Caleb's Tempting Mate (Saber Chronicles Book 3) (3 page)

He slipped the remote back into its holder and disappeared.  The tour was over, it seemed, almost as quickly as it started.  She debated following him to see what was wrong, but she had a feeling that he needed a few moments to himself so she explored the area, rubbing her haunches here and there.  She was aware she was marking her territory, but she hoped he didn’t mind.  She couldn’t bear not having her scent in his home.

Their home
, he’d said.  She liked that.  She hadn’t had a real home in a long time.  Caleb was her mate.  He accepted it easily.  He hadn’t questioned who or what she was, he’d simply known when they met.  Finding her truemate rocked.

She heard the shower come on, and the chance to see her mate naked and covered with water overrode her intention to let him have some space.  Naked.  Mate.

Yum.

Chapter 4

Stripping quickly, Caleb tossed his clothes in the trash.  He hadn’t realized that scenting the donor on his clothing would upset his mate.  In turn, it had pissed him off.  If he’d fed first-thing when he woke, then he would have been able to wash off that scent, but he’d put it off.  He didn’t like that his mate had been angry, and he didn’t blame her.  If he’d found her smelling of another male, he would have been on a destructive rage to hunt down the male who had touched her.

He entered the bathroom and turned on the shower.  He stared at himself in the long mirror over the black marble sinks.  He’d never really thought of himself taking away the sunshine from someone else, but he wanted to spend eternity with Lia.  That meant she’d be tied to the darkness.  It had never occurred to him that his mate might have a family she was close to, who would age and die without her.

Steam wafted by him, and he shook himself out of his musings.  He wouldn’t be changing his mate tonight, and there was plenty of time to talk about their future after they got to know each other.  He couldn’t wait to see what she looked like in her human form and to hear her voice for the first time.

He opened the glass door and stepped under the hot spray, immediately grabbed shampoo, and scrubbed his short hair twice with thick lather.  Then he moved onto his body, cleaning every inch of himself so the scent of his donor didn’t bother her.  The idea of feeding from his truemate while she was still mortal made everything in him roar, a desperate need to claim her and taste her riding him hard.

He was aware when she stalked silently into the bathroom because of their connection as truemates.  He could feel her presence even when he was turned away from the door.  He turned slowly to face her, only able to see the shadow of her through the fogged glass.

He turned off the water and pushed open the door.  She purred loudly, and he couldn’t help but smile.  Her eyes were a deep gold, and her mouth parted as she scented the air.

Stepping from the shower, he stood before her.  Her gaze raked over him, and the way she purred as she stared at his dick made everything inside him tighten.  There was a loud rapping at the outer door, and she snarled angrily.

“I feel the same way, sweetness,” he said, sighing.  He grabbed a towel from the rack and secured it around his waist.  She followed him out to the door and glared at Nash and two females who held packages.  Caleb liked that she was annoyed they were interrupted.  He wasn’t too happy about it either.

The females – two vampires in the kiss – waited outside and appeared to be trying hard not to make eye contact with Lia.  As Nash bustled back and forth setting up food on the counter and clothing bags on the coffee table, Caleb watched Lia, whose golden gaze didn’t seem to miss anything. She would make an excellent mistress of the city – the mate of the master – when she was turned.

“Do you require anything else?” Nash asked.

“No.  Thanks.”

Nash smiled, nodded, and headed for the door.  The door snicked shut and the automatic lock engaged.  He turned and found Lia with her paws on the table, sniffing at the domed platters.  She looked adorable.

He moved to the table and lifted both domes.  She purred in interest, her whiskers moving as she sniffed loudly.  The two platters contained both cooked and raw steaks.  Vampires didn’t eat.  He was sustained on blood – real or synthetic – that he drank daily.

