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I sound as winded as I feel. I am so damn ready. We walk over to the bed hand-in-hand and I lay down for him and open my arms and my legs in welcome. The Antonov comes to me and settles between both. I am shaking like a leaf in the wind as his lips find my neck and kiss a trail down my throat. I arch my back when his tongue dips into my navel, before continuing on its path to the place of his desires. He buries his nose in the course hairs before pushing my legs apart.
“Ramsay.”
“Hush.” His voice is as warm and gentle as a spring shower. “I want to make you feel good. It does not matter who you belong to, you will never forget the things that I do to you.”
I close my eyes when he spreads me open with two fingers. His breath tickles me inside.
“Look at me, woman.” Ramsay demands. “Watch me taste you.”
His golden curls sparkle against my dark thighs. His hair is two shades darker than Christians and cooler to the touch. I catch my tongue between my teeth, before I cry his name again and someone hears me. I moan deep in my throat and welcome the invasion of his magical tongue. I move my hips against his handsome face.
“Yes.” His deep voice encourages me. “Fuck my face, beautiful. Fuck my tongue.”
Ramsay’s dirty words strike me like a blow. A blow right to my cunt. What do I say to that? I do as he asks, and I fuck his tongue until I am ready to cream all over myself.
“Ramsay, please?” I need him. “Make love to me.”
He stands up and removes the rest of his clothing slowly. This is my chance to change my mind. I stand up and help him. I push his hose down over his hips to his knees. Even his cock, is tan. This is a man who sunbathes naked. The way I do. Our eyes hold when I finally raise my face to look at his. My heart is beating fast. The Antonov takes my hand in his and lays it on his chest. My eyes widen. His heart is racing too. We both share in the excitement of what is happening between us. He kicks off his boots and hose then sliding his arm around my waist, kisses me as we fall back onto the bed. My hands are on his chest and his hardness is digging into my belly. I lick his salty skin with the flat of my tongue, swallowing the taste of him with the excited giddiness of a girl with a sweet treat. Ramsay’s taste rushes right to my head like Bash’s blood and makes me blush like the Erikson’s beauty. Only, it keeps right on going touching me in places that are meant for a woman’s husband. He positions himself at my entrance and slides into my slick heat. His blue eyes watch mine for signs of regret. I pull his head down bringing his lips to mine. In case he still thinks I am nervous, I move first, thrusting my hips and taking all of him.
“Fuck, Angel.”
I smile when his body shakes and he spills his seed on my belly. Ramsay recovers quickly. He enters me again and begins to move inside me. His rhythm is admirable. His thrusts are deep. So deep that I am filled with confusion as I move with him. I wrap my legs around his hard ass and take him inside me like a woman without a husband. What kind of woman carrying a child, fucks men who are not the child’s father? One with a naked Antonov in her bed. His cock drips with my passion, when he pulls it out to flip me over to take me from behind. I watch him over my shoulder as he thrusts into me with his fingers buried in my fleshy hips. This Antonov certainly knows his way around a lady’s boudoir.
“Get up on your knees, Angel.”
Ramsay lifts me up onto my knees and I wait for his tutelage. His lips touch my lower back as he slips a thick finger inside me. “I want to feel all of you.”
I cry out from his thrusts when he touches the very center of me with the head of his wicked cock. It is bigger than Sebastian’s. Maybe as big as... I am not thinking about this right now. I am getting...
“Fuck.” I cry when it feels too good to hold it back. This man brings out the worst in me and I cannot help loving it. “Oh, fuck.” It feels good to say the word.
“Cum for me. I want to feel you cum. I want your wet, tight pussy to squeeze my fucking cock when you cum. If you were not already with child, I would be putting my own in here.”
I am struck again by his boldness. This man uses words that I do not hear very often. Words never directed at me.
“Ramsay.”
A scream is forced out of me when I am overtaken by a pleasure that rocks me more than his pounding thrusts. Our bodies slap together as we fuck each other. Ramsay leans over my back to kiss me. My screaming is coming from a place where my reserve is not welcome. I cry into his mouth. He moans into mine as his cock pulsates inside me, filling me with his seed. When I fall onto the bed, he falls with me. I cannot move. I cannot speak. I cannot stop wanting the Christian. He is laying half on top of me unable to move. His lips find mine in the tangle of body parts in a sweet kiss to say that this means something.
“I cannot shake the feeling that I know you from somewhere. It is really strange.”
“We have met before.”
Whatever he is about to say makes me nervous because it could change things. Maybe for the worse. Is he going to tell me that we were together in another life? Because I would believe him. I know that it happens. There are curses and spells that can bind two people. Bind them through death and back again. My heart races when I think that I might have been married to a man like Ramsay.
“When?”
“When you were too young to remember me, but I remember you. Sitting in the grass healing dead butterflies and dried flowers with a touch of your finger.”
