by Unknown
Another nudge and the crown of his cock’s head passed through her tight entrance. He entered her slowly, stretching her, she knew, to accommodate his size. She couldn’t put into words what she felt at the moment, but she knew his caution drove her nuts.
The welcome invasion halted; the kiss ended too, but he didn’t move away. Dimitri kept his lips mere inches above hers, their gazes locked. She didn’t understand what was going on, why he stopped, or what he was going to do next until he moved again.
He withdrew partially from her body, slid back in, stopping at the same spot. Once more he withdrew, but the third time he plunged in, fast and hard, forcing his way through the thin barrier, taking the gift she gave only to him.
Pain ripped through her, but she refused to cry out. She squeezed his hands, and he squeezed back, still staring at her and filling her to what she thought was a splitting point. Looking down, she saw he was still only partially submerged. Claudia bit her lip to stop the cry that threatened to spill forth, thinking of what would happen to her when he shoved the remainder of his hard cock in.
He stilled inside her, and she panted to breathe through it.
“Only when you’re ready,” he breathed out against her lips, kissing her with light pecks.
Claudia nodded and blinked several times, waiting for the pain to end. His cock seemed to throb within her, matching the throb of her heart beat and her clit.
He nibbled from her chin down to her throat. He teased her with the tip of his tongue then sucked the same spot before moving to her shoulder, kissing lightly.
She braced herself for more pain and nodded. He withdrew slightly, but when he slid back into her, pain wasn’t what followed. A new sensation went through her body, bringing to life nerve endings she never knew existed. Chills raced up and down her spine, pooling together in the very spot where his cock eased nearly out to slide in again.
Dimitri caressed her clit gently with slow, soft strokes, going slightly deeper each time, stretching her, filling her a little more until she took him all. His movements intensified and accelerated, stronger, driving deeper, faster. Claudia held on for the ride.
She opened her mouth, gasping with each inward probe, with each rub to her pussy. The pleasure forming in the pit of her stomach grew more tormenting. Instinct told her there should be something more, something that made her whimper in need, a need that climbed higher and higher. Just when she thought she wouldn’t be able to stand anymore an inner explosion ripped through her. She bit his shoulder to stop her cry from turning into a scream.
The ecstasy gripped her in what seemed to last forever. She thought it was never going to end, only to have it end too quickly. She let go of his shoulder, she shook her head back and forth, whimpering with each stroke. All of her senses were overloaded. Taste and smell were every bit as sensitive as her pussy.
Braced on his arms, Dimitri still pounded into her delicate flesh. He didn’t miss a beat, not even when he lowered his mouth close enough to touch her lips. She stared; his eyes changed colors from dark chocolate to a bright metallic silver. For the first time she saw his vampire eyes. His fangs were extended, but he didn’t take her blood.
In a deliberate move, his fangs broke the skin of his lower lip. Blood formed, bright red drops, Tempting or testing, Claudia didn’t know. She did know she wanted to lick the blood away, was driven to. Her head rose of its own accord, her tongue whipping out. The taste of him excited her and made her wild. She pulled his mouth to her by his hair and sucked his lip.
Once more she tightened up around his cock. Dimitri drove in and out like a pile driver. His mouth opened, a groan left his throat.
She sucked on his lip, drawing more of his blood into her, strengthening the bond forming in her veins with each taste, and a spontaneous orgasm rocked her ten times stronger than the one before.
Dimitri pulled back, bit his tongue and kissed her, driving his tongue into her mouth, in time with his cock, in and out, and Claudia sucked. The taste and smell of his blood nearly drove her crazy. She pumped her hips up against him. He moaned into her mouth, and the slamming of his body ended with his muscles frozen, His cock erupted inside her. His hot seed filled her, his cock pulsed, and she tasted the bitter sweetness of his blood, all at the same time.
With one last moan, Dimitri slumped on top of her. His hands loosened their grip, and he rested his face in the crook of her neck before he turned to his back, taking her with him.
* * * *
Dimitri held tightly to Claudia. With one arm around her and his hand flat on the back of her head, he linked his other fingers with her hand on his chest. He was tired, but couldn’t sleep. It was hard to think about sleeping when his damn dick was pounding between his legs for another round with his bloodmate.
My bloodmate! It still amazed him that he had taken the final step and given her his blood.
“I can hear you thinking.” Her breath on his chest sent chills over his body. “Something wrong?”
“No,” he sighed, rubbing his face.
She moved, rose up, and pulled his hand from his face. “I’m sorry. Maybe I should go.”
He touched her face gently. “No, I like you right where you are.”
“Then what’s wrong?”
“I didn’t want to bring shame to you, but I couldn’t keep away.”
Claudia went over him, her calves bordering his hips. With her on top of him, there was no way he was going to hide his hunger from her. His still hard cock pressed against her, throbbing to be back inside, just as his teeth throbbed to sink into her neck. He hissed when she touched his chest, drawing circles around his nipples.
“Do I seem shamed to you?” She took hold of his shaft, positioned it, and lowered herself down.
