“Is that so?” Before she could answer, Deep was suddenly on his knees before her. Starting at her right ankle, he ran his nose up her inner thigh until he got to her crotch where he inhaled deeply.
It was such a shockingly animalistic thing to do that Kat was frozen in place for a minute. But when the big Kindred pressed his face between her legs and she felt his hot breath against her sex through her silky sapphire gown, the paralysis broke. “Hey!” She jumped back, feeling as though he had burned her somehow. “You son of a bitch, how dare you?”
Still on his knees, Deep looked up at her, black eyes burning. “I’m just verifying your information.”
“By smelling me?” Kat had heard from Liv and Sophie both that the sense of smell was very important to the Kindred. But hearing it and seeing evidence of it in action were two different things.
“Deep,” Lock murmured warningly. “Brother…”
“She lies.” Deep looked at his twin and something—some understanding or silent communication—passed between them. “There is no other male. There hasn’t been for months.” Slowly he rose to his feet and took a step toward Kat. Towering over her, he looked down into her eyes. “No male in your bed to hold you, to stroke your luscious, curvy body and make you purr. Now why would you lie about something like that, little Kat?”
Kat had taken enough of his crap. Reaching up, she slapped him as hard as she could. “I don’t know what your problem is,” she told Deep, breathing hard. “But my personal life is none of your goddamn business.”
Deep rubbed his jaw and gave her a sardonic smile. “Forgive me. I was just making a point.”
“What point is that?”
Lock looked uncomfortable. “My lady,” he said hesitantly. “I don’t think you really understand what you’re offering. My brother is trying to show you—though I don’t approve of his methods.” He shot Deep an angry look and his twin looked back blankly.
“Show me what?” Kat demanded. She wondered if all Twin Kindred were this irritating. If so, Jillian and her husbands really deserved each other.
“What you’re letting yourself in for,” Deep rumbled.
“Whatever it is, if it will get us closer to finding Sophie and Sylvan, I’m up for it. Now, are you going to let me help or not?”
Deep rubbed his jaw again and gave her an appraising glance. “I for one have no objection to letting you help,” he rumbled. “But you might, once you find out what it requires.”
“Okay, so tell me what it requires. But do it fast—Sophie might be in trouble right now.” Kat turned to Lock who was watching her with an uncertain expression on his face. “Well?”
“You’ll have to let us into your mind,” he said in a low voice. “And since you aren’t bonded to a male who can shield you, it’s apt to be a very intimate experience.”
Kat felt cold. “Uh, intimate how?”
“Imagine all your deepest fantasies and most secret desires laid bare.” Deep took a step toward her, his eyes boring into her. “Are you prepared to deal with that?”
Was she? Suddenly Kat’s heart was beating double time. How could she let these two men who she’d just met into her head? And yet, how could she not? I’m the only one who can do this and the longer we wait, the more trouble Sophie and Sylvan might be in. Also, she knew Sophie or Liv would do the same thing for her in a heartbeat. And besides, she told herself uneasily, it’s not like I’ll be having sex with these two. It’s just some kind of weird mind-melding Star Trek kind of thing. That’s all—right? She certainly hoped so.
“Well?” Deep raised an eyebrow at her and she could tell he thought he’d scared her off.
Lifting her chin she gave him a level stare. “I’m in. How do we start?”
Seven
Sophie came to consciousness with something warm and wet pressed against the underside of her left breast. As her eyelids fluttered she felt it slide upward, tracing along the outer ring of her areola and drawing a low moan from her lips. What’s going on? She didn’t know and at the moment, she didn’t care. She only cared about the deliciously pleasurable sensation that was centered in her breast.
The warm wet something—a tongue. Feels like a tongue—continued its journey over her nipple, making her gasp as the hard little nub tightened. She moaned again and the tongue repeated its action, seeming to take its time, laving her nipple gently, sending sparks of pleasure through her entire body and building a slow, hot fire between her legs.
