Blood Emerald

by Amber Anthony

  They rode in silence for a few miles. Rick scented Anna’s jitters. “We’ve been through quite a bit in the last few months. I’m looking forward to tonight.”

  “It’s certainly a bigger night than our wedding. It sort of puts the vows to the ultimate test, don’t you think?”

  Rick chuckled. “This is a first, I’ve never turned anyone who means so much to me.”

  Anna patted his thigh as he drove.

  “You know, years from now, your family is going to wonder why we look the same as when they last saw us. Surely, if a group of your museum friends think you’re pregnant after our romantic getaway, everyone is going to expect a visit from the stork soon.”

  Anna dismissed that with a wave of her hand. “I’ve already decided, I’m going to tell them you’re sterile.”

  Rick laughed. “Great! Put it on me. I shoot blanks. Alrightie then, it sounds like you’ve covered all the contingencies. The only thing left is to do the deed.”

  Anna smiled. “I’m…” she took a deep breath and spun her emerald mating ring on her finger, “…nervous. But I think you have some techniques to calm me down.”

  “Only for you, Cupcake.” He parked the car and took her hands. “This is not the first time a mortal has been turned. You’re in good hands. I know you can do this.”

  * * * *

  Anna didn’t remember their steps to the bedroom. Their urgency was spent in deep embraces, feeling the contours of each other’s bodies, their eyes wide and engaged. No kissing, no words. She cherished their gazes silently. Touching each other’s faces with reverent hands, they were wide-eyed and panting. Anna arched her back, pressing her breasts into Rick’s waiting hands.

  He forced her against the wall, his arms framing her and their foreheads together. “Anna, these months together…we’ve consumed each other…shared pieces of our souls. I thought the world had grown too wide to find this peace again.” His words stunned her, reducing her response to accepting silence. “Each occasion of our loving has stamped you as mine.”

  Anna’s hands caressed his broad and muscled shoulders. She felt her heart open as it had in all of their frenzied and fevered couplings. “The further we entwine the more our lives change,” he murmured.

  “Fitz, you know you’ve ruined me for mortal men.” Her eyes smiled dreamily at her own confession.

  “And I’ve found myself speechless among women of my kind... but I’ve confessed this before. I want to give you everything.”

  Anna tightened her hold on his shoulders as he lifted her legs around his waist and pressed tighter to her clothed core. He bounded down the hall to the bedroom. Slow, long, open-mouthed kisses gave permission for more. They exhibited amazing control as they felt their way around each other.

  Unilaterally, they surrendered. Flat hands peeled away clothing, each taking reverent time to regard the view of snug boxer briefs or a lacey bra. Growing urgency reduced them to throwing underclothes airborne as they rolled in the bed over the turned-down covers. Anna lay back and watched Rick crawl up the length of the bed to lie beside her, it was deliberate torrid romance in its truest sense. The sight of his paleness in the near darkness awestruck her. Her smile returned as she realized, yes, my lover is a vampire, a very handsome and enticing vampire. She braced herself to feel cold flesh and felt her own heat reflecting off him. Quickly, he absorbed her warmth and wrapped that back around her with his embrace.

  Rick’s mouth touched each measure of her. He laid out her arms and gently pressed his knee between hers. Anna’s smile lit the bedroom as he cupped her breast and stroked her attentive nipples with his thumbs. She reached between them to catch his hard cock tapping at her belly. She wanted to feel him inside her now and knew it was way, way too soon. This was the prelude to a slow, comfortable screw. His extenuated ministrations piqued her curiosity, did she really know him before? It had been months since she first fancied his body over hers or wondered about the carnal skill he would bring to bed. She quivered, shaking and wet for him. He lingered, kissing her lips, seeking her tongue to dance with his. Wordlessly, they rolled to their sides and played at nibbling each other’s hands and fingers. Anna traced the sculpture of his abs—this earned her his winning smile. It was part of the devilish leer he levied when he stole first blood. Now his eyes followed her busy fingers as they flowed over his body.

  * * * *

  “Cupcake, you know I can’t stop now, I’m on the border…” his head dropped back at the sensation of her thumb working his cock, how she danced sensations over his velvet flesh, he gritted his teeth at the near flash of that darkness that could carry a mortal man to climax.

  “Border? We need a passport where we’re going?” She playfully bumped her hip into his.

  “All we need is some give and some take. Be your beautiful self and let me, ahhh, let me.” His lips silenced with the taste of her rosy nipple.

  “What if I want to play with you?” Anna caught his face with her hands and kissed his forehead, nose and the dimple on his cheek.

  “Oh, Cupcake, you know I believe my lady comes first. I don’t want to rush. I may tie your hands to the bed posts…you are unspeakably delicious.” Rick nuzzled Anna from her breasts to her navel. “Tell me, Anna, what do you want?” He was wrapped up so tightly in her allure…he was frozen in this moment. Rick raised up from her breasts to gaze at her face. She was softness and strength as he caught the sight of their body’s profile in the half-light of the bedroom. He watched her hands clutch at the sheets and she drew her knees up and captured him.

