by Jessica Lee
Emily pressed her mouth against his, willing him back to reality. To her. There was a lot about Kenric that scared the hell out of her, but she realized suddenly that the thought of him not being in her life frightened her even more.
At first there was no response. Only her lips moving across his. She choked on a sob, then poured herself back into action. He jerked, and then his palms were on her upper arms, air filling his lungs. Kenric pushed her back.
“What are you doing?” His eyes narrowed, the pupils no longer human, obscuring almost all the white. “You have to get away from me.”
Emily shook her head. “I’m not leaving you like this. She’s trying to kill you.” She reached out and gripped his face. “Because of me,” she whispered.
“You don’t understand…,” he began, his voice hoarse, as if he’d emerged from a long desert journey.
“I understand you need me. That’s all I need to know.”
…
Kenric closed his eyes, and a shudder wracked his body. Her words slicing into the last hold he had on his restraint. He lifted his eyelids, meeting her gaze. “Are you sure, Wildflower? Please be sure, because I don’t know…. If we go any further—I can’t promise I can—”
Emily clamped her mouth onto his, swallowing whatever else he was about to say. His brain short-circuited and he groaned, meeting her passion, devouring all that she had to give. Every cell in his body cried out for her.
More of her.
To have her.
His head soared under the influence.
He reached up, sank his hands into her hair, and held on. The effect—Emily—grounded him. The feel of her in his palms reminded him this was his Wildflower. He would not be the monster who only took like the last time he held her. She deserved so much more. He dug deep, clamoring for purchase on some small shred of control.
Kenric released her, leaned back, and lifted the hem of her T-shirt. He pulled it over her head, revealing full breasts that gently rocked with each inhale.
“Sweet, sweet Wildflower. You are so beautiful.” Reverently, he lowered his head and placed a kiss to the top of each areola, then moved lower. The sight of her creamy flesh and dark red nipples had his mouth watering. With his tongue, he gave one lazy circle to a rosy bud before drawing it in and ravishing the sensitive tip. The taste of her skin was a sweet indulgence to his senses. A startled gasp and then a pleasure-filled moan urged him on. He longed to suckle the other, but first, he had to see—and touch—the rest of her.
He tugged at her sweats and panties, and she lifted, helping him to yank them free before tossing them to the floor.
Emily brushed her fingertips across his chest. His chest heaved, and he trembled as she explored. Her touch excited every nerve under his skin, and he couldn’t hold back the groan. It was as if his flesh had never been awake until her touch. He watched as she followed the narrow width of his chest hair until it disappeared beneath his waistband. His cock jerked, straining, with her only inches away.
“Show me,” she breathed, and he nearly came unglued. Kenric clenched a fist, released, then moved her gently to the side and shoved his underwear down. The heat of her gaze had every hair on his body lifting in acute awareness.
His erection sprang free and up onto his lower abdomen as he pulled Emily close. He palmed the hard length, stroking his throbbing shaft once, then twice, enjoying the way her eyes followed his hand, as if they were envious.
“I want to taste every inch of you.” Kenric released his cock and scooped her into his arms, rolling them until he’d maneuvered her onto her stomach. As badly as he wanted his shaft inside her, he had to get his mouth on her. Her breath left her lungs with the sudden shift in position. He straddled her calves. “I’m dying to know if you taste as good as you smell.” A soft whimper left her with each lick and kiss he placed behind her knees and to the back of her thighs.
So soft, sweet, and salty. Heaven.
Lifting her hips, he placed her knees underneath her to gain better access to the prize before him.
“Kenric…?” Her voice quivered as she glanced over her shoulder.
“You’re okay, love. I want you to do something for me.”
“What?”
“Grab the headboard.”
“Why?”
He slid one finger through her swollen folds, stopping at the engorged bundle of nerves at the tip of her sex. She arched her back and gasped.
“Grab the headboard and hold on. Don’t let go.”
She glanced over her shoulder then reached for the spindles.
“That’s it. Hold on. Let me show you how good it can be to let someone else be in control.” With his knee, he spread her legs wider, then he twisted and lowered onto his back, placing himself beneath her thighs. Holding her steady with his palms at her hips, he made one long pass with his tongue, tasting her from end to end. Emily cried out and struggled against his grip.
“Oh. My. God.”
Another pass and a flick of his tongue drew a whimper from her.
So damn good.
“You taste delicious. I could do this all night.” He circled her clit and sucked the swollen flesh above it. He nipped and soothed his way along her folds until he found the source of her juices and dove in. Her hips bucked, but he held her in place, pressing her down tighter against his lips, stroking her more deeply with his tongue.
“Please.” She rocked the headboard. “Please, I need more.”
“Shhh… Let me pleasure you.” A quivering sigh left her as he slid two fingers deep. He worked them, stretching her before adding a third.
“Oh…God,” she groaned. “I can’t take much more.” Her hips thrust against his palm, straining to have more of him. “I want you. Okay? Please, take me.” The words, edged with desperation, tumbled from her.
