The Chosen Sin

by Anya Bast

  “I get it,” said Eleanor. “I can look but not touch.”

  “Good.” Alejandro nodded once, took Daria’s hand, and led her from the building, back to the room.

  On the path between the buildings, with the light of another damn full moon shining down on them, she was finally able to speak once more. “Thank you. That was a great performance. I doubt Eleanor will bother me anymore.”

  He glanced at her, his fangs extended and flashing white in the silvery light. “Who was performing?”

  She stopped on the path. “You were mad that Eleanor made a pass at me?”

  “Maldita sea!” He turned to face her. “I don’t want anyone but me touching you. Anyone. I don’t care what their gender is.”

  For a moment, she was pleased by his statement, pleased that he was jealous. She even smiled.

  Then she was pissed.

  “And what did you say to her when I—when I . . .”

  He grinned, looking feral. His white teeth gleamed in the half-light. “When you were about to come? I said you were mine, no one else’s. Mine to touch, mine to fuck.” He paused. “I meant it, work or no. And not just for last night, Daria, I intend you to be mine forever.”

  She was speechless for a moment. “And what about you with little Miss Marissa? She had her slutty succubare fingers all over you tonight. You get to touch anyone you want, but I can’t? Is that it?”

  “Did you want Eleanor to touch you? You looked distressed to me.”

  She had been, but not for the reasons she would have thought before the other woman had touched her. Daria had never expected to like it. She changed the subject. “You ask me that and say nothing about little Miss Marissa?”

  Any hope she’d had of continuing her denial of her feelings for Alejandro were pretty much dashed with the sharp stab of jealousy she felt.

  He stepped toward her, caught her upper arms. “I don’t want that Chosen. I only want you. Haven’t you figured that out by now? Marissa saw what I did to you along with everyone else in the room. She saw the claim I staked on you, and she won’t be bothering me anymore. I was just giving you room to get what you needed from Eleanor, but once it went too far, I went a little crazy.” His face hardened. “I don’t share well.”

  This was a dangerous conversation to have in the open. “Let’s go back to the room for the rest of this discussion.”

  “You’re right, we should.”

  He kissed her once, roughly, then backed away and led her back to their place.

  Once he’d shut the door, Daria turned. “Eleanor seemed convinced—”

  “Shut up.”

  He pushed her back onto the bed and covered her body with his. His mouth came down on hers and swallowed her gasp and all her words of protest. His erection pressed into her thigh and she realized belatedly that, yes, she’d received release at the party, but he had not. Now she had one hell of an aroused vampire on her hands.

  Not that she couldn’t handle him.

  He eased her panties down and off even as she worked the buttons on his jeans. The part of her that had turned slutty after she’d been Chosen couldn’t wait to have him inside her, even as the other part, the sane part, worried she was getting deeper and deeper into this man emotionally.

  Right now all she cared about was him getting deeper into her physically.

  He snaked off his clothes from the waist down and forced her thighs apart. “Daria, goddamn it. You’re like an addiction,” he whispered a moment before his mouth came down over hers.

  And she was happy to give him his fix.

  He pushed her skirt farther up. In their impatience, she still wore all her clothing, even her heels. He’d only bothered to yank her underwear down and off. The head of his cock pushed at her entrance and she shifted, allowing him to slide deep inside her.

  “Yes,” she breathed against the curve of his throat. “Yes, that’s it.” With her fist balled, she gently hit his shoulder and fought the urge to bite him. His cock was lodged inside her to the base and her muscles rippled as she stretched to accommodate him.

  Having him inside her was like coming home, like some part of her had gone missing and had just been found. That she would think that way was disturbing, but she would examine it later. Her hands curled around his shoulders and she held on while he pulled out then flexed the muscles of his buttocks and pushed all the way inside her to the base of him once more.

  Oh, god. She closed her eyes in ecstasy. That was even better.

  “You were excited when Eleanor touched you, weren’t you, Daria?”

