by Laura Kaye
“I’ll see the doctor, okay? You know, as long as he’s a real doctor, and all.” The soft cup of her hand petted over his hair again.
For a long moment, Nikolai absorbed the incredible warmth and gentleness of her touch. It had been so long since he’d allowed himself the smallest pleasure. He didn’t deserve it, but that didn’t keep him from wanting it, from needing it, like air.
Like blood.
Resigned to see fear or hatred or disgust in her eyes, Nikolai lifted his head.
She smiled at him, her eyes filled with what looked like understanding and concern. “Okay?”
Nikolai’s chest flooded with a foreign warm pressure. The hand that he rubbed against his sternum ached and the meaning of that sensation niggled at his consciousness.
What was she doing to him?
He swallowed, hard, and nodded, the flash fire of his rage dying as quickly as it had roared to life. “Okay.”
Chapter 7
Feeling that odd pull to her again, exacerbated by a deep and growing need to heal her, to care for her, to make her better, Nikolai turned his attention to the tray. Next to the plate of grilled shashlik was a pill bottle. He handed it to her. “Will this work for you?”
She read the label and nodded, then set about removing the plastic safety wrapping securing the cap. Her cheeks pinked, intensifying her luscious scent and making Nikolai realize he was watching her every move. He sat back on his ass, knees drawn up in front of him, and put a little distance between them as she swallowed the pills.
Eyeing the tray, she licked her lips. “Do you, uh, do you want some? Or, oh, maybe you don’t eat…”
“I do, but it’s for you.” Nikolai’s mouth went dry at the offer. After everything she’d given him, she was willing to offer more?
“I can share.”
“Please.”
Shrugging, Katherine picked up a shashlik skewer and pulled a piece of marinated, grilled beef from one end.
“I hope this is to your liking. The only human foods we eat are meat and spirits, and I’m sure the staff didn’t have time to prepare for our arrival.”
“It smells great. Anyway, I’m so hungry anything would taste good, so…” She ate the beef from her fingers, and sucked the juice from her thumb.
Her teeth, sinking into the rare flesh. The pink juice on her lips. The little, throaty sounds of pleasure and satiation. Nikolai’s erection turned to steel. Each bite taunted and seduced him. It was everything he could do to sit still and let her finish her meal.
Maybe diverting his attention from her mouth would help. His gaze dropped to the shapely fit of her sweater over the round fullness of her breasts. His palms ached to feel the heavy warmth of them, his fangs throbbed at the thought of penetrating the perfect mounds with his bite while his cock filled the cleft between her thighs.
He heaved a breath and forced his eyes to keep moving, but there was no place safe to look. The blood—his blood—smeared across the hem of her sweater and coating the front of her jeans from waist to knees unleashed a deep yearning in his gut.
He wanted her to have his blood, but not accidentally. He wanted her to have it because he’d knowingly offered and she’d willingly, wantonly accepted.
He sucked in a breath. There was only one way that happened. If they were mates.
Which was something he could never have. Not after what he’d done. He didn’t deserve the comfort, the solace, the satisfaction that a mate could bring to his life.
But, Jesus, she was making him think, making him consider, making him want.
No.
“How old are you?” he asked.
She swallowed the bite she was chewing and wiped her mouth with a napkin. “Twenty.”
Nikolai dropped his head to his knees with a groan.
“Almost twenty-one,” she said, cracking open a new bottle of water Leo had brought in with the tray.
His gaze cut back to her. “When?”
She wiped her wet lips with the back of her hand. “My birthday’s on Friday.”
What kind of fate would lead him to this brave, beautiful creature, a woman who had saved and protected him, at the height of her blood power for just four more days, when he could never claim her, never have her? Not for keeps.
She rose from the bed and stepped around him to return the tray to the table.
Her scent wrapped around his heart, his cock. Heat flickered across his right palm. “Goddammit,” he snapped.
Because all the signs were there.
“What?” she said.
