Hot Summer Bites: A Castle of Dark Dreams Novella (A Penguin Special from Berkley Sensation)

by Bangs, Nina

  Kristin looked down at his face, so close to hers, and she knew her eyes were still awash in tears. “Really?”

  “Well, maybe not a whole week. Dacian dragged me out after three days.” As he spoke, he rubbed his hands up and down her back in a comforting rhythm.

  Well, he might think it was comforting, but she was feeling something else entirely. Strong emotions fed other strong emotions. Now that she’d released some of her stress in that stupid outburst, she could appreciate her position.

  Pressed flat against his muscular length, she felt every tiny movement of his body. As he shifted his position to pull her closer, her nipples scraped across his chest, immediately raising false hopes in areas farther south.

  While her brain tried to convince everyone to calm down, that this was just a random meeting of nipples and yummy male chest, the rest of her body knew better.

  So did his body. She felt his growing interest in the most basic way. Mmm. The instinctive upward thrust of his hips triggered pressure low in her belly.

  Tentatively, she slid back and forth over his ridge of high pressure—who knew weather forecasts could be sexy?—forcing a gasp from him. There was so much pressure building that she just knew a storm couldn’t be far behind.

  With a muttered curse, he put his hands on either side of her face and pulled her close to meet his kiss. She’d been right. The sexual wind he generated picked her up, sucked her into its vortex, and carried her away from life’s little concerns. Like if you kiss a vampire, will he respect you in the morning? More to the point, will you even be alive in the morning?

  Too late for any deep thoughts about survival. She was into the moment. Her tongue tangled with his, and his taste was so hungry male that she clenched around the delicious pleasure it brought her. Oh, yesss. Without any preplanning, she checked for fangs with the tip of her tongue and found them. She smoothed her tongue over the length of each one. There was something wickedly sensual about the action.

  Hey, if she got such a rush from sliding her tongue over just his fangs, who knew what erotic thrills awaited if she put her mouth on other parts of his body?

  He kissed a path down the side of her jaw and neck. When she felt his breath warm on her throat, a teeny, tiny twinge of self-preservation kicked in.

  She raised her head and smiled down at him. “Your eyes haven’t changed, just your teeth.”

  He smiled back at her. “I’m hanging on to my control, sweetheart, but it’s tough.”

  Was she weird for finding the implied threat of those fangs sort of a turn-on? Maybe she wouldn’t write about this scene in her article. “So sexual excitement triggers the change?”

  May as well keep busy while she asked questions. Kristin sat up and then grabbed the bottom of his T-shirt. He obliged by lifting his torso so she could pull the shirt over his head. Then she scooted down his prone body so that when she leaned over, she had full access to that incredible chest. She sampled one nipple with the tip of her tongue. His groan was all she could hope for.

  “Making love in vampire form takes the whole experience to another level.” He seemed to be having trouble wrapping his tongue around his words. No wonder, considering how hard his tongue had just worked.

  “In other words, you have to bite someone to achieve complete sexual satisfaction.” Why was she talking? She had better things to do with her mouth—she ran her fingers lightly over his broad chest—and her hands.

  “Uh-huh. But don’t worry. I’ve had centuries to learn control. You’re safe.” He reached up to slide the straps of her top off her shoulders.

  Too bad. Kristin blinked. That thought had surprised even her. No, definitely didn’t want him attaching himself to her neck with those shiny fangs. Teeth in neck would be a major owie.

  Taurin pulled her top down to her waist and with what had to be an amazing feat of preternatural speed, whipped off her bra. It was her turn to groan as he rolled her nipples between his fingers.

  Focus. They were losing control. Heeere, control, control. She was letting them get out of control. In fact, she was a major contributor to their out-of-control state.

  Before she could decide a wise course of action, he pulled her down until he could reach her breasts with his mouth. He circled each nipple with the tip of his finger, and then drew the first one into the heat of his mouth. And by the time he’d worked his magic on both with his teeth and tongue, she was whimpering.

