This Time Tomorrow (Phenomenal Fate 2)

“Jesus, you’re my mate. That means I can come inside you, Roksana,” he gritted out, the rhythm of his hips turning frantic, jaw going slack. “Ah, baby, baby, first time I’ve come in years and you’re giving me such a tight place to put it.”

Oh she had an idea. Her own orgasm was hurtling closer, like a bus heading toward a collision with a wall. It was going to decimate her, but she couldn’t stop tilting her pelvis at just that perfect angle, so the trunk of his sex would grind on her clit. Couldn’t stop clenching and unclenching around him, swelling that male part of him until every inch of her was not only filled to capacity, but every erogenous zone was being exploited. “Faster, faster,” she sobbed, her fingernails digging into the flesh of his backside—and then, clouds broke in the sky of her arousal and the sun blared through, beaming her up into the wide, blue yonder. “Elias!”

“Roksana. Mine, finally. My mate.” He bore down one final time and heat melted throughout her femininity. And in her chest from watching Elias in the throes of immortal abandonment and masculine gratitude as his body released for the first time in years. His body jerked violently several times, his shoulder muscles flexed, the veins in his throat standing out, amber detonating in his eyes.

Wetness coated the point where their bodies joined, spreading down her inner thighs until finally Elias collapsed on top of her, the sound of his heartbeat dancing with hers.

“Holy hell, vampire,” she breathed shakily. “If it was possible for vampires to get a woman pregnant, we would be having triplets in nine months.”

Elias puffed a laugh and lifted his head, staring down at Roksana with so much affection, tears began to leak from her eyes. And they fell even faster when dread slowly bled into his expression.

What now?

She could almost hear him asking that same question.

Elias was her enemy. The man she was going to kill.

She was his one true mate. Now that he’d drunk from her…

He could only drink from her. Nothing and no one else could sustain him.

And she still didn’t know why he was there tonight. Were they in competition?

Roksana’s heart rebelled stubbornly, willing her to forget the past, forget his most recent deception and follow its dictates. To simply…be with him, despite him being a vampire and her being a slayer. As if that were realistic.

Tears clogged Roksana’s throat as she rolled from beneath a rapidly stiffening Elias and fixed her dress. She’d just slept with the enemy. The man who’d locked her in a room, rendering her helpless while draining the life from her best friends. And she hadn’t just slept with him, she’d given herself over to him completely, defenses gone.

“Roksana,” he said, a warning clear in his tone.

A warning for what? Not to freak out over her inexcusable betrayal?

Before she could ask, footsteps came from the direction of the staircase and the man of the house came into view, a gun extended in his hand. “If the two of you are finished, the game will resume now.”

There was a loud snap, followed by a bloodcurdling scream from the fae.

Roksana was only given the tiniest window to watch in wonder as the man’s arm bent at an unnatural angle, seemingly with no assistance, before Elias blocked her view. His back bristled in front of her, wrath evident in the pitch of his growl.

And then everything went up in flames.

Angry red fire ripped along the perimeter of the room, tearing in zigzags on the ceiling, bursting out of light sockets. Roksana had never been one to cower, but the explosion was so unexpected, instinct dropped her into a crouched position, arms wrapped around her ducked head. What the hell was happening?

Slowly, she lifted her eyes and peeked through Elias’s braced legs to find the man of the house trapped in an incredible blaze, his gun forgotten at the top of the staircase. His squeals rang out, his hands batting at the flames, but that only seemed to make the fire rage harder.

That’s when Roksana realized Elias hadn’t moved. He stood still as a statue, heat radiating from his back, thighs…all of him.

“You’re doing this,” she whispered, her voice swallowed up in the pandemonium.

Tucker appeared at the top of the stairs, giving the burning fae wide berth and taking in the scene in a sweeping glance. “Damn, son. You got fire powers?” He scratched at his chin. “Jonas is going to be jealous.”

Oh my God. Elias was protecting his mate.

A vampire’s powers were latent until his mate was threatened, at which point they made themselves known with a vengeance. The danger had caused his abilities to manifest and now…he was about to burn this enormous house down. While they were still inside.

More importantly, while the marriage decree was still inside.