Her arms fell to her sides as she released the death grip she had on the edge of the mattress. She tried to catch her breath but seemed to be failing miserably. Her whole body felt beaten but sated. Especially her ass.
“We need to talk about this spanking fetish you have,” she whispered, still trying to regulate her breathing.
Kaelen rose up to his elbows and cupped her face. His thumbs brushed across her cheeks gently as he stared down at her. “I think not,” he murmured.
“You’re such an arrogant bastard,” she countered.
One side of his mouth lifted into a small smile. “That I am.” He leaned down and placed a kiss on her forehead. “I’m dominant in the bedroom,” he whispered. “In case you hadn’t figured that out yet.”
“Just the bedroom?” she countered sarcastically.
Kaelen chuckled. “No.” He placed a kiss on the tip of her nose. “Not just the bedroom.”
He twirled his hips, pressing his semihard cock deep into her channel. Amy sighed, shocked that he could turn her on so quickly after such an orgasm. “If you keep that up…”
“If I keep what up?” He pulled out, then pressed in again, grinding as he thrust in balls-deep. “That?”
He sucked on her bottom lip gently before letting it go with a pop.
“Yeah, that,” she whispered, then moaned as he did it again but much slower.
“You didn’t think that once would be it, did you?” he teased. “We were interrupted twice, so I have at least those two to make up for. Then there’s a third, just for the hell of it, and if we’re not done by the time the sun comes up, I’ll take you again.”
Amy stared into eyes so dark purple, they were almost black. She had no doubt he would spend the entire night making her come one time after another, and she shivered at the very thought.
Chapter Six
Amy sat at the table staring blankly at her breakfast. Her whole body ached, even her pussy. Kaelen had made love to her so many times, she’d lost count. Even after he’d left her room, despite how tired she was, she hadn’t been able to sleep. She had too much on her mind to even try.
Kaelen had made her feel things last night she’d never felt before. It sounded cliché, but it was true. She’d never been with a man who could get her so hot so many times and so damn fast. He was a drug, and she was fast becoming addicted.
A slight ache burned through her neck, and she lifted her hand to rub at it. He’d bitten her every time she came, and the biting only intensified her orgasm. Tenfold at least. It was the weirdest thing, and one she couldn’t get out of her mind.
“The pain sometimes remains.”
She looked up to see Jason watching her as he leaned against the kitchen counter, a coffee cup in his hands. She hadn’t even heard him come in, much less pour coffee.
He wore jeans and a T-shirt. Nothing fancy, just casual everyday clothes. The tight fabric of the shirt pulled across his wide chest, enhancing his muscles that were almost as big as Kaelen’s. She could understand why Stacy was so enamored with both Jason and Vincent. They were gorgeous, attentive, and both loved her friend beyond reason.
“I didn’t even hear you come in,” she said with a frown.
“I figured as much.”
Jason lifted his cup and took a sip. He was so different from Vincent and so much easier to talk to.
“Want to talk about it?” he asked softly.
“You’re not going to lecture me?”
He lifted one shoulder in a shrug. “Do you really need to hear how dangerous he is again? I figure after last night it’s a moot point anyway. Don’t you?”
She cringed. “You heard?”
Jason’s lips twitched. “We all heard. Stacy was ready to barge in and even tried to get Vincent to intervene, but he refused. Said Kaelen having sex was the last thing he wanted to witness. It would take him too long to burn the image from his mind.”
Amy’s lips twisted as she reached out to toy with the corner of her napkin before voicing one of her biggest concerns. “Once this is over, he’ll go back to being a vampire and forget all about me.”
Jason snorted. “Don’t count on it.”
She looked up at him. “Why?”
“He can get into your head.”
“Stacy said something about vamps connecting mentally with their soul mates. I can’t be his soul mate—I’m a mortal.”
“That doesn’t matter.”
She narrowed her eyes. “I thought you wanted me to stay away from him. Now you’re telling me this.”