“Where did we meet?”
“At your mother’s home, near the border.” He pulls me against him and we lay face-to-face. “We came for medicine when my brother got the fever. I was eight years old and you were three, maybe four. I thought you were an angel and I called you—”
“Angel.” I smile. “How do I remember that?” I laugh aloud.
“You told me that I was—”
“The handsomest boy in the land.” I finish for him. “That was before I got eyes for Sebastian and forgot all about you. I was obsessed with that boy.” I say dreamily. “He is not the same boy anymore.”
“Yes, he is.” Ramsay chuckles. “Maybe worse.”
“You are the same.” I trace his lips with my fingertips. “That sweet boy has turned into a great man.”
“I am not sweet, Mae.” Ramsay frowns. “I am a killer also.”
“You are sweet when it matters, Ramsay.” My smile is just for him. “You are sweet to me.”
“I will never bring my battles home to my woman.” He explains. “She will never see that side of me. Women are meant to be loved and cherished.”
This Antonov is not what I need in my life right now. Making me like him to further complicate things. He is not natural in his thinking, or in bed. I get a chill. Ramsay is not a mortal man. I know it. I sense it around me. It is a thickness in the air like an approaching storm. It is a truth in my heart that my mind cannot deny. I feel his energy as sure as I feel his arms wrapped around me. He is something else.
“Thank you.” I whisper tearfully. “Thank you for coming after me.”
“Do not thank me.” Ramsay kisses my fingertips. “I will always chase the little girl who brings dead things back to life.”
I am speechless. It is good that I do not need to talk. He sees my words in my eyes and smiles. I smile with him and snuggle up against his warm body. Ramsay is the kind of man who can make you forget why you were ever angry with anyone, and make you forget about the King who left you behind. He is the kind of man-who can heal the oozing cracks in your broken trust and put together the pieces of your shattered heart. I close my eyes and listen to him breathe. I am tired, but I cannot fall asleep. I will not fall asleep. Who knows what is waiting for me on the other side? I do not want to find out.
“Mae?” A voice gently coaxes. “Wake up, my sweet.”
I smile as my eye lids flutter open. Hands close around my throat when I scream. Sebastian is sitting on my chest strangling me with an enraged look on his face.
“Were you expecting someone else, whore?” He snarls at me.
Strangling is a terrible way to die. Staring up at your killer as you fight for air. First you get dizzy and your ears ring, and then— I grab his cock and twist with all my might. I spring when his hold slackens and knock him off of me. My first thought is to search for a weapon. There is only my closed fist. I swing so hard that my bones crack against his head. It is enough to slow him, but not enough to drop him. A mortal man would be dead. He is a Bloodtaker and killing him is not nearly as easy. I need to remove his head which is hard to do with no blade. I hit him with my good fist instead. I grunt in pain when I am hit from behind.
“The witch almost had you.” A voice laughs. “You are losing your touch.”
“The bitch can fight.”
Sebastian shakes his swimming head before standing over me. There are small streams of blood flowing down his handsome face.
“You are in bed with an Antonov not a full day after you leave my home? I was right about you, Mae. You are nothing.”
The blow that I catch to my arm is meant for my face. The bone cracks in half. I hiss in pain clutching it to my belly as both Bloodtakers descend on me.
“I will enjoy killing this bitch.” Anthony Barber says bitterly. “It is because of her that the Butcher is hunting us. We should kill her and get it over with.”
His face reddens when Sebastian’s hand cracks across his cheek.
“No one is killing her.” He warns. “We need her.”
“My cock is hard from just being near her. It is amazing. I have never been with a witch before. Can I fuck her?”
“I would have said, no before she whored for the Erikson and Ramsay Antonov. You can fuck her. I do not care. In fact, do whatever you want to her. It will teach her a lesson.”
“No.”
The blow made me dizzy and my arm is making me weak. I still manage to kick him in his knee when he is close enough. I gouge out his eye with my bad hand when he falls beside me.
“You bitch!”
Sebastian is on me again, strangling me in anger. He is killing me.
“Angel!” A hand slaps my face. “Breathe, Angel.” He begs. “Fucking breathe.”
My first painful gasp of hair whistles in my throat. The second makes me cough.
“Yes.” Ramsay sounds desperate. He is afraid. “Keep breathing.”
The man is crushing me. However, at the moment, I do not mind at all.
“Ramsay.” I croak holding onto him.
“You stopped breathing.” Ramsay kisses my hair. “I was so damn scared. I cannot lose you to death. That goodbye is forever.” His eyes fall on my crooked arm. “How did this happen?”
“I must have been dreaming.”
“Dreaming of what?” He demands angrily. “What could you have possibly been dreaming of that breaks your arm and makes you stop breathing?”
“I dreamed I was drowning.” I lie. “Maybe it was the excitement of today.”
“Maybe.” He says agitatedly. “You look as if you have been in a fight.”
