Crimson, Volume 1

by Sax Alexander

  Titiana looked at him square in the eye and nodded her consent. Both looked startled at his request, but complied. Sort of. William kept thrusting and Titiana simply stayed in her position.

  Swallowing hard as he realized they meant to continue their sex play while he partook, he knelt in front of her. “Truly, I regret that I hadn’t met you before my promises,” he said thickly as his hand brushed back wisps of her hair off her neck.

  She let out a mew of pleasure at his touch, and he felt the need pulse stronger, but he resisted. Since he’d found Ernestine, who created sexual pleasure without being incited by bloodlust, he hadn’t needed it the same. Still, he found himself struggling with his resistance.

  His incisors hadn’t retracted since he’d yanked her in his arms. He grabbed her hair to hold her head still, and took her neck. She cried out in pleasure, and William grunted. Their pace became frenzied as Daryn took her life-giving blood. Her heart pulsed strong against him as her orgasm overtook her. She screamed, “Yes, yes. More.”

  William held her hips and hammered into her a few more times before his own guttural cry joined hers. Daryn licked the wound closed, then stood up, a little unsteady. In his bloodlust, he’d forgotten they were equalizers, near-immortals like the vampire and werewolf.

  “I appreciate your hospitality,” he said, meaning it. “But now, I have duties to attend to. Goodnight.”

  He strode out of the mansion and into his waiting carriage. Titiana had been tempting. The bloodlust rode him hard. But it had been another blonde he saw in his mind’s eye. Ernestine was the one he wanted to bond with, to give the bloodlust to, as well as receive. He wanted her to give him her sex while riding the bloodlust.

  He was nearly to the ball where he was meeting her when he felt a surge of energy flow through him. The blood had hit his cells and it was strong blood. He closed his eyes and savored it. He imagined Ernestine in the carriage with him, pouring out his seductive powers on her, having her grip him in her hands while he feasted on her neck. He rubbed himself hard, trying to ease the ache. When the carriage came to a stop, he stepped out and arranged his jacket. Good thing tighter-fighting breeches had gone out of style and he wore the looser trousers.

  He tried to distance himself from the fragrant and cloying ballroom air when he entered. His face flushed with the fresh feed, he looked for Ernestine. She stood near a group of debutantes, every flit of her fan a perfect match for them, but somehow she stood out. There was the stillness of a predator about her, despite her flirtatiousness.

  He knew the exact moment she felt his presence. Her body stiffened, she looked around and caught his eyes. The fan she held moved a beat faster. He swore he saw her heart pounding out a staccato against her pale skin. He strode to her, keeping her gaze, not letting her look away.

  The others gradually stopped talking around her as he approached. “Come, Ernestine,” he said, holding out her hand. “The waltz is our dance.”

  She put her gloved hand in his, and they departed to the dance floor. He drew her body in closer than strictly necessary as the first strains on the cello moved through the air. She gasped slightly, but didn’t protest. Tonight, he would make her his.

  Chapter Five

  Ernestine swore her lungs had malfunctioned. She had to keep telling herself to breathe around this man—vampire. She had to remind herself of his true nature much too often for her taste. But she’d already made up her mind to have him. She had resigned herself to spinster living, but she wanted him. One time, one night. Wanted to be a woman, if only for a moment. Then she would go back to being a vampire slayer.

  The waltz ended and he kept her with him, leading her out to the gardens. She didn’t even try to stop him. Once hidden behind a bush in the maze, he lifted her chin and stared at her. Again, breathe. His eyes mesmerized, but they held no compulsion. Her werewolf blood would have told her if they had. Instead, they looked with longing on her, and that deep sadness was there as well. If he only lusted for her, she could refuse. But the sad longing had her heart entangled and her body responding.

  She lifted herself to meet his kiss, and her body caught fire. The touch of his lips seared her from lips to toes, and she felt her foot start to rise behind her. She leaned in harder against him for balance, and her nipples pushed against his hard chest. She had purposefully worn her lowest-cut gown, hoping to entice him to her.

