Authors: Gracie Meadows Jana Leigh
Tags: #Erotic, #Fantasy, #Paranormal, #Vampires
Marlee woke feeling stiff and sore with her entire body aching. Her mouth felt like sandpaper and she had a pressing need to pee. Trying to open her eyes, the lids heavy as if weighed down, with a concentrated effort they fluttered open, and she blinked several times to remove the blurriness in her sight. She shifted and moved her legs, happy to find they worked just fine. She looked at her surroundings, becoming aware she was in Sin’s chamber. That’s when everything shifted and hit her. She had been shot, no, not shot. She reached up and felt the bandage on her shoulder, which hurt like a mother. The fucker had hit her with something.
What the hell happened?
When she moved to sit up, pain shot through her upper body, hurting to the bone. A deep breath hissed through her clenched teeth, filling her lungs. The added oxygen eased the lightheadedness, but didn’t do much for the pain.
Not wanting to think too much on it, she forced herself to tune out the pain, her full bladder taking her mind off enough to know that waiting wasn’t an option. She rose from the bed, feeling every pinch of pain radiating through her body. Finally on her feet, she headed at a slow pace toward the bathroom. Once there she flicked on the light, instantly regretting the decision and smacked the switch off again. It was so bright the dizziness turned into tunnel vision. Passing out wasn’t an option. She stopped, closed her eyes, and breathed in and out gently until thankfully it lifted some, leaving a throbbing in her temples.
Awesome.
Deciding she would rather deal with dizzy than pee down her leg, she hit the light again, this time covering her eyes some blocking a little of the brightness radiating from the bulbs. Quickly, okay, not as quick as she wanted, she did her business before chancing a glance in the mirror. As she did, she gasped. She had been covered in blood and dirt. She looked at her shoulder and even though that looked clean, she felt dirty and didn’t know if she could physically handle a shower. She turned and spotted the giant bath and wondered if she should even try.
“Marlee?” She heard her name and realized Sin must have been up. How long was she out?
“In here,” her voice gravely, as if it had been used in quite some time.
“Can I come in?”
“Umm…yeah, I am pretty much done,” she stated. When he opened the door she saw the look of regret on his face.
“Hi,” was about all she could squeak out. "Did you sleep well?”
“Surely I should be asking you that. Are you hurting any? Can I help you with anything?”
“I hurt some, but I can handle it. I do have a small question. Can I get this wet?” she asked pointing to her bandage.
“Not for a couple of days. But I could draw you a bath and help you in and out. You might feel better once you’re clean.”
Really liking that idea, she agreed, nodding her head. She watched as Sin moved about the bathroom, starting the water and adding something in it before he turned to her. Looking down, she was in the same clothes she was in the previous day. Well, she hoped the previous day, she was unsure to how long she had been out.
“Here let me help you, baby.” She didn’t have the heart to tell him no when he came over. She knew her getting hurt was bothering him more than he let on. Once she was naked, he carefully lifted her and placed her in the bath before kneeling at the side, helping to wash her body.
“Sin, are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” his voice seemed clipped. Not wanting to be pushed away, she reached up with her good hand and cupped his face.
“It wasn’t your fault you know. I don’t blame you, so stop blaming yourself, okay?” This time his eyes pierced hers. He just looked at her for the longest time.
“I just found you, and then I almost lost you because of what I am, who I am. I don’t know how to feel. I am filled with confusion,” he confessed to her.
“You don’t think I am. This is new to me too, but you need to know I wouldn’t change any of it, Sin. The good or the bad.”
Sin looked into the blue eyes of Marlee as she tried to reassure him that everything was okay. She had been the one who was hurt and here he was feeling sorry for himself because he couldn’t control a situation for once in his life.
“You are a brave woman, Marlee Hicks,” he joked, trying to lighten the mood some. “It’s one of the things I love about you,” he confessed. Her eyes widened at his words, but he needed to finish. “There is so much you and I need to talk about and discuss, but right now, I just want to look at you and be thankful you are still with me.”
