by Elisa Adams
It was a lie, and she knew it. She snorted. “Like I’m supposed to believe that one? Most of you vampires don’t have it in you to follow through with a kill, at least not while enjoying it. That’s the problem with having a conscience. It gets in the way. Now again, if you’ll excuse me, Cardoso, I have a job to do. If I don’t do it, I don’t get paid, and that could be a problem.”
He raised his eyebrows in disbelief. Was she for real? God, she was like Amara on crack. Definitely not the kind of woman he needed in his life, in his way, with all that was going on. But if she really knew what needed to be done to get rid of Aiala for good, listening to her might not be a bad idea.
“What are you planning to do?”
“Whatever needs to be done. In this case, getting rid of your vamp with his demonic obsession before a bunch more women end up dead. I’d listen to me for a little while, if I were you. Aiala has a personal grudge against you and Eric. I’d be a little worried about Marco’s wife.”
“Is that some kind of a threat?”
“Of course not. It’s just a warning.” She opened the driver’s door of the sedan. “It seems like we’re both after the same thing. Why don’t you just stop your stupid macho protests and get in the damned car? We could get the job done quicker together, and then I can get the hell out of the crazy town before I end up as nuts as you.”
“Yeah, I know exactly what you mean.” Getting rid of Aiala was his number one priority, but he didn’t know if he could work with Merida without wanting to kill her. Women weren’t supposed to be so rough around the edges. They were made to be soft, pliant, and sweet—at least for the most part. What had gone wrong with this one?
“We’ve only got a few hours to plan before daylight. If you want to help me, it would be nice if you’d let me know.”
“Yeah, okay. Whatever.” He got into the car with her, hoping by the end of this one of them didn’t end up dead.
“You need me to stop somewhere so you can find some food?” she asked after a few minutes.
“No, I’m fine.” He leaned back in the plush leather seat. “If I get hungry enough, I’ll just feed on you.” He gave her his best leer, and was surprised when she smiled. “I’ve got to warn you, babe, I like it.” Maybe working with Merida wouldn’t be such a bad thing after all.
Chapter 18
Ellie sat on the edge of the bed, brushing her still-damp hair. It hung in long, limp strands nearly down to her waist. Usually, it was healthy, but now it seemed dull and tangled. She hoped that was temporary—she’d always thought of her hair as her best feature.
Over the past week she’d spent an obscene amount of time in the shower, scrubbing the memories of what had happened off her body until her skin was bright pink. She still felt skewed, like her life had been shattered and not put back together properly. It was an odd feeling, one she could do without. She didn’t like the sense of unbalance it left her with. Though the pounding she’d felt in her head for the first couple of days had dulled to a low throb, her nerves still tingled and everything felt…weird. She had yet to accept the fact that she now looked at life through a demon’s perspective.
If it hadn’t been for Eric and Sam, she wouldn’t be here right now to perceive anything.
That thought chilled her to the bone. She owed them her life, literally, even if it had changed permanently in the process.
“Are you doing okay?”
She’d been so wrapped up in thought that she hadn’t even noticed Eric had come into the room until he spoke. “Fine, thanks.” She tried to smile, but it fell a little short.
“You don’t look fine.” He scooted up on the bed behind her and took the hairbrush from her hand. He started gently brushing her hair.
It was an amazing feeling, another new experience for her. He’d been so kind and caring while she slept much of the week away. She couldn’t have asked for a better caretaker. The problem was, she hadn’t asked for anything. He was smothering her with kindness, and she just needed a moment to breathe.
“I have something to say,” he told her, stilling his movements with the brush. “I know you don’t want to hear this, but please just give me a few minutes to say what’s on my mind. I know you probably resent what I did, and I understand. I just hope you can find a way to forgive me someday, because I’d really like things to work out between us.”
