by Celia Kyle
By tearing the fabric apart at her hips. Two wrenching jerks and then the cloth became nothing more than a scrap of silk. He tugged it from beneath her and then tossed it aside.
Now she was naked before him, fully exposed to his red-eyed gaze, and the urge to cover herself rushed forward once more. She wasn’t lithe and lean like Galla or thin and glamorous like the other feeders in the mansion. She was simply Kate Bennett—ex-human lover of waffles and ice cream.
Then Joce licked his lips, those eyes traveling over her body like a physical caress, and there was no missing the appreciation in his gaze.
“Katherine,” he purred and leaned forward, bracketing her with his thick, muscular arms, one hand on either side of her head. He hovered above her, caging her with his body and she realized that if he was the cage, she never wanted to be released. “Tell me again.”
Tell him what again? He wanted her to think? Yeah, not happening.
Then he did that lip licking thing again, teasing the tip of one fang this time around, and a full body shudder overtook her.
Oh. Right. The wanting.
“I want this. I want you. Want you inside me. Want your cock in me. Want your blood in my mouth. Want to scream your name.”
All of that and more.
“Fuck. I could eat you.”
Kate widened her legs and hooked her heels behind his thighs. She tried to pull him closer, force him to lower his lips until his thick cock was nestled against her heated pussy. “Nothing’s stopping you.”
Her center tightened, pussy aching and throbbing with desire.
“Katherine,” he growled and instead of frightening her, it aroused her further. Pleasure ruffled along her nerves with the sound, teasing her with what could be if he’d just get a move on already.
“Joce, please.” She pulled so hard, her hips lifted from the mattress, rising until they brushed the thick, hard length of his cock still trapped by the fabric of his pants. That’s what she wanted. “Please.”
“Fuck, Kate.” He grasped her hip, shoving her to the mattress with hardly any effort. Damn man with his vampiric strength. “Don’t do that. I’m barely controlling myself.”
“Joce,” she whispered, drawing the attention of the red-eyed vamp, pulling his attention away from her exposed pussy. “Why?”
“Why?” A frown pinched his brow.
“Why are you controlling yourself?” She slipped one hand behind his neck, softly cupping the back of his head while he pressed her other hand to his heart. “I’m your fire, Joce. I’m yours. It’s in my blood, but make my body feel it.”
A new light filled the orbs. Tory said he was acting feral before, but she’d been wrong. This was feral.
And she liked it.
“Need to taste,” he growled, expression daring her to object.
Why would she?
Kate tilted her head to the side, baring her throat for her mate, only to have him freeze in place. He abandoned her hip and reached for her throat. He ran a claw-tipped finger along the column of her neck, the sharp tip scratching her flesh.
“Not here,” he whispered. He trailed that sharp digit down her body, between her breasts. He circled Kate’s belly button before he gradually, gently, oh so slowly, traveled to her pussy. He cupped her mound and she shuddered with the blunt contact. “Need to taste you here.”
Another tremble wracked her frame and she had only one answer for him. “Yes.”
That earned her a smile, a hint of violence tinged with ultimate desire, and then he slowly moved his mouth down her body. He didn’t rush.
No, Joce took his time. He might have ultimately wanted to lap at her pussy, but he got there slowly.
She received a kiss to her neck, tongue flicking her skin, before he moved on. He kissed, licked and nipped her chest and then moved to her breasts. Joce captured the tip of one breast between his lips and suckled the sensitive flesh. He nicked her with his fang and she moaned, grabbing his head and tugging him closer.
“Yes,” she hissed.
Joce taunted her nipple even more, sucking harder, flicking the small bit of flesh with his tongue and then scratching it with a canine. That had him moaning anew and she realized he was tasting her blood as he tormented her breast.
“Joce, please.”
Please more.
Please less.
Please move and get on with it already.
He released her nipple with a soft pop and blew a puff of air across her damp flesh.
