by M. L. Briers
“Ya think?” Melody’s words were almost silent and even he had to strain his ears to listen for them. “Look, apart from the whole kidnapping women thing… you’re probably a… nice… kind of a… guy, but-”
“I am a nice guy.” Richie didn’t want to hear any buts. “And it was my brother Ed’s idea to bring you back here-”
“That you went along with, hence why Belle is here.”
“Because we needed a witch for the whole spectre thing-”
“So you thought you’d just steal a witch?” she berated him.
“To protect the pack. The alpha said get a witch…” he shrugged.
“The alpha said, your brother Ed said… can’t you think for yourself?”
Melody jumped a little when he leaned in over her. She probably would have taken at least one big step back if the wall wasn’t right there behind her.
He was big… imposing in more ways than one, and she was short by comparison, maybe laughably so, but with his broad shoulders and all of those muscles she felt even smaller. She dropped her eyes to his chest, because she couldn’t even see daylight getting around his frame, and scowled hard at the sound of the deep growl that rumbled through that chest and made her skin tingle…
“I’m thinking for myself right here and now, and do you want to know what I’m thinking?”
“No.” Her voice pitched upwards into a small squeak.
“I’m thinking that I want to kiss you, taste you-”
“I said no. How hard is no to understand? It’s a two letter word that can’t be mistaken for another word. Probably the most common word in the English language and-” she was rambling. She knew it, but she couldn’t help herself. She did that when she got nervous, and he made her very, very nervous.
When he reached up and hooked his index finger under her chin, she jumped just a little, and made what sounded like a hiccup. He couldn’t help but grin as he tipped her chin upwards and her eyes followed in a slow roll that made his whole body tense with anticipation of having her gaze on his face again.
“Melody-” she blinked twice at the sound of her name. “I’m going to kiss you now…” his grin widened. His eyes came alive with amusement… and she panicked, panicked right down to her very toes…
CHAPTER TEN
~
One moment she was standing there looking up at him like a doe caught in the headlights, and the next she had pitched her body sideways to get away from him, and tripped over her own feet in an attempt to escape him…
Her heart slammed against her ribs as she saw the staircase coming up to meet her. She thrust out her hands and her palms touched the carpet for just a second before she felt a strong arm wrap around her waist as he scooped her up and yanked her against his hard chest…
Her face was plastered against those hard muscles and her hands had somehow found their way to gripping onto his bicep with one hand, and the other was splayed between them, against the hard ridges of his abdomen.
The rush of blood pumping through her ears deafened her to most things but the heady sound of his heart thumping in his chest…
For one long moment she had the urge to touch, to feel, to see just how hard those muscles were beneath her touch. She’d seen men in magazines with washboard abs and her fingers had twitched at wanting to know how they actually felt… now she had the chance to find out…
Temptation gnawed at her very soul. Could she get away with just a little squeeze? A little poke?
“I have you.” His deep voice reverberated through her like someone was beating a big old bass drum against her ear. She felt it ping and pong through every nerve ending in her body. Her toes curled in her shoes, and her fingers started to curl against his body, and then…
Sanity took a hold of her and she remembered who that hard body belonged too.
Her mate.
The one.
The love of her life…
Melody felt the rush of heat go through her like a middle aged woman felt that burning hot flash of menopause. She braced her arms and pushed away, not that he’d let her get far, just far enough that she wasn’t hearing his heart beating anymore – although, she could swear that it was still echoing inside of her…
“N-no you don’t.” She gave a small shake of her head. “Y-you don’t have me, to have me would imply that we were…” he brought his lips down on hers to silence her protests.
Now that he had her within his arms he was more reluctant to set her free. His beast reared up within him, demanding that they claim her as theirs, but he knew that she wasn’t ready for that yet…
Melody felt the warm press of his soft lips against hers and tried to deny the rush of pure excitement that pitched an arrow straight into her womb. Her stomach flipped and her brain swooned…
She knew that it was the mating pull. How else would a man like him be interested in a girl like her? But right then, with those oh-so-soft lips pressed against hers, she didn’t much care.
Her brain was mush and her body was enjoying the ride. Jolts of pleasure were headed straight for her womb like homing pigeons, and it felt good… so damn good that she didn’t want it to end…
The sound of a hungry growl snapped on a switch within her brain, and she braced her hands against those hard chest muscles and was about to push away when he ran a hand up her spine and her traitorous body pressed forwards against his, encountering the hard ridge of his manhood, and she gasped in knowing… and that was her undoing…
Richie’s tongue swept into her mouth, grateful for the invitation to taste her properly. She melted inside of his arms and he’d never felt such raw need to feel her body against his, skin on skin, as he took them both to oblivion and back, over and over until neither one of them could move, think…
Melody knew one thing – she’d never been kissed that way in her life, with so much passion, raw hunger – it set her body to fast forward, set her heart to thumping wildly, set her womb to cry out for more, and that sensitive little nub of flesh between her inner thighs was practically begging to be touched. She didn’t even want to think about how hard and aching her nipples were, although they were doing a fine job of making her aware…
Every inch of her body was alive with one need or another, but the overall consensus was that it needed his touch, boy did it. Every inch cried out for more of him…
Richie knew deep down in the depths of his hazy brain that he needed to let her up for air. He didn’t want to relinquish her lips, but he didn’t want her passing out in his arms either… you really couldn’t woo an unconscious mate.
