M&L03 - SS (7 page)

She broke the kiss gasping
for breath and I moved to her neck. I wanted to take things slow but the aching
need I felt for her was almost unbearable.

“I need you Solomon.” It was
a hoarse plea that echoed my thoughts of her.

“I know baby, I’ll take care
of you.”

Turning, I strode over to the
bed and laid her down on the very edge, opened my pants and plunged deep inside
her with one long stroke.

Utter. Fucking. Bliss.

I never knew being inside a
female could feel this good, and considering how many of them I’d been with,
that was saying something. Yet being inside Renee was like nothing I’d ever
experienced before. It wasn’t just a joining of flesh; it was a melding of souls.

Placing my arms behind her
knees, I held her lower body off the bed and began moving. Every slide of my
hard flesh into her tight, wet channel sent pleasure rippling up my spine and I
knew this wasn’t going to last anywhere near long enough. 

Renee was watching me from
the bed, her lips parted, her eyes filled with molten gold. Her breaths came in
short pants then moans spilled from her lips as her hands fisted in the sheets.

Oh, she was so close, so hot
and wet, and so damn sexy.

My thrusts came more
urgently, pushing us to the edge faster, harder, my hips rotating as I plunged
into her again and again. As the pleasure between us built, that magnetic force
that had always drawn me to her intensified pulling me closer until I didn’t
know where I ended and she began.

When her body seized with her
orgasm I buried myself in her quivering sheath and let the tidal wave of
sensation overcome me. There was no way I would ever part from her again. She
was my life, she was my heart, she was my soul.

I sank to my knees bringing
Renee with me, and held her against my chest while I caught my breath. After a
moment I realized she was trembling, then I heard her sniffle and I pulled back
to look at her face. The tears streaming down her cheeks were like a punch to the
gut.

Cradling her head in my hand,
I held her against my chest again. “I’m so sorry Renee. I wanted to wait until
we worked out whatever is going on between us, but then I touched you and I
lost it.”

“I didn’t want this,” she
sobbed. “I didn’t want you to be forced into being with me.”

“Where is this coming from? I
love you Renee, you know that,” I said smoothing my hand over her hair then
down her back.

“I know you love me, but not
like this...”

She shook her head, pushing
at my chest and I released her so she could stand. Stumbling away from me she
said, “I can’t do this right now. I need you to go.”

“Renee...”

“Just go Solomon,” she
screamed, tears falling from her chin. Hearing the pain in her voice and seeing
her face twisted with anguish broke my heart. When I stood, I must have moved
towards her because she threw her hands out in a stop motion and pleaded,
“Please...”

Not wanting to cause her any
more pain, I closed my pants and opened the closet door. She wasn’t looking at
me anymore, just staring down at the floor while she stood there trembling, but
I had to say something before I left. “I’ll be at Supernova if you change your
mind and want to talk.”

With a wave of my hand and a
few whispered words I cast a locator spell on Renee in case she decided to run,
then I turned and went through the portal leaving her alone. On the other side,
I found myself in a small room with a desk, two armchairs and a couch. Renee’s
scent was strong and I guessed that I was in her office at Supernova.

Perfect. Time to track down a
fire demon.

~ Renee ~

About two minutes after
Solomon left, I realized my mistake and raced through the portal to catch him
before it was too late. I caught up to him right before he punched through the
last door between him and the dance club beyond. “Solomon!”

He swung around to face me
with wide eyes that quickly narrowed when I stopped several feet away from him.
No sense making a disastrous night worse by setting off another round of mating
frenzy fueled sex.

“I know what you’re doing and
I’m asking you not to do it,” I said, breathless after sprinting to get there
in time.

Crossing his arms over the
hard planes of his chest, he leaned back against the wall. The way his shirt
stretched over his chest and arms drew my eyes but I tried to think past the
mating frenzy and the heat building between my legs. “And what is it you think
I’m going to do?”

“I’m not stupid Solomon, so
please don’t treat me like I am. Dimitri has been a good friend to me since I
came here to Supernova and I don’t want to see either one of you hurt, or
dead.”

His eyes flashed pure gold.
“It looked like you were a hell of a lot more than friends to me.”

The accusation in his tone
set my teeth on edge and I snapped, “You left me Solomon. You got me all wound
up and ready to go, then you just left me. Maybe it was only a dream but my
body sure as hell didn’t know the difference, and you made it very clear that
you wanted no part of having sex with me.”

“Bloody hell Renee,” He said
running his hands through his hair. Solomon had a faint English accent that
became progressively more pronounced when he was angry or upset like he was
now. It was always sexy as hell but right now it was playing havoc with my
already enflamed libido. “I left because I didn’t want our first time to be in
a dream, and because I knew there was someone with me in reality and I didn’t
want my actions with you to be mirrored with her.”

I put my hands on my hips and
glared at him. “Well how was I supposed to know that? It’s not like you
explained why you were leaving. And what difference would it make if you slept
with whoever you fed from today considering how many other women you’ve
probably been with since then?”

He looked me right in the
eyes and said, “I have only had sex with one female, one time, since my fox
woke up and that was only because I was so delirious from exhaustion during the
storm that I thought she was you.”

Whoa! Six months without sex?
Solomon? If I’d heard it from anyone else I wouldn’t have believed it, but I
knew Solomon well enough to know when he was telling the truth and he was being
dead serious right now.

“Why would you suddenly stop
having sex just because your fox woke up?”

He let out a frustrated
breath and sagged against the wall behind him. “At first it was only because he
wouldn’t let me. Every time I tried, he made my dick go limp. Then I realized
he knew where our mate was and I no longer wanted to have sex with anyone
else.”

