Authors: Lydia Michaels
She stared at her lap as
he reached up and undid his collar. It was strange. She was nervous about
feeding, but no longer did she suffer the repulsion she had originally. Her
body needed blood and she wanted to end her fatigue. Nor did she want the
nagging hunger in her belly to continue.
Confused, she just
wanted to take away the last few hours. It wasn’t her intention to break any
rules. She only wanted to save the baby. She still couldn’t find it in her to
regret that.
He pulled her to his
shoulder and shifted her limbs, bringing her head to his chest. He smelled
good, like sunshine and fresh air and Christian. His fingers swept a few
strands of hair off of her face. “Take what you need from me.”
Her face tightened. He
wasn’t calling her
pintura
. He was being so clinical about the whole
thing. Didn’t he know this was scary for her and she needed his softness right
now? That was when it struck her. This was his punishment for not doing what he
saw as his duty. However, it was also punishing her. She didn’t know if that
was intentional. She’d broken a rule and maybe this was part of the
consequence.
She turned her face and
breathed in a stuttering breath. Her body reacted to his nearness. Her teeth
punched through her gums with little ache. Her eyes zeroed in on his rapidly
fluttering pulse. His throat was manly. The dark shadow of his jaw showed and
his flesh was beautifully tanned, weathered in a way a woman’s skin couldn’t
be.
She gave his throat a
soft Eskimo kiss and he grunted. Was she affecting him? Was he fighting it in
order to teach a lesson?
“Don’t close yourself
off from me more than you already are, Christian.”
His head lowered. “You
make me feel too much, Delilah. I must be rigid in certain things or you shall
never learn and we will never find our way.”
Why though? Why couldn’t
he just talk to her, explain things patiently? “Christian, be my partner, not
my dictator.”
She opened her mouth and
placed a gentle open mouth kiss over his pulse and his chest rose as he
breathed deep. “Drink, Delilah.”
His coarse tone caused
her throat to lock down on yet another sob. Hurt, she thrust her fangs into his
throat and broke his flesh. Hissing, his arms tightened around her.
Warm, rich liquid coated
her tongue. Her body hummed at the first swallow. He tasted…delicious. His hand
left her back and fisted at his side. He was forbidding himself to touch her.
She shut her lashes, hating the distance between them during such an intimate
act. Tears pressed through her tight lashes and gathered at the corners of her
eyes, running down the curves of her cheeks and lips.
His heart pumped faster
and his blood flowed freely into her mouth, but he wouldn’t touch her. She
hated it.
Her fist gathered in his
shirt while her other hand kneaded his shoulder like a kitten’s paw kneads its
mother’s belly. His body was still, unyielding, and she scented something
coming off of him in waves. He was aroused. Why wouldn’t he touch her? Hold
her?
When she assumed she’d
taken enough, she was no longer tired, but dazed. Her mind hummed and had
difficulty focusing as though she were punch drunk. She kissed her mark and
licked over the wound. It closed and she drew her hands up to wipe her eyes.
Looking down at his shoulder, she whispered, “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” he
said in a hoarse voice that broke over the last word. He cleared his throat. “I
need to walk the animals back to the barn.”
Was that a dismissal?
She hated how low she felt in that moment, resented how badly he was making her
feel because he was angry with himself.
Delilah eased off of his
lap, noticing the erection pressing hard against his pants, and stood. “What
should I do?”
“You may wait for me
here or perhaps start on our supper.”
Asshole.
The accusation was a sob
in her mind. Discarded like a broken horse.
Not nice, Christian.
She
nodded and walked out of the room before he could walk out on her.
When she reached the
bedroom, she peeked through the curtains and stilled. Christian stood,
shoulders trembling slightly, with his forehead pressed to a mare’s. His hand
brushed over the long mane. He seemed…sad.
It surprised her, the
gentle way he handled the animals. He spoke to them and smiled and petted them
affectionately. He even stopped at one point to cradle a barn cat in his arms
and rub its belly.
Her head tilted at the
curious, telling behavior. Perhaps Christian Schrock was not all bark and bite.
Perhaps there was actually a sensitive man hiding in there somewhere.
Chapter Ten
Christian slammed the
front door and marched past the menagerie that was in his front yard. Once
inside the barn, he shut the heavy door, bathing the straw scented hangar in
darkness and fisted his hands in his hair, growling. He paced and then threw up
his palm, sending the crossbeam down over the door with a bang, locking the
rest of the world out.
His body throbbed and
his mind was wild. She’d fed from him and he had not touched her. He should
have held her, made love to her, made her understand how much her voluntarily
taking his blood meant to him, but he’d done none of that. He was a cruel
bastard. But there had to be a consequence for their actions. She needed to
understand the severity of what she’d done. She broke a law and it was his fault
because he had been too much of a coward to talk to her.
He didn’t deserve her
compassion in that moment because he’d done the one thing all immortals were
taught to never do. He’d placed his mate in the path of danger.
