Savage Breath of Darkness

by Candice Stauffer

  He could hear his heart beating. No. It wasn’t his heart. It was hers. It was calling him, tempting him, beckoning him to take her blood. To taste it. Savor it. “You’ve never lost me.”

  “That’s not true.”

  “I’ve been an idiot. I’ve disappointed you. I’ve hurt you. I’ve hurt myself. But you’re my heart, my soul. You’re everything to me.”

  “You will leave me if you decide you’re a threat to me.”

  “I know you’re safe with me.”

  “Do you really believe we’ll make it for any amount of time?”

  “Yes.” He got a look in his eyes, a wild look that reminded her of a predator marking its prey. “I do.”

  She was burning up, her heart pumping liquid fire through her veins; the need in his gaze was awakening greater need in her. She felt his hunger, the enormous, savage intensity of it. “If we do this…if we…”

  “Not if,” he cut her off. “We are doing this.”

  She shoved his chest and, using supernatural strength and speed, she managed to get him flat on his back beneath her. “First, I want to make sure you understand my expectations.”

  He lifted his head and laughed. “For the record, if you ever decide to brag, I’m telling everyone I allowed you to flip me over onto my back.” He reached up and gently kneaded and stroked her aching breasts. “What are your expectations?”

  Wonderful currents of heat spread from her breasts to between her legs where his cock was pressed so snugly. “I’ll permit you to say you allowed me to do it if it makes you feel better.” She leaned forward, stretching her body over his. “I expect us to be together for forever. I will never let you get away from me. I will always find you.”

  He couldn’t have prevented his smile from broadening if his life depended on it. “I don’t want you to let me get away from you.” Her breasts skimmed tantalizingly across his chest as she reached down and circled his hard length with her hand.

  “That’s good,” her breath, deliciously hot against his skin as her lips moved from the base of his throat to his jaw, “because I will hunt your ass down if you decide to give up on us.”

  She released his cock. Every muscle in his body, every fiber of his being, reacted to the slick heat of her core sliding against his fiercely swollen shaft. “And then?”

  Her lips moved up his throat to his chin and then along his jaw. Her teeth scraped, and her tongue teased his ear. “And then what?” she whispered.

  He moved his hands down her thighs, and then back up to her hips. She had wrapped him up in a spell of dark desire. “After you find me?” He gripped her hips and moved her slick heat up and down his cock.

  The aching tension between them built into a powerful storm of emotions and sensations. Too powerful. Insanely powerful. “I’m showing you.”

  He hauled in a breath and tensed. He wasn’t entirely sure if she was loving him or punishing him. The one thing he knew with absolute certainty was that she was driving him completely insane. “In that case, I promise to make it very easy for you to find me,” he replied, between clenched teeth.

  “That’s my plan.”

  “It’s a brilliant plan.” His voice was a low and barely discernible growl.

  “I thought so.”

  “We’re done talking.” He framed her face between his hands and caressed her lips with his thumb. “Kiss me, Emily.” He lifted his head and kissed her. He parted her lips with his tongue and deepened the kiss. At first, he tasted her, and then he delved even deeper, exploring the sensual heat of her mouth.

  She loved the taste of his kiss. It was a wonderful kiss. Wickedly delicious. Intoxicating. It was more intense, more passionate than any other kiss they’d shared. His enormous strength and power should’ve scared the hell out of her. But it didn’t. Knowing what he was capable of doing excited her. Every dark and dangerous thing about him thrilled her.

  He wanted her. She knew, without any doubt, he wanted her. He needed her. Only her. Forever her. He would never accept less. He would demand everything from her. Her complete surrender to him. Her body and her soul.

  “One more thing,” she said.

  “I thought we were done talking.”

  “Just because you said so?”

  Her breaths audibly quickened when he cupped her left breast and whisked his tongue across her nipple. She pulled his hair and held his head to her when he captured the hard peak between his lips and gently sucked on it.

