INTO THE FIRE (Forbidden Love)

by James, Danielle

  Rebel glared at the closed door for a long moment. He was torn between listening to Gage and seeing what his leader wanted, and the nearly uncontrollable urge to take his mate in the most primitive way possible.

  “Come on,” Leigh urged him, pulling on his shoulder, “We should really see what’s up.”

  “I don’t want to,” he said in a gravelly voice.

  “I really don’t want to either,” she agreed. “But with Merrick running loose doing God knows what, I think it’s best.” She wondered what the sick fuck was up to now.

  “I know,” Rebel answered her unspoken words. “I doubt that he will disappoint.”

  “Since when do you read my thoughts?” Leigh asked.

  “Didn’t have to,” he answered with a boyish grin, “It was written all over that pretty face of yours.” He accented the statement with a light touch on her cheek. It was so sweet, so honest, that Leigh unconsciously leaned into his touch. She wasn’t used to such tenderness. The only physical contact she had known since her family died was sex only. No real foreplay, no emotions. This was all very new to her, but she thought she might like it.

  Rebel pulled his pants back on and took her hand. Leigh allowed it, and even returned the gentle pressure of his fingers wrapped around hers. He led her to the sitting room where everyone else had gathered.

  They were watching the Joni Howard Show, something that Brea and Jessica did often, but usually the men skipped. There was a petite blonde woman on stage, talking with Joni.

  “So just what is it now?” Leigh demanded as they entered the room.

  “I think we should all watch this,” Angel answered.

  “Why?”

  “Because this woman is a member of the EPA and she is talking about Merrick.”

  Shit, the man was smart. Getting the EPA and a famous talk-show host involved was a strategically sound move on his part. He was going for public sympathy in a big way. With a disgusted huff, Leigh plopped down on the couch to watch.

  “And gorgeous,” Joni said to her guest.

  The blonde blushed. “Yes, he is very attractive.” Did the blonde have a thing for Merrick? Leigh’s mind started turning. She wondered if he had a thing for her. If so, the possibilities just got a lot better in trying to convince him to leave Leigh alone. But she would have to do more research. More information.

  Just then, Merrick came out on stage and the sitting room erupted in boos and slander on his behalf. Leigh smiled.

  “That’s not gorgeous,” Gage commented. “He is most definitely ugly. Too short. Too red.”

  “That dragon fell out of the ugly tree,” Antonio barked.

  “Enough,” Angel said. “We need to listen.” But Leigh appreciated the brothers’ brand of support for her. It was something she had never had before, and she kind of liked it.

  The vampires settled down and watched with wary anticipation. What would he say this time? Soon enough, their questions were answered.

  “I know that Leigh has been brainwashed,” Merrick told the hostess. “She would never run from me like this, we are engaged.”

  “Those are pretty severe accusations you’re throwing around,” Joni warned him. “Are you certain that she isn’t there on her own accord? I mean, I can’t see why any woman wouldn’t want you, but anything’s possible.”

  “Thank you, Joni,” Merrick replied. “I am sure of it. Why would she run after all these years?” Leigh snorted. She did a lot of that. She had been running from him for centuries.

  “Women have been known to change their minds without warning,” Joni answered him.

  “I want to make one thing very clear,” Merrick said, “If Leigh wants to be with the vampires, I will let her go. But I do not want to see the extinction of our species. I would like the opportunity to try to breed with her if it is possible. I want our legacy to live on. I want to be a father some day.”

  “So you would agree to In Vetro fertilization?” Joni asked.

  “Unfortunately, that wouldn’t work for us,” Merrick answered. “We have to breed the old fashioned way.”

  “Mother fucker!” Leigh snarled at the TV. “How dare he! Who does he think he is?” She began pacing and waving her hand at the television. There was no way anyone could hear what else Merrick had to say with her ranting, but they all got the gist of it. “He is talking about me as if I am nothing more than a baby machine! And telling them that we have to have sex to reproduce! I will never sleep with him. Never. Neee-veeer. No way, no how. Not if we were the last creatures on Earth. Not if the fate of the world depended on us doing the dirty. No fucking goddamn way. I don’t care if our species goes extinct; I wish he would go extinct! Sooner than later! That idiotic, moronic, stupid, jack-nutted ass-hat!”

