“Damn it, Erin. This isn’t funny.” He grabbed me and pulled me close, only the towel between my naked body and his fully clothed one. “If anything ever happened to you, I don’t know what I’d do. I can’t lose you, Erin.”
“Nothing will happen to me.”
“It will if you keep leaving your door unlocked and falling asleep in the bathtub.”
“Dante—”
He slammed his lips down on mine. His kiss was full of the passion I’d come to know, but this one held something more.
Fear.
He truly was afraid of losing me.
I gave to him with my kiss, tried to convey how much he meant to me and that there was no need for concern. I was a grown woman, and nothing would happen to me.
Then he broke the kiss, suddenly, his eyes laced with a faraway look. Almost a look of…
I’d seen it before.
That look of madness.
He’d had that same look in his eyes when he looked between my legs and—
Oh. My. God.
The marks. The bug bites.
Were they something else?
Who tasted you?
I’d thought, then, that he was referring to Logan. That he thought Logan had gone down on me. But we’d still been fully clothed…
Did you see him?
Who?
The vampire.
He was here. In the hospital.
I stepped backward slowly.
No. I was making things up. I was tired. That was all. I’d had that headache after meeting with Dr. Bonneville, and I’d taken some medication and run the bath to…
“Erin,” Dante said, “I have to leave you for a little while.”
“Why? Can’t you stay with me?”
“I have to take care of something, but you’ll be safe. I will stand outside and make sure you lock your door, okay? And no more baths until I return.”
“I won’t need another bath until tomorrow, at least,” I said.
“Good. Where are your pajamas?”
“I usually just sleep in a tank top and undies.” I went to my drawer and put them on.
Dante eyed me lasciviously.
“You like?” I teased.
“Yes, but I don’t have time right now. Soon. I promise. And with nothing between us. I had a blood test and I’m clean.”
He smiled, and he was as gloriously gorgeous as ever, but something was missing in that smile.
Something I couldn’t quite put my finger on.
Still, I was thrilled at the prospect of making love with him sans condom. My nipples hardened against the soft cotton of my tank, and the tickle between my legs intensified.
“When will you be back?” I asked.
“Get some sleep. Do you work tonight?”
“Yeah, unfortunately.”
“Okay. I’ll meet you here after your shift.” He brushed his lips gently over mine. “Let’s go downstairs, and I’m going to make sure you lock your door.”
I smiled and followed him downstairs. He kissed me quickly again. “I love you, Erin.”
“I love you too, Dante.”
He left and I shut the door, turning the deadbolt into place.
Marking it in my mind.
Chapter Eighteen
Dante
I had more questions, but I wasn’t going to Bill this time. I no longer trusted him. I still couldn’t believe he’d tried to placate me with some stupid ghost story. Vampires didn’t believe in ghosts. We were taught from a young age—
Why don’t you believe him?
The words popped into my thoughts so quickly that I almost didn’t believe they’d come from me. “Because it’s nonsense,” I said out loud.
But what was nonsense, anyway? A few days ago, I’d never have believed there could be such a thing as a blood bond between a vampire and a human. Now I had no doubt. Erin had formed a blood bond with me. I was sure of it.
I’d been so afraid that Erin would fall ill, but she always seemed so healthy. Now I realized the threat wasn’t illness. It was something else. She was deliberately putting herself in harm’s way, and she didn’t even realize it. Erin was intelligent, a medical professional. She knew better than to leave her door unlocked or let herself fall asleep in a full tub.
She would die not of disease but from an accident or a seemingly random act of violence. Something in her brain chemistry had changed, making her do these things, put herself in danger.
Only giving me her blood could save her, according to theory—a theory that seemed more real by the second.
Only her blood could save both of us.
My phone buzzed against my thigh. I retrieved it. River.
“Hey, Riv. How are you feeling?”
“Good. My headache is pretty much all gone now. I think the doctors made a mountain out of a molehill keeping me in the hospital for so long.”
“You back at work already?”
“No. They’re making me take a few sick days. I’m fine, but department policy and all that. So I thought we could get together and start working on your case.”
I sighed. River wanted to find who had taken me. So did I, but I’d been so focused on Erin that I hadn’t cooperated with him much. Normally I’d be champing at the bit to bring her to justice.
But this Erin thing. This blood bond thing.
It had taken me over.
I was still focused on Erin, but I did need to talk to my cousin. I had to talk to someone because I was no longer going to talk to Bill. I’d meet him under the guise of working on my case, but then steer the conversation where I needed it to go.
“Okay,” I said. “Where are you?”
“I’m at my place. Where are you?”
“Just coming back from Erin’s. I’ll meet you at your apartment.”
“Sounds good. Pick up some burgers or something, will you? I’m starving. The hospital food sucked balls.”
River had set out two glasses of blood, and I placed the bag of fast food down on his table.
He inhaled. “Man, that smells great.”
Interesting. I could still smell food, flowers, whatever. Just not people—other than Erin, of course.
Unfortunately, I could also smell River. “When was the last time you had a shower?”
