chapter THIRTEEN
The sting of her hand connecting with his face had him clenching his fist. But he would never hit her. No. He could never hit—his—angel, Angela. Hadn’t he done everything he could? The man he came to know as Reed Stephenson now had an ally. Now… instead of one last to kill, there were two. He’d eluded him like a slippery eel. Was it his fault?
He stared into Angela’s eyes, eyes that had grown red from tears, dark from hatred. God, he hated it when she cried. Her tears made him do things. Do things he wouldn’t have thought humanly possible for him. He hated himself and her for the days he would burn in hell. But he did it for her, didn’t he?
“Don’t start with me, Angela. I’m getting it done.”
She swung her body around so fast he took a step back. She grabbed her hair in her fisted hands near the scalp and tugged, as if to pull it out. He cringed and looked away. “You aren’t doing a damn thing!” She paced around the room. “I don’t know why I thought I could count on you.”
“You can count on me.” He swallowed past the lump in his throat. “It’s not as easy as you think.”
“What--” She stepped up to him, shoved her flattened hands on his chest and shoved him back. “What I need is for you to—” She cupped her hands in front of her face, dropped to her knees and rocked. Her sobs made his heart weep. “Please, Brian. I don’t ask for much.”
“Don’t ask for much!” He yelled, his voice ricocheting in his head. “I’m killing a God damn species for you!”
“You know what they did to me. Don’t you care?” her voice lowered to a mere whisper, cold and hard. She glared up at him, her sorrowful eyes gone, replaced with hate and scornfulness and revenge.
Of course he knew. They killed her parents, left her an orphan. But wasn’t it an accident? Weren’t they where they shouldn’t have been? Prying into other people’s business? No one will ever know for sure. The only thing he did know, his wife, Angela would never find peace. And neither would he. He stared at her for another minute, watching, waiting for the next hate filled words. How could someone with such an angelic name-- Angela, be filled with so much revulsion for another?
“You know, they’ll come after me. Is that what you want?” Her voice hitched.
It was all a game she played, the change in her voice, the tears, the sorrow she could put in her eyes at a second’s notice. He opened his mouth, closed it. What could he say? She was right. Was he even a man if he couldn’t bring his own wife the peace she sought?
She wrung her hands together and continued, her gaze never leaving his face. “Is that what you want, for them to come after me? Rape me? Torture me? Make me bear one of those hideous offspring? Would you love me then? Would you want me then, Brian?”
He wasn’t sure he wanted her now. He grimaced at the thoughts floating through his mind. How could he not want her? He loved her. Didn’t he? He lowered his head, in submission. “I’ll get it done,” he promised, turned and stormed toward the door.
“And for God’s sake, don’t come back to my bed until you do!”
He closed the door on her screams, not wanting or needing to hear more. God had nothing to do with what they were doing.
* * *
Denver tied the sheet around her body, sarong style. She hadn’t spoken a word in over an hour. Reed continued to talk to her as if they were in a conversation. She hoped he’d rest, but he silently refused with a shake of his head. She was still angry, but she didn’t know why. After all, he could be an a*shole when he wanted and she knew this from the moment he’d first opened his eyes days before in the hospital.
She reached into the bag she’d brought in earlier, pulled out a jar of crimson liquid. Reed sat on the edge of the bed, his gaze trailing a line from her face to the jar.
“Protein?”
She couldn’t fight the curve that tugged the corners of her mouth. “You have your burgers, I have mine.”
“Where’d you get it?”
“Found a butcher a couple of blocks away. Specializes in pork cuts.”
“So, you prefer oink over moo.”
Reed watched her as she lifted the jar to her mouth and took several swallows. The heat in his eyes was unnerving. It coiled the muscles in her belly, sending heat to the junction between her thighs. She wanted to look away but he kept her pinned with his gaze. He wasn’t repulsed, like she thought he’d be. Instead he looked enthralled.
“You really didn’t have to do that. I would have freely given you some of mine.”
She smiled, remembering the lust and heat from the last time he shared his blood. She shook her head. “Save it. You may need it later.”
She took another gulp and sat the jar aside. Looking up she found Reed standing in front of her, his hand on her shoulders pulling her to stand in front of him. Before she could object his mouth was on hers, his tongue probing, licking, tasting. He lifted his mouth from her, stared into her eyes. They were as dark as midnight, and glistening with stars.
“I see why you like it.” He slowly slid his tongue across his top lip.
