by Various
“Not too bad.” She dared to open her eyes and found herself immersed in the pale winter gray of his eyes looming above her, watching. Worried, strained, cautious. But a slow, happy smile flitted over his mouth. “What happened?” she asked.
His eyes were dark pools, a collage of thoughts hidden behind them. “How much do you remember?”
She maintained his searching pull, trying to recall the previous evening. “I remember you telling me you were a vampire. I guess that hasn’t changed.”
His chest clenched as though she’d given him a physical blow, his lashes dropping for a brief second. “No. It has not.”
“One thing at a time.” She licked her lips. “All right. I remember leaving the hotel…” Her voice drifted as her hazy memory began to come back to her, little snippets. “I thought I was in a lab.” Her gaze snapped to his when his hand in her hair froze for an instant. “I was! I remember waking up, and I was handcuffed.” Her hands lifted frantically, but there was no sign of the shackles. She found the warmth of his bare chest beneath flat palms. Her attention flicked down to the tight slab of his stomach, and a single breath shot through her. Pajama bottoms. She was in his bed? Or was he in hers? Nothing was adding up yet.
“How did I get out?”
He lifted one of the hands braced against his chest, kissing fingertips. “I got you out. However, Tenorio escaped.”
Her eyes narrowed as he continued to study her fingers. “What aren’t you telling me?”
The rare rush of his breath was warm on her skin. “A lot, I am afraid. Houston is shutting down the tour. Tenorio was the only one out of his household who escaped. He lost two renowned scientists last night in the fire. He will not take this lying down, losing you.”
“Okay,” she replied cautiously. She’d come back to that in a minute. “What else?”
He seemed to be very intent on what he was doing with her hand. “He drugged you. It was a terminal amount.” He continued to rub her fingers between his.
She dug her free hand into his hair, forcing him to face her. “Diego, what do you mean terminal amount?”
“It means,” he told her, wary and hesitant. “Had I not completed converting you, you would be dead right now.”
Her skin chilled, turned clammy. “Converting me?” The hand digging through his hair pulled free. She removed her other fingers from his. “I don’t understand.”
He sat on the large bed, at her side, yet apart. “I saved you the only way I knew how.” He stared blankly at the wall, clearly avoiding her searching stares. “Your blood was too compromised to take you to a doctor. You would have died in a hospital.”
She clutched his arm and shook him hard. “Diego! Damn it. What did you do?” Fear clawed at her. She didn’t want to hear him say it! It was not possible!
He bowed his head, his voice laden with guilt. “I had to, cara. I know you cannot understand.” When he looked at her again, emotions and needs were bright in his pale eyes. “I could not go back to the life I led. I could not be alone again. I will protect you, provide for you. I know you will need time to adjust. I did, and I remember how difficult it could be.”
She reared up in bed, backpedaling into the headboard, pressing her knuckles into her teeth to not scream. She yanked her knees up into her chest. “No. This isn’t happening! Do you hear me, Diego? I am not going to sit here and believe I have to drink blood. Vampires do not exist!”
She threw back the blanket and leaped from the bed, desperate to escape. She cleared the room in a single jump. “What the…” she cried out, frozen. She slapped her hands to her ears to keep the sound from deafening her. Everything was amplified, the sounds, the light, the air. It was like she’d become ultra-sensitive in every sense.
“Cara, give it some time. You are alive. Tenorio wanted to break your will, then hand you to his legion of guards. Whatever was left would have been dissected and probed for the sake of scientific, personal gain.”
She knew when he slid easily from the bed, and then he stood behind her. Body heat radiated from him in waves. “It truly is not a horrible life. Come with me tonight. Let me show you what I have given you.”
She whirled on him, bitter anger fueling her words as she raged. “Did Brakka pitch the sale for you?” She poked him in the chest. “I did not want this! Damn it, Diego. I cannot, will not, live on blood.”
“Then do not.”
She stumbled backward a step. “What?”
He shrugged. “Then do not. Give me one night. Let me love you for this one night and when the sun rises, I will meet the dawn with you.” He gave her a wry smile. “I do believe, however, it is a very painful way to end everything.”
She raked a hand through her hair. “Yeah, pain. I’m all into that. Last night will last a while, thank you.”
He snaked out a hand and captured the one hanging limply at her side, threading his fingers with hers. He tugged gently, and she resisted.
“Diego,” she groaned. “You have no idea what you’ve done.”
His expression twisted with self-aimed anger. “In that, you are very wrong. I realized it long ago, but I had no way to undo what had been done. I believed when I bonded with you that the amount was harmless. Evidently, the amount is irrelevant. It had begun.” He pulled, and this time, she tripped into his chest. An arm wrapped around her, keeping her pinned against the hard wall of his body.
“I know every thing I have stolen from you. Every single thing. And I hate myself for each and every one. I never intended for this to happen, or for it to go so far.” He lifted her face, holding her firm within a palm. “But, Titania, you were going to die. Your inability to eat was starving you to death. I did not know it when I did this, but I killed you the night I saved you.”
His anguish, his anger and self-loathing were so evident, so strong, tears coated her eyes. Trembling fingers rose to rest against his lips. Her chest ached, the weight of his emotions was so strong.
