I’ll be here tonight.
As it should be.
Ethan forced himself to let the whole thing go, the terrible sensation of anxiety that he should be out in the field himself. He’d left Samantha once tonight and he wasn’t doing it again.
After contacting Vojalie and making sure her family was safe, he turned Samantha in the direction of his suite of rooms, which he’d built with extra security. Once inside, he made sure the windows were locked down then he bolted the door.
Samantha admitted her fatigue and he gave her one of his tees to sleep in which went all the way to her knees. She looked fragile and sexy and he responded to both images. But he held himself back.
She needed rest.
She fell asleep almost immediately, so he moved into the living area nearest the bedroom door and from which he had a view of the oak grove beyond a thick pane of bullet proof glass. His vampire vision shifted subtly as it moved through the dark of night, through the trees, the black shadows of trunks and branches, but he saw nothing. Nor did he feel either Ry’s presence or the fae entity, as he’d come to think of this ancient woman, as an entity, something different from normal realm-folk.
He stood with his knees apart and his arms locked behind his back, restraining the rage he felt that Ry had almost taken what Ethan had come to believe belonged to him. It was a realm thing, a vampire thing, and a very male thing that he wanted Samantha in that way, like something his cave-residing ancestors might have done on principle, hauling a woman to his vampire lair, keeping her, making her his repeatedly until her stomach was swollen with his child.
His body trembled with exactly that kind of need and a matching rage that Ry had attempted to force and to trick Samantha into bonding with him.
Sweet Goddess, a few seconds more and he would have lost her, that’s what he understood as he stared out into the night, a breeze whipping the leaves and shadows around. The fae entity would have seen to it, would have confused her, and she would have acquiesced.
He’d almost lost her.
The idea of it sickened him. But how was he going to keep on in this way, without binding himself to her? Yet neither was ready to make that level of commitment. They’d barely known each other two nights.
He didn’t know what else he could do except stick close until he found a way to confront Ry and either arrest and imprison him or defeat him in battle for good.
*** *** ***
When Samantha awoke late the next evening, she put a hand to her chest, aware first and foremost of her heavily beating heart.
Ethan.
Ethan? She called to him, knowing he needed to be fed.
I’m coming.
She sat up in bed. She wore his t-shirt, the black fabric soft against her skin, his grassy, hillside scent sweet in her nose. She lifted the bottom of the shirt to her face and breathed deeply as desire swirled.
But right on the heels was the need to offer up a vein, so that when he opened the door to the suite, she held out her arms. “Come and take what you need.”
The look on his face, of sudden desire and relief mingled, made it an easy decision to take the shirt off and throw the covers back, baring herself to him.
He cried out, closing the door with his foot once more. He got rid of his jeans and long-sleeved tee in a flurry of movement, arriving beside the bed with his gaze fixed to hers.
Thank you, slid from his mind to hers.
She nodded and glanced down at what was firm. It’s okay. I’m ready. I want this. Take it all and take it now.
I hadn’t thought…I hadn’t expected…
The words drifted away because he kissed her and positioned himself between her knees.
But she pathed, You keep forgetting that I’m a blood rose.
He groaned heavily, plunging his tongue in and out of her mouth.
But what did it mean to ‘love’ Ethan? What could it mean? She would have to give up her life in Shreveport and she wasn’t ready to do that. She’d have to become fully ‘realm’ and she wasn’t ready to do that either.
He left her vein and with blood on his lips he looked down at her and caressed her face with his hands. “Where did you go? You were right with me. I want you back.”
She nodded. “I want to be back.” The movement of his h*ps had slowed but he still pushed into her and pulled back, in and out. He felt so good and the connection was extraordinary. She wanted more, more of him, more of all that they could be together. She wanted him entangled as he was right this minute with her fae frequency.
She leaned up and grabbed his neck pulling him down to her. “Fuck me, Ethan. You’re what I want right now, right this minute. I’m here.”
He growled softly and held her gaze as he began to push inside her, heavy thrusts once more hitting her just right so that she began to clench. She could hardly breathe.