by Scott, K. M.
Thirteen
Two hours in Solenne’s gym couldn’t push the thought of her from Saint’s mind. Tonight she was at the Archon’s, putting herself in danger to keep him safe as he spent his time in the French countryside. She never spoke of what she was forced to endure there, but he’d noticed her wincing in pain more than once after her visits to that fucking place.
The thought of her hurt at the hands of one of them made him blind with rage. Again and again, he pummeled the bag until every muscle in his body ached, but still his rage remained unabated.
Saint fixed his eyes on the clock. 4:12. She should be back by now.
He’d give her ten minutes more and then do what he should have done the first time he watched her go to that place.
Solenne sat with her head in her hands at the kitchen table, her bruised arms the evidence of her sacrifice. Saint lightly ran his finger over the purple mark where he suspected the Archon had brutally misused her and cringed in anger at the look of pain he saw in her eyes when she looked up at him.
A growl escaped from his lips and his fangs slammed down into his mouth. “Who did this?”
Pushing past him, she shook her head. “Don’t. If this is what I have to endure to keep you safe and help the Sons defeat those bastards, then I do it willingly.”
“Tell me who did this, Solenne. I owe him.”
She spun around to face him, and the pained sound in her voice made him hate himself. “Why? So you can make everything I’ve done meaningless? So you can get yourself killed?”
Before he could answer, she was gone, but he’d seen the tears in her eyes. Anger mixed with the need to protect her, churning his gut into knots until he had to see her.
He had to let her know what she’d done wasn’t meaningless.
Her door was open, and she stood with her back to him. Already out of her clothes, she wore only a tank top and boy shorts that clung to every perfect curve on her body. His cock stiffened as his eyes took in the sight of her gorgeous legs. Long and lean, they were the kind of legs a man loved wrapped around him as he slid in and out of her wet cunt.
“Solenne,” he said almost in a whisper to not startle her, but it didn’t work. She spun around with her arms covering her full breasts that strained against the thin fabric of her tank top, but she couldn’t cover the bruises along her collarbone and across her shoulders.
Obviously inflicted that night, their redness had begun to fade to a deep purple where fingers had pressed roughly into her tender skin. Solenne saw the look of shock he didn’t try to hide from his eyes and scrambled to grab a shirt from the back of a nearby chair.
“What is this?”
“Nothing. Just leave it be.”
Saint took the shirt from her hand and threw it on the bed. “No.” Dipping his head, he softly pressed his lips to the darkest bruise on her left shoulder. Fucking Archon!
Gingerly, he ran his fingers over her skin, gently touching each bruise before raising his head to look at her. “Solenne, I promise you here and now I’m going to kill the one who did this. I’ll drain him drop by drop until he begs for the release a stake will bring.”
Eyes wide with tears looked up at him, their blue color pale and watery. “Saint, don’t touch me like this if you don’t mean it.”
He meant it. He’d meant it in every dream he’d had of finally returning to her. Taking her face in his hands, he kissed her long and deep, drinking in the delicious taste of the lips he’d missed for so long.
God, he’d yearned to once again feel the touch of her skin next to his! Year upon year of lonely nights interrupted only by pale replacements ebbed from his memory now as his hands once again learned of the woman he’d always loved.
Solenne molded to him, setting his senses ablaze. His body craved to join with her, to finally reclaim that piece of his heart lost so painfully nearly a century ago. He slid his hands under her shirt to her breasts and worshipped them—their fullness in his palms, their deep pink tips pebbled from desire that begged for his mouth’s attention.
“Come.”
Taking her hand, he led her to the shower. “Don’t move.” A quick twist of the faucet handle and warm water streamed down from the showerhead.
“Do I look like I need a shower?” she asked in a teasing tone as he slipped the tank top over her head.
Saint looked down at her sexy mouth as he slid his thumbs under the waist of her shorts. “Always fighting me.”
Crouching in front of her, he slid the shorts down her legs and off her feet. Eye level with her pussy, he looked up and licked his lips. “I hope you don’t plan on fighting me now.”
He didn’t wait for a reply before he drew his finger up her wet slit. Solenne’s eyebrows knitted and she bit her lip. Her eyes slowly closed and tiny moans filled his ears.
“Don’t close your eyes. Watch me.”
Solenne obeyed and her eyes grew wide as he slid his thumbs through her delicate folds to open her up, unveiling to his eager eyes her excited clit. Saint inched closer to her soft skin and whispered against her, “I’ve waited so long for this.”
Softly musky, her taste danced on his tongue, thrilling him. He ran his tongue over her clit, eliciting a groan that traveled straight to his cock pushing against his pants. So responsive, she showed her pleasure at every lap against her skin.
“Yes…there. Right there,” she cooed.
Her moans grew louder as her climax edged closer. Saint slid inside her slick channel and massaged that spot deep inside her with a fingertip. Her body reacted just as he knew it would, greedily closing around his finger. So close, she tilted her hips to bring him deeper into her.
“Declan, don’t stop. God, don’t stop!”
Solenne’s voice trailed off, and Saint felt her orgasm take her over. Taking her swollen nub between his lips, he sucked as she whimpered sounds of perfect pleasure.
