Maslow's Needs

by Sheri Gilmore

  Isn’t ... going to ... happen to me. A low moan escaped Jessi’s throat at the possibility. Her knees buckled at the same instant she felt an invisible wall surround her and suck her in. “Can’t ... pass ... out.”

  The pressure against her chest eased, slightly.

  “Jessi?” The deep voice held a note of disbelief.

  She struggled through the fog to recognize where she’d heard that voice ... “D-Drayden?”

  Immediately, the weight pinning her to the wall lifted, and she sucked some much needed oxygen into her lungs. His hands gripped her upper arms and turned her to face him, but he didn’t let her go. The vice grip tightened, and she clamped her teeth together to stop from crying out. Her legs were too weak to sustain her weight. If he let go, she’d fall. Her hands clutched his arms for support.

  “What the hell are you doing sneaking around back here?”

  Too lightheaded to speak, she could only stare up into the shadows where she sensed his face. She felt more than saw him step back, then reach above her to the left.

  A click coincided with a dim flood of light over her face. She squinted up at him to see the dark, hooded cloak covering his head. He must have seen her distress, because he bent and scooped her up into his arms. She wrapped her arms around his neck in an instinctual move. Cradling her against his chest, he knocked with a sharp rap on the door three times. Jessi laid her head on his shoulder.

  “Damned dangerous job you have, Detective.”

  Jessi snorted, keeping her eyes closed. “This coming from someone who ...” She had to stop and catch her breath. “... drinks other people’s blood?”

  “We use lancets or razor blades on non-vital areas of the body. It is no more than a drop here or there.”

  Razor blades. Jessi shuddered.

  The heavy wood opened, slowly, and creaked like the lid to a coffin. The spindly spider legs of fear crept over her skin. She eased her head off his shoulder, her eyes widening as she peered into a deep, dark abyss. The scent of cloves intensified, as did the heavy throb of eerie music accentuated by the beat of drums.

  “Ever hear of AIDS or hepatitis?” She swallowed the bile that rose in her throat at the sweet smell. Marijuana affected her the same way. She vaguely wondered if the two could be blended into the cigarettes being smoked.

  “Vampires screen their donors.”

  A suffocating presence of gloom and oppression wrapped around her throat, making further speech impossible. With the images of Molly still fresh in her mind, Jessi kicked her legs and pushed at Drayden’s shoulders. “No! Don’t take me in there.”

  “Stop!” Drayden’s whisper was harsh as he grasped her writhing body closer. What the hell was wrong with her? Her heart beat ninety to nothing beneath his hand, and tremors radiated through her body. She’s scared.

  “I’m not going to hurt you.” He forced his voice to a lower, calmer note, hoping she would respond to his power of vocal persuasion. If he had more light, he’d make her look at him and use his gaze to ease her fears, but at the moment he couldn’t help the darkness. There were others present, who deserved privacy to pursue their appetites and quench their more carnal needs. “We’re just passing through a private part of the club on the way to my apartment.”

  The warmth of her body melted against him. He breathed a sigh of relief that she had relaxed, but with that relief also came an awareness of how little she had covering the enticing curves of her body.

  He had one arm around her shoulders, his hand cupping one firm breast, while his other arm supported the weight of her thighs. From the pattern of the hose cutting into his forearm, he guessed she wore fishnet stockings.

  Drayden ground his teeth together. The sudden surge of blood to his groin made walking difficult. He tightened his pelvic muscles to lessen the telltale throb of his cock. After suffering through at least four cold showers since leaving her last night, he didn’t think he could resist the sexual, or psychic, pull between them tonight.

  He anchored his grip on her thigh, liking the firm and supple muscles beneath her skin. When he shifted her weight higher to avoid a more active couple stretched out into the aisle, his fingers grazed the smooth cheek of her buttock. The realization that she wore thigh highs and not pantyhose scorched his mind.

  He stumbled over his cloak. Her muscles tensed against his body, and her gasped breath fanned his neck. Fire, building on a slow burn in his gut, flared to life. “I have you.”