Who…why…? For some reason the pleasurable sensations made her bottom lip throb. Sophie licked it tentatively and found it was incredibly sensitive to touch, as it never had been before. Why am I so sensitive there? Slowly the answer began to form in her brain. Got hurt…someone bit me. Who? A picture appeared in her mind’s eye. The image of a tall, broad shouldered man with spiky blond hair and ice blue eyes like a husky’s. Sylvan…he bit my lip during the Luck Kiss. And then we were in the tube together and he smelled so good…
Come to think of it, that delicious sharp, spicy scent was filling her senses now. It smelled so delicious Sophie wanted to wrap it around her like a blanket. It made her feel safe and warm but at the same time it made her nipples ache and her pussy wet. How could one smell do so many things? Mating scent…The words drifted through her brain but Sophie pushed them away. The very idea was ridiculous—why would Sylvan give off his mating scent for her when he didn’t even like her? He—
The warm wet tongue bathing her nipple broke her train of thought completely, shattering everything into shards of pleasure. God, no one had ever touched her like this before. No one had ever been this tender, this gentle. After what had happened to her in the past, Sophie had never dreamed she’d want any man to touch her again. But this man…Wait a minute, who is this man? The man who’s licking me? Her eyes were shut tight but for some reason she knew whoever was laving her breast and nipples so gently was male. Could it be…Sylvan? But why would he…?
“Sophia?” murmured a low voice in her ear.
Her eyes flew open and she looked up to see a dark shape bending over her. He seemed huge in the surrounding blackness, a mountain of muscle and she was cradled in his lap. Cradled in his lap half naked! Her hands went immediately to her bare breasts, trying to cover herself from the man.
“Don’t.” He caught her hands and held them gently but firmly, keeping her exposed. “You’re not quite healed yet,” he said in a deep, familiar voice. As he spoke, starlight glinted off a double set of white, curving teeth that looked razor sharp in his upper jaw. Fangs! His fangs! It was Sylvan’s lap she was on, his tongue she had felt licking her so gently. His voice echoed in her brain, the words he’d spoken to the Scourge commander, I’ll fucking rip your throat out with my teeth!
All the pleasure she’d been feeling suddenly turned to horror and she tried to scramble off his lap.
“Sophia, don’t—” He held her but she fought like a wild cat, scratching and kicking until he let her go.
Sophie rolled off his lap and onto hard, stony ground. Sharp pebbles shredded her palms and cut her knees through the ragged remains of her bridesmaid’s dress, but she didn’t care. She only knew she had to get away from him—away from those horror-movie fangs that looked so utterly lethal.
“Be careful!” His voice was sharp. “You’ll go over the edge!”
“The edge?” Sophie risked a glance behind her and saw that she was crouching on a rocky ledge which ended abruptly, diving down into a black chasm just inches away. For a moment her fear of heights warred with her fear of his fangs. Then her weight shifted and her foot slipped. Pebbles clattered down into the blackness and she felt herself falling…
“Come here.” A strong hand grabbed her wrist and she was yanked from the crumbling cliff and back into Sylvan’s lap. “Hold still!” he commanded in a low, rough voice, very different from his earlier gentle tone. “You’re disoriented. You don’t know what you’re doing.”
“Well I know what you’re doing!” Sophie stru
ggled against him, beating at his broad chest uselessly.
“What are you talking about? I’m trying to save you.”
“By stripping me naked and licking me while I was unconscious?” She gave him an incredulous look. “Yeah, right. Now let me go!”
“Not until you listen.” Sylvan held her tightly, refusing to let go. At last, when she stopped struggling, he spoke again in a slightly softer tone. “You were wounded in the crash. I had to do something to stop the bleeding.”
“And you picked licking?” She tugged at her tattered dress and glared up at him, completely furious now. “I mean, you’re a doctor for God’s sake. What ever happened to a tourniquet or a compress? Or anything else that doesn’t involve your mouth on my…my bare…” She trailed off, feeling her cheeks get hot.
“My saliva has healing agents in it,” he said, sounding completely reasonable. “Also coagulants to stop blood flow.”
