Gabriel's Mate

by Tina Folsom

  “Ah, Francine, what a surprise to see you here.”

  “Drake.”

  “Any ideas?” he asked and gestured to Maya.

  “As a matter of fact, yes.”

  “Care to share?”

  She nodded. “Excuse us a minute, vampire,” she said to Gabriel and gestured to Drake to follow her into the bathroom.

  Gabriel looked at Thomas, who’d entered the bedroom behind Drake. “Odd pair,” Thomas commented.

  “They can be as odd as they like to be as long as they can help Maya.” Gabriel stroked his hand over Maya’s hot face. Instantly her head turned toward his hand and her mouth sought out his fingers, quickly sucking his thumb into her mouth. Gabriel gulped down a quick breath. Even unconscious, she was killing him. He could barely suppress his desire for her as it was, but when she sucked his thumb like that, all he could think of was her sucking his cock in the same manner.

  He listened for the mumbled voices from the bathroom, but couldn’t make out what they were saying. They seemed to talk quietly in order not to be overheard.

  Gabriel pulled his thumb out of Maya’s mouth and stroked her lips with it. Her tongue darted out and licked him. He leaned down to her, bringing his mouth closed to her ear. “Baby, you’re driving me insane. I don’t have any restraints left. If you don’t stop, I don’t know what I’ll do.”

  She sighed and pulled his thumb back into her mouth. His cock strained against the zipper of his jeans, the metal teeth cutting into his flesh. He clenched his other hand into a fist, fighting the urge to take her. With a groan, he pulled his thumb from her mouth and stepped away from the bed.

  “Have you told her how you feel about her?” Thomas asked.

  Gabriel turned his head to look at him. “And then?”

  “Don’t you want to know whether she feels the same?”

  “And what if she doesn’t?”

  Thomas cast a look back at Maya. “The way she craves your blood, I’d venture a guess that she craves your body just as much.”

  Gabriel was saved from answering when the bathroom door finally opened and Drake and the witch stepped out, their faces serious. His stomach sank. How bad could the news be?

  “We both agree.” Drake glanced at Maya.

  “What is it?” Gabriel asked and ran his hand through his hair.

  “She’s in heat.”

  Gabriel didn’t understand. “Heat? What do you mean?”

  “Sexual heat,” Drake explained. “Like a feline.”

  “But that’s impossible,” Gabriel protested. Heat was a sign of fertility. “She’s a vampire. Vampire females don’t go into heat—they are sterile.”

  “I know that. Don’t you think I know that? But she isn’t fully vampire—whatever else she is, it’s making her go into heat.”

  “So, it’s going to go away again?” If it really was sexual heat, surely it was only temporary.

  “It would, but—”

  “But what?”

  “She’s burning up. It’s too much for her body. She could die. And there’s only one way to stop the heat.”

  Gabriel had stopped listening. “Die? No. We can’t allow that. We can’t let her die. Doc? There must be something we can do.”

  “Not we,” Drake said. “You.”

  Gabriel snapped his gaze to Drake and the witch. “Me?”

  The witch took a step toward him. “The only way to stop sexual heat is to satisfy her.”

  Her words echoed in his head. Satisfy her.

  “How?”

  Drake had the audacity to chuckle. “I’ll leave that entirely up to you, Gabriel. I trust you do know how to make a woman come.”

  Finally it sunk in. They wanted him to make love to Maya. Stepping closer to the doctor, he hissed low under his breath, “But, I can’t. You know I can’t.”

  Behind him, Thomas cleared his throat. “If you want me to do it, I will. After all, it’ll be like touching my sister. It won’t mean anything.”

  Gabriel swiveled. “No!” Despite the fact that Thomas was gay and had no interest in Maya, he would never allow any man to touch her.

  Thomas gave a crooked smile, and Gabriel instantly realized that he’d only made the offer to get a reaction out of him. Well, he’d gotten one, and if he wasn’t careful he’d get the taste of his fist in addition to it.

