“I know.” She shrugged, the delicate muscles in her back flexing under his palm. “It’s just that knowing is not helping.”
“Maybe the loving will.” She went absolutely still against him, even her breathing suspended. “You loved me a year ago, Eden.”
“A lot has happened in a year.”
“But you still love me.”
She shook her head. “I don’t know what I feel.”
Her doubts beat at him, but he couldn’t let them sway his certainty. “I do.”
“How?”
He touched his mouth to hers. “Because we are mates. Your feelings cannot be less than mine.”
Again that stillness that could mean anything. And then a very soft, very tense “Are you saying you love me?” breathed against his lips.
He rested his forehead against hers. “You have been my all from the first moment I saw you.”
She shook her head, her fingers spreading over his chest. “You wanted me when you first saw me?”
He smiled, remembering the flood of alien emotion that had shaken his control that first time. “That, too.” He gathered a handful of her hair and pulled her head back. “I have pledged my life, my happiness and my soul to you, and still you doubt my feelings?” He could tell from her expression that she did. It was the why he did not understand. “Explain.”
“I don’t want to.”
“You need to.”
Her stomach rumbled in the silence. “I’m too hungry to concentrate.”
He doubted that. “Then you must eat.”
Her little start of surprise was well concealed, but their minds were too linked for her to hide it entirely. He sighed and shook his head. “I have told you often enough mate, your needs come first.”
“Unless they go against your wishes.”
He reached for the tray Harley had left and moved it to the bed. “That is untrue.”
Her full lips thinned to another flat line of disagreement. He released her hair and smoothed it back from her face. “It is only when your wishes endanger your safety that I must insist on obedience.”
He leaned back on the bed, giving her some space. She eyed him warily and cautiously reached for the sandwich. “You’re the one who gets to determine what’s safe?”
“Yes.” The soft T-shirt clung to her unfettered breasts, enhancing their roundness and the softly peaked nipples. “You do not wear a bra.” He patted her back as she choked on the mouthful of sandwich, easing her through the spasm. “Swallow.”
She did, cautiously, clearing her throat, the redness in her face increasing rather than subsiding. She blinked the tears from her eyes. “I’m sorry.” And then red-cheeked, she said, “Marlika’s didn’t fit.
“There is no harm done.” He cupped her breast. “You are still swollen.”
Her head dropped back even as she pressed her torso into his touch. “Oh for goodness’ sake.”
“What?” The softness of the cotton shirt could not equal the softness of her flesh, but it was close.
“That’s not something a man should notice.”
He laughed despite the day weariness tugging at him. “That is the first thing any Chosen would notice.”
“You are a sick man.”
“No.” He weighed each breast, rubbing his thumb over the tips and corrected, “I am a very appreciative mate.”
Against his groin, through the cotton of her shorts, he felt her pussy flex. He brushed the tips again. Her moan drifted through his mind as the scent of her arousal rose to embrace his senses.
“You need.” Her stomach rumbled. “And you hunger.”
She leaned harder into his hands. “I’ll eat later.”
He caught the hand holding the sandwich and brought it to her lips. “You need sustenance now.”
She shook her head and her blue eyes narrowed. Her blonde curls tumbled over her shoulder to wrap around his wrist as she tilted her head. “If you think there’s any way I can eat now, you have another think coming.”
The plumpness of her breast, the silky smoothness of her hair binding him to her, called to his lust. His cock ached and strained against her pussy, pushing up, meeting the downward press of her hips. This time the sound of her pleasure filled the room. He gritted his teeth. “You strain my control.”
She pushed her breast into his hand, not backing off even though she winced. Her “Screw your control” contained the pleasure-pain of the caress.
“I would much rather screw you.” He eased her back with a hand on her shoulder. Her mental wail of protest mourned the separation. “But you will eat first.”
“No way.”
He smiled at her determination. If he wasn’t touching the too thin curve of her shoulder, he might have let her persuade him, but with the reminder of her condition under his hand, he would not be swayed. “I must insist.”
She put the sandwich back on the plate and grabbed the hem of her shirt. Her “Insist away” was only slightly muffled by the thin material. It caught on his hands, creating a moment of peek-a-boo when it stretched, exposing her stomach and the undercurve of her breast.
Eden tugged. He let go, and then there was nothing between his eyes and her breasts. Nothing except his duty to see to her welfare. It was a sad realization that his resolve wasn’t what it should be in the face of baser needs. Not when she sat before him, her beauty enhanced by the fullness of her breasts, the hungry red color of her distended nipples and the seeded curve of her abdomen.
The smugness of her expression as she watched him watch her was the only thing that kept his desire under control. A mate’s desire was a gift, but one a Chosen mate was duty-bound to control and not allow to interfere with her health. Especially a newly seeded mate who had no experience with the hormones flooding her system. It sounded so easy when lectured about. It was a lot harder to remember when said mate cuddled his cock to her heat and her scent enclosed him in a haze of demand.
“You will eat.”
She leaned toward him. “Later.”
“If you wish the pleasure of my cock, you will eat now.”
She cupped her breasts in her small hands, lifting them to him. “What if I want the pleasure of your mouth?”
