Alice laughed, a sweet, tinkle of sound. “Oh, Gianna. I can’t believe you’re blushing, not after living with Jason.”
Jason was my husband, not a man I barely knew who happened to be the love of my best gal pal’s life. “He doesn’t look like that.”
“He does so,” she said firmly. “I’ve seen him in all his glory and I assure you it’s an equal match.”
Gregory whipped his head around, drawing my attention. “You don’t say.”
“I’ve never taken blood from him, darling.” She set her Kindle aside and held her hand out, grasping his fingers tightly in her own. “I would never do that to you.”
I slipped out of the room as Gregory snagged Alice’s ankles and slid her down the bed. The soft welcome on her face stayed with me for a long time after. She was happy. I might never know what secrets had kept her from claiming him, but whatever had happened in the past was immaterial, as far as I was concerned. She’d found somebody who could love her the way Eric and Jason loved me. Any woman should be so lucky.
Eric and Nathaniel were already in my bedroom when I arrived, slowly undressing. I interrupted their conversation, what I was sure was an in-depth discussion of Vampyre politics in Elizabet’s region, not the most interesting subject. “That was quick.”
Eric slid a hand around my waist and nuzzled my throat. An odd vibration pinged our bond. “Elizabet has already retired for the night. Marco turned us away at her door.”
“Ah.” I tilted my head and rubbed a hand over his shoulder, covered only by a white undershirt. Everything ok?
Yes.
He drew away and unfastened my dress. I glanced at Nathaniel. His expression was carefully shuttered as he worked the buttons of his shirt loose. He was always a little reserved, but he seemed even more closed off than usual.
“Is there a problem?” I asked.
Eric cleared his throat. Nathaniel glanced at him and away. A light bulb went off in my head.
“Y’all are interested in each other.”
I said it more accusingly than I’d meant to. Nathaniel wasn’t a threat to me and Jason, not that way. Eric chose his lovers too carefully for me to worry there, but it had never occurred to me that the two of them might actually like one another beyond their mutual need for a strong alliance.
I stabbed Nathaniel with a narrow eyed glare. “You said you wanted me for me.”
I nearly cringed. God, I sounded like a school girl who’d been rejected by the boy she liked. A part of me was that insecure little girl. Hadn’t I worried about this very thing, that others would court me precisely because of my connection to Eric? Hadn’t I known it would happen and planned on using it to our advantage? Which gave me no right to be upset, even for a moment, that Nathaniel wanted something else out of me as well, even if that something else was my sweet husband.
Emotions shifted across Nathaniel’s face, one after another in a pattern changing too rapidly to discern. After a long moment, he said, “I consider him a bonus.”
“I suppose you want Jason, too.”
Nathaniel’s eyes went black and his heartbeat stuttered, loud enough to hear. “If you’re willing.”
An exasperated sigh lifted my shoulders. Honestly. Why hadn’t he said anything? “I don’t mind. Pretty sure Jason won’t either.” Though I dang sure wasn’t gonna ask him right before I had sex with another man. That was a recipe for disaster, and I wasn’t up to straining the bounds of mine and Eric and Jason’s relationship right then. “I just didn’t realize you wanted them, too.”
“Everyone wants them,” Nathaniel said softly. He slipped off his dress shirt and laid it across the back of the loveseat next to his suit jacket. “They’re one of the few couples among the Vampyr who don’t take lovers outside their crèche.”
And they were each strong with the potential to become even stronger once Eric turned and we re-forged one.
I slipped the straps of my dress off my shoulders. It pooled to the ground and I stepped out of it. Nathaniel’s gaze dropped down my body. He turned quickly away, shoulders stiff, and I grinned. Female vampire flesh. My secret weapon.
I unbuckled the straps of my heels, put them away in their cubby, and freshened up in the bathroom wearing only a pair of lace bikini panties, listening to the quiet rumble of the men’s voices coming from the bedroom.
