Chapter 20
Chapter Twenty
He’d spooked her.
Good. She should fear him. He’d never been more tempted to bite a human. Biting to turn. Biting to keep. Not simply biting to drink and kill.
He’d never kill Gemma.
He wanted her to stay, even if that meant playing dirty and binding her to him with sex. This woman had the potential to be easily addicted. However, sex put him at risk of biting her for real.
Any woman who admitted to liking sex, orgasms, and adventure…
Which was exactly why he must remain cautious around her.
The past twenty-four hours, aside from the last hour or so with her, had been some of his worst in a long time.
He was exhausted and mentally torn apart.
The last two hours of the ride home had been intense, listening for her heartbeat and staying alert for anything that might attack.
It could have been so much worse than an arrow.
It could have been him fighting for her with the Directorate or against Cade.
Cade hadn’t needed to release her. That he had spoke volumes. It meant he trusted Skarde not to activate the prophecy. Or maybe he wanted it activated. Skarde couldn’t sort out which without Cade to answer his questions.
The longer he was around Gemma, the less he wanted to be without her.
This small moment gave him a glimpse at a life without loneliness.
She was entertaining enough to help him forget about the ugliness of the world.
She could be a partner. The more he thought about it, the more he wanted it.
Now that the floodgates of possibility had opened, it was all he thought about.
She announced, “This was fun. The food here is incredible. Thanks for the adventure of convincing you not to die—again. No one at home will ever believe what happened during my day. Time to get that doorway open.”
“Gemma—”
“No.” She stood and lifted her skirt all the way to her knees to march up the winding staircase. “That looks says you want to bite me. Your goal should be to avoid burning in hell. My goal is to remain human and not turn evil.”
“I’m not going to bite you.” He caught her when she almost slipped on a stair.
She murmured her thanks.
By the time she reached the top of the stairs, her breaths came hard. Her heart pounded loudly from the exertion. The thud thud of the organ in her chest moving blood through her body… Blood lust roared through his brain.
Dizziness consumed him like a three-dimensional physical force. He stumbled behind her on the trek back to his bedroom. He caught himself on the doorframe as the world spun. A few solid blinks and he felt more under control, less in thrall to blood lust.
Once in front of the mirror in his bedroom, she stopped.
“The problem isn’t you. It’s me. I’m not sure I’d fight if you tried to go for my neck.
Not because you’re sexy. I mean, you are.
Never doubt how I feel about that. The reason is I like you.
I could completely see myself trying to save you over and over. ”
She extended her hand at the mirror.
His heart shuddered like an iron fist wrapped around it, constricting his blood flow as her hand extended forward in slow motion.
The slick surface remained impermeable.
“Damn it!” She slapped the mirror.
Thank fuck.
Two more slaps on the mirror did nothing. She whirled, hands on hips. “Now what? Do we get Serish and force him to open it? I think he can, the twisty old crank.”
Skarde needed time—a few minutes—to get his head right. Then he could handle her in close proximity without biting. Her lips captivated him when they compressed. He wanted to carve Cade’s lips right off his face for touching hers.
Hoarsely he asked, “What happened with Cade? Let’s start with how you ended up kissing him.”
Maybe not the smartest topic to get his head off his blood lust.
“That’s not the most pressing issue at the moment.” She waved at the mirror.
“You and Cade.”
“It was…not like you. Different.”
In a flash he stood close to her. He slid his hand up her back, feeling the delicate curve of her spine. As he pulled her close, her breasts pressed into his chest. A small moan fell out of her.
The dizziness returned. Head tight. No biting. Kiss only.
“Don’t do this, Skarde,” she whispered. “I’m trying to leave. I want to protect both of us.”
“Let me worry about myself.” He touched the length of her brown hair, running his callused fingers down the softer than silk locks against her shoulder.
“Who’s going to protect me?”
“I will.” He tilted her chin up and put his lips to hers. One taste of her mouth wasn’t enough. He repeatedly took from her. Over and over. At first, he went slow, keeping his mind in firm control over his need. He wanted her to explore him.
Whoa.
This was no tentative exploration from her.
Her hands clawed his back as her mouth aggressively met his, challenging him and giving back in kind.
He moved his hand all the way up the back of her neck to thread his fingers into her hair against the back of her head, angling her head so when her lips parted they worked in unison.
This woman. The feel of her. Her taste.
He demanded control over the kiss. His grip on her tightened.
Without removing his lips from hers, he lowered his hands to her hips, lifted her, and placed her on the side table. He parted her legs and slid between them.
With the fabric of his pants and her underwear between them, he pressed into her to let her feel the girth of his cock between her thighs.
“Oh…wow,” she said, gripping his shoulders. Her dilated, glazed eyes met his.
“I want to see you come more than anything. Ride me. Show me how much you want it.”
She angled her pelvis and did short rotations, holding onto him for balance. “Like this?” she asked.
“Yes. Exactly like that.”