Lust rolled over him in a debilitating wave. He tightened his grip on her shoulder, the bone pressing into his palm reminding him of his duty. “Then you will eat.”
Her fingers slid up the high curves, tightening as they reached the pouting tips. He could not take his gaze away. Desire shot through his blood in staccato bursts that hammered with insidious query. What would it hurt if he satisfied her need first and then insisted she eat?
She squeezed the tips, too hard, too soon. Her flinch and surprise anchored his desire and his purpose. She did not know what she was asking.
He brushed Eden’s hands aside when she would have tried again, shushing her protest with a mental touch as he cupped her breasts anew, pure pleasure at the feel of her skin and heat sliding through him in a culmination that had his hips arching up into hers. He fought for his voice when he would have much preferred to project his feelings.
“You need to learn patience, mate.” He thrummed his thumbs lightly over her nipples. Her cry was sweet to his ears. As sweet as her scent. “Pleasure is not rushed.”
He thrummed her nipples one last time before turning her around. Her foot caught awkwardly. He held while she pulled it free, then gently, ever so gently, he settled her firm buttocks against his erection. She’d dressed in another pair of his shorts. The loose cotton was no barrier. His shaft slid neatly between the tempting globes. The drive to take her immediately almost overrode his common sense. Almost. He grasped her wrist in his hand, the fine bones making him aware of his much greater strength and her vulnerability. “No more tempting me until you finish eating. “
She tossed her head, her curls flying in his face. “Uh-huh.”
She wiggled her ass on his cock. The gesture almost as defiant as the toss of her head. He tipped her chin
back, the arch of her throat a seductive curve that beckoned his lips. “Eat so we may play.”
The back of her head settled into the curve of his shoulder. “I thought Chosen had to sleep during the day.”
“We do.” He ran his lips over the whorls of her ear, feeling the hitch in her breathing as he did, pulling her just that much closer, unable to believe she was here when he’d lived with the agony of her loss for so long. “Which means if you do not hurry up and eat, I will be too tired to play.”
“All the more reason to play first.”
He skated his lips down the soft skin of her neck, listening to the pulse beat in her throat, enjoying the heat from her skin, smiling as it increased beneath his caress. Most of all enjoying the knowledge that he was whole once again. “You will need your strength.”
“So will you.”
“That fades as the sun rises.”
She looked at the heavily draped window, harrumphed and took a bite of the sandwich. Her cheek flexed against his as she chewed. He traced the slide of muscle with his lips as she swallowed. He caught her hand before she could put the sandwich down.
“Again,” he whispered against her throat.
“Bully.”
He smiled at the sass in her tone. He’d missed it too much to reprimand her for it. “Mate,” he corrected.
He knew she felt the eager twitch of his cock as she took the next bite. The way she rocked her hips demanded a reprimand, not the encouragement of his hands but he gave it to her anyway, his control as nothing against her wishes and needs. She was his miracle, his salvation. He could deny her nothing. He waited in an agony of controlled anticipation as she ate the sandwich. At first, he wasn’t sure, but by the time she was on her fourth bite he knew. Edie was deliberately dragging out the meal, each bite getting smaller, each swallow taking longer.
“A woman who teases her mate asks for trouble,” he informed her calmly, as if his primitive side wasn’t salivating with lust.
She took another miniscule bite, chewed it and swallowed before answering. “According to you, everything I do ‘asks’ for trouble.”
There wasn’t a hint of fear in her voice, or in the gentle clench of her buttocks on his cock. He pressed up into the hot crease. “You are very disobedient.”
The glance she sent over her shoulder had his heart picking up the beat to match hers. The slow squeeze of her buttocks on his hard cock an enticement that had his fangs exploding into his mouth. “Do you know what you are asking for?”
“I don’t see why I should suffer alone.”
“So you admit to your teasing?”
She squeezed him again, sliding her hips up and down his length as she took the last bite of her sandwich. Her eyes flashed blue from under her sun-tipped lashes as she smiled at him over her shoulder. “I haven’t been trying to keep it a secret.”
“Good.” He pushed her forward on the bed, stroking her back as she caught herself on her hands. Before she could push up, he came over her, capturing her in the entirety of his embrace, her back arched into his chest, her ass pressed to his hips, her thighs trapped between his. “I need you.”
I need you.
The calm whisper breathed against Eden’s ear, shivered down her spine, the deeper timbre stroking her desire in an invitation as silky as the cool swathe of Deuce’s hair falling over her shoulders. He was so big around her, his body dwarfing her, his erection pressing firmly between her buttocks in a dark demand that should have frightened her, but instead sent every nerve ending leaping in excitement.
“Deuce?”
His lips were a brush of fire on her shoulder, her neck, her cheek. “Yes?”
She felt something sharper graze her hip. There was a tug on the waistband of her shorts. The mattress dipped as his weight shifted, then there was the same tugging on the other side. The soft material fell away from her groin and dangled between them, trapped by the pressure of his touch and the sweat of their bodies.
He backed his hips from hers. The air felt cool against her flesh. She shivered and gathered her courage. “I want it all this time.”
