“If you decide to stay away forever, let it be because you don’t love me, not because you’re afraid.” He walked to the edge of the platform. His back remained turned to me. “I may be a monster, but I’m your monster. Don’t ever be afraid of me.”
And just like that he was gone. I don’t know if he swam or flew away or what. He was just gone. I wasn’t sure what was going on, but I knew I couldn’t leave things this way. He had completely misunderstood my intentions. I dove in the water, amazed at how fast I could swim when I needed to. I ran inside, snatched on some clothes, grabbed my purse, and jumped in the car. My hair was still very wet and soaking quickly through my shirt and onto the seat, but I really didn’t care. What I cared about was letting Marcus know how I felt and setting things straight.
He hadn’t told me the name of his hotel, but there was only one place he could be. In the next town over there was the area’s only Blood and Coffin. A Blood and Coffin is the vampire version of a Bed and Breakfast. This one was called Ever-Dark and it wasn’t too far away. I had no idea if they actually offered coffins to their guests or not. In an effort to try to control my nervousness, I wondered how the place might be decorated. But that train of thought didn’t last long. Before I knew it I was practicing what I was going to say out loud again.
When I arrived I was met by security at the door. I suppose I did look strange, soaking wet and all.
“I’m here to see Marcus Payne.”
The guard raised his eyebrows. “You must be,” he said, “because nobody knows his last name. Hell, most people don’t even know he has a first name.” He stepped aside and motioned me through the door. “Tell the lady at the desk who you are, she’ll help you.”
As I approached the front desk I could see the clerk giving me funny looks. I glanced around at the décor to keep from meeting her eyes. Everything was lush, with an eighteenth century flare. It was exactly what I’d expect in a place that catered to vampires.
Finally I reached the counter, and there was no more avoiding her look.
“I know this looks … weird. I’m here to see Marcus Payne. I realize that you can’t let just anybody in, but I’m not some crazy fang hater. I’m here to try to explain myself because I let him slip away once and I don’t intend to do that again.” I ran a hand through my wet hair. “Holy shit I sound like a nut. I’m sorry. I probably wouldn’t let me go upstairs.”
To my surprise the clerk laughed. “Are you Dawn?”
“Um, yes.”
“He came in looking just like you about twenty minutes ago. He said that if you came by to send you up. Room 109. You’ll have to get him to let you in. The room key is coded to his blood and there’s only one copy.”
“Thank you.” I wasn’t sure what else to say. I was just relieved that she thought I was funny and not a stalker. The fact that he’d left my name with the front desk was encouraging.
Marcus opened the door wearing nothing but a black robe. He’d been in the process of drying his long hair and still held a towel in his hand. Beads of water clung to the exposed skin of his chest. My eyes were drawn to his flesh just as my hands would soon be if I didn’t start talking.
“I’m not in love with him,” I blurted out. Well, so much for rehearsal. Marcus just stood there and I felt compelled to keep talking. “The man I’ve been seeing,” I explained. “His name is Jesse and I’m not in love with him. He’s a nice man, but he’s not you. We’ve only been seeing each other for a short time. A few weeks. I would have already ended things, but he’s out of town and I thought it would be awful to tell him something like that over the phone.” I sighed. “For seven years I’ve tried to do what was expected of me, to find someone normal and settle down. But I don’t want to settle down and I’ll be damned if normal doesn’t bore the shit out of me. I withdrew from you before not just because I wanted to have a shot at normal, but because I didn’t know if I could handle what you were. You deserve someone who knows for sure.”
“Are you sure you want to be here?”
I stepped into the room and dropped my purse beside the door, closing it behind me with my foot.
“I’ve never wanted to be anywhere more.”
He leaned forward slowly, then faster than I could imagine he had me pressed back against the door. He lifted me with both the force of his body and the passion in his kiss. As I rose higher, whether by his vampire powers or those of his body, I did not know, I wrapped myself around him.
