Just One Bite Volume 2 (3 page)

“That feels wonderful, Justin. Don’t stop.”

“You smell so good. You taste even better.”

His hands so far had remained chastely on my back. I reached for one and put it firmly on my breast. This time he made a louder sound. I felt his cock grow stiff and hard against me. He shifted his hips away.

“No. No, please stay.”

He looked at me with wide eyes. “I don’t want you to think-”

“I don’t. It’s my idea.” I wrapped my arms around his waist and pulled our bodies close. “I’m a big girl, Justin. What do we have to lose?”

“You’re an incredible woman. Where’d you say you lived?”

“I didn’t. New York.” I unbuttoned the top of his shirt. Mmm. Chest hair. The last lover I’d had was a waxer. I ran my fingers through the crisp curls.

“That’s too bad for me,” he managed to say. “It’s… hard for me to get away from here.”

“We’d better make the most of this night, then.”

“Agreed.”

His mouth met mine again. Somehow he got my dress off, and his own shirt over his head. I could smell leather on him, and soap. I ran my hands from his chest to his powerful shoulders and back, feeling the muscles ripple and shift.

Justin’s hand returned to my breast. He rubbed and squeezed, and his callused thumb on my nipple nearly made me faint. He caught me in time, and laid me on the bed. But before I could catch my breath, he knelt down between my legs. His fingers on my pussy were gentle, a glorious contrast to his rough tongue against my clit. He licked back and forth until I started to whimper his name.

“Justin… oh, Justin. Yes. Please,” I cried.

He stood up and pulled my hips to the edge of that lovely tall bed. I had no idea how he’d gotten his pants off without my noticing, but he’d managed, and gotten a condom on besides. The bed was exactly the right height for him to enter me while standing.

He paused with the head of his cock against my opening. He put his thumb gently on my throbbing clit. “Is this what you want, Tricia?”

“Yes.”

“It’s been so long for me. Tell me you want it.” He pushed a fraction of an inch into my body.

“I want it. God, I want it. Please, please fuck me, Justin.”

He groaned as he slid all the way into me. He was as thick and long as my favorite toy, and I tried to concentrate on matching his deep, even thrusts.

He noticed. “No, you gorgeous girl. Don’t do anything. Just feel.” He took his thumb away from my clit, and when I moaned in protest, he put his palm down and rubbed my whole pussy mound in firm, hard circles.

He timed the circles with his thrusts, and picked up speed. Soon all I knew was his cock filling me, and then I came.

The waves of sensation flooded out from my core, all the way to my toes. I rode those waves again and again until they ebbed and faded.

I opened my eyes. “Wow.”

“Thank you.”

I grabbed him and pulled him down on top of me. “Anytime,” I mumbled.

Before I knew it we were snuggled together in the bed. “I wish this was for more than just one night,” he said in a wistful voice.

“Give me your email address in the morning,” I said, half asleep. He didn’t answer except to tighten his embrace. I closed my eyes and sent a little thought of gratitude to whatever trick of acoustics threw that strange voice into my room.

The Blue Ridge morning with its cornflower blue sky was better than anything I could see in Manhattan, and my first thought was that maybe I wouldn’t mind visiting again. I rolled over to share that with Justin.

But he was gone. Only the dent in the pillow next to mine and the sweet soreness between my legs were proof that anyone had been in my room at all.

I bounced up and into the shower anyway. He was probably in his room.

When I went to knock on the door next to mine, I realized it was a housekeeping closet. I frowned in confusion. I could have sworn he said he was staying next door, and my room was between this closet and the outside wall.

I was feeling a little embarrassed when I got to the front desk. “Any messages for me?” I asked the middle aged clerk.

She gave me a sharp look. “No, hon, I’m afraid not,” she said slowly.

I thought I understood her expression, but I didn’t care. I’d never see her again, and I had to ask. “Did anyone with dark hair, kinda tall, check out this morning?”

Her pity was even more overt. “Oh, sweetie. No, he… He isn’t a guest at all, really.”

Now I understood. “Well, that’s probably for the best,” I said briskly, as I signed the bill. “By the way, my air conditioning came on full blast last night, even though it was nice and cool outside. The maintenance man knows.”

“Thanks for telling me.”

