by Vivien Dean
The old guard flashed them a curious glance, his brows drawing together when he saw the way Tala was favoring her good ankle. He watched them for a solid minute, and when Ryan attempted to block his view, he stepped to the side in order to counter it.
"We need to get out of here,” Ryan murmured, deliberately tearing his attention from the guard.
Tala gaped at him like he'd just suggested she strip in the midst of the entire terminal. “I don't leave people behind,” she said. “If that's how you work—"
"I work it smart,” he interrupted. “One. You're hurt. Two, we don't even know where the others are, and searching for them now is going to be a little bit harder with people around to actually try and stop us. And speaking of...” He twisted his body, placing himself between Tala and the security guard. “In about five seconds, Buster back there is going to realize you weren't bleeding before he blinked, and since I'm the only person in striking distance of you, he's going to pull his gun and try to be Dudley Do-Right. Be smart about this, Tala. Let me get you out of here."
Her eyes flickered over his shoulder, but Ryan didn't dare risk a glance back that might cast further suspicion on him. “I don't like it."
"Your objection is duly noted.” Carefully, he took her elbow. When she didn't fight him, he took a little more of her weight and headed for the main exit. “We aren't going to forget what happened here, you know. We just have to be smarter than the vampires."
Tala sighed and rested her head for a moment against his arm. It might have been silly, but a thrill of excitement rippled through him at her warmth, even as fleeting as it was. There would be more to come, once he had her away from the terminal. Too much had transpired between them in the past ... what? Two minutes? Half hour? The decade since she'd saved him and changed his life? It didn't matter. Too much had happened. Ryan wasn't going to let another opportunity pass him by.
* * * *
She didn't voice a word of protest when he instructed the cabbie to go to his hotel and not hers. Outside of Grand Central Station, Tala retreated into her thoughts, the faint lines in her brow more prominent with the gravity of what was consuming her. Ryan knew she was dwelling on his insistence to leave the others behind for now, but it was pointless to say anything to her. She would not be one of the world's best hunters if she didn't care about the people she was protecting. But she wasn't going to do anybody any good in her current state.
It gave him more time to appreciate just how beautiful she was, even if she did look tired. Tala reminded him of one of those flowers he'd see on those gardening shows he always flipped past. Proud and exotic and unattainable to the common man. And yet, she had allowed him to kiss her at the station. She had kissed him back. She had given him a taste, and while she might not have fully blossomed with the caress, she hadn't withered, either. There was still a chance that under other circumstances, in a gentler care without a threat hanging over their heads, she would bloom.
Ryan was suddenly filled the overwhelming desire to make that happen.
When they arrived at his hotel, he guided her out of the cab without giving her room to argue with him, taking most of her weight as he helped her inside. He had picked the hotel for being the cheapest thing he could find in a reasonable proximity to Grand Central Station, but as they waited for the elevator and listened to the grinds and creaks of its motor, Ryan wished he was taking her somewhere nicer. They both deserved it after tonight.
Tala didn't speak until she was sitting on the end of his bed and Ryan was kneeling at her feet with the first aid kit he always traveled with.
"I owe you an apology.” Her voice was low and tempered, and when he glanced up at her, he saw that her gaze was fixed on the wall over his head, like it hurt too much to look at him as she spoke. “I assumed the worst of you tonight, even knowing what I do, and you proved me far from right in doing so. I'm sorry I made the ordeal so unnecessarily unpleasant."
Ryan wrapped the Ace bandage around her swollen ankle. “The fact that the night turned out so bad was never your fault,” he replied. “Let's face it. You don't know me, and as far as you're concerned, I'm a wannabe with a death wish for even attempting this kind of lifestyle. I think that justifies you going off the deep end once or twice."
"My family would be ashamed of my behavior."
"Yeah, well, your family isn't here.” He secured the end of the bandage and set her foot down, sitting back on his heels. “Which is pretty good for me, actually. My room's a little small for all those people."
