Vengeance: The Niteclif Evolutions, Book 3 (35 page)

“Hellion—”

His lips closed over mine, cutting off whatever inane excuse I’d been about to make about needing sleep. Frankly, the words were gone the moment he delved into my mouth. Broad hands skimmed over my shirt and unbuttoned it slowly as he sipped from my mouth, coaxing me to reach for him as he moved backward. When I raised my hands to cup his face, he gently put them behind my back and pulled my shirt down my shoulders. My wrists ended up bound, caught in the fitted cuffs, but not so tight I couldn’t pull free.

“Don’t,” he murmured, apparently reading my mind as he trailed hot, open-mouthed kisses down my neck to my collarbone. He rimmed the hollow at the base of my throat.

I was awash in sensation—the touch of his tongue on bare skin, the scent of his cologne as it moved on the air, the brush of his hair against my breasts, the minty taste of gum he’d chewed recently, the heat of his breath on my breasts, the work-roughened hands that traced the sensitive skin of my bared nipples. Combined, it dragged me further under.
 

I struggled, fighting the need to give in, to return his touch and score his skin with my nails. Twisting, my stitches pulled. The discomfort was enough to keep me grounded. For now.

Hellion trailed kisses down my chest, tongue circling each nipple only briefly,
too
briefly, before moving on. A groan of frustration escaped and I felt his grin against the skin under one breast, followed by a sharp nip.

I couldn’t stop the gasp of surprise.
 

“Take it, Maddy.” He continued to move down my body, his mouth growing more possessive, more demanding as he undid my pants and slid them to the floor. Kneeling before me, he ran hot hands up my sides and then down my arms. With my wrists in one hand, he nudged my knees apart.
 

Hot breaths slid through my panties and burned the sensitive skin beneath. My hips bucked forward, bumping his chin.
 

“Not yet,
mo chroí
. Not yet.” His tongue danced over the silk, wetting and circling that area I so needed him to reach.
 

I whimpered and moved, physically pleading with him to love me.

“Not yet.” He nipped my clitoris.

My knees buckled.
 

Hellion didn’t hesitate. He forced me to stand, waiting until my knees stiffened again, before continuing his exploration of my body. Small kisses, stinging teeth, laving tongue—it overwhelmed me.

My internal circuit board shorted out and I became nothing more than a mass of nerve endings. When he stripped off my pants, I whimpered as cloth raked over skin. “Hellion,” I pleaded.

“Not yet,” he repeated.

Those were fast becoming my two least favorite words in all of language. I looked down past the rapid rise and fall of my chest into pulsing black eyes. “Now who’s the tease?”

“This is the prelude to a promise I intend to fulfill.” His tongue traced the line between my thong and the skin of my hip. “Eventually.”

The jarring rip of silk made my nipples ache. Cool air whispered through the apex of my thighs, circling prime areas with enough intent I knew Hellion directed it. “Bastard.”

He nipped my hip. Hard. “I’ve been called worse and likely will again before I’m through with you.”
 

A forward lunge found me slung over his shoulder, my hands trapped behind me. Before I could even begin to struggle, he flipped me off his shoulder and turned me, mid-air, to land on the arm of the sofa. I jackknifed over the arm of the sofa, face buried in extra pillows. When I struggled to rise, a firm hand planted between my shoulders kept me in place.

Unintelligible words and magic moved around me right before a satin blindfold slipped over my eyes and was firmly tied behind my head. “You’ll trust me to see to you tonight.” The outwardly confident statement decorated the underlying question.

“Yes.”
 

The single, shaky word was apparently all he’d been waiting on. The blind rip of the zipper had hardly registered before he slipped home in one slow, steady thrust.

Arms pinned behind me, shoulders supporting my upper body, I couldn’t move. And gods preserve me, I wanted to. I wanted more than the potential of orgasm, more than this waiting. I wanted to take control and drive the moment. Instead, I became captive to it as Hellion began to move with slow, sensual, rolling strokes that seemed to make the most of his size, my position and my desperation. As he repeatedly stroked my G-spot, I struggled to push against him.
 

He slowed his movements.

“Please,” I moaned.
 

“Please
what
, my heart?”
 

“Take me.”

“And?”

“Love me.”

“Always.” Another slow, rolling stroke as he pulled my struggling hands into a fierce grip. “Forever.”

“Please,” I gasped.

“Be more specific,” he answered, his breathing only slightly elevated.

“Keep me,” I breathed. Tears stung my eyes, and I was suddenly intensely grateful for the blindfold that would hide my hope, that horrible bastard hope.

“More permanently than any prophecy might foretell.” He slammed into me and I moaned. “And for far longer than any vows,
mo shíorghrá
.”
 

The slap of skin on skin took up a brutal rhythm. My sex swelled, my arousal running free. “Yes,” I grunted as he hit the end of my channel. “Again.”

He slowed fractionally. “Tell me, Maddy. Tell me who owns your heart.”

There wasn’t any hesitation on my part. “You do.” I wrapped my fingers around his the best I could. “Body, heart and soul.”

He bent forward and slid a hand around my front, fingers poised. “You slay me, lay me open for the world to see. You are both my greatest strength and greatest weakness. You,
anamchara
. Always you. Body.” Slam. “Heart.” Kiss to the juncture of my neck and shoulder. “Soul.” Bite to the muscle, just there, and a fierce flick of my clit.

I came undone under his complete control. It hardly registered when he followed me into the abyss with a single word.
 

My name.

I squinted a single eye, gritty with too little sleep, toward curtains that had just been yanked open. “My kingdom for five more minutes,” I muttered.

“Afraid not, love.” The mattress sank and rolled me toward Hellion’s hip. His hand stroked my bare back. “You were amazing,” he said so softly I wondered if I’d imagined it.

