Vampire's Hunger

by Cynthia Garner

  “All right, then,” Aodhán murmured. “I’ll just go back out into the living room with Natalie. Oh, by the way, your friend Atticus said he put two of his friends on your door and will do his best to keep Maddalene from finding out Kimber’s here as long as he can.”

  “Thanks,” Duncan said without looking away from Kimber. He stood, drawing Kimber to her feet, and waited until the door closed behind his fey friend before he reached out to tuck her hair behind her ear, letting his hand linger near her cheek. “And thank you, too. I know this was hard for you.”

  She licked her lips, leaving shiny, tantalizing moisture behind. “Not as hard as it was for you,” she replied with another glance at his groin.

  He gave a bark of laughter. Leave it up to his Kimber to find humor in the situation.

  He stilled. His Kimber. His. With a smothered oath, he cradled her head in his hands and leaned forward, slanting his mouth over hers with pent-up, desperate desire.

  Chapter Ten

  Kimber drew back from Duncan with a gasp. “Wait!”

  His face settled into grim lines. He dropped his hands to his sides and took a step away from her. “I’m sorry.” His voice was as stiff as she’d ever heard it. “I thought…”

  He’d misunderstood. She hadn’t pulled back because she didn’t want him. “Duncan, stop. I just…” When he wouldn’t look at her, she sighed and put one hand on his cheek. He let her tilt his face toward her but his gaze remained fixed above her head. “I want you.” At his skeptical look she insisted, “I do. Really, I do. But your back…”

  He twisted. She gasped again, this time with disbelief. His back wasn’t completely healed, but it was no longer the bloody, raw mess it had been earlier. The skin was pink and looked like it would still be sensitive, but it had knitted together.

  “Well, then,” she murmured. He turned around to face her again and she gave his shoulders a gentle push. He obligingly sat on the bed. “Can you put pressure on your back?” she asked.

  He moved, settling his back against the pillows propped against the solid cherry headboard. Not one flicker of pain crossed his face or moved through his eyes. Silently she pulled her sweatshirt over her head, letting him get a look at her breasts confined in a lacy black bra. She toed off her shoes and shimmied out of her jeans, and wished her panties were as sexy as her bra. But, no, she’d gone for comfort and so had cotton granny panties on. The flare in his eyes told her that didn’t matter to him.

  With a smile she got back on the bed on her knees, kneeling at his hip, and leaned forward, bracing herself with one hand gripping the headboard. She placed a soft kiss against his mouth, gave his bottom lip a sharp nip and then laved away the sting with her tongue. Another kiss to the corner of his eye, his nose, beside his ear.

  She would show him with her mouth, her hands, her body, that she acknowledged what was between them.

  Her kisses wandered across his strong jaw and down his neck, lingering in the hollow at the base of his throat. Duncan tipped his head back, his low groan vibrating against her lips.

  Kimber couldn’t resist following the line of his nearest collarbone, her tongue lightly tracing a trail out to his strong shoulder. Loosening her grip on the headboard, she kissed her way over his biceps, paused at his inner elbow, then picked up his hand and brought his fingers to her mouth. After kissing each fingertip she pulled his index finger into the wet heat of her mouth, laving it with her tongue, then added his middle finger and gently sucked on them.

  “Oh, hell.” He looked down at her. He licked his lips, leaving them wet and inviting. “Are you trying to kill me?”

  She glanced up and saw the carnal strain on his face. She released his fingers and murmured, “Let me take care of you.”

  She let his hand drop back to his side and leaned over him again. She nuzzled his chest, darting her tongue out to flick at one hard nipple. His indrawn breath sounded like the sweetest music to her ears. She rubbed her fingers back and forth over one of his nipples while she licked and sucked the other one.

  Deciding she needed both hands, she swung one leg over him and straddled his thighs. His thick erection pressed against the zip of his jeans, and when she let her weight settle over him his breath hissed between his teeth.