She’d had the whole week to think about what had happened, and at some point during her recovery she’d come to an important conclusion—she wasn’t upset with him anymore. Hanging on to her anger wouldn’t do her any good. It would just eat away at her inside. “I don’t resent you. Not really. If you hadn’t done what you did, I wouldn’t be here at all right now.”
“If I’d left you alone in the park that first evening, none of this would even be an issue.”
“And then I’d still be sitting at home on Friday nights, bored out of my mind.” Of course, this was a little extreme as far as cures for boredom went.
He laughed and kissed her hair. “Do you always look at the bright side of things?”
When the dark side is enough to give a person nightmares… “Sometimes life changes. We have to just accept that.”
“This will be a tough life for you to adapt to.”
She placed her hand over his. “I’ll be fine. I have to tell you, though, I’m not crazy about your job.”
“It’s an old habit, I guess,” he said, pulling away from her slightly. “Times were different when I was born. Cats had to struggle to survive, constantly watch our backs for people who’d grown suspicious of what we were. You’d be amazed at how quickly the masses leave you alone when you make an example of a couple of would-be killers.”
She froze. “Torture?”
“What do you think they did to my mother? That’s how she died, you know.”
“An eye for an eye.”
“The law was different then. That’s just the way it was. I’m older, and I’ve moved past the vindictive stage. Now it’s just a job.”
She shook her head. What he was telling her should have bothered her, yet it didn’t—not when he’d given a compelling reason. She couldn’t imagine anyone doing something like that to her mother.
Thinking someone was doing it to her sister is what had gotten her into this mess.
“Your heart is beating fast.” She made the comment offhandedly, but he stopped brushing.
“Yeah, I guess it is. You’ll notice that more often now. Are you hungry? You haven’t really eaten much this week.”
“No, I don’t think so.” She didn’t know what she was. Her emotions and physical needs were a jumble of confusion and it was going to take a while to sort them out. It wasn’t a bad feeling, it was just different. Once she got used to it all, she’d be fine.
“Anything I can do to help you?” Eric asked, leaning over to kiss her jaw.
“Just be there for me.” Could the change she’d been through really be so different from what she’d been before? Her body said, yes, it could. She’d never felt anything like this in her life. An adjustment period was definitely necessary.
“Always.” She felt his smile against her cheek. “The way things happened isn’t what I would have chosen for us. But, if I hadn’t met you…well, I hate to say this, but I don’t regret making the decision to let Sam save you. The only thing I regret was not getting there sooner. If I’d been a minute or two earlier, you wouldn’t have lost so much blood, and maybe you would have been able to live as a human. But whatever you are now, it doesn’t change the way I feel about you. In fact, it even makes me feel stronger knowing we can be together fully and completely now. I’ve missed you this week, Ellie. Did you miss me, too?”
He set the brush down and moved her hair aside to kiss her neck. His lips brushed over her skin and her senses went wild.
She felt everything magnified, and all it took was the brush of his skin against hers to arouse her beyond reason. He hadn’t so much as touched her intimately all week, a
nd the arousal she’d felt that first day in the shower hadn’t completely faded. Now it was front and center. She nodded, not able to speak with the way he was touching her. If she thought it had been good before, she didn’t even know how to explain what was happening now.
“I know this has you a little nervous. You’ll get used to it. I promise.” He dragged his lips across her neck, and she felt the slight scrape of his teeth. Sharper than before, almost like a fang.
She stiffened in his arms. “What was that?”
“What?” Eric asked, his lips hovering over her neck.
“Your teeth. I felt them like that before.” Or was that in her dream? She couldn’t remember. “Why do they seem so sharp?”
“I’m sorry if that scares you. When I’m with you, I don’t always have as much control over myself as I’d like. Sometimes things slip into more demon form than human.”
“Oh.” She couldn’t think of anything else to say.
“I know it sounds scary, but it’s not. It’s just part of who I am.” He ran his tongue over the shell of her ear. “Part of who you are, too.” He kissed her neck and moved aside the straps of her tank top to kiss the backs of her shoulders. She leaned into his touch, her body craving it after going so long without.
