by Kitty Thomas
They lay in the bed, panting, their breath slowly matching rhythm. He pulled her against his body and closed his eyes. “Sleep now. We’ll go back in the morning.”
***
Nicole lay in the vampire’s arms, her tears choking her. How could she allow… How could she initiate…? All illusions were gone—like the illusion that she could keep things strictly blood. She’d assumed he would try to fuck her at some point, but never would she have guessed it would be her throwing herself at him begging him to take her. She hadn’t said those words. She hadn’t said any words, but her body had said it all.
Now the only thing left was shame and the resolve that it could never happen again. She could never betray Dominic like this again.
August’s hands stroked over breasts, and she flinched.
“You started this. You jumped on me like I was your last source of oxygen.”
She tried to pull his hand away, but he wouldn’t be moved, and she didn’t want him to be moved. His hand pressed against her skin made her want to spread her legs and guide him back inside her.
As if responding to her thoughts, he caressed the flesh between her legs until she began to move against him.
“You knew what I was asking for when I said you would give yourself to me. You knew what this bond was about and what it meant. I didn’t lie to you. I told you from the beginning that you were my mate, and one way or another you would give in and accept it. You can’t take it back, and now that I’ve been inside you, there will be a lot more where that came from. You can count on it.”
“Will I ever see him again?” She couldn’t imagine August would allow her to go back to Dominic now. Not after this.
“Since Dominic thinks you’re with your aunt, you will keep that lie going. You’ll stay with me for a while doing exactly what I tell you to do, no matter what I ask for, and then I’ll think about forgiving you and letting you see him again. Disobey one command and Dominic is out of your life forever.”
If the feeding made her crazy, it made August even more so. The possession of her blood overtook him so that the small strands of humanity she’d seen had already begun to fray. Nicole wasn’t sure that even obeying his every whim would allow her to go back to her husband at this point.
“You’ll fuck me exactly as I demand, then you’ll go fuck him. You’ll take us both, and you’ll like it. Someday I might make you take us both at once.”
“H-he can’t know about this.”
“We’ll see.”
She spread her legs wider as he slid his other hand between them. He used the fingers of one hand to fuck her, and the fingers of the other to rub her clit, then he bit her, and she came again, bucking against him.
***
The next morning, a new type of energy buzzed beneath the surface of the vampire. Nicole lay in bed with the sheets tangled around her, contemplating if she was ready to sit up yet. August was dressed in a black suit, medium-gray shirt, and black tie. He sat in a chair in the corner beside the window drinking a cup of coffee. His face was so lit up, Nicole wondered if he was plugged into an outlet somewhere.
“Good morning, my dear, did you sleep well?”
“Nice suit.”
“I found a men’s store in the airport.”
The room was an upturned nightmare. They’d destroyed both of the beds, and it was hard to tell if sex or a massacre had happened because of the blood they’d exchanged. Lamps were turned over, one of the bulbs broken on the floor. Pictures were askew, and one was off the wall. The wall itself was dented where he’d slammed her against it, or where his hand had slammed to take the force so her body wouldn’t have to.
“This room looks like a crime scene.”
He bent to turn the table right side up and set the Styrofoam cup on it, then he tossed a dress that had been in her suitcase at her. Her clothes were already packed. “Get dressed. It’s time to go home.”
He couldn’t get there fast enough.
“What about my car?”
“I enthralled someone to drive it back. Someone else is driving my car home. Do you really want to drive for days?”
“Then how are we getting home?” Had she referred to his house as home?
“We’re flying. I chartered a jet at the airport you were planning to escape from.”
She only wished she’d had the nerve to leave the country. She’d just been too tired to drive any further. She hadn’t noticed the airport until she’d been in the room for over an hour and kept hearing planes overhead.
“Aren’t you going to do anything about this room?”
“Why should I? Is your DNA in a database?”
“No… but…”
“I’m going to the office to take care of the bill and erase the clerk’s memory. I’ll meet you outside in five. Don’t make me wait. And Nicolette… run again and I will not be so kind when I find you.”
Chapter Nine
When the jet landed, they rented a car to take them the last few hours to the mansion. It was late in the evening when they got home.
August didn’t have to look back to know Nicolette had followed him up the stairs. She wouldn’t so readily acquiesce if not for the threat of never seeing her husband again.
All he wanted was a chance. If she could only see how easy he could make things if she’d just accept both men into her bed—not just one.
He held the door open for her when they reached his bedroom. She sneaked a quick glance into his eyes and then darted past him.
“No shoes, poppet. It’s expensive carpet.” He removed his own shoes and socks by the door.
She slipped her sandals off, and August caught the brief bliss on her face as her feet sank into the thick, soft, red carpet. It was red because he’d once entertained the notion of bringing meals up to his room. The color would mask any spills. In the end, he couldn’t kill in the same room he slept in. Now it felt more natural to take blood in this place than anywhere else. Feeding below ground seemed bizarre and profane.
