Melonee Bracs Mistletoe Madness 30 (3 page)

He still hadn’t figured out how to get around her family, though— or more to the point, the alpha who was the bane of Ruttford’s existence. There was only so much patience he had, and Ruttford was finally at the end of his rope with waiting. Tonight, under the clear skies and thousand stars, he was going to ask Melonee to come home with him. He just prayed she agreed.

Ruttford understood family loyalties. He honestly did, but he knew they were never going to get Maverick’s blessing, so to hell with it. He was tired of waiting, tired of longing, and damn tired of being without his mate.

Okay, so he understood Maverick’s gripe. He did, after all, cause a lot of havoc in that house, but that was before he knew the woman of his dreams lived there. Had he known…yeah, he probably still would have been a shit, but he wouldn’t have gotten caught.

Stilling in aggravation, Ruttford felt his brother Fire before he appeared, leaning against a tree, a smug smile on his face.
“What are you doing here?” Ruttford asked as his eyes swept over the area, looking for Melonee.
“I just wanted to meet your mate,” Fire replied. “It isn’t like you to hide someone from the family. It made me very curious.”
This coming from a man who had women and men alike flocking to his bed. The tall, dark, and handsome elf had never hid the fact that he could get any person he wanted. If Melonee wasn’t Ruttford’s mate, he would have been worried about Fire being here.
It still made him on edge, though. Even if Melonee didn’t find Fire attractive, his brother would work his charms until he had her eating out of the palm of his hand. Fire was nothing but a big old slut, and there was no way he was allowing his brother anywhere near Melonee. “If I wanted you to meet her, you would have by now.”
Fire laughed and the sound grated on Ruttford’s nerves. “Is she that displeasing to the eyes that you felt you need to keep her hidden?”
Ruttford was ready to deck his brother, but ignored him instead. Fire was just trying to rile him. But it wasn’t going to work because Ruttford had other things on his mind tonight. Like how he was going to convince his mate to leave her family and come live with him.
“I thought you were going out tonight?” Ruttford asked irritably. “Why are you really here?”
Fire crossed his arms over his chest and shrugged. “I really do want to meet your mate.”
“Well,” he said as he turned his back, “I don’t want you here.”
“Be careful, Ruttford, or you just might hurt my feelings.”
If that were possible. Fire only had one feeling, and that was horny. That was the only mode the man seemed to operate in, and Ruttford didn’t want him anywhere near Melonee. She was a beautiful woman who made his heart beat faster and slower at the same time. He loved her that deeply. She was the only one that made him feel that way every time he laid eyes on her. Although he hadn’t spent that much time around her, Ruttford was enamored. She had the biggest blue eyes he had ever seen and thick, mahogany-brown hair that begged a man to wrap his hands in the lush strands and pet her like a kitten.
And he wasn’t going to let Fire ruin this for him.
“Don’t you have someone you can go charm into your bed, like one of Nick’s reindeer?” Ruttford shot petulantly at his brother.
“Very funny,” Fire replied, unfazed at Ruttford’s insult. “Nope, I’m all yours tonight.”
Ruttford turned toward his brother and studied the man. It wasn’t like Fire to be so adamant about sticking around Ruttford. They were brothers, but it was no secret that they weren’t close. “What aren’t you telling me?”
When Fire shifted from one foot to the other, Ruttford felt the anger race toward the surface. “You’re using me to hide your scent!”
“Am not,” Fire denied, but the way his eyes flickered from Ruttford told him the man was lying through his teeth.
“You owe those damn bookies again, don’t you!” Not only did Fire have a penchant for sex, but gambling as well. The last time his brother owed those Shadow elves, the man had nearly been killed. He had sworn to their parents that he was done with gambling, but Ruttford knew his brother. “How much, Fire?”
“I’m not running from the bookies,” Fire snapped as he pushed away from the tree. “Why do you automatically assume the worst, Ruttford? Just because I want to meet your mate I’m up to no good?”
“Sounds about right,” Ruttford said. “How much do you owe them, Fire?”
“You know what, screw you!” Fire shimmered out, leaving Ruttford standing there fuming. He would have felt bad if it weren’t for the fact he knew he was right.
Tired of waiting, Ruttford shimmered to Melonee’s backyard. He knew how to get in undetected, but Ruttford had been trying his best to behave and not piss Maverick off any more than he had. He had tried to teach Melonee how to shimmer undetected, but his sweet little mate was finding the lesson difficult. She had tried numerous times, only to set off the house alarm and make Ruttford quickly vanish before his balls were snipped.
