Chapter 4
“I’ve never had sex before. I mean, I’ve been close but never wanted to go through with it. I think the few men that I dated thought that I was odd and didn’t want to mess with me. That’s what one of them said. They didn’t want to mess with my virginity.” He started to laugh, thinking that she had to be joking. Inhaling deeply of her, he knew what she said to be true. She’d saved herself for him. “So if I disappoint you, I’m so very sorry. I don’t have any experience like you might well have.”
“Never. You could never disappoint me in any way, shape, or form. You’re all mine. Those other men need to be beaten. I want to kiss you, love.” She nodded and wrapped her arms up and around his shoulders. Unlike most women he knew, she was tall and seemed to be the perfect fit against him. Breasts to chest and groin to groin. Flawlessly fit.
When she opened her lips Jack slowly reached out and cupped both cheeks in his large hands and tilted her head at a better angle to the light. He studied her intently, moving her head this way and that to watch the light reflect off of her brilliant amber-colored eyes. He looked down at her then, really looked at her face when he saw her tongue slip out from between her lips and lick them moist. And if that was not enough to make him groan, she worried her full lower lip with her teeth. He watched the whole process with great fascination.
“Are you satisfied?” Her whispered, innocent question brought an immediate response from his already hardened cock. He could tell her in a word just how unsatisfied he was at the moment but could not make his throat work around the sudden dryness of his mouth. He wanted her with every fiber of his being. And he was suddenly very glad he was holding her. He was sure that if he wasn’t, she would leave him.
“Why?” Her voice was husky and smooth as she spoke like she’d read his mind. “Why would you think that I’d leave you now? You’re all I know, all I want in this world. I never knew that love could be so consuming, so lasting. I love you, Jack. I love all of you.”
She licked her lips again. Her own body was responding to his closeness, and he could smell her arousal. He watched her eyes become a darker shade of amber, more brilliant in their color as the moments passed, and he touched her.
“I need to know your full name so that I can taste it on my lips. Have it fill my soul. Tell me, please. Tell me your name so that I can cherish you forever.”
“It’s...it’s Taylor. Taylor Ann Murphy. I want you to step back away from me. You...you’re making me nervous. You have to...you need to...please Jack, I…” She took a step back and then another. She could still touch him, but it wasn’t as overwhelming as it had been. She could breathe again.
“I’m sorry, love. I truly am. I want you so very much. I’ll calm myself down a bit.” His mouth brushed hers once more, and then he touched his mouth to hers and deepened it to a kiss. His slow possession of her made her feel better. Less overwhelmed as she had been before. As he kissed her, it was more than before. Like he was marking her with his mouth.
His kiss demanded a response from her, and he got it. There was no timid response from her this time or between them. With his hand still on her cheeks, he pressed her mouth open for his and tasted her. He captured her groan as it rumbled from deep and moved across his tongue like a taste, a taste like ambrosia. Jack shifted her body to his left and used his right hand to cup her ass against him, tightening her hard against him. Lifting her feet up off of the floor, Jack felt her pour over him.
Never had he felt this way about sex or a woman. No, he realized, not sex. This had moved beyond just sex. This was a claiming, he needed to claim her. Shifting her again, he ran his hands along her thighs and helped her wrap those incredible legs around him. He was not going to take her here for as much as he wanted to. He needed to make love to her in his lair, in his bed.
Jack, with Taylor wrapped around him, moved to the panel in the far wall that would take them to the higher levels and opened it. The trip took them longer because neither could stop touching, kissing exposed flesh, and marveling at new tastes. He’d had to try several times to get his door to open because he kept losing his concentration on an otherwise easy task.
Finally, the door sprang open, and he pulled her close again and moved into the room. With a swift kick, the door slammed and locked behind them. He wanted to slow down. He wanted to rip her clothes off and take her while standing there. He wanted to taste her slowly, savor her body. He also wanted to sink his cock deep inside of her, fuck her until neither of them could stand. His body ached. His need was incredible.
