by Sarra Cannon
My action broke our kiss as he caught me. He gave me a shameless grin before he pressed me to the bed and removed my bra, tossing it over his head.
There was no way to describe the intense effect he had on me. He shouldn’t have felt so familiar, as if I’d known him all my life instead of just a few days. I wanted so much for things to work out for us but our worlds fought against each other.
He pushed himself against the thin lace of my panties to remind me only this separated us.
I laughed at the hint and scooted out from under him to crawl further onto the bed.
He chased and trapped me on the pillows. One hand pinned both of mine above my head and the other teased along the edge of my underwear. “I’m not usually a gentle lover, Connie.” His husky voice whispered in my ear. “If I get too rough stop me.”
For a fraction of a second, it seemed as if my heart stopped beating. At the bathhouse he was far from gentle but it had excited me. I stared into his clear honest eyes, with my mental shields useless, I never once felt him reach out to influence my mind. It supported my confidence in him. I knew with an unknown surety he wouldn’t hurt me. Not unless I let him. I nodded. I belonged to him.
With a feral growl he tore the panties from my hips with a sharp tug. They followed my bra through the air. His body pressed along mine and his free hand wrapped itself in my hair. He pulled back to expose the line of my throat where he ran his sharp fangs gently over my increasing pulse.
A heated tremor passed quickly through my groin. I couldn’t believe how much I delighted in this. Being at his mercy and held down for our pleasure. A new me flowered in this experience.
The teeth turned into kisses and I was thankful he’d just fed.
Then he entered me.
I gasped a sharp intake of breath. Things felt tight with disuse but I was wet enough that I didn’t need gentle.
He thrust with an urgent rhythm while I lay pinned. I writhed under him unable to control the greedy passion he elicited from me. My breath came short and quick with each steady plunge. Deeper, harder he drove small cries from me. The pleasure built. It wanted to overwhelm me. I’d forgotten, forgotten how good...
He released my hands and hair. The sudden freedom caused me to open my eyes. It surprised me they’d been closed.
He lifted his weight off me and pulled my hips toward him at a steeper angle lifting my ass off the bed. His pale, blue eyes burned into me with such tormented hunger. At that moment I would have let him do anything he desired to me.
I ran my hands over his hips to clutch his firm behind.
He grasped the headboard of the bed for balance as he continued with his own beat to rouse both of us. The sight of his body pounding into mine was enough to throw me over the edge and make me scream my ecstasy. I felt Rurik give one last hard push before his body spasmed over mine. He kept his grip on the headboard as his head rolled back, eyes closed, as a shudder coursed through him.
My limbs refused to respond. They rested on a tangle of pillows and sheets, too exhausted to listen to me. I couldn’t describe what Rurik and I had done as making love. More like fucking my brains out. It was dynamite. I wanted more but he said I needed to build stamina gradually or I’d regret it once the endorphins wore off.
He was right. I lay in his bed and just breathed.
The drug wore off sometime during the night. I didn’t feel any regrets about my lowered inhibitions, just happy that I’d only taken a drop. My mind felt clear and strong but tired.
The bedroom door swung open, Rurik balanced a tray in one hand as he walked in. He placed it on the wooden chest at the foot of the bed. “Breakfast is served, my lady.” His sweet, sexy smile warmed me.
“It’s the middle of the night.” I groaned as I made a half-hearted attempt to sit up. The silk sheets sat tangled at my feet and I pulled one of the corners to cover myself.
The smell of bacon made my stomach growl.
He chuckled at the sound. “You haven’t eaten today.” He stuffed pillows behind my back and placed the tray across my lap then removed the silver lid covering the meal. A plate of scrambled eggs, bacon and muffins spread before me. The bed listed as he sat on the edge to take the spoon from my hand. He scooped up some eggs and fed it to me.
I couldn’t help smile at the gesture but removed the spoon from his hands, determined to feed myself. The food tasted wonderful. “I didn’t know you could cook.”
