As soon as we were outside the club, I couldn’t hold myself back anymore. Human or no, if he could deliver on what I wanted, if he was half the man the bulge in the front of his jeans suggested, I sure as hell wasn’t going to complain.

His hand was strong as he pulled me along behind him, and I had to hurry to keep up. I trailed behind him into an alley next to the club – surprisingly, it was empty.

As soon as we were out of sight of the street, I pushed myself against him and kissed him hard. He met me with equal force, grabbing me by the shoulders and shoving me back against the wall behind me, his tongue in my mouth at once. No names, no introductions, none of that was needed to get the job done. His hands were all over me, running down my back and cupping my ass. The wall was damp and cold behind me but I didn’t give a shit.

I just needed to feel him inside me as soon as possible. I ran my hand through his hair, grabbing a fistful of it and yanking. He jerked with surprise at the rough play; I liked that, I liked my lover to know that I was the one in control. Yes, I liked a strong lover, a dominant lover, an aggressive lover who could give as good as he got, but for all that, I was still the most powerful vampire in this city and no one was going to forget it, not a chance in hell.

The pain seemed to suit him as he grunted in approval and ground hard against me with that pleasingly massive cock at the fabric of his beat-up jeans like it might burst through - I wouldn't have been surprised. I lifted a leg and hooked it around him, letting him go against me as hard as he wanted. He sank his fingers into my hips and I knew that he would leave marks behind.

Nice.

I wanted to feel something tonight, wanted my senses to crowd out the buzzing nest of wasps at the back of my mind, droning on about my failure.

“Turn around,” he ordered, pulling back just long enough to growl the words into my ear.

My body shuddered at the gritty command and I did as I was told, turning and planting my hands against the wall behind me, enjoying my submissive role in this as much as he was enjoying his dominant one. We both knew it was an illusion, but it was a fun one. He ran his hand over my ass and pushed himself against me once more, and another jolt of desire ran through my system as I felt the steel of his organ press into my taut cheeks. This guy seemed to be reading my mind, understanding that I needed it rough and raw and real.

He reached around and deftly lifted my skirt with one hand, exposing me. I knew we could get caught at any moment but that just made it all the hotter.

Mindless, wild pleasure.

Exactly what I’d been after.

I let out a groan through gritted teeth as he grabbed my panties and ripped them off me in one motion, tossing them to the ground beside us. He ground his cock against me again, the roughness of his jeans against my bare ass a delicious sensation that sent shivers up my spine.

“How do you want it?” he asked, leaning into my ear and letting the words warm my skin. I was a little torn between wishing that he had just taken me, and the quiet pleasure at being asked - a girl likes her needs to be catered for. I opened and closed my mouth, for a moment not able to find the words to say it.

“Hard,” I gasped at last. I was already soaking wet – something about the way this guy was taking control of me, something about this situation, was intoxicating. Most of the human males I’d been with were too scared of doing something wrong to take risks, frightened that if they made the slightest slip-up, I’d as soon kill them as fuck them.

But not this one.

He reached up beneath my shirt and my jacket to cover my breasts in his big, strong hands; I hadn’t bothered with a bra that day and I was glad for it as he pinched my nipples between his fingers hungrily and drew a groan of pleasure tinged with pain out from between my lips in the process.

I wondered if the reason this guy hung out at vampire bars was because he couldn’t find a human woman who could handle his intensity.

I pushed those thoughts out of my head – I didn’t want to think about him or who he was or what had brought him here. I just wanted him inside me.

I heard the zip of his pants and then, at last, the broad head of his cock pressing up against my soaking wet slit. He placed one hand on my hip to hold me steady, and then he eased himself inside of me, going slow, taking his time, as though he was savoring the feel of my tight channel closing around his throbbing shaft. I pressed my hands into the wall in front of me, using it as leverage to push back against him. I didn’t want slow. I wanted it now.

“Fuck, you feel good,” he growled. Then, again seeming to sense my need, he thrust forward and buried himself up to the hilt inside me, stealing my breath. One hand was still on my breast, tugging at my nipple in a way that sent pain and pleasure spiraling through my system in a mess that I couldn’t sort out.

I growled like an animal as he began to rut into me. His cock was thick, spreading me open, and he fucked me fast and hard and as though he was trying to prove some kind of point – to me or to himself I had no idea, but either way, I was happy to let him try. In the distance, I could hear the noise of a few people leaving the club, the laughter and chatter and excitement, and I gritted my teeth and focused in on the feeling of him inside me.

Nothing else mattered. The entire world could rot and burn at that moment, as long as this man was inside me. The dark, dank alley around me seemed to drop away as I pushed myself back to meet him, arching my back and rocking my hips in time with his, meeting the rhythmic pounding of his hard hips against my ass. I had been having sex for centuries now, of course I was good at it, of course I knew how to get myself there, but damn it was good to meet a man who knew how to get me there. He filled me with long, deep strokes that sent tremors across every inch of my body. Everything that had happened that day dropped away as he thrust into me.

He leaned forward, his whole body against mine for a moment, and took my hand from the wall and pushed it between my legs.

