by Elena Lawson
He tested my stamina one day by having a treadmill brought in and hooking me up to a bunch of monitors that showed symbols and numbers I didn’t understand. I lasted on full speed for six hours straight.
My legs and core ached for the next three days.
Ethan was my constant companion in the lab, but to my complete and utter disappointment, Azrael wouldn’t allow him back to my chambers with me. He didn’t say as much, but I suspected it was because he didn’t trust Ethan not to feed from me.
Whether because he wanted to keep my blood untainted by vampire venom, or because he was afraid Ethan wouldn’t be able to stop and he’d lose his lab-rat, I wasn’t sure.
“You best get some sleep, dear,” Estelle said as she folded the dirty bedding into her arms and rose to her full height.
“Can I have a bath?” I hedged. My body was still a bit sore from stamina-testing-day and there was dried blood on my back and arms from where they did more marrow and skin samples today.
Estelle frowned. “I wouldn’t want to mess your clean sheets,” I added, knowing she couldn’t refuse. If there was anything I’d learned about Estelle this past week, it was that she hated finding my bedding dirty with dried blood or stinking with sweat. She changed them almost every day now.
It’d been almost three days since my last bath, though it was always hard to tell the passage of time in this godforsaken place. I’d slept twice since my last bath, so I had to assume it was close to three days now, since my eyelids were droopy, and it was almost time for me to go to bed.
Maybe I’d try to barter for a clock from Azrael tomorrow…
I’d already traded a new truck for some extra skin samples. Azrael had easily agreed to provide me with a shiny new Black Betty once he was finished with his experiments. No truck on this planet could replace my Betty, but I would need a vehicle if I ever got out of here. And if memory served correct, my Betty was beyond repair.
“Oh, very well,” Estelle grumbled. “Come on, then, follow me.”
“I know the way,” I replied, pushing my sweat-dampened black hair away from my face as I rose from the bed.
Estelle’s small eyes narrowed and her plump face pinched, suspicious. “All the same,” she said. “It’s my duty to see you don’t get lost.”
By the way she said it, I knew her true meaning was something more akin to; It’s my duty to see you don’t somehow manage to find your way out…
“Can’t have you wanderin’ on your lonesome.”
I shook my head and rolled my eyes to the heavens. I didn’t bother responding, I just followed my stout chambermaid into the chilly corridor and through the winding passages until the distinct scents of sulfur and damp stone filled my nostrils and the kiss of warm steam brushed its lips against my bare arms.
“Here we are,” Estelle said. “Back for you in an hour.”
“Thanks,” I offered.
She whipped her head around as though she’d been slapped. Her eyes widened.
Estelle pursed her lips. “So, it does know it’s manners,” she teased.
I rolled my eyes. “Don’t get used to it.”
I waited until I could no longer hear her footfalls in the corridor over the sound of the rushing water. “Ethan?” I whispered into the steam.
Strong arms pinned me from behind and I barely had enough time to hold my breath before we splashed into the hot water. It closed over my head and I elbowed my attacker in the ribs. His arms came loose, and I spun beneath the water, ready to pull him into a headlock between my legs. But he put a hand beneath my arse and pushed us both back up to the surface.
His golden hair was closer to chocolate from being wet, but even in the steam covered dark I knew that face. I splashed him, my cheeks flaming. “I almost drowned you,” I chided him.
Ethan laughed. I hadn’t heard that sound in so long that it pulled at something in my chest. I moved in and placed a hand over his mouth. “Quiet or someone’ll hear us,” I hissed into his ear.
We’d discussed meeting here earlier in the lab, in a rare moment when Azrael had left to see to something else. I could hardly believe we’d pulled it off.
I was sure one of us would crack and think about it when he returned—alerting him to our plan, but it seemed we’d actually managed to get away with it.
And thank fuck because if I had to watch Ethan in that lab for another day without being able to touch him how I wanted to, I was sure I would explode.