He stilled. The torn shorts slid to the bed. His big hand touched her shoulder with incredible gentleness, before sliding down her side. “I do not understand.”
“You’ve been holding back when we make love. Sheltering me.” She arched her shoulder into his palm, needing his touch as much as she needed her next breath. “This time I want to feel everything.”
Her desire for him waged war with her fear of being vulnerable to him. His hand cupped her stomach, tracing the small remaining bulge. So light a touch to convey such hope and feeling. “It is too soon.”
Damn it, how was she supposed to hold herself apart when he did things like that? She turned her head until she could see his face. His expression gave away nothing, but she knew, just knew he thought she couldn’t handle it. “You can’t ask me to trust you when you hide things from me.”
“It is my duty to protect you.”
“Not to the extent that you interfere with my experience.” She turned beneath him, catching his hair in her hands as she fell back on the bed, taking him with her. “You need to let me make my own choices.”
He came down over her. Thigh to thigh, hip to hip, chest to chest. His hair settling around her face as he blocked out the rest of the light and there was only his scent, his touch, his lips on hers. “I cannot let you hurt.”
“Are you planning on hurting me?”
He rested his forehead against hers. His breath hit her face in a carefully controlled rhythm. “You are so small.”
She walked her fingers down his side over the hard pad of muscles protecting his ribs, smiling as they expanded with his next breath. She turned her hand and dragged the backs of her nails around his waist, gliding into the hollow of his hipbone, aiming for more intimate territory. “And you’re so big.” She curled her fingers around his cock. It leapt and pulsed in her hand. His breathing stopped altogether. “I’ve always heard that’s a good thing when it comes to making love.”
He grabbed her wrist. There was a moment when she thought he was going to pull her hand away. She stopped him with a simple “Please?” His fingers slid around hers. His grip tightened and then relaxed.
“I cannot deny you.”
He didn’t sound happy about it, but she was. “I’m glad.”
“We will try it your way, but—” His agreement melted to a groan as she squeezed gently. He pulsed in her grip, his cock somehow soft and hard at the same time.
“But what?”
“I will decide if it is too much.”
She shook her head. “No way.” She brought her knee up between his thighs until she could press gently against his balls. “You’re going to have to trust me.”
His denial was instant and silent but she felt it anyway. She cupped his cheeks in her hands, squinting to see his expression in the low light. “You promised to give me what I need.”
His fingers tightened on her hair, pulling the strands, sending fine tingles through her scalp that reverberated down her spine. “I will.”
The tingles flared to shocks of anticipation. Her nipples drew to hard points, and her pussy swelled and flared open in a blatant invitation. She took a breath, inhaled his scent, and forgot to let it out. Dear God, he was potent. His mouth opened over the top of her breast.
She arched up, pushing the hardened nubbin between his lips. The pressure of his teeth was just enough to send her breath skittering from her lungs.
“I need to have a say in all this.” For a moment, she felt the sharp points of his fangs. Before her whimper could dissolve in the air, they were gone. “Please, Deuce.”
Her answer came in the shift of his hips that had his cock pressing against the opening of her body. He was huge. She sucked in a breath.
“Come to me, Edie.”
She knew what he wanted. “I can’t.”
“Trust works both ways, mate.”
He was rig
ht. “What about her?”
She didn’t want this time ruined by the intrusion of the strange woman.
“She will not touch you.”
“You can do that now?”
“I know her path.”
“You’re sure?”
“I have said so.”
So he had. Which meant she was free to let go. For the first time ever. She flicked his flat brown nipple with her thumb as she milked his cock slowly. “So I’m free to enjoy you?”
His big body shuddered against her and his cock swelled in her hand. “Yes.”
“I might like this.”
The bed bounced as he dropped to his elbow, bringing his nipple within range of her mouth. “I am glad.”
She bet he was. A simple bend of her neck and she had that small protrusion between her lips. His hand cradled the back of her head, supporting her as she nibbled on the sensitive nub. His groan was a deep whisper of sound. “Do not stop.”
It took her a second to realize he meant the slow pumping of her hand on his cock. His shaft jumped and pulled in her grip while his upper body held absolutely still, with a desperate edge. A quick glance up as she laved his nipple with short strokes of her tongue showed his face drawn into harsh lines of pleasure. A shot of pure pride went through her as he shuddered on her next stroke. And suddenly it wasn’t enough to have him in her hand.
She angled the fat head of his cock down to the shallow well of her vagina. “Make love to me, Deuce.”
Was that throaty siren’s voice hers?
“You are not ready.”
She laughed outright and arched up. “I’m on fire for you.”
It was true. If fire came in a liquid form, it would be pouring from her body right now, spilling over the head of his cock. “I need you.”
“Be easy.”
She couldn’t “be easy”, not with his cock teasing her, hovering just beyond her grasp. She lifted her hips, coaxing him closer. “Please.”
He nodded slowly. “Come to me.”
She felt the brush of his mind. As gentle as the touch of his hand on her cheek. “I don’t know how.” The confession shuddered out on a hoarse sigh that didn’t begin to communicate her frustration.
CONCEPTION (The Others) Page 28
