Samuel (Samuel's Pride Series) (10 page)

“Murdered him.” Samuel shook his head. “He
might have been attacking me at the time, but I murdered him.”

“He contacted me just before he attacked
you. Father told me that he could smell me on you. Knew that we were mates and
that he was going to enjoy killing you.” Samuel came back to the bed and pulled
her into his arms. “He was going to kill you because he thought to make me
suffer. He said it was for all the things I’d done to him, and he wanted me to
pay with blood. I don’t think he expected my little Irish Rose to fight back,
and certainly didn’t expect you to be able to kill like you did.”

She enjoyed him holding her, and when
she leaned into his chest, she felt something move along her skin and pulled
back from him. He was looking at her with the strangest look on his face.

“It’s your lioness. She wants my lion.”
Kennedy pulled back from him more, but he pulled her back. “Nuzzle into my neck
and see if that calms her.”

As soon as she smelled him, she wanted
him. It was as if a switch had been turned on and she was suddenly needy. Kennedy
licked his throat and felt him growl low, and she pulled him closer to her. Christ,
she wanted him right now.

“I can smell you. You smell like sex.”
Kennedy felt the purr of her cat race over her body and then spill from her
lips. Samuel laid her back on the bed and took her mouth. Hunger took her, and
she wanted him. When he moved over her body, climbing into the bed with her,
she reached for the zipper on his pants. The sooner he was inside of her the
better.

Samuel tore at her clothes. The gown was
opened at her shoulder, and as soon as his mouth covered her breast, she
wrapped her hand around his freed cock. Sheets were ripped when they ended up
tangled around them. Buttons were torn from holes that ripped rather than came
free. Samuel picked her up, and before she touched the wall behind her, his
cock was buried deep within her.

“Hurry. Make me come.” He growled, and
she growled back. Christ, if she dinna taste him soon, she was going to
explode. “I want to…. Please, I need to bite you. I don’t know if I can. Help
me.”

He pounded into her as he licked her
shoulder. When she did the same to his, he lifted his head, his eyes dark, and
his face slightly furred.

“Come and bite me.” His voice was harsh,
almost sounding inhuman. “Let your cat go enough to bite me and come.”

Samuel threw back his head and roared. Christ,
he was beautiful, and when he leaned forward and sank his teeth into her
shoulder, she felt her own cat rise up with the need to claim him. As soon as
she bit him, Samuel roared against her wound as her climax seemed to tear her
apart.

It wasn’t enough. Even as she came down,
her body trembling with her release, she wanted more. Wanted all of him, and
when he took her to the bed and told her to turn around, she leaned into the
bed and let him take her hard from behind. His cock filled her differently this
time, and when he pressed her head to the bed and held her down, she felt her
cat roar, and Kennedy tried to get free. But Samuel leaned over her and bit
deep into her shoulder again and held her there while he fucked her.

“Mine.” She heard what he said, but
neither her cat nor her agreed. “You’re mine now and forever. Mine, Kennedy,
say it.”

“Nay, I belong to no one.” He reached
around her and slid his finger into her aching pussy. Every time he slid past
her clit she wanted to hurt him. Begging him to finish her only made him bite
her harder.

“Say it and I’ll give you relief. Say
you belong to me and I’ll give it all to you.” She growled again. “You want to
come? Then say it. Tell me you belong to me.”

He touched her clit, a small brush of
his fingers over her, and she arched up. He held her down while he took her
harder, the bed moving across the floor as he did so. When he touched her
again, another brief touch, she screamed out her answer, and he pinched her
hard.

Her body seemed to pause for the
briefest of seconds. She felt, in that moment, that she was poised on a great
cliff and would fall at any moment. When Samuel tore at her shoulder, pain
ripped into her, but it was just enough to throw her over the edge. Her release
seemed to not just shatter her but put her back together and break her apart
several times before she finished. Her mind snapped into Samuel’s, and she saw
his life as it flashed before her eyes. Birth to childhood, when he learned to
walk. His mother holding him in the water to show him how to swim. His father
hitting him for the first time, the anguish he felt when he couldn’t protect
his mother. Samuel’s heartbreak when the doctors told him she’d never walk
again. His terror at finding her in a pool of her blood, and his joy at hearing
her heart beating strongly after he’d bitten her.

