His Redeemer's Kiss

by Diana Castilleja

  What felt like an eternity later, but may have taken less than an hour, he lifted the length of her hair free of her neck and kissed her there, below her ear, blowing gently against the shell. She shivered like a leaf in answer.

  “Lily.” Her name was a wrenched groan from his lips. “My lovely Lily.” When he said things like that, she felt so cherished. She wanted to wrap up the feelings and keep them close. Forever. His caresses changed, deepened, revealing his own hunger, his own desire. His lips slid down her neck to her shoulder, nipping and teasing at skin. She moaned as he suckled, finding sensitive spots where she didn’t know she had spots.

  She opened her eyes and fought to make out a shape, any shape, in the darkness of the cavern they were in. There was absolutely no light at all. She trembled, unable to restrain it.

  He stopped instantly. “What is wrong?”

  “I don’t like not being able to see.” She didn’t mean to make it a complaint.

  “Hush,” he soothed. “You’re not complaining. This is foreign to you.” He sat up and lightly tugged her body up until she rested comfortably against his chest. She realized he was as naked as she was. She couldn’t even say when he’d undressed.

  “I don’t have a way to make it brighter in here,” he explained. “The cavern is deep in the wall of the canyon.”

  “Why down here?”

  Sexual tension stiffened his frame where they touched. “Because in a few hours, you’re going to be as close to alone as it can get, and I wanted you safe.” His voice had dropped the sensual purr. He was dead serious.

  “Alone?” Her voice rose with the news, snapping up to try to find his face in the darkness. It was a lost cause. “Where will you be?”

  “I’ll be right here, but I’ll be asleep and I won’t be able to hear you if anything happens. The path to this cavern is very difficult to find and harder to traverse for normal humans. I had to make sure you would be okay first.”

  “Not able?” He wasn’t making sense.

  Tender concern flowed on the air between them. “Lovely, I’ll be dead during the day. I didn’t want you to face the sunlight hours alone. There was no way we could return to the house in one night.” God, she hated when he could say it succinctly and sound normal. “Down here, you are hidden, safe from the sun’s heat and everyone else.”

  “Dead? As in, really dead?” she asked, hating the chirped squeak in her voice. She made it a point to loosen the clutched grip she had on his body. Not even a flicker of discomfort had moved his muscles in argument to her relentless hold. She had no doubt she’d left marks.

  “Yes.”

  She tucked herself into his shoulder, her thoughts running in all directions. Dead. He is a vampire, dummy, she chided herself. What did you think he’d do? Get a room at the local Holiday Inn?

  “You’ll be safe here. I promise you.” He started to nuzzle her again, brushing light lips to her temple.

  “It’s not fair that you can see and I can’t,” she pouted. She didn’t want to think about later right now.

  “Then feel,” he breathed, sending a rush of warmth cascading down her body to make her quiver in anticipation. “Feel me the way I feel you. Need me the way I need you.” His voice, that rich timbre of exotically accented sound, drew her closer until she succumbed.

  He groaned when she gave in, her body bending and arching against his in answer to his caresses. As though he were afraid to break her, he laid her down on the lush pillows, their softness a contrast to the solid hardness of his body. All contours and angles. Her hands roamed his body, tracing, learning. From the smooth arch of his neck to the broad strength of his shoulders. She learned the planes of his chest, gasping at the heat of his skin in her hands, feeling the way he reacted to her touch as she glided across, up and down.

  He wasn’t as tall as Diego or as broad as Houston, but solid in a way she longed to touch.

  “Then please, touch me.”

  She sent him a reproachful look, but only felt his total absorption in what she was doing to him. Someday she’d get used to having him hanging around in her thoughts.

  “Share them with me. See how I see you.” He lowered to find her lips and her world exploded in a beautiful flood of color.

  What she saw amazed her. Shocked her, because she didn’t recognize the wanton creature that opened herself up to Joaquin like a gift.

  “You are a gift, a precious one to me. A gift I will protect until even the nights have ceased. You are the beat of my heart, the joy in my life.”

  Her lips trembled, overcome with emotion at his sweet words. “Love me,” she entreated.

  “I already do.”

  Without a single pause, he sipped away the tears as they fell from the corners of her eyes, kissing her face with such gentleness she could barely breathe. He rained those kisses on her cheeks, her eyes, her forehead, then moved to nibble and adore her throat, nipping at the smooth pulse spot beneath her ear. With as much attention to detail as he’d used caring for the slashed cuts in her skin on her back, he adored her body. Shivers of desire flared outward with every touch.

  There was no restraint in her cry when his mouth touched the taut peak of her breast. His hair slid like fine silk through her fingers, thick and plentiful, her only anchor as her world soared and tilted. Air slid furiously through her lungs as she fought to keep up with his attentions. Every touch sent her higher, soaring further. Her shoulders bunched as he drew her deeper into the pleasure he created with his mouth on her breast.

