1933563311-Convince-Me-Ramagos.doc

by Convince Me (lit)

  The smile slowly vanished from Damian's lips. Kailey hated to see it go, but she felt a need to continue the conversation, to find out what happened with Jennifer. A need nearly as strong as the desire he quelled inside her with his heated promise.

  Damian's gaze seemed to lock onto a point over her head. They still swayed to the beat of the music, now a different tune but only slightly more upbeat than the previous one. He no longer held her quite so close or so tight. He sighed and finally spoke in her mind. I worry about her keeping company with George.

  "Does she know this?"

  Yes. I have told her my concern. I have told her that I do not wish to see them together.

  Yet she still came with him. Why would she do that when she knows how you feel? Kailey wondered.

  I am not sure, my sweet.

  Damian's response to a question she merely thought but not voiced only half shocked her. If he could talk in her head wouldn't she be able to communicate with him via a thought? Just for kicks, she decided to try it again. She's gone against your direct wishes, Kailey thought.

  Yes she has, my sweet.

  Yep. It worked. Something really cool that, being able to communicate via the mind even though she didn't truly possess the power to do so. Did you do something to piss her off? Make her want to piss you off?

  I am not aware of anything I have done.

  Kailey glanced in the direction of the table where Jennifer sat with George. She could just catch a glimpse of Jennifer through the crowd that blocked her view between them. Jennifer stared back at Kailey and the expression Kailey saw flash over Jennifer's face served as reinforcement for any clues Kailey picked up on earlier.

  "I am," Kailey said, her voice full of certainty. "You brought me."

  "Why would my bringing you tonight make a difference with Jennifer?" Damian asked and he actually spoke aloud. Apparently he too forgot he didn't want their conversation overheard.

  But Kailey knew he wouldn't want the couples around them to hear her next words so she thought them, then waited to see if he still retained the link with her mind. You brought me as your date tonight. That's what you've done wrong.

  The puzzled look on his face told her he did still have the link with her head. He stared down at her, opened his mouth to speak but closed it again. I am afraid I do not understand, he finally whispered in her head.

  Kailey chuckled at his obvious mystification and shook her head. "Surely you have not survived for centuries being so naïve." When the couple dancing next to them shot her a look of surprised amusement, she realized she spoke aloud. Apparently it wasn't often a person talked to Damian that way. Is Jennifer really so good that she, a mere human, can outwit a vampire such as yourself?

  Anyone can outwit a vampire if the vampire does not wish to see the truth. Is that what you are saying that I have done, looked past the truth?

  Apparently so. Jennifer is jealous, she thought and watched Damian's bewilderment deepen. If you ask me, I think she was hoping, maybe even expecting, to be your date tonight.

  Damian stopped dancing without warning and Kailey tripped over his foot. He looked toward the table at the edge of the dance floor but at some point in the last few minutes George and Jennifer disappeared. He seemed to scan the party guests for a long moment, then looked back at Kailey and shook his head as if to jar something loose. "No. You are wrong, my sweet."

  "Believe what you want," she shrugged and thought, but she's in love with you.

  She is my human servant. She is a friend, a confidant at times, a willing blood donor but nothing more.

  If she had her way she would be more. Why else would she be attempting to make you jealous tonight?

  He sighed so loudly she actually heard him. "Again, I do not understand."

  "Boy, you really can be dense when it comes to women." The woman dancing next to them laughed at that one and Kailey couldn't help herself, she looked at the woman and shrugged. "Men. It doesn't matter how old they are, they never do learn to understand women."

  The woman glanced at her dance partner and smiled. "No," she said to Kailey. "Sadly, they do not."

  "Could we keep this between us please?"

  Though Damian spoke to her, she saw the woman grimace and, obviously taking momentary lead from her dance partner, spun them until there was enough distance to allow another couple between them and Kailey and Damian.

  "Sorry," Kailey said, tongue in cheek.

  "You are forgiven." He visibly relaxed. Slowly, he began to dance again, a graceful sway from side to side that even in its simplicity would have easily won him first place in any dance contest. Were you trying to say that Jennifer is attempting to make me jealous by being with George tonight?