Blackness chased her over the edge, and
when it caught her, gave her the darkness she needed when her body was lax.
Kennedy heard Samuel whisper to her, and she knew he told her the truth.
“Is
breá liom tú ró.”

Chapter 10

Samuel held her to him. He knew that
sooner or later he’d have to tell her everything he’d done, but for now she was
sated and still. Rubbing his fingers up and down her back, he touched several
scars there but didn’t mind them as much as he might have. Having her here,
alive and well, was all that he cared about right now.

“Won’t the police be suspicious when
they see that I’m not hurt?” His fingers paused at her question. “I mean, they
were called in, right?”

“Yes. Jimmy called them just after we
knew your conversion was well on its way. You were still very hurt by the time
they arrived.” She lifted her head and rested it on his chest. Samuel didn’t
want to talk about her being hurt, but even messy and looking like she’d just
been thoroughly fucked, she looked like she would hurt him. If only a little.

“You said that you changed me, and that
because of the extent of the injuries, I was in bad shape when they arrived. I
get that. What I doona…don’t understand is what now.” She pinched his nipple
when he grinned at her.

“Doona hide your Irish, girl. I love it.”
She lifted a brow that told him she wasn’t fooled for a moment. “You’re dead.
We…when you changed your heart rate and breathing had nearly stopped. Only
another super would have been able to hear or detect it. There was a wolf with
the first responders, and Jimmy told him what had happened. You were taken away
by ambulance and routed here instead of the hospital where you were headed.”

“I see.” She laid her head back on his
chest, and he felt the first tear on his chest. Lifting her up, he looked into
her eyes and then pulled her to his mouth for a kiss.

“Not you, love, just…Jimmy said he’d
never seen you before. He made the police believe that you were a transient. A
homeless person. The damage…you wouldn’t have had any prints that they could
find. You’re not in the system.” She stared at him for long moments.

“Made the police believe it how?” Christ,
she was much sharper than he needed her to be right now. Samuel hoped that his
friend would forgive him for telling her his secret, but he knew that if he
didn’t, she’d never let it go.

“All supernaturals have one or two
things they can do that set them apart from someone else. Not to say that
another can do what they do, but it will be slightly different for each
shifter. Jimmy can manipulate minds. It takes a great deal out of him if it’s a
lot of people, but he can do it.” She asked him what his was. “I can speak to
all species.”

He waited for her to say something else,
but she laid her head back down in his chest. After several minutes, he closed
his eyes and started to drift to sleep. When she spoke again, it didn’t startle
him, but it did make his heart tighten in his chest.

“I’m mated and bonded to a were-lion. I,
myself, am no longer human, and I’ve lost Kennedy Buehler. Now I’ll be expected
to do your bidding at all times and not do what I wish.” She looked up at him,
sadness in her eyes. “I’ve given it to you willingly, make no mistake, but I do
wish right now that I had not.”

He pulled her over him and rolled her to
her back. He pulled her arms up above her head and held them there as he looked
deep into her eyes. Samuel could see her fear there as well as her sorrow. While
he knew that he could do nothing about what had happened to her with her being
no longer human, he could show her what she gained rather than lost.

“When I came upon you at the scene, you
were just dropping to the ground. My father was struggling to pull free from
the bat, but he was weak from all the damage you’d done to him. I went to you
to see that you’d been hurt more than I’d first thought. More than…more than
any human would have been able to endure. But you still lived.” He ran his
hands down her arms to her heart. “I could hear your heart beating. Slow and
getting slower, it seemed to call to me. And I knew in that moment that I didn’t…no,
I
couldn’t
live without you in my life. I needed you.”

“Because I’m your other half.” He shook
his head. “Then what?” she asked. “Because of some sense of duty? Some strange
need to make sure that I did as you told me?”

