by Kallysten
Without ever stopping to suck on her clit, he let go of her thigh and brought his right hand to her cunt. He pushed a finger past her folds. She was so wet that his finger slid in easily, and he quickly added a second one, curling both of them up in search of that sweet spot that would—
“Aidan! Gods! Please!”
He smiled against her trembling flesh; he seemed to have found it. Lifting his face up to look at her, Aidan used his thumb to press rhythmically against her clit.
“So beautiful like this,” he murmured.
Her hands had fallen away from his head and were now clutching at her breasts. Her head was tilted to the side, mouth open and eyes closed. Her chest heaved with each panting breath she took, and her body trembled under the warm water as her orgasm approached.
“Beautiful,” he said again. The musk of her sex was making him lightheaded. “Won’t you come for me, Meriel?”
A third finger joined the first two into pumping in and out of her, always returning to apply pressure to the spot that made her writhe beneath his touch. Suddenly, Meriel’s body went rigid, even as her slick flesh clenched over his fingers. Not daring to blink for fear of losing even an instant of her pleasure, Aidan drank in the sight of her, her breathless moan and the shaking of her body.
Gently lifting her thigh from his shoulder, he set her foot down and stood again, resting his body alongside hers so that his aching cock pressed against her hip. He made sure she had opened her eyes before he brought his fingers, drenched in her wetness, to his mouth. The taste of her pleasure burst on his tongue. Another small tremor rocked her body.
“Can I…” Her voice was deep and raw. “Do you want me…”
Although she didn’t finish voicing her offer, Aidan understood it. He was tempted, but gave a small shake of head and, taking her hand, led it to his cock. When she first put her mouth on him, he wanted it to last more than a few seconds.
And seconds of her hand stroking his needy cock were all it took to bring him to completion with a gasp that Meriel muffled with a kiss.
He should have known better, he thought a little hazily, but come morning, if she was so inclined, he just might go to sleep in her bed.
* * * *
Every time the convertible’s engine purred, responding to the smallest pressure of Aidan’s foot on the accelerator, he couldn’t help but think of the way Meriel had purred in his arms, responding to his every touch. Adjusting his hardening cock in his jeans, he glanced at her by his side. She had done little more than pass a brush through her hair after she came out of the shower, and it was curling as the wind dried it, making Aidan long to run his fingers though the strands.
While he had gone to put on dark jeans and a shirt in his room, she had found a dress in her closet. They had shared a grin when they had met again in the hallway and realized her long, silky spaghetti-strapped dress matched his red shirt in color and fabric. The dress clung to her curves, emphasizing them and making Aidan yearn to touch her again. He rested his hand on her thigh, annoyed that the small purse on her lap blocked his way to a more intimate touch. It was going to be a long night until they returned home.
“Where do you like to hunt?” he asked just as they were nearing the center of the city.
“Dance clubs, usually.”
He mulled over that, factored in her sexy dress, and took a turn toward a posh bar near the financial district. “I know just the place.”
He parked the car just a street past the bar, and she took his arm as they walked to it. The bouncer took one look at Aidan and pulled off the ropes to let him and Meriel through. Aidan noticed that Meriel glanced at the line of people waiting to get in, but she didn’t say a word.
A long bar lined with high stools stretched along the left side of the establishment, with a half-dozen bartenders serving customers. In the back of the room, a few low tables and sofas waited for tired dancers, but at this hour the crowd was in the middle of the room, dancing to the slow beat of a jazz quartet in the corner of the room.
Aidan’s lips brushed against Meriel’s earlobe when he murmured, “I’ll be at the bar. Show me how you hunt.”
She flashed him a smile and stepped through the crowd, arms raised on either side of her and already stepping in tune to the music. Sitting at the bar, Aidan watched her dance, her demeanor flirtatious but her eyes cool and gauging. She ignored couples and women dancing alone, instead setting her sight on a tall man who had been watching the dancers from the edge of the dance floor. Crooking a finger at him, she drew him to her almost too easily.
Aidan turned away to order a shot of vodka. When he looked for Meriel again, her mouth was at her prey’s throat. His head was thrown back in obvious pleasure. His arms were around her, one of his hands at the back of her head, fingers tangled in her hair, and the other one groping her ass.
A white-hot flash burst over Aidan, blinding him to everything that wasn’t Meriel. It took him a few moments to realize what he was feeling, and when he did, surprise filled him. It had been a long time since he had experienced jealousy. The emotion was almost foreign to him now, and he didn’t like it much. As long as she remained within the bonds of a concubine, Meriel was free to dance with or feed from anyone she pleased. So why was Aidan’s blood boiling at the sight of her lips on that man’s neck, of his hands caressing her, touching what had been Aidan’s to explore only hours earlier?
Stifling the growl that was trying to rise in his throat, Aidan pushed away from the bar and stalked to the dance floor. Meriel had her back to him now, but her prey was looking straight at him. His face must have been enough of a warning because the man’s eyes widened and he swallowed hard, his hands already leaving her. When Aidan reached them, the man took a stumbling step back and away from Meriel. She turned around, and her face lit up with an amused smile when she saw him standing there.
