“Magnificent,” he murmured as he ran his free hand over her pale flesh toward her quivering breasts.
His mind spun as conflicting emotions battered against him. She was too good for him, but she was his. She deserved better than him, but if this continued, he would never be able to set her free to live the life she dreamed of. The idea of setting her free caused the madness, which had eased at the touch of her, to race to the forefront again. His grip on her wrists tightened as his mind and body screamed with the urge to possess her.
The smell of her blood on the air pierced through his insanity and passion infused haze. He lifted his head from her breasts to see a bead of blood forming where she’d bitten her bottom lip. She whimpered when his eyes latched onto it, and his own fangs slid free in eager response. Bending, his mouth hovered centimeters above hers as his tongue flickered out to take in that single bead.
He’d consumed blood from many vampires over the years, but none of them compared to the potent, powerful taste of her pure blood. Her fingers brushed against his hand as she watched him. He trailed his tongue over her lips one more time before leaning away from her.
“You deserve better than me,” he bit out, but he was unable to resist the lure of her puckered nipple as he ran his thumb over it. He found the clasp for her bra in the center of her chest and flicked it open. His breath failed him when her luscious breasts sprang free.
“You’re the only one I’ve wanted for years,” she murmured. “There is no one better, not for me. Since I first saw you, it’s only been you.”
He froze at her words, and his head lifted as he stared down at the temptress before him. “What do you mean?”
Abby hadn’t meant to reveal that to him, but she couldn’t stand the idea of him thinking she was too good for him, that he was somehow less than she was. He had to know there was no one else. “You’ve haunted me since the first day we met.”
Chapter Fifteen
Conflicting emotions flitted across his face as he stared at her. “You were only fifteen when we first met.”
“I did notice boys and men at that age.”
He released his grasp on her wrists, but kept his body over hers, refusing to allow her up. “You have had sex with a man before.”
Abby fought against the blush trying to creep up her cheeks as he continued to stare at her. Why did he sound so confounded by her? Why did they have to have this conversation in the first place?
“I tried to have sex with other men,” she admitted in a whisper. “I really tried to feel something for them in order to be free of the pull I felt toward you, but no matter how much I tried, my encounters with them always left me feeling cold and lacking. You have no idea what it’s like to long to be free of something and not be able to shake it.”
“Oh, but I do, Abigail,” he grated out. “Ever since I picked up the phone and heard your voice, I’ve known what it’s like to not be able to shake the thought of someone.”
Feeling a little too exposed for this conversation, Abby tried to cover her breasts.
He grabbed her hands, pulling them away to drink in the sight of her again. Despite his growing exasperation, he couldn’t tear himself away from her. She’d felt an instant connection to him, yet she’d never said a word to him about it.
“Would you have ever contacted me if Vicky hadn’t taken off?” he demanded.
“Probably not for years,” she admitted. “You’ve haunted my dreams, but you also terrify me. You are a killer, your world is volatile, but I’ve always believed you were good. What if I’d been wrong in that belief? What if I’d built you up in my head, and you rejected me? What if I met you and kissed you, and you left me feeling as emotionless as all those other men have over the years?”
His eyes flickered with red at the mention of other men, but she kept talking. “Before I saw you in that hotel room, I’d had boyfriends. I’d gone on dates and been as normal of a teenager as possible, considering I’m a vampire, but after I saw you, I was never the same. There was always an emptiness within me. If I’d met you again and the emptiness continued, I don’t know if I could have survived it. As long as there was still the dream of you, then I could pretend that maybe one day I would feel normal again.”
Brian’s head spun as her words sank in.
“I also knew you felt nothing for me when we first saw each other,” she continued. “So what if I’d found you again and you laughed at me or walked away?”
“You were only fifteen,” he muttered.
“I know how old I was!”
“Your family would have killed me if I’d responded to you in any way back then. They still might.”
She would have been a little disturbed if he’d shown any interest in her at that age too, and overwhelmed. She may have enjoyed dating before she’d met him, but they’d all been human boys. Back then, she never would have been able to deal with a vampire, who was clearly no boy, showing an interest in her. She was a woman now and she still had no idea how to deal with him most of the time.
“So when you called me, you knew there was a chance a deeper bond could form between us?” he inquired. “That there was a possibility we are mates.”
She sucked in a breath as he said the words she’d refused to say out loud over the years. He felt enough of a draw to her that he suspected it too. However, something about his words caused her hackles to rise.
“I wasn’t trying to trap you, Brian. You were not number one on my speed dial. I had to do a surprise visit home and steal Stefan’s phone in order to get your number. I was happy before I met you! I never thought to be tied to anyone at this age, never mind fifteen! I planned to travel and try to do some good in the world. I want to experience other cultures and visit other countries. I want to feel something for someone other than you!”
She placed her hands against his massive chest and shoved him, but he barely budged. His muscles and facial expression became as rigid as stone.
“Do you think I wanted to be irrevocably tied to someone? Do I strike you as that kind of man?” he demanded. “I live my life day to day. I do what I want, when I want. I have no use for a woman in my life.”
