Page 21 of Making Out With Mermaids (Haven Ever After #6)

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

BETMAL

A matheia slides into my arms, winding hers around my neck as she brushes her lips against mine. “Take me to bed, mate.” Her expression goes tentative. “I haven’t done this but I’m so ready to.”

Groaning, I take her mouth, my kiss desperate as I turn toward the house. The cottage swings the side entry door open and I stalk toward my bedroom. Inside, I pace to the bed and toss my mate in.

I had planned to introduce her to my bedroom through a very sexy tour, but we’re too lost to the heat. She doesn’t even look around, just rises from the bed like a fucking queen and points me toward it.

I’d prepped the room with the curtains drawn and candles on the side tables. It’s darkly sumptuous but she’s past the point of noticing those small details.

“Sit.”

I spin to face her, unable to hold back a smile.

She pushes me toward the bed with a little laugh, but I hold my ground, hauling her against me as I run both hands over the firm globes of her perfect ass.

“You called me mate .”

One dark brow lifts, her self-satisfied smile matching mine. “And so?”

I slide a hand up between her breasts, curling my fingers around her throat.

“And so, it’s an admission, ma siréne, that you know I’m right. We belong together; we have always belonged together.”

“Yes,” she whispers, her lips curling back to reveal her tiny upper fangs. “And I want to taste what belongs to me, Betmal.”

That confidence is such an aphrodisiac, and I want to blow oxygen into the flames of that fire.

“It turns me on when you talk to me like that,” I murmur. “Keep going, my sweet.” Reaching down, I slide her skirt off her hips, pushing it toward the ground so she stands before me in all her glorious nudity. Tiny scales run down her sides, accentuating the lines of her abdominal muscles. The same scale pattern runs up the sides of her thighs and around dark aqua nipples, pebbled in anticipation of me.

Tossing my ripped shirt aside, I stare at her. But she’s staring back, eyes eating me up as they move over my chest and shoulders, down my stomach to my waist.

Chuckling, I unbutton my slacks and let them fall. My cock bobs hard against my thigh, dripping seed from our earlier play on the car hood.

“Touch me,” I command. “Ma siréne, I need to feel your hands on me. Tell me what you’re thinking.”

“So swollen,” she whispers, reaching out to gather the seed from my slit. “Will you always be like this for me? Does it ache, Betmal?”

As she drags her finger over the opening, I groan, and my cock kicks into her touch. She brings her cum-soaked finger to her mouth, slipping it between her lips. As she hollows her cheeks around the digit and sucks, I forget to breathe. I forget everything but instinctive bloodlust that demands I sate the need clawing at me.

“Ama,” I growl out. “Yes, I will. And yes, it does.”

She smiles and jerks her head toward the bed behind us. “Lie down, Betmal.”

I hadn’t expected dominance from her, not this first time. Still, I drop dutifully to the edge and spread my thighs wide.

Ama goes to her knees, but I don’t love that. I’m worried it might bother her. So I grab her around the core and haul her on top of me, flipping us both into the middle of the bed. She makes a displeased little sound as I manhandle and turn her, so she’s facing my cock and I have the most perfect view of the treasure between her thighs.

“Better.” I run a hand up the back of one toned leg, gripping her ass as I spread her wide. Her pussy’s smooth, the tiny pebble of her clit nestled at the top. I run my fingers along the seams of her channel, marveling at the tiny cilia that line the inside. They stretch toward my fingertips as I rub my way along her slick opening. I can’t wait to feel them on other parts of me.

She lurches off me, crouching down near my cock to hover her mouth just above it, shooting me a saucy look.

Right back where she started.

Gods, that view. Those lips .

“Teach me what you like,” she whispers, her expression the slightest bit tentative. “I haven’t done this before.”

That shouldn’t please me so deeply. A female’s first time isn’t a war to win, it’s not a thing to conquer, it is not something to possess .

Yet knowing I’ll be her first turns me on in a way that has me sliding a hand into her hair and wrapping it tightly around my fist. “Explore me, ma siréne,” I whisper. “With your lips and teeth. I am a great lover of your darling little fangs.”

She looks confused, dark brows furrowing in the middle. “That won’t hurt?”

“Oh, yes,” I say with a laugh. “It’ll be the most beautiful of pains. And for a vampire male, pain is often pleasure.”

