Chaos and Moonlight (Order of the Nines Book 1)

by Marrow, A. D.

  It was as if they were meant to find each other. He realized how absolutely ridiculous it was, the notion of falling completely for someone whom he’d known for only a few days. But then again, vampires weren’t supposed to be real, either, and there he was.

  With that brief moment of clarity, he gently pushed her off him and slid out from under the covers.

  “Where are you going?” she asked quietly.

  Still sitting on the edge of the bed, he tried to get his heart rate under control. Even more than that, he tried to shut off the fact that the smell of her skin and shampoo were still stuck in his nose, and every time he took a breath, his pants got that much tighter.

  “I have to get out of here.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I want to touch you, Sarah, and by that I don’t mean just lying in this bed and holding you.” He spat the words out like fire. He quit fighting himself and took in another deep breath. “I want to kiss every inch of you. I want to know what it feels like to have your legs wrapped around me and your fingers clawing at my back. I want to know what my name sounds like echoing in my own ears when you scream it. I want to rip everything off you and bury myself so far inside of you that I can feel your soul squeeze me. I—” he ran agitated fingers through his still-wet hair and let out a long, slow breath.

  As if the mattress was on fire, he hurled his body off the bed and walked to the door. His hand was on the doorknob, and he started to turn it but stopped himself.

  “It’s not fair of me to spew all of that out, I know, but you asked, so I’m telling you.” He spoke while facing the door, afraid to look back at her. Regardless of how she felt about it or what she thought, the temptation to kiss her was becoming too palpable to ignore. “You and I have work to do. We can help each other and still keep a safe distance. It’s better this way. Lying there with you was probably not the best idea, so—”

  “Taris,” her voice floated across the space between them, interrupting him. “Turn around and look at me when you babble.”

  He let out a sigh, turned to face her, and was shocked to find she was no longer sitting on the bed where he’d left her but instead standing right in front of him. Her body was so close he could feel the heat radiating off her.

  Slowly, she lifted her hands, her fingers running along the flat planes of his abdomen. Her nails traced along the length of him, and he felt goose bumps rise on his skin with every inch that she mapped. His breath became ragged, and he struggled to control it as she leaned in and pressed a soft kiss between his pecs. A moan from deep within his chest escaped of its own volition, and she did it again, only this time, she gave him a slow, languishing lick with her tongue.

  “Sarah, you have to stop.”

  * * *

  She glanced up at him and her stomach knotted. A solitary fang was resting on the edge of his lip. His eyes were squeezed shut, and he had one of his hands clenching the back of his neck. It only made her want to press on. She’d wanted him from moment one, even when she thought he was kidnapping her. Something about him made her body hot and her panties a little more than uncomfortable. Never in her life had she wanted—no—needed a man the way she needed Taris. And, though she was terrified to admit it to herself, she knew she’d fallen so madly in love with him that it bordered on insanity. No, it was completely and utterly mad. Still, she couldn’t stop herself. It was as if some strange inner drive had taken over.

  She pulled her lips away from his chest but pressed her breasts against him and trailed her fingers across his hard back. She applied more gentle pressure, digging her short nails into his skin. His reaction was immediate, and she felt his rock-hard erection pressing into her stomach.

  “Sarah,” Taris’ deep, gravelly voice commanded her attention, and when she looked up, she caught her breath. His eyes were narrowed and dark, the amber hues turning an almost ruby red. His jaw clenched, his hands now buried deep in her hair. “Sex with me,” he paused and sighed, “with one of us, isn’t like regular sex. I mean, we don’t hurt each other or anything. It’s just that this is our first time together, and damn it, I’m fucking this up so bad. There’s…”

  Sarah’s eyes were locked with his, but the statement didn’t stop her hands from tracing the valleys between the lean muscles in his back. She pulled back and nibbled at her lip.

  “Just tell me,” she said.