He couldn’t let himself be seduced by an impossible idea. He sprung to his feet and made for the door, still open from his earlier rushed entry. “I have to go.”
“Why?” She followed after him, the alluring beat of her heart and intoxicating femininity revealing her place within the room.
He couldn’t stop, couldn’t reply, couldn’t look at her. If he did, there’d be no going back. He grasped the edge of the door.
Small hands fisted in the back of his shirt. “Wait. Why are you leaving? I mean, did I—”
He halted, heart slamming against his sternum, fangs stretched out and aching. “Release me,” he rasped.
She heaved a shaky breath he felt against his arm. “I…can’t.”
“Release. Me,” he said louder. Competing emotions warred within him until he thought he might split apart.
“Nikolai—”
It was his name rolling off her tongue that did it.
He whirled and buried his hands in her hair. He pulled her to him, causing them both to stumble, and then he turned her and backed her into the ancient bars of the door. It clicked shut, sealing them in and cutting off the last of his restraint.
Tilting her head back, Nikolai devoured her mouth. His lips sucked, his tongue explored, his fangs rubbed against her moist flesh. Oh, God, she was so sweet and warm and wet. He stepped into her, forcing their bodies together from chest to thighs. And, goddammit, she was soft everywhere he was hard.
Her hands curled around his neck and climbed into his hair, fingers tangling and tugging. She pulled him in tighter and surrendered to the kiss. She met him stroke for stroke, their tongues curling and twining together. Her tongue stroking at his fangs until he was sure he would lose his fucking mind.
Until Nikolai no longer knew who was surrendering to whom.
Kate was adrift in sensation. She felt engulfed by the heat rolling off Nikolai’s big body, which was hunched around her possessively. His hard muscles flexed and bunched against her, setting her on fire everywhere they touched. His warm, spicy smell invaded her brain until it was the only thing she knew. His tongue in her mouth, his hands all over her—she couldn’t fight it.
In truth, she didn’t want to.
Earlier, when it seemed like he’d planned to kiss her, she’d resisted the idea, kept her body from succumbing to the instinctual pull to lean toward his. But now, even though he represented everything she’d never wanted, she could no longer deny that something about him spoke to her body, her psyche, her very soul.
Kate was totally and completely seduced by her vampire.
Her vampire.
A groan sounded from deep in his throat, conveying pure, desperate need, and he pressed harder into her. Against her back, the iron bars formed an inescapable cage. In front of her, his body towered over and confined her, emphasizing the thick ridge of his erection straining against her belly.
She’d never felt more free than she did in that moment, utterly trapped by Nikolai.
And if his preternatural power wasn’t prominent enough in the sheer strength of his body around hers, the hard edges of his fangs against her lips and tongue wouldn’t let her forget it. Fascinated despite herself, she wrapped her tongue around a fang and flicked at it. Nikolai growled and ground the steel length of his cock into her hip.
Kate went hot and wet between her legs, completely overwhelmed by her body’s ecstatic reaction to his. Never had she imagined she’
d be capable of such euphoria. She’d certainly never felt it before.
Maybe she wouldn’t again.
The thought unleashed a current of panic into the lust flowing through her, because what she was feeling for Nikolai was so much more than physical.
Her heart tripped over the pain he seemed to carry in the cast of his eyes and the set of his shoulders. He unleashed every protective and nurturing instinct in her body—she wanted to be the one to take away whatever hurt him, or to comfort him, at the very least. And there was absolutely no denying that all the angst and restlessness that had been making her feel unsettled in her own skin lately, that had been getting worse and worse these past weeks, mostly disappeared in his presence.
The question was…why?
A little voice inside her told her she knew why, but but this his big hand fisted in her hair and tilted her head further back, opening her further to the urgent demand of his kisses.
There was no refuting the physical attraction between them, that was for damn sure. As close as they were, it was miles too far apart. Kate embraced his big shoulders, pulling, tugging, needing him closer. Her body remembered her unfulfilled need from the night before, spiking her arousal and creating an urgent ache between her legs.
