“Thanks. But I’m fine.” I ran my fingers through my hair, suddenly aware of how horrible I must look.
Randal didn’t have to check on me, but I was glad that he had. Now maybe sleep would stay away awhile longer. If he happened to stay, then at least there would be someone to hear me cry out and wake me. My core tightened at the thought of having him spend the entire night with me. I was sure there were things we could do to make sleep become one of the farthest things from my mind.
“Good. I’m glad.” He crammed his hands into the front pockets of his slacks as an amused smirk twisted at his lips. “May I come in?”
“Oh, right. Yeah, come on in.” I stepped out of his way and motioned for him to enter. Why had it taken me so long to invite him in? The chagrin spreading over my cheeks only intensified his smug smile. He must know how flustered his sudden appearance on my doorstep made me. Great.
“Thank you.” As he stepped past me, the masculine scent of his cologne wafted to my nose, causing sparks of electricity to burst throughout my body and my heart to palpitate in my throat.
I closed the front door behind him and locked it, stalling until I had gained control over the embarrassment coloring my face as well as the emotions flickering through me. Gathering myself, I spun to face him. He was staring at me. His gray eyes swept over me as though there was nothing more mesmerizing in the world to him.
“Can I get you something to drink?” My voice was a breath of a whisper.
“Actually, I brought you something,” he insisted, his haunting stare never leaving me.
I lifted my eyebrows in silent question.
“I assumed after everything you have been through the past couple of days you might favor a chance to relax, unwind since it is too late now to leave for Georgia tonight.” Randal extracted a vial from the front pocket of his pants and held it out to me.
“What is it?” While I did trust Randal, I was still hesitant to take it from him, unsure of what it was.
In the exchange between us, the light in my living room hit the contents just right, allowing me to make out its vibrant red color. I knew then exactly what Randal had brought me—a Kiss of Death bomber. My heart pulsed in my throat as I stared at the ruby liquid.
“You don’t seem as happy as I imagined you would be.” Disappointment weighted his words.
“I didn’t expect you to stop by tonight, let alone for you to bring me one of those.” I glanced at him; the disgruntlement sweeping across his face seemed to deepen. Tipping my head to the side, I decided to have a little fun with the situation and lighten the mood. “You aren’t trying to get me wasted so you can take advantage of me, are you?” I reached for the vial.
If that were the case, not a single part of me would stop him. Just the thought of Randal and me in bed was enough to get my heart pumping hard and fast. Desire pooled through my core.
“Not entirely.” He smoothed a hand along his jaw, but I could still see the beginnings of the smile he was trying to hide. God, he was sexy as hell. “My main intention was to make sure you were okay.”
“That was sweet of you.” I felt brazen and coy. There was only one way I wanted to spend my time with him, one thing I could think of that would hold my interest long enough to keep me from falling asleep with my head on his shoulder. I passed the vial of bliss back for him to hold. “Hold this, and make yourself comfortable. I’ll be right back.”
I didn’t look at him as I started toward my bedroom. It wasn’t until I was four steps away from the entrance when I realized that changing my clothes now would be a stupid thing to do. After all, he had already seen me in my pajama pants and tank top. If I changed, he would know I’d done it for his benefit. I changed course, heading to the bathroom instead. There I ran a brush through my hair, patted some concealer on to cover up the dark circles beneath my eyes, and applied a light layer of Chapstick to my dry, cracked lips.
Before making my way back to Randal, I swung by my bedroom and picked up a discarded bra from my bedroom floor. Once I’d put it on, I headed down the hall. Randal was sitting on my couch with my computer resting in his lap.
He didn’t look up when I entered the room. “You are quite talented.”
The same hot flush from earlier crept across my cheeks, this time for a different reason. While the covers I created weren’t something I wanted to keep private, the work-in-progress ones were. In fact, having someone look at them before I was ready made me feel exposed in ways I didn’t care for.
“Thanks,” I muttered.
