Chapter 24

Iwalked Eden back to the garden suite. On the surface, she acted like everything was all right, but the joy from earlier—the sparkle, the flirting—was absent. In trying to be honest with Eden, I'd only made things worse. Her effort to pretend otherwise—to make me feel better—was like a spike of guilt to the gut.

It reminded me of my mom when Esposito was getting restless, clearly preparing to leave again, how she'd lose the light in her eyes. I didn't want to be that guy, but I wasn't sure how not to be.

We were blood-bonded. I'd given Eden safety and security. Made guarantees regarding our spawn that no other vampire I knew would've agreed to.

And it still wasn't enough.

This is why you didn't want to bond with a human.

Now that we were blood-bonded, I felt responsible for Eden. She had needs I wasn't meeting. Couldn't meet.

I was failing her like I had my mom. Whatever I did, it wasn't enough.

I wasn't enough.

I not only didn't know how to be a father, I didn't know how to make a woman happy.

When we reached Eden's suite, I halted in the doorway, the not-enough sensation pressing on my chest. "Good night," I said, deciding to leave. Having sex with her tonight felt wrong.

Eden paused in the act of unzipping the sunny yellow jacket. "You're leaving?"

When I said yes, she rolled her upper lip in.

"I'm not fragile, you know." She tossed the coat on a chair along with her hat and mittens. "I can handle a little hurt. Yeah, I wish things were different, but after I left, I did just fine on my own without you."

"Were you?" I took a single step inside her suite. She'd picked a bad time to remind me how she'd been living; thinking about it still gave me chills. "You were in that tiny apartment, working too hard. Afraid to go anywhere. You hadn't even been to an OB-GYN."

She threw up her hands. "Because I was on the run from your fucking syndicate. And I was doing all right, considering. You know I was. I would've kept going if not for the baby and Rio."

Her chin was at a stubborn angle, her hair tousled, her cheeks rosy from the cold. She'd gone from sad to pissed off. That was better, somehow—and that up-tilted chin challenged me to reach for her and kiss the fight right out of her.

Plus, she was right. If she'd kept running every few weeks, I might not ever have found her. If that Kral soldier hadn't tipped us off, she might still be missing.

"Actually," I admitted, "for someone who's never lived off-island, you did good."

"There you go! So, stop feeling guilty or responsible or whatever the hell you're feeling."

Her words were a nail gun to the heart. Because I was feeling guilty and responsible. I hated that I'd hurt Eden. I wanted to fix this, damn it.

She stalked toward me, determination in every line of her swishing hips. "You don't really want to leave, do you? Because you'd already be gone."

Startled, I unfolded my arms as she launched herself at me, catching her against my body.

She gripped my face. "Kiss me," she demanded. "You wanna make me feel better? Then do it. I'm horny and I want sex."

I gaped at her, still back there knowing I'd hurt her. That I'd failed her.

She didn't wait for me to catch up. Raising onto her toes, she fused her mouth to mine in a lush, ice-cream-flavored kiss.

For a couple of seconds, I was too stunned to do anything but kiss her back, my hands empty at my sides. My dick surged to attention, pushing against my zipper, and I started to participate. Eating at her mouth like a starving man. Sliding my fingers into her short hair. Gripping her ass so I could jerk her up against my erection.

Still kissing her, I reversed our positions, closing the door with one hand so I could push her up against it, my thigh against the heat of her pussy through her leggings. My hand moved from her ass to her sweater, pulling it up so I could run my thumb roughly over her nipple.

She gasped into my mouth, rubbing her crotch against me.

I broke the kiss. "That's it, angel. Take what you need. Get that pussy hot."

This much I could do for her. If she wanted an orgasm, I'd blow her goddamn mind.

"I am." Her lungs lifted and fell. "I am."

"Try harder." I drew back enough to drag off her sweater. "I want you nice and slippery, I'm going bury my tongue in you so deep, you'll be crying for me to let you come."

