by Nina Bangs
“First I’ll grab a fistful of that beautiful blond hair and pull your head back so I can take your mouth. Pirates aren’t gentle, so it’ll be a hard demanding kiss, the kiss of a conqueror.” He could almost feel her soft lips and taste her sweet desire as his tongue plundered her mouth. “Then I’ll kiss a path over your jaw and neck. And when I get to your throat, I’ll let my mouth linger on the spot where your blood pounds hard with excitement.” Her throat. His moan was deep, guttural, and agonized.
Her eyes gleamed with defiance and arousal. “I’ll fight you. I’m not one of your sweet young virgins, afraid of the big bad pirate.”
The rain fell harder, flowing over her body, leaving it wet and slick. And so hot. He knew if he could touch her, he’d probably singe his fingers.
“Go ahead, fight me. I like a woman with claws. But it won’t change what I’ll do to you.” If the fates were kind, his next customer wouldn’t come bounding into the dungeon and find him so hard that even his plaid couldn’t hide the evidence. “I’ll smooth my hands over your bare flesh while I put my mouth on your breast. Then I’ll push your thighs apart so I can rub my finger over the spot that gives you so much pleasure. I’ll tease your nipple with my tongue until it’s so sensitive you want to scream. Finally I’ll slide my finger into you, in and out, in and out, until you’re riding my finger, wet and ready for me.”
“You, you . . .” She seemed lost for words strong enough to describe what she felt, but her body had no trouble expressing itself.
Her breathing quickened. Throwing back her head, she closed her eyes to the pouring rain and then cupped her breasts while she rubbed her thumbs over her nipples.
Eric now knew the true meaning of torture. It was watching the woman you wanted standing naked in the rain stroking her gleaming breasts while you were stuck in a freakin’ castle. He couldn’t look at her breasts, her stomach, her open thighs, one more minute, or else he was going to tick Holgarth off by racing up the steps and abandoning the castle to a vampireless fantasy. And Holgarth hated to give customers their money back.
“Turn around and face your captive, woman.” Relieved, he watched her turn away from him. Jeez, that was so much better. Now his other self could look at her breasts, stomach, and open thighs while his Eric the Evil persona got to admire that round perfect behind. “Look at the man you’ve threatened with torture.” As torture went, it wasn’t very impressive, but he wouldn’t tell her that. “See how hard he is? He wants you as much as I do.” Which was pretty much a no-brainer.
“I want you, I want him, I want both of you. At the same time.” She sounded as though she’d just realized she was free to desire whatever she wished. “I want to untie him so he can go to his knees in front of me and slide his tongue deep inside me. I’ll grab his hair to guide him deeper and deeper and . . . deeper.” Each “deeper” came out more breathless than the last.
Eric the Evil scowled. Well, hell. He was jealous of himself.
Then she turned back to him. “And when I can’t stand another moment, I’ll drag you down onto the deck and—”
Time to reestablish the chain of command here. “Then I’ll kneel between your rain-slicked thighs, put my hands beneath your bottom, and lift you so that I can bury myself inside you. I’ll groan as all your heat and need clench around my cock.”
“What will he be doing?” Donna sounded out of breath as she nodded toward her naked crew member, who, per her wish, was free of his bindings.
“Imagine.” Eric watched as she nodded and then lowered herself to the ship’s deck. He wanted to roar his frustration at not being able to follow her down, cover that warm beautiful body with his own, and share everything that he was—his passion, his hungers, his flesh-and-blood presence. “Close your eyes and imagine.”
Once her eyes were closed, he whispered the ending of her fantasy. “I’ll slide slowly into you, stretching and filling you. And then I’ll ease out and plunge back in, harder, stronger. I’ll listen to your whimpers of pleasure, enjoy the scent of aroused woman, and lean over to slide my tongue over your parted lips that taste of rain and desire.”
“Yesss!” She spread her legs as she flung her arms above her head and arched her back, begging for more, so much more.
In the background Eric could hear sounds at the top of the stairs. The next customer was getting ready to venture down into the dungeon. No! Not yet. He wasn’t finished. His body’s howl of outrage didn’t bode well for the unfortunate virgin or any other form of human bearding him in his lair.
