Waltzing With Witches: A Sweet Small-Town Vampire Romance, page 20
“Oh God!” I cry out. “Abe, fuck!”
“Stay there for a moment,” he murmurs. “Ben, give me my other hand; I’m fine.”
The cuff snaps open with a pop, but I don’t open my eyes. I wait to feel his hands on me. They grip my hips and rock me in a steady circle on top of him. Every move activates my G-spot until I’m tense and panting.
Abe pulls me farther down into his lap, growling as my pussy brushes the base of his cock. With a quick thrust, he punches all the way inside me, his back arching as his mouth falls open on a silent scream.
“Abe,” I gasp, unable to keep still, my hips rocking, driving the pleasure higher and higher. I won’t last two minutes like this.
He shifts to the side, lying flat on his back as he grinds me hard against him. Pleasure spikes through me, building and flowing as we fuck each other. My cries rise in volume. Orgasm has never built like this, never lit me up so completely.
“Mine,” I whisper, eyes flicking to his. “You’re mine, Abe.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
KEEPER
Pleasure and dominance war inside me, demanding I fill my mate’s need. The sound of our sloppy fucking drives me to the ends of sanity. Each time I thrust inside her, she coats me with blood and arousal. It drips down my length to my balls, every sweet drop imprinting her scent on me.
“Mine. You’re mine, Abe,” she whispers, storm-cloud eyes narrowed, her mouth open. Her body pulls me deep, her muscles clenched tight as her thighs begin to quiver. She breathes fast, hard, eyes closing as she begins to unravel.
The bond I ignored for a hundred years, tamped down by dulling potion, is alive and taut between us, allowing me to feel her emotion in ways I haven’t been able to for decades.
She’s about to come all over me.
I fuck faster, punching up into her even as I grind her clit over my pubic bone. When orgasm hits her, she explodes into desperate cries, screaming my name over and over. Whipping a hand up, I grip her throat to feel her voice reverberate through my bones and deep into my soul.
Bliss hits me next, exploding from the inside out as cum rushes through my shaft, spilling inside her so intently, my vision goes black.
No, not black.
White.
My second eyelid.
“Ben!” I roar as my focus narrows to that intoxicating spot where Morgan’s neck and shoulder meet.
The castle whips out, yanking my arms above my head as I lurch forward to strike. He grabs me at the last possible second, my teeth snapping inches from her neck. Morgan’s eyes spring wide, then roll back in her head as a second, more powerful orgasm overtakes us both.
I yank against Ben, ranting and raving to get at her, my mate, my love, my blood.
“Morgan!” I cry. “Fuuuuck!”
Her fingernails dig into my chest, scratching grooves over the muscle as she pulses around me. Her breath leaves in a whoosh, and she flops forward over me.
“Not. Too. Close,” I grit out, my eyelid still covering my eye. “Gods, please. Don’t get too close,” I whisper, the last bit of orgasm wringing me dry as she shudders around me.
Ecstasy fades, the only sounds our combined heavy breathing. The scent of her soaks the air around us. Blood, cum, slick arousal, chocolate, cinnamon, moonlight.
Ben holds me tight as she nuzzles my heaving chest, her tongue and lips tracing a path from one nipple to the other.
“Don’t stop,” I encourage. “That feels…incredible.” My skin is on fire from the feel of her lips. I’ve dreamed of this for so long, wanted it for years.
Morgan’s warm mouth closes over my other nipple, sending my lust soaring back to sky-high heights. I roll my hips beneath her, my eyelid closing over my eyes again.
Something chimes again.
“Ben is trying to be polite,” she whispers as she licks a flat path across my chest. “But someone needs something.”
I groan as my eyelid retracts. Morgan watches me, her face flushed. The pink shade travels all the way down her neck and chest.
“That was…”
“Perfection,” she says with a slow, sensual smile. “So much more than I ever imagined.” She slaps my chest. “I can’t believe you weren’t gonna let us do this! I’m mad all over again!” She laughs, though, and when Ben releases me, I can’t help but pull her higher up my chest to bury my nose in the hollow of her throat.