Tala tilted her head to gaze at him, her dark eyes as unreadable as ever. “I think I could live to be a hundred and never understand you."
"Funny, but I don't remember asking you to."
"You seemed rather adamant about knowing me back at Grand Central Station. I'm denied the same right?"
"You seemed to make it clear that you don't want to."
"That's why I apologized.” She took a deep breath. “I was wrong."
Without looking away, Ryan rose to his knees, settling his hands on her knees. When she didn't flinch, he slowly skimmed up the top of her thighs, feeling the smooth muscles beneath the fabric until he reached her hips and curled his fingers around them. “Why didn't you tell me to take you back to your hotel?” he asked softly.
"You didn't give me the option."
Ryan shook his head. “That doesn't make a difference, and you know it."
He pulled her closer, toward the edge of the mattress, and watched carefully for the first sign of reluctance. It never came, not even when the insides of her thighs pressed against the outside of his hips.
Slowly, he reached out and grasped the hem of her shirt. Tala didn't stop him as he pushed it up to expose her taut stomach, nor did she say anything when he lifted it over her head. His fingertips burned where they trailed over her bare shoulder, and when he found the thin line of her bra strap, Ryan turned the path of his hand back downward.
"Are we done tending my injuries?” Her voice was husky, sending a jolt straight to his cock.
"I think it's time to tend to less hurtful needs.” He traced the upper satin edge of her bra. “I know you didn't believe me in the bathroom, Tala, but I really do think you're one of the most remarkable women I have ever had the privilege of knowing.” He looked up at her through his lashes, though his hand continued to feather along her skin. “Don't believe it if you don't want to. But you changed my life."
The mask that had guarded her emotions up to that point melted away, stripping her down to the woman beneath the hard shell. Tala blinked once, and then twice. The fragile skin in the hollow of her throat was vibrating from the force of her pulse, but otherwise, she didn't move. Not until she grasped his shoulders and tugged him upward, forcing him up to her level.
The kiss was delicate, the faintest of brushes across his waiting mouth. He tasted her breath, hot and spicy, but when he parted his lips to deepen the caress, Tala retreated, skimming sideways so that the tip of her tongue tickled the corner of his mouth.
"I didn't tell you to take me somewhere else because I didn't want to be alone,” she murmured. “I thought you might wish for the same."
"I do,” he said, matching her tone.
Ryan smoothed his palms around her back, the power of her muscles rippling through him. His fingers jumped across her skin, the flawless canvas broken by irregular bumps and valleys. Immediately, Tala stiffened and started to pull away, but Ryan locked her in his embrace.
"You don't think I know you have scars?” He tilted his head and bared the bite marks at the curve of his neck, waiting until she looked at them before continuing. “I'm good with mine, Tala, if you're good with yours."
Her attention flew back to his face, and her fingers trembled where they gripped his shoulders. Her mouth opened to speak, but rather than listen to her try and explain it all away again, Ryan crushed her to him, seeking out her lips for a kiss that would extinguish—if only temporarily—her doubts. It took a moment, then two, for Ta
la to respond, but when she did it came with a torrent, her nails digging into his skin even through his shirt, her teeth savaging his lower lip.
Ryan kissed her without letting go, strong hands molding over her back to find spots of tension to knead. He kept her mouth on his, even going so far as to knot his fingers in her hair to curl fingers into her skull when she attempted to explore elsewhere. He had wanted this for so long. He wanted it to last as long as possible.
Tala wrapped her legs around his hips, simultaneously pulling him closer while sliding forward to meet him. It ground his erection into the junction of her thighs, and though he worried about exacerbating her injuries, it didn't stop the deluge of sensation from rushing through him. Not the tight curl in the pit of his stomach when Tala scratched deep furrows down his back. Not the prickle of heat along his arms when she moaned his name, a whisper that wrapped around the pair of them to draw them closer. Not the ache in his chest when she finally broke away and looked at him, dark eyes burning into his.
