by Tina Donahue
Why not stay through the weekend? She could learn more about Kaspan and when she returned home, write an exposé about him as she’d planned. Of course, she’d have to edit out the vampire stuff…and the bloodline stuff…and the crazy baby-making plan. That didn’t leave much juicy gossip to spill. Without those elements, there was only a wealthy businessman hanging out at his tropical retreat.
She squatted in the sand and dug with half of a clamshell, watching the water fill the pit she made. Her mind careened all over the place, trying to fix on one aspect of his crazy tale and have it make sense. As shocked as she was about vampires existing, what really got her was the idea of Ra, a god, for God’s sake, as her ancestor. It was preposterous but utterly fascinating. Maybe she needed to learn more about this prophecy thing.
“I’m sorry.”
An unexpected voice beside her made her screech, drop the shell and leap to her feet. She slapped a hand to her chest. “Are you trying to give me a heart attack?”
“I apologize.” Jacob’s eyes reflected the sunlight, making them bluer than the ocean. “I lost my temper, something I rarely do.”
She believed that, having gotten the impression he was usually firmly in control of his emotions. “That’s okay. I press buttons. It’s what I do. I shouldn’t have said that about Hitler. I’m sure Kaspan is a great guy. He supports about half the charities on the planet.”
Her head was tipped back in order to look up into his face. The angle, coupled with their bodies’ proximity, made it feel like she was waiting for him to lean down and kiss her. Their gazes locked while the surf rhythmically washed the shore and seagulls screeched overhead. There was no denying the attraction between them. She’d felt it that night at the supermarket and again from the moment she saw him at the airport. A subtle thread stitched them together every time they were near each other.
Akila reached out a tentative hand and rested it against his chest. His heart beat as steadily as the incoming waves. Thud, thud, thud, filling up her senses and drawing her closer still. Her toes dug into the sand as she rose up.
His eyes widened and he seemed suddenly younger and uncertain, a man who perhaps wasn’t used to women coming on to him—surprising, since he was so attractive. She liked his hesitation. It gave her the courage to slide a hand around the back of his neck and pull his head down to hers. She heard his small gasp before she fastened her lips over his and softly plucked at his mouth.
Jacob’s hands encircled her waist, holding her steady as she leaned into him. For a moment, he acquiesced to her kiss, then his mouth opened and he kissed her back.
Their tongues met, slicking around each other, and electricity shot through Akila. The taste of him left her hungry for more. Her body thrummed with the low voltage that passed between his body and hers. She’d never experienced anything quite like the rising need inside her, a sudden flare like a spike in a heart monitor.
Jacob’s hands moved below her waist, cupping her ass and pulling her tighter against him. She felt his hardness nudging her crotch, escalating the heat there. He groaned quietly into her mouth and their kiss deepened from sensual exploration to passionate hunger.
She gripped his shoulder with one hand and drove the other through his hair to cup the back of his head. Her tender breasts smashed flat against his solid chest and her entire body throbbed. It was too intense, too soon, too crazy.
Akila broke it off, pushing her hand against his chest to propel herself back from him. She stood in the moist, cool sand, panting. His lust-glazed eyes seemed as shocked as she felt. He wiped a hand over his lips, as though wiping away—or capturing—her kiss.
“I’m sorry,” Akila said. “I don’t know why I did that.”
He shook his head. “No. It’s…”
God, she was humiliated. She could sink into the sand right now and let the tide wash her away. But even in the midst of embarrassment, her body still clamored for more. More of those kisses, more of the way he’d held her, the solidity of his body in her arms, more of his scent, his taste. His cock. She wanted to see his erection, not just feel it pressed against her. Another shudder of lust passed through her.
Akila crossed her arms over her chest and began to walk down the beach. “Maybe you should show me the rest of the property. Or the house.” Or maybe she should go to her room and hide, get entirely away from this man to whom she seemed to have an uncontrollable attraction.
“Yes.” He strode alongside her, but several yards away, and blurted random facts about the island as they walked from the beach to the interior. The vegetation grew thick around the narrow path through the trees.
“Before Mr. Kaspan purchased the island, it was uninhabited except by wildlife. He’s kept as much untouched as possible, a preserve for local species of reptiles and birds.”
