He released the barbell and sat back on his knees. He stared at me for a moment before nudging my legs apart. My heart sped up. His hands trailed up my outer thighs and under my mini skirt. My turn to give him wild eyes. His fingers traced the edge of my panties slipping ever closer to my inner thighs and to that spot in between begging for his touch. His dark eyes glittered, like a cat stalking its prey, ready to pounce.
Any. Moment. Now.
“Do you truly want everything, Carina Tranquilli?” His husky voice sent a new round of shivers down my body.
I nodded. Off went the black panty. No barrier left now.
“Say it.” He squeezed my legs, his thumbs dragging little circles on the sensitive skin of my inner thighs, close to other parts, other places dying for attention. One tiny move further in and his thumb would enter me. I shivered. He stopped the circles and pressed with his thumbs, so close to slipping inside. I let out a tiny sound somewhere between a squeak and a moan.
“Say it.”
“I want everything,” I panted, mouth dry.
But it wasn’t enough. “More,” he demanded. “Who am I?”
Confusion knit my brow. My brain could barely string even one coherent thought together, so overwhelmed by the sensations he elicited from my body, and he wanted to play twenty questions right now? Really? He pushed my legs further apart and with unnerving accuracy, his thumb found the sweet spot.
I bucked forward, but he pushed me down with one hand, pinning me to the couch, while the other continued to caress my folds and tease my sensitive nub. My legs trembled, muscles clenching. Two fingers slipped inside, curling up under my pubic bone, locating their target. I clutched at the hand on my chest and squeezed it, frantic, as the pressure built up inside me.
His fangs reappeared. “Who. Am. I?” His fingers moved faster and faster, until I came, shrieking the answer, screaming the truth.
“Mine. You’re mine!”
We hit the floor in a blur of speed.
I thought I heard him say, “I can’t enthrall you, this will hurt,” a moment before his fangs plunged into my neck.
Pain arched my body, stole my breath. His fingers slipped inside me once more, sliding in and out, again and again until another orgasm rocked me. I spasmed in his grasp and clawed at the air. The pain disappeared, wiped out by a tsunami of endorphins. And I wanted it to go on forever, the pull of his mouth at my neck, the thrust of his fingers inside my body. My blood filling him, making him mine.
His fingers slid out one last time, his hand wrapping around my waist, giving it a possessive squeeze. The pulling sensation at my neck intensified. I moaned and lay limp and twitching underneath him as he drank. He might kill me for all I cared. Maybe he would, if he took too much. I trusted him to stop, though, to know when enough was enough. I sure had no clue.
Alexander pulled back and let out a half groan, half growl. He gazed down at me, chin covered in my blood. I palmed his cheek, trailed my fingers down over his lips, through the blood below.
“With my blood, you’re mine,” I whispered, drowsy. My hand slipped from his face. Where had those words come from? Didn’t sound like something I’d say yet my gut said it was true.
I’ve used the Key. My Key.
My eyes fluttered shut, my body spent. But a sudden burst of energy hit me. More, my power purred, more.
Apparently, we weren’t finished.
Alexander stroked a finger down my cheek and my eyes opened. “Ah, there you are.”
He sat up and pulled me across his lap. I blinked up at his handsome face, wanting to lick the blood, my blood, from his crimson chin.
“By your blood, I am bound to you, Carina Tranquilli.” Alexander sliced his palm on his fangs. Blood pooled.
“With my blood...” he brought the bounty to my lips.
“I’m yours,” I finished in a soft voice.
I drank, lapping up the liquid like a thirsty kitten at a bowl of cream. When it was gone I licked the wound, but it healed all too soon under my tongue. I made a frustrated sound, willing his palm to open and give me more. My blood still decorated his chin. I shifted in his lap until I straddled him, cupped his face and licked it clean. He closed his eyes, a shudder rolling down his body. He bit his lip, cutting it with his fangs. The sight of yet more blood sped up my pulse. I tried to pounce, but he held me off.
“By my blood, you are bound to me.”