  “We bite.” His reply was so dark. She couldn’t tell if he was telling her to scare her or turn her on, but the memory of his teeth penetrating her body made her entire being molten hot. It should have scared the hell out of her, and there was a small, logical part of her brain telling her to run to the bathroom and lock herself in, but she couldn’t hear it for the louder, more primal parts of her that wanted to know what all of him felt like inside of her—not just his teeth.

  “Every time?” she asked. Sarah sucked in a deep breath through her nose in an effort to keep her heart rate manageable, but the cool smell of his skin rocketed her into out-of-control territory.

  “Not every time,” he said. She could feel his fingers shaking, the subtle movements sending tingles through her scalp and all the way down to her toes. God, he was fighting it, too, and she wanted more than anything for him to unleash himself on her. “Just, usually, the first time we’re with someone…” As he spoke, she trailed her fingers lower until they met the waistband on those deliciously worn-in jeans that were held up by the V at his hips, making her mouth water. His breath was starting to catch between words. “It’s a weird biological thing that, um, I can’t explain and…” Taris blew out a breath, squeezing his eyes shut and tilting his head.

  “What are you doing to me, woman?” he hissed between his teeth. Sarah could feel his heart pounding in a heavy rhythm against hers. “Once this gets started, I won’t have the strength to stop it. I want you that bad, and I’m going to lay it out there, black and white, so you don’t misunderstand.” His fingers tightened in her hair just enough to tease her with a lick of pain. “I’m about to fuck you until you can’t stand, and I’m going to bite you while I do it.”

  Sarah threw reason out the window. Until that point, she didn’t think that it was even possible for a woman to be so turned on that it was painful, but her body was splintered with need.

  “Do it,” was all she was able to say before Taris descended upon her.

  Chapter 21

  Taris crushed her lips underneath his, the feel of her mouth against him setting off a chain reaction he knew he could no longer control. The hot tease of her tongue on his made his head swim. He wanted her so bad that it hurt. He could feel her fingernails digging into his back, her body moving in a frantic lockstep with his as he pushed them back toward the bed.

  They fell together in a tangle of arms and legs. She was frantically pulling at his jeans. His mouth never left hers as his hands made their way up her shirt, across the soft skin of her belly, and up to her arms. Taris pulled his mouth away momentarily to take off her vintage Bowie T-shirt. She reached back up for him, and he obliged, lowering his mouth to hers in a frenzy. Her lips tasted like heaven, sweet and strawberry, but he wanted to know what all of her felt like on his tongue.

  Taris operated under the guise of turned on and terrified. He tried to keep his hands from quivering with nervous anticipation as they traveled back down her body, finally stopping at the waistband of the shorts she wore.

  She pushed his mouth away for just a moment. “I want you inside of me, Taris,” she whispered.

  He didn’t respond, only gave her a wicked grin, watching her face as his fingers dipped beneath the band of the shorts. He tickled down her thighs before tracing his fingertips slowly back up to her soft lips. She was already wet. He didn’t know how much longer he could drag this out. When she’d said she wanted him inside of her, it nearly made him come unglued, but there was a big difference between hearing it and feeling it.

  “Like this,” he said as he pushed one finger into her. Her fingers clenched his sho
ulders, and her head tilted back as he stroked her with his thumb. He worked her with his fingers, back and forth, as he dropped his head to her breast, drawing a taut, pink nipple into his mouth. The feel of her hands pulling his hair almost sent him overboard.

  “I want you in me,” she said, and her voice was so close to his ear. “Now.”

  What Taris wanted to do and what he needed to do were two different things. He wanted to put his mouth where his fingers were, to watch as she came and then do it all over again. What he needed was to take off his jeans and do exactly what she wanted. He panicked for a brief moment, thinking he didn’t have a condom, but almost as if she were reading his mind, she pulled his mouth to hers and whispered, “I don’t care. Just, please.”

