“Killian’s okay. We talked. He’s struggling with his reaction to us being together, but I think…no…I’m sure he’ll be all right. He just needs a little time to get his head around it.” Keefe folded Meadow in his arms and hugged her. His chin on her head, he exhaled contentedly when she slid her hands over his shirt and returned his embrace.
“Perhaps I should leave?” Meadow suggested, but she didn’t make an effort to let Keefe go. Both of them knew it was manners rather than wanting to leave that prompted her offer.
“No,” Keefe replied firmly and tightened his arms around her, bringing his jean-clad legs tight against hers. “No, Killian’s going to head out to the airport this morning. He’s exchanged his ticket for an earlier flight. He’s going back to school to give himself some time to think.” Keefe leaned back and looked down at Meadow deliberately. “And I don’t want you to leave.” He touched her face, the curve of her cheek and the soft skin at the base of her ear. He lowered his head and smoothed his scent glands over her forehead and jaw.
Meadow sighed and tipped her head back, absorbing the warmth of his caress like her skin absorbed his scent. She marked him when he offered her his cheek.
He led her inside the house and sniffed the air with rising interest. “Coffee?” he asked and grinned. “And pancake batter?”
“Yes, and I dug some foreth meat and penowberries out of your refrigerator too. I shouldn’t have snooped but I was starving. I always get hungry when I’m stressed and I was worried to death that Killian…”
Her hand in his, Keefe followed Meadow into his kitchen and set the table for two.
After they ate and the table was cleared, Keefe headed for his bedroom to get rid of his clothes. He needed a run or a swim, something to help him relax and sort through the restlessness that had been growing in him ever since he’d got back from Jenny’s. It wasn’t Killian, Keefe was convinced about that. Sure, he was worried about his son but that was just the general, everyday worry of a parent for a child going through a difficult time. Like he’d told Meadow, he was convinced Killian would be okay. His son just needed space and Keefe would honor that. No, this restlessness was closer to home and as he stepped into his bedroom, he struggled to put his finger on it. He dipped his head to one side and scanned his bedroom. Something wasn’t right.
Everything was where it should be, so that wasn’t it. Meadow had opened the curtains and spring sunlight was slanting across the polished wood floor, reflecting the gray-green paint on the walls, making the rich brown leather on his chair gleam dully. The bed was neatly made and…that was it, Keefe realized with a flat feeling in his stomach. Meadow had changed the sheets.
The room was no longer acutely full of the scent of their lovemaking, the scents of their bodies—the same, yet different now. Her pheromones and his, blended, better, richer.
Without them, the room was empty. So empty that Keefe felt a stab of pain beneath his ribs as he looked around the elegant, masculine, mockingly empty room. He walked back through the house, stepped out back onto the flagstone patio and touched Meadow’s sun-brightened hair. She was sitting in one of the lounge chairs, just sitting. Her knees were tucked up and her arms were wrapped around her legs and she was looking down at the lake. She lifted her head and smiled at him.
“Come on,” Keefe said gently and smiled widely in answer to hers. He held out his hand and led her back into the house. Just inside his bedroom, he stopped, stood behind her and placed his hands on her shoulders. “Thank you for making the bed,” he said quietly and kissed the base of her ear. “But there’s a problem, Meadow,” he added with mock seriousness.
“Oh?” she drawled and looked back over her shoulder at him, one golden brow coming up in open defiance.
“Hmm…definitely.” Keefe smoothed his lips over her neck then kissed and scraped the muscle at its base with his teeth. “You see, it just doesn’t smell as good in here anymore.” He wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her back into him. “It doesn’t smell like you. Like us, together. I don’t like that. Not anymore.”
Meadow turned slowly and looked up at him. Her bright green eyes narrowed as they moved over his face. There’d been pain in his voice and his dark eyes were eloquent when they looked at her, needing, hoping.
Without asking and without hesitation, Keefe slipped her dress off her shoulders, kissed her mound then tugged her panties down and off before tossing her clothing onto his chair. He held himself still as Meadow undressed him. She took his hand, pulled back the sheets and made him lie down on the bed. She crawled on top of him, settled her loins over his and leaned forward.
