Why had she been so stubborn? Would it be so bad to sleep with him instead of the cottage? Yes, first he had to come clean, tell her the entire truth about himself. Yet she couldn’t continue like this.
Today would be different—she’d demand he come in and have sex with her—damn the consequences. Tonia needed to get over this in order to be any good when she returned to work.
At Fallon’s first knock, she tore the door open and threw herself at him, arms wrapped around him, mouth fused to his. The warmth and hard planes of his body against hers helped dim some of the fire inside and she sighed against him in relief. Trailing kisses down the side of his face to his neck, she was pleased when he began to breathe faster. There was no way he’d resist. Victory within reach, she took his hand and tugged him past the doorway.
Darkened eyes met hers. “No.”
Pulling harder she glared at him. “What the hell do you mean ‘no’?”
“I want a relationship.”
“You’re kidding me right?” She dropped his hand and moved back into his arms running her tongue along his jawline. “Fallon, let’s do this, we both need it. You feel it, need it, as much as I do.”
“No,” he growled softly and moved away from her. Turning on his heel he headed to the house.
She jogged after him and pulled on his arm swinging him to face her. “I am not going to let you force me into something I am not ready for.”
He stopped and looked down at her. “I am not forcing you into anything. You’re my mate, my wife. I won’t have sex as a means to get rid of this desire. I want more.”
“How much longer do you think you can resist?” Jutting her chin out stubbornly, she pinned him with a sharp look.
“As long as it takes,” he replied, his tone patient. “Would you like to join me for dinner?” he motioned to the house. “Please?” He took her hand and waited.
Wanting more than to hold his hand, she let out a huff and began to walk towards the house. He would change his mind, she’d make sure.
The other two Protectors were already sitting at the table when they entered. Logan nodded at her. “Hey Tonia, how are ya?”
“Good, thank you,” Tonia replied, and then went to the other side of the room to offer Wendy help.
Throughout the meal, she caught Fallon watching her constantly, his heated gaze making it hard to sit still. Just watching him fanned her desire for him. On occasion, she would reach over and touch his leg or his arm, each time his gaze would lift to hers, his expression soft—a slight lift to his lips.
“I’m going to bed. If it’s all right with you guys, can we meet before heading out tonight?” Fallon stood, yawned and stretched. Following his every movement, Tonia debated whether to go with him, as he didn’t invite her.
“It’s more than okay with me,” Kieran answered, his hand caressing Wendy’s back. “I’m ready for bed myself.”
Wendy leaned over and kissed his jaw. “Sleepy?” She nipped at his ear and his lips curved.
“Not really.”
Tonia looked away to Logan who studied Fallon with clinical intensity. A shiver ran through her, what was the cowboy looking for?
Fallon got her attention, “See you tomorrow.” He lifted her face and pressed a chaste kiss on her lips. Placing her hands behind his head, she ensured the kiss lasted a bit longer until someone cleared their throat.
He straightened and left the room. Tonia stared in disbelief at his retreating back.
Kieran stood. “I’ll be right back, going to run a bit with Albert. Wait for me.” He kissed the top of Wendy’s head and went to the door, the dog on his heels.
“Tonia?” Wendy frowned. “What’s the deal with you two?”
Tonia swallowed and looked to Logan who remained eating. The oblivious Texan cut into his steak and lifted his eyes to them when he felt their stares. He looked up at them. “What?”
“Nothing, keep eating Logan,” Wendy shook her head and smiled. “Come with me.” She grabbed Tonia’s arm and pulled her from the room.
“What did I do?” Logan called after them.
Once in the library, she closed the door and pointed to the couch. “Sit down and spill it.”
She sat down, but remained quiet, not sure what to say.
“Why aren’t you sleeping with Fallon? I thought you guys were already intimate prior to the mating.”
A private person by nature, heat rose to her cheeks. “We were.”
“So?”
“I have a problem being married to someone that I didn’t choose. This whole situation is so strange. I barely even know him.”
