Blood Bound

by V. J. Devereaux

  Julian had spent a considerable amount of money investigating homo vampiris, to know exactly how they worked. The real truth was that they were just another offshoot of humanity. Not that it made a difference to some. The lies persisted, as oft-repeated lies did, particularly so long as they served another’s need.

  Still.

  Julian lifted an eyebrow.

  “As for the stories? That we could only move about at night? Nonsense. If that were true most of us would have been eradicated early. How long would it have taken for the neighbors to notice you only came out after dark? Our needs though were different from theirs and there were those who feared us, so we only hunted under the cover of darkness. Imagine how many of us there would be, though, if vampires were created the way most think, given the number of people any vampire must bite to feed? There’d be thousands of us, millions.”

  “And realistically,” Nico added, rolling his eyes dramatically, “the human body contains about seven quarts of blood, give or take. How many people can drink a full quart in one sitting? So one vampire couldn’t possibly drink a person dry, no matter what the novels suggest.”

  There was that, Rafi thought, grinning. Do the math. Half the world would be vampire. Or more.

  Reborn at twenty-seven. There was something to be said for that.

  “Pleasure though,” Julian said slowly, obviously encouraged by her quick grin, “can satisfy us for a long time. You would have two men devoted to you, to your every need.”

  His bottomless deep brown eyes fixed on her and her breath caught.

  Now she knew for certain what it was he offered.

  Both of them.

  She stared at him in disbelief, her eyes widening as her breath escaped her once more.

  That fantasy whispered in the back of her mind.

  “Imagine it,” Julian said softly, sensing her capitulation, sensing her need, her desire, his voice barely a whisper, seductive, enticing. “One of us making love to you, touching you, pleasuring you until you tremble helplessly in our arms. We can intensify the experience, make it even more pleasurable than you can imagine.”

  The very thought sent a rush through her.

  She repressed a shiver…of exhilaration? Fear? Or anticipation?

  Nico interjected, “Julian believes that if we both feed from you, carefully at first, eventually your body will adjust so you can feed us both easily.”

  Rafi looked from one to the other of them, keeping her purse and therefore her weapon, close.

  Still, she wasn’t really frightened. More…excited.

  Her panties were damp and her heart pounded.

  Both of them.

  It would be easier to keep a clear head if they weren’t so damn good-looking, but her hormones raged just at the sight of them. Her hands remembered all too well the feel of the muscles of Julian’s back beneath them as he kissed her. She wondered what the difference would be between Julian and Nico.

  It was difficult to keep her thoughts straight. Caution warred with desire. Or was it the other way around?

  “So,” Rafi said, frowning a little, incredulous. She felt oddly breathless. “Let’s see if I’ve got this right. I get to have two attractive men making love to me but in return you drink my blood? I have both of you for company, this beautiful house to live in and I want for nothing?”

  They looked at her.

  Julian smiled wryly. “Something like that.”

  She grinned back.

  “Is my immortal soul at risk?” she asked lightly, only half-joking.

  With that kind of deal, it had to be. Talk about too good to be true.

  To her surprise, she realized she was considering it.

  Both of them. Taking her.

  The thought sent a burst of warmth through her, looking at the way Julian’s tailored shirt fit his broad chest, his slacks fit his narrow waist. She fought not to look at Nico, at his leaner frame, and tried not to think of what his body would feel like pressed against her. Something about his diffidence appealed to her, there was a sweetness to him that he took pains to hide while Julian’s strength drew her in a completely different way.

  Both of them.

  Her body tightened, heated, at the thought as her gaze met Julian’s and then Nico’s.

  Julian laughed at her wry tone and the lightness in it.

  Relief swept through him in a rush even as he scented her rising arousal, her desire. He felt a breath of hope.

  “A myth also, although there are some who believe t as well.”

  As he knew all too well from the past. Just the fact that she asked, though, meant she was considering it. For the first time in nearly a millennia, something within Julian eased. He felt hope, genuine hope for something real, something that would last.

  He bowed his head in gratitude.

