Rise for Me

4

“No.”

Mariah pushed off the wall in anger at the stubborn vampire before her. “I told you my reasons and asked for your forgiveness. Take the gift back, and you’ll never see me again.”

When Roman didn’t respond, she threw her hands in the air. “Fine. I will gather the witches myself.”

Mariah gasped when she found herself plastered into the wall with Roman looming behind her. She tried to push him away, but he grabbed her hands and held them behind her back. “Your blood, Mariah. What’s wrong with it?”

She licked her lips once and groaned when he pressed his body into her own. Every cell cried out for him as her body heated to a dangerous level. This was why she came back to Roman. She needed him to douse the ache burning in her body. She wanted to taste him, savor him, and lick every inch of his skin at least one time before she died.

The cancer was not the reason she returned, and she wouldn’t tell him anything about it. He would just think the worst of her, that she wanted something else, but she’d made her peace with death months ago. Mariah inhaled deeply for courage. She’d seen him like this before, but never directed toward her.

He released her hands, and she turned in his arms, hoping to see forgiveness in his eyes, but he closed them. Dark eyelashes lay against his skin, and his lips were wet and stained from her blood. Captivating and seductive, dark and broken, he was so beautiful a sigh left her lips.

Fangs rested against his bottom lip, and miniscule trails of blood ran partway over his chin. Dark eyebrows framed his eyes, which were the most vibrant green when open, hypnotizing to anyone who didn’t know what he was.

Her fingers itched to trace every delicious feature, including the swath of blond hair, the same color as her own, resting against his forehead. Labored breaths feathered over her cheeks. She inhaled his masculine scent deep into her lungs, memorizing it, savoring it. No dirt marred his skin, and she had no idea how he managed to rise from the earth so clean, but he always had.

Her gaze dropped lower to the cinch-tied silk pants sitting low on his abdomen and the bulge pressing forward from them. His hardness repeatedly twitched against her stomach, heightening her own desire. Wetness pooled between her legs, causing her to shift slightly and press her body tighter against his.

Roman groaned at the abrasive contact but didn’t move away. A muscle in his jaw ticked methodically, and a hiss fell from his tightly clasped lips. They were so close that only their breath separated them.

“I need you, Roman.”

Mariah whispered the words while rising on her tiptoes, barely grazing her lips against his. One kiss was all she wanted, but it was a lie she told herself repeatedly over the years. The painful expression on Roman’s face fueled her, gave her hope, and broke her heart, mirroring exactly what she felt in her mind and body. Boldly, she trailed her tongue across his bottom lip, then pressed her mouth fully to his.

“You gave me a piece of your flesh, and I’m giving you my heart. It’s yours, Roman. Forgive me. Give me yours.”

Roman groaned, grabbed her ass with one hand, and wrapped the other securely around her neck. His face slanted as his tongue thrust into her mouth, sweeping away any doubt that he didn’t want her, and what she knew in her heart was true. He devoured her mouth before sliding his lips over her cheek and down her jaw until his mouth rested against the pulse point in her throat.

She arched her neck when his fangs scraped back and forth over her pulse, patiently waiting for his bite while rocking against his hardness. “Please, Roman.”

Her eyes snapped open to the deteriorated plaster ceiling when he suddenly thrust away from her, shaking his head. “Roman?”

“No, Mariah. No more. You don’t know what you’re asking or doing to me. Accept the gift of healing, but never return here.”

Her eyes narrowed to thin slits, and her body cried out from the separation of almost having what had been denied for so long, but she experienced in his arms for one minute. They were connected on a level most wouldn’t understand. Their shared blood and flesh ensured that bond. “I won’t give up on us.”

Roman turned away, pretending to study the same carousel she picked up earlier. The tinkling notes barely slowed until finally the music ceased. “We’re over. We never really began. There’s nothing left for you here, so I must ask you to leave.”

Mariah started to speak but, in a blur of carnival lights and people found herself deposited at the edge of the salt line outside the fence.

Roman and his magic!

Tears of frustration trekked down her cheeks, and she wiped them away in haste. She purposely avoided his questions about her blood because she wanted nothing other than his acceptance and love. How could she ever reach him when he refused to listen? Her head fell back to the bright stars overhead. “Damn you, Roman Lee.”

He circled above the carnival, high in the night sky where no one could detect him. She was here again, and his mood darkened by the minute. In the field outside the salt line, he landed and shifted, unable to stay away from her.

Mariah talked with the people of the carnival, and her laughter caused his muscles to ripple. He stalked her from the perimeter, memorizing every movement, every curve, and every expression on her exquisite face. The dark circles under her eyes had faded, but when she tilted her head just right in the light, they were still there. Something was off with her, but she refused to tell him and had blocked him from the knowledge.