In my long ago days as a budding feminist, using sex to cement an alliance for my husband would’ve offended me. Now, it seemed stupid not to. I needed the blood. Eric and Jason would wear themselves out trying to feed me if I didn’t take other pets, and controlling the bloodlust and the shadowy beast within me demanded either sex or pain, or possibly both, depending on the vampire. Jason could keep his pain. I preferred sex. It wasn’t a hardship to spend time with a man like Nathaniel, with his sexy dimple and amazingly kind heart, considering his age and the nature of the vampiric beast. That he held a strategically important city and represented another link with the queen were bonuses.
The final bonus? He might be compatible with my husbands, which would make things easier all the way around.
So I swiped off what little makeup I’d worn to the evening meal and counted my blessings. Alice wasn’t so fortunate. It had taken her decades to find a man she trusted enough to take as her favorite, and other vampires weren’t even that lucky.
I shuddered and pushed the rumors I’d heard from my mind. Today was not the day to dwell on slavery, uncontrolled bloodlust, and the damage vampires insane from lack of blood could do. When I walked back into the bedroom, Eric and Nathaniel were sitting on the edge of the bed next to one another, both in their underwear, both with their arms crossed over their chests, chatting amiably while their bare shoulders brushed.
I rolled my eyes. This was like watching a high school coming of age movie. For a moment, the urge to run across the room and tackle them both to the bed swept over me. I reined it in, though I did tuck away a mischievous impulse to see if Nathaniel was ticklish.
Eric was, in the right circumstances.
His head swung around and his eyes went wide. He shook his head subtly, and I grinned. No way was I promising not to give up his ticklish spots.
I crawled around them and lay in the middle of the bed, waiting for them to take the hint. Hunger pinched my stomach. Soon, it would grow into a raging need I’d barely be able to control. Eric stretched himself out beside me on my right, Nathaniel on my left. He rested a hand on the bed by my side, fingers barely touching me.
“What do you like?” he asked.
I bit my lip and eyed him through lowered lashes. “Would it be ok if we started with straight sex? I’m getting a little too hungry.”
He glanced at Eric, then down at me. “No foreplay?”
“Later maybe?” Hunger stabbed at me again, more sharply, and the shadows edged forward, a threatening menace. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. We were all new once.”
Eric pulled my panties off, kissing his way down my legs while Nathaniel rummaged in the drawer of my nightstand for lube. They both stripped down, resettling on the bed with Eric beside me and Nathaniel kneeling between my legs.
He dabbed a drop of lube to the tip of his erection. Like Eric’s, Nathaniel’s wasn’t quite a hand’s length long, though it was a tad broader. It jutted out from the midnight curls surrounding it at a proud angle. I studied him as he rubbed lube over the head of his penis, head bent, arm muscles flexing. His shoulders weren’t as broad as Eric’s, though they weren’t narrow either. He was slender, lean with his muscle, and carried himself like a man who knew how important it was to care for his body.
Eric ran a hand down my arm, feathering his fingers across my skin, teasing me. He’s beautiful.
Our gazes caught and held. Jealous?
Envious, he corrected, that half smile curling his mouth upward. He’s graceful and a good dancer. Maybe I’m worried you’ll throw me over for him.
I laughed, couldn’t help it. Not a chance, lover.
Nathaniel crawled his way up my body, settling between my thighs. He was warm, his skin pleasantly smooth against mine, and the first surge of desire stirred in me. The tip of his erection nudged my pussy and I shifted under him, inviting him in.
He smoothed kinky curls away from my face. “May I kiss you?”
I nearly snorted. “Seems like a strange thing to ask a woman you’re about to have sex with, Nathaniel.”
“Some vampires dislike kissing their blood slaves.” He eased his hips forward and slid into me a bare inch. His breath feathered over my mouth in a rush, and when he spoke, his voice was strained. “I don’t want to hurt you.”
“You won’t,” I said gently. I cupped his face and brought his mouth to mine, fitting myself to him. His kiss was tender, a sweet exploration. Lips barely parted, tongue flicking out in quick forays, never pushing beyond a short taste of my lips. He eased himself in and out of me, edging a little farther inside each time, and I grew slick and warm under his careful thrusts.
When he was fully seated within me, he broke the kiss and touched his forehead to mine. “May I have the dark kiss?”