Whatever it was that Marcus did for me I didn’t want to lose it. I didn’t want to walk away from him and never feel again what I felt tonight. No one had ever touched me the way he did, and it had nothing to do with my body.
His hands slid beneath my shirt and I arched against him. I hungered for the feel of his skin against mine. My need for him was so sharp that it could easily have been considered pain. It was then that I glanced over his shoulder and noticed the photos. Pictures of me. They were everywhere.
Marcus paused, sensing my distraction. He looked behind him.
“I’ve missed you,” he said softly.
He lowered me to the floor and I walked over to the bed. For several moments I was speechless. How could he possibly have gotten these? We didn’t use a camera that night. But as I drew closer I understood. They were drawings. Images of me lay spread out before him as my body once did.
“They’re beautiful,” I whispered.
I reached to touch one and felt him move closer against my back.
“This is how I remember you.”
My eyes stung with unshed tears. “I never looked like that.”
Marcus tilted my face up toward him. “You look like that now. That same look in your eyes. It took me years to get it right.”
He was killing me. Had I really left him? Why was it again I chose to stop seeing him? Looking into his pale green eyes, I couldn’t for the life of me remember.
“And what look is that?”
I knew he was going to kiss me again and felt my lips parting in anticipation as I rose on tiptoe to meet him. Despite the heels on my sandals, I still needed the extra lift. I expected him to say “desire” or “passion” or even “lust,” anything but—
“Love.”
The word was whispered against my lips as I fell into his arms. His soft, gentle kisses were an answer to so many unspoken prayers. He deepened the kiss, taking my mouth as he once had my body: completely. I opened my mouth and all of my being to him. If Marcus had asked for my soul in that moment, I would have given it.
He moved the pictures aside with one scoop of his hand and deposited them on the nightstand. When Marcus turned back to me my breath caught. Since he was so tall, he always bent slightly forward when he was around most people. The only time I ever saw him rise to his full height was inside the ring. As he looked down at me now, his hair fell forward framing his face and his pale eyes seemed to come alive in the semi-darkness of the room.
The fire that burned behind his eyes might burn me as well, but I no longer cared.
“Your eyes are glowing.”
There were two lamps in the room and he reached for the one that wasn’t lit.
“Do you want more light?”
“No,” I said, putting my hand over his. “I like it.”
He took a step toward me, a slow smile curving his lips as he moved. When the back of my knees hit the bed he gave me a gentle but playful push. Marcus knelt beside the bed before slowly crawling up and over my body. All the while I watched as his wicked smile grew wider. When he reached my lips, all traces of humor were gone. He kissed me with something beyond hunger or need. There was loneliness in his touch and it hurt to know I was the cause of it.
The longing in his kiss was almost more than I could take. I opened to him, letting his tongue plunge inside my mouth. I wanted to lose myself in his kiss, in his mouth, and in the hard flesh just beneath his robe. What I wanted was something fast and hard, but Marcus had other plans.
He pulled the t-shirt o
ver my head and tossed it on the floor. I rose to my elbows in order to allow him easy access to the clasp on my bra. His lips seemed to burn wherever they touched me and when he reached my nipple I almost came. He drew the taut flesh into his mouth, sucking it, flicking the peak with his tongue. His assault on my tender flesh was merciless and I loved every minute of it.
He ran his tongue between the valley of my breasts, up my throat and finally to my ear. I had never thought of the ear as an erogenous zone before I met Marcus. And truthfully, I’d forgotten what he could make me feel when he touched there until this moment. He licked my ear from top to bottom and I shivered. But when he pulled my earlobe into his mouth I screamed. My pussy throbbed with need and I was so wet I was certain my juices were beginning to soak through my jeans.
“Oh God, Marcus.”
He ran his tongue up and over the top of my ear, pulling that part into his mouth as well and I whimpered. I hadn’t even realized he’d been unfastening my pants during this time until he opened them and pulled back from me.