“You were with me. There was no fight.”
“I will get your sister and my physician. Your arm needs to be set quickly.”
“Why bother Beth-Ann?” I stop him before he can wake her. “All she will do is worry, and I have put her through enough already. She is probably in bed crying.”
Ramsay pulls on his hose. “Your sister is a healer, she can help.”
“I have you to help me.” I remind him. “I do not need anyone else.”
Ramsay gets quiet as he regards me. Something passes between us that is more than lust. He turns away, breaking our moment, but not our connection. Ramsay leaves the chamber in a pair of hose that hugs the curve of his ass and every muscle in his legs and thighs.
“Wait.” I stop him.
“Yes?” He asks patiently. “What is it?”
Why am I being so possessive? Ramsay does not belong to me. His smile reveals a perfect set of white teeth when he sweeps his blouse off the waxed floor and shoves his arms into it. The cocky man does not bother to close it. He looks even handsomer with it hanging open. The Antonov looks like a rake who recently departed some lucky woman’s bed. He pauses near the door to look at me with my broken arm and wild hair.
“You are hard to walk away from; do you know that?”
Why does he say these things to me knowing that I am vulnerable? I already have feelings for him that I should not when I belong to the Beaumont King. I am carrying his child. Where is he? Not taking care of me, this I know. The Christian left me and the Antonov is here. His concern makes me smile even after Sebastian came close to ending my life in my sleep. If Bash is still walking in my dreams, it means he is still alive. Still a threat. The Eriksons did not kill him. I am afraid of what is happening. There is no hiding from Sebastian and I cannot take back what we did. The sick part of me that belongs to the Butcher, is worried about him finding out that I have been with them. What if he does not take me back? I do not regret Ramsay, but I will if Christian comes for me. What if he is in my head right now and knows everything already? I am sorry, Christian. I am lonely without you. I could not help myself. Please forgive me...
Then again, he could already be married to another woman and here I am worrying about how he will feel? I am apologizing when he is most likely off making a new family with someone else. How could you leave me, you bastard? You, backstabbing son of a bitch. I trusted you, damn it. I love you. Is this what you were hoping for? For me to end up in another mans’ bed? Well, you got what you wanted, Butcher. I am up to two so far, and it would have been three, if the Erikson had not turned me away. The Antonovs are a good-looking family. Maybe I will fuck them all.
I jump when a bolt of lightning strikes the ocean outside the small porthole. The sky is clear and there are no signs of rain. My heart beats frantically, when I think that he could be listening. The Butcher cannot control the weather... can he? Maybe it is a sign from my ancestors because I am shaming them. It is not like me to use such crude language or behave the way I am behaving. I have never been to the places that I have been or seen the things that I have seen since I left him. I have never been in love before. It is hard to be what is expected of me, when I am being hunted like an animal. I am even being hunted in my sleep. What am I supposed to do? Ramsay treats me the way I want to be treated. How I can say no, if he asks for my hand again? Luckily for me, he only asks once. What if I refused him for nothing? If Christian has moved on, I will end up alone, with no Ramsay...and no him.
“Mae!” Beth-Ann rushes in wearing a night shirt that exposes her long, slim legs. “How did this happen?” She glares at Ramsay as her hands explore the arm cradled against my chest. “First you broke your leg, now your hand and arm?”
“It happened when I was sleeping. She said she fell out of bed.”
“What is she doing in your bed?”
“Beth-Ann, that is not why he brought you to me. I need you to set my arm, and then I need to go above deck and lay in the sun.”
“This is the second night you were injured. Why do you keep hurting yourself? Is it so that the Christian will feel sorry for you and come back? He has moved on, Mae. And so, have you it seems. It is rather soon after you cried to me about being left alone.”
“Elizabeth-Ann, I...”
“Shut up, Mae.” She snaps angrily. “I know why you begged me to come.”
My sister is furious. I can explain it a hundred different ways, but she will still feel the way she does. I wanted her with me because I need someone to help me with my child and watch my back. I need someone to take Christian’s place. The realization fills me with regret. How could I tear her away from Winn after I was torn away from my husband? If she hurts the way I do, then I am no better than Christian.
“Your sister needs you more than the Erikson.” Ramsay intervenes. “I told you that I will send you back to them. Give your sister a few more days of your time.”
“This is between me and Mae, Antonov. Who are you to speak on us? She knows nothing about you. She is a fool to jump in your bed so soon.”
“How well could you have known Winn Erikson?” He counters. “You met him yesterday.”
“Ramsay!” I cut in. “Stop it.”
“It is different from this...” She nods at me in the bed. “Winn wants me. He married me.”
“Your sister turned me down when I offered her the same. And I asked, before I made love to her. I offered before she was with Lockton.”
“My mother tried to make a match between our families. You refused!”
“Because you were not the sister I want.”
