“Who?”
“The one I see in your memory. The one with the dark hair.”
“Why would he do that? I figured he’d been sicced on me to make me sleep in so I’d miss Dao’s doctor’s appointment and snakewoman could have her way with him. Or to make me hurt Dao somehow. But I figured if I stayed away from Dao’s house—”
“No. I can smell his mark on you. Whether he was sent to ruin your plans or not, he has decided you are his.”
“Well, I do have some say in that, don’t I? Because he wasn’t my type, even if he was—” She stared at Ric’s lips as he glared at her. So soft, even when twisted into a troubled frown. If only he didn’t think he was one of those, a bloodsucker. A vampire. Like snakewoman and the dark man last night. How could she possibly be attracted to him now?
With a slight shift in his weight, he leaned forward and pressed his body against hers. Her knees all but gave out.
Okay, so she was still attracted to him. When it came to chemistry, logic plain didn’t prevail.
“There is only one way to save you,” he said through those scrumptious lips.
“Oh yeah? More garlic? Come to think of it, why didn’t that work?”
“Old wives’ tale. Garlic won’t keep away a real vampire. No, the real solution’s quite simple, actually.”
“Simple? For some reason,” she said, breathless and squirming thanks to the brick wall that was his body being so up close and personal with hers, “I’m having a hard time believing that.”
He lowered his mouth until those adorable lips were a fraction of an inch from hers. His gaze snared hers. “When will you cease to doubt me?”
“When you start telling me something that’s believable,” she answered as she struggled to keep her wits about her. They were running for the high hills, taking her willpower with them.
She let her eyelids fall closed and did what every atom in her body longed for—she kissed him. She realized almost immediately that her intended semichaste kiss was going to end up far from harmless.
Even though she was being a good girl and leaving her tongue where it belonged, Ric obviously wasn’t going to give her the same respect. Never mind that it was her choice to open her mouth to let him in.
Lip to lip and nipple to chest with the sexiest man on the planet. Well, a girl could resist for only so long.
Sophie figured she’d lasted at least a second or two. That was darn good.
The moment she opened to him, his tongue swooped into her mouth. Lips, tongue, teeth, they all did things that made Sophie’s knees buckle. Thankfully, before she slid to the ground, a couple of strong hands caught her by the waist and held her up.
Figuring she owed him a little taste of what he was giving her in retribution, she kissed him back with equal fervor, holding nothing back. And tossing some proverbial gas to the fire, she let her hands roam over his chest. Through the material, she felt the tight nubs of his nipples and teased them with her fingertips. As a reward, she received a throaty groan.
His response only acted to crank up the heat in her own body, specifically to the parts south of her waist. She tipped her hips, literally grinding the aching parts against his thigh. Naturally, that wasn’t even close to enough. God help her, she wanted him to touch her there, to stroke away the burn, to fill her. Vampire or not. Imaginary vampire or not.
She moaned into their joined mouths.
He broke the kiss for a split second, stared into her eyes, then pressed the lightest tickly kisses to the corners of her mouth. “Then you are in agreement?”
“Huh?” she asked, running her hands down the center of his flat stomach in search of some lumpier terrain. “Agreement to what?”
“You agree you need to become mine. To save you from a fate worse than death.”
“If that isn’t the most original pickup line I’ve ever heard.” She gave the firm bulge at the front of his pants a pat.
“I’ll take that as a yes.” He scooped her up into his arms and she squealed in surprise.
“What are you doing?”
“Taking you away from the road. I assumed you’d prefer a little privacy but if I was wrong…” He let the rest of the words trail off, but he didn’t exactly leave the sentence incomplete. The rest was spoken by nonverbal means—some waggling eyebrows, a silent suggestion in those golden eyes that practically melted her, and a cockeyed grin.
“No, no. This girl’s not into exhibitionism. Sorry to disappoint.”
“I will never be disappointed with you.” He effortlessly carried her to the rear of the car and with one hand opened the trunk.
“What are you doing? You weren’t thinking of…of going in there?”