I turned to leave, but I couldn’t leave things well enough alone. I looked at the woman. “Please don’t be angry at your maintenance man for being in my room. And please tell him I’m sorry I didn’t see him this morning to say goodbye.”

“I’m afraid I can’t do that,” said the woman. She came around the desk and sat me down on the couch by the fireplace. She took a deep breath. “This inn is haunted,” she said in a rush.

I laughed. “So I’d heard.”

“There’s a woman ghost, and she’s always laughing and taunting people. It’s not just her, though. I personally have seen children wearing pinafores and a Civil War soldier.”

“Really?” I tried to be polite. I made a mental note to tell Allison to come down here and make a friend.

“Justin is my favorite, though.”

“What did you say?” My face and hands went cold.

“Justin. He’s very sweet.”

“Oh?” I said weakly.

“You’re lucky to have seen him at all. We usually just hear him, because he only materializes on the anniversary of his death. Good looking boy, too.”

I felt an almost hysterical giggle bubble up from my chest. “He is. Was. Ha, yes, anyway, how do you know –”

“I was here when the fire tore through the east wing back in October of ‘75. The people across the hall from him were nearly overcome by smoke, but Justin got ‘em free. The lady cried out that their little dog was still in their room. Justin went back to try and save it right before the roof fell in.”

“My god.”

“So I’m sorry, honey, but when the sun comes up, Justin can’t be seen nor heard. But I think he’s hanging around, listening.” Just then, a phone rang in another room. The clerk gave me a motherly pat, and went to take the call.

I sat frozen on the couch. I felt a little breeze on my cheek, almost a kiss. And then the room was empty.

THE END

Fangs, Fur, and Fae

by Marie Harte

Devon Meadows held perfectly still in the dark corner of the empty bedroom, willing herself invisible. It had long been rumored in her family that the women of her bloodline could do amazing things during times of crises. Either she’d been adopted, or this wasn’t enough of a crisis to merit panic magic.

She didn’t fade into the woodwork as she’d hoped. Her next best choice would be to escape the second floor and hide somewhere else until daybreak, when the moon disappeared. The mansion had enough rooms to conceivably hide herself, except that her scent carried to the maniacs after her. The darkness didn’t help any, because her pursuers could see just as well at night as they did during the day. The genes of vampire and wolf shifter had blended together to create a most powerful predator. Or predators--considering the dangerous brothers hunting her.

Her heart pounded like thunder, and she tried a muting spell to camouflage her presence from the marauders stalking her like a walking filet.

“Gotcha.”

She shrieked as Alistair Drake grabbed her and flung her over his shoulder.

“Dammit! Let me go!”

A large arm wrapped around her thighs and held her close. The man was like steel. No chance breaking free from his grip, not without some unworldly help.

Devon concentrated. “Mother Maker, bring me—oomph.” She suddenly found herself pinned against the wall, nose to nose with a very angry, sexy, and determined vamp-shifter.

“Not another word.” Alistair glared at her with enough heat to melt the icecaps. And the frigid hold on her sex drive.

Devon could have ignored his anger, but the carnal need in his dark eyes stirred an answering response deep within her.

He inhaled and groaned. “I knew it. You 
do
 want us.”

Before he could gloat, she kneed him right between the legs and shoved him away.

He fell and cupped himself while she scrambled to escape.

“No way am I taking on 
three
 of you,” she emphasized and left the room, heading for the stairs. Best friends or not, Devon had no intention of mating with the three hungry hybrids. She didn’t want permanence yet. Fae didn’t stray, and she wanted to live a little before making babies, or in the case of the Drakes, puppies--whatever.

She raced to the stairs, planning to go down, when Lachlan, Alistair’s brother, appeared at the base.

“There you are. We’re holding dinner for you, Dev.” He smiled, showing bright white fangs. Then the lights went out, and she seriously freaked.

Muttering an incantation, Devon threw up a magical wall between her and Lachlan and hastened up another flight of stairs. So far, she had Lachlan trapped on the first floor, Alistair incapacitated on the second… With any luck, Douglas, the third Drake brother, was still sitting in the kitchen below.

She crossed her fingers and looked around for the attic, needing a place she could ward. From what she remembered, the amount of cedar up there would make her spells powerful enough to withstand vampires, shifters, and anything in between.

