More Than Blood (26 page)

“Kel. Don’t.”

Somehow his presence in her life had become synonymous with peace. Life had dealt her such a crummy hand but she’d managed to build some semblance of contentment with what she had. Then he’d come along and insinuated himself into that peace and she couldn’t imagine ever being content again without him. It scared the shit out of her. She’d come so close to losing him. Losing him was losing that peace she’d worked so hard to achieve. She just didn’t think she could survive the loss again and remain sane.

A tear squeezed from the corner of her eye.

“I don’t think I can do this.”

Suddenly he was there, his heat and scent wrapping around her before his arms even reached her. His lips brushed her face, absorbing her tears.

“You don’t have to do this alone. I’m here.”

Kel snapped her eyes open. “But you almost weren’t. You almost disappeared today. Just like that” – Kel snapped her fingers – “and poof, you could just be gone. And then what? You want me to depend on you so that when you’re gone I just crumble. I can’t do it.” Kel shimmered across the balcony, wrapped her hands around the railing as she looked out over the city, eyes skimming over the bay.

Gabe rose to his feet and turned toward her. “You have to trust me, Kel.”

Trust him? How was she supposed to do that? Exactly where did she fit in his life? He was the damn House marshal, future doyen of his House of the freaking Ferrar House, for God’s sake. Damn it all!

Kel spun and paced past him, running her hands through the short, still damp length of her hair. As soon as Dr. Tanner, the clinic doctor, had told her that the blood was healing him, she’d left. She’d had to leave, to put some distance between her and those suffocating emotions, but they followed her. She’d taken a long, hot shower, watching the water, tinged pink from his blood, stream over the tile floor and swirl around the drain, wishing it had taken her fear and pain with it.

That’s what really stood between them. Her past and his future.

“Tell me what happened fifteen years ago.”

Kel jerked at his soft words. What
had
happened fifteen years ago? She couldn’t recall very many details of that night. She remembered the glitter of blood red beads on the floor and the disgust on her mother’s face. She remembered the hurt of being abandoned and fear of being alone. The rest of it was carefully tucked away where she couldn’t reach it.

Only in her nightmares.

“I don’t remember,” Kel whispered.

“But you dream of it.” He’d shimmered to just behind her. His heat warmed her, thawed the chill seeing him fighting for his life had caused deep in her.

Kel spun and faced him, her dark eyes shuttered. “I dream of a lot of things. If I’m lucky, I never remember them when I wake.”

“Tell me what you do remember.” He stepped closer. His scent whirled around her provocatively. There was so much heat in it. He was aroused. She could almost taste it on her tongue. “Trust me.”

His hand reached up to cup her cheek and she turned into the touch, drawing that scent deep into her with a gasping breath that made it feel as though she was starving for air.

“God, Gabe. I was so scared.”

Gabe sighed and pulled her into his arms. “I’m sorry, baby. I never meant to put you through that.”

With a humorless laugh she wrapped her arms around him. “You’re apologizing to
me
for being used as a butcher’s block.”

“If it will ease you.” His voice rumbled in his chest.

Kel clenched her hands in the back of his shirt and pressed her face to his chest, feeling the heat of his flesh exposed by the collar of his shirt against her cheek. Raising her head, she pressed her lips to that triangle of exposed skin. He tasted so good.

“KEL.” HIS BREATH hitched.

“I need you, Gabe. I don’t want to, but I do. I just need to touch you, to taste you. Make me forget –”

A swell of fear, dark, and cold crashed over him and he knew she was thinking of his attack again. He forgot his disappointment at her inability to trust him with her nightmares, with her past. He forgot his suspicions that she might be the girl that went missing from his House fifteen years ago. All he could think about was the woman in his arms whose fear for him offered him hope.

Her lips brushed his breastbone again and her small, hot hands slid around his ribs to reach the buttons of his shirt. Each slip of a button revealed a little more of his chest and her lips followed. She swirled her tongue over him with soft, throaty sounds of pleasure that reverberated through him, making him pulse with need.

Kel reached up to push the shirt over his shoulders; her eyes gazed up at him through the thick fringe of her dark lashes. The dark chocolate depths mirrored his own hunger and he felt his erection press harder against the fly of his jeans. Her eyes slowly lowered and her mouth burned a path across his chest until she found the flat brown nipple. She touched the tip of her tongue to it with a hum of pleasure and her need swelled over his, merging and expanding until it made his skin feel too tight.

