Merrick's Destiny

by Moira Rogers

  He got one suspender off his shoulder before her pants distracted him. He dragged them from her body as Paralee yanked off her shirt and accidentally ripped her chemise.

  She fell back to the bed with a laugh. “I’m useless. You broke me.”

  “What a pity.” Merrick sank to his knees and dragged her ass to the edge of the mattress. “Now you’ll just have to let me enjoy myself.”

  As if that didn’t mean hours of desperate, mindless pleasure. “Tease.”

  That made him smile. She didn’t realize the expression had taken a wicked edge until he slid his hands down her bare thighs and pushed them wide, only to lean in and feather his breath over her cunt. “I can tease.”

  She tried to arch up, but he held her pinned against the mattress. “You can,” she agreed hoarsely. “Or you can make me come in your mouth.”

  “Wicked woman.” He pressed a kiss to her thigh, then traced her skin with his tongue. When he looked up, his eyes almost seemed to glow. “Hold yourself open for me.”

  It was nothing less than a command. Paralee started to slide her hands down her body, then paused to pinch her already-hard nipples.

  His nostrils flared, and his gaze snapped from her fingers to her face. “Is that what you want me sucking on? I can do that too.”

  “I know.” She slipped her hands between her thighs, parting herself for him, and Christ, her legs were already shaking. “I just can’t have you thinking I’m easy to order around, because I’m not. I’m bull-headed, honey, the stubbornest woman you’ve ever met.”

  “Stubborn’s perfect.” He licked her fingers one at a time, then licked his lips. “You’re perfect. Sweet and luscious and mine.”

  And as if that settled it, he dragged his tongue over her clit, lighting all of her senses on fire. There was nothing teasing or soft about it, and she arched her back and breathed his name.

  Another lick, and another. He licked her as if he meant to possess her, as if he was branding her with his mouth, and he left no part of her untouched. He flicked the tip of his tongue over her clit in between long, meandering laps, keeping her riding the edge without pushing her over.

  Paralee struggled to draw a deep breath, to center herself instead of spinning away in dizziness. She rubbed her heels over his back and choked on a laugh when her toes tangled in his suspenders.

  Merrick closed his teeth on the inside of her thigh. “Laughing’s rude.”

  He must have thought her unaffected by his touch, giggling her way through his attentions with distracted humor. She clenched her fingers in his hair and forced his gaze up to hers. “You don’t understand. I’m happy.”

  He crawled up her body to loom over her. With his glazed eyes and heaving chest, he looked more beast than man, but he touched the corner of her mouth and slowly smiled. “You’re not afraid.”

  Paralee wrapped her hand around the back of his neck and pulled him closer. “No. But you’d better kiss me, just to be sure.”

  He hauled her up and covered her mouth with his in a kiss so deep she didn’t realize he’d moved them until her back hit the bed again and his hand slipped between their bodies to pull at his pants.

  She wanted to help—tried to, even—but her hands wouldn’t cooperate. She fumbled with the buttons and finally gave up, trailing a line of kisses across his shoulder as he opened his pants and tore his suspenders free with a frustrated snarl.

  “Too much damn clothing,” he muttered, pulling off her ripped chemise. “I want you naked. I need you naked.”

  I need you. Her hands wouldn’t stop shaking. “Hurry.”

  He did, somehow, even though he seemed no steadier than she. His pants hit the floor and in the next moment he was on her—in her—cock pushing deep as he buried his face in her neck and groaned her name.

  “Oh.” He’d brought her so close to the edge already, and she was unprepared for the hard thrust of his body in hers, for the sheer sensual shock of it.

  Merrick laughed against her cheek and flexed his hips. “Make that noise again.”

  Anything, so long as he didn’t stop. She gripped his hips with her thighs and muffled her whimper against his shoulder.

  Another rock, harder this time. He caught one of her hands, pushed it above her head and wove his fingers together with hers. “That’s right, sweet girl. Let go. Let me have everything.”

  He wouldn’t be satisfied with less.

  The thought rocked her, but not as much as the realization that neither would she. She needed all of him, every bit of the pleasure he would not only give but take, as well.

