Page 46

FORTY-SIX

Reed

G etting Fiona out of the vampire’s nest was the top priority. Carmine’s threats about snatching her to feast upon were not idle. His eyes were practically glowing with his bloodlust as he watched me carrying her toward the stairwell, down to the back of the casino, while she moaned and whimpered in my arms.

To my surprise and relief, Kieran waited at the bottom of the stairs, holding open the back exit fire door to the casino, so I didn’t have to carry my freshly bitten mate back through the nest of hungry vampires, all of whom could smell the blood smeared on her neck and Carmine’s bite fresh on her.

“I’ve called you a private car. The driver will take you anywhere that you direct. I understand that you need to tend to her, but it would be best that you not linger in Las Vegas. Now that he’s had a taste of her, he’ll want another.” His gaze fixed on Fiona’s pulse as he said the last part, and I snarled, not liking his fixation with her blood.

Her djinn blood. She was so out of it with venom-induced desire, I don’t think she’d even clocked that Carmine had answered the question she’d been wrestling with since finding out she wasn’t fully human. I thanked Kieran and climbed into the back of the waiting limousine.

She was grinding on my lap, kissing my neck, trying to untie my tie before I could even direct the driver.

“Mesquite Municipal Airport, turn up the music, and keep the privacy screen closed.”

The driver hurried to roll up the privacy screen, and a moment later, the jazz saxophone on the speakers ramped up in volume to drown out Fiona’s mewling.

I held her, kissing her thoroughly to appease her but not escalating things as the limo rolled out into the heavy traffic on the Strip. I didn’t fully exhale until I felt the limousine pick up speed, getting onto the interstate out of town.

“Reed, why did you stop kissing me?” she asked breathlessly, grabbing my jaw and trying to drag me back to her lips.

“I need to text the pilot to get the jet ready. We’re leaving.”

“Okay. But not until after.”

“After?”

“After you take off your pants.”

“Stormy girl, this is a bad idea.” She whined, a distinctly wolfish sound that had mine perking up. “I mean it, Fiona. The urge will pass. I’m not sure how you’ll feel tomorrow if we have sex while you’re still hopped up on vampire venom.”

“Reed, I’m dying here . Please?” She rocked against me, her red gown rucked up around her thighs, and my resolve started to weaken. She begged so prettily.

“I said yes to the venom. And now, I’m saying yes to you. I’m always saying yes to you. Please, please don’t make me ache like this until it wears off?”

She whined again, and damn it all, a line of tears formed on her lower lashes.

Fucking vampires.

I threaded my fingers into her carefully pinned hair and hauled her back against my chest.

“I’m going to take care of you, but we have to be careful. If you keep making noises like that, you’re going to send me into rut, and I’m not going to be able to keep my head on straight until we’re out of vampire territory and safely in the air to get back to the pack.”

“I’m sorry.” Her bottom lip started trembling as a tear broke free and trailed down her cheek. Something feral inside me snapped. She’d done this for my pack. There was no way I was letting her suffer for it, not even if it was a bad idea.

“You don’t owe me any apologies, Stormy girl. We’ll get through this together. Come here.” I leaned her against me, then reached behind her to unzip the dress. She happily shimmied out of it, and I tossed it to the floor of the limo as she peeled off her bra.

Blood had trickled down her neck, dried and sticky now as it trailed over the top of her breast. The sight was not helping me keep control, because bonding bites were often exchanged during heats, and my wolf was responding to her needy whimpers as if she was going into heat. Feeling her burning need mirrored in my own chest was new and distracting.

I could feel the rut rising, the desire to sink my fangs into the other side of her neck making them drop heavy in my mouth as my dick throbbed against the zipper of my pants.

I counted backward from ten as I swiped away the blood with my thumb, resisting the urge to lick it off. Any residual venom wouldn’t have the same effect on me that it did on her, and I couldn’t afford to get secondhand venom poisoning if I needed to watch our backs from possible vampire attack.