  He didn’t waste any more time. Taris shifted her around so that she was lengthwise on the bed. His mouth descended on hers in a kiss as he straddled her hips. She lifted up and unzipped his jeans. Dropping back down, he kissed her again and trailed the kisses down her neck, placing a licking tease on one nipple, then the other, kissing the plain of her belly before gripping the waistband of her shorts and pulling them off. Taris slid off the end of the bed just enough to be able to slide his pants off.

  He crawled back onto the bed, repeating the same process in reverse, kissing first her calves and then the insides of both thighs and sneaking a savory lick between her legs before she pulled at his shoulders. Settling himself between her thighs, Taris bent down to take her mouth as he positioned himself at her wet opening. She’d been so tight, two fingers had barely fit. He was going to have to take it slow, but with her hot body writhing beneath him, he wasn’t sure he could.

  He bit down on his lip, using his hand to guide himself until he was far enough into her body that he could move. She caught her breath the farther he pushed, and the second he felt her completely wrap around him, he knew he wasn’t going to be able to hold back.

  She grabbed onto the wrought iron posts of the headboard and arched back, her chest heaving.

  “You feel so good,” she could barely breathe, and that was all it took to blow his fuse. His fingers digging into her hips, Taris pulled back and drove back in. He did it again, harder and faster, all the while fighting the primal urge he’d warned her about. Every stroke only fueled him, every whimper and passionate sigh made him fight a little harder. Her skin was glistening with sweat beneath him. She met every thrust, no matter how hard or fast, with equal measure. He was beginning to see red for all of the best reasons, and on a downstroke, he couldn’t stop himself anymore.

  Taris’ lips peeled back from his teeth, his fangs elongating as he lowered his head and pushed them into the soft flesh at her shoulder. He thrust into her body again. Her hands instantly thread themselves into his hair, tangling and pulling.

  He tried not to take too much, to be easy, but the decadent taste of her in his mouth began to take on a different note, something he’d never experienced before. Dark and sinful, it made his whole body warm from the inside out, and he started to feel her squeeze him. She sucked in the broken air and dug her fingers deeper into his hair. Her pulls on it started to grow harder, and with them, a greater surge of the chemical rushed past his lips.

  Taris gripped onto her hips, driving in deeper as her body pulsed around him. He was literally high on her. Terrified of his own addiction, Taris sealed up the tiny bites he’d made in her shoulder. As his tongue passed over her skin, he could feel her body tense. She was on the verge of exploding, and he could feel it in the scintillating pulses that were squeezing his cock, but she was fighting it with everything she had.

  “Don’t hold back,” he said between nips at her ear. “I wanna hear it. Let me hear it.”

  Panting, Sarah replied, “But they’ll hear.”

  He could feel it, her orgasm, teetering on the edge, and he’d be damned if she would deny herself. He didn’t stop his hips, only buried himself farther into her before shrugging his shoulders to move her hands to his back. Once her fingers were splayed across the muscle, he pulled back and moved in slowly. He looked down at her face, her eyes narrowed, her lips red and swollen.

  “You feel that?” he asked. “You feel all of me moving?”

  “Mmm, yes,” she rasped.

  Taris lowered his mouth to her ear again, nipping the lobe before speaking.

  “If you don’t want to get loud, then show me how that feels. Dig those fingernails into my back and show me that I make you want to come as hard as I do.”

  A sharp stab of decadent pain ripped through him as he felt all of her fingers dig into his flesh as hard as they could. He didn’t hold back anymore. He couldn’t. The hot opiate rush of orgasm still flowed through his system as he buried his head into her shoulder and thrust his hips deeper and faster. Her legs clasped around him, her fingers frantically grasping and raking his skin. Gripping the metal rods of the bed was about as close as he was going to get to finding a grasp on reality, and he used them for leverage.

  She finally gave in and let out a cry, screaming out his name as she moved her grip from his back to his hips. The feel of her pulling him deeper into her sent rippling shockwaves through his body, and he could tell he was about to explode. His body tensed up. The shudder of release combined with his sex high forced him to bite his own lip to keep from tasting her again out of sheer excitement.

