Chapter 10
E mmeline
Malachi’s car headlights pierced the night on our route out of town. Traffic flowed around us. I curled in my seat toward him, tucking his long shirt over my knees. Other than that, I was completely naked. He was, too, apart from his jeans, the skeleton bandanna gone.
Even in the dark interior of the car, the man who’d claimed me was vibrant. There was no other word for it. Larger than life. Impossible to ignore.
His inkwork was fascinating; a mix of designs on full sleeves with stars, waves, and what looked like a wheatsheaf. The intricate pattern that left his throat to curve around the side of his face was flames. God, he was badass.
And I was staring way too hard.
I dropped my gaze to my lap, my cheeks heating.
Malachi’s hand left the gear stick to entwine our fingers together. “Eyes stay on me.”
I swallowed and obeyed.
“Better.” His lips curved. “If I had the choice, I’d do nothing but watch you, angel. But I’ll get us home safely first.”
“Where do you live?”
“Fucking hell, your voice is magic. I have a house in Greenfield.”
“I have an apartment in the city, by the river.”
His thumb brushed over my knuckles. “You can show me it tomorrow. I’ll take you there to get your things.”
At my pause, he hustled to continue, “I mean, if you want to stay in my house. I can come to yours so we can be there together. I’m happy either way.”
I was as well. Now we were out of the basement, and I was no longer in danger from the pack, my reliance on him could have shifted. But it didn’t. If anything, my need intensified.
“We can’t be apart for more than two hours,” I repeated what Shade had told me. “I mean, not that I want to be.”
“All I want is to be with you.”
I exhaled in relief. “Same. It’s so strange. I’m a surgeon, by the way.”
His smile morphed into a wolfish grin that sent a flurry of need through me. “Nothing strange about it. I’m a fighter. Mixed martial arts. The surgeon and the MMA fighter. We were meant for each other. I knew it the second I saw you in the warehouse and the certainty only got stronger. Fucking dying to be inside you again.”
A thrill chased through my veins.
“In fact…” Malachi peered in the rearview mirror then abruptly turned off the road, onto a gravel track. Killing the engine, he turned to me. “Let me taste you. Please, angel. If I don’t get my mouth on you I might die.”
My laugh mixed with a breathy moan.
In a flash, he undid our seat belts and drove his fingers under my backside to arrange me better. I slid against the doorframe and let him spread my legs, a little embarrassed but desperately in need of what he’d asked. I’d never felt anything like this. In the space of one evening, I’d changed completely into a needy sexual being. Only for him.
In the darkness of the car, he pulled my legs over his shoulders and kissed my knee then a line up my inner thigh.
“Mine.”
He kissed me right on my clit. With his lips, he parted me for his tongue and slid it down me to thrust inside in a decadently hot move that had me squirming.
“Your fucking taste… Both of us combined. Angel…”
He licked into me again, spearing me with his hot tongue. His hands hooked around my thighs so he could pick me up and better meet me with his mouth. God, how he devoured me. With the improved angle, he thrust into me again, then flicked the tip of his tongue against my G-spot.
I moaned into the quiet of the car.
“More of that. I need to hear you.”
He sucked my clit and adjusted his grip to free one hand. His thick fingers squeezed my flesh then glided over the slippery mess he was making of me. Two thrust inside. I yelped in pleasure. He crooked them, and I bucked at the shock of lust. Malachi toyed with me until I was panting.
“Come for me, Emmeline. Give me this so I can get us home without losing my mind.”
It took so little for me to award him what he wanted. It was like he was tuned in to my brain. He anticipated every burst of need and doubled down on his finger thrusts. A third added took me right to the limits of what I could control. He sucked me. He played and gave me no space for anything but receiving him.
I came with a whimper in a dazzling and brilliant orgasm.
It took a dizzying minute until my brain re-engaged again. Likewise, Malachi breathed hard. He guided me upright and snapped my belt back in place, then swiped his hand over his face and groaned. “I’ve never known a feeling like this.”
