by Sarah Piper
“At some point, we’ll need to—”
“At some point, at one point, another day, tomorrow, next week, next year, next century… All pointless frames of reference for us now.”
“How do you figure?”
“Gray, you’re an immortal. If you start worrying about everything that can go wrong, everything that can throw a wrench into your day…. Well, there are a hell of a lot more days to worry about now.”
I closed my eyes as the brutal wind whipped another wave of slush against the lodge. Darius was right. I had to take things day by day or I’d drive us all mad.
“All things considered,” he said, forcing a note of cheer into his voice, “you’re handling this extremely well. Much better than most.”
I nodded, forcing the desperate gnawing inside me to settle. I knew from the stories I’d heard—not to mention the things Darius had shared about his own turning—that things could’ve been so much worse for me.
“I guess that means I didn’t slaughter anyone in the night, right?” I asked, only half-kidding.
“Well, let’s see…” He tapped his lips, his tone light and teasing. “As of our last accounting, the casualties stood at four shredded bath towels, one shattered windowpane, an upended china cabinet full of porcelain shards formerly known as priceless antiques, two splintered dining chairs, and a fruitcake Verona was particularly proud of, but the rest of us secretly cheered for that loss. Oh, you also punched Asher in the mouth.”
“Holy shit, Darius! Are you serious?”
Darius shrugged as if this was all par for the course. “To be fair, he had it coming. Your incubus gets rather mouthy when—”
“But how did I manage to do so much damage? I don’t even remember coming home. I don’t remember anything after the bite. And I’m tied up, besides!”
“Initially, we thought we could forgo the restraints, relying only on the hawthorn. But you’re too strong, Gray. The few times you surfaced into consciousness were brief, but wild. You needed to feed, but my blood left you… Well, it left you a bit mad, to be honest. Asher insisted on trying to reason with you, convinced he could sweet-talk his way past thousands of years of predatory evolution.” Darius shook his head, holding back a laugh. “The moment he unfastened one of your restraints, you clocked him.”
Now I was laughing, too. The whole scene sounded pretty ridiculous—and one hundred percent Asher. “What did he do then?”
“Complimented your right hook, cursed up a storm, then retreated to a dark corner of the lodge with a bottle of tequila and a bag of frozen peas while I secured your restraints and got you calmed down. He hasn’t gotten close since.”
“I suppose I’ll have to make it up to him at some point.”
“I suppose.” Darius nuzzled the skin behind my ear with a string of kisses I felt all the way to my toes. “But it seems you’re through the worst of it, anyway.”
“I hope so.”
Most newborn vampires went absolutely wild with bloodlust. Without a present sire to tame them, to guide them through the early part of the change, to feed them and help them see the difference between instinct and choice…
I forced away the thoughts, unwilling to follow them any further. That wasn’t going to happen to me. I did have a sire. One I trusted with my life.
With my heart.
“So I guess I have to call you sire now,” I said, another laugh bubbling up as I turned to meet his eyes.
Darius flashed me a sexy smile, tracing his thumb across my bottom lip. “I wouldn’t refuse a nickname like that, if you insisted, of course.”
“You mean you like it better than D?”
“Hmm. That one has grown on me since our halcyon days in the Bay, but only because it’s from you.” He leaned forward, pressing a chaste kiss to my lips that only left me wanting more. Apparently, it left him wanting more, too. The hot, hard press of his cock against my thigh told me everything I needed to know about that.
I shifted closer to him, as much as I could with the binds, the movement inspiring a low groan from my vampire.
“So what now, sire?” I teased.
Darius laughed again, his breath tickling my cheeks. His honey eyes sparkled with a thousand new facets, flecks of otherworldly colors and bottomless depths I was seeing with all new vision.
“Oh, little brawler,” he breathed, the length of him growing harder. “First my delivery girl, then my witch, and now my vampire… You really are going to be the death of me, in this form or the next.”
