~

 

Clive didn’t bother to knock. He strolled in through the back door to the kitchen and Faith turned away from the coffee pot in surprise, jumping in place when she saw him stalking towards her, and zapping him hard with her magic before she’d even given it a thought.

The vampire ground to a halt and twisted his head on his neck against the pain that clawed through his body. His eyes practically rolled back in his head, and his top lip twitched with annoyance as he groaned.

“Not the time,” Clive bit out, but Faith was already letting her magic pull back from him.

The fact that Mick was out of his chair at the kitchen table and stalking towards them might have had a little to do with the fact that she felt a whole hell of a lot safer.

“Never sneak up on a witch,” Faith’s nose twitched with annoyance.

While she didn’t mind zapping a vampire, she hated to taste her heart in her throat.

“Get away from my mate,” Mick growled. His inner beast already had its fangs and claws out, but Mick fought the urge to let them free.

“No harm, no foul,” Clive took two steps back.

“Better,” Faith lifted just the one shoulder and sneered at him.

“Your friend is…” Clive started, but the sound of a chuckle that caught in Faith’s throat caused him to stop.

“She giving you the runaround?” Faith teased, her eyes flashed with amusement.

“That’s a nice way to put it,” Clive offered back.

“She’s your mate, aren’t you supposed to show her what for?” Faith balled her fist and punched the air.

Mick’s left eyebrow shot up on his forehead, and Clive scowled at the thought.

“She’s older, faster, and way more devious than a witch,” Clive bit back.

“Watch it,” Faith warned him, and he rolled his eyes.

“I need her address,” Clive shot back.

“Address?” Faith questioned his sanity.

“Where she hangs upside down like a bat to sleep,” Clive bit out.

“Ooh, someone’s miffed,” Faith grinned.

“Someone has been tossed from a tree, had a lot of bones broken, ran ragged over the hillsides, and been pushed off a cliff,” Clive bit out, and Faith pressed her lips together so as not to laugh. “Someone is beyond miffed and heading towards nuclear.”

“And you thought you had problems,” Faith offered to her mate, and the man couldn’t help but grin.

“Now she’s taken off, and I’ve decided that having her… bat-cave address is easier than tracking the… little minx,” Clive ground out.

“Well, I don’t know where she lives.”

“You’re lying,” Clive bit back, narrowing his eyes at her.

“Am not,” Faith’s nose twitched as she folded her arms and stared the man right back in the eye.

“She’s your friend, and you’ve known her for how long?”

“A while.”

“And in all that time you’ve never found out where she lives, the place she calls home, the…” Clive stopped on a slow to boil grin. “Thank you, that’s all I needed to know.” He turned and strolled away.

“What?” Faith dropped her arms and scowled after him. “Ooh, you read my mind.” She bit out, annoyed.

“Too right I did,” Clive tossed back. “And, if you believe your mate to be sex-on-a-stick, and you wonder about bedding him, then you really should do something about it.” He offered as his parting shot before he yanked the door closed behind him.

Faith’s eyes flicked towards her mate the instant that the hungry growl started to roll through his chest.

“That’s not…” Faith started, but when Mick took one long step towards her, closing the distance between them, she let out a low squeak of annoyance at the mess the vampire had put her in.

“She’s your mate, aren’t you supposed to show her what for…” Mick let the words die right there, and for a moment Faith questioned him with just a look.

Then he saw the recognition for the words that she had offered to the vampire as they hit her right in the middle eye, and her mouth fell open just a little.

“That was him, and I’m me,” Faith said in a rush of excitement that shot through her body.

The thought of kissing and being kissed by him had been bugging her all night, but she hadn’t wanted to start that particular boulder rolling down the cliff, because who knew where it would stop or what it would take out in its path.

Mick reached out with one solid arm and wrapped it around her body. Faith felt the flush of heat go through her, and that first flop of her stomach as her womb did a happy dance.

“Now hold on…” Faith started, but when he yanked her body up against his, and her soft bits were crushed against his hard muscles, she had to drag in a breath.

It was too late to say another word as Mick’s lips came down on hers.

 

~

~

~

 

Ryan’s sense of smell coming back so suddenly hit him hard. Vanessa’s scent swirled around him like a heady haze to his brain, and what his mate was doing to his body, pressed against his hard length, wrapped around him like a vine, was enough to make his beast rush to push forwards and try to stake its claim on her.

Ryan had a mind to slam that cage door closed on his wolf just in time.

Mine… His wolf growled, not happy to be shut down.

Ryan was the one who pulled back first. He didn’t want to do it, and he regretted it the moment that his lips left hers, but he dipped his head and brushed his cheek against hers as he took her scent at the source.

“Something I said?” Vanessa grinned to herself. “Or something that I did?”

Ryan’s low, deep, hungry growl rumbled within his chest and made her want to purr, and she was no kitty-cat, she was a headstrong witch. But she kind of wished that she had been a cat because it would have felt so right to curl up on his chest and let him love her some more.

“I smell you, my witch,” Ryan was about as happy as he could ever remember being.

He might have been standing in the damn hallway and not lying in his bed with her, naked and wrapped around each other after claiming his mate, but he was in a good place, a happy place, a dancing-a-damn-jig-place, and that was all that mattered for right then.

“You say that like it’s a good thing,” Vanessa teased him.

“Oh,” he lifted his head on a deeper growl and met her gaze. “It is.”

“Because that’s not at all creepy,” Vanessa was still teasing, but he didn’t get that impression from her, and he yanked his head back on his neck, gave her a slight sideways glance, and narrowed his eyes at her.

“It’s creepy?”

“Just a little,” she pouted, and his eyes pitched down before flicking back up.

“How little?” he asked, and she made a point of moving her hips and grinding her sex against his hard left.

“Oh, no, wait…” she rolled her eyes to the ceiling, ignoring his hard growl of pleasure, and made a point of considering it. “Maybe not so little.”

“You keep doing that and I might just take you to the bedroom and make you mine,” he growled, and it was a good one. It was the kind of growl that held in his chest and made her taut, needy nipples vibrate.

“You keep kissing me like that and I might let you,” she tossed back, without even thinking about what her words implied.

“You…?” Ryan eyed her for one hell of a long moment in time.

Time enough for her mind to spin with her words, and her body to decide that it wanted to run with that plan.

“Might,” she gave a small squeak.

“You really don’t want to tease me,” Ryan growled.

“You know, I think that’s the problem,” Vanessa looked a little pained. “I think I just might.”

“Vanessa,” Ryan warned, but he never got any further.

“What say we take this to the bedroom and seeeeee….” She squealed as he snatched her body away from the wall, whirled her around in place, and started off down the corridor like he was escaping a fire.

“Did I tell you I had a very bad episode lately with a fast moving vampire?” Vanessa hissed out, but all she got back for her trouble was a Mutley like snigger.