by Kresley Cole
If everything she’d heard about their kind was true, why hadn’t he been on top of her, releasing the pressure he was feeling?
He was hurting—so she wouldn’t have to. A pang squeezed her heart.
But if he hadn’t been able to achieve his release by now, he was definitely going to have to touch her. She already dreaded that grueling pain.
No, there must be some way around that. Maybe he could touch her hair?
If so, then game on. They’d figure something out. And then she would have a memory to replace the one of the last time she’d been naked with a man. She shook herself, ruthlessly pushing that thought away.
Excitement began overwhelming her dread. A flesh-and-blood male wanted her. He knew her nature, and he still would need to be near her.
Around her sisters, Danii acted as if she couldn’t care less that she was untouched. She assumed her ice queen persona, donning a cold cloak of indifference whenever they gossiped about their bed partners.
In truth, Danii was desperate for contact. At the very least, she yearned for companionship.
This god of a male was linked to her by fate.
I lived through the night, and a gorgeous, virile immortal needs me.
Sad, sad Daniela just got happy, happy.
Murdoch’s body was tensed to spring for her if she chose to run.
Valkyrie hated his kind. This one would not be pleased by this development.
He racked his brain for what to say to her. Normally, he would just take her hand and drag her into the shower for a deep kiss until she’d gone weak-kneed and mindless. In the past, he’d controlled situations with women. I lead, and they follow.
How to get her from here to his bed? “Daniela . . . I . . . you have blooded me.” Even to himself, he sounded accusing.
“You don’t sound too thrilled about that.”
“Because I’m not.” Damn it, where’s my smoothness? He’d never in memory said the wrong thing to women, had always been able to sense exactly what they wanted to hear.
I have no idea what this one wants to hear.
Her expression was inscrutable. At one instant she looked shy and vulnerable, at another ravenous. He couldn’t read her, could hardly think.
Would she run? If so, what would he do?
He tried to moderate his tone. “I wouldn’t have chosen to involve you in this, but I have had no control over it.” Still his anger thrummed in his words.
She blinked at him. “Lines like this got you laid as a human?”
“Yes. No.” He scowled.
“I’m going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that your brain is scrambled right about now, and I’m probably the first female you’ve ever encountered that you don’t know what to do with. I’m familiar with your reputation, Murdoch.”
“How? I don’t—”
“Let’s talk after there’s no chance of you blowing this with me.” When had the Valkyrie’s voice grown so sultry? “So, do you want to go see if you can’t work that”—she pointed at his erection—”out?”
His jaw slackened. “You will stay until I can spend?” Say yes. . . .Say yes . . .
Her gaze was lascivious, dancing over his body, all traces of the shy Valkyrie gone. “Wouldn’t miss it for the world.”
When she tossed him a towel and turned toward his bedroom, the legendary Murdoch Wroth dumbly followed, tripping over his own feet.
EIGHT
ANY SELF-RESPECTING VALKYRIE WOULD BE FIGURING OUT how to kill the vampire. Being a Bride was considered shameful, unless you murdered the offending leech—which was the usual protocol.
But Danii? She was exaggerating the swish of her hips as the newly blooded vampire followed her to his bed.
Playing with fire. It had a totally new meaning for Danii.
In a husky rasp from directly behind her, he said, “I thought you would run from me.” His voice was just at her ear, giving her delicious shivers. He was so close she thought his erection would prod her, but he’d slung the towel around his waist.
“Uh-uh.” She knelt on his bed, then curled her forefinger in invitation.
At once, he dropped to his knees before her, running his gaze over her.
Danii wasn’t shy, didn’t know many immortals who were. And considering how long she’d been waiting for a night like this— fantasizing about it—she’d be damned if she let her lack of expertise detract from the experience.
Yet even now, he didn’t know how to proceed. “I want to seduce you . . . but I can’t kiss you . . . can’t stroke you.”
She’d stumped a living legend. Danii was just contrary enough to be gratified by this. “There’s no need to seduce me. I’ve already signed my name on your roster.”