“Don’t stop.” I grabbed the front of his robe, pulling him back toward me.
“I had no intention of it.”
He removed my hands from his robe, laughing softly as he moved to pull down my jeans. As soon as they hit the floor he was back on top of me, pressing his hard cock against my thigh as he devoted his attention back to my ear.
“Do you realize how many neglected erogenous zones the body has?” he whispered. Marcus flicked his tongue across the top of my ear again to emphasize his point.
“I do when I’m with you.”
He laughed as he leaned in closer and took my entire ear into his mouth. I writhed beneath him, grinding my pussy against his thigh and wishing he’d taken off my panties too. His fangs grazed my earlobe and I screamed so loud it startled me.
“Well,” he said, pulling back with a smile. “I’ve never gotten quite that reaction before.”
His long dark hair fell over my face as he moved and I almost cried when I realized how much I had missed something as simple as his hair in my face. His hair continued to tickle and slide over my body as his kisses trailed lower and lower. I was arching off the bed by the time he hooked his fingers beneath the top of my panties and slowly pulled them from my body. As he did this, Marcus slid to the floor as well, positioning himself once more at my feet which hung over the side of the bed.
He put his hands together, almost like he was about to pray and slid them between my knees. I had no objection as he spread my legs wide. He hooked his hands behind my knees and slid me closer to the edge of the bed. My heart was pounding with anticipation. But instead of going for my already aching pussy, he placed his lips against the inside of my knee.
He licked and sucked at the skin just as he’d done my nipple and I quivered, begging him almost incoherently to move higher.
“Please, Marc, please.”
I knew he was smiling, even if I hadn’t looked down to watch him move slowly, agonizingly up to my inner thigh. I could feel him smiling as he pressed his lips against my fevered skin once more.
“Is this where you want me?” he teased.
“You bastard.”
He laughed softly. “I’m not going to move until you tell me where you want me.”
Chapter Fourteen
His fangs grazed my inner thigh as he took the skin into his mouth and sucked.
“Higher.”
He moved just an inch or so above where he’d been before and I groaned.
“Tell me where you want me,” he whispered.
“I want you to eat my pussy.”
Instantly his mouth was right where I wanted it. The erotic image of his dark head between my thighs might be forever burned into my mind. I reached down to run my fingers through his hair, using the leverage to grind against his face. His tongue plunged between my lips causing a tremor of pleasure to run through my body. But when he moved to my clit I almost came off the bed I shook so hard. He pulled the soft flesh into his mouth, sucking at my clit, moaning as he shook his head back and forth, tugging the skin and bringing me closer and closer to orgasm.
His broad shoulders were the only thing that kept my legs from clamping shut as I trembled.
“Right there, Marc. That’s it.”
He slid one long finger inside of me, moaning once more as he tugged my clit into his mouth. That was enough. My back arched off the bed as I came. The vibration of his growl echoed through my body as he held me tight. When I arched from the bed his hands moved to my ass, lifting me and holding my pussy against his mouth, a prisoner as it were to his amazing tongue. My muscles contracted so hard, I don’t know how he kept my legs apart. I felt the pleasure ripple through my abs, rolling my body like a wave as I ground my pussy even harder into his face.
When he finally released me I collapsed to the bed, covered in sweat and aching with anticipation for his next touch.
Marcus was the sexiest thing I could imagine. His long hair fell in silken waves around his face and shoulders. His eyes shown like pale emeralds and his smile could have charmed the devil himself. His robe was open wider, revealing his chest. I wanted so much to pull the tie holding it closed, knowing that he was naked underneath. Just the thought of seeing him naked was getting me hotter than actually being naked with anyone else ever had.
His disheveled appearance was both endearing and extremely arousing. I knew that his smile was brought on by thoughts of doing wicked things to me and that his hair was tousled from having his head between my legs. I can’t begin to explain how sexy that was. It was like seeing my mark on him; my touch was there just as plainly as if I’d left handprints.
