by Lisa Childs
His hands tightened on her shoulders. “You could have died.”
“She knows what she’s doing.” And somewhere deep inside the cynical vampiress beat the heart of a romantic. “She knows we belong together. Forever.”
“Forever?” He shook his head. “I was such a fool for constantly pulling away from you. I was scared to care too much—scared that I’d have to leave again, like I went from foster home to foster home when I was a kid.”
She’d known about his past; he’d shared the details with her but never before the emotions.
“Oh, Ben, I’m so sorry….” So sorry she hadn’t understood how much her divorcing him must have hurt him and his fragile trust. “I’m so sorry….”
“I’m the one who’s sorry. I regret every day we’ve spent apart, Paige,” Ben said, his eyes dark with torment and remorse.
She stroked her fingers over his cheek. “Don’t.” Then she kissed his cheek. “Don’t…” Her mouth slid across the stubble on his face until it covered his.
He kissed her back, his mouth hard and hungry against hers. His lips sucked, his tongue invaded, sliding in and out of her mouth. And their fangs clinked against each other’s, like wine glasses in a toast.
“Paige…” he groaned.
She wanted more than his kiss. Even though they’d just made love, she hadn’t known they’d actually been making love and not just having sex again. This time, for perhaps the first time, she knew exactly how he felt about her. He loved her. She slid her mouth from his, down his throat to his heart. She pressed her lips to where it pounded madly beneath his skin. With love for her.
His hands smoothed down her naked body, stroking over her breasts. He dipped his head and slid his mouth over one of the mounds. His tongue swiped across the nipple, again and again. Then he scraped the tip of a fang across the sensitive point.
She nipped at his shoulder, moaning his name against his skin. “Ben…”
His hands slid up the back of her naked thighs and over her butt. He cupped those mounds, as he had her breasts. Then he parted the folds of her femininity and dipped his fingers inside her.
She shuddered, her legs going weak. “Ben…”
His erection pressed against her hip, hard and ready for her. Silky skin over pulsing flesh. Paige closed her hands around him, stroking her fingers up and down his shaft. Then she pushed him back against the couch and lowered her head to his lap. She replaced her hand with her mouth, sliding her lips up and down. Her fangs scraped the side of his engorged cock.
His fingers clutched her hair, tangling in the strands as he held her to him. He groaned her name.
Licking him, she opened her eyes and peered up at him. “Come,” she urged him.
But he pulled her away and dragged her up. Then he led her around to the arm of the couch, then pushed her, so that she bent over, her back to him. Paige braced her hands on the couch cushions, so that she didn’t topple forward as he leaned over, filling his hands with her dangling breasts, nipping at her neck. His fangs slid over her skin, then penetrated as he also thrust deep inside her.
“Oh, God…” Tension spiraled inside her. Her legs trembled with the force of her desire for him. And she felt a pull from his fangs to her core as he sipped from her neck before pulling away.
“There you go, say my name,” he teased, chuckling in her ear. His chest hair soft against her back, he held her tight as he pumped her. In and out. His thumbs flicked across her nipples, teasing them. His mouth nibbled her neck and bare shoulders. His breath blew hot and raspy against her ear. “Paige…”
He slid his hand down the front of her, over her stomach and lower. As he flicked his thumb across her clit, she came, her legs shaking. But he kept touching her, kept teasing her, until she came again. She clutched at the cushions, trying not to dissolve into a puddle beneath him.
He pounded into her relentlessly until he stiffened, then shouted his release. “Paige!”
He tipped them both onto the couch, so they sprawled, tangled in each other’s arms, across the supple leather cushions.
She snuggled close, her face buried in his neck.
“Bite me,” he invited her.
So she did, sinking her fangs into his skin. He groaned, and she pulled back. But he clutched his fingers in her hair the way he had earlier—urging her closer. So she bit him again and drank, sucking the sweet richness of his blood into her mouth. It trickled down her throat, filling her.
She pulled back, shuddering with another release. “Now I understand….”
His hand stroked over her back. “Yes, me, too…”
“And I understand you, too,” she said, since he’d shared his emotions from his childhood with her. “But still I keep worrying that you’re going to run off and leave me again.”
“I may have kept leaving,” he said, tightening his arms around her, pulling her closer to his side. “But I always came back. I could never stay away from you. I love you so much.”
“I thought it was because I couldn’t give you what you want,” she admitted, “that I can’t give you your own family, Ben.”
“You already have,” he said. “You’ve given me a loving wife. And a father-in-law who’s become my best friend. And a beautiful little girl who will now always be part of our lives.”
“More than part,” Paige shared. “Sebastian wants us to be Addi’s guardians now that her mother is dead.”
Ben tensed. “Is he sure about this?”
“He had me draw up the legal adoption papers.”
“But…” Ben’s eyes widened with hope.
It was obvious that he already loved Addi; the child had slipped under his guard the same way Paige realized she had—despite his efforts to keep her out.
“How can he give her up?” he asked.
“The same way you tried giving me up,” she said. “Because he loves her, he wants the best life for her. He thinks we can give that to her—that we can give her a stable, loving home. He’ll stay part of her life.” Just as he’d promised to stay a part of Paige’s. “But he wants her to live with us.”
“Are you sure about this?” Ben asked. “She’s always going to be a child.”
She nodded. “I love her…like I love you. Forever. No matter who or what we are, we’ll always be together now.” Paige finally believed that Ben was going nowhere—at least not without her and Addi. She had that family she’d always wanted and the man she had always loved and would love now for eternity.
ISBN: 978-1-4268-5025-7
MISTRESS OF THE UNDERGROUND
Copyright © 2010 by Lisa Childs-Theeuwes
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
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