“What do you mean, my lady? You told me last week that I was the one you needed to make the team work, the one who would see the future.”
His heart was pounding hard in his chest. He worked to calm it. It would do him no good to have her know the amount of rage he carried within him.
“I know what I said, Albadar, but we have located another. She is more of what we had in mind. She is special, someone that has already had the training we need to make our warriors strong. I would like for you to work with her, help her to acclimate with the others we have. This will be a good thing for you. You can learn from her. She will be a great teacher for you.”
A teacher for him, she had said. Who was she kidding? He had done nothing but carry
Tess’s ass every day for the past fifteen years and he was sick of it. His time was here and now.
~Chapter 12~
Tess watched the room as they bustled around. She wanted to get up, but the pain radiating from her back made her very aware of the need to stay still. Besides, she could feel Nathaniel’s cock beneath her and could not think past how hard it was.
When he had walked out of the bathroom, hard and ready, she had wanted nothing more
than to drop before him and take him into her mouth. She had not finished before, wanting to feel as he came down her throat. She shifted slightly, hoping to relieve a little of her need by pressing her legs together. Nathaniel’s low growl made her stop and turn slightly to look at him.
He leaned to her ear and nipped hard at her lobe. “If you don’t want me to throw you against this table and take you, you had better sit still.”
Her body heated with need. She could not have stopped the moan spilling from her lips if her life had depended on it. When the room suddenly stopped and turned to them she knew that they had heard her.
“I should take her…maybe I should take Tess to the other room and heal her now that I have permission. I do have permission to heal her, do I not?” The sisters nodded as he stood up. “She is in a great deal of pain and there is no reason why she cannot be healed.”
“Of course. Just go into the living room and we’ll give you all the privacy you need. Just come back here when you are finished,” Aaron said.
Tess knew by the look on his face the big vamp he knew why she had moaned and it had
had nothing to do with the pain in her back. She glared at him even as Nathaniel helped her stand. She was going to hurt that man. She was not sure how or when, but hurting him had become a priority to her.
“You have my permission to heal her, Nathaniel Patrick. She will be able to drink your blood to heal now that I’ve given you both my permission. That is all you’ll need to feed her,”
Athropos said before they left.
Tess followed Nathaniel into the big room with the fireplace and watched as he sat in one of the high, wing-backed chairs next to the empty grate. She was disappointed that he had not sat on the couch and then realized that it was probably safer for them both where he was. She wanted him in the worst way, but she still did not want to bond with him.
“Come here and sit on my lap. You can feed from my wrist this way and I won’t be too
tempted to make love to you like this.”
When he patted his thighs all Tess could think about was his cock and sitting on it as he surged into her. The pain receded only to be replaced with an overwhelming need to be
thoroughly fucked by this man. “I want you inside of me. Deep and hard, but you can’t. We can’t bond. You understand that, right?”
He stood then and walked to her. She thought he was leaving the room, but then she heard the lock click into place. Her heart rate tripled and it was suddenly hard to take a deep breath.
“Take off your clothes.” His voice was hard. The command was difficult to ignore and she was not sure she wanted to.
Looking at his face she began unbuttoning the shirt she had only just put on. When it slipped from her shoulders and fell to the floor she stood before him in her leathers and boots. Moving her hands to the buttons, she pushed each one through the hole until the last slid free and her pants loosened enough where she could step out of them. She started to lean down to take off the boots too, but Nathaniel dropped to his knee and began working the snaps.
“I’m going to feed you first. I’m going to stand behind you and watch as you drink from my vein. When I can touch you I’m going to pull you against me and touch you, feel you, slide my fingers into you. After I bring you to peak, I’m going to bend you over that chair and I’m going to fuck you hard, entering you from behind and ramming my cock deep into your sweet juices.”
Blood rushed to her pussy, making it swell with need and wetness. She had to hold onto his shoulder as he finished with the second boot or fall to the floor beside him. When he threw the boot over his shoulder she watched as he ran his hands between her thighs, leaned in, and buried his nose into her. Her moan ripped from her lungs and filled the silence of the room.