“Please what, my fire?” He moved to the valley between her breasts and pressed a soft kiss to the opposite mound. “Please take another taste? Your nipples are like fresh berries. Sweet temptation,” he murmured and then traced her jealous nubbin with his tongue. “Or please continue on? Your pussy is calling to me, begging me to devour you. Is that what you’re asking for?”
He increased the pressure against her mound, adding to the pleasure coursing through her veins. He hadn’t delved past her outer sex lips, but still she felt on the verge of release, the orgasm bubbling and growing inside her, anxious to be unleashed.
“Yes, please, Joce.” She rolled her hips, anxious for more contact, for a deep possession.
Joce rubbed her pussy, palm sliding up and down her mound, fingers remaining a flat plane against her heated flesh. “You want my fingers toying with your pussy? My mouth on your cunt?”
“Yes,” she rolled her hips. “Please, yes.” She’d come if he’d just put his mouth on her, then his cock in her.
“You want this?” He slipped a single digit between her lower lips, skimming her moist, aroused flesh, and she gasped with the shallow exploration. It slipped through her cream, teasing the top of her slit and then traveling south before returning to the pinnacle once more. “You want my mouth here?”
“Yes,” she whimpered.
Then his touch was gone, pussy abandoned, and she opened her eyes. When had she closed them? It didn’t matter, not when she watched Joce bring his glistening finger to his lips and lap at his skin.
“Sweet and salty.” He licked himself once more and then presented her with his wet digit. “Taste yourself. See how delicious you are. Know that I’m going to love every minute between your thighs.”
With a whimper, Kate parted her lips and did as he demanded. She licked and sampled her own juices on his hand, licking him clean. With each lap, her need grew, body demanding to be sated by Joce. Now.
He gradually withdrew from her mouth and she waited for what he’d say next, what he’d do next. “Are you ready for my mouth, chéri?”
Kate didn’t question herself. She nodded immediately. “Yes. Please.”
“Gladly.”
Joce kissed his way down her body, mouth traveling a path his fingers explored moments ago. He licked and kissed her breasts, teasing her skin with fast, chaste kisses before he journeyed on. He nibbled the top swell of her stomach and traced her belly button with his tongue.
“Please,” she whined, body calling out for him.
Joce merely chuckled and pressed a chaste kiss above her mound. “Impatient.”
“Desperate,” she corrected. “Need you. Want you.”
He continued, finally settling on his stomach between her spread thighs. “So fucking gorgeous here, all pink and wet for me. Do you know what it’s like to drink from your pussy just as you come? To sink my fangs in right here,” he turned his head and pressed a kiss at the highest point of her thigh, “and suckle you as you scream my name.”
Kate could do nothing but whimper.
That earned a low chuckle and then he refocused on her pussy once more. “Such a feast. So pretty. So wet for me.”
This time he didn’t tease. Or, he didn’t tease a lot. He licked a slow line along the seam of her sex lips, his tongue separating them slightly and dipping into her inner petals. That first connection sent a shudder through her body, muscles twitching with that first rush of intimate pleasure.
“So fucking good,” he murmured and repeated the move, tasting her once more, tongue slipping deeper.
Joce grabbed her thighs, encouraged her to place her legs over his shoulders and then he cupped her ass. He held her steady as he…
As he licked the long length of her seam, traveling from her very center to clit and back again.
“Oh, God!” She reached down, not even thinking, as she cupped his shaved head and fought to direct his motions.
It was pointless. He’d do what he desired.
So she allowed herself to be taken along for the ride. Allowed him to take what he desired and absorb every hint of pleasure he gifted her.
Joce circled her pussy with his tongue, teasing the outer flesh with soft flicks before delving deep once more. He fucked her with that nubile muscle, tormenting her desperate flesh.
And then he explored her clit. He licked a slow path from entrance to that small bundle of nerves. The small nub was swollen and sensitive, begging to be kissed, caressed, and laved until she came.
