Authors: Rosanna Leo
He laid her on the bed and sat beside her. He reached over her body and grabbed his selkie skin from where it had lain for days, like her security blanket. He looked at the pelt, smoothing it with his hand.
“Beth,” he whispered. “This is my most cherished possession. I can’t return to the sea without it. But I admit I quite like seeing it on your bed. I love watching you sleep, curled up in it. It’s a part of me, and I feel so happy seeing it warm your body, bringing you peace.” He sighed and ran his fingers through her hair. “I’m beginning to think my pelt should stay with you.”
“I’m beginning to think you should stay with me too,” she murmured, her entire body charged and aching for his touch.
She’d never said anything so bold. And Mack seemed to understand because he paled at her admission. His eyelids fluttered a couple of times as he absorbed what she said. “I meant what I said when I called you my mate,” he said, his deep voice guttural and laced with need. “You’re mine, woman, and mine alone. And I will gladly tear the hands off any man who touches you.”
His possessive tone thrilled her as much as it scared her. The thought of Mack getting hurt because of her was terrifying. And right now all she wanted was to lose herself in touching him and tasting him and being with him.
Loving him?
It was a scary thought too. She’d loved and lost too much already.
No. Don’t analyze this. Just do it
. She could label it later.
Just feel
.
Whereas their first time had been frantic and needy, this time Machar took his time with her. Slowly, all the while feasting on her with his eyes, he removed her clothing. His hands slid up her shirt with infinite languor, setting off a chain reaction of shivers all over her flesh. He stroked her belly with his thumbs while his fingers caressed each rib. His hands moving ever higher, inflaming each inch of her skin as he eased her tunic over her head. His mouth came down upon hers as he made short work of her best black lace bra. The dainty scrap of fabric flew off her body, and Mack’s agile fingers found her swollen nipples. He stroked her there, and Beth’s pulse quickened. He tugged and there was an answering tug in her womb. He tweaked, doling out gentle twists on her pink nubs, and Beth’s body was reduced to a riot of feeling so intense it smacked of blasphemy.
Did anyone else ever get to feel this good? Or was it the selkie magic making him seem more potent than Casanova? She didn’t care. She just wanted more.
He lowered his head and kissed between her breasts as he smoothed his thumbs over her deliciously sore nipples. Just as she was sure his mouth would claim her breast, he glanced at her, his mouth set with feral determination. “Oh, the things I’m going to do to you, Beth.”
She reached up and dug her fingers into his thick mass of hair. “Do them. Every last one. I’ll do whatever you want.”
His eyes lit with passion, Mack rose off the bed and stripped out of his clothes. Beth thanked her stars it wasn’t winter and he wasn’t wearing more layers. He removed his shirt and jeans, and his enormous cock sprang free of its confines, every last glorious inch of it saluting her. Beth gawked, amazed she could make such an impressive organ dance.
Mack stroked his cock with a slow hand, his predatory gaze focused on her as he stood at the edge of the bed. “Want a taste, lass?”
She did. More than anything. She moved toward him.
He shook his head. “Take those sexy leggings off first.”
Obeying him, she swiftly removed her leggings and satin panties. Then Beth got on her knees on the bed and crawled back to him. He held his cock out to her. “Put me in your mouth, beautiful one.”
She licked him, spreading her moisture along his length. And then she swallowed him, taking him as far as she could, letting him tickle the back of her throat. Mack let out a protracted groan, his thighs tensing. She gripped his legs, moved lower on him, and licked a slow figure eight around his balls. As she feasted on him, he reached out a shaky hand over her back toward her bottom. He toyed with her wet pussy, making her jolt, and smeared her moisture up to her tight asshole. Using gentle force, Mack prodded her puckered opening and she jumped, unaccustomed to such touches. He laid a firm hand on her back, rubbing, and she was reassured by its weight.
“I won’t hurt you. Has no one ever touched you here?”
She released his cock from her mouth and shook her head, overwhelmed and nervous but also so tempted.
“Good,” he said, grinning. “It’s all mine, then. Relax, Beth. I want to love every part of you.”
She resumed licking his sex, and he eased his finger toward her asshole once more. Beth snatched at a breath as Mack manipulated his digit around and into the tight opening with the confidence of one who understood her body better than she did herself.
