by J. K. Coi
Lifting her head, she saw something flicker in his face. He held her to him with one arm wrapped around her waist.
“Let me go,” she said.
“Hell no.” He kissed her. Hard. She fought to remain unresponsive, fearing that if she gave in to the passion building steadily, she would be helpless against the bloodlust—and she couldn’t bear it if she hurt him again.
She pushed against him, her hands on his chest, until he lifted his head. “What’s the matter?” he asked.
“Nothing,” she replied shortly. “I just don’t want this.”
“Bullshit.” His eyes blazed down at her, reflecting his desire and calling her out for the liar she was. “You want this.” He rubbed his thumb over the inside of her wrist and pulled her back to him. “I can feel your pulse racing,” he murmured.
His breath teased the side of her neck as he moved in closer. “I can scent the sweet musk of your need. Oh yeah, you want this. Why are you still fighting it? Fighting us?”
“Us?” Max shook her head and leaned back from him, refusing to look him in the eye. “Since when did this turn into an us?”
“This has been all about us for years, and you know it,” he said. “I’m done running from you, Max.” With a hand under her chin, he tilted her head up until she was forced to see the sincerity shining in those silvery eyes. “I love you.”
She twisted in his hold, desperate to get away before she violated his words with her bloodlust. “Stop,” she whispered. “Don’t say that. Get away from me.”
“Why do you have such a big problem with me telling you that I care?”
She snorted and redoubled her efforts to be free of him. Her head was starting to pound and she could feel the beast rising. “Go tell it to someone else, Baron. I’ve had enough of your bullshit.”
“Bullshit? God, you know I’m getting tired of this wicked rollercoaster the two of us always seem to be riding. You think my feelings for you are bullshit? That’s great. Just fucking wonderful. Woman, if saying I love you is bullshit, if saving your life is bullshit, then what the hell more do you want from me?”
He finally let her go and Max stumbled back. She pressed the back of her hand to her mouth, trying to push down the hunger. Glaring at him she said, “Nothing. Don’t you get it yet? I don’t want anything from you. Not ever again.”
Eyeing her carefully, Baron laughed bitterly. “Now who’s talking bullshit, eh, Max?”
Baron took a step forward, and Max took another step back, but he just kept coming and she soon found herself against the wall. She knew he could see in her eyes that she was very near the edge. “Baron, please,” she begged.
“Please what?” he demanded, his voice hard. “Please get the fuck away from me? Is that really what you want?” He braced both arms on either side of her head and leaned in close. “Say it,” he urged.
She opened her mouth to say the words. It would be so much easier, safer, simpler when he was gone.
She could convince herself she’d been right all along about him—that he was irresponsible and unreliable, that he was just like her father and not worth taking a chance on. When Baron left, she could go back to her safe life, where there was no one who could hurt her and she relied only on herself. She wouldn’t have to be so terrified that he would see just how close her monster was to the surface, just how afraid she was that it would get out of control.
“What’s it going to be, Max?”
Tears burned the backs of her eyes, and she wanted to turn away, to hide them so he couldn’t see how much she hurt. Instead, with a deep breath, she raised a hand and cupped his cheek, drawing his gaze to hers. “I’m afraid, Baron.”
He sighed, the anger dropping out of his expression. “I know, baby. I know. But I promise,” he murmured, touching his lips to hers in gentle reassurance. “I promise I’ll be here for you. I won’t leave you ever again.”
“Why? I’m still the trailer trash daughter of a drunken whore whose father couldn’t even love her enough to stick around. I’m still your brother’s best friend, and the woman you found it so easy to run out on two years ago. And if that weren’t enough, there’s an evil thing inside me, Baron. What if Justice was right? What if I can’t control it?”
“You really don’t see what I see in you, do you?” He smoothed a hand over her hair, tucking a few loose strands behind her ear. “You may look at yourself and still see that unwanted little girl. But when I look at you, I see a woman of strength and determination. I see a woman capable of so much love.”
