She heard Malik cursing. Right afterward, the sound of his boots striking the wood floor reverberated into the bathroom. The Guardsmen wore thigh boots over leathers, a very masculine, sexy look, but they couldn’t always be easy to remove.
Carrying the basin and two soft cloths, she stopped on the threshold. He’d laid out his clothes on a ladder-back woven chair by the window opposite the bed.
And he was naked.
She couldn’t believe that after two years of painful longing he was finally here. Given her level of responsibility, she might only get to experience this with him once, but she wanted to do it right. Besides, the earth sustained her as though approving of what she was doing, and she knew the colony was safe.
Bidding him stand on the oval rag-rug that she’d made herself, she dipped the cloth in the water. She sank to her knees and began with his feet and cleansed him, her heart very full, her fangs sitting on her lower lip because she was terribly aroused. She washed his legs and felt his hand on her head in soft, affectionate strokes.
His very tender touch was just as she’d imagined. She sensed his emotions as well that he was somewhat in awe of what she was doing. At the same time, his mating vibration came to life, a soft hum in the center of his being, which naturally stirred her own needs.
Was this the man for her, the mastyr of an entire realm?
Her pleasure was intense as she asked him to spread his legs. She carefully worked the cool, damp cloth over his testicles and cock, the latter of which was thick and long and quite perfect.
And fully erect.
She kissed his groin on either side, just above the veins. She could smell his blood because of her latent wraith abilities. Looking up at him, she said, “Your blood smells of the richest part of the forest, Malik. Just like you.”
“And yours smells like the forest after a rain. That clean, almost spiritual fragrance.”
She smiled. “I like that you’ve said it that way.”
She busied herself again, cleansing his abdomen and chest, taking her time, wiping down both arms. She tended to his back and his buttocks in the same way.
When she was done, she took the basin back into the bathroom and returned with her brush. Pulling back the sheets, she had him sit on the side of the bed and took her time brushing out his Guardsman hair.
As Willow ran her hands down his hair, she could feel the subtle vibration. “Your hair makes you stronger.”
“That is our belief.”
“I can feel the frequency.” She rose as she spoke, and while standing in front of him, she removed her white robe.
His eyes flared, but he made no move to touch her. Instead, he waited, letting her lead the moment.
Her heart beat hard now, ready to be touched and loved by Malik after so many months of painful longing. Without saying anything, she stretched out on her stomach on the bed and waited.
Closing her eyes, she expected Malik to join her. Instead, the floor creaked and a moment later, she heard the water running. She lifted up on her forearms and tears came to her eyes when he returned with the basin.
He took his time as well, beginning with her feet and washed her head-to-foot. Tears began to fall and she couldn’t seem to stop them. She’d bathed Malik because she revered what he did for her kind. But to have him return what was for her a very sacred act, struck her deep in her soul.
When she turned over and he cleansed her legs, then deep between her thighs, desire began to rise once more, the way it had for the past two years.
He swept the cloth upward and over her abdomen, the sensation leaving a trail of shivers. Her breasts puckered and he leaned down and half-sucked, half-kissed each in turn.
She cupped his face in her hand and turned him toward her. This was Malik, the man who had chased her, whom she’d spurned. Now he was here.
Her heart labored in her chest as though anxious to feed him. She wanted him to bite her and she wanted to use her fangs. Something she’d never done before. But Malik’s blood called to her.
He set the cloth and the basin aside and kissed her, moving between her legs. “Your fangs are beautiful.”
Her tongue emerged between them and he groaned, his forest scent permeating the air.
The next moment, in response to her growing need, the vines at the open window began to move down the white, cast iron frame behind her.
He lifted up, his eyes widening. “The vines are moving now.”
She slid her hands over his shoulders. “They’re responding to me. They’ll be part of what we’ll do together, if that’s all right with you?”
He glanced down as one of the vines touched his arm and slid over him, caressing him. He closed his eyes. “Sweet Goddess, that feels good and no, I don’t mind, because this feels like you. But what exactly are you doing?”
“Needing you to make love to me, that’s all. I’m connected to the vines on my land. I can’t explain it. They hide me and they protect the wraith families. They respond to my thoughts and desires, and they would even protect me at my command.”
Another vine now moved across his back and he moaned. “I’ve never experienced anything like this.”
“Is it too strange, Malik? If I concentrate, I can make them leave.”
“No,” he answered quickly. “I want them to stay.”
She smiled, because she could feel how much he was enjoying the sensation. “You probably should be inside me.”
He gave her an answering smile. “I could come so easily right now.”
“I know. Me, too.” She shifted her hips, letting him know that she needed him filling her. The foreplay had lasted two years and she was ready.
The moment she felt his cock at her entrance, a heavy moan left her throat. The physical connection soared through her, a vibration all its own, and small cries left her mouth at the exquisite feel of what was so hard and began moving inside her.
