Chapter Thirty-Seven
Verity didn’t know why she tried to close the door to the apartment so quietly. Obviously, he’d know she was back, but she’d take any extra moment of peace she could get.
The instant she dropped the keys back in the bowl she’d stolen them from, he was on her, storming down the corridor and pulling her into his arms hard enough to rock her on her feet.
His breath came heavy, a low growl rolling through his chest. She could feel his anger in it, but underneath, his fear.
He held her a little too tight, and she let him, let him breathe her in until he settled enough to pull back, stare her in the eyes, and ask: “What the fuck were you thinking?”
“I know,” she said. “I’m sorry.”
He sniffed again and growled. “Why do you smell like him?”
“He kinda saved me,” she said.
“What do you mean, saved you? Why did you need saving, Verity?” He held her at arm’s length, turning her to search for injuries. “Why were you sneaking around like that? Jesse was going to get the briefcase.”
“Well, he didn’t, did he?” she said. “You two were just sitting around, waiting for the perfect moment.”
“Because I wanted to do it properly.”
“Nobody’s doing anything properly, Theo.”
“That isn’t who I am.”
“Then somebody needed to step up.”
Theo’s growl deepened. “This isn’t about stepping up.
This is about staying safe. The situation is bad enough without you running off in broad daylight, under curfew, I might add, to steal something, where anybody might have seen you.
” His hands started shaking as he spoke.
“I was attacked in the street. I could have died. If they’d done to you what they did to me, you’d be dead. ”
The words were harsh but true, hard to argue with. He was still recovering, physically and mentally, and it wasn’t fair for her to lessen the fear that lay at the root of his anger.
“I don’t love you because you’re blindly brave,” he continued. “I love you because you’re clever, because you care.” He was breathing hard, exhausted. “Do you have any idea what would have happened if Vivienne caught you?”
The corner of her mouth twitched, trying not to smile as he vented through his fear.
“This isn’t funny,” Theo snapped.
“I love you too,” she said, losing the fight with her smile and letting it spread.
The fear in his face faltered, not registering what he’d said until she said it back.
“Oh,” he said, staring at her with a furrowed brow, trying to remember his own words. “That doesn’t mean you get a free pass,” he added, though his voice had lost its heat, his grip loosening on her shoulders.
She placed her hands on his chest, running them up to lace her fingers behind his neck. “I love you,” she whispered again, before reaching up to kiss him.
He allowed the kiss, unwilling to relent his anger but not willing to refuse the touch either. Breathing out a low, soft growl he held her, relaxing a little more with each brush of her lips.
When she pressed a little harder, catching his lip between her teeth Theo snapped, pushing her against the wall and crushing his lips to hers, no longer caring about being careful with his fragile human.
He kissed her with lips and tongue and fangs, pouring every ounce of his worry and his love into the urgent embrace.
Her hands moved, pulling at his T-shirt, sliding beneath, feeling the soft skin of his stomach, skin she had only ever felt when they lay together to sleep.
He pulled away her jacket, pushing her towards the bedroom.
If not for Theo’s firm hold, she would have tripped as he pushed her to the bed, only long enough to yank off her trousers.
A sound somewhere between a squeak and a squeal escaped her as he pulled her back up and then shoved her to the wall, one hand on her arse and the other at her throat.
She moaned when he squeezed gently, pressing his body to hers, when he held her an inch from his face and watched, devouring her with pitch black eyes.
His thumb stroked along her jawline, holding her in place, letting her squirm in his hands, attempting to break free and seek friction against his hard length pressing against her.
His fingers tucked into her underwear and pulled them free as she tore off his T-shirt.
He released her for a moment to pull her top away before pushing her back to the wall and unfastening the bra.
Within seconds she stood before him, naked.
When he leaned forward this time, his cool chest pressed against her peaked nipples only deepening her throbbing need.
His hands skirted her waist, her hips, until they hooked under her thighs and hoisted her up, pinning her to the wall where they were face-to-face.
She locked her feet behind his back and kissed him.
She pulled on his hair, rocked her hips, groaned as loud as he growled, as his hands moved beneath her, pulling off his own clothes and she felt him spring free against her thigh. She needed him. She needed everything. They had waited so long; all she had left was desperation.
His lips trail down her neck.
“Bite me,” she said without thinking, and he did, hard enough to turn her moans into a sob of ecstasy. The pain, the sweetest, most blissful feeling she had ever experienced.
It was heaven. It was want and need. It was everything she never knew she ached for.
When his hand moved to find her entrance already wet and waiting, he groaned.
With her blood on his tongue he received the nourishment he so needed, the body he so wanted.
His fingers moved, finding her clit, but Verity didn’t care anymore.
She didn’t have time. She needed him now.
No more interruptions, no more waiting, no more teasing.
If he wanted to make her pay, he could do it another time. She needed him.
“Fuck me,” she moaned. “Fuck me, please.”
His lips left her neck long enough for him to grind out “Not ready,” before continuing to drink.
“I don’t care,” she begged. “Now, I need it now.”
