“And what subject has interested you the most so far?”
“Anthropology.”
“Interesting.”
“I might pursue it further one day, but I assumed I had plenty of time to figure out my life. I guess I was wrong.”
“How old are you?”
“Twenty-two. And you?”
“Two hundred and fifty.”
She let out a low whistle and smiled at him. “You’re ancient.”
When he folded his hands behind his head, her gaze fell to his broad shoulders. She tried not to drool when the material stretched taut across his large frame and pulled up to reveal a tantalizing glimpse of his chiseled abs. What she wouldn’t give to pull off his shirt and run her fingers over the muscles there before bending her head to taste his flesh.
She bit her bottom lip as the alluring prospect of exploring him caused her nipples to tingle. She almost rested a hand against her breast to ease the ache building inside her, but she managed to stop herself. However, she couldn’t stop herself from drinking in the long length of him before her eyes settled on the noticeable bulge in his pants.
When she realized she was becoming aroused, she jerked her gaze away from him and focused on the wall over his head. Sex had been the last thing on her mind since coming here, but being this close to Saxon made her realize how much she missed it.
Given her current circumstances and what had so recently been in the next room, she shouldn’t be thinking about kissing him now, but there was something entirely too enticing about the man sitting only a couple of feet away from her.
Chapter Eleven
“What do you do, Sexon?” She realized what she said as soon as the word popped out of her mouth. Her mouth dropped as a blush burned her face; she would give anything to melt into the couch. “I… I… mean Saxon!”
He smiled at her in amusement as he draped his arm over the back of the couch; Elyse couldn’t hold his gaze as her face grew hotter and hotter. She lifted a glass of water from the table beside her and took a sip, but it did little to cool her off.
It took him a minute to reply as the scent of her desire permeating the air held him enthralled. He’d never smelled anyone as sweet or enticing as Elyse. And that blush… well, she was adorable when mortified. He wanted to tease her by telling her to get her mind out of the gutter, but he hoped it stayed there.
“You can call me whatever makes you happy,” he assured her; he hadn’t considered it possible, but she turned redder. Deciding to take some mercy on her, he told her, “I fight and kill Savages.”
She took another sip of water as she regained control of herself. When she finished, she set her glass down and wiped her mouth. “Is that all you do?”
“No, but it’s my calling.”
She worked up the courage to look at him again. “Do you enjoy it?”
“I do.” Maybe he shouldn’t have been so honest in his response, but he refused to lie to her.
“From what I saw, you’re good at it.”
“I wouldn’t still be alive if I wasn’t.”
Her gaze fell to his mouth when it curved into a sexy half smile. When she met his gaze again, she saw the knowledge in his eyes; he knew the effect he had on women and was having on her.
Arrogant ass. But she couldn’t deny he intrigued her more than anyone else she’d ever met.
“Do you have a girlfriend?” she inquired.
A small burst of laughter escaped him. “No.”
The growing warmth of the cabin and his proximity were starting to get to her; she pushed the blanket down and sat up a little. “Why not?”
When she shifted and her sweater dropped down her arm again, his gaze fell to her chest. Elyse bit back a gasp when his sweatpants did little to conceal the length and thickness of his erection. Disappointment filled her when he shifted so she couldn’t see it anymore, but she couldn’t deny the thrill she got from the effect she also had on him.
“I’ve never met the right girl,” he said as his eyes returned to hers.
“In all your years, you’ve never met someone to settle down with for a little bit?”
“No.”
His tone was more clipped than usual, but he’d never been this aroused in his life. When she rubbed her chin before sliding her hand down the valley between her small breasts, he nearly groaned out loud. It was taking all he had not to close the distance between them, take her hand, and wrap it around his dick. She was teasing him now, but he would be the one to tease her until she begged for release.
Elyse knew she was playing with fire as his gaze ravenously followed her hand, but she couldn’t stop herself. She felt in control of her life in a way she hadn’t felt in years as she lowered her hand into her lap.
She had to stop herself, or she’d wind up with her legs around him while he feasted on her. As much as she did not want another vamp drinking her blood, she couldn’t deny the idea of it being Saxon piqued her curiosity. He said it didn’t hurt if someone was willing, and she was more willing than she would admit.
He ravenously watched her as he waited for more, but she clasped her hands together in her lap and didn’t speak.
“And what about you, Elyse? Is there a boyfriend waiting for you at home?”
He’d vowed never to kill a human, but if someone was waiting for her, he might eliminate the competition.
“No.”
“Why not?” he parroted her question back to her.
A playful smile teased her lips. “Because I’ve yet to meet a man who can keep me satisfied.”
This time, Saxon couldn’t suppress a growl as he heard the challenge in her words. “Maybe that’s because you’ve been playing with boys instead of men.”
“Maybe,” she allowed.
She could definitely say the men she’d been with were nothing like Saxon. But then, they wouldn’t have killed her if they learned the truth about her like Saxon might.