He pushed, and her whole body writhed. The vines stroked her hair and her face and she watched one slide across his neck, where she wanted her hand to be. When she moved her hand, the vine gave way and covered hers adding the smallest pressure so that she caressed Malik with the vine aiding her.
Inelegant yet erotic guttural sounds left his throat. “Never been like this … the vines.”
“I know. This is new to me as well.”
“It is?”
She met his gaze. “Yes. All new. Oh, Malik.”
Passion rose to a dizzying height as he kissed her hard. Because of the vines, she could feel what they felt like to him, as though the realm itself, which he loved with all his heart, was caressing him. What a strange mystery this had become, this sharing with Malik, full of the heights and depths of all of life experience. She’d never felt more connected to the earth on which she lived, to the frequencies beating deep in her land, to the vines that helped her to protect the colony.
His tongue penetrated her mouth, and moved in rhythm to his thrusts between her legs. Several vines slid beneath her and she felt them wrapping tenderly around Malik as well.
He continued to kiss her, their bodies moving in such an exquisite motion and in sync with her heart.
He drew back slightly and presented his wrist. “Take my blood, Willow. I offer it for the way you’ve laid down your life to protect the innocent.”
She lifted her hand and the vines gave way just enough to allow for her movements. She pressed his wrist to her small fangs and with the memories given to her by all the wraiths in her maternal family line, she struck quickly, then began to suck.
The first hit of his blood caused her to clench deep and in response, Malik groaned.
She held his gaze as the erotic flavor of his blood poured over her tongue. Power moved through her and the vines tightened and released in response. Everything was so sensual and erotic that she could hardly control herself.
When she began pulling on him low, deep in her well, she forced herself to stop or he would come. They both would. And she knew exactly
how and when she wanted to reach the pinnacle. She wanted to be with him in that moment, his fangs having opened her vein, his mouth sucking down what she could feel he needed more than anything else right now.
She breathed hard, trying to calm down.
He’d squeezed his eyes shut, doing the same thing.
Only how to hold on, to make the moment last?
CHAPTER THREE
Malik had imagined being in bed with Willow for a long time now. But even the best of fantasies hadn’t come close to this erotic reality. He felt lost in her arms, barely able to make two thoughts connect.
The vines.
Sweet Goddess, the vines alone had his balls ready to release. The tendrils held him tight to Willow, and moved as he moved. Yet he could feel that with the slightest resistance the vines would shift and give way.
And Willow’s fangs. The piercing had sent a thrill straight through his cock and he’d almost come … again. He was so ready to let go that every muscle in his body twitched with anticipation.
He could feel that she was close as well, each of them riding the edge.
She looked so beautiful suckling at his wrist, her eyes glittering. He wanted her neck. His stomach, always cramping, now screamed for what he’d been desiring for the past two years.
She suddenly released his wrist. “Malik, now, please. I’m right there. Right there.” She squeezed her eyes shut.
“Me, too.”
Rolling her head, she swept her auburn hair away from her neck. The vines adjusted for each movement. “Please, do it. Take from me. I need to feed you. So heavy in my chest. And I’m ready to release. So close.”
He was too lost to make sense of all her words, but he got her meaning, especially when his eyes zeroed in on the vein beating in her throat.
He leaned close, his hips still working her low, and licked a line up her neck. Usually this would encourage the vein to rise, but hers was already pulsing and waiting.
His fangs descended and in a swift strike, he broke through. Her blood flowed into his mouth.
The world disappeared as the flavor of her life-force hit his tongue, his throat, then traveled like exquisite liquid fire into his stomach. Fireworks exploded within, sending her power into his blood-stream. The muscles of his arms flexed and released. His buttocks as well. He felt stronger, suddenly, as he moved his hips faster.
His mind spun as he continued to drink, taking the fire down his throat.
Willow whimpered and writhed beneath him. She took shallow breaths, holding herself on the cliff.
He felt something real and thrilling move through him. He couldn’t wait any longer and let go of her neck. He lifted up on his forearms so that he could look down at her, the vines giving way to his movements, then wrapping around him once more. Her eyes were closed, her body in a state of passionate suspension.
“Look at me, Willow.”
Her eyes opened slowly.
He smiled and increased his speed. “Come with me. Now.”
She nodded. “Yes.”
At the same time, he sent a vibration through his cock, one that had his balls seizing and her well pulling on him. She cried out and the vines began moving at the same time in quick small jerks so that he was shouting as well.
Lightning streaks of pleasure flowed through his cock as ecstasy arrived. Willow’s cries of release and pleasure added to the incredible mix of sensations that wouldn’t stop. The forest scent of her sex filled his nostrils, adding one more layer.
The orgasm kept coming as he filled her full of all that he was as a man.
Her nails dug into his shoulders as she continued to cry out.
When she finally eased down, he would have stopped, but his cock was still hard and he felt the impossible happen. “Willow? Can you come a second time?”
Her eyes opened wide. “Really?”
“Oh, yeah. It must be your blood.”
“And yours, because I’m still feeling you and loving your cock. Malik.” Her eyes rolled and her body once more tensed. “I’m ready.”
