On the fourth floor of an abandoned shipping warehouse, the doctor’s second home was one large room separated by those cheaply made, imitation Chinese room dividers. A torn, putrid green sofa sat in front of a scarred, oblong wooden table, circa 1970. Piles of newspapers and magazines were stacked on top of it in no orderly fashion. Some had slipped off and lay open on the yellowing tiled floor.
As Kellen moved into the room, he picked up one of the magazines—Scientific Journal. He set it back onto the table and noticed more of the same. Pawing through the stack, he saw that they were all scientific magazines, and the newspapers were from around the world. The top one was an edition of the Necropolis Times, months old.
A shiver raced down his spine. There was something ominous about its presence.
“He was definitely living here.” Sophie came out of the kitchen area waving a receipt. “It’s dated from three days ago. He bought some milk, ketchup, some fruit and vegetables.”
Kellen lifted his nose and inhaled. “What’s that smell? Chinese food, maybe?”
“There were some take-out containers in the refrigerator. Smells like Chinese.”
Frowning, he took another whiff. “Nope, I smell lemon grass, lime maybe. It’s Vietnamese. I remember that smell from the war.”
“Okay, the doctor likes Vietnamese food. Nothing odd about that.”
“No. The odd thing is, why is he living here? Why not at his ridiculously expensive penthouse condo uptown, by his place of work?”
“That is the million-dollar question, Monsieur Falcon.”
Kellen smiled at her playful tone and the way she set her hand on her hip. What he wouldn’t give to put his hand there—and feel his way around the flare of muscles and over the swell of her rounded rear end. He was losing it again, if he was thinking about touching Sophie instead of concentrating on finding evidence in this case. The case that nearly killed him.
He was definitely walking a fine line between priorities—solving the case or bedding Sophie. Both had equal value right about now, but with his blood starting to race through his veins, bedding Sophie was definitely pulling ahead to the front of the line.
“Hello? Are you still there?” Sophie was standing next to him, waving her hand in front of his face.
“Huh.”
“I’ve been talking to you for the past minute and you were just staring at me without saying anything.”
He shook his head, nervous that he’d been able to phase her out with his fantasizing. “Um, sorry. What did you say?”
“You search in here. I’ll take the kitchen.”
“Okay.”
Frowning, she scrutinized his face. “You’re sweating again. You’re not going to freak out more, are you?”
“Nah. But if I do, you’ll be the first to know.”
She shook her head. “That’s reassuring.” But he saw the small smile on her lips before she wandered away to search the kitchen area.
Curious, Kellen moved toward the bookcase along one wall. It was jammed full of books, most of them hardcover scientific texts. As he ran his finger over them, reading the titles, one particular book caught his interest. It was titled Super Soldiers. He started to slide it out when something at the edge of his peripheral vision caught his attention.
Turning, he stared at a poster on the wall—Miss Saigon, the musical, 1995 Germany tour. The yellow sun was starting to bleed into the red background.
Soon everything around him was bleeding orange.
Shaking his head, he tried to focus on the Vietnamese letter characters on the poster, but it kept shimmering back and forth, as if doing the shimmy to the beat in his head.
The next few moments were a blur to Kellen. He couldn’t focus on much, except the thumping in his head. All that was definite to him was that he needed to find Sophie. The urgency stole his breath.
He ran into the kitchen just as she was reaching for a cupboard door. Lightning quick, he snagged her around the waist and half carried, half dragged her toward the big, square windows facing the river. Without a second thought, he pitched them both through the glass.
Right before they hit the roof of the crime scene vehicle that had brought them there, the windows above exploded, raining shards of tempered glass all over them.
Chapter 10
Sophie’s wrist throbbed something fierce as she slid the key into the lock on the front door of her house.
The paramedics had announced that she suffered from a few minor bumps and scrapes but nothing hospital-worthy. She was a quick healer, so it didn’t surprise her that they didn’t press her to go and get X-rays on her wrist. It was just sprained—nothing major. She’d know if she’d broken a bone. She’d broken her leg once when she was a teenager and it had hurt like hellfire. The ache she was experiencing now was nothing in comparison.