“Ah, Kel.” He moaned as her mouth left a trail of heat down his stomach, the muscles trembling and tightening beneath her touch. Her lips played over the raised pink scars from his healing wounds. Each tremor rumbled through him, though his growing erection and the muscles of his ass tightened with his straining control. “You’re killing me, love.”

Her hot breath fanned the taut skin just below his belly button as she sighed. His hips jerked toward her and an incredible ache coiled low in his body. When her finger dipped into the top of his waistband on either side of the fly and her little tongue played just beneath the edge he thrust his hands into her hair, framing her head.

With a low growl she gave a tug and his jeans split with a soft
pop
and
whoosh
of his zipper. Her sound of pleasure at seeing he did not wear underwear sizzled over him, and his hands fisted reflexively.

“Woman.” He growled when that dangerous little tongue of hers tentatively circled the throbbing crest of his engorged head, the tip tracing the rim. His cock jerked. With another sound of discovery, her small hands wrapped around the length of him and her mouth grew bolder.

He flung his arms out and wrapped his fingers tightly around the metal railing, the concrete and brick half wall abrading his lower back. Her mouth felt so good, hot and moist around his sensitive flesh. He looked down at the top of her shining dark head and watched as his cock disappeared beyond her dark, rosy lips. Her tongue stroked that sensitive groove just under the engorged head, her fist tight around the base and her lips gliding over him. His hips surged against her and she made a humming noise that reverberated through his entire body. His body quaked uncontrollably as he groaned with pleasure.

“I NEED TO be inside you. Now.”

Kel made a low sound in her throat but only wrapped her fingers tighter around the smooth base of his hard cock. She wasn’t ready to let him go. She suddenly wanted to feel him fall apart in her hands, to taste his pleasure on her lips. A glistening drop of fluid beaded up in the dusky slit on the head and Kel leaned in to gently press the tip of her tongue to it, loving the taste of him.

“Kel.” The low noises he made only excited her more and she ran the flat of her tongue up the length of him, absorbing each ripple of pleasure that crested over her through their connection.

Wrapping her hand around the considerable girth of his hard cock, she couldn’t completely encircle him. A small thrill sizzled through her when she thought of the delicious burn she felt when he pressed it so deeply inside her. Soon. Right now she wanted to feel him come apart in her hands.

She shifted his throbbing cock up to press him against the taut expanse of his belly, cupping the soft weight of his testicles in her other hand. His hips thrust against her hands and she drew the soft flesh into her mouth, gently sucking on the smooth skin.

“Baby, you’re killing me.” His voice rumbled low and hungry in his chest, and she felt his flesh draw up to his body in reaction. Pulling away she let his testicles slide from the moist heat of her mouth. The skin glistened from the stroke of her tongue and she gave them a gentle squeeze in her palm, returning her attention to the purple head of his cock.

A drop of fluid welled and slid over the angry flesh. Kel closed her lips around the head, laved her tongue over the tip.

“Oh, baby, that feels so good. Suck me.” Kel felt a rush of cream flood her from the erotic timbre of his voice. Folding her tongue around the crest she sucked him deeper into her mouth, feeling the soft glide of him over the roof of her mouth. His hips bucked, pressing his broad head into her throat.

“Kel, baby, ah…” He broke off with a low sound when her throat swallowed around him, constricting on the sensitive crest. “Deeper.” His fingers clenched in her hair, pressing himself deeper into her throat.

Kel slid her hands around to clutch at the clenched muscles of his ass, sinking the tips of her nails into the tight globes. He was so hot. That velvet skin over his hard shaft scorched her. She wanted to devour him, to take him so deep that he could never leave her.

He began to pump in and out of her mouth, her throat constricting convulsively around the intrusion.

“Kel. Ah, baby. Suck harder.” Kel dug her fingers in and increased the suction of her lips around him, stroking the underside of his hard length with her tongue. “Oh, yeah, baby. Oh…” Gabe’s ass tensed beneath her hands and she felt the hard swell of his release rush over her in hot dark waves and the salty wash of his seed filling her throat.