It had been incredible to see him so in his element. He worked alongside the doctors and scientists. Conversed with Azrael. I even noticed he had begun running some of his own tests. He never asked me for samples of his own. I could tell it bothered him greatly that I had to be poked and prodded daily, but it seemed Azrael wasn’t opposed to Ethan stealing small bits of the samples that were already taken from me.
I didn’t like the way Azrael watched Ethan, though. There was something sinister about it. He watched him like a bird of prey would a field mouse. If Azrael ever let us go back to see the guys, I would be asking Ethan to remain behind with them when I returned. I didn’t trust that Azrael wouldn’t hurt Ethan.
I would be fine. Azrael needed me. But Ethan? He was disposable.
“How did you convince Ms. Crankypants to let you out of your cell?” Ethan asked jokingly, pulling me into his arms. I was surprised to find he was already naked, and his body was smooth from the minerals in the water. My hands slid around his shoulders to his back as though he was covered in a fine layer of silk.
I gulped. My stomach flipped as his cock brushed against my inner thigh, still soft, but starting to harden.
“She isn’t so bad,” I replied in a whisper, surprised at the swiftness of the response. Estelle truly was starting to grow on me.
Ethan lifted my feet from the stone floor beneath the water and hefted me into his arms, carrying me further into the dark—deeper into the steam and nearer the small waterfall so we wouldn’t be overheard.
Smart man.
Ethan set me down and guided me backward. I could just make out the shape of him, but nothing else. The steam here was too thick and the darkness too rich. When my back met a section of smooth, warm rock, he stopped.
“I didn’t think I’d get to touch you again until we went home,” Ethan whispered as he leaned into me.
He kissed and nibbled at the nape of my neck.
I shivered.
His hands moved to unzip my top and remove it, followed by my pants, bra, and panties. All the while he dropped kisses along my neck, up and down either side until I was burning with the need to be touched.
I didn’t care that my clothes were probably lost forever in the spring. When his cock brushed against my clit, I almost cried out. Ethan clamped a hand over my mouth to stifle the sound.
“Shhhh,” he whispered into my ear.
I nodded against his warm, wet, palm.
When he moved his hand away, I all but lurched forward, pressing my lips to his. Ethan’s hand moved to cup the back of my head and his body pressed in flush against mine, forcing my back hard against the wall beneath the water. His erection was long and hard now against my belly and I moaned against his mouth. He used the opportunity to slip his tongue inside and claim my mouth.
I reached between us to take his silky cock into my hand. Ethan shuddered at the contact and his fangs slid low, piercing my lower lip. A rush of sensation rippled through me as the tiny amount of venom entered my bloodstream. My back arched and I clutched him to me. Blood trickled from the small wound and Ethan slid his tongue over it, his fingers pressing hard where they held my hips against the wall.
His body froze as he swallowed me down and my own body rebelled. No. I didn’t want him to stop. Hell, no.
I slid my hand back and forth over his cock, and he purred, his body tensing and relaxing all at once. “Rose,” he hissed between clenched teeth. “I…can’t.”
“Oh yes you can,” I commanded. “You won’t hurt me.”
&nbs
p; He shook his head.
“You won’t.”
Suddenly, I wanted more than just his cock inside of me. I wanted his fangs with a desire that bordered on being frantic. My body had gotten a small taste and it was hungry for more.
Starving.
And I knew he felt the same. Now that he’d tasted me, I knew he craved more, too.
“Take me,” I told him. “I want you to take me.”
I tipped my head to one side and bared my neck to him.
He hissed.
I pulled him closer, closing my eyes in anticipation.
Ethan didn’t disappoint. But unlike when Frost gave in with a feral thirst and tore into my carotid, Ethan moved with slow, practiced movements, as though proving to himself he could maintain restraint.
When his breath caressed the spot beneath my ear, goosebumps pricked my skin and I shivered again, my breaths low and slow while I waited.
