Potential Bloodbath
Abel
ABEL HEARD THE rumble approach from outside. He looked to the bathroom sink where Delilah was aiming a hair dryer at a round brush that was wrapped around a thick lock of her dark, shining hair and called loudly to be heard over the sound, “They’re here.”
Hair dryer still on, her eyes slashed to him and she cried, “Shit, crap, shit, crap, shit, shit, shit! I still have to tease!”
She then turned back to the mirror and pulled out the brush, the lock falling soft with a smooth wave into her face. Abel felt his dick twitch even as his lips curved up.
His dick might be twitching again, but it wasn’t the same. The consuming need he’d had for her was gone, or at least the dangerous part of it that he’d feared would harm her was.
He still wanted her, but now it was because she was fucking gorgeous, fantastic in the sack, had a spectacular body, and was intensely responsive, all on top of what he was getting was her natural sweet, generous, teasing, kind, funny, and accepting.
And he knew this because he had all of the first four times since they woke up that morning and he’d had all of the last since he’d met her.
He looked to the floor behind her and saw her two bags had exploded since they took a shower, after which she commenced getting ready.
He also saw Xun was not wrong. The bitch did not pack light, not by a long shot. He had no idea how long she planned to stay in Serpentine Bay. But by the clothes, shoes, toiletries, and cosmetics bags he’d noted as he saw her pawing through them, which contained makeup as well as jewelry, it looked like she was moving there.
Something unpleasant shifted through his gut, but he buried it, deciding instead to continue to feel amused that he’d get the only biker bitch he’d met who couldn’t travel with a couple of clean tees and pairs of panties, an eyeliner pencil and mascara, and an extra pair of earrings to shake things up.
Not that he’d had a biker bitch. Losing Hui, then Mei, and after her Sying, and more before them and after, he’d learned not to form attachments to humans outside the family. Just being with his family, he knew gut-wrenching loss would eventually come, so he didn’t court more of it.
That didn’t mean he didn’t have friends over the last fifty or so years who lived the life, their women on the backs of their bikes, wearing leather cuts, proudly proclaiming they were the “property” of their men. These women existing on what they could shove in a saddlebag.
This meant Abel had never had what he had right then—the smell of a woman, his woman, his mate, permeating his space. All of her smells, every nuance, from her shampoo to her body wash to her lotion, her perfume, the shit she slid through her hair before styling it, and the underlying scent that was all her, her skin, her cunt, her essence.
And he fucking loved it, every note, every trace. He loved that her bag had exploded behind her. He loved watching her frantically teasing her hair in the mirror, shifting from foot to foot in agitation and excitement to see her dad (both of these he could smell too, and both were fucking brilliant).
He also loved the fact that that night, he’d sleep beside her. He’d also wake up beside her tomorrow morning.
And repeat the next day.
And the next
He’d brought women to his space, slept with them, woke up with them, then took them home and erased their mind of where they were, giving them different memories. These being that he’d fucked them and slept with them in their beds, all so they wouldn’t remember where he lived.
Delilah would be the first he didn’t have to do that with. Delilah would be the first who that happened with day in and day out.
And he loved that too.
But Abel did not think beyond that. Did not think of the days passing into months, then years, all of it leading to an inevitable conclusion that would leave him again with that hole in his gut, the agonizing pain of not having what he needed, and worse, the hole she would eventually leave in his life when she left this world, her being it. The one. The only woman who could give him what he needed, leaving him with centuries of missing it with no shot at having it back.
For she was filling his life already, just days in, with her talk of vampire TV shows and her ready acceptance of her destiny and her bonding with his family.
And what she’d given him that morning.
Christ, what she’d given him.
He’d felt her fear, smelled it, but she sat on that bed knowing, since she’d seen his strength in action, that it was a very real threat he could harm her. And she didn’t tell him to go.
Instead, when he drove his cock home, her cunt clenched around him, welcoming him deep, her head snapping back, her hair flying everywhere.
Christ. He’d never forget it, not how glorious it felt, not how colossal it was.
Then she’d given him her blood.
He’d had rat’s blood, cow’s blood, pig, chicken, goat, sheep, and finally, human woman. He’d never had a male’s blood. It didn’t smell good and the idea of taking it turned his stomach.
But he’d never had blood as warm and rich and sweet as Delilah’s. Given to him freely, giving all of her in one go, giving him everything he needed the first time she took his cock . . .
Fuck.
He knew she was his destiny. He understood that would come with emotion.
He was still surprised at how quickly he was falling in love with her.
Her comb clattered to the cement.
She cursed and Abel again focused on her, thinking, if they were to stay there much longer (which they weren’t), he’d put another sink in on the other side of the tub so he’d be able to get in to do the minimal prep he needed to take on the day. This was something he’d had trouble doing earlier, squeezing in at the side to brush his teeth while she leaned across the sink, swiping makeup on her face.