  His entire body moved as he pulled back, rubbing over her. Every thrust was agonizingly slow, but he drove deep with every return, his chest vibrating with his pleased groans.

  There was no part of her he didn’t touch. He explored her mouth and throat with kisses even as his whole body caressed hers with each thrust. Slower than she’d imagined, but that didn’t stop the ecstasy from mounting. If anything, it made their union that much more intense, that he couldn’t bear not to have as much of his skin as possible touching hers with every heartbeat.

  “Merrick.” Her voice was barely audible, nearly lost to the fever that held her spellbound. “More—”

  His fingers tightened on hers as his pace shifted. His hips snapped forward hard enough to drive her up the bed. “More?” he growled.

  Paralee shuddered through a rough surge of pleasure. “Yes.”

  He slid his other hand under her shoulder to brace her and thrust again. “Yes.” Again. “Yes?”

  She managed only a frantic nod before the pleasure crested. She clung to his shoulders, desperate to hang on to something solid, safe, with the world spinning away. Her nails pierced his skin, and she knew it must hurt, but she couldn’t loosen her hold. “Oh fuck!”

  He covered her mouth, swallowing her cry as he rode her orgasm. No mercy, no respite, just his body in and over hers as he licked her tongue and rasped crude, hungry commands.

  Again. His words ran together, lost in the roaring of blood in her ears, but she knew what they meant, what he wanted. Her, coming again. More.

  This time, she bit his neck and let go, trusting that he would hold her even if she lost control.

  “Paralee…” It didn’t stop. Not the roaring, not the pleasure, not his voice in her ear. Not until she was shaking and limp, and even then he stroked her cheeks and hair, bringing her down to find herself pinned beneath him, his cock still hot and hard inside her.

  His chest heaved as he stared down at her. Tense muscles trembled under her clutching hands, but he didn’t move. “Still want me?”

  It was so like him, stopping to ask for confirmation even though every fiber of her being screamed submission. “Don’t you know?” she whispered, laying her hand on his cheek. “I want you. Always.”

  He shuddered. Bucked. That fierce concentration broke, and he surged forward in an unsteady thrust. “Always.” He licked her lips with a groan. “Always.”

  She wrapped her arms around him. “I need you.”

  “Mine.” It sounded like a claim and a question.

  “Yours.” It was easy to fantasize, to imagine that when he said mine and always, he truly meant both. Even easier as he seized her lips in a possessive kiss and let go. Three smooth thrusts and he whispered her name into her mouth and came, body shaking above her.

  So much, and it was just the beginning. She had three days to shut out the world, to indulge herself. To unleash his locked-away desires, the ones he perhaps barely knew he had.

  To drown in him.

  Chapter Five

  In six decades, Merrick had never faced a new moon he couldn’t manage.

  In all those decades, he’d never had a mate.

  Paralee made him burn. Made him wild. He couldn’t sleep, couldn’t eat, couldn’t think of anything but touching her. Touching her, taking her, holding her, fucking her, petting her, loving her—

  It was like being newly made. A young hound in the g
rip of confusing lust, and he couldn’t stop marking her. Little bites and bruises, soothed by his lips and tongue, but over and over, because she was his, his—

  Mine.

  She sighed and shifted under his hands. “If you keep petting me and mumbling, I won’t get any sleep. If I don’t sleep, I’ll be cranky. Do you know what happens when I’m cranky?”

  The last time he’d irritated her by being too solicitous, she’d shoved him on his back for a hard ride, proof that she could take the brunt of his lust.

  Proof enough for her. Not for him, when that hunger had burned through an entire day, growing stronger with every touch. She was human. He was…

  Starving. He kissed the back of her shoulder, scraped it with his teeth and barely avoided biting her. “Sleep. You should sleep.”

  “Mmm.” She rolled in his arms and trailed her hand down his chest. “You’re very gentle with me, you know. Even when you’re rough.”

  Touch. Take. Heat throbbed in his blood, in his damn cock, which was always ready. “Don’t want to hurt you,” he muttered, focusing on her lips. He couldn’t resist the urge to lick the corner of her mouth.