Keefe watched Meadow with rising intensity. She was aroused now like he was but the raw urgency of last night was gone. He saw that she was simply taking pleasure from touching the body of a man she was attracted to, liked, loved.
Jeez, where is your head, old man, that you keep having these crazy thoughts about this woman? Meadow’s young and beautiful. You’re scarred, headstrong and a real son of a bitch to be around sometimes. She’s eighteen years younger than you with her whole life ahead of her and she’s…she’s looking at you like she can read what’s in your head.
And she’s not running for the door.
“Will you stay with me, Meadow?” Keefe asked, before he had a chance to second-guess himself. He laid his hands on her arms and waited.
Meadow’s head tipped to the side, then bobbed. She smelled him, the air around him. Keefe was anxious, restless in a way she’d never seen before. The emotions didn’t sit well on him. “I go back to school on Tuesday,” she said quietly. It was an answer, but not. She didn’t understand the parameters of his question and realized she wanted so much from this man that she was frightened to ask for any of it, of assuming. He found her sexually attractive. Not to be immodest but that was understandable. She was his equal, healthy and pretty. She came from a similar background. And she certainly wasn’t with him for his money. Okay, maybe his slider.
Keefe looked thoughtful as he stroked Meadow’s soft skin. He traced the back of her arm with his fingertips then he nodded slowly. “Yes. Of course,” he answered enigmatically and rolled her beneath him.
Marking her body again, Keefe trailed his scent over her breasts, belly and hips, even her legs and her back. Then he rolled her over and spread her legs gently, leaned over her and caressed her nether lips, watching her. One corner of her mouth came up with pleasure as he stroked her plump pussy, the way she inhaled sharply and exposed her teeth when he tugged on the skin guarding her clit, sliding it back and exposing her fully before easing it back. He slid a finger into her so gently that Meadow groaned and arched her back. A second finger joined the first. For a time he moved his fingers in and out of her and the room filled with the scent of Meadow’s arousal, and his. Keefe spread his fingers just a little, easing her delicious tightness. Curving them, he stroked the walls of her sheath until she began to growl restlessly. Her fingers clenched and balled up the linen sheets beneath her. Then he settled his body between her legs, took hold of his cock and pressed the head of it into her.
Meadow gasped at the beauty of the joining. Keefe filled her so perfectly, so exquisitely and she clutched his thick arms, wanting him closer. She wanted him deep inside her with his broad chest crushing her breasts. But Keefe continued to lean back from her and slowly, inexorably, slide his hard cock into her until he was buried as far as he could go. She opened her eyes and blinked, wondering why he’d stopped. Wondered why he was holding back. She saw him bare his teeth and lower them over the left side of her chest.
Meadow gasped again but it wasn’t with rising desire this time, it was disbelief. Keefe’s dark, consuming eyes rose to hers and she watched his mouth hover over her. He moved his head slowly, a small movement that showed her all too clearly that he wanted to sink his teeth into the muscle above her left breast. Bite into the network of endocrine glands that traveled into the large nodes beneath her armpit and from there, throughout her entire
body. This marking was unlike all others. This one would carry his saliva—his DNA—through to the heart of every cell in her body. It was permanent. Irreversible.
And Eupanorians Mated for life.
Keefe waited, watching her with his dark, intense eyes. She could feel his breath on her skin, see the hard, exposed tips of his teeth, razor sharp and glistening with saliva. Keefe didn’t want her to stay just for the long weekend. Didn’t want to share the pleasures of sex with her for a day or two. He wanted to claim her as his wife and he was waiting for her answer.
It was madness! Foolish and impetuous and…and Keefe was an Alpha. He was used to making difficult decisions and making them quickly. His mind was quicker and sharper than those around him. His passions were stronger, but because of that, he understood them with razor-edge clarity.
She was supposed to be like him? Meadow mentally shook her head. She was supposed to be capable of deciding within days, within hours of meeting the man who would become her Mate that he was the one? She was…she was sure she wanted Keefe’s mark running through her veins for the rest of her life.
Without further thought, without hesitation, without letting herself think about how asinine and impossible this was, Meadow tipped her chin back, placed her hands on either side of Keefe’s head and pulled him to her.
