The Seeking Kiss: Midnight Playground, Book 1

by Eden Bradley

  Aleron sucked him deeper, and he pumped his hips, driving his cock down Aleron’s throat. He heard Aleron’s groan, glanced down and saw that he had his hand on his own cock, the rigid flesh driving into his pale fist. Desire kicked hard into his gut. He wanted to take that beautiful cock himself, into his mouth, into his body.

  “Aleron, let me take you. Let me fuck you.”

  Aleron pulled his mouth away long enough to murmur, “Not today. Today you are mine.”

  He sank his teeth into the head of Hex’s cock, and it was pleasure and pain, searing, hot, indescribable. His body shook, and he came, hard, as Aleron sucked on him. And he could feel it through Aleron’s eyes, through his mind, his body—the sweet taste of come and blood on the tongue, the musky scent of arousal, of Aleron’s ancient flesh, and in the distance, the scent of Nissa as she slept in the big bed.

  But there was no time to think of any of it. Aleron had him in his hands, his fingers digging into Hex’s flesh as he was pulled to the floor. Aleron was on him, pushing him down onto the silk carpet, amid the swirls of amber, black and midnight blue, the texture soft against his hands and knees.

  He knew Aleron was lost in blood lust, that, ancient as he was, he could do him real harm in such a state, but he didn’t care. The scent of it was on him, too, that base, animal edge, and he wanted it nearly as badly as Aleron did—the pure, driven fucking that only another vampire could withstand.

  He braced himself on hands and knees, his cock hard as rock once more. Aleron crouched over him, his teeth scraping the back of Hex’s neck. He felt that wild stab of need, deep in his belly, the scent of his own blood driving him higher as it dripped down the side of his neck.

  “Just do it, Aleron. Come on.”

  A quiet roar from Aleron before he wound a rough arm around Hex’s waist, pulling him in tight, and sank his cock into his ass.

  Hex groaned, pleasure shafting into his body as Aleron began to pump into him.

  “You are mine, Hex. Now.”

  “Yes…”

  Thrusting hips, driving Aleron’s rigid shaft ever deeper, driving pleasure just as deep. He moved faster, his plunging cock hard and punishing, but Hex pushed back against him, opening himself further, his arms shaking with the effort.

  “Fuck me, Aleron. Harder.”

  “God damn it, Hex…”

  Aleron was gasping, his hips plunging wildly, the sound of flesh hammering upon flesh like thunder in the room. Then Aleron’s rough hand on his chin, forcing his fingers into Hex’s mouth.

  “Drink,” he commanded.

  And as Hex bit into his fingers, Aleron bit hard into the back of Hex’s neck, his eyeteeth sinking deeply into his flesh. Blood upon blood, they both drank, Aleron’s cock pumping into his ass, his fingers pumping into his mouth, his ancient blood pouring down his throat. Sweet and salty and pure.

  Aleron drank, sucking hard, fucking him so hard he could barely stay on his knees. His cock was pulsing with pleasure, and his mind was beginning to spin. He felt too much of Aleron, felt his pleasure, his pain, his old grief. And even as he climaxed, his come spitting out into the air as Aleron came, pumping hard into his ass, he knew they both understood this was the last time they would be together.

  Nissa stretched, her muscles stiff from too much time in bed. How long had she been there? But she felt rested. She felt wonderful. And for the first time in days, she was alone.

  She listened for any sound of movement in the big house, but heard nothing. Maybe Hex and Aleron were out? It didn’t matter. She knew they’d be back eventually. They wouldn’t leave her alone for long. She trusted them to come back to her, to care for her.

  It was strange, this sense of being cared for, something she hadn’t felt since she was a small child, with her grandmother. And at the end, it was she who had cared for Nana, their roles reversed. There had been no going back to being a child after that. There had been no one to watch out for her in a very long time, and never a man. She’d never let anyone that close, had never wanted anyone to take care of her. Not that she needed it. But it was nice. Lovely.

