But his heart…He couldn’t shake the crazy notion that maybe she wanted more than his cock between her legs and his tongue down her throat.
That she wanted to give, as well as take.
He stared deep into her eyes, searching for the truth, and saw…
What the hell?
“Nikki told me how to protect my thoughts.” Her gaze locked with his and sure enough, he saw nothing except his own lust glittering back at him. “A woman’s entitled to her privacy.” She gave him a small smile before the expression faded. “Nikki also said that the reason you got shot tonight was because you haven’t been feeding properly. Your senses aren’t as sharp as they should be.” She stepped toward him, her breasts quivering with each step until she reached a point midway between them. He knew then that while she was offering herself to him in the most blatant way, she wanted him to make the same effort and meet her halfway. “Maybe we can do something about that.”
He stiffened. “Get out of here,” he said, his voice gruff. “Before you do something you’ll regret.”
Uncertainty creased her beautiful features before her mouth drew into a firm line. Her eyes narrowed and her look morphed into one of pure determination.
She drew a deep breath that flared her nostrils and lifted her luscious breasts. “You could go for the usual spot.” Her fingers fluttered down the side of her creamy neck. “Or maybe you’d rather do it here.” She touched the underside of one breast and traced her ripe nipple. “Then again, maybe you’d rather taste me here.” A few tantalizing touches and she slid her palm down, over the soft skin of her abdomen, to the inside of one thigh. “Or—” her breath caught as she dipped a finger between her legs “—even here.” A gasp bubbled past her full lips and his gut twisted.
“You don’t know what you’re asking for.”
“I’m not asking for anything. I’m giving.” The last word hitched as she slid another finger into her steamy heat.
In the blink of an eye, he pinned her to the nearest wall.
“What—” she gasped, but her startled expression quickly faded into one of pure excitement as she stared up into his eyes.
She wanted the vampire, all right. She wanted to walk on the wild side, to unleash the beast inside of him, and suddenly that didn’t seem like such a bad idea.
For all her boldness, she’d yet to see what he’d really and truly become. A glimpse would surely send her running even faster than that first horrible kiss back in the ninth grade.
“Or maybe I’ll just try each spot until I find the one I like best,” he growled, pulling back his lips. A hiss worked its way up his throat as he bared his fangs. His body trembled and he touched his mouth to her ripe throat.
She didn’t stiffen when he rasped her soft flesh with the sharp edge of his incisors.
Rather, she arched her neck, the movement pushing her soft flesh against his fangs and pricking her skin. Her gasp sizzled in the air as a sweet drop of blood bubbled and slid down her neck.
Dillon caught it with his tongue, licking to the source and drawing another few sweet drops before lifting her. Her feet left the ground as he pushed her higher up the wall until her nipple brushed his lips.
Her breath caught as he latched onto the ripe tip and drew it deep. His fangs grazed the tender flesh around her areola and his groin tightened. Her nipple throbbed against his tongue as he sank into her just a hair and drew a few more drops of her delicious heat. The salty sweetness sent a dizzying rush to his head. His insides clenched.
More, more, more.
The chant echoed in his head and he pushed her higher, pinning her in place with his mind rather than his hands because he needed them now. He slid his palms around to cup her ass as he tilted her forward just a fraction and touched his lips to the slick flesh between her legs. He licked her then, tracing the seam with the very tip of his tongue before parting her.
She closed her eyes, her hands braced on his shoulders, her fingers digging into his flesh. Holding on.
Urging him on.
The thought pushed past the thunder of his own heart, making him all the more determined to give her what she thought she wanted and frighten her off for good. He drew her clit into his mouth and she jumped. He suckled her for a long moment before replacing his lips with his fingers, and shifting his mouth an inch to the side, to the tender flesh of her upper thigh. The smell of sex filled his nostrils and fanned his hunger into a living and breathing thing that overwhelmed him. A growl rumbled past his lips and he sank his fangs deep.
So deliciously deep.
Convulsions gripped her and she clutched at him.
A shudder ripped through him as he started to draw on her. Her delicious essence filled his mouth and the energy from her climax seeped into him at every point where flesh met flesh.
It was the ultimate in fulfillment for a vampire, and it wasn’t nearly enough.
Not the warm, succulent body grasping at him, or the sweet essence pulsing in his mouth.
Dillon wanted more than just Meg’s body and her blood.
He wanted her heart.
The realization sent a rush of determination through him and he stiffened. He fought the beast inside of him, urging it back down until he managed to draw back. Blood trickled from the spot and he lapped at it, licking at her wounds until they stopped bleeding.
And then he forgot all about driving her away, and decided to do his damnedest to get her to stay.
17
MEG WAS STILL REELING from the most mind-blowing orgasm of her life when she felt the soft mattress against her back. The bedsprings protested as Dillon pressed her down. Her eyelids fluttered open and she stared up at the man who loomed over her.
Straddling her, his knees trapping her thighs, he leaned back to gaze down at her. The single lamp that burned in the room was at his back, making him more shadow than man.
All except for his eyes.
