The Vampire Laird (A Ravynne Sisters Paranormal Mystery/Romance)

by Merabeth James

  He laughed. “Which I will do as soon as I get you out of those... what do you call that garment you are wearing?”

  “PJs....pajamas,” she told him.

  “And with little cats on them....” he murmured, poking one with an exploratory finger.

  “Kittens actually.”

  “I like kittens, too, shall I see if I can make you purr.” He kissed the inside of her wrist and a moan slipped through her lips. God help her, she thought, she was going to melt again like butter in a hot pan!“ So you like that? Let us see what else makes you purr,” he whispered huskily as he looked deeply into her eyes, then dropped his gaze to her parted lips. She felt a hot flush invade her and strange, unfamiliar sensations began to pulse in her lower belly. Suddenly she was afraid...very afraid...but not of him. She was afraid of herself...afraid of the aching need that was stealing over her, making her want something she could not even name. It must be lust, she thought. She’d read about it, but that was as close as she ever got to what she was feeling now.

  Again, he seemed to read her thoughts. “You think too much. Sometimes your body is wiser than your head. Let yourself feel all that I would do without guilt or question. Tis only a dream, Meg. Yield to me.” But Meg still struggled. She hadn’t been raised to behave like a wanton with the first vampire that came along, had she? She couldn’t help the giggle that followed that thought. He raised one black brow and asked, “You find me amusing?”

  “Not you. This whole situation is....”

  “You also talk too much,” he added, then stifled her reply with a kiss that effectively silenced the tiny nagging voice in her head. She was lost and she didn’t care, so she returned his kiss with all her new found passion. As his mouth moved over hers, his fingers began to work the buttons on her pajamas. She gasped as his hand slid inside and cupped her breast. He groaned deep in his throat and murmured, “Lie still, lass. I need you more than you can ken.” And that was her undoing. He needed her. She lay back with a sigh and surrendered herself completely.

  His gray eyes were dark with passion, his breathing ragged, as he undressed her until she lay before him flushed with her own desire. She should have felt ashamed, but she didn’t. She felt beautiful...truly beautiful and she knew he thought so, too. It was in his eyes and in his touch. He lowered his body and let his weight settle into her. He was hot and heavy and she relished both. Propped on his arms, his smouldering gray eyes were only a breath away. “Meg.” he muttered hoarsely and swooped down to cover her mouth with his. He kissed her again fiercely...hungrily…and she opened her mouth to his invasion, letting him plunder at will as she met his tongue with her own. She was awash in sensation as her body spasmed in response to his mouth...his hands...the press of his hard muscled body. She writhed beneath him as her need deepened and her hands clawed at his back and shoulders impatiently.

  He laughed and sat back on his heels. “I have just begun. Be patient. You have never been loved, have you Meg?”

  She shook her head not wanting to remember all the nights she had stared at the ceiling after Mitch had rolled off and gone to sleep. She didn’t want to think at all. And then she couldn’t, as he began to explore every inch of her with his mouth, hands, and tongue.

  He nibbled and kissed his way down her throat...laved her nipples and belly, then dropped between her thighs. She almost lifted off the bed when his finger found her pleasure nub and she cried out in surprise. She hadn’t even known she had one of those!

  He laughed again and inserted a finger into her hot swollen folds. Then two. He smiled down at her then slid up along her length and whispered in her ear, “Time to ‘sheath my engorged manhood in your throbbing depths’ as promised” and he did.

  He moved slowly, letting her body adjust to his size, but she wanted all of him. She needed him to fill her completely. Digging her nails into his back, she urged him on. He laughed huskily and thrust himself to the hilt deep into her clenching, hot depths. He began to move...faster and faster... and she went with him. The tension that coiled deep inside her built and built, tighter and tighter, as Grey rode on and then she shattered in release, screaming his name, as pleasure engulfed her...a pleasure so intense she wouldn’t have believed it possible.. Her inner muscles were still clenching in intense after shocks, when she heard his hoarse cry and felt the pulse of his own release.