“Sorry. Before the accident. I decided to go out on a run before I showered.”
“You went out on a run. When you’re recovering from a concussion.”
“I just couldn’t stay still any longer, man. Being trapped in the hospital about did me in.”
“I don’t mind waiting while you take a quick one.”
“The food’ll get cold.”
I laughed. “All right. Right now, I wish my sense of smell didn’t work on regular things as well.”
He pulled the food out of the bag and set it in front of us while I drained my glass of blood and then asked for another. Being with Erin always made my blood lust go crazy.
River set another glass for me on the table and then sat down. “I’ve been thinking. I need you to tell me exactly where you were when you realized you had escaped.”
“I was in a back alley near Bourbon Street. I came out of a manhole. The cover had been loosened.”
“Okay. Do you know which alleyway?”
“Not really. I was desperate, scared she’d come after me, and hungry. So fucking hungry. My mind wasn’t working quite right.”
“If we went back there, do you think you could find the manhole?”
“Man, Riv. I don’t think I want to go back there.”
“That’s a victim’s mentality, cuz. And yes, you are a victim, but I need you to be strong. You don’t want this to happen to anyone else, do you?”
“Of course not.”
“Then you have to do this. You have to testify.”
“I have no idea who to testify against.”
“I know that. We’ll find out who did this to you, and I will personally make the arrest and see to it that whoever did
this to you is brought to justice. You can count on that.”
“It was a vampire, Riv. She’ll just glamour everyone into believing she’s innocent.”
“Not if I’m on the case.”
River was a good cop. He believed in what he was doing, and it meant a lot to him. I could see it in his eyes. I still didn’t know why he’d opted out of business school for the police academy. I still didn’t know a lot of things.
But that wasn’t what I needed to talk about right now.
“Riv?”
“Yeah?”
“Has Bill seemed a little…off to you lately?”
“No, not really. Why?”
That made sense. River hadn’t been gone for ten years, and if Bill had slowly changed during that time, he probably hadn’t noticed.
“He told me something ridiculous.”
“What?”
“He said there was a ghost protecting me.”
River laughed. “He said what?”
“I’m serious. He said there was a ghost protecting me. That the woman who kept me couldn’t come after me because of that.”
“That doesn’t sound like Bill. He’s always so logical.”
“I know. But for the sake of argument, if it’s true, and there really is a ghost protecting me, where the hell was that damn phantom for the last ten years?”
“Are you sure that’s what he said? Maybe you misunderstood.”
“My mind is working just fine. You all think I’ve gone mental after being held captive for so long. I could have, believe me. But I didn’t. I’m in my right mind. I’d think the blood bond theory would have convinced you of that.”
“What do you mean?”
“I was starting to doubt my mind,” I said. “I was so obsessed with Erin, and it didn’t make any sense. I mean, she’s beautiful and I was attracted to her. Big time. But why the obsession so quickly? The blood bond makes sense. It’s starting to make a lot of sense.”
“How so?”
“Erin. I kept thinking she was going to get sick if she didn’t feed me, but she’s perfectly healthy. So maybe the blood bond is nonsense, right? But it isn’t happening that way. Something has gone haywire in her brain. She’s been putting herself in dangerous situations without realizing it, like leaving her door unlocked when she’s sleeping. Something like that is going to do her in, not illness.” Just saying the words sent a chill of fear through me. “I can’t let her die, Riv. I can’t.”
“Then you have to take her blood. If you’re not ready to tell her yet, glamour her.”
“We’ve been through this. I don’t want to. Even if I did, I tried it once before and it didn’t work— Wait. Here’s another thing. Erin saw my teeth the other day. She ran away screaming and then came back as if nothing had happened. Someone had glamoured her. You were still in the hospital, and Em doesn’t even know about any of this. Bill is the only one who could have, and he denied it. He outright lied to me.”
“That doesn’t sound like Bill.”
“Who else could have done it?”
River shook his head. “I honestly don’t know. Unless she did it herself. Maybe the blood bond messed with her brain somehow.”
“I don’t think so. You didn’t see her face when she ran away.”
“There’s a lot we don’t know about what’s happening to the two of you. A lot we may never know.”
“There’s something else,” I said.
“What?”
I cleared my throat. “She loves me. And I love her.”
“And that’s bad?”
“No. It’s just…” I sighed. “What if it isn’t real? What if it’s this blood bond thing?”
“That doesn’t mean the love isn’t real even if the blood bond is real. And it sure seems like it is.”
“It does,” I agreed. “I do love her. She’s consumed me since the moment I met her. I always wondered why she didn’t turn me in when she found me in the blood bank, why she let me go.”
“The blood bond,” he said. “In a way, you’re lucky. You might be rotting in jail right now if she had turned you in.”
“You would have pulled some strings.”
“I would have tried. But I don’t glamour on the job. Not even for you. It’s unethical.”
I chuckled. “Then I guess I’m really grateful for the bond. I’m seeing her tomorrow morning after she gets off work. I’ll take her blood then. I’ll figure out a way somehow. I can’t have her in danger.”
