Crimson Lust

by Rebecca Royce

  He entered her slowly. Felicity tightened around him, finally loosening inch by inch. “This is sweet torture.”

  She moaned. “It’s been a while for me.”

  “Longer for me, that I can guarantee.”

  Heat radiated between them as he inserted himself until he fit perfectly inside. She took all of him, as she’d been made to do so. He would gladly thank whatever grand deity had decided he could have this indulgence inside this spectacular woman.

  She ran her hands over his face. “Cian.” Her voice had risen a notch and her eyes were glassy.

  He understood the feeling but if he lost himself in this moment it would be over before it started. His cock throbbed and pulsated in the ridiculous condom. He couldn’t get her pregnant, she couldn’t catch any diseases. All it did was prevent him from having what he wanted—their skin touching as wetness spread between them and they headed toward climax together.

  Felicity squeezed her legs tightly around him and any disappointment he harbored fled the universe. His balls tightened and he knew that despite his best intentions he didn’t have much time until he would come whether he wanted to or not.

  First he had to give this beautiful miracle the time of her life. Then he could hold on to the memories of it for the rest of his existence.

  He moved slowly at first, still relishing the feeling of her tight muscles clenching around him. Felicity raised her hips to meet his thrust, sending a jolt of pleasure through his body.

  They moaned in unison while he drew himself out and thrust into her again, this time harder. She could take it. Her eyes spoke volumes. His woman liked it a little bit rough.

  “More.” She licked her lips. “Give me more of you, Cian. I can take it. Please.”

  It was her pleading that finally did him in. He couldn’t hold back, not when she asked so nicely. He plunged inside her with no thought beyond bringing both of them to climax.

  With no sense of anything but his movements in and out of her body, the sounds of their joining in the room and the sweet sounds his partner made as she drew closer and closer to completion.

  He didn’t want the moment to end and tugged on the ends of her hair to get her attention. She gasped before opening her eyes. A slight smile played over her face.

  “Roll over. I want to take you from behind.”

  She squirmed beneath him until she got into the position he required. He squeezed her supple yet firm ass, relishing in the feel of her soft skin beneath his fingertips. His fangs ached, which might have made him concerned except that all he could think of was biting her rosy behind. The vampire fangs could stay where they were. If he bit her, he had no intention of sharing the experience with his vampire half.

  Instead he ran his hands over the mounds before plunging back inside her pussy. She gripped the headboard as she cried out his name. Yes, he’d craved deeper penetration. Now he had it.

  And he would do anything never to leave the inside of her body.

  He slammed his cock in and out of her, in and out, wetness weeping from their bodies while he pressed as close as he could to her. Sweat dripped off him and onto her.

  His balls tightened painfully and he knew he didn’t have much longer until he spilled himself. She needed to come first. He could feel that she was close. Her muscles clenched faster and faster and her moans were rapid.

  She called out his name before shattering in his arms. Cian held her against him for a few moments before he followed her into his own climax. Liquid spat from him in hot bursts. His balls ached and he saw stars before his eyes.

  He roared his completion, pleasure radiating through his body for the first time in hundreds of years. He’d forgotten what it felt like. Tears sprang from his eyes.

  She collapsed onto the bed, panting. He rolled her on top of him, holding her close. If he recalled, from so long ago it was hard for him to contemplate, he used to be filled with calm and a sort of contentment after sex. Or sometimes a need to get out and away from whatever woman he’d fucked. Neither of those feelings hit him now.

  Instead his mind whirled. How would he ever survive without this now that he’d had her? How could he let her go? Sure, he’d come for his necklace, but now he had Felicity. She could keep the damn thing for all he cared.

  She cleared her throat and he looked down at her. “I feel like I should explain.”

  He sat up a little, rubbing at his eyes. “Explain what?”

  “Why I know how to break into rooms.”

  “You don’t have to—”

  She interrupted him. “The thing is, I thought this was a one-night thing but now I find that I don’t want you to go so fast.”

  His heart sped up. She liked him as much as he liked her. He tried to resist grinning like a fool.

  “So I need to tell you that I rob professionally.”

  Should he tell her he already knew? How would he explain that? Instead he stayed silent, running his hands through her long dark hair.

  “You don’t even seem surprised.”

  “Well.” His skin felt tight on his body. He’d given up talking to humans for this reason. Lying made the skin want to peel from his body. “I’ve seen a lot of things, Felicity. You’re not the first professional thief I’ve encountered.”

  She sat up, her breasts exposed for his perusal. He ran a hand down her chest for the purpose of touching them again. “Really? I’m sort of shocked to hear that. It’s not easy to get one of us to confess to our profession.”

  He shrugged. “I guess I’m easy to talk to.” Particularly when someone pled for their life while he drank them dry. Confessing to him as if he’d become some kind of priest to give them the last rites. “And to say I’ve never stolen anything would be a lie.”

  The locket that had brought them together had been his one attempt at thievery. It hadn’t ended well for him. He wouldn’t have the same for her.

  “I broke down here. I have to go to Dublin after this to sell what I’m carrying. But I thought that after I did that maybe we could see each other again. I’ve been thinking I might like to try to live a different kind of life.”

