Captured: A Reverse Harem Paranormal Academy Bully Romance (Royals of Sanguine Vampire Academy Book 1)

by Sofia Daniel

  “No.” He pressed a soft kiss on my lips, all traces of levity gone. “But at some point, they will make their move. Are you ready for the three of us?”

  Adrenaline rushed through my veins, making my skin tingle. “I-it’s too soon. I can’t think about—”

  His lips moved against mine in the sweetest of slow caresses, as though he wanted this moment to last forever. All the tension in my shoulders, the tight band of grief around my chest, and the fist clenching my heart melted with the warmth of his love. I parted my lips and sighed.

  Raphael’s presence, his touch, his scent, engulfed me so wholly, the shock of earlier events receded to the darkest corner of my mind. I could have stayed here forever, locked in his embrace and losing myself in his kisses, but he drew back and gazed into my eyes with so much love, I wanted to cry. I’d been so cruel and dismissive to him throughout the term. Why was he so compassionate?

  My hands slid under Raphael’s tuxedo jacket and slipped the garment off his broad shoulders, letting it fall behind him on the chaise. As I pressed kisses on his neck, he made quick work of his buttons, letting me run my hands over his pale flesh.

  The dim lights brought out the dips and contours of his prominent pectoral muscles, tight abs, and hip bones that jutted and curved into the waistband of his pants. Smatterings of copper hair trailed down from his belly button, making me salivate. I ran my fingers over the beautiful, hard pectoral muscle adorned with the Stryx owl that also looked like a bat hanging upside-down. A groan reverberated in his chest, and my gaze lifted and met pupils so dilated, they appeared like pools of black.

  He threaded his fingers through my loose tendrils of hair in the gentlest of caresses. “Being with you like this makes me feel like I have a soul.”

  The warmth of his smile reached across my chest like a hug. “Looking into your eyes makes me feel like I have a heart.”

  “You always did,” he murmured against my lips. “But the three of us will pull together the shattered pieces and fill it with love… I promise.”

  Right now, I couldn’t picture Dante or Nero filling me with anything but their fangs, but I pushed thoughts of them aside and focused on Raphael’s soft, pale lips. Our tongues twined and caressed, each movement sending ripples of pleasure across my senses. He tasted of cinnamon and strawberries and smooth red wine.

  While we kissed, he unhooked the back of my dress with skill and ease, caressing my skin with his fingertips each time he exposed another inch of my flesh. When he reached the very last fastening, he stood and helped me to my feet.

  The silk gown slid to the floor, leaving me clad just in a pair of silk panties.

  His gaze roved up and down my body, and an appreciative growl reverberated in his throat. “By the gods, you’re beautiful.”

  A flush heated my cheeks. Even with what Raphael said about my radiant soul, it was hard to believe someone with such ethereal, masculine beauty could appreciate anything about me. Perhaps it was because he couldn’t see his reflection and didn’t understand the extent of his attractiveness.

  Raphael lowered himself to his knees and clutched at my hips. “I want to worship at your altar. Do it right, this time.”

  A thrill of excitement rippled through my core. That last time had been the most erotic experience of my life. Gulping, I whispered, “I’m… I have my period.”

  His face broke out into the kind of wicked grin that reminded me so much of his brothers. Before I could squeal, he lowered me onto the chaise and settled my back against its butter-soft, leather surface. Then he straddled me and trailed hot, wet kisses down my neck, each one making me shiver with a giddy pleasure that made me giggle. He sucked on my collarbone, and my breath came in rapid pants, skin tingling at what he would do next.

  One hand circled my right breast, while he encased the left nipple in his mouth and flicked his tongue over its peak. A whimper reverberated in my throat, and I pressed my thighs together.

  “Relax,” he murmured through gentle kisses. “It’s just you and me this time. Let yourself go.”

  With a deep, shuddering breath, I forced the tension out of my muscles and focussed on this moment. On Raphael’s lips and on the sensations rippling across my skin with each stroke of his tongue. I held onto his strong shoulders and dug the pads of my fingers into his muscle, silently urging him to give me more.