  Taris’ breath was hot and heavy in his chest. He blew it out like a freight train, holding onto the headboard to keep his weight off her while at the same time trying to slow his heart rate down.

  “Is it always like that?”

  Taris slowly opened his eyes and looked down at Sarah. Her eyes were closed, but she had an unmistakably blissed-out smile on her face. It made his heart pound even faster against his chest wall. No man on earth—human, vampire, or otherwise—could deny the instant hard-on that comes from knowing he’s sexually satisfied a woman. Even more so when that male knows they’ve just had the best sex of their lives together.

  “Will you be disappointed if I say ‘I hope so’?” he replied, gently easing himself out of her. She pulled at his hips, stopping him.

  “Don’t go,” she said as her eyes opened. “Not yet.”

  “I’m not going anywhere,” he said as he shifted his torso to the side. Taris rested his head on his hands, staring into her big, warm eyes. “Not now. Not after that.”

  There was the purest form of silence between them then, a quiet understanding that everything had changed. He knew he may wrestle with it in the morning, but as he sat there, watching her fight to keep her eyes open, her fingers splayed across his chest, he came to the stunning realization that he’d just experienced something he’d only heard about before. The chemical rush in her blood when she was teetering on the edge of orgasm was one that permeated through every cell wall and muscle fiber in his body. There was more to their sex than just slick bodies and hormones. While he’d been inside her, she’d literally mapped every vein inside him. That sort of connection didn’t fade away with time. It was one that only the truly lucky experienced and the truly blessed continued to enjoy.

  The soft rise and fall of her chest told him she’d drifted off to sleep. Gently separating their bodies, he lay on his back and placed her across his chest. Looking down, all he could see was a mass of dark curls and red-lacquered nails peeking out. He pulled the covers up around them and finally decided to give in to the overwhelming, relaxed feeling in his body. Wrapping his arms around her, he pulled her up closer to his shoulders, hugging her to him. Tomorrow, the real work started. They would do their best to behave professionally, but he knew better. There were too many emotions running through his blood to play pretend anymore.

  He loved her.

  Taris managed to place a soft kiss on the top of her head before he let sleep take over.

  Chapter 22

  Judah sat back on the ratty bed and waited for her to come out of the bathroom. He swirled the last remaining sips of his beer around in the bottle, studying its mo
vement. It was so mundane, listening to her rustle around in the bag, mumbling to herself. The television had been on, but the constant stream of late-night Jerry Springer was way too much of a reality check for him, so he flipped it off and returned to sucking back his fourth Guinness.

  The motel was shitty, but then again, they always were. What he did there didn’t merit high class. What he did within the confines of those walls would have been better suited to a gutter. It was disgusting and violent and an abomination to everything he knew was right.

  But he couldn’t help it. It was a need he couldn’t get rid of, no matter how hard he tried. He’d been doing the same damned routine for how many years now? Going on a buck fifty?

  It was hard at first, finding women that fit the bill of goods. They needed to be just the right height, just the right size, with just the right coloring. But with the advent of colored contacts and exemplary wig makers, almost any woman could now be his type. When he first started doing it, the hard part wasn’t so much finding all the right provisos but trying to get the women to a quiet place. Modesty was a little easier to come by back in the day. It seemed that with the rise of hemlines and the dip of necklines, the moral standoffishness of the female gender seemed to fall to the wayside.

  Which suited his purpose to a tee.

  “I hate this shit,” he muttered into the bottle as he let the last vestige of beer drip down onto his tongue. His body was starting to cramp up. He had been on the verge of collapse when he left the house, so two hours later, after finally finding a suitable feed, he was in agony. Oh, the beers helped, as they always did, but he would pass out if he didn’t get some blood in his veins before long.

  Just then, the flimsy bathroom door opened and she stepped out. Judah dropped his eyes a little when he saw her standing just beyond the doorway. The likeness in this one was uncanny. The build, the color, everything. Perfect.