That made her back arch, a whimper escaping her lips.

"You like it when I talk dirty, don't you?" I was on my knees, removing her boots, dragging off her leggings and panties. "After you left, did you think of me when you touched yourself? Did you hear me telling you that you were a bad girl and you did it anyway? Maybe you pictured me watching you."

"Yes." Her head fell back against the door. "I did. All that. And I hated you for making me want you. Christ, I hated you."

"You think I didn't hate you right back?"

Our gazes snagged.

Her throat worked. "I didn't think you cared enough to hate me."

"Then why did I come after you? No, don't answer." I reached up and covered her mouth with my hand.

Because I knew what she'd say, that I'd only gone after her to punish her, to prove she couldn't fuck me over like that and get away with it. It was what I'd told myself, wasn't it? Except even then I'd known that wasn't the whole story, that I'd have gone after her no matter what.

I tightened my grip on her face. "Just take what I'm going to give you. Because this is what you want. What you need. Every night, you need it all over again, don't you?"

She nodded beneath my hand, and I released her.

She licked her lips. "I do need it. Make me forget everything but you inside me."

"Anything you say, baby. As long as you take care of me, too."

"I will."

"Good." I slid my hand down her throat to where her breasts were encased in a satiny pink bra. I pinched both her nipples into hardness. "What about that? Does that help you forget?"

She made a small, tortured sound.

"Words," I said. "I want to hear words—and my name."

Her long, smooth throat worked, a seduction in itself. "Yes…Talon."

I grunted in satisfaction, my eyes focused on the soft, dark-blond mound inches from my face. "Open those sexy legs for me," I told her while I undid my jeans and slid the zipper down. When she obeyed, I said, "Good girl," and granted myself a few hard strokes.

She watched, her blue eyes almost black with arousal, her pretty nether lips glistening. Still grasping myself, I dragged my tongue through her slit, ending at her clit.

"Maybe I'll edge you again tonight," I said. "Make you beg for your orgasm until when you finally come, you'll be crying my name. So full of me you'll think you can't take anymore. But you will, won't you?" I swatted the side of her ass.

She whimpered and pressed herself against my mouth. "Please..."

"Oh, yeah, you will. Because you want this as much as me."

"I do. I do."

I couldn't hold out any longer. Not when my nose was filled with her salty aroma, my mouth watering to taste her.

I buried my tongue in her sex, licking through her seam to her clit. My fingers dug into the bare globes of her butt, massaging and pulling them apart while I laved her swollen little nub.

She grabbed my head, angling me so I was where she wanted me. "So close, so close…"

Drawing back a scant inch, I blew on her clit, edging her as promised. "Beg me."

"No…"

I gave her a single, light lick. "Beg me. And use my name."

She groaned, her hips writhing in my grip. "Please, Talon. Don't stop, please…I need it."

"Like this?" I went back to what I'd been doing, sucking and licking and lapping, one finger circling her back hole, teasing the delicate tissue.

Her knees locked. She ground herself against me. "Ohmigod."

I pulled back again.

"No." She tried to force my head back and I let her. "Let me come. Please don't make me wait. It's so…"

"Mm." I could've kept mouth-banging her for another half hour; she smelled and tasted so good. But she was going over the cliff with or without me.

Giving her plump clit a long suck, I pushed two fingers into her, stroking her inner walls, and she gave a little scream and cinched around my fingers, thighs shaking, sobbing out my name.

I didn't stop until she went limp and started sliding down the door. Standing up, I took off her bra and urged her across the room with a hand on her lower back. I bent her over a couch arm and jerked off my shirt, popping a couple of buttons in my hurry. My shoes and pants followed.

"I need to be inside you."

Eden's breath shuddered in. She propped herself on her forearms, pushing her bottom out to me, widening her legs without me having to ask.

My stomach tightened at the erotic picture she presented. I took her by the hips, somehow managing to pause long enough to ask, "This is okay?"

