But Nash unbuttoned his cuffs, refined as ever, and then his shirt without taking his gaze off me. He stood, pulling the shirt out of his pants, removing his undershirt to reveal smooth, hard muscles. I wondered what he had to fight for, that kept him this on edge, or if he’d always looked like this when he was human in a time I could barely imagine.
His belt cut the air when it snapped away from his pants. Nash considered it before letting it drop. I licked my sore lips as he pushed his pants down his thighs. My vampire hadn’t bothered with boxer shorts.
It was so easy to think of him as mine.
Nash was ready for this, too. I’d never been in the same room as a naked man before, and now I understood why he’d stopped to look at me. He was absolutely magnificent, all this raw, rippling power just below the surface of his skin. But at the same time, he was so still, reminding me he wasn’t human. And what I’d asked him to do to me.
His shaft was slightly darker than the rest of his skin, hard and ready. It curved a little bit to the right. I liked that. Just like his face, it wasn’t perfect, and it made him even more attractive.
Nash’s knee landed between my legs. He caged me in, and something new radiated from him. Heat.
“You’re warm,” I managed.
He nodded. “You’ve brought something inside me back to life. I never thought I’d feel it again.”
I didn’t know what to say to that, and Nash didn’t wait for an answer. He pulled me off the couch by my thong, stretching it away from my body until it snapped. I landed on the cushion with a thud, and burst out laughing.
It definitely took the awkwardness away from the being naked in front of Nash for the first time thing. I should’ve been used to it by now—vampires loved to have me naked. But this was so different. The girls didn’t look at me like this. Nash took his cock in his hand, stroking the impressive length of it several times before positioning it to enter me.
That was it? He was just going to drive it on home and we were done? No, that couldn’t be all.
He ran the tip along the length of my slit, just like he’d done with his fangs on my nipple, so many times I lost track of what was going on. I groaned when he stopped to rub his thumb around my clit, and when he hit just the right spot I bucked off the couch like he’d lifted me.
Nash chuckled. “This is why it’s so good to be with a woman who’s pure.” He purred the last word in that sexy accent. It was like wood smoke and leather, all man. “Watching you experience everything for the first time…I don’t have many firsts anymore, Corynne.”
Now I understood why that was important.
“But when I turn you, remember it will be my blood thundering through your veins every time I make you come.” Nash ripped his wrist open with his fangs, and brought it to my mouth.
He tasted just as he sounded—silky, rugged, and addicting. I clasped his arm, making sure I didn’t miss a drop. His blood filled my throat and warmed my belly. Nash was a part of me now. A little piece of him made my heart beat.
Something else was inside me, too. I cried against his wrist when he pushed his cock in. He moved slow, stretching me inch by inch until I didn’t think I could take anymore. Rolling his hips back, he slammed into me, and I bit his wrist. He thrusted over and over again, so many strange sensations swirled inside me like an electric storm, thunder and lightning, awe and power. He anchored himself above me on the arm of the couch, murmuring something I couldn’t understand.
Nash took his arm away, smoothing my sticky hair from my chest as he kept fucking me. I grabbed for it, but he was faster than me, and I didn’t have a chance. Blood ran down my chin on to my chest, and it cooled, adding shivers to the mix. I fixed my gaze on his beautiful face, and screamed when my vision started to darken.
Oh, shit. Not now. Anytime but now. Nash leaned down and brushed his lips over mine. “It’s good, isn’t it?”
“No!” I expected the shock that registered on his face. I could barely speak. “I’m losing…control.”
He laughed. “You’re having an orgasm, love.” Now it was his turn to take in my shock. “I can feel it. Ride it for everything it’s worth.”
I didn’t have much choice. My muscles spasmed, my vision darkened, but I could still see Nash in the middle of it all, his strokes slowing now, and my body doing everything it could to make him stay.
