AllFreeNovel
Share Us
"I haven't done this. Not in so long."
"What's that?" He could follow the words in her mind, like subtitles on the screen, and he thought her voice sounded like velvet. His pleasure about that hummed through her blood. God, she loved them being in one another's minds. She hadn't realized how alone she'd been all these years. Yet she knew what a miracle this was. This place, this male. It wouldn't have worked if Garron had been a different kind of Master or man.
"Simply enjoyed a lover. Being with him. Talking as if there was all the time in the world, as if time has stopped, just so we could spin this out and enjoy it forever. There's a magic feeling to it, like floating in clouds. I had it for such a short time, and it was so long ago, I shouldn't remember it, but being with you, it seems so vivid."
"I'm sorry you lost him, Kaela. And the life you planned together."
Her chin dipped, her eyes coming back to him. Her hands moved from his shoulders to his face, the scars. "I'm sorry for the losses you have suffered in your life, Garron Rand. And the pain that made you take refuge here so you could heal. Have you healed?" she asked softly.
She could tell it surprised him that she'd figured Eden was a haven for him. But it shouldn't. Intuition, being two steps ahead of everyone around her, was part of what had kept her alive. Him as well, she expected.
"Yeah," he said briefly. "You can slide into hell so fast. The trip back is a long road on foot. That's the only way out of it, though."
She nodded. "And every footprint can be marked with blood and tears, such that you feel like there's a trail following you wherever you go from there, ready to pull you back. I'm glad we both found our way."
SS
That was all that needed to be said. It was more than the mind-to-mind connection that made that possible, but God above, it sure helped. Garron had never felt such a comfortable silence with a woman. It was like sitting by a river of their entangled thoughts and memories, watching them flow by as they sat on the bank, hand in hand. Or as they stood among them, as they stood together in the water now.
"So going back to that third mark thing," he said casually, "you just release some chemical inside me, like the first and second one, only I have to take some of your blood as well. Isn't that the way it works?"
Her gaze came back to him, and he saw her weighing it in her mind. Could she do something as forbidden as fully mark a servant who wouldn't be part of her life after these ten days? The thunder of need rising in her mind like primal drums, just from him bringing up the topic, told her yes. Yes, she could. Her fingers curved into claws on his chest, into the muscle.
"It's temporary, my lady. You can trust that. I asked Vardalos when I called him. He said it works on the same premise as the second mark."
He saw her flash of regret over the word "temporary", quickly quelled by her rational nature. He schooled his expression to neutrality, hoping she didn't catch any nuances from his mind that told her just how much he wanted it to be permanent, too.
"How does Theodosius know all this?"
"I've learned not to question his sources. He only lets you know what he wants you to know anyway. But he's never told me anything that's not true. He doesn't bullshit. If he's not sure of something, he'll tell you that. He was sure of this."
"Yes, you also take some of my blood," she said at last. "Before or after, it doesn't matter. Some feel taking it before helps guide the serum, like a marker."
"How would you prefer it done, my lady?"
Her eyes grew more luminous, her mouth fuller as her lips parted. He felt her thighs press harder into his hips, her fingers grip his shoulders. "Are you sure that..."
"I'm sure."
She might have been asking once more if he was sure the third mark would only be temporary, part of the island's magic. Or she might have been asking if he was sure he was okay with the binding of that third mark. Either way, the answer was the same. Yes.
"I would prefer my Master choose how he wants it done."
"I've been wanting to take a healthy bite out of you since you got off the plane," he said with a feral grin, and got an answering spark out of her gaze.
"That would have made the porters' mouths drop open for sure."
"They can mind their own damn business."
A good Master did his homework, prepared as much as he could for what his sub would need, and this was no exception. When Vardalos had told him how the final mark was done, Garron knew if the issue came up, he wanted to do it without stumbling, without gnawing on her like a dog on a rawhide. So though he was sure she'd laugh if she saw it in his mind, he'd used an orange, the theory of it the same as for medics who practiced injections, because it replicated human skin the best. While biting through the rind was a bitter experience, doing so now with his lady was going to be anything but.
He wrapped his hand around her hair in that way that engaged her attention instantly, his other arm banding around her waist to hold her fast. His cock was already hardening against the soft give of her pussy beneath the thin suit. "Last time I did this, I got thrown into a mirror. Good thing I'm in the water this time."
She gave him a haughty look. "The circumstances were different. For one thing you were trying to make me attack you. Plus you didn't break the skin."
He stroked his thumb along her pulsing artery. "So is my lady saying she'd welcome me being even rougher with her this time?"
Her pulse fluttered, all the answer to that he needed. He yanked her head back and struck.
He bit through her flesh to the artery, the taste of her blood telling him he'd done well. That and the extra bite of her nails, the gasp, her involuntary movement on him. While a mortal woman might have been alarmed to have someone take a healthy bite out of her carotid, a vampire took it as an erotic overture. One of those lovely moans slipped from her lips as her hips moved in invitation against his cock. Yeah. He wanted that, too. He wanted everything she had.
As he took her blood, surprised at how enticing the flavor was, he reached between them and slid two questing fingers beneath the crotch of the swimsuit. Though the water didn't provide a natural lubricant, once past the outer labia, he stroked and found her natural slickness waiting for him. She clutched down on him hard.
That's it, my lady. Make me your Master in all ways.
She gripped his head, telling him to pull back, that he'd taken enough. He began to lick the spot on her neck, providing the pressure needed to staunch the flow, if vampires clotted like humans did. Her hands cupped his bare skull, petted him as she rose and fell on his fingers, making him want to replace his fingers with his cock. If it had been a natural lagoon in the middle of a jungle, he would have rutted upon her on the banks until they were both covered with grass and mud, smelling of blood and earth. But he was just as good with manicured grass and a concrete lip. Whatever got him inside her sooner rather than later.
He brought his hand to her face, and she turned her mouth against the heel of his hand, then dipped lower. He saw the flash of her fangs, and she bit into his wrist, sending a swirl of fire through it, along with something else. Something that ratcheted up his desire tenfold, not that he needed any help with that when it came to her. Unlike those burning second and first marks, the pain this time was intense but irrelevant. He tore away the bottoms, pushed his own suit out of the way, and sheathed himself inside her in one brutal stroke that wrested a cry from her lips, even sealed over his flesh.
Cleansing fire, painful and yet fulfilling at once. He backed her up to the zero entry slope of the lagoon so he could lay her down, her head just above the water, and began to hammer his hips against her spread thighs. He kept her pinned there, his hands on her waist, making her take everything he was giving. She'd broken free of the hold on his wrist, the task done. He glimpsed a flash of ethereal blue on her fangs, a drop of it falling into the water and expanding like a tiny, fragile spider. That must be the third mark serum. In the real world, it would bind them together irrevocably. Here, it gave them enoug
h of a taste of the possibilities he only wanted to demand more.
Putting a hand flat on her chest, he pushed her back as he straightened over her, keeping her in place as he worked her relentlessly. It was then that he felt it--the third mark taking hold.
