She gasped at the speed with which he’d moved before his hands fell to her waist and his fingers bit into her flesh. He would never harm her, but she had to fight the instinctive urge to pull away from the savagery he radiated.
“Mine,” he growled.
“Yes,” she whispered and laid her hand against his cheek as she tried to comfort him. “And I’m not going anywhere.”
Those words did nothing to relax him as he released her and stalked across the room toward the door. For a second, she thought he was going to fling the door open and storm out naked, but he spun and came back toward her. Through the bond connecting them, she could feel the swinging pendulum of his emotions. The urge to kill, to rend something apart with his bare hands, simmered within him, as did his mounting lust for her and his need to forget.
Her gaze was drawn downward as he hardened with every step he took. Despite her uncertainty, her mouth watered, and her breasts tingled with her rising desire. That part of his body was magnificent as it pulsed beneath her gaze and grew longer and thicker to stand straight out from his body.
She tore her gaze away from his erection when he stopped ten feet away from her and walked over to sit in the chair again. “Brian—”
“Come here,” he commanded.
At any other time, such a command would have had her hackles up, but now she felt compelled to go to him. He needed her in a way she’d never seen before, and she couldn’t refuse him if there was something she could to do to ease that need. She walked slowly toward where he sat in the chair with his long legs spread out before him and his shaft standing proudly in the air. The ravenous way he watched her every step had her aroused and aching before she reached him.
“No one will take you from me,” he murmured.
“No one,” she vowed, though he’d been saying the words more to himself than he’d been saying them to her.
The haunted air surrounding him when he lifted his hand and scrubbed at his face tore at her heart. To relive the death of his loved ones repeatedly like this was something she couldn’t imagine. His hand snaked out and wrapped around her wrist, and he tugged her forward another step so she stood between his spread thighs.
Brian couldn’t tear his gaze away from her. The fading images of the nightmare haunted him, but all he wanted was to lose himself in her. He couldn’t shake the certainty he would lose her too, that she would be torn away from him.
Had he actually been contemplating children with her earlier? It couldn’t happen. The nightmare tonight had been a reminder of that. Vivian hadn’t been in it this time; it had only been Beatrice’s hand lying so trustingly in his as the life slipped from her eyes. He couldn’t risk that loss with Abby; he’d never allow her to know such anguish. There could never be children, but his need for her now was bordering on the edge of insanity.
“You should run from me,” he told her.
“Never,” she whispered.
“I made a mistake tonight. I never should have spilled in you, but you make me come completely undone when I’m with you. I won’t let it happen again.” He hated the sadness that lit her eyes at his words, but it couldn’t be helped. “What I want to do to you now should be done to no woman. Will you run from me now?” he demanded in a harsh whisper.
He didn’t know if he could let her go if she tried. Would he hunt her through these halls until he was inside of her again and seeking the escape from his existence only she could bring to him as he lost himself within her once more? If she tried to run, he was greatly afraid he would.
Sorrow twisted like a blade in her heart at his words. He was raw right now with the reopened wounds of his loss. If she turned from him, he would fall deeper into his grief, and she couldn’t leave him to that. He’d hurt her, but it was because the suffering that had been inflicted on him all those years ago was far deeper than anything she could ever imagine or had ever endured in her life.
“No. I will never run from you. Never,” she promised.
He tugged her a step closer until her hands rested on his chest. “Will you get on your knees for me, Abigail?”
Abby drew her bottom lip into her mouth as she considered his words. “I’ve never… I don’t know how.”
“I’ll teach you.”
She swallowed nervously as the wetness between her legs grew. How badly she wanted to know the taste of him, to experience him in such a way, but could she do it? Her gaze slid to that temptingly rigid part of him. Without realizing it, she licked her lips as a bead of moisture formed on the head of him.
His hands dug into the flesh of her waist when her tongue flicked over her lips and a rapacious gleam lit her eyes. He fought the impulse to guide her downward, but no matter how badly he longed for this, no matter how out of control he felt right now, he’d never force her to do something she didn’t like.
Stepping a little back from him, she lowered herself to her knees before him. Her breasts brushed against his shaft as she settled herself between them. The feel of her hardened nipples against his flesh caused him to suck in a breath, and his cock jumped in anticipation.
“Wrap your hand around it,” he said, his voice hoarse. “Yes,” he breathed when her small hand enclosed around his thickness. “Now—”
His breath hissed in as her tongue slid out to lick over his head before he could instruct her further. His body bucked at the sensation of her heated, wet tongue working over his shaft, tasting him. He should have known she’d require no instruction; his Abby was an extremely fast learner and just as eager to please him as he was to please her.
Abby shivered at the salty taste of him on her tongue. His hands gripped the bottom of his chair as his fevered eyes watched her every movement. She realized she held him in the palm of her hand in more ways than one. This massive, formidable man was hers, and he was watching her with rapt attention.
Leaning over further, she took him deeper into her mouth, swirling her tongue around him as she worked her mouth over him. When he groaned and bits of chair broke away beneath his hands, she knew he enjoyed it. Fascinated by his reaction to her, the taste of him, and the growing feeling of power over having such a man as this completely out of control for her, made her bolder as she moved over him.