Wendy nodded. “Yeah, I get you, I really do.” With a faraway look, she looked past her to the wall. Misted eyes met hers. “I’m so sorry Tonia, I really am. But it’s done now.” She patted her hand and sighed. “And it can’t be undone.”
Tonia sighed and sunk further into the plush couch, pulling her feet under her. “The reason I’m staying in the guest cottage is because I can’t accept this ultimatum, this forced union.”
“Did you guys consummate the marriage?” Wendy asked peering at her closely. “Because neither of you look too good.”
Tonia shifted uneasily under Wendy’s scrutiny. “We’d been intimate, right before Julian mated us and once right afterward.”
“Oh my God! Is that it?” Wendy shrieked. At her nod Wendy’s hands covered her mouth. “How have you made it this long?”
“It’s only been two days. We kiss every morning.” She sagged. “What the hell am I saying? Honestly, I am not sure I can take it much longer. But he won’t have sex now unless I agree to a relationship.”
“Kiss?” Wendy’s wide eyes and raised eyebrows made Tonia mirror the look in consternation.
“Yeah, but you know what? If he doesn’t agree to it, too bad, I’m climbing in that bed and taking him by force.” Tonia pointed to the ceiling. “Do you still feel this way? Like a nymphomaniac on crack?” Tonia asked.
“No, not as bad as the first days.” Wendy sighed a dreamy look on her face. “I don’t know how I made it through that wedding reception, I wanted to hump Kieran in front of everyone. I didn’t care if my whole family saw us naked and all over each other.” She hesitated. “It’s still there, that raw need for him, but mostly it’s because he’s so damn yummy.”
Nodding, Tonia understood. She didn’t need a mating ritual to want Fallon, but being forced into the current situation didn’t sit well with her.
“What is keeping you from accepting his proposal?”
Tonia sighed. “There’s something he’s keeping from me. A secret.”
Wendy bit her lip and looked away. That confirmed it. There was something else.
“Look I’m not going to ask you what it is. Not that you would tell me, and besides, I want him to be honest with me. I’m going for a jog.” She stood. “Care to come?”
“Err…no way, not after all this talk about intimacy. I’m going upstairs to wait and catch Kieran before he goes to sleep.”
Wendy hesitated then took her hand. “Tonia, Fallon is a good man. You loved your first husband, and he was probably a great guy, but you’ve been doubly blessed by meeting Fallon. Get to know him, you couldn’t ask for a better husband. All this that happened to him is not his fault”
Tonia forced a smile at her new friend. Her mind whirled. What happened to him?
After Wendy left, she remained sitting, mulling over her options. Too stubborn to admit defeat, she went outside to jog within the walled land surrounding the house. Running helped. But very little.
The buzz of the cell phone woke Tonia from a deep sleep. She reached for it, and seeing it was Douglas, sat straight up.
“Marcus is dead,” her partner told her without preamble. “I’m at the scene right now. It’s not pretty.”
Already jamming her jeans on, she rushed into the bathroom. “Give me the address.”
She called Fallon and told him about the call. He told her a Protector would be i
n the vicinity of where she was headed and ten minutes later, she zipped through downtown streets, arriving at a pay-by-the-hour hotel. Pulling her badge out of her windbreaker pocket, she rushed past a couple uniforms who eyed her and motioned to where Douglas stood, just inside the rundown room. She stepped through the doorway with care to avoid the glass and blood that covered the dingy carpeting.
The body was already gone, all that remained were the markers where the body had been and investigators dusting for prints and other evidence.
Douglas turned as if sensing her. “Mohr, you didn’t need to come, it’s your first vacation in a long time.”
“How did it happen?”
Her partner frowned but knew better than to argue and motioned for her to follow. They walked out of the room and around the building to stand outside the room’s window. “He was attacked here, seems like he was thrown through the window into the room. They finished inside. His neck was practically torn out. He bled to death. Who ever did this was a sick fuck.”
A demon.
“Anything else stand out?” Her voice shook.