  Oh, god, he wanted to make conversation? She wasn’t sure she could manage that in her current state. “Uh, yes . . . I mean, I think so.” She shook her head. “It’s the Choosing, making me open to things I wouldn’t have been okay with before.”

  His lips bussed her forehead. “Probably. It excited me to watch it.”

  “I thought it made you jealous.” Her voice sounded all breathy and aroused. He’d lodged himself in her, long, hard, and wide. He touched every intimate inch of her, possessed her, pinned her. It was driving her crazy for him to simply remain that way without moving. She had to stop herself from moving her pelvis and forcing some kind of friction.

  His fingers curled in her hair and drew her head to the side, baring the vulnerable column of her throat to him. Fangs flashed in the semi-lit room. “It did, but before I got possessive, I got turned on.” He dropped his head and scraped his teeth over her skin.

  Daria sighed and shifted beneath him. “And what about after, when you touched me that . . . way . . . in front of everyone.”

  “Are you trying to say when I made you come, Daria?” He growled and bit her a little. The prick of his teeth sent shivers down her spine. “That nearly killed me. That’s why you’re here now, beneath me.”

  She whimpered and moved her hips, managing to force his cock out of her and then back in a couple of inches. Pleasure spiked through her body, centering in her clit. “Then what are you waiting for? Fuck me.”

  He grinned ferociously. “Maybe I’m trying to make you feel as crazy as I did in there.”

  “You’ve done it. Fuck me now, Alejandro. Fuck me or I’ll scream.”

  He braced his knees on the mattress and thrust. Daria closed her eyes and gripped his shoulders. That was what she wanted. He picked up the pace, harder and faster until her whole world was only the way their bodies connected, the hard, beautiful press of flesh.

  Alejandro bit her throat. That now familiar burst of orgasmic pleasure at the strength of his veil and the pierce of his fangs rippled through her, sending her to the brink of a climax.

  Her fangs also extended. Finding the perfect place where his throat met his shoulder, she sunk in deep. He jerked in ecstasy at the sharp penetration of the tips and the furl of her veil covering him.

  Her climax rose slowly and went on and on. Over her, Alejandro also shuddered and came.

  When their climaxes had both passed, Alejandro rolled to the side and pulled her near him. They lay tangled together, their breathing harsh in the quiet air. Being that close to Alejandro after such an intimate moment was too much like being lovers. Especially when he stroked her hair the way he was, and kissed her temple. Especially after he’d declared her his before all and sundry.

  Especially since she wasn’t sure she minded.

  This was a pathway of thought fraught with danger. Daria pushed up and looked down at him. He looked taken aback at her abrupt movement. It was good they’d sated themselves. Now they could talk business without any distractions.

  “I was going to say that Eleanor seemed convinced that Sante truly loves Ari Templeton. Goddamn it.” She paused. “And she knows him really well.”

  Alejandro sighed and pushed up. “Okay. It’s one opinion.”

  “An informed one.”

  Daria rolled off the bed, took off her skirt, blouse, and shoes, and pulled on a pair of panties, sweatpants, and a T-shirt while Alejandro answered her.<
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  “We have to start considering the possibility it’s true.” He sighed. “If it’s true then we have to redouble our efforts at the factory and on the blood slave trafficking possibility, because we won’t have a kidnapping case.”

  Daria turned and paced to the window looking out into the courtyard. “Even if Sante is duping her, kidnapping would be nearly impossible to make a case of.” She let the truth of that sink in and then swore colorfully. “Either way we have nothing against Sante right now. We’re going to have to let the kidnapping thing slide.”

  Alejandro nodded. “We have to look for other avenues to nail him.”

  She turned. “I feel like there’s something, Alejandro. Don’t you? It’s not only that I think Sante can’t run this place without some sort of illegal funding, it’s that every instinct I have says they’re hiding something.”

  Alejandro nodded. “I feel it, too.”

  “There’s another issue, too—”

  Someone knocked on the door. Alejandro jumped up, pulled on his jeans, and did up his belt before he opened it to admit Brandon. “I heard you two come in,” he said as he entered. He favored Daria with an oily grin. “Thought I’d give you some time alone before I came knocking.”

