Blood Shadows

by Lindsay J. Pryor

  And he pushed.

  It wasn’t the gentle nudge it had been before, a gradual breaking inside her, building her arousal with his own. This time he gave her no time to adjust. This time he made the most of her wetness. This time he was feeding his own hunger as well as hers as he entered her in one slow, steady but unrelenting move, filling her to the hilt.

  Caitlin cried out and arched her back, but he pressed her hard back against the car. She flexed her fingers. Closed her eyes. Her body shuddered. Her own dampness masked her thighs as he withdrew only to thrust again. This time it was harder and intentionally so. She dropped her head back against his shoulder and cried out again, her nails digging deep into the palms of her hands.

  ‘I wanted you from the first moment I saw you,’ he said against her ear. ‘And when I had you up against the wall in that corridor, I could have taken you so easily.’

  Tension gripped the pit of her stomach, the stirring in her lower abdomen distracting her from the ache as he penetrated her slow but deep.

  ‘Do you know what it took not to?’ he asked.

  He kicked her legs further apart, his thrusts picking up pace.

  ‘And I know you wanted me too,’ he said, hints of a growl in his gravelly tone. ‘You’ve always wanted me. And only me.’

  If he hadn’t pinned her so firmly against the car, she knew her legs would have given way, her whole body already trembling, her breathing shallow, her throat tight.

  ‘Just like I’ve wanted you. But I never expected you to feel this good,’ he declared, the strain of arousal leaking into his tone. ‘Or I might have taken you sooner.’

  His words struck straight to the core and imploded as his pace increased, her discomfort at his onslaught tempered only by the arousal already taking a tight hold deep inside her.

  She was sure she’d wake any moment, fantasy and reality merging indistinguishably. One of those raw, sexual moments she had let herself indulge in, in the privacy of her own thoughts now having life and movement and sensation. Once-powerful fantasies now appearing weak compared to reality.

  Because she had only been able to imagine what Kane was like. And she realised just how limited her imagination had been as he consumed every inch of her, thrusting into her with such controlled force that every part of her ached.

  Bright lights ignited behind her eyes, the floor feeling off kilter. Stars exploded, the room surging in heat around her. Caitlin clenched her hands as her climax kicked through her system at an increasing rate, building, surging. She jolted as she lost touch with reality. She cried out, buckled with the force of her climax almost too powerful to bear. Tears trickled down her cheeks, her whole body absorbed in the aftershocks.

  Every part of her ached and tingled. Every part of her felt alive with both pleasure and pain. The sensations made her feel sick, sated, an alien sensation of ease flowing through her body.

  He had managed it. Kane Malloy has managed the impossible.

  And it had been perfect.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  Caitlin’s dress dropped back into place as Kane pulled away.

  She turned around, her hands against the car to help her keep her balance. But her legs felt too weak, her quivering thighs barely able to hold her more than a few seconds. She slid down to the cold, hard floor, her legs coiling under her.

  She still struggled to catch her breath, wiped the tears from her cheeks. He’d done more damage in that climax than she would have thought possible. Kane Malloy had just proved himself a far more lethal opponent than she could have even conceived.

  She warily looked up at him as he unwrapped the tape from his right hand. For a moment she wondered if she’d just inserted the entire scene in her own mind, somewhere between him removing the first lot of tape and the second. But she knew what had happened was real – terrifyingly real. Her aching body told her so.

  And so did the ache in her heart.

  She couldn’t fall for him. She wouldn’t let herself.

  But she had the terrifying feeling if he didn’t say something nice to her, her too-fast-beating heart would splinter.

  He crouched down on his haunches, agilely remaining poised on his bare toes. He reached out and gently brushed a few stray strands of hair from her eyes. ‘Are you all right?’

  Her heart jolted. She managed a nod.

  He clipped her under her chin, the gentle act, coupled with his hint of a smile, one she could almost mistake as affection.

  ‘Let’s get you off that floor,’ he said, standing upright, catching her by the hand.

