“I can’t keep human hours like I want to. The vampire still keeps me awake a good part of the night and you need your rest,” he explained.
“Yeah, right, vampire,” burst from her lips before she could hold it in.
“Yeah, vampire. But if you need anything, call me. Anything at all,” he said, forcing her to remember his earlier words about how hard her first kill might hit her.
“I will,” she said and they stood there hesitantly, doing an awkward kind of dance as they struggled between what they really desired and what made sense.
Finally, he dropped a fleeting kiss on her cheek and once again whispered, “Call me.”
Chapter 6
Rhiannon had to fight back the urge to keep him with her as he walked out the door and closed it, but she didn’t dare take whatever was happening to the next level.
She was a Slayer and he was a vampire. But it wasn’t that black and white because he wasn’t your average run-of-the-mill vampire. Otherwise he wouldn’t be instructing her in how to kill the bad vampires.
That she was now willing to consider that there were both good and bad in that group was a decided departure from what some like Evangeline would like to keep as the Golden Rule.
And she had no doubt about what was Evangeline’s ultimate plan for Benjamin, namely that he’d end up with a stake through his heart and turning to dust beneath the rays of the sun.
It hurt her heart so much to think about that, she actually placed her hand there and pressed to try to assuage the ache.
Forcing away those depressing thoughts, she climbed between sheets as smooth as silk. Way different from the cheap rough bedding in her own small studio apartment. But at least she now had a home thanks to the Slayers. Not to mention food and regular employment, even if her job might get her killed one day.
She closed her eyes and sank into the comfort of the soft pillows and comfy mattress, tired from the emotional rollercoaster she had ridden for the last several hours. Physically exhausted from the long trek across Manhattan and the fight with the vampire.
Even with the comfort of the bed, she could feel the bruised spots on her body and the slight ache in her muscles. The scratches on her forearm still stung from the antiseptic Ben had used to disinfect the wound.
Ben.
She breathed his name on a sigh and struggled to shift her thoughts away from him. Impossible to do with the smell of him on the sheets, that potent combination of sandalwood, soap, and Ben.
What would it have been like if he hadn’t been turned? she wondered. Could they have gone from trainer and trainee to something more?
She allowed herself to imagine what could have been and her body responded, growing damp and needy. Her breasts tingled and her nipples tightened as she imagined him kissing her there.
Reaching up, she cupped her breast and played with the tip, tugging and pulling it into a hard nub while she skimmed her other hand down to her center. Found the swollen nub and caressed it, building her passion. Seeking a release from the need and from thoughts of Ben.
But he was there with her in that big empty bed as she stroked and pushed toward her release. He was there with her as her climax built and she drove her fingers in to satisfy the desire he had created.
Harder she pressed as she climbed ever higher toward the edge and when she fell over, her body arching off the sheets, she breathed in the scent of him and silently called out his name.
As she dropped down onto the sheets, physically sated but still empty in other ways, she finally let sleep claim her.
But even in her dreams she couldn’t escape the reality of her life.
He came to her as the demon, his eyes glowing with the light of the vampire. His fangs long and dripping with blood.
As he approached, a wild look in his eyes, she backed away, but he kept on coming at her until there was no more retreat. Nothing else she could do.
She drove the stake in and upward. Watched as he looked down and stared at the wood buried deep into his heart by her hand. As he dropped to his knees, he glanced upward, his face twisted with pain and disbelief. A soundless “Why?” on his lips as life fled from his amazing cerulean eyes.
With an anguished cry, she shot up in bed, her heart pounding. Her body drenched in sweat as if she had just fought a real battle.
She heard it then. A cry of pain and fear.
It took her a moment to realize it hadn’t come from her.
Throwing off the sheets, she hurried to the door, opened it, and peered out into the living room.
Ben was asleep on the couch, one of those lounger things that could be made into a bed. He was thrashing around beneath the light sheet covering his body, obviously caught in some kind of nightmare. Another rough shout erupted from him as he remained trapped in his own private hell.
She couldn’t bear to let him suffer alone any longer.
She walked over and gingerly sat on the edge of his makeshift bed. Laid her hand on his bare chest and tenderly stroked her hand there, urging him to leave his nightmare.
“Ben, wake up. It’s only a bad dream. Wake up, Ben,” she whispered and a second later, he bolted awake, his eyes wild and with a hint of the vampire’s glow. As he sucked in a rough breath, she caught a glimpse of the first little bump of fang on his otherwise perfect white teeth.
“It’s okay,” she said again, stroking her hand across his chest which was damp with the exertions from his nightmare. His skin wasn’t cold, but it wasn’t human warm either, a byproduct of his being in a half-vamped state.
He shook his head as if to drive away both dreams and the demon, and the longish strands of his sandy blonde hair shifted with the roughness of his action.
She stroked his chest again and again, wanting to offer reassurance and bring him peace from his nightmare, but that simple gesture slowly morphed into more.
He covered her hand and tangled his fingers with hers, stilling the motion. Met her gaze with his blue-eyed human one as with a light tug, he urged her near.