"What?” he prompted when she didn't speak
Tala shook her head. “It's just ... nothing tonight feels real. Or maybe it's felt too real. I don't know. It just..."
When the words failed her, Ryan brushed his lips over hers, wondering when they had gotten so swollen. “Don't worry about it,” he said. “We deal with the unbelievable every day. A few hours where we forget isn't going to be the end of the world."
Steadying his arms around her, Ryan rose to his feet, carrying Tala with him as he went around to the side of the bed. He laid her down, letting her finally go so that she could stretch and get acquainted with it, then stood back to start divesting himself of his clothes and weapons.
After a moment of watching, Tala did the same, shoving her pants down her legs almost clumsily. His hands faltered at his belt when he saw her toned thighs, dark hair visible through the pale fabric of her underwear, and she sat up, knocking his hands from their work in order to strip him herself.
He didn't have time to tease her about her change of attitude before she was pushing his pants out of her way, taking his briefs with them and freeing his hard cock. Her eyes glittered, and she grasped him at the base, holding him steady as her tongue darted out and dragged across the wet tip.
Ryan hissed, but his pants at his ankles trapped him. “Tala, you don't..."
The rest was lost when she opened her mouth wider and swallowed him down, leaving Ryan to groan. He settled his hand on the back of her head and followed the motion as she began sucking back up his hard length. “Tala,” he tried again, but a long, shuddering sigh wracked through him as she let her teeth scrape at the crown. His fingers tightened, pulling at her hair, but it did nothing to stop her.
Resting her hands on the taut muscles of his hips, Tala balanced swallowing his cock down with allowing him to guide her along, a fragile equilibrium that had him trembling far too soon. At first, she closed her eyes, but it didn't take long for her to open them again, looking up at him through her lashes. All traces of her irises were gone, her pupils blown to swallow any trace of color. If he'd had any doubts about her returning his desire, they were now gone. He simply didn't understand why.
Her expert tongue had his balls tightening far too soon. He didn't want to come this way, didn't want this to be about her getting him off so that he would roll over and leave her alone. He needed her to enjoy this as much as he was, which was the only way he found the fortitude to pull more strongly on her hair when she slid back up his length.
Tala looked up at him when he forced her to abandon his cock. “Why did you stop?"
How to explain? It wasn't worth wasting the time. Instead, Ryan pushed her back to the bed, his mouth fusing to hers in a desperate kiss she had no choice but to reciprocate. As he stripped her of the rest of her clothing, his fingertips burned where they dragged along her skin, and he abandoned it to get rid of his own shirt when he realized it was the last thing separating them. Her hard nipples scraped across his chest, and he tore himself away from the promise of her hot mouth to seek them out.
Tala whimpered when he licked around the left one. “You ... you don't have to do this."
He caught the tip between his teeth for a moment before glancing up at her. “Who said this was anything about have to?"
If she wanted to argue, she held her tongue, simply falling back onto the pillow as Ryan worked his way downward.
His hands sculpted the curve of her waist, long fingers slipping beneath her ass and the bed to hold her still as he licked along the twitching muscles of her stomach. It didn't take long for the trapped heat to scorch through his skin, but Ryan was too intent on tasting every inch of her to care about freeing his hold. He licked a path around her navel, dipping into the tiny indentation with the tip of his tongue. When she squirmed and tried to get away from it, he smiled, making a mental note about the ticklish spot for future reference.
Down and down he went, bypassing her mound to drag his tongue along her inner thigh. The scent of her pussy was rich and musky, and out of the corner of his eye, he saw the dark hair glistening from her juices. It was tempting to forego teasing her, learning what made her whimper, torturing her with sensations that brought the strongest responses, but Ryan held firm. He finished with one thigh to shift to the other, then used his hold on her bottom to lift her hips from the bed.