He frowned at that, then said, “But there must be a way for me to have you.”
She shook her head sadly. She’d consulted the witches and had been told that one of them might be able to help once she came into her powers, which could take hundreds of years. She’d begged the Valkyrie soothsayer Nïx to foresee a way around this curse of coldness. Nïx had told her to simply accept herself and everything would work out.
That’d been eight centuries ago.
Suspicion tinged his expression. “If there was a way, would you tell me?”
She shook her head. “Wouldn’t have to. You’d already be inside me.”
His lips parted, displaying his white teeth and fangs. “Another Valkyrie teasing a vampire.”
“No, I’m not teasing. I’m just imagining it.”
At that, his shaft jerked between them, distending against the towel.
“Looks like it wants attention.” She didn’t ogle penises in person every day, not even every decade. “The towel off, please. I’d like to see it.” Up close and at her leisure.
He raised his brows, but did reach for the towel. Once he bared himself, Danii’s gaze descended along the trail of crisp black hair that led to the base of his erection. His thick length jutted boldly from his body, the crown swollen and taut. Perfection. “Will you stroke it in front of me, vampire?”
At her words, he made a guttural sound, and a drop of moisture beaded on the head.
She stared as he cupped his shaft in his palm, holding her breath as he slowly closed his fingers over it.
Finally he gave it a stroke. The sight made her go soft, her sex getting even wetter. Her nipples stiffened beneath his T-shirt. And he noticed.
“Show me your breasts.” When she pulled off her borrowed shirt, he inhaled sharply. “So beautiful.” He reached his free hand forward to touch one, but she flinched before he could. With a curse, he closed his hand and drew it back. “Too easy to forget.”
“You can’t forget, vampire. If we must touch, it’s got to be brief. Otherwise . . .”
He dragged his gaze from her chest to her face. “Don’t want to hurt you.”
Tenderness bloomed anew within her, along with the strongest desire she’d ever felt. “I believe that.”
“You’ll touch them for me.”
It wasn’t a question. Powerless to deny him, she raised her hands to her breasts. As she petted them, pressing them together, his eyes grew even more excited, frenzied even.
“That’s it, Daniela.”
She knew her breasts were small, but right now they felt heavy, lush. When he stared at the peaks and ran his tongue over one of his fangs, she gave a little moan.
“Let me see you play with your nipples.”
Danii had lots of experience touching herself. She brushed her thumbs over them again and again until they puckered tight.
“Daniela!” His fist moved faster. “Spread your knees.” Once she did, he commanded, “Touch your sex.”
Without hesitation, she slid her hand down her belly, slipping a finger to her folds.
His breaths were coming more quickly. “Are you wet?”
“Very,” she murmured.
Another groan. “I wish I could taste you, lick you.” His voice had
grown huskier. “Show me where you’d want me to kiss you.”
Getting caught up, she spread her knees even wider, then circled a finger over her clitoris. “Here.”
“Slower. Rub it slower.”
She lazily flicked, gasping, “Like this?”
“Ah, God, yes!” His eyes were awash in black as he stared, his fist pumping faster.
“What would you want me to do to you?” What would a master seducer like?
With his free hand, he drew the pad of his forefinger along the sensitive slit in the crown. “You’d run your tongue over me here.” When more drops of moisture slicked the swollen head, he spread them around with his thumb. “Tasting me, before you sucked my shaft between your lips.”
The idea that he wanted her to know his taste made her mouth water. She yearned to lick him there, then to take that broad crown into her mouth, suckling it so deep. . . .
When her tongue dabbed at her lip, he groaned, “Almost don’t want to know what you’re thinking.”
He seemed to be going out of his head with lust, stroking himself over and over. Gaze locked on her busy fingers, he fondled his heavy testicles with his other hand. When his brawny chest heaved with exertion, sweat lovingly trailed over the rises and falls of his bulging muscles—the most erotic scene she’d ever witnessed. He switched hands as one arm grew weak.