  “Asshat?” Gage said on a laugh. “What exactly is that?”

  Leigh turned to glare at Gage. “An asshat is someone who acts without thinking, or thinks they’re smarter than everyone else, or someone who is totally clueless of the danger they put themselves in by fucking with me,” she snarled at him.

  Gage put both hands up in a defensive gesture. “Hey, I was just asking. I hope you can forgive me for my asshattedness.”

  Leigh ignored the hoots of laughter from his brothers. She turned to Angel and said, “I want on that show. It’s time we put this shit to rest once and for all.”

  NINETEEN

  “Of all the ridiculous, under-handed, sneaky, perverse things to do, he had to do this!” Leigh grumbled as she paced Rebel’s bedroom. Surely by now she had worn a rut in the soft, plush carpeting. Each step she took crushed the delicate fibers a little more than before. The papers she carried had been shifted from one hand to the other so many times that they were becoming soft in her grip. Not to mention having been rolled, folded, twisted and tossed in the trash several times, only to be retrieved for further torture.

  The papers had arrived via Detective Corbin that afternoon. Not only had Merrick gone and went on the most watched daytime talk show in the nation, but he had appealed to the Environmental Protection Agency. And they had responded. With a lawsuit.

  The papers were a court summons demanding her presence at a hearing coming up in only a few days. How he had managed to even get an audience with a judge that fast escaped Leigh’s rational mind, but she supposed one could do anything with enough money. Hell, she had burned a hotel room to a crisp and Angel’s money had kept them out of trouble.

  He, Merrick, was suing her. The EPA was suing her. Not for money, oh no, that would be too simple. She knew if that were the case, Rebel would cut a check for whatever amount and be done with it once and for all. Nooo, Merrick was suing her for her ability to reproduce, citing that she was the only viable female available. The EPA was suing her for biological samples and the right to research her. In other words-they wanted to experiment with her, to force her to submit to any and all tests they deemed necessary. Torture. And they wanted to do it legally.

  “What the fuck happened to the constitution?” she wailed at Rebel who was sitting very quietly on the edge of his bed. He had been watching her pace and curse in silence for the last hour, and he didn’t look like he was anywhere near ready to interrupt her rampage. Not if he wanted his room to remain a fire-free zone. Not if he liked all his body parts attached and unharmed.

  “I fucking have rights, damn it!” she continued. “I am not a fucking animal or some freaking lab rat. I am a living, breathing, person with feelings!” She twisted the mangled papers in her hands again and tipped her head back to glare at the ceiling. “Aaarrgh! Fuck, fuck, fuck! I knew I should have never stayed in LA. I fucking knew better. Too big. Too much shit going on all the time. Too much fucking everything!”

  “But,” Rebel started.

  “Shut the fuck up, Cowboy,” she growled in response. “I know what you’re going to say. ‘If you hadn’t come here, we wouldn’t have met.’ Big fucking deal. I would be free.”

  Rebel growled and rose to his feet. He had listened enoug
h. “Yes, I would say that,” he put his hand up in a stop motion when she opened her mouth to ream him again. “But you know as well as I do that your life was anything but free. You were always on the run, always looking over your shoulder. That’s not freedom, it’s just a bigger cage.

  “I personally am glad you came here. I am so fucking happy to have you that I want to fucking giggle. Merrick pisses me off beyond any reasonable strain of sanity, and believe me, there is nothing I want more than to rip his head off his neck and parade it around town on a pike. But that’s not going to happen. I can’t kill the bastard because now; he’s made sure that you are both on the endangered species list. The penalty for a vampire violating those laws is death. And they’re enforced. Faithfully and harshly. I’ll be damned if I’m going to die just when I have met my other half.”

  “Rebel,” Leigh said on a sigh, softening a little bit with his words. “What the fuck am I supposed to do?”