  Raphael kissed and licked a path of pleasure down to my belly button, which I didn’t even know could be so sensitive, and ran his tongue down the swell of my belly. Memories of how he had lapped at me after my spanking resurfaced, and heat surged between my legs, and my folds became slick.

  He paused at the lace waistband of my panties and hooked his fingers under the fabric.

  I raised my hips off the chaise. “Pl-please.”

  “Are you sure?” He slid off the scrap of silk and tossed it onto the marble floor.

  I raised my head off the chaise and met green eyes that shone with a combination of lust and concern and naked adoration. My heart filled with warmth. “Please… I want it.”

  Raphael lowered his head between my thighs and pressed a kiss onto my slit. A spasm of pleasure sent a jolt through my body. My nipples puckered, my abdominals clenched, and the muscles of my core spasmed.

  With a chuckle, he ran his hands down the outsides of my thighs, a silent command for me to relax. His tongue ran up the entire length of me, from core to clit, and he swirled it around my throbbing nub, creating sparks of pleasure that made my body convulse.

  Every so often, he paused to lap the slickness from my opening, and his unhurried, leisurely strokes sent sweet sensations rippling up my inner thighs and through my core. It gathered and gathered, each stroke of his tongue intensifying my pleasure. Threading my fingers into his silken, coppery hair, I bit down hard on my lip to stifle a moan.

  “Alicia,” he groaned against my clit.

  The vibrations of his voice were the spark that set off an explosion of ecstasy. My thighs clamped around his head, and spasms of sensation rocked my body. I squeezed my eyes shut against the onslaught of pleasure, and a cry tore from my lips. This was insane… but I wanted more.

  “Alicia.” Warm breaths brushed against my hungry core. He squeezed my thighs with his fingers, a reminder that I still had him imprisoned.

  Releasing my leg muscles, I pulled him up, so we lay together, chest-to-chest. “Th-thanks. I needed that.”

  His hard length poked into my belly, and I reached down and wrapped my fingers around his erection. “I want you inside me.”

  He shook his head. “You purged your anti-conceptional. What if you get—”

  I pressed a finger against his lips. “Human women aren’t fertile at this time of the month.”

  With a growl, he lined the tip of his erection against my entrance. Sliding my hand around his back, I clenched his hard ass cheeks, and tilted my hips.

  He pushed through my opening with an intense stretch that made me cry out with joy. “Alicia?”

  “Keep going.” I jerked my hips and slipped him further inside. My core clenched around him, causing a moan to reverberate in his chest. The sensations made my nipples tighten, and I whispered, “More.”

  Raphael pushed his way in with a deliberate slowness that felt like a mix of ecstasy and sweet torture. Sucking on my jugular vein, he murmured into my neck, “You’re so beautiful, so tight, so perfect.” When he encased himself to the hilt, he paused to stare in my eyes. “I wanted to do this from the moment I saw you in the entrance hall.”

  “R-really?” I ran my fingers down his smooth cheek. “I thought you just wanted my blood.”

  His lips parted into a wolfish grin. “That, too.”

  The muscles of my core relaxed around him, and I wrapped my legs around the backs of his muscular thighs. “I’m ready for more.”

  Raphael rocked back and forth in a rhythm of thrusting and stretching and filling that sent pleasure spasming over the muscles enclosing that gorgeous, thick length. I bit do
wn hard on my lip and moaned. In all that time I had resisted Raphael, if I had known things would be so good between us, I would have succumbed to his flirtation from the first day.

  I gasped out. “You’re so…” My mind blanked. “More.”

  He kept me suspended in a blissful, shuddering state, and I was helpless to do anything but rock against his pumping hips, hold onto his muscular back, and clench my hands over his tight ass. Pleasure swirled around my core, rising with each thrust until I thought I would burst. I bucked against him, increasing the sweet friction until my muscles spasmed in wave after relentless wave of ecstasy. It was so intense, I sank my teeth into his shoulder.

  Raphael threw his head back and roared. His hips jerked and his entire body shuddered before he collapsed on top of me, resting his weight on his forearms. “Fuck.”

