“It’s your name. I like it. Feminine, spunky, and charming.” He leaned in and licked her again, humming as pleasure exploded inside him from the sweet contact. “Ronni is a cute tomboy playing baseball. Veronica is all woman—my woman.” He nipped her clit.
She came off the bed, her cry strangled.
He could only torture them both for so long. “You need to know. I’m biting you today. The way I want to. You’ll wear my marks for eternity, and they won’t be faint. No confusion. You’ll know every time you fucking see them who you belong to.” Before she could answer, he slid his fangs into her thigh.
She cried out, arching.
Her blood filled his mouth, sweet and spicy. The primal being at his core rumbled wide awake, seeking and hunting. Yeah. He licked the wound closed, healing it until two puncture marks remained. “That’s the first one.”
She mumbled something, her body primed and ready.
So he went at her with his mouth, his tongue, his fingers. Touching her everywhere, keeping her on the edge, working every erogenous zone she had. Her taste tempted him, her scent surrounded him. But her cries, her sighs…they fulfilled him.
He lost himself in the texture and pleasure she offered. He took. He gave. Several times she tried to clamp her thighs together, to seek some sort of control or relief, and he kept her wide open.
For him.
Finally, a rush of energy zipped through her. He could feel it. There was no way to stop the orgasm about to take her, so he made it as good as he could. He plunged two fingers inside her, plucked one nipple, and sucked her entire clit into his heated mouth.
She screamed.
He grinned against her heated flesh, having no doubt her cry echoed throughout the entire house. Nothing in him cared even the slightest. They all knew she belonged to him. One cry merely confirmed that.
She whimpered, sweat coating her torso, and softened onto the bed.
He placed one last kiss against her core.
She twitched.
He stood and looked down at her. Slumbering eyes, relaxed jaw, satisfied expression. Good.
“That almost killed me.” The sweetest smile he’d ever seen curved her full lips. “But I didn’t beg,” she hitched out.
He met her smile, his body on fire, his heart nearly exploding for her. It had happened quickly, but there was no doubt in his body, in his soul, that he fucking loved her. Would forever. “We’re just getting started.” Sliding a hand beneath her ass, he flipped her over and yanked her onto all fours. “Hold on, baby.”
* * * *
Ronni’s hair brushed forward, and she dug her nails into the bedspread to keep from flattening out again. Snow piled against the window, while a heated vampire stood behind her. Her body hummed, satisfied with electrical jolts still zipping through. Her eyelids were heavy, and she needed a nap.
But after the spectacular, more than amazing orgasm he’d just given her, the least she could do was hold still for a moment while he took his.
She sighed and let her body relax.
His fingers curled into her buttocks, catching her attention ever so slightly. There was no way she could go again. Maybe ever. So she wiggled her butt to entice him. “No need to wait.” She was more than wet enough to take him, even with his size.
He slid a hand between her thighs.
Her body jerked as if she’d been shocked. Her well-loved sex clenched, and nearly painful sparks flew from her core. “I, ah, can’t.” She tried to rock forward and away from his hand.
His other hand flattened across her ass and held her in place. He leaned over her, his lips brushing her bare shoulder, one finger slowly entering her swollen tissues. “You can. You will. Every damn time.”
She blinked. “Huh?”
“If I’m there, you’re there.” His fang nipped the shell of her ear.
Warmth unfolded inside her like a heater had just been turned on. “Jared, be realistic.”
“I wasn’t asking.” His fingers pulled on her labia.
Her body trembled. Surprise turned to shock and flashed right to desire. How did he do that? “I, ah—”
He reached around and gently tugged on her breast. “You what, baby?” His rough voice had as much affect, as did his calloused fingers.
She shut her eyes, trying to get a handle on her rioting body. Every nerve flayed open, just like he wanted. Oh, she was tough and mentally strong, but every cell in her knew the vampire was stronger. Why that turned her on even more, she’d never understand. “Please—”
“Shhh. It’s too early to beg.” He licked along her earlobe as his hand released her breast to skim up and grasp the front of her neck.