Damn her and her secrets. But even as he tried to hold on to his anger, it slipped through his fingers and dissipated in the carnival’s atmosphere.

The moment he stepped over the salt line, several heads lifted and turned his direction, not understanding the darkness they experienced. Roman snarled like the predator he was, and faded into the shadows, watching, stalking, and craving his mate.

“You should come ride the carousel with me, Roman ,”

she teased in his mind.

His body moved toward her when he should go to ground, circling the carousel Mariah always loved. As a child, she’d spend hours on the carousel, moving from horse to horse, but she wasn’t a child any longer. That was a sensual woman sliding onto the back of a red and gold horse and gripping the pole.

“Weak,”

he murmured to himself, jumping onto the platform five rows behind her. He was weak when it came to Mariah and always had been.

*****

She always knew when he was close, and he was close now, but she didn’t turn around. Her fingers tightened on the pole, enjoying the rise and fall of her chosen horse, allowing him to come to her on his terms.

Forgiveness and regret were the reasons she returned, but the desire simmering inside wanted so much more. She wanted to feel his cool skin sliding against hers and his mouth on her flesh as he claimed her body.

One time.

One moment.

One night to belong to Roman as they were meant to be.

She thought he’d approach from behind, but he circled the carousel, weaving in and out of the horses. The breath caught in her lungs when he halted in front of her horse, eyes boring into her soul, his mind attempting to breach the barrier she’d put in place.

Her gaze slid the width of his shoulders, concealed in a white shirt that molded to every hard plane and muscle. She licked her lips as her eyes traveled down the length of his thick legs encased in dark jeans.

“Why did you come back, Mariah?”

“For you.”

The words slipped out as she rested her cheek against the pole. His lips firmed, but she couldn’t hold the truth inside any longer. She’d spent her life running from him, but not any longer, and not tonight.

“What are you hiding from me?”

Her eyes closed. “Nothing.”

“Then open your mind to me.”

“No.”

His face tilted. She knew it without looking because Roman always did it when she tried to lie. A smile spread, remembering every time he’d caught her until she learned to hide it.

“Why, Mariah? Why hide from me?”

“Because you’ll look at me differently,”

she barely whispered, knowing he heard every word. “You’ll know how much I…”

The words trailed off. She couldn’t give them a voice out of shame, out of regret, out of a heart that would soon cease to exist. It wasn’t fair to Roman.

She winced when her heart constricted in her chest, and pain flared in one arm. Time. She had little time. Her eyes opened, expecting him to have vanished again, but he was closer, circling her on the horse, studying her.

“Roman,”

she barely murmured.

He swung onto the carousel horse behind her, his body pressing into her back, his chin on her shoulder, his mouth close to her ear.

“Tell me, Mariah.”

His husky voice cascaded over her like a cool river, and she sighed in relief.

His mouth glided along the column of her throat, a teasing brush of seduction, a promise of what they’d never shared, and she leaned into his strength.

“You never could lie to me, Mariah. Why now?”

He seduced her resolve, used his vampiric gifts against her, and she wanted to surrender, but she’d had his blood and knew his tricks. Strong arms surrounded her waist, pulling her into his chest, and she melted into him. This was what she came home for…his strength, his peace, his forgiveness.

Cool hands caressed her thighs, sliding back and forth until she thought she’d already died and gone to heaven. His tongue swirled beneath her ear, and he kissed her earlobe.

“Tell me, Mariah.”

“No,”

she choked out, wanting to turn and straddle his lap and see the fire in his eyes for her. “I can’t, Roman.”

“Never come back again,”

he hissed.

And she sobbed when he vanished. Not only did he leave, but he broke their mental connection, and she understood the torment she’d put him through for the first time in her life.

“Why is Mariah here again?”

Lizzie chuckled. “She brought you this?”

Roman’s gaze narrowed on a gray wrapped package with a pink bow in Lizzie’s palm. “What’s that?”

“Your gift.”

“Gift for what?”

Lizzie grinned from ear to ear. “For being your surly self, I suppose.”

“Are you sure that’s for me?”

“Look at the tag, Roman. It’s addressed to the ringmaster of the carnival. I think Mariah knew exactly who the gift was for.”

His gaze lifted from the gift to Mariah, strolling through the booths and nibbling on a caramel apple. “She’s persistent.”

“That she is. Aren’t you going to open it?”

“No.”

“Roman Lee! When a woman brings you a gift, you open it. Quit your pouting.”

“I’m not pouting. I’m avoiding.”

