by J. S. Scott
He took his mouth from hers and waved his hand. Instantly, her clothing disappeared. She was left lying naked and vulnerable as he stared down at her intensely.
“Ethan!” She squealed as she dove for the cover of the bed linens. “You can’t do that!”
He quirked his brow and gave her a wicked grin. “I just did.”
“I want my clothes back,” she demanded with embarrassment as she cowered below the sheets.
He slid onto the bed beside her and lifted the sheets from her body. “And you will get them back… eventually.” She saw his dark and passionate gaze before his mouth again lowered to hers.
She wanted to search for a covering. She was body conscious and she was too skinny right now, underweight from her illness, unattractive.
As his hand made its way to her breast, circling and teasing her nipple, she forgot about the covering. Oh God… his hands felt so good on her body.
“Don’t think, Brianna. Just feel,” he whispered in a graveled voice as his mouth left hers to lave her ear and the side of her neck.
How could she do anything else? His mouth continued to kiss and nip her face and neck while his hands teased her breasts mercilessly. His fingers made circular patterns on her skin as they slid slowly over her stomach. They moved in a lazy pattern that was driving her insane. She felt like she was on fire. Was this his vampire magic or the magic of his touch alone?
She felt his meandering fingers go lower and started stroking between her thighs, over the light curls, and she lost her breath.
“Open for me, Brianna,” he demanded in a soft, seductive voice.
She complied immediately, needing to feel his touch, wanting those wicked fingers. His strokes were persistent, teasing through the wet, slick dew.
She moaned, grinding her hips up to meet his fingers. She needed more.
As though he sensed her need, he slid his finger up to the place begging for his attention, making slow circles on the sensitive bud. The glide of his fingers brought her higher and higher, making her desperate.
“Ethan!” She cried his name as she squirmed beneath his ministrations.
His fingers slid slowly into her empty channel and her tight walls clenched around them tightly.
“You’re so hot, wet and tight.” She felt Ethan shudder as he began a slow rhythm that made her want more… more… it was too much… more. His breath was coming hard and fast, as though he were trying to get control.
His mouth devoured hers and he thrust his tongue in rhythm with his fingers.
His pace increased, his thumb sliding against her tender flesh while his fingers continued his in-and-out out submersion, perfectly matched to his relentless tongue devouring her mouth.
Brianna felt lost. She had surrendered control and all she could do was feel the demands of her body. She had to orgasm. Her whole being was centered on her burning flesh, begging for climax.
Her release hit her hard and fast, wracking her with deep, unending spasms. Her channel clenched and unclenched around Ethan’s fingers and she heard him groan as he dragged his mouth from hers, his breath coming in pants.
He nuzzled her neck, stroking his tongue along the vein. She barely felt his fangs sink into her neck as wave after wave of pleasure took control. Her whole body ignited as he drank from her, filling her with erotic pleasure, heightening her orgasm to an almost painful intensity.
As he sipped from her neck, he guided her mouth to his shoulder, nicking his skin. Instinctively, she latched her mouth onto his hot flesh, feeling moisture under her tongue. She lapped, taking his blood into her body mindlessly as she continued to lose every sane thought in her brain. The taste of him was like an aphrodisiac, flooding her with more erotic sensations. He tasted like Ethan, and he was intoxicating.
She felt him release her neck and he ran a finger over the punctures lightly.
As she slowly came down from her erotic high, Ethan pulled her away from his shoulder wound and swiped his finger over the cut. It stopped bleeding, but the cut was still there.
She lay in his arms, satiated and breathless; realizing that at some point Ethan must have dissolved his shirt and slit his shoulder.
She had ingested his blood…and she had relished it. At that moment all she had wanted was to share every part of Ethan.
As she recovered her senses she realized that some of her aches and pains were gone. Had her body filled out a little? Brianna felt a strength pouring through her that she hadn’t felt since her illness.
