Dead After Dark

by Sherrilyn Kenyon

  She pulled at the end of his cravat. The knot unraveled and she stripped it from around his neck. There were the two bites she'd left from yesterday, already healing. He was strong, this one. She opened the button at his collar. He was undoing the buttons at his waistcoat. She pulled the shirt out of his breeches and worked at the buttons at his cuffs. So many buttons . . . He pulled it over his head. Ah, yes. The light dusting of hair, the tanned nipples, peaking now in anticipation. She rubbed her hands over his pectoral muscles. All those years of hard work at sea had left him . . . impressive. He was pulling at the buttons on his breeches. She pushed him back against the bed, and he let her.

  "Let me pull off your boots." She was stronger than he was, though she couldn't let him know that. They slid off as though they were loose.

  He didn't seem to notice, but pushed his breeches over his hips as she stripped off his stockings. His erection, freed, hung between them. She stood and let the tip rub against her belly as she moved her hands over his shoulders. The ridges of his scars almost broke her heart.

  Surprise replaced the lust in his eyes, followed immediately by chagrin. He reached for his shirt. "I forgot myself. I . . . have scars which would be distasteful to a lady."

  "I saw them last night." She took the shirt gently and tossed it on the floor.

  "You're sure," he said doubtfully.

  She nodded, suppressing a smile, and pulled his neck down. Heat flashed back into his eyes. She thought his kiss would be fierce with the need she felt in him. But he brushed his lips across her forehead, down her temples. Tiny kisses he placed on her cheeks, even as he slipped her dress from her shoulders. She pressed her breasts to his bare body, her own breath coming harder, and he found her lips. She licked his with the tip of her tongue. She felt his surprise and then he opened her mouth and deepened the kiss, probing her with his tongue. How she loved kissing. She had never kissed the Aspirants. In some ways it was more intimate even than intercourse. Kissing him was some signal that this was different than all that mechanical arousal she had engaged in to train the Aspirants and develop their power.

  She slipped the clasp of her girdle, and it fell with a metallic jingle to the carpet. Her dress floated after it. It was just their naked bodies, hers wet and soft, his hard. His arms slid around her, even as his kisses made her almost dizzy with desire.

  He stiffened when her palms caressed the ridges on his back. She didn't stop, just continued kissing him while she rubbed her hands down over his buttocks and cupped them, pressing his groin against her, rubbing herself against his erection.

  "What do you call your man part?" she asked. She had not been out of Mirso in so long and she didn't want to seem strange.

  He drew away, smiling, puzzled. "My . . . my cock, I suppose. It's a good Saxon word."

  "Then may I say, Drew Carlowe, that I would like to pay special attention to your cock for the next few hours."

  My God, Drew thought, the woman might not be a ghost, but she was certainly a witch. Special attention for a few hours? He might just die.

  "Only if I may pay special attention to you," he murmured, sweeping her up into his arms. The accent was incredibly sensual, along with everything else about this woman. He laid her on the bed. Her petite form was perfect; her breasts peaked with delicate, dusky-colored nipples. And her skin was the most translucent, creamy perfection he had ever seen, almost as though it had never seen the sun. Her scent was erotic, cinnamon and ambergris mixed with a woman's musk. And the vibrancy he always felt around her seemed to find the life force inside him and pluck it like a string, so he vibrated in sympathy. He crawled up after her and laid himself beside her. He was almost painfully erect, his cock straining against her hip.

  "We will go slowly," she whispered as she turned into him. Her tongue snaked out and licked his nipple. "So that you have the maximum amount of pleasure." Her hand cupped his balls and lifted, gently massaging the stones inside across each other. He groaned. It slid up along his cock, softly, her thumb finding the drop of clear fluid at the opening and smoothing it across the head. He bent to her throat, which she bared to him. He kissed down the delicate column to the notch where her pulse beat and licked there. She was running one finger down the big vein in his erection, lightly. He wanted to scream the sensation was so acute. He buried his head in her breasts and found her nipple with his lips. He suckled, gently, and she arched to present him easier access.

