“Ouch! Damn it, woman, you bite me again and I’ll paddle your ass until you scream.” He stopped suddenly, the image of that burning through his mind.
Christ. Her naked bottom lying across his thighs while he brought his hand down hard
against it nearly made him groan out loud. The thought of her naked alone had him rock hard; her begging and wet over his cock made him lightheaded with need.
He had had to ask several men milling around where Tess’s home was as she would not
answer him. By the time he made it to the beautiful little house across the compound, he had quite a following. When he turned around at one point on the way across the road he noticed he had about fifty people right behind him.
They looked to be hard men, most dressed in armor of some sort. All of them carried a
weapon—knives, swords, he’d even seen a couple of handguns as well. He somehow knew that the only reason he was not dead was because Athropos had given him a free pass. And if he did not follow through on his promise to her he would not be able to run far enough or hide deep enough where these men would not find him. Especially if he hurt Tess in any way.
When the door opened seconds before he stepped on the porch he knew that someone was
making sure he at least got this far with the beautiful and thoroughly pissed off bundle in his arms. He did not have a lot of time to look around, but he had the impression of deep colors of the earth and plants everywhere. He took her to the bedroom and decided to try and set down some rules before he let the cat loose.
“If I put you down, will you try to hurt me?” he asked her.
“No, I won’t try to hurt you; I am going to hurt you. First thing I’m going to do is rip your lips off, and then I’m going to tie you down and cut off that tiny dick of yours and give it to the dogs down the street.”
His hand snapped across her ass so smartly that it stung his hand a bit. He could not imagine how it felt to her. His cock ached to see her naked ass pinked up, and it was everything he could do to restrain himself from finding out.
“First of all, I don’t have a tiny dick, and secondly, you aren’t helping yourself by making threats. Thirdly, I was thinking you might enjoy me tying you down. I would love to have you naked and tied open for me. It could be quiet enjoyable for us both.”
“You try that and I’ll…I’ll…you’d better not try it.”
Her arousal hit him fast and hard. With her positioned the way she was he could almost turn his nose into her pussy and breathe her in. Deciding maybe he could loosen her up a bit this way he sent her images of what he would do to her when he got her where he wanted her. He started to caress her inner thighs with his fingers, not touching, but coming close to her heat.
“I’d want you naked, your body bare of anything that would keep me from viewing you,
touching you. I’d tie your arms high above your head, securing each wrist to the posts with silk, then your legs tied wide open for me, your pussy open for me. You’d be wet, soaking the sheets beneath you, all for me. Your scent is permeating the air and driving me wild with need. I want to taste of you, Tess.”
“No. You’re just horny. I’m sure there are plenty of women you can slake your need on.
Why don’t you put me down and go and find one?”
“No, darling, you’re the one I want. I’d start with your breasts, working your nipples into hard peak and begging for my mouth. I’d lick them, first one then the other, not taking them into my mouth like I want, but just tasting them with my tongue. I’d move my way down your chest, nipping and kissing you as I go, tasting your sweat, your need as it glistened on your body. By the time I get to paradise you would be begging me to take you, begging me to pound my cock deep into your pussy. Is that what you want, Tess. Do you want me to fuck you?”
“Please, Nathaniel. Put me down.” Her voice had turned soft and barely a whispered plea, and he heard her need within each word.
There was a moment when he wasn’t sure if it was a trick and decided he didn’t care. He wanted her and he could smell her need for him.
Adjusting her slightly, he pulled her slowly around him until her pussy was even with his mouth and he bit her through her pants, now soaked with her juices. He felt her fingers dig deep into his shoulders as she undulated her body. Sliding her down more, he took her breasts. His mouth opened over her and through her shirt he nibbled hard at the nipple he could feel pressing against her bra. His cock jerked in response and the need to smooth his hand over it, to calm his cock into waiting just a little while longer, made him groan out loud.