  “Rafita…”

  He looked at her and then Nico, who after all the long centuries was far more than a cousin to him, more than a friend and more than a companion. As hard as it had been at times, it had been harder on Nico, who’d never been comfortable in that kind of hunt. The shallowness had worn on him as it had on Julian. They wanted more than a string of short, empty, relationships.

  Both of them were one-woman men and it had become clear over time that only one woman would do. For both of them. One who would, could, love them both.

  Finding her had been the difficulty.

  Until now.

  Perhaps.

  Rafi thought of the endearment – Rafita – that play on her name that Julian had used at the bar.

  It touched her for some reason.

  Following his gaze, she turned her head to find Nico standing beside her, his golden eyes brilliant.

  Gently, Rafi said, in the same tone Julian had used, “Julian, I haven’t said yes yet.”

  Was she really considering it?

  To her astonishment it seemed she was. The thought had her surprisingly hot and wet, not that she let it show. After all it wasn’t as if she were some fluttering virginal teenager, she was a grown woman. It was hardly the first time she’d had sex, if never with two men at once, whatever her private fantasies. Her nipples grew tight.

  A thrill went through her at the very idea.

  It wasn’t as if she had to worry about the usual. As Julian had said, vampires were immune to human diseases.

  Julian laid his hands on her shoulders, stared into her eyes steadily, reassuringly, as Nico joined them.

  “Nothing will happen here that you don’t want,” Julian said, his gaze fixed on her.

  Those long-lashed dark eyes drew her.

  He was such a beautiful man.

  He brushed her hair back from her face, drew her into his arms.

  Another strong arm slid around her waist from behind, to hold her tightly against a lean, hard, male body.

  Nico.

  They sandwiched her between them as Nico drew her hair away from her neck to run his lips lightly down the column of her throat.

  A rush of heat raced through her.

  There was something even more erotic about Julian watching as Nico did it.

  Julian’s eyes were intent on hers as Rafi shivered lightly at the sensation of Nico’s mouth on her skin. Julian lowered his lips to hers and took her mouth gently, then more possessively, his tongue sweeping inside to explore as Nico nuzzled her throat.

  “There are benefits,” Julian said, softly, as he lifted his head to kiss her softly just beside her eye.

  “More than this?” she gasped on a half laugh, and then shivered as his lips touched her ear.

  He chuckled, the sound low and deep.

  Rafi’s body jolted, her nipples going hard.

  “Yes,” Julian said softly as his lips wandering down her throat on one side, while Nico pressed his mouth at the curve of her shoulder and neck on the other.

  Goosebumps raced over Rafi’s skin.

  “Your metabolism will increase, and your endurance, you’ll be more resistant to disease.�
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  “Hmmm,” Rafi said, only half hearing his words as both Julian and Nico nibbled at her throat.

  Pressed between them, Rafi was very aware of the state of their arousal. It was impossible not to feel the hard ridge of Julian’s cock against her belly or Nico’s nestled between the cheeks of her ass and the small of her back.

  She fought a moan as passion and need curled deep in her belly, fired her blood, and made her pussy ache.

  Almost reluctantly, Julian lifted his head, looked at his cousin over her shoulder.

  Rafi turned her head to meet Nico’s gaze. His eyes studied her face even as he slid a hand deep into her hair and his lips found hers while Julian’s mouth caressed her shoulder. She’d been barely aware of him drawing the shoulder of her dress aside so he could. Nico’s arm tightened around her waist as they sank into the kiss.

  Where Julian was bold and claimed her mouth possessively as his, Nico was more restrained. His tongue teased hers, toyed with it.

  Even as he did, Rafi felt the scrape of Julian’s teeth over the sensitive skin at the curve of her neck and shoulder, exposed now by the angle of her head as she kissed Nico.

  It seemed as if her entire body had turned molten, heated, at their touch. Julian’s hand at her waist moved up, just a little. His thumb brushed the underside of her breast.

  Rafi jolted as a shot of pure lust burst through her.