“Taylor, I need you baby. Tell me. Tell me that you need me as well. I want to hear you say it. Tell me.”
He cupped her breast through the shirt she had on and knew that she was bare beneath it. His already heated blood felt as though lava was racing along his veins through him. He felt her arch into his palm, the nipple hard against his thumb. He bent down and took it into his mouth, nipping at her nipple through the material, soaking it through.
When her approval of a hissed yes spilled from her mouth, Jack felt as though he could take on the world. She pulled him closer to her breast by grabbing a handful of his hair and holding him there. Her hips began to move against his groin and his cock, making it difficult for him to think.
Jack could smell her more now. Her arousal was hot and heavy, making him crazy with need. He reached between them and yanked his shirt in half, buttons from the front flying all over the room. Hers was next. The thin material of her tee shirt didn’t stand a chance against this primal need to be with her. This time, when he suckled at her breast, he tasted her skin, the heady taste that was unique to her.
He moved up her neck and along her jaw, nipping still and sucking on her hot flesh. Her body was as on fire as his. He pulled her lower body from his and heard her whimper. He knew how she felt, but it would be worth the moment of separation as he pulled the snap open to her pants and slid the zipper down. She soon got the idea and began working the belt loose to get to his button as well. By the time he had managed to get his hands down the back of her pants and cupped her bare ass again, she had his pants undone and was now stroking his cock through his briefs. The bed, even at three feet away, was too far. They would never make it, he thought with a grin. And if she kept touching him as she was now, he was not going to last much longer anyway.
Dropping to his knees before her, he stripped her of the rest of her clothing. Standing before him was the most magnificent sight he had ever had the pleasure of gazing upon.
He looked up at her and saw that her eyes had turned and were now glowing from something within. His own eyes had turned as well. He could see her through the darkened haze of his heightened state of need. Running his hands up her legs to her thighs, he never stopped looking at her face as she spoke to him.
“I’m going to taste you, love you with my mouth until you scream my name over and over.” He flicked his finger up the seam of her nether lips. “Here, here is where I’m going to taste you.” He could feel her heat. See the wetness gathering in the curls there. Slowly, he inserted his finger into her, stretching her, widening and separating his fingers as he pumped them in and out of her, into her heat and wetness. When she started to close her eyes, he stopped her.
“Taylor, honey, watch me, watch me as I stretch you for me. I’m going to bury my cock deep inside of you, feel you wrap around me. I’m going to ready your body for me. Then I’m going to fuck you, make you mine. Watch me.”
When she focused again, he slowly inserted another finger deep into her again. He watched her, her body undulating up and down against his hand and fingers, her juices coating him.
“That’s it, baby. Feel me inside you. Christ, you’re so hot. And you’re wet, so wet for me. I need to taste your cream.”
Jack pulled out his finger and stuck it into his mouth, moaning loudly at the honeyed taste of her. When he had licked and sucked his finger dry of her, he leaned forward and kissed her thighs, first one, then the other. Her need was evident in her scent, her needy response to him and her body, making him dizzy with an overwhelming need to claim.
He inserted his fingers again and leaned in to lick at her. His tongue joined his fingers, and he fucked her with his mouth, never touching her clit until he was sure she was ready for him. He removed his fingers from her and pulled her thighs further apart, giving him more room to taste her. Just as he sucked her clit into his mouth and teased it with his tongue, he pumped harder into her, stroked her hard, then softly over and over, flatting his tongue against her clit. He couldn’t seem to get enough of her and wondered if he ever would.
She was so close. Her cries and moans filled his head. He could feel her reaching her peak. He wanted to taste it, her first time. He needed to taste her come for him.
“Come for me, baby, let go and come now.” Her legs tightened down hard around his head, and she rode his mouth. When she came, she screamed, her body pulsing around his finger and mouth.
He lapped at her tender flesh, bringing her to peak twice more as he did. He wanted her now. His cock was aching to be inside of her. He gently guided her to the floor. Jack leaned over her lax body and looked at her.
“I want you, baby. I want to be inside of you so badly I ache. I need to be inside of you.”
