by M. L. Briers
“I’m guessing not in English or Math?” She tried for innocent while her body screamed for his touch and her mind just screamed.
She’d been backed into a corner, not literally, she’d need to turn a little for that – but she’d implied, and implying bad things about a guy’s abilities in bed wasn’t something that any man could leave unanswered – even if it was true, which she very much doubted in this case that it was. They still had to flex those muscles, of which he had more than the average man, and defend their sexual pride, of which she was certain needed no real defence.
“Where it counts.” He leaned in a little and obliterated the whole hallway from view with the broadness of his shoulders and the vast landscape of his muscled chest.
That saying – when someone only had eyes for you – well she did, because he was everywhere all at once and she couldn’t help but look at him.
“Making chocolate cake?” She asked, tempting him more and more to show his hand, make his point.
It wasn’t her fault, not entirely – she was a firm believer that there was a little devil on her shoulder that made her do things – had been there since she was a child – at least that’s what she liked to tell herself to give her that out where her conscience was concerned. It was that little devil that was pushing her now.
“I’m guessing you need me to draw you a picture.” He drawled his words and they sounded suggestive, too suggestive? She didn’t like to think that was possible, not when her toes were practically curling in her shoes, her womb was doing a happy dance, and the whole of her body was buzzing with excitement.
“Art!” she exclaimed. “Would never have guessed that was your thing by the size of your…” She paused for effect. “Hands.”
A heartbeat later and one of those hands was against the small of her back sending a jolt of electric goodness right to her womb, the other was brushing fingertips through her hair as he wrapped a hand around the back of her neck, at the very same time as he brought his soft, warm lips down on hers…
Yep… she certainly had something to thank that little devil on her shoulder for as her body surged with excitement and the sort of heat that was of the very best kind. A rush of all that was good flooded her system from head to those curling toes, and she palmed his chest and gave him back as good as she got…
Ed growled long and hard. It might have got lodged in his throat, but it wasn’t anything that he could do much about.
She’d challenged his manhood and he’d meant to prove a point – now he had a little firecracker going off within his hands, and he wasn’t about to douse those sparks…
That little scrap of material that she wore did little to keep his imagination at bay. It clung in all the right places and as he ran his fingertips over the silken fabric – he could swear that he was stroking her skin…
He felt her fingers climb up and over his chest. His muscles convulsed under her touch, but when she hooked her fingers over his shoulders and practically climbed up his legs – he slapped one hand against the ample cheeks of her backside and gave her the help that she needed to reach his hips – her legs wrapped around him like she was clamping down on a rodeo bull…
Belle would like to say that she didn’t know what came over her, but she was only too aware of exactly what it was. The man was as sexy as sin – he was hers, and she knew that at the end of this rainbow there would be a pot of gold and a happily ever after.
Never one to stand on the sidelines when an opportunity presented itself, and it certainly had presented itself; she was more than ready to jump head first into this thing between them. A firm believer in fate, destiny, and lust – she liked what she’d seen so far, and one touch of his lips had convinced her that there was no time like the present.
Her back was pressed against the hard wood of the door, and his hard length was pressed against her sex. Her dress had ridden up her legs and her panties were barely there, thin silk, while his jeans were the only real barrier between them… and oh how she wished she could magic them to disappear…
Ed was moving his hips, rubbing his hard length against her sex not just for his own benefit, but because he liked the little noises that were getting caught in the back of her throat. He wanted to hear more of that sound… he wanted more of her. A lot more.
His fingers played under the back of her skirt, found the sexy silk of her panties and he stroked against them, feeling the wet heat of her arousal and growling like a man possessed…
“Bedroom…” She gasped out, breaking from his lips only long enough to make that request.
Ed cursed living in a house with his brothers. If they had no chance of being discovered then he’d already have her naked and lying on the floor open to his tongue…
He palmed her skirt against her backside to shield her modesty should they encounter one of his siblings, and he started off on fast legs back the way that he’d come… cursing in his mind with every torturous step that he took – when he could have been touching her naked body – just how far away his damn room was…
Ed turned the corner and kicked something reasonably solid… it grunted in pain, and he broke away from Belle’s lips to look down at his brother, Richie, kneeling on the floor, holding his crown jewels, tears in his glazed eyes, and pain etched onto his face… Belle followed his eyes…. and she jumped in his arms when he roared with laughter at the sight…
“Melody’s a little…” she started, wrinkling her nose and trying to come up with the right word.
“E-v-i-l…” Richie gasped out, trying to shuffle sideways for his brother to take the staircase, grunting at the sight of his mate clinging onto him like she couldn’t get enough…
He wished his mate had been that decisive… her lips and body had said yes, and yet her knee had categorically and emphatically told him no.
“Nah, she’s the sweetest person I know. You must have scared her.” Belle chuckled, mischief in her eyes.
“It wasn’t me…” He breathed out.