He took me into his mouth gently, and it was only when I felt his lips against me that he finally pushed the sharp points of his fangs into my flesh. I stopped breathing, not wanting to make any pained sounds and scare him off. But as the pain ricocheted up my neck, I couldn’t help a few involuntary twitches.
And then it was already fading. The pain was evaporating as surely as all the hot steam surrounding us. My body came alive under the water as Ethan’s venom did its work. I snaked my hand around the back of his neck and held him tightly to me. He responded in kind, biting down harder, making my body buck against him.
As my hips pressed forward, I felt the brush of his cock again and was ravenous for another reason. Ethan, understanding what I wanted, reached down to touch me. His fingers burned a trail down my chest, stopping briefly to cup my breasts and tease my nipples until they were pebbled and aching beneath the water.
Lower until they brushed against my opening, teasing as they probed the area with slow strokes.
Ethan readjusted his stance and I realized what he was going to do only a millisecond before he did it. Once he felt how slick I was with my own silky wetness, and how the warm water had loosened me enough to take him in, he thrusted.
His fingers moved to my thigh, lifting it to the side to open me up to him. Then he was inside me. This time it wasn’t gentle. This time he didn’t inch his way in. This time he drove his delicious cock into me until I was gasping, my body clamoring to adjust to the length and girth of him. The feeling of fullness was so blissfully absolute that I had to stifle a shout.
Ethan moved his hand from my cheek to cover my mouth again, and as he drew out of me, I moaned into his slick palm and as he drove back in I cried out, but the sound was muffled.
My head swam and I couldn’t be sure whether it was from the waves of pleasure cascading over me, dragging me beneath their undulating surface, or because he’d taken too much blood.
I didn’t really fucking care.
I lifted my other leg from the ground so he was effectively pinning me against the stone wall with his cock and his fangs. Oh yes. This was fucking bliss.
I closed my eyes to quell the dizziness and ground my hips against him. Ethan obliged with slow thrusts, pausing to grind his hilt against my clit with each one.
My breasts brushed against his chest and his hand covering my mouth tightened. The one gripping my thigh dug in so hard I thought he might break skin. With my head still floating somewhere in the air and my body still victim to his venom, I whimpered against Ethan’s palm. My heart drove a single hard beat against my chest and then skittered into several soft beats before it beat hard and slow again.
My head lolled back and in a moment of clarity, I whispered, “Ethan…stop…”
I couldn’t be sure if he heard me over the crashing of water into the spring. Hell, I couldn’t be sure if any sound escaped my lips at all, but I’d certainly meant to say it.
His fangs dug deeper still into my neck and a sound somewhere between a growl and a pained moan reverberated in his chest.
“Eth—”
I didn’t even get his full name out before he retracted his fangs and as my vision began to clear and his bite began to heal, I saw his face, horrified, cheeks flushed with his fresh feed. Blood staining a spot on his lower lip.
“Rose—” he started, but as the dizziness began to subside, I hushed him with a finger to his lips. With his venom still flowing in my veins and his cock still lodged deep into my pussy, I couldn’t have him backing down.
I wiped the blood from his lower lip and drew him in closer, staring into his eyes as I clenched my pussy around his cock. “Finish what you started,” I told him with a grin, my heartbeat leveling back out.
“I almost—”
“You did better than Frost did,” I retorted. It wasn’t entirely true. I didn’t think either one did better than the other, but Ethan could use the boost to his confidence.
He shook his head at me, but some of the worry had left his face. Good.
“Is that so,” he replied with a gleam in his light brown eyes, his hands going beneath the water to circled around my hips until he was holding me up by my thighs.
I nodded. “Now, I need you to fuck me good and hard. I don’t know when we’ll get another chance and it’s all I can think about watching you work in the lab…”
He bent down and stole a kiss from my lips. A hard, fast kiss that had my belly flipping low and hard.
“As you wish,” he said when he pulled away and locked onto my thighs.