She couldn’t understand it. She’d been friends with the triplets for years. Alistair, Lachlan and Douglas made her laugh, rage, and once cry. Though to be fair, that occasion had been in third grade, when Douglas accused her of having cooties.

Sunday dinners had been a regular occurrence. Until a few months ago, when they’d turned mate-hungry. 

Moonlight streamed through a glass window, and she shuddered at the sight of the mating moon in ascension. If one of them caught her, she’d lose her waistline for good. She just knew it.

The Drake family had a penchant for breeding. Vampires were sterile, yet their father had not only impregnated their mother, he’d gotten the werewolf with child—children--when the two species were supposedly incompatible.

The rumble of a low snarl made the hair on the back of her neck stand on end, and she scrambled for the attic. Unfortunately, the door leading there was locked.

“Don’t run, Devon,” she heard Lachlan yell. “We’re not gonna hurt you.”

“I might,” Alistair roared. “Christ, Devon. My balls? What’s wrong with you?”

“With me?” she yelled back. “I came over for dinner, not to get knocked up by the Drake demons!”

She knew how much the name irritated them but couldn’t help it. She loved the idiots, but that didn’t mean she planned to settle down now. Devon had plans. And being tied down to one man didn’t signify, let alone being tied down to three. Maybe in another few years, after her business got off the ground and she’d played the field a bit, she might consider marriage. Maybe.

A low pop jolted her body, and she realized one of them had broken through her magical barrier. She heard the rush of claws against the hardwood floors. Footsteps drawing closer…

Hell.

Fae in, Fae out, take me to my fate without. Hold back naught, give what’s right, protect me from all harm tonight
. She concentrated on the attic and in seconds found herself in the large room space barricaded behind a magically reinforced door.

“Thank God.” Devon sighed and slumped to the floor in a heap of nerves. She closed her eyes and covered her face as she recovered from the energy drain of her spell.

Why her? Women loved the Drakes. The guys were huge, handsome, and powerful. One at a time could be overwhelming for a less confident girl, but all three at once? And for a Fae with business goals, furred and fanged wasn’t an option. Or so she kept telling herself.

She admitted she’d had a few harmless fantasies. Who wouldn’t? But she was almost family. They’d grown up together. She’d watched Lachlan learn how to ride a bike. Had helped Douglas learn to read Fae. And she’d been the only one Alistair had confided in when he’d first shifted and had accidentally eaten the family cat.

Hell, she—

The sudden silence dawned on her. As did the notion she was no longer alone. Cautiously easing off the floor, she glanced around. Three sets of glowing yellow eyes blazed at her from the darkness.

“Oh shit.”

Well, she’d done her best, but it hadn’t taken more than Alistair to hold her while the others stripped her naked.

Devon should have been embarrassed and would have been if she hadn’t been so mad.

“Let me go!”

“You are so fucking sexy.” Lachlan shook his head and licked his lips. “I’m really sorry we didn’t think of this sooner.”

“Me too,” Douglas agreed. “She’s so white she’s sparkly. I can’t believe it’s taken you two this long to see what I’ve known for years.”

Devon gasped. “Dammit. Alistair, cut it out.”

The brute kept pulling her back against him, and each time he did, she felt the swell of his erection through his jeans against her lower back. Instead of alarming her, his size made her wet.

She heard him inhale and thought her face might burn clean off.

“I’m not gonna last,” Alistair growled and leaned down to clamp his sharp teeth over her shoulder. He didn’t pierce the skin, but his hold remained firm and arousing as hell.

“Brush her hair back again,” Douglas said as he stood in front of her, arms akimbo, looking like a raiding conqueror.

“No, don’t,” she begged. God, if they knew how sensitive her ears had become, she’d be a goner for sure.

Alistair pulled her hair back and exposed the pointed tips.

Lachlan stripped out of his clothes in a hurry. “You smell good, Dev.”

She moaned, wishing more of it was from embarrassment than arousal.

“You really do.” Douglas winked and gave her a wicked grin. “You smell…wet.”

Alistair bit harder, and the press of his teeth against her unmarred flesh caused an answering flare of magic to draw him closer.