My scent combines with hers, and it’s strongest here.
“You smell filthy,” I whisper. “I’ll be sad to wash this off you.” I pat her hip. “Head to my bathroom and turn the water on. I’ll check with Ben and join you in a minute.”
Laughter rumbles from her throat as I kiss my way up and down it. “Is this going to be like that time you asked me to breakfast and then went to check with Ben?”
“Nothing like that time,” I reassure her. “I know better than to leave you places now. Thank you for the lesson.”
She chuckles and presses off my chest, looking down at the carnage in my lap. Blood coats us both.
I grin when she makes a disgusted sound. “If you hadn’t made that sound, I’d offer to lick every drop off you, but something tells me you wouldn’t find that particularly pleasing.”
As she scrunches her nose, a board flips open beside my head, and a roll of paper towels falls out. Morgan laughs and grabs for them, rising slowly off me. I sit fully up and rub my sore wrists. When I rise tall above her, she smiles up at me, and it’s blisteringly gorgeous. There’s something new in this smile, something open and raw. If I think about cataloging all the emotions I’ve seen on her face, this one is new.
It’s joy, if I had to guess. Perhaps happiness, something I denied us by shutting her out.
Reaching for her throat, I pull her to me and brush my lips playfully against hers. “I can’t stop touching you,” I admit.
“I’m dripping on the floor,” she says with a huff, laughing into my lips.
“I would drop to the floor right now and lick it up if I didn’t think you’d be disgusted,” I admit.
She fingers the ziol around her neck. “I could possibly be coerced into trying to find that hot. I guess I don’t really know what I might find attractive if it’s you doing the seducing.”
Grinning, I release her throat and stare as she sashays to the door and out into the hall. I stand like a fucking idiot, listening to her ascend the stairs toward my room. Thirty seconds later, Ben groans, and the whoosh of water flowing through pipes reaches me.
I peer around my office. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to enter this room and not think of it as the place I took my mate for the first time. Even if I had to get Ben to hold me back. Striding to the door to head for the comm center, I pause at the last moment, stroking my hand down the door frame.
“Thank you for your assistance, Ben. I think you’ll agree she is our greatest treasure. I…” My voice dies as my thoughts unravel. The thought of hurting Morgan, of being the one to do that to her, it’s more than I can take. Especially now that she’s sunk so deeply into my soul.
A strip of wallpaper unpeels from the wall and snaps at my ass like skyball players in a locker room. I jump out of the way in time, laughing as I jog to the comm room. The usual tension in my chest is gone. For the first time in a hundred years, I feel…light.
Long minutes later, I’ve identified that there’s nothing to worry about, and Ben has sent me the sound of water running in the tub multiple times to remind me of the woman waiting for me upstairs.
Pulling myself from the work, I rush up to my room and across it, stopping only when I get to my bathroom. A black metal tub sits in the middle of an all-black room. Not a single window lets light in on the ornately burled black wood and black slate tiles.
Morgan sits in the tub with bubbles up to her chin, her hair piled on top of her head in a seductive bun. When my mouth drops open, my breath coming faster, she laughs.
“You look ready to burst, Abe. Everything okay?”
I cross the room in half a second, dropping to my knees and dipping my hand into the water. “For so many years, I thought this wasn’t a possibility,” I admit. “To see you in my tub, soaking as if you don’t have a care in the world? It’s blissful, Morgan.”
“Get in here with me and let me show you bliss.” She grabs my hand and pulls me toward her.
I quickly slip in, water sloshing over the sides. She giggles as I straddle her and rest her head against the tub’s edge, kissing my way down her slim neck.
“Can’t. Stop. Kissing,” I whisper into her skin, wishing this afternoon would never end. That we’d never have to leave and deal with the fact that a male is dead, and I have no idea how someone managed it.
Half an hour later, the water’s cold as I take my mate’s lips over and over, kissing, biting, tasting. When we part, she strokes my jaw.