Thoughts of him being a Guardian, which to their race was something to be shunned, filled his head. Death was the only thing the protectors were good for. Reason told him, she shouldn’t want him but run away as fast as she could go. Reason be damned. He took hold of her hips, helping her to rock on him. Dimitri bucked under her, taking what she gave. She bounced on him, her eyes closed, her mouth open in passion. He watched her face, amazed at how she could want him again, take him into her body, especially, when fucking for the first time. He hadn’t been very gentle with her and worried that she would be sore from his rough handling though nothing in her actions indicated it.
“Touch me,” she panted softly.
He cupped her breasts and bucked harder. She moaned loudly, picked up speed, and fell forward, bracing herself on his chest. His fangs lengthened, his hunger to taste her again rose up fiercely.
He felt her contract, watched her face twist up like she was in pain, and he just bucked harder. He had an overwhelming need to protect her, to hold her close to his heart and never let her go.
Feeling her climax begin, he rose up and sank his fangs into her neck. He took hold of her hips when she cried out and her body quivered. He jerked her harder onto him. Taking each contraction, each ripple of pleasure from her body that he could, he drank, his own climax spurting forth.
With a sigh, she rested her head on his shoulder while he closed the wounds. Dimitri hugged her close, loving the feel of her around him.
“Don’t let me go.”
He heard the desperation in her voice. It caused him to tighten his arms around her, closing his eyes.
“Never let me go,” she pleaded.
“Only death will part us,” he swore. “Only death.”
* * * *
Lucan DeLuca stayed perfectly still on the narrow bed, listening to the noise in the room. He stared up at the ceiling, taking in how the sounds were not only different but how the things he saw had changed.
All around him it was clearer, sharper. He no longer felt like a child. He turned his head, taking in the clinic.
“Welcome back.”
Brown eyes looked down at him from a hovering position. Lucan felt at ease with the woman. Wavy brown hair was pulled back into
a bun with some locks slipping free to fan around her face. Her white coat told him this was the doctor.
“How are you feeling?” She helped him to sit up, placing pillows at his back. Sitting down next to him, she brought out a small light to shine into his eyes. “Lucan, you need to try to say something.”
He frowned at her, lifted his arm up and looked at the size of it, puzzled at how heavy it was. His whole body felt heavy, foreign to him.
“Do you remember anything?” she asked.
He gave her his attention again and opened his mouth. Nothing came out. She moved away him as he watched. Water poured into a glass, and the glass pressed to his lips. He sipped first and then took a big gulp. The coolness eased not only the tightness in his throat but the sandpaper feeling too.
“Patronus,” he rasped out when the glass was taken away.
“Right here.” Carissa stood in the doorway, holding the door open. She went right to him, and Lucan extended his arm out to her. Carissa grasped his arm with both hands, bowing her head.
“Sorry,” he said, still sounding like a damn frog.
Carissa looked up at him and smiled. “Oh, you’re going to be all right. As soon as you get your ass out of this bed, you’re training starts.”
Lucan broke out in a big smile and nodded his head, holding tightly to her arm.
He’d made the right choice. She was going to be perfect as patronus to him. Even though she didn’t know it yet, she was going to need him in the future just as he needed her in the present.
Chapter Seven
Claudia left Dimitri’s bed before he woke, wrapped herself up in her robe, and slipped from the room. She rushed to her own, grabbed some clothes, and left for a fast shower. She was late for her shift at the clinic and sore from last night.
Okay, so she’d given herself to Dimitri, and he bonded with her. Now what?
She was embarrassed. It was one thing to give herself away, but another to take the lead the way she had. Even thinking about rubbing her body over his, sliding him into her, and having her way with him had her face heating up.
That wasn’t how she was brought up, but damn if it didn’t feel right, and damn her but she wanted to go back and do it all over again.
Her mother had preached to her, over and over again that sex was all about the male. Vampires were demanding in their needs and for her—when her time came—to just relax, and let him have his way. Claudia wondered if what her mother told her and what she’d experienced with Dimitri were so far apart because her parent’s marriage had been arranged. Perhaps there was a vast difference between being bound together and being bonded. Perhaps that was why her father had been the way he was.
Even though Claudia loved her father, she had still hated him at times. Unlike the Nobles, he’d wanted a second son. Her mother gave him the son, but after the difficult birth, it was obvious she’d never be able to have another child, and the baby died a short time later. That night her father changed. Everything changed.
He was abusive to her mother and yelled at Claudia all the time. It became hell at home. Still, no matter how much she might have hated her home life, she hadn’t wished it to end by the hands of the breeds. She still remembered her father’s eyes that last day and how he looked at her just before he died. She saw her father’s love again only to have it was taken away forever.
“Hey!” Julian’s smiling face brought her out of her past. She smiled back at him. “I was wondering what happened to you.”
“How are you doing, Julian?”
He walked with her to the clinic. “Think I’m still a bit shocked. What about you?”
“Think the same.”
“I was going to see how Lucan was doing. Tempest is still in a state of shock too, but helping to care for Paris seems to help her.”
“She’s a beautiful little girl. I think she’s going to break a few hearts when she grows up.”
Julian groaned. “I don’t even want to think about the future. I’m just happy to make it through one day at a time.”
