Lauren had never experienced an orgasm like that in her life, and it hadn’t just been because it had been an amazing, sexy, intense, orgasm. No, something about her had changed when it hit her, and she still felt it now. Her skin had glowed, and she still felt the energy, as though she’d stepped into a place filled with static electricity, only the electricity hadn’t come from another force. Instead it had felt as though it had come from inside her.

Her mind spun, and the edges of the world pulled away. She was standing on a vampire’s balcony, hundreds of feet above London, in only heels and underwear, and had just come all over a vampire’s hand, and something was wrong with her.

“Whoa.” She heard his voice, and strong hands caught her as she slumped.

She’d never passed out before. She wasn’t the swooning, fainting kind.

But she felt him lift her in his arms, holding her against his chest, and carrying her back inside. She was aware of him doing it, of the way he placed her gently on the couch and then covered her mostly naked body with a soft blanket.

“I’m sorry, that was too much,” he said. “You should be resting.”

“No, no. It wasn’t you. I’m not sure what happened.” She lifted her hands again, but the glow she’d seen before had vanished. Had she really seen it, or had she been imagining things? She had to admit, an orgasm had never made her hallucinate before.

Nikolai reached out to tuck the blanket more tightly around her.

“I’m okay.” She batted him away gently. “I’m not a child.”

“No, you’re not, but you still just passed out, and I’m allowed to take care of you now.”

“It’s fine. I’m probably just suffering from low blood sugar or something.”

He raised his eyebrows at her, and she knew it had been more than that. Far more. The light had died from her skin, but she still felt strange frissons of energy sparking through her that were more than just the aftershocks of her orgasm.

The buzzer sounded, and Nikolai jumped to his feet. “Just in time.”

He vanished out the front door, and immediately she felt bereft without his presence. It was crazy that this man had only just come into her life, and yet now she struggled to think back to what her life was like without him. The idea of being reliant on him terrified her, however. She’d always been strong and independent, and she didn’t want to lose that just because some play of fate had made her a vampire’s Bloodmate. It was important that she still got to be herself, even though Nikolai was now in her life.

The front door opened again, and Nikolai reappeared. At least, she assumed it was Nikolai. She couldn’t actually see his face as he had so many boxes and paper bags stacked on top of one another that she could only see his legs and arms. The waft of numerous different foods drifted over to her, and immediately her body reacted, saliva filling her mouth and her stomach twisting in anticipation. What had he brought her? Chinese, Indian, pizza, fried chicken—all the takeaway foods possible.

Nikolai carried them over and set down all the boxes and bags in front of her. She didn’t even know where to begin.

“I’d say I hoped all of this wasn’t just for me, but I guess you don’t eat much takeaway?”

He shrugged apologetically. “My only takeaway meal comes from the blood bank. Sorry. I wouldn’t have ordered so much, but I didn’t know what you liked.”

“You could have asked me,” she pointed out.

“I didn’t want you to be polite and say you weren’t that hungry.”

Lauren snorted back laughter. “You and I definitely need to get to know each other better, and then you would have known I’d never be polite about food.”

Lauren knew what it was like to be hungry. Too many times, she’d come home as a child to find nothing in the house to eat, and her mother passed out on the couch. They never had any money, and what little they did have her mum would rather spend on a bottle of cheap vodka than cereal and bread for her daughter. If it hadn’t been for the free school meals Lauren had been able to get, there would have been days on end when she’d have eaten nothing. Then, after she’d finally left home, there had been times when she’d been in a similar situation, finding herself having to choose between eating or having a bed for the night. Life had been tough, and she was never going to be someone who’d turn down the offer of a good meal just for politeness sake.

She sat up, clutching the blanket around her.

Nikolai frowned at her. “Wait there,” he said, and then turned to vanish in the direction of one of the rooms, which she assumed to be his bedroom. He returned holding one of his shirts, and she allowed him to hold it out for her while she slipped her arms inside the baggy sleeves, and he did the buttons up over her breasts. He was so much taller than she was, the shirt hit her legs mid-thigh, and was plenty big enough to cover her modesty, even though he’d pretty much seen all there was to see.

She was still wearing those damned heels, and he knelt at her feet, looking up at her as he slipped them from her toes.

“I feel like some kind of reverse Cinderella,” she said.

His lips twisted. “I’m not sure I’ve ever been anyone’s prince.”

He moved to sit beside her as she flipped open the box containing the pizza and selected a slice of pepperoni. She took a couple of bites, her hunger winning over all else, before she said, her hand half over her mouth, “Tell me what the people you phoned said.”

“They’re sending someone to take care of the people who took you.”

“Not people,” she reminded him. “Werewolves.”

“That’s right. They can’t go around kidnapping people. They make the rest of the supes look bad.”

“And what about this vampire who bought me? We still don’t know who he is.”

“No, but I hope the person they send from The Directive will be able to find out.” He wrung his hands. “I wish I could go with them. I’d wring that goddamned wolf’s neck for what he did to you.”

She lifted an eyebrow. “Maybe that’s the exact reason you shouldn’t go.”

