Runes (12 page)

“Horrible,” he gritted. “Positively
macabre.
Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum. Up and down the row of flowers goes Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary. My mate loved flowers. What the fuck kind of flowers do you think she grew?” he suddenly yelled, reaching for Evangeline. His fingers grabbed her upper arm, sinking deep into the tender flesh and bruising it. Five half moons would appear within minutes. She fought him, twisting her arm to get away, but he held it tightly. His shaking rolled through Evangeline and into Will.

He’s going to drug me, but don’t let me go,
she said into his mind a split second before the needle pierced her flesh, pouring a strong dose of a tranquilizing drug into her immortal veins. Her arms grew weighted and then her head, and she drifted on a pale, dizzying sea. Her head slumped to the side, resting upon the metal even as she sped away from Will down a dark silent tunnel until unconsciousness took her from him.

Evangeline loved how Sean’s big hands cradled her face like the most precious chalice. With painstaking slowness, he lowered his mouth to drink from hers. His lips were the perfect mix of hard and soft, and his dark beard hair singed her cheeks deliciously. She sank her fingers into his thick hair and held him, delighting in his taste, his masculine scent, and the reunion of their bodies.

He enveloped her in his embrace, dragging her closer. Her breasts pressed into his chest, and her nipples tightened. Briefly, she remembered her sick, immortal, kidnapper sitting in the other room. He’d probably brought Sean to her, knowing it would torture Will to see them together. But being with Sean again felt so damn
good,
she let her body take over.

The great bulge of his cock pushed against her, and she shuddered with longing. Her fingers splayed over his broad shoulders and down his roped abdomen to his waistband.

Her head rang with Will’s fury, but she shoved it aside, and simply let herself feel anything but the pain and terror of her past days.

“Oh baby, no one will ever tear you from me again. I don’t care if it’s an immortal man or a fucking werewolf. You’re mine. See how you fit here against me?” Sean asked into her ear, sending a shiver of heat between her thighs. Days had passed since she’d known the touch of his amazingly hard shaft, and her juices flowed for him.

He whispered, his hot breath washing over her skin delivering erotic promises.

“I love you, Sean. I’d die rather than leave you again,” she whispered, toppling them both backward. She straddled him intimately, her torn skirt shimmying up her hips. One time he’d told her how much he loved that skirt. How many times had he stripped it from her?

“And you won’t,” he said in a deadly tone. “When you gave your body to me, it was as good as marriage in my mind. What do you think my tattoo means?” He twisted his arm to display the male mortal version of her tattoo. With shining eyes he studied it next to her throat. “Till death do us part, Evangeline. Say it.”

“Yes, yes. A thousand times yes,” she said, kissing him all over his face. Her heart sang with love for this man, but in her mind Will stood in a dark corner, weeping at her declaration.

She withdrew, blinking down at Sean, torn between two men.

“What is it?” he whispered, and she rolled off. He grabbed at her, but she shook her head for him to stop and he did.

“It’s…Will,” she said, her voice choking as she avoided the dark eyes she loved so much. “I can hear him in my mind.”

Sean bolted upright. “What?” She’d told him about Will in her initial ramblings, but he’d obviously been too stunned to understand.

“It’s part of the ‘Calling’. Our bond. We can hear one another’s thoughts,” she said, miserable by the expression of shock and utter torment on his face. Defeat weighted his shoulders and his head bowed low. He rasped his knuckles over his jaw, and she could see his throat working against emotion.

“Hear his thoughts,” he echoed softly. “How?”

“They appear inside my mind.”

Sean’s features twisted bitterly. “And what does he have to say?”

She ran her thumb along the rough seam between two floor boards. Will’s words were a hot litany in her mind, worsening her tremors. “He doesn’t want me with you.”

Why? Why now, Will? I’m alone here, and my life is possibly about to be taken by this violent immortal.

Don’t say it, baby. It’s not true. I’m on my way to you right now. I’m boarding a flight as we speak.

But on the trip to Chicago, you let that soldier take me in the restroom. You urged him to do it.

You didn’t love him. I gave that soldier to you for your pleasure. A sex slave. But you’re attached to Sean the way you’re attached to me.

Her eyes filled with tears. In the other room, she heard Marcus pacing like a caged animal. Outside the chickens clucked, and the mountain breeze rattled the loose glass in the window. She concentrated on Will, allowing him to feel her love for him. She felt it fall over him like a warm mantle, and he took his seat on the airliner with a gushing sigh.

Then she turned to Sean. His arms were slung around his knees, the biceps rigid and the veins in his forearms standing out. He glanced at her, his eyes dark and shiny with unshed tears.

“How can I compete with that, Evangeline? He has this link to you. The ability to exchange thoughts with you and his
blood
marks your breast. I have nothing to offer you,” he rasped.

Electricity pulsed between their gazes, and she forgot the terrible separation they’d endured, as well as the days of torture at Marcus’ hands. Every breath Sean drew and every shift of his body registered in her soul.

How could that be nothing?

“Sean, do you have your lighter?” she whispered.

Confusion rippled over his face, and he felt in jeans’ pockets. “Yes, why?”

“Your ring,” she said, sliding into his lap. “Heat the metal and press it to my flesh. Let me bear your mark as well as Will’s. I’ll belong to both of you always.”

He shook his head the instant the words left her lips. “Absolutely not. I can’t hurt you. I won’t. My God, look at the condition you’re in already.”

“I don’t care about that. But the things you offer are no less vital to me than what Will provides. Please, Sean?” Her eyes were inches from his, their breaths mingled. She felt his body stir beneath her weight.

