Healed Hearts Read online

  Maryanne moved to her bed and pulled back the covers. Perfect. Threadbare white sheets. She began tearing them into strips and tying them together.

  Through her mind floated memories of her past. Her parents, who had never wanted her. How they had neglected her throughout her entire life. If it hadn’t been for pleasant governesses and lovely servants she would have grown up completely alone.

  Was it any wonder that she had fallen for the loathsome Lord Canning? She had desperately wanted to believe that he loved her and had given him her most prized possession in order to keep him. Her virtue.

  She stopped her work and sighed.

  How stupid she had been.

  A pull deep in her belly reminded her to keep working. She had found the men who would love her. She didn’t care that society would never sanction their union.

  And amazingly, she actually enjoyed the feeling of them feeding on her blood.

  She had never felt loved, not once in her life, until the moment all three of her men had touched her. It had been the most powerful, and life-altering moment of her life.

  She glanced at the clock and tested each of the knots. She pulled the blankets back up the bed and hid the sheet ladder under the chaise lounge.

  The sun would go down. It always did. One of the few constants in life. A few more hours was all she had to wait. They would come. She knew they would.

  But if Hugh or any of the servants gave her any indication that he would hurt her again, she would escape. Her life meant something now, and she was not disappointing her men.

  Chapter Five

  Piers awoke just at sunset as he always did, fear sliding through him like a knife through butter. Something was wrong with Maryanne.

  Now that they had tasted her blood, mated with her flesh, they could feel her so much better. She was in pain.

  He shook his mates awake and crawled up and out of the cellar they had hid in during the day.

  “Something’s wrong,” Thomas called from lower down.

  “I know, Tommy,” Piers replied, his teeth clenched as he inhaled.

  “I can smell her trail. Let’s go.”

  They ran past the hotel where they had left her and back towards the castle they had first taken her from.

  “He’s taken her back again,” Lucas yelled out over the wind as they ran.

  Sick fear settled into Piers’ belly like a rotten piece of meat. He would kill the bastard if he hurt her.

  His mates had been searching for centuries for him and then Maryanne. He knew his own anger, he could not fathom how Tommy and Luc must be feeling.

  They could not lose her now.

  He wouldn’t survive.

  They wouldn’t survive without her now that they had finally found her.

  When they reached the castle, they scaled the outside of the castle walls and into her unlocked window faster than the night before.

  His heart pounding as though it would burst through his chest, Piers landed on the carpet as softly as he could.

  “Piers!” Maryanne cried as she flew across the room and into his arms.

  Relief like none other filled him up and pushed the threatening blackness away. Was this how his mates must have felt when he was human? What a terrible feeling, to be so scared all the time that your fragile human would not be there when you awoke.

  He needed to apologise to them later. He’d really had no idea.

  But for now, he needed to focus on Maryanne. He pulled back from their embrace and kissed her hard, but she yelped in pain.

  His heart cracked with torture that he had hurt her. “Maryanne! I’m so sorry... I...” He pulled back to apologise for being too forceful with her and cupped her beautiful face. That’s when he saw the darkened swelling on her cheek.

  Her eyelids fluttered closed and she covered his hand with hers. “It probably looks worse than it is.”

  He couldn’t stop the feral growl that rose through his throat. The bastard had hit her.

  He moved slowly, afraid he’d injure his mate in his rage. He handed her to Thomas as the muscles in his back bunched.

  Anger, as he had never felt before, boiled in his blood. Even over all the years he had unjustly hated Tommy and Luc for turning him, he had never felt like this. Pure rage filled him, burning through his soul.

  Piers forced a smiled to his face and a pleasant tone into his voice. “Take her for a moment, Tommy. I will be right back.”

  “Piers...” Lucas’ warning was clear, and Piers ignored it. Luc didn’t need to worry. He could be deadly quiet if necessary.

  “Get some snow on her face, Luc. I will be right back.”