“I feel stronger, Ethan.” As she pulled back to look at his face, her euphoria over her improved physical condition fled when she glimpsed his sweating, flushed face and wild, dark eyes. Alarmed and concerned, she whispered, “Ethan, talk to me. Are you okay?”
He was trembling and his eyes caressed her naked body with a hunger that was anything but normal.
Brianna pulled the covers over her nudity and grabbed his face with both hands, forcing him to meet her eyes. “Ethan, talk to me. Tell me that you’re okay,” she demanded, her voice filled with anxiety.
He stared into her eyes and drew a deep breath. He let it out shakily as he answered slowly, “I’m fine, Brianna.”
“You are not fine.” She kept her hands on his head, forcing him to meet her eyes. He lifted one of her hands from his face and kissed the palm.
“You’re my mate, Brianna,” he answered in a low, tortured voice. “It’s difficult not to take you.”
“Then take me, Ethan. Or let me help you.” Her hand slipped down to his jeans, stroking his erect shaft over the cotton material. She could feel the immense size and hardness of him and she wanted him desperately. She wanted him inside her, stretching her, filling her.
“No!” Ethan gripped her wrist gently and moved her hand away. “Not now, Brianna. You’re not strong enough. Vampires are extremely sexual creatures with their mates.
“Then why did you do that?”
He kissed her softly on the forehead. “To make it easier for you, love.” He shot her a devious grin. “It was easier, wasn’t it?”
“Oh, Ethan,” she sighed, not knowing whether to be exasperated or amused. She carefully wrapped a sheet around her body and snuggled into his chest. His arms came around her protectively, sheltering her. She felt so… safe.
She absorbed the feeling, enjoying the moment… until her peace was disturbed in a rather startling manner.
Chapter 5
“Hello!” A cheerful, deep voice emanating from the end of her bed made Brianna jump. If Ethan hadn’t had her held steady in his arms, she would have been five feet in the air.
Her eyes shot to the end of the bed. Three very large men stood there, all with varying expressions.
The one speaking was smiling.
One was brooding.
The other wore a dreamy expression.
The fact that they all looked suspiciously like the man lying beside her couldn’t be a coincidence. She had seen these men in Ethan’s memories. Rory, Liam and Nathan! His brothers! Although she couldn’t tell which one was which, she assumed the cheerful one and the dreamy one were the twins. All of them looked alike, but those two were nearly identical in appearance.
“What are you two doing?” The cheerful one. “We’re Ethan’s brothers. I’m Rory. This is Nathan.” He motioned to the brooding one. “And that’s Liam.” He waved a hand at the lost looking one.
Ethan didn’t answer but she could see him getting red in the face and he was clenching his jaw. How did you smooth over the fact that they had popped into her bedroom uninvited? “Ethan and I… we were just… we… we were just talking and getting to know each other.” Okay…she knew it sounded lame as she stuttered the words. For God’s sake… they were in bed and she was completely naked. What the hell was she supposed to say?
“Oh, that’s good. But I really hoped you were… oof!” Rory bent over as Liam slammed his elbow into his gut. Liam shot Rory a sharp glance as Nathan just smirked, a wicked expression on his face.
>
Brianna shot a nervous glance at Ethan. His jaw was clenching harder as he rumbled. “Get… the… hell… out!”
Brianna wrapped the sheet around her securely and slid off of the bed. “It’s very nice to meet you. But this is not a very good time. Maybe you could just give us a few minutes to get dressed and we can chit chat.” One tiny woman shooing three men twice her size toward the door was an amusing sight. Amazingly… they men went. “Help yourself to anything in the kitchen,” she called as she slammed the bedroom door behind them.
Brianna planted her hands on her hips and raised a brow at Ethan. “I think we need to talk to your brothers about their manners.”
“I’m going to kill them all!” He stood and clothed himself in a pair of jeans and a t-shirt with his magic. He dressed Brianna in similar attire.