His caution here, at least, I understood. Everyone I knew had counseled me to never give my blood to another vampire without considering the consequences. As Nathaniel himself had pointed out, blood could be used as a homing beacon. It also provided a path into one’s inner mind, making the walls we erected a meaningless barrier to the wrong vampire with the right skill set.
I rolled my head to the side, offering my throat to him. His hips set a slow rhythm, sliding his thick erection in and out of my pussy as he pressed butterfly kisses to my cheek, my ear, the side of my neck. He scraped a fang over my throat, breaking the skin. Instead of covering the small cut with his mouth, he lapped at it with his tongue. It rasped over my skin, tickling the sensitive flesh, and I moaned. My hips matched his rhythm, heat spreading outward from him, consuming me in a delicious slide of growing need.
He closed the wound on my throat and kissed his way back to my lips, claiming me in a hot, open-mouthed kiss. His tongue darted into my mouth in an echo of his erection sliding into my pussy, harder and faster. He mmmd and pulled away and said, in a thick, gravelly voice, “Take my blood now, sweet.”
I did, striking quickly, digging my fangs into the thin flesh over his pulse. He jerked and gasped and his fingers tightened on the pillow cushioning my head, pulling the fabric tight. I latched onto the larger cut I’d made and sucked, eagerly taking his blood into me, swallowing it in a desperate attempt to learn him all at once. Complex, rich, enigmatic. The shadows lurched forward, their greed overriding prudence, and I shoved them sharply back into the cage Eric had helped me build in a dim, distant corner of my mind.
He slid into our bond, sharing my pleasure, adding to it with his gentle presence, and above me, Nathaniel groaned and shuddered.
“Eric, what are you…?” He panted the question out, his body straining. His hips jerked hard, harder, and he moaned. “That’s so good. Don’t stop, please don’t stop.”
I drew back from the pleasure and focused on my bond with Eric, reaching outward through him, and nearly lost my hold on Nathaniel’s throat. Eric was sliding a single finger down Nathaniel’s spine, one vertebrae at a time. He hesitated over each bone, projecting an image of himself pressing open-mouthed kisses over the same area, his tongue sliding along Nathaniel’s skin, his breath feathering over the moisture each kiss left behind.
Be ready to bind him to you, Eric thought, and my eyes popped open. I had no idea how to do that, not really. Eric and Jason had always guided me there. And Nathaniel was a full vampire. Surely he’d feel my fumbling attempts and shove me out of his mind long before I could create a permanent bond with hm.
Be ready, Eric cautioned again. His finger was almost at the bottom of Nathaniel’s spine, hovering an inch or so above the crease of Nathaniel’s ass. I closed my eyes, wrapped myself around my bonds with Jason and Eric, and reached out to Nathaniel, finding the edges of his mind. Eric’s hand dropped lower and he switched the projections from kisses to him kneeling behind Nathaniel, his erect dick prodding Nathaniel’s anus.
Nathaniel inhaled sharply and said, “Sweet merciful God.” He thrust his hips against mine and came, spilling a shuddering release into my pussy. I pushed through what few barriers he’d erected and planted myself in his mind, withdrawing quickly to the safety of my husbands’ bonds, threading a new bond along behind me. I planted the other end right beside Eric and Jason’s and exhaled a relieved sigh out of my nose.
I’d done it. Now, all I had to do was figure out why Eric had pushed me into binding Nathaniel to me without his permission or knowledge, and then explain it to what I was sure would be a very angry vampire.
Chapter Seven
Nathaniel’s heart thudded hard and his breaths panted swiftly over the side of my face.
I still had hold of him. Crap. I darted my tongue out, intending to close off the cuts my fangs had made.
No. Eric, firm and sure. Let go, but don’t close him off.
I opened my mouth, leaving the cuts unsealed. Eric’s hands cupped Nathaniel’s shoulders and rolled him away from me onto his back on the mattress. I scooted out of the way, propping myself up beside them, my body throbbing with unfulfilled desire. I wasn’t in a hurry to sate it. My curiosity was too strong.