“Heck no.” Still holding her, his knee serving as a temporary support for her bottom, he reached down and pulled something from the trunk’s dark interior. Then he slammed the trunk closed and turned toward the field. She smiled and wrapped an arm around his neck and nuzzled his chest. He smelled wonderful, his cologne spicy and masculine. Underlying the tangy scent lingered his own more subdued aroma. It wasn’t as powerful, but it was far more intoxicating. She practically hyperventilated trying to capture that scent in her nose.
Ric set her on her feet, shook out a blanket on the ground, and then kneeling, pulled her down to him. “My people’s process of claiming a wife is a little more complicated than the process humans go through. There are stages of marriage. There are no laws governing how many we must take.” He kissed her silly again until she’d almost forgotten her objection to his words. Almost.
“Wife?” she said around his tongue, which wasn’t exactly easy.
He reclaimed his tongue from her mouth. “Yes, wife. How else would you become mine?” He pulled off one of her shoes, then the other.
Sophie didn’t try to stop him. “I didn’t realize…I mean, you seem to be a very nice man—er, vampire—but wife? I wasn’t planning on making any major life-changing decisions on this trip. We’re supposed to be tracking down a shield and spear to save my friend Dao from a bad marriage. Why would I go rushing into a marriage with someone I hardly know—a man who claims to be a vampire, to top it all off?”
“Believe me, you won’t be rushing into anything.” He removed her other shoe. “We may remain at the first stage indefinitely. That would be okay with me. It will also serve your purpose.”
Again, she didn’t stop him. Nor did she stop him when he pulled off her socks. Having him see her bare feet was no big deal. Of course, when he started to tug at her top, she had to put up a little resistance. It was only right since she was a respectable woman.
“I do respect you, Sophie,” he said, just before he pulled her shirt off.
She crossed her arms over her now nearly bare torso. Only her satin bra remained. “Quit poking around in my thoughts. That’s not fair. I can’t do the same.”
“You will be able to once we’ve become one, for a few moments. You will see soon.”
“I could appreciate that benefit.” She caught his hands at her waist, before he’d unbuckled her belt. “Hold up a minute. I’m practically naked and you’re still fully clothed. That’s not right.”
“Oh. Well, far be it for me to be unfair.” He yanked off his shoes, then slipped off his socks and stuffed them in his shoes. When he went for the hem of his shirt, Sophie stopped him.
“May I?” she asked.
“Absolutely.” He lifted his arms in a show of surrender.
She curled her fingertips around the bottom hem of his pullover and pushed it up, revealing some of the most cut abdominal muscles she’d ever seen. That scrumptious sight was followed by an even better one when she uncovered his chest.
It was smooth, muscular, and covered with only the slightest sprinkling of crisp hair at the center. Two small pink nipples poked out at her, beckoning her touch. She traced each areola with an index finger and received a sharp gasp as her reward.
She smiled at his covered head, then took advantage of the fact tha
t his shirt was inside out covering him from the neck up to tease each pebbled nipple with her tongue and teeth.
He didn’t let her get away with that. He yanked the shirt off, tossed it on the blanket, and playfully pushed her onto her back. “That isn’t fair,” he growled.
“What? I didn’t do anything that any other red-blooded American woman wouldn’t do.”
“That’s beside the point. Now, off with your pants.”
Sophie shuddered—and not because she was scared. “Are you going to spank me?”
“Not unless you want me to.” Ric grappled with her belt for all of three seconds before he had it unfastened. It took even less time for him to unbutton and unzip her pants. They came off before she drew her next breath. Granted, that had to have been a lifetime, since she was struggling mighty hard to make her insides cooperate.
Why was it when she got around Ric her autonomic nervous system shut down? In contrast, the other part, the part that registered sensations, like taste and touch and smell—she inhaled and sighed—seemed to be working just fine, maybe too well. She wondered if, since he was a biology teacher, he’d have an answer to that conundrum. When he slipped her panties down over her hips, she decided she’d have to ask him later. If she wasn’t in a coma.