  When Rafi made no move to stop him – in fact, her arm tightened around him even as she lifted a hand to cup Nico’s cheek – Julian, emboldened, risked brushing his thumb over the crest of her breast, to feel her nipple taut beneath the silk.

  His body went hotter and tighter in an instant and he groaned as, almost involuntarily, he closed his hand around that firm, ripe globe.

  She quivered.

  Nothing needed to be said.

  Seduction was an old game between them, he and Nico.

  The soft purr of the zipper of her dress going down and the cool, refreshing air against her heated skin was all Rafi felt. A hand, Nico’s, slipped inside, slid around her stomach and up to curl around one breast as Julian caressed the other. All her awareness was suddenly centered around her nipples as they grew almost painfully tight while the two men played with them.

  She moaned, softly.

  A hand, Julian’s she thought, expertly unhooked her bra. Nico’s fingers slipped beneath the loosened lace to drift over her nipple to tease. She shivered as anticipatory pleasure raced through her.

  His lips trailing across her shoulder, Julian gently guided the soft silk over it. Inhaling the soft scent of her and her increasing excitement, he tasted her skin, his hunger for her growing by leaps and bounds. Circling an arm around her, he drew the silk from her other shoulder with his free hand.

  Rafi’s breasts were now free.

  Without speaking, understanding what he needed, what they wanted, Rafi let her dress fall away with a sound not unlike a sigh escaping her.

  Julian looked down at her in amazement even as Nico lifted his lips from Rafi’s.

  His eyes met his cousin’s.

  “Beautiful,” he whispered, as he stroked a hand from her throat down over the curve of her breasts to send the bra the way of her dress.

  She was bared to them now, save only for her thin lacy panties.

  He tightened to see those pale globes with their rosy, taut tips revealed to them. Nico cupped the fullness of one breast in his hand and offered it to Julian.

  Rafi watched as Julian lowered his head to take the offering Nico had made of her to him.

  The sensation of Nico’s hand around her breast, of Julian’s warm mouth closing over her tight, aching nipple was almost unbearable. Her pussy dampened as Julian drew the tip of her breast into his mouth, sucked to take in more of it. Her hips bucked in response.

  Nico watched as Rafi’s nipple disappeared into Julian’s mouth, the sight incredibly arousing. To feel Rafi tremble in his arms was even more so.

  He loved this part of it, the dance of seduction and arousal, as much as Julian did.

  With his eyes locked on his cousin’s mouth on Rafi’s breast, Nico caressed her taut belly, explored the indentation of her navel. He combed his fingers beneath the lace of her panties and through the taut curls between her thighs. He felt the crispness of those curls and the dampness between them.

  He groaned as heat rushed through him so intensely it felt as if his vision hazed.

  Another hand joined his, Julian’s, as Nico searched for the small bud nestled between Rafi’s thighs to toy with it, and found it.

  She moaned, leaning back against him, the pressure of her body against his rigid cock maddening.

  If only he wasn’t so hungry.

  Rafi drowned in a haze of erotic sensation, caught between the two men.

  Then Nico touched her clit and a rush of pleasure shot through her, blanking her mind.

  All she wanted was more, and more.

  She got it.

  As Nico teased her clit, she felt Julian’s fingers stroke between the delicate folds of her labial lips teasingly. If she thought she’d been hot before, it seemed as if she’d turned incandescent. Desire pooled deep in her belly. Her hips pumped with need.

  *****

  Then a single finger pierced her.

  Pleasure so intense it was nearly painful speared through her and her body arched.

  Julian was enraptured. Rafi’s taste and scent filled him as he sucked on her breast, stroked a finger inside her. She was so sweet, so sensitive to each motion of his finger, so tight around it. He loved her openness. She gave of herself so completely.

  If only he wasn’t so hungry. He wanted to make love to her with Nico until she was limp and trembling with pleasure, until she couldn’t move and they could feed at their leisure. And hers.

  The rich scent of her arousal filled him. In wonder, Julian breathed it in.

  Lifting his head, he looked at her. It was there in her eyes. Need. A need as great as their own.

