His hand pushed against my thighs and I parted my legs, allowing him to move between them. He lowered his body along mine, tracing his tongue along my abdomen, a hipbone, and then straight across my clit.
He licked me there and I flinched! No man—not even my ex—had ever tasted my sex. It was unlike any sensation I’d ever experienced. Gentle. Soft. Cool against my hot center. It was heavenly.
I watched, fascinated as he took another lick. A twinkle in his eye told me I was in for much more than a few little tastes. He slid off the foot of the bed, grabbed my feet, and tugged me to the edge. I tensed when he sank to his knees on the floor. I couldn’t see him or what he did unless I craned my neck. But, I could feel his cool breath as it blew across my wet sex. I trembled, anticipating the touch of his mouth on me there again. I wanted it. I wanted everything he would give.
He slid his arms beneath my thighs and wrapped his hands around, locking me in place. I tested his hold, but budging my hips wasn’t going to be an option.
“Do you want this, Bailey?”
His voice cut through my panting breaths.
“Yes.” I did, though I know I sounded a little tentative. I wanted to feel joy in a man’s arms, not terror. I trusted him. That little voice inside my head told me it was okay to let go. It was okay to find happiness. It didn’t matter if he was a vampire. I was better off with him than the humans who viewed me as ruined leftovers. “I want you.” The words came out more like a plea than an answer. I not only wanted him, I needed him.
His tongue swirled around my throbbing clit, then he closed his lips, pulling it into his mouth. I gasped and my back bowed, the sensation nearly sending me straight to the stratosphere again. Taking a deep breath, I tried to concentrate on him, on his mouth, and the divine things he was doing. I couldn’t believe my body could regroup that fast and be so close to the edge of coming again.
When he released my clit from his mouth I sighed in relief. It was short lived. His voice rumbled above the roar of my blood rushing through my head. “Come again, kjaere. Now.” He captured my clit once more and the pressure exploded inside me like fireworks.
“Erick!” His name tore from my throat in an ear-splitting scream. I sat up, grabbing his head, entwining my fingers into his shoulder-length hair, trying to move his mouth from where it was latched to my body, but it was useless. He wasn’t letting up until he’d pulled every last bit of the orgasm from me. I hung on for dear life as contractions continued to spiral from my center out to the tips of my hands and feet.
When he finally released me, I fell backward onto the comforter once more. My body jerked a few times and shivers were still running up and down my spine. My skin had been hot before, but now I felt as if I were truly on fire.
The contrast of his cool skin only excited me further. My body worked overtime to warm his. I wanted more contact, not less. I wanted his body next to mine. Skin on skin. I wanted to give back as much as he’d given to me.
Sex had never been pleasant with Kevin, not even at first. What Erick had just shown me awakened a need I’d forgotten was there—deep inside, just waiting.
Erick lifted me as if I weighed an ounce and gently tossed me back to the center of the bed.
“I like where your head is now, Bailey. Tell me what you are thinking.”
He crawled forward, gliding up my body like the lethal predator I knew he was, but it didn’t scare me. I loved that he could be so tender and compassionate, yet at the same time, so firm and demanding. He pushed when I needed it and held back when I couldn’t handle it. Maybe being with a man who could read my pheromones wasn’t such a bad thing after all.
I smiled up at him. “How much I want to feel you inside me.” I parted my legs, offering him a clear view of my closely shaved pussy I hoped he couldn’t turn down. Not that he hadn’t just seen it. He’d practically been worshiping it a few moments ago. But, I wanted more than his mouth on me now. “Do you have a condom?”
“I can’t get you pregnant and I don’t carry diseases. I have condoms, but I would much rather feel your heat directly.” His icy blue eyes darkened and I knew he wanted the same. As he drew closer I could see a thin rim of red around his irises, but his fangs hadn’t descended. He wanted to bite, but held back.
“Me too.” I nodded and reached for him, tracing the line of his angular jaw. Just a hint of rough stubble scratched at my fingertips.