Lifting her head with one last delicious slide of her tongue she let her gaze slither up his body. He was all hard and finely sculpted muscle, the three pink scars not detracting from the beauty of all that flesh that was so hot the heat practically shimmered off him in the cool night air.

His long, dark gold hair hung wildly around the sharp angles of his face, made sharper from the wild hunger she could feel in him. She wanted to feel the delicious rasp of his goatee over her skin, the hot wet press of his mouth over her neck. She couldn’t help merging with him; she wanted to feel him, his strength and vitality, every growl of desire her hands and mouth brought him. She wanted to share it all, to crawl into him where she wouldn’t have to fear losing him again. Where he would never be able to leave her alone. His eyes bore intensely into her, harrowing her every shadow and fear, his looming presence expanding in her. His brows lowered as those glowing green eyes searched her.

“NEVER.”

Gabe slowly sank to his knees. His hands cupped around her face and he lowered his head until their breath mingled, their eyes still locked. His tongue glided over her full lower lip, tasting himself on her, letting the memory of those sweet lips stretched around his cock coarse over him with an erotic shiver. So hot. So damn giving. His cock jerked with renewed interest at the remembered feel of it.

“You belong to me and I never give up what is mine.” His tongue slid over the seam of her lips, breathing her in. “Believe in that.”

“I want to,” Kel whispered brokenly. “God, I want to.”

Gabe pulled her tank over her head and lowered her back against the cool tile floor. Her eyes fluttered shut with the shocking sensation as she arched up against him. Her entire body sought the heat of his, trembled from the touch of his hands. Her need for him washed over him, causing a throbbing in the empty aching places. For him. Only for him. Those silky thighs parted to accommodate his hard body.

Gabe let the power of her words course through him. He’d never seen her so vulnerable, needing the connection between them with such an unending ache that had nothing to do with the sharp arousal of her body filling his nostrils. No, her need for him was a deep, aching intensity that was more than the blood they shared.

With a growl he gave the thin material of her sexy little boy shorts a tug and they ripped. Gabe braced one splayed hand on the tile next to her head and reached down to skim one finger through her folds. She was hot and swollen. So soft and wet, like damp silk. She was killing him. Her hunger bombarded him through their bond, intensifying his own. Her aching need crossing their connection made every place his skin touched her skin burn.

Reaching down to take himself into his hand he guided the purple tip of his cock to the moist, grasping folds of her body, jerking from the intense heat of her. With a gentle push of his hips he felt the sensitive knob slide deliciously past the clenching muscles of her small opening, enfolding him in fire.

“You feel so good, baby.” Gabe felt his balls tighten up as he slid farther in. Her body quivered around him, drenching him in liquid heat. “This is just me and you.” He pressed his forehead to hers, their damp skin clinging. He lowered to his elbows next to her shoulder and skimmed his other hand down the smooth curve of her body to grasp her hip and sink all the way into her. She convulsed around him, and he clenched his eyes shut, feeling her fingers thread through his hair. “This won’t change regardless of your past or my future. Believe in that. Believe in me. Trust me.”

Her beautiful neck arched up on a cry as he slowly slid out and then back in. He pressed his mouth to the throbbing column of her neck, absorbing her cries as he began to move in and out. Her hands grasped at the muscles of his back, and he felt his fangs flood his mouth. He wanted to wait, to pull her to that edge, to feel her falling before he drew her back up to that razor edge of desire again.

He felt the heat of her coil around the base of his spine, shimmering through his cock and drawing him so tight. He was close but he could control it, bring her to fulfillment first. Sliding his hand beneath her ass he angled her hips up so he could slide over that sweet, hidden patch that sent tremors through her body. Her eyes flared and rolled with the first touch and he increased his thrusts, lifting his head to watch her break apart.

That delicious fire licked up his spine, but he clenched his teeth against his release as he slammed his hips into hers. She was panting, giving little broken cries, and then her body clamped down so hard around his cock that he felt that white-hot fire shoot up into his head, blinding him. Her body arched and with a moan he lowered his head and sank his fangs into the soft, sensitive flesh on the rise of her breast. Her scream followed him into the explosion in his skull, and he slid the arm that was bracing his weight beneath her shoulders, clutched her convulsing body to him as his big body trembled over her, and emptied himself into her.