by Sharon Page
He had to arch his head back as the ropes pulled tight. God, he really was her captive. She could tug on that cord around his balls and hurt him in an instant. The risk made this damned arousing. He had to do exactly what he’d asked of her. He had to trust her.
And she was being wicked on him. She moved her hips up and down so slowly it was sheer agony, then bounced hard and fast and took his breath away. She was so sweet and tight and he was drowning in the hot silkiness of her. He gritted his teeth, willing himself not to come. He wanted this to last forever.
The moment he climaxed he was lost.
She was trying to drive him mad. She put her arm beneath her breasts, which plumped them into large, full globes. With each bounce on his cock, her bosom bounced against her arm. Her nipples bobbed.
His face must have revealed how mesmerized he was. She cupped her breasts, her bounty spilling over her hands. He fought not to spill himself.
Then she got off his cock and scrambled up. His heart raced. She moved along his body, her richly scented cunny coming closer and closer to his mouth. Then she was there, her glistening pink nether lips just out of reach. He strained up to lick her, suckle her, eat her, but she swung her leg over him. Escaping.
Suddenly she tugged at the knots she’d tied, struggling to undo them.
Flower, I was enjoying that.
She winked saucily. “So was I. But for what I want to do now, you must be free.”
What could it be? He growled in lusty anticipation. He jerked his arms apart swiftly and the cord snapped. Then he undid the one around his balls.
Vivi rolled onto her tummy, so her rounded derriere stuck up in the air. I want you to … to go inside my bottom.
Even in his thoughts, her voice was shy.
You really want me to do that? he asked softly. We played before with the dildos….
And I liked it. But this time I want it to be your cock deep inside me.
22
Her words made his prick buck and swell. The rush of blood to his eager, aching cock left Heath dizzy. Vulnerable. He could feel his heart open as Vivienne bit her lip and gazed at him with trusting, bottomless blue eyes.
She lay on her stomach and rested her cheek on the counterpane so she could watch him. Loose and free, her golden hair rippled down her back, reflecting the yellowing light of the sun around the room. And slowly, she parted her legs in invitation. She was so beautiful, he had to take a moment and savor the sight.
But she wriggled her rump on the bed, and cried, “Please, now! I can’t wait any longer.”
His heart was a tight ball in his throat. He couldn’t wait. He knew he wouldn’t be able to resist coming now.
But even knowing what he was, what he was destined to become, Vivi trusted him. The way she moaned and lifted her derriere to him was proof. Light spilled behind him. It didn’t touch his exposed skin, but the glow illuminated her curves—the little dip of her lower back, the rise of her voluptuous bottom, the sleek lines of her legs.
She was perfect. In every way. Outside and in. Then she arched her bottom up and turned it in a circle. Heath stared, his throat dry, as she slid her hand down between her legs. Her fingers plied between her glistening lips. Her gasp meant one thing: she was stroking her clit. She was comfortable enough to play with herself with wanton abandon in front of him.
His heart thundered as though he were a nervous virgin. He could feel his cock pulsing with each heartbeat. But this time, each surge of blood into his cock ignited his hunger for blood. Lust was launching his transformation. His fangs were longer. They’d lengthened like his prick.
He should leave her now. Go stand in the sunlight and die. But he wanted to share this—this incredible, intimate moment with her—before he did.
He could control the curse for long enough to pleasure her. And, he prayed, long enough for Vivi to escape this room.
He licked his index finger, soaking it with his saliva, then stroked gently between her cheeks and found her tight little anus.
Vivi squirmed beneath him in pleasure and her hair fell away from her neck. He couldn’t stop staring at the long, pale column. His fangs exploded forward.
No. Hell, no. This was about sex, not blood. He might be a vampire, but at the core, he was still a man. He wanted Vivi, he wanted his cock inside her, and he wanted to make her come.
Slowly, he manipulated her with his fingers. And she moaned for him. She held her cheeks apart so his finger would finally pop in past the firm ring of her anus. The sight of her fingers gripping her arse, pulling the cheeks open … it had his legs feeling as weak as feathers. She did this to him. She humbled him. She made him vulnerable with desire.