He continued to kiss his way down her back as he grasped the hem of the tank top and lifted it over her head. His hands came around her front to cup her breasts. He held her almost reverently, and it made her breath hitch in her throat.
She rushed to ask the questions she needed answers to before he stopped her brain function all together. “What about my family? I can’t just leave my grandmother.”
“She’s being taken care of. Charlotte, Becca, and Carol are all fine.”
She melted against him as his hot breath fanned across her back. “How can you be sure?”
“Trust me to take care of you, Ellie, at least until you’ve gotten your strength back. As soon as you’re ready, we’ll go back to Stone Harbor. But let’s take it slowly, okay?”
“I can’t leave them, Eric. I don’t want to leave my home.”
“What makes you think I would ask you to?” He trailed his tongue up the length of her spine, and she shuddered, remembering how he could bring her to climax so easily. Then, it had been amazing. Now it was like every nerve in her body had multiplied, and just the slightest touch drove her insane with arousal.
He laid her down on her back on the bed and kissed her stomach. “You’re doing it again, assuming too much about me. Don’t.” He brought his mouth to her breast and suckled her nipple. Tiny waves of pleasure washed over her as his wet mouth devoured her. She didn’t know if he meant he wouldn’t move her away from her family, or if he wasn’t planning on there being a lasting relationship between them.
“Eric,” she pleaded, her voice raspy. “I don’t need any more change in my life.”
He looked up and her nipple slid from his mouth with a pop. “Nothing will change. We’ll live wherever you want.”
She watched his gaze, checking for insincerity but finding none. She smiled as he went back to sucking gently on her flesh. That was all she’d wanted, a promise—a commitment. Things would get difficult when they went back, and she wanted to know he’d stand by her no matter what. Whatever else happened, she’d deal with it when the time came. For now, it was time to concentrate on the present.
“Eric, touch me. Please.”
He ignored her, moving his lips over the skin of her belly. She’d have just about all she could take. “It’s been days, Eric, and I’m going out of my mind. I need you now. I don’t want to wait.”
He looked surprised for all of two seconds before he pulled off his shirt and kissed her hard on the lips. “I’ve missed you so much.” He paused to gently nip her chin before he rolled on top of her. “I’ve missed this.”
He ground his pelvis against her and she felt the hardness of his cock through his pants. Something in her snapped and she had trouble reining it back in. The world around her became a white haze, Eric being the only thing she could see clearly. She clutched at him while he kissed her, dragging her nails over his chest and arms. He cried out and pulled away, sitting up in the bed.
Ellie rolled over onto her side to face him. The ribbon of blood that ran from a deep welt in his arm dismayed her. “Did I do that to you?”
He laughed, but she saw the flash of pain in his eyes. “You’re going to have to work on keeping your claws sheathed in bed, or I’m going to end up torn to ribbons.”
She brought her hands up to her face and looked them over. They looked the same as they always had. “How could I have done that?”
“You’re still so new at this. It’ll be some time before you really learn to control it. We’ll have to make sure to practice lots, until it doesn’t happen anymore.”
“I’m so sorry.” She felt terrible. At the same time, she felt…hungry, watching the blood drip down his arm onto the sheets. That wasn’t right. Was it? She wasn’t supposed to crave blood, yet for some reason she wanted to taste his. She leaned forward and ran her tongue over the wound.
Eric sucked in a sharp breath. “Easy.”
She lapped the thin trail of blood from his skin, and it only whetted her appetite for more. She felt like someone else was taking over her body, yet in some strange way she was the same. She couldn’t explain it, but this new side of her reacted to Eric in a very big way.
He didn’t protest, but when she glanced up at him she caught his wince.
“Do you want me to stop?” she asked, not wanting to cause him any more pain.
“No” he rasped. “Whatever you do, don’t stop.”
