"That's kind of you…Marsh—oh!"
Mariel tossed her head back as Clay kissed the junction where her thigh met her torso. Such a seemingly innocent spot, and yet so sensitive. Clay dragged his tongue down the crease until his face was between her legs. He groaned as he breathed her in, and Mariel experienced a moment's self-consciousness. Clay didn't allow her to dwell on it for long. With another deep groan, he pushed his nose between her lips and delicately touched her innermost skin with the tip of his tongue.
She was grateful for his broad shoulders to brace against, because otherwise she would have likely drowned in the stream. Clay's tongue slid slowly along her slickness, raising goosebumps on her arms. He reached up and parted her folds, baring the swollen nub of her.
"Prettiest thing ever," Clay said softly. He licked it, slow and thoroughly, the way he sometimes licked her nipples when he woke up before she did in their bedroll.
Mariel bit her bottom lip to hold back a whimper. Shamelessly, she spread her feet in the sand, widening herself so Clay could delve deeper. She lifted one hand from Clay's shoulder to curve it around the back of his sun-kissed hair. When she felt him shudder at the touch, she exerted pressure against the back of his head, encouraging him to forage deeper. He obliged eagerly, as though he'd only been holding back because he was waiting for her signal.
His tongue swirled her clit, raising a cry to her throat. He licked a path low and slow to her entrance, where he pushed himself as far into her as he could. When she bucked in reaction, his big hands gripped her buttocks and pulled her hips firmly up and forward, so he could plunge even deeper into her swollen channel and lick out her juices while she moaned.
Mariel felt faint as Clay continued to pleasure her. She tried to slow her excited breaths, tried to regain some measure of control, but it proved to be an impossible task when she heard the splashing of water and opened her eyes to find Vellum stalking toward them. She gasped and thought of warning Clay, but something in the vampire's almost sly smile made her hold her tongue. Vellum slowed. When he arrived just behind the kneeling Marshal, his passage barely stirred the water.
A new sort of tension tightened Mariel's breath. Though the three of them had touched each other numerous times, such intimacy only ever occurred with Vellum once the vampire fed from one of them. His bite was the inciting action. It was the excuse, Mariel realized in reflection, especially for Clay.
She had wondered about Vellum, too, though. Wondered if he became intimate with them only because the domination involved with feeding from them aroused him. He had admitted as much, but she had hoped there was more involved, hoped that his will was involved in some way. His desire. For them.
She thought the answer to that question might very well be answered in the next few seconds. The look on Vellum's face was one she had seen before.
Already panting and flushed, Mariel began trembling for a new reason as Vellum extended a pale hand and followed the same path with it that Clay's hand had taken. It was as if the vampire could see or sense Clay's touch on her body and wanted to mimic it. Reinforce it. Vellum's finger against her nipple made her whimper and thrust her hips forward. Below and between them, Clay groaned and licked at her with renewed passion.
"Mariel," Vellum whispered, his black eyes piercing her. He smiled, not quite baring the tips of his incisors, but she knew they were there. Oh, how her body knew they were there and how sharp and seductive they felt as they pierced her. "Come here, Mariel."
He cupped her behind the nape exactly as Clay had done, his hand cooler and smoother but no less demanding as he pulled her toward him. As she leaned forward, she watched Vellum lower his other hand and firmly grip a handful of Clay's hair.
Clay startled, realizing the touch wasn't Mariel's. But before he could move back, Vellum used the grip on his hair to hold the Marshal's face firmly between Mariel's legs.
"Do your job, Marshal," Vellum purred down to him. His eyes glinted at Mariel with a predator's hunger. "And I'll do mine."
Now would be the time that Clay resisted. He had nothing to hide behind, no magical vampire powers to blame for his actions.