  “I’m not saying you should fuck her,” Drake added, “God, even I wouldn’t suggest doing such a thing to an unconscious woman, but there are other ways. Use your hands and your mouth on her. She needs to orgasm. It’s the only way the heat will break.”

  Fifteen

  The room was eerily quiet except for Maya’s heavy breathing and the rustling of the sheets as she tossed and turned. They had all left: the doctor, the witch, and even Thomas, to give them privacy. Gabriel knew that Thomas was still somewhere in the house, but had retreated far enough so his sensitive hearing wouldn’t pick up what Gabriel and Maya were doing. It was embarrassing enough that they all knew what was about to happen. Yet it didn’t dampen his arousal.

  This certainly wasn’t what he’d planned. For starters, when he made love to her, he’d wanted her conscious and fully aware of him—fully accepting him—and not in this feverish state where she drifted in and out of consciousness. But he wanted to touch her and make love to her, even knowing what state she was in, and he cursed himself for it. She was vulnerable, and he was going to exploit her for his own pleasure.

  Disgusted, he turned away from the bed. Would she hate him for it when she came to her senses and realized what he’d done, hate him for touching her without her permission? Would he lose her and any chance he might have ever had of obtaining her affections? But he had no choice, because he couldn’t let her die.

  Even in her delirious state, she’d sought to be close to him. She’d writhed against him just the way she’d done it when she’d fed from him before. And the way she’d sucked his thumb, wasn’t that proof enough that she wanted him?

  Her heavy thrashing made him turn back to her. She needed him, and no matter what happened later, he couldn’t ignore that need. Stripping off his shoes in midstride, he climbed onto the bed and gathered her in his arms.

  “I’m here, baby, I’m here.”

  She seemed to breathe easier as he pressed her heated body to his. She appeared hotter than when he’d held her only minutes earlier. The doctor was right, if he didn’t satisfy her, she would burn up.

  He wouldn’t undress her in order to leave her as much dignity as possible under the circumstances. And he wouldn’t take any of his clothes off either so he could maintain a semblance of distance. Only his hand would touch her under cover of her nightgown. He wouldn’t look at her naked body, only touch her. That way she would understand that he’d had no choice and that he’d tried everything not to take advantage of her.

  Gabriel tipped her chin up with his hand and brought his lips to hers for a feather light kiss. They tasted of salt and woman, fertile and willing. He knew he shouldn’t kiss her, but when he inhaled her scent, his body shut down his brain, and all he could do was react to the age-old knowledge of the mating call.

  How he knew she was his, he couldn’t explain, but his instinct told him that the woman in his arms was perfect for him. He’d never felt the same way for anybody else, not even for Jane, the wife who’d left him after their wedding night. He’d never felt the connection he felt to Maya, like their lifelines were interlinked, one only complete with the other.

  The more he inhaled her scent the deeper he felt the connection to her life force. When her lips parted under his, he invaded her and captured her tongue with his, stroking and licking, dancing and withdrawing. His saliva mingled with hers, and the taste of their combined fluids drugged him. He knew then that something was happening between them that couldn’t be explained by mere lust and attraction. He would talk to the doctor about it, but not now. Now, he had to save the woman he loved.

  Loved?

  The realization jolte
d him. And then it soothed him.

  “I love you,” he whispered against her lips, then trailed his mouth along her neck to kiss her heated skin. He smelled the enticing scent of her blood coming from her plump vein and growled. His fangs lengthened and pushed passed his lips.

  He jerked away from her. No, he couldn’t bite her, couldn’t allow himself to perform the highly intimate act of drinking from his woman if she hadn’t permitted it. His, yes, he called her his, because for right now that’s what she was: his.

  His gaze swept over her trembling body and the blood-red nightgown she wore. A nightgown that barely covered her to mid-thigh, the fabric so thin, he could clearly see the outline of her hard nipples sitting on top of her plump breasts. The gown’s spaghetti straps moved whenever her body twisted, and eventually they would drop from her shoulders and release the fabric covering her perfectly round globes.

  Gabriel’s hand slid to those breasts and cupped one of them. It filled his hand, the hard nipple rubbing against the center of his palm. His thumb explored her, caressed her flesh through the silk and grazed her nipple.

