And Seth still held her hand.
When the silence ended, he glanced at her and she saw enormous longing in his eyes, something she almost didn’t recognize. What is it?
You. His chest rose and fell in a deep breath. I need to be with you, Lorelei. Tonight. Now.
She glanced down at their joined fingers. Is this why you’ve been stuck to me for the past hour of celebration?
Yeah, it is.
He looked almost pained. You have to understand, I haven’t had a woman in my life for a thousand years.
When she finally understood, her eyes widened and maybe unfortunately for Seth, the shifter in her took precedence over the more orderly fae part of her genetics.
In a loud voice, she called out, “Hey, fellow shifters, sorry to be leaving the party so soon, but I need to get my man to bed.”
The slow glide of the ‘o-o-o-o-hs’ that this announcement fostered, as well as the grins and a few not-so-subtle hip-grinding gestures, made Seth turn to her and frown. Really?
But she was too much part-shifter, not to respond with anything else, except, Would you rather I went home with one of your men? Maybe one of the alphas?
You’re gonna start with me? Here?
Anywhere, anytime.
She got up close and slung an arm around his neck. He did the only appropriate thing and kissed her.
Another gliding set of ‘o-o-o-o-hs’ washed over her ears.
When he drew back, his eyes were at half-mast. “Let’s go home.”
At the mere mention of the word, she lost all her taunting shifter-bravado and nodded. “Yeah, let’s go home.”
* * * * * * * * *
Seth had never been this happy in his entire life. As he flew Lorelei south toward Defiance Falls and his home above Shauck Gorge, his body felt flooded with love, with triumph, and above all gratitude.
Never in a hundred years could he have predicted all the events of the past few days, or perhaps more importantly, of the past month from the time that Lorelei had appeared to him at his backdoor. She’d stolen into his life, on command from Queen Rosamunde, to serve as his bodyguard, and she’d stayed to become his confidant, his blood rose, and the woman he loved with all his heart.
She would probably never know the changes she’d wrought in his life, taking him from a solitary mastyr, who rarely socialized, to a shifter pack regis and part of a community that would probably never leave him in solitude again.
Yet he felt unsettled, as though something important hadn’t been resolved between himself and Lorelei. And the only place he could think to do it, was in his home, with his woman, in his bed. He needed her to feel him as he told her all that needed to be said, aloud, nothing hidden, or cloaked in telepathy, but the words vibrating between them, their bodies on fire.
Defiance Falls came into view first. The great river that created the falls, then broke into three distinct rivers, billowed with mist, the sound deafening, familiar, and welcoming as he passed overhead.
I love that sound. Lorelei spoke reverently, another thing he valued about her. She had an appreciation for the land around her.
I do, too. It feels like home.
A few seconds more and he touched down on his wrap-around porch. Snow created a soft round appearance to his flat railing, a single track of squirrel footprints the only breach.
But he didn’t release Lorelei until he had her inside his house with the front door shut and locked. He lowered the day-blinds as well, uncertain what hour they’d finally rise from his bed.
By the time he’d secured all the blinds in the house, he heard the shower running in his master bath, which of course meant that Lorelei was naked.
She was in his shower and she was naked, with him, for him, bonded to him.
His feet were moving before he’d wrapped up the last of his amazed thoughts that love had found him and his woman was in his shower.
“Join me?” Her feminine voice, which always carried a happy tone, reached him from the open, stone-tiled doorway that led to the shower.
“Yes.” He removed the woven clasp from his hair, then stripped vampire-fast, even working his boots off quicker than he ever had before.
Seconds later, he stepped into the stone-chiseled shower. Lorelei faced him, her head back as she rinsed shampoo from her hair. The row of amethysts along the rim of her left ear winked at him.
His heart was full of love for her, his body full of need, and his blood-hunger raging once more because of all that had happened in the past few hours. But he didn’t want to hurry what needed to happen next.
He moved into the shower slowly. He wanted to take her in his arms, but more than that, he wanted to get clean.
There were enough jets for him to slide beneath one and get his own hair wet. Standing adjacent to her now as he washed his hair, he watched her. She took a bar of soap in her hands and after working up a lather, rubbed both breasts, her gaze fixed on him, a gleam in her eye. The ruffs of white fur appeared on her wrists and like a collar around her throat, streaming water and soap as well.
