Pursued: A Vampire Syndicate Paranormal Romance (The Vampire Syndicate Book 1)

by Rebecca Rivard

  His balls drew up tight. I sucked harder, but he speared his fingers into my hair.

  “Come here.”

  I slicked my tongue up his length one last time and moved back up his body. He gripped my upper arms, dragging me to him for a hard kiss. Then I was higher, hovering over his body, my legs on either side of his waist, while he suckled my nipples.

  Desire flooded me in heated waves. My clit ached for his touch. I moaned and gripped his forearms.

  He brought me back down, his strong hands easily controlling me so that the tips of my breasts just brushed his chest.

  “Kiss me.”

  I brought my mouth to his. His lips were soft and warm. He tasted of wine and something else, something primitive and very male. When I slid my tongue into his mouth, his incisors were longer than normal, their tips sharp.

  I smiled against his lips. My vampire was back.

  His tongue met mine, sliding over and around it. Then he was nibbling my jaw, my earlobe. Pressing kisses to my throat. Telling me how beautiful I was, how he couldn’t get enough of me.

  The world spun, and I was on my stomach. His hands came under my pelvis, lifting my ass. Long fingers spread my folds.

  His tip nudged my opening, slid inside. He drew back his hips and thrust into me in a single slow, luscious stroke.

  He cupped my throat, forcing me to lift my head higher, so I was stretched out beneath him, my legs on either side of his.

  “You’re so wet,” he said against my ear. “So ready for me.”

  “Yes. Oh, God, please...”

  He was long and thick and hard. I felt so full, in the best kind of way.

  One hand stayed on my throat. The other moved between my clit and nipples, pinching, toying, stroking. He withdrew partway and held himself poised over me.

  “I like my women to beg. Can you do that for me, Mila? Ask me real nice to fuck you?”

  I hesitated, my fingers digging into the sheets. His women? But right then, I would’ve done anything he asked.

  “Yes,” I whispered. Then louder, “Fuck me, Gabriel. Please.”

  “Good girl.” He thrust harder.

  Pleasure slammed up my spine. “Please, please, please…” My vision clouded over. Head swimming, I drew a jagged breath and arched my bottom up to take him deeper.

  He slowed his thrusts, taking me to the edge and keeping me there until I was begging for release.

  He slowed and then came up on his knees, pulling me up with him so I was on my hands and knees, too. He was still deep inside me, but no longer moving. His hands shaped my waist, the curve of my hips.

  I clawed at the sheets. What did he want?

  “Please,” I begged, desperate now. “Don’t stop.”

  “I’m hungry, Mila.” He moved my hair aside and leaned forward to kiss my nape. Prickles of heat danced up and down my spine. Sharp fangs touched the side of my throat. “Tell me I can feed from you. Because you’re mine.”

  Mine. My thrall. My woman.

  Doubt pinched me, but I shut my eyes and focused on the sexy pain/pleasure of his fangs. Because I wanted this. Wanted to be his in every way.

  I angled my head so he could reach the underside of my jaw. One hand cupped my chin while the other slid lower, feathering over my aroused, swollen flesh with excruciating care.

  “Tell me,” he growled. “Tell me that you’re mine.”

  I quivered, excited beyond bearing. “Yes.”

  His teeth caressed my throat. His earthy green scent filled my nostrils.

  Sensation arrowed to my womb. My inner thighs tightened, and I bucked my hips, clenching around him. He pulled out, the tip teasing my entrance.

  “Say it.”

  “Yes. Yours. Please, Gabriel.”

  “Ah, cher…” His body was over mine, around mine, in mine. “I’ll just take a little, this first time. But I need to taste you.”

  “Yes,” I said. “Yes.”

  I’d thought I’d be scared, the first time. But I wasn’t. No, I wanted his bite, craved it.

  His teeth punctured my skin. A sharp sting, followed by intense pleasure…waves and waves of it, like nothing I’d ever felt before.

  I was drowning in it, sobbing out Gabriel’s name.

  He groaned and pounded into me.

  Lights burst behind my eyes, trilled up and down my body. He thrust one last time and stilled, sucking on my throat while I lay there, boneless and blissful.

