Between the Marshal & the Vampire(24)

And now you're going to be a victim, alright.

He could hardly swallow the juvenile saberwolf meat that Vellum had caught and which Clay had cooked up. His stomach was tied in knots. Even Mariel seemed to be having trouble eating her share, until at last Vellum sighed loudly, breaking the tension.

"Something tells me I need to get this over with so you two can enjoy your breakfast," he said as he rose to his feet and walked around the fire to stand beside where Clay sat. He squatted there within reaching distance, a half-smirk on his handsome face. "You ready, Marshal? The sooner you learn what Mariel's been 'suffering', the sooner we can all get along."

Clay licked his dry lips. "Yeah. I'm ready, vampire."

Vellum, still smirking, glanced at Mariel. "You might want to draw a little closer."

"I don't need her to hold my hand," Clay gritted out.

"Your hand? Not at all." The look on Vellum's face made Clay want to punch him.

He gritted his teeth, hands curled into fists and resting on his thighs, as Vellum lightly placed one hand on the top of Clay's head and one on his jaw, beneath his chin.

"Tilt to the side, please."

So uncomfortable he could shout, Clay moved his head toward his shoulder, baring his neck.

"That's it. Thank you."

Clay felt excruciatingly vulnerable, and not just because Vellum was a vampire. But he held his tongue and stared stonily into the fire as the vampire shifted to his knees and leaned in close. Clay waited for the puff of a breath against his neck as a warning, but he didn't receive any. One moment Vellum was hovering, making him uncomfortable, the next his lips were on Clay's neck.

It was startling and Clay couldn't sit still for it, leaning away from the intimate male touch. But Vellum didn't torture him for long. He sank his fangs in.

If the lips on his neck were shocking, the pain of the vampire's bite was even more so. Mariel had been enduring this?

"You son of a…nnnh." Clay's curse trailed off and was swallowed by a moan he absolutely had not intended to release. But something was happening both to his body and to his brain, something that made him feel warm and relaxed and yet firmed up his cock like a pretty lady had just palmed it.

He was enraptured by a pulling sensation at his neck where Vellum was still attached to him. It would have been unnerving if it hadn't been so erotic. For some reason Clay's mind equated the pulling of his blood with pulling on his cock, as though Vellum's lips were sealed tight around his shaft and were attempting to suck his orgasm out of him. Clay groaned at the visual of Vellum's dark head bent over his groin. His own head fell back on his shoulders as lust weakened him. Vellum went with him, one arm sliding behind Clay's shoulders to brace him while the other settled lightly on his chest, atop his right nipple.

Stop touching me, Clay thought at him, but the words had no chance of making it to his lips because his lips had parted so he could gasp for breath. Somewhere along the way his eyes had fallen shut, which made the sensations rolling through his body all the more intense. He suppressed a groan when the vampire began to slowly, methodically, unbutton the front of his shirt. Once his skin was bared to the night, a hand that was too large to belong to a woman and yet not as calloused as most men's in the Territory slid beneath Clay's shirt and found his nipple with warm fingertips.

No man had ever touched him like that before. When Vellum twisted his nipple with a sexual deliberateness that was too disturbing to think on, Clay's cock jumped with sudden desperation.

Clay had shared many a bed over the years, and not even the most skilled prostitute had been able to bring him to such instant, aching arousal. The fact that this was a vampire—a male one—making him feel this way only strengthened the queer cocktail of lust and frustration that pumped through Clay's heart. He wanted to come, but could he bear to do so because of Vellum?

As though sensing Clay's inner turmoil and aroused by it, Vellum made a male purr of satisfaction against Clay's skin where the vampire continued to feed. He had Clay right where he wanted him.

"S-Stop," Clay managed to choke out as his lashes fluttered with the effort of opening his eyes.

The sucking on his throat eased long enough for Vellum to growl, "Mariel, help the Marshal."

The sucking resumed more forcefully, like the vampire's hand around his cock had become demanding, insisting that Clay dance for him. Clay danced. He arched back, his entire body thrumming with the need to come, whether it was by Vellum's hand or—

"Clay?" he heard.

Relief swamped him. He reached out blindly and found the sweet softness of Mariel right beside him. He didn't think, he only acted, rolling over to pin her to the ground. He felt Vellum following him over, braced on hands and knees over Clay's back so his mouth could remain attached to the side of Clay's throat.

He didn't care about the vampire. He had found Mariel.

He crushed his mouth to hers and growled when she melted beneath the onslaught, her lips parting with a moan. Her tongue met his and teased it into her mouth where Clay laid siege, thrusting inside. His hands found their way beneath her skirts and knickers where she was hot and damp already. At the first tender touch to her nether lips she cried out into his mouth. He groaned in return and swept his fingers expertly against her, gathering her nectar and using it to explore her folds more thoroughly. She shivered and shook beneath his touch, helpless beneath his onslaught. Her reactions enflamed his already burning blood. He needed to control her and prove that he was the better man for her.