“I particularly enjoy the darkness conveyed in this one best of all.” He turned the laptop around so that I could see. “The way her eyes seem to be hooded by lust. The slight smirk twisting her lips. The way his hand appears to be doing something naughty to her we can’t quite see…” His smoldering eyes seemed to draw me in as his words slipped through the air, caressing against me.
The sensitive area between my thighs tingled to life. “I’ve been feeling a little dark lately.”
“I have no doubt,” he murmured.
I could feel the sexual tension rise, sucking all the air from my lungs. Swallowing hard, I moved to sit beside him on the couch. He passed my laptop to me, his fingers grazing my thigh in the process. Bolts of electricity jolted through me.
I was definitely awake now. I could also think of a few ways to thank him.
What the hell was I thinking? I didn’t have to look within myself far to pinpoint an answer. My thoughts were the product of going nearly a year without having sex. I chewed my bottom lip.
After saving the project I had been working on, I exited the program. I wouldn’t be able to get anymore work done while he was here, and I wasn’t going to fool myself into thinking otherwise either.
“You handed your vial back to me. Does that mean you have no interest in enjoying the effects with me, then?” Randal’s voice rumbled through the silence of my apartment, vibrating through me, and awakening the burning desire I was struggling so hard to ignore.
I set my laptop on the coffee table and tucked a leg beneath me. There were two vials in Randal’s hands now, both of them red. I knew the second one was for him. It had to be a Bloody Mary, the vampire equivalent to a Kiss of Death bomber.
Coldness slipped through my chest as the wraith shifted to life, obviously tasting my excitement and wanting more.
“Absolutely.”
My insides tingled with anticipation, but also from experiencing this side of Randal. Generally, he was such a refined, put-together person, someone who I would think of as above consuming such drinks. The more I was around him, the more he surprised me though.
Reaching out, I carefully plucked the vial from between his fingers. The moment I popped the top, red tendrils slipped from within and into the air, calling to my senses. Vanilla met my nose and I nearly sighed with pleasure.
Yes, a Kiss of Death Bomber was exactly what I needed, that and a side of Randal Vincent.
Chapter 17
I lifted the vial to my lips, but paused before taking a sip to smell it. The faint scent of vanilla and sugar—super sweet and heavenly—caused my entire body to tingle with anticipation. I tipped the vial and marveled at the sensation of my tongue being bathed in the concoction’s strange warmth. My temperature rose as a heady awareness swept through me. In seconds, I was enveloped by a weightless sensation reminiscent of feeding from someone with an aura the brightest shade of yellow imaginable.
Abruptly, my blissful moment ceased. The wraith shifted beneath my skin, flitting through my chest, garnering all of my attention.
Somehow, I knew exactly what it wanted—more.
Randal lifted his vial to his mouth and my consciousness split in two. A smile twisted at my lips as I watched the red liquid disappear.
“Has the drink managed to take hold of you already, or is there something you find humorous?” He licked his perfectly kissable lips, ingesting even the remnants that stained them.
“A mixture of both
.” I tucked a strand of hair behind my ear. The energy of a lustful male slithered through me, warming me from the inside out, and I nearly sighed with relief. It was a welcomed change from the frigid coldness of the wraith.
“Care to elaborate?”
My lips quirked into a smile. “It’s like you’re a teenager bringing drugs over to get me high enough so I’ll forget all my problems.”
A laugh rumbled from his chest. The sound of it vibrated through the air, tickling against my skin and drawing my undivided attention to him.
“Did you ever do anything like that?” I wasn’t sure why, but the question seemed important.
“Are you asking me if I have ever used drugs before?” He placed his empty vial beside mine on my coffee table, and leaned back against the plush cushions of my couch. The hint of a smile curled his mouth.
“Yeah.” I shrugged, as though the question wasn’t entirely random. “Have you ever tried any in your lifetime, besides this drink? Although, I’m not entirely sure the drink even counts as a drug,” I rambled.
