A Wicked Good Witches Paranormal Romance Books 1-7 (Wicked Good Witches Seasons) (56 page)

“I thought once I was back in my body, I would move forward. That I’d just be able to live. I thought I’d mourned my losses so many years ago. But now that I’m back in my skin, it’s like this wound.” She reached up to the healing punctures on her neck. “It’s still fresh. Still healing. Like it all just happened. Like I just watched him burn… like I just lost everyone I loved… I… I didn’t think it would be like this.” Her chest heaved. Her eyes tugging at his, begging him to make her human again, in a way only he could.

William peered down at her. Seeing her for what she really was.

Not a ghast. Not a Deane. Or a witch.

A woman. Who’d lost everything. Who’d never properly been able to mourn that loss. Who’d loved a vampire… and now the intensity of the loss drowned her in a need so deep she’d die trying to satiate that need. To feel anything other than alone, and numb, like a
thing
going through the motions of life, but not really living it. Not ever
feeling
it.

Something only he would understand.

Darkness returned to his eyes.

The monster fed off her anguish.

It needed to ravage. To devour, without restraint.

In a single swift movement, he lifted Lizzy out of the water.

With a gasp she landed on the beach, her hands and knees digging into the sand. Chilling strength pressed into her backside. She turned her head to see him behind her.

His eyes warned they’d gone past the point of turning back. 

“You want to feel something?” William’s voice was dark, almost a growl.

“Yes,” she urged.

“Then I’ll fuck you until you beg me to feel nothing…” He plunged himself inside her emptiness. Filling her with all of his own.

No foreplay. No feeling her to see if she was wet, or ready for him.

He needed release.

She needed to feel. To hurt.

But he shouldn’t hurt her.
Not too much,
his darkness savored wickedly.

He pulled out, sinking into her again. Stretching her.

Her hands dug into the sand, which soaked up a demanding exhale.

His eyes trailed along her back, following the pulsing veins gushing to her heart.

Crisp breath rushed through William’s teeth. Fangs pushed against his lips getting longer, pinching his bottom lip. Frigid hands gripped her thighs pulling her into each frosty thrust. Each attack entombing him deeper and deeper.  

Lizzy gasped, gripping into the sand. “More,” she ordered greedily.

William slid his left hand down her back pressing her shoulders into the sand. Opening her, allowing him deeper entry. Filling her completely. The movement of his thrusts scraped her hardened buds across the sand. It stung. And burned. And shot waves of pleasure down to her core.

She pushed out a fevered moan. He snarled, increasing his speed.

“More William.
Please.
I need everything.”

If he gave her more of himself he might inflict permanent damage. He pulled out of her and in a flashing movement was on his feet snatching Lizzy off the ground. Her body spun in his arms, her back pinned against a rock a few feet away. His icy shaft pushed deep inside her. No break to catch her breath from the sudden movement. Rock scratched at her back. Fangs grazed her neck, threatening but not biting.

He slowed his rhythm, each draw deliberate and meant to torment.

His mouth trailed down to the curve of her breast. She arched into him, enticing him to bite her.

“Beg me.” The monster needed to hear her plead for it. The points of his teeth plucked at her nipple. Her body begged for release. Every thrust got her closer. But it wasn’t enough.

“Bite me,” she pleaded, her voice thick.

“Here?” he nipped at her hard bud.

“Oh God. Yes.
I mean no
.”

His mouth traveled to the other side, his fangs grazing and pinching from base to peak. “Here?” He captured her peak, torturing it with his teeth. A shudder ripped through Lizzy. Her body tightened underneath him.

William released his teeth, nipping his way back to her neck. She arched into him, her body begging him to do it.

“Please, William. Bite me.”

Her delicate skin gave way with ease. A slight punch when his teeth sank into her vein. Lizzy cried out. Nerves exploded. Blackness squeezed out her vision.

The rush a life teased his fangs. Coating his tongue and throat in heavenly heated rust. And lust. The sweet red syrup screaming into his veins. 

The icy rocket between her legs charged inside a few more times, its pent up release a quaking vibration that rippled outward. William freed her neck throwing his head into the air. His breath a euphoric fury.

Angry waves washed up against the shore, stabbing at William’s legs.

Lizzy leaned against the rock, her breathing ragged.

The sky was black. No stars. No moon.

A bead of rain hit William’s face. Followed by another.

He looked down at Lizzy splayed against the rock in front of him. His tongue licked the succulent slick covering his fangs. “I’m not done eating yet.”

“I’m not begging you to stop yet.”

Rain dripped harder.

Lizzy reached out and traced his lips with her fingers; blood, her blood, dripped in wet streams down her hand. Down his neck, splattering onto his chest.

The rain beat down, a full downpour biting at their skin.

Ice flared to life, breaching her heat. She writhed against him, encouraging him deeper. But he withdrew the ice leaving her hot and wet. And empty.

A whimper escaped Lizzy.

The coal in his eyes narrowed. “I warned you I wasn’t done eating yet.”

He dropped to his knees. His strength pinning her legs to the rock.

An arctic impact lashed at her lust. She bucked sucking in through her teeth, pushing out a frantic moan. William curled his lips, his tongue igniting her desire. His hands pressed her legs open. She couldn’t have escaped his grasp if her life depended on it.

He tore away from her pleasure, leaving her open to him.

“Please don’t stop, William.”

The desperation in her voice fed the predator. His lips drew across her inner thigh. Fangs pinching deep, but not breaking through. Rain pelted their skin. To Lizzy, each drop sizzled, setting fire to another nerve. 

