Aaron's Kiss Series Boxed Set (Books 1 - 7) (72 page)

The surgery was a success, the bullet had been removed, and they were pumping her full of fluids. Thomas Reilly made sure she was in a room where he could get his people there to keep an eye on her. Reilly was a vampire, David knew, but he had others, humans that he trusted to take care of his patients when he couldn’t. He was on hand to make sure Sam got the best care, and when the time was right and she was released from custody, he would see that she was transferred home into Tucker’s care.

David had an officer outside her room to keep her safe. Two armed men in such a short amount of time made him nervous. There was another officer inside the room with her on hand to ask questions when Sam woke up.

He’d had her cuffed to the bed for two reasons. One, she would leave if he hadn’t, he was sure of that, and two, she had shot a man…well, two men.

There hadn’t been any official word yet, but Sam was being charged with first degree murder in the death of Juan Hermendez until all the facts were gathered. No one believed she’d murdered him, but had only been protecting the people in the shop. By all accounts, Sam was considered a hero, and would more than likely have the charges dropped as soon as it went before a judge.

David went home and after being questioned again by his brother, he went to bed. Just before he closed his eyes, he wondered how she was being located. She had been helping women for some time, David was sure, but over the past few days, she’d had two people try and kill her.

~CHAPTER FIFTEEN~

When Sam finally opened her eyes eight hours after being brought in, she was disorientated and confused. She remembered the shooting, but very little else that happened afterwards. She moved her arm to test the wound, and was surprised to find the pain wasn’t so bad. Her right arm felt heavy, she couldn’t move it, and realized it was in a handcuff.

“How are you feeling?” Tucker moved through her mind like a caress and she had to smile, even for a moment.

“Where am I? Oh my God, the little girl, is she all right? I hurt her, Tucker.” She started to move off the bed and stopped when he spoke again.

“She’s fine, her mother too. Everyone is just fine. You didn’t tell me how you’re feeling, baby. Are you okay?”

“Just peachy, I guess.” She didn’t actually hurt all that badly. “My arm doesn’t feel so bad. Did you have anything to do with that?”

She could feel his grin. “Yeah, a little. The next time you plan on getting shot, I’ll try not to take so much of your blood, that way you’ll heal faster. You know I’ve known you two weeks and you’ve been shot twice. You do live an exciting life, love.”

“I could do with a little less excitement, thank you very much. Why are we mind melding? I can feel you are close.”

“They won’t let me see you but for ten minutes every hour until you wake up, but stay quiet for a little longer.” She felt his tension and nearly asked him when he continued. “I have some things I need to tell you so that you aren’t surprised. Though with your lifestyle, I’m sure it will be old hat. You’re under arrest for now. David seems to think that will go away when it goes before a judge in the morning. Aaron has gotten you an attorney and he is going for justifiable homicide. With all the testimony, it looks good. Sam, I’m sorry. I was so scared when I couldn’t reach you and I yelled at you. Can you forgive me?”

“Did you?” She tried to remember those minutes after she’d been shot. “I don’t remember. But I didn’t know you would be affected too when I was shot. I’m the one who is sorry. Sara. I remember her shoving a phone in my face. Boy that woman is a piece of work. She really hates me.”

“I don’t think so. She was pretty impressed with how you handled yourself. She sort of has an inside track to people’s minds, I guess, kinda like you do. That’s why you have an attorney through them; she is feeling guilty about her treatment of you.” She felt his hunger then, sharp and hot. “It’s almost time for us to come in. Why don’t you wake up now for them and we’ll be in shortly.”