Jack moved up and between her legs. He kissed her tenderly and completely. He needed to slow down. He realized his size and her virginity would be a painful combination for her first time. And he did not want her first time to be marred by a painful memory.
“Please, Jack, I need you. I want you inside of me, please.” Her begging nearly tore him apart, but he knew she would love him more if he remained strong.
“I know, love, but I don’t want to hurt you. We need to go slowly this time.” He moved up and positioned his cock at the core of her and moved slowly into her. He felt her stiffen beneath him, and he stopped. “All right? Am I hurting you?” He knew at that moment if she asked him to stop, he would. At this moment, if she asked him to do anything, he would die giving it to her.
“No, you feel so good there. I want more. Please give me more of you, all of you.” She moved up to meet his downward push. He stopped when he met with her maidenhead. He looked down into her eyes and fell in love.
“You...this will hurt, baby, I’m so sorry.” And he slammed forward, quick and hard, into her. She jerked back against the bed when he broke through, and she tried to get away from him.
“Shhhh, baby, it’s all right. I’m so sorry, Taylor. I promise you that I didn’t mean to hurt you. I will never hurt you again. Shhhh. I have you.”
He did not move his body, afraid of hurting her more. He just held her tightly to him and cooed softly into her ear. He petted her, touched her tenderly, and gave her comfort. When he felt her relax again, he moved slowly back and into her again.
“Jack, please.”
He reached down and grasped her hip, then slipped his hand beneath her, cupping her ass and tilting her upward, allowing him to slide deeper into her. He felt her legs rise and encircle his thighs, pushing up against him with each downward stroke. He was close to coming. He could feel his balls rise and tighten against him. His lion stretched beneath his skin, his need to taste her, to mark her imminent.
“Taylor, I want to taste you. I need to taste you now.” He moved his mouth along her jaw, nipping. He found her pulse and suckled it into his mouth. He could feel the blood pounding through her jugular.
“Yes, Jack, please take me. Take all of me.”
He kissed her where he would bite her, licked the pulse again to take away most of the pain, and bit down. Her blood filled his mouth. Her power and the power of her essence roared through him. He drew hard on her vein and came.
His climax reverberated through him, gripping him hard. He poured into her, deep and completely, touching her womb with each hard thrust. She rolled over the edge of completion with him, her body like a silken sheath. It held him. He felt her milking and pulling him deeper into her. When he was spent, he collapsed on top of her, barely able to roll to the side at the last second and pull her atop him as he went. He did not as much as fall asleep but drifted into unconsciousness along with her.
~*~
Taylor watched the evening sun as it fell behind the trees in their yard. Her entire body had been tingling all day, since before she got up, leaving Jack in bed. Her shower was quick and quiet. Body aching so that when she opened the medicine cabinet, she nearly sobbed in relief when she found some over-the-counter medication for sore muscles. Hers were about as sore as she’d ever felt this morning. But she did feel really good about everything else.
Now, she was sitting on the deck in the unseasonable warm weather with just a pair of shorts on and a sloppy tee shirt. Thinking about Jack seemed to be all her mind could center on today. Almost as if she summoned him, he kissed her on the mouth and sat on the lounger with her. He had taken advantage of the warmer weather with a pair of shorts and a tee shirt that had seen better days about ten years ago. He asked her how she was doing.
“I have this little bit of humming going on, but other than that, I feel really good. I’ve been enjoying the day too. How are you feeling today?” He took her hand into his and kissed the back of it.
“How do I feel?” He did look like he was feeling well but the moment that he moved her leg for more room, all thoughts of that went out the door. “I’m right there with you. It’s like my body is humming about something, too. I thought that it was tingling, but you’re right. It’s humming. I’ve never felt this way before.”
“You mean after sex or just in general.” He told her after mind-blowing sex. “I don’t have a great deal to compare that to, but I’d say you got that right. I didn’t wake you, did I? I know a few times when I was washing up, I moaned a bit more than I could catch.”
