The Vampire Julian

by Ann B. Morris

  He was gone before she could object, and she stood for a few moments staring at the door almost expecting him to turn around and come back. But he didn’t. She would have to be content with his promise that he’d be with her tonight. Just the thought of what that promise held made her hug herself against a rush of desire that nearly swamped her.

  In the bedroom, as she dressed for work, the slacks she’d tossed back on the bed caught her eye and she thought of Deke Williams again. Julian would be angry when he found out she’d ignored his warning, but the necklace would protect her. Julian wouldn’t have lied to her about that.

  The hard part would be getting through the night without Julian finding out what she was up to. She’d have to deliberately bar any thoughts of Deke from entering her mind so Julian wouldn’t accidentally find out what she had planned. Then she’d have to find a way to sneak out of the apartment tomorrow without Mike knowing. Betraying Julian’s and Mike’s trust wasn’t something she looked forward to, but if Deke Williams could give her a lead that would help find Dottie it would be well worth the risk.

  The moment she got back to the bar, she’d tell Mike what Deke had told her. Then he and Julian could take over, and there’d be no harm done.

  At least she prayed that would be the case.

  JULIAN WAS NOWHERE in sight when Simone went down to work a half hour after he left her apartment. The bar was more crowded than she’d ever seen it. It seemed Mike was right when he’d told her that as more and more residents came home, and more city services were restored in the Quarter, business would pick up at an incredible rate.

  Spending the evening hours in the company of like-minded individuals, coupled with a few mind-numbing alcoholic drinks, helped ease the misery that was part of most people’s post-hurricane lives.

  “Where’s Julian?” she asked Mike when she had a break between customers.

  “He had business outside tonight,” Mike answered, averting his gaze. She eyed him suspiciously. He was hiding something from her. But what? And why? Did whatever Julian was doing have something to do with Dottie? There was only one way to find out. Ask.

  “Mike,” she began, but he hurried to the other end of the bar before she could finish her sentence.

  She remained uneasy until, close to midnight, Julian walked through the front door as nonchalantly as if he were one of the customers. With nothing more than a glance at Mike and a nod to Simone, he took a position behind the bar as if he’d been working there all night.

  Relief spread through Simone. She’d been on edge, afraid for Julian, she realized suddenly. Had she subconsciously picked up some signs of danger from him when they’d been together earlier?

  She looked Julian’s way again and caught his eye. He gave her one of his seductive smiles that made her weak in the knees. His affect on her only strengthened her resolve. When he came to her later tonight, she’d ask him where he’d been and if it had to do with Dottie. Until then, there wasn’t much she could do but wait.

  Chapter Twelve

  “I TAKE IT YOU came to a dead-end, too,” Michael said to Julian after Simone had ended her shift and gone upstairs.

  Julian glanced in the direction of the back stairs to be certain Simone was out of earshot. “Like you, I picked up the scent, but I lost it when it got smothered by all the other fetid odors still hanging over the city. You can smell death in every breath you take. I think it’s going to be many months before all the bodies are recovered. If they ever are.”

  Michael nodded in a way that said he knew exactly what Julian meant. “Do you want me to continue the search today? I can get a couple of the guys to go with me.”

  “Give it as much time as you can spare.” Julian looked toward the back of the bar again. “I ran into two of Zurik’s henchmen at one of the warehouses you recommended I search. I think Zurik is on to us.”

  Michael’s brows creased with concern. “Did they engage you?”

  Julian rolled up his sleeve above his wrist and exposed a two-inch long cut that was already nearly healed. “I got the first and last strikes. Zurik’s army is two men lighter today.”

  Michael grinned. “Two less to worry about is a hell of a lot better than two more added, right?”

  Julian grunted. “There’s still too many of them left. Now that I’m fully healed we’ll have to make some battle plans. Some that I can follow through on after—”

  “Are you going up to her, tonight?” Michael interrupted, rolling his eyes toward the ceiling.

  “I’m surprised by that question, Michael. A gentleman would never answer it.” Julian hung his bar rag on a rod beneath the polished oak counter and shoved his hands in his pockets. Whistling, he turned away from his friend and walked toward the stairs.

  At the end of the wall separating the bar’s public room from the private area in back, he gave Michael a two-finger salute. Before he disappeared from view, he said, “See you tomorrow night.”

  JULIAN WASN’T nearly as calm and self-assured about his impending rendezvous with Simone as he’d led Michael to believe. In fact, he made a last minute decision and stopped in his quarters to clean the cut on his arm, grab a fresh shirt, and slap some cologne on his face. Even vampires liked to smell nice, as well as manly. He chuckled as he tightened the cap on the cologne bottle and set it on the antique dresser that had been in his family for centuries. Now he felt better prepared for his night of seduction.

  A few minutes later he stood outside Simone’s apartment and debated his next move. Should he simply use his powers to unlock the door as he’d done earlier, or act the gallant suitor and knock politely?

  As he contemplated the problem, he laid his forehead on the door and nearly fell into Simone’s arms when it opened abruptly.

  I knew you were out there. I sensed it.