Sam rolled her head to the left and opened her eyes to the officer in the chair. She had to clear her throat twice before he looked up at her. Officer Mason—this one seemed a little more on top of things—said that she was under arrest pending further investigation. He explained how she was not to leave the state, like she could, shackled to the bed like she was, and about the officer outside. When he had read her her rights, he stepped back to allow her visitors time to see her and he could call Lieutenant Wolff, he told her.

~~~

Marta opened her eyes. Something was different. She reached out in the room and found that one of the humans she had brought in the evening before was dead, the other was nearly so. To her, humans were nothing more than food anyway, cattle. There only for her pleasure and food. She didn’t even bother with trying to remember who or what they were.

Tucker James. He had finally bonded with his mate. Yes, that was what was wrong. She never thought he’d go through with it. Taking a mate was against her rules. What belonged to her belonged to her until she said otherwise.

Her pet had tried to escape her before and she thought he’d learned his lesson. Apparently not. Well, it was time to bring him home. And when she did, she would drain his mate just to prove to him who was the boss. Oh yes, Tucker was going to learn his lessons and she would be thrilled to teach them to him again.

Closing her eyes, Marta contacted her minion in Ohio. She smiled at his fear. Fear made blood so much richer than that of mere mortals. She wished suddenly that she was there with this man. Drinking from him now would be all the sweeter.

“I take it she has escaped again. You must know that I’m not pleased with your performance. I said for her to be dead, and dead soon.” She sent him a small dose of her plans for what his failure was going to cost him. She was thinking she might just kill him anyway for being stupid. “When I give an order, there is no room for stupidity. Kill her,” Marta screamed in his mind.

“My lady, she is armed all the time. I’ve sent two of the men she has wronged, but she has taken them both without any problems. And this time there was…”

“There was what? Did Tucker help her? He’d better not have had the opportunity. I told you only during sunlight. If you’ve fucked this—”

“No! No, my lady.” She loved his fear. “It’s during the day, I swear it. Today, as a matter of fact. The news is running it all the time. No, my lady, it was a surge of power. Magic. More than I’ve ever felt before. More than you have—”

“No one is stronger than me,” she shouted through their link. “I will know who dares to interfere in my work. You’ll find this person and bring them before me. And I’ll...no, it’s time I brought my Tucker home. I’ll be there soon. You’ll make sure that I’m welcomed in the way befitting me.”

The connection closed, but not before she felt his terror. Smiling, she sat back down on her bed, thinking. It was time to bring Tucker home, past time really. He would pay for this, pay for making her angry. And so would that interfering woman he thought to replace her with. No one, not even a mate, would take Marta’s place in Tucker’s life. She had made him. He was hers and hers only.

She rose from the massive bed and summoned someone to come and clean up the mess. Dead bodies were not her problem. Cleaning them up and disposing of them was not her job. She was master. There were plenty more cattle around when she needed them and didn’t give another thought to the dead bodies strewn about the room.

Marta was an older vampire, but not nearly as old as some masters. She had come into her power position by good, old fashioned lying, cheating, and black magic. She had killed more than two hundred mage, witches, and other magical beings and had absorbed their power base. Whenever she felt one enter her territory, or one was close enough, she would hunt them down and kill them. The added strength and energy they gave her kept her strong and feared. She ruled with an iron fist and a heavy hand, killing the strong as well as the weak and smashing the ones who got into her way. She often used sex, or what she considered sex, as a punishment. To her, they were one and the same.