Kenric stroked once more across her clit. Her sudden loss of air silenced any further complaints. He placed her swollen clitoris between his lips and pulled on the sensitive nub with gentle sucks. His spread fingers worked inside her core, filling her. Within seconds, Emily screamed his name. He held on and rocked with her until her tremors settled to gentle waves.
Gently he lifted her hips, slid from beneath her, and maneuvered back onto his knees. Reaching forward, he removed her hands from the spindles and pulled her to him until her back rested against his chest. Her breasts overflowed his hands as he whispered in her ear, “You are so damn sexy. Do you have any idea what you do to me?”
She shook her head. “No. Tell me.”
“Let me show you.” He took her hand, brought it around between them, and wrapped it around his rock-hard cock. The instant her warm palm surrounded him, she left him starved for air. “I want you so much, it hurts.”
Emily squeezed him gently, and his head roared with need, with hunger. He wanted in her—now, in every way possible, hard, fast, and unyielding. “Never have I craved a woman as much as I do you.”
She shivered and released his shaft. Her buttocks pressed against his erection, and she brushed her back against his chest.
He trailed kisses around her ear and down the length of her neck. The salty sweetness of her skin coated his tongue. He licked her fluttering pulse. His gut was on fire, burning for her. “Will you let me have you, Wildflower?”
“Yes.” The soft word left her on a tremulous sob.
“Everything?” Gently he pressed the tips of his fangs against her throat. He had to make sure once more that she wanted this. Wanted all of him. He wouldn’t be able to stop once he got inside her.
“God, yes!”
Kenric urged her hips up with his hands, leaning her slightly forward, and then inch by splendid inch, lowered her back down onto him.
Fuck! So wet. Her tight, hot sheath surrounded the head of his cock, barreling him to the edge of release. And the cusp of restraint.
He tried to go slow, knowing he was a large man, but she pushed down and impaled herself.
“Oh, God!” she cried out.
Damn. She turned him inside out. With his arms around her waist, he held her in place, even though she protested the sudden restriction. “Slow down, love. I want this to last.”
He rocked against her, slowly at first, then with a building tempo. “So tight. You’re fucking killing me.”
Her moans and cries of pleasure enhanced the exquisite milking strokes of her walls along his cock. No way in hell would he last.
He loosened and removed the hold she had on his hair and kissed her shoulder. “Turn around. I want to see you while I love you.”
She lifted, turned, and lowered herself onto the bed, spreading her legs in invitation. Never had he seen a more magnificent sight.
He moved between her thighs. “You’re absolutely beautiful.”
A shy smile played on her lips. “You’re quite handsome yourself, vampire.”
With his shaft in hand, he stroked between her folds and, in one swift move, buried himself inside. The moment his sac bumped her bottom, they both released a moan. So damn complete.
She dug into his hips with her fingers and wrapped her legs around his buttocks. He clutched her hands, slid them down his legs, and across her thighs to her juncture. “Touch yourself for me. Show me what makes you come undone.”
Her eyelids closed, then slowly she slipped two fingers into her curls. Emily mewled and made gentle circles across her clitoris.
“Yes. Beautiful.” He continued to rock deep inside her.
“More, Kenric. God, I want you so much.”
He plunged deeper. Faster. Over and over. He had to feel her, skin to skin. Reaching forward, he pulled her from the bed and into his arms.
Sweat ran down his temples. Her inner muscles clenched around him. He scraped his fangs over her pulse. Chills lifted against his lips, and she shuddered in his arms.
He was right there.
Kenric sank his fangs deep. Her blood, so sweet and heady, flooded his mouth, spinning the world away and suspending time. Emily screamed and arched against his hold. His cock erupted—there were no other words for it—jetting its release in a never-ending wave of pleasure. One he was sure his heart, and the wall he’d built around it, would never survive.
Chapter Sixteen
“That was…”
Emily pulled her face out of the pillow she’d collapsed into and blew the hair out of her mouth. “Yeah.” She couldn’t form anything more coherent. Maybe she’d fried some of her brain cells with that last orgasm.
Wow. Sex with Kenric St. James ought to come with a warning label.
She glanced at the naked man lying partially on top of her. They had been in each other’s arms the entire day. She should have been starving by this point in the evening, since the only time she’d gotten out of bed was to relieve herself. But the last few hours with Kenric had flown by, and he’d filled her—satisfied her—in so many more ways than a meal ever could. Who needed food?
“Sorry. Hope I wasn’t crushing you.” He rolled onto his side, sliding the rest of the way out of her.
The sudden loss of contact made her want to pull him right back. “No. You were fine. More than fine.” She flashed him a smile.
A grin spread across his face, and his blue eyes lit with mischief. Her heart skipped a beat. God, he was beautiful when he did that.
“Come here.” He tugged at her arm. “I want to feel you against me.”
He pulled her on top of him. Her breasts pressed against his firm chest. His roughened hands stroked her hair, then trailed up and down her arms. Mmm, so nice.
Lowering her head against him, she closed her eyes and listened to the rapid beat of his heart. He sounded and felt so human, all hard male beneath her.