Visibly frustrated, he reached out. “Just want to touch your hair.” She held herself still for him, and he wrapped a long strand around his palm. Bringing it to his face, he inhaled deeply. “Your scent drives me mad.” He made hoarse sounds of pain, but he still couldn’t come.
Daniela didn’t want to see him suffer. And he was in agony, stroking so fast she could barely see his hand. “You’re going to hurt yourself.” She knew that the more she healed, the colder she would become. Right now, his touch wouldn’t be as excruciating as usual. “You have to touch me, vampire.”
He shook his head. “Lie back and open your thighs. I’m close. If you come for me . . .”
The Valkyrie nodded, then lay back, wantonly spreading her glistening sex.
He would give anything to feed his cock inside it. Anything.
When she undulated her hips, he could see how ready she was. Her abandon aroused him like nothing ever had.
For hours, he’d been kept on edge. Now to see this? “Need inside you so bad, Valkyrie.”
Her lids went heavy and she panted, those tight breasts bobbing.
“Bury myself so deep in you,” he grated. “Fill you with my seed. . . .I wouldn’t stop until you begged me.” When he cupped and tugged his sac, she masturbated faster.
“Inside. Slip your finger inside.” Once she did, he leaned down to rasp right at her ear, “Fuck yourself with it.” He drew back to watch. “Does that feel good?”
“Ah, yes!”
“Then another finger inside.”
Her voice was so sexy as she cried, “I’m about to . . . come.” Lightning bombarded the mill.
“Thrust faster, harder. Don’t stop till I tell you.”
As she began to climax, she arched her back, crying out. Her thighs fell open in utter surrender.
Eyes riveted to her sex, he gnashed his teeth, tortured with need. He helplessly fucked his fist as her orgasm went on and on. Her head thrashed on the bed, her body writhing to the motion of her fingers.
He still hadn’t told her to stop, wouldn’t. He was tormented; so would she be.
“Murdoch, I can’t take more!” Finally, she curled on her side, still trembling, her hands between her thighs.
When the tremors eventually relented, Danii gazed up at him. During her pleasure, she’d heard him growl in pain. Now he was in even more misery.
“Vampire, just touch me!”
“Don’t want to hurt you.”
“Kiss my breasts.” She went up on her knees, cupping her breasts to him in offer. “Put your lips on my nipple.”
“Valkyrie,” he bit out in defeat. He leaned down, about to press his mouth to her flesh.
She steeled herself against the coming pain—
With a ragged groan, he pulled back, forcefully shaking his head.
No. No more of this. Her hand shot out and covered his fist around his shaft. She cried out, and he jerked from the shock of cold.
The contact was scorching, a firebrand against her, even as he grated, “Cold . . . so cold!”
Tears welled. “Don’t stop, Murdoch!” Keeping her hand on him took every ounce of will, like holding her hand to a flame.
Burning, burning, her skin seared. Pain, dizzying . . .
“Going to come!” His tone was awed as he began to ejaculate. “Ah, God, finally! Daniela. . . .”
Through tears, she watched him bucking into their hands, his every muscle strained in anguish. His expression was agonized, those fangs sharp and glinting.
When his seed erupted from him, he yelled to the ceiling. His massive body in throes, he came onto the bed, pumping out his jets of semen so hard she could feel them.
NINE
THEY LAY BACK, BOTH GULPING BREATHS.
Murdoch was struggling to recover from the most pleasure he’d ever experienced—and the hardest, most powerful ejaculation he’d ever imagined.
The release had been mind-numbing, but perhaps all immortal sex was better. If one had stronger senses, then why wouldn’t sex be heightened as well?
With one need met, another instantly screamed within him. He’d lost blood the night before and hadn’t come close to replacing it. He could still smell hers all around them.
Ignore it. He turned to her. She was cradling her burned hand, her eyes still wet.
When their skin had made contact, hers had felt like ice, definitely uncomfortable to him. His skin had made her cry. Yet earlier, when he’d been tearing poisoned arrows from her flesh, there’d been no tears.
“Let me see it,” he grated.