I arrived at Erin’s before she got home the next morning and turned the doorknob.
Damn! Unlocked again.
I had to take care of this. Now. I had to keep her from running, and I knew only one way to do that.
I’d have to tie her down, just as I’d thought before. I had the rope in my jacket pocket.
My groin tightened.
I closed my eyes, an image appearing in my mind. Erin, naked, tied to her bed, her body flushed warm pink, her nipples taut and tight, the scent of her earthy arousal thick in the air.
No doubt about it, I liked the idea, despite having been tied down myself and violated for so long.
Maybe something was wrong with my mind.
I wasn’t completely naïve. I’d known a lot when I was eighteen. I knew some people enjoyed sexual bondage. I just never thought I would. Especially considering my history.
I hoped to God Erin would, because I didn’t know how else to keep her from running. She’d already said she would obey me. Tying her up would require a whole new level of obedience, though. Would she trust me? She loved me. I had to believe that would lead to trust.
Whatever happened, I had to be strong. I had to go through with this, for both our sakes.
I stalked around her townhome, making sure nothing was out of place. No one had been here, at least not that I could tell.
Good. Thank God.
I turned when she bustled through the door.
“Dante!” Her eyes widened. “Oh my God. Don’t tell me.”
“Unlocked again, Erin. You have to be more careful.”
She set her purse on the table. “I honestly don’t know what’s wrong with me. I assure you this is completely new. I never did this before…”
“Before what?”
“Huh.” She let out a huff. “Before I met you, actually.”
Chapter Nineteen
Erin
Dante grabbed me and kissed me hard.
What had I been saying? All thoughts fled from my mind. I parted my lips and met his tongue—his rough yet velvety tongue—and surrendered to the moment.
I’d left my door unlocked again? Who cared? Right now I was kissing the beautiful man I loved.
We’d be together soon, our bodies joined with no barrier.
My nipples tightened into such firm little knobs that I was sure he could feel them poking him through my bra and both our shirts. His cock was hard against my belly, and my pussy was already pulsing, moistening, getting ready to take him into my body.
I broke the kiss quickly. Saying nothing, I grabbed his hand and led him upstairs to my bedroom.
I began undressing. “Take off your clothes,” I said.
I didn’t want to take the time to undress each other, to savor the moment.
No. I wanted him inside me. Now.
Soon I stood before him naked.
But he was still dressed.
“What’s wrong? Why didn’t you take off your clothes?”
He stared at me, his eyes full of fire. “I don’t obey you, Erin. You obey me.”
Oh, God. Never had I imagined I’d be so turned on by a dominant man. But I was. I was so wet right now, he could slide into me and I wasn’t sure I’d feel it at all.
“Lie on the bed.”
I complied, watching him as he pulled a length of rope out of his coat pocket.
Please. Tie me up. Blindfold me. Whip me.
I’d dreamed about this. The idea had surprised me. Surprised me in that it hadn’t di
sturbed me. No, it had aroused me. Made me want things I never knew I wanted.
“What’s that for?” I asked, willing my voice not to shake.
“I’m going to bind your wrists to the bed, love.”
I moaned. “Oh my God.”
“Do you like that idea, Erin?”
I closed my eyes and swallowed, embarrassed to tell him yes.
“Do you? Answer me?”
I opened my eyes and met his fiery gaze. “Yes.”
He smiled. “Good. So do I. Grab a rung of your headboard with each hand.”
I did as I was told. He tied my wrists gently. “Let me know if it’s too tight.”
I pulled. I was secure, but the rope didn’t rub or burn. “It’s fine.”
“Good. Good. Do you have any idea how beautiful you look right now, Erin? Naked, bound. All for me.”
I sighed.
“But I’m not the only one who is going to experience pleasure today. I’m going to give you gratification unlike you’ve ever known. I’m going to sink my cock into that beautiful sweet pussy. No condom. Just me taking you.”
He sat down on the edge of the bed and trailed a long finger over my cheek, my lips, down my neck and over my breasts, stopping and circling a nipple. “Do you like that?”
I closed my eyes. “God, yes.”
“Tell me what you want me to do to your nipples, Erin.”
“Kiss them.”
He lightly kissed each one. My pussy gushed.
“Suck them.”
He took one between his full lips and lightly tugged.
I squirmed. “B-Bite them.”
He smiled against my breast. “I like to bite.” He gave my nipple a quick nip.
I arched my back, searching for more. Something more.
I knew what I wanted.
I tugged at my bindings, wanting desperately to touch Dante, to curl my fingers through his thick dark hair.
But I couldn’t.
And I found, suddenly, that I was thrilled.
I was at his mercy, couldn’t touch him though I longed to. I whimpered.
“What is it, love?”
“I want to touch you, Dante. To feel you.”
“I know you do. You will. In good time.” He smiled. “Would you like me to get undressed?”
Unchained: Blood Bond Saga: Volume One Page 26