If he could, Matt would have reassured Cat. If he could, he would have told her she could do this, but his lips were forbidden, so instead he questioned with his eyes, Are you okay?
Cat nodded and patted herself down, checking. She straightened her dripping khaki jacket and winced as blistered skin crossed the twill fabric. Matt frowned, raised her scorched arm to his lips and kissed it gently. She smiled softly.
If our love has any sanction at all, why does every turn bring her pain? The Universe didn’t answer. Sighing, he reached for their blood supply, and then opened a pack for Cat before placing it insistently in her hands. She nodded, sat and drank, but after a few swallows, she exhorted him with gestures to share. He shook his head and held her arm out to show her the slow and incomplete healing. Nodding her acquiescence, she finished the bag herself. She watched, appearing fascinated, as the rough, puckered skin of her arm knitted together.
Matt was studying another cave drawing when she looked up. This one pictured two pairs of hands far apart. Their next step? He placed his own over the painted ones closest to him. Catching on immediately, Cat placed hers in the corresponding positions. They pushed, and he quickly realized only equally exerted pressure would move the wall.
Slowly, it swiveled to allow entrance into a cavern. Matt grabbed two glow sticks from their gear, broke and shook them to light the way. They squeezed through the slender opening, awed by a chamber with vaulted ceilings and alabaster walls shot through with elegant veins of rose and dusty gray. The effect was breathtaking.
As they approached the far back wall, Cat found more cave art. She held her glow stick higher to illuminate it. There were erotic drawings, depicting a couple in various acts of love. A mildly hysterical giggle escaped her at the absurdity of the situation. Matt drew beside her, snorted at the cause of her laughter, then chuckled and finally laughed outright.
They embraced, relief at overcoming the latest crisis flooding their hearts. They fell into each other with laughter’s joyful abandon. Cat slipped into Matt’s sure embrace, and it felt to him as if she had come home. He’d missed her desperately. Stirred by their renewed unity, he grinned, drawing her willing body against his. He pressed his advantage, unwilling to wait another moment to reclaim her. He impatiently pulled soaked clothes from her cool flesh, his lips falling against whatever patch of soft ivory skin presented itself.
“Yes!” Cat breathed, breaking their prescribed silence first and clutching Matt’s sodden jacket with fervor.
Matt gave her the slow, charming smile which always made her impossibly wet, and shrugged off his jacket. He destroyed the button fly of his jeans in his effort to get free of them. Vamp speed had its advantages when they could strip in a heartbeat. Within moments, the bedroll was out of their pack, and then falling invitingly at their feet, cradled in the soft marble powder lining the cavern.
Cat paused to stand uninhibitedly naked, hands on hips, shaking her head at the erotic cave drawings. Matt’s erection hardened, his abs tightened almost to the point of pain. The cavern’s faint air current whispered against his sensitized cock. Seeing her now, so unconsciously natural and gorgeous, stimulated him past bearing. She cast him an ironic smile over her shoulder.
“Really? All this was about getting us to erotic cave art?”
Matt laughed, struggling to keep his voice steady. “I think it was about a little more than that.”
He grasped her waist and pulled her close against him. His long, thick cock tantalized the soft slope of her buttocks, ramping up his desire. Matt nuzzled the back of her neck brushing sensuously against her. Cat groaned with need.
“I’m ashamed I hurt you, Cat,” he apologized, his voice warm and deep. He turned her and pressed a loving kiss atop her damp crown. “I only wanted to keep you safe. I never meant to cause you pain.”
She caressed his pecs and torso with her palms. His skin temperature mounted as her fingers traced the coarse hairs and his tightly puckered nipples. She smiled at his reaction. He shivered in anticipation.
“I believe you,” she murmured into his chest. She sighed, pressing soft kisses to the nipple beneath her fingertips, worrying the tight kernel with the serrated edges of her teeth. Matt shuddered, distracted by mounting lust.
“Stop.” He pushed her back a little to search her eyes. “Stop a minute. This is important. We can’t lose the point.”
“Yeah! Okay!” Cat teased, her fingers encircled the crown of his cock.
Matt stepped back out of reach. “Cat, this is serious. I hurt you. Tell me you know I’d never deliberately do that.” Hopelessly drawn to her, he stepped into her reach, and their foreheads brushed. He licked sensuously at her lower lip. “I need you to forgive me. Please.”
Cat’s palms grazed over the peach fuzz on his tight ass. Her light fingertips drew down his thigh. “I think I understand better now why it happened. Why you thought you had to take such radical steps to protect me. I was mortal, you were a vampire.”
Matt sighed with liberation and drew her down onto the flannel lining of the bedroll. “Then, for God’s sake, tell me you forgive me,” he urged, his voice gruffer and lower with desire than he intended.
She gazed at him, eyes limpid. “I forgive you.”
He swooped in to overwhelm her with sweet, deep, drugging kisses, his tongue gliding against hers, claiming her mouth.
This time, Cat pushed him back. “We’re the same now, Matt, both vampires, a level playing field.”
“Yes,” Matt acknowledged. He pushed his hand up from her ankle to her knee, widening her thighs, desperate to push inside her.
Cat’s hips lifted. “The point is you can’t ‘protect’ me against my will.”
“Um-hm.” Matt massaged the silky wetness spilling onto her thighs.
“I’m not an extension of you. You have to let me make my own mistakes.”
“Right. I promise,” he avowed, carelessly tossing the thought off, his mind focused solely on the all-inclusive warmth of her pussy.
He pulled himself up short. This conversation could be the basis of their relationship for the rest of their immortal lives. Matt drew back and looked at her.