He’d also give her a vanity, a huge-ass one, where she could rest all her shit while she was getting ready.
She wouldn’t have it here. But wherever they settled, he’d find that for her. For the rest of her life, he’d find her everything she needed.
She bent to retrieve the comb, giving him a full-on view of the ample curves of her sweet ass, the sight he again felt in his cock. Then she went back to her hair.
He finished pulling on his boots and moved from the milk cartons where he’d been dressing.
He approached her from behind, got close enough to touch, but reared his torso back when she snatched up a can of hairspray, aimed, and let loose.
“Fuck,” he muttered.
She stopped spraying, her eyes went to his in the mirror, and she muttered, “Sorry.”
“Everything about you smells good, pussycat. But that shit? No,” he told her as she tossed the can back into the sink with a clatter and he moved in, putting his hands to her hips.
“I need hold,” she shared, lifting her fingers to fluff and arrange her hair, her eyes back to herself in the mirror.
His eyes dropped to her tits where her tee was straining, his dick deciding it was time to yank down her jeans and panties and bend her over the sink. Fortunately, because of what Delilah gave him earlier, his mind had control over his dick again and he didn’t do that while her father and his boys were right then parking their bikes in front of the restaurant.
“I got a lot of hair,” she went on. “I don’t spend thirty minutes getting it to look this good only for it to fall and look like garbage.”
“I think your dad probably doesn’t give a shit what your hair looks like,” he pointed out, and her eyes flew to his in the mirror.
“I’m not doing this for my dad,” she returned. “I have a long, tall drink of serious hot-guy werewolf vampire. I can’t take his side and not be the best I can be.”
Abel froze, staring at her in the mirror.
Take his side and be the best I can be.
“Abel, I need to spritz on more perfume,” she told him.
He didn’t move.
Take his side and be the best I can be.
“I don’t want you to get a blast of it, honey,” she stated.
He slid his hands to cross his arms over her belly, yanking her into his frame, bending his head and using his chin to shift her hair out of the way so he could bury his face in her neck.
There she didn’t smell like hairspray.
There she smelled like Delilah, fresh and sweet and tangy.
“They’re already inside, Lilah. You need to get the lead out,” he said softly there, kissed her, and let her go.
“Okay, baby,” she muttered before she spritzed, quickly turned, squatted, dug through bags, and put on jewelry. Then she sat on her ass and pulled on her socks and boots.
He moved close to her and offered a hand.
She lifted hers and he took it, hefting her up, way up, surprising her into giving a quiet cry as he took her clean off her feet. She automatically swung her legs around his hips, her female parts pressed to the side of his hip, his hand leaving hers so that he could wrap his arm around her back and hold her close.
She curved her arms around his shoulders. He turned his head and looked down at her, seeing her eyes were wide.
“Hold on, bao bei,” he murmured.
She nodded.
He moved.
He heard her gasp as he went about taking her upstairs as fast as they could get there, including opening and closing the steel door and the back door to the restaurant.
All this took seconds.
As they came to a rocking halt in the kitchen, he smelled Jian-Li’s lunch.
He also smelled biker. Five of them.
He gave Delilah a slight shake and she unwrapped her legs from his hips. He put her to her feet and looked down at her.
Her hair was slightly tousled and her eyes were huge and bright.
“That . . . was . . . awesome,” she breathed.
He grinned.
She leaned deep into him, her hand hitting his stomach. Smiling up in his face, dazzling and gorgeous, she whispered, “Let’s meet the parents.”
Meet the parents.
He’d have that once. With her. Doing something natural for a human, something Abel couldn’t ever have until her, knowing he found the woman for him and adding humans to his life, his family, giving him more.
More family, which was the only real joy he had in his long life.
Or, at least that joy would last for a while.
Abel wanted to kiss her for that reason and others besides.
He didn’t. He shifted so she’d let him go, but he took her hand and led her into the restaurant.
When he did, he saw instantly that Jian-Li was in hostess mode, nodding, smiling, and greeting the bikers who were gathered inside. Xun, Wei, and Chen were close but off to the side, giving her space to do her thing.
He took in Delilah’s family and saw instantly they were hardcore.
They weren’t bikers.
They were live, breathe, eat, drink, fuck, bleed, and die for the life bikers.
And he knew the one to the front was Delilah’s father. He knew it because she had his hair and his eyes and he had a tinge of her scent. It was masculine, but the tang was underlying it. She got her pale roses-and-cream skin from somewhere else, but she got serious goodness from her father.
He was maybe five foot eleven. He was stocky with a hint of a gut. And he was in leathers—chaps over jeans, jacket, even a suede shirt.