He lifted both platters and laid them on the floor, sitting across from Lia as she followed, her nose twitching with interest.  Her big paw reached out and claws curled into the top of a raw steak as she brought it to herself.  She settled on her stomach with a happy purr, turning her head to the side and gnawing on the steak.  She didn’t use the big, curved fangs to eat, but used the teeth behind to tear the meat.  The fangs were probably for defense, deadly swords he bet she could wield very well.

“About the feeding earlier,” he said, resting his chin on his knee as he watched her eat.

She froze, her eyes narrowing as she growled her disapproval.

“I know, sweetness.  I really am sorry about that.  I like to drink fresh blood.  I had meetings first thing tonight, and I opted to drink just enough bagged blood to take the edge off and feed later.  I don’t need to feed from a live donor, and I won’t anymore.  I wouldn’t want you putting those beautiful fangs into anyone else’s flesh regularly.”

Of course when he turned her, she’d need live donors, but they’d cross that bridge when they came to it.

“I don’t know how much you know about vampires, so I’ll give you the crash course while you eat.  I have to drink every day.  Fresh, bagged, or synthetic.  I prefer fresh, but like I mentioned, I won’t be doing that anymore so I’ll go bagged or synthetic.  Synthetic isn’t too bad.  We sell it at the bar and have it available in the hotel.  It tastes a bit like hamburger when you’re in the mood for filet mignon, but it sustains us.  The sun burns my skin, so I ensure I’m indoors before sunrise.  I don’t die at dawn, but I do feel compelled to rest.  I’m a creature of the night, tied to the darkness.”

He rubbed his temple, thinking that sounded extremely dark and depressing. 

She dropped the second steak and moved stealthily to him, butting her head against his arm until he draped it around her shoulders.  She purred loudly, rubbing her nose against his throat.  She sat on her haunches and leaned against him.  He pressed his head against hers and closed his eyes.  Strangely enough, she made him feel better just by touching him.  He supposed that was the way of truemates – the calming touch, the feeling of security – and she seemed to be able to tell that he wasn’t happy.

She settled next to him and picked up her half-eaten steak.  He rubbed her head, enjoying the feel of the soft blonde fur.  He told her the story of his turning.  The idea that he’d gone home with a stranger for a one-night stand and ended up a vampire had seemed like a cosmic joke to him for a long time.  He wasn’t a reckless guy by any stretch, but he had wanted to cut loose, and it had nearly cost him everything.

He told Lia about his rise to power in the kiss.  He’d always been driven to be successful in whatever he did.  The previous master had gone soft because no one wanted to be the master of Belle Terra.  It was unimportant – too small to compete with the bigger cities, and overflowing with supernatural creatures that outnumbered vampires.  Caleb had fought and killed the master and those loyal to him. Being master of a city meant brutality at times.  To keep his place, he had to prove he was the best so no one would come against him.  He was thankful for the loyalty of his kiss, especially now that he had a mate to take care of.

He lifted the now-empty trays and set them outside the door.  He turned and found a beautiful blonde where his tigress had been.  Her eyes were the same burnished gold of the cat, burning with desire.  Her hair was the color of sunshine and fell past her shoulders in a glorious wave.  And her curves!  His fangs punched from his gums as his gaze slowly trekked down her body.

“Aw,” she said.

“What?”  His gaze snapped to hers.

“Your fangs.  They’re adorable.”

He snarled and stalked to her.  Grabbing her around the waist, he pulled her to him roughly.  “There isn’t anything about me that’s adorable, sweetness.”

Her finger ran the length of his fang, and it took every ounce of will in his body not to let his eyes roll back in his head.  His fangs were not supposed to be an erogenous zone.

She regarded him with a small smile.  “I know they’re lethal, but they’re small.  Mine are nice and big.  No one messes with me in my shifted form.”

“No one will mess with you anymore, period.”  He touched her jaw with his fingertips.  “You’re gorgeous.”

She fit against him perfectly.  Her soft curves against his hard muscles.

“Caleb,” she whispered.

He stopped tracing her lips with his gaze and met her eyes.  She didn’t have to say anything for him to know what she wanted.

“We should discuss mating.”

