Page 69 of Hunted By the Headless Horseman
“Mmm. My beautiful beast.”
She lifts her head to kiss my neck, prompting a vein there to bulge.
“A just punishment for you disobeying my express command,” I say, reminding her of my note.
She pauses. The tension between us thickens. Her breaths grow quicker as she must be remembering earlier events. Silence stretches, and I allow her to gather her thoughts.
“What happened, Jack? What did you see?” Fear etches her voice, but concern is more prominent—concern for me.
Setting my pipe in the ashtray on the nearby end table, I cup her chin, appreciating her hard swallow. This small gesture is enough for her to bow to me. “Your safety is my duty and honor, Belladonna Moore. You do not require the details of the lengths I will go to protect you.”
She sucks in a deep breath. “Did anyone see you?”
“I know how to avoid prying eyes.” I rub my lips against hers, granting her an added measure of assurance. “And keep myself in the shadows.”
“Did you…did you seehim?”
Beneath the heel of my hand, I feel her pulse kick up a notch, the concern swelling to a near-panic. The trauma he dealt her was great to elicit such a response. And it has my other hand clenching against her back, envisioning all manner of ways to make him suffer. Slowly. Excruciatingly. She is the heartbeat of my soul. But violence courses through my blood. Retribution, not revenge. Justice. Punishment.
Shifting her until she is beneath me, I take her mouth in an insistent kiss, opening her mouth. There’s my good girl, arching her back. The perfect distraction for her. I will shower her with pleasure until she forgets these questions, this burden which is not hers to bear.
A flush spreads through her, rousing me all the more until my cock throbs against her lower thigh. Once my kisses gravitate from her mouth, I lick my way down her throat, reveling in her hips lifting.
“Jack!” she gasps from my capturing her erect nipple, her heat growing.
Licking circles around her pronounced bud, I grind against her, hungrier at the wetness from her center. I’ll fucking eat her out all night if it will lessen her trauma.
I cut my teeth on her nipple. Belle cries out, “Jackson Elias Moore! I know what you’re doing. Please…” Her hands grip my dark hair, her fingers digging into my neck and jaw. “As much as I want this, please stop. I need…I need…I won’t be able to rest until we talk.”
Muttering a ‘damnation’under my breath, I shift until I’m on my back again, tugging her closer. “You should and do not need to talk about it, Belle. You need not remember it.”
“Jack.” She sucks in a deep breath and exhales.
I know her thoughts are about to form some clever, coherent response to persuade me otherwise. Gods, she drives me mad. Catharine was not like this at all. She’d unleash all her emotions and opinions and curse my name as I pleasured her to a forgetful oblivion. Belle is shrewd but gentle. Fucking undoes me with her sweet pleas. More than intelligence, she is wise beyond her years.
“I’m your wife now, right?” she points out. “I am your equal.”
“Superior,” I growl, taking her chin again. “I put you on a goddamn pedestal that rises beyond the highest level of heaven.”
She chokes on a breath. “Okay, then, talk to me. Did you see him?”
My jaw hardens. “I did. Why do you wish to know, Belle? Do you still have feelings for him?” I tense, knowing my tone is more aggressive than it should be.
“I-I thought I did, but I knew he didn’t truly love me. But please, Jack…he didn’t see you, right? If you got close to him, he could have…” She shivers after trailing off.
“Bloody bastard may have the senses of a fox,” I snort, “but it matters not. I’ll sink my teeth into him like a fucking hellhound.”
She squeezes me tighter, rubbing her face against me. “What if it won’t matter? What if he crawled right out of hell? What if he’s a hellhound, too?”
I grip her hair, fisting it, and giving her a little shake. “What the devil are you talking about, woman?”
“I’ve seen things. Felt things.”
I remember his words in that meeting hall.“I’ve seen things in these mountains. Black things, ancient things. But none of them are blacker than me.”
The ancient magic of the Appalachian mountains, the sense of witchcraft in the air, the knowledge of Samhain, and the thinning of the barrier between worlds all pulse through my blood. Cautious respect for that magic is necessary. Despite how much I believe that Thaddeus is simply a man of flesh and blood, I cannot deny the darker forces of the world, given my curse.
“I need to tell you something. Because I saw something I wasn’t supposed to.”
