Dark and Dangerous: Six-in-One Hot Paranormal Romances

by Jennifer Ashley

  He tossed the restraints onto the crumpled red sheets on his bed and crossed the room in a handful of swift strides. She tensed as he snatched the tie from her fingers and stared at it, and then at her. She couldn’t meet his gaze at first, was too busy watching the way his fingers shook against the tie. He was nervous. That made two of them.

  “Turn around,” he husked, voice thick with passion, roughened by desire.

  Sera did as ordered, biting her lip the whole time. She tensed again when he stepped up behind her, his hips pressing against her bottom, and lowered his arms on either side of her head. She couldn’t take her eyes off the tie as he brought it towards her. Her heart began to race, adrenaline mingling with the desire in her blood, a dangerous mix that Antoine ignited with a kiss. He worked his mouth along her shoulder towards her neck, teasing her as he secured the tie over her eyes, stealing away one of her senses.

  Her instincts kicked in even stronger now, other senses on high alert. She could hear Antoine breathing and although it was shallow and soft, it sounded heavy and rough, filling her ears together with the sound of Snow pacing his room and Lilah’s quiet giggle as Javier mumbled something in Spanish that sounded a lot like a curse.

  Each brush of Antoine’s lips over her shoulder drugged her, drove her deeper into her desire. The bare whispers of a kiss were the worst, sending glittering sparks over her skin and her senses into overdrive.

  “Come with me,” he murmured into her ear, his breath cool and teasing, melting her bones. She already felt too hot, burning from just the brief kisses. How would she feel when Antoine finally locked those heavy unbreakable cuffs around her wrists and ankles?

  He led her to the bed, hands on her hips, guiding her through the darkness. She held her hands out in front of her, afraid of falling or hitting something. She trusted Antoine but she didn’t trust herself. Without her sight to guide her, she feared she would make a fool of herself.

  “Use your senses.” Antoine paused with her, pressed a kiss to her shoulder and then lightly bit with blunt teeth.

  She groaned. How could he expect her to use her senses on anything other than him when he was doing such things to her? The feel of his strong hands grasping her hips and his lips so close to her throat had every part of her locked onto him.

  Sera expanded her senses to the room and her eyes widened behind the mask. Everything came back so clearly, outlined in her mind. Her memory of the room combined with the radar-like senses she had as a vampire gave her a clear image of where she was. She could have danced around the room blindfolded and not hit anything.

  “Elizabeth needs to improve your lessons. Maybe I could teach you a few things. Would you like that?” Antoine kissed his way up her throat to her earlobe. He teased it between his blunt teeth. His words evoked images in her mind of him playing the role of teacher while she pretended to be his naughty student. Heavens. Just the thought of acting out such wicked fantasies had her soaked with need and moaning for more.

  Sera ground her bottom into his groin.

  A sharp stab of pain in her earlobe caused her to flinch.

  “Damn.” Antoine was gone in a flash, leaving her alone and disorientated in the middle of the room.

  Her senses reached for him and she was surprised to find him in the corner of the room.

  “What’s wrong?” She pushed the blindfold up her head and flinched again, the room too bright for her sensitive eyes even though the lights were low.

  Red ringed Antoine’s beautiful pale eyes.

  Sera touched her earlobe and then stared at the trace of scarlet on her fingertips. Blood. She must have aroused him with her little grind against his crotch and brought his fangs out.

  “Come kiss it better.” Sera crooked her finger.

  He shook his head and it dawned on her that when he said he was afraid of hurting her, this was what he meant. He didn’t want to draw blood because doing so would push him towards the edge of an abyss, and falling into it meant succumbing to his bloodlust.

  “You tasted my blood on the stage.” She frowned, trying to figure out the rules he had set for himself when it came to blood.

  “An accident. I shouldn’t have. It was dangerous.”

  “You can control it when you only take a little though?”