Eric blocked out everything but Donna’s pleasure. “The man you’ve freed has secretly lusted after you and now sees his chance. He crouches over you, touching your body, flicking your nipples with his tongue.”
She writhed on the deck, her naked body bathed in sweat. “I need to taste him. Now.”
“As I plunge into you, deeper and deeper, you feel the spasms building that will wrack your body with the ultimate sensation. Your freed captive leans closer so that he can slide his tongue over your stomach as I drive you closer and closer to orgasm.” Eric wasn’t going to make it. He could hear footsteps slowly descending the stairs. His own sexual arousal had triggered his change to vampire, and he hoped he scared the crap out of whoever was interfering with Donna’s fantasy. “You put your mouth on his sex, tasting his hunger, his excitement. While he moans his pleasure, you circle the head of his cock with your tongue and then slide your lips over him, moving lower and lower as you pleasure every inch of his heated flesh with your—”
“Oh. My. God.” With a cry of joyous release, she shuddered in the throes of her orgasm.
The footsteps reached the bottom of the steps and stopped. Then he heard a squeal of fright from whoever was standing at the door of the dungeon.
And he had to leave Donna lying on the deck of that ship. No being there for her as she recovered. No calm explanations. No sharing the pleasure.
Damn it all to hell! Fury rolled over him in hot splashes of red and purple, buffeted him with the roar of an avalanche. And with all the sound and fury shaking him, he only had time for two coherent thoughts. In all of his eight centuries, leaving a woman had never triggered this much rage. And whoever had torn him away from Donna was going to get their money’s worth of fright tonight.
He growled his anger and lifted his lips from his fangs in a deadly snarl. The twenty-something woman with a mop of red hair and wide green eyes screamed again and then slapped a hand over her mouth. Frozen in place, she stared at him in horror.
Hah! She hadn’t seen anything yet. “You dare enter my lair, woman? ’Tis foolish you are. I’ll sink my fangs into your neck and drink from you. Once I’ve taken your blood, you’ll be mine forever. I’ll come for you in the darkness of your bedroom, waking you from dreams of your mortal lover, and you’ll go with me to hunt the living, for you will now be one of the undead.” What a bunch of garbage, but it was scaring her. Hey, you enter a vampire’s lair, you get what you deserve. Eric stalked toward her, but she was too terrified to move. He didn’t care. They paid him to scare people. Well, tonight he was feeling the part.
As he loomed over her in the dimly lit dungeon, the woman finally found her voice and the power to move. With a wild shriek of terror, she tore out of the room and up the stairs. Two male grunts of pain hinted that she’d met Brynn and Conall on their way down to save her. She obviously felt she didn’t need saving. Ah, another satisfied customer.
He had a few minutes before the next fantasy, and he was going to find Donna.
Donna lay on the deck while her breathing returned to normal and her body stopped shaking. Then she opened her eyes . . . and met the interested stare of Sparkle Stardust, who was leaning over her. “What’re you doing here?”
“Saving you from this ship.” Her gaze narrowed, and then she smiled her sly feline smile. “Well, well, sister. What fantasy did you get off on? Tell all.” She sat down on the deck in her black silk top and pants.
“What fantasy? It wa
s such a beautiful night that I thought I’d lay on the deck for a while and watch the stars, listen to the water—”
“Be fast-food takeout for all the mosquitoes in Galveston.” Sparkle’s expression said that Donna needed to practice her lying before taking her act on the road.
Sparkle was right. Donna itched all over. Wow, some fantasy. How could something be so intense it blocked out a mosquito attack by at least a million of the little bloodsuckers? Donna pushed herself to a sitting position, but she still fell quivery and not quite ready to try standing.
She glanced down. All clothes in place. Hadn’t she been naked a few minutes ago? Yes. Maybe. Donna glanced up at the clear night sky. No rain. But she could still feel the cool wet slide of it over her heated body. Taking a deep breath, she tried to concentrate on Sparkle. “How’d you get on the ship?”
