The Shadow Zone 2: Winning Madeline (8 page)

He leaned down to kiss her as he pushed into her with painstaking slowness and his loving took on an intensity that had her struggling to breathe. His hands and mouth were everywhere, wild on her flesh. They didn’t hurt. He likely had the strength of a hundred humans but he was so careful with her, so caring. Her hands roamed down the hard muscular planes of his back, exploring the perfection of him.

Pulling her legs wide apart, he slid slowly out and hooked her knees with his hands. He positioned the swollen head of his cock against her slick, aching pussy and she gasped when he began to sink into her again. The hard length of his cock stretched and filled her, the heat from the joining of their bodies building. Madeline fought to keep up, pumping her hips with his to speed up his penetration. Moaning, she clutched at the dampening flesh of his shoulders and back, the warm blond silk of his hair.

“Do you like this, Madeline?” He was fully inside her now and his movements within her slow and easy. “Do you want to come again?”

Her entire body clenched in need and desperation. She ground against him, trying to entice him to move within her again. “Yes.” It was the truth. “I want to come again.”

“For me?”

“
Yes
.” It sounded like a demand.

Grinning, he complied, sliding back inside her to the hilt and lowering himself into her arms. Madeline moaned at the intoxicating pleasure of having him fill her again. Her pussy walls quivered around him as she undulated on him, using every move she knew to drive him on and try and make him crazy.

Her job had always been to bring her clients to great pleasure, make them lose control. Could she make someone like him lose control? She wanted to try.

Maddox moved in and out of her with strengthening thrusts. She wanted more of that. Wrapping her legs around his waist, she found herself moving with him. The flesh of his back was slick under her hands, and drops of his perspiration fell to dot her skin. He was so warm now. The drops were tinged with blood, but she didn’t care, couldn’t care, being caught up in the most sensual torment of her life.

Beads of sweat rolled down her forehead and over her sides, the scent of sex filling the air around them. They writhed together on the bed, Madeline crying out against the damp hardness of his shoulder while pure carnal pleasure washed over her in waves. She held onto him tightly while the movements of his cock gained in strength and speed. It felt like flame ignited in her belly before spreading out to claim every part of her.

The orgasm was stronger than the first and certainly better than anything she’d ever felt before. Madeline gasped and bucked beneath him for all she was worth. Maddox thrust faster and harder while she rode out one powerful wave after another of exquisite ecstasy. Her nails scraped across his hard skin and she screamed while her body was wracked by an endless stream of delicious tremors.

Her body milked him, squeezing until he tightened above her. Madeline watched in fascination as Maddox threw his head back and shouted while he pumped into her furiously, his body jerking as he reached his own climax.

Slowly he dropped onto the bed next to her and pulled her into his arms. She loved how he felt against her beating heart, even though she couldn’t feel his.

“How do you feel?” He pressed a kiss into her hair.

“Amazing.” She couldn’t help smiling. “I get it now.”

“Get what?”

“Sex.”

Maddox laughed, squeezed her gently. “Sleep now,” he whispered.

At some point during their lovemaking, it had started to rain. The pleasant sound of it just outside the window combined with the comfort of his arms helped make her eyelids heavy. She wasn’t as worried about the fact he was a vampire as she had been earlier, though she knew there’d be other questions.

Held safe and warm as if she were cherished, instead of discarded because her client was done with her, Madeline drifted off into welcome sleep.

Chapter Eight

Maddox watched Madeline walk back to the manor in a gorgeous dress of deep blue, delivered just this morning from the seamstress. She carried Ivy on one hip and sang some song to her in a high lilting voice. Remembering the night before as he watched her walk away, he felt happy. He could still taste Madeline on his tongue, could still imagine the wet heat of her pussy clenched around him as she came.

He couldn’t wait until tonight to do it again, to do more.

It was a few seconds before he realized that he was whistling, some old tune he knew from centuries past. He enjoyed the peace of the moment, the contentment he hadn’t felt in… ages.

But his happiness was short-lived.

He’d have recognized the scent anywhere. Lycans smelled particularly strong and odorous -- to his kind anyway. But Vincent had a unique scent and Maddox caught it in the air.

In alarm, he began racing toward Madeline and the child, reaching her in a second. Her eyes were rounded in fright when he reached her. Probably from him materializing out of nowhere to her perception more than anything.

“Madeline, get in the house, now. Take Ivy with you and find Rick and Julia. Tell them Vincent is here. Go now.”

His tone was harsh to get his point across, but Madeline didn’t even flinch. She nodded and hurried off to do just what he’d said. If he hadn’t been so damned worried about where the werewolf bastard was at the moment, he would have been able to enjoy what felt a lot like her trusting him.

He followed until she was in the house and the door she’d carried the child through was closed behind her. Then he sped off, following the scent along the stone wall that ran along Rick’s manicured lawns until he reached the gate. He hopped over it, hissing. The bastard had just walked right through the entrance to his friend’s home.