“Roll over.” His voice was like another set of hands against my skin, urging me to do as he’d asked. This was the first time Marcus had ever used so much of his powers on me and I prayed it wouldn’t be the last. Somewhere in the back of my mind I knew I could refuse his sensual command if I chose. But there was no way in hell. I wanted everything he had to offer, however he chose to give it to me. I flipped over, crawling farther up onto the bed until only my feet hung off. Being so tall I knew Marcus couldn’t fit completely onto the bed this way, but I didn’t think he wanted to.
When he pressed his body flat against the back of mine I practically squealed. He turned my head to the side, taking my other ear into his mouth. After a few seconds I realized I was crying. It was involuntary. What he was doing to me just felt so damn good. When I arched this time I pushed my ass right into his rock hard erection. The only thing keeping us from touching completely was the soft fabric of his robe and the more I moved, the more that fabric stretched tight over his swollen flesh.
He raised my arms up, running his hands down my sides as he moved over my back, nipping and licking his way lower. Marcus took my ass in his hands, squeezing and spreading me open. I started to move my legs and he commanded softly, “No. Keep them closed.”
He ran his tongue over my pussy from behind, slipping his tongue between my legs and making me scream again. I arched back as much as I could so that he could reach me better. Then he moved lower, until finally stopping at the back of my knee. He ran his tongue over my sensitive skin, making me jump at his touch. I could feel his fangs grazing my skin again and couldn’t seem to stop myself from twitching. It felt good, but I couldn’t hold still. I writhed like something wild, wanting, hungering for more.
When he finally stopped, I felt Marcus shift his weight, rising partially from the bed. I could hear the sash on his robe coming undone and I nearly came undone with it. He pressed against my back again, hot, ready, and completely naked. The sexiest thing about his skin being so warm was the knowledge that it was my blood that warmed him. That turned me on a lot more than I’d expected. A part of me was inside of him and making him warm for my hands to touch.
“Do you want me like this?” he whispered, flicking his tongue over my ear again.
“Yes.” When I spoke it was more of a request than an answer. My t
one pleaded with him to finish what he’d started.
He ran his cock between my still closed legs, rubbing up and down over my soaking wet pussy.
“Holy shit, I’d forgotten how big you are.”
I could feel his smile against my ear. “Are you talking about my dick, or am I crushing you?”
“You are kind of heavy, but I was talking about your dick.”
He rubbed back and forth between my thighs again. His cock was so long that it could touch the bed through my legs with little effort. I felt like I should spread my thighs just to allow him room.
“Please,” I whispered, clenching my fists in the sheets.
“You’re so wet. Do you think I can squeeze in with your legs closed like this? Do you want me to?”
The thought of being pinned beneath him with my arms above my head and my legs clamped together was surprisingly arousing. But that was exactly what I wanted. I wanted him to dominate me sexually, to hold me down with the force of his big body and fuck me through the mattress.
“Yes, fuck me like this.”
I could feel his fangs against the back of my neck, biting just hard enough to pinch, but not penetrate my skin. I shivered as he bit harder, entering my body at the same time. My pussy stretched so far I thought he might split me wide open.
I growled, arching as much as I could against him, driving his throbbing cock deeper inside of me.
“Easy,” he said softly. “You might hurt yourself.”
“I want you to hurt me. Hold me down and fuck me hard.” When he hesitated I begged, “Please, Marc, I need it to hurt a little.”
“Do you want me to bite you again?” The deep baritone of his voice so close to my ear almost made me come again. Why was he not moving? He was poised just where he’d started, spreading my pussy wide with his big cock and I ached for more.
“Yes, bite me.”
He kissed the side of my throat, letting me feel his fangs a second before they pierced my skin. The instant his fangs penetrated my neck, he slid deeper inside my pussy. I came as he entered me. He pressed slowly forward, despite my strong muscle contractions, groaning against my throat as he drank.
Till the Break of Dawn Page 10
