Page 13 of Captured Desires

Their bodies, slick with sweat, met each other with sweet friction. He drove deep and held there while he took the time to kiss her. She couldn’t breathe, didn’t want to.

She cried out, her body convulsing beneath him, her orgasm crashing over her like a tidal wave. Maverick grunted, his hips pistoning into her. His sinewy muscles flexed as he pushed deeper. A powerful surge coursed through him, tensing his body and emitting a low growl from his throat. His release was powerful, spilling into her in hot waves that made her gasp and arch her back. They came together, pulsating in a tangled, sweaty heap. Pearl felt huge aftershocks ripple through her. She was shocked by the intensity of the sensation. It was almost more than she could handle. But Maverick treated her to a few more smaller ones, each one making her shiver and gasp with renewed pleasure when he slowly rocked into her.

Then he pulled out and collapsed beside her. Pearl lay there, her breath ragged and her skin still tingling with the aftershocks of their intense lovemaking. She was still trying to process the fact that she had just engaged in such a passionate act with a man she barely knew, let alone a monster.

But as she lay there, pressed against him, she couldn't deny how incredibly right it felt. She had never felt this kind of connection before, this kind of passion and intensity. It was both exhilarating and terrifying, and she wasn't sure how to handle it.

Maverick lay there, a satisfied grin on his face, his eyes still locked on to hers. He ran his hand through her hair, gently stroking it. "Rest now," he murmured, brushing a stray lock of hair from her forehead. "I'll keep watch."

As Pearl drifted off to sleep, safe in the circle of Maverick's arms, she couldn't shake the feeling that something important had just happened.

Chapter Four

Pearl woke up stiffand aching in places she wasn’t used to aching in. She was alone on a bed of furs. A rolled-up towel was under her head, and she was covered by a blanket that smelled of Maverick.

Maverick.

Bolting upright, she tried to see anything in the pitch darkness. As the fog of sleep cleared from her mind, reality came crashing back in. She was a Pinkerton, sworn to uphold the law and bring outlaws to justice. And Maverick, for all the glimpses of goodness and honor she'd seen in him, was still a vampire, still a wanted man. Her mission had been clear: convince him to join the Pinkertons and use his supernatural abilities for good or execute him. She had just complicated her own mission.

“Easy,” Maverick’s tired voice said from across the room. A lantern lit, and the mine cavern brightened enough that she could see him in the corner. “It’s mid-morning.”

“Shouldn’t you be in a coffin or something?” she asked.

He gave a half chuckle. “That’s not necessary when you’re this deep in the earth.” Maverick took a deep breath, as if steeling himself for what he was about to say. "I want to tell you about something that vampires don’t talk about. Vampires have a custom, a belief. We call it the mate bond. When a vampire finds their true mate, a connection forms between them. A bond that goes beyond mere physical attraction or emotional attachment."

Pearl’s eyes widened as the pieces began to fall into place. The inexplicable draw she felt toward Maverick, the way her heart raced at his touch, the fierce protectiveness that had surged through her when she saw him in danger. "Do you think we're mates?" she asked.

"Maybe. But I don’t have a tattoo from it, and neither do you."

"A tattoo?”

“It appears once the mate bond is set."

“I didn’t try to make you bond with me. I wasn’t sent to seduce you. This isn’t part of the Pinkerton deal.” Pearl scrambled to find her clothes.

“I had wondered,” he said. “Why else send a female Pinkerton after me?”

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