“What is it with you and my neck?” she gasped.
With two fingers beneath her jaw, he applied pressure.
Her head lifted, her shoulders straightened, and her spine elongated, arching her back. Her ass was up, displayed for him. Oh. Two fingers, and he did control her. Waves rolled through her, heavy with need.
He slapped her inner thighs. “Wider.”
Oh, God. So much for him being too gentle. When she didn’t comply fast enough, he flicked his wrist and tapped a finger against her clit. Hard.
Her cry was strangled, and her womb convulsed.
She wanted to drop her head down but his hold was absolute. Two fucking fingers.
He tapped her again, this time with a harder edge.
She hissed as need overwhelmed her. Going purely on instinct, she widened her thighs.
Not giving an inch, he slowly began to penetrate her, his cock harder than rock, stretching her to accommodate him. She bit her lip against the excruciating pleasure. She was completely open to him, to anything he chose to do to her. The helplessness, the shocking sense of being taken over, stole any thought she had to fight him.
It was all too wonderful. Oh, she should seek caution, but at the moment, her body ruled.
He overtook the atmosphere with determination and strength, controlling them both as he slid inside her, inch by deliberate inch. How was he even real? Tension cascaded off him along with heat, hinting at what it cost him. Yet he didn’t waver.
She tightened her internal muscles, rippling around him.
He growled low but didn’t pause or speed up.
Whoa. He was incredible. Not even remotely human, and it showed. And he was hers.
He lifted her head even more just as the last inch shoved inside, his balls to her ass.
She whimpered again, trying to get him moving.
“Now comes the begging,” he murmured against her ear, the sound dark.
Fine. Whatever. She didn’t care. “Please.” Just move, damn it. “I’ll do anything, Jared. Just move. Please.”
“Excellent.” He stiffened around her. “This is going to hurt more than your thigh and more than last time, Veronica.” Not giving her a chance to question, he struck into the soft tissue where her neck met her shoulder, the same spot as before, his fangs slashing deep and imbedding in bone.
Pain ripped through her torso. She jolted and screamed, tears filling her eyes.
He grabbed her hip and withdrew, slamming home hard.
Sparks flashed behind her eyes. Her body convulsed. Need rippled through her to pierce beneath her skin. It was too much. His fangs didn’t retract. A tear slid down her face. It was a claiming, brutal and primitive.
He slid out and pounded back in, setting up a hard rhythm that rocked the bed against the wall with loud bangs. But he held her in place with two fingers and twin fangs.
She could do nothing but accept it all. It was submission on a level she hadn’t understood, and yet, she craved more. “Harder,” she murmured. “More, Jared.” Whatever he had, whoever he was, she wanted it all. Wanted to claim him in a way she barely understood.
He gave it to her.
Holding nothing back, he hammered into her, shooting her body into places she had never even imagined. She broke with a sharp cry, riding out the waves, whimpering at the e
nd.
He didn’t stop.
If anything, his speed and strength increased. Minutes later, maybe hours, she exploded again, his name the only sound on her lips. The third time, he was the only thing in her universe.
He held her close, shuddering with her this time.
She gasped, pleasure and pain pouring through her. Finally, he released her shoulder, licking until it stopped bleeding and the agonizing burning numbed. Her eyelids fluttered open to see it getting dark outside.
He withdrew and flipped her around to her back, allowing her to finally lie down before covering her, pressing back inside. She sighed in relief before her mind caught up. How in the world was he still hard?
She shook her head against the pillow. Her body didn’t even feel like hers any longer. Over-sensitized to the point of still being needy, she wasn’t sure of anything except him. Only him. Now that was power. “I, ah, can’t,” she mumbled, taking in his implacable face. “Not again.”
He smiled. “Wanna bet?”
Chapter 12
Jared listened to the sleet slash against the window as the world moved outside without them, his arm around a soundly sleeping Veronica. They’d been in bed nearly twenty-four hours, but he had gotten up a couple of times to grab food.
