tugging at her new ring, the proud thrust of his cock settling to the outside if her thigh. As soon as her butt hit the mattress, she reached for it, levering it up and in until it was level with her mouth. Just a dip of her head away from pleasure. Fat, thick and hungry, it throbbed. For her. She pushed her hair back off her face and licked her lips. “Maybe I can hurry you along.”
Deuce caught her head in his big hands. “It is not about hurrying.”
“But I ache!” From her knees to her breasts, she pulsed with a relentless need.
“This is our joining night, mate. It needs to be done right.”
She kissed his cock, sucking the tip into her mouth, sucking harder when his salty taste greeted her efforts. Her clitoris swelled in delight. She squeezed her thighs together, twisting the ring between them, trying to appease her clit’s relentless howl for attention. Her effort to take more was thwarted by his hands on her head, pulling her away.
His cock popped free of her mouth. The broad head glistened in the lamplight, harder than before. Redder. She looked up at him to find him staring down at her with an intensity that would have terrified her if she hadn’t been feeling the same way.
“At least part of you has the right idea,” she grumbled.
“You act like I will leave you wanting.”
“You already have.”
Deuce stroked his thumb over her lips, a slight smile on his own. “You have not yet begun to want.”
Chapter Fifteen
“Lie back on the bed.”
Eden propped herself up on her elbows, eyeing Deuce cautiously. He looked a little too comfortable standing over her, handing out orders.
“Spread your legs.”
Way too comfortable. “Why?”
He arched that eyebrow at her in that way that set her heart to pounding at the same time it encouraged her to smile. “I want to see you.”
There was no doubt what part of her he was referring to. Her breath caught in her throat and swallowing became impossible. From where she sat, she could appreciate the way all that muscle flowed from narrow to wide, cut to bulge from his waist to his shoulders. It was both arousing and intimidating. He was the one man her body wanted above all others, but he’d never looked less human than he did in that moment, his eyes flaring black with intermittent swirls of red, the emotion coming off him too powerful, too intense to be human. Too intriguing to be ignored.
“Now, Edie.”
Blinking slowly, she took a deep breath, and parted her ankles. His nostrils flared and his gaze left hers to linger on her legs. Feeling incredibly daring, and a little like she was baiting a bear, Eden separated her knees. Deuce’s breath hissed in. She didn’t hear it leave. She got as far as her upper thighs before her courage ran out. She glanced at his face. Every angle was drawn tightly into sharp planes with the force of his desire. Pure, unadulterated male desire. For her. It still wasn’t enough to get her past that last barrier of modesty.
His gaze flicked hers. “You are disobedient.”
He didn’t sound upset by the knowledge. The thick muscles in his upper arms flexed. His touch on her ankles had her jumping. She wanted this, wanted him, but she had a horrible feeling she was out of her league. She snapped her legs closed. “Deuce?”
His fingers encircled her ankles, pulling her feet apart. “Yes?”
She let her knees fall together, foiling his attempt. “It’s not that I’m being difficult.”
His “You are not?” was skeptical.
Okay. So maybe it did look like she was being a little difficult. “Not deliberately.”
The chain of his fingers slid up her calves, opening and gliding around until he cupped the curve of her calf muscles in his palms. “Then why do y
ou hide yourself from me?”
Good question. “It’s just not that easy.”
He paused. “You fear me?”
“More like your reaction.”
That stopped him cold. “Why?”
“I have all sorts of weird thoughts running through my head.”
“Show them to me.” A jerk of his chin punctuated the order. His hair fell forward over his shoulder with the force.
“No. Absolutely not.” Some things were meant to be private.
A sound distinctly like teeth snapping together had her setting her own chin.
Deuce shook his head, sending strands of his thick hair brushing across her knees and thighs. “You will get over this resistance to sharing with your mate.”
“I am entitled to some privacy.”
“This privacy is a human concept.”
She shrugged. “Go figure. It must matter to me because I’m human.”
He shook his head at her. Pressure from his fingertips had her knees parting a hairsbreadth, whether she wanted them to or not.
“Wait.”
“I have waited long enough.”
She squeezed with everything she had. “Promise me one thing first!”
Again he paused, but his impatience was palpable. “What?”
“Don’t be shocked.”
His fingers twisted on her calves, sending tingles of desire up the inside of her thighs. “You think seeing your pleasure could shock me?”
She shifted her hips to alleviate the pressure, but it didn’t help. Her body clamored for his attention. “You just make me so crazy.”
“That is as it should be.”
“Please?”
Deuce paused. A quick glance at her face proved the truth of his senses. She was truly worried that she felt too much, whereas he thought she could not feel enough. Her scent was so strong, so pleasing he felt almost humanly drunk. He stared up her thighs to the patch of pale yellow curls protecting her mound. The glimmer of gold drew his eyes, not only because of what it symbolized, but because of the fully engorged nub it framed. The previous taste he’d had had been too short and tainted, but this time when he loved her she’d be as she should be. His completely. His hands shook with the anticipation. Her muscles—those dainty little muscles she thought prevented him from anything—flexed in his palms, reminding him that she was awaiting his promise.
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