But after dealing with Fire, Ruttford wanted to know what was keeping his mate from meeting him. He had promised to help her shield her shimmering when she was ready to come to him, but she hadn’t called him yet.
He wanted to know why. Using the darkness to shroud his appearance, Ruttford glanced inside the kitchen. He spotted Lewis and Taylor right away. They were standing over by the counter talking to one another.
Ruttford liked Taylor. The half demon had covered for Melonee many times for them. It bothered the hell out of him that he had to cover his mate leaving with him. She was a grown woman, his mate, and he had every right to be with her.
But again, Melonee wasn’t ready to defy her dad and truly be with him.
A part of him was saddened by that thought, but Ruttford knew he would do whatever it took to be with her. She was too sweet and innocent to defy Maverick, something Ruttford wasn’t going to hold against her.
His breath caught when he saw her entering the kitchen. God, she was so damn beautiful. It was like looking into the gates of heaven yet being denied entrance. His arms ached to wrap around her and pull her to his body, to kiss the softness of her neck and nibble at the soft shell of her ear.
It took everything in him to stay rooted to the spot and not storm into the kitchen, taking what was rightfully his. Ruttford should be dubbed saint of the year for the patience he exhibited when it came to holding back.
He smiled when he saw her smile. It did his heart good to know she was happy. That was all he wanted for her, to be happy.
That was why he was waiting until she was ready to leave instead of dragging her away from her family and claiming her for his own.
Frowning, Ruttford wondered who Melonee kept stealing glances toward. It looked as if she were trying not to get caught, which piqued his curiosity. Moving to his right, Ruttford peered into the kitchen, further to the left, and spotted a stranger standing there, gazing at Melonee as if she were his to openly ogle.
“What the fuck?” Ruttford murmured to himself. He scratched at his jaw, glancing between the two and knowing for damn sure they were eyeing one another. Red-hot anger settled in his chest as his hands clenched into fists at his sides.
His mate was checking out another man? Had she lost her damn mind? Ruttford was ready to gut the man on the spot for even looking her way. Pulling his cell phone from his pocket, he keyed in Melonee’s number and waited while it rang. He watched her pull her phone from her back pocket, check the number, and then glance around before hurrying from the kitchen.
“Hello?”
“Hello, beautiful. Did you forget we were supposed to meet tonight?” he asked, keeping his tone even, not giving away the fact that he had seen the hungry glances they had exchanged in the kitchen. He wanted an explanation before he locked her in his bedroom for the rest of her life and killed the bastard standing in the kitchen.
He could feel the hesitation on the other end of the phone, and he wanted to curse and beg her to come outside and see him at the same time. There should be no other man who pulled at her attention.
“I haven’t forgotten,” she whispered into the phone. Ruttford hung onto her voice, letting it soothe a part of him that was about to go all barbaric on her. It helped him rein in his anger and give a small smile.
“Then what is the delay? I told you I would shield you from leaving so no one would know.” He peeked at the stranger in the kitchen and saw that the guy was glancing toward the door where Melonee had walked out of. His fingers curled around the phone tighter, damn near cracking the casing. “Are you ready?”
“Hang on, let me go to my room and lock my door first.”
Ruttford blew out a breath. He would get to the bottom of the stranger, but for now, he shimmered back to the tree he had been waiting at so she wouldn’t know he had been spying on her.
“Okay, I’m ready.”
Since Maverick had the house protected by god only knew what, it made it a lot harder for Ruttford to use his fey magic, but he closed his eyes, pushing his energy into her as he felt her shimmer.
Shoving his phone into his back pocket, Ruttford enveloped her into his arms as soon as she finished appearing in front of him. He pressed his face to her hair, inhaling her scent, and knew he would do anything to keep her with him.
“You miss me?” she asked with a small laugh as he smoothed his hands up and down her back.
“More than you know.” He kissed her temple and then pulled back, staring down into her beautiful upturned face. “What do you want to do tonight?” Her body felt good pressed to his, his chest rising and falling a little faster. It always did when they were this close, but Ruttford had yet to claim her.
She wasn’t ready, and he wasn’t going to rush her into something that was very intimate and special among their people. He may be a different type of fey, but the bond was something cherished by all their kind.
But that didn’t stop him from petting, nuzzling, and kissing her. Ruttford trailed his lips up her neck, enjoying the feel of her sweet skin beneath his lips as he glided his hands up her sides and then back down again.
“You make it hard to think when you do that,” she confessed as she tilted her head to the side, giving him more room for play. He smiled into her skin as his hands moved to her back, pulling her closer, pressing her small breasts to his chest. What he wouldn’t give to have her naked while he explored every inch of her innocent body.