She saw them clearly, glowing green fire that skimmed over her, setting her nerves ablaze and making her forget all about the exquisite pleasure they’d just shared. Hunger yawned and anxiety skimmed up and down her arms. She wanted more.
She wanted him.
And he wanted to put the brakes on. She felt the sudden shift in his mood even before he reached for her. It was there in the way he simply towered over and drank her in with his eyes. His hands clenched at his sides for several long seconds as he seemed to fight for control. After several heartbeats, he seemed to find it. Where they’d been fast and furious a moment before, the hands that reached for her now were slow and purposeful and oh so steady.
“I’ve pictured you like this so many times,” he murmured, his voice thick and raw. “Beneath me, open for me, wet for me…” He skimmed her body, his fingertips brushing her neck, her collarbone, the slope of her breasts, the indentation of her ribs. “When I saw you that night from the balcony, I could hardly stand it. I wanted to rush in, throw the damned bottle to the wall and pleasure you myself.”
But he hadn’t. Because he couldn’t. She hadn’t invited him into her house at that point and, therefore, he’d been stuck in her doorway, waiting, watching. Wanting. The truth burned in the brightness of his eyes as they deepened and shifted until they burned a rich, vibrant purple. She wondered at the change in color.
“It’s because I’m turned on,” he murmured and she realized her thoughts were wide-open to him again.
She tried to block him, to focus her attention on shutting herself off mentally just as Nikki had said. But then he leaned down and flicked the tip of her nipple with his tongue and she forgot everything except the sharp sensation that knifed through her.
The ripe nub responded, hardening and throbbing, begging for more than the one decadent lick.
More.
She wanted him naked and hard and inside of her. Now.
Forever.
Hardly. This wasn’t about tomorrow. It was about right now. About being a friend and helping him when he needed her most. It wa
s about now. Anxiety rushed through her and she reached for him.
He caught her hands with one of his own and forced them up above her head to the headboard.
“Easy,” he murmured, his other hand going to her abdomen. “We’ve got all night.” He traced lazy circles, touching, relishing as if he’d never felt anything as soft as her skin.
Then he lowered his head and drew her nipple fully into the moist heat of his mouth.
Meg clenched her fingers, pushing against the hand that constrained her. She wanted to touch him. To feel him. To push things back up to the frenzied pace of a moment before so she didn’t have to think about what he was doing to her. And why.
Why the slower pace and the forbidden words and the sudden determination that coiled his body tight and held every muscle in check.
The questions pushed and pulled, warring with the delicious heat that simmered through her as he licked a path across her skin to coax the other breast in the same torturous manner.
She rotated her pelvis, rubbing against his chest. She wanted him, surrounding her, consuming her, filling up the emptiness inside her once and for all.
Forever.
The thought struck again and she fought hard, her legs parting and her body bucking, but she was little match for his strength.
He suckled her again, so long and deep and ahhh…
One rough fingertip traced the soft folds between her legs, pushing inside just a delicious fraction that made her quiver and gasp. He lingered, suckling her breasts, first one then the other. Back and forth. Over and over.
She clenched and unclenched around the tip of his finger, trying to draw him deeper, but he didn’t budge. Not until she was panting and whimpering and so desperate that she thought—no, she knew—she would surely die if he didn’t do something.
Dillon smiled, his teeth a startling break in the black shadow of his face. Then the expression faded as he gazed down at her. His attention shifted, traveling from her face, down the column of her neck to her breasts, to the spread of her thighs and his finger, which poised at her pulsing cleft.
He pushed all the way in and she moaned, coming up off the bed as pure pleasure pierced her brain. The feeling, so consuming and exquisite, sucked the air from her lungs and she stopped breathing for a long moment. He didn’t move, just held himself deep inside as her body settled around him and clamped tighter.
“I want you more than I’ve ever wanted any woman before,” his voice was gruff. Or after.
The words sounded so clear and distinct in her head, as if he spoke them directly into her ear. He didn’t. He didn’t have to. He’d invaded her mind as well as her body, and they were telepathically linked now.
An unbreakable bond.
A spurt of excitement went through her, followed by a wave of anxiety that gripped her and refused to let go. She lifted her pelvis, focusing on the pleasure that gripped her as she worked her body around his decadent finger. She leaned into him only to pull away. She swayed from side to side, her movements frantic, desperate, as she pushed herself higher and higher, desperate to feel rather than think.
“You’re so beautiful.” The words pierced the humming in her ears and she went still. Her eyes opened to find him staring down at her. “The most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.” He kissed her softly on her swollen lips. “Or touched.” He kissed her again. “Or loved.”
Before the words could register, his mouth swooped down and captured hers in a deep kiss that went way beyond the sweet press of his lips. He coaxed her open and slid his tongue inside and drew on her sweetly, tenderly for several long moments. Until her frantic heartbeat eased and she forgot all about sucking him deeper into her greedy body. Instead, she wanted to wrap her arms around him, pull him even closer and feel his heartbeat against her own.
A second later, she found herself free to do just that.
Her hands slid over his shoulders and held tight. She relished the feel of his body as it pressed against hers, his heartbeat so steady and sure against her breasts. She’d never felt closer to a man at that moment.
