He shook his head. “As I said, all I feel now is a burning need to be with you.”
Reaching up, she brushed his hair back from his forehead, then cupped his strong jaw. A rush of affection filled her as she stared up at him. “I’m so glad I found you,” she whispered.
Stanislav turned his head and kissed her palm. “I am, too.”
Her gaze holding his, she slid her hand down to his chest. She had always loved hairy chests and couldn’t resist gripping a fistful and giving it a tug. When she did, his cock jumped against her. And jumped again when she pinched his nipple.
“I love your hands on me,” he murmured, his voice nearly an octave deeper than usual. And what a thrill it gave her.
Lust reasserting itself, she smoothed her hand down over his washboard abs and curled her fingers around his shaft. Big like the rest of him. Long and hard.
He dropped his head to her shoulder as she stroked and teased him. “You’re killing me, sweetheart.” One of his hands clasped her breast, kneading and teasing and tweaking her nipple until her breath quickened and she shifted beneath him, needing more.
Abandoning her play, she guided his cock to her entrance.
Both moaned as he slid in deep, stretching her until he ground against her.
Susan bit her lip as he drew back and plunged inside again. “Yes.” Then again. And again. The muscles of his back clenching beneath her hands as she wrapped her arms around him and urged him on. Deep, powerful strokes that hit all the right places. So good. She never wanted it to end.
The headboard began to strike the wall with rhythmic thuds.
Her breath shortened. “More,” she pleaded, pleasure rising.
And he delivered, propping his weight on his hands, gazing down at her with brilliant eyes. His lips parted to reveal the tips of those sharp fangs.
It only excited her more.
“Come for me,” he whispered.
She nodded, arching up against him, meeting him thrust for thrust until ecstasy again engulfed her. Her inner muscles clamped down around him when the orgasm struck, squeezing him tight until he orgasmed, too, his large body stiffening above her as he shouted his release.
Susan’s heart slammed against her ribs as the pleasure went on and on.
Then he lowered his body to hers. Pressing a kiss to her temple, he rolled them to their sides. Bodies still joined, he tucked a hand beneath her knee and slid her leg up over his hip.
Peace settled upon her as she nestled into his chest and toyed with the hair there until her breathing calmed. His frantic heartbeat beneath her palm gradually slowed.
His lips brushed her forehead. “Does your arm hurt?”
She smiled. “No.” Her fingers encountered a raised scar just above one nipple. “What about you? Are you in pain?” She found another scar on his shoulder. Another on his side. Three more marred his eight-pack abs. When she lightly explored them, she felt his cock move inside her.
Her eyes widened. He was still rock hard.
“No,” he responded, his voice carrying the same desire it had earlier.
She tilted her head back to look up at him. “Seriously?”
He nodded, meeting her gaze with amber light. “I’m fine.”
“No, I mean… seriously? You’re good to go again? Already?”
His lips twitched. Then he withdrew almost to the crown and slid in deep again.
Her breath caught. And she was even more surprised to feel a spark of renewed desire strike her even though she was as limp as a noodle.
“Yes,” he responded. “And I’d be going again already if I didn’t feel your fatigue.”
She bit her lip. “Damn.” She really was exhausted. “Do you know how much I want to roll you onto your back and ride you until you shout my name?”
Again his cock moved inside her. “Yes,” he uttered hoarsely. “But you’re too tired.”
“Which is why I said damn.”
He chuckled. Wrapping his arms around her, he rolled onto his back, keeping their bodies joined and settling her atop him. “You could always ride me until you can’t, then let me take over.”
She sat up, loving the feel of him inside her as much as she loved looking down at his beautiful body stretched out beneath her. “That is just too tempting to pass up.” She rotated her hips, dragging a groan from him. “You know, I’ve never had back-to-back orgasms like that before.”
“You haven’t?” he murmured, his eyes on her breasts.
Another rotation of her hips. Another low groan.
“I don’t know if I can have a third.”
He smoothed his large hands up her thighs.
She sucked in a breath when his thumbs brushed her clit, a light touch that produced a strong response.
“You’ll have a third,” he promised.
Smiling, she began to move.
Stanislav sighed as consciousness beckoned. The scent of boiling pasta and bubbling, spicy tomato sauce reached his nose.
He smiled. Alexei was as addicted to pasta as the French immortal Lisette was. It didn’t surprise him that his friend kept a ready supply on hand at his getaway.
His eyes opened wide as he sucked in a breath. His smile vanished.
He remembered.
Heart beginning to pound, Stanislav sat up and looked around.
The bed beside him was empty, the sheets cold. He heard Susan laugh softly at something Alexei said while he prepared an evening meal for the three of them.
Alexei loved pasta. He loved pasta. Any Italian food really. And Stanislav remembered it. He remembered all of it. The twenty-seven years Alexei had served as his Second, the two of them becoming closer than Stanislav had been to his brothers while they’d lived.
He remembered his long life as an Immortal Guardian, hunting and slaying psychotic vampires nightly to keep them from preying upon or turning humans. He remembered his own transformation in his twenties at the hands of a sadistic vampire. He remembered Seth asking Yuri to train him.