His body responded and her gaze fell to his stiffening cock, so she became more vigorous, working her nipples. He rinsed the last of the shampoo from his hair then soaped himself up as well, finally using one hand to fondle himself.
He met and held her gaze and she got that look in her eye, the one that was more shifter than fae.
Her voice held a low timbre as she said, “That Ephyx sure has a powerful set of shoulders on him.”
He caught her arms in his hands, then spun her around, moving her away from the spray of water and pushing her face-first against the stone tiles. If he’d been in any doubt of what she was really after, the fact that she shoved her bottom into his groin confirmed his suspicion that she loved working him up. She then jostled him, so that he stepped back just enough to allow her to bend over, her forearms planted against the wall.
The shifter in her wanted him to take her in this position, to assert his dominance, and he was willing.
He leaned over and shoved her long wet hair over her right shoulder.
At the same time, he took his cock in his hand and pressed against her entrance, then started to push.
He whispered against her left ear, his tongue flicking the amethysts. “You dare to talk about Ephyx to me?”
She moaned as he pushed. “Why shouldn’t I? He’s a big man, a powerful shifter, a great warrior. He could take care of his woman.”
He roared at her taunts, then fell on her, opening his mouth wide and biting the back of her neck hard, through the thin ruff of fur, but holding back his fangs. She groaned heavily and her entire body spasmed as a heavy vibration rolled down her spine, something he felt all down his chest and groin.
He began to thrust inside her. You’re mine, Lorelei, my prime female, my bonded blood rose, no one else’s. Do you hear me?
He plunged hard and felt her respond as she shoved her hips back at him with each thrust.
“I belong to you, Seth, just you. I’m yours.” She groaned long and loud.
His mating vibration came to life, reaching for her, flowing through her, searching for hers. Her answering mating call met his in a sudden tangle of intense sensation that forced his hips to go faster.
He released her neck, but his fangs emerged in sudden need. She cried out, “Do it. Oh, Seth, bite me. Bite me hard.”
He struck swiftly, breaching her vein, and after retracting his fangs, he began to drink in heavy gulps. Her blood tasted of wine and apple blossoms. His mouth tingled as he sucked, then swallowed her life-force.
When her blood hit his stomach, his body lit on fire, powering up more than ever before. His mating frequency, now pulsing with hers in perfect union, also sent a vibration through his groin and along the length of his cock.
“Oh, God, Seth, what are you doing to me?”
I’m fucking you, Lorelei, making you mine, drinking you down, and letting you feel the strength of my cock buried deep inside you.
* * * * * * * * *
Lorelei gasped for air, as her body moved in rhythm with Seth, as he took her blood, as he worked her well with the vibrating length of his cock. Pleasure built in powerful increments, one after the other, driving her toward ecstasy.
I love you, Lorelei.
His resonant words deep inside her head enflamed her heart and drove her to the pinnacle. She’d never felt so full in her life, her soul connected with her body. She savored each drive of his cock within, each suck of his lips, each swallow of his throat.
She felt something happening between them, greater than even the blood rose bonding that had taken place earlier. One of his arms covered her breasts, while his other arm held her hips in place so that he stayed connected.
Do you feel that, Seth? This thing building between us?
Yes, dear Goddess, yes. His hips moved faster and she cried out.
Almost there.
You’re so tight, Lorelei, holding me as you are.
Your vibration is flowing along my channel, and through my abdomen to touch my heart. I love you, Seth.
I love you, too and I’m close.
She felt his hips curl as his lips left her throat. He rose up behind her and thrust faster.
He shouted in that way of his, a sound Lorelei loved him to make and which brought ecstasy streaming through her body. She clenched hard as pleasured rocketed through her. She felt full of Seth, full of love, full of so much pleasure.
She screamed as he continued to thrust.
Then she felt his tongue licking her left ear where the amethyst studs rose to the fae point. His hips still worked her body, easier now, but Seth was still rock hard. He flicked her ear wickedly.
You game for another ride?
She smiled against the tile, breathing hard, savoring the feel of his powerful warrior body still pummeling her, working her up once more. That Alophi! He has massive arms.
Seth did exactly what she wanted him to do as again he bit down hard on the back of her neck, shifter-style. The bite, in turn, created a direct line to her lower abdomen and pleasure gripped her fiercely. She chuffed as he drove into her in powerful thrusts.
You’re a bad girl and need to be punished.
Do your worst. She reached behind her and caught the back of his neck as he continued to press his teeth into her skin, marking her, letting her feel that he had command of her.