The idea of Elyse playing with any boys made his blood boil. “And how many boys have there been?” He had no idea why he asked the question; the answer might send him over the edge, but he couldn’t take it back now.
“How many girls have there been?” she retorted, annoyed by the double standard she sensed in his question. “I bet that, given your age, you don’t know the number, do you?”
“I don’t,” he admitted. “Will you judge me for that?”
“No.”
Who was she to judge anyone about anything? She was a mere speck on this planet and, as far as she was concerned, to each their own as long as no one got hurt and children weren’t involved.
“I’ve been with seven men,” she said. “The first three I met while I was traveling; the others I met at work. I dated one for a month before moving on.”
“Not to your liking?”
His tone was surprisingly light considering the jealousy clawing at his insides. Those men knew what she tasted like, what she felt like, and they’d heard her cries of ecstasy. When he took her—and he would have her, he decided—she’d forget every last one of them by the time he finished.
“None of them were to my liking,” she admitted.
She had no idea why she was telling him these things, but there was something about Saxon that made it easy to open up to him. Since there was so much she couldn’t tell him, she could at least reveal this.
“Then why were you with them?” he asked.
She’d stopped and asked herself that question after she gathered her clothes from the floor of her last partner’s apartment and snuck out before he could wake up. She was eighteen years old; she’d met him the previous night, and she couldn’t remember his name.
Maybe she wouldn’t have minded if he was the first one she’d forgotten the next morning, but he wasn’t even the third. She’d been having sex for three years, and she’d only bothered to learn and remember the names of three of her partners.
Driving home, she tried to figure out what she was doing and why. Sex with random
guys was all fine and dandy if she were enjoying herself, but she wasn’t. She couldn’t recall an orgasm she hadn’t given herself.
She liked sex, but not because it felt good—it did feel good, but it certainly wasn’t an earth-shattering experience. On that drive, she realized she had no idea why she was sleeping with these men and how out of control her life had become.
She could spend the rest of her days angry at her mom for parading her around a bunch of strangers, cursing her rare ability, hating life, and bouncing from one bed to another, or she could get her act together. At sixteen, she’d wrested control of her life back from her mom; she was the one using her control to bang random dudes, do nothing to better herself, and be miserable.
And she was miserable. She couldn’t recall the last time she’d felt happy or done anything other than work and go home. Before she learned about her ability, she’d loved school and been popular and social. Afterward, she’d become withdrawn and given up on pursuing her old dreams of college.
On that drive, she realized that from here on out, the things she didn’t like about her life were her fault if she didn’t fix them.
So that was what she decided to do.
“I asked myself that after my last partner and realized something was broken and empty inside me, and only I could fix it,” she said.
“And did you?”
“I was working on it before these bastards arrived. I’d decided it was time to focus on me and what I wanted out of life. I stayed away from men and started taking different college courses. It’s been four years since I dated anyone, but for the past nine months, my pickings have been really slim.”
She’d tried to sound amused when she said this last bit, but it fell short.
“Until I arrived,” he said with a wink.
Elyse managed a smile, but her desire for him had faded as common sense returned. If she were going to die, she would prefer to get in one last good screw first. And she imagined Saxon would probably be the best screw she ever had, but sleeping with a vamp was all kinds of wrong, and the dumbest thing she could do.
Chapter Twelve
“So have any of the numerous women in your past been to your liking?” She’d prefer not to have the answer, but she was hoping that hearing about his past conquests would help her keep her hands to herself.
“There are some things in my life….” His voice trailed off. “I’m not ashamed of my past with women, but I’m not proud of it either. Some things must be done.”
She lifted an eyebrow at this statement. Yep, that helped kill some of her lust. “You must sleep around?”
Saxon studied her as he tried to decide how much to reveal, but she was already pretty deep into the vampire world; he didn’t think it mattered if he told her more. Besides, she might already know what he was about to say to her.
“I’m a purebred vampire; do you know what that means?”
“No.”
“My parents were turned while they were human, so I was born a vamp. They met when they were a couple of decades into being vampires. They became good friends and remained that way for years before deciding they wanted a child and would make good parents together; so I was born. As a purebred, I aged until I reached maturity, and then I stopped aging. My parents weren’t mates, but they loved each other, and they loved me.”
“What are mates?” she asked.
“Vampires have mates or soul mates. They don’t always encounter their mates, but when they do, it’s a lifelong bond completed through an exchange of blood and sex; once it’s sealed, all vampires can recognize a mated vampire. If a vampire’s mate is human, they must turn into a vamp, and if they’re a vampire, they have to complete the bond or else they go insane. If a mate dies, the remaining ones either dies or goes insane.”
“That sounds awful.”
He smiled as he crossed his legs. “Maybe before they complete the bond, but it’s amazing to watch the vampires involved once they’re mated. It’s a love like you can’t imagine.”
