by Amelia Elias
It was a mistake. He stood much too close to her, bare-chested and wet and more tempting than homemade sin, and Sian backed up again. Diego gently took the bottle from her and set it on the counter. “Let me fix you something to eat first,” he murmured, reaching for the half-full glass.
Sian didn’t release it. Why did he have to be so determined to take care of her? It stole her anger and she needed it right now to help her ignore the other feelings racing through her. She’d never known a man like him, fierce and forbidding yet so soft beneath his tough exterior that he melted her. No one had ever taken care of her. No one had ever been concerned enough about her to try.
“I don’t want anything to eat,” she told him, but this time there was no edge to her voice. “Don’t worry about me, Diego.”
He released the glass reluctantly. “Comes with the territory,” he said softly, and she couldn’t stop her eyes going to the dark band on the skin of his forearm.
Territory. She shook herself back to reality. He was getting to her with this “bonding” thing he kept talking about. He almost had her believing it too. She had to get out of here before he completely brainwashed her. “I’m not your territory,” she said, raising the glass to her lips.
Diego watched the glass touch her lips, watched them part and let the wine slide in, saw her throat quiver as she swallowed, and cursed the need that still pounded through him. Cold showers were good for nothing. He should know that after a hundred years of them, but he hadn’t been thinking clearly when he’d left Sian on the bed.
Clearly? He hadn’t been thinking at all or he would never have left. She hadn’t said the word he’d ached to hear, but her body had been screaming it with every delicious shiver and it had been all over her mind. Yes. To everything.
She took another sip of wine and a ruby droplet clung to her lip. When the tip of her tongue flicked out to capture it, he bit back a groan. Dios, he wanted her so badly he thought he might shatter if he moved. She caught him watching and her cheeks flushed. He knew his desire was written in his eyes but he didn’t care. She was his mate, whether she believed it or not, and he wanted her to know how he badly he needed her.
She shivered, her cheeks going from pink to crimson, and even from across the kitchen he heard her breath catch. He cursed his hypersensitive vampire senses for picking up these tiny clues to her desire because it made certain things stir under the towel that he really wished would behave.
But that particular part wasn’t interested in behaving around Sian. When it came to her, it clearly had a one-track mind.
Sian started to take another sip of wine but she swayed before the glass touched her lips. Diego was at her side in a heartbeat, steadying her with a hand on her arm and frowning down at her in concern. “Are you all right?”
She pressed a hand to her forehead. “I don’t know,” she said. “I feel… strange.”
Diego took the glass from her and set it aside. “Strange how?”
Her skin was flushed and she dropped her robe to the floor. “I feel…”
Sian’s voice trailed off and Diego tightened his grip on her arm. She sucked in a breath and he instantly loosened his hands, afraid he’d hurt her, but when she met his gaze there was no trace of pain in her eyes. What was there was enough to make his own breath catch and he suddenly wished he’d stayed on the other side of the room.
She reached up and traced his mouth with a fingertip. “I want to eat you alive,” she murmured in a husky tone he’d never heard from her before. His cock throbbed painfully in response. Her lips curved in a sensual smile when she felt it against her hip and when she looked back at him, those blue eyes were molten pools of desire. “Can I try?”
He had no chance to answer before her arms were around him, dragging his mouth down to hers. He didn’t even bother resisting. Yes, she was acting strangely, but the scent of her lust filled the air and he didn’t care what had caused her change of heart—
As soon as he tasted her, he wrenched away and cursed Eli with everything in him. “It’s the wine,” he gasped, hardly able to think when Sian’s hands found his chest. “Sian, stop. He put an aphrodisiac in the wine!”
Sian wasn’t listening. Diego grabbed her hands and tried to step away, but one step brought his back against the kitchen counter and she refused to allow him to push her away. She leaned close and caught a drop of water from his shoulder with the tip of her tongue. His shudder sent another droplet rolling down his chest and she chased it, catching it at his nipple and taking her time licking it away. He moaned, releasing one hand to cup her chin and make her stop before he lost his mind, but her newly-freed hand went straight down to the towel and started to peel it off him.
He caught it just in time and held on for dear life. “Querida, you have to stop now. This isn’t what you want, it’s a drug!” he said, but Sian only laughed.
“Touching you is definitely a drug,” she murmured, her hot mouth moving to his throat and nipping. “Tasting you is even better.”
He groaned and Sian pressed against him, trying without success to pull his hand free from the towel. He held on grimly, viciously aroused and trying to keep from losing every shred of his honor by imagining ways of killing Eli for this final outrage.
Forcing him to bond with a stranger was bad enough. This crossed the line.
Her thigh slid against his, an intoxicating caress of skin against skin that scattered his thoughts. She tried to tug the hand he still held captive free and he didn’t let her, dreading what she could do to him with both hands loose, but it didn’t slow her down. She gave up trying to take his towel with her free hand and simply cupped him through it. Diego felt his fangs start to lengthen with the surge of hot pleasure and forced them away as he caught her hand again, but the towel had already been loosened and as soon as he let go it fell to the floor.
Sian glanced down and a slow, seductive smile came over her beautiful face. “I think you don’t want me to stop as much as you say you do,” she teased.
