Compelled

by D. B. Reynolds

  Deciding the computers could work without her for a while, she draped the towel on the rack in the bathroom, then crossed the compact room and slid beneath the sheets next to Raphael, resting her head on the solid muscle of his shoulder, draping one leg over his hip. Even in daylight sleep, he was still a presence. It was as if he was simply too much in the world for something as ordinary as sleep to stifle his energy. She curled her arm over his chest and breathed deeply for what felt like the first time in hours. She was never more at peace than when she was with him. Closing her eyes, she drifted almost immediately into a deep sleep.

  She woke a few hours later when the familiar weight of Raphael’s arm dropped over her back, and his deep voice rumbled in her ear, “You showered.”

  “Of course, I showered,” she muttered grumpily. “The last thing I need is you sniffing and licking me all over, trying to get rid of the smell of sorcerer.”

  He chuckled, low and deep. “You’re in a mood,” he said, then rolled over, tucking her beneath him before leaning down to trail his tongue over her neck. “You don’t like my tongue on you?”

  Cyn flexed hard, shoving him onto his back as she followed, ending up with her legs straddling his hips. “I love everything you do with your tongue,” she murmured, leaning over to brush her breasts against his chest as she licked his mouth, tangling her tongue briefly with his in a hard kiss. “But I have better uses for it than licking imaginary sorcerer taint off my skin.” She bit his lower lip, then let him pull her into a longer kiss, his fingers digging into her hips as she rocked back and forth on top of him. His cock was already hard beneath her, a firm ridge over his belly as she ground against him.

  Raphael growled, his fingers tightening as his hands moved down to cup her ass. She could feel his muscles bunching, ready to throw her onto the bed and take her, could read the determination in his dark eyes as he watched her from beneath half-lowered eyelids, his gaze unwavering, like a predator watching its prey.

  Cyn gave him a wicked grin. “Unh uh. This is my turn,” she taunted, then slid down his body, her hard nipples scraping over his chest and belly, before she squeezed her breasts together to cradle the length of his erection as she slid down even further, her bare pussy wet against his firm thigh, her hair slipping over his groin when she finally took him in her mouth.

  Raphael hissed his pleasure, his strong fingers twisting in her hair, tugging until she could feel the burn in her scalp. She twirled her tongue around the tip of his shaft, lifting her gaze to find him staring down at her, not meeting her eyes, but staring at her lips as they surrounded his hard cock, watching the wet slide of her mouth up and down. Gripping him at the base, she squeezed his thickness, while she teased the swollen tip, gliding her tongue around and down, licking up the drop of pre-cum. Sucking hard, she took him fully into her mouth, her fingers sliding down to cup his balls as she stroked her tongue along the sensitive underside of his penis, from base to tip, and then again, letting him feel the press of her teeth before sucking him deep into her throat.

  Raphael’s muscles clenched, fighting the urge to take control, to force her to swallow his cock while he thrust hard and deep. Cyn took him as far as she could, humming her pleasure at the taste of his satin skin, the iron thickness of his erection, knowing the sound would vibrate along the sensitive nerves of his cock, thrumming over his wet skin.

  She rolled her eyes up to look at him again, meeting his hungry stare.

  “Cyn,” he growled in warning, and she knew her time was limited. Raphael was as alpha a male as she’d ever known, willing to surrender to her for only so long before he was driven to seize control.

  Her fingers tightened around the base of his cock as she swallowed, taking more of him until her lips met her fingers. Then she swallowed again, sliding him deep into her throat as he threw his head back and groaned. She held him there, filling her throat, caressing his length as she swallowed over and over again, his muscles turning to rock beneath her. She waited as long as she could, until she ran out of air, and then she released him, forcing herself to go slowly, sucking and licking as she lifted her head, her cheeks hollowing out as she worked his length in and out of her mouth.

  His balls tightened in the cup of her fingers, his cock swelled between her lips, and she knew he was close to coming. She wanted the heat and taste of him, wanted to revel in the knowledge that she could break that rigid control of his, could make him lose it entirely.

