by Sylvia Day
“Wow, I can see you.”
“No, I’m making you see me. I don’t want you to freak out.”
“Oh, Alex…” Something inside her turned all soft. He was hiding the very essence of who he was, because he didn’t want to scare her. “You make me want everything you can dish out. Try me. I can handle it.”
With infinite care and a reverent touch, his palms slid down her rib cage and between her legs. He parted the lips of her sex and slipped through the moisture there. “No. You can’t. You’re human—soft and sweet and fragile. You’ve never seen a vamp male in full territorial rut or you wouldn’t be asking for it.”
“T-territorial?” God, that sounded sexy as hell. She spread her legs and moaned as he slipped a long finger inside her and then another, stroking deeply, just where she ached for him. She’d loved this last night, the feel of him inside her. Even this small little bit of him made her feel less empty, less alone.
“Yes. I’d want to mark you, claim you, make you mine. I’d frighten you, because I wouldn’t look the same. I’d be larger and far more powerful. One wrong move and I could kill you. I could drink too much from you, fuck you too hard, cut your satin skin. It wouldn’t be me in control anymore, Bree. I wouldn’t know what I’d done until it was over.”
“So you only fuck vamps then?” The sudden image of him with another woman made her grit her teeth.
“I didn’t say that.” Alex rubbed the heel of his palm against her clit making her pussy clench hungrily around his pumping fingers. “Damn, you’re tight.”
“Then what’s different about me?” she argued even as her legs wobbled precariously. “I’m not weak.”
He tightened his grip to support her. “I didn’t say that either. I’m the one who’s weak, sweetness. I haven’t wanted a woman this badly in…well, in forever.” He licked across the fluttering pulse in her neck and he shuddered, his thrusting fingers working faster, making her cream. “You have no idea how badly I want to pin you to the floor, and sink my cock and fangs into you. I’ve never been territorial with anyone, but I would be with you. I can feel it.”
“You’ve never…? Ever?”
“Never ever.”
His softly spoken words were devastating. Suddenly this wasn’t about sex anymore and everything between them changed in the space of one breath. Things she’d never thought to offer any man became necessary gifts.
“Do it,” she dared, the image of him straining over and inside her body making her impossibly wetter. “Take what you need. I bet I could handle it.” Her voice wavered. “I-I want to handle it.”
Alex growled as she soaked his hand. “You don’t know what you’re asking for.”
“I’m asking for you, all of you. Don’t hide a part of yourself away from me.”
He nuzzled against her with a low moan. “Arch your back and brace yourself.”
“Here?” she croaked, his rough command taking her to the brink of orgasm.
His fingers withdrew and she moaned in protest. Gripping her hips, he lifted her feet from the floor, stealing her balance. She squealed as her palms hit the window and the broad head of his cock breached her. She barely caught her breath before he lowered her onto him, the awesome width and hardness of his shaft pressing relentlessly into her.
“Ah fuck.” His arms shook as he took a step forward, using the weight of her body to drive himself deep. Her feet couldn’t touch the deck, he was so much taller than she was, but he held her aloft with the effortless strength of a vampire.
Bree hissed and clawed at the glass as she seated fully onto him, his heavy balls resting against her clit. “My God! Did your cock grow overnight?” Writhing in an effort to accommodate his size, she was so painfully acutely aroused she thought she was losing her mind.
“Does it hurt?” he gasped, his lips brushing over her shoulder in a tender caress.
“God, no. It feels wonderful.”
“Yes… No, don’t move. Hold still. Give me a minute.”
“Please,” she begged as he remained completely still, his damp cheek resting against her shoulder, his chest heaving against her back. She reached behind them and tugged at his ass. His tight, taut, gorgeous ass.
“Bree… Damn it!” Alex caught her wrists and pinned them above their heads, holding her body above the floor impaled on his cock.
“Are you trying to kill me?” she complained, her pussy quivering around him, desperate for some friction. She curled her feet around the back of his knees, trying to find the leverage she needed to ride him.