  Throwing back the covers, she got up and moved toward the bathroom, the bedroom rug soft beneath her bare feet, the room lit by one small lamp on an antique wood table with delicately carved legs. Outside, the sky was dark through the sheer curtains, the moon and stars obscured by the London fog. She glanced about for her clothes, but didn’t see them. When had she last worn clothes? She hadn’t needed them. Hex had brought her meals in the big bed. Rich, spicy dishes he had prepared himself. She’d only been up to shower, which was where she was headed now.

  She’d come to love the enormous, luxurious bathroom. Her entire flat could have fit in there. It was all done in white marble, the towels the heaviest, most plush white. The enormous mirrors, even the light fixtures, were gorgeous. And the shower itself…it was a huge expanse of marble and glass, with a bench seat built into it, multiple showerheads in shining chrome. She reached in, turning the hot water up high, and stepped under the steaming spray.

  Even the soap they used was pure luxury, silky smooth and fragrant on her skin. She’d never seen anything like this in her life. She’d gotten used to it. Hex and Aleron had taken her into the shower each day, sometimes several times a day, bathing her carefully. She’d come to love the heat of the water sliding over her skin as they touched her, their soapy hands eventually slipping over her breasts, between her thighs. They loved to fuck her in the shower, to fuck each other, which she never tired of watching. There was something so utterly primal about two men together, and with two vampires, there was even more intensity to it, more heat. And the sight of their bodies coming together, one light, one dark, both so powerful, graceful, and with that inherent purity and flawlessness of the vampire flesh. No matter how dirty the sex was, it was always beautiful with them. It could never be anything else.

  An ache was growing between her thighs as she thought of them, her nipples hardening beneath the sharp spray of hot water on her breasts.

  She slipped a hand between her thighs, felt her own slick juices there.

  “Need you now…”

  “Nissa.”

  Aleron. He was there with her suddenly, as if by magic. Maybe there was magic in the way they could read her thoughts. But she didn’t really care. She was simply glad to see him, her pulse running hot as he stepped into the shower, his naked body hard and beautiful as ever. His cock was rising, thickening, as he leaned in to brush a soft kiss over her cheek.

  He smiled at her, ducked his head under the water for a moment, clear droplets clinging to the tips of his white blond hair. His blue eyes were glittering.

  “What do you need, my dear Nissa?” he asked, moving in closer, his long arms wrapping around her waist.

  His hard body, wet and warm against hers, was too good.

  “I need you, Aleron. I need you to touch me. To fuck me.”

  “Ah…feel how I need you already.”

  He took her hand and guided it to his cock, which was hard and long in her hand, the flesh like silk over steel. Then his mouth came down to hers, and he skimmed a kiss across her lips before moving lower and licking at the sensitive skin at the hollow of her throat. She let her head fall back.

  “Yes, Aleron. Have me. Drink from me.”

  A small shard of pain as his teeth sank in, then nothing but that now-familiar ecstasy as he drank, along with those flashes into his past.

  The woman again, and this time she heard a name—Emeline.

  Such a lovely face, her lips a perfect pink Cupid’s bow, even as she grew older. The lovely curve of her cheekbone as his hand came to rest there for a moment before moving lower, over her neck, her bare breasts, which were small and firm, with nipples like two pieces of dusky pink candy. Sweet in his mouth as he sucked and licked. She squirmed gently on the bed beneath him, and Nissa felt the weight of his body as though she was in his arms. But wasn’t she?

  She no longer knew what was happening now and what
was memory as she slid deeper into the Seeking Kiss, into Aleron’s mind. It was all hot, naked flesh, his silky tongue, the sharp edge of his teeth on her throat, her stomach, her thighs, then finally, between them. Hot and sucking, her pussy wet and pulsing, her beasts aching. The scents of sex and blood in the air. Hers. Emeline’s. Was that her long curling auburn hair coming down over her shoulders, like spun copper? But no, hers was black. Wasn’t it?

  Water on her skin, even as she lay amidst the silk sheets, everything happening at once, somehow. Her own fingers traveling over the small creases in her skin from a corset she’d never worn. And Aleron’s mouth on her clit, drawing it in, circling with his tongue as his fingers moved to push into her ass. And as his teeth grazed the lips of her sex, cut into her tender flesh, the blood seeping onto his tongue, there was no pain, only the most exquisite pleasure.