  A contented sigh slid from my lips, and my eyelids fluttered closed. If sweet Raphael was like this, what would his brothers be like in bed?

  Chapter 20

  Raphael carried me out of the lounge into a bedroom with magnolia ceilings and umber-colored walls. A king-sized bed with an ornately carved oak headboard lay against one wall amid matching furniture. He padded across a navy-blue rug with magnolia accents that matched the comforter and set me on a bed that felt like clouds.

  “Is this your room?” I asked.

  “The three of us have a suite here. The space we just left is our lounge, and this room is mine.” He settled beside me, still naked and looking like something Michelangelo carved out of marble.

  I lowered my head onto on Raphael’s chest, trying not to compare his room with the dorm I had shared with three other frumosi girls. His slow, steady beat reverberated against my ear, making me wonder if vampires lived so long because their hearts didn’t need to work as hard as ours. My body clock still hadn’t fully adjusted to sleeping during the day and being awake through the night, especially when the days had gotten shorter since the clocks went back.

  “How are you feeling?” he murmured.

  “Sated.”

  He chuckled and pressed a kiss on the top of my head. We lay in each other’s arms, basking in the comfortable silence. So much had happened in the past few weeks. But with Raphael’s help, they’d all been brushed to the periphery of my mind. Maybe connecting with him had made the difference, but I didn’t feel the gulf that usually separated us. Now that I knew we could have sex without him losing control, I was more than open to future encounters.

  Hours later, the sound of a door opening and closing outside broke me out of my slumber. Raphael bolted upright and flared his nostrils.

  I rolled into the fluffy comforter and pulled myself up onto my elbows. “What’s wrong?”

  “The sun will set in an hour.”

  “So?”

  “You need to leave before everyone wakes.”

  “Why?”

  “Your scent is everywhere. I need time to get rid of it.” He jumped off the bed, rushed into the lounge, returned with my dress and panties, and threw them at the foot of the bed. “Put them on.”

  Cracks formed over the thin veneer of happiness around my heart, and the sadness I had held at bay threatened to seep out. What happened to all that talk of his brothers wanting to be with me? And those words that I was a rose whose beauty was to be cherished? It had all been sweet talk in the heat of the moment.

  I could have stood there and demanded answers, but what was the point? He’d had what he wanted—more of that so-called nectar between my legs with a side-order of blood. The effects showed in a thickness of his muscles that hadn’t been there when I had undressed him. I’d been played by a manipulative, blood-sucking vampire, and I had no one to blame but myself.

  “Did last night mean anything to you?”

  He didn’t turn around, but instead pulled out a bundle of sage and held it into the flame of a candle. “Of course, it did. But it was a mistake.”

  My stomach dropped. “Why?”

  “Alicia,” he cast the briefest of glances over my shoulder. “You need to leave this place. Now.”

  “Can’t you—”

  He whirled around, picked up my dress, and with the most inhuman speed, fastened it around my back, shoved me through the lounge, and out of the door. “Go back to your dorm and wash off that scent.”

  The words were a kick in the gut, and my mouth dropped open. All the taunts I’d heard from other vampires rang in my ears. I was a slut, a blood-whore, and now a vampire-fucker. Raphael shut the door with a click, but before I could pound on it and demand answers, he opened it again and shoved my shoes and panties into my arms.

  “Go.” He let the door slam shut, leaving me alone in the hallway probably smelling of blood.

  The tiniest traces of vermillion light streamed through the shutters, and a chill crept over my skin. I had to leave before the other vampires awoke. Before they decided that a half-dressed girl menstruating in a vampire-only hallway was fair game. I shoved on my panties and bolted down the hallway, clutching my shoes to my chest.

  A door yawned open at one end of the hallway. Panic exploded across my chest. A vampire catching my scent would close the distance between us in seconds, and I’d end up just like Zarah, trapped and drained and used.

  Footsteps echoed behind me, their sound picking up volume. A jolt of fear had me glancing over my shoulder to find a six-and-a-half-foot-tall man striding toward me. I was about to scream when my gaze caught the black uniform of a knocker.

