She touched his face, gentling his frantic pace.
“What are you doing to me, Nic?” she whispered in wonder.
Nic’s hand slid beneath her nape, bringing her up to him and into his kiss.
“I’m loving you, Jenna. Like you should be loved. I will always take care of you.
You will never have to be alone or afraid again.” Even though he’d come, his erection had barely subsided. Now he continued a gentle pulse of his hips, savoring the warm clasp of her tight sheath around his needy cock
“Why, Nic? Why would you do this for me?”
Nic sighed. She didn’t understand the bond they shared. How could she? She was human. How could she know she was now a part of his very soul?
“Jenna, I knew I loved you with our first dream. I would do anything for you.
Beloved, I live for you, I would die for you. You and I have become one whole.”
“You’ve given me so much,” her eyes were wide and hazy, filled with awe and wonder. It humbled him, to see this woman, his One, the only one who could ever touch his soul, so amazed at his devotion. He buried his face in her neck, inhaling her sweet peaches-and-cream scent. He couldn’t bear to meet the questions in her eyes. He felt so unworthy of her.
Her hands stroked up the length of his back, and he arched deeper into her. She murmured his name, dragging her nails down his spine. His mouth opened over her throat, her pulse a drumbeat in his ears. She tasted so sweet.
She tangled her fingers again in his hair, tugging his head up to meet his eyes. Nic tried to bury his disappointment. This is about loving asshole, not feeding.
He could see his reflection in her eyes. His face was flushed, lips full and slightly parted. His fangs showed, just the tips peeking from behind his upper lip. Did she feel his need? Her slight nod didn’t convince him and he turned his head aside. He’d promised himself not to ask, to wait until she was ready to offer with an open heart.
“Nico,” her voice was a hushed whisper, hoarse from her long convalescence and her cries of rapture. “Let me give this to you.” He shook his head, trying to break away from her eyes. “Then give this to me.” Her hands were relentless, one locked in his hair, the other guiding him back to the crook of her neck.
He managed one last try.
“Are you sure, Beloved?” Her answer was clear when she tilted her head to the side, revealing her racing pulse. Unable to deny either of them any longer, Nic sliced cleanly through her vulnerable flesh. His lips clamped soundly around his bite, and her body convulsed as another orgasm her.
A torrent of raging pleasure rose in him, and to his utter astonishment he ejaculated again into her tight body. Again and again he shot into her tight pussy as her sweet, slightly metallic taste flooded his mouth. He sucked gently, taking just enough to sate his need. He withdrew his fangs and ran his tongue gently over the bite, erasing the blood but not the scars his teeth left. Everyone would now understand that she was under his protection. She was his mate, his One.
Shifting his weight to the side, Nic sank to the bed beside her, immediately pulling her into his embrace. He nuzzled her neck, trying to identify the emotion floating through him as she sighed and relaxed into slumber in his arms. Peace. Nic was at peace for the first time in over four hundred years. Savoring the feeling, he closed his eyes and let sleep take him.
Chapter Five
Jenna awoke to the smell of food. The tantalizing aroma of broiling steak and spicy herbs dragged her from the most amazing dream. Slowly, reluctantly, she opened her eyes, before letting out the breath she’d been holding. It wasn’t a dream; she was really here, in this place with Nic.
His scent was all over her and the sheets. She buried her nose deeper into the pillow, muffling a giddy squeal as she drew in his essence. Jenna’s body heated as memories of their lovemaking flashed across her mind like a slideshow.
It was mind-blowing, carrying her away to a place so filled with pleasure and peace and contentment that all her problems ceased, for a brief time, to exist. Her father and his evil scheming, her sisters and their unknown fates, all forgotten for a moment in time.
There was nothing except Nico.
She remembered her problems now, though. Jenna sat up, thinking of Rowan. Had her middle sister escaped? Had she waited for Jenna at the diner? When Jenna failed to meet her, had Rowan tried to contact her? Where was she now? Each question was more alarming than the last.
