by Lauren Dane
All the spit in her mouth dried up and she had to clear her throat before speaking. “Yeah. Not busy at all. Totally free for any and all plans you might have for me.”
“Are you sure?” he teased. “I’ll have to be very careful with you.”
“Careful, yes. Gentle, no.”
He tried for stern until she licked her bottom lip.
“I’m in charge. This one time. This one moment. You will let me because we both got scared today,” Clive told her.
“Be fair now. Remember I’m not going to be as agile.”
He scoffed as he let go of his cock to undo his cuffs and then slide free from the shirt.
So beautiful. Rowan was sure she’d never tire of looking at him. Beneath all the tailored clothing he was all hard muscle and taut skin. Like most Vampires, he bore very few scars so there was little to mar the perfection of his form.
“When you look at me that way, I forget the game was for me to be in charge.”
“You start getting naked and I forget everything.”
“It’s nice to know something will keep you quiet.”
Rowan laughed, wishing she could dramatically whip off her shirt. He got all slow and stunned when he saw her tits. But the sling prevented it. Damn.
“Your shields are very good,” he said, sliding his pants and boxers off.
“What?”
His energy seemed to roll and caress over her skin as he hummed. So much in that sound.
So. Good. It rendered her muscles a trembling mass. Little spasms of pleasure.
Rowan slammed her shields into place once more, sucking in lungsful of air.
* * *
Clive reined it in a little, but he didn’t want her holding back. He knelt to pull her pants free, kissing up her calf to her left knee.
“You don’t have anything to fear from me. The bond is intense.” Everything he’d ever been told about it left Clive with some pretty high expectations of what it could be like between them if she ever truly gave him her blood.
And the strength of it still left him reeling. Nothing he’d ever felt could be a pale shadow of this thing between him and this warrior queen who lived in his life. No. Who shared his life.
On a totally new level.
“It’s supposed to be intense when it’s with that right person. Don’t start with that face of yours either. You can roll your eyes at the sentimentality of that statement, but it’s true nonetheless. It’s new for me too. We can do this together. Otherwise, if it’s just me, or just you trying it won’t work.”
“New for you how?” Her expression made him ache.
He went to his knees to pull her panties free.
“You just put those on me!”
“I put them on you hours ago knowing that after everyone left, I’d come to you, my wife, to take them off.”
Her breath stuttered a little.
“Contrary to what you might think, no one has ever been what you are to me. I’ve told you this before.” He nipped the unbruised part of her thigh.
“I’m relieved that whatever spell thing Genevieve did to get rid of the pain didn’t get rid of the pleasurable kind,” Rowan murmured. “I know you and I are... I’m not jealous of whoever you were with before me. But I know you’ve shared blood with lovers before. I guess I’m a little jealous that anyone got to feel like this with you.” Rowan’s blush charmed Clive, as it always seemed to whenever she allowed herself to be vulnerable around him.
He tugged down the top of the tank she wore, freeing her breasts. “I knew I’d be doing this too.”
Clive licked and bit her nipples until she let him in a little more. Her ability to keep herself locked down in the presence of Vampires had always impressed him. But now that she’d let him in, now that he’d fallen in love with her, darkness and all, he found it rather annoying when she used it with him.
“I’ve shared blood with lovers, yes. It’s quite common.” He shrugged. “I can’t deny the appeal of sharing pleasure that way. But until you, until today... This is all just as new and big and nearly overwhelming to me as it is you.”
Clive skimmed his lips over her jawline, inhaling her at the pulse point just beneath her ear.
“And I am jealous of whoever you were with before.” Clive let her feel it, coaxed her a little with kisses as he did.
“I know. You’re spoiled.” She ran her hand over his hair, digging her fingers in and yanking him up to her mouth. “I’m yours. No one who came before, and you know those numbers are paltry compared to yours, matters now.”
He took her mouth on that snarl, breathing in all her aggression. Branding her.
Her teeth caught his bottom lip, hard and fast, sending his pulse rocketing. She licked over the sting, wrapping her calves around his waist to haul him closer.
And then she opened up fully, let him in. The intensity of her emotions, the desire and pleasure drove him to tremble. Wisps of doubt, of fear wove through all that. Clive took note, but didn’t poke at them.
He wanted to. By god he wanted to shake them and kick them bodily from her heart. But that wouldn’t work. Not with this creature who burned so bright. He’d have to slowly siphon them away, replacing that space with all manner of pleasant memories.
He’d prove her wrong day by day.
She let herself fall into it. It would have been cowardly not to. After he’d revealed himself to her over and over it would have been a betrayal of what they had to not do the same.
“In me. Now,” she ordered, tightening her calves to keep him from escaping.
“I repeat. I’m in charge and I have plans. I’ll get there. I promise you. On my timeline.”
The thing about this bond between them was she knew how easily she could get him to shift those plans. Felt the swell of desire when she told him to fuck her right then.
Given the gleam in his eyes, she knew he had the same opportunity to know her triggers and buttons on a deeper level as well.
