Keeper of the Alphas - Complete (11 page)

A better trade
, in her opinion.

She should have been scared. Should have bolted. But his grip, though strong, was gentle. Careful not to
really
hurt her. She trusted him. The timbre of his voice—he was giving her a way out. A way to make this stop.

Too bad she didn’t want it to stop. She shook her head. “No,” she said, surprised when her voice only came out as a breathless whisper.

His hand came down again, but this time she was prepared for it. She gripped the cushion underneath her and cried out when his slap stung. His other hand tightened in her hair, holding her in place, and she felt safe in his capable hands. She fell into the rhythm, the heavy beat of his hand, and before she knew it her ass was pushing back against his palm, pleading for more. Her thighs trembled in an effort to keep her in this position and he said, firmly, “Count them.”

Count…?
A slap fell hard over her ass as she squeaked. “One…!” she said quickly. “Two…three…
ah
! Four…five!” The last one came out in a scream and Cami felt tears stinging her eyes, blurring her vision. She felt like she was burning up alive. Her pussy was on fire. His hands, though they tried to avoid it, brushed against her sensitive mound between her legs and she gasped. She was soaked; she could feel the fabric of her panties clinging to her wetly.

“Is this okay?” he asked. His palm rubbed between her legs over her panties and she trembled.

“Yes,” she whispered. She needed it. Wanted him. Wanted everything he had to give her.

Her body was buzzing. Alive. Electrified. She felt altogether submissive and pliant, boneless on his lap. Her rear stung and it was a warmth that flowed all throughout her body and made her throb between her legs. She was focused entirely on his fingertips, which pulled her panties aside and dipped inside. His fingers were rough, nothing gentle about them, even as they ghosted over her pussy lips. He pressed one inside of her and it went, easily, her body clenched greedily around his finger. She gasped and pressed back against him, desperately trying to hump his hand.

“No.” The order was so firm, so direct, it almost made her jump. His hand fisted in her hair, pinning her back down. He wanted her to stay right there while he worked one finger, then another inside her at his own pace.

Her breath came in short pants as she adjusted to his touch. Then a thought came to her:
He’s preparing me
.

Her legs began to tremble harder in anticipation. Her insides clenched up, hot and burning, and she became very aware of his hard cock underneath her. So close, and yet…

She started gyrating her hips in small circles on his lap, praying he would take the hint and just shove it inside her. Instead, her ass was met with a hard swat. “That’s not being still,” he growled. Her ass, already sensitive, was burning now. She felt sore and frustrated and wanted to cry.

“Please,” she begged.

He was only so much of a sadist. In one fluid motion, he wrapped his arms around her middle and lifted her up. She gasped, knees wrapped around his hips. She hadn’t been carried since she was something like a hundred pounds lighter. Right. Preternatural strength. She could get used to this. Their faces were close now when he stood. She could feel his breath on her lips. Then she felt the breath knocked out of her when they both hit the ground, Cami underneath him. He laid her down as gently as someone like him was capable of, but that wasn’t saying much.

Deliriously, she giggled. That sound made his eyes darken. So this was how Little Red Riding Hood felt right before the wolf devoured her in one swallow.

“My, grandma, what big teeth you have,” she said as she pressed her finger to his mouth and then past it. He gave the tip a little nibble as he looked down at her.

“Be good or I’ll bite you with them.” Marcus crushed his mouth against hers then. She could taste him, the raw, rugged taste of Marcus, all man, all beast. Pent-up hunger searing his kiss, making him sloppy for her.

She grabbed fistfuls of his hair and pulled him closer as her tongue swiped over his. His body rocked uninhibited against hers and it made her gasp. Clothes ruffled between them, too many clothes. He sat up over her, watching her. He reached over for the scissors on the table and then moved them to the hem of her dress. Her heart fluttered in her chest (he wouldn’t) and then she heard the sound of the first cut.

“Stay still,” he said, his voice low thunder. Her hand went over her eyes and she tried to cover the stupid, excited smile that plastered her lips. Nervous excitement coursed through her as the snipping sound got louder, and then she felt the cold metal blade of the scissors against her belly. It went up, and up, in a straight line, settling between her breasts before he put the scissors back on the table. Then he grabbed both ends of the dress and ripped—her body jerked with the violent force—and one last rip was all it took before she opened up like a cocoon baby underneath him.

The heat from the fireplace warmed her naked skin, but it was the hot ache between her legs that burned. He kicked off his pants and his body covered her and then, just as suddenly, with a single push, he was inside of her.