Eric moved quickly, wedging himself between Nathaniel’s thighs, pushing his erection into Nathaniel’s ass, and covering the holes I’d left in his throat in one fluid motion. This was why my husband had a reputation at Elizabet’s. He never did what he was supposed to, let alone what he was expected to.
Nathaniel relaxed and lifted his knees, opening himself. “I thought I’d have to coax you into this.”
Eric exhaled a laughing breath through his nose.
“I know what you’re doing,” Nathaniel continued. “I can feel her in my mind. Did you think I wouldn’t?”
Eric grunted and sealed Nathaniel’s skin, his hips pumping slow between the other man’s thighs. “My way, you didn’t get a chance to object.”
Nathaniel slid his splayed hands up Eric’s back. “Lanu will be angry.”
“Probably not as much as you think.”
“I should kill you now, just for the intrusion.”
“You could try.” Eric bent and brushed his lips over Nathaniel’s. “Or you could take my blood and finish the bond.”
Nathaniel drew back, pressing his head into the pillow. “I have to wonder why you would risk alienating Lanu. I know you’ve sworn allegiance to her. She’s supported you, even when she could’ve killed you, and you’re trying very hard to sway me from her side.”
“Not away from her.” Eric smiled, that cold, calculating smile I was beginning to associate with the part of him that loved playing the game. He pulled out of Nathaniel. “Give me a minute to clean up.”
He slid off the bed and padded into the bathroom. The air conditioning kicked on, sending chilled air through the room. I shivered and slipped under the covers, holding them up for Nathaniel, tucking them around both of us.
He wrapped himself around me in a gesture that seemed more automatic than affectionate. “Does anyone aside from Eric know exactly what he’s up to?”
The mild bemusement in his voice made me smile. “Maybe Jason. Probably not.”
Nathaniel’s gaze sharpened on mine. “Not even you, then.”
“I’m barely back to normal.” And Eric’s overall plan was so complex, I wasn’t sure I’d understand it fully without years of study. “But I trust him to do what’s best for all of us.”
“Even me?”
“For our family.” I ran a finger down his sternum, just because it was there. “Are you part of our family?”
“You’re asking if you can trust me.” He shook his head and tugged the covers up around us, drawing me closer into his warmth. “I’m not certain why you wouldn’t.”
“I don’t know you.”
“But Eric trusts me.”
“To an extent,” I agreed. “There’s something there, though, something I can’t get a fix on.”
A hint of amusement entered Nathaniel’s voice. “So the rumors are true. You feed on emotions.”
“What?” I blinked up at him, baffled. “I do not.”
“You do. Lanu hinted at it, though she wouldn’t say it outright.” Nathaniel laughed gently and rubbed the tip of his nose along mine. “You seek the heart, do you not? You did it with me, calling Sandrine back from the dead. You do it with others as well. I was there the night you imbued your gratitude in a thought and fed it to all of us. Remember?”
I groaned and buried my face in his chest. Why had he reminded me of my first real dinner as a vampire? I’d stunned a whole room full of people into silence when I’d tried to mentally thank Alice for her kindness, and embarrassed myself and my family in the process.
Nathaniel smoothed a gentle hand over my hair. “That something you can’t get a fix on is me trying to protect myself from your curiosity, sweet. There are things in my past a woman of your gentility should never experience, and your control wavers enough to worry me. I have no desire to spill my deepest secrets to you in an ill-timed moment and harm you in the process.”
Secrets. Like a young boy slowly starving on a boat headed across the ocean, facing privation and misery when he arrived. Secrets, like a young man who was whipped for loving the wrong woman. Secrets, like him being tied to a post and forced to watch that same woman burned to death, her screams ringing in his ears long after the acrid smell of scorched flesh faded from his mind.
How could he possibly believe he’d saved me from the worst horrors he held when I’d already found them and made them a part of myself, burying them in the recesses of my mind where they’d do no harm?
Eric slipped into the bed behind Nathaniel. “I need to leave soon. Jason’s expecting me back.”
Nathaniel shifted around, facing Eric. “I suppose you want me to take a portion of your blood.”
The New Vampire Page 20
