She gave a nod and left the living room.
Duncan sat beside Kimber and put an arm around her shoulders. He pulled her to his side, wishing his body held heat like a human’s so he could warm her, console her. The fact that she didn’t fight the little bit of comfort he tried to give told him clearly how defeated she felt at the moment. She remained stiff, not relaxing into his light hold at all. She seemed to be regaining some vitality, because color had seeped back into skin that had gone gray with the energy she’d used to tap into the Unseen.
They sat like that for several minutes. The sound of the shower shut off—a record short time for Natalie—and then the bathroom door opened. He heard her patter to the bedroom she and Kimber shared, and that door closed.
Duncan rubbed his palm up and down Kimber’s upper arm, lending his silent support as she processed Bishop’s death. Finally she took a shuddering breath and settled against him. She turned slightly, winding one arm behind his back and the other across his waist, turning his one-armed hug into a true embrace.
“I’m sorry for hitting you,” she whispered. She rubbed her face against his shoulder. “I know it wasn’t your fault.”
Duncan brought his left arm over her and clasped his hands together. He rested his cheek against the top of her head. “It wasn’t your fault, either.”
She stiffened slightly. “If I hadn’t—”
“No, Kimber.” He tightened his hold. “Enough. You can’t keep blaming yourself for creating this mess. Even if you somehow caused it through your necromancy, you didn’t do it on purpose.” He paused. “Unless you have some secret take-over-the-world plan I don’t know anything about.”
She snorted a laugh. “No. No plans to take over the world with my zombie hordes.”
“Good to know.” He could feel the slight tremble going through her body and knew the lingering effects of shock continued to affect her. “Come on,” he said, standing and drawing her to her feet.
“Where’re we going?” She swayed, clutching at his arms for balance.
“You’re going to take a shower.” He swept her up into his arms and strode down the hallway. He didn’t set her down until he reached the bathroom. He reached into the shower and turned on the water, adjusting it until it was warm enough, then turned back to her. She stood where he’d placed her, blinking up at him. He stroked the back of his hand down her satiny cheek. “Go on, then,” he murmured. “Get your clothes off and hop in.” He turned to leave.
“Duncan.” Her scratchy voice stopped him.
He looked at her. Her eyes beseeched him, tugged at a heart he’d long ago been certain he’d squandered. “What is it, sweetheart?”
“I don’t want to be alone.”
The brokenness in her voice broke the heart he’d just rediscovered. “Kimber, if I get naked with you…” He wanted her. But he wasn’t going to take advantage of her trauma. She’d lost a good friend and wasn’t thinking things through. If she were, the last person on the planet with whom she’d want to be nude was him. She’d always been very clear about that. He shook his head. “Just take a shower. I’ll be in the living room when you’re done.”
He started to leave the bathroom again but she called him back. “I want you to get naked with me,” she whispered.
Shock made him draw a reflexive and unnecessary breath. It didn’t, however, keep him from getting an erection. He slowly moved to face her again. He wasn’t so noble that he could continue to turn her down. He wanted her to be very sure about what she was asking of him, what consequences would come of her request. “If we’re both naked, I’m going to fuck you,” he said, his voice and words raw and needy. His fangs elongated, the slight prick of them against his lip a reminder of how far gone he was already. “It won’t be slow and gentle. I’ve waited too long. I’m so desperate to get inside you that I’ll fuck you hard and fast. I’ll work my cock so deep you’ll feel me against your womb.”
Her pupils dilated. She bit her bottom lip but met his gaze head-on. “I don’t want slow. I don’t want gentle. I need hard and fast and desperate.” She pulled his T-shirt over her head and dropped it to the floor. The upper swells of her breasts gleamed pale against the soft lace of her bra.
He watched with burning eyes as she flipped the button at the waist of her low-slung jeans and slid down the zipper. She wiggled them down her hips and stepped out of them. When her hands went behind her back and unhooked her bra, thrusting her breasts out, blood pulsed in his cock. And when she shrugged out of the bra and he saw her bare breasts with their pink-tipped nipples, a groan rumbled from his chest. He’d wanted so long to see her like this, his self-control, his sense of right and wrong was being quickly overridden by the need pulsing in his cock and fangs.