“Nathaniel, please. I can’t wait. I need you now.” Her voice made her wetter in its deepness; it was husky and breathy, just as she felt.
“Turn around and I’ll feed you.” She turned around and saw the large mirror over the
mantel. From where they were standing she could see her entire body and Nathaniel’s.
She watched mesmerized as he slowly stripped off his own clothes. She watched as he
pushed each button through the hole as he worked his way down the shirt. He did not open it until the last button was free and then he slipped it off his shoulders to the floor. Next, his pants.
The belt came off quickly once he had it unbuckled. He stripped it from the fabric and tossed it down with the shirt. She watched as he toed off his shoes, first one then the other. His hands stilled when he opened the button at the top of his pants, stilled for so long she looked at his face.
He had been watching her watch him. His fangs were dropped and his eyes were no longer blue, but a deep crimson, his need bringing out his beast.
“If I take these off I’m going to fuck you first. I need to feed you to heal you. If I don’t it’s going to hurt when I touch you.”
“I don’t care. I want you right now.”
“I do too, Tess, and so will you if I take you like this. But so long as I have these pants on I’ll be able to think beyond where my cock wants to be. Come here, Tess. Let me watch you feed from me. My cock is hard enough to break through concrete right now and I don’t know how much longer I’m going to last.”
She took a step back and pressed her ass to his groin. He groaned and she smiled. She
wanted him to feel as needy as her.
Nathaniel raised his wrist to his mouth and bit open a vein for her. She watched as his blood started to trickle from him and her mouth watered for a taste of him. She had not bonded with him the other day and she had never fed from him when conscious. She wanted, no, she needed to feel his blood fill her.
When he brought it to her mouth she held him to her with both hands and sealed her mouth over the wound. Ecstasy. He was hot and spicy; his blood was old and powerful and she could feel it surge into her veins. The wounds at her back healed and repaired with it.
Drawing deep on his wrist a second time, she felt him press his chest to her skin. Moaning, she closed her eyes, the sensation of his touching her and filling her suddenly too much. When his hand cupped her breast she nearly melted to the floor, and when he pinched her nipple she rubbed her ass against his cock again.
“Baby, if you keep this up I’m not going to last, I swear it. I’m only holding on by a thin thread as it is.”
“Fuck me, please, Nathaniel, fuck me.” She had pulled away from his wrist and he sealed the tiny puncture with his tongue as he leaned her over the chair.
He opened his pants quickly, jerked them down to his thighs, and plunged into her at the same time. Tess came, her body primed because of his words, his touch, and his cock.
He stilled behind her and she looked at his reflection in the mirror. He opened his eyes and grinned at her. “I’m afraid I’m going to move and come at the same time. I can’t seem to help myself when I’m near you; I have to come inside of you.”
“Don’t stop, please. If you come inside me, you’ll bring me too. Nathaniel, I want to feel you fill me with your cum. I want to feel your hot juices fill my pussy and run down my legs. Do it, fuck me.”
Grabbing her hips hard, he pulled out to the tip of his cock and slammed into her. The pain/pleasure of his hard cock filling her had Tess ready to tumble again. When he repeated the move she cried out his name, leaned back against his chest, and bared her neck. His cock jerked again and she felt him spurt into her even as his teeth sank into her throat. Nathaniel slid his fingers into her wet pussy and pinched her clit and she came for the third time as he continued to pump into her with tight, hard jerks.
They stood that way for long moments as he fed from her. His body continued to surge into her even as her own body trembled and shook. When he pulled away finally, after sealing the wound at her neck, he fell back into the wingback.
“Christ, woman, you’ll be the death of me yet. I’ve never in all my long years been so drained and energized as I am with you after sex. If we ever manage to make love slowly I’ll probably expire from it.”