All this time I’d been trying
to give him what I thought he wanted not knowing that his fox had already taken
it away from him. I tried to feel bad about making him suffer unnecessarily,
but knowing he hadn’t slept with anyone for six months made me unbelievably
happy. Then I remembered the
one
, and what he said in our dream about
betraying me suddenly made a lot more sense. “Who did you have sex with during
the storm?”

“It doesn’t matter Renee, it
only happened because I was on the verge of bloodlust and I thought she was
you.”

My jaw set and I asked again,
“Who was it Solomon? After all, fair is fair. If you challenge Dimitri I’ll
need to know who to hunt down and kill for daring to touch my mate.”

Now it was his turn to glare
but he answered, “It was Rachel, Rook’s new stepdaughter.”

“The human?” I’d heard a lot
about her and none of it was good.

“Yes, for the time being, but
someday soon she’ll be a nightshifter.”

“And if she wants to be a
fox; do you plan to be her sire?” I did not like that idea at all, nope not one
little bit.

He shrugged. “If she asks me
to be, but honestly I don’t think she’s even talking to me right now. She was
pretty upset when she figured out that I thought she was you.”

“I don’t want you drinking
from her, or hell, anyone you’ve ever slept with.” My hands flew up to cover my
mouth but it was too late, the words were already out before I even realized
what I was saying.

I’d spent the last thirty
years trying not to think about Solomon as anything more than a friend, because
I knew that being one of many would never be enough for me. If he couldn’t be
mine and mine alone, then I couldn’t allow our relationship to become sexual.
Thankfully, the females he did sleep with usually spared my feelings by waiting
until I wasn’t around to pounce on him. So at least I rarely had to witness his
widely talked about sexual antics. Yet even without seeing for myself, I always
hated knowing that he slept with every damn woman who would have him. 

Now, the thought of him
feeling sexual pleasure, even just from feeding, with anyone but me had the fox
clawing at my insides. My human side didn’t like the idea much either and the
vampire was ready to go on a homicidal rampage.

Welcome to the wonderful
world of mating a mocking voice chuckled in the back of my mind.

Solomon grinned, a sexy curve
of his lips and prowled over to stand directly in front of me.

No, no, no. He was too close.
The heat radiating from his body pulsed between us and I had to clench my fists
behind my back to keep myself from touching him.

“Technically, I’ve never
slept with anyone except for you, but if you mean all the women I’ve had sex
with, you’re not leaving me many feeding options and once you take away all the
mated females, there are almost none.”

His voice was soft, hypnotic,
and his eyes were pools of melted caramel ringed with liquid gold. Wow, no
wonder so many women have dropped their panties with just a look from him. In
all the years we’d known each other, he’d never looked at me quite like that
before, but what he said made no sense at all.

“What do you mean you’ve
never slept with anyone but me?”

Smoothing his hands up and
down my arms he stepped even closer until a deep breath would have my suddenly
aching breasts brushing against his warm, hard body. “You are the only woman I
have ever shared my bed with or fallen asleep beside. I’ve never wanted to have
that level of intimacy with anyone but you. That’s why I almost always had sex
in public places. I do enjoy having people watch me, but more importantly, it
was easier to avoid cuddling in a bar than it was in a bedroom. But even when I
did end up in a bed, it was never mine and I never stayed long after the sex
was over.”

I knew I should be outraged
for females everywhere, but I just couldn’t manage it. I’d never had any idea
why he felt the need to flaunt his sexcapades in front of everyone, but I never
imagined it was to avoid intimacy with his partners.

“If you weren’t interested in
the intimacy, then why have sex at all? Why not just bite someone and get off
that way?”

He leaned down and ran the
tip of his nose up my neck inhaling my scent as he did. “As long as I kept my
body sated it was easier to deny my craving for you. But now that I’ve had a
taste of you, I will never get enough Renee.”

I shivered as moisture pooled
between my legs. He placed a small kiss on my neck... then another... and
another...

I stepped back out of his
reach, panting with the effort it took.

“Look, we don’t have to let
the mating frenzy rule us. I know your half-hearted attempts to get me into bed
were just your way of making me feel better about myself. If we make a clean
break now maybe your fox will eventually give up and let you get back to your
life.”

“If my attempts were
half-hearted it was only because I knew sex with you would mean something and I
didn’t want you to be hurt if and when I ever found my mate.”

I shook my head but before I
could argue, he moved back in front of me and cradled my head gently between
his hands. “You felt it Renee just as I did. Neither one of us could have
stopped what happened between us. How would you have felt if we had spent the
last thirty years together as life partners and then my mate came along and
swept me away with the mating frenzy? Or hell, now that you have a fox of your
own you could have found your own mate. Where would that have left me?” He
shook his head, obviously not wanting to contemplate that kind of pain. “I’m
sorry if I’ve hurt you, but I really did think I was trying to protect you.”

His eyes bore into mine
willing me to believe him.

Could any of this possibly be
true? Could Solomon really want me as much as I’ve always wanted him? Even
without the influence of the mating frenzy?

“I need time to think
Solomon. Could you give me that without making me worry about you challenging
Dimitri?”

He growled low in his throat.

“I went to him, not the other
way around, and technically we weren’t mated yet.”

His eyes remained locked with
mine for a long moment before he finally said, “I’ll give him a pass just this
once Renee. If he touches you again I will kill him.”

A shiver went up my spine and
even though I’d always thought shapeshifter possessiveness was a bit over the
top, my womb clenched with raw, hungry desire. It was the fox of course. Until
six months ago I’d been a vampire, not a nightshifter, and I was still getting
used to sharing my soul with a fox. She wanted to be possessed by Solomon, to
be one with him and his fox. When it came down to it, mating was all about the
animals - our human and vampire sides were just pulled along for the ride.