Page 20 of Blood and Magic (RBMC: Helena, MT #2)

Maeve

H e didn’t touch me again. Whatever we’d found on the banks of the Blackfoot River stayed there, even as we continued this tenuous dance between us.

Within the next few days, I’d gotten the hang of it. I worked the business side of things and helped Ellen cook dinner after I was done. (She cooked while I learned, and hey, I was getting better every day.) Vermillion came in just after sunset, and we ate like a proper family.

If I squinted just right, I could pretend this was our life. I could pretend we were married, and I played girlboss during the day while he ran the ranch, and at night, he’d whisk me upstairs and make love to me before falling asleep in each other’s arms.

Of course, that was just a stupid pipe dream. He flirted with me, true, but our steamy, hot-blooded tryst ended almost as quickly as it began. If it bordered on anything too salacious, Mill excused himself to his room and left me embarrassed, rejected, and alone.

Things came to a raging halt the following Thursday night.

My headaches had been getting worse, and the chills wouldn’t quit.

Admittedly, I thought I was pregnant, but that was impossible when I hadn’t slept with anyone in months.

My energy was abnormally high, and I didn’t have a fever.

I blamed it on allergies because I didn’t know what else it could be.

“The guys are leaving for the cattle drive the day after tomorrow,” Mill said from across the table, biting into his steak. “We need to be on high alert. We’ll be less protected.”

“Got it,” I said. “So no late-afternoon cliff dives.”

He smiled, heat passing behind his gaze for only a moment before he shut it down. “And no early-morning rides, unfortunately.”

That sucked, but I understood. I hadn’t gotten any more unsettling text messages, but that didn’t mean Marx had gone away. According to Guin and Mill, he was biding his time, waiting for the moment when we were weakest. I had to stay vigilant.

“I’d like you to start coming with me to the barn,” he said. “I can’t protect you via text message.”

My migraine pounded harder between my eyes, but I ignored it. “And here I thought you liked my selfies?” I sighed dramatically. “So demanding. Fine, Vermillion. I’ll start sending you nudes. You only had to ask.”

“Maeve, I’m serious,” he said with an uncharacteristic blush spotting across his skin.

“Me too,” I said. “We’re close enough now. It’s not unreasonable to ask for such things. I mean, I licked your cum off my?—”

“Maeve—”

“Fine,” I said. “But I demand topless shower pics in return. No, I won’t explain why. Fair is fair.”

“Maeve, listen to me,” he said in that commanding no-nonsense tone. I was certain he hadn’t meant it to be a turn-on, but heat sparked between my legs, and I clutched the tablecloth, remembering when he used the same voice to tell me to drop to my knees and open my mouth.

Stop that, stupid girl. That was a one-time thing, never to be repeated. A momentary lapse of judgment.

“Marx is not someone to let this slide. He will come for you, and he won’t stop until he gets you.” Mill ran his stern gaze over me. “Do you understand?”

“Yes, sir.” I nodded and held his demanding stare with a timid one of my own.

Of course, this was hardly the time or place for me to reignite filthy notions between us, but God.

I had thought about him like that so many times, and the real thing had been infinitely better.

And he had imagined it, too. He told me he did.

How many times had he dreamt about going down on me? Did he want more? How much more?

Silence stretched between us as we both realized what I’d said.

Yes, sir.

He leaned forward, rested his elbows on the table, and softened his gaze.

“If you send me naked pictures of yourself, Maeve, I can assure you, sending you topless shower pics will be the least of what I’d do to you in response.”

My blood ran hot as I sucked in a cool breath, my eyes widening in realization. This bordered too close to the line we’d drawn between us after that mistake on the river. But if he was game, so was I.

“Oh, yeah?” I bit my bottom lip. “And what would you do? Chase me through the woods? Tie me down to your bed and…how did you phrase it? Fuck me after you’ve feasted on me as long as you want?”

His gaze turned hungry, something dark dancing behind his irises.

“Don’t tease me, sweetheart,” he said in a low grumble.

“Why?” I licked my lips, and he dropped his focus to the movement before returning to my eyes. “Don’t you like to be teased?”

My pulse pounded as I waited for his response, picking up a steady rhythm that thundered through my veins.

And then I let the taunting drop as another wave of agony sliced through my head and down my spine.

I clutched my chest as my heart banged against my ribs like doldrums, like it was trying to hammer out of my chest.

“I have to lie down.”

Vermillion abruptly stood and walked around the table, coming to my side. “What’s wrong? Here, I’ll help you.”

“Yeah, I just… I don’t know what’s going on.” I pushed upright and dug my palms into my eyes as I headed toward the stairs.