I think I will burst into flames if you don’t do it now, she whispered in his thoughts. I love you. I want to be with you forever. But this is … I need you right now!
Indeed, he answering teasingly. And I need you. He took hold of his cock and pushed the head against her entrance. Her plump cheeks surrounded his shaft with heat. He sucked in a sharp breath. And eased forward.
She groaned desperately and pulled her cheeks wide again.
He glimpsed her anus—tight, pink, furled, and oh so small. Could he go inside her? He knew he could, but he feared hurting her. Holding his shaft tight, he pushed again, but gently. She opened for him. Enough that he felt the pop, then the scorching grip of her muscles.
God god god …
Her fingers worked her clit with fast, hard strokes. He withdrew until he was almost out, then slowly thrust again. Another inch of his cock plunged into fire and pressure.
She moaned and lifted her rump up to him. Together they worked, until he was buried all the way inside her. His pubic hair brushed her bottom, his groin collided with plump cheeks, and his every thrust set their voluptuous bounty quivering.
She arched up to him, gasping, her face blushed pink. Her hand worked madly. Her mouth opened on a silent scream. She came like that, jerking beneath him, crying out without words.
Her bottom surged up, taking him deep, and her muscles pulled at him, gripped him, stimulated him beyond belief. He shut his eyes. Make it last….
It was his last thought before his body ignited. A fireball of pleasure swirled around his heart and shot down to his cock. Heat rushed through his jerking shaft, and he knew it was his cum jetting out.
His arms buckled with the intensity of his pleasure. He dropped, but caught his weight on his elbows. He withdrew his cock. Fighting his hunger, he kissed Vivi’s flushed neck. She tasted salty and sweet.
He tore off some of the sheets to clean her derriere, and he did it with infinite care. Droplets of his cum rested on her bottom. He swiped those up.
Vivi didn’t speak; she was gasping for breath. But suddenly, she arched up, and rolled over on her side, peering at him. “Heath …”
His back tensed. His spine arched and his body began twisting and stretching on its own. The heat of orgasm was swamped by a burning fire inside him, by the agony of his body writhing and changing, twisting and distorting.
His right arm jerked beyond his control. Snap! The sickening sound filled the room. His shoulder joint had pulled out as his muscles lengthened and stretched apart. With a howl, he grabbed his limp arm, then pushed his arm back in.
“Get out, Vivi. You have to get out of here. I don’t know what I’ll do while I’m changing. I don’t want to hurt you.” He tumbled off the mattress, scrambled back to the wall, still in shadow, away from sunlight.
Vivienne struggled to sit up. It was happening now. Pressed against the shadowed wall, Heath was changing. But why? Hadn’t that been enough to open his heart?
“Vivi, get away.” His voice was hoarse. His body twisted and writhed so viciously, she wanted to be sick. He slid down the wall, his eyes shut, his face contorted. “I love you. I don’t want anything to hurt you.”
“I love you, Heath. And I’m not going anywhere.” She hurried to his side. He rolled away from her, his back facing her. His spine buck
led and popped beneath his skin.
Break the curse, she thought feverishly. Love me. Open your heart. Believe. Believe.
Hope. Faith. Trust. All the emotions she had tried to tamp down, all the ones Heath had resurrected in her. They were alive in her now, like a snapping, crackling flame. And she knew he needed to embrace them, too.
But it wasn’t working. He had said he loved her. He had wanted to push her away to keep her safe because he truly did care about her. Why wasn’t it enough?
Nikolai had wanted to punish him, to make him pay for Ariadne’s death. No, the curse had been designed so he could never truly have love. How could he win a woman’s heart if he could only make love to her once, then was forced to leave? Perhaps he didn’t have to accept love. Perhaps the key to the curse was not that he had to fight it. What if love triumphed in spite of it? What if, despite the curse, he won a woman’s heart?