  He scrubbed a hand over his face. “Yes, but the temptation to draw more, Sera... I wanted to sink my fangs into you when we were together on the stage... I still want to now.”

  Sweet, sweet mercy, that sounded delicious. She wanted that too but the pained edge to his eyes said not to ask it of him because he wouldn’t give in to such a request. He was protecting her. Sera couldn’t be angry with him for that. She didn’t want to push him over the edge just to satisfy some personal itch to feel his fangs in her, taking her blood and opening a connection between them. The risk was too great.

  The cut on her earlobe had already stopped bleeding thanks to her healing ability.

  “What if I bit you?” she said and he groaned low and deeply, a feral hungry sound edged with pain, as though she was both arousing and tormenting him by suggesting such a thing. She wanted to know the boundaries so she couldn’t accidentally cross them. “You’re not the only one who gets an urge to bite when we’re together.”

  “Sera,” he groaned her name, hot and husky, sending a flash of fire through her blood. She wanted to hear him say it that way as he kissed every inch of her, as he plunged his hard cock into her body and joined them as one.

  “Can I bite you, Antoine?” Sera gathered her courage, overcame her nerves and ventured a step towards him. “I had a little taste too, remember? I want more.”

  “Sera.” His eyes darkened, pupils eating up his irises. What remained of the blue gradually turned red and then the black circles of his pupils began to contract and lengthen, turning elliptical. His fangs emerged, pressing against his lips as he spoke. “I do not think I could keep control of my bloodlust if you did.”

  “It isn’t bloodlust that makes you want to bite me, Antoine,” she whispered and stepped up to him, tilting her head back to hold his crimson gaze as it bore into her, hungry and intent. “It’s passion... desire. If it were bloodlust, you would want to bite me all the time.”

  “I do.” Two dangerous words that came out rough and hard from between his teeth.

  “No, you only want to bite me when you think about fucking me.”

  He growled and his hands shot to her waist, dragging her into his granite-hard body. His mouth captured hers, rough and dominant, and she melted into him, loving just how possessive and fierce she made him. She pushed her hands up his strong arms, delighting in the contours of his muscles that exuded power and filled her mind with images of him using it on her in bed, and tunnelled her fingers into the shorter hair at the back of his head. He moaned with the first rake of her nails over his scalp and shuddered with the second.

  Sera broke the kiss and moved her mouth to his neck before he could capture her lips again. She pressed her tongue into the vein and Antoine clutched her, pulling her hard against him, his fingertips sharp painful points against her hips.

  “Don’t,” he whispered and he might have sounded more convincing had his right hand not left her waist and tangled into her blonde hair, pinning her mouth to his throat.

  He wanted this as much as she did. There was nothing more sacred to a vampire than blood, and giving it to or taking it from another vampire was one of the most erotic, profound experiences they could have.

  Sera’s fangs extended and she gave his neck one more swift lick so he had time to prepare himself and then sank them deep into him.

  Antoine growled, the feral noise carrying an intoxicating cocktail of desire, bliss, hunger and danger.

  She released his neck, covered the twin puncture wounds with her mouth and sucked. Antoine shivered and moaned again, his hands tightening against her. The first touch of his blood on her tongue lit up her mind like fireworks. The moment she swallowed, the whole world expanded, stret
ching into infinity and leaving her lost, a slave to the incredible feel of connecting with Antoine’s mind through his blood. Strength flowed into her veins, carried by the heady and divine ambrosia she was greedily sucking down. Heavens. This man had the most powerful drug in the world flowing in his veins.

  Her knees weakened.

  She trembled but still kept drinking, needing a little more. She would stop before she went too far.

  Sera worked her body against his, hungry for more than just blood. Antoine stiffened.

  “Sera, stop,” he said, voice deep and commanding, cutting through the haze in her mind. “Stop.”

  Why would she want to stop?