Brianna wrapped her arms around his waist and rested her head on his shoulder. “You know you aren’t going to kill them. They’re your brothers.”
She felt him shrug. “We try to kill each other all the time. But this time I’m really going to do it. They know better than to do something like that with a vampire who’s just found his mate.”
She could tell he was calming as she stroked his back. “Maybe we should just talk and get to know each other.”
He sighed. “Okay… but then I get to kill them.”
“No killing today, Ethan.” She shuddered. “I’ve already seen you in action once today and that’s enough.” She pulled back to survey his face.
He looked recovered from his injuries, but disappointed that he couldn’t kill his brothers and she bit back a smile.
“You’re going to be sorry you told them to help themselves.” The corners of his mouth turned up in a small, knowing smile.
“Why? I don’t mind?”
“You will,” he told her in an ominous voice as he took her by the hand and led her through the door to meet his brothers.
******
Ethan stretched as he awoke from his day sleep. He immediately sought his mate but she wasn’t sleeping beside him.
It had taken Brianna five days of ingesting his vampire blood to regain her normal strength and to build up the added strength she would need for their mating. His was the blood of an elder and it was powerful, but Brianna had been severely weakened.
His brother Liam was a healer for their brethren and between his magic and Ethan’s blood exchanges with Brianna, she had regained her strength. He hadn’t touched her sexually since their first exchange. He had come so damn close to losing control that day that he didn’t dare.
She said she felt incredibly strong, but Ethan knew it wouldn’t last. His mate would start to decline again soon. The mating needed to happen as soon as possible.
Ethan knew he was losing control. His desire to possess his mate was overcoming logic and reason, making it harder and harder to contain his possessiveness, his jealousy.
He couldn’t even stand to have his brothers around her. It nearly made him feral with jealousy and possessiveness. Brianna belonged to him and he hated any other male touching her…even his brothers.
Unfortunately, she actually liked his brothers and they, in turn, seemed to adore her. Ethan hated it. He might appreciate it later, but right now he wanted no one near his mate. His brothers knew it… and they taunted him constantly. They popped in often and lingered, eating Brianna out of house and home. She was charmed, and he was pissed. She just laughed and went to the grocery store after their visits. The bastard! They were enjoying his agony. He sincerely hoped they all found their mates. Payback would be hell.
Ethan leaned back against the headboard of the bed as he grumbled to himself, “I don’t like dealing with unknowns.”
He acknowledged to himself that the whole situation was an unknown. His friend and fellow Coalition member, Adare, had mated a few months ago. Adare was three hundred years old and that situation had been an unknown. Before Adare’s mating, no mated vampire had ever crossed the age of one hundred and fifty before finding their mate. There were some who were never called and remained unmated, but the ones who were mated now had been summoned early, soon after they had lost their ability to have sex.
The intensity of Adare’s possessiveness and desire had been beyond the normal mating instincts because of his advanced age.
And Ethan was two hundred years older than Adare.
“I’m so screwed.” Ethan spoke aloud with quiet resignation. He was already caught up in a web of desire and possessiveness for his mate from which he couldn’t escape.
Did he actually want to escape? Hell, no! He had waited hundreds of years for Brianna and she was a miracle. But he hated the unknown aspects of the situation. If he had a problem… he solved it. If it was evil… he killed it. His life had been fairly simple… until he had found his mate.
Now he was faced with a “situation unknown” and he didn’t like it. The only thing he knew was that his mating instinct was nearly out of control. It grew worse with every day that passed. Every day he spent with Brianna brought another reason to like her… or a dozen reasons to love her.
I love her. I’m not just drawn to her as a mate. I love her.
“Oh hell… I’m totally screwed,” he whispered fiercely, knowing his love added fuel to his fire… and he was already a raging inferno.
