“Thanks, Beth. I’ll be in touch if I have any other questions.”
Kristin got up from the chair and swung back the curtain to find Dmitri’s broad back guarding the entrance. “I’m done. You can move now.”
He turned, looking down at her over his shoulder. “I was merely ensuring your privacy. Since apparently the curtain isn’t enough.”
“Oh, and here I thought you might be merely trying to eavesdrop on the interview.”
“It is my job to see to the security of our clan and all those inside this club.” He glanced over at the bar, his tone taking on a distinct undercurrent of disapproval. “I see you came with Achilles. You could have called me on my cell and I would have brought you here.”
“I think you were a little too busy to be bothered.”
He glanced away, his mouth pressing into a firm line. He closed his eyes a moment, took a deep breath, then locked his gaze with hers.
“So, was it as bad as you had anticipated?”
“She seems happy enough with the whole thing. Did you glamour her?”
“I told you, I have no need to.”
The truth was the girl acted as if it was one of the most fabulous experiences of her life, which bent Kristin’s brain inside out. She just couldn’t fathom how being eaten by another creature could be a positive experience. A kernel of thought popped into her head like the first to burst in a bag of popcorn, followed in rapid fire by more and more.
“Can I ask you a question?”
“Only one more? Are you certain?”
She ignored his sarcasm. “What happens when you feed? I mean, I know what you’re getting out of it, but what is she getting out of it? What are you doing to her? How’d you get to be a vampire in the first place?”
He pulled her toward a booth, the stone stalagmites bracketing the edge of the booth, making it seem like their own private little cave.
“So you’ve concluded there’s more to the feeding than taking what we need. There is a giving too. If I were the good doctor, I could explain it medically to you, but as it is you’ll just have to make do with a basic understanding.”
“No. I don’t want you to explain it. I want you to—” She grazed her fingers along her neck.
Dmitri’s brow knit together. “You can’t be serious.”
Kristin huffed. “What’s wrong? Are you full?”
His face turned stormy and dark a moment before he turned his gaze away from her. “I’ve already fed. I don’t do so lightly.”
She laid a hand on his. “I’m asking you as a matter of research. You don’t have to give it your all. Just a little taste will do.”
He shifted his hand, capturing hers in the cleft between his fingers and thumb, then he began tracing light circles on her palm with his thumb. “You’re playing games with me.”
The touch sent sparks racing into her veins. Kristin pulled her hand away, feeling unbalanced, her tenacious need to know the truth turned fuzzy by the feeling of him next to her and the insistent, seductive scent that clung to him.
“My reputation as a serious journalist has never been a game. I need to know so I can accurately report on it.”
“Come here, then.” He held out a large hand to her.
Kristin hesitated, knowing what it would do to her, but slipped her hand into his, the coolness of his touch making a shiver travel up her arm and down her spine. A heady blend of fear and excitement pumped into her heart, making the beat frantic.
She’d never been one to take a personal risk like this. It was one thing to put yourself out for your work, another to put your body on the line, maybe even your heart. Kristin sucked in a breath. When did she start seeing herself with this man, this vampire, and craving his presence? Was she out of her mind to ask this of him?
One thing she knew for certain. There was no going back. She was crossing an intimate line with him, and at the moment it was exactly where she wanted to be.
“If I’m going to, it won’t be here.” Intimacy laced his every syllable.
“Where, then?”
He stretched his arm around her, and the curve of his powerful bicep and forearm pressed deliciously against her lower back, causing her insides to curl and contract with need. In a swirl of mist they were outside beneath the moonlit night sky. The waters off Alki Point whispered against the rocks, a rhythmic susurrus in the dark.
“You are certain?” he whispered.
She swallowed, anticipation making her lips tingle and her thighs press together a little tighter. “My editor would never forgive me if I didn’t research this thoroughly.” Truth be known, she wanted to research a hell of a lot more than just this. She’d already been fantasizing about what he looked like beneath his clothes.
Despite the shadow over his face, she could feel, more than see, his eyes darken to fathomless black. “But this isn’t just research.” Dmitri grazed his fingers down the curve of her cheek, down past her ear, tracing the lifeline that pulsed and throbbed. “You’re curious.”
The touch filtered through her skin, sending a bolt of cool light shimmering through her veins like liquid moonlight. Kristin gasped at the sensation, pressing her palms against the hard planes of his chest, wanting to feel him against her.
Her fingers picked out a rumble echoing deep within Dmitri. Despite the salted cool breeze blowing off the water, all Kristin could sense was the heat roaring in the quarter inch of space between them.
For a fraction of a second her logical mind protested. He must be controlling her mind. How else could she possibly explain the heady driving need blossoming within her? Her every sense, every desire, wrapped around the man, the vampire, against her.
He closed the gap between them, holding her against his rock-hard body with a firm yet gentle touch, his fingers twisting in the fall of her hair. “It’s like silk. Beautiful, golden silk. And this—” his mouth brushed against hers “—this is perfection.” The light touch sent her body spinning in a thousand different directions, making it difficult to concentrate. How in the hell was she supposed to put into words the sensations flooding her so that people could understand? The kiss turned deeper, more seductive, and Kristin forgot how to breathe.