  "Oh, Drew," she moaned. "You have the hidden talents."

  "You haven't seen the half of them." He slid his hand down to cup her mound. She was wet and ready. "I want you shrieking many times tonight."

  She opened her eyes, surprised. "I thought the Englishman, he wanted only to spill his seed without caring for the woman's pleasure."

  "What Englishmen do you know? That is not the way to entice a woman to your bed more than once."

  She gave a throaty chuckle. "You are most practical, Drew Carlowe." He slipped his finger inside her then drew her slickness over the nub that gave a woman pleasure. She hissed and clasped his cock firmly. She didn't rub it, thank God, or he wouldn't have been able to hold out. He rubbed her, though, even as he kissed her thoroughly. It was only moments before she was rocking against his hand and giving small yips of satisfaction as she coiled tighter and tighter. And then unwound, wailing.

  "Oh, dear man. You are very skilled," she breathed when it was done.

  "You were ready." But he was proud she thought him skilled.

  "I was ready last night. I have been ready all day. It has been torture." She raised herself on one elbow. "But I promised close attention to your cock and I have been shirking." She pushed him onto his back gently and stroked his hip. "Now, we are going to play a game."

  A game? He could feel his eyes widen. Her hand strayed to his cock.

  "Do not look at me so. You will like this game." She was right if it had anything to do with continuing exactly what she was doing to him now. He was having trouble getting his breath. "The game is that I play with your cock, and you try not to come." She looked up at him. "You say 'come'? Ejaculate."

  " 'Come' is fine," he gasped.

  "This will increase your pleasure. And if you think you cannot hold it, tell me."

  He jerked a nod. "Yes. Yes."

  She stroked him, her thumb pressing on the head as it slid up off the underside. He sucked in a breath. She scooted down. He was taken by surprise when he felt her tongue follow the trail her thumb had laid. "Where did you learn that?"

  "Shhhhh. Go within yourself. You feel the sensation, savor it." She licked again. "Held in the suspension of endless pleasure. You find your center, and you just . . . stay there."

  Would he disappoint her? Already the sensation was so intense he thought he might come. "What if I can't?"

  "You can." She left off with his cock in the nick of time and kissed his inner thigh. "We will rest periodically, and you will make me come, and then we will begin again. A virile man can remain hard for hours with practice. And you are a very virile man."

  How did she know these things? But he didn't have time to wonder, because now she was lying between his legs with her arms over his thighs. She pulled up his cock and her tongue swabbed along its length and flicked over the vein that fed it and she sucked very gently on the tip before she took the whole into her mouth and he felt the head rub against her throat. He thought he might die of sensation. He arched his hips up against her, groaning. She pulled away just in time, leaving him gasping. All the feeling in his body seemed to have pooled in his genitals. They had never been so hard, so needing.

  She stroked his body with her hands, making comforting, soothing sounds while he caught his breath. And then she began again. Off and on, and off again just as he was about to explode. It seemed she knew a man's body, his body, so thoroughly that she was in complete command of it. She hadn't learned that in a brothel. Brothels held women who went mechanically through the motions of pleasure without taking any pleasure in it themse
lves, or really caring about their partner's pleasure. Not this woman. She was perfectly attuned to him, as though they were connected somehow. Perhaps she was a courtesan, trained in some subtle way . . . Or perhaps their connection was even more elemental.

  God, she was starting again.

  He really was quite virile, this Drew Carlowe, she thought with satisfaction. Her reassurance to him had turned out to be true. It was good to put her talents to giving pleasure, not training men to be Harriers. The difference between work and pleasure. And she knew for certain she had been giving him pleasure for more than an hour. He was trying very hard. She could feel him focusing inward, finding his center. She had not yet had to help him hold himself with a little compulsion, but she could when it was necessary. He was a determined man. It was time for a longer respite, and that meant she would get another orgasm. She liked orgasms. It was one of the few benefits of slaving away to make Harriers at her father's command.

