“Baby, fuck me. Take what’s yours,” Io tensed beneath her, his lips pressing against her throat on a moan.
“How? I don’t know….” Being on top was intimidating, and self-consciousness halted her body. What if she moved wrong? Would she look stupid? Would Io be underwhelmed with her novice ability?
“Ride me. The way you did the other night, but with me inside you this time.” His voice cracked. “I’ll help you.”
He pushed her up so her body wasn’t flush against his. “Sit up on me. That’s it. Sit up where I can see you.”
She did as she was told and his hand instantly thrust up and over her breasts, teasing her nipples into tight peaks. “My God, but you’re beautiful. So damn beautiful.”
Her heart somersaulted, and another layer of her soul melted for him. Perhaps her worries were unfounded. He didn’t seem to care that she had never done this before, or that she fumbled around to figure things out.
“Now, move your hips against me,” he said.
She worked forward and back tentatively. Was she doing it right? Should she go slow? Fast? Where should she put her hands? She nibbled her lip. This was harder than being on the bottom. On the bottom, he took control and she just went along, but now she played the dominant part. She wasn’t very good at it.
She was about to stop and beg him to be on top again when he released her breasts and grabbed her hips. “Like this.” He pushed and pulled, working her the way he wanted her to move. “That’s it. Hard like that. Just ride me, forward and back.” He pursed his lips, groaned, gasped as he continued to help her get a rhythm. “Damn, Miri.”
Once she got the hang of it, he released her hips and clutched her breasts again, squeezing, teasing, working her nipples into hard nubs.
She ground her hips forward and back and around in tight circles, swiveling and rocking. Mmm, this was nice…getting nicer.
“See, like that,” he said. “Yeah, God yes, that’s it. Like that.”
The position lent to a nice massaging of her clit against his pubic bone, but if she angled her hips just a little forward…yes, just like that—Yes, the contact between pubic bone and clit intensified.
“Mmm, baby, that’s sexy.”
She tossed her head forward, and her long hair cascaded over her face so that the ends brushed his chest and stomach. With her hands pressed against his chest, she looked down and lifted up then lowered back down, watching his ridged shaft disappear inside her. The sight made her moan.
“That’s it. Watch what you’re doing. Watch me disappear inside you.”
The visual was enough to make her catch her breath and curl her toes, especially when he moaned his own approval as their bodies met. Over and over, she pulled up then lowered herself back down, his cock burying deep.
“This is nice,” she said, finally bringing her gaze back to his.
“I can think of another word for it.” Io pulled her flush with his body again, and her breasts mashed against his chest as he began to drive into her hard and fast from below. She exclaimed with each pounding thrust, her lower body bouncing up and down in time with his jackhammer action as he held her upper body securely in place.
“Harder, Io!” She wanted him to be rough. She had already had soft and romantic. She wanted to know the other side of sex.
And he gave it to her. With a heavy growl, he pushed her off him and jumped around behind her. In a heartbeat, she was on her knees, and he yanked her back, positioning the head of his erection between her swollen labia. Growling, he surged into her.
Oh my God!
He hit her differently inside. Better.
“Yes! More…
more!
” Damn, she didn’t know sex could get better, but this new position. Wow! Yes! Better didn’t describe it. Her whole body reacted to the way his cock rode up and down against her inner walls, the friction sparking heat to flood her everywhere and her breath to come in prolonged, heavy pants. And was that her voice? Moaning and begging him not to stop? She was lost to him, wanton and in need.
One of his arms wrapped around her waist, pushing and pulling her with each harsh, insistent thrust. His other hand brushed her hair off one shoulder then swung around to grip her breast almost painfully. But pain was good. So good. It intensified the pleasure. Io grunted with each forward plunge, hoarse, sucking down oxygen with a rasping inhale every time he pulled back.
The sounds he made were hot and sexy, and every choked groan sent her further toward yet another orgasm.
When his hand shot down between her legs and his fingers began urgently rubbing her clit with tight circles, she saw stars.
“I’m gonna come again, baby. Come with me. I’m close. Baby, you’re so fucking sexy.” Io licked her shoulder. Once, twice. Then….
