When she rose from her chair and sauntered toward him with an enticing sway of her hips, his gaze ran greedily over the curves he longed to explore. His tongue latched to the top of his mouth as protests rose in his throat. He didn’t speak when she stopped before him and settled her hands on his shoulders.
Instead of pushing her away, he rested his hands on her rounded hips and shoved aside images of running his tongue over those hips before sinking his fangs into her. He would taste and bite every inch of her perfect body. He would mark her until the satellites in space could tell she was his.
Mate. The concept was so foreign to him before she walked into his life. It was something that happened to other vampires, not to him. But the more time he knew her, the more he cared for her, and the more he suspected she was his mate.
He did feel sorry for her, but he was so happy for himself that he wanted to shout his joy to the moon and screw the consequences. He’d been blessed with a gorgeous woman who understood his life, accepted it, and was a warrior herself. She might be able to handle everything about him, the good, the bad, and the downright hideous.
And because of that, he couldn’t allow this to continue without telling her some of it. “I’m not good for you, Willow.”
Though, it no longer mattered. If she were his mate, he wouldn’t let her down, and he would not become a monster again.
“I know, you’re a monster,” she teased.
The playful smile she gave him made him realize she didn’t believe him. “I am a monster. I’ve—”
Before he could finish telling her about the evil staining his soul, she bent and kissed him. He easily could have stopped her and made her listen, but the heat of her mouth and the way her hands slid around until her fingers played with the hair on his nape hushed his protests.
Willow teased Declan’s clamped lips until his mouth opened. He was right; he probably wasn’t any good for her, and this may be the biggest mistake of her life, but what did it matter when they might not see the sun set? And was it a life worth living if she didn’t grasp it in both hands and hold on for the ride?
She’d never been one to back down from a challenge, and she’d never lived her life in fear. She wasn’t about to start now. She may be the cause of his torment, but she sensed she could also give him some relief from it. And if she couldn’t relieve his torment, then she would give him a different kind of relief.
His stubble-roughened cheeks tickled hers as the kiss deepened. His lips were firm yet soft as his tongue entwining with hers melted away the last of her reservations. She’d always been brazen, and she’d initiated sex before, but she’d never been quite this brazen. However, she’d never wanted a man as badly as him.
Declan drew her forward until she straddled his lap with her long legs hanging over the arms of the chair as she settled onto him. Her hair spilled over his face in tickling waves as Willow shifted her hips in a way that caused her to grind against his cock.
He was supposed to tell her something, but it was impossible to think about anything other than her scent, her warm, luscious body, and the fact she had him on the verge of coming already. He ran his hands up her hips to the bottom of her shirt. He tugged it up until he could settle his hands on her silken flesh.
Running his hands up her back, he skimmed them along her spine and held her closer when he realized how fragile her life was. And I can be the one who ends it.
Declan didn’t think he would hurt her, but he hadn’t believed he would snap before either. Memories of the past threatened to overwhelm him. He started to turn his head away, but she nipped his lip to express her displeasure.
When his blood hit her tongue, the wave of excitement and passion that erupted from her knocked the breath from him. He stopped resisting as he bent her back while drawing her closer.
Nipping at his lip again, she drew more blood, and he didn’t stop her. He’d never given his blood to a vampire before, never intended to let it happen, but he wouldn’t deny Willow anything.
Willow circled her hips as she ground against his thick erection and tugged at his hair. Between his heady taste and the scent of his blood, she’d lost all control of herself, and she welcomed every second of it.
She hated her jeans and wanted to tear them from her. She reached for the button, but his hands were already undoing it and pulling the zipper down. The position she was in made it impossible for them to come off. Reluctant to break the kiss, she tried to wiggle them past her hips, but only ended up with them wedged under her ass.
Finally admitting defeat, she broke the kiss and pulled away to stand before him. His fingers curved around the ends of the chair; his knuckles turned white as he watched her from hooded silver eyes.
The look in his eyes and the way his muscles strained as if he was barely in control, told her she was messing with something far beyond anything she’d ever dealt with before. A trickle of apprehension ran through her.
However, as much as he unnerved her, the need in his eyes also called to her. Maybe it was foolish on her part, but she wouldn’t turn back now. She believed she could soothe the tension from him, ease his need, and give them both what they desperately craved.
Declan remained unmoving as he waited to see what she would do. He sensed her uncertainty and knew he radiated a wildness that would send any sane woman screaming for the hills.