  His tongue pushed against her lips, she opened her mouth and he invaded. His velvety tongue stroked her mouth, in and out, sending more fires trailing down her body, leaving hot embers at every nerve ending. One of his hands gently swiped across her bare bosom, and her skin tingled and burned hotter.

  Alchemy. Now she had learned the true danger of the vampire. They could turn flesh to fire with naught but a kiss.

  “Come home with me, Ernestine,” he said in his husky voice. “I want to touch all of you, see all of you, not steal kisses in a garden.”

  “You steal nothing. I have given freely, sir. I will accompany you.”

  It was a simple matter to collect her wraps and have the doormen call her coach to her. His had apparently stayed near the front, for it pulled up quickly after Daryn’s appearance. She sent her coachman home. She’d been vague about whom she would leave with, but since her aunt had stayed at the townhouse with the vapors, tonight proved to be the perfect night to escape.

  People might talk, but she’d make some excuse or another. Plus, she had a friend who would say Ernestine was with her if she asked her to. It had been necessary on more than one night while she’d killed vampires. This night, she’d use it to pleasure one.

  The ride in his carriage was long, but he made good use of it. He pulled her against him and scattered delicious kisses over her. When he stopped at her neck and tongued her heartbeat there, fear and lust rose so strongly within her, she cried out and captured his mouth in hers.

  The earlier kiss had left embers in her body, which were stoked and ready to catch flame. He set light to them, and the heat erupted through her, tingling, stinging, almost painful as she felt her blood literally singe through her. The fear dissipated. She felt hot. Hotter.

  He moaned against her, pulled her breasts out, and rubbed her taut nipples with his hands. Her stomach tightened, and the volcano within her threatened to burst. He again kissed his way down her neck, his incisors scraping gently against her skin. This time, no fear existed. Only lust. She pressed his face harder into her neck, knowing she was tempting him to more—desperate for him to do more.

  He licked and scraped there for a minute, teasing her unmercifully. But then he moved lower to the breasts he’d spilled out of their confinements. He pulled one into his mouth and sucked hard. She cried out as his incisors scraped her nipple and he playfully bit her. Wetness pooled beneath her legs, and still he suckled her nipples.

  She heard the rustling of her skirts shortly before his hand caressed her thigh. He kept moving slowly up to her apex where her fire seemed to be centered. Dazedly, she thought to warn him of the impending heat, but then he dipped his finger into her, and all coherent thought left her as her muscles contracted and some of the lava flowed out.

  She started to come down off the pinnacle of fire he’d sent her to. Her nipples were cool in the night air, especially the one wet with his saliva. He’d pulled back slightly, then undid his trousers, before taking himself out. Her gaze stuck on his arousal. So huge. She squirmed on his lap and he groaned. He took her hand and wrapped it around his engorged dick, and she sighed in pleasure.

  Velvety soft, even more than his tongue in her mouth had been. She licked her lips, then looked up into his eyes. The lust burning brightly in them excited her. That she’d brought it upon this ancient creature was heady. He pulled her in for a kiss, and she turned her head, wanting him to bite her, fear a thing of the past. She’d be scandalized later. She knew she would live. Werewolves had been sharing their blood with the vampires since before time. She wanted to give him the sustenance he needed and feel i
t during her sexual arousal as she’d read about in others’ accounts. Tomes she wasn’t supposed to know about.

  His incisors scraped even harder against her throat. The fire in her burned stronger and hotter, and she squeezed his cock. He groaned and lifted her up, spreading her legs before settling them across his lap. She mourned the loss of him in her hands until she felt him against her thighs. He was going to show her now. Excitement bloomed even headier. Her werewolf never seemed so close. She couldn’t change, but she felt the need nonetheless. Her body heated up, more and more.

  His hand was there under her skirts, and he parted her pussy and began to rub. She squeaked in surprise, and he covered her mouth with his, but he kept rubbing. Her body started moving against his hand, and the blood started boiling again, but this time, he didn’t let her settle on a small explosion, he kept pushing her hard.