“Did you hear me?” he growled, his arm like iron. “I killed you! I stole your life, your freedom, your family. I dare not let you complete your tour. You are a marked woman. And I have yet to discover how the Brethren will react. To my knowledge, a woman has never been converted.” His forehead fell to the top of her head, anguish so thick she could cut it with a knife apparent in each and every word.
“My family?” she whispered. She pushed at his chest until she could see into his face. “I can never see my family again? Houston? Anyone?” She couldn’t begin to process the anguish of that.
He cradled her chin, soothing her now. “Honey, I would never keep you from your family, but you have to remember, you will not age. You could never forget that you have certain limitations. But there are definite advantages to what we are as well. It is not always an equal trade,” he warned her. “As for Houston and Laney, they have accepted me, I hope.” His doubtful tone proved he wasn’t convinced of that. “They are due here in a few days.”
She stepped away but squeezed his fingers, letting him know she just needed space. “So let me get this straight. I am now like you. I can only live on blood.” She made a yuck face. “I can’t be in the sun, if my vampire knowledge is accurate.”
“It is.”
“What about mirrors? Vampires never have any. I need to know I look all right.”
Diego pointed into the bathroom. “There is one right there, but you are beautiful any time of the night.”
She walked into the bathroom while Diego trailed after. She made a moue at her reflection, tugging at her hair. “Something about this… I know I’ve heard it,” she muttered. She began playing with her hair, trying to get it to look halfway normal. A distraction, before she hit absolute overload. Her eyes brightened in the mirror. “Vampires don’t have reflections! Now I remember. Vampires aren’t supposed to be able to see themselves.”
“We are not?” His reflection’s eyebrow rose with a quizzical twist.
“No, something about their true sordid life being r
evealed,” she replied, running her fingers through her hair trying to straighten it.
“Then how am I, and you, visible?”
She chewed on her bottom lip lightly. “I don’t know.”
He lifted a hand, and a brush appeared. He began to work through the mess that resembled her hair.
“Cute trick.”
He lifted a shoulder without looking up. “I have a few.” He made short work of her hair, braiding it into a long, thick twist.
“How did you do that?” she asked, turning to see his handiwork. He had even added a Scrunchie at the end to keep it from unraveling.
“I had sisters.”
“I am, was, an only child.” She swallowed when her voice caught. He turned her by her shoulders.
“Cara. You are still the woman everyone knows you to be.”
“Except now I have teeth…” She ran her tongue across her incisors. “Something to rival my German Shepherd back home.”
He bit his lips together to restrain his laughter. “You will find them when you need them. You should feed this evening, but I will not force it on you if you truly do not wish to. I will keep my promise to you. When the sun rises, we will do as you choose.”
She gazed up at him. “Even if I do choose it, why would you?”
He spoke with stark honesty. “Because I could not live another night without you in my life. I would not want to live a bleak life again. You found me when I was feeling the worst of my solitary life. It has felt as though I was living in isolation for centuries. You have given me something more wonderful, more beautiful than even a thousand sunrises could bring to me.”
“You mean that, don’t you?” she asked, tracing the harsh lines around his mouth with nimble fingers, wanting to take away the pain.
“Completely.” He imprisoned the hand at his mouth and pressed a kiss to the center of her palm. Her insides turned into something hot and hungry at the damp heat of his mouth on skin. “Come with me. Let me share my world. One night. I want to love you under the stars.”
He dipped his head and found her lips. She gasped when her world exploded. He moaned, a savage intensity sweeping her up, his arms fitting her against him.
Flames erupted along her skin, a fiery need for his touch, his kiss. He left her world spinning all over again.
“Honey, I do not think we are going to make it outside.” His voice was ragged with hunger as his lips caressed her temple. “I almost lost you. I need you. Right now.”
Chapter Fifteen
Diego swung her up into his embrace. Her hands grasped behind his neck immediately, naturally. He stopped two steps later when she started laughing.
“Could you at least make it seem like it’s an effort to throw me around like that?” Her dark blue eyes sparkled, making his legs want to go limp and send him to the floor for the thousandth time that night in thankfulness.
He lowered his lips to touch her honeyed mouth. “Anything, cara.” He grunted in effort with his next three steps, his lips curving to delirious proportions when her laughter rolled freely though the room. A sound he would cherish for however long she gave him.
“All right,” she said between attempts of control. “Just stop. I can’t breathe.”
“Then allow me,” he said, a devilish hint to the offer. His mouth claimed hers aggressively, and the laughter changed to something hot and living between them. Her arms locked behind his neck, and he knelt on the bed with his precious treasure.
Heat ignited inside when her fingers danced across his back, tugging at the ends of his hair. He laid her down on the bed with tender care, his hands caressing and finding each hollow, every curve. His blood boiled when she arched into his touch, making the soft mewling sound in her throat that drove him wild.
He stripped the silk shirt she had slept in from her body with impatient hands and stared in adoring worship. Her hair shone like a raven’s wing, with the warm candlelight reflecting in the soft tresses like the stars he wanted to share with her. He brought her braid over a shoulder, laying it between her breasts. Her skin glowed, pale and perfect, her dark eyes framed by thick, black lashes. The sight of her lying in sweet, passionate repose stole his ability to speak for a span of seconds. He finally found his voice and managed one word. “Beautiful,” he told her, unable to not let her know.