Her heart pounded. Moisture dampened the junction of her thighs. He captured her mouth again and staggered the moan escaping her throat. Her legs wobbled and she would have toppled to the floor if he hadn’t caught her, steadied her with his thigh. His mouth ravished her while one hand released the sheet covering her body and the other cupped her breast, kneading, caressing.
Her breath rushed from her lungs on a wave of sensation. He swung her around, bent her over the table and pressed his hips to her buttocks. He was hard as a pole, and just as thick pressing between her butt cheeks. The whirr of his zipper had her gasping for air. The room swam around her head when his mouth kissed a line down the plane of her back.
Reed kneeled behind her, his mouth torturing her with each stroke of his tongue. Fingers parted her folds and his tongue licked across her inflamed bud, buckling her knees. But he was there, holding her in place.
“Oh, God, Reed. More.” He drove his tongue into her, lapped at juices flowing freely from her.
He hummed against her, sending a new wave of electrical impulses through her body. He was killing her. She wanted him in her. She wanted his shaft to fill her to bursting, to pound into her until she lost her mind.
“Now. Please!”
“Not yet,” his voice purred, driving her insane with need and desire. He turned her around, captured her swollen nubbin between his lips, stroked her with his tongue and then he stopped. He gazed up into her face, a feral grin covering his mouth. “I want to taste you. Taste you as you tasted me.”
What was he saying? Taste her? Wasn’t he doing that? Oh, my God. Realization hit her. What was he doing to her? She knew exactly what he asked, what he wanted. Without hesitation, she reached down and with her fingernail jabbed it into the interior side of her thigh, just below her groin, panting when she broke skin. She twisted her finger, dragging it along her skin to make the hole larger. She felt her blood bubble to the surface and pool.
His lips were on her within seconds, his tongue licking, tasting. Reed moaned his pleasure a second before his mouth latched on, suckled, his moans mingling with her cries of pleasure. He slid a finger into her quivering sheath, and then another, began to gently pump in and out as his thumb scraped across her engorged bud. She came instantly, her body exploding with a scream.
Reed lifted his head, turned her body and again bent her across the table. In one swift surge he imbedded his rod straight to her core. Her breath stopped, her heart fluttered and died all on a wave of pleasure so profound she knew she’d found heaven.
She pressed back, begging to take more. Reed brought his hands around her body, one grasping, tweaking her nipple, the other sliding between her thighs and caressing her where her heat raged like an inferno. She couldn’t give him what he asked, more. She shook her head in denial of her own body’s abilities as her fingernails dug into the table, seeking purchase.
“I ca--” her breath hitched, her voice trembled. “Can’t give… you more.” She gyrated her hips, gasping with each stroke.
“Ah, yes, you can. And you will.” He pounded harder, his movements slamming the table against the wall holding it securely in place. His mouth burned kisses along her back, across her shoulders. His hands a delightful torture. “Give me everything.”
He twisted her nipple between thumb and forefinger as he slid in and out of her, rasping against ultra-sensitive nerve endings. Every muscle in her body imploded, turned to liquefied heat. She threw her head back and screamed the exact second his body exploded. She moaned as her incisors protracted, slowly slicing through her gums. Reed’s growl of satisfaction sent wave after wave of torturous pleasure though her body. She slumped against the table, her legs no longer able to hold her up.
Reed lifted her into his arms, swung her onto the bed and laid her down. He sprawled his body next to her, pulled her over to lay prone atop him. For a brief moment he regarded her in the dim light from the lamp next to the bed. He studied her face, her lips, her eyes. He touched the tip of her incisors that had yet to retract. His gaze was pure unrelenting lust when he parted his lips into another soft, muscle-liquefying smile. He lowered her face to his shoulder, turning his head to expose his neck, his heartbeat thrumming rapidly beneath the skin. His shaft still hard, pressing against her, stirred more heat.
She licked his neck, purred at the salty sweetness of it. She shifted, lifted her body above him, placing the head of his shaft against the entrance of her core. Reed ground his pelvis up to her, sheathing her to fullness when her teeth bit into him. When she drank of his nectar he growled a lust filled moan as her body clutched around him. Together they erupted like molten lava, their energies merging together as one reminiscent of a super nova. Panting for breath, a minute later she closed her sleepy eyes and slumped across his body.
“Now we sleep,” said Reed. Their bodies still connected.
With a hum of satisfaction she purred her response. She couldn’t do anything but.