  Piers snuck down two flights of stairs and inhaled the musty air around him.

  He could smell the bastard. Maryanne’s fiancé reeked of whiskey and dirty sweat, a terrible combination.

  He crept down the hallway and found Maryanne’s attacker in his library, drinking away what was left of his life.

  Piers walked around the front of the loathsome toad and made sure the old goat could see him. Then, when the man gasped in shock, Piers picked him up by the neck and looked him straight in the eye.

  “You deserve to die for hurting Maryanne.”

  The man began to gasp for air, and Piers exposed his fangs. The idea of having the man’s blood inside him made his belly churn, so he pulled them back.

  There were other ways to hurt the bastard.

  Instead, he punched him, hard, in the belly. The man choked and his eyes crossed from the pain. Piers threw him to the ground, then stomped his foot down, hard, in the middle of his spine. He heard a nice bone-breaking crack and the man cried out.

  Hmm... That would be enough. If he survived the day, he’d never walk again.

  Satisfied his mate was avenged, he flew back upstairs and took Maryanne into his arms. Lucas gave him a quizzical look, but Piers ignored it as he sat down and kissed Maryanne’s fiery red hair.

  “I am so sorry we left you unprotected today, my love.”

  Maryanne looked up at him and opened her mouth to ask a question. Then she wisely chose to shut it again. It was better that she didn’t know, soft-hearted creature that she was.

  “Take me home? Please.”

  He couldn’t think of anything he’d like better. He picked her up into his arms.

  She weighed practically nothing, but that weight was still the most comforting feeling to him in the world. He never wanted to experience again the fear he had felt on waking today. They had to turn her as soon as possible. Either that, or find a way of keeping her safe.

  They needed a bodyguard. Perhaps Abigail would have a solution.

  Lucas threw a blanket over her, and together they ran back to the room where they first made love to her.

  Thomas attempted to take Maryanne off him, but Piers shook his head and sat down in the chair with her.

  He was struggling to process the amount of feelings coursing through his body. The relief was sweet, but with it came the realisation of what may have happened to her in their absence.

  He squeezed her plump body, the weight of his relief translating into a pain that he could not suppress. They could have lost her. They had failed her when she needed them. It hurt more than he thought anything could.

  MARYANNE WAS ENJOYING the feeling of being held by Piers. His arms made her feel safe, loved.

  But something happened, and she felt his muscles begin to quake beneath her body. She glanced up into his face and saw the tears begin to fall. Then his body began to shake with suppressed sobs.

  She gripped him tightly to her, held his head to her bosom and cradled him. He didn’t stop, and his pain broke her heart.

  “Piers, it’s fine. I’m all right, really. It’s only a little bruise. Please stop.”

  He nestled his head into her even harder and kept crying.

  Maryanne rocked him and waited. She glanced over at Lucas and Thomas, who both looked just as worried as she was. They exchanged a look, then both sat on
the bed and waited.

  Maryanne didn’t know what to think. Had she said something wrong? Was this a new problem? Or one of long standing?

  “Piers, tell me what is it? Please.”

  She pulled his beautiful face up to hers, blood-red tears still coursing down his cheeks. She kissed his soft, thick lips once and pulled back to stare at him again.

  “Did I do something wrong?”

  His eyes widened with shock, and he shook his head, his tears drying up as he took a few deep breaths.

  “No, Maryanne, you don’t understand.”

  She wiped his tears from his face and kissed him again. The pain he was so obviously feeling broke her heart.

  When his breathing began to normalise she said, “Then explain, please.”

  He fixed her with an intense stare, as though deciding whether she was serious.

  “You are our fourth, the one who completes us.”

  Maryanne flushed, her face burning with the heat of her discomfort. Despite the fact this was not new knowledge, she still found it a wonderful and strange concept.

  She truly loved the idea of them wanting her and needing her so much that their very lives seemed incomplete without her.