  She waited for the moment when he was just beginning to slide over his brink and pulled away. She wormed her way up toward his chest, kissing him lightly as she went, inhaling the scent of him. His cock was red and throbbing, lying swollen along his belly. He was covered with a light sheen of sweat, courtesy more of her efforts than the hot night.

  He gathered her into his arms. "You are a witch," he murmured, "a witch who deserves pleasure in return." She expected him to want to plunge his cock inside her. She'd definitely have to hold him with a little compulsion if he did that.

  He surprised her by simply holding her in his embrace, his cock hard and pulsing against her thigh. His hands moved over her body. The remains of calluses said he had once labored. A chink in the armor of the man he had created. She didn't mind. It occurred to her that he had made himself into what he was out of sheer determination, something she was unable to do. She didn't know who she was, apart from the maker of Harriers her father wanted her to be.

  He raised her chin from where she burrowed into his shoulder and kissed her with such slow tenderness it made tears spring to her eyes. It was . . . generous. In all the sex she had engaged in over the years, no one had ever shown her tenderness. She had been a tutor and a demanding one, no more. He worked her mouth open gently, and probed her thoroughly, all the time his hands moved over her, now rubbing her shoulders, now cupping her buttocks. The throb between her legs began to be almost painful. She had come quickly and very forcefully the first time--almost as soon as he began rubbing her. She had been too long without release. But this time he seemed determined to draw out her experience. She smiled into his mouth. Very well.

  She let him control the pace. That was new for her. Always before it was she who controlled, whether the Aspirant was the one receiving stimulation or it was her turn. It might be a matter of trust, this deciding to let him control. He suckled at each breast attentively. She wanted his cock thrusting inside her so badly she almost wanted to scream. But she did not. Why did she trust this man? Perhaps because he had written that letter. Perhaps because he had not seized her deed. He rolled her onto her back. But again he surprised her. He slid down between her legs, and she realized that he was going to reciprocate by using his mouth. The very thought made her squirm in anticipation. Who would have thought an Englishman knew how to do that?

  But he did. He opened her carefully and lapped across her moist tissues. How glad she was that she had bathed, earlier. He began to tease her point of pleasure with his tongue. She squirmed against him, and tangled her fingers in his hair. He brought her slowly but relentlessly toward climax. He began to hum some sailors' tune. The vibrations nearly sent her wild. His hands slid up to her breasts, and fondled her nipples as he began to suck in earnest.

  The orgasm, when it struck, was savage. It took her and shook her and made her roll her head convulsively from side to side as she shrieked and strained her hips toward his mouth. It broke over her, wave after wave of it, until her hips jerked away of their own accord and she collapsed into a pool of sensation that subsided only slowly.

  He crawled up beside her, wiping his mouth. She opened one eye and saw that he looked very satisfied with himself. She smiled. He should. She wasn't certain she had ever experienced an orgasm like that in all the many thousand thousands in her life. Was it because he was tender? Was it because she trusted him enough for some strange reason to open herself to the full impact of it? What he had done to her was more than just to give her pleasure. He had showed her an emotional closeness she had never known.

  That thought brought tears. It felt like a gigantic knot of tension had been released inside her, one that had been building over centuries. He must have felt her crying against his chest, for he rocked her, soothing. No one had ever done that for her. She wanted to give him something in return. She raised her head and smiled at him. It was time. She would love keeping him at the edge of insanity. The sexual act would be an act of giving, not demanding performance. She sat up and pushed him gently to his back. Then she straddled him. She wanted to feel him filling her. And now that she was sated, she could be attentive to just how long he could stand the strokes inside her. How long could he hold his release tonight? She was going to find out.