Slightly more settled, I laid her back across the bench seat, following her down so my weight settled over her. She arched and sighed, clearly enjoying the fact that I was giving her more of what she wanted.

Starting on the unbitten side of her neck, I nipped and kissed, then eased the sting with my tongue as I kissed my way down her bare chest. Her hips rolled against me as I worshipped her breasts, circling one nipple with my tongue before moving to the other.

I had barely started when she began to shake, another orgasm rolling through as she whimpered and writhed on the seat. I swallowed her cries in a kiss, knowing there was only so much jazz could cover, and I was not sharing anything else of hers today. Not a single sound of pleasure; they were only mine.

“Reed?” Her voice shook when she placed a hand on my chest, stopping me where I’d worked my way back down to her hips.

“What is it?” My gaze was sharpened when I looked up at her, and I knew she was seeing my wolf’s eyes, but I couldn’t pull him back. The jealousy spike had brought him back to the forefront.

“I’m not sure I can get on the plane right now.” She held up one shaking, blue hand, and I realized that her own eyes were glowing amber, her djinn side making itself known as she rode the waves of pleasure.

Fuck.

“Are you in control?” I took her hand in mine, rising over her again to pin it over her head to the plush seat beneath us. “I can stop.”

“Please don’t stop. I want— I need you not to stop, but I don’t think it’s smart to get in an aircraft if I’m, I’m?—”

“Okay, that’s all right. It’s going to be okay.” I kissed her hard, then sat up, pressing the button for the intercom to the driver. “Change of plans. I need you to take us to the Zodiaque Resort Vegas, and then drive to the airport and out of town. If the vampires ask, you dropped us off at the airport after picking up our bags, and we were headed for the nearest pack in California.”

I dropped the intercom button, not waiting for him to answer. The driver, who I’d scented on the way past him as he held the door for me, was lesser fae. He’d know what to do and also not to cross me and report back to the vampires anything other than what I’d told him.

I had nursed Fiona through another orgasm by the time we arrived, barely managing to keep my wolf in check with the fact that she wasn’t safe yet. Her safety came first, even above an impending rut, which was driving me to claim her.

She whined as I pulled the dress back over her head to carry her through the lobby, but I hushed her with a kiss. I carried her past the check-in desk and the goblin running it, and within a minute, we were back in our top-floor suite, finally alone and safe.

I carried her to the bed, my hands trembling as I set her down.

“Reed? Are you okay?” She grabbed my hands, worry breaking through the fog of lust she’d been swaddled in for a moment as if she could sense my predicament.

“I’m fine. Just trying not to go out of my mind. The rut… I wasn’t kidding before when I said you were saving me. The darkness is heavy, the desire to just let loose… I can’t afford to lose control like that.”

She pressed up to her knees, wrapping her arms around my neck.

“What can I do? How can I help?” Even her whispered offer was a balm for my jagged control. She was safe, right here in my arms.

“Just be yourself. I might… I might not be able to hold back when the edge is this close. I don’t want to be too rough with you.”

She grinned up at me, then took my bottom lip between her teeth, tugging lightly as she bit down. “What if I like it rough sometimes?”

The growl that tore itself out of me filled the room, and her eyes flared bright amber at the sound.

“Ooh, I like that, mate.”

And she did. The blue was fanning out from her eyes, the designs I so rarely got to see swirling over her skin spreading over her like water flowing.

“Is it too much?” I asked, even though I was hanging on to my control by a thread the width of a strand of hair. If she said no, I would walk away. Even if it killed me.

Rain started to pound on the floor-to-ceiling windows, wind whipping into a frenzy outside. “I think it’s exactly enough. Maybe we both just need to let off a little steam.” The tips of her ears had turned pointed, her dirty-blonde hair flowing into deep raven all before my eyes.

My hard-fought control snapped, the invitation in her eyes breaking the dam in one great burst, need for her drowning out everything else.

She was magnificent, a wild creature—untamed by time or touch.

And she was all mine.