“I’m bound to you.” I kissed him, licked his lips, fed on the blood even as the cut healed under my tongue. “I’m yours, Alexander Wallace.”
He made a strangled sound. “I can’t hold it back any longer,” he rasped against my mouth.
“Then don’t.” I didn’t know or care what he was talking about.
He unleashed his power and it rolled over me like a tidal wave.
Okay, now I cared. I gasped, back arching, arms flailing. I would’ve pitched backwards off his lap, but he gripped my waist. The power suffocated me, making me gulp for air like a drowning victim hitting the surface of a stormy sea, only to sink again.
“Don’t fight it, Carina. Open to it. Let go.”
Again, I didn’t understand, but it didn’t matter because no sooner had he uttered those last two words, than my power flared to life, answering his call. It merged with his and they both engulfed us. We screamed as one, heads tossed back, bodies rigid.
Our combined energies skewered us like a flaming hot needle, stabbing us repeatedly, plunging through us, sewing us together with molten thread. Up and up it moved—stab, pull, repeat—jerking our bodies with every blow, until it reached our hearts. Our hearts pounding in unison. Again the needle plunged and pulled the hot thread taut, stitched us up good and tight, no more room to move.
No room to breathe. A spark of panic and I raked my nails on Alexander’s back hard enough to draw blood.
I was half vampire, half human. Would this kill me?
The power rushed into my head, a white-hot poker through the forehead. My mind exploded in fireworks. Somewhere far away and separate now, my body was flying. Then it was gone, all gone and I sank into the eye of the power storm, falling deep into the chasm at the heart of it all, until I floated in the quiet center, the calm core and found peace.
~ * ~
“Carina.”
Quiet, I’m floating inside a comfy, fluffy cloud. It’s nice in here. Cozy.
“Carina, can you hear me? Wake up.”
Go away. I’m busy relaxing.
“Shit.”
Hand on my leg, shaking it.
Wait. I have a leg? My eyes snapped open and I jolted back to reality, gasping for air.
“Oh, thank god,” Alexander exclaimed, relief in his voice.
I stared at the ceiling for a moment getting reacquainted with my body and reminding it how to breathe. In, out, in, out, slow and steady, there ya go. My eyes lowered to spy Alexander near my feet, on all fours.
He gave me a faint smile. “Hi.”
“Ow,” I croaked in reply. My body hurt as if recently pummeled by a thousand kung fu fists. I shifted and checked in with the major muscle groups, wiggled my fingers, moved my head. Status—all there, all working, and—“Ouch.”
Alexander had the grace to look embarrassed. Good boy. I might forgive him. He stretched out next to me, head propped up on one arm.
I shifted my head in his direction and my neck crackled, eyes squeezing shut against the pain.
His large hand cupping my cheek startled me moments later. I battled with my heavy eyelids, trying to focus.
“What’s happening?” My words were slurred.
“I’m sorry. I took too much.”
I gave him a slow blink. “What?”
“Blood. I drank too much.” He sat up and pulled me onto his lap.
“Oh, whoa, world spinning.” I curled into his body.
“We need to get Adrian up here.” He stood with me in his arms and strode to the love seat. I was impressed. Big thumbs up for the vampire’s super stren
gth and rapid recovery system.
“Why?”
He placed me on the love seat though I would’ve expected the couch as our floor antics had occurred near it. How had we ended up across the room? Then I remembered the flying sensation before the world went all white and sparkly. As if the power siege weren’t painful enough all on its own, let’s add attempts to defy gravity.
Double ouch.
“We were out for a while.” He covered me with his jacket. Thoughtful, since I was still naked from the waist up and oops, under the mini skirt, too. A skirt and boots. So porn.
When I didn’t reply, he elaborated. “Dawn is coming. I have to go.”
“Take me with you.” Vertigo took my head for a whirl. I huddled under Alexander’s jacket, shivering with cold. He knelt beside me and rubbed my back in small, soothing circles. The shakes subsided.
“You have to stay here, where you’ll get help. Come sun up, I won’t be much use to anyone for a while.”