  “Yes.” By the time he turned his focus to her other breast, she was arching her body against his and moaning in sweet torment. Lightly biting down on the tightly beaded tip, he tugged on it and swirled his tongue over it.

  “Wrong. Will you always hold onto me, Zack?” She was on fire, burning up for him. Needing him, loving him too much.

  “I’ll never let go.” Focused totally on her, on the delicious heat she created as she moved against his cock. Slick. Hot. Groaning, he closed his eyes and focused on the sensations she stirred.

  Nothing could’ve made her feel more like a goddess than hearing the pleasure in his groan as he closed his eyes. She sat up and, her thighs still straddling his body, she looked down at him. She moved her palms over the smooth ripple of muscle beneath his warm bare skin. “You’ll fight for us?”

  “Always.” He opened his eyes. “And that’s two things. You’re so damn beautiful, Emily. Your soul. Your heart. Your body. Everything about you is so damn beautiful.” He cupped her breasts…squeezed them, massaged them. “Your skin is so soft. I love the feel of it against mine.” Delicious currents of pleasure started deep in her core and then ricocheted throughout her entire body. “I promise I’ll never stop loving you or fighting for us with all that I am.”

  She reached down and position the broad head of his cock at her entrance. “That’s good. Now we are done talking.”

  “Wait.” Clearly, he realized, he’d lost his fucking mind. “What are your intentions?” he asked, his voice a low strangled groan.

  “I will never stop loving you or stop fighting for us. Are we good to go?”

  “Absolutely.”

  She lowered herself slowly, watching him watch her, enjoying the burning, aching sensation of her body stretching to accommodate him.

  He fought for his breath as her body closed tightly around his cock. “You’re really fucking tight,” he bit out between clenched teeth. “Really, really fucking tight.” He gripped her thighs to prevent her from moving. “Stay still for a few seconds, Emily.”

  She wiggled her hips despite his intention to hold her still. “And you’re really, really fucking big.” She moved her palms over his chest. “You don’t truly expect me to stay still, do you?” She bent down and trailed hot kisses up the column of his throat to the underside of his chin.

  “I do,” he growled.

  “Too bad.” She drove him wild, teasing him, scraping his neck with her teeth. “You shouldn’t feel so damn good if you want me to stay still.”

  She lifted herself and then lowered herself to meet his upward thrust. “Fuck, Emily.”

  “That’s right. That’s what we’re doing.” The sensation of her hot, silky body gripping the hell out of his cock caused the damn thing to swell and harden even more. She rode him slowly. “We’re finally fucking.”

  The feathery strokes of her lips and tongue skimmed tantalizingly across his shoulder. “You taste and feel so damn wonderful, Zack.” He felt her hunger, her thirst for his blood as she kissed her way from his shoulder to his neck.

  It was the sweetest form of agony he’d ever endured. Then, awakening his darkest, most savage primal needs, her teeth sank deep. The sharp pain gave way to extasy as she rode his cock and drank freely from him. Lightning whipped through him, heating his blood, sizzling over his flesh. He lifted her and then lowered her as he surged upward.

  He continued to lift and lower her as he thrust deeper, harder, faster. He took wild and fierce possession of her body and soul. She screamed against his throat,
her entire body shuddered uncontrollably as the walls of her hot sheath squeezed the hell out of his cock.

  It happened in an instant. One second, she was on top of him and then the next, she was flat on her back looking up at him. He bent his head and kissed her. A long, liquid kiss that rushed lust through her. With his shaft pressed hot and hard against her core his possessive gaze locked onto hers. Then, giving in to his dark hunger for her blood, he bent his head and scraped his teeth back and forth across her neck. He sank his teeth deep. He heard her cry out his name in ecstasy. The hot, spicy taste of her in his mouth, the feel of her body moving restlessly against his, and the soft sounds of her moans were pushing him beyond all hope of control.

