The manor was quiet when Pallas arrived home. Sleeping shifters with full stomachs filled the rooms on the upper floors. The distant sound of their snores reached his ears. He picked a piece of Harold out of his teeth as he descended into his basement sanctuary. The stench of Homeland agents still clung to everything.
They probably had gone through all his things. He wished he could have seen Gillipsie’s face when he found all the empty folders in his filing cabinet and that his laptop only held card games. He wasn’t sure what Daedalus expected him to do with all the office equipment he’d sent when he first purchased this property. When he trained wolves in the past, he hadn’t owned a brick.
At the bottom step, he halted. Someone had just turned off his shower. If he found a Homeland agent in his bedroom, he was going to have dessert. Screw Daedalus and his rules. He reached his room as the bathroom door opened.
Leona exited, toweling her long hair. She gave him a pleased smile. “You’re back. The alphas said you wouldn’t mind me using your shower. Something about the only one with hot water?” She tugged on the hem of the T-shirt she wore. His shirt. “Hope you don’t mind me borrowing this. I needed something clean to wear.”
His mouth went dry. “I wasn’t expecting you.” He had never had guests. The wolves weren’t allowed past his office. Prior to the manor, he never owned a bedroom.
“Do you want me to go?”
“No.” He almost shouted. He rubbed the back of his neck. “I’m just surprised.” He chuckled. “Pleasantly surprised.”
“What were you doing? It’s almost dawn.” She sat on the edge of his bed, brushing her hair. Where had she found a brush?
A lie came to his lips about checking his borders but he didn’t verbalize it. This thing between Leona and himself was fragile and beautiful. Lies would shatter their growing bond. He pulled up a dressing chair and took a seat. Mulling the truth. That could destroy everything.
She set aside the brush. “I don’t like this serious look on your face.”
He cleared his throat, he needed her to accept him for who and what he was. That he wasn’t a human with sharp teeth.
“Pallas, spit it out. You’ve never minced words before.”
He leaned his elbows on his knees and stared at his boots. “I found Harold.”
“Oh.” The word slipped between her lips in an exhale. “And?”
He glanced up at her. “I had him for dinner.”
She pursed her lips as if in deep thought. “You said your blood came from bags. That you didn’t kill people for food.”
“Normally, I don’t.” He jumped to his feet and paced the room. “He was a murderer and no one will miss him.” He ground his teeth. “He hurt you. That’s just not acceptable. You can’t expect me not to do anything.”
She rested her head in her hands. “I just spent days proving you weren’t a murderer.”
“No.” He crossed his arms. “But I didn’t kill Bob. There’s a distinction.”
She jerked her head up. “Which is?”
“I don’t kill innocent people. I probably wouldn’t have gone after Harold, but he crossed a line by laying hands on you.” He shrugged and stepped aside so she’d have a clear path to the exit. “I won’t stop you from leaving, but I can’t change what I am.”
“You want me to leave?” She sounded heartbroken.
“Never. I just assumed you wouldn’t want to stay.”
They stared at each other. The silence grew heavy.
“Will someone find his body?”
He scoffed.
“I’m not as bothered by this as much as I thought I’d be.” She rose and crossed his bedroom, laying her hands on his chest. “Harold threatened revenge on both of us. That we’d always have to keep a lookout for him. I wouldn’t want to live that way.”
A growl rolled from his throat. He wanted to kill Harold all over again.
She gave him a push, sitting him back on a chair, and she straddled his hips. “I do like that you want to protect me.”
He noted the bruises on her knees that matched her face. “I didn’t do a good job.” With a sharp fang, he bit into his thumb and offered her a bead of his blood so she could heal. He couldn’t deny her anything.
She shook her head. “There will be questions I can’t answer if I show up to work tomorrow with no black eyes.”
“I think the bruises are sexy.”
“I’m glad.” She pulled his shirt over his head and tossed it on the bed. “Now that I’m not freezing my ass off. I plan on taking my time torturing you.” She ran her nails over his abs until she reached the fastenings of his jeans. “I’ve always had a thing for bad boys.”
“I can be bad.” He’d lived close to half a millennium, developed iron control over his primal side, but he could have no more resisted the demanding invitation in his sheriff’s eyes than he could’ve given up his need for blood. “What would you do with me?”
She unsnapped the top button on his pants, her long fingers strikingly delicate against the rough fabric of his dirty jeans. “Naughty things.” A single slow stroke along the outline of his cock.
He let out a breath he’d been holding and gripped the chair arms tighter. He didn’t want to stop her, this woman who played with him. “Be gentle with me.”
