When he finally fell asleep from exhaustion, he was plagued with bizarre and unpleasant dreams. Each one was worse than the one before it. Finally, he bolted upright in a pool of sweat. Anxiety was not an emotion he was accustomed to, especially about a woman. These visions were more vivid than any dream. As the night wore on, he came to the realization they weren’t dreams at all but premonitions. His dreams were telling him something.
They were telling him something was wrong.
Chapter Four
Kell could have kicked himself in the ass.
Dismissing the chance she was lucid enough to notice, he turned the doorknob until it crunched. He would explain later. Right now, he needed to get to her and he wasn’t about to let a flimsy door stand in his way. He bent down and took Audra in his arms.
Audra. Sprawled out on the kitchen floor, pale, sweating, and delirious, uttering something about the fruit. Even in this state, she was more worried about her damned blood orange trees than herself. And she needed to be worried about herself because she was very sick.
Separating himself from her for a split second, he grabbed the phone and returned to her in the middle of the floor. He dialed Poe, a buddy from college. On the phone, he tried to explain what was happening while he glanced out the window at the orchard. With his night vision, he could see some of the fruit appeared rotten. Then he looked at Audra, shivering and doubled over in pain.
He dashed outside and checked the rotten fruit, and saw her tooth marks on the oranges that lay strewn on the ground. They had a strange smell, sweeter than they should have been. And highly appetizing. His worst fears were confirmed. Then he spotted the footprints circling the row of trees nearest his house. They were too large to be Audra’s and were certainly not his. That only left one likely suspect—Audra’s ex-boyfriend, J.R.
He hurried back inside, paced the floor like a madman, and comforted Audra as best he could until Poe arrived. Immediately upon examination, the brunet doctor started an IV on her and administered the first round of medicines to flush her system. “Pesticides?”
Kell nodded grimly. “Yes. I’m certain. The ex-boyfriend.”
“That’s why he’s an ex-boyfriend.” Poe frowned.
He smiled wistfully. Audra had said the same thing about J.R. “Is she going to be all right?”
The youthful Poe’s mouth twisted in thought. “It’s too early to tell. We’ll know more in the next hour.”
It wasn’t bad news exactly, but he was feeling greedy all of a sudden. He wanted an unshakable declaration that Audra would be fine. One night with her wasn’t enough. Not by a long shot. Kell recalled the night they spent together. He needed to touch her. Seated beside her where she lay on the couch, he dabbed the sweat from her forehead with a cool washrag. Poor thing was feverish and in pain from abdominal cramping.
Epiphany struck him like a hammer to the head. Last night. The bite. He’d bitten Audra when they made love on his porch. After they’d shared her marmalade. Her tainted marmalade. Then she tasted his blood. That was why she was sick and he wasn’t. While the poison had barely registered in his vampire immune system, hers had been unable to break down the pesticides. He thought a few of the oranges had tasted strange. J.R. had probably sprayed a few of the trees in an attempt to make it seem random and accidental. The discovery infuriated him. But he couldn’t do anything about it yet. There would be another time and another place for J.R. to answer for his crimes. Tonight was about Audra. He put his head beside hers and shut his eyes, a quiet prayer on his lips.
It was Poe’s hand on his shoulder that woke him. Kell searched the doctor’s face for some sign of good news. But he found none. “She’s not responding to the meds.”
Kell’s pale face went ashen.
“You know what you have to do.”
God, no. He didn’t want to risk it. To risk Audra. “What if I kill her?”
Poe glanced at the colorless woman breathing shallowly on the couch. “She’s dying. What more could you do to worsen her odds?”
Dying. That wasn’t fair. He’d only just met her. And lose her this soon? Forever? He wouldn’t accept it. If he turned her, made her like him and she lived through the change, she would be immune to almost all poisons. Looking on her feverish, drawn face, he realized the risk was worth the try.
“Audra.” He took her in his arms. “Can you hear me?”
