by Jill Myles
She frowned. “Oh?”
“I’m gonna take a pass. All that porn stuff weirds me out.” And turned me on a little too much in my present state. Just thinking about it made a tremor shoot through my body again. I took a sip of cold water to refocus.
“Prude.” Remy picked up her coffee cup. “Be that way. I just won’t help you, then.”
“Wait. Help me how?”
“Who’s gonna show you where Delilah lives, smarty pants?”
I scowled. “I need Delilah’s help, Remy.”
“And I need an assistant on my tour,” she said. “I’ll look important with an assistant.”
I rubbed my forehead. “Do we have to do a porn tour?”
Remy dabbed at the corners of her mouth daintily. “It’ll be fun.”
Yeah, as fun as a pap smear, and involving more vaginas.
I tried to think of a way around this mess. “But if I’ve got to have sex every day now, I’m going to need to bring along someone for the ride.”
“Bring Noah,” she said. “I love him.”
I stabbed my pancake down the middle. “We’re taking a time-out on our relationship.”
“Problems with the other Serim, I guess?” Her voice was understanding.
My head shot up. This was the first I’d heard of it. “What do you mean, ‘problems’?”
Her eyes grew wide. “Nothing. You going to eat that?” She reached over and snatched a pancake from my plate.
“Remy . . .”
“Nothing I can talk about,” she amended. “Or Noah would kill me. And I’m pretty sure I’m wrong, because he would have said something to you.”
I frowned, wondering what she knew. But she did have a point. Noah would have said something. “It’s just one of those commitment things. We don’t see eye to eye.”
“Oh.” She sighed. “What a shame. Bring Zane with us, then.” It was a generous offer. Remy wasn’t exactly his biggest fan ever since he’d held a gun to her head. “I’ll bring someone, too, so we don’t have to share.”
Probably a good idea. Much as I liked Remy, I didn’t think a threesome would do wonders for our friendship.
“I do have to go to New Orleans,” I said, mulling over the idea. “But the Mayan dig is in two weeks. I can’t take a long trip.” No way was I missing my chance-of-a-lifetime job for an extra autograph stop at a porn store.
Could I even still go on the Mayan dig? A vision of me atop a pyramid, writhing in sexual need, shot through my mind. Would I be forced to drag members of the archaeology team to my tent and have them service me? Hourly? How would I get anything done?
Or would I even live long enough for the dig? I rubbed my arms, suddenly cold.
“No long trip. Got it.” Remy beamed, like this had been her plan all along. ”I’ve only got a few stops anyhow. I’ll call my publicist and let him know we’re confirmed.” She shoved the last bite into her mouth and grabbed the tab for our massive late-night breakfast. “The sun rises in a few hours—just enough time to pack.”
And just enough time for me to track down my vampire lover and screw his brains out. I was Itching like crazy and I needed him bad.
Yet again, I cursed Mae and her damned burning kiss.
o o o
By the time Zane got home, the sun was just cresting on the horizon and I’d set my washing machine on spin cycle again in the hopes that the low rotation would ease me toward an orgasm and relieve the Itching that threatened to drive me insane.
I’d been cussing Mae for hours for leaving me with this endless heat in my blood and no outlet. Succubi needed a partner to feed their curse, and a washing machine wasn’t cutting it. Masturbation didn’t work, either—the magic was in being the recipient of an orgasm, not the orgasm itself (though that was usually pretty magical, too).
I heard the front door slam and leapt up, intending to rip into Zane. I was cranky, horny, and the sun was almost up. I’d only have a few minutes before he’d pass out for his daylight hibernation.
“Where have you been?” I stalked into the living room and scowled, intending on blasting Zane with a few scathing comments before I allowed him to grovel and we could have blistering hot make-up sex.
The sight of him stopped me dead in my tracks. It wasn’t the angry snarl on his face or the unheard retort that he bit out. It wasn’t the sexy leather trench coat or the messy fall of black hair over his forehead that made my burning body turn from a 6.5 on the Richter scale to an 11.
It was the burning red in his eyes as they met mine.