  “Yes, you already told me that. I love that.”

  Piers nodded, and a single tear rolled down his cheek. “What we didn’t tell you is that most vampire unions are three, not four. So, when Tommy and Luc found me ten years ago they thought I would be enough for them. That our union would complete us.”

  Maryanne frowned. Did that mean that Piers was jealous of her?

  “I’m sorry, Piers.”

  “No, no. You don’t understand. I have lived with the anger and guilt for ten long years. Of not being enough, not being right for them.”

  At this, Thomas and Lucas knelt on either side of them, a hand on Piers shoulder, one on her knee. Pleasure swept through Maryanne as the four of them were connected.

  “It was never like that.” Tommy said

  “We never felt that way.” Luc re-iterated.

  Piers smiled sadly at their men. “I know.”

  Then Piers turned to her once again. “I didn’t realize we needed you. And now that we have you and you are safe... I need to ask you, for all of us, will you mate with us? Bond with us?”

  Maryanne laughed and threw her arms around Piers’ neck. Was that really the problem? He was worried she wouldn’t choose them? After she had shared her body with all three of them last night? After they had rescued her not once, but twice? How could he doubt how she felt?

  “Of course, I will. You complete me as well.”

  She grabbed Piers’ head and pulled him into her. She needed them all. She ached for them with an intensity that was stifling.

  “Please,” she panted. “Please, can we make love? All of us, together.”

  Her three men looked at each other with a look of pure wonder, and she felt Piers grow hard beneath her bottom. Power made her head giddy. To think she had believed her parents’ rejection had made her worthless. These men made all of her other concerns meaningless.

  “You mean you want us all to make love to you again?”

  Maryanne blushed. No, she wanted them all to make love together. The memory of the way Lucas had loved Thomas had imprinted on her mind. It had kept her going throughout her ordeal today. She wanted that.

  “No, I want you to make love how you would have before you met me, but just include me. If that’s possible?”

  She wasn’t sure it was, all of a sudden. What did she know of the ways of the world?

  Lucas leant forward and kissed her, pressing her lips apart and delving between them in answer to her request. She clung to his shoulders as he lifted her up from Piers’ lap.

  Lucas held her whilst he stood, and she wrapped her legs around his waist and moaned. She wanted them so much. All of them.

  He broke off their kiss. “This is what you truly want?”

  “Oh, yes, please. I’m not your centre. I am an equal part of the four, and I want our lovemaking to be like that.”

  She looked at the other two men, who were now naked. How did they undress so fast?

  Their members were lengthening before her very eyes.

  Her mouth ached to taste them.

  The old Maryanne would have cringed at the very thought, but now she was free. Free to be as passionate and giving as she wanted, with no repercussions or abuse from anyone, ever again.

  “Put me down, Lucas.”

  She wanted to fulfil every single, dirty, crazy craving her mind could conjure.

  She unwound her legs from his waist and when her feet hit the floor, she moved over to where Piers and Thomas stood. She dropped to her knees before them.

  “I want to taste you both.”

  They stepped together and closer so she could touch them at the same time.

  She reached out with hands that trembled and wrapped a palm around each of them. They shuddered and moaned at her touch, which gave her more confidence. How exactly did one do this?

  She leant forward and kissed Thomas’ first, then Piers’. They had given her so much pleasure last night. She wanted desperately to return the favour.

  Maryanne opened her lips and sucked Thomas’ head into her mouth. The taste was so unusual, salty even. And so warm. His skin was so lovely and silky, his length so hard beneath the softness.

  He rocked his hips gently, so she opened her mouth and let him thrust into her. He moaned and threaded his fingers into her hair.

  So that’s what he wants.

  She moved her lips and tongue on Thomas with purpose until he moaned and pulled away from her. She smiled to herself, feeling pure feminine pleasure as she turned to Piers and did the same thing to him.

  Lucas moved and Maryanne watched as he lined up next to Piers, naked also, but silent. She laughed with true delight.