Eric wrapped his hands in her hair and pulled her down against him. She was out of control, and it did wonderful, amazing things to his body. Her mouth was harsh, inexperienced, and a jolt of pain shot through him as she licked his wound. He tensed at first, but soon relaxed and dropped his head back on the pillow. It didn’t take her long to find her rhythm, the seductive power of the cat taking over as she caressed him with her mouth. He hadn’t had a chance to explain this part of her new life to her, but she seemed to be doing just fine running on instinct alone.
She ran her hands along his chest, followed by her tongue, damn near driving him insane. His arm throbbed, but he no longer noticed. It wouldn’t be long before it healed, anyway. His cock ached, straining against the fly of his jeans. Then Ellie’s fingers were at his pants, unbuttoning and unzipping. Her fingers, again tipped with razor-sharp claws, tore his clothes into ribbons to get them off his body. He winced when she got to his pants, hoping she didn’t hit something vital. Thank the goddess, she missed.
“Touch yourself for me, Eric.” Her whisper was soft, too seductive to refuse. He wrapped his hand around his cock and stroked up and down a few times.
“More,” she spoke softly, stripping out of her shorts and panties. He hesitated, but continued to stroke himself. Being so open, so vulnerable made him nervous, but at the same time turned him on beyond belief. The way she watched him, the hungry gaze in her eyes, almost made him come right then. He eased his strokes, fighting for control. Ellie moaned softly, her gaze focused on nothing but the motion of his hand as he stroked his cock.
“Yes,” she whispered as his thumb skimmed over the tip. He settled into a good, fast rhythm, his hips bucking off the mattress. He groaned, gripping himself tighter. Ellie ran her tongue over her lips, apparently enthralled. She watched him with utter fascination, and he in turn watched her.
“Ellie, I’m about to come.” His voice was a harsh growl. He wanted to come in her, not all over the mattress.
“Please do.”
“I want…to…” He ended the sentence with a deep moan. “Shit. I can’t wait.”
Seconds later he came hard, his come spurting from his cock in hot rushes. Ellie leaned over and put her lips over him, catching the last of the spurts in her warm, wet mouth. She swallowed and crawled up his body, kissing him hard on the lips
.
“Happy now?” he asked when she broke the kiss to lap at his chest again.
“Very. Feel like another round?” Her fingers curled around his flaccid cock. He felt it start to harden almost immediately as she stroked him.
His answering laugh was tinged with bitterness. “Yeah, but only if you’re involved.”
She paused in her ministrations. “You have no idea how involved I was.” She brought his hand to her sex. “Feel for yourself.” He closed his eyes and slid his fingers into her sopping cunt. She whimpered and bucked against his hand.
“Watching me actually turned you on that much?”
She nodded. “So much. I need you to help me with that.”
“I’m going to watch you someday,” Eric promised. “But not tonight. Tonight, I want to bury my cock in your sweet cunt. I’m going to come inside you this time, sweetheart, and every other time for as long as we have.”
“I hope you do.” She bit into his chest, hard, and he sucked in a sharp breath. She pulled away. “Did I hurt you?”
“A little. It’s good, Ellie,” he added when she started to pull away. “Trust me. I can take whatever you want to give.”
“I don’t think I can control myself much longer,” she said softly.
“So don’t.”
Ellie released her hold on him and pushed him onto his back. She straddled him and lowered her sex onto his cock. He groaned and raised his hips, pushing the head into her cunt.
“You feel so good,” she whispered, her eyes closing.
So did she. He’d never felt like this in his life. She rode him hard and fast, bringing out a frenzied need in him he didn’t even known he’d had. Her nails scraped his chest, leaving little welts as she went. He wanted to possess her in every way possible, but it was Ellie who possessed him. He hadn’t been able to sleep, he’d barely had anything to eat, and all his thoughts had revolved around getting her back into his bed. Now that he had, he realized his dreams and fantasies couldn’t even begin to compare to what they shared.
