A Dangerous Hunger: (The Sentinel Demons) (7 page)

Talia woke to the most tantalizing scent she’d ever experienced: the mouthwatering scent of Drew. She knew his smell, and it filled her nostrils and lit her body on fire as she turned her head and buried her face in her pillow. “Drew,” she murmured softly, trying to clear her foggy brain. Something had happened…

“Oh, God…Drew!” Her eyes flew open in panic as her memory returned abruptly.

Drew…in pain and helpless.

Drew…trying to send her away to protect her.

And then…nothing. Everything was a blank after she had experienced Drew’s pain and he had drifted out of reach of her senses.

Talia sat up quickly, her body never reaching a complete sitting position. It balked after running into an immovable, hot, and fierce-looking obstruction.

Drew.

Her entire being flooded with relief, and her eyes darted over him, looking for any sign of discomfort. The only thing she saw embedded in the glowing amber of his eyes was pure, raw desire. She wrapped her arms around him and threw herself into his embrace, her only solace feeling him well, whole, and away from the torment of last night. “What happened?” she asked him tremulously as she stroked his muscular back, and threaded her fingers through his hair, still trying to assure herself that he was really okay. “I was so afraid for you.”

Drew held her tight and rocked her, his voice husky in her ear. “I’m fine,
mo chridhe
.
I had to serve a penalty for an infraction. I didn’t know we’d connect like that.”

Talia pulled away from him in surprise, her head lowering back to the pillow. “You broke Sentinel rules?” Drew loved being a Sentinel, and somehow she couldn’t see him stepping out of bounds in his duty.

“Hunter,” Drew answered angrily. “He’s killing himself. He’s walking a very fine line with his sanity right now. I took his punishment for killing Evils without being provoked. It’s my right. He’s too close to the edge. But had I known what would happen, that you would suffer with me, I wouldn’t have done it.”

Talia couldn’t keep her outrage in check. Drew had suffered for someone else’s crimes? She’d sensed Hunter’s confusion and pain, and even his battle to keep his sanity, but this was too damn much. “Bastard. I’ll knee him hard enough to put his balls in his throat,” she vowed furiously, the memory of what Drew had experienced because of his brother’s actions driving her anger. Drew was a natural protector, taking care of whoever needed it. The problem was…who was protecting Drew? Talia decided it was her job to watch out for him, since he stubbornly wouldn’t stop protecting everyone else.

Drew barked out a laugh as he pinned her hands over her head. “My fierce little protector,” he answered, his tone gruff but slightly amused. “Stay away from Hunter. Stay away from any other male right now, but especially Hunter. He’s not stable.”

Talia’s irritation faded away as she watched Drew’s glowing eyes, mesmerized. His jaw was clenched and a bead of sweat ran down his face, his breathing so ragged that she would have sworn he’d just run a marathon.

He wants me. He wants me as much as I want him.

Although she knew he desired her because of the mating instinct, she had never seen him quite this untamed, and his emotions were battering at her because she’d let him in last night, and that door hadn’t quite closed yet. Mating instinct or not, she wanted him, and his wild, unruly passion was making her insane, his desire feeding her own. “I still can’t believe you actually want me. I’m a history geek. Why was I chosen as your mate? I still don’t understand.”

“I have no fucking idea,
mo grha
. But you complete me like no other ever could, and I don’t just want you…I need you. I crave you with every cell in my body.” His voice was low and guttural as he continued. “I’m a poor Irish peasant with nothing to recommend me. I couldn’t even read until I became a Sentinel. I have nothing to make me worthy of a woman like you, but I still need you. I don’t think I can live without you, Talia.” He took a deep breath and demanded, “I know you can sense my emotions. Read me. Know exactly how I feel.”

Talia shook her head slowly and closed her eyes. “I can’t,” she told him desperately, letting the door on her empath abilities close. “I’ve worked for a very long time to block my senses and I’m already losing my control with you. It hurts too much; I experience too much.” If she let her ability completely loose, she was afraid it would consume her. She’d spent too many years being a prisoner of her emotions, letting the pain of spirits and other entities nearly drive her mad. Although she was fairly certain she could still block other entities, it was Drew she feared the most. Opening completely to him in addition to what she was already feeling would be likely to burn her alive.

