Marked by Masks and Secrets (Everlasting Possession, #1)

by Maggie Sunseri

“Uh-huh. That’s it, angel,” he praised. “Such a good girl. Show me how much you hate me.”

You’re being so good for me. Good girls get rewarded.”

Another tear fell, and I couldn’t stop, couldn’t stop chasing the pleasure a touch out of reach. I clenched around his thigh, and his accompanying groan filled me with equal measures of satisfaction and shame. “I can’t—I’ve never…” I trailed off.

“You’ve never what, angel?”

He grabbed my cheeks between his thumb and forefinger. “Use your words, baby.”

still too much. I had to close my eyes. “I haven’t done… most things,” I said. “I’ve never, um, come… with someone else. Only myself.”

“I wish I could say this was a surprise, but I know the caliber of men who came before me. And nope, doesn’t shock me at all, really.”

“I bet you think that you will be the one to take all of my firsts, is that right?” I spat.

“I see we’re done being my perfect good girl, hmm?” he asked, his voice eerily cold as wrath trembled beneath the surface. “Because that…”

“… was the wrong. Fucking. Answer.”

Rage was hot and slick in my blood. She’d been toeing the line with her bratty tendencies before, but insinuating that another man would ever lay a hand on her again was not something I’d tolerate. Evie was mine.

The most primal, instinctual thought infected my mind as I stared at her stomach beneath the layer of thin white fabric. Evie would look so fucking perfect carrying our children. Our powerful children.

“I said only good girls get rewarded,” I said. “But if you use your words to tell me what you want, I will grant it.”

“Oh, good. I’m so glad the vampire who’s been obsessively stalking me and broke into my home to attack me cares about consent.”

Fuck, it did ungodly things to me knowing I would be the first to make her come undone like this—knowing no man had ever satisfied her the way I would.

“How in the fuck has no one made you come before?” I asked, angry and raw. “You are my new favorite toy. I fear I won’t be able to stop playing with you once I start.”

“You will come for me,” I said. I closed my hand around her throat with only faint pressure. “You don’t have a choice.”

I didn’t know if my fangs or straining cock had it worse. Her blood was rich with arousal, and I could scent the moment she reached the point of no return.

I pulled her under the covers and into my hold. My shadows slithered blissfully around her form in wisps of smoke, satisfied to finally be so close.

No, I wasn’t a nihilist. I knew the world was a place of hidden meaning, inexplicable magick, and intertwining fates, because I knew Evie was mine the moment I laid eyes on her.

The thought of that tall, muscular, tattooed body in only an apron was both strangely sexy and ridiculously absurd.

“It’s no good that you’re always on the run, baby,” a distorted voice spoke.

“It makes me fucking crazy, in fact,”

“Because I’m a hunter. When I see vulnerable little meadow nymphs on the run, I’m going to chase them.”

Shadows circled the vampire’s feet, and I heard their whispers, heard the way they wanted me.

“There are a lot less dramatic ways to ask me to take you over my knee, baby,” he cooed,

“If you want to be punished for your wicked ways, you need only ask.”

“Because your God is gracious, and you are so cute, I will allow a deal to be struck. The terms you offered were incredibly stupid, on your part, but I will take advantage of them as I see fit.”

“Your brother will be blacklisted from clan recruitment,”

“And you will go out on dates with me, anytime and anywhere, so long as it doesn’t interfere with your witchy business schemes. I also have full rein to pick out your adorable outfits.”

There was something about Evie finally unraveling—displaying raw, unbridled power in her pink-rose-colored dress with frilly details and a bow around her neck—that had made me unquenchably ravenous. Desperate to taste her, to bite her, to sink into her, and to finally show her what it was like to be with a man.

I’d wanted to fuck her, right there in the rain and mud. I wanted to drive into her as she nearly drowned, force her to offer herself to me with her desperate bargaining over and over again. Gods, the way she’d begged. I could listen to her plead for my mercy for an eternity.

When their eyes landed decisively on Evie, my fangs ached. A primal urge to claim her in front of my guards pressed against the walls of my mind. Even more so when she instinctively stayed a step behind me, recognizing me as her protector. Good girl. Good fucking girl.

At the next throb of my fangs, I busied myself with dressing in a casual black shirt and slacks before picking out clothes for Evie. I wanted her in one of my shirts and nothing else. One of the many ways I wished to mark her as mine.

“Stop ordering me around.”

I placed my fingers under her chin, offering only the gentlest of touch. “No.”

“Whose dress is this?”

“It’s yours. I’ve been waiting very patiently to spoil you with everything I’ve bought over the past weeks.”

“What’s going on in that beautifully vast mind of yours, angel?” he asked. “If you’re worried about my attention and devotion, you can rest assured you own every last drop.”

“Your heart rate, your breathing, the fear in your blood… it all slowed for me while I took care of you, angel. You have no idea what a relief that was,” he whispered.

The sick and needy part of me wanted to crawl into his lap, to feel those strong arms around me. The safest place you’ll ever be.

“How old are you?”

“Oh gods, you’re old enough to be my father, aren’t you?” I asked. I stared at his beautiful, youthful features, his body clearly halted in its late twenties. “Try grandfather, angel,”

“Why is she shaking like a leaf, Kylo? You’re not holding her here against her will, are you?” “Yes,” I said, at the same time as Kylo said, “No.”

“You’re so fucking cute when you’re thinking,” Kylo said. “I’m going to hex you,” I bit out. “No, you’re not.”

“All the violent threats are foreplay. I get it. I sooo get it.”

Kylo’s eyes flickered with something close to anger for a moment as he watched the vampire woman. Then he glanced at me, and I felt the emotion on his face like a brand on my skin. Hot, consuming. Not anger. Possessiveness.

I fucking hated how far away from me she was right now. Even if this was no place for her. I almost prayed she stepped out of line, so I could finally mark her with my blood and be a part of her forever.

For my clan, I was impenetrable, violent—all sharp edges, brutality, and razored, competent logic. For her, only for her, I was anything she needed me to be.

Kylo was claiming his first coerced date. He wanted me to wear the dress he left in a box inside—a reminder that I was his pretty little doll to dress and order around, that he could enter my home whenever he wished. I was merely a silly mortal for him to torment and entertain himself with until he inevitably grew bored.