His arms flexed about her, and he dropped his mouth to her tattoo. His tongue teased the sensitive spot below her ear, and then he was releasing her and twisting off the signet ring on his right hand. The silver letters S
L
R, stood for Sean Robert Livingston. They glinted in the late afternoon sun streaming through the grungy window.

“You can do it,” she whispered against his mouth. “I want it. I need you to mark me.”

A hard nod followed, and he delved into his pocket, producing a lighter. In a flurry, Evangeline stripped off her shirt, so that the hard peaks of her bare breasts shivered against the fabric of his shirt.

“Above the other breast, Sean. Do it.”

The rasp of the lighter sounded, and the strong odor of lighter fluid followed. The signet ring was dangled over the flame until it grew too hot to hold, and then with a cry, he thrust it against her flesh. The searing pain made her flinch, but she held onto it, savoring it as she’d savored the sharing of Will’s blood. She squeezed her eyes shut, but the sound of Sean’s frightened, panting breaths opened them again.

“Enough,” he said and hurled the ring away. His mouth slammed into hers. She tasted his tears. Bent over his arm, he nuzzled the length of her throat to the tips of her breasts. He bathed each pale pink nipple with his rough tongue. His tears sizzled against her skin, and she clutched his head tightly. His gaze roamed over the angry pucker on the swell of her right breast. A huff of emotion left him. “It’s gorgeous,” he choked, tenderly kissing a circle around it.

“It’s perfect,” she whispered, capturing his mouth. Her tongue found his and tasted his passion. Need was a bright fuel inside her body, and an ache grew low in her belly. She felt her pussy swell and the labia fall open like a blossoming flower, begging for release. Her clit hardened, and she rubbed against his muscular thighs.

In a graceful movement he stood and lifted her. She clung to his neck and her tongue mated with his, tasting the syrup of his mouth and craving more. She wanted the hot, thick come.

Their eyes held as he gently laid her upon the dingy cot. The springs creaked softly beneath their weight, and she coiled her legs about his hips, grinding her soaked pussy against the front of his jeans.

“So hot for me. Always ready for my cock,” he growled, plunging his tongue deep into her mouth again. As they kissed, his fingers located her nipples and twisted them hard, just the way she liked it. She arched her back, forcing them into his hands and trying to get more of that delicious pinching. Then his head dropped to her breasts and he spent long minutes sucking and grazing them with his teeth. Shivers of pleasure washed over her when he flicked her nipple ring. Her cunt was a slick road to ecstasy, if only he would touch it.

As if he heard, his coarse hand rode down the curve of her abdomen, pausing to skim her navel ring, and then down, down, into the thick black curls which sheltered her dripping slit. She cried out at the explosion of heat created by his probing fingers. They melted over the wetness, tenderly separating the labia. One thick finger slid inside, and she rocked against the heel of his hand.

Her breath came faster and he swallowed her cries with his kiss. And then suddenly he disappeared, and she felt his breath scorch her inner thighs. He licked the wetness there. Their groans mingled.

“Baby, I can’t get enough of you,” he murmured a split second before his tongue dove into her honey hole.

She twisted her fingers into his hair and threw her head back at the intense contrast between his rough beard and soft long hair tickling her thighs. His mouth found her nub and sucked it. Delight exploded behind her eyes. He lifted her hips into his hands, one finger rhythmically fucking her while his mouth worked her clit.

A surge of anticipation rolled over her as his other hand parted her quivering ass and explored her nether hole. His mouth tore free with a gasp, and he watched her face as he slipped a finger inside her tight anus.

“You love that, don’t you? You know how this turns me on,” he murmured and suckled her pussy softly. The wet sound of his finger plunging into her pussy filled her ears, even as the rough slap of his other hand drove her to the brink.

She quivered uncontrollably as her body splintered with her orgasm. Hot juices bathed his fingers, and her ass tightened and released in gasping explosions. Her clit grew rock hard and pulsed beneath his tongue.

With his trademark suddenness, he stripped off his jeans and rammed his cock home. She cried out at the invasion. He was thick and long. She pictured the swollen purple head touching the tip of her womb. Long, forceful thrusts lifted her hips off the bed. His hands splayed across her back, and his mouth, still wet with her come, came down upon hers.

She wrapped her legs around his hips and dug her nails into the muscles of his back. His hair tickled her throat and breasts, maddening her. She whispered into his ear, telling him all the things he loved to hear.

“Your cock’s so deep. Fill me, more. Touch my soul. I’m soaking for you. Deeper, baby, fill me with your hot come.”

Without warning, she clutched his rock-hard buttocks and then thrust a finger into his ass. He froze at the sudden invasion. His eyes went dark with need. Tenderly, she stroked his prostate, and he went wild. His neck arched and the chords stood out. His jaw clenched. Again she stroked the sensitive spot deep within him, which in turn drove him deeper into her.

Her pussy flexed around his cock, squeezing and tightening. She felt his balls slap her ass. Faster and faster, she stroked his ass and he plunged into her wet cunt. Together they crested the monumental orgasm. Hot come bathed her insides, and her body sucked it from him even as her pulsations ebbed. Collapsing atop her, he mouthed her breasts, her tattoo and finally her lips. Small shivers of delight clasped her to him in a new intimacy. He looked into her eyes. His eyes were glassy, the centers dilated from his extreme pleasure.

“Mine,” he whispered grittily, then wrapped her tightly to his chest, and she fell asleep in rhythm with his breathing.