  He tasted too damn good. She wanted to drink all of him. She wouldn’t let him stop her. This was her blood. He would give it to her. She wouldn’t let him refuse. If he did, she would show him what a foolish man he was to think he could deny her.

  Good Christ.

  Sera released his neck and recoiled, stumbling backwards and hitting the ebony corner post of the king-sized bed.

  “Sera.” Antoine rushed to her, his hands on her face and his voice soft and soothing. “Listen to me, Sera.”

  He stroked her cheeks, smoothing his palms over them. His hands were trembling and his neck was bloodied. Her stomach somersaulted and she swallowed. How much had she taken? She had been drinking greedily, gulping down his blood.

  “What?” she mumbled and tried to focus but her head spun violently, sending the room pitching and swaying. Her mind screamed for more blood. “The fuck?”

  “Look at me, Sera,” Antoine said and her eyes darted to his. They were blue again, beautiful and clear, and concerned. “It isn’t your desire. Understand? Just ignore it and I will have it under control in a second.”

  He guided her to the bed before she could ask what he was talking about and forced her to sit on the edge.

  Sera stared straight ahead. True to his word, the violent thoughts spinning through her mind began to disappear one by one, until her head was clear again and she no longer desired to tear Antoine’s throat open as repayment for his audacity in thinking he could refuse her.

  “Now you see the fire you play with?” Antoine’s tone was dark. He stood before her in only his black boxer shorts, as immense and powerful as Snow had looked earlier.

  Dangerous.

  “I tried to warn you.” He turned away and Sera frowned at the wooden floorboards.

  Bloodlust.

  “It’s contagious?” Her pulse spiked. Had she just contracted bloodlust?

  Antoine laughed, a bitter sound. “No. It wasn’t your feelings. They were mine.”

  Her eyes widened. To think he endured that dark, deep mindless craving whenever he consumed blood.

  “Not whenever,” he said and she snapped her head around to look at him. He shrugged and gave her a forced smile. “I did not mean to pry. You consumed a large quantity of my blood. My family has always had the ability to read those weaker than us when they have enough of our blood in their body.”

  “I’m broadcasting my thoughts to you?”

  He nodded. Well, that was certainly a new one on her.

  Antoine sighed and sat beside her on the bed. “I do not intend to use it against you.”

  Something told her that he was talking about more than just reading her thoughts. Could he control her too? She had heard that some vampires, the older generation, possessed the ability to place vampires under their thrall, something which was normally reserved for humans only. Was this how they did it, by having the vampire drink their blood?

  “I feel dizzy.” Sera flopped back onto the bed.

  It was only when Antoine’s gaze burned into her stomach and then her chest that she remembered she was naked. The cold chill in her blood burned away as she focused on Antoine, enjoying the feel of his eyes on her and the desire running rampant through her blood. He wanted her.

  He lightly traced a line down her chest, between her breasts, and over her stomach to her navel. From there, he flattened his palm against her and continued downwards.

  Sera rolled her eyes closed with the first brush of his fingers between her legs.

  “Do you still wish to be tied up?” He sounded distinctly more interested in playing along with her now.

  Not because he wanted to tie her up.

  His blood in her body was broadcasting her thoughts and feelings to him. If she hadn’t bitten him, he might have gone along with tying her up but he would have had to trust the feelings he was picking up in her and the things she said were the truth, not a cleverly constructed lie to make him believe that she trusted and didn’t fear him. Now, with his blood relaying everything to him and a connection between them that was wide open and showed no sign of closing any time soon, he would be able to feel the truth in her and she wouldn’t be able to hide anything from him.

  Sera nodded and raised her hands, placing her wrists together above her. She flicked her eyes opened and smiled into his, letting him feel everything that was flowing through her. He really didn’t scare her and she really did trust him, and this would prove it to him once and for all.

  “Tie me up, Antoine.”