“I don’t want you to go.” My eyelids fluttered, fatigue pulling at me. Want to be with him.
He stroked my hair. “I don’t want me to go, either. But I have no choice.” He was silent for a moment, and then, “This isn’t how I thought the evening would go.”
“Yeah,” I agreed. “I was thinking a lot of dancing and talking, maybe some light petting.” I closed my eyes and shuddered at the memory of his mouth on my breasts, his fingers inside me.
His fingers dug into my hair, bringing me back. “Me, too. The rest of it was unexpected.”
“Have you ever done that binding thing before?”
“No.”
“So, I’m your first?” Please say yes.
“Yes. The one and only.”
Yay. “Is it supposed to hurt like that? When our power exploded all over us, it was like being attacked by a giant sewing machine in a furnace inside a tornado. Or something.” I frowned at my lame description of the massive cosmic event we’d experienced. He didn’t mind, though.
Alexander shook his head. “I don’t know. I think these things are unpredictable.”
“Do you know anything at all about what we did? I mean, do you know if it—does it always include, um.” Shyness struck.
“What.”
“You know, the sex part.” I forced myself to give him good eye contact.
Wicked grin. “No. That was for fun.”
My face flamed. Even half passed out and anemic as hell, my body managed to blush. So annoying.
His grin widened. “I like it when you do that.”
“I don’t.” I tried to frown, but my lips curled up instead.
He kissed my cheek. “Calling Adrian now.”
“No, wait.” I shifted, but his firm hand held me in place. Not that I had the strength to argue about it. The phrase weak as a kitten took on a whole new meaning for me.
“Hey,” Alexander said into his phone. “We need you up here. Bring the kit.”
Kit? “The first aid kit is over there behind the bar.”
“It won’t have what we need.”
“Oh.”
We were silent for a while, and I let the drowsiness win, stopped fighting with my eyelids and enjoyed Alexander’s fingers trailing back and forth on the side of my face. But wait, if he had to leave soon, I didn’t want to waste our time half sleeping.
“I don’t want to sleep,” I slurred. “Let’s talk.”
“Okay. Until the cavalry arrives.”
“Fine.” I kept my eyes closed rather than struggle with them while talking. Multi-tasking wasn’t in my repertoire at the moment.
“Tell me your middle name.”
“Benjamin.” His lips on my forehead. Yum. Nice.
I tried it out. “Alexander Benjamin Wallace. So old-fashioned.”
“As is yours.”
“True. Where are you from?”
“I’m a San Francisco native.” His hand slid under the jacket and settled on the curve of my waist. Comforting pressure.
“Everyone I’ve ever met is a transplant. No one’s a native.”
“Well I am.”
“Your parents?”
“They’re from Scotland.” Little kisses on my forehead, wonderful yet distracting from the talking. I had one last question.
I blinked up at him. “So, I think you know how old I am,” I began.
He nodded, smoky blue eyes narrowing.
“How old are you?”
He gave me a guarded stare. “Forty-five.”
Interesting. I expected him to be younger than Thomas and Jonas, but he was actually a part of my century, if not precisely my generation. Close enough for me. Bottom line—age difference, no big deal. Of course, he didn’t look forty-something at all, more like late twenties. That didn’t hurt, but a few wrinkles around those sexy eyes wouldn’t have stopped me from lusting after him.
“You’re not old at all. No wonder they call you youngling. They’re like super ancient mummies compared to you.”
Alexander cracked a laugh. I yawned. Vertigo reasserted itself and my body shook.
He pressed his lips against my cheek. “Enough talk. Let sleep take you. It will help with your symptoms.”
“Don’t want to sleep. I want to look at your tattoos. I’ve been thinking of getting one.”
“Tomorrow,” he countered, lips tickling my skin. He took a deep inhale, breathing me in. I knew that desire, that need. I had it, too. Problem was, I couldn’t move.
No fair.
“No,” I insisted. “Now. And you promised to give me the whole intro-to-vampires lesson the next time we hung out, remember? So start talking, mister vampire.”
