Chapter 17

chapter 17

Maeve

My body buzzes with the combination of being whole once more and Lizzie’s hands on my skin. She’s so incredibly strong, yet she touches me like I’m spun gossamer. Considering the violence she’s capable of—the violence she craves—this is a gift that I barely know what to do with. It would be all too easy to allow myself to believe that she treats me like this because she cares.

That belief is a trap.

This is the culmination of the lust that’s spawned between us. Nothing more. Nothing less. I can enjoy myself as long as I keep my expectations reined in.

“Maeve.” Lizzie’s voice is rough in my ear. “If you don’t want to—”

“I do,” I blurt. I grab the band of her pants and jerk her closer yet. “I really, really do.”

“Then obviously I need to pull out all the stops to keep you from mentally wandering.” She laughs softly. “Come on. I’d love to fuck you against a door later, but that’s not what we’re doing the first time.”

She eases away from me, and I have to bite down the protest at the loss of her body against mine. I can’t help that my brain is constantly spinning. Especially now. Especially in this situation, with this person. The last partner I had was mopped off the deck outside. A fitting punishment, perhaps, for his betrayal, but it’s the betrayal in question that has me all twisted up. I trusted him, and he didn’t hesitate to use that trust to rip out a piece of me with his bare hands.

Lizzie yanks all the bedding off the bed and tosses it on the floor. “The mattress is clean. That’s good.”

I don’t ask how she’s able to tell. I can smell the truth of her statement. I still watch with wide eyes as she digs through one of the heavy trunks against the wall until she comes up with clean bedding. “Lizzie—”

“I am not fucking you on a bare mattress like a college kid.” She picks up her pace, moving in a blur around the bed as she makes it. Then she kicks the used sheets farther away for good measure. “One last thing.” Lizzie walks to me and plucks my pelt from where I’d dropped it at my feet.

I bite down my instinctive protest. I’m between her and the door. If she thinks to—

But all she does is fold it neatly, using far more care than she did with any of the blankets or sheets to date, and set it gently on the nearest closed chest. She turns to face me, and I don’t know what my expression is doing, but it makes her stalk slowly to me. “That was the smallest of kindnesses. Don’t look at me with your heart in your eyes, Maeve. That’s not what this is.”

“I know,” I manage. If I think too long on how much such a small kindness affects me, I might get depressed. Lizzie has never been less than honest with me about her intentions and plans. At the end of this, she leaves and I go home. There is no future that contains the two of us side by side.

I don’t know what drives me to keep speaking, to risk the pending pleasure. “But could you pretend?”

Lizzie blinks. “Baby, that’s not a good idea.”

It’s not. It’s a terrible idea. But I’m so raw from everything that’s happened, and it’s only been three weeks since the fledgling future I’d been dreaming of with Bronagh was ripped away. That future was never going to happen, and our relationship was never as deep as I wanted it to be, but the hurt is still there.

The?.?.?. doubt?.?.?. is still there.

“Please, Lizzie.”

She crosses to me slowly, once again cupping my face and placing her thumbs along my cheekbones. The fact that these same hands were stealing the life from two people a few hours ago—one of whom I almost fancied myself in love with—should make me flinch away. Instead, I lean in to her touch and close my eyes.

Her sigh is so soft as to be nearly soundless, a tiny puff of capitulation. Then her mouth is on mine and there’s no hesitation to speak of. I expect a light and teasing touch, or maybe a dose of the frenzy that had her dragging me into this cabin in the first place, but the kiss is neither.

It’s a seduction, pure and simple.

Lizzie expertly coaxes my mouth open and delves inside. She explores me as if she has all day, as if this kiss is the thing she’s been most looking forward to, rather than everything that comes after. I barely register us moving, but a few moments later, she’s guiding me back onto the bed and following me down.

I know I asked for this, but I’ve wanted this woman almost from the moment I saw her, and we’re moving too slowly. “Lizzie, please.” I grab at the hem of her shirt, intent on getting it off her as quickly as possible.

She catches my hands. “Don’t rush me.”

I start to wrestle off my clothes. “I don’t want to rush, but I want to be naked with you.”

Lizzie makes a choked noise. “I suppose I can’t argue that.” She pushes back enough to allow me to shimmy out of my dress, and then she strips fast enough to leave me breathless. Or maybe it’s the sight of her. She reminds me of the sharks that migrate into our waters every fall; Lizzie is a streamlined killing machine. She’s perfectly made, her small breasts topped with rosy pink nipples, her muscular thighs flexing as I lick my lips. Her long dark hair is a wild mess around her face, which only makes her feel more real. And she’s all mine, at least for now.

She hooks the back of my knees and drags me to the edge of the bed, pushing my thighs wide.

Her eyes flare crimson. “You are so fucking beautiful.” She leans down and presses her face to my stomach, inhaling deeply. “And you smell good enough to eat.”

My skin flares hot. “Lizzie.” Considering she’s a vampire, I don’t know if that’s a threat or the hottest thing anyone has ever said to me.