Perhaps the curse had not been broken because she had told him she loved him, but she hadn’t proven she had given her heart to him. How did she do it?
Her blood had healed him before. Could her blood heal him now? Take away the curse that controlled him? But before, he had barely been able to stop taking her blood.
What if she had to lay down her life to save him? Was she willing to do it? She would have to leave Sarah. But she would save Heath and she knew he would protect Sarah. She knew she could trust him with the most precious person in the world. Was that not proof of love?
She rushed to Heath, where he was writhing on the floor. His spine had distorted and large lumps jutted against the skin of his back. His body was larger. He was growing and stretching and the pain must be excruciating. She pressed her bare wrist to his mouth. Then she shut her eyes tight, winced, and tore her wrist along his fangs. The tips were so sharp, they easily sliced into her skin.
Vivi, no.
She heard Heath’s desperate shout in her head, but ignored it. Her blood was flowing.
She had faith he would not kill her. She trusted him to break the curse and to survive. She hoped—and she held hope in her heart the way she’d held Sarah as a baby, with tender, nurturing care. For she would never let the flicker of hope wither and die. Not again.
Without it, she could not live.
The sensation of him suckling at her wrist made her moan. She had to lie down on the carpet beside him. It wasn’t the loss of blood; it was the dizzying pleasure rushing through her.
And she didn’t hope anymore. She knew. She knew what love was. This was it. And she knew her future promised to be filled with love….
Vivi’s blood spilled on his tongue. Heath swallowed hard, tasting the familiar coppery tang but also her unique flavor. Her blood tasted of cinnamon, vanilla, and something earthy and sweet and special to her.
She shouldn’t have done this.
She’d done it to heal him. But a curse wasn’t a wound….
Christ, he understood: he had the curse because of his wounds. She was trying to heal a soul he didn’t have. He had to stop drinking her blood. But he couldn’t. His body was expanding, his mind shutting down. Her blood triggered his most basic senses, and he craved more with a fierce hunger he’d never known before.
His eyes, covered with a red film, struggled to focus. She lay beside him. Her lids were dropping shut. She wasn’t moving. And her arm flopped lifelessly against his mouth.
He was killing her.
Damn this curse. He was not going to let anything stop him from saving Vivienne. His body screamed with the need to keep drinking, but he fought it. He eased his teeth from her wrist and held her limp hand. Already, her skin felt cold. Pure terror ran through his veins. With a howl of fury and defiance, Heath lifted his wrist to his mouth and slashed through his skin with his fangs.
Every instinct howled at him to push her away. Not to protect her, but to leave her, so he could hunt and kill. It was the demon inside him, taking control.
But he struggled to quell it. He got to his knees beside her, his changing body wracked with pain. He pressed his wrist to her lips.
Nothing happened. Her lips didn’t move. She didn’t suck. She didn’t try to take his blood.
Dear God, don’t let me kill her. Let her live.
The miracle happened then. Slowly, Vivienne started to drink.
He cradled her against his chest as she did. His unwieldy hands, now tipped with claws, struggled to push the damp hair from her face.
Before his eyes, the claws began to recede. His hands twitched and throbbed as the sharp talons shrank back inside, but he kept his wrist to Vivienne’s lips. She needed enough to heal. Far more than he’d given Sarah. It would be enough to change her, transform her into a vampire, but she would be safe and she would live forever.
His back twisted with a jolt so sharp, he almost let Vivi go. But he refused to release her; he refused to hurt her. His spine buckled, then began to shrink.
Was he really changing back from demon to vampire? He couldn’t let himself dare hope it was true.… No, the hell with it, he was going to hope all he wanted. Hope she would survive. Hope for their safety. Hope for a future with Vivienne and Sarah.
“Ow.” Vivi moaned softly. “I feel odd….” Her eyes blinked open and the two most beautiful, most sapphire blue, most sparkling eyes stared up at him. “Heavens, I feel. I’m alive, and you are, and you’re not a demon. And that is the most important thing of all.”
