“I hadn’t even seen my child alive, I only saw his broken and torn body, nothing more. Lifeless, shattered, and drained of even his essence, my child was thrown at my feet, taken into my arms, and I was allowed to look on his bruised face for only a moment before Antonio dragged me away. He wanted to dress my newly healed body and take me for a night with his friends. I won’t bore you with the details of the few weeks I spent with him, I will let it suffice to say that he ruined me, he ruined my reputation, and my family disowned me, though they had no idea of what I was by then. I had three weeks of absolute hell before he discarded me. I was to be grateful he taught me to fend for myself as he threw a stack of bills down at me, money to support myself until I got on my feet. I suppose that was his payment for ruining my life.”
Jacob’s pain when her words stopped became unbearable and he knew this must be what Hell truly was. To have your organs and body attacked by a million biting ants, ants that you couldn’t brush away, or wash away, pain that was unending and unstoppable, almost cracked him. Almost.
There was a small glimmer of hope, hope that would lose consciousness once again, that the black world of nothing, where you didn’t exist might return. She gave him another moment of bliss by continuing the tale, easing the pain before he went completely insane.
“I took my new clothes, my new knowledge, knowledge I’d gained, that Antonio gave with his blood the same as I give it to you, and the money I had left and I went to the Medicis. I threatened to kill them all, to wipe out the entire family line, and I could. They complied with my demands and I set out to live a life more suitable to my new status as an immortal. When people began to whisper my name too much I would move on, a new town, a new country, wait a few decades before making the rounds again. I did this endlessly for one hundred years, and though the hold of the Medicis would eventually falter, the settlement I made with them continues to support me.
In the late 18th century I found Adrian in Venice, little more than a male prostitute at the time, and turned him. I can’t say that I loved him but he understood me. As the eighth child of a nobleman he had little prospects for the future but I took him under my wing, gave him far more than he could have ever dreamed of. I gave him the world. Our affair lasted for decades, we were passionate about each other and devoted. The passion has since cooled but the devotion is still there, we still have an intimate relationship, but it is not the same as it used to be.” Her communication paused and Jacob could only communicate a scream of mortal agony.
“Please, do not stop.” The words were communicated with the scream and she continued, understanding fully that every time she paused his pain came back. His eyes, his brain, no he couldn’t survive this, he just couldn’t, not without her speaking to him, not without her taking some of the pain away. Just that small moment without her words was a lifetime of torture that no creature should ever have to endure.
“For over six hundred years I have survived. I carry the knowledge of the first hominids with me, I have an advantage that many do not. For centuries I have made my own way and have been nobody’s pawn. Now your brother and the other magicals want to negotiate with the Mungons? They want to appease them or whatever it is you want to call it.” Jacob could imagine her eyes rolling as she waved her hands. “No, I will not have it. These people need to be dealt with and dealt with swiftly. That is why I am creating you. I swore I would make no other vampire, other than Adrian, that he would be the only one. But we need you. We need your fire, your strength, Jacob. Do not give up. The hardest battle has not been faced yet.”
And that’s when Jacob exploded, when his entire being turned into little more than a firework and he shattered into orange and silver shards within the midnight darkness of the world they now inhabited. He became nothing but he knew everything. He had no form but he could create anything he wanted, centuries of knowledge passed instantly into his existence. As the light faded, so did he. There was nothing left, nothing at all.
Chapter 4
Jadrian
Jadrian watched Allana as they walked to her room, her hips swaying under her green skirts in a way that drew his gaze. He wanted to know if they swiveled liked that when she was coming. Telling himself he was on a mission, not out for a good time, Jadrian entered her room and sat in the soft brown velvet chair she indicated.
“So, you’re the other brother. The adopted one, right?” She said it as though he should be stung by the words but he wasn’t. He knew what he was and where he fit into the scheme of things.
“I am, indeed. Human through and through, but still an Alexander.” He sipped the Scotch, watching her over the rim of his glass as she walked back to retrieve her own drink.
“No resentment then? You don’t feel as though they take you for granted or anything? Maybe think less of you?” She stood before him, the long material of her dress hiding the length of her legs. Was she goading him, or just too rude to hide her curiosity?
Jadrian felt his pulse begin to race as he imagined shoving the skirt up her thighs and burying his head between the parted flesh. What would she taste like? Would she taste of danger and the promise of ecstasy?
“Not a single issue there, Allana. Just devotion, the same as them.” He sat back, shifting his hips to ease the tension in the front of his pants. The movement caught her gaze and a sparkle of amused curiosity came into her eyes. He took it a step further and let his middle finger fall into his glass, swilling the liquor inside with a slow swirling motion. Her eyes were glued to his fingers, watching with parted lips. She was interested then.
He’d spent hours wanting to catch her eye and now that he had it he couldn’t give in, not too much anyway. No matter how desperately his body wanted to. There was something going on with this shifter.
“Oh, I think you might be very different in one aspect. Shifter men are, well, to put it delicately, endowed with certain attributes. Do you measure up?” She sipped at her drink, teasing him by licking the last drop of the amber liquid from her lips.