He was in need, just as badly as me.
“Oh . . . hey,” I breathed, all the argument whooshing out of my lungs as the flesh between my legs grew instantly wet. I took a step forward, toward him. “I’m pissed at you.”
It didn’t sound like I was pissed. It sounded more like Take me now, baby.
He threw his car keys down on the table and glared at me. “I’m not in the mood, Jackie. I’ve had a shit night, and all I want to do is lie down and sleep until tomorrow.”
Liar. He might not be in the mood for sex, but his eyes told me what he needed.
And I didn’t care if he was in the mood or not. I was.
I grabbed him by the jacket collar, noticing that he smelled heavily of alcohol and cigarettes. He’d been to a club, but at least there was no lipstick on his collar. He hadn’t fed. I tugged him toward me, his mouth angling toward mine reluctantly. I could see the barest hint of his fangs brushing against his full mouth, and lord, I liked the look of that.
I bit down on his lower lip, hard. The taste of cigarettes and rum touched my lips, and I swirled my tongue against his mouth, pulling him closer.
He groaned like a dying man. “Jackie, no. I can’t do this.” His breath was ragged and he feebly tried to push me away. “Not tonight, not right now—unless you want me to feed from you.”
Heck no, I wouldn’t let him feed from me since our last disastrous episode, when he’d betrayed my trust. He knew it, I knew it, and yet I couldn’t resist. My hands slid to the waistband of his pants and I flicked open the button. “I have to have sex tonight, Zane. I can’t wait.”
Zane stared down into my intensely blue eyes, his hands sliding over my back and ass as if he couldn’t help himself. “You’re in a bad way.”
“Very bad,” I agreed, my voice sounding like a sultry purr as his hands slid over me.
A slow, devilish smile spread over his mouth and he raised one hand to cup my cheek, grazing his thumb across my mouth. His eyes were locked into mine, fascinated by the intensity of color. “Been thinking of me all night? So much for Prince Charming, eh?”
A subtle dig at Noah. I nipped Zane’s thumb, distracting him. “Let’s not talk about Noah.”
He stilled, his attention focusing. “Did you guys have a fight?” His voice had a gloating touch to it that irritated me.
Why was everyone so fascinated with whether Noah and I were sleeping together? I moved my hands down the front of his pants, sliding against the hard length waiting there.
“Jackie,” he warned, but his hands dug into my hips, dragging me closer to him. Not much of a protest, and I knew I’d won.
Pushing backward, I edged him to the corner of the bed and knocked him onto it. Hooray for a bed. Most of the time we never made it to the bed before we had wild monkey sex.
We fell and I felt Zane adjust under me, shifting to take the pressure off the long black sweep of vampire wings under his leather trench. I grabbed the front of his button-up shirt and ripped it apart. He wasn’t protesting any longer, and I straddled him, rotating my hips on top of his as I leaned over him to give him a long kiss.
Our lovemaking was a mutual takeover. His hands jerked at the waistband of my jeans, and I helped him rip them off my body.
Even as I slid my naked flesh over his body, he strained. I could feel the wings ripple under him, trapped by layers of half-discarded clothing and his own body weight. “Need blood,” he said, his red eyes flaring as
he guided my hips over his thick length and settled me over it.
My entire body quivered with anticipation at the long-sought relief, so damn close. “No blood,” I said, rotating my hips and digging his cock deeper into me. “Just sex.”
He groaned again, throwing his head back as I squeezed my internal muscles around him and lifted, then lowered again. “Jackie,” he warned.
I was past warnings. I didn’t care. All I knew was that I had what I needed, and I was taking it.
My body clenched around his cock, fueling my rocking hips faster and faster toward the orgasm that spelled relief. His fingers dug into my hips as I rolled them over him, hard and fast.
It didn’t take long. One moment I was shivering and tensing up as my body sped toward the orgasm, my breath catching in my throat as he slammed my hips down over his. Then lights exploded behind my eyes and my body quaked into a rough, ecstatic orgasm.
I breathed a long, low sigh of relief, wiggling my toes.