Jason sighed and set his cup on the table before grabbing a chair and turning it around. He straddled the seat and studied her with a serious expression. “Kaelen’s dangerous. I won’t deny that. Neither will Vincent. Unfortunately, that doesn’t change the fact that you’re now connected to him. For good or bad, like it or not.”
Amy shook her head. “I don’t believe he would hurt me.”
“Kaelen would not. But the various people who want him dead just might.”
“Are there really that many?”
Jason shrugged. “He’s toned down some over the last century, but there’s still a lot of pissed-off vamps and witches out there that he’s turned over to the council for doing one thing or another. Kaelen is good at catching the bad guys. Maybe too good, if there is such a thing. He’s spent his entire life working for the council. He took over for his father almost instantly after his ascension. He’s never been in love and most certainly never been in love with a human.”
“He hates humans,” she whispered.
“That’s an understatement. I have no doubt Kaelen is just as freaked out by this as you are. I also have no doubt that Kaelen will have a hard time giving up his old life.”
“Don’t most men and even some women?”
Jason nodded. “True. I just want you to be careful and, more importantly, be very sure. If Kaelen turns you, you’re connected for eternity. There’s no turning back.”
Amy sat straighter. “Wait a minute. Turn me?”
Jason pinned her with a hard stare. “That’s what it would take to stay with him, Amy. You would have to become what he is. Period.”
Amy’s mouth dropped open as she contemplated what Jason was saying. She’d thought of becoming a vampire. She’d often fantasized about it as she’d studied what she then believed to be a myth. To actually be faced with the possibility was another matter entirely and made her seriously think if she wanted to do something like that. Could she really be a vampire?
“Where’s Stacy?” she asked quietly.
She really needed to talk about this. Or did she? Kaelen had never mentioned the word love, and truthfully, love hadn’t even entered her mind either. All she’d been able to think about since arriving was fucking the man, and she’d done that last night in spades.
“Stacy’s still sleeping, which is something I think you need to be doing. Do you want me to give you something so you can?”
“You mean like a spell or something?” she asked with trepidation.
Jason grinned. “Yeah, or I could just give you a sleeping pill.”
She grimaced and shook her head. “Sleeping pills leave me feeling off. Would a spell do the same thing?”
“Nope.”
She nodded and sighed tiredly. She did really need to sleep. Maybe then she could think a little more clearly. “Spell, please.”
Jason chuckled and stood. Taking her hand in his, he pulled her from the chair and toward the back stairs leading to the second level. “You need to be settled in bed first. I don’t want to risk you falling flat on your face.”
“We definitely don’t want that,” Amy said as she followed him up the stairs toward her room.
Once there, Jason turned his back and waited for her to remove her robe and climb into bed. “Okay,” she said.
Jason walked over and placed his hand against her forehead. The last thing she remembered before falling asleep was the sound of his soft, deep voice as he r
ecited a short spell.
* * * *
Kaelen strolled into the kitchen, fully expecting a rant from Vincent. Instead, he found Jason by the sink, Vincent nowhere in sight. Jason watched out the window, a cup of coffee in his hands. He looked worried…tired.
“Is coffee all you drink?” Kaelen asked.
Jason turned to face him. “Well, well. If it isn’t the son of Dracula.”
“Funny,” Kaelen snarled sarcastically. “Don’t quit your day job.” He scowled in a way he hoped sent Jason a clear message he wasn’t in the mood. Judging by the grin playing at the witch’s lips, he doubted that message got through.
Jason’s grin widened as he lifted the cup to take a sip.
Kaelen grimaced. “How can you stand that swill?”
“Swill? Coffee is the only thing that keeps me going sometimes when I don’t get much sleep, which was the case last night,” he said as he gave Kaelen a pointed look that Kaelen chose to ignore. “And how the hell do you know what coffee tastes like?”