His eyebrows shot up as he gave a sharp laugh. “I can’t. The cook made this.” He watched as I took another bite. “Is it good?”
“Give him my complements.” I mumbled around a mouth full. My empty stomach gurgled with joy. “Why would you need a cook?”
He picked at imaginary dirt in his fingernails. “To feed the humans we care for.” Though the words came out in a casual manner, his shoulders tensed and he glanced up once before continuing to examine his perfect manicure.
I took a sip of orange juice to help swallow the muffin caught in my dry throat. Obviously, other vampires lived here but the fact that other humans did surprised, maybe shocked, me.
He placed his hands on his lap and gave me gentle smile.
Anger started to bubble up inside of me. “Are they like cattle?” Even to me, my voice sounded strained.
“No. It’s not like that at all. Not anymore.” His smile grew. “They choose to live with us and in exchange we take care of them, like a family.”
“Families don’t use each other for food.”
He sighed, his smile faded. “You’re being judgmental.” His became stern. “How would you have us live? Hunting the streets at night for victims?” He crossed his arms over his bare chest. “We cherish and care for our humans. In return, they cherish and care for us.”
These heated words justified my cause to prove his innocence even more. “I don’t know what’s right anymore, Rurik.” I shook my head and felt lost. Maybe I was being judgmental. What other conscientious way could they feed? “They’re here of their own free will? No mind tricks?”
He chuckled and shook his head. “No mind tricks. No, how did you phrase it? Mojo. They’re here like you are, of their own free will.”
“Is this how most vampires live?” I picked up my fork again to resume my meal. This action seemed to calm him and he relaxed his arms.
“I can’t speak for the world, Connie, but in Budapest it is. There are those who still like the old ways. Who speak against our new philosophy to live in this way.”
I looked up from my plate. “Dragos?”
He touched my hair. “Perceptive. Dragos is very powerful, very old, and very insane. He frightens Tane.” He hesitated. “And me.”
“Is that why he attacked you? Because you chose to live this way?” I guess discrimination wasn’t only human based. It transcended to the monsters too.
Rurik massaged between my eyebrows with his thumb. “You’re thinking too hard again. Don’t worry. Every little thing will be all right, Rabbit.”
The scrape of my fork against the plate surprised us both. I’d eaten everything he’d brought except what was in a small cup by the juice. “What this?” I held it up and emptied some pills into my hand. They looked like vitamins.
“Iron supplements.”
I glared at him. “You’ve got to be kidding.”
“By your earlier reaction after I’d fed, I thought you’d want to be my main ... ahh ... well.”
“Meal? Feed? Main course?” I laughed at the absurdity of it all. Rurik ran a vampire commune. They were paranormal hippies, who gave their ‘family ‘ iron supplements. Tears spilled from my eyes. “Are you sure I’m organic?” The juice cup rattled on the tray from my laughter and Rurik saved it from spilling.
He frowned. “I don’t understand the joke.”
I wiped the tears from my cheeks. “No, you wouldn’t.”
“I hoped you’d want to join us and be with me.” The disappointment in his voice sobered me.
“You’re not what I ex
pected.” I tried to explain but how could I without telling him everything. Our relationship was based on lies, my lies. He’d been nothing but protective, kind and loving. Who was the real monster in this bed?
I popped the pills in my mouth and washed them down with the last of the juice. It made him smile again. I needed to tell him the truth, all of it, even if it drove him from me, but I feared that the most. My heart couldn’t bare another assault. It was held together by threads Rurik had just sewn to mend the tear.
He returned the tray onto the chest. “Where are you going?”
My foot dangled over the edge of the bed. “To shower.”
He pushed me flat to the bed and slid me back up to the pillows. “So I could just dirty you again?” His smile spread wide to expose the dainty, sharp fangs. He yanked the sheet that covered my body to the floor and crawled over me.
My heart raced as he ran his hands over my skin. “Where to begin?” He brushed his face against my left breast, over my hammering heart. His tongue made contact with my skin.