  She could get used to this. The power of pleasure, the need they felt for her. She turned her body and beckoned to the oldest, her gentle giant. Lucas moved straight to her and pushed his member past her lips.

  “God, that looks so hot,” Maryanne heard Piers murmur behind her. She loved how he was able to talk during this. Blushing with pride, she got to her feet and indicated her clothes.

  “I am a little overdressed for this party. Wouldn’t you agree?”

  They had her naked in moments, her dress simply disappearing as though it had never been.

  But once again, Maryanne felt like the centre of their attention. They weren’t loving one another, only her. And she knew that to be wrong.

  “How long have you three known each other?” she asked them, running a hand over Thomas’ chest.

  “Over three-hundred years, Lucas and I have been together. Piers joined us over ten years ago.”

  She shuddered at the imagery floating through her mind. So many years, so much love. Not only did she not want to ruin their relationship, she wanted to be a part of it. A balanced, complete circle.

  She pointed to the bed. “I need to watch you together. I’ll join in once I’m ready.”

  They all looked at one another and she could see how shocked they all were at the request.

  Maryanne walked away with a smile and sat down in the chair. She was very conscious of her large breasts and soft tummy, yet did not want to undermine their love for her by hiding beneath a blanket.

  One by one, they climbed on to the bed and just stared at each other for a moment.

  She waited. Would they do as she asked?

  Lucas eventually reached out a hand and pulled Thomas close. Their lips met, and a deep pull tugged in her belly.

  Piers moved around behind Thomas and began pressing kisses to his back and reaching around and playing with his nipples.

  Thomas moaned and that sound went straight through Maryanne. Her nipples began to tingle and she wiggled in her chair, heat flowing between her thighs.

  Thomas began moving his pelvis so that his member rubbed against Lucas’, like
two duelling swords.

  Piers pushed on Thomas’s back and grabbed the bottle of oil. Maryanne could smell their arousal, sense their urgency. It affected her body in the same way.

  “I want you, Tommy. Suck Luc’s cock for me and open your legs.”

  Thomas moved back with alacrity, opening his legs for Piers and taking Lucas into his mouth.

  A new gush of wetness soaked the seat beneath Maryanne, and she stood up, her nipples aching. She couldn’t sit back and watch any longer.

  Maryanne stepped close to the bed and watched as Piers opened up Thomas’s arse cheeks, oiled his hole, and thrust all the way in.

  Thomas cried out around Lucas’ cock.

  Maryanne whimpered. That looked amazing, and she wanted to be a part of it.

  The three of them turned their heads to look at her, and it was Lucas who held out his hand.

  “Are you joining us now, my love?”

  She nodded and moved on to the bed to take Thomas’s position. Dropping down on to her hands and knees, she sucked Lucas’ cock into her mouth.

  She moaned around his flesh, her arousal growing once again.

  Hands on her hips lifted her, and she found herself still on her knees with Lucas in her mouth, but she also had a tongue touching her pussy.

  She gasped and pushed back against Thomas as he tongued her clit and licked at her entrance.

  Thomas moaned and opened her up wider. Piers was still taking him, Maryanne could feel it with the thrust of Thomas’ tongue as he was rocked forward and back.

  She focused on Lucas again, sucking, licking and swallowing as much of his long, thick length as she could.

  Piers began to moan, a desperate, needy sound.

  “Oh fuck, Tommy, that is the hottest thing I have ever seen, watching you eat her pussy while she sucks Luc. I can’t hold on.”

  Piers screamed out and released his seed into Thomas.

  Thomas moaned against her flesh as he stopped licking her, absorbing all of Piers.

  Maryanne groaned as Lucas moved his hips and began taking her mouth as he would soon take her body. Her body grew wetter and hotter. Strong hands lifted her and flipped her over once again. Thomas was on top of her and sliding his cock between her legs before she could catch a breath.