Dark and Dangerous: Six-in-One Hot Paranormal Romances

by Jennifer Ashley

  He drew in a deep breath. “Sera.”

  Sera lifted her head and met his ice-blue gaze. She had never seen it so soft, or him so vulnerable. Was this what awaited her on the other side of his armour? She was under no illusion that this brief glimpse of the other side would last longer than a few seconds. He was already fighting it, clawing back control over his emotions, seeking to distance himself. Why couldn’t he give in to what he wanted and take what he needed in order to heal at least his emotional pain?

  She wouldn’t let him close himself off again. Not before he had surrendered completely to his desire and found some relief, a few brief minutes away from whatever haunted his soul. She wanted to give him that at least. Even if it was all she could give him.

  She tiptoed, intent on kissing him. He beat her to it, swooping down and claiming her mouth with his. She opened to him completely, letting him have his way with her, encouraging him with soft moans as he plundered her mouth with his tongue.

  His hands clutched her bottom, dragging her against him, and she closed her eyes and surrendered to him. She leaned into him as he lifted her, looping her arms around his neck and never breaking the kiss. His muscles flexed against her, sending a pleasant shiver tripping through her and deepening her desire. She wanted to touch him all over, every inch of him, and put him to memory. She wanted him to do the same to her, to caress and kiss her, to taste her and take her. She wanted to be his.

  He settled her down on a red velvet chaise longue and covered her with his body. The weight of him against her was delicious and she couldn’t hold back the flood of desire that swept through her at the thought of him entering her, making love with her on the very set where erotic acts played out each night. She felt wicked and naughty, something she had never experienced before, and she liked it.

  Antoine nuzzled her neck, devouring it with wet rough kisses, and leaned on one elbow above her. She moaned and arched into his hand as it covered her right breast, his thumb flicking over her nipple, teasing it to a hard peak. His answering groan against her throat was bliss.

  He kissed downwards, palming her right breast as his mouth headed for her left. Sera wrapped her legs around his bare waist and buried her fingers in his thick brown hair, tangling it around them and clutching him to her. The first touch of his tongue on her sensitive nipple caused her to arch into him again, her head tipping up to press into the soft cushioned back of the seat. Her lips parted with her moan, legs tightening around him as he sucked her nipple into his mouth and rolled it between his teeth, adding a bite of pain to her pleasure.

  “Antoine,” she breathed, lost to the world, a slave to the sensations he stirred in her. She pushed her breasts up further, eager for more, desperate to encourage him to give it to her. He groaned again and bit harder, sending a spark of pain shooting outwards over her body. The wake of it carried intense pleasure and she found herself silently begging him to do it again. He suckled instead, torturing her with the softness when she wanted it hard.

  Before she could consider what she was doing, her hands had left his hair and she was raking her nails down his back.

  Antoine growled and bucked against her, and rewarded her wickedness by clamping his teeth down hard on her nipple. Sera moaned so loudly that she was certain the whole theatre would have heard her.

  Was it wrong that she wanted more?

  Just as Antoine had teased her by being gentle in the aftermath of his first bite, she teased him, lightly running her hands over his back, feeling the soft shifting contours of his muscles and the harsh ridges of scar tissue. He growled again and squeezed her right nipple between his index finger and thumb. The shiver that exploded outwards from the hard bud tore another moan from her throat and she raked her nails down Antoine’s back again, clawing at him and driving him on. He didn’t need to be gentle with her. She enjoyed the pain as much as he did, loved the dark edge it gave to what was playing out between them.

  He rocked his hips against her and she mewled, unsatisfied and annoyed by the way her underwear and his trousers dampened the pleasure she gained from his hard movements. She wanted him naked.

  Sera brought her hands down, pressed them against his chest, and pushed him upwards.

  He paused, breathing hard, gaze following her hands as she skimmed them downwards, heading for his belt. He groaned as she undid it, tackled his trousers, and shoved them down over his bottom. Heaven. She skated her hands over his backside, the twin firm globes too delicious to ignore. The temptation to make him stand and strip so she could see him fully nude and gloriously hard was too fierce to deny.

  She tried to push him off her but he tensed. Sera frowned and met his gaze.

  There was pain in his eyes again.

  He opened his mouth to speak and she covered it with her hand, afraid that he would say that he had changed his mind and that he wanted her to leave. She had to have this moment with him. She had come too far, risked too much, and wanted her reward. More than that, she wanted him to have this moment with her, so he could find some relief from whatever pain lived in his heart.

  Antoine took hold of her hand. Sera used all of her strength to keep it over his mouth but even that wasn’t enough. He easily brought her hand away from it, as though she hadn’t resisted him at all, and then released it. He stroked her cheek.

  “Sera... this... I...”

  Please don’t say to leave. It ran through her head on repeat. His eyes darkened, the pain in them growing more intense, and she found herself lifting her hand to his face and mirroring him by caressing his cheek. He closed his eyes.

  “I do not wish to stop.” A hint of a smile tugged at the corner of his sensual mouth. “I can feel you. I need to warn you though... if we do this, I may not be able... I may hurt you.”