He stepped forward and palmed one plump mound. Her nipple peaked against his hand. “Be sure,” he said, his gaze holding hers.
“Take a shower with me.” She pressed his hand harder against her. “Take me.”
Chapter Six
There was a part of Kimber that wanted to remain frozen behind the grief and shock of Bishop’s death, but her overriding desire for Duncan meant she couldn’t hold back any longer. In a very visceral way, Bishop’s death had forced her to realize how short life was, how quickly everything that mattered to her could be taken.
She wouldn’t hide behind the lies anymore. She did want him. She’d wanted him from the moment she’d first seen him, with those glass green eyes, handsome face, broad shoulders and long, lean body. Even his bossy, arrogant attitude had wormed its way into her heart. With death waiting for her outside, she decided for once she was going to follow her desire instead of listening to her mind.
She slipped her hands beneath his shirt, spreading her fingers along his back and pressing the tips into soft skin covering hard muscles. With a grunt of impatience he stripped the shirt off, letting it drop on the floor. With one booted heel he closed the bathroom door.
Reaching out, he traced a fingertip down her cheek. “So soft,” he whispered. With efficiency he’d soon stripped himself. His shoulders were wide, his chest broad and sculpted, tapering to a slim waist. The muscles of his stomach redefined washboard. Just being with him made her feel safe, and that was something she’d never truly felt anywhere else.
He was beautiful. And right now, in this moment, he was hers. There were no promises for tomorrow. Nothing else mattered, just this. Her heart beat heavily. Every sense heightened, and she was helpless to prevent her heart’s fast slide for this man. It would be so easy to fall in love with him. Hell, maybe she already had taken the plunge. She’d think about that later. Much, much later.
Big hands swept her panties down and off her legs, and he moved her under the warm spray of the shower. Despite the hard prod of his cock at her back, he seemed in no hurry to follow through on his promise. Instead, he pressed a kiss to her shoulder. “Let me bathe you.”
Kimber gave a small nod. She was tired. Tired of battling zombies, tired of always being strong, tired of fighting her feelings for Duncan. For once she would let him take care of her.
He took his time washing her body. His broad palms spread vanilla-scented lather over her skin, reaching from behind to follow the curves of her breasts and the slight slope of her belly. They skated down her legs to her feet. She braced her hands against the wall of the shower and lifted one foot and then the other while he washed between her toes. Then he soaped his hands again and washed her arms, then her back. He urged her back under the spray and rinsed the soap off.
“I think you missed a couple of spots,” she murmured. While his gentle touch soothed her—and surprised her, to be honest—it also heightened her desire. Her voice came out sultry, throaty. He hadn’t touched where she needed it most, the throbbing, wet flesh between her thighs.
“Patience.” He worked strawberry-scented shampoo into a thick lather in her hair, his fingers massaging her head and neck until she nearly went boneless against him. “I love your hair. Did I ever tell y
ou that?”
“No.”
“I do.” His strong hands worked the lather through her tresses. “It’s such a fiery color. And the length is perfect.”
“Perfect for what?” She leaned into him, her back against his chest, her hands resting on his thick thighs.
He wrapped it around his hand and lightly tugged her head back until it rested on his shoulder. Her pulse thudded at the aggressive show of dominance. It should have scared her, but it didn’t. It sent licks of sensual excitement through her body, centering between her thighs.
When he moved her back into the spray to rinse her hair, she turned in his loose hold and looped her arms around his neck. Her extreme tiredness had vanished, purged by her surging arousal. She couldn’t resist the urge to tease him. “What happened to hard and fast and desperate?” she asked, arching one brow at him.
His smile was slow and so full of male arrogance and desire it made her chest hurt. “I managed to find a bit of restraint. I know,” he said with false modesty, “I surprise even myself.”
His hands cupped her breasts and massaged gently, tweaking her nipples and lifting them up as an offering to his waiting lips. His tongue sent lightning from her nipple to her clit, and she began to pant. She grabbed his biceps and held on as his tongue caused wave after wave to crash through her body. He let go of one to move to the other and begin all over again. She begged and pleaded, though she wasn’t sure exactly what she was pleading for. For him to stop? For him to do more? Both?