  Daria looked away from him. She was liking this guy less and less.

  “We were just talking about the fact we’re going to have to leave off on the Ari Templeton kidnapping issue.” Alejandro went to stand near the wall and crossed his arms over his chest. “Early indicators are that those closest to Sante believe he and Templeton are the real deal. That means that even if Sante is playing her somehow, we don’t have a case.”

  “Either way she’s here by choice,” Daria put in bitterly.

  “Who did you talk to?” Brandon asked sharply.

  “I talked to Eleanor Matthews tonight. You probably recognize her name from the files we received. She was with Sante romantically, and has been loyal to him ever since he started the Shining Way. She and Sante share the same blood mother.”

  “Yeah.” Brandon rubbed his chin. “Try Carlos. He’s Sante’s right hand, his muscle. If any of his people know his plans, it’s that one.”

  “The thought occurred to me, too,” answered Daria. “He hates us with the fire of a thousand suns for some unknown reason, but we can do our best. In the meantime—”

  “Try to get me in,” Brandon interrupted.

  “We’re working on it,” Alejandro snapped in a voice with a sub-text that clearly said, Shut up about it already. He stood in the middle of the room barefoot, shirtless, and with his hair mussed. He looked positively edible that way to Daria. “We’re new to the inner circle and need to wait for the right moment. If we move too fast, we look suspicious. So, chill out on the issue, Brandon. We haven’t forgotten.”

  “Yeah, don’t.”

  “In the meantime,” Daria continued pointedly, “I’ll try and use my new position of honor to get me into the packing room at the factory.”

  Brandon walked to the door. “Good idea. All right, then. I’m out of here. I have some work to do of my own now.” He lifted his eyebrows and grinned. “Of the female kind. Evening.” They watched him leave, and Alejandro closed and locked the door behind him.

  “Man, I knew my gut instinct about that guy was right from the beginning,” Daria muttered. “He is a pain in the ass.”

  Strong arms took her from behind, his palm spreading flat over her lower stomach. The heat of his bare chest bled through the material of her T-shirt and warmed her back. His mouth came down by her ear and he murmured, “Forget about other men now, Daria. I want you to only think of me and what I want to do to you.”

  Daria ran out of breath. His silky voice and smooth accent rolled over her, making her cunt warm and wet. It didn’t matter that they’d just had sex. She wanted him again. Damn it all to hell. It was like she was completely powerless against him. “And what, exactly, would that be?”

  His hand slipped past the hem of her T-shirt and closed around her breast. With the pad of his finger, he teased her nipple back and forth. He dragged her earlobe between his teeth slowly, and then whispered, “To fuck you breathless. Again. You didn’t think I was done with you yet, did you?” He pulled her sweatpants down and off. Hell, she’d just put them on.

  “I’m already breathless.” She could practically hear his grin.

  Before she slipped from his arms and crawled onto the mattress, she fitted her rear into the curve of his pelvis and rubbed against his hard cock through his jeans, making him groan.

  Oh, yeah, she was getting the hang of this sex thing again.

  On the bed she lay facedown and listened to him strip the jeans off. The rustle of the garment hitting the floor was like a promise.

  He hit the light and plunged the room into darkness, but for the moonlight glowing softly through the courtyard window. In the sudden silence, she waited, the air cool on her bare legs. She wore only her panties, having already discarded the rest.

  Then he was there, breath warm and sweet along her skin. He had a long, thin piece of rope in one hand, which he looped around her wrists before she could say a word. She opened her mouth to protest, but he slipped a hand between her thighs from the rear and touched her clit. Pleasure flared through her body and she fell silent.

  He placed his mouth to the sensitive skin beneath her ear. “Do you trust me?”

  Again, this question. This complicated fucking question. It was one she had trouble answering fully. Daria trusted Alejandro to watch her back on this mission, or in a fight. She trusted him enough to let him tie her up and do delicious things to her body tonight in this bed.

