Embrace the Wind (10 page)

His breathing started to even out, but she held on. Too many of his muscles, especially his thighs, were rigid, waiting for a chance to respond if she let go of his throat.

Maybe average stuff would help.
Do you like the way I look, Zane? I have blond hair and green eyes. My hair isn’t quite to my waist and has something of a wave. Mostly I wear it down, sometimes in a ponytail. Is it hard to keep your hair in that clasp of yours? I’ve often wondered. It looks specially made for you and your Guardsman. Did I tell you I love your hair? And there’s something else I’ve wondered for a long time: What do gremlin’s look like? Have you ever seen a forest gremlin? I’ve tried to locate a pic, but couldn’t find anything on the Realm Internet.

Finally, she felt his muscles relax.

Olivia?

Yes, Zane.

I think you can let me go now.

She wasn’t sure yet if she believed him.
Are you going to attack Ely?

No.
When he released a deep sigh and she felt his legs relax, she finally let go of his neck. But she didn’t get off of him. Instead, she shifted so that she lay on top of him, in the middle of the bar, on the floor.

She glanced at the puncture wounds on his throat. “Your neck is bleeding.”

He nodded. “I’m sure it is.”

When she started to get up, he prevented her, holding her tight. “Thank you for stopping the fight. It would have been disastrous.”

She lifted up enough to meet his gaze. The despairing look in his eye had her nodding. “I know. But it’s okay. Were good.”

He released her and she jumped to her feet, tugging her sweater down and combing out her hair quickly with her fingers.

Zane moved to stand next to her, pulling her close with his arm around her waist. She could feel him shaking with adrenaline.

Ely stood a few feet away, his eyes wide. “Shit … shit …” He kept saying the word over and over, then, “Mastyr, forgive me.”

Zane nodded. “It’s okay. I apologize as well.”

Ely slid his gaze to Olivia. “You’re a blood rose. I didn’t know. How could I have known?”

“You couldn’t,” Zane said. “And this was my fault. I wasn’t thinking when I let you walk into the bar. It’s damn overwhelming.”

“Yes. It is.” Ely remained wide-eyed, staring at Olivia once more.

As with Zane, she felt his blood-needs like a constant pressure on her heart and once more she was laden with an extra supply, ready to serve. This part of her current condition she now understood extremely well; her job was to feed a mastyr vampire. From what she’d read online, until she was bonded to a mastyr, she would have this same experience no matter which man came at her; if he suffered from chronic blood starvation, she’d want to feed him. And feeding led to other things.

Zane,
she pathed,
You need to get me out of here. Now. I’m kind of worked up and I need to be alone with you.
The scent of him, those beachy grasses she smelled, had her sex going wild.

He turned to her, meeting her gaze.
You smell like cinnamon spice and I’m going to fuck you, Olivia.

She nodded.
Unh-huh. How about now?
And the truth was, if he threw her down on the floor, even in front of all these people, she’d let him have his way. She was that far gone.

I’m feeling it, too. Your scent has my blood pumping.
Zane’s arm was a like a vise around her. He wasn’t letting her go anytime soon.

When he led her outside, she felt him grow tense and understood the cause; dawn wasn’t far away now.

His voice was rough as he called out to his Guardsmen to head home for the day. He thanked the troll in charge of clean up for his service, then, without another word, he took her into the night sky, flying at top speed.

Not willing to take any chances, she covered herself and Zane with her cloaking frequency.

Good idea. And I’m so sorry about the bar fight.

She leaned into him, nuzzling his throat right over the dagger and drops of blood, and at the same time tasting what had flowed from the already-sealed-up punctures. She had both arms around his neck, holding him tight.
I’m not sorry. I should be, but I’m not, only because we’re here now, in flight, together. And I want you.

His grassy scent grew stronger, boiling inside her brain, making her mold her body to his as he flew.

She stroked his erection through the leather of his pants and his scent thickened even more.

Leaning into him, she licked his neck over and over, lapping at the blood on his skin. She’d pierced him in order to save his life. Now the flavor of his blood and the salty sweat of his skin caused her to clench deep inside her body.