He washed her and took care of her, and when she stood, she could see the desire in his eyes. Marlee looked at him through her eyelashes, wondering if she could get him to touch her the way she needed him to. They had been apart for too long, she wanted him, she wanted to show him how committed she was to him. She knew without a shadow of a doubt, she belonged with him. There was no way she would be able to leave, they were mates, and connected. How her life had changed from the woman who wanted to be on her own and took a holiday, to the woman who had been put through hell and had found the man who turned her boring everyday life into so much more.
“Sin,” she whispered. He snapped his gaze up to her face and frowned.
“What do you need?” he asked as she stepped out of the tub, and just let the water run down her body. She saw his gaze snap to her breasts and he licked his lips as beads of water gathered at the tips of her nipples and dripped.
“I need you,” she whispered and lifted her hands and cupped his cheeks. “I need you to claim me as your mate.”
Passion flared in his eyes when he realized what she said to him. “You know if I do, it is forever. Blood bonds between mates ties your life to mine. There is no going back—you will be at my side for the rest of our days.”
Marlee smiled. “Yes, I understand and I accept it, when I was being held the only thing I could think of was getting back home. In the short time we have been together, you have become home to me. I need you.”
Sin closed his eyes, put his head against her forehead, and took a deep breath. He pulled back and stared at her intensely, as if trying to see if she would change her mind. Whatever was there must have answered his question.
“You need to heal,” he said slowly.
Marlee frowned and then said, “Really? Are you serious right now? I am standing here naked, demanding sex and mating, and you say I need to heal?”
“Well,” Sin said slowly.
“Maybe I will need to just take care of myself then since you don’t want to.” Marlee smiled and reached her hand down and skimmed her breasts, and then licked her lips slowly, moving them lower. Sin was watching her closely, when she reached the apex of her heat he snapped.
“Mine,” and there went his patience and his rationality. With his vampire speed, he was on her before she’d even finished opening her mouth. He needed to feel their connection again, he could have lost her, and it was not acceptable. He knew they were mates and connected before Dante injured her, but he would have suffered and let her go if she so chose. Now, with her standing before him, asking for forever, there was no going back for him. His feelings and need for her far outweighed any rationality he had had before.
“I don’t want you to be hurt ever again!” Then he closed his mouth over hers, forcefully thrusting his tongue into her mouth to stroke her own. It was a punishing, possessive, hungry kiss. That same blast of fire that always came with kissing her rushed through him just as it rushed through her. In a matter of minutes her temperature had risen to a whole new high. One hand snaked around his neck, pulling him into her for more. The low growl emitted from him only encouraged her, setting a need to push him out of the confinements of his control and unleash the animal underneath. The little nip she gave to his bottom lip seemed to be just what it took.
Sin wound his fingers in her hair, tugging her head backwards and taking complete control. The simple show of dominance sent a quake straight to her clit. Her channel clenched, desperate for what she desired most—Sin. His free hand moved from her waist up her ribcage, sending little chills up her spine in a perfect contrast to the heat that built inside her. His movements were deliberately slow, enhancing the anticipation as he made his way around her ribs and navigated north.
He palmed her breast and then, with his thumb and finger, pinched her nipple swiftly. She jerked and moaned so he did it again. The wonderful sting he eased with soft caresses, throwing her off guard. Tweek, rub, tweek, back and forth he tortured her, heightening her senses.
“I was just trying to be nice, and what do I get?” Sin kissed her again before she could reply. “Whether you believe it or not, I admire you, I respect you, and I care about you.” He held back the 'L' word deliberately. He sensed the shock she was feeling quickly give way to skepticism.
Cutting off whatever she was about to say, he cupped her mound and stroked her clit. “It’s true. And I can’t stand the idea of anything happening to you,” while stroking her clit again with one hand, and pinching a nipple with the other. She half-moaned half-whimpered, gripping his t-shirt as if to anchor herself.
“Like that, baby?” Her eyes flipped open and her glare was fierce.
“Do we really need to talk?” she said and he cupped her harder and stroked her clit again.
“I’ll talk however much I want,” Sin growled, she was going to have to learn some manners.
“What? AHHHH!” she yelled when he pinched her clit.
He freed his painfully hard cock from his jeans. “Yeah? Well this sweet talker is about to fuck you, baby.”