His eyes followed her tongue, transfixed as his desire grew. Two could play that game but her game would lead to unknown places. She beckoned him into a world of sensuality without even trying. Shifter women were like that though, always enticing, always seductive, always fucking hot. He held himself back though, wanting her to make that first move, wanting her to be the one that broke.
“There is only one way to find out for sure. I could tell you I am just as generously endowed as any shifter but I could be lying. Perhaps I put them to shame? You’ll never know…” He allowed the words to dwindle off, letting her interpret how she chose to take it.
“Mm, that sounds like an offer. Was it?” Her eyebrow arched, a slim flame above her eye, and her lips twisted into a sultry pout that he quite liked.
The tightness in his pants liked it too and he had to shift once more, the tension becoming almost unbearable. When she leaned forward and ran a finger down his cheek he felt his stomach drop and he sucked in a breath. If just her finger on his cheek felt that good, what would it feel like to have the rest of her pressed to him?
“I think I will take you up on your offer, Mr. Alexander.” Soft and sensual, her words were whispered into the shell of his ear, her hot breath sending a shiver of anticipation down his spine.
His eyes went to her garment, wondering how to get it the hell off of her. But she wasn’t interested in taking her own clothes off, at least not yet. It was hard to pretend he wasn’t intrigued by her words when all his brain was screaming at him to do was push her far enough away to get his head between her thighs and taste her but he held himself still, his hands clenched on the arms of the chair to hold them in place.
You are only here to get into her good graces, Jadrian, he reminded himself, you do not get to fuck her. Not yet anyway.
She slithered down his chest, landing on her knees between his legs, looking up at him with a hunger he’d never seen from a woman before. With her eyes glued to his, she reached out to h
im, her hand going over the large ridge in his pants. Her hands were small but the size of his erection made her fingers look even smaller. Jadrian couldn’t stop himself, he thrust into her hand, his body doing as it wanted, ignoring his commands.
Biting her lip she gave a murmur of delight and held back a smile. Her pale fingers ran over him as she rubbed at his hardness, teasing him through the restraining fabric.
“Shall I do something about this, now that I know you weren’t just full of shit?” She brushed her hair over her shoulder, revealing the long length of her pale neck. He wanted to crush his lips to the delicate skin there, to make her shiver with delight.
“Do whatever you like, Allana. I’m not going to stop you from sucking my dick if that’s what you want to do.” There, he had thrown out his own challenge. It was up to her to accept or run away.
“Ah, what I’d like to do and what I’m going to do are totally different things.” She didn’t elaborate but opened the button and the zipper on his pants instead.
He felt the instant relief of his cock being released and gave a sigh of pleasure as the thick length escaped the confines of his pants. Jadrian wasn’t sure if it was from the pleasure of the tightness disappearing or the cold feel of her fingers wrapped around the heat of his very aroused dick. Again he thrust into her hand, his hips moving of their own will, and she sighed.
He watched her, anticipating each move she made, his eyes growing wider as she leaned into him. Whatever game she was playing, she apparently enjoyed sucking dick, if that look of greedy hunger on her face was any indication. Slowly her lips parted and his muscles tensed, his eyes glued to her beautiful face as she took him into her mouth, tasting him with a moan. Her tongue darted out to test his feel and he almost came, the picture of her tongue on his dick almost too much to take.
Her mouth opened again as she winked up at him tauntingly, and Jadrian watched each inch slide in between those peach colored lips of hers, counting the seconds as she went down, down, all the way down until her nose met the wall of his abdomen. Her eyes flashed up at his and she swallowed, winking up at him as he gasped out her name.
Oh she was a dirty girl, but he loved that about her. This was no wilting damsel, this was a woman in charge of her own life, willing to kick ass and take names. But she was also willing to suck cock and make his toes curl. He might have just found the perfect woman.
She pulled away from him and he groaned as his cock slid out of her throat, out of her tight lips. He loved the way her cheeks caved in as she sucked every inch of him until he popped out of her mouth. He watched her lick her lips as she smiled up at him.
“Oh yes, you measure up just fine, cowboy.” She didn’t give him time to respond, she just went straight back to his cock, sucking at him with an intensity that had his toes curling in his boots.
He wanted to come, he wanted to unload all of the night’s tension deep inside of her throat but the pain of just how hard he was wasn’t unendurable. He held back, grinding his teeth until he couldn’t take any more of it and pulled her head away.
“What’s the matter?” She looked upset that he had stopped her.
Jadrian had been just on the edge of teetering into the abyss but he’d stopped her, placing his hand over his rigidly erect length, amazed at just how hard he really was. He wasn’t sure he had ever been so hard, or enamored with a woman.
“Nothing, I’m not ready for this to end yet. This is not how I fuck. It’s not a rush to get it over with, or a race to the finish. It’s an all-night exploration of seeing just how many ways we can make each other climb the wall. It’s about the experience, and about getting off in the most exquisite way possible. It’s not just about fucking to me. I can fuck anytime I want to. I want more with you.”
He saw her eyes flashing, curiosity filling their depths as she moved from her knees and held out his hand.