  She found she didn’t need light. Being enveloped in a sightless void, her senses grew heightened, her skin becoming a living, hungry part of her that craved his decadent kisses. Whispered words fell in sensual clouds on her ears. Every movement, touch and brush of his lips against her skin sent a volley of sparkled shocks over her nerves. Every stroke created a maelstrom of light behind her lids, stars exploding with brilliant color as new sensations and pleasure like nothing she’d ever known sent her careening wildly, bucking and pleading for anything and everything. The tentative pressure of his hand against her core didn’t make her flinch or retreat. She answered his question, opening for his searing touch, and was rewarded. Nothing had ever prepared her for the pain of imprisonment. Nothing had ever prepared her for the pleasure she now found with Joaquin.

  She greedily soaked it in, wanting more, craving everything and, in answer, he delivered until she screamed in ecstasy.

  Gasping, she barely registered his weight above her. The smooth feel of him poised at her entrance, not rushing, not forcing, only waiting, almost had her in tears again.

  “Joaquin,” she whimpered, lost and clinging to the only thread of sanity she had left. Then, he was inside her, every part of him, filling her. With slow, methodical movements, he stroked against her. She arched in answer, every pore crying out in need, in a deep hunger she’d never known.

  Sounds echoed to them from everywhere. Tender words of passion slipped from his lips as he dropped kisses, rising to find her lips, tasting her, then delving within with his tongue, claiming her mouth the same way he claimed her body.

  “Mine. Always.” The thoughts whispered through her mind, swirling wildly with the beautiful patterns of light he’d given her.

  “Yes,” she answered without hesitation.

  “Be mine, Lily. Be mine for eternity.”

  Her body tightened in answer to his decadent words, hot and slick with moisture as he drove into her.

  He arched his spine, a slow hiss of pleasure breaking his mental seduction. “Do that again.”

  She did, flexing her hips and holding his length in a steel grip. He groaned, so shaken he quivered over her. “Lily!” He shouted her name, plunging into her. “I have to have you.”

  Grasping her shoulders, she felt the heat of his breath on her throat, teasing and licking at her. Even in his most possessed, he still restrained himself, wanting her allowance to take the only thing he couldn’t live without.

  One hand moved d
own her body, cupping her hip, his thrusts never stopping, never slowing as he buried himself into her over and over.

  Electric shudders spiked her when he swirled his tongue over her pulse. Trembles erupted on her lips under the impact of all the raging sensations. She tilted in answer, no compulsion, no argument. She could never deny him.

  “You are the greatest gift,” he whispered against her throat. Then, she felt the heated suckle of his mouth, arching with another cry as pleasure hit her bloodstream, flaring all along her body in wondrous detonations. There was a brief pain, but she was so swept into the sensual storm he had created between them, it was forgotten before the pain had even registered as a discomfort.

  His body dominated hers, rising and falling with a growing ferocity. He no longer scared her in any way. She wanted him, all of him. Joaquin’s passion was unmistakable. Even at its highest, when he was most able to hurt her, he couldn’t. She felt the heady pulls against her skin. The bone-melting pleasure of his mouth on her neck was making her turn to liquid and throb for more at the same time.

  He rose over her, curving her body tight to his. She wrapped herself around him, taking him, welcoming his passion and giving him hers. He took it all, lowering to kiss her. Time stood still. Tension wound her tighter and tighter like a coiled spring.

  Then, her entire world erupted in a kaleidoscope of colored rapture.

  * * * *

  Drowsy kisses warmed her shoulder. She burrowed into the pile of pillows, large, sultan sized squares of velvet and satin piled to cover at least as far as she could reach a hand, and likely further. She felt like she could sleep for a week. She was exhausted, but surprisingly, not hungry. Realizing she hadn’t eaten, she tried to remember to how long it had been since she had, and was worried at the answer. After thirty-six hours, she should be ravenous with hunger, but honestly, the idea of food left her stomach feeling unsettled. Had Hawthorne injected her with something again? Using her for one of their many questionable tests?

  She shifted and the arm across her stomach glided lower. The motion brought her body closer to his, delightfully closer.

  “Mmm,” she purred, arching into his steadily seeking kisses.

  “Have I ever told you, you remind me of the sweet summer desserts I used to have as a child?” His voice was far away, lost in a memory.

  “No.”

  He tickled her skin, his nose planted beneath her ear as he inhaled. “You do. Vanilla and cinnamon. Intoxicating.” He nipped as if he wanted to eat her right then and she giggled. “How are you feeling?”

  “Tired, but what a wonderful kind of tired.” She heard his low masculine chuckle.

  “No pain from the whip?” Concern made his voice attentive even when his lips were being single-minded.

  She shifted, stretching, and found none. “Nope.”

  He grunted softly. “I will kill the man who did that to you.”

  She blinked. It was said with the ease of saying he’d buy bread on the way home. “You’re serious, aren’t you?”