“You already opened yourself to me last night,” Drew reminded her, lowering his head to let his lips explore the sensitive skin at the side of her neck, and working his way up to the tender flesh of her ear, biting gently at her earlobe. “Feel me, Talia. I swear you’ll experience nothing but pleasure. I’ll sate you until you beg for mercy. I feel your need, and I have to make you come right now. I can’t take this anymore.”

Talia melted as she met his eyes once more, the flames in the glowing amber orbs her undoing. “I don’t need to feel you any more than I already do, Drew. I already feel more than I can handle. I need you so much. Please.”

She was done waiting, and as his head swooped down to claim her mouth, she knew Drew was about to become the lover she’d never had, but had always dreamed of in her most private fantasies. He’d strip her bare, literally and physically, and finally, she welcomed it.

Talia was done asking questions, wondering why Drew wanted her. It only mattered that he did, and that he made her feel beautiful and desired. Finally, she was ready to be brave instead of hiding away, to reach out and take what she really needed and embrace her fate.

F
or once in her life, Talia willingly released herself into another’s care, letting herself experience every sensation that Drew was giving her.

She started as she suddenly felt them skin-to-skin, Drew’s cock heavy and hard against her thigh. “We’re naked,” she sighed, luxuriating in the sensual feel of his hot, muscular body sliding against hers.

“My demon is demanding I fuck you,
mo grha
, and I don’t have the patience for niceties this time. But next time…” he growled.

Talia’s already flooded pussy became even more drenched, her need becoming increasingly urgent. Drew finally released his hold on her wrists, and she wrapped her arms around his shoulders, her short nails biting into his skin as he devoured her. There was no other explanation for what he was doing with his mouth and tongue, the way he was tasting her skin with small nips of his teeth and then a lave of his rough tongue as he moved down her neck and into the valley between her breasts. It was as though he was trying to brand her as his—every inch of her—and it was working. She moaned as he bit a nipple, the pleasure/pain exploding inside her belly, the warmth spreading to every inch of her body as his tongue followed the bite, soothing her stinging nipple with his tongue. He tormented her by repeating his action over and over, switching from breast to breast, until Talia was ready to lose her mind. “Please,” she begged, not even really sure what she wanted as he moved down her abdomen.

Drew looked up at her, his eyes almost feral. “Has any man ever made you come, Talia?” His voice was tight and low, as though it were difficult for him to ask.

Talia could feel his raw sense of possession. “No,” she whispered honestly. Her one experience in early adulthood hadn’t been anything other than awkward, fast, and painful.

“Don’t think about him. Don’t ever think about him,” Drew snarled, moving between her thighs and opening her to him. He pushed her knees up, spreading her almost painfully wide. “This is mine,” he declared gruffly, staking his claim greedily as he trailed an index finger over her breast and down her stomach. “This is mine.” His palm went to her thigh, running roughly up and down the sensitive skin. “All of you is mine.” He groaned as his fingers delved into her pussy, meeting only wet heat. “Fuck!” His big body shuddered as he slid a finger inside her channel. “You’re tight and so wet, Talia. For me. Only for me,” he declared ferociously, removing his finger and bringing it in slow, sensual circles up to her clit.

He watched her face as his finger moved, teasing the sensitive bundle of nerves until her whole body shook with need. His gaze ran up and down her body, his expression carnal as he tormented her, their eyes finally meeting in a clash of desire. “You’re beautiful. So beautiful like this,” Drew said huskily, reaching a hand out to palm her breast, pinching her nipple so exquisitely that every nerve in her body reacted.

A whimper escaped her mouth, and her hips rose up, begging him to put her out of her misery. Her entire body was flushed with desire, and all she wanted was to feel him inside her, joining them together. “I need you,” she moaned. “Please, Drew.” His teasing was killing her. She could feel his need to dominate his mate, and she yielded to him, her arousal peaking even further as she looked at his powerful form towering above her, his only thought to pleasure her and make her his.

“You’ll come for me, Talia.” It wasn’t a question…it was a command. Drew released her breast and she wanted to cry out in protest as his finger left her clit.