Maddox fought back fury as he chased the scent along the narrow dirt road. Fury at himself for not killing the Lycan along with the human recruiter that day. Fury at Vincent for endangering them -- Madeline and Julia -- with his relentless pursuit of power.

Finally rage blinded him to realize that the scent trailed off at the edge of the wood about a mile away from the manor.

Then he froze. A trick? A diversion? If Maddox had been led out here to find nothing, what had he left behind for the others to face.

Madeline
. Turning, he raced back using all of his preternatural strength and speed.

* * *

Madeline blew out an anxious breath as she watched Amy, the vampire serving girl, carry Ivy away to her father. She turned back to Julia, who she’d found immediately. The Lycan female wore the same look of concern that Maddox had. Rick, her mate, had gone for a meeting with his council and hadn’t returned.

“I’m sure Rick will return soon.” Madeline hoped to offer her comfort.

“Yeah.” Julia appeared to be sniffing the air. Roughly she grabbed Madeline by the wrist, pulling her behind her with a strength that shouldn’t have been surprising. “We’re not waiting for him or Maddox to get back. We’re going to check things out.”

Madeline swallowed hard but allowed herself to be pulled along.

When they reached the front doors to the manor, Madeline let Julia pull her through the door. The other woman stopped abruptly at the flowering shrubs off to one side of the huge entrance to the house, sniffing loudly. She released Madeline and began digging into the shrubs, emerging with a dark bag. Furiously she opened the bag, smelled the contents.

Turning, she held the bag up to Madeline.

“I know as a human your sense of smell isn’t as strong as mine. But do you think you could tell me if this scent is familiar?” Julia asked.

Madeline leaned close to the bag, taking a big whiff.

And she did recognize it. “It’s Vincent,” she told Julia, certain of it.

Julia’s green eyes widened, and then she nodded as if her suspicions had been confirmed. Grabbing Madeline’s wrist again, the other hand clutching the bag and its contents, Julia marched back into the manor. The door closed behind them with a third party following them.

Madeline gasped in fear until she realized that it was Maddox who had appeared.

“Nice, deadhead.” Julia glared at him. “Scare her even more.”

A low hiss came from Maddox, who appeared angry as he stepped around them and motioned for them to follow him. And they did, right into the elegant dining room where Madeline had first met Rick and Julia.

“There was a trail,
his
trail, all over the grounds. He walked right through the front door and took a stroll,” Maddox spat. “The trail died off about a mile down the road. And if I find that son of a bitch, I’m going to tear him apart slowly, painfully.”

Madeline flinched, trying not to think about that. She had no doubt that he could do it. But what if Vincent was stronger? What if Vincent hurt him?

“I don’t think he just walked in, took a stroll, and left,” Julia said slowly. “We may have bigger problems.” Without warning she tossed the black bag at him but he caught it easily.

“Vincent?” Maddox inhaled deeply, bringing the bag closer to his face.

“I found that in the shrubs right outside the front door,” Julia explained. “You follow me? You found one end of his trail and I found the other. My question is did he start here and end up in the woods? Or did he start in the woods…”

Maddox threw the bag across the room, hissing.

“The clothing in that bag belongs to Vincent,” Maddox growled. “But it wasn’t him in them. I can smell someone else on those clothes through the stink of mongrel --”

Julia’s glare was pure warning.

“Lycan,” he amended, “has all but obliterated it. Whoever wore these tried to lead me away.”

Julia nodded. “Rick is away right now.”

“Yes.” He nodded, his gaze riveted to Madeline. “Vincent must have seen… I underestimated him. He knows we took the recruiter away from him. He knows where we are. And you…” With that his gaze turned to Julia. “You’re in danger, Julia,” he said gravely. “And this is my fault. I’m sorry.”

Julia’s laugh was a dry, bitter huff. “You almost sound like you mean it.”

“He does mean it.” Rick’s voice echoed behind them. “I know as well as he does himself.” A meaningful glance passed between the two men as the handsome Spaniard joined their group.

“You have to get Julia out of here,” Maddox told him.

“We don’t know for certain that she’s the target,” Rick replied. “Perhaps it’s only vengeance he seeks. From what I know of him, through you, that’s likely the case.”

“But none of them know Julia is here. If they find her…”

“We will come up with a plan.” Rick placed a hand on Maddox’s shoulder.

I should go
, Madeline thought.
I can’t help them. I wish I could
.

“Madeline,” Rick spoke directly to her now. “You
can
be of help. You know as much or more about Vincent than Maddox. Stay. This involves you too.”

Shock overrode the pleasure she felt at his including her. It was as if he’d heard exactly what she’d been thinking.

Maddox smiled apologetically.

Julia snickered. “You get used to it. Unless you’re in love with him. Then it sucks.”

“I
did
hear what you were thinking,” Rick explained. “I can read minds. It’s part of my abilities, if you want to call it that, as a vampire. It’s not necessarily fun for me either.”