“I know, but it doesn’t stop me from being furious. I need to stay here, though, with you. I don’t want to leave you unprotected.”

Lauren stopped chewing. “I don’t want to be a prisoner here, Nikolai. I’ve been independent my whole life. I already spent one night locked up thanks to those werewolves, I don’t want to make it a habit.”

“I understand that, but there’s nothing we can do until the vampire who bought you is apprehended. At this moment, we have no idea who he is, or where he is. The wolves know where I live. They could easily just send him here.”

Alarm shot through her. “So he could just walk through that door?”

“No, he’s not coming up here without a key. You’re safe.”

She relaxed a fraction. With a sigh, she picked up another slice of pizza and started eating again. The dough was soft, the cheese gooey, the pepperoni spicy. It was damned good pizza, which tasted even better because she’d been half starved. As she ate, she mused on recent events. What the hell had happened to her life? Only two days ago, she was normal, and now she was living with a vampire, with another one after her, after having been kidnapped by werewolves, and being told she had fairy blood. This whole thing was utter madness.

With the pizza half gone, Lauren started on the chicken. Hot and greasy, with just enough spice to the crust. It was insanely good.

“Better than sex,” she managed between mouthfuls.

His eyebrows lifted. “We’ll have to see about that.”

“I’m not usually in the habit of having sex with men I’ve only just met.”

“We might have only just met, but we’ve always been Bloodmates. Our paths just never crossed before now, and maybe it’s The Thirst as well. Maybe the reason we’re more attuned to our Bloodmates when we’re struck by it is that our bodies know we won’t survive without you.”

“That’s a lot of pressure to put on someone you barely know.”

He stared at her intently. “Our souls already know each other. Our blood already knows each other. Our hearts do, too. It’s just our minds that need to catch up.”

She held back a smile and glanced away, her cheeks heating. He was too much. She’d never had a man talk to her this way. Ever. Most men leered at her in the streets, or shouted things from cars, or on the very odd occasion offered to buy her a drink which they then assumed she’d put out for.

“I’m sorry,” he said, and she heard the reproach in his voice. “I’ve embarrassed you.”

She shook her head and looked back to him. “No, it’s not that. I’m just not used to all this stuff—souls, and hearts, and Bloodmates.”

“But do you believe what I’m telling you?”

She thought for a moment, and then nodded. “After everything I’ve experienced in the last couple of days, I don’t think I’ve got any choice but to believe you.”

He took her hand, and she twisted to face him fully. He locked her with those intense pale blue eyes of his, and she briefly wondered if his eyes had been the same colour when he’d been human.

“Lauren, forget everything you’ve seen recently. I want you to look into yourself. Look into your heart, your soul. Do you believe we are destined to be together?”

Her breath caught at the power of his words. It was so strange to look at someone who you knew to be practically a stranger, and yet who you felt as though you could literally trust with your life. She wondered if it felt similar when twins or other close family members were separated as children, only to be reunited as adults. This feeling that they were a stranger to you, and yet you knew them as well as you knew yourself.

“It’s crazy, and I can barely believe I’m saying this, but yes, I do.”

A smile spread across his face, lighting his eyes, and, for the first time, Lauren thought she could see the man he’d once been, rather than the vampire he was now.

He leaned in and swept a strand of her dark hair away from her neck. “That’s all I need to know.” Then he leaned in and kissed her, his mouth gently touching hers, softly at first, but then the kiss growing in urgency.

Lauren shifted on the couch, her arms wrapping around his neck, using the leverage to pull herself closer. She was no angel, and wasn’t some blushing virgin, but this man seemed to be able to do things to her body no man had ever done before. Of course, he wasn’t fully a man either, so maybe that was why things felt so different with him. But then again, maybe it was simply because they were destined to be together.

Shifting their positions, Lauren crawled up into Nikolai’s lap. They never stopped kissing, and he pulled her against him, so she straddled him, her knees on the couch either side of his thighs. The position meant the ridge of his erection pressed thick and hard against her pussy. The sensation sent pulses of arousal through her. She was only wearing the skimpy black panties, and the shirt he’d given her, but even those few items of clothing felt like too much. They were making out like a couple of teenagers on a parent’s couch, and Lauren was loving every second of it.

Nikolai was the first to break the kiss.

“Bedroom,” he growled in her ear, and then he lifted her in one fluid motion, holding her so her thighs were still wrapped around his hips, and her arms around his neck. His hands cupped her bottom as he strode towards the bedroom and kicked open the door.

The room was spacious, with a four poster bed, a dresser, an occasional chair, and a walk through wardrobe, which she assumed also led to the master suite bathroom. It was the sort of luxury she’d never experienced before, but Nikolai didn’t give her time to admire the decor. He threw her down on a bed dressed in thousand thread sheets, and dark grey linen. Masculine but luxurious. If it hadn’t been for the vampire standing over her, with a very obvious erection tenting his trousers, she’d have flipped herself over and snuggled down into the opulence.