She was panting hard, as hard if not harder than him. By the time her feet touched the floor they were both tearing at their clothes and each other’s. He felt his fangs elongate, stretch in his mouth, wanting—no, needing—to sink into her flesh and take.
Backing her toward her bed as soon as he had her bare from the waist up, he lifted her again, took her warm breast into his mouth and suckled hard, rolling her nipple against the roof of his mouth, tugging with his teeth. She bucked against him and moaned deep from her chest.
Working beneath her legs that were wrapped around his waist, he jerked the snap and zipper open on his pants and freed his cock. The cool breeze in the room made it ache all the more.
Putting his hands into Tess’s opened pants, he tore them from her. Her moan rippled through him like a caress.
“I need to be inside of you. I need to bury my cock deep into you, Tess.”
“Nathaniel, this is wrong. You know it and I know it. You have to stop now before it’s too late. We can have sex, but we shouldn’t bond, not this way.”
“I couldn’t stop even if I wanted to. I want you, Tess. Now.”
As soon as her back touched the bed, he was sliding into her, her juices making his entrance easy but no less tight. He wanted to slow down, he wanted to savor her and how much they fit together, but he could not. She was milking him, pulling and tugging around his cock so tightly that he knew he was close.
Licking her throat, running his tongue down her vein, he captured her pounding pulse in his mouth and suckled hard on it. The need to claim her nearly making him dizzy, his world suddenly focused on making her his, claiming his mate.
Lifting his head slightly, he looked down at her and he felt everything slow and calm within him. “Tess, I want you more than I’ve ever wanted anything in my life. I want taste you, take you as mine. And I give you all that I am. Please drink from me, claim me as I do you.”
She looked up at him for so long that he began to get nervous. Just when he started to say something, he noticed the tears in her eyes.
“Don’t do this, please? Don’t bond with me, Nathaniel; it isn’t right for us, not like this, not this way. Please, don’t.”
“I made a promise, Tess. Please, if we don’t do this, she will kill you. She has the means and I don’t want to take the chance that she will.”
Tess turned her head away from him and bared her neck for him. He could see her tears
running down her cheeks. He knew that he had put them there and his heart ached with the knowledge. But he knew that he could not lose her, not now, not like this. Licking the pulse again and rocking into her, he felt her tighten again around him, pulling him deeper into her. His balls drew up tight to his body and he knew that he would not last. Before he could change his mind, he bit.
Her essences filled his mouth, hot and spicy. When he drew hard on the vein, he came, his body releasing his hot seed into her, filling her, marking her as his. Her blood filled him. He could feel it surge into his vessels and cells, giving him the feeling of having just drank the finest wine and eaten the richest chocolate. Over and over he surged into her until he collapsed once again upon her. Dragging in an intoxicating breath of her, he pulled Tess over him as he rolled to his back and held her tight. Next time, he told himself, next time she would bond with him. And he fell into the deep sleep of his kind.
~Chapter 7~
Tess stepped out into the sun and winced at the pain it caused her. She had been crying most of the night after Nathaniel fell asleep and only just now had been able to move his body off of hers. Her eyes were tender. He had been heavy and he kept pulling her back every time she got a few inches away.
He had done it. He had bonded with her and now he would need her to live. It hurt her in ways she could not imagine, him not listening to her. Did he not realize that she was a mortal and, with their bonding, he would share that? As a vampire he was immortal in that it was more difficult to be killed. The only thing she had going for her was her very long life. If hurt in any way, even in sickness, she would die.
Moving toward the paddock she met Lord Draco. He had just settled down near the deep
lake to nap, as he did every day at this time, when she called out to him. “Hello, my lord. How are you feeling these days? You look better than the last time I saw you.”
Lord Draco Enneahedral was a Ninefold dragon—one of the largest and oldest of his kind ever seen. He was also thought to be the last and that was why he lived in the magical realm now. He stood fifteen feet tall and, with his wingspan, he was thirty feet wide. When Tess stood close to his head one of his teeth was the same height as she was, yet she was never fearful of him or ever thought he would harm her. She loved the old guy.