Kellen had suffered the worst of the fall. Because of some ingrained sense of chivalry, he had made sure that when they had landed on the car that he buffered her fall with his body.
She glanced over her shoulder and saw how he favored his one leg as he stood waiting for her to open the door. Thankfully, they were under the screened-in porch of her Victorian bungalow. The big elm tree shaded them from the heat of the sun and from prying eyes. Vampires were light-sensitive she knew; some could go hours under the sun’s rays without being burned, but Kellen didn’t seem to be put out by it. She didn’t want to see him in pain, but she hesitated to invite him in. She didn’t know why she had suggested bringing him here to begin with.
After the paramedics released them, and Gabriel came by to yell at her for being careless about going to the new address without a police escort so they could clear the building, she should have offered to drive Kellen back to his hotel. Instead, she’d asked if he wanted to come over and have a drink, something she felt they both needed.
“Something wrong with your door?”
She shook her head no, but didn’t make a move to open it.
Nodding as if he understood what she was thinking, Kellen wobbled a few steps and sat down on the porch swing with a deep sigh. He reached for her hand, grasped it and pulled her into the swing. She didn’t resist when he wrapped his arm around her and cuddled her closely. She liked it that he seemed to know that she needed to be held.
She rested her head against his chest, inhaling his spiced scent. The heat from his body warmed her face. With every lift of his chest, she heard his heavy intake of air. The hair on her arms and the back of her neck stirred to attention. And her heart picked up speed to match his rising tempo.
Sophie bit back a yawn as she snuggled into Kellen. She felt safe and secure swinging on her porch swing in his arms. Sighing deeply, she took in the smell of the scarlet and dark-purple impatiens planted in several pots around the porch. This spot was one of her favorites, and she came out here to do a lot of her thinking late at night. Not only was it protected from wind, rain and prying eyes by the screens, the ivy that crawled along the mesh made the porch a haven—it was enclosed and safe.
Being next to Kellen, touching him, made her feel invigorated. She’d been seconds away from dying. But he had saved her life by propelling them through a window and down four stories. She’d been in life-threatening situations before, but never anything this close, this out of her control. If Kellen hadn’t have been there, she’d be dead. He had sensed the presence of the bomb mere seconds before she triggered it by searching through the cupboards, a task she’d done time and time again as a crime scene investigator.
He’d saved her, but still she was afraid of him. Not afraid of what he could do to her, but how he could make her feel. Being with a vampire was frowned upon by her pack, and she had the one disastrous affair with Jean-Paul; but she couldn’t stop the desire thrumming through her body. Nor did she want to.
All she wanted was to revel in her second chance at life.
Kellen stroked her arm with his hand. “Maybe I should go and let you get some sleep. It’s been one hell of a day.”
“I don’t want you to go.”
“Sophie, however much I want to be with you, and I really, really do want that, I don’t think this is the right time.”
“Please don’t tell me all the reasons we shouldn’t be together. I know them all.” Raising her head, she met his gaze. “But I can’t stop the feelings inside me. I like being next to you. I like when you touch me. Maybe it’s because you snatched me from death that I feel this way. But I don’t care, Kellen. I don’t care about anything but you and me. Together. Right here, right now.”
His eyes widened and his lips parted with a sudden breath. The intensity on his face destroyed any doubt she had about him, any reservation about giving herself to him.
Without waiting for his reply, Sophie pressed her lips to his. Suddenly urgent to taste him, to devour him, she nipped and nibbled on his mouth. He cupped her cheeks and deepened the kiss, parting her lips with a long, thorough sweep of his tongue.
She moaned into him as her tongue matched all his movements, flicking and dipping between his lips. Shivers radiated down her back. Goose bumps rose on her skin. And the tingle between her thighs intensified to a throb that was keeping time to her own heartbeat.