  He guided her to her feet, Caitlin pressing her hand back against the car to ensure she didn’t fall over with the motion.

  ‘Can you walk?’

  She nodded.

  ‘Sure?’

  ‘I’m fine,’ she said, though she wasn’t sure she was.

  Kane led the way back across the room, his hand on the small of her back as he guided her back inside the living area, closing and locking the door behind them.

  ‘Go and lie on the bed before you fall over,’ he said.

  She looked across at it. Never had it looked more inviting. But she couldn’t allow herself that comfort. She certainly couldn’t afford to sleep. Now more than ever she had to remain on her guard.

  He knew. He had to. He must have sensed it – the change in her. If she looked at him he’d surely see it in her eyes.

  She lowered her gaze from the intensity of his as he stepped alongside her.

  ‘Did you hear what I said?’

  ‘I don’t need to lie down. I’m fine.’

  ‘Did I not tire you enough?’

  Apprehension squeezed her chest. Suddenly their intimacy left a bitter taste in her mouth. She looked back at him. Tire her enough to let down her guard and let him probe at her heart a little more – test the water? ‘Is that what you were hoping?’

  He scooped her up in his arms in one easy move and carried her across to the bed.

  ‘Kane, put me down!’ she demanded, but he got her to the bed within seconds.

  He knelt astride her hips as he pushed her wrist back towards the cuff, locking it in place. She stared at him aghast as he grabbed her other wrist, reached over to the beside table and pulled out another set of cuffs from the drawer.

  ‘No,’ she said, panic consuming her. He couldn’t act that quickly. He may have chipped a great chunk of defence away but even she knew it was nowhere near enough yet for access to her soul. ‘What are you doing?’

  He glanced down at her, his eyes sparkling darkly as he looped the cuff single-handedly and with expert ease around the headboard before locking it around her other wrist.

  ‘Kane, let me go!’

  She wasn’t ready. If he even tried to remove her soul, it could kill her. It could kill them both.

  He didn’t answer her as he moved off her hips, prised her legs apart and lowered to his haunches between them. She tried to buckle and wriggle, but he pressed his thumbs into her hips to hold her down against the bed.

  ‘What good is that going to do, Caitlin?’

  She pulled her knee to her chest ready to kick at him, but he caught her behind the knee, tugging it back down, took hold of her ankles, containing her legs either side of his hips. She tired quickly, no fight left, her energy levels teetering on totally inadequate.

  She heaved a sigh of frustration and stared up into his eyes. Even in the darkness she could see they were calm and dangerously resolute.

  ‘Are you done?’ he asked.

  ‘What are you going to do? If you think you can take it, you–’

  ‘Take what?’

  ‘You know what.’

  He almost smiled. ‘This isn’t about your soul, Caitlin. Not right now. I haven’t finished with you yet.’

  Her heart pounded painfully.

  She clenched her hands as he broke from her gaze to lower his head, lift her ankle a little to his lips. He kissed her slowly up the inside of her calf to the back of her knee. Caitl
in parted her lips in shock, flinched at the cool caress of his lips. A kiss that became a lick as he traced his tongue slowly up the inside of her thigh. Her heart fluttered as he reached the mid-way point and she braced herself for his inevitable bite as his incisors pressed against her tender flesh.

  Sex and then the feed. She should have seen it coming.

  But it wasn’t inevitable.

  Neither was him stopping as he reached the top of her thigh. And as he released her ankle to use both hands to push up the hem of her dress, Caitlin froze.

  She shook her head, more out of instinct than will. ‘Kane,’ she warned, her throat dry, embarrassed by the heat rushing between her legs.

  But Kane was taking no warning as he moved further down the bed into position.

  She held her breath.

  And as he lowered his lips back to her thigh, as those kisses traced slowly and tauntingly inwards and upwards, Caitlin closed her eyes and pressed her head back against the pillow. He was going to drive her to insanity with his taunting, the pressure once again building at her still-sensitive sex. But as his cool lips met the heat deep between her legs, her heart nearly stopped. She gasped, unable to contain her exhale of pleasure, of fear.