  He would be held hostage in this bed, releasing her only when they had repeatedly blown every sensation through the roof, when their unrelenting caresses would strike that critical tipping point. She rolled in his arms, returning his caresses a bit stronger over each moment until her moan powered her roll over his chest in playful domination. Her cheek rested in the hollow of his collarbone, her hand caught his jaw and she kissed him. Her savory lips engaged his kiss, distracting, as she sinuously lay over him. Rick’s mind blurred as she straddled him. His erection lurked under the fork of her legs; it stirred there in her wet heat as she pressed tighter, their fingers laced together as they fixed their gazes on each other. Rick waited for a response as he read the tilt of her head, the turn of her cheek.

  What if he never wanted this heaven to end? It wouldn’t, Rick’s inner vamp lay in wait, hungry to prove the confirmation of their love. Anna didn’t slide down from his hips. His light fingertips drew lazy paths up and down her thighs. With each trip up her thigh, his thumbs moved closer to finding a warm place to nestle within her delta. Her stiff back gave way to a fluid sway as his thumbs explored the folds of flesh, her back arching as his strokes circled over her clit. Anna purred as she curled forward, whipping Rick with her full mane of titian waves, her breasts brushing his chest as he gasped at her sensuously slow movements. His hands flew to catch her and kiss her silly, they locked lips as their tongues danced gently at first, then more deeply and slowly, Anna came up for air and turned her cheek to offer her neck.

  Rick caught her hands in his and kissed the backs of both. “Not yet…”

  Anna reared back again, looking blissful, as Rick’s hands held her safe. She began to crawl back down alongside him, sharing more of her warmth with him. He rolled to catch her, press his knee between hers to gain his place between her thighs. His earnest brown eyes met hers and he watched tears gather. “Let me love you, Anna.”

  The sensations of his lips on hers were transcendent when he laid her back and took over their choreography. Rick spread her hands to her side, kissing back up her arm to nuzzle at her neck then trail down between her breasts to the divot of her navel. His cool lips gave her relief from the internal burn that had taken over her mortal flesh; he licked and kissed drawing a budding fang every now and then. For a moment Rick rested his chin on the delta of her thighs. Their eyes met and Rick winked. Their eyes silently agreed, and Rick pressed on to taste her as he had so many nigh
ts before. His tongue fell on the folds of her flesh and her breath hitched. Light strokes danced in circles, whipping her into a euphoria of growing tension. Rick suckled her swelling flesh as low moans rose from her mouth.

  Anna’s knees widened and drew up as she slid into rapture, Rick buried his face within her, lapping, licking, kissing and nipping as she writhed. He grasped her hips and held her fast, keeping up his gentle pressure, taking her higher and higher.

  Its origin was a light sigh that descended from the heavens, collecting the weight of all her fears and casting them away. When she came, she came hard. She shook in a personal darkness that exploded into a blue-white light. And when she took flight, she found Rick there between her knees, covering himself with her juices as he begged for entry.

  Outstretched hands reached for him, and invited him within her. He paused and ran his hand through his hair, wet with her perspiration, her gaze locked on his smile and he pressed forward, inch by turgid inch. She felt his strength as they joined, each adoring the give and take of flesh within flesh. Her gasp was not fear, it was a gasp of feeling so deliriously at home with him between her thighs. He was a different man when he was with her.

  “Tell me this is real…” he asked, balancing on his forearms while he found the pace to fill her completely. “This is real, really… phenomenal.” Anna worked to return the favor. She caught him between her knees and rose to his thrusts, pressed on slowly, arduously and time stood still as their strength pulled them through sensual rapids.

  Anna recognized the closed eyes, the flaring nostrils which led him on his own journey into bliss. He delivered tiny punctures, taking miniscule amounts of her blood. He looked rapturous and she shivered deliciously.

  She felt it was their night, and this was their gift to each other, eternity. Anything boxed or gift-bagged or delivered would pale in comparison to their love, shared for centuries to come. Her heat swallowed him, triggering spasms between them.

  She knew opalescent eyes laid in wait behind his eyelids. She could taste blood from his tongue’s hurried rides over lengthened fangs. Within a slow kiss he snagged her tongue, and she hoped he tasted drops of her passionate blood. She felt him lengthen, harden, and quiver on the verge of climax. She sighed, urged him on with a whisper and tightened on him.

  “Rick, take me with you.” She offered her neck.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Amber Anthony

  Amber Anthony is a pen name that represents collaborating authors: Patrice Hough Bader (She answers to Rusty) and Nancy Reynolds. Together, they have written several television episodes, and feature film scripts.

  They write about gorgeous alpha males with tons of charm, who might also be vampires. Their heroines are smart and strong, with plenty of heart. Best of all, their stories take readers on a ride that holds their attention from start to finish.

  Patrice Hough Bader resides in the Midwest. She pursued study in Dance and Performing Arts, before completing her studies in Political Science. After a career in Sales and Marketing, she now owns a tavern with her husband.

  Nancy Reynolds resides in a southwest city. She spent her twenties in New York City as an actress, before entering the family business and pursuing a career in health care. For several years she has written for movies and television.

  Now, they are turning their love for words into productions as romance writers.

  Their second novel with Torrid Books, Blood Emerald, is also the second of the Blood Trilogy. Blood Rising features Matt Brenner, and was released May 2016. Blood Dragon features Adam Lachlan, and will release in April 2018.

  For your reading pleasure, we invite you to visit our web bookstore

  TORRID BOOKS

  www.torridbooks.com