Sophie wasn’t buying it. “It wasn’t just licking,” she said accusingly. “Your fangs were out and you were going to bite me—admit it!”
It was hard to read his face in the darkness but she thought he looked pained. “Yes,” he admitted heavily. “I was prepared to bite you if I had to.”
“If you had to? Why the hell would you have to bite me?”
“I thought your wounds might be too deep or deadly to heal any other way,” he said in a low voice. “I know you fear and dislike my fangs and for that I am sorry. But they secrete a chemical we of the Blood Kindred call essence—that’s the closest I can come to a translation in your language, anyway.”
The word rang a bell. “Wait a minute, essence? Didn’t you say it was a good thing I didn’t get any of that in my system earlier, when you examined my lip?”
“Biting isn’t something we do lightly.” He hesitated. “The act of biting, the gift of blood and essence…these things are usually reserved exclusively for a Blood Kindred’s mate. But in this case I thought it might be necessary, because the compounds in essence can heal almost any hurt or disease.”
“So you were going to bite me to heal me?” Sophie frowned, still not buying it. “Why should I believe you? How do I know you don’t just like the taste of my blood like some kind of perverted vampire?”
“Vampire?” He frowned. “Are you referring to the fictional characters your people write stories about? The ones who rip out their victim’s throats in order to drink their blood?”
Sophie crossed her arms over her breasts. “Uh, when you say it like that it sounds really bad. But, yeah, I guess so.”
“I am not a ‘vampire,’” he said dryly. “And the purpose of a Blood Kindred’s bite is not to wound or drink anyone dry.”
“So what is the purpose then? Besides healing?” She still wasn’t sure she believed that.
“A Blood Kindred bites to heal if his mate is injured or to arouse her sexually if she is well,” he said matter-of-factly.
Sophia coughed and shifted in his arms. “Uh…really. And you think that turns a woman on? Being bitten?”
His eyes flashed in the darkness. “Clearly you find the idea disgusting.”
“Not so much disgusting as frightening.” She couldn’t help the shiver that went through her at the thought. “I…uh…biting and blood and anything like that…I don’t like it. I don’t like the idea of it being that…that painful.”
Sylvan frowned. “Who said anything about it being painful?”
“How could it not be?” Sophie objected. “I mean you’ve got the poor girl pinned down and you’re biting her while you…while you…” She shook her head, feeling her face get hot. “Never mind. Can you please just let me up?” Being so close to him while they talked about this kind of thing was making her nervous.
“It isn’t like that,” Sylvan said quietly, making no move to release her.
“How do you know? You’ve never, uh, bonded with anyone.”
“And I never will.” Sylvan’s deep voice was soft. “But no Kindred would ever hurt his bride or do anything she found objectionable.”
“Well I find this—all this…” She made a motion with her hand to encompass the entire situation they found themselves in. “Completely objectionable. I mean I wake up topless and find you, uh, licking me and then you tell me it’s all for my own good. And if you bite me, that will be for my own good too. So I’m just supposed to say ‘Oh thanks, Sylvan. Keep up the good work.’ Is that it?”
“Think about it, Sophia.” His voice was a soft growl. “Was I touching you between your legs or stroking your soft little sex? Was I sucking your nipples to arouse you and make you want me? No, I was only licking one breast—your wounded breast—to heal you.”
“I…I…” She couldn’t think what to say.
Sylvan’s eyes were suddenly hard. “Don’t you think if I had intended to rape and despoil you, I could have done it by now? If I was the kind of male to do something like that you would have woken up to find my cock buried to the hilt in your pussy. Not my tongue on your breast,” he said roughly.
His words started echoes inside her. Echoes of memories best left forgotten. Sophie sucked in a breath. “I think you’d better let me go right now,” she whispered in a trembling voice.
He must have heard the fear in her tone because Sylvan loosened his grip on her with obvious reluctance and let her slide from his arms.
Sophie scooted back, careful to keep away from the edge of the cliff, and tried to pull the tattered remains of her dress back in place. A gust of wind whipped her hair across her face and for the first time she realized how cold it was outside the shelter of his arms. Crossing her arms over her chest, she shivered.