Within a couple of stuttering heartbeats, she found herself lying completely naked under the heated gaze of one hot vampire wannabe and a million, zillion stars.
She was dizzy, hot, and tense. There wasn’t a part of her body that didn’t scream for his touch, even the soles of her feet. Luckily, he seemed willing to oblige. Still dressed from the waist down, he kneeled before her and lifted one leg. He massaged her foot and she emitted a sigh of contentment.
“You like?” he asked, with one eyebrow quite a bit higher than the other. One side of his mouth quirked too. It seemed he had issues making both sides of his face do the same thing.
“I’ve never had a foot massage.”
“Did you know that according to Eastern medicine, there are points on your feet and ankles that are directly connected to erogenous zones?”
“You’re joking.”
“Not entirely.” He stroked a small area on her big toe. “Like here.”
She gasped as a rush of warmth gathered between her legs. Score one for the Eastern medicine guys. Course, she couldn’t be positively certain it was his touch that produced that yummy effect or that smoldering gaze of his. Could be both.
His gentle strokes wandered up her ankle and she squirmed as her more delicate parts heated more. By the time he reached her thigh, she was a sweating, trembling ball of gelatinous goo.
No man had ever done that to her. She was practically begging for him to make love to her before he’d even touched her genitals. And when his hand slipped between her thighs, his fingertips grazing her folds, well, that was nearly the end of her.
She cried out into the night. Her voice sounded small and hollow in the open field. He lifted his hands to her knees and gently pulled them apart.
“I want to taste you.”
“Like, drink my blood?” she asked without thinking. His face was nowhere near her neck, but then again the real vampire hadn’t bitten her on the neck either.
“No, I want to taste you here.” He swiped a long, tapered finger down her slit.
Her spine arched automatically at the invasion. Rather than draw closed, her knees parted wider, giving him all the access his heart desired.
And he took it, greedily. His hair tickled her thighs as he tipped his head down and took the first shy taste of her with his warm velvety tongue. That first taste was followed by lots more, and not so shy. His tongue, teeth, lips moved over her, licking, tasting, teasing until every muscle inside her body was tied into tight knotted coils. She trembled all over, writhing under him while he licked, nipped, and kissed her to oblivion and back. Just as she was at the cusp of release he stopped.
She blinked open her eyes. “Why?” she asked between panting breaths.
“It’s time now.” He unzipped his pants and pushed them down his long legs. He kicked them off, then took care of his snug black underwear.
His erection was something to behold. She burned with the need to feel it deep inside.
“Soon, my love. Very soon.”
“Now,” she begged, knowing if he made her wait another second, she’d die.
Chapter 7
Ric fought with his body’s demand for instant gratification, even though he felt like he’d be engulfed in flames at any second. This was their first time. He owed Sophie more than a quick roll in a field. This was the woman of his dreams, the one he’d waited almost four hundred years to find. There wasn’t a single cell in his body that didn’t know this for a fact, which was making it doubly hard to go slow, never mind wait until they were in a more suitable setting, like a five-star hotel suite.
“My sweet. So open and willing,” he murmured.
“Yes. So, how about getting to the good part here? Before I expire?”
He cringed. She couldn’t know how her words ignited his blood. How much he wanted to part her thighs and bury himself deep inside her with a single rough thrust.
She wrapped a soft hand around his erection and he bit back a cry of heated agony. Her hand slid up and down his length as her lush lips pressed against the head. With each swipe of her tongue, he felt his self-control slip. When she opened her mouth and took him inside, it completely snapped.
With a growl, he pushed her onto her back, lifted her thighs, and buried himself in her slick heat. Immediately, his head fell back. He felt his canines elongating as he drove into her over and over. Her smooth, slick walls gripped him tightly, sending him hurling toward climax. Afraid he was going too quickly, he slowed the pace of his thrusting, hoping it would keep him from losing complete control.