This form…
It hit me all over again—the magnitude of what we’d done. The magic of it. Sure, I was hungry, but I’d survived the change. I was a fucking vampire. A bloodsucker. An immortal supernatural. A fearsome, apex predator.
I must’ve said all of that out loud, because Darius suddenly laughed and said, “Yes, all of those things and more. So much more.”
“Right,” I said. “So, how is it that I’m not freaking out right now?”
At this, Darius could only shrug. “Because you’re you, love.” He kissed my eyebrow. “Completely baffling.” The tip of my nose. “Wholly unusual.” Then, just as softly as before, my lips. “An utter mystery, the likes of which none of us will ever fully solve.”
I rolled my eyes. “In other words, a total weirdo.”
“Yes,” he teased, his lips still dangerously close to my mouth. “But you’re our total weirdo, and that’s the important bit.”
I longed to touch his face, his hair, his lips. The tremor had returned, but this time it wasn’t a side effect of the change. It was a side effect of the sexy, dangerous, seductive vampire in my bed, and the fact that my desire to feel him inside of me had sparked to life once again, smoldering between my thighs.
Why are you next to me instead of on top of me, vampire?
“What is it love?” he asked softly, his voice holding a note of playfulness. He knew damn well what it was, and he was enjoying every minute of tormenting me.
“I feel… hot,” I said, my body already beginning to writhe under his intense gaze. “Under my skin. Inside me. Everywhere.”
“Is that so?” He ran his finger down the front of my T-shirt to the top edge of my underwear, sliding it back and forth beneath the lace, his touch kindling the embers inside me into a blaze.
“Darius,” I whispered, my eyes fluttering closed. “I’m dying.”
“And I’m not unsympathetic to your plight.” His fingers dipped lower, but not low enough. I arched closer, but he only pulled back, starting the whole torturous process again. He trailed those teasing fingers slowly down my T-shirt, back to the lace, sliding lazily down, down, down… then back out again.
Holy hell, bloodsucker.
“Could’ve fooled me,” I snapped.
“Mmm. I remember the first thirst of a newborn vampire,” he said, every word laced with seduction. “The need. Bone-deep, all-consuming, a blinding fire that rages unchecked. It’s not just the blood you burn for now, is it?”
I shook my head, my mind and body both unraveling. Vampire influence had no power over another vampire, but Darius’s words were having the same effect, winding me tighter, leaving me wet and aching for his mouth between my thighs.
“I cannot feed you,” he said, his voice a liquid whisper against my mouth, “but perhaps we might sate a different sort of hunger tonight.”
Four
GRAY
“Tell me,” Darius said, his nose grazing my jawline, making me shiver. “Tell me what you need, love.”
I needed to touch him. To taste him. To feel him inside me, on top of me, all over me. Straining hard against the straps, I said, “Untie me and I’ll show you what I need.”
“Untie you? I think not.” Darius arched an elegant brow, a smirk sliding across his mouth. His fingers ghosted across my wrist, caressing the thin swath of skin exposed along the edge of the leather strap, then feathered down the inside of my arm to the crook of my elbow. “Even if you weren’t a dangerous ne
wborn predator, I rather like this look.”
Swallowing the thickness in my throat, I whispered, “Helpless and hungry?”
“Hmm.” His eyes ignited and he leaned in close again, soft lips buzzing my own, his erection pressing urgently against my hip. “Bound.”
I strained against the straps, desperate to uncover both the promises and the demands inherent in that single word. The leather creaked at my effort, but the hawthorn had dulled my strength just enough to prevent me from breaking free.
“Don’t struggle, love,” he said. “No point in it, really.”
“Touch me,” I begged. “Please, Darius.”
“Do you trust me?”
“You know I do.”
“Then let me take care of you.” Without waiting for a response, he glanced around the room, then opened a dresser drawer, fishing through it until he found what he was looking for.
“You want to… blindfold me?” I asked, dragging my gaze down from the wicked gleam in his eyes to the black bandana in his hand.
