Devoured Read online

  “Why?” His eyes were blazing but his voice was soft. He stroked one long finger over her knee, making her shiver again. “You know I love your taste.”

  “I…I know…” She hesitated, nibbling at her lower lip while her heart pounded. Should she tell him?

  Garron inhaled deeply and then gave her an intense, half-lidded look.

  “I can smell your desire, lin’del. Part of you wants this. What’s holding you back?”

  Tess sighed. “Just…a bad memory I suppose. Look.” She sat up all the way and parted her thighs. “See this?” She pointed to the small, white scar on her inner thigh, right below her panty line. It was shaped like a double crescent—almost an oval marking her flesh.

  “I noticed it the first time I saw you. Back when I thought you were a Pairing Puppet.” Garron stroked the scar gently with his fingertip and Tess closed her thighs again, moving away from his touch. He didn’t comment on the way she’d inched away from him. “What happened there?” he murmured, raising his eyes to hers.

  Tess took a deep breath. God, it was hard to tell this. No harder than what she’d told the night before but still…it was an old pain she would have rather kept buried.

  “It happened on my honeymoon—right after Pierce and I got married,” she said, looking down at the silvery blue bedcovering. “Someone had given us a copy of The Joy of Sex as a joke. It’s a book about different sexual positions,” she explained, when Garron frowned uncertainly. “Anyway, I guess whoever gave it to us thought they were being funny but they outlined some stuff in it—mostly the, uh, chapter on, uh…going down.”

  “The male tasting his female, you mean?” He raised an eyebrow.

  “Uh-huh.” Tess nodded, plucking aimlessly at the bedcovering. “Pierce saw it and acted like he…well, he acted like he liked it. Like he really wanted to do it. I never…” She cleared her throat. “Never really had a guy, you know, do that to me much. I mean, I had a boyfriend in college but we never…he didn’t express interest in that, so…”

  “But Pierce did?” He frowned.

  “Yeah but it turned out he just…wanted to teach me a lesson.” Tess squeezed her eyes shut, wishing she could forget. “He got me all relaxed, just like the book said. He was, um, stroking my thighs and saying things like, ‘Is this what you want? Is this how you like it?’ I…I hadn’t been with him long. And up until we were married he was still…I guess still trying to keep his true nature under wraps.”

  “Because you never would have committed yourself to such a male if he had shown you his true self.” Garron’s voice was a low, dangerous growl.

  “Right.” Tess swallowed hard. “Anyway…he had me all…all open and…and vulnerable. And then he just…”

  “Just what?” His eyes were glowing again, the rage bubbling just under the surface.

  “He bit me,” Tess said flatly. “Really hard. Hard enough to draw blood.”

  “Hard enough to leave a scar.” Garron’s deep voice was hoarse. “Gods, how could he?”

  Tess shrugged unhappily. “Like I said, he was teaching me a lesson—his kind of lesson.”

  “What did he think he could teach by hurting you so? By savaging you?” Garron’s deep voice sounded strangled, as though he was trying to control his anger. “The bastard,” he growled.

  “He told me only whores and sluts wanted…that done to them. He said I was disgusting to even let him get his face anywhere near my…down there.” Tess could feel her cheeks heating with a miserable, embarrassed blush but she couldn’t help it. “I…bled for the rest of our honeymoon but what hurt more than the pain was the sense of…of betrayal. I couldn’t believe I had married a man who could be so cruel.” A jagged little laugh escaped her. “Of course later, I found out how much worse he could be. But that was the first time. My first clue. God…” She put a hand over her face. “I should have gotten out right then. Why didn’t I?”

  “You didn’t want to believe it. Didn’t want to believe he was a monster.” Garron pulled her hand gently from her face and lifted her chin. “Tess, you don’t have to be ashamed to tell me this.”

  “I can’t help it.” She ran a hand through her hair. “He just…made me feel so dirty. So…unworthy of love. Especially…that kind of love.” She looked at him pleadingly. “I’m really sorry but you understand, don’t you? Why I can’t let you…do that.”

  “I understand your ex-mate was a sadistic bastard.” He sighed and shook his head. “We have to stop talking about him. It makes me too angry—brings the dr’gin too close to the surface.”

  “I’m sorry,” Tess said at once. “I shouldn’t have told you.”

  “No, I wanted to know.” He put one large, warm hand on her arm. “Can I see it again? The scar?”

  “I…guess so.” Reluctantly, Tess unlocked her legs and opened them until the white, crescent shaped scar on her inner thigh was visible. Garron studied it, being careful not to touch, and Tess looked too, even though she didn’t want to. Looking at it too closely seemed to bring back the awful night she’d gotten it.

  She could still remember everything—the sudden, bright pain she had been totally unprepared for because she had been anticipating only pleasure. Her utter disbelief and horror when Pierce’s teeth had locked into her flesh…the way she had screamed and writhed and begged, trying to push him off. And somehow worst of all, his angry, bloody grin when he finally let go and looked up at her.

  “That’s what you get, Princess! For wanting to be a little whore. For acting like a dirty slut. That’s right—that’s what you are—just a dirty slut. I would never put my face between your filthy whore legs. You’re lucky I put my cock there!”

  “Tess…” Garron’s voice called her back and she looked up at him.

  “Yes?”

  “Don’t,” he murmured. He cupped her cheek and brushed away a tear that had escaped down her cheek with his thumb. “Don’t think about it. About him.”

  “I’m trying not to but it’s hard. I’m sorry.” Tess sniffed, her eyes burning, and started to close her legs again. Garron stopped her with a hand on her knee.

  “Please don’t. Can I…” He looked at her, his eyes glowing softly. “Can I kiss you there? On your scar? If I promise to be very, very gentle?”

  She shook her head. “I’m just…I’m not sure why you’d want to.”

  “I want to heal you…or at least try to,” he murmured.

  “But…isn’t the scar too old?”

  “This isn’t the only scar you bear.” He touched the white crescent lightly. Tess jumped a little but didn’t move away this time. “I just… I want to try and erase his mark on you. If not physically, then in other ways.”

  “Oh Garron, honey…” The sincerity in his eyes made Tess feel like she was melting inside. Against her better judgment, she felt the fist of tension that had been building in the pit of her stomach from the first time his lips had brushed too near her panties, begin to loosen.

  “Please?” he murmured, stroking the top of her thigh. “You know I’ll never hurt you, Tess.”

  “I…all right.” Tess’s heart was beating hard as she leaned back against the silver-blue beanbag bed. It seemed to adapt to her movements, cradling her in a semi-upright position so she could see what was going on. Tess supposed that was best. She felt more in control, less vulnerable like this. She still didn’t fully understand why it was so important to Garron to be allowed to kiss the old hurt but if he really wanted to, she found it easier to relax this way.

  The big Kindred was also getting into position. As the beanbag bed helped Tess stay upright, it seemed to support him as he got to his knees in front of her.

  Tess felt her heart stutter in her chest as he placed one big hand on the inside of her knee, urging her to let her legs fall open. She complied—halfway. Bending her right knee, she let it fall to one side, exposing the ugly little scar.

  “Oh, lin’del,” he murmured softly. Then gently, almost reverently, he leaned down and pressed