Had Brianna not been in her weakened state, he would have tried to seduce her. It probably would have taken the edge off of his need to mate, a need that was sitting on a hair-trigger at the moment, just waiting for a tiny nudge to make it explode.
Just as he had decided to roll out of bed, Brianna came breezing into the bedroom.
His heart accelerated and his muscles clenched. For Ethan, she brought light where there was darkness and he desperately needed to be inside her. He needed to consume her. He wanted her so damn badly that he heard a low growl erupt from his throat and he tried to swallow it.
He bit back a groan as his eyes roamed her body. She was wearing a pink night shirt that molded her curves and ended mid thigh. It wasn’t meant to entice… but it did. Ethan could see her nipples through the thin material and the shirt caressed her beautiful, perfectly formed breasts.
His already stiff cock twitched as he smelled her arousal. His eyes sought and locked with hers. He could see the heat and desire in her gaze as she eyed his naked chest. She was wanting. And he needed to satiate her.
Mine!
She slid into the bed beside him, never taking her eyes from his.
Ethan snapped, sanity deserting him. He needed to possess this woman and he couldn’t wait any longer.
Chapter 6
Brianna no longer knew if the desire she scented was hers or Ethan’s. She heard a low growl from his throat and she knew he needed her as much as she needed him. She had been like a female animal in heat since she had first touched him. As she had regained her normal strength, her desire had grown into a mass of raw need.
Brianna knew that her vampire was an alpha who needed to dominate sexually, especially before they mated, and she wanted to be dominated by him. She wanted him hard and fast and she didn’t care if it was rough. She was beginning to think that getting it hot and hard was the only thing that would quench the fire.
Being sexually dominant was part of his vampire nature and she accepted it. Hell…she wanted it. She didn’t want to tame him and she knew she couldn’t change his dark desire even if she wanted to. And she definitely didn’t want to. She wanted him wild, untamed, out of control. She wanted to submit to whatever he needed. They were so connected that she knew satisfying him would satiate her. And right now… right at this moment… he needed to dominate her to reassure himself that she belonged to him.
Brianna reached under the bed and brought out the soft restraints that she had bought a few days ago for just this occasion. She dangled them in her fingers in front of Ethan. “You might like these.”
Ethan groaned, “Yes. I want to tie you down so that you can never get away. Mine.”
“Need to fuck you. Take you. Make sure that you belong to me,” He tore her nightshirt straight down the middle, baring her breasts to his hot, hungry gaze. He pulled it roughly off of her body. He didn’t have the control to use magic. He was being ruled by mating instincts and he grabbed the end of the restraints and attached them to the headboard.
His words had ramped up her desire, her need to have him take her. She pulled at the restraints, feeling the resistance. She would be his to possess in any way he wanted to, needed to.
Brianna gasped as his mouth took hers, devouring it. It was a kiss born of desperation and scorching hot raw need. His mouth clamped down on hers, his tongue sweeping into her mouth, searching for hers.
Brianna opened her mouth, welcoming him. Their tongues mated, entwined, and dueled against each other. His hands reached for her breasts, running over them possessively, roughly. His fingers pinched her nipples, sending a shock through her system and saturating her panties.
He ripped his mouth from hers and began tonguing her breasts. His mouth both bit and soothed, arousing her almost to climax. His tongue licked every inch of her breasts as though he didn’t want any part of her skin untouched, no area unclaimed.
His hands moved down the curves of her body until they reached her hips. He reached out and ripped her panties down the front, throwing them to the floor. His fingers invaded her moist heat aggressively, and she moaned at his invasion, loving the feel of his strong fingers running over her clit.
“You’re so wet. For me. Mine. Tell me it’s for me,” he demanded in a graveled voice.
Brianna gazed at him, adoring his fierce look of passion and desire. He was a ferocious, breathtaking man in spite of all of his darkness and intensity. Or maybe because of it. Her vampire. Her eternal mate.
“Yes, Ethan. Only for you,” she whispered, soothing her savage beast.