God, she wanted him…wanted him…in her.
Her hands fell to his waist and gripped at the fabric of his tee, burrowing under. His skin was warm and smooth over hard, flexing muscles. She pushed the shirt higher, needing to feel more, explore more, to know if he was this amazing everywhere.
Abruptly, Nikolai wrenched back from the kiss, and he looked every bit of the creature he was. Lips red, mouth open, fangs protruding, eyes aglow. Unease flared in her stomach.
He was going to pull away. Like before.
She dug her nails into his sides, willing him to stay. He stared at her for a long moment, then finally reached back with one arm and tore the shirt over his head.
Relief crashed through her and she moaned in admiration of the artwork decorating his skin. A massive stylized black eagle spread its wings across his pecs and its tail curled down over the carved muscles of his stomach. Its golden claws wielded swords, and its regal head bore a crown. It was a fascinating, beautiful play on the Russian coat of arms. Symbols she didn’t recognize adorned his right arm, from wrist to biceps, the black ink against his fair skin such a stunning, attractive contrast.
Inexperience be damned, she was drawn to taste him. Pushing onto tiptoes, Kate pressed an openmouthed kiss over his nipple and sucked him in. Oh, he tasted of that incredible spice he wore on his skin. She couldn’t get enough. She kissed and licked across his chest, and his hands fisted in her hair—holding her close or tugging her away, she couldn’t be sure.
He grasped her chin and nudged her mouth up, then kissed her eyes, her nose, the corner of her lips. “So beautiful.”
Each kiss, each touch, each word washed away the last of her uncertainty until she knew she would give him anything he wanted. That didn’t mean she wasn’t scared, because she was, but everything in her, down to the very marrow of her bones, told her he was worth the risk.
“May I…I want to do something for you,” he said around a kiss.
“Anything,” she whispered, her lips trailing down the hard angle of his jaw to his neck. Tight crisscrosses of black thread were the only evidence of his terrible wound. Taking care to be gentle, she pressed a featherlight kiss atop his stitches.
“Oh, angel,” he groaned. The sound rumbled against her breasts, adding to the electric tingling making her pussy slick and needy. He grasped the hem of her sweater, then his whole face slid into a scowl. “Goddammit.” Looking over his shoulder, he barked. “Camera off. Now.”
As she watched, the red blinking light on the unit went dark.
Her sweater was up and over her head as the heat of a blush warmed her face, but she was so deep into Nikolai, she found she couldn’t think long on her embarrassment that someone—some vampire—had been watching them together. She gasped at the sensation of the cold bars pressing stripes into the skin of her back. Big hands cupped the sides of her breasts and his mouth fell to her cleavage. He kissed and nibbled, dragging the tips of his fangs across the mounds in a tantalizing threat. She threw her head back against the door and silently begged him to do it.
Just do it.
Oh, shit, she was so far down the rabbit hole with him. And, God help her, she wouldn’t have it any other way.
She carded her fingers into his hair, loving the thick silkiness of it, and embraced him as he sucked her nipple through the thin satin of her bra.
He gripped the back of her left wrist and pulled it to his mouth. “This is what I must…” He trailed off and laved his tongue against the red marks on her arm.
She moaned as his saliva tingled against the cuts and abrasions. It didn’t hurt. Just the opposite. It brought such maddeningly beautiful relief. The sensation ricocheted through her and had her writhing against him. He hummed something that sounded like satisfied approval and slid a thick muscled thigh tight between her legs. She cried out at the glorious friction and couldn’t help but rock her hips against him.
He cut his gaze to hers as he licked her forearm with his healing saliva. His eyes were a blazing blue. She could fall into those eyes and be so happy there…
The thought brought another with it, and suspicion sent her heart slamming against her breastbone: he was the cause of her angst. Somehow, needing to find Nikolai, protect him, be with him was the source of the restlessness and confusion plaguing her all these long months. She’d left the service of the Proffered, and soul deep her body had known that decision put her on the wrong path.