I closed my eyes and arched my back. A sense of pressure built around me like the air compressed itself. Then I felt him brush against my mental shield. A flood of panic filled me. I didn’t understand what he wanted and pushed at his shoulders so he’d get off.
He never noticed or pretended not to. His power surrounded me, tried to lure me into submission, and lay down my defenses. I’d forgotten how strong he could be, he never tried to touch me mentally since we first met.
I panted, not from passion but fear. I didn’t want him to find out what I was. Not this way.
The power shifted, like a weight off my chest, and I could breathe. I looked down at Rurik who gazed up at me with curiosity.
“Why do you fight so much? It will hurt worse.”
“What the hell are you doing? I don’t want you poking around in my head.” The sharp words were out of my mouth before I could edit them.
“I got that impression the first time we met. I didn’t cross the line then. I only influenced you, never went deeper. Why would I now?” He rubbed his cheek on my breast. “You’re always so closed up. It’s like a prison in there, with stone walls and barbed wires. You’re painful to touch.”
I closed my eyes so he wouldn’t see the tears. Painful. I believed it, I lived in that prison. Colby taught me to build those walls to protect me from being taken, but I’m the one who added the barb and never opened the door.
“Let me in, Connie.” He whispered the words into my skin. “Trust me. I just want to influence you so I don’t add to your pain.”
I took a shaky, deep breath. “I don’t know how. You drugged me the last time.”
I felt him smile. “I could again, if you wanted.”
“No.” The vial hid in my pants pocket, no longer in it velvet jewelry case in the chest. “No more drugs.”
“It was a joke. I’d be affected by it as well after I’ve fed.” He pulled himself up my body to meet my eyes.
“You would be?” This surprised me. “Drugs affect you?”
“No, just this one.” I opened my mouth to continue my interrogation but he pressed his finger to my lips and hushed me. “Slow deep breaths, trust me.”
I felt the pressure again. My instincts screamed to struggle with Rurik’s invasion.
“Deep breaths,” he whispered.
I inhaled and trembled with the effort. A visit to the dentist would have been less stressful. A sense of euphoric indifference filled me, just like our first date. The thought made me giggle.
Rurik moaned at my reaction. He liked it when I acted this way, all giddy and happy. Where did that thought come from?
I gasped when I felt the sharp stab over my left breast. It hurt for a moment but I didn’t care. He squeezed that breast and enjoyed the feel of it in his palm. My eyes widened with that sensation, his sensation. I grinned. The link he used to influence my perceptions worked both ways. I got little snippets of his thoughts. Such as, he thought I tasted like champagne.
His power made me feel wonderful and free. I giggled again which only elicited another moan from Rurik. He pressed the hard bulge in his jeans to my thigh.
I guess waiting to shower was a good idea.
Chapter 16
The hot shower pounded all my well deserved aches away. Some pains could be classed as good, exercise and well, sex being among them.
I toweled myself dry then wrapped it around my body, anxious to return to Rurik. The soft fabric rubbed on the tender bite mark over my left breast. I saw it in the steamed up mirror, peeking over the towel’s edge and touched the spot, thankful for another chance at happiness. Two little puncture holes over my heart. The symbolism wasn’t lost to me, though he hadn’t said it, I suspected Rurik more than liked me. Never would I have hoped I’d be able to let Laurent’s memory fade enough to allow someone else an opportunity into the fortress of my heart.
Elated emotions that soared through me during the past few hours vanished when I walked into the bedroom. My suitcase sat opened on the bed with a set of clothes Rurik must have chosen for me folded next to it. They weren’t the only thing he removed from my luggage. The manila envelope lay empty on the floor and the pictures were in Rurik’s hands.
He examined them, holding the photos close. His temple twitched as he clenched his jaw. The concentration on his face made the fine cheekbones stand out against his lush lips, which had just finished kissing me before I escaped to the shower. They thinned out in a frown.
