by M. L. Briers
“I have you,” I offered her comfort, but knew that it wasn’t anywhere near enough.
My mind was on Shamus, and like magic he appeared at the end of the corridor, relief on his face as his eyes took us in before they dropped down to where Bruce’s corpse lay.
“I see you’ve been having a fine time without me,” Shamus grinned. Maggie clenched harder, so hard that she could probably squeeze out a damned diamond, and I berated him with just a look.
Shamus cleared his throat and looked somewhat contrite as he stalked down the corridor towards us. He reached down and yanked up Bruce’s body onto his shoulder, fisting the heart as he turned, and shot me a quick look from under his dark brows.
“I she alright?” he muttered.
“No!” Maggie got there before I could with a snap of disbelief.
“Not dead though, ey?” He chuckled to himself as I rolled my eyes and groaned. The man didn’t do subtle.
“I really don’t-” Maggie started, but I cut her off.
“Shamus’s brains are in his fists, don’t waste your breath,” I flicked my head and told him to disappear. The good thing about Shamus was- he didn’t need to be told twice.
“I…” Maggie huffed at the empty hallway. I guess she had a need to give him a piece of her mind, and I guess that would now be reserved for me.
I didn’t care. She could rant and rave and scream and shout until she’d had her fill. She was alive this day and that was all that mattered to me.
~
~
~
I didn’t care that Maggie had systematically gone through the downstairs tossing everything at me that wasn’t nailed down as she worked out her fear, shock, and frustration at what had occurred. I ducked most of it, and in truth, the house had been pretty much demolished by the wolves anyway.
Shamus had taken a break from hauling the dead outside and was enjoying watching me being verbally toasted by my mate. He casually leant with his shoulder propping up a nearby wall and his thick arms crossed over his chest; pure unadulterated amusement on his face, and a few belly laughs- when I allowed her to score a hit with something not to damaging every now and again.
That was until she caught him laughing and tossed something in his direction- then he had to duck- as her aim, even in anger, was pretty damn good. It didn’t stop him from chuckling though.
“Firecracker,” he announced, “a true Highland lass.”
“Oh, you’d better believe it,” she ground out, looking for something else to throw, but most things were already killed by her hand.
“Here,” I reached for a small ornament that had no real value, monetary or sentimental, and tossed it towards her eager hands. “Aim straight and true for his thick head.” Then had to duck as it came whizzing back at me.
Shamus’s belly laugh made her see red. Her hands went to her curvy hips and her cheeks truly were the colour of blood.
“Oh, this is soooo funny to you,” she hissed at him in rebuke for his big grin. At least she had climbed on out of her shell and wasn’t in fear of either of us anymore.
She’d seen true monsters and had come to realise that they didn’t look like us.
“Well,” Shamus started and she dipped at the waist and snatched up a piece of something that had already been smashed to pieces. She raised her hand high and back over her shoulder as she prepared to launch it in his direction, but he held up his big hands in front of him, his index finger seemed to stop her in her tracks.
“This is not my doing,” he pleaded his case. The amusement in his eyes still more than evident. Then he pointed that thick finger at me, “he’s the one that brought you here.” He reminded her and her eyes snapped towards me like a predator that was out for blood.
“So he was,” she lobbed it at me and I ducked once more.
“Do you know just how damn sexy you look when your eyes are on fire and matching the colour of your hair like that?” I offered, throwing her off guard as she snapped her head back on her neck and stared at me as if I’d just spoken in tongues.
“Charmer,” Shamus’s unhelpful timing sent her right back to dipping for the next projectile to lob at me.
“You can’t get round me that easily,” she hissed as she snapped back up to find me right there in front of her, a gasp of a breath on her lips as her eyes widened in surprise.
“Then tell me what it takes,” I offered, reaching out slowly to cover the unrecognisable object in her hand that was once whole.
Maggie didn’t move a muscle as my hand covered hers. Then her eyes slowly narrowed on me and I could see her mind was racing.
“Give me back my stake,” she looked and sounded like a woman that was desperate to do me harm. I liked it.
“I have a little problem with tidiness and everything being where I left it at the moment,” I kicked up a decent sized piece of wood that was once a rather nice chair and offered it to her, “will this do?”
I was laughing on the other side of my face when, no sooner had she snatched it from my hand, she thrust it towards me. I’d say it was lucky that my mind and body were still on hyper alert from the fighting or it would have been embedded in my side, just above my hip…
I wrapped my hand around the wrist that came at me and gently spun her around on her feet, bringing her back against my chest, and locked her in place. I couldn’t resist breathing her in- the scent of her blood was still drying on her clothing and I had to keep my bloodlust at bay as the urge to taste her on my tongue tore through me.
“Stop doing that!” She hissed out.
“What? Saving my own life?” I offered back to her and felt her wriggling to be set free cease.
“I…” she huffed again. It was a good sign that she was thinking that one through.
“Ah, let the lady use you as a pincushion for a bit,” Shamus chuckled. “It’ll make her feel better.”
“No it won’t,” she scowled back at him in angry denial.
