Triquetra

by Marguerite Labbe

  “It’s cold as balls out there.” The shudder that went down my spine had everything to do with the predatory smile that crossed his lips.

  Kristair didn’t wait for me to invite him in. He swung through the window, turning to shut it and dropping the shades before facing me. He smiled again as I reached for the blanket and wrapped it tight around me. I scowled back. I was cold, dammit.

  “Tá mo chroí istigh ionat.” I didn’t understand the language, but I caught the meaning from my contact with his mind: “My heart is within you.”

  There went my irritation as my heart lodged in my throat. “Ya know just what to say, don’t ya?”

  “You belong to me now,” Kristair replied.

  My eyes narrowed. “That goes both ways, Kristair.” Damn, I wanted him. I raked my hand through my hair, my cowlicks standing on end as I did. He had me so fucking off balance and I was sick to death of it. The blanket slipped from my shoulders as I brushed my fingertips over the heated skin of my throat remembering each and every time he watched me touch myself through the window. I smirked as his eyes followed the path of my fingers down my chest.

  “Do you like what you see?”

  “You know I do and you use it shamelessly to your advantage.” Kristair’s eyes darkened to ebony as I shifted so the blanket fell away completely. I stroked my hands over my inner thighs, hovering them over my aching cock but not touching it yet.

  “You can’t talk, man. You’ve done the same damned thing.”

  “I won’t apologize.”

  His voice was just as rich and deep as the one in my mind. I could listen to him talk for hours. My eyes fixated on him as he stripped off his fine gray shirt with innate grace. He was lean, his muscles fluid, and he had the dangerous air of a creature used to hunting and being hunted in return, one secure in his own strength but who wouldn’t allow himself to be caught unawares. I could sense his lust for blood, for me, and instead of being afraid as any sane person would be it only made me want him more.

  Damn, I wanted to see if his hips fit just right in my hands, to brush my thumbs over the fine skin stretched over the bones. I wanted to consume him with my mouth, to taste the hollow of his throat, see what it was like not to feel the mad flutter of his pulse against my lips. Sweet Jesus, I was about to screw a vamp. I didn’t know whether I should start laughing, jump him, or bolt for whatever questionable safety I could find.

  Kristair kicked out of his pants and my eyes followed the thin trail of his black hair down the planes of his stomach. His cock was a little longer and more slender than my own, hard and glistening at the tip. I held out my hand to him, half-believing this was a dream. “You’re one persistent bastard.”

  He smiled as he took my hand. “Is that an invitation?”

  He was solid, real, and the contact set my hormones raging. “Damn right,” I breathed and tugged him down onto the bed with me choking back a moan as my nipples scraped against his chest. His long-fingered hands were exploring the dip in my lower back, his touch warm despite his nature. What had possessed me to wait so long?

  I wrapped my hand around the nape of his neck and our mouths met, impatient tongues tangling. I turned, bearing us both down onto the tousled sheets pinning him under me. Kristair shuddered as I circled my hips, rubbed our cocks together. The innate reaction from someone who seemed as controlled as he was fascinated me. His palms traced over my shoulder blades as he arched, letting my hands slip underneath to cup his ass. I wanted to bury myself in him, make him acknowledge the lust he’d raised so easily in me.

  He chuckled against my mouth. “You can have whatever you desire of me, Jacob, but I want to taste you first.”

  My breath caught. If only he meant a blow job, but that wasn’t his intention. I resisted his attempt to break the kiss, sealing my mouth harder to his, my tongue delving deeply, pressing the weight of my body into his, as my hands came up to frame his face. My breath panted fast against his cheek as he rolled me over, and my lungs burned. I gasped for air as he pulled back and I stared up at him with wide eyes. Okay, yes, so I had fantasized about him biting me. However, now that the moment was upon me I was having some serious second thoughts.

  I tensed as he burrowed against my neck, lips nipping my tender skin, and my heart raced. He kissed down my throat, following the line of my collarbone as I brushed my fingers over his scalp, then down, grazing the back of his neck. My hands caressed his back, sighing at the sensual drag of his tongue on my skin, the way it started to ease my worry even as it inflamed my senses.