  He lay quietly on top of her, his breathing ragged, his heart pounding against her own. Then he slid upward and whispered in her ear. “I won’t hurt you, Meg. I need what you can give me. Do you understand?” and then his hot mouth found her throat. She expected pain but there was only a strange piercing sweetness. Pinning her hands above her head, he moaned deeply and began to...

  “Meg! Meg! Wake up! What’s wrong with you? I heard you moaning all the way from my room,” Charlie cried, looking down at her in alarm.

  Meg could only stare blankly for a long moment as reality took its time returning, then swung her legs off the bed and rushed to the bathroom. “I just had a nightmare. I’m fine, really, Charlie,” she said over her shoulder, as she closed the door in her astonished sister’s face.

  She leaned against its support for a long moment then crossed to the bathroom mirror. She had thought she would look different somehow. Maybe see a big red "V" blazoned across her forehead, but she looked just like Meg. Sleep tousled Meg in the cat pajamas she had thought would be cozy on a cold night in the Highlands.. She checked her neck and snorted. Nothing there either...not even a hickey. It had all been just a dream. Nothing had changed. Well...almost nothing, she thought with a wry grimace. She had had the most fantastic orgasm imaginable and could still feel its residuals. Better than the ones they wrote about in those romance novels Grey seemed so fond of. Smiling to herself, she headed for the shower...a nice cold one.

  ***

  Charlie was already dressed and sitting on her bed when she finally came back in the room. “Meg?” was all she said.

  “I had a strange dream, Charlie. Nothing to worry about. We have enough on our plates already. How’s Allyn?”

  Charlie shook loose her long silver blonde hair and regathered it into a ponytail, as she said wryly, “Still sleeping under the bed, though I did hear him get up once and go to the bathroom. We’ve got to get out of here tonight if we can find a way. And no more trays from the kitchen. They may try to ‘zombiefy’ us like they did him.”

  “What are we going to do about Daryna? She’s sure to show up to make our beds and clean our rooms? Every time we’ve told her we’d rather do it ourselves, she’s told us she must do it or she would get in trouble...or something like that. You’re the only one who can understand most of what she says.”

  Charlie stood and took a turn around the room as she said, “I’ve been thinking about that. We’ll have to keep both my doors locked. You could try telling her that I had insomnia and went on a cleaning binge or something. She won’t know just how unlikely that possibility is. I’ll leave it to your often too fertile imagination. You can let her do your room and hope Allyn has enough sense to keep quiet.”

  As if on cue, the connecting door opened and Allyn stood there yawning. “Did I hear my name mentioned? What’s going on? I wake up and find myself under a strange bed.”

  Charlie couldn’t help but say, “Like that hasn’t happened before.”

  He smiled lopsidedly and scratched his belly. “Usually not under the bed, but otherwise, sister dear, you are insufferably right as always. But what gives? I remember only bits of last night and I feel like hell. Worse than hell. Where’s Orianna? If she finds me here, wherever ‘here’ is, it won’t go well for you guys. She’s promised me she’d kill you if I tried to contact you.”

  “Too late to worry about that now. You are with us and we’re all going to get out of here tonight. Details to be developed. Your job is to hide in my room...the one you just came out of...and keep quiet. I’m going down to get us some breakfast. Do you think you could eat something?” Charlie asked, eying her b
rother speculatively.

  “Not likely. You two meddling about is only going to make things worse, you know. I just want to throw up and go to sleep. And be left alone to do it all in peace.”

  “Fine...you do that...only do it quietly. I’m leaving, Meg. Make sure Allyn is tucked away before you open the door to Daryna, if she should get here before I do. Take her tray and we’ll flush it later.”

  Meg walked her to the door and Charlie slipped out into the hall. Just ahead a door clicked shut and she smiled. Their guard was watching from a room up the hall.

  She found her way to the breakfast room and was glad to find it empty. So far so good, she thought, as she began to load two plates with food. A sudden prickle of awareness warned her she was no longer alone and she whirled to find Seth standing in the doorway, wearing the same kilt he’d worn on their arrival. She offered him a smile she was far from feeling.