  To hell with being wise. She was planted on top of his erection. What was the old truism—use it or lose it? Made a whole lot of sense to her.

  Reaching down, she fumbled with the buttons on his jeans. “It’s summer. Aren’t you hot in jeans?”

  “I’m hotter without them.” To demonstrate, he reached down to help her with the buttons, and then slid them off along with his shorts.

  Ohmigod! So long, so thick, so hard, so wonderful. Every sexual cell in her body contracted into a tight ball of want. He was temptation on a scale not seen since Eve ate that blasted apple. In fact, if Taurin had done the tempting, Eve would’ve shaken every apple from that tree and taken them all home to make applesauce.

  Kristin had knelt up to give him room to shuck his jeans, but now she couldn’t help herself, she lowered herself onto his erection and ground herself into him. He pressed between her spread legs and only her shorts and panties kept her from impaling herself on him.

  His control must’ve been slipping fast because his eyes grew larger and darker with that telltale slant. But there wasn’t any room in her sex-clogged brain for fear.

  He half-sat and then reached behind her to slip his hands under her shorts and panties. He cupped her cheeks and kneaded with deep, firm strokes.

  The waist of her shorts wasn’t up to the strain of a pair of male hands stretching it to its limit. The button holding the shorts closed popped off and rolled across the floor. Who needed buttons anyway?

  A diver had replaced the octopus at the sub’s window. Who cared? A whole team of Navy SEALs could be staring in for all she cared.

  Suddenly Taurin abandoned his kneading and collapsed back onto the floor. He rested the back of his hand across his eyes. “Damn, damn, damn.”

  “What?” Why was he lying down on the job? Her heart was racing, and she was wet with the anticipation of him sliding deep inside her.

  “No protection.” His disappointment was a harsh groan.

  She stared down at him, outrage out of all proportion to his crime narrowing her eyes. “How could you forget? You can read minds. You can move at the speed of the mail bringing my credit card bills to me, for heaven sake.”

  Wait. She blinked. Wasn’t she supposed to be mad at him? She could’ve sworn that he was a yucky slug. Kristin just couldn’t remember why.

  Glancing away from Taurin, she tried to rein in her runaway emotions and sexual want. Her gaze slid to the sub’s large window. The diver had left. She stared. Something else had taken his place. It was big, and white, and had lots and lots of sharp teeth. And the laughter gleaming in its dark fishy eyes was all too human.

  “Umm. I think Banan is trying to get our attention.” Keeping her gaze fixed on the shark, she reached for her top and slipped into it. She stuffed her bra down the back of her shorts.

  “Banan?” Taurin sat up partway and supported himself on his elbows as he twisted to stare at the window. He snarled at the shark. “That’s not water outside the window, so he’s standing there in human form while he projects his shark image to us. I’ll kill him.”

  “He can do that?” Once again the awesome powers of the beings she’d met so far boggled her mind.

  “Evidently.” Taurin sat the rest of the way up. “We’re not seeing the shark with our eyes. We’re seeing it up here.” He tapped his forehead.

  Kristin glanced back at the window. Sure enough, Banan in human form
was standing there waving at them. Suddenly, she realized where her bottom was planted and slid off Taurin. He reached for his jeans.

  Without even a warning knock, someone lifted the hatch, and Saffron leaped through the opening. He took in everything at a glance and then padded over to Taurin. “Tell me you weren’t on the bottom. Real men do it on top.”

  Fury rolled off Taurin in waves. Kristin didn’t need any superpowers to feel it. She clambered to her feet and edged away from Saffron. One didn’t stand near a tree about to be chopped down, because you never knew where it would fall.

  “Real cats know when they’re about to lose one of their nine lives and run like hell.” Taurin lifted his lips away from fangs that looked a lot scarier now that Kristin wasn’t in a sexual frenzy.

  Saffron seemed to realize that maybe his entrance had been a little precipitous. Every hair on his fluffy white body stood on end, and his tail puffed up to twice its normal size. He looked like a furry snowball.

