by M. L. Briers
“Then I want to make love to you, lick you from head to toe, nip, bite, suck every inch of your body and make you come- over and over again with my tongue- until you beg for my cock back inside of you…” Vance’s breathing had changed, and so had mine. My heart was leaping and dancing in my chest and every inch of my body was primed for him.
“Vance…” I bite down on my lower lip. My inner muscles were clenching to the images that he was giving me.
“Then I want to sink my fangs into the vein in your neck and taste your blood on my tongue…” He looked at me as if he was evaluating me again. I didn’t move, didn’t blink, didn’t speak, didn’t think…
“You didn’t flinch this time.” His eyes narrowed on mine.
“What?” I was caught up in the picture that he was painting for me, now he was throwing me a curve ball.
He moved and I felt the hard wall at my back. His body was still pressed against mine, and I had nowhere to go. Didn’t want too.
“Me feeding from you…” Vance offered the image, the words, but I didn’t know why.
“Vance, I don’t…?”
“Before, you said that it scared you. That the thought of it left you cold…”
“When? I never said…” I had no idea what he was talking about. “I’ve seen you feed from a woman.”
“And you turn away.” Vance frowned.
“Because you’re having damned sex, not because you’re feeding…” I wasn’t sure what he was talking about. Maybe it was my state of arousal, my state of mind, or maybe he was just mistaken…
“You said you never wanted me to do that to you. You made me promise…” His lips came closer. Not close enough.
“I never…”
“I took those memories. Memories of the last time we were together like this, the last time I couldn’t control my desire for you…”
I was stunned. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.
“You did what?” I lifted my hands and pushed against his chest with all of my might. How stupid of me to think that I could move him one inch.
“So that it wouldn’t be there between us when we worked. You told me to do it. Agreed.”
“I don’t…” think I did. I don’t remember… because he stole those memories from me. Why? Why would I do that? Why would I say that? “When?”
“Years ago. I’ve kept my distance ever since.” His eyes turned pure black. “But no longer.”
His lips came down on mine. The kiss was hard and demanding, punishing in its ferocity. He demanded that I open for him and I did, readily, wholeheartedly letting him in, feeling his tongue swept against mine, tasting, jousting, and claiming me- it was better than I’d ever imagined.
My hands were still against his chest but instead of pushing him away my fingers clawed at his shirt, trying to get to the man beneath. Skin on skin. I needed to feel his body against mine.
He must have read my mind because he started to peel the clothes from his body, from mine. Naked, yes. I needed this. I’ve needed this for a long time.
I heard him groan deep within his throat. He pulled away from my lips, dipped his head and ran his tongue down my throat, across my collarbone, and back up the vein in my neck where my life blood called to his very nature.
Was he going to bite? Now? Was I finally going to feel his fangs enter my flesh?
The sound of his hearty groan echoed in my ears as his hands ripped the last of my clothes from my body. Naked. I felt the hard satin of his cock against my stomach and I ached for him.
My hands were in his hair and I pulled him that bit closer. I wanted to feel those fangs. I wanted to know him so damned carnally that if I wasn’t pinned against a damned wall I might just have climbed up his body and bounced down on his cock…
“Fuck, Marge…” He growled against my neck. Closing his lips against my skin; he sucked hard and those inner muscles clenched so tightly that if he had of been inside of me I might just have snapped his length in two…
“I can scent your arousal…” His lips were against my ear as his fingers started to climb up my inner thigh. I opened my legs to allow him entry.
“I want your cock…”
“Not yet…” His fingers teased my wet folds and my legs wanted to cave.
“You said you wanted to fuck me first, so fuck me.” I’d never begged for anything in my life before. Now I begged. I needed him. I’d needed him for too long…
“I did say that, didn’t I?” He groaned, then cursed, then his hands slapped against my naked ass cheeks and he hoisted me up the wall.
“Are you a man to go back on your word, Vance?” I could barely contain the excitement within me at the feel of his hard cock pressing against the rim of my channel.
He gave me one hell of a wicked grin. Then he thrust deep inside of me. The pain of being stretched around his thick length made me feel like a damn virgin again. I gasped and tried to catch my breath.
“Rethinking?” Vance’s voice was teasing.
“Fuck me like you might never get another chance.” I found my voice. I found my need, the desire that was claiming me just as his cock was.
“Because you asked so damn nicely…” He pulled his cock back and I felt every inch, every vein as I tightened my inner muscles around his length. Then he thrust back to the hilt and I closed my eyes and took that pleasure and pain, over and over, each thrust was pure heaven mixed with hell.
If he was the devil then he had my damned soul, right there and right then. If this was the end of us, the end of our friendship then I’d rather go out with a bang than a whimper.
His hips banged against mine. The feel of skin slapping against skin was mesmerising. The feel of his cock taking me hard and fast towards my first orgasm was euphoric.
The moment that it hit; he claimed my lips with his and took my ecstatic cry for his own. That orgasm hammered through my body like wildfire, but his cock didn’t stop, didn’t slow, and I was heading back up for the next one.