When he spoke, his words were measured. “You have to know, Cat, your pain is my pain.”
Cat stopped in the act of fondling him, sat up and took both his hands in hers. Her gaze searched his earnestly. “That’s what a parent says to a child, Matt. I’m not a child. If I’m going to be your mate. I have to be your equal.”
Tenderness suffused Matt and deluged him in a wave of love so strong, he thought he might drown. “You want to be my mate?”
“Of course, I do. That’s what all this has been about. I love you.”
His voice dropped seductively. He settled onto his side, head resting on his palm. A provocative grin teased her, and her pupils dilated, her nipples hardened.
“Well…exactly how equal do you wanna be?” he crooned, his fingers exciting her.
“On top half the time.” She grinned, watching him watching her.
Arousal and need rushed over her face as he massaged her swollen sex. Her gaze shifted to focus on his every feature as he worked her. She bit back a groan, as he bent forward and found her clit with his tongue.
“Whatever it takes, baby,” Matt’s thumbs were restless against her soft petals. Cat caught his fire and her skin flushed under his command.
“Oh, my God, Matt!” Her hips eagerly rolled against him seconds before a fleeting orgasm shook her.
“I love to watch you come,” Matt placed two precise fingers at the perfect depth and pressure as he worked her with his thumb. “Show me again.”
Cat panted hard, unable to resist. The flat of her palm cupped her breast. “I’m so hot!” Her eyes widened and she shuddered at the exquisite sense of it all.
“That you are,” he agreed with a soft wicked laugh. “And I can’t wait to get my cock inside that scorching hot pussy!” Cat shuddered again while he notched himself at her delta.
“I’ll make sure you’re always hot, baby.” He thrust home.
Cat gasped. She matched his power, her flesh encircling his. “God, I love you! I love this!” Her voice was throaty, her body as demanding as his.
His cock buried to the hilt, Matt arched his back while raw encouragement rumbled from her lips.
“There’s more.”
Matt drew nipple to nipple with her. The deep resonance of his groan vibrated his chest against hers. With a nudge of his cheek, he tilted her head to the side, bared her neck and bit down, releasing the exquisite bouquet of her blood. He sipped. She giggled. He chuckled.
“That tickles.”
He drew more strongly, and she stopped giggling. Her fangs dropped spontaneously, her eyes shimmered opalescent, a fully aroused vampire. Matt’s slow heartbeat surged. Determinedly, he bared his own neck to her razor-sharp fangs.
“Drink!” he commanded, and Cat did.
Through the magic of the blood transfer, Matt shared with her all his thoughts and feelings, and received hers in exchange. She felt his pain over their separation, and his joy at their reunion. She tasted his anguish over her rejection. He’d fought to protect her even to the edge of death.
Their bodies crashed together and retreated in a hungry effort to absorb all their spirit. Within their rich sanguine fluids and within their souls, they found new understanding. Motives and fears were laid as bare as their flesh. Both wished only blessings toward the other.
Ecstasy claimed them. Rising on his palms, Matt surrendered to her bite. His flesh tingled and tightened under her control. With her blood on his lips, he labored against her. His cock twitched, his balls tightened, his length surged, as the fire in his belly spread. She tangled her legs around his hips, her clit collided with the tangle of curls at the root of his cock. Kicked into ecstasy, her cunt milked him. He gritted his teeth, groaned, and his lips drew over descended fangs. Urgency overtook him, release gave way to shivering relief. Her opalescent eyes flashed, and he cried her name like a prayer.
“Cat!”
Moments later, they lay melted into each other’s arms. Something occurred in this connection that was indestructible.
“This is why Khuno sent us here, isn’t it?” she whispered, turning her face toward his.
Matt watched her. “Maybe.” He was pensive. “Probably.”
“Did you know this would happen?” she probed.
“No,” Matt murmured and rolled to cover her body with his own. “I’m grateful it did. I love you madly, Cat.”
“Yeah?” Her sweet smile tugged at his heart, as she teased his sensitive fang with her finger. “I’m glad, because I’m madly in love with you, too.” He gave her a supremely satisfied male smile, basking in her love. “I’d like to stay just like this forever.” She stretched luxuriously, and Matt hummed an approving reply. “You’re gonna get us out of this cave, though, right?” she challenged.
“Oh. Uh…okay.” Matt glanced around, trying to engage his higher brain. He studied the cave drawings on the wall and then glanced her way. “So…it’s not so bad…me taking charge…if I get us home…right?”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Amber Anthony
Amber Anthony is a pen name that represents collaborating authors: Patrice Hough Bader (we call her Rusty) and Nancy Reynolds. Together they have written several television episodes and feature film scripts.
They write about gorgeous alpha males with tons of charm, who might also be vampires. Their heroines are smart and strong with plenty of heart. Best of all, their stories take readers on a ride that holds their attention from start to finish. Their first novel with Torrid Books, Blood Rising, is the first of a trilogy, and is a hot supernatural (vampire) romance.
Patrice Hough Bader resides in the Midwest. She pursued study in Dance and Performing Arts before completing her studies in Political Science. After a career in Sales and Marketing, she now owns a Tavern with her husband.
Nancy Reynolds resides in a southwest city. She spent her twenties in New York City as an actress before entering the family business, and pursuing a career in health care. For several years she has written for movies and television. Now, she’s turning her love for words into production as a romance writer.
Write to Amber Anthony at [email protected] and find her on Facebook.
For your reading pleasure, we invite you to visit our web bookstore
TORRID BOOKS
www.torridbooks.com
Blood Rising Page 30