  Her lips followed the smattering of hair that bisected his tummy. In her eagerness she fumbled a little with the button at the waist of his jeans, but the way his stomach muscles jumped beneath her fingers made her think he didn’t mind too much. “Lift your hips,” she murmured. His lean hips came up off the bed and she jerked his jeans and underwear down to his knees, baring his cock to her gaze. And her hands.

  And her mouth.

  But not just yet. Anticipation was the greatest aphrodisiac of all.

  Kimber got off the bed and pulled his clothing the rest of the way off, leaving them to fall on the floor. She ran her hands lightly down Duncan’s legs, knowing his sexual arousal was increasing his blood flow, heating his body. She loved the feel of warm skin covering hard, flexing muscles. Her pussy thumped with emptiness, her nipples hardened. But this wasn’t about her—it was all about him. She kissed a path over one hip to his leg, lingered on the sensitive flesh of his inner thigh, feeling his cock twitch against her cheek.

  “Kimber…” His voice rasped against her eardrums, setting up another set of shivers.

  With a soft sigh of longing she climbed back onto the bed, settling between his legs. She took his erection in one hand. He was so hot and heavy in her palm, his skin silky smooth. She rubbed the fingers of her other hand lightly over his hair-dusted balls. “What do you want, Duncan? This?” She leaned down and pressed her open mouth against one testicle, letting her warm breath blow against him as she swirled the tip of her tongue in a slow circle. Lifting her head, she whispered, “Or this?” and nibbled her way up the underside of his cock to his tip.

  She licked the drop of fluid that wept from the slit. His hips punched upward, driving more of his length into her mouth. She pulled away and tsked him. “I’m taking care of you, remember? You’re just supposed to lie there and let me do all the work.”

  “Then get to it.” Duncan’s irises glowed silver. The wildness of the vampire swallowed up the green and blazed from his eyes. “Stop teasing.”

  “But the teasing will lead to so much more,” Kimber promised and stuck out her tongue to lap at the head of his cock. She held his gaze, exulting in seeing a muscle flex in his taut jaw. He was on the fine edge of his control—she wanted to see if she could shove him over it. Making him shed his cool, controlled exterior was her new calling in life.

  For however long that might be.

  For however long he might be hers.

  She was under no illusions here. He was an immortal; she was not. He wouldn’t age past how he appeared now. She would grow old and die, and she somehow didn’t think he’d still be with her when her hair was gray and her boobs hung to her waist. And that was being optimistic on her part. She had no guarantee she’d live past today.

  And, realistically, with the mood Maddalene was in, neither did he. So carpe diem and carpe penis.

  She looked down at his erection. He was thick and long, wide veins running the length of his shaft. More clear liquid hovered at the tip, and she leaned forward, swiping it with her tongue.

  His hands came up and fisted in her hair. “More,” he demanded, his voice guttural.

  Kimber took the head of his cock into her mouth and sucked lightly. She stroked one hand down his shaft and cupped his balls, rocking them in her fingers.

  Duncan groaned and bucked against her. “God. Take more!”

  She opened her mouth wide and took as much of him as she could. He was so thick she couldn’t take all of him, so she stroked her hand from her mouth down to his base. When he grunted and thrust against her, she drew slowly away until he left her mouth with a soft, wet pop.

  “Kimber…”

  “Anticipation, remember?” She pressed his cock up against his belly and
licked a path on the underside from the crown to the base. He tipped his hips toward her, and she smiled in feminine triumph. There was something very empowering about having a strong man like this silently—and sometimes not so silently—begging for more.

  She was only too happy to oblige. In her own way.

  In her own time.

  She swiped the flat of her tongue over his sac and pulled one of his balls into her mouth. Beginning a slow steady stroke of one hand along his shaft, she fingered his balls with the other hand, rolling them back and forth as she nibbled and sucked. She slipped her fingers from his testicles to the sensitive skin behind, rubbing gently.

  She licked her way back up the length of his cock then pulled him into her mouth. Keeping one hand beneath him, she palmed his sac and rubbed the skin behind it. He pumped his hips, thrusting more of his cock into her mouth, and she hummed, knowing the vibration would shoot straight through him.