He shot Julia a playful glance before turning his gaze back to Madeline. “I will tell you, Madeline, that you have one of the kindest minds I’ve ever unwittingly read. It’s a sharp mind too. Let’s put it to use. Let us form a plan.”

* * *

“They like you, you know,” Maddox said the moment they made it back to the room.

“Can you read minds too?”

“No, I can’t.” Maddox chuckled. “I didn’t get any special gifts like that when I joined the ranks of the undead.”

Madeline was relieved. She couldn’t imagine what life was like for Julia. To have the man she was in love with be able to read her thoughts?

But Maddox couldn’t read her mind and she wasn’t in love with him. She missed him when he wasn’t there and the thought that Vincent could appear and harm him bothered her greatly. But that was all.

Watching Maddox pull his sweater over his head to reveal his gorgeous upper body, Madeline walked over to him and wrapped her arms around his waist. His arms automatically closed around her.

“This is nice.” His smile took her breath away. “Do you want to eat first? At some point, we really need to arrange for you and Julia to take meals together since you both eat… human food.”

Madeline laughed at how awkwardly that came out. “I think I’d like that.” She meant it. “But I’m not hungry for food right now.”

His grin widened. “What are you hungry for?”

Taking a deep breath, she stretched up on her toes and pressed her lips to his. Maddox froze and she sank back onto her heels, unsure. “Sorry, I don’t really have a lot of experience with that,” she admitted.

His expression was apologetic. “I wasn’t expecting it. That’s all. But since you’re interested in learning, let me show you.” Lowering his head, he pressed his lips to hers, tenderly coaxing her to move her mouth against his.

It was a kiss meant to entice, to seduce. He angled his head to deepen the kiss and Madeline opened her mouth to him. Their tongues dueled as he cradled her head gently. She forgot to breathe; she felt light headed. And her body instantly went on alert, hoping for more of the delights he’d treated her to the night before.

His hand slid up into her hair and caressed her scalp until it tingled. All of her was tingling as she lost herself in the sensual web he was weaving around her. Heat flooded her body and desire unfurled in her center and began to spread through her in irresistible waves. Madeline relaxed into that kiss, realizing it was his attempt to relax her and get her ready for more. She had no idea a simple kiss could have that kind of power.

Maddox pulled her more tightly against him and his hands began to search out all of the sensitive places that now demanded his touch. She let him guide them to the bed, allowed him to lower her into its luxurious comfort.

“Am I getting better?” she asked when he broke the kiss to work on ridding himself of his clothing. He rolled them until she was the one on top.

“Somewhat,” he replied, but he was smiling. “Need a lot of practice.”

She could live with that.

He undressed with slow, graceful movements and she enjoyed just watching him. The muscular planes of his body were truly something to admire, all set in hard white flesh. His blond hair gleamed in the faint light of the room.

“What?” He turned to find her staring, but his smile never faded. “You’re staying dressed?”

Madeline shook her head, smiling back. She allowed him to pull the simple blue dress over her head and then strip away her undergarments. She giggled as he planted kisses all over her body as he revealed it. Wetness gathered between her thighs as she waited for him to stop playing. She was more than ready when he snatched her up and lifted her over his cock. He throbbed against the slick lips at her opening that were eager to pull him inside.

Madeline knew how to ride a man. Keeping her movements slow while she straddled him, she intended to drive him wild. She enjoyed him with a relaxed desire that surprised her. With a wet glide, his naked flesh pressed gently against hers. She moaned in delight, her pussy walls quivering. For once she was enjoying wanting pleasure for herself, not just calculating how to get the man off in a way that would ensure he’d pay her and come back for more.

Sensual heat flooded her and his cool skin moved against her breasts and legs in a way that pushed her pleasure higher. With a single smooth stroke, his cock slid upward into her until his balls met the sensitive flesh of her pussy. Madeline groaned at the pleasure of having him inside her. She surrendered completely when he began to move within her, angling his cock to fill her pussy in ways that had her moving her hips in rhythm with his.

His mouth caressed hers in a powerful kiss. His hands were soft whispers all over her body. His cock was buried so deeply within her that she didn’t know where she ended and he began and didn’t care. She rode it out, the rising cadence of her cries filling the room while her pussy milked the hard, steely length of him. The sound of their bodies slapping together increased in time with the harsh rasps of her breathing while Madeline rode him.

Her belly tightened and her pussy walls clenched around him hard. Close to the release she craved, she was thrilled when he thrust in her harder and faster. She threw her head back, clawing at his chest as the exquisite pleasure of orgasm ripped through her body, waves of ecstasy crashing over her. She thrashed wildly above him, lost in a storm of carnal delight that she never wanted to end.

Coming down from her incredible release, she was aware of falling back onto the bed. Maddox wasn’t done and continued to relentlessly fuck her, his weight pressing her into the bed with her body still quivering all around him. He pulled her legs up around his hips, deepening his penetration until she felt impossibly filled with him. The position had her clit rubbing delicately against him with each stroke. Pleasure curled hard in her center and she wanted more.