Finally, he began to move in short, hard digs, rubbing more than thrusting. She came immediately, the pleasure moving outward from the place where he filled her, curling her toes and tensing her frame. Her cunt tightened around him in rippling spasms as she cried out his name and struggled against the slick glass.
“That feels fantastic,” he groaned, switching to a faster pace. “Keep going.”
As if she had any choice. The blissful waves of orgasm rolled and crested, easing slightly only to return in greater force as he swirled his hips and plunged deeper. So deep. Without her arms or her legs, she could only take what he gave her, her body helpless and spread for his slick rhythmic drives.
Lacing her fingers with his, Bree held on, clenching her inner muscles as he shafted her in long lunges.
“Oh yeah,” he breathed in her ear, sweat from his skin binding them together. “You’re making me come.” He shuddered, his cock swelling before he spurted in hard, powerful bursts, flooding her so full she cried out in orgasm with him. Harsh sounds of pleasure tore from his throat, guttural and unbelievably exciting.
“Alex…” She closed her eyes as her body went languid, boneless in the wake of his infusion of heat. And still he kept going, pumping his cock through their mingled cream. “Don’t stop. It feels so good, I’ll die if you stop.”
“I won’t,” he promised hoarsely, maintaining the slow, deep fucking, his shaft still hard as steel. “Now that the edge is off, I can do this for years.”
He released her hands and thrust hard. “Hands and knees.”
She gave an incredulous laugh. “How the hell am I supposed to do that?” She couldn’t move. Besides, they were vertical.
“Trust me, sweetness. You have to learn to trust me.”
His hands moved quickly, so quickly it seemed one moment she was standing and the next she was positioned just as he’d wanted. Dropping her head, she looked between her spread legs startled to see the floor a few feet below them. “Wow.”
“Ummm,” he agreed. “Now I can really take you deep.”
Briana stared for a moment in shock, her body rocking as he began thrusting steadily. Her eyelids grew heavy as he stroked deep inside her, rubbing against places no man had ever touched before. She barely moved, arrested by the sight of his straining thighs and heavy sac as he pumped into her with a languorous, seductive tempo. It was so damn erotic watching him fuck her, her cunt fluttered around his cock as he swiveled his hips and screwed deep into her.
“Like the view?” he purred, his fingertips drifting along her spine.
“I like you,” she admitted. Too much. Far, far too much. Alexei was such a blatantly sexual creature, she couldn’t help but adore him.
Maybe even more than adore him.
It’s okay, sweetheart.
“It’s so not okay.”
I adore you too.
“Damn it,” she complained, her eyes misting with tears. “You’re getting romantic again.”
* * * * *
Romantic.
That wasn’t the way Alex was feeling at all. Possessive and needy, maybe. Hungry and horny, definitely. But romantic?
Briana moaned his name and his gut tightened. Ah hell, who was he kidding? Romantic was frighteningly accurate. It was only the depth of his affection that allowed him to keep the hunger repressed and under control. His fangs ached and power rippled beneath his skin, but he restrained them all with a tight rein, because his f
eelings for her were stronger than the animal within him. In over two hundred years, he’d never been able to say that about any other woman.
She thrust downward against him, taking all of him, and he shuddered at the feel of the slick lips of her cunt kissing the base of his cock. Her creamy heat closed around him like a velvet-gloved fist. He’d just had the orgasm of his life, but you couldn’t tell now. His cock was swollen to painful proportions and his balls were threatening to crawl inside his body.
“Easy,” he growled when she began to rock hard, directing all of his energy into keeping them suspended above the deck of the bridge. It was the only way to keep the hunger occupied so he could make love to Bree like she deserved, slow and tenderly, instead of fucking the hell out of her.
She made another soft whimper and he cursed, the need to orgasm rising every time he sank into her. Her thoughts, hot and sexy and filled with fondness for him, drove him mad. Her fingers clawed at the glass, leaving damp trails of sweat behind. “Make me come again,” she pleaded. “I’m going crazy.”