I hadn’t either, and I wanted so badly for it to be real. I didn’t recognise myself right now.
He got us back on the road, and I blushed to think of the cars that passed us while my legs had been around his shoulders. Particularly considering his celebrity status.
He didn’t know I knew that, though he might suspect I’d recognised him.
A small voice in the back of my head issued a warning. I was an honest woman. I always had been. But if I told him about my obsessive stalking of him online, what would he think? That I was just another groupie?
Or maybe, with this unconventional yet stunning start to a relationship, the only way was with honesty. At least eventually.
We travelled out into the countryside beyond Deadwater until we reached a small village. Malachi drove up to a set of double gates that opened to admit us.
Soft lamps lit on the driveway that led up to a white house with a thatched roof that came halfway down the upstairs bedroom windows. Tiny lights decorated the eaves. It looked like the scene from a chocolate box. If someone had asked me to describe my perfect home, it would be alarmingly like this.
I gazed in wonder.
Malachi parked up then leapt out to round to my door. He collected me in his arms, bride-style. “Welcome home.”
He carried me to the front door and unlocked it using a discreet scanner hidden behind a panel.
“In the morning, I’ll set up your biometrics for the house. Security is important to me.”
“Because you’re a celebrity?”
He carried me over the threshold. “You already knew that?”
I could’ve kicked myself. He’d said he was a fighter, but most athletes in his career probably weren’t famous. “One of the women in the dressing room mentioned it.”
Not a lie, but also not an admission of stalkerhood.
To my relief, he accepted my explanation and continued into the house, flipping on lights as he went. A wide hallway gave way to a cosy living room with a log burner on the left, a study on the right, stairs dead ahead, and a broad kitchen beyond.
Malachi pointed out the rooms and took me to the kitchen. “Hungry? I’ll make something.”
He set me on a stool, and I blinked at him.
“You can cook?”
That devilish grin returned, and he made a show of cleaning up then opened a huge silver fridge. “Nothing healthier than preparing your own food from scratch. I’ve looked after myself for a long time, Emmeline. Now I get to take care of you. Chicken and broccoli creamy pasta sound good?”
“It sounds amazing.”
“Good. I’ll make dinner, and you tell me everything there is to know about Emmeline Watts.”
He’d remembered my surname. I swallowed, more than overcome, but managed to find the words to describe my career. Malachi hummed appreciatively, working through his list of ingredients and getting a pan of water on to boil on the back burner of a shiny silver range cooker.
As I recounted my years of study and placements, he pan-fried chicken and broccoli while linguine boiled away. Next, he wilted spinach into the pan then added pine nuts and cream cheese, finally extracting the cooked linguine from the water to stir it into the rest of the food.
“You made that look so simple,” I told him. “I can’t cook at all.”
He shrugged his bulky shoulders. “You’ve been busy with important shite. It’s another reason how we’re a perfect match because I’ve got this covered for both of us. You’ll carry out surgery at Deadwater Hospital. I’ll feed you when you get home.”
My breath caught. “You say that so effortlessly. We’re strangers.”
Malachi turned off the last burner and came to me. He parted my knees to get close and tipped up my chin. “Listen up. We’re not strangers. Nothing about you is strange. I hope you feel the same about me. At least give me a chance to make that so.”
He was right. Slowly, I inclined my head.
Malachi pressed a soft kiss to my forehead that was far too brief. His voice came out gruff. “Bathroom’s down the hall if you want to clean up while I get the food on plates. Believe me, you’re going to need the energy.”
I shivered with hopeless lust but did what he asked. Only an hour ago, I’d been in the middle of a battle with men pawing at me. I wanted their touch erased. Really, I needed a shower, but food first.
It was only later, after dinner, and after a shower where Malachi had his hands all over me, I realised something. I’d never actually told him which hospital I worked in. I drifted off to sleep in his arms in his huge bed, telling myself he’d made an assumption and that was perfectly fine.