He roared—a violent, sexual trumpeting—joy, triumph. Power, possession and need, morphing into one shattering sound, he dropped his head over Meadow’s chest and bit deep and hard.
Meadow screamed. Keefe’s Mating bite was violent and brutal and the pain almost overwhelmed her. But as he held her, digging into her, bearing down and bringing his jaws together, he moved his hips. He fucked her in long, deep strokes. Filling her and pleasuring her so much that Meadow was sure she’d come. Through the pleasure, fresh waves of pain buffeted her. Keefe’s teeth found and tore into a network of endocrine ducts. His saliva stung as it seeped into her. She screamed again and then she was coming so hard that it hurt and her womb twisted violently. Her breasts throbbed with the pain shooting through her chest like fire shooting through her and every muscle in her body twitched and convulsed. White light, so bright it blinded her, exploded behind her eyes and she felt Keefe’s powerful arms beneath her, raising her to him and holding her tight. Her back bowed. His teeth dug and tore. Her legs spread obscenely as he thrust into her again and again—hard, like he wanted to crawl inside her and never leave.
Only when his jaws unclenched and he backed his teeth out of her flesh—slow and steady and gentle—did Meadow’s orgasm fade. Keefe’s hard cock was still buried deep in her and she lay bent over his arms. Her hands and head trailed uselessly on the bed. She shuddered with every inhalation. Breathing lifted the torn muscles in her chest.
But she did inhale, harnessing the pain, or letting the pain harness her—she wasn’t sure—and she straightened. In a sinuous, powerful movement, she lifted herself up. She grabbed Keefe’s neck with a violence she hadn’t know was inside her and threw him away from her, threw him onto his back like his massive body was a plaything. Keefe growled and snarled but didn’t resist. He didn’t resist when she straddled him, took hold of his cock and lowered herself onto it. Groaning and tossing her hair back; blood dripping onto her nipple from his bite, her nails dug into his ribs as she slammed her loins down onto his then rocked slowly and sensuously, and opened her eyes.
Keefe’s black eyes were wild, primitive and savage. Her blood was smeared across his mouth. She saw streaks of it on his teeth when he pulled his lips back and snarled. It covered his chin and dotted the sides of his face. He grabbed her hips, forcing her to ride him hard then tipped his chin back and howled in pain, need, pleasure and loneliness. Her cells were filling with him but Keefe was still empty and alone.
But no more. Meadow flung her hair to the side. She focused on an exact spot inches above Keefe’s left nipple without knowing why she was able to landmark it. But there was no doubt in Meadow’s narrowing consciousness that that was the optimal point to strike and she drew her lips back from her teeth, bared them completely and roared. It was a primal, terrible trumpeting that echoed Keefe’s perfectly—one Meadow had never heard before today and one that she had been completely unaware of her ability to vocalize. She sank her four canines into Keefe’s skin, sank and sank until she couldn’t bite any deeper, then began to saw her teeth into his flesh.
Keefe screamed and his big body spasmed with pain but Meadow didn’t care. All she knew was that the taste of his blood was heady, rich and pungent and it filled her nostrils. All she knew was a pleasure that was base and fulfilling as she pumped her loins over his, biting into his rendered flesh, searching, smelling and then, gloriously, finding.
A quick, bitter spurt of Keefe’s endocrine fluid blended with the taste of his blood and then it was gone as the tiny, fluid-filled sacks at the base of her canines began to pump saliva into his wounds. His ducts seemed to drink it in like they’d been starved for her and Meadow bit and tore. Bit and tore. His skin was stretched by her piercing canines as she ravaged the tissue beneath, finding more ducts and bleeding her essence into him.
Beneath her, Keefe howled and jerked violently. He screamed again, then she felt his loins pumping up into hers. She felt his cock—harder and bigger than it had ever been—inside her, and it hurt as he moved, but Meadow was beyond caring as her Mate exploded in a violent orgasm inside her body. Meadow’s head suddenly cleared and she was aware of the damage she was causing to Keefe’s skin and to the muscle beneath. With his hips still punching his throbbing cock into her, Meadow unclamped her jaw and gingerly retracted her teeth from Keefe’s body.