“Do I?” he teased as he nipped her chin.
She shuddered and nodded as Ruttford grabbed a handful of hair and gave it a light tug, his cock thickening when she moaned. The woman had no idea how much restraint he was using tonight— especially after witnessing her in the kitchen with the stranger. An overwhelming urge to claim her so everyone knew she belonged to him had him pressing her back to the tree, taking her lips in a controlled, tender kiss.
She melted against him, surrendering into his arms as he took a chance and pressed his thigh between her legs. Melonee gasped, breaking the kiss and staring up at him with her trusting blue eyes.
“Ruttford, I—”
Ruttford stole her protest with a gentle nip to her lower lip. “We aren’t going to do anything, beautiful. I just like feeling you against me.” Which was true, but god how he wanted to do so much more.
Tentatively, she snaked her arms around his neck, pulling closer.
“That’s my girl,” he said as he bent to kiss her neck. His hands wandered down to her waist, gripping it as he pulled her even closer, knowing damn well what the friction would do to her.
He was out to give her a pleasure he knew she had never experienced before. Ruttford was using any means necessary to remind her that she belonged to him, not some stranger who had given her heated glances. He’d be damned if his mate strayed. Showing her the pleasures he could unleash inside her body was one way to ensure she didn’t forget about him.
Taking her lips again, Ruttford began a slow dance of pulling her up and down his thigh. He kept it pressed firmly between her legs as her arms tightened around him, her breathing becoming ragged.
He drank her moans as he swept his tongue into her warm, moist mouth. It was the sweetest sound he had ever heard. She didn’t hesitate, didn’t shy away from him as he pressed her harder into the tree, devouring her as he helped her ride the wave of sensual erotic pleasure.
“Ruttford,” Melonee said in a desperate tone. “What—”
“Relax, beautiful.” Ruttford wrapped one arm around her body, holding her tight. The other he used to pull at her hair as she took over writhing against his leg. “That’s right, baby. Take what you need from me.”
Melonee arched her back, Ruttford holding on tighter as she splintered in his arms. He had never seen a more breathtaking sight in his life. She ground her pussy on this thigh, crying out his name as she came. He was so fucking hard it was killing him not to take her, but he knew this was as far as they would go tonight.
But that didn’t stop him from petting her through her orgasm. She shuddered, her eyes fluttering open and a pretty shade of pink coloring her cheeks.
He smiled, kissing her jaw as she relaxed in his arms.
“Feel better?” He nuzzled into her neck and then licked his way up to her ear. She was fey, so her pointy little ears would be ultrasensitive right now. He was right when she moaned once more.
He could eat her up when she was like this, all putty and sated in his arms. It only made the anticipation of having her naked and claiming her all the more sweet.
“I have to go home,” she murmured as he nipped her ear.
“No,” he said as he tightened his arms around her. “You have to stay with me, Melonee. Don’t you think it’s time, beautiful?”
She leaned back, the unfocused glaze still riding her blue irises. “Soon, Ruttford, I promise.”
He stole another kiss before setting her on her unsteady feet. Leaning into her, Melonee had no choice but to lean back into the tree. With his thumb, he lifted her chin to look him in his eyes. “I’ll give you five days, precious. When those five days are up, I’m taking what is mine.”

Adam glanced at the kitchen door once more, but he didn’t see the stunning woman return. He wasn’t sure what it was about her—aside from the obvious beauty she possessed—that made him continue to search for her to come back.

“So, Adam,” Lewis began, “tell me what you’ve been up to all these years.”
He tore his eyes from the door as he shrugged his shoulders. “Mainly corporate work overseas.”
“That’s pretty vague,” Lewis commented with a small chuckle.
There was no way he could tell the man he assisted companies in hostile takeovers. He didn’t want to tip his hand about his presence in Brac Village. Not until he had Vincent’s report and found out why Les had sent him such incomplete files. “It’s all legal mumbo jumbo.” Not truly a lie.
“How long do you plan on staying in town?” Lewis asked as he set his mug down and turned toward Adam.
“A few weeks at most.” He needed to change the subject before his old schoolmate asked him why he was here. “So,” he began, waving his arm at the large kitchen, “you live here, huh?”
“Fancy, isn’t it?” Lewis asked with a smile. “But I don’t own the place. My boyfriend and I rent a room here.”
Adam stood there stunned into silence for a moment. The world he lived in, moved around in, discouraged openly gay relationships. It took him by surprise to hear Lewis admit it so freely. He wasn’t used to that. Adam was used to everything pertaining to gay men being hidden behind closed doors, only whispered about, and meetings to be with another man made in secret.
