Between the Marshal & the Vampire(28)

Vellum hissed against her throat and raised his head. Mariel couldn't see his expression but she could see Clay's as the Marshal stared over her shoulder at the vampire.

"Seems like we're sharing territory," Clay said at last, his hips stilling. "What do you think about that, vampire?"

Vellum thrust against Mariel's buttocks. "I think we have an obligation to please."

Clay's grin was pure sex. "You're more human than you realize, Vellum."

Vellum muttered something that Mariel couldn't understand before he attacked her bare shoulders with his warm lips and hot, slithering tongue. He lapped at her collarbones, all the while squeezing her breasts with Clay to help.

Clay began to thrust up into her again, this time with an expression on his face that made Mariel weak. He drove up into her with pure power, stealing her breath, and probably trying to impress Vellum as much as her. Mariel was duly impressed. She was a keg of dynamite ready to explode.

Vellum suddenly slid his hands out from under Clay's, but only so he could glide them down her stomach to the V of her spread legs.

"Vellum," Mariel gasped as the vampire dug beneath the folds of her skirt to reach her bare skin. He ground against her buttocks, revealing his hunger, as he spread her lips apart and traced her hot, throbbing clit. He dipped his fingers farther back and Clay startled when the vampire's fingertips traced Mariel's opening where the Marshal penetrated her.

Vellum touched both of them, measuring the strength and speed of Clay's thrusts into her. The thought of the two males comparing who f*cked her better was overwhelming. Mariel felt herself climbing that final peak to orgasm. Beneath her, Clay had reached his own peak. He cursed and quickly lifted her up enough that he could pull out of her. Just in time. His eyes rolled back into his head as his cock spurted with his release.

"All too human," Vellum whispered with a dark chuckle.

He released her breasts. Still behind her, he hooked his arms beneath her quivering thighs and effortlessly lifted her up far enough for him to slot his own cock against her sensitive entrance. He let her drop. Mariel's body weight forced her to be instantly impaled on the vampire's cock. The shock of the penetration tore a scream of ecstasy from her. Vellum f*cked her hard, forcing her body to clench around his pumping organ. She moaned as she hit her final release. Vellum, hearing and feeling her, groaned against her ear, thrust twice more, and then stiffened as his own orgasm washed through him.

As Mariel, stunned and delirious, slumped against him while still straddling Clay, Vellum swept a finger through her intimate folds, inspiring aftershocks. He then dragged that same finger through the puddle of whiteness on Clay's belly. Both Mariel and Clay watched Vellum raise the finger. Though Mariel wasn't in a position to see it happen, she could tell by Clay's face that the vampire tasted them.

Vellum smacked his lips and purred, "Delicious."

~~~~~

After that, things changed.

It wasn't a change that centered around Mariel. She observed it happening between her two male companions. The tension in the air whenever they passed by each other or even when they exchanged words was enough to make her nervous. She knew why it was happening. Vellum had crossed a line for Clay when he had tasted the Marshal's release.

But what to do about it?

Clay looked like he was back to thinking up ways for him and Mariel to escape. While escape wasn't a bad thing, she thought it was dangerous to attempt. Vellum would be forced to capture them and worse, he'd have to change the way he handled them, treating them not as companions but as a resistant food source. Mariel didn't like imagining that scenario. Not one bit.

So she kept an eye on Clay and interrupted him when he tried to goad the vampire. If Vellum knew the motive behind Clay's change of attitude and sudden animosity, he didn't show it. If anything, he acted as though he didn't notice it at all. But Mariel knew he was aware of it. Once, she had caught him looking after the Marshal after the other male had made a point of walking a wide circle around Vellum to reach his horse. Vellum was curious for the moment, but how far would he need to be pushed to become irritated with the Marshal's behavior?

That sunrise, after Vellum closed his box lid over himself beneath Clay's baleful eye, Mariel decided to confront Clay.

"What's gotten into you?" she demanded.

The two of them sat beneath a rocky overhang that was part of a small outcropping they'd been fortunate to find in an area otherwise as flat as hotcakes. The sky was orange and rapidly brightening with a new day.

"I don't know what you're talking about," he muttered and tipped his head to rest it against the rock at their backs. He closed his eyes and rested his arms on his drawn-up knees. "You should get some sleep, Mariel."

"Don't tell me to sleep, Clay. Not while you're stirring up trouble for all three of us with your pig-headed behavior!"

That prompted him to crack open a golden eye. "Pig-headed? Now, that's mighty harsh."

"And appropriate. Along with cowardly."

Both eyes snapped open to glare at her. "Be careful what you say, Mariel. You don't accuse a man of being a coward. Not lightly."

But she wasn't intimidated by him. "My accusation wasn't made lightly. You're afraid and lashing out at Vellum. Why? Because he touched you? He did so before, when he drank from you."