by Lyons, Rene
Any hint of resistance quickly melted away at the look of raw need burning in the depths of his silver eyes. The fire was for her, and with all of her soul, she wanted to be burned by it.
His eyes narrowed and he offered her the shadow of a wicked grin, holding the promise of the pleasure he planned on bringing her. At that moment she knew she’d rather be here with Sebastian than anywhere else in the world.
Taking his hand, she followed him up the stairs. Passing the closed doors, she heard the Templars within moving around as they readied themselves for their hunt. Allie felt a stab of awkwardness at the fact that they weren’t alone. Sebastian must have felt her unease since he gave her hand a gentle squeeze of reassurance.
When they reached his room, he released her hand and stood aside to let her pass. She crossed the threshold with the distinct sensation things were never going to be the same for her after tonight.
Chapter Twelve
Finality came over Allie when Sebastian closed and locked the door to his room. She felt lost to the world. Only the two of them mattered when he turned to her and pinned her with his profound stare. A single brow lifted at her, a silent dare. He waited to see what she would do, change her mind and leave or stay and open herself to him as he brought her deeper into his world.
Too deep to leave once this night played out.
The glow from the candles he’d lit gave a cozy atmosphere to an otherwise austere room. The vanilla aroma wafting from them, combined with the wonderful spicy scent belonging to Sebastian filled her head and made her giddy with anticipation. The erotic art of Luis Royo staring down at her lent a wonderfully wicked feel to Sebastian’s lair.
And Sebastian himself…
He was everything dark and mysterious, her most secret fantasies brought to reality in the form of a man so handsome it left her breathless. Raw sex and strength, she wished to hold to this moment, a calm before the storm, always.
“You can leave, Allie.” His deep voice, resonating, flowed through her like a wonderfully warm wave. “I’ll never keep you here against your will.”
“I know.”
“I’ll never hurt you.”
She smiled. “I know that too.”
He moved to the entertainment center dominating the wall opposite the bed, the focus of which was a huge plasma television. He turned on the stereo and Live’s “I Alone” played low. One of Allie’s favorite songs, it sang of all the things she felt but didn’t dare to tell him.
He turned back to her, head lowered, and regarded her through intense eyes. Right then she knew exactly how prey felt being stalked by a predator.
“Come here.”
Of course Sebastian would want her to come to him. More than merely his arrogance demanding it, he asked her for an acceptance of what he was that ran deeper than mere words.
She went to him without a hint of reservation.
Stepping into his arms felt like coming home. He wrapped around her in an embrace and she melted into him. Slipping her arms around his waist, she wanted to touch all of him to make sure this was all real.
To make sure he was real.
Allie was half afraid she’d wake alone in her room, this having been nothing more than a wonderful dream. The thought terrified her. Finally where she wanted to be, she hugged him tighter, wishing she could hold on to the moment forever.
Standing in his arms, Allie felt as if a million butterflies were let loose in her stomach. Now that she was here with him, she had no idea what to do. This was no ordinary man. He had centuries of sexual conquests to his credit. She didn’t have an impressive list.
Her rep as a nutball limited her in the sex department to the loser she gave her virginity to and Jude. Neither was worth bragging about, nor did she have such extraordinary sex with them that she walked away having learned a trick or two.
His much more…extensive…sexual experience intimidated the hell out of her. What could she possible do to him hundreds of women before hadn’t already done? What pleasure could she bring him that wouldn’t seem mundane in comparison to what he must have known before her?
Leaning away, yet keeping her in his hold, he frowned. “I can feel anxiety in you. Why?”
Allie blushed, hating that he could sense her emotions. “I’m being silly, that’s all. No worries.”
He clearly wasn’t buying the bullshit. “Talk to me, sunshine. What’s bothering you? Do you want to leave?”
She felt him tense as he waited for her answer. “No, of course I don’t want to leave,” she assured him. “Look, the thing is, I may be daring about the paranormal stuff, but when it comes to sex I’m a big coward.”
He cocked a brow at her. . “So, I’ve discovered the one thing with the power to unnerve the fearless Allison Parker.”
Fearless? Hardly. Nervous? Definitely.
“What can I say? Not all of us have centuries of experience under our belts. Sorry if I’m not all calm and cool about this.”
He seemed to be weighing what to say next. “Neither have I.”
His quiet admission knocked the wind right out of her. “You haven’t?”
Sebastian shook his head slowly, a tortured glint flaring in his eyes. “I’ve had my share of women, Allie, I won’t lie about that, but for the past three hundred years I’ve been celibate.”
Allie thought she actually felt her jaw hit the floor. Closing her gaping mouth, she tried to appear unfazed, but she was stunned. Three hundred years? She couldn’t begin to fathom what could make him decide such a thing. “Are you serious?”
“Decidedly so.”
This was too incredible. “Why in the world…?”
He cut her off by placing a finger over her lips. “Now isn’t the time to talk about this.”
Biting back the million questions that demanded answers, she had to agree with him. The time for talk would come later.
He removed his finger from her mouth, but not before gliding it over her bottom lip. She tucked said bottom lip between her teeth and worried it as he stood staring down at her as if he expected something from her.