Throwing back the covers, Jenna started to stand, intent on finding a shower and then her sister. Every muscle in her body protested, particularly the muscles along her inner thighs. A giggle rose in her throat. Her aches and pains weren’t left over from her attack; they were left over from her night of endless sex with Nic.
Four was definitely the number of times it took to make her body sore.
The door to the bedroom opened and Jenna snatched the covers up to her chin as Nic entered, bearing a tray of food. He was still gloriously naked. Jenna’s cheeks heated as her eyes traveled the length of his body. Damn, he was beautiful to behold.
He caught her staring, and wiggled his eyebrows.
“Like what you see, Beloved?” His smile revealed two rows of even white teeth. His fangs were gone, but the mere memory of them dragging lightly over her flesh made Jenna shiver.
Sitting on the edge of the bed, Nic placed the tray across her lap. Relieved, she let herself be distracted by the food. Her mouth watered as she spied the thick steak, potatoes and huge pile of vegetables. Usually a chicken and fish kind of girl, Jenna was surprised to find she actually craved the large piece of steak.
Her stomach growled in demand, and Jenna flopped back onto the bed, dragging the pillow over her face in embarrassment.
Nic laughed, easily taking it away from her, fluffing it up and tucking it behind her as a back rest.
“I figured you would be starving this evening,” Nic sliced off a bit of the meat and speared it with a fork. “It’s been five days since you have eaten anything solid.” He put the tender meat in her mouth. Closing her lips around the fork, she moaned as she chewed. Food never tasted so good.
“You need to eat all of this. Your body is low on iron, and you need the protein.” Jenna had another one of those hot flashes when she remembered just why she was low on iron. She wasn’t into pain, but Nic’s bite was a dark ecstasy she’d never dreamed existed. When his crystalline gaze flared hot, Jenna knew he was remembering, too.
Nic chatted companionably with her as she ate. He smiled often, the total opposite of the stereotypical brooding Vampire. He enjoyed feeding her, leaning forward to lick a dab of butter from her lower lip so that they both shivered.
When her plate was empty, Nic offered her a glass of ruby red wine. Jenna took it and drank the glass dry. He widened his eyes comically and snatched the glass away from her.
“Whoa, Beloved, not so fast. I want you comfortable and content tonight, not drunk!” He put the empty wine glass on the tray and left the room, returning moments later with a large pitcher of ice water and a new glass.
“Try this instead,” he said, filling the glass and giving it to her. Jenna drank it down just as quickly as she did the wine.
What in the world was wrong with her?
“I’m sorry,” she said after Nic filled the glass again. “I don’t understand why I am so thirsty.”
Nic’s hand cupped her cheek; it was becoming a familiar gesture.
“You are dehydrated. You were unconscious for several days, and of course after last night, I would imagine you have worked up a mighty thirst.” Jenna tried to look away, overwhelmed by everything that had happened to her since her escape. She hated the fact she’d been so helpless, and was torn between arousal and embarrassment by the way she’d forgotten everything in the fire of Nic’s touch. He forced her to look at him.
“Tell me what you are thinking,” he commanded gently.
Jenna tried to gather her thoughts. “I don’t like that I’ve done nothing sinc
e I woke up to find my sister.” Nic nodded encouragingly, so she added, “And I’m not crazy about being so helpless.”
He stroked his long fingers through her tangled hair. “We don’t yet know there’s a reason to worry. And even if we did, you know there was nothing you could have done for her, not without being recaptured yourself. If she is in trouble, she will need you to be strong for her, and only now are you beginning to regain your strength.” He cupped her cheek again.
“I don’t see you as helpless, Beloved. Any other woman would have died in that alley. You fought for your life, and survived when even our most gifted healer doubted that you would.” Nic closed his eyes, seemingly overcome by the memory of her injuries.
“Don’t feel ashamed, Jenna, not for anything that has happened.” Jenna’s hand covered his. “Did you know I was real and not a figment of your imagination?”