He gathered her into his arms, resting his chin lightly on top of her tangled hair. She smelled of sweat, of pleasure, of blood. And his smell was imprinted on her. It flowed through her veins now, marking her. Making her his. But once he told her what he’d done to save her, would he lose her forever? “Vivi, I have to admit something to you. I did something to save you that I had no right to do without asking….”
She had been horrified to discover she was a succubus, and now he had made her into a vampire. He’d condemned her to an existence where she had to do much worse than have sex to steal a soul. Now, she would crave blood as he did. And she would either hunt mortals, or have to endure the endless struggle against her new nature.
He’d saved her without thinking of the consequences, because he loved her so damn much.
He held her, knowing it would be the last time. He kissed her cheek, her lips, the tip of her nose, her forehead, taking every kiss he could, storing them away in his heart.
“Heath, what is wrong? Are you still changing? You look like you are sick with fear—”
“I gave you my blood,” he said abruptly. “When you offered me your blood, I took it. It stopped my transformation, but I took too much….” For eternity, she would hate him for what he’d done. “Vivi, I almost killed you. Dear God—”
“But you stopped. You controlled yourself. Heath, it means you did not become a demon.” She squared her shoulders. “You never let the curse take control of you. Even as your body changed, in your heart you were still the honorable gentleman I love.”
Her words hit his heart like blades. “I had to give you my blood to save you, Vivi. I am so damn sorry, but it was the only way. You would have died otherwise.”
She stared at him so innocently, he wanted to tear his own heart out. She didn’t understand.
He cupped her cheeks. Gruffly, he said, “It means I’ve turned you. I’ve made you into a vampire.”
She nodded. Her large blue eyes held his, still filled with love. “I knew I risked dying when I gave you my blood, Heath, but you didn’t kill me. You saved me.”
Christ. “Vivi, you don’t understand. I’ve made you into a vampire like I am. You will have cravings for blood, and you will either have to spend eternity fighting them or you have to feed from people. And I know you would never want to do that. You can never go out into the sun again.”
She would never stroll with Sarah in the sunshine again. Never take her daughter shopping, or to Gunter’s for flavored ices, or even to Brighton to see the sea. In his mind, he pictured Meredith running to him across a
lawn drenched in summer sun. That was the most beautiful memory of his life, and he’d ached for a decade because he would never experience those feelings again: the caress of the warm light, the smell of flowers and afternoon breezes, the way his daughter looked when sunlight sparkled in her eyes. Now he had stolen Vivienne’s chance to fill her life with moments like those.
“I gave you survival, but I’ve cost you so much—”
Vivi pressed her hand over his mouth. “Heath, I was already a demon. You haven’t taken things from me, you’ve given me so much. You’ve given me love. You saved my life.” Her gaze slowly caressed him, setting his skin aflame in its path. “Thank heavens, your body has returned to normal. You look … well, like you.”
“Is that a good thing, love?”
“You are the most wonderful sight I have ever seen—next to Sarah when she was born.”
His heart swelled large enough to burst in his chest. “You broke the curse, Vivienne.”
“We broke the curse. Don’t you understand? We have found love, something I thought I would never have. You have given me a treasure I could never have dreamed of having.”
He lifted her, though his legs wobbled, his bones ached, and his muscles felt as though they’d been stretched like rubber and snapped back. He rested his forehead against hers. His eyes burned, tears gathering at the corners. He remembered Sarah’s teasing words that vampires were not supposed to cry. But a soft tear rolled down Vivienne’s cheek, and it dripped to her smiling lips. And he had to blink one from his eyes. Apparently, vampires could cry—for happiness.
He took an unsteady step toward the bed, intending to place Vivi there so she could rest, when the window of the room flew up with such force, the glass shattered. The drapes snapped back and four black shapes flew in.
The council was finally here.
Vivienne screamed as winged creatures landed on the carpet in the bedchamber. At once, Heath set her down behind him. He moved with his amazing speed, draped her robe over her shoulders, and stood in front of her once more.