  Oh. She had liked the playful nips and wicked bites, but something told her that he wasn’t talking about that sort of pain. He was talking about losing control, and he was far more powerful than she was. With his strength, he could easily injure her without much effort, and potentially without realising it until it was too late.

  “Why?” She had to ask. He had to have a reason for believing he might lose control and be a little too rough with her.

  The smile twitched on his lips again before dying completely. “I have not had sex in close to three centuries.”

  Dear God. Three hundred years without sex? She had lived thirty years as a vampire and had been with a few other vampires in that time. Nothing serious. Just casual flings that hadn’t lasted. Going years without any male companionship had been a test for her. She craved physical and emotional contact with others. She couldn’t even begin to imagine living three hundred years without being intimate with someone.

  “Say something.” It was spoken softly but there was a command laced into his tone, subtle enough that it could have easily gone unnoticed. He wanted to hear her response to his confession and she was making him impatient.

  “You’ve got a hell of a lot of lost pleasure to make up for,” she said and was surprised at herself. Brash and bold. Something she had never been able to master before tonight. She curled her fingers around the thick length of his cock and smiled into his eyes as he opened them and stared down into hers, a beautifully startled edge to his expression. “So what are we waiting for?”

  Antoine snarled and swooped on her mouth, crushing her lips with his. Sera wriggled lower on the chaise longue beneath him, her hands shoving his trousers down to his knees at the same time. She moaned as he plundered her mouth, bruising in his force, so rough that her heart pounded with excitement. Would she ever be able to get enough of this man? Could she ever feel so free and so bold with anyone else? Something about him brought it out in her. His strength, his power, his beauty, and his past—all of it dark and enticing, driving her to embrace her own darker side. She clawed at his back, gasping between rough kisses, dizzy with passion and desire.

  She raised her head off the padded seat, battling Antoine for dominance, nipping h
is lower lip and sucking it into her mouth. The harder she sucked, the more frantic he became, until he tore away from her and forced his mouth on hers again, seizing control once more. She let him take it, gave it over to him so she could focus elsewhere. His cock. He groaned when she tugged on it, sliding her hand up and down the long rigid length. She rubbed her thumb over the blunt head, smearing a pearl of moisture into the soft skin, and moaned at the thought of him filling her, thrusting into her and driving her wild.

  Antoine seemed to read her mind.

  He moved and before she could blink, she was face down on the chaise longue with him kneeling behind her. He grabbed her panties and pulled them down, yanking them off over her feet. Sera wriggled, eager and excited, hungry for more. He grasped her hips and pulled her up so she was kneeling before him and she thought he would give it to her, would give her the push she needed to tumble over the precipice and melt into bliss. He moved over her instead, nestling his hard shaft against her, and kissed down her back. She moaned and closed her eyes, shifting her hands to the back of the chaise longue and holding onto it.

  Antoine cupped her breasts, alternating between kneading them and tweaking her nipples as he continued to kiss her back and lazily rub himself against her.

  “Antoine,” she pleaded, wound too tight inside to take any more. She needed him inside her now. Wanted him.

  “I want to kiss every inch of you,” he murmured against her back.

  “Later,” she bit out in the midst of another moan and he chuckled.

  She had never heard anything so beautiful. Antoine had laughed. Antoine could laugh. She hadn’t imagined it possible. She felt proud that she had made it happen but she still wasn’t going to let him have his way. She wriggled her hips, rubbing herself up and down his cock, trying to coax him into entering her. Just the thought of that long thick length sliding into her had her close to coming undone.

  “Antoine, please,” she whispered and he groaned and lightly bit her back.

  His hands left her breasts and he sat back, his body leaving hers completely. She felt bereft. Lost. She wanted him back, needed to feel him pressed against her, touching her.

  He skimmed his hands over her bottom, moaning all the while, and she closed her eyes and joined him. His exploration was slow, torturous, and thrilling. With her eyes closed, she couldn’t see where he would go next. Every sense she had heightened, focused on his hands, trying to predict their path. He eased them down, thumbs teasing the sides of her groin. One dipped in to brush her clitoris and she gasped, hips jerking upwards, hungry for another touch.

  Antoine gave her what she wanted but it was more torturous than ever. Rather than rubbing his thumb over her aroused nub, he used the head of his cock. Her fingers tightened against the back of the chaise longue, arms trembling. She hung her head and moaned again, working her hips against him, desperate to encourage him higher.

  He nudged her knees further apart and spread her with one hand. The head of his erection pressed into her slick core and he half moaned, half snarled, and then thrust his full length home. Sera cried out, rocking forwards with the force of his entry, and shook all over. He didn’t give her a chance to recover her scattered senses. He grasped her hips and grunted as he withdrew and plunged into her again, hard and fast, setting a pace that had her pushing against the back of the chaise longue to hold herself steady. She hung her head again, breasts swinging, mind spinning. Exquisite.

  Antoine thrust deep into her, each one sending ripples of pleasure through her, tingles and shivers that all gathered into a swirling ball of heat in her abdomen. That heat, that hunger, had her rocking backwards against him, forcing him to increase his pace, taking him as deeply as he could go. She still wanted more.

  Her fangs extended.