  She knew what he was about to do was far more intimate than penetration. Far more invasive. Far more risky to her state of mind when it came to him.

  Kane held her hips in place as he licked perilously slowly from the core of her sex to her clitoris.

  In her head, Caitlin cursed – something she couldn’t recall ever having done during the sexual act. And as the intensity between her legs surged, as he kissed and licked and sucked unashamedly, she couldn’t contain it anymore. As Kane pushed his tongue through her folds and deep inside her, she cried out, clenching the metal bar that held her cuffs.

  Hissing at her own reaction, she bit deep into her bottom lip.

  She felt him smile as he withdrew his tongue, licking back up to her throbbing nub. He took it in his mouth, encircling it with his tongue, adding just enough pressure to her folds again to make her squeeze her eyes shut and arch her back towards him.

  It was all the cue he needed to tighten his grip on her hips, keep her in position as his tongue, his lips, his whole mouth became hungrier – tasting her, consuming her. The ache between her legs became painful with her need to climax again, every tiny hair on her body standing on end, her spine tingling. She could no longer think of anything but the cold perspiration that swept from her toes to her head, Kane working her to the point where she knew there was no turning back. That if he stopped, she would have begged him to continue. She hated him in that moment and she adored him. If she’d had any regrets, they’d gone. And as he performed the act she’d never experienced, she couldn’t imagine ever letting anyone else that close.

  As her orgasm erupted again, she cried out. Despite not thinking it possible, it was harder and more painful than the first. She didn’t care if he saw the effect he’d had on her. She didn’t care about anything but the quenching heat that sated her so totally again.

  Kane braced himself above her, pulled down his sweat pants and shorts. She couldn’t imagine taking him again when she still ached and throbbed, every part of her tingling. But clearly he’d decided she could.

  She flinched and tensed involuntarily as the coolness of his erection met her heat, his rigidness meeting her softness, breaking through her folds again with ease.

  Warily, tentatively, she gazed back at him, his eyes so dark in the shadows that they looked like opals. He’d never looked more stunning, more powerful, more in control. She tried to fill her head with negative thoughts about him: his callousness, his arrogance, his salaciousness, his cruelty, his depravity. But instead her head was filled with his attentiveness, his sensuality, his authority, his strength, his sincerity.

  He looped his arm around the small of her back, tilting her up towards him slightly, still bracing himself on one arm as he pushed.

  She closed her eyes, cried out, her body shuddering at the shock. He tilted her up slightly further, thrust into her again. She yanked her wrists against the cuffs, crying out again as he filled her to the hilt, stretching her until she felt nothing but him.

  She’d barely even noticed he’d released her cuffs, her wrists falling free as he withdrew himself gently to pull her up onto his lap. He tucked her thighs either side of his, encircling her waist as he lowered her back down on him.

  Caitlin winced at the new position, but Kane held her waist firmly, tucking her hands behind her back, containing them.

  And did the last thing she expected.

  He cupped her neck with his strong, steady hand, his fingers cool against the heat of her flesh. He gently pushed her chin up with his thumb as he slowly, excruciatingly slowly, leaned in.

  Her heart leapt as his lips met hers, as he tenderly prised them apart with a kiss that was unashamedly deep and sensual. An exploratory kiss that made her knees buckle, an intensity that made her stomach flip. His detachment and coldness was suddenly so much more preferable to a tenderness that was far too unsettling for her already battling heart.

  Not even Rob had ever kissed her like that and, for a while at least, he had loved her. Yet this vampire, the hardened Kane Malloy, expressed more emotion, more passion in that one kiss than she’d ever known.

  But she couldn’t think like that.