  He read her thoughts as easily as she’d read his and teased, You’re getting good at this, Simone. Maybe too good.

  She smiled and he lowered his head, covering her full red lips with his mouth.

  “You’ve lost your wariness of me,” he murmured, against her lips.

  He claimed her mouth again in a deep, relentless kiss that declared his need to possess her. And this time she worked her lips in tandem with his, her claim on his mouth as ruthlessly demanding as his was on hers.

  Already he was breathing hard and his heart was beating at a speed he hadn’t felt in years. He was more pumped up than when he was in the middle of a battle. Where was the slaking of his thirst that he’d expected after his visit to the warehouse district last night?

  He was so desperate for a taste of Simone’s life force that he felt as if he hadn’t had a drop of blood in decades. Was this some kind of test he had missed during his years of preparation for the Legacy’s fulfillment?

  He was acutely aware of the consequences of taking blood from her too soon, especially if his body was joined with hers. He’d thought he was prepared to take it slowly, but he wasn’t sure he could get through the initial stages of foreplay without losing complete control. These next few minutes were truly going to be his baptism by fire.

  It was not going to be easy to maintain control over their lovemaking when Simone was clinging to him, her lush body pressed against his and her kisses begging him to take her to bed. But he wanted—needed—to seduce her, not take her wantonly. When he left her at dawn, he needed her to feel just as safe after sex as she felt within the circle of his embrace at this very moment.

  She stirred in his arms. Do you promise to keep me safe?

  He forced himself to temper his kiss and immediately threw up his shield against the thoughts he didn’t want her to read.

  Yes, I’ll keep you safe, he mentally whispered after he closed all but the direct conduit to her mind. He slid his hands down her back to her waist and pulled her up hard against him. I love feeling your body next
to mine.

  She arched her body impossibly closer, and he groaned inwardly. In one more second he would have to fight all his demons at once to keep from tearing the clothes from her body and sinking into her heat.

  What he needed was a short break so he could get his voracious hunger for her under control. But that wasn’t likely to happen with their lips sealed together and her body molded against his.

  Taking a deep breath, he lifted his mouth from hers and slipped an arm around her waist, looped the other one under her knees and lifted her into his arms. Her eyes were heavy-lidded with desire when he carried her into the bedroom, measuring his steps to buy a few extra seconds.

  At the side of the bed he stopped and shifted her in his arms so that their eyes were level. “Are you certain this is what you want?”

  She held his gaze. “I’m very certain this is what I want.”

  “It will not be like anything you’ve ever had with another man,” he warned, knowing full well that words could never prepare her for the physical joining of their bodies.

  Cupping the back of his head with her hand, Simone brought his face down to hers until their lips touched. He surrendered his tongue once again to her parted lips, and she kissed him with such passion he felt the shock of it clear down to the soles of his feet.

  The thrust of her tongue and the frantic movement of her lips as she plundered his mouth left no doubt in his mind that she wanted him as desperately as he wanted her.

  He set her down in front of him, leaving enough space between them so he could undress her. He began with her shirt, his heartbeat increasing with every unfastened button.

  Her bra was a lacy thing that accentuated the fullness of her breasts and highlighted the two dark peaks of her nipples. Rubbing the sides of his thumbs over the hard nubs, he drew shivers of pleasure from her that passed from her body to his. He took his time extending her pleasure before slipping his hands around her back and unsnapping her bra.

  The delicate fabric fell to the floor as he cupped the lush flesh she unselfconsciously pressed against his palms. He kneaded the generous orbs until she sagged against him, pleading softly, desperately, for the feel of his flesh against hers.

  Her entreaties sent a wave of desire through him so intense it nearly buckled his knees. He’d never had a woman affect him like this before, and he knew in his heart that he never would again. Only she could put out the fire raging through him, and he grabbed the bottom of his shirt and yanked it over his head.

  The rest of their clothes disappeared in a frenzy of tangled hands, and when he tumbled them naked onto the bed, his blood was thrumming through his body at breakneck speed. While fighting against his physical orgasm, he painfully clenched his jaws in an effort to control the animal hunger ripping him apart. It didn’t take long for him to realize that his efforts weren’t working. He had to slow things down before he lost all control and the vampire need took over.

  Sucking in a deep breath, he wedged his knee between Simone’s thighs in an attempt to keep his thickened shaft from touching her flesh, a danger that could easily send him over the edge before he was inside her.

  He should have expected Simone’s next move, but he didn’t. He barely managed to grasp her wrist before she slipped her hand between their bodies. The last thing he needed was her long graceful fingers wrapped around him.

  Just the thought of her touching him so intimately made his gums throb, and a cold sweat covered his body. Soon his fangs would begin to drop, and their descent would continue until The Need was either satisfied or extinguished. With Simone’s rising passion fueling his own, he knew that harnessing his thirst for bloodletting was going to be one of the most difficult tasks of his life.

  He tightened his hold on Simone’s wrist, reached for her other hand and brought them both up to the sides of her head.

  “I have to be the one in control,” he said. He hadn’t meant to sound brusque, but the hot, searing pain in his gums was building. He couldn’t afford to get into a position that would render him incapable of harnessing The Need.