She sat up and was aware of tears streaming down her face, dripping off her chin, mixing with Keefe’s blood. They splashed down onto her punctured chest and mingled with the drying trickle of blood there.
Keefe cried out one last time then his arms fell back onto the bed and Meadow wasn’t sure he hadn’t passed out. She touched his shoulder and his eyes opened. A fresh flood of tears filled her eyes when he touched her cheek and smiled.
Chapter Six
Meadow sat on the edge of the sink in Keefe’s en suite bathroom and winced. “Hey,” she blurted out and jerked her body to the side.
Keefe exhaled in open annoyance and tossed down the damp cloth he’d been holding. “Having your pectoral muscle torn to shreds is going to hurt, Meadow. Now sit still and let me clean it.” Sighing, he picked up a clean cloth. He dipped it in the basin of warm, medication-laced water and resumed dabbing. The blood crusting the edges of the puncture wounds on Meadow’s chest began to wash away. After a while, he lifted his head and looked at her anxiously. “Does it hurt that badly?”
He sounded contrite and worried and she loved him for it. “Not so much now,” Meadow answered truthfully and combed her fingers through his short, dark hair. The fingers of her right hand, that is. It hurt to lift her left hand.
Her lips pulled back from her teeth when he touched a particularly sensitive spot. “It’s a wonder our people still Mark each other this way. You’d think they’d come up with a painless medical procedure or something.”
Keefe grunted, rinsed the cloth and dabbed the narrow row of incisor bites on Meadow’s chest, the ones he’d dug into her between his canines. “That’s Alphas for you,” he said grudgingly. “Why be gentle when we can be over the top?” He shook his head and tossed the cloth onto the growing pile of bloody, discarded ones. “I’m so sorry, Meadow.” Keefe lifted his dark eyes to hers and the regret on his face was eloquent. “I really hurt you. You’re going to be bruised from nipple to neck and I’m surprised you can move your arm at all.”
But Meadow just smiled and felt…womanly. Confident and calm, she jumped off the counter, glanced at her face in the mirror then rinsed the dry blood off her chin. She patted the countertop until Keefe obediently levered his big body up onto it then filled the basin with fresh antiseptic and, using a clean cloth, began to dab at his wounds.
“
So what happens now?” she asked quietly. “Sorry,” she breathed when Keefe flinched, and gentled her touch.
He cleared his throat and straightened his back. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, we’re Mated. I don’t think either of us planned on it happening. I certainly didn’t fly out here this weekend with a plan to seduce the head of Rand Mining Concilium. Even if I do like your slider,” she added with a grin. Keefe laughed softly.
“You mean our slider, don’t you?” He tucked a wisp of Meadow’s beautiful, dark blonde hair behind her ear and watched as she started to mentally process the full implications of their Mating. “It might have been impetuous but it was right. I feel it in my bones, Meadow. You’re the woman I want to spend the rest of my life with. Exactly how that’s going to work out, I don’t know. Maybe we’ll just have to figure that out as we go along.” He winced again when Meadow dabbed the largest of the four puncture marks on his chest. “But I do know I’m sure about two things, Meadow Rand.”
She glanced up at him and there was a steeliness in her eye that he was getting used to seeing whenever he presumed too much or overstepped.
“I’m sure I’m falling in love with you if I’m not already. I’m also sure your father’s going to be pissed.”
“Meadow Quinlan-Rand,” she corrected him with quiet determination, tossed the soiled cloth aside and grabbed a fresh one. “And why are you so sure Daddy’s going to be pissed?”
“Correct me if I’m wrong, but you’re his only daughter, right?”
“Uh huh.” Meadow bit her lip in concentration as she gingerly wiped at a particularly stubborn smudge of blood below Keefe’s wounds.
“No Alpha is going to happy when he finds out his one and only baby girl has been claimed by a Mate outside his own pack. Without his permission. Without a formal contract giving him financial compensation, social benefit or business leverage. Trust me, Meadow, Daddy’s going to be pissed.”
Seduced by Silver Page 6