“Of course.” There was no shame or regret hidden within his words. His admittance sent tendrils of shock and excitement rippling through me. I was learning something about him, finally. The pleasurable sensation of seduction I’d felt swimming through my veins reverted to heady giddiness again as I lost myself in the effects of the drink once more.
“And?” I prompted. I knew drugs didn’t affect vampires the way they did humans—Sage had filled me in on this once—but I still wanted to know Randal’s experience with them.
It was past time I learned a few things about him other than the fact he seemed to have an aversion to wearing anything of color. His clothes were always dark and mysterious, same as he was.
“I’m afraid there isn’t much to tell.” He shrugged. “Unfortunately, I didn’t receive the desired effect I wanted. I learned quickly, if I wanted to feel something of that nature, then I should find a human intoxicated and feed from them.”
A heavy sigh filled the space between us.
“You have grown quiet. Have I altered your viewpoint of me?”
I shook my head. “No. I’m glad I finally know something about you.”
“And what exactly did you happen to learn about me from that?” A crooked grin sharpened his features.
“That you went through a junkie phase.”
A loud bellow of laughter spurred from him. “I don’t believe I stated that I went through a junkie phase.”
I playfully shoved him. The desire to touch him burned beneath my skin. “Don’t lie to me,” I teased.
“All right.” He smirked. “There might have been a small phase where all I fed from were humans under the influence of one thing or another.”
“I knew it!” I shouted, my tone more triumphant than it should be. The drink was bouncing me between feeling giddy and happy to sexual and lustful, making it hard to control much about myself, including my tone.
“As you can well imagine, being a vampire isn’t always the most glamorous of things. There was a time when my only desire was to drown my problems and emotions, and feeding on intoxicated humans helped me do so.” There was a heavy pause as his words ripped through the air, dampened with emotions neither one of us wanted to feel. “Even as a succubus who happens to be new to the supernatural world, I’m sure you can relate in some way.”
“I can,” I admitted.
“Is there a particular reason you’re staring at me like that?” His words surprised me, because I hadn’t realized I’d been staring, but I also couldn’t figure out the glint in his eyes.
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“You seem to have something you would like to ask.” He leaned forward, erasing the few inches that had remained between us.
“No, there’s nothing I want to ask.” There was though; I had a million questions.
Randal’s eyes darkened. “Yes, there is. I’ve been around long enough to learn how to read people better than they can read themselves.”
I could see that about him right away. He was always so damn observant. “Maybe it’s just that I realized how little about you I know.”
“I could say the same about you.”
“No, you can’t.” I shook my head. “You know so much more about me than I do you.”
Amusement lit his eyes. “Maybe you have a point. I do know how much you enjoy reading vampire sex slave novels.” His eyes flicked to the book still sitting on my coffee table, hidden beneath a stack of bills.
Embarrassment submerged my face in heat. Damn it, why had I not put that book in the other room yet? “Exactly.”
“Now that you know about my junkie phase, as you so eloquently put it, I would say we are even.” He leaned closer, and his warm breath slid against my cheek. His scent tempted my building desires. “I’m afraid my intentions for coming here tonight were not to become better aquatinted with you in that sense.”
I arched a brow. My heart pounded against my ribs as the seduction of the drink warmed my veins, causing lust to cloud my thoughts. “Oh no? What sense did you come here for then?”
“This type.”
Randal’s fingers entwined through my hair as he pulled me closer. The moment his lips brushed against mine, a hiss of air escaped me.
Seduction, stemming from the Kiss of Death Bomber, sparked the sensations of attraction coursing through me tenfold. Without the drink, kissing Randal would have been amazing, but with it, the sensation was nearly mind-blowing.