  He strode to the back corner of the room, where a lone doorway lay hidden in darker shadows. Trying to be careful of her head, he eased his shoulder into the wood at the same time he turned the knob. Her arms remained around his neck. Stepping through the door, he closed it with one foot. He didn’t turn the lights on. He knew his way around in the dark. Walking through the den, he turned down a short hallway to his bedroom.

  Once there, he lowered her to the mattress. He shifted his weight to ease the strain on his back, but she still held him. He had calmed her, but her fear remained just beneath the surface. Drayden placed his hands on her arms, gliding his fingers up and down her velvety skin. He could feel the tremors shake her from within.

  “It’s okay. I won’t let anyone hurt you.”

  How could someone so confident and strong be afraid of what lay in the darkness? He didn’t understand why she trembled.

  “W-What about you?”

  He stiffened as he received his answer. “I would not harm you.”

  “But, you want to ... taste ... my blood, don’t you?”

  “Only if you allow me.”

  He heard her sharp intake of breath. She released him, recoiling in what he assumed could only be fear and disgust. “We’re not monsters. We only take what we need to survive.”

  “Why?”

  He sighed and shifted her legs so he could sit beside her, drawing her resisting body close with one arm around her shoulders.

  “There is a theory that for those of us who are truly sanguinarian, vampirism is caused by a genetic code passed down from an ancient entity.”

  “Sanguinarian? You ... crave blood.”

  “Yes, but not only crave it, we need it. If we don’t meet our body’s need for the blood, then we experience headaches, nausea, abdominal cramps ... the list goes on. We cannot function in everyday life if our basic needs are not met.” He shrugged. “Same as everyone else. Once a person’s basic needs are met, then they can go on to explore bigger and better things.”

  “So, you ... drink blood ... and you feel better.”

  He laughed. “Something like that, but not that simple.” He didn’t know how much she already knew, but he needed her to understand and trust him. “Many of us are witches. Vampires have their own rituals and spells where we can use blood to enhance our powers, or enable the spells we cast to make us stronger.”

  “What kind of powers?”

  “In House Meroveus, we train to enhance our psychic powers, learning to feed off the energy of others, so we don’t have to have the blood all of the time.”

  “Feed off ‑‑?”

  “Siphon.”

  She sat up. “You’re draining people’s life-forces?”

  “I ‑‑ We have to have the psychic energy, the chi, or the blood to survive.”

  She shook her head, stood, then sat back down, clutching her head. “You are training to become an immortal psychic vampire.”

  “You’ve been reading too much science fiction.”

  “No. I’ve been reading Vampires: The Occult Truth.”

  “Like I said ‑‑ science fiction. How is your head?” It angered him that she’d believe another over him. Granted, he couldn’t tell her the truth. He’d sworn to protect his brother and their community, but ‑‑

  “My head is fine! It’s your and your friends’ heads that are messed up.”

  “Sit down before you fall. You hit your head harder than I thought.” He tried to keep his voice lowered, but she stood over him with her hands on her hips. He�
�d never met a more infuriating, more passionate woman. Goddess, he wanted her.

  “If I remember correctly, you did that to me when you slammed me up against the wall.”

  “I didn’t know who you were.” He wrapped his hands around her wrists and pulled her down into his lap. Her hands pushed against his chest to keep her from making contact with him. “But I know who you are now.” He fingered a strand of dark hair.

  “Why did you change your hair?” He stroked a finger across the velvet covering her breast. He heard the catch in her breathing. “And your clothes?”

  “I was trying to blend with the crowd.”

  Impossible. Jessi Tanner’s dominant spirit would stand out anywhere she went, but he tried to humor her. “Did it work?”

  “I made a ... friend, and I think I saw the killer. He was staring at me.”

  He stiffened, but didn’t comment. If she’d seen Nolan, it was only because he’d wanted to be seen. That wasn’t a good sign. He had to keep her away from his brother.

  “Why are you wearing that cape?”

  “I was on my way to a full-moon ritual.”