“You didn’t wake me. I think I was dead to the world. I slept good, too. I don’t know that I ever moved once after you making love with me.” Her face heated up, she could feel the heat of it on her hands when she went to cool them. “You’re extremely beautiful. And delicious, too. Like fine chocolate and a great wine. As much as I’d like to take you again, I think that we should wait a bit. How about that?”
“I like being compared to wine and chocolate. It’s better than an old maid and a spinster. But yes, a few days of rest will be just great. Did I tell you that I’ve been called that a couple of times?” He asked who had said it to her. “What happens if I tell you their name? What will you do?”
“Hunt them down and kill them.” She wasn’t sure if he was joking or not. There was something very scary about the look on his face. Just as she was ready to ask him if he was kidding or not, he spoke again. “I have to go to work in about an hour. I need to put in an order for the restaurant and do the books. Nearly everyone pays by credit card now, but I pay my staff their tips the next morning. So far they don’t seem to complain too much about that, the staff I mean. Next week, on Monday, it’ll be the first dinner we serve besides that to my family.”
“Can I make a suggestion?” He told her that he would love for her to. “I love the little basket of teas that you hand out. I don’t drink it, so maybe this is dumb, but just having one flavor might not be a good thing. My grandma doesn’t drink black tea after a certain hour because of the caffeine. Put other flavors and decaf in the little basket, too.”
“Good idea. I love that. My grannie won’t drink tea after six. She said she’s up and down too much. Something else that was suggested was creamer with the tea and coffee, not the non-dairy stuff that most places have.
“That sounds a little classy, don’t you think?” He explained to her that he wasn’t going for classy but for comfort food. He said that creamer to him would be a comfort over the little cups of dried creamer would be. “I suppose so. I think that if I were going to drink any of them, I’d want the real creamer as well.”
After he left her, she continued to sit out on the deck. She was surprised when her grandma found her to learn that she’d been back there for nearly four hours. It had been nice and quiet with just the trees and plants for company. Now, her grandma was like a cherry on the top of a banana split.
“I’ve heard from Hudson, and my changes have been made. Now all I have to do is go and sign it so that it can be filed.” Taylor asked her if she was happy with the changes. “I am. Knowing that I’m not going to overly burden you with all the extra work does make me feel better. And speaking of which, I’ve decided to go on a cruise for a month. I’ve not done anything like that in decades and I think that I’d enjoy getting away while Gilda is getting taken care of. Did you hear that she’s demanding a larger condo? I thought that she had about the biggest one they had in that development.”
“She wants me to have one built for her that has several bedrooms so that she has room to spread out. I don’t know what she’d be spreading out for; she rarely leaves the living room, and I don’t believe that she’s ever been in the kitchen of any place that she’s lived in.” Grandma asked her what she wanted to do. “To be honest, I have no idea. I’m angry with her so much that I want to cut all ties with her. She needs to grow up.” She didn’t say anything.
Leaning her head on the back of the lounger, she was happy that, for now, at least the subject was finished. She knew that she was going to have to deal with her sooner or later, but for now, she was going to rest and regroup. Something that she’d not done in a very long time.
When she woke up, she realized that at some point, Jack or someone had brought her into the house and laid her on the couch. Jack was lying on the other couch in the huge living room, apparently reading a book. She sat up and had to lie back down quickly. She was about as light-headed as she’d been in a very long time.
“Are you all right?” She said that she didn’t know. “While you were sleeping, I made some discoveries about my own magic. You have some as well. I didn’t bring you in here but you just disappeared from the porch to the couch. I think you got chilled or something. Anyway, I’d gotten back about an hour ago, and that’s when I was going to bring you in.”
“Did you do that, or did I?” He said that he was pretty sure that it was her. “I see. I don’t really, but I’m trying my best to figure out why I’m so dizzy.”
“It’s the magic for when we came together as a couple.” Sitting up, she looked at him. “Are you better now?”
“I think so. It’s a great deal to take in, don’t you think?” He got up off the couch he was on and sat with her on the one that she was on. “I’m feeling better, but I have this strange feeling of being two different people. Like, I have a cat right there with me. Is that possible?”