His dark but salted hair was long, as long as his daughter’s, but just the back. The top was clipped and spiked. The mullet to beat all mullets that only a guy like him could pull off.
His face was weathered. It was clear he had no problem with sun and wind, drink and food, likely drugs. He lived his life, every fucking minute of it, and he enjoyed the fuck out of it, all of this written on his face.
Then something else was written on his face as he noticed Abel and Delilah coming into the room.
Love and joy. Pure. Absolute.
Delilah pulled her hand from his, raced across the room, and Abel forced himself to stop and freeze in that position, his jaw clenching, feeling a muscle dance in his cheek as she threw herself into her father’s arms.
He knew from what she’d told him that they were very close. She adored the man, trusted him, her affection for him was extreme. Abel also knew from the look he’d just witnessed on her father’s face that he returned all that.
Thus that man would never harm her.
Abel still felt the overwhelming urge to forge straight to them and tear his woman out of her father’s arms.
“Daddy!” she cried as her father shook her in his hold, her feet off the floor, arms around his shoulders, face in his neck, his face wreathed in smiles.
“My little girl,” he husked, his voice beyond gravelly, straight to shards.
Finally, he let her down but didn’t let her go, just positioned her a foot away, his hands holding her at her forearms out in front of them.
That was when Abel moved, immediately getting close, wrapping his fingers around her upper arm, forcing himself to pull her away but doing it gently. He felt her eyes come to him, saw her father’s eyes move to him. But when he got her where he wanted her, he did not hesitate to clamp an arm around her shoulders and tuck her tight, her front to his side.
“Things have been intense,” he said quietly to her father. “I get who you are to Lilah. She told me. But the first time I had eyes on her, she was not in a good way. So I’m not good with men touching her. Any man. This might wear off. But until it does, I hope you get me.”
He felt Delilah relax into his side as her arms snaked around his middle. Through this, her father held his eyes.
Then he hooted, “Fuck!” He turned and said to the men behind him, “Did I tell you I was gonna love this guy?” He turned back to Abel and Delilah and shouted, “I fuckin’ love this guy!”
The tension that had sifted into the room at Abel’s actions slid away as Delilah made the introductions. “Daddy, this is Abel.”
“Yeah, little girl, I think I got that,” he replied on a huge smile aimed at his daughter and then stuck a hand out to Abel.
Abel let her go, she did the same, and he moved to take the man’s hand. But it was a surprise when he didn’t shake and instead grasped Abel’s forearm and gave it a powerful tug, forcing Abel forward so the side of his chest slammed into the side of Delilah’s father’s.
Both men leaned back, but Delilah’s father lifted his other hand and pounded Abel’s shoulder repeatedly, smiling up at him, before he lifted his hand again and slapped his cheek, again repeatedly, doing this lightly with fatherly affection.
At this, Abel tensed, feeling Delilah tense beside him, but the man stopped soon enough and let him go.
He looked to his daughter. “Trust you to find a warrior this good-lookin’. Fuck me, little girl, not a man I clapped eyes on in my life was a match for you, ’cept this motherfucker,” he stated, jerking a thumb at Abel.
Delilah giggled and moved into Abel again, saying through her laughter, “Totally.”
He let her wrap her arms around him and he returned the favor with one around her shoulders as her father turned his attention back to Abel.
“Hook,” he declared. “Hooker Johnson. My parents named me David, but that’s a stupid-ass name and if anyone ever called me that, I’d rip their throat out. So it’s Hook.”
“Hook,” Abel replied, and Delilah forged in.
“Have you met Jian-Li and the guys?” she asked.
Hooker shifted and turned his gaze to Abel’s family.
“We met this lovely lady. Hadn’t gotten around to her boys.”
“Right,” Delilah replied. “That’s Xun, Wei, and Chen. They’re awesome, Dad.”
“Yo,” Hooker called.
“Yo,” Xun said, and Abel looked to him to see his mouth twitching.
“Hey,” Wei said, his eyes moving from Hooker to Abel and Delilah. He took in their positions, knew immediately what their comfortable closeness meant, and grinned a knowing grin at his brother, his eyebrows waggling, his lips mouthing, “Right on.”
“Cool you’re here,” Chen said.
“And guys, this is my dad, Hook, and his boys, Poncho, Snake, Moose, and Jabber.”
Abel looked at the men behind Hook and he didn’t need to be informed which was which.
There was one who definitely had Hispanic in him and he was actually wearing a fringed, suede poncho, so he had to be Poncho.
Another was long and lean to the point of being coiled, thus the man had to be Snake.
Another had a mammoth gut, broad but sloped shoulders, was almost as tall as Abel, with shaggy brown-gray hair—in other words, Moose.