  “Vampyrecraft?”

  He watched her full lips move, and the ache in his gut intensified. He needed to feel her lips on his mouth, his neck, his cock. “Yes.”

  “What ki‑‑”

  He anchored her head with his hand to hold her in place while he moved in to kiss her. Their lips touched, and she pulled to free herself. He tightened his grip on her neck. “Don’t fight it. You know you want me.”

  “You are an arrogant son-of-a-bitch!”

  She whispered, but the words grew louder with each syllable. He’d have to shut her up. He intended to show her how the transfer of energy and blood could be a magickal and satisfying experience for the recipient as well as the donor. He knew that with the exchange of blood and chi, their psychic link would strengthen and heighten any orgasm they shared. It would also permit him to sense when she was near, or in danger. He could protect her.

  “Why? You begged me to fuck you with my fingers last night. I’m offering more than that tonight, and you are arguing?”

  “Why, you ‑‑”

  She came at him with her hands outstretched.

  That’s my girl. He had anticipated her quick temper and caught her wrists, pulled her close, and rolled her beneath him. His legs wrapped around hers to keep her from kicking him with her boots. Her skirt rode up with the twist of their bodies. The action forced his pelvis against the soft mound between her thighs. She bucked her hips, then stilled. Her eyes stared up at him with shock and awareness.

  Drayden laughed, knowing she’d realized his cock caused the throbbing against her pussy. He lowered his head and bit her earlobe.

  She moaned; he kissed her cheek.

  “I promise not to bite too hard ... unless you want me to.”

  Chapter Ten

  Her entire body shuddered with the impact of his words. Wet heat spread through the thin layer of her thong to trickle down the inside of her thigh. She wanted him to bite her, kiss her, suck her ... hell, fuck her until she screamed.

  She became aware of a small tingle like cool fingers sifting through her thoughts.

  “If that’s what you want ‑‑” His lips nibbled across her jaw to her neck below her ear. “‑‑ tell me.”

  She bit her lip, closed her eyes, not sure she could voice her hidden needs. The last time she’d trusted a man to give her what she needed sexually, she’d been abused, then labeled a slut. When she had stood up for herself, he’d divorced her for a “more moral woman, who knew her place.”

  His lips caressed her, soothing in their quest. “Tell me what you need, and I’ll give it to you.”

  Her entire body shuddered, surrendering to the coaxing quality in his voice. Her hands fisted in the folds of the cape. She pushed him away to look into his eyes ‑‑ to see his reaction to her words. “Fuck me.”

  “I’m dominant, and I like pain, Jessi.” His eyes glinted with a feral look she knew instinctively. “You have to trust me.”

  Her affirmation, no louder than the briefest of whispers, echoed between them like a shout into the Grand Canyon. “Please.”

  His nostrils flared a second before his mouth claimed hers in a rough and hungry kiss, making their efforts the night before look like a couple of virgins on their first date. He didn’t just kiss ‑‑ he devoured. When she tried to turn her head, he held her in place with one hand in her hair, pulling tight enough to snap her neck ... if he wanted.

  His other hand circled her throat, controlling the amount of oxygen she received. If she fought too hard, he tightened his grip. When she complied, he let her breathe freely. It was a lesson in submission, and she had no doubt who called the shots. He’d give her exactly what she’d asked for, as long as she gave him what he wanted.

  Jessie groaned in surrender, letting the last of her self-control fade to allow Drayden full reign.

  His mouth moved from her neck to her breasts. Her nipples stabbed through the velvet shirt like pointed spikes, begging him to suckle them. The material had clung so tight she hadn’t bothered with a bra.

  He sat up and pulled his cloak from his shoulders, then with a quick jerk of her shirt over her arms and head, she lay bared to him. She shivered in the cool air, knowing her nipples were hard and aroused. She watched his face as he studied each breast. Concentration etched grooves on either side of his mouth and formed furrows across his brow.

  Long fingers stretched toward her.

  Excitement for the unknown penetrated her arousal. She pressed her back deeper into the mattress.