“Dios,” Diego whispered. If she kept looking at him like that, he was going to go insane. She pressed her hips against his and his entire body shook at the caress of satin but he forced himself to keep trying to reason with her. “Sian, stop this, you’ve been drugged! This isn’t what you want—”
She cut him off by simply going to her knees in front of him and putting her gorgeous mouth right where he most wanted it.
He cried out before he could stop it, losing his hold on her wrists to reach behind him and grip the edge of the counter for dear life. All thought evaporated in a red flash of pleasure. Her newly freed hands roamed over his thighs, urging his hips closer as her lips slid down over his aching cock. Her tongue curled over him, around him, down his shaft and back up again, and he couldn’t stop his hips from thrusting against her mouth. She caressed his sac and he sucked in a gasping breath. Sweet heaven, nothing had ever felt as good as her mouth and hands sliding over him.
Diego finally forced himself to move, to release the counter and lift her from the floor before he came apart completely. He set her atop the counter and she wrapped her legs around him, drawing him close, the heat of her core against his hip only heightening his arousal.
“You’re killing me,” he breathed, keeping a tight grip on her hips to stop her from moving against him.
She moaned in frustration and dug her nails into his shoulders, trying to pull him closer. The sting of pain only aroused him more. “Diego, please, I need you now,” she cried. “Don’t you want me?”
Honor was looking less and less appealing with every passing second. “I want you so bad I can hardly think straight,” Diego growled. “But you’re not yourself, Sian, and I can’t make love to you like this!”
Sian released him long enough to grab the hem of her gown and pull it over her head. Diego closed his eyes, afraid of what he would do if he saw her naked and wanting him, but she took advantage of that by pressing herself hard against him and kissing him. The surge of
hot lust she created in him brought his fangs exploding out. He shook with the effort of not responding and her cry of frustration when she pulled away hurt like a blade.
“Diego, look at me.”
Despite every single instinct he possessed screaming this was the first step down the road to disaster, Diego opened his eyes and looked at her. He knew his eyes had changed, the lust throbbing in his veins bringing his vampire side fully to life. He didn’t want to frighten her, but maybe the sight of his eyes would bring her back to herself. He hardly dared to hope for it.
Sian met his cat-like eyes straight on, and despite the passion clouding her gaze, he saw her sincerity and determination. “I want this, honey,” she told him, emphasizing every word. Her hands roamed over him, emphasizing her point. “I want you. No magic made me feel like this. I’ve been thinking of doing this with you since you left the bed. Please, don’t tell me no.” Before he could even start to think of a reply, she pulled his head down and kissed him again.
This wasn’t like the mad passion of before. This kiss was long and slow and explosively hot. When he opened his lips to her, she met his tongue with hers, drawing him deeper into the kiss as her hands plunged into his hair to hold him there for her pleasure. Diego groaned, lust flooding his veins until he thought he might die of it and wishing he dared to believe what she’d told him.
She kissed him again and when her tongue found his fangs, he didn’t pull away.
If she truly wanted him, let her know all of him.
But she didn’t pull back or shy away from his fangs as he’d expected and his arms tightened around her. He didn’t remember letting go of her hips and putting his arms around her but it didn’t matter. The movement brought her bare skin against his at last and the glorious sensation erased all other concerns. Her tongue touched first one fang and then the other, exploring them as thoroughly as she’d explored the rest of his body while he’d slept. His fangs were one of his most powerful erogenous zones and it was the most erotic thing he’d ever experienced.
The dance of her tongue against his was making him drunk. Diego somehow found the strength to force himself to pull back before he lost track of all the reasons why this was wrong. She nipped at his lips in retaliation, sending shivers straight through him, before pressing her mouth hard against his again and inadvertently catching her lower lip on his fang.
She gasped and pulled back, her hand flying to her mouth and touching her lip gingerly. Everything vampire in him rose up and focused on that tiny spot she covered with a fingertip, and when he saw the crimson stain on her finger, it was a temptation Diego couldn’t resist.
Sian’s eyes fell closed and she moaned when he captured her finger and sucked it into his mouth. Her electric taste sent a wave of need through him and Diego bent and claimed her lip, his tongue caressing the tiny cut, capturing every drop of her essence and feeling the connection it brought sizzle into his soul. Her taste was incredible. Diego made himself pull away, but when she bit her own lip and offered him more, it was the last straw.
Damn his honor, there was only so much a man could take. “Don’t you dare regret this,” Diego said fiercely, catching her hips and driving inside her with one deep thrust. She was hot and tight, wet and so damn good, stars exploded behind his eyes.
She arched and cried out in pleasure as he took her mouth, suckling her wounded lip before healing the tiny cut. Her taste was intoxicating. He had to have more. His mouth burned a hot path down her throat, feeling her pulse under his lips and not even trying to resist the need to take more of what she’d offered. When he sank his fangs into her neck, Sian tightened her legs around him and climaxed calling his name.