  If she thought for one moment that Kane felt something, anything, for her, the game was over. She had to believe he hated her. She had to keep her barrier up and beguile him as much as he beguiled her. She had to play the game even if she was staring into the eyes of temptation incarnate. Because if it was part of the act, it was shockingly manipulative to the point of being evil.

  She leaned back to catch his gaze, desperately trying to read whatever was going on behind those shielded eyes.

  But his next kiss was deep and primal as he thrust into her again, making her accommodate him, making her succumb to him. She gasped between his kisses, opened her neck to him as he kissed down her throat to her cleavage, ravenous kisses between licking and sucking, nipping and grazing her flesh.

  And this time when she met his gaze again, she wouldn’t look away.

  This time she stared deep into his eyes.

  He’d broken her body. That was well and truly his. And now he was so deep in her head she knew she would never be free of him. But let him into her heart?

  He was perfection. Perfection for her. She’d always known it. But perfection like that hurt. Something that ran that deep hurt like hell when it was torn out. She knew that. She knew it too much. And she couldn’t take any more pain. She couldn’t take that hollow feeling again.

  And she couldn’t lose everything she had worked for. Not for one sordid session with the last vampire she had any right desiring.

  She’d given him enough. He’d taken enough. She’d already surrendered more than she would have ever believed herself capable.

  ‘Stop,’ she said, trying to free her wrists.

  He pulled back from her neck to look into her eyes. But he didn’t withdraw and he didn’t loosen his grip.

  Caitlin held his gaze, shocked by the panic she felt bubbling inside, a burning in her throat that usually preceded tears. She couldn’t cry, that would be crazy. She had no reason to cry. And she’d never been more grateful for the dark.

  ‘What’s wrong?’ he asked.

  She pressed her lips together and glanced down at those hard, curved shoulders, arms that held her so firmly. She looked back into his eyes. She really was at his mercy.

  ‘I’ve had enough.’

  But as his lips hovered a couple of inches from hers, she wasn’t sure she was stopping him for any of the right reasons.

  He adjusted his position to lower her onto her back, but he still didn’t withdraw. He released her hands from the small of her back only to pin them either side of her head. ‘And what am I supposed to do with that? Me being the immoral, self-sating bastard you’ve made
me out to be.’

  She was eased only by the playful coaxing in his eyes. The words fell out before she had time to deliberate them. ‘But you’re not. Help me, Kane.’

  She could feel his gaze burning into her in the darkness.

  ‘Whatever you want me for, it can’t be so urgent that you can’t delay by a couple of days,’ she added, ‘or you would have taken me long before now.’

  Kane released her wrist, eased up on to his elbow to rest his head on his palm. He studied her in the darkness, the rock music still reverberating in the background.

  ‘Why do you want to hurt me, Kane? What have I ever done to you?’

  ‘We’re not going to do this right now.’

  ‘Help me and I will give you my soul.’

  He lifted himself off her, released her wrist to turn her over, smoothly, fluidly before she had time to protest. She clutched the sheets as he nudged her thighs apart, lowered himself back onto her.

  ‘You’re already giving it to me, Caitlin. Would I be able to get this close to you if you weren’t?’

  She moved in protest as much as she could in only the inch she had available, before he nudged a little way inside her again.

  She stilled, catching her breath as he pushed back inside her. Already aching and throbbing, her whole body shuddered.

  And as he thrust, she dug her nails into the sheets. The new angle almost tipped her over the edge, her climax impending terrifyingly quickly.

  She took that moment and held it. Held it as she felt him come, his jolt and pulsation inside her erupting another orgasm.

  Another orgasm that had her crying out against the sheets.

  How the hell was she going to walk away from him? How the hell was she going to let it all go?

  And as he kissed her tenderly on the shoulder, Caitlin squeezed her eyes shut. His absence as he withdrew and moved away was almost more than she could bear.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  Caitlin woke up not knowing if it was day or night, but as she opened her eyes she could see Kane lying next to her in bed. Ironically she couldn’t remember the last time she had slept so well or woken feeling so safe.