Finally, after several moments of play at her breasts he moved farther down to her stomach. He rinsed the soap off one hand and moved it between her thighs, sliding his fingers through the folds of her sex. A long finger stroked across her swollen clit. She gasped and moved her hands to his shoulders. He slid his other hand into the crack of her ass, the pad of his thumb rubbing over her sensitive rosebud. “There’s a lot to be said for anticipation,” he murmured.
From somewhere she managed to get a hold of a measure of fair play and decided it was time to take him in hand. “Yes, I agree.” She squirted a good amount of shower gel in the palm of her hand. “Let me return the favor.”
She washed him just as thoroughly as he had her, and when she got to his hard cock, she perched on the built-in corner bench and beckoned him closer. His broad shoulders blocked the spray of water though rivulets ran in tiny streams down his chest. Now that the warm water no longer sluiced directly on her, the chill of the room made her nipples pucker. She shivered, wanting his mouth on her, but decided she wanted to test that vaunted restraint he’d claimed to have found.
Kimber pressed her mouth to his corded abdomen, tracing the lines of Duncan’s six pack with her tongue. As she breathed against his belly, his muscles quivered, his cock bobbing up to butt against her chin. “I guess you like that.” She smiled against him and traced the tip of her tongue around the indent of his navel. “How do you like this?” she asked.
“Lower,” he instructed, his voice harsh and tight. His hands came up to fist in her hair.
She cleared her throat. Pitching her voice deep, she asked again, “How do you like this?”
“Smartass,” he muttered. And laughed. It was gruff, rusty, like it was something he didn’t do often. And he probably didn’t. In all the time she’d known him, the only time she’d seen him smile was when he was giving her a hard time.
She cupped his sac and stroked his hard shaft. He pulsed in her hand, his skin ruddy and hot from the water. His arousal forced blood to flow and warm his body. She wet her lips and wrapped them around the head of his cock.
He moaned and sifted his fingers through her hair. “Oh, Kimber. Shit!”
She did a little moaning herself and took him deeper. His flesh was hot and hard, her saliva making his shaft shiny with each outstroke. She fondled his balls in her hand, rolling them over her fingers, tugging on them with firm but gentle pressure.
He let loose with a string of expletives. She would have smiled if she could have around the stalk of flesh in her mouth. So much for his vaunted self-control.
As she took him as deep as she could, he cried out in surprise. His hips bucked. The head of his cock nudged the back of her throat. She relaxed her jaw and held him there a moment before humming loudly. His groan was more of a feral growl, full of pleasure and lust. Fingers tightening in her hair, he pulled back from her mouth a little. He took control then, his hips pumping as he worked his cock in and out of her willing mouth.
Her breasts ached and her nipples drew into hard points. He fucked her mouth at a slow, leisurely pace. She tugged and squeezed his balls, eliciting more growling groans from him. Her clit throbbed and she became wetter and wetter as she continued to please him with her mouth.
He pulled back and drew her to her feet. “Enough.” His fingers held a fine tremble where they gripped her upper arms. “I want to come inside you.”
Sappy with the thought she’d brought him to the brink of his control, she grinned up at him. “Yes, please!” Then she wagged a finger. “But only if you do it hard and fast, like you promised.”
“Don’t forget desperate.”
Her smile dimmed and her eyes heated. “I’d never forget desperate.”
He shut off the water and haphazardly dried them, then swung her up in his arms and took her to Aodhán’s bedroom. After laying her gently on her back, he slid her hips to the edge of the mattress and knelt at her feet. “Spread your legs.”
She did as instructed, shivering. His big hands gripped her inner thighs and held her in place as he wedged his broad shoulders between her legs. The tip of his tongue flicked her clit, making her whimper and squirm. When he took a long, slow swipe with the flat of his tongue through the folds of her sex, she gasped and bucked against him, not sure if she wanted more or if it was too much.