“No. I needed you in my life because I
love you.” She looked at him, and he felt her heart beat a little faster
beneath his fingers. “When you were dying in my arms, all I could think about
was how badly I’d treated you. How many times I’d tossed you away.”

“You aren’t going to get any arguments
from me.” He laughed at her, and she smiled. “I wasn’t any nicer to you either.
Of course, I was provoked most of the time. You were trying very hard to keep
me away.”

“I was. Now I want only for you to be as
close to me as I can get you.” He rocked into her softness and watched her eyes
darken with need. “Then you told me you loved me.”

Kennedy turned her head away, and for a
moment, he let her. When she looked back at him, he could see that she was
going to try to blow it off. Before she spoke, he leaned down and took her
mouth gently before looking at her again.

“I remember saying it. I thought I was
dying, and…and I realized the truth of it. You’ve no need to repeat the words
to me. I’ve no desire to—”

“I do. Have a desire, as well as a need,
to love you.” Samuel grinned. “It took me two days to try and figure out what
you’d said to me, and another two to learn how to say it back to you. Christ,
that’s a hard language to speak.”

“Cad a bheadh sé a ghlacadh chun tú a
stoptar suas agus a mbíonn gnéas acu le orm arís?”
He made out
three of the words before he got the general meaning. Samuel cupped her breast
into his hand and thumbed her nipple until it was hard.

“I can shut up and make love to you, but
there will be no more sex between us.” He rocked into her again and was pleased
to see her eyes flutter closed. “Kennedy, we’re going to make love from now on.
It may be rough and hard. I may take you against a tree or a wall, but it will
be forever making love.”

He leaned down and pulled her pert
nipple into his mouth and nipped. She arched up off the bed for him, and he
opened his mouth wider over the tasty morsel and sucked hard enough to bring a
moan from her. Samuel rolled to his back and adjusted her over his cock. He
smiled when she rode his cock, then moaned when she lifted herself up and held
him while lowering herself onto his cock.

“Kennedy. Christ, woman, ride me.” He
moved her hips back and forth to give her an idea what he wanted. Then he held
on to keep from flying away. Samuel wasn’t sure who was teaching who when she
threw back her head and rolled her breasts in her hands.

Nothing could have prepared him for the
beauty of her. Her body was slim and lean, her face a study in concentration. Pinked
nipples begged to be suckled. Her skin had a fine sheen of sweat as her fingers
moved down her body to her pussy. Samuel sat up and pulled her body closer,
wishing he were at home so he could take her properly on their big bed.

“Come for me,” he said. She moaned and
wrapped her fingers into his hair. “Come for me, Kennedy, so I can fill you.”

She bowed back and grabbed his
shoulders. When she dug her nails deep into him, he watched as she came. As it
moved up her body and a scream spilled from her mouth. Samuel was so mesmerized
by her that when his own release took him he cried out too and took her throat
hard.

Blood filled his mouth. It was hot,
spicy, and made his cock jerk again inside of her. When she licked his shoulder,
he moved her to her back and pounded deep as she sank her own teeth into him. Samuel
thought he was prepared for her bite, but when her teeth tore at his skin, he
felt as if the world centered for him. His body and mind were now not just his
but hers as well. Everything came to a single thought—Kennedy Payne was his.