He sped up again, moving fast like only a vampire could move.
This time Willow screamed and the vines vibrated against his skin, stroking him between his legs. When he came this time, he shouted repeatedly. He felt as one let loose like a great northern wind, his body releasing as it never had before.
When at last his shouts dimmed and Willow’s cries became soft moans, he felt the sweet tightness of her well with his last thrust. He stayed within as he relaxed against her, and the vines began to loosen their grip, receding slowly.
Even that sensation soothed him in a way he just didn’t understand. Some kind of miracle had come to him with Willow, though he couldn’t quite make sense of it. She was incredibly powerful and connected to these vines with a fae magic he’d never heard of before.
Yet the vines reflected the sweetness of her disposition. There was nothing of war in Willow, only of love, kindness and protection.
As he rested on her body, he savored the mounds of her breasts against his chest, the way she stroked the nape of his neck, and that she played with his long hair.
Her breathing evened out, and in time his did as well.
He was so replete; he could hardly move. He hadn’t felt this way in a long time, if ever, as though he’d come home after being away for centuries.
Was Willow his home?
Even if she was, other memories intruded of how her father had died and that Malik was responsible for his death, of his need to stay focused on his realm, and of his deep commitment to prevent The Society from hurting Ashleaf one more time.
Slowly, the feel-good of the moment faded and his responsibilities returned. He should call Evan and see how things were going. “I have to get back to my men.”
She rubbed both of his shoulders. “I know. And I need to shift my focus to the wraith … that is, to those families I’m protecting.”
He eased out of her and went into the bathroom. He found a cloth in a woven basket below the sink and brought it back to Willow. He tucked it between her legs, smiling down at her. “Thought you might need this.”
She smiled softly, her gaze full of affection. “Thank you. For everything, Malik. This was extraordinary. I can’t tell you how much this meant to me. I feel now as though I could continue another century because I swear your blood has given me some much-needed strength.”
At first her words pleased him, then suddenly they spoke to his own condition. Putting a hand to his stomach, a terrible suspicion ripped through his mind.
She leaned up on her elbows as the last of the vines slipped back through the window. “What is it?”
“I’m not sure.” The suspicion worked in him badly, disrupting his peace. But he didn’t want to speak the words out loud. “I just feel a need to be going.”
She reached out and grabbed his arm. “Then do that, Malik, but without any guilt. And please, don’t set anything aside for me or worry about offending me. Please. This is very important to me.”
Her words stunned him. He’d had a few, brief relationships over the decades and usually the opposite words fell from a woman’s lips, always demanding more not less. He knew then that whatever this was between them would never be simple.
He nodded. “I have to go.” But panic had started eating up his heart. He touched his stomach and cringed once more. This couldn’t be happening.
He went into the bathroom and cleaned up, then returned to don his clothes. Once he was dressed and ready to get the hell out of there, Willow caught his arms and kissed him once on the lips, a full kiss.
“Malik, I can feel your distress. But truly, you don’t have to think of me ever again. This finishes things. We’re agreed on that, right?”
“Absolutely.” Her words sort of eased him. Somehow he’d make this right, despite what he’d begun to believe was the horrible truth about who she really was in his life.
He moved unsteadily to the doorway and once on the bridge, he drew
in a deep breath, willing the truth away.
He flew, but almost crashed straight into a thick branch of oak that would have had no give. Talk about distracted.
He’d meant to go south, to return to his Guard facility. Instead, his mind was so muddled with this latest bizarre turn of events that he flew north.
What he believed might be true felt almost tragic to him. He had nothing to give Willow and he’d been the cause of her father’s death.
But he kept going north because he had to think.
As he flew, he used his cell to let Evan know where he was and that he’d be back in about half an hour. Evan related that things in Birchingwood had calmed down considerably and that most of the villagers had started going about their business. The RIU agent had finally returned to complete his investigation. “Otherwise, the realm is quiet. No Invictus sightings tonight.”
“Good. That’s good.” He took a deep breath. “I’ll talk to you later.”
When he reached his destination, he landed on a massive slab of granite that protruded from the hilltop of one of Ashleaf’s highest mountain ridges over a mile high.
He placed a hand on his stomach once more and shook his head slowly in complete disbelief. He wanted to deny that the lack of cramping he experienced meant something, but he felt it in his bones that Willow’s blood had strengthened him. Even his muscles felt bulked up. He looked down at his thighs and could see that his leathers were tighter than before.
Power flowed through him as well with streams of energy that made him feel like he could do anything.
But it couldn’t be true.
Please don’t let it be true.
His mind rolled backward to how Willow had bathed him. And that’s when a profound longing slammed through him all over again, and he stumbled, losing his footing.
He levitated quickly or he would have fallen over the precipice.
Sweet Goddess, this just could not be happening. Not to him.
And the sex and the vines and Willow’s soft yielding body beneath his … and her blood. Her own responsiveness and their shared cravings for each other …