But then, he’d never experienced this particular brand of magic before as no one had ever aroused him as much as Willow. When her tongue followed the thick vein of his shaft and her hand cupped his balls, Declan arched off the chair, and a tingle ran down his spine as he relished this exquisite torture.
Willow hadn’t considered it possible, but he grew harder and thicker, and she marveled at the way his body responded to her—the sounds he emitted, the rise of his hips, and the increased beat of his heart. He was on the brink of coming, but she wouldn’t let him go over without her.
Slowly removing her mouth from his dick, she gave it one final lick before releasing him and meeting his vivid red eyes. The change in color didn’t surprise her; her eyes probably matched his.
Rising, she kept her eyes on his as she settled herself in his lap again and draped her legs over the arms. She gasped when the thick head of his cock slid between her legs, and she moved her hips so it rubbed against her clit.
Declan watched as her mouth parted, her head tilted back, and her eyelids lowered to shadow her red eyes. She was gorgeous, and she was his. Though he was more than happy to let her use his body however she saw fit, he couldn’t take any more of this. He had to be inside her.
His hands tightened on her when she shifted her hips so she could take him partially into her before pulling away again. “Willow.”
The gravelly tone of his voice, those red eyes, and his fingers digging into her told her he couldn’t take much more. She couldn’t either.
Her fingers played with the hair at his nape while she held his gaze and drew him partially into her again. She stopped, hovering on the edge as she took him in. With his red eyes, stubble lining his cheek, and sweat beading his forehead, he was untamed and exquisite, and hers.
Willow bit her lip as she lowered herself further onto him. The sensation wasn’t unpleasant, but it was a little uncomfortable as he stretched her. And then he was settled deep inside and a part of her.
She was struck by the overwhelming urge to cry. The last time she sat down and sobbed was when she learned of Doug’s death, but this was different. She’d cried for Doug because she’d loved him, and a part of her broke the day he died. With Declan, she wanted to sob because it felt so right. Being joined with him was like coming home after a long journey; it was right where she belonged.
Neither of them moved as they stared at each other. The red had faded from his eyes; they were that spectacular silver again as they ran over her face with an awe that only made her want to cry more. This beautiful, broken, proud man needed her, and she needed him.
Then her hands fell to his shirt, and she started to pull it off. She had to see and feel every inch of him as she claimed him as hers.
Declan released the arms of the chair, clasped her hands, and flattened them against his stomach. When Willow’s violet eyes lifted to his, he shook his head. He sensed her irritation, and though he longed to give her everything she needed from him, he wasn’t ready to reveal the worst parts of him yet—not today, not when it was supposed to be about the two of them. His past had no place here, and there would be no keeping it shut out if she saw.
“It stays on,” he said more gruffly than he anticipated.
Willow opened her mouth to protest, but the look in his eyes stilled her words. He hadn’t looked at all distressed by her touch until now. Whatever he was keeping from her, he would tell her when he was ready. Until then, she planned to enjoy every second of this day with him. It could very well be their last.
Pulling her hands free of his, she draped them around his shoulders. Holding his gaze, Willow rose until only his head remained inside her, and then she lowered herself over him again. A muscle twitched in his cheek, but he didn’t grasp her hips or push her faster as she rose over him again.
She continued her leisurely, teasing movements as Declan clasped her face in his palms and slid his fingers over her cheeks. Pulling her to him, he reclaimed her mouth and slid his tongue across her lips before nipping her bottom one.
“You know what you are, right?” he whispered against her mouth.
Willow’s eyes had closed, but they opened to discover his burning red eyes blazing into hers. He’d stiffened against her, and a muscle twitched in his cheek as he locked his jaw.
“You know what you are to me, don’t you?” he demanded.
“I do,” Willow breathed.
He held her gaze as he brushed back the strands of her hair to reveal the slender curve of her neck. Beneath his palm, her heart pounded like a drum; the musical beat of it lured him forth. He kissed her neck and ran his tongue over her flesh before scraping his fangs over her skin.
Apprehension raced through her. She knew what they were to each other, but it was all moving so fast. She’d only planned to enjoy what might be the last hours of her life with him. She hadn’t expected it to result in being claimed by her mate.
If she told him no, he’d stop, but the word lodged in her throat when his tongue flickered over her skin again and his fangs rested against her vein. She feared the unknown that would follow this claiming, but her desperation to join with her mate far outweighed her apprehension.
Then his fangs pierced her skin, and her fear vanished as a scream of ecstasy rose in her throat. She stifled it by dropping her head to the hollow of his neck, and before she could stop herself, she bit into him.
As his blood filled her mouth, she forgot her teasing movements as her fingers dug into the chiseled muscles of his back and her hips thrust against him. When his thoughts mingled with hers, his pleasure was almost too much for her to bear.
Fueled by Willow’s emotions, Declan couldn’t control himself as her thoughts battered him. Seizing her hips, he drove harder into her while her muffled cries propelled him onward. When the muscles of her sheath clenched around him, he didn’t have time to pull out of her before he came.
