Page 29 of Toadstools and Vampire Kisses

“What field?” he rasps. “Biology?”

“An intriguing field of study,” I murmur, dragging my hands down his arms until my hand entangles with his once more as I stare into his bottomless eyes, “but in this case, I have always been interested in… chemistry.” My lips curve as I pull back some. “But first the maze.”

A strange light flickers through his eyes as he rumbles like a jungle cat and draws me forward along the path, pulling me close as we walk, his fingers trailing experimentally over my clothes as I return the favor with a hunger I don’t recognize in myself. I would have sworn it’s something created by him, but his words rang true. Whatever this strange compulsion is, it sings through me, rasping over every nerve ending and the musk of wet, fertile earth seeps into my nose.

Into the depths we go, driven by our passion. The hedges part around us so that we may enter within, and I know without a doubt that though the maze symbolically offers spiritual change, that I will be changed in truth before we ever emerge.

And I can’t fucking wait.

ChapterEighteen

REYNARD

My Fran is more vibrant and bewitching than I could have imagined. As we enter the maze, she almost seems more like a spirit of the forest than a woman with the way the plants reach out for her and the mists tumbles over her skin and through her hair. She is pure magic summed up in a single form that I wish to devote myself to, forever. Her human mind is struggling to understand how matings occur among most other beings, but I can see that she feels it. Her body practically quivers at our proximity to each other, her power curling around my own energy to feed back and forth between us in ways that are addictive for us both.

She still does not understand the scope of what is happening between us, but she will soon enough.

I growl low in my throat, need pulsing deep through my core as we travel along the path of the maze. I can hear the distant shrieks and cries of alarm mingled with laughter, but they are second to the urgency pounding through me. The human hand tangled in mine is a few degrees cooler, but Fran’s touch is addictive in every way as I draw deep breaths perfumed with her scent.

The curtain of trailing wisteria vines, bare of their blooms and leaves, curl and writhe around us as we duck into it. They erupt into spidery blooms at our entrance only to shrivel and fall with our passage through them, the only evidence of them clinging to our clothes and hair, and the carpet of dead blooms on the ground from the passage of the coven through here.

Fran turns toward me, laughter in her eyes as she tugs me forward until her body grazes mine in a way that has me shivering with lust. I know that my eyes are glowing with my mounting hunger. That hunger spikes when she releases my hand and disappears through the heavy shadows of the hedges ahead of us. I startle with surprise for only a moment before my predatory instinct roars through me gleefully.

So my mate wishes to be chased? I am more than happy to oblige her.

The thick mist parts before me, billowing back into the maze in search of my prey. Its passage sends faint messages along my nerve endings as I pursue. I am fast, far faster than any human and most other vampires, and yet somehow it is not enough. The path seems to change, the hedges reknitting themselves before me. Suddenly I understand the sounds of surprise that preceded us. Whatever witchery that Fran has done to the plants has caused the maze itself to come alive. I can pick up her scent, but it is faint as if the hedges themselves bloomed and the evergreen saps run even thicker, releasing a steady, pungent odor to mask her delectable scent.

A bush beside me shifts, snagging the sleeve of my overcoat on its tangled branches With a jerk, I wrench my arm free, and a soft hiss escapes from between my lips as my eyes travel along the knotted growth. From one corner a stone satyr grins mockingly at me.

A dead end?

Shaking my head, I step back, scanning my surroundings as my human guise slips even more, my control degrading further. My need for my mate tightens within me, threatening to break my control completely. My now pointed ear twitches as I hear her soft laughter and teasing moan with a plume of scent rich with slick arousal. I can practically taste it on my tongue. It is as clear to me as the knowledge that the rest of the coven, including her mother and the noisome dragon, have cleared the maze. I can hear their progress back to the house, eager for hot cider, leaving Fran at my mercy.

I grin with the knowledge, a shiver of excitement running through me.

“Are you touching yourself, Fran?” I purr as I stalk back and forth in front of the bushes that have closed in front of me, knowing that she is close by on the other side of them. I tilt my head back and judge the height. Too tall to jump even for a vampire. Pity.

She laughs again, and a wet sound of fingers sliding through her folds greets my ears. “Do you have a problem with it if I am?”

A low growl rumbles in my throat, and I shake my head. “Not at all. We are alone out here, but it seems you are of a mind to tease me.”

“Teasing can be a good thing,” she replies, a small pant breaking her words. “It sweetens the moment. And, as you say, we are alone.”

“Then come out, little rabbit,” I rumble, my nose twitching in a desperate need to draw in her scent.

“Hmm. A rabbit, am I? I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a fox trying to lure out a rabbit before. Are you of a mind to eat me?”

Her words are husky with a sensual interest that I can feel curling deeper within me, feeding my desire to be united with my mate as my mind conjures images of just how much I would savor eating her up bit by bit in all the best ways. My already swelling cock surges thickly from between my legs, pressing uncomfortably against my trousers. Drawing the mists thicker, I push them forward until they slip through the hedges toward her from all directions.

I can almost feel the softness of her skin beneath my fingertips as they graze against her and I hear her soft gasp as they slide between her legs where her fingers are working at her delectable little pearl. My tongue strokes over my fangs as I nearly moan when my cocks jumps and hardens further at the sensation.

“I do greatly hunger for you,” I admit with a groan, my palm pressing against my prick in an attempt to relieve the ache.

“Then come get me,” she pants. “This feeling is new to me—overwhelming even in ways that I don’t understand—but I need more. Show me what else you can do, vampire. Or is this maze too much an obstacle for you?”

My lips peel back in a silent snarl as I examine the bush closer, looking for a place where I can pry through a new entry. Finally, I step back, the last of my control shattering as my frustration mounts higher with the surge of my lust. The separation cannot continue.

No more games.

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