Chapter 26

chapter 26

Lizzie

Hyacinth’s blood strengthens me, making my thoughts clearer. I hadn’t realized how much hunger had dulled my senses until I have Maeve beneath me, warm and flushed and smelling of the sea. Strange how the sea itself is one of the few terrors I’ll never conquer, but scenting it on Maeve’s skin is an addiction I’m not prepared to give up. I contain multitudes, apparently.

“Are you going to be good?”

Maeve sets her full bottom lip as if she’s considering it. Her skin is a charming pink that I am dying to drag my tongue over. We have all night. No potentially murderous crew lying in wait. No interruptions. Finally, she nods and presses her arms harder into the pillow above her head.

Only then do I ease back to sit on my heels and just look at her.

I’ve lived multiple human lifetimes, but I’ve never seen a woman like Maeve. It’s more than the composition of her body, the dips and curves and stretch marks and dimpled skin. Or the fucking freckles. There’s an energy to her that calls to me. It sizzles between us and makes me want to wrap myself up in her—or encase her in me. I don’t know. I’m feeling too much to think properly. “You’re beautiful.”

“Lizzie.” Her blush deepens. “You don’t have to say that to me. I’m here. I’m naked. I might die if you don’t touch me right now.”

I trace my fingers over her skin, keeping a careful inch between us. It’s the easiest thing in the world to draw her blood to her breasts, to catch it in her nipples until they deepen to a dark rose. I’ve never seen a prettier color. It’s not quite the same thing as nipple clamps, but it will work well enough. “You should know by now—no one can make me do or say anything I don’t want to. And I want to say you’re beautiful. Don’t get shy on me now, baby.”

She pauses in the middle of lowering her arms to cover her chest. “You’re embarrassing me on purpose.” She shifts between my thighs. “What are you doing to me?”

“Whatever I want.” I lean down and exhale against first one nipple and then the other, causing her skin to break out in goose bumps. I give her a wicked grin. “Do you want me to stop?”

She isn’t quite pulling off the glare she’s aiming for. Her brows are drawn together, but her lips keep curving. “You’re insufferable.”

“You say the meanest things.” I’m?.?.?. giddy. I don’t know how else to explain it. What a strange concept. I don’t know that I’ve ever felt it before. I like it.

I expect Maeve to keep snarking at me. She’s cute when she does. I’m so busy watching her mouth, waiting on her next words, that she surprises the hell out of me when she darts up and steals a kiss. It’s light and playful—and nowhere near enough.

All of a sudden, I don’t feel like playing anymore. I dip down and take her mouth, kissing her the way she deserves: deep and consuming. She makes a sexy little gasp against my lips, and then she’s kissing me back. Tongues and teeth, a meeting of two people who are certainly not prey. She nips my bottom lip hard enough to draw blood.

I jerk back. “Maeve.”

“Um.” She blinks, big eyes dazed. “Sorry?”

I lick my lip, savoring the coppery taste on my tongue. “Don’t be.” I pull more of her blood to her breasts, enjoying the way she squirms. “I like it. I like you.” Dangerous words. I know better than to make promises, even vague ones. It’s a long way from confessing my everlasting love, but it’s still something I’ve never said aloud to anyone before. “I like you,” I repeat slowly.

“I like you, too,” she whispers. “Now, no more talking. Kiss me.”

It’s a retreat, but I’m too off-center to deny her. What would be the point? Liking or?.?.?. more?.?.?. doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things. They’re worries for the future; better to not let them dampen our night.

I lower myself down to press my body against hers. She ignores my earlier command to keep her hands above her head, digging her fingers into my hair as she kisses me with a growing frenzy. More, more, more.

There’s no warning. One moment Maeve is writhing against me in the sweetest way. The next, she hooks her ankle behind my knee and shoves my shoulders, toppling me onto the floor. She follows me down, claiming my mouth again before I can protest her underhanded tactics. As if I would protest.

I like her like this. I like her all the damn time. When she’s vulnerable. When she’s strong. Stubborn and flirty and furious and sweet. So many different flavors, and I want to taste them all, again and again.

Maeve palms my pussy. “You tease too much.”

I release the blood from her breasts, grinning when she whimpers. “You enjoy every moment of it.”

“I do.” She presses two fingers into me, sure and strong. “But I like this, too.” She curls her fingers against my G-spot. I try to fight the desire out of sheer perversity, but it’s no use. She’s turned my bones to something soft and warm. The little selkie knows it, too. Maeve keeps stroking me, twisting my need tighter with slow strokes.

“You’re so agreeable when you’re coming,” she murmurs against my lips. “No thoughts of murder to be had.”

That startles a strangled laugh out of me. “I’ll murder anyone who interrupts us.”

“There she is, my murderous Lizzie.”

I want to be yours.