Words failed me yet again, and Nash encouraged me, coaxing everything out. The only thing that could bring back any clarity was the overwhelming release that came crashing down around me, leaving both of us in a panting, bloody heap.
Now I understood how something that had been evil for so long could be a beautiful thing. And I wanted more.
Chapter Eight
Corynne
“You look so beautiful!” Sierra exclaimed when I stumbled back into the dressing room, bloody, sore, and dazed after everything Nash had to offer.
“I drank his blood,” I whispered, welcoming Sabrina’s embrace. “Does that mean he turned me?”
She rolled her eyes. “Vampires can be so stupid. Doesn’t matter how old they are. He should’ve never brought you back here without an explanation.”
My heart sunk, swimming in a sea of his blood. I’d confused Nash wanting me with wanting what I had to offer him—my power. Both times we had a chance to explore it at its deepest, darkest depths he’d lead me in a completely different direction. Ecstasy.
I’d been ashamed of the V he wiped away from my chest, but I’d been lucky enough for my first time to be with a man who knew what to do with every inch of my body. But he’d had me in every way possible.
The blackness that Nash encouraged returned, and I concentrated on Sabrina, who was pissed on my behalf. No one that wasn’t related to me had ever stuck up for me before. “Did he drink from you?” she asked.
“He did last night.”
The tension left her body. “You’re still human. Dying is unmistakable. The pain….I don’t want to scare you. It’s what happens. He’d drain you, and your heart would stop beating. Your body is deprived of blood and stops functioning until he floods your system with his blood. It’s dangerous, it doesn’t always work. We’ve lost a few girls because the vampires didn’t know what they were doing and waited too long, or their organs couldn’t handle the transformation.”
I cut Nash some slack, because that scared the hell out of me. But if he thought he’d seduce me to get what he wanted, I’d show him the absolute worst of what I had to offer. He may be centuries old and immortal, but I bet I could…no. I couldn’t risk thinking about it. If anything happened to Nash because of me, I’d have nowhere to run. But I refused to hand myself over, no matter what kind of money he offered me. I sold him my blood only. Not my heart. He had to earn that, no matter how much I wanted to give it to him.
The girls cleaned me up. A crust of Nash’s blood covered me from my lips to my bellybutton. Thankfully they didn’t put me back in the tub. I wouldn’t have been able to stand their hands all over me, now that I really knew how Nash’s touch really felt.
I was mad at him for something he’d refused to do. We barely knew each other, but I wanted to believe he wanted me for me. Which he did. But I wanted someone to make me feel normal, not embrace my freak.
“It’s almost sunrise.” Sierra handed me a fresh pair of pajamas. “We have to get to bed.”
“What happens if you see the sun?” I was so thankful I had these two. Without them, I wouldn’t stand a chance here.
“Older vampires, like Nash, can go out in the sun. Their skin is tough enough to handle the heat. But the two of us, no way. We’d fry.”
“When were you turned? Did you know each other when you were human?” I asked. They complemented each other so well, I couldn’t imagine one without the other.
They glanced at each other, unsure how much they should share. “Woodstock,” Sabrina finally said, shaking her head. “All the drugs and free love. You never know what will happen to you. I went to see Hendrix,
and I woke up undead in New York City.”
“We’ve been best friends since we were kids,” Sierra added, sharing a smile with Sabrina that made me wonder if they were more than that. “There’s nobody else I’d rather spend forever with.”
“You’re lucky.” They had no idea how much, since they’d never been without each other.
We’d reached the door of the little room I slept in. I didn’t want to leave them yet. “I have a weird question. Do either of you have any stuffed animals?”
“Yeah, I have a few.” Sierra didn’t think the question was weird at all. “What do you want?”
“A teddy bear.”
Minutes later she returned with a honey colored, smiling stuffed bear wearing a red bow around his neck. I crawled into bed, dreaming I could go home and see my sister one more time.