“Here.” Unbuttoning his pale blue uniform shirt, he shrugged it off and held it out to her. His broad chest gleamed pale in the starlight.
Sophie frowned stubbornly. “I don’t want it.”
“Well, you’ll take it anyway.” Leaning forward he draped the heavy, satin-like material around her shoulders. It was still warm from his skin and she could smell his scent on it—that sharp, spicy fragrance that seemed to go straight to her head.
“You’ll be cold,” Sophie objected, clutching the shirt around her despite her words.
He laughed grimly. “At this temperature? I don’t think so. This would be a warm summer day where I come from.”
A warm summer day? Seriously? It had to be in the low sixties, if not the mid fifties. To a Florida girl like Sophie, it was freezing. What kind of place was Tranq Prime, anyway? She hoped she never got a chance to find out.
“Come on.” Sylvan rose abruptly.
Spooked by his sudden move, Sophie cringed back and away from him. “Come where? Where are we going?”
“The Scourge are still hunting you. We have to get away—as far from the crash site as we can.” His voice dropped suddenly. “I won’t hurt you, Sophia. Please don’t look at me like that.”
“Like…like what?” she whispered, still crouching on the ground.
“Like I’m some evil monster come to devour and defile you.” There was pain in his deep voice, an agony that seemed to pierce her heart for some reason. Although why she should feel sorry for him she didn’t know.
“I’m sorry,” she said defensively. “It’s just…you’re so big. And your fangs…”
He sighed heavily. “Neither of which I can do anything about. Come. We have a long way to go before we can safely rest.” Turning, he led the way, not waiting to see if she would follow.
Sylvan heard her stumbling along behind him as they made their way down the side of the mountain and every instinct he possessed shouted that he needed to go back and help her. Needed to hold her in his arms and carry her to safety. But he forced himself to go on. She doesn’t want me, doesn’t want my help or my touch.
It was true and he knew it. The rejection he could handle. But the fear in her eyes…
Sylvan clenched his jaw. Goddess, that she could ever think I would hurt her. The very idea was like a fist in his g
ut. He would rather be hurt himself, would rather be wounded a thousand times over than allow her to get a single scratch.
Should have left her alone. Shouldn’t have healed her. That was what scared her the most, waking up and seeing me bending over her with my fangs out.
But he had been so worried. And besides, it was impossible for him to see her hurt and not want to heal her. He had told her once, the second time they met, that as a doctor he had no emotional attachment to his patients. But it was different with her—so very different. And those few moments before she’d woken up completely, before she’d started fearing him, had been beyond compare.
He closed his eyes briefly, his cock and fangs throbbing as he remembered the way she’d moaned and arched her back, responding to his touch. It was almost as though she was offering herself, opening herself in the way a female would when she was willing to be bonded. Truly his intent hadn’t been sexual, but he couldn’t help becoming aroused by her reaction. The way her nipple had tightened under his tongue as he healed her and the warm secret scent of her sex getting wet and ready for him was enough to make him ache with desire.
And then she saw me and realized who it was that was touching her, giving her pleasure, he thought sadly. After that all she wanted was to get away from me. From my fangs. She wouldn’t even let me finish healing her.
Even now he could smell her blood on the wind. She must have scraped her hands and knees when she was scrambling to get away from him. He wanted in the worst way to examine them—to take away her pain. But he knew he would only add to it and increase her fear and panic if he tried. Sophia, I’m so sorry…Your pain is my pain. Your wounds, mine to heal. I give you the blood of my body, the heart from my chest. The—
Sylvan stopped himself. Why had the words from the Blood Kindred bonding ceremony come to his mind? Words he was destined never to speak?
Stupid, he told himself angrily, kicking a large rock out of the way. Stupid to let yourself have any kind of feelings for her. Even if your vow wasn’t in the way she’d never want you. Never stop fearing you long enough to let you in. Just forget about her—be cold as a Tranq should be.
Brides of the Kindred Volume One: Books 1-4 Page 46