“Not sure yet, but it seems like he’d been trying to get himself together. The hotel manager said he’d prepaid for the rest of the month. That he’d told him he recently got a job, at that new restaurant around the corner, as a cook.”
“Damn.” Tonia shook her head. “I told him to leave town.”
“Yeah well, as usual, he didn’t listen.”
“Marshals can we get some information from you?” a detective called out to them.
They talked with the detective for another hour.
“I’m going home,” Douglas told her, looking every bit of his forty-five years. “I suggest you do the same.”
He studied her. “You still with that British fellow?”
“Yeah, we’re still hanging.”
“Good, that’s good Mohr, you need a distraction from all this.” He looked toward the hotel. “We talked and he seems like a good guy.”
Recalling Fallon cleaning her apartment, his patience with her and Wendy’s words, she nodded. “He is.”
“Good night Mohr, see you on Monday”
“Good night Douglas,” she replied watching him get into his nondescript sedan and drive off at a slow speed.
Restless she strolled around the block. Keeping her fingers curled around the hilt of her dagger, she scanned the streets looking for demons. The need to rid the city of them gnawed at her insides. If only she could be part of the Protector army, learn their techniques. She’d be able to make more of a difference. Spotting movement, she leaned against a wall and watched to see who headed her way.
Friend or foe?
Some nights were suffocating and endless, this one felt like such. Being constantly on edge from the evil inside him and now with the added pressure of the lack of sexual release, Fallon wasn’t sure how he kept from accepting Tonia’s offer that morning. Almost four in the morning, there were still at least two hours until sunrise. He adjusted his fly, the hardness aching.
“What are you doing?” Fallon spotted Logan walking toward him. “You’re out of your sector.”
The man stuck out like a sore thumb, seeming to belong more in a western movie scene than walking down in the middle of midtown Atlanta. “Kieran is gone to check out something. A demon attack, from what I gather it’s a blood bath.”
“Why are you here?”
The uneasy look Logan gave him spoke volumes. Losing his temper he groaned in frustration. “I don’t need a fucking babysitter.”
“Yeah well, Julian’s orders,” Logan replied, his hand massaging his shoulder.
“What’s wrong with your shoulder?”
“Oh yeah, I meant to tell you. I ran into this Master Demon the other night. The fucker threw a dagger at me and cut my shoulder. He bled like a pig when I shot him too.”
Fallon’s eyes widened. “Let me get this straight, you run into a Master Demon, who can kill you almost instantly and you shoot at him?”
Logan gave him a droll look. “Yeah well, I like to shoot.” He shrugged. “Anyway, listen. He bled. The dude was weak.”
“Who was it?” Fallon asked, wondering if it could have been Gerard.
“I didn’t ask his name,” Logan told him, watching a group of young people crossing the street, with them a gangly demon male.
“What did he look like?”
The cowboy continued watching the group. “Tall, dark and ugly.” He laughed at his own joke. “Six foot two, sleek build, long hair, past his shoulders, straight, I would say black or very dark brown, widow’s peak.”
“Gerard.”
“Yeah well I figured he’s probably the one that’s got you marked. Sorry I didn’t kill the fucker, but he flashed away before I could get him.”
“You shot him and he didn’t try to kill you?”
An eyebrow arched. “I doubt he was trying to give me a haircut with that sword of his. So yeah, he wasn’t happy. Sorry I wish I would have offed the fucker.”
“Thanks, you tried. They’re hard to kill, need to be surrounded in order to keep them from flashing. It’s tricky.” Fallon headed to his car. “Hopefully we can track him. Did you get a scent on him?”
“You bet your sweet British ass I did.”
Fallon stared at him. “What did you say about my ass?”
Logan gagged and spit. “It’s the pain talking, I need coffee and an aspirin.”
“Drugs don’t work on us.”
“Yeah I know, but I like to take an aspirin every once in a while, it supposed to be good for something or other.”
Shaking his head, he didn’t try to figure out what Logan went on about and motioned to the passenger door. “Need a ride to your bike?”