“I’m glad one of us got what we needed out of this,” Zane growled under me, his fingers clenching the soft roundness of my buttocks. He rammed into me again, his eyes piercing red and angry as he thrust upward into my slick flesh.
Okay, so I felt a little guilty at that and rocked my hips against his as he continued to pump inside me, leading me toward another slow, delicious orgasm. Damn, I loved his body against mine. I was even feeling a little generous, now that all the urgent need had seeped out of my body. I reached out and twirled one of his nipples with my finger. “Problem?”
I gasped when he thrust hard and deep inside me, growling again. His fangs glinted against his full lower lip, and he stared at my throat. “You know what I need,” he rasped.
Blood—he needed to drink from me. Vampire eyes turned red like mine turned blue—a meter of how badly we needed to feed our urges—and his eyes were a stark, vivid red. But letting Zane drink from me meant putting my body in his control totally and completely. It meant giving him a taste of my powers, and succumbing to the mind-blanking numbness of sleep. A scary thing for one of my kind, seeing as how we didn’t sleep. Normally I would have said hell no, and slid off of him like yesterday’s pony ride. But I was feeling unsettled and still a bit guilty.
I needed him for more than just sex—with Noah gone, I had no choice but to ask Zane to come on the road trip with me.
A compromise occurred to me, and I leaned back over Zane, letting my breasts brush against his chest as I reached down to kiss those pearly fangs. My carefully thought-out words died into an kittenish whimper of delight when he ground into me with one long, delicious stroke. Oh, yesss . . . I loved Zane’s body.
I forced myself to concentrate and kissed his mouth. “I need something from you, too, Zane. Will you do me a small favor?”
His lips caught mine and I felt the scrape of fangs against my lip, biting into me. The mixture of pleasure and pain—and the taste of my own blood in my mouth—left me coiling with excitement once more. “Ask,” he rasped, his lips trailing across my chin and down my jawline, hinting at my throat.
“I need a vacation,” I said. “A little road trip. And I need you to come with me. Please?” I slid my fingers behind his neck and pressed his mouth against the soft skin of my collarbone. If he bit, I knew I had him—and my trip.
“Whatever you want,” he growled against my throat, and I felt his fangs puncture my flesh. The sharp sting was followed by the most delicious feeling of warmth as he began to feed from my throat. Heat rolled through my body and coaxed me into another orgasm, hard and fast. His came moments after mine.
Just like the last time Zane had fed from me, he clasped me to him, stroking my body until the aftershocks left me, his thrusts slowing. My eyelids began to flutter closed, my body drifting into the feeding-induced sleep brought on by a vampire’s bite. I wrapped my arms around my lover and held him close, even as I began to drift away, and I felt his tongue rasp against my skin, closing the bite marks with tender care.
“It’s not like you to make deals, Princess,” he said, his voice sleepy in my ear. “Next thing you know, you’ll be working for the queen.”
Ouch. I was nothing like the queen, or any of the other deal makers who used people to get their way. But the thought disturbed me long after I drifted away.
Succubi don’t dream like normal people. Our bodies don’t have a “sleep” mode like vampires or Serim, so the only time we get to shut down is after a vampire feeding, since it’s magically altered to put the victim to sleep. Which doesn’t really bother me for the most part, but there’s times that being wired at four in the morning can get to you.
Still, sinking into the bite-induced sleep was not a comfortable feeling, either. I’d grown used to the control I had over my body, and to slide into unconsciousness was disturbing. My pulse pounded with worry even as everything in my body went limp with sleep. I didn’t have my own dreams, though. That part of my brain was turned off for good. Instead, I hovered on the edge of Zane’s conscious mind, leeching off of his thoughts. My physical form had been turned off, and my mind transferred to his.
The landscape around me was the same, the small, slightly messy room of my apartment. Clothes were scattered on the floor, and one of my legs hung off the bed. I even snored—much to my dream-embarrassment. Zane slept peacefully next to me, his arm locked around my waist.