  But this was Raphael. With a growled curse, he pulled her off of his cock and flipped her to her back, shoving her knees to her chest and spreading her thighs as he drove his hips forward, slamming his cock into her soaking wet pussy, pistoning in and out with absolute focus. His eyes gleamed silver in the low light, his fangs bared in a thrilling snarl of heat and hunger. The sight of him thrusting above her nearly made her come, but she held out. Not yet, not yet.

  She moaned a hunger of her own, nails digging into his powerful biceps, feeling his muscles flex every time he pumped his cock deep inside her and dragged it back out again. He leaned forward without breaking the rhythm of his thrusts, and shoved his face into the curve of her neck, his tongue rasping over her sweat-dampened skin in a sensuous glide from her throat to her ear until his lips closed over her jugular vein and pulled gently, toying with her, knowing what she wanted.

  Rumbling a wordless curse, he struck without warning, his fangs slicing through her skin and into her vein. She cried out in pain even as the euphoric in his bite shot into her veins in a searing flood of heat and desire. The orgasm crashed over her in a rush of unimaginable sensation, her pussy clenching around his cock, her abdominal muscles contracting so hard it hurt. Blood ran down his arms as her nails dug in, as he kept sucking her vein, kept driving his cock into her body as the orgasm consumed her.

  Cyn bit her tongue to keep from screaming, agonizingly aware, as her own blood filled her mouth, of the many sensitive vampire ears far too close. Raphael drew in a noisy breath, his nostrils flaring against her skin as he scented the fresh blood. He lifted his head, tonguing away the wound in her neck as he kept fucking her, licking his way up to her mouth and closing his lips over hers as he drank in the blood from her damaged tongue. He came suddenly and hard, and Cyn swallowed the groan of his climax as his cock bucked inside her, his release filling her with warm, wet jets of cum.

  Raphael collapsed finally, his full weight coming down on her as she stretched her legs wide, and then wrapped them around his hips. He licked the inside of her mouth lazily, gathering up the last bit of blood from her injured tongue with slow, soft sweeps, before lifting his head to murmur sweet words of Russian against her lips. Then he pressed his mouth against hers in a kiss that lasted long enough that his still-firm cock reacted deep inside her. She raised her arms to circle his neck, and he rolled them over, his cock pulling out as he tucked her tight against his side. She flung a leg over his hip, her pussy wet against the searing heat of his skin.

  He didn’t say anything, and neither did she. Words weren’t necessary. The two of them were connected, by blood or magic or whatever anyone wanted to call it. She and Raphael beat with one heart, dreamed with one soul.

  They lay that way until the sounds all around them intruded. The gentle bounce of the plane as his vampires woke, the voices, human and vampire, as his team transitioned from day to night.

  “Are we leaving this place?” he asked finally. And Cyn knew what he was asking. He wanted to know what she and Nick had discovered. Had they found their missing guard or, even better, the buyer of the cursed manacles? And how long before they could finish this task and go home to Malibu?

  “I need to check my computers,” she said lazily, her voice still thick with sated desire.

  Raphael chuckled, a sound full of male satisfaction. To the world at large, he was a powerful vampire lord, someone to respect and fear. But in bed, he was just a guy. A guy wit
h uncommon sexual skills to be sure, but still a guy who took smug pride in having his woman draped over his body, her pussy still pulsing with leftover tremors from the climax he’d given her, her voice heavy with delicious contentment.

  She stroked her hand down over his ridged abdomen, past his flat belly, and circled his cock with her fingers. He stiffened almost instantly, in every way, and she gave her own version of a satisfied chuckle.

  Raphael slapped her ass. “Behave or we’ll be here all night.”

  “Would that be a bad thing?”

  “Only because I want to put this ordeal behind us.”

  “Hmmm. Point taken,” she agreed. She permitted herself a final stroke of his very fine cock, and then patted his belly and sat up. “I, um, borrowed Gary’s mom’s phone while we were at the house and kept it long enough to get a few phone numbers. We should have a location by now, and maybe more.” She slid from the bed as Raphael’s fingers trailed over her ass, teasing between her cheeks. “Now who’s not behaving,” she scolded, then turned away with a grin and crossed the short distance to where her computers were still hard at work.

