Craved: A Vampire Syndicate Paranormal Romance (The Vampire Syndicate Book 2)

by Rebecca Rivard

  “Wasteful,” Zoe repeated neutrally.

  I moved a shoulder. Like Victorine, my father had a cold side. He was a vampire, after all.

  “Now, come here.” I dropped the phone on the night table, pulled off my T-shirt and pulled her back on my lap.

  I set her hand on my abs and my mouth to the turn of her neck. “That whole time I was talking, you were distracting me. Touching my stomach like that. I was waiting for you to move your hand lower.” I took her hand and placed it on my dick, which was pressing against my zipper.

  Her breath hitched. She squeezed me through my jeans. “Yeah?”

  “Yeah.” I slid a hand up her inner thigh.

  She widened her legs, allowing me greater access. I stroked her panties over her sex. “Bad girl.”

  “You like me bad.” She pushed against my fingers, but I kept the touch light. Teasing her.

  I was getting to know Zoe, and she liked to be teased, even bossed around—in bed, that is. She was a strong, confident woman, but she got turned on by a little dominance, which was how I liked it, too. She was perfect. We were perfect together.

  I removed my fingers from between her thighs and jerked the straps of the sexy little dress down her shoulders, forcing her to keep her arms close to her sides. Underneath, she wore a scrap of something filmy and black.

  I growled lowly. It was a surprise. A good one. “Mm, I like it.”

  I caressed her breasts through the material. Then I recalled something. “Philippe gave you these clothes, right?” When she nodded, I said, “Fuck that.”

  Those days in the cell had left me in a dark, primitive mood. I wanted my woman—a hard, no-holds-bar fuck.

  And I sure as hell didn’t want her wearing anything Philippe had provided her.

  I took out the switchblade and released the blade with a snick.

  Her eyes widened, but she held still as I sliced through the band holding the bra cups together. The catch in her breath told me she found it as hot as I did.

  Her breasts were bared to me, the tips hard and dusky red. I set the knife on the nightstand and sucked one into my mouth. She closed her eyes and arched her back, wordlessly asking for more. I switched to the other nipple, giving it a few hard sucks as well.

  When I glanced up, she was watching me, her honey-colored eyes heavy-lidded with arousal.

  I took hold of her jaw and gave her a kiss. “You’re so beautiful. I can’t get enough of you.”

  She smiled against my mouth.

  I put my hand under her dress again. She rocked her hips up toward my fingers, seeking more pressure.

  I lightened my touch. “Beg for it.”

  She writhed beneath my hand. “You want to hear you’re good?”

  I cupped her mons, stroked my finger into her panties. She was so wet. So ready.

  “That’s a start.”

  “You’re good. So damn good.”

  “Beg.” I scraped my teeth over her nipple and she jerked with surprise—and got even wetter. “You know it makes you hot. I can feel it. Here.” I slid my finger into her sex. “And through our bond.”

  She was panting now, her mouth soft, a little open. “I’m…not sure…if I like you…using that against me.”

  “Goes both ways.” I gently bit the other nipple. “I know you feel me, too. And if you want me to stop, you can just say so. But you don’t want to, and we both know it. Now beg for it. Or I’ll tease you until sunrise.”

  “Damn you.” Her head fell back. “Please.”

  “Please what?”

  “Please fuck me.”

  “Oh, I will. When I’m ready.”

  Her eyes narrowed. I laughed and lifted her off my lap and set her on the bed.

  She leaned back on her forearms, her long legs open and half off the bed, her pretty breasts bare above the tight black dress, her hair tumbling around her shoulders like dark silk. The opposite of the ladylike, put-together princess the world knew.

  And I was the only one who’d ever see her like this.

  I reached for the switchblade again.

  She pouted up at me. “I like this dress.”

  “We’ll buy you more in New York.”

  I pulled the dress away from her body and sliced it down the center. Yeah, it was crude, marking-my-territory stuff, but that’s how I felt right now.

  I spread the pieces apart and peeled them off her along with the remains of the bra, leaving her in the boots and a pair of see-through black panties.