Diego drew her essence into him, reveling in her taste and the knowledge that he could find her anywhere now, could touch her mind at any time. He took her pleasure and fed on it, thrusting deeper into her body and into her mind, taking her in every way and giving back ecstasy. Her second climax came right on the heels of the first and the sensation of her body tightening around his cock in waves was incredible. Diego growled against her throat and felt her nails dig into his hips, urging him on, and he gathered all his powers and pushed pleasure at her until she was wild with it. When she came for the third time, he buried himself deep and shuddered with the force of his own climax.
He stopped the bleeding from the two little wounds on her throat but didn’t erase his mark from her skin. The sight of it sent a surge of possessive pleasure through him. Sian’s face was pressed against his shoulder, her breath coming as fast as his, and Diego closed his eyes and shivered as he felt the aphrodisiac in her blood start to work on him.
Dios, he didn’t know where Eli had gotten the aphrodisiac he’d put in the wine, but it was irresistible. Rational thought was rapidly becoming impossible. Diego’s skin burned where it touched hers, ached where it didn’t, and within moments all he could think about was having her again.
Sian lifted her head and he kissed her before she had a chance to speak. She moaned into his mouth and Diego devoured her, loving the passionate way she still responded despite the shattering pleasure they’d just shared. When he pulled away her eyes were wide and misty, deeply fulfilled and laced with a touch of confusion.
She touched his mouth, slipping her finger under his lip and running it over a fang. “Wow,” she whispered, her eyes awed and her voice very serious.
“Very wow,” Diego replied just as solemnly. His entire body was focused on the movement of that single finger on his fang.
She ran her finger over his lips again and when she pulled it away he saw a trace of red on it. “You bit me,” she murmured, staring at the blood on her finger as if shocked.
He leaned forward and licked it from her skin, loving the way she gasped and already addicted to her taste. All he wanted was more. No one had ever tasted so sweet.
“Yes,” he agreed when her finger was clean. “You invited me to, querida.”
Her cheeks were flushed and he saw the spark of desire hot in her eyes, but the confusion was growing and threatening to extinguish it. “What—what just happened to me?” Sian asked hesitantly, not pulling away from him but clearly no longer under the influence of the drug. “Did I really—”
His gut tightened at her tone. After the wild passion they’d shared, while he stood here in her arms, still buried intimately inside her with the echoes of ecstasy still rocking him to the bone, Diego didn’t think he could handle hesitant from her now.
He glimpsed the half-full wine glass on the counter and reached for it before he could think better of his actions. “Drink this,” he commanded as he pressed it to her lips. She did, too surprised to resist, and only when she’d taken several swallows did Diego pull the glass away.
Suddenly Sian gasped, remembering. “Wait a second—I thought you said the wine was drugged with an aphrodisiac!”
Diego drained what was left in the glass and set it aside before lifting her from the counter. “It is.”
“But why—”
He stopped her mouth with a long, deep, and intensely hot kiss. “Hate me later,” he murmured against her lips, turning to carry her back to his bed. “But love me now.”
* * *
Sian awoke and stretched luxuriously, savoring the utter contentment of her body and the soreness in unaccustomed places. There was no confusion to find Diego’s warm body wrapped around hers, no moment of wondering where her gown had gone. She remembered everything they’d done last night.
In exquisite detail.
Just remembering was enough to heat her blood. Whatever else he might be, Diego was a fantastic lover. After their first wild romp in the kitchen, he’d taken his sweet time with her, exploring every inch of her body at a leisurely pace that had made her insane with need. When he’d finally succumbed to her pleas and taken her, she’d been so incredibly drunk on passion she hadn’t even resisted when he’d bitten her again.
Sian shivered at the memory as she touched the little mark he’d lef
t on the swell of her left breast. Who would have ever thought a vampire’s bite could be that erotic? If giving blood were like this all the time, she’d be at the local blood bank every single day!
She rolled in Diego’s arms until she faced him. He was still sleeping, the same incredibly deep sleep that had frightened her yesterday. She touched his face gently, remembering how boldly she’d touched him. Would she have had the nerve to act so wantonly had she known he truly was a vampire, just as he’d claimed?
That thought still blew her mind. She was lying here next to an honest-to-God vampire. She’d spent the night before making love endlessly with a real vampire! He’d taken her blood the first two times but not afterward, and she’d actually been disappointed. She shook her head, smiling. She’d happily be his chew toy if he kept giving her such incredible pleasure when he did it.
Sian leaned forward and kissed him softly before rolling out of bed. As wonderful as the sex had been, it didn’t change her determination to get out of here. If anything, it strengthened it. She hated the thought of Diego getting caught up in Santonyo’s revenge. The least she could do for him after the incredible night he’d given her was to ensure his safety.
Her heart sank at the thought of fleeing again and she sighed as she stepped into the shower. She’d just never thought it would be this hard to leave him.
She started to reach for the shower gel and stopped, a warm glow banishing her gloomy thoughts and a goofy grin on her face. Beside Diego’s sandalwood scented things were three new bottles, all jasmine scented—shampoo, conditioner, and shower gel.
Sian laughed silently at herself for being touched at the gesture. It spoke to his arrogance and assurance that she would inevitably wind up here in his room again more than anything else, but still, she wondered how he’d known her favorite scent.