  He surged into her. Hard. Deep. The air was forced from her lungs in violent gasps. She struggled to catch her breath as he surged into her again and again. Faster. Harder. Deeper. She bucked beneath him, lifting her hips to meet his thrusting body. Reckless. Savage. Rotating his hips, he thundered into her again and again increasing the momentum and depth. Her body bucked and arched and collided with his in perfect rhythm until she couldn’t keep up and was forced to wrap her legs around his hips and arms around his neck to hold on.

  The powerful, wonderful sensation began to claim her again. Gasping, nearly choking on her own breath, her orgasm hit her hard. It went on and on as he continued to pound into her. The most magnificent pleasure of delicious tremors started deep in her core and then ricocheted throughout her entire body. “It’s too much.”

  “More,” he growled.

  The pleasure he was creating with each powerful thrust of his hips built in her until it consumed her every thought. Her focus narrowed on her body, his body. She could feel the firestorm of pleasure, of savage lust raging in him as it did in her. She felt his need to take them further and further into the fire until they could go no further and survive. Each surge was faster and harder than the one before it. She felt so much pressure. It was intense. Explosive. She was so close, but she just couldn’t let go. It was too much. She was too hot. Burning up. She couldn’t take any more. She couldn’t go any further .

  “Give me more.” He kept moving, creating even more fiery friction.

  He was so damn close to exploding. Her inner muscles violently convulsed around his cock.

  Her hot sheath squeezed the hell out of him. Her whimpers and cries of utter delight as she neared another climax had him biting back his own. He slowed his pace, savoring the sensation of her body convulsing around his. He withdrew and slid home over and over. Maintaining a slow, steady rhythm he took her to unbelievable heights of pleasure, unchaining wild, delicious sensations she’d never known.

  “Zack,” she dug her nails deep into his shoulders, “I can’t.”

  “You can.” He bent his head to hers and teased her lips apart with his tongue. He kissed her deeply, passionately. “And your taking me over the edge with you this time,” he decreed, his voice not entirely steady.

  She locked her ankles around his body, he slammed deep and hard. He thrust once, twice, a third time, and then he quickened his pace. Each deep plunge brought her closer to erupting, to bursting into flames. He thrust harder and faster, stretching her tight muscles, filling her, creating the most sensational flames of pleasure. She moved with him, lightning ripping through her body, as she took pleasure from his fierce lovemaking. She loved that he was wild and out of control. He continued to pound into her over and over again, thrusting wildly.

  She cried out, her body tightly, mercilessly clamping down on him. He thrust a few more times as her body clinched down around him, and then he slammed into her hard one last time as she took him with her. His orgasm was powerful. Like hers it went on and on. It rocked him senseless. Her body milked his hot seed until she’d forced every drop from him.

  He rested his face between her neck and shoulder as her body continued to convulse with aftershocks for several minutes. He collapsed. He’d never dreamed of experiencing such a long, hot release. For a moment, as they each struggled to catch their breath, they trembled in each other’s arms.

  After a few minutes, he lifted his body up onto his elbows and gazed down at her. “Are you okay.”

  “I think you killed me.”

  “I hurt you?”

  “No.” She laughed softly. “You killed me in a good way.”

  He rested his forehead against hers. “Just good?”

  “The best.”

  “I am addicted to you, Emily.”

  “Are you planning to head to rehab or are you warning me?”

  “Consider it a warning.” Never once looking away from her he started to pump his hips. “You feel so fucking good.” His voice was a harsh whisper.

  Their souls were connected. He was in her mind and she was in his. She felt his pleasure combined with hers. What’s more, she felt his devotion to her and his determination to hold onto her until the end of time.

  She couldn’t believe he was still so hard and swollen, still wanting her, still needing her. “I like the idea of being your addiction.”

  She reached up and pulled him down to kiss him. It was a deep, sensuous kiss that went on and on. He returned her kiss with the love and tenderness he had for her. “I am completely satisfied, but I will never get enough of you.” Moving slowly, maintaining a steady, erotic rhythm, creating delicious friction, he made love to her gently.

