by L. D. Rose
And she had no idea what he’d just done. He had to move quickly before her endorphins faded.
Blaze quickly shucked his jeans, then bent over and lapped a stray rivulet of blood from the wound he’d inflicted. To slow the bleeding, he knelt and dragged her leg up to rest against his collarbone.
“Blaze,” she panted as she reached for him again, her voice hoarse with sex and satisfaction. She tried to kiss him but he wouldn’t give her his mouth, not yet, regardless of how much he wanted to. No matter how hot it’d be for her to taste her blood and sex on his lips, he wouldn’t do it. He’d face the consequences of his actions later, but for now, he was going to make sure she would never forget this night.
Because he sure as fuck wouldn’t.
On his knees, he lifted her hips and cocked them toward him, his erection straining against her. He grabbed her hand and shoved it between their bodies, closing it around his shaft. She gasped before she gave him a slow, sexy smile and squeezed him tightly.
His breath caught, his grip tensing on her thigh. She stroked him and he groaned, a fresh wave of pleasure igniting his blood. When she murmured, “I want to see you,” panic sliced through his chest.
Damn it, no. Not yet.
She tried to sit up, but the way he had her angled kept her pinned.
“Blaze—”
“Guide me inside you,” he rasped, his cock throbbing in her hand as hard as his heart in his chest. He didn’t want her to see him. He was scarred in other places, too. “Please.”
Valerie stared into his hideous eyes with enough heat to melt the ice at the center of him. Like she found him beautiful and blessed, instead of wretched and damned. She lifted her free hand and stroked his abs, running her palm up along his slick chest where some of the scars were the worst. He tried not to think about where they’d come from, refused to remember what they’d done to him, and she helped him do just that when she slipped him inside her.
Holy shit.
Now he felt her. And she was tight.
She let out a deep moan, tilting her head back, exposing the long, vulnerable line of her throat. His breath quickened as he grasped her hips and looked down, watching his invasion of her. His fangs hadn’t retracted and they throbbed at the sight with a new kind of hunger. Slowly, so slowly, he pushed himself inside her, inch by agonizing inch.
Her hot, silken sheath squeezed him like a fist, sucking him down, wet and clinging. He shook with restraint as she undulated against him, sliding her own hands over her breasts. Her thumbs grazed her peaked nipples as she touched herself, driving him absolutely wild.
Blaze pressed the nub at her center, surging inside her in one long stroke, tearing shouts from both of their throats. Her delicate muscles contracted around him as he slowly pulled out and pushed forward again, rubbing her slippery clit with the pad of his thumb. Her fingernails dug into his biceps, sending pinpricks of pain through him, but it only fueled the fire. She could rip him into shreds for all he cared, as long as he breathed his last breath just like this.
He fell into a rhythm, angling himself so he struck deeper inside her. With every thrust, pleasure rippled through him, growing more and more intense. He released her clit and picked up the pace, holding onto her hips as he pounded into her, wet flesh striking against wet flesh.
Valerie clawed, thrashed, and screamed for more. “Don’t stop! Don’t stop.”
No fucking way.
She pushed her hand between them, sliding her fingers against his pistoning cock. Then, without warning, she exploded all over him, her sheath clamping down and milking him right into oblivion.
Pressure built against his spine before it snapped, orgasm bursting through him and popping his head back. He bellowed as waves of ecstasy crashed over him, splintering him into pieces and putting him back together only to shatter him again. He seized uncontrollably as he spilled his hot seed inside her, the strength knocked right out of him as he dropped down over her.
He struggled to brace himself on his elbows for fear of smothering her, his muscles going into spasms from the effort. With her heart hammering against him in time with his own, she clung to him for dear life. His fangs slid back into place as sweat dripped from his pores onto her body.
Lifting her head, Valerie ran her tongue along his neck, licking bundles of scar tissue and sending him into another fit of tremors. Her shallow breath tickled his ear as she whispered, “That was incredible.”
He gazed down at her, grinning between gulps of air, then kissed her chastely, soft and enticing, before he murmured, “Baby, I’m just getting started.”
THIRTEEN
Valerie slowly came awake, lifting through the heavy layers of a blackout sleep. She felt Blaze spooned against her, his arm wrapped around her, his hand cupping her sex. His breathing was slow and deep with slumber, his body boneless and warm. He’d finally fallen asleep after at least three wake-up calls during the night.
He wasn’t kidding when he’d said he was just getting started.
A smile curved her lips at the memory of him slipping inside her, again and again. Thank God she was on the pill. She’d never felt so wanted, so sexy in her entire life. Not to mention the way she’d climaxed viciously hard, a kind of shocking pleasure she’d never dreamt possible. And God, she was exquisitely sore. She wondered if she could even get up and walk to the bathroom.
The central air had kicked on, cooling the room during the night. The temperature must’ve hit a hundred during their initial romp and spiked during the others that followed. But as the air cooled, he’d kept her warm, his body still feverish, his skin still hot. If it weren’t for his solid, muscled frame against her now, she’d have a hard time believing last night was even real.