It had been nearly five hundred years since he last had sex. Out of all the many women who came before his period of abstinence, none had ever made him ache to be inside them as much as Willow, but he would wait for her.
He would control himself; he wouldn’t harm her. This wouldn’t be like the last time. He was a lot different now, and Willow was so much more to him.
She was… everything.
They’d only really known each other for a short time, and he had so much to tell her, but she was the woman who would walk by his side for eternity, and he would die before he ever hurt her.
In a seductive, teasing manner that caused his nails to bite into the wood of the chair, she started pushing the jeans down her thighs. He leaned forward as they slid over her shapely calves and off her feet. She kicked them aside with a flick of her toes.
Next, she grasped the edges of her shirt and slid it up to reveal inch by tantalizing inch of her alabaster skin. The swell of her breasts appeared and then fell free as she tugged the shirt over her head and tossed it aside.
She threw her shoulders back and stood with the haughty arrogance of one who was confident in her body, and she had every right to be. His mouth watered, and he sat back in the chair while his gaze ran over the swell of her pert breasts, flat, toned stomach, rounded hips, and long legs that he couldn’t wait to have wrapped around him. The neatly trimmed, dark blonde triangle of hair between her thighs shielded her sex from him.
“Do you like what you see?” Willow inquired as she ran her fingers lazily from her collarbone, between her breasts, and down to her belly.
He followed her movements with the rapt attention of an eagle following a field mouse. Willow thrilled at the idea of being his prey.
“I do. And I’ll like it more when I’m fucking it,” Declan growled.
“That you will,” she murmured.
Declan remained riveted as she ran her fingers around her nipples until they stood out from her body. And then she gave them a pinch and rolled them between her fingers. Wood splintered beneath his fingers, but he couldn’t bring himself to release the chair.
Willow heard the wood crushing beneath his grip and sensed his waning control, but it didn’t frighten her. He believed himself a monster; she knew he wasn’t.
“Come here,” he commanded.
Willow smiled as she sauntered toward him. She’d never felt more sexy or alive in her life. When her legs brushed his knees, she knelt before him, undid the button of his jeans, and pulled down the zipper. Declan lifted his hips to let her slide the jeans down his legs.
When she got them past his hips, his cock rose to stand proudly in the air. Willow couldn’t tear her gaze away from the long, thick length of him. None of the men she’d been with were this large. She pulled the jeans down his calves and untied his boots as she battled her desire and apprehension.
Slipping his boots off, she tossed them aside before removing his socks and jeans. When she lifted her gaze to his, she saw the challenge in his silver eyes. Somehow, he sensed her confidence was waning. He’d let her walk away from this, and if she did, it would be the end.
He wasn’t a monster, but if she turned away, he’d always believe he was. She didn’t know how she knew this, but the truth of it vibrated to the center of her soul.
Rising higher on her knees, Willow glided her fingers along the insides of his thighs. His breath sucked in when they caressed his shaft. She kept her eyes on his for as long as she could while she bent over his cock. She ran her tongue across the head to lick away the precum already forming there.
More wood crushed beneath his fingers as Declan watched Willow’s head lower over him. Her mouth, tongue, and hand worked a magic that he’d foregone over these last centuries of his life.
But then, he’d never experienced this particular brand of magic before as no one had ever aroused him as much as Willow. When her tongue followed the thick vein of his shaft and her hand cupped his balls, Declan arched off the chair, and a tingle ran down his spine as he relished this exquisite torture.
Willow hadn’t considered it possible, but he grew harder and thicker, and she marveled at the way his body responded to her—the sounds he emitted, the rise of his hips, and the increased beat of his heart. He was on the brink of coming, but she wouldn’t let him go over without her.
Slowly removing her mouth from his dick, she gave it one final lick before releasing him and meeting his vivid red eyes. The change in color didn’t surprise her; her eyes probably matched his.
Rising, she kept her eyes on his as she settled herself in his lap again and draped her legs over the arms. She gasped when the thick head of his cock slid between her legs, and she moved her hips so it rubbed against her clit.
Declan watched as her mouth parted, her head tilted back, and her eyelids lowered to shadow her red eyes. She was gorgeous, and she was his. Though he was more than happy to let her use his body however she saw fit, he couldn’t take any more of this. He had to be inside her.
His hands tightened on her when she shifted her hips so she could take him partially into her before pulling away again. “Willow.”