Flickers of warmth swept through the area between my thighs as the kiss grew more intense. My lips parted at the feel of his tongue gliding against my lower lip, giving him access to the deepest parts of my mouth. My insides trembled, battling between flames of heat from pent up passion and the icy touch of the wraith. Randal’s hand glided against my throat, caressing me in a way I hadn’t let anyone in so long. The wraith moved through my chest, rushing to the area Randal’s warm skin touched mine.
Closing my eyes, I chose to focus on Randal, ignoring the wraith. I centered my thoughts on the way Randal’s hot breath pulsed against my skin, dampening it with his want, as he made his way along the side of my throat. My head tipped back to grant him access to the hollow of my neck, and I wondered for a split-second if he would bite me. Excitement and terror flipped through me at the thought.
“I have wanted you since the moment I first laid eyes on you,” he murmured against my heated skin, forcing all thoughts away in a flash. “You are gorgeous, Kenna Blake.”
It had been forever since someone whispered sweet nothings to me in the heat of the moment. I actually enjoyed hearing them. I drowned in the pleasure of his touch, his presence. His words didn’t twist my gut with sickness at the thought of what I was doing, what I would be gaining from him, because this situation was normal. There was no siphoning of his energy.
A kiss was just a kiss with him.
A tantalizing sensation rocketed through my core. I wasn’t sure if it was from the direction my thoughts had taken, or if it was the tetherball magic the drink harbored. I didn’t care either way. I lifted up and slipped across the space between us until I was straddling Randal’s lap. His hands went beneath the fabric of my shirt to smooth along my heated skin. I took his bottom lip between my teeth and raked them gently along it.
A low, animalistic groan filtered past his lips. “Can we move this elsewhere?”
I didn’t answer him with words. Instead, I gripped his shirt and started toward my room, pulling him along with me. We had barely made it past the threshold before I was crushing my lips to his again. Seconds before we reached my bed, Randal flipped us around until he was steering us. The backs of my knees pressed against the edge of my mattress before I knew what was happening, and then he was staring at me with the fiercest gray eyes I’d ever seen as he hovered above me.
“Give and take, Kenna.” His voice was sultry and full of desire. “That is how I like things. I give a bit of dominance your way wh
ile you take it, and then you turn the tables.”
The corners of my lips turned upward. I liked the idea more than I was willing to admit. He could give or take, whichever he preferred, all night long. I didn’t care. All I wanted was him.
His muscular arms moved to rest on either side of my body, depressing the bed with his weight as he lowered himself closer to me. There was a frozen moment in which he stared at me without moving. I took advantage of it by grabbing the reins of the situation, submerging myself in Randal and the moment before letting the wraith slithering through my insides ruin it. Gripping his shoulders, I lifted up, until my body was flush with his. I needed him. Now.
Brushing my lips against his, I trailed my fingers over the solid muscles of his shoulders. Willing my senses to open up to him, which wasn’t a hard thing to do with the drink floating through my veins, I could taste the remnants of his Bloody Mary on his tongue, feel the coolness of the sheets as they pressed against my back, hear my heart like thunder pounding in my ears, smell Randal’s cologne, spicy and masculine as I stared at the want reflected deeply in his eyes.
The sexual tension inside of me bubbled over. I peeled off layers of his clothing and tossed them to the floor. My hands stroked his smooth skin, until he pressed himself harder against my center, allowing me to feel what I was doing to him. Goose bumps flared to life across my skin.
“Oh my God, it’s been so long,” I whimpered. The word ‘please’ teased my lips with its desire to slip free, but I refused to let it. Even so, I still felt my words go straight to his groin and lengthen it.
My nails dug into his back. His boxer brief-clad erection pressed against my panty-covered center. I lifted up, my inner thighs clutching his hips. I needed to be as close as I could get. Delicious tingles showered through me as Randal continued to torture me with his gentle rubbing.
“Is this what you want?” he asked in a shiver-inducing voice. “Or is there something else you would like me to do to you?” The feel of his lips on my skin sent fire through my veins.
Succubus Kiss The Complete Series Page 26