“Why won’t it, Maggie?” I asked, my lips just a breath from her ear.
“I don’t want to hurt you…” she seemed to deflate a little.
“You’ve done a fine job at trying so far,” Shamus offered with another deep chuckle. That seemed to take more of the wind out of her sails.
“That’s…” she huffed again. “You I don’t mind hurting!” she snapped back at him.
“Oh, excuse you,” Shamus announced, playing along, “and there’s me helping to save your life.”
“Well, you didn’t do a very good job of it, did you now?” she shot back and Shamus looked surprised.
“I downed more wolves than your mate did,” Shamus tossed back.
“Maybe, but he saved me from three wolves and a vampire-”
“Four,” I whispered in her ear and she snapped to attention.
“Four,” she offered as if she was talking about something totally benign.
“Ooooo,” Shamus turned his nose up at her, “I didn’t know we were counting.” He offered like a schoolgirl.
“Well, we are,” she was defending me and I liked it. Damn, did I like it.
“Well, good for you,” Shamus tossed back, playing along. “I’ll leave you two too it then.” He announced with his nose in the air, and then he was gone, leaving us standing alone in the aftermath of the devastated downstairs.
“Muppet,” she muttered and I had to laugh. “And I don’t know what you’re finding so funny,” she turned to give me a death stare over her left shoulder.
“You have fire within, my Maggie, and it suits you well,” I offered back to her. That death glare slowly slipped away and was replaced with amusement. Her eyes brightened, her lips bowed upwards as she tried, and failed, to hold back a smile, and then she giggled a little.
“Get used to it,” she was still trying to hold back that smile.
“Oh, I’ll relish it, sweetheart.” I assured her.
~
~
~
It was lucky that there we
re more than just the one bedroom within the house because I couldn’t be bothered to face the mess that had been made in mine. I directed Maggie to another bedroom to clean up in the bathroom and gave her some of my clothes that would have to do until we picked hers up, and I went into the bathroom in the hallway to shower.
In my haste to find Maggie something to wear, I had neglected to retrieve something for myself. I wrapped a towel around my waist and yanked open the door; only to find Maggie coming out of the bedroom opposite wearing nothing but a long shirt that I had given to her, and damn did she look good in it.
Her eyes took me in, running down every inch of my naked flesh that she could see, and making my cock harder than hell. It wasn’t hard to tell as the towel tented in front of me. I winced, waiting for her scorn and rebuke, but instead there was only amusement on her lips at the sight of my obvious desire for her.
“A vampire with a boner, not something you see every day of the week,” she gave a small shrug off her shoulder and I had to laugh. How quickly she had accepted me since we’d met- I was more than grateful for her, sometimes, level headedness.
“The question would be, do you want to see more?” Her eyes snapped up to mine and I could see that there was a wickedness about her as her eyes laughed at me.
“That would be a good question,” she nodded, but didn’t give me the answer that I craved, instead, teasing me with those green eyes.
“And I’m riveted to hear the answer,” I teased back.
“I’ll bet you are,” she tossed out.
Damn the woman was a tease.
“Feel like sharing?”
“Not so as you’d notice,” she shrugged again.
“Maybe I should take matters into my own hands,” I tucked a thumb into the band of the towel at my hips and her eyes flared.
“I hear masturbation is good for stress,” she offered, but her tongue came out and licked at her parted lips as her eyes stayed locked on that thumb, or close to it…
“But making love is good for the soul,” I shot back and her eyes snapped up to mine. “You wouldn’t want me to lose my soul, would you, Maggie?” I teased back and saw her lips start to bow upwards…
I was in front of her in a heartbeat. Her head went back on her neck and her lips were parted in invitation, and who was I to turn it down?
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
~
Maggie tasted as sweet as a midsummer peach and I couldn’t hold back from devouring her. I wanted to taste every inch of her body, every ripe centimetre of her skin. Only having her as mine would put out the flames that ravaged me.
She was boldness personified as she practically climbed up my body with a little help as I lifted her against me, and she wrapped her legs around my hips. I moved her back against the nearest wall and felt her cling to me like a lifeline against the insanity of the mating pull that was working on us both.
I reached down and whipped the towel away- finding her naked sex with my hard cock, grateful that the shirt had ridden up around her hips, and revelling in the sound that caught I her throat as I rubbed against her flesh. She was mine like there had never been any doubt between us about it. She rocked her body against me- teasing- tantalising me to take her right there and then…
I caged her against the wall trying to hold onto my sanity. Trying not to just thrust inside of her and sink to the hilt within her satin walls. It was the hardest trial I had ever had to face in my life.
I broke away from her lips and traced my tongue down the vein in her neck to the place where her heart was beating to its own tune. I could scent her blood- a wave of bloodlust rolled through me, almost as potent as the need to be inside of her body when I tasted her…
“Do you want me?” I almost begged for her answer against her ear, moving my cock against her sex and making her gasp and whimper.
“I need you,” she breathed, but it wasn’t enough.
“But, do you want me?” I needed that confirmation. I needed to know that it wasn’t just the mating pull that was ravenous within her mind and body for me- that it was me that she wanted, needed, desired.