  His heart wrenched. It was a gift.

  Rafi was nearly mindless, rapt in pleasure.

  Another burst of heat shot through her, straight to her core. Her knees nearly buckled.

  Insane as it was, she wanted it. She wanted them. Nearly desperately.

  “We won’t hurt you, Rafi. I swear it,” Julian said, his dark-eyed gaze locked on hers. “We can make it very pleasant for you, I promise. It won’t hurt for any longer than necessary.”

  Her eyes softened as she looked at him. She reached a hand out to Nico, understanding what it was they needed.

  Nico looked at her in astonishment, knowing what it was she offered.

  Herself.

  “Just don’t stop,” she whispered, shakily.

  “Dear God, no,” Julian said, slipping his finger from inside her.

  She moaned in protest until he slid two fingers inside her to stroke and she groaned.

  Julian looked at Nico, who nodded.

  If Rafi had thought she was lost before, the next moments proved her wrong, as Nico’s fingers danced and toyed with her clit until her thighs quivered with each touch and Julian’s long, agile fingers stroked inside her. Sensation poured through her. Nothing else mattered. Her heartbeat thundered in her ears.

  Julian’s mouth moved over her throat, his lips against her wildly beating pulse.

  He could feel it throb beneath them. Desire throbbed deeper still because he knew she was willing.

  Hunger moved within him, beat at him. But he was no animal to go ravening. He was the leader of the vampires here of a sort, the oldest and strongest of them. He had more control than that. It had been longer still since Nico had fed than he. Julian knew Nico had resorted to the less satisfying blood of animals rather than seek companionship and risk rejection, or worse, put Julian at risk. As hard as it had been on Julian, no matter the effort he took to make it pleasant for those he fed from, it was that much harder for Nico. He knew the craving had to be nearly painful, and yet li
ke him Nico wanted to be sure, wanted Rafi to be sure, as Julian himself did.

  Hunger raged, yet neither of them would take until they were certain.

  Rafi looked at them, sensing their hesitation even as pleasure coursed through her in erotic waves.

  What would it be like to feel Julian’s warm mouth close over her throat, or Nico’s? To feel their teeth penetrate? Another, different, kind of heat raced through her.

  Deliberately, she turned her head, offered herself to them.

  At her gesture, Julian bowed his head. Need was a pounding in his blood he couldn’t deny, and he was grateful it wasn’t necessary.

  He lifted his gaze to Nico’s. His cousin’s eyes widened and Nico took a breath before he, too, nodded.

  To Rafi’s surprise, Julian lowered his mouth to her lips first, his kiss soft and sweet.

  Even as he did so, Nico’s fingers toyed with her nipple even as the fingers of his other hand played with her clit. But his cheek brushed her hair.

  Long, skillful fingers moved inside her, to stroke.

  Julian’s lips brushed her eyelids, her cheek. His teeth nibbled at her earlobe even as his fingers worked inside her.

  Pleasure enveloped her, blinded her to anything but their touch.

  Julian’s mouth, not merely warm but hot now, closed over her throat as it had in her fantasies. His lips were on her skin, his teeth were poised, ready to strike, but giving her a moment to change her mind if that was what she chose.

  It had always been her choice, each and every step of the way.

  Julian’s breath caressed her throat, as did his fangs, and sent goose bumps racing over her.

  She felt his tongue lap lightly over her skin, to taste, yearning. It made her shiver. Heat speared through her like lightning, from her throat to her core. Her pussy clenched tightly around his fingers even as her nipples grew harder, if that were possible.

  Was she really going to do it? If she didn’t she was going to come any minute

  She could feel Julian’s teeth. The sharp canines caressed her carotid artery as Nico’s did her jugular. Sensation sent another swift jolt of exhilaration through her.

  Rafi’s body throbbed, became one aching pulse point as they stroked and teased her. Pleasure ran through her in waves, building as they guided her to a settee, eased her down onto it. Suddenly, nothing else mattered other than the sweet bliss that gathered inside her. She quivered, her body tightening as ecstasy welled within her.