  "Well, you aren't as slow as you were pretending to be after all," she teased. "Yes. That's exactly what I was saying."

  I disagree. Jennifer would know that her presence with George would anger me more than make me jealous.

  "Maybe, maybe not. But if you want my advice, talk to her. Tomorrow. Don't wait," Kailey warned, then silently added, Human servant or not, Jennifer is a woman with feelings and unless my female radar is way off, it's my guess that those feelings for you go far deeper than you think or even want them to.

  Jennifer and I will talk tomorrow. On that, we can agree, my sweet.

  Kailey lifted a hand to cup his cheek, opened her mouth to say something comforting but the music cut her off. With his super vamp hearing, he would hear whatever she said but the sudden change in tempo and volume startled her mind into blankness.

  The faster music, however, seemed to be exactly what Damian needed. He so skillfully swapped from the easy sway of the softer music to the brisk bump and grind of the techno beat that it left Kailey stunned and gawking at him even as his arms tightened around her waist and pulled her in. The lights of the ballroom all but disappeared, the darkness on the dance floor broken only by a rapid succession of white strobe lights. In seconds, they went from a romantic easy listening atmosphere to one that would rival any rave party in the country and Damian never missed a beat.

  Kailey laced her fingers behind his neck and threw her head back as their bodies gyrated to the tempo. Damian's hands were all over her, one hand sliding down to cup her ass, while the other moved to her thigh. He lifted her leg off the floor and her skirt rode up, exposed her leg to the buckles of the garter belt. He rested her thigh in his hand and stepped between her legs. Keeping his knees bent, he put their bodies in perfect alignment, toe to toe, shoulder to shoulder and all points in between. His hips moved against her and pumped her through their clothes. His movements felt too intense, too close to the real deal and she wondered for a second if he intended to take her right there on the dance floor in front of everyone.

  The thought made her lift her head and look around. To her utter astonishment, the couple next to them during their conversation about Jennifer was completely entwined with one another and on the verge of having sex. Everywhere she looked she saw bodies pressed against each other, hands groping, intimate parts on the verge of display. Talk about one hell of a change in atmosphere. She was suddenly in the middle of a giant orgy!

  She turned her attention back to Damian just as he leaned in for a kiss. It was a soul searching, tonsil touching, forget all surroundings kind of kiss and she could do nothing more than give herself over to it and to him completely. She laced her fingers in the back of his hair and toyed with the silken ebony strands as he all but kissed the life out of her. Then he stepped her back, hips still pumping in time with the music, until she felt her back hit a wall.

  I want you, my sweet. Right here, right now. I want to be inside you.

  Kailey couldn't be sure if he spoke aloud or in her mind and wasn't so sure she even cared at that moment. She wanted him too. Right here, right now. She wanted him deep inside her, impossibly deep and pounding until she screamed from the pleasure. People, vampires, werewolves and other were-creatures, surrounded them on all sides. Most appeared eng
rossed in their mate, but they could turn their attention on her and Damian at any moment. The thought should put an end to any inkling of doing the nasty right there on the dance floor, but it didn't. If anything, it acted as an aphrodisiac.

  Kailey moved a hand between their bodies, found the button of Damian's pants and unfastened it. She pulled the zipper down and slid her hand inside, found his dick rock hard, long, thick and ready to be freed from the confines of his clothing. Her fingers closed around his shaft, tugged his penis out of the pants and stroked him. A flash of strobe afforded her a quick view of his handsome face, of his eyes as they rolled back in his head from the pleasure.

  Oh, my sweet. You have the most amazing hands, but if you do not stop that I will not be able to stop myself.

  She thought she would have liked to jerk him off until he came in her hand, easier to watch the pleasure on his face as he reached orgasm. Another time, she promised herself and released his cock. Not now. Not when the need to have him drive his dick inside her made her oblivious to any other desire.

  "Take me, Damian," she panted as he leaned into her. His tongue did a slow slide down the side of her neck. "Now. Right here on this dance floor among all these people."