Joce seemed more than ready to help her with that. He circled the bundle, ’round and ’round, again and again until she lay gasping and panting beneath him.
Then he did more. Then he suckled on that small part of her, tugging on her clit with his lips until she twitched and panted with each new sensation. The rapid back and forth of the tip of his tongue on the concentration of nerves sent her pleasure spiraling, crawling higher and higher with each rapid touch.
Kate twitched and jerked in his hold, hips anxious to chase the sensations, to follow them until she came. Her pussy clenched, rippling around air and she wished he’d slip his fingers inside her, torture her doubly.
Of course, it didn’t matter when his tempo changed, when he settled into a rhythm that had her panting and moaning with each consistent repetition.
Flick. Circle. Tap, tap. Circle. Flick.
He teased her with that pace, the repeat of those actions, for what felt like hours. She panted and moaned, pussy growing wetter by the second as his ministrations continued and he drove her slowly mad. She was desperate to be filled, to be consumed, by him.
“Joce…” Her pussy clenched again. And again. And… The rhythmic tightening of her muscles picked up his pace, each spasm sending a wave of spine-tingling pleasure through her body. “Oh, God…”
She ran her fingers over his shaved head, fighting for something to hang on to while the sensations stole her thoughts. Her breasts ached, her clit throbbed and her pussy begged to be filled by his long, thick cock. She wanted, oh, how she wanted to be taken by him.
Possessed.
Owned.
Consumed.
Kate pulled her hands from his head and cupped her breasts, kneading her abundant flesh and plucking her nipples with delicious tugs. She rolled her hips, trying to take more than he offered in order to drive herself over the edge of release.
Orgasm lurked near, dancing in and out of reach and it was…
“So close,” she released the words with a breathy whisper. “So…”
Joce growled low and added a scrape of his fang against her clit, sending a spear of pain through her blood.
And it simply added to her pleasure. No, it magnified the sensations. The new feeling sent her careening toward the edge of climax, forcing her body to balance at the tip where she danced along the threshold of ultimate pleasure and pain of denial.
Kate sobbed, the sensations growing and blossoming inside her, but going nowhere. The bubble of pleasure grew and grew yet refused to pop, refused to give her that ultimate joy.
“Joce,” she sobbed.
She was there—there—but she couldn’t tip over the precipice.
Joce lifted his mouth from her sensitive flesh, dragging a denial from her lungs.
“No!” She released her breasts, desperate to pull him back to her.
“Katherine,” the hoarse rasp had her faltering and she met his red-eyed gaze, his vampire nature out in full force. “Come.”
Then he opened his mouth.
Then he bared his fangs.
Then he bit… and he drank.
That first piercing of her flesh rocketed her from simmering arousal to screaming ecstasy. She arched and shouted his name as pure, unadulterated pleasure consumed her in a seductive rush of bliss. It rolled through her veins and skated along her nerves, sliding up and down her spine as each new wave brought her more and more.
She lost control of her body, the muscles no longer responding to her brain, that part of her short-circuited by the joy of his bite. Each pull forced her to accept more and more pleasure, more and more of those beautiful sensations.
Her toes curled, back arched, and eyes squeezed shut while she fought to survive the pleasure he created inside her body.
Still he fed, still he devoured her blood, and still she rolled from one orgasm to the next. They continued, unending and deliciously painful.
She shuddered and trembled, reveling in his attentions until… suddenly she wasn’t.
Until suddenly his mouth was gone.
Until suddenly he was on the other side of the room.
Until suddenly he wiped at his mouth with frantic hands as if battling to rid himself of her taste.
“What have I done?”
Chapter Ten
What had he done? He’d…
Joce’s cock throbbed and pulsed, the ache telling exactly what he hadn’t done. That wasn’t the issue though.
He’d tasted his fire and she’d been sensual and sweet, her juices like the finest wine. Then, when she’d been prepared to come, he’d tasted her blood. Even now the liquid still remained on his lips.
