She stood slowly. With her eyes fastened on his own, she clasped the hem of her dress and lifted it over her head.
When she was naked, she turned dreamily. With deliberate steps, she walked to the bed, then crawled onto the scratchy spread on hands and knees.
“Fuck me.” Before today, Gavin never would have expected to hear those words out of her mouth. Today, they made his pulse race. He crossed the dubious carpet of the room and climbed onto the bed behind her, pressing his groin against the soft curves of her behind.
She moaned. He urged her up off her hands until she was seated against his lap and her back was pressed to his front. He took his time moving his hands over her waist, her ribs, and then finally her breasts. He cupped them in his hands, his movements firm, before pinching her nipples tightly.
Her gasp was one of pain, but also pleasure. She moved her rear in his lap until the friction against his cock brought him to the brink again. If she kept it up, he would lose it, so he pushed her back down on all fours.
“Hard.” She was tense, quivering as she waited.
He obliged. Grasping his shaft in hand, he stroked once, twice against the cleft that was already wet, then pushed in with one hard thrust.
They both released unintelligible noises. He paused for a moment, fully sheathed in her wetness, using all of his senses to fully appreciate the experience, but she pressed back against him, asking without words.
He began to move, thrusting as hard and deep as he could. Reaching around her slender waist, he moved his hand to her clit and strummed over the engorged flesh, enjoying the hitch in her moan when he did so.
He focused on holding himself back, not an easy trick while he gave her what she wanted. When he felt her shudder around him and heard her breathy exclamation of pleasure, he pulled back, easing out of her tightness.
She protested, but he wanted to look into her eyes when he came.
He turned her over slowly, her limbs pliant in the aftermath of orgasm. She squinted up at him curiously as he straddled her, then knelt back on his heels.
Slowly, gaze fastened to hers, he undid the makeshift cock ring. It had done its job. Now he wanted to feel every inch of her.
Slowly, so slowly, he eased back into her tender flesh. She bit her lip, and he saw pearls of blood bead.
Dipping his head, he licked them away, then offered her his right wrist.
She froze for a moment, then slowly reached for the offered hand. She licked over his pulse, then kissed.
Then she sank her teeth in, slowly, almost tenderly, mimicking the way that he was moving inside her.
His entire body clenched as he felt her begin to pull blood from his veins. He shuddered, pleasure racking his frame.
Trying to hold out just moments longer, he turned blindly to stare at the rickety table beside the bed. A nearly gutted red candle sat on it, and he had a momentary image of pouring heated wax over the pale skin of Aubrey’s breasts.
He closed his eyes, loving the feel of her teeth in his flesh and his cock in her heat. When he opened them again, the candle was lit, looked as if it had been lit for hours, with wet wax pooling all around the base.
His skin emitted that faint, eerie blue glow.
Caught in the moment, he reached for the candle. Aubrey’s eyes widened, but she didn’t say a word, didn’t protest as he held it over her torso.
Caught in the most sensual experience he’d ever had, he slowly tipped his wrist until a drizzle of hot wax fell down to paint itself on Aubrey’s skin.
Her hips bucked against his. He waited for her to protest, ready to stop if she didn’t like it, but the pain brought a frenzied look to her eyes.
She released his wrist, blood smearing his skin and hers. It mixed with the red wax until the two were nearly indistinguishable.
“More.” Her voice was a growl. Muscles tense, he poured again, letting the wax pool on her rib cage and abdomen. Her hips pistoned faster and faster with the sensation, catching him in the rhythm, until he could no longer control himself. The candle fell, gutting itself out and splattering scalding wax over them both. Holding his weight on his arms, he matched her pace, welcoming the impending orgasm.
They came at the same time, him with a hoarse shout and her with a sigh of satisfaction. He felt himself melt down on top of her, their flesh glued together. Rolling so that he didn’t crush her, he pulled her tightly against his body and shuddered through the aftereffects of their lovemaking.
How could he leave knowing that he’d finally found what he’d always been looking for?
Chapter Five
When Aubrey opened her eyes, she saw the bare skin of a well-muscled back and fitted denim cupping a tight ass.
The owner of the back and the ass was peering through the slatted blinds of their window, and the noise of the metal hitting glass had awakened her, as had, she thought, the tension emanating from him.
“What is it?” She sat straight up when she noted his tense demeanor, untwisting the fabric of her dress that had wrapped itself around her body in sleep.
They’d already had a shower. Aubrey had been all for a group shower, but Gavin had insisted that they bathe one at a time, with the other keeping watch. He’d also insisted that they dress again, in case they had to move quickly.
Practical, Aubrey knew that. Practical, but not at all what she’d wanted.
But perhaps he’d been right. He turned away from the window and moved toward her, tension in his frame.
“How do you know?” Aubrey asked, pulling at the cheap fabric of the bedsheets in agitation.
Gavin paused before replying.
