Eternal Embrace (30 page)

He shook his head adamantly, but looked like he was getting all worked up for some kind of fight she wasn’t sure she wanted to win. “Shit, no, it’s not you, it’s not anything. I don’t know what you’re talking—”

“Don’t lie to me!” she shouted, standing on the table and glaring at him. Forget not entering the battle. She wasn’t letting him do this to her—them. “If there’s one thing I know, it’s who you are. You’re not being honest and I can tell. Something is off. Something has been off, and if I hadn’t been so caught up in guilt over Evan, I would have seen it sooner—”

“Guilt?” Jaxon shot out of his seat and the chair crashed to the ground. “You shouldn’t feel guilty, Joey. Fuck, he was your friend. You have a right to feel sad over his capture, over what this fucked-up world did to him.”

“I did, I do. But I also have you and I’ve not been there for you, and now…” She paused and tried to calm down. “Now you’re blocking me.”

“Fuck, I’m not blocking you.”

“Then tell me what is going on, Jaxon, because my guesses aren’t right so far.”

He stared at her sullenly, his expression so cold and remote pain stung her throat. She was adrift without him. What would she do if she couldn’t fix this?

His T-shirt pulled tight over his chest with each of his breaths, as if he’d run a race instead of talking to her. What had him so worked up? Was it her?

“Do you think I want you involved in this? You should never have had to lose a friend like that, or been in a situation like that—”

“You stupid, wonderful man.
You
feel guilty. You feel like you should always protect me, and you feel guilty over all of it, don’t you?” She sat heavily on the table and stared at his shocked expression. His blue eyes told the truth of her guesses though.

“You still feel as if I should have never been a vampire… Never be what I am now, even though that is the only way we can be together.” She ended on a whisper, but the truth shouted inside her head, filling her with more sadness than losing Evan. This felt like she’d woken from a wonderful dream, to realise she still lived in a grey, lonely world.

“Joey—”

“Don’t, just don’t. Enough. The lies, why so many lies, Jaxon? Why bother with it all if you never wanted this to begin with? Oh my God,” she whispered, covering her mouth, “you simply felt responsible. Like you do for everything. For Elizabeth, for that village and for the humans, for Viktor and everyone. You never truly wanted me, you—”

“Enough!” Jaxon roared, throwing half the books off his table aside to reach her. He grabbed her wrists and yanked her to her feet to face him. He was breathless, and angrier than she’d ever seen him.
Ever.

“What the hell kind of shit is that?” he snarled. “I feel, Joey, all right? I feel sick as fuck that you’ve been hurt. That you’ve been exposed to this fucked-up dangerous world I live in.” He flung his hand out and latched onto her arm to pull her close. “If you think I am with you out of some kind of responsibility, and that I’d make you human again if some goddamn Tooth Fairy showed up and offered, you’re more fucked up in the head than I am. Shit! I’m never letting you go. Never, Joey.” His grip turned possessive. “I don’t care if you cry for the rest of eternity, you’re mine. I love you until you have me out of my mind with it. I want to be this hero you seem to think I am, but I fuckin’ failed, okay? I couldn’t even save Evan, how can I fuckin’ save you?”

They stood there, breathless and angry for a second before she launched herself into his arms. “Oh, Jaxon, I love you, you idiot!
You
. All of you. How could you possibly have saved Evan against that disgusting creature? I never expected you to, never once thought you were to blame—”

“I know you didn’t blame me, Joey, I know that, but I should have saved—”

“Oh, Jaxon!” She kissed him, pressing into his mind until she washed away all his guilt with all the different ways she loved him. She loved him—all of him—every rough edge and fine-tuned inch of him. Under her flood of emotions, slowly she sensed him relax by degrees, until with a burst he finally comprehended how well she knew and loved him still. “Of course I do! I love everything about you, even what you consider so bad—I love that too, because it made you a survivor. You could have easily given up and not been yourself, used people and discarded them, like Gerald. You’re more powerful than he is, but you didn’t.”

His body tightened to hard, tense muscles. With a sensation like an implosion, she felt his emotions tumble free between them, breaking through the barrier he’d set up to keep her out. He squeezed her to the point of pain, but shuddered with emotions she knew were difficult for him.