When her lips were close enough to feel the spill of his breath, he whispered, “There are probably a million reasons why this doesn’t make sense.”
“Probably,” she said, but kept her gaze locked with his.
“So why can’t I think of even one right now,” he said and rose up to meet her lips in a kiss that sizzled her nerve endings.
Over and over he kissed her, his mouth mobile and hot as he explored her lips and eased his tongue inside to meet hers. Danced it with hers as she answered his plea, wanting this.
Wanting him.
She shifted so she was lying beside him on the narrow space of the couch, her body half-resting on his as they continued to kiss. Their joined hands trapped between them until she slipped free and ran her hand across his chest and down, pulling away the sheets and exposing his magnificent body.
Breaking away from his kiss, she took her time exploring his body, shifting her hand all across the hard muscles of his chest and then the ridged six-pack. Lower still along the sensitive skin of his lower abs.
He sucked in a breath as her hand just barely brushed his erection, but she moved lower, to the powerful muscles of his thighs, before finally encircling his long thickness in her hand.
“Rhi,” he said and groaned at her first stroke along his cock.
“You are so beautiful,” she said and bent to drop a kiss on the corner of his mouth as she stroked him again and he pushed his hips upward into her hand.
“I need you so bad,” he said, but she just kept up her tantalizing caresses, pushing him until the first little drop of his release wet her palm.
She straddled his legs then, centering herself over his thighs and he surged up, grabbed the hem of the T-shirt he had lent her and ripped it off.
A low growl vibrated across his body and into hers as he ate her up with his gaze.
When he spoke, his voice was tinged with the vampire’s rumble, but she ignored that warning sign since his gaze was still
human.
“So perfect,” he said and bracketed her waist with his big hands, his rough palms enticing against that delicate skin.
“Touch me more,” she said as she reached down and cupped his balls. Caressed them while continuing to pleasure him with her other hand. Her own core was dripping and clenching with her own need.
He surprised her by surging up to kiss and suck her breast. Each pull of his mouth sent a shot of desire to her center and she rocked her hips along the hard muscle of his thighs, trying to satisfy that need. Delaying her own fulfillment until she could bring him greater pleasure.
At one rough tug, she cried out, nearly undone by the touch of his mouth, but then she felt the scrape of his fangs along that skin and stilled her caresses.
Ben’s head whirled with the scent of her and the feel of her warmth all around him. Her hands working him and providing such pleasure. The wet of her along his legs. The sweetness of her breasts and hard tips against his tongue and lips.
Sweet Lord, but it was all so good, he thought, but then from deep inside him, the vampire burst free.
Heat poured across his body as the demon awoke. Pain exploded in his head as his fangs shot from his jaw, grazing the smooth skin of her breast.
Sucking in a deep inhalation, the muskiness of their lovemaking nearly pushed him past the edge of control, but somehow he fought it back and moved away from her, lying back down on the couch to look up at her.
She had stopped her caresses, aware that he was no longer human. But she surprised him then by reaching up with her hand and tenderly tracing the edge of his lips and the slight show of fang visible beneath them with her fingers.
“You can control this, Ben. This isn’t what you are,” she said.
“I’m not sure I can tame it, Rhi. It wants a taste so bad,” he said, knowing what the vampire craved while some part of his humanity was still in control.
“You can, Ben. You can tame the vampire and maybe it’s not the only thing that wants a taste,” she said, bent and tenderly bit the skin at his neck, sending a shock wave of desire through his body that nearly undid him.
As she sucked and kissed the spot made tender with her love bite, he shuddered as sensation and emotion twisted together in his gut, dragging up the pain of his past.
He’d lost so much already to the vampires. His family. His brother. An ordinary life.
He couldn’t lose her, too.
He wouldn’t lose her.
He focused on her kiss and the feel of her warmth, ignoring how the vampire wanted to sink its fangs into the heat of her skin.
With deep breaths, he took in the scent of her, citrus, flowers and the muskiness of her desire. Fought the beast who wanted to smell her blood, fresh and warm.
It became a back and forth battle as Rhiannon murmured over and over, “You can do it, Ben. For you. For me.”
His body shook from the fight that raged inside, human and vampire struggling for dominion. Slugging it out in his brain as each imagined taking her, but in the end, only the human could love. Only the human wanted her for more than dinner.
Like a tornado uprooting everything in its path, he sucked the demon back into his core and caught it up in the whirlwind of his emotions. Trapped it so that the humanity that he still clung to so stubbornly could take hold.
So that love might have a chance.
She must have sensed it since she sat back and stared at him, a smile of victory on her face as she confirmed that he had mastered the beast.
It dragged a grin from him and brought a lightness to his being that he hadn’t experienced in forever. Not even as a human had he felt that there was the possibility for happiness, but with Rhiannon in his life, that no longer seemed so far-fetched.
Rolling, he trapped her beneath him, his erection nestled against her belly until she guided him to her center.
All lightheartedness fled then as the enormity of what they were about to do sank in.
“Are you sure?” he asked, aware that this would violate any and all rules by which they were bound.
“Never more sure,” she said.