Audra’s eyes rolled back and forth under heavy lids. He could feel her racing pulse at his fingertips and tried not to panic. “Kell? I’m scared, Kell.”
“Shh.” His heart was breaking to see her so weak and frightened. “You don’t have to be scared anymore, baby. I’m gonna make you all better.”
“I love you.”
I love you too. Kell squeezed his eyes shut, holding her tight. This wasn’t how he wanted to tell her. He was going to tell her when she pulled through. Not now, while she stood on the precipice of death.
No doubt she experienced some strange sensations since the night they spent together—light sensitivity, the craving for fruit, or the inability to keep down regular food, but suppressed them as unreasonable. It was true some vampires had the gift, the ability to mesmerize. Until now, he’d never considered the possibility he had that kind of power. He knew the change from human to vampire was fast-acting but this was remarkable.
His teeth elongated on command. Before he could waver in his decision to cross the threshold and breach the point of no return, he bit down on the exposed flesh of her shoulder. She fought him, what remained of her will to live exerted against him with admirable effort. But in her compromised state, she was no match for the powerful force that gripped her. Her fists slid down his chest as she went limp in his arms.
Dead. Audra Rhoades was dead. The sight was enough to shatter him into a thousand pieces.
“You must wait until the heart stops,” a voice said. Poe. The doc was speaking to him.
He was vaguely cognizant of Poe putting his stethoscope to Audra’s chest. With a nod of his doctor friend’s dark-haired head, he nicked his wrist and put it to her mouth, letting gravity control the crimson flow. Eyes shut, he said a silent prayer and waited to feel her lips make suction on his skin.
When they did, he thought he would drown in his tears. Not only was Audra alive, she was feeding.
“That was intense.” Poe sat wide-eyed in a nearby armchair. Kell had never turned anyone before, and the exchange was everything legend had promised. Euphoric but exhausted, he kissed Audra’s forehead.
“Make sure she stays in bed for the next twenty-four hours. Keep an eye on her. Any signs of listlessness, loss of appetite or extreme fatigue, call me.”
“Of course.” Kell nodded, seeing Poe out the door.”Thank you, Poe. You saved my life.”
The two men glanced at each other, the unspoken words between them filling volumes. Kell would never been able to repay Poe for his help. He watched his doctor friend climb into his BMW and back out the driveway, waving to him as he went.
Chapter Five
Audra woke up feeling like a new woman. “How long did I sleep?”
“A long time.”
God, Kell Asher’s face was a sight for sore eyes.
She did a quick survey of her unfamiliar surroundings. Then she realized where she was. Kell’s bedroom. From her position in the large four-poster bed and the neatness of the linens, she deduced Kell hadn’t slept beside her.
“Have you slept at all?”
“There will be plenty of time for sleep.” He crossed the room from a nearby chair and sat down beside her. “How do you feel?”
She took a moment to answer, quietly assessing herself. “I feel great.”
“Great?”
Smiling, she nodded. “Yeah. What did you do to me?”
“You don’t remember?”
“I remember being sick. I remember you. And a short, dark-haired doctor.” She recalled it as she spoke.
“Doctor Poe.”
“I needed a do
ctor?”
Kell caressed her cheek tenderly. “Yes. You were very ill, Audra.”
“And you were afraid for me.” She stated it like a fact, as if part of her already knew it.
“Am I that transparent?”
“Yes, and I love it.” She was suddenly overcome with emotion. “I love you.”
Kell took her face in his hands, cherishing the privilege to gaze into her eyes and hear her voice once again. He meshed his lips with hers in a soft, moist kiss. “Audra. I love you.”
Just like that, she was alight with desire. “ Show me?”
“Are you sure? Are you ready?”
Audra nodded. She watched him climb onto the bed like a big cat, locking gazes with her, caging her in with his body.
“Lie back.”
She was more than eager to oblige, her body humming with anticipation of their sex.
“I want you, Audra.”
“I want you, Kell.”
He brushed the bridge of her nose with his. “Show me.”