He caught her mouth and resumed kissing her as her pace picked up. Her eyelids remained shut, her hands digging into his upper arms.
“That’s it,” he encouraged, helping her a bit with pressure and pace, even though every small movement of hers was pure torture for him.
She pulled her mouth off his to bite her lower lip. The strain on her neck was sexy as hell. Her nails bit into his skin as she cried out and stiffened. Her ankles tucked in tight to his back to increase the pressure as she leaned back. He leaned in and kissed her neck.
No biting.
In wonder, he watched as her mouth fell open and a strangled cry came out, one both feral and free, as she came against him. Eventually, she came down from the high. Her body fell into his chest.
“Oh my God, Skarde. I’ve never… Not off a kiss or…that.”
He nibbled along her jaw and down her neck. “Was that the kind of kiss you had with Cade?”
“Who?”
“My brother.”
“Oh, him. Hell, no. Totally not interested in him. It wasn’t like this.
I pecked him on the cheek after he agreed that letting me go was the right choice.
Then I punched him in the nuts for being an asshole.
” She glanced around as if confused as to how she had ended up on the table.
“This—you and me doing this—you’re different.
Of course you are, being that you’re not human. ”
“This is something different for me too. This doesn’t feel fleeting.”
With unblinking eye contact for several seconds she said, “I believe you. But I live on the other side of a mirror in a completely different world, which means this has to be temporary. I’m not usually someone that does one-night-stands.
” Her eyes narrowed. “Since I’m stuck here for now, though, I vote we go with this. ”
She unbuttoned his shirt and pushed it away from his chest. With slow motions, she touched and traced the planes of his skin.
Then she leaned in and kissed him from his neck down to his nipple, the one he’d pierced.
She took the piercing into her mouth and played with it between her tongue and teeth, giving gentle tugs.
His hips surged forward between her legs.
She released him, moving to his other nipple. “You think you could come from me playing with your nipples?”
His hips bucked as she circled his naked nipple with her tongue and suckled.
“I might. Never tried.”
“I’d like to see it.” She suckled harder and gently bit down.
He groaned and wound her hair around his fist, which effectively angled her head backward, pulling her mouth off his chest, and arched her neck, baring the pulsating blood vessel just beneath the skin. Saliva pooled in his mouth. His teeth ached to pierce her pale skin. Lust pummeled his head.
“I’m a monster. If you don’t stop and back off, I’ll turn you into a creature like me.”
She tugged to free her hair from his grip and cradled his face between her hands. “You’re Skarde, not a monster.”
“Damn it, Gemma…” He dropped his chin. “I’m not sure I can resist.”
“I trust you.”
Lost. He was utterly lost to this woman.
He’d do anything for her.
He leaned in to kiss her again, this time picking her up and carrying her to the bed without releasing her lips from his.
The moment he put her down, she was up on her knees. She pointed at the bed. “On your back. I’m watching you come from nipple play.”
Smiling, he lay down. He let sensation wash over him as she straddled his lap. Her mouth got into a rhythmic pattern of whirls and tugs. She didn’t seem aware her pelvis gyrated on top of him.
The hand not used for balance roamed his chest and down his abdomen. One glance up at her and her gaze filled with sexy confidence. She rolled his nipple between her teeth and bit.
He moaned as his chest arched toward her mouth.
“Like that, do you?”
“Aye,” he gritted out between short breaths as she did it again. His entire body thrummed.
“You’re so beautiful. I want to see you come.” She scooted her butt onto his quads and worked to undo his pants, freeing him.
“Jesus,” she whispered as she perused his dick and back up his body. “I knew you were big, but…” She went to her knees and kissed back up to his nipples. “I set down this challenge and I’ll stick to it, but I’d like to do so much more with you.”
“Fuck, Gemma.” He groaned. “What more would you do?”
Her tongue circled his pierced nipple. “I’d slide the girls up and down you and lick a little bit, only enough until you broke.” She rubbed her cloth-covered core against his dick. “You’d beg me…plead with me to put my mouth on you.”
She grasped the nipple ring between her lips and tugged, sucking the ring into her mouth and biting his nipple.
“Shit…” He was losing all control of his body. With every tug, every bite… Her fingers grazed his balls. She gently massaged them, not stopping with her tongue.
Stars shot through his vision. Everything turned into a blur as pressure built in his spine, working its way up his body. Another nipple tug, a sharp nip, and he exploded with euphoric pleasure.
“Motherfucker!” he screamed as his body strained. He came all over his stomach. He couldn’t move as he marveled at the newness of what had happened. He’d done a lot. He thought he’d done everything. But this woman proved there was more.
That gave him something fresh. Excitement. Hope. Two things he’d thought long gone from his life.
He heard her move around him but couldn’t move as his body recovered. She used a discarded shirt of his to clean him, a type of aftercare few cared to give him.
She leaned in to kiss him.
Pound. Pound. Pound.
Gemma paused, lips almost to his. “Someone’s at the door.”