  He smiled, thinly, in return and pulled back a chair, then gestured for her to be seated. “I’m glad to see you down for breakfast, Charlie, and quite hungry from the look of things.”

  “I’m taking breakfast up to my sister. As you may know she hurt her ankle and can’t bear weight on it.”

  He moved to her side and his green eyes brushed slowly over her, until they rested on her full mouth. There was more than a trace of mockery in his words, when he replied, “So I’ve heard. Daryna was preparing a tray for her just a few minutes ago as I came through the kitchen, so you see your efforts are totally unnecessary.”

  “I’m surprised his lordship would deign to visit someplace as mundane as the kitchen. Perhaps some last minute detail you were seeing to?”

  He laughed then and ran one lean finger down the side of her jaw. “You really are too beautiful to play the porcupine all the time. Why don’t we call a truce...maybe find a way to enjoy each other? I can think of several.”

  She moved out of his reach before she replied. “In order to declare a ‘truce’, we would have had to declare a war. Something I haven’t done as yet. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I really want to bring breakfast up to my sister.”

  But he was not dissuaded that easily. He moved closer again until she could almost feel his heat. He was tall and powerfully built. A man not used to being challenged. Gray eyes met green, as she shoved the filled plates between them and began to move towards the door, forcing him to take a step back or risk the consequences. He laughed as she brushed past him. “As you may have noticed, the fog has lifted and I thought we might go riding. There are some lovely views along the cliffs. We could ride up to Blood Castle and I could show you a bit more of my holdings.”

  She turned slowly and faced him. She was fencing with a very dangerous man and it probably wasn’t very smart, she thought, but she just couldn’t seem to help herself. “What a delightful idea for anyone else but the Ravynne sisters. I’m afraid riding is quite out of the question. My sister and I are city girls and have never been near a horse except at our cousin’s fifth birthday party, where a pony bit Meg. Quite a nasty bite that required twenty stitches. She has had a horror of the beasts ever since, which I quite share since I witnessed the whole ugly scene. Now if you’ll excuse me, I would like to see to my sister. She needs help getting about and may need to use the...well you know. Good day, and thank you for your offer to take me up to Blood Castle. I’m sure you would have made it a very interesting experience.”

  He held the door open for her and smiled wickedly. “Interesting hardly begins to describe what I had in mind for you, but there will be other opportunities. That much I can promise you. Give my regards to the invalid. Perhaps I will see you later in the day?”

  Not if I can help it, she thought, as she brushed past him and out into the hall. He hadn't mentioned Allyn once. Clearly, he didn't want them to know he was missing. Their interest in his where abouts would prove an encumbrance he didn't welcome.

  ***

  Charlie hurried back upstairs, juggling the two plates with mixed success. She swore lightly under her breath as a sausage bounced off a plate and rolled past a man she didn’t recognize, fixing a wall sconce too close to Meg’s door. Had he been eavesdropping? He nodded as she passed and she thrust one plate at him. “Hold this, please, so I can open the door. My sister is confined to bed and I’ve brought her breakfast. Well, most of it. You’ll find a run away sausage almost under your feet. I would hate for someone to have a fall.”

  She opened the door and reached for the second plate, then stepped inside and kicked the door shut behind her. Meg was standing just out of sight, a bundle of pillows piled high in the bed behind her. Charlie handed her a plate and ‘shushed’ her before she could speak, then lead her away from the door to a side table next to the fireplace. Setting her burden down, she whispered, “There is someone just outside the door. Allyn hasn’t been in here with you, has he?”

  Meg set her own plate down and whispered back, “No...he’s asleep again. I just checked on him after Daryna left. I had just flushed what looked like a very good breakfast, when I heard you coming?”

  “So Daryna’s been here already. Did she seem suspicious, when you told her that she wasn’t to do my room?”

  “I babbled something that seemed to satisfy her. She probably doesn’t understand me any better than I understand her, but she did seem more frightened than usual. I think she must have heard that Allyn is missing. I wish we could trust her.”

