Page 53 of Blood on the Tide
She nips my shoulder, slamming me back into the here and now. “Come for me, Lizzie. I want to feel it.”
I love her like this, confident and wicked, her clever fingers winding me up. I drag my fingers down her sides and grip her ass, pulling her closer. Urging her to grind her pussy against my thigh. I’ll get another taste of her, and soon. But this is perfect for an appetizer. “Make me.”
She laughs. It’s light and joyful and filled with a promise I don’t know how to fulfill. Maeve presses the heel of her palm against my clit, hard, and there’s no holding out. I orgasm, pleasure bending my spine and almost making me forget myself enough to bite her. Her throat is so close, perfectly arched and sprinkled with those devastating freckles. I could...
I twist and snap my teeth around a pillow. The fabric feels wrong against my tongue, but it’s better than the alternative. Was I just wishing to be soft enough to deserve this woman? What a joke. I almost killed her a few days ago, and all it takes is a single orgasm to have me in danger of doing it again.
Pathetic.
Maeve doesn’t give me a chance to sink into self-loathing. She drags her mouth down my throat, pausing to give me a tiny nibble that makes my thighs clench, and then shifts down my body and pushes my thighs wide. “Your restraint is admirable.” There’s something in her tone, something almost brittle, but she dips down and covers my pussy with her mouth before my pleasure-drugged brain can figure out what I’ve done to upset her.
She eases her fingers out of me and replaces them with her tongue, soft and slick and absolutely decadent. I manage to unclench my jaw enough to free the pillow. Barely. At least she’s out of reach of my fangs now. There’s still the problem of how I’m going to taste her without losing control, but I’ll get to that... soon... very soon.
She drags her tongue over my center and wedges three fingers into me. “You make me so angry and hot, and I just want to punish you.”
“Punish me?” I blink down at her. I can’t think. “I’m going to come again,” I gasp.
“I know.” Some smugness works its way into her tone. She sucks on my clit and then works it in short, unhurried strokes with the flat of her tongue as she keeps stroking my G-spot with her fingers. By all rights, I should be too sensitized to come again, but one of the perks of quick healing is even faster recovery. We could go for hours if I’m careful with her. Days, honestly.
We don’t have days here in this room. We only have until dawn.
“Maeve.”
She bands one arm over my stomach, holding me in place as she ruthlessly drives me into another orgasm. My brain actually blips, or maybe I black out. It feels like one moment Maeve is between my thighs, and the next she’s at my back, wrapping herself around me and delving her hand back between my thighs.
I shiver. “Maeve, please.” I could break her hold easily, could twist and pin her to the ground, could drive her to distraction the same way she’s doing to me. I don’t. “Let me touch you.”
“It made me so jealous to see you bite her,” she murmurs in my ear. She parts my pussy and drags the tip of her middle finger over my sensitive clit. “To see her get something that should, by rights, be mine.”
My mouth works, but I can’t seem to speak. If I was a better person, her jealousy wouldn’t make me hotter. I wouldn’t take it as some kind of proof of wanting. But I’m not a better person. I grip her arm, not trying to stop her, just hanging on and letting her guide this. “I only want you.” I don’t mean to say it. I truly don’t.
“I know.” Maeve cups one breast with her free hand, plucking at my nipple even as she works me toward a third orgasm. “You have me, Lizzie.” She kisses my throat. “You just have to take me.”
Except I don’t have her. She’s a selkie wife, mine for the time being, but I was always destined to lose her. There’s a reason all the stories end the same. I thought it was bullshit, but the truth is undeniable. I’m going to spend the rest of my life chasing the feeling of being with Maeve... and I’m going to spend the rest of my life coming up short.
That, more than anything, gives me the strength to move, to turn and kiss her. To focus on giving her even more pleasure than she’s given me. “She wasn’t you.” I speak against her lips as I wedge my arm between us and stroke her pussy. “No one compares to you, baby. No one will ever be you.”
“Take me,” she repeats. The words have weight, as if they mean far more than sexually. I can’t think, can’t reason through why doing so would be a bad idea.
Nothing can touch us right now, right here. I haul myself to my feet and scoop Maeve into my arms. It’s only a few steps to the bed, and I lay her down like a bride on her wedding night. Moonlight filters through the window, bathing her in soft light. “I will, baby. I’ll take you all night.”
I’ll take you forever.
chapter 27
Maeve
Hyacinth really liked Lizzie’s bite, enough that she allows us to sleep well into the afternoon instead of kicking us out at dawn. It’s nice to wake in a bed with Lizzie. Really nice. I turn onto my side and study my vampire. Most people look younger when they sleep, but not Lizzie. She doesn’t look more innocent, either. But there’s still something in her that relaxes. The fact that she trusts me enough to allow me to witness it feels like a gift I’ll spend the rest of my life cherishing. Even long after she’s gone.
I didn’t mean for my jealousy to slip its leash last night. I certainly didn’t expect said jealousy to make the sex hotter. My heart feels strangely bruised, but I can’t begin to say why. Lizzie has made no promises to me. Yes, her determination not to hurt me seems to suggest she cares, but that ultimately changes nothing.
Except it feels like something changed, as if some piece clicked into place, as if we crossed a point of no return that I hadn’t noticed. I don’t know what it means. I don’t even know how to ask if she feels it, too.
Lizzie’s a natural predator, so it doesn’t take long for her to sense my attention. She blinks her eyes open, instantly awake. “You were watching me sleep.”
“Only a little.”
She stretches slowly, her gaze tracking to the bright blue sky outside the window. “It’s well past dawn.” Lizzie sighs. “Shall we take bets on whether the ship has sailed off without us?”