by Alice Brown
She looked up at him with trusting eyes. “Tell me what you like, Nathaniel. I don’t think I’m very good at this, but I want to try. Tell me what to do.”
He lightly ran his fingertips down her cheek. “Baby, you are doing just fine. And I’ve got news for you. You are wonderful at this. That sweet, little mouth of yours…oh, baby...”
His eyes rolled back into his head as she bent her head back down. This time, she didn’t stop at just placing the tip in her mouth. No, this time she took as much of him as she possibly could. The head of his dick hit the back of her throat and she started to gag. He quickly pulled back a bit. Over the next couple of minutes, she figured out how to relax her throat muscles, and now, she had three-fourths of his nine plus inch dick in her mouth. She swallowed around it and he shivered with need. If he didn’t get inside of her sweet pussy soon, he’d be exploding in her mouth.
He reached down, gently prying her lips off his dick. His spine was zinging with his impending release. He quickly pushed her back down onto the pillows, his lips meeting hers as her head hit the pillow behind her. He just needed a moment to get himself back under control. It had to be good for her. It had to be. If he was going to mate mark her, he wanted her in the throes of the best damn orgasm she had ever felt.
He gently stroked his fingertips up and down her body, building her desire to near a fever pitch while he continued to claim her mouth. This is the moment he had looked forward to for such a long time. Truth be known, while he was stuck in the small town as sheriff, he had given up finding his mate. It hadn’t taken him long to realize she simply didn’t exist in his small town, so he had concentrated his efforts on his career and keeping the residents of his town safe.
But now, now the woman who would be his forever was lying underneath him, wreathing against him. He broke off the kiss and in a breathless whisper she pleaded, “Please, Nathaniel, please. I need you inside of me.”
“Gladly, darlin',” he groaned as he lined his dick up with her hole and slowly sank home. He didn’t stop until his balls slapped her ass. There was something inside of him forcing him to meld their bodies as one, to go as deep inside of her as he could possibly get.
Her pussy was so tight, so warm, and it was squeezing him as he felt her tremble, massaging his dick with little hugs. Her entire body seemed to hum with vibration, and he sat back up, bringing her legs up around his shoulders.
“Hang on, baby, we’re going for one hell of a ride.” This angle took him even deeper, and just knowing that she was fertile had him driving into her as deep and hard as he could go. Funny, he had never really thought about children before. But with Susan…he inwardly grinned. He wouldn’t mind a whole bunch of little ones running around the place.
Each time he rammed into her, Susan groaned. Never ever had she been this full before. Oh, but he was hitting a spot way up inside of her, and oh my! Damn, her mate knew exactly what he was doing. She closed her eyes and moaned again as she reached down and managed to sink her fingernails into his thighs, clinging to him. She didn’t want to let go. This felt right. For the first time in probably forever, this man felt like home. She felt cherished, she felt loved. A vision started forming of what the future might be like for the two of them. If he loved her a couple of years from now, as much as he did now, holy cow! She’d consider herself one lucky woman, because she knew Nathaniel would always be there for her. She didn’t have to fight life’s daily battles by herself. She had a mate. A mate that was currently hitting a special spot that had her trembling, and oh... “Oh God, Nathaniel, I’m coming. Oh, baby, yes, right there...” she practically sang to him as he continued to pump in and out of her. Every nerve in her body was on edge, she herself felt like she was reaching the very peak of a high cliff. Her body locked up and suddenly everything exploded as her orgasm took over, pleasurable waves pulsing through her body as a gush of liquid was expelled from her, coating Nathaniel down to his balls.
He kept his pace up, never slowing down. Just when she thought that it was all over and that her climax was starting to recede, a second one came charging fast on the heels of the first. “Oh God, I’m going to… Oh shit, I’m coming, oh dear God…” she wailed out her second release.
Nathaniel felt his release slam into him as soon as she started her second orgasm, her pussy squeezing the very essence out of him. He bent her knees, still keeping her feet on his shoulders as he came down on top of her. He kissed her and then quickly nibbled his way across her jawline. She turned her head in invitation and he wasted no time. His fangs were already down and he barely got his hands around the back of her shoulders to hold her to him before his fangs were slicing into her skin. Somehow, even after emptying his load into her, he remained hard. It wasn’t but a moment later as he was sucking her blood down that he felt her inner muscles trembling once again. He pumped once, twice, three times and watched in wonder as he sent his little mate off for her third orgasm in just mere minutes.
He released her, his fangs easily sliding out and retreating into his gums. He licked her wound closed, but all he wanted to do was beat on his chest like some damn caveman. This woman was now marked as his, forever. He carefully dropped her back down onto the pillows behind her and with one extended claw, slit his skin open on his wrist, bringing it to her mouth. This was the part that he wasn’t too sure how she was going to handle. “Drink from me, my darlin',” he urged. He wouldn’t force her to do this. If she bucked, he’d back off in a heartbeat. Oh, but he so wanted his blood in her. The blood bond between them would be so much stronger if she could just take some of his blood.