  “That makes two of us. It would be a lot easier if we had at least one ally we could count on,” Charlie muttered.

  “There’s Angus. In a pinch, he would help us, not that my judgment is infallible as we both know.”

  Charlie didn’t reply. Crossing to the adjoining door, she slipped inside her room and checked on Allyn, whowas was still asleep under the bed. Returning to Meg’s room, she pulled a fork out of her pocket and handed it to her sister. “Might as well dig in. This may be our only meal of the day unless I can wheedle something out of the cook later.”

  Meg twisted her mouth to one side and poked a black spotted mass speculatively. “I recognize everything but this. What do you suppose it is?”

  “Well, it’s not haggis and, strategically placed, it sort of held everything else on the plate except for the sausage that landed in the hall. Try it. You might like it.”

  Meg poked it again and grimaced. “You try it first. You even liked the haggis. Did you run into anybody downstairs?”

  “Seth. He asked about you. He also asked me to go riding...take a tour of Blood Castle.”

  Meg was glad Charlie couldn’t hear the sudden rapid rise in her heart rate. “And you said?” she asked as casually as she could manage.

  “I told him we were both afraid of horses...that you’d been bitten as a child and still had the scar on your butt.”

  “You didn’t tell him that!”

  “Not the last part anyway. I certainly didn’t tell him we love to ride...that Sage had insisted we learn when we came to visit them as teens and that Allyn is a natural. He’d have guards posted all over the stable. The more I’ve thought about it the more I’m convinced that our only way out of here is on horseback.”

  “But a car would be a lot easier on Allyn.....” Meg said thoughtfully as she forked up a bit of egg.

  “The roads will be blocked, Meg, or I should say goat track…single not plural. There’s only one way out of here unless we could fly.”

  Meg laughed. “Don’t even tell me that ‘flying’ isn’t another one of your accomplishments.”

  “I’m afraid not. But you’re right about Allyn. I’m not sure how long we can keep him in the saddle. How’s your ankle this morning...and don’t lie to me. I really need to know.”

  Meg stretched her leg and flexed her toes. “Seems fine. No lie. You can count me in on whatever needs to be done.”

  “Right now the most you can do for our cause is continue to be the invalid. No one will expect us to get far if they think you’re still injured and Allyn’s still a zombie.”
<
br />   Meg laughed softly. “Which he still is! And a rather irritating one. Let’s stick him in the shower and get some food down him. Some of this black stick-to-the-ribs stuff. He can try it first.”

  “How cruel, Meg, and here all this time I thought you were the nice Ravynne sister. But a shower and some food is a good idea. Do you have any thoughts on how we will cover his screams?”

  Meg gave her best imitation of a heinous laugh then said, “I have a sock I could donate! And it’s even clean.”

  Charlie laughed and twirled her nonexistent villains moustache. “Allyn will never know what hit him! Later on I’ll slip down to the library and see if I can get my hands on that gun and maybe the satellite phone. We need help, Meg. The Ravynne sisters have almost more on their hands than they can deal with.”

  Meg smiled her brightest smile. “I’m glad you said 'almost'. I have no doubt we’ll come through all this just fine!”

  Charlie smiled and yanked a fat curl. "You're lying through your teeth, Meg, but thank you. I needed to hear that."

  ***

  Though he had whined non-stop, they did manage to get some food down Allyn and force him into the shower. Thankfully, he managed to keep his breakfast down, and when he only wanted to crawl back under the bed and go to sleep, neither stopped him. He would need every bit of strength he could muster, if they were going to get through the coming night.

  It was just before noon when Charlie decided she would make a try for the library. Making sure her siblings were out of sight, she opened the door and stepped into the hall, where a maid watched her, surreptitiously, as she ‘dusted’ the paintings that dotted the paneled walls. She returned the woman's cold smile as she passed. .At the top of the stairs, she paused long enough to scan the entry hall below, where a maid labored on her hands and knees, cleaning the black and white tiles. Her back was turned towards Charlie and she was singing softly to herself, as she worked.