“Love to stay, chat, and analysis your predicament, Bro, but we’ve got other plans…” Ed offered with a small grin and a twinkle in his eye. Richie lifted one hand and waved it absently towards the staircase.
“Meh.” He offered with a grunt to follow.
Ed placed one foot on the first stair – his heart pumping every spare drop of blood to his hard length, but the sound of a gasp from behind him drew his attention, and he cursed at the sound of her voice.
“Put the wanton witch down.” Elizabeth hissed, and Belle’s head snapped around towards her sister as Ed groaned.
CHAPTER TWELVE
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“Wow, sis, now that you’re here it’s a party… oh wait…” Belle offered with a slight tilt to her head as she eyed her Elizabeth.
“Climb down off your mate and behave yourself accordingly.” Elizabeth said and Belle frowned.
“According to what?” Belle asked.
“Common decency would be a start. You don’t even know him, Belle.” Elizabeth lifted a hand and motioned towards the big shifter that her sister was wrapped around like a vine…
“You’re right.” Belle nodded. “Consider this our getting to you phase. We can start with the bedroom and then move onto the more mundane – your territory – things later.” Belle offered her a smile that lit her eyes with mischief.
“This isn’t how you were raised.” Elizabeth huffed.
“This is exactly how I was raised, to embrace life and all of its shades and colours, which you well know, but have forgotten in favour of becoming an old crone before your time.” Belle scowled back. “Let your hair down, pull that stick from your backside, and realise that you have a mate now. End of story.”
“Should I put you down?” Ed whispered and she scowled at him.
“Don’t you dare. She’s my sister not my mother, and if my mother were here then she would be leading the cheering section, because my mother believed wholeheartedly in fate.” Belle said adamantly and nod
ded her head with determination.
Elizabeth pressed her lips together with a small shrug off her shoulders – if Belle wanted to go for it, jump in with both feet, then who was she to try to stop her. It felt like the more that she protested something over the years, the more Belle would dig her heels in and rally up against it.
“I’m certainly your fate.” Ed grinned and tossed a look over his shoulder at her sister. He kind of wished that he hadn’t when she offered him a death glare that Medusa would have been proud to have in her arsenal.
“What the hell happened to you?” Jake’s deep voice seemed to boom out inside the hallway and Elizabeth felt it like a caress over her body… but it also grated against her nerves.
She hated the mating pull… but she hated All Hallows more. The closer it got the more that the supernatural awoke and the more powerful it became, but she’d rather face whatever All Hallows could throw in her direction than take on her sister when she was in one of her gung-ho, throw caution to the four winds, moods.
Jake’s eyes were down on his youngest sibling – still on his knees – still holding his balls, admittedly with only one hand now…
“His mate.” Ed chuckled and Jake’s eyes took in Ed and his mate.
“And you’re…?” Jake didn’t think he needed to ask. One brother had a handful of his own balls and the other a handful of his mate’s backside…
“W-o-o-i-n-g.” Ed said slowly, dragging it out for the benefit of both of his brothers. “You should try it sometime.”
He set his foot on the next step and he heard Elizabeth groan, but she said no more, and before she could change her mind and change his mate’s; he was already at the top of the stairs – having taken them three at a time, spurred on by his mate’s giggling…
“Are you…?” Jake reached out his hand and cupped Elizabeth’s elbow, she shucked out of it.
“Not interested in wooing.” She ground out, looking down with a snort of contempt for Richie before she turned on her heels and stormed off back towards the kitchen.
“Get up, you’re making the place look cluttered.” Jake growled down to Richie and the beta groaned.
“Any minute now and I might have the full function of my leg muscles back.” He growled and grumbled. Jake rolled his eyes and turned to follow his mate…
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“Did that break the mood for you?” Ed asked against her lips as he back heeled his bedroom door closed and sped towards the bed with his mate still in his arms…
Belle took a long moment to consider it. She even consulted the ceiling as he held in place – his heart pounding – his length twitching, and his beast clawing within him to be set free before she changed her mind… the female prerogative… and if she did change her mind then he wouldn’t try to take it further… for now.
“Kind of…” she offered, bringing her eyes back down to his. He sighed inside, but smiled outwardly… “But I’m sure it’ll come right back again…” she rocked her hips against his and he groaned a growl of desire… “Yep, there it is.” She chuckled…
Ed pushed his knee down into the mattress and took her down to the bed beneath him… His lips were back on hers, his kisses hot and heavy.
“Are you sure you’re ready?” Ed breathed out against her lips.
He wanted this. His beast wanted this – to claim their mate – for now – for always, but he had to know that she understood that there would be no going back once he’d placed his mark in her shoulder and claimed her as his – at least, not for him.
“I don’t know, you feel pretty big, might take a little more foreplay…” she chuckled when he rolled his eyes in his head and then rested his forehead against hers as he groaned.