  She detoured to the bathroom and grabbed a towel to sit on, keenly aware of the sticky wetness between her thighs. No complaints.

  Sitting in front of her computers, she saw that while they were both humming along, the hard work had already been done. Her search bot was still scouring the ether looking for tidbits of info on Gary, Jr., but it had already found most of what was out there. Her other system, meanwhile, was now locked onto his cell phone, which had been pinging off the same cell tower for the last twenty-four hours. Gary, Jr. might be a great soldier—she didn’t know either way—but he wasn’t all that good at hiding out. Or maybe they were wrong, and he wasn’t hiding at all. Maybe he was taking a nice spa vacation, celebrating his ill-gotten windfall from the manacles.

  “We’ve got Gary, Jr.,” she said over her shoulder.

  “Who the fuck is Gary, Jr.?” Raphael rumbled from right behind her.

  Sneaky vampire. She forced herself not to react. “Gary Briley, Jr.,” she told him. “The guy who snagged the manacles, and who, we’re now pretty sure, has sold them.”

  Raphael lifted her bodily from the chair and sat down so he could see the computer screens. “Sold them to whom?” he asked, ignoring her outraged stare. “They’d have no real value unless the buyer knew what they were.”

  “Exactly,” she agreed, then silently picked up the laptop and walked back to sit on the bed.

  Raphael grinned and joined her on the bed, bumping hips as he sat down.

  She elbowed some room for herself, then continued. “The manacles were offered at auction on a darknet site. Transactions are private, but we know that the manacles’ listing was pulled, which suggests they were sold already. That means Briley must have seen the buyer at least briefly for the exchange of money and goods.”

  He studied the screen. “You’re using his cell phone to locate him. But how do you know he’s with his phone? Maybe someone else is using it.”

  “Ah, but Junior is a momma’s boy. He calls home every day like clockwork. Sometimes more than once. And Mom’s calling him back, too.”

  “Let’s go get him then.” He stood. “You can shower while I shave.” Normally they’d shower together, but the plane’s stall wasn’t big enough for their usual shower time activities.

  “Okay.” She reached over and snagged her phone from the bedside. “Let me call Nick—” She managed to bring up Nick’s number, but didn’t get any further before Raphael snatched the phone from her hand.

  “Why do we need him?”

  “Because we’re working this together,” she said patiently. “And because he knows more about these magical manacles than we do. Unless you’re holding out on me?”

  His lip curled in disgust, but he hit the call button on her phone. She reached for the phone, but managed only to tap the speaker button before he yanked it away.

  “Raphael,” she said impatiently.

  “Cyn baby.” Nick’s cheerful voice came over the speaker. “Are you ready to run away with me?”

  “Don’t push your luck, sorcerer,” Raphael growled.

  “Oh. It’s you. Where’s Cyn?”

  “I’m right here,” she called, ignoring Raphael’s glare. “I’ve locked onto Gary Briley’s location. He’s a couple of towns over, and my guess is that he’s living at a motel and spending most of his time at the same one or two establishments. Restaurants probably, given the time pattern.”

  “You discovered all of that from a cell phone?”

  “Gary’s not exactly going to be winning his Boy Scout badge for covert action. He’s obviously homesick, calling his mom a few times a day, and even his dad once or twice.”

  “I have to say, I’m deeply dismayed to discover that Anna Briley lied to us,” Nick said with false sincerity.

  “Well, he’s her baby boy. I’ve heard that mothers do that.”

  “I wouldn’t know,” he muttered.

  “Yeah? Well, neither would I,” she agreed. “Is there any—”

  “We’re leaving within the hour,” Raphael interrupted. “You can meet us there.”

  Cyn opened her mouth to argue that they should all go together, but the words died unsaid. First, because she and Raphael were in Kansas City, not in Lawrence as Nick had been led to believe. But second, and more importantly, because Raphael was giving her a death glare that promised all sorts of retribution if she made the offer. She supposed he had a point. And besides, sharing a ride with Raphael and Nick would be sheer hell. She’d end up getting out of the vehicle and walking, while the two of them went their merry way together.