The gravelly tone of his voice, those red eyes, and his fingers digging into her told her he couldn’t take much more. She couldn’t either.
Her fingers played with the hair at his nape while she held his gaze and drew him partially into her again. She stopped, hovering on the edge as she took him in. With his red eyes, stubble lining his cheek, and sweat beading his forehead, he was untamed and exquisite, and hers.
Willow bit her lip as she lowered herself further onto him. The sensation wasn’t unpleasant, but it was a little uncomfortable as he stretched her. And then he was settled deep inside and a part of her.
She was struck by the overwhelming urge to cry. The last time she sat down and sobbed was when she learned of Doug’s death, but this was different. She’d cried for Doug because she’d loved him, and a part of her broke the day he died. With Declan, she wanted to sob because it felt so right. Being joined with him was like coming home after a long journey; it was right where she belonged.
Neither of them moved as they stared at each other. The red had faded from his eyes; they were that spectacular silver again as they ran over her face with an awe that only made her want to cry more. This beautiful, broken, proud man needed her, and she needed him.
Then her hands fell to his shirt, and she started to pull it off. She had to see and feel every inch of him as she claimed him as hers.
Declan released the arms of the chair, clasped her hands, and flattened them against his stomach. When Willow’s violet eyes lifted to his, he shook his head. He sensed her irritation, and though he longed to give her everything she needed from him, he wasn’t ready to reveal the worst parts of him yet—not today, not when it was supposed to be about the two of them. His past had no place here, and there would be no keeping it shut out if she saw.
“It stays on,” he said more gruffly than he anticipated.
Willow opened her mouth to protest, but the look in his eyes stilled her words. He hadn’t looked at all distressed by her touch until now. Whatever he was keeping from her, he would tell her when he was ready. Until then, she planned to enjoy every second of this day with him. It could very well be their last.
Pulling her hands free of his, she draped them around his shoulders. Holding his gaze, Willow rose until only his head remained inside her, and then she lowered herself over him again. A muscle twitched in his cheek, but he didn’t grasp her hips or push her faster as she rose over him again.
She continued her leisurely, teasing movements as Declan clasped her face in his palms and slid his fingers over her cheeks. Pulling her to him, he reclaimed her mouth and slid his tongue across her lips before nipping her bottom one.
“You know what you are, right?” he whispered against her mouth.
Willow’s eyes had closed, but they opened to discover his burning red eyes blazing into hers. He’d stiffened against her, and a muscle twitched in his cheek as he locked his jaw.
“You know what you are to me, don’t you?” he demanded.
“I do,” Willow breathed.
He held her gaze as he brushed back the strands of her hair to reveal the slender curve of her neck. Beneath his palm, her heart pounded like a drum; the musical beat of it lured him forth. He kissed her neck and ran his tongue over her flesh before scraping his fangs over her skin.
Apprehension raced through her. She knew what they were to each other, but it was all moving so fast. She’d only planned to enjoy what might be the last hours of her life with him. She hadn’t expected it to result in being claimed by her mate.
If she told him no, he’d stop, but the word lodged in her throat when his tongue flickered over her skin again and his fangs rested against her vein. She feared the unknown that would follow this claiming, but her desperation to join with her mate far outweighed her apprehension.
Then his fangs pierced her skin, and her fear vanished as a scream of ecstasy rose in her throat. She stifled it by dropping her head to the hollow of his neck, and before she could stop herself, she bit into him.
As his blood filled her mouth, she forgot her teasing movements as her fingers dug into the chiseled muscles of his back and her hips thrust against him. When his thoughts mingled with hers, his pleasure was almost too much for her to bear.
Fueled by Willow’s emotions, Declan couldn’t control himself as her thoughts battered him. Seizing her hips, he drove harder into her while her muffled cries propelled him onward. When the muscles of her sheath clenched around him, he didn’t have time to pull out of her before he came.
Willow felt the pulse of his shaft deep inside her, but she couldn’t bring herself to care that they hadn’t taken any precautions against pregnancy. She just had the most intense orgasm of her life, and she couldn’t stop her hips from moving against his as she sought more.
Sensing her need, Declan lifted her from his lap and brought her down to the floor. He positioned her so she was on all fours in front of him. His cock didn’t have a chance to soften before he was entering her again.
Today, they’d unleashed the demon he’d caged for centuries, and it possessed an insatiable appetite.