  Kristair’s hands settled on my thighs, urging them wider, his eyes lifting to meet my own. The dare in his expression was evident. Damn him. My jaw tensed and I let my knees fall open, holding my breath as he went lower. Oh fuck, this was really happening. He was gonna bite me, for Chrissake, and I was gonna let it happen without protest.

  My skin tightened as his teeth nipped the bands of muscle on my stomach. I trembled, uncertainty and desire running rampant. I watched him, almost defiant, refusing to look away. His tongue flickered over the head of my cock. I moaned, craving the sensation of his mouth hot and wet around me, but he broke away to nuzzle against my inner thigh. His tongue traced the vein running under my skin, the faint stubble on his cheek scratching, and I burned hotter. There was a faint question in those hooded eyes. My cock throbbed at the flash of his teeth.

  “Yes…,” I heard myself say, the anticipation building to a feverish pitch. His head dipped and I shuddered as his sharp teeth brushed over my sensitive skin. Then pain and ecstasy like I’d never known washed over me.

  Chapter 5

  JACOB’S TASTE against my lips, on my tongue, was indescribable. It was fiery, passionate and filled with all of the infectious invincibility of youth. I feasted on his tangled emotions as well as his blood, greedily sucking them in and demanding more as any gluttonous sybarite would. Exultation blazed; after all of these months, he was mine. There was no going back for either of us. It was all I could do to force myself to stop. My hunger had not been sated like that in a long time. There was no pleasure taken in preying on the jaded sycophants that curried our favor or feeding off those who were too terrified to deny us. Now, I had the rest of Jacob’s life to savor everything he had to offer.

  I severed the connection between us until I regained my self-mastery. Jacob jolted as I did, and his soft groan of loss echoed my own now that I couldn’t sense the upheaval of his emotions. I raised my head, licking the wounds on his thigh until they stopped bleeding.

  “Kristair?”

  At the sound of his voice, so lost and uncertain, I met his eyes. Any other time he would have hated the emotions he was experiencing, but right now he was seeking comfort from them. He looked so incredibly young as he reached for me, the creature who was the cause of all of this upheaval in his life. His hands closed around my biceps as he tugged me up.

  “Com’ere,” he whispered as I settled against him and slid my arms underneath his shoulders. I needed to give him the solace he sought.

  “Mo chroí, you have no understanding of what you ask for.” I sensed his mind reaching for my own, our thoughts brushed against each other, and I started to pull away again, seeking to disentangle our linked psyches. The intimacy was unsettling.

  “Don’t do that, dammit.” His rough hands framed my face and his normally light eyes flashed a much darker blue, the color of the sky as it deepened toward twilight. “Don’t shut me out, Kristair. Not ever.”

  How could I deny him after all I had demanded? I had what I sought. It was right here in my arms. He was mine. The connection between us opened up again with the ease of those who have known each other for many years. How ironic this was the first time we’d touched. The first night I’d let him into my mind and shared myself.

  A fierce smile of triumph crossed Jacob’s lips and the flavor of it on my senses was exhilarating. Our lips met again and his initial shock at the taste of his blood on my lips was quickly replaced with a savage hunger. I
growled, meeting him gladly. The game we had been playing with each other over the past several months was coming to a head. Neither of us could hold back our lust and upon sensing the resonance of that craving in the other, we fed off that until it expanded in an explosion of heat. It was one thing to know another’s desire and it was quite another to experience it firsthand, through linked minds as well as grasping bodies.

  Our tongues battled, mated, and devoured the taste of the other. He was liquid molten heat flowing over me. Jacob was everything I had dreamt he would be. There was no holding back. We were beyond thought, yet it seemed as if Jacob was saying “Here I am. This is what you wanted, but I’m going to demand equally of you in return.”

  Our hands moved over each other’s flesh, hard and possessive. His hands curved over my back, his fingertips pressing into my skin. I balanced my weight on one hand while the other moved over his tight abdomen. My nails lightly scraped over his ribs, and I tugged on the small golden ring piercing a taut nipple until he cried out inarticulate against my lips and arched into me.

