“You want to play? You want to be bad and stay innocent? Here. Take it.”
He bucked his hips, sliding his cock through the wet folds of her pussy and a bellow left him, long and raw. The sound of her pulse was like cannon fire against his eardrums, his loins full and heavy and in need of relief. The kind he could only get if he drank from his mate.
“Tucker,” Mary moaned, her fingernails burying in his back, her head thrashing side to side on the pillow. “Again.”
“Yes, again. Anything you want. It’s yours.” His need to give her pleasure overrode every animalistic desire inside of Tucker and he bore down, grinding his shaft lightly on her clit—and harder, harder when she started to scream. The bed shook with the intensity of her orgasm and he watched in reverence, feeling something shift irrevocably inside of him. Not only a vampire bonding with his mate. But a man falling deeply, darkly and hopelessly in love. “Mary,” he managed unsteadily. “I just need you so bad.”
Still shaking, she reached up and guided his mouth down to her neck. “Drink,” she whispered, nodding encouragingly, even as the climax gripped her—
A door slammed at the front of the house.
Tucker broke land speed records launching himself off the bed and getting in between the danger and his mate, his roar shattering picture frames, vases and water glasses throughout the house, objects lifting and remaining suspended in the air.
“Who is there?” he seethed, yanking up his pants and zipping away his erection in preparation of killing the interrupter.
A familiar figure appeared in the doorway of the bedroom, his demeanor calm and collected as usual. Unless, of course, his own mate was being threatened. Maybe that’s why Jonas sounded so understanding when he asked, “Bad time to talk?”
Chapter 11
Tucker’s face burned.
Jesus, am I blushing?
In the midst of reacting like a teenager who’d been caught making out, Tucker’s main concern was Mary and he turned now, grateful to find her shielded by a sheet. Still, he draped the comforter around her shoulders, his hackles remaining up until every inch of her skin was covered. Jonas might be devoted to his own mate, but no one looked at Mary but Tucker.
Wow. Did he hear himself?
In case he’d forgotten, she was marrying someone else.
And being taken far, far out of his reach.
Pain started to throb behind Tucker’s eye and he dug in a thumb there, twisting it. “How did you get here so fast?” he growled at the king.
A wrinkle appeared between Jonas’s brows. “We spoke hours ago and I had the advantage of flying.” He tilted his head. “Aren’t you going to introduce me?”
“No.”
“It’s like that, is it?” Humor sparkled in the king’s eyes. “Very well. We have a lot to discuss and it couldn’t wait. I’ll be in the backyard.”
Jonas zipped out of sight and Tucker moved to the window, pulled the curtains so Mary wouldn’t be visible from outside, either. Protectiveness teemed inside of him, growing more potent by the second, and apparently nothing could stop the upwelling. Even if he refrained from drinking Mary’s blood or claiming her physically, his mating urges were getting harder to deny.
A few moments more and he would have claimed her.
Drunk his fill of her blood.
“It wasn’t a bomb going off back in the diner, was it?” Mary whispered from the center of the bed. “It just happened again. All the glass breaking and…and the air gathering together like wool. It was you. Why did you lie to me?”
“It’s not unusual for vampires to have certain abilities,” he said, staying as close to the truth as possible. Lying to Mary made him feel ill and he was tiring of having to do it. “Sometimes they develop as a vampire grows older.” Or finds his mate and cultivates weapons to protect her. “It can be unexpected.”
She was still frowning in his general direction.
“I have to go speak with Jonas,” he said, throat tight over his mate’s displeasure. “Are you…all right? Do you need anything before I go?”
She wet her lips and Tucker’s cock throbbed in response. “No.”
Reluctantly, he turned to leave.
“Tucker.” He looked back over his shoulder, finding her conflicted, her palm smoothing over the rumpled sheets. “I’m sorry for making you hurt.” She shook her head as if trying to clear it. “I just…”
“Yes?”
A beat passed. “Never mind.”
Wishing he had the freedom to crawl into bed with Mary and hold her, kiss every inch of her skin, tell her she was the most beautiful creature alive, he dragged his sorry ass down the hallway instead and went to go meet the king.
* * *
Mary fell back into the pillows and replayed the last…hour? Two? It came back to her in the form of sound and sensation. How much time had they spent naked in this bed, lost in one another? For some unknown length of time, they’d been lacking in all shame. Under each other’s power. Tomorrow hadn’t existed. Only now. Only pleasure. Only them.