Lauren stared up at him as his fingers went to his shirt and he started to unbutton it. She couldn’t wait to see him. He’d seen her basically naked, but so far he’d managed to remain fully dressed. Not anymore.

One by one, in a tantalising strip tease, he undid the buttons, revealing a smooth chest, defined pecs, and then down lower to where his eight-pack abs rippled, interrupted only by the dip of his navel. Though his chest was smooth, a faint line of blond hair ran from his bellybutton, down lower, vanishing beneath the waistband of his trousers.

Her heart tripped, the air in her lungs growing tight with anticipation. Was this really happening to her? Was she really about to be taken by a vampire? Would he try to bite her? She didn’t know how she felt about that. A part of her experienced a thrill at the thought. The idea of both his cock and teeth penetrating her, of him coming inside her, while he sucked her blood into his mouth and swallowed, felt right on some level. It would be as though they were creating a circle between them, a loop where he gave a part of himself to her, and she gave a part of herself to him. Was that how this was supposed to work?

Her lips grew slack with desire as his hands went to the button of his trousers and he popped it open. Using his feet, he toed off his shoes, and then the trousers slid from his narrow hips. He wasn’t wearing any underwear.

Lauren’s eyes widened at the sight of him. Big and perfect, the skin paler than men she’d experienced before, just as the rest of his pallor was. His cock head was a beautiful dome tipping the girth of his length, leading down to a thatch of blond hair. Now naked, he stood before her. With his cock in hand, he gazed down at her. His hand moved up and down his shaft, masturbating slowly and with no shyness or awkwardness at all. The man was all sex, and he seemed to know it.

“Take off that shirt,” he said, jerking his chin towards her.

She didn’t dare do anything but obey. Her fingers trembled in anticipation as she quickly undid the buttons and let the shirt drop from her shoulders onto the bed beneath her. He’d already rid her of her bra on the balcony, so now all she wore were the underwear the wolves had given her.

Nikolai nodded to the slip of black lace. “Those, too.”

Light-headed with excitement, she rolled the underwear down her thighs and kicked them to the floor. She was naked now, and so was he. Her nipples crinkled into buds, and she sucked in her stomach, wanting him to think she was sexy. Wanting him to desire her. Though from the dark look in his eyes, and the size of his erection, there was no problem there.

“Spread your legs,” he growled.

Lauren hesitated. She’d never been with someone like him before—and not just that he was a vampire. Most men were a quick fumble and a mindless fuck, but not with Nikolai. She felt as though he was trying to make every moment of this last, as though it was not only their first time together, but also their last, and he wanted to experience every erotic moment to its fullest.

“I want to see you touch yourself.”

He was doing it, and yeah, it was sexy as fuck watching his big hand smooth up and down his dick. If he could do that for her, then she could do this for him.

Lauren spread her legs, exposing herself to him. Then she reached between her thighs and slid her finger down between her folds. The effect was instant, pleasure flooding her body, and she squirmed on the bed, her eyes slipping shut. But then she remembered she wanted to see him, wanted to watch him watching her, so she snapped her eyes open again. His gaze was glued between her thighs, his lower lip slack. His hand continued to work his cock, his erection growing even longer and thicker. Her core pulsed with desire at the thought of him pushing into her, impaling herself on that big, thick dick. Would he feel cool inside her? His coolness against her heat?

The thought, combined with her fingers working her pussy, made her moan, and the sound caused Nikolai to take a small inhale of breath. That tiny reaction was all she needed to let her know that what she was doing was working.

Lauren spread her thighs even further, wanting him to be able to see right into her. With her other hand, she reached down and parted her pussy lips, making her clit pop forward. Then she slid her other hand down further and pushed her finger inside herself, first one, and then adding another. She was still swollen from where he’d fingered her on the balcony, still sensitive, and she knew it wouldn’t take much for her to come.

“Ah, fuck, baby,” Nikolai growled and suddenly dropped to his knees beside the bed. He caught hold of her thighs, dragging her towards him. Then his mouth was on the inside of her thigh, kissing and nibbling his way up. His fingers wrapped around her wrist, pulling her hand away, her fingers slipping out of her sopping slit. He brought those same fingers to his mouth and licked off her cream, before sucking her digits fully into his mouth. His tongue worked over his fingers, licking every drop of her from him.

He released her, and, with his vampire’s speed, darted forward. His mouth closed over her pussy, his tongue pushing inside her. Lauren gasped, her back arching from the bed.

“Oh, God, that feels incredible.”

He licked her fast, faster than a human man ever could. Her head spun, her body under control of this vampire and his wicked mouth. Her hands grabbed his shoulders, her hips lifting off the bed as his mouth worked her pussy.

Dear God, this is insane.

Her orgasm built, higher and higher, until she was sure she’d lose control.

Suddenly, the same energy she’d felt before began to crawl across her skin. It was like tiny pinpricks, all the hairs on her arms standing on end, the tips of her fingers feeling like they were fizzing. But she couldn’t do anything to stop it, and she wasn’t going to tell Nikolai to stop either.

She’d gone too far down the rabbit’s hole already.