He released her lips and buried his face between her neck and her shoulder. Then he took her scent…
His length twitched and throbbed with a hard ache that demanded more of her, every last inch open and willing as he tasted her on his tongue, ran his fingertips over her soft skin… made her his.
“Mine…” the word was out of his mouth before his brain was in gear, before he had even thought about it… and he felt the hard thud of her knee in his balls a heartbeat later…
Melody wasn’t sure what had come over her. One moment she was more than enjoying his kisses, her body was falling over itself as to how much pleasure it could yield from each and every stroke of his tongue against hers, and the next… he’d growled possessively, said mine with so much of the beast in his voice that something snapped inside of her…
And now, there he was, folding like a house of cards on a windy day. His eyes held hers… glazed and confused, questioning why she would do that… as she was having that exact same thought.
His hands grasped his balls and his knees gave out from beneath him…
Thud! Right down on the floor in front of her… still looking up like a puppy that had shown nothing but unconditional love and had been kicked by its owner for its trouble…
“Oh, poop!” Her hands flew to cover her mouth as the shock of the moment raced through every guilty bone in her body, and she sidestepped him, stumbling up on
to the first step, and screwing up her face with utter disbelief for what she’d done…
“I… I… I…” It sounded like he was vinyl recording stuck in a groove. On repeat with that one word over and over again, and heaven help her but she had to urge to reach out and nudge him onto the next word, but she really didn’t think that she wanted to hear it.
She turned on her heels and fled up the staircase, leaving him suspended there in time and pain.
~
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~
Elizabeth eased back against the hard wood of the chair and eyed the man whom fate had intended as her mate. She was analytical, it was sometimes the bane of her life to date.
She was adamant that this whole situation was no different than any other for her, and she swept over him with a critical eye.
There was no doubt whatsoever in her mind that the man was attractive. His strong jaw, the full lips, and dark soulful eyes, were all enough to set off the flutter of butterfly wings flapping within her womb, and that strange ping of excitement that kept shooting to her stomach every time that his eyes caught hers was more than enough to tell her that fate had done its job well.
Add to that the whole frame and build of the man… six foot odd of pure brick outhouse, with muscles upon muscles tightly packed under his skin. Long thick legs, and a dipped waist, and the man was potent to say the least…
As she half followed the conversation that he was having with the vampire, and half continued to weigh the mating issue, she felt the pull of his deep tone to her psyche – the man had the kind of voice that attracted your ears, made you want to listen – like Sean Connery or a James Earl Jones reading one of those speaking books, or hell, even a weather report… it was bait for female hormones to get excited about.
When she was done analysing him she turned her attention to the situation that she found herself in. A mate. Not just any mate, but the mate to an alpha. That in itself was a heady mix on any woman’s radar.
She knew about the mating pull and the longer that she stayed in the man’s company the harder it would tug on her psyche, but she also knew that there was no real chance that keeping her distance would do any good.
Her first reaction had been to get her sister and Melody and run for the hills, but what would that achieve? Not one of them would ever find the kind of life that they would have with their mates. They’d never find true love because this was it…
It pained her to admit it, but fate had conspired to bring them together. She’d had absolutely no intention of going on the coven’s little All Hallows retreat to the mountain, but she’d needed a break from the humdrum of her life in the city, and she couldn’t always rely on Belle to the right thing… or the smart thing, and now here she was, sharing a table with the man that would go rogue if she didn’t accept him.
She was, to all intents and purposes, either his salvation or his doom. That was a heady mixture of guilt and responsibility to behold at the drop of a hat.
“And that’s where the witch comes in, isn’t it?” Mitchell looked directly at her, expectation in his eyes, and she hated to admit it, but she really hadn’t been listening.
“You bored me long ago. Cut to the chase and repeat the relevant part again.” Elizabeth offered in her no-nonsense tone that normally riled people up the wrong way. She’d long since stopped caring what anyone thought of her – this was no exception.
“You are so…” the vampire paused and reached for the right word… a growl rumbled in the alpha’s chest. “delightful.”
“Bite me.” She dismissed him out of hand, but the alpha growled again – this time, protectively.
“Not even if my life depended on it.” Mitchell offered back, and she found herself snorting a chuckle at that.