I felt empty. My heart dropped and I was surprised not to hear it rattle like a coin inside the hollowness.
His eyes narrowed as he noticed my entrance and nailed me with their icy coldness.
I tried to make my mouth work but my vocal cords froze. I wanted to apologize, I wanted to explain those terrible pictures, and I wanted to tell him about my job. Instead, like an ass, I grabbed the jeans and red t-shirt then dressed, pretending innocence.
He placed the photos onto my open suitcase and I watched as his angry face melted into a soft, seductive smile. “So, Rabbit, what’s this game you’re playing?” He stepped closer to me, the ice in his eyes never melted.
This was the Rurik I’d met four nights ago in the club. The one who drugged me, who gave me to Dragos. The dangerous Rurik. I recognized the empty gaze he gave me and moved away until the wall came against my back. Anger or even violence I could have handled, but this scared me more. It made me think I was wrong about him. That he was guilty.
“Please...” I didn’t know what I pleaded for. A mix of things, not to be the killer, not to hurt me, and not to break my heart. The pain stabbed me so sharply I couldn’t catch my breath. Tears burned behind my eyelids.
“Interesting pictures.” He gestured with his long fingered hand at them in the suitcase. “How did you manage to come by them?”
“I-I.” The one time I needed to spill the beans and I had lockjaw.
“Doesn’t matter.” He sauntered toward me and leaned in close to my face. The tick on his temple returned and I could hear him grind his teeth. He broke my gaze to look down and set his hands on the wall, trapping me in between his arms. “They’re such good pictures, I almost believe I was there.” His stare returned to me. “What could you possibly want with those? Blackmail?”
I felt my eyes widen with the shock of the truth. He really was clueless. The thought raised my spirit. “They’re not real?” I wanted to wrap myself around him and kiss the anger from his face. No matter the evidence, I believed his innocence, I needed to.
He hit the wall by my head with his palm. It creaked with the assault. “Of course not!”
I jumped with the bang. The suicidal urge to kiss him faded fast. “They were given to me. Someone is trying to frame you for those murders. They wanted me to believe you were guilty.”
“My guilt?” He stepped back. The look on his face made me feel as if I’d turned into a slime creature from the Black lagoon. “Even if I’d done this crime, I would be held
to vampire justice not human.”
“Sometimes these matters fall into gray areas between our worlds. Some of those humans who live in that gray area are hired to fulfill that justice.” I could barely hear my own voice but his sensitive hearing would have picked it up. “We haven’t seen any evidence of vampire justice for this crime.”
“You live in this gray area?”
I nodded, afraid if I spoke, it would turn into tears.
“If you wanted to slay me, you had ample opportunity. Why attack my people?”
I took a step forward. “We’re not the ones who attacked your lair. We never found it. I don’t believe you’re responsible for this crime. I want to help prove your innocence.”
An eyebrow raised in disbelief. “Then who attacked us?”
“Dragos, maybe Tane.”
“Dragos would be crazier than I thought to attack me in my own city and Tane is my strongest supporter. He even keeps a companion in the same manner as we do.”
I nodded. “Eric.”
A look of surprise graced his face. “You know this?”
“Remember the A38, when Tane tossed me overboard? He admitted to hiring us, through Eric, to hunt you. It was after that meeting I realized the pictures could be false and started to believe in your innocence. I’ve been trying to help you.”
“Only after that? The bathhouse? The club?” He covered his mouth with his hand as if to block those questions. “The attack at the party. I knew they were slayers but not that you’d lured them there.” His eyes narrowed and pierced my heart. “Such a clever little Rabbit.”
“We need to discuss this. I’ve been—”
“Only now you want to discuss this? Not last night, before you seduced me or when we were at the Bastion? But after I find these pictures.” A small growl escaped him. “You weave your way into my life, collaborate to kill me, try to turn me against my friend, and worst of all, you steal my heart.” His voice choked on the last confession.
