Love Bites

“Perfume! She smelled your supposed mate’s perfume all over me, all but pouring out of my pores. She caused a scene in front of everyone, then ran away to be comforted by her coworkers as if I’d tried to ram her right there in the stacks.”

Disgust contorted Luke’s mouth as he ground his fist into the shards of Kellan’s treasured snack. Only the fact that he had six boxes stored in the cabinet above the sink consoled him as he watched the pastries die a horrible death.

“You wanted me to sleep with Sydney so I’d forget Emily. Well, I screwed her. I enjoyed it. But I didn’t forget Emily and now she’s even more repulsed by me than she was before. While you’re all snuggled up with your mate—” Luke spat the word “—I’m more alone than ever.”

“I wasn’t trying to make you forget Emily,” Kellan said quietly. “I know she’s your true mate. Honestly, I was jealous you’d found yours before I’d found mine. But I wanted to prove to you that she was yours, that there could be no ignoring your feelings for her or your shared destiny. You must claim her, Luke. You can’t wait until she comes to you.”

A soft noise from the doorway took their attention. Sydney stood just over the threshold, a towel clutched to her torso, the ends of her hair trailing water off her shoulders. “Water’s nice,” she murmured, letting the towel drop just slightly. Her dusky brown nipples poked over the top. “If you’d like to join me.” Her gaze flicked between them. “If both of you would like to join me.”

“Your man laid down the law on that score. No more three-way fun.” A sardonic twist of Luke’s lips tweaked Kellan’s conscience, as rusty from disuse as it was. “It’ll just be me and my hand for all eternity.”

“Even if I decree otherwise?” She arched a brow at Kellan. “So, you’re the boss of me now?”

“You said you only wanted me,” he reminded her, fighting the simultaneous ache in his balls and the hit to his ego that maybe Luke was right. Maybe she did need two men to satisfy her.

“I do. But maybe I was a bit too hasty in ending all of our fun.” She glided between them and let the towel fall away as she ran her hands up Luke’s chest. “We’ll help you forget her for a little while,” she said, leaning up to kiss Kellan’s best friend while her damp, heart-shaped butt wriggled against the straining front of Kellan’s jeans. Then she looked back pointedly. “Right? We’ll make him feel better. Since your harebrained scheme got him in this mess in the first place.”

“It wasn’t harebrained,”

Kellan muttered.

“I can’t do this again. Emily already hates me.”

“Shh,” Sydney crooned, facing Lucas. “Let us help you forget for a little while. I promise she doesn’t hate you.”

“How do you know?” Lucas’s tone was peeved but he waited for Sydney’s answer with an expression of hope.

“I just do. Trust me, Luke.” She looked back at Kellan. “So?”

He drifted his hands over the water droplets gathered on the small of her back. Her creamy skin boasted a vibrant dragon tattoo with a sharply pointed tail decorated with rows of spikes. Spikes, he realized, that looked sharp and lethal enough to be fangs.

“As you wish.”

She leaned up to feather her fingers through Luke’s blond hair, touching him in a way that spoke more of compassion than sexual intent. Kellan’s gut loosened. She really did want to help his friend forget. True, he would’ve preferred if she’d sent a card rather than offered her body, but he did feel a certain responsibility for Luke’s predicament.

“Once more.” He almost growled the phrase. Vampires were territorial by nature, and this was enough to strain all bounds of his control. But since his control wasn’t the only thing straining at the moment—his cock gave a meaningful jerk—he wouldn’t create a scene.

Unless she suggested it again in the future.

“You heard him.” Sydney smiled flirtatiously at Luke and started undoing buttons. “Once more for the road. I know you’re mad at me—” she licked his Adam’s apple “—but I can make you forget that, too.”

Lucas gritted his teeth and knotted his hands in the wet ropes of her hair. “I’m not mad at you. It’s not your fault your man’s an idiot.”

“Too true.” She smiled and sent Kellan a coy look under the sooty fringe of her lashes. “You gonna play with us or just stand there rubbing my ass?”

“Your ass requires all my attention at the moment. Since I’ve heard just how delectable it feels between these perfect cheeks.” Kellan slapped one of them, tickled when she only purred out a laugh. She would never shy away from rough sex. Yet another thing he loved about her.

His throat tightened as his vision wavered on her colorful tattoo. Another thing he loved about her? Did he really love her so soon? Could it be possible?

After the episode in her car, Sydney was his fated mate, of that he was sure. Similar urges gripped Lucas when he was around Emily, urges he was almost powerless to control. Biting a female in the throes of passion stirred the bloodlust, of course, but this feeling went way beyond that. Hell, the first time he’d laid his lips upon Sydney’s, he’d suspected. Just the aroma of her feminine essence nearly caused him to beg.

But the craving for her blood and his body’s impassioned response to her, even the knowledge they belonged together, didn’t create instantaneous love. That had to be built. He’d yet to learn everything about her, but it didn’t matter. Maybe his heart had just gotten on board as quickly as the rest of him.

She jutted her perky butt up at him, all but giving herself to him on a damned platter. “Why don’t you try my ass out yourself and see?”

“Why don’t I?” he echoed, reaching between her legs to where she already burned wet and hot. He spread her lips with two fingers and thumbed her clit, already distended and eager for his touch. She squeezed her thighs together, bucking up and down to press him more firmly against her.

Kellan hissed out a breath and undid his jeans. The tip of his cock bobbed free of the zipper. Just her wetness against his palm fired him up to the point of pain.