He fingered the sharp bite marks and surrounding bruise on her neck. Even the healing properties from his saliva hadn’t banished the bruise after he’d claimed her. After the first several hours, he’d lost count of how many times she screamed his name while pleasure took her under. He fucking loved that sound. Who knew he’d find his perfect wild match in an arranged mating?
Did fate really have a plan?
Truth be told, he didn’t give a damn. Veronica was his, fate or not.
A rap echoed on his door. He frowned. Reality was bound to intrude at some point. Gently moving Veronica to the side, he covered her with the blankets and moved from the bed to yank his jeans up.
He padded barefoot to open the door. “What?” he growled.
“You’re not going to believe this,” Theo spat, fury rolling off him.
Jared moved into the hallway and shut the door, following his brother down to the kitchen. “What’s going on?” A quick glance at the clock confirmed it was nearly noon. Time flied when one was fucking within an inch of one’s life. He grinned.
Theo whirled on him.
Jared lost the smile and went on full alert. Were they in danger? “Spit it out, Theo.”
Chalton moved in from the living room, munching on a sandwich. “Holy shit, brother. Does your dick still work?”
Jared frowned at him. “Jealous?”
“No. You probably need talcum powder or something,” Chalton said cheerfully. “Glad you worked it out with your mate.”
Jared grinned. “Me, too.”
Chalton glanced at Theo. “Whoa. What crawled up your butt?”
Theo sucked in air, his nostrils flaring. “The hack into our system. I found the hacker.”
Jared’s eyebrows rose. “That’s good.”
“Is it? Is it, Jared?” Theo snapped, putting his hands on his hips.
Jared cocked his head to the side. What the hell was wrong with Theo? “Yes?” he asked.
“No. I mean, no. Damn it. Don’t you see?” Theo threw up his hands. “She shows up, out of the blue, and right now? Right when everything is going to shit around us?”
“Uh.” Jared rubbed his whiskers, trying to decipher the sentence. “Who, Theo?”
“Ginny.” Theo’s eyes spit black fire. “Right now, she just shows up?”
“Ginny?” Jared glanced at Chalton and back. “I figured maybe she heard about the mating and showed up.”
“No,” Theo said lowly. “She hacked us. She took the Benjamin file with her. Printed the whole thing out, bleached the hard drive, and took it.”
Jared reared back. “Ginny? No way.”
“Yes, way,” Theo bellowed. “You have always had a blind spot for that manipulative bitch. Jesus. She was here for a reason, and she took the Benjamin file.”
“That’s crazy,” Chalton breathed.
The Benjamin file was a complete list of all their holdings, real and personal property—as well as family dynamics and secrets they didn’t want out. “Why?” Jared asked. “What did she want?”
“I don’t know. The more important question is who she’s working for,” Theo said grimly. He glanced at the phone in his hand. “I have a lead on her, and I’m tracking her down.”
Jared paused. “Should I do that?”
“No.” Theo said, his eyes gleaming. “You deal with your woman. I’ll handle this one.” He grabbed his jacket and stomped out of the room.
Jared’s mouth dropped open. “Theo and Ginny?”
Chalton shook his head. “He’s going to kill her. Know any good lawyers?”
Jared scrubbed both hands down his face. “We have to figure this out.” Voices from the other room caught his attention. “Who’s here?”
“Veronica’s crime-fighting unit that was supposed to meet yesterday morning.” Chalton grinned. “Before your marathon that included all of us hearing your name screamed a lot more than I ever wanted.”
Jared rolled his eyes, his brain returning instantly to the threat at hand. “I’ll awaken Veronica. We need to kill the person who poisoned her before going after Ginny.”
“One disaster at a time,” Chalton agreed easily. “Everyone is just eating right now, but I think the doctor has news she’s ready to share.”
“All right.” Jared pivoted and headed back upstairs. He opened the bedroom door to see Veronica still sleeping peacefully, her face turned toward him. She was sweet and fragile in sleep, and he had to fight the urge to crawl back into bed with her and sleep the stormy day away. “Veronica.” He reached her and gently shook her shoulder.