Tucker was hers and she’d have him back. She couldn’t wait to tie him back to her bed. Just thinking about the gorgeous, superbly well-formed man made her wet with need. He could make her come more and harder than anyone else. Yes, it was time to bring him home. She reached out and summoned him, knowing full well that he wouldn’t answer. It was like a game to her, one that she had no doubt she would win.

~CHAPTER SIXTEEN~

Tucker came into her room and went directly to the bed and kissed Sam. He had never been so happy to see anyone in his entire existence. The kiss might have gone on longer had Aaron not interrupted him with a gentle but firm push.

“Hi,” Tucker said. Sam was embarrassed, but he didn’t care. He just realized he loved her, he loved her very much.

“Hi yourself. They said I was under arrest and that I couldn’t leave here.” Sam spoke to the room in general, but kept stealing glances at him. Tucker sat on her bed and pulled her onto his lap. He laughed when she struggled, but he was stronger and she was still slightly weak from all that had happened to her.

“I’m taking care of that,” Aaron told her. “I have hired you a lawyer and he’ll have you released into my custody by tomorrow afternoon. Duncan will come and get you and bring you to my home. We can care for you there, and Tucker will be able to see you.” Tucker hadn’t asked, but apparently Aaron had done so anyway.

“I don’t think so. I have a business to run.” Sam looked at him then at Aaron. “I need to be there. Thanks, but I think under the circumstances, I’d like to be at my home. Beside, before you make arrangements like that you should really clear it with your...mate? She doesn’t particularly care for me and I’m pretty sure she’d be pissed about me being there. I know I’m not real thrilled about being there.”

“Sara is the one who suggested it. Besides, it’s a moot point. You’re coming and that’s all there is to it.” Tucker nearly laughed at Sam’s expression, but thought he might live longer if he didn’t. “My way is law with my vamps and I can’t care for you or see to your wellbeing if you aren’t close.” Tucker felt Sam tense in his arms and tried to pull her back. He wondered if there would ever be a time when these two got along.

“Does that tone usually work for you? ‘Cause I gotta tell ya, it doesn’t do a thing for me.” Sam sat up in the bed and poked Aaron in the chest with her finger. “I don’t need you or anyone else ‘seeing’ to me. I’m a big girl and have been on my own, taking care of myself for a long time. So, Mr. High and Mighty, fuck off.”

Aaron just grinned at her. Even though Tucker didn’t know the master well, he could tell that this particular grin was not one he’d consider friendly. Maybe even a little scary. Sam looked as though she could give as good as she got. Tucker smiled and admitted only to himself that he was very proud of her.

“I see. Well how about this then, Sam it would please me greatly if you were to come and be a guest in our home.” His tone was sugary sweet. “You will need to heal for a few more days. And as you know, you’ve lost a great deal of blood and have been shot twice now. I think it would be very beneficial and wise of you if you were to come so that your mate, Tucker, could be with you and you two could use this time to get to know one another.” He paused, then, “Nah, I like ‘my way is law’ much better. Duncan will be here in the afternoon to collect you. Someone will go to your apartment and pack you a few belongings as well. I am master of this realm and as my newest subject, you will obey.”

Aaron just stared at Sam and before either could say anything to either of them, Tucker felt someone enter his mind.

He stiffened and stood up. He looked around the room as though he felt someone’s presence. He looked at Aaron. Tucker didn’t need to try and figure out who had invaded his mind with an iron fist. Marta. His mind seized up and his heart began to pound. He started to back away from Sam’s bed.

“Stop! What is it? You’ll tell me now, Tuck, is it her? Is she summoning you back? Answer me, damn it!” Aaron was sounding frantic, but Tucker could barely focus.

“She calls,” Tucker gasped out. “She is demanding that I return to her posthaste. And that I bring Sam with me. I cannot go, sire, she will kill her. It is forbidden for me to kill my maker and I will if she tries to harm Sam.”

