Skin Walkers: Gauge (14 page)

Chapter
24

Several hours later and finally
alone in their suite, Ella couldn’t help but ask, “You sure Alysa will be okay?”

“She’s with the Chief of Security and his family, gorgeous.  I wouldn’t trust he
r with anyone else.”  Especially now that the threat to her had been extinguished.  “You can relax, she’s safe.  Just…relax.”

“
Relax?”  She snorted as she toed off her heels and took off her jewelry, setting it on a stand in the sitting area.  “I’ve hidden myself for so long.  Transformed us both so many times into different people that I can’t even remember who I really am.  So many lies, so much deceit, so many tricks.  I don’t know how to relax. 

It’s been hard running further and further because I had
fewer places to hide.  Honestly, it’s been the most exhausting thing I’ve ever had the displeasure to endure.”  Soft eyes found his, “But I’d do it again.”  The corner of her mouth lifted in a humorless smile, “I’d gladly endure it all again for that little girl.”

He removed his jacket, toed off his own shoes, and removed his tie as he studied her.  He knew she was rambling as a stall ta
ctic.  She knew what was coming, still it was a relief that she was finally confiding in him. 

He approached her slowly, undoing buttons on his shirt as he went.
  She stopped moving and tensed as he approached. 

“Congratulations, Mrs. Alexander.”  He bent and claimed her mouth.  At first she didn’t return the kiss, but slowly her body melted and her tongue met his.  Arms twined around his neck and she pressed into him.  His mouth left hers to dot kisses along her jaw line and down the
column of her throat.  He stopped where he felt the beating of her heart the strongest and pressed his lips to the pulse beneath.

Ella moaned in his arms and the scent of her intoxicated him. 
Mine!
The word thrummed over and over in his head, keeping beat with her heart and matching the throb in his cock.

Something decadent exploding on his tongue just as he
felt her tense, her body arched and her lips parted to release a feminine whimper that had him recoiling. 
Shit!
  Never had he involuntarily bit a woman…until today. 

“Ella, are you okay?
  I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to…” he forced his elongated incisors to retract even as he swallowed the exquisite taste of her.  Her flavor detonated on his tongue and he knew his eyes darkened.  She was sweet, sweeter than he ever imagined she would be, and he wanted more of her with a desperation that had him fighting for control.

Her rounded gray eyes searched his and she
slowly lifted a shaky hand to pull his head back down to her throat. 

YES! 
Elation surged through him.  She knew what he was and this was her accepting it.  He’d have to clarify later that most Walkers didn’t drink of their mates, but Gauge did.

He laved at her wound before his incisors elongated
again and sunk into her soft flesh.  His eyes rolled back and fluttered closed at the pleasure of her blood on his tongue.

***

Ella stop!
  she commanded herself as she writhed in Gauge’s arms.  He was drinking her blood and his teeth eased in and out of her throat in a sensual rhythm that had her wanting him to mimic the action with another part of his body in a more intimate part of hers.

She moaned and as his lips tugged on her, she swore she felt the sensation shoot straight to her clit.

Oh God, you have to make him stop!  This was a favor, NOT a true claiming. Don’t let him go too far.  He’ll hate you for it.

“Stop!” She pulled back, bracing her hands on his chest as she fought to steady her breath.  “I’m…I’m not going to let you do this.”

“You won’t let me have what’s mine?” his tone was mocking as he ground his erection against her sex.

She hissed and shoved him hard, but knew he released her because he wanted to. 

She had to think, had to get him to stay away from her because if he so much as touched her again she would be his. 

“How do you know I’m not using you?” she challenged angrily,
as an idea struck. “I needed someone to protect me…to protect us.”  She let her eyes travel over his large frame.  “You’re large and imposing…
single
,” she shrugged attempting to sound glib.  “Any man would do really; you were just the fool who got in the way.”

His enraged growl had Ella jerking back.

Shock quickly replaced her anger as Gauge grabbed her by the arms and pulled her into him. 

“
I know what you’re doing.  Don’t insult me to save yourself, gorgeous.  It’s not attractive.”

What in
the hell had gotten into her?  Shaking her head, she knew.  She’d intentionally been trying to pick a fight. Gauge had just married her, but according to Jenny’s theory Ella wasn’t his. 

“Gauge, I’m sorry.
  Jenny told me about the affliction and I…,” she looked up to face him with tears in her eyes, “I don’t want you doing anything you’d regret.  You’ve already done so much.”  She dropped her head and whispered, “I’m sorry.” 

She turned to go to her room when
suddenly she found herself forced up against the closed door.  Gauge had her wrists pinned up over her head as the thick hard swell of his cock pressed into her back. 

“Gauge?”  The word was a tremble on her lips as she fought to keep the erratic beating of her heart under control.

He kept her pinned firmly to the door, as he dipped his head to brush his nose against the tender flesh at the side of her satiny throat.  He inhaled deeply and a hot wave of desire washed over Ella when he growled near her ear.

Before she could react he spun with her
, crossing to the sofa where he kicked one of her feet wide and forced her over until she was bent over the back of the cream colored couch with her ass in the air. 

Another growl.  Then she felt his rough ha
nds sliding up the smooth planes of her thighs, taking the soft material of her dress up in their ascent. 

“Gauge!”  E
lla reached back, gripping the hem of her gown in an attempt to keep it down, but Gauge growled again.  This time it wasn’t the deep rumble of satisfaction vibrating from his chest, but a throaty displeased warning. 

Ella dropped the thin material and placed her hand on the back of the couch.  She didn’t have to see her fingers to know they were trembling, her whole body was trembling.