She felt the heat of his mouth on her core almost immediately and she cried out his name in sweet relief as she felt his mouth feasting on her pussy. She relished his urgency. She melted at his frenzied consuming of the liquid heat created by his tongue lapping eagerly between her folds, his hunger seemingly insatiable, as though she were the best thing he’d ever tasted.

Talia speared her fingers into his hair, her grip tight on his skull. God, the feel of him was enthralling, the pleasure so intense that she was vibrating with desire. “Make me come, Drew. Please.” Her back arched in pleasure and frustration as his tongue slid roughly over her clit, again and again, bringing her higher and higher.

He complied, giving her the pressure she needed to fly outside of herself, the spiral of hot sensations starting in her belly and curling outward until Talia felt herself trembling in the throes of a climax so powerful that she couldn’t do anything but let it take her over. “Drew. Oh God, Drew,” she moaned, feeling like he’d just incinerated her.

He reared up, his expression fierce and savage as he looked at her. “Need to fuck you, Talia. No control left,” he rasped, his amber eyes shooting sparks around them.

“Yes,” she panted, needing to feel him inside her more than she needed her next breath. Her desire was that all-consuming, her need to be joined with him as elemental as his.

He brought his cock to the opening of her hungry, clenching channel, watching as it slid inside her, hissing as he viewed their joining. Drew looked mesmerized, and he released a grunt of male satisfaction as he buried himself balls deep inside her.

Talia couldn’t say that she didn’t feel stretched to her limit, and there was a moment of pain because it had been so long and Drew was built so big. But the feel of him inside her eclipsed everything else, the pleasure almost unbearable. Drew filled her, made her feel like the most desirable woman on the planet.

Lowering his body over hers, he said hoarsely, “You
are
the most desirable woman on the planet. You’re it for me.” He took her mouth as his hips flexed, pulling back until he was almost out of her and driving back in with a forceful thrust. “I’ve never known this kind of hunger until I met you. I crave you, Talia. And fucking you is the most satisfying thing I’ve ever done.”

Talia moaned into his embrace, wrapping her arms around his back and putting her legs around his waist, urging him on. She could feel his desperation, and she wanted his unrestrained possession, this rough claiming. Nothing else would do for either of them. His tongue moved inside her mouth, owning her with the same relentless rhythm as his cock. Slick with perspiration, they strained together, their bodies entwining until it was hard to know where one ended and the other began.

He released her mouth with a low groan, his cock still pummeling into her, each thrust more demanding and primal. “Come apart for me, Talia. I want to watch you take your pleasure this time. Take it from me. Only from me,” Drew demanded, his tone dominant and graveled, his eyes covetous and wild as he watched her face.

Talia moaned, his words inflaming her, and trembled as he changed positions, grinding against her mound with every stroke of his cock. She met every pump of his hips with an uncontrolled desperation of her own, needing to make him orgasm as badly as she needed it herself. Their desires were intertwined, and it was difficult to separate one from the other, but it didn’t really matter. Some of their needs were mirror images of the other’s, all of them soul deep and primal.

With a cry of sweet release, she climaxed violently, helplessly, as Drew stared down at her, groaning in male satisfaction as he continued to fill her over and over with unrelenting strokes. Then, he threw his head back and groaned, the muscles in his neck straining as he let go and flooded her with his hot release.

Talia panted as she gazed at him, knowing that watching him right here, right now, was the most amazingly beautiful, hottest thing she’d ever seen. Muscles clenched, his powerful body shuddered as his animalistic groan reverberated through the room. Sweat trickled down his chest and abdomen, and it made his golden skin shimmer. Talia knew the image was branded into her memory, and she was glad. She never wanted to forget this moment in time.

Drew rolled to his side and pulled her over him with a growl. “You nearly killed me,
mo chridhe
. And you’re going to see me come a lot more in the future. No need to keep the memory when it’ll just keep getting better and better. And I’m not all that attractive,” he told her in a low and slightly melancholy tone, his hands stroking her ass and back lovingly as she rested, completely sated, on top of him.

Her heart still pounding furiously, she told him breathlessly, “Are you kidding? You’re every woman’s most lusty wet dream.”

“Am I, now?” he answered in an amused voice, his brogue heavy during this unguarded, intimate moment. “Now that would be a waste, really. The only woman I want to attract is you.”