He rested his hand on the back of her head; he didn’t push her down on him, but simply held her as she worked up and down his shaft. The blood pulsed more hotly through it, and he could feel his semen rising to the top, desperate for release, but he didn’t want this to stop, ever. His hips surged up and down with her movements. He was completely out of control, lost to the thrill of her heated mouth.
“Look at me,” he commanded gruffly. Her emerald eyes flew open and up to his. His blood thundered through him as she kept hold of his gaze while her hand and mouth drove him to madness.
He leaned forward and grabbed her waist. A mewl of disappointment escaped her when he lifted her up and away from him. It died away when he lowered her into his lap and guided himself into her. Abby nearly screamed as he stretched and filled her. Her nails dug into his shoulders as he thrust himself up and into her.
“You were enjoying that,” he murmured against her ear as he lifted her and slid her back down again.
“Yes!”
His hand entangled in her hair, and he tugged it back to expose her neck. Striking with the speed of lightening, his fangs sank into her vein. A scream tore from her as she rode him with reckless abandon while he pumped eagerly in and out of her. Releasing his hold on her throat, he licked the blood from her pale flesh as her sheath clenched around him and her body shook with the force of the orgasm rocking through her.
So close, he was so close…
With a guttural shout, he somehow managed to tear himself free from her before he came. Wave after wave of semen spilled between their bodies as he clung desperately to her slender back. Despite the magnitude of his release and the calming balm her body was to his soul, a sense of incompletion filled him at not having lost himself completely within he
r.
It’s for the best, for both of you, he told himself, but when he was holding her like this, he couldn’t be so sure it was for the best. Earlier he’d allowed himself to consider having children again; now he would do anything he could to keep her with him and to shelter her from knowing what it was like to lose a child.
Abby turned her head on his shoulder to stare at the wall. Her body continued to be wracked by tremors of pleasure but a hollowness filled the pit of her stomach. She didn’t want children now, she was too young, but she couldn’t shake the sense of loss his pulling out had left in her. Even after everything they’d experienced tonight, it felt as if he were pulling away from her in more ways than one.
Rising, he carried her into the bathroom and turned the shower on. He kept her in his arms as he stepped beneath the spray. His expression remained almost clinical as he washed her body off, but a muscle jumped in his jaw and his shaft swelled between them. Despite the heat of the water washing over her, Abby shivered.
When he was done, he wrapped her in a towel and returned her to the bed. Abby watched as he pulled the towels away and climbed into the bed beside her.
Brian drew her closer to him and rested her mouth against his throat. “You must feed.”
Abby tried to resist, but she craved the connection between them. Dropping her head to the hollow of his throat, she licked the water from his flesh before she bit deep. The heady flow of his blood filled her mouth. Through the bond connecting them, his confusion, anguish, and need beat against her. The horror and unspeakable loss of the night he’d become a vampire slipped through the bond before he shut it off, but she’d seen enough to feel the magnitude of his grief as if it were her own.
Tears welled in her eyes, and her fingers slid into his hair as she held him closer, needing to comfort him. She sensed the way she eased him, the desperation he had for her. Before her, he would have gone out to kill after the nightmare; now he stayed because his need to keep her safe was stronger than his impulse to destroy.
She kept her hurt over his pulling out of her locked away from him, just as she knew he kept pieces of himself locked away from her.
CHAPTER 27
Over the next week, Abby worked with Brian, Aiden, Lucien, and Vicky to learn as much about fighting and defending herself as she could. She often did well; she was fast and strong for someone so young. The only time she got tripped up or planted on her ass was when Brian would whisper deliciously distracting thoughts into her mind while they were sparring with each other.
At first, she’d been so thrown off by the bond between them and that they could communicate in such a way, that she’d found herself flat on her back, pinned beneath him more often than not. His arrogant grin had done nothing to douse the yearning his promises awoke in her mind. Over the week, she’d come to learn how to give as good as she got though. Two could play that game, and she’d learned to play it as well as he did.
Now, they were alone in the gym as they circled each other on the mats placed on the floor. She distracted him with the thought of flicking her tongue over the tip of his head and swept his legs out from under him with her foot. She pounced when he fell on his back with a grunt. Landing on top of him, she grinned proudly down at him as she straddled him.
“I meant for that to happen,” he said and rolled his hips beneath her.
Abby’s breath exploded out of her when his growing arousal rubbed against her. Before she knew it, he had her flipped onto her back and pinned beneath him with her arms above her head. During these times, he was so far removed from the broken man she’d discovered after his nightmare that she could almost believe there were no barriers between them.
“So easy to distract,” he murmured as he traced her lips with his fingers.
“Only by you,” she replied, arching beneath him when he clasped hold of her breast. Her heart pounded in her chest as she watched him. She could spend an eternity with this man and never grow tired of him or the way he made her feel.
