Mates; True and Eternal by Amy Thomas Page A

where she took in air, where life was lived and love resided bountiful and true, had bars around its walls tonight.  The bars weren’t made of metal like the cage she’d locked her paven in a short time ago, but they were thick and impenetrable nonetheless.  Alexander loved her – she knew this deep within herself, never questioned it, not even for a moment.  But she had believed that his love might grow to encompass a balas at some point.  It had been her silent prayer, her truest hope.
    But after his words tonight, that hope had died.
    From behind the desk in her office, she sat up straight and tried like hell to focus on the patient charts before her.  The names written in red and black ink ran together like blood and oil, and she felt the tips of her fangs twitch.  The damn things wanted to extend.  They wanted inside flesh, inside vein.  They wanted blood.
    They wanted their master.
    She closed her eyes.

    Sara jerked upright, her eyes flying open.  She still wasn’t used to her mate’s gifts.

    Oh, god.  Alexander.  His voice boomed through her system, making her skin tingle, her mind weaken.  With clenched teeth, she shook her head.  Why couldn’t he leave her alone?  Just for a moment.  Just so she could get a hold of herself – let her anger subside.  Let her dreams of having a balas at her breast fade.

    A shudder moved through her heart, circled and moved downward.  She glanced up, at the door – closed, at the lamp – dimmed.

    She did.  But she hadn’t left him in the cage to punish him, only to separate herself from him.  To release herself from his power, his delicious control over her body, her skin.  But there was no stopping him – no stopping the dark magic of his voice. Even the tiny heartbeat inside her clit quickened to meet it again.  As she sat there on her office chair, her anger began to fuse with her desire.  Soon she would be completely lost to it.

    Sara realized she had dropped back against the chair, and her hand was flat against her belly, her fingers pointing downward like an arrow.

    Sara’s breath grew ragged and rough as she unbuttoned her jeans, fumbling with the zipper.  Damn him, she thought, even as she whispered his name.   Damn their bond and the need her body, her skin, her mind demanded from his vampire – and always would.  No matter their arguments, their conflicting choices, she belonged to him utterly and completely.

    Beyond reasonable thought now, Sara shook her head, just as her body shook, ached.   She shifted down on the chair, lifted her buttocks, squeezed her hips.   She could see him, leaning back against the bars of his cell, his nude body rich with sweat, each drop clinging to muscle and bone like a lover.  Her tongue swiped at her lower lip then, as she imagined licking off every salty bit.
    Her hand inched lower, gripping the top of her pelvic bone.   Her fingers were greedy to touch, and her clit cried out for his voice, more of his voice – and the sexual play in her head.

    Oh god.  Her hips jerked.

    Her hand was lost inside her underwear, her fingers dipping between the wet folds, searching...searching for the swollen, aching – - .

    Eyes closed, knowing the door to her office was unlocked and available to anyone who wished to walk through it, Sara groaned her pleasure.  As Alexander spoke, she circled her wet clit – seeing him in her mind, seeing his tongue playing her body as her hands were now.

    It wasn’t a question, but she answered it anyway.
    “ Yes,” she uttered, breathless.

    Her breathing jumped, caught in her throat as she flicked the tender, aching bud over and over.

    Her hand began to shake.

    All thoughts in Sara’s mind evaporated as she followed his command, leaving her clit and thrusting one long finger up inside her cunt. 
    She gasped at the sensation.
    Hot.  Wet.  
    Ready.

    Tonight.  She tried shaking her head, but it wouldn’t budge.  She felt drunk, on fire, her finger buried