  “I’m afraid this will hurt,” he said suddenly, cooling her ardor somewhat.

  “What’s going to hurt?” she asked quietly, not wanting him to stop.

  “Your first time,” he said, and moaned as her hips rocked into his hands.

  “Make it as painless as possible,” she implored. “I don’t want to stop feeling these wonderful things.”

  He groaned again and put his head against hers. “There is one way,” he whispered. “I am different than other men. I could give you painful pleasure. I also can make you forget the pain.”

  “Give me the painful pleasure,” she whispered back. “I know what you are.”

  “As soon as my teeth were near your throat, I knew you did by your response,” he replied. “I want to give it to you. All of it. All the pleasure I’m capable of. It will take more than one night.”

  Her body clenched at the idea of him teaching her the ways between men and women. “Show me,” she whispered, and kissed him again. He moved the hand under her skirts from her clit to her wet opening and inserted two fingers this time. She threw her head back.

  Intense pleasure rocked through her. The blood that had begun to cool fired up again. He moved his hand within her, and colors started before her eyes. More and faster he went, and she rode his hand. He kissed along her neck, and she thought he would take her blood then, but he didn’t.

  He moved to her nipples again and instead feasted on them. She didn’t have time to be disappointed as her body clenched around his hand. She felt his cock rubbing against her thighs as she pushed against his hand, seeking more. Much more.

  When he pulled his fingers out, she wanted to cry, but then he pulled her up slightly and brought her down so that his tip was at her wetness. “More,” she cried. Reading about this had been nowhere near as much fun as doing it. Having secretly found the volumes in her uncle’s library, she’d thought she’d found a secret treasure trove of pleasure, all she’d be allowed for her lifetime.

  But it was nothing compared to this. He held her waist and she tried to push down lower on him. “Not. Yet,” he said, looking at her with fire blazing in his eyes, the same fire singeing her blood. Slowly, he dropped her onto him, each inch exquisite as she stretched around him and he rubbed against already sensitized nerves. Then she felt resistance, her body’s unwitting denial of his lovemaking.

  “This is it. You’re sure you want to give me your blood,” he asked as he pumped into her in short bursts as if he couldn’t help moving within her. Beads of bloody sweat appeared on his brow at his effort of restraint.

  Ernestine tilted her head sideways. She grabbed the back of his head to bring his lips to her neck, the flames consuming her. Inside, his dick throbbed, its heat stoking the flames. Her throat ached to feel him. When his lips touched her skin, she sighed. Yes, she wanted this. “Bite me,” she whispered hoarsely. “I need it.”

  And she did. She didn’t know why, but she thought she would literally die unfulfilled and desolate if she didn’t give him this—her body and her blood. His incisors scraped her skin and her excitement rose. This time, he would bite her. He would take her completely.

  “Please,” she begged, rocking her hips over him, trying to assuage the fire. “Please,” she cried.

  He groaned against her throat. Then, when she despaired that he wouldn’t give in to her pleas, a sharp pain pierced her where their bodies joined. But just as she thought to cry in pain, he bit her. He also started moving her hips up and down upon him.

  Now she cried out in the pleasured pain he’d promised. Oh God, he was right. The pleasure coursing through her as her hot blood left her and flowed into him spread throughout her body, turning all the stoked fires into blazing infernos, the molten lava into exploding volcanoes. She rocked against him harder and faster, meeting his thrusts with her own.

  Too soon, he quit sucking and licked her neck, and she felt bereft. “No,” she pleaded. “Don’t stop.”

  “I must, my Ernestine. I have taken enough for this moment. Trust in me, darling.”

  She wondered if he realized the endearment he’d uttered, then focused on her pussy where he’d started driving into her in earnest. He found a rhythm that exquisitely pierced her over and over, the rawness of her earlier pain only a dim echo, the pleasure overriding it.