Vermillion rushed toward me and grabbed one of my elbows, steadying me while I walked. I wanted to tell him I didn’t need his help, I didn’t need anyone’s help, but having his hands on me again felt nice. It felt safe, like no one or nothing would ever hurt me.

Bring it on, you Bloody Scorpion fuckers. Vermillion will protect me.

When we got to my bedroom, he helped me to my bed, and I sat on the edge, taking a deep breath of his clean, masculine scent mixed with something richer and deeper, the same thing I’d smelled during our brief tryst. It soothed the headache, breaking up the tension with its heady notes and calm, steadying force.

“What can I do? Do you need anything?”

Mill knelt in front of me and slipped my house slippers off my feet, setting them to the right before looking up at me with mesmerizing eyes.

Staring down at his big body in between my legs unwound the tension in my lower stomach, making me clench my thighs together to alleviate some of the strain.

Being close to him evened out my pulse. It steadied the rhythm in my chest with confusing clarity.

“You’re so beautiful,” I said, running my knuckles down his cheek, memorizing the dip in his bone structure.

He stared at me like I was imaginary, like I might disintegrate any second.

“You’re clearly having a fever hallucination.”

I shook my head. “No. I’ve thought that ever since I’ve known you.”

His features softened. He darted his eyes back and forth between mine, perhaps trying to see if I was lying. I wasn’t.

Without thinking about it, I leaned forward and kissed him, chastely at first, simply testing to see if he would accept it.

But he moaned and leaned into the touch, and it turned hungry.

He opened his mouth, allowing my tongue to press inside, and when it brushed against his, a rush of excitement replaced the trepidation in my bones.

He growled and pushed me on the bed, crawling on top of me, his lips eager for as much as they could get.

Like the time at the river, the energy quickly grew untamed, my fingers scraping into his hair as he bit my mouth, yanking and sucking like he wanted to consume as much of me as he could.

My cunt clenched, suddenly so insatiable and wanton for more.

I spread my legs so he could settle his pelvis in between them, his body writhing on top of me, mine bucking in response.

When I rubbed up against that hard strain in his jeans, I gasped into his mouth, fiery excitement bursting in my blood.

I wanted to press myself against him until I came.

I wanted him to break me apart and put me back together again, a new woman.

Long forgotten were the aches and pains of whatever sickness this was. He made it better. Being with him, touching him, kissing him made it all disappear. Suddenly, the world ceased to exist, it was just him and me and?—

A sharp pain erupted through my lips and down my spine, a sharp metal taste coating my tongue.

Startled, I pulled away from him and touched my mouth. He’d bit me hard enough to draw blood, and I stared at my fingers when they came away crimson and wet.

Every survival instinct I had blared to life, urging me to get away from him as quickly as possible. The dream came back, the one where his eyes turned pitch and he used pointed fangs to tear my throat out, bleeding me dry.

Vermillion’s wide eyes and stunned expression should have had me pushing him away.

Instead, another instinct took over, more primal and inhuman than anything I’d ever experienced.

I pushed my bloody fingers in between his lips as I licked the small wound on my mouth.

He focused on the movement, wrapping his tongue around my digits to suck them clean.

Hot, needy arousal shot through me in a delicious display of molecular fireworks, straight down to the ache between my legs.

I rocked against his pelvis, rubbing the apex of my pussy against the thick length of his cock.

He was so perfect, so muscular and glorious, and I moaned at all the ricochets of nerves coursing through my body.

“Yes,” I purred when he lapped at every drop of liquid, and when he went back to my mouth, he sucked the wound, drawing my essence out of me. It stung, but combined with the way he rolled against me, I wanted more. I wanted him to hold me down and?—

“No.” He snarled and shot off the bed, backing away from me until he was pinned up against the far wall. His eyes seemed to have turned that same dark shade of obsidian from my nightmares, but that must have been his dilated pupils.

“What?” I rushed to sit up, a cold void moving in to replace the vibrant warmth of his body. “What’s wrong?”

He clenched his eyes shut, curled his fingers into fists, and shook with the fury of his restraint. He opened his mouth and shut it a few times before ultimately croaking, “I gotta go.”

Then, he hustled out of my room and left me alone—shaking, bothered, and confused.

As soon as he shut the door behind him, my headache returned with a vengeance, and I shivered.

But the ache between my legs hadn’t gone away.

No, if anything, it had gotten painstakingly worse.

I stared at my ceiling and pressed my palms into my eyes, trying to breathe down the pounding behind them.

Minutes ticked by like decades, but eventually, I couldn’t stand it anymore.

I grabbed my laptop and vibrator, hoping that buzzing one out might alleviate the body aches. At least it would help me sleep.