  The deadly fingernails flicked one nipple, then the other.

  She jerked as the sensations speared straight to her clit. Her eyes half-closed, she released her grip on his biceps to cup her breasts and push them up, offering them to him.

  When she saw him swallow hard, she knew a moment of power. His gaze met hers. The electricity that passed between them surged. He threw his head back as if the power became his, too. She could feel the ebb and flow of energy through some unseen conduit, leaving her body to enter him.

  “Do you feel it?” He lowered his head. His dark eyes glittered in the candlelight. “You’re feeding me.” He leaned down and licked the underside of her breast.

  Jessi closed her eyes, feeling the pressure build in her womb.

  “I could live off your sexual energy for days.” He bit the soft swell of her breast. “That’s how aware of you I am.”

  Jessi groaned, not sure she believed his words, but liking the image he created in her mind. Sex had always been forty percent physical and sixty percent mental for her. If she couldn’t visualize the act in her mind, she had a hard time reaching an orgasm.

  “Tell me ... what you’re going ... to do to me.”

  “I’m going to suck your soul out through your nipples.” He lowered his head, letting his tongue snake out to lick a distended peak. “Can you picture that?”

  She closed her eyes with a deep breath. “Yes.”

  “Then, I’m going to torment you with my tongue until you beg me to fuck you. Are you ready?”

  She exhaled slowly through pursed lips, keeping her eyes shut. The scene he’d described formed in her mind, and she arched her back. Her fingernails dug into the muscles of his arms. A moan, dredged up from the depths of her body, exploded into the darkness around them. Before she could give him a verbal response, his lips and teeth latched onto her breast.

  Jessi screamed at the sharp pain that streaked from her nipple to her clit. Her head twisted back and forth against the silk sheets beneath her. She drew her knees up and dug her heels into the mattress, but he kept sucking and biting, sucking and biting.

  The climax hit in a sudden rush ‑‑ wave after wave of pleasure.

  Her hips bucked, but his weight kept her pinned in place.

  “S-stop! I-I can’t take ... anymore.”

  His only response was to trade one nipple for
the other. With a fierce growl, his lips parted, and she could see her sensitive skin trapped between his teeth.

  “I want everything, Jessi.”

  He tugged hard; she screamed. Thoughts whirled ‑‑ chaotic and dark. He had her body and mind spinning out of control. She could feel his aura fusing with hers.

  “Can you give me what I need?”

  She gasped for air. “Y-Yes. Yes.”

  His laugh vibrated through her breast into her abdomen. He licked the underside of her breast once before he resumed his assault. It truly felt as if he’d ripped her soul through her nipple when the second orgasm claimed her.

  Her mouth opened to emit a scream, but the spasm of pain and pleasure that crashed through her took her breath. Her body arched, lifting not only her weight, but his, too, into the air.

  * * * * *

  Nolan crouched behind the slats of the closet door. Sweat traveled like dozens of tributaries down his forehead, merging into a larger river of desire ebbing down his throat and chest to crash into the throb of his cock. His breathing, ragged and painful, caught in a silent groan at the scene playing out in front of him.

  The power converging in the bedroom washed over his skin, pricking and tingling like static electricity. He arched his back and head to absorb the chi of Drayden and his lover.

  A gasp from the girl drew his gaze. The sight of his brother sucking and biting her tits forced him to fist his hand against the bulge in his pants. The play of flesh across the hardened skin only caused his need to grow. With an impatient swipe, Nolan’s fingers pushed inside the material and grasped his cock and stroked hard ‑‑ up, then down ‑‑ in sync with the sucking motion of Drayden’s mouth against the bitch’s skin.

  He closed his eyes, listening to the sounds of sex surround him. His hand became her mouth, her cunt ‑‑ his eyes opened ‑‑ her ass. He shuddered and smiled as the imagery took him. He pumped harder between those tight cheeks.

  Her scream of pain and pleasure sent him over the edge. Cum, hot and wet, shot hard and fast across the small space to coat the panel of the door and ooze down his hand and wrist.