And the last was short, skinny, wiry, his eyes shifty and alert—clearly Jabber.
“I hope you gentlemen are hungry,” Jian-Li said at this point.
“Fuckin’ starved,” Hook replied, then lifted his hand in an apologetic gesture and grinned. “’Scuse my French.”
Jian-Li smiled and replied, “Don’t mention it, I’ve raised all boys.” This got an approving smile from Hook, but when Abel looked to his brothers, the older two were rolling their eyes and Chen was grinning at his feet. This because the only one of them she let get away with cursing (sometimes) was Abel. “Now, let’s start with drinks,” Jian-Li went on. “What can we get you?”
“Beer,” Hook said.
“All around,” Moose grunted from behind.
“Any preference?” Jian-Li asked.
“Knock us out,” Hook stated. “You got something exciting that’ll trip our triggers, we’ll drink it. Just as long as it’s wet and cold. Got a long length of road down my throat and that always tastes good, but it’s time to wash it away.”
“This we can do,” Jian-Li murmured through grinning lips.
Her grin became a smile when she turned, her eyes lighting on Abel and Delilah before she bustled out.
Wei followed her.
Xun motioned to a big table in the middle of the room that was set for serving. The rest of the tables were minimally set in preparation for business when they opened again.
After Delilah gave hugs to all her father’s men (something Abel didn’t like very much, but he had no choice but to allow), everyone took their seats, Delilah next to him, her father across from them. Beers were brought in. Jian-Li’s food was brought in. And conversation was free-flowing, not even close to stilted or awkward, which gave Abel a sense of why his mate so easily fitted into his family’s fold.
These people did not judge. These people did not hold themselves back and wait for someone to earn their sociability. These people were who they were. You took them as they came, and if you didn’t, they didn’t give a fuck. If you did, they let you in right off the bat.
This didn’t mean that if trust was broken or wrongs were done, that shit couldn’t turn in a flash in a way that would be messy. It was just that they offered themselves up without any walls to tear down to get in there. If you built the wall, that was your issue.
They lived their lives free.
They were also big eaters.
The platters of food and bowls of rice were nearly decimated before Hooker turned his eyes to his daughter and stated, “Right. Good beer, great food, excellent company. Hate to do it, but,” his gaze shifted to Abel, “we gotta get down to business.”
Everyone came alert, including Hooker’s boys, all their attention shifting to Abel.
But it was Delilah who spoke and Abel was surprised at how honestly she did it. She didn’t hold back, even when she spoke of being attacked, and this was surprising because her father and all his men became visibly restless as she described the incident.
She also told them about Abel being the one she was searching for, including the unknown-to-him-at-that-point knowledge that she’d somehow felt his presence in Serpentine Bay the moment he’d moved there, this being why she came there on her vacation.
Abel liked this, but he was mildly pissed she hadn’t shared it. After she said it, he knew it was what was on her mind the day before, when she learned he’d moved there and when, but she hadn’t let him in on that.
Then again, he hadn’t given her much opportunity. He’d been avoiding her and then he’d been fucking her.
So he settled in to simply liking it and listened to her explain about when Abel was attacked and his brothers’ participation.
She was thorough yet succinct.
Except for the fact that she didn’t share he was a werewolf vampire and their attackers were also supernatural.
He was not surprised that not only did her father and his boys take all she said in stride, including the lethal way Abel and his brothers dealt with it, he also wasn’t surprised that natural camaraderie turned respectful to him, Xun, Wei, and Chen when they heard it. This meant they would have dealt with it the same way.
Finally, she stopped talking.
He didn’t know if she intended to get into the supernatural shit. All he knew was that was hers to share when and if she was ready and he’d move with her flow.
When she quit speaking, Hooker looked to Abel and asked, “You got a clue?”
“Nope,” he replied.
“Hate to ask this, son, but the question’s gotta be asked, seein’ as you got no problem takin’ care of business in a way that makes you a bona fide outlaw. So, is any of your other business leakin’ to my little girl, puttin’ her in danger?”
“My family’s business is a Chinese restaurant,” Abel replied, and for the first time, he saw Hooker’s mouth tighten with irritation, likely because he thought Abel was lying to him. However, Abel wasn’t done. “Our other business we don’t do messy,” he continued. “We do favors, but we do not get involved. So the answer is no. We do what we do and we do it in a way where Jian-Li, her restaurant, and our lives are clean.”
He knew what he said surprised Delilah and it occurred to him that even if a fuckload of shit had gone down since they met, they had not shared hardly anything.
But his answer made the tightness leave Hooker’s mouth and he nodded.
“Though, I’ll point out, they came after Delilah before I’d laid eyes on her. So no one could know who she was to me,” Abel finished.