  “You haven’t.” Her hand slipped lower, barely grazing the base of his cock.

  He thrust against her hand. “Good,” he groaned, and didn’t know if he was replying to her words or her touch.

  A sleepy smile curved her lips as she fisted her hand around him. “So intense. Do I look this delicious when you touch me?”

  “Yes.” Thought was fracturing, slipping away. He caught her wrist and stilled her hand as fire licked at the edge of his mind. “Do you need sleep?”

  “No. I need this.” She squeezed his shaft with a moan, and he seized her mouth and gave in to the beast as the last bits of reason melted into possession.

  She was his mate. Claiming her was his destiny.

  #

  Paralee pushed off the floor with her toes, but she barely had the leverage to rock, much less ride him the way she’d promised.

  Still, the gentle motion sparked fire, and she let her head fall back on a moan. “Like this?”

  “Just like this.” His beard scraped her cheek as he dropped kisses down the line of her jaw. Slow, easy, as if he could sit with her in his lap all day.

  And he likely could. There seemed no end to Merrick’s lust, and no limit to his stamina. She’d be lucky to be able to walk by the time the moon began to show herself in the sky again, and as much as she fought to care…

  Not a chance. Not when she had him like this, sweet and hot in turn, cradling her like something precious.

  He splayed one hand across her lower back and nuzzled his way to the hollow of her throat. “Lean back. I want your breasts under my mouth.”

  Arching left her in an even more precarious position, but Paralee did it gladly. “I’ve heard most men hold a particular fondness for one part of a woman’s body or another. Is this your favorite?”

  “Your glorious tits?” He chuckled against her nipple. “For the moment. Maybe I’ll suck on them until you come.”

  Oh, sweet Jesus. “I know which part of you I like best,” she whispered, then squeezed her muscles teasingly around his cock—just for a moment, just to make him wonder. “Your eyes. The way you look at me.”

  His lips tickled her skin as he smiled. “Can’t stop looking at you. Can’t stop touching you.”

  Paralee scratched her nails down his arm as heat shivered through her. “I’m glad.”

  He didn’t respond. His tongue lashed over her nipple, followed by an insistent tug as he sucked. He guided her hips in a grinding rock that blurred her vision, made her shake. Familiar and yet still so new, the way he touched her, and she couldn’t get enough.

  She braced her heels on the cool wooden rungs of the chair and moved, turning the smooth rock into a concert of thrusts that drove her beyond words and thought. There was nothing but their rasping breaths, the pounding of her heart in her ears, and finally her own voice rising in a scream as he wrapped her in ecstasy and swept her away.

  #

  Seventy-two hours of fucking, and he still wanted her.

  The worst of the fever had faded, but it hadn’t taken need with it. He woke hard and hungry, grateful when she welcomed his kisses with sleepy pleasure and rolled willingly to her side.

  So easy to enter her from behind. He liked it like this, with her back against his chest. He was touching her from head to toe, surrounding her as he rocked and kissed and stroked and touched.

  Paralee covered his hand with hers and murmured encouragement. “Don’t stop.”

  He had to stop. This had to be the last time, because rations were wearing thin and they had to get out of the Deadlands. He couldn’t indulge himself by spending the last of the new moon in lazy lovemaking and soft touches, couldn’t linger until need faded completely.

  Unfair, when this new moon could be one of his last. Would be, if she refused to stay with him.

  He pulled her hand to his lips, kissed her fingers and kept up his slow rocking. “One more,” he whispered. “Let me feel you come again.”

  “You always say that.” Her voice had gone hoarse, husky with pleasure. “But it’s never enough, not for either of us.”

  “It never will be.” That slid dangerously close to the truth, so he licked her fingertips again before guiding them down to press against her clit.

  Her breath hitched, and she circled her fingers slowly as she pushed back to meet his next easy thrust.