He folded it into a long strip of fabric, tugging it tight, the snap making me flinch.
“If I may?” he asked.
I nodded, struck mute by the sudden force of my arousal. I’d never been tied up or blindfolded before—rendered nearly powerless, putting a man in complete control of my body, my desires, my pleasure. The idea sent a thrill down my spine, and my slow-but-steady vampire heart kicked up into a quick staccato beat.
“Close your eyes, little vampire,” he ordered, and I did as he asked, my body laced tight with anticipation as he fastened the blindfold around my head and tied it tight.
“Darius, are you—”
He cut me off with a violently passionate kiss, fangs scraping across my bottom lip, drawing blood.
“You will not speak again unless I command it,” he said, licking the blood from my lip. “For the next hour, I will decide what you feel, when you feel, and most importantly…” He shifted away from my mouth, and seconds later, his hot breath misted at the apex of my thighs. “…where you feel. Is that perfectly clear?”
I opened my mouth to respond, but then shut it, nodding instead. The domineering alpha side of Darius’s personality had always been there, simmering just beneath the surface, but he’d never unleashed it on me in the bedroom. Not like this.
And oh holy hell, was I on fire for him right now. My body had erupted in goosebumps, my nipples tight beneath the T-shirt, begging to be sucked.
Darius pressed a hot, wet kiss between my thighs, his tongue lingering, heat emanating through the silk of my underwear. The teasing pressure of his lips hinted at the devastating kisses to come.
Groaning softly, he bit the fabric and tugged it down, exposing my bare flesh to the cool air and the all-too-brief brush of his mouth. His silky hair tickled my inner thighs, and my hips arched closer, demanding more. But the restraints left little room for maneuvering, and the harder I fought for control, the quicker it eluded me.
Darius pulled back and released the fabric from his teeth.
“Naughty little vamp,” he teased, clearly enjoying the game. “I believe you need a lesson in manners.”
I groaned in delicious frustration, but didn’t dare speak out, didn’t dare break his rules. My senses had never been so sharp, so attuned to every little movement, every current of air, every stroke of his tongue, and he’d never teased me so relentlessly before. He was going to bring me to pure ecstasy, but first, he was going to torment me to within an inch of my life.
And I was going to love every impossible, crazy-making, panty-melting second of it.
“Would you like to watch me, love?” he asked. “Watch me taste you, touch you?”
I nodded emphatically, but this only made him laugh.
“Sorry, not a chance. Tonight is all about… Yes. Feeling.” A soft kiss alighted on my hip bone like a butterfly, then vanished, only to reappear on my knee. “Tasting,” Darius said, his tongue dragging seductively down my calf, swirling over my ankle bone. Then, fingers fluttering between my thighs, “Anticipating.”
He let the word linger on the air as he increased the pressure, grazing my clit with teasing strokes that quickly turned hot and fiery—and then stopped.
I am going to die. And then I’m going to come back from the grave and kill him, too.
Pressing my lips together to hold back a desperate moan, I waited breathlessly for his next kiss, his next teasing touch.
It didn’t come.
Minutes passed, then slowed, then stretched into an eternity. Scenting the air, I noticed his whiskey-and-leather scent had faded. Save for the storm raging against the window and the muted sounds filtering from the rest of the lodge, the room had fallen into complete silence.
Did he actually leave me like this?
Rules be damned. I opened my mouth to call out for him. No man or vampire got me all worked up, only to leave me helpless, unable to even take care of myself.
But before his cursed name reached my lips, my sexy, sneaky, commanding vampire was on his hands and knees on top of me.
Naked.
Hard.
And still not close enough. Never close enough.
“You seem flustered, little vampire,” he teased, grazing my throat with his fangs, his tongue. The tip of his cock brushed my clit, still shielded by the underwear I was quickly growing to hate. “Are you not enjoying the game?”
“No, I’m not,” I huffed.
“Liar. I could scent your desire clear across the room.” Without warning, he tore my T-shirt down the middle, as far as it would go with the straps locked around my lower ribs.