  As she began to do more of the work herself, he moved his hands from her waist to hold her breasts, and he suckled on them. On the tops of her breasts, she felt her blood beating, calling to him. She wanted him to bite her there as well.

  He put his mouth tight where the pressure built to have him bite her, but he only suckled. She rocked against him harder. He moaned. But then the carriage slowed. Hastily, he put her breasts back in her bodice and pulled her off him. She rocked against him once more, pleased to see the response on his face.

  He straightened out his trousers and had her put her cloak’s hood on again, covering her face. “We’ve arrived at my home, little Ernestine. Welcome.”

  Chapter Six

  She saw the beauty of his home in the moonlight, but she wanted to finish what they’d started more than she wanted to stare at ancient keeps. “Show me my welcome,” she said, and a strange glow appeared in his eyes.

  “I can take you to my room immediately, if you trust me,” he said.

  “I trust you,” she said and closed her eyes.

  He took her and holding her close to him, he whispered in her ear. “It is done,” he said.

  She opened her eyes and they were no longer outside, but in a stateroom. “I felt nothing,” she said wonderingly.

  “Then I did it right,” he replied, laughing. He stood looking down at her. “You’re sure you want to finish this? I can take you back right now to your rooms. You have seen how I can do it.”

  “No,” she said. “Don’t take me back. I want more.” So much more that she couldn’t have. Slayers didn’t marry vampires, no matter how they felt.

  His response was to kiss her. Soon, with only minor trouble with her corset, they were both naked. He waved a hand and lit candles all around the room. While she stared, he clasped her under her legs and lifter her up.

  “Now, I will show you the beauty of the night.”

  Her body reacted immediately to the promise in his words. Not caring why her blood felt as if it sang for him, she enjoyed it. She put her arms around his neck and stared at the harsh planes of his face as he lowered her onto the silken sheets.

  He stayed down with her and trailed his fingers from her cheek, down her neck, across her chest, then made little circles on her abdomen. Her insides quivered at his more leisurely touch. She wanted him now, but, despite all her book-reading, didn’t know what to ask for or how to go about asking.

  “I want,” she began.

  “Yes?” he asked, and moved one hand lower.

  “You.” It was all she could think to say. Whatever her body needed, she wanted it from him.

  He smiled at her, that strange glow back.

  ***

  He looked down on Ernestine and the power he felt made him giddy. He wondered if she knew she had been born of wolves. Probably
, as she was aware of his kind and not wholly afraid. Her blood was potent, running through his veins. His magic had renewed itself and he could feel his muscles soaking in the new, hot, werewolf blood. His whole body was healing and repairing old injuries that hadn’t been healed on his diet of human and animal blood.

  Since she had strong werewolf genes, he would be able to partake deeply of her three times, rather than the customary twice—and those like shallow sips in comparison to what he could have from Ernestine—with his human female companions. Just the thought had his body hard and bursting. He stroked her lightly, wanting to pleasure her as long as possible. The gift she’d given him, in giving her blood, afforded him protections beyond what anyone knew of him.

  He knelt between her legs and spread them, looking at her swollen clit, slick with her juices. He spread her lips, then dipped in two fingers to test her. Her body clenched down hard on his hand and she arched. She was so hot under him. Her body was literally many degrees warmer than before they’d had sex in his carriage. He marveled at her responsiveness.

  He reached his thumb up to stroke her clit in the same rhythm he stroked her pussy. So hot and wet, she spurted liquid while screaming his name, and the bloodlust and sex lust and something else combined within him.

  He kept her legs spread for him and lined himself up to her. Her hair had come loose and spread around her head on the bed, giving her an ethereal glow even more than she already had to him. He leaned over and pressed his dick into her, sliding in easily against the fluids.

  But she was tight, and her orgasm sent shivers of delight through him as her pussy walls clenched his dick tighter. He finally was buried as deep as he could go, and she hadn’t protested at all. In fact, she raised her hips to him, pushing at him, her hands clawing at him. It was hard to grasp that she was an innocent when she responded so.