  The past three days were a blur, but this he would fix in his memory. The flush in her cheeks, the way she moved, sleepy and soft, the way she sounded when he sharpened the angle of his next thrust. He’d memorize her, all of her, just in case—

  Her breathing quickened to a rough pant. Soon, so soon, her gasps gave way to cries and finally his name as she peaked. She shuddered, her body clenching around his cock so beautifully it only took two more thrusts to follow her.

  Bliss—until he realized it was over. He whispered her name into her hair and told himself he couldn’t start again. Not just because of the danger, but because he’d ridden her hard for three days and she needed a respite.

  She arched her head back against his shoulder and stretched. “What time is it?”

  “Time to get some food in you.” Light filtered through the boarded up windows at a sharp angle. Still early, then, which made it harder to ease away from her.

  “I’m not hungry.” Her hand wrapped tight around his. “Don’t, not just yet.”

  With a silent sigh of relief, he relaxed. “Not sick of me?”

  “No.” She turned, rubbed her cheek over his shoulder. “We could stay in bed this morning. We have a long enough journey ahead of us without rushing.”

  “We shouldn’t waste the daylight.” The protest lacked force, because his resolve melted at the way she snuggled close. She was cuddling with him, which was for damn sure a new experience. “But I suppose a bit of rest wouldn’t hurt.”

  Paralee traced her fingertips through the hair on his chest. “They must be missing you in Chicago by now.”

  “Maybe. Though they’ll have figured I’d have to hole up for the new moon.” He closed his eyes and focused on that soft touch. The Guild would be missing him, but he couldn’t find it in him to care. This must be what all the mated fools had blathered about. A quiet peace that made what should be more pressing concerns melt away.

  No wonder the Bloodhound Guild didn’t want them taking mates.

  “Would they trust you could contrive to find a companion on your own?”

  “Undoubtedly. Every brothel that takes in a bloodhound for the new moon can claim a shiny stack of coins from the Guild.”

  She regarded him with wide eyes. “And if you alone had survived the crash? Not a brothel in sight?”

  He swallowed hard. “It happened before, about twenty years back. Once or twice won’t kill a hound, but it’ll make him awful cranky.”

  “Then it’s a good thing
I made it.” She grinned. “Not only because I like life as well as living it, but…I’m glad you haven’t been alone.”

  Merrick dragged her on top of him and wrapped both arms around her body, as if he could keep her trapped there forever. “I wouldn’t have let anything happen to you.”

  Her tousled hair fell down around him as Paralee propped her chin on her hand. “You protected me,” she agreed, “though I think we both know things don’t always go according to plan.”

  Wrapping a lock of hair around his finger, he told her the truth. The whole truth. “I’ll always protect you. Nothing will be more important to me than you, from now until I last draw breath.”

  Her eyes lit, though it faded quickly enough. “That’s not a misguided declaration of love, is it? You’re being literal.”

  “Serious as a preacher.” He sighed and tugged on her hair. “I should have told you, but you haven’t known me long enough to start loving me, and I don’t want you to stay out of guilt.”

  She carefully disengaged her hair from his hand. “You told me you’d get over the mating once we went our separate ways.”

  “Not exactly. You asked if I could make it stop, and I said only after you were gone.” What a clever bit of misdirection it had been too. Somehow he doubted she’d appreciate it. “A bloodhound who loses his mate doesn’t usually suffer for long. Death’s a mercy.”

  “Merrick!” Paralee shot upright. “You can’t say you don’t want me to stay with you out of guilt, then tell me you’ll die if I go. You just can’t.”

  “Well, what do you want me to do?” he snapped back, more defensive than he wanted to admit. The angry rumble of the inner beast didn’t help—the new moon was still too fresh for him to handle his mate’s distress. “You want me to keep on lying to you?”

  She flashed him an exasperated look. “No, of course not.”

  “But it’s not fair.” He groaned and rubbed a hand over his face, wishing he had the words back. Damn sentimentality, and damn her sweet, soft eyes. “I know it’s not fair, but my only other choice was not to tell you at all.”

  Paralee sighed. “We’re both in dire shortage of valid choices right now, love, but I think it’s important that we not let it blind us to the obvious.” She met his gaze. “If you had the choice, free and clear, what would you want?”