  The appetite we had for each other was offset by the sentiments lying underneath so that we moved in a strange ragged dance. At times, the tenderness took over and our caresses gentled. His hand cupped the side of my face, his thumb brushing along my jaw. My fingertips stroked his thigh where I had bitten him as if my touch could heal the lingering ache in his heated flesh. Then our more primitive emotions broke through again, hands and mouths becoming more demanding as we attempted to alleviate the inferno within us.

  Jacob’s breath panted against my cheek and I broke the kiss so he could catch it. Our eyes met as he drew in a deep, shuddering breath and then he chuckled. “Damn you, Kristair. You’ve fucking crawled underneath my skin and no amount of clawing at you is ever gonna get you out.” He was damn well determined to make me feel the same.

  “You already have, Jacob,” I said, and he trembled at the sound of my voice in his mind.

  From the first night I saw him play in September, I knew I had to make him mine. It had been countless years since I had chosen a vessel. But this young man, with his slow drawl and quick temper, filled with boldness, strutting around like the cock of the morning, owned me. I knew the man beneath his façade. I knew how good he was, how desperate he was to move beyond the boundaries life had set up for him, how he wanted to prove to the world just what a kid from a trailer park in Louisiana could do.

  I rolled over, taking him with me so his weight was settled on top of me, sinking me back into the nest of blankets. He wanted to fuck me, and in my own way I had promised he could. I saw the flicker of surprise at our change of position, and a challenging smile crossed my lips.

  “Make me feel it, Jacob.”

  The surge of lust in him, the fierce determination to do just that, swept into me and made me groan. His hands captured my wrists, pinning them on either side of my head. The illusion of helplessness was incredibly erotic. I slung my legs around his waist, lifting them high up on his back and opened myself up to him. His cock, hard and hot, nestled in the cleft of my ass and made me yearn for more. I wanted it fast and wanton, tearing at each other in a paroxysm of passion.

  Quick, frantic thoughts darted through Jacob’s mind. He was impatient with the idea of having to look for lube. His cross expression would almost be comical if I wasn’t as consumed with need as he was. He released my wrists and leaned over the side of the bed. I heard his fingers scrabbling around on the floor, searching for what was not needed. The head of his cock was already slick against my entrance and I was more than ready for him.

  “You cannot injure me.”

  He reappeared triumphant, clutching a small bottle. I arched against him, my hands grasping his hips so he couldn’t move away as he fumbled with the cap. “Now,” I said, my voice fierce.

  “Patience. At your age, you should’ve learned some.”

  Jacob’s head dipped down and he gave my lip a stinging nip as his hand moved between our bodies. Then he was driving into me with slick ease. I cried out, shuddering at the sublime invasion. Vampires were sensualists, wallowing in each sensation to the fullest. We experienced things more intensely: pain, pleasure. The penetration stung, but it would quickly fade into pleasure. He was inside of me, I felt alive, and that was all that mattered.

  As the tension eased, I clenched hard around Jacob and the concern in his mind changed to raw, base desire in a flash point. He groaned, capturing my mouth, swallowing my moan as his hips began to move hard and fast, giving me exactly what we both were craving.

  Jacob tore his mouth away, his chest heaving as his hands captured mine again. This time he twined our fingers together, both of us holding on, white-knuckled. His forehead pressed against mine, his eyes narrowed to slits as he gazed at me. He was reading me as acutely as I did him; everything laid bare, torn open for the other to understand. He exposed me, left me oddly vulnerable in a way I hadn’t been in ages. The fact that I did the same to him was not much of a comfort.

  As my lover’s mind became even more attuned with my own, it was harder to keep up the illusion I placed in his consciousness to disguise my true appearance. I dispelled it, wanting him to know me as I knew him. I sensed the flicker of surprise as the heavy whorls and lines of blue appeared on my body, crude figures etched indelibly into my skin. My primitive clan tattoos and scars from old battles called to an instinctual response in him. Jacob growled, his mouth slamming down on top of mine with bruising force.