  Her hips arced toward him as the first waves hit, and she was shaking. But he had her, held her tight in his arms, his mouth sucking, sucking. And she was coming hard, shuddering all over with the force of it, as though she came with Emeline, both of them together, pleasure upon pleasure, their climaxes entwined in some way that wound through time.

  She came to her senses in Aleron’s arms as he carried her, wrapped in a thick towel, into the parlor. She’d never seen it before. She blinked in the dim golden glow of light coming from a fire burning in an enormous marble fireplace, and from a few low lamps scattered around the room, shaded in silk and glass.

  The room itself was magnificent, filled with antiques in dark wood and everything in creamy silk and damask, heavy velvet, rich old French brocades. She barely had a moment to take it all in before Aleron laid her on a large chaise, against a pile of fringed pillows. He sat next to her, his eyes almost midnight blue in the half-dark room, the firelight reflected in his black pupils, like two orbs of glass, deep and mysterious as he always was to her.

  “You have questions about me, Nissa?” he asked, his fingers reaching to tenderly move her damp hair from her face.

  She nodded. “I don’t know much of anything about you. Other than what I’ve experienced with you myself. What I sense from you. And…what I’ve seen in those moments when you or Hex are drinking from me. But I feel as though I shouldn’t ask about any of that.”

  “I’ve had many lifetimes. Some more crucial than others to who I am now. What you see when I drink from you is what was most important to me.”

  “She still is,” Nissa said quietly, feeling his pain as acutely as though he were drinking from her even now.

  “Yes.”

  “But you are with Hex.”

  “And I’ve been with others in between, women and men both. But I’ve never given the Turning Kiss to a woman since…I lost her. I’ve only made male companions.”

  “And what’s happened to them?”

  “They all move on, eventually. But I never intend anything else, with them. I have loved them all, but I understand the impermanence of love. All too well.”

  Nissa reached out, laid a hand on his arm. It was like polished marble beneath her palm. But she could see the softness in him that lay beneath the stony enigma of the face he presented to the world. “I’m sorry, Aleron. Truly sorry.”

  “Don’t pity me, Nissa. I’ve had a great love. It is more than most people can ever expect. And I’ve loved all of my companions, as I said, although in a different way than I loved her. Emeline.”

  “She was very beautiful.”

  “Yes. In every way.”

  So much sorrow reflected in his eyes, along with the firelight. Nissa had to swallow a lump in her throat.

  “You are every bit as beautiful, Nissa. You and Hex both.” He paused, stroked her hair again. “You are meant for each other, you know.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “We often know these things. We’ve talked to you about it before. And I know that you are for Hex. Being with us, together, was simply your introduction to him.”

  “Do you really believe that?” Her heart was pounding, with hope, with sorrow. “That people, vampires, whoever, can be meant to be together?”

  “I know it to be true. It is not some sort of religious thing, not pre-ordained by any sort of god. I don’t believe in gods, just as I don’t believe we vampires are evil. But it is a spiritual thing, the connection between two beings.”

  “But then…what now?”

  “Now I stay with you only long enough to take you safely through your transition into this dark life. If you want it still.” He gazed into her eyes, searching. “Do you, Nissa?”

  Hex.

  “Yes.” It came out as a whisper, her heart beating too hard, emotion choking her.

  “Then you shall have it. And I will be there. But it will be Hex who gives you the Turning Kiss. And you will be his.”

  Tears gathered in her eyes. “Aleron…”

  “There is no need to be sorry. Don’t you see? Don’t you feel it?”

  “Yes. I feel it. So deep in my bones I can barely stand to be without him for an hour, even when I’m with you, Aleron. And I am sorry. Sorry to take him away from you. Sorry that although I adore you in a very true way, I love him so fiercely…I can’t stand it, not to have him. Even if that means hurting you. It feels wrong. But I feel…helpless to do anything else.”