When they walked into the clinic, Claudia went one way, to join Doc Ivy, and he went the other, to Lucan’s bed.
“Well, you look like you’ve gotten a good day’s sleep,” Doc Ivy told Claudia.
Embarrassed and knowing she wasn’t hiding it, she couldn’t meet Ivy’s gaze with her own. Though Ivy gave her a double-take look at the reaction to her comment, she didn’t say anything. Thank God.
“Ready to get started on your next lesson?”
Claudia forced cheerfulness into her voice. “I’m all yours.”
They worked for a couple hours. Claudia learned how to stop a bleeder and to do some internal stitching up. It was slow work, but one that left her feeling good about herself. When they were finished, she was grateful, because she felt strange. Bloated—as if she needed to bleed herself.
Claudia looked around and saw that the doctor was busy showing another bloodmate how to do a procedure, so she picked up a knife and headed for the bathroom. Shutting the door, she caught sight of Dimitri walking in. She panicked, slammed the door the last few inches, and turned the lock. She retreated until the back of her knees touched the toilet, and she dropped on the closed seat.
Knock—knock.
“Claudia, are you in there?”
His voice had her melting. Claudia closed her eyes, pressed her hand over her mouth, and prayed that he would go away. She couldn’t see him. Not yet.
“Claudia.” The knob rattled and again he knocked on the door. “I know you’re in there. Open up.”
The pain, the sickness hit her.
She jumped from the seat, raised the lid, and puked. Oh, God, she’d forgotten about the purging. The vomiting knocked the wind right out of her lungs. The knife clattered the floor, and she hung onto the sides of the toilet while her body emptied itself of the extra blood in her system.
The knob popped, the door opened, and Dimitri was inside the small bathroom. “Damnit!” he snapped. Kneeling down behind her, he held her hair back from her face as she filled the toilet bowl with blood.
“What’s going on?” Ivy’s asked.
“She’s purging,” Dimitri answered.
“She needs to get in some water before the pain overtakes her,” Ivy said behind them.
Dimitri touched her, and Claudia wanted to sink into his touch. The heaving stopped, and she reached for the knife. Dimitri yanked her hand away.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” he demanded. “That shit isn’t going to work now.”
He jerked her up, swung her around, and had her off of her feet before she could blink. She did sink into him, wrapping her arms around his neck, hugging him tight, and waiting for the pain to pass.
Back to his room, they went right into the bathroom. He put her back on her feet when he sat down at the edge of the tub and held her tight against him. While the water ran to fill the tub, he took her clothes off. She couldn’t help him, not when a sharp stab of pain landed in her gut. She doubled over, holding her stomach as he finished stripping her down to bra and panties. As soon as he placed her in the warm bath, the pain began to ease. She closed her eyes, sighing.
“Now, do you care to tell me why you tried to bleed yourself after we bonded?” Claudia shook her head and turned her back on him. “Did I do something wrong?”
“I thought I could still do it.”
“Why?”
She took a deep breath, brought her hands up to her face and rubbed. “I don’t know.”
“Hey, Dimitri,” Shadow’s thickly accented voice sang out to them. “You in there?”
“Not now!” he snapped.
“It’s okay.” She lowered her hand and sat up in the water. “You’ve got stuff to do.”
“Claudia—”
“I have to go back to work.” She tried to get out of the tub, only to have her arm grabbed, her escape stopped, her body pushed back in the water.
“I’m sorry about last night.” He si
ghed. “I shouldn’t have shamed you.”
She looked up at him slowly, her heart pounding hard in her chest. “I’m not ashamed,” she whispered, tears forming in her eyes. “You didn’t shame me.”
He touched her cheek, thumb brushing back and forth. “I’m sorry for not being gentler with you. You deserve gentleness, and the bonding should be done when we both are in our right minds, not in the heat of the moment.”
“I’m not sorry about any of that,” she whispered.
“Then what’s wrong?” He touched the side of her face again. “Why’d you sneak away from me, and why did you lock me out?”
The tears fell, and he brushed each one away. Emotions she sensed coming from him overwhelmed her, and before she could stop herself the words came forth. “Do you love her?”
She didn’t mean to ask the question, but after she took his blood, after they bonded, she felt something. She felt a connection between him and Carissa, one that she wasn’t sure she could understand.
“Claudia,” he said with a sigh.
“I picked up this feeling you have for her,” she whispered. “Like you love her.”
He didn’t let go of her hand, and she couldn’t look at him. “I don’t love her. Maybe once a long time ago I thought I did, but I don’t, not like you mean.”
She turned her head, looking at the man of her dreams. A new kind of pain seemed to hit her, and she was powerless to stop the rest of the tears from falling freely. “Yes, you do,” she breathed out so softly. “I can feel it and have seen it in your eyes when you look at her.” She sniffed. “I’m sorry. I don’t have any right to question you like this.”
“You have every right to question me.” Dimitri pulled her out of the water and into his arms. She went willingly; hands clenching his shirt, she held back the sob threatening to slip from her throat.
“I care, yes, but not like you think. Carissa and I have been through a lot together.” His chin rested on top of her head, hand fisted in her hair. “How can I make you understand a past that I still don’t understand myself?”