Valerie opened her eyes to a pre-dawn twilight. Dark curtains covered the east window, casting the room in purple-blue. She didn’t want to get up. She wanted to stay right here in his arms, but nature called. She trailed her fingers over his forearm and gently lifted the hand he’d nestled between her legs. It was heavy from the dead weight of sleep, but she managed to slide out from underneath him and ease away.
He didn’t stir, his eyes sealed shut and his lips slightly parted, his head nestled against a crooked pillow. With some effort, she stood, wincing at her body’s objections and complaints. She turned and gazed down the length of his body, half-covered by a crumpled gray sheet, admiring the harnessed power within him, even at rest. Her sex tingled with the memory of that body on top of her, inside her, all over her.
Uh-uh, I think you’ve had enough, missy.
Her eyes fell on a black scripted tattoo on his forearm, the last line ending before his burn scars began. She’d noticed it before but never had a chance to read it.
Even though I walk
through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your blade and your gun,
they comfort me.
She recognized it as an altered version of Psalm 23:4, a Bible passage she’d heard repeatedly at many officers’ funerals. She stroked the pad of her finger gently over the skin, still smooth and tawny, a patch that had dodged mutilation. She bent over and kissed Blaze’s forehead tenderly, feeling a resurging warmth pool in her chest, one she hadn’t felt in a very long time.
One she dared not name because she wasn’t ready.
Valerie wobbled to the bathroom, dodging the obstacles of tossed blankets and clothes. She hit the lights and reflexively squinted. Her mouth was dry as sandpaper and she felt completely dehydrated. Little wonder after all the fluid she’d lost last night. She plopped down on the toilet and did her business, relieving her bladder. It stung like hell, making her wince and grit her teeth. Christ. She glanced down at herself, spreading her legs wide.
And when she
saw it, her breath whooshed out of her lungs like she’d been sucker punched in the gut.
Twin knobs of angry, bruised tissue puffed up from her inner thigh like little volcanoes, their peaks corked with crimson scabs. A purple-red ring surrounded them in the shape of a mouth, with two smaller punctures positioned where the lower canines would’ve braced. They looked the same as they had on all the dead vics she’d found.
The hallmark wound of a vampire bite.
Valerie gaped at it, horror slicing through her chest. The memory of Blaze kissing the inside of her thigh as he slid his fingers inside her flashed through her mind. Bile rose in the back of her throat as her body ramped up into tremors.
He bit me.
Oh God, she was going to be sick.
She frantically wiped herself off and stood, clutching the edges of the sink, the porcelain cool against her sweating palms. Her stomach churned, panic choking her breath and pounding her heart.
When had he bitten her? Why hadn’t she felt it? Why hadn’t she known?
Jesus, he didn’t have fangs, did he?
He’s a hybrid. The cold, logical voice of reason resonated through her head. He’s half-vampire, Val. What did you expect?
She gagged, coming up with nothing but spittle, her stomach threatening to empty. What was going to happen now? Would she turn?
“Valerie.”
Her head snapped up to the mirror at the rich sound of her name, finding Blaze standing in the doorway, his hands braced on either side of the jamb. He’d thrown his black boxers on, the light illuminating his glorious body, the dark spheres of his opalescent eyes meeting her gaze in the mirror. Fear surged through her as she spun around, clutching the sink like a raft in her ocean of disbelief.
And—son of a bitch—a shot of warmth spread through her aching pelvis at the sight of him, betraying all of her reason.
His concerned expression faltered when his eyes fell on the offending wound. His Adam’s apple bobbed as he set his jaw, bringing his gaze back up to meet hers.
“I’m sorry,” he murmured, but his eyes said otherwise. They darkened and smoldered the longer he looked at her. He tore his gaze away and locked it on the tiled floor instead. “I just couldn’t . . . stop.”
Valerie’s heart hammered and her pulse fluttered in her throat like a trapped butterfly. The wound throbbed dully, awareness bringing it to life. “What’s going to happen to me?”
Blaze’s grip tightened on the jamb, the big muscles in his arms flexing. “I don’t know.”
“Am I . . .” She swallowed, tried again. “Am I going to—”
“Be like me?” His eyes lifted and they’d gone cold, hard. “No, you won’t. I’m not contagious.”
A potent mixture of guilt and relief washed over her, threatening her with tears. “I—I didn’t know.”
“And I didn’t tell you.”
“Why?” A flare of anger raised her voice. “Why wouldn’t you tell me something like this?”
“Would we be here if I did?”
It was a simple question with a simple answer. No. They wouldn’t. She would’ve never trusted him if she knew he bore the very weapon that had killed so many innocent people, that had murdered her fellow officers, that had slaughtered her sister and tore her family apart.
She would’ve never given him a chance.
If anything, she would’ve tried to kill him.
Valerie stood there, unable to find the right words to say, her thoughts a jumbled mess. She’d always associated the mark with death, terror, a violation of body and soul. But yet here she was, naked in front of the most amazing man she’d ever met, feeling more alive than she ever had in her entire existence. And although she was scared, he hadn’t hurt her. He hadn’t changed her; he’d only left a mark, a wound that would eventually heal. It wasn’t a product of fear or control or power, but of sex, passion, and maybe something deeper.
