by Folsom, Tina
Ursula looked straight into his eyes, her gaze open and direct. “Yes. So I can prove to you that I’m not lying.”
The drive back to her former prison seemed long. Maybe it felt that way to her, because she was anxious about going back inside the place that she considered hell. Or perhaps she was afraid that against all odds her captors had found her hiding place and removed the wallet, leaving her empty handed.
What would she do then? She had exhausted all means of convincing Oliver that he could trust her. Short of letting him taste her blood, she had nothing left. And she wouldn’t allow him to drink her blood, too afraid that he wouldn’t be able to handle it—and this time there would be no guard to watch out for her safety.
By the time they reached the building again and got out of the car, her hands were shaking uncontrollably. Oliver gave her a sideways glance, then took her hand in his. The warmth of his skin was instantly soothing.
“Easy,” he said softly. “I promise you there’s nobody inside.”
She answered him with a hesitant half-smile and held onto his hand, knowing that he was the only ally she had, even though their alliance was shaky at best and could dissolve again as quickly as it had formed.
With tentative steps she walked next to him. When they reached the door to her former prison, Oliver pushed it open and gave her a gentle shove inside. He followed close behind her, his breathing the only thing she could hear.
Her hand searched his in the darkness, and she was glad when he didn’t reject her touch.
“I can’t see anything,” she whispered.
“I don’t want to switch on the light down here where it can be seen from the street. I can guide us through the dark if you tell me where you want to go.”
“To the fourth floor.”
As he led her up the stairs, she tried to block out the shivers that ran up her spine at the thought of what this place represented. She was surprised when she felt Oliver’s hand rub over her arm in a soothing motion.
“Thank you,” she murmured.
“Almost there.”
When they reached the top of the last flight of stairs, she heard a light switch being flipped. A moment later, the dim lights in the hallway came on, helping her find her bearings. Instantly, she looked at him.
“Is it safe to have the light on now?”
He nodded. “There are only two windows in the corridor and both are blacked out.”
Relieved, Ursula pointed toward the other end of the hallway. “That’s where the fire escape is that I used.” Then she turned in the other direction. “The room is that way.”
Her pace slowed as she walked past the many doors that led to the rooms of the other girls. So many times, she’d heard sobs coming from them. But tonight, silence descended on the entire floor. Despite walking slowly, she finally reached the door to her former prison cell. She laid her hand on the door knob, but couldn’t find the strength to push it open.
Frozen in place, she closed her eyes.
“We’ll do it together,” Oliver murmured behind her and put his hand over hers, turning the doorknob.
When the door opened inward, she took a hesitant step forward and reached for the light switch, flipping it. Then her eyes scanned the small room. It was empty, just like the rest of the house. How many hours had she spent in here, hoping and praying to be rescued?
“There was a bed here. They shackled me to it during the day so I couldn’t move.” She pointed to one corner where a wooden beam was exposed. The lower half of it had always been hidden by her headboard, but now it was visible.
She walked to it and heard Oliver’s footsteps behind her as he followed. When she dropped down to the floor, she ran her fingers over the letters she had carved into the surface of the beam. “My name, my parents address, in case somebody found it, so that they could tell them I was here.”
She turned to look at Oliver and noticed him staring at where her fingers were pointing. Then he too ran his hand over the surface of the wood. His eyes locked with hers.
“I’m so sorry.”
If she hadn’t seen his lips move, she would have missed his whispered words.
Surprised at the tenderness in his look, she was unable to move as his face came closer. His lips touched her cheek, pressing a soft kiss on her skin.
Swallowing away the lump in her throat she shifted and pointed to the floor. “It’s down here.”
Oliver backed away to give her space while she pressed on one side of the loose floorboard, thus tilting the other side up so she could grip it and pull it up.
She reached inside, her heart beating into her throat, praying that her captors hadn’t discovered the compartment that held the stolen wallet. Her fingers touched something smooth, and she breathed a sigh of relief as she pulled out the leather wallet. She handed it to Oliver.
“This is it.”
Oliver opened it, leafing through the cards inside. “Perfect.”
Then he helped her up. “Let’s get out of here. I can see that you feel uncomfortable in here.” He motioned his head to the spot where her bed had once stood. “It must be terrible to return to the place where you’ve been raped.”
She stared at him, her mouth dropping open. He thought she’d been raped?
“I apologize. I shouldn’t have reminded you.”
Before she could even think of how to respond, he ushered her out of the room and the building. When she sat in the van again and watched him put the key into the ignition, she put her hand on his arm, stopping him.
Surprised, he turned his head to her, but said nothing.
She didn’t know why she felt compelled to correct his misconception, but she did. Perhaps his tenderness and the understanding that he had shown while in her former cell had done something to her. Or maybe she was just getting soft.
“We were never raped.”
Surprise lit up his eyes. “But the vampires . . . the bite. You must have experienced the arousal. And with somebody as beautiful as you . . . ”
He thought she was beautiful?