“This is a worry,” Hooker muttered.
“We’re connected, Abel and I, Daddy, in a way that’s really awesome, but it’s also not exactly . . .” Delilah paused. “Normal.”
“I get that, precious girl. Spent a lifetime worried you wouldn’t fill that pit in your belly, so I’m glad you finally got what you need. But you both bein’ targeted the way you have and when is makin’ me all kinds of uneasy,” Hooker replied.
“There’s something we haven’t shared,” Delilah said softly, her hand moving out and curling around Abel’s thigh.
Here we go, he thought.
His eyes pinned to Hooker, he moved his body closer to Delilah, draping an arm on the back of her chair, and he felt his family tense in preparation.
“What?” Hooker asked.
“Well, like I said, like you get, Abel and I are connected. While I was yearning for him my whole life, he was doing the same for me,” Delilah stated. “And as I mentioned, it’s not exactly normal. But what I’ve found out is that it’s actually, um . . .” Another pause. “Supernatural.”
Hooker shocked the shit out of Abel when he returned easily, “I could get that too, Lilah.”
“Well, the way it’s supernatural is that the, um . . . people who attacked me were vampires and werewolves,” she announced.
Abel and his family tensed further, and Jabber muttered, “What the fuck?”
Hooker just blinked.
Then he asked, “Uh . . . what?”
Delilah’s fingers curled tighter into the muscles of his thigh when she leaned forward and gave it to them.
“And Abel is a werewolf vampire.”
Hooker leaned back, the room going wired, his eyes slicing to Abel and narrowing.
His tone was a threat when he asked, “You playin’ mind games with my little girl?”
In response, Abel bared his teeth and extended his fangs.
The second he did, Snake and Jabber shot back in their chairs and up to their feet, both men yanking the knives from the sheathes on their belts. Moose scraped his chair back and leaned forward like he was preparing to launch himself across the table. Wei, Chen, and Xun also gained their feet and positioned behind Abel and Delilah.
Abel didn’t move, but Delilah tightened her hold on his thigh.
“Jesus, shit,” Hooker murmured, staring at Abel’s fangs.
Abel retracted them.
“We’re takin’ her and we’re leavin’ right fuckin’ now,” Snake clipped out.
“No!” Delilah cried.
“Let us all take a moment, gentleman,” Jian-Li urged quietly.
“Don’t need a moment. Need our girl. You try to stop us, don’t give a fuck you got fangs, I’ll take you the fuck out,” Moose growled, his leg jerking up and down, his body strung tight, clearly itching to make a move.
“Please, everyone, calm down,” Delilah begged.
Abel held Hooker’s eyes.
“I would not harm her,” Abel said low.
Hooker didn’t twitch.
“There were those who would. They are no longer of this world. I made them that way and didn’t give it a second fucking thought,” Abel continued.
Hooker said nothing.
“It happens again, I’ll do it again, my brothers at my side,” Abel went on.
Hooker remained silent.
“I’d die for her. I’m two hundred and five years old and I’ve been raised with love. I’ve been blessed with family. I’ve shown and been gifted with loyalty. I’ve known joy. But I’ve never felt complete until I had Delilah.”
Hooker stared into his eyes for some time before his gaze shifted to Abel’s brothers at his back.
Finally, he turned his head and took in Jian-Li, who sat calmly amongst a bunch of twitchy bikers, the remains of her generosity scattered across the table, the depth of loyalty she’d created standing at Abel’s back.
Hooker didn’t miss it. Not any of it.
And he relaxed in his seat, murmuring, “Boys, stand down.”
“Are you fuckin’ kidding?” Jabber demanded.
Slowly, Hooker looked to his friend. “Look at her, brother. Look at our girl. Does she seem harmed to you?”
“That doesn’t matter,” Moose fired back, and Hooker looked to him.
“Drugged?” he asked.
“The fucker’s a fuckin’ vampire,” Snake ground out.
Hooker turned to him. “Look around, man. You ever know an asshole who earned family like this?”
Snake glared at Hooker.
Poncho whispered, “Magio.”
Everyone looked to him.
He was looking at Delilah.
“It’s not surprising, mi amor, that you’d live a life filled with magic. Only the special ones live magic. I’m happy for you, Lilah.”
Delilah relaxed by his side.
The rest of the room stayed tense.
“Jesus, Poncho, your mystical bullshit doesn’t jibe here. The guy’s a vampire,” Moose reminded him.
Poncho looked to Moose. “He’s a warrior. Destiny has brought Lilah to him and destiny can be fickle. Giving you bounty, but doing it at the same time tryin’ to take it away. You can’t have treasure, amigo, unless you endure the perilous journey to find it. Lilah had some weak-assed fuckwad at her side and shit went down in life, natural or supernatural, she’d hold him up, or fall trying. She didn’t get that. She got magic. She got a warrior. You should be happy and you should be relieved. Because from the shit they just laid out, for whatever reason, she’s a target, and we’re all fucked without his fangs at our girl’s back.”
