The man leisurely crossed over to a wooden nightstand. He looked hurt by her outburst. His tone harder than before, he said, “There was nothing worth keeping in them so I threw your bag overboard.” He nodded at a round port window, and then pulled something out of the drawer. “Well, nothing was worth keeping except for this little thing here.”
Clare’s face drained of color. He hit the power button on her purple vibrator and a light buzz sounded over the room. The look in his eyes as they moved over her silk-covered body made her think he was about to pounce. A response sparked in her lower stomach at his boldness and she was instantly aroused. Cream drenched her already moist pussy and it throbbed incessantly with its aching need. He took a step toward her and she shrieked.
“Shouldn’t I be the one calling out for help? It is my cabin that you have made yourself at home in. If you’re not supposed to be in here, why are you here?”
Clare’s cheeks flared red and her eyes widened. “How dare you accuse me of…? This is my room… You had no right to watch! I mean you threw my things out… you…”
He laughed, a sound that made her inner thighs tighten. “I assure you, this is my room. Listen, I’m sorry. I know we got off on the wrong foot. Can we start over?”
Clare’s jaw dropped. She couldn’t say a word. He was apologizing while holding her vibrator. The nerve of this man. The sheer boldness of his wicked words left her head spinning. She tingled all over and her treacherous body ached to know if he could deliver all that his look promised.
Chapter Two
Braden Montgomery looked around the gaudy cabin and shook his head. Who in their right mind would decorate a honeymoon stateroom this way?
Honeymoon stateroom, he played the words back in his mind, hardly able to contain the joy he felt inside.
He’d been told at an early age that the likelihood of ever finding that one true mate, the one who would make him feel alive again, bear his children and spend eternity with him, was almost impossible. His best friend, Dominik, had been told pretty much the same thing, just like all immortals were. Braden had been unwilling to accept that as true. He’d spent too many centuries alone on this earth resisting the call of evil to believe that his lonely existence was all there was. No, he knew there had to be more. In all his eternity, there had to be someone for him. Then, rumors surfaced in the supernatural world about the Pleasure Cruises being used as a matchmaking device. He was tired of being alone. He wanted someone by his side, sharing the world with him. Knowing he wouldn’t find his other half on his own, he took a huge leap and contacted the powers that be, putting his life in their hands. When he saw his mate for the first time, he realized just how right the powers had been.
They’d even been thoughtful enough to offer him a sneak peek at his mate. Taking them up on their offer, he watched, from the shadows, the area the powers had told him she’d be in. He didn’t know what to expect. What he found was a creature of such beauty that at first he thought he’d made a mistake—that she could not possibly be his mate.
Once he realized that the raven-haired goddess was indeed to be his wife, he then thought that she must be ugly on the inside. Shallow. Full of greed, lust, anything that would make her less in his eyes. When he scanned her mind, he found only concern for her friend, the one she’d brought with her on the trip, the one that was to be Dominik’s wife.
His mate was a human. He hadn’t been prepared for that. Humanity was a flaw to his kind, but Braden could easily overlook it. After she accepted him, she’d change, becoming a vampire like him.
After scanning her thoughts, Braden knew that his mate considered Clare to be family, the only family she had left. Kira had little concern for money, although she’d been left a good deal from the death of her parents. Money meant little to him as well. His kind amassed fortunes over centuries of living and he had more than he and his new wife could ever want or need. She did work a lot, perhaps too much. After they were married, he hoped she’d slow down, perhaps even quit. Unfortunately, she might not have a choice. Vampires in the human workforce were a hard balance to maintain as they couldn’t go out during the day. But if she wished for a career, he would not get in her way. In fact, he’d do everything in his power to make she got what she wanted. Already, his life was hers. That in itself was amusing. He’d been so reluctant for so long, only to fall head over heels the moment he was finally presented with his future.
Kira’s greatest flaw, from what he had sensed in her, was that she had hardened herself to love somewhere along the way. A thick wall surrounded her heart. He knew that she would make it difficult for him to break through. But he was determined to do just that. He’d waited too long for her to let something as small as her fear of love stop him.
There was something else when he read her. Pain. Fear. She was scared of his kind, had been hurt by them. He tried to read what happened, but the memory had been locked up tight. Whatever it was, it was bad. For that reason, he’d taken the first step and linked himself with her mentally, just enough to ease her fears and allow them to talk.
Braden had been drawn to talk to Kira that first night. Before he could stop himself, he opened his mouth and said the first lame thing he could think of. “Excuse me, can you tell me how to get to East Second Street?”
It wasn’t his best line, not that he really had any, but it worked. When their eyes met, everything around him stopped. Even Kira had felt it. In fact, she’d been so distracted that she’d dropped her briefcase in a puddle.
Once their minds were joined, he entered her dreams, letting her get to know him on a subconscious level so she’d be comfortable with him. Entering the human mind was a simple trick once the connection was made. His friend Dominik had used it with Clare, though to a lesser extent. Dominik, being lycan, would use emotion more than thoughts to ease Clare’s fears. Undoubtedly the women would consider it an unfair advantage. And they would be right. As immortals they trusted their innate senses to guide them. But with humans, it could sometimes take years for them to see what was right in front of them. Neither Dominik nor Braden wanted to wait years, not after centuries of being alone.