Tucker was afraid to look at Sam so he watched Aaron pulled his cell phone out and called Thomas, and then he called to his mate. He needed Sam at the estate immediately and with Sara clouding everyone’s mind, and Thomas taking care of the paperwork, she would be gone within the hour, he told someone over the phone.

“What is it, Tucker, what’s happening?” Sam’s voice was as gentle as her touch. “Who is she, your wife? I don’t understand what’s happening.”

Sam was scared for him. Tucker could feel it. His fear, his hatred for his maker was tangible and he wished again that he had just left when he’d realized what Sam was to him.

“She’s my maker. She turned me. She is calling me back to her side and you with me. It is her right to demand, and I...I don’t...Sam, I cannot take you with me. She will kill you.”

“No one is going anywhere. As soon as Duncan arrives, we’re leaving. And Sam, I’d very much appreciate it if you’d just cooperate. I don’t have time to explain now, but you should know that I will do what I need to keep you both safe. I don’t like doing this, but I will command you if you don’t.”

“You know, asking someone to do something might go a lot longer toward getting cooperation than fucking acting like you’re the only one who can fix things,” Sam snapped. “I’m not stupid and I don’t appreciate you treating me like it.”

“You’re right. I’m sorry.” Aaron took a deep breath. “Please, let’s just get you both at the mansion and we’ll explain everything. Tucker is in trouble and he’s come to me for help. You were an added bonus none of us expected. I swear I will explain things when we are somewhere safe.”

Duncan and the large Hummer arrived thirty minutes later. No one seemed to notice or care that Sam was being escorted out of the building by Tucker, two very large men and one small, dapper man. Colin Larimore, a friend and master of his own realm, had come to help with the escape. Sam was thankfully silent as they moved from hospital to car. But when they got to the house, she started to protest again. Tucker pulled her into his lap.

“I don’t see what this has to do with me. I didn’t do anything to the bitch…yet anyway. Where does she get off demanding anything of anyone for that matter? It must be in the genes, that’s it. Are all vampires stubborn pains in the ass?” This last was asked just as Tucker carried her into the house.

“Mostly, yes they are,” Sara said with a great deal of humor in her voice. “In fact, now that you mention it, most bakers are as well, I’ve noticed. However, sometimes they are correct when they bully us, not so much with the bakers. Welcome to my home again, Miss Hunter. I don’t believe you’ve ever come through the front door on your own before. Must be a novel experience for you.”

Sara was waiting for them to return in the open area of the great stairs.

“To be honest, I’m not really on my own now.” Sam glared at him when Tucker set her down. “Well, it’s been very…hummm enlightening, but I got places to go and people to meet.” Sam turned to leave and walked into Tucker’s large chest. “Tucker, I have to go home. I don’t belong here.”

“You’re mine, Sam. You do belong here. You belong where I am and I, you. Come with me, we need to talk. Sire? I need to talk to all of you, if you please?”

He took her hand and they both followed the master and Sara into the living room. There was a nice fireplace that had a very low but warm fire. Everyone took their seats. Only Tucker stood.

“Sam and I have mated and now my maker is demanding that I return to her and bring my mate with me,” he started in a rush. “She is a horrible being who lives off the misery of those she commands. I came here because I had heard about what you as master had done for Dominic Marshall. Most of us have waited for someone like you for nearly all of our lives and had hoped to have you petition for my release. I have...I had a great many things to bring to you; I have many talents as an older vampire. I have many abilities that older ones do not. But I cannot bring this to your realm. Had I only myself to ask, I would, but I have a mate now. I would ask that you please accept my offer from before, and care for Sam. I will return to Marta this evening. You are a great leader among our kind.” He started to leave, to take Sam with him to the lair and spend the night making love to her, but she had other things in mind. And she spoke before Aaron could.