“You’ve made that clear repeatedly!” she shouted at him. “Yet tonight you looked very happy to have a woman in your life on that dance floor!” She tried to gather the tattered edges of her sweater and pull them together, but he grabbed hold of her wrists again, pulling her hands away. “Stop it!”
“Let me see you.”
“No!”
She jerked her wrists free, and this time he didn’t stop her from tugging her ruined sweater together. She had no idea how this had all gone so horribly wrong. One minute she’d been so freaking aroused she’d thought she would orgasm just from the feel of him against her, and now she was contemplating punching him in his arrogant face.
“You should go back to her,” she told him.
He grabbed hold of her wrists, pulling her toward him until their noses were almost touching. “Nothing happened between Marissa and me.”
“But it has before?”
“Not with Marissa, but yes, Abby, I have had sex before.”
The tone of his voice made it sound as if he were talking to a child. “Get off me!”
A burst of strength shot out of her, and this time when she hit him in the chest, he rocked backward far enough that she was able to jerk her legs out from under him. He grabbed for her, but she rolled away too fast and shot to her feet before he could get his hands on her. She kept her sweater closed and her chin thrust out as she backed away from him. Keeping her shoulders back, she tried to muster as much dignity as she could in her panties and ruined clothes.
She tried not to ogle his muscular frame as he rose before her, but she couldn’t keep her gaze from his broad shoulders and carved abs as he followed her every move like a predator hunting his prey.
“I’d much prefer to get you off,” he said as he moved toward her.
Abby’s jaw fell open at
his brazen and tantalizing words. She tried to hide the flush of need that went through her as she backed around the sofa, placing the piece of furniture squarely between them.
“Has a man ever made you orgasm before?” he inquired as they circled around the sofa.
“You’re a pig.” Yet she couldn’t deny the stirring between her legs caused by his words. He could do it; she knew it with absolute certainty, and she so badly wanted him to do it.
“It’s a simple question. Answer it, and I won’t heave this sofa through the wall to get at you,” he said.
“Someone will call the police if you do.”
“Let them. I’ll change their memories and have them walking out of here whistling Dixie.”
He grabbed hold of the arm of the couch. “Don’t!”
“Then answer the question.”
“This room is on my card; they’ll charge me for any damages.”
“I’ll pay you back.”
The muscles in his arm bulged as he lifted the couch effortlessly into the air. “No!” she cried. “No man has ever brought me to completion before.”
His eyes glittered, and the couch thumped when he set it back to the floor. “How many did you allow to try?”
She knew exactly how a deer felt against a coyote right now. Cornered, unable to escape, and stalked by something far more lethal. “Enough to know it wouldn’t work.”
“How many, Abigail?” he demanded.
“How many women have you been with, Brian?”
“Do you really want the answer to that?”
No. “Yes.”
“More than thirty, less than forty.”
She really shouldn’t have insisted on knowing as a knife sliced through her chest, but she kept her face impassive as they continued to circle the sofa. It could have been worse, she realized. If he’d had one woman for every year he was a vampire, it still would have been nearly two hundred. That number wouldn’t include his human experiences, and that would have been if he’d had only one a year. Many vampires had far more partners than one a year. Still, she’d known no other man, but he had dozens of women to compare her to.
“So you were like Stefan at the end and started having relationships with women instead of bouncing from one to the other like Ian used to?” she inquired in a hoarse voice.
He stopped circling, and she halted on the opposite side of the couch from him. “I don’t do relationships. I would go years before seeking the company of a woman, and when I had spent myself between her legs, I never went back.”
“Why?” she whispered.
“Because I felt I was betraying Vivian when I was with another. She may be dead, but she was my wife.”
If she’d thought his number of women had cut her deep, those words sliced her open until her insides were exposed and broken.
“You’re the only one I’ve never felt guilt with. Somehow, I can touch you and lose myself in you, and it doesn’t tear me apart inside. I haven’t been with a woman in seven years. I’ve gone for five years once before, but never seven. I hadn’t even realized it until recently. I think we both know the reason why I haven’t sought out a woman in so long.”
Hope and something more rose within her. Maybe it wouldn’t be love between them, but it could be something else. He could be an ass, but she liked him, and he obviously wanted her, could that be enough for them? It was better than years of loneliness and remorse. She couldn’t tear her gaze away from him as he watched her from the other side of the couch.
“Now, Abigail, how many men failed to satisfy you?”
She swallowed nervously. “Ten.” A muscle ticked in his cheek, but that was the only reaction he gave her.
Ten had failed; he would not. He started moving around the couch again, but she continued to keep it between them as they walked in a slow circle. “So you’ve never experienced an orgasm before?”
“I didn’t say that.”
His body thrummed at the implication of her words. The idea of her touching herself, fondling those beautiful breasts as she brought herself to completion made his heart race and his mouth water.