  "Is that a turn-on for you? Having an audience, knowing that any of them could watch at any time?" He nipped at her earlobe as he spoke and she felt the sharp edge of fang.

  "Yes," she gasped, both in answer to his question and as a plea for more.

  In a rapid series of moves too skillful for words, he picked her up causing her dress to ride to her hips, pushed the narrow strap of material that was her panties to one side and thrust into her. Her legs wrapped around his waist, ankles locking behind his back as he pounded into her. His hands cradled her ass, held her up and in position, but couldn't prevent her back from striking the wall. She leaned back just enough to rest against that wall. Better to brush against it than to be rammed into it, she decided.

  She wished for a mirror behind him, to watch over his shoulder as he fucked her to oblivion. But she didn't find a mirror when she managed a look over his shoulder. Instead, in the rapidly flashing white lights of the strobes, she saw Jennifer watching them, hatred and contempt all but written on her face.

  Then Damian shifted Kailey's weight to one arm, slid his now free hand between them and found her clit with the pad of his thumb. In that instant, Kailey forgot all about Jennifer, about the anger and hurt the girl surely felt at seeing the man she so obviously loved with his dick buried inside another woman. The sensations felt too great, Damian's steady pounding of his cock into her pussy, his measured but rapid caresses to her swollen clit. His dick hit the end of her on each inward thrust, slammed her entire body up just enough to bounce her in his hand.

  She cried out and it must have sounded of pain or discomfort more than pleasure because he asked, "I am not hurting you, am I? Should I slow down?"

  "Slow down and die," she managed on a ragged uneven breath.

  He made a sound at that, half chuckle and half grunt. "I can not hold out much longer, my sweet."

  "Neither can I." She felt that sweet, hot orgasm building low in her body, growing with each thrust of cock, each rub of thumb. It built and built until it exploded out of her in a gush of wetness, convulsions and cries. Her body jerked in his hands. He nuzzled his face in her neck and she felt his fangs push through the flesh, just a little. Not enough to feed. Only enough to break the skin and she knew it happened because he too lost all control.

  How he managed to continue to hold her upright with both their bodies trembling from their release, she couldn't guess. Super hearing and super strength. Of course, those weren't his only super abilities, she thought when his dick flexed deep inside her and pulled a moan from low in her throat. He smiled at her, brushed his lips over hers and slowly slid out of her. Still, he didn't put her down. Not until someone bumped into him from behind and caused him to lose his balance. He stumbled and, in the process of standing her upright, somehow managed to get his foot caught in the skirt of her costume.

  Laughing, Kailey looked down to make sure he hadn't ripped her costume and watched the white silk of her mid-section explode into a crimson wave. Blood, she thought in horror and the world went dark.

  Chapter 6

  Kailey awoke to the sound of voices. Male voices, soft, clear and yet unidentifiable, at least at first.

  "We have her chained in the dungeon until we can decide her fate."

  Chained in the dungeon!

  Television, she thought. Some sort of barbaric movie with damsels and dragons, knights and prisons. Yet, the voice sounded too clear even for television.

  "I can not decide her fate now."

  That voice stirred something in Kailey's frozen memory. Damian. Yes, that voice of silk and whipped cream belonged to Damian.

  "I have prided myself for centuries on my good sense not to make rash decisions," Damian said. "If I decide her fate now, that is exactly what it would be, a decision made of pain and in haste."

  "That's why we put her there and assigned a guard at the dungeon door. He will stay there until we're ready," the voice Kailey couldn't recognize said. "How is she?"

  Well, duh! Didn't he know? He just said the woman was being kept in chains, in a dungeon with a guard posted outside for cripes sake. How the hell did he think she was doing?

  "She is still asleep," came Damian's reply and Kailey realized that she was the she in question now.