The man could kiss, that was for certain. She’d never felt the zing go from the top of her head to the tips of her toes before. It was forceful and dizzying. Everything around her faded into the background. All she could see, all she could feel, was Kellen.
He made her giddy and frantic. Heat enveloped her like an inferno. Her clothes were too constricting. She needed to shed them immediately or she’d ignite into flames, burning into ashes.
Without breaking contact with his mouth, Sophie tore at her jacket; whimpers of urgency escaped her lips. As if sensing her need or succumbing to his own, Kellen helped her with the rest of her clothing.
He made short work of her shirt by rending it in two with a swift yank of his hands. But she held them still when they attempted to rip off her bra. Deftly, she unclasped the front and tossed it to the side.
“Are you sure about this?” he asked, his eyes glowing a brilliant blue, like a solar eclipse.
“Yes,” she panted.
Gripping her around the waist, Kellen lifted her and settled her on his lap with her legs on either side of his thighs. Pressing kisses to her chin, he made his way down her throat, to her collarbone and finally to her breasts. When he sucked one rigid nipple into his wet mouth, her eyes closed in rapture.
His mouth was like heaven on her sweltering skin. With every draw on her nipple, twin sensations pulled between her thighs. He was pushing her closer and closer to the edge of ecstasy. And she was more than happy to tumble over.
Eager for more, she pushed her breasts into his mouth, urging him on with moans of delight. He suckled at one peak then lavished the same attention on the other, biting down with the edge of his fang. Jolts of pain rushed over her, settling into a smoldering mass of pleasure right at her center. He was driving her mad with the sensual longings he pulled from her body.
Frantic for him, Sophie tore at his T-shirt. Shredded in a matter of seconds, it was little barrier to stop her from stroking her hands over the hard, muscular planes of his chest. She knew he’d be silky smooth under her fingers, and she trailed them over the thick muscles and down the line of his sternum to just below his navel to the waistband of his jeans.
He sucked in a breath as she made short work of the top button on his pants. “Damn, woman, I want you so bad.”
“Less talking, more licking,” she demanded, as she lifted a breast to his mouth.
With a devilish grin, he obliged her by sucking hard on her pebbled nipple. She wrapped one arm around his neck and let him feast on her flesh. The other hand was busy at the zipper of his jeans. Hungry to feel him in her hand, she slid her fingers through the open gap in his pants and found him, hot and hard.
His moans increased as she, gripping him firmly, stroked his rigid length from base to tip. She rubbed her thumb over his silky smooth head, glorying in the sensations that she felt ripple through him.
Closing his eyes, he bit down on his bottom lip and hissed, “I need to be inside you now.”
Relinquishing her hold on him, Sophie slid off his lap, then quickly dispatched both her pants and panties. Taking hold of his jeans, she tugged them off with one fast pull and tossed them over her shoulder.
Chuckling, Kellen reached for her, wrapped his hands around her waist and pulled her to him. He pressed an open-mouth kiss to her navel, trailing his tongue over her skin in tiny circles.
“You’re incredible,” he murmured as he nibbled on her flesh.
Dropping her head back, she reveled in his exploration of her. He kissed and nipped at her hip bones, and dipped his tongue into her belly button. Pleasantly surprised by the way his skin felt under her palms, she rubbed her hands over his head as he discovered her. His velvet-soft hair was an erotic pleasure to experience. And she wondered how it would feel over other parts of her body.
He moved his hands down over her buttocks, feathering his fingertips over the sensitive skin. Circling her inner thighs, he slowly stroked upwards to the heat between them. She sucked in a breath as he slipped his fingers into her, exploring every inch, sliding into every crevice.
Pleasure swirled over her like a tornado. Helpless to fight it, she let it take her up and spin her around. She clamped onto his head with both hands as he buried two fingers deep inside, filling her, expanding her, preparing her. She was beyond ready. She was already dizzy with the anticipation.