  I don’t know how long he fed, but it wasn’t long. When he was finished, he licked my neck clean and then disengaged from me to roll onto his back.

  I collapsed, boneless, onto the mattress and lay there, on my stomach with my face turned toward him. Lost in the wonder. “That was…” I trailed off, unable to find the words.

  “Mm.” He kissed my cheek.

  I snuggled up against him with a happy sigh and stroked my hand down his ridged abdomen. He was warm, a little sweaty, his hair crisp under my palm.

  “I think I missed this most of all.” I toyed with one of his flat brown nipples. “Just…spending time with you.”

  A grunt. “I’ll get you some water.” He eased himself out from under me.

  “Thanks.” I was thirsty—very. I waited until he’d left the room and then sat up to run my fingers over my throat. But there was no blood, just a pleasurable tingle.

  Gabriel appeared in the bathroom door with the water. “It’s almost healed,” he said as he handed me the glass. “There’s something in my saliva that speeds up healing.”

  I nodded. “I know. I’m just surprised how fast it worked.” Reading about it was one thing, but having it happen to you was something else.

  I drained the glass and set it on the nightstand.

  “Would you like more?” So polite, like I was a friend—or just another thrall—not the woman he’d just fucked into bliss.

  My brow furrowed. What was wrong? But I shook my head. “I’m good.”

  He brushed his fingers over my cheek. “Good night, then.”

  I grabbed his wrist. “You’re not staying?”

  A shake of his head. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

  I released his wrist and brought my hand to my neck again. He’d fed from me. I could still feel him between my legs.

  I’d felt so close to him, so wonderful. What was the matter?

  The wonder seeped away. I wrapped my arms around my knees. “So this was just about fucking,” I said flatly.

  His face hardened. “What did you expect, Mila? We both know you didn’t come back of your own free will.”

  I started to deny it, and then snapped my mouth shut. I was tired of lying to him.

  “Yeah,” he said. “That’s what I thought.”

  He curled his fingers around my nape and brushed a kiss over my lips, so gentle, hot tears stung my eyes. When he turned, my gaze snagged on the black wolf tatt. A reminder, if I needed it, of just who and what he was.

  I dug my teeth into my lower lip. Stupid, stupid, stupid to let myself think this was anything more than a dhampir enjoying his newest thrall.

  He let himself out of the suite, leaving me naked on the bed, hugging my knees.

  I slept until almost noon, but when I woke up, Gabriel was still in his suite. The guard on duty said he’d left orders not to be disturbed.

  Sharp hurt twisted my insides. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

  I nodded coolly. “Thank you.”

  I downed one of Lougenia’s amazing brunches without really tasting it, and then headed out to explore the beach house, trailed by the lean, curly-haired man who followed me everywhere. I’d tried to talk to him, but all he’d said was his name, Paco, and that he was a dhampir.

  “Like the boss,” he’d added, unsmiling, but with obvious pride. The dhampirs, at least, were on Gabriel’s side.

  There were two other bedrooms, both unoccupied. Gabriel’s security force apparently slept elsewhere, probably underground, since the only buildings I’d seen other than the be
ach house were a massive garage and the pool cabana. The gym was occupied by two hard-faced, tattooed men, so I backed out and returned to my suite.

  I worked out in the living room for a while, practicing my self-defense moves and wishing again for my switchblade. Still, pretty as my suite was, it was starting to feel like a cage.

  My workout finished, I took another walk to the pond. Gabriel was still nowhere to be seen, so I donned my bathing suit and went for a swim.

  Gabriel wasn’t at dinner, either. After eating, I hung out with Lougenia for an hour before wandering onto the balcony. The sky grew heavy, gray. Far out to sea, rain began to fall. It swept across the water toward me in a shining silver wave.

  I raised my face to the cool droplets, letting them run down my face. Drinking in their clean scent. Catching them on my tongue.

  I don’t know how long I’d been standing there, allowing the rain to wash over me, when I felt someone watching me. I didn’t have to turn my head to know it was Gabriel.

  I wrapped my arms around myself. “Hello.”