Talia’s heart squeezed, making it even harder to recover her breath. Drew was so incredibly hot, and heartrendingly sweet. “There isn’t a woman in the world who wouldn’t drool over you. How can you say you aren’t the hottest male in the universe?”

Drew shrugged. “What’s so attractive about an Irish peasant? Believe me, at one time I wasn’t a pretty sight.”

“Does becoming a Sentinel alter your physical appearance?” she asked curiously.

“Not really. But it made me a hell of a lot more healthy,” he answered in a falsely nonchalant voice.

Talia hit him playfully on the shoulder. “Then you were always a hottie. You were just malnourished.” Again, the thought of Drew starving nearly broke her heart.

“I did manual labor. I was old before my time,” Drew commented. “And I wasn’t much to look at to begin with.”

Talia pulled back and gaped at him. “You’re gorgeous, Drew. The most handsome man I’ve ever seen.”

“I don’t think so. Maybe it’s the mating instinct that makes you think so,” he remarked casually.

“It is not. I might not be wearing my glasses, but I can still see you.” There wasn’t a single thing that she didn’t find appealing in Drew, mating instinct or not. Well…except maybe his occasional stubbornness wasn’t particularly pleasant at times, but she even liked that because it was probably what had gotten him through the Great Famine alive.

“Ditto,” Drew drawled low and husky. He put his hands on both sides of her face, making her meet his compelling gaze. “Why is it so hard to believe that I see you the same way? I love the fact that you’re tall, and have the most amazingly sexy legs that seem to go on forever. Your eyes are so beautiful I want to drown in them. And you have the body of a goddess. You’re so intelligent that I want to worship your mind, and I don’t feel worthy of you.” Drew let out an exasperated sigh. “Still, you’re the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen in my human life and in my years as a Sentinel, and I’ll do everything in my power to make you mine and keep you safe. I need you. And I think you need me, too. If anything, I think you got the raw end of the deal, and if I were a better man, I’d somehow let you go, but I can’t.”

A lone tear flowed down Talia’s cheek. It was humbling how much this glorious man wanted her. “I’ve never had anybody, Drew. Not since my mom died.”

He kissed the tear away and told her huskily, “Neither have I,
mo grha
. But now that I know what it’s like to have you as mine, I can’t give you up. Please don’t ever ask me to. I’m not sure I’d survive it. I want to be yours, Talia. I want to be there when you’re sad, when you’re happy, when you need me—which I fucking hope is all the time. I want your face to be the last thing I see every night and the first thing I’m lucky enough to see in the morning. I want to make up for every moment you’ve been alone by filling your life with so much happiness that you’ll forget anything that happened before we met.” He paused, his voice going from sensually persuasive to agitated. “But I still want to kill the bastards who hurt you.”

Talia let out a startled laugh. A few more tears were dotting her cheeks at Drew’s heartfelt declaration. Trust Drew to mix up what
was
a very sweet speech with a murderous intent at the end of it. But her heart was still singing because everything he said was all for her. Even the homicidal comment was revenge for slights toward her.

She reached up and touched his cheek, her hand trembling slightly. God, but this stubborn, dominant Irishman moved her, especially now, when he was vulnerable, because she was certain no one else ever saw that part of him. “I love the way you make me feel.” Talia stroked his jawline, loving the feel of his whiskered, abrasive skin underneath her fingertips. “I’ve never felt like anything except a freak. Suddenly, I feel like a desirable woman, some kind of seductress.”

“You don’t need to be a seductress. My cock gets hard just from thinking about you,” Drew mumbled.

Talia rubbed sensually against him, feeling his member already hard and hot against her thigh. Kat was right. Didn’t a Sentinel ever get tired?

“You’re pushing your luck, woman. You’re already going to be sore tomorrow,” Drew warned.

“I thought I’d try out my newfound sexuality.” She wriggled on top of him, loving the feel of his rock-hard body beneath her. “Maybe I can arouse you this time.”

Talia found herself pinned to the bed before she could blink, Drew’s marvelously massive bulk on top of her.

“No need. I’m already there,” he growled, aggressively taking her mouth with his.

Okay, maybe Sentinels required very little seduction, and as he continued to ravish her, she didn’t think that was necessarily a bad thing.