She reluctantly showed him her blistered palm, and he winced, guilt assailing him. He rose to get ice for her, but was so unsteady he wondered if he could even trace to the kitchen. With effort, he made it to the refrigerator, saw the containers of blood there.
So thirsty.. . . He felt a mad urge to annihilate his supply. Just get her the ice. She’s burned because of you.
Ice. Before now, he’d never much thought about it. Yet it had been his Bride’s salvation. What would have happened if he hadn’t gotten her cooled last night? Would an immortal like her truly have died?
Returning with a paper towel filled with ice cubes, he handed it to her, careful not to make contact—or to glance at her neck.
She closed her hand around a couple of cubes and sighed in relief. After a few moments, she peeked up under her lashes at him. “So what happens with us now?” The shy Valkyrie was back?
“You tell me.”
“This is out of the realm of my experience.” As her pain faded, her expression showed hints of excitement. She looked optimistic. No doubt, she thought they were embarking on something. Females always had in the past. No matter how much he warned them that he would never settle down.
Embarking with Daniela—a woman he could never bed? I’d be consigning myself to misery.
He just needed time to think about all this. He rose and yanked on his jeans, grimacing as the material scraped over his abused shaft.
She must have sensed his tension, because she dropped the ice and defensively bundled the sheet to cover herself. After a few moments, she said, “You’ve lost a lot of blood.”
“I’ll be fine. Been in worse shape.”
“I expect so, since you died and all.”
He turned to her. “And you know how I came to be like this?” When she nodded, he said, “Tell me, then.”
“King Kristoff found you dying on a battlefield. He gave you a choice of fealty to him and eternal life—or death. That’s what Kristoff does, what he’s always done.”
Fealty or death. Murdoch remembered that night as if it were yesterday.
Kristoff had found Nikolai first, in a pool of his own congealing blood. But Nikolai hadn’t feared death, so he’d negotiated with Kristoff before he would accept the king’s offer.
He’d demanded to be a general in the Forbearer army, refusing to take orders from anyone but Kristoff himself. And he’d wanted Murdoch and any trusted comrades with mortal wounds turned as well.
Nikolai had also demanded the span of a human’s lifetime to watch over their four younger sisters, their two younger brothers, and their father.
They’d all been dead in a matter of weeks.
Murdoch ran his hands through his hair. “Tell me how you knew who I was.”
“The Valkyrie heard Forbearers were going to be out in the city. When you told me your brother had captured Myst, I put it together. He’s the Forbearer most likely to search for her.”
Now that Murdoch had experienced for mere hours the hell that Nikolai had endured for years, he was furious anew with Myst. Daniela’s sister. “Shouldn’t he have searched for Myst?”
When Daniela nodded blithely, he frowned. “And shouldn’t you be demanding that Nikolai free her?”
She gave him a vulnerable grin. “If Nikolai is half as sensual as you are, I wouldn’t be doing her any favors to get her freed. I’m sure they’ve come to an understanding by now.”
The Valkyrie was throwing him. Again. Too much to take in. A new Bride. A hunger like he’d never known . . .
He gazed at her neck once more. Her skin was pale, smooth, begging for his fangs.
“Besides, the more I think about it,” she continued, “the more I realize you should probably be rescuing your brother from her. She’s going to twist him inside out.”
Murdoch shook himself. “She’s already done that. She tormented him for five years.” His anger was growing, matching his thirst and exhaustion. “I barely got through a few hours of needing to come— imagine half a decade!”
Her pleased mien faded. “He deserved nothing less.”
Murdoch traced directly in front of her, staring down. In a menacing tone, he said, “Did he? To be shot up, then left crippled by his Bride?”
She rolled her eyes at him, possibly the first woman ever to do so. “Either you don’t know all the facts or you’re ignoring them. On the night that Myst left Nikolai, he was about to torture her for information in Mount Oblak’s dungeon. Our sisters rescued her from that fate, and they wanted to kill Nikolai, but Myst left him alive. Your brother owes her his life.”