She pressed herself against him, wrapping her arms around his neck tightly. She felt as if every pore opened up, wanting to soak him into her very skin, dying for him to be within her. His tongue skimmed the edge of her lip, then delved deeper, teasing her, stroking, tempting her to kiss him back and sending her senses scrambling.
“Stop thinking about it and just feel,” he whispered softly, his breath caressing just below her ear. He nuzzled the sensitive spot there, inhaling deeply. She heard the distinctive flicking sound of his fangs extending. Unlike last time, instead of fear, a fierce desire tore through her. Her center coiled with delicious tension, spiraling, tightening, wanting.
“I’ve wondered if you taste as good as you smell.”
She swallowed, barely able to catch her breath. “What do I smell like?”
“Hot cinnamon kissed with honey and vanilla.”
The brush of his cold fangs against her hot skin made her shudder. “So you like sweets?”
He chuckled, the sound warm and deep. “Call it a weakness.”
“A man after my own heart.” She pulled back slightly, caressing one of his fangs with her fingertip. “But I bet your dentist hates you.”
He sucked in a rattling breath. “Do you have any idea how many nerve endings are in the fangs?”
“Sensitive?” “Incredibly.”
“So how does it feel when I do this?” She leaned closer and swirled the tip of her tongue over the pointed tip.
Dmitri hissed, his eyes flashing iridescent in the darkness. “You make me hungry.”
Heart pounding hard in her chest, Kristin leaned her head to the side and brushed her hair over her shoulder, exposing her neck. “Then what are you waiting for?”
Chapter 9
A gust of salty wind off the water buffet
ed them in the darkness, pushing her closer to him.
For a second her heartbeat stuttered to a stop, then took up a rapid beat again as he leaned in, his mouth inches from her throat. Goose bumps raised on her skin, following the trail of his fangs as the sharp points grazed a delicate path down her neck to where her pulse beat strongest. She shuddered.
The press and pop echoed through her whole body, like an orgasmic release, as he sank himself into her. A slow liquid heat ignited an exquisite ache that throbbed at the apex of her thighs and moved outward, pulsing in every cell. Kristin gasped.
Suddenly it felt as though his mouth, his hands, his perfectly sculpted body were touching her everywhere at once. A mouth hot and demanding against hers, his tongue teasing. Another tongue warm and wet laving her nipples into hardened points, even though he was still pressing his lips against her throat. Electric fingers stroking her breasts, making them tighten and ache. Wicked fingers sliding against the slick heat at her core, causing her to whimper with need. Strong hands pressing every inch of him against every inch of her. God, how many hands did he have? She could feel at least six pair. Sweat-slickened skin slid against hers even though they were both fully clothed. How was it possible?
Kristin moaned as the heat, the throbbing, beat in her blood, made her feel invincible, as if she too could leap buildings, hear the whisper of insect wings in the wind and see distant stars. The sensation spiraled out of control, focusing into a glowing epicenter between her thighs. It exploded outward, a tsunami that swept away everything but the feel of him within her, the sensations tumbling over her in sparkling wave after wave, making her shake and tremble.
She clung to him, panting, her legs unable to support her any longer. The moment his fangs slipped out of her skin, she wanted to pull him back. Tingling warmth lingered, radiating throughout her, but the waves of pulsating need and desperate desire receded until only sweet calm remained.
“Saints above, you’re even sweeter than I imagined.” He pressed his forehead to hers, his eyes luminous, glowing like dark amber lit from within. “How do you feel?”
“Like I’ve spent the day being utterly pampered at a day spa, had a full body massage, then spent an entire week being pleasured. But I still don’t know if I can stand on my own.”
He held her against him and she loved the way his hard body supported her.
“Why didn’t you tell me you were type O?”
Worry crept in, slightly killing her buzz. “What’s wrong with type O? Are you allergic?”
He shook his head, his tongue tracing lightly along his bottom lip. “No. Just the opposite, in fact. Type O is the most addictive blood type there is.”
Lucky her. Kristin found herself fixated on his mouth, the twin ivory blades gently indenting the soft skin of his bottom lip. Heat flooded her body. If type O was addictive for the vampire, it appeared that the vampire was addictive to the donor in return. “I can see how your donors might get insatiable.” She didn’t want to think about Dmitri doing what he’d just done to her to anyone else.
She flicked her gaze back to his face and found the firm features softened with a fleeting tenderness. “That’s why our clan has rules. There’s a fine line between feeding, death and conversion. What we shared … it isn’t always this way.”
“Really?”
His kiss-me-now mouth curved into a sexy smile, showing just the tips of his fangs. She wanted to melt into him all over again. “Sometimes, tesoro, it’s better.”
The dark-chocolate scent of his skin was driving her insane. She gingerly touched the side of her neck. Amazingly there was no soreness. “How can you do that? I mean, I know your mouth never left my neck, and you don’t have that many hands, but I could feel you everywhere at once. All of you.” Her face blazed with heat as she realized just how intimate the exchange between vampire and human could be. “And why do you always seem to smell like chocolate when you’re around me?”