She shot him a delighted grin, full of mischief. “I won’t bite.” Pressure on his aroused flesh grew as she molded her hand along him. “Unlike someone I know.”
His abdomen clenched. “Don’t tempt me.” He’d had his fill by draining Harold but just a taste of Leona… He shuddered.
Leaning forward, she pressed wet kisses below his navel as she undid his zipper.
His hips jerked, the wood of the chair creaked. A growl rumbled low in his chest and he startled at the shifter-ish noise.
“You don’t scare me.” She exposed his tip.
“Nothing scares you. Not even ancient vampires with a biting fetish.” And apparently some latent shifter traits that she inspired. “On the edge of losing control.”
She tongued the flushed exposed head of his cock. It took all of his inner strength to remain still. This beautiful woman wanted him of her own free will. Even knowing the truth of his real nature.
She pulled at his pants, helping to slip them off his hips and down around his ankles. Dipping her head, she traced the pulsing vein that ran along the thick line of his arousal.
An inarticulate sound of mingled pleasure and frustration ripped from Pallas’ throat. Hearing the edge in that was a kick to her heart. Of how much her vampire desired her. Unable to resist him any more now that she’d had a taste, she retraced her path and took him in her mouth.
“Leona,” he ground out.
She couldn’t swallow all of his thick length, but she would practice. The thought sent a blaze of need as she licked and tasted and sucked. She clenched her thighs together.
He flung his head back. One of the chair arms cracked in his hand and he tossed it across the room.
She dared tease this lethal, feral being? But his response to her was addictive. Moaning low in her throat, she swirled her tongue around the head before sliding her mouth back over his cock. She loved the contrast of silken skin over hard steel. The way he murmured sensual revenge.
Under her hands, his muscles hardened, his skin warm with stolen heat. “Enough,” he commanded.
She grazed her teeth over his sensitive tip.
He hissed. “You are fearless.”
A crash of possessive desire rushed like a wild storm threw her heart. She really wasn’t fearless, but she knew with Pallas she was safe. Knowing how close he was to the precipice, she licked a line from cock to navel.
His eyes glittered with fever.
She wouldn’t surrender to him. Swiping a bead of pre-cum off his tip, she lifted her taunting finger to her mouth.
That was all she needed to push him over the edge. He rose in one graceful motion, sweeping her into his arms and splaying her across his bed. His jeans were left behind by the broken chair. The mouthwatering masculine strength of his body stole her breath.
He trailed his hands on her inner thighs, spreading them apart. “No panties to play with this time.”
“Pallas.”
“I love the sound of my name on your lips.” When he cupped her, it was all she could do not to buck against the heel of his hand.
“Oh my God.” She breathed in gasps. “Take me already.”
“No.”
Her flesh dampened even more, a rush of liquid. Reflexively, she went to clench her thighs together to ease the growing ache, but he stopped her with one knee between her legs. The bed dipped as he shifted forward, leaning one hand by her head. He separated her nether lips, tracing his fingers over her core.
Frustrated and needy, she squirmed to rub her clit against his rough skin.
“Behave.”
She looked up at an immortal who had a very possessive burn in his gaze. She should have been afraid. A smart person would have had second thoughts before entangling their lives with such a powerful person. But she’d never taken the safe path. That was boring. Pallas was anything but boring.
Leaning down, he pressed his mouth to her pussy with slow primal intensity that had her stroking his head and shoulders for a harder rhythm. But he continued at his own pace, dragging his sharp teeth over her sensitive bud.
The zing of blinding sensation arched her back. Need clawed inside her, a voracious beast that only Pallas could feed. “More. I need more.”
“No.”
She snarled as he licked a slow line over her entrance.
“You sound like my wolves.”
The agony and ecstasy was liquid lightning contained in her mortal and fragile body. She couldn’t bear it.
As if knowing he was pushing her too far, Pallas ripped her T-shirt down the center from neck to hem to leave her upper body bare and palmed her aching breasts.
Oh yes. The power behind that magnificent granite body was completely focused on her. Her desire blazed so bright, she couldn’t see.
He knelt between her thighs, her legs cradling his hips. Their lips met in a wild and possessive hunger. He kissed a line to her throat and whispered. “You are mine.” Just before his fangs closed over the pulse in her neck.
She moaned. “Yes, I am.” Nothing felt more erotic. “Take me, Pallas.”
Simultaneously, he bit and slid inside her in a single hard thrust.
Her scream echoed off the stone walls.
Pinning her to the bed, he pulled out almost fully then slammed back in. There was no mercy but she never asked for any.
He rode her, driving them into a blinding peak.