Page 60 of Dark Succession
He meant every word. Teague wouldn’t hesitate to put himself between her and the rest of the world. She fisted her hand in the front of his shirt, her heart beating too hard.I love this man. As if just waiting for hermind to come to terms with the realization, the feeling swelled inside her, filling her completely, making it hard to breathe.
I love him.
She couldn’t say the words aloud. Not yet. But she could show him.
So she kissed him, slipping her tongue between his lips the second he opened for her. He didn’t miss a step on his way to the bedroom, until he stopped next to the bed and let her body slide against his as he set her on her feet. He tangled his hands in her hair and tipped her head back, taking control of the kiss, gentling it to the barest brushing of their lips, as if he fully intended to take his time.
As if she was priceless.
She shivered. She wasn’t priceless. She wasn’t… He nipped her bottom lip, effectively bringing her back to the present. “Stay with me, angel.”
“Always.” A promise she couldn’t make, but this was the day for them. She unbuttoned his shirt, going slowly, relishing the way his chest felt beneath her fingers. The bruises looked better today. He was healing. He’d be okay. Thank God. All too soon she was at the waistband of his slacks.
His hands caught hers. “Not yet.”
She didn’t get a chance to argue, because he bent to unzip the side of her dress and then pulled it off, leaving her in only a pair of white panties. Teague’s breath hissed out. “A month or a hundred years, I’ll never get tired of seeing you like this.” He traced a finger down her sternum, the look in his eyes stealing her breath. “Angel, I don’t deserve you.”
It wasshewho didn’t deservehim. She opened hermouth to tell him as much, but he hooked his finger in the top of her panties and towed her to close that last inch between them. The feeling of her skin against his chased every thought from her head. She let herself run her hands up his chest, marveling at the muscles that tensed beneath her touch. She stopped at the tattoo over his left pectoral, a twisting oak whose roots worked down his side and whose branches covered his shoulder. “Will you tell me about this one?”
“I’ll tell you about anything you want.” He kissed her again, backing her to the bed and gently laying her on the mattress. “After.” He moved down her body, stopping to pepper her breasts with almost worshipful attention. She dug her fingers into his hair, simultaneously wanting him to do more and never move, all at the same time. He sucked her left nipple into his mouth, raking it gently with his teeth.
“Oh God.”
He chuckled against her skin, and her entire body went tight as he pulled her panties off and settled between her thighs. “Do you know how much time I spend thinking about doing this to you?”
“Tell me.” The command escaped before she could think better of it, but she was so happy it did the second he started talking.
“Youconsumeme, angel. It’s the most welcome kind of distraction, but I can’t get through an hour without thinking about you. Thinking about this.” He dragged his tongue over her center, circling her clit.
She thought about it, too. But more than the sex, she thought aboutTeague. Callie closed her eyes and gave herself over to the feeling of histongue driving her closer and closer to orgasm. In this moment, she didn’t have to make decisions about the future. She didn’t have to contend with the riot of feelings in her chest, all centering on this man. She didn’t have to do anything butfeel.
With one last long lick, he drew back, a smile spreading over his face at her involuntary sound of protest. “Impatient.”
“Tease.” She watched him unbutton his pants and shove them off. He grabbed a condom from the nightstand and rolled it on, his gaze on hers. She shifted, her skin too tight, her body feeling like it was a thousand degrees. “Come here.”
“With pleasure.” His weight between her thighs was almost comforting. Or it would have been if she wasn’t so desperate to get him inside her. Teague didn’t seem in any sort of hurry, though. He kissed her as if he had all night, as if he didn’t have an inferno of desire inside himself demanding more.
Callie hooked her leg around his waist, angling her hips so his cock notched in her entrance. He pulled back a little, giving her a look, but she needed him too desperately to keep playing this teasing game. Another time, perhaps, when it didn’t feel like they were living on borrowed time that could be stolen from them without warning. “Please, Teague. I don’t want to wait anymore.”
He pushed into her in one smooth move, bringing them as close as two people could possibly be, stealing her breath and her heart along with it. “Anything for you, angel.” He moved, drawing out almost completely and then starting that slow slide back to completion. All the while, he cupped the back of her neck, and slid his other armbeneath the small of her back, bringing them impossibly close. Every stroke brought her closer to the edge, rubbing against her clit even as he filled her in the most perfect way possible.
She clung to him, wanting to draw this out forever. But her body wasn’t listening. Her orgasm crested, and it was all she could do to ride it out in his arms. He kept moving, drawing out the feeling until she was sure she couldn’t take it any longer.
Then, and only then, did his strokes become staggered and he followed her over the edge, burying his face in her neck as he came. He slid to the side and tucked her against him. “I’ll never get tired of that, either.”
Against all reason, a laugh escaped. “I’d say that’s a good sign, since you just married me.” It wasn’t real yet, probably wouldn’t be for some time, but she liked the way the words sounded. She liked the idea of Teague as her husband even more. She lay with her head on his shoulder and listened to his heartbeat as their bodies cooled. “Will you tell me now?”
He glanced at her. “The tattoos? Sure.”
She shifted off him so she could see the tree in its entirety. She’d seen it before, of course, but it was different now. Now there was time to trulyseeit. She traced the twisted branches that tangled from the trunk and over his shoulder. “Oak?”
“Good eye. It’s family. Strong and rooted deeply.”
That sounded sweet, but she stopped on the scar bisecting the tree. “And this? Did this come before or after the tattoo?”
He hesitated, and she once again wondered if it was his father who had hurt him. From everything she’d learnedof Seamus O’Malley in recent weeks, she didn’t doubt he was capable of it. But… to raise a hand to his son? Let alone with what must have been a blade? It took a special kind of monster to deal out that kind of violence. She curled her hands into fists, trying to quell the sudden anger coursing through her system. You don’t hurt the helpless and innocent. You just don’t. For someone who supposedly held family above all things to do it… She wanted to hurt that man. She wanted to hurt him badly. “You don’t have to tell me.”
“No, I want to.” He covered her hand with his own. “My father isn’t a good man. He didn’t like the fact that I mouthed off to him when I was thirteen, so he decided the best way to deal with my attitude was this.” A shadow passed over his face. “It was just one cut, and not a deep one at that, but I never forgot. That’s the other side of family. It can be strong enough to stand in the face of any enemy that arises, or it can be the rot that eats away at your insides, weakening you until you’re little more than a shell. Both tattoo and scar are reminders of that.”