  I removed the boots and kissed my way up her smooth golden skin to her panties. Hooking my fingers into the sides, I pulled them down to her knees and put my mouth on her clit. Kissing and licking and sucking.

  She was so primed, she started climaxing almost immediately. She widened her legs, stretching the panties at her knees. I left the panties where they were because the visual was so damn erotic—the scrap of filmy black material almost like a bow around her lower thighs.

  My present to myself.

  I slid a finger inside her and stroked her G-spot.

  She moaned. “Please. Oh, Dark Lady. Please, please, please…”

  I stayed with her through the orgasm, then shucked my clothes and rolled on a condom. She scooted the rest of the way onto the mattress and lay there, a flush touching her cheekbones, a satiated expression on her face.

  I crawled up over her. Edgy. Needy. Knowing I didn’t have it in me to be gentle this time. Something about mating her, and all the fuckery of the last few days was riding me.

  I kissed her, slow and deep. “Turn over. And get on your knees.”

  Her mouth rounded. “Oh.”

  She obeyed. She even went down on her forearms, like she was reading my mind. Maybe she was, a little—or sensing through the bond what I needed.

  I caressed her firm ass, gave it a smack. “I love you. So damn much.”

  “I love you, too.” She turned her head and I saw her full red mouth open in surprise and pleasure as I stroked inside.

  I pulled out, stroked back in. “So good.”

  Heat gathered at the base of my spine. I wasn’t going to last long.

  I pushed in harder. She was so tight around me. So perfect.

  But she was almost a virgin. I slowed down, made myself ease off.

  “Tell me if it’s too much. I want to make it good for you.”

  She slanted a look up at me. “I want it just like that. Hard and fast. I want to feel you deep inside.”

  I didn’t need to be told twice. I grasped her hips and shoved deeper. Her moans told me she was all in.

  I set up a hard, steady rhythm. Reached around her to touch her clit so she’d come with me, but her hand was already there.

  “That’s it,” I said. “Touch yourself.”

  She was moaning again.

  “Come for me, sweetheart.” I slammed into her, again and again. My balls were tight, painfully full.

  “Rafe.” She rasped my name.

  But she was holding back. Something was bothering her.

  I didn’t like it, but I was too far gone to stop now.

  I felt her pleasure and mine at the same time. Her inner muscles constricted around me, and I went off like a rocket, emptying myself into the condom—into her—until I felt scraped out, sated.

  I hung over her, catching my breath, then came down on the mattress and pulled her into my arms. Even as good as the climax had been, the sense that she’d held back made the pleasure fade quickly.

  “What’s wrong?” I murmured.

  She shook her head against my shoulder. “Nothing.”

  “Zoe.”

  “I’ll tell you. Just not now, okay?”

  I sighed and tightened my grip on her. “I love you. You need to get used to that. We’re a unit, remember?”

  “I’m trying,” she said, and kissed the side of my neck.

  25

  ZOE

  Saturday night, we caught a jet to London in case the flights from Paris to New York were being w
atched.

  Lainey had posted several photos of me and Rafe. The one of us deep kissing went viral. By the time we landed at Heathrow, it had close to 200K likes on Instagram and was trending on TikTok and Twitter, too.

  We exited the plane and Rafe shed his glamour. All around us, heads snapped around.

  The youngest Kral Angel was in the house. Lean, dark, and sexy as sin.

  I straightened my spine and released my glamour, too. We both wore jeans and T-shirts, a black tee for him and a white one for me. He still looked too thin and the silver burns on his wrists hadn’t healed yet, but he’d recovered remarkably fast. Rafe thought it was due to my blood, and maybe it was—some vampires’ blood could heal. I didn’t know if mine had that power, since it was the first time anyone had drunk from me.

  The whispers followed us down the concourse.

  “That’s them. Rafe and Zoe.”

  “She’s so scary. The Ice Princess. What the hell does he see in her?”

  “He can bloody well drink from me anytime he wants.”

  The attention made me prickly. I didn’t mind that most of it was directed at Rafe. What bothered me was all those women undressing him with their eyes.