“Good.” The word was more of a growl. He dipped his head, nuzzled my neck, and then nipped at my ear.
He raised his torso up, abandoning my neck. Then nudged my legs apart with his knees and pulled my hips up until his erection just pressed against the opening of my vagina.
Leaning down for another kiss, he pushed with one fluid movement, splitting me apart with his hard cock. I trembled, waiting for him to make another move, but he just stared down at me and waited, realizing my body needed time to adjust to him. It’d been so long.
My discomfort faded quickly and I moved first, wrapping my legs around his waist and pulling him deeper. It was all the encouragement he needed. He started with slow, steady thrusts, pulling in and out until I took his full length.
“So tight, so perfect,” he rumbled. His hands drifted from my legs to my breasts. He kneaded them, switching between rolling my nipples between his fingers and pinching them until I wanted to gasp.
The now familiar twinge of a building orgasm fluttered through my belly. I couldn’t possibly be able to come again. Just at that moment he grinned and moved one of his hands along my hip and between our rocking bodies.
My breath turned to pants. He knew. The damn vampire knew. He’d probably planned to get another one out of me anyway before we finished.
His fingers grazed my swollen and throbbing clit. My heart skipped a beat and I moaned. I squeezed my legs, digging my heels into his back, pressing us closer and pushing his hand away from my super-sensitive clit. His cock swelled more, filling and stretching me.
“Up,” he groaned. He pulled me toward him and pressed us together, chest to chest. I rode his cock as he lifted me from my hips and then pulled me back down on him.
The friction was too much. Another orgasm came barreling up from my center, exploding inside me with a force I couldn’t control. My fingers dug into his back and I threw my head back and screamed his name again as he drove into me even deeper. I clung to him, taking everything and finding that euphoric place where my body and my mind floated apart. In that moment his mouth closed over part of my neck. The sting of his bite sent another wave of pleasure rolling through my body. He came hard, growling against my skin as he both filled and drank from me.
Minutes passed before he slowly released my neck, swiping his tongue across the wound several times. I knew there would be no visible mark. Whatever he did, it healed me completely, leaving no trace of his bite behind. Something I truly appreciated. The last thing I wanted was another scar.
He yanked back the covers, pulled me off his lap, and laid me ever so gently on the sheets. The bed dipped and moved as he crawled to the edge and got off.
“Don’t leave.”
“I’ll be right back,” he murmured, disappearing into the bathroom. Sure enough, he reappeared with a washcloth a few moments later and attended to me, cleaning traces of our lovemaking from my legs and sex. “Better?” His blue eyes were back to their brilliant shade of tropical blue ocean water.
He might be able to read my pheromones like a book, but his eyes were the windows to his soul. They darkened when he was aroused. A ring of red appeared when he needed to feed. They sparkled when he was amused. Mostly they stared at me, wrapping me in the unseen blanket of comfort and … love. How could he love me? We’d only just met.
A moment later he disappeared into the bathroom again. I heard water running for a few seconds then he was back, crawling into the bed with me and cuddling up behind. I shivered, still coming down from my high. Just contact with him sent sparks through my body, warming parts of me that should�
�ve been totally spent.
“Lustful little thing, aren’t we, kjaere?” He chuckled, tugging a sheet over our naked bodies and then wrapped his arm around my waist.
Heat flooded my cheeks. Damn pheromones. “I don’t know what you do to me,” I admitted.
“You’re mine. This is your home, Bailey. At my side. In my bed. All you have to say is yes.”
His. Though it sounded like he was saying he owned me, my heart understood that’s not what it meant, now. It wasn’t something he’d forced on me. It reminded me of how he’d called sex a gift from me to him.
But, it wasn’t sex that was the true gift. It was me, giving myself to him. And I had. I was his, body and soul. I’d wandered the country for nearly four years, searching … running … wishing for something I didn’t believe even existed.
“Yes.” Hell yes!