She moves lower, low enough for her lips to brush my sopping cock head. “I don’t think I’d like pain, but I guess I don’t really know.”

“We can play with that another time.” I roll my hips, pushing my spongy tip against her teeth, begging for entry into that wet heat. The slightest hint of her mouth has me dripping all over her.

Ama’s pupils widen, overtaking her dark irises as she opens wide. Leaning forward, she places a sucking kiss on my skin. I jolt and hiss at shards of pleasure that streak up my length and fan out from my core. Her scent explodes in the room, her heart rate kicking into overdrive.

This is turning her on. She bends lower and licks a stripe up the underside of my cock. I tighten my fingers in her hair.

“Ma siréne, that tongue is magnificent . More of that.”

She licks in big long strokes, two, three, then four times as I resist the urge to guide her down deep. I want to hit the back of her throat and keep going, to feel myself fully enveloped inside her. I want her to suck on me, to wrap that cool tongue around my dick and pull.

But the tease of her licking is the most perfect edging. She bends lower and laps at my sack, making a wet, sticky exploration of first one ball, then the other.

“Suck on them,” I direct, opening my thighs wider to give her access.

Warm lips close around my sack, sucking softly as her tongue swirls, featherlight, over my sensitive, puckered skin. I groan as I watch her move from one to the other, eyes closed as she explores me. She takes her time, teasing me until I pant, my mouth dropping open as I all but beg her to rise and pay attention to the rest of my cock.

Her scent saturates the room, drowning me in need as she presses sloppy kisses up the side of my dick. When she reaches the crown, she closes her mouth around it and locks her eyes with mine. Hollowing her cheeks, she sucks hard, and my body jerks in response to the pressure.

I arch my back to avoid fucking her throat and traumatizing her. Releasing my hold on her hair, I grip the sheets and force myself to breathe. But she fucking does it again, sucking on just the tip, soft tongue swirling around it. Oral has never felt this good, this all-consuming.

Because it was never her.

I’m going to explode in half a second if she keeps going.

She wraps her lips around me and leans down, taking me far enough to hit the back of her throat. Reaching down, I tuck her hair to one side so I can view every moment. She pulls back and repeats the move. When my tip hits a stopping point, she chokes and backs off me with a concerned look.

“Breathe through your nose, darling,” I offer, grabbing my cock and rubbing the tip over her swollen lower lip. “Deep throating is an art and it takes practice.”

She bends over me again, nostrils flaring as she takes me to the back of her mouth and then, there! An inch further, and a second inch after that. My eyes roll into my head as I clench my thighs, desperate to hold back an impending orgasm that threatens to obliterate my sanity.

“Stop,” I whisper. “Ama, stop.”

She pops off me and scratches at my thighs. “Oh gods, did I do it wrong? Are you okay?”

Huffing out a laugh, I pull her on top of me then flip us so she’s beneath me.

“Wrong? No, ma siréne. Too terribly right. I was moments from coming and we cannot have that, not this first time. Your pleasure is first, my sweet, every time.”

Her eyes are wide as she scans my face, nipping at her lower lip.

I smile down at her. “What?”

She drags the fingertips of one hand up my forearm and over my biceps, along my shoulder to the ziol hanging between us.

“Do you think we’ll ever come together? I’ve heard that can happen, but…well, I don’t know what I don’t know.”

Oh, ma siréne, I think to myself.

“We will sometimes,” I say. “And sometimes we won’t. And the orgasm isn’t necessarily the destination, my sweet. The journey is most of the fun and coming is the cherry on top, so to speak.”

Dark brows scrunch together. “Your goal isn’t to come?”

I shake my head. “Non, ma siréne. The goal is to have fun, to enjoy every moment. Coming is simply one way to do that. So as we play, don’t focus on achieving that, don’t chase it. Just enjoy each moment.”

She glances down at my cock where it rests along her thigh, then looks up at me.

“Are you finally going to give me that today? You’ve been teasing me for a long time, Betmal.”

I notch my hips against her channel and stroke my cockhead along her opening. The tiny cilia reach for me, suctioning onto the very tip of my cock and pulling softly. I grunt and angle back.

She shifts onto her elbows. “Perhaps an anatomy lesson, ma vampíre? You look…unsure.”