  We’d combined our stuff into the duffel bag and left my suitcase behind in Paris. Rafe shifted the bag to his opposite shoulder and set a hand on my lower back.

  “Hey, I don’t love it either,” he muttered. “But go with it. Right now, publicity is our friend. The more the better.”

  A young woman pointed a phone at him. He gave her a grin that made her blush and stare back like a lovesick puppy.

  “Smile,” he told me out of the corner of his mouth.

  I gave the human a toothy grin that made her whiten and stumble over her own sneakers in her hurry to get away.

  “Zoe.” Rafe chuckled and shook his head.

  I dropped my sunglasses over my nose. “Ground rules,” I informed my sex-god of a mate. “They can look but they can’t touch.”

  “Whatever you say, sweetheart.” He pulled me to a halt and met my eyes. “I’m a one-woman man. You’re the only one I want. I didn’t even want that thrall the other night at Le Sang Bleu.”

  I touched my fangs to the sweet spot below his jaw. “Just so we understand each other.”

  His hand moved lower to rest on my ass. He nibbled my earlobe. The crowd of onlookers ate it up—I heard the click of camera phones. Well, most of the crowd, anyway. A few glared at me like they’d like to skewer me with a long silver blade.

  We continued walking. “Is that what’s wrong?” he asked in an undertone. “You’re afraid I’m going to cheat on you? Because Krals don’t do that kind of shit.”

  The hurt in his voice made my chest compress.

  “No.” I threaded my fingers through his. “I trust you. I feel you through our bond. I’d know if you were unhappy or feeling trapped.”

  “Then what is it?”

  I exhaled. “I’m afraid.”

  “Of your mother?”

  I nodded.

  He squeezed my hand. “You’ll be safe in Kral territory. She can’t touch you there.”

  “I’m not afraid of that.”

  “Then what are you afraid of?”

  “I’m afraid for you, damn it.”

  And a part of me was holding back because of it. This couldn’t last. Somehow, some way, Victorine would find a way to split us up.

  “Me?” He sent me a long look, and then nodded as if he’d figured something out. “We can’t talk here. We’ll discuss it on the plane.”

  The flight to New York took off shortly before midnight. We went first class, with comfortable leather seats and all the amenities, but I couldn’t help thinking of that flight to Paris.

  I’d been so happy, hell, giddy with possibilities and freedom. I was happy now, of course—happier than I’d ever been—but I didn’t trust it.

  Somewhere out there, Victorine was waiting for me to resurface. She couldn’t contact me yet because I hadn’t returned the SIM card to my phone. But I knew I’d be hearing from her as soon as I did—or even if I didn’t.

  The flight attendant brought Rafe a rare steak. I sipped a red wine and watched him eat. I hated seeing him so thin.

  What have you done?

  Cold filled my nostrils.

  Stop it. You did the only thing you could. Mating with Rafe was the best way to protect him from Victorine.

  But what if I’d figured wrong? What if it wasn’t enough? Lainey’s posts would buy us time—Victorine was too canny to stir up the humans against her—but I knew my mother.

  She had the resources and the singlemindedness to take Rafe away from me. We’d always be watching our backs.

  I reminded myself that the Tremblay Syndicate would back me, or at least, most of them anyway. Rafe was my true mate, and I’d make sure everyone knew it.

  But would it be enough to protect him?

  Rafe finished his meal and the attendant cleaned everything way. He reclined the white leather seat and crooked his finger at me. “C’mere.”

  Really? I shook off my worries and raised a brow.

  I probably shouldn’t let him get away with that cocky, I’m-in-charge behavior. Although I had to admit, it turned me on.

  His cheek creased in that knee-melting smile that had made me fall for him. “Please, sweetheart?”

  I shook my head at him. But he had me at sweetheart. It would take a while for the newness of that to wear off.

  I reclined my seat.

  “There you are,” he said like it had been days since we’d last seen each other, and drew me into his arms. “I can’t wait to get you alone.”

  “Mm.” I snuggled closer and slid my hand under his T-shirt. Loving that I could touch his warm, hard-muscled body whenever I wanted to.