Normal.
So unlike what they’d just shared. Not your typical sex. It had been out of this world. Leaving her to wonder if she’d ever want ordinary again. Speaking of normal sex… Oh, no. Emily shot up in bed. “I can’t believe I did that.”
“What?”
Emily swung her head around to look at Kenric. He stared at her, confusion written on his face.
“I can’t believe we did that without either one of us thinking about a condom.” She dropped her head into her hands. “Oh, God,” she groaned. “What kind of health care professional am I?”
“You don’t have anything to worry about, Wildflower.”
Emily lifted her head from her palms at his soothing words. She glanced back over her shoulder. “What do you mean by that?”
“I mean, I can’t give you anything.”
“Oh…because you’re a…”
“Right.” He nodded. “Seems that when you’re transformed, you’re… sterilized in the process.” She must have appeared shocked, because what looked like a weak attempt at a smile formed at the corners of his mouth. “Hey, but on the upside, immortality makes you clean.”
Emily turned and leaned over, resting her head on his chest. “Well, I guess that’s something of a perk.” She tried to make light of the conversation as she wrapped her arms around his chest in a gentle hug. Thank goodness he didn’t carry any diseases she needed to worry about, but the way he’d said the word “sterilized” made her heart ache for him.
“I hate to bring up more uncomfortable memories.” She lifted her head and brought her hands together, propping her chin on top of them. This was probably the best opening she was going to get to find out why this woman wanted her dead. “But can you tell me a little more about this—your creator, I think you called her—and why she feels like she has to kill me?”
He shifted beneath her. “How about you go first and tell me who hurt you so much that you would run from the person who wants to keep you safe?”
“Oh, no.” She shook her head. “I asked you first. Besides, I think I should know something about the person who wants me dead.”
A resolute sigh left him as he slid his hand down her back and squeezed her against him.
“From what she has told me, Marguerite is somewhere around six hundred years old. An ancient. She has always been incredibly strong for a female vampire, but she is obsessed with power. The greater her source, the more capable she is in manipulating and controlling not only humans with her mind and blood, but other vampires as well.
His heart pounded beneath her palms. She lowered her head back down and wrapped her arms around him, hoping her calm presence would help him tell her his story.
“I was thirty-two when I met Marguerite three hundred years ago.” He chuckled, but she had a feeling it wasn’t because of fond memories. “Well, if you could call it a meeting. I was on the battlefield, fighting back home in England with my regiment. I’d taken a blade to my flank and gone down. Next thing I knew, I woke up in a cold, dark cell chained to a wall like an animal.”
Emily jerked her head up, enraged on Kenric’s behalf. “Dear God.”
“For three years, she kept me as her personal meal and… And any other needs she had.” His gaze diverted from hers.
Three years? She shuddered, and her gut twisted into a painful knot. That monster had kept him as her slave for sex and blood. How could he have mentally survived that kind of hell?
A part of her didn’t want to hear anymore. She couldn’t bear the mental images his words conjured. Didn’t want them burned into her brain cells. This proud warrior, broken and tortured, as no man ever should be—dehumanized. Emily’s stomach soured. She couldn’t even imagine the level of humiliation he’d suffered.
Suddenly, he clutched her face, startling her. The blue of his eyes darkened like the sea battling a raging storm.
“I didn’t want her.” He shook his head. “I never did. She had ways of getting into my head and making my body do things. You have to believe me. I never wanted her.”
The desperation in his voice br
oke her heart. Dear God, the abuse he must have suffered. Her jaw clenched, and her temples throbbed. She wanted to scream—cry out until her throat burned from the overwhelming sense of helplessness. She didn’t know how to take his pain away. Dammit. She was a nurse, trained to ease suffering. Yet she was at a loss to how to make this all better. What she wouldn’t give to possess the magic to turn back the hands of time, dive into the pit of hell where he’d been chained, and kill the bitch that did this to him. She brushed her palm across the back of his hand, wishing like hell she could somehow act as a wick and absorb some of the hurt.
“Yes, I believe you. Of course I do. It was rape.” Emily leaned forward and placed a soft kiss to his lips. “You don’t have to explain anything to me. I understand that kind of abuse.” Maybe not the molestation, but the mental and physical abuse she could certainly comprehend. He hadn’t asked for it, and none of it was his fault. He’d been a victim.
And he’d survived.
Marguerite may have destroyed his human DNA, but unwittingly what she’d unleashed back into the night was an even stronger version of the man than before. Emily’s admiration of him soared to a new level. She had respected him prior to the revelation about his past, but now…. He’d risen out of Marguerite’s clutches and turned his tragedy into a crusade to protect the innocent. In her eyes, Kenric was nothing less than a hero. Yet Emily knew if she tried to tell him the two were connected, he’d deny it. He would see it only as his duty—the right thing to do.
His hands softened on her face before he claimed her with a kiss of his own. Tenderly, he traced her lips. She opened up and invited him inside. Their tongues slid back and forth, stroking each other in a sensual dance.