With vampiric speed he slipped his hands under her thighs, hoisted her up, and plunged inside her, seating himself to the hilt in one harsh stroke.
They both groaned. “Sweet Jesus, Marlee,” he breathed against her lips as her muscles clamped around his cock. She was so hot, tight, and wet, and she was all his whether she liked it or not anymore.
Why did it have to feel so good to have him inside me?
she thought, she wanted to seduce him, but the way it was going, she had lost control. The way he filled her and stretched her made her feel completely and utterly taken. Marlee wanted so much to finish their mating, it seemed so right now, and she was impatient.
She wanted so much to be able to lay in his arms and know they belonged together. It was what she had been missing in her life. She knew that now. If it hadn’t been for their link, she’d be dead, she knew that too, but she’d sensed the honesty in his feelings and knowledge they were mates and also his fear that she was hurt. She couldn’t move too fast, she wanted him to understand she was not making a snap decision.
She had to admit to herself, though, that even if she hadn’t sensed those things, she probably wouldn’t have been able to fight the need to have him, especially sensing it might be the forever kind of love she had always wanted.
“Can you feel how much I love being deep inside you?” his voice thick with lust and a need to move that for whatever dumb reason, he was resisting.
She nodded.
“I can sense how much you love it too,” he whispered.
It was at times like this when the stupid link really pissed her off. When he knew things like this it apparently made him chatty. To add to that, it made her feel impatient and needy. What was frustrating her even more now, however, was that he wasn’t moving.
Marlee tightened her legs around his hips and squeezed her inner muscles around his dick, hoping to entice him. “You want me to fuck you, baby?” he grinned.
“Are you freaking kidding me? I am wrapped around you like a damn monkey, and you want to know the answer to that question?”
“Come on, baby, I need to hear it. I want you to admit that it’s only me you want, no one else.”
Damn him
, she thought. She remained quiet.
“Admit it. It is only me you want buried inside you like this?”
“Yes,” she cried moving against him. Rewardingly, he withdrew and then drove himself deep. She groaned and locked her arms around his neck.
“You will be beside me from here on out?” He stilled his motions waiting for her reply.
“Yes.” Again he withdrew and then surged into her, wringing another groan from her.
“Who is your mate? Tell me,” Sin demanded as he stilled once again.
“You,” she screamed.
“That’s a very good thing, baby, because if another guy even tries to touch you again, I’ll fucking kill him.” Palming her ass to hold her still, he began pounding into her as if he was possessed.
It was exactly how she wanted him. God, it was absolutely amazing. Each thrust was harsh and ruthless. It was as if each time he drove into her, he was driving home his words.
“I’ve needed you since the second I laid eyes on you, Marlee. Even then, even that very first day, I couldn’t shake the goddamn feeling that you were mine.”
She opened her mouth to say something but all that came out was a moan. Marlee realized then that she had known it as well. Part of her wanted to deny she was his or anyone else’s, it was too fast, yet another part of her wanted to growl at him that he was hers too and that he’d better remember that. He would never drink from another again.
She doesn’t know what he saw in her expression but suddenly he raised a brow and growled, “Are you going to tell me you’re not mine?” He knotted a hand in her hair. “Are you?”
Marlee gasped and said, “No, we are one.”
"You will tell me before I am done with you. Let's get a little more comfortable," he gave her a lopsided smile, then there was an odd sensation in her stomach, and suddenly she was lying on her back on the silk sheets. Sin stood at the edge of his bed just staring at her. He then rid himself of his own clothes, leaving her no time to ogle because abruptly he fell to the floor, closed his mouth over her clit, and suckled.
FUCK
! she thought and arched her back up high.
At the same time he started pinching her nipples again, subjecting her to a sensory overload. He really was a freaking amazing lover. She hated the way she was writhing and twisting and whimpering but she couldn’t help it. She wanted to tell him to stop but if anyone knew how to tease it was Sin, and he was such a master at it that he robbed her of the ability to speak. He continued until she was not only speechless but mindless, then her entire body clenched and jerked and it felt like she’d imploded as her release hit.