“Touch yourself,” he ordered, and he kissed the back of my neck in a gesture so surprisingly tender that it caught me off-guard, the contrast pushing me closer to the edge. I didn’t need telling twice, and I slipped my hand between my thighs and began to stroke my clit in time with his thrusts. I could feel his body tensing up against mine, his skin against my skin intoxicatingly sexy, my body clenching and pushing and grinding out for anything, for that release, to finally find my way to what I had been looking for this entire night. His hot breath washed over my nape as he closed his blunt teeth tightly, pinching my flesh hard between them, fucking me in deep, even strokes that--

“Jesus,” I moaned as I came, the feeling crashing over me like ice water. It was more a relief than anything else, the pleasure pulsing out over me and seeming to satisfy the parts of me that needed it most; my mind uncurled from the place it had been hiding all this time for a moment, and I closed my eyes and let myself feel.

It overwhelmed me, the release cathartic. My pussy clenched around his cock as he held himself deep inside of me, letting me milk him dry. I felt him bottom out inside of me, his fingers digging into my hip even further, and the shuddering sensation of his cock twitching as he came satisfied me as much as my orgasm had.

For a minute, we stayed that way until our labored breathing returned to normal. Then, I pushed away from the wall, pushing him back and out of me. I said nothing as I adjusted my clothes and turned to leave. I glanced over at my ruined panties, the black cotton soaking in a puddle right next to us, and figured that I would just have to bid farewell to them.

I raked my fingers through my hair and zipped up my jacket, pulling my hands into the sleeves to ward off the cold. I could feel him watching me, and I glanced around to see what the issue was.

“Problem?” I asked him, raising my eyebrows as he stared at me.

“That’s it. You’re out of here?” he asked, a grin kicking up one side of his firm mouth.

My eyes travelled down to see his thick cock straining out the front of his jeans, still hard as rock.

"I thought you..."

He nodded. "I did. Sometimes once isn't enough for the beast."

There was no way he was a vampire. Even if I hadn't been able to spot the signs and smell his humanity on him, he had a wildness, a lack of discipline that vampire males simply don't possess - something I would admit to loving about human men. But I'd never known a human male who could go two rounds with me without even a breather.

No way was I letting a human cock get the best of me - that thing was going down.

I was back on him in a second, kissing him hard and biting - not that kind of biting - along his stubbly chin. As I jumped up to wrap my legs about his strong hips, he caught my weight easily in his big hands, pushing me back against the wall.

"This time," I snarled between bites, "could you try to take it off the pee-wee setting. I want to damn well feel it."

"Oh, you'll feel it," he promised, kissing me back with an intense passion that matched my own. "You're going to be feeling it for days."

I grit my teeth as he thrust back into me, banging me hard against the wall. Our eyes locked - a battle of stamina and wills.

"What are you waiting for?" I snarled.

The first time had been hard, this was practically brutal. Despite my taunts, I wasn't sure this guy could have given any more than he already had - turned out I underestimated him. He pounded me into the wall and I ground myself down on him, my insides already seething into a second furious orgasm. Again, we came together, and this time as he slipped out of me, he stayed down.

"Enough for 'the beast' or are we going again?"

The guy grinned at me, perhaps the sexiest single thing I had seen in my life. "I know when I'm beat."

Just as well, cause he'd got me just as beat.

"Can I ask you a question?"

“No.” I had turned to walk out of the alleyway and start on the long walk back to my place when he reached out to catch my arm.

Wrong move.

I flashed around, my instincts kicking in the way they always did when I felt like I was being threatened. Even though this guy was nothing close to a danger to me, I had still just shared something intimate with him and so felt more vulnerable than I might have otherwise. Sure, he had no idea what was going on in this old head of mine, but I did, and I had no intention of letting him catch on.

I snatched my arm away from his and stared him down. He met my gaze steadily, not as scared as he probably should have been.

“Don’t touch me like that,” I warned him. I would give this guy one chance and then he would be responsible for whatever happened next - I didn't give him any extra leeway just because he was a good fuck. He held his hands up, looking a little pissed and a little amused all at once.

“You don’t even want to know my name?” he asked, his voice deceptively soft.

I shook my head. “You really think I’d pick someone up in a place like that because I wanted to get to know them?” I replied. “I’m leaving now. Please don’t follow me.”

I turned to walk out of the alleyway and left him behind, standing there in the darkness next to the club. I could distantly hear the throbbing music pulsing below us and couldn’t wait to escape now.

“Kael.”

It took me a moment to figure out what he was doing when he called after me.

His name. Kael.

I swiveled to look at him as I walked away, shaking my head. “I didn’t want to know.”

Which was true. I didn’t want him or anyone else anywhere near me, not when I knew that being around me was likely to land people in serious trouble. But I found myself oddly grateful to know his name. That was a mistake - start thinking of human fuck-toys as people and it's a slippery slope before you start treating them like it.

I saw a flicker of something in his eyes in the distance, something that I couldn’t quite give a name to, but I turned away and continued on my walk home. Just because he’d been inside me didn’t give him the right to know me. He’d only find himself disappointed. Right now, I wished that I didn’t know me either.

Layla.

All the thoughts that being pounded against a wall had made scatter came rushing back in one massive swell and my throat went tight.

I made my way off into the crowded, lonely night once more. I had to get myself together, ready for another day of trying to save the only person I gave a shit about.

Ready to get Layla back, once and for all.

And more than ready to make whoever had taken her from me pay.