Laughing, I roll us again so she’s on top.

“Non, darling. I know what treasure awaits me.” Nestling her spread around me, I guide her hips along my length, my cock dragging through her pussy lips. With each pass, her cilia suction onto me, popping off as she rocks her hips. It’s like thousands of tiny mouths sucking and letting go and it takes every ounce of my considerable restraint not to fill her in one fell swoop.

But no, her pleasure is the goal. Mine will happen when hers does.

Ama rests her hands on my chest, over my ziol as I guide her forward and back over my length. Soft pants morph into slightly louder cries until every pass of her pussy over my cock soaks me with honey.

She gives me a desperate look. “I want more than this, Betmal. Can we go into the lake? I want to feel you inside me. I want you there, please?”

Heat consumes me from the inside out until I’m nothing but need and desire and want. Shifting forward, I spread my wings and pull her into my arms. I stalk across the room as the house opens the double doors leading into the backyard. Grabbing a bottle of lube from a nearby table, I cup it in one hand, then jump out of the window. I don’t stop until we hit water.

Ama shifts the moment a toe touches the pond. She grows heavier in my arms as her legs morph into a tail, splashing the long, gorgeous limb as she wriggles against me.

I push us through the water until we can rest halfway on her rock. She’s on her back, arms above her head as she arches and stretches like a cat, a half smile on her turquoise lips.

“Better, ma siréne?” I dip and capture a nipple between my lips, pulling it taut.

She clears her throat. “I’m a little nervous.”

“We’ll go as fast or slow as you like,” I say, reaching down to slide two fingers along either side of her opening, shifting the scales to access her channel.

Dark lashes flutter against her cheeks as she lets out a soft moan that has my balls tightening.

“It is my job to banish those nerves, ma siréne.” I stroke slightly inside, her tiny cilia prodding and sucking at my fingers in rhythmic waves. “Think about the pleasure, my sweet.”

“I…oh goddess. Stop, give me a second. Fuck , that feels good.”

But I don’t stop, because I want her bliss. As I move my fingers rhythmically inside, her mouth drops open and her head falls back. All the signs of impending bliss are there and watching her build to ecstasy has me ready to strike and unleash her.

Removing my fingers, I rest on my knees and uncap the bottle of lube. I drip it onto my length, running it over the veined thickness, taking extra care to fully coat my cockhead.

Ama watches, eyes hooded as she nibbles at her lower lip.

Reaching down, I nestle the tip of my cock against her slit and press. Immediately, the cilia latch onto me and try to pull me inside, and she jolts, stiffening. When she clutches at the rock surface, I grab my cock and rub it along her slit, barely teasing myself inside her.

She relaxes, and I feed another inch into her, rolling my hips in a slow rhythm until she’s rocking hers to meet me. Her pussy grips me like a glove, trying to get more of me, all of me.

“Slowly, ma siréne,” I tease as heat flares along my neck, cum pooling in my balls.

She shifts onto her elbows and watches as I fill her slightly fuller, thrusting until nearly half my length is buried inside.

“Betmal.” She’s breathless, mouth open and brows furrowed. “You feel incredible. But please.”

Gods, the way she says that makes me think I could go faster, perhaps a little rougher.

Rolling my hips again, I push deeper, her pussy clamping around my cock and pulling. I bark out a curse and halt, because if I slam home, it might hurt her.

“Mooooore,” she moans, thrusting up.

Her channel clenches around me and pulls hard, and it’s everything I can do not to unleash. The way her pussy kisses my cock, those thousands of tiny suctioned tips, it’s more than I can take.

“I said slowly,” I remind her when she claws at my forearms.

She lifts up and bares tiny fangs at me, pupils blown wide as her nostrils flare.

“No, Betmal. Give me more.”

When she reaches up and fists my ziol around her tiny hand, twisting it until she clutches the metal cross, I lose control.

Pistoning my hips, I slide deeper, deeper, deeper until I’m fully seated inside her.

Ama gasps and arches her back, dragging me forward by the ziol’s long chain.

Her pussy clamps and clutches and sucks at me as the tiny tendrils begin attaching themselves to my sack, pulling more of me inside her.

I sputter out something unintelligible as Ama grunts in my arms and then wails, clawing at the rock beneath her.