Sophie was lying under him, her eyes closed, her beautiful breasts rising and falling with each heavy breath. Her skin had taken on a silver hue in the light of the moon. Silver and perfect. Her body was soft and open and giving, pleasing him in every way. Her skin was like satin, smooth and warm. Her sweet scent lingered in his nose as he inhaled. Her long hair had fallen loose from the ponytail it had been tied into and was fanned out around her head like a halo.
Their bodies working together, moving in the primal rhythm of lovemaking, he bent low and inhaled, catching the scent of her shampoo. Floral. Feminine. As he shifted lower, his chest grazed against her pebbled nipples. Her sharp intake of breath sounded in his ears. He slid his hands between their bodies and closed them over her breasts, kneading them, pulling her nipples and rolling them between his thumbs and forefingers.
Her soft moan drove him crazy. Despite his wish to go slow for her, he couldn’t. Once again, his thrusts came fast and hard. She writhed underneath him, pulled his hands from her breasts, moving them lower until they rested on the crisp hair above the point of their joining. His fingertip found the target she intended for him to find and stroked it, while he listened to the silent cries of ecstasy in her head.
She was close and so was he. Their minds were fused, their thoughts one, just as their bodies were. He finally found the closeness he’d hungered for. For that brief instant, he was whole. Mind, body, spirit. And it was bliss, a profound pleasure he wanted to last forever.
Together, they found their release. Their voices melded as they cried out in ecstasy to the stars. When it was over and her spirit was pulled from his grasp, the crisp slap of reality stung him.
This was all he could ever have, fleeting moments of wholeness, of sheer joy, followed by hours, days, years, eons of emptiness. It was the only way it could be. She would never take the final step, become his bride in all ways. He had to make sure of it. He would only allow her to take the first one, to protect her.
It took at least an hour—okay, maybe that was a slight exaggeration—for Sophie’s heart rate to slow to the normal pace and the tingles to stop. Finally feeling herself, she propped herself up on one elbow and
gazed down at the very yummy nude man lying beside her.
That had been the most incredible sex in her life, way beyond anything she’d ever dreamed of. It wasn’t because Ric had used any special techniques or crazy positions. It was because of the unique connection she’d felt with him. Like they’d joined more than bodies.
She’d never experienced anything that intense before in her life and although she’d never been the kind to crave sex, she found herself aching all over for the chance to experience that unbelievable connection again with him. It was as if their minds had melded, their spirits. She didn’t just hear his thoughts; she felt his feelings.
She blindly stared at his chest, tracing the lines of his developed muscles as she thought about their lovemaking until she blinked back to the present and actually saw him again. His skin was a cool silver in the light of the moon. Smooth and flawless with the exception of a very large scar on the right side of his abdomen. It cut a jagged line down to his hip. She softly traced it, wondering how he’d gotten it.
She let her head drop onto his chest, realizing after a minute or two that there was no steady rise and fall with each breath. “Are you okay?” she asked, giving him a little shake. She lifted her head to look at his face.
His eyes were closed but the corners of his mouth were lifted into a contented smile. “Yep. Just fine.”
“You aren’t breathing.”
“I don’t have to. Remember?”
“Oh yes. How could I forget? You think you’re a vampire. Or would you prefer some other term? You said that was too general a term. Son of Darkness maybe? Bloodsucker? Nightstalker?”
“Mmmm. No. I’m not a big fan of the dark thing. How about Perfect One?”
“Perfect?” You got that right. “That’s a good one. Ha! I laugh at that. Perfect. Oh, you’re funny. I’d say Conceited One fits you better.” She laughed and slapped his chest. “What do I call you? I’m serious.”
“So am I.”
She smacked him a second time. “You know, you don’t have to claim to be a vampire because you’re jealous or anything. Yeah, when that vampire bit me, something happened. But I swear, I don’t like him. Not at all. I don’t have a vampire fetish. I swear. You’ve got to believe me.”
A Vampire Bundle: The Real Werewives of Vampire County, When Darkness Comes, Real Vamps Don't Drink O-Neg, & Hunted by the Others Page 70