Cami gasped loudly as her body arched against him. He was big, really big, and he filled her completely. But she was so wet her body hardly protested, it just beckoned him in deeper, harder, more, more, more. She couldn’t get enough of him.

“Oh God,” she whimpered as she grabbed him, her arms curled around his shoulders. He wasted no time thrusting against her—why should he when she was already so, so ready?—and each push of his hips made her toes curl, her feet digging into the soft carpet underneath her.

There wasn’t a word for this kind of pleasure. For the wild way he fucked her—not made love, not had sex, fucked her, inside and out. For the way he took both her wrists in a single hand and pinned them down to the floor over her head as he impaled her with his cock over and over again. Her nipples tightened into little peaks as his wiry chest hair tickled over them. His breath came in rugged, heavy pants and his long hair framed his face with shadows from the hearth. His free hand traveled all over her body, her breasts, her stomach, the small of her back. Restless hands, as though he was unable to get enough of her.

Cami whimpered and her legs hugged his hips as he pummeled into her. Her breath came in short gasps, and pleasure coiled tighter and tighter inside of her. Her fingers slipped in between his and she gripped his hand tightly as her body began to burn up, swiftly reaching her peak.

No words left her lips; her throat felt too tight. All she could do was hold on to him and whimper over and over again. She could swear the fire roared a little louder when she came. He thrust into her a couple more times and then jerked against her, groaning. It felt hot inside her and his hand slipped off hers, freeing her. She wrapped both arms tightly around him, her nails dug up his back, and she rocked against him, milking him and riding out her own orgasm simultaneously.

When he fell against her, he was sweating. His skin felt hot against hers and she wrapped herself up in him completely, her arms and legs tangled around him, her head buried into his shoulder.

He panted in her ear. The fire crackled, subdued.

She felt sore—on her ass, between her legs—but spent. Completely satisfied. She didn’t want to lose this feeling, not now. Not ever. She felt safe here, underneath him.

“So is that the, uh…pheromone thing you were talking about?” Cami said as she caught her breath.

He looked down at her and his eyes softened into a look she hadn’t seen from him before. “No,” he said, meaningfully.

Cami opened her mouth to ask him about it, when—

He closed his mouth over hers. She felt herself dissolve like a cube of ice on his tongue. He tasted warm, all-encompassing. Surprisingly gentle with her, like he was afraid of snapping her in a single grip like baby bird bones.

She felt slack, like all the tension had been taken out of her. Even her headache was gone.
Thank you, Dr. O.

Her tongue ventured in his mouth, exploring in a way she hadn’t bothered to do before, too eager to feel his lips
everywhere else
. She licked his tongue and tasted the ridges of his teeth. His canine tooth felt oddly long, extended—

Marcus inhaled sharply and pulled back abruptly. He sealed the kiss and lifted up off of her. The emptiness was, for a second, almost unbearable, but Cami checked herself before she pulled him back down and squeezed her legs together instead to wean her body off the addiction to his dick. As he stood there in full, naked glory, she took a second to really drink him in. She took in the muscles on his solid build that roped around his arms, lined with old scars. The thatch of dark hair that covered his broad chest and drew a perfect happy trail down the center of his body. But she didn’t get time to stare and drool; he took her hand and hoisted Cami up to her feet.

“You’ve had a long day,” he told her. “You should get some rest.”

Still feeling obedient and hazy, she nodded. She leaned in for another kiss, but he put his firm hand on her shoulder. Stopping her in her place. Warmth gone, he was suddenly cold, back to his sharp, dark edges. “Goodnight,” he said.

Cami tried not to feel disappointed, but it was hard when his touch suddenly felt like a knife in the back. She frowned, confusion trickling through her veins like ice, and then pulled back from him. “Yeah. Night,” she said. Cami bent down and scooped up her clothes quickly before she hurried off to bed to do as she was told.

With Cami upstairs, out of sight, Marcus could catch his breath. His Beast churned inside of him, spring-loaded and threatening to uncoil. He distracted his hands by yanking his grey pants off the floor and pulling them over his legs.

Don’t bite her
, he’d had to remind himself repeatedly between thrusts.

Even when he’d felt his self-control slip on top of her and rammed into her like he wanted to split her in half, there was still that part of him he held back. He refused the Beast that wanted to grab her head, bare her neck, and sink his teeth in, giving her the Mark and making her his mate.

She was human, he had to remind himself. She wasn’t ready for that.
He
wasn’t ready for that. His feelings for her were…complicated, at best. More than animal need. Cami had been through so much already; the last thing she needed was a bear laying claim to her.