He paused and gazed deeply into her eyes. “I see a woman who can handle anything.” He gripped both her shoulders and squeezed. “You will deal with this. I wasn’t lying when I told the Enforcer you were the strongest woman I’ve ever known. And I don’t doubt that you can do this all on your own, but I want you to know that you don’t have to. You’ll never have to be alone again.”
Their lips met in a tender fusion of body and soul. Max gladly gave herself up to it, his confidence in her giving her the strength she needed, his trust freeing her. She reached for him, sliding her hands beneath his shirt to lift it from him. He was happy to oblige, raising his arms and letting her peel the snug cotton from his body. In turn, he dragged the bulky sweater off her, lifting her in his arms and carrying her to the bedroom.
They undressed each other with slow attention, each inch of skin revealed receiving glorious, dizzying attention from mouth and hands. Baron trailed hot kisses over her breasts, flicked her tight, aching nipples with his tongue. She clutched him closer, wanting him inside her already, needing his hard, thick length to fill her. He chuckled huskily at her eagerness but showed no sign of hurrying things along.
Max decided to take matters into her own hands, pushing him to his back. Baron settled his head on her pillow as she straddled him. He radiated heat, his eyes revealing just how much he desired her, for once hiding nothing, making her feel more love than she had ever known.
Lowering herself, she braced her hands on his chest and took him inside her in one long, smooth glide, her tissues wet and ready for him. He groaned and lifted his hips, thrusting deeper. She opened herself to every sensation that Baron stirred in her. They were joined—not only at the throbbing juncture of her slippery thighs, but body, mind and soul. He was a part of her, sharing every sense, every feeling.
They made love with eyes wide open, drinking in the soft sighs and moans of pleasure. Touching and tasting, bodies sliding up and down, in and out in a drugging rhythm.
Baron took Max’s breasts in his hands, cupping and squeezing them as she moved languidly atop him. She was so beautiful, her shining blond hair swaying with her movements, grazing the tops of her shoulders and framing her face. He felt so proud of her, and so lucky to have been given a second chance. He just hoped he didn’t screw it up.
His balls tensed at the slide of his cock in her tight passage as she lifted herself along his length. With a groan, he grasped her hips and held her still.
“What is it?” she asked, her voice husky with her mounting need. “What’s the matter?”
He pulled her down to him for a deep, wet kiss. “I know you need to feed.”
She froze and her gaze dropped.
“Look at me,” he urged. “I don’t want any more uncertainty between us. I want to be what you need in every way. You have my permission to take my blood anytime you want.”
“But that’s so…”
“So what? It’s nothing. You need blood and I can give it to you. It’s as simple as that.”
“Are you sure?”
He laughed. “Are you kidding me? Having you squirming around naked on top of me with those sexy teeth buried in my neck is just the first of many dirty little fantasies I’m going to force you to live out with me over the next hundred years or so.”
Her body finally relaxed and her return smile was flirty and seductive. She did squirm for him then, rotating her hips to take him in deeper, and he groaned. “Come on, baby, s
how me what you’ve got,” he teased.
She kissed him lightly, flicking her tongue over his lips, darting in and out of his mouth before moving to his chin and teasing him with a little nip. When her teeth finally sank deep into his neck, he closed his eyes and thrust his hips hard between her thighs, long, deep strokes that quickly took them both over the edge.
When it was over, they lay curled in each other’s arms. He stroked her hair and waited for his heart to return to a normal rhythm.
Trouble was, with Max around his heart was constantly pounding, his breathing constantly irregular. She tortured him with a simple smile, and sent him to the moon with a soft touch—and he’d come to realize these were things he didn’t want to live without.
“Are you okay?” She murmured her question into his neck, touching her tongue lightly to the punctures she’d made with her teeth as if to soothe him. Her husky voice sounded satisfied and sleepy.
Tucking her beneath him, he kissed her deeply, noting with satisfaction that her drowsiness melted away and was quickly replaced with more of her eager, passionate responses.
Gazing into her eyes, he grinned. “I don’t know, babe. I’m feeling a little woozy.”
She gasped. “Oh no, I’m so sorry, Baron. Did I take too much blood?”