Curling his body around hers, Alex shortened his strokes and reached between her legs. He circled her clit with the pads of his fingertips and groaned at the feel of her slick with his seed.
“Yes…” Bree swiveled her hips in time with his tempo, her cunt rippling along his shaft before clenching tight around him. Pure pleasure centered at the base of his spine. His cock filled with lust and desire before exploding in release, draining him of all the emotional barriers he’d set in place between them.
* * * * *
Taking care not to wake her, Alex slid his arm from beneath Briana’s head and slipped quietly out of bed. He stared down at her for a long moment, taking in the gorgeous way she was displayed on his linens. Lost in a sea of blood-red satin and jewel-toned pillows, her pale skin and golden curls made his mouth water.
He was tempted to lean over her and steal a kiss, an act he’d successfully managed to avoid so far, but he knew already that a taste of her would lead to a hunger for more. His animal would awaken and want her blood, want her cunt, want her body writhing beneath his, completely at his mercy. He couldn’t take the chance that he’d hurt her. Not for anything in the universe.
With a sigh, he forced himself to step away. He tugged on a pair of trousers and left the room. Padding softly down the corridor, he made his way to the bridge and sat down at his console with its multicolored lights. Alex took a moment to think, his brain gradually clearing of Bree’s addicting scent. Then he hit the comm and waited for Derek to answer.
The screen lit up almost immediately, revealing the stern countenance of the Security President. “How’s everything progressing, Night?”
“As well as can be expected.”
That answer sounded better than, I’m falling in love with my mission, how about you?
“Has she told you anything?”
Not a damn thing and that was really starting to bug him. It meant there was a trust issue between them. Not that he blamed her with the information she had, but he was arrogant enough to wish that whatever she felt for him would be enough to get past it. He’d got what he needed by probing her mind, but he wished she’d had the faith in him to tell him her troubles out loud. “They want her to withdraw her support of the Eastern Bill.”
Derek frowned. “Why? It’s a minor piece of legislation that doesn’t hurt anyone’s interests. If I remember correctly, it just calls for opening a remote sector of the Gamma Quadrant for travel.”
“Apparently there is a small colony of nomads in that sector who display remarkable regenerative qualities. They can cut off a limb, let it die, then reattach it and it will regain its function.”
“Shit.” Derek fell back in his chair. “I take it Representative Michaels hopes to open the route to researchers?”
“That’s the plan. Briana thinks if they can determine how the regeneration works, they can regenerate the reproductive systems of vamps. She knew opposition would be high if her true intent was revealed so she’s kept it under wraps.”
“Well, someone figured it out,” Derek growled. “I’m really starting to feel out of the fucking loop here. I went through every report on Rep. Michaels and the only droid purchase I could find was a sex bot a few weeks ago.”
“That’s the one I was talking about.”
“You said a PA droid.”
“That’s what she’s using it for,” he grumbled. “She’s had its programming altered.”
Derek threw his head back and laughed. “What I wouldn’t give to be on that ship! I’ve never mixed it up with a sex bot and I sure as hell wouldn’t let one anywhere near Sable, but the idea is intriguing. You can tell me all about it and I’ll live vicariously through you.”
Alex snorted. If anyone even looked at Sable wrong, Derek got pissed. Alex had always thought that kind of protectiveness was funny. Now that he was on the possessive side himself, it wasn’t such a laughing matter. “That damn droid is in the cargo hold where it belongs. It’s lucky I didn’t eject it, like I have half a mind to.”
“Uh-oh. Sounds like somebody’s getting attached,” Derek chimed in softly. “Don’t forget she’s human, Night. The fact that she’s not a vamp helps our cause immeasurably. There’s no future with her. You’re immortal, she’s not.”
“I know that.” But it was too late to stop the way he felt about her. He suspected he’d been half in love with her before they’d even met. The heat, the need between them…hell, the mind-blowing sex had finished him. “How’s her family?”
“Fine. For now. Listen, Night, are you planning on telling her who you are? She hasn’t notified anyone about the threats to her family, including her own personal guards. She obviously didn’t trust anyone to assist her. Are you certain she trusts you?”