Kaelen pulled out one of the stools at the kitchen island and sat down. “I used to eat before I turned.”
Jason grunted. “I’m sure coffee, as well as most everything else, has changed a bit since then. I know it’s certainly changed since the eighteen hundreds.”
“I sometimes forget you’re almost as old as I am.”
“I’m half as old as you are. But I can die.”
Kaelen looked up at him through his lashes. “So can I. Where’s Vincent? I want to get the yelling over with.”
Jason snickered. “Vincent isn’t going to yell. I think he’s finally come to the conclusion that you’re going to do whatever the hell you want regardless of what he says.”
“Finally. But where is he?”
“He and Stacy went to London to speak to the council. Merrick was apparently there, but Vincent just missed him. At least we know he’s still alive. Vincent has put out feelers to try and track him down. And before you ask, Amy is still asleep, so leave her be.”
Kaelen shrugged. “I would’ve known if he were dead, and I knew about Amy too. I checked in on her as I came down.” Kaelen scowled. “Since you blocked her, I wanted to make sure she was okay.”
“She needed to rest, Kaelen. You know if you connect with her, her sleep would be light at best.”
“I don’t seem to have any control over the connection, it seems. If she sleeps when I do, I end up in her head. I’m not sure how to stop it.”
“It may never stop.”
With a sigh, Kaelen dropped his head in his hands. A lifetime of mentally connecting with her and not being able to truly have her would drive him insane.
“For most vampires, if they find this kind of connection, it stops once they bond, or marry, or whatever the hell it is we do.”
“After four hundred years, you would think you would know what it is you do.”
Kaelen shook his head. “Why would I know that? I never looked for a life mate. I never wanted one.”
“Looks like you may have one now.”
“Yeah, but for how long? I may not live out the century. Is it fair for me to change her, then leave her to live alone for eternity?”
“She would find someone else.”
Kaelen scowled. “Don’t even go there.”
Jason sighed and set his cup on the counter behind him. “Kaelen, you could be as good as gold and as loved as chocolate and still die the next day. No one has any control over that sort of thing. Live life as it comes.”
Kaelen gave Jason an exasperated look. “I wish you and Vincent would make up your damn minds. First you’re telling me to stay away; now you’re telling me to go for it. Which the hell is it?”
“It’s whatever you want. It’s your life,” Jason replied. “Amy is an adult, and no matter how much we may worry or how much we might think it’s a huge mistake—”
“Fuck you, Jason,” Kaelen snarled as he brushed his hair back from his face.
“Again,” Jason said, a little louder. “It’s your life. Every man has a right to be happy, including you. If she makes you happy…” Jason shrugged, letting Kaelen finish himself.
Did she make him happy? All he knew for sure was that he wanted her to be the first thing he saw when he woke up and the last thing he saw when he went to sleep. She was all he’d been able to think about since seeing her in that lab. With a groan, he dropped his head in his hands and rubbed them up and down his tired face. Despite the fact that he’d healed quickly, he still felt off his game. Badly.
“Have you sensed anything?” Jason asked as he took another sip of coffee.
He raised his head and stared at Jason in confusion. “About what?”
“Merrick.”
He shook his head. “I don’t have that kind of connection with him.”
“Are you sure you don’t remember anything about your attacker?” Jason asked.
Kaelen took a deep breath and rubbed his hand across his mouth as he tried to remember that night and the man who’d stabbed him. “It all happened so damn fast. I remember dirty blond hair, but nothing about his face. He mostly kept his head down, which is probably why he missed.”
“He didn’t miss by much. An inch to the right, and you would’ve been history.”
Kaelen nodded but said nothing more. Jason didn’t need to remind him how close he’d come to death. He knew.
“Do you suppose it has something to do with my assistant?” Jason asked.