“Look, it’s simple. I have one job and that’s connecting with the ghost and finding out what he wants before I banish him from this realm.” She shrugged her shoulders. Why make life more complicated?
“At what risk to you?” Jake didn’t like the idea, but it didn’t sound as if they had any real choice in the matter from what he could see.
“Hopefully none. I’ll still have my magic, still have a sort of internal shield that should protect me from his influence or him getting a foothold inside of me-”
“See. It’s that word should that doesn’t fill me with so much confidence that I’m all gung-ho for what you’re proposing to do.” Jake growled.
He knew that he would be helpless to act to protect her. Humans, shifters, vampires – he knew how to fight them, but a spectre…?
“You want me to make it sound more upbeat?” She tossed back and he gave her the kind of frown that looked like his eyebrows were two caterpillars about to fight it out or kiss… either way it suited him and made her womb lurch…
“Not really, no.” Jake offered back.
“Well good, because I’m not that sort of girl.”
“What sort of girl are you?” Jake asked, moving forward in his chair and placing his arms down on the table, leaning in slightly.
“What you see is what you get.”
“I like what I see, and I have every intention of getting it.” The corners of his lips pulled upwards in a smile, hers didn’t as she stared back at him, but there was that jolt inside of her again – she certainly like his smile, not that she’d admit it.
“Good for you, excuse me if I don’t lead the cheer on that one.” She offered back blandly and Mitchell couldn’t help but chuckle.
“I’m guessing you’re not the kind of girl to go all doe eyed and sigh a lot over finding the love of your life.” Jake asked.
“Is that what you are?” She knew that he was, but again, admitting it was a different thing entirely. “You’re just a man-”
“And you’re just a woman, but together, we make a whole.” Jake informed her.
He’d never been one for flower words and sugar coating anything – he guessed that they had that in common, but he couldn’t help but find a sense of excitement in meeting his mate. A whole – she was certainly a whole lot of trouble.
“And I’m supposed to be happy about that?” She asked, unsure of what he wanted her to say. He’d already spotted her lack of enthusiasm at the thought of a soul mate.
“Not yet, but maybe sometime soon.” He offered her those tempting words.
The truth was that she’d found life held little enjoyment or excitement for her over the last few years – everything seemed bland and nondescript – she had to wonder if that lack of enthusiasm for her life would carry over into mating with him once the initial buzz of the mating pull had worn off.
“Can’t wait. My loins shiver with anticipation.” She tried to look as bored as possible and yet somewhere deep within her there was a little shivering and a little quivering for him going on.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
~
Jake couldn’t help but smile. The woman was a challenge that presented itself right there for him to deal with as best he could, and what a challenge it appeared to be. How to turn an ice Queen into a fire Goddess…
“Well, if you two love birds can drag yourselves away from the heat of passion…” Mitchell offered and got one glare and one growl for his efforts. “We have a spectre to interrogate.”
“Sounds like fun.” She pushed up to her feet and found Jake already on his.
“That you find fun?” He asked with a small lopsided grin that appealed to her more than she’d like to admit.
“Would it make you feel better to say that you come a close second?” She asked, cocking her head to one side and eyeing him.
“Not much, no.”
“Good. Then I won’t lie.” She turned on her heels and started for the back door as Jake watched her walk away – a little growl rumbling in his chest at the sight of her curvy hips swaying from side to side…
Mitchell chuckled behind his hand as he set off after her.
“It’s like the blind leading the blind.” He muttered.
&n
bsp; ~
~
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Belle had just known that Ed was still going to be standing on the other side of that bathroom door no matter how long she stayed inside. And there he was, right where she’d left him. He was propping up the wall with one shoulders and looking good enough to drool down her chin over…
“Don’t you have somewhere to be?” She asked, trying for bored but sounding slightly breathless.
“No.” He offered back with a small grin that made her heart double tap her ribs.
“Can’t you pretend you do?”
“You mean like fake it?” He asked, turning that grin into a panty dropping smile that lit his dark eyes.
“Women do it all the time.” She offered back with a little bit of innocence and a whole lot of mischief in her eyes.
“Why do I get the feeling that we’re talking about something completely different now?”
“I’m guessing that’s your conscience being pricked in the must try harder category.” Her smile was beaming now, and she thought herself clever, but that feeling didn’t last long when he dropped those muscled arms to his sides and started towards her.
Belle considered taking a few steps backwards and slamming the bathroom door in his face. The only problem was; she knew that she didn’t have time to get it open, make her escape, and close the door, not with the way that his long legs were closing the distance between them…
For one long moment she thought he wasn’t going to stop – then she thought that he was going to steamroller her right into the door itself, but he suddenly ground to a halt, toe to toe with her, and she had to tip her head back on her neck to stare up at him…
“I’m the kind of guy that gets straight A’s.” His voice was deeper and a lot more gravelly, and it ran over her nerves like faerie dust sprinkled with the very best of intentions.