God, she felt so unsure of herself. “I don’t know what you want from me.”
Sebastian leaned down and softly rubbed his cheek against hers. She heard him inhale deeply. He smelled her hair. “Everything you have to give me, sunshine.” Raising his head, he trailed a finger along her cheek and jaw. “I’ve wanted you since the night I first saw you.”
For the second time, Allie’s mouth dropped open in shock. The man kept dropping these bombs on her. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“I’m deadly serious.”
“Then why the hell have you been ignoring me all this time?”
He placed a feathery kiss on her forehead before answering. “You were a temptation I didn’t dare give in to.”
His fingers slid down to the column of her throat, causing a wonderful shiver to pass over her. She fisted the back of his shirt in her hands, clinging to him desperately as he slowly lowered his head and captured her lips. His mouth was so cool, yet in his kiss was a fire that burned hot enough to set them both ablaze.
Needing to feel him all over her, Allie stepped into him and pressed herself against Sebastian’s body. Every part of him was wonderfully hard and extraordinarily unyielding. Under her hands his body felt like stone come to life. She felt small and delicate with him, things she didn’t think any man would make her feel.
She’d never had the luxury to be anything less than strong. With parents like hers and a brother and sister who relied on her, weak was not something she could afford to be. Yet with Sebastian, she was able to let it all go, trusting in him enough to relinquish her control.
Bringing her hands around to the smooth expanse of his chest, she laid her palms against his bare skin. He sucked in a hard, yet empty breath. How strange she felt no heartbeat under her hand or no warmth of a living body. Yet he was gloriously alive.
Unconsciously, her fingers went to the scar over his heart
. He pulled away from her sharply. “Did I hurt you?”
“No, you didn’t hurt me.”
He made no effort to tell her why he jumped back. He looked tortured for a moment, but quickly pushed that emotion aside.
“I wish I could take back all of your pain.”
He came back to her, shaking his head. “I don’t. I wouldn’t be here if my life played out differently.”
He couldn’t have said anything to impact her more. She felt as if her heart was going to beat clear out of her chest as a lump of emotion lodged in her throat at the magnitude of his profound declaration.
She swallowed down her emotions and blinked back her tears until they stopped threatening to spill down her cheeks. “Well then, I hate to say it, but I’m glad you’re here too.”
Only his Allie would be glad she was here with a creature such as himself.
He kissed the tip of her adorable nose. “It wasn’t that bad.”
That was a lie and they both knew it. Still, Sebastian felt it was a necessary one in order to wipe away the sadness etched over Allie’s face.
Sebastian gathered Allie close, close enough for him to feel her heartbeat. As her life pounded against his chest, he recaptured her lips in a searing kiss that had her moaning into his mouth. She snaked her arms came around his neck, her fingers biting into the nape of his neck.
The scent of her need filled him, pushing him further away from civility and closer to the edge of sanity. With nothing more than the touch of her lips, she drove him dangerously close to madness.
He lifted her, forcing her to wrap her legs around his waist. Tiny, she weighed next to nothing in his arms. As he carried her to the bed, he felt a stab of anticipation, wanting this with her for months. He’d never felt the like before, never known the thrill of expectation when it came to sex.
His past dissolved in her kiss. War, death, and all the horrors he’d witnessed vanished from his mind the moment he kissed her.
Before he took his vow, sex was nothing more than a means to relieve his body’s basic need. The women he’d bedded nameless and faceless, less than even a memory. Everything was different with Allie. He wanted to get lost in her, to loose himself in her lifeforce.
He broke the kiss only long enough to lay her down on the bed. Her hair spread like fire over his crisp white sheets. She reached her arms out to him, a silent plea for him to come back to her and he swore he felt his body spark to life.
No woman ever reached out for him. Only Allie. His Allie.
Her desire was so strong it emanated from her in rich waves that took hold of his senses and robbed him of reason.
“You aren’t still nervous.”
Not a question, it was a statement of fact he needed confirmed before he touched her again.
Allie validated what his senses already told him. “No, baby, I’m not nervous.”
All he needed to hear, he inhaled the air, the aroma of her arousal was all around him. He climbed on the bed and kneeled over her to marvel at her beauty.
She was a gift from God.
Needing to feel her bare flesh against his, Sebastian peeled off his shirt and threw it to the floor. He flashed his fangs in a wicked grin when Allie sucked in a sharp breath. She devoured him with her eyes, making him so hard for her it hurt.
“Like what you see, sunshine?”
She cocked a brow at him arrogantly. “Hell yeah.”
He laughed, loving how she matched his arrogance. He never thought a woman would exist who would dare.
He wanted to touch all of her at once. Taste every inch of her. “I don’t even know where to start on you.”
“Saying that was a good start.”
Afraid to hurt her with his large and calloused hands, it was with an infinite gentleness born out of hundreds of years of learning how to control his strength that he was able to caress her body so carefully.
He inched Allie’s tee shirt up, a smile playing on his lips as he fingered the steel hoop that pierced her navel. He loved that small ring, finding it extremely sexy.
