GALEN

I can still smell Reese’s perfume on my skin days after I had her in my bed. She’s intoxicating. Deadly. Dangerous to both of us, because I want her more than I’ve ever wanted anything.

 

I’ve been following her since I agreed to let her be, since Devin told me about the Watcher inside me. I have to let her go, but that doesn’t mean I have to stop thinking of her.

 

Lying in my bed, I palm my aching shaft, desperate for some relief. I close my eyes and force myself to take long breaths I don’t need. Before long, I’m in a state of semi-consciousness, almost like a dream. But vampires don’t dream. When we sleep we’re dead to the world.

 

My body reacts the instant I see her. Reese is draped across a concrete bench in the middle of a dark, mist covered garden. Roses bloom all around us even in the night.

 

“Where have you been, Galen? I’ve been waiting for you.” Her voice runs over me like warm silk.

 

“I’ve been…protecting you.”

 

“From what?”

 

A voice in my head, unfamiliar and dark says, me. You’ve been protecting her from me. I push it back, not willing to let anything else get in the way of my claim on Reese.

 

“Come here to me,” I say, holding out a hand. “I need you.”

 

She does, her long legs visible from the thigh high slit in her white silk nightgown. “God, Galen. I need you.”

 

My cock is aching to be buried inside her heat. My fangs too, desperate for her blood. I could turn her, make her mine forever, but then she’d lose her soul and likely hate me for eternity. Would it be worth it if I got to keep her? She doesn’t let me think on that farther, instead taking my lips with hers as she wraps her body around my much larger form.

 

“Inside.” Her breathy moan against my mouth has me gripping her gown and tearing the silk straight down the middle. She doesn’t mean she wants me to take her inside. This woman wants me inside her.

 

I run my hand down between her breasts, over her belly and between her thighs where I find her wet, ready, and swollen for me. My fingers glide over her clit and sink deep inside her hot pussy. “Fucking hell, a ghra. You’re still so tight.”

“Galen,” she moans.

 

Her palm finds my shaft and she strokes over my trousers. I curse the damn fabric and wish I’d seen fit to have worn anything with easier access. But my Reese has nimble fingers and before long, it’s her bare skin on mine, stroking and sending waves of need straight to my balls. I’m harder than stone and ready to come right fucking now.

 

“I’m not going to last if you keep doing that,” I warn.

 

“Then you’d better have your way with me, because I love to hear the sound you make when I make you come.”

 

God in Heaven. With a harsh growl, I bend her over the stone bench and kick her feet apart, spreading her perfect legs so her pink cunt is on display for me and me alone. But first, God, first I have to taste her. I fall to my knees and trail kisses up her quivering thighs until I reach her center. My tongue licks and swirls as she moans and bucks under my attention. When I can feel her orgasm hovering just on the edge of release, I stop, leaving her begging for more. Then I rise, line my cock up with her entrance, and plunge deep inside the woman I can’t live without.

 

Even in a dream, I know I’ll never be able to leave her. She is mine. The Watcher can’t have her. He’ll have to kill me first.

 

My orgasm builds and I moan her name as I spill myself deep inside her.

When my eyes snap open, I’m still in my room, sated and spent, with Reese’s scent even stronger than it was before.

 

There’s a knock on my door, and Devin’s slow drawl filters to my ears. “Are you done in there? I need to talk to you, but I’m not ready to take our relationship to the jerk-off buddy stage.” Then I hear him mutter, “Especially since you’re the only one who can do that. Lucky Irish bastard.”

 

I stand and walk to the bathroom, needing to clean up before I see my friend. “Just a minute.”

 

As I stare at myself in the mirror, I wonder how I’ll be able to fight this need if Reese haunts me at every turn.

 

That voice in my head, just a whisper, says, she’s mine.

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