  “Damn!” Duncan’s hips bucked and surged, driving more of his thick length into her mouth. The head of his cock hit the back of her throat, triggering her gag reflex. She pulled back slightly to catch her breath then went back down.

  He tried to push her away, but she swatted at his hands and stayed where she was. She put her hands on his thighs and kept sucking. She loved being able to do this for him, to give him such primal pleasure.

  “I’m going to come, sweetheart,” he muttered, his muscles tensing beneath her hands. His hands went to her hair and gripped, holding her steady.

  Bring it on! Kimber hummed again and brought his cock deeper, to the back of her throat, and swallowed.

  He growled and took over the rhythm, driving into her mouth with short, hard thrusts. She opened her mouth as wide as she could and sucked him on each outward stroke. She reached one hand between his legs and grasped his balls, tugging on the hard globes.

  His roar reverberated through the small room. Hands tightening in her hair, he held himself still while his release jetted into her mouth. And she loved every last drop.

  Hard hands around her arms hoisted her up, and he clamped his mouth over hers in a possessive, demanding kiss. Drawing back, he cupped her face in his hands. “I think you’ve about killed me.” He kissed her again. “Let me return the favor.”

  With a quick twist of his lean torso, he flipped her over onto her back. He stared for a moment at her lying there, clad only in her bra and panties. His eyes narrowed, and he placed one palm on the slight rise of her tummy. Heat from his big hand permeated her skin, fired her blood. Even with need riding him so high, he still found the strength to handle her gently.

  He drew in a deep breath through his nose and groaned. “God, you smell so good when you’re aroused.” He reached behind her and undid her bra, pulling the filmy material away and letting it drop to the floor. Then he pulled her panties off and let them drop, too.

  His hands slid from her ankles up to her knees, parting her legs. He bent over her and pressed his lips to one calf, mouthing a path up her leg to the back of her knee. He draped her leg over his brawny shoulder and lifted her other leg. After placing a soft kiss on her inner thigh he let that leg rest over his shoulder as well. She tensed, wanting him so badly, wanting, needing to feel his mouth against her. Her fingers curled into her palms.

  “So pretty here,” he murmured, his breath puffing against her mound.

  Heat spread in her belly and moved lower, plumping her sex, slicking her core.

  He spread her slick folds apart with his thumbs. With another rough growl, he dipped his head and swiped the flat of his tongue along the length of her slit.

  Kimber moaned and jerked, tilting her hips and letting her thighs fall apart even more. Duncan’s hands slid under her and lifted her closer to his mouth. His low groan vibrated against her clit just before he sucked it into the wet warmth of his mouth.

  She helplessly thrust her hips against his face, seeking out more of his touch. As he suckled her swollen bud, his fingers kneaded her buttocks. He brushed against the puckered rosebud of her ass, and she shuddered as her climax began to build.

  He licked through her folds to her slick opening. His tongue swirled around and around, making her cry out. She gripped his hair, holding his head close to her, crying out again as he fucked his tongue into her sheath.

  He moved back to her clit. One last suckle, and she fell over the edge with a scream. He brought one hand between her legs and slid two long fingers into her pussy, thrusting in and out while she moaned and quaked around him.

  When she was finally still, Duncan wiped his hand across his mouth. He let her legs fall from his shoulders and she was content to flop onto the bed like a landed fish. He came up over her and kissed her, giving her a taste of herself.

  Kimber tried to calm her breathing. He settled at her side, moving one thick thigh over hers, cupping her breast with his hand. His thumb swept languidly over her tight nipple.

  She sighed and rested her hand on his forearm, feeling the muscles flex with the movement of his thumb. She closed her eyes, feeling sated and content for the first time in a long time. “Well, Mr. MacDonnough, I think you’ve about killed me.”

  His low chuckle stirred the hair at her temple. “Just returning the favor, sweetheart.”

  All she wanted to do was lie here in his arms and not face reality. But she couldn’t. She stirred. “We should go to Natalie and Aodhán.”