Stars burst behind his eyelids; his body
tensed more for another climax that took his breath away. Lifting his head up,
he roared out, the sound of it echoing around the room as she fell back to the
bed, her eyes closed, her body lax. Samuel dropped atop her, not even having
enough energy to move off her in the event he was too heavy. Closing his eyes,
he thought only to rest for a second, but sleep claimed him. Never had he felt
like this with a woman before and knew deep in his heart, he never would again.

~~~

“Yer looking for anybody in particular
up there?” Alton sat on the chair that was a good deal softer than the car seat
he’d rented to get this far. He looked at the man standing next to him and
tried to get up the energy to be pissed he was dripping beer condensation on
his suit.

“I was looking for the oldest, Shamus,
but if any of the others are here, that would be fine as well.” The man nodded,
then simply sat down. When a draft was set in front of both men, the man put
his beefy hand into the handle of one while he finished off the one he’d
brought.

“They be gone. About….” He looked at the
bartender. “How long you guess there that the Rose Manor has been empty?”

“Seachtain nó dhó.”
Alton looked at
his companion and was told a week or two. Then when the bartender said
something else, the man nodded and looked at Alton.

“Says the house has been empty of all
souls for a week or two, but the missus of the house and her brood have been
gone a month. Or there abouts. So ye be looking for Shamus? He’s more’n likely
up to no good. Boy hasn’t been a lick of good since his daddy passed, God rest
his soul.”

Alton was confused by the exchange of
conversations as well as the languages. There had to be something more than
just English and Gaelic going on here. And his body ached. He wanted a hot
shower, a soft bed, and three or four days of uninterrupted sleep. He doubted
that he’d get any of that in his God-forsaken country. If he managed to miss a
single rut or bump in the road, he’d buy the country and have each one paved.
But it was the lack of fencing that had him so exhausted. The things would
simply come out of nowhere to step right in front of him. Christ and heaven
forbid he nearly hit one. The farmer that had berated him for nearly twenty
minutes had threatened him with every tool he’d had on him. And Alton still
wasn’t sure that he’d been cursed too.

“Do you have any idea where he might
have gone?” The man nodded and drank down his beer…he supposed it was ale not
beer. When the man didn’t answer him, Alton was tempted to get out his gun and
blow the lot of their heads off. “Can you tell me where he and his family have
gone?”

“Not the missus. She left without a word
to anyone. Not even my own
bhean chéile
, wife, I mean. Said that morning
that her services woulda be needed until she returned. Paid her up, she did,
always did like the missus up there. She ain’t got a
pingin
on the
dowager
,
but then she was a mite different anyways. Her granddaughter was aliken her. Not
in beauty, mind you, but….” He stopped talking and frowned. “Where was I?”

Alton didn’t have a clue. He was still
stuck on what a
pingin
or a
dowager
was. He knew that the latter
was a title, but nothing more. When the man started talking again, Alton
decided that he needed something stronger than ale, but apparently that wasn’t
going to happen either. Suddenly, he started paying attention when he heard
Shamus mentioned.

“…to the States too, but Miss Kennedy
dinna go with him. They dinna like each other. He wanting her to marry up with Tailor
was all it took for her to say she’d had enough. ‘Course he done beat her to
near death first, but that didn’t set well with the
dowager
. She near
had a fit. Had me take her to the ship when there was nothing to her but a
bottle of medicine feeding her poor body.” Alton lifted his hand. His head was
splitting and if he had to hear much more of any story he wasn’t going to be
responsible for what he did.

“Where is Shamus?” Nodding, the man said
he was in the United States of the Americas. “Do you know where in the States?”

“Ohio.” He’d said it like it was more
than the few syllables than it was. Alton was barely holding onto his temper
when the man started to say more. But this was much more helpful than anything
else he’d been going on about. “He sold off her horses without having the
proper papers. She’s going to pull up her Irish when she finds him.”

“Not if I find him first.” The man
frowned deeper. “Kennedy and her family are in Ohio too then?”

“I would say yer right. Doona know for
sure, but I’d say so. Shamus got himself into some powerful trouble a few weeks
back, and now he’s looking for some cash. Doona know if he’s found it yet, but
the horses weren’t his to sell.” Alton stood up and had to work hard at not
pulling his gun. When the bartender said something, the man looked at him and
winked. “Yer paying up for the brew? I worked up a mighty thirst.”

Alton pulled out several bills and threw
them on the table. He made sure that the man at his table could see the gun he’d
picked up only today. As he left the door, the man whistled, and Alton looked
back.

“Shamus has more’n you looking for him. Yer
competitor paid me good for what he got. Too bad for you.” The man stood up and
laid a gun on the table beside him. “Ye harm anyone but Shamus and I’ll hunt
you down. We take care of what we need to.”