  He moved up next to me, touched my wet T-shirt. “You’re going to get cold.”

  I moved a shoulder. “It’s a warm night.”

  He placed his hands on the rail. Together, we gazed at rain falling on the ocean. To the west, the setting sun painted the storm clouds a red-tinged purple.

  Gabriel’s fingers tightened on the rail. “You’re not going to stay, are you?”

  My head snapped around. “I can’t leave. You said so yourself.”

  “That’s right, you can’t.” A pause. “Unless I give you permission.”

  I stared at him. What did he mean?

  “Would you?” I asked. “Give me permission?”

  “To leave?” His jaw worked. “I don’t know. It depends on you, and why you accepted the blood bond.”

  My insides constricted. God, I wished I could tell him.

  I shook my head and moved away, but he followed, clamping his hand on top of mine when I tried to open the sliding door.

  His body was hot against my back. I stiffened, even though what I really wanted was to lean into his warmth. To surrender. I was so tired of running and hiding and lying.

  “I know why you came back, Mila.”

  I set my forehead on the wet glass. “Stop it,” I said through numb lips. “Please.”

  But he was relentless. “What I don’t know is why you left in the first place.”

  “Don’t do this,” I begged. “It was for the best, and you know it.”

  A furious growl. “No, I don’t know it. You said you loved me, damn it. And then you were gone.”

  I tugged frantically at the sliding door, even though my strength was no match for a dhampir’s. Gabriel gripped my wrist, jerking me away from the door.

  “Answer me.” He spun me so that my back was against the plate-glass window. “Why did you come back?”

  Anger flared in me. “Let. Me. Go.”

  “No.” He gripped my chin, forced me to look at him. “I want the truth, damn it. Something’s going on and I want to know what.”

  I shut my eyes. “Fuck you,” I said wearily.

  His fingers tightened on my jaw. Raindrops glittered on his dark hair. “Talk, Mila.”

  I tightened my mouth and glared back. To my disgust, tears stung my eyes. I blinked them away, but one escaped to run down my cheek.

  Gabriel brushed it away with his thumb. I thought I saw a flicker of shame before he hardened his jaw. “Crying won’t help.”

  I shrugged and looked past him. Caught in a nightmare with no way out.

  He gripped my upper arms. “Talk, damn it. Was it the hundred K they gave you? Is that why you left?”

  I blinked. “How do you know about that?”

  “Did you really think I wouldn’t find out?”

  Right. This man was part of a syndicate worth billions. He could probably find out who my best friend in kindergarten was—and what she’d had for lunch today.

  He tilted his head to one side. “I could compel you, make you tell me.”

  I inhaled sharply. It was the one threat I’d thought he’d never use against me. “You promised you wouldn’t.” My lower lip trembled.

  His gaze flicked to it, then his mouth curled in a sneer. “That was before. When I trusted you.”

  I swallowed something sharp, bitter. Because he was right not to trust me.

  “Fine,” I gritted. “I took the money. But I only kept ten thousand of it, enough to get away. The rest, I gave to my family.”

  Ninety thousand dollars in crisp fifties, which I’d left stacked on the dresser beneath my goodbye note.

  “Then why? I loved you. You said you loved me back. Why would you leave without a fucking word? I thought you’d been kidnapped. That—” He briefly closed his eyes. “I thought they’d got to you. The slayers, or another coven.”

  He released me, speared his fingers through his wet hair. “I thought,” he said raggedly, “that you were dead—or a blood slave. Because why else would you disappear like that?”

  I remained where I was against the window. “I’m sorry.”

  “Sorry? That’s all you can say after putting me through hell?”

  I exhaled. “I’m sor—.”

  He put a hand over my mouth. “Don’t say it. Just…don’t.”

  He waited until I nodded against his palm and then released me, stepping back as if he couldn’t stand to be close to me.

  “I had you traced, you know. I couldn’t eat, couldn’t sleep until I knew you were okay. When they found you at that farm in Tennessee, I had to see for myself that you were all right. I even came into that barn you were sleeping in, late one night. Just to make sure.”

