Today Tomorrow and Always (Phenomenal Fate 3)

They swayed like that a moment, her breasts flattened to his chest, bodies flush.

Mary had never been held like that before. So intimately. He’d caught her out of necessity, to keep her from falling. Right. But the longer they remained like that, the more her skin started to warm, the flutter of shock and adrenaline moving lower, to her belly, and growing dense. Almost…confusingly so. Her body seemed to be communicating with Tucker’s after a long absence, embracing, curves molding to muscle, making her toes curl where they dangled at his knees.

“Is this a test?” Tucker rasped into her hair.

Oh. It felt so terribly good having his mouth move there, sort of between her ear and temple. “A test?” She barely resisted leaning closer, rubbing herself against those hard lips. “I don’t understand.”

“You’re making sure I’m up to the job of protecting you on the road. Or…” His fingers splayed on her back and dragged an inch up Mary’s spine, before curling inward, but her lips were wide open by the time he showed that restraint, sucking in a shaky dose of air. “Maybe it’s a test to see if I can remember you’re supposed to be meant for someone else.”

With her feet elevated several inches off the floor and this vampire holding her like she might crack if he set her down, it didn’t feel as if she was meant for someone else. Not in the slightest. And then that hand slipped another quarter inch up her spine and she had the most pressing urge to circle his hips with her thighs. What was happening to her?

Could she really be jeopardizing everything after what she’d just learned?

No. No, she couldn’t do that.

Even if she’d almost missed Tucker while she’d been packing upstairs, two floors away.

Valiantly, Mary searched for a distraction so she’d stop thinking about how nice his thick belly felt against her slight one. Or how glad she was to have changed into a tank top tucked into a short, loose skirt, leaving her legs bare so they could rub against his denim ones. “I, um…had this whole speech prepared about how I can carry my own luggage and be totally independent. That you don’t have to babysit me just because I’m blind.” She dropped her chin to his shoulder, lulled by his strength, despite her best efforts. “Have I gone and blown my credibility?”

“Are you serious?” His voice sounded a little unnatural…but then, so did hers. They seemed to turn their heads at the same time, bringing his mouth to her ear, allowing Mary to bury her nose in his hair, inhaling smoke and nighttime. “There are a hundred slayers picking glass out of their butts right now because of you, kid. You’re a legend. I’m in full fan girl mode.”

She laughed. Still, “I’m not a kid,” Mary managed, swallowing, testing the hardness of his shoulders with a squeeze of her fingertips. “I’m an adult.”

“Yeah, unfortunately, I noticed,” he said, roughly, that hand sliding sideways to one of her hips, testing the groove with his thumb. “What happened to the nightgown?”

“Hey, I don’t wear it all the time,” she said, doing her best to sound exasperated, but not quite pulling it off. It came out like more of a half-gasp, half-gulp. “Fine, I wear it almost exclusively. I don’t get a lot of reasons to dress in regular clothes.”

Tucker hummed beside her ear, causing an outbreak of goosebumps down her arms. “You been inside a long time, Mary?”

She nodded, slowly curling her arms around his neck. “Yeah.”

This time, he gulped. Pulled her closer. “Well we can’t have you all dressed up with nowhere to go. Let’s get you out of here.” He made no move to leave the stairwell. “I would say it’s one last adventure before you join the dark side, but it sounds like your first.”

“Are you going to call them the dark side the whole time?

His chuckle was strained. “Nah, I’ve gotten it out of my system.” A long pause ensued, followed by Tucker’s jagged sigh. “Dammit, Mary. How long can I pretend I’m just holding you to save you from falling?”

More than ever, she wanted to wrap herself around his big body. Felt almost compelled by her own femininity to do so. His bluntness and honesty only magnetized her more. Still, she had to stay true to her obligations. Her upcoming marriage was not a love match. It was in name only. A bargain being struck. This apparent attraction to Tucker didn’t mean she lacked loyalty. But after just a brief space of time, she was already beginning to bond to him and that—that was dangerous. A distraction she couldn’t afford. “I think m-maybe we passed that time limit a few minutes ago.”

Mary wiggled in his embrace, trying to get her feet back on the floor. In the course of getting down, the juncture of her thighs rode hard and downward over a bulge in Tucker’s pants and she sucked in a labored breath. His hands flew to her backside and gripped, rocking her against that protrusion once, hard. Stumbling forward, stopping just short of the opposite wall. Mary whimpered in her throat, giving in to one squeeze of her knees around his hips, another mutual grind of soft to hard, before he quickly settled her on the ground, both of them leaping backward as if they’d been burned.