That was when Delilah said softly, “I love you, Poncho.”
He turned instantly to her. “You got that back, Lilah. Know it.”
Abel felt her head hit his chest as she collapsed into it. He looked down to see her gaze on her friend, her face soft, her lips curled up, but her eyes were bright and that look made his chest get tight.
He wrapped his arm around her and gave her a squeeze.
In return, she draped her arm over his stomach and gave him one back.
“Please, gentlemen, sit,” Jian-Li urged. “We understand your hesitancy, and if trust needs to be established, we’ll earn it. But for our Abel, for Delilah, you must give us the chance.”
It took a while, but finally the men standing sheathed their knives and moved to their chairs, Moose dragged his chair back to the table, and Abel’s brothers shifted back to their seats.
Hooker grabbed his fork, speared a fat shrimp from his plate, shoved it into his mouth, chewed twice, then said through a still-full mouth to Abel, “’Scuse them. They’re partial to our girl, and seein’ as that’s the case, they’re protective.”
“Wouldn’t have it any other way,” Abel replied.
Hooker gave him a shrimp-toothed grin and scooped up some rice.
Delilah shifted away from him and went back to her plate.
Abel didn’t. He stayed alert but again draped his arm on her chair.
“Brother, saw the fangs, but you turn wolf too?” Poncho asked, and Abel looked to him.
“Yep.”
Poncho grinned. “Insane, man. Fuck. But also cool.”
“Yep,” Xun stated firmly, Abel’s in-your-face brother clearly not feeling all that happy with what had just occurred.
“Calm, son, we’re all friends here,” Hooker said quietly.
“That remains to be seen,” Xun returned. “If the threat we don’t get comes back and you got your chance to shut up and put up, endin’ your night covered in vamp blood so our man and his woman here can continue breathing,” he jerked his head Abel and Delilah’s way, “that’s when I’ll see it.”
“Xun, cool it,” Abel murmured. “In case it escaped you, it’s all good now.”
“It will be if no further disrespect hits my mother’s table, a table covered in her food, her fuckin’ beer, with her sons, all of them, sittin’ around it,” Xun shot back.
“Cool it,” Abel clipped.
Xun scowled at him and kept doing it until Abel heard Wei thump his brother’s boot with his own.
Angrily, Xun turned his attention to his beer, lifting it with two fingers hooked around the neck and sucking back a healthy pull.
Abel looked at Hooker. “You’ll excuse Xun. He’s partial to his brother, and since he is, he’s protective.”
That got Abel another grin from Hooker and a returned, “Wouldn’t have it any other way.”
Delilah again giggled.
And finally Abel relaxed.
“So, that started great, turned down the road to potential bloodbath scary-as-shit, but it ended up okay, don’t you think?”
This was Delilah, standing at the sink, her ass moving as she leaned over it, rubbing some shit into her face that smelled like heaven, which was what her ass looked like wiggling like that.
He tore his eyes and thoughts off her ass, something he intended to have in his hands in a few minutes, and thought she was right.
Eventually, everyone calmed down. Jian-Li, Delilah, with Jian-Li roping in Xun—likely to give him a piece of her mind—cleared the table and did the dishes after Delilah brought out fresh beers. More shit was shot amongst the men as the beer kept coming. They had a getting to know you session that went relatively well, considering everyone was watchful and some guarded.
Finally, the night ended with Jian-Li offering Hooker her guest bedroom so he could be close to his daughter, Hooker accepting, and him bringing up his saddlebags.
The rest of the men decided on a schedule of vigilance, Abel’s brothers and Hooker’s boys taking turns keeping an eye on the restaurant and alley.
Abel was left out of this as Chen explained that he needed to keep out of sight, and smell, for both his and Delilah’s protection.
Abel was down with this, not because he didn’t want to do his part in taking care of his mate, but because he wanted time with her to get to know her better.
Those not on duty took off, Wei and Xun to their apartments, Hooker’s boys to check in at The Chain. Chen and Poncho were first up.
Abel took one break from this to go down and heat up a bag of blood, making a call at the same time to replenish his supplies. After he drank it, he went up and had more beer, conversation, and Jian-Li’s light dinner of loaded pu-pu platters after a heavy lunch. All this before they called it a night.
All in all, they’d spent eight hours together and that was about seven hours too many before he had Delilah to himself again.
“Yeah,” he responded to her question.
She grabbed a towel, wiped her hands, tossed it on the sink, then walked in a way that was part walking, part skipping to the bed where he was lounging, back to pillows angled up against the headboard, body naked under the covers.