With a frown, Kaelen looked out the kitchen window. Jason’s assistant had been using vampire blood to create a drug. Over seven humans had overdosed on it, one of whom had been Stacy’s friend. That was how Jason and Vincent had met her. She’d been the police officer investigating the drug and its origins. That was also how Amy had gotten ahold of vampire blood. Something he really needed to get back before someone else caught wind of it and came after her.
“That night in the club when we traded my assistant for Amy and Stacy, he said someone was trying to bring down the council. He was working with someone we never caught. Is it possible that someone is now after you?”
“Anything is possible. It wouldn’t be the first time someone has tried to bring the council members down. Vampires are constantly looking for ways to make the council implode from within. It’s usually the witches they take out, not the vamps. If the vamps are to gain control, they need the majority.”
“Who gets your seat if you die?”
“Merrick.”
“Then after Merrick?” Jason asked as he stared closely at Kaelen. “You and your brother are the last of your line. Neither of you have married.”
Kaelen’s eyes narrowed as his mind began to play out the scenarios. His seat would be up for grabs. There wasn’t anyone to pass it down to if he and his brother were to be killed. Was that what all this was about? And if it was, why hadn’t they gone after his brother? Or maybe they had, and he just hadn’t heard about it yet.
Kaelen finally shook his head. “This can’t be about that. They need vampires in control. Why wipe us out?”
“So they can get someone in there that wants what they want. You and Merrick don’t.”
“I disagree,” Kaelen replied. “There would be a better way to do it. Just my seat isn’t strategic enough. They would need my seat as well as three others from the witches’ side. Mine should be the last one taken out, not the first.”
“It’s a scenario to keep in mind.”
“Consider it kept, but I want to look at other scenarios. I believe this is more personal, aimed specifically at me.”
Jason crossed his ankles. “Got anyone in mind?”
Kaelen snorted. “Lots. You want the whole list or just the top twenty or so?”
Jason squeezed his temples between his thumb and fingers. “Jeez, Kaelen.”
“What do you expect? I’ve had over three hundred years of catching the bad guys. Some I’ve killed, some we’ve just punished, but it was usually me that caught them and brou
ght them before the council. I bet my fortune this is personal.”
“What’s personal?”
Kaelen turned in surprise to see Amy standing in the opening to the kitchen. Her hair was down around her shoulders, the soft curls framing her delicate face. Her fair skin gave her a china-doll complexion, and her lips, even without lipstick, had a reddish hue that made his blood quicken. Her cornflower blue eyes moved back and forth between him and Jason as though she were waiting impatiently for an answer. As soft-spoken as she was, Amy had an almost arrogant air about her. It showed she had confidence and strength, something Kaelen admired about her.
She wore jeans tonight with a maroon tank top, which, despite her fair skin, actually suited her well. Her waist was outlined with a wide black belt, and around her neck was the same choker she’d worn the first night he’d seen her in her lab.
“The attempt on my life,” Kaelen finally responded once he’d found his tongue.
She blinked and tilted her head to the right. “I would hazard a guess, especially after seeing the way he jumped through the glass and stabbed you with such anger, it was definitely personal.”
Jason stood straighter. “Did you get a good look at his face, Amy?”
She shook her head as she walked into the room and grabbed a coffee cup off the counter. “It happened too fast. By the time I got my bearings, he was already out the window.”
“Then how do you know I was stabbed in anger?” Kaelen asked as he frowned.
“Didn’t you hear him growl at you?” she asked as she turned to face him. “That’s the one thing I remember clearly.”
Kaelen shook his head, dismissing her theory. “That doesn’t mean anything. He could’ve been growling because he’d been cut jumping through the glass or from the exertion of the jump.”
“That’s another thing.” She reached for the coffeepot. “That window is two stories off the ground.”
“We can easily jump three, sometimes four stories.”
She glanced at him briefly as she poured her coffee. “Seriously?”
“Yes.”
She frowned and put the pot on the counter.
“Did you sleep okay, Amy?” Jason asked, changing the subject.
To Die For Page 6