Fated for Sacrifice

by Claire Ashgrove

  Reese’s hands tangled in his hair, holding him in place as she returned his kiss with equal hunger. Her body sank into his, soft breasts molding against his chest, full hips brushing his as she sought the connection he yearned for. He slid one hand down her delicate spine, curved his palm around her buttock, and compressed her against his swelling cock.

  Tearing his mouth from hers, Dáire pulled in air and feathered his mouth along her jaw line to the lobe of her ear. He took it between his teeth, suckled for a heartbeat, before he let it slide free. “Don’t say no, Reese,” he whispered huskily.

  Her breath escaped in a ragged rush as she tipped her head to the side, giving him freedom to explore her throat. “God help me, I’m not.”

  The fierce rush of passion that came with her permission hit so hard he nearly toppled backward. Grounding himself, he bit it back behind teeth that pricked the side of her neck. She let out a muffled cry and arched more fully into his arms. At the sound, the animal beside them stirred, reminding Dáire where they were. In his cabin. With Taran asleep in his room.

  Taran, the one person in this world Dáire would take great pains to hide Reese from.

  He set his hands on her shoulders and drew back, his breath as hard as if he’d run a marathon. “My bed’s not dusty.”

  The sweetest, shyest smile Dáire had ever seen crept across Reese’s swollen lips as she slowly nodded. His heart kicked hard. His pulse skipped several beats. Prize didn’t put it lightly. She was a treasure. Something rare and exquisite.

  He looked to the coyote. Sleep, wise one.

  Rising, Dáire clasped Reese’s hand in his and helped her to her feet. But that separation, no matter how infinitesimal, was unbearable. He dragged her close, cupping his hands beneath the swell of her bottom and lifting her into his embrace. Every soft curve molded around his body. Her mouth found his once more, hot and demanding. The tangle of her tongue rendered him senseless.

  Caught in a wild maelstrom of unadulterated feeling, Dáire slid one hand to the back of her muscular thigh and guided her leg to his waist. When she hooked her ankle at the small of his back, he hefted her easily into his arms. Her questing fingers delved beneath the hem of his shirt, pushing it up as he carried her toward his bedroom door. She broke their kiss, dropped those amazing lips to his exposed skin.

  Like firebrands, the fleeting caresses seared through him. Each step he took she punctuated with another touch. A flick of her tongue, a clasp of her lips, the fall of her breath against his chest—she made walking near impossible. Let alone all the other things she was doing to his system. Any thought he might have had about savoring this moment vanished against the urgency in her touch.

  Half-stumbling, he made it inside his room and nudged the door shut with his heel. As she tipped her head up in search of his mouth once more, Dáire pressed her back to the wall, using it to leverage her into place. He captured her mouth with a needy grunt.

  Hands and fingers quested in a desperate measure to close the insufferable distance between them. Dáire won the battle first, drawing back long enough to grab her sweater and yank it over her head. Full breasts spilled over a demi-cup bra, and with an unsteady exhale, he used one finger to lower the satin and expose a hardened nipple. Dipping his head, he closed his mouth around the dusky peak. Reese’s fingers speared through his long hair, nails curling into his scalp. With a soft pleasured cry, she let her head fall back against the wall and arched her back.

  Satisfaction thrummed through him. He’d thought of this so many times. Imagined the taste of her skin, fantasized how her feminine scent would engulf him. Only somehow, until this moment, he hadn’t realized just how much he craved her. She was sweeter, her skin smoother, and that rich aroma of amber permeated clear through to his soul.

  He pulled a long breath in through his nose, ordering his body to slow down, to savor this reality. He could have her now, but he dared not try to convince himself there would be another opportunity to enjoy all the pleasures Reese offered. Until he was free from his sire’s curse, there couldn’t be anything but this one encounter. One priceless, unforgettable, morning in Reese’s impassioned embrace.