**
The nightmare had come every night since I ran away. It started the same way every time. Strange voices in the hallway. Male voices. Coming for me. Reading my rights. I jumped bolt upright, and the bear fell to the ground. Blood drummed in my ears.
Usually that was enough to make the voices go away. Not today.
I blinked hard, concentrating to figure out what they were saying. I had no idea if it was day or night. Sabrina’s voice carried through the door loud and clear, calm and soothing as it always was.
“I’ve never seen that girl before,” she said.
That wasn’t enough to make it stop, either. “Have any of the girls that you’ve been associated with mentioned Andrea Davis?”
Oh, fuck. This was the worst kind of nightmare. The only kind I had, and it was coming true.
“No. If that person were here, she wouldn’t talk about her past.” Wasn’t that the truth. “If you’d like, I can keep the picture, and if we see Andrea, we’ll be sure to give you a call.”
The male voice grunted, but was followed by silence. Too afraid to turn the light on, I felt my way to the door and pressed my ear against it for what seemed like forever. I wasn’t convinced it was safe, but I couldn’t stay in that room any longer. It was running out of air.
They were gone. Whoever they were.
And if the police were here, I’d lie to them like I’d lied to everyone else. It surprised me how easy it was. I’d tell them I wasn’t Andrea, I didn’t run from them, and most importantly, I never killed anyone.
At least that part was true.
“You look like you saw a ghost.” Sabrina smiled sadly when I came around the corner. “The police come every so often, it’s one of their regular stops when a missing person’s report is filed. I give them the same answer every time. Don’t know if they believe me, but it doesn’t matter. We take care of each other here.”
She meant to make me feel better, but she didn’t. “Did you know?”
“Know what?” She cocked her head in confusion.
“They were looking for me.” I picked up the same picture that had been flashed on the nightly news. My yearbook picture. A sad, scared girl stared back at me. I felt the same way now for entirely different reasons.
Now it was Sabrina’s turn to look like a ghost. “I knew there was something different about you. Couldn’t put my finger on what.”
“I need to see Nash. Now.” I needed to know I had protection, in case the next time the police came, I was out in the open. He had to turn me.
Sabrina chased after me. This place confused the hell out of me, all the hallway looked the same. Each time I went to see Nash I was nervous, and I always came back under his spell. He had every advantage over me.
“You can’t go like that,” Sabrina insisted.
I looked down at my rumpled satin pajama set. I couldn’t look that bad. I’d gone to school many mornings looking worse. “Oh, come on. He’s contracted me indefinitely. Eventually he’ll see me first thing in the morning….evening. Whatever.” All this formality was ridiculous. The vampires didn’t have anything better to do than play dress-up.
She pursed her lips. “The police talked to him, too. Whatever you want from him, you need to make sure you get it.”
I rubbed my hand over my face. I could either let Sabrina doll me up, or explain to her why it didn’t matter. Or do both at the same time, just in case she was right.
This time I talked her down to black skinny jeans and a sweater. Enough of the fantasy—waking up to the police shattered that. I couldn’t escape who I was. My hair was in a ponytail, and for the first time since I’d come here, I felt like me. Perfect. I couldn’t get comfortable.
“Knock,” she insisted, putting her hand over mine on the doorknob.
“Turn me,” I said as soon as Nash opened the door. Sabrina couldn’t stop me anymore. I pushed away from her, past him, to the middle of the living room. “We’re running out of time.”
Nash laughed. “That’s something I don’t hear too often.” He nodded to Sabrina and she raised her eyebrow at me in warning before she left.
I waited for the door to close before I said anything else. “Did the police talk to you?” For all I knew, they could still be here. The last thing I needed was to turn myself in.
“Yes, they did. And I convinced them Andrea Davis never set foot in New York City. They’ll be combing the woods behind your house as soon as they can put the unit together.”
My sweater provided no protection from the chill. I’d never told Nash about my home, or how I got here. Now I knew his power, and I had more to shield myself from than dark thoughts. “Why did you tell them that?”