Much to his amazement, she stuck her little tongue out and caught a few drops that were running down his arm. Then, she took his wrist and wrapped her lips around the cut, sucking out the blood as he had just done to her neck. Between her pussy muscles still massaging his hard-as-a-baseball-bat dick and the sensation of her sucking out his blood almost as if it were his dick, it took little time for him to explode a second time inside her warm depth.
He pried her hungry lips off the cut on his wrist, which was already closing up. Before he lost all strength and fell on top of her, he gently brought her legs down on either side of him. With bodies still connected, he rolled them over so she was on top of him. Heaven. This was as close to heaven as he would ever get. A band seemed to grip him around his heart and he knew it was due to the bond. She was his mate, now and forever more. If she remained human, eventually she would age and die. And he would follow her over to the other side, because now that he had found her, he couldn’t imagine living a day without her.
He wrapped his arms tightly around her and glanced down, realizing she hadn’t moved. A drop of wetness hit his chest and that concerned him. Had he been too rough? Only after he angled his head so he could see her face did he see that her eyes were closed and that the most serene look he had ever seen was plastered across her face. Her little mouth was agape and drool was pooling on his chest. He couldn’t help but chuckle. Unfortunately, his chuckling jostled her enough to rouse her. She looked up at him sleepily.
“Hey, darlin'. Please tell me that you are okay, that I wasn’t too rough with you.”
He watched as she sighed and licked her lips, closing her eyes as a slight tremor went through her body. “Nathaniel, if I was any better, I don’t think I’d be alive. That was truly amazzzzing.” She turned and placed a gentle kiss on his bare chest, bringing her little hand up and lightly stroking his nipple.
“You’ve gone and done it now. Good luck trying to get rid of me,” she mumbled against his chest. And then the words that sealed the deal, that he had waited so long to hear, were whispered in the barest of whispers. “I love you.”
Chapter Seven
Nathaniel’s words rang through her head as she pulled into the driveway of her old house. “I would prefer you that you stay home with the doors locked, but if you must go out, call Sissy before you walk out the door. And once you get in the car, don’t stop until you reach he
r and Walter’s house.”
But she needed to be alone, alone with her thoughts, alone with what was left of her old life. Things had just happened so fast. While she readily admitted that she loved Nathaniel with all of her heart and she had no misgivings whatsoever about the mating earlier that afternoon, she knew that in order for her to move forward with her new life, she needed to put to rest a few demons from her past. She loved the fact she now had someone that cared about her, someone to look out for her. But still, until she dealt with the past, she couldn’t fully embrace the future.
She turned the ignition off and sat in the car with the doors locked for a moment. The house looked vacant. The plants were shriveling up and dying in the front flowerbed, because she hadn’t been home to tend them. A sense of loneliness hit her as she stared at the little house. It wasn’t much, but she had thought she’d been happy here the past few months while she was by herself… Hadn’t she?
The answer hit her immediately. Not really. She’d thought she had been doing well after Joe died, picking up the pieces and moving on with her life, but now she realized she’d just been on autopilot. She’d simply done what she thought everyone else expected her to do.
Now, for the first time in her life, Nathaniel was giving her the freedom to live and truly be happy. She unlocked her car door and stepped out. Walking up to her house, she thought she would have felt some sort of welcome, comfort, a sense of coming home, something. But there was nothing. It was nothing but a house that held way too many bad memories, a house that had never really held any happiness. As she unlocked her front door, she wondered why she had insisted she stay there after Joe’s death. Maybe it was because she had been too timid and afraid to face the world. It was easier to just stay put in whatever little bit of comfort the four walls held, versus going out to face the unknown.
Wow, what a difference one man could make, or one smoking hot, Texas Vampire Ranger in her case. She took a good look around her. There really was very little of anything, besides her personal belongings that she wanted to keep. Joe was dead and so was the timid, shy, young woman who went through life accepting anything that was thrown her way.
She threw her keys down on the little table that sat by the door and sorted through the mail that had piled up while she was gone. Realizing most of it was junk, she threw it down on the table and went into the kitchen for a cup of hot tea.
While waiting for the water to boil, she started making a list of items that she wanted to keep: her clothes, toiletry items, a few dishes. There were some pictures in the attic and Christmas decorations that she would also keep. Sitting down with her tea in the living room, she did a complete inventory of everything that was in the house and what she wanted to do with it. Most of the furniture was old and had come from a secondhand store to begin with. She started a list of items she wanted to send to the Salvation Army.
Finally, knowing there was one more thing that she needed to do, she straightened her backbone as she stood and headed for the attic. It was dusty and warm up there, but she knew what had to be done.
She opened the few boxes that were stored up there that contained her life with Joe. As she glanced through the pictures, it hit her hard that she hadn’t really smiled in a family photo since shortly after high school. Tears hit quickly as she allowed her mind to travel back in time. When was the last time she had been happy? She had thought she had been happy and in love with Joe in high school, but now that she was older and wiser, she knew better. She was in love with the idea of being someone’s wife, of being a homemaker, a mother, and a wife. She’d had dreams of having a baby to hold for years before finally giving up on it.