“I like it hard and fast.”

He chuckled as his body tightened further.  “I mean, if we do this now –”

“Not
if
, because we’re doing it.”

“Would you let me finish my thought, woman?  I’m trying to be romantic.”

She tilted her hips in invitation, rubbing provocatively against the towel secured around his waist.

“Finish.  I’m standing here hot and naked and you want to talk.”

He growled and she grinned.  Sassy, tempting mate.  He wanted to be noble and make sure she wanted to mate with him before taking her to bed, but she clearly had no need for chitchat.  As anxious as he was to make love to her, to mate her and make her his, he’d put the brakes on his libido so they could talk.  She seemed to have other ideas.

“
When
we mate, sweetness, it means that you’ll be mistress of the city, even though you’re not a vampire.”

Her eyes narrowed slightly, but to his surprise, she didn’t say anything.  Instead, she snaked her hand between them and began to touch herself.

“What the hell are you doing?” he demanded.

“I’m
hot
and you’re talking.  I like your voice, Caleb, it’s damn sexy, but my cat is clawing at my brain to cement our mating, and you want to discuss kiss politics?  Not.  Right.  Now.”

She moaned softly, and his brain misfired.  She was
not
going to get herself off when he’d been waiting several hours to touch her.  He grabbed her roughly and tossed her over his shoulder.  She shrieked in surprise and then laughed, tugging at his towel and tossing it away as he strode to the bedroom.  He dropped her to the bed and gripped her knees, spreading her legs apart slowly for his gaze.

She was bare, her skin glistening with arousal and scenting of heat and woman.  “Mine,” he said with a growl.

She placed her hands on top of his.  “I am, Caleb.  You’re mine, too.”

He wanted to do a million different things to her, to find out how many ways he could make her come.  She growled suddenly, and he found himself flat on his back with his beautiful mate straddling him.

“You’re thinking too much,” she said, smiling down at him.

“I’m not trying to,” he said, gripping her hips as she moved provocatively above him.

“I’m going first, just so you know.”

As he opened his mouth to ask her what she meant, she flipped around on his body so her knees were by his shoulders and her pussy was over his face.  She kissed the head of his dick, and he chuckled.

“If you do that,
I’ll
be going first,” he promised.

“Then you better have a good tongue.”

He hooked his hands around her thighs and looked at her pussy.  He’d never taken the time to really love a female, to explore her and know everything about her body.  Lia’s pussy was beautiful, bare and silky with her arousal, and the heady scent of her – sunshine and sugar – filled him with deep longing.  He pulled her lower, and she spread her legs apart.

Her hot tongue licked around the head of his dick and then she ever so slowly took him into her mouth.  He resisted the urge to hump her face like an out of control puppy and focused on her.  He licked her, from her clit to the sweet heat of her entrance, delving his tongue inside to taste her.  Sucking on her plump lips, he tasted every inch of her pussy until he felt drunk on the sweet taste of her.

Tilting her hips, he licked her clit and then sucked it into his mouth gently. She moaned around his dick, and her whole body shuddered.  Flicking the tip of her clit with his tongue, he reveled in the sounds she made and the deepening scent of her arousal.  She shuddered over him, her hand gripping the base of his dick as she lifted from him and groaned.

“Fuck, Caleb,” she moaned.

He loved how she said his name.

Moving his tongue rapidly, he drove her to the peak of pleasure, and when she screamed his name and her body quaked above him, he switched their positions until they faced each other and his dick rested against her heat.  Her fangs were elongated in her mouth, the sight, coupled with the flush on her skin and the golden color of her eyes, was the most erotic thing he’d ever seen.

He pressed into her slowly.  Her arms and legs wrapped around him, and she sighed softly against his neck.

“You feel like home, Caleb,” she whispered.

As their bodies connected, wed as tightly as possible, he knew he’d never be the same.  He had a truemate now, perfect for him in every way.  He only hoped he could be the perfect mate for her, too.