She felt the cool air in the room touch on her skin as he lifted the skirt up and over the soft mound of her ass.  She heard him inhale sharply and she cursed the decision she’d made that earlier to wear a thong.  With just a thin wisp of lace peeking out from between her cheeks she felt naked, vulnerable.  Combined with her desire, the emotions had her sex creaming in wanton anticipation, and when she felt Gauge slide his fingers under the whisper of lace at either hip and begin pulling her panties down, her heart nearly stopped.

She wanted him.  More than she’d ever wanted anything in her life she wanted him.  The thought of the thick length of his hard cock buried deep inside her had her pussy clenching even as Gauge dropped to his knees behind her, placing one hand on her smooth calf as he lifted one leg then the other to pull her panties free.

This is insane!
  They couldn’t do this.  Not now.  “Gauge!” she flushed in embarrassment.  She’d intended to sound stern.  Instead, his name floated off her lips in a gentle plea.  She had to stop this, it had gone too far.  Ella placed both hands firmly on the back of the couch with the intention of stopping him when her body stilled.  Her back convulsed in an involuntary arch when she felt Gauge slide his warm wet tongue over her creaming sex.

She hadn’t expected it.  She’d had every intention of stopping Gauge before things got too far
, before he got to a point he couldn’t come back from, and as his tongue eased deep inside her creamy folds, she knew
she
was at a point she didn’t want to come back from.

His tongue
slid into her, then curled inside as he licked her sex.  Ella’s fists clawed at the material of the couch as she arched her back further, her taut nipples moaning against the lace of her bra in plea to be released. 

Gauge growled in pleasure as he ate her pussy, his tongue thrusting deep then sliding out as his lips sucked in hers before his tongue peeked out again to find the hard nub of her clit.

Ella gasped and this time when she whispered his name, it was more than a plea.  It was a prayer.  She’d never been touched like this and the feel, the excitement, the pleasure was too much.  Something was happening, she could feel it building like a blazing inferno that there was no hope of dousing.  Even still she wanted him.  She yearned to have him buried so deep inside her that a part of him would be imprinted on her forever.

When his tongue left the throbbing nub of her clit to slide back into
her pussy her pleasure nearly peaked.

“Gauge…stop!” She
begged on a whisper.  She wanted him to feel what she was feeling.  She didn’t want to experience her first time alone, but she was so near to climax she knew that if his wicked tongue licked her pussy much longer she was going to explode.

Gauge growled his
dissent even as Ella protested again.

“Gauge,
please
!  Stop.”

She felt him tense then pull back his hands still firmly holding the mounds of her ass wide.

“What’s wrong?” He demanded.

Christ, was he really going to make her tell him like this?  Her with her ass in the air, his face inches from her pussy with her cream still fresh on his lips.  “I
...,” she didn’t know how to put it.  “I’ve, I’ve never…done…this.”

Gauge felt his balls clench and he nearly came from her
admission. 
Untouched?
His!
  He hadn’t even considered.  He should have.  He knew Alysa wasn’t hers and that she’d been running with the child for the past five years.  She was twenty-three now, so she would have been only eighteen when she’d walked away from her life for the sake of her niece.

He stood and spun her to him.  Ella dropped her eyes in embarrassment but his hand caught her chin and
forced her eyes back to his.  “Don’t!” he commanded.

Ella
’s gray eyes clouded in confusion.  “Don’t what?”

“Don’t be embarrassed by something so
beautifully rare.”  He stared down at her body.  His hands moving from her hip and her chin to rest on the curve at her waist while the other smoothed over her back.  “You’re soft.”

Feeling a little self-conscious, Ella tensed.  She hadn’t been to a gym in
years.  Granted she wasn’t overweight, but she certainly no longer had the firm body of her youth. 

His hand continued to rub her back while the one at her side
slid to her back to undo the zipper of her dress before peeling it down her body.  Then his hands were on her, touching, caressing, moulding.  “So soft,” he moaned, leaning forward to rest his forehead against hers as his eyes closed.  “You make me want…”  He didn’t finish. 

Realizing he wasn’t insulting her with the soft comment, Ella relaxed in his arms and leaned her head into his.  She wanted too.  “Rea
l women are supposed to be soft,” she smiled.  “It’s our gift to men who’ve only ever known hardship.  We are the one place where you can find solace…know peace, feel comfort.  Your one soft place in a hard and cruel world.”

Gauge jerked back and the reaction had Ella’s eyes slamming open. 
What had she said?
  When her eyes met Gauge’s, something happened.  A bright light flashed and had her throwing her hand up to shield her eyes as a loud, high-pitched, whine rent the air.  When Ella finally dropped her hand, Gauge was on the ground.

“GAUGE!”  She dropped to his side and reached for him.  “Oh my God!  What’s wrong?”

He was writhing on the ground, his hand clamped to his abdomen as he sucked in agonized breaths.  Rolling to his side, he attempted to get to his feet.  Ella looped an arm through one of his and tried to help him, but when he got up to one knee he roared and clutched at his abdomen again.  He fell to the side and because their arms were twined together, Ella fell with him.  She gasped, but didn’t hit the floor.  Instead, Gauge caught her just in time and rolled to take the brunt of fall.

Ella tried to scramble off him.  He didn’t need her added weight compounding his injuries.  Gauge had other ideas. 

Suddenly, he rolled and Ella was pinned beneath him, her legs spread so his hips rested in the cradle of her thighs.  He panted above her for several long moments with his eyes pinched tightly shut.  On either side of her head, Gauge’s arms shook with the strain of holding up his own weight.

“Gauge,” she practically whispered, “let me get help.”  When he didn’t move she pleaded, “
Please!
” 

“I…,” he drew in a steadying breath.  “I don’t…need…help.”  Each word was expelled on a growl.  His eyes slammed open to pin Ella beneath him.  They’d changed from their penetrating blue to a full
matte black.  “I need
you
.”