~~~

“Who the hell do you think you are?” Sam had had enough of these people telling her what was best for her. “You think that because we had a good time in the sack you can just dump me with a bunch of strange bloodsuckers and saunter off into the sunset? No offense, Mr. Master Person.” She directed this last bit to Aaron, who was doing everything in his power not to burst out laughing. Why, she couldn’t tell, but waited for his answer. Sam had Tucker backed up against the wall and was punctuating each word with a sharp poke to his chest. She was going to have her say, damn it.

“Oh I assure you, none taken.”

With a nod, she continued. “I may not take my lunch from someone’s neck, but I do have resources to take care of myself, and you as well if I have to, you stupid jerk. If you think for one second that I’m gonna just be the type of woman who says, ‘oh my, take care of me you big brute of a man,’ honey, you so don’t know me.”

She turned to glare at Colin who was literally rolling on the floor, tears streaming down his cheeks he was laughing so hard. Shade, his mate, Sam had been told, was stuffing a couch pillow in her face and making weird gulping noises. Aaron and Sara were leaning on each other, trying very hard not to look like they were laughing, but only succeeded in making themselves look constipated.

“What’s wrong with you people?” she asked the room. She didn’t understand these beings. She was trying to be serious and make the stupid man understand she didn’t need him or anyone else for that matter, and they were laughing. This was obliviously vampire humor and beyond her understanding. As she turned to go, Tucker scooped her up in his arms, and with a raised brow to Aaron, he took her to the sublevels and the rooms he had been given.

“I think you need—”

His mouth was covering hers, taking her, tasting her. He began pulling at her clothes. First, the shirt came off, which didn’t fare any better than the one before. He was dipping his head down to her bare breasts and pulling one deeply into his mouth, tormenting her erect nipple with his tongue. When she had left the hospital, no one had brought her anything of her own to wear home. She was wearing something Tucker had brought her from Shade, he’d told her. Sam hoped that Shade hadn’t been too terribly attached to them as there were now in shreds.

She could feel her body responding to his sensual assault. Her pants were suddenly too tight, too heavy. She wanted to touch him, needed to feel his skin against her.

“Tucker, please, I need...I need something more.”

She tore at his shirt, ripping the material as if it were no more than tissue paper, need giving her strength she had no idea she had. When she had it off, she leaned forward and took his hard nipple into her mouth and bit him, bit him hard, drawing a small drop of blood to the surface. He reached behind her to her pants and buried his hands down into them, pulling her up to his cock, which was hard and hot against her soft folds. She wrapped her legs around him, and held on while riding him up and down his cock with the power of her legs.

He started toward the bed, but she needed him now. When he stopped and pulled her legs from his hips and slid her down his body, she started pulling at his belt. He moved her hands, dropped to his knees in front of her, and yanked her pants off quickly. He buried his mouth against her pussy and sucked her into his mouth, panties and all. She screamed out as the sensations of what he was doing to her pulsed through her body. When Tucker lifted her leg, positioned it over his shoulder, and tore the material from his goal, she grabbed a handful of his hair and held on. Her pussy gushed with her cream; a small trickle of it ran down her thigh. More of her juices gushed as his head lowered to her.

Tucker lapped at her, even as he inserted a finger into her heat. He once again tongued her clit, and suckled it. When she started moving against his fingers and his mouth, he inserted a second, then third into her. She was close to coming and he’d not even entered her yet.

“Baby, I want to feed from you. I want to feed from you pussy. Let me bite you, taste you.” He teased her clit, driving her closer to the edge.

“Yes, oh God, Tucker. Bite me, feed from me.” Her knees weakened at the thought of him biting her there. Biting her and drinking from her.

The pain was immense but over quickly. It was replaced by the most intense orgasm she had ever had. When he drew her clit and her blood into his mouth and swallowed, she came again, still rocking from the first one. Her knees buckled now and had he not lowered her to the floor, she would have fallen. He never stopped and before he licked the small wound to seal it, Sam had come four more times. But he wasn’t finished with her yet.

Tucker leaned back on his heels, her cum and juices glistening on his chin and lips, and stroked his engorged cock. The blood filled head was as big as a large plum. The tip was leaking cum, and the desire to taste him overwhelmed her. She sat up quickly and reached for him, taking him into her mouth before he could stop her, not that he could have. When he started gently fucking her hot wet mouth, she moaned.

He started to pull away, but she growled at him. He pushed harder into her, not being gentle now. Suddenly, he jerked her away by grabbing a handful of her hair and turned her around. While she was up on her hands and knees, he rammed his cock deep into her pussy. He pulled out nearly to the tip and rammed into her again. Again and again, he’d pull out just to the head and slam hard into her. Reaching around to her pussy, he pinched the small exposed piece of flesh, leaned down, bit her on the shoulder, and came, jerking and pulsing in her hard over and over until he dropped on top of her, her own climax still singing through her body.