“I’m sorry to say, but I don’t see what vampire could resist. I didn’t mean to pry, and it doesn’t matter that you don’t want to tell me. I had no right to mention it. Just forget it.”
He appeared embarrassed. And so utterly human.
“I know about the sexual arousal, I’ve been through it so many times, but the guards, they made sure the leeches never touched us that way. It would have reduced the potency of our blood, they said.”
“What?” Confusion tainted his voice.
“They claimed that if a girl experienced sexual gratification, it would negate the drugging effect her blood had. That’s why they never raped us. They weren’t going to blemish the merchandise. That’s also why we were shackled to our beds at daytime. So we couldn’t touch ourselves.”
Oliver’s mouth dropped open as the news sank in.
Ursula nodded slowly, remembering the sleepless hours during which she’d fought her sexual urges. “And during nighttime, they used mind control on us so we wouldn’t try to masturbate when we were alone.”
“You mean . . . ?” He stopped himself.
She looked away, suddenly embarrassed that she’d been so frank. She didn’t have to tell him about this part of her ordeal, but for some reason, she wanted him to understand what she’d been through. “I haven’t had an orgasm since they captured me three years ago.”
At her admission, she heard him exhale sharply. “Oh my god!”
She felt heat suffuse her cheeks.
“But you’re so full of passion.” He reached for her hand, making her look at him.
“I wish I could make it up to you.” Instantly he seemed to realize what he’d said. “Oh God, no, that’s not what I meant. I meant . . . ”
She knew exactly what he meant. It should make her recoil, yet it didn’t. Even though Oliver was a vampire, over the last few hours she’d seen another side of him. He cared. He’d listened and put his
disbelief aside. He’d made an effort to help her. And the way he’d behaved when she’d been afraid to enter her former prison cell was downright sensitive. As if he could sense what she felt. Was it so wrong to want to lean against him for support? For some warmth?
“Maybe you can . . . ” Her voice trembled slightly when she continued, “I crave to be touched.” Touched by him. By the vampire who had rescued her.
Oliver reached for her, his hand cupping her cheek. “You want me to touch you?”
Ursula closed her eyes and leaned into his palm. “Would it be such a hardship?”
She felt him shake his head. “Do you really think I’m cute, I mean, for a vampire?”
She opened her eyes and smiled at him. Cute? It didn’t even begin to describe what she felt. “Cute was maybe not the right word.”
“What’s the right word then?” he asked and inched closer.
Her gaze dropped to his parted lips. “What would you do if I said I found you . . . hot?”
Oliver groaned. “Are you playing with me, Ursula? Because if you are, you should stop, or I’ll do something you might not want me to.”
She scooted closer to him. “And what would that be?”
No, she wasn’t playing with him. She wanted him. And she was sure now that it wasn’t the residual arousal from the vampire’s bite. Too many hours had passed since. No, what she felt right now was different. She wanted Oliver. And she wanted to forget.
“I thought you hated vampires,” he deflected.
“I do.” But she couldn’t conjure up that same feeling for Oliver.
“Then why would you want to sleep with me?”
She brushed her index finger over his lower lip. “When you kissed me in your house, you made me want more.” So much more than she’d hoped for in the last three years.
“That simple?”
Ursula gave a short shake of her head. “No. Nothing is simple. But I want to feel alive again. Can you do that for me? Can you help me feel alive?”
Oliver’s face came closer, and his lips approached her mouth until they were only an inch from hers. “Anything you want, baby.”
18
Oliver slanted his lips over hers and took her mouth in a kiss, first gently and softly in case she changed her mind, but when she didn’t, he pulled her closer and deepened the kiss.
He couldn’t believe this turn of events. From the moment Ursula had entered the abandoned building, he’d instinctively known that she was telling the truth. He’d sensed her fear. Finding the wallet from a client of the blood brothel—as he would call it—was confirmation enough for him that he could trust her.
But finding out that she hadn’t been raped, that none of those despicable vampires had laid their dirty paws on her, made him rejoice. At the same time he cursed them for denying her any sort of carnal pleasure.
He severed the kiss and looked at her. “Let’s go home.” Then he would take her to his bed and make sure she got the release she needed.
To his surprise Ursula shook her head. “I can’t wait. Please.” She eyed the bench in the back of the van.
Oliver’s heart skipped a beat. “Now? Here? In the van?”
More blood pumped into his cock, making him harder than a crow bar. At the same time hunger surged through him. He had to feed, and soon, or he wouldn’t be master of his own actions anymore.
“Yes,” she murmured and slid her hand onto his thigh, then moved it upwards.
When her fingers reached the outline of his hard-on, he groaned, his hunger instantly forgotten. “Get in the back.”
He locked the doors, then followed her. When he saw her hand opening the top button of her jeans, he stopped her. She stared at him in surprise.
“If you think I’m going to rush this, you’re wrong.”
“But—”
He smiled. “No but. If you want to sleep with me, then we’re going through all the motions: the kissing, the touching, the seduction. I’m not going to pass up an opportunity to make love to the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen and just fuck her like an animal.”