Zane was a very physical man, much like the shifters she’d observed. Maybe that was part of the reason she wanted to be so close to him. In an essential way, she liked the way he rolled.

When he rose higher into the sky and the air grew chill, she realized he wasn’t heading back to his lighthouse home at all. Instead, he appeared to be taking her into the mountains.

“Where are we going?”

“I have a tree house complex.”

“You do?” She’d never read anything about it online.

“Ah, so you don’t know everything.”

“This is the first I’ve heard of it,” she confessed. “Which is way cool.”

“I’ve worked hard to keep it a secret.”

She knew about treehouse complexes – again, the Nine Realms Internet rocked – but she’d never actually seen one before. They were essentially several rooms of a normal house broken up into forest-adapted spaces. The same type of complex could be found all over the mountainous realm of Ashleaf, but not so much in Swanicott.

A few moments later, he began a descent, but she hardly paid any attention. She could feel his need, both for her blood and for sex, and her chest was even more laden, her body needy.

She barely saw the tree house before he had her across the threshold of his bedroom and was sliding her sweater over her head. She worked herself out of her jeans as he got rid of his coat and shirt. He then sat down on a chair by the door and worked his boots and pants off.

She stood naked, trembling with desire in the cool mountain air, as he set his boots aside. Her gaze travelled over the massive size of Zane’s shoulders and arms, the breadth of his chest and his lean, muscular legs. He was extremely well-defined in every part of his body.

Once free of his pants, he sat down again, a wicked look in his eye. She smiled in response, dropped in front of him, and spread his knees.

His cock was already erect. She dipped, and with one hand on his cock and another stroking him from his abdomen to his pecs, she went to work.

She loved the feel of his cock in her mouth and the way he half-groaned, half-grunted as she began to suck. He shifted her hair aside and rubbed the nape of her neck. She felt up his pecs, which were thick with muscle.

She left his cock to lick and bite her way up his stomach then squeezed his left pec and took as much of his flesh in her mouth as she could. She sucked hard, and he groaned some more.

She fondled his cock at the same time, then repeated the process, wanting both his nipples to have equal attention.

Her hips arched repeatedly while she played and sucked. She was about to climb on board, when he slid his arms under her ass and lifted her up, rising to his feet. Apparently, the man had ideas of his own.

He carried her to his bed, and holding her steady with one arm, he flipped the covers back so that they rolled into a pile on the floor. He then tossed her on the bed face first, pulling her legs toward him until her hips hinged over the side of the bed and her feet were flat on the floor. He spread her legs wide and rubbed up and down her bottom, squeezing and pinching in much the same way she’d roughed up his chest.

God, she loved it, loved that he wasn’t super gentle with her. The shifter part of her thought he was brilliant.

When he dropped to his knees and began to lick her sex from behind, she moaned.

Sprout fur for me, Olivia. I want more. Give me some right here.

He licked on either side of her sex, giving her a hint. She groaned heavily as the fur released.

He followed, nuzzling his way through the lines of fur.
You smell unbelievable, shifter-woman, and your scent is making me hard.

He held her hips with his hands and began to tongue fuck her, thrusting quickly.

Howling, whimpering sounds poured out of her at the driving force of his tongue. He tugged on her hips at the same time, pulling her sex against his face. It all felt so good.

I’m close, Zane. So close.

He drove into her faster, grunting hard.
Then come for me. Come now.

Her body responded to his command and she flew over the edge, pleasure pulsing hard until she was screaming repeatedly. He kept plunging his tongue in and out, drawing her ecstasy on and on in fiery pulses until at last the wave passed and she fell lax against the sheet.

That was wonderful.

He rubbed the insides of her legs and ran his fingers through the fur she’d released for him. She pathed,
I love that you’re into my shifter-ness.

He nibbled all along her fur, then aloud said, “Can you give me some on your back, right down the center? I want more.”

The pleasure of releasing an additional line of fur had her hips once more arching against the bed.