  CHAPTER 11

  Antoine was one hundred and ten percent certain that this was a very bad idea. Very very bad. Unfortunately, the raging hard-on in his boxers was telling him that he was in the mood for something very very bad and what Sera proposed perfectly fit the bill. He couldn’t think about her chained up and at his mercy without his cock twitching and aching.

  The blood in her veins whispered that she wasn’t lying about anything. She wanted this just as much as he did and she wasn’t afraid, not even having experienced the rage of his bloodlust firsthand. She was stronger than he had given her credit for and he was the first to admit that it pleased him. Perhaps she could handle him and everything that entailed.

  Still, he wasn’t one to tempt fate so he rose from the bed, crossed the room to his chest of drawers and filled a glass with blood. He necked it and closed his eyes as it slid down his throat, replenishing some of what he had lost.

  Just the memory of her mouth on his throat, his blood flowing into her, and the hungry sucking noises interspersed with muffled groans of pleasure had his erection straining against the black boxers. He wanted to sink his fangs into her as he drove his cock into her warmth, losing himself completely to his desire for this woman.

  He had heard Javier and Callum as they passed his door this morning before he had fallen asleep. They had mentioned Sera and that he hadn’t left his room since her arrival. The staff and performers would be talking about it too. He had missed a performance to be with her.

  He had never missed a performance.

  What was she doing to him?

  There was a time when he would have killed anyone who tried to draw his blood, even those who had been close to him. He would have killed Anya. He had lived with her for a century and never once had he allowed her to taste him. Sera had taken his blood twice now, once when healing him and just now when she had bitten him.

  Bitten him.

  Devil, he shouldn’t want to risk awakening his bloodlust but he wanted to do it again. The sharp sting of her fangs sinking into him and the rough pulls she had made on his blood had been ecstasy.

  “Are you going to tie me up, Antoine?”

  So husked his temptress. His wicked vixen.

  She sat on the end of his bed, looking innocent even though she was nude, her blonde hair curling gracefully around her slender creamy shoulders and those mesmerising forest green eyes fixed on him in a challenge.

  He never had been one to back down from a challenge.

  Antoine smiled and crossed the room, holding her gaze all the while, letting her see that she was going to get her wish. He would do all in his power to control himself and not let his desire to bite her get the better of him. The blood he had just ingested would tide him over and keep the worst of his hunger at bay.

  He picked up the discard
ed restraints and placed two next to her on the bed. The other two he held in one hand as he mounted the mattress. Sera’s gaze followed him. He grabbed her wrist and effortlessly pulled her up the bed, so her head hit the crimson pillows, and then set about fastening the restraints around the bedposts. He looped the chain around the carved black post, fastened the cuff at one end over it and snapped it shut. The cuffs themselves weren’t large enough to close around the post so it was the only way of securing them to his bed. It cut the chain short and he thanked fate for gifting him a small reprieve. At least with her legs free, Sera could kick him if he took things too far and crossed a line. He set the chain of the second restraint into the cuff of the one around the post and closed it, locking it tight. With the two sets joined, they reached where Sera lay and wouldn’t pull too hard on her arms, giving her some room to move. He did the same with the remaining two cuffs, daisy-chaining them together.

  “What about my feet?” Sera frowned at the restraints.

  “It is probably best they are left free.” Antoine could see she was going to protest and tell him to get another two sets off his brother so he killed it dead before it left her lips. “I might want to flip you on your front.”

  Her cheeks coloured deeply. Beautiful.

  He wanted to lick them and feel their heat whenever they did that. The sight of them made him want to say more wicked things so the blush spread and covered the whole of her body.

  Sera stilled when he picked up the first cuff and placed it around her slender wrist. They were designed to fit Snow’s thicker wrists tightly so there was a gap around hers. If she tried hard enough, she would be able to slip her hand through the cuff and escape. That gave him peace of mind. He snapped the second one shut around her other wrist and then sat back.

  Devil, she looked so good all chained to his bed and helpless. Forget saying wicked things, he wanted to do bad things to her.