“You’re being a dick.”

Roman grunted, staring at Mariah, but snatched the gift. He toyed with the ribbon, turning the box back and forth, studying it as if it were some grand trick. “Pink?”

“Cute, right?”

Lizzie teased. “Better than that all black ensemble you’re wearing.”

“What’s wrong with my clothes?”

“You resemble death stomping around her, scaring all the children. Not good for business.”

Roman grunted, reluctantly opening the gift, only to find a small wooden elephant. He frowned at the reminder of the first time Mariah approached him, lifting it from the box.

“Did you carve that, Roman? And she kept it all these years?”

A smile spread, and he couldn’t stop it, facing Lizzie. “Apparently, I don’t scare all the children.”

Lizzie firmed her lips before bursting into laughter. “Go to her, Roman.”

*****

Her stomach churned with the sticky, sweet caramel sliding down her throat, but she wasn’t leaving until Roman talked to her. She tossed the apple in the trash on her way to the Fun House. Rides were out of the question tonight, but she questioned her decision the moment she stepped onto the rickety wooden platform.

Both hands gripped the chain, but she still swayed back and forth as the floor rippled under her feet. Mariah closed her eyes when a sheen of sweat broke out on her brow, and she bit her bottom lip.

“Move,”

a little boy shouted, running by her.

But she couldn’t, froze in place, her stomach rolling with nausea, and black spots forming in her eyes. “Roman,”

she whispered. “Roman, help,”

rushed out before she stumbled backward into the chain on the other side.

Powerful arms broke her fall and cradled her into a massive chest.

“Mariah, open your eyes.”

But the heaviness pressing into her chest, and the blackness in her vision, refused to cooperate.

“Mariah!”

Her eyes barely lifted, focusing on Roman’s jawline. “I don’t know what happened. I guess I’m not a kid anymore,”

she tried to joke.

But Roman’s lips firmed into a tight line as he strolled toward the Haunted House, winding through the tunnels until he entered his room and laid her on his bed.

Mariah sighed, snuggling into his pillow, inhaling his scent until Roman crouched beside the bed, twirling the little elephant in his fingers.

“What’s wrong?”

he asked, staring at the gift she gave him.

“Nothing. Just dizzy.”

“You lie to me.”

She had no response except the truth, so she didn’t answer.

“And you don’t even bother to deny it,”

he commented, setting the elephant on his bedside table.

“There’s nothing to tell,”

she murmured, glancing away.

Roman sighed deeply, his vibrant eyes focusing on her. “I can fix whatever is wrong, Mariah. You used to trust me.”

Her gaze snapped back at him. “I still do.”

“Then tell me.”

She squirmed under his truth-seeking gaze, almost too weak when he tried to penetrate the barrier she’d erect. When she didn’t offer an explanation, he rose from his crouched position. “Until you can tell me the truth, don’t come back. Rest as long as you need. Lizzie will take you home.”

Tears leaked from the corners of her eyes when he turned his back to her. “Roman, wait.”

“You’re killing us both, Mariah.”

And when he vanished through the door, she realized coming home was the greatest mistake of her brief life.

Roman swore under his breath before dropping onto the nearby chaise lounge with one arm draped over his eyes. His body craved Mariah like no other, but a vampire with a broken heart and a long memory was no one to trifle with. He didn’t bother to look up when someone knocked on the door. “Come,”

he groaned, already sensing his sister’s presence.

Lizzie barged in with her hands on her hips. “So, the great ringmaster is awake.”

He closed his eyes with a deep sigh. “What do you want?”

Marching over to where he lay, Lizzie smacked his thigh with a rolled piece of paper. “Are you wallowing? The love of your life just returned, and you sent her away three times without a backward glance.”

Roman lifted his arm long enough to arch one dark eyebrow. “She left us. She didn’t stand up for me to her father. She used me, you, and the rest of the witches for healing, then vanished without a word. Not only that, she learned to block her mind from me. Mariah is deceptive, and I don’t need that in my life. She’s also lying about something and refuses to answer my questions. I tasted it in her blood.”

“Oh, please, Roman. You expected too much from one so young. Surely, in that decrepit soul, you can forgive her. You’ll never truly be happy until you claim her. You know what the witches said.”

“I know what the damn witches said. You don’t need to remind me.”

Roman glanced out the window at the moon shining so brightly. The warlock he trained under warned him love would come, tainted and twisted, but that forgiveness was the key, and the harvest moon would light the way. How many times did he ponder that prediction, wishing for someone else but knowing Mariah belonged by his side as his mate?

“What if she’s sick? She didn’t look good when I dropped her off.”