He kept the same rhythm as he lifted me from the wall and spun me around to drape my body across some piece of solid furniture. His fingers bit into my hips as he pounded inside of me, over and over, creating one orgasm after another until he was damned right, and I begged him to stop.
He cursed long and hard with his own release. His head was back on his neck and he savoured every deep thrust as his seed exploded inside of me.
“Punishment complete…” He whispered against my ear as he lifted me against his body and cradled me in his arms as he carried me through the house and into his bedroom, laying me down on the soft mattress, and climbing in beside me.
His arms came around my body and I’d never felt so safe in my entire life, not even in the warehouse yesterday.
“Sleep.” He whispered against my ear and I didn’t argue. I drifted away.
CHAPTER FIVE
~
VANCE.
When the mobile went off across the room I sighed inwardly. My regular mobile lay on the table in the dining room, this one was different. Only a handful of vampires had that number, and it normally signalled trouble. Trouble for me or trouble for them, but trouble nonetheless.
I didn’t want to leave the bed. Marjorie was finally lying in my arms and I had a need to keep her there. Safe, protected, and- forever.
It had taken me years to bring her into my arms, and I might have gone about it the wrong damned way, fucking her instead of making her mine in a way that she would understand, but it was done.
I wasn’t about to let her get away from me again.
The last time that the opportunity had presented itself; she had told me in no uncertain terms that feeding from her scared the hell out of her. She knew I was a vampire; she knew I had fangs and drank blood, yet she was squeamish, but she still stayed around me, still came to my house every damned morning for the torturous daily reports that I could live without; it was her that I couldn’t.
Hell on Earth. Torture of the worst kind. I could h
ave her in my life but I couldn’t have her in my bed.
Thank fuck I’d only taken away her memories of that night and not everything else. Thank whatever God there might or might not be that I hadn’t walked away from her. I’d endured every painful moment in her company and it had paid off.
She was mine. Would always be mine. I’d die to protect her, and if that phone meant anything, it meant I might have too.
I left her sleeping off the debauchery that I’d unleashed on her. Years of need, desire, and the anger for what she’d done the day before, putting herself in harm’s way like that- and snatched up the phone.
“Yeah.” I didn’t need to be nice. That handful of vampires knew otherwise.
“You’ve got a problem. Cane is coming for you and yours.” I knew that voice. Shamus. The Irish twang gave it away every time.
“That could be a problem.” I flicked my eyes back to the Goddess in my bed. My Queen. My heart. The love of my damned life.
“He wants what you have, everything you have.” Shamus didn’t have to spell it out.
“I get it.”
“He killed Naima.” Shamus’s voice cracked.
I closed my eyes as her face came into view. She was Shamus’s mate. They’d been together for centuries. I felt that pain for his loss.
“And left you alive…”
“To suffer in perpetuity, until he sees fit to come back for me.”
Cane was the most evil bastard that I had ever come across, or crossed. We all had. Four of us. Shamus, Naima, Thomas and me. Thomas was dead. Now Naima. I was next, but he’d go after people close to me first, which was why I never got close to anyone…
I looked at Marjorie again. I’d fucked up, big time.
“I need your help.” It was the words I had never wanted to utter again.
“Is she still human?” Shamus knew why I’d ask for his help. If it was just me I would roll the dice, but Marjorie…
“Yes.”
“Change her now.”
“No.”
“Too soon?” Shamus chuckled. It sounded raw, as if he hated himself for the sound, for the mirth, and I understood why. Naima.
“A day.”
“Bad timing.”
“Been working on it a while.”
“Real bad timing.” Shamus sighed down the line. “I’ll be there tomorrow.”
“Don’t forget to announce yourself. I wouldn’t want to kill you by mistake.” He chuckled again.
“Got it.”
The line went dead at my ear. I took another look at Marjorie and headed from the room. When I got to the study I turned to the panel that was hiding a multitude of sins on the wall. Flicked it open and hit the button. The mansion was now in lockdown.
This was going to be a bitch to explain. I was used to giving her orders, and for the most part, she’d follow them. Now we were equals- she was my woman- my mate, and I couldn’t just go behind her back and make decisions for her. Not unless, like now, she was in danger.
Shamus was right. Bad timing on my part. I might not have marked her as mine- yet, but Cane would be able to scent me on her from a mile away.
Still, if he’d tracked me down then he knew about the company. She was the figure head and he’d cut that head off just to spite me. Either way, she would have been in the firing line.
At least this way I wasn’t going to endure the torture of not being able to touch her while we were locked away together. That brought me back to what I’d done. I’d fucked her like a damn teenager on his prom night…
I needed to make amends.
I started back for the bedroom, and my love, when I heard the sound coming from downstairs. I listened hard. It was outside…
Someone had breached the barriers, or in actual fact they were already inside when I’d flipped the switch, now they were snared by the security features I’d long since installed. Good for me, bad for them.
I raced through the house. The muted cries of pain were getting louder as I tracked them. Out the back door and into the garden, and there he was. One big bastard- how like Cane to send a minion to do a man’s job.