  Not yet ready to alert Damian and the owner of the other voice to the fact that she now laid awake, she attempted to use her other senses to figure out where she was. In a bed, that much seemed obvious. A mattress soft as a cloud and covered in silk sheets lay beneath her. She felt no chains around her wrists or ankles, no restraints of any kind. The air felt a bit cool to her skin, but that seemed the only likeness to what she believed a dungeon would be like with her eyes closed. The smell certainly didn't fit. Flowers and herbs laced with a hint of male cologne lingered in the cool air. No damp, dusty, musty smell she would associate with a deep, dark prison.

  "She lost a lot of blood," Damian continued, his tone weary. "More than even I realized at first. I had forgotten how much a human can bleed from such an injury."

  Injury? What did he mean? Had she been hurt somehow? She didn't feel hurt. An injury as severe as one like Damian spoke of would have certainly left lingering pain. Yet, she only felt a bit groggy. Easy to explain away since she awoke only moments ago. She had an odd taste in her mouth too. Not quite the cottonmouth effect often referred to, this tasted sweeter and more metallic.

  Slowly, she dared to open her eyes and blinked rapidly until the room came into focus. Not her room in the hotel, she quickly took in, yet somehow familiar. Without moving a muscle but for her eyes, she scanned the room. Damian's room, she realized in a sudden burst of memory. Or at least the room he showed her in her daydream, vision, hallucination or whatever the hell happened to her upon entering the lobby when she arrived.

  "How do you think she will react when she wakes?"

  The voice of the second man came from what appeared to be another room to Kailey's right. She couldn't see through that doorway but somehow knew she would find a sitting room of sorts and in there she would find Damian.

  It surprised her how badly she wanted to see Damian at that moment, how much her body craved to be in his arms. Careful not to make a sound, she sat up, swung her legs over the side of the bed and stood. She hesitated, waited for the mysterious, and thankfully absent pain, before she took a step toward that doorway.

  Plush carpet tickled the bottom of her bare feet as she walked. Someone, presumably Damian, changed her from her party costume into an ankle length, thick, cotton nightgown. It surprised her that he chose something so ordinary and unflattering, something that covered her from neck to foot. Sleek, revealing lingerie would have been more expected. Yet, she was glad he hadn't gone for the sexy and seductive. Despite the thickness and length of the nightgown she wore, he
r skin felt cold. She would surely freeze in anything less.

  She passed by a mirror that hung on the wall behind the dresser and stole a glance at her reflection. Stopped. Backtracked. Pale, she thought and examined the woman that stared back at her. Not that she ever really had a tan. She liked the sun, the way it brightened the sky, made the flowers bloom and the grass so green. Yet, if given a choice between day and night, she preferred the night.

  Given her remote Indian ancestry, her skin had a natural beige tint, the only thing that kept her from being as white as a glass of milk. Yet tonight, she seemed to have lost even that natural shade to her skin. She took a small step toward the mirror, leaned in for a closer observation and jerked back with a shocked gasp as a vision assailed her.

  She saw herself laughing with Damian, saw herself looking down at the corset she wore. Watching, for what she now knew to be the second time, as the mid-section of that beautiful white corset became saturated in a sea of crimson. For a split second in time she felt the pain, the shock, the certainly that she would die from the gunshot wound to the gut. Then the darkness returned, but this time she wasn't alone in that nothingness. Damian's face hovered above hers, his eyes soft and full of emotions she couldn't read. His lips moving as he spoke only one word. "Drink."

  Damian's face faded as the darkness cleared. Once again, she found herself looking at her reflection. She studied her face, a face that now wore a knowing expression. She wanted to think, to believe, it had been some sort of medicine Damian told her to drink, but she knew that to be a lie. The wound she sustained had been too severe for any type of medication to heal. Any type of human medication, she thought and unbuttoned the top of the nightgown.

  She pulled at the neck of the gown and gazed down at her naked body underneath already knowing that she would find smooth, unmarred flesh. No. Not a manmade medication, but blood. Damian's blood. He’d changed her. What was it he said when she asked if his taking blood from her would turn her into a vampire? To make one a vampire requires a different technique as well as the taking of my blood. He did it. He gave her his blood and turned her into what he was, made her a vampire.