  Duncan’s arms tightened around her. “In a minute. I want to hold you a while longer.”

  Kimber settled down against him again and rubbed her cheek against his hair-roughened chest. It felt good to be in a man’s embrace again.

  In this man’s embrace.

  He was good and honorable, and in trouble because of her. “Tell me what happened with Maddalene,” she murmured. She couldn’t keep from touching him, though, rubbing her fingers lightly over the pectoral muscle opposite the one her cheek rested on.

  “She wanted you here. She was disappointed when I came without you. When I told her to back off, she called me disloyal and punished me.”

  At the complete lack of emotion in his voice, she propped up on one elbow and looked down into his face with a frown. “And you…what? Just stood there and let her whip you?”

  He shifted a little beneath her but his frank gaze stayed on hers. “If I had fought her, it would have kept her focus on you. I let her vent some of her frustration.”

  “By turning your back into spaghetti?” She scowled. “Don’t do that again.”

  “I’m almost completely healed, thanks to you.”

  “Thanks to me you were hurt in the first place.” She started to put her head back on his chest but he brought one hand up to her face.

  “Don’t you even think to take the blame for this, Kimber.” His fingers beneath her chin were strong yet gentle. “Maddalene’s been working up to something like this for the past several months.”

  “Why?” she asked. “I don’t understand any of it. What’s so important to her that she insists on my help? Who is this centuries’ old corpse she wants me to reanimate?”

  “Her consort, Eduardo.”

  “Consort?” She felt her eyes go wide as realization struck. “You mean he’s a vampire?” At his nod, she shook her head. “No. No way. Hell, no.”

  The edges of his mouth quirked. “Kimber, you need to tell me how you really feel.”

  “Smartass.” She smacked his chest. “She’s insane. With a human it would be difficult, but with a vampire? I don’t even want to think of the kind of energy it would take to reanimate something that wasn’t alive to begin with. I mean, actually, it would be re-reanimating, you know?”

  “But could it be done?”

  She stared at him. He surely couldn’t be suggesting… “No. Duncan, it’s too dangerous.”

  “But could it be done?” he asked again.

  “Why? Do you want me to do it?”

  “No, of course not.” He stroked his hand down her cheek. “But unless we can convin
ce Maddalene that there’s absolutely no way it can be done, she’ll keep pushing.”

  Kimber bit her lip.

  “Can it be done?”

  The man was like a demented terrier. She huffed a sigh. “Possibly.” When he stared at her, she grimaced. “Look, I’ve been saying it can’t be done because it probably can’t. At the very least it shouldn’t. Especially now. With what happened to Whitcomb…”

  She just wasn’t sure anymore. Generally speaking, vampires didn’t have souls, so the Unseen didn’t really latch onto anything within the body. It just filled it and became something…else. Something different. Dark. If she were more religious she would have called it unholy.

  She shook her head. “I just can’t guarantee what we’d end up with. There’s something unbalanced in the Unseen, Duncan. I felt it with Whitcomb, and I felt it again when I was trying to save Bishop.” Tears sprang to her eyes at the thought of her friend, and she blinked them back. At some point she hoped she’d get to mourn Carson Bishop the way he deserved to be mourned, but now was not that time. “If I could somehow manage to reanimate Eduardo, it wouldn’t truly be him. It would be something I can’t control. Something darker. That much I do know.”

  “Something darker than a vampire?” He lifted a brow, his expression reminding her of her bias against him and his kind.

  She sighed again. “It’s the whole biting thing, Duncan. Well, biting and draining.”

  “I’ve bitten you twice now, once in passion and once when I was injured, and I didn’t lose control. You can trust me, Kimber.”

  And there was the heart of the matter. She’d been telling herself for months that she couldn’t trust Duncan, not with the stuff that counted. Oh, she trusted him to help her fight zombies, but she hadn’t trusted him with more than her physical safety. He was part of Maddalene’s cadre, and she couldn’t be trusted.