Bound by the Night (Bound #4)(19)
Author: Cynthia Eden

“I want this.” Demanding, not asking.

As if he’d deny her anything.

Then her mouth closed around the tip of his cock, and Jamie’s knees locked. Sweet f**king hell. Her tongue rasped over him. She took him in deeper as she sucked his flesh. The low moan that Iona gave vibrated along his c**k and had him nearly exploding in her mouth.

I made a promise. One he wouldn’t forget, even if the woman was trying to make him go blind from pleasure.

He pulled back from her.

She glanced up, her eyes molten. “Jamie!”

He liked her demanding. He lifted her into his arms. He’d like her even more when she gave him a chance to taste her.

She kissed him while he carried her out of the bathroom. She licked his lips. Then she moved to his neck. When her fangs slid into his skin, his arms tightened around her.

Can’t. Come. Yet.

He had to be inside her before he came, and she—she had to be on her second orgasm by then.

Promises, promises…Now he recognized her words for the taunt they were. Iona wanted him to break. He wouldn’t, maybe.

He put her on the bed. Hated to move away from her mouth—he loved her bite—but there was a part of her that he’d been dying to taste. Would she taste as good there? Yes. He already knew she would.

His hands trailed over her body. Over the soft swell of her stomach. He pressed a kiss there. Then, down, sliding into the silken heat of her sex.

Her legs parted for him. Not far enough. He moved between those sexy legs and opened her even wider.

So f**king perfect.

Jamie put his mouth on her. Tasted her secrets and drove his tongue into her sex. She bucked beneath him, and he grabbed her hips, keeping her just where he needed her to be.

Right beneath his mouth.

Her hands slid over his shoulders. “Jamie?”

He licked her.

And felt her come. One…the start.

He kept tasting and licking and her moans filled his ears even as the beast roared inside him. Her pleasure was sweet on his tongue, but it wasn’t enough. He needed so much more.

When had she become so important to him? When had she become…

Everything.

He’d been so desperate to get to LA. To get to her. If she’d been killed…

Jamie’s hands tore away from her hips just as his claws burst from his fingertips. The claws sliced into the sheets, the mattress.

He heard her gasp. and he tried to yank back the beast. “Won’t…hurt…”

His head lifted. He met her stare. Saw his whole world reflected back in that gold.

Claim. An instinct bred into the wolf. When you saw what you wanted, you took it.

An alpha’s right. He’d never wanted another this way.

Take.

He pushed his c**k into her body. Drove deep and hard and the pure f**king bliss of her had his back teeth grinding together.

Then the animal inside took over. Lust was a frenzy, need a desperation within him. He plunged into her, thrusting again and again, but he couldn’t seem to get deep enough, couldn’t feel her close enough.

He pulled away from her. Turned Iona so that she was on her stomach. Would she—

She rose to her knees. “Ready for more?” Iona asked him, tossing that shining mane over her shoulder.

He was beyond speech right then. His mouth closed around the curve of her shoulder. A kiss at first, but then, because this was the spot that would mark a claiming…

He bit her, even as he thrust into her sex. The pleasure hit them both, sweeping through them, between them, consuming in a white-hot explosion that left him hollowed out, and yet, for the first time in his whole life also feeling…

Whole.

As if he’d found something that had always been missing.

Her.

Jamie pressed a kiss to the faint wound he’d left on Iona’s shoulder. The mark of a werewolf claiming. There would be no going back from this, and he wondered just what Iona would do now.

Hopefully, she wouldn’t try to kill him.

Her arms curled around him. “I don’t want to sleep,” she whispered but her words were husky, and he knew that sleep pulled desperately at her.

It pulled at him, too. “I’ll stay with you.”

Her head tilted back. She stared up at him with eyes so deep and mysterious. “I’m afraid.”

He knew the admission had been hard. For her, hard was probably one serious understatement.

His arms tightened around her. “It’s okay. I swear, I won’t let anything happen to you.”

The last time, she’d slept for fifteen years.

He inhaled her scent. Realized that she already felt like she was a part of him. “I’ll keep you safe.”

But Iona gave a sad shake of her head. “It’s not the sleep I fear.” Her hand slid over his chest. “It’s the dreams. What I’ll…see.”

Because of the blood she’d taken from him. Jamie carefully held his expression, hoping to show only concern for her and not the fear and anger that were suddenly clawing inside of him. Just yesterday, he’d planned to keep her from sleeping. Planned to stop her from using their blood link so she wouldn’t see his secrets in her dreams.

But now I want her to know me. Pity his memories weren’t the stuff of white knights. Hell, Iona had probably met real freaking knights in her life.

And she’d battled monsters. Like me.

“I don’t want to find out…you’re as much of a monster as Latham…” Her voice whispered away as her lashes began to sag. Her slurred words were a painful echo of his own thoughts.

His eyes squeezed shut. Jamie leaned over to press a kiss to her the tumble of her hair. “I’m sorry.” Because he knew exactly what Iona would see in her dreams.

And he knew that she’d want him dead.

But she deserved to know. He couldn’t keep secrets from her anymore.

Even if the truth she learned made her go for his throat.

Chapter Six

The bodies were broken. Twisted.

Jagged wounds—claw marks—had ripped into the woman’s neck. Her blond hair was matted with her blood.

A man’s body rested beside her, his hands still reaching for her even in death. The heavy scent of silver burned in the air.

“Why?” The cry was torn from her…only when she glanced down, Iona wasn’t staring at her own body.

No, when she glanced down, she saw Jamie’s strong hands. Jamie’s body.

Because this was Jamie’s memory.

Part of her wanted to wake up, but once the blood memories came, there was no stopping them. This was the way the memories always came for her. She relived the memories, the moments, until the blood pushed her free. So she watched, through Jamie’s eyes, as he fell before the people that she knew were his parents. Those memories were there, too, inside of her and—