  “We will find a way to defeat him,” Rebel answered, taking her into the circle of his arms. He felt her anger deflating as he held her close. “We will figure out how to play his game and win. But we aren’t going to get anywhere if you can’t keep your cool.” He pressed a kiss to the top of her raven locks. “I think you seriously need a massage.” He let his hands travel over her the bunched muscles of her back, applying pressure and kneading the knots there. He was rewarded with a soft moan of pleasure and Leigh’s body sank into his.

  “That feels nice,” she sighed into his chest. She had turned her head so that her ear was resting just over his heart and her arms had slipped around his middle. Rebel continued his slow ministrations to her back.

  “How long has it been since someone truly took care of you?” he asked her. Leigh shook her head. “You can’t remember, or never?” he asked.

  “Never,” she answered. “I lost my family when I was very young, and moving around all the time doesn’t exactly make for good friendships. I’ve always looked out for myself.”

  “That changes right now,” he told her. He gripped the hem of her shirt and pulled it over her head. The look she gave him, a mixture of surprise and disdain, was worth a million bucks. “What?” he asked with a grin.

  “Really?” she questioned. “Rebel, we have important things to do. Plans to make. Shit to figure out. We don’t have time for this.” Even as she said the words, her body heated in response to being bared to him. Her breathing became more shallow, her neck and chest flushed, her nipples tightened to diamond points, and her fingers itched to reach out and touch the hard muscles of his chest.

  “Leigh, you’re with me now,” Rebel said, “You have a family. We will protect you. I will protect you. Let me in, Sweetheart. Lean on me, just for a little while.”

  Leigh shook her head in denial. Family was such a lost concept to her that she had trouble wrapping her head around the idea that anyone would want to help her for no reason other than she was connected to them. Ever since her family died so many years ago, Leigh had depended on no one. The only person she had in her life had been herself. And now, this perfect man, ok, he wasn’t perfect. He was quite irritating, actually, but he wanted her. He knew what she was, who she was, and still he wanted her. He wanted to help her. He wanted to be there for her. To protect her.

  Rebel had gone through a horrible ordeal after mating with her, and yet, he still wanted to be with her. The very idea was so foreign to Leigh, so hard to believe, that she had to fight her impulse to push him away. But she wouldn’t hurt him again. Not physically, and not mentally. It was hard for her to let someone worm their way into her life. She had never let anyone close to her.

  But Rebel wanted in. He wanted to be her mate. He would die for her, just as she would for him. It was the way of mates, vampire and dragon alike. Mating was the purest, most primal connection between two people like them. It was all consuming, taking precedence over everything else in life. But what would it cost them? Leigh well knew that nothing in life was free.

  Of course, Rebel would argue that in exchange for being his mate, Leigh would have to put up with his ass for all time. For as long as she lived. As irritating as he could be, though, Leigh didn’t feel like putting up with his shit was much of a burden. Not after the way they fit together, both physically and mentally. He was her match in every way. His mind countered every argument that Leigh could dream up, he knew just how to set her aflame, and how to put the flames out, as well.

  “Are you going to let me pamper you, be your Egyptian love slave, or are you going to stay there in La La Land?” Rebel whispered in her ear, bringing her back to the current situation. Massage. Oh yeah, she remembered. Rebel’s hands were doing wonderful things to her back as he planted gentle kisses on the top of her head. Merrick wasn’t going anywhere, not for a while. There was still a few days left before she was expected in court.

  With a sly smile, Leigh disentangled herself from his arms and strode over to his king sized bed. She perched herself on the edge and curled her finger at him. “Well, what are you waiting for?” she asked. “Get over here, Love Slave.”

  Rebel didn’t have to be told twice. He took three long strides and met Leigh at the bed. He clasped his hands in front of him and lowered his head like a good love slave. “And what would her grace like me to do first?” he asked.

  “Humm… I think I should like for you to take that shirt off.” Any good slave worth his weight would work shirtless. And without the leather pants, either. Yes, Leigh thought, her love slave should work in his natural state. “On second thought,” Leigh amended, “Take it all off. You work naked.”