“I put the gangplank back up and walked on.” She studied Donna. “I mean, here I am just taking a quiet walk around the lake and I hear this moaning. I thought someone was hurt.” The sly smile was back. “Tell me about it.”
A quiet walk around the lake? Donna didn’t think so. She glanced pointedly at the nosebleed heels on Sparkle’s sandals. “Love your walking shoes.” Suddenly she remembered. Sparkle had some explaining to do. Like how she maintained her youthful glow when she was a senior citizen with a capital S. “You know, Asima and I were having a chat, and she mentioned that the two of you had a run-in with each other about, oh, two hundred years ago. I said, no way. Sparkle looks too good to be that old. So how often do you have to get a face-lift? Once every two months? Who’s your plastic surgeon? He’s good. Really good.”
The corners of Sparkle’s full pouty lips turned down. “I’m going to wrap Asima’s long skinny tail around her neck and squeeze until her eyes pop out.”
“Who are you? What are you?” Donna rubbed her eyes and then rotated her neck to ease some of her tension. “What is it about this place? Why’re you all here?” She closed her eyes for a moment. She’d just had an incredible sexual experience she totally didn’t understand. Her nipples still felt sensitive, and the relaxed satisfied feeling low in her stomach affirmed that yes, she’d had one hell of a fine orgasm.
And now Sparkle. “I figured you were a little too obsessed with sex, but other than that, I thought you were kind of normal.” Donna threw her hands in the air. “What’s normal? Right now vampires are normal. Demons, immortal warriors, and wizards are normal. A shape-shifting cat is normal.” Horrified, she felt a tear slide down her cheek. “I’m the only one who’s not normal around here.”
Sparkle looked offended. “You thought I was normal? Here I’m trying to sex up your life, and you insult me right to my face.” She took a deep breath before standing. “I’d stick around to explain the facts of life according to Sparkle Stardust, but I have some cat hunting to take care of. Eric’s on his way, he can explain things to you.”
Eric’s on his way. No. Not yet. Not while her emotions were still tumbling over each other in an attempt to make sense of what she was feeling for him. Maybe she could get off the ship before he found her.
Donna followed behind Sparkle as she navigated the gangplank in her designer shoes without falling flat on her face. Glancing at her watch, Donna realized she didn’t have time to work things out in her head, because she had a show to broadcast.
She had a guest tonight, so she wouldn’t have to take calls for a few hours. Donna loved the wow factor she got from some of her callers, but this week had taken a little of the wonder out of it all. Because after what she’d experienced, nothing her callers told her could even make her lift an eyebrow. At least her show would take her mind off her pirate fantasy for a while.
As she made her way back toward the castle, Donna saw Eric striding toward her. No. She didn’t want to face him until she had her emotions firmly under control again. Donna eyed the shrubbery next to the path. Would he think it strange if he found her hiding in the bushes? Would he believe that she was searching for her lost control?
Too late. Eric stopped in front of her, and she had to look up a long way to meet his gaze. He was once again playing the part of a vampire Highlander. He played all his parts well, but she wasn’t quite sure who the real Eric Mackenzie was.
“I’m sorry I left you alone, but a customer showed up.” He reached out to slide his fingers along her jaw. “Are you okay?”
She nodded. Good thing he didn’t try to pin down her exact degree of okay. “No problem.” She thought about that. “And don’t creep into my mind to see if I’m telling the truth.”
His grin was a white flash of strong teeth in the darkness. “We have to talk after your show. You can order something from the restaurant and bring it back to your room to eat.”
She nodded again. “Sparkle showed up after you left. Asima told me that she and Sparkle got into it about two hundred years ago. I confronted Sparkle. She said you’d explain.”
Eric raked his fingers through his hair and muttered something beneath his breath. “Sure. I’ll tell you what I know tonight.”
Silence filled the space between them as they entered the great hall. She thought he’d let her go without saying anything else, but at the last minute he put his hand on her arm.
“Are you staying for the weekend?” He looked anxious.
Anxious was good. It made her feel all warm and fuzzy. “Yes.”
“Great. How about hanging around for an extra week?” He didn’t look too hopeful.