  But she didn’t trust him with her heart. No. Not that. She didn’t trust him not to mind-fuck her.

  Daria didn’t trust any man not to do that.

  “Sometimes.” The word floated out like a slap to Alejandro’s face in the quiet air. “In some ways.”

  He hesitated. “It will have to be enough. For now.”

  Alejandro tied a knot around her wrists like a man who’d had a lot of practice securing women’s wrists. Momentarily, she wondered about all the things his blood mother had made him do. Tying people up had definitely been one thing. It had to be. He took his belt, threaded it around a slat in the headboard, looped the other end around the rope, and secured it.

  It left her on her knees, facedown, cheek against the mattress. He put his hand to the nape of her neck and massaged a moment, before running his palm down her back inch by slow inch, over her rear and then between her thighs.

  Through the cotton of her panties, he found her clit fully aroused and practically panting for his attention. Taking it between two fingers, he rubbed it through the material until she moaned.

  “Mmm, very nice. I’m going to enjoy having you at my mercy,” he murmured. “Again.” Then he tore her panties off, leaving her sex to be bathed by the cool air of the room.

  22

  SHE gasped. Damn it, she was running out of underwear with this guy.

  Not, uh, that she minded at the moment. She could buy more.

  Daria twisted her wrists in her bonds, wanting with every fiber of her being to touch Alejandro, wanting to feel his cock in her fingers and to trace over his velvety, muscular chest. “Alejandro,” she breathed.

  He didn’t want her to touch him, though. That was clear enough when he swore low and mounted her. His body pressed her down against the mattress as the head of his cock found her slick entrance and pushed within. Daria gasped and cried out as he used her moisture to thrust balls-deep within her, stretching her muscles so deliciously it almost made her come.

  He took her by the hips and rode her fast and hard, edgily, like touching her had driven him half mad and now he had to slake his need with her body. His cock slammed in and out of her cunt with an erotic ferocity that possessed her body completely and stole both her breath and her thought.

  Alejandro slipped his hand down between her abdomen and the mattress to find h
er clit. He positioned it between his first two fingers and rubbed. The head of his cock dragged over her G-spot with every punishing inward stroke. The combination made a powerful climax slam into her body. Daria cried out from the intensity of it, the waves of pleasure swamping every part of her mind and making her knees weak.

  He rode her through it, whispering low, dirty, sweet things. “You like when I’m inside your cunt, don’t you, baby? You love it when I fuck you.” She couldn’t help that the coarse words excited her.

  The orgasm stuttered to a halt, then flared to brilliant life once again. Her sex pulsed and rippled around Alejandro’s thrusting cock. He groaned and let loose, his shaft jumping deep within her as he came.

  He collapsed on top of her and she moved her wrists against her bonds, signaling without words that she wanted freedom.

  “No.” The word rang sure and low through the room. “Not until you admit you care about me.”

  She let those words—the last ones she’d expected to hear at this moment—sink in before exclaiming, “What?”

  Alejandro used his full vampiric speed and strength and flipped her so she lay on her back, her arms bound above her head. “I’m not untying you until you admit it.”

  “Alejandro—”

  He kissed her. A hot, mind-bending slide of lips over lips and the penetration of his tongue into the depths of her mouth. He didn’t just kiss her, he ravaged her mouth. He tasted every bit of her that he could, almost like he tried to consume her.

  Finally, he broke the kiss. “Tell me.”

  Daria could merely pant, unable to catch her breath. “Tell you what? What do you want to hear, Alejandro?”

  He stared down at her. Her stomach did flip-flops. “The truth.”

  Her eyes widened. The truth about how she felt about him? Did he want to hear that she watched him sometimes when she knew he wasn’t looking? That she loved the way his dark hair curled around the collar of his shirt, or how he drummed his fingers on his knee when he was deep in thought?

  Should she tell him how much she loved how relaxed he was about everything . . . except when he got possessive about her and that, secretly, she loved it? Should she tell him there wasn’t anyone she’d trust more at her back, with her life, than him?