Finally, when her body had finished its ecstasy, she cried, “My legs are going to give out, Declan!”
Saint grabbed the backs of her thighs as her legs buckled underneath her. It had been so long since he’d had the joy of reveling in the feeling of pleasing one of his kind. God, he’d missed this!
He stood and smiled, ready for round two. Steam hung above their heads, and Solenne pulled at his clothes to undress him.
“I hope there’s some hot water left,” she said with a smile as he stepped out of his pants. As she stroked his already hard cock, she licked her lips and added, “I’d hate to have this ruined by cold water.”
Nuzzling her neck, he murmured against her moist skin, “It could be ice water. Doesn’t matter.”
Saint led her into the glass shower and closed the door behind them. When he turned back to face her, he stopped short, struck by how beautiful she was as she stood there soaking wet in front of him.
Pulling her to him, he pressed his body to hers and kissed her deeply. She arched into him, tilted her head back, and smiled that same sexy grin that had seduced him so many times before. Smoothing the wet hair from her face, he stared into her beautiful eyes, letting himself get lost in them.
“God, you’re gorgeous,” he said as he slid his hands to cradle her face. “Every day since the last time I felt your body next to mine this is the face that’s filled my dreams.”
“Don’t talk about that, please. It hurts too much to even think of it. All those years lost.”
Solenne closed her eyes and lowered her head. “I’m so sorry, Declan. I never wanted to lose you.”
He shook his head and kissed her forehead. “Don’t. There’s nothing back there for us now. Everything we feel is here now and every night from this moment on.”
Leaning in, he brushed his lips across hers and pulled back to gaze into those eyes so full of everything he’d ever wanted in this world.
Sexy, strong Solenne.
His body begged to feel hers next to him, around him, and his muscles ached from the tension of denying himself for so long. Finally, after years
of being without the love of one of his kind, he’d returned home to the only vampire he’d ever shared himself with.
*
Declan lifted her, easing her back against the wet tile, and Solenne held on to this neck as she wrapped her legs around him. His body, every inch muscular and hard, felt strong and powerful next to hers. The abs she’d fantasized touching days earlier pressed hard against her, making her pussy run wet in anticipation.
He kissed her neck and she felt the sharp tips of his fangs scrape lightly over her skin as he whispered in a strained voice, “I need to feel you around my cock when I taste you.”
“Yes…God, yes,” she moaned as she tilted her hips forward to take him inside her.
Slowly, he pressed into her body, his thickness pushing against her walls forcing her to take all of him. Every inch closer made her more desperate to feel him buried completely inside her.
Her fingernails dug into his neck as her eyes urged him to give her all of him. Declan stared at her and something wild in his eyes made her unable to break the connection. It was as if he were seeing her for the first time.
Finally, as their bodies met, he groaned her name and buried his fangs in her neck. He was primal, thrusting into her body as he sucked what he needed from her. Every pull on her vein sent a ribbon of need through her body straight to her cunt, and with each thrust into her, he eased that need only to make it spike again.
His hands on her back bore the brunt of his pounding into her, shielding her from crashing into the wall each time his cock entered her. Over and over, he stroked in and out of her, touching some spot lost to her for so long she’d forgotten the true pleasure her body could experience.
Things began to spin around her as he stayed at her neck, but she couldn’t deny him what he needed. She knew she should cry out to stop him, but she didn’t, knowing the risk and not caring. She’d taken this away from him then. She’d give him this now.
Declan raised his head and stilled his thrusting into her, his dark eyes wilder than before. His mouth hung open slightly, and from his fangs her blood dripped down his chin. Panting, he ran his tongue over his lips and growled as it caught her blood.
He looked different than she’d ever seen him. Sensual and animalistic. For a moment, she stiffened in fear. The Declan she’d known had never been like this. Yes, he’d known how to please her body in ways no other man ever had, but never before had she’d seen no trace of tenderness in his face like she did now.
As she watched him, part frightened and part enthralled at how sensual he’d become, he wiped his chin with the back of his hand and licked his lips.
“You taste so fucking good.”
“Declan…”
“I can feel you racing through my veins. It feels better than anything I’ve ever felt. It’s like every time I’ve ever pushed my body to the point of exhaustion—that point right before when my body feels more alive than I ever thought it could.”
As he spoke, his eyes traveled to the spot on her neck where he’d taken from her.
“Declan, I’m feeling a little weak.”
“Take from me all you need,” he said as he leaned in to kiss her.
The feel of his hard, muscular neck against her lips made whatever fear she’d harbored melt away. Declan moved a hand to the back of her head and held her fast to him, demanding she take from him as he had from her.
Her fangs pressed into his skin and as she savored the first taste of him on her tongue, he thrust his hips forward, filling her completely once again. His other hand on the small of her back pulled her into him, and he began pumping into her as she took his blood into her body.
He tasted so exotic and foreign, like nothing she’d ever experienced before, but somewhere in there was the familiar. The combination made her body come alive, and she craved the release he could give her.
