She did like how he watched her. He was deeply aware of that and how it satisfied her. She liked knowing he was hers, that he had eyes for only her.
“I also have this terrible need to satisfy you.” She shifted from his lap, fell to her knees before him and nestled between his thighs.
He groaned as she leaned over him, her hair tickling his bare stomach, lips teasing his flesh as she kissed her way downwards. Did her instincts as a mate run along such similar lines as his did, or was she just being influenced by his somehow?
He didn’t have time to ponder that question. It fled his mind as she opened his fly, as she wrapped her lips around his shaft and sucked, her wet heat driving him wild as she moved her mouth on him. He groaned and fisted her hair, rocked into her mouth and gave himself over to her as she relentlessly stroked and sucked him, wringing a swift and fierce climax from him that had him shouting her name as he came.
Gods, the things she did to him.
He sagged into the armchair, mind hazy again, thoughts blurring as pleasure rolled through him. She moaned and wriggled, and he groaned as he scented her need, as he felt it sweep through him on the heels of his release and a need to satisfy her seized hold of him.
So he seized hold of her.
She squealed as he swept her up into his arms, as he carried her to his bed and dumped her on it. Her eyes flashed with fire as he undid her leathers, goaded him as she wiggled her hips. He growled and pulled her trousers down, tossed them aside and sank to his knees as he forced hers apart.
She arched and cried out as he speared her soft folds with his tongue, as he dragged her to the edge of the bed and devoured her, tasting her sweetness and wanting more. He stroked and sucked her bead, groaned as she rocked against his face and rode his tongue, as her moans bled into each other and she threw her arms above her head. A low growl pealed from him as her hips jerked upwards, his cock kicking as she shouted his name, filling him with a need to hear her cry it when he was inside her.
He stood, keeping hold of her hips with one hand, raising them with him, and gripped his aching shaft with the other. She cried out again as he filled her, quivered and throbbed around him as he buried himself deep in her heat.
Hartt gripped her hips hard as he took her, tried to hold back but couldn’t as need ran as hot as lava in his veins, as her hunger for him collided with his to drive him out of his mind with a need to satisfy her. He pumped her harder, holding her at an angle with only her shoulders and head on the bed, and stared down into her eyes as he claimed her body.
Her golden irises glowed like fire as she stared back at him, as she moaned and surrendered to him and he pounded into her. Her face crumpled, screwing up as she began to tighten around him, as the need he felt in her reached a crescendo.
“Hartt!” she yelled as her hips kicked, as her sheath milked him, demanding his seed.
He groaned as he followed her over the edge, held her on his length and claimed her, marking her with the seed she had demanded from him. Her rigid body slowly relaxed as she breathed hard, as her eyes gradually opened and locked with his.
She giggled, sounding a little breathless as she toyed with her hair and said, “We really need to stop doing that.”
He chuckled too. “The thought had crossed my mind.”
Mostly because he feared Fuery would come looking for him if they didn’t return soon, and he didn’t want anyone other than him seeing his beautiful Mackenzie in a compromising position like this.
He pulled out of her and lowered her legs. She grinned and kicked up onto her feet, dropped a kiss on his lips and hurried around him, heading for the basin of water. He tucked himself away as she cleaned up, fought to believe this was real and that she was his mate, and that she loved him.
He fought something else too—the need to whisk her away to somewhere remote and private for a few days so he could be alone with her. As much as he wanted that, he had to put those plans on hold. Now wasn’t the time to worry their friends or lower his guard and invite an attack while he was distracted.
He still couldn’t believe she had claimed him.
He didn’t feel worthy of her, but he was going to move Hell, Heaven and everything in between to be a male who was, starting with protecting her from their common enemy.
Hartt grabbed his black tunic jacket and pulled it on, buttoned it as he listened to his female moving around behind him.
Mackenzie rounded him, a bounce in her step that he liked, together with that twinkle in her eyes. He snaked his arm around her waist and kissed her, sank into it a little when it was meant to be brief. She looped her arms around his neck and pushed her fingers into his hair, groaned in a way that got him going again.
He forced himself to break the kiss, before they ended up tangled in the bedsheets.
Once all this was over, he was taking her away to somewhere quiet where they were the only two people and he was going to spend a week or two worshipping her from dawn to dusk and back again.
And even then, he wasn’t sure it would satisfy this need for her that blazed inside him.
Hartt stared into her mesmerising eyes, meant to mention they should get back but those words fled his mind as she smiled at him, love shining in her golden gaze. An urge struck him, undeniable and so powerful that he had summoned the small wooden box to him before he had even considered what he was going to say. He rubbed his thumb over the delicately carved leaves and swirls on the box, nerves rising within him.
“What’s that?” She frowned at his hand.
Instead of trying to put his feelings into words that would never be good enough to convey the depth of his love for her, he simply opened the box and revealed its contents to her.
Her eyes lit up, growing a little unfocused as she stared at the ring nestled among black velvet. He stared at it too, gaze tracing the beautifully sculpted silver dragon that clasped a bright amethyst in its claws and wings, forming the band of the ring. A ring that he now felt belonged on her finger. It had never been meant for Iolanthe.
It had been made for Mackenzie.
Her right hand lifted and she edged it forwards, eased it back and looked at him. “I want it. I do. It’s so shiny and I love it, but…”
“But?” He didn’t like that word, wanted to growl as fear got the better of him, even though she had said she wanted it to adorn her finger.
“My flames. I can’t wear jewellery. My flames don’t exactly agree with pretty, shiny things. I learned that the hard way.”
Was that her only reservation? He searched her eyes and saw that it was, but that it was a big deal for her. She truly did like jewellery. She looked bewitched by the ring as her glowing eyes fell to it again.
“It is yours, even if you only wear it when you’re not working so you won’t be in danger of destroying it.” He wanted to groan when she flicked him a heated look, one that said her phoenix fire didn’t only try to manifest when she was in the middle of a fight. He offered the ring to her, hoping to keep them both on topic and out of bed, because they really did need to get back to the vampire’s bastion.
She sighed at it and then at him. “You really want me to have it?”
He nodded. “With all my heart. It has been in my family for generations, and in my possession for centuries. It’s the only thing I have left of my family.”
She cast another look at it, this one far more assessing, a hard edge to it.