He chuckled. “You are so stubborn.”
His lips covered mine. Screw the vertigo, the chills, the aches and pains. I wouldn’t let a little blood loss get in the way of my lust. Hell yeah, stubborn. I opened my mouth to him, pressed my hands against his chest, slid them along his shoulders.
He shuddered and growled low in his throat. Oh, how I liked his reaction. Our kiss intensified, tongues dancing.
But then the cavalry arrived with a bang. Of the door, that is.
“Youngling, what have you done!” A blast of cold air then Stella loomed over us, fangs bared.
Adrenaline jack-hammered my heart as I took in the angry vampire. Alexander straightened to his full height, blocking her access to me.
She didn’t like that. “You were told to wait.” Her words were quiet, but power rolled off her, tightening my throat.
Stella pushed Alexander aside, sat and scrutinized me from head to toe. She pulled back her power and I took a deep, relieved breath. Alexander’s jacket slipped off my breasts, bringing attention to my nudity. I tried to pull it up, but my hands shook too badly. In fact, my whole body had a serious case of the shakes. My stomach churned. God, please don’t let me puke on the cranky vampire.
“You have defied our Mistress, Youngling. You will answer for it.” Stella blanketed me with the jacket and even smoothed my skirt, hiding my private parts from view. I liked her a lot in that moment.
“I didn’t plan this,” Alexander told her. He wore his shirt now and held my black crop top, bra and panties.
Stella gripped my chin and tilted my head to inspect the bite marks on my neck. I squeaked in pain. “You are foolish and weak. You could have killed her.”
“I’m fine.” My teeth chattered. I was freezing from the inside out.
Stella palmed my forehead. “Close your eyes.” She trailed her fingers down my face, closing my eyelids along the way. “Adrian. Bring me the kit.”
The thick carpet muffled his footsteps as he approached, but his scent lured me yet again, a delicious blend of soap and aftershave. I imagined pulling him on top of me, biting his neck and drinking him down while I breathed in his glorious, musky scent.
Alexander gripped my shoulders. I blinked. Had I tried to jump Adrian? And had Alexander sensed my desire via vampire intuition or our new bond? Either way, smart move. The
last thing we needed was a feral me chewing on my friend’s neck.
“Shit.” Adrian stood next to Alexander, his face a mask of concern. “I didn’t think you could get any paler, but you look dead, babe. You look fucking dead.”
“The kit, Adrian. Now,” Stella ordered, voice cold. But not as cold as my body. Was I blue? I certainly felt blue.
Adrian put a silver briefcase on the floor by Stella. Inside, hypodermic needles, syringes, vials of liquids and assorted other medical supplies. Oh, great, a shot. Normally, I’d protest getting poked by a needle, but I was in too much distress to care. Just wanted relief.
Stella switched to nurse mode, prepping the injection and my arm. Not surprising, given her history. She was good, fast and efficient, the shot almost pain-free, although that was probably due to my current high level of overall ick.
“What was that?”
She taped a cotton ball to the crook of my arm and applied pressure to it. “Saline water, B12, folic acid, and few other nutrients.” She gave me a hard stare. “It’s not enough. You need blood.”
“No. No clinic,” I protested. “Don’t want a transfusion.”
Alexander patted my shoulder. “That’s not what she meant.”
I stared up at him, feeling small and fragile.
“There’s some in the fridge,” Adrian offered from his spot on the end of the love seat, my legs on his lap.
Stella nodded. He hustled to the bar, returning with a scotch glass containing not one iota of scotch. Stella lifted me effortlessly into a seated position as if I were a weightless, blow-up doll. Alexander slid in next to me for support. Stella took the glass from Adrian, sniffed it, frowned, and held it to my lips.
I drank. My nose wrinkled. “Oh, no.” It was like imbibing a fine red wine ice cold. Wrong.
Stella nodded. “As I thought.” She handed Adrian the glass. “Warm it.”
“Right.” Adrian popped the glass in the microwave for several seconds then joined us for attempt number two.
Haven Page 24