“I need…”
Her brain couldn’t seem to tell her mouth what words to say. She needed so much. To come with him deep inside her. To feel him come inside her. To never lose him again. To feel this every night for the rest of her life.
She hoped her eyes would do the pleading her mouth couldn’t. Staring into his wild eyes, she saw he understood.
In a voice that touched the spot his cock had so expertly found, he said, “I know, baby. Let me give you what you need.”
He took her hands from his neck and pressed them against the wall above her head. Weaving his fingers in between hers, he pushed her arms high as he pumped into her body. He held her under his control, but she wouldn’t have fought him for anything in the world. His powerful body crashed against her softer body, but she didn’t care. Every thrust of his cock inched her closer to the release her body begged for.
Her arms ached, the pain radiating from the pressure of his hands on hers and her wrists against the wall. It didn’t matter. Her legs throbbed as they held him to her desperately, rubbing against his flexing back muscles, but it didn’t matter.
Declan pressed his forehead to hers and panted warm breath in her face. “Come for me. Give yourself to me again,” he groaned.
Turning her head, she bared her neck. She needed to feel him take from her as she came again, the joining of her body with his in the most intimate way of her kind. “Take from me.”
Pumping even faster into her now, he let his mouth hover over where she desperately yearned to feel him again. “Declan, don’t make me beg!”
She heard him say, “Never, baby,” and then he latched onto her neck, his teeth burying into her skin and the vein beneath.
Her orgasm rolled over her like a freight rain, taking her breath away. Her legs squeezed his waist tightly as her cunt spasmed against his thick cock, milking him to his own release. His groans into her body echoed in the shower and then he exploded into her, coating her channel in hot liquid.
Declan lapped closed the holes he’d made in her skin but remained at her neck as his body released torrents into hers. Solenne felt him kiss her softly as he stilled against her. Something cold sprayed on her and she realized the water falling onto his back was like ice.
“You must be freezing. Let’s get out of here.”
Silently, he shook his head and released her hands. Cradling his face, she lifted him from her neck and saw the remnants of his feeding from her again staining his lips a deep red. Still wild looking, he opened his eyes and something of the soul she’d known all those years ago shone in them.
“Declan?”
When he spoke, his words sounded like they were being torn from him. “I can’t live without this anymore. I can’t live without you anymore. I don’t care about the Archons, my part in the Sons, or anything else. As long as I have you, none of that matters.”
“Don’t say that. It does matter.”
“No, it doesn’t. I spent a century alone, an outcast from the world, but what was worse was not having you. I won’t live like that again.”
Solenne ran her hands over his closely shaved head and kissed the mouth that had just said the words she’d prayed to hear since the day she’d lost him. “I’m sorry we lost all those years. I can’t bear the idea of losing you now to the Archons.”
Declan gently traced his finger over her collarbone. “I intend on making up for lost time, and the Archons don’t know what they’re up against. I was going to be hard to kill before. Now that I have something to live for and someone to kill for, they’re the ones that need to worry.”
Fourteen
Saint stretched his legs and felt the ache in them ebb from his muscles. Tired after getting just a few hours rest, he nonetheless wouldn’t have traded his exhaustion for anything in the world. Memories of the previous night with Solenne danced through his mind, and his cock hardened at the thought of making love to her again.
Her body still pressed against his, her breasts rubbing against his ribs as they rose and fell with each breath. He threaded his fingers through her hair and enjoyed the silky feel of it against his skin.
Solenne turned and looked up at him. “Sleep well?”
“I don’t think three hours of sleep adds up to well,” he said with a chuckle.
Tracing her finger over his nipple, she smiled up at him. “I should have let you sleep.”
“You’re right where you belong,” he said as he wrapped his legs around her and settled her body between them.
Shyly, she slid up his body and kissed him on the lips. “I could stay here for the rest of time.”
So could he. Forget the rest of the world—Archons who wanted him dead, vampires who cared more about who he fucked than who he was, prophecies, Sons, and the Order. All he needed was right there in bed with him, where she ought to be.
“But I have to go out tonight.”
He heard the fear in her voice and knew what she meant. She had to go to the Archon’s. Fuck, he hated the thought of her anywhere near him!
Saint lifted her chin to see her face. “I want you to know I meant what I said last night.”
“Declan, I…”
“Don’t think about it. Just know he will know what hatred feels like before I end his life.”
Saint held her close to him, needing to feel the love of the woman who lay in his arms. This time he’d make sure things were different. This time nothing was going to take her from him.
He rolled her over onto her back and hovered over her, his weight resting on his forearms. She looked up at him with those watery blue eyes filled with fear at what she had to do once she left their bed that night, and it tore at his gut.
He was supposed to protect her. Not the other way around.
Gently, he lowered himself and entered her, needing to prove to her he could take care of what she needed. Her body welcomed his invasion, taking him completely. She clung to him, her hands clutching at his neck as he thrust in long, slow strokes into her slickness.
His teeth cut into his lower lip as the need to taste her blood surged in him. The desire intensified with every plunge into her, but he knew he shouldn’t. She’d almost let him go too far when he’d taken from her the first time.