His cock pushed into me, driving my lower back into the stone. He fucked me hard and fast, all the while watching me through the mist. He liked to see the effect he was having on me. And much as I tried to stay quiet, I couldn’t help the low moans tearing from my throat, or the cry of passion when my release exploded through my body and left me shuddering against both Ethan and the stone.
“That’s it,” Ethan said, but by the look on his face, I knew he was far from stopping.
Once my orgasm was finished, he pulled out and I ached from the loss of him. I opened my mouth to protest, but he kissed me again, rough and passionate before he lifted me and spun me around to face the wall. I planted my hands against the stone as he nudged his cock between my cheeks.
He hesitated, but I rubbed my ass against his cock, telling him without the need for words that I wanted him there, too.
With a groan, Ethan worked his tip into my ass as his fingers circled my thigh to find my silky clit. He rubbed me as he entered me from behind and the dual sensation had me biting hard on my lower lip to stop the sounds of pleasure and pain from tumbling out.
My fingernails bit down into the stone as he entered me fully. I gasped and arched my back. Ethan moaned as he began pumping into me, his body tense and straining.
“Fuck,” he hissed, in a rare curse. “You’re so tight, Rose.”
I knew he was close, and the knowledge sent me spiraling to my own release once more.
His fingers rubbed and rubbed, slipping back and forth over the pebble of my clit until I was near screaming. That combined with the rhythmic pumping of his cock and the hard grip of his hand on my side would have me undone in seconds.
Ethan fucked me harder, his fingers frantic now, urging me to come with him. Begging me. The quickening began low in my belly and I held my breath as it hit a mind-bending apex, pitching both of us from the ledge to fall into the silken black abyss in a heap of gasping breaths, hardened muscle, and shaking moans.
14
We were a pair of giggling fools when we finally found our way out of the hot spring, even though I sensed Ethan’s bliss was dampened by the fact that he nearly lost control. I hoped he wouldn’t be too hard on himself. He did manage to stop himself, after all.
Wasn’t that something?
I got the distinct feeling I shouldn’t bring it up just yet, though. He was taut as a bowstring and trying hard to hide it from me. Wouldn’t want to ruin all his hard work. Let him think he had me fooled, just this once, if it made him feel better and gave him
the time he needed to process.
Estelle hadn’t returned to collect me yet, so we bathed together in the cooler waters near the entrance. Ethan brushed the tangles from my hair beneath the water, and soaped my back and chest, his gaze scrutinizing as he checked me for injury.
“I’m not hurt,” I offered in a whisper as he finished soaking the suds from the tops of my breasts.
He pressed his lips together and nodded.
I knew it was all I would get from him.
I was so busy analyzing him that I didn’t hear Estelle coming down the corridor. So, it was a good thing Ethan did. He vanished beneath the dark water in the blink of an eye as the echo of Estelle’s footfalls grew louder.
“I hope you’re good and washed, girl. The master has asked to see you.”
My brows furrowed. I’d only just left the lab a couple of hours before. What could he possibly want now?
“But why—”
“I don’t pretend to know the master’s mind, Rose.”
I thought it was the first time she’d used my name, and the way she said it, with her usual note of impatience, but also a motherly sort of worry, had my belly clenching.
I startled as Ethan’s hand slipped around my thigh beneath the water and he planted a swift kiss just above my pelvic bone before he vanished and I caught the darkened outline of him swimming deeper into the cave where Estelle wouldn’t see him if he surfaced.
“Let’s not keep him waiting,” she prodded, holding out a towel for me as I waded to the edge and climbed up onto my feet and took it. “Can I at least go back to my room and change first?”
“Where are your clothes?”
I pursed my lips and glanced back to the water.
Estelle sighed, exasperated, and threw her hands up. “Then you’ll go as you are. Don’t want to keep him waiting, do we?”
Well, she clearly didn’t. I really couldn’t care less.