“I did,” he said, leaning back on the headboard and pulling her into his arms. “I’d been restless, unhappy for a long time. I’d been searching for something, for a reason to continue this existence that had become so sad and stale.” Jenna sent him an alarmed look. The idea that he’d been unhappy, so alone, broke her heart, but his implication that at one point he no longer wanted to live petrified her soul.
He kissed the top of her head comfortingly and continued.
“I’d returned to Italy, searching for some sort of fulfillment, and that’s when I had the first dream.” He shook his head with a wry smile. “You were so familiar to me. I used all my resources to search for you, but you eluded me at every turn.” He tapped her nose chidingly. “I’d come home and was about to ask my friend Sebastian to help me in my search. He’s a security expert, and has some talent in finding people who don’t want to be found.”
“I don’t understand why you would search for someone you dreamed about.” Especially someone as insignificant as herself. She had so little to offer. She’d never been away from home, never been out of the watchful influence of her father and his minions.
Hell, even her education had been tailored to his fanatical beliefs.
“Jenna, I am Vampire. You know this. In four hundred and fifty years, no woman has called to my soul as you did in our dreams.” Nic shifted so that they were both sitting up, facing each other on the wide bed. “What you may not know is that we are told that our One is nothing more than a myth. Those who believe the universe has deemed one person to belong to us are considered fools. I believed a true mate was nothing but a legend designed to give us the hope to continue on. But then I saw you. You are that One, Jenna.”
He tapped her mouth closed with a finger under her chin.
“I fell in love with you in our dreams, Jenna. But when I found you in reality,” he paused, his eyes burning into hers with an intensity that sucked the breath from her lungs.
“Beloved, you don’t just own my soul, you are my soul.”
“But I…” Nic cut her off when he crushed his lips to hers in a short, rough kiss.
“There are no buts in this, Jenna. We are meant to be together, and that is that.”
“It’s that simple for you?”
He dazzled her with another smile. “Where you are concerned, it is that simple.” Placing a chaste kiss to her forehead, Nic pointed to her full glass. “Finish up. When you’re done, the shower is through the door there.” He waved his hand in the direction of the bathroom. “I have some phone calls to make.”
Jenna sat for several minutes after he left her, considering everything he’d said. She was every bit in love with him as he claimed to be with her, although she hadn’t said the words. She wanted to belong to him, and she wanted him to be hers. She could, she realized, spend every moment second guessing her luck at landing here, in her sweetest fantasy. Or she could enjoy this gift God had given her. Gee, she mused, difficult choice.
Jenna took a bracing breath and headed for the shower. Her muscles could do with some hot water.
The hot spray felt wonderful on her skin, pounding on muscles that were tense and achy. Standing under the water, her mind went back to the previous night in Nic’s arms.
He had touched and tasted every inch of her skin, barely allowing her to touch him. His control was too thin, he’d said. He’d lose it entirely if she explored him the way she wanted to. That was something Jenna intended to remedy as soon as possible.
Her nipples rose as she ran the soapy cloth over them, remembering how his hands on her breasts were pure magic. Soft and tender one minute, rough and demanding the next.
He’d kept her on edge the whole night, showing her the real meaning of anticipation.
The plush cloth slid over her thighs as image after image of Nic flashed behind her closed eyelids, his every whisper and cry. The beautiful, graceful arc of his body over hers, the feel of him coming in her. Even now, as her sore body eased, she was wet, not just from the shower but from the desire Nic inspired. Dropping the washcloth, Jenna dipped her fingers into the well of her arousal, slowly pumping, imitating Nic’s thrusts.
Suddenly the shower door was wrenched open, catching her by surprise. Nic was standing there, tall, proud and very naked. His cock jutted out from his body, as erect as if he hadn’t spent the night sunk deep in her welcoming body. He was breathing heavily and his eyes were blue flame. He stepped inside, pushing her against the wall with his chest, laying the flat of his palms on the stall, caging her in.
“Jenna, the scent of your arousal reached me all the way in my office. I can feel your desire in every part of my body,” Nic growled.