“Yes,” she’d barely breathed out the word when I snatched her body against mine and took off into the bedroom, and for the bed where I would truly make her mine.
“I’ll need to taste you or I’ll lose my mind- I’ll need to-”
“I know- you need to feed.”
There was no sense of fear or foreboding that came from her. No disgust or disdain for what I was or what I needed to do- would be compelled to do to her, with her.
How could she have so readily accepted me after the rejection that she’d delivered not mere hours earlier? I didn’t need an answer to that now- I needed her.
“Maggie mine,” I whispered against her ear as I took her down to the mattress and caged her in with my body over hers.
I lifted my head and looked into her eyes. A part of me didn’t want to know what I would see, and yet I had to know… desire- there was desire in her eyes, amusement, and a touch of wickedness that thrilled me as much as her involuntary movements against my cock as she searched for a way to have it inside of her.
“I don’t want to be a vampire yet, give me this once, then the next time-”
“Done.”
I would turn her. I had too. Who knew what Bruce had said or done and to whom? There were still rogues out there that could attack if they had a mind too, and I couldn’t risk her life again.
But once- one night together- one very long night of making her mine before I took her forever- that I could do. It thrilled me as much as the thought of making her like me, of taking her when she was. I could hold back letting go so totally with her, so powerfully that I might hurt her if I did…
She was my queen, my heart and my forever soul mate. I’d give her everything that she ever asked of me and so much more.
“Then I want to know how it feels, taste my blood, feed-”
“Hold that thought, Maggie, before you tease me into becoming ravenous for you,” I warned her, lifting my hand and flicking out my claws. I heard her sharp intake of breath at the sight, but she didn’t tense enough for me to be worried by it.
I slowly brought one razor sharp claw down through the fabric of my shirt that she was wearing, the silk parted like an invitation to my tongue to explore her perfect breasts. I had no qualms about taking up that offer.
I loved the way her back arched as I devoured her hard nipples. I nipped at the sensitive buds with my blunt teeth and her hips rolled- searching for my cock, but it wasn’t to be, not yet, I had too much exploring to do.
I turned her backwards and forwards on the bed beneath me, slowly devouring every inch of her skin with my lips, my tongue, my teeth, and my fingertips.
I consigned her body to memory; knowing what made her cry out, what made her gasp, what made her backside leave the mattress as she offered her sex to me, and I loved every second of it as much as she did.
Licking the backs of her knees made her shiver. Nipping her side, just above her hip, made her gasp. Suckling her big toe made her try to pull away from me, and running my tongue up the vein in her neck made her surrender, open up her body for mine…
I felt fevered with the need to taste her true feminine essence- her juices covered her sex and she was ripe for my cock, but I needed to taste her on my tongue as she came undone for me.
It didn’t take long- she was too far gone with desire, with passion, and the sound of her cry as I devoured her would stay etched into my memory forever…
She tasted divine, so damn good that I couldn’t get enough. I couldn’t bear to let her go, taking her back over the edge again and again until I’d had my fill, until her fingers locked in my hair and she cursed and squirmed like a wild thing to be set free…
Then I climbed up over her body and settled between her inner thighs, pulling her knees up around my hips, and burying my length deep inside of her as her hips came up to meet mine.
I had
her wrists in one hand, trapped above her head against the mattress in a heartbeat, and her eyes locked with mine as I took her back and forth down my cock.
Every slow, tortuous stroke pushing the crown of my cock against the narrow pathway to her womb. I couldn’t get enough, and she was trying her damnedest to take every last inch of me as deeply as possible…
I snatched her up from the bed, going back onto my knees as I opened her body around me. Both of us grunting hard as I thrust as deep inside her as I could. Faster and faster, building that delicious friction between us, as her head went back and her neck opened for my fangs.
I couldn’t have stopped them elongating if I’d tried. I needed the taste of her blood on my tongue. I needed to feed on her blood- to make her mine.
I could feel her body tensing as her muscles started to lock up. I could feel how damn tight her channel was around my cock, and I knew that she would be flying free soon…
I ran my tongue up the vein in her neck and found the spot to sink my fangs. Striking fast; I sliced through the skin, deep within the vein where her lifeblood rushed, and I heard her cry out with the moment of pain…
Then I took my first sip, drawing on her blood and tasting my own mixed with it. I heard her moan in pleasure. Deliberately, I suckled the nectar of her blood in time with the thrusting of my cock; feeling the inner muscles tighten around my cock until I had to work twice as hard to bury my length to the hilt…
The sound of the harsh curse on her lips, a second before I thrust her into the intensity of another orgasm was my reward, and so was the hard clench and release of her inner muscles suckling around my cock.
I held in place, buried deep within her for as long as I could manage, revelling in the feel of her channel sucking at me, and then I could hold back no more…
I was ravenous for my own pleasure. I needed that release more than I’d ever needed anything in my life before. I took her body back up with mine- the friction between us almost unbearable as my hips bounced off of hers erratically, blinded by my one goal, and one goal only- pleasure.