But it wasn’t just the blood. It was that added flavor that brought forward emotions that…
Emotions he couldn’t afford.
There was possessiveness and then there were the emotions invoked by the feeding, the taking of Kate’s blood as she came.
In that moment, that purity of pleasure, everything inside his partner became clear. Her feelings, her worries, her joys, her sadness. Anything that plagued her was known to him. Above all, he experienced her feelings for him.
And then his heart responded. It beat for her, reached for her, stretched to connect with hers as only a fire and her mate could.
But he’d walked that emotional path before, hadn’t he? He’d tiptoed along the edge and it’d cost him so, so much.
A price he couldn’t ever pay again.
Because he didn’t want to claim her as his because she belonged to him. He wanted to claim her because he cared for her. Already.
And perhaps it was more than simply caring.
How stupid was he to think he could have a fire, but not feel for her.
He was deluded.
His cock told him he didn’t give a fuck about his emotional state, it was still unsated.
“Joce?” Confusion marred her features, her brow lowered and pinched. “What’s wrong?”
How could he explain when he wasn’t sure himself? He just knew these feelings were wrong. He shouldn’t have them. They led to heartache and pain and he refused to lose himself once more.
“Joce?” Kate pushed to her elbows and then eased farther until she sat upright in the middle of the bed. She crawled to the edge, wincing once she threw her legs over the side. When she glanced at the juncture of her thighs, he saw the still-bleeding puncture marks.
They would continue bleeding until…
“You,” he rasped and cleared his throat. “You need to lick your palm and rub it on the wound. Otherwise it won’t stop bleeding. We have a natural coagulant in our—”
She shot him a glare, reminding him she probably knew that. “And you can’t help me because?”
Because he was a coward?
Because he couldn’t trust himself with her?
Because he couldn’t afford to trust anyone?
Because it hurt too mu
ch to care?
Yes. All of the above.
“Katherine, I…” he sighed and ran a hand over his skull. His hair had grown a little, the short strands pricking his palm. “I’m sorry.” He looked to her, hoping she could see his regret. “I’m sorry you got dragged into this life. I’m sorry I Changed you. I’m sorry… I’m just sorry.”
He quieted, not saying another word, waiting for her response.
“You’re sorry? I don’t know what that means to us, to me. You act like you don’t… want…” The knowledge finally showed in her expression and her shattering heart was like a physical blow to his soul. “I see.”
“I’m—”
“Sorry. I know.” Her voice was soft, barely more than a whisper. “I heard you.” She shook her head. “But I’m your fire. What does sorry mean for us?”
He ignored the way her breath hitched at the word fire. “I’ll still be available to feed you and I hope that you will still,” he swallowed hard and pulled his attention from her. “I hope that you will still feed me.”
And he hoped he wouldn’t be drowned in his feelings for her each time.
Love was dangerous.
Trust was dangerous.
“I don’t understand.” She shook her head for the millionth time and it tore at his heart.
“You do understand. This was a mistake and it’s one we’ll both have to live with. For now, while the bond is new, we’ll feed from each other. We can explore alternative food sources later.” He took a deep breath, savoring the scent of her blood and sex permeating the air. He’d miss those flavors, the taste and smell of her desire. “You can stay here and I’ll find different rooms in the mansion or Carac can set you up in one of the vacant suites.”
“That’s it.” Her voice sounded hollow to his ears.
“That’s it.” It had to be. He couldn’t handle destroying the woman he loved twice in a lifetime. “That’s it.”
“You bastard,” she hissed, seething rage filling her eyes. “You fucking asshole.”
He couldn’t stomach the weight of her rage and diverted his attention from her eyes. “You’re still bleeding.”
She sucked in a harsh breath and a moment later her palm smacked against her inner thigh and she roughly rubbed the bite. He hated that she was so harsh with her own body, but he didn’t get to say anything any longer, did he? Which meant he swallowed his admonishing words.