“The morning after you bit me, I woke up in the back of my van. I remembered what had happened, and I was angry. While I was sitting there, pissed off and not sure what the hell was going on, I blasted a hole in the floor with that blue light. It seemed logical to assume that it had something to do with you biting me, though I suppose we’ll never know unless we go with Blaine and Valentina—which we’re not going to do.” He raked a hand through his hair, making it stand on end, and Aubrey imagined how he must have felt. She felt dreadful.
There was no way that she could have known that her mind wipe wouldn’t work, but it was still her fault.
Gavin continued to speak. “That was the first introduction to my powers. The second part came when I was at your apartment, when those goons were on the other side of your door. I just… I just knew that something was wrong. I don’t know how to describe it. It was like electricity in my veins. Right now it’s a low hum, like static. Something’s coming.”
As his words faded he jolted as if being shocked with that same electricity. “It just ramped up. Something’s wrong.” He strode to the window, peered out into the night, then turned back to Audrey just as fast.
“We have company.” Aubrey scrambled to extricate herself from the sheets, but Gavin scooped her up and had her on her feet before she could.
She pulled at the twisted fabric and it ripped. She left it on the floor where it fell in shreds.
The door exploded inward in a shower of metal fragments. Gavin moved to shield her with his body, but she still felt slices carve through her flesh.
There was yelling, and Gavin pushed her back again. When she regained her footing she saw a giant of a man filling the doorway. In front of him stood Blaine and Valentina, and behind him were the shadows of more.
Her hope sank. There were so many. How could they get away from so many?
She’d rather die than let them take Gavin away from her.
“There is no point in trying.” A shard of metal had caught Blaine on the cheek, and he wiped the dripping blood from the gash away dispassionately.
He looked at Gavin. “If you come with us and cooperate, we’ll let her live.”
In front of her, Aubrey felt Gavin begin to shake. After hearing the beating of his heart speed up and detecting an increase in his scent, she understood that it was with rage.
As long as she’d known him, he’d never taken kindly to orders.
“You won’t touch her. I’ll kill you all before you do.”
His fury was for her sake?
The realization made up her mind. Though it hadn’t been her choice, this life was hers now. She was a vampire. So was Gavin, and though they were different, they were perfect for one another.
They’d fight for the right to be together, or die trying.
Her fangs were out and she was flying across the room without ever consciously deciding to. When she was only a whisper away from raking Blaine’s surprised face with her teeth, she was yanked back and she screamed in frustration.
Then there was a solid wall of blue light dividing her and Gavin from their attackers. She froze in astonishment when she realized that the energy radiated from Gavin’s outstretched hands.
“You won’t touch her.” His words were carved in steel. “You won’t touch either of us.”
Through the wall of light, Blaine snarled, “We’ll kill you both.” He launched himself at the light.
Aubrey gasped at the audible sizzle when his flesh met the light. The acrid stench of burning flesh filled the air a split second before the Darkling’s body exploded into a shower of ash.
Valentina remained as she was, but her face showed noticeable fear.
“Tell your council that they can’t have me. They can’t have Aubrey. And I’ll kill anyone who tries to take us.” He flexed his fingers and the light pulsed toward the group of Darklings, who flinched.
Gavin glanced at Aubrey, then grinned, a feral smile that made her insides clench with inappropriate desire.
“Know what? I’ll tell them myself.” He again flexed his fingers, and the light pulsed, then moved in a solid sheet until every Darkling but Aubrey was engulfed in it.
Screams tore through the night and the blue became a blinding force. Aubrey winced as the disgusting smell of charred flesh and ash filled her nostrils.
And then they were alone.
Gavin collapsed onto his knees, drained from the fight. Aubrey followed him down, wrapping her arms around him and sobbing with relief.
“How did you—how did you know—” Her words were swallowed into Gavin’s mouth as he rained kisses over her lips.
He drew back for a breath and grinned at her. “I have no idea. Well, I sort of do. They threatened you and…it just exploded out of me.” He buried his face in her hair.
“But it sure clarified something for me.”
“What’s that?” Aubrey could hardly speak, since Gavin was pressing her so tightly against him.
“I’ve known it since I met you. You are mine.” Before Aubrey could reply, another voice chimed into their conversation.
“What the hell happened here?” Aubrey recognized the nasal voice of the desk clerk that had given her the room key, and also his smell.
He smelled like stale, like he hadn’t showered for a day too many, and he looked astounded as he stood in the shattered doorway gazing around at the wreck of the hotel room.
Gavin drew Aubrey into his lap, clearly euphoric in the aftermath of the battle.
“I don’t know, man.” He grinned up at the scrawny young man while clamping a possessive arm around Aubrey’s waist. “But since we’re staying together—staying together forever—I think we’re going to need another room.”
* * * * *
Don’t miss the other sensual, paranormal reads from Harlequin Nocturne Cravings, available at www.ebooks.eharlequin.com and wherever ebooks are sold. Titles include:
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Looking for more paranormal romance? The sizzling and spine-chilling books of Harlequin Nocturne are available at www.Harlequin.com or your local bookstore.
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ISBN: 978-14592-3432-1
The Darkling's Surrender
Copyright © 2012 by Lauren Hawkeye
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