  Her tossing stopped, and she arched into his touch. Without thinking, he pulled on the fabric, dislodged the strap and freed the beautiful mound he was fondling. Her skin was soft and smooth. Dropping his head, he licked his tongue over the nipple. He realized instantly that despite her semiconscious state she felt what he was doing: her hand slid onto the back of his neck to hold him to her breast.

  “Yes,” she mumbled, her voice sounding relieved as if she’d waited for a long time for this to happen. Did she want him? Did she know it was him who touched her?

  Gabriel sucked the beautiful flesh deeper into his mouth and continued circling his tongue over the captured nipple while at the same time kneading her breast in his palm. He couldn’t get enough of the feel of her, the texture of her skin, the scent of it.

  He felt his pants constrict as his cock rapidly pumped full with blood and went hard in anticipation. Only, it would be in vain. The message that he wouldn’t fuck her had obviously not reached his rampant cock.

  He trailed his fingers down over her stomach, the thin silk bunching under her breasts. Going past her thighs he reached underneath her nightgown, reversed his travels and moved back north. When he reached the apex of her thighs, he touched her panties. Instantly, she moaned and arched her back off the bed.

  Maya’s panties were soaked with her arousal, a scent so intense it nearly robbed him of all reason. Trying to tamp down his lust, he stroked his fingers against the wet fabric and clearly felt her warm female flesh underneath.

  “Oh, God, Maya,” he despaired, not knowing how to hold himself back, how not to ravish her when every cell in his body screamed for him to take her.

  Despite the fact that he’d promised himself not to look at her naked skin—well, he’d already broken that promise by exposing her breasts—he pulled down her panties and laid her bare. Her dark curls were trimmed in a slim bikini line, pointing down toward the core of her body. As if he needed any further directions.

  His fingers followed downward and her legs immediately spread wider, inviting him to look at her, touch her, devour her. As he worked his way down her body, following the scent he would never be able to resist, her moans became more pronounced, as if she knew exactly what he was about to do—even if he didn’t.

  All he’d planned was to look at her, just once, just so he had something he could remember when he was alone in his bed. But when his gaze fell onto her beautiful pussy, those glistening pink lips called to him, beckoned him to taste her.

  He’d never done anything like it. He understood the concept, of course. He’d even seen it done, not just recently when he’d watched Zane in the club, but also in plenty of porn movies. But he’d never actually put his mouth to a woman’s pussy. Yet at this moment, there was no doubt in his mind that this was exactly what he craved: to eat Maya’s delectable pussy, to feast on her, drink her nectar and lick her until she came apart in his mouth.

  He’d never seen the fascination other men had with it—until now. She would be at his mercy, vulnerable and spread wide, unable to escape his seeking tongue. Even if she woke while he sucked her, he wouldn’t stop. Once he started, he knew there wouldn’t be any stopping him.

  Gabriel glanced back at her face. Her eyes were still closed, but her lips were parted. When he slid one finger along her wet folds, he watched as she drew her lower lip into her mouth and bit on it. He moved his finger higher and found the little hooded bundle of flesh he was looking for. The moment he circled it with his moist finger, she moaned and twisted in the sheets. Her teeth released her lip, and she panted.

  “Baby, I need to do this.” He couldn’t wait any longer. With a groan he sank down between her legs and opened her pussy up with both his hands. Her flesh was pink and moist and the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen. His tongue darted out and took its first tentative lick against her female flesh, lapping up the juices that oozed from her slit.

  As they hit the taste buds on the back of his tongue, his body went rigid. A bolt akin to a lightning strike hit his body and vibrated through him. He shuddered.

  Holy hell!

  No other taste had ever filled him with such satisfaction and at the same time made him hunger for more. This was what he’d been waiting for all his life without even knowing. Everything about her was perfect.

  Gabriel lifted his head and growled. He would kill anybody who dared take her away from him. And he wouldn’t stop at the gates of heaven nor hell if the Grim Reaper ripped her from his arms. Because he recognized her now: Maya was his mate. Losing her would mean losing the only chance he had at happiness.