She soothed him, rubbing her lips over his temple and kissing his forehead. He leaned his head against her shoulder and breathed raggedly, until slowly he looked at her, his expression still full of grief—she knew now over Evan’s loss and not over her being his. He loved her. So completely, so fully, she doubted another woman had ever experienced such love in all of eternity.

“I will never let you go, Joey,” he told her solemnly.

“Good, and if that Tooth Fairy comes by? I’m kicking her ass, I never knew she could—” She squealed when he lifted her and bit her on the stomach.

“I take you, as my bonded female, for now, always, and forever. From me, you will only feed and in turn, you will only feed me. With this”—he nipped her with a devilish laugh—“I bind you fully to me for all of eternity. My life for yours, Joey.”

She sensed the shift in him, the slight alignment that suddenly snapped into place within her. “Oh!”

Jaxon grunted, and stared at her with such love and amazement, she smiled past her tears. “Now, repeat that, and I’m all yours.”

“Forever?”

“Forever.”

She examined his handsome face, seeing much more than love in his blue eyes and tense expression. He wanted this, her, them. “I take you as my bonded male, now, always and forever.”

He pressed her mouth to his throat, guiding her to bite him. She did, sinking her fangs in his warm body and swallowing the immediate surge of hot blood that flooded her mouth. She pulled back and licked the spot, thrilled to feel his big body trembling.

“From me you will only feed, and in turn you will feed me. I bind you with my bite for all of eternity. My life for yours, Jaxon.”

“Fuck, Joey,” he said, his husky voice breaking on her name. He swallowed audibly and smoothed his hands down her back and up to cradle the back of her head. She tipped her face to see the joy in his bright eyes. “You’re mine. Truly mine.”

“And you’re mine,” she murmured. “Never hold out on me again,” she added.

He suddenly pulled her hips to his and pressed his erection against her pussy. “I don’t think I ever will again. And holding out on you is the last thing I plan on doing. I need you, Joey. Hard, fast, now.”

“Oh, Jaxon,” she breathed.

A second later, their clothes were gone and Jaxon’s big shaft slid along her wet folds. “Yeah, you like the sound of that?” he asked.

“Oh, yes, now.”

He gripped her ass tighter and lifted her, angled his hips and shoved inside her with a slow thrust. She was so ready for him, his body speared into her until his sack hit her sensitive skin.

“Ah, damn, you’re wet for me.”

“And you’re so big for me,” she groaned, nipping at his neck to get him moving when he chuckled.

Slowly, he pulled back until the tip of his erection pulled almost free and gripping her ass tight, he rammed inside her with enough force to make her cry out in growing pleasure. Just as quickly as he pulsed inside her, he pulled out, then took her breath away with short penetrating thrusts that smacked them flesh to flesh.

She lost control, trembling in his arms while he held her like she weighed nothing and fucked her so hard she climaxed within seconds. Jaxon was right behind her, so lost in their shared experience he roared her name with each long, hot gush of his seed.

“Again, fucking hell, I need you again,” he whispered hoarsely.

“Again, always, oh, Jaxon, again and again,” she murmured, biting his chest and drawing his sweet blood from him, along with an anguished groan that lasted as long as it took him to shift them to their bed, and begin making her scream in pleasure all over again.

Chapter Twenty-Six

The smell of shrimp, cream and pasta filled the kitchen, making Jaxon’s mouth water for not only the food, but the drop-down gorgeous chef dressed in grey. They’d been out all night, shopping and enjoying one very quick but hot bout of explosive sex in a dressing room, but now, settled in their home, safe and surrounded with their scents, he wanted more. Much, much more.

What else was new, he thought, admiring the line of her back revealed under the sexy-as-hell crisscross black lines of silk tying the back of her dress on. The dove-grey concoction was designed to drive him nuts, he knew, but he savoured the build-up of sexual need and enjoyed the view. Joey.

She amazed him. Under the swathes of tight material that brushed along the back of her knees, he knew she wore garters with a little black bow at the top of each ass cheek. The damn things made his fangs itch. She knew it too, but he also knew him, sitting at the table, his legs spread to accommodate the hard-on thickening under his slacks, drove her just as crazy. She loved to have him watch her and share how hot she made him, and in response, much to his surprise, she opened up to reveal how he rocked every part of her world.

