Chapter 6 #3
He lifts his hands in surrender. “Just saying.” He grabs the antique gold handle to close the door and pauses.
“She’s your fated mate, Oakley. Yes, you’ll need to do some work, but damn, the effort will be worth it.
We have to get you healthy again, and in order to do that, it means accepting that you aren’t meant to be alone.
” Jazz closes the door enough to leave it cracked, a human habit he hasn’t broken yet.
He could hear me with the door shut if I needed him due to our superior hearing ability.
I stare at myself, wondering how I can win her over when I’ve disappointed her so many times.
Sighing, I shed my ruined clothes onto the black hexagon-tiled floor and step into a shower large enough for a small group of people.
The hot water blasts onto my sensitive skin, and I arch my back in reaction, hissing. The quick pain turns to relief, and I stand there for minutes, allowing the water to run over me.
I rub my jaw, then slip my fingers between my lips to touch where my fangs are and snarl in pain. Fuck, everything hurts. How the hell am I going to have the energy to impress Nariko when I can barely move?
“I wish you were here, Banks. You’d know what to do. You’d know how to help.” I hang my head, the water pounding against the tense muscles of my shoulders.
Banks was the happy-go-lucky type. He was always up for an adventure and had a smile on his face. There wasn’t a situation that he couldn’t handle or see the positive in. If it were raining, he’d say, “The earth needed to be fed before we can enjoy the day it gives.”
If it was too hot, he’d say, “It’s Mother Nature warning us to take it easy today.”
If a tornado ripped through the pastures, he’d say, “The skies have rage too. Just like us. It releases something dangerous, but so do we when we get out of control. All we can do is wait for the calm and hope everyone makes it out alive.”
The calm.
The peace that comes at a cost.
I don’t know if I’ve experienced the calm yet, and it’s been twenty years.
Nariko.
Maybe she’s my calm to the self-inflicted destruction.
I close my eyes, allowing the steam to infiltrate my lungs as I think about her. She’s so goddamn beautiful.
One look at her, I never want to set my eyes on anything else this fucking doomed world offers.
I imagine the wind blowing through her hair, the long strands tempting me to wrap the length around my hand to pull her to me for a heated kiss.
“Fuck,” I whisper, the aches and pains lessening just at the thought of having her near me.
My hand travels down my chest, my rough callouses scratching my skin, but in my mind, it’s her touch trickling down my stomach. She’s curious. She’s exploring me. Her delicate fingers tracing over every edge, through every valley, almost as if she’s appreciating me.
Shaky, uneven breaths escape me, the imagery becoming too real the harder I think of her.
Nariko drops to her knees in front of me, skimming her nails across my hips. My skin awakens from her touch, goosebumps spreading across every inch of my body.
I’m the one being consumed.
She skates her nails down my thick thighs, my knees becoming unstable from her caresses.
“Do you want me to suck your dick, Cowboy?” She teases me, flicking her tongue around the crown.
“Please. Let me feel your mouth,” I reply to her in real time, uncaring if Jazz can hear me.
“I don’t know if you deserve it.” Nariko grips the base, her finger and thumb unable to touch. It’s close, but the sight of my cock in her hands reminds me of how much bigger I am than her—in all the ways that matter.
“I fucking don’t. I don’t deserve you. I’d give anything to feel you wrap your lips around my cock. What do you want? And it’s yours.”
“When you come, I want you to say my name. I want you to remember how good I made you feel. That it’s me and no one else.”
“There will never be anyone else. It’s you. It’s always meant to be you.” I wrap my hand around my hard length, giving it a firm stroke. Precome dribbles from the slit already, the clear bead wanting to drop onto her tongue.
“Aw, look at you. So needy for me.” She kisses down my shaft, then flattens her tongue along the dip my hips create.
“Mmm, I love these.” She makes her way to the other one.
“They remind me of signs pointing to what I want most.” She peers up at me with those big brown eyes, blinking at me with no trace of the innocence I can sense that is there.
“Oh, fuck. Ah, fucking hell, Beloved. Please, I need to feel you.” I press my head against the wall, needing some support for how weak my legs are, dreaming of her teasing me like this.
“What do you want most? I need to know so fucking bad, please,” I beg, willing to go as low as fucking possible in order to get what I want.
For a quick second, she sucks my tip between her lips, and I shout as she pops free. “Your cock. I love how it slightly leans to the right. I bet it would hit every spot inside me, or are you a selfish lover?”
I grip her hair, yanking her head back, and allow the vampire to redden my eyes.
My fangs flash in warning. “I’ll show you how selfless I am when I have you coming on my cock multiple times before I spill every fucking drop inside you.
Marking you. Claiming you. Owning you. I am only selfish when it comes to your love and selfless when it comes to your body. ”
She swallows me to the root, gagging and coughing, the flex of her throat gripping me. She hums, stroking with her hand what she can fit into her mouth.
I fuck my fist faster in tandem with how she sucks me down in my dream.
“That’s it. Fuck,” I moan, tilting my head back.
I rub my hand down her back, then wrap her hair around my wrist like I’ve always wanted.
She tugs at my sack, squeezing the orbs with the perfect amount of firmness that has me growling.
The glass of the shower door shakes, warning me I’m close to losing control.
“Oh, fuck. Oh. fuck. Nariko, I’m close. Beloved. Sugar. I’m…I’m going…I’m…You…” I lose my train of thought as come floods her mouth.
And I’m reminded she isn’t here when I open my eyes and watch my seed that belongs inside her, run down the drain.
While my imagination runs wild, reality is a lot different.
I have a lot of work to do before I have the privilege of seeing her on her knees.
The pleasure is short-lived when a massive wave of sorrow and fear hits me. Something deep and profound. As if I’m experiencing someone else’s emotions.
Nariko.
“Oklahoma!” Jazz bursts into the bathroom, loud and panicked. His fear has me slipping and flinging my arms out to catch myself before I fall.
“What the fuck, Jazz! Now, is not the time!” I sneer.
My cock is still half-hard. My heart is still racing from the dream of her.
“A tornado hit a town over, and it demolished the motel Nariko is staying in. I checked all the Dust Bunnies social media platforms, and no one has given an update.”
She is who I feel, scared and living within my heart.
The pain I felt? Gone.
The thirst? Vanished.
Nothing matters but her.
I’m a blur getting dressed, and I’m out the door, Jazz right behind me.
“Westin and I will follow you. Go. We will be there with the truck and supplies to help the town.”
I’m gone without a reply.
I’d feel it if my fated mate died, wouldn’t I? No, no, it can’t end like this.
We can’t end like this.