“There you go, love,” he said on a moan, seemingly just as taken with the sensation. “Feel good?”
She had no words; the pleasure was so foreign and so intense. She closed her eyes and submitted to the feeling. She removed her mouth and gasped, “Oh, Mack.”
“Beth,” he grunted, sliding his finger in and out of her arse, branding her, “you’re mine. Say the words.”
“I’m yours,” she whispered, meaning each word as if taking a vow. She wasn’t sure how things had escalated between them, but they had, and she wanted Machar Kirk more than life.
“Would you like me to fuck you here?” he asked, his voice a low, fractured rumble.
“Yes.”
He removed his finger from her bottom, and she sucked in a breath. “All in good time, love.” He walked into the bathroom. She flopped onto the bed, listening to the water run in the sink. Mack returned, nude and hard and grinning like a fiend. “First, I need your lovely pussy in my mouth.”
He kneeled at the side of the bed and dragged her body close to him. He ran a finger along her seam, making her quiver. “Like a work of art,” he murmured as if in a trance.
Mack spread her inner lips with his thumbs and lowered his mouth to her heat. He plunged his tongue into her cleft, and everything in her line of sight went black. It took Beth a moment to realize she’d squeezed her eyes shut, grappling with the seismic delight rolling through her core. Rapture claimed her as effectively as his lips claimed her clit, and her body tensed and thrilled. Her legs jerked, but Mack pinned them down, all the while flicking his tongue all around her clit. A shooting star flew through Beth, or so it seemed because her entire frame seized and felt scorched. He’d lit a fire in her and allowed it to spread and rage and incinerate her.
She felt born again in the flames of her orgasm.
As the ripples of pleasure waned in a luscious, slow-moving fan, Beth came to a realization. For twelve long months she’d been a ghost. Sad and torn and, yes, in her darkest moments, eager to die. Mack, with his kindness and patience, had made her want to live and love again. She could admit it to herself. She wanted to love him. Was sure she might love him already.
He said she was his mate. That meant they had a chance, right? And yet she still had no idea what being the mate of a selkie meant. She’d have to ask.
Just not now. She was too busy being flipped onto her belly.
As he eased her onto her stomach, Mack let out a deep, rolling laugh. “Where did your bones go?”
Her lips spread in a lazy smile of total satisfaction as he massaged her bottom. “You made them disappear. It’s your fault.”
“No matter,” he teased, prodding her entrance with his cock. “You won’t need them for some time.”
Beth sighed and grabbed at the sheets as he entered her from behind. He stretched her, and she closed her eyes, concentrating on the luscious feel of his girth inside her. Almost too big. Her channel constricted around him, stretched to its limits. A dizzying sting of pain shot through her and then … warm bliss.
For a moment, Beth was sure someone had dowsed her in a hot tub. She was floating in a heated bath as Mack explored her body. She closed her eyes and got the sensation he was propelling her through a tropical sea. Hot waves coursed over them, making them slip and slide all over each other. The warm sun bathed them, its rays penetrating the leagues of water surrounding them.
So hot and wet. Perfect.
She opened her eyes, sure she’d find herself in a puddle. But no, they were tangled in her sheets and Mack was filling her with his love.
She could have sworn God had made Mack just for her, her body accommodated his so well. They were meant to fit together.
As Mack began to move, his thrusts building in intensity and speed, Beth marveled as her body tightened with the need to come again. Mack played with her, pounding mercilessly at her and then slowed to the point of near stillness. And each time he began to move again, he seemed to slide deeper inside her. She heard his breathing hitch. Her own did too. And as the wave of bliss threatened to flatten her, Mack drove her over the edge by rubbing her clit. When a marauding finger from his free hand eased its way into her ass, Beth cried out, shattered. Upon hearing her ecstasy, Mack let go and spilled himself inside her with a long, low grunt.
Beth wasn’t sure when he pulled out. She felt so full, so at one with him, even as he slid away. Her eyes still closed, her body humming with bliss, she listened to him walk toward the bathroom. The familiar creak of the shower tap as he turned it on made her open her eyes. After a few moments, she sighed as Mack walked back into the bedroom. Within seconds, she was sighing as he caressed her ass again with his large hands.