He shut the door then reached into his pocket and took out a cell phone. “Here, call him.”
“What?”
“Call your husband and let him know you’re okay. I’m sure he’s used to hearing from you every day.”
She took a couple of steps back; her suspicious gaze rose to his. “And what will it cost me to use the phone?”
“Nothing I won’t demand anyway.”
Nicolette sighed, took the phone, and dialed. She curled up in a chair in the corner, no doubt seeking some small measure of privacy. But his hearing didn’t allow for such luxuries.
“Dominic!”
“Hey there.” August could hear the other man’s smile over the phone. Dominic chuckled. “You don’t miss me, do you?” he teased.
Nicolette smiled, a genuine smile, the tension melting at the sound of his voice. “Of course I miss you.”
“Oh good, because I thought you were finding a way to leave me in small increments to soften the blow.” He was teasing her still, but the shadow that fell over her face gave away her thoughts. She was leaving him in increments. And the poor fool didn’t know it.
She looked up to August, a question in her gaze. Are you going to take him from me now? She may as well have spoken the words aloud. Her eyes conveyed more than her lips could have ever spoken.
“So, how is your aunt today?” Dominic asked, unaware of the tension and drama on the other end of the line.
“About like yesterday. It could take a while to heal, but it’s not especially serious.” The lie fell from her lips with an ease that surprised the vampire.
“When are you coming home? I miss my insatiable slut.”
August smirked at that, and Nicolette looked down at her lap. If she’d had any doubt the vampire could hear both sides of the conversation, it was gone now.
“I’m not sure. I’ll let you know when she has more help and I can leave.”
His voice dropped an octave. “So… what are you wearing?”
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Nicolette looked down at her sundress. “I… I can’t do that right now.”
“Oh?”
“Kids in the room.”
August was impressed with her quick thinking. It was a good thing she was the loyal type, because her lies sounded like reality. The vampire could almost believe it—even knowing the truth.
“This late?” Dominic asked.
“Well, you know kids.”
“No, actually I don’t.”
“Well, now you know. Boy, did you dodge a bullet,” she joked. She was almost herself for a minute, the happy-go-lucky woman August had met in the coffee shop. They had such an easy way between them.
“Indeed. Call me tomorrow? When there are no corruptible minors around?”
“I’ll try,” she said.
“I love you, baby. Miss you.”
“I love you and miss you, too.” She disconnected the call before she could start crying and handed the phone back to August. “Will I be going back home?”
“That depends on you. Can you handle both of us? Because it’s both of us or only me.”
“I can’t lose him. Please. He’s the one safe thing in my life.” Her eyes begged him with more fervency than her mouth.
He nodded. “I hope some day you’ll see me as something safe in your life. I know I’m playing dirty. I wish I could force myself to be more noble for your sake, but my blood screams for yours. If you knew what it was like inside my head. It pounds through my ears like a runaway heartbeat. Every part of my being says you belong to me. I can’t resist it any more than you can.”
August unbuttoned his jacket and draped it over a chair that was the twin to the one Nicolette sat in, then he loosened his tie and pulled it over his head. He watched her tense as he slowly unbuttoned each button on his shirt and slid the linen off his shoulders.
“I’m not going to compete with Dominic. You aren’t his anymore.”
Tears spilled down her cheeks. “You’re going to take him from me. You’re going to go back on your word. I sacrificed everything, and you’re going to take him.”
“The only person who has gone back on their word is you, poppet. Who took you immediately back to your beloved the day after the bond was complete? Who starved for five days hunting his promised meal?”
She looked away.
“That’s what I thought. I am not a silly human. I don’t mind sharing. What I mind is this constant attempt of yours to deny what I am to you now. If you want to keep him, make me believe you understand. He isn’t your soul mate anymore. He’s temporary. I’m eternal. You’d better get that shit through your head.”
She flinched, but he didn’t care. He was sick of sugarcoating it. The ingratitude of her taking the first opportunity she could to run made his blood boil.
“To tell the truth, I’m surprised you ran away and left your precious Dominic behind.”
“I just needed a few days. I just needed space from you, from everything. Why don’t you get what you’ve done to me?”
He unzipped his pants and pushed them over his hips, his boxers going with them. “I’ve understood what I was taking from you the moment I took you from your home. Why do you think I went to such lengths to get you to come to me willingly? I knew what I was doing. Would you have allowed your one chance to escape an eternal curse get past you?”
She looked up at him, her gaze skimming quickly past his erection. “Isn’t that what you’re berating me for? Wanting to escape an endless curse?”
“You weren’t escaping. You were coming back. For him. You were just hurting me.” His voice rose with his anger, and he pulled her out of the chair she’d curled herself into as if huddling smaller and smaller would make her disappear from his view.
He held her in his arms and slid his hands to her back to unzip her dress. She stood there, crying silently as he slipped the straps off her shoulders and pushed the dress down to the floor.
“Look at me.”