  He pulled away and, even though she couldn’t see him, she knew he lay directly in front of her. A hand rose to brush at her hair, proving her right. “No one will ever harm you again.” It was a statement in stone.

  “Joaquin, it is done. I know there wasn’t anything you could do. You did the best thing. You came for me. I don’t want anyone else’s blood on my hands.” Unerringly, she found the curve of his face and stroked him with her palm. Who needs light? she thought.

  She felt the warmth of his breath, then his kiss in her palm when he turned against her. “For you Lily. Not because he doesn’t deserve it.”

  She stroked his ear and the loose strands of his hair. It wouldn’t be long until sunrise. She hoped she could sleep through most of the day. She wasn’t sure how she was going to handle sleeping next to a dead body. Just the idea of it gave her chills.

  She shivered when the fact became larger than life.

  “What’s the matter, lovely?”

  “Just thinking.” She felt his worry surfacing. “I’m worried about how I’m going to deal with today, while you’re, you know—dead.”

  “Will you have problems feeling trapped without any light?” His worry climbed higher. She realized he hadn’t thought that far into it, but she could ease his tension just the same.

  “No, not just because it’s dark. I can live like this for a few hours.”

  Again, his fingers combed through her hair. “My brave little flower.”

  She snickered, knowing she was blushing and so thankful he couldn’t see it. She felt the heat of it bloom across her face as his touch wandered more.

  “Lily, there is something we need to talk about.”

  “You mean other than you being a vampire and the fact that I’m in love with you?”

  Stunned silence.

  And it kept going.

  And lengthening. New chills rose on her skin and they had nothing to do with the coming day.

  “I shouldn’t have—” His kiss was a scorching heat, unexpected when she knew the only sound she’d heard for minutes was her own breathing. His arms encircled her, yanking her passionately against his body, feeling every inch all along her front. There was no way to hide his throbbing arousal. Her body melted to liquid with his body touching hers inch by demanding inch.

  He released her only when she had no choice but to need to breathe. He pressed his forehead to hers. “I never expected to find someone like you, Lily. I never thought I’d feel whole again. You give me life, Lily. My only intention was to see you safe, cherished and healed, to move on, to have a life when I first met you. My redemption for failing Angelica.” He paused, seeming to gather his thoughts as tension flowed up and down his frame in waves. “I never once believed I’d feel this way again, and I never expected it to be returned.” Gentle, life-giving lips settled on hers, worshiping her in such a beautiful way that she had to pinch her eyes to stop the dampness behind her lids from growing. “I never once thought I’d love you. I think I have since that first argument.”

  She had to swallow twice to make her voice work. “How long until sunrise?”

  “Soon,” he answered, sipping hungrily at her lips and cheeks.

  She wrapped a hand over his head and pulled him with her when she rolled, kissing him with all of her heart. “Then let’s not waste the time talking,” she murmured against his throat, feeling his entire body harden more with the innocent caress. He groaned and answered her with a kiss that burned her down to her toes.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Rousing unhurriedly, she blinked, not thrilled it was still as dark as the deepest black sea all around her, but knew without question she was safe. She also knew it was daylight somewhere beyond where she could see. As a guess, late afternoon. The air was still and just warm enough for her skin not to chill with being asleep. Was it something he’d taken into account when he’d taken her there? She could only shake her head in wonder. He would do his very best to ensure her comfort and care. It sent a shot of sappy warmth right to her heart.

  She’d been beyond exhausted when she’d finally curled into Joaquin’s body to drift into the best sleep of her life. Without an ache or pain. Just a wonderful, peaceful lethargy. Rolling, she jumped with a startled gasp when she found the lump of cold next to her. Shaking her head at her own ridiculousness, she settled her racing heart down to a reasonable pace.

  It was only Joaquin. She knew that. And that was probably the very reason she’d been caught so off guard. He was right next to her. They’d drifted into a tranquil state and she’d fallen asleep. Of course he’d stay right where he was. Did she think he’d rise to the ceiling and hang like a bat?

  She snorted a laugh. Bad joke, Lily. Daring herself with her curiosity growing, she trailed the back of her hand along his cheek, feeling the absolute chill of his skin on her fingers. Wondering, she moved further until her hand rested over his chest. Not a single movement. Nothing. And still ice cold. Lifting her han
d, she shook off the shivers with a quick chastisement.

  He’d stayed close so you wouldn’t be alone, idiot.

  The realization warmed her even though he couldn’t know how much it meant to her. He obviously had done something that was as foreign to him as hiding in a lightless cave was for her.

  Because he’d never make you face something he wouldn’t do himself. She knew he’d slept alone every night since he’d changed. Centuries of no blanket wars, of no dreams to share, no nightmares to soothe.

  She laid down without a hesitant bone, pressing herself along his length like a living blanket, knowing her body’s heat would do nothing for him, but it would be the first thing he’d feel when he did wake.