CHAPTER EIGHT
I opened my eyes. The bright, afternoon sun was setting and swaths of oranges and reds were painted across the Texas sky. My gaze flitted from the window to the rest of his bedroom searching for a clock, but I didn’t see one. I had to have slept for several hours. It’d only been midday when we made love.
I turned onto my stomach and drank in the faint peppermint scent on the pillow where he’d been sleeping beside me. “Erick?”
He was at the bedside in a second, startling me. I still wasn’t used to how quickly he could move.
“Do you feel okay?” he asked.
I stretched and let out a soft moan. “Pleasantly sore.” I grinned and sat up, letting the sheet fall away from my breasts.
His eyes darkened, but just for a moment. If I hadn’t been watching him, I wouldn’t have noticed. It felt good to know that just a glance aroused him, especially after everything we’d done. After he’d seen … all of me.
“You are beautiful, Bailey. As I have already said, your scars are nothing more than badges of honor. I find them as beautiful as the rest of you.”
“I believe you.”
“Look up at me,” he said.
I did as he said, pulling my gaze from the jagged white line running across my left breast.
He was perfection defined. His sexy, golden mop of hair was sufficiently mussed, so that anyone who saw him would likely know what we’d done for several hours this afternoon. His chest and shoulders were muscular and defined, but not bulky. A tapered waist teased my eyes and a light trail of blond hair drew my eyes downward, focusing on his groin, hidden once again beneath a pair of perfectly fitting jeans. I traced my lips with my tongue, hungrily wondering when I would get to see him naked again.
“Bailey.” He chuckled.
I glanced up, seeing amusement in his smile. He had the most adorable dimples. My heart did a flip-flop. How had I ended up in this man’s bed? In his universe at all?
Stripping him naked and coaxing him back into bed crossed my mind, but my thoughts were interrupted by a loud rumble from my stomach that ruined the moment.
“You must be starving. Gods, I fed from you, too. You need to eat—now.”
His exasperation tickled me. A thousand-year-old vampire worrying that I needed to eat something.
He moved swiftly across the room and picked up several things from the large chaise near the window. They were my clothes from earlier—jeans, t-shirt, bra, and panties. Everything looked perfect. Not a wrinkle to be seen … as if they hadn’t been worn at all. Major score for enchanted clothes!
I slipped from beneath the covers, wriggling my toes in the plush carpet. He walked back to my side and handed me one piece of clothing at a time, watching me put it on. If he’d been a dog, his tongue would have been dragging the floor as he panted. A grin spread across my face at the thought. I took the last garment, a t-shirt, and pulled it over my head.
“If my hair looks anything like yours, I need a brush,” I said.
He feigned a look of offense and then smiled, running his fingers through his wayward hair. “You don’t like my sexy, bed hair?”
“I would rather others not see it.” I coughed out a laugh and scurried into the bathroom. Picking through the pile of toiletries he’d brought me, I found a brush and some leave-in conditioner. Hallelujah! I would have to thank Calliope later. I spritzed some on and worked the brush through my tangles. He’d followed me into the bathroom, waiting in the doorway until I finished. He took the brush and ran it through his hair a couple of times until it was back in place and sexy as hell.
“Better?” He questioned me with a teasing grin.
I nodded. “Yes.”
“Let’s head over to Rose’s and get you some food.”
“Is that where everyone eats … every meal?” I followed him through the bedroom, slipping into my shoes on the way.
“No.” He glanced over his shoulder. “But, I don’t have food in the house, so until I take you to the market, you will.”
“Oh.” Facepalm. Of course he didn’t have food in the house. He did, however, have beer. His friends had been drinking it. “You drink alcohol, though?”
He unlocked the front door and gestured for me to exit first. “I enjoy alcohol. It takes the edge off my hunger and helps me relax a little. I can eat food, but it is unnecessary.”
Interesting.