Heat painted her skin in a low-grade fever as she parted her thighs.
“Wider.”
Now she was open to him, like a book waiting to be read.
In an upward undulation, he brushed his arousal against her, conjuring a gasp from her throat. Slipping his mouth along her neck, he hovered over her ear. “I can feel your heat, Audra. You are ready for me.”
“Yes.” She sighed, holding nothing back. Glancing down at the bulging erection in his lap, she glimpsed the head of his cock peeking over the waistband of his pants. It was the sexiest thing she’d ever seen.
Suddenly struck with the need to have him in her hands, she dipped her fingers into his pants and took hold of him. He was hot and heavy, substantial in her grip. The small slit in the top wept with pre-cum. She looked up and saw that he watched her rubbing her pussy with the head of his cock.
“I hope you’re rested, Audra,” he growled in a low whisper.
Audra smiled a little, sensing where Kell was going with his train of thought. “Why?”
“Because it’s going to be a long night.”
Her heart raced. She needed to get her panties off.
Now.
“Leave them on.”
Audra looked up and made eye contact with him once again.
He stretched the damp cotton crotch to the side and nudged her exposed pussy lips. “There’s what I want. Right there.”
If she’d been standing, she would have swooned. Still, she felt dizzy, so powerful was the sensation rushing through her.
Without further hesitation, he probed her entrance, slipping in the first few inches. She gripped the pillows in reach, waiting for him to sink into her all the way. “More?”
“Yeah. More.”
He pressed harder against her, diving deeper, filling her almost to the hilt. Bracing himself above her with his long, lean, muscular arms, he withdrew and returned to her over and over in slow, sensual strokes. She lifted her hips to greet his, begging.
“All of me?”
“All of you,” Audra cried, desperate for him to fill her.
He ripped the cotton undies from her hips and threw them over his shoulder. The next thrust sent shockwaves through her. Fingernails digging into his back, she received his passionate fury. Balls-deep, he sheathed himself over and over, deeper and harder. Her first orgasm blindsided her, sending her outside of herself. Kell didn’t stop. With expert control, he slowed their rhythm and let her experience the glorious rush of her climax. When she calmed he began again, thrusting back and forth in slow, methodical thrusts. Gradually, their exquisite tempo increased in fervor and intensity. Fuck, she was going to come again. With a sharp cry, she was paralyzed by the power of her next orgasm.
“Now the fun begins.” Kell chuckled wickedly.
With a quick surge of momentum, he rocked her into his lap and directed them backward. Now she was on top. He gripped her affectionately by the ass, pulling her flush against him. Rolling her pelvis against his, she bucked into him, enthralled by his ability to scratch the itch no man had ever been able to reach.
Then he rolled them over and he was back on top.
“No fair.”
“You’ll get your turn. Just not tonight.”
Audra giggled, letting him kiss her. She felt his touch all the way down her body, to the tips of her toes, as another wave of euphoria radiated through her. He snaked kisses down her neck, nipping the exposed flesh there. Taking hold of her breast, he licked her nipple, drawing on it with spine-tingling suction.
He put her on her side. Hiking her leg up, he returned to her like a bat to a cave. She loved the deeper angle and held her pussy lips apart in an effort to take in more of him. The slap of their skin as it met in collision heightened her arousal tenfold.
“God, I love fucking you, Audra,” Kell whispered, his breath coming faster and shorter to match his thrusts.
“I love fucking you, Kell.”
“That’s good. Because I’m never going to stop,” he said with a growl, taking her by the thighs and pinning them to his chest. Quicker now, his hips churned against her, building his climax. She screamed out, her entire body in flux. Eyes shut, she prepared herself for Kell’s release.
A throaty growl escaped Kell’s lips, and he froze above her, his face a beautiful mix of bliss and anguish. He was coming.