  I didn’t give myself time for a breath of relief, but picked up my speed and rushed through the hallways. Lord Lilin and other powerful vampires might still be at the castle, listening out for sounds of easy prey.

  By the time I reached Frumosi Tower and bolted up the spiral staircase, my door was locked. I raced upstairs to the cupboard, where I kept my sunstone and grabbed it from the windowsill. I hadn’t used it since hurting Raphael, and it was probably still charged with the sun’s power. Kneeling on the ground, I held the flat disc between both palms like a prayer, begging whoever might be listening to let me stay hidden until the knockers unbolted the doors.

  Shuffling footsteps reverberated in my ears, adding to the cacophony of my pounding pulse and sniffling breaths. How could I have been so weak as to beg a vampire for sex? Raphael had wanted to leave me alone to mourn, but I grabbed his arm and asked him to stay. With all the efforts I had gone to make myself appealing to Lord Lilin, was it any wonder that he had fucked me against his better judgment?

  The lump in my throat swelled so much, I had to force gasps of air in and out of my windpipe. I’d been weak. Naive. Lost my resolve. I had sullied the memory of my family by sleeping with a monster the moment I’d discovered their deaths.

  I curled my fingers, grasping that sunstone like it was the only thing between myself and certain death.

  The sounds of bolts sliding in their mechanisms broke me out of my reverie. When I was sure the knockers had unlocked all the doors, I opened the door and sprinted through the hallway.

  Zarah lay in her bed with one of the regulation ballgowns slung over the foot of her bed. “Back, are you?”

  “Yes.”

  “I heard about what happened to your family.”

  I paused at the door, waiting for her to elaborate, but she remained silent. I walked across the room, and just before I reached the bathroom, she said, “Now do you understand why you have to stop resisting the vampires?”

  “Because I have nowhere else to go?” My brows furrowed.

  She didn’t answer, so I rushed into our shared bathroom, rifled through the cupboard of supplies, and found a tampon. Now that Micalla’s blood oath had been rendered null and void due to her knowing my family was already dead, I feared for Zarah’s fate. But more importantly, I feared for mine.

  I rested my head against the wall and exhaled a long, shuddering sigh. The mystery of Raphael’s bizarre behavior gnawed on the edges of my mind like a persistent rodent and ate at the crumbling veneer holding back
the despair in my heart.

  By the time I had left the shower, Zarah was gone. Probably not speaking to me because Micalla and Juno had approached her after my meltdown. My shoulders slumped, and I dressed, then made my way to breakfast.

  The Stryx Brothers were missing from their tables, as were the Coven of Bitches. I glanced up at the head table to find most of the staff in their seats except for Captain Tanar. Hopefully, he was busy with matters related to the ball and not to the murder of Pigtails. Now more than ever, I was determined to use that tie-pin and the baggie of ashes. I would blackmail my way out of Sanguine Academy and into a new life.

  Kat strode past my table, did a double-take, and paused. “Where have you been? I thought you’d at least show up for the ball.”

  “Did you have a good time?” I asked.

  “Wonderful,” she drawled. “I met the most wonderful man!”

  “Vampire.”

  Her smile faltered for a millisecond, and she said, “He’s an estate planning attorney in New York City and wants to move me into his penthouse as soon as I’ve finished my education.”

  The former me would have asked why he was willing to wait, considering the academy didn’t teach us anything worthwhile for the real world. The former me would have asked if she’d given him any blood or sex in exchange for a verbal promise that didn’t mean anything. But I was no longer that person. Kat had been broken by these terrible circumstances to believe that being moved to another country to live with a vampire was the ultimate prize. But the worst part of this situation was that I was the most broken of them all.

  “He’s fabulously wealthy and says I can go to university if I want.” She giggled. “As long as it’s in Manhattan, of course.”

  “Congratulations.” I held back my comment about these institutions requiring more from their students than a certificate in etiquette. Who was I to ruin her temporary happiness?

  After we’d eaten, Professor Proust stood at the head table and raised his crystal glass of sangria. “Another term, another ball, complete with numerous happy pairings! I wish to congratulate those of you frumosi who are due to leave us and start new lives as consorts.”