  ****

  Long auburn hair tickled across Reese’s chest as Dáire released her nipple and moved to clasp the other gently between his teeth. He tugged, and she felt it pull all the way through her. Her lungs clamped together like a vise. A shallow gasp tumbled off her lips. “Dáire,” she exhaled. “Oh, Dáire…”

  She lifted her head to glance down their bodies, and could have sworn someone dealt her a punch to the gut. The sight of her breast in his mouth, the way the soft flesh moved beneath the mastery of his lips eradicated her ability to breathe. Feeling surged forth, slowly turning her inside out. Her hips thrust forward, but trapped between the wall and Dáire’s strong lanky frame, she couldn’t satisfy the growing ache of need. A plaintive cry broke free, and she tightened her fingers in his hair, lost to the tidal wave of sensation that accompanied the wicked flick of his tongue.

  What they were doing here in his room, what she was allowing him to do to her body, defied logic. She’d fall for him, even more than she already had, and leave herself open to heartache. Dáire didn’t keep women around. But despite her better judgment, she couldn’t bring herself to care. She didn’t give a damn if he informed her there would be no future between them, so long as he didn’t stop now.

  He drew away, letting her nipple slide slowly free. The wash of cool air combined with the moist heat of his breath as he placed a kiss to her sternum and cupped one breast in his hand lurched her heart sideways. Then his mouth settled on hers once more, more deliberate, more controlled. Still, she felt his restraint in the languorous slide of his tongue, the tender caress of his fingers. Like he held in something wild and untamed.

  Something she very much wanted him to free. If they were going to breach all boundaries, she wanted nothing held back. Everything or nothing.

  To draw it out, she bit down hard on his lower lip.

  The bite earned her a throaty groan. The hand he’d held beneath her bottom squeezed into her buttock, hard and punishing. Laden with a heavy dose of warning not to repeat the gesture.

  She did.

  His sharp hiss filled the air as he drew away. His gaze locked with hers. “Are you trying to unravel me?”

  “Yes.”

  For several never-ending heartbeats, Dáire held her gaze. Emotion broiled behind his unwavering stare, then sparked hot, indigo light deepening to an even darker shade. Before she could fully comprehend the meaning, he turned in a half-circle, pulling her off the wall. Two strides took them to the edge of his bed, where he laid her on a thick layer of patchwork quilts. He straightened, leaving her looking up at him in wide wonder.

  Dáire answered by releasing the button on her jeans. She shimmied as he tugged at the denim to help him free her legs. His fingers latched into the narrow band of her panties, taking them off along with her jeans. Then he stepped back, his gaze scampering over her body, taking her in from head to toe so thoroughly her skin heated.

  “You’re beautiful,” he murmured.

  “I’m the only one naked.”

  At that, the devilish grin that had so thoroughly captivated her the day they met, slid across his mouth. “I think we can fix that.” He grabbed the nape of his shirt and shrugged it over his head. Dropping it to the floor with one hand, he used the other to unfasten his jeans, and quickly removed them and the boxer-briefs beneath, as well.

  He stood before Reese in full naked glory, his erection bobbing against his abdomen, his chest rising in short, shallow breaths. Excitement skittered down her spine. His body was tight and hard, strong in all the right places. Chiseled muscles across his abdomen bunched and pulled as he set a knee on the bed and leaned over her. Reese slid her arms around his shoulders, drawing him closer as she parted her legs. Dáire let out an unsteady breath as he braced his weight on his hands. His mouth dusted across her shoulder. “I’ve wanted you…�
�� He traced the hollow of her collarbone with the tip of his tongue. “For so long.”

  His honesty fanned heat through her limbs. It gathered between her legs, making her shamefully wet. The gnawing ache in her core intensified, and she shifted her hips to stroke the length of his swollen cock.

  “Ah, Reese,” Dáire murmured. “Be careful what you wish for.”

  “I want to be yours.” To her surprise, the unbidden truth escaped. Half expecting the passion in his gaze to dim, or for him to pull away, he surprised her even more when he reached between their bodies, took himself into his hand, and aligned their bodies.

  His voice took on a hoarser quality. “Do you, sweetheart?” One nudge of his hips pressed his cock inside the edge of her opening.

  Low and breathlessly, she admitted, “Yes.”

