Taboo Kisses(37)
“You crazy bitch. Shut. Up.” Sameya pushed to her feet. Maximus sat back, but grasped her hand to keep her close and away from Gabby. But he had no intentions of stopping her from putting her future mother-in-law in her place. It was the only way the shifter woman would ever respect her. “I’m not weak in magic. You are. I could manipulate you like a twisty tie if I were so inclined.”
“Which you’re not motivated to do.” Maximus wasn’t entirely certain she hadn’t already utilized her siren spell against the other woman with the way her jaws flapped in shock.
Sameya didn’t spare him a glance, but held Gabby’s gape. “I’m a siren, which means you’d be eating your last breath by the time you realized I was there.”
“A reaper.” His mother-in-law’s hand flew to her throat.
His reaper gave Gabby a tight smile. “I would strongly caution against anyone laughing at Gabriel because of me. I’ll reap them without a thought.”
“Neither will you alter her hair, Mother.” Maximus waggled his eyebrows at Gabriel as he sauntered into the room. Sameya stiffened, but otherwise didn’t acknowledge his sudden appearance. “Or anything else for that matter. She’s perfect the way she is.”
The tiger walked straight to their mate, kicked the chair away and aligned his chest with her spine. His arms went around her waist, but their little mate remained inflexible, and Maximus had the feeling she allowed his touch only because of Gabby’s presence.
“Congratulate us on finding her. She completes us. And you know how long we’ve been waiting for her.” Gabriel nuzzled her neck, but not the side where he’d bitten her.
Smart move, lover, don’t draw attention to your recent mistake.
“Yes. Well…yes.” His mother-in-law rose to her feet. She smoothed her skirt even though there wasn’t a wrinkle in place. “I should be going. You’re newly mated and….” She wouldn’t meet their eyes as she cleared her throat.
“You’re right,” Maximus reclined in his seat, enjoying Gabby’s discomfort. “Newly mated pairs are compelled to fuck nonstop.”
She flashed him a shocked expression. “Maximus!”
He chuckled and blew her a kiss. “I love you, Gabby.”
She walked stiffly around the end of the table and touched his cheek. “I love you, you rascal, even though I abhor those tacky things in your nipples. Won’t you consider removing them?”
“I like his piercings.” Sameya met the other woman’s stare with a challenge in her eyes.
Fuck the siren had his cock twitching again.
“I’ll walk you out, Mother.” As Gabriel stepped away from Sameya, he held his arm out to his mother and waited until she placed her palm in the crook of his elbow.
“It was a…delight, Sameya.” A little too late she remembered her manners. “I’ll relate your unique charm to Gabriel’s father.”
Maximus rolled his eyes.
A saucy grin hit his siren’s mouth. “I’m memorable like that.”
Gabby opened and closed her mouth a few times, before settling on snapping her teeth together. He didn’t think he’d ever seen the woman silenced by anyone before. What a priceless moment. Gabriel shot him an amused grin as they exited the kitchen.
Chapter Fifteen
The instant the door shut, Maximus peeked at Sameya. Her two-toned waist-length hair hugged her curves. His shirt hid those curves, but he knew what lay beneath the garment. When he stripped it off of her later, she would smell like him. That appealed to the possessive vampyr and would please Gabriel, too. “I’ve never seen anyone put Gabby in her place before.”
“Is she always that bitchy?”
“She grows on you.”
Sameya made a face. “So does fungus, and I don’t like it.”
He laughed. “She’ll be the perfect mother-in-law from here on out.”
That title had her fingers touching the shirt where the bite was located.
“The mating-mark will fade.” Eventually. “You didn’t accept it, so it’s not permanent.”
Sameya crossed her arms in a defensive gesture.
Her silence felt like a bad omen. “I would like to point out that I bit you, and you didn’t freak out.”
“You didn’t try to force a mating. He did. If I wasn’t wearing this”—she yanked on the gem encrusted collar—“I’d kill him for what he attempted. At the very least, I’d make him miserable.”
“He’s already miserable.”
“Not nearly enough.”
Maximus elevated an eyebrow. She might possess a bigger taste for blood than he did, and he survived off the elixir. He rolled out of his chair and moved to the refrigerator. “So, tell me about yourself.”