She jumped in, landing on her knees, undulated to bounce twice, all the while grinning at him as he struggled not to knife up and drag her on top of him so he could roll on top of her. Then she fell to her hands and knees, crawled up, and collapsed on top of him.
Fuck, she was fucking amazing.
He wrapped his arms around her and started to count down—five seconds to take in her grin, then he was going to fuck her.
This plan was thwarted when she tipped her head and asked, “You play guitar?”
“Yeah.”
Her grin got bigger. “Right on! I love guitar.”
“Good to know,” he muttered, eyes dropping to her mouth.
“Though, I guess, you get as many years in as you have, you can learn a lot. Do you play any other instruments?” she asked.
He looked to her eyes, tightened his arms around her, and answered shortly, “No.”
“Oh,” she murmured.
He was about to take her mouth when she kept at him.
“What’s bao bei mean?”
“Precious. Treasured.”
Her eyes got soft, as did her body on top of him, and she whispered, “Sweet.” Then she pushed further up him so she was closer to his face but leaned back, resting her arms on his chest, and she kept fucking going. “Do you speak Chinese?”
“Mandarin.”
“No other dialects?” she pressed on.
“Nope.”
“Did you live in China?”
“With Hui and Mei. It was Sying and her husband, Chang, who moved us to America.”
“Hui, Mei, and Sying?”
“Hui found me. Mei was her daughter. Sying was Mei’s daughter.”
Her focus became acute on his eyes and her voice got quiet when she asked, “Do you think your eyes are cool and tilty like that because one of your parents is Chinese?”
“No clue.”
“You have really beautiful eyes,” she told him.
Fuck, he wanted to fuck her.
“Thanks.”
“And great hair.”
“Lilah—”
“What business do you have that you keep from being messy?”
Christ, she’d rounded him right into a corner in a way he couldn’t get out.
He tried anyway, trailing a hand up her spine and into her hair, then pulling her face closer to his. “I’ll answer, pussycat, but later. Right now, gotta fuck you.”
Her eyes widened. “Is the urge back?”
“No. Just can smell your cunt. I’ve fucked it, haven’t eaten it, and now I got a different kind of urge.”
She squirmed on top of him and he smelled it, the surge between her legs.
She liked his urge.
“Take off your panties, Lilah,” he ordered.
Without hesitation, she moved. Swinging her legs around, she pulled her panties down and tossed them away.
Abel clamped tight on her hips even as he shifted them both down the bed so his head was to the pillows, and as he did this, he heard her heart quicken.
“Climb on, baby,” he whispered, and watched her eyes flare. Then she moved, knowing exactly what he wanted and not hesitating to give it to him. He liked that, but still, he squeezed in with his fingers before she got anywhere and muttered, “Kiss first.”
Her body melted into his as her mouth descended to his. Her tongue sliding between his lips, Abel let her drink from him. Then he moved his hands to her ass, cupped it, and he drank from her.
He broke the kiss and said, “Now give me that cunt.”
“Okay, Abel,” she breathed, moved again, positioning and lowering her pussy on his face.
He grabbed her hips and pulled her down at the same time he lifted his head and drove his tongue inside.
Her hips bucked and her cunt coated his tongue with a rush of juices.
Yeah, responsive.
Fuck.
He ate her, he did it hard and mercilessly, holding her down as she panted, whimpered, ground in, rocked, tore her nightshirt off like she couldn’t bear it anymore, then tried to shift away when he knew it was getting too much for her. But he kept at her, the sweet tang of her finally on his tongue outside a dream. It was the best thing he’d ever tasted. Better than her blood and her blood was sublime.
He made her come and she did it hard, slamming down on him and crying out, “Abel, baby,” like she’d done in her dream.
Definitely better in reality.
She was still feeling it when he yanked her down his body and fisted a hand in her hair, looking at her face soft and languid with her orgasm, his cock aching to drive into her.
“You’re gonna take my dick now,” he said roughly.
“Okay, Abel,” she breathed.
“Ride me or I ride you?”
Her head fell forward, her lips sliding across his cheek to his ear where she whispered, “Fuck me, baby.”
He rolled her to her back, positioned, and drove in.
Her back arched clean off the bed, her knees jerking up, her head digging into the mattress, her moan driving straight to his dick.
Christ, she was unbelievable.
He let go and she took him. More than took him. He was not unaware he was generously endowed, but her pussy accommodated him, clutched him, gripped him, milked him, demanded more from him. All this even as Delilah did the same, clawing at his back, jerking up her knees to get more, panting and gasping. He held nothing back, ramming into her hot wet so hard, he drove her up the bed until her head was hanging off the side.