  A groan rumbled in the back of his throat as he pushed his hips forward once more and slid deep inside her slick channel. When he could go no further, his hands curled into the hair on both sides of her head, and he dropped his forehead to her shoulder, utterly still. “Reese,” he whispered. “Sweet Reese.”

  His refusal to move pushed her into torment. Desperate to sate the hunger he awakened, she lifted her hips, drawing them toward the mattress, gliding along his shaft until he almost left her completely. Dáire lifted his head, gave her a sultry smile, and thrust forward again.

  Giving herself over to pleasure, Reese let out a throaty mewl. He felt perfect. Like she had somehow been designed to fit him alone. He moved within her slowly, taking his time, pushing her headlong into abandon as his lips covered her breast again. Each pull of his mouth, each tease of his teeth, arced liquid fire through her veins. She dropped her hands to his waist, guiding him deeper, urging him to take her harder.

  Dáire met the silent instruction of her body, increasing the tempo, yet still somehow holding back. Tension remained beneath her fingertips, radiated from his tightly bunched shoulders.

  “Dáire, let go. Stop holding back.”

  “I…can’t,” he answered, his words equally as tight. He lifted his head to look her in the eyes. “I can’t.”

  “You can.”

  She lifted up and claimed his mouth, suffocating the protest that vibrated in the back of his throat. It rumbled into her, and then died away as Dáire surrendered. His tongue joined hers in a wonton dance. His hips drove into hers, provoking her headlong into bliss. Pleasure mounted with each deep penetration, ebbed as he withdrew, only to spike when he thrust in once more.

  His breath became little more than quick gasps, mirroring the hard fall of hers. Reese closed her eyes to it all, overcome. Holding on to Dáire as if her life depended on it, she arched her back and yielded to the crest of ecstasy with a soft cry. Time stood still as her heart thundered in her ears and her thoughts fragmented. Tiny pinpoints of light burst behind her eyelids. She hung suspended on that cataclysmic feeling, dimly aware of the hoarse call of her name.

  Gradually, their bodies slowed. Dáire lowered his forehead to hers, the chaste contact too much for her over sensitized skin. She turned her head, momentarily panicked by her profound release. He’d shattered something inside her. Something incorporeal and intangible, that was broken all the same.

  Dáire dusted tender kisses down the side of her neck. Pulling her back from the edge of panic, grounding her in the warm comfort of his embrace and the utter rightness of the feel of him inside her. Maybe he had broken something. But he knew how to lace it back together.

  She turned her head with an exhausted smile and kissed his cheek. “Mm.”

  He closed his eyes, nodding even as he lowered his cheek to her shoulder and tucked his arms beneath her. “Yeah, mm.” He clasped her closer, then rolled onto his back, carrying her with him so she lay draped across his chest. His heart hammered beneath her ear. “You’re a treasure, Reese.”

  Chapter Seven

  Reese lay limp in Dáire’s arms, her body a blanket of warmth that provided security against the emotional racket taking place in his system. The darker half of his soul recognized the effect she had on him, how she came dangerously close to occupying more space in his heart than he could allow. How Reese was more than a friend, and yet…

  He smoothed his hand down her long hair, basking in the aftereffects of staggering release, and a frown tugged at his brow. He was wading through dangerous waters. He could fall for her with so little effort it terrified him. He suspected part of him already had. Yet he didn’t dare investigate that supposition further. If he acknowledged the feeling she awakened inside him, it would grow, and then he’d have no choice but to answer the horrific call of his sire’s blood.

  Her body tensed, drawing his attention. He cocked his head to look down at her upturned face. “Something the matter?”

  “No.” Her answer came with just enough hesitation to prove her response false.

  Dáire shifted position to better see her expression. For the first time, he wished he hadn’t terminated his connection with her subconscious. “Are you upset we didn’t use a condom?”

  She shook her head, sending that glorious hair cascading across his skin. He drew in a sharp breath as the stirrings of desire sparked once again.

  “I’m on birth control.” Her fingertips traced a pattern over his exposed pectoral. “And, if you really want to know, I haven’t been with Tom in months.”