“God, you’re so wet. So slick.” He put his mouth on her clit and suckled. She bit back a shriek and bucked her hips. A long finger slid inside her sheath, then another, stroking in and out. His lapping tongue and thrusting fingers catapulted her into ecstasy.
She was still quaking when he reared up over her. “Now,” he said, his eyes glittering with silver fire, fangs curled over his bottom lip. “Now we get fast and hard.”
“And desperate,” she gasped.
He took his cock in his hand and positioned the head at the slick entrance to her body. His first hard thrust seated him to the balls. She moaned and grabbed his head, dragging his mouth down for a kiss. Lips ground together, tongues dueling. Against his mouth she said, “Be rough with me, Duncan. I need it rough.”
He moaned at her entreaty. His hips jerked against hers hard and fast, just like he’d promised. Kimber was so aroused and wet that friction between their bodies instantly felt good. She lifted her hips to meet his thrusts and darted her tongue into his willing mouth. He gripped the comforter on either side of her head and snapped his hips. His cock plunged deep and with such force that she moaned in a frenzy of pleasure. She felt his heavy balls slap against the curve of her ass, and the suctioning sound of his cock plowing into her sheath drove her arousal ever higher.
When he lowered his body, their torsos touching now and mouths mating, every thrust of his groin against hers stimulated her clit. Their tongues dueled as he drove into her again and again.
“Duncan,” she whispered against his cheek. Her thighs tensed as that fluttery panic started low in her core. “More. Harder! Oh, God!” She climaxed then, her whole body undulating beneath his larger frame. Duncan thrust so deep and hard she slid up the bed a few inches. His mouth settled over her throat and the pierce of his fangs sent her into another climax. He jerked roughly, his seed spilling into her. When he relaxed, he stayed buried deep inside her.
A few minutes later he rolled onto his back and pulled her against his side. “I knew it would be like that,” he said softly, his voice deep and scratchy.
“Like what?” She traced an idle pattern against the hair-roughened skin of his chest.
“Amazing.”
She smiled. It had been amazing. Life-affirming, even. Then she realized…
She bolted upright, clapping a hand on her neck. “You bit me.”
His eyes narrowed. “Kimber, I’m a vampire. Vampires bite. You know this.” When she didn’t immediately respond, his eyes narrowed a little more. “You knew it when you told me to take you.”
She clenched her jaw and moved away from him, suddenly and vulnerably aware of her nudity. He, however, seemed unconcerned about his as he leaned up on one elbow. “Kimber—”
She held up a hand. “Don’t. Just…” She sighed. “Don’t. I asked for it, Duncan. I wanted it.” She fought to keep from hiding her pertinent bits with her hands. He’d already seen much more of her than he saw now. For God’s sake, just a few minutes ago he’d been face first in her pussy. She knew it was a little late for modesty. “But you and I…” She shook her head. “I can’t do this with you again. I’m sorry. I just can’t.”
She left the room before he could respond. She wasn’t even sure what else she could say. After the first shock of Bishop’s death had faded and her desperation to remind herself that she at least was still alive, the fear she had of vampires was back in full force. What if he hadn’t stopped when he had? He could have drained her dry.
She eased into her room and pulled on a sweatshirt and shorts, and climbed into the twin bed that hugged the wall across from Natalie’s.
“So you and Duncan finally did the deed?” Natalie’s voice was soft in the darkness. When Kimber didn’t reply, she added, “You tried to be quiet, but, well, it’s not like this place is soundproofed.”
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Oh, it was that good, huh?” Natalie gave a soft snort of laughter.
“Shut up, Nat.” Kimber rolled to her side, putting her back to her friend. In spite of her whirling thoughts, the events of the day caught up with her, and she sank into sleep.
* * *
An hour after Kimber left him, Duncan surged out of bed with a muttered curse. He grabbed a pair of Aodhán’s sweats and yanked them on. Damn it, he should have paid attention to his gut. Kimber hadn’t been ready to make love with him. She had a thing about being bitten, and he was a vampire. One who most certainly bit. Instead of focusing on his cock he should’ve been paying attention to what had happened to Bishop and how she was dealing with it.
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