He lay on his stomach, nude, and the black sweep of his glossy wings flexed over my body. Even in my sleep he sought to protect me.
A warm, squishy feeling took over me and I relaxed. Zane had gone into day hibernation, and his dreams were calm and normal. There would be no betrayal this time. The bad times were in the past, and we were moving on to a bright new future.
Happy, I settled into his mind and made sure that he dreamed about me.
At some point later, I awoke and realized I’d slid back into my own body. Zane still slept next to me and the sun was high in the sky, which meant that he’d sleep for a while longer. That was fine, because I had a lot to do before he woke up.
No messages from Noah on my cell phone. I contemplated sending him a text but I didn’t like the idea of him “punishing” me by depriving me of his presence. Plus I was still fixed on Remy’s slip of the tongue last night. What had she meant by “the Serim wouldn’t allow it”?
After a gratifying lunch of four sandwiches, a full bag of Doritos, and two beers, I packed for the trip. According to the internet, 1600 miles lay between here and New Orleans. Twenty-six hours in the car. Even with Remy’s few stops, we could be done with this whole ridiculous curse thing within a matter of days since we didn’t have to sleep.
That thought cheered me immensely, and I even ate a couple of Twinkies to celebrate.
Getting the time off work to go on the road trip was stunningly easy. All I had to do was call Dr. Morgan, turn on the waterworks, and explain that I was having some personal issues because I’d just broken up with my boyfriend.
“Mr. Gideon is still going to fund the Mayan expedition, isn’t he?” Fear edged his voice. “We leave in two weeks!”
So glad he was worried about me. “I’m sure Mr. Gideon won’t change his mind about the expedition—”
“You’re sure?” He sounded relieved, then his voice turned suave again. “You’re still going to be coming on the dig, aren’t you? I hope that your troubles with Mr. Gideon won’t affect your work. You know I’ll need someone I can lean on.”
And someone whose shirt he could look down. “Oh, I’ll be there, Dr. Morgan,” I told him. “This is my first archaeological dig, and I’m not going to miss it just because Noah’s being a control freak. I’ll avoid him.”
“Hmmm.” Dr. Morgan didn’t sound convinced. “It’s vital that Mr. Gideon remain interested and active in the dig. Perhaps you should apologize to him.”
Apologize? I could feel my face purple at the thought and bit back the retort that bubbled up. If I protested any more he’d kick me off the trip, and that was the last thi
ng I wanted. I’d been looking forward to this dig for weeks. “I’ll talk to Noah. By the time of the dig, I’m sure we’ll be back together.” I couldn’t imagine him staying mad at me for that long.
“You’re a good girl, Jackie. Just think of what’s best for the department. I know you’ll make the right decision.”
In other words, he wanted me to swallow my pride and whore myself out, as long as he got to go on his precious dig. I hung up. Everything was in place now.
I was struggling with the suitcase zipper when a gentle snore made me pause. I glanced over at the bedroom, but Zane wasn’t in the bed any longer. The sun had gone down, and rumpled sheets were the only thing left on the mattress. He whistled in the distance, and the shower turned on, drowning out any noise he made.
The snore came again, from the other side of the couch. With dread, I slid over to the side and peeked over.
And groaned.
My pizza boy from the night before was still there, still unconscious.
How could I possibly have forgotten that? I was the world’s worst person ever.
I was still staring at his sleeping body when Zane wandered into the living room, half-dressed. “What’s wrong, Princess?”
I gestured at the comatose man on the floor. “This. I don’t know what I’m supposed to do with him.” I tugged on the ends of my hair, trying to think. “I can’t just leave him here.”
Zane scratched his hard stomach and leaned over the pizza boy, looking as if it wasn’t any dire problem. “Want me to get rid of the body for you?”
I gasped. “He’s not dead!”
The vampire grinned, the look on his face sly. “Want me to kill him and then get rid of the body?” His eyes flicked red.
I threw a couch cushion at him. “That is not funny.” I ignored his chuckle and looked down at the pizza boy again. “I need to get him out of my apartment—alive—and somehow not get caught by the police.”