No, he wasn’t certain and he hated that. “I won’t jeopardize the mission, sir. I know what the risks to her are if she handles this alone.”
“Don’t discount the risks to our kind. We need her.”
Alex took a deep breath and willed away the frustration that ate at him. “I know.”
“Good. I trusted you with this assignment. Don’t fuck it up by getting emotionally involved. Understand?”
“Yeah,” he bit out. “I understand.”
“I don’t have the schematics on the sex droid readily available, but I’ll get them to you in an hour. And your hunch was right about the would-be assassin. A traveler bearing a Shinite passport went through Thieves’ Cove port the same time you were there.”
Alex kept his face impassive, but inside him everything changed. Shinite assassins didn’t fail. The blaster shot in the bar had either been intended as a warning or it was only by a whim of fate that Briana was alive today. Either way, she was in deadly serious danger and that knowledge solidified his next course of action.
“I’ve got all my security safeguards on their highest levels,” Alex said grimly. “But I’ll run through them again every day. I won’t take any chances with her life. And you were right about her dad. He’s hidden himself away at her request. Even she doesn’t know where he is.”
“Good. That takes care of that concern. Tap into the droid at your first opportunity. We need to know everything it knows. Atkinson out.”
Derek signed off and the comm screen went black.
Alex double-checked the navigational settings and did a quick sub-space scan, before rising from his seat and heading back to Bree. In a little over a week they’d be in Tolan. Somehow he had to make her fall in love with him before then. She had to trust him implicitly or the mission could fail, and he couldn’t let that happen. This wasn’t about doing his job anymore or impressing Derek. This was about Briana and protecting the woman he cared about more anything.
His heart ached as he entered his room where the scent of sex and her skin inundated his senses. If she grew to love him, it would rip him apart to say goodbye to her. But he’d suffer the pain gladly if it kept her and her family alive.
&nbs
p; * * * * *
“Ugh! Get off,” Bree complained. “You’re crushing me.”
James rolled to his back beside her on the padded mat. “We should continue this another time, Mistress. You are too distracted to fight properly.”
“I am not distracted.”
“You have yet to knock me down and we have been sparring for hours.” He stood and held out his hand to her.
She blew the hair out of her eyes and then brushed the strands away that clung to her sweaty skin. Alex. Alex. Alex. He was all she could think about and it was affecting everything, including her ability to concentrate.
“I’m just not used to fighting in artificial gravity,” she muttered, using his proffered help to pull up to her feet. “That’s all.”
“Your excuse is dreadful,” he scoffed.
“Bite me.”
“That’s a pleasure I reserve for myself,” Alex said behind her. Startled, Bree spun swiftly to face him.
He lounged in the doorway with his arms crossed, the picture of seductive leisure in his sapphire-colored vest, loose trousers and bare feet. He looked like he’d just rolled out of bed, which he had. Since she started sharing his quarters a week ago, she’d learned another thing about vamps—they slept like the dead. He hadn’t moved a muscle when she’d slipped out of his cabin earlier.
His dark eyes never left hers. “Send that thing away. I’ll spar with you if you like.”
She snorted. Alex was never going to accept James. He’d been furious to discover she’d reactivated her droid and it had taken a hefty dose of carnal persuasion to cheer up her vamp again. “Sparring with you won’t help me. You have abilities I can’t compete with.”
“Then send it away and we’ll get our exercise in more pleasurable ways.” He pushed off the doorjamb and came toward her with a sultry stride she knew. Let’s fuck, it said, and she always responded immediately.
“You’re a menace,” she grumbled as her body shivered in anticipation, her breasts growing heavy, the nipples beading up tight. She’d wanted hot sex and orgasms with a gorgeous guy and that’s exactly what he gave her. But she hadn’t expected Alexei Night to be so tender. She hadn’t known he would want to be with her as often as possible, that he would want to feed her by hand, wash and brush her hair, hold her close while sleeping…