Tala's hands flew to the blankets, fingers clawing into the fabric to keep steady as she looked down the length of her body at him. Her throat worked, and her tongue darted out to moisten her lips. When she finally managed to speak, only a single word came out.
"More."
Ducking his head to hide his pleased smile, Ryan ran the flat of his tongue over her pussy. He meant it to tease both of them, but with the first taste, he tossed his sense of play aside in favor of something more satisfying. Setting her back on the bed, he let go of her ass to move his hands to the front, splaying them on either side of her opening to force her lips to spread. His heart pounded, his fingers grew slick, and before the opportunity overwhelmed him, he lowered his mouth to her wet passage.
She shuddered at the initial contact. The hands she'd used to root herself to the mattress flew to the back of Ryan's head, threading through his hair as he traced around and along her pussy lips. Murmurs filled the room, but Tala spoke in her native tongue, the individual words unknown to him. Her tone was unmistakable, though. It encouraged him to press on, go deeper, explore the musky folds, until his mouth and chin were glistening from how wet she was.
Only then did he extend his exploration. To that point, he'd studiously ignored her clit, intent on fucking her with his tongue and sensitizing her to the point of madness. His scalp prickled from how tightly she clutched at his head, so in order to get her to relinquish a fraction of her hold, Ryan circled around her opening one more time while his hand slid up to take his mouth's place. It was a simple matter of a few inches for him to flick his tongue across her clit at the same time he buried three fingers into her passage.
Tala screamed. Her body arched away from the bed, and her legs scissored around his neck, drawing him in closer as her orgasm wracked through her. Ryan twisted his wrist, changing the sensations inside her, as he sucked her clit in between his teeth. He loved this part. Hearing the sounds a woman made as she came, tasting her on his tongue, was enough to make his cock throb and his body tighten. As soon as she began to come down off the high, he would grab a condom, slide up Tala's body, and bury himself in her pussy.
Tala beat him to the punch.
Even before her cries had died out, she was sitting up, clawing at his shoulders and neck in order to drag his mouth to hers. She whimpered at the first touch of their tongues, but the hard kiss was too fleeting for his satisfaction.
"You have something, right?” she rasped. Her eyes glittered with desire. “Now would not be a good time to tell me you don't."
"I do."
He pulled away to bend and reach for his pants, pawing through the pocket
to extract his wallet. His fingers felt thick and clumsy as he searched through the contents, finally feeling the sharp edges of the foil wrapper buried amidst his receipts. Relief was a sharp pang as he pulled it out, replaced with amusement when Tala plucked it from his hand and tore open the packet.
Ryan groaned when she grasped his cock and rolled the condom down his length. Her hand was hot, her grip tight, and the promise of what it was going to feel like sinking into her wet depths made his balls ache. He followed her when she laid back, still holding his shaft, and moved his hips accordingly as she guided him to her slick opening.
"I don't do rough,” he said as he hovered over her. His eyes searched hers, hoping for understanding. “I can't hurt you."
Tala looped her arm around his neck and drew him closer to her mouth. “Just don't stop,” she murmured. “That's all I ask."
A band tightened around Ryan's chest, and he could only nod before she was kissing him again. He sank into her slowly, deliberately, as gentle as he could handle without losing the edge of his hunger. When he was completely sheathed, he paused for only a moment before rocking in and out of her with long strokes. Tala never stopped kissing him, stealing his breath, stealing his heat, moving with him to match his thrusts. It was exactly what he had wanted. It left no room to contemplate the consequences of what had happened at Grand Central Station. It gave life to every dream he had ever had about her.
Ryan kept their pace steady and even, giving his hands the luxury of exploration. Fingers found hard nipples, nails scratched across sensitive skin, all of it worked together to leave her quivering beneath him. With his heart tripping, the world faded to nothing but Tala and her mouth and her heat and the growing certainty that nothing had felt so right in quite some time. When she squeezed around his cock, harder than she had yet, a ragged groan came from his throat, forcing Ryan to tear away from her lips and rest his brow to hers.