She obeyed, her lip trembling, unshed tears in her eyes. His gaze went to the pulse in her throat, that light little thump thump thump as the blood pushed through the vein and pressed against her skin in a hypnotic rhythm that drove him mad.
He forced himself to look back into her eyes. “If you had never met Dominic, would you want me?”
“I don’t know,” she hedged.
He growled. “You know. Fucking say it!”
“Yes. Is that what you want to hear? Yes, yes, fucking yes. I would want you. But that isn’t the story we were given. I can’t be what you want me to be! Why can’t you accept that?”
She didn’t fight when August laid her across the bed and spread her legs. His fangs sank into the artery in her thigh, and he let out a sigh of contentment against her skin. The taste of her was more exquisite each time he took her. As he drank, he stroked her through her panties and felt the gathering wetness, the betrayal of her desire without even taking a drop of his blood inside her.
He ran his tongue over the puncture marks even though her healing time had sped and the wounds were already sealing themselves. Then he slid her panties down. He allowed his fangs to recede and took her swollen bud into his mouth and sucked and licked as she thrashed against him, her hands tangling in his hair. When she came, he slid up her body and eased himself inside her moist, welcoming warmth, so wet after coming.
His mouth found the pulse in her throat and he bit, draining her feverishly as he drove into her, chasing the pleasure of her blood and the pleasure of her cunt wrapped around his cock, until the two sensations blended into one and his own orgasm sent a growl ripping from his throat.
She tensed at the animalistic sound.
He stayed inside of her, their bodies locked together for a few moments, then he kissed her forehead and pulled out. “Stay in bed. I’ll bring you something to eat.”
Downstairs in the kitchen, he slammed cabinets and drawers as he made her a sandwich and cut up an apple. Before Nicolette, sex had made the killing urge stronger, made him more violent. The bond did the opposite. The very taste of her blood on his tongue made him need to fuck her. And yet, no matter how much her body wanted his in return, no matter how right it was for them to be joined in physical completion, she was like an unhappy housewife having duty sex.
How many years would Dominic have to be dead before she would truly give herself to August, without reservation or remorse, without holding back the small bits of herself she kept closed off from his reach? He could touch every inch of her, penetrate her with fangs and cock, and yet he was never going to reach anything real.
The cure was a cruel joke.
When he brought her food up, he found her curled into herself, sobbing. “Nicolette.”
She didn’t look up.
He set the tray on a small table and got into the bed. He moved her into a seated position, leaning her against his chest and bit into his wrist. “Drink, poppet.”
When she could pull herself out of her misery enough to see his bleeding arm, she struggled. “What? No… No! I’m not drinking your blood anymore. It fucks me up.”
“I just want to use the bond to take your pain. Please.” Her agony was a palpable thing in the room, hovering between them, seeking to suck all the life and oxygen away. “Please, Nicolette. Let me do this one thing for you. Let me make it easier.”
She searched his face for several minutes before she finally relented.
The wound on his wrist had sealed, so he opened it again and held her in his arms and petted her hair as she drank. “That’s a good girl. I don’t want to hurt you. I’ll take you back home tomorrow. I won’t keep you here against your will.”
He wanted her in his home away from the influence of her husband almost more than he wanted her blood. But he couldn’t stand how he was wrecking her, how much her pain folded into his pain, how the more he hurt her, the more the curse continued to thrive in the background, coming back to life in a new and improved form.
Chapter Ten
Nico
le sat in the passenger side of the rental car, still not believing August had decided to return her to her husband so soon. And yet, he wouldn’t stop coming to her. He wouldn’t stop feeding and fucking her. He wouldn’t stop stealing away all the pieces of her emotional distress to keep himself from feeling guilty as he took and took and took some more from her. A little at a time, he was erasing her. Her honor, her pain, her regret—the things that were real—and replacing them with his darkness and his bite.
Though she’d sworn she wouldn’t run again, it was a lie she couldn’t muster any shame for. She no longer needed “just a few days” to get away. She had to escape the future she’d sealed herself into. His insistence that his nature must remain secret hammered through her mind over and over on the drive home as she formulated the plan that would free her from the vampire.
He’d changed so drastically from the broken man who’d kept her locked in his cellar for months. The man she’d almost come to pity. If he was truly free, she would have to remain out of his grasp for a week, two at the most. Once he broke down and fed from someone else, once he got the taste for blood without the pain, he wouldn’t need her anymore. He could be a predator and she could be free. His obsession would fade.
She tried not to think about the vast stretch of eternity, how time would march endlessly without Dominic, how she would lose anyone she got close to. Some day she might seek August out, when the loneliness became too great to bear. If that time ever came, she hoped he’d forgive her for what she must do now. It was her last chance to save herself—however briefly.
“You’re awfully quiet, my dear. Are you sure you can handle this?”
Nicole shot the vampire a disgusted look.
She had to convince her husband to run with her. It was the only way. The two of them together, putting as much space between them and the vampire as possible, the ocean if necessary, half a dozen time zones, whatever it took.