His cock pulsed,
demanding attention, but Christian refused to satisfy his own needs when his
mate was so upset. Splaying his fingers, he threw his hands into the air. The
shutters in the loft burst open and sunlight cut through the darkness. He
breathed out a hard breath.
Get yourself under
control!
Taking a few more
calming breaths, Christian unlocked the barn and went to retrieve the animals.
He assumed their sudden grazing by the house had something to do with Delilah.
He’d speak to the elders
and find out if any of them knew of immortals with such disciplines before. If
Delilah had such abilities to heal, the others needed to know. The bishop liked
to keep records of each immortal’s gifts.
Once the animals were
all returned to their proper place or chased off of his porch in general, he
returned to the house. It was quiet. Going to the washroom, he cleaned up
before looking for Delilah.
When he entered the
kitchen he stilled. She sat at the table, head bowed, table set, and salad in
the center. “Delilah?”
She looked up. Her eyes
were red around the edges and her usual smile was not even hidden in the
shadows of her lips. “I made salad. I didn’t know what else to make.”
Her voice sounded
distant and raspy. His gut clenched. He didn’t want it to be like this, but he
didn’t know how to make things right again.
He was furious with
himself, but she seemed to be taking his reserve personal. “Thank you. Salad is
fine.”
He pulled out the chair
and sat. They ate in silence until he could take it no more. “What are you
thinking, Delilah?”
“You know what I’m
thinking, Christian. Don’t act like you don’t.”
He gently touched on her
mind, but didn’t press. She was thinking of her shop, but he wasn’t quite sure
what directions her thoughts were heading in. He wanted her to tell him without
forcing her. “You are thinking about your shop.”
She nodded.
“What about it, Delilah.
Do you wish to leave?” This was what he feared, that the more she learned about
the limitations of their species way of life the more horrifying it would
become to her.
“I owe a man money.”
“How much?”
“A few hundred. I don’t
have it.”
“What do you owe him
money for?”
“He made a down payment
on some work I never got around to doing. I need to either return his money or
do the work.”
“I told you—”
“This isn’t about
leaving or returning to my life, Christian. This is about being paid for
something and not doing the job. It’s a moral issue. You should get that.”
“I will give you the
money and you can mail it to him.”
“I don’t know his
address. All his contact info’s at the shop. I’d have to call him.”
“I do not want you
interacting with other men.”
Her eyes cut to him and
there was a moment of challenge snapping through the air between them.
Strangely, he liked seeing this side of Delilah. He would take it over seeing
her broken any day.
Then do not break her.
“I will take you to deal
with this customer tomorrow.”
He could see by the rise
in her brow that he had surprised her.
“I am not an ogre,
Delilah. I would be pleased to have those parts of your life dealt with so that
we can move forward without complication. Does tomorrow please you?”
“Yeah, that’d be good.
Thanks.”
She ate in silence and
did not spare him another glance.
Christian wondered at
the strange, but satisfying sensations that filled him when he gave a little.
Keeping his thoughts to himself, he evaluated these emotions. When he bent,
much like he’d been asking Delilah to bend for him, he felt…good. Perhaps he
had a bit to learn about relationships.
He held in a chuckle.
His mate would no doubt teach him. There was only so much an immortal could do
in the face of a stubborn, English female. He hadn’t anticipated her strength
of will. It was a strength in her he was coming to admire greatly, even if it
did make his original ideas a bit more complicated.
* * * *
Christian awoke at dawn
and went to the barn to feed. He was still acting strange from the day before
and the ache in the pit of Delilah’s belly still pained her.
“Are you ready?”
She turned and faced
Christian. He stood in the doorway of the house, the soft white sunlight of
morning filtering through the opening and providing a sort of celestial halo
behind him. He was beautiful.
“Are we taking a
carriage?”
“Yes.”
She shifted her feet.
“Um, isn’t that gonna seem a little odd?”
“We could walk.”
“To Cincinnati?”
“It is not so long of a
journey from Lancaster.”
“Ah, yeah it is. And I
don’t have any sneakers. How about a cab?”
His lips firmed.
“Delilah, you are Amish now. This is how we travel.”
“But it will take days
this way. And where will you park the horse?”
“The council has given
me a list of others we can visit along the way to rest.”
“Christian, you’re
talking about, like, eight hours by car and highway.”
“It will take longer
than that, true—”
“Then let’s just drive,”
she pleaded. “It’s gonna kill the horse.”
He frowned. “The horse
will be fine. They are bred to travel. It is your modernized concepts of
instant gratification that makes you worry for naught.”
“Well, I’m
not
taking
the buggy. My ass will be permanently flat after a trip like that sitting on
that bench.”
He sighed. “You are
being difficult.”
“Really, I’m not,
Christian. I’d rather walk than make the horse take the journey.”
Drawing in a deep breath
and releasing it slowly, he said, “Fine. We must pack a light bag and take an
alternate route. If we travel quickly we must stay hidden from mortals’ view.”