He rose up slightly and dragged his cock over her sex, pushing against her just to tease, letting her feel what she wanted so badly.

He then kissed his way up the strip of fur along her back, nuzzling and sniffing. Every few inches, he’d let out a heavy moan. “You don’t know what this smells like.” Then, “You have long legs, Olivia.”

She arched the small of her back, forcing her buttocks up.

“You’re
presenting
for me, aren’t you?”

She tipped her pelvis a few times, arch-and-tip, then repeat, letting him get a good look at her sex, her fur, all that she was as a woman.

She wasn’t surprised when she felt the tip of his cock swirl at her very wet entrance. She moaned and cried out.

“Is this what you want, Olivia? My cock … inside you … buried deep?”

“Yes. Please, yes. I need you, Zane. Pierce me to the hilt.”

He groaned and once more grabbed her hips in his hands. As he began to push, he swept his fingers up the fur along her back. Chills traveled down her spine and she clenched hard. She didn’t know why, but Zane touching her fur really worked her up. “Do it again. My God.”

He stroked her fur over and over, more chills, more clenching. At the same time, he kept pushing his cock into her, bit by bit, reaching for the end of her. Then he drew back only to plunge back in. He set up a steady rhythm that had her breathing hard and clawing at the sheet.

Just when she thought she couldn’t take much more, he pushed her hair away from the side of her neck.

Oh God, he was going to bite her!

She braced her head on her forearm to give him a good angle. She felt saliva on her neck and the sides of his fangs.

The next moment, he nipped her good and settled in to suck.

She groaned heavily.

Your blood, Olivia. I feel a fire in me and I’m hard as hell.

While he drank, he slowed the motion of his hips, which held her orgasm right at the tipping pint.

Zane. I’m in agony. I need to come. But I love that you’re making me wait while you take my blood. It’s such a rush.

He was breathing hard through his nose as he sucked and drank and pumped her low with his hips.

She was overcome by all the different sensations. Then with one hand, he reached beneath her and began massaging her abdomen, pressing so that she could feel his cock even better.

She made steady grunting noises that grew into a soft howl and increased in volume. The louder she howled, the faster his hips went.

Suddenly, he left her throat and began to roar.

Her release came, just as he began to orgasm. Only this was so different from anything she’d known. The sensation rolled on and on, of intense erotic pleasure pulsing repeatedly, flowing up her abdomen, forcing her to clench even harder.

He slowed for a moment. “Holy fuck!” he shouted.

She knew he was coming again as he grunted over her back. He pushed her hair aside. And just as she was coming down from one orgasm, he bit her hard, the way a shifter mate would, gripping her neck with his teeth to hold her in place.

Her body exploded into another series of earth-shattering pulses that turned her shifter-like howls into very human screams of pleasure.

She was flying, she was so caught up in the ecstasy, her was body trembling with passion. He drove in and out and a third roar left his lips, taking her orgasm farther and farther until at last the pulses slowed then stopped and she fell flat onto the mattress.

Was she even conscious?

He followed, lying on top of her, with their bodies still connected.

She panted, gasping for air. Her eyes were shut. She kept watching all the stars spinning within her mind. She saw such beauty in that moment, and for the first time in her life felt truly engaged with the world around her, with life, and all because of Zane.

Maybe being a blood rose wasn’t such a bad thing, after all.

~

Zane lay replete and unable to move. Sure, he’d read about the blood rose phenomenon and he’d seen it in action when he’d watched Malik getting drawn beneath the undertow of his experience with Willow. However, Malik could have talked until he was blue in the face, but he could never have truly prepared Zane for what had just happened between himself and Olivia.

Some things had to be experienced to be believed.

What seemed the most astonishing was that he’d released his seed three times. He smiled. Was anything more masculine than a solid ejaculation? But to deliver three in a row?

Hot damn, life was good.

Fuck ‘good’; life was incredible.

“Thank you, Olivia.”

“Ditto.”

“Am I heavy on you?”

“Nope, but it helps to be part shifter; I’m stronger than if I were just human.”