Chapter Nine
With that he caught up her mouth in a passionate series of kisses, His hand slipped downward, turned, cupped her breast through her sweater. Stimulation zinged through her, helping her to lose herself in the sensations of the moment. She arched her back, her hands smoothing over his chest. There was a powerful play of muscle beneath the fabric and she knew he kept himself in peak physical condition. Vampires were naturally stronger than humans, but like humans they could be stronger still if they worked at it. Marcus had to be stronger than the average vampire. He had to excel at everything he did. It was the only way he could capture criminal vampires and make them face justice. Then he would sit on the committee and decide if that vampire deserved to face a tribunal. The tribunal, made up of the oldest of vampires, would hand down a sentence if one was deserved.
“I love the way you smell,” he said just as he was burying his face into the side of her neck. He brought her mind back to what was happening to her body, brought her attention to the contours of the body beneath her touch. Shoulders to chest, chest to ribs, ribs to belly. She luxuriated in the feel of all of them. One after the other, her hands warming as his skin beneath his shirt did. Following her lead, his hands drifted down the front of her breasts to the edge of her sweater, before dipping beneath it and reversing course until he had both of her breasts in his eager palms. All the while his mouth and tongue traced short lines down the side of her neck, his breath hot against her skin there. She grew impatient just as he did…impatient to feel bare skin against her palms. She began to unbutton his shirt with deft, rapid fingers.
“I should take time,” she breathed against his silky soft hair. “Time to think. Time to assess. An opportunity to weigh all my options and the w-wisdom of making the next move.”
“But you aren’t going to,” he said on a rough growl as his teeth nipped at her neck, making her gasp. “And you aren’t going to feel regret in the morning either.”
“You’re certain?” she asked.
“If you do then I’m not doing my job right,” he said, lifting his head to grin at her just as his hand unclasped her bra and allowed him to slip beneath it, his hot hands stroking the sensitive, malleable flesh; his fingertips catching and pulling at her taut nipples.
She pushed open his shirt, exposing bare chest to the cool apartment air. She liked to keep the temperature a little colder in the winters. She liked having something to snuggle up against with a blanket or a warm drink. Now she wanted to snuggle up against him, to drink in the warmth of his body with all of hers. She imagined all of his glorious strength on top of her, caging her, dominating her. Hot sexual thrills sang through her at her thoughts combined with the touch of his hands.
“I want you,” she breathed just before catching his mouth with hers.
He chuckled into her mouth. “I should hope so,” he murmured against her lips. “Otherwise I’ve been reading my signals all wrong and I have some explaining to do to your sensibilities.”
She smiled as he nibbled at her lips. “You like to make jokes,” she said.
“This is no laughing matter,” he countered, pulling back to meet her eyes. “I realize that.”
“I never meant to suggest you weren't taking this seriously. I can tell that you do.” She smiled. “I like your wry sense of humor. I’ve been listening to it all night. You also have a way of putting people at ease. I wouldn’t have expected that from such a hard-lined and serious man…at least, that was my first impression of you. I like being surprised.”
“Do you now.” He suddenly stripped off her sweater and shucked her bra down her arms. She shivered as she was exposed to the cold air, but his hot hands were back on her in an instant. She followed him action for action. She stripped his shirt down his arms, waiting for him to unbutton the cuffs before they both removed it. Again his hands went right back to where they had been. Only now they began to travel over her entire torso…shoulders, breasts, ribs and belly. He didn’t miss an inch and she was writhing in pleasure as he stimulated and stroked her. She rose up into his touch with every little stroke. Meanwhile her hands were just as busy, shaping and sculpting hard male muscle and loving every inch of it.
He drew her in tight to his body, her legs locking tighter around his hips. She could feel the hardness of his thighs under her bottom. She wriggled up tighter against him so that her bare chest connected with his. She moaned with delight at the feel of all of his heat and hardness. The man was sculpted like a statue, but was much hotter than marble or stone. She couldn’t stop her hands as they ran over every inch of him, including tightly flexed buttocks and then over his hips and right to the equally hard flesh at the lee of his hips. Her fingers shaped and molded him through the denim of his jeans. She listened to his breaths quickening in her ear, listened to them catch on a groan.