Braden moved toward the dresser and smiled when he slid the top drawer open, revealing a mound of silky thongs. A man could get used to a woman who loved lingerie—especially if she looked as good as Kira did. Great sex was definitely going to be a perk of marriage. The woman oozed sexual confidence. She liked people to think she was more promiscuous than she really was. She even had her friend Clare convinced of it, though to a lesser extent. It was a way for her to protect herself, to keep men from getting too close. It was the same reason she worked eighty-hour weeks. If she wasn’t accessible, then she didn’t run the risk of having to get to know new people. That was one thought she left open in her mind. And it was one he hoped to ease her of soon.
He lifted a sleek navy teddy out of the dresser and let the silk of it glide through his fingertips. He could easily visualize her luscious ass showcased by the tiny scrap of material. The need to rub his stiff cock between her soft cheeks was great, and he vowed that he would before the trip was over. When he’d walked her home that night, after she’d purchased her tickets from the travel agency, he could think of little else besides how it would feel to take her from behind, to hear her cries of passion as he rode her body and to know that his seed pumped into her womb. The connection between them had been strong, so intense that it had taken all his willpower to not act on it.
Braden ran his tongue over his bottom lip, imagining his face planted firmly between her thighs. He wanted to taste her, touch her, love her the way that it was meant to be. He knew he should leave her room and wait until after the ship orientation and safety drill to introduce himself to her. Orientation felt as though it was months away instead of only an hour or so. And the safety drill? It would be torture being forced to stand in Muster Station V listening to a troll tell him how to wear a life vest and to use the raft that would keep him out of the sunlight. H
e was a vampire. Of course he was going to get into the covered raft. Not to mention half the ship didn’t speak troll so they’d have to wait for the intercom translation.
It was decided. He couldn’t wait that long to hold her, to feel her hot pussy wrapped around his hard cock while she called out his name. The thought of releasing his seed deep within her as her body clutched his cock damn near drove him to the brink of an orgasm, and losing control of himself was something he was not prone to do.
He shook the thoughts from his head, drawn back by the sound of his mate exhaling deeply from behind the closed bathroom door. His supernatural hearing gave him the advantage, and his other senses told him that she was tired, yet slightly aroused. He’d see to it that she was fully aroused before the night was over.
Braden turned to leave. He heard the unmistakable sound of material falling to the floor and stopped. He wanted her, had wanted her from that very first moment. The bloodlust inside of him was strong, telling him to bite, to mark what was rightfully his. The gods had ordained this marriage. He and Kira were meant to be. Why should he wait to lay claim to his wife? Entering her dreams had been tortuously wonderful. Having her so close was just short of excruciating.
He’d waited too long to possess her, pleasure her and hold her to him. Kira was his, though she didn’t know it yet. Already they were joined.
Bringing forth his power, he sought to enter her mind just enough to let her subconscious remember who he was so she didn’t panic on him. He could never hurt her, would never take her free will away from her. But he could ease her uncertainties and take away that small part of her fear that would keep her from acting on pure instinct.
Braden lifted his hand to the bathroom door. He smelled the perfume she wore, heard the beating of her heart. His own heart picked up time with hers, mimicking the beat. Slowly, he reached for the doorknob. The time to claim his mate had finally arrived.
* * *
Kira pulled the tiny black dress over her head, revealing her breasts and skimpy panties as she looked in the bathroom mirror. The sound of the whirlpool tub filling with water drifted around her. She chuckled, loving the little gold cherubs on the faucet. They were so perfect, all fat, cute and mischievous. The whole stateroom was so gaudily Vegas. It suited her mood perfectly.
Putting her hands up, she stretched, happy she’d chosen this cruise line over the others she’d seen. Not that she’d had much of a choice. The strange compulsion to book the cruise was almost overwhelming and, from the word go, she’d been drawn to this particular cruise company. Kira shrugged, sure it had something to do with the hot guy on their commercial.
Twisting her hair into a knot, she reached blindly for her hair clip. It was nowhere to be found.
“Crap,” she whispered as she began to turn in search of her bag. If she let her hair get wet now, it’d take all night to dry and then it would be a frizzy mess. It was times like these that she wondered if having thick, heavy, long hair was worth it. Mumbling to herself in irritation, she said, “Maybe I should shave my head—ahh!”
Something firm grabbed her about the waist, stopping her from making it all the way around. “Shh, love, you will be calm now.”
Kira moaned softly, nodding her head in slow agreement. The voice that spoke was deep, with a distinctly British inflection. It made her want to turn around and see if he was as sexy as he sounded. She didn’t, her heart pounding in excitement as she let his little game unravel for itself.
“Very good,” the man said, but she barely heard him. He moved closer.
She gasped in pleasant surprise and her body tensed, part in fear, part in excitement. Whoever the very male presence behind her was, she hadn’t heard him come in the bathroom. A masculine finger worked beneath the thin side strap of her panties, touching her intimately. He held her tight to his body. A soft voice whispered hotly in her ear, “One can only assume that you are not here to tidy up the place.”