Willow felt the pulse of his shaft deep inside her, but she couldn’t bring herself to care that they hadn’t taken any precautions against pregnancy. She just had the most intense orgasm of her life, and she couldn’t stop her hips from moving against his as she sought more.
Sensing her need, Declan lifted her from his lap and brought her down to the floor. He positioned her so she was on all fours in front of him. His cock didn’t have a chance to soften before he was entering her again.
Today, they’d unleashed the demon he’d caged for centuries, and it possessed an insatiable appetite.
Chapter Thirty-Two
When the family woke, Declan pulled himself away from Willow to program them with new instructions for the day. She stirred when he did and once she realized the family was awake, she dressed before curling up on the floor again.
He retrieved a blanket and pillow from Cheryl and made her more comfortable before returning to the family and instructing them to remain at home for the day. It might seem odd to have them all staying inside, but he couldn’t take the chance of them going out and encountering a Savage.
If someone asked why they were inside, their cover story was a stomach bug and they weren’t feeling well. However, he did take the chance of trying to send Junior out of town with the instructions to find a phone and call Ronan if he made it.
Like Willow, he preferred not to put the family at further risk, but he would do anything to get her out of here. Knowing that Junior’s trip was most likely futile, Declan waited with Gus for the young man to return.
Junior returned fifteen minutes later with the news that a crowd was gathering at the town line, but the police weren’t letting anyone leave. When asked why they were keeping people here, Junior reported the police told him it was a national emergency, and that was all they would reveal.
Declan retreated to the kitchen with Gus and looked out the back window to discover people gathering near the woodline. They stood fifty feet apart from each other, and none of them spoke as they stared at the houses and waited for something to happen. Their eerie silence remin
ded him of the Stepford Wives, and he loathed every second of it.
He was sure there were people like them all over town. Declan didn’t know how the Savages chose the people they’d taken control of to be their eyes during the daytime. He was just grateful they hadn’t picked Gus and his family.
Each person also had a gun. If they were loaded with regular bullets, they wouldn’t kill him or Willow, but they would slow them down. However, they could have wooden bullets that would kill them.
Either way, they couldn’t take the chance of being shot and tracked by their blood. And if someone didn’t shoot them, each of the people also had a handheld radio to report their location if they saw something unusual. They were effectively trapped in this town.
Gus returned to the living room and turned on the TV. “I don’t see anything about a national emergency,” he muttered as he flipped through the channels.
And Declan knew he wouldn’t. Pulling a confused Gus away from the TV, Declan had the man show him around the house. He studied the basement and attic before deciding the attic would be a better place to hide if it became necessary.
After he finished going through the house, he emptied the trash in the bathroom, dumped the bag with Willow’s dirty clothes into the trashcan in the kitchen, and took it out to the containers in the garage. With the lid on the trashcan shut, he couldn’t detect the scent of her clothes beneath the aroma of the garbage.
When he returned to the room, he settled on the floor next to Willow and pulled her into his arms. Despite their dire situation, he smiled when she stirred and nestled closer to him before falling asleep again.
Declan hadn’t planned to fall asleep but he woke at the creak of the door and lifted his head when Gus stepped inside.
“You told me to wake you if something was happening,” Gus said.
“What is it?” he asked Gus as he reluctantly pulled away from Willow.
“The police are a few doors down,” Gus said. “It looks like they’re searching the houses.”
Those words were like a bucket of ice dumped over his head. Declan glanced around the small room with its sewing machines and stands with containers. Willow had remained the lookout in this room last night because it provided the best view of the street.
Shoving the blanket aside, he carefully extracted himself from her and stalked toward the window. He remained hidden from view as he gazed out at the police officer walking up the porch steps of a house five doors down. Another man was at his side.
“Fuck,” Declan muttered as he tugged at his hair. “Who is that with the officer?”
“Dwight. He owns the funeral home in town.”
Declan could only imagine what the Savage’s were planning for that funeral home, but he couldn’t dwell on it now. Striding away from the window, he retrieved his swords and the harness he’d placed beside the chair when he first settled into it last night.
He pulled them on and made sure they were secure before returning to Willow. Kneeling at her side, he rested a hand on her shoulder. When she stirred beneath his touch, her eyes fluttered open, and she blinked at him before a radiant smile lit her beautiful face.
That smile melted some of the ice encasing him, and he couldn’t stop himself from cupping her cheek as he bent to brush a kiss against her temple. Her surprise flowed over him a second before he felt her happiness.
Despite the threat breathing down their necks, the demon wasn’t tearing at his insides as it tried to tear free of the cage Declan constructed around it. For the first time in centuries, he could breathe normally, and a vise wasn’t trying to crush the life from him.
And it was all because of her. He’d found his mate, she’d brought him the peace he’d sought for centuries, and he would destroy anyone who tried to take her from him.
“They’re searching the homes,” he said.
The sleepy happiness faded from her eyes as she sat up so fast their heads nearly knocked together.
“Who?” she demanded.
“The police and some helpers. They’ll be here soon.”