He reached down for his erection, sensing the surge of heat coming from her at the move. Grinning, he lazily stroked himself and tipped his head to the side to get a glimpse of the lace at the top of her stockings when she bent to check on the bread.

Sweat broke out along his body at the sight, and he didn’t bother waiting until she’d fully turned to their kitchen table before pouncing on her. With a deep laugh, he pressed his erection along the inside curve of her ass and shoved the material of her dress over her shoulders to trap her slim arms while he bit down into his mark on her neck. He didn’t feed from her, not yet, but he sent such a surge of passion through to her, she sagged into his arms, already making the sounds he knew meant she was just as hot.

“No, no, not so quickly, wildcat,” he told her, keeping her arms trapped and bending her forward gently so her cheek rested on the glossy table. “I think we’ll take this slow and easy, don’t you?”

“Oh, Jaxon,” she breathed, but pressed her butt back against his hips eagerly.

He spanked her heavily, not hard, but just enough of a tap to make her gasp and arch her head off the table.

“Mmm, have I been a bad girl, then?”

“Oh, yes,” he said against her bare back. “You’ve been very wicked. Driving me crazy for hours, with this.” He pressed his hands under the material and ripped it from the base to where it met the backless crisscross top.

“Jaxon! That was my favourite -”

He bit the lush rise of her rounded, firm ass cheek and she broke off with a husky moan. The sound made his cock harden to steel but he ignored the rush of cum filling his balls to overflowing, and licked along the bite mark until he got to the little bow gracing the most beautiful bottom in the world. He stroked her wet pussy to hear her rush out his name on a breathy sigh.

“Ah, yes, and this is my favourite,” he said.

With a grunt, he pulled away and nearly ripped his jeans off. The thick length of his cock fell out, then surged back upwards at an angle from the pressure to come. His balls were tight, ready to let loose, but he stroked himself under the silky garter and rubbed back and forth with a low groan.

Joey spluttered on a laugh and twisted her head to watch him with a grin. “Kinky, my love, very kinky. Oh, God look at you.” She sighed and tried to move her arms.

“No, no, none of that.” His voice deepened with the lust pounding at him. Her ass was a dream, so lush and creamy white he couldn’t stop himself from rubbing his cock along the satiny flesh His erection looked enormous against her. Dark, thick, and much too big for her petite size. “Damn, look at you, so tiny against my dick.”

“Mmm, true, you are
massive
.”

He laughed and swatted her butt. She purred like a kitten. Damn woman. “You seem able to take every
massive
inch.”

“And love it too. Stop teasing me.” She wiggled, making his mouth water. He bent and bit her on the other cheek, and grinned when she sighed with pleasure.

Not ready to stop teasing her, but nearly ready to come from rubbing along her silky flesh, he pulled free, lifted her up and laughed when she squealed.

“I need you in a different position, you don’t mind, do you?” he asked, teasing her with long, wet kisses along her bare back. He settled her over the cushioned chair behind them, her lovely bottom up and her head comfortable on the cushioned arm, while he kept her legs together and tipped her to angle her pussy for his possession.

“Jaxon! Stop teasing me!”

“Teasing?”

She lifted her head and frowned at him. He pressed her back down and rubbed his shaft along her wetness.

“Patience, firecracker. Let’s have some fun, mmm?”

She bit her lip, and he growled at the sight of her fang. She was soaking wet, the flood of excitement simmering along his cock head before he’d even done more than shift his hips.

“I think you’re going to like this,” he murmured, then rammed in all the way to the balls. Entering her was like parting the softest, wettest, tightest silk, only with such heat, he could barely make it past the first thrust. After weeks of fucking, they still came together almost roughly the first time. But today he wanted more. He wanted to go slow from the first and savour every second.

“Oh, oh…oh…” she panted into the cushion, pinned down and spread for him—his pleasure—but hers also. Joey liked their games, loved his aggression and took all he could give, then rocked his world by making him surrender to her just as often.

“Yes, we’re going to make this first time last,” he managed, when he could breathe past the need to fuck her as hard as he could.

“Oh, God, I don’t think I can, Jaxon.”