“YES!” She cried out and threw her head back against his shoulder as his fangs pierced her skin and his venom coursed into her body.
Within seconds, she splintered into euphoric orgasm, her body convulsing uncontrollably as he struggled to hold her up against the first wave of his climax.
Io’s jaw tightened, his fangs sinking deeper, and she imagined his eyes were slammed closed as he growled low in his throat—almost a long, sustained groan really. And then warmth flooded her between her legs, inside her and down her inner thighs as he continued to pump hard and fast, riding out his orgasm.
Finally he pushed her forward and collapsed over her back before releasing her shoulder with a heavy gasp.
“I love you.” He tucked his arms around her and held her tightly. “I can’t believe I love you this much already.”
It was the mated male coming out of him. Miriam smiled to herself as she locked her fingers around his and tucked their joined hands against the side of her breast. She had found her mate, and it had been her cobalt addiction that had led them to one another. Life sure worked in mysterious ways.
Behind closed eyes, Cordray worked through the heads of Donovan and the other guards. Someone
had
tampered with their memories, just as Bain suspected.
One-by-one, she unwound the false memories and reopened the real ones, seeing a dark-skinned vampire with a bald head and pale eyes as the one who had performed the mind job on them.
He was a powerful vampire? Dangerous, too, but only to his enemies. Through the minds of Bain’s guards, Cordray sensed that he meant well. Unfortunately, he had screwed up. Bain would never allow his actions to go unpunished.
And, based on what she saw get unlocked in these four guards’ memories, the vampire known as Io would be lucky to live beyond the next twenty-four hours.
This was one fucked-up covert op these other vampires had going on. One she feared wouldn’t end well.
Not that she necessarily enjoyed or wanted to rat anyone out, but she had a job to do. She would do it. It was that simple. Io and that dark-skinned vampire—Trace, his name was—had to be accountable for their actions. If they couldn’t do the time, they shouldn’t have committed the crime. And not only was playing house with the king’s daughter considered a criminal activity, so was tampering with the minds of anyone in the king’s employ.
She opened her eyes and looked at Bain as the guards remained compelled and tranquil.
“They were altered.” She sat back and twirled the wide, silver band on her left thumb.
Bain cursed and stood up, paced, then turned back toward her. “Tell me what you saw.”
“The one known as Io has taken liberties with Miriam.”
If a volcanic eruption had a face, Bain would have been it.
“In what way?”
Cordray leaned back and steepled her fingers in front of her. How to put this? She was usually blunt, but this was Bain’s daughter they were talking about, and she tried to filter her words when they talked about Miriam. Now was an excellent time to filter. “They shared a bed. It’s unclear whether they had sex, but she smelled like semen. She was also topless, as was Io, so he looked upon her flesh.” A cardinal sin, according to Bain. Io had broken about ten different laws where Miriam was concerned, and that was only what she had seen in the minds of the guards. No telling how many laws he had broken that they weren’t aware of.
Honestly though, she thought Bain was too protective, his laws archaic where her half-niece was concerned. But she usually tried to keep from lecturing him on how to be a father. He was too stubborn to listen anyway. “There was a…
closeness
about them.” She paused, narrowing her eyes and preparing for the outburst her next revelation would cause. “He might be her mate.”
Bain’s face turned beet red, clearly nonplussed and livid, but he didn’t speak. The concept of a volcano filling with lava before blowing out the crater came to mind.
“Who else was involved? Who altered my guards?”
Cordray placed her foot in the chair and loosely wrapped her arms around her leg as she sat back. “I see two other vampires. Traceon and Severin. Trace is the one who altered the guards.” She pointed around the room at them. “And a phone call was made to Tristan. From what I gathered, Tristan gave the order to erase their memories.”
“Tristan?” Bain looked down and placed his hands on his hips. “Why?” The last he asked as if to himself.
“Do you need anything else?” She stood and grabbed her coat from the back of the chair. Her work was finished as far as she was concerned, and she had a guest waiting for her at home. She really wanted to get back.
“No, that’s all.” Bain spoke between clenched teeth, but she knew he wasn’t angry with her.
She nodded and released the guards from the hold of her mind. The tension that bristled among them as their original memories resurfaced smelled like fizz in a soda, bubbling under her nose.