Allie sat and reached her arms above her head so he could take off her shirt, which he did with great relish. He threw her shirt away and kneeled, dumbfounded, staring at her breasts. The white lace bra barely covered them.
“You’re so small,”
Gasping out a laugh, Allie gave him a shot to the arm. “You don’t tell a woman she’s small when staring at her chest. It’s rude. Imagine if I said that while staring at your—well—you get the idea.”
His badly timed comment finally dawned on him. “I didn’t mean it like that.”
She gave him a small, shy smile he found adorable. “I know.”
He gently ran his hands over her arms. Her skin was soft and smooth. “You’re just so much smaller than me, sunshine. I don’t want to hurt you.”
“I’m tougher than I look and you know it.”
He did know it.
What she lacked in physical strength she more than made up for mentally. His Allie was a woman with strength of wits to spare.
Sebastian’s hands shook as removed her bra. As if he were opening a gift, he peeled away the bra, marveling at how beautiful her body was. Her breasts fit perfectly in his palms as he knew they would.
Her petal soft, pale pink nipples pressed against his rough palms, pulling a small whimper from her. His touch caused her eyes to close and her head to drop back. He rolled her nipples in his fingers, pinching them gently. Her throaty moan was a sound so erotic he’d sacrifice his life a thousand times over to hear it again.
Wanting no barriers between them, he rid them of the rest of their clothes. Though she was a bit shy, Sebastian quickly let Allie know he wouldn’t tolerate her holding back from him. He wouldn’t allow her to be shy about her body.
Her flesh was smooth and pale, her tattoos standing out in sharp contrast to the flawlessness of her. If he weren’t so damn hot for her, he would take the time to examine each piece of art on her in great detail—with his fingers and tongue as well as his eyes.
But not now when he was too far gone with need to hold himself back any longer.
Pushing her back on the bed, Sebastian covered her with his body, making sure to catch his weight on his arms. God help her if he actually gave her his full weight. He’d crush his fiery ghost hunter.
This was exactly as he’d imagined her in his fantasies, warm and open to him. Her arms came around him and he felt all his strength dissolve in her tender hold. That she could be so abrasive with the rest of the world and so feminine and gentle with him made him almost feel as if his heart was going to splinter apart from emotion.
Never a man given to strong sentiment, it was a wonder to him that Allie could pull such strong feelings from him, and in so short a time. Astounded by her, it said much for the impact she had on him.
He settled himself between the warmth of her thighs as her hands traveled over his back. She tickled him with her nails, grazing his flesh until he had chills running through him and he was damn near shaking with need.
He seized her mouth in a deep, bruising kiss. Her nails bit into his back and he growled low in his throat. Snaking an arm under her, he lifted her hips and ground into her. Her heat made his cock so hard it hurt. He wanted to thrust into her to ease the pain of his desire and feel her wet warmth close around him.
Still, Sebastian forced himself to hold back until he tasted the one thing that pushed him past reason.
Allie’s blood.
He caught her with his fangs again. In the back of his mind he wondered if he hadn’t done it on purpose to get a taste of her.
“I’m sorry,” he ground out from between clenched teeth as he fought for control.
Allie was clearly baffled. “For what?”
Sebastian wiped away the small smear of blood on her chin. “I cut you again.”
The look she gave him said she thought he’d lost his mind. “You stopped kissing me for that? And they call me crazy!”
He licked at his fangs. So, his woman didn’t want him to stop? Who was he to not oblige her?
He kissed a trail down Allie’s throat, lingering at the furious throb of her vein. He could hear the roar of her blood as her heart hammered wildly. They were the most amazing sounds he’d ever heard. They were the sounds of her life and he wanted—no, he needed—to take a piece of that vitality into himself.
He used his entire mouth to make a path down to her breasts. His lips, his teeth, his tongue, dragged small whimpers from her. When he caught her hard nipple between his teeth she nearly shot off the bed. He held her down and rolled his tongue around it until she cried out and palmed the back of his head. She arched her back, pushing herself against him, needing more of his touch.
When Sebastian trailed even lower down her body, to flick light kisses over her stomach, she closed her eyes and giggled. “That tickles.” It came out as a breathy whisper as he played with her navel ring.
He ran his hand up her thigh, nudging her legs open. Sebastian felt her stiffen. “Easy, baby.”
The delicious scent of her desire filled his senses. The beauty of her body overwhelmed him. With his senses filled with her, he was dancing on a dangerous edge of control. When he covered her sex with his mouth, the taste of her delicious, she said his name on a sigh. The sound was amazing and urged him on to tease her with his lips and tongue.
Allie let out a guttural moan and threw her head back against the pillow. One hand fisted in the sheets next to her thighs, the other cupped the back of his head. Writhing on the bed as he laved at her, he nearly came undone over her unbridled response to him.
Needing more of her, Sebastian grabbed her ass and lifted her hips higher. It gave him better access to her body, opening her so he could devour her at his leisure.
Struggling to maintain his control, he marveled at how sweet and rich her taste was. It reminded him of the honey-treat he’d snuck when he was a boy.
Well rewarded for his effort to worship her with his mouth, he felt her thighs tremble as she neared her peak. The force of her pleasure overwhelmed his senses.