She tried to turn about, but he held her in place, belly on the mattress. “Mack?”
“Shh.”
He showered her with kisses, raining them all over her lower back and down to the curve of her ass. For a moment, she wondered if he was ready to initiate another round because she was sure it would kill her. His tongue made a slow, sensuous journey over her bottom, up the divide between her cheeks, and toward her hip.
“I’ve always been a hip man,” he growled, smoothing his hand over the curve of hers. “Yours distract me to no end.”
He lingered there, nipping the fleshy part at the side of her hip. And then he closed his teeth on her skin, biting with a fierceness she didn’t see coming.
Beth gasped. Jesus, he’d broken the skin. Luckily the pain was short-lived. He laved her there, flicking his tongue where he’d bitten her. He helped her up, rubbing the small wound with a gentle finger, his eyes haunted.
“Hey,” she said, wondering at the curious look on his face, “I thought you were a selkie, not a vampire.” She smiled and cupped his cheek.
He stared at the raw bite mark on her hip. “I had to hurt you to put my mark on you. I’m sorry.”
“Your mark?”
He blinked, his face serious. “Come to the shower, Beth. Let me clean you up.”
Mack carried her to the shower and set her inside the tiled stall. She sighed as the warm water cascaded over her body. He grew hard again upon seeing her there and hearing the soft sound.
Bloody hell
. His tadger knew no rest near this woman. Thank the gods for his brothers, who were stationed outside. They’d grumbled when he’d pulled them away from the bartender lass, but luckily they had their priorities straight. Jamie and Edan knew Beth needed protecting and that Mack needed to resolve his feelings for her.
He stepped in and drew the shower curtain, a plastic sheet with yellow ducks on it. Before shutting it, Mack glanced around the little bathroom and saw so much evidence of Beth’s dead son. A series of toy rubber ducks, still standing sentry on the window ledge. A kid-sized cup near the sink. And there was a bottle of baby shampoo in a corner of the shower stall. Saddened, yet also full of hope, he turned to her and drew her in for a hug.
He could give her all of this again. They could make a family one day. He loved her. He’d known it when he first saw her on the water that day. He could make her happy.
He had no choice. She was his mate, and it was his sole purpose in life to keep her safe and happy and at his side.
She spoke, and her words interrupted the thoughts raging through his brain. “You said something about putting your mark on me.”
He ran a hand over the fresh wound on her hip, and he frowned. He hated that he’d had to hurt her and damage her pretty skin, but there was no other way. If she was to be his, and she had to be his, his mark must be etched into her skin. It was the way of the selkie. His father had marked his mother, just as his Calan had marked Maggie, and Angus, Elsie. “Selkies mark their mates with a bite. This signifies you’re mine.” He offered her a half smile. “Primitive, I know.”
She tilted her head to check out the tiny laceration and grinned at him. His mark on her. “I like it.”
He cupped her cheeks and kissed her full on the lips, enjoying the feel of her wet skin under his hands. “You are my mate. I want nothing more than to be with you.”
As excitement made her eyes sparkle, Mack felt the most sublime happiness of his long existence.
“I think I would very much like that, Mack.”
He embraced her, suddenly as excitable as a puppy being let out of a kennel. She wanted him too. “Beth, I’ll do everything in my power to make you happy. I want you to meet the rest of my family. You’ll love Elsie and Maggie, my sisters-in-law. And my mother will fuss over you so.” He sighed, his heart overflowing. “I can’t wait to have a family with you.”
She stilled in his arms and then pulled away. Her face tightened and her smile faded. “What did you say?”
Oh, shit. He’d gotten ahead of himself. “One day, Beth. I’d like to have a family with you one day.”
Without a word, Beth turned and hurried out of the shower. He watched, stunned, as she grabbed a towel. Her hands were shaking so hard she barely dried herself off at all, unsuccessful at dabbing anything more than few water droplets. She dropped the towel, and he picked it up but made no attempt to dry himself either.
“Beth, it came out wrong…”
She spun around to face him, anger making the corners of her eyes crease. “Be honest with me. Having children is important to you, isn’t it?”