Not to be outdone, he copied her caresses, sliding his strong fingers down her belly, lower and lower until he was tracing down her zipper and then cupping her through the denim. She knew she was hot to the touch—hell, she was burning all over—but by the way he sucked in his breath through his teeth, she knew she had made an impression on his with her heat.
“Enough!” he growled suddenly. “I’m not taking you in the middle of the living room where Darcy can walk in at any time. Show me your bedroom.”
He stood up away from her, depriving her of all of his heat so suddenly that she shivered. He reached down for her hand and yanked her up onto her feet. He then scooped up their clothing and gave her a little push toward the other side of the apartment.
She took his free hand in hers and led the way past the expansive kitchen and into the hallway that had several doors leading off of it. The doors to her bedroom, an exquisite pair of hand-carved oak that depicted the scene of the huntress Diana with her bow pulled back and ready to fire at a deer in the woodlands, were at the back of the hall. She ignored the artistry of the doors, however, as she pushed them open and led him into the enormous suite of rooms that served as her sleeping chambers and dressing area.
There was first a small grouping of couches and chairs right inside the doors. Closer to the windows and looking out over the cityscape was her desk. She had a library as well, but she liked to work in the silence of her room just as often as she liked to work there. Here was where she constructed her more personal correspondence…letters to her family…her closest friends. She had two living cousins, of which Leopold was one. She kept in contact with them both. She had a close circle of friends, and was friendly with all of her feeding resources. Many vampires wouldn’t see the point of staying in contact with their food, but she was not one of them.
Beyond that area was another set of double doors, these had been left open, and she could see her bed as they approached. Her bed was positioned so that the entire right side of it was running along the length of the expansive windows, with only just enough room between the edge of the bed and the window for the width of a small but serviceable nightstand. It allowed for the sleeper on the right side to look out on the city unobstructed. It was, of course, the side of the bed she preferred to sleep on.
The décor and details of the room were expectedly lost on him. His focus was on one thing and one thing only.
The bed.
He tossed their clothes on a nearby chair and drew her close to the edge of the bed on the left-hand side. He drew her close with a growl from deep in his chest. Her heart jumped, racing with gorgeous intensity. She couldn’t help but think she had never felt such passion and anticipation. She laughed softly at herself because she knew that wasn't possible after so many years of life. She was exaggerating because of the power of the moment. She had to be…right?
She pushed away the self-analysis and focused on the moment before her. She stroked her fingers through the crisp hairs on his chest as his deft fingers unbuttoned and unzipped her jeans. He then pushed them down over her hips and with his hands touching her skin at all opportunities he shucked them down her legs. She steadied herself against his shoulder as she stepped out of her clothing. Then, before he rose up, he reached to hook his fingers into the sides of her panties and skimmed those down her legs as well. She was naked except for her socks.
“Do you make love with your socks on or off?” he asked with an amused look in his eyes as he cupped one foot in his hand and lifted it from the floor. She had to reach out and steady herself on his shoulder.
“Off,” she said.
He fingered the edge of her sock, running his touch around it. then, with an unexpected sensuality, he stripped it off, moving slowly, cradling and caressing at every opportunity. Thrills of heat and awareness raced up her leg. She had never realized her feet could be a sexual organ. Under his touch they were.
He switched to the opposite foot, peeling that sock off as well until she now stood before him well and truly naked. He looked up at her from the crouched position he had lowered himself into in order to reach her feet. He held her gaze intently as he leaned forward and places a kiss on her lower belly, just below her navel and just above her mound. She felt his tongue flick out against her skin and she held her breath. His fingers ran up her legs from her ankles, now that he had allowed her to put both feet back on the floor, and he made slow work of his travels upward. He took every opportunity to shape and caress her along the contours of her legs, stimulating her with a sensual awareness she hadn’t felt in…in a very long time. It had been so long she had forgotten what true sensual promise a touch could convey. And his touch was speaking to her on so many deep levels. Desire was only the surface of it. The intensity went even further than that.