His fingers dug into her hips, keeping her from arching to rub herself all over him. Dipping his head, but keeping her gaze, he kissed down her side. Ever so gently over the healing bruises. Stopping at his thumb where it pressed into her flesh.
Rowan held her breath as he licked over her bare skin, down the crease where her leg met her body. And then she forgot she’d wanted him to fuck her immediately.
The moment she thought it, he smiled up at her, the rogue.
“I knew when you wanted me to make you scream even before I took your blood, darling,” he murmured against her before going back to those long slow licks.
There was no denying the truth of that statement. He did know her. And he stuck around. Sometimes despite her terrible lapses in good behavior.
More often because of them.
Shivers of delight roved all over her skin. He kissed, teased, licked and sucked until orgasm slammed into her hard enough to force his name from her lips on a wheeze.
And then he was back, pressing into her with one swift thrust as he picked her up.
He took her to the edge of the vanity in her closet where he balanced her ass.
He did that for her, to be sure she wasn’t crushed or hurt.
Through his lens she wasn’t perfect. But she was every bit as magnificent as he claimed she was.
Because no one made her feel that way, because he did it easily and without strings, she took his face in her uninjured palm. “I love you.”
Clive paused, chest heaving as her inner muscles clutched and fluttered all around him. He’d thought it would have been that embrace that would prove the greatest challenge to his control.
But it was the way she looked at him as she’d given him the words he knew didn’t come easily to her. The rush of emotion as she’d said them.
He w
anted to wallow in her, but his orgasm already had him in its grasp. Wanted to give her everything he felt for her. Knew, too, that it would be too much when she was still so raw. When this bond between them was still so new.
“Are you telling me that in thanks for finally putting my dick in you, as you so often like to term our lovemaking?” Clive arched his brow at her.
“I’m fucking charming, Scion.” She tightened her inner muscles around his cock until he grunted.
“Certainly talented with your cunt,” he managed to get out as he began to set a slow, deep rhythm.
Her surprised laughter brought more vibrations and muscle contractions through her and into him.
Clive kept a hand at the small of her back to keep her from getting any closer to the mirror at her back. He didn’t want her bumping her shoulder or elbow and making her injuries worse.
Rowan had managed to keep her calves wrapped around him so tight he kept deep. She rocked her hips a little, sending delicious friction between them.
“I love you too, you dangerous creature. My dangerous creature.” He kissed her, aiming for gentle, but Rowan took over, snarling, nipping at his mouth as he could do nothing else but devour her.
He rested his forehead against hers. “Darling, I think your health demands you come again.”
“For science?”
Her shaky laugh betrayed the cocky mask she’d given him. That and the tremble of her inner thighs where they pressed against his hips. She was hot and wet and he never wanted it to end.
But it had to, because he skated on the very edge and he wanted her to climax once more.
Clive slid his fingertip around her nipples before he moved to her clit. The next time he thrust, he ground himself against her. Squeezing just shy of pain.
A low moan tripped from her lips and the fingers she’d had in his hair tightened enough to sting.
Each thrust he did the same, over and over until there was nothing left to do but come.
At the sound of her name, she leaned forward enough to kiss him as she followed him, climax rippling like liquid fire around him. Hot enough to make him sweat.
“Now, it’s time for you to rest.” He picked her up again and took her into her bedchamber.
“But if I sleep now I won’t have any more time with you.”
One handed, Clive pushed the covers back enough to get her tucked under them. Then he arranged the pillows to keep her arm comfortable and settled on the opposite side.
“I’ll be insisting you cease this foolishness now.” He tucked carefully next to her. “Get that mutinous look out of your eyes, Rowan. I’m not teasing.”
“You’re not the boss of me,” she said but yawned at the end and he simply sighed, shaking his head.
“A man can only take so much in one day. I’ve had far too many moments of heartstopping terror at the thought of you being injured.” Or worse. “Rest or I’ll be quite vexed. You have a lot to do when you wake up. I’m not going anywhere. I have Scion business to attend to, as you might imagine. I’ll just be next door going over the materials we’ve gathered so far.”
“I promise to do my very best to get word to you of my whereabouts if I’m not here when you wake up,” she told him.
“I’d appreciate that.” He reached over to pick up his phone and read through his mail, not wanting to leave the room just yet. He wanted to be there until she was deeply at rest. Needed that reassurance she was doing what she needed to for recuperation.
That, and he loved to watch her when she was sleeping. She’d be embarrassed and probably annoyed by that knowledge so he never said anything. Asleep, the mask she wore was gone.
The intensity of her normal expression gone, it gave him the chance to look his fill. To study the swell of her bottom lip and the hollow at the base of her throat.
He craved seeing the dark smudges under her eyes erased. She’d be better after at least four or five hours sleep. He’d hope for longer, at least nine, but he’d happily take five.
So he didn’t move until she’d gone down deep into unconsciousness and even then, he kept his promise, and only got as far as the study just outside his bedchamber.