He tried to shake it off, but it didn’t help that all he could smell was musty sex and Cami’s honeydew scent all over him. He wet his lips, raked his fingers through his hair, and then grabbed the fireplace poker. He jammed it under the doorknob and then pushed a cabinet in front of the back door—no one and no
thing
was getting inside together. With that, he grabbed his shotgun and took it upstairs with him.

Might as well sleep in his own bed tonight while he could.

He went upstairs, to his room beside Cami’s. The floorboards creaked underneath his feet as he stopped near her room. Door closed. No sounds from inside.

Don’t
. He pried himself away before he was tempted into something like an
apology
and he went into his own bedroom, closing the door behind him.

The master bedroom had a slanted roof with open-face wooden beams. Peaked windows let the deep, cool blue of the night inside. It spilled over his cabinets, his four-poster bed. Marcus set the gun down beside his bed and pulled the dark comforter back. This room had once been Lynn’s and, at times, he could still smell traces of her. Soft, faint, but
distinctly her
.

What would she have to say about tonight?

She’d roll up a newspaper and whack him on the snout.

He slipped out of his pants. He felt more comfortable naked, anyway. He slipped under the covers and let the mattress realign his spine as he stared at the ceiling and took a deep breath. Trying to free himself of the unease clinging to his ribcage.

A knock interrupted his thoughts. Coming from…the wall?

“Marcus? Can you hear me?” Her voice was muffled but he could still make out her words. He twisted around to stare at the wall behind him.

“Yes,” he grunted, and then, remembering he was the only one
with
superior hearing, said loudly, “What is it?”

A giggle from her. “Oh my God, this is great. We can, like, make a system of knocks. I’ll ask you a question and you can knock once for yes and two for no.”

“Or I can just say
no
,” he growled. “Go to bed, Cami.”

“Buzz kill.” He heard her bed frame squeak as she tried to settle down on it. Not thirty seconds later, however, he heard again, “Marcus?”

“What.”

“You don’t think Aldric is coming tonight, do you?”

Marcus chanced a glance out the window. No red eyes tonight. “Not tonight.”
Probably too busy licking his wounds
. The thought, at least, brought Marcus an inch of sadistic joy.

“But what if he does?”

“He won’t.”

Even though the wall, he could hear her sigh.

Dear God
. He tempered himself, exhaling through his nose, then finally called out, “Alright. You can come here, if it’ll help you sleep.”

Her reaction was instantaneous. He heard her bed squeak and then her feet pattered quickly across the floorboards. He straightened up immediately, propping himself up on his elbows. Cami cracked the door open and peeked in almost timidly, wearing a light nightgown. When he gave a nod of permission, she scurried in and climbed into bed. “It’s like a pajama party,” she said as she lifted the covers to slip in. “Oops, except you’re not wearing pajamas.”

He set his jaw. She had a remarkable way of making him feel self-conscious. “Nothing you haven’t seen.”

“Doesn’t mean I don’t like to look.” She smiled, then yanked her cotton gown over her head. “Me too.”

Cami tossed her clothes over the side of the bed and curled up next to him, laying her head on his chest. She fit remarkably well, her curves lining up perfectly against his, her leg twisting between his own. He fell into place and wound his arm around her shoulders as she clung to his side.

“You’re cozy,” she said. Her body heat warmed him like a fire. As much as he tensed under her, she felt so soft,
comfortable
, even, and his nerves unwound.

The stubborn Beast in him finally relented and curled up, reluctantly satisfied, lazy and warm.

“I’m dangerous,” he admitted as he stared at the ceiling, his voice lowered to a shadow.

Cami glanced up at him and then lifted her hand as though offering to shake. “Hi, Dangerous. I’m Crazy.”

A smile threatened the corners of his mouth. “You know this is all real, don’t you?”

“Well, yeah. But I’ve been crazy for so long, I don’t know how to be sane.”

“Real means real danger. I don’t know what Aldric is planning, but it’s going to affect everyone. All of Tyburn, maybe. It means real people will really die. Are you prepared for that?”

“God, you’re so angry and morbid.” Cami yawned into his chest. “Can’t you all just get along?”

She’s not prepared
, Marcus thought as Cami’s breaths grew deep and slow with sleep.
She’s not even slightly ready for what comes next
.

He knew he should let her go. He should send her away, like her mother did. Get her a plane ticket, like he promised himself he would.

But she was so soft, so warm, and it felt, well,
nice
to have something cuddled up next to him.

What would just one more night hurt?