Blaze suddenly turned away and Valerie’s heart nosedived into her stomach. She went after him, grabbing his arm before he got too far.
He stared her down, self-loathing, guilt, and a carnal need swirling in his unearthly eyes. A muscle in his jaw bunched and she lifted a trembling hand to smooth it.
“There’s still so much I need to learn about you,” she murmured. “Please understand. I’m not used to this.”
He relaxed a bit under her touch, his eyes raking over her body. “Do you regret it?”
She knew the answer to that. “No.” She shook her head. “Never.”
“Even if I connected you to me?”
Valerie searched his face, confused. “What do you mean?”
Blaze slid his hand over the mark, brushing her core and sending a shock of heat through her. “This.” His voice had thickened. “If it let me sense you, your wants, your needs . . . If I could feel what you feel, would you regret it?”
His words stripped her of her breath and made her knees weak. “No,” she whispered.
He leaned into her ear as his hand moved against her, where she was already wet and ready. “What if I told you I’d have to do it again? That I wouldn’t be able to resist?”
She closed her eyes, her body on fire as he teased her languidly with his fingers. God, he was insatiable. He was going to kill her if he kept this up.
Her body swayed in response and he chuckled. “Val.”
Hs dark rasp made her eyes snap open.
Taking his face in her hands, Valerie leveled his disarming gaze with hers. “Then you tell me when. Don’t hide it from me. Don’t hide anything from me. I want to know. I want to know everything.”
He smiled, a slow, seductive curve of his lips. “Okay,” he said before his fingers penetrated her, emptying her brain. “I’ll tell you everything.”
Blaze slouched on the bench outside of Valerie’s apartment, head propped on the edge of the wooden backrest. He closed his eyes behind his shades, the early morning sun caressing his face like a lover’s touch.
His lover’s touch.
He and Valerie had taken a long shower together before they finally got dressed. He had to wear his clothes from yesterday, including Kasen’s shirt, which meant he seriously needed to get home, shave, and make himself decent again. Even though he felt like he’d hit the lottery, he sure didn’t look like it.
It was beautiful outside, breezy, warm, but not sweltering like yesterday. He’d opened the sliding glass doors to let the air in as the residual scent of breakfast drifted out—coffee, eggs, and blueberry pancakes. Valerie clanged around the kitchen, putting dishes away, humming a song he didn’t recognize. He’d offered to go out and pick up food, but she wanted to cook. Hell, he would’ve whipped something up if he knew how. He always burned everything he touched.
Go figure.
Blaze had also tried to help her clean but she kicked him out, threatening him with a spatula. He couldn’t help but grin at her, wearing a sexy oversized T-shirt, hip cocked, hair damp, eyes bright, spatula pointed at him like a blade. Shit, he was no match for that. So he headed outside, relaxing on the bench with a full belly and a brimming heart.
With her blood running through his veins, hatred wouldn’t be the only thing that kept his heart beating.
She’d forgiven him for the mark. She’d accepted it. The way she’d first looked at him, with such horror and fear, had nearly snapped his spine in half. But he understood her reaction. God knew he understood. He was no stranger to betrayal, but deceiving her hadn’t been his intention.
Actually, he didn’t know what he’d intended.
But he was glad it had happened. Her discomfort and lingering anxiety about the mark would fade over time.
Now her presence sang through him, brushed against him like angel’s wings, her light chasing away his darkness. With her emotions open to
him, he sensed her happiness, her fear about the future, and her underlying anger for the enemy. No longer only his, but hers as well. He felt her pride about her work, about defending the innocent, and her hatred for anything with fangs.
Except for him, of course. Which reminds me . . .
Blaze removed his phone from his pocket and dialed JJ. No answer. He tried Shaul. Same deal. His heart somersaulted in his chest, a low thrum of panic zinging through him. He tried Rome next and got an answer on the fourth ring.
“Hey.” His brother’s gravelly baritone hit the line. “What’s up?”
“Yo.” Relief washed over Blaze, spilling into his voice. “Did I wake you?”
“Nah, I’m already awake. I’m just staring at the ceiling, contemplating the mysteries of the universe.”
Blaze grinned. “I tried calling JJ and Shaul but they didn’t answer. Had me worried for a sec.”
Rome chuckled. “Now you know what it feels like.”
Blaze winced. All right, all right, he deserved it. “Touché, mi hermano. Did you hunt last night?”
“Yeah. JJ and I took Manhattan while Kaj and Dax swept Brooklyn and Queens. Shaul headed up to your area. Everyone got back a little while ago.”
“They good?”
“Shaul is a little banged up. Got into a run-in at that detective’s house you asked him to keep tabs on. But he’s all right. That cop probably saved his ass, though. Kasen’s on his way now.”
Shit. If Kasen was on his way, it was bad enough. “Tell me what went down. How about JJ? Is he sleeping?”
“Probably. Want me to find him?”
“Yeah, could you? Although I’d hate to interrupt your intergalactic meditation.”