  My body shuddered with every one of Jacob’s deep, sure thrusts. My back bowed as I arched up to meet him, our hips snapping. Pinpricks of energy, pleasure rippled over my flesh. My cock was trapped between our stomachs and the perspiration slicking his body provided it with the most delicious friction.

  Jacob’s head fell back with a guttural cry and I couldn’t resist the invitation of his bared throat. I nuzzled his jugular, taking in his scent. He gasped as I bit him, his hands tightening on my own. I needed to taste him so I sipped, glorying in his essence and the draw of his emotions as I fed off both.

  “A’m not sharin’ ya with anyone, Kristair.”

  I smiled inwardly. Even his mental voice had that honeyed southern drawl. There was a hint of jealousy in his thoughts and an implacable resolve. The strength of his will matched my own. I had wanted to be with someone for a long time, but found no one suitable until him. I’d never met anyone like him. I hastened to reassure him, lifting my mouth from his throat.

  “You will be the only one I go to when I have to feed.” Unless he was sick or hurt; then I’d find sustenance elsewhere. I’d not risk him—I couldn’t. Nor could I pretend that it was merely because I wanted him for my vessel. Jacob was special.

  Jacob’s eyes narrowed and he pinned me with a glare. “Don’t even think about it.”

  What a possessive streak he had. I wasn’t in the mood to argue about whom I fed from and why, not when our bodies were entwined together, our movements becoming erratic as Jacob surged closer and closer to the edge, dragging me with him. I nodded in agreement, and untangled one of my hands to worm it between our bodies and grasped my cock with a ragged cry.

  Jacob looked down and groaned at the sight of me touching myself. I started to stroke, moaning from the mindless pleasure that consumed both of us, arcing back and forth through thought and touch. His eyes flashed back to mine and he touched his forehead to mine again, his breath lingering on my lips.

  “With me… I need ya with me.”

  I smiled, clenching around him hard as the tremors raced through us. “Always.”

  It was beautiful to witness, Jacob coming apart as his orgasm shattered what fragile control he had left. The sensation of his cock throbbing as he filled me was enough to make me follow right after him in a long drawn-out release that had been pent up for too long. My tongue snaked over his corded throat, lapping up the thin trickle of blood that had seeped from where I’d bitten him. My own orgasm left me trembling, aftershocks rippling through me as we
clung to each other.

  Jacob’s heart was racing and his breath was quick and shallow as he burrowed into me, turning his face into the side of my neck. As we started to calm I sensed his desire to stay close to me and the need to cherish him was almost overwhelming. I closed my eyes and kissed his temple, unable to speak. I knew he sensed my emotions because he echoed them and smiled against my skin.

  Jacob was exhausted, worn out by the late night and my feeding. I stroked my hands down his spine, urging him without words to sleep. There was one more thing I had left to do and I didn’t wish to spend what strength he had left. I would hold him, relishing the contact after months of working to make him mine.

  I had not counted on his curiosity, though, and his head lifted, his eyes searching my own. “What?” Wariness colored his mental voice.

  I noticed how comfortable he’d become speaking to me mentally, or perhaps he was simply too worn to speak out loud. My hands came up to frame his face.

  “How much do you trust me, Jacob? Because, what I am going to ask of you will link us irrevocably.”

  Chapter 6

  HOW MUCH did I trust him? The irony of the question made me laugh, though there was no real humor in it. Two responses sprang to mind. Oh hell no, followed more quietly by absolutely.

  My limbs were heavy, pressing into the mattress. I was drained: physically and emotionally spent. If being with Kristair was always like this, I’d be a wreck by the end of the week.

  “It had been such a long time.” His voice whispered in my mind and his fingertip brushed against my lips as hunger flared in his eyes. “No, I can promise you, it won’t always be so taxing.”

  I frowned. Kristair was being vague again. “What’s been so long?” I kinda liked the idea Kristair might not have gotten any in awhile, but I didn’t think he was referring to sex.

  “Since I’ve fed out of want instead of need.”