I walked down his front steps and waited for him on the sidewalk as he locked his front door. I looked up and down the street that was lined with brownstone-style apartments on each side. They looked so out of place in this tiny western town, like a whale would look in the middle of the desert.
“Who else lives here?” I waved down the street.
“Vampires live on this street,” he answered, and slipped an arm around my waist. “Rose brought together many different types of supernatural beings, but most of us still prefer to live close to our own kind.”
“Pack mentality?”
“You could call it that, but the wolves are the only ones who consider themselves a pack.”
“How many vampires live here?” I glanced up and down the street, trying to count entryways.
“Four.” We turned the corner and were quickly back on the main circle. “All of us were picked by the House of Lamidae to be Protectors.”
“So where does everyone else live?” For some reason, I thought there would be more. But maybe vampires weren’t that social. I certainly wasn’t an expert.
“There are groups of flats like this in other areas of town and there are also several small neighborhoods. Some of the citizens don’t mind being neighbors, but there are some who just prefer their own space.”
We turned the corner from his street and walked along behind the apartments until we came out on the main circle again, just down from Rose’s Café. The smell of barbecue hung in the air and my mouth watered.
Directly across the circle, the Castle bustled with people moving in and out of the front gates by the dozens. Most were dressed in scraps of leather or skintight costumes. There were a couple of women I would have technically called naked, except for a few strategically placed straps. One of the men standing at the gate waved.
Erick raised his hand in acknowledgement and hurried me toward the door of the café. He pulled the door open and I stepped into a crowd of laughing, happy people. A pink-haired woman grabbed my hand a second later and pulled me away from Erick.
I stiffened and pulled back, but a backward glance at him assured me that I was perfectly safe with the unfamiliar woman.
“Rose wants to talk to you for a moment before you sit down for dinner.” She tugged again and I followed compliantly this time.
“I-is something wrong?” We went behind the café counter and through the swinging door into the kitchen.
“Nope.”
That was all I got? Just nope?
The kitchen was much larger than I thought it would be. Huge, stainless steel prep counters ran the length of the room’s center. Glistening stovetops, ovens, a brick pizza oven, refrigerators, and evenly spaced sinks decorated the outside walls. It was something
I would have expected to see in a swanky, five-star restaurant, but not in a West Texas café. This town was full of surprises.
Several women were kneading dough on one end of the long prep counter and several others were tending to large pots on the various stovetops. A large, silver door at the end of the room opened and Rose walked out. A white apron was tied around her waist and traces of flour clung to her cheeks. Nothing about her said, ‘I run this town.’ At the same time, I could feel the respect everyone else in the room had for her. Subtle nods as she walked by. The way they made eye contact. It wasn’t fear … more like adoration.
“Bailey.” Rose’s voice carried across the clatter of the kitchen as if it’d been a library. She made her way to my side.
“Your kitchen is amazing.”
“Thank you, darling. I can’t imagine trying to feed this town with anything else. But, truly, I couldn’t do it without the brownies and the pixies. They are the true heart of this place.”
A brownie? Nobody in the kitchen looked like they were made out of my favorite chocolate dessert. I must’ve made a face because she laughed right at me.
“The pixies are easy to spot. They all like to have bright colors in their hair. Raven and Maven help run the café and their friends cooking the pizzas also run our market,” she pointed to the rainbow-haired group by the large pizza oven.
“I’ll see you later, hon,” the pink-haired pixie who’d stolen me from Erick’s side grinned and trotted across the room.
I nodded. I didn’t even know her name.
“The ladies cooking on the stoves and kneading the dough for tomorrow are some of the brownies in town. Corinne, do you mind?”
One particularly tall brunette looked up from her work and smiled. Her skin shimmered and glistened, darkening from a natural human ivory color to luminescent sparkling bronze. Her hair turned black and her eyes changed from brown to a bright green. Then the transformation faded as quickly as it had appeared.
I swallowed and turned to meet Rose’s gaze. “Why are you showing me all of this?”
My Viking Vampire Page 10