“What if they don’t love each other but this mystical force drives them together?”
“I’ve never seen two mates who don’t love each other, but I guess it could happen.”
“So, they could end up being unhappy for eternity with each other?”
“Even if I never fell in love with my mate, I could never be unhappy with her.”
“Why not?”
“Because when a purebred stops aging, the demon part of us becomes stronger, but it also hungers for other things more. This newly awakened, insatiable hunger shows itself in different ways. Some vampires crave blood or killing, others pain, some retreat from humanity, and some cannot get enough sex. Those hungers only calm when we find our mate or give in and become a Savage.”
She was beginning to understand Saxon a little bit more. “And I’m guessing that, in you, it showed in sex.”
“Bingo.”
“So without sex…?”
“I would have a difficult time restraining myself from killing.” He didn’t tell her he’d probably lose control of himself; he couldn’t let her worry about him turning Savage while here.
She glanced around the cabin as she picked at her blanket. Yes, it would be a horrible idea to sleep with this guy, but she was attracted to him, and she’d thought he felt the same way. Instead, he was experiencing some biological urge to remain sane, and she wouldn’t be used in such a way.
Then what did she want from him, a relationship?
She almost laughed out loud at the idea. No, she didn’t want a relationship with a vampire or anyone else. Alone was her best way to go through life, or it would be once she got herself and her father out of this mess. However, she had no idea how she would do that.
“You’re safe around me, Elyse,” he said. “I’m not going to attack you, and I would never do anything you didn’t agree to.”
She met his hazel eyes again and saw the truth of his words in his steady gaze. “But if you need to have sex, or else you snap—”
“I’ll be okay.”
And he believed it. At any other time, he would be going out of his mind if he found himself trapped with a woman who didn’t want him. He would never harm a woman, but he would have been desperate for sex. Unfortunately, he learned centuries ago that his hand didn’t provide the same release as a woman did; his life would have been a lot easier if it did.
He studied her as she bit her bottom lip and gazed at the TV. She was striking with her clear blue eyes and brown hair; she was also exhausted and broken, and he wanted to protect her as much as he wanted to run his finger over her lips before kissing her.
When his cock stirred again, he shifted and tugged part of the blanket over his lap. These sweatpants did nothing to conceal his erection.
“I’m many things, but I’m not a rapist,” he assured her. “If it becomes necessary, I’ll leave and come back when I feel more stable.”
Her gaze shifted to him, and her head tilted to the side. “And you would leave to find another woman?”
For some reason, the idea of that made something inside him recoil. “No, I wouldn’t leave you unprotected.”
“So where would you go?”
“Into the woods until we could leave.”
“You would come back for me?”
Always. He almost said the word out loud, but he caught himself in time. However, it took him a minute to respond as shock over what he’d almost said stole his breath. “Yes. I’m getting you out of here.”
“Freedom,” she whispered.
But would she ever truly be free? These bastards would hunt her for the rest of her days, and how did she evade a horde of the undead? And what about her father? While they still held him, they would always be able to control him, but how did she, a mere mortal, free him from the bastards who’d done this to him?
It would be almost impossible. No, not almost, it would be impossible to free her father from them, but she was damn sure going to try, and if she died
in the process, so be it. Because one thing was for sure, she would never let the Savages have control of her again; she would die before that happened.
Chapter Thirteen
The distressed look on Elyse’s face caused Saxon to reach out and squeeze her hand. When she lifted her eyes to his, something in his chest clenched.
“Where are your parents now?” she asked.
“They were killed by Savages when I was seventy-five,” he said.
“I’m sorry.”
“It was years ago.”
But that didn’t mean he didn’t still miss them. They’d been his parents, but they were also his friends and his support system. As turned vampires, they hadn’t understood what he was going through as a pureblood. They’d always been there for him, and they’d tried to understand why sex became the driving force in his life.
“I was out that night.” He’d been searching for a woman while they slaughtered his parents. “And when I returned home, I found them. What they did to them….”
His words trailed off as he shook his head. He would never get the sight of their mangled bodies out of his mind. Never forget the sorrow twisting inside his chest or the tears falling when he knelt over his mother’s brutalized body and held her against his chest. Her blood covered him, but he hadn’t cared.
The unexpected urge to cry gripped Elyse as Saxon stared at the wall. His face remained impassive, but sadness resonated from him.
“That must have been terrible,” she murmured.
“It was,” he confirmed. “The worst was knowing that if I’d been there, I could have stopped it.”
“Or you could have been killed too.”
That was a possibility; judging by the footprints in the blood, at least six Savages descended on his parents. Those monsters could have killed him too. He was strong then, but he wasn’t trained to fight and kill. However, over the thousands of times he replayed what could have happened that night in his mind, he was always able to save his parents.
Bound by Passion: The Alliance Series, Book 4 Page 7