“Abel,” she whispered.
“Yeah,” he grunted.
She lifted her head, her eyes slits, the look on her face making him pound harder. She lifted her hands to grip his head on either side and she whimpered, “Abel.”
“Fuck yeah,” he growled.
She held on as her head dropped back, her mouth opening, no sound coming out, but he knew she was there because her cunt seized his dick and immediately milked his orgasm right out of him. He buried himself deep, his ass clenching as he poured his seed inside her on a savage snarl.
The orgasm so big, unable to hold himself up, he dropped to her, his lips to her neck arched back over the mattress, her pulse pounding into his skin.
She slid her hands into his hair and held him there.
It took a while but eventually she spoke.
“You’re kinda good at that.”
He smiled against her skin.
“And by ‘kinda,’ I mean seriously fucking good at it.”
He lifted his head, she lifted hers, and he kept his seat inside her even as he dragged her back down the bed so she could rest her head.
She glided her hands out of his hair to his neck, down his chest, and around, where she clamped them at his back, her thighs pressing into his sides.
He moved a hand to swing her calves in so she was all around him, then bent and touched his mouth to hers.
When he lifted away, he stilled when he saw uncertainty in her eyes.
“Lilah?”
“Is it as good for you as it is for me?”
Jesus.
She had to ask?
“Uh . . . yeah.”
She studied him.
She didn’t believe him.
“And by ‘yeah,’ I mean fuck yeah,” he clarified.
Tentatively, she grinned.
“Tame the green-eyed temptress, pussycat,” he started on an order, “so I can tell you what you already know but will get pissed at. I’ve been doin’ this a long time, banged a lot of pussy, so I got practice to make it good for you. You don’t have that and you’re phenomenal.”
“Really?”
“None better.”
Her eyes got big before they went soft, as did her body under him. “Really?”
He slid his hands up her sides, one going in and to her face to cup the side of it.
“Really, Lilah.”
“Two hundred years of competition, that’s saying something.”
He grinned down at her. “Only been fuckin’ for just a hair over half that.”
Her head jerked. “Whoa, you started late.”
“Aged slow, bao bei, seriously slow. Took me fifty years to reach ten, eleven human years. So had a major long childhood.”
Her hands drifted light over the skin of his back and she said softly, like she was seriously looking forward to eventually getting the words she was about to say.
“There’s a lot to learn about you.”
“Same with you.”
“I don’t have two hundred years of history, Abel.”
“Doesn’t mean the years you got won’t be fascinating to me.”
Her eyes went hooded and her voice went soft when she replied, “Yeesh, you’re sweet when you aren’t consumed with the need to fuck me.”
He chuckled, liking that she thought that, liking the way her lips parted softly when she felt his humor. He dipped his head and touched his mouth to hers again but then lifted away and said nothing.
She slid the fingers of one hand in his hair and he should have known by the look on her face she was about to lay him to waste.
But he didn’t.
So he couldn’t guard against it before she wrecked him.
“Thank you for making a lifetime of longing worth every second, Abel.”
Jesus.
Jesus.
She was unbelievable.
“Can you take more?” he growled.
Her pussy convulsed around his dick, but her eyes got huge.
“More?” she asked.
“More,” he confirmed.
Her voice pitched higher. “Now?”
“Right now,” he returned. “You can, we’re gonna see how much you can take when I fuck your mouth. Then I’m gonna take your cunt again the way I like you, on your hands and knees in front of me.”
He got another pulse from her pussy as she whispered, “I should probably be offended by that, but I’m absolutely not.”
“Your cunt told me that before you did, pussycat.”
“That particular part of me has a mind of its own when you’re in a certain mood,” she declared.
“Thank fuck,” he muttered as reply.
She grinned.
He bent and slid his temple along hers, ending with his mouth to her ear where he asked quietly, “You gonna position for me?”
She turned her head and replied, “Absolutely.”
Yeah.
Delilah.
Unbelievable.
He slid out, rolled off, and watched, his dick remaining hard and starting to throb as she gave him what he wanted and got to her hands and knees in his bed.
Once there, she turned her eyes to his.
They were hungry.
That was when Abel gave her what she needed, paying attention to her skin, her ass, her tits, her cunt, before he took her mouth with his cock.
She couldn’t take all of him, but she definitely took enough to make it worthwhile and got off on it, nearly as much as he did.
Then he shifted and mounted her from behind, and she seriously got off on that.
So did he.
Then Abel bedded down with his mate, curling her into his arms, feeling her body soft just because it was, and softer due to sex, relaxing into his as sleep took her. He smelled her all around—her hair, her skin, the beautiful mixture of them between her legs.
And for the first time in his entire life, Abel’s eyes closed and he drifted into a dreamless sleep.