  She kissed his neck, the base of his chin and then worked her way over his jaw line and up to his ear. “That’s good because I will always want and need more of you.”

  They made love for hours, worshipping each other, until they collapsed in each other’s arms.

  7

  Shortly after six in the morning, Mia walked out onto Julie’s terrace carrying two cups of coffee. She’d been worried over the fact Julie had called off work three days in a row. “Here you go, honey.” Mia handed a cup to her and then pulled out a chair and sat across the table from her. “It looks like you’ve been busy carving pumpkins.”

  “It’s addictive.”

  “Did you use stencils? These are really cool.”

  “No.” She shook her head. “I used a marker to draw the faces and then cut them out. And thank you for the coffee. I didn’t hear you come in.”

  “I knocked.”

  “The door was locked, wasn’t it?”

  “I shifted.” She smiled. “I hope you don’t mind.”

  “No.” She covered her mouth and faked a cough. “Of course not.”

  “Are you starting to feel better at all?”

  “I’m really sorry, Mia.” Julie placed her cup on the table.

  Mia looked at her. “For what?”

  “Calling off work for the last three days.”

  “I’m not upset with you for taking a few days off.”

  “You’re not?”

  “Not at all.” Mia took a few sips of her coffee. “I stopped by because I wanted to make sure you’re okay. I’ve been worried about you.”

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to worry you.” Julie picked her cup up and took a drink. “I am fine.” She faked another cough. “I just picked up a little bug.”

  “I care about you, Julie.”

  “This is great coffee, Mia.” She took another drink and placed the cup on the table. “And I know you care about me.”

  “If that’s true tell me what’s wrong?” Mia asked.

  “It’s nothing but a little cold.”

  Mia took another drink. “We’re friends, aren’t we?”

  Julie nodded. “Of course.”

  “You’re sure?”

  “Yes.”

  “If we are friends,” Mia took another sip, “I don’t see any reason for you to be reluctant or afraid to tell me what is happening in your life.”

  She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Caleb left.”

  “What do you mean? He’s gone?”

  “He left town to get away from me.” Tears began to well up in her eyes. “He said he’s
done with me, Mia.”

  “You had an argument with him?”

  “It was more than an argument. Much more. He dumped me.”

  “You said he left town. Where did he go?”

  “I don’t know. He didn’t say.”

  “I am sure he’ll come back.”

  “To be honest, I don’t think he really left town. But it doesn’t matter. We’re never getting back together.” She placed her coffee on the table again and used the back of her hands to wipe the tears from her face. “He said he can’t be who I need him to be.” She paused for a few seconds. “He also said he doesn’t want to try. He said he’s done pretending we belong together. He’s sick and tired of dealing with me. He hates me. He hates everything about me. Why else would he say he’s sick and tired of dealing with me. You don’t get sick of dealing with someone you love. You love to be with them, right? I mean, being with someone you love should not feel like some sick and twisted form of punishment, right?”

  Mia reached across the table and took her hand. “I am so sorry, honey.”

  “I won’t lie. At first, I was devastated. But then, after having time to give it some thought, I got really mad.”

  “That’s understandable.”

  “I don’t think he ever left. He’s close. He’s probably watching and listening to us right now.”

  “He didn’t leave?”

  “I’m not sure. He might’ve had a change of heart.”

  “You saw him after he left.”

  “I went out and he showed up. He was so mad.”

  “What did he do to you?”

  “He said terrible things to me.”

  “Did he threaten you?”

  “I was just so scared.”

  “Did he hurt you?”

  “No.” Julie shifted her gaze to the side as if to avoid eye contact with Mia. “It was terrible. I felt something very dark and intense in him.”

  “Look at me.” She met Mia’s gaze. “Did Caleb hurt you?”

  She buried her face in her hands. “No.”