“Spending this time with you has been delightful, but we’ve got to get ready. Ben has been politely flipping the lights on and off for about fifteen minutes.”
Chuckling, I extricate us and step out of the tub, not missing the way her eyes drop to my dick. I’m still hard for her. I want what we did earlier again. But duty calls.
I reach down and slip my arms under her thighs and around her back, lifting her carefully out of the tub. Morgan laughs, her head falling back.
When I set her down, sliding her soapy, wet body along mine, I can’t help but growl. After gripping her wrists, I pull them to her lower back. Dark nipples pebble as her eyes flash in fading afternoon light that comes in from the bedroom’s windows.
“If we start this up again, we will most certainly be late,” she says on a growl. “And I’m coming with you.”
I bring my mouth to her ear, sucking gently at the lobe. “Next time, I want you to chase me, Morgan.”
A pleased sound leaves her throat. “Sounds fun, minus the part where you’re really fucking fast.”
“And competitive,” I remind her. “And I can fly, which is an unfair advantage.”
She sighs and presses both hands to my chest. For a long moment, her black magic heats my skin.
“Sorry, I don’t know if it was appropriate to use my magic on you; it felt so strong for a second. I can feel the thing inside of you, Abe. Like a wrongness that makes me want to scream.” Her voice becomes a whisper. “I don’t know how to fix this; it’s like it’s trapped.”
Sorrow fills me because I don’t know the answer, either. And I can’t make this situation any better for her.
“C’mon,” I whisper, stroking her hair away from her forehead. “We don’t have to think about it right now. I’m fine.”
She nods, but her eyelids flutter as her gaze drifts away. She is most definitely still thinking about it. Turning from me, she leaves the bathroom and heads for my closet. I stand in the doorway and enjoy the view of my mate walking away from me. When she pauses inside the closet, I cock my head to the side. What is she doing?
She casts a sultry glance over her shoulder. “Ben moved all my things in here while you were in the comm room.”
I grin. Cheeky castle.
“Shall we move them back out?” she asks, her voice careful.
Crossing the room, I press my body to hers and walk her against the wall, kissing a path from her shoulder up her neck. “Absolutely not,” I whisper. “Ben knows best when it comes to us.”
She laughs and rests her head against my chest. But there’s something unspoken between us, some question that needs answering. I can sense it in the same way I sense what many people need, despite sometimes having trouble understanding their emotions.
“Move into this room with me,” I murmur. “Sleep with me every night. Get dressed with me every morning. I want all those moments with you, if you’ll give them to me.”
She flips in my arms, her expression serious. “Okay. Are you sure it’s not too soon? Technically, this was our first real date.”
For a long moment, we stare into each other’s eyes.
“I am developing an obsession with you,” I admit.
She grins. “Good. You should. I’m awesome.”
Ben flips a piece of wood from the wall out for her to high-five. She does it with a laugh that sends joy through me—an emotion I’ve rarely felt. It’s headier than I remember, all-encompassing and thrilling.
And hopeful.
Ben extends a black dress on a bar out into the room. Morgan cuts it a look and sighs. “Guess fun time is over. Let’s go do this.”
I choke down a groan. I’ll need to call a town meeting tomorrow to address what happened with Leighton.
Morgan slips out from between my arms and begins to dress. I turn from her to pull fresh slacks on, but as I button them, a soft touch surprises me. Her hands slide up my back and over my shoulder as she rounds me, stroking my tattoos.
“What do they mean?” she asks softly.
I cock an eyebrow. “You mean to tell me Thea hasn’t already told you?”
She smirks. “Of course. But I’d rather hear it from you.”
I grab her hand and guide her fingers up to the tattoos under my chin. “It’s a family tree. Every swirl represents someone in the Zeniphon line, starting here with our ancestors.” I slide her fingertips down my neck and along my collarbone, down to the brightest part of the tattoo between my pectorals. “And this is the tattoo for my immediate family—Betmal, Aberen, Evenia, and me.”
She smiles up at me. “It’s beautiful, and it has such a lovely meaning. Why do you cover it?”