“And how do we go about that, then, Mr. Alexander?” Her body swayed as she walked to her bed, one of the larger beds the monastery offered, and climbed up on it. She tucked her feet beneath her as he stood in front of her, watching as she pulled buttons to reveal bare flesh.
He was spellbound for a moment, entirely caught up in the way she revealed her skin to him. She wasn’t only beautiful, she was brave, intelligent and just on the verge of being his. He pulled his own top away, anxious to feel her warm skin against his.
“By exploring limits, my dear. By pushing until we have to stop, by pressing until the end is near, and stepping away. By making it last all night rather than just a few moments that will not matter the next day.” Jadrian leaned down, taking her delicate face into the rough expanse of his hand and stroking her lip with his thumb. “We do it by taking it one step at a time, Allana.”
He let his head slowly down to hers, his tongue darting out to wet his lips just before he pressed them to hers. Their breaths mingled as they both sighed at the pleasure the contact caused. Jadrian felt a pulse of heat blaze down his spine as soon as his lips touched hers, an awareness that something had just happened, but not something he could explain or define. She pulled away, gasping, as she looked at him in surprise.
He looked back, unsure of what to do next, of what had just happened but she moved, taking the decision away from him as she sat up on her knees and clasped her arms around his neck. They moved together as the kiss deepened, Jadrian took up position on the bed and Allana wrapped her legs around his waist, clasping him tight to her. Her dress hiked up around her hips and Jadrian felt her bare flesh pressing into his lower abdomen, still bare from her earlier actions. He had removed his shoes before getting onto the bed and as he felt her feet twining together at his back he knew she’d lost hers at some point as well.
They were pressed together intimately, both breathing harshly as their tongues began to tangle together. Jadrian felt her hard nipples pressing into his chest through the material of her dress and wanted to tear the material away, to have the peaks in his mouth and hands, but held back, telling himself to take it slow. Instead he teased her by running a finger over a bare hip, a movement that jolted her body as she felt the intimate brush.
Normally he had no problem with control but something about Allana made him want to completely lose it. He wanted to have her, wild and wet beneath him, open to only him, fucking him as frantically as he wanted to fuck her. Normally he didn’t like sex like that but something was different, something had changed. Jadrian wasn’t sure what it was but he knew it all the same.
Her breasts heaved against his chest and he finally pulled away from her mouth to inspect the mountain of cleavage peeking over the top of the dress. He used his lips to kiss the soft globes and inhaled the scent of her, an intoxicating smell, and moved his hands down to her bottom. With his hands he pressed her into him, her wetness finding his hardness, and they both moaned. She twisted in his arms, freeing her top from the confines of the material, delighting him with a corset the same color as her dress that only pushed her breasts up from the bottom without covering her nipples.
Her nipples matched her lips, a peach color, and Jadrian’s gaze was glued to them. His hands pressed into her bottom again and they started a rocking rhythm, a rhythm that made her gasp as the head of his erection teased at the pleasure nub hidden between her nether lips. Each time he thrust into her she gasped, but when his lips wrapped around the bud of her nipple she made a more satisfying sound. She moaned his name.
“Jadrian.” She sighed as she said it, and Jadrian felt himself grow impossibly harder.
“What, Allana?” The words were rasped against her breast, his control almost snapping.
She tossed her head back and he saw just how beautiful she was in the dawning morning light.
“What do you want? Tell me.”
Allana’s brows creased and she gave a mewl of dissatisfaction but he waited. She had to tell him. He needed to hear her say it.
“I want to get off, Jadrian. Get me off.”
“Greedy bitch.” But he laug
hed as he said it, a gentle sound not meant to provoke but to tease. “Just breathe and let yourself feel, just feel it. Let it consume you.”
Her eyes opened, their blue depths just as startling as ever, and she looked down at him, her hips moving in time with his. “Feel your cock sliding against me? Or how your mouth pleased my nipples, dragging out pleasure I never knew existed? I do not think anyone’s ever sucked them so well.”
His eyes gleamed with satisfaction as she spoke. She was getting it. This wasn’t just about touching, it was about feeding all of the senses.
“You’re so wet, Allana, I could just breathe the right way and slide into you but you’re not begging for it yet, not yet.”
“Make me.” Her words drug another groan out of him. He was almost ready to beg for it, even if she wasn’t.
Jadrian let his lips go back to her nipples as she spoke, her arms pulling him tighter as her nails dug into his back. He groaned at the intensity of it all, releasing some of his own tension into her as his fingers dug tighter into her ass, holding her still as he began to thrust between her lips, but not into her. His fingers kneaded her ass, caressing the delicate star with her own skin, her own muscles. He hadn’t planned on letting her come so quickly but the sensation must have been too much for her.
Allana cried out his name and her eyes flew open as she gasped loudly, her body tensing as the waves began to shake her. She didn’t scratch him, not much, as the first flutters started to grip her. As the pulsing pleasure intensified her nails dug further into the flesh of his back, broke the skin ever so slightly, and dug just a little bit further as she rocked with the force of her ecstasy. Jadrian was fascinated as she came apart in his arms, and didn’t notice the slight pain, it only added to his enjoyment as he watched her explode.
Jacob (Alexander Shifter Brothers Book 3) Page 5