Yuri! He remembered his best friend!
Jubilation filling him, he laughed and leapt up.
Black clothing, cleaned and folded, lay in a neat stack at the foot of the bed. Stanislav dressed and brushed his teeth in a blink, then headed out of the bedroom.
Susan looked up, in the process of setting the table for three. Alexei had cleaned her clothes as promised, so she was once more clad in tight, low-riding blue jeans and a V-necked T-shirt that hugged her slender curves and bore faint bloodstains his Second hadn’t quite been able to remove.
She smiled, her expression full of warmth, affection, and remembered passion.
Stanislav’s chest swelled as he shared the emotions. She’d come to mean so much to him so quickly. At last he was free to be with her with no worries over an unknown past.
“Hi,” she greeted him softly.
“Hi.” Closing the distance between them, he slid his arms around her and brushed a kiss against her lips. “How’s your arm?”
She shrugged. “It hurts. What about you? You’ve slept the day away.” After they had spent all night making love. “Are your wounds any better?” I hope all that sexual energy he expended didn’t take anything away from his healing.
Releasing her, he smiled. “You’re projecting again.”
A flush mounted her cheeks. “Oh.”
“And it didn’t. I’m not a hundred percent.” His wounds wouldn’t heal completely without another infusion of blood. “But I’m getting there.” He turned to Alexei, whose face was alight with curiosity as he watched the two of them and stirred the sauce. Crossing to him, Stanislav wrapped his friend in a bear hug.
Alexei dropped the spoon and returned the embrace. “What’s this for?”
“For not giving up on me.” Releasing his friend, he turned to Susan with a grin. “I remember my past.”
Her face lit up with a bright smile. “Stanislav! That’s fantastic!” Skipping across the room, she threw herself into his arms and hugged him tight.
Her heartbeat picked up, matching his as she smiled up at him.
Alexei bent to pick up the spoon he’d dropped. “You remember everything?” he asked, caution entering his tone.
Stanislav nodded, wondering what caused it. “I think so.” He even remembered his mortal childhood, and he couldn’t wait to share it all with Susan. Couldn’t wait to introduce her to his friends. To his immortal family. Yuri was going to love her. “Well, most of it. Some things are still a bit hazy.” He vaguely recalled being concerned about Yuri in the weeks before they had converged upon the mercenary compound. Something about his behavior being erratic?
He shrugged it off. It would come to him soon, he was sure.
For now, he smiled as Susan returned to the table to finish arranging plates and silverware for their meal. The world seemed a hell of a lot brighter today.
“Do you remember how you ended up in my basement?” she asked. When she looked over his shoulder, her smile faltered.
Stanislav glanced back at Alexei and caught him shaking his head, his eyes asking her not to mention that. He frowned. “What’s wrong?”
Alexei forced an easy smile. “Nothing. We don’t need to go into all that just yet.”
“No,” Susan hastened to add. “Of course not. I’m sorry. We haven’t even given you a chance to wake up. And you’re probably as hungry as I am.”
What didn’t Alexei want him to remember? Did he know how Stanislav had ended up in Susan’s basement?
His scowl deepened. Wait. How had he ended up in her basement?
The last bit of his foggy memory surfaced.
Mercenaries. Vampire mercenaries. They had found him after the explosion had knocked him on his ass. What the hell had he been thinking, deflecting a grenade into the armory? He had been in such a hurry to get to Yuri that he…
Grief struck, sucking all the air from his lungs.
Yuri. Those bastards had killed Yuri. They had taken his head!
“Stan?” Susan asked, her voice soft with concern.
He met Alexei’s gaze, saw moisture well in them as his friend swallowed hard.
Shaking his head, eyes burning, Stanislav staggered back a step. “No.” Pain engulfed him as images flooded his mind. He hadn’t been there to guard Yuri’s back. He had been too far away. Hadn’t gotten to him in time. And that fucking vampire had decapitated him. “No,” he moaned, his gut clenching. “No, no, no, no, no.”
“Stan?” Susan whispered, taking a step toward him.
He bent forward, shaking his head as tears flowed down his cheeks. His friend—his brother—was dead.
Susan hurried forward, pulling him into her arms and supporting his weight when his knees weakened.
Sobs erupted from his chest as he wrapped his arms around her and clutched her tight. “They killed my brother,” he moaned. “They fucking killed my brother.”
“Oh no. I’m so sorry,” she murmured, her voice thickening with tears as she held him. “I’m so sorry, honey.”
She must have read his thoughts. Must have seen it unfold in his mind.
Four hundred years. Yuri had been like a brother to him for over four hundred years. A century older, Yuri had watched over him long after Stanislav had honed his battle skills enough to take care of himself and hold his own against vampires. He’d been the proverbial big brother. And when Yuri had needed him most, Stanislav had failed him.
He sank to his knees, taking Susan down with him. But she offered no complaint. She just held him and stroked his back while he wept.
Stanislav didn’t know how long they remained like that before a sound reached his ears.
The low rumble of a car engine.
He looked at Alexei, who watched them with moisture glistening on his cheeks. “A car is coming.”