“A coven has been organizing out of the chaos. They may have rules, but they have no order. We allowed some of them to come to auction, and there were rumors they kidnapped their courtesans. Two of them escaped and came back to file a complaint, but they’d been glamoured and we didn’t have enough evidence to challenge the rogue vampires.”
Okay, so maybe his diversion had nothing to do with me. “You don’t let other covens come anymore, do you?” I automatically thought of Olivia, so happy to get any bid. If her vampire had been from the forest coven, he’d binge on her desperation and suck the life out of her. An image of her, covered with blood and dirt, struggling in the woods flashed in my mind. No. Picture her anywhere else, happy. “I thought they were trapped in the forest.”
“As part of the agreement between the covens in the area, we can’t say no unless we have a very good reason. Turning our backs on a coven is cause for retaliation, even war. They aren’t welcome here, but every so often, one of the feral vampires slip in.”
“And you’re looking for a reason to shut them out.” I was relieved when Nash nodded. He hadn’t lost all of his humanity. He was still the friar who wanted to make sure his village was safe. “Do you keep a list of the courtesans who come to auction? And who gives the winning bid?”
“Desiree does.” He didn’t use her title.
“I need to see it.” Or have some way to know Olivia didn’t get lowballed into a horrible death.
Nash shook his head. “She’ll never show it to you.”
“If you turn me, maybe she will.” I smiled at him. I concentrated on what it would be like to be a vampire. It could be considered a dark thought, since he’d have to kill me to do it.
“Which is exactly why I won’t. You have no idea how things work around here. We have centuries of tradition, and nobody will tolerate a brand new vampire trying to cut their baby teeth on them. She’ll throw you out of here faster--”
“But you want to keep me.” I was playing with something worse than fire—vampire rage. “How can I trust you with my power if you won’t do that for me? What are you going to do? Chew me up, literally, and spit me out when I’ve served my purpose? Whatever the danger is, I’ll be safer as a vampire.”
“I won’t make you a monster.” Nash already had his mind made up.
“I already am!” I squeezed my eyes closed, I couldn’t look at him right now. I was dangerously close to doing something I regretted.
Nash ran his fing
ers over my jaw. I didn’t open my eyes. I wouldn’t make it that easy for him to cast his spell on me. “If you were a monster, you’d be glad the bad things happened. Instead, it tears you apart. I can see it now. You’ll do anything to push the bad thoughts down, because you don’t want to hurt me.”
I sighed, giving in and looking at him. “So your superpower is mind reading?”
“It’s because I’ve had your blood.”
“You didn’t tell me about the side effects.” I turned away from him. I hadn’t remembered the fire burning when I came in here. But it was roaring now. Did I do that? A spark popped too loudly, and I jumped, even more jarred when Nash was right behind me.
His fingers tangled in my ponytail. “Would it have changed anything if you knew?” His smooth tone, so low in my ear, was just as dangerous as the fire. His hard body chilled mine, and his erection was obvious against the small of my back.
He didn’t fight fair. He knew how to use his body as a weapon.
“No,” I said softly. “It wouldn’t. But I wish that it worked the same way for me. That I had any idea what you wanted.”
Nash stepped closer. “I told you. I want you.”
I faced him, feeling the full effect of his body against mine. “You haven’t seen me at my worst. You don’t want to turn me, probably because you don’t want to be stuck with me for the next seven hundred years. I get that. As much as you say I don’t understand what it’s like to be you, the same goes for me.”
“I won’t encourage you to hurt someone to prove whatever it is you’re trying to prove to me.” Nash held me gaze. “It’s not what this coven believes in. We drink from humans to survive. We pay our courtesans because they have the commodity that we need: Fresh blood from a beating heart. You entered that agreement willingly, Corynne.”
This man was impossible. He wanted me for my power but he didn’t want me to use it. At least I could be thankful he didn’t call me Andrea.
Wanted: A Blood Courtesans Novel Page 5