“It’s one of the mysteries about us.”
She pressed in even closer, letting her sensitive breasts rasp against his broad muscular chest and firmly ridged stomach. She wanted to rip off their clothes and feel his bare skin against hers. She wanted his hands on her, and his mouth. She wanted … him. “You can do better than that.”
He broke his gaze with her, his brow crumpling and eyes narrowing for a second as he stared out at the dark water. “We change to become the deepest fantasy of our host.” His tone made it seem as if he was revealing some dirty secret.
Whoa. Back that semi up. She took a step back from him, suddenly realizing just how lethal, literally, his sex appeal was to her personally. “So whatever turns me on most is what happens?”
He leveled his serious stare with her wide-eyed gaze. “Exactly.”
A giddy smile tilted her lips. “Do you have any idea how many women would kill for that?”
He seemed guarded, his eyes assessing her. “You’re not repulsed?”
How to answer? Everything she’d ever known told her to run like hell. He was the ultimate predator. But her heart told her differently. There was a hell of a lot more than just a physical connection shooting sparks between them. And it wasn’t just the feeding. He intrigued her, made her feel as if she could fly and that nothing was impossible. Looking into his eyes she could tell her answer meant far more to him than he was letting on.
“Don’t get me wrong, the idea of drinking blood still makes me woozy, but feeding you just makes me hot.”
Relief flooded his eyes, relaxed the rigid planes of his face.
“Besides, I trust you.”
He tenderly traced the curve of her ear, brushing her hair back in a gentle touch that made her shiver with anticipation. “You give your trust too easily. There’s much you still don’t know about us.”
A warning bell triggered in Kristin’s head, pricking at the back of her neck and down her spine. She did her best to ignore it. Of course vampires were dangerous. But everything in her promised that this vampire was different.
She brushed the plane of his cool cheek, the stubble rasping against the tips of her fingers. “And when you’re ready, I hope you’ll share that with me. In the meantime, I do trust you, Dmitri. God only knows, I feel as though I’ve just stepped out of an airplane to go skydiving and I’m not sure the parachute is going to open to cushion my fall. But I’m willing to take that leap into the unknown.”
His eyes glowed with a fierce tenderness. “I don’t want you to ever be afraid of me. I’ll do everything in my power not to hurt you.”
Kristin believed him, even though her heart was still giving off tiny bursts of fear. Ignoring the fading warnings, she wound her arms around his neck. “I know you will. Tell me something about vampires I don’t know.” She tried to come up with something innocuous, something that would allow her body to come down from the boil to a more comfortable simmer.
“Why do vampires have different eye colors?”
Sparks of appreciation danced in Dmitri’s intense gaze. “I’m surprised you noticed. Most people can’t tell.”
“I’m a details kind of girl.”
“Which is precisely what I like about you.”
“So why is it?”
He cuddled her into his chest, and the solidness of him warmed her, making the cool breeze off the water unimportant. Moonlight glinted and sparkled out on the dark water and glowed in the snow on the distant Olympic mountain peaks. It was as though they were temporarily suspended in some sort of dreamworld. Just the two of them.
“You are cold. We should go indoors.”
“Stop stalling.”
His chest rose beneath her cheek with a resigned sigh. “Vampires have lineage like any other beings. We have makers who function like our mother or father, those who transform us into vampires. We have tutores, mentors who guide us through the process of learning to become a vampire when our maker cannot. And every lineage inherits the eye color of their line. In a nest they might all have the same eye color as
they change to become more hivelike in their mentality, to the point where the strongest can control the will of them all. In a clan such as ours, though, we are accepting of others of different lines if they pledge themselves to the clan and forsake their lineage. They retain their own eye color because they retain their own will.”
She pulled back enough to look in the mesmerizing brown depths of his eyes. “So, nesting vampires, the clanless ones, like the one you fought on the docks, are more dangerous?”
Dmitri’s mouth flattened into a grim line. “Ruthless. They live to feed, rather than feed to live.”
A shiver rippled through her. For the first time she understood how dangerous and fine a line she was treading between the reivers and Dmitri’s clan.
For a moment they stood in companionable silence, watching ghostly clouds drift across the bright face of the moon. He slipped a strand of Kristin’s hair through his fingers, enjoying the silky sensation. In the moon’s light it was even more beautiful, like spun gold. The unique scent of her had saturated his clothes, creating the strange sensation of being both satisfied and even hungrier at the same time.
He’d not lied when he’d told her there was more. The mental gymnastics that vampires could perform during the act of feeding, sexually tampering with the mortal mind, was nothing compared to the actual act of mating. The taste of power a mortal received during feeding was minuscule in comparison to the full-fledged dose they received during mating, or if they fed directly on vampire ichor.
But the ichor was dangerous to mortals. That was where the virus resided, sustained on the pure life force energy that flowed through their veins. Vampires were the ultimate dichotomy of life and death. Pure life in the vein, pure death in the fang.
As long as mortals had only a vague understanding of the creation process of vampires, then they’d be worried about bites, which where the most dangerous part anyway.
“How much of this are they going to let me write about?” Kristin’s sweet voice startled him.
The Truth about Vampires Page 10