  With this knowledge, he sank his mouth back onto her core and gave her what her body so desperately needed. His mind catalogued every groove of her pussy, every fold, every ridge as he enjoyed lapping his tongue against her slit. He noticed every tiny movement she made and every breath she took.

  His heart drummed in his chest.

  She was a feast, and he’d never had a more sumptuous buffet spread out only for him to indulge in. Without haste he devoured her, nibbled on her soft flesh, licked and sucked her heated skin. He watched for every reaction from her, every moan, every sigh.

  His hands slipped underneath her ass to tilt her upwards so he could drive his tongue into her tight channel.

  “Oh!” he heard her moan and wondered whether she was conscious. He didn’t want to think of it, because he wouldn’t be able to stop now, even if she begged him to. Or would she beg him to continue?

  Determined to give her the ultimate pleasure, he fucked his tongue in and out of her pussy, then alternated it with licking her clit. The little bundle of flesh was engorged and erect. Every time he flicked his tongue against it, her body trembled. Gabriel sensed that she was close, and even though he didn’t want this to end, he knew what he had to do.

  He slipped a finger into her wet folds and felt her muscles grip him tightly. He growled. If only it was his cock sheathing itself in her. With his mouth he sucked her clit and pulled it between his lips, pressing them together tightly.

  Maya’s body shook. He felt the spasms in her pussy clench his finger and the waves lap against his lips as her climax rocked through her. Her scream was the purest sound of release he’d ever heard.

  Gabriel kept his mouth surrounding her clit and licked against it gently as she rode out her orgasm.

  ***

  Maya felt the waves of pleasure course through her body and greeted the release they brought with them. The heat in her body dissipated, and for the first time in hours she could breathe. As she took a long deep breath, her nostrils flared. At the same time, she noticed the heaviness on her groin and someone’s hot breath on her pussy.

  Her eyes flew open.

  There, between her spread legs, Gabriel’s mouth was centered over her still-throbbing clit, and his tongue still stroked against it, threatening to ignite her once more.

 
“Gabriel.”

  As if stung by a hornet, his head reared up, and his gaze collided with hers. She’d never seen him like this. His eyes were dark with passion and his lips raw and moist from her juices. He’d sucked her while she’d been unconscious. She should feel violated, embarrassed at least, but strangely no such thoughts took hold. Was she turning into a completely wanton creature now that she was a vampire?

  “Maya, I can explain.” His voice was laced with guilt and regret. She didn’t understand it. She watched him shift his position and climb up the bed to sit next to her as his hand quickly pulled on her nightdress to cover her nakedness with the fabric.

  She noticed now how nervous he was as if he’d gotten caught doing something he shouldn’t be doing. Well, she had caught him, but she didn’t mind what he’d been doing. Her only regret was that she hadn’t been awake for it.

  “What were you doing?” she asked.

  Gabriel ran his hand through his long hair, which was loose today—no ponytail. She liked it and felt the urge to sink her hands into the rich mane.

  “I’m sorry. I had to do it. The doc and the witch, they both said …” He broke off and looked away.

  Why was he avoiding her now? She gripped his chin with her hand and forced him to look at her. “Tell me what’s going on.”

  He blinked. “You were in heat. The doc said you’d die if nobody satisfied you. So they decided that I should do it.” He dropped his lids and looked down.

  “They?”

  “Drake and the witch.”

  Maya didn’t know who the witch was, but she didn’t care. What was important was that Gabriel had been forced to do this. He’d done it to save her, not because he wanted her. “They made you do it?”

  He nodded. “Please believe me. I would have never taken advantage of you this way if I hadn’t feared for your life.”

  Maya swallowed the lump in her throat that had risen at his words. He would have never touched her otherwise. Only because she had been in danger. So he still felt he was responsible for her—that was all. “I thank you, and I’m sorry that you were forced to do this against your will.” She steeled herself against the pain it caused her to know that he’d touched her without wanting to.