Her eyelids fluttered open. “What?” she muttered.
He grinned. The woman was a grump. “Your friends are here. Downstairs.”
“Don’t care.” She stretched like a lazy cat and shut her eyes. “Tired.”
He had made the second mating a marathon, now hadn’t he? “Okay. You stay here and sleep, and I’ll talk to them.”
Her eyelids flashed open. Realization dawned, and she sat up, holding the blankets to her chest. “No.” She shook her head, and that glorious hair splayed down her bare back. “I forgot about the case for a moment.”
Masculine pride puffed out his chest.
She rolled her eyes. “Get over yourself.” Pushing across the bed, she put distance between them. Then she groaned as she stood.
“Sore?” he asked mildly.
She glared over her bruised shoulder. “Nope. Not at all.”
“We’ll see what we can do about that later, then.”
* * * *
Ronni finished dressing in a thick sweater and her faded jeans after a very hot shower, her entire body aching with an annoying set of tingles. Every time her legs moved, her sex clenched, and she fought a moan.
There wasn’t an inch of her that hadn’t been caressed, licked, or explored by Jared. The man, the male, had found nerves she hadn’t known existed.
Everywhere.
Her breasts felt heavy and full in the bra, and she wanted nothing better than to shrug out of the thing.
Instead, she slapped a smile on her face and gingerly made her way downstairs to the main living room. Mabel and Lance sat on the sofa, Olivia shared the love seat with Chalton, while Jared leaned against the doorframe, distrust darkening his features. Papers and manila files were scattered across the sofa table.
Mabel looked up, her blue eyes lightening with her smile. “Hi, there. Feeling better?”
Ronni caught herself. Heat filled her face. “Ah, well—”
“From the poisoning,” Olivia hastened to say. “I was just telling Mabel that it looks like your body fought the poison, and you’re going to be all right.”
Oh. Of course Mabel didn’t have a clue about the sex mara
thon. Ronni’s cheeks hurt, but she forced her smile wider. “Yes. I’m feeling much better.”
Lance narrowed his gaze in his detective look. “Are you sure? You’re moving funny.”
Jared coughed into his hand.
Ronni shot him a look. “I’m fine. Slipped on the ice earlier.”
“Come sit down.” Mabel patted the place next to her. “You’re not going to believe this. I found the original autopsy report on Walt, and there were contusions, showing he fought somebody right before death.”
Lance hissed out a breath and plunked his badge on the sofa. “Not going to need this.”
“Yes, you are,” Mabel countered, shoving her dark hair away from her pretty face. “We’re doing this the right way. You put that back.”
Lance stared at her for a moment and then slowly retrieved his badge.
“Good. There was also a puncture wound under the detective’s neck,” Mabel said, pointing to a series of pictures scattered on the papers. “He was definitely murdered.”
“Dr. Counts is in on it. Or he was bribed,” Lance said, fury in his voice.
Olivia nodded. “That makes sense, right? I mean, as a coroner with a medical degree, he’d know plenty about exotic poisons. Well, probably.”
Ronni gulped. “Yeah, and he hangs out at the cop bar as well as in our office sometimes. If he really wanted to poison me, it wouldn’t have been too difficult.”
“What does he have to do with missing drugs from lockup?” Lance asked grimly.
Who knew?
Chalton reached for a stack of papers. “We’re going through all the financials now, trying to find any sort of link to anybody. Nothing yet.”
Ronni grabbed a yellow pad of paper. “All right. I’ll go through this stack.”
Jared straightened. “The weather has finally let up, so I’m going to scout the property for threats.” He gestured for Ronni to follow him.
She frowned and did so, reaching the kitchen.
He brushed hair away from her face, his eyes warm. “You are moving stiffly. Are you all right?”
Warmth filtered through her chest. “I like all sides of you,” she murmured, leaning up to place a kiss on his hard chin.
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