Or maybe it was the right one. Because he was why she’d come to Moscow. He was why she’d been on that street at that time. Nikolai was the answer to every why question she’d ever had.
Given how short she’d known him, her certainty didn’t make any sense, but there it was anyway.
The truth of her revelation spiraled through her body and settled itself in every cell. Combined with his tongue, his thigh, his eyes, those little sounds of masculine appreciation—it was all too much. “Oh, God, Nikolai. You have to…” She shook her head, unable to control her breathing, or her body. “You have to stop, or I—”
“Not yet.” He pulled his leg away.
She whimpered and flexed off the bars.
The corner of his mouth curled up as he healed her with one last long, languid stroke of his tongue.
“No, no. I have to. Please.” She squirmed and ground her belly against his cock. Despite her general inexperience, her body acted on its own instinct, seemingly knowing what, or whom, would bring her the relief and release she nearly screamed for.
“You have to what, angel?”
She hesitated for a few short, quick heartbeats. “I have to...” The word on the tip of her tongue, she clenched her thighs together, burning for the friction he’d given to her moments before. “Oh, God.”
“You have to come, yes?” he whispered against her ear. Kate nodded, her stomach flip-flopping at his tone, full of sin and satisfaction. One hand fell to her jeans, tugged at the zipper, ripped the denim open. “I want to wear you on my skin,” he said.
Gently but firmly, he slid his fingers under the band of her panties.
The rough pads of his fingertips slid into the soft hair at the top of her mound, and Kate moaned and grabbed the closest bar with her free hand to keep from falling. He kicked at the inside of her shoe. “Open.”
Pressed against the iron bars of her dungeon cell, Kate spread her legs. Nikolai’s fingers dipped into the slick folds of her pussy, rubbing, flicking, pressing tight circles that stole her breath. He lingered a kiss to the healed skin over her radial artery, then dropped her arm and brought his mouth back to hers. The movement of his lips was slow, reverent, just the beginning of something she knew she’d never forget.
She grabbed a bar with her newly healed hand and just let herself fe
el the incredible ecstasy he drew from her body.
Forehead resting against hers, he pushed one finger inside her and met her gaze. She gasped, his finger so much bigger than her own, which until this moment had been the sum total of her experience.
“Come on me, Katya. I want to feel it. I want to see it.”
“Nikolai,” she whimpered, holding his gaze. His finger simultaneously eased the ache and escalated it as he penetrated and thrust, his palm providing more of that glorious friction against her clit. Panting, she couldn’t keep from moving her hips and urging more. Inside, her body tightened around his finger.
“Mmm, yes.” Licking his lips and drilling his intense, flaring gaze into her eyes, he added a second finger. “Take more of me.”
Kate moaned at the fullness, reveled in it, wanted even more—even if her desire scared her. The thought was fleeting. His fingers moved in and out of her in a shallow quick pattern that rocketed all her energy downward, then detonated in a brilliant explosion of light and heat that sent her flying, falling, floating outside herself.
Hanging on the bars, her whole body sagged against him, her weight falling onto his hand between her legs and his chest. She was dimly aware of the approving growl rumbling from deep in his throat.
He wrapped an arm around her back and tugged her hair, gently pulling her head back so he could claim her mouth. The kiss was slow and sensual, full of the promise of more to come. And despite the fact that the room spun around her and she couldn’t control the pace or volume of her breathing, more was exactly what she wanted.
She couldn’t wait to have the chance to bring him the same incredible ecstasy he’d given her.
Nikolai pulled his hand from between her legs, but didn’t leave her skin. Still under the stretched fabric of her panties, his big, warm grip slid around to grasp the naked curve of her hip. His fingers were wet where they dug into her ass, but she couldn’t feel embarrassed about it, not after he’d shown her the pleasure her body was capable of experiencing.
He broke the kiss with a gleam in his eye. A cocky smile played around the corners of his mouth. As infuriatingly smug as it was, he wore the good humor so well she could only find it sexy.