He drove in deep, burying himself in her sweetness. Holding still as her life energies crashed over him and he suddenly could see the aura surrounding her, awash in a brilliant blue. And as he moved, that power swept over him, pulling him into a world filled with her as she gave herself to him freely and without reservation.
He bent and kissed her, opening his mouth on hers as he stroked in and out of her body, bringing her ever closer to climax. As her body trembled beneath his, on the edge, he rolled with her again so that she was straddling him, giving her control. Urging her on with soft commands and the grasp of his hands on her hips, helping her set the pace.
Rising up, he sucked and teethed the tight tips of her breasts, yanking soft cries of pleasure from her.
She wrapped her arms around his neck, keeping him close as she rocked her hips, riding him. Her movements growing more and more erratic as pleasure spiraled ever higher.
He drove up into her, seeking his release as well. Wanting to fall over the edge with her as the pressure built in his gut and he could no longer hold back.
Reaching between them, he found her center with his fingers and caressed the swollen nub, pushing her over the edge.
She shattered over him and her body jerked as she arched back, calling out his name. Grinding her hips down onto him as she sought every last bit of pleasure from their joining.
The sight of her, lost in such pleasure, nearly undid him, but he managed to gently ease her onto her back and cradle her thighs high so he could drive even deeper. Wring yet another stunning orgasm from her before he, too, lost himself to the passion they were sharing.
He eased down on her gently, his breathing harsh and uneven.
Beneath him, she was struggling to bring her breath back to normal and her heartbeat thundered against his slower vampire rhythms.
Rhiannon’s body was still shaking, drenched with sweat as he cradled her to him and kissed her temple. Stroked his hand up and down her back in a soothing gesture as they rolled to their sides, still joined. Neither wanting the moment to end, but it did as he softened and slipped from her body.
They lay there for long minutes, savoring the aftermath of their loving. Loathe to leave the peace it had brought because both knew what they would have to face in the future for daring to love like this.
“Are you okay?” he asked, his tones soft and filled with tenderness.
She leaned her elbow on the couch and propped her head up so she could examine his features, hoping she wouldn’t see regret there or worse.
“I’m fine. Better than fine actually,” she admitted. No one had ever pleasured her as he had, but more, no one had ever touched her heart as he had.
He skimmed his index finger along the side of her face and traced the edges of her lips. “This won’t be easy.”
She nodded. “It won’t, but nothing worthwhile is easy.”
A ghost of a smile drifted across his lips, but then it broadened, awakening a boyish dimple that made him look years younger. It took her a moment to realize she had never really seen him smile, at least, not one like this that reached up into those amazing blue eyes, making them glimmer with life.
Before her eyes, the aura that had surrounded them at the end of their lovemaking awakened and grew brighter. Stronger.
If her aura was meant to be some kind of litmus test of emotions, she couldn’t ignore that at this moment it was saying all was right in their world.
“This is an amazing thing,” he said, noting the color surrounding them. “I’ve never seen a Slayer with this kind of ability.”
“I guess we’re both unique in our own ways, then.”
“And I guess it’s up to us to figure out how to use what we have together,” he said.
“Together,” she said and bent her head. Took his lips in a kiss that reawakened desire.
As he urged her thigh up high on h
is hip, he faced her as they joined together. Kept his gaze locked on her, that boyish grin on his features while passion rose again and they soared together into another earth-rocking release.
Limbs entangled, they floated back into a peaceful semi-slumber until reality intruded with the grating ring of his cell phone.
Ben snagged it from the coffee table where he’d placed it earlier and seeing Ryder’s number, knew he had to answer. His friend wouldn’t be calling at such a late hour if it wasn’t an emergency.
“What’s up?” he asked.
“There’s been an attack. One just like the one that took your Slayer friend Richard, only this time the victim was a little luckier,” Ryder said.
“Was it a Slayer?” he asked, wondering which of his people had been assaulted.
“No. A human. We’re heading to the hospital now to see her.”
Unspoken was the request that he come with since why else would Ryder have called. “Give me a few minutes and I’ll meet you in the lobby.”
He didn’t wait for a reply to end the call and face Rhiannon. “How much did you hear?”
“Enough,” she confirmed.
Nodding, he said, “I have to go, but you should stay here. There’s no reason for you to get into any more trouble with the Slayers.”
She shook her head, refusing his command. “There’s one good reason. You. Together, remember?”
He considered all that she had already risked by giving her body and heart to him. What she proposed now would risk her life even more.
“You understand that if you do this, if you defy the Slayer Council by helping me and these vampires, you may be sealing your Fate.”
She nodded again, leaned over and whispered a kiss across his lips before she said, “I know, Benjamin. It’s a risk I’m willing to take for us. For whatever this is between us.”
She hadn’t said “love.” Couldn’t yet dare to say it aloud, but he knew it was there as they dressed and armed themselves, and walked out the door to meet Ryder.
The End
Taming the Vampire: Over 25 All New Paranormal Alpha Male Tales of Contemporary, Military, Shifters, Billionaires, Werewolves, Magic, Fae, Witches, Dragons, Demons & More Page 133