She sashayed to him and threw her arms around his neck, moving her body next to his to the slow tempo of the music. He rested his hands at her waist and pulled her closer.
“Jealous?” she said, teasing.
He struggled not to tighten his hold on her. “Sometimes, yes,” he admitted. “Do you mind?”
Her fingers traced sensual patterns over his shoulders. “Not particularly. It’s been a long time—”
He cocked his head to one side and searched her face when she cut herself short. “A long time?” he repeated.
She shrugged and gave him a little smile. “A long time since anyone cared enough to be jealous.”
Aidan’s first instinct was to ask questions that started with ‘who’ and ‘how long,’ but he only murmured a quiet, “I find that hard to believe.”
Without adding a word, she rested her cheek against his shoulder. Aidan’s mind was suddenly filled by a hundred questions, none of which he dared ask now. Meriel was his concubine and lover, but they had only known each other for a day. There would be a time for personal questions, but it hadn’t come yet. All Aidan could hope for was enough time.
He wasn’t sure he would get it.
Of their own accord, his arms wrapped around Meriel. He tried to keep his annoyance out of his voice when he turned his face toward her and said against her temple, “Your sire is here.”
She tensed against him and pulled away, her eyes immediately searching the room. He tilted his head in Leean’s direction. He watched Meriel’s features as she followed his gesture and found her sire. Her face was now void of all expression. Aidan didn’t like this at all, nor did he like seeing Leean approach them with a deceptively wide smile.
“Master Aidan,” she said, her voice like thick honey. “Meriel dearest. I didn’t have a chance to congratulate you last night.”
Aidan nodded curtly, even as Meriel murmured a word of thanks.
The two women looked at each other. Leean raised her eyebrows, and Aidan could have sworn he felt Meriel flinch against his side.
Meriel turned a tense smile to him. “All this dancing made me thirsty,” she sa
id, almost apologetic. “Would you mind?”
Aidan did mind. The last thing he wanted was to leave Meriel alone with her sire to be reminded of what he knew she had been asked to do—or to be punished for not having done it yet. However, as he was about to suggest they all go to the bar, her hand clenched on his forearm and she said, “Please?” in a very quiet voice.
Gritting his teeth, Aidan nodded again. He threw a warning glance at Leean before threading his way through the crowd toward the bar. He ordered two glasses of wine and turned to look at Meriel and Leean as he was being served. With the music pulsating through the club, he couldn’t hear a word of what they were saying, and too many people were breaking his line of sight for him to be able to read their lips. He could interpret their body language, though. Leean, her upper body angled toward Meriel, rested a hand on Meriel’s shoulder and seemed to try to draw her forward. Meriel resisted, looking around her several times, though never toward the bar. She did incline her head in the end, her attitude much too submissive for Aidan’s liking. Frowning, he didn’t wait for his change and picked up the two glasses from the bar.
When he reached Meriel again, Leean was nowhere to be found. Meriel took the glass he handed her without meeting his eyes and emptied it in one long swallow. Frowning, Aidan stepped a little closer to her, close enough to get a better idea of her scent. She was scared, he realized with a burst of anger. It was a good thing for Leean that she had left so quickly.
“You have nothing to fear,” he said, meeting Meriel’s eyes, and laid a hand on her arm. He squeezed gently, hoping to comfort her. “I told you I’d protect you.”
She shrugged her shoulders, shaking off his hand, and looked away. “Why would you think I need to be protected?”
Cupping her chin in his palm, he gently pulled her face back toward his. Her eyes were troubled, and she was biting on her bottom lip.
“It’s written all over your face, Meriel. When we first met, you were guarding your emotions from me, but now you’re not. Anyone could see you’re upset and afraid. She threatened you, didn’t she?”
Meriel seemed torn, and Aidan could easily guess why. If she confirmed his suspicions, she would betray her sire. By lying to him, however, she was putting herself in danger.
“I don’t take well to people threatening me and mine,” he said, all too aware when she stared at him that she could interpret his words either as a threat or as another attempt to comfort her. In truth, it was up to her to decide. He had always taken his vows to heart, and nothing other than a concubine raising a weapon against him would turn him against her. All he hoped was that Meriel would understand that—understand that she had a choice, that she didn’t have to live by her sire’s rules anymore—and understand it before she committed a mistake he wouldn’t be able to forgive.
* * * *
Meriel could do nothing more than stare at Aidan. He didn’t add anything, but his eyes were begging her to believe him: believe that she could betray the person who had held her life in her hands for the past seven years, the person who had made her what she was now, the person who had promised her a painful death if she didn’t do as she was told.
She wanted to believe him. She wasn’t sure she could. She had only known him for a few hours, during which he had repeatedly tried to convince her she could trust him. The problem was, the last time she had trusted a vampire, she had lost her life.
She didn’t have time to hesitate anymore. Leean had given her a deadline. Before the night ended, it would be over, one way or the other. Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath. When she opened them again, her decision was made.