“I am fine, my dear, and you? Is this not a glorious day? I thought I would try to catch a few winks before I go home and take a nap later,” he whispered through her head.
He could not use his real voice when he was in his dragon form. It was hard and loud, and the last time he had used it the fairies had been upset for nearly a decade, refusing to kiss any flower in the field where he rested. The poor dragon had been so depressed he began to molt. It was a very sad time for all those who had to clean up after him. Scales were very heavy and could be quite sharp on the edges. She noticed that the field surrounding him was full of bluebell and marsh flowers of rich summer colors.
“I’m going to the Caves of Avalone for some peace and quiet. I haven’t been there in a long while and thought that I would enjoy it for a little while. I think a few hours alone would do wonders for my aching head. I would ask that if anyone asks you if you have seen me that you tell them nothing.”
“I will keep your secret, warrior. But let me ask, who do you run from, Tessa May Knight, the young vamp in your bed or from yourself? Both of them will still be there when you come back home, you know. It is better to deal with the issues at hand rather than put them off for another day. This is a lesson it took me many a year to figure out.”
She did not want to know how he knew about the man in her bed or even how he knew that he was a vampire, but she knew that he was right. No matter how far she ran from the problems at hand they would still be there when she returned. But she waved at him and moved on.
There were plenty of fruit trees in the paddock, so Tess made her breakfast of apples and pears. She knew that year round she would be able to pick berries if she wanted them, and somewhere along the way there was a fast moving creek that she could get her drink from and clean up. But right now she just wanted her solitude.
Avalone was the Keep of Avalone Castle, The Fates’ part of the realm. Their castle was not as large as Mel’s, nor were the grounds as grand, but it was beautiful. On this land sat the Tree of Seasons, the tree of Magick. The tree had at one time been a part of Molavonta, the castle that the queen actually resided at, but there had been a problem with the waterways and it had been moved. Most people did not realize that it had ever been anywhere but where it sat now.
The sun was high in the sky when she walked into the first cave. It had been cleaned, she noticed, and someone had planted flowers along the outer rims of the entrance. She would have to tell her grandmother when she next visited her fairy ring where she had faded to when Tess’s grandpa was murdered.
She had just gone past the first three mile mark below the surface when she heard the voices.
She had not realized that anyone was here and nearly turned to leave them to their solitude. But something about what they were saying caught her attention and made her blood freeze in her veins.
“What do you mean there’s a problem with the law? You’re the one who told me it was
perfect. That all I had to do was bring her before the Council of Magick and they would agree with me.”
Tess did not know this voice, but she shuddered when the second man spoke.
“It is perfect, that’s not the law I was referring to. It’s the one about her childless state and that she should be able to have more than one as a queen. She had asked that it be put on the books for consideration a few years ago. She had wanted the law changed, stating that she may have more children if she wishes. I had tried stalling her and, as she doesn’t have a mate, she hasn’t tried pushing it forward anymore. But she may point that out at the trial. And it may come back that I have not done my duty to get it passed.”
Councilman Trundle was plotting against the queen, it seemed. Tess wanted to turn away.
The last time she had known about a plot against the queen Tess had been stripped of her rank and her family had been killed. But whether it was some misguided sense of duty or just being nosey, she stayed to listen.
“You just keep it on the books too. I don’t want any more brats running around. Christ, those snotty little beings make me sick to my stomach. Besides, she won’t be around long enough to breed anyway. Once we are truly wed and I have her bedded, I plan to take her immortality and kill her anyway. Queen Mel will just have to die. I don’t have time to molly-coddle a stupid woman. I have a realm to run and a world to conquer. And unlike her first mate was able to do, I plan to kill her immediately while she lay sated in my bed.”
“Yes, well you may want to take care of that bitch cousin of hers too before you do that.
Sara has a mate that carries a great deal of weight with the Vampire Council. Aaron MacManus is not one to fuck with. I’ve tried before; he is too much for one man or demon to deal with.”