She grinned at him. She supposed she should be angry that he had brought up other women after what they had just shared, but she believed what he had said and felt happy he had told her.
“We should get back. There is a lot to tell about all this and I’m sure there are plenty of questions too.”
The trek back to the kitchen was made longer because they kept stopping to touch one
another, kiss deeply, and taste any exposed skin.
Tess walked in first, Nathaniel needing a moment to bring his hard body back under some kind of control. She could not help but blush when they all turned and smiled at her, and she knew in that moment they knew what they had done in the other room. Raising her chin, she glared at each of them. It was Aaron’s laughter that burst through her haze of embarrassment.
“Ah, Tess, you are both a job to be around and a joy. Come, tell us what you know and
Duncan has made you some dinner. I would imagine that you are quite hungry after
that…healing that took place.”
Tess glared again and then Sara slapped him. Tess barely caught it, but she would swear the woman threatened her mate with no cheeseburger for a month if he did not behave. As far as Tess knew, vampires did not eat human food.
Nathaniel came in just as Duncan was setting a large platter of food in front of her.
Nathaniel winked and sat in the chair next to her.
“Lady Tess, Penny made you a variety of foods. We did not know what one such as yourself would eat so she made a little of everything for you.” And that is what it looked like too.
There were two huge slices of ham that had been fried and what looked to be four scrambled eggs, a rasher of bacon, fried potatoes with green peppers and onions, sliced fresh tomatoes, and several biscuits that were still warm from the oven. He set a large glass of milk and an equally large glass of orange juice beside the plate.
“Thanks, Dunc, but you shouldn’t have gone to all this trouble.” He looked so crestfallen that she nearly leapt up to hug him. “But if you have any more eggs, I sure could use a couple more. I do pack quite an appetite when I heal.”
She glanced over at Aaron and his nod of approval made her feel something. She had never had many friends, but knew in that moment she had one for life. Without saying another word, she tucked into her food.
When Penny had the other four eggs ready and Duncan served them, Tess had already
polished off nearly all the food. All that was left were two of the biscuits and half of one ham slice. When he set the eggs down she opened the bread, slid the eggs and ham onto them, and ate them as a sandwich. She looked up into his astonished face.
“If I lived here with you guys, I’d never fit in my armor, much less be able to move. This was the best dinner I’ve had in centuries. Thank you guys, so much.”
“You are quite welcome, Lady Tess. My goodness, how does one afford to feed you? Miss
Athropos said that you command several hundred men. Do they all eat as much as you do?”
“Yeah, but they’d eat more if they had something like this set before them. I’m not kidding, Dunc, Miss Penny, I may pay a visit to you two just to get a great meal like this. Thanks.”
“You are welcome anytime, my lady. We would need at least a day to prepare for your visit.
Just to lie in some supplies first, I believe.”
The room burst with laughter. Duncan, however, looked slightly confused then went about refilling her milk and juice glasses.
“When you were in the caves did you see anyone else about? The reason I ask is I was
wondering about what you said about it being promised to him,” Aaron asked.
They had all moved around the kitchen and were now sitting in some of the chairs pulled from the table. Sara sat on Aaron’s lap and Tess had been moved to Nathaniel’s when she had finished eating. She liked it there, maybe a little too much.
“No. And I wondered about that as well. There aren’t many beings that are welcome to
Avalone, so whoever told them about the caves has to know the area well. Where I met up with them was not a place to come and go easily.”
No one said anything for a full minute until Sara cleared her throat. Tess had not wanted to say it out loud, but they all knew what was going on.
“You think someone from your men is a part of this then, don’t you? Probably one of the men who were here today in this house, isn’t it?”
“Yes. I do believe so, but I don’t know who. You were never in danger from him; I never separated my men so that any one of them was alone with any member of this household. I believe that whoever is in on it needs to remain hidden until they attack your queen.”
“Mel needs to be made aware of this as soon as possible. Her life may already be in danger again even as we speak.” Sara stood, but was stopped by Athropos.