  Until Simone had appeared in his life, HerediPlas had allowed him to live without blood and sex. The irony, as he’d discovered last night, was that he could take a small amount of blood from a woman without sex, but he didn’t think it was possible for him to make love to Simone without drinking from her.

  There was only one thing for him to do. In order to ease his need, he would have to enter Simone quickly this first time. He’d have to do it as skillfully as possible so he wouldn’t harm her physically.

  “I have to be in control,” he repeated softly, but with no less authority than before.

  “Yes,” she sighed with a shuddering breath, and arched her hips against him. As the heat of her touched his swollen shaft, he was sure he’d die again if he didn’t bury himself inside her before either of them drew another breath.

  YES, TAKE CONTROL, Simone answered, giving herself up to the whirlpool of desire intensifying within her with every breath she took.

  Julian’s body was covering hers, the evidence of his physical need for her pressing hot and hard against her inner thigh. Her arms were still pinned next to her head, and she struggled to free them. If the lower half of his body was off limits to her, there was still a lot of him left for her to explore.

  “I want to touch you,” she said hoarsely, making another effort to free her hands. “I want to touch your lips, your face, your shoulders, every part of you that I can reach. Please, Julian. Let me touch you!”

  She felt his body tense for a second before his hold on her loosened and he brought her hand to his mouth. While he held her gaze with eyes that gleamed like iridescent jewels, he drew one of her fingers into his mouth and held it there, laving it with his tongue for what seemed like an eternity. Her body thrummed with desire until she felt as if she’d explode if he didn’t enter her soon.

  Please, Julian! Please!

  Julian closed his eyes, and his lean, muscular body shuddered as he slipped her finger from his mouth and cradled it against his chest and then released it. His skin felt like hot silk beneath her fingertips as she traced a path over the muscled expanse of his chest, up and over his shoulders, across his back, and down the length of his arm, pausing to squeeze his biceps. She was amazed at the firmness of his body.

  She had just about lost herself in the sensuous tour of his body, lost herself in his exotic smell, when he groaned as if in pain and buried his face against her neck. His breath was hot and moist, and she felt as if her skin was a sponge drawing the very essence of him into every cell of her being. He shuddered again, this time in long, quivering waves that rippled over her skin.

  “I’m having great difficulty restraining myself,” he said between ragged breaths. “It’s been decades since I’ve made love to a woman.”

  She could only imagine how difficult it must be for him when it had been scarcely more than two years since she’d been with a man and already her body was clamoring for release.

  “Is there something I can do that will make it easier for you?”

  As soon as the question was out, an image flashed into her mind that shot fear through her. She had almost forgotten that Julian was a vampire. And vampires had fangs that they sank into your neck.

  Her insides turned to ice. What had she gotten herself into?

  She felt trapped, caught in a no-win situation. She wanted Julian to make love to her, wanted him inside her. Wanted to feel his climax, just as she wanted him to feel her orgasm. But what if he lost control? What if he harmed her, even accidentally?

  I won’t let that happen, he promised the instant before his tongue brushed across her skin like wet velvet. Heat seeped into her flesh and flowed through her body like a thick, sweet liquid. Could she really trust him? Could he really keep her safe?

  “Put your arms around me
,” he encouraged, as he moved over her and wedged his knee between her legs to spread her wider. Open for me, he cajoled as he flicked his tongue slowly up and down her neck.

  They were both breathing hard, and her heart was racing so fast she was afraid it would burst out of her chest. She had come too far to back out now. She wanted to trust him. Needed to trust him.

  Wrap your legs around me. Hurry.

  Instinctively, she hooked her heels around his waist and lifted her hips to him.

  I’m going to enter you now. Don’t be afraid. I won’t let you fall.

  And with those words ringing in her ears, Simone fell into another world with nothing to cling to but Julian.

  JULIAN COULD ONLY imagine Simone’s terror at what was happening to her, but there was nothing he could do but clasp her tightly against him as he entered her. His initial thrust was fast and deep, wringing from her a cry of disbelief as the length and breadth of him filled her.

  But he knew it was not just the physical invasion of Simone’s body that had her quivering and convulsing in his arms. It was also the shock of falling backward through all the centuries that had passed before civilization as she knew it had existed.

  The Whitcombes had been around since the beginning of time. In his veins and in his mind he carried the history of the entire Whitcombe lineage. Through their mating, Simone would experience all the generations through which his ancestors had lived.

  He was helpless to do anything about the fear that gripped her. It was imperative that they continue until their sexual union was complete. Everything in his future depended on that.

  His own initiation into vampiric sex had been no less frightening for him. It had occurred between his eighteenth and nineteenth birthdays, not long after beginning his transformation into a Whitcombe vampire. And although Michael had tutored him well in the expectations of carnal indulgence, nothing could have prepared him for his first sexual experience as a vampire.

  The young woman he’d chosen had died after he had taken her, and he’d never known the exact cause of her death. He didn’t know whether she had died from fright when she realized she had traveled back in time, or because he’d drunk too much of her blood.