She found herself clutching at his hair, massaging the follicles with excited fingers. The more he swept his tongue over her skin and shaped her curves with his hands, the more she gripped and stimulated his hair and scalp. She was also using that grip to guide him. She aimed his mouth towards the areas that craved him most, eventually leading him to the well-groomed crest where her pussy met her mound. She felt his tongue flick out for a preliminary taste of her and she exhaled with erotic anticipation. His dominating eyes snared her gaze as she looked down at him. There was a moment where she held her breath. She imagined he did as well because the room was perfectly silent. Then suddenly, so abruptly she almost fell over back onto the waiting bed, he surged to his feet and with a savage growl of seeming frustration he turned his back to her. He ran both hand back through his wildly messed up hair and she hesitantly reached out to touch him on his shoulder.
“What is it?” she asked.
“Give me a moment,” he said as he ran his hands through his hair, smoothing away the damage she had done.
When he turned back to her she could see the savagery in his eyes. She gave a little gasp to see it. She could see his fangs jutting out from between his lips. They had grown long as if he were anticipating a feed.
“Yes,” he hissed on a wild breath. “Look at me. Look at what you've done to me!”
He swept forward, grabbing her by her arms and giving her a hard little shake. “I want to devour you even though I’ve already fed. Why is that? I’m already brimming with energy but I crave more. More from you. I would glut myself on you. Suffocate myself by feeding from you until I couldn’t breathe.”
“There is nothing wrong with wanting me so badly. In fact, I am quite flattered,” she said, her hands coming up to shape the contours of his chest.
“Don’t be! You have no idea how much I’m keeping myself in control right now. How much I'm resisting tearing into you.”
“Why resist?” she breathed. “Why resist at all?”
He growled low in his chest and gave her another little shake. “Stop it. You don’t want to play this game.”
“I do,” she said softly. “I really do.”
Unlike him, she wasn't afraid or concerned by the intensity of what she was feeling. She wouldn’t exactly call what he was feeling fear, but he was definitely trying hard not to lose himself in the moment. She understood. He was a man of great discipline and control. To lose both so suddenly must be an overwhelming experience.
“You can’t possibly know what you’re asking for,” he hissed.
“I do. I want you. All of you. However intensely you want to give yourself to me. I’m not afraid and you shouldn’t be either. I know you won’t hurt me.”
“Then you have an advantage over me, because I’m not so sure about that.”
Then he fell on her mouth, savagely kissing her, his hands wrapping around her naked body. He gripped at her back and her buttock, jerking her hips into contact with his. He ground against her, making her aware of his erection, inundating her with the arousal of his intensity.
She immediately dropped her hands to the fly of his pants, desperately tugging it down and then pushing his jeans and underwear off of his hips in a single caressing slide. As she slid his jeans down the length of his legs she lowered herself onto her knee. She helped him step out of her shoes and then stripped his jeans the rest of the way off his body. She then peeled away his socks. She caressed his calves. Running her nails up along the backs of them. She looked up at him and found his enormous erection right at the level of her cheek. She brought her raking caress up to the backs of his thighs even as she turned her head slightly and licked him once from the base of his staff all the way to the tip. She suddenly felt him wrapping her braid up in his hand and he jerked her up to her full height by it.
“No. Not right now. I’m barely holding on as it is. If you put your mouth on me I can’t see myself becoming anything but pure savage. I wish I could explain to you how primal these feelings are. How intense.”
“You don’t have to,” she said on a series of rapid breaths. “I’m feeling it too.”
She was. She was overwhelmed with the urge to throw herself at him, to dig her nail into the skin of his back, to wrap her legs around him and force him to thrust hard inside of her. She had never known such savage hunger. Not in all the long years of her life. It was primal, as he had said. The only thing that came close to it was the memory of when she and the rest of her people had been starving for want of knowing how to feed themselves, until it had driven them to feed. Back then it had been a ferocious act, unrefined and inelegant. Nothing like it was today in a civilized vampire’s world.
He suddenly shoved her backward, sending her onto the bed with a hard bounce. He was on top of her an instant later, pushing apart her thighs and driving his hips up between them. He found her entrance with unerring ease, his cock fitting to it like a key preparing to enter a lock to a door that held mysterious surprises behind it.
He was braced on one elbow, his free hand mauling her left breast, pulling and tugging at the nipple until she was she was so stimulated she was made dizzy by it. Then he thrust into her. It was a single, violent thrust, made easy only by the wetness of her prepared body. She gasped as he filled her, her legs wrapping around his hips and holding him tightly in place as she tried to absorb the impact of his invasion both physically and sensually. She reached to grasp his buttocks, her fingers digging in, her nails no doubt marking him. She tipped her chin up for his wild kisses, giving as good as she got as her body adapted to the girth of him.