  Her eyes changed, her irises melting to red at the same time as her pupils stretched and turned elliptical.

  Sera looked over her shoulder, moaning in time with Antoine, needing to see him. His eyes met hers, feral and red, fangs enormous as he gritted his teeth and snarled. Just the sight of him and the thought that their coupling had unleashed his vampire side too had her plummeting over the edge. She cried out and shivered as she climaxed, body quivering around his thrusting cock and thighs trembling.

  Antoine snarled again, hands clutching her hips, and adjusted his pace. His thrusts lengthened, drawing his hard cock almost all the way out of her before he plunged it back in, and she pushed through the haze of her first orgasm and found herself rocketing towards a second.

  “Antoine,” she moaned, needing to warn him that she would find a second release if he could only hold on.

  “Sera.” The sound of him uttering her name in such a pleasure-drenched voice had her close to begging him to say it again so she could hear his desire for her, his need.

  He kept rocking deep into her, balls brushing her clitoris, sending sparks of heat straight to her stomach. She still needed more. She took one hand away from the back of the chaise longue and reached between her thighs. Antoine’s hand left her hip, slid across her belly and covered hers. She groaned in time with him as they touched her together, his hand working hers.

  “Come again for me, Sera,” he growled and bent to kiss her back, nipping at it with sharp teeth. The scent of blood tainted the air and she groaned at the blissful combination of his first suck on the cut, the feel of his hand guiding hers between her legs, and the deep slow thrust of his cock into her body.

  It was too much.

  Bright stars blinked across the velvet black of her screwed-shut eyes and she cried out, hoarse and loud, and jerked against Antoine as a white-hot wave of fire swept through her veins. Antoine grunted against her back and slammed to a halt inside her, spilling his seed in deep throbs and pulses. He moaned, breathing hard through his nose, still suckling the cut on her back. His fingers slowed their combined dance over her clitoris and she collapsed face first into the soft padded seat beneath her.

  Antoine lay on top of her, his front pressed against her back, his body still intimately entwined with hers. He licked the small cut and rested his cheek against her back.

  She could feel what he was going to say, so she answered his question before he could voice it.

  “Damn... that felt good.” Her fangs scraped her tongue as she spoke, a reminder that he had been better than that. Three centuries without sex clearly hadn’t dampened his ability. She giggled, hazy and sated but still hungry for him. “More than good... I want to go again.”

  Antoine chuckled, the sound music to her ears. “Be careful what you wish for.”

  If he meant that he might fulfil that wish, then she would say it however many times it took for him to come good on that threat.

  She quivered from head to toe.

  Who would have thought that being rough could be so good?

  Antoine pulled out of her and she continued to lay on the chaise longue, warm, fuzzy and content. It was only when she heard him moving around the stage that she opened her eyes. He was dressing. She frowned and tried to ignore the demon at the back of her mind that said he was going to kick her out now that he’d had his fun with her.

  He gathered her clothes and she watched him as he picked out her knickers and her blue t-shirt. He knelt on the end of the seat by her feet and slipped her underwear over them and up her thighs. The brief caress of his fingers over the front of her pussy said that he wasn’t going to kick her out just yet so she relaxed again. He ran his hands up her stomach, covered her breasts, and pulled her up onto her knees. His chest pressed against her back and he nibbled her shoulder before pulling away.

  She let him put her t-shirt on for her and then waited while he retrieved the pile of her clothes. Rather than putting the rest on her, he slung them over his shoulder and then motioned for her to stand.

  She did.

  Antoine bent and scooped her up into his arms. She instinctively looped her arms around his neck.

  “Where are we going?” Sera said as he carried h
er towards the stage exit.

  “Somewhere more private.” He raked his pale blue gaze over her, lingering longest on her bare legs. “I want to be alone with you.”

  Sera’s eyes widened. Meaning they hadn’t been alone the whole time they had been together?

  She looked beyond his broad shoulder and around the stage. There was no way someone could have watched them in here. The red velvet curtain was still down and the stage doors were closed. She would have heard if someone had opened them. Had someone seen them together when they had been in the main area of the theatre? Any number of people could have witnessed everything from the boxes that lined the sides of the theatre and she never would have known.

  Sera blushed.

  She really had put on a show, and not for Antoine.

  They had both been the players in a private performance.

  Heat flared in her veins.

  She buried her head against Antoine’s chest and let him carry her through a black walled room and up a set of stairs to the top floor of the theatre.

  To a beautifully decorated black and gold corridor.

  To his bedroom.

  He set her down outside the mahogany panelled door, opened it for her to enter, and then closed it behind himself.

  She stopped in the middle of his room and turned towards him, heart steady but her body fluttering at the thought of what might happen now.

  Whatever happened, she was glad that it would be private this time.

  She wasn’t done with her seduction yet.

  CHAPTER 7

  Antoine remained with his back against his apartment door, his eyes on Sera as she padded around and snooped at his things. What was he doing? Things had almost gone too far back on the stage. He had come close to losing control. The taste of her blood had triggered thoughts of biting her and only his climax had subdued them. If he bit her, if he wrapped his lips around her open vein, he wouldn’t be able to stop himself.