As it turned out,
traveling on foot as a vampyre was badass. Delilah loved racing through the
woods of Pennsylvania. She could jump and cling to trees with amazing
dexterity, putting Toby McGuire’s spidey sense to shame.
Once she found her
rhythm and understood the general direction they were traveling, she took off.
Christian chased after her. Never seeming to expel as much energy as she did,
but she knew that was because he was older. It was odd that, unlike mortals,
the older an immortal became, the more power and strength they developed.
She landed with a hushed
grunt in a squat on the ground. Tall pines cut out the fading sun. She waited,
listening for sounds of Christian on her tail. He dropped out of the sky as if
from nowhere and landed stealthily beside her. Her lips twitched and she wiped
her smile from her face, recalling the tension from the day before.
He paused and tilted his
head, studying her for a moment. “Why do you shield your joy from me?”
Once again irritated
that he could see through her more than anyone else ever could, she lifted her
chin and threw back, “Why do you hide your softness from me?”
His mouth twitched
between a smile and a frown, settling on an expression of insecurity. He met
her gaze. “You have a great ability to cut me, Delilah. Even immortals bleed.”
Although she hadn’t
taken away his life without asking, she hadn’t been kind to him. They were both
guilty of hurting the other. He seemed to sense her epiphany. Stepping close,
his fingers grazed her jaw. “In time we shall learn to get along.”
She nodded. She wasn’t
necessarily a confrontational person. Well, to strangers she could be a bitch,
but to her friends…she was generally loving and giving. She met his gaze and a
sort of unspoken truce appeared to be reached. “I’ll race you.”
She bolted off into the
woods only to have him outrun her once again, his body flexing beneath his
clothing, displaying his incredible strength and agility.
He landed next to her
with a soft drop to the ground. “Show off.”
He grinned at her. “You
were trying to lose me?”
“Like that could ever
happen.”
He shot her a pointed
look. “True.”
“Do you guys ever play
man hunt on the farm?”
“Man hunt?”
“Yeah, like a big game
of Hide and Seek? Or what about other sports? I’m a huge baseball fan. You guys
could probably unravel a ball in one hit.”
“We are usually too busy
to play. The children enjoy such games as Hide and Seek and stick ball.”
Her mouth twisted toward
her cheek. “What do the grown-ups do for fun? You gotta play too.”
His gaze turned
smoldering. “We play with our mates when we are not working.”
Adrenaline pumped
through her veins from racing. She didn’t want to get distracted, as tempting
as the look in Christian’s eyes was. She wanted to talk. “Okay, well, you just
found your mate. How did you play before that? You know what?” She held up her
hands. “Forget I asked. I don’t want to know.”
“Are you worried I had
other females?”
Yes.
“No. Of course not.”
He stepped closed.
“Liar.”
The sun was setting
overhead. Would they be staying at her place that night or would they get a
hotel? Her shop was still a few hours off, but she wasn’t tired.
“Are you still mad at
me?” she whispered.
He frowned. “I was not
mad
at you, Delilah. I was upset with my lack of responsibility toward you. I
know better. It is over now. We’re moving on. That is what I want.”
Her eyes focused on the
fullness of his lower lip. Christian was unfairly beautiful. She shook her head
still not quite able to make sense of how much her world had changed in the
past week. Her breath came fast as she lowered her eyes. The heat of his body
cut through the slight gap between them.
His fingers reached up
and gently pulled away her bonnet. The air pulsed with sexual tension and her
body tightened. She liked this side of him so much better than when he was
irritated with her or disappointed. Somewhere in the last week she’d come to
expect his desire for her. No one had ever wanted her with such verve. She
liked it, was becoming addicted to it, to him.
Delilah pressed up on
the balls of her feet and traced her lips along his. A manly growl reverberated
from his throat.
“I’ve never had sex in
the woods, Christian.”
His breath hitched. She
loved that she could do that to him. His hand gripped her upper arm and
squeezed. Her lips curled into a smile over his and he was quickly backing her
up against a tree.
He didn’t kiss her. He
was so close. The flecks of his eyes seemed to add a glowing quality to his
irises as the light from above the trees faded. “You are a temptation I cannot
fight, Delilah.”
“So are you,” she
whispered back. Her body tugged as heat pooled in her belly. “Are you going to
fuck me, Christian?”
He stilled. “Language.
Use a better word, Delilah.”
“I don’t want to. I want
to be
fucked.
Right here, by you, in the woods.”
His nostrils flared and
his eyes dilated the rest of the way. His growl turned into a low purr as his
arousal pressed through his clothing into her belly. His fists balled in her
skirt, yanking her hips forward.
Her thighs chilled, but
as his warm palms caressed her flesh she heated immediately. Her hands rested
on his shoulders as he gently traced his fingers to the seam of her panties.
“Spread your legs.”
She shivered and did as
he asked. Over the scuttling sounds of animals nearby there was a quick tear of
lace. Her folds were bathed in the cool evening air. Gripping her ass, he
lifted her so that her back pressed into the bark of the tree.