He barely gave her more than a few moments to adjust to him. Then he withdrew and thrust into her again. Then again, each thrust as hard as the one before it. She began to pant in soft gasps in time to his rhythm. Pleasure whirled through her, overwhelming her, making the savagery of the moment come out of her. She suddenly bit down on his lower lip. He jerked his head back and practically snarled in her face. Now it was her fangs showing themselves and the urge to feed from him, to indulge in that sexual high with him driving her wild.
“Yes,” he hissed on a sibilant ‘s’. “Now you feel it. Now you know what it’s like. I’m going to bite you, feed from you. But you must do the same simultaneously. You must take as much as you give, otherwise I will explode with too much energy.”
She nodded, unable to speak. She reached for the part of his body that was closest to her mouth…his shoulder. Normally the most ideal place to feed from was the back of the neck, but a vampire could take energy from anywhere on the body…it was merely less dynamic when not taken from the spot where the base of the neck met the top of the spine, that nexus of nerves and energy. But it would be no less powerful sensually speaking to take from another part of the body. She bit down ferociously, blood bursting into her mouth and energy bursting in after it. There was very little bloodshed in the act of feeding, but it was necessary in order to form the essential connection between two bodies initially. She flicked her tongue against his skin as the salty, tangy flavor of him washed over her taste buds. Then, that tang was followed by the sudden and intense rush of energy he was brimming with.
Suddenly she felt him thrusting inside her, his cock driving deep even as he bit down on the only place he could reach as she fed…the side of her neck. She gasped as his fangs sank deep into the delicate structures there. He had to be careful, avoiding her jugular and other main arteries. The connection became complete. Like an electrical current running around and around a closed circuit, energy rushed into her and then rushed out again. It was by far one of the most erotic feelings of her lifetime. Not that she hadn’t done something similar before. She had. Dozens of times. But she had never done it with him before, and that made all the difference in the world she discovered.
All the while he ravaged her body with rending thrusts. The stimulating act of feeding and sexual conduct made a connection that no one and nothing else on the planet could match. The intimacy of it was nearly too much. She began to come, her orgasm swelling in her like an incredible surge of electricity. It was like being struck by a sustained bolt of lightning. Her body threatened to burst apart at the overwhelming current. It burned her…blackened her skin as the temperature became too much…or at least that was how it felt. Her fingertips, grasping desperately at his flesh, felt as though energy would burst like rays of light from them.
She cried out, but her mouth never disengaged from his flesh. She felt him go rigid above her as he began to come. He disengaged from her neck just in time to shout out his release. She could feel him shuddering as he emptied himself into her. She pried her mouth free of his flesh and gasped for breath. She panted for it a moment as his head dropped down, his forehead touching to her left collarbone. He too was drawing hard for breath.
She closed her eyes, trying to hold on to the feelings of that moment. Their bodies were damp with their exertions, they were still connected, and each of them was trembling with the aftershocks of their pleasure.
Eventually she opened her eyes again and he lifted his head. The gazed into each other’s eyes a long moment, each alone with their own thoughts. She wondered what he was thinking, but she didn’t want to be one of those women who tried to pry into her lover’s thought every five seconds. If he wanted to share his thoughts with her he would. He had certainly proven himself to be outspoken enough.
“What are you thinking?” he asked her.
She laughed at him and he grinned. “What? What’d I say?” he asked.
“It’s nothing. I was just wondering what you were thinking.”
“It’s obvious we have some things to discuss,” he said.
“Perhaps. But not right now. Not tonight. Tonight I just want to live in the moment.”
“Very well,” he said. “I can go along with that…quite easily in fact.
He moved off of her, rolling to her side. He propped his head with one arm and began to trace his fingers over the expanse of her midriff. They sat in silence for a long minute before he said, “I’ve never felt anything quite like that before,” he said.
She looked at him without surprise. She knew something different and special had passed between them. She just didn’t know if she was ready to acknowledge it. She didn’t know what it meant. However, she did know she wanted to feel it again. Soon. Very soon.