“Nah,” Logan looked to where the group of teens headed. “I think I’ll hang for a bit and keep an eye on them. Plus, maybe one of their moms will pick them up. She sees me, notices my good looks and invites me over for cake and pizza.” A smile split his face.
“You’re supposed to be babysitting me.” Fallon gave Logan a slow smile. “Can’t allow me to drive off, there’s no telling what I’ll do.”
“Oh yeah, almost forgot.” Logan walked alongside him pulling a gun from its holster and dropping it back with precise motions. He liked the easygoing way of the male. “Hey your wife was asking Wendy for marital advice. You falling down on the job already my man?”
“Shut up.”
“Ooookaaay.”
Chapter Thirteen
Rushing through the gates of his home, Fallon barely brought his car to a halt before getting out and hurrying to the guest cottage. The need to have her made each movement jerky, uneven, and he cursed silently. Even before reaching the door, he knew she wasn’t there. What now?
He slammed the door and rushed to the main house.
The kitchen was empty except for Kieran, who drank coffee and looked up expectantly at him.
“Where’s everyone?” Fallon asked, noting Wendy’s absence, really wanting to ask about Tonia.
“Wendy is upstairs, she went to get a travel brochure, wants to plan a real honeymoon.” Kieran’s brow crinkled in confusion. “I’m not sure what that means.”
Fallon shrugged. “Me either. Have you seen Tonia?” He sat, attempting to relax.
“She was here a minute ago. Told Wendy she needed to talk to her and went upstairs with her.” He relaxed, she was in the house. Safe. Strange he didn’t sense her, but his senses were not working properly, took most of his energy to keep his emotions under control. The damn thing was taking so much from him.
“I saw her last night,” Kieran told him.
“Where?”
“In Midtown, fighting a demon, not far from where I tracked a high-level.” Kieran glanced to the doorway to ensure they were not overheard. “She’s good.”
“Yeah, but not good enough to be out there fighting alone.” And, she’d promised not to fight until they discussed it. Fallon turned away. “I nee
d to talk to her.”
“Have you told her?” Kieran asked, causing him to sink into the chair across from his partner. He put his head in his hands, elbows resting on the tabletop. Fallon knew Kieran referred to his possible possession.
“Her first husband was killed by a demon. If it wins, she’ll be bonded to Gerard, and there isn’t shit anyone will be able to do about that.”
Kieran grumbled. “Damn, you’re right, you have to tell her. There can’t be such a big secret between mates. We’re fighting this, and you’ll need her more and more the closer it gets.”
“Yeah,” he replied as dread killed plans to seduce his mate. “I’ll talk to her.”
Clear green eyes met his. “He won’t win Fallon. We won’t let him.”
One way or another. Those words didn’t need to be spoken out loud.
Fallon went upstairs. Before talking to her, he’d shower and change. The last demon he’d fought had gotten lucky and nicked his arm, not only tore his expensive shirt, but now the blood was stuck to the cut. He pulled the shirt off and walked into his bedroom.
Tonia, dressed in one of his white T-shirts, came to him. Her eyes not leaving his, she wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him to her. “I am not taking no for an answer today.”
When his mouth covered hers, he was lost. Her hands slid from his shoulders to take his hands. His beautiful mate pulled him toward the bed, while at the same time parting her lips allowing him to delve in. When she moaned against him, pushing her pelvis to his, his legs almost gave out.
Placing his arm under her legs, he picked her up and carried her the rest of the way, falling with her onto the bed. He broke the kiss, “Tonia, we need to talk first.”
“No,” she replied yanking at his trousers. “We’ll talk later.” She unzipped his pants pushed them and his boxers down his hips and reached in to take him in hand. A loud groan escaped. He was barely able to stop himself from coming then and there.
“You win,” he told her as she began stroking his length. Head thrown back, he could only fist the bedding. It felt so damn good. Her other hand cupped his sack, and she continued kissing him, her lips sliding across his chest and down to his tight stomach.
Immortal Lord (Immortal Protectors Book 4) Page 9