A vampire.
She tried to remember that all-important fact. It explained the sudden about-face and the fact that he couldn’t keep his hands off of her and that they were having the hottest, most passionate sex of her entire life.
Because he was a vampire.
She could have been any woman, she knew. But damned if he didn’t make her feel like the only woman.
His woman.
A trick of the trade, she told herself. Vampires could mesmerize. She’d learned that tonight. Dillon was just playing mind games.
And doing it quite well.
He canted his head to the side and deepened the kiss. He plundered her mouth with his, exploring and savoring. The air stalled in her lungs and her heart sped faster. A few more seconds and he tore his mouth from hers.
He slid down her body, now slick from the fever that raged inside of her, and left a blazing path with the velvet tip of his tongue. With a gentle pressure, he parted her thighs. Almost reverently, he stroked the soft, slick folds between her legs.
She was wet and throbbing and he swore softly. Tremors seized her when she felt his warm breath blowing softly on the inside of her thigh, directly on the tiny prick points where he’d drunk from her. His tongue darted out, flicking first one then the other, and it was like being zapped by white lightning. Pleasure sliced through her, cracking her open from head to toe. She gasped and dug her nails into his shoulders as wave after wave of ecstasy washed through her.
She wasn’t sure what happened after that. She was too busy floating, her body weightless, her mind buzzing with sensation. She only knew that one minute he had his jeans on and the next, he was settling his naked body between her damp thighs.
A condom.
The warning sounded in her head when she felt his hard, hot length rub her pulsing clit. She tried to clamp her legs shut, but he was too close, his thighs wedging her open. His deep voice whispered through her head.
I can’t hurt you. I wouldn’t hurt you.
The seconds ticked by as he waited for her. She finally nodded and it was all the encouragement he needed.
With a swift thrust of his hips, he impaled her on his rigid length and all worry faded as heat drenched her. Sensation overwhelmed her at first. The feel of him so hot and thick pulsing inside her nearly made her come without any warning.
She anchored her arms around his neck and her muscles clamped down around his erection. She didn’t want to let him go, but he had other ideas.
He withdrew and slid back in for the second time. His hard length rasped her tender insides, creating a delicious friction that sent a dizzying rush straight to her brain. He pulled out again, and went back for a third time. A fourth.
His body pumped into hers over and over, pushing her higher with each delicious plunge. She lifted her hips, meeting him thrust for thrust, eager to feel more of him. Harder. Deeper. Faster.
Look at me.
She opened her eyes and stared up at him as he poised over her. He pushed into her, his penis hot and twitching, and she knew it was his last and final time. He was going over the edge before her.
It’s not about my own pleasure. It’s about pleasuring someone else.
Yet here he was, mindless with pleasure, lost in his own orgasm.
His arms braced on either side of her, his muscles bulging and tight as he held himself. The tendons in his neck stood out. His eyes blazed a bright, vivid purple. His jaw clenched and his lips parted. His fangs gleamed as he let loose a loud hiss that faded into a long moan as Meg arched her pelvis.
His penis twitched and throbbed, and she felt a spurt of warmth. He bucked once, twice and she followed him over the edge. Convulsions gripped her body and suddenly she was floating again on a cloud of pure satisfaction.
Several breathless moments passed as she lay there, trying to come to grips with what had just happened.
He’d climaxed first.
This time, she reminded herself. But she’d come plenty of times before, when he’d had her pinned against the wall. He’d already drank his fill. Of her blood and her energy.
That’s what she told herself because she certainly wasn’t going to consider the alternative—that he might feel something more for her. Something that had nothing to do with being a vampire and everything to do with being a man.
A man in love.
Right.
Dillon Cash didn’t love her. He couldn’t love her. Because regardless of what had just happened—a fluke, of course—he was a vampire.
One who’d slept with a ridiculous number of women.
One who would sleep with even more.
He had to in order to survive. She wanted him to. That’s why she’d offered herself to him tonight. Because he needed her.
Friends, she reminded herself.
But when Dillon rolled onto his back and pulled her flush on top of him, she felt like anything but his friend. His hands stroked her back, her buttocks, holding her close, touching her intimately. A lover’s touch rather than a friend’s.
The notion sent her scrambling from the bed.
“Meg?” His voice followed her as she snatched up her clothes. “What’s wrong?”
“It’s late,” she blurted the first thing that popped into her head. “I need to get home.” Dread welled inside of her and panic beat at her temples as she jerked on her vest and pants, her movements frantic and hurried. She needed to get out of here. Now. Before she did something she would surely regret.
Like climb back into bed with him and stay there forever.
“Wait!” His frantic voice followed her, his footsteps dogging her up the stairs to the ground floor. “Would you just wait a second?”
She rushed through the house, snatching up her purse as she headed for the front door.
“Dammit, woman!” He caught one hand while the other reached for the doorknob.
His fingers burned into hers and she yanked open the door. Early-morning light spilled through the open doorway. His hand fell away and a loud hiss sizzled in her ears. He murmured a fierce shit as he stumbled backward.
Love at First Bite Bundle Page 36