Eternal Kiss of Darkness

The electric feel of his mouth shot a path of blind, aching need from her neck to her loins, making everything inside her tighten.

"I want you so much," she gasped, grinding herself against him.

Mencheres tore away from her throat with a groan that seemed to echo all through him.

She gripped his hair, desperate to have his mouth on her again, and then felt the aching bliss of him molding her to him before he kissed her once more.

Her desire rose to a painful level. Kira curled her fists in his hair, almost tearing it out in her impatience to bring his mouth closer. When his hand slid up her thigh, she let out a smothered groan at the tingling trail it left. Then he cupped her sex, his palm sensually grinding against her clitoris with firm, circular strokes, his fingers devastating her with their skil even through her panties.

Molten heat blasted through Kira as all her lower nerve endings felt like they'd been struck by lightning. The sensation was so intense, so fierce, it overwhelmed her. She cried out at the sudden convulsive tightening within her, ecstasy blasting through her in uncontrollable waves that rippled from her core and spread out to the rest of her body.

Mencheres reveled in the feel of Kira's orgasm. The intoxicating sweetness of her mouth, the torturous ecstasy of her skin against his, her body shuddering on top of him while hoarse cries vibrated against his mouth - it was a memory he would replay many times in the future, however short that future might be.

But he'd already taken more than he should. If he were honorable, he'd have assuaged Kira's need without laying hands on her. He'd used his power for those purposes in the past with other new vampires he sired, but always at a distance, where it was impersonal. All vampire urges were too overwhelming to control at first, and lust was no exception. But when Kira told him she wanted him, when she reached for him . . .

Mencheres could not bring himself merely to satisfy her with his power. He had to have his hands and mouth on her, feel her next to him, no matter that it was as painful as it was magnificent.

With the greatest reluctance, he ended their kiss, licking his lips to savor Kira's taste one last time. Then he sent his power out to gather up the sweater and pants that he'd hastily stripped from her before.

Her head dropped to his shoulder, those soft, full lips seeking out his flesh. A tremor went through him as her tongue flicked out, teasing and stroking his skin from his shoulder to the hollow of his throat.

Ah, gods, if only things were different.

"Kira. We must stop."

Mencheres forced himself to sit up, to set her back until her lovely face was staring at him in confusion instead of being pressed to his flesh.

"What's wrong?"

Everything about her was an enticement for him to forget his principles. Her br**sts strained against her bra, her lace underwear was more all uring than concealing, and her lemony scent was both sweeter and muskier with her lust. He closed his eyes. If he even allowed himself to imagine that she tasted as good as she smelled . . .

"We cannot do this. You are impaired from your new senses. Later, you would rightly be angry at me for exploiting your condition if I took you."

Kira let out a sound between a scoff and a disbelieving laugh. "You're just intending to stop because you think I don't know what I want?"

He tried to remember the things he'd said to other people he'd sired when he was in a similar scenario, but he'd never wanted them with the same fierce need that clawed at him now. It was hard to form logical words when his attention kept being distracted by Kira's scent on his skin, how near she was to him, and how ravishing she looked in her miniscule undergarments.

"This isn't what you would choose of your own uninfluenced will," he managed to grit out. If this were any more difficult, he'd call it torture.

Kira jumped up in a single leap, grabbing her pants and sweater from the ground nearby.

"Unbelievable. Do you always do other people's thinking for them? Or is this something you've reserved just for me?"

The acid in her tone was unexpected. Did she believe that he refused her out of lack of desire? The notion would have been laughable if he wasn't suffering so strongly at the moment.

"I've had experience with new vampires. Right now, your new senses are directing your actions instead of your will. To assume you mean what you say under these circumstances is tantamount to - "

"You really do just make up other people's minds for them," Kira interrupted, yanking on her pants. "Wow, that must piss them off. It's got me infuriated, too. Congratulations, you win. Now I don't want you anymore."

"You never offered yourself to me before this," Mencheres snapped, his controlled fa?ade cracking under the weight of his frustration. "You stayed under my roof for a week when we met, yet all that time, you only spoke of your desire to leave. Not of any longing for my attentions."

She strode over, her jeans not all the way closed because she'd ripped them when she pulled them on.

"When we first met, I thought you were going to kill me, then, when I knew you weren't, you were still holding me captive. I wasn't about to indulge in a smutty case of Stockholm syndrome by telling my captor how hot he made me - although if you remember, I did tell you something to that effect one day. Then when you let me go, which was the one thing that made it possible for me to act on what I felt toward you, you just vanished. I thought you could care less about me. If not for what you did with my boss, I never would have even gone looking for you . . ."

Kira stopped abruptly, turning away and yanking on her sweater next. It, too, ripped beneath her strength, hanging on her like a poncho from the tears. Mencheres leapt up, grasping her arm and spinning her back around. Something twisted inside his chest.

What was this?

"You came looking for me? When?"

A harsh laugh escaped her. "The very next night after you mesmerized my boss. I went to all the places in my old case files that might have a paranormal association. You know why I was in the strip club that night? I wasn't there investigating a missing person's case; finding Jennifer was an accident. I was there looking for a connection to you because I wanted to see you again without that whole captor/captive thing between us." For several moments, Mencheres could not speak. She'd been at the club that night searching for him? Spent other nights seeking him out as well? Could Kira truly have felt the same inexplicable, insistent draw to him that he'd felt for her? It defied reason that she would have sought him out for any other purpose. Her personality wasn't compatible with humans who flocked to the undead merely to seek the sometimes dangerous thril of a vampire's company, and she hadn't needed him for anything else. He'd made sure of that when he gave her all the blood she would require for her sister before he'd left her.