Page 20 of Bonded By Blood (Sweetblood #1)
CHAPTER TWENTY
D om knew that to anyone watching, he must look like a drunk as he ran down the oyster-shell path to the cabin, his knees buckling every few steps, his arms stretched out for balance. It was midafternoon when he’d pulled into the resort a few minutes ago.
Even with the tinted windows of the Porsche, dark sunglasses, a hoodie and a ball cap, the sunlight had sapped too much of his energy. But he didn’t care. He needed to see to Mackenzie’s safety himself. Chuck had assured him she was fine, but that wasn’t enough. With the knowledge that she was on the DB list, he couldn’t rest until he was with her, holding her in his arms.
He clung to the railing, stumbled down the stairs, but on the last step, he tripped and sprawled on the pathway. The unyielding sun enveloped his face and eyelids with searing heat. His sunglasses and cap were gone—lost in the fall. He crawled on his hands and knees, somehow making it inside the cabin before he fully collapsed.
Her scent filled his nostrils, but he didn’t feel her presence inside. He didn’t need to search the rooms to know she wasn’t here. The entry mat just inside the door felt bristly against the back of his head. He focused inward, concentrated, and picked up her latent energy trail. She was somewhere nearby.
He pushed himself up and headed to the windows. Thank God the automatic blinds had been deactivated. He didn’t know if he had the strength to find the switch if he had needed to open them.
He spotted her immediately, walking alone on the rocky beach, wearing some crazy red boots.
How could he have left her, like he had with his parents, when he knew the danger she faced? What a goddamn fool he was not to admit what she meant to him. To assume she’d be fine without him.
He watched as she pulled her hair forward and over one shoulder, then she stooped to turn over a rock. His heart slammed in his chest and his throat was thick and swollen as he remembered that afternoon in the cemetery. Her hair, her graceful movements, her long legs. She entranced him now just as she had then.
Mackenzie. My beautiful Mackenzie. She turned then and stared up at him. Of course, she could feel him.
A hidden reserve of energy surged through his veins. Somehow, he made it out the door and down the three steps to the beach. When he saw her running toward him as well, his heart surged. She wasn’t still angry with him for last night. It was a sheer miracle he didn’t fall backward when she jumped into his arms and wrapped her legs around his waist. He hadn’t realized how empty he had felt until he was holding her again. His knees gave way and they sank to the ground.
“I’m sorry I left you.”
His fingers gripped her hair, and he pulled her lips to his. Greedily, he kissed her cheeks, her eyelids, her neck, her earlobes. He couldn’t get enough. He needed to make love to her, to be inside her. To have nothing separating them but skin. Share energies and?—
If it were dark, he’d take her right on the beach, like he had last night. How had he ever thought he could leave her?
I love you. The words, his words, tumbled unbidden in his thoughts.
“I love you, too,” she said huskily as she pulled back to look at him. Her hair cascaded around them, shielding them from the outside world. Her eyes were heavy with desire.
He hardly heard the dull roar of the waves or the seagulls screeching in the wind as he pushed himself up and swept her into his arms. Rejuvenated by her energies, he carried her back to the cabin.
Not stopping to close the blinds, he slammed the door shut with his foot. His boots pounded on the floor as he strode into the bedroom. All that mattered was what he was going to do to her in about ten seconds. He needed her in a way that defied all logic. Given how her nails dug into his shoulders and her heart banged in his head, she clearly felt the same. He didn’t need to get into her mind to know that—her body language didn’t need translating.
He tossed her on the bed, kicked off his boots, and unzipped his fly. It was the only undressing he did. She shimmied her jeans around her ankles and wrenched one leg free. He was on her in an instant. With an otherworldly cry he’d never uttered before, he plunged himself inside.
“Dom, I want you to know that when you’re ready, if you ever are, I’m ready.”
She could see the doubt in his eyes. He obviously didn’t think he was strong enough, but she knew otherwise. She was sure of it. “I trust you completely. I won’t push you, but please know it’s important to me to give all of myself to you.” Her voice caught on the lump in her throat. She knew she’d break in half eventually if he didn’t drink from her. It was that vital, that important. “I want to be everything you need. Like you are to me.”
His eyes clouded. “You are, Kenz. You are, but—” He started to say something else, probably a protest about it not being safe. Some nonsense about him hurting her, but she shushed him with her lips.
“No talking. Just know that I want that someday. For now, I need you to love me.”
The rumble in his chest echoed inside her as his hands grazed lightly down her sides. Obviously, it was going to be slower this time. Slow and meaningful. Although hard and fast was very good, too. Sex with him was a drug—she was an addict who constantly needed more. She wanted to breathe in his essence and bottle him up inside to save him for later.
He cupped her bottom and lifted her onto his erection with an ease that made her feel weightless. He obviously hadn’t softened from what she could tell, and he slid in effortlessly again. They moved together as one, a choreographed dance both of them knew by heart. She was in a dream that she never wanted to end. If she could feel him like this every day for the rest of her life, she’d know the meaning of heaven on earth.
His lips caressed one nipple as his thumb rubbed across the other. She arched her back and moaned his name.
“I love how my name sounds on your lips,” he said, speeding up the pace of his thrusts. “I want to hear it from you again, when I lock myself inside you.”
Every nerve ending sizzled with anticipation as his large hands gripped her hip bones like handles and pushed her down farther. There was that hitch again and her body welcomed him home.
She cried out his name over and over, not consciously forming the words, but nonetheless uttering them as he had wanted. Her body clearly responded to him with an awareness all its own.
With his warm hands spread wide on her thighs, he kept her clamped tightly against him. No thrusting, just gentle rocking back and forth. He seemed hypnotized by the swaying of her breasts, watching them through half-closed lids, almost as if he were waiting for the snap of a finger to spur him to action. The tip of his tongue darted out for a moment.
Seeing his desire for her lifted her to new heights. And just like that, he lifted forward and took a nipple into his mouth.
She tried to wait, to savor the glorious sensations, to revel in the beauty of his chiseled body beneath her, but it was no use. Her muscles quivered as the pressure cranked to an almost mind-numbing pinnacle in an instant. Her fingers pressed against the damp skin of his chest as the cords of his neck strained. He shuddered powerfully between her legs. When his sex pulsed inside her, she crashed round him yet again.