“Yes.” She didn’t know which of them was more surprised.
Leaning down, he kissed the side of her neck and was gone.
Stood to reason he’d kiss the side of her neck. Probably a kiss on the neck was more emotionally satisfying than the lips for a vampire. What did she know?
Taking a deep breath, she faced what she’d agreed to. She was staying an extra week in Castle Weird so that she could explore her emotional attachment to an eight hundred-year-old vampire.
Was she crazy, or what?
16
Win some, lose some. After the Earth shifted poles during her pirate-fantasy-induced orgasm, things slid downhill at warp speed.
Friday night, her last live broadcast from the Castle of Dark Dreams, and her guest was a bust. Brilliant guy, but his scientific explanation of why there had to be parallel universes was . . . well, beyond the understanding of any human mind. Therefore, he had to be an alien. That was the only explanation. But at least he could’ve had the decency to be an entertaining alien.
And when she went to open lines, she was besieged by calls from the pod women. They must’ve all saved themselves up for a night when she had lots of really serious stuff on her mind and didn’t need tons of questions about sexy creatures of the night. Her guest wasn’t much help. He said they all came from parallel universes. Ooookay. At least Sparkle wasn’t sitting in the audience asking thought-provoking questions about sex and vampires.
Now Donna sat on her bed, all comfy in her nightshirt, finishing her chicken quesadillas. What was with women in the novels she read? Give them a few puny problems—significant other is a serial killer, deadly plague set loose on earth’s population by aliens, Planet X poised to obliterate the world in twelve hours—and they lost their appetites. Not her. Give her something to worry about and she could eat her way through an entire Mexican restaurant’s menu. She was worried now.
Eric lounged in one of the room’s chairs, his long legs stretched out in front of him. He crossed his ankles and studied her. “I was hoping you’d try out one of those outfits you have in your closet. The one with the boots, mask, and whip looks like fun.”
A quick glance, and a few people might mistake him for just another great-looking guy in jeans and a T-shirt. Very few. But Donna Nolan would never make that mistake. From the first moment she’d met Eric McNair—who was really Eric Mackenzie—she’d sensed his power, his overwhelming sexual temptation, and tried to tread warily around all that potent maleness. The score now stood at p
otent maleness 50, Donna’s common sense 0. She was in danger of being swept.
Reluctantly Donna set her empty plate aside. If he weren’t here, she’d lick the plate. “After my pirate fantasy, I sort of thought the virginal white nightie would be false advertising. And I’m too tired to do the Mistress Donna thing.”
Eric simply nodded. She needed to say something about the fantasy, but nothing brilliant came to mind. Oh, well, she had to start somewhere. “So tell me about Sparkle. Who is she? What is she?” Donna would work up to her pirate fantasy.
“She’s a cosmic troublemaker.”
“Say what?” During her years on Donna till Dawn, listeners had paraded every possible supernatural being past her, but no one, absolutely no one, had ever mentioned cosmic troublemakers.
He shrugged. “Yeah, cosmic troublemaker is a new one for me, too. She says she’s over a thousand years old, and I tend to believe her.”
“You mean that woman selling chocolates and jelly beans, the one who worries about three hairs on her knee and a broken nail, that woman is a thousand years old?” Donna couldn’t wrap her understanding around what it would be like to live even a couple of centuries. “Why is she here in Galveston—sun, sand, surf, ley lines intersecting beneath her candy store?” She flung her hands into the air. “Why are any of you here?”
“I’m here because I was hired to help run the castle. I was soaking up the moonlight on a small exotic island when Holgarth called. He explained the concept of the park and said the owner specifically wanted Brynn, Conall, and me to run the Castle of Dark Dreams because we were more than men. Why us in particular?” He shrugged. “After I stopped laughing, I started wondering who this mysterious owner was and how Holgarth had found me. By that time I was intrigued enough to take the job. My mission in life is to find out who owns the park. I’ve tried following tax trails and every other damned trail back to our mysterious owner, but so far no luck.” He smiled his smoky, sexy smile. “Admit it. You’re glad I’m here.”