tongues tangle together and enjoyed how nothing else mattered. I was still wrapped in his magic, that magic that could make any creature crave his bite, but in particular it spoke to me. Because he was right. I was truly a companion like my mother, and somehow that gave me strength. For so long I’d worried that I was nothing now that my magic was contained, that I had nothing special about me. Marcus’s bite had told me I still had a connection to my parents. They had given me form, and also that unique spark my mother had.
Hope, I was finding, did wonders for my libido.
I let my hands roam from his waist up to his shoulders, loving the feel of strong muscles under my palms. I wanted out of my clothes so I could be skin to skin with this male. I wanted my breasts to brush against his chest, our legs tangled together.
Marcus kissed me again and then took a deep breath. “We should get back.”
I stared at him for a moment because I wasn’t sure exactly what he was saying. I was ready. I didn’t mind the woods. I wasn’t picky.
He took a step back and reached down for his shirt.
“Get back where?”
He shook out the shirt as though trying to get rid of wrinkles that were never going to come out until someone took an iron to them. “Get back to Kelsey and Devinshea. We need to find a way to the Earth plane. I don’t want to go too far from the door, but I’m worried about the wights. Do they stay in the fields or should we expect them to come into the forest? It will be dark soon. We have decisions to make and because of your sacrifice I can think clearly now. I thank you, bella.”
He was thanking me? “I kind of thought we weren’t done here.”
He shrugged into his shirt with a shiver. “I have waited two thousand years for you, Summer. I’m not shoving you up against a tree.”
“But there are so many of them.” We could do this thing pretty quick. We didn’t need some super-pretty room to do the deed, as Dean’s vampire friends would say.
His lips curled up and I noticed his eyes were normal again. “When we get back to the Earth plane, I will show you all the luxury and comfort you should expect from your lover. I’ll take you to my home in Venice and we won’t leave the bedroom for weeks. We’ll make love and I’ll bring in the best chefs in the world to feed you. I’ll spoil you rotten, bella.”
I didn’t want to be spoiled rotten. “I told you I would be your companion while we’re here. On this plane.”
“Then I’ll have to try harder when we get home.” He stepped up to me, looking down with warmth in his eyes. He cupped my face in his hands. “I don’t want to start this wrong. I know this is a purely transactional relationship for you, but it is everything to me. If this is all the time I get with you, I want it to be perfect. Besides, perhaps if I withhold my body from you, you might be more amenable to staying with me when we get home.”
Maybe he hadn’t felt the same things I had. Now that he’d been fed, he didn’t seem to want me anymore.
His jaw tightened and he dragged me against his body. “Don’t even think that way.”
I growled up at him. “Stay out of my head.”
“Then don’t shout your every emotion my way,” he growled back. “I want you. I want you so much I can’t think of anything else, but you don’t want me that way. You need time to come to care for me. I intend to give you that time. I want you to understand I am not that man I see in your head. What is his name? Is he a vampire? Is that why you’re so skittish around me?”
I didn’t want to talk about Turi, but if Marcus was sticking around, it would almost inevitably come up. “He’s from another plane. They’re much like humans though physically stronger. They have some magic. It’s a type of blood magic. I think the word you would use for them is barbarian. I say he’s the leader, but conqueror would be a more accurate word.” If he wasn’t going to make love to me then we should get moving. I drew in