“Is there somewhere we can hide?”
“Gus is going to take us to the attic. I found a spot for us to hide up there.”
Grasping Willow’s hand, he helped her to her feet and snatched up the blanket and pillow. He handed them to Gus. “Put these away.”
Gus nodded, and they followed him into the hallway, where he stopped outside a closet. He shoved the blanket and pillow inside before continuing down the hall to where a string hung from the ceiling. Grasping the string, Gus pulled down a set of stairs and unfolded them. The bottom of the stairs clicked against the wooden floor as Gus climbed into the shadows above.
Declan stepped back and gestured for Willow to follow before climbing up behind her. Though the attic was full of boxes marked fabrics, clothes, Christmas, and other assorted miscellaneous items, it was clean.
Only a little dust covered the containers and floor, and no cobwebs hung in the corners. They didn’t leave any sign of their passing as Declan led Willow past a neatly stacked row of children’s artwork containers and around to the back corner. Gus trailed them and didn’t say a word when Declan pushed aside boxes of baby clothes to remove the loose piece of plywood he discovered earlier.
“When were you up here?” Willow asked.
“While you were sleeping.”
A twinge of guilt tugged at her. She’d fallen asleep, and he was searching for a hiding spot to make sure they stayed safe. She should have stayed awake to help him, but she could barely move by the time Declan released her. For the first time in her life, she was sore after sex; it was a pleasant kind of sore, and she wouldn’t change anything, but she’d never encountered a man as insatiable as her mate.
She didn’t know what to make of that confirmation. Yes, she’d suspected it, but it was still a bit shocking. She was mated to Declan, a man she’d shared some of the most terrifying and intimate moments of her life with, and she barely knew anything about him.
Fortunately, if they made it out of this alive, she’d have an eternity to learn about him, and with as enigmatic as he was, it might take her that long. But that was something she’d worry about if they survived the next hour.
Declan pulled aside the plywood to reveal a hollow space between the beams. “Gus, go get the rest of your family. I have to speak to them.”
Chapter Thirty-Three
Willow barely breathed as she stood, crammed inside the tiny space with Declan. Unable to stand side by side, he stood in front of her. After he finished instructing Gus and his family to forget the two of them existed, Declan ordered them to nail the plywood to the beams, clean up any mess created, and push the boxes back into place.
No one in Gus’s family had any memory they’d ever run into the two of them, never mind that they were hiding in the attic. Despite that, Declan left Gus with instructions to make sure the men were gone for an hour before opening the attic.
She kept her breathing steady as she tried not to think about what would happen if someone discovered them. Under the control of other vampires, there was no guarantee Declan could alter the memories of the humans who found them. And if those humans didn’t leave this house and return to whoever was controlling them, their enemies would know why they hadn’t returned and where to look for them.
When the walls started closing in on her and breathing became increasingly difficult, she closed her eyes and pictured her family’s property in Maine. She could almost feel the sand beneath her as she lay on the beach while the waves crashed against the shore.
The squealing laughter of the kids floated on the air as they ran down the shoreline. All her siblings were there with their mates, as well as her parents, and the Stooges—her adopted uncles.
She felt the love they emanated and the security enveloping her whenever she was with them. A sense of peace stole through her soul as the scent of the ocean filled her nostrils. And then she saw Declan lying beside her, a mischievous look on hi
s face as he idly twirled a strand of her hair around his finger.
She saw none of the unhappiness that sometimes resided behind his eyes. He’d probably be as out of place around her family as a pink, polka-dotted zebra amid its friends, but she longed to lie with him on that beach.
And then the creak of hinges pierced through her lovely daydream.
Declan went rigid in front of her. She went to rest her hands and forehead against his back but didn’t dare touch him. He vibrated an energy she couldn’t quite put her finger on. It was almost as frightening in its malevolence as knowing that at any second, the people hunting them would enter the attic.
Unable to resist anymore, she rested her fingers on the small of his back. She almost wrapped her arms around his waist and hugged him, but she was afraid she might hit something and make a noise if she did.
Instead, she settled for keeping her hands on his back and resting her cheek against him. To her amazement, he relaxed beneath her. Inhaling his scent of earth and pine, she relaxed too.
Declan tensed when a board creaked. He couldn’t tell exactly where they were in the attic as muffled words drifted through the plywood. Whoever it was stopped speaking, and footsteps sounded again.
Closing his eyes, he inhaled Willow’s enticing floral aroma. Her touch soothed him, yet he’d never felt more volatile in his life. If someone pulled that plywood down, human or not, he’d tear their throats out.
The footsteps drew closer, boxes shifted, and someone spoke again, but the words still sounded like the adults on Charlie Brown. Then they came close enough for him to understand them.
“I don’t think anyone’s here,” some guy said.
“Onto the next house,” another man said.
Declan listened as their steps faded, and the hinges squeaked as the attic door closed. Still, he didn’t move. He had to make sure they were out of the house before he dared to pull the plywood away from the beams.
Bound by Torment (The Alliance Series Book 5) Page 17