  It was the wee hours of the morning. But Drew wasn't tired. The hours of making love to this woman seemed to fill him with energy rather than drain him. He had brought her to release several times now. And he had held his in abeyance. That should have been onerous. But it wasn't. Even now she was caressing his cock as she sucked at one of his nipples. She was so skilled, the sensation so intense, he seemed to find some core of stamina that allowed him to appreciate the pleasure she gave him for what it was in the moment, not the orgasm it would bring. Several times he had felt that constriction in his testicles that came with lust unreleased. She seemed to sense it. Perhaps his balls tightened. Always she would massage them gently until the aching passed. Once or twice when he was on the brink of orgasm, her eyes seemed to glow red again. He was so centered in the moment he could not focus on the questions that raised. She would whisper, "Find your center," and he would regain control again.

  He had never felt closer to a woman. She was so generous, so attentive. He was only glad he could return the favor. She rolled on to her back, her breasts flattening, and opened her knees to invite him in. He hung on his elbows above her, positioned his cock.

  "Fill me. Please," she whispered.

  He sheathed himself in her wet warmth. She bit her lip in pleasure. He began to stroke in and out, slowly. He could do this. He went inside himself again, trying to get lost in the rhythm.

  Until she changed it. She wanted it faster now. "I'm not sure I can hold it," he panted.

  "Now is the time to stop trying," she breathed.

  He blinked. Now? Then he grinned. He repositioned himself so that his cock touched her on that spot that women liked the most, just in front of the entrance to her womb proper, and pumped in and out a few times to stimulate it. That made her open her eyes. They slapped together in delicious counterpoint. His loins were so tight, his genitals so heavy and sensitive, he thought he might burst. But he had to wait a little longer. Surely a woman as sensual as she was could reach ecstasy just once more tonight. He grabbed her buttocks as he knelt upright, his knees wide. She wrapped her legs around him. He plunged into her harder and harder, as if he could never get enough of her. He felt her begin to contract around him, and he let go.

  The explosion was like nothing he had ever felt. His seed pulsed into her, on and on, stripping him of all his fluids. His vision contracted to a single point of light. He could hear himself grunting from somewhere far away, a bass counterpoint to her shrieks.

  They both collapsed, finally, nothing left of themselves to share. He cradled her against his body. This most sexual of experiences had felt almost . . . spiritual. He'd started tonight as one kind of person--alone, inviolate, sure of his purpose. And he'd ended as someone else, a man who needed someone else.

  He'd never needed Emily, except as rev
enge on her father. He'd never even known her. He'd certainly never loved her. He knew that now. But this woman, with whom he'd shared only a few words, he knew with every fiber of his being.

  He just didn't know any facts about her. And now that he was not buried in the sensation of the moment, there were definitely questions.

  Well, he'd have to remedy that.

  4

  She snuggled against him. They had been drowsing together for a while, but he knew she was awake. He had been wondering where to start with his questions. His preoccupation with his mission to find Emily, the incredible sexual attraction they'd felt--all had distracted him and made his denial of those questions easy. But he could no longer ignore them. He would come round to red eyes and disappearing and the wounds at his neck. He was not frightened of her, not after tonight. But he could not dismiss them as mere tricks. He would start his questions with what had happened to him. What he really wanted was to know if she had experienced it, too. "I've never felt anything like that."

  She stretched and pressed her breasts against him. He thought she'd stripped every drop of semen from his body, yet still he felt a stirring in his loins.

  "Good," she said, her mouth softening into a smile.

  "What . . . what was that?"

  "The closeness we felt?"

  We. He nodded, brushing his lips across her hair. She had felt it, too.

  "It is the teaching of the Tantra. It comes from the Hindu, though Buddhists and Jains practice also."

  "They teach sex?" You could study sex? Apparently. She must have.

  "Well, more it is the meditation that they teach. They believe the physical is an expression of the divine. And physical acts can bring you closer to God. Like sex, if you do it correctly."

  "You do it correctly," he murmured, holding her close. Had she done this thing with others? To distract himself from that thought, he asked, "Will you tell me your name now?"