“Oh gods damn ,” I roar hoarsely. My muscles lock up tight as her pussy squeezes and strokes until I’m seeing stars. I thought this first time I’d teach her, but her body is taking what it wants from me. I’m a passenger to her pleasure.

“More,” she growls, looking up at me, her eyes glittering with need. “I need more, Betmal. Fill me again.”

Pulling out of her, I moan at how good it feels for all those tiny suction points to pop off my skin. Growling, I slam home and she screams, back arching as she presses her breasts up toward my eager mouth.

I bend down and plunge inside her again as I close my lips over one dark, peaked nipple, sucking until it forms a hard point.

Her channel drags and pulls at my sack, pulsing until I’m a blubbering mess of precum. It roils inside me as her pussy milks my cock and balls. She brings her forehead to mine. “Bite me. Please. I need to know what it’s like.”

I strike before I make a fool of myself and come without her. Bliss erupts like a volcano inside me as pleasure overtakes us simultaneously. She writhes in my arms, her channel locking tight so I can’t even move. Her pussy is a thousand pinpoints of pleasure. Screaming into the bite, I soak the tiny punctures with my venom.

Ama wails and claws at my back as I fill her with seed, cock kicking deep inside her as she pleasures every thick inch of me.

I lose all sense of space and time. There is nothing but the taste of her blood—rich and depthless and crisp. And below that, a lingering, niggling knowing curls around the edges of our bliss.

Our bond, beginning to form. I can’t fully bond her without a conversation, but I can feel it already, that sense of her. My mate. My Ama.

Ecstasy recedes as slow as the tide, washing away until I’m left a dried-out husk, Ama trembling in my arms as I pull carefully out of her.

She looks up at me with eyes full of heat and wonder. “That was…indescribable, Betmal.” She bats her lashes, the moment drawing long as she nibbles the edge of her lower lip. “Can we do it again?”

I growl and swim us toward the shallow end of the lake where I can get on top and take command.

“Yes, ma siréne,” I murmur. “Always.”

* * *

T he following morning, I stand at the kitchen’s long, low bookcase, staring at my mate as she splashes in the water behind the house. The workshop waves its doors at her, asking for her to come work. With a laugh, she springs from the water onto a rock and grabs her new prosthetic.

I watch with joy in my heart as she attaches it and stands, naked, to walk around the lake and toward the workshop. She disappears inside, and I let out a contented sigh.

This is what life is about. This easy bliss.

Thinking of bliss reminds me that my mate is naked in the workshop right now, and if I head over there, I might be able to knock out a few more bedroom lessons before she gets deep into painting mode.

Just as I reach down to adjust my aching cock, the house shimmies around me.

Twitching an ear, I listen.

Rapid footsteps echo from the driveway.

Stalking toward the front door, I focus.

Heavy breathing, soft pants. A woman.

I step out the front doors just as Thatraeia rounds the bend in the driveway and halts. When she sees me, she takes off running again, heading toward me as if a hells’ worth of devils nip at her heels.

I’m down the stairs in a flash, meeting her halfway up the driveway. She slides to a stop in front of me, and I grip her upper arms, scanning her face.

Peachy-pink eyes are wide, her ears twitching as her heart races in her chest.

“F-father,” she blurts out, “he knows. Somehow, he knows about you and Ama. The King’s Guard is coming for her. You don’t have much time.”

Straightening, I lift my chin. “We won’t run from them, darling. We planned to visit him today anyhow, so this timing is fine.”

“Excellent idea, Vampire .”

A deeper, deadly voice echoes up the driveway as a second mer female comes into view. She looks so much like Ama and Thatraeia, but she’s taller, more muscular, her skin a pale green while her hair is the color of a glittering emerald.

Inky leather crisscrosses her naked chest, a black miniskirt the only thing covering any of her. In one hand, she holds a tall spear with a pointed blade at the end.

Thatraeia gasps and steps behind me, holding on to the back of my shirt. Her hands quiver against my skin. “Malakat,” she whispers. “My sister. She’s head of the King’s Guard.”

I slide my hands into my pockets, shooting the sister a wicked, confident smile as the other woman stalks like a predator toward us.

She stops ten feet in front of me, gripping the spear loosely with a practiced hand. Eyes the color of pine needles drop down my body and back up, her gaze casual and dismissive. She waves at my body with her free hand.