  He smiled once more, his face hard and frighteningly beautiful, but his blue gaze soft on hers. “This is right, Nissa,” he told her. He took her hand and lifted it, brushed his lips across the back of her knuckles in a gentle, old-world gesture. “You are taking nothing from me I am not entirely willing to give, I promise you. I will be with you. I will help you. And you will always have a part of me, as I have a part of you. There is no need to be sad. I am never alone, if I choose not to be. And there’s the Midnight Playground. All the pleasures of the world await me there. And I am enough of a sensualist to appreciate such a place.”

  His smile widened into a wicked grin, and she couldn’t help but smile back.

  “Shall we prepare you for your journey into this new life, Nissa? Are you ready to come to us, to be one of us?”

  Her heart was racing, hammering in her chest like the powerful roll of thunder. But she had never felt so certain of anything in her life. Other than her need for Hex. Her love for him.

  “Yes. I’m ready.”

  Chapter Six

  Nissa stood naked in the center of the rug in the bedroom while Aleron himself brushed out her hair. When Hex came in, he smiled, that lovely flash of strong white teeth making her go liquid all over, making her nipples come up hard.

  “Nissa. Aleron called me.”

  “She is ready for you, Hex,” Aleron said, his hand coming to rest reassuringly on her shoulder.

  Hex’s smile widened, and he came to her, took her in his arms. They were solid around her, her bare flesh rubbing against his clothes. She wanted him as naked as she was. She simply wanted him.

  “Ah, I want you, too, my Nissa,” he whispered to her, leaning in to kiss her cheeks, her lips. “Has Aleron explained this all to you? The ritual of the Turning?”

  “That we are going to the Midnight Playground. That you will both be with me. Yes.” Her heart was racing at the thought of being Turned. Of being eternal. Of being with Hex forever. “I don’t need to know any more.”

  Hex nodded, then looked over her head to where Aleron stood behind her, his hand still on her shoulder. Hex laid his hand over Aleron’s, and she watched their gazes meet. There was love there. Tenderness. Her own heart swelled with love for them both.

  They spent some time readying her. Hex dressed her himself in the most gorgeous black silk lingerie he’d brought for her, then a short leather dress. Aleron brought her a long trench coat made of the same butter-soft black leather, draping it over her shoulders. It felt like a ritual already, as she stood silently, allowing these two amazingly beautiful creatures to care for her almost as if she were their child. Except that there was nothing child-like about the purely sexual s
ense of expectancy in the air.

  Finally, they were ready, the two men dressed mostly in black leather as she was, Hex in leather trousers and a black T-shirt, Aleron more formal in his billowing white silk shirt. They led her down carpeted stairs, through a long hallway, and out into the night, where a dark, sleekly armored car waited at the curb. The driver was silent as Aleron helped her into the backseat. And though she could see nothing of the driver but the back of his head, she could sense right away that he was a vampire himself.

  She sat between Aleron and Hex, her hands in each of theirs, as they raced through the dark London streets. She was too filled with anticipation to speak, and they remained quiet on the drive.

  They wove through the calm avenues of Highgate with its stately old homes, then through the lesser neighborhoods, passing storefronts with flashing neon signs and iron bars over the windows, dark, dilapidated apartment buildings, much like the one she lived in herself. She knew she wasn’t going back there. Where she was going remained to be seen. But it didn’t matter. What mattered was that she would be with Hex. She turned to him, and he smiled at her, leaned over to brush her lips with his, sending a warm shiver through her. And a wave of anxiety. She pulled back to stare into his beautiful face.

  “Hex? Is this… Tell me this is the right thing to do. To leave my life behind. To be with you.”

  “Ah, Nissa… This is right.” His hand went to her cheek, his thumb tracing along her jaw. “This is right because there is something in each of us that responds to the other, like two ends of a magnet. It’s right because you feel it, too, even though you’re scared right now. It’s right because we love each other.”

  “I do love you, Hex.”

  “I know it. I feel it. And I love you.”

  He moved in, his lips coming down on hers, and the kiss was soft and sweeter than anything she’d felt before. That sense of wanting him was still there, but love shone through, brilliant, dazzling her heart and her mind.