“I don’t see why not.” That wasn’t all that helpful, and she told him that. His laughter made her smile. He really was such a wonderful person, and she loved him so much. “There is very little that we know of in taking mates. My grandparents raised us when my parents abandoned us one year. They were old then, I remember thinking, but they didn’t have much to say about how our parents just dropped us off one day and took off.”
“Well, that just sucks.” He laughed again. “Where are they now? I’m assuming that they’re living the grand life without all of you guys around. By the way, that was sarcasm. I hope that they’re not having a good time at anything.”
“They’re both dead.” She felt her face heat up, and she couldn’t tell him quickly enough how sorry she was. “Don’t be. They got what they deserved, and I’m happy for it. I didn’t know them all that well. I was only about six or so when they did that. But they’d been called before Ronan, the king of our kind, and he had them destroyed by the leap—that’s what you call a bunch of lions. Also a pride. Anyway, they’re both gone and I find that I’m not the least bit sorry about it. They actually blamed us for being born. That pissed us off so much that we had to regroup and think about that. Ten children are a lot, but they could have stopped at any time.”
“My mom sounds like she could have been related to them. She’s always been selfish and childish. I know that it’s not my fault but that of her own parents, but I was stuck with her when my dad died. I don’t know what I would have done if Grandma hadn’t taken us in. Still raising her, I guess.” He asked her if she was going to be upset if her mother spent some time in jail. “No. I mean, they’ll treat her like all the other prisons and that will be good for her. I’m not saying that she’ll like it, but I really don’t care anymore. I’m worried that she’ll try and hurt you or one of your family members, but I have to keep telling myself that we’re all immortal and we can’t die.”
“You can be hurt, however. So I want you to be extra careful when she’s around. Maybe when she’s not around. I’ve noticed that she can be pretty sneaky when she’s looking for someone to help her.” She nodded because that was what Parker had explained to her and her grandmother. “I know you have to go to the groundbreaking. Just make sure that you’re never alone. I’ll be there too, but I will be a little late. I have to have someone wait for the truck to come in with our food stuffs on it. It’ll be early, but you never know what’s going to happen when a truck comes in.”
She’d nearly forgotten about that. The distribution center was going to be bringing in all her products for the little mom and pop stores she had all over the state and have it separated out for each store. It was going to save time at the stores because they no longer had to have several trucks a week come in for goods but one truck that would bring in everything at once. Sodas were the only thing that would be coming in separately, and that would be set up by the vendor. It was going to be better than she thought.
There would be kinks to work out, and she was aware of that. But to have everything arriving at once would cut down on labor costs as well as getting larger quantities delivered sooner without the cost of several trips by the vendor. She was looking forward to that as much as she was seeing the first store receive their goods. And she’d be there, too. Just like she was going to be at the groundbreaking in the morning. She couldn’t believe that it was finally happening.
The specialized car warehouse was going to break ground in a couple of months. There were still a few things that had to be ironed out in the contract, but it would, along with her place, bring in over two thousand new jobs. The other warehouse was going to be building together break harness assembly and sending them to the bigger places to put into cars. It was going to be a win-win for everyone around town because they were offering new car discounts. She thought that was about the best incentive going.
Getting ready for dinner, she was happy to hear her grandma talking to Jack about the house and how it ran. It wasn’t like he was going to take over someday, but he was curious, and Grandma loved to talk about how her dad had started the house on the way to where it was today. Her favorite part about the lawns was that he’d had the goats, twice a year, come into the front lawns and mow it down for nothing. That, too, was the main reason that none of them had ever been near any poison ivy, as the goats would strip down to the root and kill it. Even along the gates and gates around the compound were taken care of by the goats to this day. It was good for the air with no gas and also for the lawns as there were no chemicals sprayed around to get rid of it along the paths as well. Smiling when Grandma got to the part about the apples and how they were watered in the spring, she knew that Jack would be out there when the time came to make sure that it was going according to Grandda’s plan.