She moves down my body, kissing and nipping lightly, seeming determined to learn every inch of me. I can’t stop shaking. Most of my past sexual encounters have been just that—encounters. I was hardly going to bring them to my room—at least until that ill-advised final night with Bronagh—and even at my most lust-stricken, I knew better than to go aboard their ship. So we made do with hurried, secret moments when we could find them.

I don’t know what to do with this. I don’t know how to act when Lizzie is licking my inner thighs, her grip holding me open for her pleasure. Or my pleasure. Or both.

“Maeve.” She exhales directly over my pussy, making my whole body clench. “Is there a reason you’re acting so skittish right now? Do you not like this?”

I takes me two tries to find my words. “I like this very much.”

“Hmm.” She squeezes my thighs lightly. “Then why are you so tense?”

I really do not want to answer her, but she’s not moving, and I’ve known Lizzie long enough to know there will be no winning a standoff. So I gather my courage, take a deep breath, and confess. “I’ve never done this before.”

She’s silent for a beat. Two. Three. “You don’t mean sex.”

I stare at the wooden ceiling and wonder if my skin can actually catch fire from humiliation. “I don’t mean sex. I mean?.?.?. this.”

It’s only because her mouth is so close to my center that I feel her exhale shudder out. “You mean no one has ever licked this pretty pussy.”

“Yes,” I choke out. “That’s what I mean.”

“Do you want me to stop?”

“I think I might die if you don’t keep going.”

She makes a sound that’s dangerously close to a purr. “I know I shouldn’t give a shit about being your first, but I do. It makes me very, very happy. Relax, baby. Let me take care of you.” Then her mouth is on me and?.?.?.

“Oh gods!” I don’t make a conscious decision to dig my hands into her hair and lift my hips. My body simply takes over. I’ve enjoyed most of the sex I’ve had, but this?.?.?. I could have been doing this this whole time? “Don’t stop. Please don’t stop.”

She doesn’t. Lizzie explores me with her tongue, wet and slick and so dangerously pleasurable that I may come apart before she ever makes it to my clit. Then she presses the flat of her tongue there, and I do come apart.

My orgasm is quick and leaves me breathless. So breathless that it takes me several heartbeats to realize she hasn’t stopped. She keeps licking me, keeps driving my pleasure higher and higher. I don’t know if I come a second time or if it’s just a new wave of the first. It’s too good. Too much. Too everything.

“Shh, shh, baby, I’ve got you.” She moves up my body, kissing my stomach, my breasts, my chest, before taking my mouth.

She tastes of me and her, a combination I might spend the rest of my life craving. That’s a worry for another day, another night. I cling to her, drowning myself in her kiss even as she hooks the back of my knee and draws my leg up, bringing us closer together. I realize her intention right away. It allows her thigh to press against my pussy. She’s so smooth and hard and guiding me to grind on her.

I break the kiss to gasp. “I can’t. Not again.”

“You can, baby.” She’s never sounded sweeter than she does in this moment, drawing more pleasure from my body than I could have dreamed. She kisses me again. I allow myself to sink into her touch, her taste, the desire she coaxes from me with the confidence of someone who truly cares. Of someone who could love me.

I know it’s a lie. I don’t care. It’s a gift and one I am greedy for.

But it’s not all I’m greedy for.

I barely wait for the most recent orgasm to fade before I move. The only reason I manage to successfully flip her is because I surprise her. It’s so vindicating to see Lizzie on her back, her dark hair spread around her, skin flushed with desire, lips plump from kissing me.

She gathers my hair away from my face as I descend her body to settle between her thighs. Her pussy is just as perfect as the rest of her, and there’s something about seeing her so wet and knowing it’s for me that makes my head spin.

I lick my lips. “Tell me if I’m doing something wrong.”

Her laugh is a little rough. “You won’t do anything wrong.”

Sweet of her to say so, but I’ve never done this before. I want to make it just as good for her as she made it for me, but it’s hard to focus with the scent of her arousal muddying what remains of my thoughts. I drag my tongue over her experimentally, but at the first taste, I forget all attempts at being strategic.

She tastes amazing.

I lick and suck and delve into her with my tongue. Distantly, I’m aware of Lizzie’s breathing going ragged and sweet little moans slipping from her lips, but I’m too intent on tasting every bit of her.

At least until she tightens her fist in my hair and nudges me up to her clit. “Stop teasing me, baby.”

I love that she’s started to unravel because of me. I’m going to love it even more when she comes all over my face. It takes me a few tries to figure out the motion and pressure that makes her thighs tighten around my head and her body shake. I’ve never felt more powerful in my life than the moment when Lizzie moans my name as she orgasms.

I crawl up her body and ease down beside her. I’m grinning and I can’t seem to stop. “That was amazing.”

She opens her eyes. They’re still a glowing crimson that makes me clench my thighs together despite my best efforts. Lizzie knows. She smiles slowly. “We’re not done yet. Not by a long shot.”