Theo licked again, pulling back to look at her as he gently pinched her clit. She moaned, attempting to grind herself against his cock, but he wouldn’t allow it. Instead, much to her irritation, he stepped back, pulling her free and setting her on the floor.
“You need it?” he asked, facing her, naked, waiting.
She tried not to recoil as she spotted what looked like a hundred tiny lines across his chest and stomach, arms and thighs. Stab marks. But when his hand raised to fist his hard, waiting cock, any thoughts of the attack left her mind.
Was she ready? She wondered as his hands slid up and down the shaft. He took a step back to sit on the bed. “Show me,” he said, corner of his mouth lifting. “You want it so bad, take it.”
She swallowed before meeting his challenging grin with one of her own.
She stepped forwards, straddling him and lifting her body over his.
The second her body was against his, he caught her breast in his mouth, sucking hard enough for her to wince.
He stared up, watching her expression with big, hungry eyes.
His hands ran up her back as she notched him to her entrance, but before she could lower herself, before she could finally take what she had been waiting months for, his hand found her jaw again and he held her there.
Suspending her weight with one hand, not allowing her to move.
He sucked again, teeth grazing her skin, and her pussy clenched, knowing what it needed was so close.
She moved her hips, moved her legs, attempted to bounce to loosen his grip on her, her hands around his, but he only laughed, watching her fight to fuck herself on him.
“Theo”, she moaned. With one hand on her chin, he grabbed his cock with the other and began moving it, pumping as he slid it against her core, teasing her clit, playing with her entrance. “You said I could take it,” she said, fighting against the hand that held her aloft.
“All of it?” he asked.
She looked down where he kissed the flat between her breasts. She nodded. “All of it. I want all of it.”
“Fine,” he said.
Without warning, he released his grip on her neck, and her body fell onto his waiting shaft.
Every inch, every vein, every pulse. Every desperate ache was only accentuated by Theo grabbing her hips and thrusting up until he bottomed out.
She cried out as she took every delicious inch in one swift motion, and she sat there for a moment. Holding him. Feeling him.
His fingers found her chin, tilting her face up to his.
He watched, waiting for her reaction, until ever so slowly she raised herself and then sank back down with a whimper.
She did it again and again, holding Theo’s eye and watching his jaw tick as his lips peeled back and he bore his fangs at her.
At his prey. She picked up speed, finding her rhythm, finding the roll, the angle that hit every spot just right.
Throwing her head back, feeling her hair skirt along her back, feeling his hands on her body, his thighs between her legs.
Body bare and open for his eyes to feast upon.
He watched her, not pushing for anything else, just allowing her to take him however she wanted.
As her lust built, her perfect peak edging closer, she faced him, held his face in her hands, kissed his cheeks, his lips.
She bounced, gasping with every thrust. “Bite me,” she said again.
When he moved to her neck, she stopped him with a finger to his lips before pointing to where her breast met her ribs.
He shook his head, but he smiled. She knew what he would say: “That will hurt.” She didn’t care. She wanted the pain, and he knew it.
She leaned back, trusting him to hold her as his arms curled around her back and he watched her body rock against his.
She pointed again to the spot where she wanted him, beneath her breast, where nobody would ever see it.
He leaned down, pushing her further back, and kissed the spot.
His eyes watched her as his hips moved, thrusting as he grazed the spot with his teeth.
She shivered. His eyebrows raised, waiting for confirmation, just like he always did, waiting for that final moment of consent before he bit her.
When she smiled, he bit, gently this time, but gods, did it hurt.
Her body shook, and as every ounce of need drained to her core and stars shot through her eyes, she threw her head back on a scream when he started thrusting and her orgasm turned her liquid.
She was floating through a starry night, blinded by the exquisite ecstasy.
Her head spun as he turned, dropping her onto the bed, pulling her to the edge and then pounding into her.
He spread her legs wide. His mouth was free, he leaned over, staring down with a predator’s gaze.
He thrust over and over, her legs shaking.
She gasped with every stroke. Holding her still, moving faster, moaning her name, that he loved her.
She would have said it back if she could remember what words were, but her mind had fled.
Only her body remained, and her body belonged to him.
When her head rolled back and she screamed again, another orgasm shaking her body, his thrusts turned erratic. Every pulse of his release emptied inside her as he held her close, fingers digging into her hips.
There was no Verity, no Theo. They weren’t human or vampire. They were one. They were together, they were in love, they were exactly as they were meant to be, wrapped in each other’s arms.
When he fell on top of her, breathing hard, Verity rolled over onto him. She wrapped him in her arms, kissing his face, running her fingers through his hair and catching her breath before asking, “If you don’t need to breathe, why are you out of breath?”
Theo laughed. “That’s a good point. I don’t know.”
He cupped her face, kissing her. “I love you, Verity, but please, we have to do this together. No more secrets.”
She nodded. “I love you too. No more secrets, I promise.”
He nodded before gliding a finger to the spot he’d bitten below her breast. “That one’s going to be noticeable,” he said.
“And who’s going to see it?” Verity asked.
He hummed, like he didn’t believe her, before lowering his head and starting to lick and heal the wound.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“Trying to make it less noticeable,” he replied.
“What’s the point in that?” she said. “We aren’t done yet.”