  “All right,” he said. “Talk. What are we going to do about Victorine?”

  I closed my eyes. I didn’t want to talk about Victorine. I didn’t even what to think about her.

  But I had no choice.

  “That last night, when she came to tell me we were going back to Montreal, she told me something.”

  My chest tightened. I still couldn’t believe how cold and matter of fact Victorine had been. Like she didn’t care about me at all, just my uterus and the fact that I could bear her an heir.

  “Go on,” he said.

  “She informed me,” I said, “that she was going to give me to a man of her choosing.”

  Rafe swore. “The hell she did.”

  “I tried to reason with her.” I swallowed something sharp and painful as a shard of glass. Recalling how my mother had coolly threatened to take my child had brought the hurt and anger flooding back. “But she’d made up her mind.”

  “But why? She knows that if she forced you to mate with someone else, you might not have a child with a man you hadn’t bonded with.”

  “It was a chance she was willing to take. She knew I’d never agree to mate with anyone but you. That’s why when I saw the chance to mate with you, I took it. It was the only way.”

  “You did the right thing.” Rafe’s arms curved protectively around me. “That’s it,” he gritted. “You have to break with her. You know that, don’t you?”

  “There’s more.”

  “More than forcing you to mate with a man you don’t want?”

  I nodded. “She said that if and when I had a child, she’d take the baby and raise it herself.”

  Beneath my hand, Rafe’s stomach went rock-solid. “I’d like to see her try,” he said, soft and dangerous.

  “She won’t willingly let me go. But I’m never going back.”

  “No fucking way.” He exhaled through his teeth. “Okay. At least we know what we’re up against.”

  “Yeah,” I said miserably.

  My stomach churned. Despite everything, Victorine was my mother. I didn’t want to do this.

  But I knew her. To break free of her and protect Rafe, I’d have to be as ruthless as she wa
s. She’d clearly crossed a line. The other syndicates wouldn’t take sides in a blood feud, but they would if they’d heard she’d not only broken the treaty with the Krals, she’d brought in Slayers, Inc., to take out Karoly’s heirs.

  She’d be ruined.

  “I have allies in the Tremblay Syndicate,” I said. “I can force her to honor the terms of the treaty with your father.”

  “How?”

  “I’ll threaten to go public with the fact that she hired SI to slay your brothers. She’ll agree, because otherwise she’ll have a rebellion on her hands. And if I have to, I’ll send everything we know about your brother’s kidnapping to her allies, and your father’s allies as well.”

  “So we go for the jugular.” He sounded approving. “Hit her with everything we’ve got. I like it. We’ll run it past my dad, see what he thinks.”

  “All right.”

  My muscles tightened. That was the one thing I hadn’t considered—I was going to be living in Kral Syndicate territory, under Karoly Kral’s power.

  The price of safety from Victorine.

  Logic told me things had changed. I was Rafe’s mate now, not just Victorine Tremblay’s spawn. But sometimes logic doesn’t cut it. Karoly Kral was the bogeyman, the monster who’d haunted my childhood. The man who’d staked my father and tried to kill me, more than once.

  “Hey.” Rafe tucked a lock of my hair behind my ear. “It will be okay. I’ll be there, remember? Nobody’s going to make you do anything you don’t want to. But I think you should defect to us.”

  I heaved a breath. I’d come to the same conclusion myself. I was too valuable to be unaffiliated with a vampire syndicate.

  “Your father will accept me?”

  “Of course. You’re my mate. And besides, you’re a strong, smart vampire in your own right. You’ll have to prove yourself to him, but you’ll see. He’ll be happy to have you.”

  I nodded.

  “So we’ll start by negotiating,” he said. “But if negotiating doesn’t work,” he added in a steely voice I’d never heard before, “I’ll protect you. My father’s accepted the mating, which means you’re one of the family now even if you don’t defect. If Victorine wants to take this to the mat, she’ll lose. We’re stronger than her. That’s why she signed the truce, and that’s why when she decided to break it, she went about this underhanded way of doing it.”