“So you’re the vampire my cousin keeps sneaking up here to see.” She shrugs, picking at her teeth. “Somehow, I thought there’d be more to you. Stefan could take you in a moment and, goddess, how I’d love to see him remove your head.”

Gods, I love the way monsters posture when they think they have the upper hand in a situation.

I don’t respond to her comment, instead jerking my head toward the house. “Ama’s out back, enjoying the lake I built for her. We’d planned to visit Caralorn after breakfast. Would you like to come in? Now seems like a good time for us to chat, all together.”

Malakat looks around me toward the house, eyes flicking from side to side.

I sigh. “There is no danger here, mermaid, apart from what you bring yourself.”

She chuckles, low and deadly. “Lead the way, bloodsucker.”

Laughing, I turn and pull Thatraeia’s slim hand through my arm, settling it at my elbow. Glancing down at her, I wink. “This is going to be fine, my sweet, don’t worry.”

“She should worry,” Malakat hisses from behind us. “When Father finds out she helped Am?—”

“No one helped anyone except for me,” I cast over my shoulder, guiding Thatraeia up the steps and through the front door. I let her go, waving her toward the kitchen as I spin to face Malakat. Off in the distance behind her, other guards come into view, surrounding the house from the front. I almost laugh, but I suspect that will just inflame the already furious-looking mermaid.

“There’s no need to bring your guard here,” I state simply. “We can talk like adults.”

“Right,” she says with a sneer. “Because Amatheia did so much talking when she decided to leave her responsibilities behind to—what was it you said she was doing?” She makes air quotes. “Swimming in your backyard lake?”

I’d love to snatch the smirk off her face, but instead I smile. Sometimes, it’s the best weapon there is.

“Come on through, then.” I spin on my heel and stalk down the hall toward the kitchen. Thatraeia must have already gone out back, because the kitchen is empty.

The house opens the back doors wide, and as I exit with Malakat behind me, I find Ama with Thatraeia behind her, glaring as we appear in the doorway.

“What are you doing here?” she snarls at her cousin, tightening her arm around Thatraeia.

Malakat veers widely around me, moving her spear to the arm closest to me. I could almost laugh at how predictable she is. She’s been taught in the classic way as a warrior. I haven’t had the occasion in many centuries to fight, but when I do, I fight dirty.

“Darling,” I stare at my beautiful mate, “it seems your cousin and uncle have concerns about our relationship. I think we should pay the king a visit together. What do you think?”

Before she can respond, Malakat growls, “We don’t need you, Vampire. I came to retrieve Amatheia, and that is all. There is an introduction ceremony tonight where she will be formally presented as Stefan’s betrothed.” She chokes out the last word like it’s stuck in her throat.

I smile at the three women, although I know, like this, I look every bit the predator I can be. “Unfortunately, that doesn’t work for Amatheia and me.” I glance over at Malakat. “Her happiness means more to me than every ounce of gold in your glitter coffers. I will fight for her to keep it, although I’d like to avoid that, if possible. I’ve already mentioned we’re happy to come address the king this morning.”

Malakat’s mouth drops open, but she quickly zips it shut at my mention of their lake hoard. It’s merely a guess on my part, but merfolk are great collectors of shiny objects, rivaling dragons in their adoration of it.

Amatheia rounds the lake as the workshop clatters all the windows and doors, visibly distressed at what’s transpiring in the backyard.

I turn to my mate and smile. “I can hold my breath for quite a while, darling. It’ll be fine. This is good. We have a chance to clear the air, as it were. We knew this was coming, Ama. Let us deal with Caralorn once and for all.” I narrow my eyes and give her a look. “This fits our plan, remember?”

Figures appear to the left and right of us—more of the King’s Guard, if I had to guess.

I shoot Malakat a look. “Tell your guard to stand down. We’ll go peacefully.”

Malakat lifts her chin. “It’s a good idea for you not to fight, bloodsucker. This backyard is pretty, and blood would really ruin the ambiance.”

I reach for Amatheia once she’s close enough to touch.

“I don’t know, mermaid,” I whisper, flashing my second eyelid over my eyes in warning. “Sometimes, a splash of blood is exactly what’s needed.”