“Let’s go back to the mansion.”
The frost covering her words surprised her. She tried to warm them with a smile, but she was afraid it turned into a grimace when her stomach clenched from nervousness.
Aidan looked at her with an inscrutable look. His arm remained around her waist as he guided her toward the exit, where they left their glasses on a tray by the door. She had to refrain from hurrying and leaving him to follow.
“Let me drive,” she asked, filled with impatience, when they reached the car.
Aidan gave her the keys with no more than a raised eyebrow. She climbed in and started the engine, making it roar to life before he had even closed his door.
She drove fast, faster than he had, faster than she should have. Her focus remained entirely on the road, blocking out everything else. It was easier that way. Aidan, however, she had started to notice, rarely allowed things to be easy for her.
“What’s the rush?” he asked after a few minutes of only the rumbling of the engine breaking the silence.
Meriel kept her eyes ahead of her as she answered. “I want you.”
He laughed, sounding surprised. “Nice. From wanting to kill me to wanting me, period, in just a day.”
She didn’t reply. She felt too guilty to dare to say a word. He might pick up on it in her voice, and then what would happen?
She kept quiet until they were only a block from the mansion. “Can you open the gates? I left my remote in the bedroom.”
He pulled the slim remote from his pocket and hit the button. Ahead of them, the gates started swinging open. “Be sure to take it when you go out on your own,” he advised her. “You’d be stuck outside until someone else returned.”
She nodded absently. She knew as much. More than once, she had heard Leean complain that the perimeter around Aidan’s mansion was too well protected for an attack without help from the inside.
She slowed down as she drove up the alley to the mansion, but even so the tires screeched lightly when she parked the car in the garage. Aidan was shaking his head as he got out of the car, but he didn’t say anything. Meriel hurried out and intercepted him in front of the car. She dropped her purse on the hood to free her hands and immediately started undoing the buttons of his shirt.
“Let’s go in,” Aidan suggested, capturing her wrists.
“No.”
“No?” he repeated, sounding amused.
“I want you,” she said darkly. Breaking free from his hold, her right hand slid down to cup his hardening cock, while her left pushed his shirt off his shoulders. “And I want you now.”
“Meriel, I—”
His voice failed him when she squeezed his cock though his pants. Smirking, she watched him swallow heavily and quickly unbuttoned his jeans. She shoved his pants and boxers down his legs and wrapped both her hands around his cock. Already the tip was leaking precome; she rubbed it along his length.
“Pushy,” he commented with a light hiss.
“Do you mind?”
Still stroking him with her right hand, she used her left to catch his hand and lead it to his cock. He picked up her rhythm as she completely let go of him, and for a few seconds she watched him, mindlessly licking her lips. He was beautiful like this, touching himself but looking at her with an intense gaze. She had to look away. Stepping back until her legs touched the car behind her, she tugged her dress up her thighs and over her hips, exposing her panties. She pushed these down her legs before sitting on the still warm hood of the car, then lying down.
“I don’t mind, no,” he said after a while, his eyes roaming over her. “Not particularly. It’s been a long time since anyone wanted me like this.”
She opened her arms to him, beckoning him forward, and finished the exchange with a smile. “I find that hard to believe.”
He leaned over her, resting his weight on his forearm, and ran first one finger over her slit, then two. She watched him spread her wetness over his cock and felt a pang of need resonate through her.
“Inside me, please.”
There was no teasing or foreplay this time. His eyes burning with desire, he pushed one of her thighs up and entered her in one fast stroke. Meriel cried out, bearing down on him to take him in deeper. Aidan’s right hand closed over her breast as he took his first few strokes. After a moment, he growled and tore the thin strap of her dres
s, baring her chest to his touch. Meriel’s fingers dug deep into his shoulder. He groaned. The next snap of his hips was just a little harder, just a little faster, and the slap of his flesh on hers resounded just a little louder.
If earlier they had made love, this time it was pure fucking. It was violent and carnal and even though Aidan didn’t bite her, Meriel thought it said more about them as vampires than anything they had done so far—and she loved every second of it.
With their coupling so intense, it couldn’t possibly last long. After a dozen or so more thrusts, Aidan came with a grunt, his entire body jerking against hers. Even then, he kept grinding against her clit, and soon she was following him over the edge.
His body was still shaking against hers when she reached for her purse on the hood next to her. Her hand curled over it. She could feel the shape of the stake inside it. It would take her a second to take it out, and barely any longer than that to push it into Aidan’s back and pierce his heart.
It was what she was supposed to do. It was what she had prepared herself to do all evening.
She just couldn’t bear the thought of it anymore.
Letting go of the purse, she wrapped her arm over his bare back and held him closer to her.
“Are your childer home?” she asked, her panting words muffled against his neck. “Or do they go out to hunt?”
Aidan’s lips caressed her cheek. “Most of them should be here at this hour,” he mumbled. “But they wouldn’t—”
“Call them,” she interrupted him. Her voice sounded weak and a little raspy. “Call them all.”