Alexei stiffened and looked toward the darkened windows. “This is the last house on the road. Anyone coming this way is coming here. And I didn’t make any calls while you were sleeping.”
Swearing, Stanislav lurched to his feet and helped Susan up. “Would Dmitry come looking for you?”
“No. Not unless he failed to hear from me for forty-eight hours.”
“Does this place have a basement?”
“No. The ground slopes down, away from the house in back, so we can duck under the deck if we have to. And there’s a crawlspace beneath the back half that we can access from outside, but it would be a tight fit for you and me.”
“What kind of weapons do you have?”
While Alexei grabbed one of his duffels and parked it on the sofa, Stanislav drew his hands down his face to erase his tears. They had left none of the men alive yesterday. So the men couldn’t have alerted their comrades to his and Susan’s current whereabouts. What the hell?
“Wait here,” he ordered the others. Crossing to the front door, he opened it enough to determine the sun had just set, then stepped outside. Though the breeze was a little off, not quite coming from the direction of the approaching automobile, he still managed to pick up the scents of five different males along with gun oil, gasoline, and exhaust.
He slipped back inside and closed the door. “There are five of them. All in the same vehicle. Approximately six minutes out.”
Susan stood where he had left her, pale and anxious.
Alexei shoved the dishes aside and began laying out weapons on the kitchen table. Two 9mms, both sporting top-of-the-line silencers. Eight spare magazines. An automatic rifle with a silencer and more spare magazines. A dozen daggers. Two shoto swords.
Susan stared at the array, then looked at Alexei. “Really? You carry all that around with you wherever you go?”
“Yeah.”
Stanislav strode over to the table and picked up a dagger.
“Here.” Alexei grabbed a black strap and held it out.
Stanislav took it and slipped it over his head and one shoulder so it draped across his chest. As he tucked daggers into the loops it bore, he glanced at Susan. “Can you hear their thoughts from here?”
“I’ll try.” She closed her eyes, her brow furrowing with concentration.
“She’s telepathic?” Alexei asked, tucking magazines in his pants pockets.
“Yes.”
“That explains the odd silences and staring contests you two keep engaging in.”
He grunted.
“There’s a tracker on my car,” Susan announced. “That’s how they found us. Henry put it there the day he installed the security system.”
Stanislav swore. The man must have done it as he was leaving, when he had dropped his clipboard and ducked out of sight for a minute.
“They knew their friends were coming after us yesterday,” she continued. “The ones at the house and the ones who found us at the farmers’ market. They don’t know what to think about not having heard from them. Two of them believe all their friends are dead. The other three think the second group killed Henry’s crew and took off with the package.” She opened her eyes and met Stanislav’s. “Took off with you. I was expendable.”
Fury plowed through him.
Alexei shook his head. “Don’t let that shit get in your head and make you do something stupid.”
Right. He needed to stay calm.
“Susan,” Alexei said, “do you know why they want him?”
“No. Right now their thoughts are all about securing the package and killing their friends if they find out the guys double-crossed them.”
Stanislav muttered something in Russian.
Alexei sent him a warning look. “Don’t kill them. Incapacitate them. A lot of shit has happened since you disappeared. And the last thing we need is for another fucking mercenary group or someone else to rise up against us. We need to know who the hell these guys are. Okay? Don’t kill. Incapacitate.”
“Agreed.” Grabbing one of the 9mms, Stanislav held it out to Susan. “Here.”
She moved forward and took it without hesitation. “Thanks. No way in hell am I going to let those bastards get their hands on you.”
Both men stilled and looked at her.
Stanislav’s blood heated at the protective and proprietary emotions she exuded.
She glanced up from the weapon and caught them staring. “What?”
Alexei met Stanislav’s gaze. “I like her.”
He smiled. “I like her more.”
His friend laughed. “No kidding.” He motioned to Susan. “I noticed you had a 9mm yesterday.”
She glanced around with a frown. “Yes, but I don’t know where it is.”
“Over by the lamp. I cleaned it for you while you were sleeping, but this one’s better. You have much experience with them?”
“Yes.”
“Good.” He handed her two magazines. “When the shit starts, I want you to stay close to me and keep your head down. My job is to protect Stan, and you’re clearly important to him, so that job now extends to protecting you. Okay?”
“Okay.” She swallowed as her eyes met and clung to Stanislav’s. “I don’t know if I can kill anyone. I mean, I know I shot Henry, but…”
He shook his head. “I don’t want you to kill. I just want you to be able to protect yourself. If any of them get near you and you have to shoot, shoot to wound.” Picking up a shoto sword, he looked toward the windows. “Let’s head out the back.”
Susan’s pulse tripped all over itself as fear rose.
Almost immediately, calm suffused her, wiping it away.
Thank you, she told Stanislav.
Stepping up beside her, he pressed a kiss to her temple, then took her free hand in his and led her to the back door. I hate that I’ve brought such violence into your life.
You didn’t bring it. They did.
Alexei exited the house first, body in a crouch, rifle ready to spit bullets. “Hit the lights,” he muttered.
Stanislav flicked a switch.
The floodlights on the back deck went dark as Susan exited.
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