Pleasure built once more and when ecstasy rolled, sharper this time, she screamed as he once more shouted his release.
He took her to bed afterward, but spent the first few hours of daylight savoring her body, taking her in a dozen different positions, generous to a fault, and always responding to her taunts with exactly the right level of possessiveness that her shifterness loved.
When at last she fell asleep, she wasn’t sure she ever wanted to leave Seth’s bed.
* * * * * * * * *
Full dark had arrived and Seth drew Lorelei out onto his front porch that overlooked the gorge below and the river running between its snowy banks. Neither wore clothes, but he’d wrapped them both up in the comforter. He kissed her neck and she sighed deeply. “This is the most magnificent view.”
“And it’s as beautiful in the summer as it is now. The wildlife is amazing.”
“I can hardly wait for the seasons to pass.”
And there it was, the most wonderful truth of his new life with his blood rose. When a few months rolled by, with Lorelei in his home, she’d get to see the Shauck Mountains during the lush summer season when the fawns had grown and birds chattered madly through the trees. She would be with him. So long as they both lived, he wouldn’t be alone and she would never be on-the-run again.
Both his Vampire Guard and his Shifter Brigade were on patrol. He didn’t usually give himself a night off, but he needed this time with Lorelei, to deepen his bond with her, and in the end, just to spend time with her and to get to know her.
He’d introduced her to his housekeeper, who’d learned of his mating from the gossipy trolls that lived in the Shauck Mountains side-by-side with the shifter community. She’d brought a spice cake, homemade elderberry wine, a thick potato soup, more of her fresh sour dough bread and fresh-churned butter. A salad of garden greens and an olive oil dressing had completed what felt like a marriage dinner for himself and Lorelei.
His housekeeper hadn’t stayed long and after they’d dined, he’d made love to her in his bed, teasing her ear as he licked along the row of amethysts, delighting in the shifter ruffs she sprouted as soon as he started kissing her, and finally savoring the joining once more of his body to hers.
Now he held her in his arms, on his porch, enjoying the night.
“I love you, Lorelei, more than I could ever say, ever express, not in a thousand lifetimes.”
She turned in his arms, and he wrapped her up more securely with the comforter. She held his face with her hands and kissed him repeatedly. “I love you, too.”
He kissed her in return, and maybe their mating-riddled scent flooded the air above the gorge, drifting to the opposite mountain ridge, because in the distance wolves howled, calling to the night.
He would remember this moment as long as he lived, the time when his solitude ended forever. Lorelei was with him, an intense, passionate shifter woman who got him, who filled out every uneven edge of his life, and who had taught him that at long last he wasn’t alone.
The End
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Coming Soon: Book #5, Jude and Hannah’s story: EMBRACE THE NIGHT!!!
Be sure to check out the Blood Rose Tales -- TRAPPED and HUNGER -- shorter works for a quick, satisfying read.
About the Author
Hi, Everyone! I'm a USA Today Bestselling Author and I write super-sexy paranormal romance fiction designed to be as much an adventure as a soul-satisfying experience. With every book, I try to give a taste of real life, despite the fact that I'm writing about hunky vampire warriors. You'll come away engrossed in the lives of my vampires as they wage war, as they make love, and as they answer the tough questions of life in terms of purpose, eternity, and how to raise a family! I began my career with Kensington Publishing writing Regency Romance as Valerie King. In 2005, Romantic Times Magazine honored me with a career achievement award in Regency Romance. I've published sixteen paranormal stories to-date, some self-published and some for St. Martin's Press. To find out more about me, please visit my website!
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Author of:
Guardians of Ascension Series – Warriors of the Blood crave the breh-hedden
Dawn of Ascension Series – Militia Warriors battle to save Second Earth
Blood Rose Series – Only a blood rose can fulfill a mastyr vampire’s deepest needs
Blood Rose Tales – Mastyr vampires who hunger to be satisfied
Men in Chains Series – Vampires struggling to get free of their chains and save the world
Other Titles:
EMBRACE THE DARK
EMB
RACE THE MAGIC
EMBRACE THE MYSTERY
TRAPPED
HUNGER
THE DARKENING
VAMPIRE COLLECTION (Includes BRINK OF ETERNITY):
WICKED NIGHT/DARK NIGHT (Boxed Set):
Caris Roane, Embrace the Passion
(Series: The Blood Rose # 4)
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