My nipples pulled tight, and he took one into his hot, wet mouth, sliding his palm across the other. He sucked and licked, teasing me with his fangs, buzzing his lips over my flesh until I ached, my hips undulating beneath him.
I arched my back, ever so slightly, and Darius bit down, then soothed me with his tongue. The pleasure was so concentrated, so intense, so…
Oh, fuck… How is this happening already?
“Darius!” I cried out as the orgasm suddenly claimed me. I clenched the sheets at my sides, straining once again to break my binds. He hadn’t even fully touched me yet—not where I needed it most—but somehow, he’d brought me all the way to the edge and pushed me right over.
Darius moaned softly, but he didn’t relent. His hair spilled forward over my flesh as he tongued me, and I longed to run my fingers through it, to hold him against me and ride out these insane waves, but I’d surrendered my body to him completely, and it was clear my vampire wasn’t going to relinquish even an inch of that control.
I’d just started to regain my balance from the retreating orgasm when his touch evaporated once again, only to be replaced by the weight of his full body pressing down on top of me. In no more than a heartbeat, he tore off my underwear and slid inside me, steely and hot, his own control quickly unraveling.
The rules of the game continued to blur as we lost ourselves in each other, Darius no longer pretending to have even a modicum of restraint. He wanted this as badly as I did, and as much as he’d enjoyed teasing me, raw desire had finally claimed us both.
He was wild, kissing and biting, lips and teeth and hands exploring every accessible inch of skin. He gripped my ass, and without warning, slid a finger between my cheeks, delicately teasing. At my soft groan, he slipped a finger inside, and I gasped, the shock immediately replaced with pure pleasure.
“You like being touched like this,” he said. Not a question.
I nodded, mute. Lost to the new sensations he was unlocking inside of me.
“Have you ever…?”
I shook my head, knowing what he was asking. No one had ever touched me or done anything else to me there, not like that, and the feel of it as he stroked me in time with the thrusts of his cock had me bracing for the next wave. The pressure was already building, winding me tighter.
“Perhaps,” he said, pushing in deeper, slowly, “we’ll try
something a bit larger next time.”
Fresh heat flooded my core.
“With so many of us desperate to touch you,” he said softly, seductively, “we may need to start getting more creative. One from behind, another in front…”
God, he was making me even wetter. How was that possible?
Darius claimed my mouth, his tongue sliding between my lips as his cock thickened inside me, and I couldn’t help but imagine what it would feel like to have him take me like that, sliding into me from behind while Asher took me from the front, Emilio sucking my nipple, Liam running his tongue along the side of my neck, Ronan touching himself before me…
The image of all of my rebels together, naked, surrounding me and filling me up… I couldn’t hold out another minute. My body began to tremble with the force of the explosion building inside me.
“Darius,” I breathed. “I can’t wait. I’m too close… I…”
“Come for me, love,” he said. “Let yourself go.”
His liquid voice undid me, and I shattered, heat surging through my core, racing down my limbs, lighting up every nerve ending with an intensity I’d never felt before. It was so wild, so impossibly intense, I thought my blood would literally boil. My body began thrashing, and Darius pressed his full weight against me, shuddering as he came, both of us making the bed shake so hard I worried it would splinter and send us both crashing to the ground.
It was several long moments before I regained the power of speech, and when I finally did, my voice came out hoarse. “Is it always going to feel like that now?”
“Mostly,” Darius said. “Vampires are quite sensual, and we feel things very acutely, especially for the first few years.” He laughed softly, nuzzling my ear. “As I recall, there were moments when even walking outside during a stiff breeze posed a distinct challenge. Emphasis on the word stiff.”
“So you’re saying being a vampire comes with a constant, insatiable horniness?”
Darius laughed again. “That’s one way to put it, yes. But like all hunger, we learn to mediate it—when to indulge, when to refrain, when to spend several hours in an ice-cold bath.”