  The barn had been made over into a dormitory for seasonal help like me. I’d felt safe, anonymous, among the mix of farmhands and interns studying organic farming like me. The best part was we all worked so hard that each night, I fell into bed exhausted, and didn’t wake up until they rang the bell for breakfast.

  I sagged against the glass. “I didn’t know.”

  “I made sure no one saw me. But you weren’t locked in. You were interning with a farmer, like you’d wanted. So I left.”

  “I’m—.” I stopped myself from saying it that time. But suddenly, I was so cold. I shivered and wrapped my arms around myself.

  He swore under his breath and, grabbing my hand, dragged me inside and through the dining room. The ever-present Paco had been replaced by a vampire. He regarded us, stone-faced.

  I flushed, but Gabriel ignored him to tow me down the hall to my suite. Inside, he pushed me into the bathroom.

  “Strip.”

  When I obeyed, he grabbed a towel and rubbed me down, and then bundled me into a bathrobe and marched me back into the living room.

  He sat on the couch and crossed one leg over the other like the syndicate boss he was. Cool, in control.

  Icy green eyes pondered me. “So. If it wasn’t for the money, why then?”

  I wrapped the bathrobe tighter around myself. My worry and exhaustion came to a head, and I just blurted it out.

  “Because of you, damn it. I did it for you.”

  16

  Gabriel

  Mila’s statement caromed like a cannonball around my brain.

  Like hell she’d done it for me.

  I’d initiated the blood bond with this woman. I’d intended to ask her to be my mate. And she’d left without a goddamned word.

  My mouth twisted. She was still lying to me. A part of me wondered why I kept trying.

  Then it hit me. I swore and came off the couch.

  “It was my father, right? He got to you.”

  Her eyes slid sideways. “No.”

  “I don’t believe you.”

  “Believe what you want.” She stalked toward the bedroom. “I’m going to bed.”

  “The hell you are.” Snagging her arm, I whipped her around to face me. “We’re going to finish this. Now. Tonight.�
��

  “Let. Me. Go.”

  She glared at me, her wet hair a rich brown tangle around her shoulders. The blue bathrobe had slipped down to reveal a softly curved breast. She noticed me looking, and snarled and yanked the lapels together.

  But it was too late. We stared at each other.

  The air changed, thickened.

  She swallowed, a pulse beating in her throat. My gaze locked on its tempting flutter.

  Last night, her blood had tasted sweet, tart, feminine. The essence of Mila. I’d had to force myself not to take too much, although after, I’d been ashamed I’d drunk from her at all. She’d lost that exhausted, fragile look, and I knew from Lougenia that she was eating well, but she was still recovering from her years on the run.

  But now, looking at that hard, fast pulse, a vicious hunger gripped me. My fangs lengthened.

  I was done trying to pry the truth from her. My gaze went to her wrist, where my gold bracelet glinted. She was here. She’d invoked the blood bond, sworn the oath. By our laws, she was mine.

  “Fine.” I swept her up in my arms. “You want to go to bed? We’ll go to bed.”

  A few long strides took us into the bedroom. I dropped her on the mattress and followed her down, crouching over her. Instinctively, I tried to read her, needing to know the truth. But as always, she was frustratingly blank to me.

  Outside, a heavy rain poured down. Night had fallen, leaving the room dark. I flicked on the bedside lamp. I could see her well enough, but I wanted her to see me, too.

  “Gabriel. I—” She moistened her lips.

  “No more words.” I caught her face in my hands and gave her a hard kiss. “I can’t tell whether you’re lying or not, and you know what? I don’t fucking care.”

  Her limbs relaxed. Her mouth remained stubbornly closed. It was as if she’d curled into herself, leaving me only her body.

  I went rigid. She would not go passive on me.

  “Kiss me back,” I demanded against her mouth.

  “Fuck you,” she snapped—and speared her fingers into my hair. Her mouth opened. She sucked my tongue inside.

  One long leg wrapped around my hip. The bathrobe fell open. She pressed against me. My already hard dick rasped against the zipper of my worn black jeans. I could feel the heat of her bare pussy through the material, hear the pounding of her heart. I ground myself against her and let my fangs slide out the rest of the way.