Page 71 of Protecting His Vampire Mate

Annie opened her eyes and gave us a puzzled smile, her face lighting up with recognition. “I thought you guys were a dream.”

“We were,” I told her, giving her hand a squeeze. “There might be a lot of questions. We were never here. Do you understand?”

She nodded, giving us a smile that transformed her whole face. “Are you sure you’re not angels? Because it sort of seems like maybe you are.”

“He might be,” Bryan said, gesturing in my direction. His voice was thicker than usual, almost hoarse, like he was on the verge of tears. All the color had leeched out of his face and his eyes were wide. His expression was just shy of panic. But his walls were firmly up, blocking off his thoughts. But none of that was surprising, was it? Being out of body for the first time is never a fun experience. Bryan took a deep breath, as though to steady himself, and added, “But I’m definitely no angel.”

“Doesn’t matter what you are,” Annie told him. Though she had just been comatose and literally dying, with her spirit recently lingering in the otherworld, Annie looked bright-eyed and refreshed, like she’d just woken up from a long nap. She added, “Thank you. I know that probably sounds pretty stupid, given what you guys just did for me. But I mean it. Thank you.”

Something clenched in my chest, and it felt so hot and vital that it might blot everything else out. We had saved her life. Bryan’s blood had healed her completely. And we had convinced her to come back. And I didn’t need any magic to tell me what I could plainly see. Annie was going to recover without any problems. Maybe I—we—couldn’t fix everything. But we had fixed this one awful thing.

“We’ve got to go,” I told her, my own voice getting thicker. “But you’ll be okay now. Remember, we weren’t here.”

With that, I took Bryan by the hand and led him out of the hospital room. He didn’t protest. I broke the enchantments I’d placed on her door with a wave of my hand as we exited. They were my own spells—and set with the intention that they’d be easy for me to remove later—so it was effortless to unweave them.

When we passed the ICU nurse I had enchanted earlier, she looked up at me, only mildly interested. “Oh, are you done now?”

“Yes,” I told her, feeling out for the compulsion I’d placed upon her. “We’re done. Your patient is going to live. You should call a doctor, just to be on the safe side. And if anyone asks about us, you don’t remember anything except that it seemed like we belonged here. You don’t remember anything that might get you into trouble.”

The nurse nodded.

I nodded back, then shot Bryan a ‘let’s go’ sort of look.

He had a hollow, faraway look to his eyes. Weird. Maybe he was feeling all of the feelings because of what we had just done. That was normal and expected, right?

I turned and walked down the hallway, with him following behind me. As I walked, I broke the compulsion on the nurse with a few muttered words. The memory of us ever being there would fade rapidly.

“Not so fast,” Bryan told me the moment we got around the corner. “We’ve got business to attend to.”

I hesitated for a moment, glancing over at him. His expression was strangely dark and intense—fucking hot—but his eyes were filled with unshed tears.

“This room is vacant,” Bryan told me, pointing at a door just down the hall. He gestured vaguely to his ears. “Vampire hearing has its perks.”

“We should go in there, then,” I replied, immediately understanding what he wanted.

He returned my smile, but it didn’t quite reach his eyes.

Then he backed me into the room.

As he had told me, the room was indeed vacant.

He pushed me up against the wall and I barely had time to seal the door handle so that it wouldn’t turn for anyone but us before his mouth was on mine.

We’d kissed passionately in the hotel room, while we had made love. We had both been desperate, hungry for each other, filled with need. This was different. It was more urgent. Demanding. Greedy. Desperate.

My lips parted as his tongue swept my mouth. My cock began to stir at once and I wrapped my arms around his waist, drawing him so close to me that our bodies were pressed up against each other. I returned his kiss with force, claiming him just as he was claiming me.

He put his hand on my already hard cock through my jeans and rubbed it, the delicious friction causing me to let out a groan of pleasure.

“I need it again,” he told me, as he began to fumble for my belt. “I need you to make love to me. Or, screw that. I need you to fuck me so hard I can’t even think.”

I didn’t answer. Instead, I pulled him in for another kiss, taking over his attempts to get my belt off. I had my pants unbuttoned and my cock free from its confines in a matter of moments.

Bryan broke our kiss, pulling away. Then, before I could react—or bend him over then and there—he got down onto his knees and took me into his mouth without any hesitation, all the way down my shaft.

I let out a sharp gasp and stiffened as the wet heat from his mouth enveloped my cock. Pleasure practically caused my toes to curl. Fuck. It was like heaven.

If it was possible, I went even harder as he stroked me with his lips and tongue.

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