“No, but you took my heart, and now it’s yours forever.”
She laughed. “Well, that’s good then, because forever has been looking better and better lately.”
Epilogue
Max couldn’t believe the news when Jackson told them. And from the look on his face, he was having a hard time believing it himself.
“Really?” she said again. “It’s working?”
“Well, we won’t know anything for certain until the transplant takes. If it does work, then my body will actually start to grow a new supply of red cells, white cells, and platelets—and I might just live a few more years.”
“Oh my God.” She had to sit down. The damn chair was all the way on the other side of the damn room. When Baron had called his Immortal friends Kane and Roland, she hadn’t expected much, but little had she known that they apparently ran the largest medical research facility in the world. Before she knew it, Jacky’s doctors had found a bone marrow donor and were scheduling a transplant.
“Oh my God.” She was babbling and tears were streaming down her face, but she couldn’t seem to stop them.
Baron laughed and put an arm around her waist to hold her steady. “I told you she was going to cry,” he said to his brother. “You owe me fifty bucks.”
“Hah. You can take it off my hospital bill,” Jackson replied with a grin. “Since it has mysteriously been paid in full.”
She couldn’t describe how good it felt seeing the two brothers together like this—even if they were making fun at her expense. “Stop it, you two. I’m trying to have a moment here,” she chided good-naturedly.
“Will you be able to leave the hospital…” She wanted to say “soon”, but she knew that just last week the question would have been “at all”, and the words got stuck in her throat. She didn’t want to get Jackson’s hopes too high in case his treatment didn’t take, but even so, she couldn’t help feeling as if the sun were shining down on them after a long rain.
Ironic for someone who would never again see real sunshine, but if Jackson was going to be okay even that didn’t seem so horrible anymore.
“I don’t know. It will probably be a while yet before my doctor lets me out of here.”
Max glanced at Baron.
“We’re staying,” he assured her, with a reassuring squeeze of her hand. Turning his grin on Jackson, he said, “You’re going to regret sending Max after me, bro.”
Jackson smiled as he looked from his brother to his best friend. “Oh, I don’t know about that. It’ll be diverting to watch Max wipe the floor with you on a daily basis.” They chuckled. Max couldn’t tear her eyes from the two men who seemed so different at first glance.
“Baron, are you sure?” she asked. Just because he’d put his responsibilities on hold when Max had dropped back into his life didn’t mean he could continue doing so indefinitely. He had obligations to his fellow Immortals. She understood the kind of war he was fighting.
Baron looked at Jackson when he answered. “I’m sure there are just as many evil demons for me to slay here and in Chicago as there are in Chandler.” They’d already told Jackson everything. About Max and the vampire, about Baron being an Immortal and exactly what that meant.
He’d taken it all rather well, but he’d still been skeptical until Max had done a little show and tell with her claws and her teeth. “I’ll talk to Rhys about it as soon as I can, but don’t expect to be seeing the back of me…not ever again.”
Max looked at the smiling faces of her two men. The two people she loved most in the world. Her family.
About J.K. Coi
J.K. Coi is a multi-published, award-winning author of contemporary and paranormal romance and urban fantasy. She makes her home in Ontario, Canada, with her husband and son and a feisty black cat who is the uncontested head of the household. While she spends her days immersed in the litigious world of insurance law, she is very happy to spend her nights writing dark and sexy characters who leap off the page and into readers’ hearts.
J.K. welcomes comments from readers. You can find her website and email addresses on her author bio page at www.ellorascave.com.
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Also by J.K.Coi
Brazen Games
Howling Sacrifices
Immortal Duty
Iron Seduction
The Morning After
Warm Bodies
Print books by J.K. Coi
Don’t Ask, Never Tell anthology
Watching it All anthology
Ellora’s Cave Publishing
www.ellorascave.com
Immortal Kiss
ISBN 9781419941832
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Immortal Kiss Copyright © 2013 J.K. Coi
Edited by Rebecca Hill
Cover design by Mina Carter
Photos: Conrado/Shutterstock.com and 123rf.com
Electronic book publication February 2013
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