  “I see.” He stood up, the need to move the most pressing thought in his mind. She was going to sell the locket and he was going to let her. He didn’t need it anymore. After what they’d shared, it made him happy to think she’d benefit from it. “Here’s the thing. I would love to see you again. To me, you’re like a beacon of light in this otherwise black, endless world where nothing ever shines brightly.”

  “I don’t usually like pretty words.” Her cheeks had taken on a red hue. “But I have to admit, I really liked those. Got some more?”

  He walked to the bed and fell to his knees next to it. “I’m not a good man. I’d give you all the best things I could say, buy, make in the world. I would. Anything. You need to know I’m not what you deserve. There’s something about this place, something about being with you. It makes me…whole, in a way I haven’t been in so long.”

  “I don’t know what you do. You’re so vague about it. But I can guarantee you can’t be any worse than me.”

  She stood up and crossed the room. He watched as she opened a drawer and pulled out a black purse. Felicity removed a vanity mirror case from the satchel. It didn’t appear to be anything other than a standard mirror—he wouldn’t have given it a second thought if he’d seen it in her bag.

  She tapped it three times on each side, then tugged out the middle of the base. It opened, extending like a piece of paper that had been folded up instead of a brass pocket-mirror case.

  Cian walked toward her. “Is that where you store things?”

  “It’s where I keep things that are small. Bigger items require different kinds of holding devices.” She pulled out the necklace. His heart stuttered as he stared at it. The necklace that had brought about his demise had now brought Felicity to him.

  A mixture of hatred and gratitude warred within his brain until he felt dizzy from the effect.

 
“I took this.” She held it up farther. “Right out of someone’s home while he was out. See, that’s what I do. I go into people’s homes, their stuff, their personal belongings, while they are vulnerable, and I take their belongings. I didn’t even expect to find anything in the stranger’s home. I could tell no one was home and I thought, what the hell, I’ll have a look. Maybe I’ll find a piece of art or an old diamond ring. Things I’d get rid of on the move. But this called to me.”

  He swallowed. “Why do you do it? You’re clearly very smart. You could do any number of things with your talents.”

  “My father was gone by the time I was a little girl. My mother remarried a man who was not nice to me or her, but I guess he kept food on the table.” She looked out into the distance. He noticed that her eyes went everywhere but to him. He understood completely. It hadn’t been right for him to ask the question, considering that he was, in fact, a vampire.

  “He stole.”

  She smiled and stared right into his eyes. “When he was sober enough to do so. The good news, as we got older, was that I could do it. Then he could be drunk all the time. Mom died and all that remained for me was him. I did what I had to do. Turned out I had talent, except for the fact that every once in a while I get a little bit sloppy. I always know better but I do it anyway.”

  “You want to get caught.” He would have loved to have gotten caught himself, except that the demon inside never let him. Cian could be as filled with as much guilt as he wanted. The vampire remained unconcerned.

  “Probably. Then inevitably I run. I can never go back the States. I’m lucky Interpol hasn’t found me here.”

  The lower tone in her voice told him just how much her words cost her. He didn’t even know what to say. Maybe Felicity could have made better choices but maybe fate had left her with no better path to take.

  “So you see, I’m really in no position to judge anyone. Whatever you’ve done, we can start anew together.”

  If only it were that simple. His vampire half had been quiet the whole day. Was it possible Felicity somehow tamed it? Could he actually be with her? Could such a thing take place?

  The flutter of wings he’d heard earlier in the library filled the room. Felicity didn’t blink her eyes, remaining fixed on him.

  “Did you hear that?”

  She raised a dark eyebrow. “Hear what?”

  “That fluttering.”

  “I don’t hear a thing.” She looked left and right. “But if you think you hear something I’m going to put on my clothes.”

  Her words made him instantly hard. It wasn’t that he hadn’t been aware that she was standing buck naked in front of him. Still, now that she wanted to clothe herself all he could think about involved keeping her nude…

  The flutter of wings caught his attention again and he walked to the window. Had something gotten stuck outside on the windowsill? Only the woods—the selfsame woods that had been the location for his death and transformation—appeared before him. Nighttime had fallen over the countryside.

  When he turned back, Felicity had gotten dressed. The only hint to how they’d spent the last hour that remained was her hair, which had been thoroughly messed up, making her look like a sex goddess.

  “Can you say something? I mean, I know virtually nothing about you, yet I feel as if we have this connection. Do you want that too? Or am I in this alone?”

  He took her hand in his. “No. I want it too. Only…” How did you tell someone you were a vampire? How did you open your mouth and say it? She’d either laugh or hate him. Neither seemed a particularly good option.

  She held the necklace in her other hand. “I know we can do it together. Here. We’ll take the first step. I’m going to give this to you. I won’t sell it. Today will be a new day.”

  Time seemed to slow, although Cian knew that to be impossible. She extended her hand and placed the crimson necklace into his. He reared back as if he’d been struck. His heart rate slowed and his vision altered.

  All of a sudden he could hear Felicity’s blood rushing through her veins.