Abby’s eyes widened at the ravenous look in his hooded eyes. She was in trouble, deep trouble. “Brian…”
Her voice trailed off when he grabbed the arm of the sofa and lifted it to stand on end without so much as breaking a sweat. She backed away from him until her heel connected with the wall. “Stay away,” she warned. What he’d said to her had brought her optimism, but she wasn’t sure she was ready for him when he had that look in his eyes.
He advanced on her until he was standing toe-to-toe with her. “Tonight you’ll know what it’s like to have another make you scream in ecstasy,” he declared.
She thrust her chin out and tugged her sweater closer together. “How do you know you’ll be able to do that?”
A sensual, smug smile curved the corner of his mouth as he rested his hands on the wall beside her head and leaned closer. “Now, Abby, we both know I can.”
Before she could respond, he dropped his hands on her waist and plucked her easily off the ground. He started carrying her toward the bed. “No, Brian, wait.”
“I’ll stop if you tell me to, but don’t deny yourself this. Let me show you what it feels like to have another’s touch drive you mad. Tonight, it will only be about you, not me.”
She wiggled in his arms, wanting to be free of him as badly as she wanted to have him deliver on his promise. Years of frustration warred with common sense inside her. Before she could gather a protest, he bent his head and nuzzled her neck. His fangs scraped over her sensitized flesh, and she almost screamed aloud at the feel of his heated mouth against her.
He laid her on the bed again and tugged the edges of her ruined sweater apart once more. She gave into his touch with barely a protest. Cool air brushed over her exposed skin as he stepped back to stare down at her. His massive length strained against his pants, but he didn’t reach for the button as his hungry gaze ran over her. The heat of his stare was enough to make her squirm.
Mine. He realized as he stared at her splendid body spread out before him. He slid his fingers over her legs, and she tried to clamp her thighs together, but he gently nudged them apart to trail his fingers leisurely down them. Her emerald eyes darkened with passion while she watched his every move.
“Who did you think of, Abby? When your fingers were in you as you sought release, whose fingers did you imagine they were?”
Her breath hitched and redness spread over her cheeks before her eyes darted away. She quaked when he dipped his hand down to rub against her heated center. “Was it me?” he pressed when she lifted her hips to him. “Was it my touch?”
His eyes fell to her quivering breasts with their dusky nipples. It took everything he had to pull his hand away from her. She moaned her discontent over the loss of contact. He had to know her answer though. “Tell me, was it my touch you fantasized about?”
Again his fingers dipped teasingly toward her center and stilled as he waited for her response.
“Yes!” she blurted, unable to stand his teasing any longer. “Yes, it was your face in my mind every time. It was always you!”
He was pretty sure he was going to burst out of his jeans as she confirmed what he’d suspected. Had he really told her tonight would only be about her? Jesus, he wouldn’t be able to walk if this kept up; yet he found himself determined to give her a taste of what she’d been missing, to make sure she felt treasured even if it meant denying himself.
As he pulled off her panties, his hungry eyes latched onto her wet, golden curls. Kneeling between her legs, he nudged her thighs further apart and slid his thumb over her swollen clit. Her head fell back, thrusting her breasts up in such an inviting way that he was unable to resist them.
Bending forward, he took one of the taut buds into his mouth and swirled his tongue around the tip. He nipped at it before scraping his fangs over the soft flesh of her breast. Her fingers threaded through his hair, drawing
him closer as his hand stroked over her center once more. Her delicious cries of excitement drove him onward as he dipped a finger into her wet entrance.
He groaned when her hot, wet recesses clenched around his finger. What he wouldn’t give to have her gripping his shaft in such a way. Lifting his mouth from her breast, he took hold of her lips, catching her cry as she rubbed against his palm more demandingly.
Her nails dug into his shoulders as he pulled away to leave a trail of heated kisses down her neck to her collarbone. His tongue slid slowly over her sweet flesh as he moved steadily lower. Grabbing her thighs, he lifted them over his shoulders and grabbed hold of her ass, drawing her closer to him. He may not be taking her tonight, but he would taste her.
She gasped when his tongue dipped into her belly button and licked over the small silver hoop clasped there. She couldn’t tear her gaze away as she watched him work his way down her body. Each scrape from his fangs was followed by a warm, wet wash of his tongue as he tenderly licked the spot where his fangs had been.
Everything about this experience was different than it ever had been before. If this had been any other man, she would be pushing him away by now, but with Brian, she couldn’t get close enough and felt no embarrassment about being so exposed. All she wanted was to draw him closer, but he was moving further down her body and away from her touch. His mouth seared across her thighs toward where she ached for him most.
Her legs spread further as the heat of his mouth settled over her. Never in her life had she experienced such exquisite decadence as his tongue working against her clit. She’d often imagined this with him, longed for it even, and it was far better than her dreams had ever been.
Her hands twisted in the sheets, tearing them from the bed when his tongue drove into her in deep, penetrating thrusts. She couldn’t breathe, she was certain her heart was going to explode from her chest, but she never wanted it to stop. Something within her began to build; she recognized the feeling of impending release, but this was more intense than she’d ever felt before.
The Vampire Awakenings Bundle: Books 1-5 Page 128