“What?” Kira didn’t even attempt to get away from him. For some reason, she didn’t want to. His body molded hard to hers as he pressed close to her back. From what she could feel pressing large and throbbing against her, this guy was more than enough to satisfy a woman. For some reason, she liked his boldness, his confidence. Not many men dared to approach her and that had always bothered her. This one not only approached her, he didn’t seem to care what she thought about him touching her and she loved that. She was up-to-date on all her sexual immunizations, so it didn’t matter if he was or not. Only one partner had to be immunized to protect them both. Sex had never been safer.
The memory of the creepy skeletal guy hit her and she drew in a sharp breath. Surely that wasn’t who was touching her. This man’s voice wasn’t monotone, but the nagging concern wouldn’t leave her. The porter wasn’t her idea of sexy. She turned her head to get a better view of her captor. He loosened his grasp, allowing her to pivot in his arms and face him head-on. This hottie was nothing like the skeletal guy.
Kira’s eyes widened and she had to blink to be sure he was real. She couldn’t have dreamed up a better specimen of a man if she’d tried. Silky strands of long brown hair partially hid what looked to be a perfect face. One blue eye looked out from behind the silken veil, making her shiver with delight. Slowly, a memory tried to unfold. “Do I know you?”
He smiled.
“You look really familiar to me,” she said.
His smile widened. Kira closed her eyes for a brief second.
“I met the travel agent late at her office that evening to pick up tickets. I’d just gotten off of work. You bumped into me. I dropped my briefcase into a puddle.” Kira shivered. They’d talked for a few minutes. There had been an almost instant connection, though for some reason she hadn’t acted on it and neither had he. In fact, she’d never even gotten his name. The whole memory was somewhat blurred in her mind, but she remembered having dreams about him. She waited, eagerly listening to see if his accent was what she remembered.
“Yes, I seem to recall that. I was hoping I’d bump into you again,” he answered. Kira wondered at the strange look on his face. He didn’t seem to be as surprised as she was at the encounter. The idea that he’d gone into the same travel agent and booked the same cruise just to make sure they had a chance to re-meet seemed almost sweet.
“Would it be too much to inquire after your name this time?” His accented words gave her chills. She always was a sucker for a good British accent. There was a sound of longing in his voice, but she chose to ignore it. “I believe we should forget proper introductions.”
Kira moved her hand up, not knowing what came over her as she reached for his sculpted face. He was too tall, and she only succeeded in pressing her barely clothed body against his toned frame even more. The lid dipped leisurely over that seductive blue eye. She wasn’t scared of him. In fact, she couldn’t think of a single reason why she shouldn’t touch him. It was as if someone reached inside her and pulled away all her fear and doubt, leaving confidence and instinct. Instinct told her to kiss him. Instinct told her it would be all right, that he was safe.
Kira moaned softly. Liking the feel of his cock pressed against her back, she shifted in his arms again, leaving her facing away from him. He never broke contact with her and the press of his body sent shivers down her spine. Kira smiled and pulled his arms tighter around her waist. She thrust her hips back into him and wiggled, trying to entice him further. A sultry laugh escaped her lips, as she answered, “Yes, it would be too much to ask for a name. Not that I think I’m better than you, but really, is there any reason that we need to know anything about each other, Cabin Boy?”
The “cabin boy” grunted and she thought that maybe he was laughing at her. Kira didn’t care at the moment. From what she felt rubbing along her back at full attention, they’d both be grunting in few seconds. What a perfect way to start out a vacation.
“Cabin Boy?” he asked.
“Yes.” Kira laughed, feeling very carefree. “Mm, won’t you
be my little cabin boy for me?”
“So you wish to play games?” He moved his hands over her waist and hips, caressing her.
“Mm, yes,” she continued, feeling giddy. “I like games.”
The man inhaled deeply. “Then I will be your cabin boy.”
“And I’ll be the rich woman with no moral conscience.” Actually, Kira didn’t feel as though she had much of a conscience at the moment anyway, so it wasn’t a huge stretch.
She turned quickly in his arms again and gave notice to the fact that he wore designer clothing. The silk felt good against her naked breasts. Her nipples stung with desire and puckered against him. She always liked it when a man dressed well. It usually meant he took care of himself in other ways, too. She grabbed at his buttons and had three undone before his long fingers laced over hers, momentarily stopping her advances.
“Are you sure this is what you want?” he asked. “What you truly want? Because, if you say the words, I will remove myself from you and wait.”
Kira believed him. She studied his face, as she forced herself to think about what she was doing. “This is crazy. I—I’m not thinking clearly.”
“Yes, you are. Trust me, you’re thinking more clearly now than you have ever been.”
Kira frowned at that. But as soon as a protest started to form in her brain it was like the thought was snatched away.
“It’s an easy question,” he said. “What do you want?”
She didn’t answer. Her body trembled. Every fiber of her being told her that he was safe, that he was what she wanted.
“Then I shall leave you,” he said.
Pleasure Cruise Trilogy (Box Set) Page 4
