to overwhelm you though,” he admitted. “Wanting you is a part of me now, Beautiful. You’re my lady.”
“Stop,” I pleaded with them. “I can’t be your mate,” I told Maddox, and tried desperately to ignore the flash of hurt in his eyes. “Or your lady, or Rogue’s…whatever it is. I can’t.”
“Okay,” Fin said slowly, folding his arms. “I’ll bite, Beautiful. What’s the problem?”
I huffed out a breath and tried to pull away from Maddox. To my surprise, he allowed the retreat. Not looking the gift dragon too closely in the mouth, I rose, then paced away, not far, just enough to get some air around me that didn’t hum and crackle with their power.
Or need.
Or the fact that I kind of wanted to bite them both.
Ugh.
“I’m a succubus,” I reminded them. “In all your great and vaunted wisdom gathering, have you never met one of my kind? Do you not understand us?”
“You feed on lust,” Fin said simply. “It’s a beast that you have to feed as much as Maddox has to hoard, or I have to make things grow, or Rogue needs to escape into the solitude, or even Alfred needs to shield and protect us.”
I stared at him. None of those things were like the other.
“I am a solitary creature, Kitten,” Maddox said while I still fought to find a response. “I understand the desire to be alone.”
“I’m not, but I’ve learned to adapt. If you need space, all you have to do is tell me,” Fin assured me. “We want you to be happy.”
“Succubi don’t do relationships.” I needed to get it printed on a t-shirt. “They never end well. None of them. They don’t even co-parent. We were…”
“You were?” Maddox prompted me, and I tilted my head back to stare at the sky. I didn’t want to have this conversation. If anything, I just wanted to go and forget about them before I did any further damage. Claiming Maddox…
“Can it be undone?”
“Being a vampire?” Fin said, squinting at me. “No, Beautiful.”
“No, the claiming Maddox part.”
Oh, I regretted the words the moment I spoke them, because Maddox’s whole demeanor shifted. His eyes glowed, his jaw clenched, and the softness vanished beneath a mask of fury as he surged to his feet. “No,” he growled as he lifted me off my feet and banded his arms around me. I could do little more than rest my palms against his chest. Even beneath the fabric of his shirt, the muscles bunched and tensed. “You cannot undo it. I won’t allow it. I’ve waited centuries for you, Kitten, and I want to be claimed by you. You may make me work and court you to earn the privilege of claiming you, but I will not let you discard me. Ever.”
I gaped at the raw ferocity in his tone. Every inch of him pressed against me vibrated with raw need, and I slid my hand up into his hair and gripped it. He needed no further encouragement or urging before his mouth slammed down on mine and everything around us disintegrated as I went up in flames.
Fuck. Me.
“I intend to,” he growled against my mouth. I hadn’t meant to say the words aloud, but I suddenly didn’t care. I couldn’t get enough of touching him. I didn’t look up, even when he marched away or when he tore his mouth from mine to snap, “Fuck off,” to Fin. Then he kissed me again, and no amount of scrabbling let me pull my reserve back together.
So I just stopped trying.
I wanted him.
Fuck everything. I wanted Maddox. I wanted him desperately. No matter how bad the idea was, he wanted to be mine.
Damn it all. I stopped fighting.
Chapter 10
“Friendship isn’t about who you’ve known the longest. It’s about who walked into your life, said I’m here for you, and proved it.” - Unknown
I had no idea how far Maddox took us until he planted my back against a tree and ground his hips into mine. The dress was no obstruction to the weight of his erection. The fact that he never let me up for a breath began to make my lungs burn. Fisting his hair, I gave it a jerk. Not enough to hurt, but to get him to let me suck in a single gasp. That’s all he allowed me before his mouth took possession of mine again.
Demand assailed me with every sweep of his tongue, as though he wanted to stake out his territory. Fuck me if I let him