I clasp her hand more tightly. “You’ve seen Evenia in action. She’s…horrible. I don’t want my tattoos to be reminders of how the Hearth lords their power over the haven system. It was a brilliant coup for my mother’s power-hungry nature to create the system, but it plays right into her need to control every single fucking thing.”
“Even you?” Morgan asks, the question quiet.
I grit my teeth to keep from grinding them together. “She has always interfered.”
Morgan sighs as Ben tosses me a turtleneck. I slip it over my shoulders and pull it down, but she eyes it like it has personally affronted her.
“You know what? No,” she snaps, folding the turtleneck down. “Never hide who you are, not because of anyone, and especially not because of your bitchy mother.” She yanks at the turtleneck again, pink dusting her cheeks. “Damn, it looks stupid rolled down. Tell me you have some other kind of shirt that’s not a turtleneck?”
Ben slides a post out with one of my old collared shirts.
Morgan grabs it and yanks the turtleneck over my head, casting it aside. She hands me the collared shirt with a demanding look. I don’t look away as I take it and slip it over my shoulders. When I move to button it, she bats my hands away and begins to do the buttons herself, starting at the bottom.
Ben tosses a fitted vest at her, and she grabs it out of the air in a single deft move. Slipping it over my shoulders, she focuses on buttoning it too.
And I stare at her expression, at the fierce determination in her gaze. “You are a miracle,” I whisper.
She fastens the last button and looks up at me. “I thought I was a menace. Which is it?”
I chuckle as I pull her arms up around my neck. “Miracle, menace, misfit. You’re all of those things, Morgan Anne Hector.”
“You forgot mine,” she whispers with a wink.
Thirty horrible minutes later, we’re standing inside the church in Shifter Hollow. Every member of leadership comm’d me at least once on the way here, and Evenia’s name hovers over my band as we speak.
The Shifter Hollow Church is nothing more than dozens of sawed-off tree trunks set in a circle deep in the woods on this side of Ever. I stand up front with Richard and his second, Connall. Next to me is Arkan and the rest of the protector team.
In the middle of the circle, the shifters built a pyre. Leighton’s stiff, dead body lies in the middle, his face a mask of pain and anger.
His parents stand in front of the pyre, his mother holding the ceremonial branch that’ll be used to light the entire thing. Tears stream down her face.
I grit my teeth as Richard begins to speak. As leader of the shifter community in Ever, this is his ceremony to perform. Morgan’s eyes find mine and fill with tears as Leighton’s father lights the branch. His mother touches it to the pyre, and the burning begins.
Could I have prevented this? I’ve racked my brain for every possibility. How could Wesley accomplish this? And how can we get one step ahead of him instead of the other way around?
“Body to dust to moon, we return our brother Leighton to you, Goddess. Return him to the halls of our people that he may run free in the dark forest of your embrace,” Richard says the final words as Connall lifts a ceremonial bowl for his alpha. Richard grabs a handful of purple dust from the bowl and steps forward, tossing it on the flames. They billow green then blue then purple, symbolically carrying Leighton’s remains up to the shifters’ moon goddess, Alaya.
Connall turns to Arkan and me. “Keepers, it’s your turn.”
I gesture for Arkan to go first. He grabs a handful of the dust and waits for me. Once I have mine, we walk together to the pyre and throw our dust on. Once it shimmers purple, we retreat to the edge of the circle.
I glance over at Morgan, but her face is tight, her chin held high. Lou, Wren, and Thea all sit with her, the girls clinging to one another. The firelight dances in their eyes. Lou softly strokes Morgan’s hair, her arm around as many of her nieces as she can fit.
It’s traditional to remain at the pyre until the fires begin to die down, which takes some time. The whole town isn’t here; it’s the shifters and centaurs and my protector team.
Once the flames begin to die, Leighton’s parents approach Richard, Arkan, and me.
“I trust you’ll figure this out quickly,” his father hisses. “We came to a haven for safety, and look what it’s gotten us.”
“We will not rest until we find Leighton’s killer,” Richard assures them. “None of us will rest.”