“You know what I’m talking about, Belle…” It sounded like a plea from his lips for her not to pull his chain. He wasn’t sure that he was strong enough to hold his beast back once he’d allowed it to shimmer just under his skin, once his fangs were down and he was ready to place his mark…
“I meant what I said to my sister-come-mother. This isn’t a one night stand, Ed. I get it. I do. This is fate, and I’d be pretty stupid to turn my back on the perfect man, don’t you think?” She grinned at him as he pulled back to look down at her, trying to judge her mood.
He could scent her arousal in the air, and that certainly wasn’t a problem…
“If you need more time to get to know me…” Ed said and she snorted a chuckle.
“There are married couples out there who have done the dating thing for years, the engagement thing for years, and been married for years, and they still don’t know each other, not really. What am I going to find out about you? That you leave your socks on the floor and bite the heads off live rabbits? I think that’s a given.” She chuckled.
“God, you’re amazing.” Ed looked down at her with awe.
“That’s me, little Miss Amazeballs. Now, if you’re having second thoughts about being mated to a witch…?” She got no further. His lips were back on hers. His hands were reaching for her legs, still wrapped around his hips, and he unpeeled her, tracing his fingertips back up the outside of her thighs and grinning to himself when she shivered long and hard against his touch.
“Repulsed?” He teased against her lips, running his hands back down again for another shiver…
“Recoiling at your touch,” she grinned before she strained her head on her neck to kiss him right back again.
A moment later and their kiss was broken once more, this time it was when he snatched her dress up and over her head, leaving her in a matching set of thin silk underwear… His eyes took her in, curves in all the right places, just the right size for his liking, and he growled again… that sound rumbling within his throat…
Belle reached out and thrust his shirt up over his chest, eager to see the goodies that he had to offer her. Muscle after muscle was packed into his abdomen and chest, and she offered her own version of a growl, but he grinned at how pathetic it sounded.
“Stick to witching?” she asked, her eyes flashing with amusement at just how puny a growl she could manage.
“The pups would laugh at you,” he informed her. Dropping down onto his palms on either side of her head, he stared down into her eyes, mischief lived there, he could tell, and he liked it – liked the fire that he saw there too.
“Maybe you should teach me how to growl.”
“I’d prefer to hear you purr…” he dipped his head and ran his tongue down between the valley of her breasts, carried on down the gentle swell of her stomach, and she made the sweetest sound that he’d ever heard when he nipped her skin with his blunt teeth…
Her hands reached for the hard muscles of his biceps and she tested them beneath her fingers. Then he pushed back from her and her body mourned that loss; the loss of his heat, the loss of that whole caged in and at his mercy thing that he had going on…
His fingers slide under the thin band of her panties…
“Wait…” her hands came down on his and his eyes snapped back up her body to hers.
“Too fast?” he growled, berating himself… telling himself to stop rushing her – to stop being a jerk. She’d agreed to be his mate, he didn’t need to go full speed ahead…
“Rip them off…” she offered with a wicked glint in her eyes, and his length twitched so hard that he was sure he could hear the seams of his jeans straining… “With your teeth.” She added and he almost lost his mind…
The heady growl of desire that rushed through his chest and into his throat was snapped off by the way that he swallowed down hard… if he wasn’t already drooling – he sure would be soon.
“I think you’re trying to kill me…” he growled out and she gave a small wicked chuckle.
“That would end my mate problem.” She teased and he looked back up her body at her as he leaned down, nestling between her inner thighs so that he could do her bidding.
“Witch…” he growled, a big old goofy sm
ile on his lips…
“Be more… wolf.” Her eyes flared, challenging him, and he felt his beast rise up within him, more than ready to act on her words. He pushed back hard against the beast…
“Don’t tempt my wolf, baby… not right now.” He growled, dipping his head and running his tongue along her waxed bikini line, and her muscles convulsed as she gasped in a breath…
“You have the urge to devour? To bite? To mate? To claim? To bond with me…” she was teasing him and his beast with those words, but she knew just what she was doing, sending him wild with desire, and when he blinked; his eyes were already jet black, and that grumbled growl sent chills over her body, real good ones…
Ed felt his beast just below the surface, clawing to be set free. She’d done it now…
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
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Ed dipped his head, took a hold of her panties with his teeth and ripped with just a flick of his head… The sound of her gasp was almost too much for him to take.
He had the need to bury his hard length deep inside of her, take her fast and furious, bite, claim… but first – he needed to taste her upon his tongue, to know her, all of her, every last inch…
His large hands locked against her inner thighs, her scent was thick in the air, and a heartbeat later; he wasn’t just tasting – he was devouring her with his tongue.
Bella knew that she’d done it now, brought out the beast within him, and there was no going back, but that was fine with her, because right then and there was exactly where she wanted to be.
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Melody wasn’t hiding as such. At least that was what she was telling herself. She didn’t know how long she’d been inside the bathroom in Richie’s room, because she didn’t believe in watches and keeping time with anything but Mother Nature, but she also wasn’t planning on venturing out of there any time soon.