Bain stopped her as she proceeded toward the exit. “Cordray, when the time comes, I will need you to testify.”
She had figured as much. “Fine. Let me know when.”
Bain tilted his head in deference. “I’ll be in touch.”
Bain still looked like he was on the verge of tearing his home down with his bare hands, but that wasn’t her problem. She left the room, left the house, and dematerialized back to the front porch of her tree-obscured mansion on the outskirts of the city. The sky was black as pitch in the deep of night, and it was perfectly quiet.
Cordray stepped inside, removed her coat and gloves, and then started up the grand staircase in the dark as she began peeling off her shirt.
The human female she had picked up earlier was still in her bed when Cordray entered her bedroom, but the woman was asleep. Cordray had needed to feed earlier, and this human had caught her eye. Perhaps next time she would select a male, but tonight, she had been drawn to this woman. Blondes did something for her.
Cordray sat down on the edge of the bed and took off her boots and leggings, leaving her in nothing but her tattooed skin and piercings, then climbed on top of the human.
“Mmm, hi.” The pale-haired beauty rolled to her back under her. “You’re back.”
“Yes.” Cordray bent down and kissed the human as she pulled the sheets down to reveal her breasts. Cord smiled at the way her black hair looked against the woman’s blond tresses. Sexy. A duality…the light and dark together. She had a way with symbolism.
Gentle hands skimmed around her back and pulled her down. “I’m glad.”
Cordray climbed under the sheets with her. “Me, too.”
The interlude was about feeding, but there was no reason why she couldn’t give another pleasure while she took sustenance. Being that she could no longer feel, giving pleasure to another was as close as she came to experiencing it herself.
King Bain’s guards were full of pissed-off and ready-to-kill.
“That mother fucker jacked with our memories!”
“I’ll kill him. I swear to God I’ll kill him.”
“I knew something wasn’t right about all this. I just knew it.”
Damn it, they needed to shut up. It wasn’t like they had daughters who had defied them, had been touched by unworthy hands, and who now had a…my God…a
mate,
if what Cordray said was true.
How could this have happened? She was supposed to take an approved mate, someone worthy of her royal blood, someone Bain endorsed and had hand-selected, not…
Io!
He was so far down on the unapproved list he didn’t even rank.
King Bain didn’t know where to start. Which problem did he tackle first? His gaze swept the room, from the bitching guards, to the floor, to the window, back to the floor, and then to the ceiling as if he was going to find the answers floating in the air. He was numb. He couldn’t focus. The anger and confusion roiling through his mind were so strong it nearly blinded him. He had been lied to. Not just by those who worked for him, but by his own daughter. Had her illness only been a ruse? Was she really ill or not? She had to be. How else do you fake an overdose? Unless her only intention was to craft a way to see Io. How far back did this go? And who else was implicated besides Tristan and Traceon?
And now Miriam was back in Io’s home, maybe even in his arms…or his bed.
The thought stopped him in his tracks.
His bed?
“Shut up!” He swung his attention around to his still quibbling guards.
Donovan and the others instantly quieted and bowed their heads in apology.
“Get over to his house and get my daughter.” His voice was dangerously lethal, low and seething. He was barely keeping the lid on his aggression.
“Yes, Sire. And what of the male? Io? Shall we kill him?”
The idea was tempting, but this was one execution he wanted to handle himself. “No. Bring him to me. I will see to him personally.”
“Yes, Sire.” Donovan nodded briskly then led the others out.
King Bain paced. His long, black hair hung down the sides of his face and over his chest to his waist, swaying as he turned and looked out the window. He felt defeated. Had Gregos known the truth? He doubted it, but certainly Tristan had known. How could he not? He had given the order to alter his guards’ memories. They all had to be punished. They would all suffer for their lack of fealty and disregard for the law, especially Io and Trace, who had committed the worst offenses of all involved. Trace had altered his guards’ minds, even if Tristan had given the order. Trace should have refused. And Io had…well, Io had done what Io was good at doing. He had soiled his daughter. That philandering man-whore had dared lay his vile hands on her. Everyone knew the laws surrounding his family, and especially Miriam. Io would pay for his crimes.