Their Thief: Redemption

Chapter 20 (Part 3)

Dark hair, dark eyes, velvety smooth lips that tasted sweeter than the words they delivered...

My heart picked up speed, sounding a call against the inside of my chest as images flashed across the back of my eyes.

I needed them. Near me, on me, whispering sweet nothings in my ear as they made everything better. And that was exactly what I needed them to do; to ease the tightness pulling my skin taunt and replace the rough touch of the sheets that felt like sandpaper against my skin. I wanted the pillowy press of his lips and the caress of his hands to replace the discomfort against my heated flesh. Flesh that felt like it wanted to tear open to feel an ounce of relief.

But we didn't always get what we wanted. I knew that better than most.

A groan made its way past my lips, slipping out when another sharp twist in my stomach had me curling over to my side. The discomfort pulled me from the clutches of sleep that had been trying to grab hold of me. It was the closest I had come to drifting off after putting my head down who knows how many hours ago. All of them had been spent tossing and turning, but I was positive I had gotten at least a moment of shut eyes this time.

The last hour had also been the worse, making the other night that was also spent chasing after sleep I never managed to catch while flashes of bare flesh invaded my mind feel tame in comparison. The filth trying to invade my mind I could push aside, but the citrus scent that had increased to invade every inch of the room and almost entirely overpower the cool winter pine? I couldn't ignore that as easily. As it bombarded my senses, the tight feeling of my skin grew worse and the heated itch that went unanswered at my core had the sheen of sweat that coated my skin thickening. My clothes and the sheets I lay tangled in couldn't help but stick to me as a result. Not that they had much of a choice given how tangled in them I was.

I pressed my lips together to muffle another moan that sounded at a sharp twist in my abdomen that was nearing pain. It took a moment for the discomfort to pass and for me to breathe again, but once I could, I was once again flooding with the citrus scent that had my stomach another sharper twist following. I couldn't contain the next moan that wanted to escape.

Everything felt wrong. Nothing that touched me was what I wanted. It wasn't him. It wasn't them.

And that just made everything worse, nearing the point of pain. Whether emotional or physical, I couldn't decipher.

The tightness over my body only continued to grow as Jace became the main occupant of my thoughts, pushing aside even his brothers as the image of his face filled my head, of his hard body, and soft lips that tasted as sweet as he smelled.

I needed him against me, over me, and under me. I wanted him on me and inside me. I needed him everywhere I could possibly have him. Everyway I could have him...

I clenched my eyes shut against the explicit imagery my mind was painting with me as a muse and hissed out a slow breath. It was just cramps, I tried to convince myself as I once again curled in on myself. My period must be near. The uncontrollable neediness and the sharp jabs were just my body telling punishing me for not having a baby while trying to push me toward the act required to create one. That's all this was.

But I knew it wasn't.

It was far from what I had been experiencing on a regular each month now. Not to mention, the cramping I was feeling was different, yet still familiar. I had experienced it before, just not as intense. When Alec's bite had freshly marked my flesh and my very being. Jace's bite added to the dwindling effects of the previous bite and the venom infecting my veins, strengthening them further than before. Dwindling effects that were already starting to restrengthen since Alec had laid his hands on me.