“Enough,” she croaked, trembling.
“It’s never enough, baby.” I got to my feet, slipped my arms underneath her thighs, and elevated her high. Then I dropped her hard on my cock, making her cry out. Fuck, the feel of her muscles pulsing around me was almost too much. “Is that what you wanted?” I ground out.
She groaned in assent and squirmed, tempting me to move. Keeping her legs balanced in the crook of my elbows, I slowly withdrew before slamming back inside, going deeper this time. But it wasn’t deep enough. “I want you to take it all, Sam.” Once more I slowly pulled out and then, with one smooth, fierce stroke, buried myself balls-deep inside her. “That’s it.” I flexed my hips, making sure I was as deep as I could get. Her face was scrunched up in either pleasure or pain, I couldn’t tell. “Too deep? Does it hurt?”
She nodded. “But not in a bad way.”
“Good because I need to be deep inside you right now.” I needed to know, feel, that she was okay.
“Good because I need you there.”
I hitched in a breath. It wasn’t often that Sam ever claimed to need anything. “I’m here. And I’m going to f**k you hard. So hard. And you’re going to love it. And you’re going to explode all over my c**k and wring me dry.” Then I was mercilessly punching my c**k in and out of her. Her irises were glowing mercury with arousal – so f**king beautiful.
She grappled at the wall for purchase, and tried arching into my thrusts, but I had her pinned exactly as I wanted her. There was only one other thing I wanted. I bit into the juncture of her neck and shoulder, groaning as her blood flowed onto my tongue. The syrupy punch to it was too damn good. I drank deep as I pounded into her, groaning again when I felt her teeth sink into my shoulder. Fuck. My pace became frantic, violent, as she completely overwhelmed every one of my senses. “Come, Sam,” I ordered roughly. “Milk me.” She screamed around my shoulder as she came; her muscles tightened and rippled around my cock, wringing every last drop of come out of me, like her body was determined to have it all.
It was a few minutes before I could speak again. “Shit, I needed that.”
Panting, she breathed, “Me as well.”
As I dried her body with a towel, she remained pliant against me. I couldn’t help but smile since Sam being pliant wasn’t a regular occurrence. She was still limp as a noodle when I positioned her on the bed and came to rest next to her, my head propped on my hand. “You okay?”
Her eyes fluttered open. They were pleasure-drunk but also…baffled. “You really would do anything for me, wouldn’t you?”
“You’re only beginning to realise this now?” I gently ran my finger from the hollow of her throat down between her br**sts and further down to circle her belly button. “You should already know that.” My hand splayed possessively over her stomach. “You should feel it here. In your gut.”
“I really didn’t think that you would bring Paige here. Not when it was possible that it would bring trouble to The Hollow and everyone here.”
She thought that I’d ever let her die for any reason? I shook my head, gazing at her with mock sympathy. “I love this place, and I care about some of the people in it, and I consider it my responsibility to keep everyone who resides here safe. But you come before everything and everyone.”
Her brow furrowed as her expression suddenly turned vulnerable. I knew why it was so hard for her to comprehend. No one had ever put Sam first. Not her parents, who had been more interested in running the family business than caring for her. Not her Sire, who had killed someone she cared for and then used her in every sense of the word. Not her nest, who had stood by and watched as she was used that way. Granted, many of them feared Victor and a few of them had tried to help her, but it hadn’t been enough. So even though she could feel how important she was to me, she still couldn’t understand it. She didn’t realise what lengths I’d go to in order to keep her or to protect her.
She snuggled into me and pressed a soft kiss to my chest. “I really am sorry that I put your life in danger.”
I cupped her face, brushing the pad of my thumb along her cheekbone. “Baby, you don’t need to apologise for that. You did your job; you looked out for our squad. I was never angry that my life was threatened. I was only angry that something had happened to you. It wasn’t your fault – I shouldn’t have blamed you.”
“But you could have died.” Her voice was low, pained.
“I was more worried about you.” Confusion flashed across her face. See? She just couldn’t quite grasp that someone would put her first, that they would find her so vital and necessary to them. Making a mental note to try to tell her I loved her more often, I kissed her mouth softly. “Sleep, baby. You’re exhausted.”
“Only if you don’t let me sleep too long. We need to make sure that Evan has the chance to speak to Alora before she leaves.”
“I’ll wake you up in a couple of hours.”
She closed her eyes. “Stay here with me.”
Her plea squeezed my chest. As much as she had tried to hide it, she had been terrified when she’d been bitten – more terrified for me than for herself. I knew from experience that coming extremely close to death had a way of making you realise just exactly how much you had to lose, just exactly what was important and just how important it truly was. It could shake you and your equilibrium in a way that not much else could. And she was shaken. I rested my head on the pillow and practically enveloped her body with mine. “I’ll be right here.”
She drifted to sleep with a smile on her face, and – just like I’d done the time she’d been unconscious after killing her Sire – I stayed where I was and watched her sleep.
Chapter Twelve
(Jared)
When I arrived at the infirmary a few hours later, it was to find that it was empty apart from a still unconscious Evan and Mary Jane. She explained that Max and Stuart had already woken over an hour ago and had gone to their apartments to wash and change. A little worried that Evan hadn’t yet woken, I settled on the chair beside his bed, intending to wait until he did. Mary Jane wanted to linger so she could tend to him when he woke – purely because she liked to fuss over people. But as I knew I’d need to speak to Evan privately, I asked her to leave. Besides, he was healed now, so her help was no longer required.