  Feed. The voice was strikingly familiar to him, since he’d been listening to it nonstop for hundreds of years.

  He grabbed his head. In the beginning, he hadn’t been able to control his compulsion to feed. It had taken a hundred years to do so. Since that day, he’d been on constant alert. Except today.

  Color vanished from the room as it always did when he became the predator he’d been reborn to be. Until he fed, there would be no reds, greens or blues. Golden hues ceased to exist. Only black and white. And eventually, when he sucked the life source from his victims, red would come to his vision. Crimson, the color of death.

  Felicity’s heart sped up. She’d said something but he couldn’t hear her words, just her blood, her lungs breathing air, the smell of her body as meat that carried her delicious blood. He growled and his fangs dropped out of his mouth, showing him to be the monster he knew himself to be.

  “Cian.” Her voice penetrated his haze. “What’s going on? Are you okay?”

  “You need to go.” While she still could, before he lost himself in the haze overtaking him and sucked her dry. She had to disappear while he wrestled the demon inside him into some sort of submission, or least a truce.

  “What?” She grabbed his arm, yanking at him. He pulled backward to get out of her grip but she managed to wrench him around until they stood face to face. His vampire side shuddered with excitement. He drooled a steady stream of pink-laced saliva. Yes, he needed her. Now.

  Felicity screamed and reared back. She pointed at him and he wondered if she was unable to come up with any words. Finally she spoke. “What are you?”

  His fangs. He raised a hand to touch the sharp edge of the left one. Also his eyes. They’d be beaded red by now. Considering that he was holding to his control by a thin thread, he couldn’t muster the necessary brainpower to lie. The truth would have to do.

  “I’m a vampire. And you need to run away because I’ve lost control and I want to suck you dry. Very. Very. Badly.”

  The foolish woman didn’t move. “That’s impossible. There’s no such thing.”

  “Obviously, there are vampires. You’re in Ireland now—expand your mind to the unthinkable. The people around here have known there to be mythical beings for hundreds upon hundreds of years.”

  “Why did you do this to me?” She hiccupped.

  He could taste her impending hysteria on his tongue. It tasted sweet. The vampire wanted to roll around in it. Why didn’t she run?

  “Was this some kind of joke? To lure me in and feed or something?”

  He shook his head. “You suggested this, not me, and for my part I will never regret it, but I implore you. Please go before I lose control of myself.” He rushed to the window to press his forehead to the glass. The coolness would help.

  Maybe if he explained the whole thing she’d finally get it and save her own life. “I followed you here. That necklace, the one you’re gripping in your hand.” He turned to look at her. He hadn’t been aware of her picking it up off the floor from where he’d flung it, but she must have done so. “It’s mine. I stole it from the owner of this castle over three hundred years ago. I was a foolish boy who should have been a man. For my idiocy, I was attacked and changed by a vampire. I’ve lived this way ever since. When I smelled your scent in my apartment it did something to me.”

  She swallowed, the muscles in her neck clenching. The muscles right next to her vein… “Like what?”

  “It made me want you more than any other woman in the universe. Even then I planned only to get it back. But after I met you, I had to know you, had to have you. It’s foolish but I’ve fallen in love with you. Now go, woman before I lose it.” Already he’d started to sweat. “When the demon comes, it will be too late.”

  His story must have worked. Felicity turned and fled from the room. He counted to ten, or at least he tried to. Cian barely made it to three before he had to chase her.
The predator in him loved the chase and he’d weakened himself too much to turn back.

  He could smell her scent clearly. Although the hotel contained hundreds of humans, no one else would do now that he wanted her.

  She rounded the corner and he lunged forward, swiping with his hand. Felicity screeched and threw herself into the elevator. Watching her do so threw cold water on the beast. He forced his will forward.

  “No. Felicity. Don’t go in there.”

  The pure, cold wrongness of the compartment thrust his vampire back down inside him. Whatever that device contained trumped his power, dwarfed it and sent it back down.

  “Stay away from me. Cian, I thought I could love you but you aren’t what I thought you were. I don’t know. Please don’t kill me.”

  He grabbed for her, not to hurt her but to pull her out of the lift before she could be harmed. Somehow he’d find a way to control the beast. Somehow he would…

  The elevator shut before he could reach her. He hollered, banging on the closed doors. “Felicity. No.”

  Cian pushed the button, calling it back. With no idea where it had taken her, he didn’t have any idea what he could accomplish by getting into it. He just knew he had to get to her.

  The flutter of wings passed by him and he whirled. A woman with long gray hair stood in front of him. It took him only a second to realize what was standing before him. “Fae.”

  “Vampire.” She nodded. “Many years ago, something went terribly wrong. Something that should not have been. You can set it right now if you choose. You can make that book in the library a true story, you can make the story of the young lovers who filled their life with charity a true tale. No one has held on like you have. Here’s your second chance.”

  The elevator door dinged open. With no idea what she had meant or where he would end up, he threw himself inside. He had to get to Felicity.

  Chapter Six

  Felicity tasted dirt in her mouth. She raised her head, spitting out the foul substance. It took her a second to make sense of where she was lying. How had she managed to be flat on her face on the ground?