“Certainly you’ve done the exchange before,” she said.
“Of course. It’s one of the first things a sexually active vampire tries. It is, however, the most intense experience of foreplay. As you know not every vampire chooses to get that intimate with their partner. I wonder at myself for so easily indulging in it with you. Then again, there was nothing easy about it. I was so overwhelmed with craving for you in that moment.” He added in a whisper, “Nothing but everything would do.”
She knew exactly what he meant. She had felt the same way. But she wasn't used to putting all of her feelings on the table all at once and with such exposure. She wondered that he was so willing to do so. She had mistaken him for being more like her, more reserved.
“You didn’t strike me as the sort of man who examines his feelings out in the open,” she said.
“I am not afraid of what I feel. Emotions are one of the treasures that make our long lives worth living. Besides, this isn’t the open. It’s just you and me here.”
“I…I am not used to…sharing my feelings with…with…”
“Strangers?” he supplied. Then a corner of his mouth curled into a smile and she knew exactly what he was thinking.
“Yes. I realize we can’t call each other strangers any longer,” she said with a sigh. “Just give me a moment to adjust. A lot has happened in a very short time.”
Now it was a frown tugging at the corners of his mouth. “You don’t regret what we’ve done, do you?”
“No! Not at all,” she reassured him quickly. “In fact I embrace it. Like you, I enjoy the unique pleasures life has to offer. I don’t wish to live in a vacuum and I don’t want to deny myself the things that make me feel good.”
“I’m very happy to hear that,” he said, leaning in a moment to kiss her at the corner of her eye. “I couldn’t bring myself to regret something so unique. So pleasurable. In fact,” he said slyly, “I’m thinking of repeating the performance…just to check and make certain it wasn't a fluke.”
“Ah. So it’s an experiment,” she said, amusement radiating from her expression.
“Purely scientific,” he assured her as he began to chain kisses down along the side of her face and, eventually, onto the side of her neck. He stopped suddenly and drew back as if something had bit him. “Jesus Christ. Look what I did to you,” he ground out. He touched her on the side of her neck where he had bitten her. She could feel the soreness and the bruising there. It was more than the expected. They had gotten carried away.
“It’s no different than what I've done to you,” she sad softly as she trailed her fingers over the bruised and bloodied punctures on his neck. When a vampire was preparing to feed, both upper and lower canines extended, but in truth all of the teeth became engaged when they drank overenthusiastically. This had definitely been an overenthusiastic application. The imprint of her full bite was on his shoulder…and several runnels of blood had dripped down his skin from the four fang punctures after she had disengaged. She knew her neck looked no different. “It was worth a few bruises.”
“Still, I should have had more care,” he said. He then reached to stroke a pair of fingers along her hairline. “I’ll take better care of you next time.”
“I liked what we did. Very much. I don’t want you to hold back. It would take something away from the experience.”
He gave her a grim smile. “I think we can have an equally good experience without me practically ripping your throat out.”
“Let’s not worry about it. The future will take care of itself. And remember, this will have healed completely in twenty-four hours.”
“In the meantime I think you ought to wear a scarf…otherwise everyone will know what you’ve been up to,” he said with renewed amusement.
“I had already planned on it. What has happened here is no one’s business but our own.”
“I agree. Now, you said something about another attempt?” he asked lasciviously as he bent his head and kissed her on the side of her neck near her wound.
“Did I?” she said.
“You did. You’ve made the future look all too appealing.”
“So have you,” she said as she stroked her fingers through his hair. “Come. Kiss me. Let’s see if the first time was just a matter of fortune.”
He kissed her lips with lingering need. She raked her fingers through his hair and heat flared in his eyes. His hands began to travel her body.
“I’m going to lose myself inside of you tonight. Perhaps every night for a while…if you’ll allow me,” he said.
“We’ll let the future take care of itself,” she reminded him. He reacted to her lack of commitment with a barely raised brow, but he let it slide otherwise. He knew he shouldn’t push her, and she was glad of it. She would take this one day at a time. It was new territory for her, to get involved with someone so close to her. She would have to be very careful.
She could only hope that this man, this veritable stranger, could manage the relationship maturely. She hoped that he could.
Otherwise, this would be over just as quickly as it had begun.