Even now, her arms ached for a baby to hold and love, a little bundle of joy that looked up into her eyes with all the trust and love a newborn baby has to offer. Would things have been different between her and Joe if they’d had a child? Sadly, the answer came that to her was it probably wouldn’t have made any difference between them. She would have exposed an innocent child to their bickering and arguing. No, it wouldn’t have made things better; it probably would have made things worse.
She wiped her tears on her shirtsleeve and closed up the boxes. Nothing but bad memories were held in this attic. The only things that had any good memories were her Christmas decorations sitting in the corner. Not that her and Joe celebrated Christmas, he considered the holiday just another way for retail stores to make more money. But she would lovingly decorate the house anyways, even though he would do nothing but complain about the decorations the entire time they were up. One of the simple joys she had in her old life, which she’d refused to give up.
She walked over to the boxes that held the decorations. She couldn’t help but open them up, eager to latch onto any happy memories she could. She took out a little paper angel that she had made in kindergarten. She didn’t remember making it, but she certainly remembered her mother making sure her little angel went on the family Christmas tree every year while growing up. She’d carried the tradition forward once she had her own house and had made certain her little angel had been on the little Christmas tree she put up every year.
Other pretty, mismatched decorations were there that she slowly took out, most of them reminding her of exactly where and when she had picked them up. Money had been almost non—existent, so when she had been able to scrap together a couple of dollars to buy a small bauble for the tree, it had meant the world to her.
She sat in the corner of the attic, pulling out Christmas decorations until she realized it was getting late. She wondered how the sting operation had gone. Had they been able to save innocent people from a life of servitude and slavery? As bad as she wanted to hear Nathaniel’s voice, she wouldn’t dream of bothering him or any other member of the team while they were on a mission. She closed up the attic and went back downstairs. Sitting down on the old couch, her busy day quickly caught up with her. She closed her eyes to rest. If she hadn’t been so tired and so caught up in her own musings, she might have been able to realize the danger that was upon her. But she fell asleep, not even realizing that her life was in danger.
*****
Nathaniel worked with his team in extracting and saving twenty young women and children from being sold into slavery across the border. Missions like this made him appreciate all the hard work his brother had put into the Rangers for years now.
The men that were transporting the women and children were all human, so subduing them wasn’t all that difficult. Handling that many scared-out-of-their-minds women and children became a whole different matter. They had set up a roadblock to stop the two vans carrying the passengers, and while one was stopped there, the other tried to make a run for it. They didn’t get very far. Some days it paid to be a vampire on a sting operation after dark, because you could literally run down a vehicle.
The only frustrating part of the operation for him was that almost none of the women or children spoke English and his Spanish was horrible. It looked like that would be something he’d need to brush up on quickly.
Nathaniel had a nagging feeling in his gut that Susan was sad. He couldn’t figure out why she would be so sad when they had such a great afternoon together. Maybe she was just missing him, because he was sure missing her. He centered all of his energies into getting this case wrapped up, so he could get back home to her.
DSS was just making arrangements to transport the last of the women to the hospital to be checked up on when he felt immense panic overcome him. Susan. She had to be in some type of trouble. He quickly stepped away from the scene and called his house. When he got no answer, he tried Susan’s cell. Again, no answer, but the panic and fear was growing in leaps and bounds. Finally, not knowing what else to do, but knowing that he had to find and help his mate, he called over to Walter.
“Susan’s in trouble. I’ve got to go.”
He ran over to one of the vehicles they had brought out and sped away from the crime scene with only one thing on his mind. He had to find
his mate.
*****
Susan woke up feeling like she was choking. She couldn’t get enough air. Opening her eyes, they burned, and she realized that her house was full of smoke. Oh no, my house is on fire and nobody knows where I am at. She fell to her knees off the couch and quickly got down on her belly, hoping to get a bit of air. She just had to make it to the front door. It’s not that far, Susan. You can do this. She was confused, not able to see anything, not even sure which direction to go in to reach the front door. She reached out, hoping to grab hold of something that she recognized so she knew she was heading in the right direction. She quickly pulled back and yelped, because whatever she had wrapped her hand around was burning hot.
She cradled her injured hand the best she could as she began to belly crawl across the floor, hoping and praying that she was heading for the front door. Lightheaded, she began seeing spots dance in front of her eyes as she slowly inched toward her destination. A board fell right behind her, causing her to yelp out in fear. The fire from the burning board slowly started to lick at the floor below it. Oh God, she wasn’t going to make it. She couldn’t breathe, she couldn’t see, the very floor beneath her was now getting hot to the touch.
Shouldn’t she be at the door by now? It wasn’t but ten or twelve feet from the couch she had been on. She stopped when she ran into something. Whatever it was, it was solid. A wall? A door? She placed her good hand on it and cried out as it too came back burned. Tears stung her eyes from the pain radiating off her two burned hands.
She needed air. Her lungs burned as she lay on the floor, praying for help to come. Didn’t any of her neighbors see her house going up in flames? And poor Nathaniel. She would never get a chance to show him that she could be a good mate. She would never get to tell him that she loved him ever again. As the blackness closed in around her, her heart was full of despair. She succumbed to the peacefulness of nothingness.