Chapter Twenty
Alice came in quietly, handing over a file. “This is everything we’ve got. Nadir will also phone in to the meeting to represent the Nation.”
Clive had expected that. Nadir was better to deal with than The First in his current state anyway.
“Is she all right?” Alice asked. “Shall I stay with her while you’re on the call?”
Clive tipped his chin in thanks. “She’s as fine as she can be given the circumstances. Some sleep will help.” And he’d know if she needed him now. Their bond was quiet because she was out. No bright flashes of upset or pain.
Given the location of each Scion across the globe, there was a very narrow window of time when they were all awake and able to phone in for a video conference.
Screen by screen, each one of them popped up, signing in and ready to confront—or so Clive hoped—the problems facing the Vampire Nation connected to—though not solely—the Blood Front Vampires and their foolish collaboration with the sorcerers the Conclave was now on the hunt for.
Clive got them up to speed, informing them all about what had transpired over the last several days. He included his intelligence about what the witches were up to.
He liked Genevieve for protecting Rowan. But he owed his allegiance to the Nation and that knowledge would protect his people without harming anyone in the Conclave.
“I don’t see the point in getting involved in this any further.” Tahar Emeleh, one of the other Scions gave a small shrug.
“We’re already involved in this,” Paola Castel replied. “The Blood Front opened the front door and these witches have made themselves at home.”
“And yet, if we stand back we can let Hunter Corp. take the weight of this and handle the problem. They’ll kill one another and we’ll be standing at the end, no matter which group is victorious,” Tahar said.
“That’s not realistic,” Paola said. “The times we live in mean we can’t simply ignore this. We’re honor bound to deal with this.”
“I don’t give a shite about honor when it’s not about Vampires.” Warren Farrelly, Scion of Europe, had been with them on their hunt across Europe for the Blood Front Vampires. He’d seen first hand the scope and depth of the real problem. “But the fact is, this is bigger than standing back and letting the humans and magic users handle the problem. They’re inside the Nation, these traitors to our people. That I give a shite about.”
“We can’t allow any more instability within the Nation. Things are tense enough as it is,” Clive said.
“We’re Vampires. We’ve lived a long time.” Tahar was one of the oldest among them. Their focus tended to be bigger, longer term. They fought the last wars. Had suffered loss to their lands and people through dark times.
As far as those like Tahar felt, the stability they’d enjoyed over the last several centuries had been due to being quiet and cautious. Part of that was true.
History and experience were important. But the world they lived in was vastly different than the one Tahar experienced. And that was detrimental because he had no real idea of the scope of media that constantly poised itself on the verge of exposing them to the human world.
“If you weren’t mated to a human you’d be less eager to defend them,” Tahar said, setting off a gale of laughter from Warren.
“Enough of this,” Warren managed once he got himself under control again. “We’re facing what looks to be some rogue magic practitioners with an agenda we don’t understand. Yet. We have bits and pieces and what we know for sure is that they’re behind not only the attacks on Hunter Corp. insiders like Rowan, but the Blood Front’s attempts to harm The Fi
rst and the Nation. We don’t have to make nice with anyone else to make sure we ferret out whoever is behind this. We’re sworn to protect the Vampire Nation. To sit back now would be to ignore that.”
Tahar growled but nodded. “I agree. But I urge caution. We need not borrow trouble.”
Clive rolled his eyes. In his mind. The face he showed the others hadn’t given the tiniest indication of his emotions on any subject.
“I take it Rowan is going to be front and center on this situation?” Warren asked.
She wouldn’t be the woman he adored if she didn’t get between the bad things in the world and those she felt bound to protect. That group continued to enlarge and he wondered if or when she’d ever reach a place she could step back and rest on her laurels a bit.
“It’s my belief Hunter Corp. has survived this sabotage and will emerge stronger than ever.” Rowan had burned away all the excess. Those who remained would make it a lean, finely honed machine with his wife at the helm. “Goddess help anyone who gets in her way on this.”
“Let them lead. You liaise.” Tahar waved a hand. “You can inform The First regarding these developments on our behalf.”
Nadir had been in the meeting the whole time so he’d already been informed. A sloppy thing for any of them to forget.
When no one objected to that, Clive spoke. “Very well.” Time was shortening, they needed to end the meeting very soon. “On the matter of my wife.” Clive got their attention again. “Rowan’s name will not spill from anyone’s lips in anything less than respectful terms if that speaker would not say the same to me.”
Clive let the weight of that grow a little heavier between them all before they ended the call.
Rowan was more than capable of defending herself, but he didn’t want her to always have to. Especially when these fools were envious of what was his anyway.
Alice sniffed delicately before allowing a smile. “I have details regarding the reception at the Keep next week.”
He took them because Rowan would set them on fire or hide them under a couch cushion or down the garbage chute. “Brief it.”
“He wants you to arrive in three days’ time. He’s going quite, how would Rowan say, ah, old school on this.”