Needing to be in her more than I needed the air in my lungs, I tore open my fly and hoisted her up. Bracing her against the post behind her, I lodged the head of my dick in her entrance. “Who’s about to fuck you, Maya?”
Curling her arms and legs tight around me, she nipped at my lower lip. “You.”
Not good enough. “What’s my name?”
“You don’t know? That’s weird.”
I gave her ass a sharp slap. “Tell me.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Just fuck me already.”
I gripped her jaw tight. “Don’t piss around, Maya. Say my fucking name.”
Her upper lip curled. “Ryder,” she bit out.
“That’s my girl.” I punched up my hips, ramming my cock inside her, groaning as her hot inner walls clenched me so tight it should have hurt. I didn’t give her a moment to adjust. Couldn’t. I was gone.
I pounded into her, filling the air with the sound of skin slapping skin. “Missed this,” I gritted out. “So did you.” I kissed her before she could deny it. Ravished and plundered and feasted.
She tore her mouth free. “Harder.”
“I go harder, you’re gonna be sore.”
“I don’t care.”
Taking her at her word, I violently hammered into her. “The next time you’re on that dance floor with a man, you’ll have my come dripping down your thighs.”
She snarled. “Yeah well if a woman kisses you tonight, she’ll be tasting me.”
“Like I’d ever share your taste with anyone but you.” Like I even wanted another woman’s lips anywhere near me. Maya was all I wanted. All I could think about.
“R-Ryder,” she stuttered, her inner walls getting hotter and tighter. I knew what that meant.
“Yes, come for me, sweet girl.” Lured by the pulse beating in her neck, I bit down hard. As I drank, she came apart around my cock. Those rippling inner muscles took me with her. I slammed deep as bursts of hot come jetted out of my dick and filled her.
I licked at the bite and then lifted my gaze to hers. Her glassy eyes flickered, a hint of uncertainty in their depths. I could almost see her steeling herself to hear words of regret. How could I regret taking her again? I might loathe how little self-control I had when it came to her, but I’d never once lamented a single thing that happened between us.
Hoping to communicate that somehow, I softly kissed her, sipping from her mouth, in no rush to leave her. But I eventually pulled back and set her on her feet, and then we just stared at each other. We never seemed to know what to say after sex. Or maybe it was that neither of us could say what we wanted, so we opted for nothing at all.
Once we’d righted our clothes, she snatched her ruined panties from the floor and shot me a dark look. Yeah, they weren’t the first pair of hers I’d torn. Not even the second. She stuffed the ball of lace in the trash can near the stone bench and then disappeared in a blur of movement. All right.
CHAPTER FOUR
(Ryder)
Leaning against the wall in Sam and Jared’s office the next evening, I watched as the vampire sitting in the chair opposite Sam shifted uncomfortably.
“I haven’t lied about my gift,” he claimed.
“I’m not saying you have,” she told him, drumming her fingers on her desk. “I’m saying I need to be sure that you haven’t lied. Ryder will confirm that after he’s scanned your mind. It won’t hurt.”
The researchers had named six vampires who, based on their abilities, could possibly be responsible for what had happened to the leopard. This guy, for example, could taint people’s emotional state—even send them into a fit of blind rage. If an additional aspect of that gift was that George could also send animals into a frenzy of bloodlust, he could be the culprit.
He squirmed again. “I don’t like the idea of having someone in my head.”
No one ever did, and I couldn’t blame them. Especially since, as part of my ability, I could also delete memories.
“Understandable,” Jared told him, perched on the edge of Sam’s desk. “But this is how it has to go. He’s not going to know your every thought or see your every secret. That’s not how it works.”
George sighed. “All right.” As if he had a choice in the matter.
I pushed away from the wall and took a few steps toward him as I carefully delved a psychic hand into his head. He gasped, gripping the arms of the chair. “This won’t cause you any pain, it will just feel strange,” I told him.
He gave a curt nod. “How long will this take?”
“It will be faster if you think of your gift. Just bring it to the forefront of your mind.” Because minds, well, they were trickier to navigate than people might expect. If there were mental boxes for thoughts, secrets, memories, and other such things, it wouldn’t be so bad. But it wasn’t that simple. Minds were like giant road maps—so many connecting lines, so many intersections, so many points of interest. None were labelled, so finding the correct ‘road’ could take a long time. But if someone brought up a mental snapshot or concentrated on one specific thing, it would act as a red cross on their personal map.