Her expression softened, and her cheeks colored in a pretty pink, while her eyelids fluttered. “You want to make love to me?”
Oliver moved closer and shelved her chin on his palm. “And I want to make you come so hard that you think the world is exploding around you. Isn’t that what you want?”
Her lashes swung up, almost touching her eyebrows. Her eyes shimmered. “Oliver?”
“Hmm?”
“Why are you so good to me?”
“Because you need somebody who’s good to you.” And more than anything, he wanted to be that person.
“Are we gonna talk all night, or are you going to kiss me?”
He chuckled. Ah, how he loved an eager woman! “In my mind I’ve never stopped kissing you.”
She moved closer, her mouth less than an inch from his now. “Make it reality then.”
When he took her mouth again, the world around him blended into the background. Soft lips pressed against him, her hands pulled him closer, urging him to drag her body against his. With one movement, he pulled her onto his lap, so she straddled him. His hand on her lower back, he pressed her to him.
“That’s better,” he murmured.
Oliver captured her lips again and delved into the warm caverns of her mouth. He stroked and licked, tasted and explored. Her response was just as eager: with strong strokes, she played with his tongue. Lust surged through him, sending hot bolts of fire through his core and into the tip of his cock.
He moaned into her mouth, an action she echoed a few seconds later. Slanting his head, he sought a deeper connection, a fiercer kiss. Her hands dug into his shoulders as if she was holding on for dear life, and her response to him became even more passionate.
Then he suddenly felt her lick along his teeth. Shock catapulted through him when he felt a corresponding itching in his gums. He knew what this meant: his fangs were about to descend.
Ursula licked again. He severed the kiss, holding her a few inches away from him, breathing hard.
“Don’t!”
Startled, she stared at him, apprehension spreading over her face. “What’s wrong?”
He dropped his lids. God, how could he explain this to her without reminding her of what he was and what she was potentially unleashing in him?
“Please, am I doing something wrong?” Her voice cracked.
No, he couldn’t disappoint her, couldn’t let her cry again. But he had to be honest with her. When he raised his eyes to meet hers, he swallowed hard.
“When you lick my teeth like that, I can feel my fangs descend.”
Her breath hitched.
“Fangs are the most erogenous zones in a vampire. They want to feel you licking them. But I can’t allow that, because if I do . . . ” He hesitated, searching her face for signs of fear.
“What’ll happen?”
Oliver’s gaze dropped to the pulsing vein at her neck. “Once my fangs are out, it won’t take long until I can’t hold back my hunger for blood. I would bite you.”
She sucked in a quick gulp of air.
Seeing that she was withdrawing from him, he quickly added, “But I won’t. I promise you. I won’t do that to you. You’ve been through enough. Please give me a chance. If we’re careful . . . ”
He hoped he wasn’t lying. Could he truly hold back his hunger for the next hour so he could make love to her without subjecting her to the one thing she hated most: being bitten by a vampire?
“Careful, how?” she asked and approached slowly, her head dipping to the crook between his neck and shoulder. “Like this?” She pressed a gentle kiss on his skin, then another one.
Oliver closed his eyes, allowing the tender caress to sweep him away. “Perfect.”
Her hands tugged on his T-shirt, pulling it from his jeans.
“Take it off,” she whispered into his ear.
He did as she demanded, welcoming the cool air that to
uched his heated skin. But the relief didn’t last, because a second later, her hands were on his chest, caressing him. His head fell back against the headrest. Wasn’t he supposed to be the one seducing her, not the other way around? Clearly, things weren’t going exactly as planned, not that he was complaining.
However, he’d made her a promise: to give her sexual pleasure. And he would not break his promise. It was time to take back the reins.
Oliver reached for her T-shirt, pulling it from her jeans. “Lift your arms.”
She didn’t hesitate and let him strip her of her T-shirt, exposing her bare breasts to him.
“Beautiful.”
Her breasts were small, but perfectly formed, round and firm. He cupped one and squeezed lightly, then dipped his head to suck her nipple into his mouth. The little rosebud was already hard when he swiped his tongue over it. Her skin tasted of citrus fruits, pure and young. Innocent. The thought suddenly threw up a question.
“Are you a virgin?”
She shook her head. “No.”
“Good,” he murmured against her soft skin. “Because I would hate for you to feel pain when I’m inside you.” No matter how short-lived that pain would be.
He returned to teasing her nipple, then paid her other breast the same attention, all the while listening and watching for her reactions so he could figure out what she liked most. He worked his way down to her stomach then shifted her with one move, placing her with her back down on the bench, so he could bend over her.
While his lips were blazing a trail down to her navel, his hands were already opening her jeans and lowering the zipper. When he pulled on her pants and looked up, he noticed her watching him, her lips parted, her breaths uneven. Desire shone from her eyes, and her cheeks were as flushed as her entire torso.
“I haven’t done this in so long,” she said, her voice low and almost apologetic.
He chuckled softly. “It’s like riding a bike.” Only tonight she would ride him. The thought sent another wave of heat through his body, igniting him even further.