His black eyes met mine. His face was twisted in agony from the silver that was embedded in his body. I couldn’t help but smile. It was no less what I would have received had the shoe been on the other foot.
“Where’s Cane?” I didn’t think he’d give it up but I had to ask.
“Screw…” I reached out with both hands and grabbed his head in my hands. One wrench and it was free of his body. I tossed it aside.
“Not today.” I waited for the rest of his body to fall over.
I listened hard to the sounds around me. I was hopeful that I might just have snared Cane in my trap, but nothing. Quiet. Except for the heartbeat that came from upstairs in my bedroom.
A headless body lying on the grass might just have upset her if she caught sight of it. I needed to move it. That annoyed the hell out of me.
I would much rather have gone back upstairs and sunk my cock back inside of Marjorie. Made love to her like I’d always planned…
I kicked the head across the grass in anger and sighed again. Now I had a damned blood stain streaked against the green to worry about. Shit.
Things just weren’t going to plan in my life at the moment. But I had my mate, and that was all that mattered. Cane could kiss my naked ass.
CHAPTER SIX
~
MARJORIE.
I woke up slowly and stretched like a damned cat. I wasn’t sure how many times Vance had made me see stars, but I was more than grateful for each and every one of them. It had been a damned long time since I’d been with a man, any man, and never with a vampire.
Not that I knew a lot of vampires. Vance was the only one. He could be a domineering, male chauvinistic ass at times, but that didn’t mean that every inch of my mind, body, and soul hadn’t cried out for him.
Now I knew why. The man was a God in bed. Not that we’d been in bed… I was in bed now.
I reached out across the coldness of the sheets for him and found… nothing. My head pinged my heart and I felt that cold, empty, nauseous feeling within the pit of my stomach.
Why would I have thought I would be any different?
I turned in the bed and opened my eyes. Staring at the empty mattress beside me didn’t help. Wishful thinking never got you what you wanted.
He was done. He’d had his taste and now he was off to pastures new.
I guess I should feel grateful that he let me sleep in his bed. Even if he didn’t have the decency to sleep beside me. Not that he slept…
I pushed up and took the sheet with me. I’d be damned if I was going to leave without a shower and stealing some of his damned clothes. I seem to remember him ripping mine to shreds.
I couldn’t help that feeling of remorse that rose up within me.
What now for us?
What now for our pretend friendship?
He’d had what he wanted.
Would he be cool and remote?
Would I still have to face him over our non-breakfast every morning?
That would chaff. Or would it? Now that I’d gotten him out of my system; would I still want more?
Maybe he could make me forget? No, I wanted to remember.
I tossed my legs over the side of the bed and noted my naked feet. Nothing had changed. I didn’t feel any different. I wasn’t light headed from the blood loss, and nothing much hurt… a little sore, but that was to be expected.
I reached up and tentatively touched my neck. Finding nothing I did the same with the other side.
Surely there would be marks?
I wrapped the sheet around my body and stood up. No dizziness; that was a bonus. I walked towards the mirror and my leg muscles protested, but as my eyes found my reflection; I stared at my perfectly smooth, perfectly untouched neck.
He hadn’t fed from me.
What the hell?
Maybe I wasn’t his type after all. Maybe
my blood didn’t appeal to him. Maybe I was going in-fecking-sane asking myself questions I had no answers too.
It’s not like he was here to ask. It’s not like he’d stuck around. Typical Vance.
I couldn’t help feeling rejected. Most women do after a one night stand. Not that it was night- but I guess we did stand through some of it.
What was I supposed to do now? Up and leave. He could kiss my ass. I was getting in the damned shower and taking my sweet time.
If he couldn’t face me- that was his problem. He’d have to soon enough. Tomorrow was another day and another morning meeting, unless he cried off.
I had to wonder if he would, didn’t I? The man was long gone. I was just surprised that he hadn’t left skid marks on the way out of the damned door.
I kicked the bathroom door open and rustled inside in my sheet. I kicked the door closed behind me, not feeling too worried if I damaged it, or if he heard me. I wanted to kick him too, should he ever show his damned face again.
I can’t say I didn’t have a good time. I did. Boy did I. But I can’t say I wasn’t pissed by his leaving either.
I let the sheet drop from my body and stepped into the big assed shower cubicle that could have been a bathroom all on its own. I sighed as I reached up and turned on the spray. Burying my face in the water felt good, suffocating, but good.
Half of me wanted to wash myself clean of him and the other half never wanted to wash again. Damn, I was like a teenager that had no fucking clue as to what I was feeling or why.
I needed to get my head around the fact that it was sex and nothing more.
“Is that all I was to you? Something to scratch the itch?”
I whirled around at the sound of his voice. One part of me wanted to launch myself at him and another part wanted to kick him in the nuts.
“Can we go with the launch and not the nuts? I’m fragile.” Vance gave me one of those damned sexy looks, and then his gaze roamed down my naked body and those eyes turned black.
So, not done with me yet then. He still had a desire for me, probably because he hadn’t fed yet.