“Reptiles?” Akila scanned for alligators that might pop out of the underbrush.
“Various kinds of lizards and frogs, except frogs are amphibians.” Jacob was suddenly babbling, and she realized he was covering his own embarrassment at what had happened between them, trying to pretend his cock hadn’t been pushing insistently into her crotch.
Clearly having sex with Jacob wouldn’t be a burden for either of them if she were really to follow through on Kaspan’s plan. As if she would. To be impregnated with a child? Crazy! And how in the world would it be Valarian’s anyway?
“Tell me more about this thrall thing.” She interrupted Jacob. “What does it mean that you share his blood? Why doesn’t that turn you into a…what he is?”
Jacob stopped walking and stared at the scarlet blooms that dotted a bush beside the path. “To become a vampire, one must be drained nearly to death and then ingest a large amount of blood from a donor. After a long, coma-like sleep, a period of hibernation during which the body alters and the blood changes, the person has become a vampire. But a thrall…is something different.”
He stopped talking and Akila waited. Even she was able to hold her tongue once in a while. Right now, she could tell it was difficult for Jacob to speak about what had happened to him. She gave him time to formulate the words.
“I met Mr. Kaspan in Germany toward the end of the war.” He glanced at Akila. “The second World War. I was in a camp, in bad shape. He freed me, fed me and then made me an offer. He needed someone to serve him since his previous thrall had been killed. Valarian showed me his fangs and explained what becoming his servant would mean.”
Akila could barely breathe as she listened to his voice, as quiet as if he was in a confessional. The birds calling in the trees were louder than Jacob.
“I had no illusions. I agreed to it. I welcomed the chance to repay him for his kindness.” He paused. “Besides, I had no one left to go home to.”
“How does it work?” she asked softly.
“A vow and an exchange of blood, although not enough to turn the chosen one into a vampire. I suppose you would call it a covenant. I will serve him until I die.”
“But what do you get from this arrangement?”
“Long life, health, strength, protection and a bond you could not begin to understand. I owed Valarian my life. I was happy to give it back to him. In return, he helped me accomplish something I was determined to do.”
Jacob began walking again, signaling he was through discussing the topic.
Akila trailed after him. “May I ask one more thing?”
“Could I stop you?” he said dryly.
“What’s Kaspan’s story? How long has he been alive? When was he turned and how?”
“That is his story to tell. You must ask him,” was the unsatisfactory reply.
She would indeed. There was a goldmine of a story here that spanned years and continents, life-changing experiences and deep emotions. She was determined to extract the gold if she had to chip away the rock piece by piece.
Unending Desire
Tina Donahue
His hunger for one woman will make him a traitor to his world…
Outlawed Realm, Book 1
From a portal in his lab on E2, one of the five dimensions of Earth, quantum physicist Nikoli Zorr gazes on everything forbidden to him. Passion. Desire. The exquisite pleasure of running his hands over the lush curves of a young woman he should have stopped watching weeks ago.
His duty is to close the portals that keep the monsters out of E2—and never interfere with the inevitable fate of those on the other side. Yet he can’t bring himself to abandon the woman who has captured his soul.
Psychologist Regina Page is trying to keep her mind on her client, and off the mysterious, unbearable sexual cravings that consume her when she’s alone in her bedroom. The next moment she’s attacked by vampires, then swept into another realm by a stranger whose touch awakens that same raw desire. Whose eyes are already filled with farewell.
Yet beneath their undeniable carnal lust, something else stirs. The beginnings of illicit love. The unexpected need to protect him. Even if it means risking body, blood and soul to defeat the merciless horde…for a future that was never meant to be.
Warning: Contains a repressed scientist who likes to look, and the woman who delights in unleashing his inner caveman. And sex hot enough to burn a hole in all three dimensions…and maybe create a whole new one.
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This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental.
Samhain Publishing, Ltd.
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Unending Desire
Copyright © 2011 by Tina Donahue
ISBN: 978-1-60928-540-1
Edited by Linda Ingmanson
Cover by Scott Carpenter
All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
First Samhain Publishing, Ltd. electronic publication: October 2011
www.samhainpublishing.com