  Dáire’s jaw tightened. So that explained why Tom had called supposedly on behalf of an unnamed friend, wanting to know the name of the seedy Augusta club where the waitresses definition of service went beyond delivering drinks. While Reese should have been cheating on Tom, he clearly was cheating on her.

  Damn her for being so loyal and decent.

  He tightened his arms around her and gave her an affectionate squeeze. “It’s been a long time for me too.” As if that wasn’t obvious given his inability to control himself. He couldn’t help but chuckle. “A real long time. You know I wouldn’t put you in a dangerous position, right?”

  She nodded.

  So why wasn’t her tension ebbing?

  Setting a finger beneath her chin, Dáire tipped her head back until he could dust his mouth across hers. “So what’s bothering you then?”

  Reese let out a heavy sigh. “Stuff I shouldn’t talk about.”

  Dáire cocked an eyebrow. “Talk.”

  “It’s just…you.” Tenderly, she lifted a hand to run a fingertip across the tattoos on his left cheekbone. “I know you. I don’t want this to end, and you don’t keep women around.”

  Words surfaced, only to become lodged in the back of his throat. His heart stuttered uncomfortably. Then, as it leveled into an accelerated rhythm, his throat loosened, spilling a truth he hadn’t fully recognized until this moment. “None of them were you, Reese. They were substitutes for what I wanted, and now that I have it, I’m not letting you go.”

  She dropped her hand to his shoulder. Ever so slightly, her nails bit into his skin. “What about Tom?”

  Dáire brushed a kiss against the crown of her head. “How brave are you?” He didn’t need to ask, he already knew she possessed courage that surpassed even his own at times. The many times she publicly went toe-to-toe against Tom’s political platform proved that. “I can handle Tom. I know things that would destroy him.” Things he doubted even Reese knew, like the women before her, the fetish clubs Tom frequented before he buried secrets and paid off cohorts to achieve election. Then there was the matter of Dáire’s gift. If he had to defy every boundary of nature to silence Tom, he would.

  “Things like?”

  Dáire shook his head. “I’m not going to wound you that way.”

  A long moment of silence spanned as Reese digested his response. In the quiet, he reached out to her mentally to understand what was going on in her pretty little head. Her energy sizzled alongside his, sending a sudden rush of heat through his sated veins.

  But just as he felt her subconscious acknowledge him, felt it bend to let him bond intimately, his cell
phone let out a shrill ring from atop the nightstand. The high-pitched electronica snapped his concentration in half. Damn Rhiannon.

  Muttering, Dáire fumbled on the nightstand until his fingers hit the volume on his cell and silenced the ringing. His twin had probably picked up on the rapid shift of his emotions, the way he surged into chaos, only to plummet into utter contentment in the next heartbeat.

  At times, their mental bond could really get in the way.

  Reese let out a light laugh. “Not in the mood for conversation?”

  “It’s my sister. She can wait.” She wouldn’t be pleased, but she’d definitely wait.

  “Rhi?”

  He nodded. “Mick just insisted she get a cell phone. She’s infatuated with the thing. She’ll probably—” Before he could finish his statement, the phone chirruped with an incoming text message. “Text next.”

  Reese laughed again and snuggled into Dáire’s arms. She dusted a lingering kiss over his heart. The tender, reverent touch shot straight to his gut and his cock stirred against his thigh, hungry for her yet again.

  “So we’re going to do this then?” she asked quietly.

  “Yeah, we’re going to do this.” He wound his arms around her tight, and with one push of his foot, flipped her onto her back. Grinning down at her, he parted her thighs with his knee. “This, and a whole lot more.”

  But as Dáire lowered his head to her laughter, intending to draw one delectable nipple into his mouth, a loud thump echoed from beyond his bedroom door.

  “What the fuck are you doing in here?” Taran’s voice rumbled.

  A low, threatening growl answered.

  Dáire lifted his head with a mutter. “And that’s my youngest brother. I better intervene.” Before Taran said anything that revealed he’d been responsible for the coyote’s entrapment.