“I’m sorry?” She was stammering, but the feel of him pressed all up against her, slick with the soap and water that cascaded over them utterly stole her mind. She yelped as his mouth crashed into hers, his fingers plunging deep into her pussy.
“God, woman you are killing me. How the hell can I get any work done when all I can think about is fucking you?” His fingers left her and were replaced by the head of his rigid cock. He hooked one arm under her thigh, dragging it high up on his hip. Once he’d taken aim, he thrust, deep and true, filling her so completely that they became one being.
“Not deep enough,” he managed to get out before hooking his other arm around her free leg and hoisting her up.
“Nic, no, I’m too heavy,” Jenna tried protesting, scrabbling against the marble wall for balance. He only grinned darkly at her, and she watched in fascination as his fangs descended.
“I’m Vampire, Beloved. You weigh no more than a feather to me.” Her back hit the shower wall hard as Nic impaled her. His grip tightened on her thighs even as his mouth sought her nipples.
*
The dusky peaks of her tits cried out for his mouth to take them. Spreading her legs even wider, Nic leaned his upper body away from her. The position opened her up so that he rubbed over her clit with every powerful thrust. Her breathless cries just spurred him on.
His hands slid up her thighs, cupping her generous ass. Moaning against her pillowy breasts, he sucked her nipples deeper. Her arms clung tightly to his neck; Jenna pulled him back up against her and nibbled the column of his neck. Fire shot down his spine as her tongue dance along his throat.
“Jenna, Beloved, bite me.” He his voice deepened with the need to feel her bite. He sounded desperate, but he didn’t care. He didn’t care about anything but the sharp heat of his One sharing the visceral pleasure of the bite.
Moaning with the pleasure of his thrusts, his guttural commands, Jenna found the pulse in his neck, opened her mouth wide and sank her teeth in.
“Fuck,” he bellowed as the sensation shot through him like molten lava. “Harder!
Dammit, Jenna, bite me harder!” His ragged cries bounced off the walls of the shower stall as he pumped furiously in her.
She didn’t hesitate. She bit down hard. It wasn’t enough to break the skin, but Nic knew he would carry her mark upon him, that was all it took to send him over the edge.
His cry of triumph, his trembling body brought
Jenna to orgasm. As she came, her muscles clutched him deep in her womb. Ecstatically, she bit his neck again in the same spot, and Nic was lost in the firestorm of orgasm.
An endless time later, Nic set her on her feet, leaning in and pressing full length against her trembling body. He was having a difficult time controlling the shudders racing through his own frame.
He was completely undone, Nic realized. He found himself dropping to his knees at her feet, pressing his cheek into her soft tummy. She stroked slowly through his long hair, and he tilted his head to look up at her.
Her head was tilted back against the wall; the water from the shower left drops like diamonds glistening on her pale skin. Her face was so serene, her expression so full of sensual satisfaction and contentment that Nic wondered how he’d survived four hundred and fifty years without her.
He needed to get himself under control. Jenna made him lose track of everything around him. There was only her, the need to protect her, take care of her, and love her.
Her scent, her taste, her touch. It bordered on obsession, this addiction to have her, to keep her with him always. It pulled Nic in too many directions, distracting him. Need wasn’t something he’d understood before now. He could only hope that time would help him sort through all the foreign feelings he now carried. Otherwise he was afraid he might just fly apart into a million tiny, confused pieces.
*
Jenna opened her eyes and looked down into the achingly beautiful face of her destiny. His eyes, surrounded by long, dark lashes, spiky with water, were deceptively young and vulnerable.
Gently she pushed him back from her and reached around him for the bottle of shampoo sitting on a built-in ledge. She poured a pool of the amber liquid into her palm and the stall was immediately flooded with his scent.
He made a movement to stand, to take over, and she shook her head.
“Nico, let me have a turn caring for you.” She wasn’t surprised in the least when her voice sounded as young and vulnerable as his eyes looked. After a long hesitation, he nodded, bowing his head to give her access to his fall of silky hair.
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