Glancing up at him, I found him looking at me with something akin to wonder. “What?”

“Nothing.”
 

“No. What is it?”

“The connection to you last night…” He shrugged. Embarrassment climbed his cheeks and charmed me. He cleared his throat and looked toward the window.

I rolled over and pulled on his arm. When he looked toward me, I yanked harder.

Hesitant, he shifted over me and came to rest in the V of my legs. “Not too tender?”

“No more than I had hoped to be.” I smiled gently. “I felt the connection too. You’re my heart, Hellion. How could I not?”

His forehead came to rest on mine. “Aye, and I’m the same. Scared me so when you flew out of here last night, Maddy. Thought you might have had reason to rethink us, the…” He closed his eyes.

“The what?” I asked against his lips, shifting to kiss him softly.

He never opened his eyes. “Engagement.”
 

“Look at me.” The words were delivered gently, but without room for argument or compromise. When his gaze met mine, I kissed him again, eyes wide open. Pulling back, I said, “I see you, Hellion, in every second of every minute of every hour that I live. I’ll marry you not because I need to but because I want to.”

His eyelids fluttered shut as he murmured a short prayer of thanks to Odin. When he finally looked at me again, his irises had consumed the whites of his eyes. His voice, preternaturally deep, raised goose bumps along every inch of skin. “Marry me. When this is done tonight, become my wife.”

“Yes.”

He kissed me deeply.

When something brushed my forehead, I opened my eyes to find a shower of red rose petals drifting down on us. His emotions had overflowed into his magic. I pulled back and grinned. “Rose petals but not roses, huh?”

His answering grin made my heart flip over in my chest. “Roses have thorns, though it was a near thing. I rarely lose control, but you bring it out in me.”

“And gladly.”
 

His cock stirred against my cleft and I shifted to accommodate him. And in timing as perfect as I’d come to expect, someone knocked on the door.
 

“Come in, Mark,” Hellion called, not even looking over his shoulder.

The butler entered and immediately began stuttering and stumbling over his words, trying valiantly to portray his worldliness. He failed. Miserably. Though I doubt I’d have done much better if I were forever cursed to interrupt my employer in, well, pre-coitus. Mark was the interruptus.
 

“Spit it out and then shut the door behind you,” Hellion said, never shifting his focus from me.

“Micah’s come upstairs in search of lunch and the new guest is—”

“Shit,” I shouted at the same time Hellion lunged off the bed and headed for the door. “Get Micah downstairs, now! I don’t care if you have to throw a fucking side of beef at him.”

Hellion didn’t even pause as he blew past Mark. Ever dutiful, the butler turned and raced after Hellion. They hadn’t cleared the doorway when he and Mark were both silently launched back into the room.
 

I had a split second to think
Oh shit
when the soundless percussion picked me up and shoved me into the headboard. I hit with enough force that the air was shoved from my lungs, my stitches were ripped free and I heard bones creak. It stopped as fast as it had started. I fell to the bedding with a muted thud as I desperately tried to seize a single breath.
 

Hellion barked at Mark to stay down, eyes closed, as he stumbled to me and checked my bleeding side. It was only the stitches themselves that had pulled free, not the original wound, which seemed to have healed. He tossed the foot throw over me before seeing to Mark.

The young man appeared shaken, his eyes having a little trouble tracking when Hellion tried to get him to follow his finger.
 

I finally managed to wheeze, “What the crap was that?”

“I’m going to guess that was the ‘chime’ Zerachiel referred to earlier.” His disgruntled tone intensified when he looked up and found the very Nephilim standing in the doorway. “What the bloody hell, man? Could ye not use star-nine as instructed?”

“Apologies.” His fury was palpable.
 

I tucked the covers around me. “What happened?”
 

“Seems your ‘mutt’ was intent on demanding an accounting of my presence here.” A shaky sigh escaped him. “The call’s been sent out. There’s nothing to do but prepare.”

“Will Agares wait until tonight?” Hellion’s tone promised someone was getting his ass kicked, and he was hoping to have a productive outlet. At least he hadn’t lost his temper completely and broken anything, or anyone.

“It’s the most we can hope for.” Zerachiel ran a trembling hand through his hair before spinning and putting his fist through the wall. “I hate being so ineffectual!” Chest heaving, he turned back to Hellion. “I’ll fix the damage.”

“Don’t worry about the damage, mate. Let’s just get this little war council convened so darkness doesn’t catch us unawares.”

The two men looked at each other and, as a single unit, nodded in agreement. Hellion turned back to me. “Maddy, grab your shower and ready yourself. You had the idea for the priest. My proverbial dragon to slay or not, you’ll be laying out the battle plan.”

Well, shit.

Fifteen minutes later, I skipped down the steps and strode toward the formal dining room. It had become the congregating spot, partly because it held everyone and partly because there was food. Needing Hellion close in every way, I’d bathed using his soap. I was desperate to maintain the connection we’d established, the one that annihilated the last barriers between him and all of me. Likewise, it seemed reciprocal, that he’d given over the last piece of himself into my care. Particularly with this gesture, trusting me to plan out Agares’s demise.
 

My steps slowed until I stopped just outside the pocket doors I’d envisioned flinging open in a statement of brazen confidence to anyone who doubted me. Including me. Now the doors were the last barriers between me and potential failure. On so many levels I didn’t want to fail. Even though this was an abnormal case, I come to firmly believe the justice I was delivering was on Hellion’s behalf. Micah had just been the vehicle that brought it to my doorstep.
 

I couldn’t fail Hellion. If I did… The thought was an impossibility I couldn’t entertain. Beginning to fade terrified me. I couldn’t help but wonder what would happen,
how
it would happen, and Tyr wasn’t around for me to ask.