She kisses me before I can say the words and ruin this thing between us. We might enjoy each other’s company. We certainly enjoy having sex with each other. But keeping? It’s out of the question. I highly doubt Maeve would have engaged in this affair if we didn’t have a built-in deadline. Why should she? A murderous vampire who treats every situation as one that violence can solve?.?.?. I’m hardly a catch for someone like Maeve.

I never had cause to mourn the person I am. There was a time for that, and it’s dead and gone, turned to dust in some unmarked grave. If I were any softer, any less vicious, I wouldn’t be here today. I’ve never regretted doing what it took to survive.

But, deep down in some hidden part of me, I almost wish things had turned out differently. That I could be the person she deserves. The kind of woman whom Maeve would want for more than sex and as a vicious protector.

She nips my shoulder, slamming me back into the here and now. “Come for me, Lizzie. I want to feel it.”

I love her like this, confident and wicked, her clever fingers winding me up. I drag my fingers down her sides and grip her ass, pulling her closer. Urging her to grind her pussy against my thigh. I’ll get another taste of her, and soon. But this is perfect for an appetizer. “Make me.”

She laughs. It’s light and joyful and filled with a promise I don’t know how to fulfill. Maeve presses the heel of her palm against my clit, hard, and there’s no holding out. I orgasm, pleasure bending my spine and almost making me forget myself enough to bite her. Her throat is so close, perfectly arched and sprinkled with those devastating freckles. I could?.?.?.

I twist and snap my teeth around a pillow. The fabric feels wrong against my tongue, but it’s better than the alternative. Was I just wishing to be soft enough to deserve this woman? What a joke. I almost killed her a few days ago, and all it takes is a single orgasm to have me in danger of doing it again.

Pathetic.

Maeve doesn’t give me a chance to sink into self-loathing. She drags her mouth down my throat, pausing to give me a tiny nibble that makes my thighs clench, and then shifts down my body and pushes my thighs wide. “Your restraint is admirable.” There’s something in her tone, something almost brittle, but she dips down and covers my pussy with her mouth before my pleasure-drugged brain can figure out what I’ve done to upset her.

She eases her fingers out of me and replaces them with her tongue, soft and slick and absolutely decadent. I manage to unclench my jaw enough to free the pillow. Barely. At least she’s out of reach of my fangs now. There’s still the problem of how I’m going to taste her without losing control, but I’ll get to that?.?.?. soon?.?.?. very soon.

She drags her tongue over my center and wedges three fingers into me. “You make me so angry and hot, and I just want to punish you.”

“Punish me?” I blink down at her. I can’t think. “I’m going to come again,” I gasp.

“I know.” Some smugness works its way into her tone. She sucks on my clit and then works it in short, unhurried strokes with the flat of her tongue as she keeps stroking my G-spot with her fingers. By all rights, I should be too sensitized to come again, but one of the perks of quick healing is even faster recovery. We could go for hours if I’m careful with her. Days, honestly.

We don’t have days here in this room. We only have until dawn.

“Maeve.”

She bands one arm over my stomach, holding me in place as she ruthlessly drives me into another orgasm. My brain actually blips, or maybe I black out. It feels like one moment Maeve is between my thighs, and the next she’s at my back, wrapping herself around me and delving her hand back between my thighs.

I shiver. “Maeve, please.” I could break her hold easily, could twist and pin her to the ground, could drive her to distraction the same way she’s doing to me. I don’t. “Let me touch you.”

“It made me so jealous to see you bite her,” she murmurs in my ear. She parts my pussy and drags the tip of her middle finger over my sensitive clit. “To see her get something that should, by rights, be mine.”

My mouth works, but I can’t seem to speak. If I was a better person, her jealousy wouldn’t make me hotter. I wouldn’t take it as some kind of proof of wanting. But I’m not a better person. I grip her arm, not trying to stop her, just hanging on and letting her guide this. “I only want you.” I don’t mean to say it. I truly don’t.

“I know.” Maeve cups one breast with her free hand, plucking at my nipple even as she works me toward a third orgasm. “You have me, Lizzie.” She kisses my throat. “You just have to take me.”

Except I don’t have her. She’s a selkie wife, mine for the time being, but I was always destined to lose her. There’s a reason all the stories end the same. I thought it was bullshit, but the truth is undeniable. I’m going to spend the rest of my life chasing the feeling of being with Maeve?.?.?. and I’m going to spend the rest of my life coming up short.

That, more than anything, gives me the strength to move, to turn and kiss her. To focus on giving her even more pleasure than she’s given me. “She wasn’t you.” I speak against her lips as I wedge my arm between us and stroke her pussy. “No one compares to you, baby. No one will ever be you.”

“Take me,” she repeats. The words have weight, as if they mean far more than sexually. I can’t think, can’t reason through why doing so would be a bad idea.

Nothing can touch us right now, right here. I haul myself to my feet and scoop Maeve into my arms. It’s only a few steps to the bed, and I lay her down like a bride on her wedding night. Moonlight filters through the window, bathing her in soft light. “I will, baby. I’ll take you all night.”

I’ll take you forever.