“Close your mouth, Adam,” Lewis said. “Yes, I’m gay.”
Adam quickly closed his mouth, feeling the embarrassment flush across his face. “I didn’t mean to offend you. I’m just not used to hearing anyone openly admit it.”
“No offense taken. Would you like a tour?”
That would help him with his research. It was filled with holes this place could fill in. “Sure.”
Lewis waved for Adam to follow as they strode from the kitchen. Not only did Adam pay attention to the grand home he was being toured through, but he kept an eye out for Melonee as well.
As he walked through the corridors with Lewis, Adam was stunned at how richly decorated the place was. This was not a home of someone who was destitute and looking to sell. The marble floors in the foyer alone must have cost a cool mint, not to mention the rich varnished wood of the staircase and walls.
“Who owns this home?” he asked.
“Maverick Brac,” Lewis replied. “But he has plenty of family staying here.”
Adam stopped walking when a toddler ran from one of the bedrooms, streaking down the hallway wearing nothing but a smile as he laughed.
“Come back here, Nevada!” A very large, bald headed man chased after the babe, grabbing him up into his arms. “You’re taking a bath whether you want to or not.”
Adam was amazed at how gentle the giant was with the small child. He groused at the toddler, but his eyes sparkled with amusement.
“That’s Montana and his son Nevada,” Lewis informed him.
Adam nodded and then began to walk as Lewis showed him the many hallways in the place. Just how many bedrooms did this home have, and how many were filled with people?
Adam slammed his back into the wall, his arms spread wide and locking every muscle into place when a fucking tiger pranced around the corner. He wasn’t sure he was seeing things correctly. Was that really a tiger heading toward them? Just what in the hell was going on in this house?
“Relax, Adam. Keata is harmless.”
Adam wasn’t willing to take Lewis at his word. He had never been this close to an exotic animal before, and he wasn’t willing to get any closer. “Can you put him in a room?” he asked, hating to sound like such a wuss, but damn, that was a tiger.
A real live tiger.
“Go find Cody,” Lewis said to the animal as he leaned down and rubbed behind the tiger’s ear. “Go on.”
The tiger stared at him a moment, as if studying him, and then did as Lewis asked. Adam wasn’t so sure he wanted to finish his tour. “Any more surprises?”
“Nope,” Lewis answered and then added, “just a shitload of troublemakers and a handful of babies.”
Adam was ready to tell Lewis he was done touring and ready to leave when he spotted Melonee heading down the hallway toward them. Now that exotic beauty could get as close as she wanted to. There was just something about her that was making Adam’s blood run hot and his imagination run wild. All that long, luscious hair was driving him mad—not to mention the killer-ass body she had.
“I wouldn’t continue to ogle my niece if I were you,” Lewis said, making Adam tear his eyes away from her to look at the man. “She isn’t on the sightseeing tour.”
The warning was loud and clear. Back the fuck off or see a side of Lewis he had never seen before.
Fair enough.
But it wasn’t easy. He could actually feel her moving toward him.
“Giving a tour?” Melonee asked, her voice so damn hypnotic that Adam had to force himself not to openly stare at her. What the hell was wrong with him? No woman had ever affected him like this before, and he had been around the world. He was normally more in control and didn’t act like a horny teenager out to score.
But damn if she wasn’t making his senses go wild.
“We were just finishing up,” Lewis said. Adam could hear the undertone of irritation. He hadn’t meant to be rude but it seemed Melonee was affecting him in ways he had never encountered before.
“Yeah, it’s getting late,” Adam replied as he turned and began to head back toward the foyer. He had enough for now to update his files. He was here to buy this town and tear it down. That thought needed to stay in the forefront of his mind. It didn’t matter how beautiful Melonee Brac was or how much she affected him. Adam was not here to reminisce or meet new people.
He was here for one single purpose, and it would do him good to remember that. Adam mentally chastised himself for letting someone get to him the way Melonee seemed to be doing. He wasn’t weak and he wasn’t one to let his hormones rule him.
As he reached the front door, Adam turned to shake Lewis’s hand, ready to get the hell out of there. “It was good seeing you again.”
The irritation was gone, and the man gave him a ready smile. “It was good, Adam. Maybe we’ll run into each other in town.”
Adam let himself out before he gave in to the urge to look at the top of the steps. He could feel Melonee standing up there, staring down at him, and he was hard-pressed not to look. Stepping back out into the cold, Adam used the cool air to clear his mind as he headed toward his car.
Every warning bell in his head was going off, telling him that something strange was going on in that house. But Adam wasn’t here to figure out who everyone was. He was here to buy everyone out and hand the contracts over to Kenyon Corporation.