Page 53 of Blood and Magic
“How you feeling, sweetheart?” he asked before crawling up my body to kiss me softly.
I hummed into the contact and reached between us, cupping his cock, ravenous to return the favor. He grabbed my wrist to stop me.
“No,” he said. “I’m good.”
“What?” I didn’t like the sound of that. If he got to taste me, I wanted to taste him. “C’mon. You let me last time.”
He chuckled and shook his head. “This was about you. Not me.”
I pouted. “But I want to.”
“Shh.” He lay down next to me and wrapped an arm under my shoulders, tugging me close. The headache plaguing me for the last few days had subsided, and my body aches dulled to a tiny whimper. Whatever had been about to be unleashed in my molecules seemed to have dissipated, but a nervous energy still hummed in my blood like it might reappear before too long. “Go to sleep, darlin’. We have lots of time to play.”
“Promise you won’t leave me?”
“I won’t leave you.”
The confirmation made me relax. We fell silent, lying together in the simple comfort of a warm bed and a tight embrace. His heart beat steadily under my head, and in the aftermath of the night, it was the most beautiful sound I’d ever heard.
“Mill.” I glanced up at him and grinned. “Thank you.”
He narrowed his eyes but smiled and kissed my forehead. “Thank you, Maeve.”
I closed my eyes, and unconsciousness pulled me under.
CHAPTER 16
Vermillion
She didn’t need to know I’d come in my boxers while going down on her, that tasting her had been as close to heaven as I’d ever come, even better the second time when I didn’t have to worry about Scorpions breaking through the tree line.
Hell, seventeen years ago, I would have never thought I’d have Maeve Vanderbilt in my bed. Our twelve-year age gap would have been enough of a turnoff alone. But now, I regretted all the years I’d spent thinking she was too young for me, that I’d be better off on my own. I lamented leaving her last night and pretending what happened at the cliff was a mere hookup.
Holding her while she slept brought me a new level of peace I hadn’t realized I would ever experience. Her features softened, and she breathed heavily. Knowing I had her in my arms, that I would protect her against any monster who came for her, made me the luckiest motherfucker in the world.
She was burning up. Her body had gotten ten degrees hotter than it should have been, and sweat beaded across her skin from more than alcohol detox. It wouldn’t be long now. Her magic would tear through whatever scotch remained in her system, and when she opened those eyes again, she’d be in the middle of her transition.
I fell asleep for a moment, only a moment, and that was when it hit.
The initial blast of her magic launched me off the bed, shoving me sideways until I collapsed on the floor with a grunt.
“Fuck,” I groaned, frozen in the shock wave of pheromones and magic pouring off her in a vibrant tangible cloud of energy. It forced me to hover there as it ricocheted through my molecules and roped me into its trance. My fangs extended on their own, my cock hardened, and the knot at the base pulsed, ready to lock me into place.
This was the magic of a transitioning shifter. A more submissive person would need a dominant to see them through it, and vice versa. Seventeen years ago, I had helped Guin. I’d been more dominant than her at the time, but she’d since grown to outrank me. I wouldn’t stare her in the eyes for longer than five seconds now. But Maeve wasn’t like her older sister.
My girl wanted to be cared for, wanted to cuddle up against someone more powerful than her, and know nothing would harm her again. I sensed her shiver every time I called her a good girl, and she responded with a determined, “Yes, sir.”
The call of Maeve’s primal side reached inside me, gripped my wolf by the tail, and yanked me to her. I’d known it was going to happen, so I stayed close. But if I hadn’t, her magic would have expanded until it found a viable shifter to help her.
“Mill,” came her pained moan. “Please. It hurts.”
I pushed against the force of her energy, struggling to stand as it weighed me down. It was powerful, surging out of her in thick, potent waves. My wolf responded with a loud howl inside my mind, instinctively taking over the human part of me.
Give, he commanded. Help her. Mine.
She sprawled across the bedsheets, naked and coated in sweat, her features twisted in anguish.
“Ver...mil…lion,” she murmured.