William denied her the climax she wanted so badly, the monster needing her to beg him. He teased, nuzzling her thighs, tickling her core. Nipping in playful tugs.

The rain lessened. The storm slowing.

The summer heat settled around them, steaming the rocks as the cool rain evaporated.

“Please,” she begged him. “Please. I need more.”

William snarled, her pleas quenching the monster’s need. He pulled her body down in front of him, her legs straddling him. He taunted her center, nudging his unyielding ice just inside. She pressed down with all her might; what she wanted out of reach. He was too strong. And denying her.

She pounded her hands onto his shoulders digging in with her fingernails. It did nothing against his hard vampire skin. 

“Why do you want it?” William taunted her entrance, not giving in. “Tell me why you want it.”

“Because I need it.”

“Not good enough. Why?”

“I need to have it. I need to feel.”

He let her slide down just a little further but pulled out.

“Still not good enough. Why?” His tone demanded her to spill, or the consequence would be severe.

“Because I’m fucking pissed. Because I lost everything. My life was stolen…” she cried her last words. Tears streaked down her rain-washed faced.

“Tell me… everything.” William’s voice came out in strained exhales. He couldn’t hold out much longer. His darkness fed on her pain.

Lizzy leaned her head against his shoulder. “I can’t.”

“You cannot heal until you hurt.”

“I… I’m to blame. It’s my fault I lost him… my fault he died.” Lizzy spoke of the fiancé she’d lost so long ago. “The witch warned me she’d try to steal him. I didn’t believe her.” She sobbed. “I didn’t believe her. I could have stopped her. And when she couldn’t take him from me, she stole
me
away from him. And it killed him.” She lifted her head and let out an impassioned cry. “I killed him.”

William slammed her down over the ice, burning and stretching her to the limit.

She cried out in pleasure and pain.

“If you want more, keep talking,” William warned.

She swallowed, her voice weak. “My friends, my family… they wrote me off believing I’d thrown myself over that cliff. They believed I’d do such a cowardly thing. How could they? How could they…” she whimpered. “And they just forget me. Like I never existed.”

William groaned, drawing from her pain. His hands gripped her thighs tighter with each stroke.

Lizzy sobbed bitterly. “And that bitch. She didn’t pay. She didn’t suffer. No one ever found out what she did.
She
got to live her life. She didn’t die until she was ninety fucking years old!”

Lizzy’s body seized, pressure building. Stars burst in front of her eyes transforming into black splotches. “William,” she called out. Her head tossed back, her hair dripping in wet ringlets behind her.

A splattering of ice shattered her heat. William groaned in the effort. Waves of fire ravaged through her body smoldering into a contented warmth. Her head fell forward. Her body weakened. Spent.

For a moment, they didn’t speak or move.

Just breathed.

Just were.

Lizzy’s chin lifted, William’s touch gentle.

“The
witch
did get what she deserved, Lisbeth.”

She searched the darkness in his eyes for what he meant.

“She died. She grew old and withered away into nothing. She never got her greatest desire, and her short human life was stripped from her. You got a chance to live yours again. You did not lose
everything.
”

The pain in Lizzy’s chest lightened.

He was right.

“It’s not the life you should have lived, Lisbeth. But live it now.
Live the hell out of each day
and if she’s watching you from whatever afterlife hell she’s stuck in… let her wallow in the misery that she did not win.”

A mindful satisfaction forged across Lizzy’s tear stained face. A sensation of wholeness returning to her soul. The final step to returning to her human form. The grief abated. She’d let the tide carry it out to sea. 

William closed his eyes, leaning his forehead against hers.

The predator crept back into hiding. The darkness retreating. It had gotten what it wanted… mostly. Enough to satiate the beast, for now. To calm the carnal cravings that had been building inside him and driving him to madness.

Tomorrow. That was a different story. He’d have to lock himself away after drinking human blood. Fresh human blood. But for this moment, just a brief moment, he could just be a man. A man mending a broken soul.

There was no hope for his own.

Moist lips pressed against his own and released.

He pulled back and opened his eyes.

“Thank you,” Lizzy whispered. “I know vampires don’t really enjoy kissing, but I am a human.”

“Kissing is… intimate. Something people in love do. Not vampires.”

“My fiancé told me he’d never really kissed a woman before me. He’d never wanted to.”

There was only on pair of lips William wanted.

“You do love someone, don’t you?” She spoke as if she knew, but preferred he told her so, himself. He said nothing.

“Now look who’s being stubborn…”

“Conversation for another day.” He had no intention of following through with it.

She pulled herself off his body, kneeling in the sand in front of him. “Would you mind dashing out to the beach and grabbing our clothes?”

“So modest all of a sudden.”

“Actually, I’m not sure I can walk quite yet. I think you wrecked me.”

His eyes widened. “I didn’t hurt you badly, did I?”

“Just enough.” She winked.

He shook his head. “I did
try
to restrain myself.”

A rather sick pairing they made.

William disappeared, leaving a flash of sand in his wake, returning just a second later. He’d already dressed. 

“Should I carry you home?” He helped her off the ground, sliding the summer dress over her head.

“No. I’m going to sit on the beach for a bit. I’d forgotten what air feels like. To have the ocean mist spray against my skin. The rain… for too long I could only hear the waves. Hear the wind. To feel it again…” she let out a languid sigh.

He sensed she wanted to be alone. “Good night, Lisbeth.”