Shuffling forward, Sophie settled one knee onto the swing and beside his leg. Tilting his head back, she looked him in the eyes. “Are you ready for me?”
“From the first second I saw you.”
Wrapping one arm around her waist and gripping his cock tight, he guided her onto him. Slowly, torturously, he lowered her. Gritting her teeth against the urge to slam herself down, Sophie dug her fingers into his shoulders and allowed him to lead her, reveling in the delicious torment.
When she was fully seated, he dug his fingers into her hips and found her mouth with his. He kissed her hard, feasting on her lips. Moaning, she returned his fervor and started to grind her pelvis, impatient to find release. An explosive ball of heat throbbed deep inside her. It wouldn’t take much for her to go off.
As Sophie glided up and down over him, Kellen thought she was the most enchanting woman he’d ever seen. Like a warrior goddess riding her stallion quick and hard. He had no qualms being the stallion.
Reaching up, he pulled her hair from the elastic tie holding it up, then ran his fingers through the strands as they cascaded down around her shoulders like silken fire. He drank her all in. From the creamy skin of her breasts and her rose-tipped nipples, down her flat belly to the delectable flare of her hips and long muscular legs. She was every inch exquisite and mouthwatering.
And what she was doing to him made him quiver with intense, frantic need. His carnal fantasies paled in comparison to the truth of her, to the reality of the pulse-pounding pleasure surging up and down his body.
Hands pressed over her back, Kellen gathered her close and captured her mouth again to swallow her moans of pleasure. He inhaled them one by one, eager to have more, to push and pound them out of her with every thrust of his cock. He’d bury himself in her completely if he could. Wrap her sweltering form around him and drown in a thousand sultry beads of bliss.
Every time she pushed up with her thighs, Kellen pulled her down, thrusting hard, thrusting deep. He started to feel frenzied, his hunger burning gravely. Blood pounded in his head and he found it difficult to breathe. His climax was close. His thighs were already clenched in anticipation.
Peppering her chin with kisses, he moved down to her throat. Nuzzling at her skin with his nose, he could smell the blood rushing through her veins. He knew she’d taste sweet. He’d only have to pierce the skin with the tip of one fang. Too wrapped up in her own pleasure, she’d never feel it.
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Instead, Kellen inhaled Sophie’s scent and suckled on her collarbone, reveling in the earthy smell. He’d never break her trust like that. Not for his own selfish need. No—sex with her, feeling every inch of her body, reveling in her heat, was enough to sate him. For once, it would be enough to just have a woman without taking blood.
Sensing her mounting desire, Kellen slid a hand down between them and nestled his knuckles against her most sensitive spot. She ground down on his hand, seeking her release. He wanted more than to give it to her. Hugging her tight with one arm, Kellen drew her up, then slammed her back down as he thrust up to meet her. He kept his hand on her nub, working her with every movement. Pull and push. Up and down. Over and over until sweat poured down and dotted the patterned cushions beneath their writhing bodies. The swing pivoted back and forth, adding to the stimulation.
Unable to hold back any longer, Kellen clamped down on her shoulder, careful of his fangs, and rammed into her, drawing her down to meet him.
“Dieu! Dieu!” Sophie cried, as she fell forward and wrapped one arm around his head and the other over his back, her nails digging into his flesh. She raked them over him as her orgasm plowed into her.
Within his embrace, he could feel her body stiffen and quake, then the glorious rush of liquid heat. Powerless, he clamped his eyes shut and followed her down into orgasmic oblivion.
The intensity overpowered him and he forgot how to breathe. Sweat dripped into his eyes and he felt like he was drowning. Everything went black, then white, then black again. The force of his orgasm scared him, and he lifted his head to find air and steady himself.
The porch was reeling. He felt light-headed, intoxicated. He usually loved the euphoric sensation, but fear—fear of letting Sophie get too close—needled its way in and made him dizzy instead.
Vivi Anna - [Valorian Chronicles 04] Page 6