His gaze latched onto the fresh bite marks on her neck, his marks. He’d never get enough of seeing them on her flesh and looked forward to leaving them there for an eternity. Footsteps from somewhere outside the gym had him rolling off her and pulling her to her feet. He adjusted himself in his sweats before turning to face whoever approached. Before he stepped into the doorway, he’d known it would be Lucien.
“Ronan would like to speak with you,” Lucien said.
Abby’s hand tightened in his.
“I’ll be right there,” Brian told him. Turning to her, he kissed her forehead. “Why don’t you find Vicky and Aiden,” he suggested. “I’ll join you when this is over.”
She glanced nervously at Lucien. Brian could feel her apprehension vibrating through the bond connecting them. “Okay,” she relented.
Reluctantly, she released his hand and watched as he grabbed his hoodie from the bench, tugged it on, and zipped it up. He walked down the hall toward where Lucien waited in the shadows. She waved her hands before her to ease the tremor in them, but she couldn’t shake the bad feeling settling in the pit of her stomach.
Turning on her heel, she grabbed her towel from the bench and wiped the sweat from her face before wrapping it around her shoulders and walking toward the front door. She exited the building and jogged across the grass toward the back of the massive main house made of gray brick. The brisk, early November air brushed over her skin, cooling the sweat on it as she moved. She slipped in through the back door of the house and made her way to the kitchen that was only used to store bags of blood within the massive, industrial-sized fridge.
On her way out, she passed one of the turned vampire recruits. “Hey, Vicky,” he greeted.
She didn’t bother to correct him. She liked that Vicky was looking healthy enough that others had started to mistake them again. The only way most of the others had learned to tell them apart was Brian was usually by her side. Without him now, they just assumed she was her sister.
“Hey,” she replied and strode down the hall toward the only room with a TV in it. The TV in Vicky’s room had already been removed and put back in storage as soon as she’d been well enough to spend more time out of bed than in it.
Ronan’s order took the training going on in this place extremely serious. The single TV and a small library of books were the only sources of distraction or mindlessness in the whole place, and most of the books in the library were on fighting techniques. There wasn’t one book for leisure in there.
She didn’t know how Aiden, king of reality TV, PlayStation, and anything sports related was surviving in this place, but he appeared to be thriving. She found Vicky sprawled on the sofa, remote in hand as she flicked through the stations. With the size of this place and the obvious wealth here, Abby would have expected every channel known to man, but there were only ten.
“What are you doing?” Abby inquired as she plopped into the love seat next to the sofa.
“Trying to find something other than the news and exercise programs. Seriously, how do these guys survive in this place?” Vicky demanded.
“I don’t know.”
She’d never been a huge TV watcher, but she really missed her Netflix, and she knew Sam and Dean were getting into some kind of trouble on Supernatural. She also missed music, but she’d discovered her phone got zero reception here, including internet. But then, she had the best distraction of all in Brian. She’d happily give up Netflix and her phone for more days and weeks to stay ensconced here with him.
“Ugh.” Vicky tossed away the remote after she settled on CNN. “Guess we’ll watch more of the human population killing themselves and each other.”
“Vampires are doing the same.”
“True. Guess both species are stupid.”
Abby couldn’t argue with that. “Where’s Aiden and David?”
“David’s with Mia.” They’d come to learn the woman they’d freed after Vicky in the warehouse was named Mia. She was the only other rescued va
mpire from the warehouse who was still here. She had no family and wasn’t ready to travel to the safe place Ronan’s order had organized for her.
“They’ve been together a lot lately,” Abby commented.
“They have,” Vicky replied. “I think he likes her.”
Abby’s eyebrows shot up at her statement. “Do you think it’s possible one of The Stooges has been taken down?” she inquired.
Vicky grinned mischievously at her. “I don’t know, but how funny would that be?”
“Pretty entertaining,” Abby agreed, considering her uncles had often griped and rolled their eyes over the actions of her mated family members, but they’d all embraced the family instead of moving on over the years. “And really sweet. Can you just imagine him finally finding someone?”
“There you go again,” Vicky said. “You’d make Cupid gag sometimes.”
Abby scowled at her. “It could be good for him.”
“Or bad. In case you haven’t noticed, our family members never have an easy go of it with their mates in the beginning.”
Abby shrugged; her mating wasn’t everything she’d dreamed it would be, but she was happy or at least comfortable with the way things were between her and Brian.
“Maybe David will be different,” she said.
“I think you’re getting ahead of yourself on this one.”
“You’re probably right. I mean, seriously, one of The Stooges?” Abby said, and she and Vicky giggled at the idea. “Where’s Aiden?”
“He started talking his Zen bull again, and I tuned him out. I think he’s meditating in the garden or something.”
The garden was the only other distraction around this place. Not that it was much to look at right now, but she imagined it was spectacular in the spring and summer. Now, it was just dormant roses and perennials lining the border of the maze, which consisted of rows of hedges winding their way through at least six acres of the property. The maze alone was a thing of beauty. She’d only had one opportunity to explore it for an hour with Vicky and Aiden, but it had been a lot of fun. They’d never found the center that Brian had promised her was a worthy enough reason to solve the maze, but she hoped to try for it again.
Undone (Vampire Awakenings, Book 5) Page 25