  “Hey, man, I was just riding to your rescue. You were in here a long time, and the hatch was locked from inside. Everyone was worried that maybe something had happened to you guys.”

  “And everyone was?” Kristin was with Taurin on this. If she had fangs, she’d be flashing them.

  “Uh, I guess Banan and me. Real men act when they think someone’s in danger, so we decided to make sure you didn’t need saving.” Saffron backed toward the open hatch. “Banan said he’d look in the window, and I opened the hatch. Locks don’t stop me.”

  Taurin was in full furious-vampire form. He hissed at Saffron. “You both wanted to see what you could see. Okay, satisfied? Question, cat, who’s going to save you?”

  “I’ll take him off your hands.” Asima poked her aristocratic head through the hatch. “Oh, I left your scarf in your room, Kristin.” There was a brilliant white flash of light, and both cats were gone.

  A quick glance assured Kristin that Banan was also gone. She thought about turning her back while Taurin dressed, but decided she’d be better served by getting her last big hit of his magnificent bare body.

  Because now that her heartbeat had slowed and her breathing was kind of normal, she realized what she’d almost done. The scary part? She regretted the “almost” part. Her mind knew that any involvement with Taurin Veris was bad news, but her body wanted what it wanted, and that was that. She was in trouble.

  “I guess a better man would say he was sorry that happened.” His smile was slow, wicked, and totally sensual. “Guess that’s not me.”

  Guess that wasn’t her, either. She was doing a great job of compartmentalizing. What he’d done to her career still outraged her—even though she understood the why of it—but that didn’t keep her from wanting to be with him, and she definitely still wanted his body. At what point would the wall between the two compartments spring a leak, and would the resulting mix freeze into a block of ice or go up in flames?

  Kristin sighed. She was betting on the flames. “So what will I take away from this for my article?” She climbed from the sub and then waited for Taurin to join her. “You never finished the story about the woman and the three guys.”

  He walked beside her back toward the castle. No way was she going on to another attraction with her bra stuck down the back of her shorts.

  “After their time in the sub was up, only the woman came out.” Taurin glanced at her and smiled. “The park employee in charge of the attraction went into the sub to see what had happened.”

  “And?” Kristin hoped the punch line to this story was great, because she needed something fantastic to make up for her sexual frustration tonight.

  “The three men were chained to the instrument panel.”

  “Whoa.” This was good stuff.

  “Naked.”

  “Wow, bet they were embarrassed.” Kristin couldn’t wait to get back to her room so she could write this up.

  “Don’t think so. They were all smiling.”

  And as Taurin held the door of the castle open for her, she tried not to think of his bare muscular body chained to her very own instrument panel.

  Chapter Six

  “So, how are things going?” Sparkle perched on the stool behind her candy counter. She crossed her legs as she stared at Deimos, who was nervously rubbing the top of his shiny shaved head.

  Her nails were perfect, her shoes were perfect, her dress was perfect, and she was perfectly bored. She missed the challenge, the excitement of meddling in the sexual lives of the people around her. But Deimos had to do this himself, hence, no meddling.

  Maybe he’d fail miserably, and then she’d step in to save the day. The thought cheered her right up.

  Deimos abandoned his head to lean casually against the candy counter. He was trying hard to look calm and in control, but Sparkle recognized the trapped-rabbit look in the way his gaze skittered around the store.

  Sparkle smiled. Good. If Kristin and Taurin had already had sex, Deimos wouldn’t be nervous. As soon as he got up the courage to tell her he’d screwed everything up, she’d graciously offer to take over the operation. He’d be childishly grateful to her. Life would be good again.

  Deimos finally met her gaze, and she didn’t like what she saw there. He looked almost defiant. She scowled.

  “Everything’s under control. I’m working it. See, I remembered what you said about sexual tension.”

  Amazing. Something she’d said had actually sunk in. “Uh-huh. And you’re using that info how?”