Her fingers rose to his mouth. “I see it in your eyes.” Her eyes sparkled again. “And I can read your mind better now.”
“Then I better have something entrancing to think about.” He dropped to nuzzle at her neck, and she writhed under his sipping lips. He splayed his palm possessively to her stomach as he caressed skin.
Fire licked at him, racing over her. It amazed him again how much he wanted her. She really did not understand the miracle she was to him.
He knew one night would not satisfy even a fraction for him, could not sate his needs, but he had made his promise, and not lightly. There were so many things that he wanted to show her. The world was a nighttime wonder. Everything she had given him just for being in his life he could return twofold.
Diego understood the difficulty of dealing with what she was experiencing, accepting the changes that had taken place. He had not dared let her into that part of his mind, his history. Now he could not take his decision back. And if all he had was tonight, then so be it. It was her choice. He had destroyed everything else. He would not condemn her to a life she could not accept or even tolerate just to appease his selfish desires.
Her hand skimmed over his shoulder to wrap into his hair. She pulled him closer and he lay down with her, his full length eclipsing her.
He could not help himself. He found the hardened peak of one tempting breast and sucked gently. She arched and let out a shriek, her arms capturing his head and holding him prisoner. Hunger flared, seared him as he caressed and laved at that hard nub.
“Kiss me.”
He rose instantly to those luscious lips, answering the plea in her voice, in his thoughts. Her desire whipped his to a new level, a hunger for her completion, for her body, disturbing his sanity.
Diego tugged her bottom lip into his mouth, swirling his tongue over the sensitive skin inside, and his body clenched at her whimpers. He thrust within, his tongue meeting hers, mating, stroking at the sweet allure of her mouth.
He found the corner of her lips, caressing tenderly as he roamed along her jaw, her head tipped on the pillow to his hungry exploration. His heart thundered in rare ecstasy as he tasted her, sipped at the delicate texture beneath her ear.
He inhaled her sweet essence as he’d done numerous times, listening to the steady beat of her blood through her body. He snapped his head back sharply, blinking. He trembled as a bolt of hunger razed him.
“What’s wrong?” Titania asked, staring up at him, frozen, immediately catching his confusion in his actions and in his thoughts. There was no way to hide any of it as sudden as the urgency to feast on her taste had blazed through him.
“Nothing. I think.” He lowered to her neck, right over his claiming mark, and inhaled. His fangs exploded into place with a raging hunger, striking him hard and deep. He whipped his head away before she could see the flames in his gaze, the telltale fangs. One thing he would never do is frighten her by what he was.
Her hand curved to her neck, right where he’d discovered that intoxicating drug to his senses. “Intense,” she said, watching him carefully.
“It will pass,” he somehow managed in a graveled and hunger-laden voice.
“Is it because you need to eat?” she asked. Caution tinged her words.
He almost smiled at her careening thoughts. He remained faced away from her instead. “I am not thinking of snacking, cara.”
“What happened?” She touched his chin with her fingertips, applying a subtle pressure, turning him.
Dark lashes hid his worst thoughts and the likely heat that his kind couldn’t control when the bloodlust overtook them. “It is stronger, sweeter.” He drew a deep breath and releas
ed it slowly. A forced and necessary action to calm his desires and hungers. He would never hurt her. Never. “I can control this.”
“Would it be bad? Because I am now like you?”
“Honestly, I do not know.”
Big, blue eyes shimmered up at him, her mouth growing supple. She tilted her head, exposing her throat by removing her hand and laying it flat on the bed. Complete offering. “I trust you.”
He stared at her without blinking, stunned at her gift. “Cara, I do not know if it will harm you.”
“Why would you feel so strongly for it, then? Has it been like this before?”
He thought back and had to shake his head. “No. Not like this.” Never like this.
Caring fingers danced across his chin, trailed down his own neck, and muscles clenched from his jaw to his toes in answer. “Diego, I feel it too. I want to share with you. I want to know how it feels for you. I want to know it is only me you feel this way for.”
He buried his face into her shoulder. “Titania. It is only you. Do you not know that?”
She tilted once more. “Then show me.”
Diego did not know if he should pray or cry in gratitude. Titania was the most unselfish being in his entire world. This was from her, to him. Simply because he wanted it.
“I love you.” The words burst forth. His entire world glowed from the inside outward with her gift. “If I have only this night, I love you, Titania.”
She lifted a luminous, wondrous gaze up to him, her ocean blue eyes filling with moisture. “If you had more than tonight, would you still?”
“Yes,” he whispered with conviction, without hesitation. “Eternity would not even be long enough.”
Fingers graced his mouth, brushed his lips, and he felt her caress like a jolt to his spine. “I love you, too.”
He found her mouth the next instant, savoring every nuance of her soul.
He took his time, deliberately seducing her nerve by nerve. Her heat enveloped him, carrying his desires higher. There was not one thing that was going to ruin tonight for them.