A rapid nod. "Yes."

"Good." I slid into her, slow and deep, and released a primal groan.

Loving how she felt taking my length. Constricting around me as I seated myself fully inside her.

I rocked in and out a few times. "Touch yourself," I ordered.

"Can't," she rasped. "Too…much."

"You can." I bent forward and fingered her myself. "I'll go slow. Let you catch up."

She jerked against me, making me grit my teeth in pleasure. "No. Please, I—"

"Shh. I'll take care of you."

I released my fangs, scraping them over her shoulder, then licking the tiny marks to give her a boost of aphrodisiac.

Her back arched, her soft, warm curves pressing against my groin. "Talon."

"That's who's inside you, angel." I slid out almost to the tip. "Is it still too much? You want me to stop?"

"Yes. No. I mean, don't stop. Don't stop."

I pressed a kiss to the center of her back and started to move, teasing her with my fingers. "You're dripping for me, aren't you? So wet for my dick."

I kept that up for a few minutes until she was with me again, pushing against me and giving hot little whimpers that I felt clear to my balls.

"Sweet Lilith," I husked. "You feel…perfect. So good I'm going to ride you all night. You'd like that, wouldn't you? You love having me in you, taking you until all you can think of is me. Don't you?"

"Yes, yes," she sobbed out.

I pinched each of her tits. When I went to finger her again, her hand was there, pleasuring herself.

I hummed in satisfaction. "That's it. Make yourself feel good for me."

She said something guttural in return.

My lower back muscles went tight. I slammed into her, balls slapping against her ass. Then again, and again. She wailed my name and started to come, her whole body strung tight, her inner walls squeezing me, over and over.

"That's my good girl. Take what you want. Empty me out."

I gathered Eden to me, supporting her belly with one hand, helping her finger herself with the other. I clung to her like she was the only thing in my world, pumping into her hard and fast. My fangs were still extended, the blood-hunger digging its claws into me.

At that moment I'd have given my left nut to drink from her. But I didn't. Instead, I touched my fangs to her neck, some vestige of sense stopping me from breaking the skin, but craving the feel of her skin beneath my teeth.

Then my own climax overtook me. My vision turned a hazy red.

"Eden," I said, the word both a groan and a prayer, and stilled deep inside her, the pleasure so intense it felt like I was being wrung out by a giant hand.

When I came back to myself, she was hanging limply in my arms, her breath choppy. I slid an arm under her thighs and carried her into the bedroom, laying her on her bed.

I tucked the covers around her, brushing my lips over hers. "You want me to sleep with you?"

"I'm good," she said with a crooked half-smile. "Thanks."

She'd been open to me while we had sex, but already she'd pulled back into herself. She seemed okay, though. Not sad, at least. Resigned.

That's what I'd wanted, right? For her to accept what we had without pushing for more.

"Okay." I stared down at her. "And for the record, I don't think you're fragile."

"But you do feel responsible for me."

I hesitated. It felt like a trick question. "Because I am."

"No, Talon, you're not—not the way you mean, anyway. Because you think you're responsible for making me happy, don't you?"

Because I am.

This time I didn't say it aloud. "If you're unhappy," I evaded, "then it's on me."

"No," she said, raising up on her forearms to scowl at me. "It's not. I'm an adult, and if I'm unhappy it's my own fault. You're responsible for the baby, not me—and then only until he's an adult. Yeah, you're responsible for me in a way—I'm going to need you to help me with the baby, especially when he's a newborn. And I hope I'll have your emotional support, too. But that's where it ends."

"You'll have it," I vowed, ignoring the "that's where it ends," part for now.

"Then we're good," she said, lying back down.

"Okay." I rubbed a hand over my chest. If we were good, why didn't I feel better about this? "You'll let me know if you need anything, right?"

She closed her eyes. "Sure."

I hovered another few seconds until she said, "Good night, Talon."

"See you tomorrow." I brushed my fingers over the back of her cheek and left.