  “As you wish,” Rebel said, looking at Leigh through lowered lashes. God, it was so unfair that he should have such thick long lashes. Any woman would kill to have those. And many had spend untold amounts of hard earned cash trying to get them. And Cowboy had them.

  Leigh licked her lips as she watched Rebel take his shirt over his head. She watched the muscles play across his back as his arms went up and then back down again. She couldn’t swear to it, but she thought she saw an extra flex just for show. She blatantly stared as he unfastened the button on his leather pants and slid the zipper down. The way he moved was so fluid, so graceful, that Leigh found herself watching intently as he bent over to lower his pants and then kicked them aside.

  “Now what would you like?” he asked in his best subdued voice. Leigh already knew that Rebel was anything but submissive. But she played along.

  “Now I want you to remove my clothes,” she ordered.

  Rebel reached her in two steps. He wasted no time unfastening the buttons of her shirt or sliding it off her shoulders. As his hands brushed the skin of her shoulders, Leigh barely restrained a sigh as her body leapt to life for him. Her heart began to pound in her chest, her palms went slick, and her breathing kicked up a notch.

  Rebel brushed a raven lock over Leigh’s shoulder and tipped his head forward to bestow a kiss on her collar. His hands traveled down her arms and back up again in a soft, whisper of a touch that sent gooseflesh rippling over her skin. Then he moved his hands down her back and around her waist. He snapped open her jeans and tugged them down in a motion so fast that Leigh never saw it. As she stood there, stunned, Rebel dropped to his knees in front of her.

  “I am yours to use as you see fit, my mate,” he told her.

  “Um,” Leigh started, but Rebel was already a step ahead of her. He tipped his head forward and thrust his tongue into her already weeping pussy. He shoved his tongue forward, passing easily through her lips and into her core.

  Leigh let out a sharp, staccato sound in surprise, but immediately covered his head with her hands, holding him close to her body. His tongue was hot and smooth, stabbing into her and making her already overheated body hotter.

  Rebel lifted Leigh off her feet without losing connection with his mouth and lay her on the bed, pushing her onto her back. He lifted her legs around his shoulders and began lapping at her like a starved man.

 
TWENTY

  The sun shone bright in the sky the morning of the hearing, and Leigh couldn’t help but to keep watching Rebel. She was still uncertain that his sensitive vampire skin wouldn’t begin to burn in the hot California sun. He had been outside a number of times lately, but only for a few minutes at a time. She had done her best to convince him that it was not necessary for him to accompany her to the courthouse, but he would have none of it. He walked beside her, confident as always. He held his head high, even under the brim of his Stetson. The dark sunglasses he wore concealed his eyes from public view, but Leigh knew that he was not afraid.

  No, in fact, Cowboy was pissed. It was obvious to Leigh in the way he held his shoulders. In the way his leather duster flowed behind him like some evil character out of a book come to life. Menace poured off him in waves.

  And wouldn’t you know the general public did not miss that little tid bit either.

  The hordes of people outside the courthouse split like the red sea as Rebel and Leigh approached. There were tense whispers about the man with Leigh, but no one dared voice it aloud. Some even though they recognized him, but surely not since it was daylight.

  If only they knew.

  The introduction of Leigh’s saliva into Rebel’s system had done more than just allow him to eat food. She had bitten him any number of times in the preceding few days, and the end result was nothing short of amazing.

  He did not get sick again, thank God, but just the opposite. Rebel had become more and more familiar with the sun. He could bear to be outside during the day for as long as he dared at a time before it became uncomfortable; and even then it didn’t burn any more than it would a human.

  His appetite had only increased; eating three square meals a day and a couple of snacks too. Basically, Rebel ate anything that couldn’t get up and run away from him.

  His strength was increasing as well. Every day he got stronger; an amazing increase to his already powerful vampire qualities. He told Leigh that he could see sound, a quality she had always had but never thought anything of before.