“Yeah.”She gripped him by the ass, pulling him against her. The warm, wet feel of his cum bathed her inner thighs as he came to rest above her. Gently, she pushed a lock of his glorious white-blond hair behind his ear and smoothed his furrowed brow. With a deep sigh of satisfaction, he moved to her side, leaving his arm around her as he went.
“Sleep. Food. And more of you,” he purred, his voice deep and soothingly soft.
“Mmm.” She smiled, running her fingers up and down his back, lulled to sleep by the reassuring warmth of his embrace.
***
They’d just made love again.
“I hardly know anything about you.”Audra mirrored Kell’s posture, propped up halfway on one elbow, cradling her head in her hand.
“Nonsense.”At the moment, Kell wasn’t making eye contact, too busy running his fingers up and down her bare thigh.
When the sensation became too much, she grabbed his hand for fear of busting out in a scream of giggles. “You know what I mean.”
“You know more about me than most people know about each other after one hundred years together.”
He had a point there. “True.”
Kell took her chin and lifted her gaze to his. Deep in thought, she wasn’t aware she’d lowered it. “What do you want to know?”
Audra smiled, appreciating his indulgence in her curiosity. “Where were you born?”
“The Americas.”
Her shoulders shook with laughter. “I think it’s just called America nowadays.”
It made her happy that he laughed too. “You asked.”
“Were you born—” She paused, choosing her words carefully. “A vampire?”
Kell laughed, a contagious sound that made her join him.
“I’m sorry. I guess it’s going to take a while for me to get used to the idea of being—like you.”
He secured a lock of hair behind her ear tenderly. “Just as long as you don’t see it as giving up anything.”
“Not even my humanity?”
“Especially that.” Audra loved that Kell took extra pains to put her fears to rest.
And just like that, he picked up the conversation right where they’d taken a detour.
“Back to your question. Yes. Both my mother and father were like me. I never knew my father.”
Boy, she could relate. “I’m sorry. My father abandoned my mother and me for a rich woman.”
“Now it’s my turn to be sorry.” Kell took her hand and kissed her knuckles, peering over them like a mischievous incubus. “But only a little.”
Her eyebrows crashed in the middle of her forehead.
“Why only a little?”
“Because I am a rich man.”
She hadn’t considered that. “But you live so—”
“Modestly.”
“Yeah.”
He scooted toward her a little and brought her against the smooth planes of his well-developed chest. She shivered at the sound of his voice in her ear. “To better hide amongst you.”
“Are you hiding now?”
Kell pulled away just enough to look into her eyes. “Never from you.”
Satisfied, she put her ear to his heart. “How old are you?”
“Two hundred and twenty-seven.”
She pinched his nipple between her fingers. “Just blurt it out why don’t you?”
As he sucked his breath in, she felt his erection against her stomach. He swatted her ass in retaliation, then soothed it with the palm of his hand. “I want no secrets between us. Ask and you will know anything you wish.”
The insatiable ache returned. God, how did he do that? “Why are you so good in bed?”
Kell smiled, devilish and almost impossibly sexy. “Practice.”
“Well, if I’m going to practice some more, I need something to eat.” She slipped off the bed, taking the flat sheet with her, leaving him comically exposed. “I’m craving fruit for some reason.”
“That’s because you’re like me, Audra.”
She stopped and looked at him, gathering the sheet around her. “I’m a vampire fruit bat?”
He got up and went to her, his cock springing against his thigh as he approached. “We. We’re vampire fruit bats. There are only two exceptions for drawing blood. Sex and combat. Any other time, we feed on fruit.”
Audra cocked an eyebrow in revelation. “That’s why you bought the house next door. Because of my fruit orchard.”
“Blame the beautiful, single lady next door.” He turned her in his arms, the mirror hanging over the dresser casting no reflection. She gasped at her barely-there image. Kell brought her around to face him, her image reflected reflecting back at her in his eyes. “See yourself as I see you.”
Her eyes welled up with tears. What good deed had she done to deserve Kell Asher? She giggled.
“What’s so funny?” He chuckled because she did.
Crimson, Volume 1 Page 14