  “I’ll text you the location, Nick,” she said instead. “It’s a small town, so you might want to think about renting a different car for the trip. Something that will blend in.”

  “Oh right, because the vampire and his blacked-out SUV convoy is low key,” Nick scoffed.

  “Don’t worry,” he added, before she could say anything. “I’ll blend, and I’ll see you there.”

  “Okay, I’m sending—” But Nick was gone. Raphael tossed her phone on the bed and grabbed her wrist, tugging her into the bathroom. He turned on the shower, letting it heat up.

  “There’s not enough hot water,” he snapped. “We’ll have to share.”

  “Raphael, there’s no room.”

  “There’s enough,” he growled and stepped into the stall, pulling her in after him.

  Once they were in, though, he started laughing. He couldn’t even close the damn door all the way. Cyn was slender enough, but Raphael was a very big guy. They could barely move, and with the hot water filling the small cubicle with steam, it was like groping in a sauna.

  “I told you,” she said with a grin. Raphael didn’t laugh like that very often.

  He rested his forehead against hers. “I hate it when you talk to him.”

  “I know. But I don’t know why. I’m yours, fang boy. You’re stuck with me.”

  “My heart knows that, but my gut wants to kill every man who’s ever touched you.”

  “Aw, that’s romantic . . . in a creepy, stalkerish sort of way.”

  His hand moved behind her, and he swore. “Fuck, there isn’t even enough room in here to slap your ass properly.” He shoved the shower door all the way open and stepped out of the stall. “You shower, I’ll shave.”

  “In other words, back to the original plan.”

  “You know, you and your ass will eventually have to leave that cramped shower stall.”

  Cyn shivered dramatically. “I’m so scared.”

  Raphael shut the shower door with a muttered, “Smartass.”

  Chapter Five

  NICK MADE A right turn into the coffee shop parking lot, but
not before double-checking the in-dash GPS to be sure he’d entered the address correctly. Cyn hadn’t told him where they were meeting. She’d just texted an address in a town about sixty miles northwest of Lawrence. He’d assumed it would be some shadowy motel parking lot, though he didn’t know why, since a coffee shop made more sense. The last thing they wanted to do was spook Gary Briley into running. Or at least trying to run. Nick was pretty sure that between him and Raphael, they could stop the murdering little weasel from getting away.

  But it was the fact that Raphael was part of the night’s festivities that made the coffee shop so unlikely. As far as Nick knew, vamps didn’t drink coffee, and they sure as hell didn’t eat pie.

  He parked the boring mid-sized SUV that he’d rented in an effort to blend in. He understood now why the vampire had gone with the big Escalade SUVs for his regular transport. At least they had some flash and powerful engines, while he’d been reduced to a mere six cylinders and cloth seats. He didn’t bother to lock the doors when he got out. Maybe someone would steal it, and he could ride back to Lawrence in one of the vampire’s SUVs, which were parked side by side at the back of the lot. Three of them. Talk about overkill.

  A little bell on the coffee shop door dinged, announcing his presence. The restaurant was crowded, and it seemed like every person turned to look at him, their gazes lingering suspiciously when they realized he wasn’t one of them. In more ways that you know, he thought smugly and made his way to a couple of booths in the back corner, which were occupied by several suspiciously large men and one stunningly attractive woman.

  “Cyn darling,” he said, ignoring everyone else as he slid onto the empty bench seat opposite her and Raphael. She just rolled her eyes and took a bite of her toast, while the vampire flexed his shoulders, drawing attention to the fact that it was his arm that was draped over the seat behind her. “Casual Friday all around, I see,” Nick commented. Much like himself, Raphael was wearing jeans. But while he’d paired his with a long-sleeved cashmere sweater, the vamp had on a leather jacket over a plain T-shirt. His bodyguards were similarly dressed—all four of them, which, given the three SUVs, meant some of vamps had remained on watch outside.