  “The beach party’s tonight. Kristin and Taurin have done a fantasy every night this past week. But each time they’ve gotten close to making love, Saffron or Banan has interrupted them. Once they tried to hole up in her room, but Banan pulled the fire alarm. Nothing like a fire alarm to get a vamp out of the mood.” He grinned at the memory. “They’re so hot for each other I can smell the fire.” Deimos waved his arms to give her a leaping flames visual.

  “And?” Sparkle was intrigued in spite of herself.

  “Well, tonight will be the night they finally do it. I mean, this will be one sexy beach party. They have so much pent-up sexual energy that it’ll just explode.”

  “Interesting.” Sparkle thought about how she could impact the party’s sexual energy in her own small way. “Oh, and get over the ‘making love’ thing. They’re having sex. Love doesn’t have anything to do with it.”

  Deimos looked thoughtful for a moment. “No, I think you’re wrong. They really like each other. Oh, Kristin still thinks she’s mad at him because of what he did to her career, and he still thinks she’s all about the story, but I almost think they’re in love. Go figure.”

  “Hmm.” Surprise, surprise. It took a lot of guts to tell Sparkle Stardust she was wrong. He might make a worthy cosmic troublemaker after all. “How have Kristin and Taurin reacted to all those interruptions?”

  Deimos frowned for the first time. “Taurin said he’d tear out someone’s throat if either Saffron or Banan showed up again. Kristin said she suspected a mastermind behind this whole thing, because it seemed orchestrated to her. She threatened to use her investigative skills to ferret out the one in control.”

  “Not good.” Sparkle tapped one perfect nail on the glass top of her counter. “But they’ll be too busy thinking about each other tonight to worry about anything else. Just out of curiosity, how’d you convince Saffron and Banan to play your game?”

  Deimos fixed his gaze on a spot somewhere above her head. “I promised them a date with you.”

  “Excellent. I like it when you show initiative because . . .” She stopped tapping her nail. “You what?”

  He rushed into his explanation. Deimos knew when death was a hair’s breadth away. “They both think you’re hot, and really really admire your . . . mind. All they want is one date so they can explore . . .” Deimos’s creative
lying powers finally deserted him.

  “I know what they want to explore.” She studied him with narrow-eyed intensity.

  Sparkle didn’t like the idea of being the prize in this particular game, but she had to admit that Deimos had shown a certain amount of flair and ingenuity. And courage. Lots of courage. Because he knew exactly what could happen if he pissed her off.

  “A date, huh? Banan is a sexy guy, so I won’t mind exploring possibilities with him. Saffron’s a cat of a different color though. I don’t have a clue what he looks like in human form. I do know he’s got this thing about men being the dominant sex.” She knew her smile was a wicked twist of her lips. “Maybe a date with Saffron would be fun. I can teach him sooo much about women.”

  Deimos’s expression said he wouldn’t trade places with Saffron even for the chance to be an action hero.

  “Go do your thing.” Sparkle waved him toward the door.

  Once he’d left, she studied her nails for a long time. She always did her best thinking while contemplating her nails or a new pair of shoes.

  Finally she looked up and smiled. Deimos would have the glory tonight, but she couldn’t resist adding a little twist to the end of the story.

  Sparkle picked up her cell phone and punched in a number. Tonight would be spectacular. “Let the games begin.”

  Kristin stood on the beach wondering when exactly during the past week she’d been flung into an alternate universe. She glanced up at the night sky. Yep, that full moon looked like her world’s moon. She lowered her gaze to the silver-tipped waves rolling onto the beach. Sure looked like the Gulf of Mexico to her.

  Then she turned her attention to the man walking toward her across the sand. Nope, he definitely wasn’t part of her world’s reality, because in the reality she knew, she’d never fall in love with a vampire.

  Why had it happened? Sure he was gorgeous, but it had to be something more to shift the whole thing from lust to love. They’d talked a lot. They’d argued and laughed together. And when she’d told him she’d found a clue to his brother’s whereabouts, she’d gotten all teary-eyed at his excitement.